I think I grew up as the worlds most cynical child. Having my siblings subject me to torturous routines of playing games that were terrible, and most would require me being gullible enough to believe them (time and time again) that THIS time they would play nice. Riiight. Things like the game called "Kidnap" that would have them locking me in the shed. Nice game. They'd also play a game that would entail me drinking "potions" made of water and dirt and dandelions to make me invisible. And then, they would convince that that since my clothes were not invisible, i would need to take them off to walk around the neibourhood. Don't even GET me started on the game called Haunted House. That one drove our babysitters to tears.
Yep, I got cynical REAL fast.
Therefore, it was no surprise to me that I became the kind of young adult who did not believe in "One True Love", or "Soul Mates" and I would smile and be slightly jealous of those who did. That type of faith to me was amazing, but untouchable by me. On Valentine's Day, the one who would become my first ex-husband (and only ex husband thus far) claimed I was his soul mate and his one true love. I smiled and rolled my eyes. My second husband was not to fall to those illusions. Ever practical, pragmatic and with the mind of a scientist, he claimed there was no such thing. Ah! Blissful music to my cynical ears! You choose your best match with the options presented to you. If I never came into his life, he'd be just fine. No proclamations of me "completing him" or "changing his life". And this has suited me wonderfully. Who needs that when you're happy with who you're with? No - fate and destiny just wasn't a concept that fit me.
I have been singly career minded since high school. After thoughts of becoming a teacher, then a biologist, then a photojournalist, then a writer, I settled into thinking about becoming a graphic designer. It was a field I fell in love with, and every step I took brought me closer to that goal. Taking classes in high school towards that end, a year off of school to raise the funds for post-secondary, a graf com diploma, and an entry level position designing ads for a newspaper. After getting as far as I could there, I became the graphic designer for a small print shop. I love it. I hated it. I went from part time designer to full time designer, to manager to operations manager before my boss and the owner told me he was selling the shop. I took the plunge and decided to try to buy it. It wasn't without it's challenges. It wasn't "easy", but things seemed to fall into place whenever they needed to, and eight months later, I was signing legal documents proclaiming me as owner.
And now two years later, when the shop is doing well and is moderately successful (after a rather soul crushing economic downturn) I've used the phrase more than once that owning the shop "was meant to be".
What? Those words from a hardened cynic? But it's true. I feel that I am finally, after 32 years of life am in the exact place I needed to be. The place I was (ick) meant to be, and destiny had been preparing me for. How odd to have that concept fall into my lap after so long of not believing.
I am still a cynic. But I do believe that there are things in this world I was meant for. Owning this shop is one of them. Being Kat's mom is another. If I had lived my life the way I was trying to, I wouldn't have had a child at 20. I probably would have decided to skip the whole parenting thing, and it was never a goal of mine to be a business owner. Are you kidding? No way would I ever have planned for those things. But they are two of the things that make me happier than any other thing in the world. And I cannot deny that fate and destiny had a hand in those things.
So, do I now believe in a one true love, or a soul mate now that my eyes have opened up to the concept? Let's just say that I will remain cynically hopeful.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
The Spider and the Fly
It is a Halloween tradition that after the trick or treaters are gone, and before the scary movies start up, that in a hushed tone, in a darkened room I read my favorite spooky poem...
The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howitt
Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly,
'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;
The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,
And I've a many curious things to show when you are there."
Oh no, no," said the little Fly, "to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again."
"I'm sure you must be weary, dear, with soaring up so high;
Will you rest upon my little bed?" said the Spider to the Fly.
"There are pretty curtains drawn around; the sheets are fine and thin,
And if you like to rest awhile, I'll snugly tuck you in!"
Oh no, no," said the little Fly, "for I've often heard it said,
They never, never wake again, who sleep upon your bed!"
Said the cunning Spider to the Fly, " Dear friend what can I do,
To prove the warm affection I 've always felt for you?
I have within my pantry, good store of all that's nice;
I'm sure you're very welcome -- will you please to take a slice?"
"Oh no, no," said the little Fly, "kind Sir, that cannot be,
I've heard what's in your pantry, and I do not wish to see!"
"Sweet creature!" said the Spider, "you're witty and you're wise,
How handsome are your gauzy wings, how brilliant are your eyes!
I've a little looking-glass upon my parlour shelf,
If you'll step in one moment, dear, you shall behold yourself."
