• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 21:39
CEST 03:39
KST 10:39
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
BGE Stara Zagora 2025: Info & Preview9Code S RO12 Preview: GuMiho, Bunny, SHIN, ByuN3The Memories We Share - Facing the Final(?) GSL44Code S RO12 Preview: Cure, Zoun, Solar, Creator4[ASL19] Finals Preview: Daunting Task30
Community News
GSL Ro4 and Finals moved to Sunday June 15th7Weekly Cups (May 27-June 1): ByuN goes back-to-back0EWC 2025 Regional Qualifier Results26Code S RO12 Results + RO8 Groups (2025 Season 2)3Weekly Cups (May 19-25): Hindsight is 20/20?0
StarCraft 2
General
Serious Question: Mech Jim claims he and Firefly were involved in match-fixing BGE Stara Zagora 2025: Info & Preview CN community: Firefly accused of suspicious activities The Memories We Share - Facing the Final(?) GSL
Tourneys
$5,100+ SEL Season 2 Championship (SC: Evo) WardiTV Mondays Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2) $1,200 WardiTV June (June 4th-June 15th) SOOPer7s Showmatches 2025
Strategy
[G] Darkgrid Layout Simple Questions Simple Answers [G] PvT Cheese: 13 Gate Proxy Robo
Custom Maps
[UMS] Zillion Zerglings
External Content
Mutation # 476 Charnel House Mutation # 475 Hard Target Mutation # 474 Futile Resistance Mutation # 473 Cold is the Void
Brood War
General
BW General Discussion FlaSh Witnesses SCV Pull Off the Impossible vs Shu Will foreigners ever be able to challenge Koreans? BGH auto balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Battle.net is not working
Tourneys
Small VOD Thread 2.0 [BSL20] GosuLeague RO16 - Tue & Wed 20:00+CET [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL19] Grand Finals
Strategy
I am doing this better than progamers do. [G] How to get started on ladder as a new Z player
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile Mechabellum Monster Hunter Wilds
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
LiquidLegends to reintegrate into TL.net
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia TL Mafia Community Thread TL Mafia Plays: Diplomacy TL Mafia: Generative Agents Showdown Survivor II: The Amazon
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
Maru Fan Club Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Korean Music Discussion [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion NHL Playoffs 2024 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Cleaning My Mechanical Keyboard How to clean a TTe Thermaltake keyboard?
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Heero Yuy & the Tax…
KrillinFromwales
Research study on team perfo…
TrAiDoS
I was completely wrong ab…
jameswatts
Need Your Help/Advice
Glider
Trip to the Zoo
micronesia
Poker
Nebuchad
Info SLEgma_12
SLEgma_12
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 15363 users

Designers - Don't get ripped off

Blogs > thedeadhaji
Post a Reply
1 2 3 Next All
thedeadhaji *
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
39489 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-20 05:35:16
October 20 2011 05:33 GMT
#1
A few days ago, 2chan went ablaze.

News had spread that Enterbrain (a video game magazine publisher and software maker in Japan) offered a popular and accomplished illustrator and designer "Akiman", an incredibly low-ball price of 8000yen (roughly $100) per character for character design.

Akiman countered with $1300 per character, but also made this discourse public on his blog (here). The internets would outraged that Enterbrain made such a ridiculous offer.

This reminded me of how free lance designers are frequently low balled into deals. In this particular case, Enterbrain knew full well who this guy was, yet offered him a ridiculously low price.

Just look at his portfolio. He is the character designer for several Street Fighter Series and did the mech design for Code Geass. Someone like him STILL gets lowballed by people who seem to think that they're doing designers a favor by giving them an oh-so-magnanimous opportunity to work on their project.

It reminded me of the "should I work for free" info graphic (here - FYI, the answer is "almost never").

I know there are many designers on this site, so I wanted to share these links with you so that you can hopefully avoid getting low balled in the future. Know what you're worth (a lot!), and don't get screwed by "business types" like me!



example of character design work provided by someone on 2chan:
[image loading]



"Akiman"'s Recent Cover Art Example:
[image loading]

***
Probulous
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
Australia3894 Posts
October 20 2011 05:36 GMT
#2
Oh man that is so dodgy.



