Major Project 1: Learning Enough Adobe to Appear Competent(ish) to Teach a Graphic Arts Lesson

Becoming a Competent Graphic Artist:
My Journey to Learning to Use Adobe Creative Cloud

So the Final Project for this Instructional Technologies Class is to learn something new - using a variety of technologies and resources and PLN stuff -  and document my 50 to 100 hours of learning via this blog.  So I suppose I should start with the premise of my project and do a sort of "pre-assessment" of my skills.  Which I actually inadvertently did back in September - the experience of which prompted this project.  A family friend who is a very successful veterinarian knew I was down on my luck and asked me to make a logo for the vet office.  I am an artist, so naturally, they assumed logo making would be no problem for me.  Well it was. I could free-hand draw it without problem but I could not adequately convert my idea into a more polished digital format.  Michelle, the vet, had the new Adobe suite on her home computer so she let me come over and play around.  I don't think she quite believed me when I tried to insist that I knew very little about logo design but I think she got the idea pretty quickly as she watched me fumble around... going between Photoshop and Illustrator.  First I tried to take my hand-drawn idea and clean it up in Photoshop... but the text wasn't working right.  So, knowing there is a program specifically designed for such a creative endeavor, I tried Illustrator.... and pretty much gave up on that because I don't even know what a "vector" is let alone how to design one!    It took waaaay longer to execute a relatively simple design than it should have. I didn't keep track of the hours spent but I'm going to say at least 8 if not 10 hours went in to making this:

Here's the rough sketch I came up with to show my idea to Michelle...
and foolishly thought would be no problem to do graphically

This is a sweatshirt with my hard-earned finished logo.  It's simpler than I wanted...  I love how the text turned out but the line-work on the animals is crude.  Still, it was the best I could come up with at the time. 
And my "client" liked it. 

The more I look in to my future career as an art teacher, I am realizing there is no avoiding the computers and other technology …so I might as well embrace it and learn it well enough to teach the basics.  I am quickly realizing that I will be much more marketable as an art teacher if I can instruct basic graphic design. I do have minimal experience with Photoshop (with much older versions than what's out now). I have not done much more than retouch wedding and senior pictures – and some basic album design when I worked for a professional photographer.  But that software is now seriously outdated and I used a lot of pre-made “Actions” – meaning most of the work was already done, I needed only to upload the photos and hit Play and voila! Pimples gone! But that doesn't help me design anything

So for this project I decided I want to be able to do that myself: to manipulate images and create passable logos. So I intend on learning to use current Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign or Muse programs proficiently enough that I would feel comfortable teaching them myself.  

To have an over-all theme for this project (or "lesson plan," if you will) I’m going to “start a cupcake business.” I have no time to actually bake at the moment (truthfully, it’s going to be hard to work in the hours for this project!) so the business isn’t feasible right now, but perhaps I could actually pursue it in the future. I do enjoy baking and have some awesome pictures of my daughter’s Oz-themed first birthday, for which I went all out.  I can manipulate the photos I have of the soiree with Photoshop and develop both some advertising-quality images. Then I can design a few logo options. Then I’ll make some advertising – either a website or brochures/posters/ads. Over the next six weeks I will try to spend 10 hours each week working on the project. I will document my weekly progress via my blog and at the end have a viable “business” to promote.  That's the plan, at least!

If you're not familiar with graphic design software - here's a quick list of what I'll be using from Adobe Creative Cloud:

Haha, just kidding.  It would take far too long to learn all of these in a few weeks!!

Photoshop (obviously) is to edit photos.  You can do everything from simple touch-ups to creating high quality graphics.

Illustrator is for creating vector images to be use for company logos, promotional uses or even personal work, both in print and digital form.  What is a vector? Well now I know that, "unlike JPEGs, GIFs, and BMP images, vector graphics are not made up of a grid of pixels. Instead, vector graphics are comprised of paths, which are defined by a start and end point, along with other points, curves, and angles along the way. A path can be a line, a square, a triangle, or a curvy shape. These paths can be used to create simple drawings or complex diagrams. Paths are even used to define the characters of specific typefaces. 

Because vector-based images are not made up of a specific number of dots, they can be scaled to a larger size and not lose any image quality. If you blow up a raster graphic, it will look blocky, or "pixelated." When you blow up a vector graphic, the edges of each object within the graphic stay smooth and clean. This makes vector graphics ideal for logos, which can be small enough to appear on a business card, but can also be scaled to fill a billboard."(Thanks TechTerms.com) 

InDesign is a layout/publishing tool used to create works such as posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers. 

Muse is a website builder that allows designers to create fixed, fluid, and adaptive websites without having to write any code. (which is the only way this artist could ever put together a website!)

The last two programs are uncertain... I'm going to see how the first go and then decide which way I'm going to go after Photoshop and Illustrator.  But either way, I think three (or even just two) industry-standard programs will provide enough content that I could effectively teach middle or high schoolers the basics.  To learn all this, I'm going to use a variety of sources and instructional tools. I know several professional graphic artists and one advised me that Lynda.com has some well-done online courses.  It is a paid site, but they do offer a free trial. In addition, I will employ YouTube tutorials, videos and instructions from the Adobe website as well as those personal contacts 

To document my progress, I intend on finding a good program that will record my on-screen activity.  I will keep track of the video tutorials that I use and will provide links in my blog.  Then I can write about my weekly learning experience on the blog, share my videos and finished products.  I can even include lists of very basic tips and tricks in case anyone else wants to experiment on their own time.  Here's the first video I found that wasn't an hour long (those are what I'll use - but you don't have to be subjected to that, valiant reader!)

So I've got a few images to play with and I'm going to start my journey this weekend. I'm on my way to not being a total nincompoop with graphic arts software! Maybe even capable enough to teach simple lessons with them. Hooray! 

Here we go...