Rolling On the Floor Lauging Out Loud vector repeating pattern available for download here
Showing posts with label designer resources. Show all posts
Showing posts with label designer resources. Show all posts
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I woke up to great news today. As of today, my first font, MKF Tiler is now available for download at dafont.com. I guess dafont.com just took a while to approve the typeface and in fact didn't reject it at all. Please download it there instead of mediafire.
Thanks dafont.com
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Thanks dafont.com
I first came across mediafire through May Tobias-Papa, an illustrator who did the artwork for the "eensy, weensy wonderfuls" feature on this months Baby Magazine. I was already on the hunt for a file storage service for a while before and I was simply amazed at what mediafire offered. It is just perfect for my needs. Where else can you get unlimited storage for files less than 100mB each with unlimited uploads and downloads as well as bandwidth for a free account. If that wasn't enough, the Media Pro account offers a much larger file size limit of 10gB, SSL encryption, Advanced stats, priority support and redundant backups. You can also Hot link to files from your own website without going to mediafire.com. The interface is also really simple that you need no time to learn to use it. Too good to be true? You better believe it.
I really think every designer should try their hand in type design at least once. What I mean is, what serious designer doesn't have a fascination for type? I just recently started dabbling in typographic design and was so eager to finish my first typeface so I decide to do a very simple one. So here is version 1 of MKF Tiler, my very first display typeface, now available for download here. (I hosted it in mediafire.com since dafont.com wont accept it... huhuhu) It has very few glyphs due to limited options in the design to keep with the original idea inspired by tiles. Nevertheless, I'm proud of my first typeface and I hope it finds it's way to many designs. Development is still on-going so please check back on this space for updates.By the way, since this is a very simple one, I refuse to believe that nobody has thought of these glyphs before. If you ever know of other typeface with similar design, give me a heads up so I can give credit where it's due. Also, if you know of any sites where I can submit this typeface, I'd appreciate it if you can help me spread the love by giving me the URL. Thanks and enjoy MKF Tiler.
This months Graphikapinoy- Robert Alejandro
- Electrolychee
- Avid Liongoren
- Heavyhitterz:Manila
Graphikapinoy is a free downloadable pdf magazine in support of the Filipino creatives. A convergence of best talents from all aspects of the design industry whose works shall be showcased in every issue.
That means colorblind for the rest of us. And my monitor won't be too since I got myself this baby. I had been pining for one of these ever since I saw it in action at the Power Mac center's seminar on Color Management for Photographers (read here). Although what I saw in that seminar was this guys younger (read: sleeker, newer, more expensive) brother, I am nonetheless happy with my new pet.
Now, why do I need this? Well, I work with a lot of images for the magazines I work on and I have to make sure that what I see in my screen is, at least, in close color proximity to what it will look like on paper. That is called monitor calibration. The Spyder also comes in handy whenever I have some digital photos that I want to get printed. Imagine the disappointment I get whenever I edit some pictures and have them digitally printed only to have our faces printed a little too yellow... It was THAT bad.
The Spyder Pro is the leading monitor calibration tool. It is named like so because it looks like a spider hanging in front of the monitor. Cute...
Thanks to Aries for selling me this wonderful thing. It was great doing business with you. Now, how much are you charging for that PrintFi-Whoops! My spider sense is tingling... time for another calibration.
Being a self-taught designer has one major disadvantage. It is that gnawing, churning feeling in your gut that makes you wonder if you're doing anything right at all. That ever present wondering was the primary reason I elected to put myself through PCCI 's (the Philippine Center for Creative Imaging) two-day training workshop on Publications Design. The other reason being that no great designer is born by parthenogenesis, I wanted to have someone I can refer to as my sensei and gain the confidence of having learned from one. I spent the last 2 days with eye-opening lessons, mind-rocking design decisions on our exercises and heart-pounding critiquing session. At the end of it all, I slept like a log in a storm. Spent. Satisfied. Yet hungry for more. You run a meaty workshop, Sensei...These happy shiny people were the ones I walked along the path with. From far left is Tina, Jazz, Sir Ige, JL and yours truly. Photo by PCCI's own Sir Jun Miranda. (Pardon my crappy scanning, i will upload a better one soon)
Philippine Center for Creative Imaging (PCCI), the country's premier digital arts training center, is operated by industry-recognized practitioners of leading applications in print, web and multimedia. We offer world-class training in Adobe, Apple and Corel products.
Philippine Center for Creative Imaging (PCCI)
2nd Floor, Kodak Building, 2247 Chino Roces Ave.
(formerly Pasong Tamo), Makati City, Philippines
TEL +63 (2) 759-3087 | FAX +63 (2) 892-5281
EMAIL: inquiry@pcci.com.ph
Graphikapinoy's maiden issue went out into the cloud yesterday and I downloaded it as soon as I got the SMS from Mon (the brains behind GPM) announcing the fact. I was already excited about this release weeks ago when I learned that it will feature Inksurge, Dan Matutina, and Camille del Rosario. All of whom are so brilliantly talented and inspiring to say the least. I, personally, have been a fan of these guys for quite sometime now. Getting an insight on how the gears in their heads work is a real treat for me.Kudos Graphikapinoy for helping raise awareness for the flourishing Filipino design scene. Can't wait for the next release.
