At the end of last year we kicked off our new relationship with West Kent College by designing and printing their strategy document for 2010. The end result is a clean, flowing document with some great design touches. We’re already looking forward to the next project, so keep your eyes peeled because there will be plenty more to come…

Below is a sneaky peak from the strategy document… we obviously can’t give it all away…

West Kent College - Strategy Diagram

A couple of weeks back, Forbes ran a little article deeming graphic design as snooty business, before profiling a site called CrowdSpring where clients go to throw spec logo projects to a pool of 13,000 Photoshop jockeys. The winning design gets about $200 or so, the rest go back to their day jobs. For some, apparently, the day job unfortunately involves designing more free logos for other contest sites – a career that likely ranks second in salary behind Hopelessly Addicted Scratch-Off Lottery Ticket Enthusiast.

Of course, the design community went apoplectic in response to the article. Ethics! some lamented in the comments. Iam sure a few of them even dashed off another design manifesto or two or fifty.

Here’s the truth, though, and why all the good designers need to relax: the vast majority of the self-described designers on sites like CrowdSpring aren’t really designers. Sure, they may have a (likely pirated) version of Adobe CS4 and spent an hour or so on a few online tutorials. But owning a copy of Pet Sounds doesn’t make you Brian Freaking Wilson. And from the looks of things, most submitters are doing nothing more than manipulating a few drop-down menus to add type over top of some clip art and calling it a logo…

Read the rest here… it is worth it for the giggles >>