Blog/Tutorials
Create a free website using Weebly – Make advanced changes
Weebly is an awesome way for non-tech savvy users to create websites on their own. Their advanced image uploading system lets users upload and resize images with ease. I’d easily argue that Weebly Drag-and-Drop builder is 10 times easier to use than Microsoft Word! Best Features of Weebly It’s Free and Easy. For something that [...]
Wacom Tablet Windows 7 Circle Clicks FIX!
I searched all over the net trying to find a solution to get rid of the little blue circles and radiate out whenever you click on the screen using a tablet. Or when you click and hold you get that circle that goes around the spot you clicked on. It is especially annoying when trying [...]
Variable Data in InDesign CS4 – mass mail or anything!
Purpose and Usage 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. [...]
Sand Castles and Sculpture Tools and Tricks
Sand Castle/Sculpture Pound Up 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 [...]
Letterpress – Slow death of a skilled trade
Freelance letterpress? 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 [...]
Fight Club Like Soap using Photoshop and font (PSD included)
I searched and searched like you did for a “.psd” of the fight club bar of soap. 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, [...]
New Web host – Fatcow Review – SPECIAL $3.67/mo link
Not even looking back Switching to Fatcow web host was awesome and fairly painless. Before I was doing the super cheap, $1-$2 hosting with the absolute *worst* support ever. My web server would be down for days on end, with no response from support for 6 days. Sometimes the connection would be so poor that [...]
Sandcastles and Sculptures on Maui / January 2010
Unfortunately all of the photos are taken from the camera on my phone and are not the best quality, but hey… Jan 19, 2010 Surrealist hand unzipping the sand to reveal young turtles heading to sea. Done in 3.5 hours using custom tools and forms with 2 people. Jan 15, 2010 These went fast. 2 [...]
DAM – Digital Asset Management (my way) The cheap/free way
So your starting to get busy and your files are becoming out of control. Your finding different versions on your desktop, My Documents or home folder, the “Projects” folder where they belong and your flash drive that you take with you everywhere. It gets a chaotic, but through trial-and-error and a big stick, I have [...]
3 Simple Steps to Keep Complicated Illustrator Files Organized
Let’s face it, not every logo is going to be a Plain Jane one color, single layer mark. At some point in your career a project is going to come your way that will require complex art and careful organization. But are you going to be prepared when the project comes your way? I’ve outlined [...]
View Portfolio Items on My Website
Curious to see more than the first image on my projects? Did you know many of the projects I post have multiple images? There are two arrows along the top of each of the images that slide across to expose other images for many projects. The image above shows where. Enjoy!
Bleeds Explained – MAKE IT BLEEEED as designers and printers define it
Make it bleed! It’s not as intimidating as it sounds really. It’s just a funny word for something really simple. Since I have been working at a print shop for over two years, it has become apparent that many “designers” do not understand what a bleed is and why printers have to have it if [...]
Spot, CMYK, RGB colors explained briefly
This article is a bit wordy…so buckle-up! CMYK, RGB, and PMS/Spot all have their places. Web designers will almost always be concerned with RGB because almost all of their work deals with things that are viewed on screen (from a monitor that uses Red, Green and Blue pixels, RGB). Print designers have an obsession with [...]
New Website!
It is about time! I’ll be posting articles sharing my knowledge of design and print production in the near future. You can also expect my portfolio to be updated at a more regular basis (as opposed to yearly!).