I don’t know any HTML or CSS but I do know what I can specify in any designs I develop so the developer can implement the designs.

That is fair enough in an idea world.

But take my job for example, I’m not doing web design, but the ability to make up html/css templates for web to print stuff when the systems changed has kept me in a job longer than most around here while cuts where made. And tbh, making print templates isn’t really a developers job. So like i say imo there is some overlap.

It’s really up to yourself, you can get by with or without it, but knowing it gives you a bit more flexibilty. html/css isn’t really coding either, and is easy enough to learn, compared to real coding(which is a mindf***!)

That is fair enough in an idea world.

Well yeah true I guess, I came from a big agency where everyone specialised and now have my own business – when we first set up my business partner did the development side of things, we now have employees to do it.

I think what is more important than anything is the relationships between designers and programmers/developers.

For years, having established a relationship with someone who saw what I was trying to do, I’ve used the same people. Its a reciprocal arrangement. When they’re struggling with design issues on other projects, they get in touch with me.

Works for everyone. And I’d agree that sometimes you get a ‘it can’t be done’ answer. When what it really means is ‘it can be done, but It’ll be bloody difficult’

It cuts both ways and I’ve found that both sides benefit from being pushed outside their comfort zones

Always will be.

Do you not agree with the rest of the sentence?

but we’re at a transition and soon the gulf will be so vast that you’re in one camp or the other. Just as the rest of the industrial world has demanded that everyone specialise in order to really move forward.

Not being belligerent by the way – I have a genuine interest in the subject.

I wasn’t really talking about the boundary pushing individual here either, him with design awards coming out if his arse. Rather a general industry wide direction.

Specialisation seems to have happened in the progression of every industry. A good way to guarantee a lack of progress is to make sure everyone is mediocre at what they’re doing.

So yes, right now the jacks of all trades are in high demand. Partly because we still don’t really know what we’re doing or where we’re going as an industry and it’s all in a state of flux. You’ve still got creative directors at the top of the tree who never quite caught up with computers. You’ve still got huge swathes of the creative industries, those higher up pulling the strings, who are scared of and haven’t even got the first idea what html or php is. So they just employ some kids to ‘do all that tech stuff’ without realising how short sighted it is to think that’ll suddenly have the bases covered. As recent as ten years ago graphic design graduates were coming out of colleges having never learnt, nor expected to learn, anything web based. These guys are the middleweight designers of today.

But as this fades out with the passing years and the world moves on as it inevitably will (until the zombies arrive) we are moving, I believe anyway, to a state where the amount of specialised knowledge in digital fields is becoming too advanced for people to be dipping in and out of them all, covering all the bases.

I don’t think it’s going to be happening at just single employee level either but at an employer level also. Small agencies employing a few jacks of all trades to try and cover all bases are going to find it hard to compete unless they pick something they do well and specialise in it.

Once upon a time a few guys with soldering irons, a talent for maths and an intact virginity were the only ones making and using computers. Now look at how varied and numerous the specialist subjects have developed within the field of computing in just a few years.

Once, not that long ago, you could just be ‘into computers’. Now that’s too vague to even mean anything.

The world of interactive technology is going to make possible things we can’t currently imagine but will soon take quickly for granted. Just in the way it already has been doing. But that wont be taken much further by relying on a bunch of graphic designers reluctantly having to spend three quarters of their working lives messing around trying to be coders.

Can’t be ar$ed to read all of the above.

What I do know is that I work as a graphic designer, but also have an understanding of .css and .html. Similarly, I use WordPress and have altered sites using the stylesheet. I have to admit that I don’t consider this my forté (it’s a headf*ck, if I’m brutally honest) but I see it as a very useful skill to have and certainly one that’s helped me get jobs. I’m certainly no developer, but I consider most developers to be completely on the opposite side of the spectrum to me. I think you either intuitively understand coding or you don’t, a bit like algebra and mechanical engineering formulae (it’s no accident that several engineers I know now work in data transfer or similar).

UX = “User eXperience”

my designer friend decided to learn ajax/xhtml stuff, so his designs in his head could come to life much quicker than working with a developer to code the fades/transitions/effects.

This is only for developing ideas – once they have settled on a design, the developers then take control of the code – and rewrite it as they see fit. None of his code goes into the final product without being reviewed by an experienced developer.

Muse looks interesting (for someone who can’t code at all!) – I’ve used Freeway Pro for the odd site but its a bit clunky. On first impressions Muse looks very slick.