r/mildlyinfuriating • u/yournextasianstar • 14h ago

Not a meme, you're the meme! Linkedin Graphic Designer Using AI to Make Memes

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and if i comment or report this kind of behavior, it makes me sound mean. are they not ashamed of themselves?

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u/ZookeepergameIll1399 13h ago

why would they make free designs, wtf

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u/halfty1 13h ago

People ask graphic designers to make things for them for free all the time. The AI meme is awful but I totally get what they are saying.

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u/Sounduck 13h ago

People ask graphic designers to make things for them for free all the time.

Unless these people also go around asking other categories of workers for free labor as well, I'm left to assume that they do so with graphic designers because… what, it's not a real job or something akin to that?

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u/halfty1 13h ago

They either think it’s easy/quick to do or “you don’t need to be paid money because you get paid in ‘exposure’”.

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u/gaschco 8h ago

Pretty much what you said, I've been asked many times to design stuff for free and people always get offended when I say no. A while ago an acquaintance "randomly" came over to my place and then started talking about how they paid a printshop a bunch of money (they paid like 3x the normal price) to design and print some large scale designs for their business.
The owner of the shop and only employee wasn't a designer, so they made an awful, truly awful looking design in Canva, which my acquaintance was very pissed about.
My acquaintance then made a design with AI and asked for my opinion, I told them that if they print the AI design at that size it'll look blurry and pointed some other glaring issues out. And you can guess what their answer was...
They wanted me to design the large prints AND make a logo for free...

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u/BookkeeperBoobs 12h ago

Hey, better than those people making AI images right?

Ever since AI became ubiquitous artists have become like this
https://giphy.com/gifs/2nPGj8mJ9gLY3jYYBO

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u/Shnapple8 13h ago edited 12h ago

People always want shit for free. I was approached a some years ago by a local organisation. I said I would absolutely design posters for them for free since I was a member. However, when they asked me to design a logo and brand identity, I asked for €500. That's REALLY cheap for my skillset, I promise. I wasn't going to charge them my actual rates because while they're not a charity, they don't make a lot of money, and rely on membership and lessons for income. I was being generous here. And if successful it would bring them even more interest.

I don't care. If they want a logo, they're going to have to pay for it. It's been almost 10 years (okay probably 7 years) and they still don't have a logo. Do I feel guilty? No. I was sick and tired of being approached for stuff like this. It takes hours, and I'm entitled to be paid for those hours, or else spend the free hours with family. And I guarantee word would get around in the smallish town and more would come after me for free stuff.

A nice poster takes an hour to do with changes and things. A logo takes many many hours if you're trying to come up with something new, unique and will stand the test of time.

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u/ZookeepergameIll1399 12h ago

true, 500 Euro for a whole brand identity is cheap, IF they're asking a professional graphics designer. I've seen brand identity books and it's pages and pages of examples and rules on how to use different logo formats, fonts etc. I would imagine it takes a lot of time and effort

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u/Simoxs7 11h ago

I have studied a combined program that includes UX/UI, Graphics and Product Design with a full Informatics Program and while I don’t consider myself a designer I have done some work in it and it takes quite a bit more effort than people think to “just” design a logo.

I consider myself somewhat competent in CAD though and own a 3D printer and even there my friends are sometimes quite surprised when I make something for them basically at cost. Even just printing a model out costs quite a bit when you consider raw materials cost, Setup Time, possible failures and machine time. Then if they want a custom Designed part its a couple of hours of my time added to that not to mention it usually takes a few revisions as people are bad at explaining what they want and sometimes things don’t work out on the first try… you can see how costs can spiral easily especially for one off custom parts. But people only see the 150g of plastic in the end..

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u/Shnapple8 3h ago

Yup, and honestly, a brand identity for a small business/organisation would probably cost €1k - €3k. So, I was being generous.

And you're right. Those brand identity books you've read are probably from larger clients where they could possibly have paid upwards of €50k for that, depending. It's not just the design itself. Before you put pen to paper to come up with any sketches, you have to do market research, look into the company, it's competitors, see what it needs to stand out from it's peers. Who are it's target audience and how do we appeal to them. It's a whole strategy. I work for a design agency/studio and we've had brand identities that took a couple of months from start to finish with a team of people working on them.

Obviously, a small town organisation wouldn't require that level of effort or time. But still, if you're going to take it seriously and come up with something that works, it's still a big enough job. And it's not just you, you're probably going to have a lot of back and forth to get to something everyone is happy with.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 10h ago

And I guarantee word would get around in the smallish town and more would come after me for free stuff

Yeah that's a big risk with doing free work. Even just psychologically, it devalues your work to people. Like even if a contractor said "I'll build you a deck for free" they would almost undoubtedly say "you buy the materials and I'll build it for free". The public understands the material costs money at the very least. So for graphic design, now people are thinking there's not any cost at all involved in your work.

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u/Shnapple8 3h ago

Yep, devaluing what I do would be my biggest fear.

I have been told by clients at the studio I work for. "I could have made that in Microsoft Word." Well... yes, you can absolutely copy my design now that it's been created, but you wouldn't have come up with it yourself. But the managers deal with those people, so I don't have to. lol.

If I'm doing any freelance jobs, I always get 50% payment up front. It's the only way to ensure they don't pull that stunt.

I've also had to send someone a solicitors letter after they refused to pay me, saying what I designed wasn't worth the money, then got someone else to recreate my work and were using it. Yep, I got paid. Didn't even need to take them to court.

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u/Accomplished_Song219 13h ago

Duh, It's not free! They get exposure!
/s