graphic design, freelancing, illustration, advertising, web design

I have been having a few problems with one particular website (no way am I linking to them ) copying my posts and images and wondered if I could do something about it.

They ignored me when I tried to contact them so I tried out something David Airey had suggested to stop people hotlinking images by providing the hotlinker with a replacement image (with my web address on it). Unfortunately I didn’t realise that this would cause images not to appear in my RSS feed and then the replacement image would also be stored in a users cache when they clicked through to my site. Teddi Deppner from Creative Web Guru kindly alerted me to this, so thank you Teddi. I apologise for this and have now removed the hotlinking code so hopefully everyone using an RSS reader will be able to view images ok again (if not please empty cache). There are ways to adapt the code of the .htaccess file to allow RSS readers but it was all getting too complicated for me.

I know some of you are very keen travellers, so when I read in Computer Arts Magazine about some new travel guides aimed at creative people I thought I would write a quick post about them. I haven’t bought any of the books but according to the books’ website:

Little Black Books are city guides created specifically for the ad industry that cover the best places to sleep, eat and drink, from the quirky to the fantastic. LBBs are of great value to readers throughout the year, helping you choose where to entertain clients, host company events or accommodate visitors. In addition to information on travel and entertainment, LBBs contain a directory of production and post production company contacts as well as local associations and press contacts. You’ll also find a handy 52 week diary which lists events, award shows and local holidays—all of this in a convenient size and beautiful, eye-catching design.

I have had a quick look at the website, and from the previews it looks like the books are well designed too. The first books cover Soho (London), NYC, Santa Monica, Toronto, Miami and Cannes.

Photoshop has to be one of the hardest of the graphic design programs to get a grip of. I remember thinking I would never understand it when I first started. There are just lots of different ways to accomplish the same thing with photoshop, I know personally I have only scratched the surface of what it is capable of. Jennifer over at Laughing Lion Design has created some video photoshop tutorials which are worth taking a look at to improve your photoshop knowledge.

There are loads of other photoshop tutorials out there if you need them too, take a look at Tutorialized which lists 9082 photoshop tutorials, that should keep you busy for a while .

Adobe also have their own video tutorials in all their products including photoshop at www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/