As a designer you are usually required and expected to have a good, creative, and imaginative mind, but that’s not always every designers strong area. Yes, sometimes you have a splurge of creativity flowing in your brain whenever your pushed or under pressure working on a project, but what about when your project is done, and there is no project…..what would you do then to spark your creative flow?

A guest speaker, Julio Melera, spoke at my church this weekend about living in overflow. He spoke about Lack and Overflow, two major issues everyone in this world struggles with today, especially Christians.

For us designers who Lack a creative mindset and get caught with our hands on our heads just staring at the pencil and paper, or computer screen, we need to remember who gives us that creativity. God.

The one thing I realize is when I take focus off of the issue with my creative block and re-focus my issue on my life with Christ and what he does in and through me, I can then begin to gain that creative flow I need. Jesus gives us tons of help in our daily lives, whether it’s something as simple as helping our creative mind go. God is the master of Creativity. He created each and every person separate and different from one another. He created the earth, stars, and the universe and in the bible it states that we are each created in His own image, giving us that same creativity that flows through Him.

That is an Overflowing characteristic living in each and every one of us, the very humans He created. So, by living the life pleasing to God, you can give that same creativity from God to your projects in school, at work, when discussing an idea for a new ministry, business, or coming up with new ways to keep your house clean. God’s characteristics never diminish, His love, mercy and forgiveness is everlasting, as well as his amazing creativity.

Post your entries on this page and view others postings.

Spread the word, this is a THEGDFC only contest until 26th of September. If there is less than 10 entries then I will extend and expand it to a larger group possibly Godbit’s group. However, I know I will get some good entries here. Please help the redesign and you will get a link back and you name on the site plus the winner will get $40 paypal credit.

See the site for details.

Thanks,

Thomas Jenkins

In my past I have used a mixed bag of Indesign and Quark layout software and until recently I have always struggled to argue that Quark is the better of the two.

Sure Quark is and always has been a strong contender for Book layout, but the added features that Indesign provided where really hard to ignore.

So this lead me to use Quark for Books and long projects with many pages and Indesign for Ads, Flyers and anything that required the use of the bells and whistles in Indesign.

Quark 6 was a dated version of Xpress that in many ways drove people away in the advertising and small design house sector. Along with the fact that Indesign was provided as a part of the Creative Suite package.

Quark 7 was a very impressive update that got to grips with many of the usability and had a re-write of the entire software code.

Then along came Quark 8….

I have been using Quark 8 for the last four weeks now and have been totally bowled over by this revision.

It’s new tools and interface is a brand new take on things for Quark and really puts them back into the race for the lead in Layout software…. I would even go so far as to say this Is a far better product than Indesign’s current offering.

Take a Look

For the full break down of the new feature I would recommend taking a look at the Quark site and even searching youtube for tutorials that have begone to surface.

I would also recomend that you download the Demo from the Quark site and give the revision a fair trial before jumping to conclusions of past prejudice that seam to be pushed by fanboys around the net.

http://8.quark.com

Students

Quark appears to be committed to its student base and offers a generous discount to students of over %89 in the Uk.

www.quark.com/education/purchase.html

If you follow the student links within Quark you can find a full listing of dealers and suppliers within your region.

Community

Backing this up is a great site that offers a great design showcase enabling all users to upload work and win prizes for projects submitted. The site offers links for Jobs and has an increasing bank of videos of established designers from around the world.

www.ilovedesign.com

There are many of us here as members of the GDFC and possibly you the reader who has stubbed upon this thread that have many issues and worries in your life that you feel have no control over.

Sometimes in our lives money can take a strong hold and seam to be the driving factor in our happiness.

When looking in the Bible to find comfort in these subjects we are reminded over and over again not to worry and not to harbor love for the things of this world and the love of money that the world has.

I find it helpful to spend some time on my own re-reading these Bible passages as we as simple humans can find ourselves being drowned in the worlds chosen God which we call money.

have personally been though events such as this and have been amazed at the blessings that I receive when I showed faith in our Father.

I have included here a few of my favorite Bible passages that help me dissatatch from my earthly worries and bring about a clearer understanding of what God wants for us.

James 1

1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:
Greetings.

Trials and Temptations

2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

9The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. 10But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. 11For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.

12Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

16Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. 17Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

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Matthew 6

Treasures in Heaven

19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Do Not Worry

25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

28“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I hope that some of you find help in this, If anyone has any passages to add or comments that will be of added benefit to this posting please let me know and I will include.

THE GDFC was started in October of 2007 with a goal of bringing people together from all over the world interested in design, to be able to have a place of fellowship, where they can display their work, receive and give advice, and eventually become a part of an incredible growth of believers in the graphic design industry. We are growing each month with more activity, members, and believers.

Visit The Forums

http://twitter.com/TheGdfc

it’s just for news and updates and no chatting. In the meantime the forum may not work and the old template as well. God Bless and enjoy your day.

Compared to Myspace and Facebook, Twitter, Socialthing and Pownce make socializing simple and easy. No fancy web graphics with flashing gifs running around, no profile space with tons of distractions taking away from the most important thing, chatting with your friends.

I have to say, the ones that I am guilty of using often is: Twitter and Pownce

The reason for this post is, because I(among many others) can definitely find some good in these sites, but unfortunately find myself away from my work and just socializing. Am I a victim of Distraction or Interaction? Either way, somehow it’s taking away time from some of the most important things in life.

As a Twitter user I find myself checking back often, finding out what my friends are doing and posting comments of my own. Seriously, I am not doing anything bad, but it’s when I consume myself with this, it becomes a problem. I have work to do, but don’t do it. I have responsibilities for my wedding coming up, but I haven’t started. I need to post more blogs here, but as you can see, it has been a long time.

