#no i have used indesign before but it's been years

[pseudophan]

i would explain exactly why (except for the shadow ban) it's taking me several days to contact everyone about their recipes but i fear someone would have me admitted

[celestial-sphere-press]

That National Geographic leather binding for Yellowstone is fucking Gorgeous!!! (Pardon my Language)

How long have you been binding, and what would you recommend to someone who wants to try it for themselves?

hello and thank you so much!! I worked really hard on that one (and no pardon needed haha)!

I started binding in February of 2021, which means in a few months I'll have reached 4 years. It's been an awesome journey!!

If you'd like to try it for yourself, I'd recommenda few things!

1) You can 100% try out the basics with near free or cheap materials. People typeset in Word or Google Docs or Pages. You can print on printer paper & use regular sewing thread & scavenge board from old books or notebook backs or do a limp leather binding & use no boards at all. You can make paper pamphlets. Any comments I make following this are about my preferences for best results. The most expensive part that cannot be avoided is printing. On the other hand expenses can wildly escalate if you're committing to it; once you are doing leather it becomes somewhat unavoidably expensive.

2) Check out some tutorials from SeaLemon or DAS Bookbinding on YouTube for the physical construction. SeaLemon is really clear for a beginner starting out, but then I'd move to DAS for better technique (DAS also has a beginner series though). I watched DAS Bookbinding videos for three weeks straight before I was able to start, & while that doesn't maybe work out for everyone I do think it gave me a pretty strong basis of understanding for structural techniques. DAS is *really* good at explaining why he thinks you should do something. The structure of the NatGeo bind is basically DAS's video on a rounded & backed bradel binding (but with leather & sewn on recessed cords). There is some good stuff on Tiktok/IG, but watch short-form videos/reels with caution. They move a little fast and I've seen a couple give instructions that can result in structural flaws (not that this is unique to the form, cross-referencing on instructions from any source is a good practice). They are good for if you're looking for a specific technique (particularly modern decorative ones, like cricut use, edge gilding, HTV application). There are also published books you can buy or maybe request through your library, such as Hollander's Introduction to Bookbinding. Renegade Bookbinding Guild runs a whole bunch of technique-specific in-house zoom classes annually.

3) Look to other fanbinders for tutorials on how to format the text (this is because most pro bookbinders do not do both text design & book creation! it's a pretty unique feature of fanbinding). @renegadeguild has some publically provided resources on our website here and more typesetting tutorials for a whole host of softwares (Affinity Publisher is my choice - one time purchase, fuck you very much Adobe InDesign) located in the discord server. Anyone 18+ can join the Discord. The NatGeo inspired book (text & dust jacket) was created in Affinity Publisher.

4) Join a community of fanbinders! It's really lovely. The space has exploded & there are tons of people to be friends with, trade tips, & cheer each other on. I'm part of @renegadeguild and we do a whole bunch of events throughout the year, and we have an in-person retreat every other year. I've met with over 20 different renegaders so far, in three different countries, and it's been such a blast. Definitely the community helps keep up the motivation. Renegade isn't the only community out there though! There's groups more rooted in IG/tiktok circles that have their own discords, plus a number of FB groups. I do think most people who are comfortable on tumblr enjoy Renegade's vibe.

5) While I learned most of what I do online, some things really benefit from in-person learning. If you want to do leather binding I would really recommend trying to take an in-person class. I did two attempts at a leather binding on my own before I decided to hold off until I'd had at least one in-person class. Leather binding can be extremely frustrating, especially when you can easily end up with a book that looks worse than a cloth binding at your same skill level but for double the cost. Imo this is mostly because the leather specific skills like paring, warp management, and assessing a random piece of leather for bookbinding suitability are all pretty tactile experiences, all of which are difficult to assess through a screen and can result in an unpleasantly bulky/stiff/shapeless book if ignored. For example- while this book of mine is a pretty popular post, I don't enjoy holding it and reading it, especially in contrast to the NatGeo bind. Part of this was the material I chose; part was not being able to adhere to the instructions quite well enough; part was just not knowing enough about what I was doing; part is they're different constructions. This might just be a me thing though; I'm sure others have had success with online only tutorials for leather.

6) I'm not going to get into specific tools bc that could be a whole post, but some things are necessary (printer access), some things are necessary depending on style, some things are "makes life easier but only drop the money if it's stopping you from making books out of frustration", some things are just technique-specific tools. Examples - sewing frames are often brought up but are never necessary unless sewing on cords; cricuts & cutting machines are commonly used in fanbinding circles but I don't have one (& don't intend to atm).

7) Don't be shy to offer the author a copy!! Like other fan activities, fanbinding is part of our fandom community ecosystem. Your fanbinding is in communication with the author's story. Giving a bind to the author is a great way of keeping the ecosystem going. I tend to think of binds as a combo of comment, fic rec, and fan art inspired by the fic.

8) Paper grain sounds stupid but it IS IMPORTANT! My personal hierarchy of give-a-fuck for grain: Board grain, spine card grain, endpaper grain, cover paper grain, text block grain, book cloth grain. The only thing I personally sometimes ignore is book cloth grain; but many people will not worry too much about text block paper grain.

Gonna stop there for now. If you've got specific questions or want elaboration, feel free to ask. As with all things, YMMV, this is my own opinions/experience and may not apply in all cases. There's a whole lot of different techniques out there, and it's hard to ever say something is wrong, per se - but I think it's important to understand if a method has an outcome you may want to avoid. Prioritize your goals & adapt for them - what's your goal? Longevity, readability, aesthetics? You might make different choices depending on them. My choices influence the techniques I chose to focus on, the tools I buy, and thus the final aesthetic of my binds.

