No business owner would expect to rent an office for half the going rate, or buy a delivery van for far less than it was worth. Not even a fledgling, bootstrapping, startup founding, entrepreneur. And yet every day designers, creatives and freelancers are asked to drop their rates, do a deal, or consider some special circumstance.

Talented geniuses who have the power to communicate everything about an idea to the world with visuals and words. Who make the abstract concrete. Who take their insight and experience and make ideas tangible, are regularly asked to take less, so someone else can be more.

Not just less money, but less respect for their art, and less acknowledgement of the value they deliver.

Can we quantify the value of Nike’s swoosh or Apple’s apple? The impact of “Think different” or “Just do it”?

I think we do a pretty poor job of commoditising creativity.

Creatives who take on projects at knock down rates to pay this month’s rent, can’t do their best work when they know it isn’t truly valued.

Great designers get ten enquiries a day prefaced with, “we love your work”.

Bargain basement rates are never a bargain in the long run, and sometimes love is not enough.

Image by Adam Toldfield.