Sorry for the stupid post but I want to be a web designer

Single Paradox · 04-09-2005, 02:58 AM

Ok, I was going to make this post but Martin the 3rd beat me to it. I am currently an 8th grader and I want to be a web designer when I grow up. I have picked Communications tech. which is a multimedia, video making, web designing, and graphics class for one of my 9th grade electives. After there, where should I try to go? I will definatly pick web design electives in high school but where do I go for college? A technical college or does it even matter? I want this job more than anything in the world but I'm worried I won't take the right paths...

Again, sorry for the stupid question and everything.

[Unknown] · 04-09-2005, 03:23 AM

It all depends on whats in your area. I'm not quite sure if there is a "best" graphics design college / school.

mlseim · 04-09-2005, 12:55 PM

You mentioned "web design" which I would think means the "look" and layout
of the site. So, a graphics background would be the thing. Graphics Arts
college of some kind.

But, maybe you also mean "web development", which would include server-
side language programming like PHP, MySQL, Perl, etc. This would mean
that you would take the path of a Computer Science Major. You would get
into computer programming (like C++ and various server, networking stuff).

In my opinion, Computer Science would be the better path to take.

You would have more options available, especially the server part.
More and more businesses are relying on networking and servers for
their operations. Even in the industrial electronic field (where I am
working), electronic devices are now crossing over into the ethernet
and WiFi networking world. The "intranet" is becoming the backbone
of many companies.

Catman · 04-09-2005, 06:07 PM

A minor in technical writing would be a plus.

oracleguy · 04-09-2005, 09:46 PM

mlseim beat me to making the destinction between the different types of web-related jobs. It is a common misconception to call anyone who works with websites a "web designer." As I also pointed out in Martin's thread.

To figure out what you want to take next, you need to decide what part(s) of the whole web development process you want to be working in. For example, I'm no artist by any means so I stick to web programming, writing the actual code behind webpages and making the whole thing work since my talents lie in programming rather than visual design. For some people, it is the exact opposite and the lucky few are able to do both fairly well.

You might find you love designing how a website is going to look but hate doing writing PHP and using databases, it just depends on the person.

If you decide you want to concentrate on the web programming side of things, I'd recommend majoring in something like software engineering because the concepts behind designing a web application and a conventional application are the same and you'll need good programming skills.

Single Paradox · 04-09-2005, 09:55 PM

Yes I love deciding how the website is going to look code wise and graphics wise, although I am not good at PHP yet. I want to be an all around web developer. fictures,flash,graphics,web programming... The works... Some day I hope to make a C++ online computor game such as this. Thank you all for posting, it has really helped me.