Infographic

I wanted practice working on Infographics, creating hyperlinks and developing concepts. So, I pulled a lot of ideas/issues that were floating around in my mind and came up with this infographic with links to some interesting aricles and videos.

Valentine's Day

Yooperland

A flyer I created in 2007.

 

The ABCs of Life

You see these posters everywhere. Decided to make a quick one of my own. I used the font Critter for the letters and the font Jitterbug to complete the word. Used Pattern Maker to make a simple background. Then I came up with words that had some meaning for me and this is what I got.

We Laugh to Survive. . .

This is one of my favorite quotes/sayings. I purchased a simple art piece with this saying on it years ago by a woman named Maryanne Radmacher. I don't know if it is an original saying that she came up with or if it is a saying she acquired from somewhere. All I know is that it is meaningful and real for me. I took that saying and created this simple little collage with colors I like and a simple graphic I found somewhere and this is what I came up with.

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....

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.

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.

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...

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.....