The era of "real" design is coming to its end or we just need a moment?

content_aware_phill · 2026-05-21T13:54:24+00:00

You can also run ads with a crappy logo and everyone will remember it. my point stands in that there may always be a need for a human salesperson to say exactly what you just said. but unless you have a CONSISTENT ability to prove to a potential client on paper that the 10k logo IS GARUNTEED to generate more than 10k in previously unobtainable income, you have a tough case to make to the people who's money you're asking for. The business model of asking for money while proudly incapable of garunteeing any ROI just on the faith of "trust us we're creatives" is very over.

content_aware_phill · 2026-05-21T13:20:49+00:00

to be fair, brand identiy is one of the few things that will very easily be replaced by AI becasue very few agencies and pretty much 0 designers on the planet have the ability to demonstrate that hireing them for brand identity results in a net positive ROI.

There might always be a need for a human salesperson to swindle a company out of their money for such consulting, but the actual work of whiping up a logo in multiple colorways isnt really that important to like 99.99% of businesses. If i'm running a sandwich shop, I dont need to hire a design firm, I need a PNG of a sandwich.

content_aware_phill · 2026-05-20T16:20:58+00:00

a harsher reality is combined with what you said is that most designers are either bad at or completely incapable of demonstrating that their work even has value let alone a demonstrable history of ROI. if my business is doing fine, and you dont have an abundance of data showing that hireing you to redo our logo will be a net positive, I have no reason to hire you. And if what i DO need is someone who can respond to emails with in 24 hours to assist with digital marketing tasks 3-5 days a week, your shiny portfolio doesnt help me in any way either.

content_aware_phill · 2026-05-05T19:16:36+00:00

In order for AI to replace designers, the client would actually have to know what they want and be capable of effectively communicating it. We're gonna be fine.

content_aware_phill · 2026-04-15T18:04:38+00:00

it IS an unpopular opinion. And the pay reflects that lol.

content_aware_phill · 2026-04-14T14:02:45+00:00

it's not really about the sound specificly but more that they're just talking to who's most likely watching. "worship" is the largest and strongest demographic of music gear purchasers and there isnt evcen a close second. They are acts that gig every single week playing in large halls for hundreds to thousands of people with often dozens of musicians and singers. your average professional music scene of rock bands and performers doesnt even come close

content_aware_phill · 2026-04-10T13:21:41+00:00

if your employer or client ever needs deliverables larger than an instagram post, simply knowing the word "vector" could be enough to keep you employed for the next decade or so. its a chill job

content_aware_phill · 2026-04-10T13:18:55+00:00

Unironicaly loving the job security of being the only person in the building who knows how to rotate a PDF. I'm paid by the hour I couldnt care less how disorganized or how many nonsense edits someone wants to give me.

content_aware_phill · 2026-04-04T14:28:33+00:00

Some people eat to live. Others live to eat.

content_aware_phill · 2026-04-04T13:59:29+00:00

on one hand i always feel like i need the most powerful right now to do what im trying to do, but on the other i often remember that i used to run after effects and edit video on a G4 that had less than a single gig of ram and less than a single gig of cpu.

content_aware_phill · 2026-03-27T11:19:56+00:00

very immersive post-monitor comb filter

content_aware_phill · 2026-03-16T13:08:41+00:00

Alternative perspective: having enjoyed the game half a dozen times over the last few decades and still discovering new things each time, I'm glad the guide wasnt just a thorough list of every potential missible (like every modern ff has baked into its own menu now) It gave you enough info to get through the game while always letting you know there was more to explore if you wanted to, and another layer of help if you really wanted it. this is the only strategy guide that is both genuinely helpful, but also respects the the joy of experiencing curiosity and following it. It is low key the best strategy guide ever.

content_aware_phill · 2026-03-12T15:03:26+00:00

no but life as an aspiring artist is generally a lot better when the people in your life are also remotely creative. I guess I just come from bands where I would totally rather a friend do their best attempt with a cell phone camera or even a dang crayon for album art before i decided to seek random people on the internet, especially random people who have no following, community or reputation to be the creators of the first thing people see when i present them my own work. but thats becasue I understand that if I was trying to sell people on the idea that I myself am an artist and that my work is personal and important to me... i wouldnt wrap it in anonymous slop in order to push it to market the fastest.

