Real or fake? How much does the camera lie? Nowadays, it is not an easy task to actually prove that

the picture has been retouched and the model on the billboard is not as perfect as she seems to be.

Thanks, to our brand new magazine, Photoshop Retouch, you will be able to easily answer all those

questions. We will give you all the tips you need to cheat on the camera. We have created for you another

option called Creative Class that you might find interesting. You will learn how to create a dark fashion photo

and will get invaluable insight into the world of story telling via textures, shapes and colours.It is all what we

have prepared as an appetizer for all those who are looking for an inspiration and technical help on becoming

a creative guru. For those who are more interested in restoring photos, rather than taking a new one, we

have founded a spot in the magazine for that as well. The Photo Restoring section is where you will learn

everything right from the beginning and thanks to step-by-step tutorials, we will slowly, but successfully

teach you what is needed to revive an old photograph. We invited and asked Bert Monroy - member of the

Photoshop World Dream Team - what it takes to archive the respect he has achieved and we welcome his

knowledge. In the Tips and Tricks Section, Bert gives us some practical advice and shortcuts he uses to take a

lot of the grunt work out of creating things.There is much more to explore on what our Team has worked on to

meet your needs. All I can say is: Read, Learn and Enjoy the Photoshop Retouch magazine!

Thank you for your support,

welcome

contents

cover artLoosing Your MindBenjamin Delacour 6

photo retouchBeauty RetouchIlona Larsson 16

Translucent GirlMaria Vangelova 20

Skin RetouchJohn Ridick 28

High-End Skin RetouchingSuzanne Jakupi 32

creative classHer of WinterRadim Malinic / BrandNu 36

Create a Dark Fhashion PhotoRob Shields 44

Spring in SightRadim Malinic / BrandNu 50

typhographyHow to Specify TypeYves Peters 56

Adriana Typhographic IllustrationBrian Grant 64

photomanipulationCreating Humanoid ObjectsCeren Aksungur 70

photo restoringHow to Restore a PhotoCamela A. Weekes 76

reviewsBook ReviewChetankumar Akarte 84

Software ReviewEmac Creator 85

tips & tricksCorona's BottleBert Monroy 86

interviewsInterview with David GenslerRoshan Abraham 90

Interview with Bert MonroyRoshan Abraham 94

contents

Loosing Your Mind

advanced | 1 day

adobe illustrator CS4

The aim of this tutorial is to propose you to create an effect of decomposition, as if the character was composed only by pixels. The hardest task will be to give the impression that we used a picture issued from a 3D software to achieve this work on Photoshop and Illustrator. It’s better to use a graphic tablet for the final retouching. This effect has already been used to make faces’ deformations created in 3D in Poser for example. Here, we’ll adapt this deformation in a natural way to a face (no-modeling) in order to make this effect more striking.

Loosing Your Mind

cover

8 01/2009

The choice of the subjectThis choice is very important.If the picture is beautiful and helps to understand your idea, you have found the picture you need. For example on this picture, the character touches her face with some smooth. I had to create an effect of explosion as sweet.

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PreparationThe first step consists in cleaning the picture of its imperfections without exaggerating because we want to keep the natural aspect of our character. The aim is precisely not to do single pixels. Always before you begin to work, you need to expand the working area around your subject. To do this, simply paint around your character with a big brush and low opacity.

Path creation To start, the easier way is to use Illustrator in order to draw on the photo the paths needed. Import the picture at 40% opacity in illustrator to have more visibility. Start at the center of the face then continue with the side of the face. Follow the contour of the nose and mouth, and then the side of the eye. Simply use the pen and follow natural forms such as the mouth to give the effect of relief on her face without creating any curves, because we want to achieve cubic forms.

loosing your mind

901/2009

SculptNow you need to start to trace within the first paths, help you from those you have already placed. It will help you to follow the outlines of your face. Do not over tighten the lines at the beginning; it will be easier to draw a new line between two lines not too far. In addition, it willlet you make paths with equal spacing.

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We continue…We’ll be dealing with the eyes and the mouth. Create a new layer for these news paths. This will help us with tracing the vertical lines.Here the purpose is to continue to model the shape of the face with paths. Remember, we want to get only triangles or rectangles.

Courage it’s only the beginning...Once you have drawn the main lines you can now start to detail the different parts and continue the grid. Try to keep a balance in your lines; don’t overload one area and leave another empty. Don’t forget to save regularly because it would be an unpleasant duty to do it again!

cover

10 01/2009

HorizonWe will now continue with the horizontal lines. We will do as we did with the vertical lines: trace some lines and distribute them to prepare the cutting. Try to provide as much relief as possible to the face. Begin with the hair, down the face, then the cheek, the eyebrows. You have now traced the most important lines to give the impression of relief.

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FillingContinue the horizontal paths, always helping you with the others lines. We have created the base of the grid, now we must go on and reduce the size of polygons. To give more realism, you can reduce the mesh in deeper parts of the face such as the eye and the nose.

End of fillingCut the larger polygons into smaller pieces so you end up with a uniform polygon size.To do this, trace some small lines in order to cut the bigger elements.

loosing your mind

1101/2009

Correction of mistakesWe have made a pretty mesh, now we need to check that the paths meet each other properly and remove the points that are isolated (menu selection>object> Illustrator CS2). Make sure that your paths don’t go over each other, they should be end on the others paths.

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DuplicateUsing the horizontal mirror tool, we will duplicate the lines we have created in order to make the mesh of left side of the face. It does not matter if all the lines do not match because we don’t need a perfect location on the whole face. We will work only with a part of the duplicate pixels.

We start again Now that we have prepared the face, we will model the arm of our model. For this you can proceed as we have done for the face. Start by the edges of your shape, then the middle. When mapping between two lines you arrive early have lines that follow the forms and gives volume to our mesh.

cover

12 01/2009

Horizon 2Finish with the same technique applied to the horizontal lines before in order to complete the arm's mesh. Now we must import these paths on the image to Photoshop. To do this, open the picture that we have extended in the beginning in Photoshop and copy/paste your paths created in different layers; name it Trame visage and Trame bras. For this work the number of layers and need to go back requires you to create multiple levels of folders and name each layer. Name the image of your model base.

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First backgroundCreate a folder for the arm and put it in the trame of the arm, do the same for it of the the face. Create a new folder fond_visage in the folder visage. Display the layer which contains the trame of the face, select with the Magic wand around ten of polygons in pressing Majuscule, hide the trame of the face. Create a layer in the folder fond_visage and name it fond_1 and fill your selection with the color that surrounds the character. Keep your active selection.

First flight of pixelsCreate a new folder named pixels_visage in the folder face. With the selection of the previous layer created, copy the pixels of the face into a new layer named pixels_1 in the folder pixels_visage. Using the Transformation tool [Ctrl]+[T] then clicking on the button deformation (or [Ctrl]+[T] and right click deformation), a grid appears. Pull the corners to guide the movement of pixels and deform them slightly to give more depth.

loosing your mind

1301/2009

Be patientWe will start a new selection of other pixels on the layer trame du visage. Create a new layer name fond_2 into the folder fond in which you fill the selection with the same color you did previously. Keep the selection and cut pixels off the face from the layer base and paste them on a new layer named pixels_2 into the folder pixels_visage. Use again the function deformation deform tool in order to slightly modify the created pixels.

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Again and againWe must continue to work small packets of pixels. Remember to name and place properly all the layers that you will allow to correct easily packets of pixels. Continue to create the background step by step and to explode the face by small packages of two or three pixels until ten or more.

It's not overIn order not to remain confined to the face we will duplicate layers from the folder pixels_visage in the aim to create a stream of pixels toward the top of the image as they fly away. To do this, choose one of the groups of layers already made, move them to the side of the picture; reducing and deforming them slightly. Repeat the action two or three times in reducing the pixels each time.

cover

14 01/2009

A little shade!We will now shade the pixels floating above the face. To do this select the layer pixels_1 and use the option Drop Shadow in the layer styles in order to create a shade under packages of pixels. Create the shadow in mode Multiply, opacity 60%, distance 6 pixels, magnify 0 and size 8 pixels with an angle of 30°. Of course you can change these settings to adapt them to your taste. If you are happy with the effect, do a right click on the layer and click copy style layer. Select all others layers of pixels, then right click and paste the style layer. Check that the shadows look realistic.

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Making the background of the faceNow we must clean the lines left by the cutting of pixels in previous steps and give a little more realism. To do this, hide the folder of pixels by clicking on the eye icon next to the folder pixels_visage. Create a new layer above the layer base and with the magic wand tool or pen make a selection following the contours of the backgrounds that you have created in order to put all together in one selection. Then fill this selection using the background color and give it volume with a black, large brush.

Draw yourself the continuationCreate a new layer on which you put a few forms like the ones we have cut. Select a group with the rectangle selection tool, and in the Edit menu made to define a predefined form. Name it group 1 and now go to the Brushes palette, set the step to 75%, then size variation and angle to 100%. To finish, set the round variation to 70% and round minimum to 30%. We must now set the colors for that it seems to this of the skin. To do this, select a light color of the face as the foreground color and a dark one as the background.

loosing your mind

1501/2009

Let’s goIn the dynamic menu of color, set to 70% the value of variation color foreground / background. Take your graphic tablet and take care of your lines to give a perspective to your forms. Proceed by steps, if you are happy with the first one; adjust the color with [Ctrl]+[U] to make it as close as possible to the color of the face. If it is too different from the color of the face, pick new color values with the eyedropper.

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Again and againCreate a new layer for each new path you want to change the brightness of in order to give it more depth to change the brightness of each one to give more relief. Continue until you reach the desired effect. We must now create a selection of all these layers to correct their color and brightness to get exactly the same color of the face.

This is the end !All you have to do is reproduce the same steps for the arm. Of course don’t forget to make adjustments in color and contrast in order to complete your image correctly. To do this, create an Adjustment Layer Brightness>Contrast (do not use light, it’s better to use adjustment layer curves and to lighten with curves if necessary). Add a Adjustment layer hue/saturation and another mixing layers. With a little practice you will get to perform all these steps naturally.

by Benjamin Delacour

intermediate | 4-6 h. adobe photoshop CS3

beauty retouch

1701/2009

Retouching planBefore initiating work on any image always start with designing retouching plan or notes. This will make our work faster and ensure that we avoid missing any details. We can do this within the image as a separate layer. Open the original image Beuty_retouch.jpg and go to Layer>New>Layer and give the layer the name Notes. With this layer active choose the 100% opacity brush or Type tool and write action plan on our Notes layer. When finished, we duplicate the Background layer, place it above the Notes layer and rename it Original. Turn off the visibility of both Notes and Original layer. Now we have the Original layer on top which we can turn on while retouching to ensure we didn’t go too far.

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Level adjustmentsWith the background layer active, add the Level adjustment layer (Layer>New adjustment layer>Levels) and do the following changes. Select the green channel and move the right slider until the value become 249. Adjust the blue channel to 242. Select RGB and move middle slider until the value match 0,95.

Beauty Retouch

Beauty retouch is one of the most popular areas within photo editing. This tutorial provides you with an in-depth retouching process, from start to finish. We will be showing you how to produce perfect skin, enhance make-up, reshape the face and improving photo focus.

photo retouch

18 01/2009

CleaningNow we want to clean up all large imperfections. Duplicate the layer and select the heal brush and heal all the large blemishes on her face, the blood vessels in her eyes and the hair on the neck, ears and forehead.

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05 LipsDuplicate the layer and name it Lips. Clean the make-up cream from the lower lip using the lone tool. Select the right half of the her upper lip with Polygonal Lasso tool. Save the selection (we will need it later) Select>Save Selection, copy [Ctrl]+[C] and paste the selection [Ctrl]+[V]. Name the layer Texture. Apply Filter>Other>High Pass with the radius 1,6 pixel. This is going to be our lip texture. Turn off the visibility on this layer for now. Activate Lips layer. Load the selection we have saved (Select>Load selection). With the lasso tool selected drag the selection to the lower lip and choose the piece we can copy and apply to the upper lip. Copy and paste the selection and we will have new layer. With the Move tool place it on the right half of her upper lip. Lower the opacity of this layer to 40%. Now select texture layer, turn the visibility on and change the layer mode to soft light. Select the last three layers by holding Shift key and merge them [Ctrl]+[E]. Correct imperfections using low opacity Clone tool. Do the same with the left half of her lip.

03ReshapeDuplicate the background layer and let’s reshape her face. Go to Filter>Liquify and select the Forward Wrap tool which is the first tool on the left side of tool palette. Then change the tool settings on the right side. Make the brush size large and lower the density and pressure to a setting around 6-8. We start with changing the face outline. With small strokes narrow her right upper forehead outline. Don’t try to do this in one move because the result will be smudgy. Do the same correction with her left cheekbone. Now we want to do some changes to her eyes. Due to the fact that she has long artificial eyelashes her eyes looks too small for her face. Let’s widen them a little bit. Reduce the size of the brush to 200 and move out the external corner of her eye. Proceed in the same way with the second eye. Use the same tool and the same settings to correct the eyebrows.

beauty retouch

1901/2009

Eye make-upFor the make-up enhancement we will use adjustment layers. Go to Layer>New adjustment layer>Curves and make the photo slightly darker pushing the curve down. Fill the mask with black to hide all (Edit>Fill). Make sure the mask is selected. Choose 50 % opacity white brush and paint over the eyebrows and eyelashes to make them darker. To add some brightness to her irises create Color balance adjustment layer and add some red and cyan, fill the mask with black and paint over the iris with a white brush. The make-up adjustment is completely up to individual taste, but remember that it is all too easy and common to overdo it.

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08FocusThis is the last step of our tutorial. This type of portraits always benefits if the centre of the face is slightly lightened and the outlines are darker. In this way all attention of the viewer is directed towards the face. There are many Photoshop plug-ins that can be used, but we choose to do it with the help of a 50% grey layer, the same we were using for skin retouching. Go to Layer>New>Layer, rename the layer Dodge and Burn, change the mode to soft light and check the box Fill with Soft light neutral color. Select 600-pixel, 50% hardness brush and change the opacity to 3%. Reset the color picker to default black and white. Paint with white the centre of her face and with black the hair and face outlines. If necessary change the opacity.

by Ilona Larsson

06SkinThis step is the hardest and the most time consuming. There are many ways to retouch skin. Some of them are quick but give unnatural results some of them give great results but are time-consuming. Fortunately, or unfortunately for some of us, we are going to use the second approach. The technique is called dodge and burn. Duplicate the previous layer and name it Skin. Go to Layer>New>Layer, rename the layer Dodge and Burn, change the mode to soft light and check the box Fill with Soft light neutral color. Select 3-pixel, 50% hardness brush and change the opacity to 10%. Reset the color picker to default black and white. Zoom the photo to 200% at any part of the skin. As you can see the skin consists of brighter and darker parts. Our goal is to even them out. To conceal dark blemishes, paint with white and conceal lighter blemishes paint with black. This technique might take several hours but gives great natural result. Merge Skin and Dodge and Burn layers.

