A quick rant. . .

There is one thing that drives me crazy about designers and marketing/ad specialists. You would think that they would know what is needed to make a good print. For example, today we had someone call in to say that a color on their "flattened" image was not the right color yellow. I explained to them several times (along with another artist) that we cannot manipulate the color on a flattened image without altering the entire image since it was not in a vector format. They were dead set in their mind that since they sent an EPS file that it was automatically vector. WRONG!!! Just because it is an EPS does not mean it is a vector file. If any of you who read my blog get anything out of this, just know this one thing. Flattened or "raster" files cannot be edited unlike vector files. There isn't a "magic" button printers can press to make your artwork vector or to clean it up. It's amazing the people in the world of design that do not know the first thing about it! I hope that I can help my clients better understand what good artwork is in order to promote themselves better.

Panic Mode. . .

Ok, this is where I start to panic. I'm looking at the calendar and realize we do not have much left of the semester - let along a lot of time to finish the web project. I'm probably going to try to go above and beyond again, I just have to maintain my cool. . . I can do this!! Just another one of those hurdles that I must jump through in order to advance in the world of design. But lately, I have been thinking I can do it. Everyday is a new learning experience.

Website Layout

Oh, I did come up with a design for my website that I like. Now it is just putting it together and deciding how I want to do it. Do I want to put my work in Flash so that my content can not be taken? I think that could work, but I'm having issues with background colors and such, since I'm trying to go for a certain look. At least I have an idea though, right?

Crazy Week

This week has been a crazy week - and not an easy one for blogging either. Even though I have been off of my main job for Thanksgiving, I have been working my part time job, which has felt like full time hours. This was my first time to be in retail on the days after Thanksgiving, and it has been pretty crazy! Tonight we had out floor set (which I just got home from), where we change out tables and marketing for the store. I have noticed that a lot of effort goes into the planning and setting of the tables so that the customers will be drawn in. The signage, table layouts and more all have to coordinate and work together to give a presentable display for the customers. It's crazy, but it works.

Template decisions. . .

It has been a busy holiday break - most of my time has been spent at my second job. In between that time I have been thinking about my template for my website. Do I use a pre-made template? Do I create it myself? So many choices. I've search high and low to try to find a template that I could manipulate to make it my own, but I have had no such luck - so, I think I will be creating it myself. I think I just wanted to use another medium than the Flash route I was used to. Oh well, I'm sure it will come to me soon.

Reflection technique

Today I have had extra time to play around. In searching the internet, I found a tutorial on how to make a reflection. I attempted mine in Illustrator, but the tutorials I found were for Photoshop. I still have a ways to go, not perfected yet. But if you would like to try it, here are a few websites that I looked at for instructions.

http://www.oman3d.com/tutorials/photoshop/learnphotoshop_3dreflection/

http://www.planetphotoshop.com/photo-reflection-effect.html

On the right track. . .

I think I'm on the right track. Tonight I started on a new path for a portfolio website. It's cute where it fits my personality, yet sophisticated. I believe it is a good start to becoming a designer that expand on her horizons. I'm hoping to add a flash slide show where it will link to pages with the images of my work. I'm getting pretty excited about it. :)