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02-26-2012, 12:06 AM
#13
The Rover is offline The Rover
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Since my activity within TF is primarily using the marketplace, here's my content contribution rant.


There wasn't really anything good then either.

Actually, that's simply not correct. "Smacklan" had it correct. It's pretty straightforward that there were many, many more quality designs a few years ago compared to now. While there is the occasional quality design that pops up in here from time to time, they are definitely few and far between these days. My hypothesis for this is pretty simple: Crowdsourcing.

Ever since "crowdsourcing" sites became mainstream a few years back, there's much less incentive to give each design your full efforts when you know a.) you're competing with dozens of other designers and b.) even if you do win a competition, the amount awarded is typically not a rate you'd typically charge a client directly. There are exceptions to this, but by and large the vast majority of competition cash awards given out these days are perfect for supporting individuals who have low, little, or no business expenses. Not so great for full time, professional designers. So, the result of this mess is that you'll find that a high number of the designs that come through TF (and other forums) are often either leftover "losing" designs from competitions OR they weren't even good enough to be approved on sites like themeforest...yet another phenomenon which has killed the "old" design industry. Sure, you might get a few referrals by posting a few themes for sale on sites like themeforest, but the overall business model of these types of websites do not encourage your average client to rush out and hire a designer to design a site from scratch for top dollar. Why do that when you can just buy a $35 WP theme and with only a few minor mods and BAM, you have a decent little website. The sad truth is that most people do not care if their website looks like 50 other designs that were also purchased from themeforest. Themeforest's massive success proves that. Today, from a designer's perspective, it pays more to simply sell your designs off in volume rather than individually or uniquely.

The other reason should be even more obvious, which is the fact that web design has become the number one diluted market on the planet, next to web hosting. Every high school or college student with an internet connection, iphone, and a laptop suddenly thinks he or she is a "brilliant" designer. These are people who have nearly ZERO business overhead in most cases. Many of these "designers" are still living with their parents or roommates, so they don't mind working for 1/4 of what the market rate is or should be. This has greatly diminished the quality of this industry. This factor, combined with the economy where every unemployed soccer mom has a brilliant idea and needs a website ASAP and doesn't have the slightest clue what a properly designed site looks like or what it's worth, is merely adding fuel to this already out of control fire. I can post a list of at least a dozen, very talented real designers that were at one point highly sought after and making a great living doing so but have since either left to work for a professional design firm, or left the industry entirely. Sadly, times have changed. Especially when gas is nearly 5 bucks a gallon here in the states, and much higher elsewhere. Again, there are exceptions to this, but in most cases, designing websites for others doesn't pay what it used to pay.

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Artashes (03-01-2012)