Becoming a l337 a web designer........

Ok...

I have been web designing for a few years now.. I Have started my own business and I have been Getting alot of work.

Thats all fine and dandy.. but i still feel I suck at web design... and when i see sites like; thehorusproject.com and floodgear.com and the hundred of other ones I study each one.. learning new tricks... Here are a few sites i have made...

http://www.designex.net/apo
http://www.designex.net/tpp
http://www.eternalpower.net
http://www.biglakesgoosehunting.ca

Those are just a few..

BUT my real problem is.. I Have a HARD time trying to get better... I want to be as good as you l337 designers. I experiment and work hard... but everything turns out like crap...

So my Question is... How did you (the elite web designers) become to good at what you do?... Did you goto a Art College/University ? I plan to goto one once I finish high school..(currently gr12). Is ther ecertain things you do for inspiration?

Thanks..

From looking at your work it looks like you are trying to copy the designer's you look up to a little too much. Most of the things you have done so far could be considered "trendy". I think you would do well to find your own style and come up with your own ideas, rather than emulating what your idols are doing.

If you are really interested in doing web design rather than just creating graphics, I would work on trying to make parts other than the graphics of your site more interesting. For instance on the first link you posted, you have one trendy graphic, that is kinda interesting except for the fact that it has been done a billion times. But then the rest of the site is really boring. Boring fonts, boring colors, boring layout.

Then on the second link, you have sacrificed readability for some scratchy background. If you want to create a web site, focus on the layout and accent and enhance it with graphics. If you just want to create a cool graphic, then make a graphic, don't try to make a web site out of it.

As for college, it certainly won't hurt. I haven't been, and most of the other people I know haven't been. There are great designers that have never had formal training a day in their life, and there are really crappy designers that have a college degree in design.

What it really comes down to is practice. That's a lot of what you do in a university anyway. They teach you a new technique or principal, then you spend the next couple of weeks practicing it and doing projects with what you've learned. You can do the same thing without paying thousands of dollars to go to school for it. Buy a couple of good books on typography and design principles, then apply what you've read and make tons of sites and designs with it.

"I want to be as good as you l337 designers"

We try not to encourage that kind of thing here. l337ness really isn't praised at all...what's praised is originality and experimentation. If you become a web designer, what big company would want a design with pointless 3D spikes and everything? Yeah, sure they might look nice but in reality that's only your opinion. If i was to go to a site to look at interest rates or something, i would want a clean and simple design with simple HTML. College is definitely the way to go, especially in graphic design. If you're a qualified graphic designer with a degree, you're going to get snatched up by any company faster than you can say the letter 'i'.

Art is all about creativity. Being a trenwhore or leet is not being creative and you would fail miserably in college with your current attitude. I'm judt giving advice, we're here to give our professional and experienced opinions.

Erm.. Sorry.. I dont mean l337 designer as "Oh You so l337 OMG OMG.." I mean as in.. Very Skilled and welle experienced. Sorry for the confusion.

I once tried my own styles.. But no one seemed to like them as much. But thanks alot for the tips

p.s. Not to sound rude or anything but Yes I did reate everything on my sites. (including 3d). Please dont think I Rip'd them.

not tryin to seem like i'm promoting myself, but check out my site. i don't see many sites like this ... i like this style, and it kind of shows my personality. thats original, and thats all you have to do.

just be yourself, make what you think looks good. of course, ask for critiques on forums like this, and improve what needs improvement if you feel like it (meaning, if your designing a company site for yourself, use your own style, and improve on what others on forums say you should try to improve on.)

just ... be yourself. sell yourself.

i dont design art for money, or others for that matter, but i'm just saying what i would do to sell myself and my art to others.

hope that helps.

Damn right!

If no one really likes your style, yes, rethink, don't stop doing it.
Make sure youu get technically good, then you are free to create whatever you want. Also there will always be someone that likes the work that no one else does.
I'd very much like to see, some of the STufF that "no one seems to like", originality is a big factor in how 'good' you are.

BYEEEEE!!

No one implied that you were ripping, and from this " I want to be as good as you l337 designers" it sounded to me like you wanted to be a trendwhore or something ;)

I think most people want to be trendwhores at some point during their photoshop life, it's better to want to be a trendwhore when you can't do it and you're easily impressed by STufF like that, rather than when you get good and all you do is churn out trendwhore style STufF.

Unfortunately, I really, really love spikes and explosions, but that's nothing to do with photoshop, I wear spikes all the times and I play with fire as much as possible.

LA!

BYEEEEE!!

Ok.. I took all your tips and went with my own style.. here's a sample

http://www.designex.net/Beauty.gif

very cool and original. thumbs up!