Back in 2005, the boyfriend and I were happily living in a relatively new three story townhouse in West Hollywood. It was the height of the housing bubble, but we were content to sit it out.
Until the unit next door sold for three times what we'd paid.
There was no way we were letting the gravy train pass us by, so soon the house was on the market and we went in search of a new home. And it was then that we discovered that we as a people had become a nation of do-it-yourselfers.
Bad ones.
Flipping houses was all the rage and the charlatans at Home Depot had convinced everyone that after a brief half hour class in the parking lot everyone could tile a roman bath. The atrocities we saw during the house search were not for the faint of heart. Defenseless mid century homes "plussed" with plastic corinthian columns and crown moldings. Ill fitting vinyl windows and french doors leading to nowhere. Kitchens and baths crushed under the weight of bad marble and granite.
And that was but the tip of the iceberg.
Technology and software have now made it possible for absolutely everyone to "do-it-yourself"... with everything. Badly.
Now everyone is a photographer! A filmmaker! A musician! A DJ! A writer! An artist! A... *shudder*... "graphic designer"!
I ran into this unfortunate development last week. Wasn't the first time. But it may have been the straw that broke the camel's back and made me really start questioning the point of continuing in my chosen profession. I picked up a freelance job in Bako and it was the rarest of birds... a job with a big budget and the time to execute it. There had to be a catch - there always is -and soon I was staring it in the face.
"And we'd like to feature our new logo prominently in everything..." the client said as he slid a printout across his desk.
The "logo".
What. The. Fuck.
I hadn't a clue what to say. The type had been stretched and pulled in so many directions I could barely read what it said, let alone tell what poor font it originally was. It was accompanied by an abstract shape that was all sharp angles and spikes and looked like a medieval mace.
"Do you like it?" he asked. "My daughter designed it!"
She's 14.
And she has PhotoShop.
I have a art degree from a prestigious school and twenty years of experience as a designer and my competition is now a tweener with an iMac.
The digital revolution, despite all it's benefits, is spelling the doom for any number of creative professions. Photographers, illustrators, filmmakers and editors, designers, all being buried under a tidal wave of homemade crap. The market is so flooded with bad work of all stripes that no one can even tell the difference anymore when they encounter something genuinely good. It all looks the same, it's all just reduced to visual noise.
Once I realized I was going to be shackled with the little princess's logo I had half a mind to turn the job down. But I need the money. Once it's done, I'll reassess. See if it's worth trying to swim against the tide anymore. See what other job options I may have.
Maybe Home Depot is hiring.
