Surviving today's economy - Nothin' but Net recap

For starters, job search engines:

Simply Hired
Indeed
Creative Hotlist
Society for News Design
Society of Publication Designers
Craigslist
University and College Designers Association
Coroflot
AIGA Design Jobs

AIGA Design Jobs portfolio profiles can be automatically added to Coroflot. They are also automatically fed into the AIGA Richmond web site.

Print designers needing to learn about the web:

Aside from being fluent in HTML and CSS, a web designer needs to have a firm understanding of the medium and how it differs from print.

Recently, AIGA Richmond hosted Khoi Vinh, Design Director for NYTimes.com. He put the difference between the two in a clear and concise analogy, "Print is a lecture or a speech. Web is a conversation."

Where print focuses on a narrative, web embraces behavior.

The web is an organic medium that is in constant flux and the design can be routinely tweaked. The design can vary greatly from browser to browser, platform to platform, monitor to monitor. All of these things (and more) have to be accounted.

A few of Khoi's presentations are available online:
Control (Annotated)
Grids are Good

These will get you started on the thought process.

But now for the technical aspect, which can be daunting for the non-web designer.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Don't expect to be able to sit down and write code. You will eventually, but it takes time and experience.


• Don't reinvent the wheel. Learn from what's out there. Need some javascript for an image rotation? Or want a flash slide show? GOOGLE. There are tons of shareware files out there that folks have built that you can reskin and utilize.


• Have a firm grasp on: SEO (Search Engine Optimization), usability standards, analytics and test your ideas (use photoshop mockups if you have to, but get feedback from your audience!).


• The only time and place for tables is in html emails, otherwise, CSS layout is king.

Technical training?

If you can take a class, Techead is a great local option.

If you need an alternative, here's an online option:
Lynda.com

Great web resources from the best in the biz:

A List Apart
Zeldman.com
Subtraction.com
Meyerweb.com

Going freelance?

And last but not least:

AIGA Richmond's own PodCast Directory

*this is by no means complete. Please post your comments, suggestions and feedback so that we can work together to build a solid resource for the design community!