Michael Kane Attacking Freelancers

[sitetutor]

Originally Posted by Cricket

For what is is worth, Michael is a freelance designer.

yes one of the few great ones

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by sitetutor

yes one of the few great ones

His work makes me drool.

[sitetutor]

I remember when I provided SEO services full time and many of my clients came from people who ripped them off. Companies, but mainly freelancers. Even when I freelanced, I started hating the majority of freelancers.

[Aramis]

ok i had to make a comment, but i dont want to read 4 pages of henri, going thru puberty, so if this seems out of place then i appologise

(So many kids are popping up these days calling them selves designers)

this is true, how many people have bought a disposable camera, did a 2 min diddle, or used a crappy html template design website using frontpage and tried to sell themselves as a designer

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOADS,

(It’s a sad truth, but clients that look for a designer, usually know very little about design, therefor get sucked into a whirl pool of banana manoosha)

this is also true, for many clients they know what they want but because of inexperience people they end up making compromises upon compromises, because the "self claiming Designer" they hire claim the task cant be done the way the client wants it so the "designer" can get a easier paid job

(And, of course, many designers are simply poor communicators, either in writing, phone or face-to-face)

Yes this is also true, I have met clients and people who are bad communicators too, but out of 20 artists, and 10 webdesigners i have tried to hire in joint projects, about 3 artists and 0 webdesigners have shown themselves to be good communicators, at last check i got over 40 projects on hold because of waiting on work from people claiming to be

designers!!!!!!

from the quoates "Henri" used i feel Mr Micheal Kain is targetting the so called designer group not Freelancers in general

I work in IT but finding decent employment has become difficult due to the mass amounts of People claiming to be "IT Experts", in fact all my work for the past 2 years has been fixing other so called "IT Experts" general screw ups

[Turbine]

When I first saw this topic and read the original post I almost didn't bother to consider it a serious standpoint. I then bothered to read all the pages to this topic and I couldn't help but to question the original intent of Henri, and the deeper psychological meaning behind what he is doing and I've come to this conclusion: This thread was originally designed to discredit and borderline attack another person. Henri was not directly attacked and was likewise not offended at all, but rather he twisted the words around in an attempt to rally others around his comments by quoating segments of the article to defame and slander.

I'm not terribly sure what it was exactly that happened to Henri to make him react the way he has now, but something did happen. I'm guessing Henri had an exchange of words with him, Henri's feelings got hurt and he decided to turn words around and try to bring his personal attack on a wider range. Publically.

Now, the real issue. Let's evaluate this: Here is Henri's collection of posts he's made on this forum. After looking over his massive collection of very helpful posts I have come to the conclusion: The majority of people Henri has communicated with at this community did not enjoy the communication in the first place. Not an asset to this community thus far, and it is dissapointing to see him stage such reputation suicide after the other displays of blatant ignorance abroad.

Henri, being a newcomer to a community means you are just as easily liked as just as easily thrown into exile. It is very easily to collectively be shunned and not liked. Your stay at this community will not be pleasent, I can tell. You have already made various public displays of ignorance and annoyed a few high quality members I would personally be pleased to get to know better, but directly you have done a wonderful job at ensuring you have zero credibility. Turbine is not one to quickly place judgement, and if I was a religious man I would say "Judge not less thee be judged yourself." but thankfully, I am not a religious man, and I while I am not quick to place judgement, I am capable of judging a person based on their actions and current trends.

For such a new member it surprises me that he has made such waves so soon. I thought there was unwritten rules of communities that everyone just knew? I guess I was wrong. There are always exceptions to the "rule."

Now, Henri, I will help you by pointing out why you have done more damage to yourself and your reputation than anyone here.

• Anyone who looks at your prior posts can find you started off on the wrong foot in the first place.
• Your attitude is unacceptable. You are inconsiderate to other people and, unfortunately for you, being considerate and nice to others is all a part of kind communication.
• You cannot communicate. I was shocked to learn you were not, in fact, banging rocks against your keyboard to manage your posts.
• False sense of superiority. Nobody likes someone who screams "I think I am superior to you."
• You have a lack of humility and are not pleasent to bang rocks-against-keyboards with. People who are poor communicators are usually very poor at understanding the weight and/or effect of the words they're using.

I can't be bothered to waste anymore time, but I figured I should pop in and let you know you're on the wrong path. Thankfully, the majority of quality, worth-reading members have already done that for me. Unlike you, they have been around long enough to have a valid and formed opinion. Alright, that was mean of me. Sorry!

As for the article? It was great! I completely agree with it! I have worked with so many freelance designers and time and time again I've found myself dissapointed with, not only, the lack of commitment and motivation, but also lack of any actual skill. I agree that more and more freelance designers are getting a bad reputation from amateurs with a really bad attitude. What is worse is that the newcomers to the web design community simply do not admit they need to improve! No progress is made because they think they are the prodigy child! It's ever-so confusing.

The more articles written about the problems of freelance webdesign the better chances the word will get around and business owners will pay attention to whom they hire. Just because a designer is CHEAP (in both aspects of the word) doesn't mean they're worth the money! In web design you really do get what you pay for. Heck, even THAT is subjective! BAH! There should be a license to practice webdesign as a profession!

*Huff huff!*

-Turbine.

