Why did you decide to get into Web Design?

[mariahlullaby]

I'm just curious how you guys got into web design and what kept you interested -- and why you chose it as your line of work (or even as a hobby).

I'm only 17, so I don't know what I'm going to do career-wise, though I think I would like to keep web design freelance rather than a full-fledged career. In any case, I love the world of web design because of the balance: creativy and logic. I enjoy tackling a "challenge" of a code or script or just creating something complicated out of a blank page. On the other hand, I can let me creative juices flow and still have the power to click "Undo" (if only that would work for pen and paper...I am ridiculously bad a creative things done by hand...I find coloring within the lines a challenge ). Moreover, the field of web design is always changing, innovative and individually rewarding.

I got into web design in middle school, just tinkering around on a Tripod template-based Mariah Carey site and finally buying a book to teach myself HTML. And you could say that I became addicted


Oh and another question: Do you guys ever get 'designer's block' and how do you cure it?

 

[rendezvouscp]

I do it as a hobby as of right now, but one of the things that got me interested is that, well, now that I think about it it's rather long. It all started with a discount on the Studio MX suite, then I wanted to see what I could do with the suite, then I wanted to get better and better at web design and have a website until I am where I am today (trying to design my own site, again). It's a fun hobby for me, and will certainly be useful in the future.

On designer's block: well, I was definitely not born a designer, so designer's block is more often than not with me. I usually end up sketching everything out again and rethinking why I wanted something a certain way. Sketches and gray box layouts are a great way to play with things without being worried about the specifics, and it's probably the "easiest" way to be creative.

It's fun stuff, there is a great sense of accomplishment when you finish something, and other people can enjoy what you made. I think that's why I'm in web developing (I know you said design though) for a hobby.
-Chase

 

[Bern]

I'm an illustrator and the only site I am designing is my own at the moment. It's been a long and arduous road to learn, but every day I am more happy with the result.

I hope to have my site up soon and maybe I'll design for friends in the future, but web design isn't a new found career for me it's a means to an end.

 

[Voidness]

I started off web design back when I was in grade 5 (in 1996). Back when Netscape was dominant and had a built in web editor. My motivation back then was to create a site about video games (Info, Screens, Cheats, etc), ever since I got hooked up

I'm 19, and I still haven't actually made any money from my web design work, so it's basically just a hobby. The problem with me is that I get a lot of those "designer's block" every now and then (I'm in one right now, and it drives me insane! ) The only way to get rid of it is "time"...

 

[rozwell]

I got into web design about 3 years ago when i got my first mac. I tinkered a bit before on my pc but seriously for some reason I was really motivated by the hardware I was using. I started out using front page about 5 years ago and got web fever like i said about 3 years ago when I got ahold of Flash. I dont know why I love to do it, but as a Flash developer/designer I love how robust and powerful the platform is becoming because anything can be done with it.

Designers block only seems to happened when I try to redesign my own site. I can usually make anyone else happy but my own eye. I have been working on that for sometime and always switch to a new design, but its totally normal.

The reason I choose web design is for that one day when I can truly work from home as a freelancer, no strings attached. More recently I have been taking in office freelance positions, because beggers cant be choosers all the time, especially at this point in my early career. Check around this forums for a thread about getting jobs in web design. It turns out in some areas if you arent absolutely amazing and can offer the kitchen sink, getting jobs can be somewhat hard. Honestly though, here in Philadelphia, even the bad designers and web designers can get jobs... maybe not at the most ideal place or best paying, but it has been my experience that it isnt hard at all thus far for my current location while I am in school.

 

[MontyZ]

.

 

[dornoforpyros]

I had delusions of having a fun job and making money
Now I'm just over worked and underpaid(not by much mind you).

Then again I guess I'm doing ok for only being 23

 

[highres]

I've been developing websites since 1995, and prior to that was involved in multimedia, so, it was a natural progression for me.

Everyone has a creative dry spell now and then, and everyone has different methods for overcoming it. When it happens to me, I go on vacation. If that's not possible, I change my routine and try to put some distance between me and the creative problem I'm trying to solve. I just do something else, and then go back to the problem with "fresh eyes."

If you want a job in web development, my advice is to learn a web language like PHP or ASP. There's more demand and the pay is better. If you like the design side of the biz better, then specialize in a certain area like interface design or information design which large web development companies need. But, either way, it's always good to have some experience and skill in both the programming and design aspects of web development.

