How Absurdly Wealthy Did I Get Selling Graphic Designs In 2024?

It’s a new year and time to do my annual business review.  I changed the title this year to poke some fun at myself and the online hustle community where everyone (everyone who is on social media at least) seems to be getting rich and buying Lambos from their amazing business.  We all know reality is different.

If you’re not familiar with my story I semi-retired to 20 hours a week at my main job in 2017 after reaching financial independence years before.  Since then much of my newly freed time has been spent on what started as a fun side hustle and has turned into a nice little business of doing graphic design. 

Here’s my business earnings history by year:

• 2017 – $1,136
• 2018 – $2,751
• 2019 – $7,143
• 2020 – $14,932
• 2021 – $20,743
• 2022 – $19,642
• 2023 – $18,268

As you can see I was more than doubling my earnings each year from 2017 – 2020, then in 2022 I had my first year of decline.  And then artificial intelligence entered the picture and well, things have changed…

 

Exciting, Scary, & Weird

In last years post I wrote about AI for the first time and how it’s been a massive disruptor in print-on-demand (POD) industry which is my primary way of making money selling artwork.  Unless you’ve been under a rock you know that AI is disrupting seemingly everything and its progression and influence only seem to be accelerating.  It’s exciting and scary at the same time, and the world is getting weird.

The POD websites and business I sell on faced continued pressure from AI in 2024.  They are flooded with new sellers who are solely using AI and pumping out hundreds and thousands of graphics at a time.  A large portion of these are kinda crappy, not so much in the artwork itself but in the fact that most AI sites only give a low resolution image that’s not really suitable to get enlarged on a t-shirt etc. 

So to maintain quality control the selling sites have had to beef up their algorithms and tools (and thus staff) to deal with it.  Not to mention their server capacity and infrastructure.  In sum all of this cuts into their profits, so in turn they have cut artist royalty rates, added artist fees, and or raised prices.  Artists like me are continually getting squeezed, and that’s life. 

To be clear, I am using AI.  To maintain competitiveness it’s essential.  But I’m an artist who can create without it and who built a business without it.  So I use AI for ideas, color palettes, and layouts, and rarely if ever use it as a sole provider of a graphic. 

Where this is all going I don’t know, but it’s clear that in graphic design (as well as music and many other artistic endeavors), the public will be increasingly appreciating and consuming art created by an algorithm on a server and not a human being.  I’m not really comfortable with that but no one asked me.  It’s all happening fast and right in front of our noses.

As if you needed any more evidence of the weird world AI is pushing us towards, here’s a conversational AI podcast about this blog post (the one you’re reading now) from two non-humans who seem very human and who really dig me, haha.  No actual human podcasters ever mention me or my blog, so at least I have these two.  I have cyborg fans!

So how much did I make in 2024?

 

2024

Ok, enough about the crazy future of being ruled by robot overlords, let’s get to the money.  In 2024 my business made $15,082.  That’s a 17.4% decline from 2023. 

Ouch. 

As with everything I try to find the positive and lo and behold I made exactly $22 more than the federal poverty line for an individual, which is $15,060.  What a weird coincidence. 

So I can go to bed thinking “Well it sucks that things have been declining but if this were still my only income I would not qualify as being below the poverty line, from selling art online…. A thing that wasn’t even a thing a mere decade and a half ago.”  

Life is still good 🙂

As I’ve shown in posts from previous years, here’s a chart of my monthly earnings in 2024:

 

Like many years prior December was my biggest month and the summer months are usually great for me since most of my designs are about cycling, climbing, paddling, and our national parks – things that go well with summer.    

 

Six Figure Artist

To date I have made $100,012 in my graphic arts business in total. 

Boom – I barely crested $100k!  It’s pretty cool that I’ve made six figures selling art online in 8 years.  

Here’s a chart of my total earnings by month since I started the business.

 

I’m still often astonished that I’ve been able to do this, especially coming from a career in a technical field.  We have more tools today to be creative and – if you choose – to make money from your creativity than ever before.  Yes AI is disrupting all of it but I’m gonna stay positive and have faith that we’ll figure it out.

The world is amazing, what a great time to be alive!

 

The Joy Of Work

What started as a side hustle and then became a business is now slowly shrinking into a waning business.  I don’t know what the future holds for designers and the POD industry. 

But I do know that I enjoy the work, and finding work you enjoy is a blessing from on high.  So I will continue to design and try to sell my designs, because I know they motivate folks to get outside and be active.  And that makes me happy.