I Am Not A Web Designer
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I am not a web designer.
Don’t get me wrong - I consider myself to be more than “okay” at HTML and CSS, and I have even gotten my head around the basics of PHP to the point where I actually understand the joke on Jem’s new geek t-shirt (I am insanely proud of that fact). I think that makes me a web developer.
But that does not change the fact I cannot design for shit.
I am not entirely a visual person. I do have an excellent memory for the way things look but that does not help me in the slightest here. My brain can recall images… it just cannot create them. I see colours and patterns on places like ColourLovers.com and think, “Wow, that would look cool on a website. Especially if I were to add that to the mix!” but then my brain cannot piece together anything. Nothing.
I did it today. I set out to finally make my own wordpress theme. I opened up Fireworks, made a new file, slapped down a rectangle with rounded corners of a suitable grey… and then stared at it for ten minutes. I had no clue what to do next - I tried something with a sidebar but I didn’t like it.
So I shut Fireworks down again, feeling very annoyed. It seems that Fireworks shall only be used for my “awesome” map-making skills, and maybe a few other things.
In short, I am not a web designer. I cannot turn a bunch of colours into a pretty picture. But I can code that pretty picture into a website. I can also tell if a design is shit.
I am a web developer. To a point, I mean. And I raise my invisible glass to all those who can design. I envy your talents.
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I’m average at both design and developing. I’d much rather be better at one than the other. Consider yourself lucky!
I used to think I was 1337, but really, I’m just pitiful. We all have our strengths.
I have tried so hard at designing stuff like layouts for websites but the colours never look right and I only know basic HTML . =[
I am a web developer too. My strong suit is definitely not design! The hardest part for me is a color scheme that I like.
I’m the opposite, I guess. I look at code and go “AUUGGHHHH.” Which is why I opt for Wordpress. I understand CSS, but only because I’ve been using it for 9 years. I am much better with design. As in, get me a paper, or my Photoshop program and I can draw you *exactly* what I want, in great detail. But ask me to put it all together, and I glaze over. It takes me days to work myself up enough to work on coding. Which I suppose is why my site generally stays the same, with the change of a few colours and a new spiffy header every once-in-a-while.
I think I’m the same as you! I see all these nice colour schemes, but I just can’t piece them together or think of something non-generic. It’s why I’ve been stuck with my current layout for so long… Coding is so much easier
I’m the same way, no originality even. Also my designs never turn out the way I want it to.
I’m not really one or the other, or I’m equally talented in both areas. My problem is that I’m indecisive and end up changing everything entirely after a week. Well, maybe not problem per say, but I’ve never been one of those with a good enough design that I’ll love it for more than a month.
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