Money, meet Mouth
So after all of my spouting off about designer compensation, fees, etc., I decided that it would be a little bit of a cop out to miss TNNA this year. I'd decided earlier not to go - I wanted to just be HERE for January - but Gerry is with me on this.
I'm going to fly to Long Beach on Thursday, schmooze and meet with like-minded designers over the next few days, then fly home late on Saturday night to minimize my hotel costs and my time away. If you'll be at TNNA and would like to get together with me, please email me and we'll set up a time todrink talk.
I'm hoping to meet with designers and members of the AKD to discuss compensation for our work, and the possibility of some kind of guild / union / structure where we can actually make ends meet if we do this for a living.
I've recently heard someone say, "Designers are a dime a dozen..." - but I disagree.
Good, professional designers are NOT a dime a dozen, and we shouldn't be paid that way.
I know it's tempting when you're first starting to undersell yourself - and a certain amount of free patterning is necessary to hone your skills as a designer, make contacts and get your name known.
But some venues take advantage of our willingness as a profession (yes, a profession) to undersell ourselves because we love what we do so much. Those of us who have been lucky enough to pay the mortgage doing this MUST stand up for all of us.
We must try to secure a playing field where it actually IS possible to pay the mortgage through design - what a concept?
It would be too easy for our profession to become a race to the bottom. The Wall-martization of the craft we love could lead to incredibly cheap patterns, and very poorly paid designers.
So in order to get a sense of how Professional Designers feel about the compensation we've been receiving - and how that compensation has altered over the past 20 years - I've put together a survey.
I'm intending this for Professional Designers, which I very loosely define as someone who has sold more than 5 designs [patterns]in any venue, or has published a book of patterns. The key word is sold, because this is a survey regarding compensation paid by the established publishing entities.
So if you've sold some designs - not just given a few away on your website - I invite you to take this survey. It's ANONYMOUS - I won't see your name, I won't know who responds, so I do sincerely ask that only folks who earn a portion of their income as designers complete it.
I know there are glaring problems with the survey - but it's only to test the waters, not for any concrete purpose. I guess it has to start somewhere, huh?
Click Here to take survey
I'm going to fly to Long Beach on Thursday, schmooze and meet with like-minded designers over the next few days, then fly home late on Saturday night to minimize my hotel costs and my time away. If you'll be at TNNA and would like to get together with me, please email me and we'll set up a time to
I'm hoping to meet with designers and members of the AKD to discuss compensation for our work, and the possibility of some kind of guild / union / structure where we can actually make ends meet if we do this for a living.
I've recently heard someone say, "Designers are a dime a dozen..." - but I disagree.
Good, professional designers are NOT a dime a dozen, and we shouldn't be paid that way.
I know it's tempting when you're first starting to undersell yourself - and a certain amount of free patterning is necessary to hone your skills as a designer, make contacts and get your name known.
But some venues take advantage of our willingness as a profession (yes, a profession) to undersell ourselves because we love what we do so much. Those of us who have been lucky enough to pay the mortgage doing this MUST stand up for all of us.
We must try to secure a playing field where it actually IS possible to pay the mortgage through design - what a concept?
It would be too easy for our profession to become a race to the bottom. The Wall-martization of the craft we love could lead to incredibly cheap patterns, and very poorly paid designers.
So in order to get a sense of how Professional Designers feel about the compensation we've been receiving - and how that compensation has altered over the past 20 years - I've put together a survey.
I'm intending this for Professional Designers, which I very loosely define as someone who has sold more than 5 designs [patterns]in any venue, or has published a book of patterns. The key word is sold, because this is a survey regarding compensation paid by the established publishing entities.
So if you've sold some designs - not just given a few away on your website - I invite you to take this survey. It's ANONYMOUS - I won't see your name, I won't know who responds, so I do sincerely ask that only folks who earn a portion of their income as designers complete it.
I know there are glaring problems with the survey - but it's only to test the waters, not for any concrete purpose. I guess it has to start somewhere, huh?
Click Here to take survey
Feed me, baby!
