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Art training: Adobe Products
Paladin
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I have just bought Adobe CC and would like to improve my skills in graphic design (for mostly scientific presentations and medical promotional materials) the right way. I'd like starter resources that have worked for not-quite beginners, but people who want to up their game from amateur but want to do it in off-hours with a full time job. I'm having trouble finding this content in existing art resources threads. If this topic already exists, a simple redirect would do. Otherwise, cream of the crop recommendations would help a lot.
Marty: The future, it's where you're going?
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
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If you're looking for inspiration and motivation, for me, the best shortcut to that is to have a goal in mind and then figure out the tools as I go. I would recommend looking through tutorials for a project you find inspiring, like something off http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/features/illustration/42-best-illustrator-tutorials to just find something neat you can use as a jumping off point to get creative and play with the tools.
In that same sense, one thing I find valuable is to just consciously look at design out in the world 4and examine your own feelings about it. Depending on where you want to go with your skill, this could mean a lot of different things, but even just going to a box electronics store and looking at the packaging on stuff – why do these headphones look like a luxury item, while these other ones look cheap? How is the text arranged, how are images placed, how are shadows applied, how are materials used to make one thing look like clean and cohesive, while the other one looks like a mess? The whole point of packaging is to make your product stand out, so just taking a concerted, critical look at what exactly about the design pulls you to any particular product is something I find helpful. (You can even design little mockups and bring them in to compare them to what a professional does and see what you like most about yours vs. the real stuff.)
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
This is what I did over the last three years. Mostly I relied on video tutorials found around the internet. Lynda, Youtube, and Pinterest have a considerable amount of isolated tricks and tips videos/guides on specific topics that can always be helpful. Most of my growth came from project oriented discovery, though. For example: hey I need/want to make a video in premier for a work marketing thing, lets look up guides on the basics and then more advanced things as I come up with them.
Local atelier or college classes can help a lot more if you have the time and money, but that may be more of a commitment than anticipated (as often you need prerequisite courses to qualify for what you want, which often are below your current skill level.
Way back in the late 90s all I wanted to do was make my own desktop wallpapers. To collage different characters I needed a way to blend in the edges in a way that didn't look like crap, so I typed in a few search terms and found a tutorial that taught me how to use the Feather tool.
That's basically how I taught myself; whenever there was an effect I wanted to achieve, I'd look up a tutorial, follow it step by step, even if I had no clue what each step/tool did, really. Through repetition and a willingness to try to understand each tool, I built up an understanding of how each tool works.
Of course, that method fit my personality; I didn't try to take on too much at one time; everything was objective-based.
It really depends on how you learn best. Identify that and you can tailor a learning method that would work well.