News & Information for Creative Minds

Listen NOW…
Option-Click or Right-Click HERE to download this radio program (mp3)

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

Listen NOW…

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

Listen NOW…

Lonn Lorenz, Acrobat Product Manager, Adobe joins hosts Scott Sheppard & Gene Gable for some tips, insight anddetails for designers about Acrobat 9 Pro.Lonn highlights that two of the most exciting new features include the ability to create interactive portfolios which can showcase your multimedia work and include native Flash .swf files to interact within PDF documents. He also discusses the updated http://www.acrobat.com site which enables many interactive and online features of Acrobat 9, and provide a perfect place to store and share your new portfolio and work with your clients for free.

Acrobat is an integral part of any designer’s workflow, the new tools deliver an enhanced level of interactivity and collaboration with their new version. For more information visit: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson joins us this week to ask Lonn some questions about the inherent problems between design applications and workflow issues relevant to upgrading to Mac OS X 10.5. Leopard may be fine for most users, but it still isn’t ready for designers even with the most recent 10.5.4 update. Even with the long list of issues which have been addressed with each Leopard update, there are still problems that affect the graphic design community. Leopard’s printing architecture, for example, has problems that are preventing some users from accessing all of the options for their printers, which could be a show-stopper in some workflows. Lonn explains some resources available on Adobe.com that may help address these issues before upgrading.

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

Bob Levine, Adobe Certified Expert & "The InDesign Guy" Graphic Design & Consulting joins Inside Digital Design for some real-world examples of how designers can benefit from the new version of Acrobat 9. Bob has used Adobe tools since their inception and is truly an expert in their applied use with his clients. Bob shares some tips and insight on how the upgraded features have helped him not only in working with printers but also addressing the needs of his clients.

For more information about Bob’s work visit: http://www.theindesignguy.com/