[ryanSrich]

Great post and a great follow up. I think dribbble's co-founders intended the site to be a show and tell of actual work (pure speculation) but has become more of a showcase of flashy unrealistic photoshop designs.

I think the divide in the design industry is going to be short lived as companies start to realize that they don't really need a a graphic designer, a product designer, a UI designer and a UX strategist. They need one (or several) competent designer that can understand all of these roles.

I wrote a short blog post discussing the issue: http://generalist.io/designers-design

[psweber]

I dunno. That is pretty general. The needs of each company varies widely, and, like the author said, the master of all 4 of those categories is a rare find. Defining your company's needs will help you figure out what kind of designers to look for.

My preference for a product team structure is this: Interaction designer (product manager), art director, front-end developer, back-end developer(s)

I read your post. UX designers that "scoff at the visual design because that’s not part of their job" drive me crazy, too. In my opinion, outside of a one person design department, an interaction designer need not be able to create Dribbble worthy visual design, but they should absolutely have a strong understanding of layout, hierarchy, grids, color theory, etc.

[crucialfelix]

"UX designers that "scoff at the visual design because that’s not part of their job"

These people are far outnumbered by the graphics designers who simply upgraded their resume to add UX and yet cannot name any of the main roles of that position.