As a designer who can code, I, in no way would consider myself a developer. I’ve spent hours watching lectures, tutorials and learning how to code and many fellow designers told me that would distract me from my craft, design, that I would become that Swiss army you mention. I would like to propose a different theory, by learning how the front end works and playing around you don’t just learn how to code, but you also learn the logic behind UIs, how users interact with the content, adaptability of websites and many other concepts that make you a better designer.
The reason why I’d encourage others to learn to code is not to become developers, but to become better designers. It’s just another tool to improve our designs, just like you’d never say “don’t learn Photoshop if you already know how to use Sketch” I’d never say “If you can already design don’t bother with code”, they complement each other. The more tools one learns the better.
