Hey folks, My name is Kyle, and I'm currently a freelance brand, print, and web designer through my studio, http://eleven08.com. I'm thinking of making the switch to interactive / web design full time, and was wondering what you'd consider the most valuable languages and / or programs to know. I currently know Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Quark Xpress, and can hand code HTML and CSS. I also have extensive experience with Wordpress development. I know Flash and AS3 are givens, but would you recommend anything beyond that for a designer? I've been told to learn jQuery and PHP as well, but are these beneficial to a designer vs. a developer? Needless to say, I'd like to be on the cutting edge and be VERY marketable for an agency or design firm. Print and straight graphic design are dead in the water it seems. Thanks in advance. Any help would be appreciated.
You need to know javascript. jQuery is not a language. It's a javascript library. Java is the most widely used web language but ad agencies are not as likely to be involved with that. PHP would be next in line but keep your eye on Python. There is far less usage of the Microsoft stuff than they would like you to believe.
Mm.. If you want to become a web designer then I should suggest you languages I know: PHP, SQL, JavaScript (+ jQuery), HTML, AJAX, XML, CSS That's all you need to create nice web sites.
Awesome, thanks guys. Any recommendations on where to learn these languages? I'm sure there are some I can learn through the local community college or university, but is there any benefit to that? Are free online lessons just as valuable? Also, certifications...worth anything?
Well, w3schools.com is a great place to learn your basics. Also I learned other things from tutorial sites like good-tutorials.com, codecall.net, you can go to my site, i have some tutorials there about PHP trilldesigns.com/forum/index.php?/forum/31-php/ and well.. Google is your helper. Certs are worth very much.. But um.. I have learned and used PHP for 5 years for now and I think I'm not ready to get a PHP engineer cert.
Cool, cool. Yeah I asked a buddy of mine where he got his PHP certification and he said "zend.com...oh, and I didn't get my certification. It's ridiculous." Haha.
If you just want to be a designer.. you are currently fully quallified in addition you have learn javascript. If you want to become a developer you should learn server side technologies. Jsp, php, asp.net. and databases like Sql server, Mysql, oracle I would recommend learning ASP.NET WITH C# AND MS SQL SERVER AS DATABASE Whichever is the technology you are going to learn... Buy a book and learn.