Free Scribus (1.3.9) business card templates for Vistaprint and Nitroprint

These free templates are made specifically for Scribus 1.3.9 or later.  They will not work with the 1.2.x and earlier versions, as Scribus has made a significant changes recently.

Business card template for Vistaprint.com: Download

Business card template for Nitroprint.com: Download

Remember: Actual file you upload when ordering cards must be PDF, fonts embedded, CMYK (process colors) and set for printing (not "screen/web").

Bonus: If you are a U.S. or Canadian user of Scribus, you may be getting tired of having to set the pages to Letter size every time instead of default A4.  Here is a blank U.S. Letter size sheet with measurement in inches.

 

For other popular Scribus templates on this site go to http://iridiacreative.wordpress.com/?s=template&searchbutton=Go!

Artist's conception: Bicycle racks for "the world's greenest church"

A story of a church bicycle rack

This is a certain large-sized historic church in the Pacific Northwest, with a building that is over a hundred years old.  The church has recently been working on an initiative to make it the "world's greenest" church (as far as its denomination is concerned) and one of the first ideas that came up was to build bike racks, entirely from salvaged, repurposed and recycled materials.  Here I have made a conception design with used bicycle frames that were turned upside down and welded into a visually pleasing piece of public art that also double as durable bike racks.

Graphic made with Inkscape, converted and slightly edited with GIMP.  The name of the church is blurred out by request.

Thanks to ChurchOutreachMinistry.net for the mention.

Sarah Morrigan, IrisCat Designs

Be green, support local business, get a reusable cup.

For those who remember, I have designed this for Southeast Grind back in April 2009. Now you can own this piece of elegance and be green!

It is only $10 a piece and you will get a 25 cents off each time you use it at Southeast Grind (with your first coffee free). It is available only at Southeast Grind, 1223 SE Powell Blvd, Portland, Oregon, just east of Milwaukie Avenue/12th Avenue near the Gideon Street fire station (TriMet lines 9, 17, 19 and 70). It is open 24 hours!

Fall and rise of empires?

This past week news outlets have reported that now the economy of Japan has been eclipsed by that of the People's Republic of China (not certain if the figure includes Hong Kong and Macau).  It is interesting to see the history make a full circle, with the reemergence of both China and India as the potential next superpowers.  China and India (the other two being Egypt and Mesopotamia/Iraq) were known as the four major ancient civilizations.

On the other hand, Japan as a true empire lasted only from the late 19th century with its defeat of the Russian navy and ended in the 1990s as Japan's economic dominance began to wane.

It appears today that Japan has no future, except through some kind of union with China.  Only a decade ago I could have proposed a union of Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan as a kind of "Oriental Union."  Today it seems that Taiwan's clout is soon about to evaporate, and no such union can possibly counter China's increasing dominance in economy and geopolitics.

As I was thinking over this interesting historical development, I have conceived this proposed design for the new flag and emblem of Japan, if it were to become annexed into China.

By iridiacreative at 2010-08-31

By iridiacreative at 2010-08-31

This was a quick project just to show my conception of the design.  The purple, the colour of Japanese aubergine, is one of the traditional colours of Japanese fabrics.  The design of the emblem reflects common Japanese themes of the ocean waves, Mt. Fuji and a cherry blossom, while also conforming to the design standard of such emblems that include five stars of five points, evoking the national flag of China that features five stars, to symbolize the region's ties to the People's Republic of China.  Overall design of the emblem is also a cross between classical Japanese heraldic design (the mon) and a composition of a typical socialist national emblem.

This is intended to be a parody.  No further political statement is implied.

Heraldry and ecclesiastical seals: where high-tech contemporary designs meet time-steeped tradition

One of my specialty areas of practice is designs of traditional ecclesiastical (church) seals that both follow the centuries-old traditions of heraldry that are rich in metaphorical and spiritual symbolism, and at the same time stylish and visually pleasing to the contemporary sensibility.



Read the stories behind these seals, including their heraldic symbolism and meanings.

How to make your own stylish business card with free software

As many new business operators soon discover, there are simply never too many business cards once they get serious about promoting what they do and have to offer. From local networking groups to coffee shop bulletin boards, there are many places where handing out or exchanging business cards is a must in creating leads and gaining clients.

Some business operators would still like to make their own business cards with their own computers and printers for a variety of reasons: scalability in expenses, flexibility and speed.

Read more at http://biznik.com/articles/stylish-do-it-yourself-business-cards-on-the-cheap-and-quick

Recommended software:

• Scribus


• Inkscape

What else you need

• Pre-perforated business card stock paper such as Avery 8879; or


• Nice hard card stock paper and paper cutter (desktop rotary cutter is good).


• This template

a big white fluffy cat.

[caption id="attachment_157" align="aligncenter" width="455" caption="Inkscape 0.46"][/caption]

Download this image (Scalable Vector Graphic format)

Turn your cat picture into a vector file clip art -- there are hundreds of uses for it. Now for $40 for one picture, or $100 for three. Contact Sarah for details.

Free for all download: 10-up business card template for Scribus

Here's a template for U.S. Letter size 10-up business card sheets, such as Avery 8879.


Download here (GZipped Scribus Layout file)

It's your business. Dream it up, and do it, in style.

Download problem fixed: Use this link to download any of the ads below in PDF.

Download the PDF version of this ad.

Download PDF version of this ad.

