Graphics or Web design jobs?

RicardoSmith

I have a lot of friends and friends of friends who work in graphic design and web design. I've got out of it myself a few years back. Seems like the market is pretty poor at the moment, as many of them are struggling to find jobs, or switch from jobs they don't like.

Whats everyone else thoughts on it?

nesf

Hmm, the sector seems a bit slow at the moment. I know a few people who were in it, two of them returned to college to brush up their qualifications or diversify a bit, and the other one is working atm but spent 3 months without a job at the start of the year even though he has 5+ years exp in the area.


I've always looked at it as more of a vocation than a career, but maybe that's just because of the people i've known.

RicardoSmith

nesf wrote:

....I've always looked at it as more of a vocation than a career, but maybe that's just because of the people i've known.

That doesn't help to pay the bills...

nesf

RicardoSmith wrote:

That doesn't help to pay the bills...

Exactly my point

The eternal conundrum. Do I do what I love that might pay the bills? Or do I just give in and do something I don't care about that will pay the bills?

There isn't in my opinion, a right and a wrong answer here. I think both are valid ways of looking at it.

pwd

well there were two graphic designers working as night watchmen in bray dart station in 2003. One of them had plenty of experience alright; and afaik he is still doing the security work.

angry_fox

Just finished doing a multimedia course in WIT. Problem is there is little or no work for graphic designers out there and even though i really want to have a carrer in graphic design i know that it wont happen anytime soon because employeers are are looking for people with at least three or four years experience.

RicardoSmith

My main problem with it is that its a bit of a sweatshop industry and I for one lost my enthusiasm for the working conditions in creative industries not the work. It was very hard to have any quality of life working as a designer. I know a few people that have done quite well out of design careers but its at best about 10% of the creatives I know and they are all in the UK.

I also know a few people who have stubbornly, even grimly stayed on their creative career path, but they aren't doing well at it, and need to be partly supported by family. Thats ok for a while, but theres a point you have to take a harsh objective look at what you are doing and decide if its economically viable.

Where are the jobs gone? Or is it simply over supply. I think its the former myself. Fewer companies doing more of the work with less people.

nesf

Well, website design used to be a highly specialised area.

It isn't really anymore. I did HTML, Javascript and Perl during my physics studies....

The skills are too easy to get, too many people have them. Personally give me a field of expertise where it's specialised and there aren't a hundred hungry guys beneath me willing to undercut my wage to work in my place.

Then again, that's just me.

damnyanks

Yeah anyone can get into the whole web design thing. They get themselves a WYSIWYG editor, rip off a template in some way and bang someone is willing to pay them for a website.

Not trying to degrade people in the industry with talent but go around corporate websites and its easy enough to find sites like that. Usually hard to find a corporate website / portal that shows anything cutting edge design wise.

I know when I was filling my CAO out 3 years ago I really wanted to do a BS in web development out in Sligo and I can only think thank god . There is reasonable money in server side development but eh.

nesf

damnyanks wrote:

Yeah anyone can get into the whole web design thing. They get themselves a WYSIWYG editor, rip off a template in some way and bang someone is willing to pay them for a website.

Not trying to degrade people in the industry with talent but go around corporate websites and its easy enough to find sites like that. Usually hard to find a corporate website / portal that shows anything cutting edge design wise.

I know when I was filling my CAO out 3 years ago I really wanted to do a BS in web development out in Sligo and I can only think thank god . There is reasonable money in server side development but eh.

There is however a very real market niche for highly skilled web designers. It's just not very big and there's far too many people with the skill set out there atm.

damnyanks

nesf wrote:

There is however a very real market niche for highly skilled web designers. It's just not very big and there's far too many people with the skill set out there atm.

That what I meant

Look at the likes of www.hotscripts.com you can get pretty decent CMS systems to design and run your website for free in some cases. At the end of the day a lot of people only care if their website looks half decent not amazing especially considering the price difference between average and amazing.

RicardoSmith

nesf wrote:

There is however a very real market niche for highly skilled web designers. It's just not very big and there's far too many people with the skill set out there atm.

That skillset seems to include programming aswell as graphics. I'm seeing ads where they want you to know Java as well as all all the web design stuff.

chump

I've made a few little websites in my time and one thing that really strikes me is that people who don't design websites/aren't arty etc... (ie. most people) don't really even notice what a website looks like and can't tell very well the difference between mediocrity and excellence!

What they do notice however is the practicalities of a website, the interface, and general navigation through the site.

So basically the large majority of websites can easily get away with being average, and any joe can design average...
Backend stuff will always be important though

nesf

RicardoSmith wrote:

That skillset seems to include programming aswell as graphics. I'm seeing ads where they want you to know Java as well as all all the web design stuff.

*shrugs*

Java is no big deal, if they were expecting people to be able to program in hex I'd sympathise but anyone who wants to do web design who can't be bothered to learn a straightforward high level programming language is in the wrong profession.

In my opinion anyways.

damnyanks

nesf wrote:

*shrugs*

Java is no big deal, if they were expecting people to be able to program in hex I'd sympathise but anyone who wants to do web design who can't be bothered to learn a straightforward high level programming language is in the wrong profession.

In my opinion anyways.

I think it would depend on the level of knowledge required. Like if they are meant to understand java and have knowledge of how it works etc. fine.

However if they are required to be skilled j2ee developers as well as web designers I think thats a bit much (Assumeing it wwas a standard web designers salary_

RicardoSmith

nesf wrote:

*shrugs*

Java is no big deal, if they were expecting people to be able to program in hex I'd sympathise but anyone who wants to do web design who can't be bothered to learn a straightforward high level programming language is in the wrong profession.

In my opinion anyways.

A Web designer shouldn't be coding he should be designing. If your coding you shouldn't be designing. You can't do two jobs at once. I don't agree that OO programming skills are part of designers skillset. If that was true why do you need programmers at all?

sovtek

The last place I worked the owner was going over to Bulgaria to contract out the php web dev. I think this might also contribute to less demand for website design.
I'm seeing alot of job specs want you to be able to do all of it...Graphics/HTML/web dev and design.