Getting Adobe Certified in Photoshop and building a portfolio you’re proud of can feel overwhelming , especially when you’re balancing a full-time job, real life, and everything else in between.
Many designers know they should be working on personal projects, improving their skills, or building a stronger portfolio but confidence, time, and lack of structure often get in the way.
In this case study, Pro Member Meabh Crozier shares her journey in her own words, from feeling uninspired and overwhelmed, to building portfolio-ready projects, regaining confidence, and passing the Adobe Certified Professional Photoshop exam with an impressive 98% score.
A Little About Meabh
Meabh is originally from Belfast and is now based in London. She has been part of our Pro Membership since 2021 and has taken part in our Design Sprint events while working full time as an in-house designer.
After several years of using Photoshop professionally, she decided it was time to formally validate her skills, not just to strengthen her CV, but to build confidence in her own abilities.
Using our Photoshop Exam Guide course Meabh successfully passed the Adobe Photoshop exam with a 98% score, demonstrating both deep technical knowledge and strong practical understanding of the software. We’re incredibly proud of her.
Meabh’s Portfolio Work
During the Design Sprint and inside our Pro Membership, Meabh worked on a range of creative briefs designed to simulate real-world client projects and stretch creative thinking. View Meabh’s full portfolio here!
These projects helped her:
build confidence beyond corporate work
experiment creatively in a supported environment
create portfolio-ready pieces she’s genuinely proud of
Logo projects created in our 2025 Design Sprint! View full project here!
Q&A with Meabh – Her Portfolio and Adobe Certification Journey
Q1: What were you struggling with before joining the Design Sprint and Pro Membership?
Honestly, I was feeling pretty low about design in general at that point. Most of my design work was for my full time in-house design job and the content was very corporate.
I knew I wanted to expand my skills and add new projects to my portfolio but sometimes it's hard to know where to start or to commit proper time and discipline to it when you've already worked all day/ all week before. So I was feeling uninspired, low in confidence and overwhelmed by choice.
Q2: How did the structure of the Design Sprint workshop/accountability help you?
It helped me to build accountability for myself. I liked that the structure had already been determined for me. I knew in advance each step I would need to take and then I just had to follow them and commit to the time.
The community aspect of the sprint was also great, we were able to talk to each other, inspire each other and share any problems or insecurities we had. We helped each other in the comments and I think I would have over-thought every decision without that support.
Q3: Which project was your favourite and why?
So hard to choose - I liked them all for different reasons. I think the perfume ad project was my favourite.
I learned a lot of new skills that I would never have known to go looking for. Things like creating our own 3D models of perfume bottles to use as compositional references for AI tools and how to generate complex scenes using AI to get concepts ready quickly. Seeing Martin's process was incredibly useful and I could see how working like that would be beneficial for big client projects where you want to get sign-off on an idea before committing too much time to it.
Perfume advertising using our creative brief! View full project here!
Q4: What motivated you to take the Adobe Photoshop certification course?
I was lucky enough to win a voucher for an Adobe Certified exam through the Design Sprint 2025 challenge. It's something I've always wanted to do but never had the money to take the exam before.
Mainly I wanted to add a strong skill to my CV to help me with my job search and also I wanted to improve my confidence in Photoshop.
Editorial work by Meabh - View full project here!
Q5: How did our photoshop exam course help you prepare for and pass the Photoshop exam?
The course was instrumental in preparing me for the exam. There's a lot to learn for it and a lot of things that could catch you out if you don't understand it fully.
Following the units and Martin's videos really helped me work through sections that would otherwise feel overwhelming and track my progress. The mock tests were also extremely useful. I'm really glad that feature existed.
Q6: What was the most valuable thing you learned or skill you improved during the course?
Learning the best non-destructive editing techniques was really valuable. I liked how Martin showed the tools that would typically be used for a particular edit and then he gave his preferred way of doing it to preserve editability.
Q7: How has becoming Adobe Certified impacted your confidence or career opportunities?
It’s a great thing to have on my CV, but more importantly, it’s given me confidence.
The design industry is very subjective, two people with the same skills can feel completely different about their ability. Becoming Adobe Certified helped me prove to myself that I really do have a strong, professional-level knowledge of Photoshop, and that confidence has helped a lot in interviews.
Q8: What advice would you give to someone thinking about taking this course?
Set yourself a deadline or actually book the exam to make sure you have to prioritise it (if you always feel short on time like me). Trust Martin's process, explained in the first few videos; watch the content, read the PDFs and keep testing yourself using the course mock tests.
One of my favourite parts of running Yes I’m a Designer is seeing what happens when designers truly commit to their growth.
Meabh is a great example of this, she’s consistently invested in learning, made full use of feedback, creative briefs, and skill assessments, and pushed herself to create stronger, more confident work.
What’s Your Next Step?
If Meabh’s story resonated with you, here are a few ways to move forward:
Want structure, feedback, and real creative projects?
Join our Pro Membership and build portfolio-ready work with support.
Focused on passing the Adobe Photoshop exam?
Take the Photoshop Exam Preparation Course and prepare with confidence.
Curious what the Adobe exam is really like?
Join our free community to access the PSD challenge and start practicing like a pro.
