teamSlye Tip Sheet #1 – Surviving the First Week

10 Tools for Choosing Colors

This year’s books are barely off the pallet, but you’re already working on the 2010 publication, aren’t you? Here are 10 very cool online tools to help you choose just the right combination of colors for the look you’re after.

40 Creative Logo Designs

As you start working on next year’s book, company logos can be a great source of inspiration for designs, phrases, themes and more. Here are 40 great-looking logos to consider for your graphics notebook…

-Adam

50 Totally Free Lessons in Graphic Design

Here is a treasure of free lessons on typography, grid design, color theory, design theory and usability. Enjoy!

InDesign Mag’s Tip of the Week

This week’s tip: Applying Effects to Multiple Objects Quickly

From InDesignmag.com:

“Apply Effects to Objects Quickly You just spent 30 minutes in InDesign’s Effects dialog box, settings options for the perfect effect. Now you want to apply the same effect to several other objects in the file quickly and easily.

Apply your settings in the Effects dialog box (Objects > Effects >) while no objects are selected to make your settings the default for the document. InDesign will automatically apply your perfect effect to each object you draw after that.

Or, select the formatted object and create a new object style in the Object Styles panel. Use Quick Apply (Command-Return/Ctrl-Enter) to format subsequent objects with the new object style even faster. Or finally, copy and paste formatting from one object to another. Double-click on the Eyedropper tool first to select which formats you want to copy. Then select the objects you want to format with the Selection tool. Switch to the Eyedropper tool and click on the object with formatting you want to copy.

– Renée Dustma”

Order your free copy of InDesign Magazine here

JEANC Convention Dates Announced

Here’s the scoop from the recently re-designed and updated JEANC.org site on this year’s convention in Sacramento:

“We here at JEANC just announced the dates for the next state convention. Mark your calendars for October 23-25, 2009.

The theme of this year’s convention will be “All of It,” as we’ll focus on providing attendees with sessions and activities related to new media in addition to the fabulous sessions on print media.”

You can find more information on the convention here and be sure to check out the JEANC Facebook Group, too.

We’ll be at the Herff booth and probably teaching a session or two. Mark your calendars now!

-Adam

Typographic Inspiration

If your list of New Year’s Resolutions included improving your typography (and what yerds’ list wouldn’t?) here’s a great page with links to 17 groups on the photo-sharing site Flickr dedicated to excellent use of type. Enjoy!

–Adam

Font Shuffle – FontShop.com on Your iPhone

Here’s the scoop from The Unofficial Apple Weblog guys:

“If, like me, you do a lot of your font shopping at FontShop, you’re sure to love FontShuffle.

FontShuffle is like having a copy of the indispensable FontShop catalog right on your iPhone or iPod touch. I know my dog-eared copy from 2002 needs to be updated and/or retired: FontShuffle is a nifty, free replacement. It’s ideal for situations where you know what look you want, but don’t know what font to use.

FontShuffle lets you choose from six major classifications of type: sans serif, serif, slab serif, script, blackletter, and display. Tap one, and FontShuffle shows you six more sub-categories to choose from. Tap one of those, and you’re presented with six selections from the FontShop catalog based on the look you selected.

If none of the fonts fit the bill, press “Shuffle” or simply shake the device to get six more fonts. Tapping a font lets you view a customizable string of text in that font, and even save a picture of the text to your device’s camera roll. Rotating the screen displays a specimen.

Unfortunately, FontShuffle can be frustrating if you know what font you’re looking for, as there’s no search tool. You have to shuffle through page after page of fonts until it comes up in a random selection. Also, FontShuffle doesn’t contain FontShop’s entire catalog. They promise to add more fonts in upcoming versions.

FontShuffle is free, and available from the App Store. It’s a must-have for any type geek or designer that needs a font reference handy.”

To download the link in iTunes, click here

Would you like an easy, automatic and secure way to accept photo submissions from parents, teachers and students for use in the yearbook? Now you can do just that with Herff Jones’ eShare!  Now students, parents and teachers can contribute content to the yearbook staff by uploading photos directly to your school’s secure space on the web, logging in with a code just for your school. You have complete control of which images you’d like to use and can log-in to download the files 24/7 with your YBAccess username and password. We have fliers ready to send out announcing this new service for your school and banner graphics for your school’s site. Contact us for more information and to sign up!

-Adam

Yearbook Discoveries Volume 13 Issue 1 Out Now!

Be on the lookout for the first issue of the completely re-designed Yearbook Discoveries national newsletter from Herff Jones. If you didn’t receive it before the Thanksgiving break, it might be in your pile of mail today and it’s full of great information, including work from local schools.

In addition to great articles on surviving your first year of advising, developing a voice for your writing and extending coverage, this issue’s Photo Corner was written by yours truly. Click here to download a PDF of the Composition Cards I talk about in the article. Did you know you can download PDFs of all the articles in this issue from yearbooks.biz>Resources>Yearbook Discoveries?

Join us in congratulating these teamSlye schools featured in this month’s Discoveries: Casa Roble HS for their CSPA Silver Crown, NSPA Pacemaker Finalist and sample spreads in the Design Concepts article, Center HS for their 2007 NSPA Pacemaker Finalist and sample spread in the Eye of the Beholder article, Colfax HS for their sample spread in the supplements article and San Juan HS for their sample spread in the Establishing a Voice article. Great work!