Okay, I’m only two years out of school, so take my advice with a grain of salt:

I’d say you have a good start, especially considering you have almost no formal training. The majority of your work looks pretty “safe,” and seems to be very ad-company-ish, but there is obviously a lot of thought going into them. I would be curious to know in what capacity and how much of these websites are yours, and how much other team members contributed. I particularly like the design on “warfare grounds” and theillest.com, as they seem to have a little more personality.

I have a hard time saying don’t go to school, but you may be okay. I’m not nearly in a position to tell you what employers are looking for, but I would have to say most creative firms have a “proof is in the pudding” philosophy. A BFA from RISD would certainly help your resumé, but I think what matters most is your portfolio. Depending on what languages of code you know, that will help bolster you as well. Java and Flash Actionscripting are a huge plus, but maybe you should here from someone who isn’t a print designer...

If you are an AIGA member, they have excellent networking events. Creative hotlist and coroflot.com may be good places to start looking for jobs as well.

If you understand server-side stuff you can probably land a job as a digital production artist in a design firm and work your way up from there.

Chipman223,

I’ve worked as the sole designer on all these projects, and take full credit for everything you see on my website.

The problem I’ve found with freelancing is that the people who are willing to pay well, aren’t interested in taking risks. That’s why a lot of my more recent projects have been pretty simple and safe, unlike some of my older more fun designs.

What is AIGA all about?

Thanks for the helpful comment, very much appreciated.

James Puckett,

I write php, xhtml, css, javascript, actionscript, all relatively well.

AIGA: American Institute of Graphic Arts. They have annual dues of about $310, which may be a little steep on a tight budget, but like I said, they have great networking events, discounts on admission to some galleries/museums, great lectures as well as some exclusive job listings (aiga.org).

James is right, if you have all that coding skill, you should find a job relatively easily, at least compared to a print designer.

Best of luck!

My advice is to hit up advertising agencies with small web departments. Can you do flash? Tech production is always in short supply and you can work your way up to a design position from there.