[plor-bindery]

2024 in Binding

I started bookbinding back in April, so it's been about nine months of learning. Here are the stats:

Fanbinds: 29 30 complete binds of 18 19 different typesets. (Mostly one typeset = one fic but I have a couple of compilations of shorter fics in there.) I might actually eke out one more before January 1, which would make the total a pleasingly round 30. Done!

Blank book binds: 21 blank books of various sizes, mostly gifted to friends.

Rebinds: Only 2! This is a great way to practice making cases, though. I will do more in the year to come.

Public Domain/Non-Fannish Binds: 8 books -- two public domain binds, two copies of a book of plays written by a friend's parent, and four copies of a book of stuff from a parent of mine.

Total binds: 60! 61! Whoa.

Some photos!

First book, feat. very ugly cover paper, scorch marks, and terrible hinges.

Fave book (that can currently be shared publicly):

Latest (fannish) book:

More rambling under the cut.

With my typical ADHD-style approach, I definitely didn't hone one style/technique at a time. Things I've learned/tried in binding include:

case binding (with and without bradel-style construction)

three-piece bradel binding

coptic binding (a journal, I didn't share it)

sewn-board binding

criss-cross binding (haven't shared yet!)

sewn pamphlet binding

stab binding

double fan/Lumbeck binding for paperbacks

many quirky small binding styles in my weekend course (matchbook, accordion, dos-a-dos, origami, and more)

In terms of finishing techniques, I've tried:

Endbands from bookcloth

Sewn endbands (French faux double-core) with cotton and silk

French link

Sewn on tapes

Made endpapers

Tete-beche binding (haven't shown y'all that one yet...)

Paper-covered boards

Homemade bookcloth

Hot foiling onto cloth (yet to be featured on a fanbind)

HTV on cloth (of course)

Toner-activated foiling

Wrap covers

Dust jackets

Box-making (for spouse - a card game needed a box)

I have acquired/made lots of equipment but my faves currently are:

Cricut Maker 3

HFS guillotine (love/hate relationship)

homemade book press out of cutting boards

Wrapped bricks for weights

Bone folders - real bone and teflon

Epson ET-15000 colour printer (still getting used to it but it's nice)

And of course I've honed and improved on typesetting and design skills using InDesign, Illustrator, Bookbinder.js, and (recently) Canva.

What do I want to do in 2025?

more gift binds!

thermal-bound paperbacks (binder acquired via Xmas!)

slipcases

a fanbind with foil-quilled covers

inlaid bookcloth covers

embroidered decoration

rounded spines

backed spines??? Maybe?

edge gilding/painting

bookmark charms

laser-cut insets on covers

a magnetic closure on a bind

get better at coptic binding

learn how to make straighter cuts with the stupid guillotine

learn how to marble papers (paper-marbling starter kit acquired via Xmas gifts!)

End of ramble.

[uzlolzu]

Hi uzlolzu! Your art is so unique and captivating you've been my favourite artist since I was a teenager! I've recently graduated uni now and have done some freelance jobs here and there and I'm wondering how someone goes about building a stable freelance career as an illustrator. Can you share how you started?

Hello and thank you! That’s flattering and I’m very happy to hear it.

I can! Or I will try. It’s a pretty tricky question to answer, because my path into this has been organic and, in a way, one of least resistance.

In short: I was born into it.

Not in an “I’m the chosen one” way, of course, but in that my parents are artists and designers. Both currently work as graphic designers and have worked with illustration in the past. My mum is also a tailor and my dad is a wood carver (my sister does wonderful ceramics and has an education in tailoring too). Art and design, and working in those fields, is a core pillar of my family life.

All of this was pretty convenient for me regarding pursuing a career in illustration; I’ve always had access to all digital and traditional materials I’ve ever needed to draw or paint or do any craft (my first tablet was a 1999 Wacom Intuos 1), I grew up in an environment that was encouraging even when nothing was said, AND I had my parents’ extensive professional network available to me as soon as I was old enough to work. That last part has probably been more important than my level of skill ever was. I was lucky. I hit the ground running. So I can’t really remember a time where design or art of some sort wasn’t already my “career” (in my mind, I had an art career when I was four). It took quite a few years before I understood that I could technically have other jobs.

That said, my first paid jobs were photo editing ones that I got through my parents, not illustration. They were touch-ups, extending, cropping, resizing, masking… Those things that Photoshop often can do on its own now (or at least streamline) but couldn’t when I started almost 20 years ago (though PS and I have been friends for almost 30). Eventually, I got to do small illustrations for the same publications I had edited photos for, as well as some others. These kinds of illustrations still constitute a large part of my work hours, though in greater numbers and larger batches. They aren’t the flashiest, but they pay well. I also still work with my parents often. We’re all self-employed, but it’s really a family business setup at the core.

Moving outside of my inherited network…: I got my table top RPG-jobs by becoming part of the Swedish indie and semi-indie TTRPG scenes, which aren’t very big. It was straightforward to be visible enough and many people had their own (often tiny) projects that needed illustrations. Some of them contacted me. I think a not insignificant portion of the Swedish TTRPG game designers know who I am now, but I started small. Role-playing is one of my biggest hobbies, so networking came naturally. In my experience, these are flashier pictures to make, but rarely pay well (with some glorious exceptions). Anyway: If you have a specific field you want to work in, get involved in that field. There’ll probably be more people who want illustrations than people who illustrate in it.

Then there’s the concept art. I worked as a concept artists for Ubisoft Massive for a few years, and got this job partly through the game developer school (The Game Assembly) that I went to and partly because of my skills, I guess. But TGA and its proximity to Massive was instrumental. Game art is the only profession I have a formal education in.

