"Good" design for discount prices –
will people ever appreciate design?

It all started about five years ago when I was in the middle of my training to become a graphic designer. I felt somewhat ready and confident enough to try to sell my design and make some little money alongside school (how foolish and naive I was).

But how? And where? Or to whom?

That's when an old classmate¹ of mine told me to try out 99designs². I think back then it had another name... but anyway!
99designs is basically an online platform where you (e.g. a business) can go and insert an offer saying for example that you need a logo and a website but don't want to pay more than 500€ (crazy right? But sadly the truth).

But you could also, of course, go on the website as a designer, looking for work. There are literally thousands of offers (of which a disgustingly high amount doesn't even pay more than 200€).

But back to the story.

Back then as an absolute design newbie, I thought that this website would be a great way to get started, get some connections and working experience.
What I somehow forgot was... there are really just thousands of other designers (actual designers, not just some students) waiting for a new job offer and pouring their soul and heart out to win the competition.

So there I was, I just made my profile and started scrolling through the job offers until I found something that sounded interesting.
A local fire department wanted a new logo and they wanted it to look cool and fresh and fitting for the time (we're talking about 2013 here. Oh and the budget was exactly 200€).
The offer was just fresh in and they hadn't gotten any other designs in yet so I sat at my desk and started making stuff.

To make it a bit shorter here for you: after around three hours I had several kinda cool looking ideas and went back on the website to upload and present them but in the meantime, five other designers had uploaded their designs and variations.
I was devastated but was still hoping for the best.
After two days I got in the final round but wasn't taken in the end.

But I did indeed learn something here.

The fact that you're only a little profile picture on the internet results in the client not taking you the slightest bit of serious. After looking around in other job offers and reading the comments (feedback on a design entry is often public) I noticed that very often the client doesn't even talk to you in a respectful manner.
With often dozens of design offers they get the feeling that they're god and can wish for whatever they want, which in pretty much nine out of ten cases doesn't turn out good.

More problems:
- If you're at least a somewhat professional designer with at least some experience (outside of school/uni) you probably want more than 50€/hour as a freelancer.
If you calculate that on the 200€ from before (for example) you shouldn't work more than 4 hours on this if you don't want to sell yourself under your price.
Result: Not putting enough time and effort in a design doesn't lead to a good result which makes the client (AND/OR you) happy. Not good.

- If you want to put enough time in your design you'll end up pretty quickly over the pre-calculated time which results in you working for WAY to little money (funny thing here: in most cases you work for NO money at all, because if you don't win the competition you don't see one cent).
Result: You end up working your ass off for only a fraction of what you usually charge. Not good.

- It is almost impossible to stay in a good time/quality/money ratio for a design because each competition has various stages (up to 4 I think³) in which you have to make at least 2-6 iterations⁴ to keep up with the desires of the client and the new designs of your competitors.
Result: See the result above. Not good.

But 99designs isn't the only platform for such services.
No... there are more. Another platform is fiverr⁵. It's pretty much the same but in green, and it offers a platform to search for pretty much every creative field of work.

But...

It can also go in a completely different direction. You see... behind these^{2 5} platforms are at least still persons... Human beings with a (somewhat) creative mind and (maybe) a new idea for your business.
But we write the year 2018 and computers can think now. They can even think so well that they can design you a full logo with a somewhat zeitgeist look. On brandmark.io⁶. Even though the tool can be used completely for free (until you want to use it for commercial reasons) it requires you to answer several questions, some going more into depth than others.
Result: A at least always modern looking, fresh logo for free, that sadly will be outdated again in a little number of years. Semi good.

To come to an end of this little analysis I can say that the old saying in the design industry is now more accurate than ever. To succeed and survive, you have to be good.