Six Things Every Designer Should Do Right Now

By: Art Director, Jake Silva

I get really excited about learning new shortcuts and tools in programs I already know, love and use on a daily basis. Especially when it speeds up workflow and increases productivity. It is estimated that you could save up to 8 days a year just by using shortcuts while designing. So allow me to geek out a bit – I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to attend a talk hosted by Adobe’s Senior Creative Cloud Evangelist ­– Paul Trani. Paul is one of those presenters who’s laid back style and intelligent wit leaves you with a hunger for more. His talk was just as entertaining as it was informative and I found myself struggling to write down all his words of wisdom.

The lowdown: below is a high level selection of my favorite tips, tricks, shortcuts for Photoshop (Ps) and Illustrator (Ai). For the full list and additional tutorials, check out https://paultrani.com/

1. Pay attention to current design trends… for example

• Double Exposure
• Low Poly (artificial 3D)
• Long Shadow
• Zentangle
• Hand Lettering
• Murals
• Ink
• Calligraphy
• Creating vectors from objects in photography (Adobe Capture)

2. Speed up your workflow (it’s hard to break from what’s familiar)

• De-clutter your desktop workspace regularly by using CMD-H (hide)
• Change opacity of a layer in Ps with keyboard numbers (6 = 60% opacity etc)
• Shift key – (+)(–) to cycle through layer blend modes
• Shift-Option M (multiply) to jump right to a layer specific blend mode etc
• Command – J to duplicate a layer
• Bracket keys increase/decrease size of a brush or eraser, hold shift to change the softness
• N and K are the only (non-used keys) on a keyboard available to assign to a shortcut
• Name your Layers
• Layer pallet filter: filter the layers pallet by Kind, Name etc to find artwork faster

3. Work non-destructively

• Convert layers to Smart Objects
• Use layer masks + brushes rather than eraser tool
• Use bridge to load/combine files into the layers of one Ps file
• Uncheck “Auto-Select” in the upper toolbar and use the command key – click to automatically select a layer
• Select – focus area (auto select the part of the image that is in focus) the refine the edge
• Hold option between layers to make a clipping mask
• Layer – New – Artboard to create an Artboard from a selection of layers (then use the option key and click and drag to duplicate the entire Artboard)
• Filter – Camera Raw Filter to adjust everything in a photo without needing multiple layer styles.
• For the full list of Ps shortcuts: paultrani.com/2016/03/photoshop-shortcuts

4. Work Connected (between applications and within them)

• Use libraries
• Save an object to the library so you can always go back and edit it.

5. Produce and Output Graphics Quickly (in Ps)

• File – Generate – Image assets (name the Ps layer the file type you want to output to (i.e. image.jpg will export the layer as a JPG). Use percentages (50% in the filename) to export at 50% opacity
• Right click on the layer – export
• Right click on the layer – export CSS

6. Use the right tool for the job

• Check out the Adobe Experience Manager (XD)