News & Information for Creative Minds

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Chad Siegel, Group Product Manager, Design Segment, Adobe Systems Inc. joins hosts Scott Sheppard, Gene Gable, and Jay Nelson to explain the latest features for designers in Adobe Creative Suite 4. Gene, an Adobe beta tester, feels strongly that this is Adobe’s most integrated application suite yet released since their acquisition of Macromedia in 2005. Chad confirms that this version is the most complete multi-media offering in terms of delivering a seamless, cohesive set of design tools for any creative professional.

Chad shares some anecdotes about the challenges Adobe faced in developing the integrated user interface and some of the benefits of now having an integrated UI across all components. Chad explains that their entire process from conceptualization, to testing in Adobe Labs, and final delivery have made most Adobe employees now feel like "kids in a candy store" with unlimited possibilities of integration and extensions among the platforms. A great example is Adobe Acrobat’s 9 integration of Flash technologies helping creatives develop interactive designs.

Some of the highlights include that the rendering and print engines have been integrated on the back end of the applications, what this means for designers is that now it’s easier to reliably export or output into a range of formats. Chad recently participated in the Adobe MAX 2008 North American Conference, held last week in San Francisco. He feels the key benefit of this conference was his ability to get live feedback and interact with users.

Chad also shares some tips on how the new 3D tools and overall video workflows within After Effects and Photoshop that can really open up some opportunities. Gene and Jay also open up discussions on how today’s economy can affect a designer’s ability to justify upgrading their software - Chad provides some key considerations that can expand a creatives capabilities which can not only bring them new business but open them up to new clients. Chad also explains that with the redesigned interface in Creative Suite 4, can also save time by requiring fewer keystrokes and with the tighter integration many fewer steps to accomplish the same tasks. Chad also shares a glimpse of some of Adobe’s future developments including the potential for a pay-as-you-go model currently being piloted in markets outside the U.S.

Find out more at: http://www.adobe.com, or see Adobe’s favorite social links by visiting: http://delicious.com/adobe/

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

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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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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/