Creative Community Bulletin 31 March 2010 Through 18 May 2010

These are the arti­cles, blogs, and resources I found inter­est­ing and wor­thy of shar­ing for 31 March 2010 through 18 May 2010:

  • Adobe Illustrator CS5 Print Publishing Software Review | Macworld – Adobe Illustrator CS5 offers some­thing inspir­ing for just about all users, from artists and tech­ni­cal illus­tra­tors to Web and Flash design­ers. New fea­tures like vari­able width strokes, Bristle Brush, Perspective Grid, anti-aliasing text for the Web, Flash Catalyst inte­gra­tion, and bet­ter per­for­mance make Illustrator CS5 a com­pelling upgrade.
  • Introducing Inhalable Chocolate and Coffee – “You open it up, put it in your mouth, and you breathe in. And you get a nice flavor.
    You can close it when you’re done, and then lat­er on you can open it up again and you can Whif again.
    There’s about eight or ten puffs per Whif.” – David Edwards, Harvard University professor
  • Adobe Statement: Flash and Creative Freedom – As the web and mobile devices facil­i­tate the free exchange of ideas like nev­er before, we stand at the lead­ing edge of an amaz­ing rev­o­lu­tion. We remain cer­tain that open­ness is the only way forward.
  • Iron Man 2 Case Study of Futuristic User Interfaces – In June 2009, Marvel Studios asked Perception to assist in deliv­er­ing a sim­ple graph­ics pack­age to be used as an 80 foot pro­ject­ed back­drop for the Summer 2010 block­buster “Iron Man 2”. Immediately impressed with the team’s abil­i­ty to immerse them­selves in this world, Marvel Studios con­tin­ued to seek Perception’s assis­tance in bring­ing numer­ous fan­ta­sy ele­ments to life. Fast for­ward six months lat­er to March 2010, and Perception’s role on Iron Man 2 had increased ten­fold as the team deliv­ered the last of over 125 shots, includ­ing the con­cept­ing, design and ani­ma­tion of var­i­ous futur­is­tic inter­face ele­ments, numer­ous mock broad­cast pack­ages, and a tremen­dous amount of detailed com­posit­ing work.
  • Adobe Takes Out Full Page Ad – We Love Apple –
  • Google and Verizon to Launch Tablet Computer – Add a big new twist to the tablet com­put­ing wars. The Wall Street Journal is con­firm­ing that Google plans to bring a tablet com­put­er to mar­ket with Verizon Wireless.
  • 100 Amazing Futuristic Design Concepts We Wish Were Real – Concept design­ers are also referred to as “visu­al futur­ists”.

    These con­cept designs may not be on the mar­ket yet, but they can still inspire you to cre­ate some­thing just as futur­is­tic and excit­ing online.

    The designs may be imprac­ti­cal in some cas­es, but the idea is to put the con­cept out to the world to see how it evolves and grows.

    Remember that these are all just con­cep­tu­al, you can’t buy them yet! Some may be clos­er to being pro­duced than oth­ers, par­tic­u­lar­ly when they come from a large com­pa­ny like Braun or Samsung. Otherwise, who knows if or when they will be available.

    With that said, here you have 100 amaz­ing futur­is­tic design con­cepts that will make you crave more.

  • Greatest American Hero T‑Shirt (wish they had my size) –
  • Adobe Illustrator CS5 Print Publishing Software Review | Macworld – Adobe Illustrator CS5 offers some­thing inspir­ing for just about all users, from artists and tech­ni­cal illus­tra­tors to Web and Flash design­ers. New fea­tures like vari­able width strokes, Bristle Brush, Perspective Grid, anti-aliasing text for the Web, Flash Catalyst inte­gra­tion, and bet­ter per­for­mance make Illustrator CS5 a com­pelling upgrade.

    But it’s far from per­fect. The Perspective Grid fea­ture feels half-finished, text anti-aliasing doesn’t work with­out a sec­ond, secret option, and many request­ed fea­tures were ignored.

  • Free Industrial Fonts, Photoshop Plug-ins, Applications, More! – In this install­ment of “Free for All,” you’ll find plug-ins, appli­ca­tions, and online ser­vices that will make you more indus­tri­ous. I’ve also thrown in 25 industrial-style fonts. And as always, they’re free.
  • Apple is mak­ing its own Flash !! – Gianduia – “Two is a com­pa­ny.. three is a crowd” is so well framed. It seems this bus is get­ting too crowd­ed already. And all the more mor­bid in a way. Microsoft wants its own flash so starts out with Silverlight. Java wants its own flash so we have JavaFX HTML5 stan­dard i a clone of Flash fea­tures Now Apple also
  • Hi, I’m a Marvel…and I’m a DC: Iron Man 2 and Jonah Hex –
  • First Jonah Hex Trailer Debuts – Check out the first full trail­er for the upcom­ing Warner Bros com­ic book adap­ta­tion Jonah Hex…
  • 30 Things You Have to Know about being a Freelancer – Wanting to be a free­lancer? – there are many things you need to be aware of. In this arti­cle I will list many things for you to think through and con­sid­er before jump­ing into the free­lance busi­ness. I hope this list will be a valu­able tool for you to eval­u­ate the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion and being pre­pared for pos­si­ble chal­lenges along the way.
  • Why the iPad isn’t for me | Macworld | Ben Long – Macworld Senior Contributor Ben Long is think­ing dif­fer­ent. Unfortunately, it’s not the kind of dif­fer­ent Apple had in mind when it start­ed sell­ing the iPad last week. After one day with the device, Ben real­ized that his con­clu­sions might put him at odds with the major­i­ty of Apple fans and gid­dy new iPad own­ers. He wise­ly went into hid­ing, tak­ing the iPad with him and hop­ing for a rev­e­la­tion. Here are his reports from [redact­ed]:
  • Twitter’s Redesigned Homepage Shows It’s Not Just for Status Updates Anymore – All of our recent changes embrace the notion that Twitter is not just for sta­tus updates any­more. It’s a net­work where infor­ma­tion is exchanged and con­sumed at a rapid clip every sec­ond of the day. With so much being shared, we know that there’s some­thing of val­ue for every­one. People who inter­nal­ize the val­ue of Twitter under­stand the pow­er of this sim­ple medi­um. But it has­n’t been easy to make that val­ue trans­par­ent or obvi­ous for curi­ous folks com­ing to Twitter for the first time.