A letter to the editor of Anthill magazine

Dear Mr. James Tuckerman,

Thank you for your response to my emails regarding my perception of Anthill as being guilty of defaming the design community.  Perhaps as editor in chief you have not had a rewarding experience to make you value design services.

With all due humility I aim to conduct my own design business in a way that increases the amount of respect our profession deserves.  I'm one of many active members in AGDA and DIA after being an AIGA member in the US before coming to Australia for an MBA degree.

The travesty of design crowdsourcing, like that which you mentioned in your article about facebook's use of such a deplorable service, is that it devalues the quality of the work and threatens the continuity from job to job as someone doing work for free is neither sustainable, nor legal.

The clearest message design crowdsourcing sends is a woeful misunderstanding of the value of design as a profession.  I would show an equal level of ignorance if I created an infographic showing how publications like Anthill would be better managed by crowdsourcing their editorial services.

If you think a graphic like this would be a useful addition to the Anthill publication, I am happy to offer my design services at the lawful award rate through Fair Work Australia, if not the rates my IP Lawyers Finn Roache drafted for $1K after a few hours of their professional service.

Regards,
Jonathan Blackwell, MBA
Lineaist Design