I enjoy reading comments on quality in design and how to identify it, like those from Kit Hinrichs, since the standards of design have plummetted so much in the past ten years or so. I have been a designer all my life and it used to be a certainty that when you spoke to a genuine designer, you were speaking to an artist, someone with a set of aesthetics that was employed in the design process. Unfortunately, these days I see an unfathomable number of would-be designers who cannot design without the aid of a computer, who cannot convey ideas via pencil and paper, and who therefore are not real designers, but merely operators of technology engaging in the discipline of "collage as a design form." I see a lot of resentment toward clients and client opinions, and a striving to design for other designers, based on what is percieved as contemporary insight, rather than the latest visual trend. I see terrible typesetting everywhere I look and I think it's because many young designers don't know what quality typography looks like or why it is good. So many want to mimic David Carson, but don't understand what he is doing and why it works. I enjoyed the thoughts of Nathan Shedroff that Molly Joss wrote about recently. Let's hear more from well-respected designers (and artists) on the state of design and how we can get back to a higher standard of quality. - Walter Neals