Feeling creatively burned out?

One of the biggest struggles in a creative industry is STAYING creative. After pouring hours of hard work into projects, it’s easy for your creative well to run dry.

Luckily, Todd Henry of Accidental Creative is coming to help us with that problem. "Create or Die: Thriving in the Create-On-Demand World" is a presentation that will cover the phases of creative growth, the basic daily disciplines of healthy creatives and some "assassins" of personal and organizational creativity.

You don’t want to miss this chance to learn tips and tricks on how to consistently bring your A-game to your designs.

To keep the creativity flowing, one lucky attendee will win a free copy of Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium!

Details

• Tuesday May 19, 6:00-7:15pm
• School of Advertising Art - 1725 East David Road
• Door prizes provided by Adobe Systems and O’Reilly Media
• Event sponsored by the DCS Adobe User Group

Pricing

• $10 for DCS members (Not a member? Join today!)
• $20 for non-members
• $5 for students (student rate only available at the door, must present a valid student ID)
• Register online today to guarantee your seat, or you may also pay cash at the door

You can also help us promote the event by downloading, printing and hanging our promotional poster.

If you have questions about this event, please email programming@creativesyndicate.org.

A while back I invited everyone to take advantage of our free tickets to FITC 2009. A few people responded, and one of those people was Annika Hamann (aka Das Plankton). The only thing I asked of her was to report back to us with her perspective on the event.

On our forum, Annika posted her notes from the festival, including a play-by-play of the presenters and photos from the event.

Check it out for yourself. You just might learn something too!

Huge thanks to Annika for posting this great review! Keep an eye out for another review of this event coming soon.

Prepress Magic

Your work starts its life on the computer screen, hopeful that someday it might become a thing. Some time later it is a very real thing with three dimensions, that reflects color, that you can see, touch, and even smell. And nestled somewhere between the imagined and the real is the magic of print production.

Join the DCS Adobe User Group at our April meeting, where we'll be discussing prepress and print production techniques. Rob Anspach, Production Manager at Real Art Design Group will present his tried and true methods for getting it done... on time, up to snuff, and maybe even under budget!

We'll also be making some special announcements and giving away door prizes, so you won't want to miss it. Feel free to bring examples of your own prepress prowess, questions for Rob, and a friend. See you at SAA!

Details:

• Monday, April 13 @ 6pm
• School of Advertising Art - 1725 E David Rd
• Door prizes include a 1GB PSD memory card courtesy of PremiumMemory.com
• No cost for members or non-members

Let me or Ryan know by tomorrow (Friday, April 3) if you want a ticket for FITC 2009 in Toronto.

More info:

Dayton Creative Syndicate has been offered a handful of complimentary festival tickets (worth $749 CAD each!) for FITC 2009 in Toronto, Ontario on April 26-28.

Here's what a ticket gets you:

• Includes access to all festival days - April 26, 27 & 28 (Sun-Tues)
• Full access to all evening events
• Over 70 renowned expert presenters from around the world
• Over 70 educational and inspirational presentations, panels, and workshops
• 4 Tracks of presentations in Technical, Creative, and Business
• Exhibition area displaying Flash-related tools, products & services
• Includes official FITC grab bag

Who should go?

Flash designers and developers, motion graphic artists, digital artists, anyone with an interest in Flash and digital media.

What's the catch?

All you gotta do is drive/fly there and find a hotel! Also, I believe you'll need a passport.

I went to an FITC event in New York recently and those guys don't mess around. It's definitely worth a look if you have any interest in learning new things or meeting new people.

Email me at communications@creativesyndicate.org if you're interested, or respond here with a comment.

Adobe is offering a special benefit to members of Dayton Creative Syndicate and our Adobe User Group from now through May 31, 2009. To get the details of this special discount, members should contact Brian Ward or Ryan Clark to request instructions for redeeming your discount.

This is a really great benefit that couldn’t have come at a better time. We only ask that you join our Adobe User Group for free using your Adobe ID. The discount may only be used once, so make it count!

Do you ever feel like you're stabbing in the dark when you pick colors? Or maybe you want to expand beyond your clients two-tone brand guidelines? Kuler can be a great place to start.

Adobe Kuler is a web-based application for creating and sharing color palettes. You can create and save your own themes, browse thousands of community themes, or learn how other designers are using Kuler. You can even download themes to your computer and import them into Creative Suite.

Although you can always check out the community themes and create your own, the true value of this app lies in the ability to save and download your themes, so be sure to log in with your Adobe ID.

Be sure to check out Adobe's video podcast on Adobe TV that explains Kuler in further detail.

My 3 favorite features:

• Fast, easy Flash-based interface
• Kuler can automatically create a theme based on a photograph you upload or any photo on Flickr
• Non-modal sign-in process means you don't have to wait

Handy tip: Use Kuler Desktop to browse themes from your desktop, and load them straight into Creative Suite without opening your browser or downloading files.