The DIY Era
A couple months ago, Design Observer posted an article about Designing Our Own Graves. It talked about this era that we’re in labeled the do-it-yourself era. All the time, you see shows on how to fix your own car, remodel a house, or some other design project. Now at first it seems interesting if you are one of the people that think they are capable of this, however, what about looking at it from the other side?
Professional designers spend years upon years in the industry in attempt to perfect their craft and become better designers, and it seems a little frustrating that this DYI era, “anyone can be a designer.” You see Wordpress sites going up everyday, and all of a sudden that person is a web designer. They figure out that Dreamweaver can do all of the work for them, so now they feel as though they can charge for their services. This bugs me a little.
Now before I continue, I can admit that I don’t have the formal training as a designer, however my degree became relevant and essential to where I am now. When I first learned about web design/development, I didn’t just settle in with the basics of how to make a website work. I studied countless hours (in my free time) about best practices, and different ways to approach projects. Aside from that, I also researched and learned about different design fundamentals. I knew I didn’t have that formal training so I went to get that knowledge myself.
Too often do I see people, even ones that I know, thinking that they are capable of designing and developing websites for others or companies with extreme ground level skills, and no desire to learn proper techniques. Essentially, these are the kinds of people that could take paying jobs away from people who spend big chunks of their life studying design. This does not seem healthy for a design industry. Aside from that, it doesn’t seem healthy for business owners’ own company to allow someone to handle their design work without the slightest idea of branding or design concepts.
Overall, it seems like the term customize has gotten confused with the term design. It seems like because of the fact that people know how to change a few colors inside of a downloaded Movable Type template, they label themselves designers. As much as I’d like to think that eventually people, both “customizers” and potential clients, will realize that it takes professionals for these kinds of jobs, I don’t think that will happen.
Seems that designers are shooting themselves in the foot by providing the thousands of free CMS templates that puts the control into the users hands, who then label themselves as designers. I don’t think the results of this are too extreme at this point, however, it certainly does not help the design industry. Is there a solution to this?
5 Comments
I have to admit I’m guilty myself of creating ‘designs’ for a couple of people. Not web designs, but ‘look and feel’ things, a couple of logos…
I did get basic training in this (back in the early 90s) and have been ‘working’ with Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign for number of years.
Yet, I’m not a designer – and I always tell people that. Still, they want to have something, as a favour, because they know they really suck themselves, and so I comply.
So, sorry about that
What to do about it is not an easy question. Get even better, educate people how to look (so that they actually SEE the difference), talk about it a lot. But even then chances are you’re arguing in front of a friendly audience and the people you want to reach will nonetheless stay deaf and blind and turn to the easy and cheap solutions.
I personally believe this is going to become even worse. Today, in this age of everyone ‘doing their thing’, everyone is a designer, a photographer, a movie-maker and a writer. And the tools they need for that become ever cheaper and ever more widely available.
Perhaps, as a professional, then, your only option is to become the purveyor of these tools. There is, after all, honour to be got from bringing technology to the masses, even while that may sometimes seem you’re drowning in a sea of anonymity.
I think we should face it: the age of the artist is over. We’re all artists now. Help us at least be good ones, then.
I think that if you got that basic training, I couldn’t include you in that category. You have a working knowledge of what design is.
This is definitely the age where everyone is a designer/photographer/etc. I love photography and shooting things but I never claim to be a photographer. The photographers example could be even worse then proclaimed “designers.”
I think it will just take [potential] clients alot of wisening up and research to separate the amateurs from the professionals.
Good observation. I can completely appriciate where this point of view is coming from. However I think no matter how good DIY tools get there will always be a clear distinction between a true designer and a DIYer. This is simply by virtue of the fact that technology in this industry is always advancing and the skills of professional designers progress and develop at a much faster rate than the DIY tools out there. We will always be a step ahead of the game.
That’s a good point Steve, technology is advancing far faster than the DIYers. So they wouldn’t be able to keep up.
I’m also thinking that the [potential] clients they get for cheap might not be the kind of clients we would want to work with anyways.
[...] In the do it yourself era, you have alot of people taking projects into their own hands. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you’re, say, working on your house or learning a new hobby. But some things should just be left up to the professionals. As [professional] designers, it is our job to protect the brand of your company through through design. So what does that mean? [...]