Accompanying the book is a small book explaining the meaningfulness of the book and the importance of the process in creating it.

All book binding (traditional Japanese stitch style), covers and book formatting were extremely formal and precise to give the book that “special” feeling that you can only get from a certain level of dedication and craftsmanship.

Best Features of Weebly

1. It’s Free and Easy.
   For something that should cost about $20 a month, your getting the best deal on the web for people new to creating websites. The WYSIWYG Drag-and-Drop Builder ( Pronounced like wizzy-wig, What You See Is What You Get) is designed intuitively and I am sure you will find it easy to update your own website and avoid costly web designer edits. It’s free to create a website, so why not sign up for a  free website and try yourself?
2. Unlimited and Unmetered Hosting
   If you know what bandwidth and storage space are, with the free version of weebly, you get both for free. If you are unfamiliar with the terms, Weebly makes it so easy and removes the headache, so don’t worry about it!
3. Advanced web design features
   Weebly makes it easy to add video, music and image galleries. You can even add advanced contact forms and google maps with a simple click and drag!
4. Shopping Cart Features
   The pay version of Weebly (which is reasonably priced through weebly.com) offers an easy way for users to implement the option of selling items on their website with considerable ease. Keep in mind that there are merchant fees on top of Weebly fees.
5. No Advertising
   One of the biggest pains of using free hosting is usually the advertising that is forced onto websites. Weebly’s free version is doesn’t do any of that except for a little “Powered by Weebly” button on the footer of your webpage.
6. Use your own YourName.com
   Also, for a minimal fee a year (~$15/year) you can get a domain name. A domain name is somethingsomething.com. It’s the name that people can type into the address bar and arrive at your website. My domain name is glennmerdan.com. If you already have a domain name with another provider, its easy to use it as well!
7. Some pretty awesome web templates
   Weebly knows how to make good generic web templates that can be adapted to fit many different genres of websites. Browse through their 70+ templates and see if you can find one you like. Weebly also allows custom template editing using HTML/CSS and other code.

With thousands of websites hosted by Weebly, it should be no surprise that are thousands of websites using identical templates. I have helped a few companies design custom templates to help them separate and brand themselves using a DIY website. I would be glad to help you with yours. It is time-consuming and my services are not free (as cool as that might be). Typically custom Weebly templates cost around $200 – $500 and vary in complexity and features. The best way would be to shoot me an email or call me with your project, but feel free to create a free website and start adding content first. Changing templates does not affect content!

I’d be glad to help with any Weebly-related question. Just post in the comment area so it can help others as well.

Run “gpedit.msc” (click start, in the box closest to the button type “gpedit.msc” without quotes)
Click ENTER. You should see this window:

Click User Configuration, then drop down Administrative Templates, then drop down Windows Components, then drop down Tablet PC. Finally click “Cursors”

Now double-click Turn off pen feedback. Click the radio button “enable” and click ok.

DONE! Now you close the windows and test it out. No more silly circles while using your awesome tablet!

What is variable data? Have you ever had a client ask you to create name tags with job titles underneath each name? Or how about taking an excel spreadsheet with names and addresses and put them onto a postcard you just designed? This would be a major pain, but not any more. What you will learn from this short tutorial will save you DAYS of tedious work.

Step 1: Content creation

Sample File

You’ll need to start with an excel spreadsheet that contains all of the data you want to “place” into your project. Make sure each record is on a different line, and records with multiple data are on the same row.

For my example I will be using dates formatted in full text and the corresponding value is the day of the week. What I want to accomplish is to have all of the records be dropped into specific, formatted text boxes in InDesign and exported to a multiple page PDF to send off to the printer.

Once you are certain that you have all of the correct information in your table, export it as a CSV (Comma separated file) or as a .txt tab deliminated file. You can find these by doing “Save as…” and then in the file type dropdown box, choose one of the two. You cannot have multiple “sheets”, so be sure to delete them or move them to a new excel file and re-export them.

Step 2: Project Creation

Use character styles!

Create a new document in InDesign (or download the sample file below). Do whatever formatting for the postcard or flyer or whatever. Be sure to use character styles for easy editing later.

I made simple document to be used as blank daily logs. I want to take all of the dates from the excel spreadsheet and have indesign make more pages using the data. But adding all those pages would make my document unnecessarily large. So instead, I will tell it to recognize that there are multiple data records and export individual pages to PDF instead.

