2. 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:
AD used the course to fill in the gaps in her
knowledge cramming three programs into a short and intensive course
and "picked the tutors brain". She practiced using the
tools she had never previously bothered with and learnt new ways
of combining the ones she had. She learnt more shortcuts and tips
to improve productivity, and modified her ways of working to accommodate
the tutors suggestions. She fully understood the advanced techniques
and was able to bring a wider repertoire of ideas to her work that
only the computer made feasible. |
|
4. 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. |
|
6. Textile
Designers
Photoshop and Illustrator |
| 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. |
|
8. Proprietor of Fine
Art Gallery
QuarkXpress, 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. Marketing personnel
(8 staff as a group) Provided own list of topics |
| WKH produced a mountain of printed material and had brought document generation and editing in-house using Quarkxpress and Photoshop. They received graphics files from a parent company which led to confusion about file types, colour models, resolution and other pre-press issues. They wanted to rely less on their printer to resolve these issues at print time and to take more control by understanding the terminology better and filling in the gaps in their knowledge. The session took the form of a question and answer session with demonstrations using Quark and Photoshop |
Course duration:
2 days |
Outcome:
Numerous as hoc issues were discussed and resolved and by the end of the day all had a thorough understanding of the issues concerned and felt much more confident handling this aspect of their work. Bad habits and practices were identified and suggestions from the tutor were taken on-board leading to a second session with another 8 staff from a subsidiary company facing similar problems. |
|
12. Recent Design Graduate
Photoshop, Quark, Illustrator |
| MJ was a recent graduate in graphic design with excellenet conceptual skills but lacked confidence in his software skills. He had used Macs and the relevant software at university but didn't feel his skills were avanced anough to satisfy prospective employers. |
Recommended Course Duration
Photoshop: 1 day
Quark: 1 day
Illustrator: 1 day
Mac OS and pre-press: 1 day |
Outcome:
MJ learnt superior working practices and numerous creative tips and techniques for all three programs, he consolidated the skills he learnt at university and developed them to a professional level, and filled in the gaps in his knowledge regarding pre-press and print and preparing files for press. He left with a highly marketable skill set and felt much more confident about applying for jobs and discussing these skills at interviews. |
| |
| 12th year
