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Are You a Snotty Artist?
There’s a debate online (and probably offline too) that divides writers, designers and more into two camps: those who consider their work a trade, and those who consider their work an art form.
Now, for those of you who know me or have read older posts on this site, you’ll know that I firmly sit in the “writing is a trade” camp and disdain calling what I do for a living an art.
It’s a career. It brings me income. It’s a business. It’s not William Shakespeare or Leonardo DaVinci.
I don’t make a point of fighting to convince those that call themselves artists that they aren’t. They are, in their way. I enjoy writing what I call art myself from time to time. But every now and then, I come across a discussion that makes me absolutely roll my eyes and snort, “ArTEESTes,” under my breath.
One such discussion can be found right here: Are Freelancers a Commodity or a Profession?
The post debated whether job auction sites like Elance devalue professional work. I didn’t agree with the arguments raised, and left a rather long comment saying as much. But what really got to me was the attitude of many, many freelancers who also commented.
I won’t repeat them here.
The majority of comments reflected a pretentious, arrogant mindset. How dare people buy cheap goods? How dare they make do with anything less than artistry? How dare they assume how much time it takes to create The Most Beautiful Logo On Earth?
Let me clue these people into some very important facts:
- Buyers don’t know how much time it takes to create a logo or write a page of website copy.
- Buyers don’t know the market value for such goods, nor do they feel the need to research it.
- Buyers don’t know that there’s a difference in quality between the $10 guy and the $100 guy.
More importantly, buyers don’t CARE.
People who want to hire you for your services aren’t looking to have absolute art worthy of Mona Lisa fame for their website or business needs. They aren’t interested in how many pixels and hours go into creating a banner or a sales letter. They don’t want art.
They want results.
Let’s be realistic here. If Joe Blow comes along, decides to put up a website to earn some money and feed his family, he’s really not interested in having graphic art so lickable it could be hung on the wall of his living room. He wants people to buy what he’s selling.
Does site appeal and an impactful message accomplish that? Of course. The more appealing and impactful, the more sales.
But Joe doesn’t know that, not really. He’s a garage mechanic who just wants a better life for his kids, or maybe he’s a production line worker who lost his job. He’s looking for a way to keep his income stream alive, and from what he reads online, he knows that there’s opportunity to do so.
He reads a lot of stuff that says, “Find a freelancer. Get a website. Make money.”
Alright, thinks Joe. He Googles “freelance website designer,” and right there on the first page is “Get a Freelancer dot com”. (Which I won’t link to, because I think that’s a crappy site. You can Google it and take a look if you’d like.)
So Joe goes over, sees what other people are doing, looks at what it might cost him and decides to take the plunge.
“I need a website with five pages of content. I would like it in a week. I have a $100 budget.”
Is Joe an asshole? Is he devaluing web design everywhere? Is he supporting slave labor, low-quality providers and thumbing his nose at graphic artists and copywriters everywhere?
Good lord, no. Joe’s just some guy who knows cars or how to box canned goods.
Here’s clue number two: Joe just doesn’t know what goes into building a website.
Soon Joe gets some bids. He gets a whole bunch of guys offering to do the full work for $50. He also gets some guys offering phenomenally higher rates. Sure these guys have snazzy sites and credentials. The $50 guy has a nice site and plenty of other clients that have passed through before Joe.
$50 versus astronomically high. Which do you think Joe will pick? You do the math.
Now, the bohemiam rhapsody arTEESTes think they know what happens next. They think Joe picks the cheaper rate and gets crappy work back. They think Joe clearly sees he’s wasted his money and should’ve gone with a more expensive provider.
Let me give you clue number three: Your rates do not determine your quality of work.
I know this for a fact. I’ve seen terrible copy provided by some pretty pricey writers. I’ve seen horrible sites designed by expensive graphic artists. It’s not the exception to the rule, either – I see a lot of godawful stuff out there on the internet.
