Another Reality Series?
Yeah, it’s another reality series, but we don’t have that many relating to the creative fields.  Sure there are cooking shows, bakery series like Cake Boss, and custom motorcycle documentaries like American Chopper; but it’s not often that we actually get a show relating to our field of marketing and advertising.  That’s what makes The Pitch so exciting!  In the first episode, we see two competing advertising agencies travel to Milford, CT to pitch their ideas to Subway on their next breakfast sandwich marketing campaign.  The two agencies literally are working head to head just to win the job.

What’s Cool
Celebrity Apprentice and The Apprentice are a little similar, because we get to see an entire marketing campaign from brainstorming sessions through the final branding and execution. With the The Pitch, these advertising pitches aren’t made up for the sake of a TV show.  This is the real thing – the big leagues in the marketing and advertising world.  We get to see the agencies’ branstorming sessions, the good ideas, the bad ideas, and even their creative processes. You get to see how they interact with one another.  We even see how some of the creatives’ ideas become things they are personally attached to, while other members of the team don’t always see the value in them.  You also see how hard these advertising professionals have to work, and travel.  It even gives us a glimpse into the private home life for some of them.  Let’s just say it’s not the type of job we’d all like to have.  Unless you like to work to live; working long hours, lots of travel, and

Advertising in a Show About Advertising
Not surprisingly, you have to remember that the point of all television shows and movies are created to also bring in advertising dollars. At one point in the Subway pitch episode you will see them browsing for stock images on the Getty Images website.  Getty is obviously of a traditional stock agency (non-microstock pricing) where iStockphoto is their microstock collection.  Not surprisingly enough, at the end credits, you’ll note that it says “promotional consideration by Getty Images and iStockphoto”.  Talk about a great advertising opportunity, because ever single advertising/marketing/graphic designing creative type (at least that I know) is going to be watching this show. Getty is smart to have added this paid product placement, but it would be nice to see if we could also see behind the curtain to when the ad agencies actually purchase from microstock agencies, as well.  We probably won’t, because that is what the promotional consideration Getty has paid for will mask.

Let us know what you think about The Pitch.  Leave a comment below, and please share this post!

Did you ever scan a photo or some film negatives on a flatbed or film scanner, only to realize that the image is covered in pieces of dust, pet hair, or lint?  Or maybe you photographed a closeup of an object only to find a bunch of obvious dust or scratches that were not very noticeable to the eye beforehand?  This Photoshop tutorial by the late Bob Mizerek will show you how to Photoshop out dust and scratches in a jiffy using this simple technique.

While the standard dust and scratches removal feature in Photoshop may be enough, you might find that many times that it takes away too much quality from the original image.  Using Bob’s method (as seen in the youtube video above) you will learn that dust removal can be a lot more selective using layers and masking; therefore preserving the important parts of the image, and all of its important details.

If you’re a graphic designer, web or app developer, you probably have already heard about this sweet website called dribbble (with 3 B’s, yo).  Dribbble is amazing, but being restricted to spectating kind of stinks.  It’s nearly impossible to actually get an invite so that you can post your own work. I’ve been trying to find an invite to the big dribbb casually for a few years now, but they keep the gates tight on that place (and for good reason – they want to keep out the riff raff, like those pesky folks that like to post iphone photos of their cat).  Even without an invite, dribbble allows you to follow people, click like on their “shots”, and also to compile “buckets” (lightboxes or galleries) of your favorite works.  Here are some of mine, to get an idea.  Nonetheless, it’s an amazing place to view the work of other creative professionals, and to get inspiration from.  But, what if you want to actually participate more, by posting some of your work right now?

