Bali Design Forum

Bali Bengkel Design, Visual Communication Design Bali, Web Design, Re-design, Flash Design, Interactive CD, Company Profile, Music Video Clip

2006-04-23T11:49:00.000+08:00

Bengkel Designz Style

Bengkel Designz style of work and professional approach is build on six essential elements: Expertise - this is our job and we know how to do it; our expertise is the groundwork on which we base our reputation and which guarantess success of the company and its clients Professional Technical Work - after all, web development is a job with numerous technical tasks; our programmers, Q.A. and tech support take care about the flawless performance of all elements Creative Design - making it nice is not enough - We consider a project complete only when it obtains a beautiful visual presence and attracts the right auidence for you Excellent Communication - We support full-time contact with our customers; every day we make sure that we follow their requirements precisely and that they know the development status in every given moment Dedicated Leadership - devoted to my job, we do not just follow requirements: we offer our advice, consulting and ideas for improving and enhancing your project; clients can always rely on our initiative Future Vision - thinking of Internet business more as a process rather than a single task, Bengkel Designz is always looking towards the future, finalizing all projects in a flexible manner allowing effortless extension in future

Philosophy

We believe that the most important elements of a great web site design are: efficient loading time, comprehensive information, and a clean, easy-to-use format.
While web sites that use "cutting edge" technology are exciting to view and design, consideration must be given to the site's customers and what their web browsers and computer systems will support.
If, for example, we design a site that is wonderful when viewed by some, but fails to function properly for others (and let's say they comprise over 40% of your industry's potential customers),We are not serving you or your business well.
We strive to balance "bells and whistles" with good programming and content. We want your site to not only look fantastic, but be easy to find and easy to use.

Why Have a Web Site?

Your company services and product information will reach the finger tips of current and potential customers worldwide, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for less than the cost of a single regional magazine or Yellow Pages' advertisement.
More and more, it is expected that professionals have a web site. Potential customers are actually frustrated if you don't!
The number of Internet users are still increasing dramatically. The breadth of potential international customers, contacts, and business opportunities is too large and valuable to overlook. Can you afford not to have an effective Internet presence?

Web Design Your business needs powerful web graphics for compelling web sites, but you are having trouble with Web graphics. You need to create stunning web graphics such as Web pages, banners, navigation bars, buttons, hover buttons, logos, photo effects, fancy text, and more; However, you don't know where to begin!

HTML Web Design HTML Design is ideal for standard websites that do not require special multimedia functions such as audio / video. The advantage of HTML-based websites is the small size that makes them fast loading. Additionally, HTML websites are compatible with all industry standard web browsers and do not require download of plugins from the visitors

Web site maintenance services We provide comprehensive, accurate, and quick web site maintenance services. A well maintained and updated web site is very important to attract customers. But if the web site contains out-dated information or links that do not work, customers are unlikely to inquire for your products or services.

e-Commerce Website E-commerce has been a bit of a buzz word for the last couple of years now. Trading on the Internet is a hugely complex business and there are many aspects to consider when designing a successful ecommerce site. We can make the whole process of e-commerce less complicated by sitting down with you and planning the different stages.

CD Presentation and Interactive Design We can create stunning cd presentation design and engaging cd catalog designs - designs which are sure to generae your clients' interest in your products. We can either place your data in a static or in a dynamic manner onto a CD. You get a master CD-ROM or a digital card which is basically an electronic business card shaped CD-ROM, also called a CD card.

We are back!

2005-01-14T15:26:00.000+08:00

Setelah lama vacuum, akhirnya kami kembali lagi untuk memajukan Bali Design Forum dengan konsep dan suber daya yang lebih baik. Disini anda akan mendapatkan berbagai Tips dan Trik mengenai dunia Design Graphis yang akan dikelola oleh tenaga-tenaga muda yang profesional dalam bidangnya.
Andapun dapat secara aktif mengirimkan pertanyaan maupun komentar seputar Web, Graphic Design dan Multimedia.
Kami tidak menutup kemungkinan juga bagi para Webmaster, Graphic Designer dari luar Bali yang mau ikut serta memberikan kontribusinya untuk forum ini.

Salam!

Bali Design Forum

How-To’s Day: Illustrator: Apply Multiple Strokes To One Path In Illustrator CS (Part 3)

2004-12-18T09:38:00.000+08:00

By popular demand (and because of length) this is part three of a two-part tutorial.

