Design Skill Set

Over my 6 years in the Design industry I have used so many programs and techniques to get a the job done.

Below you will find a detailed list of all the information, which makes me the designer I am today.

Graphic Design

Adobe Illustrator

Illustrator is a must for me when I create adverts. I use this to create all my adverts, from this I create any vector artwork. I have been using this for the past 4 Years.

I am currently considering taking the Adobe Certified Expert course which will prove my expertise in the Adobe Software.


Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop like Illustrator I use in almost all my design work. Used by me for image optimisation, image re-touching, converting colours (RGB to CMYK) as many clients provide a lot of RGB images for printing purposes, I then must spend time converting the images to meet printing standards, which is where Photoshop comes in handy.

I also use Photoshop for creating re-sizing and optimising images for the web.


Adobe In-Design

This is perhaps the weakest area in my Adobe arsenal. Whilst I produce hundreds of adverts throughout each year, all of which created for magazine publications, I very rarely deal with the layout side of pre-press.

However, when called upon I can comfortably create magazine, brochure and all other layout related tasks with In-Design.

Example of a brochure created in In-Design


Corel Draw

When I first began as a Graphic Designer, my first program used was Corel Draw 9 upwards to Corel Draw X3 Graphics Suite. Whilst I understand many designers "Hate" this program, I personally have no problems with the software. Before we used Illustrator at my current employer Corel was used for everything, image optimisation, pre-press layout, ad design.

However now I have grown as a designer, Corel is hardly ever used, as I have found it is an apprentice of many techniques, but a master of none.


Other Programs

I have also used in the Past Quark Express although not enough for me to include it in my CV, like many old programs I used to use, it only takes me a short while to carry on where I left it.

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Web Design

Dreamweaver

I have used Dreamweaver as my main web creating device for the past 5 years. When I first started using Dreamweaver, I mainly used it for table based web design and CSS for styling the content.

Now I use Dreamweaver as my text editor to hand code CSS for tableless designs and FTP and have recently started using it for my PHP coding and programming.

I tend to use Dreamweaver on PC, as I have found over the past 12 months that my Apple MAC does not like Dreamweaver and tends to crash with any kind of Dynamic coding (PHP, Javascript & sometimes CSS).

Fireworks

Another program I used early on in my web design career. I used for creating animated banners, image optimisation and image creation for the web.

Photoshop

My new tool for image optimisation for the web, and image creation.

Flash

I do not tend to use Flash as much as I would like, as I do enjoy Actionscript and Animation.

I have created a few applications for my current employer using Flash and Actionscript. Examples can be found at the following links.


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Other Skills

PHP & MySQL

I have been programming with PHP for 6 months. Whilst I have knowhere near fully explored the possiblities PHP has to offer, it is something I am fully enjoying learning. I have only done two projects with PHP one is an admin panel for a client which allows them to add, edit, delete, create users, display results by various criteria. The other is a full content management system which allows the client to create there own portfolio of work, to edit images, upload them at the backend and at the front end display random testimonials, random portfolio entries and a client side view portfolio section.


VCAB - Virtual Catalogues and Brochures

Working with Flexipage technology, I create and produce online brochures for client viewing. This uses XML technology and Flash.

Javascript

Another programming language I am currently learning. I have used Javascript in the past on things such as client side validation, rollovers etc, but something I will be exploring further in the next 12 months.


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