This Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign training can make you a graphic design pro - The Next Web
This Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign training can make you a graphic
design pro - The Next Web,
[image: This Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign training can make you a
graphic design pro]
Credit: Theme Photos/Unsplash
*TLDR:* The 2020 Adobe Graphic Design Certification School offers training
in all three of Adobe's industry-leading graphic design apps.
From its lofty perch at the top of the creative food chain, it's hard to
remember a time when the family of apps that make up the Adobe Creative
Cloud weren't the preeminent digital creation tools on the planet. But back
in the mid-80s, way before easy audio and video editing and website
building, Adobe was built on the back of Illustrator, one of the early
vector-based drawing programs.
Graphic design has always been at the core of online creativity — and the
training in The 2020 Adobe Graphic Design Certification School ($49, over
90 percent off from TNW Deals) digs deep into the three Adobe CC apps that
any graphic design pro swears by.
Over this three-course collection, students get over 40 hours of expert-led
training, helping even first-timers get a feel for the programs that have
become industry standard for digital creative professionals in virtually
every job sector.
It starts with training in Photoshop, the software that first put Adobe on
the map and has become synonymous with image editing. In *Adobe Photoshop
CC Course*, this easy-to-follow instruction starts at the beginning,
explaining all the tools and abilities the world's no. 1 photo editing app
has to offer. In addition to getting familiar with Photoshop's menus,
students will also build up the design skills required to produce finished
images worthy of publication in physical form in a book or magazine or
digitally on the web.
Just as Photoshop handles images expertly, Adobe Illustrator is where
artists come to tackle vector illustrations, graphics, icons and
typography. The *Adobe Illustration CC Course* helps students truly
understand the design process, with almost 100 lectures explaining how to
use the Illustrator desktop, its vast array of tools, and a variety of
methods for creating amazing scalable visuals for use anywhere from print,
the web and apps, to video, animations, and more.
Finally, the *Adobe InDesign CC Course* is the one-stop home for anyone
tasked with desktop publishing, from books and magazines to promotional
materials. Utilizing images and graphics from Photoshop and Illustrator,
this course unlocks how InDesign can use those pieces in the creation of
all kinds of different projects, including posters, flyers, brochures,
newspapers, presentations, and ebooks.
Each of these Adobe programs brings incredible creation power, which is why
training in their use isn't cheap — almost $500 per course. With this
collection, you can schooled in all three of these essential graphic design
tools for less than $17 each, just $49.
*Prices are subject to change. *
*Read next:* How esports is quietly spawning a whole new generation of
problem gamblers
,
4 little-known Photoshop tricks that will change your workflow forever -
Creative Bloq,
Believe it or not, there was a time when Photoshop didn't even have layers.
But with years of development, it has become the powerful and feature-rich
software that designers love. And it's only getting more powerful, with
scarily powerful AI features hitting the app this year.
Even for the most experienced Photoshop user, though, there'll always be
something new to learn. At this year's Adobe MAX conference, Photoshop
instructor Unmesh Dinda revealed four rarely used practical features that
will make a significant difference to your workflow. Check out today's best
Creative Cloud discounts if you're only just starting your Photoshop
journey.
01. Use Sky Replacement
[image: Photoshop]
Sky Replacement in action (Image credit: Adobe)
It's understandable that Sky Replacement is a rarely used tool, as it only
hit Photoshop this week. But Dinda explains how the tool can work
effectively, even in complex scenarios.
To use the tool, all you have to do is click Edit and select Sky
Replacement. The sky in your photo can then be replaced with one from
another of your own photos, or from Photoshop's in-built library.
Sky Replacement is able to automatically change the colour of foreground
objects to match the new light, but in complex situations this won't always
be completely accurate. If you encounter a halo effect lightening the edges
of the foreground subject, Dinda suggests simply decreasing the 'fade edge'
slider in Sky Replacement's options.
There's also an easy fix if your new sky is too sharp – which could be an
issue for images with a shallow depth of field. All you have to do is apply
a Gaussian Blur to the sky layer, until you achieve the desired amount of
bokeh.