In this tutorial we will take a regular photo of a girl and make her look translucent as if she is made of glass or see-through chrome. There are many tricks and techniques that photoshoppers use to reproduce chrome or glossy materials. I will show you one way that does not require any painting skills.

Translucent

Girl

advanced | 60 min. photoshop CS3

translucent girl

2101/2009

Prepare the imageWhat we will do first is take our original image and separate the girl from the background. You can usepaths, select color range, the magnetic Lasso tool – whatever is more convenient to you. I usually use the lasso tool and then adjust the mask so this is what I am going to do now too. Make a duplicate layer of the original. I’ll name that layer Smooth basis. Make a selection of the model with the magnetic lasso tool. Then press [Q] to enter Quick Mask Mode and paint with black over the areas you want to remove and white over the areas you want to keep selected. Press Q again to exit the Quick Mask Mode. With your selection still active, click on the Add Layer Mask button in your layers palette.

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Add white backgroundNow you have everything within the selection (the white area of the mask) visible whereas the rest (the black area of the mask) will be invisible.Make a new layer under this one and fill it with white.

Make it smoothIn order to achieve a convincing chrome look we need to start with a very smooth image. Therefore, despite that this image is pretty good quality, the next step we need to take is smoothen it with the Gaussian blur or Median filter. Select the Smooth basis layer and run Filter>Noise>Median with the radius set at 1px. (Your image may need a higher radius to make it smooth and remove any graininess.)

photo retouch

22 01/2009

Set a blue/gray color castWith the Smooth basis layer selected in the Layers palette go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation… (or press [Control/Command]+[U]), make sure the colorize box is checked and choose the following settings – Hue: 211 and Saturation:20. This will colorize the layer and get a blue/gray color cast to the girl.We will also need another Hue/Saturation adjustment layer that we will leave at the top to affect theimage globally. Make this Hue/Saturation layer with the same settings (Hue: 211 and Saturation: 20).

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Linear lightThe next steps (5 through 9) will make the girl’s skin look smooth and metal.First, select the girl by [Ctrl]+clicking over the mask of the Smooth basis layer. Go to Select>Color Range… and choose Highlights from the drop-down menu. This will make a selection of only the highlight areas of the girl. Feather the selection (in this case I chose a feather radius of 30px). Having the Smooth basis layer selected in the Layers palette,copy [Control/Command]+[C] and paste [Control/Command]+[V] into a new layer. This layer will serve as the base layer of a clipping mask. Change this layer’s blending mode to Linear Light. That’s why I will also name the layer Linear Light.

OverlayNow let’s create the first clipped layer that will use Linear Light as a base layer. Duplicate Linear Light, rename it to Overlay, and change its blending mode to Overlay. [Alt/Option]+Click on the line dividing Linear Light and Overlay to create the clipping mask.

translucent girl

2301/2009

Create the metal lookThe second clipped layer will be an adjustment layer. Make a Curves adjustment layer above the Overlay layer. Your curve should look similar to the one on the image here. [Alt/Option]+ Click on the line dividing the two layers in order to add the Curves adjustment layer to the same clipping mask.

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Smooth againNow we start to get this metal look we are after but as you will notice the image now needs some serious smoothing. Select the Linear Light laer and run Filter>Noise>Median, this time with some big radius. I set it at 25px.Now select the Overlay layer and run Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur…. I used a radius of 30px.

Enhance the metal lookAs you can see now you have nice smooth silver skin. We could enhance this metal look even more by adding another Curves adjustment layer right below the global Hue/Saturation layer. The curve should be very settle, similar to the one on the image here.

photo retouch

24 01/2009

Generate highlightsNow let’s add some highlights. For this purpose the Plastic Wrap filter is really helpful. Select the Smooth basis layer, make a selection of the girl (by [Ctrl]+clicking over the mask), copy it and paste it into a new layer. Run Filter>Artistic>Plastic Wrap… and choose settings with high highlight strength and smoothness and low details.In my case the settings are: Highlight strength: 19, Detail: 6, Smoothness: 15.

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Tidy up the highlightsNow set the blending mode of the layer with the plastic wrap at Pin Light to leave only the highlights. If it is necessary you may enhance them further by applying Levels adjustment only to this layer. Also, add a layer mask and paint with black over the highlights that you don’t need and want to remove.

Choose a contrast channelIn order to make the metal skin even more realistic and glossy we will use displacement maps to add reflections. First, go to the Channel palette and choose the channel with the highest contrast (in my case the Red channel). Right-click on that channel and choose Duplicate Channel… As a destination choose a new document and let’s name that document re-flection.

translucent girl

2501/2009

Save the displacement mapNow blur the image in the new document a bit (run Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur…). I used a radius of 2.5px. Save and close.

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Generate the reflectionsIt is time to choose the image that we will displace.Basically, you can choose any image you like. I have found that clouds and/or water work really well so that’s why I chose such an image. Paste your chosen image into a new layer just below the global Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and Curves adjustment layer. It should be the same size as the displacement map (or our original image) so if it is not - crop it. Run Filter>Distort>Displace and choose the following settings: Horizontal scale: 50, Vertical scale: 50, Stretch To Fit, and Repeat Edge Pixels. When asked to choose a displacement map file, choose the reflection.psd

Blend the reflectionsAdd layer mask to leave only the area covering the girl and set the layer’s blending mode to overlay. You can also reduce the opacity a bit (I left it at 70%). At this point you already have a pretty convincing chrome look of the girl so you can leave the image like this if you want. I however will go a couple of steps further to make it look translucent.

photo retouch

26 01/2009

Prepare the new backgroundNow we need a new backround for the girl in order to make her translucent. I will use the same image with the clouds and the sea. Paste your chosen image into a new layer above the global Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Duplicatethat layer so you will have it twice.

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Set the see-through areaMake a selection of the girl and add a layer mask to the second duplicate. Run Filter>Blur> Gaussian Blur… with a small radius to blur the image a bit (I used 2.5 pixels). Set the layer’s blending mode to Overlay and reduce the layer’s opacity to about 50%.

Set the background areaMake another selection of the girl, press [Control/Command]+[Shift]+[I] to inverse the selection, and add a layer mask to the first layer with the clouds and the sea. Again, run Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur… with a small radius (I used again 2.5 pixels) and there we go. We already have the translucent glass effect we wanted.

translucent girl

Voila!Again, you can leave the image like this but I usually continue further with some small tweaking. I reduced the Overlay layer’s opacity to 70% and also enhanced the eyes a bit. Here is the final image.

by Maria Vangelova

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a d v e r t i s e m e n t

photo retouch

28 01/2009

Skin

Retouch

Don't you want the pictures that you take of your friends to look their best? Here are some simple Photoshop techniques to clear up some of those imperfections and blemishes that may show up when using the megapixel cameras available today.

skin retouch

2901/2009

I try to work with the tools that I can control the best; the brush, the healing tool and the clone tool. I try to stick with those basic tools. I always use layers, since they are non-destructive and I

can move back to the original image to see and verify the effect that I was trying to achieve.

ImperfectionsStart by cleaning up the skin using the healing brush in the normal mode. Remove all visible imperfections, but don´t remove the expression lines, because they give the photo a natural look. Pattern artifacts that sometimes show up in photos are a common problem that can be avoided by using the healing tool (Figure 1).

To remove this unnatural looking problem, choose a clear part of the skin to use as base for the healing brush. Then move around the skin, changing your selection in order to smooth all of the areas (Figure 2).

Soft skin, soft...When you are finished with the skin, then mask it. Apply the Blur to the masked section of the skin to give it a slight blur. Do not apply the blur to eyes, lips, nostrils, eyebrows, eyelashes and hair. Try to be very subtle, if you blur too much, details will be lost and photographers do not use expensive, megapixel cameras to lose details (Figure 3).

Figure 3.

Figure 1. Figure 2.

Figure 4.

Figure 5.

Crystal white eyesNow correct the eyes using the Brush tool on Lighten mode, with about 10% white color and paint the area of the eye. Don´t erase all the veins – those are natural. This mode is also useful to whitening the teeth (Figure 4).

photo retouch

30 01/2009

HairdryerTime for the hair! Use the Clone tool to take down those rebel hairs sticking up and out of place. After that mask the hair and use a similar blur, as we previously used on the skin. Again, do not blur too much where you begin to lose details (Figure 5).

Some restyling may be acceptable. Use both the clone and healing tools to do this (Figure 6).

Make upWith a new empty layer, paint the lips red, but use a soft light mode on the layer (Figure 7).

Bright and darkTo smooth bright parts of the skin, create a new empty layer and select color from the skin and using the brush tool, paint over the skin areas that are excessively bright. Now, change the layer mode to Lighter and modify the Opacity to achieve the result you are looking for. Variations of this technique may be used to lighten up dark areas of the skin also (Figure 8).

LevelsA final adjustment layer is used to bring some contrast to the overall image. I used Linear Contrast mode on the image below to achieve the results I wanted. Try different adjustments to find the right look you are trying to achieve (Figure 9).

by John Ridick

Figure 8.

Figure 9.

Figure 7. Figure 6.

intermediate | 30 min. adobe photoshop

high end skin retouching

3301/2009

De saturationThe first step with this photo is to desaturate the reds (Hue/Saturation) to the point where the reds aren't overblown. However, there still must be colour remaining in the skin

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Blemish Free Zone On the Duplication layer, Surface blur the bottom layer to the point where no blemishes and no bumps can be seen. (Depending on the file size, generally the radius is >30 and threshold is about 40)

High End Skin

RetouchingAn image of pure perfection is desired by all Photographers and Image Retoucher’s. In this tutorial, we pay attention to the finer details within a photograph. Applying these simple techniques can seamlessly improve all inconsistencies and give your photograph the professional treatment it deserves.

photo retouch

34 01/2009

Reveal The PerfectionAdd a layer mask to the top layer and using a soft and opaque brush, gradually reveal the smooth skin behind making sure that all defined facial lines are not touched. Otherwise this gives an unrealistic appearance.

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Adjust, Define and LiquifyUsing liquefy, you can alter certain aspects of a photo such as jaw line, nose size, lip size and many more. Using this, I have made the nose more petite, balanced her chest and curved her lip. Minor changes can improve a photo remarkably.

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Skin TextureThe next step is to add noise to the smooth layer to give a natural appearance. The noise can represent the normal ridges that can be seen up close. To do this, you need to zoom and judge for yourself how much grain is necessary for a realistic appearance. (Make sure the settings are on Gaussian with Monochromatic un-ticked)

high end skin retouching

06

Add A Feature or TwoSome beauty spots shouldn't be hidden. So using a brown brush, dab a dark shade of brown over one or two spots to add detail to the photo. Here I have revealed her existing moles.

by Suzanne Jakupi

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

Her, of Winter

intermediate | 90 min. adobe photoshop | adobe illustrator

There seems to be question on many creatives lips, asking 'where does the inspiration come from? I guess every creative person would give you their specific answer, completely different to one and other. I believe to look makes you not to find. The harder you look, the less of a chance you've got. Well, at least this is my point of view. I had an idea to collaborate with my friend, model Ellen Hancock for a personal piece for My New Book of Colours. She came back with a bunch of great images, and this was an instant inspiration for the piece. A natural process in the making.

creative class

38 01/2009

New CanvasAlthought this piece was intended to only be the last personal work going into my book, I still have gone for 420 x 594 mm at 300dpi in CMYK mode. Slightly oversized for the finished size, it comes handy for the future reference when a large scale prints are required. The model here (ellenhancock.com) was shot by Heather Ackermann (heatherackermann.com) in California. The excellent shot has got just the right amount of movement and vibrancy. Selected Pen Tool [P] and outlined most of the model's body part.

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Duplicate model/part removalI wanted to have an intriguing composition, thought it would be great to take a slightly unobvious approach. I've separated all of the parts onto separated layers, grouped them by [CTRL]+[G] and renamed the group. Whilst holding down Alt I dragged the group over to the right to duplicate it. [CTRL]+[T] for Free Transfrom, Right click for the options menu, select Flip Horizonal. I've decided to remove certain part for now, quick masked the others.

First steps/texturesHere I was, to kick start the image, I've made selection from the groups, brushed some colours onto the model shape with soft brush set to 1500 size. I tend to brush a bit more than I need only to quick mask later and hide the extras I don't need. It helps to work this way as it's almost non-destructive process. Some placeholder colour was brushed onto a new layer above the background and first elements introduced to get start the overall feeling for the image.

her, of winter

3901/2009

Grey branchesI wanted to achieve juxtaposition between the frosty and hostile feeling of winter, along with glimmers of hope, warmth and friendliness. I have used vector branches from my vector library and pasted them in as Shape Layers from Adobe Illustrator. Again, another non destructive way of working in Photoshop. The vector shapes remain fully editable, each point could be dragged and edited, shape colours are easily changed at any time too. Branches were placed in spaces corresponding with the models pose.

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White branches and leavesAs you will find the next few steps are following the same idea as the previous step. I used to bring my vector elements from Illustrator as Smart Vector Shapes for quite a long time, only to end up rasterising the pieces and changing colours with Hue/Saturation. Working with Shape Layers (where suitable, obviously) helps to keep the file sizes smaller too. At this step, we have addtions of white branches and vector leaves. As always, rough positioning for now, colours are working for now, if any future changes, hit [CTRL]+[Backspace] for Background Colour fill, or use the [Alt]+[Backspace] for Foreground fill colour. Easy as that.

Lake image/left right/maskingMy images are well-known for their colour vibrancy and the right mix of vector shapes with photographic elements. I believe the lake image in here came originally from the the SXC free website. Over the years I've collected quite a few images, I happen to work quite quickly and make sometimes random decisions on what is to introduce into the image. On the right you can see the masked original image, on the left, it's set to overlay above the leaves to work vibrantly with other colours.

