Editor's Column for DTG Magazine Online Edition

F E B R U A R Y 2003
Get the Savvy, Give a Kiss

00 Win some SAVVY; 01 Fly a Kite and Win; 02 Feature: Website Redesign Without a Nervous Breakdown; 03 Tips for better scanning; 04 Feature: MenuMachine for GoLive 6; 05 Web Design Critiques for February; 06 Visit these readers and tell them what you think; 07 Mail Bag: January tips and woes...; 08 Adobe on the "Rebate" path...; 09 Adobe moves InDesign to 2.0.2; 10 This month's "and else" ...; 11 Who can you trust?; 12 Need a map?; 13 Go out and kiss someone...
Win some SAVVY: As I announced in the Design CAFE, our February Giveaway brings you the world of SAVVY art books from Sybex!
Just register and you can win any or ALL of the SAVVY books including Photoshop SAVVY, Dreamweaver MX Savvy, or Flash MX Savvy! Sybex has sent a whole box of each -- so, each week we'll be drawing names from the hat for winners of their choice of books, and TWO lucky winners will win the complete collection (all three!) in the final drawing. Be sure to get your name in the hat!
http://www.design-bookshelf.com/ [top]
Fly a Kite and Win: Graphic design professionals and students across North America have the opportunity to see their work hanging at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., in Spring 2003. Forty winning designs of the SMART Papers Kite Contest will be shown at the Smithsonian beginning in late March 2003. Kites do not need to be able to fly to win, but they must be graphically compelling. The contest is particularly significant for graphic design professionals and design students because it provides them with a rare opportunity to get their work exhibited in the Smithsonian, one of the world's most prestigious art and science institutions. A panel of respected graphic design judges will pick 40 of the most creative designs based on a well-executed solution, innovation in aesthetics and materials and presentation. Entries must be postmarked by February 3, 2003. There are separate categories for graphic design professionals and design students. The top 10 grand prize winners -- each with one guest -- will be flown to Washington D.C. for the exhibit and the festival. Guests will stay at the luxurious Hay Adams Hotel for 4 days and 3 nights, compliments of SMART Papers. A reception will be held for the winners at the Arts and Industries Building on Thursday, March 20.
Sent in by: Erik Godchaux Department: Editorial: News & Else Get the details at: http://www.smartpapers.com/kite/ [top]
Feature: Website Redesign Without a Nervous Breakdown: Former Netscaper John Marshall, CEO of ClickTracks sent in this great article saying:
It doesn't matter whether you're working for a company or working as a freelancer with clients. It happens to all of us. That sigh of relief we breathe when the website we've been designing is finally 'finished.' Truth be told, a good website is constantly in flux, taking advantage of the web's fluid and flexible nature.
Agreed! Check it out at:
Thanks to John Marshall for sending this one in for our Web Design and Reviews feature this month! http://www.graphic-design.com/Web/feature/clicktracks.html [top]
Tips for better scanning: We get a lot of letters, and we like to take care of as many as we can. During January we received seven letters all requesting some tips for better scanning. So, rather than answer them individually, I addressed the problems the writers were having in this updated column on scanning tips.
http://www.graphic-design.com/DTG/Graphics/scanning.html [top]
Feature: MenuMachine for GoLive 6: Mike Swope, founder of Inetreviews.com and frequent face in the Design Cafe, sends in a whopping review of MenuMachine for GoLive 6 from Big Bang Extensions. If you're a web designers and happen to use GoLive, check this one out.
http://www.graphic-design.com/Web/feature/swoop_bigbang.html [top]
Web Design Critiques for February: Bennie C. Taylor is back this month with a look at the "Gallery 209" site commenting: This site needs work -- I would like to see at least one work by each artist to encourage me to visit the gallery and find out what else is there. "Gallery 209" is also reviewed this month by a new reviewer, Karen Cardinal of Cardinal Art, who takes a slightly different slant by investigating the meta tags and coding of the site. Two interesting takes of this site.
Bennie also gives us an extensive discussion of the "2000 Travel Pictures" web site, noting that many of the images there are spectacular, with an amazing variety of subjects -- but cautions a visitor will need much free time or a very fast connection to get the most of out this site because of the very slow-loading images.
Other reviews this month include: Alaska Gold Rush, A Bed & breakfast at Palmer, Alaska -- in need of a bit of content reorganization, and the "10 Commandments within Jesus" site, where reviewer Christina Szalay couldn't seem to get past the background art.
You are encouraged to benefit from these reviews if you're a web designer -- and please, lend your views and critique to those sites posted by your fellow readers.
Web Design and Dev http://www.graphic-design.com/Web/Critique/index.html [top]
Visit these readers and tell them what you think: We have an interesting mix of sites submitted by readers this month...
For the pet lovers we have Chihuahua Dogs dot com, and Pure Siamese Cattery, the website for Siamese Cats. If you really want a treat, check out Washerhelp.com, a site dedicated to helping people with their washing machines! Although you may not need help with your washing machine, you might find this one both entertaining and enlightening.
In our "Places You Always Wanted to Visit" department, enjoy a jaunt out to The Town of Knightdale, North Carolina ; Langley Park, Co Durham, or the City of Cedar Rapids. All of which have submitted their location sites for your critique. While you're in travel mode, check out Nebraska Public Television and see what's going on in the heartland of America.
If it's entertainment you're looking for, check out any of the newly posted music group sites from new-wave to bluegrass, or take in an airshow at the Airshows of America site.
Off-the-wall sites are a-plenty this month as well -- how about a site called: Dumb Friends League? (Hmmmmmmm) Or, the "Real153" site where technical people in dull jobs get to experiment with fun things that would never (usually) see the light of day. (Or, perhaps would never want to!) Or, visit any of the truly unique "personal" sites like "DECODED DR3AMS" ... "The Porch Swing" and, of course R.A.Murphy's LaffZine, which claims to be "Always More Fun"
These readers have posted their sites not just for visiting, but hopefully for getting a moment of your time to provide some constructive criticism. There are a total of 60 new sites for review this month -- there should be some in there that can benefit from your designers' eye. Help them out!
Reviews department http://www.graphic-design.com/Web/Reviews/index.html [top]
Mail Bag: January tips and woes...: As I said before, we get mail from all over the world -- more than 1,100 during January. Here are a few I thought I'd pass along to you. . .