Bad copy that’s full of jargon and that comes off pretentious and full of self-worth. Sites that are stunningly beautiful and completely unusable. Sites that are so unfriendly for visitors and users that there’s a great chance very few sales are happening.
I’ve seen some people who have low rates do some amazing work, too. They live in places that don’t require two grand a month just to pay rent, so they don’t feel the need to price high. They sometimes even do live in these high-economy areas and still charge low rates.
Clue number four: We live in a global business world, folks. Your living conditions aren’t the next guy’s living conditions.
Fast forward a year later. Joe’s doing okay. His website is bringing in some money – not a ton, but he’s actually getting by and feeling good about it. Sure, he’d like to make more money. And he’s learning how. He reads all the popular blogs, he’s catching up on some education and he’s figuring out what he should do next.
Then he finds a site that totally bashes people who pay $50 for a website with five pages of copy. He’s surprised. He reads more. He sees commentators implying that buyers are uneducated, ignorant, foolish and wasteful. He notices that there are some pretty lofty comments and plenty of arrogant attitude flying around.
Now Joe’s defensive. He’s not nodding and agreeing that his website is an artist’s endeavor and that he’s made a grievous mistake. He’s feeling pointed at, criticized, degraded and flamed.
Clue five: Attacking people is not good for business.
So Joe now thinks that those copywriters and graphic artists who complain and gripe about other people and job sites are pretty snotty. He doesn’t like them. He didn’t see explanations why this was all about art, nor does he care. Joe has a business to run, and he knows that when he wants a banner ad or a new look, he has a cheap provider who does okay work that makes him feel welcome.
Maybe it’s not the best work. But it works.
Now, that’s the key, here. It works. That’s what any piece of copy or design should do for a buyer – it should accomplish the desired goal. That’s all that buyers want. Yes, they’d like beautiful and awesome and striking and emotional and impactful and total wow in a CSS box.
But that’s not a buyer’s priority. And if you’re in business, if you write for a living, if you design as a career, you’d do well to remember that.
So what should you do about this artistry/commodity issue? You should:
• Remember that you’re a professional service provider
• Be diplomatic, polite, understanding and friendly with people
• Take no offense when buyers chose a lower-priced option
• Be understanding of your peers and colleagues who may have lower rates
• Work towards education and teaching the value of your work
• Take marketing and sales courses to learn how to better present yourself to be hired
• Work on effectively conveying your value and worth to buyers
• Ignore service providers who aren’t within your niche of industry
• Continue to build your reputation and word-of-mouth referral
• Recognize that no one’s mission in life is to offend you by offering less money than you expect
• Realize that your needs and priorities are not the needs and priorities of your buyer.
Now, I’m not crazy or stupid. You run a business just like Joe does. You should hold out for the rates that you believe your work is worth. If you choose not to work with clients who can’t afford to pay your rates, that’s your prerogative. You have every right to do that.
Just don’t be deluded into thinking that your work is worth the price you demand because it’s “art”. It’s worth your price because it gets the client results.
And if your client gets results he’s happy with from some cheaper provider or a less talented guy?
It’s really not your job to tell him he’s a bad person because of that.
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This is an interesting post with a good strong opposing viewpoint to the Freelance Switch thread on outsourcing.
In an ideal world, clients would appreciate real value, and freelancers would be ranked such that the bozos would stand alone while the quality players would attract all of the business.
But, things aren’t linear at all in business.
I contend that prospects will often unconsciously correlate over-the-top confidence with excellence, and humility with stupidity and incompetence and being very ordinary and unexceptional.
I personally believe two things: (1) the business world (perhaps just in the US) tends to thrive on an appearance of arrogance or at least “specialness” and “uniqueness”. (2) new clients won’t really appreciate “good value” anyway.
Let’s look at point 2.
In terms of the second point, I have spent quite a few years working as a contract software developer.
My very *least* appreciative clients over the years have been ones where I was assiduous about providing maximum value per billed hour, and where my bill rate was purposefully modest in order to fit into their supposed “budget”.
