Confidence Issues

[DanielMartin]

Today has just highlighted an issue to me
I had this kid , about 12 years old come upto me saying " I KNOW AJX , PHP , HTML AND AS3 " I thought... holy s*** I only know C#

What Do I have to stand for agasin't my name

Are my design skills good enough to say nobody can come along with that thought path and design something that minimal and good looking

I'm just paranoid.

[chris_17]

You can know how to program in a range of different languages, it how you overcome the problems and find a solution that's the important part, same goes for design.

[Paul Murray]

I wouldn't worry about you design knowledge just yet. You're what, 16, with no formal design learning?

This kid may know about those things, or be able to use them a bit but, but chances are he doesn't 'know them at a professional level.

You've got a good few years of education ahead of you yet. Chances are in 10 years time you'll be the one going up to people like me, telling them all the amazing things you can do that we can't.

[Esh]

As Paul said, don't worry. You're only 16 and have plenty of time ahead of you. If you really want to learn all this stuff, now is a good time!
I'm 25 and am still learning to use a lot of the software...the fact is that no matter how old you are, you'll always be learning one-thing or another. Education is a life-long thing.
At 12/13 this guy may well know this, that and the other, but as pointed out, he most probably doesn't understand it in a professional capacity. Sounds like he's more into web dev than 'ordinary' graphic design so why are you worried anyway?!
Forget about everyone else and continue like you have been doing...watching you progress on here at your age is inspiring and encouraging...now put that confidence right back up and keep working!

[Tony Hardy]

'Formal design knowledge' really does get acquired after your 'forced' learning environments do one. Once you're out of school, at college or whatever path you decide to take (I went to college and loved it) that's where learning the basic rules and concepts of the practise take place.

At 16, I was much the same as you. Wondering whether I had it in me, didn't know about my work confidence wise. You've made a wise choice, signing up, posting work and getting constructive criticism and feedback. It will really help your work develop.

I look forward to seeing some more of your work and I hope I can share what I've learned so far with you in some respects.

Don't worry about little kids knowing lots of computing languages either, unless you're into or want to get into web design, it's easier to just pay someone to do that stuff for you :) lol.

[DanielMartin]

Yeah thanks Guys , as tony quite rightly pointed out
Its almost like Im trying to fight a battle in somebody elses area...
If he asked me to tell me a certain font , or how you'd ready a document for digital printing etc.
I'd be able to answer
the most arrogant thing he said though which just topped it off was " Im always right " , if 12 year olds are coming out with stuff like that , I can generally make the assumption that we have infact failed our children , or some of them at least.

[Minuteman Press]

Learn and never stop learning - when you get bored and stop learning - you're in the wrong job!

'I'm always right' - I thought that until I was 18 - then went to Uni and found a lot of people who were more right than I was! A levelling experience - the best in one or two - above or below average in others - very bad in a few!

The child you met is great - a source of motivation. Consider your goals, do not lose sight of them and when you hit some, make more challenging (but realistic) ones.

[DanielMartin]

Thanks Minuite Man ,
Im kind of going based on

I have more design experience and , I have the knowledge and ability to make something that looks good
what I want to learn and understand is WHY those things look good , and how to further develop

I wish to work with Dave alot more in the future

[Paul Murray]

I have more design experience and , I have the knowledge and ability to make something that looks good what I want to learn and understand is WHY those things look good , and how to further develop

This is one of the first things I was taught at uni. It's one thing to like an image, but as you mentioned, you need to know why you like it, or why a particular image doesn't work.

This is all down to basic design understanding like, balance, harmony, scale, space etc...

Read up on Paul Rand. He has some amazing quotes that you can learn a lot from. You might want to take a look at this video too.

YouTube - Paul Rand

[DarkCloud]

he probably uses tables (a GCSE requirement) for laying out his pages