The Advanced Illustrator

Just when I start to think I know quite a bit about working with vectors, bezier curves, shapes and generally know my way around Illustrator pretty well - I am quick to discover I don't.

After accepting the new job and having a pretty decent understanding of what the job would entail - I thought I knew what my challenges would be - initially it was drawing to scale.  This turned out to be something that was not as difficult as I thought,  caught onto it quickly and didn't have much trouble adjusting and was working confidently quite quickly.

Next was learning the product, materials, and how best to layout the designs so they (the production team) can use the specs that we (the design team) were drawing up.  This is still ongoing and each project is unique in its own way - the challenge with this is understanding the strengths and limitations of the materials and from that knowledge applying the "best fit" for that particular job.  Its not a cookie cutter solution most of the time, which I enjoy working through to bring concept of what the client wants through design to an end product that's practical, eye-catching and gets the most bang for your buck.

The design aspect varies - some projects are open to creativity, some not.  Both have pros and cons, after two or three "creativity required" its kind of nice to sit back and just put something together that doesn't require much thought -   especially say .. Friday afternoon.  But space is usually something of premium so juggling the design - ideas, attractiveness and space - usually has its challenges and coming up with something "fresh" can be difficult.  This can be said for design in general and all things considered would exactly what I was expecting in terms of a job challenge even though I was unfamiliar with this particular medium.  So no big shocker here, but it is a constant and requires thought and effort on each design.

What I didn't expect was to learn as much as I have already about the software I was using - which I thought I knew pretty well.  Turns out I'm not as advanced as I might have thought.  Working with basic shapes and tracing contour lines to create a realistic looking object is something I have worked with on some past projects and have met with some success - unbeknownst to me the skills and experience I was gaining from it outweighed the project(s) themselves.  Being the replacement for the last designer who worked here for about three years - it's always good to hear positive reinforcement in terms of the skills I bring to the table, such as "I didn't know you could do that!" when the last designer couldn't.  So I am relevant and from here I have a good starting point in terms of knowledge and experience to step into the role at Neon - but its all about progression.

Working with the senior designer (30+ years at Neon/design experience) has been a very valuable experience thus far allowing me to sponge all kinds of useful methods and information.  This includes things like:  strategies for attacking certain designs, utilizing tools and methods in Illustrator I hadn't used before (advanced features of pathfinder, cutting and reshaping lines, and of course some tips creating smooth arcing curves), knowledge of production materials and processes (which allows me to put forth a better design that go straight to production without redrawing or resizing for machine limitations) - to name the most common.

The Illustrator program has advanced options and capabilities that I still haven't used to their full potential - which made me realize that investing some time to develop some knowledge and skill with these various tools would undoubtedly be a good move - creating stronger designs, cutting down time designing, and the satisfaction of adding a few more weapons to my arsenal.  Whether its learning from someone else, researching things myself through tutorials or forums, or even a new book here and there -spending some time investing in my skills to aid myself in my new job will without a doubt be time well spent.