DTG News and Else
DT&G:   Vol. 18, Number 11,   November, 2008   ~   The eZine for Design, Typography, & Graphics   (since 1990)  

November:

The Holiday season opens with a bang, watch for very cool uploads to the Publishers' Warehouse, and the opening of the DTG Holiday Gift to our readers! (will happen around mid-month, before Thanksgiving.)

What's Here:

Designing the Holidays

The holidays are coming, and once again we'll be awarding prizes for your favorite holiday promotion ideas, cards, graphics, and gifts. If you're designing a holiday promo for your client, we'd like to look over your shoulder. You can win some pretty swell prizes, just for participating... Post it here

DTG Holiday Gifts for YOU

The Publishers' Warehouse has opened the DTG holiday gifts salon, replacing the loading dock this month, and it will be open through December with oodles of downloads for you - or for you to use. Our gift this year features a cut-n-paste holiday ornament with the international language greetings featured in our Graphic Ideas column. An Illustrator vector file is included for you to customize and send to YOUR clients, friends and family. Credit DTG Magazine if you so wish! Holiday Scripts

Graphic ideas for the Holidays

Are you finding yourself a little stretched for time? To get the creative juices flowing, and the projects delivered on time, all you really need is a little script, a little clip art, and a little imagination. Generate some stand-out promotional greetings with these Graphic ideas for the Holidays

Paper Engineering: Design, Cut, Fold, POP

Discover the world of Paper Engineering - design, cut, fold, assemble and pop it up into an amazing statement ... here are videos, books and instructional aids to take you from 2-D paper to 3-D WOW! Design cards that Slide, Dangle, Move, flip and pop! 3D Projects that will deliver your message and become Treasures - illustrating Paper Engineering: also includes some very cool videos ... Design, Cut, Fold, POP

Photoshop Madness... awesome downloads

Getting ready for the holidays! In this edition we discover 23 Awesome Examples of Design as a Force For Good * Photoshop Masters: 10 digital Artists you should know * Christmas Accent Photoshop Brushes * T-Shirt art * Graphic design pool * Photoshop Tutorial: Create a Custom Mac OSX Style Ring Binder * Photoshop Tutorial: Adding Light Streaks To A Photo * Free stuff like brushes and vector graphics and more! You just haven't got it until you get Photoshop Madness

Your Design Center friends

How do we do it? We get by with a little help from our friends. And, our friends are your friends because they help make DTG and the Design Center possible. Special thanks goes out to these supporters who have made generous contributions to bringing high-quality, low noise content...
* CreativePublic graphic design and Web design business guide; with resources such as: forms, contracts, pricing guides, manuals, policies and more!
* PS Print, fast turnaround and very competitive prices on posters, banners, inlays, postcards and other printing needs.
* LogoBee.com, the award winning, custom logo design and graphic design firm with professional web solutions for all types of businesses.
Visit our supporters and say 'Thank You' for supporting DTG!

Why Bad Spending Happens To Good People

Everyone needs good spending habits -- particularly as the economy slows down. In today's over stimulated, over saturated world it's even more important to develop a sharp awareness to where each dollar goes. Noted author Nick Tassler explains some tips to live by and Why Bad Spending Happens To Good People

Start a business now??? Some say yes

These tough economic times have many Americans looking for work -- and looking for more ways to make ends meet. Authors Ed Hess and Charles Goetz have some advice you might not expect to hear right now: Start your own business! The $tart-Up $olution

Design: Elements of Shock

These days, some of the imagery used in advertising leverages human nature to drive home the point. This essay by Alla Babin of Bizi Marketing Solutions builds an in-depth case in favor of -- or against -- the use of certain basic and taboo human needs in advertising. We all know about it, many exploit it, and many strongly object to it. But, does it really work? Will viewers remember the shock or the product; or both?

