[brendan hart]

Nah, im in class , learning jsp with databases(wooh crazy hard Just Kdding)

[dsarosh]

Hello Guys,
Thanks for some non-negetive remarks(y).
All those cards you see on my page and the menu too have nothing to do with my location or which country I am from.
I have not designed anything for India or Indians. All the clients have been from USA only.
Its a kind of requirement that I used bold fonts and as many colors as possible, and I still try to keep things elegant while include different colors.

Thanks for some of your positive remarks, it is really encouraging. I have always been attracted towards web design, but when I visit some free lance sites I see 10,000+ registered web designers available there and it makes me wonder if there is opportunity for new comers with no experience.

[Pedro]

Web design in general is suffering from "johnny nephew can code me a site" syndrome, where, because m$ et al have provided user-friendly software that give relatively pleasing results to the untrained eye, anyone can consider themselves a 'designer'. I've seen floppy copy owners of Photoshop get the odd request here and there as well, which is understandably upsetting. And we thought stock images were bad.

What employers are after usually in the realms of design is an understanding of their business and the ability to communicate the essence of that with suitable presentation towards their target audience in the most effective way possible.

Unfortunately you have fallen into common traps that catch practically every starter designer.
1) Variance of colour: using all colours possible is messy. Using a select pallette will improve designs.

2) Typography: yours is awful. Select fonts that are suitable for the brief, and for god's sake avoid bevels, embosses and dropshadows- they look disgusting on screen, not least print. Keep is simple, then you'll mess up less.

3) Layout: learn it. Everything in the center (in particular for your postcards) really does look amateurish, and you're doing yourself no favours. Try and improve this in conjunction with typography.

there are others, but look at good design, then try and do something that is unique to you- that will make you stand out. If your work looks like johnny nephew's then they'll get him to do it and give him a mars bar, rather than pay you money.

[Snowshiro]

dsarosh: I guess you're being used as a cheap alternative to American designers, much in the same way that programming teams and call centers have been set up in India (sorry if this offends you, but I guess there's no point in ignoring reality).

Reading this and other design forums will certainly help you out. Although I think as Pedro's comments indicated, you clearly have a very long journey ahead of you if you want to bring your design up to the required level for someone who can genuinely call themselves a professional designer. Read, study, absorb, practice, share and slowly things might start to move in the right direction. Be prepared for a lot more 'harsh' comments in the future though if you want to see it through. Bear in mind as well, that only a certain number of people are cut out to be a good designer. Not everyone agrees with me on this point, but I'd argue the toss with anyone that great designers are 90% born and 10% made. I'd like to believe that most others think the same.

As for the "johnny nephew can code me a site" syndrome, sadly it's been around since the very beginning of the industry. One of the things that has been the web's key to success (anyone can start making pages) has also been its downfall from a design point of view. I can remember writing an article for a trade journal in the UK back in about 1997ish already lamenting the fact that the design consultancy I was working for at the time was losing clients to Bedroom Bill who could undercut us; but produced absolute shit.

Inevitably it would end up costing our clients even more, because they'd soon realize that they still needed 'real' designers and would have us redo the job from scratch. Sadly, although they're slowly getting better, a lot of clients (particularly smaller firms who can't afford the screw ups) still know fuck all about what to look for when they're tendering.

One thing I've always looked for in web designers (although this isn't necessarily a guarantee) is a designer that has a background in print. These days it's getting harder because the web has been around for a while now, and a lot of designers went straight to screen and have never even touched print design. But I still believe that print teaches disciplines (particularly layout and typography) that a lot of the new "multimeeja" students don't have.

[dsarosh]

Thanks for making this a very interesting topic, guys, its really nice to hear what you all have to say.
Pedro, when I started out I would use fonts like Times Roman and Eurostile and occassionally Monotype Corsica for somethign trendy. I was instructed several times to use bolder fonts, and add more color where possible because the business is beind advertised as "full color printing". I have been told that people can make basic business cards in programs like word, illustrator, etc, and they come to us for something different.

Reading Pedro's reply made think about how its difficult to communicate on the web sometimes. On the home page of my site (if it can be called a site, lol), I made sure to include a paragraph and I wanted to make the point clear that I can customise the cards anyway the clien wants. Removing the bevel/shadow/outerglow, etc would be very easy for me, and that is the point I wanted to make in that paragraph. I wanted to point out that the client can specifiy exactly what he wants, and I can change it, I dont have to use the bevels in all the cards. Do I need to rephrase that paragraph?

Snowshiro, yes I have worked for quite some americans in the past too. I have even worked with american college students and 'helped' them with their online university exams/assignments, etc.
When I started with the current printing job I didnt know how to save jpegs in photoshop, and today I can get things done with minimal or even incorrect instructions from the clients. I have learnt many things on my own, I used to teach c/c++, java, sql in 2000-2001 at a local computer institute, and I was invited to teach at their main center too, but couldnt because of other issues.
Web design has always attracted me, but never motivated me. As you said its so easy to make web pages these days.

One last comment: I had adviced the guy I work for to hire someone to work with him in the office, becasue I cant stay awake late at night when its working hours. But he does not want to hire any americans, and is looking for more Indians to work with. As long as one dollor fetches more than 30Rs he will always find takers.