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My name is Evangelina Ferreira, I’m a freelance front-end designer and a web design professor from Argentina. I enjoy speaking about CSS at different events and I teach a few courses and workshops at the National Technological University of Argentina while I study for a BA in Multimedia and Interaction Design.
How did you get started in web design, what is your background?
During high school I used to program in Turbo Pascal (is that still a thing?!) and Visual Basic. Even though I never got really into it, I highly enjoyed programming and when I finished high school I got a tertiary degree on Web Design.
A year after that, I began an undergraduate degree on Spanish-English translation. A few months into it, I realized that even though I liked translation a lot, I did not want that as my life’s career and I changed into Multimedia.
I must add here that my time learning translation was not wasted time. Even though design & translation are not highly related, I can swear that nowadays I apply things I learned those few months on my current jobs. So yep, learning is not a waste of time, it always turns out to be useful (Steve Jobs wasn’t lying on “Connecting the Dots”).
Where did you learn web coding? Looking back, would you recommend your path for beginners?
I learned to code HTML & CSS by myself at the age of 15, but soon enough I joined a Computer Clubhouse in my city, Puerta 18, where I could learn unusual professions, such as stop-motions and paper-cuts animations. While I went through high school, I attended some web design and animation courses there and by the time I had to choose a career path, I was already in love with the Web.
The wonderful people behind the Puerta 18 program recommended I should apply to an STEM scholarship offered by Computer Clubhouse & MIT. With their help, at my last high school year, I applied and won the scholarship in January 2011.
To beginners, I’d recommend having fun with code before turning it into work. Never be afraid of asking if you don’t understand something. Join other coders at local meetings and conferences and swim the seas of Stack Overflow and Twitter.
What are the books and weblogs helped you to improve your professional skills?
I don’t usually read programming books, although I’m currently waiting for Lea Verou’s CSS Secrets’ book to get home. I do follow a couple of web blogs such as David Walsch’s, Sitepoint.com, Codrops and Smashing Magazine.
Other than that, I spend a lot of time on Twitter and I usually find great web development news over there.
What web technologies and tools do you use for your work?
I own a VAIO Fit 14 with a touchscreen as my main working device and a Sony Xperia M with Android.
Software I usually use:
- For coding: Notepad++ or Brackets
- Design: Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop
- Video edition: Adobe Premiere
- Browsers: Firefox as the default but Chrome & IE for testing
Who are the web designers, colleagues you admire most?
That’s quite a long list, here’s a few:
- Lea Verou: I began to really get into web design when I saw her work for the first time back in 2011.
- Sara Soueidan: An SVG genius! And one of the kindest persons on Earth!
- Lucas Bebber & Ana Tudor: Their Codepens profiles are breathtaking.
- Susan Lin: She’s a designer who sketches at different conferences, if you miss a conference, you can check those amazing sketches out!