Classes for webdesign

Re: Classes for webdesign


Okay, so this is purely my personal opinion and not based on anything, okay?

I'd say learn it yourself. There's plenty stuff on the web. Learn HTML and CSS. Don't depend on programs like Dreamweaver or something like that; the only good code is code you wrote by hand. It's much less cluttered, sans all the unnecessary stuff, plus you know what you are doing. Oh, and make sure to always produce valid HTML.

When you can do that, look into writing automatically-generated content. They keywords here are PHP and MySQL, or, if you really want to, ASP.

As I said, my purely personal opinion.

"the only good code is code you wrote by hand"

Yeah, but in most cases, no one cares how good the code is. If they're a huge company, they'll want something clean that gives them 1% more hits on google. If they're not a huge company, they'll only care how fast you can put it up, and how artistically correct it is. They'll always benefit from good, clean code, but you'll make more money from writing quick and dirty code.

Disclaimer: I know very little about web design, but the only page I've ever made, just fiddling around, still gets 27,000 visits per month. I'd say learn Dreamweaver, and you'll pick up raw html on the way. Implement open-source php apps from sourceforge.net (this discussion board probably comes from there.) By then you'll have opinions about what seems fun to you. You need to learn the freaky stuff, but you can't get there without mastering, presumably for years, the basics.

I'm a part-time professional web designer and developer so I might be able to give you a few pointers.
Competition is stiff. You have be good at what you do, you must love what you do and you must have a desire to improve. Web design, as I see it, is more about having a sense of esthetics, colors, shapes and proportions since anyone can learn the techniques, but the artistic eye is harder to get. I don't think there's such a thing as talent, what matters is your enthusiasm. Naturally, an interested in arts and graphic design is a requirement, you will learn from what you see, ads on busses, commercials on tv and product packaging.
I'm not a great artist, on a daily basis I do see work that makes me feel like a total newbie still I could, at this point, make my part-time business a full-time job.
But you have to love what you do, to me, working creatively on the computer is recreational, helps me relax and focus on other things. I always have side projects, I always have ideas lying around that I try, I always see things I want to try or learn from. I've made it a point of analyzing good design I see, to learn what makes it tick.

As for techniques, get good books and get some hands-on experience, it's a time-saver. Reason we do things so quickly is because we learnt the shortcuts.
Subscribe to a mailing list on web design, read stuff in related fields, subscribe to a mag on art and graphic design, subscribe to a mag on computers and programming. Find inspiration and try it out and you'll eventually develop your own style and make yourself a name.