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      COMPUTERS


      
In the late 80's I was working
      as a graphic and production artist in a screen printing company.
      I was vaguely aware of computers being used for producing art.
      Then John, who was working on his thesis on computers at one
      of the private colleges in Honolulu, approached the owners of
      the company about setting up a network of computers for our shop.
      The owners agreed. John asked me a lot of questions about what
      I did in the art department to get an idea what I needed. He
      had planned on getting the art department up and running first
      before anyone else in the shop. The computer platform he decided
      to use was the MacIntosh. The Mac II family of computers were
      the latest models for Apple around that time. The Mac OS was
      called System 6.

      It took me awhile to really learn how to use the computer because
      I had to use a graphic program and apply it to the graphic and
      production work I was doing. John tutored me a little bit in
      the beginning but I pretty much had to learn on my own on the
      short amount of time I could spend on the computer. The computer
      that John set up for the art room was a MacIIcx. After asking
      me some questions, he chose Freehand over Illustrator for my
      drawing program. John figured out how to use Freehand and then
      showed me how to use it. I've never used a computer before so
      it was a whole new experience. The problem was getting me to
      use it on a regular basis. There was so much work to be done
      and I had to get the jobs out as fast as I could. Since I hardly
      knew how to use the computer I would end up doing the work the
      old way, which was actually faster because that was what I was
      used to. I finally decided that I had to really learn how to
      use the computer and be able to use it to do all my work. I would
      stay after hours, on my own free time, and familiarize myself
      with the machine. I even did actual jobs, just the very simple
      ones first and made sure I completed them from start to finish.
      The computer just changed the way jobs were done and empowered
      me in so many ways.

      
MacIntosh, Windows, and Graphics
      Programs

      
I use both Mac and Windows; Mac
      at home and Windows at work. I started using Macs first in 1986
      and bought my first Mac in 1987. It is my preferred platform.
      In 1996 I was hired by a sign company. They were using PCs that
      were still on Windows 3.1. Windows had gained more prominence
      in the sign industry and a lot of the sign layout programs were
      Windows only.

      
The very first graphic program
      I used on the Mac platform was Aldus Freehand, which later became
      Macromedia Freehand, and now Adobe Freehand. It has been discontinued
      by Adobe. Eventually I had to learn how to use Adobe Illustrator
      because it had become the standard graphic program for most graphic
      artists. I tried using Canvas in the early years but it was a
      very difficult program to learn and I never really needed it.
      I've come to rely on Adobe Photoshop for photo or image editing
      and I used Quark Xpress a little bit; first, for printing film
      positives used in screen printing and then for brochure and flyer
      layouts. But my favorite graphics probram is still Freehand.
      I use it just about for everything from printing labels, making
      greeting cards, resumes, brochures, programs, posters, button
      arrows for my website, graphic designs for t-shirts, signs, etc.
      I'll keep using Freehand till my hardware and OS updates force
      me to stop using it.

      On the PC I'm using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Gerber
      Omega for sign layouts. I tried using Corel Draw and Corel Paint
      but could never get used to the way things were done in those
      programs. Occasionally, I have to fire up Corel Draw but very
      rarely now.

      For most of these graphic programs, I know just enough to get
      the job done. I've never mastered any of them. I came close with
      Freehand but I've since lost my Freehand skills by not using
      it every day. I've never had the opportunity to get into 3-D
      and animation. It just takes too much of your time. The best
      way to learn these programs is if they were the main tool for
      your job.

      So there, that's a rough scope of my knowledge and experience
      with some of today's graphics and arts programs.

      

      
    

      
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