The state of the design industry.

This was originally posted on Photoshop veterans but I also wanted to post the reply on here and start a thread.

I have some very strong opinions on this, it will be one of my first posts soon as I get round to get my blog up.
Some of our industry professionals are thinking that the bubble (along with all the money) might burst soon. I will get some links later on.
I really think that we need the bubble to burst before CSS3 gets a full release. Web design at the moment is stagnant. Most new sites are looking the same.
Just take a look at the designs in website design showcases. I have not been in to design to have a final say, all the sites in these look like the love child of Dan Cederholm
.
If and when the Bubble will burst it will make times harder than they are now. This will take away the stylists (adding a few drop shadows and gradients here and there) and hobbyists, because the money will not be here for them to earn a living off it.

We need these stylists to go because these are the people looking at designs and copying them.
This will then allow real designers to move the technology onwards and upwards. The difference between professional designers and stylists will be able to be seen then.

Stylists design for aesthetical reasons and Professional designers design for the end user. Professional designers are the trend setters, stylists are the copiers.

i don't quite get what you're saying. css has nothing to do with design. it only affects implementation.

the design industry becomes what we (the designers) let it become. i don't mean go pick fights and not listen to clients. some do effective research and ask for planned out rational things. others try monkey see, monkey do. this is the source for the majority of "stylist" designs.

when we suspect a case of this, it's our job to question it. that's what we're paid for.

same here, i agree. css only affects implementation.

In my opinion it's the dabblers that fuel the bubble. If you just had these highly specialized "Professionals" who ran the business, the amount of money would drop dramatically, and it would be a lot harder to get your design. Whereas now, a small company can pay a high school student $100, cheap for the company and a lot for the student, and get a decent design. If there wasn't that opportunity then it would be alot harder for the smaller guys to get good designs, and therefore there would be none of that small money being tossed around. Yet that "small money" is far bigger than you think, i mean, just look at this forum.

Ryan for someone with brains your post was absolutely non sensical and pathetic, here's why:

We as designers, or stylists, or both have an obligation to our customers to create designs to their taste for money or some sort of compensation. Whether or not the designer or "stylist" copies or mimics another website is a matter of personal morals and conscience, it doesn't affect their ability to be creative or put together wonderful unique designs.

If the bubble bursts and there's no longer money it in i doubt any of the decent designers will hang around. They will also leave with the hobbiests and stylists. I dont see how CSS3 has nything to do with it though.

CSS isn't design, CSS is a technology. Art is not technology.

But creating technology is an art, correct me if im wrong.[OT] To create a new technology that doesn't exist and benefits others better than anything else that exists. Refining and developing technology.

I need to think how to word this post to make more sense, it is not portraying what I mean to say.

Tom you're just twisting my words now. Technology itself isn't an art, it's technology. Creating technology, there may be some intellectual thought behind it but it's not artistic.