Why Even Seasoned Creatives should Frequently Review Basic Design Software Training

This entry was originally posted to LinkedIn in October 2025 and has since been altered to best suit the blog format. Click here to read the original.

If you use Adobe Illustrator at all, I highly recommend reviewing a comprehensive basics course — especially to my fellow young professionals. I recently took Tony Harmer's Illustrator 2025 Essential Training, part of an Adobe partnership with LinkedIn Learning. Here’s why:

Even if you’re a seasoned Illustrator user, unless you’ve taken formal design classes, I am almost certain you perform at least one design command “the hard way.”

Speaking from experience, the late-night YouTube tutorials for “that one thing” you want to achieve are wonderful for one-off projects, but you still might be completing every step beforehand less efficiently than you could be. For example:

Spending precious time outlining strokes and splicing objects with pathfinder to get that perfect peek-through effect, just to find that the intertwine tool would have done it five times faster.

Option-clicking a rectangle eight times and manually aligning them rather than using object>path>split into grid.

Reselecting a myriad of elements with each adjustment when the option to ‘save selection’ exists.

It might be as simple as learning that cmd+shift+v pastes objects in the same position (shoutout to Elton Burgest for teaching me that one) or screenshotting with cmd+ctrl+shift+4 saves photos only to your clipboard without cluttering your desktop (special thanks to the icon and legend, Amanda Cole — seriously, that one changed my life).

I’ve committed all of these Illustrator missteps and urge you to watch so you don’t have to. At the very least, consider reviewing focused chapters of the course; it’s been a great resource for me to transition from doing things “the hard way” and instead adopting “best practices.”