I cranked out logos, logos with gradients, different colors, sizes, letters kerned. Then we looked for imagery around Indian weddings. Grabbed examples and synthesized images to go on the splash screen. We ended up here:
Still not finished, but the experience of being able to finally work productively with graphical tools such as Photoshop and Fireworks was exquisite. The breakthrough book for me was, Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop's Most Powerful Feature .
I tried to take a chapter a day and work through the examples using the images he shows in the book. It is small (a great attribute in my opion) and instead of trying to describe every feature he sets out to build useful workflows for the majority of work.
It also requires some CSS knowledge to lay out the images on the page which I had built up over the last year. The feeling of cranking directly on what the user sees is great. Combine that with the ability to code the backend and test rapidly using splash screens, I think I am getting close to having a toolset for trying multiple ideas over the next year or so until I find one that sticks.
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Hi Will! Isn´t it great? When I married Nelson, I began designing our menus for the restaurant on Power Point!! Then we had to go to the Design Agency and have them work it on Freehand or Photoshop! It took forever! Then a breakthrough moment, we hired a designer to do an animation of a tortilla wrap huggin a beer and pulling it towards it! I was awesome, and I was there watching him put it on a transparent background on Photoshop before he did the actual animation. I asked him to show me at least how to take a background of our logo to place it on any background I wanted on Power Point and he looked at me like I was crazy..."designing on Power Point?????", he said! So he showed me a couple of things in 20 minutes (magic wand, magnetic lazo, layers, and clone stamp) and I was set! I began experimenting, many sleepless nights...and I became a self-taught through trial and error Photoshopper!!! I do all of the graphic design for Papazitos and saves us a whole lot of money and time. Also, it assures my ideas get on the screen and paper the way I want them to, instead of settling for the designers interpretation. I have designed our websites also, they aren´t as elaborate as yours, I am sure, but they get the job done. Have tried with web designers and have great ideas but here in Guate they are expensive and take a lot of time in the development of the website. Have designed them through Yahoo!SiteBuilder, very user-friendly tool. Well, hope all is well with Monica and the boys! Hugs, Johanna Farr
ReplyDeleteIt is very liberating to be able to express yourself directly. I have been excited to actually start doing so myself. Kids are having a good year and Ian is progressing well with reading and math this year so far.
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