Jan 19, 2017

So instead of waiting for payday tomorrow I just went ahead and made the plunge. I bought the illustrator subscription and the beginning level class I mentioned yesterday and already got started.

I haven’t actually designed anything myself yet, but I got through all of the reading, videos, and practice material for the first big chunk of the course. And while I wouldn’t say I’m ready to go off and work independently yet, I will say that I was at least able to breeze through that first big intro/review faster than I anticipated. And, even better, I understood a lot more of it than I did the first time around. This was a welcome relief since last time I took the course I spent most of that time feeling completely overwhelmed and in over my head. Which is really more a reflection of how completely new I was to the program more than anything else. This time I had the basic vocabulary to understand what was being said and how the things being taught might have real use applications. Thank goodness.

Something else I like about this new platform the courses are offered through is that, once you buy the class, it’s yours to keep forever. Meaning it stays on your private account so you can go back and reference it as often as you’d like. Last time I took the class it was the same instructor, but on a platform that only allowed you to view the course materials for a limited time and then that was it. I had bought a small book written by the instructor that accompanied the course and that, in theory, would act as a reference guide once your course access expired. In some ways it did, but I’m sure glad that this time around I can still go back and watch the videos and check the summaries as often as I need to. It just makes me feel that much better about spending the time and money to get a good solid footing on the basics before moving on to things that are more advanced.

All this to say, I’m really grateful for the direction and recommendations from friends and I’m excited and slightly less terrified than before about giving this whole graphic design thing another go.