E.D. Hiscox from Grenoble France writes:
Dear DTG readers, I would like to share with you a link to a website. My mum is a painter and needs to boost up her confidence a little, as she is very talented and could do with more support. Here is her website link:
http://www.geocities.com/saradawnx/homepage.html

L.W. from Newport News, VA, USA, writes:
I love this website, and the newsletter, but since I don't use Photoshop (heresy! I know) I don't get a lot out of most of the tips. Is there any way you could include an occasional article on CorelDraw and Corel Photo-Paint for poor freelancers like me? (end)
Well, L.W., to be honest, I don't use any of the Corel products, so I'm at a real disadvantage. I attempt to keep DTG and the site content focused on design and visual issues and not software specific, but that's tough with such a large Adobe oriented readership.
Perhaps any readers seeing your letter today can suggest other sites where Corel is spoken, or, perhaps we could persuade our Corel-using readership to start sending in Corel-based content! That'd be nice, wouldn't it?

J.J. from Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, GB, writes:
Having restarted in freelance computer graphics, after a few years in other areas of endeavour, how can I get an idea of what rates to charge? (end)
Best advice I can give is study up on what the competition is doing, and on what the market will bear. Also check out Bob Brenner's excellent http://www.brennerbooks.com/ site for his full scale pricing guide for creatives.

K.A. from Murrieta, CA, USA, writes:
Help, I'm a newbie to this and am looking for a Scrabble tile font. Most links on this are unintelligable. Any ideas? I'm on a PC. Thanks for any direction.(end)
Anybody out there know of such a font?

Richard Igoe writes from Wokingham, United Kingdom to say:
I read about your trouble with CSS in your recent newsletter. My site www.design-web-sites.com is formatted with CSS and is valid according to W3C standards (validity buttons on site). (end)
Richard publishes an ebook on CSS and I'm looking forward to reviewing it when it arrives. Check out his site at: http://www.design-web-sites.com

Beth in Manasquan, USA writes:
I recently read one of your articles about "Bright Ideas" cip art in relation to Dyanmic Graphics. Dynamic Graphics recently did away with their clipper and designer's club artwork it is now called liquid library and I think it is just awful. Do you know of any other monthly clip art companies with quality artwork. Please let me know. (end)
That was a relatively old article, and yes, we knew about the 'new' Dynamic Graphics offerings. These are changing times and companies have to change along with those times. Unfortunately the wealth of creative art from DG will be missed by many. I cherish my collection of about 5-year's worth of monthly CDs. And, I'm sorry to report I do not know of a replacement. Anyone else have any ideas?

