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The biggest shop event of the year is well and truly underway. Black Friday offers creatives of all disciplines the opportunity to get hold of some brilliant deals. It's an excellent time to get hold of tools and services we want, for a fraction of the normal cost. In this post, we'll be looking at 32 of the best web tools and services for web designers and developers. You'll find a mixture of both pro tools and more basic services for anyone just starting out in the industry. So whatever stage your web career is at, there's some top Black Friday deals to help you along the way. 01. Hotjar Hotjar is probably the best solution on the market that will help you see how your visitors are really using your site. It’s everything your team needs in one place. The script is used with great success by all kind of companies, from small ones to very large corporations like Microsoft or Nintendo. It works excellent with all the platforms on the market: WordPress, Magento, Google Tag Manager, Joomla, Shopify, and many others. Hotjar is packed with tons of features and options. With heatmaps, you will quickly understand what users want, care about, and do on your site by visually representing their clicks, taps, and scrolling behaviour. Recordings will help you identify usability issues by watching recordings of real visitors on your site as they click, tap, move their cursor and navigate across pages. Using the Conversions funnel, you will find the biggest opportunities for improvement and testing by identifying on which page and at which step most visitors are leaving your site. There are many other features that will help you improve your website, check them on their website. Get started with Hotjar today, a free trial is offered and you don’t need a credit card. 02. Freelance Invoice Empowering more than 100,000 freelancers like designers, developers, writers, photographers, videographers and different types of consultants, Bonsai is the smartest and most complete invoicing platform on the market. Bonsai is an all-in-one invoicing platform that you can use in your daily tasks, being packed with lots of professionals and useful features. Creating and fully customising invoices takes seconds, or you can quickly generate them automatically from any proposal, contract or time sheet. No need to have any special knowledge, the friendly interface will guide you every step. With Bonsai you will get paid fast, it tells you when the client interacts with your invoice and when they plan to pay. You can even automate the reminders for your customers, stop wasting time for the payment follow-up. Get started for free. 03. Tailor Brands Creating a successful logo is no easy feat. If you're just getting started with logo design, Tailor Brands provides a helpful service using AI to automate the logo-making process, creating the perfect first building block for your branding. In under five minutes, Tailor Brands' logo creator will learn what kind of design speaks to you and make a sleek and professional logo design according to your preferences. For as low as $3.99 a month, you can create and customise your logo, and you can utilise products like their master design tool and EPS/vector file for just $9.99. Their premium plan (at $15.99) gives you an entire branding toolbox, including social media analytics and an automatic post scheduler. Today, Tailor is offering an exclusive Black Friday promotion to CreativeBloq readers! Apply promo code {blackfribrand50} at checkout and make a logo for an additional 60 per cent off. 04. BrowseEmAll When it comes to manual and automated cross-browser testing BrowseEmAll is the tool for you! This on-premise tool makes it possible to test your web project in all major desktop and mobile browsers. It supports everything from manual to automated testing featuring great things like live testing, automated layout comparison, responsive testing, and test record & playback. And the best part? Everything runs fast and smooth directly on your Windows, macOS or Linux machine. Get the free trial today and save 30 per cent with the coupon code 'BLACKFRIDAY' on every purchase until the end of the year! 05. Pageproofer PageProofer is designed to be the easiest way to leave feedback and track issues during website development. They took the simplicity of a sticky note and applied it to bug tracking. With PageProofer anyone can leave feedback and report issues. You decide who can see PageProofer on your website. It only takes a few seconds to add it to your website. Point, click and leave feedback. Screenshots and browser info are added to each note. Notifications can be sent to alert your development team. Everything learned over 20 years of working with creative agencies and development teams they have applied to make PageProofer the feedback tool you would love to use. More importantly, it's something your team and clients will love too. Pricing: plans start at $20/month. Use promo code BLACKFRI18 to save 25%. 06. Codester Codester is one of the best marketplaces for web designers and developers where they can quickly buy and sell premium PHP scripts, app templates, themes, plugins, website themes and all kind of apps. It is hugely growing every day, browse it and pick what you need for your projects. They have even a special section where hugely discounted items are being sold. 07. Format Format is a creative, clean and modern, free website template that you can use for your next portfolio project. If you need a template as a designer, freelancer, agency, web studio, Format is perfect for you! It features pop up video, smooth overlay for portfolio, and animation upon scrolling. 08. WeGraphics Design WeGraphics is a huge cooperative community where lots of great things can be found. They are covering extremely good the following fields: mockups, graphics, templates, themes, icons, and fonts. It’s the web designer’s paradise for any project he may have. For a single $20 membership fee you can get complete and unrestricted access to the entire library of resources that includes not only works uploaded by other designers but also exclusive graphics commissioned and created custom by the WeGraphics team. 09. Meridianthemes.net MeridianThemes is having excellent themes which have a pixel-perfect design. All of them are beautiful, fully functional and lightning fast. Browse their collection to have a better idea. Be sure to check the Deals section, where hugely discounted items can be found. Use the coupon code "bf2018" and you will get 30 per cent off (valid from Nov 23 to 30). 