My designs for Exec can definitely be improved - details in the spacing/layout of the website, as well as the branding overall.

There are always tradeoffs with design, and we make our tradeoffs consciously at Exec. Our priority is iterating quickly, with a design that is presentable and functional. For us, the 80% design done in a week is better than the 100% design done in a month.

Everyone's tradeoff is different - for apps that differentiate themselves on design (Clear, Paper, Flipboard) then it's worth it to take the extra time to get to the 100%.

As Coryl mentioned, I am definitely not discounting the value of design school, I have a ton of respect for the designers who come out of design school and I'm considering going myself one day.

Design school is expensive, both in time and money. It's 4 years of time and tuition is $$$$. Not everyone can do that. A lot of people just want to learn themselves, and you CAN get good enough to become a professional by self-teaching.

My design level isn't up to the standards of devilshaircut - heck, it's not up to the standards of myself yet - but it is up to the standards of many quality companies who are hiring. It's good enough to start a design career, and it's up to you to keep improving through the years.

I definitely respect you and your self-starting attitude. It's definitely true that school is expensive and impractical for some people's life's situation. The only thing I take issue with is that the experience can be compensated for in a period of 1-6 months.

As you indicate correctly, there are other ways to become a designer outside of design school. In either case, however, it takes a lifetime of dedication and hard work. Reading a few books and designing a few websites is a good first step but it does not a designer make.

I think it was a decent blog post, but the title makes me think of this. http://www.27bslash6.com/brochure.html

And of course in deference to the post above you, the 10yr 10,000 hour rule still applies, but I expect someone like yourself taking a disciplined approach should be able to make a better designer than your average crappity crap for crap Art Institute.

You can learn to draw enough to communicate ideas more effectively in 30 days. You can learn to cycle as a transportation option in way less time.

You can learn to design to complement your skills for your existing job or to obtain a new one - I think that's the point; to get started on your design career, rather than to have the skills of a senior designer, in a shorter period of time and at less cost.

I hope this doesn't sound pedantic but we aren't talking about a basic competency lesson here; the article seems to purport that one can become a professional this way.

I hope this doesn't sound snarky - it isn't intended to - but the site in question looks worse than a WordPress template, design-school-freshman-quality stuff. I don't mean to be mean-spirited - this is just simply my impression of the design level.

She didn't design the Wordpress template. Look at "projects" instead.. the car graph near the bottom is hilarious IMHO :D

But let's assume you totally dislike all of that, too - yeah, and? She got hired as a designer and didn't get fired since, which makes me believe her employer is happy with hiring her. It also does make her a professional in the sense of the word, like it or not.

I don't like the Wordpress theme either, but you act like she said she's a great designer because of it. Come on.

Well, she DID get a job (and advocates continued education as well as being open to criticism)

I didn't mean this as an ad hominem and I am delighted that she is open to criticism. My comment is strictly about the level of design represented here, which I believe is not professional quality.

It is professional quality, as "professional" is not by definition a qualitative word up for debate, one is either paid for their work or not. And I'd like to see your work that you consider "more" professional. This is hacker news, a site that celebrates people making what they can with what they have.

Since I was asked for my credentials, I believe this should suffice: http://imgur.com/GPYmt3T

Just for the record, I work for startups, not large companies; it just happened that the startup I was at doing design work for was acquired by Oracle.

EDIT: Clarification.

Exec isn't the best designed website I've ever seen, but it's functional and presentable. There are plenty of startups / small companies that can't afford the money required for a senior level designer but would be happy to hire someone who could do even "design-school-freshman-quality stuff" for a reasonable price if it allowed them to present their idea / business in a way they couldn't on their own.

So if the measure of being a "professional designer" is someone who is paid to do design work, I think this is fine advice. A designer gets better with practice and real world work. This seems like a good starting point.

A lot of what you see online, even in professional agency portfolios, isn't particularly interesting. I see a ton of basic anatomical mistakes and it seems that color is used improperly more than half the time. It used to drive me crazy, because it felt to me that it wasn't professional work.

Partly as a result of that, I'm thinking about moving into the design field. But for me that's with a somewhat formal background in color and fine art; not as difficult a transition I think.

