Mark Poppen

I’ve done a screencast on the introduction of Typekit for The Web Squeeze about 2 weeks ago. For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, here it is:

Introduction to Typekit from TheWebSqueeze on Vimeo.

You might not have heard of Anouk, but she’s The Netherland’s rock-chick. She’s an amazing singer. As a music loving designer, my eye caught Anouk’s new album cover. Apparently the gory-ness is not photoshopped, but the “Anouk logo” is, and it’s an upside-down one, and I think it’s awesome.

Happy Camper

Recently I had a conversation with a young designer who told me something like “When my client approves my design, I’m happy, even when I know it can be better”. This inspired me to write this post, because I think he’s wrong. (more…)

I don’t know how it came to me, but I woke up with the question: What would big sites look like in Comic Sans? So, when I got to my computer, I opened up a bunch of major web sites and converted them into Comic Sans. I was surprised that not all sites looked ugly instantly..

While doing this, I noticed there are a few sites that have a horrible css.

What does your website look like in Comic Sans? Leave a comment with the link to your website in Comic Sans (make a screenshot).

A while ago I entered a “Comment to win” on Andy Sowards’ blog. The assignment was: post the best comment on “Why you should win the Canvas or Business cards”. UPrinting supported the contest by giving away 1000 business cards or a 24″ x 18″ printed canvas.

I posted this comment:

I already have a stack of business cards, so I’d got for the canvas.
I think it will look pretty professional if I have a canvas on the wall of my office with my company logo on it. I’ll add a little tag with the text “brought to you by @andysowards”, like they have in art galleries.. but without a price

Andy thought that was worth the canvas, so a few weeks later I got in this gorgeous print, provided by the awesome UPrinting

Image 1 to 3: how the canvas was wrapped (good job guys!)
4th image: The canvas!
The 5th image is to illustrate how big it is. The dot in the middle is a Canadian 2 dollar coin.
The last image is to show that I kept my promise.

When I’m online (that’s about 50% of a whole day), I scour a lot of blogs, and some of them amaze me how the authors come up with the topics they write about. I recently read iBouaghtamac.com, which is a great resource for Mac related tips. I noticed Brent had one of those little tabs on the side of his website with the title “Suggestions?”. When I clicked it, it opened a nice overlay, powered by Skribit, where I could dump my suggestions for the site. Not layout or design-wise, but “what should Brent write about”.

I thought that was a great idea, and I started investigating if I could get Skribit on my site. Turns out the service is free! (well, unless you want pro-features like modify your own theme and moderation).

So, please, if you like reading my blog, and have suggestions for me, for let’s say a tutorial, review or any other kind of article, let me know through that little tab on the right side of the site. Thanks.

I wish I could say I’m an expert Adobe Illustrator user, but unfortunately, I’m not, but I’m learning. One of the way’s I’m learning is by asking questions to people who are experts (or what they call “Ninja’s”, “Guru’s” and “Rockstars” nowadays).

Jay Hilgert from Bittbox.com is one of those guys, expert in the field.
He had an “Ask Bittbox” question round on Illustrator and Photoshop on Twitter, so I sent in my question, and it got posted on Bittbox.com

2) deluzione asks:

How do I convert and illy doc from 72dpi to 300?

Answer:

Good question. This is one of those settings that you would think you should be able to find under “Document Setup,” since it’s a setting you choose every time you create a “new” document. However, our friends at Adobe thought it should be in a different place. You’ll find the “Document Raster Effects Settings” under the “Effects” menu.

Just change your setting to 300dpi, and click OK.

Read the the rest of the questions on Bittbox.com

Thanks again, Jay!

I made a video tutorial, or a quick tip rather, for The Web Squeeze. This is the result:

One of the most difficult issues is figuring out how to use less than perfect photos sent from clients for their website. This tutorial explains how to improve an image in Photoshop using the lasso tool a little feathering as well as hue and saturation. Within minutes you will go from having an amateur photo to one that is very professional.

Another tutorial. This time with audio!

This video will show you how to make a square with 2 rounded egdes corners in Illustrator. (Somebody had to rain on my parade, and tell me it’s not “rounded egdes”, but “rounded corners”. Oh well, I think you know what I meant )

Notes: Topic I’m talking about in the video on The Web Squeeze.

Square with 2 rounded edges – Illustrator – Tutorial from Mark Poppen on Vimeo.

(If I pronounce things weird, or if a sentence is backwards, that’s because english is not my first language )

My "wooden" shoes.

… oh, here they are

Niki asked designers to submit our shoes to make a blog-post out of it. As I kinda had a feeling where this was going to (colorful designer shoes), I thought I’d submit something different.

When I moved to Canada with my wife, my aunt gave us a little present at the airport, just before boarding the plane. Fluffy slippers in the shape of wooden shoes. Mine has an image of my provincial flag, and my wife got a pair with an image of a Dutch windmill.

Anywho, I made it in another list