For the Love of Geeks

The title speaks for itself: I’m a designer, not a coder. Then why is it that every job posting I read requires that their art director/creative director is able to write and edit their own HTML, PHP, XML, and of course “action scripting and SEO a plus!” Excuse me? Correct me if I’m wrong here, and know you will, why on earth would you want your senior level designer worrying, nay, writing their own code?

In my last post, I did admit that it is each designer’s responsibility in this web design world we live in, that he or she can at least understand code and its implications to their design: “Being a well-rounded designer does not consist solely of you mastering photo selection and grids, being able to discuss your design with a coder and how they both interact is paramount.” However, that does not mean the ability to write/edit code while the front or back end coder is say, taking a 2 hour smoke break again, or, on their fifth hour of World of Warcraft with their “friends” from Vietnam. Or, not hiring a coder at all. It simply means you can have an intelligent conversation about the code needed to assemble your design, and somewhere down the line, the conversation forks, the designer’s head starts to hurt and the coder returns to his lair.

Personally, I am taking things to the next level professionally. I have indeed returned to school, after a mere fourteen year hiatus, and obtaining my Web Development certificate at a local university. HTML, XML, PHP and MySQL will be, hopefully, pounded into my brain, thusly, giving me that proverbial leg up on the competition. This does not mean I will be hired as a coder, it simply means I have a background and, with all luck, a very good understand of code, what it is capable of doing, and hopefully, writing my own code when and where needed. This does not negate the idea of having an in house coder, never has, never will.

Of course you’ll say, “But Andrew, I’m a designer and I am fully versed in all aspects of code AND designing. What do you have to say to that?” I say bugger off! You are either one of two people: 1. Graduated within the past five years with a web/design degree and your schedule was filled with coding/web classes because that is the state of design schools these days, or 2. You are a freak of nature and must be shot.

Okay, I might have been a bit harsh back there, let me explain. “Back in my day…” (I’m balling my fists up now and shaking them violently at you) there was print. Plain and simple. Brochures, posters, logos and good old mailers. AOL was barely alive and Prodigy was a gleam in someone’s forward thinking eye. Print people taught themselves, in most cases, what they needed to know about this new Information Highway, using their print skills and diving into web jobs they new hardly anything about. I was one of them. In fact, my first web job was with our one and only Stephen Johnson. Hi Stephen. As scary as it might sound, for those of you who know him, he was my first introduction to the world of web design. I still cry at night.

I digress…

I have met and worked with many brilliant coders and amazing designers, however, I have rarely met the brood of the two, where in one person was fluent in both mediums. It has happened, but you want your coders to code and your designers to design. Simple as that. If you have cross-over, count your lucky stars and get back to work.

Back to Warcraft…. I mean work.

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