Book recommendations- Programs

Mr J

Member
Hi
I'm currently in my second year of studying a degree in GD

I'm trying to master becoming a whizz on Adobe Illustrator! I Know the basics and I'm attending advanced workshops (going to one today actually!)

......but i'm wondering if there are any good books/magz on the Illustrator program that i could purchase online? or maybe a sort of 'Graphic Design Bible' that includes a whole design suite.
I already have many on Photoshop. I mainly need to focus on Indesign and Illustrator.

Any reccomendations?:)
x
 
Personally I'd get on forums, ask lots of questions, and perhaps do some online tutorials to pick up some ideas.

Tutorial | Layers Magazine
is an excellent resource for some online tutorials - there are umpteen more but just practice.

If you have your heart set on getting a book that you can use for reference, then this is pretty good. Interesting viewpoints in it, though it may be a little dated should you be looking for something to learn cs4/5.
 
When I switched from Freehand over to AI I subscribed to Lynda.com where you pay around $25 per month and have access to ALL their tutorial vid's during that time.
I found it a great help and it got me started.

Have a look at VectorTuts as most of theirs are based on AI and there's a massive archive.
 
oh thanks 'jamiecuatroocho' This could be very handy for me :)
Scotty- this may be a bit too expensive as i'm only a student :( how long do you have pay then? is it like a contract?
 
No, you just pay per month via PayPal.
I just subscribed for the one which got me going.
There are plenty of people on here in the know who would be willing to help if you get stuck.
Just give us a shout:)

Ai has a few annoying traits (I find) and once you get your head around those it's not so bad.
 
Classroom in a book. This series seems pretty good, but Jamie is right, being on forums and getting advice from people in the industry is the best way. Also apart from learning from books, look around sites for inspiration and look for something you would like to try and replicate. Once you have decided write a brief and try to achieve the design by using tutorial sites such as pixel2life.com (my personal fav), you will learn a lot more in practice than books!
 
BenJonesDesign said:
Classroom in a book. This series seems pretty good, but Jamie is right, being on forums and getting advice from people in the industry is the best way. Also apart from learning from books, look around sites for inspiration and look for something you would like to try and replicate. Once you have decided write a brief and try to achieve the design by using tutorial sites such as pixel2life.com (my personal fav), you will learn a lot more in practice than books!

The Adobe class room is good, especially for Illustrator. It's such a small program so the book covers it quite comprehensively. Then practice like hell on the pen tool. Try doing something like vexel art that requires you to draw about 1000 complex shapes with the pen tool.
 
Like BenJones & wac say, the Classroom in a Book series is very good, as is Lynda.com. And like everyone said, practice, practice, practice.
 
Typo said:
...I still like Freehand....

I never liked freehand. Even when that's all we used at uni I thought it was a heap. I find illustrator much smoother to use personally.
 
We still use Freehand 5.5 where I work. We're just in the middle of switching to Illustrator CS4, but I still occasionally have to use Freehand for now. It is not good.
 
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