As a emerging design student in 2012, there was a big ruckus in the community about Adobe’s new switch to subscription-based pricing using their new cloud software.

Blog Post Addressing Privacy & Adobe

The biggest argument amongst professionals and causal users was that the software was no longer technically yours as the online services can go offline at any moment removing key features and the subscriptions offered at the time were a bit expensive since you have to purchase software in bundles and then pay monthly through a contract. Even with the controversy Adobe launched their new Creative Cloud, and with this new platform Adobe can offer up updates monthly and still produce new annual changes for new subscribers.

Logo for Adobe’s latest cloud based software, Creative Cloud. 

Having to find other methods to get the software can be tedious and soon that particular version of the software will be outdated within 1 to 3 years. I’d suggest any Student to sign up for the introductory $19/month plan which then transitions to a $29/month plan for the remainder for your contract.

Over time at Flushing Town Hall, my advisor and me have successfully created a new template for the company to use going forward. For my own record, I’ve built numerous different banners for the flyer template that I’ve worked on consistently for the last several months.

I began first using guidelines on Photoshop to measure how much white space I would need to fill in the logo, company information, directions, and let’s not forget the sponsors including sometimes some special words for our viewers. All of the aspects of the flyer must be clear and be easy to see for our target audience.

I am happy to have built different templates for different type of events because it’s gives me variety to work with and it allows me to do more research into my design and client. My favorite banner to work with features our logo just poking out of the white space.

Banner templates based on the type of event.

Working as a designer, I often have to run high intensive programs like Adobe Photoshop and Acrobat while running other programs in the background causing my hardware to run under high temperatures and stress. In my own experience, I can say I have had my own freak incidents where my machine will crash and I’ll have to start from scratch due to the file becoming corrupted.

When working at Flushing Town Hall, I often save different files of my psd. corresponding to my last revision with my advisor or a new shift. Saving these different files allows me to look back at my progress throughout the design while also creating a back up just in case my software were to crash at the moment. Shawn, my advisor also mentioned to me early on that I would need to compress my files down to the appropriately to be sent via email and named mainly in relation to whether the graphic will be seen on print or web.

It helps out because we can quickly look out for the file that we are looking for on the main FTP server. When working with different types of digital media, it’s important to understand saving files and working with them so others can view them. I’m thankful for my professors who empathized the importance of saving my files.

Hello again! I wanted to share crucial and vital resources that I use once I begin a design. Each source has their own value of information, and each day it can offer you guidance throughout your design and extra ideas.

Da Font – Fonts to use on new designs

Color Scheme Designer 3 – Create color scheme based on hex code

Lynda – Quick tutorials for quick solutions

Photoshop Tuts – Visual tutorials for Photoshop

TutsPlus – More tutorials for Illustrator, Photoshop, and more

Pinterest – Ideas, photos, and inspiration

Please check back soon for more information!

2016 has been good year to me so far. Regarding my latest designs, I could say personally that in the beginning of the year my work was a bit stagnant and could use more research to add more depth.

As the months rolled by, my pace at work was beginning to ramp up and the projects just continued to add up.

As some of the months in the beginning of the year follow a major overall theme, I want to show off different designs that were produced in correlation to that major event.

Each flyer represents a different feel and culture.

On my first day of my internship, I can actually say I was well prepared for what was being asked of me. I had own my laptop and an additional mouse to accompany it, therefore not having to rely on the office’s extra laptop. If I were to attempt to use the office laptop, I’d be restricted with time based on how long the thing takes to boot up alone. Alongside my MacBook, I have an Apple iPad that I carry with me when I travel. For my design workflow, the 13″ screen on my laptop is much too cramped to work on Photoshop efficiently between layers and tools, etc.

Duet Display, mirror or extend your workflow onto your mobile devices via USB or Wi-Fi.

What I use on my day-to-day basis is an app called Duet Display, which bridges the connection between iOS (mobile) and OS X (desktop) by enabling a device of choice to mirror or extend the screen via USB connection. I use my iPad Air 2, which gives me about 10″ extra inches to work with. When I first started working at the office, my advisor was impressed by the display. I think other designers who have the resources available to them would greatly embrace this new software, as it will increase your productivity by tenfold.

Please watch the video via the link below before reading the next post.

Click here to watch the video.

For any employee of any job, the commute to work can sometimes may or break your day. In New York City for many people throughout the five boroughs, missing a single train or even facing a single service disturbance from the MTA transit system will cause an individual to go outright crazy because they’ll soon realize that they won’t be making it to work on time. For those who rely on the public service to commute to work, I suggest arriving to your stations earlier then usual and checking online for any sudden interruptions to your desired service whether it be bus or train.

For this post specifically, I’ll discuss and focus on own my methods of getting to and from my internship. Solely based off my own experience, I’ll come forward and mention that bicycling is the most efficient and lowest costing method of transportation in NYC hands down. A bicycle is a couple hundred dollars investment versus the thousands spent for automobiles and public transportation. If it’s a great and sunny day, I’ll make the effort to ride my bike to work.

Snapshot of a first person point-of-view of a cyclist on the road.

However, if the weather doesn’t work with me for the day I’ll take the walk to the nearest bus stop and join the ride. It isn’t always the most pleasant experience, but I can deal with it as long as I can switch it up from time to time. As a word of advice no matter which way you are commuting, leave your house an extra five or ten minutes. It’ll pay off when you make your early arrival to the office.

Work together or work alone, is that a question that occurs in your work environment? That kind of situation is one that many employees don’t even have the choice to make at times. It’s important to understand what to do if and when you are placed to work with a partner. For the first half of my internship at Flushing Town Hall, I was able to work with a partner on Wednesday’s where as I would work alone on Friday’s.

The ability to work with a partner while designing is great because I have another pair of eyes right beside me to review my current drafts and give me appropriate advice. For my ventures outside the office, I had my partner beside me to help distribute multiple flyers within Queen’s neighborhoods. A task of that caliber would be daunting by myself compared to a two-man team.

It’s great to have a team partner, but it’s also important to understand that both parties will have to sacrifice to have a good withstanding partnership. Respect one another’s space and perform when told to so, and I believe you will be able to build strong partnerships. Depending on which side of the spectrum you prefer to be on, I’d suggest working on whichever makes you more uncomfortable as it will give you the experience you need when you reach the professional work-field.

In my opinion, I enjoy working on my own because I can take the lead and plan out what I want to do in steps, where as if I was on a team I need to break up the project into different parts to then decide who will be taking on different tasks and relying on others to complete those tasks.

Even though my internship course technically started in January of 2016, I’d like to take a step back and reflect on a flyer I produced in 2015. I began working with Flushing Town Hall in August 2015. Over the course of four months, I quickly began creating flyers for the remaining events on the brochure. My favorite flyer was for an event that was occurring in February 2016, but I was already working on it in December.

Final Design For RHAW Hip-Hop Flyer.

This flyer was for the RHAW Group and hip-hop dancer Rennie Harris. I found interest in this particular flyer because it targets fans of street dance and hip-hop, which is an audience that I can understand more often then others. I wanted this flyer to be different from the ones I had previously produced, in layout and typography. This flyer went through about 4 drafts changes before finally becoming finalized. I personally believe it was worth the effort because I saw my initial idea become visualized and I believe that my advisor Shawn was thoroughly impressed by my work.