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Cast Shadows/Create a layerOur snow queen looks quite flat, almost like cut out with scissors out of a paper. Make a selection from the models shape, create a new layer and by using a soft brush set to 50% black, draw at the bottom of her feet, gradually bringing more colour towards the bottom of the shape. Move the layer one step below underneath the show and free transform. If needed, the shadow could be quick masked if too strong. Alternatively, you can set the opacity of the layer with number keys from 1-0 (1 being 10%, 0%being 100)

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Snowy flowers/White vectorsAny image can become a lot more intriguing and inviting, it you add subtle details that some might not notice at the first sight. At this stage, I've added a number of vector flower from Adobe Illustrator, rearranged them and layer masked. They will become more apparent when further textures are introduced.

Double Colour starsThe double colour stars were created in Adobe Illustrator by simply drawing a circle, adding anchor points and then using Plucker and Bloat tool. It's an excellent way of experimenting and creating nicely odd shapes. This time I opted for the trusted for Vector Smart Object import, along with creating a new brush from the shape too.

her, of winter

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Vector orchidsThe juxtaposition becomes much clearer here, with the introduction of vector orchids into the main image. Elements again come from a stock library, though I try to alter the shapes to look a bit different, a bit further from the obvious. Utilising all of the elements, I've scaled, warped and altered so they don't look all the same, but using them in various size and perspectives.

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Light streaks/Brush/Layer styleThere's a million and one ways how to work in the Photoshop, the next up is addition of subtle light streaks. Hit F5 for the brush options and tick the Shape dynamics option. This will enable you to create nice a varied strokes depending on the pressure of your pen/mouse. The harder you press, the thicker are the lines. Simple and easy. Brush in white and apply outer glow in linear dodge to work with layers below.

Frost texture/Desaturate/OverlayThe next step was again fairly easy. It's the idea that counts, everything else isn't a rocket science anymore. Locate a frost texture image, you might have one in your library. I desaturated the image, set to overlay and added Level via Adjustment layer for pick out the contract between colours.

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Themed space/Overlay 20%Yet another layer, yet another texture image for deeper meaning. On the right, you can see the desaturated version with masked out bits, on the left is the final layer set to Overlay, with Opacity set to 20%. As you know, it's simple, fast and easy to hit numerical keys to experiment with the opacity.

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Japanese Tree/Linear DodgeThe design is coming on together rather nicely, however, I feel it needs a bit more texture to work even better. I've separated dark tones only from a japanese-tree-looking-image and pasted it in, right toward the end layers of the composition. The unwanted parts were brushed out in with Brush set to Dissolve via Layer mask. When I was happy with the layer, it was set to Linear Dodge.

Stars/Custom brushNow it's time to recycle the shape of the double star, time to create a new brush preset out of it. Brushes are great and handy, yet another amazing feature in Adobe Photoshop. Hit D for default colours (Black & white) and brush in white in single hits to evoke star shaped snow flakes. Change brush size by [or] to have a better variety in the piece.

her, of winter

Extra shapesOver the models eyes is the drawn shape done with the Pen tool. Simple shapes really to round of the image, to round off the whole composition. There's something about the eye expression of the model, I reckon the shape give her quite sinister yet intriguing look. The objects are set to overlay. Now it's time to step away from the whole image, have a look at full size and decide to call it done. Her, of Winter is finished. It's quite a chilly image, with breeze of japanese summer.

by Radim Malinic / Brand Nu

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Create a Dark Fashion Photo

beginer | 60-120 min. photoshop CS3

Creating a dark fashion image requires a top notch model as well as a bit of finesse and a few added lighting effects to accentuate mood.In this tutorial I will provide some basic guidelines that will get you started on creating your own dark and moody fashion illustrations. I recommend using a pen tablet to speed things up. The stock image used is provided for free by the website www.sxc.hu. I strongly encourage further exploration of the site as it has many images that are updated on a daily basis. Remember your final image is only as good as the stock you use. Follow these steps and finding great stock are the first steps to making hot contemporary fashion images.

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The Big PictureOpen Photoshop and select a new window and make the size 2300 x 3200 at 300 dpi. Now go to the website www.sxc.hu and in the search box type the word glamour. This will get you the stock photo that we are using for this tutorial. Click on the image until you get a full size picture. It should be much larger than your computer screen. Right click to copy and then paste [ctrl]+[V] Misska into Photoshop.

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Short CutsNow this is the time consuming part, extracting the model from her background. With the rectangular marquee tool draw a box around the girl as close as you can and cut her out of the stock image. Afterward go into the selection menu, select color range and select the colors that you would like to remove. The blue of the sky, for example. Hold the shift key and with the ink dropper continue to select different shades of blue until your preview window looks like the one pictured here. Select ok and hit [Ctrl]+[X] to remove the background. Repeat this process with the green of the grass and then go in with a hard eraser and take out whatever is left behind.

Shaping UpWith the paint bucket tool change the background color from white to black. Now take the image of the girl and size her down to 90%. Go to the custom shape menu and select the outlined triangle. Make sure the color is set to white and add the triangle to the background of the image behind the girl. Make a copy of the girl by hitting [Ctrl]+[J] and hide that layer. With a soft eraser tool erase half of the girls body so she looks similar to the image pictured here. In the shapes menu choose the ellipse tool and holding the shift key create a series of ellipses. All the ellipses will appear as one layer, select that layer and in blending options select gradient overlay and add a pink to black gradient.

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Paint PlayNow we are going to go back to www.sxc.hu and search for paint splatter. On page 2 of that search we find a series of splatters that we will use for this image. Choose a splatter and erase the white background. Put the first splatter behind the girl with a black to white gradient overlay. The second will go below her waste. Now take the copy of the girl that you made and create a clipping mask over the second paint splatter. Arrange the clipped image so that it appears as if her body is being painted on. To create a clipping mask right click the layer and select create clipping mask. The layer will be clipped into the layer directly below it on your layers window display.

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LightsTo create the lighting effects begin with the rectangular marquee tool and on a new layer draw a rectangle across the center of the image. Now with a soft brush set to 500 px pass lightly over the top of the rectangle as shown in the picture. Hit ctrl-t and change the direction of the lines so they look like the final image. To smooth the ends of these lines go to filter>blur>motion blur. Make sure the angle of the motion blur is close to or the same as the angle of the lines themselves. You can blur the lines as much as you like, anywhere between 300-500 px should do the trick.

Lens FlareThe next step in creating light effects is to create lens flares. On a new layer draw a square with the rectangular marquee tool and fill it with black. Then go to filter>render>lens flare. Select 105mm Prime and center it inside the square as pictured here. Select ok. Select blending option on the new layer and set it to screen. Now duplicate your lens flare a few times by hitting [Ctrl]+[J] and place them throughout the image. Try adding some motion blur to some making the effect more subtle.

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Add GradientAdd a gradient fill behind the girl by going to layer>new fill layer>gradient. Make the gradient pink to clear and set it to radial. Click OK.

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Custom ShapesGo to the custom shape tool and select the solid triangle. Create a triangle smaller than the outlined triangle and hit [Ctrl]+[T] to turn it upside down. Place it behind the first outline triangle and set the opacity to 25. Now go back to the custom shapes menu and select the outlined triangle shape again. Add a few outlined triangle to the top of the image. Set their opacity to 15.

Render CloudsOn a new layer go to filter>render>clouds. With a soft brush set to 300px erase some of the clouds so they look like they are more localized around the girl. Duplicate this layer and give it a motion blur.

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StarsNow go back to www.sxc.hu and in the search box type the word stars. Go to page 10 and select the image titled plasma explosion. Copy the image and paste it into your image behind all the other layers. Go to blending options and set the blending mode to pin light. Then go to gradient overlay, cover the layer with a pink to white gradient with blend mode set to color. Now erase the hard edges from the stock ‘plasma explosion’ with a soft brush until the image looks similar to the one pictured here.

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Plasma ExplosionDuplicate the plasma explosion layer, flip it upside down and erase it even more with a soft brush to balance the composition. Remember the image doesn’t have to look exactly like the one shown here. If you prefer you can use one of the other plasma explosions provided by sxc to get a slightly different result.

Space SnowflakeGo back again to sxc and with the same search word ‘stars’ go to page 26 and download the image titled space snowflake. Paste the image in behind all the other layers and hit [Ctrl]+[T]. Make the image much thinner and then add a motion blur to it.

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Columns of LightIn the shapes menu select the rectangle tool and draw a rectangle about the same size as the blurred space snowflake image. Set the opacity on the rectangle to 15 and hit it with a motion blur. Then duplicate it and put it on the other side of the blurred space snowflake.

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Water SplashNow one last time go back to sxc and search using the words water splash Find the stock image titled Water Ball and bring it into Photoshop. Set the blending mode to color dodge. Duplicate the image and place both copies around the separation in her stomach.

Final Touch UpTo add the finishing touches go to layer>new adjustment layer. Here we are going to add three different adjustment layers. The first is a photo filter set to Cooling Filter (LBB) with 12% opacity. The second filter is a curves filter and the third is a levels filter. With curves and levels there are no set values to input, just adjust the graphs until you are happy with the result.

by Rob Shields

Unless you are a pro snowboarder or work on the ski slope, many of us city dwellers can’t usually wait until the snow goes away, air changes and the trees get back their green coats. Spring and summer rock, it’s the best time of the year to have fun and feel positive so much til your face hurts too much from laughing. If you were to ask me how I’d see a visual representation of the Spring time, I guess it would look like the image here. Nice, happy, vibrant ... simply positive and beautiful. To prove my point even more, I was born on the first day of the Spring indeed.

Spring in Sight

intermediate | 90 min. adobe photoshop | adobe illustrator

spring in sight

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Step 1The original photography was taken by the talented Lev Dolgachov and can be obtained from istockphoto or shutterstock image websites. The photography has great contract and light, it was an easy decision to make start on the digital artwork.

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Quick maskSince the model has got cropped hands in the image and some hard edges on the sides, we're going to easily quick mask the layer and brush off to smooth the blend. You can use soft round brush with size set to 1500.

Mood colourIf you posses library of custom brushes, select a textured pattern and swap brush layer modes between Overlay and Colour Dodge for interesting blend of colours throughout.

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Branches Now you've got an option of drawing some vector shapes in Adobe Illustrator or stay in Photoshop. Either way use a Pen tool and create shapes which you place around the girl, following the movement in the picture. If you fancy a shortcut and use some trusted resources, there's plenty of available files vectors files to have and use.

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Blend the curveTo support the original images and it's movement, pop over the to Adobe illustrator and use either brush or pen tool to draw a curve. Copy it by moving it a little bit whist holding the [Alt] key. Go to Object>Path>Blend>Specify Steps (adjust to 12) and hit [OK]. Repeat the whole journey again, this time end up with Make Blend. Paste the result into PSD as a Smart Vector file.

Funky SwooshAlthough I have used a new canvas to construct the next element, you can stay where you are. On a new layer, use a round soft brush and draw freehand swoosh (black in the image) Hold down Cmd button and click on the layer icon at your Layer pallete. This will make a selection from the brush, create a new layer and brush again in various blending modes in yellow for vibrant colour results. (as per step 3)

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Glow, glow, glow away The overall images benefits from Photoshop's various blending modes. On a new layer I've brushed orange and dark magenta (orange triangle), then press [F7] to access the layers palette to change the colour mode to Linear Dodge. However, it's much faster to hold down [Shift]+[Alt]+[W] for the same function shortcut. The result should look like the bottom arrow shows.

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Ink texturesYou can create your own ink splatters and obtain a stock image from an image library which has an intriguing shape and varied texture for a vibrant result. Remove the excess white from image with a Magic Eraser place the layer below the brushed swoosh and set to Colour Burn. Experiment with blending modes.

Vector TexturesAs per our branches, you've got an option of creating custom elements in Adobe Illustrator or obtain various elements from elsewhere. We would like to achieve the rich and full look, the positioning of the elements is rather crucial. Try to go with flows and shapes in the images and enchance the work as opposed to decorate and cover up.

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A half timeAt this stage, we can take time to reasses the position of what we have got so far, tweak what we are unsure of and embark on the second part of the image. It's important to have the 'foundation' solid before the roof goes on.

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Shaped in splatter In this part, let's have a little go in various Layer Style Options. Find or create a vector splatter and import as a Shape Layer. Double click the layer in Layers Palette>Gradient Overlay and choose Colours around PMS 465. One darker, one ligher for a nice shinny look.

Perspective elementsDepending on your elements library, choose an appropriate elements that would look like a star and import again from Illustrator as a Shape layer. This will enable you to work with better perspective as the object retains the vector data and therefore doesn't distort in quality. Hit [CTRL]+[T] for the Free Transform, then hold down Cmd key for precise perspective.

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Simple flowersRepeat the import process from the previous step, but not shape in perspective. Through the Layer Style, add Radial Gradient Overlay and set to Multiply. This way our new vector flowers will gain distinguishable edges, even when scaled down.

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Photo elementsOur early spring images has gained quite nice fresh feel, however, a little extra will only add exciting finish to the whole concept. Feel free to find a set of flower photographs which will serve as the icing on the cake. Extract the images with a pen tool and bring one by one into to the master canvas. Place and scale as you like, or follow our placement. Go with your gut feeling.

Finishing touches of shadow.Create a new layer (Cmd)[CTRL]+[Shift]+[N] and select a soft brush, colour black, set to 350/500. Set opacity of your layer to 40% and brush below the flower layers a bit of natural shadow to give the whole piece a further dimension. Now would be the time for some last minute tweaks, if not, only add Levels as an adjustment layer and change the contrast in the picture.

by Radim Malinic/Brand Nu

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do realise that print and digital design look better when done by trained graphic designers. Yet the vast majority has the impression that selecting and setting type is as easy as clicking on a font in a pull-down menu and start typing. Literally. And indeed it seems deceptively simple, as in most cases the font will perform adequately and produce reasonably well set text. This doesn’t take away from the fact that a large number of users have had no formal training in typography nor typesetting. Even professional designers sometimes produce work which is lacking when it comes to the choice, composition and setting of type.

