The cascade isn't just for style sheets it's also for website style guides. I’m a firm believer that if you are designing for the web it is essential to have a solid grasp of what it takes to build your own website. I’m not saying that every web designer needs to be a web developer (yes, there is a difference), but that without understanding current web standards, knowing web conventions and what technology solutions are available you’re really missing a huge chunk of your web design foundation. These things aren’t there to hold you back from coming up with new solutions. They are there to help you decide what is a good idea and what isn’t. Creativity is not at odds with convention.

It seems every other week, a web designer tells me the jig is up, my days as a print designer are numbered. Didn't you hear? About this thing called the internets? It's going to make print design obsolete. Some days, amid facebook and twitter and the increasing amount of time I spend online, I worry they're right.

We buy books from Amazon, music from iTunes and everything else on eBay – all without once speaking to another human being. We entrust our identities and finances to brands; PayPal has our credit cards, Google our email and Facebook our personal information. No eye contact, no handshake – it’s a bit flaky sometimes but we still trust. So what does this have to do with design? Actually, as it turns out, quite a bit.