cre824 & Web Design
The success of the cre824 festival this weekend is a testament to the hard work of those who organized and produced the event. Aaron, Alex, Jason, George, Mark, Chuck, Scotty, Matt, Dwayne, Jake, and Chuck are all heroes in my book. cre824, more than any other previous event, is going to enable a coalescing and maturation of the web design community.
There are conventions/conferences on web based application development or graphic design proper, but there has not been (until now) a central event for the "web design" community. Finally the industry has a uniting event where we can learn, compete, and even celebrate our work.
Over the weekend the subject of “what web design is” was raised a number of times. It’s funny to think of that question being asked and discussed so fervently at a conference dedicated to an industry bearing the name. Perhaps it’s a product of the industry's relative youth compared to say, well, just about anything. Keynote speaker Joshua Davis looked to be the closest thing to an industry elder, if that tells you anything about just how young the average person speaking, competing, and attending was.
The central problem of answering the question, though, is the issue of the relationship between design proper and the web-as-programming. In most other industries there exists a hard and fast distinction between those who design a product and those who produce that product. The industrial designer designs and the engineer builds. The reporter writes and the layout editor designs.
But In the industry of web design this differentiation of roles breaks down or ceases to exist altogether. While it is not universally the case – in my company, for example, we have a differentiation of roles via design and development departments –often the same person that designs the site is often the same person that builds the site. This fact was evidenced most clearly in the speakers, competitors, and attendees of cre824.
In the most practical terms, the design and development "phases" of the website creation process can and often do occur simultaneously. This is not simply a matter of tools like Dreamweaver and GoLive making this possible. To write the problem off as such would be simplistic and inaccurate. When the hybrid "web designer" designs a website and builds that website including whatever functionality is necessary, he is in effect engaged in a inseparable conjunction of form and function.
Further, this cannot be written off as a feature of the small "start-up" web design firm that is analogous to start-up businesses in other industries, where by economic necessity individuals are forced to wear more than one hat. In the web design world, the small firms (including the one or two person shops) with multiple persons wearing multiple hats are enormously successful by any definition of the term. These are the companies building some of the best and most highly visited websites. In many ways the hybrid web design firm begins to function similar to the small proper design or ad agency: through increased success and longevity comes greater financial returns via the ability to charge significantly higher rates.
But as I mentioned earlier, there exists an assumed differentiation in roles between the "web designer" as designer and the "web designer" as developer – and this is where we find a lack of clarity in the definition of “web design.” It is difficult to assert carte blanche that this ambiguity simply needs to go away and that the necessary work in extrapolating the meaning and the standards for "web design" should commence. The distinction between form and function is as old as Western Civilization: it is the method by which we categorize, analyze, and critique other industries. So why should web design be any different? (The question is further complicated those design and technology companies that do utilize clearly differentiated roles.)
My belief is that events like cre824 will serve to shed light on this issue through the interaction of the web design community and its many parts, along with those related but separate industries such as traditional design agencies and software development companies. The inclusion of all these relevant persons in this discussion will bear fruit – perhaps in the form of a clear answer to the question of just what it is we as web designers actually do.
Design | By Josiah Roe | 09:44 AM
Comments
any thoughts on the 24 hour competition? who gets to go to europe? and why are you under "amateur" as "octopus"?
Posted by: bobw at November 23, 2005 11:17 AM
I was very impressed by Bain's presentation (though brief) and the general design and intent of the show. While certain aspects faltered, it seemed to be well planned if not well attended. It being the first time it was held, I wasn't too surprised that turnout was poor, but i suppose time might help with that.
Even with participation being so low I still was impressed with the final work. Each team seemed to pull off some good work and it showed that cre824 was able to draw some talent.
Hoping that future shows not only draw larger audiences but continue to attract good talent.
Posted by: stelmodad at November 23, 2005 02:23 PM
hey i was visiting your archives to revisit Sufjan's christmas music. i was wondering if you know why he never marketed that? also, i tried the "christmas in st elmo" song and the link doesn't seem to work any more... any way to hear it?
Posted by: tacy Williams at November 26, 2005 06:33 PM
Speaking of funny, from this end it looks like what you "do" is get more self-absorbed with each passing day. That's a joke, but if you want to hear a real knee-slapper, ask the morons at Tuba-Tomato about the crude logo they "created" on spec for the Medical Society a few years ago. It honestly looked like something Karl Childers whipped up using Microsoft Word and was - not suprisingly - flatly rejected. The only thing more laughable than their pathetic "design" attempt was the ridiculously inflated bill they submitted for same, which was rejected with Extreme Prejudice. In New Business, a Google News Search of "crea824" turns up exactly nothing, which perfectly sums up the Real World (in)significance of your sad little geek-centric non-event.
Posted by: Robert T. Nash at November 28, 2005 10:50 PM
Speaking of funny, from this end it looks like what you web types "do" is get more self-absorbed with each passing day. That's a joke, but if you want to hear a real knee-slapper, ask the morons at Tuba-Tomato about the crude logo they "created" on spec for the Medical Society a few years ago. It honestly looked like something Karl Childers whipped up using Microsoft Word and was - not suprisingly - flatly rejected. The only thing more laughable than their pathetic "design" attempt was the ridiculously inflated bill they submitted for same, which was rejected with Extreme Prejudice. As for the dreaded meaning of it all, a Google News Search of "cre824" turns up only one sad little press release*, which perfectly sums up the Real World (in)significance of your sad little geek-centric non-event.
* Which the mighty John Wilson was kind enough to run for you, despite your constant attempts to revile and villify him and his work.
Posted by: Robert T. Nash at November 28, 2005 10:57 PM
why hello josiah.
i was looking for the track listing for the sufjan christmas album and your site was the one that came up first. nice running into you, josiah. I should read your blog more often.
Posted by: lindsay at November 30, 2005 03:41 PM
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