Splash Banner Quality

Hello pals! If you're getting frustrated with professors or designers asking you to create unrealistically rendered and refined splash banners or content images in an insanely small amount of time, feel free to use this PDF (It's chilling in the N: drive under this filepath name: N:\IS\Production\Courses\(MMS-Splash Banner Quality Guide) ) to politely remind them that we are not, in fact, magicians.

I've broken it into a 5 hr category, 10 hr category, and a 12-18 hr category to show those who aren't familiar with the artistic process that the amount of quality of the final product is directly related to how much time we are able to spend illustrating them.

Good luck, homies.
-Amelia G

Canvas RESIZE

Hey peeps here is some info on splash package resizing. Use it and you will succeed.

Spaces in Filenames!

Hey guys,

Greg has just informed me that because we are converting to Canvas from BrainHoney, when the editors are linking images into the courses for the new platform, media with filenames that have any spaces in them will not link properly in the course.

So, for example, a file named: "amelia is cool.jpg" won't link, but if you named it "amelia_is_cool.jpg" with underscores, dashes, or something else in the place of where a space would be, they link fine. Just something to consider when you're making new media for the canvas conversion or when you're renaming things. It isn't life or death if you forget to do this, but the editors will probably just not be super thrilled to delete a bunch of spaces in all the files they need to link.

Stay spicy

Melinda Beck - 25 Tips for Illustrators

Lesson 1: Where you came from may be where you are going to.

• Take your environment and background and use it

Lesson 2: Be your own muse.

• What gets you excited?
• What influences you?
• What do you collect?

Lesson 3: How to steal without getting caught.

• Take bits and pieces from all over the places and make them one thing

Lesson 4: Sketch ‘til your head hurts.

• Thumbnail for hours! Work out the idea first THEN render!
• You are a thinker before you are a renderer.
• Figure out how to portray cliches in a non-cliche way

Lesson 5: Less is more.

• Find the essence, the best solution.
• What is the story about?

Lesson 6: Sometimes more is more.

• Pushing and exaggerating can embody the story more effectively.

Lesson 7: The sky is not blue and the grass is not green.

• Choose colors that explain the story.
• Dial back and find the essence via color communication.

Lesson 8: Put a little piece of yourself in other people’s stories.

• Be emotionally involved in your piece.
• Your emotions will ring true to your audience.

Lesson 9: Some of the best art supplies don’t come from the art store.

• Use your collections in your pieces.

Lesson 10: Be delusional.

• Follow your own personal delusions.
• Pretend that you ARE (a great Illustrator, a much-sought-after artist, etc.)

Lesson 11: What you do to get away from your work will get you work.

• Use you personal passions to fuel your art and do art for the things you like.

Lesson 12: Self-promotion

• Postcards, emails, mailers, anthologies, competitions, social media, etc.
• Set a yearly plan for your promotional material.

Lesson 13: Don’t let your website get in the way of your illustration.

• Let your art be the focal point of your website.
• Your art and your name should be the biggest/only thing on your sight.
• Minimize clicking and scrolling
• Font should accentuate the art
• Easy-to-update format
• Use smaller files that load faster
• Update every 3-6 months

Lesson 14: Fail spectacularly and you will succeed spectacularly.

• Failure is normal! Everyone fails. Remember that there is a balance, and that your favorite artists fail too.

Lesson 15: How to balance work and kids.

• Don’t expect yourself to do more than you can do.

Lesson 16: How to survive a kid-tastrophe and let a project done.

• If you can say that everything will get done in 48 hours, you break your work down into bite-size pieces.

Lesson 17: What a sleep-deprived child can teach you.

• Set boundaries in your contract. What will you and will you not do? 
• Include and estimate and itemize it.
• Make sure the client is fully aware of what will and will not happen.
• Set ground rules!
• Make sure you and the client both understand the finer details (file type/size, how many sketches they get for the amount you charge, rights for each party, etc.)

Lesson 18: Everything takes twice as long as you think it will.

• Set an hour limit for your week and break it down to billable hours and maintenance hours.

Lesson 19: Watch your time and the cost of that time.

• Figure out how much you’re actually making per hour, and make sure your price is set appropriately. 
• Balance jobs that don’t pay well with jobs that do pay well.
• Adjust your process if a project is wasting time and money.
• Reach out to others if you’re stuck.

Lesson 20: Great exposure!

• Find jobs that give you great exposure.
• Sometimes a crappy job is even worth it if it will win you great work.

Lesson 21: Taming the paperwork beast.

• ORGANIZATION!
• Be so organized that you can even do your taxes yourself.
• Find a system that works for you and stick to it!

Lesson 22: Your computer likes to do paperwork.

• Quickbooks (Quicken?)
• Utilize tools that will make your life easier

Lesson 23: Don’t know what to charge? Ask a friend!

• Ask people who know, people who also get paid. What are they getting charged so you know what you should be getting paid.

Lesson 24: Pricing

• Whatever they tell you, ask 10-20% more
• What is their budget? 
• If they say no, it’s up to you. If they say yes, you get the money you may not have gotten had you not asked.

Lesson 25: Have fun!

• Remember, this is the job you wanted to do. 
• If you’re not having fun, something is wrong!

Misc Tips:

• Be diverse
• Sell products online
• Find a market where your stuff works

SVG - What is it, and how to save it

Sounds like a bug that you can catch, but SVG is Scalable Vector Graphics. It does exactly what is says, allows for vector graphics to be scalable in an online environment, which is really nice when it comes to math or science images that need to be clear at any size.

So how to take your Adobe AI file and save out a SVG version of the file for courses. Daniel has written up an explanation of why and how to do so. Go David!

Most SVG saving processes will preserve design integrity (including fonts). This will not be the case if you use the “save as” function, select “svg” under “fonts” in the SVG Options box, and save. Using the aforementioned save option, the font title will be saved in the SVG coding under its’ postscript name. This postscript name will not match up with the accurate name of the font in the system, so the font will be replaced with a generic font like myriad pro or times when viewed. The only way to fix the file would be to access the SVG’s coding, and to change the postscript font name to the name in your computer system. 

This can be avoided and font edit-ability can be preserved by using the “export as” or “export for web”, and selecting “svg” rather than “convert to outlines” under “font” in the SVG Options box. Saving in this way will include the font’s real name in the SVG coding, rather than the postscript name. Converting to outlines in the SVG Options box when saving will also preserve font integrity, but the SVG file will lose font edit-ability. 

To avoid issues, use the suggested save path:

File>Export>ExportAs>SVG (Use Artboards)>Export>(SVG Options box- Font: SVG)> OK

This should work fine for everyone, but double checking to make sure your files are saving properly is always a good idea. 

More information can be found here if needed:

https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/27238/preserving-font-type-in-illustrator-svg-file

Banner sizes

Brainhoney/Buzz

lesson/unit - 8 x 2.25 in
obj/lesson - 4.35 x 1 in (this includes quiz banner)


Canvas

lesson/unit - 8 x 2.25 in
obj/lesson - 8 x 1 in (this includes quiz banner)


BYU Online

lesson/unit - 8 x 2.25 in
obj/lesson - 8 x 1 in (this includes quiz banner)
homepage banner uses template built in Illustrator