This is one class project that I was looking forward to in college. For the 12 years that I was doing Plastic Fanatic (PF) magazine, I was doing it all by hand. I would write out all my articles, hand it to the type setter, get back in galleys, and paste it up on art boards. A lot of work.

But now I got to paste up a magazine on the computer using "InDesign" from Adobe. What a joy it was to put together the magazine with "drag and drop" technology. If only I had a computer when I was doing PF magazine those many years ago.For my project I decided to dive into the archives and use all original material.

All the photos and articles in the project magazine were Either articles I had published in other magazines, or originals I did just for the project. Except for the Pro Street Brakes article (published in Popular Hot Rodding magazine), all the layout and design was original. Even the ads (see below).

Another class project was building a personal portfolio using "Director" form Macromedia. I used a simple "pill button" style navigation bar but when you rolled over it with your cursor an image would appear on the button (check out the bottom button in the image above).

Once you clicked on it would take you to a page with samples of my work. The "Art exhibit Pages" (as I liked to call them), would feature rows of my work. If you ran your cursor over an image it would ether give you a different view of that image or more information about it. The above page had samples of my 3D work.

But now here it is a couple of years later and I have lots of new material for my portfolio, so I'm spending time now putting together a whole new CD portfolio. I'm hoping to have the new one done by the end of January.

Stay tuned...

use to set on tables at the local dinners. When you ran your cursor over the "selection" it would change from a red color to a blue color. I used this same navigation bar later on a web site I designed for a national model car convention. We also did our own movie trailer for the DVD using "Premiere".

This great "web site on a CD" was the brain child of webmaster Richard Hanson. After selling Plastic Fanatic magazine I was searching for a new challenge in my life and Rich approached me about being the "cyber editor" for his new idea. Rich would post a web site with only partial

and articles on the web site. Then the readers could etheir order or subscribe to the site and we'd send you a complete CD with hundreds, sometimes thousands of photos on it.

The cyber magazine was again gave me the chance to travel and meet with modelers all over the

Plastic Fanatic (PF) was my baby, it started out as a club newsletter for a local model car club and soon turned into a national (and then international) magazine. PF was a lot of hard work, I did just about everything but print it myself. I was responsible for the magazines content, for

recruiting its writers, for selling ad space, I even did the second class mailing! But through the years I had a lot great friends and business associates that helped me turn out a great magazine that the modelers truely enjoyed. We went from a small xerox newsletter to a large magazine.

The best part of PF's increased circulation was the fact that I could now use full color pages. The centerfolds were the first things to see full color. They were usually reserved for events coverage, or a layout on a very special model. Later I was able to add even more color pages. Everyone loves to see their cars in color!

One of the things that really made PF so popular with modeler's was its abundance of how-to articles. I made sure each issue was packed with as many how-to articles as I could get my hands on. Fortunately, I had a lot of great talent to draw on and spot light in the pages of PF.

The other thing that set us apart from the other magazines is that when I went to cover a show, I didn't run just shots of the models. My coverage included meeting the people at the shows, and the total experience. I wanted my readers to feel as though they went with me to the events.

country. Unfortunately, the idea didn't catch. The CD had its limitations. Readers complained that they couldn't take it into the bathrooom to read (unless they owned a lap top), and they couldn't "pass it around" to show friends. So the site folded.