Quickest way to a job in webdesign?
January 18, 2011 9:42 AM Subscribe
So i want to start a career in web design asap.. help me choose a program in Toronto (post art school survival filter)
LONG
I'm about a year and a half out of art school (BFA printmaking great career choice right?) I got a really great 1 year residency at a printmaking studio after i graduated that ate up most of my time and energy so i worked retail for the duration. Now that that's all done with, I'm about at the point in my life where i'm thinking that i should probably find some sort of non starving artists career path that doesn't involve working a miserable retail job, perhaps one that could conceivably allow me to move out of my incredibly patient and generous parents house.
So after some horrific introspective soul searching I've decided that i would like to pursue a career in web design. Ive been using photo shop and illustrator extensively for my art (mostly designing for screenprint) for about four years now, and id like to transfer those skills to a profession. Traditional Design jobs interest me, but it seems like that's an extraordinarily difficult and unstable industry to get into even if you went to school for it (which i obviously didn't i just have some transferable skills). So web design makes sense to me, i made my own website using very very basic html and i found the experience generally enjoyable. I like stumbling through the challenges of bending code to produce the thing that you want.
I'm currently looking for a program that will get me to a job or internship as soon as possible Currently I'm leaning towards the "Web Design, Development and Maintenance" course at Humber college. I like the look of it because it's supposed to be short but dense (22 weeks). Also, it seems to involve some elements of web design, and some elements of web development which seems to be par for alot of the web design jobs that ive seen posted.
Short
So what im asking, is this. Keeping in mind that I have decent abilities with photoshop and illustrator but only basic html skills, If i take the "Web Design, Development and Maintenance" course at Humber and apply myself, is it likely that i will be able to land either a job or an internship afterwards? In other words will this course give me what I need to get my foot in the door somewhere? Freelancing is something I'd want to do somewhere down the line, but id really like to work somewhere and build up some experience first. If not this program, what program in Toronto would you suggest? I know that design is littered with school programs that leave you with no job prospects and that's exactly what I'm looking to avoid here. And finally Am i being realistic with my career goals here? I fully admit i am partially making this decision based on the fact that I'm desperate to find some sort of job with a future as quickly as possible. I think this is potentially a good motivator but im afraid it could lead me to make a bad choice here.
So if anyone has web design school experience in Toronto, or advice about breaking into the industry in general id love to hear from you. IF you work in at a design firm or web department what would you expect from an entry level web design employee? Also, if you went to art school and managed to get an ok job sometime afterwards gimme a shout, I just want to know you exist.
LONG
I'm about a year and a half out of art school (BFA printmaking great career choice right?) I got a really great 1 year residency at a printmaking studio after i graduated that ate up most of my time and energy so i worked retail for the duration. Now that that's all done with, I'm about at the point in my life where i'm thinking that i should probably find some sort of non starving artists career path that doesn't involve working a miserable retail job, perhaps one that could conceivably allow me to move out of my incredibly patient and generous parents house.
So after some horrific introspective soul searching I've decided that i would like to pursue a career in web design. Ive been using photo shop and illustrator extensively for my art (mostly designing for screenprint) for about four years now, and id like to transfer those skills to a profession. Traditional Design jobs interest me, but it seems like that's an extraordinarily difficult and unstable industry to get into even if you went to school for it (which i obviously didn't i just have some transferable skills). So web design makes sense to me, i made my own website using very very basic html and i found the experience generally enjoyable. I like stumbling through the challenges of bending code to produce the thing that you want.
I'm currently looking for a program that will get me to a job or internship as soon as possible Currently I'm leaning towards the "Web Design, Development and Maintenance" course at Humber college. I like the look of it because it's supposed to be short but dense (22 weeks). Also, it seems to involve some elements of web design, and some elements of web development which seems to be par for alot of the web design jobs that ive seen posted.
Short
So what im asking, is this. Keeping in mind that I have decent abilities with photoshop and illustrator but only basic html skills, If i take the "Web Design, Development and Maintenance" course at Humber and apply myself, is it likely that i will be able to land either a job or an internship afterwards? In other words will this course give me what I need to get my foot in the door somewhere? Freelancing is something I'd want to do somewhere down the line, but id really like to work somewhere and build up some experience first. If not this program, what program in Toronto would you suggest? I know that design is littered with school programs that leave you with no job prospects and that's exactly what I'm looking to avoid here. And finally Am i being realistic with my career goals here? I fully admit i am partially making this decision based on the fact that I'm desperate to find some sort of job with a future as quickly as possible. I think this is potentially a good motivator but im afraid it could lead me to make a bad choice here.
