What is it with some agencies that require people that are all rounders?

Also with a specialist there is a good chance that they know the workings of the general stuff. Not to mention this but there is a big difference in cost between a general practitioner and a specialist.

I talk for myself as I am a digital person that has no interest in print. Yes I understand how print works plus I know how to use Photoshop and Freehand as I have also lectured in the print field but I decided to specialize in the digital arena as this is where my strength lies. I use fireworks and Dreamweaver to design and implement websites, Fireworks is also good for the interface design for multimedia projects. To put the interactive project together you can use Director or Flash with a heap of other programs to do all sorts of other stuff like music, video etc. Multimedia design is not flat design process either as there is a lot of timeline thinking (another word for lateral thinking) that goes into a project, for example how do you want the button to react when it is clicked plus where does it need to go. Designing for a website, multimedia and print are very different processes yes it can be one design but that will fail and the project ends up not looking very professional as digital and print have very different rules for design and layout.

I know I go on about this but when you lay people thin by having them as an all rounder what you get is very thin work. A person that is employed because they have a strong point and understanding of what they do and they are passionate about the work they do you get a solid foundation to build the most amazing things. Projects also take time and for most agencies time is money so you waste time by having one person doing 3 designs and then creating a print job, the website and maybe the multimedia. A digital person required to do print work is like starting form scratch because you don’t use the programs often it takes you a lot longer to set up your work environment and getting the elements together.

It is not a good practice that people should waste their degrees, diplomas, years of training and experience sitting with the wrong work on there plates. Not only do these people’s creative juices start drying up but the work becomes less then perfect. Let’s practice putting people in the right places and watch you business sore because happy creative people are a force to be reckoned with.