19 Comments:
I'm disappointed I won't be at TNNA to meet with you and my fellow AKD peeps, but I'm sure y'all will have fun without me! I'm really glad that you are addressing this issue on your blog, and I look forward to hearing about the results of your survey!
I am not a designer myself, but I am all in favor for you to stand up for your (and all designers') right to be fairly compensated for your work. Good for you. I hope your trip to TNNA will be a good investment in your profession for you and your colleagues, and that you have some fun, too!
I'm glad you've been so vocal and thoughtful in discussing this topic and I really hope you'll share your findings from the survey. I have a hard time explaining to my non-knitting friends, why I can't quit my day job and do this full time. The amount of work required is monumental and the compensation would rarely take me to minimum wage for my efforts.
And, I have to raise my hand as one of those many people who has sold herself short in the past. More and more, I'm realizing how this has effected not only me, but all designers, in some small way. I'm not one of the top tier designers but I do consider it my obligation to be more thoughtful in to whom and how I sell my patterns.
I wish the compensation ranges didn't overlap! (e.g. 0-50 and 51-100 instead of 50-100... I didn't know what to choose).
Also, I read "book" for "magazine" in order to be able to answer some of the questions.
Annie, I applaud you in your effort to make sure that designers are fairly compensated for the work that they do. I work in a different field (educational publishing), but it has always disturbed me how little the content CREATORS are compensated, compared to how much the pencil-pushers (i.e., non-creators) make. Without good content, there is nothing.
All creators are facing similar challenges--designers, writers, artists--in publication contracts now. The alliances can stretch across media, as Tracy WW notes. Bravo to you for speaking out.
As a somewhat new knitter, I find that I am in constand awe of the work that you all do. I have worked in the publishing industry and I know how much work goes into creating content, and how undervalued and undercompensated we, as creators, are.
You are right for sticking up for yourself. It never ceases to amaze me when walking into a LYS that there are signs saying "Do not ask us to zerox patterns, we do things by the book." I can't believe that people don't understand how that affects the designers who work so hard to bring us such inspirational designs for our happy fingers!
Good for you!
Annie--
Thanks for this poll. I do a lot of technical editing for publishers (books & magazines)and have found that over the last few years, the quality of designers' pattern writing has diminished considerably. This could be a function of 2 things--
1)Experienced designers who simply don't have the time to write a good pattern following the given publisher's pattern style and don't have the time to double-check their numbers--they assume that the "tech editor will catch the mistakes".
2)Relative newbie designers who haven't taken the time to study good pattern writing and send in very idiosyncratic prose masquerading as a "pattern".
I find basic errors (yarn info, gauge, etc), logic errors, number errors, grading errors and entire portions of garments missing. In addition, fewer designers submit graphics as required (schematics, charts) w/o prodding.
I don't mean this to be a knock on the designers. I figure that you get what you pay for and if a publisher isn't willing to pay a reasonable price for *all* the elements of a design for their publication (design, sample garment, good pattern and graphics, not to mention appropriate copyright fees), then a designer is going to cut corners somewhere, and from what I see, it's in the grading and pattern writing (by and large, the garments are both well-designed and well knit).
As I think has been pointed out elsewhere, very often the photographers and stylists are paid more than the designers,which is ironic because without the GOOD designers, the publications would cease to exist.
It's not a coincidence that more experienced designers are going the self-publishing route,rather than being paid a flat, paltry fee by a publisher who also usually denies the designer further income from a design by insisting on "purchasing" (and I use that term o-so-loosely) all copyrights, in all forms known and unknown. Magazines are only as good as the quality of the designers that they attract by offering a FAIR CONTRACT (fair compensation for product development, actual design, sample garment, pattern instructions & graphics and First North American Serial Rights ONLY). There is not a single knitting magazine publisher today who offers such a contract and as a technical editor, I'm on the front lines seeing the results.
Annie, I have to tell you how much I admire what you're doing.
We all have to foster our courage and ethics, as well as our artistic skills.
