My Intro to Mac students are learning their way around Leopard, the latest version of Mac OSX. Actually, since it’s installed in the labs and not in our offices yet, I’m learning my way around it too. No need to fear! Apple has supplied a nice series of tutorials, beginning with Anatomy of a Mac. These online videos walk users through many of the features I’ll be discussing and demonstrating in class.
I just found out my fall schedule:
I’ll likely be teaching CGT 1911 Portfolio as well, but right now we’ve got low enrollment in that course—probably because students are unaware of it. Portfolio prepares students for the faculty portfolio review at the end of the first year. All students enrolled in Graphic Design I should also be in CGT 1911 Portfolio, which must be taken by majors before taking Design II. Help me get the word out! To learn more about Pellissippi’s CGT program, click here.
The net is full of screen capture voice over tutorials these days, and some of them are good enough to put me out of work. This is not one of those. Donnie Hoyle narrates a series of pathetically funny YouTube videos where we learn as much about his overbearing wife and goofy online gaming friends as we do about Photoshop paths. My favorite moments are when he berates his viewers for their Photoshop stupidity. “When are you gonna get better? I guess let’s strap on your stupid and get at it.”
Exciting news: I’m proposing a summer 2009 program in the Netherlands. This week I met with Dr. Milton Grimes, director of the Tennessee Consortium for International Studies. I’ll be working closely with Dr. Grimes in the coming weeks and months to propose the program to the committee and plan the details of coursework and travel plans.
The Netherlands is a fascinating country full of art, graphic design, bicycles, canals and windmills. We’ll spend a month in the country, with two weeks each in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, where visual art professor Anne Kinggard will teach Art History and I will teach Typography. Stay tuned for updates. In the meantime, here’s a link to a slide show of Amsterdam Photos by Claudio.Ar. Here’s a YouTube video bike tour of Amsterdam, and here’s a video on the architecture in Rotterdam.
It’s been a tough week in Knoxville. Last Sunday an angry, alcoholic, unemployed Vietnam vet with a history of domestic violence fired 3 shotgun blasts in a Unitarian church, killing 2 and wounding 7 before the church folks tackled the shooter and put him in a martial arts hold until the police could take him away in handcuffs. (Hey—we liberals are peaceful, but we can put a hurtin’ on a gun-toting wingnut.) Read More…
It should come as no surprise to those who know me that I support the Obama campaign. Barack Obama’s persona, his platform, and his campaign all give me hope that America can regain its position as a world leader and champion of justice. It’s fair to say that I am a huge Obama fan. For the first time since I was twelve the candidate I voted for has won the primary and is now is positioned to win the election.
Today I got an e-mail about the Barack Obama Manifest Hope campaign. In part it said:
Barack Obama’s historic candidacy has sparked an unprecedented artistic outpouring. Now, in partnership with Shepard Fairey and his Obey Giant collective, we’re offering a new way for artists—anyone with a pen and paper qualifies—to share their talents and help elect Barack Obama at the same time
If you’re as excited about the campaign as I am, why not check it out?
I just got an e-mail from Teela, a former student who earned her Associates at Pellissipppi and is now getting her BFA at Watkins College of Art and Design in Nashville. She’s set up her portolio using Behance, and says:
Behance is a pretty cool network. Its similar to the Myspace setup but ya know, without myspace. Its free and a great way to get feedback and network with other creatives around the globe! Check it out.
Her work looks great, and I recognize a few projects from my courses. I like Behance’s portfolio, and it’s features are more robust than Carbonmade. Think of it as MySpace for designers without the messy layout and ugly backgrounds. I require all my Design I and Design II students to create an online portfolio as their final exam. I think this semester I’ll switch to Behance.
I recently ran across the article “The Web’s Best Free Stuff” in PC World. And who doesn’t like free stuff? So here are my personal faves.
I’ve always gotten a kick out of sleuthing out fonts, and identifont is supposed to make that much easier to do. I decided to use a sample from a magazine to test it. I started with the “identify font by appearance” link, and typed in the letters that appear in the sample word above. I read a series of questions, clicking on the best answers. Of course the questions and answers will vary according to each sample.
After 12 questions, identifont offered over 30 matches, with the first being Berling. By clicking on the font name on the left I could see a sample, along with design information and vendor links. The third sample was Bembo, which was a perfect match.
I’m impressed with Identifont. From the questions I was asked, it helps you find obscure font styles like grunge and bitmapped styles. I even learned what “Geraldine” and Venitian” mean, which I never knew. If you are trying to match a mystery font, I’d recommend Identifont.
I was in high school in 1981, and I got a part-time job shelving books at the branch library in Nashville. We kept back issues of magazines and that’s where I discovered Rolling Stone. While I was in the back reading about The Doors, I noticed the magazine’s masthead was drawn in 3D, which I thought was very cool. Inside were more examples of dramatic lettering.
Jim Parkinson was the guy responsible for much of the hand-lettering for the magazine. Parkinson is interviewed in this months Creative Characters newsletter from MyFonts. Check out the article for more about Rolling Stone, Abraham Lincoln Paulsen, and failing the Fuzzy Rabbit Test.
