Last evening, I got the following frantic call from a student. “I was working on the logo assignment, Saved it and Quit to stop for dinner. When I reopened the logo, there was nothing on the page. It’s gone!” In jest, I answered, “So the computer ate your homework.” After a hesitation from the student, I continued, “Only kidding. Just go into Outline View (View > Outline) and I’m sure you’ll find it.” A short pause and the student replied, “Oh, there it is.” I jumped in, “You were working on the Knockout version of the logo, weren’t you?” “How did you know?,” asked the student. I reply, “What do you see when you have a white logo one a white background?” I could almost feel the embarrassed student blushing on the other end of the phone.
Now here’s the tip. I always save white (knockout) logos in Outline View. That way I know something is in the file the next time I open it up.
Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.
Author: jeff witchel
Jeff Witchel graduated from Pratt Institute in 1973 with a B.F.A. (Cum Laude) in Advertising Design and Visual Communications. He has been an award-winning advertising art director, writer, designer, illustrator, and TV producer ever since.
Before starting his own advertising agency in New Jersey, Jeff built his career at top New York ad agencies such as Young & Rubicam, Grey Advertising, and Wells, Rich, Greene. Over the years, he has created award-winning work for many clients including AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Jell-O Pudding, The Plaza Hotel, and Pfizer. His many prestigious awards include N.Y. Art Directors Club Gold Award, One Show Gold Award, N.J. Art Directors Club Award, multiple Andy Awards, Graphis Annual, numerous readership awards, plus an Emmy Award nomination.
Jeff is a self-taught computer artist with over 19 years of experience. His initial introduction to the computer was with PageMaker, but he switched to Quark 1.0 when it was first introduced in 1987. Having arrived on the desktop publishing scene so early, Jeff became the “go to” guy for answers when others started getting into computer graphics.
As an Adobe Certified Expert, he’s provided online support for Adobe and is now an Adobe Certified Training Provider for both Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Adobe InDesign CS2. Jeff is one of just a handful of Adobe Certified Instructors in the New York metropolitan area. He also is a Quark Certified Expert in QuarkXPress 6 as well as a master of Adobe Photoshop and related applications. He counts among his training clients ad agencies, design studios, magazines, illustrators, and photographers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
