10 Problems Only Graphic And Web Designers Will Understand
8. Adobe Has Become The Matrix, And Its Products Are The Agents
Adobe bought out its chief competitor, Macromedia, on Dec. 3, 2005, giving it the Flash and Dreamweaver apps and killing Illustrator's chief competitor, Freehand. They then started to offer its products in Creative Suite bundles, with different packages aimed at different users. The Master Collection cost about $2,000 U.S. / £1,300 U.K. (less if you were upgrading or with the education discount), but you could usually get by using the same collection for a few product cycles. Now Adobe has adopted a new approach: their new Creative Cloud has designers renting software as opposed to buying it outright. You have two choices: rent just Photoshop/Lightroom for $9.99 / £6.50 a month; just one of Adobes other apps for $19.99 / £13 a month; or the whole Creative Cloud Suite for $49.99 / £32.70 a month. That last package is $600 / £392 a year! Any designer worth his fee uses more than just one application to do all of his work. A print designer/graphic artist will require (at a minimum) Photoshop for photo editing, Illustrator for graphics, and InDesign for layout purposes. If that work needs to be translated to the Web, then Dreamweaver is a necessary addition.This means designers have to buy into the whole suite idea in order to have all of their tools in one place. Sure, there are alternatives to the programs that Adobe offers. A lot of them are free, or cost very little. But when you need to take your work to the print shop, theyre most likely going to be using the Adobe products - it has all of the designers locked into an ecosystem they cant escape.
