Astute Graphics

[iamtheblues]

Here is my new avatar made indirectly using Illustrator (host) for two plugins by Astute Graphics - Mirrorme and Dynamic Corners, with more than a little help from the font
Bouton Nouveau Ornaments* (Hat tip to Gare) (Upper Case U) attached. I like the Art Nouveau/Tribal quality of this, and it was a breeze to make even though Illustrator was involved (peripherally).
I liked the result a lot and decided to use it as my new avatar.
To my mind this is the way that Xara should go with its Version 11 release. The Astute Graphics products - Phantasm, Mirrorme, Stylism and others have all made Illustrator a lot easier to use, offering easy rounded corners, vector halftones, easy colour control, line width control and much more. The whole package of plugins are on offer at present with a huge $120 (US) discount. It's not cheap, but it does add so much improved workflow which Illustrator has lacked compared to Xara Designer.
If you have a copy of Illustrator (CS5 or newer) it's worth checking out the 14 day free trial on their products, (some of which are free).
Personally I'd happily wait a couple of years for the next XDP version if it offered anything similar to this.
Bob.

* apologies for not supplying a link to the above-mentioned font, I was unable to find it on the Xara Xone.