What it is
Creative Cloud is Adobe's subscription service for its creative software. Instead of buying each program outright, you pay monthly or yearly and get the current versions of the apps, plus cloud storage, fonts and stock services. The Pro plan is the one that includes the whole desktop lineup rather than a single app.
That lineup covers most of what a small studio needs: Photoshop for images, Illustrator for vector artwork, InDesign for page layout, Premiere Pro for video editing, After Effects for motion graphics and Lightroom for photo libraries. The apps share colour settings, libraries and file formats, so artwork moves between them without being rebuilt.
How I use it
- The base of the design, video, audio and 3D group on my stack: brand and print, photo, video and sound, done in-house.
- Graphic design for print and web, alongside the software and websites I build.
- Photos and video for client websites, shot and edited by the same person who builds the page.
- Print production work that has been part of my independent contracts since 1995.
It is the right choice when one person or a small team handles brand, print, photo and video together and needs files that print shops, agencies and clients can open. I reach for it because the visual side of my work is done in-house, and keeping every app on one plan means the logo, the brochure and the promo cut all come from the same source files.
Questions
Can a software developer also handle my branding and print work?
Yes. I do graphic design for print and web in-house on Adobe Creative Cloud, so the branding, the website and the app can come from one person and one set of files.
Will I get editable source files?
Creative Cloud files such as PSD, AI and INDD are industry standard, so a printer, agency or future designer can open them. Ask for the source files as part of the job and you will have them.