Here are 5 of our favorite websites similar to dribbble that you can post your design work to without an invite.

favwork
The first cool site, very similar to dribbble called favwork. I definitely have to post some more of my own personal graphic design portfolio, once I can get around to it. The only main difference to is that there are no gallery or lightbox creating options, and you can’t follow certain artists. You can like pieces, comment on them, and even rework them just like on dribbble.  The traffic is decent, as I’ve been following it regularly these last several days.  It’s not as hopping as dribbble, but I think it will get there once people keep spreading the word.  You would think that this would be the “dribbble for all of the misfits” but I think you will be really impressed with the selection of work on the website.  The site is called favwork for a reason – you’re only supposed to post your favorite and best pieces, for discussing.  Favwork is my favorite dribbble alternative

behance network
Ease of upload on Behance net isn’t as smooth as the others, but the social design community is crazy big, and covers a slew of creative fields.  If you’re a photographer, videographer, illustrator, painter, this website covers it all.  You can submit your work as much as you’d like, without an invite.  This is also another one of my favorite places to browse when I’m bored for inspiration, or just for fun.

deviantart
It’s another website similar to behance, but with a lot more anime and teeny boppers mixed in.  I call it the myspace of creative social networks.  Behance would probably be more like the linkedin of design social-networks.  Deviant is still a fun one, and really well trafficked.  If you haven’t at least browsed the site in a while, we’d highly recommend it.  They have everything from crazy retouching examples, to cool photography, awesome vector illustrations, pencil sketches, paintings, and even more traditional artwork.

forrst
I’ve applied but have to wait to see if I get in to forrst. You can do the same.  While I was waiting, I had a few friend send me an invite.  I am loving Forrst!  This is probably the best dribbble alternative I’ve found, to date.  The community is hopping, and you’ll get lots of honest feedback and critiques.  The site is very easy to use, and allows you to enable email notifications, if you care about that sort of thing. 

psdbucket
This place is similar to favwork, with very quick and easy signup and uploading.  The main difference is (this coming straight from the owners on twitter) “Psdbucket is more to promote your best work/sell good items and favwork is more to get feedback”.  So there you have it.

Honorable mention:

Coroflot
This website has been around for a while, and is more of a personal portfolio tool.  It also allows users to follow one another, leave comments, and like each others’ work.

Yes, there are many other places similar to these we’re sure, but these were the major ones that stood out.  Graphic design related forums can also be a good place for feeback, but the problem with most internet forums is they’re full of trolls (at least most of the recent ones we’ve visited).  We hope you enjoy these free online services for sharing your work and hopefully getting the type of quality feedback and criticism you yearn for. Have any thoughts about these places, or want to link up with us? Chime in below with a link to your profiles on each.

It’s always good to have a network of friends and colleagues to push work back and forth to/from. Remember – one hand washes the other. When you “pay work forward”, it all comes back around. Whoever is too swamped at the time, or doesn’t want to do a particular job, will push it over someone else that might want it. This type of arrangement is highly recommended with regards to any type of freelancing position.  Sometimes you might not want to deal with a certain type of a client.  Dealing with the public can be trying, and not all of us handle certain types of people as well as others.  This is another perfect scenario of why you might want to shoot the job over to your colleague; not to dump them with a jerk of a client, but maybe you know they really could use the work.  “Beggars can’t be choosers”.  Wow, two old school expressions in the same blog post *facepalm*.

Great platforms for building your social work network such are twitter, behance, google+, linkedin; anywhere you can interact and connect with like minded creatives.  It takes constant effort, though.  You’ll need to actually keep in touch with your “creative network” somehow, and make sure you communicate regularly.  You’ll want to remember members of your network, and hope they remember you as well.  Keep each other updated on how busy everyone is, and who is in need of the most work at that present moment.

Do you already have something like this?  Please share your story in the comments section below.

They also bolded the word “mistake”, that’s another good point – you know that’s why your eyes jumped straight to it right after you read the first line. This would be a great example for a typography class. Just in case you’re still trying to figure out the mistake, the word “the” is repeated twice.  It’s okay, we know you’ve probably had a long day and/or didn’t have your coffee just yet.

If you really got a kick out of this, check out these other great mind benders, optical illusions, and brain teasers.

