Varaz Gharakhanian, Marketing Manager, 4over.com joins host Scott Sheppard from his booth at this year’s Graphics of the Americas conference to explain how designers can benefit from working with their high-volume print services. Varaz explains they recently launched a large format service and also have business affiliate programs available to designers so you can make money by reselling their print services along with creative design. For more information visit: http://www.4over.com.

Sara Cowley, Designer, Cowley Design joins hosts Scott Sheppard & Gene Gable for an in-depth look at her work which includes packaging and surface design. Her unique designs and focus present creative challenges as often her designs, unlike an ad or a logo, are often the final saleable product. Sara describes her journey from graduating art school to learning the ropes of running a business and ultimately starting her own firm. Sara shares some tips on selectively growing your client base and possible pitfalls to avoid when first starting out as an independent.

Sara explores some of the inspiration and creative process involved in her surface design work which includes bookmarks, wine tags, bookplates, mousepads, and more. Unlike other client work, this type of design involves creating the products first and then pitching the final concepts to clients for fulfillment and retail.

Sara also teaches typography at the Creative Circus, a portfolio school in Atlanta.

Find out more about her work, or read her blog at: http://cowleydesign.com/

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay joins us this week to discuss some upcoming design focused “Road Shows” which are exciting events that can help you get up to speed on your favorite applications. Jay’s list includes offerings by Mogo Media, Rocky Mountain School of Photography, Adobe Events, Apple Store Events, Noble Desktop,

Jay maintains a special industry calendar with more details, dates, locations, and links at: http://www.design-tools.com/events/

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

Dr. Yao-Hui Huang, CEO & Joey Kilrain, Creative Director, Gigapixel Creative join hosts Scott Sheppard and Gene Gable to share their backgrounds – Yao was in pharmaceuticals and Joey a fine artist – and the overall vision behind their unique New York based web agency. Their background in technology, art, and business has allowed them not only to offer award-winning creative direction but they also provide their clients; strategy consulting, marketing, development, and technology support services.

Yao and Joey explain their approach in consulting with client’s business needs first. Once they have a full understanding of their direction and goals they are then able to prepare a comprehensive Web 2.0 strategy that combines design elements with the latest web platforms and technologies. Their clients include Time Warner, General Mills, Pfizer, Chase, and many others. They also offer affordable turn-key solutions through their Baby Gigs group.

In addition to working closely with top agencies, also founded an incubator for innovative technologies through The Hatchery. Yao and Joey discuss how they partner with key venture capital firms, media companies and technologists to identify, fund, and support new ideas and business concepts. Each month, 3 companies are selected to participate in The Gauntlet, picture an “American Idol” for tech startup companies, where they can present ideas to an elite forum and gain feedback on their concepts.

To find out more visit: http://www.gigapixelcreative.com/ or The Hatchery at: http://www.hatchedby.us/

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson joins us this week to share the latest news including that Quark XPress is now supporting InDesign and InCopy. Jay is one of the industry’s definitive source of Quark news and as a Quark insider, he explains some of the benefits of their latest announcement. Jay also share some tips about a cost effective web design program, Freeway 5 from SoftPress who offer upgrades from GoLive and other options.

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

Renowned Illustrator and Founding Member of the Illustrator’s Partnership, Brad Holland joins hosts Scott Sheppard and Gene Gable for an update and some insight about the recently passed, Orphan Works Bill that was “hotlined” through Senate earlier this month. ‘Orphan works’ is a term used to describe works where the owner of the copyright cannot be located. Brad has been instrumental in advocating the rights of artists and creatives, participating in congressional hearings, and is a true expert in copyright legistation. Brad explains some of the issues involved in registering your work commercially and details on what the new bill changes in comparison to what had been in place prior to the bill passing. This bill originated in early 2006, and was intended to help museums and libraries obtain the rights to use truly “orphaned works” of art of images. Unfortunately, the current state of the bill does that and much more. The bill is backed and was presented by the advocacy group “Public Knowledge”, who maintains their side of the information at: http://www.publicknowledge.org/issues/copyright

One of the key changes is that traditionally creative work was protected by ensuring there was a visible copyright symbol along with a year on any work that you wished to protect. This acknowledged that the work belonged to the originating artist for their lifetime plus 70 years. The new law changes this structure and requires that any work considered copyrighted has to be clearly identified and searchable in a central database registry. Brad and Gene discuss some examples of “Fair Use” and complete infringement and an artist’s ability to take legal action against infringement under the new bill.

