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On-Site Training

About Us

Claudia McCue

Blog: www.ClaudiaMcCue.com

Summary of Qualifications

Professional speaker and seminar leader
Experienced trainer
Extensive experience with real-world production and challenges
Frequent contributor to industry conferences

Certifications

  • CompTIA Certified Technical Trainer (CTT+)
  • Adobe Certified Instructor: Print Specialist
  • A.C.E. (Adobe Certified Expert) in Adobe Photoshop 4.0,
    5.0, 6.0, 7.0, CS, CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6, CC
  • A.C.E. in Adobe Acrobat 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9 Pro, X Pro,
    XI Pro
  • A.C.E. in Adobe InDesign 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, CS, CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6, CC
  • A.C.E. in Adobe Illustrator CS4, CS5, CS6, CC

Conference Presentations

HOW Conference

Creative Suite Conference

InDesign Conference

Magazine Association of the Southeast Annual Conference

PDF Conference

Experience

Practicalia, LLC/Atlanta, GA: 10/2002 to present
Principal/Owner/Alpha Female: Independent training provider, specializing in Adobe and Quark products, general prepress and printing, retouching and color correction. Specialties: Acrobat and Acrobat eForms; InDesign; Advanced Photoshop Retouching Techniques.

Sterling Ledet & Associates /Atlanta, GA: 3/2000 to 10/2002
Senior Staff Instructor – Staff specialist for electronic imaging, prepress and printing.
Classes taught: Photoshop (Basic and Advanced); ImageReady; Acrobat; Acrobat eForms; InDesign; QuarkXPress (Basic and Advanced); Illustrator; FrameMaker; PageMaker

IPD Printing & Distributing /Atlanta, GA: 7/1995-3/2000
1997-2000: Color Specialist
1995-1997: Workgroup leader for 8-person DTP team

American Color /Atlanta, GA: 2/1994-5/1995
Technical Services: Technical support for the Atlanta plant and customers

Graphics International /Atlanta, GA: 8/1988-2/1994
1991-1994: Scitex Prisma and Macintosh operator
1988-1991: Crosfield Studio operator

Graphics Atlanta /Norcross, GA: 4/1977-8/1988
1981-1988: Crosfield Studio Operator
1977-1981: Film Stripper

 In The Beginning

There was artboard and India Ink, and 6x0 jewel-tip Kohinoor Rapidographs kept clean by judicious rinsing and acts of faith. I still have a 30-year-old wad of artgum: It's a bit petrified, but after a good kneading can still fulfill its purpose. French curves, lovingly polished free of nicks, and rulers with strips of tape to lift the edge long after the cork was gone. Prestype (I still have the burnishing tools somewhere), striping tape and ruling pens. The production art job was a respite from life in the lab as a chemistry major. "I'll take a break," I thought. "Then I'll go back and finish my degree."

Then I became a film stripper. (It's not what you think: think "photocompositor"). Eventually I attained, to the horror of a politically-correct roommate, journeyman status. I'm sorry, but "JourneyPerson" does not capture the melding of art and science that befits a craftsman. Craftsperson. Craftsbroad...

My toolbox was well-stocked: two Ulano knives for Rubylith, assorted sharpening and polishing stones, double-headed cutters, every size of technical pen and marker. Winsor Newton sable brushes and that wonderful red Grumbacher opaque. I was the Knockout Queen: give me the bicycles! The fans! The plants with tiny leaves! I treasured my ParaMag for the molecular view of registration marks. Yum: Exactitude. The same love of pattern and form that had made Chemistry appealing was repurposed. Once, I had contemplated the Periodic Table, but soon atomic weights gave way to Pantone numbers.

When the digital solutions began, I was the first person in the Southeast (and the first woman in the US, I've been told) to run a Crosfield Color Electronic Prepress system. X-Acto knives were replaced with a succession of clumsy computer mice, and my gaze switched from light table to computer monitor. The Age of the Pixel had begun.

Fast-forward many years, and now I'm a technical writer and software trainer, trying to teach designers how to use Adobe tools without hurting themselves.

In some ways, I miss the old hands-on approach. But at least the scars on my hands have healed.