Hello!

 

I have recently decided to re-train to move from sales into web and graphic design. I'm newer than new to it and have little experience other than an AVCE in art and design 10 years ago. I have created marketing material/menus/logos/etc. for my own and several other small businesses and Im confident that I have a talent for design, however I am in dire need of skill development, knowledge of photoshop is basic and experience in web design non-existent.... Im hoping that talent without the skill (yet!) is better than vice versa!

 

Essentially I'm looking for advice on where to start. Ive looked at various courses, some of which look good, others look like a waste of time and money. I am happy to pay for decent training but would need to know that it would be money well spent.

 

Any ideas for me...?

 

Thanks in advance

I would definatley start by signing up to lynda DOT com.

Welcome Jess!

I always believe that having a creative mind is a natural talent and can't really be "learnt" so if you believe that you have that natural talent then your a third of the way there!

 

In addition to this you will need to learn your way around Photoshop and/or other similar software (Illustrator skill is also useful but not necessarily needed until you really want to take your designs to the next level with high quality custom vectors and icons etc).

 

The third portion is coding - I would start off by learning HTML and CSS (HTML5 if possible), this will be the structure and layout/design of your website respectively - here's a list of some good resources for learning to code.

 

• W3Schools - Basically an emporium of web development resources with lots of information on various coding elements etc.
• CodeAcademy - A free service that offers step-by-step teaching on several coding languages.
• Team Treehouse - A premium service that offers great training on coding and web design practices - they also offer a 30-day free trial.
• Lynda.com - A premium service that offers video tutorials for many different skills, web design/development included - I'm not a great fan of video tutorials but some people love them.
• Books - although they can sometimes be outdated and hit & miss so opt for something relatively new.

 

Lastly and probably the greatest learning resource of all... *drum roll* ... THIS FORUM! I've learnt more here than from any other resource and the community are extremely helpful so feel free to join in, get involved and ask any questions that you may want answered on your journey, however "newbie" you may think they are and we will do our best to help!

 

Good Luck!

Chris.

Edited March 28, 201313 yr by Alluziion

Welcome to the forum Jess. I am learning design by myself, same as you but luckily I have a mentor, he is great designer and I'll learn a lot from him. I think you should find a mentor for you

Welcome to WDF.

 

I can't really say more than Alluziion (great post BTW). The bread and butter for me is Photoshop (a touch of illustrator), HTML & CSS - regardless of where you go next this is text book web design. As Alluziion puts it you can't teach 'creativity' and 'problem solving', however code is language so it can be taught, but then your natural talent will kick in and progress it from 'See Spot Run' to 'Romeo and Juliet'.