Pete Rivard, Principal Instructor for Digital Imaging, Dunwoody College of Technology in Minneapolis, MN joins hosts Scott Sheppard & Gene Gable to discuss designing for flexography and packaging. Pete explains that in 1914, Dunwoody College was founded by the folks who also began General Mills and has enjoyed a close relationship with the packaging industry as one of the nation’s key technical resource for print education. Pete also discusses some key points of what makes designing for flexographic printing processes so uniquely exciting, and different from traditional offset processes.

He also discusses details of their technical curriculum for flexographic printing, prepress, and design. Pete shares some insights on the overall process of flexo and package printing, which unlike other processes include finishing the piece, bag, box, label within the press run. Designing the page layout needs to consider these factors, as do the variety of substrates available which are used in package design. Package designers often use 3D tools to help visualize final printed boxes or other pieces to better understand the overall folding configuration which need to be addressed in the final print file. He also details the differences between flexo and gravure printing.

Packaging and flexographic printing are one of the major growth areas for designers available in the print industry today, find out more about Dunwoody’s courses at: http://www.dunwoody.edu/graphics/

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

This week’s Jay shares the results of the Pantone Color of the Year for 2009: PANTONE 14-0848 Mimosa established annually by the Pantone Color Institute. He also discusses Google’s new archive of Life Magazine’s Photo Archive that makes millions of their images searchable and available for reference dating back to 1750’s. Jay also explains the Copyright Clearance Center’s ReadyImages Service that provides easy access to a large collection of images having only to pay a small annual fee. Find out more at http://www.copyright.com

For more on Jay Nelson and his Design Tools topics visit: http://www.design-tools.com

Michael Makin, CEO, Printing Industries of America joins hosts Scott Sheppard and Gene Gable for an industry update, share details on their recent efforts to rebrand their organization, and some details on their services. Printing Industries of America has over 12,000 member companies and is the largest printing organization in the world. Michael explains that the printing and publishing industry is far from “dead”; it has in fact grown over the past decade contributing over $170 billion to the U.S. market. Although there have been consolidations in the over 37,000 plant facilities, their overall business is shifting from ink on paper to digital printing and services. PIA is very active in Washington, D.C. lobbying for postal rates and related issues and feels confident that they will continue to represent the industry effectively in 2009 and beyond.

Michael also explains the components that make up the Printing Industries of America, which include business issues and also technical/research programs through their Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF). PIA provides not only government lobbying, but technical support, and education programs that cover technical and business topics. Formerly known as PIA/GATF, Michael felt that the acronyms traditionally used by their organization were confusing the market and not serving their members effectively. This year, they have combined all areas under the “Printing Industries of America” brand.

The printing industry is a very close-knit family oriented business sector, and the organization has been serving their efforts since 1887. Earlier this year Michael produced a hilarious YouTube clip, which expresses PIA’s passion and commitment to their industry; “I Love PIA/GATF”.

For more information about their association and services visit: http://www.printing.org.

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

This week, Jay Nelson brings a review of the best holiday gifts for your favorite designers. If you have any designer friends, you’ll agree that the most beautifully wrapped and thought out gifts you receive this year will be from them, so if you’re looking for a way to make their season bright check out his tips for ideas. Jay scoured the headlines and recommends; Pantone inspired mugs, custom designed items at CafePress or Zazzle and other sites, Verbatim’s retro Vinyl CD’s or Digital Movie DVD’s, or their Archival grade CD, Logitech’s Space Navigator, or NewerTech’s Voyager Hard Drive case.

For more on Jay Nelson and his Design Tools topics visit: http://www.design-tools.com

Gary Unger, Author, Speaker, Advertising Consultant joins hosts Scott Sheppard & Gene Gable for some tips from his popular book “How to Be a Creative Genius (in five minutes or less)”. Gary’s book represents a practical and humourous take on the creative process based on his decade in working as a creative serving such clients as Chick-Fil-A, General Motors and the National Basketball Association. He is the originator of AutoZone’s “Get in the Zone” ad campaign and has a shirt in the Levi Strauss T-Shirt Hall of Fame.

Gary provides some practical advice on how to spark your creative inspiration, how to work with your clients in brainstorming creative thoughts, and offers suggestions on getting out of a design rut. Gary’s explains how his book uses humor, sarcasm, and a bit of reverse psychology to get you to think creatively about his challenging statements. Gary also developed an approach to the creative process called XDO which he uses to teach in his mentoring programs and sessions. Gary is an avid social networker and often uses LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

To find out more about Gary’s work visit: http://www.garyunger.com or visit his blog at: http://garyunger.com/blog/

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay joins us this week for some hands-on tips on using Acrobat 9’s collaboration features which include a quick way to share your PDF’s via simple email links and comment together via a built-in chat. Acrobat will also allow you to easily share your screen and desktop among members of your meeting. Gene and Jay review some other features available on http://www.acrobat.com including Adobe Buzzword and ConnectNow. Jay has also been using FileChute for Mac OS, which is a quick way to send files via email links. If transferring files is common to you, you may also want to check out YouSendIt at: http://www.yousendit.com/, which offers easy click plug-ins for Acrobat, FinalCut Pro, Photoshop, Microsoft Office and others that allow you to send from within those applications.

For more on Jay Nelson and his Design Tools topics visit: http://www.design-tools.com