Immersion Course by Bonnie Christine 2021 Week 1

It's been one week since Immersion started and here's what I think of it so far!

We started off with a kick off call with Bonnie a few hours after Module 1 was released where she introduced the course, the website navigation and mindset rules.

We have 1 week to work on Module 1 before Module 2 is released. You don't have to finish the entire module in a week, you can take as long as you like to go through the lessons. Remember there are 2 implementation weeks for students to work on applying what they've learnt.

Module 1 consisted of 24 lessons- each lesson consist of a video lesson (with subtitles), a summary of what you will learn, actionable assignments (some lessons includes downloadable files to work on), the transcript of the lessons and one Bonus video.

We learnt about Mindset changes, Illustrator Tools and shortcuts, as well as best practices.

I've been using Illustrator for more than 10 years and there's still so many tools and short cuts I have not learnt or known about. Truly eye-opening! (Exactly what was said by other creatives who had taken the course)

Not to say I wasn't overwhelmed at the beginning. I managed to finish about 2 lessons a day in the beginning. With a total of 24 lessons, I started wondering how am I going to finish the lessons! I was rewinding and replaying the lessons over and over, taking notes and practicing it on the program as I went along. I would read the comments and see if there's anything I can get out of it. Thank God for the community of course mates who reminded me to be patient and kinder to myself, I managed to trudge on.

After the first Q& A I wanted to cry. I couldn't catch the technical questions at all, and with the answers, I was trying to figure out what exactly was the question asked. After a few questions, I felt totally lost. My notes were filled with blanks where I couldn't catch the question.

Thankful for the guides who tried to type out the Questions in the 2nd Q&A in the chat (or Bonnie reading the questions slower) that really helped make Q&As a little easier to digest. So far I've managed to attend all the Q&A Lives which is really great!

I'm not done practicing all the lessons yet but so far, it's just been an exceptional course. I love the clear and precise way that Bonnie teaches her lessons, breaking down every lesson into bite size bits. I personally feel that she really respects our time and makes sure to only include the essential in every lesson.

She makes sure to always address our mindset and use words that build up positive talk as a habit.

The community is just amazing, I found so much value just reading the questions and answers in the comment section of each lesson and I'm so happy to have met some on my course mates online. I've even met some Singaporeans from the course, which is super awesome! So looking forward to the next Module dropping in a few hours and the announcement of Peer groups!

I have included more information below in case anyone is interested to find out more about the course:

This was the first course I found out about when I discovered about Surface Pattern Design in June last year (2021). Its a deep dive into Adobe Illustrator and Mable Tan, a designer whom I follow and respect, had raved about the course being one that changed her life. (She wasn't the only one, it was also highly recommended by numerous other creatives.) I've never heard anyone say anything bad about it. In fact, most said that it's the best decision they have taken in their lives!

The course covers tools you will need to be a surface pattern designer: