Sessions

Logos and Icons, Part 2: Distilling Your Message in Illustrator

In Part 1 of this two-part session, we explored the creative act of building logos and icons, from ideation to final design. Now, let’s explore the construction and critical fine-tuning work that must be done to deliver the final artwork.

From Sketch to Mockup: Designing in a Cross-App World

Stop thinking about using “an app” and start thinking about using “the app ecosystem”! Join us for a fun and wild ride through the “cross-app world,” where you’ll get to see how to implement the power of working with Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign together in a practical and productive way.  Keep your focus on the design by quickly changing apps and managing assets with the power of the CC Libraries! Are you ready to empower your workflow? Let’s get started!

Topics include:

  • Building vector sketches in Illustrator
  • Creating dedicated libraries to store all your project’s assets in one place
  • Launching your favourite apps directly from the CC Libraries panel
  • Implementing the power of working with the Creative Cloud apps  together in your everyday workflow!
  • Creating a product mockup to professionally present your InDesign art

Remote and Virtual Workflows for Design and Creatives

For many designers and creatives, working remotely, away from the office, has been really difficult… and remote/virtual will be an ongoing reality for many of us for a long time to come. Fortunately, there are editorial and review solutions that can make your life easier, and work flow faster.

The field of web-based collaboration and review is hot, hot, hot! If emailing PDFs out to remote clients and authors for review is slowing you down, you’ll be glad to learn about these newer, more streamlined alternatives.

This session includes:

  • Initiating and managing comment and review using Acrobat versus Creative Cloud services
  • Best practices for managing Acrobat comments
  • Discovering how InDesign’s Share for Review is better (and worse) than Acrobat
  • Using linked Word files for fast, round-trip copyediting with WordsFlow
  • When InCopy is the solution
  • Using Google Docs with InDesign

You’ll be so encouraged and energized by what you learn, that you’ll be fixing your own workflows as soon as you get back to your remote team!

Logos and Icons, Part 1: From Ideation to Construction

In this focused and inspirational talk, you’ll walk you through the creative process — from ideation to color exploration, art direction, rejection, and ultimate usage of iconic brand designs.

This is Part 1 of a two-part session. See Part 2 here.

Textile and Fashion Design with Photoshop and Illustrator

Do you need to design for fabric? Trying to create realistic textile or clothing? This session will act as a quick overview of the tools and skills you need to understand to be successful. Topics include:

  • Scanning, coloring, and rendering hand-drawn illustrations
  • Using filters and brushes to simulate textures such as linen, flannel, wool, denim, or fur
  • Manipulating patterns and textures with the Transform and Puppet Warp tools
  • Using Symbols for maximum flexibility

RGB vs CMYK: Let’s Put This Argument to Rest Right Now

It’s the 21st century… are you really still converting images to CMYK in Photoshop? Are you picking the right CMYK at the right time? What the heck is InDesign’s “transparency blend mode” and should you choose RGB or CMYK? This is the session that every InDesign user needs to watch—at least the ones who care about quality and productivity!

This session includes:

  • How to create a PDF that works for both onscreen viewing and printing on a desktop printer
  • Why converting images should be called “targeting” them
  • Why using the default settings will just get you boring color

Wow: Type Projects

You can’t help but love everything typographic! If the word fonts gets you excited and hearing about special ligatures and swashes makes your mouth water, then this session is perfect for you.

In this fun, fact-filled, and educational hour, we won’t just look at type — we’ll explain it as we pull the designs apart and learn what makes them tick.

Advanced Pattern and Tessellation Tricks

In Part 1 of this tutorial, you learned how to make basic patterns in Photoshop, Illustrator, and Capture. Now, it’s time to take it to the next level with tessellations (regularly repeating patterns)! Learn tricks of the trade by a professional with years of pattern-making experience!

  • Making seamless repeating patterns
  • Patterns that appear 3D
  • The 17 core patterns of the Alhambra palace
  • Random vs regular patterns

Patterns: Find Them, Make Them, Edit Them

Patterns are everywhere! But as much as Adobe wants you to think it’s easy as clicking a button, creating and using great patterns is an art as much as science. Whether you’re creating patterns for textile/fashion design or print, it’s critical that you understand what makes a great pattern work.

Topics include:

  • Big patterns: From wallpaper to wrapping paper
  • Tips and shortcuts for building high-quality patterns with Illustrator, Photoshop, or Textile designer

This session is Part 1 of 2. See Part 2.

Accessibility Community Conversation

Join us for an opportunity to connect with others who are working in the world of accessibility. Share ideas, explore new solutions, and find a community that helps each other throughout the year.