Join me for an online talk about COLOR

I’ve done a bunch of design-related presentations at conferences, but this’ll be my first zoom-style presentation. And I’m looking forward to it! My session will be about COLOR. And I do love talking about color. I’ll be getting into all kinds of practical and useful topics about choosing and using colors for your works of design and art, and then I’ll be sticking around to say hello and answer questions. Interested? Check out the website for the Design and Marketing Summit that’ll be happening July 27 and 28, 2023.

My fourth video course is up and running on the ever-awesome LinkedIn Learning site

Okay. Let me explain this thing real quick. In sports, athletes who are involved in a particular activity often do this thing called “cross-training.” That’s where they purposely spend time doing other sports so that they can build muscle, expand skills, and give themselves a much-needed mental break from their main sport. And yes, this concept can be applied to creativity, too. Like when a graphic designer takes up painting, writing photography, or videography on the side. Just for fun. And, as a result, several super-beneficial things can happen. For one thing, they’re given a little vacation from their everyday world of the design biz. Plus, they can learn skills that can be added to their bag of tricks as a designer. And on top of all that, these new creative outlets might even lead to whole new career opportunities. It happens! So, if you’re a member of LinkedIn Learning, consider checking out this 12-part course where I present you with a dozen pretty darn awesome creative activities that you can try out on your own—both just for the fun of it and to maybe even point your career into whole new directions.

And now for something… different

Did you know that your humble desktop scanner can be used to make all kinds of unique and good-looking visual art? It’s called the art of scanography, and all you need is a scanner, some basic photo-editing software, and something from around the home, office, or yard (pretty much anything that will fit on top of a scanner—without breaking it—is fair game for a scanography project).

And guess what. Yep—I’ve teamed up with LinkedIn Learning and Lynda.com to create a 25-chapter video course that’s designed to show how YOU can use a desktop scanner to come up with all kinds eye-catching imagery that might not only look great in a frame on your wall, but also as a nice addition to your professional creative portfolio. If you want to get a glimpse at what I’m talking about here, check out this free chapter-video from the course. Also, I’ve posted some sneak-preview images right here, and the full course is here.

Had a great time speaking at the Revolve Conference in Charleston, S.C.

I’d been wanting to go to the annual Revolve Conference, and when I heard it would be in one of my favorite cities this year (none other than the Mecca of Southern cooking, Charleston, S.C.), I said yes to a speaking gig at the event and started packing my bags. What a fun conference. Small enough that it was easy to connect with other attendees and big enough to attract some really great talent. My talk had the tiny little title of, If Your Job’s Going To Be A Circus, Then Why Not Make It A Fun Circus Where You’re The Ringleader. Got lots of great feedback on the talk and I hope to be back at this conference in the future!

Impersonating a movie star

Being a designer/author/presenter who LOVES shooting photos, I've been brainstorming ways of doing an instructional video course on photography for at least a decade—a course aimed specifically at designers and other creative professionals. Well, I finally did something about it and hooked up with Lynda.com (a.k.a. LinkedIn Learning) to produce a 31-chapter online course that’s jam-packed with photos, videos, ideas, instruction, and inspiration from start to finish.

I will say, though, that the doing of this course put me in a place that I take pains to avoid: On the front side of a camera that’s recording not just my face, but my words, too. Yikes. Still, I’m happy to report that the experience wasn't remotely as unpleasant as I feared it would be. And it actually made me feel like a movie star (or something like that) for about a week. Plus, the whole thing resulted in a video course that both I and the great people at Lynda.com are very happy with.

You can find out more about the course here. There's also a free sample video if you'd like to take a look.

A New and Even Better Color Index.

Color Index XL is much larger than its two popular predecessors (Color Index and Color Index 2), has way more colors, is organized and formatted in a completely new way, and, In my humble opinion, is something you should really check out.

Time for a change

Yep, Jim Krause Design is now Pixelfly Creative. I've been wanting to make this change for a while now and I thought that my move from Bellingham to Boise gave me just the excuse I was looking for. I talk a little more about this change on the Pixelfly Explained page.

Have YOU seen my online color course yet?

I've put together 28-chapter video course with Lynda.com (a.k.a. LinkedIn Learning). It’s called Color for Design and Art and it features tons and tons of tips, examples, demonstrations, and ideas for designers, artists, and anyone else who wants to get a better handle on choosing and using colors. And much to my pleasant surprise, it seems to be pretty darn popular with viewers.

You can see a free preview here.

Colors and magic

I recently uploaded two articles for designers, illustrators, and most any other kind of creative professional. Both of the articles appear on LinkedIn: Designers and illustrators: Don’t blame your colors if your color scheme is ugly and Success as a creative freelancer isn’t pure magic. But mostly it is.

Feeding my feed

As a true addict of picture-taking and movie-making, I love being able to upload my day-to-day images and videos to my Instagram feed. Feel free to follow me if you if you feel so inclined. Below is a stream of my latest uploads.