• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 17:50
CEST 23:50
KST 06:50
  • 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
[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy7[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters10[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End9
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sep 13-20): herO scores triple1BSL Season 235Weekly Cups (Sep 7-12): SHIN, ByuN, MaxPax double down1StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon101Weekly Cups (Aug 30-Sep 7): herO thrives amid growing schism10
StarCraft 2
General
Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool The Death of Cheese: From a Professional Cheeser Weekly Cups (Sep 13-20): herO scores triple Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon
Tourneys
2026 GSTL Announcement Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 SC2 AI Tournament 2026 Fall
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
Mutation # 544 Double Trouble The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 543 Enhanced Defenses Mutation # 542 The Ascended
Brood War
General
Bot on ladder New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery! [ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy an AI researcher's take on the ladder bot Recent recommended BW games
Tourneys
[ASL22] Ro8 Day 1 [IPSL] IPSL is Back With Winter 26-27! [BSL23] SM: Ret vs TerrOr -> DragOn vs StRyKeR [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Replay Review Process - What do you do? Simple Questions, Simple Answers Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation
Other Games
General Games
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread EVE Corporation Diablo IV
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25! Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Artificial Intelligence Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine All you football fans (soccer)! Russo-Ukrainian War Thread
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The Creator Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Diablo Animated Series on Netflix
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Gaming Intensity, Problemati…
TrAiDoS
38 yo Retired SWE loo…
PurE)Rabbit-SF
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
[meme] I finally understa…
LUCKY_NOOB
Regacy Esports:Our Goa…
regacyesports
Dreaming of BW patches (mod…
c3rberUs
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8003 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 Kong9179 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
Next event in 12h 10m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
SpeCial 60
EnDerr 11
StarCraft: Brood War
firebathero 76
910 26
yabsab 15
Dota 2
monkeys_forever307
capcasts66
Counter-Strike
pashabiceps1381
Super Smash Bros
PPMD17
Heroes of the Storm
Liquid`Hasu579
Other Games
summit1g6767
Liquid`RaSZi3816
Grubby3772
FrodaN1634
JimRising 366
B2W.Neo260
ToD258
shahzam202
ZombieGrub154
C9.Mang0152
Mew2King70
Trikslyr69
SteadfastSC60
Organizations
Other Games
BasetradeTV58
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• Eskiya23 41
• FirePhoenix13
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota22156
League of Legends
• TFBlade942
Other Games
• Scarra889
• imaqtpie692
• Shiphtur173
Upcoming Events
Sparkling Tuna Cup
12h 10m
Afreeca Starleague
12h 10m
Light vs EffOrt
OSC
14h 10m
PiGosaur Cup
1d 2h
Kung Fu Cup
1d 13h
The PondCast
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
Korean StarCraft League
4 days
CranKy Ducklings
4 days
GSL
5 days
[ Show More ]
Yamato Cup
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Afreeca Starleague
6 days
WardiTV Weekly
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Super Anchor Qualifying S3
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1

Ongoing

ASL Season 22
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - GSA
Calamity Invitational
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026

Upcoming

Acropolis #5 - GSB
Acropolis #5 - GSC
BSL Season 23
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Copium Cup
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #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 © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.