Houston Graphics

Captcha Plugin

The Admin — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:11:42 +0000

I just installed the CapCC captcha plugin on the this thing because I was getting a lot of spam comments. I know, I hate them too. You can barely make out the letters and it makes the commenting process more difficult, but hey, at least I know you REALLY wanted to comment.

Imitiation Equals Blah

The Admin — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:32:19 +0000

“Unfortunately, the type pages so imitated are frequently inferior, or, at best, the imitation is only an imitation, because the imitator has not grasped the principles which make the original design good.”

-The Manual of Linotype Typography

Is it website, web site, or Web site?

The Admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:31:57 +0000

When I first began working with text and content, I never knew what the correct spelling of website and email was. Sometimes it was spelled as one word, and sometimes as two. Other times, I would see Web capitalized. So what is it??

Without siting references and so on, what I remember reading was, Web was originally capitalized, as in World Wide Web. It was always capitalized and separate from website. So was email. It was e-mail, short for electronic mail. Well, I started doing the fancy way, always spelling website as Web site and email as e-mail, but what I’ve found out is that, people don’t care. In fact, the majority of the public spell it as website and email. Sure, if I worked for a publisher or was a copywriter, then it would matter, but since I work for myself, dealing with business owners and the public in general, why not go with the flow?

I just looked up the correct spelling of website on Wikipedia, and according to specific style guides, it is spelled Web site.

Graphic Design Job Directories For Houston

The Admin — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:20:48 +0000

American Advertising Federation-Houston Jobs List

Only In Houston Jobs List
I think they pull a lot of the jobs listed here from AAF-HOUSTON (or from some central database).

The Creative Group
Type in a Houston zip code to see the jobs.

Creative Hotlist
Just search under Houston or Texas.

Some Links

The Admin — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:13:09 +0000

Design Meltdown
Look at Web site designs, categorized by style.

Tunes
Not the name of the site, but a neat place to find Rapidshare links for music.

Family Guy online
Catch up on all your Family Guy episodes. Watch them streaming, online.

I Hate IE6 and Word Press!

The Admin — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:43:19 +0000

I use Firefox religiously now, and nothing else, but everytime I’m done designing my Web pages and test it in IE6, of course it is messed up! It is always messed up! I always have to implement hacks or work arounds to make it display properly. I just finished writing my Complex Masks in Photoshop CS3 Tutorial, and sure enough, the side menu is at the bottom and spacing is screwed up!

And now I’m starting to hate Word Press … the very blog software this blog is using! I disabled the WYSIWYG editor to use the HTML editor by default, but guess what? You do not get full HTML control! It just makes you think you’re in control. I’m trying to fix the spacing errors for IE6 by adding some extra page break tags, but it only recognizes the enter key as a page break. I’m not that stupid Word Press!

Complex Masks In Photoshop CS3

The Admin — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:18:38 +0000

Skill Level: Expert
Summary: How to create a complex mask using the Pen Tool, Brush Tool, Lasso Tool, Refine Edge, and Gaussian Blur.

Download Project Files (10.9 MB ZIP)

I’m going to show you how to cut out this dog and place him on a green background (or any background of your choice). Looks ridiculous doesn’t it? Why in the world would anybody even ask you to do this? If they do, tell them they need to get a picture of the dog on a white background! Okay, only in a perfect world do we get such luxuries. So lets say you have to cut out this cute dog and put him on a greeting card or whatever, and this is what your boss gives you, or what the client is demanding to be used. The first thing you realize is you won’t be using the Magic Wand. You might try using the Extract Command (under Filter), but I personally don’t get any good results.

(more…)

Writers Strike

The Admin — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 06:59:22 +0000

I didn’t realize how big of a deal this writer’s strike was. I’ve been waiting to see a new episode of The Office for months and I’m getting The Office withdrawls! On a side note, The Golden Globe awards show was canceled.

Helvetica Film

The Admin — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 02:03:17 +0000

I just got finished watching Helvetica, a documentary about the typeface. I wish I could write something informative to you about the film, but I’m feeling kinda out-of-it so to speak (hung over). What I liked about the film was being able to connect the names of famous designers to a profile. The film interviews a lot of famous typographers and designers about Helvetica, and although I could care less about the font, I liked hearing their opinions. For instance, I’ve heard of Hoefler & Frere-Jones and have known they design fonts, but actually seeing them and hearing from Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones makes me feel like I know them more. So if you’re interested in typography or design, watch it!

Design Magazines: My Opinion

The Admin — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 22:38:59 +0000

Communication Arts - I had a subscription for a year. I didn’t renew because it bored me. Maybe it was all the text.
HOW - I have a couple here that my friend gave me. I like their forum more than their magazine. Nothing really to say about the magazine. It has stuff in it.
Print - I perused through it, and found it very artsy. That may sound weird coming from a guy like me, but I just didn’t find anything in it very practical.
Photoshop Creative & Advanced Photoshop - I always pick these up at Barnes & Noble. I like these. I just never buy them because the news stand price is $15 and a subscription is $150. Its a magazine from the UK. I’ll break down one day and get a subscription.
Before&After Magazine - I really like this one. Straight up design. No ads, no software, just tips and tricks on how to make your designs better. They focus on the elements of design like color, shape, texture, etc. instead of trends and tricks. I already have some of their PDFs, but I just purchased the PDF/Print subscription because I prefer to read in books on REAL paper.
Create Magazine - Yuck. I thought it would be good and ordered a subscription. What a crock! The magazine is just chocked full of ads and inserts. Plus it’s not just a design magazine. It has articles on “Advertising, Design, Photography, Printing, Film & Video, Audio & Music, Animation, and New Media”. Wow! I didn’t know one magazine could hold so much crap!