So why is specifying the right typeface such a complex thing? First of all because there’s simply so many of them! There are 100.000+ commercial fonts from 65 type foundries on the FontShop website alone, (90 foundries in FontBook, the bible of digital typography), thousands more are available through other vendors, and a multiple are available as free- and shareware fonts on the internet. As soon as you leave behind the relatively safe comfort zone of the system fonts and the ones bundled with software you are presented with such an overwhelming volume and diversity that it is frankly intimidating.

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewf/2212675847/• http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewf/2212672391/

How to Specify Type

Now even the most basic of computer users have a fairly good grasp on what digital fonts are, and what they do. Testimony to this are the countless tutorials found off and online.

Those range from chapters in software manuals to whole books, blogs and websites dedicated to type and typography. Yet with everything being written on how to properly use fonts it’s surprising how little attention is spent to the actual selection of typefaces. How do you choose which typeface you are going to use? How can you determine if it is any good and if it will perform adequately? This is a very important decision. It’s hard doing proper typography when the typeface you picked isn’t any good to start with. And even if the typeface in itself is fine it may not be suited for the specific application you intend to use it for.

Just a quick note before we go on. You will notice that both the terms typeface and font will be used throughout the article. Although they roughly mean the same thing, there is a difference in meaning. The physical embodiment of a collection of letters, numbers, symbols, etc. (whether it’s a case of metal pieces or a computer file) is a font. When referring to the design of the collection (the way it looks) we call it a typeface.

The (de)fault of the computerWhen practising graphic design the personal computer gives us the ability to do everything ourselves – laying out pages, setting type, processing images etc. We tend to forget that those tasks were once executed by trained professionals. The reproduction of images intended for publication was entrusted to professional repro houses, and galleys of type were ordered from typesetting businesses. Graphic designers then used those elements to paste up the page lay-outs.

Today most users acknowledge that images are still best processed by the aforementioned repro houses, and many

We’ve come a long way. Typography once was an almost arcane craft, with its own technology, its own terminology, and even its own measurement system – ever heard of picas? However everything changed since the decisive breakthrough of the personal computer a quarter of a century ago.

Figure 1. RTF-Stern digital font Figure 2. RTF-Stern typeface

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Why so many typefaces?Now you could ask yourself why we need such a vast number of typefaces. Some renowned designers seem to make do with a very limited type palette. The most vocal of them is design icon Massimo Vignelli. An avid disciple of Modernism and the International Style, Vignelli focuses on simplicity through the use of basic geometric forms in all of his work. This simplicity is reflected in his use of typography. He is famously known for professing that one needs only five typefaces to tackle any

graphic design assignment – Times, Helvetica, Garamond, Futura and Bodoni. According to Vignelli typography should be neutral, and any typographic treatment that doesn’t adhere to the austere Modernist principles distracts from the content and meaning of the text.

Information designer and type guru Erik Spiekermann doesn’t agree with Vignelli’s dogmatic approach (truth to be told even Vignelli himself trumps his own theory – he is known to switch typefaces in his famous list which sometimes includes Century Schoolbook or Clarendon). Sure, one can design a career’s worth using only five typefaces, but one designer’s five typefaces are different from the next designer’s typefaces, and so on. So it is a good thing that there are so many different type designs, so many different options, each with their own unique voice and atmosphere. Vignelli’s world is populated with uniform people all dressed in stark black and grey, while Spiekermann’s view corresponds more to the real world: a colourful and varied one. There is a quote by Gunnlaugur S.E. Briem that sums it up nicely:

Some people say that letters exist to be read and therefore the things that interfere with legibility should be discouraged. This is a bit like saying that the purpose of liquor is to get you drunk. If it were right, people would swig metal polish, and the farmers of Cognac, Burgundy, and Champagne would grow potatoes.

Why new typefaces?Every year tens, even hundreds new typefaces appear. With all those digital typefaces already available on the market, why design even more? One could ask exactly the same question concerning music, or books, or any other form of artistic expression. As type design is both an art and a craft, there are very different motivations for designing new typefaces. Many type designers start on new designs because of an artistic impulse – they see something in everyday life, or imagine shapes or a particular atmosphere in their mind, or ask themselves What if I tried to…, and that is enough motivation to pick up pencil or mouse. Other designers might be frustrated with the shortcomings of certain existing typefaces and decide to remedy those in designs of their own. Furthermore there are revivals, reinterpretations, tributes, reprises, spin-offs, parodies and so on – all new designs based on existing models.

Looks aren’t everythingWith literally more than hundred thousand designs to choose from, finding the right typeface for a specific application may seem a daunting task. The common mistake almost everyone makes is that they choose a beautiful typeface, one that looks attractive. Basically this is putting the cart before the horse. However strange this may sound the looks of the typeface should concern you the least. It is the very last criterion in the selection process, and comes after all the other steps have been made. So if picking a good-looking

Figure 3. 3 stop-sign

Figure 4. ITC-Bodoni optical size] Figure 5. PostScript-Type-1 OpenType

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typeface is not the solution, how does one go about selecting a typeface? As with everything, a seemingly insurmountable problem becomes a lot easier to cope with when split up into several smaller, more manageable problems. Compare it to deciding what to wear when you get out of bed in the morning. When overseeing the contents of your wardrobe you won’t just pick any garment because you feel like wearing a specific item. Instead you will always first look outside and ask yourself a number of questions. Is it Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter? Is it warm for the time of year, or rather chilly? Is the sun out or does it rain, or snow? Is it calm or windy? The answers to all these questions help you narrow down amongst which items you will chose from. In the end, instead of having a whole wardrobe’s worth of options you will be left with only a limited selection. This is when you finally pick a garment of a certain colour or design, just because it looks good on you and you feel like wearing it.

Never climb a mountain wearing dancing shoesFor those of you who aren’t convinced yet that simply picking a beautiful typeface is a bad idea, allow me to tell an anecdote. My wife and I take tango classes. One of the other couples attending the course are handsome twenty-somethings who consistently dress in grunge rock attire – the girl in long skirts, loose shirts and shawls; the guy in jeans, lumberjack shirts and sweaters. And those typical big boots. They both look great; they are a perfect match, their style is consistent and aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Yet the guy struggles at every single lesson. Although they perfectly fit the overall look and style, the boots simply are a nightmare to dance with. Their heavy weight, unwieldy shape, and solid soles lack the litheness required for properly executing the fast and precise movements. This nicely illustrates that something may look beautiful, but still be worthless if it was designed for a completely different function.

This also applies to typography and the selection of typefaces. Virtually every type designer designs type with a well defined set of criteria and a specific function in mind. And it is up to the user to recognise this function and intended use when selecting a typeface. At one end of the spectrum are faces that were designed to perform well in small sizes and unfavourable conditions – the hiking boots – and at the other end the display faces – the dancing shoes. Workhorse faces have sturdy features; rather conventional and easily recognisable letter forms, generous letterspacing, solid serifs, clear open counters, a large x-height, and ink traps (cut out areas that prevent corners from clogging up due to ink spread). Ink spread is a non-issue when designing for screen, but all the other factors still apply. Display faces have much more delicate shapes and have considerably more leeway when it comes to character shapes. There is a whole world in between those two extremes, an important part of which is populated by day-to day typefaces that are fit for text use but can be used in headlines as well, but that also holds a large variety of faces designed for specific applications.

As a rule of thumb workhorse faces allow more liberties than display faces. To some extent one can wear hiking boots at a posh reception. If you combine them with casual jeans, and a stylish shirt and jacket, you might get away with it, just like a workhorse face may look acceptable in headlines if you adapt its spacing and use it

in combination with the right design elements. Yet I wouldn’t attempt to climb a mountain wearing dancing shoes. Sure, you could, but don’t come complaining afterwards. So never use display faces for body text.

Size does matterOf course a lot of the above has to do with type size. In the era of metal and wood type, fonts were designed specifically for the size at which they were to be used, with subtle variations in weight, contrast, and proportion to make them as legible in small text as they were beautiful in big headlines. The differences become apparent when those size-specific designs are scaled to the same size. With the dawn of scalable digital type, any font could be used at any size, and the time honoured mastering process was abandoned. As a result, many designs suffer in this new age of convenience: display fonts are often too ornate or fragile at small sizes; text fonts are clunky and dull when set large. Fortunately, recent type design has learned from the past, and we are now seeing a return to the practice of optical size mastering. A few type families offer sturdy, readable cuts for text, and showy titling styles for the big stuff – modern technology infused with the wisdom of the originals.

Optical size master aren’t only important for print. When designing for screen similar problems arise. The stroke thickness to pixel size ratio is crucial. Delicate shapes break up and hairline serifs disappear when type is used so small that the fine lines become less than a pixel wide. Fonts with a small x-height become hard to read if insufficient pixels are available to render the body of the type, as do unconventional or intricate shapes, closed counters, and tightly spaced letters.

Interlude – About font formatsSince OpenType fonts were first announced in 1996 and started shipping in 2000 digital typefaces are available in three different font formats. This can sometimes be a little confusing. It is very important to know if the file format of your fonts is compatible with the software you are going to use them in.

The PostScript Type 1 font format – the previous professional standard – is pretty amazing. Of course it has certain limitations and OpenType fonts offer numerous advantages. Yet you have to realise PostScript Type 1 fonts are the only pieces of software developed more than 20 years ago that still work on today’s machines and operating systems. Because the cost of licensing the PostScript Type 1 format was considered very high at the time, Apple decided in the late 1980s to develop their own font format TrueType. Microsoft added TrueType to the Windows 3.1 operating system, and it became the preferred font format on PC systems.

OpenType is the most recent font format, and emerged at the beginning of the new millennium. The format was initially developed

Figure 6. FF-Maiola_multilingual

Figure 7. Capsa_expert_characters

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by Microsoft, which were later joined by Adobe. The two main benefits of the OpenType format are its cross-platform compatibility – you can work with the same font file on Mac, Windows or other computer systems – and its ability to support widely expanded character sets and lay-out features. Those provide rich linguistic support and advanced typographic control.

OpenType fonts can be installed and used alongside PostScript Type 1 and TrueType fonts. Since those fonts rely on OpenType-specific tables, non-savvy applications on computers running on systems prior to Mac OS X and MS Windows 2000 will not be able to use them without intermediation by system services like ATM. And even on the newest computers and latest operating systems some programs are still lagging behind. The OpenType format is only partly supported, and the more advanced features can’t be accessed. Currently all Adobe applications (InDesign, Illustrator, PhotoShop) provide advanced OpenType feature support, such as the automatic substitution of alternate glyphs, automatic ligatures, small capitals, swashes and old-style figures.

What languages does your type speak?This issue may seem not that important for English-speaking users, but it becomes increasingly so thanks to the globalisation of the economy. Having to communicate with countries using accented characters and even completely different alphabets or writing systems is becoming more the rule than the exception these days. A crucial factor in the selection of a typeface is determining how many languages it speaks.

The PostScript Type 1 font format is limited to 256 glyphs per file. This may seem sufficient, but actually is just enough for the alphabet in upper and lower case, numerals and punctuation, accented characters for a couple of languages and a number of specials like currency and mathematical characters. The average fonts cover roughly speaking all Western and Southern European languages, and the Scandinavian languages. But as soon as you start moving eastwards towards and past the central part of Europe new and different accents are needed, and Greek and Cyrillic have their own alphabets. This is why additional fonts are needed for these extra languages. Baltic fonts support Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian; those languages are also included in CE fonts (Central European) which in addition support Albanian, Croatian, Czech, Finnish, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, and Sorbian (Lower & Upper); and the accents for Turkish are supported by dedicated Turkish fonts. It is very easy to determine if a PostScript Type 1 family supports certain languages – all you need to do is check if it includes any of these extra fonts.

Thanks to Unicode 5.0 and the OpenType format nowadays fonts can accommodate up to 65,535 graphic characters, so language has become less of an issue. All OpenType fonts have advanced typographic features and language support built-in, but some OpenType fonts are more equal than others. OpenType Standard fonts support the basic range of languages, just like

PostScript Type 1 fonts. OpenType Pro fonts however support a broader range of languages: typically with the addition of Central European (CE) and Turkish, and sometimes Greek (Gr) and/or Cyrillic (Cyr). The supported languages may vary a little depending on the foundry, as some OpenType Standard fonts do include the extra accented characters. It is important to understand that Pro always includes all accents needed for CE languages, but does not guarantee the presence of the Greek nor the Cyrillic alphabet. Always check the completeness of the character set before deciding which font to use.

A basic meal or gourmet dining?There is more to a typeface than what you just see on your keyboard. In addition to the alphabet, numbers, and assorted punctuation, an average font also includes a series of hidden characters. They can be accessed via the shift and/or option key, or through special menus. The approximately 250 glyphs found in standard typefaces are sufficient for display and basic text use. Yet – just like you can’t get away with serving a simple cheeseburger with fries in a fine restaurant – good typography requires quite a bit more. If you want to select a typeface for professional typesetting you want to make sure the following extra features are available.

Small capitals – also called small caps – are a little taller the x-height. They can be used for acronyms, or to avoid that words in all capitals stand out too much in running text. Furthermore they serve for emphasis, or in the first words or line of a chapter or paragraph. Petite caps are even smaller: exactly as high as the x-height. Some designers use them for typographic experiments like mixed case setting of lower- and uppercase forms, also called unicase setting.

Standard typefaces mostly come with only one set of numerals, yet different styles are needed for professional typesetting. Proportional hanging figures blend in perfectly with running text, proportional lining figures match text in all caps, tabular figures are needed for setting tables and number crunching, and super- and subscript figures allow for setting fractions and scientific text matter. This last type of text also requires super- and subscript characters, as well as specific mathematical characters and several types of brackets.

Figure 10. Helvetica corporate face

Figure 9. FF-Nexus type-system

Figure 8. Titling-Gothic superfamily

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Ligatures are needed when an overhanging part of a character bumps into the character next next to it. On average digital fonts used to include only a limited number of f-ligatures which was insufficient. An extended ligature set guarantees that there is an aesthetically pleasing combined glyph available for any problematic letter combination. And some designs include even more ligatures, often purely for fun, and to add more swoosh to the type. Swoosh can also be added with swash characters, be it initial capitals or initial and end characters.

It’s all in the (type) familyMost typefaces have relatives and belong to a family. A type family is a collection of related typefaces or styles which share common design traits and a common name. The concept of coordinated type families is a fairly recent phenomenon. Originally italics were designs in their own right, unrelated to roman designs and used independently. Only by the sixteenth century did the italic assume its current role as emphasis, a variation on the roman design. The first related bold weights for text faces are even more recent – they date from the second half of the nineteenth century. Just like italics bold weights can be used for emphasis within the text.

