Re: Webmaster or Web Designer

Michael,

I almost agree with everything you are saying. I started out in 1984 writing
ad copy with a Macintosh. I still have a really, really big Macintosh that I
use for graphics. Ten years later, my sister got hired as a graphic artist
by a publishing company, based on her degree in art.

The first thing she did was come to my house and have me teach her how to
run a Mac. That's because the company that hired her uses Macs for Graphics
and PCs for databases, etc., and she had taken a dozen now useless courses
in Basic, Apple IIs, and such but couldn't run a Mac.

We have now reached the point where we must, and I repeat  must, know how to
do certain things, but we have also reached the point where we can't keep up
with everything.

I have been warned about the rules on this list so I cannot be specific, but
I think I can safely say that my clients get good product for their
association with me, I am well compensated and I don't do any graphics
anymore, I have Graphics Artists do it and they don't have time to read
these emails. I do the HTML on sites, the Java, and the co-ordination of the
sites, but not the actual graphics. People with a talent I lack do that.

I hire the hardware done because I get a warranty. In other words, I
acquired my computers from companies that provide service and I take them
back for upgrades. My oldest PC parts are less than six months old. I use a
cable modem and keep my software current. This is very expensive, but I am
compensated very well for not just what I do, but for who I know who can do
stuff better than I can.

I have a friend who has only 8 megs of RAM in his computer and wants to get
into web design - with a grant based on his disability which forced him to
leave his position as a U.S. Government Coder. My Mac has 120 megs and my PC
has 160. This guy has 8 megs, but he can write code. I have hundreds of
megs, but I can't write code as well (as fast) as he can. His web sites look
like dog doo-doo. I told him to stick to coding and leave the design to me.

Based on my successes with web sites I am not permitted to mention, he asked
me to help him out on his web sites. The first thing I did was ask
HWG-Critiques to help me out with this. I got pure gold for input. Things
I'd never thought of. I learned a lot.

Always learning, but never stuck in a rut,

Jim


----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Boyer <galdor(at)vaix2.net>
To: L. J. Durham <taliesinmedia(at)yahoo.co.uk>; <hwg-graphics(at)hwg.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 1999 5:55 PM
Subject: Re: Webmaster or Web Designer [was web design -- one PhotoShop file
with everything ???]


Lisa,

You just pointed out one of the things that I personally find makes the
difference between success and failure. ANYTHING having to do with
computers, whether it be programming, hardware, or design, changes so
quickly that one MUST constantly seek to improve skills and grow beyond
your current skill level. Those that, "can't bother to learn something"
are likely to their services no longer needed.

As for your comments about coding... It is all well and good that WYSIWYG
editors have come along because it does help simplify things and speed
up design process, however, I think it's a serious mistake for people to
jump into this field NOT KNOWING even HTML. It's not like the language
is that difficult to pick up, and knowing it's structure and uses has
helped me DOZENS of times when problems arise--either the validator
missed something, or the WYSIWYG editor did something to the code I
didn't want.

In MY eyes, there are actually too fields going on here: Webmaster, and
Web Designer. The too are fundamentally the same in that they design
WebPages, but that's where the similarities end. A Webmaster goes above
and beyond that to incorporate other skills such as basic programming
(JavaScript, JAVA, PERL), designs the graphics themselves, and even gets
into the guts of a host/server to set up CGI scripts and such things,
while a Web Designer stops at putting the pages together, finding
graphics, and putting them together.

While this distinction isn't a great one, I find it to be growing as
more people come into the web-field relying solely upon software and not
getting their "hands dirty" by getting into the code and system they are
working on.

It's gotten to the point that I'm tempted to write a book on the
subject. *chuckle*

Please realize, for those that read this, I am not trying to discredit
those that don't know the code, I just think that if they bothered to
learn it, their skills would improve, and so would their clientele....

Michael Boyer
Boyer Webscaping


L. J. Durham wrote:
>
> I'm not sure if this goes outside of the guidelines of "acceptable"
> topics for this area -- but it seems very relevant to me -------
>
> How scary is this?
>
> I'm working at a major Fortune 500 company at the moment -- they've
> decided to let someone who is essentially clueless develop their latest
> intranet site.
>
> He decided to "do everything in PhotoShop because its much more
> creative" ---. This includes text, icons -- everything. There are over
> 200 layers to this PSD file --------- and he's sorely ticked at trying
> to make the dozens of changes they were asking for all morning. He is
> a traditional Graphic Designer.
>
> Now he's upset because the IT people informed him that if he's going to
> design the intranet site -- then he'd better learn how to code -- they
> cant do a thing with his file -- AHEM lets not even talk about the
> Linking issues -------- everything -- links and all are in this one PSD
> file.
>
> They are arguing about it now -- this "designer" says that he "can't be
> bothered" to even learn HTML let alone JavaScript or DHTML -- he doesn't
> think its necessary ------
>
> This is what I was thinking of when I said in another post that I am
> glad I'm driven enough to want to learn and be stronger with my
> programming skills. To me design is a synergy of graphics and
> programming -- not either of them as separate entities.
>
> Any thoughts on his approach? I've never heard of anyone using what is
> essentially an image-editing tool to build a whole site --------------
>
> Lisa
> _____________________________________________________________
> DO YOU YAHOO!?
> Get your free (at)yahoo.co.uk address at http://mail.yahoo.co.uk

--
Michael Boyer (aka Galdor)
galdor(at)vaix2.net
AUTHOR: "The Gladiator and the Princess"
"That which does not kill us, makes us stronger..."

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