Running the Numbers

My Friend and very talented Artist/Teacher Keith Rosko sent me this link. This is alarming and very creative at the same time. An American Self-Portrait is what it is called and how true it is.

Don't Forget about the contest that I posted on Monday!

Contest Time is Here!

OK are you ready for some creativity? The rules are basic and as follows: My blog is all about graphic tips. I would like you to create a new header for my blog that illustrates Graphic Tips. I cover graphic design, web design, design inspiration, photography, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, ect. You will have full design options on this, the only requirements will be the size and file type.

image size
760 px by 120 px
RGB
72 DPI
File format JPEG

Just create a header that visually communicates Graphic Tips, make it fun, make it serious, make it what ever you think looks and feels like Graphic Tips. The Photo of me is not needed, as in my current header. You choose the art, images, colors, the whole shebang.

I will be awarding several prizes as show below. Each winners header will also be used on my blog and your name and what place you came in will be listed.

Thank you to Adobe for the generous donation of prizes.

Grand Prize
Adobe CS3 Design Premium Suite

Second Place
Adobe Sweat Shirt

Third Place
Adobe T-Shirt and a Duffle Bag

Fourth Place
Adobe T-Shirt

Fifth Place
The Best of Photoshop User the 10th year DVD.

I'll be the judging all the entries and picking the winner.

I'll base my final judgement on a lot of factors, like creativity, color, layout, etc. Every one should have a fair shoot at this, remember anyone can enter, students from the local high schools, college and proffesionals. All you need to do is:
Where to put your art work?

You upload your artwork to your Flickr account and post in the pool that I created (GraphicTips) for it and make a text link to it via the comments. If you don't have a Flickr account you can join for free. Becoming part of the pool is easy just click join on the right. If you do it like that I can follow all new submissions by RSS.
Join via Flickr

* Create your masterpiece in these dimension 760px wide and 120px high
* If don't have a Flickr account already sign up for one it's free.
* Become a member of the GraphicTips group (http://www.flickr.com/groups/graphictips/) by going the group and click join this group? on the right.
* Upload it to your Flickr account and place it in the pool "GraphicTips"
* Don't forget to set the content type of your poster to "other - art, illustration, CGI, etc." and NOT as a photo as wanted by the Flickr guidelines

How do I share a photo with a group?

Easy! If you're a member of the group, add your photo to the group pool. (If not, join the group, because only group members can contribute to the group pool.)

The easiest way add a photo to a group is to go to the photo's page and click the "Send to Group" button between the photo title and the photo. Then choose the group you want to send it to, and you're done!

Don't forget to add your entry to the Flickr group/pool. It is very easy to do so: just go to your picture and above it you'll see the second item “send to group”. When you click on it it will load the groups you are part of. Just look for “GraphicTips” and select it. That’s all, it should now be in the group/pool.

Update II:Don't also forget to set the content type of your poster to "other - art, illustration, CGI, etc." and NOT as a photo as wanted by the Flickr guidelines. If you already uploaded it you can change it under the organize menu and go to the poster (choose recent uploads), double click the thumb of the poster and in the popup window choose filter and select "other - art, illustration, CGI, etc."
Further info:

* More than one entry is ok
* Entry must be submitted by Friday May 31st

Good Luck and may the force be with you. Have fun and enjoy.

Contest Will be Posted Monday!

I am putting the finishing touches on the contest requirements and organizing all the prizes. I will have the contest posted on Monday the 28th of April.

Genesis Awards

At last nights Genesis Awards fun was had by all! Friends, food and good competition. It was a wonderful evening and the CAST Genesis committee did a fantastic job with everything.

Security Mutual's Communications Department went home with 2 First Place Awards. We took first place in the Meeting Promotions for the 2007 President's Cabinet Promotions. We also took First Place in the Digital Art category for our 2007 Holiday Communications Card. John Gal and Brandon Cardone were on hand to help carry the awards home. Congratulations to them and the rest of our staff.

Eyedeas Design (John Gal and I) Entered Three categories, Overall Identity (logo letterhead), Signs and Displays, and Digital Photo Retouch. Well we won First place with all three entries.

Genesis 18 Tonight!

Tonight is the 18th Annual Genesis Awards. This is a night we all look forward to. Every year people from the communications field come together for a night of fun food and of course competition. Everything from Annual Reports, Posters, Newspaper Ads, TV Commercials, MultiMedia campaigns, and much much more are on display at the Terra Cotta for all to see. The talent is drawn from Southern N.Y. and Northern P.A. for this event, and awards are to be given out. The best of the best will be showing their creativity. I will let you know how I do and how we do at SML.

The Dreaded Design Lull - 9 Ways to Get Out of a Slump

Here are some simple things that you might not think of when it comes to "Designers Block" or when you are in a rut. I thought these were good ideas to look at and maybe even give them a try.

Contest Time is Aproching!

Well after some thought and some searching for a good prize, I am just about ready to launch my first Blog Design Contest! Stay tuned for my first contest and what I have in store for later this week.

Johnny Lee: Wii Remote

Johnny Lee is a Researcher that figured out how to take Adobe Photoshop, a Wii remote and do some amazing things. I picked this up from John Nack's blog yesterday and just thought that it was too cool. Take a look here.