Please read Part 1 and Part 2 before the below.

In this, the third and final installment of Apply Multiple Strokes To One Path In Illustrator CS, we’ll complete our seal by adding the embossed, live, and editable type around the edge. It isn’t simple type on a path, and it doesn’t use a drop shadow either.

Question: How would you get a drop shadow to cast outside the text all around the circle?

Here’s another question: Can Illustrator apply a gradient to live type?

1. Create a circle of the desired diameter.

2. Using the Type on a Path tool, click on the circle to make it a type path.

3. Type in your designed text and style it as appropriate. To make sure your text can be read on your seal, use a color that contrasts with the background.

Now comes the fun part.

4. With the type selected, click on the flyout menu (the right-facing arrow, top-right) on the Appearance palette and choose Add New Fill. Ignore the fact that your type will turn black (or whatever your default foreground color is).

5. Now fill it with a gradient. For dimensionality I used a subtle white-10% black-white linear gradient rotated 45 degrees, thus playing into the lighted checkmark effect.

6. Create a new black fill below the gradient fill—on the Appearance palette drag the black fill to the right position.

7. With the black fill still selected, goto the Effect menu and choose Distort & Transform > Transform. Scale the fill both horizontally and vertically to 102%. Hit OK. The black fill should now look off, wider than the front fill.

8. Keeping the fill selected, choose Gaussian Blur from Effect > Blur, and set a 1 px blur. Now your black fill looks more like a cast shadow.

9. Now make a third fill between the front and black with the following settings: Canary Yellow color, scaled to 99% both horizontally and vertically, and a 0.5 px Gaussian Blur. This is the highlight of the embossing.

10. On the Transparency palette leave the highlight fill at normal blend mode but 65% opacity, and set cast shadow fill to Darken mode at 35% opacity.

Depending on the size of your drawing and how deep you want the text to emboss, you may need to adjust the scaling and/or blur. The colors and blend mode may need to be tweaked too with your drawing.

Now you have embossed text that is still live, editable text. As long as Scale Strokes & Effects is checked in the Preferences’ General tab, your seal will look great at any size. The pixelation is just a screen artifact; it will print out at high resolution.

More importantly, if you completed all three parts of this Apply Multiple Strokes To One Path In Illustrator CS tutorial, you know have strong grasp of the awesome power and creative freedom of Illustrator’s secret weapon, the Appearance palette. You now have tremendous vector power.

But remember what Uncle Ben said: With great power comes great responsibility. Use your Appearance palette-based vector power for good design, not bad design.

How-To’s Day: Illustrator: Apply Multiple Strokes To One Path In Illustrator CS (Part 2)

2004-12-18T09:32:00.000+08:00

In part 1 of Apply Multiple Strokes To One Path In Illustrator CS we created the seal portion of our illustration. More importantly, Part 1 established the fundamentals of this tutorial. If you haven’t yet read Apply Multiple Strokes To One Path In Illustrator CS (Part 1), please do before continuing with Part 2 below.

Again making use of the awesome power of the Appearance palette in Illustrator CS, we’re going to create the neon checkmark at the heart of our seal.

Neon effects are notoriously difficult to create in vector drawing programs like Illustrator. Typically they require stacks of duplicate objects, each successive one with a slightly thicker stroke to achieve the smooth blend between the center color and the outter colors. With the ability to not only apply multiple strokes, but to create effects and offsets of each stroke independently, its easy to do it all within a single, live-editable object.

1. Select the Type Tool and click in the document to initiate a text point. The checkmark I used came from the Wingdings font. After creating my text insertion point I double-clicked the checkmark glyph in the Glyphs palette, and it was inserted into my document. Of course, you are free to use any letter, symbol, or glyph, or even custom draw your own path. For simplicities sake, I converted the checkmark glyph from text to outlines, though it isn’t mandatory; this effect works on live text as well.

Since I’m building this particular drawing for online use, I’m working in pixel measurements. My checkmark measures approximately 100 px wide by 115 px deep (height).

2. Once you have the checkmark, choose your top color—white or something very close to it. Set this as the 1 pt stroke. Set the fill to none.

3. Add four more strokes to the checkbox, each growing thicker and deeper of hue except the last, whose color will be close to half way between strokes two and three.

Does your Appearance palette look like mine?