02. Experiment with Pattern Preview
[embedded content]
Pattern Preview is an incredible tool that enables you to envision in
real-time how your design will come to life as a seamless, tiled pattern.
To use it, all you have to do is select View > Pattern Preview.
With the tool enabled, you will see a larger version of the canvas outside
of the canvas boundary, where the contents of your canvas will repeat. Any
changes you make inside the canvas will be repeated outside. If needed, you
can zoom out to see the pattern repeated in a grid. Once you get it looking
just right, you can turn your pattern into a pattern preset by selecting
Edit > Define Pattern.
Whereas in the past, creating patterns required working with square images,
being able to preview the pattern in real time on any canvas will no doubt
be a massive time-saver for pattern designers.
03. Back up with Version History
If you've ever changed your mind about an aspect of a design further down
the line, you'll know how useful would be to be able to go back to a
previous version. Well, with new cloud documents, you can.
Cloud documents are Adobe's new cloud-native document file type, optimised
for a seamless online or offline work experience across devices. To save
your document as a cloud document, all you have to do is select File > Save
as. In the latest version of Photoshop, a 'Save on your computer or to
cloud documents' box will open.
With any cloud document open in Photoshop, you can click File > Version
History to easily browse and view thumbnails of saved versions of your
cloud document. These are saved for up to 30 days in the cloud.
04. Make Photoshop faster when it starts to lag
We've all been there. You're working on a large image with lots of layers
and suddenly, while attempting to use a brush or zoom in, the app starts to
lag. Even if you're using one of the best laptops for graphic design,
Photoshop can occasionally struggle.
Dinda has a top tip for speeding up Photoshop when this happens. All you
have to do is select a group of several layers, right click and select
Convert to Smart Object. Rather than merging and rasterizing the layers,
this will simply tell Photoshop to see them as one layer, and consequently
reduce pressure on the app.
"Truly mastering Photoshop boils down to mastering the basic concepts,"
Dinda says. "That will never get old. The more time you spend with it, the
more time you spend watching other creatives, the more time you spend
experimenting, it will begin to come to you naturally." But don't worry,
our Photoshop tutorials have you covered in the meantime.
Today's best creative cloud deals
*Read more: *
,
Graphic design apps are now as fundamental as Excel — here's how
non-designers get up to speed - The Next Web,
In today's digital landscape, it's critical to understand why design
matters beyond the realm of the creative department. After all, marketing,
branding, sales, business collaborations, and partnerships all hinge on the
strength of a company's branding and its consistency.
It's no longer enough to have a couple of graphic designers to shoulder the
burden of this responsibility. In the social media age, a truly successful
brand needs seamless harmony across different platforms, whether it's in
traditional advertising, communications, or customer service. It's not just
about engaging aesthetics, but ensuring that anyone who needs to work with
the brand image can do so quickly and effectively. Not only does it save
time and money, but everyone can stay on the same page with a greater sense
of productivity.
We spoke with Adobe's Principal Solutions Consultant, Bart Van de Wiele,
who helps companies navigate rapidly-changing digital media through Adobe's
formidable suite of creative solutions. With a long background in graphic
design, years of experience in software training, and a deep knowledge of
the Adobe ecosystem, Van de Wiele is well-equipped to explain why basic
design tools are a must-have resource for everybody.
*Design is for everyone *
You'd be surprised at how often non-designers could use design to make
their jobs more effective.
"Imagine you're a business manager, and you have an idea of how you think
you can improve a certain business process internally," says Van de Wiele.
"And imagine that you're gathering a meeting and you need 15-20 minutes to
quickly convey your point — and then all of a sudden, you think of a better
way to visualize your idea. You have access to an infinite amount of images
that can help you support an idea or a metaphor — anything that you might
have in your head."
In reality, a business manager or marketer might not have access to a
brand's most up-to-date logo or color palette, and a graphic designer won't
always be available to help. Even something like proper typography could
make a difference in bringing confidence and polish to a new proposal.
