It is vital for those in the creative community to have some Adobe application on their toolbelt, especially if they want to pursue a professional career. With the wide variety of Adobe applications available, deciding where to start may be a challenge. If you’ve always wanted to learn Adobe but can’t figure out how to get started, this guide is for you. Learn more about the various ways to learn Adobe, free resources to take advantage of, and the types of careers that commonly use Adobe.
What is Adobe?
Adobe Creative Cloud is a computer software application that allows users access to all the different Adobe programs. Creative design and marketing professionals typically use it to create content for print, video, or online distribution. You can find professionals in nearly every industry that uses Adobe Creative Cloud, including advertising, website design, and video editing.
At the center of the creative community, Adobe Creative Cloud connects creativity with collaboration, as the cloud-based systems allow you to share work with fellow creatives and work from anywhere. Adobe’s spectrum of programs allows you to edit photos, create stunning digital designs, build websites, and edit videos. Adobe Creative Cloud stores all your programs under the same roof, allowing you to switch easily between programs as needed. Using Creative Cloud can also introduce you to new programs you have not used before to help upgrade your career.
Read more about what Adobe is and why you should learn it.
What Can You Do with Adobe?
Adobe Creative Cloud is a one-stop shop for all creative projects, and several applications are industry leaders for creative software. Adobe has over 20 applications, though typically, when referring to Adobe Creative Cloud, people think of the top five most popular; After Effects, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro. However, Adobe Creative Cloud has much more to explore.
Adobe offers applications to fit every project, from allowing users to view and edit PDF files to designing and publishing web pages. The top five applications allow users to edit photos and videos, create visual effects and motion graphics, and create page layouts, typography, and illustrations. With other programs like Adobe Spark, users can create social media or web content directly from their computer or phone. Dreamweaver allows users to publish web pages with a simplified code engine. Adobe Aero focuses on the world of augmented reality. There are endless possibilities for creating with Adobe Creative Cloud.
Careers that Use Adobe
Becoming proficient in Adobe Creative Cloud opens the door to several exciting career opportunities, such as:
- Graphic Design: Graphic Designers create images or graphics using text, colors, and animation to develop media for both digital and physical forms that communicate branding, advertising, and marketing. Typically, these images are produced with Photoshop and Illustrator; however, Graphic Designers also use InDesign, making Adobe Creative Cloud a vital part of their skill set. Graphic Designers can seek out freelance work, or they can choose to work for individual companies. Usually, their work appears as logos, social media campaigns, brochures, and advertisements.
- Digital Design: Digital Design and Graphic Design share similar elements, so the career paths overlap. But since Digital Designers specialize in dynamic designs, additional career options include web design, applications, advertisements, and publications. They use multiple Adobe Creative Cloud programs, including Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator, to produce animations and other visual effects.
- User Experience/ User Interface (UX/UI) Design: UX and UI Designers help create a website’s interactivity aspects. UX Designers focus on usability as opposed to visual design. They often create wireframes and prototypes and perform user testing. UI designers create a website’s visual look and feel. For these positions, you will work primarily with Photoshop or Adobe XD.
- Digital Marketing: Digital Marketers with Adobe Creative Cloud training will use aspects of graphic design and digital design to produce online content for clients that promotes their products or services, including social media and email marketing. Digital Marketers use similar programs to Graphic Designers. This career path is more specialized than graphic and digital design, as marketing training is also required.
- Motion Graphics Design: Motion Graphics Designers work with visual effects and animation, using programs like After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Cinema 4D to create animated artwork for various projects ranging from film to tech devices to video games to web applications.
Investing in an Adobe Creative Cloud course or bootcamp can fast-track you to a new career. Noble Desktop offers an Adobe Creative Cloud Bootcamp that guides students through multiple programs they will use throughout their careers.
Why Learn Adobe?
Businesses use print, web, and video advertisements to capture our attention and tempt us into paying for a product or service. Companies need to hire individuals who know how to create these images, graphics, and videos. Knowing how to generate such products is a lucrative skill to have on any resume. Adobe applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign are in-demand skills that can prepare you for several career opportunities. Career possibilities include Graphic Designer, Digital Designer, Digital Marketer, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI) Designer, or Motion Graphics Designer. Each of these creative careers offers competitive salaries and can often provide remote working opportunities.
Learning Adobe Creative Cloud applications allows you to build a foundation of design skills, diversifying your creative talents and opening more doors for different creative career paths. Suppose your professional aspirations change and you want to take on more or different Adobe applications. You will then have a foundation of skills to build upon, which can help you in other career areas.
Read more about why you should learn Adobe.
How to Learn Adobe
When learning Adobe, you may feel like you need the structure of a class to help you succeed. Noble Desktop provides several options to help you find the right course. Students who prefer in-person learning can use the Classes Near Me tool to locate in-person Adobe Creative Cloud classes in their area. If you prefer a virtual learning environment, check out Noble Desktop's live online Adobe classes instead.
Regardless of your skill level, there are options to fit your schedule. If you have a busy, jam-packed schedule, a full class may not work. On-demand Adobe classes might be better. Several of these introductory courses are free, as they are brief overviews introducing students to key functions of the applications. You can learn at your own pace, even if you want to learn individual Adobe applications simultaneously. Some courses require a subscription to the hosting platform, while others have a base fee for access. Providers for on-demand options include LinkedIn Learning, Shaw Academy, and Udemy.
