My response to In-House Designers discussion of the week: Devaluation of Design:
We work in a time where the tools of the trade can do as good a job as it used to take a trained designer to do.
Proving the value of design is tall task as it can be so subjective. What is brilliant to one person is “meh” to another.
Measuring the value can make matters worse. Remember that scene in “Dead Poets Society” where the teacher has the student read the paragraph about how to measure the quality of a poem? Measurement is not the cure-all. There are so many outside factors that affect effectiveness – under certain circumstances even the very best design can be rendered useless.
In Corporate America, volume of work is often viewed as the key indicator for success. But volume does not equate to quality.
I believe…
Consistency is part of the answer – being able to communicate the brand no matter which platform or channel.
Technical excellence – the work should be tight and right every time.
Understand how to communicate to your audience. Most of the time your stakeholders do not know how to do this and this is a huge opportunity to increase the value.