So if anyone has web design school experience in Toronto, or advice about breaking into the industry in general id love to hear from you. IF you work in at a design firm or web department what would you expect from an entry level web design employee? Also, if you went to art school and managed to get an ok job sometime afterwards gimme a shout, I just want to know you exist.
You should seek out recent graduates from that very specific program and figure out from them whether it was worth it or not. I can't find the cite, but within the last few months I read an article by a web designer about how generally, web design course curricula are stuck several years in the past, so they aren't particularly useful except as a means of getting money out of your wallet.
The broad web design market is fairly well-loaded at this point. My personal suggestion to you is that you find some facet that you are extremely good at, and become the expert on that facet. Perhaps it's typography. Perhaps it's amazing use of modern color. Perhaps it's incredible user experiences on mobile phones. Et cetera. But focus not on 'web pages', which is like focusing on 'automobiles'; instead find a niche and specialize.
Additionally, there is no crucible like the crucible of doing. Your urge to learn the tools is something I personally understand very well. But the tools change very rapidly, and unlike carpentry, there is no permanent pride of craftsmanship in a medium where the entire ecosystem, mode of delivery, fidelity, and economy change every several years. So don't get caught up in the book learning. Go make things. You will fail many times, and you will despair, and you will crank out broken prototype after broken prototype. But you will find that your clients (because I am suggesting that you begin freelancing immediately) will usually not notice, because your delivered product will actually be good enough, because you are actually good enough.
Here is another secret: unlike in painting or signmaking or pottery, everyone's base technique is clearly visible and explicable on the internet. Right click this page and choose 'View Source.' There. You now have the complete details on how this page was made, including the design choices, the stylesheets, the scaffolding where the data elements go, everything is available to you. So in the moments of your deepest despair where you cannot figure out how to make a page look the way you want it, go to a site that you like, and click 'view source', and then study the results. Why did they do it that way? What choices did they make? What tools do they appear to be using?
After you have worked for a while on actual work, then you will understand what to do next out of your basic intuition. This, rather than any sort of coursework, is the source for the fundamental understanding of what you want that you are looking for. If the work is not to your liking, you will know this. If the work is exactly what you want, then you will feel that too. But really going to school to learn about the web is like going to school to learn about swimming. Just select a body of water, chat with some locals to find out about the hidden rocks and undertows, and jump.
posted by felix at 10:59 AM on January 18, 2011
The broad web design market is fairly well-loaded at this point. My personal suggestion to you is that you find some facet that you are extremely good at, and become the expert on that facet. Perhaps it's typography. Perhaps it's amazing use of modern color. Perhaps it's incredible user experiences on mobile phones. Et cetera. But focus not on 'web pages', which is like focusing on 'automobiles'; instead find a niche and specialize.
Additionally, there is no crucible like the crucible of doing. Your urge to learn the tools is something I personally understand very well. But the tools change very rapidly, and unlike carpentry, there is no permanent pride of craftsmanship in a medium where the entire ecosystem, mode of delivery, fidelity, and economy change every several years. So don't get caught up in the book learning. Go make things. You will fail many times, and you will despair, and you will crank out broken prototype after broken prototype. But you will find that your clients (because I am suggesting that you begin freelancing immediately) will usually not notice, because your delivered product will actually be good enough, because you are actually good enough.
Here is another secret: unlike in painting or signmaking or pottery, everyone's base technique is clearly visible and explicable on the internet. Right click this page and choose 'View Source.' There. You now have the complete details on how this page was made, including the design choices, the stylesheets, the scaffolding where the data elements go, everything is available to you. So in the moments of your deepest despair where you cannot figure out how to make a page look the way you want it, go to a site that you like, and click 'view source', and then study the results. Why did they do it that way? What choices did they make? What tools do they appear to be using?
After you have worked for a while on actual work, then you will understand what to do next out of your basic intuition. This, rather than any sort of coursework, is the source for the fundamental understanding of what you want that you are looking for. If the work is not to your liking, you will know this. If the work is exactly what you want, then you will feel that too. But really going to school to learn about the web is like going to school to learn about swimming. Just select a body of water, chat with some locals to find out about the hidden rocks and undertows, and jump.
posted by felix at 10:59 AM on January 18, 2011
These are actually hard questions to answer because it all depends. I am an art director/designer who has worked in both web and print, agency-side and client-side and have worked in T.O. although currently I am outside the GTA.
