Planet Quark » Website

YouSendIt: Now as an Acrobat Plug-in

Jeff Gamet — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:05:45 +0000

The free YouSendIt.com is a useful way to send big files across the Internet. Recently, they released plug-ins for Acrobat Pro, Photoshop, iPhoto, Aperture, Final Cut Pro and Microsoft Office that let you send the current file(s) directly from within those applications via YouSendIt.

An additional benefit to using the plug-in is that your files upload 25% faster than if you use YouSendIt’s website.

Smashing Magazine

Jeff Gamet — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:02:29 +0000

Sven Lennartz and Vitaly Friedman’s Smashing Magazine presents some of the best stories on usability and Web design that I’ve seen.

They also collect free resources, such as icons, brushes templates and tutorials. Great stuff.

Creative Business

Jeff Gamet — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:28:12 +0000

Creative Business is a bimonthly newsletter that focuses on the business side of being creative. It has advice for freelancers as well as for business owners and managers, and over the course of a year manages to cover many of the most important issues involved in running your business — especially in the current economic climate.

They also offer two unique and valuable books: The Business Side of Creativity and The Creative Business Guide to Running a Graphic Design Business. The newsletter costs $149 per year, and is worth every cent.

An Awesome Map of Web Trends

Jeff Gamet — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:26:17 +0000

Information Architects Japan has published the latest version of its Web Trends Map: a fascinating index of what the authors view as the world’s most successful and influential websites. The twist is the presentation — it is laid out in the form of a mass transit map. The choices and connections are quite enlightening:

The online version is hyperlinked to all the websites they mention, but they also have a printable PDF and several JPG versions for your reference, as well as a printed poster for sale. Get it here.

Sell Your Designs at Graphic Leftovers

Jeff Gamet — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:46:09 +0000

www.GraphicLeftovers.com is a website where designers can sell unused graphics and illustrations — perhaps one of the designs or themes rejected by a client, but one that’s still excellent.

Content includes logos, icons, symbols, illustrations and templates. Contributors receive credits and buyers pay with credits.

If you have some leftover designs, or are looking for a quick and inexpensive solution to a design project, have a look.

Cutcaster: A New Kind of Stock Agency

Jeff Gamet — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:00:58 +0000

www.Cutcaster.com connects buyers and sellers of royalty-free video and stock images, but with a twist. Cutcaster matches supply and demand by giving creators the option to set their own prices or choose Cutcaster’s patent-pending pricing algorithm to find the optimum market price. Meanwhile, the site lets buyers submit bids for content, which a seller can accept, decline or meet with a return offer back to that buyer.

In addition, buyers may request pictures or footage from the entire Cutcaster community and then get the desired work delivered by their deadline. Sellers have their own customizable studio pages to host hi-res images, promote their hi-def video footage and direct traffic back to their personal websites. They can also sign up to hear about freelance opportunities to convert Cutcaster users into their customers.

Free Tutorials on Color Composition

Jeff Gamet — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:11:10 +0000

Master Colors is offering a free series of online color composition tutorials that explain how to overcome bland color designs, build harmonic color progressions, work with color in highly complex digital artwork, and more.

The sessions include template files from the works of 20th century artists Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse, and are designed to show off the features of HVC Color Composer ($50) and HVC Color Composer Pro ($130) for Photoshop and InDesign.

A demo version of the color picker plug-in is available as well, so you can expand your color composition skills even if you don’t plan on purchasing Color Composer.

AIGA | Aquent 2008 Salary Survey and Calculator

Jeff Gamet — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:05:52 +0000

The AIGA|Aquent Survey of Design Salaries 2008 draws from an extensive pool of designers and others allied with the profession nationwide, and includes responses from more than 6,200 design professionals.

It is widely recognized as the most comprehensive survey of compensation conducted in these professional positions. You can view the results, or download the complete salary survey at www.designsalaries.org. The website even has a location-based salary calculator for you to try out.

Everything About DVDs

Jeff Gamet — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:05:16 +0000

What’s faster: writing 650 MB to a CD at 36x speed or to a DVD at 4x speed? Find out this and everything else about disc-writing speeds and much more at the VideoHelp.com. (Answer: they’re the same.)

This website also explains DVD formats, PAL vs. NTSC, descriptions of those cryptic file names on DVD videos, and how much video fits on each recordable DVD format.

They also test the reliability every brand of blank media and list the results in a table.

And what about Blu-ray? It’s all there, too…

Help for Freelancers

Jeff Gamet — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:18:36 +0000

The Freelancers Union is full of helpful business information specifically for freelancers. They offer online seminars, discounted health insurance, networking opportunities, and news.

If you’re a freelancer, or if you hire freelancers, this is a great resource.