I should tell you upfront that for this tutorial basic knowledge of Photoshop is needed.

Draw smoky lines

First we start with the creation of the smoky lines by using the Pen tool. Use a white fill for each shape layer and an Opacity of 40%. Set the Layer mode of the layer to Overlay and the Fill to 0%.

Double click on the right on one of the layers to open the Layer Styles. Add a white Drop Shadow of 100% Opacity and set the Blend Mode to Overlay. Distance and Spread is set to 0 and Size to 11. Next, make sure to uncheck Layer Knocks Out Shadow. Now check the Gradient Overlay in the styles palette. Choose Overlay as blend mode. Double click the Gradient thumbnail to edit the color stops in the Preset window. Select white as color for the left stop and give it 0% Opacity do the same for the right stop. Now add a stop at the Location of 50% (right in the middle), select white as color and give it an Opacity of 100%. Click OK to apply these Layer Styles to the layer. Select Copy Layer Style from the dropdown menu in the Layers palette (arrow on the right of the layer next to the fx icon). Now select all other smoke line Shape layers and select Paste Layer Style from that same dropdown menu. The style should be applied to all these layers now.

Add a cold gradient color flame

First we'll create a rainbow gradient preset. Select the Gradient tool in the Toolbox and go to the Gradient picker in the Toolbar at the top. If I'm not mistaken there should be a gradient called Transparent Rainbow by default in there. Double click to edit it. Remove the orange and yellow stop and move the the green, aqua, dark blue and hot pink stop so the colors are more equally divided over the length of the gradient. Give the gradient a name, for example 'Cold Gradient' and click the Newbutton. Click OK to close the window. Set the Opacity of the gradient in the Toolbar to 50%.

Create a new layer, select the Elliptical Marquee tool and drag a circular selection (hold down shift while dragging) towards the bottom of the smoky lines. Make sure the circular selection is big enough so you can add a Feather 85 pixels: Select > Modify > Feather. Now select the Gradient tool and drag a perfect horizontal line from the left of the circle and release the right of the circle (see image to the right above).

Touch up the flame using the Smudge tool

If all goes well your gradient should look more or less as in the image below. To be extra save, create a copy of this layer first just in case. This touching up and reshaping needs a bit of work and the result could be too messy. This way you can come back and give it another try.

Select the Smudge tool to reshape the gradient a bit so it looks a bit more like a colored flame. I've used a very big brush to reshape the area at the bottom and a smaller one to smudge out some colors so it looks a bit like they follow some of the smoky lines.

Add a warm gradient color flame

Add a second gradient effect in a new layer on top of the previous one. Just like before, select the Gradient tool in the Toolbox and go to the Gradient picker in the Toolbar at the top. Select the gradient called Transparent Rainbow from the dropdown gradient list and double click to edit. Remove the dark blue and aqua stop in the gradient. Rearrange the stops so the colors are equally divided over the entire length. Give the gradient a name, something like 'Warm Gradient' and click the Newbutton. Click OK to close the window. Make sure the Opacity of the gradient is set to 50% in the Toolbar.

Apply the gradient just like the previous one except create the selection a bit smaller and place it more towards the top of the smoky lines instead of at the bottom. Touch up and reshape the gradient using the Smudge tool. Make sure to make a copy of your layer (just to be safe) so you can always come back to it in case the result is not looking good.

Add glowing sparks

To add some extra magic effect, we'll add some sparkles. In one of my previous tutorials I've already showed you how to create glowing sparks. Anyhow here is it again to refresh your memory (but with slightly different settings). Open the Brushes palette (F5 or Window > Brushes). Choose the 21 sized feathered brush. Check Shape Dynamics and Scattering. Select Brush Tip Shape and in the sliders at the bottom, set the Hardness to 0%. Check Spacing and drag the slider towards 403%. Select Scattering, check Both Axes and put the Scatter to 775%. Select Shape Dynamics and change the Size Jitter slider to 100%

Create a new layer on top of the other layers and set the Layer mode to Overlay. Select the Brush tooland select white as Foreground color. Now draw a random line. Duplicate the layer with the sparks once or twice depending on the glow effect you want to achieve. Then merge these layers back together (command/control + e).

My end result

Here is my end result. I've added some stars as well in 3 different colors each as a Shape layer: hot pink, aqua blue and bright green. They where drawn in Illustrator and pasted into Photoshop as a Shape layer.

A plugin called Phantasm

About a year ago I had the chance to test this plugin. I use it mostly when I want to recolor my illustration; if I thought the color palette could do with a bit more contrast or when more or less vibrant shades were needed. This plugin lets me easily change my colored artwork to grayscale in 1 click. No offense to Adobe, but if I want to change the color of my artwork I prefer using this plugin over the LiveColor feature. To me it feels more natural because it works and behaves the same as in Photoshop. To be honest I find the LiveColor feature a bit too overwhelming. I tend to loose more time when I go via the LiveColor feature. Usually all I want to do is changing the hue, the levels, the curves, the contrast or change from color to grayscale. LiveColor to me is more appropriate for experimentation in case you have no idea which colors to use. If you are very used to the Adjustments options in Photoshop such as: Brightness and Contrast, Curves, Levels, Desaturate, Hue and Saturation... You'll love this plugin. It works and feels exactly the same as in Photoshop. There are 3 versions of this plugin: CS, Designer and Studio. The Studio version, the one I have been testing, comes with these features:

• Brightness/Contrast
• Curves
• Desaturate
• Duotone
• Halftone
• Hue/Saturation
• Invert
• Levels
• Shift to Color
• Swap Channels
• Temperature/Tint

There's a ton you can do with these features. One in particular caught my eye after reading some of the tutorials on the Phantasm CS website, it's called Halftone. After looking at the Halftone settings I've downloaded these predefined settings so I could use them and experiment a bit more with these.

