UCD Authors and UCD Archives pull up banners

UCD Authors was an initiative set up to highlight the many alumni and academic staff who have published work. The first author to kick off this series was Roddy Doyle who hosted a Q&A session in the Library Hub of James Joyce Library. For about an hour on Thursday the 12th November 2015, Roddy interacted with and answered questions from students about his working life and his many books including The Commitments, The Woman who Walked into Doors and The Giggler Treatment.

In store promotions for One Oh Nine

I love ladies' fashion so I was thrilled to work with independent retailer One Oh Nine in Autumn 2015. One Oh Nine is located on the main street in Bray, Ireland and we worked together to create in store promotional banners. The model used here is Ciara Bardon who is managed by the Andrea Roche Model Agency (you can find her here: http://armodelagency.com/2012/03/29/female-18-25/?nggpage=3). The location for the shoot is along Bray's fantastic Victorian promenade. I felt strongly about showcasing somewhere familiar to One Oh Nine's customers as this emphasises that the shop is an independent retailer. I feel we produced commercial photography of an extremely high standard.

Branding for the Irish Poetry Reading Archive: The Voice of Irish Poets

“No poet will ever take the written word as a substitute for the spoken word; he knows that it is on the spoken word, and the spoken word only, that his art is founded.”

Lascelles Abercrombie

Head of Development and Strategic Programmes for UCD Library, Ursula Byrne and UCD Digital Library went about curating an archive of the spoken word. As Mr. Abercrombie states above, poetry is intended for the ear and not just for paper. This archive allows audiences to experience the authors’ own interpretation audibly. This archive is the first of its kind in Ireland and features Irish and English language poets.

Finding Inspiration, Canva & Getting Hipster

Recently I posted this tweet:

In the midsts of redesigning a new header image for my website http://t.co/CnBgj68SgN #exciting #webdesign #WatchThisSpace #GraphicDesign

— Melanie Simpson (@WhoIsMelanieS) May 28, 2015

I wanted to redesign my header image for my website. I wanted something more modern than what I had. I played around in Illustrator - but nothing came. I was out of ideas and had little inspiration!

The back and forth of Graphic Design - LIBQUAL Case Study

Designing for clients is a process. Through communication and brainstorming, ideas evolve and grow. This was something I wasn't used to when I got my first job in UCD in August 2013. I had come straight from college and if I was happy with a concept and design then it was to be put forward and graded. It took time to get used to designing for others. 

How to convert paths into shapes in Illustrator

Here's something I learnt recently that I got REALLY excited about! So many times I have struggled with paths in Illustrator and just didn't know how to make them into shapes. Until now!

Take the below image as an example. I was trying to make a laptop icon. I wanted to use the Shape Builder tool to cut out the laptop and have the white circle as the icon. I made the laptop using the Rounded Rectangle shape tool and used the Pen tool to draw the cord.

How to select all text in Illustrator

Here's something I thought I wouldn't need to know in Illustrator. A little while ago I was working on an illustration for a document. This diagram had numerous individual pieces of text. I eventually needed to select all. Here's how to do it without choosing each individually. 

How to stop hyphenation in InDesign

InDesign is a powerful tool. I truly believe I have only scratched the surface of understanding it's capabilities for digital publishing. However; there are some things in InDesign which perplex me. One of these is it's enthusiasm for hyphenation.

How to transfer layers to a new document in Photoshop

Adobe products are renowned for their flexibility and versatility. Whatever you want to do, Adobe most likely has an answer.

Say you are trying to get the same effects from Photoshop into a new Photoshop document. Well, there's a solution for that. And you guessed it; it's simple once you know how!

Inserting Placeholder Text in InDesign

And we're back!

I had to take a little break from posting for the past few weeks as my lovely HP Desktop broke. I still don't understand how it was fixed (as it kind of fixed itself) but it is fixed and that is the main thing! And none of my progams or work has been lost so I am a very happy bunny altogether!

Here is a little InDesign tip to get us back into the swing of things.

Technical Difficulties

Unfortunately, I broke my computer the other week. I did this by messing around with the resolution because I was trying to install something. Lesson learnt. So now I have to go get it fixed but it is a big HP tower with a big HP monitor so it's not so easy to cart around. Anyway, this is why my posts are slipping! :(

Although, I have been learning about SVGs or Scalable Vector Graphics recently. Take a look at my Twitter feed to see what I've been looking at!

What I do in work all day!

Recently, the Library held a Library Staff Day. The purpose of this day was for staff to connect with each other and view insights into colleagues' work. An important part of this day were the posters. A handful of staff were asked to produce a poster about their work or a particular project they have been involved in. I was chosen and here is my poster below. I think it really illustrates exactly what I do from day to day in my job assisting the Library's Outreach team. 

How to type on an arc and flip text in Illustrator

Yet another issue I had to look up twice. Recently I have been making posters in Illustrator which require text on an arc. This is very simple to do once you know how. 

How to crop artwork when exporting from Illustrator

Here's something else that was driving me nuts in work! A few days ago I was attempting to export my Illustrator file from Illustrator to a JPEG. However, when exported; the JPEG would include objects outside of the artboard, resulting in monstrosities like this below.

Melanie Simpson wins Graduate of the Year 2013

I, Melanie Simpson became Senior College Dun Laoghaire's Graduate Diploma in Creative Multimedia's Graduate of the Year 2013 on the 29th of November 2013. I was awarded in University College Dublin's O'Reilly Hall at my graduation ceremony. 

Every month the Library publishes a Staff Social Bulletin. I wrote a small article about my award which featured in the December edition. This piece follows below.

Show hidden characters in InDesign

What's hiding in your InDesign document? Show Hidden Characters can tell you. Hidden characters are your spaces, your tabs, your carriage returns, elements that you type but can not actually see. Turning on Show Hidden Characters can assist you when editing and formatting text in InDesign as you can see exactly how it was typed and how you can change and improve it. 

How to import text from Word to Adobe InDesign

You've finally completed that newsletter in Word. But oh no! It was supposed to be created with InDesign? Don't worry! Importing text from other programs to InDesign is much simpler than you think. Let's learn how.

How to ensure you don't lose images you have imported into your project

So, you're just getting to grips with Adobe Illustrator and InDesign and you're placing images into your projects. It's going well - but when you revisit your projects, some images have disappeared! It's a disaster!

This post will explain why Illustrator and InDesign sometimes loses images and will show you how to avoid this in future. Let's go!

How to add a page curl to your image

Part of my job is to make promotional images for the Library's homepage. This week I was asked to make an image to promote the Library's Annual Plan for 2014. I wanted this image to entice audiences to read the report and thought a page curl could do that. 

Get custom shapes from Photoshop to Illustrator

This is something I don't understand. Why hasn't Adobe added custom shapes to Illustrator? However, there's good news. If you have access to Illustrator AND Photoshop, you can add the custom shape vectors to your Illustrator project.

 Let's do it.