Hi Jake, I appreciate the response.

I am also responding, because your comment comes from a good place, and it is only right I respond.

Design is not a walk in the park (nothing serious is). If an aspiring designer would lose faith and drop off because of those few misunderstood lines, then maybe they were not meant for design at all. If you want something well enough, nothing will stop you.

That said, "you have to first be a designer," in my article doesn't mean what you appear have read it to mean. It means just what it means, which is; you have to be a designer. Not a politician or a sky diver to be able to use the article. Everyone knows that designers do not become designers by having a degree or a title—which are mostly worthless today, but by choosing to identify as one. There is no imposter anywhere. We are just designers, nothing more. Pick up your tools and design!

Best of luck.