Singapore Web DesignerCheapskate Clients & Incompetent Designers » AEN—Designer & Consultant

In Singapore where broadband and info-comm technologies are highly advanced, many are turning to using their computers to make money. In this article, much emphasis will be on �freelance designers��.

The design industry has evolved into a stage where the easy and quick availability of pirated software, serials, cracks, and keygens allows anyone with a copy of Photoshop to call himself a �designer��. Besides the damages caused by their usage of pirated software, they are also causing one of the lower end of the design industry’s biggest headaches and frustrations.

If it seems too cheap to be good,
it is too cheap to be good.

Usually SMEs (Small to Medium Enterprises) do not approach advertising or design agencies for creative work for their marketing needs. Many businesses today in Singapore, still believe that marketing is a luxury and is not essential. Without proper advice and education about how design can help their business, they go out with a shallow pocket and no clear direction, all based on hear-say. Very often they end up hiring less than competent �designers�� who undercharge and produce incompetent work which does not even have any image value, let alone marketing value.

The most common weakness in these types of clients is their weakness in accepting quotations which is way less than standard. For example, a website project which will fetch at least SGD 10,000, considering the amount of professional expertise and work involved, can be quoted for less than SGD 2,000. How is it possible that such companies are able to charge so low for a supposedly huge project?

1. These companies are not serious in running their business long term. It just does not make sense to make so little profit or none at all by undercharging. The company may just disappear when you need them for support.
2. Their staff is not well-paid. Many companies are known to hire designers who are willing to be paid peanuts due to their lack of experience. When your project is handled by someone without experience and is unhappily paid with peanuts, you can expect the same results. Another example is internship. Usually interns are assigned �cheap�� projects which the management classifies to be of no importance. If you are quoted low, be reminded that your project might be in the hands of an inexperienced intern who is paid lesser than the aunties clearing plates in food courts.
3. Templates and reused materials are often used for projects similar to past ones they have done. By editing the logo, changing the color scheme, putting in a new haphazard slogan, they can pass it off as a new design. This is harmful to clients as I believe every business ought to have their unique image and brand identity. Therefore reused styles and concepts will only put your business in danger of portraying an unhealthy image of unoriginality.

Think twice before you accept proposals and quotations which are suspiciously cheap. If it seems too cheap to be good, it is too cheap to be good.