RHD’s boot camp is a personalized, one-on-one training day designed for anyone who’s ever wanted to learn more about designing ads and web sites. Fun Fact: We’re self-taught graphic designers. That’s right, we started out with a Photoshop for Dummies book and trial and error. When we look back at the stuff we did ten years ago, we can’t help but think...if only we’d known then what we know now!

So here is your opportunity to spend a day one on one with us as we share inside tips and personal experiences to give you a crash course in designing ads, web sites, and more! We’ll tell you everything we know. You’ll see what we do day-in and day-out and get hands-on experience in a casual, relaxed atmosphere.

• Boot camps are one day each, and are individual training.
  
  
• You choose your interest in either print design (like ads, catalogs, logos, etc) or web design or both. This is your day, and we'll teach you whatever you are wanting to learn.
  
  
• Cost: $1000 per person per day.
  
  
• Includes:
  
  • 6 hours of learning whatever you want to learn
  • Lunch at your choice of restaurants in the metropolis of Wharton, Texas.
  • We’ll give you some useful web resources to bookmark.
  • We have minimal handouts but you are welcome to write down anything and everything we talk about.
    
    
• Location: Ranch House Designs, Inc. office in Wharton, Texas.
  
  
• Airport/Hotel: IAH, (Houston George Bush) and HOU (Houston Hobby) airports are the two closest airports and are each about an hour away.
  
  
• TRAVEL: You are responsible for your own travel and transportation to our office. We know a great car service that will pick you up at the airport and bring you to Wharton if you’re interested in that. There is a Holiday Inn Express in Wharton, Texas and that is the best place to stay.

First decide what date you want. A tentative set of dates is on our web site on the Calendar Page, but please e-mail me before making any travel arrangements to set your date.

what to expect at your boot camp:

1. We are a very casual office — so come in your jeans and t-shirt (and boots if you want) and be prepared to just hang out. Most likely we’ll be listening to our iTunes all day and probably talk about what happened on our favorite tv show the night before. Hey, we’re an office of 8 women. That’s what we do.
   
   
2. Obviously if you were an expert you wouldn’t be needing to come to a boot camp. Depending on whether you choose print or web boot camp, we’ll teach you basics of Photoshop, Dreamweaver, InDesign. If you have a laptop and want to bring it, that’s great. If not, no big deal. Don’t bother bringing your computer unless you have Adobe CS3 or higher. Unless you just want to have it to type notes on or something. We work in CS5 on PC's.
   
   
3. We’ll start at 9:00 a.m. (we aren’t morning people) and we’ll sit down and talk about what you want to learn and what your goals are. If you want to eventually have your own business like RHD, or maybe do more freelance work, we’ll talk about what’s worked and hasn’t worked for us.
   
   
4. We’ll tell you about how we got started, mistakes we made and how we would avoid them, and all that good stuff. No question is off limits and we’ll give you an honest answer to anything you want to know. After that, we’ll determine what type of information you need to learn the most and we’ll focus on that. Here are some general things you can expect depending on what type of things you most want to learn.
   

We’ll treat you to lunch at any of the gourmet restaurants in Wharton, Texas. Our personal favorite is Larry’s Mexican Restaurant, but we also have a great BBQ place that's been featured in Texas Monthly.

If you want, we will give you some time to work on a project of your choice (maybe it’s one you need to do, or you can work on something here at our office just for fun) and we’ll help you with the project and critique it with you. Or, if you would rather skip that and just watch us work on something, that’s fine too.

BOTTOM LINE: It’s your day and we’ll do whatever you want.

In addition, we will provide free Q&A for one year to anyone who attends a boot camp. So if you get home and don’t quite remember something we talked about, or think of other question, just e-mail us and we’ll be happy to help you out. The boot camp ends at 5:00 p.m., which gives you plenty of time to drive home if you’re in driving distance or to book a flight home that very same day. We are about 1.5 hours from either Houston airport so it would be safe to book a flight anytime after 8:00 p.m. that night.