Its been a long time since I last posted, and I have no excuse except to say I just ran out of steam, short attention span and all that. My site was also taken down for a few days by my host provider due to heavy usage and I had to try and trim it down a bit.
So how is the world of graphic design in the recession? How is it for you? For me, I see ups and downs, a manic June with loads of work to a quiet July (although holiday season generally slows things down a bit).
I have tried out a few different methods this/last year to promote myself with varied results:
- Blogging – yes the blog bought in a few bits of work, but as you know I have been a bit lazy on that one
- Directories/Google local – I have found a couple of new clients purely through then finding my design website (not graphic design blog) online through a google local search or being high up in google through being listed in a design directory.
- Mailshot – creating a postcard and dropping it in letterboxes of local firms found me one small job, but overall wasn’t particularly successful
- Advertising in a business magazine – not successful for me at all.
What are your experience of graphic design in a recession and what are you doing about it?
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45 Comments
one thing most businesses and freelancers can take for granted are the existing customers, sometimes spending a day calling existing customers for a chat can result in extra work.
im not for a minute thinking you should call all your customers once a week but if you haven’t spoken to a customer in a while then why not drop them a quick call to say hi, its surprising the amount of people that are too busy to get around to picking up the phone to call you.
There is such a difference between cost and value that people are not always willing to acknowledge during trying economic times. I think this is a perfect time to examine the value of a solid graphic identity and marketing strategy with my readers.
We did some work for a local football team (Port Vale) and we got a free advetisement on their scoreboard last season which we didnt see any return from at all. Submitting your website to as many web directories does pay off. When you think youve had a bad week or 2 with no leads coming in, the phone rings and you secure a deal. Surprisingly enough if your web agencies website is one for the css galleries then you search for a thread on digg about posting your website to all of them galleries in one shot, 122 of the best. This did actually generate quite alot of traffic and got us one or two jobs. We are currently undergoing a redesign and will be submitting the website all over again. Thanks
I sell my design service on elance, my income cut in half during this recession, just hoping the recession will be over soon, there is nothing I can do about it.
I think the problem is that the companies are keeping their money together, expenses are reduced or even cut. So I think the situation will remain till mid 2010.
The last 8 weeks have been really good for us with regards to work coming in. Indeed we are working all the hours we can. However this is on the back of some very lean months. I really do think that the tide is turning.
I’m just spent the entire day actually submitting to niche web design directories.
I’ve been taken notes as I’ve gone along in order to compile a list of them. I’m sure other web designers would be interested in that type of resource.
I think recession will be over soon.
I find that customers definitely have less money to spend and are demanding more for their buck. In general people are complaining of business being very slow, especially the ones dealing with “luxury” goods.
I think in this period, we can learn more technologies which may be useful and helpful in future. People always say: when the chance are coming, are you ready for it?
I am preparing my workings on my blog, it is the time to arrang my thinking and workings.
It’s just another opportunity to aquire and offer new skills and offerings. We find that when things are tough many businesses spend on their marketing of new services
Great to see that you are posting again Tara! As a web designer the beginning of the year was painfully slow. It started to pick up a lot over April and it has been rocketting ever since. It has definitely been a learning curve for most companies and took a lot of people by surprise. I certainly think that it is slowly coming to an end though.
How many of you are active on forums? Not designers’ forums but business forums? Go where your clients are – not your peers.
Hey Tara, wow, was just surfing around and surprised to see you post again! Cool! Hope all is well! I’m getting a few more assignments in but mostly webdesign and from the UK (while I’m back in the Netherlands)… So somehow it’s slowly picking up.
So good to read your posts again
got some catching up to do I think 
Recession cant really make you suffer if you have 20 regular clients like me
I think that I may have spokes to soon when I out my earlier comments in. The last 4 weeks have been very poor for work coming in. I hope it is just the Summer holidays effecting trade and that things will pick up again in September.
Why don’t you get help from all your readers here to post a free promo on their blogs (if they have any). Might as well make use of your networking.
I am from different country. But we get a good deal of work of design firms from UK who send off work towards us – which makes me think that recession hits people in different ways. Maybe it’s up to the people to decide what they are going to do about it.
I also tried posting leaflets a while back but didn’t bring much plus did some expensive magazine print advertising which produced nothing! That was a bit painful. Things seem also that some months I am as busy as a bee and others not so but I try to remain positive so use the time to do things I have been meaning to do like update a site or tidy up my mac desktop which from time to time is covered with files and folders I have been working with. Things certainly seem to have got a bit better recently though. 6 months ago I was starting to get a little concerned as had little work but the design projects have started coming in again so hopefully will continue. Stay positive fellow designers these times will not last forever
I really think the recession hurts everyone.. In general people do seem to complain of business being super slow, especially the ones dealing with “so called luxury” goods.
I personally believe that high quality work will always find it’s clients. The good news is, that the things can only get better now.
Welcome back, Tara! I always enjoyed this blog and I’m delighted it’s back up and running again.
I notice out of the four methods you used to increase business the two that didn’t work used tradition print-based marketing and the two that did work were internet-based marketing. This is what I’ve found as well.
May I ask what Design Directory are you listed on that causes your high Google place?
I have found the same thing. A poor summer (especially late July and early August) but OK up to then and hopefully good from now on til the end of the year!
I think recession will not stay more days.Now market is increasing slowly
I am going to school for design at the moment – business aint doing to well though – probably due to the fact I am not charging yet just rrying to get my name out there and help some friends out – build up a bit of a reputation
Great advice, I’m think the recession is starting to wind down in the UK, business has cartainly picked up recently.
