Young Designers Need to Know Web Design

Over the last couple years I've had the opportunity to interview graphic designers for part time positions at my office. I'm often surprised how few have taken it upon themselves to learn how to design websites. It should go hand in hand with any other form of design these days.

In case they haven't heard yet, print design doesn't contain the vast amounts of opportunity it once did. There just aren't as many jobs that are print-only these days.

Sure, it's a bit more difficult to learn than Photoshop or Indesign, but you can actually be a rather decent web designer without being a code freak. Fortunately there are tons of free resources and tutorials online so there's really no excuse.

It makes me wonder if colleges haven't yet discovered this fact either. That's not surprising since I experienced a similar disparity when I graduated. Certainly the opportunity to be creative and expressive with web design has never been greater. With kids being born anymore with a laptop or texting device in hand, there's no excuse for bypassing this skill before graduation.

I got my start with web design around 1997 and it took me quite some time to get comfortable with the mechanical side. I'm still making big leaps and still feel behind when it comes to current web standards and trends.

If you're a young designer, get started early. You'll be thankful once you get paid for your first web project.