7 Incredibly Useful Tools for Evaluating a Web Design

An effective web design is one in which your users are able to find information quickly and in a logical fashion.

Do they visit the content you want them to visit? Are they looking in the right places of your web page? Are you able to keep your user’s attention, or do they just leave quickly?

Being educated about your user is the biggest battle, so why not get as much of an advantage as possible. Visit these great tips and see how you can enhance your users experience.

Gregory Heisler Photographer

Here is a Photographer that caught my eye. He has some nice stuff, very simple. See it for your self here.

One Year and Still Going Strong!

First of all a big thank you to all who visit my blog. I have been running the blog for one year today. I have learned a lot in this year of keeping my blog. I love doing it, and I have found and seen more new and creative ideas then I have if I wasn't doing this. Also that some of my visitors are giving some great feed back and contributing some wonderful content.

I think that it is time for a contest of some sort, and I will have to look into it and let you know. Thank you again for a great year of my blog and please let me know if you have any ideas for content or any feedback. I also hope to get back to doing more video tutorials. Here is to the next year of Graphic Tips!

16 Image Editing Tutorials

Here are some simple to more advanced effects that you can try with photos. It just goes to show you that no matter how well you might think you know image editing, there is still much to learn and or do. People imaginations are limitless. Check them out here.

Winners of the $20,000 Adobe Design Challenge Announced

Well they announced the winners of the Adobe Design Challenge. I had a post on this contest some time ago when they opened the challenge. Photoshop and After Effects were the main ingredients for this recipe. The entries were very creative and fun, "See Whats Possible"

For more details on the contest itself check out John Nack's blog and see the winners here.

Web Designer Wall

A wall of design ideas, web trends, and tutorials. This site is not only very colorful, but full of many tips, tutorials, inspiration and many other cool things. This is a fun and fresh way to get more ideas, see the site here.

Show Me Your Badge

There was a time when many professions, from elevator operator to society reporter, came with a badge. Gene Gable takes a look back at badge design and wonders what themes might emerge if graphic designers were to revive this lost art. The typography is wonderful, check these great designs out here.

Adobe TV

Adobe Launched Adobe TV yesterday! This is a site packed full of anything CS3 suite related, ALL flash video tutorials and shows that will have you saying "wow what should I watch next?" You can subscribe to these different shows just like you can a Pod Cast. Now I have a fast connection and I can get these very quickly and easily. But it seems that with the flash video format they should be pretty quick on even slightly slower connections.

They are even hosting some other areas like ABC, Food Network, MTV, Weather Channel, MyHomeIdeas and much much more.

Field Trip

Last night I held my advanced class from BCC at Richard Anderson's Photo Studio. We learned how a shot was set up right from the beginning. Rich was great with explaining every thing and how he was putting the shot together. He told a few nice stories from shot and set ups that he has done. Students seemed to get a lot out of it and it was a great evening. Many questions were asked and he had answers.

Thank you to Richard and my lovely wife who graciously volunteered to be our model.

Photography, Photoshop and Video Workshops

Here is a nice little Photography site that has some good ideas and some video Workshops

Check it out here.

The Digital Photo To DVD Converter

This is the compact recorder that effortlessly copies photographs from your digital cameras memory card directly onto a CD for playback on a DVD player without using a dedicated computer.

I know that my mother n law would love this , she is asking me to clean off her numerous memory cards of to my computer and then to a CD or DVD so that she can take more pictures.

While looking at all of this and finding other devices out there I went looking for the Epson Picture Mate, which my Mother in law has the older model and LOVES it! Well they now make one with a CD burner built right in.

For the person that likes to take photos and get prints instantly or manage you images these area great options.

Illustrator Pucker and Bloat Effect and More

Veerle's Blog has a great easy tutorial in Illustrator on how to create custom shapes with the Pucker and Bloat effects in Adobe Illustrator. These are some great simple shapes that some one might not of ever thought of creating is such a way. Check it out for your self right here.

Sneak peak look at Photoshop CS4

Rod Harlan filmed a segment from the Photoshop World Keynote where Adobe showed a couple of sneak peaks at the next version of Photoshop.
Check out Rod's movie here

Don't worry I don't see Photoshop CS4 coming out this year but it never hurts to see or know what might be coming down the pike.

Creating Silhouettes in Adobe Illustrator

This tutorial will demonstrate how to create a vector silhouette from a photo using Photoshop plus Illustrator's Live Trace tool. Knowledge of Photoshop channels will help you work through the steps, but is not required.

Check it out at Layers.

Adobe Lightroom 2.0

Adobe has announced the beta 64-bit-native Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 has been posted to Adobe Labs. Everyone is free to download the beta build and try it for 30 days, while customers of Lightroom 1.x are free to use it for the duration of the beta program. (This build expires Aug. 31.)

The National Association of Photoshop Professionals NAPP has posted a Lightroom 2.0 learning center. Done by Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski , it is packed full of video tutorials and other great things to get you started in the newest version.

The 960 Grid System

The 960 Grid System is an effort to streamline web development workflow by providing commonly used dimensions, based on a width of 960 pixels. There are two variants: 12 and 16 columns, which can be used separately or in tandem. Look at here.