I have an opportunity to work with a new company that is small, but has the potential to be really rewarding, particularly in my current living situation. Heres the lowdown:

 

Im a fairly average-at-best designer, that up until now have done odd jobs here and there. My designs are not the worst, but i am by no means a a design guru. todays title of 'web-designer' is so broad that i have fallen behind a bit on the new technology and protocols, being proficient with just HTML and CSS, minimal CMS experience, no PHP or other platforms...

 

anywho, I have the opportunity to work on something quite similar to this:

http://www.freshmilk.de/

 

my initial thoughts are "super dynamic (possibly some CMS like joomla or drupal), complicated, log ins, permissions, hard to style etc etc". The video bit I reckon would be ok to handle, with a bit of reading, but the other stuff scares me.

 

Has anybody before, taken the plunge and said yes to a project that they new would be slightly overbearing, and if so, how did it turn out? In my head, Im putting myself back to my college days where for my final thesis, pretty much everyone in my class took upon themselves something that was totally new and foreign, and had 6 months to get it done... which most people did, with a little bit of hard work.

And to be honest, in this day and age if i want to continue working with webstuff, plain old CSS and HTML just isnt enough for the bigger jobs.

 

Tell me Im mad, or tell me to shut up and dive right in

any comments/advice greatly appreciated.

thanks

Whilst I cannot offer advice on the design aspects, I have found the only way to truly learn new things is to push yourself.

 

I have presented with the knowledge of what I wanted to achieve to win new contracts, and won them with the knowledge that I wasn't 100% sure how to get those results. From there (once you have your budget in place) if you realise that you can't yourself, you can always outsource to people that can.

 

I think the answer to this lays in whether you want to be a consultant (based in ideas and solutions) or a web designer and be more hands on. I have personally opted for the former and work closely with designers.

 

My vote is: Say yes take the plunge.

Take the plunge. At worst you'll get fired - You won't get sent to jail and you'll probabaly learn a lot.

Take the plunge. At worst you'll get fired - You won't get sent to jail and you'll probabaly learn a lot.

 

I agree, you will be forced into learning what will be useful in the future.

 

Pat

I've been in a similar situation twice and managed to pull it off both times. It's natural to be a little scared, but chances are you'll be fine, if a little stressed at times, but when it's over you'll have more self belief and more skills.

 

If you need help during the process, this forum is a goldmine.

hehe cool thanks guys. i guess thats the answer i was looking for. the worst thing that will happen is that i get a sever headache from stress or something, and if all else fails, i can outsource.

 

so now for my next question

 

for such a website, do you think it would be best to start trying to piece it together from scratch, or to just go with a CMS and style it from there..

 

thanks loads of your replies so far

Outsource if you have allowance for that in your budget, and you feel it will deliver the best solution for your client. If the clients happy, more work will come your way.

 

If your budget doesn't allow, then F*** it. Dive in! You'll learn a lot from the experience.

In my opinion I think it's okay to take the plunge and take the opportunity I thinki web designing is a learning process we all undergo for a lifetime. We all learn new things everyday. Technologies get changes, new softwares, new systems come about and we need to get to know them. I think we must have the urge to learn otherwise we stop growing.