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June 13, 2007

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Outstanding post. Bravo! Though I have to confess as a designer (and manager of designers) I'm often frustrated by designers myself.

Because there are more jobs than candidates in my neck of the woods our industry is filled with people who do not have formal design or visual communications training. The Truth is that anyone can learn Photoshop and CSS. Anyone can spend a day at an Edward Tufte lecture and describe themselves "trained" (I've seen more than one resume with a Tufte conference listed as an accomplishment).

Desperate employers often hire under-qualified candidates because they believe they are hiring someone for their software skills rather than their critical problem solving capacity. I am an admitted "design school snob." What Design school teaches is critical thinking. When critical thinking fails, so does design. Everyone in the food chain is responsible for critical thinking. Including the designers. Though they are rarely hired for - or held accountable for it. Then when the food chain fails designers are the obvious and easy target. And they often deserve the blame.

Excellent topic.

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