Skills / 05
25 years of Adobe Creative Suite used in production, not in tutorials. Print, digital, video, event materials, brand identity and everything in between.
Not a designer by job title. A designer by necessity. Which makes the work more practical and more considered.
The Background
The Adobe Creative Suite has been part of my working life since the late 1990s. Not as a hobbyist. As someone who needed to produce real materials to a deadline with no agency budget to fall back on.
At Auckland Harley-Davidson, every piece of print, every digital graphic, every event banner, every email header and every promotional video was produced in-house. That is 17 years of continuous production work across Photoshop, InDesign and Premiere Pro, with Canva added as a fast-turnaround tool for social content where speed mattered more than precision.
The skill started formally. I studied multimedia at BAE Systems and earned an HNC, which gave the technical foundation. Everything since then has been built on top of that through necessity and volume of work.
The Approach
I am not a designer in the traditional sense. I do not spend days refining typographic detail or debating colour theory. What I do is produce work that communicates clearly, fits the brand and gets the job done on time.
That constraint produces better design decisions than an open brief does. When you know a poster has to be printed by Thursday, a video has to be on Facebook by Monday and an email header has to match the campaign going out at noon, you learn to work quickly and make decisions that hold up under pressure.
Harley-Davidson has one of the strongest brand identities in the world. Working within that framework for 17 years, while also producing materials for Auckland Triumph and personal projects with no established brand at all, means I can operate at both ends of the creative spectrum.
What I Do
Image editing, compositing, retouching and digital graphic production. Social media imagery, email headers, web graphics, event materials and promotional artwork. 25 years of daily use.
Print layout, brochures, event programmes, promotional leaflets, price lists and multi-page documents. Production files built to print-ready specification with correct bleeds, colour profiles and export settings.
Video editing for social media, event promotion and brand content. Shooting, editing, titling and export for Facebook, Instagram and web. No film crew. Camera, edit, publish: all in-house.
Working within established brand guidelines for Harley-Davidson and Triumph. Building brand identity from scratch for new projects and client work. Understanding when to follow the rules and when a brief requires something new.
Artwork prepared to print-ready standard. Posters, banners, brochures, event signage, price tickets and promotional materials. Understanding of print processes, paper weights, colour modes and supplier requirements.
Social media graphics, story formats and quick-turn digital content using Canva where speed is the priority. Knowing when Photoshop is necessary and when Canva is the right tool for the job is itself a skill.
Real Output
Large format print for dealership events, model launches, open days and HD Nights. Designed, prepared to print specification and sent to supplier. No design agency involved.
Headers, hero images and promotional graphics for every Mailchimp campaign sent over 17 years. Produced in Photoshop to match each campaign's offer, season and brand tone.
Ongoing social content for Facebook and Instagram across Auckland HD and Auckland Triumph. Photography, graphic production, video editing and caption writing. The full content loop.
Short-form video content for social media and event promotion. Shot on location, edited in Premiere Pro, exported for platform. New model launches, event teasers and brand content.
Seasonal promotions, accessory catalogues, event programmes and product leaflets produced in InDesign to print-ready standard. Managed the full process from brief to delivery.
Branded photo overlays for the in-dealership Christmas photo booth system. Designed to work at multiple aspect ratios across different devices, output as clean branded images for customer download.
Every website I have built has been designed as well as coded. Page layouts, hero images, icon sets and interface elements all produced in Photoshop before they became HTML and CSS.
Visual identity and web design for BPhilippe Author and the Diamond Spice novel microsite. Starting with no established brand and building something that fits the tone and audience of literary fiction.
Where It Started
The formal training came first. An HNC in Multimedia studied at BAE Systems gave the technical grounding in digital media production, image editing, video and interactive content. That foundation has been built on continuously ever since through real production work rather than further courses.
The difference between someone who has studied design and someone who has been producing design work under commercial pressure for 25 years is significant. The decisions come faster. The judgment is more reliable. The output is less precious and more useful.
Design is a tool, not an identity. I use it to get things done.
Tools and Applications