"I thank you, gentle sir," she said, "for what you 're pleased to say,
And bidding you good morning now, I'll call another day."
The Spider turned him round about, and went into his den,
For well he knew the silly Fly would soon come back again:
So he wove a subtle web, in a little corner sly,
And set his table ready, to dine upon the Fly.
Then he came out to his door again, and merrily did sing,
"Come hither, hither, pretty Fly, with the pearl and silver wing;
Your robes are green and purple -- there's a crest upon your head;
Your eyes are like the diamond bright, but mine are dull as lead!"
Alas, alas! how very soon this silly little Fly,
Hearing his wily, flattering words, came slowly flitting by;
With buzzing wings she hung aloft, then near and nearer drew,
Thinking only of her brilliant eyes, and green and purple hue --
Thinking only of her crested head -- poor foolish thing! At last,
Up jumped the cunning Spider, and fiercely held her fast.
He dragged her up his winding stair, into his dismal den,
Within his little parlour -- but she ne'er came out again!
And now dear little children, who may this story read,
To idle, silly flattering words, I pray you ne'er give heed:
Unto an evil counsellor, close heart and ear and eye,
And take a lesson from this tale, of the Spider and the Fly.
Happy Halloween!
So, the results from my halloween costume crafting are in! Enjoy the pictures, and have a spooktacular halloween! Bwahahaha...My sister (darth maul) won the prize for the best female costume, and my good friend (emperor palpatine) did the makeup. Congrats!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Halloween Costumes...Update!
I was just about giving up on being Dr. Horrible for Halloween. Sigh. Awesome costume idea wrecked by lack of time and funds. BUT my spirits raised ever so slightly when I found a Howie style medical lab coat at Incredible Comfortable Uniforms in Edmonton. So, it's not exactly the same, but close enough for me under time and budget constraints. BUT without the white gloves and welding goggles, I couldn't possibly be the infamous doctor. Just a weirdo in a lab coat. I was about to give up and go to the Halloween store and pick a random, boring costume up when I found myself near a Princess Auto. Welding gloves? Goggles? Check and check! Yay! And both for under $10! I LOVE that store! So now, I just have to spray paint a pair of rubber boots white, get my messy blonde wig, and I'm set! I tried on the whole costume today, and it's a passable Dr. Horrible. Yay! I also found Kathleen her black gloves and black t-shirt for her Captain Hammer costume, so it looks like we're set for Halloween! Yay! I'll get pictures up on the blog soon, but I'm so excited!
Now all I need to do is get Michelle her Penny wig and find some thrift store funky clothes, and the trio will be complete!
If anyone is stuck for what to go for - I do need henchmen:
Moist - regular clothes, just coat yourself with Petroleum Jelly and you can be my evil moisture buddy!
Bad Horse Henchmen - dress up as a cowboy, complete with requisite cowboy mustache and voila! You're a Bad Horse Man!
The Purple Pimp - the costume is just how it sounds
The Pink Pummeller - Pink mask, pink boxing gloves and a black T-shirt with two pink Ps on it facing on it facing the opposite direction.
Captain Hammer Groupies - Easy-peasy costume. Wear anything plus a monochromatic t-shirt. I can supply the hammer faces for the t-shirt! (bonus points if you have a dry cleaning slip or a slip of someone's hair!)
You can also be: Fury Leika, Professor Normal, Dead Bowie, Fake Thomas Jefferson, Tie Die, or Snake Bite (it's the evil posse)
Stay tuned for pictures! Happy Halloween!!
Now all I need to do is get Michelle her Penny wig and find some thrift store funky clothes, and the trio will be complete!
If anyone is stuck for what to go for - I do need henchmen:
Moist - regular clothes, just coat yourself with Petroleum Jelly and you can be my evil moisture buddy!
Bad Horse Henchmen - dress up as a cowboy, complete with requisite cowboy mustache and voila! You're a Bad Horse Man!
The Purple Pimp - the costume is just how it sounds
The Pink Pummeller - Pink mask, pink boxing gloves and a black T-shirt with two pink Ps on it facing on it facing the opposite direction.
Captain Hammer Groupies - Easy-peasy costume. Wear anything plus a monochromatic t-shirt. I can supply the hammer faces for the t-shirt! (bonus points if you have a dry cleaning slip or a slip of someone's hair!)