Its beginning to look like neon, but it isn’t polished yet. Other neon techniques, including the graphic style that is already installed in Illustrator, rely solely on the stroke-stacking method—ten or so strokes stacked beneath one another, each a single point thicker and slightly deeper in color than the one above. While the stroke-stacking method does create a common neon effect, it lacks the realism of neon tubing seen in the real world. It also requires the illustrator to change the colors of ten different strokes to effect an overall color change.

With this method, we’re going to reach a greater degree of realism with only five strokes.

4. In the Appearance palette click on the first stroke, the 1 pt white stroke. From the Effect menu choose Blur > Gaussian Blur. If your checkmark is about the size of mine (100px x 115 px), set the Gaussian Blur to 0.5 pixels and hit OK.

You should now see a Gaussian Blur entry grouped beneath your Stroke in the Appearance palette.

5. With the first stroke still selected in the Appearance palette, go back to the Effect menu and select Distort & Transform > Transform. The Transform Effect dialog is how we’ll offset our strokes from one another so they don’t stack perfectly aligned.

6. In the Move section, set the Horizontal and Vertical offsets to something like 0.44 px and hit OK. Now a Transform entry appears beneath the Gaussian Blur in the Appearance palette.

7. Repeat steps 4 - 6 for each of the rest of the strokes on your path, using the following settings:

1.5 pt stroke: Gaussian Blur 0.5; Transform Effect move H: 0.44px, V: 0.44px

5 pt stroke: Gaussian Blur 0.5; Transform Effect move H: -0.44px, V: 0.88px

8.5 pt stroke: No Gaussian Blur; Transform Effect move H: 0.88px, V: 1.32px

12 pt stroke: Gaussian Blur 1.0; Transform Effect move H: 0.44px, V: 0.44px

Does your Appearance palette look just like mine? Depending upon the size of your checkmark, the colors chosen, and the glyph itself, you may need to tweak the above settings for maximum effect.

8. The neon effect is building, but neon tubing is just a type of lightbulb. It needs to give off light. Select the 12pt stroke in the Appearance palette and goto Effect > Stylize > Outer Glow. Se the mode to Normal (or Screen, if it fits your drawing better), with 100% opacity and a blur around 12 or 13 px. Hit OK.

9. In the Appearance palette should now be an Outer Glow entry grouped with the 12pt stroke. If it appears below the Stroke group, you applied it to the path rather than just the stroke. In that case, click and drag the Outer Glow entry on the Appearance palette and drop it between Gaussian Blur and Transform.

Even if you applied the Outer Glow to the stroke correctly, we want it to be above Transform in the list. This will make the glow occur before the stroke is offset, thus the glow will be centered with the entire path even though the 12pt stroke itself is being pushed right and up .44 px.

10. With the stroke still selected, goto the Transparency palette and set the blending mode to Screen with 100% opacity.

11. Almost done! At the very top of the Appearance palette click on Compound Path and add a new Outer Glow (step 9) set to Screen, bright yellow, 30% opacity, and 15px blur. Hit OK and behold your neon checkmark!

If your neon design doesn’t look exactly like mine, play around with the colors, blurs, and offsets (transforms). Once you have a style you like, save it to the Graphic Styles palette.

A note about the Gaussian Blur effects: You will probably see pixelation after applying a Gaussian Blur. This is expected. Gaussian Blur is a pixelating effect, but it is still resolution independent. Resize your checkmark and watch the Gaussian Blur reapply at the new size. Print it to a couple of devices to watch it print out in high quality.

The effects on the Effect menu are all dynamic and resolution independent, unlike the ones on the confusingly similar Filter menu. It is safe to use Gaussian Blur and the other items on the Effect menu for high resolution output; they won’t flatten and fix their resolution until sent to an output device that communicates a fixed resolution (e.g. a printer).

I had intended to demonstrate how to create the embossed text on a path in the seal in this part of the tutorial, but it ran so long we’re going to need a Part 3. So, if you can figure out how I created the embossed text, leave your guess in a comment to this post. I’ll give you a hint: I never even touched Illustrator’s 3D tools.

