A call to action - join me!

Like many people across the USA and the world, I watched President Obama address Congress. I was particularly inspired by a statement on the subject of education that the President made:

It is our responsibility as lawmakers and educators to make this system work. But it is the responsibility of every citizen to participate in it. And so tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma. And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country – and this country needs and values the talents of every American.

As a trainer myself, I certainly do understand the value of furthering one's knowledge and capabilities. At the same time, I'm just like everyone else in that I have things that I know I've told myself I wanted to learn, but just haven't gotten around to. I think John Lennon, in his song Beautiful Boy, said it best: "Life is just what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

But after the President's speech last night, I've decided to take action - I am going to commit to at least one year of advancing my knowledge. And I'd like you to join me in that commitment. We certainly have a better chance of accomplishing our goals if we work together than if we all try going it alone. This project, if you will, is intended to be a two-way street, where I can share what I've learned with you, and where you can all share your own experiences with me and the others who decide to join. There's no pre-requisite other than a commitment to learn, and to share that what you learn. I also encourage users of all experience levels to join. We are all equals here, on the same level, all moving towards a single goal.

I'll have more details on how I plan on organizing and running this project, but the first and most important question is, what will we learn? I know that I've had a few things on my list for some time. At the same time, we'll want to choose something that has some relevance to the work we do today (so we can apply our knowledge and so that we are interested enough in the topic), but that significantly enhances our skills and gets us doing something more than just what we're doing today. We'll also want to choose a topic that we can realistically reach within a year.

Once we choose a topic, we'll set an overall learning goal, and milestones so that we can check our progress as we go along.

So are you with me?

Here are some of the general topics that have been on my own personal list (in no particular order): ActionScript, Scripting/Automation, Flex, and CSS/Web Standards. But of course, this is a community effort and so I'd like to hear from YOU. If you're interested in joining this project, please add a comment noting what specific topic interests you most. Then we can begin to take the next big step together - learning something together. I can't wait!

I'm not one to beat my own chest, but...

I have just completed recording all the movies for my next Lynda.com title - Illustrator CS4 Beyond the Basics. I've always wanted to go beyond what I normally cover in my Essentials Training video title, where the goal is simply to give people the knowledge to get up to speed with using Illustrator. But as we all know, there's so much more that Illustrator has to offer, and likewise, I have so much more to share.

This title will contain over 120 individual movies and there are entire chapters devoted to Live Paint, Live Trace, and 3D just to name a few. I also go into extreme detail on transparency, prepress issues, and also an entire chapter on color (including the elusive Recolor Artwork feature). And yes, I even cover Gradient Mesh :)

I don't know how long editing and the like will take, but I imagine the title will be online and available at Lynda.com within 4-6 weeks. Naturally, I'll post here when it goes live.

So now my next question is, what's next? I have a few other things I'm working on (I'm preparing a title on the new Gridiron Flow, and also on Adobe's new Flash Catalyst), but what I'd really like to know is, what do YOU need? I know there's lots of training out there. I know there's always a thirst to learn more. But if there's a specific topic you would like my input on, I can't guess that kind of stuff. And by the way, it doesn't necessarily have to be a Lynda.com title either. What kind of content would you like to see from me here on this blog? Or elsewhere (books, etc)? Let me know, and I'll see what I can do.

Are you a "Font" or a "Typeface"?

My buddy Thomas Phinney has posted an interesting survey on his blog about the use of the word font and typeface. The question is, are they synonymous? Are they two different things? Thomas also has several other interesting questions on his survey, and he promises to share his findings after his analysis is complete. I look forward to seeing the results.

In Thomas' own words:

I’ve noticed over the years that there isn’t a perfect consensus on the use of certain terms, such as “font” and “typeface.” I am of the opinion that there is a strong majority usage, and historical precedent, but I’m curious to understand better current usage, and how it differs by degree of font expertise (a.k.a “geekiness”) and/or geographic location.

- Thomas' blog post.
- Direct link to the survey.

Public beta for Gridiron Flow now available

Gridiron Software has released a public beta of their revolutionary new workflow software called Flow. Their website contains lots of information about the product, some videos, and the like, but most importantly, you can now download a beta version and see the thing firsthand for yourself.



Today, only the Mac version is available, but the company claims a Windows version is on the way shortly (probably within a week or so).

Aviary's Raven "flexes" vector muscles

Cloud computing is all the rage in today's world. Whether it's Gmail, Acrobat.com, Kuler, Basecamp, or any of the other thousands of online hosted services and applications out there, the concept is simple. Instead of tying your work directly to the desktop, your information lives on the internet (a.k.a., the cloud), easily accessible from any computer, no matter where you are.

