Not to take anything away from those who use applications to get the job done. I designed my first web site back in ‘94 using Photoshop and wrote the HTML by hand using Pico. Today I use the Adobe Creative Suite to build sites, however I also know the code and can do it by hand. But as projects grew and time lines shrunk these tools proved their usefulness.

I feel those Artists who use applications and wear the “Designer” badge can be classified as either: Novice, Advanced User, Expert.

The Novice is just starting out. They will most likely be using some WYSIWYG because it helps speed up the process. They may be doing this as a hobby or it could be a career move for them as some point.

The Advanced User is not all that new to the game and is very good at using the applications to achieve their goals like the “Painter” Stevie mentioned. They may have a formal background in the arts but don’t “waste” time with learning things outside of their box. “Just let the application do it for me.”

The Expert is the person who knows what’s going on up top and under the hood. They know why the code is behaving a certain way, they know why it’s best to use a certain technique in Photoshop over another. They may be formally trained in the arts or computers but have taken the steps to learn or become familiar with the details outside of their box.

In any case, to be able to create something takes initiative and talent.
Does that mean the end result is any less important? Not if serves it’s purpose.

My Mother, Pat Gaines-Mills is a very accomplished Artist who went to school to study Art and now has work hanging all over Indiana and abroad. Me, I’m an accomplished Designer who went to school to study Psychology and has sites all over the web.

My Mom is great at painting anything from abstract compositions to the endangered Black Rhinos in Africa. But if you need an interactive presence I’m the one to call. Love you Mom :)

Defining a designer? I still wonder if I have learned enough coding, rules, and language descriptions to be a web designer. I have over 12 years experience as a graphic designer, and feel confident to call myself one.

I don’t think a title should be used unless the experience, employed position or education is there to back it up. If that isn’t the case, then I am a painter. I am an illustrator. I am a writer. I am a print specialist. I am a computer technician. I am an accountant. Really. I am a nutritionist. I am a novelist. I am a journalist. All true. **smiles**

If you want, you can place bad, awful or amateur in front of those titles, but I am still stealing the actual worth of those professionals by declaring myself one.

Designers do so much more than put objects on a page. A true designer solves design problems on a form v. function continuum. They create problems to be solved. They break through boundaries never even perceived before they broke through.

I am not a designer. Not yet anyway. I can put together a decent website, and I can answer to my clients needs. I can make my client’s cheezy and all together cliché ideas and turn them into something pleasing for their customers to browse, but I am not a designer. I have a long way to go before I solve any problems, before I create something truly unique, before I move the design world in any one direction.

I am, however, a student of design. Perhaps this is where most of us really are.

As someone who teaches web languages, it’s disappointing to me when a student comes into class armed with l33t Photoshop skillz and nothing else. No idea of whitespace usage, kerning, grids, or anything considered a staple of good design. To these students, “design” is about glossy buttons and subtle drop-shadows- not creating a cohesive solution.

I’m not saying that Photoshop skills aren’t important, I just think we tend to over-emphasize the “pretty” over the “solution”. Unfortunately, most clients want the “pretty” simply because they saw xyz site do it. Such is the life of a web designer…

I didnt say just having the ability, that is how you define traits and only people who design are designers not everyone!

You see Designer means someone who designs or is designing or is between designing, thats all the word means! if you add other words together to form sentences which add further meaning various words, like Web designer, Print Designer, Great Designer or Bad Designer etc.

What you and many other people do when discussing things like this is try to tag on “further meaning” to whatever word it is you’re talking about.

You wouldn’t put an article together called “You are not a cleaner” based on the amount of so called “window cleaners” that don’t do it “properly”, they are cleaners, to elaborate they’re terrible window cleaners.

Would a Clothes designer no longer be a designer if they didn’t know about kerning or grids?

On one hand you’ve got the group that can play an instrument with technical perfection, but not know anything about music other than how to read which note they need to play. In fact, there’s a lot of people that play in bands and have no idea how to even read music. These would be the people that can execute a design without creating something new (or tailored to the situation/site.)

Then there’s the other group that understands the how and the why of the music. These are the ones who can hear a piece and come up with the harmony line, or a counterpoint to the melody. They can immediately play a complimentary riff over a chord progression, or find a substitution in that progression that creates more interest. These are the true designers.

There’s something to be said about innate talent as well. The smallest group is that which knows that something works, without understanding all the complexities to why. Of course these people also tend to be the type that wants to find out why, and they do.

@Rusty: I understand most of the “designers” out there don’t have a art background, but what is to stop them from learning? We have the internet at our fingertips and that is a great education enough if you take the time to use it. Add to your library the many great books on design out there and you will find you don’t need to take a painting class.