I am noticing a common practice among my favorite designers, and this is certainly true of myself. When I first started designing with a computer (in the interest of full discloser I was so un technical that when I was ordering the computer via phone I told the sales rep that I did not need anything on the machine except photoshop – or maybe I might have said can I get a photoshop computer.

Anyway to make along story short – I started designing in photoshop – really it was not designing it was adding filters to photos and then adding text…. then I finally spent my first check from a logo design that turned me into (technically at least) professional designer on Illustrator 5. One I understood what I could do and learn the basics – illustrator was my life for the next 3 to 4 years. Now I have returned to photoshop and use illustrator for cool shapes and logo design – and certain types of other work – but my favorite program is photoshop again – does anyone else have a similar story?

Raleigh has a chapter of the AIGA -  raleigh.aiga.org/

– I attended a bunch of the AIGA lectures and networking events when I was in SF, and I found it really inspiring and useful.

I got to meet Bruce Mau and the designers from Lust from the Netherlands,

As you can see the board members of the Raleigh Chapter are all fairly heavy hitters from Design/Marketing Firms in the Area

Like Ogilvy and Capstrat

www.aiga.org/content.cfm/chapter-raleigh

I think it would be a really good way to get your presence known in the area and have a good chance of recruiting local talent

I am sure you are aware of Scott Hansen – or iso50.com or Tyco Music – I have been checking daily for his commissioned poster for the Obama Campaign….. it uses many of his themes and styles.

While I like it – I was expecting the perfect storm – my Candidate of choice and my designer of choice.
You can purchase it online here

For regular design inspiration you should check out Scott’s blog at iso50.com

OpenType® is a modern font format developed by Adobe® and Microsoft® to provide users with an accessible and advanced typographic toolset. OpenType improves on PostScript and TrueType just as the DVD trumped the video cassette. When deciding what format to choose, using the latest technology simply makes sense, but let’s dig a bit deeper and explore the ways OpenType makes life easier for typographers and graphic designers.

Learn More

You thought that Gravity was just something Newton thought about – but in fact it can be a really useful tool to replicate for games and such – and this tutorial shows you how
Again I have to thank Ben Harris my Flash Guru – grasshopper thanks you

I just finished reading

Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software
by Scott Rosenberg (Author)

About Mitch Kapor from Lotus who started the Open Source Applications Foundation and specifically the PIM project he tried to created called Chandler.

As a non programmer it was a really interesting look at the warring factions within software development and programming languages python vs ruby, database concepts (to silos or not to silo) and the philosophy that has developed around the industry in general (Brooks Law : the one man month conundrum for example)

But as programmers and software developers I am assuming you come across a lot of the issues that they discuss – anyway – I thought it was great from both 35000 ft and a 10 foot look at the industry.

Cheers!

Attached are the two versions of this email

One with images off and the other with images on.

The subject line is strong – I think that it is a good offer

But without image turned on there is nothing going on and no alt text except random letters and numbers (which on further inspection turn out to be a the code you need in order to get the offer)

Email screen shot with images turned off in Gmail

Email screen shot with images turned onin Gmail

At least they could have added a system text link and explanation of the random letters and numbers being a code…..Also with images turned on – the call to action is bottom right and not very eye catching

This is an email that our competition is making and I would be interested to see how it is testing.

Resources from SmashingMagazine.com; might be helpful! Quite a few different tutorials and some resources/articles about layouts and icons.

Fireworks Tips and Tricks

Welcome to biomachina.net the digital playground of João Oliveira, a young design student and illustrator from Porto, Portugal. Started working with graphics in late 2006 and continuously expands his skills by experimenting new techniques in the various fields of design, evolving at a fast rate.

The scrolling portfolio is nothing new but his work is fresh and diverse – he is someone to watch!

Online Game & Giveaway for Scientists Beat Revenue Goals 278%

SUMMARY: Can B-to-B marketers effectively use consumer marketing tactics? The answer is yes! With the right product line and the right campaign, you can deliver strong results.

A technologies marketer supplemented its standard data-rich marketing with an online game. By designing the game to promote specific products and mining customer purchase behavior to deliver a targeted reward, the team saw a 13.79% conversion rate and beat its revenue goals by 278%.

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30583