Joshuaink: What is it you do all day long?

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What is it you do all day long?

Thursday May 26, 2005

Not so long ago I did a little survey to find out who was reading this blog and one of these days I'll get off my fat arse and plug them all in to my cohorts section. It is quite an interesting read nonetheless and I thought I'd do another little survey but this time a professional one.

What I am trying to find out is what people specialise in. Yeah, yeah, everyone and his mother is a CSS designer, with some PHP, these days but most people have an area they consider a real key strength and it'd be interesting to find out what those are, be it Flash, photography, marketing, print design, copywriting, whatever really (and Bancroft, yes you Graham Bancroft, no mention of carp fishing!).

As if to prove that size don't matter, I will kick off with a rough idea of what I am looking for, and as you will see the list of areas that I consider my key strengths is pretty short.

Status

Freelance

Primary skills

CSS.
(x)HTML.
Design for screen.

Secondary skills

Flash ActionScript.

Content management systems of choice

Macromedia Contribute: Design for and training.
Textpattern.

Favourite applications for work

Fireworks.
Photoshop.
Flash.
Dreamweaver.

So there we have it, and remeber, this isn't just for web designers.

Skip to main navigation
Skip to sub content and search form

Alex Cabrera

1753 days ago

Status
Building a Start-up (going to party like it’s 1999)

Primary Skills
XHTML/CSS/PHP
MySQL
Film and Digital Editing

Secondary Skills
Film and Digital Cinematography
Flash

Web Tools of Choice
skEdit
Apache
Photoshop
Fireworks

Video Tools of Choice
Final Cut Pro
After Effects
DVD Studio Pro
Panasonic AG-DVX100
nikki

1753 days ago

Status:
I will always be a student.

Primary Skills:
Procrastination
Making (and taking apart) things in 3D

Secondary Skills:
Cardboard and masking tape
Welding and smithing
CSS and HTML

Content Management Systems of Choice:
Management of content?! The boot of my car is full of crud if that's what you meanÖ

Favourite Applications for Work:
There's nothing more satisfying than a sharp chisel and a big f-off mallet!
(I may revise this statement if I ever get to make a wood-fired kiln; better add pyromania to the list of primary skills... )
David Appleyard

1753 days ago

Status: Student Freelancer

Skills: XHTML, PHP, SQL, CSS

Secondary Skills: Copywriting, Photography, Server Management

CMS System of Choice: Wordpress and an ‘In House solution’

Favourite Apps: Dreamweaver, Photoshop, CSSEdit, Tramsmit
PR

1753 days ago

Status
Full – time (how did that happen?)

Primary Skills
CSS/XHTML
JSP/PHP/ASP
Design for screen

Secondary Skills
Flash
Video editing

Web Tools/CMS
Photoshop
Homesite (old skool)
Wordpress
nikki

1753 days ago

Skills that fail abysmally to come up to scratch:
Textile
Jeni

1753 days ago

Status
Working for the Man.

Primary skills
XHTML/CSS/Javascript
Application/Interface Design/Layout

Secondary skills
PHP/ASP
Flash (animation and scripting)
Graphic Design

CMS of choice
These days, it’s Symphony. It’s decidedly not perfect, but it’s best suited to my workflow out of everything I’ve tried.

Favourite applications for work
Photoshop
skEdit
Firefox (particularly the Web Developer extension)
Kev

1753 days ago
Status
- Full time
Primary Skills
- CSS
- Semantic XHTML
- PHP/ASP
- Actionscript (1)
- Accessibility
Secondary Skills
- Graphic design
- MySQL
- SEO
Web Tools/CMS
- Photoshop
- HTML-Kit
- Wordpress
- Contribute
- Actinic
Kev

1753 days ago

Things I suck at: Getting textile to work.
Joshua Brewer

1753 days ago

Status
Freelance

Primary Skills
CSS
XHTML
Design for Screen
Poster & Logo Design

Secondary Skills
Flash (including ActionScript)
Photography
Copywriting

Web Tools of Choice
skEdit
Photoshop
Illustrator
Flash
Transmit (gotta get it up there somehow)
Basecamp
Joshua Brewer

1753 days ago

Oh, yeah and Textpattern rocks!
File that one under: Content Management System of Choice
Rob Mientjes

1753 days ago

h3. Status
Freelance

h3. Primary skills
Markup
Style
Usability and accessibility
Design: logo, web, interface

h3. Secondary skills
PHP
MySQL

h3. Content management systems of choice
WordPress
TextPattern

h3. Favourite applications for work
Photoshop.
Illustrator
skEdit (Thanks Jon, thanks again!)

