When considering the process of making an art exhibit and its subsequent marketing for it, it’s intriguing to see the technology involved and the history behind it. Technology has launched exhibitions and their marketing into a modern process, making art exhibitions more accessible and interactive, and their marketing campaigns more streamlined and engaging. Within my capstone project, I plan on utilizing all possible technologies to the fullest of my abilities to meet modern innovations and standards. 

What’s my Technology of Choice?

The recently updated program.

For my project, Adobe Illustrator (v. 26.0.3) will be my main technology throughout. Seeing how my marketing campaign will require photo editing, typography, graphic design, and formatting of all kinds, I felt it was best to use software that could foster and achieve all of that and more. I am using this exact version of Illustrator due to it being the most updated and bug-free version, and I have a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud that I’ve been using for several years.

How is Adobe Illustrator Social?

Adobe Illustrator is social in numerous ways:

  1. Its central purpose is to create and share content. Within the software, users can create quite literally anything they desire through the tools and techniques provided by the app in a digital and accessible manner easily. From there, all users have the capability and platform to upload their works to the Adobe Creative Cloud and other social media platforms with the ability to let audiences comment, like, and share work with other applications. 
  2. It gives the ability to utilize in-app resource help and collaboration. When using Illustrator, users can access in-app help from the application itself, with tutorials and explanations of different tools being offered by the experts and creators of the software. If a user wishes to go further in their learning, they can access Adobe Creative Cloud’s “Discover” tab, where thousands of free and exclusive tutorials, videos, interviews, and write-ups about the different creative applications and their uses. This content allows users to collaborate through indirect and direct means.

    The Discover page of the Adobe Creative Cloud application

  3. I can access and use art and content from other creators. Through the large library of purchasable and free vectors, photos, templates, fonts, plugins, and assets, I can include or gain inspiration from other creators’ work, inadvertently making my project collaborative with artists, designers, and Illustrator experts. And naturally, credit is and would be given where it’s due. 

What Cultural Values Does Illustrator Reflect?

  1. We value having the ability to express ourselves creatively and receive validation for our work. To have the capability to express ourselves and our interpretation of the world around us through creative content is important to our culture. Creative content like graphic design, writing, visual media, and photography are all facets of our ever-growing cultural and social identity, and we seek to share our work for validation and community growth. And, in a digital environment such as ours, Illustrator plays host to our creative content and the community around it. 
  2. We always try to digitally store and maintain content. By creating, uploading, or downloading our content, no matter what it may be, we are essentially keeping our memories and work saved and conserved for as long as we want, keeping it from aging, disappearing, being destroyed, or even thrown away. By Illustrator offering several ways of saving and sharing content, such as the Cloud and hard drives, users can assure that their work and memories will never be forgotten or destroyed.
  3. We desire freedom and limitless access to the world- both digital and physical- around us. In a digital world, we have access to nearly all corners of the world and the people in it, giving us endless opportunities for information and communication. Illustrator’s ability to explore, export, and interact with other creators and their content gives us the freedom and international access we always strive to interact with. 

What Affordances does Illustrator Have?

A general overview of what Adobe Creative Cloud offers

  1. It will allow me to share my work digitally. Since my project is almost entirely digital, I want to be able to share my work when it is completed. Naturally, Illustrator works with entirely digital formatting and technologies, making it easy for me to save and share my work when I finish my capstone.
  2. I can streamline my design process. Rather than having to switch between several different programs or technologies, I can get almost the entire majority of the design aspect of my project done through only Illustrator. I don’t want to have to work amongst numerous different applications and risk designs being messed up, corrupted, or just unorganized during my process of creating. 
  3. I have the ability to seamlessly work between different programs, technologies, and platforms. Illustrator and Adobe Creative Cloud offer to export and save work in almost any format imaginable, and even offer direct uploading to certain platforms, making it easy for me to share or switch my content over to different applications or technologies. Even though this is a small detail, it can make a massive difference when trying to finalize and assemble my project.

What Potential Obstacles does Illustrator Have?

  1. Potential technological issues are inevitable. Like any technology and application, there are bound to be bugs and issues that arise from usage. Worries such as it crashing while I work on a piece, lagging that makes it difficult to use, and not auto-saving my work could all lead to setbacks on my project. 

    Main Interface of Adobe Illustrator

  2. The data usage and space on my computer may not be able to handle running the application to the utmost capacity. Illustrator and the Adobe Creative Cloud both take up a massive amount of data and storage space within a computer and creating work on it often eats up even more data and space with the already large program. Additionally, I am the type to have several works open at the same time, making it even more taxing on my computer than needed.
  3. I have to expect formatting and display issues. From past projects, I have noticed that certain colors, formats, fonts, or content are not displayed right when exported or uploaded, and can come off looking a little different or just not what I intended. I plan on making mid-project exports or uploads to check that design details are correct and shown as I intended.