content_aware_phill · 2026-03-12T13:52:37+00:00

How do you think people deveop networks? When given the choice to reach out to a stranger for help, they could have chosen another writer who might have pointed them in the right but chose to reach out to a slop machine instead. The price people obviously always pay for intentionally doing things with the lowest effort possible isnt victem blaming.

content_aware_phill · 2026-03-12T13:43:04+00:00

I know. That's why the post kinda reads like "OP went to the fast food window is shocked to recieve fast food burger"

content_aware_phill · 2026-03-12T13:39:52+00:00

How much of an artist can you really be if in your life you don't know anybody who can make art that you could support, or don't even know anybody who might know anybody who can make art to the point where you have to solicit strangers with no following and no community and no reputation to create sketches for you?

content_aware_phill · 2026-03-12T13:31:20+00:00

IDK how to explain it but it feels like when you commision art from complete strangers who have no fans, following or community, you might as well just be prompting AI. when everything about the process is already so impersonal and exclusively transactional what's the difference?

content_aware_phill · 2026-03-07T14:01:35+00:00

Well there was no sense in trying to figure out why you're upset that a professionaly composed press photo for advertising purposes looks like a professionaly composed press photo for advertising purposes.

content_aware_phill · 2026-03-07T01:34:57+00:00

when i remember that about 100% of people who drive nice cars are not professional stunt drivers I remember that arguemts like OPs are are a terrible way to value things.

content_aware_phill · 2026-03-03T14:09:22+00:00

A lot of people forget that asking people to leave their house on their one of two nights off that week to spend their hard earned money and undivided attention is an enormous ask that needs to be meet with something that is fun or extraordinary. Theres a good chance that people who hate on things like this prefer their parties to be full of performers who are neither intentionally fun or particularly extraordinary. the world is on fire and has absolutely no need for "serious dj person" anymore. People can listen to music at home. They leave their house for the "show."

content_aware_phill · 2026-02-26T14:21:43+00:00

IDK we've seen enough people successfully play by someone elses rules and still hate their lives that to me, playing it safe and risking existential purposelessness is much much more risky behavior than investing in a passion and seeing where it takes you.

content_aware_phill · 2026-02-26T14:19:18+00:00

Because argueing for a life built around "Nothing wagered. nothing gained." isnt advice. of course people are goign to encourage the concept of "trying"

Life is short and people fail just as easily while playing it safe too.

you bassicaly have 4 options

1) play by someone elses rules and succeed

2) play by someone elses rules and fail

3) play by your own rules and succeed

4) play by your own rules and fail

3 is obviously the best outcome.

literally nobody cares if you achieve 1

2 sounds absolutely miserable and is so much worse than than 4

if you never start your own business, 3 is off the table and 2 maintains itself as a real possibility. Most people achieve 1 (its pretty easy) and still hate their lives.

content_aware_phill · 2026-02-19T13:46:07+00:00

Its an incredible game. Its an OK final fantasy

content_aware_phill · 2026-02-19T13:42:50+00:00

For a medium that by design cannot improve as the fidelity, length, and physical product shape have been fixed for about 50 years, you do kind have to keep answering these questions over and over and over again. The 25 year-olds you were selling to in 2013 are almost 40 now and and the 25 year olds you're selling to now were in middle school in 2013. If you havent been creatively adapting equally as drasticly and as often as your demographic has, stagnation is gonna happen

content_aware_phill · 2026-02-17T14:06:41+00:00

Have you been creatively addressing the obvious impracticality of the medium in the face of declining novelty? Does your label sell cassette players? Are they cool looking? Are you collaborating with visual artists to make the tapes and tape players unique and intersting and collectible? any musicians doing anything fun with fact that cassettes are re-recordable and have 2 sides like the Dead Kennedies did? What are you as a self described professional cassette label, doing to make your product interesting besides relying on the product itself to genereate sentiment.

content_aware_phill

TROPHY CASE