I have been wanting to get into the field of Web Design for quite some time, but one HUGE problem: I know next to nothing about the actual building of successful websites. I’ve read up on basic HTML/CSS tutorials and such, but I do not have Photoshop skills to save my life. Another big problem is I don’t have any programs to help get started (such as Photoshop or any HTML editors).
I have been looking to go back to school for this, but so far the community colleges around here do not offer anything Web Design related (mostly Web Development), and the only other school I’ve looked into has been the Art Institute of Seattle, but as many of you may know, they charge an arm and a leg with your first born as interest (thank god I don’t have a kid!).
I’ve also heard a lot lately that maybe school isn’t the only way to go; that maybe learning independently may be the better route. Sounds like a very long journey going that way!
Moral of the story, I’m looking for guidance in what to do. I’m really stumped right now and working an $11 an hour job for the rest of my life does NOT sound appealing. Did you go through school, or independently? Any online schools worth getting involved with?
A lot to read, I’m sorry! But thank you in advanced! Bookmarking this page
It’s a lot more commonplace nowadays for the back-end developer to also do front-end coding, effectively merging those roles into “Web Developer”. Anyway, it would appear that you’re torn between design and coding.
Believe it or not, that’s a good thing!
Educational institutions have been trying to cash in on Web Design and its ease of access, and quite frankly having read a lot of job requests in my time these people don’t have even half of the skill set I would require for even our graduate-level job. The best students can just about write HTML, but their design skills are awful and they’re blissfully ignorant of anything back-end. If you’re lucky, one of them has picked up enough PHP to handle a WordPress install. One guy I interviewed claimed to be a great developer and he couldn’t even do the most basic of looping problems.
If you want to be a designer then I’d highly suggest looking into straight Graphic Design. This will teach you everything you need to know about design, and you’ll find that during your degree you’ll pick up more than enough to be able to pick up Photoshop and be fully capable very quickly.
A degree isn’t necessary, but it’s wishful thinking to suggest that you’ll be judged solely on your ability by all employers. In an ideal world the best person for the job would always get great work, but we live in the real world and a degree is often a minimum requirement.
Don’t bother with an online degree. They’re as good as useless.
It’s hard to say without knowing exactly what you want to do. In most professional industries the web has moved on enough that there is rarely a Webmaster who does all the designs, coding and maintains the site. Designers design, and coders code. It’s down to which one you’d rather be.
Without any extra information, I’d stand by getting a Graphic Design degree if you want to be a Graphic Designer for the web. A CS degree isn’t essential to be a developer, but that kind of knowledge is always helpful, especially when you want to get your foot in the door as so many companies ask for a Computer Science degree (or equivalent).
I agree that it is good to decide if you want to be a designer or developer. I’ve never met anyone that could do both as well as someone that can do just one. However, it is good to pick up a experience in the other. I’m definitely a developer, but I also know my way around Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, etc. because I occassionally have a need to tweak something our designer sent me.
Also, that piece of paper you get from school is and isn’t important.
It is important for the reason Ultimate mentioned: most employers (especially those that are not programmers or even technically adept… who are often the ones doing hiring) just look for that paper. They don’t have the experience needed to comprehend your experience basically.
It isn’t important because what you learn in school is almost never enough. I have a BS in Computer Science. However, if that was all the knowledge I had, I would not be able to do the position I currently occupy. Computer Science is one of those fields where you always have to keep learning, practicing and improving or else you’ll get left in the dust. Experience goes a lot farther than that piece of paper when it comes to actually getting the work done.
However, if you want to become a developer, I think a Computer Science degree is a good idea. Often they aren’t exactly related to web (in fact, only a few of my courses were web related), but there is a lot of universal programming knowledge that you’ll pick up which will help you. You could also go for a degree like Information Systems, which is generally an easier degree, but also likely less applicable (at many schools, Information Systems is essentially a watered-down Computer Science degree).
Also I agree that most online schools aren’t worth the bandwidth, let alone the money you pay them. =p
First of all, WOW, a lot of good information to consider.
