Not for profit Graphic Design

New commercial site

2011-09-11T15:35:00.001+02:00

Check my new commercial site
http://www.affordabledesign.pl

There was once a logo...

2010-12-02T14:44:00.001+01:00

The logo did not feature the name of the organisation who owned it. Let's call them the Little House. Back then, I did some work for another organisation (let's call them the Big News place), who had this logo on its website.

Unfortunately, the Little House people were not well known. So unlike Nike, Apple or other organisations with a well established name, when people saw the Little House logo (which was a little house), they saw a little house, but did not know what it meant, or what the Little House organisation did, or what they stood for.

So Big News were happy to have achieved recognition from Little House, they were proud to show the logo on their site, but no one who saw that Little House knew. Or could know.

We checked with Little House, to find out if they had a logo with their name on it, but no. So the Big News CEO told me to take a small gif (200 pixels wide or something) with the Little House logo and take any Windows font, open the gif in MS Paint and write underneath what Little House was for. I protested, saying that the logo was not theirs, that if Little House was not known, it was not Big News' job to promote them or edit their marketing assets, that it certainly was a mistake of Little House not to be more recognizable. And then I had to choose between what I thought was right and what I was paid for.
This is simply to remind all logo designers:
1) a good logo does not replace marketing, it only supports it
2) "He who pays calls the tune"

Commercial offering

2010-11-29T10:10:00.002+01:00

I have now decided to launch a commercial offering for commercial client.

My offer for charities still applies, with conditions described on my new site:

http://sneferu.myartsonline.com/

Logo for UAAR

2010-11-24T16:42:00.002+01:00

I have just completed the logo for the UAAR ("Unione degli Atei e degli Agnostici Razionalisti"). The original concept (the U over A in the shape of a man) was supplied by the client.
It is a concept which is used in fact by many atheist organisations worldwide.

I supplied several variations on this theme, this one was chosen. I then produced all sorts of variant files as well as the technical specification and vectorial files which will allow my client to use this logo professionally.

Pantone Matching System

2010-11-19T09:12:00.002+01:00

For logo design I am now using a proper Pantone colour guide which will now replace the CMYK callouts and also will allow me to pick the colours of logos more carefully. As my clients are unfortunately unable to judge the colour I pick on paper (they only see what is on their screen - and if they print that, it's down to how well their printer does the job), I am in charge of picking the exact shade.

Projekt Orient

2010-10-11T08:57:00.003+02:00

I was asked to create a logo which would be based on a phoenix, for a not-for-profit which is being started in Krakow (Poland) as a cultural group. The purpose of this group is to provide information, promote cultural understanding about Asia and Africa.

As the choice for a phoenix had been made by the client before I started work on the logo, my policy is to take for granted that this concept is appropriate.
Kudos to Hirwen for the font - it's actually the second time this font is used by me for a logo.

MIKC - logo finalized

2010-09-26T12:38:00.004+02:00

The logo for my Ukrainian client MIKC is now finalized. The finished design has two variants on top of a simple black version. While the spirit of the original doodle has been kept (see a previous post), it is now totally unrecognizable.

MIKC is a small not for profit dealing with youth events.

Logo execution - logo for Jobs Help and Hope

2010-08-11T21:16:00.007+02:00

Jobs Help and Hope are a Michigan not for profit whose mission is to provide support, advice, and coaching to job seekers. They asked me to execute a logo according to a concept designed by them internallyI presented many fonts, and Universalis Pro by Arkandis Digital Foundry was selected by my client. I then created 5 variants using a set of colours which were globally defined.
For this job I also made some projects, which all featured a visual pun for the Christian cross, but the original design prevailed.
http://www.jobshelpandhope.org/

Mix logo

2010-06-03T14:55:00.005+02:00

I was approached some while ago by a Ukrainian youth (initially "MIX", then changed to "MIKC") not for profit regarding the design of a logo based on a basic idea which they had found on the web.
You can see here the initial design they approached me with and the project submitted to them.

