What a coincidence! I also have an undergrad degree in Management Information Systems. I actually got another degree in web development with a minor in software development at the same time, so I skipped a step, but I made a similar jump from being a software engineer to being a creative designer.

I was working as a software engineer when I decided to move to a design profession instead. I worked as a Front End Web Dev in the interim.

You will need to start with the basics. Look up W3 schools and start with their HTML, CSS, PHP, and Javascript tutorials. They will take you step by step and offer the basic principals of web development.

Once you have those skills mastered, look into learning Wordpress or other CMS platforms. Wordpress will offer lots of design flexibility and it will be a great sandbox for you to start out your web development career. Wordpress has many tutorials that will walk you through the basics of web hosting and set up.

Familiarize yourself with web design standards and accessibility standards. You want to make sure your web designs follow basic hierarchy rules and provide a good user experience. Accessibility is often overlooked, but extremely important. Your potential clients could fall victim to lawsuits if your web designs don't follow accessibility standards. It will be partially your job to make sure this doesn't happen.

Make yourself a portfolio. Employers will expect you to have a portfolio in most cases. This will help you a lot if you have no professional experience because it offers you a chance for personal learning experience. Make a few demo websites in Wordpress to add to your portfolio.

Include at least one blog, 2 different e-commerce layouts, and an agency style template. You can find some great examples on Themeforest. These do not have to be real companies, of course, just some projects to get you started and set you up for success.

Once you have your portfolio together, start applying for entry level front end development jobs. Remember to never stop learning and improving your craft.

Hello,

Copyrights for creative assets can be a tricky subject. The truth is, there is a lot of gray area.

Although Fiverr claims that the copyrights for creative work belongs to the client and not the designer, sometimes designers can deliver assets that contain copyrights that weren't theirs to give in the first place. In other words, you can't hand over the rights to something you never owned in the first place.

Occasionally this happens when graphic designers unintentionally use free stock images that are only licensed for non-commercial use for their business clients. If this is the case and you are notified, you must take that image or asset down and cease to use it.

The best way to avoid this is to provide your third party designer with assets you have purchased yourself from a trusted authority such as Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, or Getty Images. Make sure you double check the type of license you are purchasing for your asset fits your needs. For instance, if you intend to exclusively use the stock image in a web article, you would only need an editorial license. But if you intended to use that same stock photo to help you sell your product, you would need a commercial license.

Fiverr in particular has a bit of a bad reputation in the design community because a lot of scammers use it to sell stolen artwork. If the price seems too good to be true, it usually is. However, this can be avoided by researching your designer before hiring them. Make sure they have a portfolio and good reviews.

You can check if your artwork has been stolen by performing a reverse image search on Google. You can do this by navigating to the Google Images website, clicking on the little camera icon to the right of the search bar, and uploading a picture of the artwork. Google will then search the web for similar images. If no exact matches come up, then you are good to go. If you get any matches other than your designer's portfolio, then you do not own the rights to that artwork.

Let me know if you have any more questions or if I can help clarify anything.

Thanks!