When I finished my graphic design course, I promised myself that I would always continue studying. While I don’t want to sit any more exams in my life, I do love learning new things. And to be honest, we live in such a fast paced world – especially when it comes to tech and the world of marketing – I have to at the very least, keep up to date.
Over the last year or so I received a few regular requests that I had to turn down because I don’t have the confidence, skills or time to do. One of my ‘2019 business objectives’ this year however, is to learn at least one of those new skills so I can keep offering my clients a variety of services. (BTW I’ve got a couple more business objectives, which I’ll cover in a future blog).
The first skill is Advanced Photoshop. Adobe Photoshop was a big part of my course and I know my way around it. I can’t however do very advanced photoshop projects. Someone recently asked me for example to create an image by changing an existing picture and adding and manipulating elements i.e. from a gun to a hosepipe (!). I hate turning down work at the best of time but when it is because I’m ‘not good enough’ I feel challenged and therefor want to start studying again.
The next skill I’m looking into is GIFs or animations. I get asked a lot about animated logos or online banners. Again, Adobe Animate was part of my course and while I passed the exam, I really didn’t enjoy it and never really practiced it. The phrase ‘jack of all trade…’ crossed my mind and decided to focus on the other design aspects like Illustrator and InDesign. However, there’s a way to create gifs without Animate now and therefore something I may consider studying.
Lastly (well not really lastly, but there’s only so much studying I can do) is Shopify. As you may know, I currently only develop websites in WordPress. However there are some e-commerce businesses who swear by Shopify. While WooCommerce is a fantastic plug-in to turn your WordPress website into a business, it’s not very user friendly in my opinion.
So, I’d love to know what you think? First of all – are you learning a new skill this year? Is ‘up-skilling’ part of your business plan at all? And secondly, which skill do you think I should focus on this year? Photoshop, Gifs or Shopify?
Let me know,
Bx