Brad explains the impact on creatives and small businesses who under the new law are required to register all existing and future work. Due to the processing fees involved, Brad points out that today’s digital photographers, who shoot hundreds of images on average, could be expected to pay $250,000 to over $1,000,000 in filing fees if each image cost $1 to register. This is very cost prohibitive to the artists.

Gene seeks to find the benefits of this new bill, which at this point are very clouded and unclear. There are amendments proposed to be presented to the House in the next few weeks and all urged folks involved to take an active position by writing to your Congressman and local House Representatives expressing your concern for this revised copyright system. For additional resources and one-click links to write your position visit: http://ipaorphanworks.blogspot.com/ or http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/

For more information about Brad Holland visit his site at: http://www.bradholland.net

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson joins us this week to follow-up on last week’s topic about Apple’s decision to stop offering the matte display on their new MacBooks. Jay explains some of the issues designers have in using a glossy vs. a matte screen and shares some tips on how to calibrate your glossy display. Jay indicates that the issue isn’t the display but in the manner in which they are backlit, in the case of the MacBooks it’s using LED technologies. Jay warns that not all of today’s popular monitor calibration tools are designed to properly manage these displays but there are some available that can optimize your display to your work environment.

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

Dani Nordin, Designer & Zen Warrior Princess, The Zen Kitchen Design joins hosts Scott Sheppard and Gene Gable for some insights, tips, and inspiration about her eco-friendly design business.Dani’s passion for design began with her background in theater. Leveraging what she learned about understanding and developing a backstory to get into character actually helped her develop her process and approach to communicating her design ideas with her clients. Figuring out what her clients would like to accomplish through design, Dani uses theater inspired techniques to get her clients to define the character of their target market to help her hone in her creative pitch. She attributes her success to her consultative approach with her clients.

The Zen Kitchen specializes in eco-friendly designs and Dani is passionate about striking a balance of minimizing our environmental impact yet using enough of the right materials to acheive marketing/brand success. Focusing on environmental issues doesn’t mean her designs look “hippie” or “eco” but that her commitment to making smarter choices comes through her design choices and advice to her clients. Dani also shares some of her thoughts about working with clients seeking “green washing” designs and rebrands that are hoping to take advantage of the rising popularity of eco-friendly designs.

Dani actively participates in the design community, and firmly beleives that social networking, her blog, and attending design related events have brought much success and business to her firm. She feels that offering advice and consultation, and sharing information especially with women owned business groups is a great way to learn, stay inspired, and of course gain clients.

For more information about Dani & The Zen Kitchen visit: http://www.tzk-design.com/

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson joins us this week to share his thoughts on the Orphan Works Act recently put through legislation. Jay explains the importance of speaking up about this topic from a designer’s perspective as the final verdict includes eliminating the automatic copyright protection on your existing and future creative work.The issue in legislation surrounds the lack of their ability to easily research and reference the origin of creative work. In the future, you will have to individually register and reregister work you’ve already registered in order to ensure proper credit, and royalties for your work or be able to litigate in the event of copyright infringement upon your work. Registration for existing work could be tedious and there is a fee for filing which could get costly for large collections.

To get more information and find easy ways to write your local Senate and House Representatives visit Jay’s site at: http://www.design-tools.com/ilpow/ or the Illustrator’s Partnership Orphan Works’ Blog at: http://www.ipaorphanworks.blogspot.com/

Jay also shares a tip about scanning your work. At a recent conference he learned that over time, flatbed scanner bulbs and parts can wear out which can impact the overall quality. Since many manufacturers offer cost effective solutions, it’s a good idea to consider an upgrade every 18 months.

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

Wes Wilson, President, IncSpring LLC. joins hosts Scott Sheppard and Gene Gable for some information about how their site helps designer “re purpose” their unused corporate logos, brands, and corporate identities, connecting graphic designers with entrepreneurs and small business owners across the globe. Wes explains that when designers are contracted for traditional branding and logos they often create several concepts for their clients. Since only one of the concepts is chosen, IncSpring’s site offers a venue to resell the leftover brand concepts – including any relevant domain names – for additional income opportunities.

Launched in August this year, IncSpring focuses on entrepreneurs and venture firms seeking turnkey branding solutions. For designers who enjoy creating branding and logos, IncSpring can provide a lucrative outlet for expressing their designs. Pricing begins at $150 a package and can go to several thousand dollars for an established design firm, brand, popular url, and other extras.

IncSpring includes social networking tools that allow clients to communicate directly with the designers and their revenue is based on commission % for the final creative sale.

