History
I've always been interested in computers for as long as I can remember. My earliest memory of using computers is from when I was about 8 years old and I would spend ages trying to draw funky little pictures in Paint. Since then, I've always really enjoyed using them whenever I can. Due to the fact I enjoy using computers a lot, ICT was always my favourite subject at school, and I was usually the first one to finish any computer related work.
My first experience of web design was when I was about 13 years old. That's when I created my first ever website for a competition at my secondary school. I'm ashamed to say that I created it in Microsoft Word, but at the time, I had never heard of Dreamweaver. Looking back at it, it was a horrible creation, but it became the most popular website on the school network.
For the next few years after that, I concentrated more on graphic design. I started off following endless amounts of tutorials I found on the internet. Although I still look at tutorials today, mainly for inspiration and to learn new skills, I get much more pleasure out of creating my own graphics, in particular logos, wallpapers and sigs (graphical signatures used in forums).
I found really good site, called Worth1000, to put my Photoshop skills to the test. This is a contest site that focuses more on the actual art of photoshopping (where you actually alter a photograph). They also have competitions to design logos for companies, with a cash prize on offer for the chosen design, which I sometimes have a go at, although I am yet to win.
The first proper website I made was when I was 16 when we had to make a website for my GNVQ ICT course. I didn't know anything about making websites at the time, and I thought FrontPage was the only program available for it, so that's what I used. After that, with my love for web design reignited, but still not knowing a lot about it, I used Google Page Creator to make a little website about me and my friends at Sixth Form. It still exists to this day, although I haven't updated it in 2 years. If you want to have a look, you will find it here.
It wasn't until I had to make a couple of websites for my A-level ICT course that I learnt how to use Dreamweaver and Flash. I then started spending a lot of time at home learning more about using Dreamweaver. I found the best way to learn was just by creating websites and learning as I went along. I started off by creating a few small websites, usually about me or my favourite bands, by designing them in Photoshop and then slicing and coding them for Dreamweaver.
Although I knew some basic HTML, I soon found out I didn't know enough to allow me to create a fully functional website. So I started doing a lot of reading about it and following tutorials on how to write proper XHTML and CSS and how to make websites using divs instead of tables. Once I knew the basics, I started to create this site and learnt so much along the way. There were times when I really struggled, but I kept working at it and found that overcoming the problems was really satisfying and gave me a really good understanding of web design.
I now spend most of my free time either tinkering with this site, or learning more about web design. Although it might not be everyone's cup of tea, I really enjoy it. I'd much rather spend my time doing something creative and rewarding than walking around aimlessly outside, getting drunk and starting fights.
Now that I have learnt the basics, I feel that I am ready to make take it one step further and make a living out of it. I really enjoy all aspects of web design, and would love to make it my job. Until then, I will keep on reading and learning new skills to further my knowledge