Computer Arts issue 133

Reinvent yourself

So, you’re one of the most sought-after illustrators in the country with a unique and instantly recognisable style. You’ve got the best agent, magazines are fighting over your work and the commissions just keep flooding in. Brilliant, you’re at the top of your game. But for how long? What happens when that leading edge, much-imitated style you worked so hard to develop starts looking a little bit tired? What if the magazines and advertising agencies that were fighting to get your hot look onto their pages start looking elsewhere?

The answer is simple – you need to reinvent yourself. Whether this means completely burying your old identity and starting out with a clean slate, looking at how you can develop your skills in different areas of design, or just giving your style an overhaul, it’s up to you. The point is that if you want to stay ahead of the pack, you need to be constantly moving forward.


IN THE MAG

TUTORIALS

HANDS-ON DESIGN
Use traditional skills alongside Photoshop

THE ART OF ORNAMENT
Create a decorative font with Illustrator

EXPAND YOUR HORIZONS
Print poster-size images from Illustrator

GRADIENTS MADE EASY
Remedy those gradient printing woes

FLASH PORTFOLIOS
Put the finishing touches on your site

BLURRING EFFECTS
Create realistic depth of field in Photoshop

FEATURES

REINVENT YOURSELF
Make sure your work never goes out of fashion with our essential guide to reinventing your career, your company, your style or even yourself

BEHIND THE SCENES: FLIP THE SCRIPT
How the Surface to Air global design collective persuaded some of the design community’s best talents to re-imagine such classic movie posters as Jaws, Blow-Up and A Clockwork Orange

EXPOSURE
A selection of amazing work sent in by talented artists from across the globe

PROFILE: 4WALL
How design collective 4Wall is creating a serious buzz though live painting, beer-tasting and 18 leading names in digital art

SHOW-STOPPING DESIGN
Find out why the world of large-scale graphics for exhibitions, expos and conferences is the smart place to be

CV: STEWART M BRUCE
Meet the Californian designer with a thing for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

ON THE CD

LYNDA.COM PHOTOSHOP CS3 BETA TRAINING
Photoshop guru Deke McClelland guides you through some of the features of Adobe’s recent Photoshop CS3 Beta

FONTOGRAPHER 4.7 TRY-OUT
Take a closer, hands-on look at FontLab’s essential typography application with this brilliant trial version

POSER FIGURE ARTIST TRY-OUT
Drawing figures can be tricky. Discover how to make it easier with e frontier’s Poser Figure Artist application

100 FOTOLIA STOCK IMAGES
Avoid legal scrapes and image theft by using any of these royalty-free photos from Fotolia

COLORIAGE TRY-OUT
If you’re struggling to add colour to your black-and-white images, let this new plug-in from AKVIS take the strain

THREE BOOK EXTRACTS
Sample chapters from the books reviewed this issue, including What is Product Design? and Rinzen’s Neighbourhood

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