Designers, “Hacks” and Professionalism: Are We Our Own Worst Enemy? – Smashing Magazine

Designers, “Hacks” and Professionalism: Are We Our Own Worst Enemy? – Smashing Magazine:

““The need is constant. The gratification is instant.”[..]

We want it all, instantly and as cheap as possible. We are a Walmart culture. Fast and cheap have entered our every pore and changed our society, our lives and our livelihoods. Compounding our daily worries and pressures, we now fight to keep our industry professional and profitable. Clients want our blood for free, and the “hacks” are designing us out of existence.”

Sadly, I have worked with many designers that have hacked together bits and bobs from other designers, product lines, stock photography sites and then left us as developers to make their little vision happen regardless of what it meant to legally obtain the artwork or replicate somebody else copyrighted process. I even admit to hacking together some code from various sources to try and get something to fit well in most cases I give full attribution when it’s provided but often the code I’m using was itself lifted form someone else. Not only is this annoying to debug when trying to track down the source for some help with an obscure error but it really doesn’t say much about our professionalism. This post by Smashing Magazine is a good read with some pretty neat artwork too. The message is petty clear though: “If you stay honest, you won’t have any trouble tying to remember your lies.”

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