[Cricket]

It is pretty obvious that this is a topic that many of us are passionate about. I like seeing the level of responses that have been written with so much thought behind them. I am truly impressed.

[3ncryptabl3_lick]

Can someon post a Micheal Kane link pwease.

[Atom]

Originally Posted by mikey.

... My favorite color is D6185A and I also know Lorem Ipsum by heart. That's enough, I shall brag about myself and some of the big online sites that I have designed later on. Some here already know me, which is alright. Those of you who don't, then hi there, I'm mikey.

http://www.v7n.com/forums/forum-lobb...-thoughts.html


I don't know if this will help or not. I haven't noticed if he's posted any sites yet.

[Cricket]

Michael usually keeps his work pretty private. In fact, he doesn't even post his best stuff in his portfolio.


Edit: In this case I think it is the topic itself that is important though, rather than a specific designer.

[Atom]

I saw a bird that he created the other day, looked pretty good. Unique shape. Stylized.

[Aramis]

yep i look at anyones work i like then i get depressed i dont have a job and time to afford honing my crafts

christ i am so broke, i am ready to sell myself for a piece of chicken or sushi

"i have been living off pot noodles for 6 months"

why does digital cameras, and decent it equipment cost so much

[mikey.]

Originally Posted by Cricket

Edit: In this case I think it is the topic itself that is important though, rather than a specific designer.

Thank you Cricket.
That is true, this is not about me, well, in Henri's case it obviously is, but I shall disregard his existence and go on to say, designers today need to shape up.

I have heard on several occasions, from high profile individuals, both online and offline, that they are finding it harder to hire graphic/web designers, due to the huge increase in them. Think about it, if these are clients with deep pockets thinking this way, how are the small businesses taking it? Come on, how many people on these forums alone (which hardly represents a fraction of a percent of the designers online today) claim to be freelance designers, and in some cases professionals? What gives them the right to call themselves this? An online portfolio or Photoshop Brushes and fonts they themselves don't even know how to create? Maybe it's the fact that they have made a couple thousand off some projects. Is that merit enough?
I don't think so.

All I'm trying to say in my blog, the one Henri clearly quoted out of context, is that good, professionals designers still exist. Young or old, new to the field or not, they are out there, but fewer in numbers compared to how many are calling themselves designers these days. The more clients think before hiring a designer/freelancer the better it is for those that are in this for a living and know what they are talking about. I posted this article on a completely new blog, not one of my more popular ones for a reason, for the clients I send there to see it. Not to give anyone a bad name, not to scare off these clients, but to reassure them, that great designers, still exists.


You can live your whole life trying to be a popular or successful designer, in my opinion, it's those that are born designers that truly succeed. However hard you try to develop your skills, 'skill' itself is just a tool. Henri, stop trying my friend, whatever you have against me, don't let that fog up your priorities. If you design (which is hard to believe as you have asked others to do your logos for you) then do so man, do so with all your heart and i'm sure if it's meant to be, you'll do fine.

"If you have anything really valuable to contribute to the world it will come through the expression of your own personality, that single spark of divinity that sets you off and makes you different from every other living creature."
Bruce Barton

btw, hello Atom, long time no see my friend. Hope everything is going good for you.

[Atom]

Originally Posted by mikey.

... btw, hello Atom, long time no see my friend. Hope everything is going good for you.

Hi, Mikey, thanks and likewise.

I can't say much because I'm not a designer. But I'd like to say this much..

I'm damn glad I'm not a designer. That's too much like work!

[sitetutor]

Originally Posted by Atom

Hi, Mikey, thanks and likewise.

I can't say much because I'm not a designer. But I'd like to say this much..

I'm damn glad I'm not a designer. That's too much like work!

I wished I knew how to, I know how to rank sites, but if I design them myself, they look like shit.

[Atom]

Originally Posted by sitetutor

I wished I knew how to, I know how to rank sites, but if I design them myself, they look like shit.

Same here except the "wished I knew how to" part. I know how to, but the responsibility is just too overwhelming to me to ever not be considered work. Not that I don't like work, I just have a different idea of what is enjoyable work.

[gregdavidson]

I agree with Michael Kane. I've hired probably over 20 web designers on GetAFreelancer.com and had a bad experience with almost all of them. I just posted a project on GAF for a custom forum skin and specified to only show me samples of forum skins you've made. So far the only bidder with a forum skin had this site to show:

http://www.leedsit.com/forum%5Fnew/

I think everyone would agree that this forum skin looks worst than a lot of the FREE ones. And this self-proclaimed designer's bid is $500!!!!

[mikey.]

GetAFreelancer, odesk, iFreelance and the likes, really have one main thing in common. Under educated, self obsessed, arrogant incapable designers with over priced , unoriginal, sometimes ripped dull work. I was surprised to hear that most of these freelancers (not all, there are a couple out of every 500 that do good work) use logopond.com as a source for their logo templates. They go there, rip a logo, add another company name and viola. Same goes for templates and graphics. It's sad, but very true.

Sorry to hear about your experience greg, but that just shows you how careful clients should be when choosing a freelancer. Honestly, the last place you want to go are these rigged freelance sites. Look around for individual designers doing their own thing, or directories with designers in a city you're in, that way you can call or perhaps meet them if the project is that big, only then will you be sure to get what you're paying for