Client Case studies
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but the following are typical examples from the clients that I have trained. If your needs are different, no problem, just let me know.
| 1. Graphic Designer: QuarkXpress (intermediate) |
| MG has been using Quark for some time but only in a limited capacity which is fine for his present job. However he wants to broaden his horizons by developing his knowledge and skills; to confirm that what he knows is correct; to explore better ways of doing things and fill in the gaps. |
| Recommended course duration:
1 day Quark course. |
| Outcome: At the end of the day MG was a master page layout artist |
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| 2. Photographer: Dreamweaver and Photoshop (beginner) |
| RP is a professional photographer specialising is abstract prints which he sells. He already had a sophisticated successful web site created for him and he wanted to better understand web design so he could update his site himself. He also wanted to use Photoshop to scan and output his images using a high end inkjet to specialised paper. He also needed to upgrade from an iMac. Prior to this he only used computers for e-mail and writing letters. |
| Recommended course duration Photoshop 1 day Dreamweaver 1 day 2 hrs on computing and Macs in general 2 hours follow up to review certain issues |
| Outcome RP successfully scans, corrects and outputs beautiful prints from Photoshop and produces versions suitable for the Web and updates his own web site. He also now archives and backs-up his priceless files to an external hard drive, can confidently buy knew equipment and install his own memory chips. |
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| 3. Art Director: Quark, Photoshop Illustrator and Web Design Intro. |
| When JG's career started there were no Macs. He typically has artworkers and designers do artwork for him but he wanted to know more about the programmes themselves and their possibilities but did not need to become expert at using them. He found it difficult to acquire this knowledge in the work place because different people seemed to tell him different things – he needed to know about things from the correct technical perspective. |
| Recommended course duration:
Photoshop 1 day Dreamweaver/Web design 1 day Illustrator 1 day QuarkXpress 1 day |
| Outcome: JG now has in in-depth understanding of each program its possibilities and limitations and how they relate to each other. All his questions were answered. He feels things have fallen into place and he better understands the terminology. This will allow him to communicate better with his suppliers. He has also had some hands-on experience using the programmes himself under expert tutelage. |
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| 4. Graphic Designer: Illustrator, Dreamweaver and Photoshop (intermediate) |
| MK has a degree in graphic design but has worked in an environment where she used QuarkXpress all the time and Illustrator only for a specific type of task. She never uses Photoshop. As a result her Illustrator skills have become rusty and out of date and she needs to learn Photoshop to develop her career further. She also wanted to learn all about Web design to the point where she could build and manage sophisticated sites. |
| Recommended
course duration:
Photoshop 2 days Dreamweaver 2.5 days Illustrator 1 day |
| Outcome:
MK is now able to produce complex montages in Photoshop using layers and complicated masks. She is now comfortable when using Illustrator and has used all the tools and techniques by following a series of exercises increasing in difficulty. She has also designed sophisticated web sites with numerous interactive features, edited HTML and Javascripts. She knows how to buy web space and how to FTP new files to her host server and how to work with CGI scripts. |
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| 5. Graphic Designer: Photoshop & pre-press (advanced) |
| SS has a degree in graphic design and has been working as such for many years. She wants to know how to get Pantone colour separations from Photoshop without them being converted to CMYK. She also wants to talk about trapping, various pre-press issues and fonts to get things straight in her mind because she had been taught conflicting perspectives. |
| Recommended
course duration:
Numerous topics 1 day |
| Outcome:
All her questions were answered. She understands the theory and practice of trapping and worked on exercises producing Pantone separations from Photoshop under the tutors guidance. Pre-press and print was fully explained to her and she is now confident of taking a job through pre-press and print stages without error. She was also given a work-flow diagram showing the process from start to finish as well as producing lots of her own notes. |
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| 6. Freelance Graphic Designer: Quark, Photoshop & Illustrator (advanced) |
| Since going freelance, AD realised that she needed to know more about the above programs in greater depth and had a very good idea of what she wanted to know. |
| Recommended
course duration:
2 days |
| Although AD brought a long list of topics and examples she wanted to go over, after a helpful discussion with the tutor she realised there were a few other topics she wanted to add to the list. Over the two days AD and the tutor worked through the list using her examples and some relevant projects provided by the tutor. |