State of the Industry: Graphics in 2004 Part 03

2004-12-18T09:12:00.000+08:00

nVidia—Back in Force with GeForce 6

GeForce FX was a disappointment for nVidia. The company that was making such great strides in 3D graphics just didn't deliver as expected with its GeForce series. It was outclassed by ATI's Radeon 9700 and related products, and the initial cards were plagued by noisy, oversized cooling fans. Though the cards supported DirectX 9, games and drivers had to be radically optimized to deliver acceptable speed. That all changed with this year's introduction of the GeForce 6800. Dumping the VLIW (very long instruction word) architecture of the GeForce FX for a new MIMD/SIMD (multiple instructions, multiple data/single instruction, multiple data) paradigm, the GeForce 6 was a huge leap forward in performance and compatibility. With six vertex processors and sixteen pixel pipelines, it's evenly matched for ATI's cards in terms of brute power.

nVidia took last year's technology further, though. They were the first to introduce support for DirectX 9's Shader Model 3.0. This means full 32-bit precision, shader programs so long they're essentially infinite, and support for enhanced flow control in shader programs. Though no current game really makes use of Shader Model 3.0 to do stuff you just can't do with the older 2.0 model, it's still a huge technical leap forward, and one that will be with us for a long time to come. There just isn't much you can't do under the 3.0 shader model.

The GeForce 6 series was also the first that nVidia made that didn't include a separate programmable Video Processing Engine, a feature we'll certainly hear more about in the future. We expect future nVidia graphics chips to have more advanced programmable video engines as well.

Recently, nVidia brought back the idea of running two graphics cards at once, each splitting the load to nearly double performance. 3dfx did this years ago with the Voodoo 2 and called it SLI– Scan Line Interleave. One card drew the odd scan lines and the other drew the even scan lines, hence the name. nVidia has gone so far as to call its implementation SLI as well, even though the card's don't split up the load by alternating scanlines. The new SLI stands for "Scalable Link Interface," but the result is the same. This time it's a bit harder to achieve, though. Every computer had at least two PCI graphics slots for those Voodoo 2 cards, but the new SLI requires a special motherboard with two PCIe slots made to fit graphics cards.

The company overextended itself preparing for the PCI Express revolution, and it cost them dearly in the first half of the year. Since the launch of the more affordable GeForce 6 series cards and the more widespread availability of PCIe computer systems, nVidia's sales picked up and the company got back on track. The company's core logic chipset business is looking a lot brighter as well, now that they have struck a deal with Intel to make nForce products for Pentium 4 processors.

Towards the end of the year, nVidia announced TurboCache graphics cards. Based around the entry-level 6200 series of GPUs, TurboCache can be thought of as "discrete integrated graphics". Each TurboCache board has small amounts of memory, at least enough to hold the front buffer. The rest of the graphics memory is dynamically allocated from the main system memory as needed.

The TurboCache concept is only useful in PCI Express systems, as it specifically takes advantage of the bidirectional feature of PCIe. TurboCache cards are more for the OEM market, which often seeks low cost products that still feature the latest technologies.

Perhaps "back on track" is the best summary of the past year for nVidia. GeForce FX and PCI Express were stumbling blocks that opened a window of opportunity for ATI, one which they capitalized on quite well. The company is now firing on all cylinders again, with a great GPU lineup from top to bottom. The latest big news is that nVidia will create the graphics core for Sony's upcoming PlayStation 3 console, and possibly other Sony consumer electronics.

State of the Industry: Graphics in 2004 Part 02

2004-12-18T09:10:00.000+08:00

ATI—Double the Pipes, Better Drivers

On the PC front, ATI released its X800 series of cards this year. Technologically speaking, it wasn't a breakthrough. Most "new generation" GPU designs are radical changes from the previous design, but the R400 series of GPUs features only minor tweaks to the R300 series that was introduced with the Radeon 9700 a couple of years ago. These tweaks include a programmable memory controller, support for somewhat longer pixel shader programs (known as Shader Model 2.0b), and a new normal-map-compression scheme.

The new top-end cards from ATI could be considered a "doubling up" of the previous generation. Vertex pipelines were doubled to six pipes in the high-end cards, and pixel pipelines doubled to 16. The end result of this was a much, much faster video card. In terms of tech, it's not nearly as exciting as the Radeon 9700 was, which introduced major new DirectX 9 features while drastically outperforming the previous generation. The R400 class architecture has filtered down to lower price points and notebook designs, as you would expect.

The real desktop and mobile graphics story for ATI is its Catalyst driver software suite. The Catalyst development team has made great strides in the past year, improving quality and stability while adding features. The company that once turned away potential buyers with flaky drivers now has an extremely solid offering, just as good as the extremely tight drivers from nVidia. A new control application called Catalyst Control Center was introduced this summer, using an extensible and skinable interface to make it easier for novice and expert users to tweak their video card. Shortly after its introduction, ATI decided to add application-specific optimizations in a feature called Catalyst AI. The idea is to detect applications by name and fix rendering bugs, improve performance, or improve image quality on a case-by-case basis. nVidia does the same thing in its drivers, they just don't give the user the ability to turn it off as ATI does.

