What is the logic behind an agency using Quark to design websites?

lee_hughes76

Junior Member
Answers on a postcard!!

Not sure this is the right place to post this.

I work for an agency in London that produces a lot of print work. They have mouthed the words 'we want to build a digital presence in the market'!

To that end they have employed myself (18 months employed), a fully fledged digital designer and one other (7 months employed) but, for some reason they insist that the print designers continue to produce websites, even though between the 6 of them they have about 1 years worth of digital experience, and produce some very bad pieces of work.

The gripe I have is that they insist on designing sites in Quark (not even using the web setting in Quark) instead of Photoshop. And continually tell us that we should be designing sites as they do.

This is the process they work to:
Quark
Export as EPS
Recreate in photoshop

Has anyone else come across the problem before when working at an agency?
 
They obviously should not be allowed to move into the web. They are clearly a danger to themselves and others.
 
Never come across this problem and hopefully never will!

Agree with Harry; they would be using the correct program such as Photoshop or Fireworks... do they even know how to design a website, and how the end-user expects to use it??
 
Thanks guys.

Until this place I've never in all my 8 or so years doing this job come across such a stubborn bunch of designers.

Really boils my blood. Taking the creative lead from a non-digital is like hitting your head repeatedly against an extremely thick wall.

The worst thing is the CD/Owner of the biz is the one driving the print guys.

It truly is unbelievable. And massively depressing
 
In answer to your question blueocto,

They haven't a clue, that's the main problem. No understanding of standards, user experience or even dimensions!!

Blows my mind!!!
 
Wow - quark for web? Thats pretty mental - and a hell of a testing job. I've always been taught the psd files route.

Crikey i thought i was outdated with still using Freehand!
 
uber mental fella!!

The photoshop way is the only way I've been taught too. Never had a problem like this before, been going on for while, just coming to ahead on this internal project as its gotten too much for all of us in the digi team.
 
I used to insist a while back that all designs for web were done in Quark, our main layout application,before any time was spent. But this is purely a quick design layour visual for approval not for build or implementation.
But I must say, that I prefer our creatives ( print based) to create the design, to ensure that the layout is as creative as possible, in conjuction with the web guys (and gal).

So...lets open the can of worms........

A good creative should be able to design anything, unfortunetley in my experience the world is full of average web designers, with a modicum of layout and talent. but not many are good 'creative' web designers.
The design is everything. I would rather design something great then, fathom out how to make it work, rather than produce obvious pedestrian work that ticks the boxes but is average.

Get a great idea, then make it work.
 
I'd be careful how you post rants about your co-workers dear, the internet has a nasty way of letting people find what you've written.
 
Berry said:
I used to insist a while back that all designs for web were done in Quark, our main layout application,before any time was spent. But this is purely a quick design layour visual for approval not for build or implementation.
But I must say, that I prefer our creatives ( print based) to create the design, to ensure that the layout is as creative as possible, in conjuction with the web guys (and gal).

So...lets open the can of worms........

A good creative should be able to design anything, unfortunetley in my experience the world is full of average web designers, with a modicum of layout and talent. but not many are good 'creative' web designers.
The design is everything. I would rather design something great then, fathom out how to make it work, rather than produce obvious pedestrian work that ticks the boxes but is average.

Get a great idea, then make it work.

I agree on so many levels, a designer should be capable of designing any object, web, print, house or a diamond ring. The process is the same, understanding its purpose and how the user will interact with it.
 
Berry, being more product design background I kind of agree that any good creative should be able to design everything but thats where it can start to go wrong as you then have to make it work. You can make a computer look super sexy (take minority report for example or any of the 5mm thick 'apple' laptops) but there is no way we could actually make it work using todays tech. Although I suppose you could argue this is more engineering issue than design.

I'm kind of of the view that if you are in any form of design that may require collaboration due to our own lack of expertise in that field or the programs used then its common courtesy to at least understand the limitations of the software that others use before saying I want such and such when it isn't possible.

Have to say though, I'm a photoshop person too, it just seems more natural for this type of thing than say indesign or quark.
 
No it's not about functionality, it's about user considerations, and its ease to code. Anyone ever tried efficiently building a print designer's web design? The amount of verbose and insemantic code needed to work around their lack of understanding is not good.
 
Harry said:
A print designer designing a website is never a good idea, trust me.

Harry I'm sure you're good at what you do.
But trust me, Ive been a Creative Director for over 20 years and I know what works and what doesn't, and how to get the best creative product out of my team. We all have different ways of working, each suitable to the working environment and the talents and opportunities that exist. I like problems that have to be solved somehow, that shows you ingenuity. If it was easy then all the websites would look turgid, not just the 80% of them.
If we all worked within our own limitations we wouldn't travel anywhere. Think.Create.Engage.
 
I'm on about a code thing though, how long have you been a web developer? It's a pretty hard task coding a website that's been designed by a print guy. They don't have the same kind forward thinking* that a web designer does.

There's no point solving a problem that doesn't even need to exist. Get a web designer to design websites if you want a decent build.

*not saying print guys don't forward think, I'm just on about forward thinking in a web sense.
 
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