After the plugin is installed in the Plugins folder of Illustrator, I've loaded the Presets I downloaded via the Load button in the Halftone window.

Effects versus Filters

The Phantasm CS Studio options are stored in both the Filter and Effects menu in Illustrator (CS2 or CS3 is required). You can either choose to apply them via the Effect menu or the Filter menu. The difference between these 2 is that a filter will be applied without the possibility to edit the settings later on in the process. While if applied as an effect, you can edit your settings at any time. The paths of your applied effect will be the paths of your original object and not those of the effect. You can however expand the effect at all times (Object > Expand Appearance), but of course once you do this you can't edit your settings anymore and so the effect will then be applied permanently. In Illustrator CS4 the Filter menu has been taken off the top bar. Third party Filters will now appear in the Object menu (Object > Filters).

Creativity with vector Halftones

Call it cheating but I used a plug-in for the creation of the dotted pattern in my Apple command shape design. While designing an illustration or a composition, a lot of time is spent in experimenting with different compositions, colors, shapes...

Halftone Rosette

Once the settings are loaded in the Halftone window you can apply them via the drop-down menu that is under the arrow button on the top right.

I chose to go via the Filter menu: Filter > Phantasm CS Studio > Halftone...

Then I clicked the arrow button on the right that stores the presets and I chose for Halftone Rosette. Then I experimented until I came to these settings:

• Type: Sampled (colors of the object will be used)
• Pattern: Grid Regular
• DPI: 10
• Grid Angle: 0°
• Origin: Relative to Selection
• Dot Properties: Circle, Width and Height at 100%, Tint Adjusts: Width and Height, Angle 0°, Blend: Normal
• Dot Gain: untouched

Abstract lines

My illustration I started from

My settings

Here I chose the Abstract preset from the Presets menu.

After experimenting I ended up with these settings:

• Type: Sampled (colors of the object will be used)
• Pattern: Grid Regular
• DPI: 3
• Grid Angle: 45°
• Origin: Relative to Selection
• Dot Properties: Square, Width 350%, Height 40%, Tint Adjusts: Height, Angle 0°, Relative: checked, Blend: Normal
• Dot Gain: untouched

Alphabet Soup

My illustration I started from

My settings

Here I chose the preset called Alphabet Soup from the Presets menu.

After experimenting I ended up with these settings:

• Type: Sampled (colors of the object will be used)
• Pattern: Radial 5 Spoke
• DPI: 5
• Grid Angle: -90°
• Origin: Relative to Selection
• Dot Properties: Character, Width 80%, Height 80%, Tint Adjusts: With and Height, Angle 0°, Relative: checked, Blend: Normal
• After clicking the Options button I chose URW Puiseux D Light as font and 'dance baby' as characters to use and opted for Repeat Text
• Dot Gain: untouched

If you choose to apply the Halftone effect via the Effect menu, you can edit your settings via the Appearance palette by double clicking the Effects icon (fx). As you can see in the image, the paths of the original image stay untouched. Only after expanding the effect (Object > Expand Appearance) the effects will become the real paths.

Highly customizable

Each filter is highly customizable and you can experiment until you find the right thing. This plugin doesn't stop with vector objects also as you can apply the filters to text and embedded images as well. This allows you to get even more creative and maybe save some time along the way. You can also opt to customize only portions of your objects because you can select to apply the filters only to the fill, stroke or both. As you can tell there is more you can than just the things I've shown here so I think it's best that you experiment yourself with the free trial. I'm usually not a big fan of plugins but this Illustrator one is really an exception to my own rules.

Experiment on paper

One way to create your own set of grunge brushes is by first experimenting on paper. Creating a grunge style means you can go wild—the dirtier the better. In the first example, I used watercolors on a piece of rough-textured watercolor paper. If watercolor painting is out of the question, try coffee. All you need is paper, coffee, and a straw. With the straw you can create nice splatters if you suck a tiny bit of coffee into the straw and blow it onto the paper. It’s a simple and fun technique, and it’s really effective for achieving the perfect grunge splatters. You could also start from a digital image—just look for concrete or rusty structures.

Digitize and apply levels

Next, scan your watercolor or coffee artwork at a high resolution. Open your scanned artwork in Photoshop, and desaturate it (Image>Adjustments>Desaturate). Click the Create New Adjustment Layer icon in the Layers panel and select Levels. The values will be different for each image and will depend on the result you want to achieve, but in most situations you’ll have to drag the outer white and black sliders toward the middle to create a black-and-white image. Make sure you don’t exaggerate it too much, though, and that there are some gray areas left.

