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All around these days we see new ways to save time and money on creative things a business could need.
Logos, websites, visual content, written content.
You name it, there’s a new semi-automated tool or resource almost every week promising to give you great versions of these things for little money or time outlay.
As a designer myself, i don’t see anything wrong with those tools. I’m glad they’re around.
Some businesses need to make those savings, especially startups.
I do, however, fear it’s influencing the general expectations of many people commissioning custom creative services. Are people losing sight of what it takes for someone to create something from scratch, professionally?
Expectations are out of alignment if you ask for bespoke creative work, but expect it at anything like the speed or price level that free/cheap online tools give you.
That implies that creativity is simply a bonus that can be freely added to clinch the deal.
If you’re looking for real creativity, that takes time. It needs to be a messy process to work, and under intense time or cost restrictions with little margin it simply doesn’t happen.
So if you need quality creative work but quick, it will need more hands or brains on the job.
Therefore, it can’t be cheap.
If you need it cheap, you need to wait for it. A designer will need to prioritise and schedule their workload, especially if some clients are paying more.
Therefore it can’t be quick.
If you need creativity quick and cheap, you’ve really got to ask yourself if you should be commissioning custom work in the first place.
That’s the real reason those free tools exist. You just need to be realistic on the creative quality expectations.
It’s a timely reminder of a popular saying:
Good, Fast or Cheap. You can pick any two.
Creative tools won’t give you all three, but nor will commissioning custom creative work.
Deciding which two to pick should help set your expectations.
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