BaseKit

28th July 2010

I quite often get asked by friends if I had to take a course to be a web designer and how I got into the industry. My background is quite similar to that of many web designers in that I never had any kind of formal education in design or indeed an art or technology related degree.

When I finished college I had no idea what I wanted to do career wise but knew that I wanted to go to University – so I took the best course that my A-Level grades would allow. I ended up studying Law at the University of Liverpool, although I never really enjoyed it, this is where I first discovered my love of the web and design. A friend of mine was studying Animation and showed me a few pieces of his work in Flash. Now being the geek that I am, I knew I just had to have a go for myself. After scouring the web for Flash tutorials, I discovered Photoshop tutorials. Flash quickly got put to one side and I became pretty much addicted to experimenting in everything from Photo manipulation techniques to creating web layouts. This then turned into reading up on User Interaction, Usability & Accessibility and learning to hand code HTML and CSS – when I should have been reading up on Criminal Evidence and admissibility. I finished my degree, but I knew that a career in Law wasn’t for me and that I wanted to be a web designer. I managed (after various jobs) to land a role in a small IT Team as a designer. After that everything thing else just seemed to fall into place.

I’m entirely self-taught when it comes to web design (like many others) and it just goes to show that you don’t necessarily have to have a formal education in design to get into the industry. With enough hard work and determination you can make it as a designer, even with no formal training.

Make sure you Enjoy It

As much as I love design, there are times when it can really get you down, whether it’s an overly picky client or you’re feeling particularly uninspired. My point is, make sure that your love of design is strong enough to see you get through these times. Like any career, if you don’t love what you do then you will never be the best that you can be.

Learn Photoshop

Photoshop is the tool you will use the most during your web design career, so it makes sense to fully understand it. Photoshop is so versatile that it can be picked up relatively quickly but takes a really long time to fully master. The best way to learn Photoshop is to follow as many tutorials as possible, but don’t just limit yourself to web layout tutorials – I’ve learned techniques from Photo Touch up tutorials that I’ve been able to use when designing web layouts.
The most important part of following tutorials is to understand the steps and the techniques used, for example if the tutorial is telling you to apply a certain layer style try to understand what that particular function does and why it was used. Pay attention to the steps involved, don’t just mindlessly follow the tutorial otherwise you’re not really learning anything.

Once you’re starting to get the hang of Photoshop, maybe instead of just following tutorials you can experiment and put your own twist on them. One of the best ways to get your head around Photoshop is to experiment with all the different tools to understand what they do and how they can be used together. You can find some great tutorials on www.psd.tutsplus.com/category/tutorials/ and www.good-tutorials.com

Get on Twitter

If you haven’t got a twitter account get one and get involved with the design community. I’d start off by following some of the more experienced designers and maybe even design studios. One of the great things about the design community is that everyone is willing to help each other out, if you’re having trouble or need help with something, send out a Tweet and you can guarantee that someone will get back to you with some advice.

The other great thing about following other designers on Twitter is that they regularly tweet links to articles on the latest technologies, design trends, best practices and tutorials.

Try following some of the designers on lists like these: http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/social-media/designers-on-twitter/

Swot up by Reading Web Design Articles & Books

Being a web designer is so much more than learning how to use Photoshop and making things look “nice”. There’s so much to consider when designing a website: Usability; Accessibility; Colour Theory; Grid Systems; Wireframing; User Experience and User Interaction to name but a few. Smashing Magazine is a great resource for all things web design and development. Another useful resource is Sitepoint which contains some really good articles on design principles and hand coding should you decide to learn to code.

Learn or at least be aware of HTML and CSS

With tools such as the Basekit Web Site Builder you don’t necessarily need to learn how to hand code HTML & CSS in order to create stunning websites, but another string in the bow and all that. A good understanding of HTML & CSS will not only give you a better insight into how websites are built, it will also help you in your designs as you will begin to realise what is and isn’t possible with HTML & CSS when coming up with design concepts.

Although the Basekit Web Site Builder is great for building new websites, if you want to work with clients who already have an existing website you would need to know HTML & CSS. By knowing how to hand code HTML and CSS you will open yourself up to a wider range of projects in the long run.

Stick with it

When you are first starting out, it is difficult – very difficult. There is so much to take in and learn that it is easy to feel overwhelmed, especially when you take a look at the portfolios of some of the more experienced designers. I wrote a post for BaseKit a few months ago, which is definitely worth a read if you are new to the web design industry – The Newbie Designer Confidence Killer.

Design and Build a Portfolio Site

Once you’ve learned the basics by following tutorials and reading articles, it’s time to put your new found skills to new use by building a portfolio site. Even though you may not have any commercial projects that you can showcase, you can always work on some personal projects that you can show off to potential clients. The Basekit Web Site Builder would be the perfect tool to build your first portfolio site!

This post was written by Lee Harding of Lee Harding Web Design – creating modern beautiful and usable websites. Want to write for the BaseKit Blog – get in touch!

Picture from Flickr user Helen Olney