Create copies of art and Adjustement Layers

Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) both the artwork and Levels adjustment layer in the Layers panel to select them and press Opt-Shift-Command-E (PC: Alt-Shift-Ctrl-E) to merge and copy these layers to a new layer. Now we have the final grunge artwork in a separate layer, and we still have our original artwork and adjustment layer as a backup.

Select, Copy and Paste splatters

Select the Polygonal Lasso tool and make a selection around one of the splatters you would like to use as a brush. Copy and paste this selection into a new document. Depending on your selection, you might need to do some touching up. Select the Eraser tool (E) from the Toolbox and select the Rough Round Bristle brush from the default set of brushes in the Brushes panel (if you don’t see it, choose Reset Brushes from the flyout menu). Clean up the borders of your splatter document so you don’t see any straight edges. Adjust the size of the brush if needed. For more heavy erase work you can change to Soft Round Brush to speed things up and switch to the Round Bristle Brush to finish things off.

Use Illustrator

Now you could go ahead and convert each splatter into a Photoshop brush, but we’re not going to do that just yet; we’re first going to convert the splatters into vector images in Illustrator. This will make them resolution independent. That’s a big advantage because you’ll be able to create your brushes in Photoshop as big or as small as you need. This keeps things very flexible, so it’s worth the extra step. Now save each Photoshop document somewhere on your hard drive.

Live Trace splatters in Illustrator

Create a new document in Illustrator and place (File>Place) the first splatter you saved. With the image selected, choose Tracing Options from the pop-up menu next to the Live Trace button in the Control panel. Check the Preview option, choose Black and White from the Mode pop-up menu, and make sure Fills is checked. Play around with the settings. I’ve reduced the Path Fitting and Minimum Area settings to create more details. Check the Ignore White option so any gaps will be transparent. (Note: There is no Ignore White option in CS2, so you need to select the white areas with the Magic Wand tool [Y] after you trace and delete them.) Hit the Trace button when you achieve the desired result, then click the Expand button in the Control panel.

Paste Vector Object into Photoshop

Select the traced splatter in Illustrator and copy it. Now go to Photoshop and create a new document. If the brush is for print, you’ll need to create a high-resolution document (File>New) at 300 dpi. I’m copying the big coffee stains into a document of 2600x2245 pixels. Now paste the Illustrator object into your Photoshop document. Select pixels in the Paste As options. In the end it'll be converted into a brush, so we don’t need to keep it vector-based (just make sure you save your original Illustrator source files). Resize the splatter to fit the document and press Enter.

Preprare Brushes Panel for new set

If you want to save your own set of brushes, it’s a good idea to make sure that you start with an empty Brushes panel. To clear your Brushes panel, go to Edit>Preset Manager. Select the first brush, then hold down the Shift key and select the last brush. Now that all brushes are selected, click the Delete button and then click the Done button. Your Brushes panel is now empty and ready to add new ones in. This way, when you export the new brushes to a set, you save only your custom brushes.

Define Brush Preset in Photoshop

Hold down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and click on the top layer’s thumbnail in the Layers panel to create a selection around the splatter. Go to the Edit menu and choose Define Brush Preset. Enter the name of your brush and click OK. Now you’ve created a Photoshop brush. Repeat the same steps for all other brushes you want to create. (Note: If you’ve created a corner brush, it’s easy to create brushes for the other three corners. Just flip the brush horizontally (Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontally) and then define the brush. Now flip the brush vertically and define it again. Flip it horizontally one last time and save it again.)

Organize Brushes panel and Export

If you’re going to create a whole set of brushes, it’s best to keep things nicely organized in the Brushes panel. In the Preset Manager, you can move brushes around just by clicking-and-dragging. You can also rename your brushes by double-clicking on them in either the Preset Manager or in the Brushes panel.

After all your brushes are nicely ordered and named in the Brushes panel, the only thing left for you to do is go to the panel’s flyout menu and choose Save Brushes. Enter a name and click the OK button.

Access grunge Brushes anytime

Now if you reset your Brushes panel to the default brushes and you want to use your set of grunge brushes, you can easily load them. Go to the panel’s flyout menu and choose Load Brushes. Browse to the file you’ve just saved and select it. If you saved the file in the default location, Photoshop will add the set to the bottom of the Brushes panel’s flyout menu next time you launch the application. Just select the name of your set in the menu and Photoshop will ask you whether you want to append or replace the currently loaded brushes.

Tips for using your grunge brushes

The hard work is done and the real fun can begin. While you’re clicking away with the brushes, here are tips that can come in handy:

• Use separate layers for each grunge effect to keep things flexible.
• Play with the layer blend mode, opacity, and color of the brush. Needless to say, the possibilities are endless.
• If the spot or splatter is too heavy or too big, you can use a mask on the layer and hide parts of the grunge effect using another grunge brush.

Photoshop grunge brushes by Veerle

If you like you can download my set of brushes. You are allowed to use them for personal or commerical use. However if you use them commerically, please consider giving my Amazon wishlist a peek ;)

I don't know if it is an obsession or not but the first thing I look at even before trying an application is the interface. The features can be easy to use but if the interface blows I'm not interested because I know myself and I will stop using it anyway. The design factor and if it doesn't look overwhelming is what will make me decide if I want to try it or not. That's where Daylite 3 draws me in.

