Sunday, August 4, 2013

Snow in May

I love this picture! Took it in April when I was visiting my mom and sister in the Upper Peninsula (Keewenaw area) of Michigan. It's in my Mom's backyard. Can't decide what to do with it. Card, poster? Hmmmm....


Sunday, July 21, 2013

CS 6  Creative Suite Design and Web Publishing

I purchased the new suite from Adobe at the end of November last year (I think) just before they dropped the allowance to upgrade from CS4. Since then I have been working with it to get up to speed, particularly in Photoshop.

The magazine design I did in the previous post was done in InDesign 6. I like it and it was easy to jump into as I had been using 5 and 5.5 at work for some time. Of course, I am probably not using all the new features it offers to the fullest extent. I have worked for so many years in publishing applications (Quark/InDesign) that its not hard to transition to a new upgrade. I will learn more and more about the new features as a need for them arises.

Now I just have to get up to speed on Photoshop and Illustrator. As a production artist for the past 16 years I have primary done most of my work in InDesign. Getting up to speed in the other major applications is more of a challenge. I can do the basics in the programs, correct illustrator art, change colors and size as necessary,  but I have always been hard pressed to keep up with them as my primary application. If I sat here all day working in Photoshop and Illustrator all day I would be much more proficient in them.

With time on my hands, I am running through several tutorials on lynda.com to get up to speed on applications I do not use as much.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Magazine Design Mock-up

This is just something I have been playing around with from pictures I have taken in my yard. I decided to do a mock-up of a magazine for flowers. It was fun and kept some of my creative juices flowing. I think the whole beveled titles may be old school but I think they fit with the style of the magazine. Newer more hip styled magazines seemed to be going with more of a sharper sans serif font for titles and headings, but I think a nature magazine should have more of a rounded, curved aspect to its treatments.
















Tuesday, January 29, 2013

It's Tuesday! Worked some doing some freelancing last week which helped a bit. Still out there searching and working on some tutorials to update some of my skills.

Don't even know why I started this post as I don't really have a lot to say today. Sitting here with an empty mind, trying to think of something profound to say or talk about...

Friday, January 18, 2013

Good-Day! Cold dreary day for Florida, which makes it is a good day to do some more researching and reviewing of options, goals and motivations.

As I previously mentioned in an earlier post, I upgraded to CS6 on my home computer. While I had been working in CS5 and CS5.5 in the workplace, I only had CS4 on my home computer.

Once you load a new program (suite) you end up opening the different programs and figuring out what is new, and where to find tools that are moved and if they work the same as previously or are there new tricks to the trade.  For the most part, the work I have done in page layout has primarily been in Indesign. There have been times when I have done basic edits in Photoshop and Illustrator at work but most of those things have been handled by an art department. Of course, there has always been Acorbat for PDFing files. At times, I will start some project at home to improve and/or relearn skills in Photoshop and Illustrator .

Playing around can be very time consuming. You set up new workspaces. Then you start looking at your old projects/files and open them in the different programs and play around with them.
  • You try to figure out how you ever did that (what filter or effect you used)
    –mind you some of these files where 10 years old
  • Look up web sites and tutorials on the various programs,
  • Sart reading articles about designers and artists
  • Forget what you were originally doing
  •  Go back to the file you had open and then continue...
Before you know it the day has passed you by. AND what have you really accomplished. FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS. Really it is all good. Searching, tweeting, and working in files can lead you to some really interesting and awe-inspiring information. It boggles my mind how many talented people there are in the world.

That's it for today. Gotta get back to life's confusion.....

Thursday, January 17, 2013

I'm back. Today I am "wondering what happened." I have been "watching what is happening." NOW, I have got to make things happen. I'm trying, I'm trying .... honestly!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Well here I am again. Finally! I have been very negligent in posting on this blog. Time and life just seem to take over. I have a thing for quotes and attaching some sort of graphic to them. Here's one for today:
I am starting out this new year jobless. (well not actually jobless as I am doing some freelancing for a company that takes some major print magazines and makes them interactive online ready.) Once again the prepress house I was working at for the past 3 years 9 months has restructured itself with the intent of outsourcing most of its production.

So, I am experiencing the same angst that millions of other people are experiencing. Its hard for me as I have always worked. In 1997 I took a year off and went back to school to finally finished my degree. Upon completion I was hired by a company as a production artist and worked there for
12 years. When that company closed its office, I was working at another company the very next day, where I remained for the past 3 3/4 years. Now as I mentioned I am doing some freelancing work.
What it's left me with though is the same feelings I think most people have in my situation: feelings of redundancy, insecurity, anxiety, lack of purpose, etc., etc., etc.

Todays job market can be very confusing. There are lists and lists of what you should do, what you should say, how you should act in an interview. Its endless and everyone has something to say regarding the issue of "finding a job." I have never been good at selling myself or putting myself out there. There are so many job listing options out there: Monsters.com, Career Bulders, Talent Zoo, Indeed, Desktop Publishing Job Finders, Beyond,  LinkedIn, and the list goes on. It can be rather mind-boggling. Then, there are those that say online job search sites are relatively useless and few people actually get a job from these sites. Yet, there are lots of companies that only take applications for positions online. Its a conundrum, especially when you are more introverted than extroverted.

Positives are that I have gotten a lot of things done around the house, am spending more time researching information online, cleaning up my files on my computer, updating my programs on my computer, doing miscellaneous tutorials.