[paddy]

While I'm not entirely sure why you've got my name and “summer placement”
in inverted commas, I will explain, for the last time, why I do free/or cheap work.

I do graphic design for fun. I would love it to be my job but at the moment I don't believe that my design is of a high enough standard to be offended by a request for free work. In the future perhaps I will be well paid for my designing skill, but right now I'm happy just doing what I do.

I'd rather do free design for lots of people than paid design for no one. If you are lucky enough to be able to make a living out of designing then that's wonderful for you, but I doubt that a person posting a request on a design forum for a $25 logo is going to make a very good future client for you.

And to say that I am undermining all of the professional designers on the forums is a total joke. Anyone I'm paying for professional graphic design and identity work would damn well need to spend a good few hours getting to know my company, doing some real research and making some options, not spend 45 minutes dicking about in Illustrator and then give me a final product.

You get what you pay for, and this client, however happy they might be with what the thread has produced so far, clearly does not understand the value of a strong, comprehensive branding system. If they are offering $25-$65 for an identity it's probably pretty safe to say that no amount of insulting posts or **** taking will make them see that they should be spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on their branding.

So take your designer's pride, set it aside for a moment, and ask yourself “Why do I care that I am being undercut on a client I didn't want in the first place?”

EDIT: And regarding the PM comment. Why go to PM when we have a perfectly good thread right here?