Project for a child daycare centre

2009-05-10T10:58:00.005+02:00

A daycare centre in my area approached me for a logo. Their name is not chosen yet, but their marketing positioning was a focus on learning through play. Therefore the logo had to reflect this essential choice. The three projects above were presented, where for example the letters in a musical set are here to symbolise the formal learning (letters) through play (using music). Similarly, the elephant, a symbol of intelligence, carrying piano-like keys on his back.

The last concept is designed to be more appealing to children, but slightly out of target.

VoteSmartIndia - final project

2009-05-06T20:34:00.003+02:00

The client indicated a more exotic font was prefered (Prakrta, a shareware font). On top of this colour logo, a black and white version was also designed, for example for engraving on supports where no ink is available.

http://votesmartindia.blogspot.com/

VoteSmartIndia - a flag project

2009-04-24T09:22:00.004+02:00

This is the latest project submitted to VoteSmartIndia, an organisation covering the elections in India. The font is free. It is ADF Albertis, from ADF foundry. The logo is basically a stylized outline of India, using the two colours from the Indian national flag. The section of the wheel is subconsciously evoking the democratic process of electing representatives. Project submitted to the client, pending.

An old CV

2009-03-27T13:05:00.003+01:00

A while ago I created this fairly pretentious CV. So there you go, you can now see my real face.
The design makes liberal use of the URW Classico font, which is an approximation of the otherwise famous Optima typeface. The overall layout is somewhat eye-catching, and a twist on the traditional "mugshot in the top right corner".

The trick here is that the photograph was taken at waist level, therefore making me look way taller than I really am.
Don't try to peek at my address or phone number, they're edited out and replaced by incoherent text.

An old project

2009-03-19T16:22:00.003+01:00

This is a first draft for a logo done a while ago. It is an unfinished project for my client, a mountain guide. The cross at the top of the mountain is meant to mimick a real cross at this location. In progress.

Font licenses

2009-03-10T08:24:00.002+01:00

All fonts have a license which protects their copyright, and some of them are free to use, others not, others only free for non commercial use.

Fonts are like software or images or texts really. Someone worked to create them, they deserve payment for their work.

The issue is that as a lot of people have bunches of TTF, PS and OTF files that have no copy protection, there is a widespread belief that fonts are free to use and that they have no license.
Nothing further from the truth.

Typically a font licence will be around 25 USD, and there are quite a few online shops where you can buy the font licence. Having the font file is not having a licence, just like breaking into a car parked on the street is not owning it.

Don't hack software, just don't buy it

2009-02-25T07:24:00.002+01:00

Had a look this morning at www.adobe.com

Creative Suite 4 is now happily priced at 1,799 USD. OK it is an impressive piece of software. Upgrade from CS3 (itself a very impressive piece of software) is 599 USD.

Adobe hires designers and they need to sell many licences to pay them. True. But what if, like my clients, you get your money by fund raising, or small university grants? Well that sort of money is just not there for software. So there you go, find a torrent and hack the thing. Bad Bad Bad.

By cracking software, you are first of all doing something illegal (but for which the chance of getting caught remains small), and most importantly you are promoting the release cycles of the software industry (is CS4 not just CS3 + a few fixes + the odd feature or so?) and not promoting alternative solutions.

I run all my logo projects on Inkscape (vectorial design) because while Adobe Illustrator is the standard, Inkscape does awfully well, and for no money at all, including the fact that SVG files are an open standard.

Brochure projects are run on Scribus, which can help my clients rework them and reduces their dependancy to me. Of course Scribus is not better than InDesign. But when something is 90% another one but the price tag is 0, some wheels can start turning in your head.

In short I believe it is wrong to steal a developer's salary, but right to promote a shift in the business model that's in place.

Logo redesign: Spanish Speaking Organization

2009-02-24T11:53:00.008+01:00

The Spanish Speaking Organization (Georgia Institute of Technology) has a very nice logo, but unfortunately the only files left they had were too small to be used.

Which implies that enlarging the logo would not be possible. Also I spotted that the spaces between the letters was not harmonious (and that it would be a shame to spoil such a lovely logo with a detail like this). You can see what exactly was done above. The pink letters show where the difference is.

