lewro’s blog - 2.1 - web designer beginner

If you have been reading this blog for some time you probably know that I belong to the category of people who study all the time and will probably never stop. Today I would like to talk about the way I study and maybe get some ideas from you guys to get more effective. I have to say when I started to study web design it was quite difficult. There was a lots of stuff I needed to get into my head. I used to study different kind of materials in the past and this area was pretty new for me. I have spent lots of time studding finance, economy and law before and I would not even think that you can actually study web design and even more that you can become professional web designer. I always thought that it is job which belongs to IT department.

Once I have started to study web design in general the doors has suddenly opened and I saw the whole picture. It was very exiting and interesting. What I have not realized how wide knowledge is needed to be a proper web designer. My naive opinion was that there is html, css and that is it. Later I found out that there are such a things as layouts, grids, colour managment, icon design, flash, dom-scripting, ajax, accessibility, web standards etc. So I told to myself. If I want to do my job properly I have to learn all of these. It already looks like a lot of stuff to get into single brain but you know what? It is not all. There is so much more to it and it is developing pretty fast and that is why it is so interesting. All these study areas I have mentioned belong to front end but there is back end as well so the list goes on and on. For the back end I have chosen PHP and MYSQL.

If you are new to web design study do not be scared if it looks like too much for you. First of all. Once you love what you do you do not have to force yourself to study because you just love to do it. Secondly, you do not have to learn all these stuff. You can decide what you want to be specialist in. You can be perfect HTML and CSS coder or PHP and MYSQL coder if you do not feel like playing with colours and pretty pictures. My problem is I want to know it all. I dream about perfect, accessible web applications with beautiful semantic code which would have a pretty and intuitive interface spiced with cool behaviors via dom-scripting and ajax.

I study almost every day. It does not always mean reading the book. Sometimes it is reading RSS feeds sometimes going true someones CSS code. When I read book about something new, I usually read the book 2-3 times to get the big picture. Then I start trying stuff, coding and testing. It is always this faze when I realized that it is not that difficult as it looks like when you first read about it. After some time spent trying new stuff I get another book to get a different view on the problematic. Reading second book is always easier and you find yourself nodding your head when going true the first chapters. The second part of every book is more complicated and it needs to play with a new technology for lot longer time to get the whole idea. For example I am still not confident to make some complicated java-script functions but I can create some pretty cool and useful stuff. What happens next? After I feel I am able to produce some of the stuff I was reading about I move on. I chose different subject and study something else. Later I come back and build on the knowledge I got in the first round. So I work in circles. This helps me not to be overwhelmed by one subject and still be able to make a progress. I am interested in lots of different areas so that allows me to move in circles from coding such are HTML, CSS, JS jumping into Photoshop then photography then Flash or drawing. These days it is PHP and MYSQL but when it becomes to much I read about colour managment.

What is your method? How do you get your head around web design?

I have been thinking about this for some time. I had this design for more then one year and I think it is about time to change it. This theme has been pretty popular and I can still see people coming from CSS galleries where this blog was mentioned about year ago. The biggest referral is smashing magazine where this theme was mentioned in the list of 45 best designed blogs. So if you are coming from these sources enjoy it because it is not going to stay like that for a very long time. I hope you are going to like the new one as well. It is not going to be that playful and colorful but do not worry I am not going to leave colors. I am just no going to use that many of them.

Current site

There are lots of thinks I would do differently on this current version but I have rather decided to create a new one instead. The current site is to heavy so the download time is very long. The graphic elements are not very polished because at the time I was creating it I had only couple of months experience with Photoshop. Just look at the rounded corners. But I think that it reflects the knowledge and feeling I had when I was starting in web design industry and I want to keep it that way and leave it untouched. I might decide to give it to someone.

The new concept

The new concept is going to be based on all the stuff I have learned during the last 6 months in my first web designer full time job and all the books I have read. It is going to be build on very solid grid. Shades and grids are going to be used more carefully. The iconography will be done by me instead of using the photoshop elements. I would like to implement some interesting DOM scripting and maybe some AJAX as well. The images will be merged into the sprites to speed up download time and so on, and so on…
It still needs tons of works but I am just so exited so I had to write about it. Hope you will like it.

Here we are. The January is gone and I have not even noticed. It has been so busy on this planet. I have been thinking a lot about the year 2008. How I am going to get the most out of it? I have decided to create a plan. I have been quite successful with my previous wishes so I have decided to go for more. If you thing about money that is not what I have in mind. I have set up couple of targets for this year. So here they are

• Learn PHP as much as I can. I have already started self study but I am seriously thinking about taking classes in city university.
• Learn French as much as I can. I do not really have a time to go true the book but I am going to listen to French podcast during the time I am in the gym. I have already started. It is so lovely language.
• Create a new design for my blog. I have started to collect ideas for a new design, layout etc. The document has about 20 points so far. It is going to take at least a month until I start wireframing and thinking about the grid type.
• Take couple of part time html,css,js projects. I am currently working on one and there are some more coming up.
• Gym, running, swimming, roller-blading, skating at least 4 times a week either of them. There is not going to be change in this one because this is what I do anyway. But I am writing it down because I could do more. I just can not live without sport but sometimes you have to fight with tiredness.
• Summer holiday. I have not been on “proper” holidays for some time, I do not count visiting Slovakia, so this summer is going to rock! Perhaps even small break to Paris.
• Organic garden on the roof part 2. You could see my first gardening year on my flickr. It has not been a big success. I am not sure if I can do better in this conditions but I am going to try anyway. Never give up!
• Photography - shoot, shoot, shoot. Photography is a tricky one. The more pictures I take the more I see they are not that great. I would like to see more art in them so I will have to concentrate on this one in different perspective.

So that is about it. It is going to be busy year. I will try to keep you inform as much as I can. But please let me know about your targets. I am so interested.