SEO vs Web Design? Help?

Personally I would start off with web deisgn since SEO isnt something you will learn within weeks.

It takes time, practise and lots of mistakes in order to generate decent knowledge and skills.

well a web developer here, i would say start with web design/development and after that you need to learn SEO, even if you will not work with clients in SEO, it will benefit you a lot.
I learned SEO after i started the web development, and it changed my life (no SEO clients though).