F*ck you, pay designers
There is this weird thing with design. Design is a professional service that is performed by highly trained, skilled and experienced professionals. Design is a service that offers clear business value. But for some strange reason, some clients don’t want to pay for the work of designers. Not all clients fortunately but there is a substantial group of people who refuse to pay for the work that is done. They either demand free pitches, refuse to pay for additional work or complain extensively about the bills. From time to time I find myself in projects with management consultants and IT consultants that always go over budget and charge hefty fees and always get paid. No excuses. If they put in the hours, you pay the hours. And this is normal. If I hire a plumber or a builder to fix something at my house, I have to pay for the work even if there is extra work due to unforeseen circumstances. And somehow there are always unforeseen circumstances. But not for design. I don’t get free samples of pies when I go to the bakery. I can’t complain about the bill after I have finished eating the pie. I can’t question whether the pie actually needed so much cream. But somehow this is common practice when using professional design services. That’s not right.
Why designers would work for free
Years ago, I read this great book called Why artists are poor by Hans Abbing. In it, the author, an economist, researched the average income of artists. It turns out that the average income of artists is exactly zero. Some artists make money, some artists invest time and money but don’t sell. There are also super stars that are filthy rich. But if take all artists and average their income, the outcome is zero. So why would anyone consider a career in art? In the book, multiple reasons are outlined. It’s a winner-takes-all market in which you can become super rich. It’s a gambling game in which you can succeed by exhibiting a toilet. It’s also a prestige game. Being an artist can have the same prestige as being a doctor or a lawyer. But it’s also a calling. It is something you do because that is why you are here on this earth. Something you do out of passion. Something that you would do for free.
Design is not exactly art. Let’s say it’s a form of art. One of the things that artists and designers have in common is passion, dedication, conviction. You can’t half ass design. You have to live and breathe design. It takes energy, practice, focus to develop and maintain the skillset. Most designers I know would design even if it didn’t pay. All designers I know love their job. They live for their job.
Maybe this is where part of the problem lies. At least that is how I experience it. If you love your job so much and you would do it for free, why should I pay you? There is this thing with work and getting paid. I know other people love their work as well, but I feel there is a general idea that work is not fun but you do it to get paid. At least that is how I was raised. In school, you have to do stuff you don’t want (and don’t need) so you get a reward: a diploma. That diploma gives you access to do more stuff you don’t want to earn money to buy stuff you don’t really need. With art and design this feels different. There isn’t a kid I know that doesn’t like to draw or build stuff. Kids draw and build without the prospect of a reward. Maybe a compliment here and there but they are intrinsically motivated to do the work it takes to produce a drawing or a Lego city. They can spend hours and hours. The way I see designers is that they are people who never lost this. They still like to spend hours and hours creating for the sake of creating. At least to me, design never feels like work in the sense of having to do stuff I don’t want to do for some reward. The work itself is the reward. It has purpose in itself. There is no sacrifice. And in a world where work is sacrifice that gets rewarded, design doesn’t feel like work.
And that causes problems when it comes to paying designers I think. If it’s not really work, why should you pay designers? If I like design so much that I would do it for free, why should I mind if I don’t get paid enough?
Free work from designers
It’s not like designers don’t get paid. The world recognizes it’s a job that deserves pay. But not like other professions. I need to pay designers but I can ask them to invest hours for free in free pitches. And I can request extra features and endless corrections for free. And if the result is a simple solution, I don’t have to pay for all the work that went into solutions that didn’t make it. If the designers had so much fun on this project and they are so happy with the results, I can ask for discount. Right?
Wrong! I don’t think the fact that you enjoy what you do should limit the amount you get paid. Designers put equal amounts of energy in their work as others. Maybe more.
Mindset around design
I think it also has to do with how we see design. It seems a lot of people see design as a luxury. Not really essential, more like decoration or something. Not critical for the success of organizations. That was never true. And that is changing. Design is becoming more and more strategic. Design is evolving into a new way of problem solving that is able to deal with uncertainty and complexity better than other approaches. There is more and more research supporting the value of design for companies. And that doesn’t just come from the fact that well-designed products and services outperform competitors. It also because the way that designers work and think helps business solve complex problems better and faster. If design is seen as luxury, as decoration, as operational, it is harder to get paid. If you see design as problem solving, the mindset around design changes and its value is much more apparent. If design is seen as consultancy, the price experience totally shifts.
It’s not just the fault of clients that designers don’t get paid enough. It’s also up to designers. How design is seen and presented makes a huge difference. How designers see themselves. I have seen initiatives to collectively refuse free pitches. But they don’t last. When assignments dry up, there will always be a designer who will agree to a free pitch. When the basic attitude and mindset doesn’t change, the price game will not change. How much you can charge for your services depends on your perception of yourself and the value you believe you add. If you are not convinced, nobody will be.
The money game
I realize these are first world problems. Designers make good money. They are not poor or pathetic. Far from it. I just see the price game as one of the things that limit designers from reaching the next level. Taking about money is not done on artistic areas like design. That’s a shame. It part of the professional services game. If you are able to charge more, you can lift yourself to the next level. You can create more space, more time, more quality, more satisfaction, more purpose, more value. And in the end, that it’s what it’s all about: to add more value, to contribute to a better world. And money is part of the road to that place.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, don’t forget to hit the clap button so I know I connected with you. Let me know what you think in the comments. I will dive deeper into the topics of Design Leadership in upcoming articles. If you follow me here on Medium, you will see them pop up on your Medium homepage. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn to see new articles in your timeline or talk to my bot at dennishambeukers.com :) You can also find me on Instagram. When I am not blogging about Design Leadership, I work as a design strategist and project manager at Zuiderlicht.
