Until the full website is up and running, the Proscodi blog will be the starting point for all news and information regarding the progress of the Proscodi.

What is Proscodi?

In 2005, a group of communication designers began a serious discussion about the increasing number of problems developing within the industry. Some of the issues raised could be attributed to simple industry competition, but others seemed to not only be threatening the livelihood of design professionals, but are also compromising the value of our services. The discussion resulted in the formation of a grass roots organisation supporting the ethics of our business, but focused on clients: Proscodi, the Professional Society of Communication Design.

We’ve long been aware that the communication design industry has been going through sweeping changes affecting how we conduct business and how we plan our careers. There are currently far more graduates coming out of design programs each year than there are available jobs. Many of these graduates turn to freelancing and, consequently, lack business skills and the experience needed when dealing with clients.

Online companies are peddling cheap stock logos to unsuspecting clients, paying the designers pitiful recompense for their time and effort.

Outsourcing has affected the market, and graphics software has made it easy for anyone to call themselves a designer and attempt to solicit work from small businesses.

It’s our underlying belief that clients desiring to hire designers could use help in determining a professional designer from an amateur. It’s also our belief that the time is OVERripe to bring the principles of Proscodi to the buyers of design with a site uncluttered with designer speak. A site that is ‘Client focused | dialogue driven’.

But let’s step back from there. Do clients know what good design is? Do clients appreciate the value of communication design? Do they appreciate that hiring a novice unversed in marketing strategies could damage their branding?

As designers, we need to educate clients and the general public on how design works to carry messages to a chosen target market. We need to emphasize the importance of branding and marketing. We also need to market ourselves as an industry.

These were the issues prompting the formation of Proscodi. We believe Proscodi will project a fresh, new attitude about design and designers.

On this blog you will find a range of aspirations and intentions, plans and thoughts. You will also find a range of Proscodi surveys as we sort through what clients and designers want from an organisation such as Proscodi.

Catherine (cat) Morley
President, Proscodi: Professional Society of Communication Design

“Proscodi: An International Client-focused Design Organisation,
establishing industry-wide ethics and business practices”