My view on freelance design today
Sunday, November 25th, 2007 10:55 pm by
aj 
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I wrote a little commentary piece today on what I think is really hurting the freelance the design community right now. Feel free to give it a read if you’d like. In other news, I hope everyone that had a four day weekend enjoyed it. Back to reality tomorrow. Hopefully you didn’t go spending all your money on Black Friday deals.
Catch you on this Friday for a new focus.
I am a young designer who has been doing this longer than most other people my age. I had an early start, and have built upon it over the last few years. Devlounge was my first major successful project, which I hope is the first of many. DL is now officially out of my hands, but I hope to continue contributing for as long as I can. See more posts by 
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Definitely agree with you. I’m ready for these people just to vacate the web, but I doubt it’s going to happen. I am appalled at the incredible amount of idiots who actually buy a certain Wordpress rockstar’s ridiculous “premium themes” when they can get much better work for free. It’s just…sad.
You make a few good points. Alas “Any time I’m fooling around in Photoshop and I end up throwing together a template” knocks your credibility a bit for me. There’s a few ways you van go though, such as:
A) Drop your prices so you’re competitive in the template market.
B) Switch your creative process right around, so it’s tailored to the customer. The problem with generic templates is that you’re creating them without knowing if it’ll actually suit someone’s needs. Instead, why not speak to the client first and build a bespoke site that’ll suit their requirements?
I have to say I agree with you on many levels AJ. I really don’t see much money in template design anymore, not for the lack of demand or designs but for the lack of quality and integrity.
@Olly - The bulk of my work comes from clients (not premade), but I took a few months off during the DL sale and then while I was getting some other things in order, and to get back into the swing of things I have put together some templates over the last few weeks, sometimes based around upon what I see is hot and selling quickly on forums and marketplaces, but because it does not look the same as these other designs, the items aren’t selling.
Fair enough
If you’re trying to support yourself, as an adult in a major city, as a freelance web designer, you shouldn’t be in competition with the kind of people who sell designs at this level. The people buying these designs are not interested in really investing in a web site. I work with photographers all the time on their portfolios and none of them would take a designer seriously if they charged so little. What we’re really talking about is value vs. cost, and the clients you should want are those that understand that relationship and aren’t looking to get something for nothing.
If you’re just getting into blogging, or setting up a site to sell the tea cozys you knit, that’s one thing. A serious freelancer should be looking at gainfully successful businesses and individuals, and leave all this to the geeks on the street.