7 Replies Latest reply: Mar 11, 2010 1:54 PM by MWHebert RSS

    What 'new media' skills should a print designer learn?

    Simon Gregory Community Member

      Well, the InDesign forum is all about print i guess. I'm an experienced print designer wanting to expand his skill set, this seemed a good forum to ask this question.

       

      I was keen on learning Flash, which I realize can get pretty deep into programming territory. But I hear flash is dying, or maybe its retreating, who knows. but maybe there's still a market fro simple animations and such which could flow on easily from vector drawing...

       

      Then I thought the ability to put together a good looking site in Dreamweaver might be helpful. Currently I've done a few site designs, that a web designer/developer has implemented. These have been done in InDesign or Photoshop, with no web functionality, just a 'look'. So the ability to do something functional, as an introductory stage of a larger web design (or even a complete site for a small business) might be best.

       

      Then maybe I should try to learn some HTML or CSS, and skip the in-between software.

       

      I'd be keen to hear opinions from people who may have been in a similar position, and what kind of skills would be most likely to supplement the print design skills.

       

      thanks.

        • 1. Re: What 'new media' skills should a print designer learn?
          BobLevine CommunityMVP

          HTML and CSS would be at the very top of the list.

           

          Bob

          • 2. Re: What 'new media' skills should a print designer learn?
            Simon Gregory Community Member

            Thanks. So not Flash so much?

             

            Sometimes I'm asked to design a website, and to supply a photoshop file which is then 'sliced up' and used for the website. What positions those slices, and generates the code. Is it HTML, CSS, both, neither? excuse the newbie-ish nature of the Q.

            • 3. Re: What 'new media' skills should a print designer learn?
              BobLevine CommunityMVP

              Forget all that slicing and dicing stuff. Just learn the HTML and CSS.

               

              From there, everything else will fall into place.

               

              Bob

              • 4. Re: What 'new media' skills should a print designer learn?
                Graham van de Ruit Community Member

                I'm also a print designer branching out for the first time. I'm learning Flash, and loving it. It started because we're preparing some of our print projects for an online magazine format and need Flash to add the animations and interacitve elements. I don't know that it's the most logical progression, but I'm very excited by the possibilities.

                 

                And from what I hear Flash is definitely not dying. Once you realise the extent of its possibilities for application, you'll see that it's about far more than just animation. You can build complex interactive environments and user interfaces, multimedia experiences, physics engines and, from what I hear, this "augmented reality" stuff is also Flash based.

                 

                I don't know much, but I am excited.

                 

                I think anything you learn will help. If you're not enjoying it it'll just be a slog, but if it does get you all excited it'll snowball and you'll learn so much. So I say choose based on what you find most interesting.

                 

                All the best!

                • 5. Re: What 'new media' skills should a print designer learn?
                  SuperMacGuy Community Member

                  I'd agree HTML and CSS are pretty important. As for Flash, well it's not dying, but of course we all know that iPhone/iPad doesn't support it. So if you are building a website and want the best user experience for the i-Users, then stay away from Flash on the site, especially for navigation items. Or build alternate sites for Flash and non-Flash users (but yeah who wants to do that?).

                  As for what else, it depends on what you want to do. I've built Applescripts and applications and InDesign scripts. I work in a high volume Prepress department so those skills have become valuable. Maybe you don't need a lot of automation, or maybe you do enjoy programming things and want to make scripts to integrate PS/Ai/InD etc. There are also a lot of variable-data options for InD and Photoshop and Illustrator. You can make customized documents with tabular data (Filemaker, Excel, CSV etc) and for example have Photoshop spit out 20 customized documents with the data in one of those files. Some of those things I'd say would be good to know about, even if you don't do them regularly.

                  • 6. Re: What 'new media' skills should a print designer learn?
                    Simon Gregory Community Member

                    Thanks for the input. That scripting side is something I hadn't thought of.

                     

                    I would still be interested to know how the slice and dice method works though, as I'm asked to prepare files that will be 'sliced up'. Even if its not really a good way to work I'd like to know what reconstructs the slices..

                     

                    thanks

                    • 7. Re: What 'new media' skills should a print designer learn?
                      MWHebert Community Member

                      This is one where Bob and I agree.

                       

                      I am not of the programming mind, but I can understand scripts. 15 Years ago I tried web design but the HTML was very hard to work with to get what I wanted layout wise and just set it aside. Big mistake!

                       

                      I applied at my current job about five times before I got the job. It required a lot of web work; revising, redesigning, updating and uploading of content to our company web site. So I dived into HTML again with a little book, Learn HTML In a Weekend, and it did just that. I got up to speed very fast. I just finished CSS: The Missing Manual and now am far more familiar with CSS and can handle what needs to be handled on our web site. I'm not sure the last book was the best way to go but it had lots of examples, which I need. Now the company wants me to stay as my web skills are adequate to the task at hand and my print skills are superior to anything they ever had before.

                       

                      Bob has stated elsewhere that technical knowledge and skill is far more important than design skill. I believe this is very true. As my schooling was in Illustration, that skill transfers well over to graphic design and web design. But the technical skills have gotten me far more freelance work and kept me steadily employed than my design eye has. And other colleagues that haven't moved to web/media, while they may look better visually, haven't been as successful in this field as I.