When you’re designing and retouching an album, you likely move between multiple applications like Photoshop, InDesign, Lightroom, your favorite browser, email app of choice, and whatever other software you may have installed to make your workflow easier. How fast do you think you are moving between them? The next question is, could you do it faster? Is there a better workflow? One with less steps to complete the same tasks?
The challenge is that it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. When you find a workflow that works, you tend to get good at it, even if the workflow itself is flawed. I forget exactly who, but I think it was a someone from Facebook’s design team that said (I paraphrase) “....people get really efficient at using in-efficient things…”. That stuck with me because it’s true. I’m guilty of it. What’s worse, the more I think my workflow is efficient and “works well,” the harder it is to change it. People say, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” but that can breed mediocrity.
It can be empowering when, for one reason or another, you end up trying something different and realize how much better the new way is. Naturally, the next question is, "What else could I be doing differently?"
It’s questions like this that inspired us to create a Banti Album Proofing plugin for Photoshop and InDesign. If I could just stay in InDesign, and have a panel open with all the feedback I’ve gotten from clients, I could save a lot of time by not juggling multiple applications.
This initial version of our plugin is pretty basic because it’s only a first step towards something much bigger. It allows you to log in to your Banti Album Proofing account, browse all your albums, and see feedback from your clients. Before we develop it further, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Please head over to Adobe Plugins, install it, give it a whirl, and let us know what you think.
The plugin is FREE and compatible with Photoshop 2017 CC, and InDesign 2015 and 2017 CC. You’ll need to have a Banti Album Proofing account to use it. If you don’t, register here for a free trial.
