It appears that the battle against free-pitching has gone quite well, but what is being done to remove the causes?
We must face up to the fact that there are far too many so-called practising designers. Take the average Home Counties borough, think about the ratio of practising graphic designers to the population; I am sure it would work out to at least one to every 750.
Commission one at random if you dare. There is a fair chance that the work will prove to be inferior – poor copy, ghastly typography, no proof-reading, inferior registration, and so on. No wonder the buyer is tempted to approach a number with a free-pitch request.
Perhaps the time has come for all good graphic designers to show qualifying affixes after their names, such as MCSD or MSTD, preferably both. There’s a vast number of first-rate designers who could easily qualify for both.
Action like this, provided it is constantly brought to the attention of the buyers, will help to weed out the cowboys.
Les J Curtis
TypoBooks
Colchester
Essex
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