You can also be: Fury Leika, Professor Normal, Dead Bowie, Fake Thomas Jefferson, Tie Die, or Snake Bite (it's the evil posse)
Stay tuned for pictures! Happy Halloween!!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Answers Part Deux!
Okay, here's the answers to the last half of questions in So You Wanna Be a Graphic Designer! I hope you learned a lot from the last post, and will learn even more, since these are less known (but still should be common information for anyone who's posing as a graphic designer!)
7. Name three page layout programs.
Like the last two questions about programs, there's a huge variety of programs out there. I will list the most common and industry standard programs.
- Adobe InDesign. Adobe merged this with PageMaker, which was very popular for a long time, but with the emergence of the popularity of more versatile page layout programs, was changed into InDesign.
- QuarkXPress. Industry standard and my favorite.
- CorelDraw. I beta tested this, and it's come a long way. Can be used for vector illustration, page layout, multiple page documents, and what we use at my shop mostly because it's most cost efficient, talks well to other programs and works best with our Computer to Plate machine.
- Publisher. Okay, I'll receive a lot of flack for this one, but honestly, it's so widely used by the business universe that we have no choice but to print from it. I'll leave the rest of my critiquing about this horrible program at the door.
8. What is DPI? LPI? And the difference between the two?
- DPI stands for Dots Per Inch and is probably the most familiar and most misused measure of resolution. It specifically refers to the printed dots (from a printer, imagesetter or press) that are used to make up an image. The larger the dots, the lower the resolution of the printed image. The smaller the dots, the higher the resolution of the image. DPI is calculated using the number of dots across a linear inch. A screen that has 100 DPI is a much lower resolution than one that has 600.
- LPI stands for Lines Per Inch and is also used to measure the resolution of printed halftones by calculating the dots in an inch. The lower the LPI, the lower the quality of the printed image. The higher the LPI, well, you get the idea. Standard presses will print at approximately 120 LPI. That's the standard we use at the shop (we make adjustments depending on the length of the run, the type of paper, and the actual image that is to be printed.) Newspapers usually run at 85 lpi and magazines are around 133 to 140. The higher the LPI, the less noticable the dots are.
LPI and DPI are a physical measurement of the number of dots on a printed page. When doing graphics on the computer (like Photoshop) dpi is often confused with resolution which is different. Computer graphics have a resolution based on pixels, not dots per inch.
9. What is dot gain?
Dot gain refers to what happens to an image once it's printed on paper. Since paper is absorbant, and when ink is printed on the paper, the paper sucking up the ink leads to the dot growing slightly in size. Think about what happens when you drip a drop of water on your counter top, and then when you drip water onto a paper towel. What happens to the dot of water? The water on the counter will be a bead of one size, the paper towel drip will have been absorbed into the paper towel, and appear larger. Newsprint being low quality and very absorbant paper has a high dot gain. It's one of the reasons a newspaper will be printed at a relatively low lpi. The amount of dot gain must be taken into consideration by the designer, so that the final printed design won't appear too dark or blobby. The newspaper that I worked at previously had a dot gain of a whopping 30%. That meant that screens that were printed at 70% darkened up to a full solid by the time they were printed. Compensation for this was to over-lighten your designs, never design using a heavy screen, and use as few halftones as possible. Print shops have a relatively low dot gain. At our shop, it's about 15%. We find we have to lighten half tones quite a bit to avoid losing resolution, and changing the dpi or lpi aids in that depending on the project. The paper we use is a much higher quality as well, so less ink is absorbed into it, resulting in a lower dot gain. Graphic designers should always get familiar with their printer, and print only at places they are familiar with so they can compensate for dot gain while designing their product, and the most savvy designers will request printing at a specific dpi best suited to their project.
10. What is a bleed? What must you do to ensure your design bleeds properly?
Bleed is the term us printing folk use to indicate when color runs to the very edge of the page. Printers and presses can't print bleeds, because grippers (the fingers that pull the piece of paper through the machine) need to hold on to the very edges of the paper, and printing to the extreme edge isn't possible. In order to get a full coverage look, we must print on a larger sheet size and then cut the paper down to the finished size. Proper bleed allowance (depending on the shop) is a minimum of 1/8" of bleed past the trim area of the design. Bleeds look really nice but are also more expensive because larger paper must be used in the printing, and more time required in cutting the job to it's final size. Bleeds may also require special care, like metal plates, slower running time and more ink, which all add to the cost of the job. I can't count the number of times I've had designers in with their finished artwork that has no bleed allowance. It's very frustrating, especially since when you explain their design doesn't bleed, they all look confused.