Graphikapinoy is a free downloadable pdf magazine in support of the Filipino creatives. A convergence of best talents from all aspects of the design industry whose works shall be showcased in every issue.
I am a big fan of free stuff. Especially if its really good free stuff. I have already featured some in past entries and I wanted to kick myself for not posting this gem sooner. Jodie Coston's lessons over at morguefile.com is the perfect starter guide to newbie digital photographers. As a "newb" myself, who didn't even know what aperture means. I found Coston's lessons to be novice friendly and considerate of her readers skill level, practically breaking down each "Photographese" term into plain old English. The assignments at the end of each lesson also challenges the reader/student into applying her lessons in real world settings. There is also a discussion for each lessons. Even though this had been online three years ago, there are still a lot of new readers/students who discuss the lessons and critique each others assignments. Perfect for the budding digital photographer... at least for the cheap ones like me. Seriously, you can use this as a crash course and then pursue more serious training through real seminar workshops. More of that in the coming weeks. Now, if only i could find my assignment photos when I tried Jodie's lessons last year...
Indesignsecrets.com is dubbed as "...your one-stop shop for all things InDesign" and that is an accurate way to describe it. Aside from a few people I know that still can't let go of their Pagemakers and QuarkXpresses, Indesign seem to have made its way into becoming every layout artists' preferred layout tool. And with good reasons. It is by far the most feature-packed, intuitive, and most powerful page layout tool in the market today. Being such, there are a lot of things a rookie like me need to learn about this gem and Indesignsecrets.com really saved me a lot of time in getting my self acquainted with the juicy stuff.
Indesignsecrets.com is the companion web site for the Indesign secrets podcast hosted by David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepcion, two of THE world’s top InDesign gurus. The credentials on these guys are stellar but interestingly enough, Blatner and Concepcion make learning Indesign fun through their light banter and comic exchange of tips and techniques.
Indesignsecrets.com is also home to the Indesigner video podcast which showcases the power of InDesign to automate repetitive tasks, improve productivity and build unprecedented flexibility into the design process. Hosted by Michael Murphy, a veteran art director and Adobe Certified Expert for Indesign CS2 who has written for InDesign Magazine and presented before the New York and Milwuakee InDesign User Groups.
I suggest subscribing to Indesign Secrets and The InDesigner podcasts through iTunes. They're free anyway.
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Indesignsecrets.com is the companion web site for the Indesign secrets podcast hosted by David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepcion, two of THE world’s top InDesign gurus. The credentials on these guys are stellar but interestingly enough, Blatner and Concepcion make learning Indesign fun through their light banter and comic exchange of tips and techniques.
Indesignsecrets.com is also home to the Indesigner video podcast which showcases the power of InDesign to automate repetitive tasks, improve productivity and build unprecedented flexibility into the design process. Hosted by Michael Murphy, a veteran art director and Adobe Certified Expert for Indesign CS2 who has written for InDesign Magazine and presented before the New York and Milwuakee InDesign User Groups.I suggest subscribing to Indesign Secrets and The InDesigner podcasts through iTunes. They're free anyway.
I can never stress enough the importance of a good network for a designer. In this case, ANYONE in ANY creative field. A good network shares its knowledge of the industry with each other and helps the rookies "learn the ropes" and run along with the big boys (or girls or people, if you prefer to be politically correct). A rich creative network is also a breeding round for new ideas and gives new direction in design. One such network is The Behance Network.According to them:
The Behance Network is a platform for creative portfolios, projects and collaborations.
Represent your work.
Build a dynamic portfolio of your latest projects, open to all or shared selectively.
Connect and collaborate in "circles."
Join or create groups of creative professionals, gathered around interests, to share content and ideas.
Discover job opportunities.
Behance's GigList features great work opportunities for creative professionals. Creative industry leaders are also able to mine the network for talent.
Share tips and industry knowledge.
Behance's Tip Exchange is a lively exchange of insights and helpful resources, all categorized and searchable.
Access resources that boost productivity.
The Behance ThinkTank features knowledge, interviews, and products for the creative professional community.
Some may argue that the best network for us local designers (the author resides in the Philippines) is a local network who understands local culture. I agree to some extent but (I believe) it is also important for us to be in touch with our counterparts from all over the world and take note of the global industry trends that affect our own. We exist in a global industry and good design is not subjective to any local culture. It is universal.
Many thanks to fretwire84 for letting me in on this "secret society" of creative people. Even if some of the stuff in my portfolio was already posted in this blog, please do take time to browse and appreciate our works if you find the time.
Here's one tool I've been using for a while that needs special mentioning. When I first heard about del.icio.us, I thought it was a godsend. It was what I have been praying for since I first met the internet. Believe it or not, I used to type all my bookmarks in a text file that I save in an email I send to myself so I can access them anywhere. Something I find funny now that del.icio.us is around. As if having your bookmarks available to you from anywhere is not enough, del.icio.us introduces "social bookmarking" (I will not define what this means 'coz thats what wikipedia is for) making related information much more easier to access with more peers to share bookmarks with. Although far from being a "designers resource" I usually take advantage of the social bookmarking feature to stalk.. err... I mean follow up and research on graphic design trends or some other news bits that I can learn new things from. Now if there was something like this designed specially for creatives... share please...
