Design Briefs

Adobe Photoshop’s ‘Save As’ Function

Photoshop offers a few different ways to save a project. There’s Save, Save As, and Export, but the May 2021 update for Photoshop on Desktop for Mac brings a new command: Save a Copy. 

As confusing as it seems, version 22.4 of the desktop version for Mac throws in a function that could already be achieved with the Save As command for decades. Adobe explains in its release notes: “Save a Copy automatically creates a copy of your work and allows you to export and share in your desired file format like JPEG, EPS, and so on, without overwriting the original file and protecting your data in the process.”

The rationale behind this is pretty bizarre. The Save As command itself can no longer be used to save files as JPEGs. As such, anyone who wishes to change an image’s file type to a (now) unsupported format will need to save a copy.

Source: DesignTaxi

UCDA Journal: A source for in-house creators

UCDA now has an online journal! We hope this becomes a space to gather inspiration and knowledge, as well as elevating the role of our members.

Here’s a sneak peek at some of the content we’ll provide to you, which we hope to publish twice a week:

• UCDA Design Show Award winners will discuss
  the inspiration and process behind the work.
• Select content from our award-winning
  magazine Designer.
• Interviews with upcoming speakers, so you can learn more about their work before seeing them at events.
• The stories behind some of our members’ award-winning shots.
• Topical discussions from design educators about the future of design education.
• Conversations between members.
• Workflow and process issues: how others are solving those problems.

We hope you enjoy reading it and share it with others so that we can grow our community. And, most importantly, we want this journal to belong to you. We are looking for people willing to contribute. If you want to be a part of it, reach out! It’s a great opportunity to develop your writing skills and let your manager know that you’re nationally published.

Do you have a topic you think we need to include? Let us know what matters to you and we’ll try to get content that you need to make your work better and easier.

You may see current posts and suggest topics or submit stories at www.ucda.com/journal.

Fraver Posters Support Broadway Workers

COVID-19 has brought the American theater industry to its knees, with Broadway cancelling all shows until September 2021. For  professionals who make their living from putting on these shows, the loss of income and a safe place to work is a serious concern. The Broadway Cares/Equity Fight AIDS, the philanthropic heart of Broadway, is providing groceries and medication and health care for those struggling during the pandemic.

To help support this fund, well-known US theater poster designer Frank ‘Fraver’ Verlizzo is making previously unseen Broadway posters available for sale for the first time. Frank is one of the most prolific theater poster designers of the modern era and has been working on some of the biggest Broadway shows of the last 50 years.

These 16 posters—some of which have never been shown to the public—are included in a collection of “rejected” alternative designs and concept sketches. They feature Fraver’s work on some of Broadway’s most successful and iconic shows including The Lion King. The compilation also features rare posters in which his work was not the final design chosen: Into the Woods, Matilda, and Cabaret, among others.

Gelato, an on-demand print company, is partnering directly with Verlizzo and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS to have the posters distributed.

Source: GDUSA

Go clickety-clack—LEGO Vintage Typewriter

The LEGO Ideas Typewriter is here, and it even comes with a note written and signed by LEGO Group chairman Thomas Kirk Kristiansen, a fourth-generation member of the family business, as a love letter to “the lost art of letter writing.”

Worth writing home about, the 2,079-piece set includes a functioning center typebar that rises each time you enter a key, as well as a carriage that slides as you type. There’s also a platen roller to insert real paper into.

tinyurl.com/ucda-LEGO-typewriter