Graphic Design is dying

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  • Continuity0

    'The rise of all this mediocre design does not signal the end of the design, it just obscures it.'

    Going to have to respectfully disagree here, my man.

    Mediocre design coming out of whatever website Benfal is referring to only serves to highlight good design, and its inherent value.

    Yes, there will always the shit little businesses trying to get something for nothing ... and getting what they pay for.

    On the other hand, no real self-respecting brand or company would put their projects in the hands of these types of designers, and will actively seek out the pros with the eye, judgement and craft to pull the job off, and they will still pay good money for it.

    • There are some bad designers who charge a lot and convince companies with money to hire them.bainbridge
    • I worded it wrong. We are actually in complete agreement. I was saying design is alive and well. Just behind a pile of shit cheap design options.monospaced
    • Ah right, got it!Continuity
  • yurimon-11

    We are not graphic designers. We are problem solvers who happen to do use graphics as a means for providing the solutions and ninjas.

  • jtb267

    I've seen a rant like this two or three times a year, every year for the past 10 years.

    • I've never lost business to a template.jtb26
    • Same as with 'print is dead', 'TVCs are dead', 'radio spots are dead', 'professional photography is dead' ... bla ba bla. Whatever.Continuity
    • Pro photography is dead now too? Jesus. Wish someone would have told me I just spent two days at a shoot.jtb26
    • I know, right? Teh instagramz are making everyone pros!Continuity
    • So much angst, so little time.weirdname
  • Continuity0

    'we dont all do work for Nike and Apple'

    Oh, boy.

    You've got a very black-and-white view of this, you know. I assume you freelance, yeah? Then why you just get on the freelancer pool with Cossette, BBDO, Havas and whoever the fuck else are in Montréal (I don't remeber now, and frankly don't care to do so) and do good non-template graphic design for provincial or national (or *gasp* even international!) brands at 500 CAD a day?

    If you're going to focus on 'des compagnies de broche à foin' — to use your local patois — as clients then, yeah, you're going to get paid utter shit. On the other hand, you don't need to work for Nike or Apple to command a decent rate.

    Now stop the doomsday shit, and get to work.

    • 500 CAD ain't worth much these days.nb
    • I'm not up on what day rates are like there, anymore. Haven't lived for a long time.Continuity
    • lived there*Continuity
    • 500 CAD is nothing.bainbridge
    • Well said. I manage to find clients who want good design even this fucking hell hole of a city. People forget design is a job and your shitty clients are azarkonite
    • reflection of your ability to acquire clients.zarkonite
  • fadein11-5

  • scarabin4

    if you do the sort of design that can be replaced by templates, then yeah, sure. i'm guessing this market would be something like mom and pop shops, who don't have any money.

    good identities and advertising campaigns for larger entities still have to be designed though, whether it's for corporations, or films, or commercial products, media or whatever...

    • get an agency gig and you'll never have to worry about itscarabin
    • yeah big companies with lots of money still pays lots of cash for graphic design. But all the market under, they are cheaper than ever.Ben99
    • ^ but you'll die inside a little very dayGnash
    • and thats the most of our clients as graphic designer, the local shops and businesses, we dont all do work for Nike and Apple.Ben99
    • but you can act like itmonospaced
    • maybe start making and selling templates?scarabin
    • You have to be valuable. Just creating a superficial design is no longer valuable to a business. What else are you bringing?ETM
    • If you can't do that or answer that, then might be time to consider another career.ETM
  • deathboy0

    Wait your just as guilty... tsk tsk. Thats like bernie sanders callng for $15 minimum wage but wanting college graduates to be interns and paying them only $12. "Those who have virtue always in their mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like a harp, which emits a sound pleasing to others, while itself is insensible of the music."

    • well saidterry_cloth
    • Nice – Who said that?de4k
    • supposedly diogenes, but who knows with quotes attributed to him. old and likely rewritten by historiansdeathboy
  • Peter2

    Everything needs design. There's no shortage. You just got to find applications for it.

    I hear you on the "everyones's a designer", though.
    But you're better than that, and them.

  • dbloc13

    I know this idiot that does logos for $5

    • They're horrible too.jtb26
    • Ugh that guy.pango
    • Lets kill him.dirtydesign
    • Can't believe this. The clients are probably amazing, too!iCanHazQBN
    • i need a $5 logo asapsea_sea
    • Something is wrong when a bottle of kombucha costs more than a logosublocked
    • the rise of kombucha trend is weird enough for me...pango
    • Graphic design shouldn't only be affordable to the 1% and their corporate slave goons though.omg
    • Kombucha? Isn't that a drink of the 00s?SimonFFM
    • Kombucha on tap my next businesssublocked
    • I have no idea what Kombucha is, but it sounds like a bug that is crushed to make pigment and colouring. Instead of red, it makes yellow or something.face_melter
    • it tastes like that, face_meltermonospaced
    • Eww kambucha. As a kid my mom made this and made me drink it. Disgusting. It's basically a fermented mushroom, you drink the water. Gag me.sea_sea
    • I was painting a mural for a resturaunt and the owner said he'd been getting a dude in India to do all his design for about £5 per item, including menus.PhanLo
  • jaylarson3

  • robotron3k-2

    I blame the downfall of design on Helvetica.

    It's standardized sameness and made designers lazy.

    • < yeah. there. I said it!robotron3k
    • so it started falling in the 60s?monospaced
    • 2edgy4metrue_cut
    • they started giving it away in the late 40s I believe, $50 for the whole set. that also made it super pedestrian.robotron3k
    • $50 in 1940 could probably buy you a car or 10 minutes of necking with Betty Grable.CyBrainX
    • like qbn here.etero
  • monospaced5

    Templates and filters? Graphic design is so much more than websites and deliverables. The rise of all this mediocre design does not signal the end of the design, it just obscures it.

    • Right. Just because design has become accessible for the masses, does not mean their isn't a market and appreciation for outstanding design.ETM
    • In the old days there were few designers and they typically catered to larger businesses and brands. That remains.ETM
    • The web created a need for a lot of low and mid level design for low and mid-level customers. But it's matured, and services have filled the void.ETM
    • You can't lament the loss of basically a temporary or fliud situation.ETM
    • Well said.bainbridge
  • Ben99

    Graphic Design is dying.

    Graphic Design has been replaced by templates and filters. And the ones that refuse to use the said templates and filters imitate them 'by hand'... because it's trendy and because everyone want to fits the mould.

    Check out instagram, lots of amazing pictures... but they all have the same look. People are even shooting the same stuff as everyone else. I'm guilty too. Same thing for web design and graphic design.

    Innovation is rare. The graphic design surrounding us has never been that less diversified. Everything looks the same. In the 90's and 00's, there were way more diversity.

    Everyone is a photographer, everyone owning a copy of Photoshop is a graphic designer.

    People and companies dont want to pay for graphic design anymore, because people are canibalising it on the web with services that offers a logo for 20$, a website for 50$ ... Back in 2002 I was charging 500$ to make a poster, clients dont want to pay that much these days for the same kind of demand. There's websites filled with ''graphic designers'' willing to do jobs for 15$

    Everything looks beautifully boring these days. Everything looks good, everything looks the same.

    My goal in 2016 is to start innovating as much as i can and try not to fit the mould too much.