Written by Alan Musselman
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
Where do you work and what keeps you busy?
I work for Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Ltd., Worldwide Marketing Hub, located in Bangalore. We handle the entire marketing services and creative development for Lenovo. It is a real challenge catering to the worldwide advertising needs from a single location – people differ, tastes differ, languages differ, trends differ..but.. we make it work and have been running really good campaigns. I work in the interactive division as a Flash Programmer. I keep myself busy by creating concepts for web banners, e-mailers, e-fliers, micro-sites, video ads, widgets, mash-ups, landing pages, presentations etc. So, these “concepts” can be storyboards, UI or the entire application or asset in itself.
I love writing code and don’t sleep properly if I don’t write at least 10 lines of good functional code. Flash, Flex and Fireworks are my favorite.
What type of project are we showcasing today where Adobe Fireworks was used in the process?
Well, currently, in the initial stages development, I am creating two AIR apps, codenamed – “Flare” and “Findr”. Both apps use social-networking APIs. The application prototypes were created using Fireworks CS4 and then imported into Flash for the presentation. Sadly, I couldn’t use the interactive PDF functionality.
The UI design is being developed in Fireworks CS4 and then exported as a “Flex Skin”. Below is the screen shot of the initial screen of “Flare”.
Are there features in Adobe Fireworks that saved you time and money?
For a person like me, Fireworks is easier to use, compared to PhotoShop. Its user interface and tool friendliness is similar to Flash, making life easier on the whole. Apart from these, I love the built-in support for Flex and AIR apps and not to forget the good old HTML and CSS export features!
When I started my career as a web designer, FW 3 was the tool I chose for doing my slicing and HTML export.
What current web related technologies are most favored when designing and developing for the web?
As far as I am concerned, Flash and Flex are most favored. The designers swear by PhotoShop (as most creative people do). FW is a lesser known app in the advertising world, even though, the benefits of using Fw are many!
Do you remember your “Aha” moment you had experienced when first opening up Adobe Fireworks?
It was the days of Macromedia Fireworks 3, I think. As a beginner, I found myself lost in most tools available and famous at that the time. Flash wasn’t really much heard of in my part of the world and HTML was life! When I discovered the HTML export feature in Fw 3, it was my moment of glory really! The ease with with a web design could be sliced and exported was really something that I love..still! With CS3, I started loving the “Master pages” feature too.
Are you involved with any communities on the web?
Yes, I’m the Manager of RIASpace AUG (the header was created using Fw CS4!). I also frequent Ultrashock.
Do you have a place on the web you call home? Where can we find you?
My virtual home is located at http://www.redmedia.in, which is under construction. I blog at http://flashofscarlet.blogspot.com. You can also find me on most social networks – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Orkut. Next I want to start a website dedicated to designing and developing RIAs (Rich Internet Applications and Rich Internet Advertising) with Fw.
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