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I am currently a junior in high school (also taking classes at the local college to get ahead) and want to have a career in some sort of computer based designing, but I can’t choose. The two I’m mainly considering are web design and graphic design. I personally would prefer being in graphic design, but I hear that the income isn’t that great, and I’m not that creative or decisive, so I’m leaning towards web design. I’m just not that sure, though.
I’m trying to find out class and skill requirements, annual salary, and maybe more details about each career. Also personal input would be great, too!

Web design is pretty much what it sounds like- it’s designing for the internet, whether it’s creating websites or working in programs like Flash. Also, you do have to be some what creative when designing websites, but I know some web design majors who prefer the coding part rather than the design part.

Graphic design is designing mostly for print, with some designing for the web (ex: banner ads). In graphic design you can do numerous things like working on layouts for magazines, creating logos or designing packaging for consumer goods.

As far as income goes, it all depends on where you live, how much experience you have and what your job title is. A junior designer obviously won’t be making as much as a senior designer or an art director. You’ll just have to do some of your own research to figure out how much a graphic designer makes versus a web designer.

I will tell you from personal experience that there does seem to be a lot more web design jobs out there. I majored in graphic design and although I enjoy what I do, its been really tough finding a full-time job, but hopefully the economy will get better soon!

I did a couple of "unofficial" (read: under the table) freelance web design gigs when I was unemployed. Now I have a new full-time job, but it’s not in the web design field. And I think it would be a nice way to earn some extra cash on occassion.

How would I go about being officially recognized as a freelance web designer? Would I need to essentially start a business to get a vendor number, or something like that?

Please, only answer if you actually have a clue about this sort of thing.

Make a portfolio website. Maybe take a couple jobs for little to no cash to expand on that portfolio. Etc.

As far as being officially recognized, you could go ahead and register the business and get a federal tax id issued but that may be overkill at this point. In all reality you probably won’t get a lot of leads from the net when starting out but more by word of mouth so anything "official" early on isn’t all that important. Most likely the purchasing party will just 1099 you as an individual for tax purposes.

A family member has a web design business but their current computer is out of date. I would like to get them a new computer but not sure what brand to go with. So I would like to know which is the best brand to buy?

PC type and brand has no bearing what-so-ever on designing a website. If you want to ask a more helpful question try:
What website designer software do you suggest?

I am just gonna go ahead and say Macromedia DreamWeaver. WYSIWYG – What you see is what you get.

Hey,

If I would like to pursue a career in web design, what course is most suitable? Also, does it fall under design or is it more geared towards IT?

Thx
Hey guys, thanks a lot for taking time out to answer my questions, and they’re helpful

However, my question is actually meant to be directed more towards college courses as in, multimedia design, or other IT courses available at colleges.

Thanks again!

I’ve done Web design before. Here is what would be useful:

HTML
CSS
JavaScript would be a plus.
Dreamweaver
Photoshop
Fireworks
Flash & ActionScript

W3 Schools ( http://www.w3schools.com ) offers FREE tutorials on major web languages. Adobe also has tutorials for their software.

I have a small web design business and I’m a web designer and developer, but I don’t know how to market myself. Can anyone give me some strategies to do marketing for my web design?

Thanks

I would try to find a niche- the smaller the better. From there, find the places on the web that those people ‘hang out’ Join the conversation.

Small Business Forums
Twitter
Facebook
Yahoo Answers!

Offer good, free advice and you will start to receive business in return.

Note: I am referring to FIXED width only. Not FLUID.

I appreciate that it’ll be too wide for older monitors but a lot of popular sites seem to be ignoring compliance. I’m not so much concerned with compliance as I am concerned with fashion. What width is in fashion for contemporary web design right now? Is a 1000 pixel fixed width alright for website?

I reckon building a website with 950 or 960 px page width. This way it shows up well with a 1024 px width screen. I appreciate many desktops and macs come with wider screens, but you also need to factor in the fact that net books and smart phones now have smaller screens. Fashion is about design, not width and you could easily add a theme or background in the margins of the main site that can make the site look very cool.

My father owns a Computer Repair and Web Design Company. He will one day pass it on to me, I need a Business degree first. I want to get the company making more money so I can move it into an office building and hire on staff, then continue expansion. Right now, it is a work out of the home business me, my brother, and my dad run it. Anyone have any suggestions on what else should be added to make more money for the company?

Farm out some of your web design to a company like MA WebCenters. We provide a complete, top-of-the-line web design and hosting, including e-commerce, flash and all the latest technology. And we compensate you for each web site sold through your efforts and a substantial monthly residual n the portfolio you develop. We’ve created an impressive on-line web building software that’s as user friendly as using Microsoft word. If you can point and click a mouse you can use this software. And we provide unlimited customer support to your customers. All while you get paid to refer your customers and increase your online portfolio. And best of all, you can still do design work on the sites you manage, and charge continue to charge for your time and services. You’ll then be in a position to decide whether you want to move to an office.
More details available at www.raymondajohnson.com.
And contact me if you’d like a walkthrough of the actual backend of the web software.

Hi, I’m learning web design and to learn it I’m creating a web site that I will hopefully publish. I have no ideas for a name though so I’m looking for suggestions. All suggestions are welcome thanks for all help.

If you’re website is somewhat formal, I;d suggest something like "Webmaster: Web Expertise" or something like that.
It it’s a friendly, informal-ish site, then I’d recommend something awesome like "Web Bean." No one can resist a site who’s emblem is a sizzling coffee bean.

I am looking at starting a web design firm with some friends and want to follow all the legal procedures. Are they sole proprietorships or corporations? Do I need a business license? What paperwork and other legal things do I need to do? I am totally confused as to where to beginning finding out the step by step process to making my business legal and fully professional and recognized. Any thoughts/opinions/comments in detail would be greatly appreciated. Once again I want to create a web design firm based in Seattle that does business both locally and nationally, and will have employees. Thanks!

There is no need for all that , you can register at freelance websites like getafreelnacer.com , eufrelance.com , scriptlance.biz ,etc and start bidding for all web designing projects posted there .

I want to get my bf a labtop thats really good for web design bc thats his major. The only problem is he dosent like mac.

Also, where can I get the best programs for web design? I dont know anything about this and its for our 4 yr anniversary..help!

I would say get a mac – he will love it. I just converted to mac a few years back.

But if windows …pretty much most laptops are all good. Dell seems to break more often. For programs : depends on what kind of web design he does – what does he use ..etc. You might want to talk to his classmates and find out if they are using a specific software – or even if he’s talked to them about what he wants as far as web design software or what not. If he uses flash, dreamweaver, or does everything by hand, etc.

Otherwise, a laptop is probably a good enough gift (actually more than good enough – that is a fantabulous gift! You are an awesome girlfriend!!! If you’re ever single .. )

Okay off track a bit

Another idea I would say maybe get him a book or some videos or online classes for him to further his studies. Jakob Nielsen is an awesome author when it comes to web design and web usability and any web designer would love his stuff

"Prioritizing Web Usability" – Jakob Nielsen
http://witchwebhost.com/recommends/jakobnielsen_prioritizing.html

It looks a bit fuddy duddy – a younger and hipper looking book
"Web Pages That Suck" – learning good design by looking at bad design. it’s an old book (1998) but still really awesome
http://witchwebhost.com/recommends/webpagesthatsuck.html

Finally, maybe get him a gift card to godaddy – if he’s a webdesigner he’ll probably want to get his own domains and develop his own websites at some point.

By the way, you’re an awesome gf if I didn’t mention it already at least a few times