God allows us to socialize and have fun, but in doing so in moderation. What’s important must stay important: and that is Jesus, God’s word and His will.

Want to be a part of our very first magazine? A Christian Design Magazine? Check out the hot topic on the forums and see if you want to be a part of an awesome opportunity.

As designers we stumble across many websites containing news and articles about the latest design trends, software, websites and more, but manyof them aren’t Christian, and most contain more than we ask for. TheGdfc is journeying onto their newest project: Gdfc: A magazine for Christian web and graphic designers. A magaine that includes faith built messages and approaching the Graphic and Web industry at a Godly perspective.

The magazine articles will be featured througout the site, bust about 75% of the magazine will be in pdf format and available for download for free! That’s right FREE! No if’s, and’s, or but’s. A Christian pdf magazine about design, how about that!

Check out some of the topics suggestions and members views on this new project. If you aren’t a member, why not sign up? If you are, why not take part of this project? And if your just sitting in your seat saying, “Man this is going to be sweet!” Then spread the word brotha and sista!

We are dedicated to making the internet a better place for Christians and Christian designers alike. This is a new step and I encourage you to be apart of it.

This Thursday Quark, realeased there long awaited Quark 8, ahead of Adobe offering of CS4

Quark 7 was a massive improvement on previous versions and was a good step into the right direction, but to some including me it was not far enough and lacked details that seamed essential for a fight back to the top against the ever marching army of Adobe.

Quark needs this to get back in the game after loosing there footing to Indesign by not releasing native OSX support.

From the official Quark site this looks to be a superb offering and a complete change of direction in the software, with massive changes to the tool bar and improvements to the hole user experience.

Quark 8 Features:

Feel the excitement of design!

Intuitively place, scale, rotate, and offset images easily using the new Picture Content tool — no need to switch tools or enter numbers in a palette or dialog box. You can even see a visual preview as you crop an image!

Draw brand new illustrations directly in QuarkXPress 8 with the redefined Bézier Pen tool — just like you do in Illustrator® and other major graphics applications. Most importantly, you can focus on the task at hand because we’ve separated illustration tools from the tools you use for basic page-layout tasks.

Easy Page Layout with Drag and Drop

Little things make a big difference — we think you’ll love the way we handle drag and drop.

Design as quickly and fluidly as your ideas. When you move your text or picture content to the page, the box is automatically created — no need to pre-define boxes!

You can drag text and pictures from your desktop, Adobe® Bridge, iP®, or any other application that supports drag and drop, and your box is created for you. You can even drag picture boxes from QuarkXPress to your graphics application to customize your images.

Streamlined Tools with Familiar Keyboard Controls

We’ve streamlined and simplified our Tools palette, so the tools do more and it’s easier to choose the right one. Even familiar tools like the Item and Content tools get major boosts. For example, you can rotate any box simply by grabbing its corner.

You’ll also enjoy single-key commands — consistent with familiar applications such as Photoshop® — to select tools, as well as keyboard modifiers for duplicating, scaling from center, and performing other common tasks.

By aligning with your other mission-critical tools, while keeping everything you love, QuarkXPress gives you the best of both worlds!

Design and Output Flash (SWF) Directly from QuarkXPress

Page-layout professionals can create rich Flash® projects — without compromising design — using the built-in Flash authoring capabilities included in every edition of QuarkXPress® 8.

Working in the same, familiar print environment of QuarkXPress 8, you can take existing print jobs to Flash, or create new Flash projects, in minutes — no additional purchase or coding required! Interactive design in QuarkXPress 8 includes support for all of the new typographic features, the improved illustration (pen) tool set, full integration with Item Styles and other features, and support for more than 30 languages, including East Asian scripts. No other page-layout application gives you such advanced design capabilities that you can apply directly and easily to Flash design!

Create Stunning Text and Achieve the Effects you Want with Hanging Characters

QuarkXPress® 8 offers easy-to-use, precise, and fully customizable control for hanging characters. You can control the look of your text margin alignment by quickly applying preloaded settings for Hanging Punctuation and Punctuation Margin Alignment. And only QuarkXPress 8 offers the ability to apply your settings at the paragraph level, so settings don’t have to apply to an entire story. You can even include the hanging characters setting as part of a style sheet.

But our settings are just the beginning. You can build your own settings to precisely define the hang of any character you choose, including drop caps, to create the design effects that work for you.

For more details and the full list of new features: http://8.quark.com/

While Paul was in prison he wrote many letters, one of which went to Philemon. While Paul was in prison, locked behind gates, bound for death he wrote, “Prepare a guest room for me, because I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers”.

Right here Paul says to prepare a guest room for him, knowing with confidence that God will deliver him through his circumstance. I love how powerful that is, that such a man who has committed some of the worse sins is faithful enough to say that God will deliver him from prison.

So many times we think about how difficult our situations are, and that there is nothing that could help us get through it. Well, aren’t we Christians? We serve a God who is faithful and merciful. Nothing is too big or too small for Him to deal with. Give Him your troubles, situations, circumstances.

So you say that you have been through this situation over and over again, but can’t seem to get yourself out of it. I ask you,have you trusted your God enough to leave it up to Him? Is it too much for your God to handle? Instead of praying with power and passion and faith, you pray in hope, and in luck? God is faithful. God is merciful. We have a hard time having faith in someone we cannot see, but like my old youth pastor said, “You have enough faith to work for money that you don’t even have yet,” but you can’t trust your God in faith, who has and can do all things? One thing is for certain, God will on this earth is for no one to suffer and to be delivered from this world which brings nothing, but death. I encourage you to challenge God in your faith. He will answer!