Sound advice, definitely learn both sides, freelance dynamic web programmers are back in demand again after the dot.com implosion, I started as a Print Designer and Graphic Artist, then worked my way up to Art Director, then our company moved our whole business model to the internet and e-commerce so I had to learn Web Design with HTML, CSS, and static webpage design.

Now I am going back again and having to learn not only XHTML and XML but dynamic programming like Java, Cold Fusion, PHP and ASP.

As a Web Production Manager now, I manage 6 web designers remotely via iChat, FTP and Email and in order to QC, make changes and revisions and optimize websites for Search Engines and Google page ranking, a working knowledge of the dynamic or server side aspects of websites nowdays is a MUST. I can't emphasize this enough.

Programming languages are the structure and backbone that websites use to communicate with each other on the WWW, knowing what language to communicate in in any culture is critical.

 

[dhracer88]

I got into web design in March this year--with a free Zoomshare site. My bikes were broken and the weather was poor, so I gave it a shot. I used NVU up until July. CJB allowed me to be a little more creative on my site, and eventually I bought a domain name and upgraded hosting.

What's kept me going, even though I haven't made a dime yet (free projects), is trying to produce tidy code and learning new CSS tricks. From July-August, I learned CSS and XHTML (strict...). Next summer, I hope to learn PHP, then XML, and so on. What's frustrated me most since March is IE6. My design site gets a little messed up in IE, so I've got some work to do still...

 

[highres]

I got into web design in March this year--with a free Zoomshare site. My bikes were broken and the weather was poor, so I gave it a shot. I used NVU up until July. CJB allowed me to be a little more creative on my site, and eventually I bought a domain name and upgraded hosting.

What's kept me going, even though I haven't made a dime yet (free projects), is trying to produce tidy code and learning new CSS tricks. From July-August, I learned CSS and XHTML (strict...). Next summer, I hope to learn PHP, then XML, and so on. What's frustrated me most since March is IE6. My design site gets a little messed up in IE, so I've got some work to do still...

Is that MS IE6? If so it is full of bugs and is a pain too design for. It stinks, but 83% of browser users or 63.7 Million people still use it. Firefox is second at 8% or 5.8 Million users (Firefox usage has actually increased quite substantially since its release).

It looks like we will be designing pages with MS IE6 in mind for quite some time, no matter how much of a pain in the ass it is. At least Netscape 4.0 isn't used much anymore, it used to be a nightmare to design for.

I wonder who the 15 people using Netscape 1.0 are?

 

[dhracer88]

Yep, IE6 Win, which isn't so bad to make a design compatible, but you've got to avoid ordered lists with padding, explicitly set paddings and margins to 0 for inline text (mainly in lists), then tinker with the design for hours...It looks like IE7 won't be much better, but I'm just hoping it doesn't mess the CSS up any worse.

I hope Firefox use keeps on increasing-the new beta is great; it added mouse wheel support for scrollable divs, which IE has had for awhile. I installed NS4 just for the heck of it, and I was amazed at how poorly it supports CSS. I'm starting to use the @import method to hide it though...

 

[highres]

Yep, IE6 Win, which isn't so bad to make a design compatible, but you've got to avoid ordered lists with padding, explicitly set paddings and margins to 0 for inline text (mainly in lists), then tinker with the design for hours...It looks like IE7 won't be much better, but I'm just hoping it doesn't mess the CSS up any worse.

I hope Firefox use keeps on increasing-the new beta is great; it added mouse wheel support for scrollable divs, which IE has had for awhile. I installed NS4 just for the heck of it, and I was amazed at how poorly it supports CSS. I'm starting to use the @import method to hide it though...

I agree, I have been using the new Firefox beta and like it, it seems to load pages faster than the version 1.0.6 and seems to be pretty stable. I also hope that IE7 addresses some of the bugs in IE6, what I have read so far is encouraging, we will have to wait and see. CSS implementation should also be better in IE7, I hope.

 

[chaos86]

for designers block, these are how I get a new insight.

invert the colors in the graphics program.
flip it top to bottom.
print it out and jump on it (seriously).
stand back 15 ft.
use photoshops hue saturation and brightness window, drag the hue slider around.
go back to the drawing board... with finger paints, collage, or foodstuffs.
cut it into squares like puzzle (like 6x8) pieces and try to put it back together.


these methods help me think different.