Why come to Fircroft College?

Viv really wanted to further develop her knowledge. She had taught herself the basics of Photoshop and Illustrator but had never used InDesign although she had heard that it could be useful. Viv knew that her lack of skills was holding her back in a number of ways and she really wanted to become more proficient in all 3 of the modules of this course. Viv does not earn a wage so she would not have been able to afford to study the course normally and jumped at the opportunity to study at Fircroft.

The benefits 

Viv feels the course helped her on several levels. Firstly, it allowed her to gain the technical skills needed to bring her designs to life but also it showed her how to carefully look at the needs of a potential customer. Viv now understands why the smallest element of a design is incorporated and how that can have the ability to transform a design from irrelevant to relevant. The course has also helped Viv to think critically in terms of understanding the power and meaning behind different aspects of a design.

Viv feels that she benefitted particularly from the “real-life” aspects of the course. An example of this was an exercise the class did in which they had to produce a logo for an imaginary coffee shop. Viv felt exercises like this were very helpful as they allowed the students to put all the knowledge they had acquired during the course, into practice. The course also made Viv realise that designing is not a straight forward process and that you have to complete a lot of research which could mean you end up with a design that was not anticipated at the beginning of the exercise.

Viv has found InDesign to be a very useful tool and feels it will be helpful when she is creating her own brochures and leaflets for her business. Viv’s website is in progress at the moment and she now feels confident to create a unique brand for her business.

    

What next?

Viv has her own Design Marker Craft business where she uses techniques such as digital embroidery and digital knitting machines. Viv feels the skills that she has gained from this course will help her to build on the skills she had already to further develop her business. Previously, Viv was not using the Adobe software to its full extent but now she feels able to fully express herself in design and she is able to critique and improve her own Facebook business page, create a banner and logo and explore other ways her new knowledge can help her business.