This discussion reminds me of what goes on at so many theaters around the country. The staff is treated as disposable, because those in higher positions know that there will always be a new crop of fresh, eager, naive kids coming into the profession who will literally do ANYTHING for a job.
Those of us who have made a career in the arts, of course, find this horribly distressing. What does it say about our field if the upper managers are looking to hire the least experienced, cheapest artisans?
Lisa Lazar
Scenic Artist
Berkeley Repertory Theatre
(and knitter)
I would love to take this survey, but it would make a big difference in my answers if I included patterns published in online craft "magazines" (considerably lower pay, in my experience, especially since you are usually expected to provide the yarn and the photography--although you get to keep the sample) and in pattern books. Should I include these?
A lot of people can design on the fly, but REAL designing is when you can write a pattern, and someone with some competence can replecate the design you envisioned without any direct input from the Designer. I can come up with off the cuff sock patterns; YOU, my dear Annie, DESIGN garments. There is a difference, and that difference deserves to be recongized.
Annie - Can't say how much I appreciate your perspective and your ability to take a stand on this topic. I get underquoted by folks on a regular basis and it pisses the hell out of me... To create a design - or a series of designs - and have them be more than your standard pieces - takes a lot of thought and effort and I really wish buyers would start to offer incentives for work with them - or advances on payment towards cultivating the ideas. Not sure how much sway I hold on these things - but please keep me in the loop if you've got an idea for group action! Also MamaE has been gettin ramped up about this stuff... I think she may have been responsible in part for Interweave's new compensation policy with their online shop / patterns.
PS Ditto on everything Chuckq says..
Glad you'll be there Annie!
Mike and I will be there in our booth as well. We'll be very near the Unicorn booth.
See you'ze there!
Joan McGowan-Michael
As a plain old knitter (not a designer)I view full-time, well-known designers as stars, incredibly hard-working and amazingly talented.
And that deserves star pay.
(Not, I hasten to add, that I think less well-known but talented designers should earn a pittance -- that kind of work and dedication also deserves a decent wage!)
Hey Anne,
I actually had nothing to do with Interweave's policy. I heard it changed and was glad to get that news. I fully support that designers get a better portion of profits from their designs.
I have often thought that some system of residual payment should be worked out. It seems to me that for as many times I see a design skyrocket through the knitting community and have to become the next cast on item, that the designers should get paid each and every time the pattern is sold/knit.
I know that is a massive undertaking and really, really hard to pin down the exact number, etc.
It is mind blowing to me, as a fiber artist, that I can charge what I deem fair for my yarns/fiber because they are tangible goods and designers get the shaft when the put hundreds of more hours into their work.
I fully support your idea... I will not be at TNNA but will be looking forward to hearing the results!
Creative peeps should always make the most the market will allow...ab-so-tively!!! Go get 'em. and be healed, btw...
Annie, when you're working on the guild idea, be sure to check out the Graphic Artist's Guild for ideas. Their handbook has a short section on textiles, but the entire manual is jam packed with juicy and useful information.
I'm going in the direction of just being a writer after I finish up the next few knitting books that I already have in the works. As I mentioned on my blog the error thing is just giving me too much stress and I need a break from it. But I think your idea for a guild is fantastic and overdue.
OH MY do I agree with you!
Designers a dime a dozen?
Balderdash isn't strong enough. Bullshit comes close......are they freakin' nuts almost captures my feelings...
If you think designers are a dime a dozen, check out some of the stuff floating around the web, study the designs, a really LOOK at what it takes to DESIGN and WRITE a competent pattern.
Annie - good for you for addressing this issue so clearly and vocally. I have an MFA in Textiles and tried for years to support myself from sales of my work, part-time teaching, curating and occasional writing. Now, I support myself in a totally unrelated field (accounting ?!?) and knit for pleasure. I do teach a couple of classes because I want to share my knowledge but when folks suggest I get into designing and selling patterns, well, I take it as a compliment and don't do anything about it. Been there, done that. Now I just take advantage of all the talented, hard working designers out there. Thank you, thank you!
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