Of course, ATI isn't only about PC and notebook graphics cards. This was its big year for other graphics ventures. They began the year by touting its new 3D mobile graphics chip at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES). In the spring, the company CEO K.Y. Ho stepped down and Dave Orton replaced him. Recently, they unveiled a new PCI Express chipset for AMD motherboards, the Radeon Xpress 200, which adds a DirectX 9 integrated graphics core. In October, ATI announced that new market research numbers from Mercury Research put it ahead of rival nVidia in discrete graphics market share, taking the lion's share of both desktop and mobile graphics sales.

State of the Industry: Graphics in 2004 Part 01

2004-12-18T09:07:00.000+08:00

It's been an exciting year for graphics. Then again, we could say that every year. The simple fact of the matter is that PC graphics is one of the fastest-moving segments in the industry. Improvements in the speed and feature sets of video cards happen at a much faster rate than CPUs, motherboard, hard drives, optical drives, or memory.

There are only two major players in PC graphics technology left standing amidst the rubble of numerous companies who had more ambition than ability: nVidia and ATI. Both companies battle over single-digit swings in market share, are roughly the same size, and for the time being, have very comparable products. They recruit so heavily and invest so much money in research and development that it's nearly impossible for a different graphics company to compete. Sure, Intel has its integrated graphics products, and other players like XGI produce its own technology, but it's increasingly turning into a two-horse race.

This two-company dominance now extends outside the PC as well. From televisions to game consoles, PDAs to cell phones, everything has a graphics chip. And both of these companies are aggressively pursuing all those markets.

The last year wasn't only about graphics hardware, though. It saw many exciting developments in the software that makes it all worthwhile. Let's review the year and see how far we've come

Architecture : Fort Coming Event

2004-12-10T14:01:00.000+08:00

Conference	6 - 7 January 2005, The Sage Conference Centre, Gateshead
Study models for the Sage Gateshead, Foster & Partners.	Construction Technology How are we going to build the architecture of tomorrow?
	A two-day conference looking at the practice and teaching of technology. The 2005 Annual Building Centre Trust Conference will take place at the newly completed Sage Gateshead Music Centre by Foster and Partners on 6th and 7th January This year’s conference will look at how we build today, what will be the architecture of tomorrow and how we are teaching construction technology to the professionals of the future Will new technology and new processes drive the architecture of tomorrow? Can new materials, factory fabrication, computer software combine to answer the needs of the built environment? Chaired by Chris Cross, secretary of SCHOSA, the conference will feature presentations by Spencer de Grey of Foster and Partners, Johann Shichka of Waagner Biro and Arup Acoustics who will address the questions in relation to the building of the Sage music Centre itself. Simon Allford of AHMM Architects and Professor Chris Wise of Expedition Engineering will examine the relationship between teaching and practice. David Birkbeck of Design for Homes will look at the new housebuilding agenda as a microcosm of the battle between tradition and innovation. Professor James Woodhuysen, co-author of Why is Construction so backward? will examine the quest for creativity. Bob Shiel of the Bartlett will look at the relationship between design and making buildings in the teaching process and Michael Stacey of London Metropolitan University on news mechanisms for R an D. The conference is an opportunity for those involved in the practice and teaching of construction technology to examine the state of professional readiness for the challenges of 21st Century building. It is open to all and will have particular relevance to schools of architecture, engineering and building, those involved in technical research, policy makers and recruitment. In particular it is for those who are interested in the way we make good buildings. The conference begins at lunchtime on the 6th January 2005 and finishes at 4pm on Friday 7th. The cost of attending is £190 + VAT which includes the conference dinner on the evening of 6th and a tour of the Sage music Centre.

Architecture : Why use an architect

2004-12-09T10:49:00.000+08:00

Architects are trained to take your brief and can see the big picture – they look beyond your immediate requirements to design flexible buildings that will adapt with the changing needs of your business.

Architects solve problems creatively - when they are involved at the earliest planning stage, they gain more opportunities to understand your business, develop creative solutions, and propose ways to reduce costs.

Architects can save you money by maximising your investment. A well-designed building can reduce your bills now and increase its long-term value.