I think the Internet is over saturated with graphic design sites and businesses promoting it. I know my friend was into it about 10yrs ago and making a living but nowadays, trying to make a buck is harder than ever.
Ive found work has definetly picked up on the web side of things, slowed down on the print side but the biggest change im seeing is in people paying, sometimes i can invoice a client and it will be 5 weeks, 3 reminder emails and 2 phone calls later before i get a cheque through. Clients ive had for a long time im willing to give them a little leeway when it comes to paying. Ive also noticed the 50% before and 50% after is harder for potential clients to accept so on several occasions ive dropped my initial payment to 30% but like i said, work seems to have evened itself out, less print but more web work for me
hi,
Freelancing is the best option in today’s scenario when market is facing huge melt down.
Work has definitely picked up here. Interestingly, the large clients I’ve worked for over the past 3 years or so are all experience very tough times at the moment. But, all the freelancers I network with are busier than ever.
For large organisations, now is the time to start spending marketing dollars wisely. It seems they are moving from the big expensive design agencies and working with freelancers.
Personally I believe this recession has hit the media industry much harder than most not just due to the marketing budgets being cut but also the change and advance in technologies. Print is a dying trend and although it will always exist advertising and marketing budgets will be spent on cheaper alternatives and ones that hit more consumers. Online is the future for design it appears to me the industry is going through a massive transitional period and the economic downturn is speeding the up the process. I strongly believe that the design industry will never be as big again, clients are more clued up on budgets and how to save money and are less willing to have some fat cat creative team or director charging extremely expensive rates. The design industry has to wise up and start acting like a legitimate industry to both employees and clients. My advise is if you can get into online design especially interface design. You only have to listen to ll the news recently online advertising and taken over from TV (broadcast) design. You have to keep reinventing yourself every few years to survive in the design industry as it’s not just about having good ideas!
I have found that the digital side of the market, namely web design and anothing connected to online marketing has been surviving pretty well dispite the ‘credit crunch’. A lot of companies have been reducing their overall spend on marketing by reducing the number of print projects and shifting over, or at least relying mroe heavily, on digital channels such as email and social networking. I have always worked on print and web, but this year I have found that almost all my work has been digital. The only exceptions have been start up companies needing stationary and a fashion label asking me to take on their first highstreet store design. Overall I have been kept busy enough, but I do know some designers who are print only who have been looking into developing their skills to include webdesign, so I think the trend is set to continue in that direction and the competition is likely to increase as more print designers look to start taking on web projects.
Hopefully, this will be over soon. I’m doing what everybody else is doing, using the extra time learning new marketing techniques and ways to promote my work. This will pay off some day… I know it!
Thanks Tara
well reccesion make a big hit on me … some of my client said not have much bugdet to buy some expensive design…^^’!
I am sick of people talking about recession! This is a general term and does not mean YOU have to be poor.
Let’s fight back. Start makreting our businesses and selling our services.
i run my own signage business producing shop signs, vehicle graphics and digitally printed banners and posters. we’ve found an upturn in trade during the recession, the only things we can put it down to is businesses trying to boost trade in the cheapest fastest way possible, we’re producing a lot of sign boards and banners and have been since the start of the year. our biggest problem are the customers wanting the fastest turn-around times possible, two years ago the majority of customers would have been happy to wait a week for a job, now they seem to want everything next day!
I agree that this is a good time to learn new technologies and improve on our work on the spare time. Maybe there’s no way to dodge the recession, but it may be possible to make up for it when it ends.
Read an interesting article the other day about the recession, some believe it may not be until 2014 that it be back to normal. Our only historical reference point for the recession is the great depression. It took Roosevelt from around 1932 to the start of WW2 to bring America out of it. Truth be known economists don’t really whats going to happen. I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom, just want to bring some realism to the table. If things start picking up for you start of 2010 don’t rest on your laurels as we did in 2008. While everyone was talking about it we we’re saying “what recession”. We thought our strong educational links would see us through, we live and learn.
The interesting thing is companies aggressively slash marketing budgets at the hint of a downturn so it not only affects us designers, but printing, copywriting and shipping folks.
I saw a slight decrease at the worst time over the past year and a huge increase more recently.
Great blog, fund of information I shall tap into on occasions. Being self taught, there’s always more to learn!
How about social networking?
While the recession is hitting a lot of industries, I’ve found there still seems to be no shortage of companies that are willing to refine their web presence or increase their marketing online.
As for getting new clients, I’ve found offline events and referral business to be my best producing avenues.
Something we increased to make us through the tough months was to communicate more with our current clients. Even the really small and old ones.
They are already happy customers, why not invite them in for some coffee and talk about new/other services you could be providing them with. We got about 4 re-design jobs out of older clients, even though they had not intended to update their websites until we got in contact and explained that alot has happened since we built their first website 4-6 years ago.
Dust of the old rolodex and you might just get a job out of it.
For getting new clients I have found that asking existing clients for referrals and offering a 10% discount on their next job works quite well!
Hi Ne14,
Good idea. I have been referred by some clients to others though must have admit have never offered a discount for it
Hats off to all the freelancers who are able to stay afloat in the current market. I sure couldn’t without living in a 3rd world country and working for a U.S. company and now they’re cutting off our projects. : ( And I’d like to think my work shreds and been doing it for over 6 years now. And to those in school for it right now… well good luck and keep your options open!