So, when I started “officially”, I was already in a pretty good situation for it. Another important factor in my case, I think, is that I’m comfortable with many illustrator-adjacent disciplines as well, since the “packaging” or context of an illustration has always interested me. I use Adobe Illustrator and InDesign every week. Sometimes I do design work (layouts, logotypes, powerpoint presentations, annual reports, diagrams…), and I often do the in-betweens (infographics. Icons, patterns, other kinds of logotypes…). I prefer illustration and the in-betweens, but being open to branching out has given me more clients and, as a result, the ability to choose more freely which jobs I accept.

Either way. It’s really helped me to know a little something about all parts of a project, planning phase to phinished product. It makes it easier to talk to everyone involved, whatever their position and profession – programmer or printer. I know how to make a book from start to finish. It’s neat.

And, as you can see, there’s a lot of luck involved here and even if I know when I started getting paid, I can’t really say when I started developing the skills and the network I needed. That’s been a life-long process. And, of the two, I think the network has been more important for landing jobs than the depth of any particular skill of mine (though the variety of them might have helped). The more people who know you, the easier it’ll be, and that number of people will grow with the number of jobs you do. And I might as well add that physical meetings have worked better for me than just online contact. It’s easier to remember someone you’ve met, even if it was just for a few seconds.

And to finish off, I’ll add a few work samples that differ from what I generally post on Tumblr, since the ability to work in many styles has also benefitted me:

(Don’t let the text in the yellow box fool you. It’s Swedish lorem ipsum.)

[leavingautumn13]

What equipment and programs do you use to make your art? Your about says you're self taught, what helped you learn? And does anything specific give you inspiration for your current style or what you'd like to achieve in the future? I really like your art❤️

ahh!! hey, thank you so much!! <3 that's so kind of you to say!!

easy questions first: for digital art i use a wacom intuos tablet and paint tool sai, which is the only setup i've ever used. i've been trying to get into clip studio paint but something about it just doesn't stick with me. i think i need more practice.

for comic panels and lettering i use adobe indesign, and export as png to before putting them in sai.

everything else under the cut so this post isn't miles long

i've been drawing ever since i was a kid, but until middle school i mostly just drew animals or little notebook paper comics about animals. i grew up on a farm so there were lots around, and drawing from life is something i think really helped. like, there's a difference between knowing what a cat looks like and being able to pick one up and see how its bones and muscles fit together, being able to watch it change how it moves around depending on what it's doing, whether it's catching a mouse or playing with another cat or curled up asleep, and being able to break down that anatomy and movement into simple shapes. i'm a pretty visually oriented person so knowing how a thing functions or fits together as simple shapes helps me visualize it in my head and imagine how it would look in different poses or from different angles.

around middle school i moved onto drawing people, again from life while sitting in a cafe or at a park. actually being able to get what's in my head down onto paper in a way that satisfies me is something that i think just took practice. only recently (like, late last/this year) have i been consistently satisfied with the way i draw things.

sorry if that sounds weird or clinical--this is the first time i've been asked to explain how i learned to draw and this is the best way i can think to say it.

honestly, finding my own style has been looking at what i like about other artists' styles and trying to figure out how they achieved that. i did a lot of redraws of other peoples' art as a kid. for me, trying to replicate something makes me really think about why i like the way it looks. i try to lean towards a semi-realistic style--i don't like drawing super realistic all the time, i love cartoons and think they have a lot of character--but i also don't want to lose the underlying anatomy or structure because it helps my brain make sense of stuff. so i try to find the middle of the road, where things are simplified but still structured, if that makes sense.

brief tangent... that's why i draw pokémon the way i do. they're not on model, they're how i imagine they would look if they were real animals, based on the sort of animals they're... uh, based on. so like for this piece, because camerupt is a cow/camel hybrid, i looked at a bunch of pictures of cows laying on their sides, what their hooves and skulls looked like from certain angles, etc. and then i could draw what i wanted.

as for improvements, i need to get better at backgrounds and realistic coloring/lighting. color theory is one of those things that i understand... well, in theory, but when it comes to practice and paying attention to it when i color, i need work. and because i've mostly drawn animals and people my whole life--organic stuff--i find buildings and backgrounds difficult, so i tend to avoid them. and i need to not do that.

[takaraphoenix]

I am just so, so, so pissed right now.

Two days ago, when I opened Photoshop, it suddenly showed me an error message that the timeout for activating had run out, or whatever, because it was already installed on two computers.

Which makes fuck-no sense. I have actually installed this on... at least four computers, since they tended to die over the years. But never before has it shown me an error message. And there's no reason for it to do so now, since I installed it on this computer well over a year ago, so... why now.

And I can't even do anything about it, since Adobe fucking gatekeeps its support.

If you go to the Adobe website and want to talk to support, you only get the dystopian experience of talking to a chat bot that will tell you that you can only talk to a real human person if you have a subscription.

Bitch, I paid over 600 Euro for this fucking Master Collection, that should have been enough to let me talk to a real person. I should not need to additionally make any subscription, not even the "free trial", to get to talk to actual support.

And that's just the thing. I paid for this shit, I paid ridiculously much money to have these stupid-ass programs on my computer and for no reason whatsoever it's now giving me an error message but despite being a paying customer, I do not get customer service.

The most fucked up thing about it all is that... you can't seem to even buy licenses anymore? There seem to only be subscriptions and... if I only get to use this for a month and then have to pay again the following month, then I did not buy this. Nevermind how fucking overpriced these subscriptions are.

I just want to keep using the Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator that I already paid for, what the actual, ever-loving fuck.

