Sabrina Dent: Freelance web designer, developer and internet marketer living in Cork, Ireland with one dog and a husband in no particular order.
Confessions of a Web Designer
Generally, when people approach me to work with them, they come bearing a certain number of assumptions about web designers. While it’s nice that someone somewhere who has clearly never met me thinks I’m a latte-drinking, WACOM-owning, Mac-plugged hipster, the reality is that I sit here most days in my pyjamas, working away on an ageing Dell desktop and trying to figure out how to open those new-fangled .docx document types.
And while I do take my coffee very seriously, my credibility in this arena is greatly diminished by the fact that I do not know how to roast my own coffee beans. It’s very hard to hold my head up at conventions for swanky web designers, which explains why I don’t go to those. (That plus I don’t get invited.)
So here, for your Monday morning amusement, are the Top Ten Things You Never Want to Hear About Your Web Designer:
- I am completely self-taught. I have never taken a web design, coding or marketing class, and am thus entirely unqualified for pretty much any job you might want to hire me for. I’m pretty OK with that.
- I learned to code HTML creating free pages on GeoCities, because I wanted to edit the colours on the provided templates.
- I learned to build an SQL query in FrontPage. At the time, it was the only visual builder around and it opened up the world of databases to me. I will be forever grateful.
- On the very rare occasions when I actually need to create a table for, you know, tabular data, I still use FrontPage, mostly because it’s so rare I can’t really remember how to code tables any more.
- I learned basic CSS from a woman named Vee McLaughlin over many hours in an ICQ chat window. She was incredibly patient and to a huge extent, I owe her my entire career.
- I live in the Motherfucking Bank Guilt Spiral. It is impossible for me to blog if I owe any client work. I always owe at least one client work; therefore I almost never blog. Or do laundry. Or buy groceries. Or go to the bank.
- I do not use PhotoShop. I mean, I can, but 98% of the non-vector graphics I create are done in PaintShop Pro. The version I use was released in March of 2000. I will never upgrade it.
- I overwrote a client’s live site by accident in 2001. There was no backup. I still have nightmares about it and have never made that mistake again.
- I stuck the color #92BD5D in my palette back in the day when we used only web-safe colours, and waited more than 10 years for it to become trendy so I could use it pretty much constantly. When it becomes passée, I may never work again.
- I am overwhelmed by data and have not opened my RSS reader in a year. 99% of my reading list comes from Twitter. I do not subscribe to Smashing Magazine, Mashable or anything else I’m supposed to be reading, including your blog.
The final blow to my credibility:
I own no Apple products and there is no part of me that wants an iPhone.
27 Jul 2010
| In: Design + Domesticities + Interpipes | Tags:confessions
It’s so not Monday. Aren’t you supposed to be at the bank today?
27.07.2010, 7:48 amWelcome to the real world. Being a self-taught makes you a perfectionist so, in fact, you might get more work after this post.
Thank you for your honesty – not many people act like that (unfortunately.)
27.07.2010, 7:51 amSee? This blog post is actually a week old but I didn’t publish it because I AM REALLY BEHIND. I’ve declared today to be Monday, however, and I am going to finish getting all caught up today.
No, really. I am.
Ah c’mon, now I’m forced to open an image editor to see what #92BD5D is. Presumably the coffee grinding, crema-measuring gurus can just picture it in their head?
Ahhhh, that fabulous green.
I may have to buy you a modern copy of PSP just to annoy you.
27.07.2010, 8:01 am (subscribed to comments)Didn’t you speak at a swanky web design conference? :)
27.07.2010, 8:22 am (subscribed to comments)No matter what you say about yourself – I won’t understand it. I’m also self-taught – but didn’t do as good a job on it as you did.
Raul got it right.
I suppose you don’t read your own blog either – so these comments will wait until you’ve cleared your in-tray?
ps I’ve stuck to my promise not to publicise how good your are.
27.07.2010, 8:32 am (subscribed to comments)Sounds like a post I wanted to write but I’ve yet to get around to. A scary tell all about the reality (or at least my own warped reality) of client work .. stress .. getting paid and oops realising no I didn’t have that all backed up before the thing blew up :D ( backup … that’s a key that takes you to the top of the page isn’t it)
27.07.2010, 8:59 am (subscribed to comments)he he – its funny cause its all true. Good on you for lifting the lid and exposing the generally normal (not swanky) world of web design/development.
If there was one thing I could add to the list, and I may be wandering off topic a wee bit, it would be that however experienced, practiced or just damn good I get at doing anything it is never finished quickly. Everything takes ages when you exist in a pixel perfect world…
27.07.2010, 9:07 am (subscribed to comments)Oh dear! You can’t beat the Irish for humour! I was laughing so hard at your top 10 list. You really learned CSS over IM? Well I’ve seen your handiwork and I think more power to ya for overcoming the lack of coffee roasting talent to produce such fantastic results.
27.07.2010, 9:15 am (subscribed to comments)@Mike: Indeed I did. To give you an idea how long ago this was, ICQ was both new *and* cool – my (now unused) ICQ number is in the 131,1xx range. Vee was utterly generous with her time and an excellent teacher. She was a very talented designer, but has long since disappeared, I assume into an online alter-ego.
Sounds like my life story, with a few exceptions:
– Can’t stand coffee. People just don’t get that.
– Learned SQL the hard way. Joins still terrify me.
– Finally gave in to Photoshop recently cos the Gimp is just too awkward; did love PSP though.
– Not just a Google Reader addict, but a “power user”.
Apple products are for gullible fashion victims, you’re better off. Besides, who’d want a phone that doesn’t actually work properly as a phone? (See previous sentence.)
adam
27.07.2010, 10:30 am (subscribed to comments)As long as you don’t leave the house in your PJ’s then you are okay Sabrina. When you start to turn up for meetings like that then you need help. :P
As with any freelancer, I’m guess we all go through similar experiences. Working from home has it’s advantages (like not having to get dressed for work) and disadvantages (like not having human contact all day).
I’ve learned alot of my stuff from reading ebooks from places like sitepoint. And through trial and error. There is a danger that you could miss something rather obvious being self thought, but I like to think of it more as my style. ;)
Being a one (wo-)man band means you can play to your own tune.
Paul
27.07.2010, 10:49 am (subscribed to comments)Ditto! I’m gonna guess that most web designers are self thought these days and I think it’s a far better approach. You learn what you need to, when you need to. Very Kaizen.
PS – what kind of PJ’s are you wearing!?
28.07.2010, 10:46 am (subscribed to comments)I’ve found, on a daily basis, that many people have misconceptions, or are totally ignorant about, the process of getting a web site designed. Many of you know what I’m talking about and the rest of you are probably still in the dark. For those of you who already know what I mean, we should get together and write a book someday.
31.07.2010, 4:38 pm (subscribed to comments)