One can definitely learn how to draw well enough to be a web designer in 30 days. Although for most people, I'm not sure only 1/2 hour per day is enough practice, as claimed in the article. Then again, that might be plenty of practice, as the main things being drawn are boxes within other boxes.

I've found that anyone who has an interest in drawing can get the basics down in a few weeks to a month. 30min/day seems fine.

It's not so much becoming an artist as training your brain to make a thing on paper based on what you see or what you are imagining. Heck, draw the same thing every day – someone's ear is a good one – and watch when you get better and better.

It's very much like photography and cinematography and ties into what the author is trying to achieve by telling someone to draw.

You see differently when you have an objective. Just as you train yourself to see opportunities when becoming an entrepreneur (and realize ideas are 'worthless' because there are too many of them to chase them all down), you will train yourself to see that the world is not just lines, but degrees of shadow and reflection.

I was a professional artist (painting, sculpture, drawing) before my software career and when I've been out of practice for a while, I find that I lose this faculty. A little time over the table with pencils, some clay, or watercolors and my brain clicks back into seeing and not just glancing over things.

I agree that just drawing, design theory, writing, and ux are not guaranteed to make you a brilliant, original, designer. However, understanding typography, whitespace, color, and being able to apply that to a goal is a big lever.

I always encourage "back end" developers to work on design. Even if it's bog-standard bootstrap with some tweaks, it ends up being better for a client or an employer. Keep in mind that most web apps lack pulchritude.

Plus, I hate it when people refuse to do front-end work because they're "back-end" people.

I think you made the point beautifully when you said "can get the basics down in a few weeks to a month". The key word here is "basics". A professional level of skill goes beyond basics. As a web designer, one can get the basics down of CSS, for example in just a day's workshop at a conference. That said, to be of any real value as a professional, you really need more insight than what a basic understanding gives you.

As for your comment about wanting back-end people refusing to do front-end work - actually, I myself do not have a problem with this. I believe people should do what motivates them at work and not get strong armed into doing things that fall outside of their professional interests. There is a limit to this of course, but in this case, there are definitely front-end people who will do the job better and take it as their career passion.

Completely agreed. I would not assume that a person with a month of personal development in a skill would be a specialist in a general area. However, on a smaller team, I think this would be ample to take on the design duties.

As for specializing, I am uncomfortable with "that's not my job" in general. Whether it's front-end work, back-end work, operations, management, etc., I'll put that person on the slow track right away. If they try and it's just a hot mess no matter how much support they get, that's a different matter.

The thing is, there are brilliant, passionate, skilled, experienced people who can actually do it all. I want to find them before they realize this and grow them. I see it as pushing to excel, not strong-arming, but I can understand your perspective. I've had to do sales before. :-)

There used to be a time when all programmers were true CS graduates. But demand for tech across the boad has risen and now we have hacker schools that get you up and running in 6 months.

If there is a corresponding rise in demand for design skills, at some level across the board, you can expect the same trend.

Reaching your peak and landing a job are two different goals, and if more designers are needed, you can be sure companies won't wait for a full grad when others show they can perform many of those tasks "well enough"

I think this is a case of the 80/20 rule. Given some talent, I believe one can become 80% proficient in less than a month. Basic design principles really aren't difficult and can drastically improve results for someone starting from 0.

It's the last 20% that takes years to master.

Except for the simplest kinds of unskilled labor, I can't imagine becoming 80% proficient at anything significantly new in under a month.

80% of the way towards very basic competency, perhaps. That still leaves you with years of practice to go to reach a respectable professional level.

I agree with this. 80% I think is a bit of an overestimate. Especially since the design discipline is so multi-pronged.

I agree with the earlier poster also that talent can also play a role. However that is somewhat rare and even in that case requires experience to truly master.

Leverage what you know and keep the firehose going into your brain. Immersion, commitment, and resourcefulness will get you surprisingly far.

As noted in a different reply to you, here is something indicative of something I worked on recently: http://imgur.com/GPYmt3T

If you'd like to see my portfolio, please PM me your email and I will reply to you privately with it. I generally do not share it except upon request.