And, finally this comment from S.A. in Vancouver, Canada:
With the advent of e-mail and PDF you almost never need to the leave the office or see anyone. The home office is a lonely place today. (end)
That means you just have to make it a point to get out and mingle more often!
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Adobe on the "Rebate" path...: It's not like Adobe to offer early-year rebates but if you look at their new "Work Smart. Save Big." rebate program you get a real hint of what's going on at the top of the design heap. With this offer, creative professionals can upgrade or migrate to Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, GoLive, Premiere, and AfterEffects. Two of Adobe's bundled collections are also eligible: Adobe Web Collection and Adobe Design Collection. It seems to be telling us that Photoshop Elements is taking a bigger toll on the high-end Adobe line than they may have suspected.
Their $75 discount on the purchase of two products or more doesn't seem like that big of a saving. Or, save $150 when you purchase two products or more for a total price of at least $749.
If you are looking to upgrade, perhaps now is the time to do it. Offer lasts from February 1, 2003 to April 30, 2003.
Editorial: News & Else http://www.adobe.com/worksmart/ [top]
Adobe moves InDesign to 2.0.2: Those of you who have migrated to Adobe InDesign can now download and install the InDesign 2.0.2 update. InDesign 2.0.2 avails a number of important fixes to version 2.0.1. The InDesign 2.0.2 update includes fixes in the categories of compatibility with OS X, performance and printing. For a detailed description and to download the update just click our link here.
Thanks to Lynn Wegley User Group Network's "Info Manager" for sending this one in. Editorial: News & Else http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/ [top]
This month's "and else" ...: Fly a Kite and Win * The smartest way from bitmap to vectors! * Spam Is 'A Thousand Times More Horrible Than You Can Imagine * Typographic Aficionados * Free Preflight for Quark Users * Invisible Secrets 3.2 * Create Online Image Galleries with Ease * Painting teaching tool / image editor for Windows * Capture Digital Video (PC) * System LifeGuard 1.2 * Atmosphere Lite * MacLorem * Handheld Bluetooth Receiver * European Glamour Images * Open Source Convention Call For Participation * Art that Talks
Editorial: News & Else http://www.graphic-design.com/news/2003/ [top]
Who can you trust?: Imagine a secret photo camera pointed towards your computer screen taking pictures of EVERYTHING going on the windows desktop at a low frequency of up to 1 second. Imagine a program that records every keyboard activity of your computer EVERYTHING along with all MSN/YAHOO/AOL/Hotmail login passwords, all email typed, all chat conversation. Imagine a security program that prevents other programs (even unknown programs) to run. Sys Detective+ runs hidden from Taskbar, Task-list. It runs automatically at startup and consumes very little memory. Automatically compress and email new screenshots to your email account as attachments. Hence, even if you are away from your computer you still know what's going on! Get an instant email whenever a user encounters a keyword you place on your watch list! Terminate the application/web-page etc if Sys Detective+ encounters a keyword from your "watch list". It's highly customizable, and traps all keyboard entries so you can know what was going on in your absence. (PC: Windows specific versions)
Thanks to Zeeshan Alam for adding this to our Online Security and Monitoring Software department. http://sysdetective.netfirms.com/ [top]
Need a map?: I always enjoy getting the latest from Barbara Fordyce and Map Resources! As I've said many times in this column, when you need a good map, nothing else even comes close. Atlas Raster features fully layered, professional quality maps. Features are in separate layers that users can turn on or off as needed to create custom maps. Atlas includes over 225 maps: globes, worlds maps, continents, the USA and all 50 states, fully layered and editable with Illustrator or Photoshop. Maps are royalty free and come in both full color and black and white. Atlas maps contain important geopolitical features, fully updated with the latest available data - including country boundaries, capitals, major cities, major roads, lakes & rivers, and US counties. You need a map? What do you do?
Thanks to Barbara Fordyce of Map Resources Product review http://www.mapresources.com/press/ [top]
Go out and kiss someone...: February is the "love" month with Valentine's day and all manner of other "loving" celebrations throughout the month.
Please send in your Valentine's message and we'll share them with the rest of the readership, right here in the news department, as they arrive. (Send an optimized JPG file no larger than 400 x 400, or simply a link to your web page greeting!
* February is Black Awareness Month
* February is American Heart Month, celebrate with http://www.AmericanHeart.org/
* Abraham Lincoln Birthday - Feb 12
* Lost Penny Day - Feb 12 - on this day gather all your pennies stashed in those bowls and drawers and jars around your house and give them to a shelter or agency that assists homeless people as we celebrate the man who's face is stamped on the copper penny.
* February Loading Dock crew will be celebrating Lincoln's birthday all month long in Hardin County, Kentucky and you're invited to play along. Just take the first right after the slash at Hodgenville.

