What to Learn After InDesign

Adobe InDesign is an industry-standard tool for building and designing page layouts for print media, such as newspapers and magazines. As a part of the Adobe Creative Cloud, InDesign is closely integrated with other tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator. If you already know how to use InDesign, you might consider learning other Adobe Creative Cloud programs, like Photoshop and Illustrator. Very few professional Graphic Designers only utilize InDesign, so pairing InDesign knowledge with complementary training in skills like Photoshop or Adobe XD can be a great way to strengthen a user’s career opportunities. We’ll cover these other Adobe programs below so you have a clear understanding of what skill you want to tackle next.

What is InDesign?

Released in 1999, Adobe InDesign is the industry-standard in page layout design software, and it is one of the software programs that comprise the Adobe Creative Cloud. Together with Photoshop and Illustrator, InDesign is one of the most commonly used creative design tools across a number of industries, ranging from publishing to graphic design. Built to streamline the process of designing page layouts for books and magazines, InDesign has a plethora of uses that make it a versatile tool for many creative endeavors. As part of a heavily integrated array of creative tools, Adobe InDesign gives creatives the chance to create compelling and vibrant page layouts.

Unlike its sister programs, Illustrator and Photoshop, InDesign serves a specific but vital function, building page layouts. Creatives will use InDesign to build prototype layouts for everything from brochures to web pages, and the program has tools for populating those prototypes with graphics, texts, and even interactive elements. While it is primarily used in traditional print media, InDesign is seeing increasing use in the digital sphere, such as the world of ePublishing and website design.

Read more about what InDesign is and why you should learn it.

What Can You Do with InDesign?

Adobe InDesign allows users to create vibrant and memorable design layouts that can be used for anything from print advertisements to promotional brochures to newsletters and magazines. Almost any print layout can be built with InDesign, and the tool is often used to help Web Designers produce mock-ups of web pages. Users can add text, color, and images to their layouts to ensure they communicate what they are trying to communicate. InDesign also lets users easily create templates or replicate pages to streamline the multi-page design process.

InDesign also has numerous non-professional uses for users who are hoping to create eye-catching posters, infographics, or flyers for their own organizations or communities. Visual design skills can help users share information in memorable and effective ways, and learning InDesign will help anyone hoping to communicate with the masses. Additionally, many small businesses or private commercial organizations like Etsy shops or local bands can greatly benefit from having individuals on staff with InDesign training, as the program helps non-professionals make professional-grade graphic page layouts.

Additionally, because InDesign is so closely integrated with the rest of the Adobe Creative Cloud, users who are familiar with other programs can seamlessly integrate their work in other programs into their layout designs. Photos and illustrations can be edited or created in Photoshop and Illustrator and then easily brought over in InDesign to populate a layout. Users can also transfer work between InDesign and XD to help build prototype web layouts. These connections help expand the functionality of all Adobe Creative Cloud applications.

Adobe Photoshop

One of the most recognizable graphic design tools, Adobe Photoshop, is the most widely used photo editing software on the market. The program allows users to retouch, manipulate, and alter static images to ensure that they look and feel the way that they need to for creative projects. Shifts in phone software have also made Adobe Photoshop an important tool for GIF animation.

InDesign users will most frequently be using Adobe Photoshop to edit and manipulate photos and images that they will add to their layouts. Graphic designers making brochures, for instance, may use photoshop to enhance the color on a scenic vista or to remove digital artifacts from photos that they wish to use on the cover. While InDesign has its own suite of image manipulation tools, integration with Photoshop allows creatives a whole suite of tools for altering the photographs that will go into their design.

Noble Desktop offers introductory Photoshop training through their Photoshop in a Day course, where students will learn the basic functionalities of the programs. Instructors will teach students how to retouch photos, cut out and crop images, and interact with individual elements of a photo using the selection tool. Students looking for more advanced training may consider the Adobe Photoshop Bootcamp. Here, students will learn the basics of the program and receive hands-on instruction on how to use the more advanced tools, such as editing or removing background objects, creating visual effects such as shadows, and, importantly for InDesign users, how to prepare images to be used on print layouts.

