Spend too much time doing masking of images?

[pauland]

Sten, I'm sure you're right, but I'd always advise caution in evaluating a service on such a small sample. If your friend has been using the service with good results, then as you say it must be good. I think the funding level for the service does allow them to do good work if they have enough volume and a low cost base.

As a student I had a vacation job in a factory making painting sets. There was a specific department that produced customer samples for evaluation, prior to orders being taken and this department made absolutely sure that all samples sent to potential clients were flawless. The same was definitely not true of the main production runs that produced good product but not to the same QC standards as was used for the samples.

Professionally I have seen companies sell services on the basis of very experienced specialists doing pre-sales work that wowed the potential customer, but execution of the main body of work was frequently delegated to much less experienced staff while some of those specialists contiuned pre-sales work with other potential clients.

In one case I did an audit of part of a small goverment department that had outsourced it's IT infrastructure to a commercial company, transferring employees into that company and while the majority of the IT staff remained in place, the more able/specialised IT staff were then re-deployed by the IT company in supporting work in other organisations and only returned to their original department when less able staff required assistance.

I could go on, but I have seen enough "questionable" behaviour by companies to gain clients that I do advise caution generally on the basis of free samples. No consumer organisation would recommend a company on such a basis. Companies naturally try harder to win new customers.

Since your recommendation is on the basis of your friends experience in addition to your sample, then all looks good and it's good to know that such useful services are out there.

I'm afraid to say I'll continue to exercise some caution with online companies I'm not well aquainted with - things don't always turn out so well.

[netsi]

Hi Pauland,
I am happy to read Your latest reply here. I see Your point, and for a moment there I perhaps was a litle naive. I know simular stories where companies goes very far to gain orders or new customers, giving away in the expectation to at a later time to regain the extra resurces put into "catching" a new customer. It is a factor which ofcause should be taken into account.

[James Allen]

The reason clippingimages.com is so cheap is that it is based in Bangladesh, where wages are extremely low. See the ‘About us’ page.

It does seem like a good service. I sense they would be afraid to receive any bad publicity, so they would probably re-do any images you were not happy with. They have 80 plus staff earning nickels and dimes, so I doubt re-doing work is a problem.

At these small rates, if you ever did find the service unsatisfactory, it would only cost you pennies to find out, unless you’re doing bulk orders.

If you found your credit card was abused, the card company will refund, if you persist, but it is doubtful this would happen because a company like that can lose a great deal from bad publicity.

[netsi]

Hi James,
I know this is a bit off topic here, but actually in my post I write a litle about my split opponion about using such cheap services. It is killing the local masking bureaues (for instance here in Denmark) as the simply cannot compete with such prices, one of the reasons that in Denmark the wages are not nickels and dimes (which again is because of the cost of living here). This development is spreading the whole time, and even into the job I do - being a webdeveloper - we are sending larger and larger parts of webprojects to places where people work for nickels and dimes. To keep up with such competition is getting harder and harder and from time to time makes me wonder when I will be sacked and out of job, because I am too expensive.

It is a big focus here in Denmark. The queen even addressed it in her anual new years speach to the Danish people. There was a time when we here in Denmark (and other western countries I guess) thought that if only we keept the know-how and worked smarter, we could still make a living from sending the labor heavy tasks to cheap labor countries like India and China, everything would stay on status que for us. It seems now how ever that more and mores sophisticated tasks are moving "out there" to the (still) cheap labor contries, and then what are we going to make a living from here in the luxurious and wages heave western contries? This question is one of the ones which my (litle) mind is often touching :-)

Sorry for this spin off topic, I am just curious about what you may think :-)

[aridzone]

Spreading the wealth around? If things continue the way they are, we will be the ones making nickles and dimes. Then China, India and third world countries will be sending their work our way!

[netsi]

Hi Aridzone,
Well, you should never say never, and history has shown that "Times They Are a-Changin'" :-) Once it was the Romans, for a long period now it has been the western countries - who knows how things look in 30 years? :-)

[pauland]

To keep up with such competition is getting harder and harder and from time to time makes me wonder when I will be sacked and out of job, because I am too expensive.

And the irony is that you are recommending services that helps that happen!

The global economy is difficullt. I guess it averages out over time, but transition is painful. I guess it's always been painful in the developing world and we in the west are coming to appreciate what painful is. Many of my former co-workers have now been replaced by outsourced labour with development shifted to the east.

I guess this is now way OT and in dangerous territory.

[James Allen]

Hi Sten,

You raised some interesting and relevant points about this subject. A lot of the work sourced out to places like India and China is tedious, repetitive, and often involves blatant copying. Many Chinese and Indian parents send their children to Western universities for education. When it comes to art, the main creative backbone is almost impossible to outsource. If a director in Hollywood needs a great script, he won’t be going to India. If a design agency in London needs great designs, they won’t be going to China. On the other hand they would be glad to let a building full of Indians produce their masking.

At the moment if you hire Indian designers to do logos, you get a set of formula assembly-line images, which I wouldn’t touch with a barge pole. A bunch of people dissect typical Western logos and make similar images. They are like ghosts of what was once innovative, containing little, if any originality. In the West there is a ‘cutting edge’ of innovation and creativity. By the time this filters down to India it is a very ‘worn and rounded edge’.

In time, when their educational institutions catch up to ours, India and China may catch up in terms of creativity, but when they do there will be two important changes:

1) They will be charging more by then, and

2) There will still be cultural differences that will probably keep most Western design agencies using local talent.

While a chunk of repetitive and low grade creative work will certainly move to China, India and South America, the best quality work will remain with us for a long time yet.

For this reason I remain positive.

[handrawn]

the world economy is an important subject but it does not fit the 'graphics and animation' forum, and would be better discussed in off-topic.......... thanks

[netsi]

Hi Handrawn,
Thank you for reminding us about this - I would ask people to continue any off-topic discussions related to the above subject to my blog then, here the discussion could be continued :-)