Post

this is why i stopped trying to do graphic design professionally. post is 5 years old, before AI was actually competing with graphic artists and still no one values the artistic skill that takes years-decades to hone. it reminds me of how landscaping went from being art form to minimum wage labor.

$200 is NOTHING

what seriously? If I get the residency I applied for the first thing I'm doing is setting some money aside to get a cover from one of my favourite artists, which i know will come to at least £500 *minimum*. fuck not paying people.

Wild

Mother of fuck. Like, the two cover illustrations I've commissioned for my wife were 400 a pop, though some years ago...

Growing up, I used to browse my local used book store's sci-fi/fantasy/horror sections and buy cheap old paperbacks based on how cool the cover art was. Hard to do that these days for many reasons, and it's sad.

200 is crazy all book covers ive done start at 500 ?!??!

I'm gonna say this is far lower than the usual rates I see mentioned on reddit. There's lots of designers offering services on there.

$200 is CRIMINAL $500 MINIMUM and that’s for like, a single person self publishing who has limited disposable income kind of schtick I’d say you SHOULD expect to pay $1000 or more!!!!!

I actively hunt down and collect all kinds of horror books like these. I always remember seeing them growing up when my grandmother would read them or just in a book store so now it’s really fun to own these cool pieces of art.

Famously wealthy people… artists. I think this person is misunderstanding that even though rich people love to /consume/ our work, they pay artists the bare minimum just like what this thread’s advocating for

Which is weird, because giving an artist more money and letting them go hog wild just seems like a better idea in my mind. Give em the info they need and ask for, pay em more, you get a cooler cover.

Writers are not being paid enough too, we're all in a similar boat, but It is still worth interrogating anytime somebody uncritically asks "Why Old Thing good but New Thing bad?", because in this case it's because people are neither asking for The Old Thing or being paid enough to make The Old Thing

I think designing for Instagram and Tiktok is also strongly influencing design patterns

Unfortunately Yeah

That pay's the real horror story.

If they want graphic design stuff, i.e. titling, font work, etc. out of an illustrator that's two jobs and should be billed as such. I personally won't do the graphic design stuff as it's not my job, instead I refer or subcontract if I'm doing indie.

You could set a fixed price if the size and layout were always the same, and you were just swapping layers of stock art to finish it. A $200 cover is the equivalent of flash. It might actually be pretty and make you feel cool, but it's not a fully unique work of art.

and fucking cover their materials costs on top of that, to be entirely honest with you