What you must have in order to ensure your design bleeds properly is a minimum of 1/8" to 1/4" of "bleed allowance" where the design extends over the finished areas of the design. The file must be saved to the larger size (not the final size of the job, but the size including the bleed allowance) and crop marks must be properly placed so that the production team knows where you want the job to be cut to.
11. What is a gutter?
The inside margins or blank space between two facing pages is the gutter. The gutter space is that extra space allowance used to accommodate the binding in books and magazines. The amount of gutter needed varies depending on the binding method. In saddled-stitched publications the amount of gutter, as well as the outside margins are adjusted to allow for creep. Not to be confused with an alley - which is the space between the columns of text on one page. And it should not be confused with margins, which are the blank space between the edge of the finished document and where the text and graphics on the begin. Bleeds can ignore the margin, but in addition to a 1/8" to 1/4" bleed allowance, most printed designs should leave a 1/8" to 1/4" margin before the design begins. That's a whole lotta unused space! And most designers ignore those rules completely. Which leads to text being cut off, or an unbalanced, uncentered look to the finished product. Which designers will blame on the printers, leaving us shaking our heads.
12. What is production ready (or camera ready) artwork? What must it have to qualify as such?
Production ready (or camera ready) artwork refers to a file that has been completely and properly set up, ready to be put on the press, or printed digitally. All colors have been made properly. Cmyk designs should have no spot colors. A spot color design should have no extra colors or be in CMYK (all which means, color separations are done properly). Resolution should be correct for the method of printing, bleed allowances and margins should be set up properly AND crop marks be applied. I would say that less than 10% of all "production ready" files I receive are actually production ready. And that falls to the responsibility of the graphic designer.
So you should all be more informed of the responsibilities of a graphic designer. You have a lot of work to do! And please stop blaming the printers when your design doesn't go according to your plan - it's in your hands. If you submit a 1" x 2" 72 resolution design with no bleed allowances or margins to be printed at 3.5" x 2" for a business card, you will get a grainy, incorrectly cut, non bleeding card, possibly with the text cut off.
Did you pass the test? I hope so, now get designing!!
7. Name three page layout programs.
Like the last two questions about programs, there's a huge variety of programs out there. I will list the most common and industry standard programs.
- Adobe InDesign. Adobe merged this with PageMaker, which was very popular for a long time, but with the emergence of the popularity of more versatile page layout programs, was changed into InDesign.
- QuarkXPress. Industry standard and my favorite.
- CorelDraw. I beta tested this, and it's come a long way. Can be used for vector illustration, page layout, multiple page documents, and what we use at my shop mostly because it's most cost efficient, talks well to other programs and works best with our Computer to Plate machine.
- Publisher. Okay, I'll receive a lot of flack for this one, but honestly, it's so widely used by the business universe that we have no choice but to print from it. I'll leave the rest of my critiquing about this horrible program at the door.
8. What is DPI? LPI? And the difference between the two?- DPI stands for Dots Per Inch and is probably the most familiar and most misused measure of resolution. It specifically refers to the printed dots (from a printer, imagesetter or press) that are used to make up an image. The larger the dots, the lower the resolution of the printed image. The smaller the dots, the higher the resolution of the image. DPI is calculated using the number of dots across a linear inch. A screen that has 100 DPI is a much lower resolution than one that has 600.
- LPI stands for Lines Per Inch and is also used to measure the resolution of printed halftones by calculating the dots in an inch. The lower the LPI, the lower the quality of the printed image. The higher the LPI, well, you get the idea. Standard presses will print at approximately 120 LPI. That's the standard we use at the shop (we make adjustments depending on the length of the run, the type of paper, and the actual image that is to be printed.) Newspapers usually run at 85 lpi and magazines are around 133 to 140. The higher the LPI, the less noticable the dots are.
LPI and DPI are a physical measurement of the number of dots on a printed page. When doing graphics on the computer (like Photoshop) dpi is often confused with resolution which is different. Computer graphics have a resolution based on pixels, not dots per inch.
