Working in the real world as a Graphic Artist consists of many different factors that help you simply survive, let alone push to the front of the crowd…and let’s face it, it’s a big crowd. One of the most important things you can do for yourself to raise your worthiness to any company is to streamline your workflow. Not only does it help you maintain a healthy archive of working files, which is nice when your boss or clients want to go back in time magically, but it allows you to work much quicker and in turn, take more time on the important part – being creative!
I want to make a small comment about the workstation you happen to be using at the moment. If it’s not a Mac, you’re not an artist. Okay, that’s a little harsh but in all reality, PC’s simply don’t have the capabilities Mac’s do. I know it’s a big switch and a financial nightmare but if you want to work as an artist in the real world, most every place worth anything in the graphics world utilizes Macintosh workstations so it’s important you acquaint yourself with them.
Okay…let’s start with file saving. Even though you can set your programs to a good number of undo’s, you will at one time or another wish you had saved your files somewhere along the line. Your computer can crash (if you’re on a PC), the power can go out, your battery back up may call it quits and there you are, three hours into a job and an hour away from when your boss wants to see it before it goes off to the client and you don’t have anything to show either one of them. What do you mean you didn’t save your files?!
Tags: actions, apparel, Graphic Arts, Illustrator, Photoshop, shortcut keys, Workflow
