How To Become A Web Designer

Interested in becoming a Web Designer? It may be a good career choice if you’re motivated and versatile enough to keep your skills updated.

Web Designer Skills and Fundamentals

Set aside time to learn the fundamentals and go from there. Don’t try to start somewhere in the middle because you’ll miss out on the important basics of the field. These fundamentals of design are something you’ll go back to time and again through your career, so consider them important.

A career in web design means you will need to master web design principals and be familiar with things like web safe colors and how images or designs display on different browsers or platforms.

Being a web designer means you’ll have to develop a good eye for what works and what doesn’t make the cut. Design is visual and if the end result isn’t pleasing to the customer or the public, it will wind up a flop and could damage your reputation. You need to know what the public likes and what’s popular.

You’ll need to learn how to use web design software such as Dreamweaver, Coral or Adobe and you’ll need to keep those skills fresh by reviewing and updating you training at least once a year.

On top of design software you’ll be learning some programming languages or at least the basis of them. Languages such as HTML, PHP, JQuery and CSS are an important part of your arsenal, without them you won’t be able to compete with designers who have deeper training.

SEO is good to know because you’ll learn how the search engines rank websites and what to do to help your designs come out on top of the results.

Refreshing your skills isn’t enough, you’ll have to be learning new skills all the time because of changing technology and to take advantage of design trends. The learning and updating will keep you busy so you need to be dedicated, learning how to read and recall information quickly is one of the handiest skills you can master for becoming a web designer. The quicker you can learn new skills and put them into practice.

Web Designer and Communication Skills

Develop good communication skills so you can talk with clients effectively. This is extremely important because without it you won’t be able to maintain a base of repeat customers. Good communication skills are a large part of what will take your practice into the eyes of the higher paying customers. Indeed, it’s good speaking skills that have landed many mediocre designers high paying gigs, so master communication.

There is a great amount of free information on the web for you to learn some of the basics and subscribing to the right email lists will land you professional tips for nothing more than your email address.

Just remember to learn the basics and go from there so you don’t become confused. Good luck and get good clients in your new career as a web designer.