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the entreprecariat
TEXT BY ELLEN LUPTON
With the growth of the so-called gig economy and other shifts in business practice, many designers work as freelancers rather than permanent employees, either by choice or by necessity. This trend is global. In Italy, Silvio Lorusso writes about the “entreprecariat”
as a struggling creative class balanced between entrepreneurship and precarity. AI-driven logo generators and online design platforms selling à la carte logos replace in-depth design consultation with cheap, fast solutions. Like dating apps, such services connect clients to designers with minimal cost and friction—no meetings, no lengthy proposals, no market research.
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For someone selling custom cupcakes or operating a dry-cleaning shop, online de- sign platforms offer easy access to design services that might otherwise be out of reach. Alas, such services also undercut the value of creative work.
Design contests are a form of “spec” (speculative) work, in which a designer produces creative material for a client with no guarantee of payment. Many designers consider spec work unethical because it downgrades the value of the profession
as a whole and creates the expectation that designers should be willing to work to free. When creatives make work on spec, they imply that a logo is just a logo, rather than the result of in-depth research and thoughtful conversations between consul- tant and client.
Online design platforms drain work
from traditional design agencies. At the same time, they offer new points of entry for designers. Global freelance platforms allow designers from anywhere in the world to connect with potential clients
in a hassle-free, low-risk way. Emerging designers can find clients and build a port- folio. But those opportunities come at a cost. By working for low pay, gig designers lower the value of their own service along
with everyone else’s. It’s hard to rebuild the value of a product that’s been sold cheaply. Around the world, independent design-
ers operate more-traditional design firms on a freelance basis. Working as sole proprietors, designers can build personal relationships with their clients and pro- vide high-quality work, often developing long-lasting business ties. Many freelanc- ers value their independence. Freelance unions help these workers purchase health insurance and other products that are typically provided by larger employers.
In the age of the gig economy, platforms like Fiverr make it easy for freelancers to hire other freelancers for everything from bookkeeping to social media management.
Lorusso, seeking to protect the entre- precariat against financial collapse, be- lieves design schools should become think tanks that develop not just visual skills but new definitions of work itself. Concepts such as universal basic income could change the way society values creative workers.
SOURCE Silvio Lorusso, “Entreprecariat: What Design Can’t Do—Graphic Design between Automation, Relativism, Élite and Cognitariat,” Institute of Network Cultures, Feb 27, 2017 >networkcultures. org/entreprecariat/what-design-cant-do/.