When I first began in Web Design, or rather came across it, it was an interesting encounter. I did not discover this powerful platform myself. I was introduced to it by a friend who actually stumbled upon it himself while in college. He found that there was a demand in the design field, like graphic design and illustration, which evolved to converting him to getting clients for web projects. When I saw him creating content of products with his art I was intrigued.
I went to school for art and animation but as any college student has come to the conclusion, or thought, “what am I going to do after I graduate?” Seeing the possibilities of web design and graphic design I thought to myself, “Here is a possible solution where I can transfer my art skills into a lucrative business.” Thus began my journey.
Let’s just say starting off was not the easiest or my designs were not the greatest. I had many times where I thought to myself “is it worth it?”. I first started in the graphic design realm but did not feel as this was the area I really wanted to dive deep into. Yet, I liked the idea of design so I kept digging to see what I could find. I found designs as well as designers who I felt were of better quality and spoke to my interests. I enjoy clean minimalist style and I wanted to move away from the term graphic designer to simply designer.
I Guess The Minimalist Idea Even Transferred To The Title.
I eventually created my own website where I began blogging about my art and my life. Let’s just say it didn’t turn out the way I thought it would. My personal website fell off and I just brought that site down and didn’t understand the concept of continuing to build. What can I say I was young and ignorant.
Still interested in the world of art and design, I continued with dabbling and working to become better at my craft which led to creating my first portfolio site. Yet, this time I was more dedicated to the development in the idea of web design.
Therefore, I Have Now Entered The World Of Web Design.
I thought to myself “hey this looks like something I can do.” and it seemed to be more lucrative in the end. I started out with WordPress. Learning WordPress had its ups and downs but once I got the hang of it I felt I could start producing more projects to build up my portfolio to gain more clients.
So thats what I did. I would create mock up designs of non existent companies emulating other designs and designers, and in doing so, I was able to build up my designers eye as well. I’m not perfect or an expert but I know what I like and what gives off a clean design. I was entering the design world a lot more now and not really realizing it. I was able to tell from designs when I was out on the street to how or what program the designer might of used to design the product. When it came to websites and their styleI could understand the creation of the site.
Funny story. Even though WordPress made it functional enough for you to implement your content while the design was already in place. I did things a little backwards. Coming from the background of art design and really getting a feel for design and the web. I would actually create different designs through programs like photoshop and then add them to WordPress.
This made designing for the web and for my clients a little more difficult. Even though the theme I would use for the WordPress site was good as is, the way I was designing was hindering the site to fully use its capabilities such the auto-response feature for smaller devices when I would add images.
So for example, instead of writing the content and uploading an image into WordPress. I would design the content and the images in adobe fireworks and upload it into WordPress. The site came out looking good, but only for desktop versions.
Sample:
After months of doing this and realizing I’m not using WP properly and fighting against it. I stepped back and began to use the platform properly.
While dabbling into the theme in these ways lead me to realize something. I kind of wanted to learn how to code the website, but back then I thought that was too hard and even when I would try it wasn’t to much avail. I put that idea down and didn’t pick it up for a while.
Until I discovered online learning program treehouse. Treehouse just seemed to break down learning how to code into simple videos and practices where anyone can begin to learn code. I was hooked and began learning the basics of building out the framework of a site. I heard it once said “that no man can learn until he is ready” and maybe it was now time for me to learn web development. So that’s what I did. I started learning.
To Gain The Understanding Of The Back End, Or More Front End, Of How A Website Works And Truly Developed Interested Me.
As a kid I know I was intrigued by many things and wanted to know how they work and I believe coding is another feature of that. So now as I continue to learn and develop into the future I plan on creating simple web designs that I can proudly say I built this myself.
I mean it feels great to say “Yea I know how to code.” Deep down it makes me feel like I am capable of being just as smart as anyone else and I can do it too, and there are no limits to what I can personally do.
So that is my journey from art to web design to web development.