Daylite 3

I'm already using a Marketcircle application called Billings with great satisfaction. The only thing missing in Billings is a network feature imho. I reviewed it some time ago. Anyway let's get back to Daylite. Like I said in the intro it's the well-designed interface that makes me want to try it out. When I got the chance to review it I jumped at the opportunity. As far as I know this is the best looking organisation tool for the Mac. With that out of the way let's look if it is intuitive to use as well?

Installing

The installer is usually a first indication to see if the makers care for details or not. You'll need an admin account because things are being placed in the root library. It's the heart of the application that gets installed namely OpenBase SQL, the database that the application will use. The installer keeps you informed of what's going on. Once the installing process is done and you start the application for the first time you'll be asked if you are new and would like to create a new database, connect to an existing one or if you want to connect to a sample database. I've opted to connect to the Print & Design sample database because that seemed the most logical choice and closest to what I do.

Checking out what's possible

If you explore the sample database like me you'll get a pretty good overview of what the application has to offer. I liked some the examples in the Print & Design sample, so I thought why not create a new database and set it up in a similar way.

Setting it up

When you create a new database you fill in your details and you will also get the option to import information from Address book and iCal. In step 4 you choose from which template you like to proceed. Once you've selected what you need and click finish you'll have to add your admin password to finish the import. It seemed that all my contacts and organizations are in there and the set up is like in the Print & Design sample. Daylite is a single window application, which means whatever you click or do you'll always remain in that window. We are using it in a multi-user environment but it can also operate in a single user mode. So one user is one license and from there on it's as many licenses as the number of users who will be logged into Daylite concurrently.

The main window

You'll see icons for Calendars, Contacts, Organizations, Projects, Opportunities, Groups, Tasks, Appointments and Notes. The interface doesn't look overwhelming and you don't get the feeling you sometimes have with other applications that you don't know where to start.

You'll also recognize the purple icons that represent smart filters like in the Finder. Daylite calls them source list capabilities and they are available in every category of information and you can customize them to your preference.

Syncing

The first thing I did is enabling the syncing feature in the preferences so that my contacts in Address book and iCal stay up to date. That's needed because iCal can give alerts when it's not running and Daylite can't. It's important that you start out right or you rip your hair out like me. This syncing is complex and you can screw up pretty quickly. I’ve ruined all my contacts and organisations with doubles when trying to sync with the local iCal and Address Book on my Mac that wasn’t the master database. Eventually I've turned off syncing with iCal and Address book on my Mac because I was afraid things would go haywire again. On the master Mac the syncing with iCal and Address book works flawlessly. I think it's best to start from one Mac that has the correct Address book records and make that Mac the master and on the others start fresh with no data so during the first sync data will flow over. The more machines for syncing the higher risk that something can go wrong I suppose.

Calendars

Calendars are a visual representation of appointments, meetings, and events based on the criteria you determine (i.e., users, category, kind). Calendars and appointments play an integral role in managing schedules. Daylite features 3 different ways to view your calendar: day, week, and month. A handy feature that you can toggle in the calendar view is the due list pane. Daylite adjust the due list according to the date range that you are currently viewing in your calendar.

Contacts

The concept of contacts is easy to understand as it represents a person or individual. That can be someone you know personally, a customer or a business lead. You can take this as far as you want in what is stored there. You can put in date of birth, middle name, hobbies, phone number, electronic address, and many more. What I like about it is that you can create notes and keep a chronological record of your interaction with a contact. If you send a letter to a contact in your database, Daylite stores a link to the letter in the Details panes Activity tab of your contact record. You can also add files and URL's to a contact as file references and web references respectively. You have flexibility in classifying contacts by assigning a category and single or multiple keywords. For example, a contact can have a category 'client' and keywords such as 'loyal client' or 'long term client.' This way you arrange your contacts into meaningful groups when your database gets bigger.

Organizations

An organization could be a company, business, family, association, or any legal entity comprised of a collection of contacts. It enables you to manage information and relationships specific to the company or from a company perspective. You also have a number of fields that you can use such as size of the company, ticker symbol, industry, region, employee hierarchy, the company's affiliates, and many more. When you start linking a person to that organization you understand the role of that person in that organization. For example you tag someone as a 'Decision Maker'. Just as in Contacts you can link notes or files from hard drive to keep as reference to that organizations (invoices for example).

Projects

The Projects part isn't something I used all the time because we use Basecamp as well for communicating with clients about their projects. As far as I am aware of there is no support for Basecamp inside Daylite. It would be nice if they took advantage of the Basecamp API and let you import the things that you have online. Not everything should be possible but it would be nice if there was a collaboration between the two. However if you aren't using Basecamp the Projects part can be helpful. It does what you would expect like planning, keeping track of relevant information that help manage the multiple objectives in team or on individual basis. A project has many fields that record the status, due date, start date, completed date, pipeline, objective, and owner of the project. Daylite allows you to guesstimate how much time a project might take for completion. This helps you to compare whether your calculations are realistic or that they need improvement. Here you also have categories and meaningful keywords at your disposal. I use things like 'website design' or 'logo design' so I can filter out projects. The pipeline feature is handy because you can visually track how a project is organized. This way we can easily see what stage the project is in.

