In my case, as I said I love graphic design, and have nothing against web, but I think there are two separate areas that have a common ground. I respect people who do both though, but don’t think there should be a mix.

Kyle: Great blog, just came across it today and even though I’m not into web design I found it great of value and interest and needless to say, I was instantly hooked.

Like some others, I think there is a false dichotomy of web and print design. Web and print designers both have to learn to work with “new media” (checkout Hillman Curtis on this subject, if you haven’t already).

When it came time for me to choose which program I was going to pursue at college, I had two loves—web design and physical art. I ultimately chose to become a graphic designer, but I surely didn’t let my web skills slip into the abyss. I know how to code (often until my fingers are numb!), build Flash websites, am a CSS fanatic, and, actually, loathe Dreamweaver because it is too automated (I prefer to code in Dreamweaver, if it comes to that). What I don’t know, I’ll go out and learn. I factor in usability and simple, straight-up navigation. I constantly remind my fellow students to optimize and plan for dynamics if they have to build websites.

My profs tell me every day that I have incredible skill and great ideas in print, but am often confused with web students, even by the web instructors at my school. There has never been a dichotomy for me, but I do agree that I see tons of offenses from both print and web designers who try to do each others work. (Frames and tables on a print students site, ads created wholly in Photoshop with pixelated text from web students…*shudders*.)

With my personal rant done, I think that web and print designers should know how to work in other media. Walk in for a job at a print office, and they’ll immediately ask if you can do web (their fault, really, for being too cheap to hire a web professional). But, you should really ultimately choose one or another, because you go to a specialist when you need your eyes examined, right? You wouldn’t feel comfortable going to a general practioner to see if you need glasses.

It doesn’t hurt to do other things (it often helps you get a job), but specialize. I specialize in corporate identity and packaging, because I like working with tangibles just a little better than working on code. On a similar note, web designers should specialize, also, I think—pick business or personal/private web (okay, too broad, but you get my point, I hope).

Recently they hired another designer that was straight from the print dept. They want designers doing mockups for sites, whereas before I sometimes did the site design. So now i dont really do much other than minor code changes, read blogs and test and try things for my own sites. Its kind of been frustrating getting stuff that looks like something for a newspaper, with the wrong width, no link colors, etc. I’m sure they will learn to do better somewhat, but until you rip out a site on your own with just a little HTML and CSS, your just throwing graphics around. I couldnt do print design in any way because I havent learned the “rules” and the guidelines for dealing with print. Sure photoshop/illustrator/quarkexpress skills come into play as well as basic graphic design, but there is more to any design medium than just those basics. You gotta learn the rules and guidelines and figure out what works and why.

I dont have a BA in Art and since I know how to code they assume I cant design and shouldnt be doing so for our sites. Granted knowing HTML and CSS doesnt make you a designer, but I’ve read and studied and built sites over and over from scratch since the 90s which gives me a little edge on somethings.

If a print designer has 10 years experience designing print and web with a 50/50 split between them, then they have 5 years experience in web design.

No way can a print person with zero experience in web produce a compelling web design. It takes time and experience to understand the medium to be effective enough to work in it. Look at famous artists, most of them specialised in a particular medium - oils, water based etc.

Sooner or later you have to make a choice if you’re print or web. To think that you can spend 50% of your time doing web and compete with equally talented people spending 100% of their time then you are incredibly ignorant.

Other designers are not web designers!

I don’t have a print design background. When discussing with print designers about the design of a website, most of them seem to be 10 years behind, but unwilling to accept it. While it’s true that the 2 are closely related, they are actually quite far apart in terms of usage.

but knowing about the web and it’s techniques DOESN’T MAKE ANYONE A DESIGNER. There’s a damn good reason why you have to suffer nude drawing and colour circles when visiting an art school!

Boy do I hear you there, not to mention the exercises on design principles. I’ve never drawn so many black squares in my life (and hope to never have to again).

Of course no one (at least I hope so) would design a book like a website (although it might be quite funny to have a table of contents on every page) but that’s for the same reason why no one would design a business card looking like a book, even though both is print. A business card is a small thing, so you can’t treat it like a magazine layout. A website doesn’t (need to) have a static height. So? What is it with this semantic code and compatibility stuff? There are frontend-guys for that type of work. As if I’d be able to produce one single offset print if you dump me—being a print designer—in a print shop. That’s where the guy from the print shop itself comes in and I’m very grateful for that.

Don’t get me wrong: Altough I’m a print-designer I do have an understanding about markup and style sheets and if I do code, I’m using a plain text editor (I never managed to understand GoLive). I started with HTML around ten years ago and kept it as a hobby ever since—and I’m seriously hooked on great webdesign as much as I am hooked on print. And that’s exactly why I’m getting annoyed when people mix up code and design. Of course you can’t (or shouldn’t) do a website if you don’t know anything about the web, but knowing about the web and it’s techniques DOESN’T MAKE ANYONE A DESIGNER. There’s a damn good reason why you have to suffer nude drawing and colour circles when visiting an art school!

I once stumbled upon the nicely looking website of some freelance guy, advertising himself as a webdesigner and talking about barrier-free webdesign in his welcome-text. I’m sure his site would fit perfectly on which screen (pc, mac, tv, mobile) you ever chose—thanks to his semantic markup. The problem was just that his type had an x-height of 4(!) pixels. So much for the design. The site was so barrier-free one couldn’t even read it.

“I would much rather be teaching a kickass designer how to translate their skills, than trying to teach design.”

Amen.