CreativeTechs Tips

Here we are on New Year’s Eve. In honor of this annual time of introspection and planning, we've collected links to a few clever calendar templates to help start your new year off right.

David Seah’s Compact Calendar

"The problem with traditional calendar design," says designer David Seah, "is that they chunk time in months, not continuous days." In answer to that problem Seah created a long, thin calendar (at right) that is perfect for project planning. Download as PDF or choose an editable Excel document.

David Seah’s Compact Calendar 2008

Adam Sporka’s Thumb Calendar

Here's an ingenious 2008 calendar shrunk to the size of a standard business card. Focus on the dates directly below each month’s header.

Adam Sporka’s Thumb Calendar 2008

Juliana Halvorson’s InDesign Template

Finally, a bit more traditional calendar. Here is a clean InDesign template for you to create and customize your own 2008 calendar. The template uses style sheets for dates, holiday, and other details. So swapping out your own font choices is easy.

Juliana Halvorson’s InDesign Template 2008

Posted by Craig Swanson at 06:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's nothing better on a cold winter day than gathering together in front of a warm crackling fire. Back in 1966, Channel 11 WPIX in New York City began broadcasting The Yule Log each Christmas Eve as a televised gift for people who lived in apartments and homes without fireplaces.

Today, over 40 years later, what could make a better Christmas-eve tip than a link for your own iPod-resolution version of that fireplace classic:

Original Yule Log for iPod (WPIX-TV)

In 2001, The Yule Log returned to TV sets in select cities with an updated edition for HDTV. The 3-hour recording of a burning log won its time slot in the Nielsen ratings each year since it was brought back. Wikipedia has a fascinating account of The Yule Log's rise, decline, and revival.

The Yule Log on Wikipedia

New York Times Review of Yule Log TV Special

Finally, if you find yourself yearning for a higher-resolution fire, suitable for your large screen, head over to iYule.tv. For $5 to $10 you can download large 30-minute videos. We downloaded a couple in preparation for this tip. We ran the loop on the projector in our training room for a week straight. The crackling fire is surprisingly addictive and relaxing.

iYule.TV

From all of us here at CreativeTechs, we wish you a Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a prosperous New Year.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 12:00 AM | Permalink

Seattle graphic designer Pat Hansen (the founding president of Seattle's AIGA) has created a special line of personalized gifts. The deadline is closing fast for Christmas.

Personalized Gift Jars from Noteable You

Each individual gift includes dozens of your personal messages from you about your loved one. You choose the gift container, the design, the colors and up to 100 personalized messages. They'll walk you through the ordering process. Whether it’s for a last-minute Christmas gift, something for the New Year, or just for a friend who needs a bit of cheer, Noteable You Gifts are the perfect item.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the big features in Apple's new Leopard Server is iCal Server — which finally adds group-calendaring options to Apple's iCal calendar utility. A long requested feature that many creative studios have wanted for years.

However, iCal Server isn't always the right fit for smaller studios who don't require a full server installation. For those creative teams, BusySync ($19.95 per-user), might be a better calendaring solution.

BusySync Shared iCal Calendars

Install BusySync on each computer in your office and a new configuration options appear in System Preferences. From there, users can publish their iCal calendars on the network, and subscribe to co-worker's calendars.

Despite it’s modest feature set, BusySync works the way iCal Server should. It’s simple for end users, elegant in execution, and allows users to share and edit each other's calendars quickly and seamlessly. For a team too small to invest in a larger server, it’s an easy, intuitive, and low-maintenance method for collaborative calendaring.

BusySync Shared iCal Calendars

Source: This tip comes from the Mac Mac Work blog written by consultant Jordan Bojar. BusySync will be one of the solutions explored in an upcoming workshop for sharing iCal in creative agencies (workshop details below).

January 23 — Shared Calendaring Solutions. Leopard Server finally includes a group-calendaring server. For some creative teams, this alone may be worth the price of an upgrade. For others, another approach may be a better fit. We'll dig into what works, what doesn't, and what's needed to provide group calendaring and shared address books for your creative team. Includes a detailed look at several different shared iCal calendaring solutions.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 10:00 AM | Permalink

Photographer and designer Trevor Morris has updated his terrific Photoshop keyboard shortcut cheatsheets for Adobe Photoshop CS3. Download this handy PDF cheatsheet, print it out, and keep it near your computer:

Photoshop CS2 Keyboard Shortcuts (Mac)

Photoshop CS2 Keyboard Shortcuts (PC)

The PDF's include 4 pages. The first two pages are organized by function in Photoshop. The other two pages show the shortcuts organized alphabetically by keystroke.

Visit Trevor's website for an extra set of keyboard presets containing dozens of extra shortcuts for commonly used commands — all documented in the above cheat sheet. You'll also find cheats heats for previous versions of Photoshop, dating back to version 5.0:

Trevor Morris Photographics

Source: We've featured Trevor's handiwork in previous tips, including his Photoshop CS2 Shortcuts Cheatsheet.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 09:00 AM | Permalink

A classic designer's lament updated for the holiday season. Every time a bell rings, that's an agency's account executive caving in to this client demand...

