I am a newbie at webdesign. I'm 44 and have a full time job. But, I'm bitten HARD by the webdesign bug. I do okay really with dreamweaver. But I suffer learning PS CS2. I've gotten a cd ordered and read alot online. I think a lot about how to lay out a page and what graphics would look good where. I've always had a very creative side and have won some photo contest. All of this melds nicely with my inner geek and love for pc's.
My question is: do I NEED to go back to school to get a degree in webdesign or graphic arts or whatever to have a good/reasonable future designing websites??
I mean, if it's necessary, I will. There is such a plethora of online learning now like photoshoponline and such. Not wanting to design websites for huge conglomerates, I live in a pretty small town. There are only BIG expensive website designers that make the kewl intros that people pay for that customers always click "skip intro" when they open the index page. LOL.
My feeling is that, even now that I have two or three under my belt, and I continue to expand my possibilites and knowledge of Photoshop and Dreamweaver that it's limitless. I mean, today a man asked me if I could setup online buying for his hobby train shop. I"ve never done that, but I"m sure with a lil time, I could learn.
Just wondered from you guys if it's necessary to get a degree to become credible in the world of webdesign, or if the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. All the customer wants is a good site that is well maintained and what, specifically, they want.
Thanks!

If You want to become web designer, You must be very good in graphic editing software like Photoshop, PSP, GIMP (bitmap) and Illustrator, Corel Draw (vector). Of course, not all of them, PS for example.

No pain-no gain! So, learn all the techniques with software of Your choice.

So, for start: graphic editor (Photoshop), text editor (for coding XHTML and CSS, or Dreamweaver in Code view.

And....the most important: good idea.

And one more thing: for sites like that (online buying), You must learn ASP or PHP (server side).

Idea and willing

EXactly my plans! But learning those online and thru personal experience, is that ok?
Or must one have a degree behind his name to be accepted?

Sure, a degree will give you credibility, but mainly if its a website design JOB that your're after. If you want to do your own thing, then getting a degree can be unnecessary.

If you want to do your own thing, then I would reccomend using good tutorials (the best being http://www.w3schools.com in my opinion!) to get yourself a good understanding of HTML, CSS (If you haven't already, learn to use divs for layout - NOT tables!), and then move on to learn a little JavaScript (all the while improving your HTML/CSS knowlege) and carry on in that way, until you start learning the really challenging stuff, like PHP/MySQL.

I would also reccomend books as a good way to learn.

I hope that helped!

do I NEED to go back to school to get a degree in webdesign or graphic arts or whatever to have a good/reasonable future designing websites??

Not really. You CAN but you don't have to. My education was in programming, and I spent 25+ years in IT.. I'm a techie/geek. However, I've always been involved in graphics of one sort or another and first learned Corel when it was version 2 and Photoshop from version 3. I taught myself HTML more than 10 years ago and have been designing sites ever since. Most of what I've learned is entirely self-taught using on-line courses (I highly recommend LVSONLINE.com !) , tons of books, and lots of other on-line sources. I design and build websites for a living now and I don't miss the IT headaches, though I do keep my hand in, I'm a geek, you'll never keep me out

If you just want to DESIGN sites, then all that PHP/ASP back-end stuff isn't a must have - you can always find talented coders who can build the back-end stuff into your site designs. However, you must learn to code the sites well so that you get the best results when you hand it to a programmer.

I would highly recommend these books for learning HTML and CSS from the ground up:
http://www.sitepoint.com/books/html1/
or http://www.sitepoint.com/books/css2/
Look for Eric Meyer's books:
http://www.ericmeyeroncss.com/
http://more.ericmeyeroncss.com/
http://meyerweb.com/eric/books/css-hot/

As for Photoshop, I highly recommend spending the money and become a member of NAPP - www.photoshopuser.com - the magazine is worth every penny if you want to be good with Photoshop. Also hook in to PhotoshopTV - www.photoshoptv.com.

sir you don't have to, at first i think i'm also like you.. but i don't stop to studying and practising my ability to design, so right now i can do now my own website.. if you want you can view it http://www.iczalazar.com.. sir just always remember that all things that the person want to have is possible to have it, all you need to do is try you best.. god speed!

Originally Posted by baldrn

Just wondered from you guys if it's necessary to get a degree to become credible in the world of webdesign, or if the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. All the customer wants is a good site that is well maintained and what, specifically, they want.
Thanks!

Not at all, the work you actually turn out is more valuable than any degree. If you can build sites that your customers are happy with that is the main goal to aim for.

As for graphics you don't *have* to be a graphics guru at all, though it's obviously beneficial if you do have skills in this area. As a web designer it's your job to come up with the site framework - layout, colour scheme, code and so on - if you need professional graphics find a freelancer to work with who can do this for you and just integrate them into your site framework.