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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/839
56 MacDirectory
PROFILE
LYNDA.COM > A LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Why take an expensive college course
when you can learn from the comfort of
your own home or office with lynda.com?
The firm is an award-winning provider of
educational materials that includes
instructional books, an Online Training
Library, CD-and DVD-based video training,
and even events for creative professionals,
students, and hobbyists alike.
Lynda.com was the first company to offer
educational training through an online
subscription model. To be more specific,
the company's subscription-based Online
Training Library offers on-demand training
in all the latest tools and techniques --
with videos on Photoshop, Illustrator,
Dreamweaver, Flash, digital photography,
Web design and development, digital
video, 3D and animation. The library also
includes videos that offer tips from
professional creatives. Perhaps more
importantly though, lynda.com specializes
in providing visual learning with audio
narration that allows its customers to stop,
rewind, and replay – in other words, to
learn at their own pace.
"We are dedicated to providing the best
possible training, knowledge, and inspir-
ation to its subscribers," explains Lynda
Weinman, co-founder of lynda.com.
Weinman is both a Web design and
graphics expert. In fact, she is a pioneer
in Web design with her 1985 book,
Designing Web Graphics. In addition to
writing dozens of other books, Weinman
also was a faculty member at the Art
Center College of Design in Pasadena,
Calif. -- and she previously worked as an
animator and motion graphics director in
the film special effects industry in the late
1980s. She also worked at Adobe,
Macromedia, and Microsoft.
Lynda.com has a large Web development
and design community following. Further,
these customers are satisfied ones – and
the company boasts of many satisfied
customers. In fact, the Web site lists more
than 1,000 testimonials from satisfied
"students."
Here is one such testimonial from Rick
Cikowski, a motion graphics and editing
teacher at the Miami International
University of Art and Design:
"I work with beginning design students
who I only see for four hours a week, and
despite what they think, four hours is not
enough time for them to master any
design skills. To supplement my lesson
plans I encourage them to use lynda.com
instead of buying a book because most of
the books will only tell you what to do, not
what not to do — lynda.com gives them
the complete picture in an easy-to-
understand format."
As software becomes more powerful and
more pervasive, lynda.com's mission to
help people get the most out of their
software becomes more critical than ever.
Adobe CS4 products in particular have
become extremely important to many
people's business and personal lives.
Lynda.com has made a major
commitment to provide the most
complete and in-depth training to the CS4
suite possible.
Not only will lynda.com have more
than100 hours of CS4 training at the
launch of CS4, but it will follow through
for the lifetime of this product with an
ongoing flow of courses that will go deep
into advanced techniques and creative
uses of the software. Lynda.com also will
have courses that are appropriate for all
levels of skill.
"We are excited to offer in-box training
from lynda.com and have worked closely
on the development of their CS4U video
training to help our designers and
developers discover new possibilities and
unleash their creative potential," said
Thomas DeMeo, the director of product
management for Adobe Creative Suite.
All in all, this partnership with Adobe
proves that the company is an innovative
one that promises to keep challenging
itself and providing cutting-edge
education to its many customers. See