Very predictable all. Too bad.
Abel Rios

1753 days ago

Status
Under lock and key.

Primary skills
Flash Actionscript (1 or 2)
PHP/MySQL.
Design for screen/print.
(X)HTML
CSS
Problem Solving

Secondary skills
Illustration
Logo Design
Photography

Content management systems of choice
Utopus (Own Custom CMS)
Textpattern.

Favourite applications for work
Flash
Dreamweaver
BBEdit (Work Mac)
Photoshop
Illustrator
Schultzy

1753 days ago

Status: Student

Primary skills:
Being crazy
(X)HTML
CSS

Secondary skills
Thinking up new crayze ideas

Content management systems of choice
Wordpress
or
own sticky back plastic and php systems

Favourite applications for work
Notepad (isnt it the only thing microsloth got right?)
Firefox (and the search rank bar and the web-dev toolbar)
Andrey

1753 days ago

Status
Creative Director at Solidcactus.com

Primary Skills
Design for E-commerce
Usability for e-commerce
Photoshop
Illustrator
RTML

Secondary Skills
Flash (including ActionScript)
CSS
XHTML
Photography

Tools of Choice
G5 PowerMac
Photoshop
Illustrator
Mozilla
Dreamweaver
JohnO

1753 days ago

Status:
Employed while under compensated

Primary Skills:
Architect
Programmer(PHP/MySQL/Javascript)
CSS

Secondary Skills:
high allowance for distraction and procrastination (the reason I don’t have a blog)

Tools of Choice:
Apache
PHP
MySQL
jEdit
Kitta

1753 days ago

Status:
Jewellery designer

Primary Skills:
Jewellery design and production
Wire working
CSS
(x)HTML

Secondary Skills:
Photography
Organisation of millions of beads
Retrieval of beads which have plummeted to the cold hard floor

Content Management Systems of Choice:
25 tray storage unit for beads
Kincrome flat storage for findings

Favourite Applications for Work:
Small round pliers
Long nose pliers
Bits of material wrapped around my thumb so the pliers don’t kill my hands after hours of work
nikki

1753 days ago

@John Yeah, imagine what level of quality I acheive with my primary skills ;)

Now, where did I put those matches…
Peter J.Lambert

1753 days ago

Status
Employed, with a little freelance on the side

Primary Skills

* XHTML
* CSS
* Interface design
* Usability/Accessibility

Secondary Skills

* ASP
* SQL
* JavaScript
* Writing
* I’m not a bad at left-back and can play in goal if we’re short

CMS of Choice
Textpattern (although I’m currently exploring Symphony)

Weapons of choice

* Homesite at work
* skEdit at home
* Photoshop
* Fireworks

Actually, I’ve started to seriously doubt every answer I just gave recently.
the jaffry

1753 days ago

Status:
Designer

Primary Skills:
Advertising
Interactive Design

Secondary Skills:
(x)HTML/JS/CSS

Favourite Applications for Work:
Paper+ Pencil
Photoshop/Freehand/Flash
BBEdit/NoteTab
Jeff Smith

1753 days ago

Status
* Full-time
* Part-time freelance

Primary skills
* CSS
* (x)HTML
* Information architecture
* Multimedia graphic design
* Print design

Secondary skills
* PHP
* JavaScript
* Various other OO programming languages

Content management systems of choice
* Wordpress
* Symphony

Favourite applications for work
* Photoshop.
* Illustrator
* InDesign
* SubEthaEdit
* Transmit
Stephen Collins

1753 days ago

Status:
Employed with online newspaper. cegltd.com

Primary skills:
HTML, CSS, ASP

Secondary skills:
PHP, Flash

Content management systems of choice:
Self built at work, and Wordpress at home

Favourite applications for work
Photoshop & Dreamweaver.
Matthew

1753 days ago

Status
Freelance

Primary Skills
XHTML/CSS
Photography
Writing

Secondary Skills
Flash (but not much)

CMS of Choice
TXP

Web Tools of Choice (in order of importance)
iTunes (cos designing w/o tunes is bollocks)
Photoshop
CSSEdit
Dreamweaver

What is it I do all day long?
Not web design. I’m a news writer/photographer for a small newspaper. The web stuff gets done a la carte.
pixeldiva

1753 days ago

Status

Web Accessibility Consultant for RNIB (day job)
Web Geek (always, or at least, since 1995)

Primary skills

Web accessibility
CSS
(x)HTML
Web design
Explaining stuff to people in a way they can understand – whatever their level of technical knowledge
Multi-tasking (came free with the installation of a uterus)

Secondary skills

Information accessibility (both electronic (word, excel, pdf, etc.) and print)
Usability
Photography

Content management systems of choice

Movable Type (sadly, haven’t had the time to get into WordPress or TextPattern)

Favourite applications for work

NILS Web accessibility toolbar and colour contrast analyser (http://www.nils.org.au/ais/)
Chris Pederick’s Developer Toolbar for Firefox (http://chrispederick.com/work/firefox/webdeveloper/)
TopStyle Pro
Fireworks
Photoshop
Anything which plays music
Tobias

1753 days ago

Status

* Student

Primary skills

* CSS.
* (X)HTML.
* Design for screen.

Secondary skills

* Photography.
* Logo Design.
* Sleep.

Content management systems of choice

* Never used one, should I have?

Favourite applications for work

* Notepad2.
* Photoshop.
* Freehand.
* Director.
* Firefox.

Favourite plugins for Firefox

* HTML Tidy.
* Web Development Toolbar.
* FoxyVoice.
* Fangs.
* SearchStatus.
isil flynn

1753 days ago

Status:
Full-time

Primary skills:
CSS.
(x)HTML.
Design for screen.

Secondary skills:
Project Management
Research and analysis
Programming? It’s not my bag, baby.

Content management systems of choice:
Macromedia Contribute (as a content management strategy)

Favourite applications for work:
Photoshop.
Dreamweaver.
Mike Stenhouse

1753 days ago

Status
Freelance, contractor and consultant depending on the weather. Currently contracting. And freelancing. And consulting.

Primary Skills
XHTML
CSS
Accessibility
Sleeping

Secondary Skills
User Experience
Design
JavaScript
PHP
MySQL
Photography

Content management systems of choice
Don’t have a favourite but looking forward to Symphony. I could tell you the one that I NEVER want to use again, but I might get in trouble. So I won’t.

Favourite applications for work
TopStyle
Photoshop
Graham Bancroft

1753 days ago

p. Tricky one this, couldn’t you have made it multiple choice?

h3. Status

* Freelance/Unemployable

h3. Primary Skills (at novice level)

* (X)HTML
* CSS
* ASP hacking

h3. Secondary skills

* Accessibilty/useability
* Spelling
* Landscape gardening/Builder
* Sponge like learning

h3. Content management systems of choice

* Just started with WordPress

h3. Favourite applications for work

* Dreamweaver
* Fireworks
* Just started messing with Style Master
* W3C Validation service
* Anything made by Dewalt

p. There, see, not even a mention of carp fishing :)
p. Does Textile work in the preview, or is there really gonna be lots of p’s and h3’s.
Graham Bancroft

1753 days ago

Damn you Textile, damn you. :(
Andy Hume

1753 days ago

I’m always so late to these posts. Now no one’s gonna bother reading me.

h3. Status

Full time employed

h3. Primary Skills

XHTML, CSS, Accessibility,

h3. Secondary Skills

Javascript/DOM, understanding fucking textile?!

h3. CMS of choice

My own fancy la-de-da XML based system (once it exists). For now, Wordpress.

h3. Fav apps

BBEdit, Fireworks,
Nathan Pitman

1753 days ago

Status
Full-time

Primary skills
Design for screen
CSS
(x)HTML

Secondary skills
PHP / MySQL
Flash ActionScript

Content management systems of choice
Textpattern

Favourite applications for work
Fireworks
Flash
Dreamweaver
Steve Urmston

1753 days ago

Status:
Self Employed + Freelance

Primary Skills:
markup & scripting
design for hire & fun
web applications

Secondary Skills:
windows admin
feedreading
golf

CMS of Choice
textpattern + custom build

Favorite Apps
Photoshop
Fireworks
HTML Kit
Top Style
Philip Roche

1753 days ago

Status

* Full Time @ the wonderful karova

Primary skills

* CSS.
* (x)HTML.
* PHP
* Java
* MySQL
* JavaScript

Secondary skills

* C#
* C++
* Apache
* Linux (all things Linux really)
* Firefox (I did write Aggreg8 after all – a long time ago mind you)

Content management systems of choice

* Wordpress.
* Self built XML/XSLT.

Favourite applications for work

* JEdit
* ZendStudio
* XCode
* EditPlus
* Fireworks
* Firefox
Trahte

1753 days ago

Status

* 9th grade student at high school

Primary skills

*CSS/XHTML
* Design for screen

Secondary skills

* Illustration

Content management systems of choice

* Wordpress
* Textpattern

Favourite applications for work

* Photoshop
* Illustrator
* Winsyntax

First time posting, yay.
Jon

1753 days ago

Status

* Self Employed

Primary skills

* PHP
* ASP
* SQL (MySQL, MS SQL).
* CSS
* XHTML
* JavaScript

Secondary skills

* Search Engine Optimisation
* Virtual Tour Creation/Authoring/Photography

Content management systems of choice

* Macromedia Contribute
* Self-developed PHP/MySQL Solution

Favourite applications for work

* Dreamweaver
* phpMyAdmin (not an application as such)
* MS SQL Enterprise Manager
* Firefox
* iTunes
dotjay

1753 days ago

Status:
* Self-Employed/Freelance

Primary skills:
* Web accessibility
* (X)HTML
* CSS
* PHP
* MySQL

Secondary skills:
* JavaScript
* Java
* PERL
* Apache
* Tiredness

Content management systems of choice:
* Home-rolled PHP/MySQL (when I can be bothered or someone makes me)
* Textpattern

Favourite applications for work:
* Firefox (+ Web Dev Toolbar + Sage + Scrapbook + ...)
* syn Text Editor
* Photoshop
Matt

1753 days ago

Status:
* Full-time GIS Sales and IT Support Manager. Rest of the time: Freelance Webdesigner!

Primary skills:
* XHTML (Web design)
* css (Web design)
* SEO via design and markup (Web design)
* ArcView (GIS)
* VBA (Data Management)

Secondary skills:
* Legal aspects (Web design)
* Accessibility Issues (Web design)
* OS geek (incl. learning Linux at the moment – just for fun!)

Content management systems of choice:
* Haven’t embraced these much yet. I was already considering Textpattern though, or building my own php App! (The madness of it!)

Favourite applications for work:
* Photoshop
* Dreamweaver (although I still do all my coding by hand in it!)
* Firefox
* MS Access
* ArcView 8.0 +
* MapInfo Professional
* ER Mapper
* Fireworks
* FTP Explorer (again, cos it’s simple!)
* Notepad!!! (I’m just too sad – but I like how damn simple and straightforward it is!)
Matt

1753 days ago

Oh…forgot favourite Mail Client app!

I use Outlook most of the time, but might switch back to Thunderbird soon.
Craig C.

1753 days ago

Status: full-time
Primary: (X)HTML, CSS, iconography, illustration, arguing
Secondary: JavaScript, PHP, accessibility, criticism
CMS: WordPress, legal pads
Applications: Photoshop, Illustrator, HomeSite, Speedball C-6
Ischa Gast

1752 days ago

Status
* Full time

Primary Skills
* CSS
* (X)HTML
* Design for screen.

Secondary Skills
* Graphic design
* Usability and accessibility
* SEO
* Photography

Web Tools
* Photoshop
* Illustrator
* Topstyle
* Filezilla
* Firefox

Content management systems of choice
(don’t use any at the moment)
* TextPattern
Kate Bolin

1752 days ago

Status:
Full-time, with the occasional bit of unpaid freelance

Primary skills:
CSS
Copywriting

Secondary skills:
Accessibility
Grumpiness

CMS of laziness:
Blogger

Favourite applications for work:
Home:
Photoshop Elements
Tex-Edit Plus
Work:
Dreamweaver
Photoshop
Firefox
Matthew Pennell

1752 days ago

Status:

Full-time Senior Web Designer, plus small to medium-size freelance jobs

Primary skills:

XHTML
CSS
PHP/MySQL
Accessibility
Design
Anal retentiveness

Secondary skills:

Project management
Copywriting
Photography
Blogcrastination

CMS of choice:

Textpattern

Favourite applications for work:

TopStyle
Photoshop CS
Firefox Web Dev Toolbar
Pen and paper
Rob Waring

1752 days ago

Status:
Student on placement

Primary Skills:
CSS
(x)HTML
SQL

Secondary Skills:
Procedural programming (PHP, PERL, ANSI C)
Ability to pick ideas up quickly

CMS of choice:
MSN spaces – woo get me! I promise to have a real website soon tho!

Favourite applications for work:
Textpad
SciTe
Web developer toolbar for FF
AIS toolbar for IE
Denis Radenkovic

1752 days ago

Status
-SHEDow Freelance ;-)

Primary skills
-Logo, illustration,web & interior design

Secondary skills
-all that CSS & XHTML thing
-Flash… once used to be loads better.

Content management systems of choice
– Wordpress & Textpattern

Favourite applications for work
-Illustrator
-Illustrator
-Frustrator
-Fireworks.
-Photoshop.
-fiddling with SKedit ;-)
Mark Boulton

1752 days ago

Great Idea John, if anything it makes me think about what skills I do have :)

So, without further a do…

Status
Maried and employed full time and freelance – ask my wife, one of them has to give – hopefully it will be the ‘employed full time’ bit to finally go full time freelance.

Primary skills
Design for print and screen
User Centered Design
Web Standards

Secondary skills
Information Architecture

Content management systems of choice
Expression Engine

Favourite applications for work
TextWrangler or Homesite
Photoshop
Illustrator
Indesign or Quark XPress
Andy

1752 days ago

Status

– Freelance

Primary skills

– CSS.
– XHTML.
– Design for screen.

Secondary skills

– Flash ActionScript. (2.0)

Content management systems of choice

– Textpattern.
– Mambo

Favourite applications for work

– Photoshop.
– Flash.
– Dreamweaver.
Andrew Green

1752 days ago

Status
Proprietor of Article Seven.

Primary skills
Perl, mod_perl, XSLT, MySQL

Secondary skills
CSS, (X)HTML, DOM scripting.

Content management systems of choice
My own! My blog’s in Blosxom, however.

Favourite applications for work
TextMate, Transmit, Terminal, CocoaMySQL, Fireworks.
Gabriel Mihalache

1752 days ago

I know I might sound a bit schizophrenic, but it’s all true!

Status:
* Operational Research & Cybernetics Student
* Programmer (Java, Web)
* working towards a Masters degree in the Philosophy of Culture

Primary skills:
* Quantitative methods, Economics, O.R., a.s.o.
* server-side programming with Java/J2EE and PHP
* I can do that whole XHTML/CSS/AJAX business

Secondary skills
* breaking the hermeneutic circle :-)

Content management systems of choice
* MovableType (for blogs)
* home-made for non-blog projects

Favourite applications for work
* SciTE
* Fireworks
Olly

1752 days ago

Status – Employed full-time.

