Web designing is one of the most popular and well-paid jobs today. Just a few years ago, parents pushed their children to become doctors, engineers, and scientists; today parents push them to become web designers as well. Those who are most passionate about web designing can make it really big. Web designing is part of the creative arts and requires designers to explore their own creativity and imagination—whether creating a logo for a website banner or designing a home page—along with their technical knowledge.

This article explores my inspiration behind web designing in terms of what increases my passion for design and the journey I have made to become a passion-driven designer. Before getting into the seven wonders behind my passion for design, let’s take a look at how I approached designing and how it changed my life—if not completely, then at least my approach.

Journey to Becoming a Designer

As a kid, I liked designing things: designing buildings while playing, designing a banner in paint, designing online games, and more. As I grew up, I was constantly trying out new designs. After developing a little knowledge, I started playing around with website codes, themes, colors, and so on. A little traction towards this interest and a strong push from my mind led me to pursue design full time and become an independent artist. I started out by making basic websites and logos. After completing more than 20 projects, I had achieved a level of mastery in designing. However, initially I made some terrible blunders; looking back at my mistakes, I realize how experience makes a man perfect. Slowly but surely, my hobby became my life’s calling. Now, let’s see how web designing has changed my life.

Changes that Came Along with Designing

Web designing has changed my life not only in terms of earnings and designing, but also in terms of my approach to the web world. This change came with both positive and negative factors. As a designer, I am able to create my own website. I have been maintaining blogs for quite some time, and my design knowledge has helped me maintain my blogs. Instead of having to rely on the host, I can create my own blogs. I also learned to use a theme to complement my content instead of, for example, writing about mobile phones on a blog that looks like a garden. I customize my own pages per the requirements and demands of the theme. In addition to the minute details based on fonts, colors, and combinations of colors—which I used to overlook out of my ignorance — I can now create a better looking site with far smoother user experience. Indeed, I have greatly benefitted from my design knowledge.

However, my knowledge has also brought about a few negative factors. A few days ago, I came across an article about the inability to enjoy trivial things on the web after becoming a designer. It is so true! Things I used to enjoy now lead me through a strict process of analysis. Just as an editor or proofreader finds it difficult to read an article without constantly correctly little-known grammar issues, making it impossible to enjoy the essence of the article, or as a cook focuses on combining various ingredients in a dish instead of enjoying the taste of the food, web designers cannot simply peruse the web without judging the sites—the typography, the combination of colors, the saturation, the logo…the list goes on and on. I have become hyper-critical about the design used and how it can be better. Instead of spending a moment to leave a comment on a site, today I spend half an hour thinking about the interface and the backend. At the end of the day, I fail to enjoy the trivial happiness that I used to experience before becoming a designer.

It is not surprising that web design became my passion. By nature I am inclined to photography, art, painting, and design work, all of which falls under creative imagination. I initially started designing to learn about websites and develop a good source of income; however, as I explored the horizons of designing, I started enjoying the new realms that the design world opened for me each day. Like other artists, I became addicted to my art. The process of creating something new and witnessing the birth of the design is really amazing. Even today I always get excited to see the end product emerge. Waiting to see it is challenging as thousands of questions flood my mind: Will it be good enough? Can I make it better? Why does the design look incomplete? Is this what I imagined? The challenge and excitement that comes with every design convinced me that I do not want to do anything but web designing.

If you are interested in design, it is important that you be able to create something new out of nothing. You also need to be able to review and change your design as well as experiment with different strokes from the design world. Various factors are involved in driving a person toward designing. The following 7 factors drove me toward this passion.

Seven Wonders that Drove My Passion Toward Designing

1. Switching Things

Web designing is not only my job, but also my passion. Sometimes when a hobby becomes work, you can lose interest in it. A person who loves to cook might decide to become a chef, but that same person might become frustrated when cooking for an audience that requires following rules when preparing dishes. Similarly, I need to design to meet my clients’ demands. Where did all the creativity lessons vanish to? I have been able to maintain my passion by switching things up. The moment I become too caught up with work and want to relax, I let my imagination flow and create my own design. I need not go somewhere else or buy something else; all I need is my computer and my designing session starts. This switching from one regulated task to a free work is great indeed. In addition, I can move across projects. Web designing mostly covers projects that keep changing over time. The scope of web designing covers a vast field, which this makes the shifting process easier than in other jobs. Three ways to maintain your passion toward web designing are:

• Take a break and change your focus from the design you have been concentrating on. This will help you refresh your state of mind.
• Explore the design project and analyze things that are interesting that can be tried with the project.
• Balance your design work with fun and work. This will help you to work on your project as well as maintain your fascination for designing without becoming bored or frustrated.

