#123 How to Become a Pro Designer in 2024 with Gary Simon [DesignCourse Founder]

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Gary Simon, a developer and designer who started DesignCourse.com and has published several courses on freeCodeCamp.org over the years.

We talk about: - Growing up in rural Ohio, marrying young, and staying out there despite his success as a developer and entrepreneur. - Early client work, and how he designed thousands of logos for clients before becoming an all-out web developer. - Using his skills to help his wife start her own lactation consultant business online - Gary's guitar shredding chops.

I recorded this podcast live and I haven't edited it at all. I want to capture the feel of a real live conversation, with all the human quirks that entails.

Can you guess what song I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's from a 1995s Nintendo game.

Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Also, I want to thank the 9,331 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Links we talk about during the interview:

- Gary's Learn UI Fundamentals course on freeCodeCamp: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-ui-design-fundamentals-with-this-free-one-hour-course/

- Gary's freeCodeCamp live stream series: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/design-course/

- Gary's tool for memorizing the Guitar fretboard and it's 49 notes: https://fretastic.com/

- Gary's Retrowave Guitar music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDc2OvReYh0