ACCREDITATION IN ONTARIO, CANADA BEFORE AND AFTER
The idea for professional accreditation for graphic designers was not new to the design community in Canada or around the world for that matter. The topic had been discussed, debated and argued about for decades.
The aims of accreditation for Ontario graphic
designers were to ensure and enhance professional standards in graphic
design; to encourage high standards in graphic design education; to
promote rules of professional conduct and ethics; and, to protect and
promote the professional rights of graphic designers. The objectives
included developing the status of the graphic design profession and its
recognition by the government, the business sector, other professions
and by the general public.
The impetus for the drive to
accreditation was a 1988 survey commissioned by the Canadian federal
government which identified 3,000 firms across Canada offering graphic
design services and approximately 8,000 graphic designers working for
these firms. Just three years later, Canada's national census put the
number of graphic designers in Ontario alone at 12,000; for the entire
country, the number of graphic designers and illustrators was set at
26,000. The survey identified four key areas that Canadian graphic
designers were most concerned about: the impact of new technology on
the design industry (enabling a large influx of people with no training
into the field); the lack of recognition and public awareness of the
profession of graphic design; the need for industry standards and
professional qualifications in graphic design ( the only one of the
five core design disciplines whose members were neither not licensed or
registered); and, the quality of graphic design education offered in
colleges and universities. The rational and perceived need for
proceeding with a drive for accreditation was evident.
First steps
Members
of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) National Council at
the time and some Ontario graphic designers were initially slow to be
convinced of the need for professional accreditation. Finally in late
1990, after a year of research on the feasibility of accreditation by
Albert Ng, R.G.D. and Rene Schoepflin, R.G.D. and with less than ten
people (including practitioners, educators, representatives from
related industries and students) the Graphic Design Professional
Accreditation Committee was established. In order to convince the
Ontario government to support the legislation required for
accreditation, the group needed to demonstrate that a majority of the
industry in the province was behind the idea. Since the Ontario GDC
chapters, which became the founding bodies of the Association, could
only claim a few hundred members from a population of over 2,000
graphic design practitioners and educators in Ontario, the first task
was to build membership.
In late 1993, professional advisor Joanne Radford was hired by the
Accreditation Steering Committee to organize and orchestrate its
political
lobby. In one year, the GDC in Ontario grew from two chapters to five
chapters. The Steering Committee also recruited many volunteers and
began networking on an extensive scale to enlist designers' agreement
and financial support. Graphic designers in Ontario had to make the
transition from belonging to one of several regional chapters in the
province within the framework of a national organization (GDC) to being
united under a single legislated body encompassing all of Ontario.
The Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario
The
Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario is the
self-regulatory, professional body for graphic designers in the
province of Ontario. The Association was created by an Act of the
Ontario Legislature which received Royal Assent on April 25, 1996. It
is the only graphic design association in Canada to have such
legislation, and only the second such organization world-wide. The
founding bodies of the Association were the former Ontario, Ottawa,
Northern Ontario and Windsor chapters of the Society of Graphic
Designers of Canada (GDC), an organization that has been devoted to
serving the graphic design profession and the public since 1956.
The
Association grants graphic designers who qualify the right to the
exclusive use of the designations Registered Graphic Designer and
R.G.D. and is the governing body and disciplinary body for its members.
The Association's mandate is to serve the best interests of
both the graphic design industry and the public in the province of
Ontario by establishing and promoting uniform standards of professional
knowledge, skill and ethics for all graphic designers in Ontario.
Definition of a Registered Graphic Designer (R.G.D.)
A
Registered Graphic Designer (R.G.D.) is a graphic design practitioner
or educator who has met the Association of Registered Graphic Designers
of Ontario's qualification criteria and been granted the right to use
these professional designations. No one else may use these
designations. Persons in Ontario who are not members of the Association
are not excluded from practising graphic design, but they would be
guilty of an offense if they either used the designations Registered
Graphic Designer or R.G.D. or implied, suggested or held out that they
were Registered Graphic Designers.
The Association's requirements for Registered Graphic Designers
After
passage of the legislation which created the Association, a
grandfathering provision was established and was in effect until
December 31, 1998. This provision granted Registered Graphic Designer
or R.G.D. status to graphic design practitioners or educators with five
years of relevant experience or education and experience totaling five
years. After expiration of the grandfathering period, the new rules for
qualification for registered membership in the Association required
that a person be able to demonstrate either three years of relevant
education and four years of professional experience in the field, or
vice versa, and also pass the Registered Graphic Designers
Qualification Examination, a test created by the Examination Board for
Registered Graphic Designers, which is a corporation founded by the
Association. The Examination Board is responsible for administering the
examination.
What accreditation is all about
Accreditation
varies from region to region and country to country. It can be defined
as a voluntary continuing education and testing program to determine
the professional competence of individual designers. It can be seen as
an aid to help young designers on their way up the career ladder. It
may level the playing field for those who have graduated from design
programs found lacking in one area or another.
Accreditation
should be granted to graphic designers on the basis of a combination of
education, experience and verification of minimum standard of
professional competency, not merely on the basis of either diploma,
degree or professional work experience. Professional accreditation
should determine whether an individual has attained the level of skills
and knowledge required to serve a client independently.
The
best certification programs are educational programs that bridge the
gap between what's taught in school and what's expected of a
professional. This kind of program is about professionalism, not style.
Accreditation will not regulate or standardize style.
What exactly may accreditation accomplish?
(None of these things happen overnight).
- Professionalism: The standards of the profession will be raised.
-
Quality Education: Design programs will have some benchmarks on which
to base their curricula. - Designers who are limited in their
experience may be able to move into other areas, for example, from
print into multimedia or exhibition/packaging design.
- Companies and design firms may have less trouble finding qualified designers.
-
Certified designers may feel more comfortable in business situations
earlier in their careers, because they've learned about business
practices and client relations.
- Certified designers may have an
edge - Clients may be protected when they can find someone capable of
providing a certain range of professional services.
Rome was not built in one day
Accreditation
is a gradually evolving process. Notes Jean-Pierre Lacroix, R.G.D.,
current President of the Association of Registered Graphic Designers of
Ontario: "We have laid a good foundation on which to build. Now we meet
the many challenges we face as a new professional body. We must
constantly expand membership to include the registration of as many
qualified graphic designers in Ontario as possible. We must intensify
our speaking tours in high schools to promote graphic design as a
professional career choice. We have to gear up our information campaign
aimed at the business community to promote the idea that good design is
good business and to explain why R.G.D.s do it better. We have to help
the rest of Canada achieve accreditation. Ontario has set a precedent
for North America. An exciting new age of graphic design has arrived.
The legislation that enabled accreditation for graphic designers in
Ontario is a mere punctuation mark in the entire story that is about to
be written."
About this article
Submitted on behalf of The Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario by Albert Ng, R.G.D., Founding President
Copyright: The Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario (2000)
Albert Ng
Albert Ng, R.G.D., FGDC, AIGA
Albert
studied graphic design, architecture, calligraphy, drawing and painting
in Canada and Hong Kong. He began his career in a multidisciplinary
practice with architects and designers and relocated to Toronto in
1974. Currently, Albert leads the graphic design team of the Toronto
Hydro Electric Corporation. He is also a part-time professor of York
University's Hon. Design Degree Program. Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario