Anyone have any tips on making the transition from print designer to digital designer?

[Alma Strutt]

I've been working in the design and print field for over 20 years and notice a lot of interesting opportunities for digital designers. Anyone made the transition and if so where do you begin?

[Szalam]

What do you mean by "digital designer"?

I started work about fifteen years ago as a print designer, but I was working digitally in Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark Xpress and, later, InDesign.

For my full-time job, I now do 3d animation, motion graphics, and some video shooting and editing.

So, do you mean hand printing/mechanical layout and printing vs. digital layout and printing? Or do you mean print vs web/video?

[Alma Strutt]

The job description in the UK for a digital designer is the creation and delivery of a range of cross-platform digital work. This can be anything from responsive sites and emails to banners, mobile/tablet apps and microsites. It involves working closely with Creatives, UX and Developers. I suppose the guidance I'm looking for is ideas on how to bridge the gap between layout designers and what UX developers are looking for.

[pziecina]

Living and working in the U/K, I can with certainly tell you that if we advertise for a digital designer, we would not be looking for what you are saying, and working with teams from a number of other countries, neither would they.

A digital designer would produce mock-ups, assets, (photos, illustrations in svg) and occasionally help with simple videos. They would most certainly not be involved with anything else you say, to a professional level.

Digital designers in the roles you are describing them as having, would not be considered when it came to anything beyond basics, so would never be considered . Small 'boutique' site/app builders, producing sites or apps using drag and drop programs may expect someone to do all that you suggest.

Layout designers are mainly concerned with producing 'comps' using such programs as Adobe XD, and Photoshop or Illustrator, that may generate code for 'illustration' purposes of the site functionality only, but the code would never be used in actual production.

[Alma Strutt]

pziecina​ - that's really helpful to know. I often look at interesting job opportunities but am put off by the requirement for a background with coding. Many of the requirements they have, my experience would tick the box as such but would be reluctant to put myself forward for a role that would require a more developers background. Thanks for the insight.