| Outcome:
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| 7. Novice Artworker: Quark, Photoshop & Illustrator from scratch |
| RS took a Fine Arts degree and followed this with a course in Design Management but had only used Photoshop on any of these courses. His objective was to find work in the graphics industry as a Mac Artworker and needed to be able to demonstrate professional level skills in all three programs to achieve this. |
| Recommended course duration: 9 days (plus a tenth free) |
| RS took advice and spread the course over three weeks spending three days a week on each program and then one day to recap. Three days enabled the tutor to cover everything RS needed to know as a professional Mac Artworker. |
| Outcome: RS took a short answer written theory test at the end of the course and scored 86%. He also successfully completed all the ongoing exercises throughout the course and understood how all the tools of all the programs worked as well as numerous tips, tricks and techniques which will stand him in good stead in his career. During the course he designed a 16 page colour brochure, business stationary, logos, posters and leaflets, producing montages and web graphics in Photoshop. In fact in ten days he produced half a gigabytes worth of files which he took away on a CD, as well as copious notes. He showed a particular aptitude for the work and now has a skill set which is highly marketable. |
| 8. Textile Designers: Photoshop and Illustrator (Group course) |
| NY and AR work for a textile company and were using Photoshop and Illustrator to design patterns. They were self taught and wanted assurance that they were doing things the right way or if they could improve their productivity and express their ideas better if they knew the programs more thoroughly. They weren't confident about working on strange machine in a strange environment so an on-site course was arranged. |
| Recommended course duration: 1 day (2 people) on site |
| The instructor spent the first fifteen minutes of the day reviewing the kind of work they had been doing and discussing their reservations and suggested an agenda for the rest of the day which NY and AR were delighted to follow. At the end of the day they were familiar with a much wider range of tools and techniques and received suggestions from the tutor how they might use these in a more efficient way to achieve the creative effects they had in mind. |
| Outcome: At the end of the day they both felt much more comfortable and proficient with the programs and all the tools and which ones best suited their requirements. The tutor also made several incidental suggestions about how to better configure their Applemacs to optimise performance. |
| 9. Proprietor of Fine Art Gallery: Quark Xpress, Pre-press and print, Photoshop |
| NH is a partner of an international Fine Art Gallery which wanted to produce a limited run edition of a 300 page book, in several languages, as a promotional item. They had clear ideas about what style of book they wanted and NH decided she would undertake the project in-house. After attending night classes over several months NH still felt they needed ongoing 1-2-1 advice and tuition throughout the project. |
| Course duration: 6 days (phased over several stages of the project) |
| Outcome: A superb, glossy, hard back with loose cover, (245x300mm), 292 page, highly illustrated example of this type of book documenting the life and works of the particular artist, design, layout and artworking undertaken all in-house with major cost savings. |
| 10. Greetings Card Illustrator: Dreamweaver, pre-press and print |
| CM is a greetings card illustrator who wanted to market her products over the net. She had recently negotiated international licensing agreements for her work. She had a clear idea of what she wanted which included personal control of editing and updating the site from time to time with new products. She had a web site which needed rejuvenating but she felt she didn't need to know all about web design in depth. She also felt out of depth and therefore dependent on commercial printers and wanted to understand more of the terminology associated with printing her cards and posters. What she wanted was someone to firstly redesign her site and teach her how to do it at the same time; and secondly to go over commercial printing processes and terminology. |
Course Duration: |
| Outcome: the tutor redesigned her ten page site to make it look fresher and more inviting and to include order forms, while at the same time teaching CM, who was present during the whole process, what he was doing and why, and what she needed to know in order to update the site herself. She was also able to practice these techniques while with the tutor. The tutor also went through the pre-press and print process and explained each step so that CM understood what her printers were talking about and what she could expect from them. CM felt confident of being able to manage her own site and order print more confidently. |
| I have several interesting case studies to add and will do so in the near future. But in the meantime if you want to discuss your needs please give me a ring without obligation. |
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