Reviews: Power DTP for Win

While Macintosh users have 'Pages' to rely on, PC people probably use Microsoft Publisher, but PagePlus X3 beats the pants off of that! So let's join our reviewer George Engel as he actually runs this excellent Windows software suite on a Mac -- for just a few of the great things you can do with Serif PagePlus Publishing Suite

Artlandia not left behind

The new Adobe Creative Suite is out and Artlandia is not to be left behind: all currently shipping Artlandia plug-ins are compatible with Adobe's newest Creative Suite so you can upgrade to the new CS4 right away and get your creative juices flowing. You'll like what you see at Artlandia

Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adventure

This is one of the books that top our "BEST" list for anyone with a digital camera! In this beautifully illustrated and inspiring new book -- "Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adventure" -- award-winning photographer and best-selling author Mikkel Aaland gives you a hands-on, guided tour of Lightroom 2.0 Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adventure

Shipping: Adobe Photoshop CS4

Shipping since the 15th ... Time to learn new stuff... like the ll new: Masks panel; Content-Aware Scaling; Adjustments panel; Auto-blending of images; Smoother panning and zooming and fluid canvas rotation; Auto-alignment of layers; Extended depth of field; Lightroom workflow; Better raw image processing; and a lot more! Just a few of the new Adobe Photoshop CS4

The Adobe Type Library Reference Book

George M Engel has always loved fonts... ever since the beginning of digital fonts. Now, he peeks inside the latest and greatest book for anyone who loves to see and use fonts of all kinds... and it's straight from the fonts people themselves: The Adobe Type Library Reference Book

NEW: Olympus Digital Cameras

Just in time, Olympus introduces several new products that deliver breakthrough innovations: a shockproof, waterproof and freezeproof camera with new Tap Control, a sleek ultra-slim shooter, a 20X optical zoom in a more compact body, new classy budget cams with features galore. We revisit the best cameras tested by the DTG labs, Olympus Digital Cameras

Mailbag: CS4 on the cheap

J from San Jose CA, follows up on our "CS4, how much is it going to cost..." article with a word to the wise... She writes:
      "I just happened to notice your post and want to share with other users that Adobe does offer MAJOR student discounts on full version, legal copies of their sw. I bought mine through www.uscollegebuy.com/asl.htm. The caveat is that you need to be a registered student of a participating colleges/univ., but it turns out that if you simply register to your local community college class, you qualify for the discount. The savings is so great (it's like 80% off) that it's worth taking a yoga class and then buying the software... Check it out."
Good tip, J, and although DTG does make a few pennies when you click to buy from our article page, this is a rather sweet way to save some considerable cash. Thanks for writing

Mailbag: Burton Initials Font

D.W. from Ferndown, Dorset, UK writes to ask about "Burton Initials" a graphic font which appeared some years ago in one of our Fall Fonts Fests. Quote: "Can you please let me know where I can get hold of this wonderful font."
Of course, the font can be found and downloaded along with the graphic grid in the Publishers' Warehouse. Just click on the Fonts link. Here's the original article

Website of the month: Emotions by Mike

Even though Mike never mentions what his last name is, we found this web site to be fresh and inviting. We think you'll enjoy seeing his portfolio... online since 1998. Emotions by Mike

&ELSE... freebies and cool stuff

This month's &Else includes: * InDesign Catalog * A Sane Approach to Database Design * DrawIt vector-drawing * Mac OS X for Unix Geeks * NetSketch for iPhone and iPod Touch * New Apple MacBooks - BRIEF * New MacBook Family * Sketches iPhone and iPod Touch * Spell Catcher gets better... ... and a dozen others! News, Reviews &Else!

Here we are... the Holidays

As I mentioned before, the Publishers' Warehouse is open and the DTG Gifts page is now launched as the front page.

We are in the process of gathering our BEST OF 2008 items for the upcoming BEST edition. If you have favorite sites, fonts, software products, etc., that you've discovered during 2008, please let us know.

For now, have a great time in the November DTG

Don't forget to stay in touch, and thanks for reading...

Fred Showker

Fred Showker, Editor / Publisher, DT&G Magazine

A Thought for November is about political candidates...

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer,
      but the right answer.
        Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past.
          Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.
              -- John F. Kennedy

PS: if you've made it this far, excellent! The Publishers Warehouse have been very busy getting ready for the holidays and Thanksgiving. They've posted the loading dock, saying 'thanks' ?

Advertising in the Design Center: When you advertise, your small contribution to the Design Center helps us continue the mission... and get's you lots and lots of traffic and visitors to your web site! Just ask us how.

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.