Designer vs. Developer

One thing that’s been a bit confusing in my recent job search is whether I consider myself a web designer or a web developer. By most definitions, I’m a designer who dabbles in development. However, this doesn’t even qualify me as a front end developer because those are the guys who can hand code in JavaScript. I have occasional lapses on how to code in HTML and CSS, but it’s actually not very tough for me either.

My boyfriend is actually the definition of the Developer, since he once took pride in hand coding his websites back when he had them (Geocities). I’ve focused more on content in my own websites, but I do like them to look nice because of my artistic nature. That’s not something my family would ever encourage because I do have a some smarts, but it’s nice to know that it helps me make pretty websites.

That really isn’t too hard when everything is or looks like a template, which makes sense since uniformity of a site makes more sense than randomness. I guess it’s nice to have a balance between the technical and creative, I try my best though I’m not nearly as technical as most developers and brainiacs in general. If I can distill a complex idea into something I understand, then making it into a good design is not as difficult. I’m sure designing is more translating an idea in a presentable and clear image – either with graphics or a combination of words and pictures.

I feel I’m slightly better with words now than pictures, but I still play a mean game of Pictionary. Charades – not so much.