Design training resources & tutorials

Reviewed here are some of Design Talkboard's favourite learning, training and tutorial resources for a wide range of graphic design subject areas. Feel free to have a browse.

We have recently started reviewing graphic design training resources and tutorials in more detail.

Already reviewed are several Photoshop training resources and we have new added QuarkXpress and InDesign training sections. We will soon add Flash and Dreamweaver tutorials and the whole Adobe range of graphics software.

The Freehand source

Macromedia Freehand resources

The Freehand source, is a lovely site by graphic designer Ian Kelleigh. It's worth a visit, if only to view the interesting way he has approached the design of the site. Other than that, it's not a bad place to go for tips on using the 'other' vector drawing program, Freehand.

The history of the Internet

Internet history timeline

An unusual, if slightly confusing, timeline of the emergence and growth of the internet, starting from 1866 (yes, 1866). Excellent resource for students. Filled with links, historical events and fascinating facts. For example, did you know that in 1997 there were 186,000 miles of undersea telephone cables? Where are you going, comback, please, this is interesting!Anyway. Other useful sources of information about the history of the internet are;

A glossary of internet terms.
A little history of the World Wide Web.
Internet Society. History of internet resources.

It's a small World at Planet Photoshop

Planet Photoshop

Planet Photoshop is an extensive resource for all things Photoshop. Featuring tutorials, resources and information about seminars and training sessions. The tutorials cover a number of Photoshop's functions and what we especially like is the broad nature of the tutorials. There is a lot more than simply utilising its special effects features. There are articles on numerous areas, such as colour theory, photo retouching and optimising graphics for the web. Any design student, wanting to brush up on their skills in a certain area of Photoshop, could do a lot worse than start off here.

There are a number of helpful Photoshop threads in the Design software forums.

Photoshop special effect tutorials

Photoshop tutorials

Numerous online Photoshop tutorials, ranging from special effects, to creating textures, to text effects. These are clearly laid out and well explained, with examples, but they do assume a basic understanding of how to use Photoshop's toolset. Very useful for design students and people learning the program, or wanting to create a few fancy effects or bevelled buttons for web sites. There's probably less there for professional designers, photographers or pre-press pros, who want to know about photo retouching or the print production side of things. But there are other sources for that. Overall a good site.

Adobe Dreamweaver developer centre

Dreamweaver & web design tutorials
Adobe Flash developer centre

A number of online tutorials and resources for learning Dreamweaver. Clearly put together from the developer of the product. Has a number of features on working with their other products such a Flash and ColdFusion. Also has explanations on integrating other web technologies using Dreamweaver, such as .asp an cascading style sheets.