🚀 go-pugleaf

kvandommele@imagic.be (Kristof Vandommele) wrote:
>On 22 Feb 1996 16:51:51 GMT, wolfman2@gate.net (Michael Knauf) wrote:
>
>Good Webdesigners are mostly people with experience as "paperdesigner"
>who find this medium boring or who do not like it that what you see on
>the screen is never what you get in print.
>
>At the company were I work (webpublishing), all the graphic designers
>have a background in 'paperdesign' or industrial design.
>
>However, we don't use people who were specialized in DTP. Everybody
>here has a lot of experience in photographic manipulation, not in
>lay-out. Why? HTML doesn't allow too much on lay-out.
>
>We try to make a user-friendly, comprehensive graphic interface,
>because this is really important for large websites. After that, we
>try to fit in the text as good as possible. Because pages should look
>good on a 640*480 resolution there's most of the times not much place
>to play with the lay-out.
>
>Also, good webdesigners should know HTML very good. There's no point
>in creating roughs on paper and in drawing programs (we use Corel a
>lot for this) if the concept and lay-out can't be translated to HTML.
>
>Another thing, 'paperdesigners' are mostly good with XPress or
>Pagemaker and with Illustrator or Freehand. They can only do some
>basic stuff in Photoshop and that's it. Webdesigners on the other hand
>are mostly computergraphic maniacs who completely control Photoshop
>with all the plugins, they play with 3D packages like 3D-Sudio,
>Lightwave, Stratastudio, ..., they learn Director just for the fun of
>it, and if there's any time left they search for the mysteries behind
>Hot Java.
>
>The thing is, most paperdesigners consider their work as a job, while
>webdesigners (I like the word screendesigner more, its meaning is not
>so narrow) take more pride in their work, they consider their job as a
>hobby that went a lot further than they intended to.

_________________________________________________________________

Kristof,
I'm sure you are a creative fellow but you do have to trash talk graphic designers 
to elevate yourself? Being a dastardly "paperdesigner" I have found what makes me an 
asset is my natural talent and my understanding of design methods and principles. 
Designing for a specific medium (paper or web) is just a technicality. The programs 
I know how to use have never made me a more creative person nor solved a design 
problem for me. When they make a plug-in for creativity and good design decisions, 
then you can rest assured that knowing a program really well is all it takes to be 
an effective designer. Until then, watch out, many of those talented paperdesigners 
who consider design their profession are learning the techniques of HTML and soon 
will be doing the best work on the web! (They probably already are)

Steve Parten