Hello, I’m Virginia Brodie. I’ve been a professional graphic artist since 1977. When I started my graphic arts education no one owned a computer outside of governmental and higher educational institutions. Computers came into common use after I achieved my degree and had started my career.  There was no Internet. 

Apple was the main platform for the graphic arts industry, and at the time I couldn’t afford a Mac, so I worked with a Windows machine. Books and users manuals’ were typically geared toward Macintosh computers and the information often didn’t apply to the windows version of the software since the two platforms could be very different from each other. I wasted so much time, money, and effort using inefficient techniques, and essentially reinventing the wheel every day not having had proper instruction. Shear brute force and determination got my projects done just on time, but it was frustrating and slow going. The strange thing about all of this is, I was the most proficient user among my peers and often was a resource for them.

I became an Adobe Certified Instructor in 1999. It was the best job ever, since I got paid to study Adobe software. I took all the classes I would eventually be teaching. What an eye opener. I had no idea how much I was missing. I was amazed at how much faster I could be, how I could better manage consistency throughout documents and access the full power of InDesign. I learned first hand the true value of training.

My documents are very resilient now in the face of changes and have become of great value to my clients. Content often continues to evolve even after layout in InDesign has begun. This is no problem for me nor my clients since I use InDesign’s capabilities to the fullest. All elements can flow to their new positions and automatically adjust accordingly.

Because I have truly learned the Adobe software tools I use, I am never overwhelmed by all the options available. I am free to focus on creativity.