E-dreamz Company Blog

Most people come into our office or send their information believing themselves to be a designer, but once you look into them more they may tend to be a Production Artist more than a pure designer. Not to say they can’t sharpen their overall design skills and talent, but they may know more about the production tools than being a good graphic designer. Could be a junior level person who needs to be around better designers to enhance that part but can use and understand all the tools that it takes to construct a design into a working prototype.
 
A Production Artist actually is a nice niche for those looking to get into the Interactive development world. I say this because most good designers do not know how to build or construct their designs into a working prototype. So a designer needs a good Production Artist to assist them. Here at E-dreamz the Designers and the Production Artists are pooled in as Web Designers, but usually they come in being better in one area than the other. It is in an environment like ours where both areas learn from one another to enhance their skills and talents. Eventually all Designers will need to learn how to build a prototype and all Production Artists will need to enhance their overall design skills.
 
So let’s look at what makes a good interactive Production Artist. Most of them do have a design background to some extent. Others come in knowing the right tools but really can’t design all that well. A lot of institutions these days are teaching people the production tools more than they are teaching design fundamentals. A good production artist will need to be proficient in the tools, but remember like I said in the design segment, they don’t make you a good designer.
 
By tools I mean things like:
1. Web Site construction - Standard XHTML / DHTML / CSS / DIVS
2. Proficient in: Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks
3. Graphic Optimization
4. Rich Media (Video, Audio, Widgets)
5. Browser de-bugging (front-end)

Once a design is approved by a client we move into the build stage of the process. The Production Artist’s job it is to take the approved design and build out the front-end prototype. They need to make the design come to life from the home page through all the sub pages and sections. They build out all the layouts, templates, forms, animations, video integration, sub graphics….etc. This is a big challenge for every project. The approved design may look great, but if we don’t execute it well in this stage it can fall apart very quickly. That is where the value of the Production Artist comes into play. They need to make the site have that “Wow” factor in the end.
 
There are a lot of new techniques these days when it comes to the front-end construction of a website (ie: Divs, CSS, Web Standards). Read up on these new techniques on various BLOGS and Web Development sites whenever you can. Always stay on top of the current standards.
 
Be sure to sharpen your tools in these areas and pick up some good design skills and you will thrive as a Production Artist.  

Next: Part 3 - Engineering
Summary: Not really into all that graphic stuff or could care less about Photoshop? Maybe you are looking at application development and programming. True back-end development. If so, you may be an Web Engineer. 

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