Southern Chick
02 Dec 2009, 10:12 AM
Hi All
I've been interested in Web Design for a while now & would love to make a career out of it and set up on my own as a Web Designer and work from home.
I've taken a few courses in basic Web Design (using FrontPage) with my local college, and since bought Dreamweaver and have self taught via the CS4 for dummies book.
My main question is this: How much do I really need to learn in order to make it as a small scale web designer just doing work mainly for local companies. I'm not looking to do high tech stuff and build complex 50+ page sites, but I don't know if my limited knowledge of building basic static sites is really good enough to make it even on a small scale!!!
I know basic CSS, how to use templates, how to create tables & frames (although these are now outdated methods), using behaviours, inserting flash files (although I need to learn about creating flash files), creating forms (again, I need to learn more about CGI scripts), and creating ajax with spry.
I am now thinking that I need to learn about database driven websites, creating/adding forums, PHP & MySQL, adding shopping carts & payment methods, CMS and a whole host of other technical stuff to add to my bow!!
How much of this do I really need to learn, and what can I realistically get away with?? Also where is the best place to learn any of these things???
I'm really hoping that someone can shed some light on all this as I don't seem to be able to find a course that teaches more than the basics in Web Design and I'm getting really confused!! I'm beginning to feel like I'm banging my head against the proverbial brick wall :confused:
Any input on this would be so gratefully appreciated :)
I've been interested in Web Design for a while now & would love to make a career out of it and set up on my own as a Web Designer and work from home.
I've taken a few courses in basic Web Design (using FrontPage) with my local college, and since bought Dreamweaver and have self taught via the CS4 for dummies book.
My main question is this: How much do I really need to learn in order to make it as a small scale web designer just doing work mainly for local companies. I'm not looking to do high tech stuff and build complex 50+ page sites, but I don't know if my limited knowledge of building basic static sites is really good enough to make it even on a small scale!!!
I know basic CSS, how to use templates, how to create tables & frames (although these are now outdated methods), using behaviours, inserting flash files (although I need to learn about creating flash files), creating forms (again, I need to learn more about CGI scripts), and creating ajax with spry.
I am now thinking that I need to learn about database driven websites, creating/adding forums, PHP & MySQL, adding shopping carts & payment methods, CMS and a whole host of other technical stuff to add to my bow!!
How much of this do I really need to learn, and what can I realistically get away with?? Also where is the best place to learn any of these things???
I'm really hoping that someone can shed some light on all this as I don't seem to be able to find a course that teaches more than the basics in Web Design and I'm getting really confused!! I'm beginning to feel like I'm banging my head against the proverbial brick wall :confused:
Any input on this would be so gratefully appreciated :)