So it looks like Photoshop just rang in another birthday! Photoshop just turned 20?!?!?!? Holy crap that’s a long time for software. I don’t know about you but Photoshop was my first ‘design’ program starting with version 6. I admit that I cheated a bit and also tinkered with Gimp for a bit. But I mainly have font memories of an online course with my less than legal version on my PC back in the day. I remember being so fascinated and intrigued by Photoshop and what it could do and I was SO EXCITED to learn. This tinkering that I did in high school is what pushed me to become a designer.
How did you get started in design?
Now I’m curious how you, dearest readers of this blog, got your start in design. Was it tinkering with Photoshop? Paint shop pro? Corel Draw? MS Paint? Gimp? Something else?
Image from LifeHacker
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Daan says:
A long time ago I was interested in pixel-art (that was MSPaint for me), then, I wanted a website to show off my work. Ignorant of the reality, I figured webdesign couldn't all be that hard, so I did some research.
A while before that, I had won a license to Photoshop CS2 with my pixel art, and until that point, I had never even opened the application. SO, I started to design a website for myself. Looked horrible, but at the time, it was great. Though, I wasn't satisfied with that design, so I got out and started to look for articles, tutorials and more.
Now, 4 years later, I've made webdesign my job, and I'm happy to say that MSPaint started it all!
February 20th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
Laura says:
I always loved to draw and of course was a lover of MSPaint as a kid, but for me, it really all started with InDesign in 2002. I was studying advertising in college and InDesign was the program of choice for creating print ads among our profs. Eventually I became bored with InDesign, I mean it's a great program but not the most creative. After I graduated, I was still interested in graphic design so I went back to school at the Art Institute of Indianapolis. I started working with Illustrator and Photoshop and BAM! I was hooked.
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February 20th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
curtismchale says:
Yeah I started with a less than legal copy of Photoshop 7 to design things on. Sure I played with MS Paint but didn't do anything other than draw and erase things.
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February 20th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
Andy Sowards says:
I was big into drawing when I was really little, sketched everything from stick figures to scenery – nothing great though haha. Then when I got a hold of MS Paint I would always draw just whatever I could (All Crap) just for fun. Then Later in my college years I got re-introduced to this passion of mine through Photoshop CS – From there it was all over. Spent about a year tinkering with Photoshop until I got a real feel for it, then my interest in web development really tied it all together.
Then when I started my family I decided to do it professionally, got my first agency job, now several years later. Here I am!
Great post Idea Niki
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February 20th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
whoisnot says:
Anyone remembers the good old Commodore 64 round here (from before the time of the pharaohs)?
It was Art Studio written for the C64 that kickstarted my interest in digital art and design. I even became a "gfx artist" (that's how the scene used to call it afaik, or "graphician", a slang word derived from "musician") for a demo group (or two.)
Am I old, or what?
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February 20th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
stella says:
um … with a pencil?
February 20th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Jacob Cass says:
Getting started in design stemmed from an interest in the arts and an addiction to the computer (at first gaming, then the internet). I started a website for my friends to host photos (before MySpace or Facebook) and through this small endeavour, started 'playing around' in different software, experimenting and exploring all the cool features (aka rainbow gradient + bevels + drop shadows) to make the site more appealing (or so I thought at the time). From here, it continued as a hobby until I reached the senior years of high school, when I started studying design, both in and out of school. After graduation, I studied Visual Communication at University and I guess the rest is history.
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February 20th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
Katie says:
My elementary school taught LOGO which was quite possibly the most fun thing ever to me as an 8 yr old (c. 1985). So funny to think that my little brain thought the turtle was absolutely magical. I eventually graduated to MS Paint, but didn't work with Photoshop (ver ?) until college in the mid-90s. I didn't pursue a design career after college, but eventually found my way back (though not as a graphic designer). At any rate, I fondly attribute my love of the field to the LOGO and MS Paint days as a kid.
