Ever since the desktop publishing revolution, people have fancied themselves as designers. Some good, some bad and some just plain ugly. There are a lot of designers out there, some trained and many untrained and graphic design as a profession is largely unregulated, so there is no standard or degree required for one to call themselves a designer. Which can lead to problems, for both other designers and clients alike, creating a false impression as to the caliber and the capabilities of a professional designer.\n\nOne problem is the accessibility of this profession. We live in a digital age and just about everyone has a computer and access to the internet. It only takes a few mouse clicks to buy software and the basics can be learned in a few tutorials, but the actual learning curve of becoming a designer is much greater. Design is a creative and artistic endeavor that takes a great deal of talent, skill and solid experience to be good at. It is not a matter of seeing a trendy swoosh around a logo or using a particular typeface, it is about creating a solution that fits a client’s strategy and is aesthetically simple but memorable, innovative but still useful and understood.\n\nCreating a brand does not happen overnight nor does it come in the form of a template or a hodge podge of marketing materials. One size does not fit all, design is not a Snuggie®. It is a cohesive, custom built entity with a strong foundation of strategy and planning. The design is the proverbial icing on the cake, it is meant to look and make you feel good, but appearances can be deceiving, as Albert Einstein said “any darn fool can make something complex; it takes a genius to make something look simple.”