Architects can manage your project from site selection to completion. In many building projects the role of the architect includes co-ordinating a team of specialist consultants such as landscape architects, engineers, quantity surveyors, interior designers, builders and subcontractors.

Architects can save you time – by managing and co-ordinating key project elements, allowing you to focus on your organisation’s activities.

Architects can help your business – they create total environments, interior and exterior, which are pleasing and functional for the people who work and do business within them.

Pantone Swatch Books - Before You Buy PANTONE Color Guides - Swatch Books for Process and Spot Colors

2004-12-01T14:32:00.000+08:00

Thinking it’s time to go pro? Then you must know all about PMS. No, not Putting up with Men’s S#!t. PMS is the world of graphic design and press stands for the PANTONE Matching System, the North American standard color printing system.

PMS is much more than CMYK process colors—you know, the reason amateurs’ great Photoshop artwork always comes back from the press with weird color shifts and looking “washed out.” PMS is an entire system, which fully encompasses the typical printing in the U.S. (we won’t discuss Hexachrome, TruMatch, and other systems for now).

When a pro picks a color to use in a for-print project, she never trusts her color-flawed computer screen. Instead, she picks it from a PMS swatch book. There are, however, quite a few different PMS swatchbooks. They are all issued by Pantone, Inc., the 40 year-old the author of PMS, and they each have their own use.

In this lite guide, Jacci Howard Bear briefly discusses the different PMS guide books available and for what one should use them.

How-To’s Day: Illustrator: Apply Multiple Strokes To One Path In Illustrator CS (Part 1)

2004-12-01T14:03:00.000+08:00

Illustrator was born in the mid-Eighties, as were pals PageMaker, QuarkXPress, and Freehand. Unlike its contemporaries, however, Illustrator isn’t showing its age.

Packed with tons of new and powerful tools and abilities, it’s just as spry as ever. Often the best ones, the little or shy ones that can pare down a two hour illustration task into one, go unnoticed in favor of the larger, flashier additions like Scribble and the new 3D filters lifted from Adobe Dimensions.

One such oft overlooked, but incrediblly powerful feature, perhaps as vital as the venerable Pen tool itself, is the Appearance palette.

Of the many, many functions of the Appearance palette is the ability to apply multiple strokes to a single path. In the years before the Appearance palette achieving multiple strokes was a complicated process of layering duplicate objects with different stroke widths and/or colors. Naturally, if one needed to be changed, so did they all. Now one object, one path, can have all the strokes one could want; when the object changes, so does the stroke.

In part one of this two-part tutorial we’ll create the seal shown here.

1. Start with the Star tool—in the Toolbox click and hold on the Rectangle tool. From the flyout, choose the Star tool.

2. Don’t draw with the Star tool. Inside, click once in your new blank document. Up will pop the Star tools option box.

Radius 1 is the radius of the area inside the points, while radius 2 is the outter most radius, where the star points will terminate. To create a seal similar to mine, set a shallow difference between the two and increase the points to a large number like 50. You may have to experiment with a few stars before achieving the desired result.

3. Once your seal is created, set its fill and stroke. For mine, I created a tri-tone, radial gradient fill (Magenta, center, then Va Va Va Voom Red, and Moroccan Rust on the outside perimeter). For what will become the center stroke, I chose 0.5 pt Crimson.

4. If the Appearance palette isn’t already showing, turn it on by going to Window > Appearance. Your Appearance palette should look similar to mine above.

5. This is where it gets interesting. On the Appearance palette click once on the Stroke. Then, on the bottom of the palette second from the right, click the Duplicate Selected Item button. Your Path should now list two Strokes, the Fill, and “Default Transparency,” though you will see no perceivable difference in the seal drawing.

6. Click on the Stroke second down in the list—be careful not to select the first one—then use the Stroke palette to increase its width to 3 pt. Change the color—I used Va Va Va Voom Red for contrast.

Now you should see a second border behind your 0.5 pt stroke. Because Illustrator’s strokes always straddle the path—that is, half the stroke falls inside the path, overlapping the fill, and half falls outside, pushing out the object edges—it will look as if you actually have three strokes.

7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 once more until you have three strokes in the Appearance’s palette just like mine. Incidentally, the third stroke color I chose was Moroccan Rust. You should now have a seal that appears to have five borders. If you only see one, but your Appearance palette shows three, make sure the smallest stroke is on the top and that the others grow larger below it. You can simply drag and drop them in the list to change their order. The top listed stroke is always the one in front, followed by the one directly below it, which is in front of the one listed below it, and so on. If you only see a single stroke, you probably have too large a stroke at the top.

