Clients today can see the biggest and most beauteous things in the world, built by designers who command excellent salaries or exceptional passion. However, clients still expect me to produce same but for $100.

Basically, what I see is a whole lot of uneducated clients, who have bought into a culture of cheap and can’t afford or refuse to look at paying any more for services their grandson can do for free (albeit of a much poorer quality).

I do see a lot of work which is rushed, half finished and of bad quality and I do get good paying jobs fixing these up.

Just my 2c

I think Gareth is right is stating that it’s over-saturated – it really is. Sites like People Per Hour and Freelancers.net are not helping the cause by ‘cheapening’ the value of a good design service – through job-postings which show budgets well below professional industry rates. All this does is encourage the amateur ‘wannabe’ who inevitably, often provides a service below-par, which leads to increased levels of scepticism.

I’ve been in the business now for over 15 years and I have definitely seen a change for the worse. Much as I love the potential of digital, it’s only helped to compound the issue further and devalue design as a discipline.

Just to clarify my ‘down-hill’ statement, it’s not necessarily my perception of the work itself, more in reference to the public perception of the industry itself.

As Sean noted perfectly ‘The design industry is now reduced to which designer can offer the lowest price for design work.’ which is the best indication that the work (or the end result), is not valued as much as it was say 10 years ago.