furthering a web design education

[smurk03]

Hey guys -

I'm a freelance web and graphic designer. I have an Associate's degree in each, and I work full time as an in-house graphic designer (for a manufacturing company, not a design agency). My freelance work is on the side. Since there seems to be more money in web, I lean towards doing that. I've learned HTML/CSS and a (very) little ASP.NET. Even though I just graduated last year, I already feel like I'm so behind in the world of web coding, languages, etc. I emphasize that I am much more of a DESIGNER and not a programmer or developer. Ultimately I want to freelance full time, so I want to further my web design education to be able to get more jobs (it seems it's hard to find projects where the client just wants HTML/CSS). What's the best way of doing this? I'd rather not go back to school if I don't need to, if I can teach myself these things though books and other resources. Where should I begin? I've tooled around with JS (mostly by way of jQuery) and am looking at learning how to use some CMS programs (not sure which though). What other languages would benefit me? Are these things going to be difficult for a non-programmer like me to learn? Should I just give up now and stick to print?

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[cmjvulavala]

A lot of people arent really interesting in what formal qualifications you have in web design/programming now. What people are interested in is your portfolio. First thing you need to do is build up a portfolio of designs/templates you have made. And you might want to look into the basics of ASP.NET or PHP/Perl as well. But i think the main thing now is portfolio (and you can include print based work in your portfolio as well, could be used as you can build a website and matching flyers/paper based adverts all with similar styling)

 

[smurk03]

A lot of people arent really interesting in what formal qualifications you have in web design/programming now....QUOTE]

I'm not interested in having "formal qualifications." I have an online portfolio with both my print and web work (www.smurkdesign.com - though I warn it's badly in need of updating. I launched it only a few months ago and I already hate it lol). However, I do still need the knowledge to be able to get the work. I can't very well build and showcase a blog/e-commerce/whatever if I don't have to skills to do so. I just want advice on what to begin learning...

 

[DamienDarwick]

You have a nice page there smurk03. I pretty much learned everything by the skin o my teeth method. LOL Just threw myself into various things and learned them as I could. For me I find that its extremely nice to have knowledge of many different parts of design & the various scripts that are used on web pages these days. You do have to know how to hand code php to run vbulletin or another php script that you find on the web today.

Some helpful hints & tips for you:

1. Be sure that you are well versed in html & css at least. Hand coding these is not a must but extremely helpful when working with other php scripts.

2. Having good graphic skills is a great things that will be a plus for you. Work to hone them and make them better. Try new things in adobe photoshop (I'm guessing you use that application).

3. Learn other scripts. This is extremely helpful because many designer overlook these. Scripts are more popular these days than a straight forward web design site. Most people are running vbulletin, coppermine, Joomla, Drupal etc than they are using basic design on their web sites. There are tons of free scripts out there that you should download, install to your web server and play around with. Get a "feel" for them. Ones I suggest are, Joomla, Coppermine, Gallery2, SMF, phpBB, MKPortal, Drupal, Mambo, PHPNuke, MyBB, & Wordpress for starters. Those are free scripts that do not require any money to download, install & use them. For paid for scripts that are popular I suggest you get acquainted with vBulletin, & Invision Power Board. There are other paid for scripts out there, when you run across them try them out and gain some knowledge about them.

4. Don't be afraid to post on forums that offer areas for members to post about their web design skills trying to gain freelance jobs. A lot of these can and will lead to jobs for you. The more places you put your link the better. Be sure to always follow specific forum rules on posting your business ads though, some are not as friendly as others.

5. Don't be afraid to answer posts looking for freelancers. The worst they can do is not answer your PM or post.

That's all I can think of at the moment. You do have a nice site and have some nice graphics. Good luck to you!

 

[smurk03]

Wow thank you for all the tips! These sound like a great place to start!

 

[DamienDarwick]

No problem.

 

[LouTheDesigner]

You'd be surprised how easy it is to bump up those programming skills. It's not rocket science. In many ways, the job a a programmer is very easy. Good luck to you! And as damien has said, don't be afraid to ask questions. The internet is the greatest learning resource ever.

