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What's your experience level really?
What's your experience level really?
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Lost_User
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 Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 05:05
I've noticed a lot of comments and opinions about sites from people that lack links to there own work. Now I don't believe in commenting about anyone’s work that doesn't ask for it, but I would like to see the work of the person giving feedback. I've also noticed a tremendous amount of people that try to pass themselves off as full time professional freelance designers, which clearly aren't. So I’m asking people to 1) update your profile to have your URL in it, so on comments I can see who you are. 2) Right here tell us, the Stylegala community a little about yourself. 3) Don't lie; there is no shame in being a young designer learning the ropes or a student in college. I'll go first: My name is Dan and I live in Baltimore, Maryland in the US of A. I have 2, 2 year degrees, both in the fields of Internet and Multimedia Technology. I started making web pages for fun using Netscape Composer (was it called composer?) in 98. I went back to college graduated and got a job in retail for 2 1/2 years. As fate would have it I started to freelance around the time my store was going out of business. I freelanced for 6 months, with no work I would want anyone one to see today (it all sucked). I found a job as a junior web designer for a company where I have worked for the last 18 months. I design using CSS and XHTML, I also build web applications using Flash. I think the term Web 2.0 is stupid, I think Ajax, like Flash can have many good uses but will probably be used to make a site "cool". Enough about me lets here about you.  
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Lost_User
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Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 05:39
I'm a student at the U of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN and studying Computer Science. I work part-time for the student-run newspaper here as a web programmer. I try to find occasional freelance work on the side as well. I'm also currently a member of the Overture team for the Symphony Web Publishing System, so you'll find me on the forum over there quite often. I first got involved with web design when I made a tripod site for my 10th grade Latin class. I started to take it more seriously a few years ago when I began to learn more about web standards. Zeldman's "Designing with Web Standards" was a huge inspiration.
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Lost_User
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Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 05:58
I can't do image design, nor am I a freelancer/proffessional/know what I'm doing. I've helped people in the past on many a project, none of which I care to mention, except Tipshare.net. I had no idea who anybody was (ie Zeldman), never taken any classes, read books or the like. I'm a self taught rediculous waste of time. Lately all I want to do is make websites that are fun, killing about all of my work credibility. I also have a crazy addiction with destroying perfectly good sites, so I can attempt to make them better. Not that they ever see the light of day. So that's it, I'm no expert, I wouldn't even ask for my own help, but I'm willing to give it, ussually for free too. I'm now a naked webdesigner, so have at me. Oh, I probably should add that all the work I do is on a local server in my house, but the 2 projects that made it out are stdsnow and unimagination.
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Lost_User
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Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 06:19
I am currently 16 years of age (17 in May) a junior at my high school. I started taking an interest in web design about 6 months ago or so and have been trying to get as much information on it as I can. I have not taken a course of web design yet. Next year, I plan to take a full year course along with one called Applied Media which works with graphics. My future plans are to go to college and Master in computer science. I try to give good advice when critiquing sites. Despite my limited background, I think I know what I'm talking about and can provide something useful. What makes me sad or mad or something similiar, is seeing non-standard compliant sites that are completely ridiculusly horrendous, with pre-2000 practices and they get paid thousands of dollars to do that. My sites aren't going to make it into any gallery, I know that, but I know that frameset is dead, and I get the whole logistics of it. The only thing I have to work on is putting in code, which all the code I know has come off the internet, mainly at w3schools.com. So that's basically where I'm at right now.
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Lost_User
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Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 06:22
I've worked full-time at a job that I love where the production schedule wasn't too great, to come up with designs that I just enjoyed viewing, and no they were not Xhtml and CSS, but hey that was then this is now. I've had access to some mediocre stock art librarys, professional level clip art if you'ld rather. I wish I were an illustrationist, but crayon's in third grade just didn't cut it. I'm not from google mars, findlay, Ohio. I don't have a portfolio site. I've created guessing 20 websites or so. StyleGala is probably the biggest distraction to my real work, or maybe the biggest asset to moving forward. I think lot's of people are struggling to get on with the new usability standards, but the dynamic web is going to become wysiwyg E-Z, and people are going to be blown away by that! Barring some good software by somebody, man I'm tired of hand-coding already. ;)
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Lost_User
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Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 06:30
I did my first paid site about 14 months ago, and since then have done about fifteen more. I've redesigned all the sites I did months ago with the exception of a few because I believe clients should get their money's worth, and if I can do a better job for someone I should. I'm finding myself being pulled towards SEO and corporate identity as that's what clients seem to want. I don't have any formal training in business or graphic design but I try to conduct myself in a professional manner both in business and on this forum. I try to give good critiques to the work of others and still be helpful by offering technical and aesthetic advice without being (too much) of an ass. Blake, I would hate to see you go, as you're probably the primary reason that I've improved as much as I have (though I certainly have more room to improve). You let me know that my site sucked when no one else would and gave me an incentive to grow. Thanks, bro.
