I use a large graphics tablet for drawing images on my computer in the studio, but I felt I needed a small pen tablet to have at my desk at home. This weekend, I finally got round to getting a Wacom Bamboo tablet and setting it up.

Though I have had a Wacom tablet for quite a while, I suspected I wasn’t really getting the most out of it and I wanted to find out what I was missing out on...

Luckily, you don’t have to set your tablet up very often and luckily, I found two really helpful tutorials on how to set up your Wacom tablet.

How to Set up Your Wacom for Awesome Results from GoMediaZine
This is a great tutorial on how to get started with the Wacom tablet and use it in Adobe Photoshop.

Wacom Settings In Illustrator from Vectips
An informative guide on to how to set up a pen tablet to get the most out of using it Adobe Illustrator.

Tags: design resources

I am delighted to announce that my article about how to create 512x512 icons for Mac OS X Leopard has been published at Smashing Magazine!

Smashing Magazine delivers useful, inspirational and innovative information for designers and web-developers and it's a great pleasure for me to contribute to such a creative designer environment!

“In 2000 Apple released the visual theme Aqua, a stunning leap forward in graphical user interface design. At the same time Apple published the Human Interface Guidelines (HIG), a tool for developers and designers that gives a detailed breakdown of the design philosophy behind Aqua. Apple recently updated their Human Interface Guidelines (HIG), to include the way the visual theme Aqua has evolved in Apple's latest operating system, OS X 10.5 Leopard. This is the first update since 2006.”

Aqua: "Gorgeous, artistic icons are an important part of the Mac OS X user experience. Users expect beautiful icons that tell an application’s story in a clear and memorable way". Well, how do icon designers go about creating beautiful icons in 512x512 glory? Leopard and the Updated HIG: A Designer's Guide to Icons examines Aqua's interface. Realism, symbols, silhouettes, transparency, light source and perspective. We take a look at the Dock, Leopard's file browser Cover Flow and the icon sizes. Finally you will find some practical tips on how to scale your art work so that the smaller versions become crisp and clear.

Tags: Apple, Mac OS X, Leopard, usability, interface, gui, realism

Sick of that boring, impersonal, generic computer desktop but not quite sure how to change it and make it yours? The Help Desk is open! Here you you can find out how to use icons to declutter your desktop and create a personal and productive work space.

Step-by-step tutorials walk you through how to save desktop art to your computer with ease and how to change the desktop icons on Mac OS X or how to customize the icons on Windows, how to use system replacement icons as well as how to customise your desktop picture on a Mac or your wallpaper in Windows with just a few clicks. Tutorials both for Windows and Mac.

There is no need to worry about which operating system you are using! These simple steps work in both Windows Vista, Windows XP as well as the classic, older Windows operating systems. Mac users can use these tutorials both to customise Mac OSX Leopard, the previous verisons of Mac OSX and the classic older versions of Mac operating systems.

There is also a printable PDF version that provides a way for you to keep an offline copy or print a copy for later use. Sometimes it can be handy to have a printed version on one's desk, whilst going through the different steps.

It's fun and easy to beautify your desktop! To make your digital working and leisure environment personal, functional, organized, uncluttered, practical, productive, gorgeous, delightful, to give it the look and visual cues you want it to have!

Tags: gui, guide, how-to, customise, productivity, declutter, interface, Mac, Mac OS X, Leopard, Windows, Vista

“There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” - Albert Einstein

I have been experimenting with Twitter. Poetic micro-blogging. Brief moments. A cup of coffee or bird song. Fleeting thoughts. Glimpses of my day. Often something that inspires me. Something that brightens my day. Small miracles.

If you are curious you can follow my twits, um, my tweets I mean. I hope they can inspire you!

This creative tutorial video “Twitter in Plain English” by Lee LeFever from Common Craft explains how Twitter works.



Of course you can be creative with Twitter. You don't have to report to the whole world your every move. It doesn't have to be a source of stress, yet one more thing to update, like a timesheet.

It is interesting to see how a great fear or awareness of George Orwell's Big Brother watching has been replaced by the current trend to voluntarily report one's activities! Without being too paranoid, I think it is a good idea to be aware that burglars and stalkers may take advantage of the information that people publish. Also, it might be a good idea to take into account that people like your business associates or your future employer could be following your tweets.

However, you can protect your updates so that only those you approve can follow your tweets. Maybe you only want your family and close friends to read your tweets. Maybe you are using Twitter to increase your productivity in work situations and only want your co-workers to follow your updates. You can even use Twitter as a tool just for yourself and not allow anyone to follow you. Then again maybe you want the whole world to read them! It's all up to you.

Some people use Twitter to be more productive and use it to network, promote their businesses and collaborate with co-workers. Or as a to-do-list. To ask a question. A shopping list. Or for themselves, for example to track exercises and calorie intake. Others use Twitter to report a stream of daily activities and thoughts or to vent publicly.

Some feel that answering the question “what are you doing?” is the ultimate way to use Twitter, whilst others feel that is the least interesting way.

I am experimenting with micro poetry. See what you can create with it... Maybe a small miracle!

Tags: poetry, social networking, Twitter