You should now have a seal that looks like mine (I added a drop shadow to get a jump on the rest of the tutorial).

In the second part of this tutorial, on the next How-To’s Day, we’ll create the checkmark in the center. As you may have guessed by now, the checkmark also has multiple strokes assigned to one path, but it has other things going on as well.

The Magic of Sketching

2004-11-30T17:12:00.000+08:00

Most of us spend the majority of our work day staring at a square computer screen. Sometimes we create great, creative work, but that creativity doesn't come from the computer. It comes from the mind, soul, and story.

One of the best at bringing out that creativity in people is Pegie Stark Adam.

Pegie spent week three of Poynter's college fellowship away from the computer emphasizing the importance of sketching an idea before going to the computer. The fellows used charcoal and pastels in figure drawing, color mixing, and sketching exercises.

Matt Thompson/Poynter

Doing quick sketches of an idea or layout before going to the computer helps keep the focus on storytelling rather than on which Photoshop filter or background color to choose.

Sketching can also save time. Once the idea is down on paper transferring it to the computer is easy, and allows more time for engaging storytelling.

The sketches at right are simple examples of possible design layouts created by the college fellows.

How-To's Day : Photoshops: Beauty Retouching

2004-11-29T16:40:00.000+08:00

I take a slightly different approach to retouching beauty. People I have taught in the past have found it difficult to distinguish where to start with the clone tool when retouching someone's face.

Step 1:
I came up with a different way of seeing the imperfections, which should help you think differently about the process of retouching. It allows you to ignore color momentarily and concentrate on shading, similar to the old Hollywood black and white style of portrait retouching.

First open an image of a person, preferably female. Then choose windows --documents-- new window. You will now have two versions of the same file on screen.

Step 2:
Choose the document on the right.

Go to your channels palette and turn off the eyeball on the red and blue channels so that you are only viewing the green.

Most of the skin imperfections on light to medium colored skin will show up in this channel and you will be able to see these imperfections more clearly by just viewing the green channel on its own.

Step 3:
Create a new layer called "retouch".

Begin with a large clone stamp at around 20%-25% and begin to smooth the skin. Use the color version on the left to monitor your work as you go along, and to make sure you are getting the desired result.
I tend to be quite heavy at this point and really remove all texture.

Step 4:
Once I have a smooth even skin tone, then I close the b&w version and go to the retouching layer and reduce the opacity.

It really depends on the image but I average around 50% opacity. This allows some of the texture of the skin to come back through.

Student wins design award

2004-11-29T16:13:00.000+08:00

A student from Bedford has won a major prize in the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) Student Design Awards.

Carl Arnese is in his final year of the BA (HONS) Product Design Course at De Montfort University in Leicester.

The 22-year-old won the award for his groundbreaking ladder design.

Carl said: "My ladder offers a new principle of climbing.

"I came up with a way to elevate yourself from the ground using a friction lock system.

"And the tripod leg allows for camber and tilt."

Prize is worth £2,000

The prize, in the Future Homes category of the RSA Awards will give Carl the chance to work with the Innovision Research and Technology Group.

The eight week placement, worth £2,000, will enable him to research and develop his interest in design.

"I feel on top of the world," said Carl.

"It's flattering to know people are inspired by your designs."

The RSA Student Design Awards has been running for more than 75 years.

Previous winners include Jonathan Ive, designer of the iMac.

More than 2,500 students from disciplines such as fashion, graphics and interior design entered this year's competition.

"It's Rock Solid. A Real No-Brainer."

2004-11-29T10:16:00.000+08:00

When the Colour Systems team were designing the Reader’s Digest workflow, they recognised the need for a preflighting solution that would resolve colour mismatches and standardise the CMYK data of the working files. They turned to Paris-based Alwan Colour Expertise, one of Europe’s leading colour management consultancies and a member of the Apple Solution Experts network — that select band of Apple-accredited independents who can help both large and small businesses buy, install, learn and support Mac-based solutions.

Alwan have developed and marketed a breakthrough software solution called CMYK Optimizer, which harmonises colour separations and eliminates printability issues, resulting in a more streamlined workflow and significant savings on ink costs. And it runs on Apple’s Xserve.

