"Designers" seems wrong to me
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- mynx
To be a successful web designer these days do you really need to have production skills? Be proficient in html/css/flash/programming etc and be able to build sites you've designed? I see so many companies asking a lot from web designers that it almost seems ridiculous. Do these multi-talented multi-taskers really exist? Put your hands up.
- imakedesign0
what do you think should be the skillset required of a web designer?
- ribit0
so hard to define this (and this is such a wide-ranging question)... but as a client, we're looking for people who have a broad range of skills so that they can at least understand all the possibilities for giving us an innovative solution, but we 're more likely employ a team of people to cover all the different areas of a project rather than find one guy who tries to do it all...because we recognise the best guy to do our look-and-feel redesign isnt neccessarily going to be the best at the back-end stuff...and we want the best of everything... cheap :)
(we're just finishing off a six-month project with a London-based consultancy to move our very complicated site to a CMS solution...)
on the other hand, we could also do with somebody in-house for all the incremental updates and bits of design and feature updates, and troubleshooting, and content production help...
- kelpie0
depends who you're working for really, though I think designers are expected to be able to do front ends at least at most places these days. I missed the boat on that one a bit and mainly batter out prototypes at work, but have learned the rest at home. I feel I would be at a disadvantage otherwise when looking for new work.
- valentim0
no don´t they exist, multi-talented multi-taskers, don´t exist...it´s invented by the huge amount of poor quality, over rated agencies that refuse to hire and creat different departments in the companies, so in the end you have to re-invent your self as a multi-do-all-the-shit.
- mr_snuggles0
those people exist, although when you have that much knowledge, something always spills and you end up with people who are good at many things, but not great at one...especially when it comes to 'new media designers', anyhow, just my opinion...
- kelpie0
mostly, what snuggles said
- paraselene0
i can actually do very little.
- kelpie0
but you do that really really well though, eh?
- tomkat0
I design sites and build them using xhtml, css, php, flash, cms (as well selfmade and readymade)
am I a multitasker already? I don't see myself that way, but I do believe a webdesigner (argh! see other thread) should have some profound knowledge of code and accessibility to prevent errors already in the process of designing.
my 2c
- determinedmoth0
I exist. Until about 6 months ago, I was solely responsible for the design, development and maintence of over 20 sites. I also maintain the (4) webservers, typeset annual reports and accounts, and do the odd print job.
You would have to be a very large, very busy agency to employ "web designers" who had no code experience in my opinion.
- determinedmoth0
i also think that job ads asking for Flash, DW, ASP, Action Script and PHP are written by people (and agencies) who dont really know or understand who or what they REALLY need.
- paraselene0
oh, i wouldn't go that far, kelpie.
- rasko40
being solely a web designer must be hella boring for the most part
- kezza_20
Im a digital design and I dont do actionscript, hteml or any of that gubbins.
pen, pencil and photoshop
- kelpie0
do you mean just doing the 'design' on the web, or just doing web-based design (including any or all of the technical angle) rasko?
- rasko40
I guess if you are into the coding side of it and solving the various problems then that could be quite challenging, but as a designer, I would personally find it terribly boring if everyday was spent just laying out web pages 'image here, nav here' - different if you are involved with strategy but simply laying out would be dull for me personally.
- kelpie0
yeah that can be pretty dull, believe me ;) I crave what little print I get these days...
- determinedmoth0
For some insane reason I find I really enjoy making things work in php/sql etc...
- kelpie0
I don't think that's the slightest bit insane.
- determinedmoth0
it's not right though is it.
if i were feeding the hungry or something that should make you feel good. Adding british summer time to a date shouldn't turn me on...