This is why you need to network and do a bit of research if you are going out on your own.
"Dude has some really interesting midgame switches that I wouldn't have expected. "I violated your house" into "HIHO THE DAIRY OH!" really threw me. You don't usually expect children's poetry harass as a follow up " - AmericanUmlaut
thedeadhaji *
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
39489 Posts
October 20 2011 05:39 GMT
#3
"dodgy"!
I knew you had to be from part of the British Empire when I read that!

Anyways...

Free lance programmers seem to be at least decently compensated, but for some reason designers are shit on so constantly that I wanted to remind everyone to avoid the shit at all costs!
Coagulation
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States9633 Posts
October 20 2011 05:54 GMT
#4
Alot of graphic artists have a tendency to sell themselves short and being pushed around easily.. This in effect creates a snowball effect that ends up making it hard for anyone to make a decent living doing this shit.
itsjustatank
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Hong Kong9152 Posts
October 20 2011 05:57 GMT
#5
That infographic is pretty useful for more than just designers I think. I've been considering getting more into photography as a side job, and part of that has been just researching how people run their business and stuff.

I just wish it was an image instead of text, heh.
Photographer"nosotros estamos backamos" - setsuko
Emporio
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States3069 Posts
October 20 2011 05:58 GMT
#6
100 is ridiculously low, but I feel like this is just how business works. You lowball with the intention of haggling, especially if it's a freelancer. To do otherwise is just stupid business practice. As big name like Akiman apparently is (I've never heard of him), he should have standard prices, so I can understand why $100 is insulting, but I still at least understand why the companies do this.
How does it feel knowing you wasted another 3 seconds of your life reading this again?
thedeadhaji *
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
39489 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-20 06:12:40
October 20 2011 06:10 GMT
#7
On October 20 2011 14:58 Emporio wrote:
100 is ridiculously low, but I feel like this is just how business works. You lowball with the intention of haggling, especially if it's a freelancer. To do otherwise is just stupid business practice. As big name like Akiman apparently is (I've never heard of him), he should have standard prices, so I can understand why $100 is insulting, but I still at least understand why the companies do this.


I totally hear ya.

Japan as a whole is unprofessional in its business practices (even the multinationals!!), so I'm unsurprising to me that this sort of thing happens often there.

The individual designer (especially those who are starting out) is kind of at the mercy of "the businesses" though, since how are they supposed to get their basis for how much their work is worth? It's a pity.

Kind of unrelated, but do you know how poorly animators get paid in Japan? Because they're paid "per sheet", some animators' hourly wage comes out to less than $3/hour!! (and that's accounting for the Strong Yen!!) Outrageous!!


(btw I didn't know who this guy was either, but looking at his work, I've DEFINITELY enjoyed his creations on more than one occasion!)
thedeadhaji *
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
39489 Posts
October 20 2011 06:11 GMT
#8
On October 20 2011 14:54 Coagulation wrote:
Alot of graphic artists have a tendency to sell themselves short and being pushed around easily.. This in effect creates a snowball effect that ends up making it hard for anyone to make a decent living doing this shit.


Absolutely
Ciryandor
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States3735 Posts
October 20 2011 06:13 GMT
#9
On October 20 2011 15:10 thedeadhaji wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 20 2011 14:58 Emporio wrote:
100 is ridiculously low, but I feel like this is just how business works. You lowball with the intention of haggling, especially if it's a freelancer. To do otherwise is just stupid business practice. As big name like Akiman apparently is (I've never heard of him), he should have standard prices, so I can understand why $100 is insulting, but I still at least understand why the companies do this.


I totally hear ya.

Japan as a whole is unprofessional in its business practices (even the multinationals!!), so I'm unsurprising to me that this sort of thing happens often there.

The individual designer (especially those who are starting out) is kind of at the mercy of "the businesses" though, since how are they supposed to get their basis for how much their work is worth? It's a pity.

