New Web Designers: Getting Started in the Industry (Part 1)
Today we’ll start a new series for those web designers that are just starting out professionally. This guide assumes you’ve been practicing basic web design techniques on your own, and you’re ready to get out in the professional world and start getting some clients.
This series includes setting up your portfolio, getting noticed, legal issues, branding, and more. While this guide is open to any web designer with any sort of dreams, this guide will show you how to get up and running independently with a few freelance clients. This is because even when applying for a firm, you will need a portfolio with quality real-life examples (not to mention the technical experience).
1. What do you want to do?
I’ve been in the business of web design and development for over 6 years now: 2-3 dabbling around with a few clients and mostly learning, 1 year at a company, and the remaining freelancing full-time. From all my experience all I can say is that the world of professional web design is still difficult to define.
As a web designer, one can do many things. Sure, they build websites, that’s a given, but there is so much more. As a web designer, you could do the following:
- Do freelance work for clients
- Work at a firm or another company
- Start your own firm
- Flip websites (build them, get them noticed, and sell them)
- Sell WordPress themes
- Giveaway designs (themes, CSS templates, graphics, etc.) and make passive income from web traffic
On top of all that there are many other venues web designers like to go down that is quite common among the community: blogging, writing e-books, and starting networks to name a few.
With all that being said, the first step to getting started is to actually decide what you want to do. Dabble in a few different things, and discover what you’re true passion within the field is.
I tried almost everything — blogging, graphic design, freelance, firm, and selling templates. At one point, I even tried them all at once. This was a mistake. While I appreciate those who try to be the Jack of all Trades, for most this method doesn’t work. Even for those who do have multiple interests, it is essential to have one specialty, and stick to it. By doing so, you can keep your focus and become better at it everyday, rather than trying to improve in a million little areas with little progress to each one.
It is important to get started on the right track, because nobody wants to be doing something they are not interested in for the rest of their lives. Do your research before just jumping into what you think a web designer should be doing.
2. Get the Right Equipment
I’m all for saving money, especially if you’re planning on freelancing or working for yourself otherwise. However, some software and equipment is necessary. Do however, start with the bare minimum when just starting out. The things you’ll absolutely need are:
The Adobe Software
I personally have the web premium, but get a suite that fits the needs of what you’d like to do best. There’s really no working around this. You cannot use Gimp, or even Paint Shop Pro. Adobe is industry standard, and while the quality of the software helps too, it is mostly a matter of being able to share adobe documents back and forth between clients, companies, and partners within the field. You can check out what they have available here.
Internet Connection
I really hope I don’t have to explain this one further!
Office Supplies
You don’t have to go all out on this, but have at least a notebook for sketches and wireframes, a few pens, and if you’re starting a business rather than trying to obtain a job, invest in a printer and scanner. For those who plan on working from home full-time, a comfy chair and desk should help also.
3. Start Learning
As a web designer, you will need to be constantly learning new techniques and best practices within the field to stay ahead. As a new web designer, you’ll need to learn everything from scratch. Head on over to W3Schools, no matter what level you’re at. Learn the correct way to create markup, CSS, and other languages.
In addition to the basics, start learning about trends and more advanced topics now. You don’t have to master them quite yet, but make yourself aware of them. Follow blogs like Smashing Magazine, Six Revisions, WebDesignDev, WebDesignerWall, and of course, The Free Creatives.
Also get involved in the community. When reading these blogs, leave comments and participate. Ask questions. Join forums. For any work you do, get feedback.
While the best learning comes from doing, you’ll have plenty of time to just read up and expose yourself to new things in the industry while waiting for your equipment to arrive, right? Especially in the beginning stages, dedicate time to yourself to just read up on new things, along with testing and trying new things.
Today’s Assignment
- Research all of your options as far as the type of work you want to do. Take out a notebook, and write down the pros and cons. If there are any previous experiences you’ve had with any of the options, note them and see how you could improve on them and whether or not you’d like to go down that path again. Take at least an hour to research, study, and analyze what you want to do with the rest of your life within the industry.
- Invest in the equipment needed. Research what you’ll need based on what you want to do, and either get everything now or set up a workable plan to afford anything you may need. Also go around within the community asking about their favorite software, tools, and equipment.
- Buy a few web design books. If you plan on freelancing or starting your own business, buy a few related books on that as well. There is only so much that online free content can get you. Online content should merely be a starting point as well as information to keep you up to date. Books, however, are well-researched, error-proof, and more in-depth. Start subscribing to the RSS feeds of any web design blogs as well, and check up on the feed everyday. You can start today by exposing yourself to your favorite blog’s most recent posts.
This should get you started on the right track. Although it isn’t a lot to do, these are the first essential baby steps to starting correctly. In the next few parts of this series, we’ll look into more detailed how-to’s for learning new things, getting your portfolio set up, getting clients, and maintaining your new business as a web designer.
Hey Crystal,
Great pointers1 Thanks for sharing. I have been flirting with the idea of starting on my own for a while. So this post is very timely for me.
Looking forward to more of these..
cheers,
Swati
p.s. if i may say it aloud, you probably want to change the spelling of ‘right’ to ‘write’ in the sentence – Take out a notebook, and right down the pros and cons.
Hi Swati, thanks for pointing out the spelling error — its amazing how I miss those despite my reading it over!
I would definitely go for it if you’ve been thinking about it. No amount of planning can get you where you need to be compared to just going out there and doing it!
Hey Crystal,
Very elegant layout/visual design and well written article. Consider me a new subscriber
I’m still at the stage of dabbling with freelance web design, despite that I’ve been in the industry for 10 years or so. The challenges I face are:
1. I’m only doing it part time, around other casual work and a retail business I run, and
2. My web dev history is largely from a standpoint of designing the functionality of websites rather than the aesthetics; as such I often find it hard to come up with appealing designs (and without that no-one will stay long enough to appreciate a site’s usefulness).
My angle as a freelancer at present is more a cog in the wheel of a site development. I supply the install and configuration of (by far preferably Drupal or WordPress) sites and basic theming – and by basic I mean a free template with image blending/substitutions. It’s an odd niche – I don’t charge much and supply these setups to web design guys mainly, who do the legwork of landing clients.
A downside is that many sites I’ve setup have NDA’s preventing me mentioning them. Anyhow, back to work (stock reorders and accounting this morning. Oh joy).
Regards,
Ben.
Hi Ben, always great to have a new subscriber! I had been in the industry for quite some time too before really going in full time and getting to the point I’m at now. It can be hard when you have other priorities on the side, but at the same time that can be rewarding in itself because you can pay attention to more than one passion.
One thing that I can see helping you, which I haven’t written much about yet is outsourcing work or hooking up with a dedicated designer for the long-run. If you’re specialty is more development than design, then by all means focus on it and land more gigs by sharing your talents with a designer who may not know much about the dev side. It can definitely make your job easier, as well as provide better final outcomes for the clients.
lol