Welcome!

This blog documents the learning curve of a college student exploring the Adobe Creative Suite. With a focus on:

  • Dreamweaver
  • Illustrator
  • Photoshop

As a college student at Fleming College working towards the Web Design Certificate, the Adobe Creative Suite plays a vital role in the learning experience. By no means is this a detailed overview of courses at Fleming College but is the chronicles of my experience with the Creative Suite as well as a portfolio of work I have completed using the programs. Also links to tutorials on the web that I have found helpful I will eagerly post since tutorials are the best way to teach yourself and gain new techniques and styles while learning these valuable tools.

Follow an Influential Designer

To gain a greater grasp of the design field you need to look at/ talk to someone who has become a success. But as newbie to the field, we never really get the opportunity to get face time with someone of experience. But we can check out there one personal blogs and here they are more than willing to share there knowledge and even provide some how-tos. One such blog is WebDesignerWall.com and it is hosted by Nick La who's business site is n-DesignStudio.com.

WebDesignerWall.com gives us the opportunity to follow the techniques commonly used by Nick La. This is an excellent resource since you can "spend time with an influential" designer and you can gain insight into their design process as the complete a project start to finish. Even just looking at the portfolio of a designer one can gain a vast amount of knowledge. So if I can give you some advice, check out WebDesignerWall.com or at least find a designer who's work you like and analyze it and hopefully it will help you become more stylized designer.

For All Things Adobe!

Although we have become increasing dependent on our computers (to read this post you need a computer), time to time it is nice to physically read a book or magazine. And for those times there is a magazine published by Kelby Media Group titled Layers Magazine which is filled with inspiration work of designers as well as written tutorials for all of the main Adobe CS programs. These are step by step tutorials that are easy to follow and demonstrate techniques to achieve a certain effect so that you can transfer your new found skills into your own design work.

Also the Layers Magazine associated website has a vast library of tutorials both written instructions and video demonstrations presented by experience individuals. Also Layers Magazine is a launching pad to other resources the are provided by Kelby Media Group, such as more video tutorials from Layers TV and D-Town. These sites are also a great source of news about Adobe products and provide information about upcoming seminars.

Layers Magazine and its associated websites are a great resource for all things Adobe!