How true is this?  We need to choose our words very wisely when speaking to children; especially our own kids.  Sticks and stones break bones, but you can stifle a child with harsh words.

Got fish breath?  Then you need some Clorets!  This is such a great ad, with lots of copy space.

Get back into the plasma TV you naughty dinosaur!  This 3D Panasonic advertisement hits the nail right on the head.  The 3D is so real, it’s almost like the subjects you watch on it are invading your home.

Ever walk through an apartment building and smell everyone’s cooking mixed together?  It’s pretty nasty when too many aromas mix.  This fan company came up with a funny concept, to illustrate how well their exhaust fans work.

FedEx, Federal Express, a company that does logistics and shipping worldwide created a great ad illustrating how easy it is to ship packages to other countries.  It’s just as easy as handing a package to another person, through a window.  I love how they melded the scene together with the world map.  It’s clean, simple, and easy to understand at first glance.

Don’t drink and drive – if you do, it will feel like this.  Note the end of the road – disastrous consequences.  A greatly executed ad.

Recently we’ve read about and maybe heard the recent freeing of beagles in Spain that were being used for testing all their lives.  It’s really sad that they test cosmetics on these cute little guys.  I have two beagles myself, so I definitely feel for them.  They are the sweetest dogs.  If you find yourself in a position to rescue a beagle that needs a home, please do so.  Don’t even think about buying cosmetics from companies that practice animal testing – period!

A simple concept of clearing polution and smog with something as simple as the windshield wipers on your car.

A Faber Castell ad for true colours so well illustrates the fact that the color you’re using is so accurate, that it’s the same as the real thing.  Clever, and fun!

This is a really cool one, where a woman is actually hugging the page of a letter.  Talk about illustrating the point home about how much more thought and care goes into snail mail letters, than emails.  A great attempt by the post office to remind folks of this, in the digital age of smartphones and tablet pc’s we are living in.

Get so close and have so much control over your favorite sports, that your smartphone finger will actually have control over the games!  This is a funny one.

We all know evian water has used babies to advertise for years now – here is a funny continuation of that series.

We hope you have enjoyed these – please share this post, and be sure to bookmark us to come back regularly for more creative goodness.

Here Bob (“The Miz”) shows us how easy it is with just a few steps to remove color cast issues that might have happened in your images.  Make sure to subscribe to our youtube channel for more step-by-step, easy-to-follow Photoshop video tutorials!

We all know that education is important.  In most cases, having some sort of training is vital to at least start you off on the direction you’re going to make your move in.  Whether you want to become a tradesman, a creative professional, or even just a general business associate, you usually have to have some form of training in order to even be considered for the job.  My parents always encouraged me to get a college degree, as it was a great feather in your cap, as well as something to fall back on.  Four and a half years later, I did just that – and it did get me started on the road to the creative fields I wanted to work in.  But know this: college doesn’t guarantee you a job.  I’ll say it again.  College does not guarantee you a job.  There are tons spewing out of the universities that can’t even find employment in their field of study within even the first year or two after graduation.  College could land you a great job that feels secure, but actually isn’t.  Having a degree doesn’t seem to as much influence or value as it used to.  Associates, Bachelors, Masters; heck – even a Doctorate degree.  In the end, I feel that I definitely learned a lot about design, business, and other people in general, in college.  I don’t regret it, but sometimes I wonder if it would have really mattered.  That’s an entire story in itself, but let me get back to where I was going with this before I digress further.

Going back to the year 2000, when I had just started my first semester of college, I thought I knew which direction I was headed.  Originally I had starting out in college with a computer science major; taking advanced calculus classes, and java to learn the basics of programming. The math part was challenging, but I was always pretty good at it. The java, was (to me) incredibly boring and dry, very very complicated stuff. The entire class was filled with your typical programming nerds, mostly Asians and Indian in their late teens that were probably foreign exchange students. They all seemed to be understanding everything and eating it up like it was fresh cupcakes on a platter being served up.  I looked around and asked myself… did I take a wrong turn somewhere?

