Chris Allen, Leading Open Source Flash Developer and Program Developer of this year’s Flash on Tap Conference joins hosts Scott Sheppard and Gene Gable for an in-depth look at their unique event featuring the best of Flash tools and design and a Flash focused beer tasting festival. The Flash on Tap conference combines world-class sessions with the best developers and networking opportunities built around casual locales offering fine brews and barbeques.

Chris explains the highlights, topics, and their all-star speaker lineup which includes sessions on Adobe AIR, red5, Flex, case studies, animation, actionscript, and inspiration. The speakers represent experienced visionaries of Flash development including; Dr. Woohoo!, tink (Steven Downs), Joe Berkovitz, Aldo Bucci, Trevor Burton, and of course, Chris Allen.

This year’s event is being held May 28-30, 2009 in Boston, Massachusetts at The Castle and Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers. Tickets are on-sale for $595 through April 28th, and several package, party, and session bundles are available. To sign up visit: http://flashontap.eventbrite.com/

For more information, details, and complete registration pricing visit: http://www.flashontap.com. Check out Chris’ blog at: http://blog.ff9900.org/

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay joins us this week with some tips and reviews on font management tools. He recently completed some hands-on reviews including Monotype’s Font Explorer X, Extensis Suitcase Fusion 2, and Insider Software’s FontAgent Pro 4. Jay describes some of the unique features of these applications including floating font previews, and enhanced interfaces. Are font management tools critical to your workflow? Jay explains why using a font manager keeps you organized and your system running more efficiently.

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

Ted Balderree, Industry Manager, Consumer Products, Autodesk Manufacturing Solutions joins hosts Scott Sheppard & Gene Gable to explain some tips about transitioning from 2D to 3D design. Ted discusses how Autodesk’s powerful digital prototyping tools can not only assist in final product and packaging development but also provide early images, renderings, and elements designers can use in marketing, brochures, web, and other promotional materials. Having access to “final” product images long before final production can have an enormous impact on shortening time to market for new product introductions.

AutoCAD has set the standard in 2D and 3D design software for the manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment markets since 1982. Their aquisition of Alias and Maya have greatly expanded their portfolio of products enabling creative designers to access these powerful tools and integrate them within their workflow. Ted shares some tips on how designers can get training on these applications and 3D design techniques. Many colleges and universities offer classes on  AliasStudio and Maya, Autodesk Resellers offer local training classes around the world, or you can train yourself using their “Autodesk AliasStudio Personal Learning Edition“. The learning versions include interactive tips and guides within the applications while you are working on a project file.

Autodesk provides exceptional design tools for product development, manufacturing, architechture, video, entertainment, animation, gaming and more. You can download free trial versions of both AliasStudio (Windows only), or Maya (Mac/Win)

For more information on their full range of solutions visit: http://www.autodesk.com. They also have an Autodesk Gallery at One Market Street in San Francisco, CA showcasing over 20 exhibits featuring amazing work. 

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay shares his thoughts and experiences this week on the “Death of Macworld“, which he feels is greatly exaggerated. Even without Apple’s booth presence, Macworld remains a great place for networking, seeing a full breadth of Mac related products, and learn valuable skills in a range of areas. Looking ahead to next year’s event, Jay explains that although the nature of the show will be different without the famous Steve Jobs Apple keynote there will be plenty of interactive and experiential hands-on sessions that encourage social learning. See details, join their network, and stay tuned for Macworld 2010 at: http://www.macworldexpo.com/

Jay shares a tip on a font management tool – Type DNA – which adds a great deal of functionality as a plug-in to your favorite design applications including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Microsoft Office. Type DNA can recognize typefaces, organize them, and even provide suggestions on finding the perfect, complementary typefaces for any project. Check it out at: http://www.typedna.com

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

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

Drew Trujillo, Designer –better known as Dr. Woohoo! joins hosts Scott Sheppard and Gene Gable this week to share his background and an inside look at his amazing design work. Fusing the best of art, technology, and design Dr. Woohoo’s technical and programming background help him to bring his visions to life. Drew explains, although his early background was in traditional mediums he soon became passionate about animation and digital art applications where his current expertise tests the boundaries of Adobe’s Creative Suite.

A renowned speaker, Adobe beta tester, and educator on Adobe Flash, AIR, and other interactive platforms. One of the best places to see his work in action is on In the Mod – Color Analytics: A Study of Color Palettes website. This site offers the ability to explore art, the interaction of color and palettes, and even lets you download your favorite sets directly to your Adobe apps. Dr. Woohoo gives us his description and experiences of the power working with Adobe AIR and how it integrates within the other Adobe Suite applications.

