nate update

This week marks a very important event in the creative community – and one that I have discussed like a broken record with my local AIGA board of directors past and present (sorry, guys and gals) – spec work. I have spoken out against Spec at events, hoping to educate designers from participating in glorified poster contests for a – ahem – living.

I am excited to see my AIGA investment continuing to pay itself off. Aside from the countless friends and colleagues, job interviews, client leads and awesome continuing education opportunities – the AIGA leadership has finally put its foot down against Spec work. Yesterday, Catherine Wentworth from NoSpec! interviewed new AIGA president, Debbie Millman. The resulting interview, seen here, is fantastic. It outlines new mandates for the 100-year anniversary of The Professional Association For Design – each of which are more progressive (and aggressive) than I have seen from this organization to date.

I cannot thank these two leaders enough for supporting our industry, and I can only hope creatives – from the AIGA or not – will support each other and follow their lead.

I cannot stress enough the importance of having good friends in your industry. For years, I have offered to bail out anyone who needed a spot to hang out and check their email, work for a few hours (or weeks), make a handshake happen or find the name of a missing font. I’m always glad to do these things to help out friends in a jam – or even friends of friends. I’m sure most people are the same as I am – with a few bad check writers and client stalkers in there, of course .(Karma works both ways).

Over the last month or so, I have had some bumps in the road with software, hardware and an exciting new endeavor or two or three. Thankfully, some of the people who I have helped out of jams in the past have come to my aid – and these things call for a Humongous Thank You.

You know who you are, and you know I’ll bail you out of your next jam. Cheers, Nate.

Dear Adobe: I’ve been furious to the point that I’m sick to my stomach today because of this technical glitch DISASTER with Lightroom 2.4 and CR2 raw files. I recently upgraded to 2.4, and I wish I didn’t.

Though I take the responsibility for not making immediate CD copies of these files, I was holding for an order from the client, and moved on to other projects. There were 343 CR2 images, and now I can use about 5 of them.

I have posted questions and images below. Please – someone give me an answer?

1. Why were these files mysteriously moved to the trash?

2. Why were these files corrupted?

3. Why can I preview in Bridge, but the data is corrupted when I open the file?

4. How can I prevent this and tell others to do the same?

5. When can I stop feeling like puking?