What do you know about Adobe Creative cloud?

[EachandEveryone]

And is this course worth the money? https://www.arts.ac.uk/subjects/communication-and-graphic-design/short-courses/digital-design/adobe-creative-cloud-short-course-lcc

my niece has just graduated in fine art fist class. Shes fantastic at drawing. Like many art graduates shes finding it very difficult to get a job or or internship in London. She absolutely doesnt like computers but most jobs are asking for familiarity with adobe or something similar. Im letting her stay with me for afew weeks. I just wish I could buy her a bag of confidence. Shes working in a pub which is helping. I will pay for a course but before I mention it I just wondered if the above would be any good. She did get her degree from there.

Course looks very beginner level and is really expensive for what it is. She’d get better value from getting a subscription to the software and following a few YouTube tutorials tbh. What kind of work is she looking to get into? Has she been interning or getting other experience?

Sorry, I just saw you mentioned internships in the op!

I honestly dont think she even knows she just loves drawing but thats not going to be the rent just yet 😃 the trouble is shes a talented working class kid with not much confidence and shes not going to be one of those types to work in an art gallery as an intern as I dont think she would get past the interview. I mean I could be wrong but I cant see her as Charlotte York from Sex and the City😃. I actually think shed be an amazing hair colourist but Im keeping that to myself. She is obbessed with detail and works at her own pace. I am very aware not to say anything Im just putting feelers out on here. Shes coming to live with me in London for abit. Not a hip part of London but its all there within 20 mins. Im having radiotherapy so she will be a massive help to me. I just want her to make the most of being here rent free not many people get the opportunity to do that.

All commercial art jobs will require familiarity with Adobe software and she’ll probably be expected to have some concept of digital design as well. But does she want to work in graphic design? There’s options in magazine publishing, corporate work, advertising, design agencies etc. you could maybe buy her some books on branding to get her thinking like that. But does she want that kind of career?

NB. not a designer but have worked with them, hired them and managed them.

You’re helping her massively by allowing her to live in London rent free, it’s a really good opportunity to get out there and apply for lots of things and network. Does she have a good online portfolio of her work? Is she promoting herself on social media? If she wants to draw then her ultimate aim may be to work for herself and she might do better to have any job on the side (the pub is fine!) to make an income while she gets herself established, sorts out her portfolio and starts getting paid clients. Even if she wants to be an artist/illustrator/self employed she would benefit from the experience of seeing how other people structure their business, so an internship with an artist or a studio could be great. Basically she needs to be quite self motivated and just throw herself at it!

That sounds like good advice.

I don’t really know anything about high art or fine art but I imagine the number of people who make a living drawing what they fancy is fairly tiny, so she needs to think about how she can serve a market or meet a need.

Could she do commissions? Portraits of pets or kids? Could her drawings be adapted for greeting cards, posters, prints etc and could she get a little Etsy business going? But you do need a certain amount of self confidence and determination. If there are any art fairs near you, or local studios it might be worth going along to see if you can get chatting to some of the artists.

This might be a useful course for her: https://www.arts.ac.uk/subjects/fine-art/short-courses/creative-process/working-as-an-artist-short-course-csm

Im not sure but I imagine that would've been covered in her Fine Art degree there. You would hope so. Uni goes by so quickly its a shock when it ends.

Adobe CC is really easy to self-teach. I’m surprised she’s never even used Photoshop or Illustrator in her studies at all. My sixth form students use various Adobe software - I teach the basics but it’s far more effective for them to just get stuck in using it and making use of YouTube to help with tricky bits. It doesn’t take them long to far surpass my knowledge of it (because I rarely have to actually use the software!).

Anyway she seems keen to get a new laptop so that’s a start 😀 plenty of people have asked for poster versions of her art and the grad fair so now it’s time for some action.

She has just been offered an internship so hopefully this will be the start of something 🤞