Domestic Geek

Our company pays a yearly subscription fee to an online prepress training organization. I knew it was time for them to renew the subscription for the service, but I didn't give it much thought. I had checked out the site for myself and had wished I had $300 so that I could learn it on my own. Well, last Friday I was given my very own login. Woohoo!

I've been signed up for 23 courses:

• Adobe Acrobat 7
• Adobe Bridge
• Adobe Illustrator CS2: What's New
• Adobe Illustrator CS: Drawing, Tools, and Text
• Adobe Illustrator CS: Layers, Advanced Features and Output
• Adobe InDesign CS2: What's New
• Adobe InDesign CS: Master Pages, Colors and Images
• Adobe InDesign CS: Objects, Shapes and Lines
• Adobe InDesign CS: PageMaker Plugin Pack
• Adobe InDesign CS: Template and Workspace Preferences
• Adobe InDesign CS: Text, Formatting and Output
• Adobe Photoshop CS2: Color Correction
• Adobe Photoshop CS2: Masking
• Adobe Photoshop CS2: What's New
• Adobe Photoshop CS: Fundamentals
• Color Management Theory
• Creo Preps 5
• Enfocus PitStop Professional 6
• FlightCheck 5.5
• Mac OSX Panther: Font Management with Suitcase X1
• QuarkXPress 6: Fundamentals
• Transitioning from Quark to InDesign CS2
• Troubleshooting Digital Files

I've already passed two of them. I decided to get the Illustrator and Suitcase ones out of the way first since I know the most about those. Next I'm tackling Acrobat, Pitstop and Flightcheck, since those are the programs I use the most during my current duties. When I get through these, I've been told there are more than I can do. Hopefully this is my chance to really show I can get this stuff and start training as an operator.

Edit: Here, I took a screenshot of my class list. Aren't those little diploma graphics the cutest when you pass a class?

Marcus and I have always talked about getting bumper or window stickers printed and possibly selling them. I was hoping to get them done back when I was working at the screen printer since I could get a discount through any one of our vendors, but the company went out of business before I had the chance.

There's a site online called 1-800 Stickers where I can get custom stickers printed for an extremely reasonable price. With only a minimum order of 250 stickers, we could probably swing that in the near future. There was a wide variety of sizes and shapes available. Being a graphic designer, I liked the detailed artwork submission guidelines they provide. It's definitely a mark of a reputable printing company. They also offer free design services for those with great ideas, but lacking design talent.

For those in the printing know, they print the stickers on durable vinyl with light-fast inks and a UV-resistant coating, meaning they'll last, even outside. They won't crack, bubble or fade. They're also printed at 150 line screen — that's photo quality. They also have 1-2 color and full color labels available, which I could probably put to use once I get my embroidery business off the ground.

Now, what would make a good bumper sticker?

I have been doing a lot of web wandering the last couple of days. I don't know how I came across it, but I saw this really cool Simpsons drawing that was posted on deviantART (an online art community if you're not familiar with it):


The Simpsonzu by *spacecoyote on deviantART

The artist did such a remarkable job that somebody took notice:

*spacecoyote was offered work with Bongo Comics owned and started by none other than Matt "Simpsons" Groening. She will be doing pencil work for a short manga style version of the Simpsons and on top of that has been contacted by 20th Century Fox to potentially work on the upcoming relaunch of Futurama!

How freakin' awesome is that?

Here's the original work the artist based the drawing on:

One of the things I really missed while being underemployed was getting Photoshop User and Layers magazines. At $10 a pop, those were one of the first things I cut from my budget. Well, Friday I splurged and got an issue of Layers. I'm hoping in the next month I can get my subscription going again. Anyway, there was an ad in there for a magazine I would love to get: Adobe® Illustrator® Techniques. Unfortunately, a yearly subscription to that publication is $80/yr. Out of my budget right now unless I can find it monthly at the newsstand. I love working in Illustrator and really miss learning new techniques. One of my goals is to become Adobe Illustrator certified.

There was a PPP opp today that I didn't take, but the content of the site that wanted a review reminded me of something from awhile back. When I was in school, my web design instructor also taught the advanced computer illustration class. He was playing with a program called Terragen, a free scenery generator program that can be found at Planetside. He was creating some really cool effects with it. I had intended to download it and play with it, but that guy rear-ending us put my life on hold for awhile and I totally forgot about it. I'm glad I was reminded of this program's existance.