For years I loved playing around in Photoshop and Illustrator, I’ve been using adobe products since CS3. I’ve learned to develop logos, print designs, photo editing. My education involved a lot of traditional art practices then learning all the core 2D design principles.
I’ve recently graduated with a Bachelors in graphic design but I’m wondering what kind of options someone with my background has in terms of pursuing front end web development.
Would my 2D art skills translate at all into this career?
I would say that you have a great advantage. I for example have virtually no graphic design skills so as a front-end developer I could only work as a part of a team because I would need a designer and a a back-end developer. You on the other hand are more independent because you would be able to design a website and code the front-end. If you decided for example to become a freelacer your life would be much easier with these skills. I also believe that if you are in a process of creating a webiste from the very beginning (idea and design) until it has it’s final form in code (html, css, js) you projcects would be more well thought and consistent. It of course depends on the level of skills that you want to achieve. But in the end I believe you will always choose your specialty. You will either be a great designer with good coding skills or great programmer with good design skills. I myself don’t know anybody whose design and programming skills are equal. I’m not saying it’s impossible but it’s rare.
I don’t really have much interest in coding beyond HTML/CSS/JS, I do prefer purely working the front-end so I assume I would have to work with a back-end developer eventually on a project.
Would HTML/CSS/JS alone allow me to make full fledged websites as a freelancer (not including what the back-end provides) ?
I currently do a bit of freelancing currently creating 2D designs through Upwork, I’m just trying narrow down where I need to focus my time and understand what I could provide.
Yes it is possible to make full fledged website without back-end (for example landing pages). But that’s not what usually client expects. They will at least want a contact form, which requires some back end coding and most of the time they would want some CMS. So to be able to deliver a final product as a freelancer you must know back-end or cooperate with back-end developer. You can also learn for example Wordpress so that you’re able to provide basic back-end functionalities for your clients but if they want a lot of customization on their website you may fail to deliver without the proper back-end knowledge.