Citing a survey by Forrester, Van de Wiele believes that creativity should
be a critical part of any business philosophy. "More than 82% of the
people, the decision-makers, the executives that they interviewed, believe
that a company can gain larger business benefits, like revenue growth or
market share, if the employees have a more creative mindset," he tells TNW.
Creativity isn't just about developing a business's logo or graphics — but
about finding better and more effective ways to help non-designers succeed.
*Getting started *
Creativity can be a daunting task, especially for those who lack
experience. For Van de Wiele, Adobe offers a convenient way for
non-designers to get their feet wet — newcomers can start with a free Adobe
ID to access services like Adobe Spark for building social media graphics
or start collaborating with existing designers.
"The actual designer can create a dedicated library for you," he explains.
"Imagine you're in marketing. What I can do is create a library of product
shoots, brand colors, brand styles, maybe the logos, the icons, or anything
else you might need." And no need to worry about non-designers tampering
with precious files — you can set read-only access to an up-to-date
database without risk of altering or removing the files.
"It's a bit like following a Spotify playlist," Van de Wiele explains. "If
you like it, you have to subscribe to it. If the owner of the playlist adds
a few extra songs, you'll see that reflected on the updated playlist."
You can also apply your new Adobe library to Office 365 — a handy feature
for people working in PowerPoint and Word who want an exact match for
paragraph styles, company colors, and text properties.
The next step up is Adobe Spark, a free solution with premium features. Van
de Wiele describes it as an all-round tool to create anything you might
need — webpages, video, social media graphics — with minimal fuss. Besides
providing preset graphics dimensions for online platforms and built-in
collaboration tools for marketers and entrepreneurs, Spark is, according to
Van de Wiele, "easier than Powerpoint." All you need to know is how to move
text around, and place and crop images.
Not only does this streamline workflow by improving accessibility, but it
also empowers all non-designers in the company to do simple design-related
work on their own.
*Smarter searching*
Finding the right image is a critical part of good design, but finding it
painlessly is another story. As visual imagery is such a powerful part of
media today, Adobe Stock has developed more intuitive tools to improve its
search functions.
"It doesn't matter how big your stock imagery database is," Van de Wiele
points out. "If I type in a word — guitar, surfer, dog under an umbrella,
whatever — if that returns me 5 million hits, how is that going to help me?"
Adobe Stock allows you to click on elements of a photo — like a dog or
umbrella — and reposition them as you need. Being able to move the dog to
the right of the frame and search for photos with a similar composition is
a simple but revolutionary step towards better efficiency.
"You're sketching up your idea, basically," he says. "That is really going
to shorten the production time that you have, or that you need in order to
accomplish something like that. And that's just available to everyone."
*All roads lead to Photoshop*
Van de Wiele also encourages everyone to try Photoshop, but to start with
the basics.
"First learn how to crop, resize an image, those basic things," he
suggests. He also recommends getting to know Camera Raw, "a filter in
Photoshop which gives you access to basically any image optimization
feature to give your pictures a professional look."
With 18 years of experience under his belt, Van de Wiele observes that
while technologies have changed our methods of design, "what has not
changed is how a designer is briefed on an assignment, how work is sent for
review, and how design assets are shared and stored."
Adobe's integrated ecosystem drags outdated briefing processes and resource
management into the 21st century. "For design, specifically, 40% of the
creative leads that we've spoken to in the past have told us that outdated
workflows are slowing down their core processes," he says. Providing
greater accessibility and usability for non-designers creates immediate
material benefits for employees.
Bringing non-designers in sync with design work streamlines our ability to
tell better visual stories. "Basically, you have to look at graphic design
as something that's not a product on its own, but something that emphasizes
your message," Van de Wiele says. "It's a means to help you communicate and
get your message across. And that's the thing, it basically all comes down
to communication."
Want to learn more about how to seamlessly integrate design into your
workforce? Adobe's Principal Solutions Consultant Bart van de Wiele will be
speaking at TNW2020! Register now.