Opportunities

Opportunities is one of the features that we really needed because before Daylite we didn't track any of the pile of requests we get. So we had no real clue how many opportunities became real projects. Everything was just guesswork :) Now we can put in a forecasted close, reason why we didn't won, percentage of the probability of winning etc. Opportunities are a potential for new business. When you create a new opportunity, you can record the state, type, category, keywords, owner, and much other information. I have set this up so that my services that have a flat rate are stored in there. This way it's fast to send out an estimate to Billings. We also use the pipeline feature here to track the sales cycle. We have several categories like GUI design, templates, branding + identity that we use to differentiate the different opportunities. Opportunities can be linked to contacts, organizations, groups, tasks, appointments, and notes in your database.

Groups

A group is a collection of contacts, organizations, projects, and/or opportunities that have something in common, as defined by you. You could use Groups to send out an offer to a bunch of organizations or contacts. Groups can also have any number of subgroups. That make it possible to organize responses from those you have campaigned to.

Tasks

We all have work that we want to accomplish. Some days are busier than others. In Daylite, you can create tasks to maintain a record of what work needs to be completed within a certain time frame. For example a quote that has to be sent out by Friday. When you create a task, you can record information such as start date, complete date, due date, estimated time, category, etc.

Appointments

Appointments are there to remind you that you agreed to do something at a certain time on a specific date. If you have appointments that span multiple days (such as a conference or seminar), you could use the multi-day event feature to create a banner in your calendar. Typically, you would create appointments for your contacts, however, in Daylite, you can also create appointments that are linked to projects and opportunities for giving them a more powerful context. For example all my invoice due dates are in there as events so we can follow up payments. One thing to remember for this to work is that Daylite must be running when you create the invoice in Billings. The appointment window records many specifications about where, when, how, and with whom the appointment will occur. For those who travel on business, Daylite gives you the ability to customize time zone by matching the default system time or select a different time zone than that used by your computer for creating appointments. You can create many kinds of appointments such as event, outbound call, inbound call, chat, meeting, and video. When you link other users to an appointment, it becomes a meeting; Daylite notifies all the linked users about the meeting through the Notifications window. Before you actually create a meeting, you could use the Schedule button to determine conflicts between the users linked to it. If you have appointments that are repetitive, you can repeat them either daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly until you reach a finish date. However setting up a recurring alarm endlessly is not as easy as in iCal because Daylite wants you to give in an end date and there is no option to choose never like in iCal.

Notes

A note is a brief record of information that can be created on its own or linked to a contact, organization, project, opportunity, or group in your database. This allows you to attach the full power of Daylite's linking and tracking capability to your small bits of information. Notes are ideal for bits of data that don't fit anywhere, but are still important and can't be lost—for example, a contact's history. You can assign a category to the note which is useful for filtering Smart lists or performing quick searches. If you are using Daylite Mail Integration (DMI), the contents of an email can be stored in Daylite as a note and linked to the appropriate contact. Ideal for storing stuff that you have agreed (like price or a deadline) on and that you want to keep around for when there is a discusion and want to prove it in black and white :) In a multi-user environment, Daylite gives you the ability to customize the visibility of notes. For instance, a supervisor can create a private note for a public contact record, so that only he can access and modify the note.

Trash

A very useful addition to the application is called Trash. Let's imagine that I put in a project and my colleague Geert deletes it together with all contacts on his end. Luckily it is not lost forever because under the menu 'window' you'll find Trash. Trash is the place where you can check what has been deleted by who and when and easily restore it. You can restore any item you delete in Daylite, as long as it is available in the Trash window. If you delete an item in the Trash window permanently, you cannot restore it back into Daylite. It's a good extra security because the more people have access the higher the risk something will go wrong eventually.

Concluding

The truth is that Daylite is one of the best CRM applications that I found so far, but to be honest it still is a complex application. I fully understand the complexity to create something that pleases everyone because everyone has different needs. Still when I first start using it, I was very impressed but after a few weeks I sometimes got baffled by the complexity. It strokes a bit with the philosophy of the application if you need to hire professional training to fully take advantage of it. Much could be approved by creating some example videos that explain features like projects, opportunities for example. There are videos but they stay too much on the surface of things you find out yourself. I would set up a fake graphic design agency and show the user how it would work in a day to day basis to fully utilize the features found in the application. It wouldn't have to be complicated just show the feature how it would be used so that you grasp the beginnings. If you still want more after that than it would make sense to hire pro help. I believe many more users could be convinced this way to use Daylite. The investment in time would be worth it I believe.

There are a few things that don't really work as they should imho. The first one is when you create a new contact in Daylite. You can watch the movie (QuickTime) below to see what I mean exactly.

Example movie of adding a contact

As you have seen it's hard to get out of that box because there is no visual indication that there is a way of cancelling the action. I hear some of you thinking why not just use the 'escape' button? I did try that and the funny thing is that this doesn't cancel the action as you would think but act as an enter instead. So when you do that you end up with a new organization again.