 

[arminium]

one good way to make aup a portfolio is to just create websites of random things and do them in subfolders and then you can add links in your portfolio when they are ready, its will also give you practice and use you asp or php skills or use them sites to learn, persoanally i wouldn't bother with asp unless you wanna work as an employee but there seems to be a lot of it going on now, i prefer php persoanlly

 

[PixelPusher]

Be warned doing only freelance can be very demanding...and dealing with taxes each year is a pain in the butt Anyway, as far as learning goes W3schools is a great place to learn. In fact, I am currently trying to further my PHP knowledge from their site. Aside form W3 there are many places just do some google searching. Look for pther fprums as well, I am also a member on this one: Estetica Design Forum, there a lot of talented individuals there who can help you with all types of design tasks, both print and web.

Never give up! Print is a great medium to be in as well! I freelance in both and why shouldn't you?

 

[PixelPusher]

one good way to make aup a portfolio is to just create websites of random things and do them in subfolders and then you can add links in your portfolio when they are ready, its will also give you practice and use you asp or php skills or use them sites to learn, persoanally i wouldn't bother with asp unless you wanna work as an employee but there seems to be a lot of it going on now, i prefer php persoanlly

Kudos. ASP = $ where as PHP = open source, free.

 

[PixelPusher]

You have a nice page there smurk03. I pretty much learned everything by the skin o my teeth method. LOL Just threw myself into various things and learned them as I could. For me I find that its extremely nice to have knowledge of many different parts of design & the various scripts that are used on web pages these days. You do have to know how to hand code php to run vbulletin or another php script that you find on the web today.

Some helpful hints & tips for you:

1. Be sure that you are well versed in html & css at least. Hand coding these is not a must but extremely helpful when working with other php scripts.

2. Having good graphic skills is a great things that will be a plus for you. Work to hone them and make them better. Try new things in adobe photoshop (I'm guessing you use that application).

3. Learn other scripts. This is extremely helpful because many designer overlook these. Scripts are more popular these days than a straight forward web design site. Most people are running vbulletin, coppermine, Joomla, Drupal etc than they are using basic design on their web sites. There are tons of free scripts out there that you should download, install to your web server and play around with. Get a "feel" for them. Ones I suggest are, Joomla, Coppermine, Gallery2, SMF, phpBB, MKPortal, Drupal, Mambo, PHPNuke, MyBB, & Wordpress for starters. Those are free scripts that do not require any money to download, install & use them. For paid for scripts that are popular I suggest you get acquainted with vBulletin, & Invision Power Board. There are other paid for scripts out there, when you run across them try them out and gain some knowledge about them.

4. Don't be afraid to post on forums that offer areas for members to post about their web design skills trying to gain freelance jobs. A lot of these can and will lead to jobs for you. The more places you put your link the better. Be sure to always follow specific forum rules on posting your business ads though, some are not as friendly as others.

5. Don't be afraid to answer posts looking for freelancers. The worst they can do is not answer your PM or post.

That's all I can think of at the moment. You do have a nice site and have some nice graphics. Good luck to you!

Whats up Damien, (its graphicsAZ). Sarah, this is some great advice.

 

[arminium]

knowledge is great

Pixel, agree with you and what your say what you saying

A Good way to get into or expand your php knowledge is start building your own CMS's, you'll be practicing with mysql as well as php and html and css to style,

If you google "CMS PHP TUTORIAL " you'll come up with tones

for those that don't want to spend big buck on photoshop, try GIMP just google it. plenty of brushes and add ins, and they all free.

Unitll recently i was always in photoshop, but i have found that GIMP is actually stronger and for the most part better than photoshop, there is a few things im not fond of but they are out weighed by the better and its 100% free

other programs open source that Rival are

OpenOffice substitute for MS office, they have a Rival for each of the apps You most likely use like Word, excel, powerpoint and access, etc etc


MS Publisher equivalent is Scribus , much stronger and output print media quality

Illustrator Equivalent is Inkscape

If you start using OpenSource programs commercially nd you can afford it, remember to give back by making a donation