This article is brought to you by Adobe.
,
design pro - The Next Web,
[image: This Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign training can make you a
graphic design pro]
Credit: Theme Photos/Unsplash
*TLDR:* The 2020 Adobe Graphic Design Certification School offers training
in all three of Adobe's industry-leading graphic design apps.
From its lofty perch at the top of the creative food chain, it's hard to
remember a time when the family of apps that make up the Adobe Creative
Cloud weren't the preeminent digital creation tools on the planet. But back
in the mid-80s, way before easy audio and video editing and website
building, Adobe was built on the back of Illustrator, one of the early
vector-based drawing programs.
Graphic design has always been at the core of online creativity — and the
training in The 2020 Adobe Graphic Design Certification School ($49, over
90 percent off from TNW Deals) digs deep into the three Adobe CC apps that
any graphic design pro swears by.
Over this three-course collection, students get over 40 hours of expert-led
training, helping even first-timers get a feel for the programs that have
become industry standard for digital creative professionals in virtually
every job sector.
It starts with training in Photoshop, the software that first put Adobe on
the map and has become synonymous with image editing. In *Adobe Photoshop
CC Course*, this easy-to-follow instruction starts at the beginning,
explaining all the tools and abilities the world's no. 1 photo editing app
has to offer. In addition to getting familiar with Photoshop's menus,
students will also build up the design skills required to produce finished
images worthy of publication in physical form in a book or magazine or
digitally on the web.
Just as Photoshop handles images expertly, Adobe Illustrator is where
artists come to tackle vector illustrations, graphics, icons and
typography. The *Adobe Illustration CC Course* helps students truly
understand the design process, with almost 100 lectures explaining how to
use the Illustrator desktop, its vast array of tools, and a variety of
methods for creating amazing scalable visuals for use anywhere from print,
the web and apps, to video, animations, and more.
Finally, the *Adobe InDesign CC Course* is the one-stop home for anyone
tasked with desktop publishing, from books and magazines to promotional
materials. Utilizing images and graphics from Photoshop and Illustrator,
this course unlocks how InDesign can use those pieces in the creation of
all kinds of different projects, including posters, flyers, brochures,
newspapers, presentations, and ebooks.
Each of these Adobe programs brings incredible creation power, which is why
training in their use isn't cheap — almost $500 per course. With this
collection, you can schooled in all three of these essential graphic design
tools for less than $17 each, just $49.
*Prices are subject to change. *
*Read next:* How esports is quietly spawning a whole new generation of
problem gamblers
,
4 little-known Photoshop tricks that will change your workflow forever -
Creative Bloq,
Believe it or not, there was a time when Photoshop didn't even have layers.
But with years of development, it has become the powerful and feature-rich
software that designers love. And it's only getting more powerful, with
scarily powerful AI features hitting the app this year.
Even for the most experienced Photoshop user, though, there'll always be
something new to learn. At this year's Adobe MAX conference, Photoshop
instructor Unmesh Dinda revealed four rarely used practical features that
will make a significant difference to your workflow. Check out today's best
Creative Cloud discounts if you're only just starting your Photoshop
journey.
01. Use Sky Replacement
[image: Photoshop]
Sky Replacement in action (Image credit: Adobe)
It's understandable that Sky Replacement is a rarely used tool, as it only
hit Photoshop this week. But Dinda explains how the tool can work
effectively, even in complex scenarios.
To use the tool, all you have to do is click Edit and select Sky
Replacement. The sky in your photo can then be replaced with one from
another of your own photos, or from Photoshop's in-built library.
Sky Replacement is able to automatically change the colour of foreground
objects to match the new light, but in complex situations this won't always
be completely accurate. If you encounter a halo effect lightening the edges
of the foreground subject, Dinda suggests simply decreasing the 'fade edge'
slider in Sky Replacement's options.
There's also an easy fix if your new sky is too sharp – which could be an
issue for images with a shallow depth of field. All you have to do is apply
a Gaussian Blur to the sky layer, until you achieve the desired amount of
bokeh.
