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Designer Certification

More than a few independent designers have taken to the interwebs recently to pronounce that the key to reining in free pitching is to create a barrier to entry in the graphic design field through certification. While I've long been dismissive of this idea, my stance on it has now changed, albeit, with a twist.

Certification for designers should be required, but in business practices, I believe, not in design.

I was laughing my way through Clients from Hell again last night when I came across a story from a designer whose client wanted pictures of his now-deceased cats added to the logo. That was funny, but then it got weird, with the designer replying, "Sure, I can add a cat to the logo."

We know the thoughts running through his head: "Hey, I charge by the hour and that's just one more hour I can bill. It's not my fault the client doesn't realize this is a stupid idea - I'm here to serve." The CFH stories are funny when the client’s behavior is exhibited before the designer is hired. When the horror stories arise after the engagement begins, it’s almost always another sad case of the designer failing in the basic business practices around pricing, selling and delivering his services: no serious vetting of clients, no deposit obtained from new clients in advance, no frank discussions of money, no proper leading of the client in the engagement.

The proponents of certification think it might be the solution to the oversupply problem. It isn't - but business practice certification might be a step forward for the profession. To be clear, lack of business practice certification is not the problem; lack of business education is the problem. With some exceptions, it's just not taught in design schools. It should be. Then, once out into the workforce, the design associations that take responsibility for being the voice of designers should step up and take the issue of developing business skills seriously. Whether certification is included or not is less important I think than the design associations seeing this as an important part of their mandate.

Developing business skills among designers is the role design associations need to be playing in combating free pitching. With rare exceptions like the DBA in the UK, associations just aren’t stepping up in a meaningful way. Each of them has a token position paper for clients on how to hire design firms, but pointing the finger at the client and telling him how to do his job is an easy cop out. Design associations have clout with designers, not clients. They should use that clout to raise the level of business acumen among their members. That, more than anything else design associations around the world can do, would help with the free pitching problem and raise the esteem of the profession.