Design Pickle Review: Did I Just Get Ripped Off?

My unfiltered, ruthless Design Pickle review. It did NOT go well 😂
🎬 Register for the FREE On-demand video masterclass training, "The Automated Clients-on-Demand Website Blueprint for Service Businesses" Just go to: wesmcdowell.com/training
🤑 Need website hosting? Grab my exclusive affiliate discount and save up to 80% off normal hosting price: wesmcdowell.com/hosting

[@WesMcDowellInc]

Ready to make smarter design decisions for your business? Watch this video next to ensure your small business thrives! - kzbin.info/door/Mq1R1LgS04lIKdpLh_OS1w

[@user-df2fg6mz7h]

I used to work there, they outsource all their designers from latin America and the philipines and they pay 7 dollars per hour, the level of toxicity and stress designers are put in there is awful, you get assigned 7 clients and have to deliver everything they ask within the day, and if a client is not satisfied with the work a designer makes they get so much sht for it, there’s a strike system, you get 3 in a quarter and you get suspension without payment. The CEO is an awful person that constantly puts people down on the quarterly meeting saying things like “this is the real world, if you don’t like it you can leave”. I remember I was working there in the pandemic and none of us had a real option to leave, and they knew that that’s why they took advantage of all the designers.

[@WesMcDowellInc]

oh damn I had no idea 🫣😣

[@scalemodeltutor9841]

Oh well, that explains everything. I hope you’re in a better job now.

[@Elle_M717]

I'm a freelance graphic designer. Thanks to this video I know what NOT to do.

[@WesMcDowellInc]

Always important to know what to do and what NOT to do 😊

[@samkarazi]

OMG! Thank you! You saved my ass!!! I have a call scheduled with them 2 hours from now, just cancelled it while watching your video.

[@WesMcDowellInc]

Glad to hear that! Cuz they're GOOD on those calls, they'd have gotten you I'm sure!

[@WesMcDowellInc]

For all my best marketing tips and strategies, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss a thing kzbin.info/door/Mq1R1LgS04lIKdpLh_OS1w

[@OfficialClintJames]

When you approach design like it's a commodity, you're going to get junior work every time. The value lies in the fidelity you have with the designer. You communicate well with them, they communicate well with your audience.

[@WesMcDowellInc]

So true!

[@MenachemPritzker]

I used design pickle a couple of years ago, with exactly the same results. I didn't have nearly the same level of complex needs as you did, but experienced exactly the same level of mediocre results. Your statement that the level of quality was the same as the cheapest level of fiverr gig really hit the nail on the head.

[@WesMcDowellInc]

So sorry you had to go through it too!

[@artificiallyintelligenthumans]

Wonderful review, Wes. Thank you for being up front and honest about your experience. It's the only way they're going to get better and you're doing such a service for potential clients who are using their hard earned time and money on a service like this. Well done.

[@brettmorris4889]

As someone who has been in motion for years, the reference you shared would have been created by a top tier studio, with a team working on it for at minimum, two months. Creative director, art director, copy writer, designers, animators, editors, sound designers and colourists.The cost for a project like that would have been $100k +. It's not surprising that the design pickle couldn't hit the same quality. There's levels to motion, artists spend years perfecting design and timing, and cannot simply be replaced at low cost. Appreciate your perspective on the situation, and how you managed experience, shame you didn't get what you wanted.

[@WesMcDowellInc]

Thanks for that perspective Brett, its crazy that they wouldn't have seen what I wanted, and ran it against what they knew their designers could actually accomplish and took me on regardless. So unethical.

[@acvb33]

TL;DR: Proceed with extra cautions if you ever want to hire/join Design Pickle. For designers: they definitely don't have Paid Time Off anymore now... I used to work there, back when the work environment still manageable and nice. But yeah, right before I left, they limit the hours a client get per day (I think it was 2-2.5 hours per day per client) so I kinda get why it takes 2 weeks for that video/motion task of yours. Sadly, designer skills there can be...very variative (?). Like, I have 10 years experience, I chose to work there because $8/hr is obviously better compared to $3/hour local office job. BUT, clients won't know which designer they're gonna be paired with. They could be a fresh-grad, a senior, etc. But you pay the same for random roulette of designers. Another thing is, yeah, layers of management sucks. Some team leader are heavily micromanaging designers, up to the point where designers just quit because of that. My team leader was nice though, they allow screenshots approval on client chat (where I think it was really frowned upon on other teams).

[@elchorepunk]

Pay for professional people, period. You can't get what you want for what you pay to those global crappy companies.

[@AdQuantics]

what do you recommend instead?

