Graphic design and indeed the whole creative industry is based (or should be) on relationships. There are problems out there that require people to put their noggins together to solve them.

Example: If my leg is cut off and I’m bleeding to death, am I going to go to the little girl next door and have her put a My Little Pony Band-Aid on it because it is the cheapest and most readily available option? No. I am going to seek out skilled, acredited, professional medical care. I have a problem, and I need a person, the right person, to help me solve it.

Design is no different: just substitute money for blood in the above example.

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Therefore, I choose to ignore technology in this case, actually leave my house and go out to meet people, network and find those who need my help. We talk, meet, and work together to solve the problem. Submitting a half rendered logo on a site hoping to get the work can never replace the reason we are here in this business, to provide a service based on a relationship.

I will now step down from my soapbox.

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DWG, I’m a bit discouraged by this fact. Certainly, you can afford to create this site withOUT the use of ads, especially since they are in direct conflict with your own views?

Elance is a joke-not because it doesn’t work, but because of the constant flow of outsourcing. I ca compete with work completed in India simply bc people here want to deal locally-or as locally as possible, not with a foreign country and certainly not with a business from which they cannot get quality customer service. But the prices there, outrageously low.

@ Kathy K:
I understand your feelings as well. Since I go after small businesses and want to do my share of giving back to the community. When I come across a non profit that needs assistance, I try my best to make my prices as low as possible while still making the effort worth my while. On the complete opposite side of these sites which cheapen our work value, often these projects unfortunately go to bigger guns who can afford to do them 100% pro bono. Must be nice to be able to have so much work that you don’t have to lower prices just to keep afloat!

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Heck yeah these sites hurt. They are demeaning and devaluing to the work we do as designers. Even bending over backwards to meet a low budget no longer works. Why, they can just go have a couple hundred design ideas from scores of designers to choose from rather than hire one person who will put out a half dozen designs. It sickens me really. In what other field do you find people willing to work this way? Do you know ANYONE who works for a living who would do that same work if it was offered to them in a contest format with only one winner?

In the spirit of full disclosure—I will admit that I did enter some contests on 99designs several years ago. I did consider it ‘fun’ and mainly did it for practice. No more. I can practice all I want without submitting work that offers no compensation.

To focus on bigger projects is good advice for some, but one size does not fit all. And as these sites see success for the smaller projects, no doubt the size of projects will grow. It ain’t just the logos. I haven’t looked at the site for a few years now, but from what I recall, there were website designs, brochures and other larger projects as well.

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I don’t know that I agree with your position. I think you are looking at this as a “fun” type of thing, but the truth is, it cheapens ALL our work. It means that if you are not only WILLING, but also ABLE to work for so cheap, then other prospective clients will come in and expect the same thing.

If I can do a logo and not get paid for it, then that means that I’m not valuing my skills. I’d never do something that I didn’t know I’d get paid for. You shouldn’t either.

You wouldn’t go to a store and take ten things, then call the store back and say, you know, I didn’t like any of these. I think I’m not going to keep them. After you have had the chance to use whatever they are.

We, as designers, need to look at our time like inventory. When you sit down for 10 hours and work on something, that’s 10 hours you could have been doing something else. It’s 10 hours you won’t be able to get back, and if you just throw time away, you won’t be able to stay afloat.

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