He has also published a book showcasing his work entitled, “Color Visualizations: Exploring the Circle, vol 02“. Where he uses software he developed to generate his artwork by extracting millions of color pixels in each image, analyzing and organizing the color data and then building the composition with absolute precision.

In addition to pushing the limits of available technology, Dr. Woohoo’s art is truly unique. He combines the organic qualities of nature and textures and expands them using digital enhancements that stand out in multiple mediums. His work is available for viewing and purchase online, including his kinetic art – Dandelions.

For more information, news, tips, his art, and more visit: http://blog.drwoohoo.com/

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson joins us this week to share the latest news and discussion about typefaces and a informative history of OpenType to celebrate the release of ITC’s Franklin – not Franklin Gothic offering a new range of options for larger display fonts. Jay and Gene, our resident “fontologists” share the use, sizing, and variations of this popular typeface. Jay also shares his review of the type focused movie – Helvetica, which recently came to his home town of Denver for a screening. PopChar celebrates it’s 20th birthday this month, which remains a great easy way to enter characters.

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/

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

James Westbrooks, Owner, J2 Creative joins hosts Scott Sheppard andGene Gable to discuss how they take their designs to a range of mediums and some of the benefits of working in a small studio providing personalized services for their clients. J2 Creative studios consists primarily of James and his wife, who has a background in industrial design. J2 recently completed a project for Indiana Glass that allowed them to work on intricate designs for their product lines, James shares some tips and explains some of the workflow and other considerations when taking on such projects. James also discusses some of the factors to consider when working with your spouse and also the decision to work in a small firm vs. a larger agency.

To find out more about J2 Creative visit their site at: http://www.j2creative.us/

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson joins us this week with an update on 2008 Adobe® Design Achievement Awards which is a global competition designed to showcase student work. Adobe brought the winners on an expense paid trip to New York City and even hosted tours of local design studios. Jay also shares some notes from AIGA|Aquent Survey of Design Salaries, which is done annually and provides some tools and great compensation information. Visit: http://www.designsalaries.com

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

Art Director, DJ Webb joins Inside Digital Design to share his experiences as a designer who recently left a large agency, DDB, and discusses some tips and ideas on the steps he is taking to make a mark as an independant freelance designer and art director. Leveraging his contacts within the agency space, DJ works with various clients expanding his portfolio mostly by word of mouth. DJ is a true creative who has had an interest in art and design since his early childhood. His passion and creativity now come through a broad range of projects including ideas for TV, interactive, radio, branding an alternative media (billboards, kiosk, bus shelters, etc) in addition to branding projects some local start-ups.

If you would like to connect with him about his work or experiences send him a note at: djwbrands at gmail dot com. You can see his gallery of work at: http://djwebbcreative.com/

Nancy Stevenson, Creative Director of Character Design & Mark Magner, Design Director for Sesame Workshop join hosts Scott Sheppard and Gene Gable to discuss some details on their work creating and maintaining the artwork and photography behind the licensing of the worlds most recognized children’s educational brand, Sesame Street. Nancy and Mark work with a talented team creating digital art for products, toys, publishing, animation, online games, web, mobile devices, etc. for Sesame Workshop characters.

Sesame Workshop is a non-profit organization founded to create a fun and educational content for media that helps children in over 140 countries during their earliest and most critical developmental stages. The Workshop develops programs that help children, parents, and teachers. Much of the proceeds gained from licensing and product sales goes toward creating new programs and outreach initiatives around the world.

Nancy and Mark explain that one of their greatest challenges is to take the 3D characters we know and love as “Sesame Street Muppets”, and convert them into 2D characters, icons, and images. They oversee, manage, create, and convert hundreds of characters, which are also unique and localized to fit within local cultures and markets. They develop the style, brand look, and color guidelines which are provided to their license and educational partners across the globe to ensure the characters have a consistent look in any use. Sesame Workshop recently updated their global standards to Adobe products, including PDF, EPS, and TIFF formats. Mark describes the work flow they use to communicate input to artwork submitted for approval.

Nancy & Mark also share some tips on how they stay up to date on the latest design tools and how they keep up their creativity to best target the children’s educational market. Sesame Workshop is working on many exciting new programs including a brand new website launching this August, and 3D CGI MAYA animation for a project in Nigeria.

For more information about their brand, work, projects, and mission of Sesame Workshop visit their website at: http://www.sesameworkshop.org

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

This week Jay shares some tips about using Adobe’s new tools and services for collaborating online at Acrobat.com. Jay provides some highlights of the new features and Gene compares the site as a “Webex” built for designers. Jay also announces the kick-off of the QuarkXpress 8 road show which is traveling across the globe in 50 cities featuring a half-day session about their latest features. Jay also shares news from MasterColors, who create Master Colors HVC Color Composer®, about their free online tutorials that can help you learn about using color more creatively in your designs.

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