I suggested making this amendment, and delivered pure EPS logos to them.
Logo is property of the Spanish Speaking Organization, designed originally by Rodrigo Pemueller.

http://cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/sso/

Redesigning a logo - details

2008-12-10T10:21:00.002+01:00

You will need to sign my terms, which basically say you can't sue me and that I can use your name in my portfolio. you'll need to loan at least 25 USD to a development project.

If you already have a logo, I would first want to work without seeing it.
You will need to describe your current logo (NOT send it to me)
You need to tell me what it evokes, which concepts it is related to.

If you do not have a logo, you will need to tell me about your organisation. Values, ideals, customers.
You may suggest a basic idea for the logo, whether it should represent something or not, if yes, what? You may also tell me about which colours you expect.

If you have a clear logo idea and would need it delivered, scan it or take a picture and send it. I will vectorize it (which bascially means draw it again) so that it can be used by whoever does the rest of your material.

From draft to design

2008-03-08T22:54:00.005+01:00

This project started as a logo revamping. I only had the verbal description of the existing logo, which in a way was nice because I could resist the temptation of doing something too closely related to what already existed. First, came my first image of the logo (top left), then two projects, going towards more and more simplicity. The logo on the top right keeps 4 wave crests as a symbol for the 4 founding partners of the company.

The last project turns the drakkar, a fairly traditional warfare symbol into a symbol for a travel agency into a much softer symbol, with a human (woman in this case) face in the sail.
One of the signs it is a good logo is when you reduce it to a 32x32 miniature. If the logo can be identified at that size, you've got a winner.

The project is still pending final approval.

Can you afford software?

2008-02-24T17:58:00.002+01:00

A while ago, I was answering a query for this pro bono work. My correspondent was very happy for work I could do, and then asked me "Can you work from existing InDesign files?".

Well technically I can. I know the InDesign interface and can use the software. I even have access to it.
But as a private designer, and a professional in the IT industry, I cannot afford to give the wrong example. Using InDesign without a proper license is a criminal offense. A large number of people think "it's okay to use a cracked (=illegal) software if you can't afford to buy a legal copy anyway".
This certainly does not apply to me because I could afford an Adobe InDesign license, but I don't want to spend this money there, so I don't use the software and certainly will not go into the easy road of cracked software, because somewhere down the line, a fellow programmer is losing out.

Which brings us of course to "what can you really afford?" and I guess that unfortunately if you could walk into a shop and steal your grocery and get away with it, a lot of people would.
This is what happens with MP3 downloads and software. My stand is that this is and remains illegal, and that the only reason why people do it is because they can get away with it most of the time.
I also agree nonetheless that CDs are dreadfully expensive. I can tell you that I really think twice before buying one these days and there's hardly any place left in my budget for an overpriced piece of plastic.

Logo project : Orient Espaces

2008-01-22T09:28:00.000+01:00

Logo created for Orient Espaces, a travel agency in Paris.

Details are everything

2008-01-15T09:25:00.000+01:00

This logo is a draft design for a travel agency. This is an example of how details affect the overall design beyond measure. If you look at the two logos, you will feel that the one on the right is better than the one on the left, but you will find it difficult to point out where they are different.
In fact the difference is just that the "a" has been realigned a little down.

The logo therefore seems to stand a lot better on its feet. The difference is insignificant but teaches us something: analyse what your eye feels, put a brain to your artistic heart, be conscious where your normal viewer will be unconscious.

Commercial projects

2007-12-17T14:42:00.000+01:00

This blog offers free desktop publishing for charities.
What happens then if you are NOT a charity but interested in getting me to work on your project?

Make a donation.

I feel it is time we give, give, give, to offset a bit all the selfish taking. If you are a company or an organisation making profit, I will negociate a fee with you, which you must convert into a donation to the charity of your choice (not a corporate existing foundation, something else).

This way, I will not compete with a self-employed designer, because this will cost you something, but at the same time, do some good.

Logo: La grenouille

2007-12-13T08:59:00.002+01:00

Logo designed for "La grenouille qui rêve", a website created in late 1999, defunct in 2004. Inspired by a tattoo, it is nonetheless fairly stylish, gecko-like.
Above left is the old bitmap version, enlarged to show the pixelisation, and right the new vectorial version, which can now be displayed at any size.

