Posted by Editor in • 16toads Design • Business • Ethics • Issues • Trends
Posted on 09/29/09 at 01:09 PM • (0) Comments

iStockPhoto further devalues creativity by selling logos for bargain basement prices.

Getty Images's iStockPhoto.com is jumping headlong into crowdsourcing with its latest product offering ... selling stock logos. Not only do I believe this venture violates nearly every ethical practice professional designers abide by, but it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Getty Images doesn't give two hoots and a lump of Andres Serrano's Shit about the fact that they are systematically undermining the creative industry.

Creative professionals are under a daily assault from external sources attempting to devalue our work. We are constantly being told, often times by colleagues, that to compete in the "global marketplace" we have to provide our hard-earned skills and talents nearly free-of-charge. Spec "contests", work-for-hire agreements, and the RFP process devalue our profession even further by encouraging professional creatives to forgo their integrity in order to land "needed" work.  Now, a respected company is taking advantage of crowdsourcing and is legitimizing a creative outlet that quite literally devalues our profession with each and every sale.

In the end, yes, an easy argument can be made that having another company jump on the crowdsourcing bandwagon means little to "real" designers. I often hear designers make statements like "the people who will buy these logos are not your customers anyway"  or "why shouldn't a low-cost solution be available to people with low budgets?"

My answer to both these statements is simple.