CreativePro.Com Print Design & Layout

Scanning Around With Gene: Best in the West Graphics, 1970

GeneGable — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:50:00 -0700

In 1970 I was a freshman in high school. Although I wasn't aware of graphic design as an art form, I was beginning to notice the effect design had on me as a consumer. Book jackets, billboards, record-album covers, and magazines were an important part of my life. In a few more years I would begin to appreciate the talent they represented.

Best of the Blogs: Old School and New Skills

Editor in Chief — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:23:31 -0700

Typography

InDesign Magazine: Tip of the Week Archive

admin — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:05:34 -0600

We regularly update this compilation of the Tip-of-the-Week mailings from InDesign Magazine. To receive the tips in your email in-box, sign up here.

Make the Pasteboard Bigger

Best of the Blogs: August 1, 2011

Editor in Chief — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 02:31:01 -0600

Don't have time to read scores of blogs every day? Don't worry, I've done it for you, and picked out the best posts you shouldn't miss.

Typography

Cutting-Edge Conference for Print and Digital Publishing

Editor in Chief — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:25:20 -0700

The lengthy session list at the 2012 PEPCON print and ePublishing conference could be boiled down into one sentence: Attend this event or fall behind.

Seriously, just look at these session titles (which are only a sampling of the full list):

• InDesign to iPad and Android Apps
• Making Your Folio Come Alive: Embedding HTML and RSS
• XML for Print and Digital Publishing
• Stay on the Cutting Edge: Five Tools to Learn Now

Scanning Around With Gene: Colorful Produce Crate Labels

GeneGable — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:13:00 -0700

When railroads became a dominant form of transportation, and especially after the completion of the trans-continental railway in 1869, it was possible for farmers to ship their goods great distances. And with the advent of the refrigerated rail car, the concept of nearly year-round availability of produce became a reality.

Create a Table of Contents in InDesign

Editor in Chief — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:00:03 -0700

For many years, I made the tables of contents for my books manually. I would finish the book and then, one by one, I would open the file for each chapter and write down the name of the chapter, the name of the A Heads, and the page numbers for each. It averaged 200 entries for each book's table of contents (TOC). It was a tedious process, but manageable.

Make Text Look Like Chrome

Editor in Chief — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:15:50 -0700

Excerpted from InDesign FX on lynda.com.

A highly reflective chrome effect may look like it was tricky to create, but in reality, all you need is a simple gradient fill, using as few as three color stops to create a convincing chrome effect in InDesign.

Scanning Around With Gene: More on Children’s Safety

GeneGable — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:17:00 -0700

Last week, I looked at illustrations from a booklet on bicycle safety published in the early 1940s by the Police Safety Council. Because the booklet was intended to change behavior by frightening the readers, most of the kids in those drawings ended up badly hurt, crippled for life, or worse, very dead.

Free For All: Stock Photos, Social Media Profiles, and Calendar Templates

Editor in Chief — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 02:06:03 -0700

Explosions, Fire, and Fireworks Stock Photography
Let’s poke a little fun at the preposterous notion that the world will end on December 21st because a 5,000-year-old calendar allegedly expires on that date. How do we poke fun on Free for All? By giving away free stock photography, of course! Check out these 55 explosive year-starting and world-ending royalty free stock images I collected on Stock.XChang.

Scanning Around With Gene: The Dire Consequences of Careless Bike Riding

GeneGable — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:01:11 -0700

One of my most popular columns of recent times highlighted a safety booklet from the 1940s entitled “It’s Great to Be Alive.” If you didn’t catch that installment, you should take a look — it’s pretty funny how gruesome some of the safety warnings for kids were back then.

They're Fond of Design

Editor in Chief — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:41:37 -0700

The stereotypical student stretches out a too-short paper with wide margins and large type sizes. But this trio of graphic design students from the University of the West of England had so much material after working on a professional practice project, they made a zine with the extra material, which includes interviews with designers and artists who specialize in editorial design. It's entitled "Fond of Editorial Design," and although it began life as a printed piece, Issue 1 is now available digitally.

This Dress Code Will Inspire You

Editor in Chief — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:36:57 -0700

Andre Andreev and Dan Covert are the principles of Dress Code, a New York design agency. They began the company five years ago to "create work that wasn’t defined by a certain style or limited to any particular medium", and their subsequent projects certainly have been eclectic: motion graphics for MTV; a printed book for Macy's; websites for a fashion network and an organization addressing global poverty; and many others.

Scanning Around With Gene: A Visit to the Sunshine State

GeneGable — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:05:13 -0700

I’ve been to Florida a number of times, but always for business and only to the Miami and Orlando areas, which are small representations of a very large state. And I’ve never been to Disney World or any of the other Orlando attractions. So I can’t say I really know the state.

When Is a Dragon a Delightful Design?

Editor in Chief — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:02:56 -0700

Louis Fishauf, Canadian designer and illustrator par excellence, has created two stamps for Canada Post. His original inspiration was this traditional Chinese papercut:

The final stamp looks like this:

A second Year of the Dragon stamp incorporates this painting by Charles Vinh:

Here's the final stamp:

James Tan was responsible for the calligraphy.