02. Experiment with Pattern Preview
[embedded content]
Pattern Preview is an incredible tool that enables you to envision in
real-time how your design will come to life as a seamless, tiled pattern.
To use it, all you have to do is select View > Pattern Preview.
With the tool enabled, you will see a larger version of the canvas outside
of the canvas boundary, where the contents of your canvas will repeat. Any
changes you make inside the canvas will be repeated outside. If needed, you
can zoom out to see the pattern repeated in a grid. Once you get it looking
just right, you can turn your pattern into a pattern preset by selecting
Edit > Define Pattern.
Whereas in the past, creating patterns required working with square images,
being able to preview the pattern in real time on any canvas will no doubt
be a massive time-saver for pattern designers.
03. Back up with Version History
If you've ever changed your mind about an aspect of a design further down
the line, you'll know how useful would be to be able to go back to a
previous version. Well, with new cloud documents, you can.
Cloud documents are Adobe's new cloud-native document file type, optimised
for a seamless online or offline work experience across devices. To save
your document as a cloud document, all you have to do is select File > Save
as. In the latest version of Photoshop, a 'Save on your computer or to
cloud documents' box will open.
With any cloud document open in Photoshop, you can click File > Version
History to easily browse and view thumbnails of saved versions of your
cloud document. These are saved for up to 30 days in the cloud.
04. Make Photoshop faster when it starts to lag
We've all been there. You're working on a large image with lots of layers
and suddenly, while attempting to use a brush or zoom in, the app starts to
lag. Even if you're using one of the best laptops for graphic design,
Photoshop can occasionally struggle.
Dinda has a top tip for speeding up Photoshop when this happens. All you
have to do is select a group of several layers, right click and select
Convert to Smart Object. Rather than merging and rasterizing the layers,
this will simply tell Photoshop to see them as one layer, and consequently
reduce pressure on the app.
"Truly mastering Photoshop boils down to mastering the basic concepts,"
Dinda says. "That will never get old. The more time you spend with it, the
more time you spend watching other creatives, the more time you spend
experimenting, it will begin to come to you naturally." But don't worry,
our Photoshop tutorials have you covered in the meantime.
Today's best creative cloud deals
*Read more: *
,
Graphic design apps are now as fundamental as Excel — here's how
non-designers get up to speed - The Next Web,
In today's digital landscape, it's critical to understand why design
matters beyond the realm of the creative department. After all, marketing,
branding, sales, business collaborations, and partnerships all hinge on the
strength of a company's branding and its consistency.
It's no longer enough to have a couple of graphic designers to shoulder the
burden of this responsibility. In the social media age, a truly successful
brand needs seamless harmony across different platforms, whether it's in
traditional advertising, communications, or customer service. It's not just
about engaging aesthetics, but ensuring that anyone who needs to work with
the brand image can do so quickly and effectively. Not only does it save
time and money, but everyone can stay on the same page with a greater sense
of productivity.
We spoke with Adobe's Principal Solutions Consultant, Bart Van de Wiele,
who helps companies navigate rapidly-changing digital media through Adobe's
formidable suite of creative solutions. With a long background in graphic
design, years of experience in software training, and a deep knowledge of
the Adobe ecosystem, Van de Wiele is well-equipped to explain why basic
design tools are a must-have resource for everybody.
*Design is for everyone *
You'd be surprised at how often non-designers could use design to make
their jobs more effective.
"Imagine you're a business manager, and you have an idea of how you think
you can improve a certain business process internally," says Van de Wiele.
"And imagine that you're gathering a meeting and you need 15-20 minutes to
quickly convey your point — and then all of a sudden, you think of a better
way to visualize your idea. You have access to an infinite amount of images
that can help you support an idea or a metaphor — anything that you might
have in your head."
In reality, a business manager or marketer might not have access to a
brand's most up-to-date logo or color palette, and a graphic designer won't
always be available to help. Even something like proper typography could
make a difference in bringing confidence and polish to a new proposal.
