This week the very lovely blogger, Jessica Schanberg, of Lemons to Llamas has written about her adventures freelancing as a print designer in Chicago. It is not easy, and the questions you have to ask yourself are even harder.

It used to be my training, and creative eye was worth more in the marketplace and maybe my skills were appreciated in a different way too. Typography was considered an art form and leading wasn’t something mysterious to graphic design students.

Sadly, print design, which is where I started, has gotten pushed to the side by web design, iphone design and probably other “apps” I haven’t listed.

I know how to design websites, and my beef isn’t with web design, but with how our industry has been devalued. It seems like in this template driven, easy fix society, we’ve forgotten why we hire really creative people in the first place.

Creative people offer more than a template can. They can brainstorm and come up with wildly beautiful and unique ideas. I think that kind of unique gift should be celebrated. Unfortunately, creative people are often taken for granted or taken advantage of in the work world. Perhaps we aren’t always savvy enough to stand up for ourselves.

I don’t have the answer. I’ve been exploited and underpaid at one time or another, just like everybody else.

On sites like Crowdspring, designers vie for a few hundred dollars for free, just hoping they will be chosen amongst at least eighty participants. I decided to try my hand with a logo once on Crowdspring and almost immediately several other designers had copied my logo and tweaked it so they could “win” the competition. I was disgusted and dropped out. The money wasn’t worth it. Even when the purses are decent, the humiliation of working for nothing and being exploited to boot isn’t worth it.

Elance isn’t much better. It’s fair trade and an open marketplace, but usually the designers who win can afford to charge very low rates for economic reasons.

I’m all for free trade, but what this does is drive down the expected rates to an incredibly low point for all creatives and programmers around the world. It makes creatives look like we don’t value our time enough to charge what it is actually worth. There is a sense of desperation on these bidding sites that seems to permeate the industry to some extent.

Here’s the good news: I’m starting to make a living as freelance designer through real relationships with small businesses, other designers, fellow bloggers and through collaboration with developers. I basically pass out my card wherever I go and to whoever I talk to. I’m an optimist.

I think people prefer to do business with people that they trust and know.

So, for me the answer to the change in technology is to get back to getting to know who is in my community whether it’s at a church, a community center, coffee shop or beauty parlor.

Jessica is a freelance graphic designer, writer and illustrator. You can be equally blown away by her design chops at Pixel Peony Design.

Photo Credit: Hijod Huskona @Flickr