Succeeding As An Outsource Designer In A Cluttered Marketplace

The globalization of the design industry has brought into play a dynamic that has changed the face of the marketplace. Now there are many “design firms” offering a wide range of services at extremely competitive prices making it harder and harder for the qualified designer to justify his prices or make a decent living from his trade.

When I started GemGfx, i was faced with the situation of a design industry flooded with individuals clamoring for a piece of the “outsource” pie. Everyone who had a computer and knew how to use Illustrator and Photoshop were marketing themselves as “Graphic and Web Designers” and were offering these services at ridiculously low prices. Even more so, when GemGfx came across a client who was used to dealing with these “3rd World” providers they had a particular attitude. They basically were telling me what I had to accept in terms of payment, and this is because these providers gave them another option to get the same service at a much cheaper price.

So needless to say the jobs were few for GemGfx. The lure of the cheep price for services was too much for most buyers and they had to bite. It was a very discouraging time and often I questioned weather this was in fact the industry for me. I look back now and realize that this startup time was difficult so that I could prove to myself that GemGfx is what I really wanted to do. A true Graphic Designer would not be comfortable doing anything else but designing and if I were not true to the craft, it would be during this time that I would have abandoned GemGfx for something more “profitable”.

I got some priceless advice from a fellow designer who was very experienced in the industry already and his advice was “Be true to yourself”. Simple and cliche enough but it made perfect sense to me and eventually the statement rung true. I decided then that I would focus on improving the quality of GemGfx design work. Doing my best to never come to the place where I think my work was “good enough” nor settling for minimal returns or poor treatment because everyone else was doing it. It turns out that I began to hear reports of these buyers having bad experiences with these “Cheap” designers. Either because the quality of work was not up to standard, or because they were ripped off altogether. Also many of these “affordable” providers could not provide the proper “Customer Service” that was essential in any customer to provider relationship. Also as it turned out there were still many buyers who placed a high premium on “Quality” and were willing to pay the right price for it.

Enter GemGfx. Because I had focussed on the quality of my work, and also on building the GemGfx brand in terms of it’s quality customer relations, I started to attract those customers that wanted quality and not a low price. I also set up a professional face for GemGfx by creating profiles on freelance marketplace websites like Elance.com and Guru.com and Certainly the jobs were not as numerous as what the “low cost” providers would get, but I succeeded in building lasting business relationships that kept the customers returning with more work. Even some of those buyers who went for price are swinging back to quality, because they realize they end up paying more for less.

In conclusion, as a true Graphic Designer, you have to love what you do not only in the sense of enjoying the process, but in valuing your work and not selling it out for less than it is worth. If you’re designing primarily to make money, you are in the wrong business. Do your best designs, and the money will come. As CEO of GemGfx I have done my best to maintain and keep striving for a high standard and quality of work and also to build a loyal customer base by practicing good customer relations. It is this that has separated us from the clutter that is the outsource marketplace and this is how we keep striving for success in the Industry. Today GemGfx has clients in the US, Europe, Japan, Australia and many other parts of the world. As my Graphic Design mentor said.

“Be True To Yourself.”

Till next time

Everard J. McBain Jr.
CEO GemGfx.com