Primary Skills – XHTML – CSS – Page layout / screen design – Correcting the horrible english used by the marketing department ;-)

Secondary Skills – Bit of Javascript – Bit of ASP (I believe its called Classic now) – Bit of Flash (guaaargh its such a horrible tool to use, bleuch!)

Web Tools of Choice – Bradbury Topstyle Professional – Photoshop – SmartFTP
Jonathan Holst

1752 days ago

Status
Currently finishing ground school, plus working at a local web design agency

Primary skills
* PHP
* (X)HTML
* CSS

Secondary skills
* Graphics
* Javascript

Content management systems of choice
* WordPress
* TextPattern
* Serendipity (http://www.s9y.org/)
* Fundanemt (http://www.fundanemt.com/)

Favourite applications for work
* SubEtha Edit
* Photoshop
* Firefox
Veracon

1752 days ago

Status
* School

Primary skills
* XHTML
* PHP

Secondary skills
* JavaScript/DHTML
* Graphic design

Content management systems of choice
* WordPress

Favourite applications for work
* Adobe Photoshop
* Notepad2
* Deer Park Alpha 1
Phil Sherry

1752 days ago

Status:
Full-time by day (for a TV company)
Freelance by night (for myself)

Primary skills:
(x)HTML
CSS
PHP/MySQL

Secondary skills:
Flash
Writing the odd book

Content management system of choice:
Movable Type

Favourite applications for work:
Dreamweaver
TextWrangler
Fireworks
Flash
Frode Danielsen

1752 days ago

Status:
Student, and running a 2-bit “company”

Primary skills:
xHTML/CSS/JavaScript
PHP
MySQL

Secondary skills:
ActionScript (getting a lot of practice these days)
Java
Graphic design

CMS:
Home-grown and WordPress

Favourite applications for work:
BBEdit, Transmit, Photoshop, Cocoamysql, Flash, Illustrator
Benjamin Jackson

1752 days ago

Status
– Fulltime “Inhouse” Designer
– Plus freelance work when I should be sleeping

Primary Skills
– Graphic design and layout for screen
– Graphic design and layout for print
– XHTML
– CSS
– Flash Design
– Music

Secondary Skills
– Actionscript
– Photography
– Video photography and editing
– PHP / MySQL (a little)

CMS of Choice
– TextPattern
– Custom

Weapons of Choice
– iTunes
– Sketchpad
– Fireworks
– Freehand
– Dreamweaver
– Flash
– Premier
– skEdit
– FireFox (with developer toolbar)
Sara White

1752 days ago

Status
– University business student
– Self-employed web developer

Primary skills
– XHTML/CSS
– PHP/mySQL
– Usability

Secondary skills
– Video editing
– Photography
– More programming (C++, Java, Perl, etc)

Content management systems of choice
– WordPress

Favourite applications for work
– BBEdit
– Illustrator
– Photoshop
– Transmit
Lori

1752 days ago

Status – Freelance

Primary skills – Customization of open source php/mysql content management systems and blogs – (X)HTML – CSS – random tech support

Secondary skills – PHP (still learning) – graphic design (more webgeek than artist style)

Favourite applications for work – Text Wrangler – Photoshop – Firefox w/web developer toolbar and color picker extension – Transmit – Dreamweaver for static sites
Mario Parris

1751 days ago

Status
– University Student (Taking a year off)
– Freelance (I’ve gotta make an allowance…)

Primary skills
– XHTML/CSS
– Producing mathematical theories about why the world is the way it is.

Secondary skills
– Programming (C++/Visual Basic .NET)
– PHP
– Graphic Design

Content management systems of choice
– Textpattern

Favourite applications for work (when I’m not developing my theories)
– Notepad 2
– Illustrator
– Photoshop
– SmartFTP

Status

Primary skills

Secondary skills

Content management systems of choice

Favourite applications for work

Status:

Primary Skills:

Secondary Skills:

Content Management Systems of Choice:

Favourite Applications for Work:

nikki

Status

Primary Skills

Secondary Skills

Web Tools/CMS

JohnO

Tobias

Graham Bancroft

Graham Bancroft

Jon

Rob Waring

Andy

Veracon

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