Source: Thanks to Very Big Blog for the tip to this fun holiday video. Original video and song from World Wide Wadio. Of course don't forget the original hard-rock edition. Seconded by Mac support specialist Tim Hannon of Sound Support.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 07:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week we're taking a slight break from our normal tips format. If you are looking for the right gift to bring a smile to the graphic designer on your holiday list, here are ideas in the $20-$80 range. Plus one extravagant gift idea you might want to reserve for yourself.

Creative Gift #1— Helvetica The Film. On DVD.

Helvetica The Film (DVD)

Helvetica, a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture, is finally out on DVD. An essential addition to any graphic designer's movie collection.

Update: Seattle-area designers can pick up a copy of Helvetica at Scarecrow Video in the U-District. Or you can order Helvetica from Scarecrow's online store.

Creative Gift #2 — How-to Guides for Making Pop-up Books.

The Pocket Paper Engineer, Volume I

The Pocket Paper Engineer, Volume II

Author and bookbinder Carol Barton has created a beautiful workbook showing how to build pop-up books. What fun. Volume I has been part of the CreativeTechs library since summer. Volume II ships in June 2008.

(via Third Place Books in Seattle's Lake Forest Park. Also mentioned at Boing Boing.)

Creative Gift #3 — Portfolio Books with Thousands of Die-Cut Designs.

Structural Greetings

Structural Packaging

Along the same line, here is a gift for designers who need a less frivolous excuse to indulge in some clever paper-folding. These two portfolio books by Josep M. Garrofe showcase hundreds of projects from design firms around the world. A wonderful collection showing how a well-executed die-cut can surprise and delight. Plus, they include a CD which features EACH die-cut profiled in the book.

(via the always wonderful SwissMiss blog.)

Creative Gift #4 — Typographic Goodies from Veer.

Helvetica Coffee Mug ($18)

Kern Zip-Up ($69)

Typography Hoodie ($59)

Pitter Patter Umbrella ($49)

(via Veer’s Merchandise store which has dozens of terrific gift ideas that show your favorite graphic designer how well you understand them.)

Extravagant Creative Gift — Canon PowerShot G9

Canon PowerShot G9

Canon WP-DC21 Underwater housing for Canon G9

Finally, if you are looking for a great digital point-and-shoot camera, the Canon PowerShot G9 gets great reviews. More importantly (to us) this is the camera we've seen several commercial shooters pick as their own casual traveling camera. As an added bonus, Canon makes excellent underwater housing for their digital cameras.

Reviews of the G9 available at: Strobist, Wired, and Chase Jarvis' blog (scroll to bottom of comments)

Posted by Craig Swanson at 07:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For those techie folk on your shopping list, here are some ideas in the $20-$80 range. To keep things interesting, we avoided the obvious list of Apple iPods and peripherals (although those never fail to please). The extravagant gift in this list includes a nice twist to spread your generous spirit a little further.

Tech Gift #1 — The Ultimate Hardware Geek’s Swiss Army Knife.

Swiss Army CyberTool 41

How many pocket knives come with a DIP switch setter and torx bits? Very few indeed. This unique Swiss Army knife contains a specially selected set of tools to fit the daily needs of computer hardware techs. This is a great tool for making computer repairs. It includes 4 double-head hex bits, as well as various sizes of Philips and regular slotted screwdrivers. A total of 41 different functions in a single tool - amazing!

Tech Gift #2 — Subscription to MAKE: Magazine.

MAKE: Magazine Subscription

Packed full of projects, each issue of MAKE: provides hours of hands-on projects for that tinkerer in your life. Where else can you find step-by-step instructions for building such things as a solar-powered xylophone, remote control bird feeder, or hundreds of other MacGyver-worthy projects

(via RedHat Geek Guide)

Tech Gift #3 — Tiny Remote Control Helicopters.

Air Hogs Havoc Helicopter

I'd seen these tiny RC Helicopters on TV commercials, but it wasn't until I actually flew one at a client's studio that I realized how much fun they are. The helicopters themselves are made out of a light, durable foam body. The remote controls are basic, but they definitely takes some time to learn. Get a couple of these for a studio and you can say goodbye to productive work for about a week.

(via Chase Jarvis studios)

Extravagant Tech Gift — XO Laptop. Give One & Get One.

Give One Get One
You may have heard about the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project whose mission is to empower the children of developing countries by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. With the first version being the ingeniously designed XO laptop (also known as the $100 laptop).

From now through Dec 31, 2007, OLPC is offering a Give One Get One program in the United States and Canada. This is the first time the XO laptop has been available to the general public.

