illustrating flourishes + patterns Jun 10, 11, 2:31 p.m.

i spent most of my time growing up / in school in photoshop and know that in and out. i'm a pretty good freehand artist with a pen or pencil (never got used to a tablet). i know the basics of illustrator but have recently become fascinated with the idea of drawing flourishes / my own wallpaper patterns and whatnot.

problem is, illustrating is the one thing in illustrator i've never been good at. i don't mind putting in the time, but was wondering if those who are strong with the program had any tips. for some reason bezier curves always appear wonky, things come out uneven or just never look as good as they do when i draw them on paper.

suggestions? pointers? stories? thanks!

font use Jun 9, 11, 11:21 a.m.

my company wants to use adobe caslon pro and helvetica neue for an app being developed, and asked me as to whether we have rights usage. since we have purchased copies of CS, i'd assume we can use caslon/helvetica. but there's some stuff on various forums that says the adobe EULA is kind of iffy, especially when it comes to mobile / web apps.

anyone dealt with this? is the company just overly paranoid or am i way off the mark and extra licenses need to be purchased?

designing vs mother of the bride May 21, 11, 5:21 p.m.

so i had a deal with some friends to design their wedding invite system. lots of stuff involved. they liked the mark i came up with for everything and the save the date. we were set to progress with everything when ...

the mother of the bride is a member of some kind of group where you pay a lot of money up front, and then get shit at cost. there's a pre-made / pre-packaged wedding invitation outlet that she wants to go with (since, after all, she's paying for it). they want to go with me, but they can't control the $ and the mom is being unruly.

so i need to find some good, affordable printing solutions for a wide variety of collateral asap to keep the job / keep the mother appeased. they wanted to do letterpress invites and either digital or offset for the rest. has anybody run into this sort of situation before? i don't usually do wedding stuff and i'm not exactly sure where to start since it's a lot they want. they also don't want me to waste my time / pay my hours to do design comps if they are going to go with this other all in one place.

so, suggestions on printers for wedding projects? and is this even a battle worth fighting? i just don't see how you can get cost effectiveness with all of this stuff involved since you get what you pay for, plus to go with an all in one solution they also don't pay for a designer.

advice, help, and stories all welcome.

Ing marathon signs in nyc Nov 3, 10, 11:02 a.m.

so i am in NYC for the week and am seeing the signs for the ING marathon and can't place the typeface used - looks like a slightly refined / better trade gothic bold 2 . NYers, anyone know what it is? Unfortunately i don't have an example offhand. Thanks!

in b flat Aug 21, 10, 9:54 a.m.

for those who like having fun with droney ambient sounds.

http://inbflat.net/

good futura alts? Aug 7, 10, 7:30 p.m.

looking for a good alternative to futura. doing a big project and my mind is just fried right now. suggestions/favorites welcome.

mad men season 4 Jun 21, 10, 10:53 p.m.

yessssss.

comic sans monologue Jun 16, 10, 9:30 a.m.

sorry if this got posted

http://mcsweeneys.net/links/mono…

priori acute Jan 12, 10, 12:44 p.m.

it's like mc escher got into typography. weird.

http://www.emigre.com/EFfeature.…

quirky screen font problem Dec 6, 09, 1:16 p.m.

so the past few days my system is slowly deteriorating when it comes to viewing screen fonts. example:

is wikipedia. the NY times headlines are all italicized and there are a few other websites i visit where the text is suddenly bold or italic or both.

any clue what's happening / how to fix it?

layered static nav Nov 18, 09, 11:09 p.m.

i've seen this around and was looking for some different examples of sites that have a top layer, static navigation menu. generally content scrolls under it one way or another (a couple have been featured on QBN). working on some ideas and this seems neat. any links in the right direction are greatly appreciated.

resin/varnish coating q Oct 24, 09, 5:42 p.m.

so i have a series of collages i put a resin/varnish on to hold everything together. there's a pretty blatant reflective sheen now (think new mac laptops).

i wanted to kill it and was recommended sandpaper but that made everything kind of muddy. am i doing something wrong or was this a bad recommendation? i don't mind having additional texture, it's the whole "making the varnish foggy" that is pissing me off because it's losing the details in the collage.

thanks

typesetting number vs no. Oct 12, 09, 4:05 p.m.

anyone know any specific type rules / guides / pages that discuss proper ways to typeset the "No." abbreviation for number / #?

working on something right now and the initial comp had it as No. with the period under a superscript o, i was going to do it all superscript with a standard period. so i just wanted to know if there were any spots i can read up on this. thanks.

adventureland Aug 12, 09, 12:44 a.m.

for those who grew up enjoying the late mr. hughes' movies, and are looking for something similar in the modern age, i highly recommend this. by the guy that did "superbad," but that movie, it is not.

far, far superior.

dvd jewel cases Apr 21, 09, 8 a.m.

looking for quality jewel cases for dvds / presentations. i remember some clear one that came out years back which came with pretty in depth template files, but i am spacing on the name. any help is appreciated.

bruno Apr 2, 09, 8:23 p.m.

http://www.traileraddict.com/tra…

"a traditional african name"

creative grooming Dec 6, 08, 4:26 p.m.

http://www.pinkcoyote.net/creati…

not sure if this was posted, i filtered a few things, but. really, just good for a "wtf"

a day in nyc Oct 23, 08, 9:39 a.m.

probably going to take tomorrow and do the old cheapo bus ride to NYC for the day for a break from boston. hitting up moma and banksy's pet museum thing for starters, but anything else fun happening these days that i should check out while i'm there? haven't been to the city in a year or so. thanks.

lightroom issues Sep 27, 08, 8:52 p.m.

i've recently switched to lightroom from photoshop for organizing / editing digital photos and whatnot. however i'm noticing a nasty halo effect when i save for web output through the export; it looks like a filter>sharpen tool in photoshop hits it, even though i have sharpening completely turned off.

anyone else have this issue?

timeline Sep 22, 08, 7:23 a.m.

http://www.dipity.com/user/tater…