Having always been an honors student, school and grades always seemed to come easy for me. I was always a good student back in grade school, studying and doing all of my homework.  I definitely was not an overachiever, however.  I did the absolute minimum to get by, but I made sure I did my best at whatever I was assigned.  Yes, it was a lot of work – but I actually did care about my grades.  Not so much what my teachers or the other students thought of me; I was more concerned about proving to myself that I did my best.  Now, here I am in a class learning programming.  What was I thinking?  I didn’t want to be a computer programmer.  Somewhere along the way, I must have thought that a computer science course of study would eventually lead back over to graphics, and playing around with Adobe Photoshop – one of my beloved past-times.  It turns out, there was another major in the university I had been attending. It was called Graphic/Info Design – a course of study more specific to what I really wanted to do for work.

This design degree program was a great fit for me.  The math classes required for it were all basic, that I was kicking myself for already suffering through a lot of advanced ones.  Papers and research projects in this Graphic Design major were now transformed into design projects.  I hated writing papers (now I just write super long blog posts; go figure).  Ask my parents – they will attest to me staying up many many late nights, gluing my design pieces to black foam core and then covering them with acetate until 2 in the morning.  But – I got to play with Photoshop!  That made it all worth it.

So I did well, graduated with mostly A’s in design classes, got a couple of bad grades from some tough history classes, and ended up with a 3.28 GPA – not bad.  Now what?  I started applying for jobs.  There were very few, and a lot of candidates.  Designers in my area were spitting out of colleges by the hundreds.  Who wouldn’t want to have a cushy computer desk job, where they get to play around with artwork and photography layouts all day?  Probably a lot of people.  But there are also a lot that see that type of work as “just their fit”.  I applied and interviewed and applied and interviewed, and then three months later found out of an opening in a company that a friend told me about.  That was my in.   Who knows how long it would have taken me to land a job, otherwise.  Sometimes it’s not what you can do, or what you’ve got in your cap, but who you know.  How did she know I would be interested in a graphic design position?  Because I talked about it.  A lot.  Use your yapper, and the right people will hear you, eventually.

That worked out great for a while, and I learned so much on the job.  After getting married and realizing there wasn’t much more room for growth, (you need more income when you have to support a family, of course) I eventually left the company to move on to broader horizons; so I thought.  The pay was better – the design work was more fun / interesting, and the benefits were excellent.  Later on, I was regretting that decision, due to the high stress level of that job.  About a year after that I got a pink slip, due to the corporation going into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, around 2008 when the worldwide economy was really tanking.  Oh wait- what just happened?  I thought those with college degrees could never get laid off?  Ha.  Huge myth and common misunderstanding.  There’s no such thing as “job security” in anything you do.  There’s only something called “time to figure out your next move, plan, and execute it”.  Remember that.  Still, that layoff was a huge blessing in disguise.  If you’re currently laid off, reading this – try to look at it in hindsight – not as a curse, or a drawback, but as a blessing to hit the “reset” button on your path and to try something else.

All while I was working these traditional graphic design jobs for 4 or so years, designing everything from custom magazines, to marketing materials, and advertising of all shapes and sizes, I was introduced to the wonder world of stock imagery.  Stock photography is something as a graphic design that you are forced to at least get familiar with in the course of your job.  You obviously need effective imagery to advertise.  What our eyes see is a powerful influence on the mind.  I ended up using a lot of stock photography, and eventually in my endless searches I noticed that there were individual names attached to some of the images I was purchasing on the microstock websites, like Dreamstime and iStockphoto. I also learned what I was looking for, as an image buyer.  That placed me directly inside that type of customer mindset.

