I am Matt Thomas.

Go Design Yourself

August 27, 2005

In the winter of 2004, I was really, really depressed. I had just moved back in with my parents, leaving my friends and adopted home of Savannah, Georgia due to a lack of job opportunities for graphic designers in the area. I was bitter, disappointed, questioning my chosen career path, and desperately looking to every dispatch from the SCAD JobWire in the hopes that it would advertise my salvation.

It never did, though. The vast majority of postings either had nothing to do with graphic design, or were for internships. Internships are a great way to gain experience before you’re out in the world as a full-time worker.

Then, some postings were just from people asking you to work for free. Not for charity. Not an internship. Not for a good cause. Just businesses that were too cheap to hire a real designer. These weren’t opportunities for professional growth. They weren’t a company offering to give you much needed real world experience. They were hucksters looking to save a buck by taking advantage of the desperation of design students and recent graduates.

This is all to say that, one day, I responded to one of those ads (both to the business and to SCAD’s Career Planning department) with the following—posted by request:

Mr. [Name redacted to spare the pathetic];

I received your request for design work via the SCAD JobWire.

I am not writing to offer my services, so much as I am offering my ass for you to kiss.

Asking designers for free work is like asking a chef at a restaurant for a free meal.

It’s like asking a hooker for a free blow job.

It’s like asking a contractor to build you a free house.

And it’s pathetic, wrong, lazy and immoral. Preying on desperate design students because you were too cheap to budget for design is about the lowest of the low. Fuck you. I hope your book is a flop.

Regards,
Matt Thomas

I suppose it probably wasn’t the right thing to do, but boy, I never got another email asking me to work for free again.