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Adobe Illustrator review from a newbie
October 24, 2017

Adobe Illustrator review from a newbie

Shannon Lopez | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Adobe Illustrator CC

I've been using it at a non-profit to do creative design for certain products. They've got logos in Photoshop and we decided to make a couple of different kind of mugs and needed to edit the logos, size, arc, and arch them. We didn't have written specs for the dimensions, just a physical piece, and the tools in AI allowed me to recreate it more easily than anything else I found.
  • The transforming capabilities are great. We were putting a logo (and it's a detailed logo!) on a curved surface and AI made this so easy.
  • I haven't done design work before, and I have found the functionality to be very intuitive to find in AI.
  • As I am new to this, I make mistakes. Lots of them. I love that, when I'm about to make a permanent mistake (can't be undone, or about to save into a less usable format), AI warns me.
  • I had a tough time adjusting to how to change colors and it still takes me some time. I've probably spent too much time in PowerPoint, so it's more of a transition thing than functionality.
  • I feel like, when I need to figure something out, I have to go to the web to research. I always find it on the web, but would love it if it were more easily accessible within AI.
  • Text boxes. I'm sure there is a way to start a text box with a preferred font and size vs the default, but I still haven't found it.
  • This product enabled us to sell a new product at our fundraiser, so it's definitely been a positive for the ROI from that perspective.
  • I like that the subscription is month to month so, if we don't have work to do with it, we can cancel... that's key for a non-profit.
  • At my 'real' job (not the non-profit), what our team does in AI puts us above the competition in terms of creative quality.
I tried Photoshop briefly when I was trying to create the artwork needed for a curved surface. I found Photoshop to be good and interesting, but it didn't have (or I couldn't find) the very specific functionality I needed to transform the image for a curved surface. Found it in AI in no time and was off and running.
For those who have some creative background, I would absolutely recommend AI. For those without it, my only hesitation on recommending would be the time it takes to learn it if you have to get something done quickly. The ability to bring in images, combine things, transform them, change colors are all fantastic. Someone who is more creative than I am would be able to do so much more like creating things from scratch. I'm just not there yet.