As a long-time member of AIGA and newly elected member of its national board of directors, lynda.com founder Lynda Weinman was invited to attend the organization's annual design awards gala in New York City last fall. A few days before the event, she spent some time getting to know some of the AIGA’s key members and touring the organization's offices and archives.

In Photoshop CS5: Creative Effects, Chris Orwig flexes the muscles of this powerful program to create unique and eye-catching photographic effects. This course demonstrates how to enhance images by adding light for emphasis, adding drop and directional shadows, and using the HDR toning controls, motion blur, and film grain creatively. In addition, learn how to create a vintage-style photograph or a panorama, use infrared and solarization, apply creative layer blending, and much more.

MySQL is by far the most popular database management system for small- to medium-sized web projects. In MySQL Essential Training, instructor Bill Weinman provides clear, concise instruction in the tools needed to create and maintain a database. Bill explores the different data types MySQL supports, and the functions it provides, enabling the user to get the most out of them. He even shows the MySQL PHP interfaces that can be used to create web applications. Exercise files accompany the course.

In Photoshop CS5: Creative Compositing, Chris Orwig demonstrates how to take photographs to the next creative level by combining images in Photoshop. This course covers multiple compositing scenarios, including portraits and architecture photos, from selecting the images, to blending photos with layer masks and blend modes, and resizing and sharpening the results. Chris also covers tips and tricks design to inspire and increase the drama and interest of photographs. Exercise files are included with this course.

In Photoshop CS5: Creative Compositing, Chris Orwig demonstrates how to take photographs to the next creative level by combining images in Photoshop. This course covers multiple compositing scenarios, including portraits and architecture photos, from selecting the images, to blending photos with layer masks and blend modes, and resizing and sharpening the results. Chris also covers tips and tricks design to inspire and increase the drama and interest of photographs. Exercise files are included with this course.

In iOS 4 App Development New Features, Simon Allardice shows developers how to take their existing iOS SDK development skills and quickly get up to speed working with the new and improved features, frameworks, and tools found in iOS SDK 4 (formerly known as iPhone SDK 4). This course covers creating applications that use multitasking features, working with the built-in calendar, and exploring new ways of working with video. Learn to integrate ads into an application with iAd, and create apps that work successfully across the growing range of iOS devices. Exercise files are included with the course.

Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Advanced, the second part of the popular and comprehensive series, updated for CS5, follows internationally renowned Photoshop guru Deke McClelland as he dives into the workings of Photoshop. He explores such digital-age wonders as the Levels and Curves commands, edge-detection filters, advanced compositing techniques, vector-based text, the Liquify filter, and Camera Raw. Deke also teaches tried-and-true methods for sharpening details, smoothing over wrinkles and imperfections, and enhancing colors without harming the original image. Exercise files accompany the course.

Above a bakery in Portland, Oregon, a unique group of storytellers are quietly changing museum and exhibit experiences all over the world. In this Creative Inspirations documentary, we meet Second Story, creators of award-winning interactive projects for clients that include the Getty Museum, National Geographic, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Smithsonian Institution, just to name but a few.

In Migrating from PowerPoint 2003 to PowerPoint 2010, David Rivers shows how to make the transition to PowerPoint 2010 from PowerPoint 2003. The course covers the key differences between the two, including the Ribbon interface and changed file formats. The course also provides in-depth information on working in a mixed PowerPoint environment and dealing with file compatibility issues, and demonstrates how common PowerPoint tasks are performed in PowerPoint 2010. Exercise files are included with the course.