[quaranmine]

also about autoCAD! according this rant an older engineer gave me, architects didnt start using autoCAD/other autodesk products until the 90s, when autodesk realized that if they got architects to use their products, everyone else had to lol

YEAHHH!! i found that too, it's buried somewhere in my 1700 words of author notes on tumblr LOL. grian, in this au, is pretty much like most people of the time period in that he knows basically nothing about computers and has probably never used one since they weren't particularly common, but he will very soon or over the course of his career need to learn since architecture is 100% a profession that uses autoCAD. he's going to get dragged kicking and screaming into the computer world sdflsjfsk

I had a fun little dive down the rabbit hole into CAD technologies while writing this chapter. I think I went into the story under the main assumption of "ah, it's the 80s, they don't have any modern technology" but that's not quite true, is it? It's the late 80s, for one--we're one year from being in the 90s. They're very much on the cusp of all of that technological innovation. Also, computer technology has generally existed far longer than most of us think, it just wasn't necessarily accessible to most of the public.

So while I was looking into CAD, I realized it was entirely possible for Mumbo to be learning it for his job in engineering. AutoCAD was released in 1982, which was directly in the middle of when he probably went to college in this AU. However, I don't know if he would have been taught it in his degree at that time since it was so new. He could, however, learn it from his job. I know that at my job one of the reasons I do most of the InDesign and ArcGIS work for my team is "ah, she's young enough to figure all that computer stuff out." I would not be surprised if that happened to Mumbo too. His bosses are probably like "fantastic he's young AND he's interested in it let's train him to do it" sdfjslfskl

Someone else mentioned CAD in one of my comments on AO3 so I was looking it up too. Something I didn't even know: the first 3D CAD product was released in 1987. Additionally, Boeing announced in 1988 that they would use a CAD software to design their 777 aircraft, which was the first aircraft to be designed entirely digitally. I read a different article about that that stated Boeing had used CAD in their engineering process for a few years before deciding to do it fully digitally, so it was definitely part of many company's "process" already within the 80s.

[fainthedcherry]

PARAMORE RELEASED THEIR A24 TRIBUTE COVER TODAY. AND I GOT INSPIRED BY THE LYRICS AND THE VISUALIZER.

IMAGE CREDITS BC VERY OBVIOUSLY THIS IS AN EXPERIMENTAL PIC COLLAGE PIECE PRIMARILY BELOW DESC (I DID NOT TAKE THE COOL PICS OBV.)

OK GIANT CREDIT BLOCK GO (Freepik and pexels my beloved saved my entire college year lmao):

1 OCEAN WAVES

2 OCEAN WAVES AGAIN

3 YES A THIRD OCEAN WAVE

4 VERY COOL DROPLETS

5 FLAME. OO FIRE PRETTYYY /POS

6 BG I CHEATED YOU INTO BELIEVING IS RAIN

The drawing though is made by my acoustic arse /lh

THE LYRICS ARE TAKEN FROM THE VID I LINKED. HAYLEY'S VOICE MY BELOVED AND FOREVER DEAREST ENTIRE BAND /POSPOSPOS. I wanna sing like Hayley so badly, she is such an idol to me, when it comes to vocals and I wish to sing as expressive as her some day 🤧✨💖

--

WHAT MORE CAN I SAY, OTHER THAN I'VE BEEN EXPERIMENTING WITH SHORT DRAWINGS, THAT TAKE UNDER A DAY TO COMPLETE TO FIGURE OUT SOME THINGS I WANNA DO AS AN ARTIST AND POSSIBLY COMMISSIONS. + These drawings genuinely kinda de-stress so it's been free therapy too, oops. I wanna do more of these vector-style drawings, that are just me taking lyrics and creating these fun collages, of things that inspire me or I like. It's a chill practice and lets my creativity actually do the work for once, instead of my usual need to outdo myself in every drawing and improve lmao. Improvement is cool and all, but dear god did I not realise how hard my need for perfection last year stress and strangle me tf out. I seriously need to re-evaluate the way I approach art as this massive, intimidating medium, when most artists literally draw for fun, and for me it's been like...A Sisyphean task.

--

If you enjoyed seeing this, I might make a sequel with C'est Comme Ca and w/ Marco in it instead and a red BG,, if I want to, I might turn these into a series, just like those aesthetic icon drawings I made of my 2 boys, started Lotta, and IMMEDIATELY lost that sketch due to my USB's death back in 2022 and lost all motivation for art due to that massive loss /neg

--

Not sure what else to add here other than my thoughts that I already did!! Other than ofc, the usual, MASSIVE thank you to my friend Hollowed-Hartlocke for introducing me to Paramore back in 2019 <3

Think I'm done rambling now tho!! OH WAIT. I can add, that I had to actually pull out Adobe Illustrator just to add stretched text for aesthetic purposes. Then I got so impatient with the effects panel not showing me the usual layer-effects and me being too lazy to look up, whether InDesign was the one, that had the usual layer effects I use in an Adobe program or not. Btw still mooching off my college acc that shoulda been dead long ago but just isn't??? LMAO I'M STILL GONNA USE IT IF I CAN ALRIGHT.

OH YEAH BTW. This drawing took 3 hours. NO I'M NOT KIDDING. PEOPLE WOULD PROBABLY BE SHOCKED THAT SUCH A LAZY LOOKING PIECE TOOK SO LONG. BUT I GENUINELY AM RATHER SHOOK THAT I TOOK SUCH LITTLE TIME TO CREATE THIS. TBF I threw MOST proportion checks and canvas flips I do out the window, so there's a BIG chance I will hate this, if I flip the canvas xD ANYWAY I RAMBLED LONG ENOUGH I THINK NOW. JUST ENJOY EXPERIMENTAL ART

^Before-bed edit; Yeah his torso's a TAD too much leaning to the left, it's off-center to the rotation of his pelvis to be in fact, but maybe? I'll roll with this mistake. It kinda gives the piece its abstract nature..I kinda like the mistake?? This is the first time in my life I ever tolerated a mistake I did and now declare it on purpose and will probably build one into the next piece as well. Hell, maybe it'll yield an interesting result. Anyway, it's 12PM as I write this, and I have to get up at 4AM for my train soOooo, yeah, gotta sleep ASAP for school.

