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  • Why does everyone think it’s okay to stiff the artist?

    So it’s no secret that the job market sucks right now. Going to art school might not have been one of the smartest moves in my life but I enjoyed all my time there and I feel that what I learned there is invaluable. Right now though looking for jobs it seems like there’s no value at all to it. Ad after ad on craigslist especially after your sift through all the sketchy and gross ones people are constantly listing some pretty heavy duty art jobs with no compensation. I mean I didn’t get into illustration and animation to be super famous or make a million dollars but artists still need to make some money from what they know. The assumption that most of these people put on these jobs is that artists are just in it to make the art. In some cases sure it’s good to do a job and get your name out there and make connections. That’s a bit of what the art world’s about.

    Some of these jobs though like creating an entire business identity starting with a logo, or promotional material for an “indy” band, or designing a menu for a small restaurant, or making a custom animation aren’t free jobs. Sure I can see doing it as a favor for a friend or family member, but even then you expect some sort of compensation. These people are looking for a free lunch, and while I believe sometimes you can get lucky and wind up with a free lunch in life I also think its unfair on these people’s parts to assume that artists can afford to do freebies. In some cases they at least offered cupcakes, but really cupcakes?

    I knew going into wanting to become a professional artist it wasn’t going to be easy. I also knew it probably wasn’t going to be my main source of income, but when people aren’t offereing any sort of compesation for work rendered it really confuses me. Why do people expect to get something for nothing? The people that really get me are the ones who claim they’ll pay you if their work gets published or they offer you royalties on your work if things go well with whatever it is they’re asking you to do. Now I can understand that might be something for the risk takers, but in alot of cases those kinds of things just don’t get picked up. I’m not being a pessimist here I just think those people are being a little selfish in the way that they’re possibly taking an artist who has limitless potential and limiting him or her to an idea that doesn’t fly and in the process wasting his or her time or even taking their time which could have possibly been used to cultivate another idea or opportunity. Asking so much of someone creatively without offering anything in return is pretty silly if you ask me, but I guess I might just still be a little miffed that I’ve yet to find anything promising out there.

    I’m sure almost everyone knows how frustrating that can be. Now looking for serious career type positions in the art world can also be frustrations. It’s all about expierence. How am I supposed to get a job out of college if I need to have five or six years expierence already? How am I supposed to have all this professional expierence when I need the job to have this expierence in the first place? It’s rediculous. What’s also rediculous is the ammount of senior level hiering they do online. All the positions that are available are only for top level people with years of expierence. What’s with that. You’d think the smart thing to do, especially for a senior position, would be to promote from within the company. What’s it saying if you have to branch out to find someone new. I’m not saying that’s a totally bad thing, but when your sifting through jobs online and you finally see one that sounds awesome and too good to be true and your ready to start fixing up your resume when then it says it’s a senior level position at the very bottom in tiny tiny type, that can be annoying. Why not just put that in the job title or description? Are you trying to waste my time?

    Well anyway in other more positive news. That same piece I worked on with Che for the MCC has been re-issued in the newest edition of the D.I.Y. Jet newsletter. Which you can check out here.

    http://diy-jet.blogspot.com/2009/07/free-diy-jet-2.html

    This issue in particular also has a pretty sweet Che/ Robert Frost poetry collab. So check it out!

    136 Responses to “Why does everyone think it’s okay to stiff the artist?”

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      Hi there,

      I looked over your blog and it looks really good. Do you ever do link exchanges on your blog roll? If you do, I’d like to exchange links with you.

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    2. Bunker says:

      Interesting and informative. But will you write about this one more?

    3. Kevin Lames says:

      The oddest/funniest thing about the no-comp ads is that a great deal of them are from other artists or people in the creative field.

      I guess it’s part of the baggage that comes with being in a creative field, right?

    4. Floost says:

      I added your blog to bookmarks. And i’ll read your articles more often!

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      Are you a professional journalist? You write very well.

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      In truth, immediately i didn’t understand the essence. But after re-reading all at once became clear.

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