Not everyone can hit a 90 mile per hour fast ball 400 feet.
That's why there are so few major league baseball players.
Most everyone enjoyed art class while in school, but we also
realized there was probably only one in each classroom who
actually had a talent for drawing. So too with web design.
We can't all be like the brilliant Willie Otto
(http://reticulum.net/wso/), but that shouldn't limit our
ability to present a credible web offering that serves our
purposes, and attracts attention. If your graphic art talent
is limited to stick figures and cartoon landscapes, this
article may just be for you.

Know Your Limitations

Honestly judge your own abilities. No one knows better than
you the level of artistic talent you possess. Operate within
the limits. If you can't draw two straight lines, stick to
computer generated graphics. If you don't know the
difference between a pixel and a palette, perhaps you're
better off with text effects. If art is important to your
web site's business, consider hiring a professional, or
borrowing from the free graphics sites, but always give
credit where due.

Never Try to Baptize a Cat

. . . or develop your web graphics with Adobe Photoshop if
you have but two hours of training. The result will be the
same; lots of fur and blood. If you've never used any kind
of graphics editor before, I recommend Adobe's ImageStyler
or Jasc's Paint Shop Pro. They each have a very short
learning curve, a number of creative built-in special
effects, and make your first-time images look better than
average. Neither are very expensive, and ImageStyler
operates on both the Windows and Macintosh platforms.

Familiarize yourself with dingbats, and no, I'm not talking
about Edith Bunker. Don't know what those are? They are
little pieces of iconized art that a talented illustrator
has developed and turned into a font. There are thousands of
them available for download on the Internet for free, or a
small shareware fee. Type the letter A, and right before
your eyes you have a beautiful coat of arms or smiley face.
They come in all shapes and sizes; look like buttons or
arrows or caricatures; and make your job so much easier.

Plan Ahead

This is equally important to the most gifted professional or
rank amateur. Even if you can't draw or render, you can
visualize. Spend a lot of pre-computer time conjuring images
in your head. Make feeble attempts to transform those images
to paper so you'll remember what you had in mind. You may
not be able to draw, but at least you have an imagination.

If you aren't a whiz with HTML, consider a WYSIWYG layout
editor. The editor will allow you to move your creation from
your mind to the screen.

If you do know something about programming and the modern
constructs of web page design, consider building your site
with external, included files. One of the most important
tenets of good web design is a consistent look and feel,
especially the navigation. The navigation should look and
operate the same on every page within your site. It gives
your guests a feeling of comfort.

If you construct your navigation within an external file
that is included at page load, you can save yourself tons of
repetitive effort. If you want to add a new section, instead
of having to change hundreds of pages, you merely change the
included file and you've added more functionality. There are
probably other pieces of your site that will appear on every
page. If so, put them in external files. You'll be glad you
did. Read up on server side includes and ASP (Active Server
Pages) too.

Photographs Are Our Friends

For the no-talent artists like me, photography becomes the
ultimate substitute for computer generated art. Buy yourself
a digital camera, or a scanner. If you need a graphic that
looks like a pumpkin patch, take a picture of one. Want to
create that perfect background scene to set the mood? No
better realization than the actual thing. Props in
photography can serve an equally compelling purpose as that
omni-filtered vector you spent days developing. If you don't
have the money or inclination to do digital photography
yourself, there are plenty of stock catalogs available for a
reasonable fee.

In summary, why make it harder on yourself than it needs to
be? If you get scared off by the marvelous professional
artists out there, you'll never give yourself a chance. Many
of the most enjoyable sites on the web were created by the
other twenty people who sat in that art class admiring the
work of Willie.

About the Author
Jeff Clark is webmaster of Internet Brothers: Helpware for
the Cybercommunity (http://internetbrothers.com), a web site
devoted to helping newcomers compete on the Internet.
Offering free tips, tutorials, and interviews about HTML and
DHTML, graphics editing, page layout and design, digital
photography, desktop publishing, and site promotion.