[Mr_Willim]

Hi
My name is William and im 17 years old.
I quit a college course in Quantity Surveying because after a while i decided it wasn't for me.

I am looking to get into Web Design.
I don't know ANYTHING about HTML, At the moment all i know if that its used to make websites and other stuff.

I know my way around a computer, not massively clever on them but im betetr then your average.

I need some help about Web Design.
I want to take a course which will, by the end of it enable me to join a company or set up my own Freelance Web design business.

However, i have been looking at College courses and have found that the only ICT courses available do not include Web Design.

Can any body give me advice on what i should do about becoming a web design, and ways i can learn, eg Courses you have taken your selfs.

Thanks
William

[brooks]

Bloody hell.

Right first up learn a lot from these sites; www.htmldog.com, www.w3schools.com & http://www.w3.org/, then research the web a lot, find what looks good, learn some design theory, maybe pick up a book or two on successful design, read a lot here even if you don't post; showcase is a good sub-forum to visit.

Once you've got HTML & CSS in your head, make some test sites, be original and creative, but note what makes a good site, keep accessibility in mind, try stay away from tables, don't immidetely think you're great, because you won't be, hell i know im really not, it's a constant learning basis.

Most stuff you will learn from a course will possibly be outdated or just naff so a good thing to do would be to get experience and build up a portfolio through either just projects for yourself or maybe try get a job at a small design firm, even if you're only a tea-boy. this will help you learn the surroundings and competition and maybe in 6 months time if this happens you might have produced a couple of tasty websites.

One word of warning I'd suggest though is keep working at stuff, and have another career/course in mind in case things don't go through. Lots of people think they can develop on the web, only a select few have the talent.

Open up Notepad, FF & Photoshop and get going!

[Mr_Willim]

Ok thanks mate.
Also, someone else referred me to htmldog, and i went on it and i clicked on the HTML for beginners.

It told me to open notepad, and type "this is my first webpage" and save it as a ".html"
I did this, and it then told me to open the file.
It looked like this

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang2057{\fonttbl {\f0\fswiss\fcharset0 Arial;}} {\*\generator Msftedit 5.41.15.1507;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\f0\fs20 This is my first web page\par }

Now i know im no pro but i dont think its meant to look like that.

Could it be because i have Wordpad instead of notepad?

[nips07]

More important then HTML is actually knowing how to design... You won't teach yourself that with W3C or any html website. Get yourself photoshop and teach yourself how to design in it. Take screenshots of other websites you like and create layers overtop of the screenshot and mimic the layout until you get it right. When you are done designing a website, use ImageReady to do your slicing, optimization, and coding... I hate myself for saying that because the HTML code isn't great... But, once you are done... You will be able to see the code and understand what it does. Eventually you will learn how to cut some of the Adobe crap out and start coding on your own. Check out some tutorial websites... Skim through del.icio.us to find some good sites. Self teaching isn't easy, but I would say start with learning how to design before learning how to code.

[skyrocket]

Originally Posted by Mr_Willim

Could it be because i have Wordpad instead of notepad?

Everyone who's got Windows has got Notepad. From the Start button go All Programs > Accessories > Notepad and you're in. Just type "hello world" or your favourite cheesy sentence then go File > Save As and from the dialogue box choose Save In: Desktop (or wherever you want it saved) then File Name: MrWillim.html or whatever you want as long as it's got the .html on the end then make sure Save As Type: is set to All Files (not .txt) then Save it - you're done. Instant web designer just like mashed potato in a packet. View it in your browser - it won't win a design award but it will give you a good warm & fuzzy feeling inside. Well, it's a start. Next, grab a coffee (all the best web designers are over-caffeinated) and start planning The Masterpiece...

[DesignPhase]

Here's my suggestion William,

visit Lynda.com - buy or download the videos on web design, photoshop, xhtml/css - and learn

then get comfortable in photoshop - so get photoshop CS2

then code - code - code - and then produce - produce - stop

And do it all over again.

Also DesignPhase.net features tutorials on photoshop (xhtml/css coming soon as with freelance tutorials) that are geared towards web design.

[mpls-web-design]

Learning html and css will go a long way in helping you with web design. Build a practice site from scratch and you will learn a lot. Stay away from templates, which are bad for real world web sites.

Learning photoshop is useful since you will have to play with a lot of graphics.