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If you're a programmer, you're already creative. Programming is one of the most creative of professions (else why would the word "elegant" be such a high term of praise?). So much for that. So let's narrow this down. You want a route to channel your already-existing creativity into the VISUAL arts, rather than the unseen-by-all art of good coding. Like ...

Stay Simple - Don't try to do anything too fancy or adventurous at first. Get the basics down first, then you can start experimenting. Don't try to emulate the Star Trek computer interface. Be Consistent - A consistent design is part of the foundation of a good design. Keep track of your margins, sizes, and placement and maintain them throughout the design. ...

My answer is partially related to your question, but what I feel is that I needed motivation to count myself and you need some also. Can you be creative? Absolutely! Use your imagination to change your beliefs; give time to your thoughts. When I was newbie in this field the same things were in my mind but as time passed I came to know that only I can ...

Jim Krause's design basics index gave me a very good summary of the basics of composition, color and type. I wasn't a huge fan of most of his own examples, but they illustrate his points really well and he touches on a few valuable things I haven't seen mentioned much elsewhere. And perhaps most importantly, reading it made me really excited to go out and ...

I think your questions is not about how to be creative, but rather about how to be able to create visually appealing content. I know many graphic designers who are either good or talented, but are not creative (in the sense of being innovative and thinking out-of-the-box) at all. Now, from my experience, people who are able to produce visually appealing ...

I'm a programmer myself and for me the following books where very helpful for me: The Non-Designer's Design Book - Robin Williams - This books covers the basics of graphic design. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain - Betty Edwards The book for developing your drawing skills. The Humane Interface - Jef Raskin This book provokes some thoughts about user ...

There's sometimes a slight overlap between web development and web design, but I don't think web developers should try to be full-time designers unless they're willing to put as much effort into it as they did learning to program. It's not something that you can just dabble in on weekends and be good at. If this is so you can learn to be your own web ...

Perhaps not relevant to all cases, but for web prgrammers one of the biggest things that stands out to me, which perhaps bridges the gap a little bit, is to learn CSS inside and out, as being able to design well doesn't mean anything if you can't integrate it into your project that you are creating.

To me, it sounds you lack self-confidence. You already master one difficult part: programming, and as Alan already said, programming is a creative job. My tip: keep it simple, learn basic rules about layout and find your own style. This book: The design of sites helped me a lot for the structure of my designs and this book: The idea book helped me for ...

Your question scope is a little broad, but let me try to explain how I got into interface design. I just started by working on personal web projects for years, and visiting sites that had tutorials on how to use Photoshop to create certain results, then I started doing a few projects for other people and employers and generally just kept on experimenting and ...

As more of a programmer than designer my self I find that it helps my creative process when I "design in the browser" instead of Photoshop. I usually start with HTML and CSS to get my basic layout down and use Photoshop if I need to create buttons or other graphical elements. This also speeds up the process and makes development much faster. When I use ...

I've never really understood these types of questions, but they seem to come up often enough in development and design. To me it's a very bad sign when a programmer can't think of programming projects for himself and when a designer isn't inspired to come up with projects of his own in his free time. After all, graphic design is a field with lots of ...

In 2004 I found myself halfway between both worlds, as I had been for most of my life -- I'd been doing web since HTML 3.2 in the dot-com days; raised with an Apple //e by parents (a choreographer and an educator) who allowed and encouraged me to spend a lot of time with art. Design is not art, and in fact some of its more algorithmic patterns line up nicely ...

Software is not an important concern. The most important concern is: can you draw? Since you are "totally newb at visual art" I assume that means you are not good at drawing and need to start with that. Realistically, if you are already a game programmer then stick to that and find a good artist to work with. There are always lots of artists looking for a ...

I'd hesitate to say almost every graphic designer has taken the career path you indicate. Most start out with some artistic sense and then build upon it. There is an important distinction between "artistic skill" or sense and "drawing" which your linked question refers to. Every successful designer must have an artistic skill or sense. One must understand ...

Doing free little jobs is pretty much called a form of spec work and is frowned upon by most of the industry. But you can do it all you want on places that do 'crowdsourcing contests'. They tend to produce awful work for no money that benefits neither the designer nor the client, but they exist. What I'd instead suggest you do is work on your own personal ...

well you can also try applying AGILE coding principles too. it has worked great for us. Whether you are creating pixels or coding.. its basically the same thing. Up until the last few years..the software industry has for many years been building things in a linear fashion, ie generate a HUGE spec ( usually based on a lot of assumptions ) and then build that ...

Play in Photoshop. Make lots of mistakes and try out lots of designs quickly. Don't worry if they don't turn out the way you want. Finish them and move onto the next. The only person who has to see them is you. Judge them against designers work that you like and try to figure out what they did to take it the extra mile. Find the designers you like on ...

UW-Stout, WI has a packaging engineering program: http://www.uwstout.edu/programs/bsp/ Alas, it's not part of the art program, though that also has a good reputation: http://www.uwstout.edu/programs/bfaa/

Is it a flawed assumption? One can't say that until you try, some take to it and some don't. What's the best way to spend the money? I would say the best thing is for them to provide you with required software whatever you end up choosing to use for designing and give you at least 2 or 3 hrs a day while at work to design things. Some days you might want to ...

I'm not sure what type of design you are looking for, but you did mention a loading screen for a mobile game. As a prospective game programmer / designer, I've looked for existing game graphics online that I could use, since my graphic skills aren't the best. While I've found numerous sites with free graphics (or paid), they weren't really useable since ...

Courageous you, to be pushing out into a new field like design. Having gone somewhat the same route myself (albeit from a different starting point), I can give you some benefit of experience: There's no substitute for real world projects, even if you're just taking someone else's project as a case study and developing your own approach. In most cases, ...

Try looking over at http://jobs.freelanceswitch.com/ and search simple things like 'logo' and 'splash'. There are lots of people looking for freelancers out there, and some may interest you! There is a $7/month fee if you want to apply for any job, but it quite worth it as many companies offer high budgets.

As jhocking mentions, a good place to start would be to find your own style and adjust your technique. Some feedback is great at this stage, you can show your drawings to your friends and ask for their opinions, or share them online in places like DeviantArt or similar. I also agree with the traditional first approach. You can go digital in a next step, but ...

Peer 2 Peer University has a couple of classes that are open for registration right now. One is Intro to Design and Usability which is focused on web design. http://p2pu.org/webcraft/intro-design-and-usability There will probably be more design courses in upcoming semesters too.

Just to add a couple more links for people coming from a programming background interested in UI design. Design For Hackers (printed book) Principles of User Interface Design (site) Step by Step UI Design (ebook) The Shape Of Design (free online version)

A few more: Glance through inspirational website collections for ideas. A Collection Motherload of Inspirational Website Collections lists quite a few collections. Another two good sites are siiimple.com and minimalsites.com. Virtuosi Media's 'Remove Clutter' suggestion is a definite ideal, but a site with clutter done by a beginner looks better than a ...