The graphics tablet is a designers best friend. The only people who disagree are those that haven't yet slogged through or gave up during the unpleasant transition to using one.
Over the years I've had a few tablets, as I'm sure many people have. Over that time I came to the same conclusion as a lot of other people. Only Wacom tablets are worth buying.
I've been using an Intuos 3 at work for the last 6 months and it's awesome. Not just for drawing but just navigating my computer is so much more efficient using a tablet. In fact, I've grown so accustomed to using a tablet for everything, using a mouse at home was becoming an increasing chore. It was time to get a tablet at home.
My first thought was to get an Intuos 4...until I saw the price. Not having a kings ransom to hand, buying was was unfortunately out of the question. So I thought "I know! I'll get an Intuos 3 on ebay! Genius!" only to find that they hold their value rather well, with a preowned Intuos 3 A5 going for almost as much as a brand new A6 Intuos 4. This was becoming a very sticky wicket. I started looking at tablets manufactured by trust and aiptek, but from past experience with aiptek and (lower end) trust tablets, they are rubbish.
So that left the Bamboo, Wacom's entry level tablet. I did a bit of research and test drove a new Wacom bamboo pen & touch, it was ok. A6 is a bit too small and the aspect is different to what I'm used to. It felt responsive and accurate enough though pen was too light and felt very 'pencily'. The touch part was horrible, its like having a huge laptop trackpad and I hate trackpads. All in all, it wasn't for me, mostly due to A6 widescreen being too small to draw on.
I carried on looking and had heard good things about the Bamboo fun. The old bamboo fun (see below), not the new one. I found an A5 one on eBay for £40 and snapped it right up.
Ok, I'm starting to get it together, there's some new files in the download section, some of them old, some of them new. I have so much more to put up and they should be popping up in the next few days.
Finally..kamikazedesign.co.uk has finished being stripped out and whatnot...kinda. I got bored after a while, the minute I look at the CSS I end up playing around for hours and not adding content. I suppose it's my way. So it's not the grand relaunch I had hoped for but it's a start, don't be surprised if the design and layout of the site changes randomly and dramatically in future, it's currently at a design mid point.
