MasterWeb Design

You’ve already completed your bachelor’s degree, perhaps years ago. Maybe you majored in computer programming, or maybe you majored in anthropology. Once out of school, you began at the entry level and worked your way up. But now, you want something different. You want to begin a career in graphic design. How do you make a 180-degree career change?

Seek a certificate

Many technical schools, community colleges, and even traditional four-year universities offer certifications in Web design or graphic arts. These programs, when combined with previous professional experience, such as a bachelor’s degree and several post-college years in the workforce, can be powerful tools with which to break into graphic design.

The advantages of pursuing a certification over a degree are time- and cost-savings. First, aspiring graphic designers are saved the hassle of having to take college general education requirements all over again. Some college classes, especially basic English, math, and science courses, might seem like they’d be a breeze to re-take, but the hours of work they require can be trying for adults with Read more…

If you think you have the creativity, flair and a knack for techie widgets and designing tools, starting off with web designing can be a very easy flowing task. The good thing about Web designing as a profession is that the barrier to entry is fairly low and navigable. The nation of designers is very democratic and newer members rise and shine rather soon. Plus, it gives a great value at a low start-up cost compared to other professions. And who can miss the leisure of working at one’s own hours and the freedom to toggle one’s table anywhere in the house -garden, lounge or even on the couch.

If the possibilities are already tempting you, start doing your preliminary work to dig yourself a firm base. If you are amply prepared and resourceful at the very beginning, you can get a head start with as little frustration and lost effort as possible. The foremost paradigm shift that you must go through is from the mind frame of an audience to that of a designer. There are two ways of looking at this web page: an audience will rather glide through it smoothly, absorb some information, and click away to a new link, unless something eventful disrupts his/her browsing. As a designer however, you have to carefully rate every minute detail of it for features like design, user interface, and complexity of HTML coding and loading time.

Then, get behind the scenes by linking up with people already in the Web Design industry. This is ever more important because a beginner like you has very little to show in terms of past work. On the other hand if you can impress the designers by your technical showoffs, you can hope to get your first assignments owing to their recommendations. There’s nothing wrong with that, because clients are obviously inclined towards trustworthy designers. If you can reduce their perceived risk in preferring you over an experienced designer, bingo! And nothing works better than camaraderie of a respectable professional. Read more…

Internet use has virtually exploded since 1995, when only .4% of the world’s people were online. As of December 2009, that number has soared to over 26%–over 1.8 billion people now use the Internet, with more being added every day. Web designers are an integral part of keeping people and businesses connected worldwide, and more people than ever before need web designers to help them “get where they want to go” on the Web. Web designers-also known as information designers, information developers or Web developers-are responsible for designing and maintaining websites for a wide variety of clientele. It’s their job to make sure that websites are visually appealing and present needed information in an understandable way.

According to wisegeek.com, web design professionals usually have many tools that they use in helping a client achieve a perfect website: they often have extensive experience with graphics software and programs that can animate figures, and are well-versed in multimedia, adding sound and/or video clips where needed. They need to know what’s current in the Internet industry, and have a good grasp on what makes a webpage stand out-how to keep it ranked high with search engines. A background or aptitude in art is important, as well as good interpersonal and communication skills.

There is a difference of opinion among designers about whether or not formal training is needed. Some web designers have accumulated experience in navigating the Web and programming pages, and believe that this is sufficient, while others have taken a Read more…