Liz Doten Graphic Design

Help? Design and art director friends... my contextual task bar in Photoshop has suddenly disappeared. For context, I have a task, in Photoshop, and if I don't find it I will be heading to a bar. TIA!

(I already checked under the Windows tab and it's not in the list)

Oh Shutterstock, you continue to surprise me.

Last year was a total blur, one of my busiest yet! So please excuse my complete delinquency on posting what I have been up to. But let's start bringing you up to speed... Remember way back when I was designing a mascot for a client? Let's start there! This water purification company needed a complete rebranding and really wanted a penguin mascot, but then decided on a polar bear! So fun! We started with 5 and these were the top 3. Any guesses which one they chose?

Oh how I love coming across great design in the wild…

Awww come on, Pexels. Let's not play games. You heard what I said.

Often, I have to spend a bit to get just the right font from the foundry. But, my current favorite bold sans-serif for headlines and logos is a completely free one. It's called Intro. I used it all the time. The K has a sweet curve at the top and the O and Q are almost perfect circles which makes this chunky beauty a very approachable and likable font. Download it here:
https://www.dafontfree.io/intro-font-free/

So some of you may already know this, but just in case, there has been a major shift in the Adobe and Pantone relationship.

Pantone colors and Pantone 4 color blends are no longer available on Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. It’s interesting and kind of sad that is has happened. It’s been a long time coming since printers rarely print that way anymore since we now have 6 and 8 color presses. And the accuracy has gotten so good in the past decade color matching isn’t as much of an issue anymore. People are saying this may signal the final Pantone demise. I guess we’ll see.

Anyway, what this means for clients is that in the past, some clients wanted 2 or 3 color Pantone versions of their logos and those are pretty much obsolete.

I am a little concerned for some of my packaging clients that use black and a Pantone ink. Often bright or a fluorescent to both save money and pop off shelves at the same time. And I’m not sure how to spec metallic inks moving forward. I have calls set up with my printers to discuss. I recommend you do the same.

Anyway, Pantone is trying to give designers an option by providing a subscription service called Pantone Connect at 30 a month but none of the designers I know are biting. Personally I’m holding off to see where things land.

That’s it. Just wanted to bring it to your attention. If you have any questions, reach out and I’ll do my best to try and help.