Calling all talented trainers
We seek Freelance, Full- and Part-time Adobe and Apple Instructors
Are you somebody who loves people as much as you love design and technology? Then call us.
While some people are technical gurus, we are looking for people who enjoy seeing that spark of understanding in others, who are patient and empathetic, and who are fun and easy to get along with too. To work with us, you must be extremely ethical, unafraid to admit when you don’t know something, and be a great presenter with poise and presence behind a podium… and you have to be able to manage a studio packed with students of various skill levels.
You should be proficient in preferably 3 or more of the following disciplines:
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Flash
- Adobe Dreamweaver
- Adobe After Effects
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- Finished Art / Repro
- Adobe Acrobat
- Actionscript 2.0 & 3.0
- HTML/XHTML
- CSS
- Flex
- Apple Final Cut Pro Studio
Please email your short 2 page CV (in .pdf or .doc) to jobs@friendsofdesign.net
Jobs
Work with us
As a successful company in its field, Friends of Design is often looking to recruit professionals of the highest calibre to fill a variety of vacancies.
We are interested in the skills / experiences of creative professionals within the industry. If you feel you’re qualified for a training or other position at Friends of Design, be it either part time or full time, please email, or fax us your shortened Curriculum Vitae, without delay.
Important: Your C.V. should be no longer than 2 typed pages and it must include a short cover letter that includes a particular reference to the position you are applying for and a short description of your experiences and exceptional abilities. We will contact you shortly after your application is received to confirm our interest and make arrangements for an interview.
Friends of Design is an equal-opportunity employer.
Training voucher
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Terms & Conditions:1. Each FRIENDS OF DESIGN training voucher entitles the holder to a 10% reduction of the course fee for one module only of FRIENDS OF DESIGN’s Essential skills or Workshop courses offered at the time of purchase of the product from Access International, Cape Town. |
BitXbit
inspirational stuff
friends of design proudly presented
insights, inspiration & innovative digital design trends.
Event date: 20th September 2007
Digital design opens up a new world of possibilities. Since the introduction of the personal computer and the World Wide Web, rapid technological advances have led creative design from the sketchpad into the dynamic pixel landscape. The pixel has become the medium through which the human race communicates.
Speaker 1
Giuseppe Russo
Founder & Editor-in-Chief
one small seed
Sumptiously Fresh Print Design
Giuseppe gives us insights into refreshing and innovative print design trends emerging from South African cities and the rest of the globe and challenges your expectations of local printed publications.
Through his experiences with the stylish, highly accredited and visionary one small seed magazine, the ultimate reference to South African pop culture, he shares with us what he believes the design community is craving.
Further links
Speaker 2
Sean Riley
Owner & Managing Director
Entelligence Ltd
Unseen Design
A critical reminder that fantastic web design just isn’t enough to guarantee traffic on your site. Sean’s wealth of experience will convince you that search engine marketing has become big business and that advertising spend is being moved away from traditional media and towards the Internet medium.
Learn of inspirational new methods and technologies used by those at the cutting edge to build traffic, understand user behaviour and ensure return on investment.
Further links
Speaker 3
Bruce Gourley
Strategist
DataDesign
How is information being designed?
How is it being visualised?
Can we interact with information in new ways?
The design of interfaces and automated data-tools holds the key to linking the growing amounts of data and making the information meaningful and engaging. Bruce thrills us with existing information presented in beautiful and unusual ways.
Further links & books
- Freakonomics by Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner
- www.ted.com
- www.visualcomplexity.com
- www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm
- www.marumushi.com
- www.daylife.com
- labs.digg.com/arc
- www.number27.org
Speaker 4
Timo Daum
Designer
Lecturer and Media Artist from Berlin
Future Faces of Audio-Visual Design
Media philosopher, Vilem Flusser, predicted an era where mankind would interact primarily via zero dimensional images. Additionally, the classical broadcast model of the television leaves the masses bored. Timo will showcase exceptional examples of where these collide, flooding us with a new wave of audiovisual creativity.
He leads us into the sensual,imaginative world of motion design and emerging audio-visual styles fuelled by online communities and the European club environment.
