Over the past several weeks, more than a few readers have shared with me what might be considered counter-criticism. In the interest of encouraging an open and spirited debate, readers might find it useful to engage with the range of counter-criticism that has been published, specifically around my recently completed multi-part series, Fall of the Designer. This will be similar in nature to my last roundup following the completion of the Critical Sharks Series.

The following is a roundup of critical feedback with relevant excerpts. I leave it to you, the reader, to be the judge.

For the past few years, we have seen a significant portion of our data storage move to the cloud. When it comes to physical hard drives, spinning disk hard drives are rapidly being replaced by flash storage. Some would assert that storage icons have not aged particularly well given the circumstances.

Nevertheless, ever since the original OS X hard drive icons were designed, this category of icons has been a touchstone for icon design practitioners. Whether designing a custom application icon, a commercial disk image or making a custom icon to distinguish one's personal drives, hard drive icons have been a prime area for designers to display their skill in both technical execution and creativity.

Following the publication of the Fall of the Designer series, I was invited to the On the Grid podcast to discuss the origins of flat design in 20th century modernism as well as the practice of visual design today and its role moving forward. We covered a lot in this recording, take a listen.

Over the past few years, the design industry has seen an uptick in agencies getting acquired by product companies. Firms like Adaptive Path, Smart Design, Hotstudio, Sofa and Teehan+Lax are either rapidly being snapped up or involuntarily closing their doors. Peter Merholz, formerly of Adaptive Path and current VP of Global Design for Groupon, explains why agencies are readily taking the buyout offers...