dragonlady7 - 8:38 pm on Jul 14, 2003 (gmt 0)

My boyfriend's sister is a graphic designer who has done work on corporate identities, and I have heard *of* her rants about unprofessional "graphic artists". I haven't heard the rants: at this point, she just rolls her eyes. But she's got her B.A. and is in the midst of her M. F. A. and is absolutely killing herself on these elaborate projects so that she can be a graphic designer... and she can't find a job because all these kids with a pirate copy of Photoshop are undercutting her.
It's just like SEO and webdesign, where anybody can get software and slap it together and make something halfway decent. But it's still true that if you want something really good, you have to find someone with some real credentials. It's not easy to sift the pros from the should-be amateurs, and sometimes the line-blurring is a good thing.
But it can be very frustrating.
Any trained artist has practice at writing up explanations of their artwork. It's called an... um, I forget. Abstract? When you do an exhibit of your work you have to write an essay about its significance, the materials you used, your influences, and the like. So I'd say that's a reasonable benchmark to know whether you have a pro or not.

But, as with all these things, that doesn't necessarily mean that you'll get the best artist, or the most bang for your buck. Sometimes the kid with the pirate software really is the best. Sometimes a fancy degree really is meaningless compared to real-life experience. So, good luck.