It may have been lost on the general public, but earlier this week a Forbes article was the shot across the bow for most of the professional design community. In the article, Christoper Steiner interviews CrowdSpring about their “design contest” business model. Based on the comments to the article, the topic is one that is close to the heart of many professional designers. In my opinion, Steph Doyle makes a good point about the lack of balance in the article, how it favors the idea presented by CrowdSpring, and doesn’t present a fair counterpoint. Steph also goes on to mention how inexperienced designers are only hurting themselves and the design industry. You may recall last month I wrote an article asking, “How much are you worth?“, which addressed the issues facing students entering the job market. I agree with Steph that the design community needs to do a better job of educating new designers, students, peers & the general consumer.

So what happens now?