Further links
Students
bitxbit – After Party
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Wallpapers
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Curly hair tutorial – CS3 Ps
Curly hair tutorial – CS3 Ps
This tutorial is meant to assist for those who struggle with alpha channels as shown above
STEP 1:
- Make sure you have a hi res photo (2702 x 4052 pixels, or round about here)
- Open it up in photoshop (viewed at 12.5%) as shown above
- Your layers panel will have one layer “Background” in it
- Duplicate that layer by right/ctrl clicking on it, as shown above
- The Duplicate Layer box will appear, type in “photo” then hit OK
- Your layers panel will now look like this (see above)
- Click on the “Background” layer to highlight it
- Then apple shift N, to create a new layer (see below)
- The New Layer box appears, you can leave it as layer 1 and hit OK
- Your layers panel will now look like this (see above)
- The image next to the layers panel above shows the default tool bar
- Click on the color tools icon (see above)
- The Color Picker box appears and then select a color (see above)
- I chose to select a dark red, the colours around my hair are quite light and will show much better on top of the dark red
- Color selection depends on your choice of photo
- Once happy with color choice hit OK
- Above shows the color selected in the color tools on the tool bar
- Now press “alt backspace” on the keyboard, it will now fill Layer 1 with that dark red colour
- See the layers panel above
STEP 2:
- Double click on the zoom tool to view photo at 100% as shown above. Then click on the “photo” layer in the layers panel to activate it.
- Press & hold on the Lasso tool to show a drop down and select the Polygonal Lasso Tool (see above)
NOTE: you can chooce any of the Lasso Tools r even use the Pen Tool, which ever you are comfortable with, I prefer the Polygonal Lasso Tool
TIP: “apple D” keys to deselect a selection
- Use the Polygonal Lasso Tool and make selections around the hair (see above)
NOTE: if you have made a selection and want to continue adding to it, with the Polygonal Lasso Tool still selected, press and hold the shift key on the keyboard, a “+” sign will appear next to the icon. to delete a selection, press the “backspace” key on the keyboard TIP: when zoomed in at 100% (or more) and you are making selections, press the space bar and the “hand tool” will appear, then you can drag your photo to see more of the photo and keep making selections or carry on with a selection
- If you zoom out of your photo (zoom tool with the alt key held) your photo should look like the above image
NOTE: the dark red background, around the hair there is still some green from the background of the photo, we will remove that soon. Don’t worry if you are deleting strands of hair when you are viewing pic at 100% (double clicking on zoom tool). The background of the photo is very busy and not a plain colour so those hairs get lost in the photo already.
- Keep selecting sections and deleting them till you are left with no background (see above)
NOTE: I have cropped my photo to just show my head and shoulders and get rid of that knee in jeans.
Now, depending on what background you are going to use for your new photo, the amount of detail you want is up to you, normally what I do is find a background photo/pic that I want to use, and then drag my original photo onto that and then resize it using the transform tool (apple T, then hold shift and drag to resize). Remember, the original photo is at hi res, the new background photo/pic can be a smaller, this way when you resize your original photo on the new background, its looks more fluid.
STEP 3:
- This part is a bit tedious, but because we using a photo with a busy background, its what works for me.
- Still on the photo layer, select the Eraser Tool on the tool bar (see above)
- Once the Eraser Tool selected, in the Options Bar (Below the Menu Bar, File, Edit, etc) click on the Brush icon dropdown (see above) then make a Master Diameter of about 45 Pixels, and Hardness of 0%then drop the opacity down to 35% (see below)
NOTE: you can feel free to play around with opacity and brush sizes.
- Then start erasing the straight areas around the hair.
- You will need to resize your brush size or opacity in some instances.
- You should get an effect something like the above image
- Continue doing this around all the hair, also, work in the hair as well, were you can see some of the original background, erase that with low opacity (see above)
- Once you happy, open, your new background pic/photo in Photoshop, then drag your photo onto that one and resize (see below)
- I have made two (notice on the one there is still a green tinge on the skin, be carefull when selecting your new background)
- Bad choice of background photo (green tinge)
- Better choice, green background compliments original photo
Flash
illustrator
Creating wallpapers for your cellphone in Illustrator// October 08
By Lauren Sharp
Moving away from the serious Illustrator features, there is one really neat trick. That is creating your own custom made wallpaper for your phone. Obviously having bluetooth on your computer and on your phone is definitely required. Most technology supports these features nowadays, but if your PC or Mac is a bit old you can always buy a bluetooth toggle that slots into your USB port. Let’s take look at our 10 step process for creating unique custom made designs for your phone:
1.Hand rendered artwork is always the way to go if possible. Get your fine liners out and get passionate. Make sure your lines are clean and you close all the gaps in your artwork (i.e if you draw a circle, close it properly, don’t end it just before where you started it). Try avoid using Tip-Ex to correct your mistakes. Rather leave the skew lines in, as these are easily fixed or deleted once you convert your drawing. Now scan your artwork in as Grayscale at 200 dpi.
2.Open Illustrator, and create a New Blank Document (Command N). When the dialog box opens up, under New Document Profile choose Mobile and Devices. To the right of the dialog box is an icon for Device Central. Click on that icon and Adobe Device Central opens up. To the left of the Device Central window is a list of phones. Select your make and the drop down arrow to locate your phone model. This is a great guide as it’s very visual so if Device Central doesn’t have your phone find a similar model. It still works.
3.Once the search is over and your phone model is located. There is a button labeled Create at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Clicking this then opens up a new blank document window.
