Feature -- by Mark Sproxton

Sitting motionless at his computer, staring out the window, the Web designer looks as if he's carved of marble. The deadline for this new client's Web site is three days away and the last piece of the puzzle won't come together. Then, in a flurry of activity, the designer clicks the mouse, power-reads the lines of computer code on the monitor, and launches into a full, flying-fingered attack on the keyboard. The problem has been solved.

Simon Turnock enjoys the flexibility of designing for the Web.

"You have to have a design sense and the ability to turn it into something useful on the Net," explains Simon Turnock of his position as a Web designer and creative director for Media Dog Productions. "The goal is to create something for the client that does what they want it to do. And just as importantly, is the end-user getting what they want out of it as well?"

Working at Media Dog for the last five years, a company specializing in Web design and architecture, Turnock relishes the opportunity to put his artistic and logic skills to work. "I like the fact that every day is different due to the number of things we do," he said. "Sometimes I may do HTML all day, or do HTML, design, client relations, cold fusion development or make the coffee."

His dislikes of the work, number, well, in the zero range. "There's nothing really I dislike. Sometimes, because of the nature of our industry there can be pressure due to time constraints, but it's not something I dislike." In fact, it was the possibilities of working in an ever-changing industry that first drew Turnock to Web design.

"At the time, I thought it was new and exciting with some good rewards job-wise and career-wise. Something with lots of potential." He enrolled in a two-year accelerated multimedia production course at Lethbridge Community College and spent a four-month practicum at Media Dog during his last semester of school. That lead to a job offer as a Web designer. He moved to the position of creative director about one year ago.

During that time, he saw first-hand the rise and fall of the dot.com hype around him and its end results, which is fewer job opportunities for Web designers and others who work on the Web. "There are jobs, but the competition is a lot stiffer than it was five years ago," Turnock said. "You knew if you came out of school you would get a job. Now, because of some of the problems and more students learning it, (there's) more work but more competition. But that's good because the best and the brightest will be the ones doing the work."

So what does it take to be a good Web designer? Most importantly, an interest in computers, new technology and the Web, Turnock said. But a good designer must also be able to mesh the worlds of graphic design and the interactive abilities of the Internet. "You have a medium that is flexible. If you design for a piece of paper, it's eight-and-a-half by eleven no matter what. On the Internet, you don't know what the end user's going to be looking at."

Like many who work in Web design, Turnock puts in a typical Monday to Friday routine with some overtime depending on how many projects are underway and nearing completion at the time. And being a survivor in the "growing pains" crash of Web-business development, he is seeing the medium become more interactive and more creative as more and more users have high speed connections.

His advice for anyone considering this career: "Find what you really like to do in the new media field and do it really well. That will reflect itself in your portfolio. And know everything else you can. The more you know, the better."