Getting Into Web Design

[LilRaRa]

I'm sure there are plenty of aspiring Web Designers that post here and I don't want to ruffle any feathers, but I've got a couple of questions (and I have seen the resources sticky and will be checking it all out in the meantime).

I've been a designer for many years. Started in Architectural Drafting/Design, learned graphic design. I've worked for tee shirt shops, sign shops, freelance, etc. Now I'm back into Architectural Design and rendering, but I'm sure you all know how the housing market is doing (I've been on the edge of my seat with job security for years now).

I'm fluent with Illustrator, Photoshop and have started using Dreamweaver.

Anyway... I'm planning on going to my local tech college starting this summer and getting an Associates in Applied Science, focusing on Web Design. I wanted to get opinions from professionals in the field about my situation. Should an AS degree be enough with my design background? What can I look forward to as far as employment/pay, etc.

My eventual goal that would make me super happy would be to become a freelance Web Designer from home. I've tried that with Graphic Design, though, with mediocre success finding clients.

Let me know what you think and thanks in advance.

Ray

 

[Phreaddee]

Hi ray.

First of all are your graphical design skills up to speed? If they're strong, half the battle is won.

Dreamweaver is an excellent tool for web design, but beware of falling for the temptation to rely on “design view“, coming from a visual background that might be difficult, but if you dont understand the code behind it, and its particular behaviours, and how to find, and isolate errors within it, you will ultimately fail.

Get your hands on something like notepad++(free) as its more stripped back interface promotes more coding, learn html, css very comprehensively, before tackling js, php and others. When doing online tutorials, always check the date they were posted, if its too old its crap. Learn html5.

Commitment and time. Lots of it.
I average 10hr days up to 17-18 with deadlines pressing, and i know many others that toil much longer hours...the pay is good, if your good.

If you are into it, passionate about learning, and have a good eye for detail, its a very rewarding career...

 

[LilRaRa]

ThNks for the reply phreaddee. Yes my graphics skills are up to par. I've designed art for web devs before and designed a site myself before. I will admit, though, that i was stuck in design view a LOT. Thats why im looking into my local tech college. I know i need to actually know the code behind my designs. I also hope to learn more advanced code, how to implement estores, forums, etc. So i can do more than 5 page info sites.

Just a little worried that a 2 year degree wont be enough for employment. Everyone seems to be looking for that 4 year degree. Im hoping that 10 years of design experience will help get my foot in the door though.

 

[CaldwellYSR]

I agree with everything Phreaddee said. There was another thread not too long ago with good advice. I'll quote that as soon ass I find it.

Your local college course will start you in the right direction (hopefully)
Just remember, if your teacher tries to teach you “table based layouts“, he is wrong, and challenge him to teach correct, modern methods.

Turned out to be Phreaddee again... go figure

 

[LilRaRa]

yeah, that's another thing I'm worried about. the school seems to try to keep up with the times for the most part. Lots of online courses available, things like that. I have heard a horror story or two about a department or two, though. Outdated equipment, stuff like that. Hoping that just applies to large machinery and that they'll spend the $ to keep software and techniques updated. I tried to teach myself using tables a while back. It worked, but the small amount I've learned about CSS definitely makes more sense.

I just went through the course descriptions that I'd be taking and there's no mention of CSS, but I'm hoping they keep the descriptions generalized to allow constant change. The only thing that puts a time stamp on it is:

"(4th generation) web authoring tool (such as Dreamweaver) " for the "Advanced Tools for Website Design" class.

I wonder what a 4th generation web authoring tool means?

 

[webagent]

I too totally agree with Phreaddee. Your skills in graphic design are a very strong point. Most of the clients out there are looking for eye candy and if you are good at that you are almost there. Competition however is crazy these days. I found myself trying to compete on price but for what a lot of people are offering it is very hard to deliver a product or rather service that you can be happy with.

I can write on this topic forever as I am one that has a marketing focus but found myself working so hard on development I had actually overlooked the advancement of marketing. Don't fall in the same trap and focus on a CMS that will enable you to offer scalable solutions to your customers. This is what I focus on these days. If you do that they will come back. You will progress much quicker adopting a powerful CMS with a strong community than trying to write your own code every time you have a client. Even if you reuse the code. Good luck..

 

[printchesco]

You have the skills and sufficient design background so more than half of the battle is won. I believe there are still employers out there who will surely won't ignore 10 years of strong design experience.

 

[henry.row]

Hi! I think you have a great background, and you could contact me through Messages, you can be part of a focus group of web designers and you can get access to new software for web design. We are interested in getting feedback from experienced web designers like you. Anyone interested in testing new software, please send me a message. Thanks!

 

[Private-I]

webdesign is applied science??? You should probably take the plunge and set up a small business if you have some decent skills already, get paid to design some websites. Do you really want to be a web designer? The trouble is you will always be competeing with all the other web designers in the world, why not study something else computer related that's more likly to get you a job and do web design in ur spare time.

 

[sufix]

If you want to work as a web designer you need to have references. You need a good marketing concept, too.