4.If you are new to Adobe or to Illustrator then it’s worth noting that the checker board pattern you are seeing in your document window indicates transparency. Because cellphones don’t support transparency, in this case the checker board pattern means it is white. So if you don’t want a white background be sure to just draw out a box over that area and fill it with another colour. The green line that forms a block is the size of your screen. So any artwork outside this area won’t show up on the screen of your phone.
5.Go to File > Place, locate your file and place it. We are then going to do a Live Trace on this image you have placed. I choose to reduce the image I have placed to fit neatly on my screen. I hover my cursor over the top left hand corner of the bounding box. I get a double arrowhead, holding down my Shift key I can reduce the image while scaling it proportionally and avoiding any distortion. After scaling it hit the Live Trace button. The option for Live Trace is available in the control panel along the top. Hit the button and instantly get a trace result. You can adjust your Threshold and Tracing Presets now.
6.Once you are happy with the results. You are given two options on the top right hand side of the control panel. You must either Expand it, turning the trace into paths. Or you need to turn it into a Live Paint group. Let’s first Expand it. So we can edit and delete any lines that need fixing. Click the Expand button. The Live Trace now expands to paths. These are grouped so go to Object > Ungroup. You will possibly need to Ungroup your image a few times. Then using the Direct Selection Tool (A) select paths and start editing them along with your pen tool. Delete any white bits you don’t need, and generally clean up your image.
(Tip: The white background of your paper can be deleted easily by just selecting it and hitting the delete key on your keyboard.)
7.When you are done fixing your images. Group them individually Object > Group (Command G). Apply a Live Trace to them individually. Otherwise they Trace as one unit and that makes it’s hard for you to move them around. Live Paint is now found in Object > Live Paint > Make. Before we start to paint, we should use gap detection. Object > Live Paint > Gap Options. You can go and select small gaps up to large gaps. This just closes any areas your pen may have missed by a millimeter. Using our Live Paint bucket (K) and Live Paint selection tool (Shift + L) you can start coloring in your image. When you are done resize it accordingly. Use the various tools available in Illustrator and begin to create more elements for your wallpaper.
8.When you’re finished and ready to export your image. Choose File > Save For Web & Devices. This is a useful option because you have more control over the format and compression of the image. You can view your wallpaper on an image of your phone just by clicking on the Device Central button at the bottom right of your screen. Options for adjusting the view and size can be found on the right of that dialog box.
9.When you are happy just minimize the Device Central screen and go back to the Dialog box for saving your image. You can toggle between the original and optimized views at the top left hand corner of your dialog box. But the real gem is to the right – offering different presets. I advise for this particular exercise choosing a medium/low jpeg from the presets. The Adobe default presets are usually perfect as is, so further adjustments aren’t necessary. When you’re done click Save. Choose a destination for your file. The desktop is always a good option as it’s fast and easily accessible.
10. The final step would be to locate your bluetooth central on your PC or Mac. As well as switching your Bluetooth option on for your phone. Pair the devices and send the file. Select Save as wallpaper, and you now have your very own custom made image.
Time Needed: 30 minutes (enough to fit it in during a lunch break)
Skills Required: Intermediate knowledge of the general computer environment and Illustrator.
Skills Gained: Live Trace Live Paint Expanding an image to pixels Using Device Central
Create A Color Illustration For A T–shirt// November 08
By Lauren Sharp
Many designers get the itch to create at some point their own tee. Whether you plan to sell it at the local market or give it out as Christmas presents, it’s no doubt a fulfilling experience. If you are having it reproduced at a local print shop or screen-printer it’s important to have a design that is easily reproducible. In this tutorial we are going to look at making a color T-shirt design. It’s advisable to keep your colors to a minimum because printing costs can be very high. So look at 1, 2 and 3 color jobs at the most. Let’s get started:
01. You want to make sure that your illustration or image is no bigger than A4 and preferably no smaller depending on what you hope to achieve with the design you have created. Start with a sketch. It doesn’t have to be too detailed or accurate. After all, the rough, hand-drawn look often works a lot better.
02. Clean up your sketch by erasing all pencil lines and going over the drawing with a black fine-liner. Now scan this image in as Greyscale at 200 dpi. Save the image as a .tiff, as tiffs seem to give a better trace in Illustrator than jpegs do.
03. Launch Adobe Illustrator CS3 then File > New from Template > Templates > Inspiration > Band > T-shirt. You can now save this Untitled Document, delete the elements you don’t need and use this Template for your T-shirt.
04. File > Place > locate the image you scanned and place it. Apply a Live Trace and then either Expand the image to clean it up or choose Live Paint.