February 20th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
@pixel8design says:
haha This is funny, because I started — not with photoshop — but with paint. Ask my dad, I made stuff like crazy for him! That was when we first got our computer, when I was 5. Then when I was about 10, my sister and I would host pretend radio shows… we'd record every single one on a cassette tape. So I somehow discovered Microsoft Publisher where I made a series of 4 labels complete with a copyright symbol and logo for each 'edition' of our radio shows. Eventually I worked a little with Print Shop Pro (HATED THAT THING!) and also more with Publisher to create a bi-monthly 16-page newsletter for girls that my sister and I edited and published with a friend; we did that for two years. My aunt, previously a graphic designer, saw that I had a little tiny bit of talent (I don't think that's grown much) and asked me to redo her entire menu for the restaurant she owned. So when I was 17 I made a whole menu for her in Print Shop, not knowing anything about design and not knowing anything about what was "in" because my internet time was still monitored.
Then, I had hopes of becoming an archaeologist-for YEARS i'd had that dream. So I don't know what switched, but I started college at 19 and I'm still going for a degree in Digital Media Design (aka graphic design). SO FINALLY– I entered the world of Photoshop, and Apple computers, and you know… it's been fun. I desperately wish I could of started earlier, but OH WELL! I love it now!! 
My family always told me I should be an artist because I was great when I was little (I think I've lost my touch), but when I told them I'm a 'graphic artist' now… lol that through some people for a loop!
February 21st, 2010 at 1:54 pm
@mihla says:
Over 20 years ago I was working for a printing company with a forward thinking computer geek and Mac freak. He always seemed to get his hands on the latest and greatest from Cupertino. (Remember the Lisa? He had one before they were on the market.) One day he walked into the art room and showed me a program he was alpha testing. (Back then software testing was a closely held secret.) I was totally amazed at the things he was doing with the app, and we both agreed this piece of software would change the face of graphic design.
February 21st, 2010 at 3:40 pm
lukasz says:
it was kidpix for me. that:s what started it for me, ha!
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February 21st, 2010 at 6:40 pm
@pixel8design says:
OMGSH! I REMEMBER KidPix! How did I forget that one??? I used that in elementary school and I got it that same year for Christmas. My favorite part was making a picture when the guy in the creepy voice read the story… hAiRy EYeBaLLs! (weird, but it was fun for a kid!)
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February 21st, 2010 at 10:58 pm
@rcarmstrong says:
I have to say my first foray into design was around 1993– while still in college– using Mac Paint and PageMaker (back when it was still Aldus PM) to lay out my college's newspaper and to do some (by today's standards) pretty crude digital art. I wouldn't be introduced to Photoshop until late 2001/early 2002 with PS 6.
I'm sure I have the floppies with that art here somewhere.
Thanks for bringing back good memories, Niki.
February 21st, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Marie says:
HTML for me (in Notepad) – came from a Maths/Computing background, learnt HTML, and then got Photoshop so I could create some Graphics. Improving slowly!
February 21st, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Nathan says:
All started when i was young… but my parents had always owned their own business selling promotional items (t shirts, pens, jackets, hats – anything with a logo). Growing up I pretended to sketch out ad campaigns for clients. I worked a few jobs before kind of falling into working for the family business, starting out just taking orders. One day I noticed that the computer I used had Illustrator 9 on it. No one knew how to use it, and I found out the only reason we had it at all was to be able to open AI and EPS files to see how many imprint colors art files had. I always loved graphic design and had done some high school classes, so I decided to spend the last 15 minutes of every day learning Illustrator. Eventually, I did a few easy low res art recreations instead of sending it out, then a few logo designs & a few 2 day seminars. Now (even though I know I'm no where near the level of someone with a lot of training) most of my day is spent designing or working on client art. I've even had the priviledge to design some official event logos that have been on billboards in the event cities and over the web. That's about it.. but I love it.
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:42 am
Jodi says:
In high school, I remember seeing the little Macintosh computers and being enthralled that they could actually show PICTURES on them, not just text and numbers. I took the Graphic Communications class and barely listened to anything the teacher told us about paste-up, stripping, camera work, offset printing, and bindery. All I wanted to do is get on that computer and play with SUPERPAINT. I also remember plastering my bedroom walls with names of boys and rock bands in all kinds of fun skewed and rotated text.
After that I went to vo-tech and for some reason I took the printing program first. I'm glad I did, but when I transferred to the desktop publishing program, I wondered why I hadn't start there, given my love for those little Macs. Unfortunately, my career path led me away from the Mac and I'm still using a PC.
