sanhaus

A Visual History of Adobe Photoshop – the app I live in for 9hrs a day.

Keith — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:13:46 +0000

If your a creative professional chances are high that you’ve used, use, or will use Adobe’s flagship behemoth, Photoshop. Allowing one to create pretty much everything under the sun as well as the sun itself, this application needs no introduction. Here’s a nifty visual timeline I came across late one night on the web – not sure where, it was late =) Click for the full-res.

One of the GREAT Visual Pioneers of Hollywood

Keith — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 02:28:33 +0000

2001: a space odyssey – my personal favorite movie of all time, hands down THE film that started my interest in computers; Blade Runner, one of the great great dystopian motion pictures ever created – what do both of these essential films have in common – the visionary behind the movie magic Douglas Trumball.

Using unheard of special effects such as “forced perspective” and “fiber optics” this guy is probably more responsible for movie magic than any one in Hollywood today. Before the days of CGI special effects were created “manually” utilizing crude and sometimes “dirty” techniques. If you love sci-fi, special effects, and great technology then visit Mr. Trumbull’s website for a treat to the senses.

DouglastrumBull.com

Terrific Symbol Reference Guide

Keith — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:41:10 +0000

As a graphic designer I am constantly on the prowl for new and invigorating ideas related to my craft. Any type of media usually does the trick for inspiration as long as it remains interesting. I came across an interesting book recently that not only serves as a great desk reference guide to symbols but also is just greatly interesting to look at, you’ll love it =)

Here are some of the book specs:

• paperback: 644 pages
• comprehensive word index
• approximately 2,500 Western signs
• 1,600 articles their histories
• signs range from Cro-Magnon ideograms to modern graffiti
Book>

The Checklist Manifesto – How to Get Things Right

Keith — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 02:24:03 +0000

We all have been in this situation – working with a team, any team, where multiple items must be checked off before moving to the next. A simple shopping list, a work log, an accountants book, the list is the almighty organizer as simple as it is. Trying to run a website team is no different. Without the collective “known” the process comes to a crash quickly. Those five todos the boss wanted by five is no exception, excuses are sometimes the only way out. The Checklist Manifesto is a delightful insight into the importance of running todos with an actual todo list – as in a physical piece of paper. As simple as it sounds this proven method can help bring the team to the next level of productivity and efficiency, regardless of the scenario. Highly recommended book.

Checklist-Manifesto-How-Things-Right

Navigate OS X like never before!

Keith — Tue, 18 May 2010 15:22:18 +0000

Navigating OS X has greatly improved over the many iterations through the years. When Cover-Flow was added to the finder with the introduction of Leopard many saw this as a great enhancement, myself included. Although there are many ways to get around the finder it still falls short of doing it as quickly as some would like. You must always launch a new finder window and then navigate – this becomes arduous when you need to get deep into the system level directories. Well not anymore.

FolderGlance solves this navigation hassle by allowing the user to never leave the contextual menu (right-click menu) You can navigate the entire system without ever launching a finder window and it also provides the ability to set shortcuts and media file viewing via pop-up window. The full version is a mere $20 – well worth it with the time you will save navigation you Mac.

FolderGlance

Fonts, Nice Fonts, Great Fonts, FREE Fonts

Keith — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:41:55 +0000

Font collecting can easily become an obsession. I hate to admit it, but having over 35,000 in my own library is beyond practical, yet I feel the urge to keep collecting. If you are in the same boat here is a link to Smashing Magazine and a collection of some terrific new and old fonts, free.

SHOW ME THE FONTS!

Quickly Lock Down Your Mac

Keith — Wed, 05 May 2010 00:13:53 +0000

At the office I don’t like to leave my desktop available when I’m not the one in front of it. It’s bad enough people want to touch the screen whenever they walk by. If your like me and find locking down your Mac for short trips to the kitchen to get a coffee refill or use the mens room essential, this tip is for you.

I have two quick options for locking down your Mac:

Option 1 - Locker Widget – this simple little widget enables you to lockdown to the login screen without actually logging you out. You can leave your open work and log back in and everything is still open and active. Try Here

Option 2 – Menubar Lock – this option works by going into keychain and doing the following:
• Open Keychain Access (located in applications>utilities)
• Open Keychain Access Preferences
• Click the first checkbox “show status in menubar”

Now your keychain access will allow you to lockdown your Mac from the little lock icon that is now located in your finder bar at the top of the screen. You have two options – Lock Screen and Lock Keychain. Use Lock Screen to lock out – to get back in simple enter your account password to log back in.

Option 2 is my personal favorite. Enjoy =)

Voice Commanded Ai with your iPhone / computer…

Keith — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:21:24 +0000

I saw this amazing video demo today of this software that in all likely hood will be the next paradigm shift in regard to how we interact with our technology based products. See the video for a really delightful and inspiring demo.

KEYNOTE: The Game Changer: Siri, a Virtual Personal Assistant from Semantic Universe on Vimeo.

So You Need A Typeface?

Keith — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:11:15 +0000

We’ve all been there, in the heat of a great design moment and then it momentarily crashes because we don’t want to look through our huge font library for “the one” that will fit just right. I am just as guilty – with over 32,000 fonts in my own library I admit I probably only use 1% or less. Whether it’s because I get use to my top 3 or 4 fonts and that’s it (I can justify this – I am a designer in a corporate environment and I limit font use to a max of 4 fonts – it’s about consistency). However, sometimes font hunting takes to long and the contrasts are infinite – until now. Below is a clever little flow-chart for font hunting based on set criteria specific to your design objectives at this moment. I honestly cannot remember where I found this chart from (on the web somewhere) and I give full design credit to whomever designed it. Enjoy.

An Easy “Free” Font Viewer for OS X – I mean EASY.

Keith — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 01:14:01 +0000

Don’t relly want to spend an abundant amount of cash on a font manager / viewer for OS X? There are some nice ones out there, but, if you are on the hunt for creating your own font viewer, free and easy, here is a simple method.

Just go to the main directory where you store your fonts, if you do not have a custom location go to the root directory of your drive and go to library>fonts. Drag the directory file to your dock – if you use a horizontal “3D Dock” drag it to the area to the lef tof the trash bin – you can store alias (shortcuts) to this location for quick file access. Drop the folder on the dock and thats it! Right click on the folder and select “view as>grid”. You now have an easy to use, free font viewer.