For this tutorial we’ll be using the HUE color mode to replace an image’s color without affecting the underlying contrast or luminosity.
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Color replacement using the HUE blending mode
Grids, Guides, Proportions and InDesign Math
You can get obsessed with grids. Grids act as the skeleton or backbone of most design work and are considered integral to the process of balancing aesthetics with information exchange. Grids are beloved by some and bemoaned by others – some find the rigid parameters invaluable to harmonious design, others find it limiting and constricting. I find myself falling somewhere in the middle – there’s an inner geek inside of me that loves to find a clever way to break up space, but there also the anti-establishment side of my personality that likes to break rules and push the boundaries. For that reason, I like using grids as I see it as an opportunity to act as both lawman and outlaw, I can be both the cops and the robbers.
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A Digital Watermark
This tutorial will provide some tips on creating a digital watermark, making alpha channels and using layer adjustments. There are endless variations on this so it would be in your best interest to give yourself time to experiment and play around with settings you like.
Unheralded Moments of the Creative Process
When we think about the Creative Process, we typically think about the more positive or at least productive aspects: visioning, execution, decision making, consideration, experimentation. These are all skills that are the focus of classes at school and in furthering our professional professional development. This is critical knowledge for us creative folk.
But what of negative aspects of the creative process, the one’s which on the surface don’t feel as if they are productive: failure, discouragement, procrastination, justification? They all factor into how ideas move forward (although some may make us feel as if we’re moving backwards – or want to give up all together) and should be embraced as skills as the aspects listed above.
As this collection of thoughts expands through these blog posts, I hope to explore all of the aspects of the creative process and certainly welcome the input of friends and strangers alike to help me elaborate on them.
Photoshop Tutorial – Halftones…and beyond
A student of mine wanted to create text that had an old school analog halftone look. While the Photoshop Halftone filter does an adequate job, it is fairly limited and doesn’t allow for a full range of experimentation and exploration.
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Homage to MacPaint..
…or why I made an Illustrator swatch set of the original Macpaint patterns
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Photoshop/InDesign Tutorial – Create a super-duper black graphic
To provide yourself some flexibility in InDesign with scanned graphics – changing colors to match swatches, using graphics as knockouts etc.. graphics need to be converted to a superblack – or in this case a super-duper black – a CMYK file with all levels of ink at 100%
Photoshop Tutorial – Photoshop Cross Fader
InDesign Tutorial #5 – Transparency
A student asked if it would be possible to convert a drawing from full color to black and white in InDesign. The answer is “of course you can but why would you want to do it when you have better tools in Photoshop?” The method uses InDesign’s effects Palette to do the conversion which is why this questions lends itself nicely to making a tutorial exploring Transparency.
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Procrastination
I think procrastination needs to be lumped in with everything else that makes up the creative process. It’s important to recognize that sometimes we need to not think about something in order for that something to churn around in the back of heads. Some people work best under pressure, or think best in the shower; whatever the case may be if you are aware that you are procrastinating when you should be doing your work its not necessarily a bad thing.
The text below is taken from an interview with Jason Schwartzman Fresh Air about writing the theme song to Bored to Death
On writing the theme song for Bored to Death
“This is an embarrassing story, and one that I feel terrible about because it will expose me as a low-key liar. But I did it and I brought it upon myself so I’m just going to come clean now. … I was finishing up a film, Funny People, that I was acting in that was taking up all of my days. And I was supposed to be writing the song, and every week I would get an e-mail from people at HBO saying, ‘How’s the song coming?’ And I would just say, ‘Everything is great,’ even though I had nothing written. And I would quickly invent something that I had written, and describe something, like, ‘I’ve come up with this walking bass line; I think it’s very right for the song,’ and they’d write back, ‘Great. Can’t wait to hear it.’ … Basically, I lied for a month on the fly about what was in this song, musically. Then it came time for me to submit a demo, and not to seem like a liar, I went back through all of my sent e-mails and saw all of the things I had said were in the song, wrote them down — and then basically to fulfill the lie, I wrote the song based on every fib I had e-mailed. And I wrote it in 10 minutes.”