[@adamratliff3590]

Stuff like this is so helpful, you have no idea. Honest and fair feedback, so many times there are companies that do this, then in the end make you sound unreasonable. I had same experience with a website developer, who made me feel like I was so demanding when they set all the deadlines and told me what they could do up front. As someone who has looked into this service for my small business, I appreciate your honesty and time to protect other small businesses with this information.

[@destinyschild5768]

What Design Pickle is doing is not new. I work at a digital marketing agency where the word "expert" is used often on the website. Although we're not a bunch of beginners, I wouldn't say we're experts in marketing (at least not all of us). Tbh some of the stuff we're doing we're just guessing and learning as we go. Another thing is that a lot of agencies are set up this way where they hire people who are cheaper (thus less experienced) to do the work. Actually, there's a particular agency we work with where they call themselves "Shopify Experts" on their website and have case studies when in reality they have no experts and outsource everything to other agencies (which includes my agency). None of their clients know and they are paying a premium for nothing. What some of these agencies do are pretty shady so you're not wrong for wanting to hire a freelancer instead but you still have to be careful because some people have fake portfolios.

[@WesMcDowellInc]

Interesting 🤔 ... thanks for the insights. It's so true.

[@norriehansen9312]

It's like you said, there's no such thing as 'unlimited' graphic design. In the same way 'all you can eat' isn't that - it's 'all you can eat within the opening hours of the restaurant'. Designers have 8 hour work days, and work on other client projects, like any other agency. It's a marketing ploy with caveats. The model works for certain businesses though. I think we're only going to see more of these crop up, especially one-man 'unlimited design agencies', given the success of Design Joy. The fact Brett has now created a course teaching freelancers how to make $25k a month selling 'productised services' (AKA unlimited design) and had more than 2,000 students is testament to that. The unlimited design market is about to be flooded, but the GOOD, high-quality unlimited design market? Dry as a bone.

[@pencap29]

As a former Graphic Designer, I am naturally very sceptical about companies that claim to offer unlimited design, because of the very reasons you discovered. They should tweak their marketing to target those who need just low quality graphic design and not say they can consistently deliver high-quality design (or similar wording). But the fact that they did not issue a refund after all of your time invested in trying to make it work is completely unacceptable as well. Thanks for making this video, Wes. Well done here.

[@WesMcDowellInc]

Thank you! And yes I agree. I'm sure there's a market for businesses just looking for low-level design work, and that's who they should be advertising themselves toward. And their sales staff should just be upfront with what they can actually deliver so that they don't over promise and under deliver. Hopefully they'll learn!

[@getonkilter8004]

Have you had any luck finding decent graphic designers through Upwork, Fiver etc? Its been a struggle for me. Thanks for all the great local business content!

[@WesMcDowellInc]

Its hit or miss TBH, but you just have to look at their portfolios and I like to give all serious candidates a small paid test to make sure they can do what I need. Cheers!

[@simplelession]

the thumbnail was actually not that bad but the first examples where horrible.

[@KennethFromSkarpt]

Always had a feeling that these kind of companies were too good to be true. There's just no way to have good quality and short delivery times, there always has to be a compromise in my experience.

[@WesMcDowellInc]

Yea, for sure. I definitely went in as a skeptic as well, but the sales call and how confident they seemed to be made me think this might actually work out. Sadly, no.

[@thehealinghiker]

That's an awful lot of money 😳 Never heard of these guys but thanks for telling us your experience. BTW, have you noticed an increase in your watch time hours this last week?! It's me. I've been bingewatching. You do a great job. I'm in the process of getting a website developed (paid a LOT of money ($10,000) and it's still not done after 8 months, so I can sympathize with your frustration over false promises) but if it ever gets done I want to know how to promote it, so I've REALLY been appreciating your knowledge. 🙏

[@WesMcDowellInc]

Good luck with your site - hope it gets done soon! and thx for subscribing 👏🙌

[@winstonsmith6204]

Your name is everything!!! If 4,000 people saw this, then they have probably lost 40,000 potential customers. Pennywise and Pound Foolish

[@maomao5112]

gosh thanks for this, I'm looking for Illustration Job and I stumbled upon their job posting and sent an application today HHAHAHAHHA again, THANK YOU SO MUCH

[@estudionudo706]

me too !!!

[@Browchitect]

Imagine how bad they performed that you didn’t feel bad at all to ask for refund!

[@josephgiunta4430]

All businesses want and need to make money, but when money is the primary goal, everyone suffers. It sounds as though design pickle is about making money - not about providing value for clients and designers alike. If they focused on service, they might find themselves much richer than they would now.

