Drawar Thread: Can I call myself a web designer?

Can I call myself a web designer?

archangelchuck — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:58:12

I can accept that. On thinking about it, you could certainly create blogger designs and sell them for a little money. Perhaps a little bit contrary to what I posted earlier, I think that could be considered a level of professional web design.

Like I said earlier, I do (personally) respect people more when they are not only able to make a blog look pretty, but also when they can design a functional website using the same principles; but, if you are good at selling yourself, I could see you going somewhere with it. Be creative! Isn't that the whole idea behind business and art alike? ;p

P.S. Criticism is good, but it's always subjective, so take with a grain of salt. Use your own judgment. I think both layouts are very acceptable; clean, functional, overall good designs. While I don't see that little "glisten" of professional quality from either site, I could see it happening with a some tweaking here and there; that of course is up to you as the designer. All in all, great work.

Can I call myself a web designer?

memecow — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:26:01

Oli & archangelchuck: Thanks for the honesty. I can handle it. FWIW, the IOZ blog's base inspiration was http://abduzeedo.com/ (who has since changed his theme). The color scheme drifted a bit because some of IOZ's regular readers complained about readability. Perhaps it drifted too much. As for the sparseness of that particular design, IOZ wanted the emphasis to be on his content, so my goal was to give him a functional but custom Blogger design that wasn't a radical departure from what he and his readers were used to nor a distraction from his writing.

The fringetv blog is a work in progress. Not that you can't tell where it's going, but the finished product should be somewhat better.

As for the reason I asked, tweaking Blogger blogs is enjoyable to me. Spending a lot of time in the blogspot universe I see there is a lot of need for individuality. While I'm not a pro at Photoshop, I've learned a thing or two. The same goes for css and all the other elements that come into play when figuring how to get something to look or work the way you want it. So sure, I need more experience in every aspect of design and development, but then I have a mountain more experience than 90% of the people using blogspot. And those are the individuals who I would cater to, not companies and no contracts. Just individuals who love their blogspot blogs and want to separate them from the herd.

Can I call myself a web designer?

archangelchuck — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:28:53

I guess that depends on the point of view.

Not to come off as arrogant, but I have never been impressed by people who make "pretty" blogs and proceed to call themselves web designers. The grunt work is already done for you! All you have to do is edit the style sheet... I do start listening, though, if you show that you can create a similar design from scratch. ;)

The way I see it, anyone who writes HTML and CSS to create an aesthetically pleasing page can be called a web designer; one who can add server side code to that can be called a web developer. Those are both true... at least on the amateur level (I don't even mean amateur in a negative way; sometimes, amateurs can give professionals a run for their money). To be considered for a professional position, you'll have to be pretty damned convincing because of the fact that anybody can be a web designer.

I say if you want to call yourself a web designer, go for it... :P A lot of people tend to wait until they've held at least one position in the field before they do so, though...

Can I call myself a web designer?

Oli — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:13:45

It's just a title.

People won't look to you for your services if you can't back it up, however. There are at least 300 billion "web designers" on the internet at any given time, but only a handful (a number in the low-thousands) are actually worth their weight - most of those having formal art/design education and experience.

Take myself for example. I know what looks good and what doesn't. I know my way around Illustrator and Photoshop and on rare occasions I can even forge a complete design in what I imaging is a formally-taught process. But I'm not a web-designer, I'm a web-developer.

Why? I'm much better at programming. I'm infinitely better at taking a design and implementing it and its interface behaviour, writing the backend for a site and pulling things together. But similarly, you can't go around calling yourself a developer if you cannot deliver.

So let's bring this back to you and your examples. If you're easily offended, I suggest you skip the rest of this paragraph. Your examples are way into the depths of beginner web-design: poor element placement, limited colour logic, little/no idea about typography, poor logos and all-in-all: no evidence that there's been any creative process take place. It's bland and unexciting.

You have to be honest - especially when you're looking for work. If you advertise yourself as a designer to a company that has dealt with real designers before, they're going to be able to spot you're an amateur within five minutes of working with you. If you manage to sneak under the radar and do land a contract or a job, if your quality of work isn't up to par, you're going to go unpaid or get yourself fired.

That's not to say you can't improve. As I've said, I've never had any formal design training but I would also say that I've taught myself tons by reading critiques, trawling through design galleries, making websites and working with real artists and designers. From a self-teaching perspective, you just can't beat experience.

So in answer to your question: you could, but you shouldn't. Not yet, anyway.

Can I call myself a web designer?

memecow — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:48:45

Thanks for the responses. I guess, being new to the idea of specializing in design, I wanted to get a sense of the general wisdom. There's a lot I don't know and I'm a bit of a stranger to the design community.

Scrivs: Thanks for the seed. Bringing something new to the table started my wheels turning. Not that I'm likely to reach such a destination, but now that I've got one, I can enjoy the journey if you know what I mean.

TH3_BRAIN: I think the myspace comparison is apt in my case. I'm too specialized and for sure one of the reasons I gravitate toward Blogger is they handle some of the more technical and mundane aspects of running a website (hosting, db back up, optimization, etc).

Can I call myself a web designer?

TH3_BRAIN — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:33:08

"Web design" is such a common term in this day and age. The connotation of the phrase has shifted drastically over time. Girls that tweak the hell out of their myspace could be considered web designers.

I also think there is a large difference between someone who claims to be a web designer and someone who claims to be a designer.

The question for me is, do you want to be called a web designer? If so, why?

Is it to start a business venture where you would be designing web sites?

I've seen some pretty nasty stuff across the internet that passes for web design.

Can I call myself a web designer?

Tyme — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:06:32

In an age of anyone claiming to be anything the question arises: you make the claim, can you back that up? In an area like web design (where a degree is not required or necessarily expected) a portfolio is, which equals experience.

I guess what I'm saying: I wouldn't make a claim I couldn't thoroughly back up.

Can I call myself a web designer?

davidhayes — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:48:16

In my mind, anyone who calls themselves a designer is one. Anyone who calls themselves a writer is one. Heck, anyone who calls themselves an elephant is one.

I'm guessing that you're really asking is "Am I good enough to call myself a designer?" To that question, I'd probably say yes (even without the above point). What you've done looks pretty good, especially on Blogger, where few people use anything but the default templates. What you're doing is at least as good as what many people who call themselves "designers" have done.

If that's good enough for you to get paid as "a designer," I honestly have no idea.

Can I call myself a web designer?

Scrivs — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:49:51

Funny I wrote about this last week and it had some nice discussion. You are not a designer.

Can I call myself a web designer?

memecow — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:52:46

In brief: I'm self taught (which I suspect is the norm). I specialize in Blogger (and whatever else is free). But is what I'm doing design or just tinkering? Examples:

http://whoisioz.blogspot.com/
http://fringetv.blogspot.com/

And yes, I'd like some critical input too. What am I doing wrong?