providing graphic design, branding, photography and marketing expertise to denver and the world
Quote
of the Week:
All solitary dreamers know that they hear differently when they close their eyes.-Gaston Bachelard
Grooving
I don't know about you, but the music I listen to while I work makes a big difference in what I produce.
Is this because visual people also tend to be aural people? Anyhow, my latest favorite album to create to is William Orbit's Hello Waveforms. Not the perfect ambient album, but very close.
posted at 8:31 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments
3.22.2006
Note to Self:
ALWAYS double-check WHICH pile of receipts you are about to shove into the shredder: the ones you want to file for expenses, or the ones from the grocery store, the ATM, and the gas station?
Then double check yourself.
ugh.
posted at 9:09 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments
3.17.2006
The new paper samples are here! The new paper samples are here!
Got my new paper cabinet from Unisource this afternooon. Woo Hoo!
Well, it's exciting for me, anyhow.
posted at 5:06 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments
3.16.2006
Peer Review
I am a co-author on a really interesting book on Paticipatory Action Research, and we've just submitted the first three chapters for peer review...very exciting stuff.
I'm doing all of the diagrams and illustrations and so forth, with two experts actually writing the book; to be listed as a co-author is really an honor for me, and I'm doing my best to make the book as good as possible, in my limited capacity. That said, some people are more able to absorb information visually, and the diagrams that I'm making will help readers grok the points we're trying to make.
I'll keep you posted on how the book is progressing.
posted at 9:51 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments
3.14.2006
Glamourous life amoung the Printers of Denver
Yep, it's that time in the project life-cycle for one of my jobs: everything goes on-press!
It's a really fun time for a designer, to see everything become real. But it is also a very anxious, nerve-wracking time: typos lurk here and there, specifications need to be double-checked, and generally just about anything can go wrong.
If you have your crap together, and use a good printer (or two or three), then it usually goes very smoothly. But you still worry.
For this project, I'm working with the esteemed David Biondi at Wandel Press in Denver, and Keith Kavanaugh at D&K Printing in Boulder. I've done a lot of work with both these guys in the past, and that's a key thing. You want to have a solid relationship with your printer; know what they are good at, what their limitations are, and how they operate. With those facts in-hand, it's hard to go wrong.
This is the time when it pays, incidentally, to have been brought up through the design business old-school-style: apprenticing as a production artist and scanner operator before you start calling yourself a "Designer" makes you damn sure you know about dot gain, trapping, screen angles, and dry-back. And if you don't learn it, your boss usually makes you very well aware of the fact that you don't know it, and you better learn it before you screw up another print job. My mentor early on was patient enough to allow me to make a few really big mistakes, but she was sure that the lessons sunk in, too. I felt so guilty when I set up a job, and press checked it, and approved it--only to find out that I had set the screen angles on both inks to match dot-for-dot--that I always double-check them. Even when I KNOW they are correct. The fact that I wasn't fired on the spot for making a mistake like that allowed me time to feel properly guilty, and to let the lesson sink in.
Nowadays, some Designers come straight out of CIA or another 2-year program, with no experience, and proceed to screw up their new boss's print jobs royally--because they were not taught the basics of print production. Remember, kiddies: just because Teh Internets are out there, doesn't mean that Print is going away anytime soon, and you best get learnt on it. Otherwise, we-all will school your ass, instead.
posted at 2:27 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments
Archived Posts:
09.02
10.02
11.02
12.02
01.03
02.03
03.03
04.03
05.03
06.03
11.04
11.05
12.05
01.06
02.06
03.06
04.06
05.06
06.06
07.06
08.06
09.06
10.06
11.06
12.06
01.07
02.07
03.07
04.07
05.07
06.07
07.07
08.07
09.07
10.07
11.07
12.07
01.08
02.08
03.08
04.08
