The Adobe Package
So before we begin I just want to outline which software I believe to be the most valuable skill for any business. I think for most businesses the top two software that would be most valuable to learn is:- Photoshop
- Illustrator
Photoshop
So photoshop is the software I use the most (I’m using it to do each image for this blog too!), hands down. It can pretty much do anything you want it to. If you were to learn anything, this is the one I’d recommend. Out of the whole Adobe package, this was the first one I learnt too, which was actually really useful for learning the other programs as each one has very similar tools and systems which you’d come to recognise the more you start to use them. In my opinion, the best way to start learning Photoshop is by playing around with it! Make some wacky images, totally useless but cool images. This is important as you get to explore the program without being restricted. You can learn a hell of a lot from video tutorials too, Youtube is always great, there are also lots of tutorials on Udemy which I’ve never used for the Adobe programs but Udemy is a platform I’d definitely recommend for learning (just make sure you wait for the deals before you purchase a course, some can be up to 90% off!). Apart from that, practice and learning the basic design principles is all you need to do to start impressing yourself and your boss! Here are a couple examples of what you can do with photoshop:
(On both of the signage images the graphics are Photoshopped onto the sign/windows, the business card is also completely digital.)
Illustrator
So Illustrator is next up, the main difference between Illustrator and Photoshop is the pixel system. I’ll explain don’t worry, Photoshop uses rasterization which means everything inside a Photoshop file is made up by pixels, if you put an image into Photoshop and zoom in as much as possible, this is what you’ll see:
Whereas Illustrator uses vectors, and if you create anything within Illustrator (it doesn’t work for pixel images like the one above) if you zoom 6400% into the image, the edge will not lose its smoothness. This is used for creating signs, posters and any graphic you’d want to scale bigger or smaller like a logo as scaling anything in Illustrator doesn’t lose quality!
Hope that makes sense! Just like Photoshop, practice and have fun with it! See what you can create and then use your knowledge in vector art to create yourself a new business card or leaflet! Heres an example of me just using some creativity to promote our co-working space on social media using vector art:
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little introduction to the Adobe package, here’s a list of other useful Adobe programs we regularly use:
Abode After Effects – Video editing, animation.
Adobe Dream Weaver – Coding, HTML, email marketing
Adobe Lightroom – Alternative to Photoshop for photo editing (more simplistic)
Adobe InDesign – Another software for static design, mostly for leaflets and other structured copy pieces
Adobe Acrobat – Used mostly for PDF files