I am a designer living and working in Halifax.
You can see what I make for fun here, what I make for a living here, or follow me on twitter. You can also send me an old fashioned email.
(Actually, I am both.)
The author has a good point. There are a huge number of people marketing themselves as designers when really all they have is a copy of Photoshop and Firefox open to Smashing Magazine.
But I feel exactly like the person the author describes.
I’ve been teaching myself design over the past 3 years, and while I think I am doing ok, there is a ton I still don’t know. When I get a website project, I want to know what I should be doing before I open up photoshop. When I am coding a project, I want to know how to create my own solutions rather than relying on Google.
How do I get there?
I feel like one of those Photoshop + SmashingMag guys sometimes. It depends on the project, but there are some with which I still struggle.
Especially large projects or certain projects, I’m very amazed at how seemingly easy it is for some designers to know exactly what is needed.
It is fine to be inspired and even use new things you see from other designers. Really, nothing is completely original anymore. But I think it’s pretty easy to tell an educated (school OR self taught) designer from a hack if you’re one of those educated designers.
The real problem is that clients can’t tell the difference. They’re not educated on the matter (gross generalization). What they’re looking for is a solution within their budget. If you were to hold up two pieces of work solving the same problem - one from an educated designer, and the other from an un-educated one, I’d put a lot of money on the client not being able to tell you why one was better than the other. They’d probably tell you “whichever one costs less” or that they like the blue one, because their Wife’s favorite colour is blue.
That is the Good Designer’s real enemy. Not the armchair-photoshoppin’-cheap guy. This goes beyond blaming the client for everything that goes wrong. You can’t get away with that, but you can place blame on the patrons of the design industry for not supporting the professionals.
Like, would you really trust the cheaper dentist?
