Tampa InDesign User Group

Meeting Summary

Very good. One of the best presentations. Have him come back again.

Charlie Oestreich

Learn the Art of Template Design with Gabriel Powell
Thu, Mar 26th, 2009 at 6:00 PM
Art Institute

Event Details

Our March 26th meeting had a great turn-out of members and visitors to the Tampa Bay InDesign User Group. Of the original 30 members who signed up for our meeting, 71 people came with visitors! We had many new faces in the crowd that night.

We gathered for our meeting at the Art Institute in Tampa. InDesign User Group member Shelley Manes started the meeting off with a business card networking icebreaker; winners were treated to fabulous prizes like CS3 and a book on CS4.

After the icebreaker, Gabriel Powell, author of Instant InDesign: Designing Templates for Fast and Efficient Page Layout and an Adobe Certified Instructor, introduced us to the art of template design. He began by showing us how to develop the right layout grid for any publication. Then he explained best practices for setting up master pages, generating style sheets, and preparing your templates for success in a live production workflow. Throughout his presentation he threw in a wealth of indispensable tips that eased the tedium of production. Plenty of questions were asked by different members during our meeting and after. Gabriel left us with a PDF for our members to download (see link at the bottom) as well as some websites you may want to check out to further your education on the subject of templates:

On the Peachpit website: Step-by-Step Guide to Designing InDesign Templates
(http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1181454&seqNum)

On the Instant InDesign website: Seven Principles of Great Template Design
(http://www.instantindesign.com/index.php?view=389)

Finally, the meeting closed with two separate raffle drawings. The first raffle drawing was for members and members who brought guests for a free copy of Adobe CS4 Flash. The second raffle drawing was for the rest of the fabulous prizes that were donated.

Thank You

A special thank you to Giovanni Yarabek for taking the photos and Jeanne and Bill Kean for helping with cleanup and registration. To Victoria Snabon-Heath and the Art Institute for allowing our group to have our meeting in the Atrium at the Art Institute, and to Shelley Manes for beginning our meeting out with the Business Card exchange game. Look for more icebreaker type events at future meetings. Thanks also to: • KW Media, publishers of Layers Magazine and Photoshop magazine (http://www.layersmagazine.com/) • Lynda.com • Adobe Press: http://www.adobepress.com • Total Training: http://www.totaltraining.com • Adobe Systems: http://www.adobe.com • O'Reilly Media: http://www.oreilly.com/ • Peachpit Press: http://www.peachpit.com/index.asp Thanks as always to our location and communication sponsors: • The Art Institute • Tampa Business Journal • Create Magazine • Ad2 Tampa Bay • Creative Tampa Bay • Tampa Tribune Business Section • Weekly Planet • Sarah Schweiger Creative Design Services • Betsy Bugeja – Digital Media Creations.tv (Public Relations) • St. Pete Times • AIGA • The Tampa Graphic Design Meetup.com Group http://graphicdesign.meetup.com/90/?gj=sj6) We appreciate everyone who attended!

Upcoming Industry Events

In July or August (no date has been set yet - so stay tuned for more info), the Tampa Bay InDesign User Group will be bringing Chris Converse to Tampa. Many of the InDesign User Group members have been waiting very patiently for a multimedia instructor to come to town. We have listened and now we will be delivering. The description below is brief overview of a potential all-day training.

Interactive Design: Building on What You Know
Taking your magazine online or making that brochure more interactive and dynamic is within your reach. You already know Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. Now apply that knowledge and experience to expressing your ideas in websites you build yourself. Want to make that website more dynamic? No problem. We'll show you how you can take your Photoshop CS3 assets and move them into Adobe Flash CS3 Professional for an interactive experience that will turn heads.

Turn even more heads by animating a Photoshop file in Adobe After Effects CS3 or customizing an Illustrator logo for a 3D title. Mastering these tricks will enable you to quickly take advantage of the growing demand for dynamic media. Come to this fun session and see how you can easily apply what you know and venture into the world of interactive design by using the creative tools in CS3.

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InDesign User Group Member Giovanni Yarabek spoke briefly at the last meeting about forming a group that specifically focuses on creating a Help Desk for Dreamweaver.

Giovanni writes "In a nutshell, I'd like to find a way to create a group of professionals (ADOBE Software hands-on users, designers) who use these various programs, and determine who is willing to help one another, kind of create our own local 'Help Desk', as many of us work solo, or in small groups. With the ever-changing software programs, it's nearly impossible to get all of the continuing education that we would like. And when we do attend a class, we either already know half of what is covered, or it's way over some attendees heads, and they slow the class down by asking the same question over and over.

So let's learn from one another, share tips/tricks/secrets, etc., in pursuit of excellence on the job, for our firm or client."

Giovanni reported that his first meeting went well on the 9th, with a good exchange of ideas. If you are interested in attending or becoming part of the network contact Giovanni at g@punchagency.com.

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Comments from the evaluation sheets

"Gabriel is super organized with his material/lecture. He really knows his stuff!" - Matthew Holting

"I feel this meeting is giving me a lot of information and a in-person tutorial. I look forward to the next meeting" -Shoen Tripp

"I thought is was very informative and he answered a lot of questions..." -Elise H.

Next Meeting

Instead of a nightly weekday meeting, InDesign User Group members David Rogers and Sarah Schweiger decided to pull our local resources together to offer an all-day class on Saturday, May 9th at the Art Institute. This event is based on the feedback we received on the topics you wanted to learn. Download the JoinUsSaturday_May 9th.pdf (below) for more details. We hope you can join us!

In the morning session, you will be led through a workflow procedure that will demonstrate why you need an asset management system and why so many photographers are turning to Photoshop Lightroom. During the afternoon session, you will learn about Color Management between Adobe Illustrator and InDesign for page layout, along with demystifying the challenges an artist faces while working with specs from a magazine or newspaper.

Normally this workshop costs more than $300 per day! But because both David and Sarah are InDesign User Group members, we are offering this class for only $27.50 ($40 if you sign up on the day of the class), which includes lunch, and just covers our costs! Space is limited, reserve your spot today! We do need minimum 10 participants to make the class.

Click Here to register for the class. If the link does not work, try copying this link into your browser: http://www.davidarogers.com/events/idug0509.html.

David A Rogers is a Digital Graphics Consultant and Educator based in the Tampa Bay Area, specializing in helping photographers and artists navigate to the best digital workflow practices.

Sarah Schweiger of Sarah Schweiger Creative Design Services is a freelance graphic designer and photographer in the bay area, specializing in helping non profit and profit organizations grow their business and community awareness through effective graphical marketing campaigns.