In 1999, I went to a talk by Marty Numier hosted by the AIGA. He said we were about to go into an economic recession. How did he know? He said it was time for one again, that if you paid attention, we seemed to go into recession every 7 to 10 years. Sure enough, the US economy tanked in the early 2000s. And then it happened again about 7 years after that.
Even without Covid-19, we were due for a recession. You may think things have been pretty bad. Things are going to get worse. As news of a possible pandemic spread in early 2020, my clients tightened their budgets and paused campaigns. My prospects put contract signings on hold. As the year wore on, things got better. Budget restrictions were loosened and campaigns restarted.
But it ain’t over, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better. When the economy tanks again, here’s what you can expect to see:
Clients will tighten their budgets and pause campaigns. Their first instinct will be to stop spending money wherever they can, and they’ll consider marketing and design to be luxuries they can no longer afford. They’ll take everything they can “in-house” – meaning, they’ll push as much outside vendor work onto their internal staff as they can. The in-house marketing director will lose their budget while still being held accountable to show results.
Agencies will lay-off staff, making a competitive job market for designers even tougher. Then, when jobs are posted, salaries will be lower than you want them to be, not because the boss is greedy, but because they simply don’t have the revenu coming in from client work to support the staff they need to do the work.
Now here’s the good news: The effects of pausing marketing will be detrimental to clients’ ability to grow sales. They will go back to their agencies, desperate for help. In my experience, the best time to be a designer or marketer is when the economy is slow, because it highlights the value you bring and it’s easier to attribute results to marketing actions.
As a graphic designer, what can you do to survive and thrive?
Make yourself useful! Be the team member who can design AND write a good tagline. Be willing to do those “other duties as assigned” before you are asked. Be a problem solver instead of a problem finder. You’ll be less likely to end up on the lay-off list if you are a valuable member of the team – a person who helps things run smoothly vs a person who is good at their job but only does what is asked of them.
Cultivate your own freelance clientele outside your job. Look for ways you can use your skills to help those clients through difficult times. Understand that their priorities will change and having design work that helps them sell will be more important to them than aesthetics.
Be prepared to get paid less than you think is fair for your work during this time. Everyone will be struggling. When you can show results, you can charge more, but remember, your work is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. You will be competing with designers all over the world who can outprice you. More than ever you will be compared with what someone can get on sites like Fiverr.
Learn to listen and offer appropriate solutions. Listen to what bosses and clients say they want. Pay attention to their concerns, fears, and misconceptions. Ask lots of questions about goals and expectations. Take that information and offer up solutions that work for them in that situation. Be genuine and transparent. Don’t try to talk people into spending money. Show them how your solution could meet their needs. They will sell themselves.
