Graphic design is kind of a funny business. A decent designer, generally, will have gone to school for design and been bombarded with all sorts of different art classes in an effort to teach not only the technical and correct processes for doing things, but the ins and outs of making a design look good. It helps even more if the designer has a strong artistic sense already, because it’s not something that can just be instilled in most people, only refined.

The enormous amount of work required even for relatively simple projects was enough to earn designers some respect, but In the last 20 years or so, the actual production process has been made much faster and easier thanks to affordable and intuitive computers and software.

Unfortunately, this gives people the assumption that just because they’re on a Mac with Photoshop they’re the next Saul Bass, or Paula Scher when they don’t even know who those people are. Hell, I barely know who those people are.

The obvious question that arises because of this: how does a real, bona fide designer justify his or her rates as being worthwhile in an attempt to win over the do-it-yourselfers?