Re: Wanted: someone to teach basic web design
 

I was just about to say that myself!

Re: Wanted: someone to teach basic web design
 

They are hard to find but in amongst this lot you will find some
http://images.google.es/images?q=wordpress&oe=utf-8&rls
I am thinking of playing with wordpress; because on another forum I read it is regarded well by the amateurs. Our website is now looking more and more messy as the extensions have been added over the years and I have learnt a lot of the years it has been in our ownership.
Note wordpress is mainly for bloggers but it can be used for any website.

Re: Wanted: someone to teach basic web design
 

well, not to tread on anyones toes in any way, i'd say theres a fine line between what is construed as a valid 'i can do, threfore i am' attitude and a ' i am, therefore i do' approach to web design.
i started in the game many years ago, through the simple need for a cheap website (in the days when anyhing cost 5k plus) plus the fact i'd done shed loads of cad beforehand in other jobs gave me the 'want' to pursue it further.
i'm college educated, certainly not university 'educated', but i know what looks good, and, quite frankly, doesnt.
a university qualified web designer may well know all the correct procedures to impliment to, allegedly, make a site 'sing and dance', but that doesnt make them know how or why something looks good. hence why there's graphic designers et al.
i know a guy who had no idea how to put together the foundations of a website, from the grass roots up, yet is the most stunning technical illustrator i've ever know.
if you're happy with the website you've designed, and you're getting the hits that count, there's not much else can be said. if, on the other hand, your site looks as bad as last years winner of worst site competition, or you're a huge company, then call in the pro's......

Re: Wanted: someone to teach basic web design
 

Hello Nice Peeps,
Thankyou for all the responses, noted and kindly received. I haven't actually looked at this thread for some time, well from the time it kinda got alittle bent out of shape. I thought it might have died then.
I know one cannot circumnavigate experience without time, but I wanted to know those short cuts, being able to do the basic stuff, with someone holding my inexperienced hand.
So I still await my geeky prince on his white Mac!

Re: Wanted: someone to teach basic web design
 

Well, I see littlelambfound has returned to the fold. He doesn't seem to have noticed my offer - probably just as well: it's too cold to go out at the moment.

Incidentally, Econ seems to have missed my point. Just about every modern professional-level WYSIWYG Web editor (whether for Linux or the Mac or Windows) will allow you to create style sheets. My point was that you don't have this power when operating in WYSIWYG ("word processing") mode.

As for graphic design skills, of course they matter - and exercising them is often the most fun part of the job. Other skills matter too: writing and editing skills, market research skills, information architecture skills - and just being able to dream up features that attract visitors to a site and achieve the site owner's goals. Visual skills play their part - but Web site design is not about the scenery.

Re: Wanted: someone to teach basic web design
 

Hi littlelambfound
I am a web designer and live about 1/2 hrs drive inland from you. I would say it depends on what kind of website you want to create. If you are just interested in throwing up loads of websites and don't want to spend loads of time on the design side, I would recommend using joomla, version 1.5 is a lot better than version 1 and you can make it search engine friendly with a couple of tweeks(included with the package). There are loads of free templates out there but I would recommend paying a little and getting a real good template try searching for rockettheme, you can purchase a really good template from them for $50 (no i don't work for them). I myself don't use joomla at all, but I can see the benefits of it for your type of business. Yes you are a little restricted in what you can do, but there is a massive community out there who are willing to help. If on the other hand you want to start from scratch and create good looking web sites quickly, good luck. It's going to be a long uphill struggle.

Re: Wanted: someone to teach basic web design
 

Hi Chickentikka,
Can you please send your details via PM. I'd like to have a chat. Thanks. LLF

Re: Wanted: someone to teach basic web design
 

Well, this is really bizarre. I replied to the guy who originated this thread, first to his given e-mail address, then by private message.

I thought my replies were both informatiave and witty. I got absoutely no response. Not even a curt "you're not my idea of a geeky prince." Nada, nothing, no response.

I was pretty hurt. At least he should have had the good manners to say I wasn't what he was looking for.

Now I find he is still keeping up with the thread. What is going on?

Re: Wanted: someone to teach basic web design
 

Hi Dr,
I actually sent the following to you via PM on the 21st of Jan. You might find it within a copy of the mail you last sent me.

"Hello Michael,
Sorry for the tardiness in getting back toy you....I have been busy traveling from Spain to deepest darkest Devon (where, at my mothers, the Internet is just a myth/folklore!) and then onto Budapest, where I keep a photo studio. In all that time, I never got round to checking this site.
Because I actually have a couple of designers working for me (but based in the Far East), we have decided to conduct class via web cam and by linking my laptop to his computer directly. Let's see how it goes.
Thank you for your kind offer and thanks again for your time.
Kind Regards, Jonathan"

Re: Wanted: someone to teach basic web design
 

To littlelambfound:
No doubt I am wayout of date, but I am just starting my own webdesign site (no links via this reply) & could be the one you are looking for. Read through all the reply posts and very few address your requirements. To be straight it is very easy to build a site--- however not so easy to design one. You need first to get straight your aims for each site ie- target audience, text layout , graphic use etc etc. Then start thinking about browsers and how each site will format on them. Next go back to text layout and look at your keywords and how and where you place them (remember people read to a F Pattern-- too much to go into on this forum)
Anyway the above is just the start, I studied web "Design" for three years back in the UK, I achieved student of the year on each year and I'm bloody good at what I do.
Well if you want more , contact me and I also want to know more about your abundance of sites ( have no problem with your way of thinking, thats what the web is all about and any one having problems with someone making money needs to get real)
All the best

Re: Wanted: someone to teach basic web design
 

Modest too, did you read rule 9. ;-) :-)

Re: Wanted: someone to teach basic web design
 

Hi jdr:

original post was "someone to teach basic wed design". Just putting out the offer in reply. jdr believe me I can be very modest and as a man I have and know my many shortcomings;). Also know what I'm good at !!!!
Have a good evening jdr and good to email with you.

Nias

Re: Wanted: someone to teach basic web design
 

Make that "web"

Re: Wanted: someone to teach basic web design
 

You can design a good website, but what about the SEO? a good design is only half the way there!

Re: Wanted: someone to teach basic web design
 

Agree:
However most Small - Medium design companies employer at least one Search engine optimizer and all large companies a whole team. Not where my skills lay. I was employed purely for page/text/graphic/form layout and all that entails. I assure you the best sites are not cheap nor a one man band !!!
If you really want to see a high- end webdesign company, look at a company called designchapel . Not touting for business with them, Ive worked over the years for them and they have a customer list most companies would die for.
They employ teams of very specialized people, all extremely good at their own subject (even employ layout designers with degrees in psychology/sociology to look at the target audiences with the aim to match them into the layouts --esp text, its a whole new science) One was me ! among others.
Anyway this is not really the forum for this kind of discussion I guess , I was just offering my skills to the poster -- nothing else.
Have a good one
Nias