Business of Design
Pixel Pushing Predigiosity
Or … How Photoshop Changed My Life.
We can argue later about whether predigiosity is really a word (don’t think it is) but for now lets talk about life changing stuff. Few things can be called life-changing. Fewer still can claim to have changed the world as we know it. Things like automobiles, airplanes, the telephone, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups come to mind (yeah ok, that last one’s a stretch, but its close). Photoshop falls into both categories but maybe not in the way you think. While it may not have changed your life per se, it has changed the way you view the images of life whether you realize it or not. You may have never made one single click inside its considerably powerful interface, but you view its effects every single day, and as a result you frequently view an altered reality. Photoshop has changed everyone’s life, their world, or, at the very least, some degree of perception of that world.
For the artist/photographer (like me), it has also changed my professional life and my personal enjoyment in ways I could not have predicted. As a teenager with a budding art talent pushing to set itself free, I also pursued photography as an outlet of artistic expression and creativity. With no money or place to have a darkroom, I had to content myself with slides or dime store prints from my negatives, sending off to a lab only occasionally for that special enlargement and leaving the nuances of custom printing and retouching to pros. My talents eventually morphed into a career in graphic design, illustration and a continued interest in photography. Photoshop is the most important program in a whole suite of programs that has completely changed my professional life. Not a workday goes by that I don’t open Photoshop for some reason or another. It has put money in my pocket, food on my table and clothes on my back. It has also afforded me hours of pleasure as a darkroom, the likes of which I could never have imagined as a teenager. It has become the retouching and illustration tool only imagined in science fiction only 20+ years ago when Photoshop was just a gleam in some programmer’s eye. So, there it is. Photoshop’s cool! ‘Nuf said. And on its twentieth birthday I’m more than happy to give it a little love.
Doodling Can Help Memory
Saw this today on Yahoo Health. Maybe this explains why when I draw or paint while watching a movie or listening to a book on tape I can later look at the drawing and remember where the story was at that point. Interesting. With more and more “senior moments” happening to me every day I think I’ll keep my drawing pad by the phone now.
Logo Design Resources
Wow! The title below speaks for itself. I’ve only just begun to go through this list.
Logo Of The Day
If you frequent graphic design blogs, you no doubt have heard of Jeff Fisher or Jacob Cass. Both award-winning designers with informative and inspirational blogs for the professional graphic designer. Well they’ve done it again with this cool site: Logo Of The Day – Logo Design Inspiration – Daily!. Take a look and maybe you’ll want to add it to your blog roll as I did.
Life Photo Archive on Google
Thanks to Imaging Insider for this bit of cool photographic news.
Press Release :: OVER 10 MILLION IMAGES FROM THE LIFE PHOTO ARCHIVE TO BE MADE AVAILABLE ON GOOGLE.
“The LIFE Photo Archive featured on Google will be among the largest professional photography collections on the Web and one of the largest scanning projects ever undertaken. Millions of images have been scanned and made available on Google Image Search today with all 10 million images to be available in the coming months.”
Over-Used Graphic Techniques
Thanks to Jacob Cass over at Just Creative Design for this well thought out post. Top 7 Most Overused Techniques and Elements In Graphic Design. Good choices and a valid point that these techniques are neither bad nor good. I would add to his list the “wet floor reflection”. I personally think hot, popular trends can be used judiciously as long as you endeavor to give them some sort of individuality or twist. Many of these techniques can be employed in a vast number of ways. And if you design for clients as I do, you may get requests for that particularly “hot” look. I look forward to the rest of Jacob’s 6-part series.
Redesigning the Stop Sign
Wait! I think I know this client. You too? Yeah I thought so.
Turning Slow Time Into Go Time
Good article from How Design online. Many of these freelance tips I’ve used and found effective.