The bitmap was designed from a bulky 2000x2000 bitmap (now lost) possibly more than 4Mb (ok at those sizes bitmaps can become usable in print too), while the vectorial shape is a mere 7kb, and is technically superior.
In that kind of work, the basic vectorisation is done automatically, but the bulk of the work (in the case above 1 hour) is going through each and every angle, reviewing every curve, adjusting every detail, and comparing it to the original. It involves some decision making because as the original is too small, some details are unknown, that is, simply not visible because the bitmap has them blurred. Therefore it is sometimes comparable to the difficult work of painting restauration when a part of a painting has been destroyed and you need to imagine what the artist may have intended in the beginnning.

Logo redesign. Nothing new under the sun

2007-11-26T20:45:00.000+01:00

A lot of organisations are facing a major issue when they send their first job to printing. They started without an official, professionally designed logo, and suddenly they have to supply a logo in a format they've never heard of: EPS, AI, CorelDraw, SVG, says the helpful printer-designer.

"We've got a GIF, is that the same?". Then the logo is sent by email. A pathetic 150x100 logo, that the printer is supposed to get on paper with a quality it never had, and colours which are not defined anywhere.

Logos must be created in vectorial, with colours coded in CMYK, but this has never been heard, and the suppliers of the logo (the clients, those who pay) do not understand what they've done wrong, when, where, how, who, and least of all, how to solve the issue.

There's no solving of the issue as such. The logo needs to be redesigned. The concept, of course, remains the same. It has nothing to do with creating a concept for the logo, simply build the house again from the same blueprint.

This is something I can do for you. You send me the logo, the bigger the size, the better, the font file you used (read the post about fonts too, in some cases you are already happily breaking the law), and confirm it should look on paper like on screen.

I will try of course, to find the right equivalent for the colour or colours. Most importantly, with the use of specialised software, including the online vector converter of Stanford University, do some of the work automatically. Then the painful retouching will begin, looking at every angle, every curve, every dot and tiny bit.

Finally, I will carefully pick the colours and do some file format magic (I use Hocus Pocus 1.2, and then Abracadabra 4.0), I will be able to send you back the crown jewels, a file that every designer will be able to use in order to produce quality printed documents.

Music download, BAD, p2p, GOOD

2007-11-25T20:02:00.000+01:00

Now what does p2p technology have to do with Desktop Publishing?
Apparently, nothing. Except maybe that Desktop Publishing implies delivering files, that those files are too big to be sent by email.
Typically, FTP has been used to upload and download files. p2p allows exchanging files that are located on your machine in an easier way in the sense that only the torrent file needs to be sent by email, no upload to the server is required (which also means no need to deliver passwords here and there), and that broken downloads or poor connections are not an issue.

p2p is probably the most innovative technology bred by the internet, and while it is often associated with illegal music and media download, it does not need to be so.
In fact it can be used as a convenient replacement to FTP, which is about as old as the internet itself.

So if you do not have an FTP server, and have no clue about how to FTP files, no worries. p2p is there. It is really easy. You create a torrent, send the file to someone by email (less than 100kb usually), they download the file and it open with their p2p client, saving it directly. You only need to leave your PC running overnight.

This is ideal also when you need to share those files with more people as your bandwidth consumption will be reduced as the file is served faster (each addressee is sending the file AS WELL).

Red, red everywhere and I can't see it

2007-11-23T21:21:00.000+01:00

That's exactly what happens to bulls. They're colour blind and red does not matter to them.

Colour gamuts are exactly that: what can be printed. It is related to what you can see in a way
In colour matters, they describe vision for animals - among other things how bees beat us in ultraviolet (which is why a very white t-shirt will make them react like they found the Great Flower, until they realize it's just plain you).

For CMYK printing, four colours are needed. It does not mean all colours that exist CAN be printed. In the case of some real bright oranges, or deep blues, CMYK will fail. It's called "out of gamut" colours. In fact the issue with digital publishing is that monitors have a wider gamut, and therefore some colours that appear on your screen may not be available on paper.

