I believe this to be a very serious issue. Having worked with both designers who not only understand HTML/CSS but actually build their OWN designs and designers

I believe this to be a very serious issue. Having worked with both designers who not only understand HTML/CSS but actually build their OWN designs and designers who don't have a clue about how websites are build I can tell the difference is huge. I believe the problem is not just whether designs can or cannot be build, I believe it's more about if designs can be build within an estimated timeframe and budget. Designers who don't understand how websites are build seem to come up with monstrosities of designs that never can be build within budgets and timeframes. Sure, the designs look good. As a poster or a flyer but we're building websites here... Designers who do not understand how websites are build seem to design every single website as a massive bitmap. I've had to build 5 megabyte home pages simply because a designer didn't understand the medium. The client wasn't very happy when they where slapped with a massive bill at the end of each month because of the amount of bandwidth the site was using. Don't get me started on gradients and the fact that a browser can have different sizes or the fact that a design needs to be "pixel perfect" (which seems to be impossible to understand for some designers). Being a "web designer" and not knowing HTML/CSS is just plain stupid. How can you work in this industry? Go work in print where you belong with the rest of the fossils.