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Need a Hand?
Your Next Project Starts with Brownstoner
bxgrl: I work in the printing industry, where Mac has long been the only way to go. I’m a hands-on learning type, rather than a RTFM type. Having fallen behind the curve due to deaths in my own family, I’ve found both those sources useful. My best resource when I hit a program snag, let along a life snag: my friends.
vinca- there is so much stuff out there to train people. I love the internet. MM works on PC so I don’t know that the apple store is the place to go. But she has my books and I’ll be helping her too.
Thanks, vinca. I’ll check those out, too.
She really needs it only because places list it as a requirement. I hate it myself- I swear by Coreldraw- I can work in vectors and bitmaps and lay out an entire journal in one program instead of needing 3 adobe programs. MM won’t need it for logo design but for product design. So I also gave her a copy of Coreldraw. I have been kow to cheat- do it in coreldraw, then save it in illustrator format.
Cobblehiller and I talked about the mac/adobe cult. I find the adobe programs overwrought and the interfaces very confusing and non-intuitive. And they’re way overpriced. But a lot of people think they are the only program to get “professional” results. I disagree with that, and I think a lot of other people do too.
Snark, I’m a soft furnishings designer. That’s bedding, pillows, tabletop, etc. I’ve always worked for smaller companies or myself, where all I had to do was sketch something out. I’ve been checking the job market, and what little there is all involves knowing either a CAD program, Illustrator or Photoshop. Same with some freelance work I’ve tried to get. Larger companies making say, comforters, especially overseas, need computer generated designs. We’re mostly talking rectangles with patterns on them.
I have a PC, btw.
MM: Two cheap/free recommendations if you’re trying to bring yourself up to speed on current software. 1) Sign up for Apple One-to-One training. It costs $99/year, and gives you as much as an hour a week of individual personal training at the Apple store. Technically the training is limited to teaching Apple software, but there’s a lot of crossover and they’ll certainly cover questions on AdobeCS products. 2) Tekserve holds free seminars on a wide range of topics which are always very good introductions, with lots of reference links to new versions, upgrades, etc.
http://www.tekserve.com/learning-events/seminars-demos.php
http://www.apple.com/retail/onetoone/
I would have paid to see that “scene,” SnarkSlope!!!! 🙂
MM – Unless you are designing logos, do you really need to learn Illustrator? I’m digging Fireworks lately, which does all sorts of vector/bitmap coolness.
> “were you about to try out the women?”
Actually it was right after I had made the “I’m though with men” declaration to an ex-girlfriend over dinner.