Some animals see life like this because it helps them survive in their environment, like bees who can see ultraviolet, which we cannot see, and that helps them locate flowers. Keep in mind their eyes are not designed like ours, they have faceted, simple eye cells, we have two very complex eyes. Other animals can detect movement better, contrast (like a black and white photo shows contrast better than a colour picture), detect colours specific to their preys or predators, or simply have a better vision in the dark in general.

As for humans, it is assumed by the way that our own colour vision helped our gatherer ancestors to identify fruit, while it is today of vital importance to follow fashion and increase our mating opportunities. ;o)

A nice example of CMY + 3 printing

2007-11-22T18:32:00.000+01:00

One of my favourite bread has a nice packaging with three very important colours for the manufacturer: dark blue, dark green and light green. As these colours are essential for the customer to recognise the product on the shelf, they decided to get rid of black altogether.
On the colour control points, Cyan, Yellow and Magenta are associated with three spot colours. As a result the sandwich picture on the other side is fairly poor quality, there is no black to smoothen the colours.
The image is represented using the theoretical "three colours is enough" which in practice cannot reach very far in the gamut.

There will be more things about gamuts in a future post... about animal vision and colour cones.

By the way this bread is delicious.

Vectors and bitmap graphics

2007-11-21T13:48:00.000+01:00

Most graphic design for printing is focused on the quality of output.
Bitmaps, such as images, lose detail when expanded. Pictures used in printing must have 300dpi on paper in order to look nice, and not "scaly". In the example above, the letters were enlarged. They look scaly. On top, in blue, the same letters the way they should look like.
Font is Romande, by Arkandis Digital Foundry, and a royalty-free font.

From an analogic film, such as traditional photography, there comes a moment when an enlargement loses detail. It is progressive, and compensated by the fact that the image is meant to be seen from afar.
With digital photography, scaling appears. It all boils down to the density of information available. If you scan a real life object, the theoretical density of information is at atomic level (virtually infinite). But let's say you scan a picture that was printed at 300dpi (that is, 300 bits of colour information per inch). If you scan above 300dpi, well, you're inventing things that are not there!

Vectorial is quite another thing. Let's say a company logo is a huge "Q". That is, a circle with a tail. You can describe it with "a circle with walls with thickness 20% of the radius and a tail starting halfway between the center and the edge, as long as 80% of the diametre of the circle, width is 20% that of the circle". I bet you'd be able to draw this with no detail loss even if it was on a football pitch.

Vectorial drawing describes things that are mathematically perfect and scalable to infinity. Computer software has complex languages to describe these objects, and user friendly GUIs to draw them.
Inkscape, CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator are a few of them.

Posters, ads galore!

2007-11-21T10:33:00.000+01:00

Desktop Publishing has many possibilities other than just published newsletters and books.

Any ad in the newspapers will have to be submitted in PDF or EPS, and will obey specific rules. For text only, newspapers usually charge extra for "layout". This "layout" or "typesetting" is nothing else but Desktop Publishing.
And you would get charged more for a picture, a logo inserted in the text, or whatever. This I can do for you free of charge.

At some point, for an event, you may need a poster printed - sometimes as cheaply as a photographic enlargement. Again, your local printer may take your material and design it for you. A small company without DTP knowledge will go that route. Another thing I can do for you.

Get the doodle right

2007-11-20T13:22:00.002+01:00

by gustav1

Logo design is dead easy once you have the idea.

I mean an excellent logo such as the Apple, Nike, McDonalds are so awfully simple to draw (hence their success). You could get the concept drawing the right doodle, and a junior designer make it come true.

The hard bit is there: get the doodle right.

What makes a successful logo? Simplicity, conceptualization, identity.

Logos are the offspring of the banners of the Middle Ages. They are unique to their bearer, and must be instantly recognizable.
On top of that, they must be degraded. An example I have in mind is the symbol of the Polish Government in exile and the Polish resistance during WWII (image credit: gustav1). The top part shows people going underground to come back "from two sides" - and this also merges unconsciously with a phallic symbol (itself a P for Poland), which in itself tells about vigour and youth.