Another one is when you try to use Daylite together with Billings. For example: I want to add a client in Billings using Daylite. So I click the Add client button and in the dropdown I choose 'From Daylite'. In the search field I enter the company name and as a result I either get nothing (if there are no contact persons connected to this organisation) or I get the contacts listed. That's not what I want, I want to add the organization, not its contacts, since you don't invoice contacts, but the organization, in other words legal entities (e.g. I invoice Nike, and not John who is the VP of Operations of Nike). Now I'm forced to go via Address book, but there I want to avoid to use the checkbox to mark a vcard as a company. This behaviour makes the 'From Daylite' import option useless for me in Billings. I now avoid this by adding companies and persons separately in Address book. The organisations are there in Daylite so I'm baffled why you can't add them in Billings and I hope this gets fixed in an update.

In closing even with the complexity and the annoyances it still is one of the best CRM applications for Mac. For the time being I am sticking with it and I am hoping that most of these will be fixed in a 4.0 version and that Marketcircle will invest in setting up a fake company to show how to use the app daily and everything that comes with that in a screencast series. This application isn't for everybody and some of you will have enough with what Apple or Google is already offering but if you want more I still would recommend that you try it out. I think I'm not too far off when I say that it is really situated toward small businesses like me. There is a 30 day demo that you can download. I just feel it is missing a bit of the Apple ease of use. You know what I mean, we don't look at the manual don't we, we want to jump right in and forget all about it :) Pricing starts at $189 for a single user with the integration plug-in for Apple Mail.

North By Northwest (1959)

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West Side Story (1961)

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It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)

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Panic Room (2002)

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Thank You For Smoking (2005)

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Catch Me If You Can (2002)

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Juno (2007)

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How it was made

Doctor No (1962)

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Casino Royale (2006)

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Seven (1995)

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The Return of The Pink Panther (1975)

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Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)

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Delicatessen (1991)

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Lord of War

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Euro Trip (2004)

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Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

Watch it

Worked up an appetite?

If all this beautiful graphic design work for movies worked up an appetite there is good news for you. There is a book called 'Uncredited' by Gemma Solana and Antonio Boneu that has 312 pages that show you more movie openings credits.

Some people might find other methods better, easier or faster, but here are the steps I usually take when I use this feature:

Add your swatches in a Color Group

First thing I usually do is group my color swatches in a Color Group and duplicate my artwork or save another version if the artwork is too heavy to work in the same document. Select the color swatches and click the New Color Group icon in the Swatches palette to create a Color Group. Give it a name and click OK

Edit or Apply Colors

Click the Edit or Apply Colors wheel icon in the Color Guide palette.

The Live Color window

You'll see that the colors of your artwork are a bit mixed up. They are there but they are differently applied. I have no idea what the purpose of this is really because so far it always end up uglier then my oringinal artwork. Maybe it was just bad luck for me so far I don't know.

Get colors from selected art in the Live Color window

Click the Get colors from selected art option in the Live Color window. This will bring back the order of how the colors are applied in your artwork.

Create New Color Group

To make sure you don't accidentally overwrite your original colors, click the Create New Color Group option.

Link or unlink the harmony colors

Start dragging the color handles in the color wheel. By default the harmony colors are linked. I usually try out things first with this option as set to linked, but for me it somehow almost never gives me the result I want. Still I always try, just in case I get surprised. If your result is not exactly what you're looking for either, you could try things out in the unlinked state by clicking the icon so it becomes a broken chain icon.

Assign Colors

Instead of editing colors, you can also assign colors. Click the Assign option button to go to this feature. Here you'll see the swatches of your artwork that are currently in use followed by an arrow and the new swatches to the right. You can assign a new swatch to each color. You can also change the order of the new swatches by dragging them to another place in the column of new swatches. So instead of experimenting via the color wheel, you can also use this method. I find this feature handy if I have already colors in mind and I want to adjust the colors in a rather complex artwork in a fast way.

Save artwork color sets

Click the save icon to save the artwork color set you like. This way it will be saved in the LiveColor feature. Each time you click the Edit Colors in the Color Guide palette you'll see them listed.

I usually click OK after the 1st set I saved. Then I duplicate my artwork again and I repeat the same steps all over again just couple of times until I have enough combinations to compare or to show the client.

When the 3 of us join forces, we are a strong trio. Whenever Leslie and Cindy are together, ideas get brewed and things get organized. Compared to me, they're 2 fanatics. I'm like the snail who can't keep up with their tempo. The outcome of their plans sometimes frightens me a bit, because I know they will ask me to be involved and I know I will not be able to resist. They're both very passionate and driven in what they do.

Who are the 2 other angels?

Leslie and Cindy are both graphic designers. Cindy has been an interface designer at AOL for 9 years. Later, she worked at Scrapblog and now she's an independent designer and consultant. Currently, she is working with Yahoo! on the Yahoo! Buzz project. Leslie is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She is also the founder and president of MORE, a full service graphic design, public relations, and marketing firm. She is working on many fronts to help improve web design and development education. Leslie is a member of The Web Standards Project Education Task Force and is helping to create the WaSP Framework Curriculum.

The panel theme idea

While Cindy was thinking about Charlie's Angels as a fun theme for the 3 of us on stage, I was thinking about the subject of our panel. I didn't have to think long before the subject of color crossed my mind (again). Color is a subject I am passionate about and have been talking about even before @media 2006. Once the topic of color was agreed upon, the 3 of us discussed what color concepts would be most appropriate to share at SXSW. That's how the idea of how Color Angels blended together and went from shades of grey to full technicolor.

