File under "things I didn't know anyone else but me thought about": This debate in the AIGA Journal over whether DIY desktop publishing is killing graphic design. While this is not a new debate--I was a rookie editor compelled to do my own graphic design as early as 1990--I tend to side with the view that "visual literacy is good for design: when people experience the power of typography and images first-hand, they can better understand design that is produced at the highest level." But the converse of the argument--that "by making our work so easy to do, we are devaluing our profession"--seems better articulated here, possibly because it is usually more compelling to make the alarmist argument in any given debate. Similar conversations are going on in journalism circles, much more stridently. (See one of many discussions of "citizen journalism," for example.