Death of a Web Designer
University is a scary place.
Although not because of the workload, the damage to your liver, or even the nocturnal habits of the international students.
It’s scary because it marks the end of formal education and the start of perhaps, many attempts, at trying to put the skills you’ve learnt to practical use.
I was that soldier, and I know how daunting it is being on the outside looking in, on the design industry.
The route after you graduate is not predetermined for those of a creative persuasion, and it can appear that there are only a few roles to which you can apply the left side of your brain.
I got my chance, due in part, to the understanding of those who had already made the transition and were happy to help open the proverbial door that little bit wider.
Recently, Dave and I were offered our chance to pay it forward, to a few hundred third year students from the Arts University College Bournemouth.
We put together a presentation that aimed to dispel some common misconceptions about our industry, offering an insight into the many paths they could choose to forge in the future.
We told them how only four or five years ago it used to be very straightforward. Web designers did it all. They researched the audience, sketched the solution, defined the interactions, conceptualised the design and coded the pages.
But technology moved on, expectations rose, and to call yourself an expert in any area of web design became a full time job.
Jack of all trades, master of none.
So we changed. We talked to our teams and we said to them – of all the facets of web design, which one were they most passionate about? And we asked them to do that one thing, and to become the best.
Our Design, UX and Innovation departments now have experts, all of them creative, who work closely together in teams, across every account.
A creative person entering the design industry today has many roles from which to choose, to find the right fit for their unique combination of talents.
When the presentation was over, it was clear from the questions that the students were asking that they were excited by the opportunities they had just discovered, and that the door had opened a little bit wider for them too.
Tap your way through the slide deck, or download the slides to see the whole presentation and to get an appreciation for the range of creative weapons Redweb has in it’s arsenal.
