Strike the Match

This one goes out to the designers in the house.

Regularly at the Studio we talk money and the value we provide to our clients vs the value we ask in return. While we are dedicated to telling the best stories, money is how we keep doing that. We are after all a business and hold stead that the work we do is valuable. The price we put forward to our clients is a fair and equitable exchange of value.

This sounds easy enough but it has taken years of not getting that right and a lot of money left on the table.

A Past of Small Paychecks

I’ve been paid poorly in my past. I have perpetually undervalued myself.

I am a self-taught designer. From a tertiary education perspective, I am more accountant than designer (Not that I remember much of that education). This means that when I was a younger man, I set my future up for failure and accepted far less than what I should have been worth.

My first designer role I just under $50k back in 2012. This is a standard rate for a junior. By default at this role I was the lead designer (the only designer). I was the main point of contact for our clients. I was the tech support. I was the film maker. I was overworked.

I was used to that. I have been running my own and in partnerships since 2008. I have started multiple projects and run teams since 2009. I have freelanced and taken slight pivots throughout that time.

I have had things fail along that way. I have had sleepless nights. I have slept in a makeshift bed at an office more than a few time. I busted my ass for very little pay and accepted that because I chose it.

I chose to over work for less pay in my first role. I didn’t crack 6 figures until 2020.

It took me 10 years to get to double my value. I still wasn’t being paid an equivalent value I was providing. It was because I wasn’t putting myself forward. In the last business I will every be an employee at I got my last pay rise because a lot of my team were getting within 15% of what I was being paid (a couple were getting paid far more than me [They were fucking worth it too]).

I don’t blame my former workplaces, I blame my inability to fight for myself in the same way I would fight for someone else.

I didn’t value my own value. I bet you don’t either.

Sell yourself like someone else depends on it

While I’m not a trained designer, I have been trained in the writing and musings of Mike Monteiro. He’s the “Fuck You, Pay Me” Designer. He’s the “Ruined by Design” Designer. He’s the guy that consolidated my appreciation for the craft of a salesperson and solving problems with design.

I do believe that Good Design doesn’t sell itself. I, like Mike, believe the designer has to do the selling.

For every job I have had, the designer who presented Josh Tregenza to the potential employers expected the good designer to sell itself. That designer (Me) believed didn’t state how valuable Josh was.

You are numb to how valuable you really are.

We know all our faults, we know the script we should be following, we know the anxieties that will crumble the house of cards we call confidence.

We want to be perfect. That blinds us to our true value.

How do you we stop this? Well we stop getting in our own way and treat ourselves like someone else, like our employee. By making this detachment we are able to become more persuasive. It unlocks our ability to care for another. It helps us build self-esteem. So let’s follow through with this and split apart Josh and another person who Josh is in charge of. Let’s call this person James (My middle name). James needs to pay rent, James needs to eat, James wants to take their partner out on a date.

James needs Josh to do that. Josh can either stand in the way and deprive James or he can vouch for James and make sure he is taken care of. Josh could dehumanise James and come up with all the reasons why James shouldn’t be paid his value or he could look to the equitable value that James consistently provides and make sure they get equivalent remuneration.

Get out of your own way and be valued for the work you provide.

Strike the match

En masse we are being undervalued and exploited by others. No one is exempt. Writers, actors, delivery persons and artists are standing up for their right to a fair and equitable value distribution. Despite what some designers say, we are not immune to this devaluation. We cannot seize the opportunity veiled in the crisis for others and side step like we are a magical and privileged folk who are the only ones who deliver true value. Our craft is as important as pouring coffee or cleaning homes.

We all deserve to be paid our worth. No more, no less.

It will seem hard, even burdensome to stand up for your value. But you should. If you put in the work that you have been contracted to do, you deserve it’s equitable value.

You deserve to be paid well. You do good work and should have that reflected in life you get to lead. Just like countless others across a vast array of jobs and professions.

You are valuable and you should be valued as such. Anyone who seeks to devalue and deprive you and others of that value, is depriving humanity itself.