http://www.equippedcreative.com Tips, tutorials, resources, and more for graphic designers using Adobe products, primarily Photoshop! Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:27:20 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I have been playing with different sites for quite a while trying to figure out the best way to store files online and to get files to friends and clients. Dropbox is one of my current favorites because it has a desktop client that meshes well with my workflow and ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/12/31/more-free-ways-to-store-and-share-files-online/ Every once in a while I come across an article that I agree wholeheartedly with...over the past months I have collected several that particularly stood out to me on various topics. All of these have the common theme of efficiency. So lets get to them....the first is called Meetings suck, ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/12/30/grab-bag-of-excellent-reading/ I recently found a great tool for getting proofs to clients in a way that gives you a more professional appearance and allows the client to easily mark-up and provide feedback on your work. The name of the site if Backboard...they have a free account that limits the file size ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/12/13/great-tool-for-getting-client-feedback/ Hey all, I haven't done any freelance work lately, but one part of freelancing that can be a headache is the billing part. The website CurdBee seems to be a great solution to this problem...I have not yet tested it to see how well it works, but I wanted to ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/12/13/great-online-billing-solution-for-freelancers/ More and more we are seeing online apps grow up to be as feature-rich as their traditional software predecessors. Many people still hesitate to switch to online apps for very good reasons such as the uncertainty of the stability and longevity of web apps that are here today and may ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/11/20/powerful-online-presentation-tool/ You don't have to rhyme to draw attention to a particular design project, but every once in a while you might be working on a cute or clever design where a rhyme is very catchy and powerful. So when I came across a resource that helps you when you are ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/11/20/need-a-rhyming-word/ Well, life and work and everything else has finally slowed down enough for me to get back to writing on here. The irony is that my first post is a non-productive post that is just an opportunity to take a break from whatever you are doing and laugh. But in ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/11/20/the-irony/ Over the past few months I have been collecting lists of tutorials and tutorial resources...I am just going to list them below, but I figured I would mention that my favorite one is listed first and it is my favorite because it includes .PSD files with each tutorial...if you want ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/10/11/tutorials-tutorials-and-more-tutorials/ Every once in a while a client or a business partner may have technical questions or issues which can cause costly delays for projects...not to mention frustration for everyone involved. I have driven to a nearby town before to help a client who was having problems using our website. If ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/10/11/control-a-partners-pc-over-the-internet/ Being a graphic designer for a premium-quality, full-color, weekly newspaper, I naturally have a very high interest in knowing what the future is going to be for news-related businesses. Unfortunately, the future of news companies is about as predictable as the stock market these days. Different people have different opinions ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/10/10/what-is-the-future-of-news/ If you have been a graphic designer for very long, you have inevitably come across the client who A) expects you to read their mind, B) is never happy, even if you do EXACTLY what they ask for and C) doesn't want to pay for the hours of work you ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/08/30/those-clients-more-trouble-than-theyre-worth/ I feel like I have been posting quite a few best-of tutorial collections, but here is yet another excellent collection put together by the Noupe blog. There is some great stuff here so be sure to check it out and be prepared to spend hours of time there! http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/08/26/some-more-killer-tutorials/ For those of you out there with sub-pro-level, affordable Canon cameras who wish you had the power of RAW, your wish has been granted! The Lifehacker blog has provided easy-to-understand instructions on how to use CHDK (Canon Hacker's Development Kit) to get RAW and a number of other additional advanced, ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/08/16/get-raw-out-of-your-less-expensive-point-and-shoot-camera/ I think I have said it before, but I can never say it too much: "bittbox rocks!!" Not too long ago they posted a list called 25 MORE Reaons You Might Be Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer and I just have to say that if you have been a graphic designer for ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/08/16/you-are-not-alone/ The fontcubes website is yet another great resource for graphic designers. As of today, they have 9,550 free fonts. It has a nice clean interface, but it does lack categories for narrowing your search. But it is definitely worth a look...so skip on over to fontcubes and grab a few ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/08/16/yet-another-great-free-font-site/ I have to say that Smashing Magazine is definitely one of my favorite creative resources on the web. I just wrote a post about Planet Photoshop and their excellent video tutorials, but you will never lack for video tutorials if you just bookmark Smashing Magazines amazing compilation of the Best ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/08/07/speaking-of-video-tutorials/ My next post is going to be another quicky—it's basically just a plug for the Planet Photoshop website. Planet Photoshop is very nicely designed website and has some great content. Many, if not all of the tutorials are videos which makes them much easier to follow and to understand how ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/08/07/planet-photoshop%e2%80%94one-of-the-nicer-tutorial-sites-on-the-planet/ Hey everyone, I hope I didn't lose any of you due to my prolonged absence from posting to my blog. I also am aware that Google has labeled this site as harmful and I have been working to clear that and to find out which of my links is causing ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/08/07/im-back/ I hope I don't write about free file hosting websites too often, but you never know when one service might meet your needs better than another one. EatLime and File Dropper are two more great services that I just had to write about...each one has points of differentiation and they ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/04/13/you-cant-have-too-many-options-for-hosting-files/ If you have been a photographer or graphic designer for any amount of time, you have most likely been asked to remove some wrinkles or some extra pounds, etc. for a (vain) client. We all have our little tricks for fulfilling these requests, but most of the time we know ... http://www.equippedcreative.com/2008/04/13/become-a-skilled-digital-plastic-surgeon/