In Defense of Design

I've had these thoughts brewing in my brain for a few weeks now. And the topic is now cemented in my brain after seeing a pin entitled "Don't Spend Money On Graphic Design." Ouch.

I always tell people that I started to love design when I learned how to manipulate the HTML on my MySpace profile. Getting creative with the background color and <bold> tags. It began my love affair with computers and by extension, print and web design.

In college I was a Mass Communication Design major which, admittedly, forced to learn a little about a lot. Everything from film/television critiques to photography to advertising. But my favorites were always the design classes. I honed my graphic design skills and learned the basic principles along the way. After college I decided to go my own way with graphic design and created BGD. I have learned so much in the 3 years I've been doing this and I have so much more knowledge to gain.

Through this venture in to the design world I have met other designers who inspire me daily. I believe I have become a better designer in seeing their work. Then, there is the flip side. It is becoming more frequent that I see people with no formal training or even knowledge of how to use Photoshop creating things that they give away for free or, sometimes, attempt to sell.

I don't want this to be misconstrued as me trying to hinder creativity in any way. By all means, have at Photoshop! Play with the tools! Try new things! And I'm also not trying to say that if you don't follow every graphic design principle that makes you a bad designer.

I'm saying don't steal other people's ideas. I'm urging you to not recreate things that aren't yours. I'm saying it cheapens what I (and millions of designers) do every day when someone takes 5 minutes to change the color and font in a Word Document and pass off a "printable" as graphic design. Any design that isn't carefully looked over or edited. Or uses Papyrus. Or is grammatically incorrect. Or has improper kerning.

I understand that everyone is looking for a deal these days but the time and effort that goes in to a piece of art should mean something. I have seen countless Etsy sellers who undercut prices and therefore make it harder for the rest of us who value our work to make a living.

End rant. Thanks for listening.


{CMYK design}