lewro’s blog - 3.0 - studying web design and development

Who would have told 3 years ago when I started to learn web design that it will go this way. I am so happy it went the right path. I guess not many people know that I have been working as web designer for about 14 months now. So here is a little balance what happened in those 3 years. This is specially dedicated to those of you guys who are considering web design as your carrier but are not sure what to do.

3 years ago…

I have chosen web designers course in Oxford Computer House. The course was provided by CIW Program. It is hard to say if it was the right chose in terms of web design education but it got me started and I have realized I got the passion for it and this is what I want to do in my life. There are so many people out there doing jobs they don’t like because of various reasons. They might be afraid to change and start something new, they might feel too old to start something new, the current job is bringing lots of money but they don’t like it or they just simple do not know what would they like to do. It’s not that easy to find the right job for you. So based on these lines the course I have chosen the right choice for me. It showed me the way. It did not bring all the right and actual information but it got me started. I have learned lot about computers, networking, protocols, servers etc. Stuff you would not normally study if you chose web design. But you know what? It is important. Specially if you like programming part of web development. It helps a lot. I have obviously study the necessary basic of web languages such are XHTML, CSS, Java-script, Flash and even some basic programming minimum. We learned how Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver works and that helped a lot as well. We did not get all the cutting edge technology information but hey that’s why the books are here.

Books

During the study I have realized that web design is not just about the fact how does it look but also about how does it work and when and why. I have bought few books from web standard evangelists which took me on the right direction. So if you are asking yourself if any course will be enough to get you job the answer is simply no. You need to prepare your eyes for a long reading hours. My course was taking me almost 2 years and I have spent most of the time reading my books and only small part of it reading the actual study material from CIW.

Experimenting with the little knowledge

Once I have learned some basic HTML, CSS and Photoshop skills and I have decided I want to build my own blog. I looked around and found out that the most used and free option is Wordpress. I download it and start playing with it. After couple of months the spring theme was done. I was very happy when I saw my blog listed in all those css galleries and even mentioned twice in Smashing Magazine. Most of you probably do not know that spring version was actually version number 2. The first version of my blog was just hand-coded HTML with really funny looking CSS where I was manually updating the home page when I wrote a new article. This was even short time before I started my course. The most funny thing is that I had no idea that you can actually create gradient in a tool like Photoshop so I was putting lines 1px tall next to each other to get the gradient effect. It really brings big smile on my face.

First job

As I have said at the beginning I have been working as web designer for 14 months now. I was very lucky when I was looking for a job after I finished my CIW course. The first interview I went to I was offered a job but the most important is that the amount of information I got during these 14 months is lot more I could get during my studying. I have specially learned about processes and workflows which you can not learn in school. I learned a lot from my managers and colleagues. If you would be thinking that now when you have a job you can stop studying I would say no again. There is so much to learn and people from outside the web designers community will probably never realize that. I keep on buying books and paying my evening courses. I am sure it is the best investment to my future.

Blog 3.0 coffee theme

After about 6 months in professional industry I have realized I should put the stuff I learned into a new project so the new blog was born in September this year which was little celebration - one year in my web profession. The blog has been so far listed in lots of different galleries and even went into the final of the Wordpress coolest blog competition.

Thank you

I would like to thank all the lovely people for a excellent support, for presenting my work in all these galleries and for all those lovely emails and job offers I got during these 2 months. Thank you all. I hope you will be coming to follow my progress and telling me about yours.

The list of the galleries and article where the blog has been presented since September 2008.

• CSS Mania
• Spyremag
• Faveup
• CSS Elite
• Screenfluent
• CSS Leak
• WP Webhost
• CSS Based
• CSS Cream
• Vandelaydesign
• Julius design
• Cool blog theme
• CSS Design Yorkshire
• Share brain
• Spoonfeddesign
• Boogiesbc
• CSS Impress
• Nice Stylesheet
• Daily Slurp
• Old Screen Fluent
• Vivee
• CSS Bahcesi
• Dr.Web Magazin
• Dakr-i
• I love blog design

… and lot more… Thank you all!

Questions for you

What was your path into web design? Are you only considering to become web designer? What steps do you take? Are you web designer and you do not enjoy your work? Tell us about it.