Don’t blame consultancies for a scarcity of design jobs

I was taken aback to read the personal attack on me from Neil Owen (DW 11 December 2003). He is blaming people who do care and do give graduates a chance for a problem caused by others.

What I wrote (DW 27 November 2003) bears scant relation to Owen’s rant. I don’t mind having a coherent argument.

I object strongly to your headline ‘Designers should try on graduates’ shoes for size’. My company has taken on many placements – right now we legally can’t, we have had to make people redundant because our fee rates are undercut by free pitching. We are doing more work for less money than in 1996.

It devalues the design profession to have a farcical oversupply of graduates – in the past year I have had more than 500 unsolicited applicants.

It is successive Governments’ policy that has created this misery.

Alistair Williamson

Director

Lucid Group

Manchester M1 7AD