Make Money and Help Your Community at the Same Time
"This book shows you the most powerful, practical system ever discovered to make money buying pre-foreclosures. If you follow its advice, it could make you rich."
—Brian Tracy, bestselling author of The Psychology of Achievement

Photoshop is one of the world’s most powerful image editors, and it can be daunting to try to use skillfully. Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Advanced, the second part of the popular and comprehensive series, updated for CS5, follows internationally renowned Photoshop guru Deke McClelland as he dives into the workings of Photoshop. He explores such digital-age wonders as the Levels and Curves commands, edge-detection filters, advanced compositing techniques, vector-based text, the Liquify filter, and Camera Raw. Deke also teaches tried-and-true methods for sharpening details, smoothing over wrinkles and imperfections, and enhancing colors without harming the original image

In Flash Professional CS5: Code Snippets and Templates in Depth, David Gassner shows designers how to use Flash Professional CS5's Code Snippets panel and file templates to get started with ActionScript 3 and implement best practices. This course describes how to insert snippets into existing Flash presentations, includes a detailed explanation of the code behind the snippets, and shows how to use the many templates included with Flash Pro CS5 to quickly create customized presentations. Exercise files are included with the course.

Join author Nigel French in Designing Book Covers Hands-On Workshop as he walks through several approaches to creating professional, engaging book covers using Adobe Creative Suite applications. This course covers document setup, composition and layout, illustration, typography essentials, and printing. Exercise files accompany the course.

In Outlook 2010: Effective Email Management, author Gini Courter demonstrates techniques to streamline the Outlook mailbox workflow. The course covers strategies for customizing views, adding filters, utilizing flags, and creating and organizing folders. The course also shows how to automate tasks as well as make effective use of QuickSteps to process email, and more.

In Outlook 2007: Effective Email Management, author Gini Courter demonstrates techniques to streamline the Outlook mailbox workflow. The course covers strategies for customizing views, adding filters, utilizing flags, and creating and organizing folders. The course shows how to automate tasks as well as make effective use of the Out of Office Assistant.

In this video tutorial, composer and sound designer Scott Freiman goes in-depth into Native Instruments’ powerful Kontakt 4 sampler to show you how to create and modify your own sounds. Building on the material taught in Native Instruments 105: Exploring Kontakt, Scott covers the numerous sound sculpting features of Kontakt.

In this tutorial, composer and sound designer Scott Freiman shows you how to use Native Instruments’ powerful Kontakt 4 sampler -- the sampler that has rapidly become a standard in every professional studio. New and novice users alike will find plenty of tips and tricks scattered among this 3 hour course.

WIth the release of MainStage 2, Apple has blessed all giggling musicians with a new and improved arrow for their live performance quiver. Using MainStage 2, you can now perform with any instrument available in Logic, in any musical style you want … there's no limit to your creativity when you use MainStage 2.

Want to tune a solo vocal? ...no problem! Want to quantize audio? ...a breeze! Melodyne can easily handle those tasks! However, have you ever tried to change an audio recording from a major key to a minor key, or edit out a wrong note in a chord imbedded in a polyphonic audio recording? How about turning a polyphonic stereo audio recording into corresponding MIDI notes? Impossible, right? Not any more! Enter Melodyne DNA. With the “new” Melodyne, the impossible is now possible. And in this tutorial we’ll teach you how to master these magical techniques and incorporate them into your productions.

Microsoft Silverlight and its associated development tools, Expression Blend and Visual Studio, are used to reproduce the look and feel of a desktop application in a browser-deployed, cross-platform framework. In Silverlight 4 New Features, author Walt Ritscher highlights the new features delivered with Silverlight 4 and Expression Blend 4, with bonus coverage of out-of-browser application deployment. This course covers the most exciting additions and enhancements to this rich Internet application (RIA) development framework, including new customizable form controls, rich text and media support, drag-and-drop data binding, and more. Exercise files accompany the course.

Four bodies are found in New York City. Why, why, why? The coincidence? They all died 48 hours after logging on to a site named feardotcom.com. Tough detective Mike Reilly collaborates with Department of Health associate Terry Huston to research these mysterious deaths. The only way to find out though what really happened is to enter the site itself...

In HTML5 First Look, author James Williamson introduces the newest HTML specification, providing a high-level overview of HTML5 in its current state, how it differs from HTML 4, the current level of support in various browsers and mobile devices, and how the specification might evolve in the future. Exercise files accompany the course.