I’d say that most of my lower-billed clients have insulted me or my work for them somehow or lumped me into a “heads down moron” category, even though the activity I was on essentially stopped dead after I left them.
I have been treated *much* better when I have done two things: stuck to a high-average bill rate; and impressed upon the client that I was too special in some way important to their immediate needs to be lumped with a low paid programmer harvested from some temp agency pool.
I’m saying that you don’t want to be diffident on purpose, but also, acting too eager or too grateful (at least in the business circles I’ve run in) gets you kicked in the teeth and treated like Rodney Dangerfield.
Also, I have some experience with hiring offshore programmers. In general they are just looking for an opportunity to bill lots of cheap hours on non complex tasks. I’ve hired such folks myself a few times and it’s been mostly a waste of time and a hassle. In each instance I felt that if only I could have found someone in the same country as me (at prevailing US rates) I would have gotten better value per dollar.
I’d expect freelance creatives to be just as mixed in results. The bleating “but it’s a world wide marketplace!!” misses several points. One point is that the client has the problem of picking the “right” one – perhaps several times in a row in order to find one provider that produces an acceptable result. That repetition of expenses can be much more costly than finding one good local or regional person who provides real value.
Another issue is cultural differences, from scoping the project to delivering the actual work. How do you know that the cheap non local person really understands what you need and want? The bid may be low because the provider is naïve, has poor communication skills or is desperate for work and is underbidding. I have run into all of these variations. This is a lot easier to determine when the provider comes from the same business culture.
In general I don’t treat someone who charges a fraction of the going rate in *anything* that seriously. If they were that good, they could be doing better and charging more. Even if they’re overseas. (By fraction I mean the 10:1 or 30:1 ratio of first world to third world rates that all of us self employed people are supposed to cower under in fear.)
So, James … I think you’re offering counterproductive advice to people in some ways.
I completely agree that the “arteest” schtick is overplayed. I don’t agree that a variant of it has absolutely no place. I think that a freelancer provider has to defend themselves, their value proposition, and yes, their “specialness”, using whatever tools are at their disposal – including interpersonal skills, which are a form of marketing.
Arrogance, cockiness, and a degree of positioning oneself as “uber” definitely have their place. But, of course, it has to be calibrated to the audience. Don’t come off like a jerk. Do hold your head high.
Don Wallace said: “I have some experience with hiring offshore programmers. In general they are just looking for an opportunity to bill lots of cheap hours on non complex tasks.”
As a, so called, “offshore programmer” myself I suspect the issues you’ve had relate more to having hired ‘cheap’ labor than outsourcing to international providers. It IS, for the most part, a “global market”. In fact, 80% of my clients are not fellow Australians and I often outsource some of my own needs to international freelancers.
I’ve often found, the attitude of those in our employ has a great deal to do with our own attitude toward them. If you feel and act superior, you’ll have ’small’ minds responding to your requests. If you’re warm, inviting, and can relate one-on-one to others, bright, talented, creative minds will flock to you.
The same can be said for our clients. The way WE relate to others, and to ourselves, plays a significant part on the kind of clients we’ll attract. Another is that there are many in creative industries who just don’t KNOW that they could be charging more.
As an “offshore” provider, my cost of living differs, my government has a supportive health system and fair superannuation and taxation. I can afford to charge less and give more than many providers. I often adjust my own rate based on the country of origin of my client. But I’ve only done that as I’ve become confident in myself and my business skill to know I CAN do it.
Many providers don’t realize that the income they earn is ‘perceived’ rather than actual value. One person, or culture, is willing to pay one rate and another would consider that rate expensive/cheap. The value is in the eye of the client, not the provider.
Rebecca Laffar-Smith´s last blog ..Are You Writing A Book Next Month?
