"Up to Date" Designer
Out of context: Reply #1
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- jfletcher0
It's Friday night, so I'm guessing it you, me, and maybe 2 other people.
What type of design do you do? For me, I've found better success in specializing than being a jack of all trades. I studied graphic and Interaction design, and ended up moving my core skill set to interaction. I can still do graphic/visual (somewhat), but I found I wasn't as talented at the hands on aspects of that, and hence wanted to focus on my strengths and get the most from that. I also learned bits of C++ and became pretty good at web development (and did it for a few years). However I found when I wasn’t able to concentrate, I wasn’t able to exceed in any one area.
So for me, to help stand out, I tried to become really strong in aspects of interaction design. Does this make me valuable to all employers? Nope. Some people would never hire me, and I’m fine with that. You can think of it like an Apple design. You do something really well, and don’t concentrate on the other parts. You’re not for everyone, but for the people that find value in you, you can be indispensible. Recently I’ve been trying to look at strategy aspects of design more, as you can apply interaction design principles [in cooperation with strategy] to industrial and visual design for great results. I can’t do industrial hands on at all, but I can help set up a strategy, vision, requirements and environment for great industrial designers to thrive in... just like my managers have set up an area for me to thrive in.
I’ll caveat that I have seen [and know] a few people who are truly skilled in multiple areas of design and can also code. These people are *extremely rare. You find a lot of people who say they are good and can do it, but also think branding is a logo and design started with the ipod.
Sorry if that was super long, but it’s a Friday night in working, so I figured I’d take time to respond.