Forgive me if this is the wrong forum. I've been lurking round the site for a while, but this is the first time I've been brave enough to sign up properly and post.
But I was wondering... how did many of you get into webdesign? Are there specific qualifications that help, or some way of gathering experience/training that you'd recommend?
Right now, I mainly do it as a hobby, but would like to develop it. I'm applying for a MA in Internet Design, but wouldn't mind some practical experience. Any advice would be helpful :)

You don't need any qualifications, since it is very easy to judge your skill by looking at recent work. In this "industry" having a good portfolio is of crucial importance.

Also, potential clients like to be able to have a place where they can get some information about you and the services you offer, and having a website with that information on it is also pretty crucial.

But to start out, you could create a few ncie templates and sell them on this forum, which is what quite a lot of the designers here do.

If you have any more questions, just ask away :)

NicoV: why "indutry"? Just wondering...

luvluvgee: get a profolio... that's all I can say. Without it, I doubt you'll ever get a job. Afterwards, you should consider getting a good name, domain and professional hosting (no geocities, tripod or I don't know what). Some hosts will probably exchange hosting for design if your portfolio is good enough. Once your portfolio looks good, just try to find some jobs by searching on boards etc...
And read this (http://builder.cnet.com/webbuilding/0-7251-8-5549883-2.html?tag=st.bl.7251-8-5549883-7.txt.7251-8-5549883-2) ;)
Good luck

Lazarus,

Thanks for the link you have given. I will print it out and discuss it with our staff. It will be very helpful to our business.

Luvluvgee,

To answer the question, how did we end up in web design? Well, the answer is simple. It started as a hobby. You develop the skill as you start to work on one website first. Then, you move on to another. Try designing a personal website of a friend for instance. Then, design a website of a non-profit. In other words, build your porftolio slowly. You don't need to rush things to be recognized.

How do you grow as a web designer? Learn from others. Be humble, accept mistakes, criticisms and suggestions. Surf the web and look at the trend. Read and read. There are several good reading stuffs on the net. During our next links update on our website, we will be featuring another set of useful links that we are carefully screening.

Thanks for the time. And good luck!

Just one more thing, web design and graphics design is more of an art expression for us since the members of the design staff are actually artists in real life. I mean they are really artists.

:)

I just wanted to thank you all for replying to this... but have one more question! Does anyone have an online portfolio I can look at? Not to rip off your ideas, but to work out what kind of thing I should be setting up and ideas for presenting it.
Then, as I have some free-time over summer, I'll try to put your advice into practise and maybe post some designs :)

Consul... I've already sold one or two layouts, but they tend to be for personal sites - blog layouts, that kind of thing. I'd like to work my way upwards into other things :) But thank you so much for the advice!

I fell into this business completely by accident. I worked as a temp secretary for an engine manufacturer. When someone asked if I knew HTML, I lied and next thing I knew, I was building web pages.

I thought I put it all behind me when I moved to California, but alas, the film industry is a tough nut to crack so I started doing web stuff again. Three years and several companies later I'm still slogging away in the HTML fields. I've met a lot of web hacks like myself, and trust me, the best people web monkies are those who do it simply for the love.

Also, web design is like the ocean. It just gets deeper and deeper with each technology you learn - html - php - sql - mysql - java - c - ahhh end the madness!!!

have fun. good luck.