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Meta info:
Software: Adobe Fireworks CS5
Time: ~ 15 m
Idea/Completed: 2010/July/24 (finalized: today @ 10:55)

[ inspired via | paper textures by tileabl.es ]

Meta info:
Software: Adobe Fireworks CS5
Time: ~ 30 m
Idea/Completed: 2010/June/06 (finalized: today @ 15:05)

An attempt for an imitation with Fireworks — inspired by this design (made by collapse.bg, although the original illustration of the fridge is stock).

(And here’s one super-sized variant, for your desktop: 1680×1050… and one more: 3360×2100 ;)

Rule #1: Be better than yesterday!

Rule #2: Spend at least 30-60 minutes per day, each day.

Rule #3: Break the seal of hesitation!

That’s it. Sounds easy, right? :-)

Meta info:
Software: Adobe Fireworks CS5
Time: ~ 1 m
Idea/Completed: 2010/Jul/14 @ 17:15

The codename of Photoshop v. CS5 [12.0] is White Rabbit.

Adobe like to invent various “codenames” for their apps, when a new major development cycle starts. For example, Fireworks CS5 was “Starman”, Dreamweaver CS5 — “Bowie”, Illustrator CS5 — “Ajanta”, etc. (I mention specific names because I don’t think they are such a big secret, and because the CS5 apps were released officially more than 2 months ago, at the beginning of May).

But there’s something that maybe not a lot of people know — initially on the splash screen of Ps CS5 White Rabbit there was… a white rabbit! Later, of course, this splash screen was replaced with the “official” one for the CS5 series (in the case of Ps CS5, it reminds me a bit of a blue fish, turned to the right).

(I do not use Photoshop (or very rarely), but it happened that I tried it a couple of times.)

If you’d like to see this hidden “unofficial” splash screen, hold Ctrl (Cmd) while clicking on the About Photoshop item from the Help menu.

As far as I’ve found, the screen was drawn by Daniel Presedo (from the Ps QE team), and I think it is even better than the later “official” version… :)

To be happy: Eat & sleep well, be in motion all time, often go to see the mountains, the sun, the clouds and the sea, share life with great friends and do not ignore Love.

Or, as a famous Zen proverb says it:

“Before Enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After Enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. That’s all.”

PS Also about work: do what you love and be happy just to do it, no matter the results.

A feeling long forgotten…

The gramophone record starts turning, then you place the needle carefully on it, a slight hissing is heard, a couple of seconds pause follows, and then… the music starts playing. And by the end of the record, you must reverse it, so you can listen to the other side, too.

I like Audio CDs, and the MP3/FLAC music formats, but the feeling of listening to a cassette tape (4.76 cm/sec, Dolby B NR, Fe₂ 0₃/Cr 0₂, 120 µs/70 µs — anyone remembers these strange digits?) or to a 33 1/3 record is… very different.

Long-time readers of my modest blog know that I am big fan of Fireworks — my favourite design app of all times. When it comes to design for Web and screen, it combines for me the vector and bitmap power of Photoshop and Illustrator, so I very rarely use either Ps or Ai. In fact, I most probably use Adobe Fireworks 90% of my time, and the rest 10% are almost equally divided between Ai, Ps and Flash.

I am also a long-time reader of Smashing Magazine and have enjoyed quite a lot of their extensive articles about design and development.

Today, these two favourites of mine combined into one, so I am very happy and proud to announce that my first article for Smashing Magazine — an extensive review of Adobe Fireworks CS5 — has just been published!

Fireworks CS5 is better, faster, more powerful than ever, and I enjoy using the new version almost 24/7 now. I am glad the readers of Smashing Magazine will be able to read my in-depth review of Fireworks — I hope it will be useful to many design professionals! ;)