Kind of unrelated, but do you know how poorly animators get paid in Japan? Because they're paid "per sheet", some animators' hourly wage comes out to less than $3/hour!! (and that's accounting for the Strong Yen!!) Outrageous!!


(btw I didn't know who this guy was either, but looking at his work, I've DEFINITELY enjoyed his creations on more than one occasion!)


Even then they still get outsourced to the Philippines AFAIK, where wages are even lower.
에일리 and 아이유 <3 - O Captain 박재혁 ・゚✧*:・*゚+..。✧・゚:*・..。 ✧・゚ :・゚* ゜・*:・ ✧・゚:・゚:.。 ✧・゚ SPARKULING ・゜・:・゚✧*:・゚✧。*゚+..。 ✧・゚: ✧・゚:*・゜・:・゚✧*::
Sc2Requiem
Profile Joined June 2011
United States121 Posts
October 20 2011 06:20 GMT
#10
Sad truth here. I'm in a graphic art school myself right now and they beat it into our heads not to get short-changed on free-lance projects. A lot of companies want to pay you in peanuts under the argument that it'd be a nice addition to your portfolio or that the company name would look good on your resume. It's all BS, but people get fooled into it time and time again.

A few years ago there was a guy at my school's career fair interested in hiring someone to create and manage some fledgling company's website. Swag Stop or some ridiculous name like that, it was a clothing store. He offered me $100 for the completion of the website and $25 a week to manage it. I thought he was joking so I mentioned that since I'm not majoring in web design I might consider the position for 10x that amount. That's when I realized he was serious, and he didn't appreciate my input at all. I'm not sure if anyone accepted his offer, but it wouldn't surprise me.

He was probably the worst example, but a lot of people seem to use college career fairs as a way to hire naive kids for a fraction of what they deserve for the work they put in. It's like being in the Wild West and everyone's trying to stab you in the back

"What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step towards something better."
thedeadhaji *
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
39489 Posts
October 20 2011 06:36 GMT
#11
On October 20 2011 15:13 Ciryandor wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 20 2011 15:10 thedeadhaji wrote:
On October 20 2011 14:58 Emporio wrote:
100 is ridiculously low, but I feel like this is just how business works. You lowball with the intention of haggling, especially if it's a freelancer. To do otherwise is just stupid business practice. As big name like Akiman apparently is (I've never heard of him), he should have standard prices, so I can understand why $100 is insulting, but I still at least understand why the companies do this.


I totally hear ya.

Japan as a whole is unprofessional in its business practices (even the multinationals!!), so I'm unsurprising to me that this sort of thing happens often there.

The individual designer (especially those who are starting out) is kind of at the mercy of "the businesses" though, since how are they supposed to get their basis for how much their work is worth? It's a pity.

Kind of unrelated, but do you know how poorly animators get paid in Japan? Because they're paid "per sheet", some animators' hourly wage comes out to less than $3/hour!! (and that's accounting for the Strong Yen!!) Outrageous!!


(btw I didn't know who this guy was either, but looking at his work, I've DEFINITELY enjoyed his creations on more than one occasion!)


Even then they still get outsourced to the Philippines AFAIK, where wages are even lower.



and quality suffers.
And I become a Sad Panda.
thedeadhaji *
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
39489 Posts
October 20 2011 06:38 GMT
#12
On October 20 2011 15:20 Sc2Requiem wrote:
Sad truth here. I'm in a graphic art school myself right now and they beat it into our heads not to get short-changed on free-lance projects. A lot of companies want to pay you in peanuts under the argument that it'd be a nice addition to your portfolio or that the company name would look good on your resume. It's all BS, but people get fooled into it time and time again.

A few years ago there was a guy at my school's career fair interested in hiring someone to create and manage some fledgling company's website. Swag Stop or some ridiculous name like that, it was a clothing store. He offered me $100 for the completion of the website and $25 a week to manage it. I thought he was joking so I mentioned that since I'm not majoring in web design I might consider the position for 10x that amount. That's when I realized he was serious, and he didn't appreciate my input at all. I'm not sure if anyone accepted his offer, but it wouldn't surprise me.

