Category Archives: Technology

Type Machinations for the Typophile in You

TypoPaint portraitSearching for a definition of “typophile,” I ultimately found one that suited my purpose at Urban Dictionary, which, aside from its definition of typophile, is worth further exploration and I recommend you do so.

Suffice it to say, I am a lover of type, one might even say, I am obsessed with type. I’ve been that way ever since I was a child, and I suppose I’ll always love type.

Which explains why I was intrigued by an article for a Photoshop filter that aids in creating illustrations using, you guessed it—type.

It’s amazing how much creativity and technology programmers have packed into Typo-Painter. Illustrations like you see here can take minutes, instead of hours or days.

Typo-Painter is a fun little Photoshop filter that produces a typographic representation from any raster image. Of course the first thing I thought of Typo-Painting was myself, but people are obvious. Typo-Painter can be used on any raster image, using customizable text. It has a simple interface window for font, horizontal resolution and size. In all, a few simple controls yield a multitude of possibilities. Specially priced at $5 on Mighty Deals, it just might be worth a try.

 

Important documents need protective packaging

Apple, Inc. sponsored ad for Educom '87If it’s Thursday, it must be throwback time.

While today, so much of our news is digital, electronic, and fleeting, all the more reason to protect your tangible items like photos, newspapers, cherished greeting cards and other important documents in clear protective bags. We don’t have any minimums on the quantity you order, and that can help you save money, especially on the larger size bags. No matter what size you need, you can order 3, 300 or 3000.

Order your bags today, and don’t forget to take advantage of a variety of ways to save on Oak Creek coupons.

Spring is in the air, at least in some parts of the world and that means time to go through the flat files and drawers where we might find newspaper clippings, photos and other important documents. Performing this ritual, I found an accumulation of documents needing protection before decaying into yellow dust. Luckily, the older documents, like this Los Angeles Times article about Educom ’87, have long been comfortably nestled in clear plastic bags designed especially for protection, preservation and display.

The first time I worked as a consultant to Apple Computer, Inc. was in 1987 when I was one of a 3-person team hired to design and produce a daily print newspaper for the Educom ’87 international conference for higher education. For this purpose, the company Desktop Design was born, and John Grzywacz-Gray, Roger Karraker and I named our team Piece o’ Cake Productions.

Our 5-day mission was to demonstrate Apple’s cutting edge technology to university educators from around the globe by producing a daily “On-the-Spot” newspaper covering the conference. Each morning we delivered a new edition to the conference floor. To our knowledge no one had ever done this before. We were making “desktop” history. For the next three years, our Piece o’ Cake team consulted and worked with Apple, Inc. to introduce new technology to educators. Apple, Inc. sponsored ad for Educom '87 .

Analog Selfie circa 1984

analog-selfieSelfie may be the Oxford English Dictionary’s 2013 word of the year, but photographers were taking “selfies” long before Smartphones and tablets.

In fact, selfie’s have long been a subject of photographers, painters, writers, and artists of every ilk. Selfies are and always have been a means of self-realization, as well as self-expression.

In this 1980’s Throwback Thursday image, I was snapping a selfie before I realized. At the time I was photo editor of The Reporter, Moorpark College’s student run newspaper, and the image was part of a self-portrait series by John Grzywacz-Gray, photojournalism advisor to the Reporter.

Following the Dream on Throwback Thursday

back-to-school

Very few people understood what we Mac Fanatics were up to in 1987 (let alone 1985), but I was following my dream of designing and printing from the desktop. The following month I made the business official and called myself Desktop Design. Today is little Joey’s 36th birthday. He currently works for Disney Studios as a Global Analyst. Happy Birthday, Joey!

Jumpin’ on the Throwback Thursday Bandwagon

Reporter's First Place WinI thought the day would never come when I would start posting old photos, but here I am in 2019, and mysteriously, this 35-year old gem rose to the top of my flat files.

For weeks I’ve been seeing Throwback Thursday images sneak into my Facebook and LinkedIn feeds. Old photos continue to pop up, so what’s the point of making the excuse that all my photos are old? Of course they’re all old—it’s just a matter of degree.

Throwback Thursday can really take you back. The photo I chose to post shows me being hoisted by the Three Bearded Men early in my Photojournalism education.

While Editor-In-Chief of The Reporter, Moorpark College’s student-published newspaper, our staff grabbed a First Place General Excellence trophy at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges southern California conference.

That was the spring of ’84 when journalists were still using typewriters, film cameras, Compugraphic Editwriters and the old process camera.

Just one year later in the spring of ’85 Apple introduced the LaserWriter, the first desktop “type and image setting” machine, changing My World and The World forever.