“It’s rock solid, a real no-brainer”, says Jamie Rose. “Once it’s set up, you just drag and drop PDFs or images into the relevant hot folder, and it will action the optimisation. And as far as the end-users are concerned — the operators and production staff — they just log onto the Xserve and access everything from there”.

Adds David Brin: “The Reader’s Digest carries adverts from all sorts of sources, many of which are not produced to the correct specification. With the CMYK Optimizer running on Xserve, we are able to optimise these ads to print correctly from a central server that everyone can access”.

David’s confident that Apple will continue to provide the kind of technology that companies like his needs: “We are currently beta-testing the new Apple Cinema Displays with a view to integrating them into our workflow for soft proofing. At the moment, we use CRT displays, not LCD, for colour profiling on screen. But the new Apple Cinema Displays are very consistent, and lend themselves to colour-critical remote soft proofing”.

“It’s rock solid, a real no-brainer. Once it’s set up, you just drag and drop PDFs or images into the relevant hot folder, and it will action the optimisation. And as far as the end-users are concerned, they just log onto the Xserve and access everything from there.”

Alwan’s founder and Managing Director Elie Khoury succintly sums up the advantages of running such a large-scale workflow on the Mac platform: “ColorSync is a really extraordinary chance for the publishing and printing industries to carry out colour management, calculations, adjustments and adaptation using the same framework — it’s simply the best system-level colour management available today. If, for example, you do colour management on your ten-year-old desktop Mac, and I’m running a five-year-old PowerBook, while our printer has a brand new Mac OS X server, we’ll all get exactly the same results. No other platform can do that”.

Mac Shows true colours

2004-11-29T10:03:00.000+08:00

The Reader’s Digest. It’s a publishing phenomenon: the world’s biggest-selling magazine, with 48 editions in 19 different languages available in over 60 countries. And whether you buy your copy in Basingstoke or Bangalore, at least one thing will remain constant — the quality and colour balance of the images.

It wasn’t always so. Until just over two years ago, the different editions were produced at many different sites, and colour management — the tricky business of making sure that the image you see on the page looks the same as the original — was highly problematic. That all changed when Reader’s Digest got together with London-based premedia and data management company Colour Systems to set up a single European production centre built around a Mac-based workflow.

“ColorSync is a really extraordinary chance for the publishing and printing industries to carry out colour management, calculations, adjustments and adaptation using the same framework — it’s the best system-level colour management available today.”

“The prepress industry relies on Macs”, says David Brin, Joint Managing Director of the Fresh Media Group, Colour Systems’ parent company. “We couldn’t do anything without the Mac — everyone uses it: the publishers, the designers, the prepress companies”.

Much of the success of the project has been down to the use of Mac OS X’s built-in colour management technology, ColorSync.

“The various Reader’s Digest editorial offices around Europe all run on Apple equipment. Their soft proofs wouldn’t work without ColorSync — in fact the whole workflow wouldn’t work. We can centralise production for 19 editions of the magazine here in London, taking the original files, which are in many cases American, converting them from an American standard to a European one using ColorSync, and then soft proofing around Europe”.

Jamie Rose, Fresh Media’s Workflow Solutions Manager, adds: “The Macintosh has been the leader in the publishing and design environment ever since I’ve been in the industry, which is about 12 years now. All the designers have gone down that path, and we’ve followed suit. We’re big fans of the Mac because of the reliability it gives us, and because it does exactly what it says on the tin. We use a mixture of Power Mac G4s and G5s, all tied in with an Apple Xserve server.

“One of the requirements of the Reader’s Digest workflow was to profile the press and provide proofs to the customer that matched what was actually going to appear. We brought the profiling in-house, which meant relying on ColorSync. This colour management facility is now standard across the board. We can simulate it on print, proofs and on-screen — and the entire solution is based on the Mac platform”.

What is Color and Color Management?

2004-11-27T13:01:00.000+08:00

Color management is the process of maintaining consistent color among devices. Different imaging devices such as scanners, displays, and printers work in different color spaces, and each can have a different gamut (the range of colors a device can display). Color displays from different manufacturers all use RGB colors but may have different RGB gamuts as a result of the device type and its age. Printers and presses work in CMYK space and can vary drastically in their gamuts, especially if they use different printing technologies. Even a single printer’s gamut can vary significantly depending on the ink or type of paper in use. It’s easy to see that conversion from RGB colors on an individual display to CMYK colors on an individual printer using a specific ink and paper type can lead to unpredictable results.