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Posted by dorayme on 11/17/41 11:29
> From: "Jeanne D" <jeannedecarolis@netzero.com>
>
> Just think how much easier it would be if they could set a standard and
> stick with it. First I had to learn HTML, now I'm hearing that's no
> good - learn CSS, toss away your tables, nested is a dirty word.
>
HTML is insufficient rather than no good. You don't /have to/ toss away your
tables. And you don't have to follow every trend until you see for yourself
a limitation that is actually bothersome in some way that you can see or
know about for sure yourself...
> As a graphic designer, I want to concentrate on design not code. But a
> lot is expected of us these days, and now CSS.
Well, what does this really mean? Designing for the web means learning to
use the web tools. Were you turning out nice work in tables? Did it look
nice for all your intended audience? Fine then...
> Blech. I like CSS and understand it's beauty - but please, what will
> replace CSS after I spend time away from my design tools learning it?
> Here we go again.
You see, I think there is some confusion here. The design tools
are what? Your Illustrator ones? Gorgeous as these are
(seriously, they are nice!), they are for preparing graphics and
(for the print medium, text too) but that is only one part of
website work. You will have a good eye for a result on
individual screens. But what does designing for the web mean? It
means being able to deliver to all manner of screens and devices
various stuff. Designing in this context means knowing and
allowing for different receiving machines to get your material,
it not likely always "looking" like on your screen. The art then
is to design not for an artboard but for an impossibly general
object, all the devices capable of getting web content
(including as an ideal, no visual renderers (Christ, that will
put a spanner in the Graphic Design works!)...
To make it manageable, best perhaps to think of a statistically
common denominator: a person with a 17" screen who might not
want to use it all, better not count on more than 800px wide.
This does not mean you design only for that, some people have
huge screens and it would be nice that they can fill them to
some extent, that folk can enlarge the fonts a great deal and
still get what you have to offer... Making your way through all
the competing pressures is really nothing whatever to do with
your Graphic Design background. It is a conceptual field, higher
and more beautiful than brain surgery, deeper than the deepest
thoughts of even European Existential philosophers (not!)... er
maybe I better stop and get my pills...
dorayme
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