Chavez

I think designers are charging too little. Now days, every designer seems to have a “studio” and charges $5K a month per client. $5K!!!!?? Y’all. My friends and I were charging $7K-$10K a WEEK consistently, as freelancers working like agencies (2-3 projects at once). If you’ve never worked at a real agency you wouldn’t know, but designers work on 2-3 projects at once almost all the time there. Sometimes more. As an example, at one agency I worked on NFL + ESPN at the same time. At another BMW + EA Sports + Priceline. So while freelancing I’d work on Airbnb + Google + some start-up. This is all I knew because I spent years in agencies doing this. Granted, our portfolios acted as marketing for clients and start-ups so there was a premium involved they would pay, but now it feels like a race to the bottom for some reason. Inflation is higher and prices are lower. Some of you are way more talented than I ever was. I was never the best. I just knew what clients wanted. They wanted high quality design yesterday. Y’all are so much better but charging less collectively and burning yourselves out. I lasted about 15 years before was like man, I need a break. And I was making reallllllllly good money. I was doing too much design though and that can crush you mentally. Even if you love what you do you can do too much of it sometimes. I could have hired a team, I did at times, but I never wanted that. I freelanced for freedom. All I’m saying, charge more. Especially you super talented ones that are always busy. Charge more until you hear “no” on repeat. Either way we work too hard. Charge more you’ll want more. Charge less you’ll want more but have to do more. I guess what I’m really saying is…don’t over work yourself. Be sure to live and go outside. Maybe charging a little more can help you do that if you’re smart about it.

Some design is just meant to make people smile and that's ok. Not everything has to be ground breaking.