Blog: Websites and Me

Menu
Archives
Search
RSS Feed
Websites and Me - Saturday, July 2, 2005
My latest products of web design, a site I helped Priscilla make and a sample layout I made for myself, have opened my eyes to a reality I've so long ignored. While my site designs are better than what a typical "newbie" would produce, they have never looked professional. Sure, my layouts follow good code convention: the code is organized and I don't stray from XHTML or CSS standards. Text is easily readable and neatly arranged. I even throw in some spiffy Photoshop'd graphics and CSS special effects.

But holistically, it doesn't work. Instead of blending harmoniously into a piece of perfection, the various elements clash dissonantly and leave one hodgepodge of a design that screams mediocrity.

I'm not a graphic designer. I've never taken any design course and I've fared poorly in art all my life (just ask my teachers!). Perhaps web design is not what I was ever cut out to do.

But I love to do it. It's one of my hobbies and something I've been doing for nine years. So now I've started to hunt for online tutorials on layout and graphic design that might help me out. True, I'll probably never create a masterpiece of a layout, and I'm not going to make it my day job. But that won't stop me from pouring 100% effort into it, and having fun.