Hello!

[Logikal]

Hello everyone, i just joined the forum and im lookin forward to talkin with you all. Im 19 and currently taking a web and graphic design diploma course. Im lookin to eventually own my own buisness designing graphics and web pages. Im lookin for some tips from the professionals, you guys that are already ahead of me and making a living doing what i plan on . How did you begin? What are the languages and programs you suggest i should be becoming familiar with? How should i showcase my skills? Where should i begin to look for work, and i got 1000s of other questions, and im hoping some of ya have the spare time to help me out! Any advice you could give someone starting out in this field of work would be appreciated sooo much. I just wanna say thanks in advance!

 

[supanatral]

Good for you for planing on owning your own business! I would go take a course in college and many times there are company's will contact you to try and get a free website out of you for a project. It's just a start but it gets your name out there.

Another way is to start by designing a perfessional site for yourself and browse the web for ancient looking websites and then contact the owner about it and request your services. Hope that helps! Kaleb

 

[Logikal]

Awesome, thanks for the reply. That does sound like a good idea to get my name out there. I am in a college course right now and its goin great. As far as learning languages, the course teaches flash, html, javascript, programs like dreamweaver, and some graphics design as well. I'm also taking some buisness courses at the end of my second semester so i can learn how to manage my buisness. Should i look into PHP, perl or anything else? Like i said, im very new to this so im really interested in what i should be looking into as far as what's most often requested by clients looking to have a website built for them. Also programing languages such as C++, would it be worth taking a course, to assist my web design? I've got all the time in the world, and im a very quick learner. I just plan on arming myself with an arsenal of everything that will develop me to be the best designer i can be . Also, as a beginning designer, do you find that starting out you are able to support yourself just doing websites and graphics? Or is it often that it takes a long time to develop a name for youself and earn money? Again, thanks soooo much for the help , i appreciate everything you all can answer for me,

 

[ian]

how much money you can make depends on the quality of your work. If you do plan on making a living as a web designer, I would consider designing and developing sites of your own to both add to your portfolio and supplement your income.

 

[Logikal]

Ok, awesome. My course requires me to build a website for my portfolio, so i guess thats a start. I'm hoping to make a living though web design, evantually anyways. I guess i'm just going to have to see what kind of market is out there, and like ya said, the quality of my work. Do many of you make a living doing this? or just on the side for extra income?

 

[ian]

I work a full time job, I dont build websites for a living.

 

[ISDProductions]

learn HTML, CSS and PHP. Really work hard on your graphic design skills. Photoshop and Imageready should become your new best freinds. A clean well coded site is great, but clients need to see what they are paying for and the majority of them don't even know what source code is. Also it helps to have very strong problem solving skills. Quite often people will have no idea what they want, you have to be able to skillfully suggest to them the best courses of action. Unless you have deep pockets or your lucky, plan on doing this "part-time" for awhile. On top of that get yourself a well written contract and stick to it.

 

[Logikal]

Thats exactly the reply i was lookin for, thanks ISD. Ok, so im going to start chekin out PHP and ill have to look into CSS, ive never heard of it. As far as photoshop ill be learing in my course, and imageready ill have to look into myself. Heh i wish i had deep pockets, and i wouldnt call myself lucky haha, but i had already thought i would have to start out part time, so thats no big surprise. thanks for the help, i really appreciate it.

 

[Logikal]

Oh yea one more thing i forgot to ask, where should i look for a contract? or do i need to have someone write me up one?

 

[petron]

Welcome logikal

Hi... logikal
welcome to this forum, i'm new member toor ... i think this forum is good for u and me to increase web design knowledge

see ya

 

[Logikal]

Hi... logikal
welcome to this forum, i'm new member toor ... i think this forum is good for u and me to increase web design knowledge

see ya

Yea ive already learned some stuff ive been wanting to know, im sure ill find out alot more.. Just need to learn more on my own before i know the right questions to ask