The size of the family a typeface belongs to is a crucial factor when deciding whether or not to use a certain typeface for a specific purpose. For example the MacOS system font Lucida Grande has no italic nor bold variant, which means you can’t apply any emphasis in text. Often system fonts have only a very limited range of styles, making them prohibitive, especially in publication design where larger families with many options are needed. Adrian Frutiger’s classic Univers was the first ever family of typefaces designed according to a rational system of coordinated weights and widths.

The weight on the one hand determines how bold a typeface looks, how heavy the strokes making up the characters are. The traditional weights are Regular and Bold, with Light and Black being the outward extensions on the weight scale, and sometimes a Semibold in between. Yet currently there are families that feature up to a staggering 15 weights! The width on the other hand determines how wide the characters are. Contrary to the weights the standard width usually doesn’t have a specific name. The traditional widths are Condensed and Extra Condensed or Compressed towards the narrow end of the scale, and Extended to the opposite side, but here as well certain families nowadays offer up to seven different widths. The wide spectrum of styles in large type families can be used to create harmonious designs with many variations, and to unify the structure of headlines in publications.

Larger type families are commonly called superfamilies or type systems. Some of those take it even one step further and offer related designs in different type classifications. Otl Aicher’s

Rotis – the first ever co-ordinated type system, consisting of a Sans Serif, a Semi Sans, a Serif and a Semi Serif – was unique in its time, yet nowadays such type systems have become quite common. Members of superfamilies share the same basic structure, the same skeleton if you will, and have matching x- and cap heights, ascender and descender lengths, and stroke width. This means you can switch from sans serif to serif to slab serif in a block of text and still retain a unified appearance. Type systems are particularly useful in publication design and annual reports, where body text has to work harmoniously with headlines, streamers, captions, tables, information graphics, and so on.

TypecastingBeyond formal aspects and functional criteria there are a number of far more subtle factors which influence the choice of a typeface, like historical context and cultural conotations. We are all children of our time, and type doesn’t escape this fact of life. Typefaces often refer to the time period they were designed in. Although this mainly concerns display type, even timeless-looking text faces are flavoured to the times. Just like other designed artefacts – clothes, furniture, appliances, cars, etc. – type is subject to fashion. When we see people in photographs or movies we can almost always tell what period they are from just by looking at the clothes or hairstyle. The same thing applies to type. Each era has its iconic typefaces, especially when dealing with display type. Even people with little knowledge of typography will recognise them on a subconscious level and automatically link them to a specific timeframe. That is why using those period typefaces is a great way to conjure up a certain atmosphere.

Yet time reference can be a relative thing. As fashion is a cyclical phenomenon typefaces which looked completely outdated at one point can become hot and trendy again. We’ve seen trends like 70s disco type and 30s constructive type reappear recently and get appropriated by fashion movements and music styles. Designers can experiment with this by playing off these trends in novel ways, or by going against the grain. By using a typeface with a clear time reference you can produce a dramatic shift in atmosphere in an otherwise contemporary design.

An important factor for the time references found in typefaces is of technical nature. Historically type design has been influenced by the techniques used to produce type. The shift from the original venetian structure of typefaces over garalde and transitional to modern – also called didone – was in large part the result of technological advancements in the type and printing industry. Similarly the exuberant shapes of 60s

Figure 12. Blackletter_gangsta-rap

Figure 11. Blackletter gang-tattoos

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and 70s display type would have been unthinkable without the freedom won by the transition from lead to photo typesetting. Grunge type design is intimately related to the ascension of the personal computer and the democratisation of type design thanks to Fontographer. And although there are no more restrictions on the shapes the characters can take since the digital revolution, the new OpenType technology is responsible for the intricate scripts and extended sets of ligatures and alternates in contemporary type design.

Historical context can work for you, but against you as well. When designing props for movies or television series set in a defined time period you have to beware of anachronisms. Simply put take great care not to use typefaces that didn’t exist yet. For example in the third instalment of the Back To The Future movie series you can recognise Helvetica (1957) and Eurostile (1962) on a tombstone carved in the year 1885. The newspapers from 1973 that Dexter Morgan examines in Showtime’s hit series Dexter (episode 11 of Season 1) have headlines set in Arial (1989). And the name on the seal-hunting schooner Ghost in ProSieben’s television series Der Seewolf (set around 1900) clearly is Revue, a typical disco-era design originally released in 1969.

One of the most entertaining continuing series about typography on the internet is Mark Simonson’s Typecasting: The Use (and Misuse) of Period Typography in Movies. Originally a single overview of typographical anachronisms in movies, it spawned the follow up series Son of Typecasting. What Mark does is research the use of period typography in movies and television series, checking the creation dates and probable usage of the featured typefaces against the time frame the story is set in. The goofs he uncovers are guaranteed to elicit a chuckle if you’re a type enthusiast with an inquisitive and critical mind. Conversely it is very inspiring every time he demonstrates how a design team gets every single detail right through careful research.

On a more serious note, picking a font from the wrong time period can have serious implications. One painful example is the case of Lucille Hester. The 69-year-old former school teacher provided the goosebump moment of Bob Hayes’ Pro Football Hall of Fame election last month by reading a letter to a national TV audience. This letter – purportedly written and signed by Hayes himself – was dated October 29, 1999, almost three years before he died in 2002. Yet Dutch designer Luc(as) de Groot revealed the letter’s typeface is definitely Calibri, which de Groot designed for Microsoft in 2003. It was not available to the public until the debut of Microsoft Office 2007. This revealed that the letter was a fake.

Type is culture (and vice versa)Type isn’t just subject to fashion and trends. It also is a genuine cultural expression – type design references culture, and culture references type. This became particularly obvious in the 1950s. Having witnessed the atrocities of the Second World War, thinkers, artists, and designers dreamt up an utopian world where everyone would speak the same language. Graphic designers wanted to do away with all national references in their work, as they saw that those had been largely responsible for this global conflict. This led to the emergence of Modernism, the International Style, which advocated simple and rational design, asymetrical lay-outs, and the use of neutral sans serif typefaces, the most popular being Akzidenz-Grotesk. As its shapes were perceived as rather crude by many back then, it was only a matter of time before a more elegant alternative would surface. Helvetica was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei (Haas type foundry) of Münchenstein, Switzerland. Thanks to the international spread of the Modernism movement that embraced the typeface it went on to become the most successful typeface of all time.

Cultural references through typography are present on all levels of communication and design. You can imbue your work with subtle cultural references through the choice of specific typefaces. By doing so you can fine-tune your message and adapt it to the visual

style of your audience. Not so subtle references can be found in the graphic language of music styles where this process is most visible. Electronic dance music is typified by geometric, modular and technical looking typefaces; heavy metal makes use of gothic and blackletter type, and ornamental serif faces; disco revisits the exuberant display designs of the 60s and 70s; grunge rock expresses itself through worn and weathered typefaces.

Yet you should always remain mindful that cultural references in type design are in a constant state of flux. Helvetica is not only a prime example of this phenomenon, it also witnessed one of the most radical shifts in cultural perception. Originally it was perceived as the ultimate people’s typeface, symbol of neutrality, and synonymous to the International Movement. It was picked up by influential graphic designers and introduced on all levels of design and communication, from small print shop to renowned design studio. Due to its continued and sustained use in corporate branding and communication, it became the victim of its success. The perception of the typeface began to change gradually, and by the 1980s it had become to represent capitalism and cold, faceless corporations, the exact opposite of what it used to be. Helvetica and Modernism became challenged, first by eclectic post-modernist typeface design heavily referencing styles of days gone by, later by the grunge movement with its deconstructed and worn-out designs. Instead of finding an international voice, graphic design was again addressing specific target groups using type designs rife with cultural connotations. As the world had by then become a global village, those groups weren’t nationalities anymore but sub-cultures, so called global tribes of skaters, rockers, yuppies, and so on.

An example of unexpected cultural connotations is the appearance of the blackletter in the graphic style of R&B. Although it had been banned by Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party in 1941 Nazi Germany, popular culture strongly associates this type style with Nazi propaganda and the extreme right wing movement. As this is as far removed from R&B music as you can get, it is intriguing to find out how blackletter managed to bridge that gap. It appeared in gang tattoos in the Southern United States, where it was assimilated by gangsta rap. This hip hop sub-culture gained popular acceptance and recognition, becoming increasingly popular. By that time R&B was eager to earn more street credibility and broaden its audience, which lead to collaborations and guest appearances of gangster rappers on R&B records. Finally R&B culture not only adopted the musical influences, but also the graphic style, of which the blackletter had become an intrinsic part.

Figure 13. Blackletter_RandB

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Typecasting againYou have to be wary when using cultural references in typography, as it’s a fine line between its correct use and cultural stereotyping. Be very careful when trying to express a certain culture through typography. For example there are many mock Asian typefaces trying to mimic Asian calligraphy. Most of them are less than successful, and using them in logos for Asian businesses is at best tacky and at worst downright insulting. The same goes for certain uncial designs used for Irish pubs and so on. They remind us of less enlightened days when Negroes (forgive me the word) were portrayed in advertisements for chocolate and soap bars.

Instead of tackling this kind of assignments head-on a sideways approach is much more appropriate. Many a type or graphic designer will be adamant that only a typeface with no cultural ties can be used and the reference has to come from the design itself. Nevertheless there is room to subtly suggest a culture through the use of carefully chosen type. To come back to the Asian example, you could try and find a typeface with modulated stems that refer to brush strokes. Another solution may be using a script whose characters are written with brush strokes that remind of the structure and dynamics of Asian calligraphy. For a younger audience one could look into a geometric or modular solution with letters that refer to the complex structure of the Asian ideograms.

A beautiful faceThis is where our odyssey through the selection of type ends. When all other requirements have been met you can finally pick the typeface you like the most, one you find beautiful. But as

you have witnessed in this article this is actually only the very last step in the selection process. And it is vital to understand that you have to go through all the preceding stages before you can address that last step. Because more than using a beautiful typeface, you better use one that was designed for the purpose you intend to use it for; that the font performs well on your

Figure 14. Asian culture stereotype

Figure 15. Asian culture 1

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operating system, speaks all the necessary languages, has a complete character set, is part of a suitably large family; and that the design carries the correct historical context and atmosphere, and brings up the desired cultural connotations. Without that, your message could be misrepresented, misinterpreted, and misunderstood.

Specifying type is a learning process. You need to become familiar with all aspects of typography, and learn to analyse

type designs in order to determine whether or not certain typefaces are adequate to specific applications. When in doubt, ask for advice. One of the places to go is FontShop. Founded by Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody in 1989, FontShop is the original independent retailer of digital type, offering over 100,000 fonts from the FontFont label and 70 other foundries. They also provide educational and other resources, like the FontCases on FontShop.com. Those special collections are curated by FontShop experts to help you find the type you need, allowing you to browse fonts by genre, period, application, and other subcategories. And the FontShop Research Team can identify and locate almost any commercial font you ever may want to use. Then there’s the international type blog FontFeed.com, a daily dispatch of recommended fonts, typography techniques, and inspirational examples of digital type at work in the real world.

Another place where you can find this type of information is Typophile. The free and open typographic community of type designers, graphic designers and creative professionals aims to foster aesthetic appreciation, historical understanding and ethical awareness. Typophile is guided by the principles of open collaboration, integrity and the idea that we’re always learning. They can assist you in the selection of typefaces by historical and cultural context, point you to resources, and offer advice regarding the correct use of digital fonts.

Go on. Explore. Learn. Have fun.

by Yves Peters

Figure 16. Asian culture 2

Figure 17. Asian culture 3

advanced | 25-30 h.

adobe photoshop

adriana typographic illustration

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To begin I set up a new document that measures A3 size (297 x 420mm) and I make it around 300dpi in resolution. Depending on the concept I often start off with a photographic base reference

image, however the image could be an illustration or a sketched blueprint. I use the image as a base layer and I create a new layer set that will have the image above it. For this piece I start out with the face. I am working on an A3 sized file so I zoom in very close at circa 800% to be able to create intense detail. Working at this intensity and scale can be an arduous process because you do not see the fruits of your labor immediately. I create the typographic elements by typing them in one phrase at a

01

The beginningAlthough the effect looks random and variegated I do have a few rules for the typography. I do like the typography to flow in 90° or 45° for the most part. This gives a visual perception of order even though it may look chaotic at the time although I do not use grids on typographic art as I like the piece to flow and look as organic as possible.

Adriana Typographic IllustrationThis tutorial shows how to create a dynamic beautiful image using typography in a novel way. This piece is predominantly created in Photoshop although I do sketch out the initial ideas in a sketchbook. Photoshop is great because it adds a new level of freedom and control that I would not be able to have by working on a canvas. The inspiration from this piece comes from my undying love for typography. I also strive to push boundaries and come up with design, and illustrative styles that have not been conceived of before to push things in a new direction.

time. This does make the process more laborious than doing shortcuts like using a text filter or a typography pattern, however the results are far more impressive when you put more effort in. I continue to add the typographic phrases and colours to her face and I also use different weights and kerning within the typography to create variety and diversity. It is important when you are doing this to be free with your movements as the closer you stick to the image the less free that the image will become. When the texture is added to image it takes on a new level of creativity. The key is to work on areas of light and dark with different uses of weight, size, colour, shape and styles of font.

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Introduction of the HairWhen adding type it is a good idea to merge down layers depending on how much punishment your machine can take. This is a high-resolution piece and the amount of layers can easily run into the hundreds unless you keep them under control. However it is great to be able to move layers of type above and below layers to create new areas of texture, colour, light and dark shades. I also start to introduce her hair here and keep the same process going with darker typographic elements.

03

04

Check the ImageHer face is beginning to take shape now and I continue to work into her hair. I also add highlights to Adriana’s hair in the form of typographic elements. These create a wonderful effect of texture when they are viewed at the actual print size. It is also very important to regularly check what the image looks like at 100%, and you have to continually use your creative judgement to decipher whether things look right or not. Many times the pieces that I work on do not really tend to take shape unless I have spent at least 10 hours on them, so that is something to remember.

02

Control the PaletteThe process continues as I add more and more detail to the image. For this piece I wanted to keep the colour palette as controlled as possible to create a sense of order amongst the complexity of what was happening.

