CreativeTechs Tips

If you live in the Seattle area, be one of the first to experience CS4 in person. We’re partnering with Luminous Works in Ballard for a special CS4 social gathering.

Join us September 23 from 6 to 8 PM, the day of the official CS4 announcement, at the Luminous Works Schoolhouse in Ballard. Instructor Steve Laskevitch will give a demo of the Best of CS4, we’ll have light refreshments and drinks, and perhaps a few surprises!

Register: Luminous Works & CreativeTechs CS4 Event!

Note: Space is limited, and this event has proven very popular (it is almost entirely full). When the remaining tickets run out, we’ll add a special Waitlist for a second CS4 event. We’re still working out the schedule and logistics for that.

We like to take a break from our technical focus during long weekends. So, in honor of the extended Labor Day holiday, we encourage you to get away from your computer, and enjoy a little low-tech paper folding. Apple’s iTunes U serves up a fun collection of tutorial podcasts by physicist Robert Lang who is also one of the world’s foremost origami artists and theorists.

Link: Robert Lang on iTunes U

Subscribe to the podcast collection and learn how to fold a square piece of paper into a duck, a sparrow, and a swallow. A nice way to tip your toe in the pool of origami paper folding.

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Each week we get emails and phone calls from readers outside of Seattle who want to sign up for one of our workshops. We’ve been promising an online test of these classes for people in other parts of the country.

So we’re opening the question up to you: What topics are you most interested in? Visit this quick survey and simply check off any topics you’d like to see offered as an online webinar:

Survey: CreativeTechs Online Workshop Topics

The responses we get to this survey will help us determine whether to offer online workshops. So if you are interested, please participate.

Each summer around this time, Veer publishes their annual Summer Activity Book for Creatives. Each workbook is 100 pages of full-color brain-teasing fun. Spend glorious summer hours playing designer-specific games, puzzles, and more.

PDFs of the last four editions:

Veer Activity Book 2007

Veer Activity Book 2006

Veer Activity Book 2005

Veer Activity Book 2004

Enjoy the upcoming extended weekend. See you next week!

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For years, Tim Russert of Meet the Press has been my weekly Sunday companion as I write, finish, and proof this weekly tips newsletter. I was deeply saddened to learn of his death last Friday.

Tim, I will miss you. Sundays won’t be the same without you.

Apple’s Word Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) sold out this year for the first time ever. For those of us who aren’t lucky enough to be down in San Francisco this week, Apple has posted the 1 hour and 45 minute video.

Watch it online on Apple’s website:

Link: Apple WWDC 2008 Keynote

Or download the video to your own iPhone/iPod from Apple’s new Keynote Podcast in iTunes. This latest video has been posted along with many other historic presentations:

Link: Apple Keynotes Podcast

Too busy? Read past the jump for a great 60-second version of the WWDC Keynote.

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If you’ve been wondering what Stanley Hainsworth has been up to since leaving Starbucks, check out the website for Tether, a new global creative company based in Seattle:

Stanley Hainsworth’s Tether

Tether is a global creative company based in Seattle, Washington founded by Stanley Hainsworth, former creative director at Nike, Lego and Starbucks. Located in a gallery space in historic Pioneer Square, there is the creative gallery where Tether designed products are sold as well as curated products and artwork. Within the gallery space the full-service Tether agency creates emotional brand connections for established and start-up brands across all creative disciplines including brand, identity, product design, advertising, digital design, packaging, branded entertainment and retail design. It is located in a gallery space in historic Pioneer Square.

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Interested in learning more about using email newsletters as a marketing tool for your clients, or your own studio? We are offering a special Seattle workshop on May 28th: Marketing with HTML Email Newsletters. There are only a few slots left, so if you are interested in attending, sign up today. REGISTER

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CreativeTechs is looking for an additional Mac Consultant to join our team. We’ve been continuing to grow over the last year. We are (frankly) somewhat desperate for a talented Mac IT person who can hit the ground running and continue to help our team grow to the next level.

Over the last decade, CreativeTechs has grown into the Pacific Northwest’s premiere team of Macintosh experts. Our Mac IT consultants support some of the best Mac-based creative teams in the greater Seattle area, including design firms, ad agencies, photographers, video studios, and in-house creative departments.

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Presidents’ Day (today) is a national holiday in the United States. In honor of the extended weekend, here is a fun project. Design-Police.org has created a great “visual enforcement kit” that includes a wide number of stickers. Download the PDF, print them out, and help bring bad design to justice:

Design-Police.org

For even more fun, combine these stickers with our Acrobat PDF Stamp tip this week, and start critiquing digital proofs from around the office.

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