Sample document

Next, import the data into your InDesign document:
If your “Data Merge” window is not open, go to “window > automation > data merge” to open it

Open the Data Merge Window

Next, we need to link to the .csv or .txt file we created in the first step

Click "Select Data Source..."

It will automatically detect the columns and data, and display the first records. In my example it shows the first day of the year. The next step is to replace the content in our file with the “record” data. The easiest way to do this is to delete the data from the text field, and then click and drag the record into the box. It will be formatted with the character or paragraph style and have “<<” around it “>>”. This means that value is linked to that record. Sweet.

Click and drag to blank text box

You’ll now notice that the “Preview” button is selectable. Click it and then click the next button to view the next record. From the panel menu (underneath the close “x”) you can export to PDF or have it create a new document with as many pages as needed to display all the dates. There are many more customizable options using Data Merge, but they are not in the scope of this short tutorial. This is just to get your feet wet!

As always, please feel free to leave a comment if you found this useful or have any questions.

Download Sample Files

Data Merge Sample

You’ve probably scoured the web like we have searching for how the competition pros do those awesome sculptures at the competitions. Most don’t mention how many days the competition takes (or weeks!). Lots of sand, water, tractors, time and glue…magic ingredients. My father, who has been featured in the local news numerous times for his sculptures, uses a refined tool set for the quick half-day sculpts on Maui beaches.

Step One: The pound up. This is where you stack sand to sculpt. It is important to use plenty of water and to use fine sand (not the coarse grainy stuff). Layer dry/moist sand about 4-6in thick, then pour one 5-gallon bucket of water on it. Use your fingers to “poke” deep holes in the sand to allow the air to escape. Use a pounder(something relatively flat, hard and heavy) to really beat down the sand to pack it down. Remember, you want the sand to be dense without air pockets for the best sculpting material. Repeat adding sand on top of each other until you have reached the top. Add more forms to go higher and repeat!

Sand Sculpting Tools

Top. Forms. Recycled from large wire spools. Tied together with mule tape.
Top Leaning. Pounder. A 2×4 screwed on to a flat hard wood. Used to pack the sand after the air is taken out.
Left. Beer.
Right Middle. 2 Buckets. Used for water.
Middle.  Butter knife
Middle. Small flat blade
Middle. Large flat blade

Middle Right. Large triangle. Useful for initial rough sculpts.
Right. Hand rake.
Right. Water pump. Keep them wet!! or they will fall over
Right.  Plastic straw (Human powered pressurized sicalate motivitor). Used for finishing fine detail.
Bottom tools:
Fork. Knife, Custom bamboo tools, brush, flat blade.

Custom bamboo tools

If you find Jim on the beach in Maui sculpting sand away, ask him about purchasing a set for your self. These are hand crafted, will never rust and really speed up the detail work. Oh, and they are 100% Hawaiian and 100% recycled!

The red stick next to the bamboo tools is used as a “sketching” tool to work out ideas before digging in. The brush helps remove even areas and develop smooth shapes.

Glue, Coloring and Stuff in Your Sculpture

Don’t use them. Glue is for competition and isolated projects, not messing around. Food coloring is tacky. And adding stuff like seaweed and shells is for sandcastles, not sand sculptures…

Regardless of what you may read on the web, glue and food coloring do impact the beaches negatively. Even water soluble glue creates an imbalance in the water chemistry. Food dye leaves behind that heavily concentrated compound on our beaches (and it looks silly!). Unless you found it naturally on the beach, it doesn’t belong there. Pack in, pack out.

So start with a sketch and get out and have fun!

See some fun beach sketches here from January!

Yes. Please contact me with details, portfolio items and pricing.

State of letterpress:

What was once the only way to mass produce any printed pamphlet, brochure, business card, you name it, has recently become a dying trade and reviving art form. The single most distinguished characteristic of letterpress prints, in my opinion, is the humanized quality. The Linotype machine (which revolutionized the printing industry by molding lines of text in lead, dramatically improving the speed of setting type) arguably was the first step in dehumanizing the printing process. There is something that feels much more genuine and authentic and human about carefully operated machinery, type, elements and paper placement.

Most people in this day-and-age do not know (or care) what a letterpress is. The evolution of printing has become so computerized and technical that almost anyone can set type on any computer and print using their home inkjet or laser printer. Something has been lost in the transition, something human. Something that gave that printed piece something worth saving. In the modern world we live in, we are overwhelmed with mass produced, digitally-made materials…many lacking a human “touch” and consideration in the final piece.