Color Angels, Episode 1: Colors: It's Not Black and White

Color Angels, Episode 1, is about exploring the challenges in color combinations as a key to successful website designs. Advice on what tools you'll need in your arsenal to be inspired. Navigating through cultural and accessibility differences in color and showcasing some of the best uses of color the web has to offer.

Vote for our panel

If you like our theme and you want to see us talk at SXSWi 2009, please vote for our panel! I'm sure we'll make it an extra interesting and colorful one, one not to miss :)

Here is the extra extra short version on how to create this shape. First create 1/4 of the shape, give it a special 4 colored stroke and rotate copy this shape 90° 3 times. Job done! I bet you want to know a bit more detailed explanation, so here we go step-by step:

Step 1 - Draw a circle

We start with the shape of a circle. Select the Ellipse Tool from the toolbox and drag a circle holding down the Shift Key.

Select the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) and select the bottom right fragment of the circle. Hit delete.

Step 2 - Draw quarter of the command shape

Make sure Smart Guides are turned (View > Smart Guides) on to help you with the next step. Select the Pen Tool and click once in the most right open anchor point to start your path. Hold down the Shift Key to ensure a 100% vertical line and click again a bit lower then the circle as shown in the image below. Hold down the Command/Control Key and just click once away from the object to deselect the shape and leave the path unclosed.

Now click once in the most left open anchor point to start drawing another line. Hold down the Shift Key again to ensure you'll be drawing a perfect horizontal line and click somewhere to the left of the vertical line you've just drawn as shown on the right in the image above.

Step 3 - Create a colorful art brush

Draw 4 rectangles as shown in the image below and give each a different color. Start by drawing a rectangle using the Rectangle tool. Use the Selection Tool (black arrow) and the Shift + Alt/Option Keys to drag copy the rectangle horizontally. If Smart Guides are still turned on you should get an intersection text sign when to relase the mouse. Repeat the copy and drag until you have 4 rectangles and give each of them a different color.

Select all 4 rectangles using the Selection Tool (black arrow) and group them (Command/Control + G). Now drag them into the Brushes palette. Select Art Brush in the options. Next, select the vertical down arrow as Direction option and None as Colorization Method.

Step 4 - Assign brush stroke to shape

Select the shape and give it no fill (white square with red diagonal line).

Now give the shape a stroke fill selecting the new art brush from the Brushes palette. It could be you need to adjust the stroke weight a bit in the Stroke palette in order to achieve the perfect propotion of thickness.

Step 5 - Make quarter command shape perfect

Zoom in on the shape and add a horizontal guide at the bottom of the curve of the shape as shown in the image below.

Select the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) and select the bottom right anchor point. Now drag the anchor point so it intersects with the horizontal guide. Make sure you hold down the Shift Key while dragging.

Step 6 - Rotate copy the shape and repeat 3 time

All there is left to do now to complete the command is to rotate and copy this shape 90° 3 times in a row. Place a vertical guide on the right side of the shape as shown in the image below. The intersection point of the vertical and horizontal guide is the center point of our rotation.

Select the Rotation Tool from the Toolbox. Hold down the Alt/Option Key ad click very exactly on the intersection point of the 2 guides. In the Rotate option window enter 90° as Angle and click Copy. Hit Command/Control + D, to repeat what we just did again. Do this 3 times in a row. The shape should be complete.

Step 7 - Experiment

Experiment with the colors a bit more by creating different art brushes and apply them to the shape. If you like you can always expand the stroke into fills later on. To do this go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Maybe you want to create a pattern background of this shape. You could do this using the Transform Effect which is located under Transform & Distort in the Effects menu. If you don't know what I mean, please read my article about Making your business cards dynamic in Illustrator or my article about Grid Masking. In both articles I use this same technique. It's another way of creating a pattern in Illustrator fast, easy and flexible ;)

My final result

Here is my creation ;)

If you wonder how I created the dotted background effect, make sure to stay tuned. I promise I'll explain this in one of my next articles. For people wondering about the typeface I've used here, it's URW Puiseux D Light (again).

The perfect wave line

I could just use the Pen tool and start drawing my line, but I'm thinking, I have all these effects and filters. There should be a way to do this easy and fast with perfection. I'm sure there are other ways or filters where you can achieve the same result, but here is mine:

Start by selecting the Line Tool from the Toolbox and draw a straight horizontal line. Click and drag the line while holding down the Shift Key.

With the line still selected go to Object > Path and select Add Anchor Points from the submenu. Do this again a 2nd time. Your line should have 4 points in total now.

Now go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Twist. In the window check the Preview checkbox and enter 25 degrees as angle. I usually expand my effect from here. Go to Object > Expand. Then you also need to ungroup once (Object > Ungroup or Cmd/Ctrl. + Shift + G)).

Then I also expand the shape to several waves in 1 line by duplicating the segment and joining both segments. Make sure you have Smart Guides (Cmd./Ctrl. + U) turned on. Select the Selection Tool (black arrow), select wave and start dragging it to the right, now hold down Shift Key and Option/Alt Key. Select the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) and drag a rectangle selection around the 2 intersecting anchor points. Join both anchor point by hitting Cmd./Ctrl. + J or go to Object > Path > Join.