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:55 am
Mat 'Wilto' Marquis says:
It's five in the morning, and I haven't slept yet. I'm sitting on the floor, taking pulls from a 2 liter bottle of Mountain Dew, hunched over a Macintosh Classic II that mysteriously had "Property of Cambridge Public Schools" stamped on the side. The Hypercard project I was working on—for no real reason—had grown so large that it no longer fit on the hard drive, but the Zip Drive was too slow and messed with the timing of the animations. So… Hm.
Fifteen years later, nothing has changed.
February 22nd, 2010 at 12:06 am
@creativelydone says:
Paper, Pen, Scissors and glue. When I started there were no PCs or Macs, had to do everything by hand. I did several designs for local businesses – signs, stickers, flyers and patches to be sewn on hats, jackets…When I got into the Punk Scene here (10 people at first & 4 were in the band) then I started doing posters, patches to be on clothes (drew with this fabric ink called Artech, great stuff) cassettes art for local bands (Punk = DIY). The Photocopier became my friend, I hand illustrated everything for years. I loved it when I first starting learning Photoshop & Quark and kept learning more software to use for design work…
February 22nd, 2010 at 9:12 pm
David Millar says:
As far as design, I first got involved with just plain HTML and CSS back in about 2001 or so – very bare bones stuff. Later I added in pixel art (MS Paint), and finally got started in Photoshop 7 when a girl in my web design/programming class from high school showed me her works in entering a bunch of random boy band collage design contests on Livejournal. I applied the same techniques to significantly less boy-band related photos and text and had good results, and my work took off from there. Now my primary tools are GIMP, Inkscape, and Notepad++, but I've used Photoshop and Illustrator CS3 and CS4 and I'm an Adobe Certified Associate in Photoshop CS3.
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February 22nd, 2010 at 9:29 pm
James White says:
Photoshop 2.0! Way back in 1995 I graduated from highschool and was accepted into the graphic design course at a local community college. After a short month of drawing and theory we dove into the computer realm where I was exposed to Photoshop for the first time. I believe we upgraded to Photoshop 2.5 during my time there. We also learned Aldus Freehand (yep, before it was sold to Macromedia) as well as the mighty PageMaker! Man, good times.
February 24th, 2010 at 1:22 am
Nikki says:
I taught myself on an old Mac my freshman year of high school – Photoshop 5 being the program of choice. I started scanning in my doodles and coloring them and then started manipulating the photos I was taking my photo class. I learned so fast that the art teacher and the photo teacher had me teach several classes on how to use the computer for art. Fun times.
I think the first program I owned on my own machine may have been a cracked version of Coral, though I cannot even remember anymore.
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February 24th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
@liammckay says:
I'd always been interested in art, not really obsessively, but I always loved drawing, and even watching other people draw. One thing that I think might have sparked my interest in "design" is that I always wondered how things were made, drawings, posters, magazines, or books etc.
Photoshop was the answer to all of those questions. It was my dad who got me into it, without realizing. He would mess about with family photos to make us all look silly, and get a giggle. As soon as I knew how he did it I was hooked. I started messing around in Photoshop for fun.
And as time went on I accidentally taught myself many of the Photoshop basics. It never really went beyond just messing around with images, but when the time came that I decided to try "designing" websites and posters etc, I already knew my way around the program and found a way of translating what was in my head to the screen.
February 24th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
J Fisher LogoMotives says:
Being a design-o-saur, I began designing as a teenager in about 1969 with India ink and Speedball pens with interchangeable nibs. As I moved into high school the tools became ruling pens, rapidiograph pens, X-Acto knives, dry transfer lettering and illustration boards. I worked as a professional design for about 13 years before a computer ever appeared on my desk in 1990 – a Macintosh IIsi.
February 24th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Bogdan Sandu says:
The first time when I opened Photoshop I was like a kid looking at Large Hadron Collider. It seemed like science fiction because I was used to the old Paint and Irfanview. I used it to make a skin for Football Manager 2005 or 2006, I really don't remember exactly. I hated working with it and it seemed such an interesting thing only after I received good feedback on the skin. Afterwards, I started learning from tutorials and… here I am.
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March 30th, 2010 at 10:19 pm