katie

Many agencies and designers don’t see the benefit of learning how to code – if the code couldn’t be used in production. It might seem to be wasted money if you send a designer on a CSS course yet he takes 5 times as long to do something as the outsourced team you normally use. However, even a basic knowledge of CSS will mean that designer can start to think about the capabilities of CSS while designing, be able to design for a medium he understands. He’ll be able to talk to the developers in an informed way about the effect he wants to achieve and be able to understand better the constraints of browser technology.

This article is 100% on point. Part of my job is staying educated and knowing as much as possible about the media that I need or want to use as a designer. A big thing on my mind right now is where/how can I get these skills. Do I have to go back to school, are there ways for me to teach myself, or should my employer provide (or even partially subsidize) further training? I’d love to hear other’s thoughts on this.