[@theunknown3632]

Good I did a research first before accepting their offer. Just today i received an offer from them to be part of their company. I got curious thats why im doing my research. Im seeing comments also about how they treated their employees and I don't wanna be part of it.

[@winstonsmith6204]

Me too. I was definitely considering them as a design shop, but the more I'm learning about this business model the more I'm learning that I probably will hire a Freelancer, after reading their testinonials and thoroughly reviewing and investigating their portfolio.

[@VirendraBG]

Can I hire you for UI and UX design only? I have Full Stack PHP, My SQL Developer with me.

[@WesMcDowellInc]

Hey Virenda, unfortunately I don't do any full project work anymore - but thanks for checking out my videos 😃

[@kayolifted1614]

Do you know of another company that you do like that’s better but similar ?

[@WesMcDowellInc]

Hmm, not really. The problem here is that if anyone were to do it better they'd have to charge a LOT more to get better talent. And at that point I'd just hire a dedicated freelance designer myself. I think this business model is mostly for businesses that aren't picky about the quality of the designs.

[@AmitBora206]

Hey, your content is great. Do you create and edit your own videos. And are you looking for a video editor. As I am a professional video editor and wants to edit your videos. I can show my work. If i get a reply.

[@WesMcDowellInc]

Sorry, not looking for any new editors at the moment.

[@ZafarKhanatlantisimc]

Thanks for sharing honest review. Ask for full refund.

[@WesMcDowellInc]

I did Zafar, I showed the whole thing in the video... they denied the request unfortunately.

[@winstonsmith6204]

They upsell their skill. I can't stand working people/companies that pull this crap

[@danilocervantes435]

I worked there for 3 years and boy it was such a disappointment. It all started good but it became so toxic. Designers don’t have opinion and our voice didn’t matter. At all. All they cared about was to please the client and I get it, it is important but even when clients where happy about your work, there was always a team of entitled quality reviewers that gave you sh*t about everything. They even controlled the number and the name of the layers you used in the files you delivered! And all that just for 7 dollars an hour? 👎🏼👎🏼👎🏼👎🏼👎🏼

[@WesMcDowellInc]

sorry to hear that! But as a client I can confidently say they didnt even care too much about me either. They cared about HAVING me as a client, but not about what I needed.

[@urban-pixel]

😂😂😂 been there and the designs I received from them… oh god 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ its the worse design service provider! They will waste your time and money don’t even think about it.

[@General4474]

Maybe you might consider the possibility that you were being too picky. Like you’re a designer yourself so effectively your standards are going to be extremely high if not nearly unreasonable and unrealistic. Where as there service is likely geared towards the non designer who is okay with just something that’s within the ballpark. Also I’m a web designer and why would you ever hire a designer like this? There’s a million websites that have the images you need.

[@WesMcDowellInc]

So you think for $1600/mo I shouldn't care about what I get back? Your thinking would be fine if that's how they marketed themselves. But they don't say "designs for people who don't care how good they are," lol. They claim they're actually GOOD. And they aren't.

[@General4474]

I guess everyone claims they’re good these days. Many if there actually making sales at 1600 per mon then we’re in the wrong business? That’s crazy.

[@destinyschild5768]

Who pays for “ballpark” design lol especially for $1600/month. You’re probably from design pickle🙄

[@giosasso]

No, he showed them what he was looking for. As he said, it was on them to acknowledge they were unable to match his expectations. $1600 /mth is not cheap. He paid for their top tier. And, their portfolio sets the expectation that their work is on par with a premium designer. Companies like these thrive because the average person or small company doesn't know anything about good design. Most people have low standards, so they can get away with sub-par design. The lesson learned: Don't try to fool a designer about good and bad design. A good designer would refuse the work if he knew he was unable to meet the client's expectations. Only a beginner believes they can do anything.

[@estudionudo706]

Wes thank you for your video, I almost sent the CV to apply in this company! It's very sad for me because I feel very excited when one of the HR send me an email to apply in this company. 😮‍💨 Lastly, I really like this motion graphic design, if you want a motion graphic designer to do it you can write me ;) ! I could send you a test demo of my work

[@stevegottenbass]

I thought they got your thumbnails pretty close to you're own design. Your animations are pretty unique and not like anything they would advertise on their site, so even higher experience designers would find it hard to nail your taste

[@WesMcDowellInc]

Then the sales ppl should have clocked that

[@CalienteDesign]

Great review. This reminds me of what happens when a Harvard grad starts a technology company and has no idea what the employees do. To them "freelance" equals "free"!