I had something pithy to write today but to be honest I can't recall what it was. I've lost the will to blog, among other things.
I was able to land a fairly substantial freelance job for next week, and later this morning I'm driving into LA to panhandle for additional work. Beyond that, who knows. If I look ahead farther than a week I get scared.
As I was trawling the internet for work yesterday I discovered two frightening developments.
The first was oDesk.
Listing after listing for available design work tracked back to oDesk. oDesk is a company in Northern California that allows prospective clients to post their jobs, and we designers get the awesome opportunity to bid on them. And since you're competing with hundreds of thousands of designers across the globe it's nothing but a race to the bottom.
Here's a typical listing:
You read that right, "Max. Hourly rate: $1.50/hr"
Maybe in Jakarta or Nowhere-istan $1.50 is real money, but at that rate a pack of cigarettes would be a day's work.
And making the whole situation that much more odious is the fact that if you submit the winning bid, you have to agree to install oDesk software on your computer to allow oDesk to have remote access to your computer where they can view your monitor in real time and follow your keystrokes. That way they can crack the virtual whip over your head for checking your email or taking a break. They also have the ability to harangue you through iChat while you're working.
The second development is even more disturbing. Earlier this week GAP Brands, home of the Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy, unveiled an all new logo.
It's atrocious.
And they probably paid millions of dollars for it. It's being universally reviled by everyone, and GAP's panicked response?
“Thanks for everyone’s input on the new logo! We’ve had the same logo for 20+ years, and this is just one of the things we’re changing. We know this logo created a lot of buzz and we’re thrilled to see passionate debates unfolding! So much so we’re asking you to share your designs. We love our version, but we’d like to see other ideas. Stay tuned for details in the next few days on this crowd sourcing project.”
They know they fucked up, and their answer is to ask people to submit better logos.
For free.
Obviously it would be a huge feather in anyone's cap to have the GAP logo in their portfolio, so as much as design professionals are decrying the move, it's too late.
As of this morning they already have over 5000 submitted logos. For free.
So "FREE" is now apparently the new normal.
By this time next year I'll probably have to start offering to pay to work.