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The Red DressI continue to work on the dress and the colour makes a wonderful contrast to the detail of the face. So the key is to work on the dress and keep the same style but make use of the wonderful red shades of Adriana’s dress.

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The Power of WordsThe wonderful thing about creating typographic pieces is that you can literally say anything that you want. This also is a very useful thing when creating special bespoke commissions for individuals. Within this and numerous other pieces that I have created you will find specific references that are only requested by the recipient of the artwork and ultimately that creates something truly special.

05

Finish the Hair StyleThe basic shape of her hair is now finished and it is time to move on to her dress. I create a new layer set for the dress. It is also important to keep a check on your layers and not to get the wrong images and type on the wrong layers. For the creation of the dress and other elements that are not type based I either use the freeform lasso tool (keyboard shortcut [L]) or I use the Pen tool (keyboard shortcut [P]).

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ExperimentMore experimenting on the dress is required to create the right typographic effect. The typographic elements are used to create shadows. I start to add the details to her legs and look to embellish the piece with more touches of detail to the previously worked on areas.

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Finish the Rest of the BodyThe finished completed image. Now all of the typographic elements have been created to show the fully layered typographic effect.

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Go for ItSometimes things do not always go to plan, that is the beauty of pushing yourself and trying new things. A huge advantage by using Photoshop over painting on a canvas is that you can delete the incriminating layer and start over again very quickly.

by Brian Grant

intermediate | 120 min. adobe photoshop CS3

creating humanoid objects

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BeginningOpen the blond woman portrait and choose the right frame. In mine, the face is close to right and cut from neck, as you can see.

01

02Whitening the FaceIn order to combine the portrait with the phone pieces (in a way, to render the portrait to an object of nature), I had to change the skin color. Two steps were necessary to whiten the skin: desaturate and dodge. First, I desaturated the face, but not from the adjustment menu. The disadvantage of desaturating the whole image in its entirety, is that it makes the whole image a Black & White image. But, that is not what I wanted, since it needed some red tones. So, I used the Sponge tool from the tool bar. I fixed the brush size to 300-500 and apply it to the face. Then, I used the dodge tool to lighten the more the exposed parts. If you wish to, you may use a big, smooth, white brush with a low opacity to increase the effect of the whiteness. After this step was completed, I noticed that the eye colors lost some of their brightness. So, I created a solid color mask in a multiply layer mode and choose the perfect eye color for the lady.

Creating Humanoid ObjectsOne of the easiest ways to create a surrealist world is to take two objects that have no relation in terms of their nature, but have a connotative bond and combine them in a bowl. Man Ray, one of the most significant artist of the century, created the photograph called, Le Violon d’Ingres (Ingres’s Violin), which is a picture of a woman with the shape of a violin’s acoustic openings on her back. I will create a similar image using a blond woman and a telephone.

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Rust SpotsCreate the layer named, Rust Spots and paste rust spots cut from an image of a rusty surface onto the face and arrange them as you please.

04

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Telephonication II created a layer called, phone layer and pasted the middle disk of the number’s dial on her face in a way that it covered her lips. I erase and hid the black line around it and the metal piece that was on her chin. I pathed around the screws and frame roughly and the brand on top and then pasted them to the screw & brand layer. Then I turned back to the phone layer and erased the surrounding area of the white part, where screws were placed with a big and smooth brush (hardness=0, brush size 300-600). This is the ideal method to combine the telephone with the face. The last step of this part is to multiply the screw and brand layer.

03

Coloring the HairThe hair color of the lady in my photograph bothered me. The hair color of the telephone-woman should not be so dim. I used a solid color mask on the portrait layer to solve this problem. I chose pink, then Multiply the layer, erased all of the color using the paint bucket tool and performed the masking job with a smooth eraser. Finally, I opened a new layer under the pink hair layer and put some blue lines with a smooth eraser on the knits and Multiply the layer again. This last step is an arbitrary one and is not an essential for the telephone woman, but it can give inspiration to those who want to color the hair of their woman.

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ShadowsThe shadow of the receiver needed to fall on the lady’s face. In the image I chose, the light's direction is from the left. This means that the shadows must fall to the right. First, I created a new layer (shadow1) under the receiver layer that touched slightly to the lady’s ear using a big, black, smooth, low opacity (10-15%) brush. The shadow must not cover too much of the cheek. It has to be in the cavity. Then, I duplicated the receiver layer, created a new layer named shadow2 and put it under the receiver's layer. After this step, I decreased the lightning using Image/Adjustments/Hue Saturation and applied a 30 pixel Gaussian Blur from the Filter menu. This created the shadow. I put the layer on the top right and erase the shadows that extend over the woman’s face with a smooth eraser. The shadow had to be only under the chin and on the neck. Finally, make the opacity of this layer 15%.

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Final ImageThe work is now complete and you can now flatten your image and answer your ringing phone.

by Ceren Aksungur

06

Telephonication IIA phone definitely needs to have a receiver. The receiver of the yellow telephone fits well to our project with its shape. I first cut out the receiver, then created a new layer named receiver and pasted the receiver into that layer. I placed the receiver at ear level, covering the ear. To position the receiver and the cheek, I used the clone Stamp tool, enlarge the part of the receiver on the cheek to make it touch at the cheek's border. Then, I erased the part of the braid that appeared on the face.

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contributors

Radmin MalinicRadmin Malinic//Brand Nu is an award winning freelance illustrator and graphic designer based in London, the United Kingdom. Brand Nu is one of the most sought after, internationally renowned creative artists working today, with an extensive and diverse clientele. www.brandnu.co.uk

Camela A. WeekesCamela A. Weekes is a student at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. She would like to give a big thank you to Professor Fred J. DeVito for all of his help as well as my family and friends for their encouragement! www.anisometriclondon.co.uk

Benjamin BlackHas been a computer graphic for 10 years now. Fascinated by the design and photos retouching. Benjamin is also a big Photoshop fan.www.nanopao.frwww.fac311.com/digital/

Bert MonroyBert Monroy was born and raised in New York City where he spent 20 years in the advertising industry as an art director and creative director for various agencies as well as his own. He embraced the computer as an artistic medium and is considered one of the pioneers of digital. www.bertmonroy.com

Brian GrantBrian is currently the creative director of the Anisometric agency based in London, England, and he has over 15 years design experience. His clients include Microsoft, Sony, Coca Cola. www.anisometriclondon.co.uk

Ceren AksungurBorn in Istanbul – Turkey (1982) Start to draw when she was toddler and finished her first comic book Jade’s Adventures in 1997. Studied at graphic design department of MSU Fine Art College in Istanbul (2000-2008). www.flickr.com/photos/dolce_babanne/

Ilona LarssonIlona Larsson is a freelance retoucher from Sweden. She is primarily working with fashion and beauty retouch and shoots a photo or two in her spare time.www.iris-retouch.com/

Yves PetersIn August 2008 Yves put his graphic design career on the back burner, freeing him to concentrate on his writing and related activities in the digital type business. He writes his Bald Condensed type reviews on Typographer.org, edits Unzipped, the blog on the FontShop BeNeLux home page.

John RidickWas born 4th of July 1976, like Tom Cruise but taller.johnridick.deviantart.com

Rob ShieldsRobert Shields is a 27 year old designer form the east coast and he has been designing for a little over three years now. www.robshields.net

Suzanne JakupiSuzanne Jakupi has recently completed her photography studies at Photographic Imaging College, Hawthorn, Australia. She has spent countless hours learning and discovering new Photoshop techniques and now is an aspiring photo retoucher.

c o v e r a r t i s t

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How to Restore a Photo

Have no fear! Retouching is here! The average to extreme wear and tear of images has now become but a distant memory thanks to programs such as Adobe Photoshop CS4. With a few simple steps, one can easily make any picture look brand new, or even better than the original! This tutorial will illustrate how the art of retouching actually works. Let's use this picture I worked on in my Digital Imaging class last winter. As you can see the picture is creased, stained, filled with holes and more importantly, pink.

beginner | 45-60 minutes

adobe photoshop CS4

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To Start Off...Open Photoshop and make sure before starting your project that you go to Preferences> Performance.

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You’re History!Change your History States from its default to at least 100 just in case you make a mistake or don't like what you see you're able to go back and change it.

Stay Level-HeadedIt's advisable to utilize the levels option before going any further. Go to the Menu Bar at the top of the screen and select Image>Adjustments>Levels. This option will show a histogram which adjusts the tonal range of the image, and depending on how the sliders are placed, you will notice the image lighten and darken. The reason why you use levels is to get a rich black and a brilliant white with detail.

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Brighten My DayThe right side of the histogram controls the white areas of your image and the left side controls the black. This particular picture lacked some tonal range, so I changed the input levels on the right side from 255 to 245. If the histogram needs a richer black, adjust the slider on the left side from, for example, 25 to 15. You can also adjust the middle slider to manipulate the mid-tones of the image.

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Rose-Colored GlassesMy next challenge was to adjust the color from pink to something more realistic. Go to the Menu Bar, select Image>Adjustments>Color Balance.

Realism Is Key In the Color Balance dialog box, make sure to check preserve luminosity as well as mid-tones. Move the sliders back and forth till you are happy with the color of the image. For my image, I adjusted the color levels to -35, +100, +46.

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Zoom In Finally, we've reached the fun part! Getting rid of the cracks, marks and dirt on the image is easy once you get the hang of it, but depending on how much detail and damage there is, it will take some time. My best advice is to zoom in. Go to the Menu Bar and select View and go down to Zoom In (125% would be good)

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My How You’ve Grown This way you will be able to see more detail. Also, since everything is magnified, it's easier to work in sections to achieve a more realistic looking image. Working Zoomed Out will only blur the image further.

Can’t Forget This! Now, let's get started. On the left hand side you have your toolbox. Select the Clone Stamp Tool.

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Birds of a Feather Make sure you are working with a feathered brush (change the size depending on the area you are focusing on).

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Fixer Upper To use the Clone tool, aim your cursor over a smooth area. Hold down the Option key (for Mac) or the [Alt] key (for PC) and click. You should see the cursor turn into a target. This will basically copy the area you clicked. Find a damaged spot (like a crease for example) and hold down the mouse and drag over the area. You should see it smoothening out. Whenever you need to fix a different area, use the Option (or [Alt]) key and click.

The Finisher For aesthetic reasons, I used the Crop tool to remove the border from the picture. Look at the toolbar and select the 5th tool. Pick a corner of your picture, hold down the mouse and drag right across to the desired spot and let go. The area that will be removed will look grey while the are a being kept will retain its color. On your right towards the top you will see a checkmark, click it and voila! Your photo has been retouched.

by Camela A. Weekes

2 www.scanstockphoto.com

easy to see what the photographer wants to say with the image. Far too few people allow for the fact that designers will want to put text in the image. Designers who are photographers as well may be better at understanding what there’s a demand for. That’s possibly why their pictures sell well,” says the stock agency’s founder, generously sharing the agency’s market knowledge.

Since the top price is 4 euros per image, it is quite understandable that Scantockphoto’s images tempt many customers. “It’s mainly business customers, large and small, that buy from us. We have lots of newspapers, publishing houses, advertising agencies, online newspapers and printers among our customers. The combination of low prices and high quality is attractive to many people,” Jo Terje Stein declares and ends by guaranteeing that prices will not go up in 2009.

Stock news: SCANDINAVIAN STOCKPHOTO:

FOCUSING ON EUROPE“Focusing on the distinctive character of Scandinavia and Europe is our strength. In contrast to the perfect, polished look found in America, Europe has a more relaxed, provocative style. That’s what sets us apart from other stock agencies and contributes to our success,” says the team behind Scanstockphoto.com.

The low-price Norwegian stock agency, which was set up a few years ago, has quickly established itself as a leading player on the Scandinavian market when it comes to reasonable, royalty-free images. Business is booming in the current financial crisis. According to Stein, sales have doubled since the uncertainty on the financial markets began.

“It’s not just Scandinavians who are looking for good images in a European style. Our photographers supply images from more than 100 countries, so our database has something to suit every taste,” says CEO Jo Terje Stein. Most of Scandinavian StockPhoto’s customers are in Scandinavia, but the business is now working to win market shares in the rest of Europe too. “In a European context the Scandinavian markets are marginal, so for us the greatest potential is offered by growth in the populous countries of Europe. We’re constantly improving and have attractive products, so we’re now ready to present ourselves to new customer groups,” Jo Terje Stein explains.

The combination of low prices, high quality and outstanding user-friendliness is an attractive one at a time when businesses and private individuals are trying to cut costs. Jo Terje Stein rejects the suggestion that the low cost of the images reflects low quality. “So far we’ve not had any complaints about our quality. Rather the opposite at times,” says Stein smiling and points out that images from Scandinavian Stockphoto have been used for the strangest things: One customer enlarged one of their motifs and turned it into wallpaper for the nursery. Other images have being used for auto decals and a great many of them end up on boards, exhibition stands and other large displays.

“Our bestselling images are photos of a high technical standard, of course. But the most important thing is good composition. Our customers want images with a clear thematic content. It has to be

www.scanstockphoto.com now has more than 400,000 images in its database, making it Norway’s second largest stock agency.

book review

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Photoshop CS4: The Missing ManualPhotoshop is the world's best and most widely used photo, image and graphics editing program. The CS4 version is full with new features, tools, panels and tons of little changes which made it easy to use and very flexible. Adobe also made available plenty of information to learn Photoshop CS4 and its new features. It’s a huge collection of information and going through it is very time consuming and make learning Photoshop CS4 very tedious.

In such situation Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual by Lesa Snider King is a book which comes in action. This hefty book is divided into six parts, each devoted to the type of things you’ll do in Photoshop CS4 to master it.

Part One: The Basics – Is an introduction with Photoshop CS4. This section is good for beginner to get introduce with Photoshop CS4, its workspace, tools, features, and different kinds of layers and how to manage them, layer masks, special effects, and art behind the use of colors. This section is nothing but a quick start with Photoshop CS4.

Part Two: Editing Images – In this section we get various tricks on using Photoshop and Camera Raw for editing images, Playing with images, adding various tons, color effects, resizing it, applying more complicated realm of Levels and Curves Adjustment layers, Sharpen it or make it crisp. Photoshop is great tool for Image editing and this section teaches us various ways to editing image with Photoshop.