This is not meant to be printed. It's meant to be painted on a wall, in the wee hours. One colour. Four strokes. Extreme degradability. If your logo is good enough to go through this, you've got a killing machine to tell a powerful message without words. This is also sadly true for the runes used in SS and the swastika.

CMYK and RGB colours

2007-11-18T19:24:00.000+01:00

What is CMYK?
When you see a colour printed on paper, you're putting a coloured ink on a white surface. If you read your old science books, they'll tell you colours are light frequency, and if you put three primary colours such as blue, cyan and magenta you'll get black.
In fact, brown.

For nice blues and reds, in printing there is usually black involved. A jar of black ink. It's CMYK printing, Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black (or Kelvin). You can call it four-colour printing. Unfortunately some colours will not print, especially some very rich blues (nothing to do with music). This is called gamut (as = colours available) and out of gamut colours.

RGB
Now think about it, on a computer screen, a colour is made from black, and you add Red, Green or Blue (RGB) and when you get the three together, then you get white.

CONCLUSION:
It doesn't take a smart person to realize that the way you talk about colours for paper and for screen, you're going to talk two different languages.
There are colour specialists in printing bureaus, people who are diving deep in the PMS.
PMS here does not stand for Pre-Menstrual Syndrome, but for Pantone Matching System. That's what allows you to configure an offset printer or a web printer (which has NOTHING to do with the WWW, it's a printer that prints on continuous paper rolls) and take as little risk as possible and get colours "the way they were intended".

Now that is a bad thing. The human eye can distinguish so many colours and shades (and if you go shopping with your other half you KNOW what I mean) that if you had paint pots and tried to reproduce the same shade, it's fairly evident that you may as well get an unlimited army of monkeys typing and just hope.
On top of that, when you see a colour on your screen there's no way to be sure. There are tools that display an approximate colour on your screen (but calibrating a screen is a work of art), colour swatches that tell you about colours and what they are called, then the guy with the PMS (sorry the joke was irresistible) can do his job.
All this stuff is called Colour Management, and if you know what it means to get washed colours after clothes come out of the washing machine or the wrong shade of green, you know what I mean, and you also understand why colour management is in the disclaimer.

Spot colours:
Sometimes when one colour is really really important, you'll get a spot colour involved.
You know. Like when you paint your living room with a hand mixed paint and you keep some on the side for the day you'll need the exact same shade
Well if your company logo has that one special colour, you'll want a spot colour.
It is also true that these days you get more inks such as orange or dark green (fairly difficult to get a nice dark green or a bright orange sometimes), and this is called 6-colour printing.

Plus of course silver, fluorescent inks, etc that obviously are not mixed with cyan, magenta, yellow at all.

Why a downloadable newsletter?

2007-11-18T15:11:00.000+01:00

These days, you get a lot of newsletter information sent to you by email. Big HTML things which download images on arrival.

This is a new trend which has advantages - it pushes the content in the face of the reader, is graphically attractive, and an incentive for an immediate response.
It has the advantage of being free to distribute (can be a bit heavy on the mail server), and relatively easy to design. Maybe it is stopped by spam filters, or simply deleted, but if your list is managed properly, it should be fine.

These drawbacks are minor. Printed newsletters are more suited to a distribution in person, and for charities who deal with members who are older, will be better perceived.
Like all printed matter, it is kept, read again, passed on.

One advantage is that a downloadable pdf can also be archived on your website, and that you only need to describe the main titles and offer a link for download, this will imply a lower bandwidth on your server.

This site is offering PDFs for download or print only, not web based newsletters.

About image copyright

2007-11-17T15:25:00.000+01:00

Copyright is an important issue. Anyone who takes any photo creates a right. It's called the author's moral right. It does not require any paperwork, it is just the act of creation.

That means that when you take a picture you have a right on it. Now you may publish it on the internet and some people may think publishing it on the internet is like giving it away. Wrong.
It's like someone taking a picture of you and thinking that because your face is on the memory card in their camera they are allowed to publish it. Wrong again.