It's fine to suggest that you just learn everything yourself but some people don't learn that way. So that is the first question to ask yourself - Can I learn the same things the college program teaches on my own time or, am I a person who needs the structure of classrooms and assignments to learn effectively?
If you are person who needs that structure the money may be well spent. If you can learn it yourself it's a waste of money. No judgement either way, it's just what kind of learner you are.
No one is going to be impressed that you learned web design at Humber (sorry Humber). Their program may or may not be good quality. I suspect it's average. But that is beside the point. You don't get hired as a designer because of where you went to school (unless, maybe, it's OCAD). You get hired based on a portfolio of work. Although there are agencies and companies that will have education requirements as part of the job posting (eg. 3-yr design program minimum). See, it all depends...
Now, your portfolio can be helped along by the focus and time of a college program. But if you could have achieved the same results on your own or by scraping up your own freelance then, again, you wasted your money.
Seconding Magnakai that you need to talk to companies that you would like to work for. What do they want? Who do they hire? Any one person's story about how they broke into the industry or got their first job is not necessarily going to apply to you. There's a thousand ways to do it. Ask the company with your dream job how you can get it.
Now, some reality. Unfortunately, as you know, the economy sucks, hiring is down and when I post the job opening we will shortly have for a web designer to cover a 4-month leave I will get a minimum of 2 dozen applications from people with way more experience than you have.
Decent photoshop and illustrator won't cut it. I can find photoshop and illustrator gods who also have extensive Flash, HTML and Java/PHP skills who can't find full-time work. It's the nature of the industry. And yes, it can be that cutthroat at the entry level, especially in a saturated market like T.O. I probably would not hire someone right out of school because I don't need to. I can find someone with more experience. You better have some kick-ass stuff in your portfolio to trump that experience.
If the last two paragraphs changed your mind about design then it's probably not for you. You need to be strongly committed to beat the competition, learn more, have more skills and have a better portfolio than the next guy to get a chance. And that first chance might only be an unpaid internship (if it's at a name design firm grab it like it's gold). I went to design school, I work along side people who did not. My class at design school started with 45, 15 made it to the final year, 5 are working in the industry. Are you going to be one of the 5? Those are the odds, school or not. Good luck.
And don't work on spec!
posted by pixlboi at 12:41 PM on January 18, 2011
It's fine to suggest that you just learn everything yourself but some people don't learn that way. So that is the first question to ask yourself - Can I learn the same things the college program teaches on my own time or, am I a person who needs the structure of classrooms and assignments to learn effectively?
If you are person who needs that structure the money may be well spent. If you can learn it yourself it's a waste of money. No judgement either way, it's just what kind of learner you are.
No one is going to be impressed that you learned web design at Humber (sorry Humber). Their program may or may not be good quality. I suspect it's average. But that is beside the point. You don't get hired as a designer because of where you went to school (unless, maybe, it's OCAD). You get hired based on a portfolio of work. Although there are agencies and companies that will have education requirements as part of the job posting (eg. 3-yr design program minimum). See, it all depends...
Now, your portfolio can be helped along by the focus and time of a college program. But if you could have achieved the same results on your own or by scraping up your own freelance then, again, you wasted your money.
Seconding Magnakai that you need to talk to companies that you would like to work for. What do they want? Who do they hire? Any one person's story about how they broke into the industry or got their first job is not necessarily going to apply to you. There's a thousand ways to do it. Ask the company with your dream job how you can get it.
Now, some reality. Unfortunately, as you know, the economy sucks, hiring is down and when I post the job opening we will shortly have for a web designer to cover a 4-month leave I will get a minimum of 2 dozen applications from people with way more experience than you have.
Decent photoshop and illustrator won't cut it. I can find photoshop and illustrator gods who also have extensive Flash, HTML and Java/PHP skills who can't find full-time work. It's the nature of the industry. And yes, it can be that cutthroat at the entry level, especially in a saturated market like T.O. I probably would not hire someone right out of school because I don't need to. I can find someone with more experience. You better have some kick-ass stuff in your portfolio to trump that experience.
If the last two paragraphs changed your mind about design then it's probably not for you. You need to be strongly committed to beat the competition, learn more, have more skills and have a better portfolio than the next guy to get a chance. And that first chance might only be an unpaid internship (if it's at a name design firm grab it like it's gold). I went to design school, I work along side people who did not. My class at design school started with 45, 15 made it to the final year, 5 are working in the industry. Are you going to be one of the 5? Those are the odds, school or not. Good luck.
