我如何从平面设计转向网页设计
伊芙琳,七岁
你长大后会做什么?
Remember when you were a kid 和 an adult asked: “What do you want to be when you grow up?“我做的. I was seven years old sitting in the middle seat of our station wagon doodling in a notebook when my Dad asked me. 我小时候画了很多，所以才会有这个问题. When I uttered my response I wasn’t sure w在这里 I’d heard the term or what it meant but it 听起来 就像我擅长做的事.
“商业艺术家，”我说. My Dad’s expression told me that he, an economics guy, 没有 真的 我也知道那是什么. Commercial artist was a common catch-all term in the ’70s for animator, 设计师或任何广告/创意领域的人.
Who knows, maybe I was subconsciously influenced by reruns of 迷惑了. I remembered being intrigued by Darren’s workplace, an advertising company called McMann & 泰特.
At age 15 I got my first logo job to create t-shirt art for a grassroots environmental club. 我画了一支钢笔 & 墨线形的太阳落进地平线. 我在设计上很努力，并对结果感到自豪. 我赚的二十块钱让这一切都更甜蜜了. 画画挣钱? 是的，我可以做到.
伊芙琳带着Mac Plus. 我把比尔·塔塔的照片叠加在屏幕上. He was the supervisor at the 云母 Graphics Lab 和 the first to show me the wonders of the Mac 和 MacPaint! 哈哈!
1986年，我进入了马里兰艺术学院. 到达后不久, 云母 有了第一台台式电脑，一台Macintosh Plus ED. 我被打败. 在它和Linotype CRTronic 360排字机之间, 我做了一个完整的排版作品集, 这在当时是闻所未闻的.
经济在收缩，就业市场也在紧缩. I was one of only a h和ful of visual communication majors who l和ed a full-time job in a graphic design firm upon graduation. I’m sure my professionally typeset portfolio played a big part. 我感觉好极了。”技术.”
平面设计，完美的家庭业务
I worked at three firms over an eight-year period as a production person, 平面设计师, 和杂志艺术总监. After I got married, I began to think about the juggle of working a full-time job 和 having a baby.
I observed my older sister commuting with her very young children through rush hour traffic to daycare, 工作了一整天, 然后在晚高峰时间回家. 它看起来疲惫. I knew if I wanted to be a mom 和 continue to work I’d have to do it from home.
工作ing from home wasn’t as common in the mid-’90s because the internet was 拨号 但平面设计很适合它. Most of the client contact could be transacted through phone calls, email 和 couriers 和 the work itself could be created at any time as long as the deadlines were met.
My husb和 和 I bought a fixer-upper we could afford on one salary 和 two years before I had my first child, 我推出了设计力量. I had one repeat client, a Macintosh Quadra 950 和 very little business experience.
Over a fifteen-year period I maintained a consistent flow of work through word of mouth 和 was fortunate to have a steady stream of appreciative clients 和 income, 但我可以看到平面设计领域正在发生变化……
Budgets for print were shrinking because companies were allocating their marketing dollars to the web. I’d get asked to design a website but had no idea w在这里 to start. 我知道如果我不学习网页设计，我就会落后.
我不是一个 技术 毕竟
我上过网页设计的课程，但他们从来都不合拍. The first attempt was in 2001 through the Corcoran School of Art Adult Study Program. 那是一个学期的周一晚上6点到10点.
My children were three 和 one years old so I was sleep-deprived. The class was taught by a disembodied female voice upfront using slides in the dark. The course material came from a computer manual she’d written. 这声音知道她的底细，但她的声音单调而专业. 我发现这材料很难理解. I slept walk through the whole course 和 thought I’d try again when my kids were older 和 I had the b和width to focus.
In 2013 I enrolled in Northern 维吉尼亚州 Community College (NOVA) beginning web design course. It was a good review of HTML 和 CSS but nothing I could build a money-generating business from. 我感到很沮丧，也许我还不够懂技术.
事后看来，这不是万博manbetx手机版登陆 技术. It’s about practice, more practice, failures, successes, 和 repeat.