Photographs belong to the person that takes them. Some people post images on sites like flickr (www.flickr.com) with nice licenses that allow you to use them provided you give them credit, some sell them for a one-time use on sites like www.bigstockphoto.com but that single use only costs one dollar or two, and then you can ask for exclusive rights and that usually costs fifty dollars and upwards.

If you're a photographer it's nice. You can take a picture of Ernesto "Che" Guevara and sell it for a handful of dollars, it looks so cool it ends up on t shirts and becomes an icon photo and you feel like you sold the hen that lays the golden eggs.
If you are a Robert Doisneau and believe what YOU do is worth more and better, you take the pics, keep the rights, print the posters, sell them yourself and enjoy prosperity.

Or you take a picture of a massive tsunami and give away the right to millions... while the Red Cross could have sold these rights and financed help to the victims.

About fonts and font licencing

2007-11-17T14:00:00.000+01:00

Fonts are not free. Not free in the sense that someone made them and has been or must be paid for them. Unless they gave them away. This is called font licensing and to put it bluntly it is a well kept secret.

Because a font file is defense-less. You get a TTF OTF or Type 1 file from a website or a friend, et voilà! You think you have the right to use this font commercially. There is often an embedded message in the font, and when you get this message from Linotype, ITC, it means you're using a font without permission.

Sometimes you get a font when you install your Operating System. Ok it implies the OS manufacturer gave you the right to use this font for the normal operation and this includes commercial use. You can happily print your company brochures with Arial and Times New Roman and Microsoft are ok with it.

Like software, it means you cannot resell Arial or TNR like they belong to you (I'd like to know who would buy them given that they have a fairly bad reputation as fonts), you cannot reverse-engineer them either. This is because their designer sold one big license for the design itself, and Microsoft passes this license on to you with the right to use them for private and business use.

Most fonts are not in that situation though. Gill Sans, Helvetica, Geneva, Onyx, etc. etc. (won't bother you with more than a few known names) are covered by a license. It means you need to pay to get the file, and then often you are limited with whether a third party is allowed to get them, or just print them.

When you create a picture with text, and give this picture for printing, you are transferring to the printing bureau something which cannot be used by them. It's ok.

Since Adobe Reader 4 fonts are embedded in such a way in PDFs that you can't retrieve them so it is acceptable to send a PDF for printing because your provider will not have access to the font file.

The subject of font licensing has one small light on for people without financial ease. Some people generously develop fonts which you can share, use for commercial use and some even have access to the source files (which is not relevant to me or you possibly, the other two maybe more).

You can find plenty of resources from www.scribus.net, but I'd like to express my gratitude to Hirwen Harendal, who delivers free fonts from Arkandis Digital Foundry:

perso.orange.fr/arkandis/ADF

Which tools?

2007-11-17T13:18:00.000+01:00

Because this is a non commercial venture, I only use tools that are free. I have been a member of the Scribus user group and the Inkscape user group.
www.scribus.net
www.inkscape.org

Both are non commercial ventures, projects under GPL (General Public Licences). In a way what I am doing is just giving back. I got this software for free, I learnt by myself mostly and now I am giving again.

It also means that once you have a template, you can install the software yourself and learn too. I'm not the one that will tell you to buy an expensive commercial package.

Free graphic design. Why?

2007-11-16T12:25:00.000+01:00

There are many ways to make a contribution to the world around us.

I decided to give graphic design away. Some people give their time caring for others, teaching for free, distributing food or looking after the elderly.

I can do desktop publishing (designing brochures for print), and I like doing it, so I give it to those in need. Although in today's web based world paper seems old-fashioned, the skills required have not changed, have not become easier to learn and paper is still a very important way to communicate, maybe because it is a part of the real world.

Charities, Not-for-profit, Associations caritatives et à but non lucratif (this is for my goggled friend).

The purpose is to get my skills to grow, do something which will be valued because it is usually fairly expensive, and not try to sell it because it would be like doing dumping on those who make a living out of it. Hence hosting on a blog. Won't make money, should not cost me money either. Just time.

This blog will contain messages in several languages - but I'll repeat myself a bit, it's just for the Search Engines.