Citing a survey by Forrester, Van de Wiele believes that creativity should
be a critical part of any business philosophy. "More than 82% of the
people, the decision-makers, the executives that they interviewed, believe
that a company can gain larger business benefits, like revenue growth or
market share, if the employees have a more creative mindset," he tells TNW.
Creativity isn't just about developing a business's logo or graphics — but
about finding better and more effective ways to help non-designers succeed.
*Getting started *
Creativity can be a daunting task, especially for those who lack
experience. For Van de Wiele, Adobe offers a convenient way for
non-designers to get their feet wet — newcomers can start with a free Adobe
ID to access services like Adobe Spark for building social media graphics
or start collaborating with existing designers.
"The actual designer can create a dedicated library for you," he explains.
"Imagine you're in marketing. What I can do is create a library of product
shoots, brand colors, brand styles, maybe the logos, the icons, or anything
else you might need." And no need to worry about non-designers tampering
with precious files — you can set read-only access to an up-to-date
database without risk of altering or removing the files.
"It's a bit like following a Spotify playlist," Van de Wiele explains. "If
you like it, you have to subscribe to it. If the owner of the playlist adds
a few extra songs, you'll see that reflected on the updated playlist."
You can also apply your new Adobe library to Office 365 — a handy feature
for people working in PowerPoint and Word who want an exact match for
paragraph styles, company colors, and text properties.
The next step up is Adobe Spark, a free solution with premium features. Van
de Wiele describes it as an all-round tool to create anything you might
need — webpages, video, social media graphics — with minimal fuss. Besides
providing preset graphics dimensions for online platforms and built-in
collaboration tools for marketers and entrepreneurs, Spark is, according to
Van de Wiele, "easier than Powerpoint." All you need to know is how to move
text around, and place and crop images.
Not only does this streamline workflow by improving accessibility, but it
also empowers all non-designers in the company to do simple design-related
work on their own.
*Smarter searching*
Finding the right image is a critical part of good design, but finding it
painlessly is another story. As visual imagery is such a powerful part of
media today, Adobe Stock has developed more intuitive tools to improve its
search functions.
"It doesn't matter how big your stock imagery database is," Van de Wiele
points out. "If I type in a word — guitar, surfer, dog under an umbrella,
whatever — if that returns me 5 million hits, how is that going to help me?"
Adobe Stock allows you to click on elements of a photo — like a dog or
umbrella — and reposition them as you need. Being able to move the dog to
the right of the frame and search for photos with a similar composition is
a simple but revolutionary step towards better efficiency.
"You're sketching up your idea, basically," he says. "That is really going
to shorten the production time that you have, or that you need in order to
accomplish something like that. And that's just available to everyone."
*All roads lead to Photoshop*
Van de Wiele also encourages everyone to try Photoshop, but to start with
the basics.
"First learn how to crop, resize an image, those basic things," he
suggests. He also recommends getting to know Camera Raw, "a filter in
Photoshop which gives you access to basically any image optimization
feature to give your pictures a professional look."
With 18 years of experience under his belt, Van de Wiele observes that
while technologies have changed our methods of design, "what has not
changed is how a designer is briefed on an assignment, how work is sent for
review, and how design assets are shared and stored."
Adobe's integrated ecosystem drags outdated briefing processes and resource
management into the 21st century. "For design, specifically, 40% of the
creative leads that we've spoken to in the past have told us that outdated
workflows are slowing down their core processes," he says. Providing
greater accessibility and usability for non-designers creates immediate
material benefits for employees.
Bringing non-designers in sync with design work streamlines our ability to
tell better visual stories. "Basically, you have to look at graphic design
as something that's not a product on its own, but something that emphasizes
your message," Van de Wiele says. "It's a means to help you communicate and
get your message across. And that's the thing, it basically all comes down
to communication."
Want to learn more about how to seamlessly integrate design into your
workforce? Adobe's Principal Solutions Consultant Bart van de Wiele will be
speaking at TNW2020! Register now.
This article is brought to you by Adobe.
,
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