Kickstarting a career in web design

I can help with the latter part of your question. I taught myself to code using Treehouse and was able to get a job about a year ago (I'm still employed there too, woo!) But I wrote an article about my learning experience and also how I was able to get hired in order to help others that were taking the same path as me. Hope it helps you a bit ^_^

Good Day Shaun, I think you are not alone in your thoughts. I will expand a bit about my personal experience and than I will tell you what has been beneficial to start a project, finish it and start working on a new one. I had been a member of Treehouse for almost 16 months and I have learned as much as possible about everything (see my profile) but with all that knowledge I had started nothing - imaging my frustration after dedicating almost 2-3 hours a DAY. Then I realized that there was a lesson in Treehouse about Frameworks that I had missed (check in CSS library) and that was almost a revelation to me because I understood the potential of working on little projects. Check the following links: http://foundation.zurb.com/templates.html and http://getbootstrap.com/getting-started/#examples I have looked your profile and you have not earned yet the badges for Frameworks - If I have understood well your situation that should help to move in the right direction. Best Regards.

Giuseppe

Developing your layout skills is all about checking out what other designers do, and trying new stuff yourself. I've been freelancing for a year now and I notice that I've been growing my design skills from looking up portfolio sites, blogs and most important, Dribbble. The websites I design now are way better than what I was designing a year ago, not that those were bad.

Look around the web, it's filled with great work. Take it in and even try building some yourself using the methods and styles you've seen. Don't copy other people's work though, use it to get better at what you do!