Hi

I am a student who hates college. I am looking to get out of college because it teaches me everything I really don't want to know, and am looking to get into professional web design. I was wondering if anyone could give me any advice on how to go about this. I am learning Photoshop, Flash, Fireworks and Illustrator at the moment. Any advice anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

PD

Just keep saying: "I am a web designer. Indeed I am. Really and truly." ;)

plenty of practice and a good eye for graphics work.

once you get your graphcis and coding pretty good get some appraisals on your design or even try getting a company to take you on doing bits of design work here and there.

Takes a lot of time to go as a professional designer in some peoples eyes.

Good luck.
Mike.

try asking the same question on tr42 (if you're 'in the know' you'll understand)... if not, get your post count up to 5+ (don't spam) then PM me.

Originally posted by PeeDi
Hi

I am a student who hates college. I am looking to get out of college because it teaches me everything I really don't want to know, and am looking to get into professional web design. I was wondering if anyone could give me any advice on how to go about this. I am learning Photoshop, Flash, Fireworks and Illustrator at the moment. Any advice anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

PD

Are you taking classes on those applications? If you are and you still hate college, that might be a bad sign. If not, try a change of majors with a focus towards this new career choice. I'd recommend you work on your design skills AND finish school...

90% Practice, practice and practice (make a great portfolio)... and 10% to show your work in a lot of forums, companies, graphic designer, webmasters, friends... if you are really good people will email you requesting work.

Cheers for the advice peeps, I will jus keep workin on my designs and suppose I will have to stay in college for now!!

PD

Stay in college.
You can do both at the same time.

A portfolio is the way to go. If you have time, offer to redesign someones site for free...once you do a few free sites, you'll have enough material to charge for it.

Brandon

I dropped out of college from a Media course. I had the determination to buy books and study applications out of a school system.

The problem with dropping out here is;

Parents want "board money".
Child support is dropped and a few other things.

I suggest you build a portfolio whilst finishing your course, never hurts to have extra academic achievements in your CV.

What are you currently studying in college?

If you want to be a web designer I'd say learn as much as possible in the web medium. Javascript, serverside, graphics, etc. I'd say if you have an education in design or you are tallented that should help you quite a bit. There are a lot of sites out there that have cool graphics and coding but lack good design. Design does not equal photoshop graphics.

There's a book I hear good things about over at sitepoint.com. I can't remember its name but it is written by Brendan something

Apparently it goes into a lot of detail about the business side of things in regards to webdesign.

Might be worth considering reading if you are serious about making a business of web design.

ok i will have a look

Thanks again

Stay at college PeeDi, you won't regret it, and regarding becoming a professional Designer - practice, and then free lance.

Regards

DislexiK

cheers jakey boi

PD

Stay in school. You don't wanna pay student loans out of your Taco Bell wages, do u? :)

Regrding becoming a designer, find someone that needs a web page, offer to do it for them for cheap (or free), make the best web site possible, use this finished product to gain more work.

Mulder

Thanks man

PD

P.S. Do you know anyone that would like their website redesigned?

I don't want to offend you, but to go professional you need a little more practice with photoshop and HTML editors / notepad :)

Originally posted by PeeDi
Thanks man

PD

P.S. Do you know anyone that would like their website redesigned?

Sorry but I'm looking for clients myself. Everyone wants a site but no one wants to pay a fair price. :)

Some more hints- try to find a client that will have a lot of content. Instead of doing a site for your uncle's shoe shine stand, do one for your aunt's catering business. This way you can have pages for products and services, plus pics from a previous event, etc.

You could also work on your on site...

I always suggest to webdesign entrepreneurs to partner with a hosting provider. I have a close friend who does webdesign and its worked out very well for both of us.

Imho you shouldn't quit school, i know the classes can be boring, i wasn't intrested in learning german, french etc either, but some things have to be done. Although i was outbored in class i really had fun there, most say the student years are best, i liked college time best.

Anyway, but my point, when you get your diploma you'll be able to choose an education that totally fits your intrests. I for example started studying multimedia design and i just love it. If correct i graduate this year for that school and because i liked it so much iam gonne start another study. Don't exactly know what one yet, photography, marketing, desktop publishing, video, so many things i like. And probably so many things you like!

To be a good webdesigner btw (to answer your question). You need to learn the software and script/programming languages. besides that you'll have to practise A LOT to eventually create a great site. Besides practise and learing, you also need the eye and creativity skills.

Really to be a good professional designer there are just 5 words, practise, practise, practise, practise and practise. Take a look at 2advanced.com or ceonex.com those guys didn't create theire skills and portfolio in a few weeks. It's a matter of years.

/me thinks btw that 95% of the 'professional' design companies are truely crap! A good designer gets and stays into the other 5%

Hi
Some advice stay in school you will need it, if you plan to have a career on the web. To get started you need a client. You can get a client by calling display ads in the yellow pages showing no web address, those ads cost a fortune. You have something better for pennies on the dollar. Just ask for the owner tell them the great things you can do for them. If you sell the site you have made big money it is all profit, no office, no payroll, just pure profit, infact you can make so much money you will not go to work for anyone except yourself. Jay Rome

Hey, not to bash on your skills or anything, but just some advice. Your other thread in this forum on a review for a layout really makes me think that you don't have too much of a design background. I'd think of getting some books on typography and graphic design to educate yourself if you cannot take classes in those. I took some summer courses at a college while in High School and it helped me a lot and got me into what I wanted to do. Just relating a personal experience and trying to help a fellow member out. :)

Yeah I do lack design skills!!

Cheers dude

PD

You finish school and then go to a good art school that has graphic design. Then will get you firmly into the professional graphic design world.

It is possible to do it without, but in my opinion it would be harder or you have to have a whole lot of pure skill.

IMHO, web design is like any other business... you get from it what you put into it. If you don't know html then you may have to invest in a wysiwyg editor (Dreamweaver for example) then learn to use it. As previous replies stated, you do need some artistic talents to visualize what the finished site should look like along with functionality and balance.
I would suggest also to invest in sitepoint's book by Brendon Sinclair called "The Web Design Business Kit", it will help not in how to design, but how to run a design business.
Hope this helps :)