When I was 19 (13 years ago) and in my first week of design school I illustrated a book cover for a local author. After finishing the project he offered me $1,000 to learn how make him a website. I agreed, took a 25% deposit and immediately drove to Barnes & Noble. I purchased a $49.99 book by Lynda Publishing on how to make a Flash website from start to finish (Flash was extremely big back then). Two months later I successfully completed the website and quit my restaurant job to become a freelance designer/developer.
Lynda software training became one of my favorites amongst the sea of tutorial training. They approached education with real world examples that can be used in the field. For example if you want to learn HTML you build a website for a fictitious company. The lesson features the primary principals of HTML, hosting, and image editing. Once your done with that project you have a completed website and the ability to make another for a client.
For the first 3-4 years of my career I spent $350-$450/month on software books and magazines. My independent training eclipsed what I learned in four years of college.
Fast forward to now. Lynda Publishing is still around and has gotten upgraded to the future via Lynda.com and high-speed internet access. I’ve been a full-time subscriber since September 2010 and have watched 100+ courses of software training (at $49.99 a book that’s over $4,000). I find their tutorials are current, professional, easy to understand, and very fast to work through. They’ve also kept the same real world project learning platform as their book series. Here’s what the streaming service has to offer along with a few courses I’ve found pretty useful:
Lynda.com now offers:
- Streaming video tutorials
- Course instructors to guide you through the lessons and lectures
- Downloadable course material
- Mobile friendly videos (iPhone, Android, iPad)
- A $37.50/month, cancel at any time subscription plan
Recent Favorite Development Training Courses:
- HTML5 First Look
- Analyze your website to improve SEO
- Coding Faster With Emmet
- CSS with Less and Sass
Recent Favorite Design Courses:
- CINEMA 4D R15 New Features
- Drawing Vector Graphics (A 2 hour video series featuring one illustrator’s techniques)
- CSS3 First Look
- Adobe software update tutorials
On a side note they also have a ton of business related videos. How to run a freelance company, using an agile workflow, project management etc…
I strongly recommend checking Lynda.com. It’s an excellent ongoing resource.
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