A bit about Leslie and why she loves Illustrator

Back in the 1980s when I began my graphic design career, everything was done by hand in college—computers weren’t part of our design process at all.

Creating a design meant a lot of drawing, measuring, and yes, a ton of math on paper. When it was time to bring a design to life, we’d start with high-quality, pricey illustration boards. We’d order our text from a typesetting company and double-check all our calculations. Then, with light strokes of a non-photo blue pencil, we’d draw guidelines on the board. After collecting or receiving our ordered type, we’d slice it carefully with an Exacto knife into lines or sections, and meticulously paste it onto the board. Any pesky shadows from the paper edges were smoothed out with a touch of white acrylic.

And if you spotted a typo too late, or if the paper got damaged from adjusting the type too many times?

YOU STARTED OVER!

So when I tell you that when I was finally introduced to computer-aided design and specifically Adobe Illustrator 7, I WAS IN LOVE! I’m not kidding – it was life-changing. 

I could position something and see how it looked and if I didn’t like how it looked  I COULD JUST MOVE IT! Being a visual person being able to try variations of type and size and colour and then if I  didn’t like just CTRL + Z. It was magic!

After using Illustrator and Photoshop for a couple of years. I started taking courses at an Adobe-certified training facility in Vancouver BC. I wanted to learn everything so I took everything:  Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver (they were still Macromedia programs at first) After Effects and  Premiere. I was eventually hired to build the company’s website. On my own time, I added tutorials for Illustrator and Photoshop because I lived and breathed those programs and was excited to share.

I think, because I was so enthusiastic, I was always coming in – “look at this thing I made in Illustrator!” or “did you know you could do this in Dreamweaver” TrainStation’s owner, Trish Anderson,  suggested I become an instructor. So I went through the process to first become a Certified Technical Trainer and then studied and earn various Adobe Expert Certifications starting with Illustrator CS2. The combo of the CTT and an ACE meant I became an Adobe Certified Instructor.