Part Three: The Artistic Side of Photoshop – Deals with creative side of Photoshop. Photoshop is a great tool used for digital painting. This section explore us various ways using Pen tool to create complex illustrations and selections, and how to use Photoshop’s Shape tools to create a painting from scratch with many useful tricks about digital painting.

Part Four: Printing and the Web – Photoshop is a great tool for generating art for Print as well as Web media. We learn here about the different color modes and how to prepare our images for printing as well as for the Web. Here Author provided some tricks to protect our images online and using Adobe Bridge to create Web galleries. Different image formats, there features and step trough process to crate animated GIF files in Photoshop.

Part Five: Photoshop Power – Photoshop come up with some built in features which makes working smarter and faster. Photoshop Actions and Plug-Ins are very useful for customizing repeating task very easily. This section teaches us ‘working Smarter with Actions’ with useful information on creating, editing, managing and sharing actions. Plug-Ins works as helper programs that run inside Photoshop and let us do the hard stuff faster. Plug-Ins are really good, gives us amazing results in seconds, rather than the hours it would take to do the same thing our self. Here we deal with various Plug-Ins and ways to use and get it from various resources online.

Part Six: Appendixes – This section contains Appendix with useful information on installing and uninstalling Photoshop. Using Photoshop’s help system, using Photoshop Menus, Tools panel and a complete section on using Adobe Bridge to import, organize, and export your images.

This book contains lots of tips, notes and colored images which are very helpful to understand topic in-depth. It’s a good Photoshop CS4 reference book with the detail and step by step introduction about every feature of Photoshop CS4.

Conclusion:This is a good introductory book, which helps us to take advantage of new Photoshop CS4 features and powerful tools to speed up designing and development. Information described here is details and step by step with lots of tips and notes. This is a good book to start learning Photoshop CS4 efficiently.

Title: Photoshop CS4 The Missing ManualAuthors: Lesa Snider KingPublisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.Language: EnglishPaperback: 796 pagesISBN 10: 0-596-52296-7ISBN 13: 9780596522964 Website: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596522964/Missing CD: http://missingmanuals.com/cds/photoshopcs4tmm/

software review

85www.emagcreator.com

Unlike their competitors, eMagCreator allows customers to locally install the software. This approach fully enables unlimited creation and publishing of eMags, and provides the additional benefit of self-managed hosting and control.

White label versionThere are two available models of the software. A company license to convert your own content, and a partner license for anyone looking to service their customers with e-publications. As a partner you can create and service your own customers and decide on your own business model. The software comes with full functionality, upgrades and reader tracking which you can also grant your customers access to.

Why choose eMagCreator

• Easily create an eMag in less than 5 minutes.• Dramatically increase online circulation and user loyalty.• Fully control of publications - avoid dependence on a service

provider.• Avoid hosting costs - you host yourself.• White label solution for servicing your own customers.• Resell to third parties without revealing that the backend

service is free (such as marketing companies).• Reader tracking.• Reduce print and distribution costs.

Try eMagCreatorIf you wish to learn more about eMagCreator go to www.emagcreator.com. On the website you can download a free full featured trial version of the software.

Ann-Christine Roope

Digital publishingThe possibilities are endlesseMagCreator is a unique desktop application that allows users to convert PDF’s into high quality interactive page-flip publications. The software is incredibly easy to use and does not require any technical skills. It can be used for making magazines, newspapers, brochures, catalogues, newsletter, micro-sites, manuals and much, much more.

Enhance the reader experienceYou can create online publications in less than 5 minutes using the eMagCreator wizard, or customize your publication further using the comprehensive toolbox. The software allows you to customize the eMags with your own colors, backgrounds and navigation. You can also insert and activate links to the Web or e-mails, enrich the content with extra on-page images or graphics, and enhance the reading experience with video or flash animations.

Host yourselfCurrently the competition consists mainly of online service providers, offering publishing and hosting of customer publications.

Create user-friendly online issues of your publications

Figure 1. Track your readers from the online statistics module

Figure 2. Use the wizard to create eMags in less than 5 minutes or customize with the toolbox

Figure3. Easy to use software. Upload your created eMags

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Figure 1.

In this article I will discuss some of the shortcuts that I use to take a lot of the grunt work out of creating things. The image that we will be looking at is a tiny portion of an overall painting that I am currently working on. The image in Figure 1 is part of a billboard ad and measures two inches by seven inches within the overall painting. The total canvas will measure sixty inches in height by twenty five feet in length when finished. Yes, this is a big image but then the subject matter requires size to get the kind of detail that I like to get. The painting is an almost 180° view of New York’s Times Square at night.

As with most of the elements in my paintings the basic shapes are created in Adobe Illustrator. The flexibility of the vector tools in Illustrator coupled with the low RAM requirement makes it the ideal place to manipulate the paths until they are perfect. The finished paths are imported into a Photoshop file as paths (Figure 2).

Let’s take a look at how you can create this bottle. Create a layer to contain the basic bottle shape. Using the Pen tool, create the

Corona’s

BottleI am known for creating images that look like photographs. Upon

close inspection you will notice that these images really don’t look like photographs because unlike a photograph, everything is

in focus. My intention is to have the viewer feel like they are looking at the actual place depicted in the painting. Wherever their eye travels, the image will come into focus.

Figure 2.

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Figure 6.

Figure 5.

Figure 4.

Figure 3.

shape that you want your bottle to have. Selecting the path for the outer shape of the bottle, fill it with a yellow color.

Now you will add an amber color to the edges of the liquid to make it look three-dimensional. Go into the Layer Style for the layer with the yellow bottle shape by double-clicking on the layer in the Layers panel. Choose Inner Glow. You want an even tone along the entire shape and Inner Glow is the only Layer Style that will produce this effect. Being a glow, the default Mode setting is Screen. You need the tones to be darker than the yellow of the bottle so reset the Mode to Multiply. Then choose a deep orange for the color. The result is what you see in Figure 3.

You want a darker value to appear along the edge of the bottle. The Layer Style only applies a single color. You need to reapply the effect with a second, dark brown color. To do this you need to separate the orange Inner Glow Layer Style from the layer. Go to Layer>Layer Style>Create Layers. This separates the elements that make up the Layer Styles into separate layers that are no longer attached to the original layer that they were created in.

With the yellow bottle back to its original state, apply a new Layer Style that is smaller in size and darker in color. The result can be seen in Figure 4.

Using soft-edged Paintbrushes and a dark brown color, add soft reflections along the center of the bottle. These should be created in

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Figure 9.

Figure 7.

their own layer so that you can play with things like Opacity to get them to behave exactly as you want.

Using a light tone, add highlights to the bottle. You need to also add a small dark line that runs perpendicular to the bottleneck. This will serve as the top of the liquid. Each of these elements is created in their own layers.

Create a new layer above all the others and turn off the Background layer. The Background contains nothing but a white canvas. Make sure the new blank layer is selected as the active layer. Pressing the Option (Alt) key, choose Merge Visible from the Layers Panel drop down menu. Pressing the Option key allows all the layers to be merged into the new layer while retaining all the original layers in place.

Desaturate this new layer to grays. Apply a Layer Mask to hide the gray bottle from the top of the liquid down, thus exposing the color layers beneath, making it appear as if the top of the bottle is clear glass.

The small drops of water (Figure 8) are also a simple set of Layer Styles applied to a layer. In a layer, create many circles in

different sizes using the Paintbrush tool. The color that you use does not matter because only the Layer Style will be visible and not the actual dots created.

In the Layer Style for the layer containing the drops of water, the first thing to do is to eliminate the color. In the Blending Options section (Figure 9) the Fill Opacity is lowered to zero. This makes the actual pixels created in the layer invisible. Since the overall Opacity for the layer remains at 100%, any pixels generated to show the styles being applied will be completed visible.

Next it is necessary to make the drops look like drops. A Layer Style of Drop Shadow is applied. The Opacity is lowered so that the shadow is a slight tone as created by water that is transparent yet with volume. Next come the tonal values that would give the drops shape and substance. Bevel and Emboss is applied. The Depth is increased slightly to give the effect more saturation. The highlights are fine but the shadow area needs to be changed. What happens when looking at water is that the edges of the drops tend to saturate the underlying colors of the surface the drops are on. These edges are currently dark because they are set as shadows. The default color is Black and should be changed to white. Black will not saturate but white will. Change the Mode for the Shadow to Color Dodge. This gives the desired effect to the drops.

Finally, using the Smudge tool, some of the drops can be smudged to make them appear to be dripping down the sides of the bottle.

These steps might seem like a lot of work but when you go through them you will realize that you will eliminate hours of additional work to get a very realistic effect.

by Bert Monroy

Figure 8. Figure 10.

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Of your photo-realist paintings, you say, it is not the destination that is important – it is the journey. What are some of the particular obstacles you encounter while creating these paintings that you find particularly challenging and rewarding?Each painting has a new set of problems that come up that pose the challenge that I look for in my work. One of the most challenging has always been how to make the light as bright as it is in real life. In the painting Lunch in Tiburon, for example, I

Interview with Bert Monroy

When you first started using Photoshop, did you think it was going to be as pervasive as it has become?

At the time I thought it was on its way to become the best imaging application on the market. It had tools that were far superior to the ones found in the popular programs of the time which were PixelPaint and Studio 32. Photoshop was still in its infancy stage but the potential was there. Once Adobe bought it I felt its future was secured.

Bert Monroy was born and raised in New York City where he spent 20 years in the advertising industry as an art director and creative director for various agencies as well as his own. Upon discovering computers with the introduction of the Macintosh 128 in 1984, he embarked on a new digital career. He embraced the computer as an artistic medium and is considered one of the pioneers of digital art.

interview with bert monroy

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wanted people to feel like they needed to put sunglasses on when viewing it. The scene was an outdoor restaurant and the sun was very bright.

Things such as textures and materials and how they react to lights and shadows have always been a fun challenge.

Tell us about your Revision3 show, PixelPerfect. How did you become involved with Revision3?I believe it was in 2001 that I was invited to be a guest on The Screen Savers TV show on the TechTV network. My appearance got a lot of response from the audience so they asked me to return the following month. My second guest spot got so much attention that I became a monthly regular with some months having me appear twice. I even got a yearend special, full hour show.

This went on for almost four years. They wanted to give me my own show but the network was sold to G4 thus ending the tech focus and tech related shows. TechTV was gone.

Many of the former TechTV people formed an internet television station and called it Revision3. They offered me a show and that is where Pixel Perfect came from.

How do you like video podcasts, in terms of how you connect with an audience, or a community of artists? Do you get lots of audience feedback? I love doing the podcasts. It is a way for me to teach people that don’t really have access to training any other way. First and foremost is the fact that it is free. I got an email from a young man in a tiny village in Africa thanking me for teaching him Photoshop. I was thrilled that Pixel Perfect was reaching such a remote area.

I get emails from all over the world from fans. It is very gratifying to know that I have inspired so many in so many places to pursue their creative interests.

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interview with bert monroy

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How is the work of making video podcasts similar, or different to your television work, such as your contribution to The Screensavers on TechTV?The main difference is that the podcasts is taped. I can make mistakes and we reshoot. Though, in the 112 episodes that we have shot I am proud to say we have only had to reshoot three. One was their mistake. The Screen Savers was live. I had a strict time limit and no room for error. There were three shows where there were technical problems but between Leo and I, we were able to skirt around them and come out fine.

I have been doing public speaking for over 20 years and have become very accustomed to working around difficult situations on the fly. Humor is the key to keeping peoples attention. Even the guy on TV makes mistakes! It makes them feel more comfortable when they make one.

What are your thoughts on today’s generation of digital artists? What have you noticed about artists who grew up with programs like photoshop, as compared to those who were already established artists when the software was released?Watching the next generation of digital artist develop has been a wonderful experience! They have grown up with digital. They played video games when they were toddlers. They face the new medium with open and hungry eyes.

The constant bombardment from all sides of the current media has given them all types of inspiration. I get many samples from people who want me to critique their work. Some of it is so impressive that I become very optimistic about the future of digital as an art form.

As for the artist that were well established with traditional media, as time goes by, the medium becomes more and more transparent. I was trained to hold a paintbrush in a certain way. When I went digital back in 1984, I had to retrain myself to hold this mouse thing that was doing something out of my field of view. Today, thanks to the Wacom Cintiq, I hold my stylus in the exact way I used to hold a brush and have gone back to watching my hand as it glides over the surface of the digital canvas.

interview with...

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interview with bert monroy

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For those traditionally trained artist, digital is just a new medium like oils are to a watercolor artist. The big difference is the lack of clean up time.

Have you found your commercial projects, and your time in the advertising world, rewarding?They certainly are rewarding when I get paid for them. They also present a different set of challenges in that I must work through someone else’s eyes. It is their vision that I must make tangible. Deadlines also present a challenge. They help me to learn new and faster ways of doing things.

In addition to your writing and television work, you deliver seminars and have taught at several Universities. What is the key to teaching and talking about software, clearly, to an audience?I was born with a gift. That gift is the ability to teach. I do it by engaging the audience. I never practice a seminar. It comes completely from the heart. Granted, it helps that I know what I am talking about. I do it in a way that is conversational. I throw in a lot of humor. These make the audience feel like we are all hanging out having a good time rather than sitting in a seminar.

I love what I am talking about and get very excited about it. That excitement is picked up by the audience and that keeps them engaged. I also make sure that even if the subject is very technical, I keep it plain and simple and use examples that are awe inspiring.

What are some projects that you have coming up?The project I am currently concentrating on is, what I believe, the most ambitous project I have ever tackled. The new crop of 64 inch, wide printers has given me the inspiration to create the biggest piece of my life. My wife has always wanted me to do Times Square in New York City. New York City is where I was born. I have always wanted to do Times Square but never saw the painting that would capture the true feeling of Times Square.

With 64 inches and the length of a roll I felt that this was the way to really capture Times Square – Huge! The Painting measures 60 inches by 25 feet. Yes, it is a massive file. I have been working on it for about a year and foresee at least another year before it is complete. It is an almost 180 degree view of Times Square at night.

Unlike all the other work I have done, this painting has been introduced to the public prior to being complete. A few of my latest podcasts cover the early production of it. I have done this for various reasons. One is to stir up public excitement. Another is to force me to finish it. It is a long time to spend on one project. It is easy to go astray.

