When you said CS2 I knew you meant photoshop CS2 because using photoshop for graphic design is the most common mistake newbies make. My suggestion is simple. Don't use photoshop. Photoshop is a photo editing program. It is not designed to create graphics.
Photos are pixel based. No matter what program you are using when you zoom in on a photo a few times you will see big pixels. The view will become unclear. Photoshop is a pixel based program too. Therefore using photoshop for photos has no downside.
On the other hand when you are creating graphics, you want to zoom in 2000 times and align two lines, then zoom back and continue working. With photoshop, you can't do this. As you zoom in the view will be pixellated.
The program you need to use for graphic design is Adobe illustrator. Illustrator is also a part of the CS2 and CS3. Illustrator is a vector based program. The view will be cristal clear no matter how much you zoom. You will be able to resize the image to any bigger size and save it and it will be cristal clear.
Switch to Adobe Illustrator and start creating your graphics in vector format.
Watch some cool videos here:
1. Open this page:
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/
2. On the top left select illustrator CS3
3. On the top right selecet "getting started".
4. In the middle click on a title.
When I look back now, the most noticable improvement I made in graphic design was to learn what vectors are. Vectors are descriptions of shapes and coordinates and colors written in a code format that vector based programs like flash and illustrator can read an show. If I was describing a shape to you on the phone you would be able to create a perfect example of that shape if I give you all the colors and sizes and coordinates.
Except the few videos mentioned above, there are also complete education sets in DVD format to watch on your computer. Check Lynda dot com and totaltraining dot com. These two are the main players in that field.