For more information, and to sign up visit: http://www.incspring.com

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson joins us this week for more information on Adobe’s recent release of Creative Suite 4. Gene and Jay, who were beta testers and have experienced the different components of the suite focus the discussion on the enhanced integration of the suite of applications. This version of Creative Suite definately showcases the traditional Adobe programs and has successfully combined the best tools from their acquisition of Macromedia applications including Flash and Dreamweaver that are now better incorporated in the interface and connectivity across the applications.

For more information and details visit: http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/

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

Jeff Fisher, Author & Engineer of Creative Identity, LogoMotives joins Inside Digital Design for a discussion about his book “Identity Crisis: 100 Redesigns That Transformed Stale Identities into Successful Brands” where he showcases examples of recent brand redesigns and provides an invaluable resource for designers focusing on brand and logo work. Jeff has been involved in branding and logo design for over 30 years, a popular speaker, often showcased in HOW Design and AIGA conferences and articles. Jeff maintains a series of blogs that are informative and full of relevant examples and tips. Jeff also shares some tips on how to stay ahead of the trends, keeping your brand and identity work up to date and find inspiration with fresh perspectives.

For more information and links visit: http://www.jfisherlogomotives.com/ or his blog at: http://blog-omotives.blogspot.com/. For information and tips from Identity Crisis visit: http://identitycrisisbook.blogspot.com/

Dave Tabler, Portfolio Manager, The iSpot.com joins hosts Scott Sheppard and Gene Gable for some background and information on their popular illustrator portfolio site. Since 1996, The iSpot.com has held a place online for artists and illustrators to join forces and showcase their work for hire and stock. Formed to assist artist representatives to have a place for clients to locate and view a range of illustrations. Dave explains there are two areas The iSpot.com focuses on; one being portfolios and the other involves rights managed stock illustrations, not clipart.

Dave has worked closely with many artists, helping them properly identify and keyword tag their particular style so that art directors and creative shoppers can easily locate their work. The ability to properly tag and identify artist samples is critical in matching the right illustrator to the right project. Dave shares some insight on the work they’ve done to adjust and maintain popular tags. The iSpot.com has comprehensive tracking for each image viewed and will coach the artists on how to best showcase their most popular styles. Dave also explains their revenue model, and the costs associated in working with them. Althought the iSpot.com is one of the most renowned and popular websites dedicated to illustration, Dave explains that they continue to advertise and promote their services to ensure their artists get hired. They are a global site, representing artists from over 26 countries.

For more information on The iSpot.com visit their site at: http://www.theispot.com/

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson joins us this week for an update on Adobe’s recent release of Creative Suite 4 addressing the pressing question – Should I upgrade? Jay explains that many times designers skip a version so Adobe may see more updates from CS2 to CS4 than from their current CS3 base. Gene explains that this jump might also require a significant hardware upgrade in order to take advantage of the new features. Jay shares some of his favorite new enhancements including a redesigned interface, better collaboration tools, new 3D effects, and keyboard shortcuts. For more information and details visit: http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/

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

Mark Dancey, Designer/Cartoonist/Illustrator, Illuminado joins Inside Digital Design for some information about his work and how he gains exposure and clients as a traditional illustrator. Mark’s work includes gallery exhibitions, album designs, cartoons and other organic media. Mark shares his experiences and insights on how he uses digital representations of his art on his website to promote to his clients but explains that although it provides instant access, maintaining the original artist intent from analog to digital can present compromises and challenges.

For more about his work visit: http://www.illuminado.com

Suzanne Norman, Director of Community Relations, and Jim Hitch, Agency Relations Manager for Emma Inc. join hosts Scott Sheppard and Gene Gable for some tips and insights about using and designing e-mail marketing campaigns. Emma Inc. is a web-based email marketing comunications companywhose services are setup to eliminate the complexities of list management, implementing and executing a campaign, and also allow for full tracking and measurement to see the results.

Suzanne and Jim explain some of the formats and known issues of creating HTML based emails but confirm that in the end using HTML email campaigns have consistently returned better results. They also discuss tips on avoiding SPAM reporting, using images, and designing for regular and mobile email users.

Suzanne points out that designing successful emails is much different than creating for web and print. Knowing the layout of available real estate for your message in popular email programs is critical to successfully delivering the message. She also reminds designers to consider the message in addition to the design as many email programs block images as a default, and it’s important to make sure that the relevant text comes through even if the images don’t.

