Photoshop and Other Things

In a random change of life events, interests, and self-discovery, I have embarked upon a new career pursuit: Web Design and Development. After moving back to Salt Lake City from Toronto, graduate school, and the direction I thought my life was supposed to take, I landed a job at my alma mater. I work for the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Utah, where I do many things. It is extremely similar to my previous job at the Utah Society for Environmental Education, only for a bigger organization and without the program facilitation aspects.

Currently, my main function at work is to design a new website for the department. It has become a huge undertaking, since I have to deal with the bureaucracy of the university to make things happen, rather than just striking out on my own. This has forced me to learn more about web development than I ever would have thought possible, and I am completely loving it! I 'm exploring this interest further.

Since I am an employee of the university, I get discounted tuition rates, which I am completely taking advantage of. This semester, I am taking an HTML/Javascript programming class through the Computer Science Department, in addition to the Web Design Tools Certificate through Continuing Education. There are three certificate programs for web development and design. I started the first one earlier this week with my first class: Photoshop 1. Most of what we went over I have already learned from working with the program, but I also learned a ton from the class and going through photoshop the "right" way, rather than just blundering along and figuring it out as I go.

I am extremely excited for the series of classes the certificate offers. Next week is Photoshop 2, and then we move onto Illustrator, CSS, XHTML, Dreamweaver, and finally finish the 10-class certificate off with something called "Web Design: An Integrated Approach." Sweet!

While my professor was discussing the intricacies of layers last night, I made this little gem from the "layer sandwich" demonstration and a bit of fun time.