Graphic designers are not coders or scripters, nor should we be expected to be.
This is an old pet peeve of mine. On my former full time graphic design position, after about the first year, one of my bosses expected me to learn Flash, that animation software.
This was back when Flash was made and sold by Macromedia. I think ActionScript was at level 1.0 at that time.
Initially, my boss just wanted me to make basic animations with Flash, which isn’t too bad, though I still found it slightly annoying, because in my view, graphic designers are distinct from multi-media guys.
And we had a multimedia guy on staff at that job already, so I was unsure why the boss didn’t fob all the Flash animation work on to “Mr. MultiMedia.”
The last job I had also had a computer programmer. That’s all the guy did, was programming. I don’t know why the boss didn’t have that guy pick up Flash scripting.
Anyhow. I used my own money to buy a handful of Flash books at that time. You have to remember I was a graphic designer who had worked in nothing but “static” computer media up to that point, in software such as Photoshop and Illustrator.
I was not accustomed to working in animation software. It took some getting used to.
I especially hated – and would panic – every time my art seemed to disappear from the stage.
It took me weeks or months to remember that any time my art seemed to magically “disappear” from the screen, that it was actually still there somewhere, but it was on frame 1, while I had maybe accidentally clicked the play head to move to frame 20.
The whole timeline thing was foreign to me, and still kind of is. Layers I am used to, but a time line? Nope.
As I worked at that job, every few months or so, Adobe (which had bought the software from Macromedia) kept making changes and complicating it (darn you to heck for that Adobe!)
Not only did Adobe keep adding bells and whistles to Flash, but they updated Action Script from version 1, to 2, and later, to 3.
The boss, at the same pace, or about, expected my Flash work to get more and more complex with every new version of the software.
Not only was I expected to go beyond simple animations or interactivity, but I was expected to learn more and more complicated interactivity that required the use of freaking Action Script.
I never took programming or scripting courses in college.
Action Script looked like algebra to me, with with all the looping, the variables. It was intimidating, and I hated it. It took me forever to wrap my head around it.
I had to purchase mountains of books on Action Script 2.
My employer did not offer to send me to night school to learn Flash or Action Script; nope, I had to learn it alone, using books I bought with my own money.
Just as I started to get the hang of some basic Action Script 2 interactivity down, Adobe introduced AS version 3. Some time during the start of AS3’s take off, I quit that job (see the “about” page of this blog).
During that time, and in the few years that came after, I found some graphic design forums and blogs that discussed this.
When Adobe introduced Action Script 3, they about completely changed AS2, and many graphic artists were steamed and infuriated they basically had to re-learn Action Script all over again, and they said as much on various forums and blogs
There were actually some professional graphic designers arguing that graphic designers, yes, should know scripting and coding, trying to say that learning AS was not that hard. I totally disagreed with these guys then, and I still do now.
No, graphic artists should not be expected to know programming, scripting, or coding, and no, learning those kinds of things are not simple for someone whose mind tilts toward art and creativity, rather than math, science, and logic.
At the same time, both about ten years ago, and every so often now, I see graphic design job wanted ads where the employer will actually head the ad “Graphic Designer Wanted,” and while the first sentence might read something reasonable, such as, “Must be proficient at page layout and Photoshop,” the entire rest of the job wanted ad, which can be up to three paragraphs long, demands that any applicants also know programming languages such as C++, or Java Script, and the remainder is filled with nothing but programming languages that one must know to apply.
Essentially, such employers are looking for people who are computer programmers who also may know a bit of graphic design on the side.
This touches on something I’ve said in previous posts about bad graphic design job wanted ads I’ve run across: companies are either….
-very ignorant about what a graphic designer is and what they typically do, or
-they darn well know what graphic designers do but are too cheap to hire two separate people for two separate jobs, so they place an ad in the paper wanting one person to work at two job duties – which is dishonest, lazy, and cheap of them.
I don’t know if colleges have changed how they teach graphic design in the years since I got my degree, but back in my day, we took courses on Photoshop and such, there were zero classes on learning coding or scripting or programming.
Scripting and programming are entirely separate areas or disciplines from graphic design, hence, graphic designers should not be expected by other designers or by employers to know it.
If I had wanted to be proficient or tinker with programming and scripting, I would have majored or even minored in computer programming, but nope, I was not interested in that, so I stuck with the visual arts.
Employers who are trying to fill graphic design job positions need to stop confusing computer programming with graphic design.
What you should expect a graphic designer to know (depending on if you are seeking a web or print artist): Photoshop; Illustrator; page layout software (such as InDesign).
What you should not expect a graphic designer to know: programming languages such as C++ or scripting language such as Action Script or Java Script.
Nor should you necessarily expect a graphic designer to know HTML or CSS; that is the domain of WEB DESIGNERS. Web design and Graphic design are separate disciplines.
Some graphic designers dabble in more than one area, I know I do – not only do I know Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, but I know HTML, CSS, and Flash. But me knowing more than the core 3 is “icing on the cake” and not the cake, so you should not demand that every graphic designer knows scripting, Flash, or CSS.
If you are a graphic designer who knows scripting and programming, you’re capable at it, and love it, bully and great for you, but that should not be a requirement for all other graphic designers. Your extra skills there are icing on the cake, gravy, not the core.
Now that HTML 5 has pretty much killed Flash off, one doesn’t see so much demand for Action Script knowledge these days.
On a last note, Graphic Designers are also not Videographers. I see too many graphic design job wanted ads that demand that applicants know how to use Adobe video software, such as “Final Cut Pro”. Videography is an entirely separate practice and art from standard graphic design work.
On this Blog:
Employers: Interior Design or Gallery Design is Not Graphic Design
Articles on other people’s sites (though these are mainly focused on web designers, but the points are still pertinent):
The “designers should code” bullshit and a not so new idea
Should Web Designers Have Coding Skills?
Do Graphic Designers Need To Know Code?
Musings of a Graphic Designer 