I have NO clue again what to 100% accurately tag this, so forgive me if the tags are wrong LMAO, I just will believe what I believe it has overlaps w/ within art-genre.

This piece kiiinda gives pop art??? So I'm gonna tag it as such as well, but but might be incorrect. If a pop-art enjoyer wants to correct me, PLEASE DO. I'm going off the definitions of pop-art I learned in high-school. So I could most def be wrong about me adding this tag in particular. How tf do people confidently tag their posts when I doubt almost every tag I add man. Tagging is the worst part of uploading art to me due to how hard it is to label art really, not meant to be in a genre. xD

Def adding Paramore tags tho bc I NEED to know more Paramore fans out there bc we feel like such a tiny community, when they're literally one of the most influential rock bands of the 2000s and 2010s imho AUGH

[charlesanthonybruno]

Please talk to us about wine and the domaine Tariquet?! And about your job if you want to? It sounds dope!

Woopsie, late reply, apologies!

All right, I would love to, but the funniest thing about all this is that, yes, I work for a wine estate, but no, I can’t talk to you about wine because I have zero practical or personal experience with it. I have been working there for years now and I *drumroll* ………don’t drink alcohol *applause, crowd cheering*

See, I used to work in hospitality and it was….not great. So, I took a week off and I decided that during that week off I’d find another job. Found an ad for a wine estate looking for someone who spoke english and knew how to spell. It sounded doable, so I applied. I’d never heard of Tariquet before, didn’t know shit about wine, had never worked in an office doing anything sales related, had no clue what the position would entail except what was written in the ad. Went to the interview with an amount of confidence that I have never been able to replicate since and somehow, long story short, got hired and have not been fired yet. And you know what? I love it there.

I started in the administration section of the export sales dpt, had to learn everything from scratch: the job itself and everything related to the making and selling of wine and just. Wine in general. (I like tea and hot chocolate, what can I say.) We also make and sell Bas-Armagnacs, so I had to learn about that too. Am also now working in marketing as part of a team, so more things to learn! (using photoshop and indesign and illustrator as part of my job?? 😍😍😍 hello yes, I am living the dream)

I cannot stress how great it is to find a place that will hire you even though your profile is not at all what they would usually go for, that will give you a chance to try and prove yourself instead of dismissing you out of hand. And I love learning things, so I guess it worked out.

Anyway, it turns out that while I’d never heard of it, Tariquet is actually quite big and famous? Which is hilarious because we are in the middle of nowhere, Gers, south-west France, where you wouldn’t expect anything to be, yet here we are. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely region, nicknamed the Little Tuscany (which, in hindsight, should have been a hint), all rolling hills and open skies, but it’s also one of the only two « départements » of the country with no highway and I don’t have enough hands to count the number of times I got stuck behind a tractor or another kind of agricultural vehicle on the road. It’s very rural. (I love it. the night sky over my house is gorgeous.) So yeah, it is quite big and famous and has wines and Bas-Armagnacs and bees?? so we even make a little bit of honey as well, which is dope. I mean, the estate is in the middle of vineyards and forests and meadows and things, it’s all very green and lovely and so nice. The view from the window of my office is lovely, it’s trees and vines and a part of the castle.

Anyway, um. I’m part of the lucky people who love their job. It is horrendously stressful at times and of course I wish I worked less and spent more time with Marcus (who is getting bored and looking for mischief as I type this. I see you, Marcus) but the work is interesting, my coworkers are great and have come to accept me and my idiosyncracies (there are a lot and they have been a source of issues in the past, so it wasn’t a sure thing), and the general atmosphere is the healthiest I’ve ever encountered in a work place.

…this is a lot longer than I anticipated, i am so sorry.

tl;dr: i couldn’t tell you whether Tariquet wines are good or not but I can tell you that working there is great :D (now I just hope this post won’t show up on any search or google alert or thing like that because if my bosses were to find this dumpster fire of a blog i’d be mortified 😅😅😅)

[cmccormickarts346]

(ARTS345) Chapter 5 of EDITORIAL DESIGN: DIGITAL AND PRINT by Cath Caldwell & Yolanda Zappaterra

Week 12

Textbook Reading: Chapter 5: Creating Layouts

This week's textbook reading discussion focuses on editorial layout design. I must admit that this entry will be shorter than my previous ones, as I have an event called Arts and Draughts at the Columbia Museum of Art on the day this is posted, and my group has been assigned the closing shift. Nevertheless, the textbook readings are a valuable resource and are required for my coursework. I have struggled with this subject during my college career, but I found this chapter particularly helpful, offering valuable tips and insights into layout design.

To begin with, having a well-defined template design is essential for setting a publication up for success, as it ensures consistency throughout the entire project. I have found that template design closely resembles the way I organize my general grid design files in InDesign, which typically utilizes a modular grid with 1-inch margins and pre-set gutters. This approach allows my designs to be well-organized and maintains consistency across my portfolio.Typography is another crucial element of layout. Establishing guidelines for font sizes and types is important for ensuring uniformity throughout the publication. For example, in the X Fest project, I made early decisions regarding the headline, subheadline, body copy, and small detail text in terms of fonts, widths, and point sizes. This advance planning helped maintain consistency across all my deliverables. While this system isn't perfect, it serves as a valuable guideline as I move quickly from one deliverable to another.

