Web Designers

[Guest]

Hi Guys,

I was just wondering whether we have any web designers amongst us that make a living from designing websites for companies?

Just curious which sort of training courses you need to take to get into the industry and which industry recognised qualfications these should lead to?


Many thanks in advance for any input/advice.

[timoteo]

I am not, but my brother is. He went to The Art Institute of Philadelphia.. but there are many art institutes out there.

[truthwolf1]

My background, current position is a graphic/web designer/photgrapher.

The way most ad agencies, bigger companies and a smaller place like mine do things is a web design mix of
creative and content.

My job is to come of with the fancy visuals like color, text, images, navigational look and any animation (flash add ins, creative image maps, slideshows for example).

The web programmer puts in all the backend stuff like fields, tables, interactive forms, purchasing, calendars etc.. Pretty much puts together my vision and continues the maintenance of changing out code.

One person can definately do both but what I have seen is that a creative will make a beautiful site without much functionality and a programmer can make a ugly looking website with a lot of functionality.

Ask yourself are you more of a artist? or more of a Engineer?

It's really pretty much art school or programming school. Some can do both but it is pretty rare.

[captncaveman]

I have a degree in software development. I work as an web/desktop app developer. I have many M$ certifications. The funny thing is I program in python on a unix/linux box with no formal training.

What is better then show up @ and interview with a mitt full of certifications and a degree would be sample code, sample projects, project you have developed on your spare time. Join an open source project for experience with working in a group. The other coders will guide you and mentor you on your way.

M.I.T has some valuable opencourses about programming on their website. Also there are many great free resources on the internets, you just need to find a language/programming environment that suits you. Once you learn one language the rest come very easily.

[captncaveman]

On a design basis, again samples of your work is leaps and bounds greater than certifications or formal training cred. Now applying to be a wed designer.. focusing on the design aspect it would be nice to show web design work... wouldn't hurt to show off your sketch book or paintings but try not to get off "topic". Again you just need to cut your teeth on something. Once again find a program to suits your needs, if you have cash to throw around go to adobe for their Web premium creative suit. If you are low on cash i would suggest inkscape its free and its a quite nice vector tool.

Knowledge in CSS and HTML are a must for web designers. There are a boat load of books, tutorials, videos ect on the net to get you started.

Before my training in software/web development I wanted to be an animator, so my artistic skill set was quite high. Going from traditional mediums to digital wasn't very difficult at all.

But it all comes down to drive and practices! You won't be come an efficient programmer/designer over night.

[sgreger1]

The funny thing is I program in python on a unix/linux box with no formal training.

I love it!!



As for getting work which should be the end result of your quest to learn all of this, cap`n`caveman is correct in that it's best to build a portfolio of shit you can point at in the interview rather than waste a lot of time in formal training. The issue with 4 year degrees in things like programming or design is that all of the tech you learn on in school is already old news now, the industry moves too fast and while lots of people do have degrees and that certainly makes your prospects better, the real money is just to go make a bunch of cool shit and then stuff all of it into a manilla folder and go market it to employers and just ask that they take a moment to briefly review your portfolio.

I am on the same path as you right now Pris, but I am trying to get into programming, Python in specific like my man CapnCaveman here.

[captncaveman]

The thing that was a huge waste of time was theory and learning the history of programming.... 2 FREAKING YEARS of wasted time in my opinion. The other 2 years was almost as bad. Hell we didn't even touch a computer till the end of third year man. It was mostly notes. I learn more getting blazed in my dorm with a bunch of like minded chaps programming and designing games.

What you will learn and yes its all old news the time you get out of school is the basics that will apply to almost any language. What you are really learning is the idea of Object Orientated Programming this will apply to any environment you choose. The differences in most languages in syntax the rest is the same shit basically with a few tweaks to get up and running.

[Guest]

Thanks for all the info/input guys, much appreciated as always.