After read­ing another blog about the upcom­ing show, I was appalled by the severe lack of design finesse pro­fess­ing to search out America’s top designer. So…I wrote a quick email express­ing my distaste.

I find it intrigu­ing that a real­ity show sup­pos­edly search­ing for “America’s Top Graphic Designer” has lit­tle con­cern for how it rep­re­sents itself visu­ally and yet expects to attract the afore­men­tioned top designer. The iden­tity is, at best, sopho­moric, with a weak con­cept and def­i­nitely not an “out-​​of-​​the-​​box” execution.

For an indus­try that prides itself on allow­ing for clear, sim­ple com­mu­ni­ca­tion, the web­site does not pro­vide a com­plete pic­ture of the com­pe­ti­tion itself. For exam­ple, who are the spon­sors and why would the win­ner want to work for them? How much of the $50,000 is cash vs. prizes?

Cheryle R. Reynolds, the founder and pro­ducer, is not even a reg­is­tered mem­ber of the American Institute of Graphic Artists (AIGA), the largest pro­fes­sional asso­ci­a­tion for graphic design­ers in the United States. Her 20 years of expe­ri­ence in the indus­try have def­i­nitely not instructed her where to find the best design­ers, as pri­mary and “cut­ting edge” design cen­ters like Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle and San Francisco are not included in the audi­tion locations.

The most com­pelling con­cern is that “America’s Top Graphic Designers” already have amaz­ing careers and would in no way sub­mit them­selves to any kind of far­ci­cal and inac­cu­rate depic­tion of their trea­sured pro­fes­sion. The mere idea of this show is offen­sive and will only demean and dilute the value of excel­lent graphic design.