He was probably the worst example, but a lot of people seem to use college career fairs as a way to hire naive kids for a fraction of what they deserve for the work they put in. It's like being in the Wild West and everyone's trying to stab you in the back





This also reminds me of an article I read on Hacker News, which was titled along the lines of "Never accept an internship where you don't get paid, ever"

Companies taking advantage of semi-desperate college kids... same book, different chapter.
Ciryandor
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States3735 Posts
October 20 2011 06:58 GMT
#13
On October 20 2011 15:36 thedeadhaji wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 20 2011 15:13 Ciryandor wrote:
On October 20 2011 15:10 thedeadhaji wrote:
On October 20 2011 14:58 Emporio wrote:
100 is ridiculously low, but I feel like this is just how business works. You lowball with the intention of haggling, especially if it's a freelancer. To do otherwise is just stupid business practice. As big name like Akiman apparently is (I've never heard of him), he should have standard prices, so I can understand why $100 is insulting, but I still at least understand why the companies do this.


I totally hear ya.

Japan as a whole is unprofessional in its business practices (even the multinationals!!), so I'm unsurprising to me that this sort of thing happens often there.

The individual designer (especially those who are starting out) is kind of at the mercy of "the businesses" though, since how are they supposed to get their basis for how much their work is worth? It's a pity.

Kind of unrelated, but do you know how poorly animators get paid in Japan? Because they're paid "per sheet", some animators' hourly wage comes out to less than $3/hour!! (and that's accounting for the Strong Yen!!) Outrageous!!


(btw I didn't know who this guy was either, but looking at his work, I've DEFINITELY enjoyed his creations on more than one occasion!)


Even then they still get outsourced to the Philippines AFAIK, where wages are even lower.



and quality suffers.
And I become a Sad Panda.

So do I, because good artists there are pushed too hard for them to get their work done. I wouldn't even mention the subtle artistic changes that are the result of this outsourcing.
에일리 and 아이유 <3 - O Captain 박재혁 ・゚✧*:・*゚+..。✧・゚:*・..。 ✧・゚ :・゚* ゜・*:・ ✧・゚:・゚:.。 ✧・゚ SPARKULING ・゜・:・゚✧*:・゚✧。*゚+..。 ✧・゚: ✧・゚:*・゜・:・゚✧*::
Straylight
Profile Joined March 2008
Canada706 Posts
October 20 2011 07:12 GMT
#14
I'm not a professional artist or graphic designer but I did a lot of stuff for school clubs and such. Of course you rarely if ever get paid for that stuff cause it's just a favour for a buddy and such. It was definitely good practice and fun for a beginner like myself.

That being said, I STILL came out of the whole experience knowing that you must VERY wary of doing stuff for free, no matter who it is. You can easily pour in 10 hours into a project (which is a lot when you're doing this in your free time and also being a full time student) and people just blow you off. Hardly a thanks. Maybe they use it, maybe they don't. You also get a lot of "Oh, yeah uh do whatever it's all good!" when you ask for more details on a project. Then you come up with something and get shot down cause it's not what they wanted.

There's just a big misconception out there that designing is quick and easy.

I just started another degree in a design field (undergrad was in science)

Balls.
It felt like gravity.
ven
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
Germany332 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-20 07:20:10
October 20 2011 07:19 GMT
#15
Yes it is quick and easy. And it's also effortless. It's all natural talent, no? You're either born an artist or not. Kind of greedy trying to exploit that or rather the ones without it. Shame on you.
You can reach the rainbow. I'll be there to help.
Straylight
Profile Joined March 2008
Canada706 Posts
October 20 2011 07:28 GMT
#16
This thread also reminded me about this from the TL graphic designer recruitment thread:
On September 20 2011 08:34 disciple wrote:
least appreciated staff position on TL imo




I don't know if TL graphic designers get any compensation other than some satisfaction. Maybe they do?
It felt like gravity.
Skipper240
Profile Joined August 2010
140 Posts
October 20 2011 07:33 GMT
#17
I don't know if you can really use Mel Kishida's work as an example of random internet character design.

