Oblique Thoughts

As I was choosing a font the other day, I started thinking about oblique, Helvetica Oblique to be exact. Any font with oblique after the name gives you italics. “Why isn’t the font called Helvetica Italics or Helvetica Slanted,” I wondered.

I Googled oblique to find such adjectives as slanting, skew, indirect, sloping, slant, devious, sidelong, awry, circuitous, roundabout, inclined and the definitions of the word:
1. If you describe a statement as oblique, you mean that is not expressed directly or openly, making it difficult to understand.

2. An oblique line is a straight line that is not horizontal or vertical. An oblique angle is any angle other than a right angle.

Fascinating. Then I thought I’d rather like it if the font were called Helvetica Devious.

Finally, I pondered my abs. Yes, those oblique muscles on the sides of the torso that, it turns out, lay on a slant. Huh. Those are a lot of oblique thoughts I was having that are now perfectly clear to me.

Better

When you are around someone who is bettering themselves in some way, education, fitness, etc., it is hard not to get inspired. Or at least feel inadequate or lazy or both for not doing something to move toward your goals. My husband has acquired a couple Microsoft certifications and is taking a course twice a week to learn C# (sharp not pound, apparently) and .net programming, things I cannot hope to ever understand. I've run a few marathons so I'm crushing him on the fitness (though he's not unfit as I've wrangled him into some 5Ks), but it's time to work a body part I've been neglecting.

I've been a graphic designer for over a decade, but as with most professions, there is always something new to learn - and thank goodness. A month ago I downloaded a 10-week Photoshop webinar and am finally nibbling away at the one-hour classes with accompanying one-hour Q and A. For perspective, I now have to admit a guilty pleasure: I loved school. I loved college. Being in a class is one of my favorite things. I was really disappointed I couldn't take this Photoshop course when it was offered live and was really worried it would be dry and feel less interactive. Maybe that's why I put it off for a while. It turns out that it's wonderful.

The instructor, Jason Hoppe, is excellent; he is concise, entertaining and dispenses so much knowledge about Photoshop it could fill an Egyptian pyramid. As someone who uses the CS3 version of this program, I'm in an excellent spot to soak up more efficient ways to do the things I know, learn some new techniques, see how things work in CS4 (the version used in this course) and get a refresher on skills I learned once but don't have the opportunity to do often. It's like taking toothpaste to tarnished silver; try it - it will shine like new.

As a lover of learning, my second favorite thing is sharing what I've learned. I often e-mail my coworkers tips and tricks. Some they already know and some they don't, but I figure if we all get faster, we have more time for the fun part - being creative! There are so many things I've picked up from this course, such as holding the option key (alt on the PC) while clicking on the eyeball icon on one layer will turn all the other layers off for instant before and after comparison. Fab-u-lous!

This course is still available here. Download all 10 weeks for $65 or just the weeks you want for $15 each. CreativeTechs, a Seattle-based professional Mac support company, is who produces this course and others. Visit their blog for all kinds of useful Mac/design-related information. You can also follow them on Twitter: @creativetechs. Am I in some way affiliated with CreativeTechs? No. I just want you to get better.

Big Typography

I decided to enter a design contest. I can submit as many designs as I like and can see this becoming addicting. Rules: Use this quote, "What we do in life, echoes in eternity." I really have to get to bed so must stop with my first try for tonight.

Read more about the contest and see more entries.

So You Want to Be a Graphic Designer?

People ask me what I do and I like to say kayak lakes and creeks, hike in quiet pockets of forest around my home and read mentally delicious books because I feel I should be defined by the myriad of things that I love, not the singular thing that makes me money. (The beadmaking could keep me in supply of Ramen noodles, but no roof over my head, hehe.) Yes, you say, but that is how you afford to do all the things you love. And you are right. Because I really love snowboarding, and man, that isn't cheap. Sometimes I do answer that I'm a graphic designer, and people always get a little starry eyed, and say, "That must be a lot of fun! I was starry-eyed myself, and thought it'd be a lot of fun once, too. Honestly, though this little video is what it's really like in real life. Daily. So consider what you think you want to be very carefully. That said, creating is really fun when you get to work on top-of-the-line Macs with the newest software available (I'm not bragging, just grateful; I was on Photoshop 5.5 and Freehand 8 for the last decade), but just be ready for whatever you make to end up barely recognizable from where you began and you struggling to keep it from looking hideous. This is truly what your job is. Take all the changes they give you and keep it from looking hideous. Because at the end of the day you want to be proud of what you made, but some days you just have to resign yourself to the reality of the job. You just keep a copy of that first design as a memento of what could have been.

Restoring the Faith
On another note, being able to work in InDesign and Illustrator again (and Photoshop on a computer that will let me move something and not have to go to lunch and come back before it catches up) has rekindled a few twinkles again. InDesign alone is so intuitive that I actually remember why I wanted to do this. I guess there is still some fun to be had, and I have made it my new mission to master this program and as much as I can of CS3 in general. Treading water does nothing but let you keep breathing in place.

Is it Your Imagination?

No, it's not your imagination. The iPhone has sucked me into a vortex that has not allowed me to blog, but I have momentarily escaped for a short post. Shhhhh. Sure, I can blog from the phone, but I'm doing so many other things with it! Okay, the truth? I'm still perfecting my typing skills. I am not a big texter so this two-thumbing it is newish for me. The touch keys are really responsive though, and I can see how I could be blazingly fast in the future.

Let's see. What's new? You know you're putting on muscle when the Fed-Ex guy at work notices, LOL. I had to sign for a package since the receptionist was out, and I was the nearest human. Seeing me in my sleeveless shirt that is against the dress code (take that dress code police!) he said, "Wow, look at the muscles on you. Good for you!" How very complimentary! The best part is he is not skeevey (like the DHL guy), and it was just a compliment. Thanks Fed-Ex guy! That weekly kayaking racing is toning the arms.

Here's something new for you fellow graphic designers. Stop copying and pasting! Say goodbye to command C, command V. Just click your object, hold down the option key and drag. Presto! Hold option and shift to constrain it like I know you'll want to. How did I not know this?

Also new to me: Changing the colors of things in drop down menus in InDesign. I'm always doing Paste Into, and I kind of have to look for it, but now that it's orange, it stands right out! Hmm. Now where did I find that? Maybe under Change Menus or something? I'll look it up if you're interested. Let me know.

Paying the Bills

As some of you know, my graphic design day job is the one that pays the bills, and I just found some stickers that are going to make the time I spend proofreading way more fun - maybe not for my coworkers but fun for me!  Yes, I'm using a ridiculous number of fonts, and good lord, look at this spacing!  There are stickers for those offenses.

If you are a designer who also enjoys the duty of proofreader (what isn't fun about marking up other people's work?), these are sure to brighten your day.