I know that it is not good to start off a page with a question, but who cares! What does designing for the web mean to me? Well, I need to tell you a little about myself first. First of all, I grew up with a pencil in my hand. I love to draw. After high school I attended this fine school, and graduated with an Associates in computer animation in 2000. I specialized in 2-D animation, but of course the amount of jobs open in that field was slim. I ended up working for a graphic design company, where I designed sports posters. I really enjoyed who I worked for and I especially enjoyed what i was doing. The company ended up belly-up due to some poor decissions made by the owner, which put me back at square one searching for a job. About that time I began to search for any job that would pay me a steady paycheck, and I found it. I became a police officer. For the most part I enjoyed it, eventhough I broke some bones and lost several pints of blood during that time. I was a cop for about five years, and after a several bad events and an engagement I decided to turn in my badge and gun and return to school. Although the life of a student is never pretty, I am excited about what I am doing.
After searching the web for blogs, articles and sites that were geared around web standards and “well-formed” websites I found two big names Tim O’Reilly (the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc.) www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/27 and Jeffrey Zeldman www.zeldman.com. Both of them have an endless amount of information on designing for the web.
O’Reilly helped coin the phrase Web 2.0 at a brainstorming session with MediaLive International. His site is stocked full of his thoughts. In his article, “What is Web 2.0″, he comments on how important it is to network and to stay on top of what is new. Zeldman’s site is also packed with excellent information. The site is mainly geared toward designing for web standards. Zeldman an a couple of his colleagues actually coined the phrase “web standards”. Both sites were excellent and I plan to stay on top of what they have to tell us all.
Now, lets get back on track and answer my question. I love art, and I especially love creating the art. Before I returned to school I had to figure out what career has what I need to make me happy (to be creative and a steady paycheck). In designing a site I found that I can combine my drawing (when needed), graphic design thats interactive, and I can even design some animation. On top of that if we work hard we all have the opportunity to make a decent living. Its not very often you hear someone say that they are doing something that they enjoy. I feel designing sites is and will be something that I will love. To make it even better my fiance loves it too, because it has nothing to do with law enforcement… ha
Wow, what a very interesting life you’ve had so far. Sorry that the first degree didn’t work out for you. I hope this one works out better. Now for some bad news. I am afraid you didn’t follow the specifications for the assignment. You were suppose to find 2 blogs about web design, post your response to the articles, and link them to your page so we could read them. But bonus points for actually researching web standards and well formed sites. If you ever have any questions about an assignment again I will be more than happy to help.
Angela E.
Hey buddy great bio. Though our assignment was to find articles having to do with the design or code. Maybe i wam the one who got it wrong. Anyways thanks for the links i will check them out.
JHG
I can relate, I have always drawn, and when prompted by my high school art teacher, I decided not to go with accounting or computer programming and choose what I had a passion for…art. I ended up staying in school for 7.5 yrs and double majored in theater, also. Sadly, I didn’t want to pursue a career in theater, and being a starving artist is less appealing than it was when I was fresh out of high school. So, now I am back at school for the same degree for the same reasons.
Both of the links are great, and they do have quite a bit of helpful information. Good job.
Hey Joe good stuff man, seems you’ve had a crazy life so far. Zeldman and O’Reilly are definitely great sources of information and are on top of their game constantly.
I’m interested to hear though what your thoughts are on what you want to design and your whole process you go through. Also what websites inspire you.
waiting……. come on need some more info….. LOL..