Extracting detailed objects from a background can be a tricky thing in Photoshop, particularly when dealing with fuzzy edges like hair, fur, and leaves of trees. The Quick Selection tool and the Refine Edge feature introduced in Photoshop CS3 go a long way, but there are more powerful solutions…

Personally, I’ve been a fan of the Extract filter for a while. With it, you use a “highlighter” to roughly define the edge of the object you wish to extract, and Photoshop comes pretty close to what you’re looking for. The results can be a little rough or jaggy, but usable or easily fixable in many cases.

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The World Wide Web Consortium is planning to implement a new version of the Web accessibility guidelines this year, and it seems like many people have had negative things to say about the version 2.0 update (not official yet). These guidelines affect the way designers and developers build sites for the disabled, so it’s more important than ever as the Web becomes the de facto repository for information, commerce and entertainment.

People smarter than I think the project is confusing, long overdue, and that the process of revision is broken.
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You’ve probably already heard the news that Adobe announced Creative Suite 4 tv.adobe.com on September 23rd, the latest versions of its ubiquitous design apps. As usual, there’s plenty of excitement surrounding this announcement, as every Adobe release brings cool new features, better cross-product integration, and (hopefully) speed improvements that make for an easy transition to your usual work flow.

There wasn’t much chance that Adobe could beat the buzz surrounding last year’s CS3 announcement, since that was the first version of the suite to include applications purchased from Macromedia, like Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Flash. And, realistically, CS4 isn’t the type of update every designer and her mom will run out and buy right away, but for you antsy early adopters, let’s have a look at some of the features that will get you ready to hit the preorder button…
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If you are not actively involved with any social networks you need to stop reading this and sign up for a few. If you are not using social media to get your business out there and interacting in a new way with your clients, you are missing a huge opportunity. Now with those big words out of the way, I admit I went into the idea of social marketing my business a bit skeptical. But here is what I quickly discovered: talking to my clients about social media marketing was a great “in” to talking about a larger piece of their marketing planning.
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I was already a pretty ambitious designer when I went to the Aspen Design Conference years ago. Mary Catherine Bateson, Margaret Mead’s daughter, spoke and I heard things that hadn’t occurred to me. She talked about designing life and how to create and build the rituals that celebrate the journey of living.

Then, I met Milton Glaser. From him I learned to take everything personally; to connect with the things I create in a real way. His definition of design has always stuck with me: (more…)

ANDY: Rick, regarding academia and it’s “fixation to ignore the really interesting and productive examples of online collaboration and to only showcase the grand Professors and organizing committee members of such conferences and the menial work they more often are doing” – that’s a real can of worms. But let’s open it anyway.

I think the first thing to address here is that academia and education is changing. Charles Leadbeater has researched and written some great work on this. Well, I say they are changing, but it’s more of a case that they need to change and it will be forced upon them. The pyramid of expertise, of professional elitism, that has driven education has been over-turned in many areas thanks to the web, but higher education in particular is predicated on the idea of a select few having expert knowledge. It’s no wonder that, regardless of new technologies and cultural shifts, the “grand Professors” carry on with their traditional mode. Cultural change requires generational shift, as I mentioned before. Put bluntly, the old men (for it is mainly men) in tenured Professorships need to retire and/or expire in order for that change to happen. (more…)

Since school is back in season, the inner tubes are deflated, and football is on the tube, I thought it was worthwhile to look back at ten notable summer events in the world of design.

1. June 17: Eames stamps stick
The US Postal service honored the design legends we’ve been admiring for years. The furniture, graphics, films, and innovation of design duo Charles and Ray Eames are monumentally depicting on these miniature stamps, designed by Derry Noyes (granddaughter of the Eames’ dear friend Eli Noyes). If you haven’t yet, get your set! (I bought ten sheets!) See all USPS latest stamps here: (more…)

In his previous post Dave explained how design is increasingly looked upon as a commodity by corporations.

Good news for right brainers

Whereas the craft of design; creating logos, layouts and Web designs, is becoming as much a property of amateurs as it is professionals, designers need to find new areas of unique value that they can provide their clients. By addressing the areas of complexity, co-creation, context and accountability, designers position themselves to better meet the needs of their clients and the demands of a changing economy.

In 2000 Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan stated that technical know-how would be superseded by “the ability to create, analyze, and transform information and to interact effectively with others.” This idea was echoed in Daniel Pink’s book A Whole New Mind, in which Pink projects that the future economy will be driven by six key “senses” - design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning. For designers with a collaborative spirit and the ability to conduct and synthesize research, this is good news. (more…)

For my first guest post, I thought I would indulge myself with a topic that’s been haunting me for the last month or so – the nature of design and what I feel is its inherent (and necessary) idealism.

I’m sitting in an airport, having just dropped off my son, Harry, at Wesleyan University, where he’s about to start his first year of college. I can’t help but be mindful of beginnings and endings and
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Renee Rupcich is the assistant art director of Men’s Vogue. Though her career has focused on graphic design and publishing (she was also senior designer at fashion/design magazine Surface), she also studied photography and worked as an assistant in photography studios in San Francisco. Lately Renee has cultivated an interest in handcrafts and knitting as well as in socially and environmentally responsible design, and she contributes to the online community DESIGN 21: Social Design Network. (more…)