9. What is dot gain?
Dot gain refers to what happens to an image once it's printed on paper. Since paper is absorbant, and when ink is printed on the paper, the paper sucking up the ink leads to the dot growing slightly in size. Think about what happens when you drip a drop of water on your counter top, and then when you drip water onto a paper towel. What happens to the dot of water? The water on the counter will be a bead of one size, the paper towel drip will have been absorbed into the paper towel, and appear larger. Newsprint being low quality and very absorbant paper has a high dot gain. It's one of the reasons a newspaper will be printed at a relatively low lpi. The amount of dot gain must be taken into consideration by the designer, so that the final printed design won't appear too dark or blobby. The newspaper that I worked at previously had a dot gain of a whopping 30%. That meant that screens that were printed at 70% darkened up to a full solid by the time they were printed. Compensation for this was to over-lighten your designs, never design using a heavy screen, and use as few halftones as possible. Print shops have a relatively low dot gain. At our shop, it's about 15%. We find we have to lighten half tones quite a bit to avoid losing resolution, and changing the dpi or lpi aids in that depending on the project. The paper we use is a much higher quality as well, so less ink is absorbed into it, resulting in a lower dot gain. Graphic designers should always get familiar with their printer, and print only at places they are familiar with so they can compensate for dot gain while designing their product, and the most savvy designers will request printing at a specific dpi best suited to their project.
10. What is a bleed? What must you do to ensure your design bleeds properly?
Bleed is the term us printing folk use to indicate when color runs to the very edge of the page. Printers and presses can't print bleeds, because grippers (the fingers that pull the piece of paper through the machine) need to hold on to the very edges of the paper, and printing to the extreme edge isn't possible. In order to get a full coverage look, we must print on a larger sheet size and then cut the paper down to the finished size. Proper bleed allowance (depending on the shop) is a minimum of 1/8" of bleed past the trim area of the design. Bleeds look really nice but are also more expensive because larger paper must be used in the printing, and more time required in cutting the job to it's final size. Bleeds may also require special care, like metal plates, slower running time and more ink, which all add to the cost of the job. I can't count the number of times I've had designers in with their finished artwork that has no bleed allowance. It's very frustrating, especially since when you explain their design doesn't bleed, they all look confused.
What you must have in order to ensure your design bleeds properly is a minimum of 1/8" to 1/4" of "bleed allowance" where the design extends over the finished areas of the design. The file must be saved to the larger size (not the final size of the job, but the size including the bleed allowance) and crop marks must be properly placed so that the production team knows where you want the job to be cut to.
11. What is a gutter?
The inside margins or blank space between two facing pages is the gutter. The gutter space is that extra space allowance used to accommodate the binding in books and magazines. The amount of gutter needed varies depending on the binding method. In saddled-stitched publications the amount of gutter, as well as the outside margins are adjusted to allow for creep. Not to be confused with an alley - which is the space between the columns of text on one page. And it should not be confused with margins, which are the blank space between the edge of the finished document and where the text and graphics on the begin. Bleeds can ignore the margin, but in addition to a 1/8" to 1/4" bleed allowance, most printed designs should leave a 1/8" to 1/4" margin before the design begins. That's a whole lotta unused space! And most designers ignore those rules completely. Which leads to text being cut off, or an unbalanced, uncentered look to the finished product. Which designers will blame on the printers, leaving us shaking our heads.
12. What is production ready (or camera ready) artwork? What must it have to qualify as such?
Production ready (or camera ready) artwork refers to a file that has been completely and properly set up, ready to be put on the press, or printed digitally. All colors have been made properly. Cmyk designs should have no spot colors. A spot color design should have no extra colors or be in CMYK (all which means, color separations are done properly). Resolution should be correct for the method of printing, bleed allowances and margins should be set up properly AND crop marks be applied. I would say that less than 10% of all "production ready" files I receive are actually production ready. And that falls to the responsibility of the graphic designer.
So you should all be more informed of the responsibilities of a graphic designer. You have a lot of work to do! And please stop blaming the printers when your design doesn't go according to your plan - it's in your hands. If you submit a 1" x 2" 72 resolution design with no bleed allowances or margins to be printed at 3.5" x 2" for a business card, you will get a grainy, incorrectly cut, non bleeding card, possibly with the text cut off.
Did you pass the test? I hope so, now get designing!!
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