Video demonstrations are another option to consider when first learning these applications. Noble Desktop provides an entire YouTube playlist of in-depth Adobe Creative Cloud tutorials. These videos cover topics like the top five popular applications and design elements. You may also look into Noble's free seminars to find courses related to Adobe, like the Intro to Adobe Creative Cloud training. These introductory courses teach students how to get started with Adobe Creative Cloud and what each app does.
Read the full guide on how to learn Adobe.
Free Introductory Adobe Course Online
Free introductory Adobe courses are a great start if you want to learn a new skill but are too busy to take an entire course. Noble Desktop offers several free seminars covering various topics. To get started with Adobe, check out the Intro to Adobe Creative Cloud seminar, where students receive an overview of the software and its applications.
Noble Desktop is not the only provider offering free Adobe courses. Udemy offers several courses that cover a variety of design skills as well as a few Adobe applications. Coursera offers beginner courses in several Adobe applications. Through Coursera, students can audit longer courses for free, including a course on graphic design fundamentals. However, if those options do not work for you, there are hundreds of tutorials on YouTube for each Adobe application. When going through these video tutorials, focus on the most recent uploads to ensure you learn the most up-to-date software and trends, as Adobe updates regularly.
Read about more free Adobe videos and online tutorials.
Level of Difficulty, Prerequisites, & Cost
Adobe Creative Cloud holds over 20 applications for users to download and use for their creative projects. Learning these Adobe programs can be challenging for those new to the software, and it requires time and patience to master each application. Users can learn multiple programs at once and become proficient in each. So while it may initially seem too complicated, users have various options to make learning easier.
Before jumping in head first to learn the complexities of Adobe Creative Cloud, beginners with the software should have some other versatile skills that will help them be successful from the start. Beginners should understand their computer's capabilities to ensure it can run Adobe Creative Cloud. Knowing how to navigate a computer system makes it easier to learn the software. Those interested in current design trends can also limit their learning to the applications used to create those designs. For example, designs in a hand-drawn style would require Adobe Illustrator as opposed to Photoshop.
Adobe offers subscriptions for all of the applications available. Depending on the program, these subscriptions can range from $10 to $55 monthly. It’s wise to choose only the applications you want to use instead of paying for all of them right off the bat.
Read about how difficult it is to learn Adobe.
How Does Learning Adobe Compare to Other Applications?
When pursuing a creative career, you may realize that you will require the use of multiple tools to complete your daily job. Depending on the career you enter, you may encounter non-Adobe software you need to use in conjunction with Adobe apps. These may include UX design software like Sketch, video editing software like Cinema 4D and Final Cut Pro, and graphic design software like Canva. As you are learning Adobe, consider what else you should learn and how the learning process will compare to learning Adobe.
How to Decide the Best Way to Learn Adobe
You’ve decided to learn Adobe but don’t know where to start. Skill level, cost, additional help, and learning style are several factors that come into play when deciding on training. However, no matter what you need, an option is available. The most important consideration when deciding where to start is knowing your end goal for learning this new skill.
Learning Adobe applications in-depth can be overwhelming for beginners. However, there are ways to ease into learning. If cost is a significant concern and you don’t want to pay for classes you might not like, you will want to attend free seminars, on-demand courses, or watch video tutorials. If you aren’t sure if Adobe is a good fit for what you want to accomplish, start with a short introductory course like Noble Desktop’s free Intro to Adobe Creative Cloud Seminar. This course provides an overview of what Adobe Creative Cloud does and the Adobe applications. Going this route provides a no-risk option if you decide that Adobe is not the way to go for your creative endeavors.
For those who have used Adobe in the past and want to develop their working knowledge further to help them grow in their current career, bootcamps may be a better way to go. Noble Desktop's Adobe Creative Cloud Bootcamp familiarizes students with the six most commonly used Adobe applications in just a few short weeks. These programs can be an excellent investment for professionals who need the additional skills to further their careers but do not have the time to commit to a more extended certificate program.
If you’re entering a new industry or starting a new career, check out some of Noble Desktop’s certificate programs. These programs offer one-on-one career mentorships that help prepare students to enter the job market upon course completion. Certificate programs can be costly and take several months to complete. Still, they provide the skills necessary to quickly turn a beginner into an advanced user, allowing students to enter the job market in a shorter time. For beginners wanting to become Graphic Designers, the Graphic Design Certificate dives into Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign all in one course. If web design interests you, the UI Design Certificate covers Figma, Photoshop, and Illustrator to get you started in this field.
Learn Adobe with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop
Noble Desktop provides several Adobe Creative Cloud Classes that meet any schedule or learning style. Participants have the option to attend in-person courses at Noble's campus in Manhattan, or they can opt to take courses virtually from anywhere in the world. Each option has students working closely with expert instructors in small groups. Noble also provides a free retake option within one year, allowing students additional time and opportunities to hone their skills without paying for another course.
Learning Adobe Creative Cloud can be daunting; however, the Intro to Adobe CC Bootcamp is available for students who want to learn only a few applications quickly. This course covers several Adobe applications, introducing students to Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and After Effects. Students use each application to work through real-world exercises and projects. For those with a little more time on their hands who want in-depth training on more programs, the longer Adobe Creative Cloud Bootcamp devotes more time to work with each application.
Additional options are available for those looking for more career-oriented learning. The Graphic Design Certificate dives into Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, while covering concepts surrounding the graphic design career. For more training on using Adobe programs to design web or mobile interfaces, there is the UI Design Certificate. As part of this course, you will work closely with Photoshop and Illustrator. In addition to learning the programs for your field of interest, you will develop a portfolio to send to potential employers.
