Logo Links
Posted by Jennifer Farley | June 27, 2008 | 3 Comments
Yesterday I posted about the Upstarts Programme available for new designers and advertisers in Ireland. To get a place on the workshop, it’s necessary to respond to a design brief to create a logo for the Dublin Olympics of 2016 (let’s hope keeping your cool in traffic is an olympic sport by then!). So here’s some links to logo design that you may find useful, either for this brief or for logo design in general.
Olympic Council of Ireland - Site provides information on the use of olympic rings and imagery.
All of the Summer Olympic Logos since 1896.
David Airey on the London Olympics Logo - Lots of great comments on this one too.
Logo Design Trends for 2008 from Logoorange.
LogoBlog has tons of good articles and posts on all things logo-related.
Neatorama - has an interesting article on some of the big-name companies’ logos have evolved over time.
Another to add to the list is the Logo Design New Zealand blog - lots of good resources and inspiration for designers and even some free logos to download.
Upstarts Programme: Institute of Creative Advertising & Design
Posted by Jennifer Farley | June 26, 2008 | Leave A Comment
If you’re interested in getting started, or have maybe already dipped your toe in the world of advertising and design, then you should take a look at the Upstarts Programme being run by ICAD here in Ireland.
They are running workshops in both advertising and design over a six week period. During the workshops a different brief will be given each week and it sounds like a terrific way to build up a portfolio. There are experienced mentors for each upstart and an exhibition of the work built up over the six weeks will be displayed at the end of the programme.
There’s no charge for the workshops but to get a place (and there are only 12 places) you need to respond to an design brief to create a logo for the Dublin Olympics.
You can find all the information on the Upstarts programme and the design brief here.
Using Adobe Bridge With Photoshop (Part 1)
Posted by Jennifer Farley | June 23, 2008 | 9 Comments
Recently I started a new class teaching digital design. Photoshop is the first piece of software that we tackle and I asked the class of 20, how many of them had used Photoshop before. Almost every single person had some experience. I also asked the class how many of them had used Adobe Bridge before. The answer was no one had used it and no one had even heard of it.
Adobe Bridge was a new feature in Creative Suite 2. It is very similar to the File Browser which appeared in previous versions of Photoshop. It allows you to search for files visually rather than just using a file name and it helps save time by allowing you to view previews of many different file types. So if you are a designer, illustrator, photographer or anyone who stores lots of images, you should be using Bridge!
Click the Go to Bridge button on the tool options bar to open Adobe Bridge.
An alternative way to open Bridge from Photoshop is to choose File > Browse)
Viewing and editing files in Adobe Bridge
The left and right hand side of the Bridge browser window displays palettes that you can rearrange, resize, and group within Adobe Bridge, using the same techniques as with Photoshop palettes.
Click the Folders tab in the upper left corner of the Bridge browser, then browse to the folder where you are storing your images.
Adobe Bridge displays previews of image files such as those in PSD, TIFF, and JPEG formats as well as Adobe Illustrator vector files, Adobe PDF files, and even MS Office documents. The Bridge preview pane displays thumbnails of your files.
At the bottom of the browser window, you can drag the thumbnail slider to reduce and enlarge the thumbnail previews.
You can also view your files in Filmstrip view;
Or in Metadata view where you can see additional information about each file.
You can select any thumbnail in Bridge by clicking on it once. Once you click on it you’ll see a larger preview appears in the Preview palette on the right hand side.
You can also enlarge the Preview palette by dragging the horizontal and vertical bars that separate it from the other panes of the browser window. The pointer appears as double lines with arrows 
when positioned over the bars. As you drag the preview palette gets larger.
You can move and adjust your palettes and thumbnails till you find the best arrangement for yourself.
To open any .PSD, .TIF, or .JPG image at any time into Photoshop from within Adobe Bridge, double-click its thumbnail preview. If you have other applications, AI files will automatically open in Illustrator, INDD files will open in InDesign and PDF files will open in Acrobat.
This is the first of several articles that I’m posting on Bridge, there’s more to follow over the next couple of weeks. If you’re using Photoshop CS2 or CS3 I would actively encourage you to use it. It is a huge timesaver when you’re working with lots of images.
My home office earlier today…
Posted by Jennifer Farley | June 17, 2008 | 3 Comments
Sabrina Dent asks her readers for a pic of their working environment. Ok, maybe mine doesn’t actually look like this, but it often feels like this.
Photo by Johnnyberg on Stockxchng.
Poster Design Follow-up
Posted by Jennifer Farley | June 16, 2008 | 3 Comments
Last week I mentioned that I was looking for some inspiration for a flyer/poster I was doing for two DJs. In the end I made a poster. My starting image was this;
So the challenge was two-fold; (i) Create a nice eye-catching design for a poster and (ii) Try and make these guys look cool!
In the end this is the poster I made.
I designed it A3 size in Photoshop but got it printed A1 without any problems. It looks really good full size. They liked it and the people coming to the barbecue they were DJing at liked it too. A happy ending.
Free, Cute Cubeecraft Characters
Posted by Jennifer Farley | June 16, 2008 | 2 Comments
Cubeecraft are offering free paper characters to download and play with! They’re very cleverly designed and require no sellotape or glue - they just interlock perfectly. All you need is a scissors. I’ve downloaded a few to see if I could design one myself (and no, I don’t have that much time on my hands!). I particularly like the Indiana Jones design which comes with “idol and accessory”.
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About
Hi, my name is Jennifer Farley and I am a designer and design instructor based in Ireland. Read more about Laughing Lion Design .
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