DPA February Featured Classroom: Chicago's Digital Bootcamp

Kinder, Gentler Bootcamp

When creative professionals in Chicago need a crash course in Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash or other graphics applications, they head for the Digital Bootcamp, a Hubbard Street institution dedicated to helping hardworking people master digital design on a deadline. Now that the Digital Photo Academy has teamed up with the Digital Bootcamp, amateur photographers can enlist in a kinder, gentler form of basic training that will get their shooting skills up to snuff without forced marches or leather-lunged drill instructors.

According to Kae Scott of the Digital Bootcamp, “Our alliance with the Digital Photo Academy is built on a common belief that knowledge of digital technology-- be it hardware such as computers and cameras or software such as Photoshop, Flash and Fireworks—is a powerful stimulus to creative expression for professionals and amateurs alike. We also believe that talented, enthusiastic professionals with real-world experience using the applications they teach make the best instructors. All our teachers are working professionals. Their approach is more practical and hands-on than purely academic.”

Doug Human, a well-known advertising photographer who teaches for both the Bootcamp and the Digital Photo Academy is an excellent example of the highly qualified instructors that students will encounter.

Seminars at the Digital Bootcamp take place in classrooms designed to handle up to twelve students and equipped with the latest computer gear, including iMACs with 20” flat-panel displays. The up-and-coming neighborhood surrounding Hubbard Street is called the West Loop and offers plenty of new restaurants and entertainment venues, mixed in with residences and light industry.

The Digital Bootcamp, formerly known as MAC University, has been teaching students in Chicago for over 10 years, three of them in its current Hubbard Street headquarters. Jeff Epstein, a creative director and entrepreneur with an outstanding reputation in advertising circles, took over the institution in 2007. Epstein also owns the Chicago Portfolio School.

Many students at the Digital Bootcamp are advertising or in-house graphic designers who want to master the Adobe Creative Suite. Other students come to learn web design and programming or Microsoft Office applications. “We’re committed to providing excellent training in computer software to corporate and individual clients,” says Scott. “Rather than figuring out how to use these programs yourself, it really helps to have a professional show you the most practical, efficient techniques. Photoshop, especially, is a huge program. I love to see people discover something they didn’t know it could do. They get that little light bulb, ah-hah moment. It’s so cool.”

Digital Photo Academy students who want to delve deeper into digital can easily move into more intensive courses at the Bootcamp. A basic six-hour course in Photoshop will provide the basics of digital imaging. With that background, students with a serious case of the digital bug can jump into eight-week sessions that will turn them into power users.

For questions regarding location or class times, please email us

Digital Bootcamp
1400 W Hubbard St
Chicago, IL 60622
312-633-3000
www.digitalbootcamp.com