不仅是你知道什么，还有谁
In 2014 I signed up for a 12 week, all-day Saturday front-end web development class at 大会. I adored the teachers 和 felt I was finally getting instruction I could eventually monetize.
manbetx手机登录界面专注于HTML, CSS和一些JavaScript. 我也投标了一个大的网页设计工作，并得到了它! 哦,屎. When the class was done I knew two things: I’d NEVER be a front-end web developer 和 it’s all down to who you know.
To get optimal results in any web project you must be collaborative 和 work with a trusted network of web professionals.
随着网络工作的临近, I consulted Google 和 came across a virtual 训练 course called 10K boot camp offered by Ugurus. 新兵训练营为期10周, once a week for two hours on zoom with five other students 和 a mentor.
My mentor had a sales background 和 ran a virtual Magento agency. 当时的重点是运营一家网络公司. I also met a developer in the program to help me build that big site looming over me…thank goodness!
“I had many sleepless nights thinking I had no idea WTF I was 做.”
平面设计师≠网页设计师
The only crossover between print 和 web design is an underst和ing of layout, 排版, 和 images but a print design background can actually be a hindrance to effective web design.
打印, albeit t在这里 are many variations; sheet-fed, 数字, 冷压网, 油墨在承印物上的物理要求总是不变的吗. The content is mostly consumed from left to right in the western world.
Web design has many more complexities 和 considerations: content management systems (CMS), 用户界面设计, 用户体验设计(UX), 网页可及性, 安全, 设备, 维护, 加载速度, 兼容性, 搜索引擎优化, 交互性(视频/音频)和生命周期. 一个网站永远不会”把床”. The content is consumed in multiple ways 和 the designer has to integrate all of these considerations into the build.
我从事的网络工作越多，我就越清楚这一点. 我不简单 做 网页设计与平面设计. 我在转向新的职业. 第一次, I 没有 know exactly what I wanted to be because being a web designer is as vague as being a commercial artist but I'm not 15, I'm 50.
再见Gauley
Sometimes the magnitude of my ignorance would overwhelm me like a metaphorical white water rafting trip on the 上层Gauley. I’d navigate through some class fours 和 fives feeling confident about my direction, 却在枕岩被扔出了筏子, 一个坏蛋班级五快速, 在水下剧烈旋转, hoping they wouldn’t have to drain the river to retrieve my body.
夸张的我知道, but I’ll never forget the sleepless nights 和 sheer dread I experienced thinking I had no idea wtf I was 做. The irony of getting educated is the more I learned, the more I realized how little I knew.
I’d been fortunate to recognize a skill set at an early age 和 single-mindedly able to pursue, 培养并将其货币化. 大多数人一开始都没有这种清晰的认识. They get into a line of work based on their parent’s wishes or some other reason like drugs 和 alcohol, 他们现在的前搭档或者偶然事件.
也许这就是为什么我觉得它很脆弱. 想做点别的事 成功 感到难以置信. 我也没有一辈子的时间来学习这些. 我得尽快跟上进度. < Reading that line makes me chuckle.
Squarespace -> WordPress -> Squarespace
伊芙琳和特洛伊·迪恩在纽约WordCamp, 2016年7月
My first attempt at a client website was in Squarespace in 2011. 平台和我的设计都很糟糕. 在我的大会课和乌格鲁斯训练营之后, I decided I would use WordPress since it’s the most commonly used platform for building websites.
2017年我入学了 WP海拔 其中包括六个课程模块, 迷你课程, 训练, 视频, 一个私人的脸谱网群组, 还有了不起的澳大利亚人特洛伊·迪恩! His course was thorough enough to get me up to speed with the basics of running a WordPress agency.
I was accepting more web design jobs in my own business as well as taking on bigger jobs with a friend w在这里 I’d do the design 和 she’d build the sites. I also started to work with yet another friend on developing a more complex WordPress membership site.
These combined efforts pushed me to seek out more knowledge 和 people, research the industry 和 build my skills as a web designer 和 数字 strategist — all while raising teenagers 和 running a busy graphic design business. I have to remind myself of this because I can be very self-critical that I’m not further ahead.
当我生第一个孩子时，我岳母给了我明智的建议, “你可以做所有的事情，只是不能同时做.“这是我在球队轮换时的口头禅.
“你可以做所有的事情，只是不能同时做.”
在WordPress社区活跃之后, attending WordCamps 和 meetups 和 designing several WordPress sites of varying complexity using various builders over the course of six years, 我得出结论，我的原因之一 仍然 没有 爱 网页设计是因为我不喜欢在WordPress中工作.
这就是我说的.
I’d always thought it was my own ineptitude 和 I just needed more practice. I’ve come full circle back to Squarespace (SQSP), which is vastly different than it was in 2011. 我喜欢界面的优雅和简洁. WordPress在哪些方面做得更好? 当然，但对我来说，少即是多.
I’ve made peace with building my current web design business on a SaaS基于主机托管平台vs. 开源. It’s better suited to small businesses 和 entrepreneurs, my target market. 阅读manbetx手机登录界面为什么推荐SQSP 在这里.
保持相关性的追求是持续不断的.
从一种职业转向另一种职业从来都不是一帆风顺的
我把类, 买了各种软件, tried various platforms 和 had several mentors 和 friends who have helped me along the way. I always kept the same goal in mind: to monetize my web design skills enough to build a sustainable business.
花了八年时间，但我终于上路了. It’s not that I know everything but I know what to do now when I don’t. I don’t suffer as much from shiny object syndrome either because I know t在这里 is always something better out t在这里 but I’m good with what I have… for now. 我也知道哪些工作是不该做的，这也是一项来之不易的技能.
请检查!
So how much did it cost to pivot from 平面设计师 to web designer over these last eight years?
不包括我的第一次尝试, a Macromedia Director class I took in 1993 that I 没有 mention or that 2001 class I did mention ($1,155], I’ve spent approximately $21K (a year of in-state college tuition in the U.S.).
这包括前面提到的所有课程, 聪明人, WordCamps plus various online courses; Lynda.com [before it became free through the local library], Udemy, Treehouse 和 other one-off courses. It was money well-spent 和 has enabled me to continue to earn a decent income that I can leverage as long as I stay engaged.
I’m also connected to various communities of experts that I wouldn’t have had access to had I not sought out different methodologies 和 been dogged in finding my sweet spot.
最佳表演!
最让我惊讶的是，我真的热爱我的工作 更 than graphic design now because of the complexities, strategy, 和 reactions. When I did/do graphic design for organizations 和 mid-size businesses, 当然, 当打印件交付时，客户很高兴, but small business clients actually tear up after getting a 数字 makeover 和 their site launches. We create not just joy but RELIEF — it’s the best-unscripted show in town!
再来一个
最近, we were 做 web audits at a women’s entrepreneurial weekend retreat 和 a woman about my vintage came over to have us to review her site. She is an ahmazing interior designer of kitchens 和 bathrooms for clients who are aging in place.
She said, “I used to work for the government for thirty years, this is my 再来一个 职业生涯.” I had never heard that word used to describe a second 职业生涯.
我爱它.
上面说不管你以前做过什么或者做了多久, 你也可以改变方向，获得第二次机会, 一个安可! 它不是线性的, 也不容易, but you can finally be what you want to be now that you’re all grown up!
“...no matter what you used to do or how long you did it, you too can pivot 和 have 一个安可 职业生涯!”
乐趣Eeee
我的下一章包括更多的写作. I took a screenwriting class in college 和 exclusively wrote comedies so I thought a great way to jump start my writing habit would be to take a 站起来喜剧 class.
It was time consuming to write, rewrite, than rewrite some more. Not to mention rehearsing that five-minute set over 和 over again. 的经验, 虽然真的很有趣，也有点伤脑筋, 绝对阻止了我玩另一个支点. 为什么?
Because open mike night opportunities for the newbie comic happen way too late at night AND I’m finally hitting my stride with my day job. 它确实做到了我想要的，让我写更多的东西. 你可以看我的喜剧处女作 在这里.
开门营业……还有更多
我做了一个手镯，上面写着我今年的愿望.
If t在这里 is anything you’ve read in this article that you want clarification on, please ask. 我今年的词是“开放”. I want to be more transparent, open to sharing more, open to opportunities, insights, 和 input. 我愿意了解你的想法，谢谢你阅读我的想法. 👐
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