ABOUT DWG

Designers with guns is a website that is a sounding board for designers. My goal for the website is to create a forum for designers to share horror stories of bad clients (which we all have) and a resource for those of us who are struggling through the bad economy.

As a designer, we are constantly faced with the struggle of creating good work under a budget and a timeline. We are morally obligated to sift through our clients needs and desires and deliver a finished product that uses sound design practices and meets the clients requirements.

My hope is that we can share our experiences as designers, programmers, architects or whoever you are, and gain from each others lessons. View this site like a take a penny leave a penny tray at the 7/11. If you learn something useful from this site, please leave something useful for someone else to learn.

Share and Enjoy:

Comments (14)

#1 written by Jon G
about 6 months ago

This site is genius.

I wish it had been here 14 years ago when I began my design career.

Tried to register but said I can’t? Ah well. You’ve got my vote

JG

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#2 written by TC
about 6 months ago

I’m a “new” designer, fresh out of a four year college. My brain thinks, “Great. What next? I’ve got talent, should be getting paid more according to standards… and instead… I’m working 3 minimum wage jobs…”

I am a starving artist and I say kudos to this site.

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#3 written by luke stockdale
about 6 months ago

Nice site. I had fun following the $50 logo posts. I’ve just moved to Nashville from Australia and am new to craigslist. I’m looking for design work but it seems to be hard to come by over here.

Anyway, check out my work at http://www.whiskeytheatre.com
If you’ve got any advice for me re: local design community it would be much appreciated.

Keep up the good work. luke

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#4 written by graphicartist2k5
about 6 months ago

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
I personally believe that as a graphic designer, it is my responsibility to pray about every project I am working on before I have them to work on. A lot of people that read this post may think that’s bringing religion into the design mix, but since when was God NOT a part of creation? I have to say that since I have prayed about clients, the projects going smoothly, getting paid for the work I’ve done and so on, things have run smoothly.

Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike: 3 8
#5 written by Ryan
about 6 months ago

@graphicartist2k5 – Dude, you should totally pray for a winning lottery ticket… I sure would if a simple prayer made all my working woes go away. Truth is, pain in the @$$ clients come by way of the 80/20 rule. And having worked for well over 50 different clients in 3 different companies, I can easily say that about 20% of them were a pain in my @$$.

If ALL of your projects go smoothly… well I can’t imagine that you are very busy. God has nothing to do with dick clients.

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#6 written by mushypie
about 6 months ago

I’m so upset with the way this industry is going. I am a designer with 20 years experience and 2 years ago I was working full time making 85,000 per year. The company went out of business and I was forced to take a job at 60,000 per year. Now I can’t find a job that will pay even $30 per hour. Employers are expecting highly experienced designers to work for $30,000 to $40,000 per year. I made $40,000 per year when I was 25 years old! I can not stand the fact that employers are exploiting designers in this economy. People are asking for spec ads or to take a test, it’s like asking Merril Streep to take a screen test. There are many desperate designers out there willing to work for peanuts. I just got laid off from a job making $60,000 per year and the job is now posted on Craig’s List for $30,000 per year. This is insane, because the job requires a person with a lot of experience and for 30K they are going to get someone with minimal experience. The deadline pressure at this job is the worse I have ever experienced. Can’t wait to see their next publication… I need a good laugh!

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#7 written by Paul
about 6 months ago

……it may be because there are so many Templates out there now a days for any moron to download. i’ve seen a few…and it seems with a third grade education and some kind of computer savvy one can put together a web site, print something out on paper (i.e. Biz Cards, Flyers etc….) even though it may look like….well y’all know; with no kind of “Creative Background” what so ever… much less a degree. everythings just gotten so much more…..Brainless, it’s all easy now. “…so why pay someone good money when i can hire my brother in-law that used to be a mechanic for Walmart and lives in a trailer, for less than half to sit at a computer, download garbage and do it?!” …know where y’all are comin’ from. thats why i got out of Advertising back in ’95..i could (even back then) see where the market was headed. i’m a T-Shirt Artist now and enjoy that much better!….even thinking of starting my own biz (not the printing part, just the designing)

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#8 written by Boomer
about 6 months ago

I also had problems with the login….. But I am all about this site….

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#9 written by jj
about 6 months ago

I am all about sharing client horror stories, but this is counterproductive if you aren’t turning this information around to teach clients how to be better clients. Yeah, you could expect them to do the math, but the ones that need the most improvement probably won’t bother. Just my two cents.

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#10 written by admin
about 6 months ago

JJ….easy tiger! We just started the site last week, and are trying to get a couple of things set up. We have 3 people that are writing for the website, so we will be adding our thoughts/views on stories soon.

I’m trying to figure out the best way to do this. Maybe you have some thoughts? We are looking at either including the Admin comments at the bottom of the article under a “lesson learned” or we are looking at including the comments in the comment section. What does everyone think would be better?

I’m leaning towards putting it inside the content section under “lesson learned”

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#11 written by Ash
about 6 months ago

This is a great site. I would not put advertising on until you start to get a lot of traffic. Google will penalize you for doing so. Not only that but it turns off a percentage of the people. When you have thousands of visitors it does not matter, but when you have a few trickling in, then it makes a huge difference.

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#12 written by Kat
about 6 months ago

Mushypie, you are not the only one. I have been freelancing/contracting and this past year is the WORST ive ever had. Gigs at companies that paid $25/hour last year are paying $18, and want more skill sets for less $. I have one steady client, a community newspaper/shopper and they are worried about going out of business. Maybe this site will help all of us VENT, and come up with good strategies to reinvent our business and our paychecks. Im right there with you…KrazyKat

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#13 written by goldfish
about 6 months ago

Totally with you on the drop in the wage scale.

Here’s why I think it’s happening: I have been doing design and also teaching design at the college level for 10 years. I’ve seen a shift in expectation in the general public at large, meaning it won’t matter if you grow up to be an accountant or a lawyer or a whatever. It is to be expected that you will be able to put your son’s birthday party invite together all by yourself. Just as the world will always need accountants (because I’m not doing my own taxes) and lawyers (because only a fool represents himself) the world will need designers. I have faith that it will shake out.

Hang in there. I think people are undercutting to save money, but there’s no substitute for quality. Ever. Most clients need to learn that the hard way.

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#14 written by ID4Food
about 6 months ago

Comments for this page are now closed. Please continue the conversation on the forum.

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