I realized that stock imagery was something I wanted to dabble in, for a side income.  I could make graphics and illustrations, even shoot some snapshots with my digital point and shoot; and then hawk them online for small commissions.  Awesome.  So, with much persistence, I got in.  It grew.  One image I got approved on istock had even earned $3000 over it’s short life span.  I was spending a few hours here and there on nights or weekends doing stock, mostly as a fun hobby to see how many sales I could rack up.  My earnings were viewed more like a score, or points.  This was just a game for me.  Something fun I could mess around with, and get the jollies when learning which images people liked to purchase the most.  Eventually I was earning enough to pay a lot of my family’s major bills, like the mortgage.  That’s right about when I was laid off from my graphic design dayjob.  Thankfully, stock imagery was my next major move.

So, I had a great start. About 3.5 years of working at shooting photos, designing graphics and layouts, keywording, description tagging them, uploading them via ftp to the agencies, processing them, and tracking stats led me into a lucrative side gig.  I knew that it was do or die time.  I needed to prove to myself, and everyone else, that when you dedicated a full time work week to this, you could make it a full time job.  Just three to six months later, I had hustled so hard that I was making double the earnings from my stock images.  I know that stress, anxiety, fear, and hunger had a lot to do with my hustle.  Sometimes its healthy to get a little hungry.  Have a little ambition.  Put your best foot forward, and work your hardest at whatever you set out to accomplish.  At least if you fail, you’ll realize that you tried your best.  Now I’m mostly a photographer.  After 6 years shooting, learning, improving, I finally consider myself a little bit more a photographer than I do a graphic designer.   Who’d have thunk it?  Not me.  So I went from high school grocery store employee (customer service booth jockey, cashier, cart pusher, grocery bagger, and dairy stocker – how I paid my way through college, and much motivation to stay in school so I could get out of that rat hole dead-end job) to computer science student, to graphic designer, to photographer.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you ever find yourself at some sort of a “career path crossroads”.  Maybe in 5-10 years, I’ll be doing something entirely different.  Who knows? Don’t let anxiety or stress get the best of you.  Things will eventually work out, as long as you’re keeping your eyes, ears, and mind open to different potential opportunities.  Don’t forget to be adaptable.

Ask yourself the following questions:

What am I really good at? 

What have I learned about myself and about the industries I’ve worked in? 

Which businesses do I know the client, inside and out? 

What do I love doing, and actually have a passion for? 

If there’s a way to actually make money doing it, how can I combine the two into a job that will support myself and/or my family? 

Even if I don’t think I’ll absolutely love a certain type of job at first, am I willing to take a chance on it, and see where it leads me? 

Is college or some form of secular training course going to be affordable, or even worth pursuing for this specific field? 

Have I done my homework by talking to other friends, neighbors, or even random internet friends about what they have learned? 

Always keep your options open, kiddos.  You will eventually find your niche. Some fall into it quick, while it takes very many years for others.  There are never really any wrong moves, because with each move your learn more about where you’d rather be or what you’d rather do.  There are risks, and there are educated risks.  Use your noggin.  Sometimes you learn what you really would like to do isn’t always possible.  Either way, you can’t be afraid to make a decision when they time comes to do so.  Life is a journey.  We all have to remember to try and enjoy the ride as we figure ours out.

Have you ever taken a photograph of someone near a brightly colored wall, object, or in a certain environment; only to realize there has been a terrible colorcast on the subject?  This happens a lot.  The white balance isn’t always the issue, but more so what the light is reflecting off of.  Taking photographs of someone in the grass on a sunny day can many times make them have a slight greenish hue in their skin tones. Using some simple color range selections, and curves adjustment techniques, you can easily remove color cast issues using this simple technique that Bob Mizerek demonstrates in this video tutorial.

Want to learn how to crate and use actions in Adobe Photoshop?  Maybe you’ve heard about it, or tried it in the past, only to find yourself getting stuck or held up at a certain point?  This tutorial is for you.  It will walk you through the basics of how to record an action and then how to use it in your post processing workflow.  Tutorial by the one and only Bob Mizerek.

Cross processing is a technique where you either have the same image, shot on a tripod, captured with multiple exposures. Or, cross-processing can also be done by creating mutltiple exposure levels in post, using an original RAW file.  Here, Bob Mizerek gives us a peek inside his personal workflow to see how he took a landscape photo of a forest from dull to spectacular by cross-processing the image.

