Design
How to Describe a Step-by-Step Process Visually in MS Word 2010
© 2011 Ugur Akinci MS Word 2010 has these beautiful SMART ART drag-and-drop dynamic images that you can use to express many complex ideas like a step-by-step procedure, for example. There are almost infinite ways to do this but here’s a try: (1) Launch your MS Word 2010. Select the Insert tab on your MS…
Read MoreWhat are the Differences Between Technical Illustration, Information Design, and Editorial Illustration?
© 2010 Ugur Akinci Thanks to a number of responses to an earlier post about Technical Illustration, I had the opportunity to think more about the topic. I now realize that I have not clarified the various niches that exist within the catch-all category of graphic arts that we call “technical illustration.” Here I’d like…
Read MoreHow to Develop Your Technical Illustration Skills
© Ugur Akinci As I mentioned several times in the past, if you are a technical communicator who enjoys graphic arts, you are missing something in your career if you have not developed your technical illustration skills. Our industry is very ripe for those writers who can also draw and create all kinds of technical…
Read MoreHow to Create a Pie Chart with Adobe Illustrator
© 2010 Ugur Akinci Did you know that you can create 3-D pie (and other types of) charts with Adobe Illustrator? Here is how: (1) Select the pie chart tool from the tool bar and double-click it to display the Graph dialog box: (2) Enter 200 px for both Width and Height of the chart…
Read MoreGraphic Design & Single-Sourcing — Revitalize Your Technical Communication Career in the Post-Writing Phase
© 2010 Ugur Akinci Technical communication is a great exciting field full of material and non-material rewards. But if you’ve been in the business for 5 or over 10 years, things can start getting a bit stale. You’ll know when that time comes to push your career up to a new orbit. You can spark…
Read MoreMake Sure your Images Broadcast the Right Message about you & your business
A web site must reflect the correct image about you and your business with its design, color pallet, content, and also the IMAGES used. Sometimes I’m surprised how careless some web site owners are in the message they are broadcasting with the images they choose. Here is the web site of a writing service. I…
Read MoreImportance of Book Covers
A unique blog post on a topic that is usually ignored by most self-publishers… (Excerpts) There are two key things you can NOT skimp on when you are self-publishing. One is an editor. No matter how careful a writer you are, you have to have an editor. Period. The second, of course, is the cover.…
Read MoreWhen the Form Does not Fit the Content – A Classical Information Design Problem
FORM and CONTENT are two wings of the same bird. When one of them fail, the bird does not fly — or flies in circles.To make sure the two fit one another perfectly is a very old problem and challenge in information design and marketing. Sometimes the challenge is met through resorting to “genres.” Genres…
Read MoreREADER QUESTION: What qualifies as "doctoring" an image?
© 2009 Ugur Akinci ANSWER: When you change (modify) an image, the new work is sometimes referred to as the “derivative” work or image. An example: let’s say you buy a stock image of a kid eating a cone of ice cream on a background of a “school.” If you change the background in Photoshop…
Read More7 Tips for Drawing Great Labels in Adobe Illustrator
© Ugur Akinci You can enhance the value of your services as a technical communicator and writer if you learn how to draw labels. Thousands of companies out there need labels to market their products. While some of these labels are rather elaborate and require the skills of a trained graphic artist, not all labels…
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