web design paper

[SchroeDesign]

Hello all!

 

I am a Graphic Design Student writing a research paper for a Web Design class. I am trying to interview 5 different Web Designers with 5 of the same questions. If you are a web designer please respond to this thread with answers to the questions, your name, your company name, (or maybe you are freelance.) and a link to a site you have designed. The questions are:

 

1. Do you feel that a print designer in today?s world can survive with little or no web experience?

 

2. How important a role does freelancing play in your career?

 

3. Would you say that most design firms pay more attention to a potential employee?s education, or a personal portfolio when hiring?

 

4. Do you think table based layouts are obsolete?

 

5. Do you use Adobe Dreamweaver for your work, and how essential is it to know code when designing in Dreamweaver?

 

Thanks very much everyone!!

[falkencreative]

Just thought I'd quickly answer your questions...

 

Ben Falk

Freelance Web Designer/Graphic Designer

Falken Creative

portfolio at http://www.falkencreative.com

 

1. Do you feel that a print designer in today?s world can survive with little or no web experience?

it depends on how you define "little or no web experience". Assuming you mean "no web design experience" (rather than simply not being able to understand how to use the internet), I say yes, it is possible. Print design isn't dead, and probably won't ever be. It provides a tactile experience that you won't get from a web site. It does helps if you understand some of the basics of web design though, or have a partner who can take care of web design, but if you are good at what you do, the jobs are out there.

 

2. How important a role does freelancing play in your career?

At the moment, it plays a moderate role. I have a full time job with a web design firm, and attend college classes as well (majoring in graphic design, minoring in computer science) so I am pretty busy. Freelance work gives me the chance to work on a variety of projects I might not get to do otherwise, improving my experience and business/people skills. I'm not sure just yet how it will affect my career long term, but it does open up some options for me that I might not get otherwise.

 

3. Would you say that most design firms pay more attention to a potential employee?s education, or a personal portfolio when hiring?

Definitely personal portfolio. It is possible to graduate college with a terrible portfolio or graduate without learning anything. Book learning doesn't always translate to real life experience. That said, having a strong foundation in basic design/computer science principles is important, and I don't think you can get that foundational knowledge entirely from personal work.

 

4. Do you think table based layouts are obsolete?

Obsolete? No, there will probably always be people using them, unfortunately. I find div based layouts easier to work with, have less messy code, and I do believe that tables shouldn't be used for layout.

 

5. Do you use Adobe Dreamweaver for your work, and how essential is it to know code when designing in Dreamweaver?

One can't call himself a carpenter just because he owns a hammer. In the same way, one isn't a web designer just because he/she owns Dreamweaver. I do occasionally use Dreamweaver, since it does have it's uses, but I often prefer a lighter/faster text based editor like Textmate or Coda.

 

I don't think someone should be able to call themselves a web designer if they aren't able to hand code. Just look through the beginner's section of the forum -- a lot of questions revolve around basic things that require knowledge of the code to fix. A lot of people do begin learning web design by opening up Dreamweaver and letting it generate all the code for you (I did that myself) but it is important to understand the code that Dreamweaver generates. Dreamweaver can't do it all for you.

[SchroeDesign]

Thank you very much for the feedback!