Have a wonderful month, and don't forget to stay in touch! Good day.; Fred

your loyal editor
http://www.graphic-design.com/news/index.html

Oh, and don't forget my BEST BOOKS FOR 2002

GO TO: http://www.Design-Bookshelf.com/BEST/

...also don't miss these. . .

Folks, we can't help you if you don't cooperate...
Each month accesses (looking for that new EPS clip art disk) and prize registrations are denied in the Publishers'Warehouse.
Why? Because the email address keyed into the Loading Dock request was incorrect, or no longer in use. I find it hard to believe that people would register for something and then drop the address.
Remember: no spaces, correct spelling. Dozens of AOL users didn't put in "@aol.com" -- remember: name@aol.com, no spaces. (We assume they were AOL since they had no "@" indicator.)
Remember too, that the loading dock changes locations each month. You'll find the clue you need to the new location in each issue of this column.
Don't forget to write.
... http://www.graphic-design.com/contact.html [top]

Join us for discussions:

Here's an invitation to you all to join us in discussions about graphic arts, design, illustration, or just about whatever might be on your mind. You can take your pick of the Design Cafe, or the WebDesign Review list, or both. We'll be looking forward to meeting you there real soon...
* Go To: http://www.graphic-design.com/subscribe.html [top]

Help the community do something about spam...

Do you get spam? Do you wish you didn't?
The Design Center is helping sponsor a SPAM SURVEY conducted by the Association of Apple Computer Users & Groups. The organization is chartered for community service, education and legislation advocacy for technology. SPAM is one of the big issues they hope to take to Washington D.C. this year, and they need YOUR help. Go there and fill out the simple, secure and safe SPAM SURVEY. It will help them gather data for their UCE Presentation.
* Go To: http://www.user-groups.net/submit.html

Speaking of spam... read this:

Top Ten Signs You're About to be RIPPED OFF
Fred tracks the illusive spammer! With the influx of thousands of new UCEs ('Unsolicited Commercial Email" -- aka: SPAM) hitting the Graphic Design Network servers, our spam-hunting team decided to track a few of these low-lifes down, and find out where it's all coming from.
* Go To: http://www.60-Seconds.com/articles/130a.html [top]

Keeping in touch

Contact us: http://www.graphic-design.com/contact.html
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The Info Managerhttp://www.user-groups.net/InfoManager/
Design Center News Page http://www.graphic-design.com/news/
Design U Off-Line Seminars for visual communicators

Thank you for visiting the Design & Publishing Center's online newsletter for DT&G. You are currently reading the Editor's column, where each month Editor and Chief Fred Showker writes, from the heart, about what's happening in the Design Center. Contents Copyright (c) 2003, Reproduction or reuse of parts or all of this manuscript without prior written permission is expressly forbidden. The Design & Publishing Center is the product and trade name for Showker, Inc., in Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA, trading as Showker Graphic Arts & Design -- a Virginia State Corporation since 1972. DT&G: The Online Journal of Design, Typography & Graphics has been distributed continuously each month since May of 1990, originally on the GEnie and CompuServe networks, then on America Online, and in 1993 on Apple Computer's "EWorld", migrating to the internet world wide web in 1994.