Some designers freak out at the slightest blip in the cultural barometer. A recent example is all the talk about the quality of design in today’s world. Let’s face it, designers don’t have a corner on the market of communication. How many hand made signs do you see that advertise everything from “going out of business” to “home grown tomatoes”? Personally, I’d trust a handmade “Tomatoes” sign on the side of the road far before the professionally designed one at the supermarket. But that’s just me.

Here’s the deal as I see it. Milton Glaser and a handful of other influential graphic designers may be able to change the world for the better with their work, but the rest of us design professionals are just banging away out here trying to do the best we can for our myriad of clients. Some with money but most without. We want to do award-worthy work on each project and many of us have achieved that when our clients had the budgets to support our creative thinking. Today is different. The same large, corporate clients we did all that great work for, are now out of marketing money. Hmm.

So, I’ve decided to help our clients by doing things more efficiently. Maybe even drag an old idea or two out of the archives. We’re still doing the best we can but we’ve adapted, if temporarily, to the situation at hand.

Social media is often blamed as well for this perceived denigration of great design. As far as I’m concerned, low quality pictures on the internet have nothing to do with great ideas. Creative thinking in today’s world is smart, appropriate and efficiently implemented. Good enough may be the new great, but there is room for both. For now.
Joe Davis