This class was created for Mac-based designers ready to learn Adobe Photoshop. In this weekend class, students will work on individual Mac computers in a lab setting. Students will learn Photoshop basics, including simple color correction and photo retouching tips and tricks. You’ll learn cover color adjustment, layers, color correction, image retouching, filters, and special effects. Learn the difference between low resolution and high resolution, and which is the ideal resolution for your job.

This class is taught by Mara Sachs (shown above), who began her career in 1984 as a typesetter at Ziff Davis. A few years later she began learning the basics of digital production as manager of the brand-new Macintosh department in a large Philadelphia prepress company. Since 1990 she has been running her own business, providing page layout and retouching services, as well as training, to the graphic arts community. Mara is an avid meditator and brings her joyful energy, clarity and good humor into her classes.

Students should be comfortable working on a Mac. Please submit a letter of interest and work history. Class starts 31 May. Visit the site to learn more.

These workshops are perfect for writers and journalists, but office managers and artists who are weak in Web development can join in as well (not intended for graphic professionals). In one weekend, learn how to use Macromedia Flash to create interactive widgets — slideshows, maps, quizzes, and more — without having to learn too much of the geeky technical stuff. On the first day, you’ll get an introduction to Flash basics. You’ll learn how to use the timeline, the tools bar, and the stage. You’ll create simple animations and slideshows. On the second day, we’ll cover more complex interactives using the drawing tools in Flash, as well as images created in Photoshop. You’ll do yourself very proud.

The workshops are taught by Duy Linh Tu, co-founder and creative director of Resolution Seven, a video and DVD production studio, and shown in the photo above. He is a writer, videographer, motion graphics designer, and photographer. Prior to forming Resolution Seven, Duy founded and was the chief operations officer of Missing Pixel, an award-winning interactive production company.

Students must have basic knowledge of Photoshop (if you can resize an image, you’re golden). Students also should be comfortable with working on a Mac. Class starts May 17. Visit the site to learn more.

If you’re interested in breaking into editorial photography, check out our seminar on building a freelance photo career on Wednesday, 30 January with Pulitzer-winning photo editor Stella Kramer. A student at her last class wrote, “Stella offers refreshing, candid insights into a side of the business that photographers rarely see. Her ability to clearly describe what photo editors are looking for was a real eye-opener.”

Stella Kramer is a multi-award-winning photo editor who has worked in the New York publishing industry for more than 15 years. She was part of the photo team at The New York Times that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography, the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in recognition of the Portraits of Grief which ran after September 11th, and a 2002 Infinity Award for Public Service from the International Center of Photography. She has worked at The New York Times, People, Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, MONEY, and Brill’s Content, where she was director of photography.

This seminar will be held Wednesday, 30 January from 6:30 to 9:30 pm at mediabistro in NY. Visit the site to learn more and to register.

Do you want to jump start your 3ds Max training? In this exciting and new 30-day workshop, Certified Autodesk Instructor and 3ds Max trainer Pat Gombarcik, will guide and motivate you through this highly enjoyable and intensive class. This is a great opportunity to learn 3ds Max basics for a fraction of the cost of a normal workshop, and all in a friendly and informal atmosphere.

The online workshop begins 13 August 2007 and ends 11 September 2007 with four sessions over those four weeks. Workload is 5-10 hours per week, dependent upon student’s level. Deadline for registration is 10 August 2007. Visit the CGS site to learn more.

Five Cuyahoga Community College/American Greetings Excellence in Visual Communication & Design Scholarships are now available for students who wish to enroll in Tri-C’s Visual Communication & Design courses in Fall 2007 (Ohio). The courses are taught at Tri-C’s Western (Parma) and Eastern (Highland Hills) campuses. Each scholarship includes an award of $1,000 divided between two semesters, and a $250 donation to the recipient’s high school art or visual communication department for supplies.

The application deadline is 30 April. To be eligible, applicants must be high school graduates or GED recipients by Fall 2007. Scholarship recipients will be expected to enroll in a minimum of 12 credit hours at Tri-C and declare a Visual Communication & Design major. Selection will be based on the applicant’s proficiency in one of the following areas:
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To successfully impact global warming and world resource depletion, it is imperative that ecological literacy become a central tenet of design education. Yet today, the interdependent relationship between ecology and design is virtually absent in many professional curricula. To meet the immediate and future challenges facing our professions, a major transformation of the academic design community must begin today.

To that end, The 2010 Imperative Global Emergency Teach-In addressing global warming and climate change is an interactive web-cast broadcast live from New York, reaching more than 500,000 students, faculty, deans and practicing professionals in the architecture, planning and design communities in both North and South America. Don’t be left out - register today for the broadcast on 20 February 20 2007 from Noon-3:30p.m. EST (Simultaneous translation into Spanish).

First in the new Dynamic Graphics magazine webcast Series, the “Designing for the Mobile User” webcast relates to their February/March ‘Designing for the web’ issue, which ships to subscribers on 12 January 12th and available on newsstands on 26 January. Webcast presenter Jared Benson will offer critical insights into how design can improve these experiences and better integrate them into our lives on 21 February at 1 pm CST. As a specialist in mobile user interface and interaction design, Jared Benson, executive creative director, oversees the design practice for Punchcut (www.punchcut.com), a leading mobile user interface design and development company. Registration is free, but space is limited for the live event - so act now by filling out the form at the Dynamic Graphics Website.

Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock’s artful, sometimes literal, sometimes distorted use of San Francisco architecture and geography in his 1957 suspense movie “Vertigo” is the topic of “The Architecture of Vertigo,” a free lecture by Sandy McLendon at 6 p.m. Thursday, 1 February, at the Speed Art Museum, 2035 S. Third St., Louisville, Kentucky.

McLendon is an architecture and design writer; editor of www.jetsetmodern.com, an online design magazine; and author of “PreFAB Elements” (HarperCollins: 2005). The talk is presented by the Hite Art Institute as part of the Frederic Lindley Morgan Lecture Series at the University of Louisville.

The Boston Architectural College is offering several eight-week, completely online, Sustainable Design courses this semester, and there is still time to register. All courses run for eight weeks and are instructor-led. The courses have been developed in partnership with BuildingGreen, Inc.

Courses starting January 22nd: Sustainable Design as a Way of Thinking; Building Envelope; Green Practice: Energy and Air Quality

Courses starting March 26th: Materials, Resources and Indoor Environmental Quality; Environmental Systems; Sustainable Design in Practice; Site Design, Landscaping and Site-Water Issues; Smart Growth Planning

These courses are offered entirely online and allow flexibility for busy schedules since they do not have specific meeting times. For more information call 617-585-0101.

APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE ONLINE: 15 January 2007

San Francisco — The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) a grant of $450,000 over two years to fund the Producers Institute for New Media Technologies, a program that will help public broadcasters and independent producers develop socially relevant media projects for emerging digital media platforms.

“We are very excited to bring together the independent filmmaking community, the digital industry, and future-thinking foundation support,” said Ken Ikeda, Executive Director. “As media technology changes so do audience viewing habits. The independent media field must be responsive and adopt cross-platform and mobile media platforms in order to remain relevant.” Read the rest of this entry »