“The design space is oversaturated.” “Graphic designers do not make good money in Nigeria.” “The design space is not valued.”
Let’s discuss this. (Long post)
Over the past few days, the design community has been dragging one or two persons.
First, it was Moses Bliss and the whole conversation about how graphic designers are undervalued in Nigeria, How people talk down on the skill like it’s nothing serious.
Then recently, there was another take from a frustrated guy, claiming that graphic designers can not buy cars, that designers are not successful or don’t make good money in Nigeria. Whether that was for engagement, a hot take, or just rage bait, I honestly don’t know.
People also keep saying that the design space is oversaturated.
Yes, it is. But let’s be honest, it’s not saturated with skilled designers. It’s saturated with half-baked ones.
People who only know tools but don’t understand design. People who don’t know the business side of it. People who can’t solve real problems but are already calling themselves designers. That’s the real issue.
Here’s the part nobody wants to admit, many of the same designers complaining today helped create this problem.
Not long ago, and even till now, there is this wave of free classes everywhere. “Join my design class.” “₦1K course.” “₦5K masterclass.” It became a cycle, free class today, paid class next week.
It wasn’t about building solid designers. It was about making quick money from newbies.
And that brought in hundreds, thousands of people. But only a very small percentage actually went deep, learned properly, and built something meaningful. The rest, just noise in the space.
I myself also came in through one of those free classes too. There were hundreds of us. But how many actually took it seriously? Very few.
The difference is some people decided to go deeper, to be intentional, to actually build with the skill. And once you do that, your perspective changes. You start seeing what’s actually possible.
Because just like every other profession, design is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It is not fraud. It is not “Yahoo Yahoo.”
You don’t just learn small tools today and expect big money tomorrow. You have to actually grow in it, learn properly, understand it, pick a niche, and build over time.
I started with ₦1K, ₦5K, ₦10K jobs. Then I upskilled, added motion design and video editing to my skill set, which are all still under graphic design. Because design is broad. It’s not just flyers. There’s so much more you can grow into.
So when people say design doesn’t pay, or designers are not valued, I just think, what did we expect?
When you mass produce underprepared designers, price skills cheaply, and focus more on selling design to designers instead of solving real problems, what outcome were you expecting?
Now the same space is complaining about saturation, low value, and lack of respect. WHAT AN IRONY!
But the truth is, we contributed to it.
The problem is not just saturation.
It’s dilution.
That’s all I’ll say for now.
Would love to also hear your thoughts.