hey im just 16 so i dont really classify myself as any kind of a designer yet, not compared to most of u guys anyway…
but im looking around for good courses, mainly in flash and photoshop, but probably dreamweaver and web design too
by the way i live in australia but im looking for the best, so anywhere in the world is fine
TY
Isaac
oh and also i cant get my pic in my footer to work, wats the deal with that
the fact would be that you are trying to pull an image off of your harddrive, which isn’t going to work, at all. You need to host it somewehre online.
First place to start learning is these forums. Kirupa has done a great job in pulling some great designers and developers onto these forums to answer questions. The tutorial section is also a great place to learn.
Good Luck.
don’t worry, your not the first one to try and pull stuff off their hard drive like that.
OMFG ROFL…
don’t be mean just because know about server setup… but digigamer, you have to have a server to host the image 
hey zacus
:you need to have your footer online to be able to use it on the forums.
now to courses, i had previously completed a 3 year course at Hornsby tafe “Advanced Diploma in Graphic Design” and i must say it was a great learning experience, but as you might of known the course has changed now to what is called “Visual Communications”.
From what i know the differences are that some of the subjects and modules are more specific now. While my course provided a wide range of skills we really did not have a choice to pick a elective like web/motion graphics. While im sure the main aspect of the course stayed the same, but i believe that you can be more specific in what area of design you would like to dive into in the end of the 2nd year and whole 3rd year(actually i think that course now is 4 years).
Now the university vrs College (tafe) argument.
University is hard to get into, and especially if you have not had any art lessons or can’t show that you understand the basics of art/design. Not to say that you shouldnt try, by all means try, but i know from experience that its hard to get into. When i applied there was 800 applicants for 80 positions at one Uni, (university of Penrith, UWS).
University is more about theory, theory relating to design and it origins. I think this is great to know and can really help you put reason to your designs when in relation to colour / positioning / and theme-topic.
But why i liked Tafe so much was the fact that you get “down and dirty” into graphic design. You learn what you need to know to survive out in the design world. Survival tactics. Its a much more hands on and has more practical exercises. How i learnt was by real life situation projects given out by teachers, where we had to work with restrictions, work to a deadline and work to the clients needs.
Sure at the start of the course you will learn how to use the applications such as photoshop, illustrator, indesign and others, but its not really a course to teach you to be experts in application , but more a course to help you use your creativity and use the applications to develop a end result. It dosent matter how well you know photoshop, if your not creative and you cannot translate your idea onto a media, then it’s all a waste. You can always learn cool tricks in photoshop on these forums and by playing around with ps, but remember try not to get lost in ps and try to have reason and restrictions to your designs to allow yourselve time to complete it or you will be forever working on one piece.
this course might seem design heavy, as in more print related material and teachings, well it was when i was there, but from the changes in the course it seems like web has been incoporated into it much more. I think its really the best way around, to first be a designer and then jump right into web.
More specific course are more of a private college course which would cost you up to 15,000 dollarsAUS, although a great class my friend(completed the same course as i did) tells me but more directed to web- e-commerce and other web techonologies rather than design.
i can talk and talk forever, but i will stop, lol
i hope what i have said has helped you, my last piece of advice would be to go to your career advicer, and tell her/him what field you would like to get into, they should be able to direct you to something that you can read up on and help you make a right decision when the time comes.
also one more thing, when you have work experience (they are still doing that right?) try to get a place asap, call up 2 different design or web places, 2 different companies that handle 2 different types of web or design in relation to what area you have narrowed down your career direction, this can really help you in your final decision.
any more question, ask away and if i can help i will do so. 
i’d also look into getting some books
I’d start playing with code for a while until you know it backwards and forwards, that’s what I do :thumb:
OMFG ROFL…
Theres no need to swear and laugh mate.
Zacus, your probably in year 11 like me but if you want to experience some of the courses, you should try and ask your careers advsior about going to tafe on certain school days. This is a really good start to get to know web design in a professional sense. You might think tafe is crap because university is better and thinking senior studio directors would go for the top guy but its not that case anymore. For one thing, learning and taking a course in web-design needs you to be creative and having great insterest to explore new environments and able to create something inspiring. You dont need know top qualifications to have a successful career in web-design. If you took courses through tafe, like Paul said, University is more on the theory side of web-development just like IPT. Paul said “It dosent matter how well you know photoshop, if your not creative and you cannot translate your idea onto a media, then it’s all a waste.” I think thats really important. If you just memorise how to do this and that rather than knowing pratical ideas and procedures, than your in the wrong course. From my opinion, Tafe is the best way to discover and take your skills and crativity into the real world and taking that course Paul said is a good option. If your really serious about taking this path than work hard at it. Its not use doing it and than giving up later. If you have spare time, pick up a copy of Desktop magazine as it has some information regarding design colleges such as Computer Graphics College down in Sydney.
now to courses, i had previously completed a 3 year course at Hornsby tafe “Advanced Diploma in Graphic Design” and i must say it was a great learning experience, but as you might of known the course has changed now to what is called “Visual Communications”.
Visual Communications? They made it sound technical. Should have kept it with graphic design. Hey Paul regarding the course you did, you said the courses are more specfic now. If for example I had good interest in graphic design, motion (flash) and 3D would I be choosing to do 3 separate courses or are they all combined under Visual Communications?
thanks Minimal, I think the basic theory learning is the same, and what i mean by theory is teaching colour wheel theories and a run through of things you should/need to know. Then i believe later in the course your electives are more specific. I will get some hard evidence for this then get back to you guys.
:: edit :: regarding the course’s new name, this was actually the name of the course the university was running at the time i applied, i believe its based on the new media out in the design world.
funny enough, my research on tafe website it seems that Visual communications is a module now part of a course? im not sure if the website has been updated, if you want i’ll be in tafe the next few days and i can go past and see what they are calling it now.
this is what i found. (scroll down to the design section)
http://www.tafensw.edu.au/cgi-rdb/rdbweb/handbook/xcrsspecialist_to?VTRAINING_DIVISION=2385&PRINTVER_IND=N#get_1860
i think this is a course you might be interested in.
http://www.tafensw.edu.au/cgi-rdb/rdbweb/handbook/XGETCOURSE_TO?VCOURSE_NO=7894&MODE=H&PRINTVER_IND=N
and i believe this is the course that i did.
http://www.tafensw.edu.au/cgi-rdb/rdbweb/handbook/XGETCOURSE_TO?VCOURSE_NO=7891&MODE=H&PRINTVER_IND=N
but that last link (course) seems wrong to me, from what i know it has changed, ill see what i can find out.
If you’re wealthy enough, and have good grades to be accepted, one of the top design uni in the US is Savannah college of A&D: http://www.scad.edu/
This thread on cgtalk might help; even though it’s more 3d than webdesign: http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=69427
Looking at the tafe sites you have given me has given me a scary realisation of what career choices im taking up. The links are really good and beneficial to Zacus. I gradually insighted really good interest with flash and graphic design but I might not be sure I might even consider taking it as a career path after the HSC. A big part thats scares my wits is that if I actually take and finish a course at tafe for example and Im ready to being able to work for a firm, I might not be able to do client work, its just I dont see how I could come up with new ideas every time for each new project. But I probably admit to myself as just designing and picking up skills with ps and so forth as a hobbie and nothing as a career. I hate myself for being that i dont actually have particular skills in one area but in different small areas and not any specific one making my career choice difficult.
Those are some good links and good reads, but does anyone know of a college or university that also offers programming. Not like C/C++/Java, but PHP, ActionScript, CSS, XML etc.
I’m thinking of going to a major (Big 10 or equivalent) University for 4 years and getting a degree in Computer Science, then going to Fullsail for 2 years to get based in the graphic stuff, and then from there apply my knowledge in the programming area to whatever I’m interested in doing at that point, be it Web Design or Software Development, or something new that has developed by that point. Anyone have any opinions on if that’s a good or bad idea?
thanks alot guys thats some great advice,
tafe sounds good, i could see how 4 years of theory in uni would get kinda borin even if it was helpful.
would the footer work if i uploaded it to som free hosting like geocities and then linked it from ther?
Zacus you asked about the footer before but didnt you read what I said? Anyway, I dont think geocitites or angelfire will work since they dont allow remote/external linking which allows your footer here at Kirupa to be viewed. Try www.t35.com , hostultra.com , 1asphost.com, or [url=“http://www.illusionfxnet.com/”]www.illusionfxnet.com it they might let remote linking. Use an ftp program (smartftp) and upload the image to the host. Once thats done just type this:
[img]http://www.whateva.com/1.jpg[/img]
in the edit signature part of your user panel.
I hope you choose the right career path and stick to it
Great stuff, it seems as though I’m most certainly not the only 16 year old from Australia with these questions.
From what I’ve read Soulty most of the 3/4 year degrees in melbourne are like you said. They do a whole lot of general theory for the first two years but let you choose the field you want to excel at in the last years. I think this is a good idea as after two years of designing im sure you will know by now what field you want to enter. Rather than having to decide on a specific course and then realising half way through it’s not for you.
I think us up and coming Year 11 students should band together to form our own firm aka KirupaForumDesign
waddaya think?
Oh, also, work experience was the best thing I ever did. The first one I went and worked with a local(rural) multimedia group and the other one a print designer in Melboune. They deffinatly made the most impact on my mindset as to what I want to be and gave me a taste of a very large chunk of the spectrum.
The more people you meet in the industry the better and the more likely you are to get a job.
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