DTG News and Else
DT&G:   Vol. 17, Number 11,   November, 2007   ~   The eZine for Design, Typography, & Graphics   (since 1990)  

DT&G Newsletter for Novemberpumpkin Pie

Welcome new subscribers & Friends

Before getting into this month's content, I wanted to send a special welcome to all those who have subscribed or become active in the Design Center.

Congratulations Winners for November

WINNERS: This month's contributors will win a free copy of Deke McClelland's latest training masterpiece Adobe Photoshop CS3 One-on-One, or any of our other cool prizes!
E.H. from Sedona, AZ
J.D. from Santa Barbara, CA
D.I. fromr Washington, DC
L.S. from Monroe, WI
B.C. from Martin, TN

Here comes November and December

Welcome. It's the beginnings of the holiday season... Type Shirts Aside from all this month's great content, I'd like to send you one of my favorites from the Design Bookshelf "Editors Choice" rack. I'll be selecting names all through November from the submissions on "The Design Survey" and "Holiday Promotions." and maybe I'll pick your name!

DTGees, TypeTees, mousepads & Mugs

Of course you don't have to be a winner to own a Fonts Festival collectable Tee or Mug. Remember you can purchase these and help support the Design Center all at the same time! Fonts Fest Tees here... DTGees: Type & Design Tees here

Holiday Gift Idea using Painter: Photo to Woodcut

Painter is one of the premier natural medial programs, and ideal for converting that coveted vacation shot to a graphic work of art -- follow along as award-winning fine artist, designer and educator Cher Threinen-Pendarvis shows you how noted artist John Derry created his Pagoda Woodcut

MAJOR EVENT: Icograda World Design Congress with Maggie Macnab

Special guest author and designer, Maggie Macnab reports on the meeting of the Design World minds at the 2007 Icograda World Design Congress in La Habana, Cuba. Over 600 designers, teachers and related professionals gathered from 57 countries to discuss the current state of design ... Icograda World Design Congress

Promotional ideas of the season

We're back again with more ideas on using scratch pads for your seasonal promotion -- this time I've included templates, layouts and even a starter kit. (New templates in the Publishers Warehouse!) If you haven't put your promo into motion yet, perhaps you should ask What's a little padding between friends?

The Padding Magic Padding Press

When you read the padding press articles and instructions here, you might be asking yourself how to get a padding press. Hugh Lyman, engineer and inventor contacted me to show me his new padding press design -- and this is a knock-out -- the one you need is the Padding Magic Padding Press

New Vintage Type - Classic Fonts for the Digital Age

a spectacular new book -- introduces you to the beauty and utility of fonts from the past! From the Victorian Age, to Woodtype, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, and even the Eccentric movement you'll find them all in New Vintage Type

Artlandia SymmetryShop for very cool surface design

Our friends out at Artlandia have released the all new SymmetryShop Photoshop plug-in for pattern design, and all types of surface designs, including tilings, textile and wallpaper designs, optical patterns, web page backgrounds, and patterns for other applications. The new version is immediately available for Mac and Windows users from Photoshop 7 and up!

Photoshop Saving Photos: Dark, Under Exposed

Low lighting, camera movement, and other woes spoil the photo. Sometimes a photo just looks too dark to save. Sometimes it just can't be saved. But before trashing the photo, here are a number of exercises that show some easy tricks you can employ to save underexposed photos

Photoshop Degrading Color for Hand Tint Look

A Photoshop 911 reader asks how a certain 'tinted' look was achieved in some sample photos... these are near grayscale with muted color. We knew we could accomplish the look by pulling an adjustment layer called the Gradient Map

Photoshop's "Match Color"

A Photoshop 911 reader asks how the "Match Color" function works to save two of his photos. Match Color uses the color map from one photo to change another -- and it works great -- sometimes. But when it doesn't, you have to look for other solutions. Matching Color

Photoshop Collage Mosaic: One Photo to Many

Several readers have asked about breaking apart a single photo so it looks like a collection of snap shots. There are actually a number of ways to do this from the quick and easy "SLICE" method, to the more difficult and time consuming "random" method - we think makes a much better looking Photo Collage Mosaic

Photographically Correct Film Simulator Effects for Photoshop

Alien Skin is back with an all new features list for Exposure 2 Film Stock Simulator! This new effects package plug-in features more than 300 presets for film simulation and a full range of photo lab and darkroom effects... Exposure 2 for Photoshop and compatibles