Picking which one (designer or developer) is a hard decision. I love the idea of doing site design and layout, but I also like the idea of being able to place everything where it needs to be; the HTML/CSS of it. I haven’t even began to look into JS or PHP or anything. Conflicting; VERY.
This may be an absolutely terrible way to look at it, but I know most graphic designers do not have a great salary. That makes sense considering that nearly everyone knows how to use Photoshop effectively, excluding myself. But it also might be good for possible contract work or something.
Completely off web related topics, I think building/writing code for mobile apps, such as iPhone, could be an awesome path. Although I haven’t see much about teaching Objective C only, so I’m assuming I’d have to learn all the C’s to get familiar enough to switch over. Or I could just learn how to read a book.
And the advice of staying away from online schooling has been taken! But jeeze, this is not an easy decision to figure out which route to go. I know you guys don’t know me or my personality, which is why I’m trying to explain as much as possible.
I’ll look into schooling for both graphic design and web development at nearby schools and I’ll definitely be sure to share what is going on.
Again, thank you guys so much for your inputs. Loving this!
Keith
By choosing a single career path you’re not necessarily limiting yourself, and I can understand how you may feel torn as you’d like to handle everything yourself. I am often the same way, and in companies I have been the designer, developer, SEO guy, social media guy and sysadmin. I can say with absolute certainty that unless you have a stake in the work you are performing it never works well, but experience will teach you that.
This is why people are clear on getting someone to perform one job and to do it well. However, if you’re a developer and you can design you’ll find communicating your ideas with designers to be a lot easier, and in the same way if you’re a designer that knows his way around code then you’ll appreciate the work that developers do and will understand limitations of functionality.
I don’t mean this in a way to be mean to those who write HTML and CSS for a living, but these are not programming. Hell, a lot of PHP and JavaScript work out there is more about modifying a “WordPress CMS install” or slapping some jQuery scripts on a site.
As a .NET developer I have obvious bias, but I think C# and ASP.NET would be a great language to get started in if you want to experience cutting-edge programming in a proper object-oriented language. Python is also a great language for people to work with, and Django is a hell of a web framework.
Not at all! Very few people pick a career that will never reward them for their success.
However, I know of plenty of graphic designers that have made a ton of money through working with agencies and building relationships with businesses.
Programming is a craft, and as such you need to do it to get better at it.
To answer your question, Objective-C is nothing to do with C, C++, C# or any of the confusingly-named “C languages”. If you want to learn Objective-C then get an environment set up (easy if you have a Mac) and get coding. If not, and you don’t want to fork out to build apps for the iPhone, Android is a far more popular platform and is a lot easier to get involved with. Additionally, apps are written in the Java language, so by learning to code Android apps you’ll also be learning a proper programming language.
I can understand the benefits of an online school, but the level of education is often so poor that it’s almost worthless bothering. Finally, the whole point of education is for it to be a learning experience. To learn academic subjects properly you need to be in 9am classes, you need to cram for exams and you need ridiculous deadlines. Sure, it’s not optimal, but it teaches you necessary skills that employers will want for many decades to come.
Being British I don’t really know the difference, but I would always recommend going to the best institution you can. There is definitely a notable difference in quality between an average university and a good university.
The Art Institute is definitely a good school to go to for this type of thing. A community college could work, but wouldn’t be as good. I know a lot of people that get their Gen Ed. stuff at community college and then transfer into a better school for the last two years for all their major courses.
Also, I’ll warn you that if you really want to get into other programming (like mobile), a Computer Science degree would serve you better than a web specific one. Web development is programming, but it’s a specific subset of programming that often doesn’t deal with many of the situations you run into with more “traditional” programming. If you are wanting to do more than just web development, I’d strongly recommend a Computer Science degree (preferably with an option/focus in Web Development and/or Interactive Multimedia).
You’re right. Self-tutoring is an option, but a long-drawn one. I can recommend a program that may be the ideal fit for you. It’s a Bachelor’s degree in web design and development offered at Stevens-Henager College. Here’s where you can find more details about the program:
From the looks of it, the program trains graduates in both front-end design and back-end development of websites. You can pursue this program online if you so wish!