One element that Professor Valdes has emphasized on multiple occasions is the use of pull quotes and sound bites. Before taking his course last year, I had no idea what a pull quote was until the very end when he suggested that I use quotes from my body text to help guide readers through my lengthy writing. According to the textbook, pull quotes are snippets taken from the main text and presented in a separate, floating textbox on the page. They direct the audience's attention and provide an overview of what your publication is about.I found pull quotes especially useful in my recent process book for Typography I and II, which contained excessive text about each project. To address this issue, pull quotes helped balance the elements on the page and conveyed the key ideas without requiring readers to go through the entire text. While these are just a few noteworthy elements from this chapter, I will definitely keep them in mind as I continue to design in InDesign and Illustrator for future projects.

[glittertimes]

As scared as I am of graduation and finishing my portfolio on time bc I was procrastinating all semester bc my mental health has been all over the place loll!

Working on my portfolio to prove I meet the graduation requirements has shown me that I’ve had a lot of these skills for a long time, like having degrees is nice and all bc I feel like they just validate that I know what I know.

But a lot of these skills I started developing when I was just a 13 year old running a tumblr blog loll! Like thinking critically and checking sources, or when I used InDesign at the school paper in high school, and all my work on youth liberation that’s based on my experiences growing up.

It’s validating bc sometimes I still get a lot of imposter syndrome being in grad school at 25, when most of my classmates already have jobs and children and multiple masters degrees.

I struggle in academia bc I feel like I have to tailor my writing to what people want to hear from me all the time so it’s hard to lose the “why” behind what I’m doing, but realizing I have so many skills already, and I had them before I even made it to academia is so 🥺 after feeling like I have to prove myself to everyone my whole life, it’s like “no I am that smart and cool actually”

[hjatoiarts245-03]

Blog 2

This week’s reading on grids was interesting, especially since it relates to the mounting aspect of the 9-square project, which we are working on. It was interesting to read about how grids changed throughout history. Before the twentieth century, grids only acted as a frame for text. For example, in classical books, grids were just margins around large blocks of text. However, through the futurist movement and constructivism, grids began to expand and focus not only on symmetry but balance as well. This related to what I learned last year when making layouts in InDesign, so it was interesting to see the history behind the concepts I learned. 

My 9-Square has been going well, and I am almost ready to start mounting. Cutting squares 4-6 was challenging because it was tedious, but I am happy with how they turned out. I had fun thinking of concepts for squares 6-9. For square 6 I used sparkly and teal paper to reference Audrey Hepburn’s role in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. For square 7 I made a collage with three of her faces to represent her career as an actress and her many roles. She had three roles that she is best known for, so I thought having three faces would represent her career well. For square 8 I colored in parts of the image and left some parts in black and white. This is because some of the earlier movies she acted in were originally in black and white and then were later colorized. It also represents that she was an actress during a transitional period in Hollywood when colored movies were becoming more popular. For my final square, I created a digital illustration that represents her most iconic look from Breakfast at Tiffany’s.   

[jon-mcbrine-author]

Unsecret Identity: Eric Icarus - Book One is now available in print as a paperback edition, but it was a rocky road getting there. The ebook Kindle edition was released close to a year ago, and at the time of the initial digital launch, I knew that a print version would follow. What I was not aware of, though, was just how long it would take to make the paperback.

Ideally, I would have preferred to have released the hardcover and ebook editions simultaneously, with a paperback version shortly after. Also in this perfect world, I would already have the audiobook version ready to go. Here in reality, however, it’s a DIY operation that takes time - with production rates that rival geologic ages in speed (or the lack thereof). From writing, editing, designing the cover, and finally to illustrating the interior art, finishing the book has been a gradual and often times frustrating process. Ultimately, though, releasing the print edition, to go along with the Kindle version, has been greatly rewarding.

Hardcover and audiobook editions are in the pipeline, but as I’ve said, it will simply take time. On top of this one full-length novel, I am writing other stories while committing to other personal, day-to-day engagements. For those who are interested in this first book, I thank you and want you to know how exciting it is to see people enjoy the story.

As stated above, the paperback journey was rough. In addition to simply spending hours and hours formatting the new edition and all the curveball lessons that entailed, there was getting more familiar with Amazon itself. Specifically, the Kindle Direct Publishing online book manager. Indie authors know KDP well, and even though it has Kindle in the name, this web-based program covers all available formats. Prior to uploading my manuscript to KDP, I, of course, used Microsoft Word (and Google Docs here and there) to actually write the content, the book itself. Once the text was edited, it was time to fire up the Adobe suite of design programs including Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. As a graphic designer, I already possessed a working knowledge of using these programs, but formatting a full-length manuscript required a few rounds of further self-education.

Creating more drawings for the interior art delayed completion but eventually everything got done. I posted with excitement about the paperback release date and even took additional precautions the night before the big day to ensure there would be no hiccups. Then KDP dropped a huge LOB on me: Learning Opportunity Bomb. The launch date came but the printed book did not. When you submit something via KDP, the review process time can vary, but for me it is typically around a day. So, when I resubmitted the PDF of my manuscript, I would wake up to an email informing me of whether or not my latest version made the cut.

This took about a week. What was intended to be released on a Monday didn’t go live until that Friday. The recurring error message involved images/text not being completely within the “live” area of the margins. This means that the central portion of the page, within guidelines, is what the content should be in. Only two pages repeatedly earned me these error strikes, and it baffled me as to why. The printed proof copy I ordered came out nearly perfect.

I had images that purposely extended beyond the live area, as well as the trim, which is considered to be the edges of the physical sheet of paper. My artwork even went beyond the bleed, the safety cutoff borders. While imagery that takes up the width of a page is common, Amazon seemingly wants content to be within the appropriate lines. This was fine by me, and I even liked how it made things more consistent throughout the book, but as a designer, it left me confused and embarrassed. The humiliation did not last long as I was happy to simply understand the problem.

With the issue resolved, the paperback was launched and I received my own copy and it is perfection. After a dismal week of awaiting the crucial judgment from KDP, the book gets a new life in the printed world. And I can breathe a little easier.

