pearible design

Developer or Designer?

This question seems ubiquitous lately, and I’ve seen some really surprising answers to it. The following is my own opinion only, and serves to let you know what to expect from me, and anyone working for pearible.

Web Designers absolutely MUST know xHTML and CSS - no exceptions.

Here’s the breakdown:

Know photoshop and illustrator like the back of your hand, but don’t know any/much xHTML and CSS? Great, you’re a: GRAPHIC DESIGNER

There’s nothing wrong with that - there are plenty of amazing graphic designers out there… but if you’re handing your file off to someone else (that you probably call a “developer”) for the xHTML and CSS layout, you’re not a Web Designer.

Can you make Java, PHP, .Net, or Ruby sit, stay, and fetch your slippers but rely on someone else (that you probably call “marketing”) for all the graphical elements and layout of your site? Huzzah! You’re a DEVELOPER

Again - nothing wrong with this… in fact, you’re probably making the most money out of the whole bunch here, so no complaining when I tell you you’re not a Web Designer.

So what does a Web Designer do? A Web Designer works from beginning to end on your site conception and design - comes up with the layout scheme, color palette, and maybe even your entire brand identity for you. Then they create valid, semantic xHTML (it’s mark-up, not programming… you MIGHT get away with calling it “coding”) and CSS. Throw in a little scripting (client side AJAXY javascript goodness), and even work closely with the previously mentioned developers to help integrate all their server-side programming (to keep them from munging up your design, obviously - and which means you’ll need to know enough PHP, .Net, Ruby, or whatever to do that without munging up their code, too) - mix it all up, and you’ve got a good recipe for Web Designer soup.

If you’re really lucky, you can even throw in some Flash video, design, and ActionScripting - though these are all in addition to the above, or guess what? NOT A WEB DESIGNER.

At least, that’s my opinion.

Pearible - Web Designer