I’m very aware that though this has been asked repeatedly numerous times either by forum members whom are interested in website design or plan to study a course that circles around this subject, the question of what and how to become a creative designer or website designer is asked.
But let me first clarify one thing that might have not been mentioned by me before. There are different requirements when you’re seeking employment and going solo in the field. The difference isn’t as wide a gap like the Grand Canyon per se but in terms of skills and knowledge, it could be considered that.
Let me be honest here, I did an intership with a web solutions provider last year. The company was called NetInfinium Interactive. I was actually lucky enough to be contacted by the employer offering me the internship. Before I left, he finally revealed how’d he find me out and it was through my website that he came across. Well, it was either here or some forum that I always visit.
Before I joined the company, I was actually given a kind of exam to take part. It wasn’t considered an exam but more of an ‘exercise’. He briefly told me the goal and aim of the project and that I was to bring in my design during the interview.
During the interview, the design was satisfactory and backed up with a short explaination why I felt that it would work for the ‘client’. He then later questioned my other capabilities other than Photoshop.
After that short conversation and a few days wait, I was accepted and I started working for them. Now, as far as the requirements here are concerned, these were the skills that I had.
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Illustrator
- Macromedia Dreamweaver
- Macromedia Flash
- HTML
- CSS
- Basic Actionscript
- And other hidden skills that my colleagues found out later.
Basically those were the skills I had and since I normally browse the classifides section daily, I noticed that those are some of the norm of today. However, some firms in advertising or publishing might not require the programming skills.
By the time my months with the company was up, it was time to spend a year or eight months in Melbourne for my degree. I never was accepting any freelance projects that time, fearing I wouldn’t be able to cope with my project deadlines.
As my time was ending in Melbourne, I picked up a few projects and continued on with them when I’ve settled back in Malaysia. During the ongoing of my projects, I noticed that some I wanted to undertake demanded more than the skills I already have.
It wasn’t anymore all I do is just design the look and feel of a website. I actually needed to know about database programming, server-side programming and other scripting languages. However, ever since college, I’ve known myself as someone who just can’t think logically or in an organized manner. My mind thinks of the most unusual options and methods of solving things. Sometimes a simple answer is 1 word but I speak out a sentence.
Projects I wanted to take on involved memberships, data exchange through a database and the ability to update data from an admin interface. Since I was lacking in these fields, I’m lucky to have a good friend who now helps me code dynamic websites.
So the requirements needed if you’re really going solo:
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Illustrator
- Macromedia Dreamweaver
- Macromedia Flash
- HTML
- CSS
- Javascript
- PHP
- XML (mainly for Flash)
- Database Programming
- Intermediate Actionscript
As soon as you start going solo, it’s either you need to pickup the extra skills you lack or find an outsource to help you out. I’m actually planning to pickup the extra skills soon but for now, it’s on hold since my computer is still in its box.
So make a decision of whether you want to be a creative designer or a freelance lone ranger. There’s more to being a freelancer if you’ve read my blog. There’s more to be accomplished and there’s more to challenge you.
It isn’t the simple life.
Hi Danny, as far as my experience is concerned, you have missed out listing one of the critical requirements of being a solo freelancer or independent Web developer – JavaScript.
As long as you are dealing with Web, you can’t escape from JavaScript. JavaScript is especially useful for client-side validation. Even though you might have already imposed firm server-side validation; but still, the availability of client -side validation surely minimize server load.
I have no comment on the criteria of being a good designer. However, the knowledge that a good software engineer should equipped with, goes beyond understanding programming language syntax. The most important driving factor in software engineering field, is the logic and algorithm design. Someone with firm and strong understanding on programming logic will be able to easily cope with any programming platform. But, it’s no guarantee that someone who knows programming language syntax well could accomplish an objective with efficient coding.
A good piece of code, usually needs minimum effords in maintenance and debugging cycle. You won’t notice significant difference in the implementation of small-scale system. But, try comparing the developers’ skills in large-scale implementation, and you will find out what it takes to be a good software engineer.
Hey Tien Soon,
Thanks for sharing your experience. :) I forgot about Javascript so thanks for the reminder too. Anyway, of course there’s a difference in being a very good software engineer/programmer.
However, I’ve noticed that not everyone can do the best of both things. With the fast evolution happening on the Internet, rarely nowadays you see a single person who has the best of both worlds.
That’s why today, he is either a professional designer or a logical programmer.
Actually i plan to be a bridge between the 2 worlds. Someone who understands how designers think/do things and how the programmers think/do things.
This of course means i won’t be able to be some guru in certain programming languages but it will allow me to manage teams and projects much more easily :)
Btw, programming isn’t just logic… there’s alot of creativity in there. Its just a different sort of creativity :)
I find it hard to bridge both world. I find it hard to do designs when I’m a programmer. Even after I’ve tried hard to do it, the result is just the normal plain type (without the wow effect). :)
Or probably I’m not creative enough!
I’ve just step into web application programming at my work place.
although I have never been coding for a industrial webapps but I have been coding extensively on website and pbbg.
I think in order to become creative and able to pull out those umph! result, one need to expose him/herself to various system
You actually meant various medias right, ipohchai?
Anyway, I believe it’s equally important for a designer to understand the limitations of a system than to propose something obscure and just think “it’s the programmers problem”.