Every time I walk in the mall and pass Santa and his little elves, I can’t help but get a little envious of little 5-year old Sally. She gets to sit on Santa’s lap and go through her whole Christmas wish list! If I had it my way, I would sit on his lap and ask for one thing and one thing only. Adobe Creative Suite 5 – queue the heavenly humming angels.
Minoring in digital design forced me to become familiar with the software. But now that I have used CS5 in the classroom, I am begging to have it on my laptop at home. One word sums up this software, AMAZING. Even if you are not a digital design junkie, CS5 allows you to let your creativity go wild and free as if you were in the African Sahara. There are so many different functions to the software that you can do virtually anything with each program included. Whether it is to photoshop your Facebook photos, create an interesting collage, or even create your own cartoon, those are just a few of the many things that you can do with Adobe CS5.
CS5 includes Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash Professional, Flash Catalyst, Fireworks, Acrobat, Bridge, and Device Central which was integrated in CS3. Device Central allows you, the developer to create content intended for mobile devices. CS5 has been updated with the most recent electronic devices including personal tablets. This is really handy for web designers or bloggers who stay glued to their smartphones. Take your website to the next level and design it through CS5.
CS5 is an investment. And I’m not just saying that because I’m an advocate, but in reality it allows you to create your own images. For example, if you have any graphic requirements in any other class, you can make them on CS5. If the organization that you are in needs 200 promotional flyers, you can make them yourself using CS5! Need to present a brochure for your business class? Invest in CS5! Need to display a building you designed for your engineering class? Invest in CS5! Need to interactively display the inside of a human body for Biology? Invest in CS55! Create your own website and capitalize on the domain name. You can turn a helpful software program on your computer into a fully marketable business.
To give you an even better picture to paint (pun intended), in class we learned how to take a really old photo that had cracks and white specks just from enduring a lot over the years. I was able to manipulate the photo so that it looked like it was taken just yesterday, even though it was 75 years old. My professor, who is a professional graphic artist, told us that a service like that would cost someone around $100 if they brought the photo to someone who had the capabilities. I was able to complete it in 30 minutes! $100 for every 30 minutes? Come on we are all college students, do the math. Having this software will allow you to do extraordinary things, inside and outside of your course requirements. My suggestion is to use it for an even better advantage, and offer your services and talents for a pretty penny.
There’s no way I could go into all of the different things you can do with CS5. You’ll just have to get the program and see what I’m talking about, and what I’m leaving out. Enter the raffle to win Adobe CS5, and if you don’t win, ask Santa for CS5 for Christmas. If he sees that all the little boys and girls around the world want the software so bad and just want to love it with all their heart, then we can convince him to give all of us the suite!
By the way… students can receive 80% off the full price of the Adobe software! Get more information here.
Hey NSCS Members: We’re giving away a copy of Adobe CS5 to one lucky member! Enter the #TalkNerdy2Me contest, simply check out our Facebook Page for contest rules on how you can win a copy of the popular Adobe CS5! The contest ends on Monday, December 19th at midnight and we will announce the winner on Tuesday, December 20th.
Ashley Williams is a junior, Broadcast Journalism major and Digital Design minor at Howard University. She is a member of The National Society of Collegiate Scholars and the Social Action chair for the NSCS chapter at Howard University. She is a chic geek at heart as she truly enjoys shopping for great deals and putting different styles together. She enjoys sharing her deals, beauty and fashion secrets to whoever is willing to listen. She is a contributing writer for TalkNerdy2Me and Hercampus.com.