The letterpress printing industry had it’s own language and terminology lost to many generations of technical changes over the years. The word coin and furniture have special meanings, but what about jets and chases? Or leading? Some of the terms (most) have been adopted in the digital design world, but many new designers do not have roots in terms (and it probably does not make much of a difference, either way).

Letterpress is a dying art form and trade. It is being kept alive by a few garage hobbyists and small print shops, unable to give up the tradition of the ages. Unable to give up the zen, if I may rephrase, of letterpress. Commercially, letterpress is not a “money-maker” and owners dispose of the artifacts as scrap metal or if they are lucky, to a museum of sorts. If you search letterpress or lead type on ebay you’ll come across quite a few of these artifacts.

I have been extremely fortunate (I cannot express how grateful I am for the opportunity) to work along side as an apprentice of sorts, with a gentleman who has made printing his life and with a dedication of precision I have not seen anywhere in the field. He is able to operate any press he could get his hands on with immaculate understanding and precise work. As you walk into the shop, all you see is printing machines from the floor up, corner to corner. Not all of them work the way they should, but he has collected them whenever he could afford it. He even has them surrounding the outside of his shop covered in tarps eager to be setup and run. It is like a walk-through printing museum. One glance down, you are looking at the scraps of cut rules and lead pieces, and further up you find yourself staring at cases upon cases of lead type (so many that there aren’t enough drawers to put them in). To your left you find stat paper and job samples and to your right an ancient, but fully functional, circa 1850′s platen press and a little further a beautiful Heidelberg windmill press. The platen press with its 1900 electric motor that shows blue arcs of electricity as copper brushes rub against the steel wheel as it turns the large letterpress wheel with its rubber belt. The windmill press with its beautiful motion and distinct sound and artfully crafted parts. The smell of the shop; a blend of kerosene, mechanical oil, cleaning solutions and scented hand wash. It is a unique workplace built around its function. Designed that way. It is an oddly creative feeling environment.

But all of this is probably mundane drab and babbling to those who do not experience the same satisfaction from the trade. I wouldn’t expect them to. For the most part, this is a very narrow appreciation group. The paper, the tactile qualities, the forms, the physical, tangible variations, the three dimensional aspects of printed pieces, the function, the subtle aesthetics, and the ability to mass produce quality pieces are all reasons why. I am finding there is something missing, or something that we are sacrificing, with the quick adoption of digital prints. What about alternative methods that show craftsmanship, skill and human intervention? After the machine is created (your inkjet printer or whatever), what makes that design you just created feel human and special? I think the best example that most of us can relate to is wedding invitations. They are not just printed on regular paper and put into a plain envelope. Fine invitations typically include embossing/debossing, foil, ribbon, hand crafted paper and many other small subtleties that give it that special feeling. It’s one of those things…you know its special when you feel it. And you dont get that special effect from your printer…you get it from tactile, hands-on experience, keen understanding of production and creative thinking.

I was a bit concerned to complete my graphic design major where an entire 4 year course plan they only mentioned “letterpress” twice. During the short week of “printing history” in Graphic Design History and again in Advanced Typography. When talking with classmates, most had little desire to learn or showed much interest in the field. The appreciation for the trade, even in the newer generations of design, is becoming slimmer. The worst part is, the school actually has a letterpress and a few cases of type (but only because of a few dedicated teachers bought it out of their own pockets). Now if only they could incorporate it into the curriculum. A simple “ink-on-paper” 1 week crash course on the history of printing, hands on…ask questions. I’d be willing to offer a weekend training session for any local designer if anyone is interested. Bring your ideas and projects, or just come to learn…shoot me an email.

It’s a photoshop file and uses styles and an editable font (FightThis @ DaFont). It is far from perfect, but it is convincing enough. It is not high-resolution, so you wont be doing any large-scale printing with it, but its plenty big for fun web stuff.

What I did was flatten the text, and use the burn and dodge tool to emphasize and work the 3d text. Also, use the clone tool put bubbles closer to the text and make it feel like it fits in…you know the drill.

Snapshot of UNMODIFIED PSD file:

DOWNLOADS

• FightThis Font (required to make text changes)
• Photoshop file (please, do not reupload. Rapidshare link)