Desktop Publishing
It's funny, last year I felt wistful about losing my former career in desktop publishing. But the last couple of weeks the DP projects I've been doing have left me with no time to even think about anything else. Keep Options and Nested Boxes. Shortcut key combos to adjust Kerning and Leading without using the Character Pallette. Figuring out the best linescreen with the print shop on the phone. So on and so forth. I enjoyed it but I'm ready to take a little break-- especially after my friend the game publisher contacted me. This was right in the middle of laying out the ConFusion program book, restaurant guide and pocket program. He was asking InDesign questions to see how to fit errata content into the rulebook I did for him, without increasing the number of pages. I had to explain to him, what I did with the original book was like an elegant jigsaw puzzle of astonishing cleverness if I do say so myself. Similar to how someone once described a Greg Egan novel, it was like balancing balls of ice cream on a cone, then a cherry, then a whole new ice cream sundae upside down on top of that. The addition of a few sentences in new edition topples the whole edifice in a cascade of graphics wrap and text autoflow. It can't be fit in by doing one or two things-- it created a significant, financially remunerative, design challenge.
Darn writers; they have this quirk. They do not take kindly to being asked to change a word to a shorter synonym for text flow; they care more about what the book says than how it looks. Sheesh, what do they think books are for? [/joking] Whereas my experiences in publishing have taught me that I am quite the opposite. Fandom has this thing they call an APA, a "fanzine" or "Amateur Press Association," and they think newcomers such as me already know what this is. When they elected me on the spur of the moment to be the "editor" of a local APA, I discovered to my surprise that they expect me to take charge of actually getting content and caring about that content. This is, I assume, because most fen are obsessed with writers and being a writer. I am not. My favorite book to work on is the kind where the content is none of my business and not my problem, which is how I managed to work for a Christian church for three years. Last month I walked in, went straight to the literature rack, and instead of saying "damn that doctrine of vicarious atonement! Two wrongs do not make a right!" or "how does he think he can get Jesus back in Christmas by putting it back in retail stores?" what I said was, "oh wow, they can afford two colors." Shallow, I know; but that newsletter was my baby all grown up.
Unfortunately for me, my expertise in Illustrator, PageMaker, InDesign and Photoshop is, as elizilla put it to me recently, "the fun part." People will not pay me to do something professionally, if they themselves are happy to do it amateurishly. We live in a day of clip art. Hence my career change-- but it's nice to work for gaming companies on the side. I have a lead on a one-time contract job. They're looking for graphic designer with experience in very professional-looking card games. Which I have. Wish me luck.
Darn writers; they have this quirk. They do not take kindly to being asked to change a word to a shorter synonym for text flow; they care more about what the book says than how it looks. Sheesh, what do they think books are for? [/joking] Whereas my experiences in publishing have taught me that I am quite the opposite. Fandom has this thing they call an APA, a "fanzine" or "Amateur Press Association," and they think newcomers such as me already know what this is. When they elected me on the spur of the moment to be the "editor" of a local APA, I discovered to my surprise that they expect me to take charge of actually getting content and caring about that content. This is, I assume, because most fen are obsessed with writers and being a writer. I am not. My favorite book to work on is the kind where the content is none of my business and not my problem, which is how I managed to work for a Christian church for three years. Last month I walked in, went straight to the literature rack, and instead of saying "damn that doctrine of vicarious atonement! Two wrongs do not make a right!" or "how does he think he can get Jesus back in Christmas by putting it back in retail stores?" what I said was, "oh wow, they can afford two colors." Shallow, I know; but that newsletter was my baby all grown up.
Unfortunately for me, my expertise in Illustrator, PageMaker, InDesign and Photoshop is, as elizilla put it to me recently, "the fun part." People will not pay me to do something professionally, if they themselves are happy to do it amateurishly. We live in a day of clip art. Hence my career change-- but it's nice to work for gaming companies on the side. I have a lead on a one-time contract job. They're looking for graphic designer with experience in very professional-looking card games. Which I have. Wish me luck.