Business: Rise of the Designer / Copywriter

Marketing-savvy designers who complement their design service with copywriting can expect more lucrative projects and plenty of on-going work. Marketing consultant Shaun Crowley looks at a few copywriting designers who no longer tell their clients "I'm a designer not a writer" -- see Rise of the Designer / Copywriter

Top Level Domains

When you're starting to craft a website these days you have to hit the URL running -- even before you've started the planning and coding process. In this essay, Tim Clukey of the Plattsburgh State University Communications Department, shares these insights into domains on the web. Taking it to the Top: A Short Survey of Top Level Domain Options

Software Review: Klix saved my Photos from doom

How much are your digital photos worth to you? Priceless? An old favorite of George's is resurrected under a new name and new company -- with a Mac OS X version that actually saves your photos from corrupted digital camera media... Klix (Image Recovery)

Tips for Making Software Available for Download

The size of a file has a crucial effect on the amount of time a user needs to download it. Software sales, when counting on downloads to increase in quantity, are influenced by this factor. Adriana Iordan reveals vital information Tips for Making Software Available for Download

Insights into the Designing Life

Congratulations to this month's winning designers who shared their professional insights with DTG, and anyone considering going into the design biz. (See: Design Pro / Freelancer Survey)

From trying to teach "Design is not pretty pictures... " to dealing with "Bureaucracy" ... and "there are times i'd rather go back to making boxes", this month's designers offer a fascinating look into the Designing Life

Website of the Month: WalletTest.com

I just had to pass this one along -- if you find a wallet, what do you do? Well according to WalletTest.com, 74% will return it. I thought that was pretty cool. They capture the wallet "pick-up" on hidden camera, and you can watch. www.wallettest.com
here's the video:

Self improvement: How to Talk Like a Human Being

can we stop sounding like corporations, and begin to talk like human beings?

Field Trip: Guy Parsons is quite a guy

Guy has responded to forum posts a number of times, and we've seen his boat at the loading dock before. Finally, I took a look -- he's got some pretty nice work at guyparsons.com

Logos lost

Thanks to Gawain, frequent Design Cafe poster, here's a link for those of you who sometimes need to reproduce corporate logos in publications. Use with permission, though: Try www.allthelogos.com

Your kids are tomorrow's directors

My brother, Joe Showker, passed along this link which shows just one of the amazing things the kids are doing at our local high school. One talented student won Apple's "Insomnia" contest with his TSA video project. (Apple specifies the movie has to be produced in 24 hours.) My hat is off to all students involved in TSA! (Technology Students Association ... Here's the one that won Josh a national award

&ELSE... freebies and cool stuff

This month's &Else includes: Tips for Making Software Downloadable * Unique Photoshop Brush Sets * Photo collage made easy * Create a Watercolor from a Photo * Photo viewer in your pocket * WYSIWYG website creation tool * Free seamless backgrounds * and a dozen others! News, Reviews &Else!

Publishers Warehouse Gifts Site Open

Well, the folks at the Publishers Warehouse have officially opened the DTG "Gifts for You" ... so, get the keys to the Loading Dock address, and join the fun downloading all you can handle from years of holiday downloads. In the Publishers Warehouse

November and the end of 2007

As we head toward the holidays, don't forget to pass along your favorite fonts, type and typography tricks or holiday promotion ideas... DTG readers want to hear YOUR stories!
NOTE Send us your holiday designs or promotion ideas and WIN!

And, once again you've already wasted a perfectly good hour reading the DTG newsletter. Hopefully all is not wasted and you've gained at least one helpful tidbit of info

Thanks for reading...

Fred Showker
Editor / Publisher, DT&G Magazine

A Thought for November...

"Society prefers somnambulism
    to awareness."
          ~ Marshall McLuhan

PS: if you've made it this far, excellent! The holiday season opens today, so the folks at the Publishers Warehouse have set up the Loading Dock season's GIFT package, and changed the address to "holidays" ... so, just add the word holidays after the last slash in www.graphic-design.com/

WHO IS Fred Showker?

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Participate in your Design Center

Lots of fun and information for all... don't forget, any community is only as good as the participation of its members. We invite your tips, tricks, comments, suggestions and camaraderie.