The perfect drop shape

Here I could just draw the left part of the drop and then use the Reflection Tool and duplicate this part to the right, join the anchor points and Bob's you uncle, but this wouldn't give me the *perfect* drop shape. I would kinda look more like an onion and too symmetrical and I don't want that. I want a perfect water drop which means a more natural shape.

Start by drawing a circle. Select the Ellipse Tool from the toolbox and drag a circle holding down the Shift Key. Make sure Smart Guides are turned on and make sure the Rulers are visible (Cmd./Ctrl. + R or go to View > Show Rulers). Drag vertical guides from the left ruler to the left, middle and right point of the circle. It should snap to the points when you come close. Select the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) and drag a rectangle selection around the top point of the circle to select it. Hit the Delete Key to delete the top fragment of the circle path.

Select the Pen Tool from the Toolbox. Click drag upwards in the left point of the open circle shape. Hold down the Shift Key to drag perfectly vertical upwards. Now do the same for the next point as shown in the image above to the right: click drag while holding down the Shift Key.

Now we need to create a corner anchor point from this bezier curve for the point of the drop. We do this by holding down the Alt/Option Key first and then click in the anchor point you've just created and drag downwards a bit to the right as shown in the image on the left. Do not release the mouse while clicking, just click and drag like before. Click in the right anchor point of the circle while dragging vertically upwards, again hold down the Shift Key.

The perfect heart shape

Same as with the drop shape I could create 1 half and reflect while duplicating it to the right, but I want a more natural heart shape, which means a tiny bit drawing work again like before. Same as with the drop, we start again with a circle, but this time we delete the bottom half of the circle.

Again make sure Smart Guides are turned on and Rulers are shown. Drag a vertical guide from the left Rulers to the right anchor point of our half circle.

Select the Selection Tool (black arrow) and select the half circle shape. Click in the left anchor point, hold down the mouse to start immediate dragging to the right, hold down the Shift Key to drag perfectly horizontal and hold down the Alt/Option Key to duplicate the shape while dragging. When you intersect the right anchor point of the circle shape, you should feel it snapping and see the word intersection appearing on the horizontal smart guide. Release the mouse at that point (as shown in the image above on the right).

Now select the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) and drag a rectangle around the intersecting anchor points of the 2 open circles to select both. Now join both anchor points, hit Cmd./Ctrl. + J or go to Object > Path > Join.

Now select the Pen Tool again from the Toolbox and click the most left anchor point of the shape, hold down the Shift Key while dragging perfectly vertically downwards. Do the same for the second anchor point as shown in the image to the right above.

Now we need to create the same corner anchor point like we did for the drop shape. So we hold down the Alt/Option Key again first and then we click in the anchor point while dragging, but this time upwards a bit to the right as shown in the image on the left above. To close the heart shape we click in anchor point, again while holding down the Shift Key we drag perfectly vertical upwards as shown above in the right image.

The perfect diamond shape

This is one is very easy to do and I believe perfect symmetry is fine for this shape, though we won't use the reflection tool.

Start by drawing a perfect square. Select the Rectangle Tool from the Toolbox. Drag a rectangle while holding down the shift key. Now select the Selection Tool (black arrow) and hover the mouse on the bottom right anchor point of the rectangle and move the mouse a bit lower to the right from this point so you get the rotation icon. Now start dragging the mouse to the left to rotate the square. Hold down the Shift Key to make it rotate a perfect 45°. Release the mouse and leave the object selected.

Go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Pucker & Bloat (yep, I can't get enough of this one). Enter the value of -20% and check the Preview option to see the result. Click OK. You can decide to expand the appearance if you like by going to Object > Expand Appearance. If you keep it an effect, you can change its value at all times by double clicking the effect in the Appearance palette.

My final result using these simple shapes

Sometimes you start with something simple but you end with something rather complex. By trying out different things and by experimenting you can get amazing results. Just let the tools work for you. As you can see I'm still a bit obsessed by patterns. This time I was influenced by old wall paper patterns as you can tell from my color palette here. Hope you have fun with the shapes and remember I can't tell you enough keep experimenting and to try out different things.

24 hours of Flickr

I joined last year as well and the event was a huge success with almost 20.000 members joining. Browse the 2007 pool to see how people documented their day. I'm sure this year will be no exception. I'm already thinking what I could do with my one time chance.

How can you participate?

Take a photo any time during the twenty-four hour period that’s August 8th where you are and then share it with the group. Flickr will accept one (1) contribution per member into the group from noon PST Friday, August 8th until Tuesday, September 2nd, noon PST, 2008.

Cameras ready prepare to flash

You can join the pool here and start thinking about your shot too. It's raining here now but that shouldn't stop me of coming up with something :)

My contribution to 888

I bought these slippers in 2003, and they're still my favorite. Thought of taking a picture of them today because of the good memories and me missing Summer a bit on this rainy day here in Belgium. Oooh! Blue skies are coming back now as I type. Thing is, the weather is so unpredictable: it goes from rain, to cloudy, to sun and blue skies, then back to rain, cloudy, blue sky and sun and so on...