How can one man make a difference? Just read the headlines of one of the most prolific men in our century. Some called him a brilliant marketer! Others called him one of the greatest inventors of our time and that he should be mentioned along side with Einstein and Edison! I merely knew him as someone whom changed my life. I remember seeing my first Mac in 1984. My coworker and roommate bought one and brought it to the office at a local Time Warner Cable branch where we worked. 

Fresh out of college, I created parodies at college even before the "Onion" was around. From 1980-1984, we cut and pasted from copy machines. The desktop publishing revolution happened in the mid-to-late 80s. I graduated in 1984. The Apple Macintosh was this little beige, box with a mouse. All I remember is how fascinated I was with the prospect that not only could I change the text or font from Courier to Palatino, but that I was learning about page layout, typography, and design. These were things that were not taught in college. And even if they were, they couldn't have accomplished what I learned in those fleeting moments sitting in front of a Macintosh, this game-changer. I like many of my college graduates wasn't sure what direction my life would take. Here I was, a promising business graduate from the largest university in New York State and I had no direction. Steve Jobs helped change that. Getting my hands on the Mac as much as I could was not only my mantra but a hunger. I quit that job, went back to school to learn more about this crazy machine called the Macintosh. From that point on, I worked at jobs that had large Macintosh installations. I worked for the first magazine to incorporate the Macintosh in 100% of the production, design, and editorial of the magazine (American Demographics magazine). I later went on to work at an Apple Retail store where I took classes from Apple on how to sell more Macs and educate the consumer. I founded two greeting card companies (NickCards and Fishlip Greetings) where I created my work on a Macintosh. The latter is where I was awarded a Finalist award for the LOUIE awards. It's the most prestigious awards given out to greeting card writers and illustrators. I later became a graphic designer with an award-winning, advertising agency in New York State where we worked on Macintoshes. And now here I am more than twenty-seven years later, an Apple Developer, Apple stockholder, and Apple owner of some of the most amazing technology that was ever designed. And behind every design, and every conceptual idea, Steve Jobs was there helping me along the way. Providing me with the tools to succeed. I followed his every step. I have all the magazine covers, have attended numerous Mac conventions. I followed him at NeXt and Pixar.

Steve Jobs is personally responsible for my successes and helping my dreams become reality. He has taught me that you can dream and do whatever your heart desires. Just believe in yourself and go do it! And for this, I will miss you. Thank you for your contributions to my life and those around me. You are an inspiration, and I'm thankful I got to know you.

Nick's Daily Design Diary 08312011

Today, I have a full plate. I have about twenty things to do before the day is out, but wanted to grab a few minutes before I started. Words can't fully convey the joy I have for this book. It has been a long time coming and I'm proud how it's coming out. We're in the final phases of production but there is so much more that needs to be done. It's true that time flies when you're having fun. It also flies when you can't figure out a problem. Thank God for my wife who is an excellent programmer. I've enlisted her to finish up the coding in .lua so that I can continue working on the design and production aspect. To give you an idea of what has to go into this book, I've listed the top ten things you need to do before you even start.

1. Research your idea
2. Research your title and make sure your characters are original
3. flush out your story in word or another text processor. (I use Text Wrangler)
4. Storyboard your idea on a sketch pad (leaving room for text, notes, and SFX)
5. Grab a pen and pencil and list your assets for each page. These will become your layers for each page.
6. Allow for a title page and credits or instructions before numbering your book. (I learned this the hard way)
7. Before you lay out your book, think about how many pages you will actually use.  Although it's possible to renumber your pages, it's a pain in the but when you have to change it.
8. Use Photoshop to organize your layers (assets) on each page
9. when cartooning, use a color page and an outline page so that your strokes around your characters are crisp and clean
10. If using KWIK to create your book, export your images once, and then turn off export images so that only your buttons and animations will get exported. This will save you time in processing.

Check back tomorrow for more tips and some design tips!