This course is made for students who would like to learn the essentials/basics of the primary Adobe design applications. Although not fancy, these pages are informed by over ten years of using these applications (and their predecessors) daily.

The way this course teaches the applications is by introducing and explaining them in a logical way that builds upon what was previously learned. These applications present a puzzling array of buttons and gadgets that most often is overwhelming to the new user. This course makes sense of it all, not showing how everything works, but instead laying a foundation and a path to learn about all those confusing buttons and gadgets.

The steps in this course look a bit like tutorials. Like tutorials, you should work in the applications as you follow along with the course, even when not specifically instructed to do so. Unlike tutorials, the steps in this course present the information in a way that is geared to having you actually learn the material, not just a list of steps to get something that looks decent.

This course is made for Adobe Creative Cloud (2020 versions), but it can easily be used for versions CS4 through CS6. The properties panel is the only thing that has changed in the basics material presented here. If you are using multiple versions of Illustrator or InDesign you will need to save files in a way you can open them in the other version. A quick Google search will point you to how this is done.