Most of you are probably familiar with Adobe's Kuler application - what Adobe likes to refer to as an RIA or a Rich Internet Application. You can access kuler through your web browser from just about any computer and see the colors that you've created. You can also create your own colors, and search through colors that others have created. But Kuler is really a "small" application - can you imagine if Adobe Illustrator itself was a hosted service - where you could actually use powerful vector drawing tools in your browser from any computer, share your art, and view art from others as well? On some level, Adobe has actually taken parts of Photoshop and made it available online via Photoshop Express. And while Illustrator isn't there today, no one knows what the future holds.

But some people have decided they weren't interested in waiting for the future. So they developed their own tools. I actually bumped into these guys at Adobe MAX in 2007 (in Chicago), and it's really funny how small the world is - considering they live about 5 minutes from my home. Their company is called Aviary and they have built their own suite of creative tools -- including an image editor (Phoenix) and a vector graphics drawing application (Raven). These rich internet applications are actually built on the Flex framework (same as Kuler), and they live in the cloud. At first glance, they look just like a regular desktop graphics application, but they run in your web browser.

Aviary's Phoenix - a Photoshop-like image editor


Aviary's Raven - an Illustrator-like vector drawing program


But don't take my word - try it out for yourself! Aviary has released these applications as public betas, and you can sign up and give it a whirl yourself. You can access the Raven beta here. What I really love about these tools is the sense of community. Focus less on the toolset (naturally, Raven can't compete with the powerful toolset of Illustrator - even though Raven does have a rubberband effect for the Pen tool), and focus more on the fact that you can browse through hundreds of other illustrations that others have created, and open them.

Overall, I find the experience of the Aviary suite of tools somewhat surreal. It certainly gives you a taste of what working in the future might feel like. It's pretty cool to have this kind of functionality that is cloud-based, and that is integrated so well. The vector art that you create with Raven is SVG-based, so you can certainly save files out of Illustrator as SVG and open them in Raven, and vice versa. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Art Files and Sneak Peek Pro updated for CS4

If you use Art Files to collect your files for output or archiving, or if you use SneakPeek Pro, a QuickLook plugin that allows you to preview native AI, EPS, and INDD files from just about anywhere on a Mac running Leopard, you'll be happy to know that both have been updated to support CS4. More information can be found on Code-Line Software's website.

Deke McClelland's Illustrator One-on-One movies released

Lynda.com just released Deke McClelland's first of three Illustrator One-on-One video training titles, Fundamentals. As always, Deke presents Illustrator's features thoroughly, and methodically, in his trademark style.



One my favorite parts of this particular title is when Deke compares Illustrator's anchor points to boys and control handles to girls. Deke must have had Valentines Day in mind when he recorded that.

As always, if you're a Lynda.com subscriber, you already have access to this title. If not, you can get a free 7 day trial to Lynda.com here.

Gridiron Flow Public Beta coming February 18!

You're DEFINITELY going to want to check this one out. There's a new product on the horizon - one that has gotten much attention - and for good reason. Gridiron Flow is a product that you install on your computer, which then provides the kind of stuff you've always wanted from your computer. Its main feature is something called a Workflow Map, which visually shows you how all of your files are connected. It's quite incredible, considering that you don't have to actually DO anything.

Here are just a few of the things that Flow does:

- Select any asset on your system - for example, an InDesign file. It builds a visual map that identifies all of the files that are placed into that InDesign file (and likewise, all files that were created FROM that InDesign file, such as PDF documents, etc.).

- If you try to delete a file from your system, and that file is currently placed into another document, Flow will alert to that fact, so you don't accidentally delete files you need.

- If you need to identify all places where a certain asset is used, Flow can do that as well. For example, you have an Illustrator file and need to know every place that Illustrator file was used (in Photoshop files, InDesign, After Effects, etc.). With one click, Flow provides a list of documents.

- Flow also does real packaging (for ANY type of project or application), file versioning, visual searches, and one of my favorites: time tracking.

When Gridiron first went out to talk about Flow, they used the following short video to introduce their presentation, to set the tone for what they are trying to do.



That was a year ago. Now, Gridiron is on the verge of releasing their product as a free public beta. They've also created a newer version of the video.



As I mentioned earlier, what is truly revolutionary about Flow is that it requires NOTHING on your part to make it work. In my experience, I've tried many different asset management systems and workflow systems, that often cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. I've also worked with Adobe's Version Cue. But they all require a lot of setup, and they require you to work differently. They require manual steps, or force you to "check things in" of databases. Many also have their own obscure user interfaces that are often web-browser based, forcing designers to change their habits and behaviors. Flow just works. It's the first "plug and play" application I've ever seen.

Here's a video from Steve Forde, the creator of Flow, who discusses a few of the application's features:



I've had the opportunity to play with Flow, and it doesn't disappoint. And the user interface is stunning, it feels "iPhone-like" and is incredibly easy to use. If you are the kind of person that the videos above describe, you might want to check out the beta for yourself. You can sign up here.