WANTED: Jack of all trades (aka Graphic Artist)

This ad is pretty standard in terms of the laundry list of skills required of a graphic artist these days. Design skills, plus technical skills—and being well versed in all the software and hardware that goes with them—is expected. Writing and editing skills are often on the wishlist too. So where does a young graphic designer begin figuring out their worth?The AIGA|Aquent Survey of Design Salaries is a good place to start. The survey does have a category for "Print, web, and interactive." However, within this category it's broken out into senior designer, designer, junior designer, and producer—creating a division between design and production skills which in the "real world" is often not there.This situation is not unique to graphic design, many industries demand a large amount of multi-tasking from their employees these days. What complicates it a bit more in graphic design is the rampant practice of crowdsourcing. Graphic designers have a difficult time negotiating a fair wage in an industry where job requirements are becoming increasingly more complex, on top of this, the median salary has barely risen since 2000. If you throw crowdsourcing into the mix, they are also forced to compete with graphic designers from all over the world—some who can afford to work for a much lower rate—along with clients who use crowdsourcing to find an alleged huge pool of talent with rock bottom prices.The issue is compounded by the fact that many young and emerging designers don't know much about crowdsourcing or why it's considered evil. A comment was recently made on a post about crowdsourcing entitled "How Low Can You Go." The author made the very valid point that she honestly didn't know what crowdsourcing was and it took her 3 days of sorting through angry and emotional outcries to get to the meat of the issue. After her research she came to the conclusion that useful information about the value of graphic design services is sorely lacking. In fact, she realized that a "real client's" low offer made her feel more disrespected than the crowdsourcing sites she had visited (a claim that many of its critics make.)Letterer, illustrator, designer, (and author of Should I Work For Free? flowchart) Jessica Hische wrote an aptly named and helpful blog post entitled "The Dark Art of Pricing" that addresses how to price for image usage. Hische also directs designers to the Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines for help. While this advice is useful, it still doesn't address the combination of wide and diverse skill sets that are required in many graphic design jobs.While this issue can be particularly confusing and challenging to young and emerging designers, it causes stress and anxiety among seasoned professionals as well. In an environment where competitive crowdsourcing companies are thriving and the list of skills required of graphic designers is rapidly growing, what's the best advice we can give graphic designers about calculating their worth?Sources:http://regionalhelpwanted.com/Search/detail.cfm?SN=1&ID=62640522http://designsalaries.org/http://www.jessicahische.is/obsessedwiththeinternet/andhelpingyougetpaid/the-dark-art-of-pricing

GAG vs. IPA, or when an advocate sues their own

When you go to the Graphic Artists Guild (GAG) website an illustrator is prominently featured on the left sidebar under the headline "I Am the Guild." This is a bit ironic when reading about the recent New York State Supreme Court case involving the Graphic Artists Guild (GAG) and the Illustrators' Partnership of America (IPA) as well as reading GAG's advocacy policy where they position themselves as an advocate for illustrators.In the Fall of 2008 GAG brought a lawsuit against IPA for defamation and interference with contractual relations, alleging that IPA had interfered with a “business relationship” GAG had entered into that enabled GAG to collect orphaned reprographic royalties derived from the licensing of illustrators’ work. GAG alleged that efforts by IPA to create a collecting society to return lost royalties to artists “interfered” with GAG’s “business” of appropriating these orphaned fees.(1)Judge Debra James recently ruled that statements made by the Illustrators’ Partnership and the other defendants were true; that true statements cannot be defamatory; that illustrators have a “common interest” in orphaned income; and that a “common-interest privilege” may arise from both a right and a duty to convey relevant information, however contentious, to others who share that interest or duty.(2)To put this in perspective, the amount of money that's at stake is substantial. Labor Department filings state that between 2000 and 2007, GAG collected at least $1,581,667 in illustrators’ reprographic royalties.(3)It's certainly not unusual for groups with common interests to be scrambling for the same pool of funds. It makes one wonder how much the stakes affected GAG's decision to sue and how much money effects an individual's or organization's professional behavior.Read the press release on the Daily Cartoonist and find links to ECourt documents submitted in the case.Read Steven Heller's article, "Illustration and the Law," about the recent events including an interview with Brad Holland, one of the IPA defendants.Read the Illustrators Partnership Orphan Works statement.1. http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2011/04/28/judge-dismisses-case-against-illustrators-partnership-of-america/?et_mid=458663&rid=37033452. http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2011/04/28/judge-dismisses-case-against-illustrators-partnership-of-america/?et_mid=458663&rid=37033453. http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2011/04/28/judge-dismisses-case-against-illustrators-partnership-of-america/?et_mid=458663&rid=3703345