1. Fireworks tips: convert to alpha

    I’m a big fan of Adobe Fireworks. It’s by no means perfect; but an arsenal of vector tools, bitmap editing capabilities, symbols (like Photoshop Smart Objects, but better) and layer filters make it a great piece of image manipulation software for the screen.

    Before and after

    One of my favourite features (and one that I use all the time) is the ‘Convert to Alpha’ filter. This converts the colour of whatever is on that layer to the alpha equivalent; the lighter the colour, the more transparent it becomes. It’s a simple and very useful concept.

  2. Manchester Design Symposium

    A couple of days ago James and I headed up north for the Manchester Design Symposium. The lineup was pretty diverse; including talks from John Walters (Eye Magazine), Bruno Maag (Dalton Maag) and Johnathan Barnbrook (Barnbrook). The best thing about the event for me, was listening to the sometimes opposing views of very different designers on the value of their craft. It also left me feeling a bit nostalgic about my days as a student.

    Hopefully it’s the first of many similar events.

  3. Brand essence

    One of the things I enjoy is boiling things down: refining and reducing. I’m a minimalist. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that, as designer, I’m constantly trying to turn a sometimes overwhelming list of requirements and constraints into something simple and beautiful. I now find myself attempting to apply this streamlined approach to the rest of my life.