Xara for Blockheads...

[gwpriester]

I love the scrabble tiles, Ross. They look better than a photograph. To add a subtle touch of reality, I'd move the wood grain fill around on the tiles so that they don't all look like clones of one another. But they look great.

Xara should use the image (after paying for the use of course) as the illustration for an ad for Xara X.

Klaus. I cannot tell you how many times I have shot myself in the foot in a fit of creative self-righteousness. Or how many times I have "fallen on the sword" as we used to say.

But in my old age, I have put my ego to one side and tried to work with my clients on a team basis whereby they provide input and criteria and I provide the design and condeptual solution. It works pretty well.

There is a famous story in which Bill Bernbach was sitting in a meeting in which one of DDB's clients was railing on and on. Bill had written something on a piece of paper and from time to time, he would take this piece of paper out of his pocket, glance at it and put it back into his pocket.

After the meeting, one of the creative team asked what was on the paper. Bernbach took out the piece of paper and showed it to him. On it was written,

Maybe he's right?

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

Be It Even So Humble...

[This message was edited by Gary W. Priester on April 25, 2001 at 05:20 PM.]

[Ross Macintosh]

Gary - regarding the tiles, I already had adjusted the fills around on them. I guess with enthusiasm I ended up duplicating a few to fill in the arrangement. I forgot to edit those ones and now some do stand out as being the same. Funny how it's the things that are wrong that really stand out some times. My other criticsm is that the black letters look too crisp.

I love the story about Bill Bernbach. Perhaps we should all carry a little piece of paper like that. My father always said to me "Better to remain silent and thought a fool - than open your mouth and remove all doubt". I was too self-centered to realize he was advising me to shut my mouth more often! With age I think I'm maturing a wee bit.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[gwpriester]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Funny how it's the things that are wrong that really stand out some times. My other criticsm is that the black letters look too crisp. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Another advertising catch phrase was that something stands out like a hog on a sofa. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

Ross

The letters on Scrabble pieces are slightly indented, you could try a round emboss with the light source reversed. And the tiles might be a bit brighter towards the back where they would catch more light.

But the image looks darn convicing the way it is. These are nit picks.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

Be It Even So Humble...

[Ross Macintosh]

Gary - Thanks! I went back and added a slight bevel to the letters and adjusted some of the fills. I substituted the revised image for the original. See above...

Regards, Ross
<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

EDIT - Since I originally posted this reply I went back and returned the original image. I've posted a zoomed version of the scrabble pieces that feature beveled text as Gary suggested. You can find that below - RM

[This message was edited by Ross Macintosh on April 26, 2001 at 05:55 PM.]

[pduggan]

X scores 8, F scores 4 and all your other letters score 1 each. But today's paper has a piece about Polish Scrabble (1 for a Z and 7 for any vowel, apparently!)... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]



Peter</p>



Peat Stack or Pete's Tack?</p>

[Erik Heyninck]

If you make a complete set and include snap to grid, you can play Scrabble on your PC.

[Ross Macintosh]

Peter - I should have known there'd be some scrabble players among us! Bad thing about doing this exercise in Xara is it is so easy to edit I've no excuses for not changing it. I'll do it later. (My wife hates it when I say that!).

Erik - Ya I suppose that would work. The technique would also work for doing webgraphics. I'm thinking I should make a "themed set" that can be downloaded from my site for those who don't just do-it-themselves.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[james_frost]

Erik, you just reminded me of one of the first games I wrote on an Acorn Archimedes way back in the early nineties.

I used the std Acorn vector package !Draw (possibly an inspiration for Artworks and therefore Xara? - it did have bezier curves, fills, fonts etc but was a little bit of a dog as I remember) to write a chess game for two players by drawing a chess board and the set of pieces which you could move about!

James

[Bob C.]

Ross

I really enjoy your posts, mini-tutorials and willingness to share techniques, I look forward to them. You are one of the experts here and seeing this exchange with Gary and others is very educational.

SOOOO please don’t replace your “original� effort with the latest and greatest but post another so we can see the changes and compare!

The subtleties are priceless and something no “how to� book can ever have. What a plus this Forum is!

Bob C.

[Ross Macintosh]

Bob C. - You are right about swapping images. It obscures the relevance of the subsequent posts and dimenishes our ability to learn from one another. I've gone back and returned the image to its original version. Rather than repost the edited image again I've created a new zoomed version that gives a better idea of the beveled text that Gary suggested. (The effect wasn't really visible in the unzoomed jpg).

With regards to my being an "expert": I don't think so! I'm still learning what I can do with this sweet program. With the help of others, and by pushing myself, I know I will continue learn more. The methods and techniques I currently use are by no means the "proper" way to do things - they are just one way.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>