Download PDF version of this ad

Download PDF

Download PDF

Iridia Creative Production has launched a new marketing campaign and doing it in style! The tagline here is "dream it up, and do it, in style." More than anything else, small businesses and community organizations are manifestations of someone's visions and dreams. Entrepreneurs literally "dream up" -- envision, innovate and create -- and set the world of the future in motion. In this difficult time it is a common temptation to cut down on what one may perceive as "non-essentials." As a result businesses become too boring and sterile for owners, employees and customers alike (remember that it is the experience that counts in all aspect of turning up the profit), innovations are stymied, and customer communications suffer. I believe that the time has come to do it -- and get it done -- all in style. Even if heaven forbid some people were to fail, I'd like to see them fail in style, not just fail like a roadkill.

For the rest, I am here to help you achieve what you dream up -- in style.

Free for all download: Task list

Here is a colourful PDF task list for you and even your kids. It is another way to help you plan and accomplish, all in style. Enjoy!

Download

Summer creative IT crash course series, 6/23-7/28

This six-week series of free workshops will focus on practical application of intermediate computer skills for career development and personal advancement.

When: Mondays, June 23, 30, July 7, 14, 21, 28; 1:30 p.m.-3:15 p.m.
Where: Julia West House Workshops (www.juliawest.org), 2nd Floor Computer Lab, 522 SW 13th Ave, Portland 97205 (TriMet #15, #20; Portland Streetcar; MAX) -- The location is not wheelchair accessible; there is a steep and narrow staircase.

Instructor: Sarah A. Morrigan (Iridia Creative Productions, www.iridiacreative.summerhost.info)

Course outlines
Weeks 1-3: Basic website building and maintenance, with focus on HTML 4.01 and new HTML 5.0; how to use File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to upload contents; online privacy; search engine optimization (SEO); integration of website with weblogs and social networking applications.

Week 4: Experience the world, expand the horizons - finding multicultural resources and non-mainstream media from around the world; making use of no-cost educational opportunities such as Open Courseware (OCW) offered by many universities; free classic literature and reference materials on the web.

Week 5: Digital Creativity - Introductory, hands-on exploration on open-source creativity software such as Inkscape (vector drawing), Scribus (desktop publishing), Audacity (MP3 editing/podcasting), Skencil (image drawing), GIMP (graphic image manipulation/photograph editing), etc.

Week 6: Mindful, meaningful social networking - How to use popular social networking sites for career advancement and community building.

All six sessions are free. Due to limited space available pre-registration is highly encouraged. Contact Patty Warman at 503-222-6564.

Free public domain clip art by Sarah

Check out Sarah's new clip art... and best of all it is free for you to use. These pictures are all drawn with Inkscape 0.46 on ASUS Eee PC 900 running on Easy Peasy.

Iridia Creative Productions, the "corner store" of graphic communications: Strength in underserved markets

In a Google search alone there are literally thousands of graphic design firms in Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. Some are quite small, while there are a number of well-established firms in large Pearl District office spaces with many employees.

So why choose Iridia Creative Productions?

ICP primarily serves local and -- thanks to the power of the Internet -- global small or home business and community nonprofit markets. ICP is equipped to handle the necessary flexibility inherent in a human-sized business enterprise, in a way no big corporation can. ICP has a better capacity to spend more devoted time on each client -- where our clients are not merely "accounts" but actual human beings an artist relate on a ground level.

Here at ICP, I openly admit that this is not a "big-box store" of graphic design and visual communication. This is more like a corner convenience store -- so when a small business owner or local nonprofit executive needs a small project done quickly and done right, Iridia Creative Productions is the right place to contact.

Sarah paints Southeast Grind!

[caption id="attachment_83" align="aligncenter" width="231" caption="Brand designed by Sarah A. Morrigan, Iridia Creative Productions."][/caption]

Southeast Grind will be opening tomorrow, Sunday, April 19 at 8 a.m. Normal hours of operation will be 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. This was formerly Fireside Coffee Lodge, and the address is 1223 S.E. Powell Blvd., Portland, Oregon 97202.

See photos from this project.

Commercial branding and corporate identity: recent works

Recent works:

http://cli.gs/h0NG3j

• Southeast Grind, opening late April 2009 at 1223 SE Powell Blvd.


• Chinese Food and Culture Group

Practice makes perfect

When I was in middle school my art teacher was a graduate school MFA intern. He always had a little notebook or sketchbook and he would draw just about anywhere -- at a coffee shop, subway station, on the train, and so on.

For an artist, this is a good habit to develop as it helps improve perceptive skills and ability to translate what one perceives onto paper in a relatively short time (which also requires the artist to discriminatingly capture "the essence" of an image). It is sort of like how a good writer tends to have a journal with her at all times. Constant journaling also helps inspire future creations.

About a week ago I was waiting outside a restaurant on an exceptionally busy evening (in the end I waited for about an hour and 20 minutes). I drew this on a notepad with a pencil and then a Sharpees -- in about five minutes.

I was in a meeting with local business owners networking. I happened to sit next to someone who was just starting a coffee shop in Portland and heard she was looking for someone to design a signage. I came up with an idea, drew something quickly and showed it to her. (And I got the project on the spot!) Note that this design differs quite a bit from the final product (of course), but the main ideas are the same.

[caption id="attachment_45" align="aligncenter" width="340" caption="Southeast Grind (2009) - rough sketch"][/caption]

My point is this: if you are an artist, be always ready and prepared -- you'll never know what inspires you. It's also the same with writers. You cannot be an artist or a writer only every once in a while.