What is the relevance of the new CSD logo?

Regarding the new logo for the Chartered Society of Designers (www.designweek.co.uk, 29 March), I don’t know any designers who dress up as firemen. The new Mattel ’Architect’ Barbie is equally as relevant. Again, why is she smiling and wearing new clothes?

This is the toughest time for our profession in years. We have lost many colleagues in our industry. While I should just be grateful that we are working on live projects, it is clearly apparent that the value of the design role within construction teams on many projects has been relegated far below cost.

First, projects and fees are reduced by the client, then contractors lead the race to value engineer design out of them to achieve a profit on the tightest margins for many years.

We are working harder than ever to make sure this does not happen, on voluntarily reduced salaries, to black-hole building standards in, for example, the environment, only to be cornered in a battle against contractors trying to deliver anything as long as it’s cheaper than the tender. It is warming that the CSD has bigger things to worry about on our behalf.

’Align our visual brand with our vision and values’ – a girl in a firemen’s helmet is neither relevant nor what I might have hoped you would be concerned about.
Please [CSD], contact me again to ask for money some time in the future.

Alistair Stripp, Faulkner Browns, by e-mail