It has been very challenging along the way and extremely exciting as each piece falls into place. Basically it is one big painting of lights. I am having a ball with it!

by Roshan Abraham

interview with...

94 01/2009

interview with david gensler

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It’s sort of like a corporate model for community building?We wanted a private, talent pool. We wanted a private collective if you will that was almost a cooperative of people that were trying to help each other build their brands, build their careers. Sharing their strengths with others in exchange for other people’s expertise. Someone might be a great illustrator but is terrible with websites. There would be barters, barter deals that were struck, help people. We would help people a lot with their business planning with their, a lot of times they’d help out a lot of members, a lot of members they’re very um some of them were incredibly talented but just out of school or maybe even bypassed school and went straight into the professional world. I helped a lot of them out with their taxes and um set up an LLC or a sole proprietorship. Just the little things and we built it up. So I mean it’s like a little, it’s a private, it’s a private network pretty much that, when you say network people think Facebook or MySpace or something like that.

Interview with David Gensler

Why don’t you give me the mission statement for KDUWell in short, there’s kind of the short way and the long way. I

left with a couple partners from various corporate positions about six years ago and, just had made the decision to. We used to be out of school we used to be very independent, at our own independent agencies and brands and firms, but for one reason or another. My particular reason was that I sold my company to a large public company. We became corporate, and then we decided we wanted to become independent again, and just do things our own way and you know, go where our ambitions kind of take us. We thought boy we’re really going to miss this sort of depth-of-resources that we have in this large corporate environment. So you know it’s kind of large tradeoff; you can either get your paychecks on time and be able to pick the phone up and have contacts all over the world or you can be independent and come in late to work and worry about your bills all the time. So what we did was, figure out what in an ideal world would be a perfect environment of us to be independent and have all of the resources that you have in a large corporate system. So, we structured the KDU. And it was myself and two other partners and now I have other partners but those two partners have been bought out. I’m the only remaining founder. We went from three people to probably twenty people. Sharing resources, you would do something better than I would do it. I would do something better than you would do it and we would sort of barter. Then it would grow, jump up double the size and it would be fifty people and then a hundred people then we would get kind of nervous that it was getting too big, hold it back for a while. Going through some growing pains, of not tending to the member’s needs. In sort of any private community and any community everyone has to play their role, people can’t feel left out so you know in the beginning there was a lot of growing pains. But now there’s probably, just over 700 people. And I want to say probably just over fifty countries. Fifty two three countries worldwide. And it’s going on our sixth year. It was just aw ay of you know I guess how could we convey our reach, how could we expand what it is we do, finding people that we consider sort of best in their class um in any particular industry that we happen to be, or industry that we happen to be. That’s what the goal was and that’s what it is still is. It changes a little bit because we learn as we go. The properly scale up, you know a few times. Sort of scale back a little bit.

To celebrate Rochambeau's second collection, The KDU created a one of a kind 19" x 22" hand made book. The book serves as a temporary artifact showcasing the brands most recent collection – then will self destruct through an accelerated moxidation. The fine papers, leathers and silk used in the construction will soon be overcome by thegold, silver, bronze, copper and iron hand painted and embedded on each page.

TRUST THE KDUThe Keystone Design Union

interview with...

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interview with david gensler

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But it’s more closedYeah, very closed.

A giant elite club.Not a club. By no means. It has none of the sort of functions of the club. I mean this is sort of, a catalyst, to get what you’re doing to move a little bit faster. It’s just something that helps you achieve your goals quicker. You know it does have the aspect of a community where if you take people I’m not going to apologize for saying that we’re very particular about who we let into the KDU. We want only the best, or a very unique geographic location, in a market that we want to penetrate. A person who either has enormous talent in what

they’re doing. There’s a few artists that are very well established. That’ kind of the…a marquee in that particularly industry. And they have to come in and they have to interact with younger people and very different kinds of people all over the world and we produce things to help promote each other and we interact on client projects and people’s personal projects, personal brands that we own and image. So, it’s just that, it’s a community, it’s a network, but it’s what we chose to do with it that I think makes it unique. Our goal isn’t to be social. Our goal is to progress our business to achieve our business goals it’s not to have some kind of social standing. So that’s what it is. That’s how it functions.

With so many members, how do you communicate with each other?A lot of the members get to know each other I mean a lot of them, what I found over the years many of them will [connect] through their disciplines, like a lot of the illustrators will be friends with the illustrators, a lot of the photographers will be friends with the photographers, people that happen to be in a particular geographic location. I know that all of our Australian members are pretty close friends with each other. Which is good. And then there’s, just like anything else, there’s some people that congregate together for their music or whatever they went to school for or something like that. Actually this Saturday or Sunday we’ll launching a public facing websites that will allow each other of the members to have a small profile and be able to just blog to promote themselves. Because most of them come to me and say ‘you know I’m in Norway I want to collaborate with someone in fashion who is potentially close to me, so I might put them with somebody in Amsterdam or London or Iceland or something like that. Just to try and keep it logistically kind of smooth. And then there’s

interview with...

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collaborations all over the world. But you know that’s the power of the internet, you know everyone’s a Skype call or an e-mail away.

Could you talk about The Royal magazineThat’s a really old project, that project hasn’t been active in quite a long time, I mean the new magazine that we do is called Solstice.

That’s something you’ve moved on fromWe started Solstice, which is pretty much the same thing

Just different name and strategyPretty much the same strategy, it’s just we’re really really focused on, I mean at some point the Royal was up to over 50,000 circulation, and the Solstice doesn’t go above 5,000. And the focus is on very private media. We know exactly where it’s going; it goes to other members, it goes to key people on the press and that’s it. Everyone else that wants to view it can view it online.

It’s an almost B2B modelYeah, pretty much, I mean it’s sort of designed by the global design community for the global design community. It’s not really you know just for some person kind of in Barnes and Noble to stumble upon it. It’s very focused.

If there are other publications like this, how is yours differentI don’t know that there are. I mean I know couple of them and I know um, I know a couple architecture firms that put stuff out. I mean ours is just different. It’s just, doesn’t have to be subjective, it’s just that we do it. It’s different in that we do it. It’s different in that we print it on fine art paper. And really push the paper stocks a lot. Do a lot of embossings. You know on the cover and it’s just private media it’s just like here’s what we’re doing in the last six months. We do it twice a year we put it out at fashion trade shows. It’s an aesthetic gathering. We ask peopledo you want to produce an original piece of art for this that hasn’t been seen any place else, hasn’t been used any place else? And then you gather it all together which is the best

people that we can find only within the KDU and then put it out. It’s just like a little high end piece of media that’s just telling people what’s going on in the KDU.

How long does it take to produce one issueIt only takes about two weeks. We put the call out to people and they like it, it’s a high quality printed book that actually gets produced and we’re handing it to people that could potentially hire them and require their services, so it does sort of function as a self-promotional piece for them and their whole group. We’re very active in making sure that the right people get those issue but, it probably takes about two weeks. I mean people if I told you know, two weeks and we’re going to print this great book, and take it over to Spain or Berlin, take some down to Korea with us or something, you know people jump to that.

How has this market been for designers, and the KDU?It’s as bad as I’ve ever seen it. It’s shockingly slow. Knock on wood, we have some good loyal clients and new clients. There’s people that in general have always been interested but in working with us and you know which is fantastic but everybody’s freaking bad right now. We worked on Urb, Urb magazine for the last year. We worked with them all the way through 2008, and the magazine business is pretty much just over. At this point the only people that are really doing well are really focused B2B publications and then some of your high fashion, which even there has been taking a pounding.

Are there any strategies you can think of for the long-term?If you look at the magazine business, I think that some models like Monocle are doing well, and V continues to do well because it’s a really super high quality publication. It’s a lot of time spent on the photoshoots and you know really making sure that the information that is in these books is unique, and you can’t just do a google search and look at the same stuff in one place. It boils down to survival of the fittest; the best magazines are going to win, and the rest of them are going to go away. Print media now needs to be

interview with...

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extremely exclusive and very remarkable. And if it’s not then it’s just going to be replaced by a blog, sadly, because I like magazines. But, that’s just the truth of it. Monocle’s a good magazine. It’s different, very uniquely positioned I think. They have diversity, they’re utilizing other forms of media, they have a good website. They have this radio presence. Interviews, all kinds of stuff. Tyler seems to know what he’s doing, coming from wallpaper but …look at even major publications like the New York Times, it’s just barely figuring out a way to make enough money to stay afloat. It’s an old model that takes a long time to sort of become new. The other magazines are, they’re just, you’re going to see that the print magazine is just one part of it. They’re going to do everything they can to make them super-unique, keep being competitive with everybody. Taking advantage of the web as slowly as they can. In terms of just business, I think the same thing applies. In short I think that the better animal wins. The better quality wins. Like for SVSV we’re doing fine, knock on wood, again, we’re weathering the storm because we’re not producing junk. We’re producing stuff where every single stitch on it is considered. Every single fabric every liner. The interfacing in-between fabrics is considered more than most people’s entire garments. We have a very loyal customer base that follows the brand and appreciates it. And, you know, we’re small and nimble. We don’t really feel it that much as I can imagine being in a place like Nike. You know, whole divisions are affected.

How do you feel like you’re using your online presence?My own personal opinion is, I can’t stand online media. When it’s only online. I think if it’s a supplement or part of a larger offering it makes sense, but I know of a couple people that are making a few bucks with online dedicated media and, sure. One of the only times in my life I can very honestly say, that I would tell you at this point, it’s going to be speculative. Because I’ve been in the industry for fifteen years, and I’ve never seen anything like what’s happening out the window right now. In the market. I’ve never seen anything like this. You know, I’m sure there’s guys with more experience, go back to you know the early 80s, late 70’s in better insight but for me in my lifetime, I’ve never seen anything like this. I would say the best strategy is: pray a lot. No, I mean, I think being lean. I think that really really really understanding how to manage your business intelligently, and wise as possible. I think that’ s smart bet. There’s a lot of people that just that dotcom 2.0 boom, right off the bat, a lot of people jumped out. Started running, brands that have very little solid business structure behind them, and I think that a lot of them are about to go away in the next eighteen months. I mean in the last five years I think everybody I know started a clothing brand.

Are there any emerging trends you feel good about?I think that one thing that’s very clear is street culture has completely vanished. It is just utterly, completely, I’ve never seen something come and go so quickly and then vanish so fast. I think that it was, it happened too quickly, it was just the Gen Y generation coming of age, and graduating high school, going to college, you know graduating college, and was just fueled by this huge entrepreneurial spirit, and that just really got people thinking that they can go out and just completely run businesses and ‘ why shouldn’t I do that? Everyone else starts these online, become online millionaires. I’m smart, let me throw my hat in there, I’m going to be a part of it’, and I literally know hundreds of people around the world that decided to start a magazine or to start a retail store. Or start t-shirts slash clothing brands. Or start a record label …with no experience. Most of the people are either fresh out of high school or dropping out of college and I think that trend is very, it’s not discussed very often how entrepreneurialism came back to bite everybody, because the level of argument wasn’t there to match the entrepreneurial spirit. So, you have a bunch of laymen, so to speak, running businesses where creatively it looked from the outside like an amazing brand but internally it was just a mess. I think that’s really taking a toll on street wear. I think that design culture globally is doing well because people are going to, if you define design culture as very considered objects and services, you know very carefully considered, it doesn’t have to be luxury, it doesn’t have to

be better than the stuff that you would find in your local department store, people in tough economies want high value, they want a lot for their money, so other than that I don’t know. Move to France?

I’m trying to end on an optimistic note…Well don’t have ‘move to France’. Except if I move to France, and I guess that’ll be good. I think the Obama thing is kind of cool, we were just down for the inauguration, Shepard Fairey invited us down to see Manifest Hope. So, we went down and participated in that, and it was cool I mean it was done, it’s interesting how this country especially, when something terrible happens either quickly or prolonged over a long period of time like this recession. People come together in an amazing force. And now you take a look at it, it was amazing to see all of these big named artists. And people from Denver driving their paintings across the country to attend this inauguration. Hopefully all of that entrepreneurial spirit that gave birth to street culture, have now in the last five years, maybe we all will become more civilly engaged. I think, maybe end on this, like: I think that it’s a designer’s responsibility to do more than design stuff that’s bought and sold, if you look at all the mid century and earlier. All the great architects and some of the first industrial designers, like Buckminster fuller, I mean lot of people were attempting to design the whole world. They didn’t watch the world form the sidelines, and just you know I’m going to be green buy how I consume things, I’ll buy a hybrid car, and I’ll save the world like that, maybe people will start to actually you know constantly have that kind of green slash humanity effort present in everything that they do in the creative process. I don’t know, maybe Obama, here domestically will kind of inspire people to you know be bold again. Instead of trying to get some press.

Why don’t you give me an overview of what you’re working on?I made what I thought was a good decision to move one block away from the office. It’s just that it means that I, I end up, um, working way more than I think is healthy. We just put out a, the primary thing is that we’re getting ready to finally launch after five years a very organized and proper website, a KDU consulting website, which is kind of long overdue. We are launching the network site at the same time to give all the people a voice and a presence. We are launching a whole bunch of our SVSV, our designer label, we’re launching like five or six different collections back to back, starting in about two weeks. And then, a store brand called Rochambeau, which is some of our friends’ brand.. We’re hand building these large books, these large physical books with them. Hand constructed, and we’re working on that, we just did a new logo for Jay-Z. We just did a huge, huge project for Adidas and Reebok, helping them pick trends and design for them to use in all their divisions in 2010 and 11, we have a huge collaboration with KTU snowboards. That’s coming out in 2010, be ready this summer. So, that’s our focus right now. That’s what I’ve got to get done this week.

It looks great.Yeah it’s all done with active metal paints, so the gold is real gold paint, so there’s a 22K, 24K, 18K, um, different color and there’s a platinum paint, an iron paint, copper bronze and, we printed these things out like, big like 17 by 20 and they trimmed it down, and we used leather and twine, so it’s kind of fun. On the computer to like just build a big book.

They look very hands-on. Were they collaborative?There are three different photographers that worked on it. Myself and my partner kind of created the thing, my fiancé ended up doing all the gold-leafing on all of the pages, and we, one of our printing companies, one of our partners is a large printer, printing it, then there were stylists, there’s probably a total of twelve to fifteen people that ended up contributing to that book. It was fun. A fun process.

Thank you for your time,Wish you all the best,

by Roshan Abraham