Design, Typography & Graphics with tips and tricks for design, printing, photography and publishing of all kinds
The official publication of The Design & Publishing Center. The best place to start is with the latest issue of the Newsletter

Welcome to the DT&G Design and Creative Department

Top question:
How to become a Designer?

Jennifer E. asks a question that gets asked at least two dozen times a month. So many, in fact that I've stopped answering them. So, ladies and gentlemen, herein I spill my personal opinions to answer this most frequent question: 

  > What do you recommend as a means to become proficient in web 
  > design - courses at a community college, part time job or 
  > just buying books and software to learn on your own time or 
  > is there a more efficient way ? I am looking to break into 
  > the field- I am not a complete novice- however 
  > I am naive to the expectation and competition out there.

Whoa, Jennifer, loaded question.

Of course you should apply to Cooper Union. That's my stock answer.

However you ask about "WEB" design. Let's get something straight from the get-go. FIRST and foremost you must learn DESIGN. Period.
    Now, most of the time I don't know if people are actually talking about DESIGN or if they're merely talking about the mechanics of building web information delivery. While they are two entirely different things, the industry seems to have muddled their meanings, just to sell you stuff. If you take a sober look at the wildly successful "Designing Web Graphics" book, you'll see it has nothing to do with design. Nothing. If you look at 99% of all the other books that have "Web" and "Design" in the title you think you're going to learn how to design. But you won't. No single book fills the challenge, and most are talking about building tables and rollovers. So read my lips: to learn Web design, learn design first.
      All three alternatives you stated above will work for you, however "efficiency" is a very vague term when describing a discipline. Design does not come efficiently. It will come with

a) exposure to and study of the work of masters
b) understanding how to analyze any given design problem
c) understanding how to analyze who your message is intended for
d) understanding how to apply simple design rules
e) sensitizing vision to see and recognize when good design is achieved
f) many, many, many, many, many design exercises, trials and errors.
Most people are only fooling themselves if they think a "Web Design" book will do it for them. While "design" books sell like hot cakes, few people gain any measurable degree of design discipline from them. These exercises teach you how to mimic -- but not how to design. Sure, nothing would please me more than to send you to www.design-bookshelf.com to purchase $100 bucks or so of design books. (You should do that anyway!) But I cannot promise you'll become a designer. Yes, you will be able to tackle design problems with more understanding and insight. Yes, you will be able to forge a better page.

Best bets: Alex White's "Type In Use", Robin William's "Non-Designers' Design Book" ... then add in Roger Parker's "One-Minute Designer" and "Guide to Web Content & Design."
      Alex gives you ethereal background and visual training where Roger gives you the nuts and bolts in checklist form. Robin is so wonderful, she'll help you "see" better design. Read them, study them, and apply their teachings. It will make you a better designer, and sensitize you to 'see' better. But they won't make you a designer. Study the works of known and established designers. Go to your public library and get all the Art Director's Annuals, CA Magazine, and Print Magazines. Look for RC Publications' "Print Case Studies". Study, study, study. Forget the online tutorials... forget the trendy web magazine makeovers. (Some of those leave the site worse than the 'before'!)
    I know that most folks reading this column today won't like what I'm about to say: but let me tell you this -- there are a few design "Masters" left in this world. Most of them are in the ivory towers and are unapproachable. When they're gone, they're gone. Period.
    What you can learn in the presence of these masters is worth far more than all the books in Amazon and a million design web pages. These masters are available to you at ONLY a few places. If you're really serious about design then look at schools such as Cooper Union, Rochester School of Design, or Pratt. Or there is one other alternative if you're not into a four-year college program.
    Pick up the phone and call: 800-255-8800. I'm not telling you this out of any ad or alliance with DGEF. It's from the heart -- DGEF is the only one who allows you to sit with the masters. Ask for the workshops with: Martin Solomon, Ed Brodsky, John Sposanto John Ver Hague and Greg Paul. If you take their workshops (usually two or three full days) you will come away with such an enhanced sense of design, that self-study can then round out your discipline. Beg, borrow or steal the money. These are a few of the remaining masters who had a hand in shaping and effecting the design directions of the past 50 years. They are the great minds who's vision will continue to effect design into the next millennium. They are accessible and approachable -- but won't be cheap. It will however pay for itself many, many times over.

If I were 20 today. That's exactly what I would do.

Okay?

Thanks for the question. Good question!

You may have gotten to this article from the
" Questions" section of the "Letters" department

feel free to distribute this file as long as you credit DT&G Magazine and The Design & Publishing Center at: http://www.graphic-design.com)

[ The Design Center ] _ [ DT&G Magazine ] _ [ DTG Newsletter ] _ [ Designers' Bookshelf ]

Want to discuss it? Subscribe to The Designers' CAFE

You are visiting DT&G Magazine: http://www.graphic-design.com/DTG-Library.html Design & Publishing Center is a Spam-Free, reader-driven web siteWriters, Designers, Consultants, Publishers are encouraged to become published in The Design Center Publications!
This is a Spam-Free web site. Help support a healthier Spam-free environment! Thank you for visiting the DT&G Magazine wing of the The Design & Publishing Center at http://www.graphic-design.com/DTG/ The Design & Publishing Center is an Affiliate of The Graphic Design Network at Graphic-Design.Net, Amazon Books at Amazon.com, as well as The News-Serve Network at News-Serve.net, The User Group Network at User-groups.net, The User Group Academy at UGAcademy.org, and The Desktop Publishing Jumpstation at DTP-Jumpstation.com ........ Notes: The screen shots herein represent the copyrighted works of their respective owners, and are used here for editorial demonstration purposes. please read and be aware of our Legal Properties & Disclaimers document. Not all areas of the online environment allow special characters such as the registration and trademark marks. This file will alert you to proprietary works that cannot be duplicated or distributed. Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, by Showker Graphic Arts, The Design & Publishing Center, on behalf of the respective authors and artists. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. &photographic, Photoshop Tips & Tricks, &Type, WebDesign & Review, and Pixelsmith are all trademarks for The Design & Publishing Center. Other products mentioned in these pages are the registered trademarks of their respective owners.