In a city of heroes with super-suits, fourteen-year-old Eric’s powers are the real deal—he can fly, or rather, he must. He literally can’t stop. As if high school wasn’t hard enough.

Order your paperback copy or read the digital version on your Kindle ereader device, the Kindle web browser, or in the Kindle app on your phone or tablet.

Stay in the loop for more details by following Jonfiction Blog on Substack and be sure to check out jonmcbrine.com for more info about this and all my books.

Unsecret Identity: Eric Icarus - Book One is available now from Amazon.

https://a.co/2XAtxvH

New blog every Monday. Newsletter first Monday of the month.

[jasmin--without-the-e]

Week 4: Burnout, Books and the Big Bad Charger Stealer™

Left: A beautiful tree that I’ve watched flower each day I went into campus.

Right: My haul of Arsenal books I was sent!

Bottom: The first round of sketches for SEO Mastery that I started on.

This week I’ve been really unmotivated. I think it's just the time of year where the burnout of the second semester is finally settling in. I was talking to my sister about it and she’s feeling the same tiredness and unmotivation so at least I have some comradery. Knowing my tendencies when I get burnt out, I have really tried to stay on top of work despite it. I’ve been making the effort to go into school everyday this week so I can have interactions with peers and have some social time as well (remote is very isolating). Though now I’m a bit discouraged as the last time I was there someone stole my charger. So there goes a wasted $150.

As a result of the mood during the week, I felt a bit lacking in my work in all honesty. My host was working on projects independently that we had talked about collaborating on, but due to my pace, I was on other things and the due dates just kept coming up. That's one big difference I’ve noticed: Industry moves FAST.  I mean, so did IDEA, but it's almost a different kind of fast. It’s definitely something I know I’ll improve on over time—I mean we’re always told that for the first few years of your career you’ll be losing your employer’s money just based on how fast you work. However, it's rather discouraging when I don't want to let people down. That also plays a part in how many projects I take on. My host is very generous with checking in if I have too much going on, if things are doable in a certain timeframe, but it’s my own thinking that is making me say “yes i can take on more.”

But! Despite all that inner turmoil, I have been making progress with my assigned projects. We went through a very intensive typesetting lesson on Tuesday and let me tell you, working on the whole book versus the sample pages is VERY different. I was almost too scared to touch anything ha! I was also introduced to the concept of GREP styles and how they really improve the automations in indesign, but for now it looks like gibberish and is incredibly daunting. I was talking to my host about it and she shared that it's something she is also still learning. The fact that she's been using this program for so long and is still finding new things to learn about it was exciting for my career.

One very positive thing about this week was that I received a package. Arsenal was INCREDIBLY generous and sent me some books! I was not expecting any books and was just told to pick some out of their catalogs and that was that. Like what? It’s like a second Christmas! I am already a big lover of the types of books Arsenal publishes, but it's a smaller press so its authors I haven't read before. I am so excited to read them and also know that I’m working on those author’s future books (Bad Land is by the same author as The Whole Animal).

[globaljobalert-blog]

UI/UX Designer - Remote, Spokane (Austin - SLC)

Company: Two Barrels Overview: Two Barrels is hiring an experienced UI/UX Designer for $100,000/year. You will be a traditional company employee. This is a full time M-F position with company benefits. This is a remote position. Our main office is in Spokane WA, and we have satellite offices in Austin TX and Salt Lake City UT. We are looking for someone who has previous experience empathizing and understanding what the end-user wants by researching and learning how the software is used and coming up with solutions that meet those needs. This person needs to be Figma and Javascript savvy. Someone who can excel at turning mocks into a polished functional website and help bridge the gap from UI/UX to our full-stack developers who will implement your designs. The primary responsibilities will include creating and translating UI/UX design wireframes into HTML and CSS. You may also be taking existing software pages and refreshing these with a new modern look. If you like to go the extra mile to help make software more appealing to the eye — you will fit right in. Our projects range in size from completely re-vamping an entire application, to refreshing small pieces of a bigger product. Location: Remote | Spokane – Austin – SLC | Duration: Full Time Wage: $100,000/year Responsibilities: - Collaborate with our full-stack teams to develop common UI components and design patterns that can be adopted and extended across product suites - Work daily with design language and UI consistency - Create wire frames, storyboards, user flows and site maps to effectively communicate interaction and design ideas - Be the connection between our full-stack and design team by being fluent in HTML/CSS - Develop innovative user interfaces and interactive models that leverage next generation web technologies to improve user productivity and operational efficiency - Researching and deeply understanding problems so you can get to the root of what’s really important Minimum Qualifications: - 3+ years experience in a UI/UX position - Strong understanding of Figma and Javascript - Understanding of HTML, and CSS - Knowledge of design and development best practice - Working knowledge of industry tools, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Sketch, Zeplin, Adobe xD, Invision etc - Excellent ability to manage timelines and be self-directed Why you might like this job: If you’ve been searching for a place where you can come and make amazing software design and have a huge impact on people who use it, then this is your place! We don’t have preconceived notions about what software should be. It just has to be designed for the user. So, really, your imagination is the only limit on what you can do here.  Our company is known for staying on the forefront of our industry’s trends, and we set the bar others try to leap over. That means you get to play, experiment, and do whatever you need to make our software not only look good, but pack high-end functionality. If you’re tired of doing things the stuffy corporate way, come join us.  #BI-Remote Benefits: - Great Wage - WFH comfort package - 22 days paid time off (29 days after 3 years. Flexible time off after 5 years!)+ 4 paid holidays - 4% retirement matching through Fidelity - 100% employer-paid medical, dental and vision for employees - Maternity and Paternity Leave - Flexible hours - Coffee shop next door - Crappy parking? Oh, I mean a cool downtown location for easy public transportation options… APPLY ON THE COMPANY WEBSITE To get free remote job alerts, please join our telegram channel “Global Job Alerts” or follow us on Twitter for latest job updates. Disclaimer:  - This job opening is available on the respective company website as of 3rdJuly 2023. The job openings may get expired by the time you check the post. - Candidates are requested to study and verify all the job details before applying and contact the respective company representative in case they have any queries. - The owner of this site has provided all the available information regarding the location of the job i.e. work from anywhere, work from home, fully remote, remote, etc. However, if you would like to have any clarification regarding the location of the job or have any further queries or doubts; please contact the respective company representative. Viewers are advised to do full requisite enquiries regarding job location before applying for each job.   - Authentic companies never ask for payments for any job-related processes. Please carry out financial transactions (if any) at your own risk. - All the information and logos are taken from the respective company website. Read the full article

