Design Skills

Design Skills are the ability to design effectively. If you have very little design skills you won't be able to be successful. I think that design skills are something that you have to have naturally, but also something that you learn. At http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?613 they give a list of basic categories that all designers should have some skills in. Pattern Recognition, Story Telling, Visual Communication and even Empathy are listed. Empathy is an interesting point, to be a successful designer you should know about current events and publish your opinion on them.