2. Everyday Experiments

Most people complain about their job. I do not. It is not that my job is perfect or that I am the top performer. Rather, my job doesn’t let me get bored. It keeps me engaged with experiments, which also increases my passion for design. I experiment with design work every day, whether by creating a logo, a form, a field, a banner, or a website or maintaining the backend and front end.

There are innumerable websites on the web, and each one has a different design and look. Behind each design is a designer. I am responsible for different designs, but this responsibility also involves a challenge to keep them unique. After creating a particular design for a site, I cannot write the same code to design a similar design for another site. Therefore, my work demands innovation and experiments along with creativity. Just like a painter does not reproduce the same art again and again, I do not reproduce the same design unless it is for the same website. I am constantly learning about mixing colors while designing a website, experimenting with my skills and techniques for the successful completion of the project. Therefore, web designing is not mundane work. This lack of monotony is one of the major factors that has kept enhancing my passion for design.

3. Engaging in Personal Projects

To remain passionate, you must experience fulfillment. If designing is not fulfilling my aims and my practical and emotional needs, it can never continue to be my passion. Fortunately it does satisfy me, which has helped me turn my hobby to design into a passion. Designing is a well-paying job; by making good money, my practical needs are fulfilled. Designing also allows me to experiment with new designs and learn new skills every day, so it fulfills my emotional needs. Finally, it allows me to engage in personal projects. Whether freelancing or starting something of my own, I can explore new areas.

Web designing is a popular freelancing job that allows you to do something beyond your regular job; in addition, web designing lets you start your own site dealing with anything that interests you. Knowledge of web designing lets you control your site and design however you want. You can make money from it, share your knowledge base, or maintain a personal treasure. You have a wide range of options for dealing in something beyond your regular work and engaging in personal projects, which alleviates boredom and enhances your passion. Therefore, this flexibility of this profession let me be stable in my passion for designing.

4. Everyday Learning Sessions

In every job a person learns new things every day. I do too, which is another reason that my passion for design has increased. Every day I increase my knowledge base. My work doesn’t end with designing a website. I need to continue managing the site and its backend as well as monitor that everything continues to be well on the frontend. As a designer, I must deal with various bugs; each one leads me through a learning session. Although theoretical learning might not be that interesting, practical learning is much more fun. The challenge of resolving a problem inspires me to continue designing and go through learning experiences every day.

5. Adobe Software

Another inspiration for me in designing is Adobe software and its host of tools. Adobe Photoshop lets me go through new experiments every day, whether playing with fire effects, reflection, inversion, or graffiti. Photoshop motivates me to use the tool more, explore its uses, and apply it in my design. Adobe’s Creative Suite, including Photoshop, illustrator, Flash, and Fireworks, adds to my learning exercises with design and allows me to grow every day as a web designer.

6. Play Around with Logics

Playing around with logics also increases my passion for design. Web development is nothing but converting ideas from plain language into a logical structure using programming languages such as PHP, Python, Ruby, and C++. I need to play around with logic and mathematics while developing websites. Programming interests me a lot; this interest keeps increasing my passion for designing.

7. Growing Market and Increasing Competition

Finally, web designing has a big place in the growing market, and the growing number of web designers is increasing the competition as well. To challenge oneself in this growing market and look ahead with a goal to make it big are great inspirations for many web designers. In the current world of web technology, web designers hold a strong position. I remain in the middle of this growing market with the hope of making something big, thereby increasing my passion for designing all the more.

These seven factors, among others, have increased my passion for design. These are the reasons that I am passionate about designing despite the few disadvantages mentioned at the beginning of this article.

Image Credits

• Web designer tools