*Note: If you aren’t familiar with the Live Trace and Live Paint options please see my tutorial on Creating Wallpapers for your Cellphone in Illustrator.1
05. You need to decide on what colors you would like to use. Creating a Color Group and dragging your colors in there can often help you avoid incorrectly choosing a similar color and applying that hence creating a 3 or 4 color job by mistake. To create a new Color Group navigate to your swatches panel and look for an icon of a folder with a plus sign next to it (it’s at the bottom of the swatches panel).
06. I am also a big fan of using Global Colors so once you have selected the colors and placed them in your Color Group double click the swatch and make it a Global Color by changing it from Process to Spot. We use Spot because this job will run off 2 plates and not a process of 4 plates of color.
*Tip: A Global Color is really handy because if you need to change the color later on all you do is double click the swatch and change the CMYK values, this changes all instances of that color used throughout the document. A Spot color is automatically Global by default.
07. Once you have finished coloring your artwork. Make a copy and scale it down, positioning it on the T-shirt so you can get an idea of how it will look. When scaling an image to preserve strokes and effects you may have used, select the image and go to Object > Transform > Scale. Tick the Scale Strokes and Effects then click OK and scale it down to the size you need it at.
08. From this point onwards you need to contact your screen-printer or your local print shop that is doing the job for you, to find out what format they would like it in and any other particulars they require for the job. Be aware that most places won’t let you just print 1 or 2 tees they require you print a minimum of at least 20 of one design.
Happy designing and feel free to send us pics of your final tees, if we like them we will put the images up under this section. For our Friends of Design Tees we used Fitees, and found them to be very professional and good quality for money. They use screen-printing as there method of print and have some really great options for Knockout ink (which we used) and other special effect inks. The screen-printing is run by Toby and he can be contacted on 021 424 7225 • info@fittees.com • www.fittees.com
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Related Courses
Adobe InDesign Refresher Workshop
- Course Name: Adobe InDesign CS4 Refresher
- Level 2: Intermediate to Advanced
- Prerequisite/s: General knowledge of the Win / Mac operating environment. Min. 1 year Experience in Adobe Pagemaker, Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Macromedia Freehand
- Course Classification: 2 Day Workshop
- Duration: 2 days 9:00am – 4:00pm
- Course code: INDD200-D
Course Description:
This course is a fast-paced software overview to familiarise experienced layout artists or digital illustrators with Adobe InDesign’s interface and major tools. The course includes advanced features such as Preflight & Packaging; Managing Links; importing Illustrator and other InDesign files, Tables; Export to HTML and Flash; Interactivity; Buttons; Behaviours; Master Pages; long document features such as automatic pagination, working with book files and libraries; colour management & transparency tools, attributes and saving for professional print.
Who should attend:
This course is not intended for beginners.
To get maximum benefit from this course, the course participant should be an experienced layout artist / designers, or software user who needs refreshing and updating in the latest version of InDesign CS4.
It covers a vast range of topics and goes in depth into features and does not include explanations on concepts or tools that are assumed to be known, such as the Pen tool, image formats, linking and importing and general workflow.
What you will be able to do after the course:
You will be proficient in InDesign CS4’s new major features and updated on technological software advances and tools now available for layout artists creating simple layouts and long complex documents for print or electronic publishing.
Course Outline:
- InDesign Interface, Tools Preferences
- Transparency, Isolated Blending & Knockout Group
- Books
- Libraries
- Advanced Styles, nested styles
- Object styles
- Tables
- Export for HTML
- Export for SWF, XLF (Flash)
- Preflight and Packaging
- Interactive Buttons
- Transitions
- Hyperlinking text
- Bookmarks
- Options for Export to PDF
- Colour Management
- Overprint and Attributes
- Composition Preferences
- Hyphenation & Justification tools
- Master Pages & Sections
Please contact us for up to date pricing.
Pricing also available for customised, or on-site training group training.
Enrolment form
Download enrolment form here or contact us to enrol.
After Effects Master Class
Convenient, instructor lead, foundational.
- Course Name: Adobe After Effects Master Class
- Level 1: Basic to Intermediate
- Prerequisite/s: None, Photoshop is an advantage
- Course Classification: Stand-Alone-Course
- Course Code: AE100-D
- Duration: 5 days (30 hours)
- Times: Mon – Fri (subject to change) 9:00am to 4:00pm
Intro
This course has been designed to give you an extremely comprehensive introduction to Adobe After Effects and will cover all of the main areas and uses of the application.
Description
At the end of this course you will be able to import footage items, add text and effects, animate various parameters, incorporate design elements into video footage, and export to a number of different formats for viewing.
Software modules
- Overview & Getting started
- Importing Files
- Compositions & Layers
- Using the Timeline
- Animation Essentials
- The Principles of Animation
- Animation : The Next Level
- Getting Creative with After Effects
- Introduction to Effects
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- Integration with Other Adobe Applications
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Pricing also available for customised, group or on-site training.
Enrolment
Contact us to enrol.
