You've arrived at Chicago's top source for cross-media publication design and authorized Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat and Quark training — welcome!
There's quite a bit of useful content here, which I've organized into four simple categories. Be sure to visit Cross-Media Design to see our portfolio of print, web site, and PDF CD-ROM projects. The Training and Support section details our applied training in InDesign, InCopy, Photoshop, GoLive, CS2 Bridge, QuarkXPress, Illustrator, OS X and more. Software resource pages and our DesignGeek e-zine live in DesignGeek Central. Finally, you can learn all about me and Seneca in HerGeekness.
What's Happening at Seneca these days . . .
>> I'm a new CreativePro.com columnist! My monthly column is called "HerGeekness Says:" and covers basically anything in the design field I feel like writing about, similar to DesignGeek. Check out my March 2008 debut, where I wrote about the wonders of screen sharing for creative businesses: "HerGeekness Says: Screen-Share with Your Clients". Don't forget to leave a comment when you're done reading the story!
>> Want to get the lowdown of how InCopy really works with InDesign?
Adobe hired me to write their InCopy CS3 whitepaper (a 16-page PDF) that describes the InCopy CS3/InDesign CS3 workflow, the paper they make available to prospective customers on their main InCopy product page. It includes lots of screenshots of an actual publication going through the steps in the workflow so you and your colleagues can get a good sense if it'll work in your situation. (If your editors give you Word files to flow into the layout, and then mark-up paper proofs with their changes, it's definitely worth considering.) Here's the main Adobe InCopy product page, if you want to look for the link yourself; or you can download the 5MB PDF directly: The Collaborative Editorial Workflow Using Adobe InCopy CS3 and InDesign CS3. They tell me it's being translated to Chinese and German, so far, for their international offices.
>> I recorded many of the InDesign CS3 video tutorials for Adobe, the ones that come on the DVD that ships with any CS3 product. You can also watch them online (free) at Adobe's Design Center Video Workshop web site.
>> I'm presenting various seminars at various conferences. So far, the ones for 2008 include the InDesign Conference (Miami, Feb 25- March 1); and the Creative Suite Conference (Nashville, May 19–22) — details are at http://www.mogo-media.com/events/.
>> Lynda.com Video Training. Hey there, ready to really get your design and editorial workflow on the same track? Check out my 8-hour video tutorial series, InCopyCS3 + InDesign CS3 Integration. After a step-by-step overview of how the two programs work together, I show editors how to use InCopy to open and edit InDesign layouts; the designers how to prepare and update layouts for InCopy, and everyone how to make sure things run smoothly. You can view the videos online as Quicktime movies (the first ten or so lessons are free); or you can buy the DVD for your workgroup. (Use my lynda.com free pass to get a seven-day all access pass to every video tutorial they have online ... thousands!)
>> Live Acrobat Connect seminars for Adobe Systems and for our clients. These seminars are fun — from my desk in my home office I log onto a web page, hook up my USB headset, and suddenly everything I do on my computer and say into the mic is broadcast live to my clients ten states away; or to the hundreds of users who signed up for the Adobe session (and the dozen Adobe people who are managing everything in the background).
>> DesignGeek issues are always in development ... and I'm trying to make a DesignGeek blog, but that project always gets pushed to the end of the line. Stay tuned ...
>> Miscellaneous designgeek-y projects: Researching how to assess employee design software knowledge for a large retail client -- online marketing for a plug-in developer; project managing a couple web site redesigns; lots of out-of-town training; trying to steal random hours to update the Software Resources pages on this site (finally updated most of the body of the Photoshop Resources page); and moving most of my design studio's computers to the Mac/Intel platform.
