Courses in Dublin that focus on DESIGN?

Dave!

Hey folks,

Sorry for another thread about courses, but I've looked through all the previous ones and they all seem to give information on courses that teach basic/intermediate web design, focusing on HTML (XHTML if you're lucky...) and CSS, and there's a few that teach PHP and MySQL.

But I'm looking in particular for a course -- it can be a 1-year full-time (including Masters), or else an evening/weekend course -- that focuses on design principles, and 'teaches' you to be a good designer. Obviously creativity is something that comes natural to alot of people, but I'm struggling lately I'm good at the development side of things, but I really struggle to think of any kind of attractive design to go with.

I see mention here that "...all things going to plan, a good Dublin college ... will launch a Masters in emerging web technologies soon."

Anyone aware of this?

I'm really eager to learn more about web design and hopefully work in the industry !

Thanks for any help

Dave

edit:

What about this?
http://www.madartstudio.com/web-design-course.html

Pixelcraft

Not sure about the mad art course. The tutor's own website is built in tables with some pretty outdated techniques!

Dave!

Hah, scroll to bottom of linked page and you see this



Doesn't fill me with optimism

p

Dave! wrote: »

Hah, scroll to bottom of linked page and you see this



Doesn't fill me with optimism

Why not?



Overall, that mad art course isn't perfect, but probably the best you'll get in Dublin.

Also, I'd highly recommend buying a copy of this book, it's aimed at where you're at:
http://www.fivesimplesteps.co.uk/

RobertFoster

p wrote: »

Why not?

Insure vs. ensure I thought, though small groups could be daunting too.

Dave!

p wrote: »

Why not?



Overall, that mad art course isn't perfect, but probably the best you'll get in Dublin.

Also, I'd highly recommend buying a copy of this book, it's aimed at where you're at:
http://www.fivesimplesteps.co.uk/

Bad spelling looks unprofessional that's all !

Yeah I acquired a copy of that book, making my way through it.

Also got 'the Principles of Beautiful Web Design' by Jason Beaird, and I'm going through that too. Both books are fairly similar though, grid theory, typography, colour theory, etc.

cmyk

I recently bought 5simplesteps, and to be honest I was disappointed with it, certainly not deserving of the reviews it seems to get.

I was thinking of that mad course myself, though I'm the other way around, need to learn the tech end of things rather than the design.

Maybe we could do a teaching-swap of services

This book looks a little more in depth, considering buying it myself
http://www.sitepoint.com/books/sexy1/

Dave!

Hah I'm acquiring that Elliot Stocks book at the moment now

I don't think the Mad Art course concerns itself with the technical aspect really, so it might not be a great course for you if that's what you're trying to learn about.

tbh there's such a wealth of information on the internet regarding XHTML and CSS that a course might not be necessary for you. You could learn most of it from tutorials, and maybe a book or two.

Designers will probably say the same thing to me about designing now

cmyk

Dave! wrote: »

Designers will probably say the same thing to me about designing now

Exactly, though there is probably a bit more flexibility in this end of things.
What part are you struggling with?

Let me know what you think of the book, could be tempted myself. I've flicked through a couple of the sitepoint books, and subscribe to their newsletter, they produce decent interesting stuff.

S.M.B.

I wasn't overly impressed with the Sexy Web Design book. I found the 'Principles of Beautiful Web Design' to be a much better read.

p

Dave! wrote: »

tbh there's such a wealth of information on the internet regarding XHTML and CSS that a course might not be necessary for you. You could learn most of it from tutorials, and maybe a book or two.

Designers will probably say the same thing to me about designing now

I think it's a lot harder to learn good design from the web than it is to learn technical stuff. With technical stuff there's highly objective benchmarks to monitor your progress. e.g. speed of typing html, doing fully CSS layouts, learning jQuery, Wordpress etc... So you can easily see your improvement and growth.

With design, it's a huge amount the craft of design, learning the design process, and appreciating good design, getting critiques and learning how to think critically about design. For people learning design, I think doing a night class in painting, sketching and other areas would be the best to get you thinking creatively, understand colours, tone etc... and finding a good experienced mentor who can give you a few pointers every few months.

p

Found this good article talking about planning your own graphic design education. It's pretty good:

http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/inspiration/teach-yourself-graphic-design-a-self-study-course-outline/