I am usually a three-font designer. Most of what I do uses either a type from the Helvetica or Garamond font families or a cursive script type font and I am happy about these type faces that I consider them the everlasting ones. There are some instances, though, that I think there is something missing in my visual equation that my usual font ingredients somehow lacks (gasp). On these instances I seek assistance from dafont.com.From fonts adapted from pop culture like bands, TV shows and movies to iconic dingbats, dafont.com's database of around 7500 fonts are available for download. More fonts are added every week. You can also test drive any particular font you fancy with its custom preview feature. And the best part, It's FREE. Don't get me wrong though, with almost 7500 choices, nothing is going to take the place of my everlasting ones.
Unless you we're living under a rock for the past year, you would know that podcasting had become a phenomenon of sorts. It sort of became the new blog... and in a lot of ways that is accurate. For the benefit of those who have no idea what a podcast is, Wikipedia defines a podcast as:
A podcast is a digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. A podcast is a specific type of webcast which, like 'radio', can mean either the content itself or the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also termed podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.
I have about 30 podcast subscriptions. And I make it a point that I listen to the latest episode as soon as it is available. Most of my podcast subscriptions are design related. For the main reason that I believe that there is yet a lot of things I need to know about the career I chose for myself. Adam Hay, the author of Rookie Designer, has done a good job of bringing the most important issues that concerns us rookies into the clear. I have been listening to RD for over a year now and have learned a lot about the business of designing and the common mistakes that we, rookies, often commit. Although there are some software tips on the podcast, this is not a venue for learning a particular software. There are other podcasts for that in future posts. In the meantime, take my advice and subscribe to Rookie Designer now.
I use iTunes to manage my podcast subscriptions. I believe it to be the best aggregator available. Download iTunes from the apple website. Available for both Macs and PCs.
At the moment I am typing this, I had barely warmed my seat. I am literally fresh out of Power Mac Center's FREE Seminar on Color Management for Photographers... There was only about 10 of us who came to listen to Digital Photographer Philippines' Nino Carandang as he illustrates the finer points of being Obsessive Compulsive about monitor and printer calibration. I learned a lot, especially on loving my photos more. I only wish there were more of us participants so we could have put more questions to light.
One of the many points he raised that struck me on a personal level is remembering that photography doesn't end in getting the photo posted online. A photographs journey is ultimately realized on the print level. Sad to say, I am guilty of such sin. I have denied my photos the right to getting printed. I believe it stems out from the fear that It will not be printed the way I wanted it to.. or maybe the realization that I may not have what it takes. But I refuse to let that fear cripple me. I will get better... I will bring my photos into printed glory... Time to save up for that Printfix Pro and Spyder Pro...
Special thanks to Pinoy Mac Lovers for posting the seminar schedule in time for me to make some magic with my schedule. I am sure glad I stumbled on your blog.
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One of the many points he raised that struck me on a personal level is remembering that photography doesn't end in getting the photo posted online. A photographs journey is ultimately realized on the print level. Sad to say, I am guilty of such sin. I have denied my photos the right to getting printed. I believe it stems out from the fear that It will not be printed the way I wanted it to.. or maybe the realization that I may not have what it takes. But I refuse to let that fear cripple me. I will get better... I will bring my photos into printed glory... Time to save up for that Printfix Pro and Spyder Pro...
Special thanks to Pinoy Mac Lovers for posting the seminar schedule in time for me to make some magic with my schedule. I am sure glad I stumbled on your blog.
I'm on a roll... It's a very rare situation indeed that I can blog for more than three consecutive days. I thought I was taking a break tonight but I decided to start something with todays blog. As a designer, I always appreciate the stuff that is available to me online. From tutorials to seminars, designer tools, stock photo resources, podcasts and designers blogs... I am really glad I know where to go whenever I need a little help.
One of the Designer resource I frequently visit is Stock.Xchng, the leading FREE stock photo site! I have been a member of stock.xchange for a few years now. I use the site to download high resolution images that I use mainly for comps. After downloading quite a number of stock photos, I have, since November 2006, started contributing some photos myself. Stock.Xchng maintains a level of quality that they screen every photo submission. Being a newbie photographer, I have only 4 approved images in my profile. (sigh) But that will change soon... I do believe I'm getting better at it. Besides they were downloaded over 300 times already.
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One of the Designer resource I frequently visit is Stock.Xchng, the leading FREE stock photo site! I have been a member of stock.xchange for a few years now. I use the site to download high resolution images that I use mainly for comps. After downloading quite a number of stock photos, I have, since November 2006, started contributing some photos myself. Stock.Xchng maintains a level of quality that they screen every photo submission. Being a newbie photographer, I have only 4 approved images in my profile. (sigh) But that will change soon... I do believe I'm getting better at it. Besides they were downloaded over 300 times already.
