Do you create brands? Web sites? Freeform Flash experiences? Motion graphics? After you scrape off all those titles, deep down, you must be a designer. But wait -- you do development as well. That would make you a devigner. Or a designoper. Or a designuxinteractionphotographician.
Which begs the question: Does title really matter in the world of design today, once you've cut your teeth on a full-time job or three? Should we be measured based on our skills and portfolio, all rolled up into the ever-ballooning term "designer"?
I can't keep track of the various design flavors flying around today. They're getting specialized to the point that it really refines away the beauty of spanning and blending various disciplines.
While I may have a background in print design and ended up migrating into the wilds of interaction design, I definitely couldn't call myself a devigner, because I lack the patience to bug-test and browser-test code. (I'm also not very good at it.) The same goes for heavy AfterEffects... I'm not that guy either. So... Would that make me... a printeraction designer? A printeractive designer?
What do you call yourself? How do you convey to a client or your employer the breadth of what you do, all rolled up into the term "designer," when you're writing the copy, tweaking the ActionScript, making the coffee, returning the client phone calls, cutting the presentation boards to size, and stressing over whether the logo needs to be 5% bigger to activate your layout? That sounds like a designer... and a whole lot more.