[daisyskeates1]

EVALUTATION

For judge a book by it’s cover, what motivated my design decisions the most, was the illustrator Axel Scheffer who uses paint and black pen to create a modern, bold looking illustrations. This inspired my design to make it suit my younger audience for the James and the giant peach book. I found it easier to figure out my colour schemes and typography for the project Place of words because each of the cultures I chose uses completely different types of materials / colours in their jewellery. I used this as inspiration for my colours and compositions, whilst tying each scheme together with the same lino print background, fonts, and halo around the black and white portraits.

Each of my projects have gone through a lot of changes and I have included or left out a lot of my experiments. For place of words, I created patterned backgrounds out of jewellery, however, when placing them underneath the text on my magazine, I found that it was very crowded, so I decided to keep it as just an experiment or for future practices. For this project also, I completely changed the colour scheme of one of the spreads to make it suit the culture, Africa, more.

Time management for this unit went a lot better than in past units. I feel I have really improved on motivating myself to crack on with work and planning my social life around working. In our group project, our group worked amazingly as a team to make sure we all got what we needed done at least a day before the presentation to make sure we had time to wireframe the app correctly. I was really proud of our group overall for how well we got along, helping each other make design decisions and supporting each other’s ideas.

When we had the tutorials for each project, I wrote down notes to help me remember the feedback I was given and changed parts of my designs from this. The main bit of assistance I got from the tutorial was with my magazine to make sure the layout was professional and clean as I have never designed a magazine spread before. I also asked for feedback from friends and family to see which design (1 / 2) was the most effective. I found that design 1 for my book was too dull and aged looking for a modern, bold children’s book, so I got help with figuring out a new composition for the cover and a new font for the title.

What I feel needs more practice from completing this unit, is mainly InDesign. I have always stuck to other Adobe platforms, so using a brand-new software has been the biggest challenge for me. I also feel I need more practice with allowing myself to leave whitespace in my designs. I love cramming everything into a design, so whitespace is what scares me the most and next unit I would like to try this out to see if it makes my design better.

In this unit I have really shocked myself with how much I learnt on different software’s I have never used before, such as InDesign and XD. In the group project I was really happy with how much I learnt about XD and wireframing to create apps / websites etc. I am really excited to see what I could do with this in future practices. If I was to redo this unit, in my final outcome for the judge a book by its cover project, I would have liked to have reprinted my final design for the book as I was not happy with how the ink printed as the colour faded and created an odd finish. For the place of words project I would have replaced my jewel illustration with a different coloured jewel as it did not suit the colour scheme of the culture and therefore, I was not able to include it. For the group project also, I would have liked to have taken more time on the car illustrations as they were very simplistic and childlike when the audience was 18–25-year-olds.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography

Axel Scheffler’s official website: Home (no date) ’s official website | Home. Available at: https://axelscheffler.com/ (Accessed: 01 June 2023).

The AA (no date) Book an MOT | The AA. Available at: https://www.theaa.com/mot?sc=PPCGSMARTCARE02&source=Google_PPC&campaign=&id=17540046903&term=cheap+mot&device=c&gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwg-GjBhBnEiwAMUvNW0-3_I52KGD_ccIPyQ5V3RjW-zqmervsDjy5O1sRg2HiBFrYFSNMPxoCZHEQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds (Accessed: 01 June 2023).

MOT test centre near you - book MOT online: Halfords UK (2023) Halfords. Available at: https://www.halfords.com/mot/?gclid=CjwKCAjwg-GjBhBnEiwAMUvNW3jYQgOuBoKLGG19Mwcl6THjvGL8zFuxqNx6ltcmCnZ1naJ_3YpWdRoChjIQAvD_BwE&priceband=BandC&enginesize=LT1200 (Accessed: 01 June 2023).

African jewelry (no date) Contemporary African Art. Available at: https://www.contemporary-african-art.com/african-jewelry.html (Accessed: 01 June 2023).

Chinese jewelry - history, tradition, and culture: Chinafetching (no date) ChinaFetching.com. Available at: https://www.chinafetching.com/chinese-jewelry (Accessed: 01 June 2023).

Indian jewelry has evolved in leaps and bound. here’s the journey of our traditional ornaments to the trendy contemporary ones. (no date) History of Indian Jewelry and Its Origin - Traditional to Contemporary. Available at: https://www.culturalindia.net/jewellery/history.html (Accessed: 01 June 2023).

Daisyskeates (daisyskeates) - profile (no date) Pinterest. Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/daisyskeates/ (Accessed: 01 June 2023).

James and the giant peach (1996) IMDb. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116683/ (Accessed: 01 June 2023).

James and the giant peach (no date) Goodreads. Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6689.James_and_the_Giant_Peach (Accessed: 01 June 2023).

 Adobe fonts (no date a) Adobe Fonts. Available at: https://fonts.adobe.com/ (Accessed: 01 June 2023).