A great short clip from an article by Kevin McCullagh on Core77:
“When I asked author Virginia Postrel for her observations on the design industry, she reflected that she found designers, as a profession, to have “a peculiar combination of arrogance and insecurity. One minute, they’re declaring that they have uniquely appropriate skills for every problem, and the next they’re worried that people without the right credentials are using design. As a writer, I find the fear that too many people are practicing design pretty funny. Writers don’t go around complaining that too many kids are getting taught to write and too many people are practicing writing without the proper degrees.”" (Check out the this compelling and comprehensive point of view on the DIY phenomenon by Virginia Postrel if you want to read more.)
I think Virginia hits the nail on the head. Technology is enabling us all to be designers at the same time as a renaissance in design is raising our collective level of appreciation. And that’s a good thing. Rather than bemoaning the fact that more and more people are using the tools of design, we as designers should hone our design-thinking skills and continue to drive improvement to keep our discipline ahead of this more sophisticated and appreciative audience. Design literacy opens the doors to new ways of solving problems and new types of solutions, which benefits all of us.
