My thoughts on the digital designing world.

I was reading Zephanee's blog today. She has an interesting post. It is based on this thread
This question was posed: If the market becomes over-saturated we will have a pure competition environment where prices continually decrease, and everyone loses out. Or do you feel that the number and popularity of digital scrapbookers is increasing enough to support all of the new designers out there? Thoughts?

I wanted to give my thoughts to the subject, even though I don't consider myself a "designer" especially since I don't sell anything! But who knows, maybe one day I will and so that is why I felt it relevant to read it and jot down my thoughts on the subject.

First of all every person has the right to design. There are no rules, maybe standards (eg. 300dpi, etc)Who has the right to play judge and "god" over who designs or even over who sells their work? No body has that right, but everyone has the choice as to whether or not to buy a particular kit. I agree, that the market is flooded with designers and kits,but not in a bad way. It gives one more choice, it opens up the way for new up and coming designers. People who think there should be a limited amount of designers in the stores/digi-scrapping world are foolish. Who would want to go shopping for clothes and shoes if you only had 3 stores or a few brand names to choose from? Wouldn't that be so dull?
I think that having a huge market is versatile and interesting. To me, the ones complaining are the ones who can't handle the competition. This in turn makes them spit out kits faster than what they can handle and in turn reduces their "quality" and they also give out less in a kit. This is just what I have seen sometimes, not saying everyone is like that.

Another point: Who calls the shots? Who says who the top designers are or who the big names are? I have a lot of designers I consider to be like, "wow!" and "I'll never be as good as her!"-but ask someone else-who says these same people are their most liked? I wish I could name names, but that wouldn't be fair.
To me, the ones i like and know and am awed by are simply the ones whose designs I like, nothing more, nothing less.

We all have different tastes and styles. My point is "If you don't like it you don't buy it". But don't harp on the designer or her kits just because you don't like her style.

I think that some are better at scrapping-the actual process of putting kits and photos together than they are at maybe designing kits. But that doesn't mean they can't or shouldn't be allowed to try design.The same is said in reverse. Some designers are better at designing than at putting layouts together, that does not mean they can't do it!)(the same is said of actors, -look at how many can sing too? were they told, "Because you are an actor, the music industry is not for you? no!)
I know a lot of designers have started off as scrappers and their fist kits weren't exactly to-die-for, did that deter them? No, in fact, today, if you look at those same designers, their work is outstanding. They have grown, learnt, progressed. To the extent that you know of them, you see their work around at a lot of places. There are a lot of "top" designers I know of and frankly, I don't like their kits. Does that give me the right to say,"Down with you! You shouldn't be designing because I think your kits are crap" ? Of course not.
All it means is simply, that my tastes fall elsewhere.

I think alot of people fall into the "safe mode" areena. They tend to stick to the well-liked and well-known designers that they normally buy from, and while there is nothing wrong with this, they limit themselves. New designers are popping up all around, and some are really talented. Have you checked out the apprentice designers at Scrap artist? There is a good example of how talent springs up.
Some people wear blinkers and while remaining loyal to the designer they normally buy from, they miss out on a lot that way.

It is alot like most things in life-for instance, coming out of College after just earning my Interior Decorating Diploma, I couldn't get a job in that field. I was told, "you need at least 5 years field working experience". How could I have that, just fresh out of college? It is the same with Digital designs-how can you expect a newbie at designing to obtain a good reputation for their work if no one is willing to buy from them even when their products are good quality and top notch?

Another point: What is it about , like some said in that thread, if you can't bring something new and exciting into the market then why bother? How mean is that? I am sorry, but the human brain is limited as to originality. I have already seen a few kits that although are not copied as such, the idea or maybe something in the design is similar to another one,right down to the naming of the kit. Often merely by
coincidence. Although we are all different, we often have the same thoughts, ideas and design processes. You see this with a lot of things: movie themes, song words, fashion, even the way you put together a scrap page-who says it is original? Who says you thought of it first?

You see this with everything-in fashion, in magazine articles, in art, in books-story lines, movies-story lines. It's hard to be completely 100% original. Even in innovation, we may think we are the first to think of something, and when it comes to patenting it, we may find the idea was put into practise a long time before we thought of it!

Another thing is that styles and needs change all the time. Digital design, the way I see it, is alot like fashion. I think that as time progresses, the styles will change, people won't always be looking for the same thing, and the current kits on the market might become uninspiring. The same can be said of the designer one sticks to, she obviously has a certain style that she sticks to, her trademark, and this may become outdated, it may become redundant. That same loyal customer of hers may in fact become bored of her work and start to look elsewhere. Hence the need for new designers.
We all need to start somewhere, actors, authors,musicians congressmen, whatever! You don't just get born something-maybe the talent is there, but you have to WORK for it, you have put yourself out there.

It is hard to take that step, everyone fears rejection.

Another thing that was mentioned is the thing about freebies, that those who give away a lot of freebies hurt the digital market. Because this means, according to them, that this means less people buying. Not necessarily. A lot of designers give away "parts" of their kits, this is a good idea as most of the time the whole kit is for sale and if you download part of that kit as a freebie, it is an incentive to want to buy the rest of the kit. (just the way I see it). Also a lot of designers started out that way-by giving out freebies, to build up a fan base,to become well known. So that by the time they start selling their kits they already have a trusted and loyal consumer base, and by thanking these continuing to support them, they give them freebies. Besides, if you want to give away stuff, who has the right to tell you that you can't? I love to give stuff away. Are my products inferior? Maybe so, in the sense some of them are not 300dpi, and I don't have the program es needed to make elements. I stick to papers. Does that deter me from making stuff for free? Hell no and I won't be beaten down by those who think that I am not good enough to make things for free, 300dpi or not! If you don't like it or don't want it, the rule with anything free is :THEN DON'T DOWNLOAD IT. It's that simple.

Anyway I felt I needed and wanted to say this. When I have the proper programme, I plan to learn a hang of a lot more and to create digital kits that are 300 dpi, that are beautiful (to me, and to those that think so too)and if I can or want to, sell them. No new designer or for that matter, wanna-be designer should be discouraged into thinking that there is no place on the market for her work, or that her work is
not good enough, ugly or been-there, done-that. We all have a right to create, and to share. Someone else on this planet is sure to like your work.

That's it from me (that was long enough!!)