Becomming a Web Designer

[alexrules01]

Hey everyone.

I am currently doing a course on Web Design, and by the end, i 'should' have the tools to venture out in the big bad world and create websites for a living.
The course makes you deal with all processes of the project lifecycle (planning > designing > testing > implementing etc).
Overall the course is one major project, for an actual client, minus the big paycheck at the end .

I'm currently half way through the course, and all its been so far is documentation! I knew there was documentation, like a Project Plan and designing the project, but much more than I expected. I'm not that great with the documentation side of things either, which makes it even harder.

The website I'm creating is for a friend (who, I ironically met in the course before, which was an introductory course to web design and digital media) and is of a fashion store for girls. Originally she wanted an e-commerce section, but the teachers suggested just a kind of Online catalogue, as the e-commerce side would take to long for security.

A good thing though is, we learnt PHP/MySQL, which made it much easier for me because of Hall's tutorials
CSS however, has given me the biggest pain today!

Thought I'd just share this with you guys, who else on here actually do web design for a living?

[Foofighter]

hi,
very interesting.
Actually i dont do any web design for living, iam a valve designer at an enginnering company but i really like Web design since i started programming my game, joining this community and coming more and more in the details of the actual web design i like it more and more.
I planned to do some courses on the Topic (not a full course for webdesign )but they are soo expensive and at the most courses you arent getting any certificates or anything to prove your knowledge afterwards- so i decided not to start a course cause it would be too expensive for just a hobby.
Anyway there is enough Knowledge on the www.

regards
Foo

[Chris]

Designing websites is where I started. 8 years further in the time scale and I still haven't stopped learning things. It's quite difficult making a living by selling websites on your own. You really need to get hired by a design company. Even then, being a web designer/front-end developer is usually the worst payed job in that field.

[Jackolantern]

Hmm...I seem to remember reading in several different places that web design can pay well if you are good at it and fast. But if you do have real development knowledge as well (such as back-end server development), you can make more money, of course.

[alexrules01]

I am leaning towards more the back-end side of things, but I would like to be competent in front-end design aswell.

i havn't looked at the pay side of things yet, its good to get some insight into it though. I will be looking at trying to get employed somewhere, but a couple of people I know have expressed interest in wanting a website, so there may be some work when I finish haha!

[Torniquet]

I am not a web designer, but I am a web developer .

I have been working offically as one for 3 and a half months after spending 3 years teaching myself from practice and videos such as halls'.

I work for a small company (7 full time employees) with quite a large client base in comparison (aprox 400 and 2.5k domains on our servers). Needless to say it is ALOT of work. We have 2 designers, 2 builders, 1 developer (me), 1 developer/boss/server maintenance guy and a Boss/salesman/ecommerce software developer.

I had wanted to work as a webdesigner/developer for a long time, and before working at this place, I never really understood what goes into producing a website for a client. Followed by all the upkeep for changes and things they are unable to do for themselves (or in a few cases what they can do for themselves but wont do lol).

My role when i started was meant to be on the build team, but my skills proved it was worth me doing development on our systems and the more bespoke functionality on websites. and in the space of 1 month, I went from working as an office admin and working on my own website to working for a web design company building websites to working in the background on some very fun and frustrating features, including remodeling some of our cms system.

needless to say leaving perfectly stable, mundane, low paid and generally shit job in the current financial climate and entering a job in such a small company was a huge risk, but end of the day has paid off and I couldnt be happier. The perks of the job make it so much more worthwhile.

Pizza every friday and BBQ + beer in the summer
xBox
Giant beanbags
coke on tap
and nerf gun wars (usually started by the boss!)

We are currently still trying to hire more people (So if anyone live in essex in the UK let me know XD)

As for the pay, it is their standard policy to pay low when you first start until you prove yourself, then they bump the pay packet and pay what your worth to them.

I am currently on 14k a year and looking to be on 20k by the end of the year (It might not seem alot, but A. thats a huge increase and B. I have never been payed what I am worth and always lived on a <14k salery)

But in all honesty, its not necessarily the pay I am after with this job. I am doing one I am good at and enjoy and most of all, one where I get recognission for the work I do.

Enjoy the read :p not sure what you was after when you asked if anyone does webdesign for a living, so I thought I would dish all of the dirt lol.

EDIT~~

Another perk... Free webhosting! have been kindly informed that when I am ready with the rebuild of my website to ask them to set me up a vps. WINNNN

[alexrules01]

Thats really cool Torn I'd love to get a job like yours haha.