The Emma service offers custom co-branded and private label options for designers who wish to include email marketing in their efforts or expand the services they offer their clients by taking out the technical issues and allowing designers to focus on their special skill sets. Find out more at: http://www.myemma.com/agency

For more information visit: http://www.myemma.com

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson joins us this week for an update on the exciting fall events happening in October / November focused on design and creative topics including the InHowse Conference, An Event Apart focused on web standards, PhotoPlus Conference and Expo, AIGA Business and Design Conference, Graph Expo, InDesign Conference, and the Create Chaos. Jay and Jeff Gamut will be speaking at Macworld ’09 on iTunes for Audiophiles.

Jay maintains a full industry calendar at: http://www.design-tools.com/events/

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

Gene Gable & Scott Sheppard discuss design choices for this year’s Presidential Election Campaigns. Gene has been following and researching the campaign from a designer’s perspective and explains how typefaces, colors and other element choices can impact how voters perceive each candidate. For example, in analyzing their font selections, Republican John McCain chose the Optima font which is a more traditional, older, and considered a “safe” type style it also happens to be the type style chosen for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. On the other hand the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama chose a very modern font, Gotham which certainly supports his views and platform.

Gene also points out that the placement of the Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates in the imagery makes a statement about their views. In the McCain banners, John McCain and Sarah Palin’s name are of equal size and weight. In the Obama images, his name appears much larger than that of his running mate Biden. Republicans tend to use all capital letters where Democrats tend to use upper and lowercase lettering. Gene explains the history and background of the use of the elephant and the donkey. Traditionally campaign color choices involve red, white, and blue which of course can be “officially” selected based on the Pantone Matching System.

You can see examples of this year’s designs on their websites and in their merchandise/store selections at:
McCain: http://www.goptrunk.com/ & Obama: http://store.barackobama.com/

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson joins us this week for an color update on Pantone Fashion Color Report Spring 2009, which is generally announced during New York Fashion Week, September 5–12, 2008. The Pantone Fashion Color Reports traditionally translate into key Spring 2009 graphic and other designer color choices. Jay reports that there are very few reds, but expect to see many blue and purple hues. There are the earthy tone neutrals and greens as well. Jay also shares some tips on how to create pleasing color palettes at: http://www.mypantone.com, see some unique color combinations at: http://www.colourlovers.com/, Adobe’s AIR application: http://kuler.adobe.com/ or you can use a CMYK tool such as: http://www.master-colors.com/.

Gene and Jay also discuss how most type foundries today are transitioning to OpenType standards which take the best of PostScript and TrueType formats and make them available with expanded character sets and are cross-platform compatible. For more information about Jay and Design Tools visit: http://www.design-tools.com.

Brian Yerkes, Creative Director, Brian Joseph Studios joins Inside Digital Design to share some tips and ideas on how his firm leverages social networking, web 2.0, and blogging tools to expand their business. Brian explains how his approach has helped him not only meet some great designers and potential clients but also helps him keep up his creative inspiration. Brian also shares some tips for other designers on his blog, but reminds other designer bloggers that anything they post online is public and therefore chooses to keep his topics very positive. Brian and Gene also discuss a recent blog entry about “Things Brian Would Tell a Design Student“. Brian shares these tips on the show. Brian is also very active on Twitter, you can follow his discussions at: http://twitter.com/brianyerkes

For more information about Brian, read his blog at: http://www.brianyerkes.com/ or see the creative work of his studio at: http://www.brianjosephstudios.com/

Freelance Designer, Donna Berger

Donna shares some tips about how and where to advertise including listing your services and contacts in industry sourcebooks. She explains how your personal portfolios can help define your style, even if you have a broad background but consistancy helps leave your impression on your clients when they are looking for something specific.

To contact her and see more of her work visit: http://www.donnaberger.com

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

This week Jeff Gamut fills in for Jay with some news that QuarkXpress 8 is actually shipping. After announcing the upgrade and new features the product is now hitting the shelves. Jeff also shares a tip about creating a book of your typefaces using Veenix Software’s Type Book Creator. Find out more at http://www.veenix.com.

For more information about Jay and Design Tools visit: http://www.design-tools.com.

Mary Gay Marchese, Marketing Manager, Markzware joins Inside Digital Design to discuss some of the features available in their conversion tools products that allow you to seamlessly exchange file contents and layouts between popular layout programs including QuarkXpress, InDesign, and even Microsoft Publisher. These time saving tools can help designers and prepress operators maintain the integrity of the files and also easily make last minute edits.

Mary Gay also explains some of their other popular pre-flighting and conversion tools and shares some examples of how having access to these utilities have saved the day with some of their key clients. They are constantly developing new tools and are recruiting beta testers to be involved in their development process. If you would like to sign up simply send Mary Gay a note at pr (at) markzware (dot) com.

See their full line of products at: http://www.markzware.com