well... if in Indonesia $5 is the going rate then they do value they work
Is good income there and attractive to buy they services over here
I do agree this is kill for european industry but this is the other side of the stick.
All fair enough points...personally I couldn't justify only paying a fiver though...I'd feel like I was robbing them, but it would be a conflict of interest with the work I do anyway.
Micropayments and the globalisation of the market place will kill off a lot of service industries in the west once people understand that certain skillsets are way cheaper on the other side of the world than here. Its like the outsourcing of call centres and IT, why spend £500 getting your artwork done in the UK when you could have it done elsewhere in the world for £50 or £5? You'll be getting the same level of service for a fraction of the cost. Think on it that way.
On another note but a similar vein, I was sourcing some printed flyers recently. Local based (by that I mean UK) prices were X for 5,000. I went with a company I know of that has .co.uk website which was printed in Germany, shipped via fedex and I got double the quantity and double sided on the a better material for less than any UK printer and in a lot of cases quicker too.
Who is to say that the company charging you £500 for your artwork isn't having that work done in Indonesia for a £5? I know of a UK designer who outsources his web design out to those guys and profits the rest. I got some branded packaging done, chose a UK company thinking it would be quick, they quoted 6 weeks, but it took 2 months then I realised they probably ordered it through alibaba and I felt robbed.
I've never heard of them but may be that's because I'm in Australia, haven't seen anything similar to that here. I will add them to my list of resources to check out.