The advent of WordPress and “Themes” has radically changed the marketplace for web designers. No longer does someone need to start from a blank canvas to create a great website–a wordpress theme can be customized and give a very custom look with not much skill needed. In fact, some themes are so complete, you just need to add your logo and your content and the site is done.

The result of this simple customization and pre-made themes is that web designers have to update their skillset to still be relevant. Also, even if they learn WordPress, simple websites are now so easy to create that they can’t charge nearly as much as they used to. It also means that more people can market themselves as “web designers” with very little formal training. This devalues the designer who went to school and paid for a degree when that degree no longer has any real value.