Forty Years Of My Hobbies

Web Design And Graphic Design – Turning Curiosity Into A Skill

I’ve been interested in web design and graphic design since the late 1990s, when I began exploring the internet in earnest. I’d been introduced to the internet a few years earlier through my younger brother, who’s a web designer, but it was around the turn of the century that I really started learning for myself.

I began experimenting with HTML and CSS, trying to work out how to make websites do what I wanted. Once I discovered web design, I wanted to learn as much as I could. I read books by prominent designers, explored their websites and taught myself the basics. I loved writing a piece of code and watching an idea appear on the screen as a functioning website.

In the early 2000s, I began designing and uploading websites for other people, too. Websites were pretty basic in those days: a header, a sidebar, a main content area and a footer. Nothing particularly fancy, but they did the job, and I thoroughly enjoyed making them.

My graphic design work has also found an outlet through Redbubble, where I’ve published T-shirt designs, illustrations and photography. I’ve had to rebuild some older designs over the years, but the creative urge is still there.

I continue to maintain my own website and learn new techniques as technology changes. Web design and graphic design combine my interest in technology with my creative side, and they’re useful skills for my writing and other projects as well.

Unlike some of my other hobbies, this is one I’ve never really put aside. The tools have changed considerably since the days of animated Coca-Cola cans and cookie-cutter website templates, but the enjoyment is much the same: having an idea, working out how to bring it to life and seeing the result on a screen.

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