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Lost_User
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Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 07:09
I believe in Web Standards totally, semantic markup, not using tables for page layout and only for presentation of data. I have seen how flexible future re-designs are without using tables for page layout and using CSS extensively with no hacks. Although the sites I design won't look exactly the same in every browser, they are close to it, validate and the most important thing a site can do is deliver it's content to the user whether they use a visual browser or a screen-reader because they are blind. I have also seen how separating your content from your presentation and both of those from your behavior can allow one document to serve all devices regardless of what type of device or user is using it. Yes I am a code Nazi, I confess, but I will help you where I can. However I don't pretend to me perfect and learn new things every day and will continue to for the rest of my life. The web is in terrible shape thanks for WYSIWYG editors and the tag soup they create. This is what separates the professional web designers and the wanna-be's. Knowing all this, Stylegala has a crowd of all different designers, however it showcases the sites I wish to create with the code that is the future of web design. The question is can the web recover from years of destruction! :) Your first step in joining the future is being a member here. I welcome you all.
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Lost_User
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Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 07:47
One of my co-workers called me a code Nazi today, which I'm not, I don't have the knowledge yet. I was trying to explain to or new web designer (who has a print background) why using the WYSIWYG in Dreamweaver sucks. He didn't get it, but than again I don't get the grid system or color theory. Anyway I have to say wow, I didn't think I would get this many responses this fast. It is nice to see so many different types of people using the forum. It is great to see so many young designers taking an interest in good web design. I know when I was in highschool America Online really did get America Online. In College, the first freshman year, all of our email and library services were handled by Gopher, which is Unix. I have no problem with young web designers, many of you guys already know more than me or design better than me. Plus add a few years of experience and when you become official "Adults" and look out Dan's job security. I guess one of the reasons I started this thread is because I feel that as a community we don't discuss real important issues. I see people getting flammed for not having a site validate or using a table, but where is the discussion of the new IE7 release? Where is the debate over ethical SEO practices or why png won't ever replace the gif (think file size)? As a web design community we look to our "quote unquote" leaders for news of the next big thing. We read the Zeldmans, Meyers, Mollys and Daves of the net but we don't really discuss them. So lets as a community, start using these forums to discuss new web issues and new ideas, not just for feedback on our new designs.
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Lost_User
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Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 09:28
--------------------------------------------------------- My name is Brandon, and the preceeding is true. I am 24, which is old enough to know when a topic was opened for my sake, but young enough to not have the fore-sight to refrain from posting in it. I've been into coding and design since I was 17. I would be doing something along those lines for a living had I felt there was money left in the industry. As it is, I am a real estate appraiser, because it pays better. I am a hobby coder by night and weekends. I can code circles in XHTML, CSS, PHP, and HTML. I've never liked ASP or .NET but I've never criticized anyone for using it. MySQL is my db of choice. I have an archnemesis known as Wilfred, which I have appended below as Fig A. FIG A 
I don't think one needs to be a programmer or designer to offer design critique. Often designers are so full of themselves collectively that they can't see the most basic errors they are making. Which is why people who make mundane observations about the real world (read: 37signals, and Zeldman) were embraced as legends. They seem to be the interface between designers and the real world. I used to be heavily involved at phpBB as prince_of_oreon (6700 posts); I opened a phpBB site which ran for awhile, and even wrote a tutorial. I later became template team leader at the British phpBB support site. I've created a lot of private templates for phpBB and have about a dozen partially finished ones. I've lived in Calgary, Alberta and Chicago, IL before moving to Manitoba. Manitoba is the land that God gave to Cain. I liked Chicago. If it were a little warmer in winter I'd love to buy a penthouse near Navy Pier. The most influential books on design I've read in the last month include More Eric Meyer on CSS and Workflow that Works by Kelly Goto and Emily Gotler. The most influential book I've ever read on design is Mr. Zeldmans Designing with Web Standards. The Calgary Flames are the only sports team I follow which is weird, because I much prefer playing basketball or volley-ball to playing hockey. I also know that when I want other people to open up about themselves, I would say "let's 'hear' (not 'here') about you." And yes, I am a little nit-picky on forums on occasion.
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Lost_User
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Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 11:14
I have been coding web sites (using standards only) since 2001 and got into it all after discovering A list apart. I now work full time for a large London based Management and IT consultancy in their IS implementation practise. I spend my days talking to clients and translating their ideas and requirements into static web pages, which I then pass on to our awesome developers to integrate with their clever back end functionality. I found Stylegala a few months ago, and have found it a really good place to pose questions to an intelligent community. I think there is the potential for this place to be a really good hub of knowledge, though I have to admit that due to commitments in work, I've not been able to help out with queries as much as I'd like. (I’ve no portfolio online at the moment but there will be one as soon as I have more than five minutes to work on it…)
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