Here is a Photoshop tutorial by Bob Mizerek which shows you how to move layer masks; no matter which version of Photoshop you have.

This video tutorial shows you a few different ways in which you can select parts of your image for isolation using Adobe Photoshop.  Tutorial by the late Bob Mizerek.  Comment, share, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for many more tuts and creative goodness.

Selectively highlighting parts of your photographs is made easy, using the methods taught in this free quality Photoshop tutorial by Robert Mizerek.  Put it in HD mode, and watch it full screen.  The best part about this method, is because it gives you the freedom to selectively accentuate certain parts of your image.  Less is more, many times.  Comment / share / subscribe to our youtube channel for more.

I think QR codes definitely helpful IF: 1.) you own a smartphone 2. ) you are a above average smartphone/computer user and 3. ) you hate typing urls and contact info into a touch screen cell phone and/or keyboard.

Yeah, that’s a lot of IF’s. Nevertheless, I’ve incorporated a QR code into my latest business card design on one of the sides, that way for those that might know what they’ve doing, they can have the convenience of not having to type or dial manually when contacting me.

Are QR codes life changing? They’re definitely more convenient, considering most of us now have the tools to read and decode them. How long did it take average people to embrace a new technology, such as computers, or cell phones? I know for a fact that many in the age 50-80 age range are still (just now) entering into the wonderful world of wireless telephones, or even personal computers. Some people embrace technology much quicker than others.

Should you use a QR code in your design? In the end, ask yourself – of what benefit would it be for the target market? Is the product one that has a tech-savvy market? Would it encourage them to visit or contact the intended website with less apprehension?  Is typing on a keyboard really dead?  For those that think of scanning bar-codes with their cell phones as “fun” or “cool” might be a little more prone to it than the rest of the general population.  Maybe awareness of these QR codes will increase over time, and things will change.

What do you think?  Chime in below – and please share this post with a friend using one of the social share links.  To learn more about QR codes and QR code marketing tactics for the small business owner, check out the book by Michael Weir.

Funny enough, I noticed the dunking basketball player stock photo in the montage above is in fact one of our royalty-free images!

Now don’t leave just yet… did you enjoy this post?  Then please be kind and leave a comment below!  Which of the above image manipulations are your favorites?  These posts take a lot of effort to compile, so please share this with your friends and colleagues.

An amazingly executed job by Coca Cola.  All three soccer players are smiling and staring towards the bottle.  The corporate logo is clear and identifiable at the upper left, with a simple, two-word catch phrase “open happiness”.  Why are the guys so happy?  Oh, it’s the cola.  It’s plain and clear.  You see it, and you get it.  And yeah, it only takes a few seconds.  Brand recognition is visible not only in the form of the logo, but also in the product itself.  The photography is excellent, and the image has been stylized in almost an illustrative way to make it stand out from the crowd.

The Applie iPad did it right also.  Logo, upper left hand corner.  It’s human nature that we read from the top left hand side, from left to right.  It’s proven fact.  They placed the logo and product logotype there.  The photo of the woman lounging with the iPad on her lap, shows how portable the product is.  It’s almost like you’re looking over her shoulder.  This billboard has no words other than the product name, but it promotes the lifestyle.  Once again, less is more.  And when is the last time you saw a crop like this on a billboard?  This woman is relaxed, and enjoying her brand new iPad.  Similar to the Coca Cola ad above, the product here speaks for itself. There is no need to busy the ad up with website urls, phone numbers, or any other call to action.

Bad billboard design has text that isn’t viewable from further than a few car lengths away, and they usually have way too much text.  You can’t read that much text on a billboard, because you’re usually traveling at least 65 mph down the highway as you’re viewing it.  Mostly passengers will have the advantage over the drivers, but effective ads will be brief enough to be noticeable to the drivers as well.  If you ever have the privilege to design a billboard, keep these pointers in mind.

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