For a donation of $399, one XO laptop will be sent to a child in a developing nation and one will be sent to the child (or techie) in your life in recognition of your contribution. As an added bonus up to $200 of your donation may be tax-deductible.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 07:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In this 30 minute video, Chase Jarvis demonstrates the ins and outs of how he packs his photo gear for shoots on locations around the world. At CreativeTechs we've been lucky to be working with and supporting Chase’s team with their increasingly impressive computer network.

Make sure to check out Chase's blog and don't miss out on the comments below the posts where some of the best action can be found.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week, CreativeTechs' Jordan Bojar gave a terrific talk on the upcoming impact of Leopard Server for larger creative businesses. If you missed it, we’ve set aside time for a limited number of complimentary planning and strategy sessions. If you manage a creative team in the Seattle-area with at least 10 people, take advantage of this opportunity to help map out your team's strategy for a Leopard Server upgrade in 2008.

We've set aside 4 days in December, and have 8 7 6 5 4 3 0 open slots. If you manage a creative team with at least 10 people, we encourage you to call and schedule a session. We'll make sure it is a valuable use of your time.

Available Times for Free Planning Sessions:

Tuesday, December 11:     9 am: SCHEDULED     11 am: SCHEDULED Tuesday, December 18:     9 am: SCHEDULED     11 am: SCHEDULED

Thursday, December 13:     9 am: SCHEDULED     11 am: SCHEDULED Thursday, December 20:     9 am: SCHEDULED     11 am: SCHEDULED

To schedule a free consultation for your team: Take a look at the available times, and give us a call at 206-682-4315 or drop us a line at .

This is our busy season, and the end of the year is coming fast, so we've had to limit the number of available slots. They'll go quickly. If you are interested, call or email us today.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 07:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sometimes after working with images on a transparent background, you're left with extra space around your object. Cropping the image precisely can be tricky, especially if you have soft shadow edges.

This is where Photoshop’s Trim command comes in so handy (choose Image > Trim in Photoshop's menu).

As long as the area you want to crop is transparent or a solid color, the Trim dialog box lets you instantly crop your document's canvas to the outer border of your image.

While this feature has been part of Photoshop from the very early years, a lot of designers miss it along the way. A great time saver.

Source: We use Photoshop’s Trim command all the time while preparing screen shots for these weekly tips. This is the feature that attracts the most comments from people who happen to be watching over my shoulder. For this tip, I borrowed some wording from the Creative Guy archives.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 03:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you give Macintosh training presentations or demos, give Mouseposé ($14.95) a try. Your audience will appreciate it.

Mouseposé 2 from Boinx Software

With Mouseposé installed, press your defined hotkey, and it dims the screen and puts a spotlight around your mouse pointer, easily guiding the audience’s attention to an area of interest. Very useful when you are trying to point out a small-but-important detail on a large projection screen.

Mouseposé can also be configured to display a pop-up overlay on the screen showing any keys you press. A great feature for helping people understand when you are using certain shortcut commands, or say, holding down the Option key when clicking on a particular button.

This utility is simple, but it often gets a few "oohs" and "aahs" when Jason Hoppe pulls it out in one of his weekly mini-workshop classes.

Source: We first ran into this handy tool on Don McAllister's excellent ScreenCastsOnline. Another similar tool for augmenting screen presentations is OmniDazzle from Seattle's The Omni Group. Both are excellent. We use Mouseposé in our weekly mini-workshops largely because of the pop-up keystroke visualization feature.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 01:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Join us at the CreativeTechs office Wednesday mornings 9:30am to 11am. Pick up a couple new skills, and get back to work before lunch. You can put what you learn into use the same day.

December 2007 Mini-Workshops:

Dec 5, 9:30-11am — Photoshop: Color Correction Techniques. Another installment in Jason Hoppe's continuing series on non-destructive Photoshop retouching. This 90-minute session digs into the fundamentals of color correction. Plenty of real-world examples from Jason's own retouching work over the years.

Dec 12, 9:30-11am — Photoshop: Digital Anomalies. Another installment in Jason Hoppe's continuing series on non-destructive Photoshop retouching. This 90-minute session focuses on dealing with those odd problems that come up working on images: Moires, banding, dust & scratches, resizing images, etc. Includes a number of real-world challenges provided by Tom Barwick Photography.

Dec 19, 9:30-11am — InDesign for Writers & Non-Designers. For our last workshop of the year, we offer an often-requested class. A 90-minute look at the basics copywriters, account managers, and other people who need to work with InDesign templates. You know the people who need to be here. Sign them up and put it on their calendar.

Don't see a workshop for you?

Workshop topics come directly from client requests. So email us your idea and we'll work it into an upcoming schedule.

Email your ideas to training@creativetechs.com.

Outside of Seattle? We still want to hear from you. These same workshop topics will eventually be covered in our weekly tips newsletter.

Call us with any questions or problems.

We are all a little new to the logistics of coordinating a weekly event like this. If you have any problems or questions with online ticket ordering, please don't hesitate to call our office at 206-682-4315 or email help@creativetechs.com and let us help you in person.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 07:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)