Does “discount” design hurt the industry?

Dec 21 2007

I don’t usually write about the goings-on of the design industry but for the past few days I’ve been engaged in a conversation with a fellow designer over the “discounting” trend in graphic design and I feel compelled to share. Designers everywhere are outraged by the prominence of online auction/bid sites as well as the Internet logo factories and other venues where purchase decisions on design are being made primarily on the basis of price. The low-price leaders get the business and the true artists feel that they are being slowly crowded out of their own business by anonymous, less-experienced designers who are happy working for cheap. The established graphic designers and design houses are afraid that over time, this “price first” sensibility is going to destroy their livelihood.

Personally, I tend to disagree. There will always be a need for a wide variety of price ranges in graphic design, just like Target needs a wide variety of price points in the coffee maker aisle. Some customers will want bargain basement, but some customers are looking for a premium experience. The difference between coffee makers and graphic design is that people have always known how to get a cheap coffee maker… And the manufacturers of high-end fancy coffee makers always knew that there were other companies out there making cheap coffee makers that weren’t as nice, weren’t as durable and lacking in features.

But until a few years ago when sites like ebay and Priceline set the stage for other flavors of “bid what you’ll pay” or “name your own price” online communities, most design firms didn’t even understand how large a marketplace there was for low-cost design. A lot of people are still stunned by the fact that someone will go to a web site and hire a stranger to design their logo for $100. Or even worse, design their OWN with an online wizard for $50. But the truth is, these people were ALWAYS out there. There has always been a very receptive market for discount graphic design and there has always been a group of providers that were willing to give it to them. The only difference between then and now is that a fast-maturing and increasingly visible online marketplace is calling attention to a segment of the industry that was always marginalized and ignored by the establishment.

Here’s my feeling: people with disposable income who truly appreciate the experience of driving will buy a Mercedes or a Porsche. People that just want to get from point A to point B on a tight budget will buy a Hyundai or a Chevy. And there are plenty of Toyotas, Volkswagens and Acuras in between. Likewise, companies with big budgets who like the experience of working with big agencies will go that route, companies who don’t see the value of graphic design but need something to put on their business card will look for a bargain. Have a small-to-mid range budget but big aspirations? That company will probably go with an established small design firm.

I really don’t see customers moving en masse to the cheapest solution they can find. In fact, in my experience, it’s more of a rebound effect where customers try a discount design firm or freelancer and don’t get what they were looking for. Then they bounce back up to someone like us. Sometimes you need to be disappointed in something cheap in order to appreciate the value of quality. When my daughter was a baby, my wife and I made the mistake one time of buying a cheap brand of diapers. I’ll spare you the details from there… I’ll just say that we never again doubted whether or not it was worth spending a couple of dollars extra for Pampers.

Bottom line? You get what you pay for in design as with anything else. And especially when you factor in the cost of being dissatisfied, you realize that it doesn’t cost anything extra to get good design from the start.

A lot of people inevitably ask us where our company Zero-G Creative fits in the whole graphic design cost spectrum. We’re a different breed of company than what you’ll typically find in this business. We are not discounters and we’re certainly not the cheapest. You won’t get us to design a logo for $50 or $100. But we’re more affordable than traditional design houses. We keep our processes lean and efficient and we’ve cut a lot of the expensive “extras”. We don’t send expensive gifts or wine and dine prospective clients. We don’t have a big office in a trendy neighborhood. We don’t have complicated brochures and mailers. That allows us to offer fair prices to small businesses without compromising on quality.

So does discount design hurt the industry? In my opinion, only if the good designers out there let discounters get the better of them. Our business is changing and more designers need to embrace that as a challenge to break conventions that have been in place for decades. We’re just experiencing now what many industries have already seen as online shopping has evolved from a novelty to a way of life. Businesses that try to buck that trend don’t usually fare well and the same goes here. Our industry is built on creativity. If we apply that to our own businesses, I think that plenty of us will weather the influx of discount competition and will probably come out the other side stronger than ever.