Unless that's someone else drawing outfits for Totori?
Zlasher
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States9129 Posts
October 20 2011 07:33 GMT
#18
I have a friend who is a pixel artist for a video game design company (nowadays mostly cell phone/android/ios games) and even as a big gamer she refused to do those contests for anything like E3 vip passes, sold out blizzcon tickets, etc. and says that people who are professional artists should never do those contests as it just devalues all of their work. I completely agree, and its a damn shame when there are those sort of contests. Design this tshirt and win 50 dollars and a copy of the tshirt! its like uhhh thats NOTHING for the actual value that the contest runner gets for that design
Follow me: www.twitter.com/zlasher
thedeadhaji *
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
39489 Posts
October 20 2011 07:41 GMT
#19
On October 20 2011 16:33 Skipper240 wrote:
I don't know if you can really use Mel Kishida's work as an example of random internet character design.

Unless that's someone else drawing outfits for Totori?


oh that was cited to explain what "character design" entails (ie not just one illustration)
thedeadhaji *
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
39489 Posts
October 20 2011 07:42 GMT
#20
On October 20 2011 16:33 Zlasher wrote:
I have a friend who is a pixel artist for a video game design company (nowadays mostly cell phone/android/ios games) and even as a big gamer she refused to do those contests for anything like E3 vip passes, sold out blizzcon tickets, etc. and says that people who are professional artists should never do those contests as it just devalues all of their work. I completely agree, and its a damn shame when there are those sort of contests. Design this tshirt and win 50 dollars and a copy of the tshirt! its like uhhh thats NOTHING for the actual value that the contest runner gets for that design


Man you're absolutely right. There's SO much of that going on.

Maybe the more honorable thing to do is to revenue share with the designer who wins those contests?
1 2 3 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
PiGosaur Monday
00:00
#34
PiGStarcraft619
CranKy Ducklings197
SteadfastSC136
rockletztv 50
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
PiGStarcraft619
SteadfastSC 136
Nina 120
Livibee 95
StarCraft: Brood War
Artosis 902
Icarus 8
Dota 2
monkeys_forever911
NeuroSwarm67
LuMiX1
Counter-Strike
Fnx 2449
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox518
C9.Mang0213
PPMD114
Other Games
summit1g8557
shahzam1303
Day[9].tv1129
ViBE254
Maynarde228
Trikslyr54
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1414
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hupsaiya 91
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• Azhi_Dahaki15
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Doublelift6036
Other Games
• Day9tv1129
Upcoming Events
WardiTV Qualifier
9h 21m
Bellum Gens Elite
10h 21m
OSC
14h 21m
The PondCast
1d 8h
Bellum Gens Elite
1d 9h
WardiTV Invitational
1d 9h
Replay Cast
1d 22h
OSC
1d 22h
Bellum Gens Elite
2 days
WardiTV Invitational
2 days
[ Show More ]
Replay Cast
2 days
CranKy Ducklings
3 days
SC Evo League
3 days
Bellum Gens Elite
3 days
Fire Grow Cup
3 days
CSO Contender
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
SOOP
4 days
SHIN vs GuMiho
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
AllThingsProtoss
4 days
Fire Grow Cup
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
WardiTV Invitational
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Season 17: Qualifier 1
DreamHack Dallas 2025
Heroes 10 EU

Ongoing

JPL Season 2
BSL 2v2 Season 3
BSL Season 20
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 2
NPSL S3
Rose Open S1
CSL Season 17: Qualifier 2
2025 GSL S2
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2025
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25
ECL Season 49: Europe
BLAST Rivals Spring 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters
CCT Season 2 Global Finals
IEM Melbourne 2025
YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025
PGL Bucharest 2025
BLAST Open Spring 2025

Upcoming

CSL 17: 2025 SUMMER
Copa Latinoamericana 4
CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSLAN 2025
K-Championship
SEL Season 2 Championship
Esports World Cup 2025
HSC XXVII
Championship of Russia 2025
Murky Cup #2
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.