News & Information for Creative Minds

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Andy Hussie, President & Andrew Hussie, CTO, Master Colors LLC join hosts Scott Sheppard and Gene Gable for an overview and discussion of their unique digital color selection tool, HVC Color Composer. Andy explains how his background as an artist/painter inspired him to find a better color selection tool. Using his son,Andrew’s talents in programming they were able to create a completely different way of composing color palettes that are able to predict complementary hues within a specified color range. Working as an enhanced color picker tool in both Photoshop and InDesign, this powerful plug-in expands not only the range of definable colors but allows designers to quickly arrange, organize, and select colors specifically for their project.

The HVC Color Composer accurately measures the contrast between colors, allowing it to create coherent “smart palettes” that work with various target colors chosen by the artist. The HVC Color Composer gives professional artists and designers complete control of their color compositions, and allows the user to create an unlimited number of color palette. Andrew explains some of the differences between using the HVC and other color spaces including RGB, Lab, CYMK and give some tips on how the HVC Color Composer analyzes and assigns colors in relation to these color areas.

The plug-ins are reasonably priced, under $100 and include a one-hour custom tutorial demo - by Andy or Andrew - on how to use the HVC color space to your best advantage allowing you to immediately begin mixing colors at a new level.

For more information, and to download a demo version visit: http://www.master-colors.com/

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson joins us this week for an update on his recent trip to the Institute of Newspaper Technology Conference held October 9-11, in Knoxville, TN. Jay shares some of the details on their workflows and challenges. Most of the conference attendees represented local, mid-west newspapers whose constant pressure to reduce their operating costs have made it difficult for them to maintain their circulation. Jay also brings up the Orphan Works Bill which we will cover extensively in a future program. Jay, Gene, and Scott discuss the release of Apple’s updated MacBook and some possible issues around their decision to discontinue matte displays on Apple MacBooks.

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

Gene and Scott round out the week with some tips on how to keep your creative business booming even when the current ecomomic conditions are not.

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Matt Kloskowski the Education & Curriculum Developer for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals joins hosts Scott Sheppard and Gene Gable for some tips on how to get the most out of attending this year’s Photoshop World, held September 4-6, 2008 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. Matt shares some of the highlights and also hints at Adobe’s technology previews planned at the event.

Photoshop World is filled with incredible instructors and many networking opportunities. Topics include how-to techniques on Photoshop, but also on the full range of Adobe Suite & Lightroom applications. Matt explains that photographers often double as designers, and of course designers are often faced being photographers for their clients. Gene asks to what level are attendees embracing working in a 3D space. Photoshop World is a place where you can learn, but as Matt discusses is also a great chance for the instructors to get interactive feedback and learn more aspects of the applications from their students.

For more information, and to register visit: http://www.photoshopworld.com

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson joins us this week with an update on the exciting design oriented trade show and events planned in the next few months. Jay shares some highlights of the most popular including Print Buyer Certification Roadshows, Graph Expo for folks in commercial printing, Web 2.0 Expo in NYC, An Event Apart for Web developers, and many more. You can see a full list of events, courtesy of Design Tools Monthly, by visiting: http://www.design-tools.com/events

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

Rich Christianson, Founder, Featurific joins Inside Digital Design to explain his unique web flash gallery plug-in. Featurific, is an easy to use framework and Flash code available in two versions - an open Pro version that fits into any web site and a specialized free version built for Wordpress blogs. Rich explains that most web developers and marketers are challenged by gaining conversions on their website, grabbing a users attention and keeping them on their site. Featurific provides an interactive slideshow gallery that allows you to highlight stories and images that are sure to keep visitors on your site and coming back.

The Wordpress plug-in is easy to install and will automatically generate image gallery and headlines based on your blog entries. The Pro version supports various formats including added support for MP3 audio and FLV video! The system has many built-in templates but each is easy to customize without the need to know the code behind it.

For more information and to download a version today visit: http://www.featurific.com/

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Mordy Golding, Partner Mogo Media joins hosts Scott Sheppard and Gene Gable for an update on their latest conferences and some trends he sees among the designers participating in their popular events. Mordy is an author, trainer, and former Product Manager of Adobe Illustrator so much of their workshops feature tips and techniques of using Adobe tools in their workflow. Mordy explains the challenges many designers face today in having to design for multiple mediums, and how they work with their clients who demand their projects are instantly compatible across print, web, video, etc.

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

This week Jay gives us an update on his favorite new features available in the recently released Adobe Acrobat 9 which includes the ability to include Flash and other multimedia components. The new version also includes a supporting website http://www.acrobat.com, that makes is very easy to collaborate and share documents across locations.

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

Mordy returns after the news to discuss their fall conferences one held in conjuction with the Create Chaos conference held in Orlando this October 13-17, and also some in-depth Adobe InDesign Conference Master Class held in Seattle, November 10-13 at Adobe’s office which are also their HQ for the Adobe InDesign development team.

Mordy Golding has been doing alot of work lately about designing for mobile content platforms and shares some of the exciting news and tools now available that help creatives distribute their content to mobile phones. One of the keys to successfully designing for this platform is to understand how users will interact with the content available on their handheld device. Hear some market trends and tips on tools you can use to develop.

Find out more about Mordy on his website at: http://www.mordy.com/
Learn about Mordy’s conference sessions and Mogo Media at: http://www.mogo-media.com