What is a web designer?

A web designer is someone who solves problems on the web. So like I want to sell a toy on my website and hire a web designer. His job is to accomplish that task...sell toys on internet. Plain and simple, and I hired him because I do not no how to do it and he does. So he must sit down and say okay how can I sell the most toys on his website, well from my knowledge of the internet I know that it requires a good UX that will capture people in my website once I have them trapped I need to make my message clear and make it easy to buy the toy. I also need to get people to go to my website so that requires SEO, and business strategies etc etc. i think you see the point. Because a beautiful design that does not work is not beautiful. So as a web designer you must have knowledge about how people think(like what makes a good UI/UX or why does this line-height look cleaner and more attractive than this one). Then that could be it and your done stamp your forehead web designer and go pass your photoshop design or however you present your ideas best(the point is not how you do it but the outcome) to the developer to build it, BUT in freelance you may be on your own so I think you must know a bit more about the web in web design. So CSS is a good staring point i think between the the world of design and the web, so that is pretty necessary if you want to differentiate yourself from other conventional web designers. I think you should also have an understanding about HTML because a designers job is to present the information in the best way to get the greatest outcome and HTML is the information you are trying to convey and CSS is the way you are presenting it(presentation). I think this is the bare minimum really but welcome to capitalism where its a competition for who is the best web designer and so you must ask yourself, "How can I stand out to a client as the best web designer" and I think that is all based on skill set. I would much rather hire a web designer who knows JS/jQuery then one who does not because then I do not have to pay a developer as well for my simple toy selling site. So bare minimum is honestly not going to get you anywhere especially in freelancing.

Patrick, thanks for that insight. I like the angle you were going for. More business, than. Or better yet the art of business? Haha. James thanks for clairfying. Although I did already know the difference. I see a lot of ads for web jobs that have a very specific required skill list. Have you found this to be concrete, or do most people care more about results than the tools?