PAL Graphics Area: Blurb Updates Book Design Process

Ad Boy: Vintage Advertising with Character, Blurb updates book design process, and new service prints images on shower curtains.

Ad Boy: Vintage Advertising with Character
Pop culture historian Warren Dotz is an authority on product label art, and the author of eight books on advertising art. Masad Husain is a graphic designer, branding specialist and collector of American advertising ephemera. They recently collaborated on the creation of Ad Boy: Vintage Advertising with Character, published by Ten Speed Press, which features more than 500 characters from one of the largest collections of advertising character art in the U.S. Each chapter is dedicated to a different theme and shows how companies utilized and adapted their advertising mascots in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Ad Boy should thus prove to be a valuable resource for illustrators, graphic designers, advertising enthusiasts and nostalgia buffs. More information is available on the AdBoyWorld.com site.

Blurb Updates Book Design Process
Blurb is a web-driven publishing and marketing platform that enables anyone to design, publish, share and sell bookstore-quality books. Users can create these with the free Blurb BookSmart software, and then market and sell them using the Blurb bookstore and online marketing tools, while keeping 100% of the after-production costs. BookSmart 2.0 is said to include new features that give creative professionals full control in the customization of their book layouts. The introduction of flexible containers allows bookmakers to control the size, location, layers and content type of all elements on the page. Precision tool bars, gridlines for quick visual guidance, and the ability to save designed pages as custom layouts for reuse, offer extended flexibility for advanced users. BookSmart 2.0 adds an option to save custom book templates for use on other book projects, improving the workflow for professionals who want to reuse custom templates on similar projects. Version 2.0 also features improved image and text handling, including the ability to find and replace text, and faster loading and caching of images. Additional features include 24-bit color support, and support for Vista. Finally, a new 12x12 Large Square book format is available in Hardcover and Hardcover ImageWrap, and can be ordered with Premium Paper.

More information is available on the Blurb site.