Freelances deserve a fair reward for the profits they generate

Thanks for your article on freelances and the rates of pay you’ve number-crunched for us to see (Up-skill battle, DW 17 September).

It’s reassuring to see that we’ve got it right for the most part in what we charge for freelance work.

The declining rates of pay also demonstrate to our clients that most designers are finding it hard to make ends meet in this current climate.

The problem we face is how to manage client expectations while remaining competitive, without under-charging and thereby undermining our perceived and actual ‘worth’ in what we end up delivering – that is, a high quality service.

In this increasingly media-savvy era, it’s easy to forget how much time it takes to do great design well.

The ‘out of hours’ time that designers spend thinking and creating needs to be recognised and remunerated accordingly.

Don’t forget that in practising our ‘craft’, we bring increased profits to those same clients who require our services.
Narjas Mehdi, by e-mail