@ Don – I’ll start off by pointing out that I’m Canadian (not American), a Quebecer and half French as well… so I think I fit into the “international outsourcers” category as well as the “cultural differences” category as well.
98% of my clientele are Americans. They think, for the most part, that I do a brilliant job. I also have no issue understanding their needs and providing results, despite those categorical differences I mentioned above.
So when you suggest I’m providing counterproductive advice to people, I’m not sure where and how.
Also, I know many providers in Europe, Great Britain, Serbia South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and other countries around the world beyond the United States. These people all have varying rates based on their personal cost of living and region’s market rates, and they all do brilliant work.
I will also add that some of the worst work I’ve seen has come from locations that may indeed surprise you.
But, you’ll get great work all over the world, and you’ll get shoddy work all over the world. While I’d like to think that “Made in Canada” is a stamp of quality beyond excellence itself, I’m more realistic than that, and I also know that “Made in the USA” isn’t any better or worse.
We are all equals, in my mind.
You mention: “One point is that the client has the problem of picking the “right†one – perhaps several times in a row in order to find one provider that produces an acceptable result. That repetition of expenses can be much more costly than finding one good local or regional person who provides real value.”
This has very little to do with where a person works from. Picking the “right” one simply means knowing what you want, having criteria for the type of person you want to work with, and carrying out proper interviews to find that person. My experience is that this process doesn’t go faster if that person is in the United States – and very often, it takes much longer.
You mention: “Another issue is cultural differences, from scoping the project to delivering the actual work. How do you know that the cheap non local person really understands what you need and want?”
To which I ask, how do you know that the really expensive very local person really understands what you need and want? I have people who work an hour away from me that have a harder time understanding than someone halfway across the world.
The language barrier? Perhaps, but I’ve met some people who have English as a second language who can speak it and write it better than people who have it as a first language. (I won’t use myself as an example here, because I did have a fluently bilingual upbringing…)
I am glad that we agree on the arTEESTe attitude – that too, knows no boundaries.
As for cockiness… Yep, it’s got it’s place, eh?
Cheers.
I love this article. You’ve stylishly and convincingly articulated one of the foundational principles of NAIWE (National Association of Independent Writers and Editors). Writing can be both a trade and an art, and both practices are worthy of respect.
Shakespeare, Dickens, Twain, and other revered literary figures worked at writing as a trade, and in the process, created art. Many aspiring literary writers support themselves by doing some form of commercial writing, editing, or teaching of the craft. Why not? There are no real boundaries in writing, and using your skills to make a great living is not selling out. With luck and good management, it’s just another step on the way to becoming who you want to be. (And if you want to be an arTEESTe, don’t let me stop you. Just don’t expect me to join you in disrespecting others.)
Great post. Thanks!
Janice Campbell from NAIWE´s last blog ..Bleeder: A miracle? Or bloody murder? by John Desjarlais- A Review
This is all well and good, but all those posting comments deriding freelancers who consider their work to have any kind of artistic value (“arteestes”, seriously?) seem to be repeating the same snottiness and arrogance they say they detest from others about their own business practices. If we’re supposed to only be all about getting down with the “global business world” and making money, maybe it’s time for a career change. After all, I could make a lot more money in finance than as a writer/designer/creative/whatever. Obviously, paying customers don’t like to hear that you think your services are worth more than they would like to pay you, but if you care more about the money side of things than the creative, you should really go into hedge funds.
@Shenme – arTEESTes, seriously. The difference is much as you pointed out: the arrogance conveyed. If you look up at all the comments here, I don’t see any that come off as arrogant, “better than you”, “out of your league” or condescending in any way. But if I travel over to some of the design blogs out there, that “O Mighty Me” attitude is clearly reflected – and even supported.
As for career changes, had I wanted to make some serious money, I would’ve been a lawyer or an accountant. But I’m a writer, where my talents and skills lie. It isn’t about money at all – it’s about understanding that those who bitch about being unable to earn a living from purist art mindsets really should change their attitudes, not their jobs