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a leading tool for creating vector graphics and illustrations. Whether a creative is working with hand-drawn illustrations or building assets with Illustrator’s library of templates and shape creation tools, Adobe Illustrator is a useful tool for any creative who aspires to create digital graphics for both print and digital publishing.

InDesign users will most frequently use Illustrator to build the assets that they use to populate their layouts. Creatives designing book covers might use Illustrator to create custom titles and logos to place on their cover. Creatives working with print magazines may use InDesign to draw illustrations that will accompany a story or advertisement in their magazine. Illustrator’s integration with InDesign makes it the go-to tool for building digital illustrations and assets that will make an InDesign layout more visually appealing.

Noble Desktop offers a few options for learning Adobe Illustrator. For novice users looking to get a feel for the program, Illustrator in a Day provides instruction in the basic vector graphic tools of the program. This course provides students with an introduction to using the pen tool to create free-form illustrations and how to use shape, brush, and paint tools to build assets. For students looking for more in-depth instruction, Noble’s Adobe Illustrator Bootcamp provides students with instruction in the basics of the program and builds on those skills to teach students how to use gradients and blends to fine-tune the color of their illustrations, how to create patterns to be used in print layouts, and how to prepare those images to be integrated into an InDesign project.

UI Design

For students who have a familiarity with the Adobe Creative Cloud, one possible career path that utilizes InDesign is User Interface (UI) web design. These professionals will use tools such as InDesign and Illustrator to build prototypes and sample layouts for web pages, and they will use Adobe XD to build the working prototypes that they use to test web interfaces. While InDesign is not used to directly prepare web interfaces for launch, it is a useful tool for helping create the concept designs that will become web pages.

Noble offers UI design instruction that covers both the principles of UI Design and the skills required to work with the Adobe Creative Cloud. Students with InDesign experience who want to receive hands-on instruction in both UI Design and Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator may wish to consider Noble’s UI Design Certificate program. Here, students will learn how to build web designs with Figma, and they will learn how to create digital graphic design assets using Photoshop and Illustrator.

Key Insights

• Since only a few creative careers use Adobe InDesign exclusively, receiving additional training, particularly training in other Adobe creative software, is a good way to expand career opportunities.
• Photoshop, Adobe’s photo editing software, will give creatives more flexibility in editing and manipulating photo assets that they will add to their layouts.
• Illustrator, Adobe’s vector graphics software, will allow creatives to build their own digital assets, which they can import into InDesign to enhance their layouts.
• These skills can be brought together to help creatives work in the field of web design and UI design, though this will require more specialized web development skills training.

Learn InDesign with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop offers a wide range of training options for students seeking to learn Adobe InDesign. Ranging from introductory courses such as InDesign in a Day to immersive career training programs like the Graphic Design Certificate program, Noble has a training program built to fit your needs. These courses are all taught by professional instructors with years of training as both teachers and graphic designers. Each course comes with the option to retake the course for free within a year of the initial enrollment, meaning that students have the option to take the courses again in order to receive more hands-on experience with InDesign or to gain more training in skills that they found difficult the first time through.

The Adobe InDesign Bootcamp gives students hands-on experience working with InDesign through exercises that mirror the kinds of projects that professional Graphic Designers would work on. Students will learn how to create layouts with InDesign’s text, color, and graphic tools, they will learn how to import formats and styles to easily build layouts, and they will learn how to work with parent pages to easily create complex, multi-page designs for projects like brochures and magazines. This course is ideal for students who want to learn the advanced features of InDesign within a professional context. At the end of this bootcamp, students will be prepared to use InDesign as part of their professional lives, and they will be able to demonstrate to their employers that they have received in-depth InDesign training.

Noble’s Graphic Design Certificate program takes this InDesign training and pairs it with career-focused training in Photoshop and Illustrator. Students will learn the background of graphic design, receiving training in philosophies of composition, color theory, and typography. Then, they will learn how to use Illustrator and Photoshop to create digital illustrations and assets that can be imported to InDesign to populate finished page layouts. Bringing these programs together, the Graphic Design Certificate program is built to take students from novice users to trained designers, aiming to help them find a new career once they’ve completed the course. This certificate program also provides students with one-on-one career mentoring so that when the course is complete, graduates will be ready to enter the workforce as Graphic Designers.