Anyway, I hope that sending nasty comments like you do has a somewhat therapeutic effect on you and that, when you leave your basement to go outside in the real life, not hidden behind a virtual identity, you are a little bit more sane with the people you encounter.

Anyway, that is it for me. I have no time to waste with pricks like you. You already made me waste too much time reading you crappy comments. I have nothing more to add. All my arguments were in my post.

Have a nice day!

Your full name means nothing to me. I don’t know you. Same with mine for you. What, you need to google me? I really don’t think it’s nearly as important as my point.

The lingo correctness: You truly are a slave of form, or just using it when you need a shield. I’m human and expressive at that. People like you bore the shit out of everyone. And no amount of foul language can undermine the essence of my point for a person who looks beyond the surface.

Check out the 1976 movie Network if you haven’t (yeah: I’m a human being god damn it, my life has value!) That speech is as relevant now as it was then.

On the subject. It’s simple.

It’s not for you to LIKE some piece of commercial work. You should like it if it works (increases sales, recognition/whatever). Not the other way around – that it should work if you like it.

If we take a deeper look, it doesn’t really matter what it looks like as long as it’s decent – and if you pump enough money into promoting/repeating it – it WILL become recognizable. For a while at least, unless you back it up with a (relatively) good service/product.

You think Nike is a great logo? Thousands of Nikes are being turned down at crowdsourcing sites by people like you every day. They just haven’t been literally carved into your mind (by cunning suggestions that the product will somehow make you happy if you buy it) to the point you think it’s great.

So when you work with someone who designs something for you (and you chose that person based on a number of previous creations that _do work_) please let them decide on form, color etc for you. Because they know what means what, what evokes what and what are the psychological/unconscious impacts certain form or color has on people it’s presented to.

Do you roll under your car with your mechanic to make suggestions on how he should do certain things? Sure you don’t, because you think you don’t know enough on the subject to do so. (Note that when I say “you” I don’t think of you personally. Just everyone who thinks the way you do. That stands for my previous post too.)

Yet when it comes to, say, graphic design, you seem to meddle into everything without hesitation. You respect the goddamn mechanic’s or a cook’s opinion and expertise more than a designer’s, why is that? I’m really asking that, I really want a straight answer.

Maybe it’s a mess that designers have brought on themselves by being soft so they don’t lose the gig. Or aren’t articulate enough to explain why things should be as they made them. Or they went down to the point that they just do what the boss tells them to do so they can move on to another ignorant s.o.b. with money.
Luckily, there are still really successful/honest ones who let go of such clients without looking back.

So, what’s your argument on my two posts? Really, on the subject. Not personal remarks on my identity or language. Those you can send to my email if you feel that strong about them.

Cheers,

sb

You do not have enough courage to write such a rant and put a signature to it? Poor you. You need to have the courage of your opinion!

I should not have published your comment since you are using inappropriate language and you are insulting me. In fact it does not fit with my blog comment policy. But still, you took the time to write down these few paragraphs and you seem to have a different opinion than mine. This is fine. It is just sad that the tone and the words you had chosen completely undermine the essence of what could have been interpreted as a decent point of view.

do you do your job for free? Do you finish your product, whatever it may be and hope to be picked among 300 other sorry asses like yours? I mean, do you go to a restaurant and after having a steak decide if it’s good enough to pay for it. Or have a fence producer to make it, install it and let you decide if you like it? In a week, two or couple of months, or never.

And that “talented designers around the globe” bullshit. Especially the talent part. You can bet your ass that designer’s time spent on your project is measured in seconds. Why? Because those guys have to produce a couple of dozens of such crap a day to raise their chance of winning at any of these “contests”. Yeah, it’s really a chance, since rarely the best thing wins. Most of the customers wouldn’t know good logo from bad to save their lives. The page you pasted into your text with “solutions” to your brief: every single entry there is done in two secs by a total amateur. It’s visible even at this shrunk size. But you wouldn’t know. If you look a bit at those proposals I’m sure in a while you’ll realize that you could be a designer! in your spare time. (Shit, if only you could figure out where’s that button that changes fonts.)