And don't work on spec!
posted by pixlboi at 12:41 PM on January 18, 2011
In less words, I was going to echo pixlboi. I've been doing this ten years (since I was 14, working in it since 16 - it's my world), and despite that the competition is still fierce, especially given the learning curves. It sounds lucrative because it's blowing up right now, but every art student for the past 5-10 years has made the same last-minute decision. It's the same situation with graphic design and art students in general, it's the go-to pathway when in all honesty, it might not be the best fit.
Even as a designer you need to have a good eye, a passion for code (which is ever-changing, get ready to read a hell of a lot of blogs, daily), and an intense interest in psychology and interaction. You'll likely need to know the delicacies of browsers, email clients and mobile platforms, and you will definitely need to know how to interact with people and be able to decipher what they mean when they say x (a surprisingly difficult task sometimes).
Good news though; part of the problem is that the web is so new everyone is jumping on and there are a lot of really incompetent designers making absolutely dreadful websites and using the technology the wrong way, if they're even using the right tech at all. My advice is if this is still something you want to do, look into courses that are specific to user experience, site architecture/wireframing/prototyping and new web technologies. Spend a lot of time perusing and documenting traits of well-made websites (both visual and experience). Take a look at Yahoo!'s Design Pattern Library.
TL;DR: In order to be a good web designer these days, you need to know and keep on top of the nerdery behind it all, and if that is not something you're particularly interested in, you're going to have a hard time working with clients and your developers. Good luck!
posted by june made him a gemini at 2:55 PM on January 18, 2011
Even as a designer you need to have a good eye, a passion for code (which is ever-changing, get ready to read a hell of a lot of blogs, daily), and an intense interest in psychology and interaction. You'll likely need to know the delicacies of browsers, email clients and mobile platforms, and you will definitely need to know how to interact with people and be able to decipher what they mean when they say x (a surprisingly difficult task sometimes).
Good news though; part of the problem is that the web is so new everyone is jumping on and there are a lot of really incompetent designers making absolutely dreadful websites and using the technology the wrong way, if they're even using the right tech at all. My advice is if this is still something you want to do, look into courses that are specific to user experience, site architecture/wireframing/prototyping and new web technologies. Spend a lot of time perusing and documenting traits of well-made websites (both visual and experience). Take a look at Yahoo!'s Design Pattern Library.
TL;DR: In order to be a good web designer these days, you need to know and keep on top of the nerdery behind it all, and if that is not something you're particularly interested in, you're going to have a hard time working with clients and your developers. Good luck!
posted by june made him a gemini at 2:55 PM on January 18, 2011
Assuming that this is what you're looking at doing, I think it's not a very good program. Three of the courses are on Flash, and three are on PHP and MySQL. The "Design for the Web" course is a Photoshop and Illustrator tutorial - they teach the tool, not the principles of design. "Advanced Web Design" is Dreamweaver and Fireworks. And the rest of the courses are just filler.
This is a total waste of money, for 1/10th of the price you'd learn a lot more by buying a bunch of books that cover these subjects. But don't fall into the trap of shooting for the combined designer-developer role - the only employers who are hiring for that are looking for a 2-for-1 special and that means they don't value design or programming, you'll be unappreciated and underpaid. Maybe this is what's happening in the short term because of the economy, but it's not a great long-term career choice. Sure, it helps to be able to understand the underlying technology to a limited extent, especially when you're talking to developers, but this is easy to pick up. You need solid HTML/CSS skills and most importantly, a great portfolio.
posted by AlsoMike at 3:38 PM on January 18, 2011
This is a total waste of money, for 1/10th of the price you'd learn a lot more by buying a bunch of books that cover these subjects. But don't fall into the trap of shooting for the combined designer-developer role - the only employers who are hiring for that are looking for a 2-for-1 special and that means they don't value design or programming, you'll be unappreciated and underpaid. Maybe this is what's happening in the short term because of the economy, but it's not a great long-term career choice. Sure, it helps to be able to understand the underlying technology to a limited extent, especially when you're talking to developers, but this is easy to pick up. You need solid HTML/CSS skills and most importantly, a great portfolio.
posted by AlsoMike at 3:38 PM on January 18, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
No idea if this is a terrible idea or not. I taught myself, built a few (paid) websites for local businesses and eventually got agency work through word of mouth.
There's a thread from a couple of days ago here that I and others threw loads of words at. Take a read. Good luck!
posted by Magnakai at 10:51 AM on January 18, 2011