Any creatives, artists, designers or even interns lurking about, afraid to raise their voice? Here’s your engraved invitation.

It may seem evident that ad folks, copywriters (not copyrighters!), marketing people, project managers, number crunchers, etc. constitute a bulk of the population of our little community, but who's designing? I, for one, would like to see who the creatives are. Come forth, blog up and speak out. I am not proposing delivering a Design Coup to Adholes, however it would be good to shift the ballast so that both sides get to rock the industry boat, which is the whole point of this site.

When I first started out here, I was a bit, not intimidated, but surely unsure of how I would fit in. I’m not an Ad guy, I’m a Design guy. I am more attune to influences, trends and cycles in Design, but who here was going to care? But would I be blacklisted from the Ad community because I might have been the only one at Ozzfest last year who noticed that the three-dimensional letters spelling out “MOBSCENE” over Marilyn Manson’s head were set in Bodega Sans?

So what pisses you off/turns you on? What have you noticed running rampant, aside from just general bad design? There are just as many things in Design that deserve awareness or abolishing as in Advertising. Even better, if you’re even minimally involved in the industry, you MUST have some good stories: an intern who turned away work because he had to “draw the line”; another intern who refused to mount three boards at 5:15 because he was “off the clock”; a vendor who returned a job after two months only to say, “I had too much on my plate, I can’t do this.” I’m not making those up, by the way.

Maybe you just think that Dr. Zizmor is still using too many typefaces. The point I’m making is that we all have something to contribute and probably don’t even realize it. I’m sure there’s a handful of visitors who haven’t written anything yet, so think about it and blog it up. Just get yourself out here and contribute, even if it's just throwing up a weblink of personal interest.

Personally, I’ve been mulling over some of my own thoughts and observations which will make it into blogs in the near future. Sure the site is technically free and it’s fun to peruse and check out the hotties on the site, but this isn’t Friendster. If you’re on this boat, either pick up an oar or walk the plank.