You don’t hire a designer based on chat, you check out the portfolio, if you see quality work, you make a contract with a chosen creative and work from there. Don’t give me that bullshit “I don’t know what to expect”. Also, do YOUR customers pay for your coffee machine and vacation? You bet. And they should, you work for them.
99designs is made for people like you – no clear vision of what they need, and cheapskates, of course. If you can’t explain your needs to one professional (who paid for school, expensive mac, software etc), I’m sure you can’t to a bunch of daytime plumbers (with respect to all professions) and evening designers. Those guys don’t think of your thing. They just don’t have the time. They just shoot and hope you will “like” it. Or you, your wife, aunt and dog giving stars getting all excited of how many people in India and Pakistan are willing to work for a hundred bucks, and thinking: shit, design SHOULD be this cheap, anyone can do it!

NO SPEC!

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99designs.com

Je me permets de le copier dans son intégralité ici car il résume ma pensée. Il est d’autant plus crédible que n’importe quel commentaire que j’aurais pu ajouter car il provient d’un professionnel du milieu. J’ajouterais même, s’adapter n’est plus suffisant, il faut savoir s’adapter rapidement. On parle plus d’agilité selon moi.

“Les guildes corporatistes qui râlent et se lamentent, tout en essayant de revenir au passé, n’y peuvent rien!

Les frontières du design graphique, de la photographie, de la création de film et de vidéo, de la musique, etc. se sont effondrées avec la révolution technologique. Depuis belle lurette, la production artistique s’est démocratisée, les spécificités se sont estompées et les terrains de chasse des certains métiers, si jalousement gardés par le passé, sont devenus aujourd’hui des jardins publics accessibles à tous.

Interdire l’accès du marché aux milliers de graphistes autoproclamés — dont certains, croyez-moi, ont plus de potentiel et de talent que bien de « professionnels » — est non seulement illusoire, mais totalement impossible, car on ne réglemente pas le métier du design graphique comme on le fait avec l’architecture, l’ingénierie ou la médecine.

L’État balise une activité professionnelle seulement quand elle peut mettre en danger la sécurité publique. Et, à ce que je sache, ce critère ne s’applique pas à la nôtre…

Il n’y aura donc pas une réglementation imposée, privilégiant les membres des associations, car ni le droit, ni les utilisateurs/clients, ni les lois de la concurrence ne l’accepteront jamais. Le design graphique mondialisé et bon marché est là pour pour de bon!

LA solution (préconisée depuis deux siècles par le bon vieux Charles D.) est pourtant simple : pour survivre, nos créateurs devront mieux faire!

Suffit, la complaisance, le manque d’une critique objective et les caresses allant dans le sens du poil! Place au design graphique intelligent, réfléchi et cohérent, donnant la prépondérance au contenu d’idées sur l’aspect formel du projet! Place à la connaissance et à la maîtrise d’une bonne culture générale (histoire, économie, sociologie, littérature, philosophie, technologies)! Place aux échanges d’opinions et à la collaboration interdisciplinaire! Place à l’ouverture sur le monde!

Dans cette optique, le rôle formateur des institutions d’enseignement reste crucial. Les objectifs : bien analyser et bien préparer les enjeux à venir; mieux structurer et mieux transmettre les savoirs; cultiver — mais sans complaisance — l’originalité et la créativité; encourager une saine compétition entre les étudiants, et — très important — faire germer le désir d’un engagement social et culturel du designer.

Pour y arriver, les écoles de design devront se réinventer constamment. La nôtre ne doit pas faire exception…”

Nelu Wolfensohn
Professeur titulaire
Programme de design graphique
École de design de l’UQAM

“Je viens de recevoir sur mon fil Twitter ce concours de design lancé par TIVO http://bit.ly/ayb0fL Hmm TIVO, c’est pas une roulotte à patates frites cela et il font appel à 99 Designs. Sans doute parce qu’il souhaitent exploiter sans scrupules des pauvres petits enfants gribouillant sur leur laptop dans les pays sous développés.

Autre point ici: Ce pseudo-debat sur le spec-work, crowdsourcing, appellons-le comme on voudra, démontre le retard du Québec par rapport aux tendances mondiales en matière de web. Un débat similaire a eu lieu aux USA il y a un an et ce n’était pas le premier.
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/03/is-crowdsourcin/

Voici les conseils fort pertinents de Jeremiah Owyang (expert reconnu et respecté à l’emploi de Forrester Research) donnés aux designers graphiques en décembre 2008 à ce sujet:
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/12/13/designers-why-spec-work-is-not-going-away-how-you-should-respond/

La lecture de ces articles vient confirmer que de durcir la position face au crowdsourcing dénote plus de la panique que de la stratégie durable à long terme.”