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Topic: Designers turning into Web/Graphic Designers?
| Author | Message |
| jr_designer | Posted – 3/21/2008 2:16:06 PM | show profile Here?s my question to all my fellow designers out there. How many of you handle both print and web at your current job? I am in the process of looking for a new job and it seems as though almost every company wants a Web/Graphic Designer. Last I knew, these were supposed to be two different positions. I?ve always been told by seasoned designers that they would never accept a job that requires them to do web work as well as print because it shows that the company is trying to take the easy way out by hiring one person for two jobs. Also, because no one can be spectacular at both print and web design, so why not focus on the one your good at. However, since there seems to be an abundance of jobs that require you to know all the web programs along with the print, should I start learning these as well too? I almost feel like if I don?t learn these soon, I?m going to be left in the dust a few years down the road. I don?t mind learning more about web design (I know enough to get me by, but wouldn?t consider myself particularly good at it). What does everyone else think? Are ?print designers? turning into a dying breed? |
| AWC | Posted – 3/21/2008 2:50:12 PM | show profile I think the era of print vs. web designers is just about at an end. These days, most all designers are pretty much expected to have at least some experience and skill in both areas. Of course there will still be people who "specialize" in one format or the other, but but people who work exclusively in web or exclusively in print will be rare. I've been in the business for quite a while, and have witnessed the whole development of electronic media. When it started, they were entirely separate careers paths that never overlapped. Now, in my last few director-level jobs, I have been expected to oversee all design, both web and print. And most of my designers are able to switch back and forth between mediums with relative ease. At heart, I'll always consider myself a print designer, but I have had to put that idea aside and just be a designer. |
| ConfidentDesigner | Posted – 3/22/2008 5:04:01 PM | show profile I've avoided web... I've managed to avoid the whole web thing and am just fine. I am strictly a print designer who is approaching retirement (in 8 years, hopefully) and have managed to avoid the whole web/html/coding/blah,blah,blah crap. I was laid off in Oct. but freelanced for 4 months (print) and was crazy busy. I took a FT job as a marketing designer so I could REST! Yup, strictly print and proud of it! |
| cabaraba | Posted – 3/22/2008 10:15:49 PM | show profile I am facing this same problem. I am a print designer. But it seems that true print designers are a dying breed. I do not like web design, nor do web and print designers even think alike. Why should I feel like I have to go back to school to learn web design just so I can get more work? I'm not even going to get into the topic of "McDesign" because design is so accessible. Anyone with the software can be a so-called designer, right? ha NO! no no! Frankly I'm at a point where I'm considering doing something else. You can either (1) sell your soul getting paid well and doing work that is not satisfying at very competitive positions that do not come readily. or (2) work freelance/part-time/contract and not get paid what you're worth...and also work twice as hard to keep the income coming. I am young and I have a dream/goal about where I want to be with my design career. So far the hard work has paid off in small ways, but I feel like the industry is going to get worse. What kind of future is this? Doesn't sound promising. Do I continue working hard and not knowing when it will lead to my so-call dream job? Or do I get out now when I'm young, and try something different? |
| AWC | Posted – 3/24/2008 1:15:50 PM | show profile I think many designers, particularly folks who have been in the business for years, have either a distain or fear of web design. I know I started as a print designer in the years before there was a web, and avoided it for a long time. But now I see I was in error, and have successfully embraced it. In the end, it's just another form of media that needs the eye of a skilled designer in the same way a magazine or other print product does. Eventually, those designers that choose not to embrace new technologies will be left behind as the design field move on. |
| dglaze | Posted – 3/25/2008 9:26:34 AM | show profile | email poster The times, they are a' changin I started out in print and then made the transition over to interactive. I think there will always be print jobs out there for really good print designers (I can imagine freelance might be a little easier). You mention web design as the alternative to print design but in my experience, design is more comprehensive than web or print. I heard Michael Vanderbyl once speak and his advice was to be open to all the inherent opportunities of design. A client might hire you to design a new identity for their new store. The client also needs an online presence and a design for the flow of the store. If you were Michael Vanderbyl you might see this as an opportunity to grow and expand your design language. Maybe all you want to do is print design and if that's true, great. But, for myself, I design experiences. Those experiences tend to be of the interactive sort but I am always looking for connections. Good luck. Deanna |
| olgadyak | Posted – 4/1/2008 1:34:15 AM | show profile hello how is it? |
| aidan | Posted – 4/1/2008 10:27:23 AM | show profile Designers turning into Web/Graphic Designers? Design is design, guys; come a couple of years and no one will be making the difference between web and print. Just like a business card vs a brochure. Turn your hand to what needs designing. Some clever web designers I work with have expertise in what works on the web and how people use it etc etc, but their design work is all done in Illustrator and issued as pdfs, then they turn the work over to the techies. WHy not go that route? If you stick to just print you're really narrowing your employability. |
| beachbum | Posted – 4/1/2008 4:48:45 PM | show profile print design is not the same as web design I have to disagree. Print design is different than web design and most designers, like me, prefer one over the other. Would you say industrial design is the same as interior design? I don't think so. Yes, you need to be creative no matter what you're designing, but every category has a different process and end result. Every kind of design also requires somewhat different skills. I've been mostly a print designer and have done some graphics for the web. But I don't like web design and have managed to avoid it so far. I currently work in marketing actually, due to the fact that I've been able to find better paying jobs in this field, but if go back to graphic design, I hope to find a magazine or something like that so I don't have to do a lot of web stuff. Call me old-fashioned but I'm 37 and I started designing when ruby lith was still around, remember? Glad that's gone, though. |
| GirlWithGlasses | Posted – 4/29/2008 10:45:31 AM | show profile | email poster Designer Do-It-Alls Totally my experience in the job I have now, at a small agency (we don't even have a COPYWRITER) and in looking for jobs. The first question I was asked by a girl from a bigger agency's HR: "Do you know Flash?" Not, are you a good designer? Are you interested in what we do? What's your salary requirement? Needless to say, it was off-putting- not to mention I DIDN'T know any Flash at the time. So, now they tried to put me in charge of a company's website redesign, and I didn't know any Dreamweaver, and it is a CSS based site. So...we were slow at work anyway, and I had time to learn CSS. SO by the time I get to the point I can write a working stylesheet- they take the project away from me, even though they haven't even bothered to tell the client they are doing this, OR get me any more content from them so I hace something to work with. Yeah...I know CSS better than the Art Director now, and yet, it's his baby again. Whatever. So now I am in charge of a partial redesign of my company's website, in Flash. Should be a learning experience at the very least. I will say that I have had some fun learning web stuff, but I agree that it's really offensive that employers are expecting us to do it all since it's on a computer, despite the fact that web is so VASTLY different in design aesthetic, let alone the fact that most of us would not have learned any of it in school if you are over, say, 25. Lots of design programs don't include web as a core part of the required curriculum. It's a bum deal, but I have no problem knowing enough to get me by- especially if I work somewhere with a talented programmer. I want to continue to work in advertising, so I figure I better get good at learning whatever the newest thing is now at 28, so I am not obsolete at 35. ------ "It's easier to tone down a wild idea than think up a new one." -Alex Osborne |
