Newbie Web Designer - 33 & starting from scratch - Need Advice

I'm not really a web developer by trade (game programmer now, but done a lot of back-end, C#, PL/SQL, enterprise architecture etc). Had a little internal project needed doing and I've spent the last couple of weeks knocking out an application in Spring/Angular.

Having previously only done traditional 'website' JSP/PHP type work before, it's been quite eye-opening working in this new paradigm....I see a lot of web development moving this way in future.

Specifically, instead of having a web server dishing up pages to a browser...you have a back-end that presents a REST API, and all the web server does it dish up the javascript application which runs in the browser. The Angular.JS runs it's own MVC application gubbins within the browser and fetches/sends all the data it needs through the REST API. The architect in me loves this approach, completely decouples the client from the server meaning you can plug whatever you want into the rest API, or point the client somewhere else.

Javascript is still a **** language to build applications in mind :P
 
I put together a few albums on Imgur so I can keep tracking of my progress, some of the 2014 designs are truly horrible and I though they looked pretty decent at the time. I think I've always had an eye for what looked good and I'd like to think my skills are catching up with my taste. Hopefully my stuff in 2016 will be a damn site better than this years efforts!

Arranged by oldest first
2014 - http://imgur.com/a/GqTQq
2015 January to June - http://imgur.com/a/qqJ5J
2015 July to December - http://imgur.com/a/GcZSa
 
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Great work mate really impressed, i like the way you thought you were not much of a designer and now look at you :) a truly great inspiration for sure well done.

I feel very much the same in that i feel i am not very creative although i really wish i could be. Seeing how you thought the same and seeing your designs now i think i make take a similar route. I have an ok grasp of html and css, im looking at jquery and php but may put it on hold. Watching some sketch app tutorials at the mo and going to go from there i think.

Where did you find your design spark from in the end, was there one part of your learning where it just clicked?
 
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elrasho said:
Did you design the Zurb website? That's a really good website dude :)
Click to expand...

I designed it but didn't build it, this guy did https://www.jamesstone.com, I've also redesigned that site too but he hasn't got round to building it yet.

liamcrane said:
Great work mate really impressed, i like the way you thought you were not much of a designer and now look at you :) a truly great inspiration for sure well done.

I feel very much the same in that i feel i am not very creative although i really wish i could be. Seeing how you thought the same and seeing your designs now i think i make take a similar route. I have an ok grasp of html and css, im looking at jquery and php but may put it on hold. Watching some sketch app tutorials at the mo and going to go from there i think.

Where did you find your design spark from in the end, was there one part of your learning where it just clicked?
Click to expand...

Thanks, sometimes I think I haven't improved much but looking at the designs on imgur it's pretty obvious I have.

I've come realise that talent is not really that important for UI design (not sure about other area's of design). Time, hardwork and a love for the craft is more than enough to put you on the path to good things. I started with no talent for this so literally started at zero and I think I've done ok and you can too.

I think it clicked for me when I realised it was ok to look for inspiration instead trying to design only with my own skills. This is the book that gave me a kick up the arse and license to seek inspiration.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Steal-Like-Artist-Austin-Kleon/dp/0761169253

Picasso
"Good artists copy, great artists steal."
 
Was trying to send you a trust message mug2k but doesn't look like you have it setup. Just wanted to ask you a few things if thats ok?
 
mug2k said:
I put together a few albums on Imgur so I can keep tracking of my progress, some of the 2014 designs are truly horrible and I though they looked pretty decent at the time. I think I've always had an eye for what looked good and I'd like to think my skills are catching up with my taste. Hopefully my stuff in 2016 will be a damn site better than this years efforts!

Arranged by oldest first
2014 - http://imgur.com/a/GqTQq
2015 January to June - http://imgur.com/a/qqJ5J
2015 July to December - http://imgur.com/a/GcZSa
Click to expand...

Nice work
though grey text on a white background is a pet hate of mine :)
 
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