In the beginning, there was artboard and India Ink, and 6x0 jewel-tip Kohinoor Rapidographs kept clean by judicious rinsing and acts of faith. I still have a 30-year-old wad of artgum: It's a bit petrified, but after a good kneading can still fulfill its purpose. French curves, lovingly polished free of nicks, and rulers with strips of tape to lift the edge long after the cork was gone. Prestype (I still have the burnishing tools somewhere), striping tape and ruling pens. The production art job was a respite from life in the lab as a chemistry major. "I'll take a break," I thought. "Then I'll go back and finish my degree."

Then I became a film stripper. ("But you seem like such a nice girl!") Eventually I attained, to the horror of a politically-correct roommate, journeyman status. I'm sorry, but "JourneyPerson" does not capture the melding of art and science that befits a craftsman. Craftsperson. Craftsbroad...

My toolbox was well-stocked: two Ulano knives for Rubylith, assorted sharpening and polishing stones, double-headed cutters, every size of technical pen and marker. Winsor Newton sable brushes and that wonderful red Grumbacher opaque. I was the Knockout Queen: give me the bicycles! The fans! The plants with tiny leaves! I treasured my ParaMag for the molecular view of registration marks. Yum: Exactitude. The same love of pattern and form that had made Chemistry appealing was repurposed. Once, I had contemplated the Periodic Table, but soon atomic weights gave way to Pantone numbers.

Claudia McCue:
Summary of Qualifications
Professional speaker and seminar leader
Experienced trainer
Extensive experience with real-world production and challenges
Frequent contributor to industry conferences

Certifications
Adobe Certified Training Provider; CompTIA Certified Technical Trainer (CTT+); Adobe Certified Expert status in Adobe Photoshop 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, CS, CS2; Adobe Acrobat 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0 (Print); Adobe InDesign 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, CS, CS2

Conference Presentations

PDF Conference East, 2004
Creating PDFs from Microsoft Office 2003 Products
Adobe Creative Suite: New PDF Options

InDesign Conference, 2004
Long Documents
Page-Building Finesse
Tables
Tips & Tricks Panel

Magazine Association of the Southeast Annual Conference, 2004
Page Layout Shootout: QuarkXPress 6.0 vs. Adobe InDesign CS
Adobe Creative Suites Overview
Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional: Features for Graphic Artists

Sunbelt Graphics, 2004
Illustrator & InDesign Transparency Issues: Ensuring Imaging Success
Adobe's Creative Suites: Software Integration Plus Sanity Management

PDF Conference West, 2003
Bringing PDFs to Life: Enhancing Instructional Materials With Multimedia
Panel: Accessibility in Acrobat

InDesign Conference, 2003
Tables
Long Documents

PDF Conference East, 2003
Comparing PDF Output from Quark, InDesign, FrameMaker and Publisher Creating PDFs from Microsoft Office Products

Art Director's Invitational Master Class, 2003
Acrobat for Presentations

PDF Conference West, 2002
Paper to Pixels to PDF: OCR for Mere Mortals
"Best Practices" Panel

PDF Conference East, 2002
PDFs From Office Applications
"Tips & Tricks from the Masters" Panel

Magazine Association of the Southeast Annual Conference, 2002
Know Your Adobe Applications

Sunbelt Graphics 2002
QuarkXPress 5/InDesign 2 Shootout
QuarkXPress 5.0 Tips & Tricks

Training 2002
Photoshop Elements - Image Editing for Everyone

PDF Conference West, 2001
PDFs From Office Applications

Training 2001
From Microsoft to PDF
Intro to Photoshop
Intermediate Photoshop

Experience
Practicalia, LLC/Atlanta, GA: 10/2002 to present
Principal/Owner/Alpha Female: Independent training provider, specializing in Adobe and Quark products, general prepress and printing, retouching and color correction. Specialties: Acrobat and Acrobat eForms; InDesign; Advanced Photoshop Retouching Techniques.

Sterling Ledet & Associates /Atlanta, GA: 3/2000 to 10/2002
Senior Staff Instructor – Staff specialist for electronic imaging, prepress and printing.
Classes taught: Photoshop (Basic and Advanced); ImageReady; Acrobat; Acrobat eForms; InDesign; QuarkXPress (Basic and Advanced); Illustrator; FrameMaker; PageMaker

IPD Printing & Distributing /Atlanta, GA: 7/1995-3/2000
1997-2000: Color Specialist
1995-1997: Workgroup leader for 8-person DTP team

American Color /Atlanta, GA: 2/1994-5/1995
Technical Services: Technical support for the Atlanta plant and customers

Graphics International /Atlanta, GA: 8/1988-2/1994
1991-1994: Scitex Prisma and Macintosh operator
1988-1991: Crosfield Studio operator

Graphics Atlanta /Norcross, GA: 4/1977-8/1988
1981-1988: Crosfield Studio Operator
1977-1981: Film Stripper