So I was working on writing my About section for my portfolio site and ended up looking into some old projects of mine and how I've ended up where I am now when it comes to web development.
Instead of cluttering my about section with a whole bunch of screenshots and text, I've decided to drop it in a blog post. So here we are 
After high school
When I finished high school back in 2015, I had some trouble figuring out what career path I wanted to go down. One thing I did know, though, is that I'm a creative person. I've spent many hours of my youth drawing. So when I looked at the different courses I could follow, the obvious choice for me (within the restrictions of my education level) was to go for Game Art.
Game Art
Starting in 2015 until 2019, I studied the course Game Art at Media College Amsterdam. During this course I learned all about games and how to create art for them. It was a pretty fun course, but what I wasn't aware of is that the group of game artists with an actual job in the Netherlands is very small.
It's a very tough industry to get into, and with me being the stubborn teen I was back then, I refused to dive into 3D art, instead going for 2D art, which made it even more difficult.
In the end, in terms of practical skills, I didn't learn a whole lot during this course. But looking back at it, I am eternally glad I finished it. For it helped me grow into an adult and increase my education level so I could start my follow-up course.
When it comes to web development, during this course is when I took my first baby steps into the world of coding. Somewhere in 2016 I got assigned to develop my own portfolio site to display my art on. I worked on this site with some help from my brother, who is a software developer currently.
The website itself looked decent enough on the outside, but the code was a disaster. It was full of divs and divs and more divs like this:
<div class="wrapper" id="first">
<div class="content">
<a class="expand" href="werk/new ones/sheet character demon design.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="werk/new ones/sheet character demon design.jpg" alt="characters by Sasja Koning"></a>
<div class="clear"></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="content">
<video loop autoplay>
<source src="werk\video demon character\animated.mp4" type="video/mp4">
Your browser does not support the video tag.
</video>
<div class="clear"></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="content">
<a class="expand" href="werk/sheets enivornment/Environment sheetpak.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="werk/sheets enivornment/Environment sheetpak.jpg" alt="drawn by Sasja Koning"></a>
<div class="projecten">
<a class="expand" href="werk/sheets enivornment/sheet environment 3dbase.jpg"><img src="werk/sheets enivornment/sheet environment 3dbase.jpg"></a>
<a class="expand" href="werk/sheets enivornment/sheet environment flat.jpg"><img src="werk/sheets enivornment/sheet environment flat.jpg"></a>
<a class="expand" href="werk/sheets enivornment/ref sheet trees.png"><img src="werk/sheets enivornment/ref sheet trees.png"></a>
<div class="clear"></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>So yeah, it worked, but I actually had no idea what was going on and was just copy-pasting stuff. So it's no wonder that after that I didn't do much with code for a couple of years.
)
(Screenshot of my first portfolio site)
Some time in between
After graduating from Game Art in 2019, I spent a short year orienting myself. I was already aware that I probably wouldn't be able to land a job in the game industry, so I started looking into a follow-up course.
I visited a couple of places that interested me, such as a creative course at HKU (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht) or Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. I even ended up applying and being accepted for the course Create Media and Game Technologies at the Breda University of Applied Sciences. But in the end I decided against it. Partially because it was far away from home but also because I ended up being pretty low on the list, which kind of hurt my ego.
So in the meantime I got some unrelated jobs and enjoyed a bit of freedom. Until one day a friend and I visited an open day at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (or Hogeschool van Amsterdam in Dutch). And that's how I ended up following my next course.
Communication and Multimedia Design
In 2020 (great year, I know), I started the course Communication and Multimedia Design at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences together with my best friend. This is where I started making huge steps when it comes to web development and design.
Before starting this course, I always felt as if designing for the web was extremely boring and something you would do if you were unable to get a job in art. Which I suppose was the case for me.
That was until I actually started designing and developing stuff. I realized it was actually quite fun.
One of the first designs I made myself was in Miro. Let me give you some advice: Don't design in Miro. It's awful.
)
(Screenshot of one of the frames made in Miro. I was pretty proud of it back then. By now I'm more impressed I actually managed to work with Miro on this.)
During my first year of this course, I worked on several other projects, but I'll only highlight some that really made me realize the fun of design and development.
My first proper introduction to coding
The first website I designed and made fully by myself was a simple information site for my dad's company. It didn't look like much, but I was pretty proud of it, and it opened my eyes to the possibilities of web development. It was even responsive!
)
(Screenshot of the website I made for my dad)
My giant leap in CSS
The project that really did it for me, the one that triggered my passion, was the creation of a mobile-based site in which I was only allowed to use HTML and CSS. No JavaScript. I really went above and beyond with this project. Learning about all the ways you can use CSS instead of JavaScript for stuff like hamburger menus and flipping cards.
I made a pretty cool design and added a bunch of extras that weren't required for the assignment, such as responsiveness and additional pages. Along with that, I used my art skills to draw a bunch of illustrations for the cards used in the site. I basically went full try-hard, and it paid off since I got graded a 10 out of 10. Ego = boosted.
)
(Screenshot of the web app)
You can actually visit the (by now, slightly buggy) site here and the repository here.
And so on...
I've of course worked on a lot more, which has helped me get where I am now. But the above really shows what got me started. Other more recent stuff you can, of course, view here.
In the end, I've made such great progress during this course. Not only did I learn a ton, but I've grown as a person and met some great new people.
And after that?
After I graduated from Communication and Multimedia Design with a Bachelor of Science, I got started straight away at Leads.io as a Frontend Developer. I actually spent half a year there already during my course as an internship, and near the end of my last year, I got hired part-time, and shortly after, I went full-time.
I worked there for half a year more, coding with Vue.js and WordPress, which helped me gain way more knowledge and skills.
And now?
Now I'm aiming to work somewhere new and develop my skills even further. Along with that, I wish to continue working on my personal projects and keep up with my passion for design and development.
