Is Technology Going Too Fast for Graphic Designers?
There is certainly a demand for web designers these days and it’s easy to forget that before web design there was graphic design.
The traditional skills of layout, typography, colour, and the use of space all still apply in modern design except you need to know how to do it in code rather than with traditional bleed proof marker pads and pens.
Web design and graphic design have two very different principles, web design for instance is a very logical process and requires logical code. Whereas graphic design requires a creative mind and less discipline. It seems that these days it is better to be a jack of some trade and a master of other trades in order to fit in to the modern demand of skills required.
It may be thought that it is better to become a jack of all trades ultimately! But there is also a danger that if the foundations are weak sooner or later the whole thing is going to come crashing down.
In the long term it’s probably better to employ different skill sets for different requirements. Perhaps a traditional art director should be used for a creative skill set, a graphic designer to implement the art directors ideas, and then somebody with the skills of web development to implement the logical code.
Then again in 20 years time who knows what the job descriptions will be? It wasn’t that long ago when we had cartographers, typographers, illustrators and photographers. It seems that there are days we need to be all of these job descriptions at once. What do you think?
