Creative Suite 101: Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and InDesign

Midterms are approaching and Western's tree-lined streets are boasting fall palettes. 

One month into the school year and the Emerging Communication Technologies class has hit the ground running with the latest versions of Photoshop and InDesign. 

Our expertise ranges from "I have no idea what I am doing" to "I can do this in my sleep", but we have all been having fun with our in-class projects. So far, we have used:

• Photoshop to create personal logos
• InDesign to create newsletters
• InDesign to create magazine covers
• InDesign to create book covers and pages

Now that I know how to use Photoshop, I find myself using it whenever a design is involved with an assignment. The hardest part was remembering what each tool does. However, there are many tutorials out there that make it easy to get the art of photoshopping down. Once you get familiar with the program, design possibilities are endless. 

Here is a YouTube tutorial that demonstrates how to turn yourself into a Na'vi from Avatar:

Learning how to use InDesign was a piece of cake after learning Photoshop basics. I found a very useful guide prior to learning InDesign. This helped me familiarize myself with the program, and once I started using it a lot of the tools seemed intuitive. 

Here is a YouTube tutorial that goes over some basics:

Dreamweaver will be the next program we approach as a class. It intimidates me a little, as I had never heard of it prior to Day 1 of this class. This web editor is the go-to program for creating and managing a professional website. Adobe offers a nice list of 10 steps to building a simple website with Dreamweaver. I think I'll probably start with that and hopefully work my way up to creating a more complex website.

Here is a YouTube tutorial that I am watching to prepare for Dreamweaver usage:

Next week I will be discussing podcasts. This is in preparation for the podcast I will be recording with a partner from class. Our chosen topic is Tumblr, one of my favorite social media sites. We will be putting a fun spin on the traditional tutorial format, so stay tuned!

One great, uniting aspect about these programs and assignments is that individually and as a class, we are given many opportunities to channel our unique creativity.