Certified Design Nonsense

This is not another post on Intelligent Design as a religious theory. This is a post about Intelligent Design as a way of earning a living. More specifically it is a point by point refutation of of what Chris at The Prepared Mind calls “Common Myths About Graphic Designer Certification.” I would actually call them inconvenient facts about a very bad idea.

For anyone who isn't a devoted reader of this site, I'll briefly outline that I have been working in graphic design for 14 years. I have worked freelance, for small design shops, a large agency, and currently for a major corporation. If you want a more detailed accounting check out this post.

The idea of certification for graphic designers is certainly nothing new, but the passage of time has done nothing to make it a good idea. So here are Chris's myths, and my reponses.

Myth 1: Certification means joining a union.
Professional Certification programs focus on establishing professional ethics, standards and core competencies. On the other hand, unions engage in collective bargaining with employers for wages, benefits, etc. Certification gives individual designers the tools and training to successfully negotiate their own contracts.

This I suppose is technically true. Certification is not a union and there is no collective bargaining. But there are some similarities that shouldn't be ignored. Certification will result in closed shop environments in which companies will not hire or work with anyone without certification. Ask an industrial designer how easy it would be to get a job without certification and you will understand.

Myth 2: Uncertified designers will be legally barred from designing.
Designers who do not wish to be certified will still be able to practice design. Clients who prefer to work with designers who don’t know their rights and obligations in a contract will still be able to find many designers to exploit. Clients who don’t know the difference between amateur or professional design will still be able to hire someone to design a $30.00 logo. No, certification is not for everyone but it will clearly identify the difference between the two. Certification will delineate core competencies and can assure that a designer has a bedrock of knowledge and experience—an assurance that buyers of graphic design services do not currently have.

Wow! So much snobbery and condescension in one short paragraph. How nice that if I choose not to pay for certification I will still be allowed to work as a designer. Of course I would be relegated to the status of rank amateur and will be ruthlessly exploited by clients who know nothing about design but really want a $30 logo. Luckily for me I already have two things that delineate my core competencies and identify me as a designer with a bedrock of knowledge and experience. I call them a resume and a portfolio.

Myth 3: Certification only works if it legally bars non-certified designers from practicing.
Voluntary certification can accomplish so much for the graphic design profession. By joining together through certification, designers can speak with a unified voice to government and businesses. This unified voice can be leveraged to lobby the government against speculative projects, tax benefits and more. In addition it can serve to educate clients on the business value of design.

Right off the start I'm going to write this off and a error in written expression because I'm sure Chris doesn't want me to join a group that will leverage its unified voice to lobby the government against tax benefits.

As for legally barring non-certified designers from practicing, Chris is right in saying that this is not necessary. Companies will do that without a legal requirement. Corporations would set policies to only hire certified graphic designers and to only work with agencies that only hire certified designers. Effectively freezing uncertified designers out of a very large segment of employment opportunities. Of course this has great benefits for the certified - who may be no more qualified than the uncertified - in that it limits the employee pool. Supply and demand kicks in and wages and fees for certified designers go up. Don't believe it? Check out myth four.

Myth 4: Certification is expensive and doesn’t add to the bottom line.
Study fees or program costs are actually an investment in your career and are soon made up. Studies show that certified practitioners make 15% more on average than do uncertified practitioners. Source: 2003 Business Marketing Association Salary Survey

Certification is a rationalization for charging $3000 for a $30 logo.

Myth 5: Certification won’t help me advance in my profession.
Certification proves that you are at a high level in your field. It signals to clients and colleagues alike that your knowledge, experience and professionalism in design places you in the highest order of the profession. It also can serve as a means for networking and your association can keep you on their list for prospective clients to view.

Certification proves you were willing to pay the fees and take some courses that you should have taken while you were in design school. (Assuming you went to design school.) Yes, the association can keep your name in front of prospective clients. You certainly wouldn't want them to go looking for uncertified schlubs from the lower orders.

Myth 6: Certification won’t help promote my business.
Certification shows your prospects and clients that you take your business seriously and follow ethical business guidelines. A design certification association can use their resources to fund the promotion of businesses with certified designers, and also work towards raising awareness of the value of certification, along with the value of good design.

If you don't take your business seriously, prospects and clients will figure that out fairly quickly. And the best way to show clients that you do business ethically is to do business ethically. Don't try to use certification as a short cut to building a solid professional reputation. Do the work. Develop a network of clients that know your work and know your business practices and will give you a good reference. Strongly recommend to prospects that they call them.

No doubt the association would work to promote the value of certification. No doubt they would be expending great effort in teaching companies the value of only hiring and working with certified designers.

Myth 7: Certification is a way to measure talent or creativity.
Talent and creativity are intangibles that are difficult to measure in a consistent manner. Designers need to accept that creativity and talent can not be certified. Instead, the purpose of certification is to put in place a system that can measure the elements of our profession that are tangible—the business side of design. Education, experience, ethical business practices, technical knowledge—these are clearly measurable. Certification places all of these elements into a neat package that is easy for clients to identify and understand when they go about hiring a graphic designer.

Technically, Chris is correct on this one. Certification could not be a measure of talent. Which is precisely why it is a bad idea. Clients, especially those who don't know much about design will view certification as a measure of talent. This misperception will be helped along with every effort of the association to raise “awareness of the value of certification, along with the value of good design.” (Myth six.) But In the last sentence the true value of certification is outlined once again. Its all about making sure that club members are the ones getting hired.

Myth 8: If all graphic designers become certified it will become cliché and loose any value.
The point of certification is not to separate one qualified designer as better than another equally qualified designer. The purpose is to separate solid, well-educated designers who follow ethical business standards apart from those people who call themselves designers but do not follow proper business ethics and have no design education or relevant experience.

Personally, I don't see that there is much value for certification to lose other than limiting competition by making it next to impossible for non certified designers to get work. So yeah, if every designer got certified, what's the point. There really is not much to this myth, but there is a good deal in Chris's comments on it that angered me.

The insinuation that my choosing not become certified would indicate that I am not a solid, well-educated designer who follows ethical business standards is incredibly insulting. I am one of those people who call themselves a designer. I have no formal design education. I have a great deal of relevant experience and am ruthlessly ethical. If Chris's dream of certification comes to pass, I wouldn't participate. I'd change careers. In fact I would have to since I would be separated from all those solid well-educated certified employable designers.

Myth 9: Certification is just about egos and being elitist and has no other real purpose.
Over and over again designers fall back to this line of reasoning against certification. As already mentioned in myths one through eight, there are many valid reasons for certification that have nothing to do with ego and everything to do with the business of graphic design. Defining your profession and asking fellow designers to follow a set of standards does not equate with being elitist.

One thing is certainly true. Certification is not about ego. A designer with an ego wouldn't need certification to demonstrate his qualifications. He would rely on the quality of his work and his reputation. A designer with an ego wouldn't need certification to limit competition from other designers, he would just believe he would win because he is good at what he does. This is however very much about elitism. Faux elitism. It is about separating those who should be getting work as designers from those who should not on the basis of a certification that says nothing about their ability to do what they are being hired to do.

Design is a business. Like any business if you do it well and deal with people honestly you will succeed. It takes hard work and time. Certification is a short cut.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 04:39 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment