Graphic Design Certification - Web and Graphic Design Training and Certification
Graphic design certification is a viable direction to take. There is a market for professional web and graphic design despite the bursting of the dot.com bubble, it’s nowhere near as huge as it was during it’s heyday due to trends and focus of the ecommerce industry shifting somewhat.
A few years ago when the world wide web explosion was gathering momentum the emphasis was on impressive looking sites with all manners of bells & whistles, flashy intros and other up and coming forms of visual innovation.
Now the emphasis is on simplicity, content, functionality, marketing and the much misunderstood voodoo-like Jedi mastery of Search Engine Optimisation as well as other traffic generating methods.
Companies will always need good web page and graphic designers to work with their back end programmers, there is however more of a need for functionality than aesthetic design these days.
This aspect of the industry suffered heavily during the crash mainly because the whole reason for the dot.com crash was that the bubble grew to the size it was on emphasis being put on look and feel rather than functionality, traffic building and content.
To learn more about website technologies take a look at the Certified Internet Webmaster or CIW track of certifications. I recommend this course of training as it covers many aspects of the online ecommerce world. You can find more about the CIW track here
Graphic Design Certification - Today's market
Graphic design certification comes in the form of a degree. This is why you will need to be absolutely sure that it is for you. A common objection people will raise over taking up a career in this field is the .dot com bubble burst which left so many designers unemployed.
This was only the result of a massive U-turn in web technology from impressive design oriented websites to functionality and simple design oriented websites. A stark reality of the web is that overly designed and flashy websites with complicated navigation only cause visitors to click the back button when they become frustrated having to hunt for the information they are looking for.
Lost visitors = lost sales, this is why the majority of websites use conventional navigation and incredibly simple layout. Flashy websites look good; whereas simple fast loading sites which helpfully present what the visitor is looking do more business.
Graphic Design Certification - Offline and Online Opportunities
Before the Internet there was and still is a vibrant offline market for talented graphic designers. Newspapers and magazines still print their publications. Businesses still print brochures, reports and presentations. Perhaps the most exciting field is the film and TV, particularly developments in computer animation.
Graphic design certification opens up a whole world of exciting opportunities when looking at the whole big picture.
If you have some skills already and would like to start making some money and building up a professional portfolio you can join online freelance networks and start working for those who are looking for your talents. Two good places to go to for this are elance and rentacoder.