First time at SGIA and New Orleans

[Joe Diaz]

Well, my plane touched down late last night and it was another two hour drive back to Pontiac so I've been dragging a bit today... but man did I have a great time. I spent pretty much the entire time hanging out with Team Corel and the guys at Wilcom.

It was fun talking with other CorelDRAW users and even a bunch of hopefully soon to be CorelDraw users about the things we appreciate in our design software, but I had no idea all the little tricks and shortcuts I would learn myself. These guys at Corel know their software inside and out. The things I learned made my trip even more worth while.

I also enjoyed chatting with the folks at Roland. It was surreal to see my work being printed off on their demo machines. I spent a part of Wednesday and yesterday learning how to apply the Roland metallic ink color profiles to some other designs I was working on. With the help of Roger Wambolt from Corel and a few Roland employees we would get the artwork setup on my laptop over at the Corel booth then walk right next door to the Roland booth, upload, rip then print. Several minutes later I had some really nice metallic prints to take back home with me.

It wasn't all business though. After the expo closed up at 5 every night we would head out and experience some of the best that New Orleans had to offer. Sooo much good food and I can't even remember how many great bands we saw play as we made our way up and down Bourbon Street. The folks at Corel know how to have a good time.

Any other signs101 members have a good time at SGIA this year?

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Well, my plane touched down late last night and it was another two hour drive back to Pontiac so I've been dragging a bit today... but man did I have a great time. I spent pretty much the entire time hanging out with Team Corel and the guys at Wilcom.

I would have liked to have gone. Wilcom is one brand of software that I use for embroidery digitizing that I have done for everyone. Because of that I'm having to learn Corel as well. Some things I'm really liking about Corel versus Ai. Other things not so much, but I'm thinking it's due to all my years experience with Ai versus Corel.

Your design skills are exceptional and Corel was lucky enough to have you there to showcase their software.

 

[iSign]

You're a rock star man! You kicked akole with that design and watching your star shine a little brighter brings a genuine smile to my face, and even gives a small measure of vicarious satisfaction for having recognized that hard to overlook talent before it went international!

Sounds extra cool that you got some new gens of knowledge out of the trip too!

 

[Joe Diaz]

Because of that I'm having to learn Corel as well. Some things I'm really liking about Corel versus Ai. Other things not so much, but I'm thinking it's due to all my years experience with Ai versus Corel.

One thing you may want to try in Draw is going to "tools" "options" then "workspace" then checking the box next to "adobe illustrator". It may help you transition into Corel.

One of guys that I met this week, Adrian Garcia, who works for Corel designing things like their box art among other things, used to use illustrator before working for Corel. He was pointing that feature out to people who stopped by the booth and had questions about switching over. You may want to give that a shot.

That was probably one of my favorite parts. Convincing people to abandon illustrator for Draw. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :Big Laugh

 

[Joe Diaz]

You're a rock star man! You kicked akole with that design and watching your star shine a little brighter brings a genuine smile to my face, and even gives a small measure of vicarious satisfaction for having recognized that hard to overlook talent before it went international!

Sounds extra cool that you got some new gens of knowledge out of the trip too!

Thanks Doug. I'm a$$uming akole means a word not to be mentioned on signs101 anymore.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Very nice. I didn't do that for the Wilcom program (it has a toggle between embroidery mode and graphic mode (graphic mode is a full blown version of X5 like running 2 programs in one)) as I have started getting used to that layout, but I did do that with my standalone X5 program. That does help a lot.

Thanks for that little tidbit.