10. Landingi Landingi allows you to build landing pages faster than ever. No programming skills required - simply choose your template, adapt it to your needs and hit “publish” - in less than an hour. 200+ landing page templates, an easy to use builder, 800 fonts and 5000 stock images included as well as an A/B testing tool, analytics and dozens of seamless integrations! Check out this year's Black Friday deal and save up to $912 on an annual subscription! 11. Design Hooks DesignHooks is one of the best free resource websites dedicated to web designers and developers. It is packed with thousands of premium, yet free PSD mockups, Sketch, HTML templates, WordPress themes and much more. Everything is handpicked, you will be amazed by the quality of the products. 12. Paper Sizes PaperSizes is the best resource for international paper sizes, dimensions and formats. All possible formats and types are there. Extremely useful for designers. 13. WordPress Business themes Grow your business with a powerful, clean and professional set of WordPress business themes that will definitely make your business stand out. Each Tesla Theme is pixel perfect, eye-catching WordPress themes for businesses, e-commerce sites, videographers, and more. Easily modify your site design with the included page builder. 14. WordPress Event Themes Stunning premium WordPress event themes that give you the most inclusive, all in one solution, for an engaging, interactive and streamlined event. Awesome events around the world use ShowThemes, so if you need something reliable, and tested for years by some of the top events, look no further. 15. WordPress Gallery Plugin The popular WordPress gallery plugin, NextGEN Gallery, offers a complete gallery management system with the ability to upload in bulk, with metadata retained, sort photos, edit thumbnails, group galleries into albums, and much more. With NextGEN Pro you can proof, sell and protect your images as no others can. 16. WordPress Photography Themes Photocrati is an epic WordPress photography theme, made by photographers. The highly customizable and easy to use theme is packed with over 60 preset designs, built-in galleries, e-commerce and limitless capabilities. It’s used thousands of photographers around the world, so if you need simple and flexible, look no further. 17. Freelance Time Tracking Bonsai is the best time tracking solution for freelancers. It’s the first-time tracker fully integrated with your workflow. Available on web, macOS, and iOS, this solution is a dedicated tool for any kind of freelancer – web designers, developers, consultants and pretty much anybody else. 18. 48HoursLogo 48HoursLogo is the best logo design platform to use whenever you quickly need a helping hand with your logo designs but are on a budget. Try it, the results might just surprise you. 19. WrapKit Builder With WrapKit Builder, anybody can build gorgeous websites and landing pages with only a few clicks. You can start from beautifully designed ready-made demos or you can take it from scratch with drag-and-drop sections. The interface is extremely friendly and intuitive, try it. 20. MyThemeShop At MyThemeShop, everybody can find the best WordPress theme for his project. The website is literally packed with tons of gorgeous and fully functional themes. You can get any premium theme or plugin for just $19 and extended membership for just $87. 21. Logaster Logaster is a powerful logo design platform that is super-simple to use, pocket-friendly and which is delivering outstanding results. Create your logo easily with Logaster and download small-size logos for free and full-size logo from $20. 22. WorkExaminer WorkExaminer is a powerful internet monitoring software which you can use for employee monitoring. It can also be used for freelancers or in remote-teams. It is super simple to use and it is packed with lots of powerful features. You can have website tracking, screenshots capture, web filtering, and even PC tracking. Everything you need is there. 23. Total Multipurpose WordPress Theme Total is a modern and responsive WordPress theme that combines the power of the WordPress Customizer and the Visual Composer page builder to allow you to create a website for virtually anything. The theme was created with many different niches and professions in mind – corporations, small business, online stores, lawyers, agencies, wedding planners, hosting companies, non-profits, bloggers and more. 24. Chic Blog & WooCommerce WordPress theme Chic is a premium WordPress blogging and WooCommerce shop theme with a super clean, modern, fast and well-coded design. Launch your blog and store today. 25. Fashionista WordPress theme Fashionista is a super minimal fashion style masonry blog WordPress theme which also provides full support for the popular WooCommerce plugin so you can easily set up your own online blog and shop (shop is 100% optional). 26. Selenium Academy Automated Testing From Start To Finish. This course covers everything from Selenium Basics all the way to maintainable tests. Use the coupon code BLACKFRIDAY50 and you will get a 50 per cent discount until the end of the year. 27. InstantLogoDesign Exactly as the name says, with this great web tool you will help you on your way to a gorgeous logo design. It is super simple to use and keeps costs to a minimum. 28. GoodieWebsite Jump online before the 2018 ends. Launch your website with Goodiewebsite.com. This unique platform allows you to work directly with a developer who will code your design within a few days and at the affordable price. At Goodiewebsite "Black Friday" last all year long as you can get a "design to code" conversion for $999. 29. InvoiceBerry InvoiceBerry is a powerful invoicing platform that you can use in your daily tasks. Creating and fully customizing a professional invoice takes less than 60 seconds and the platform is packed with tons of features and options. 30. MediaLoot Fonts Stand out from the crowd and look beyond Google Fonts - for as little as $14 you can get complete and unlimited access to 80+ custom, unique, and stunning fonts suitable for web or print. The collection includes workhorse serif/sans-serif fonts as well as gorgeous extras like script fonts, rustic fonts, neon and art deco styles, and many more. As a huge bonus, buying access to the font library is a part of the overall Medialoot package that includes thousands of other graphics like icons, templates, and mockups. All of this for just $14? Now that's a huge deal. 31. What Font Is Using a database of 450k fonts (commercial and free) and font finder AI, for every image uploaded they show you over 60 similar free or 60 commercial fonts. Some use the system to find a specific font missing from the sent sources or by the client or just because they see a nice font and want to know what font is. Enjoy the best font detector on the market. 32. TemplateMonster Black Friday is one of the best chances to grab marvellous ready-made solutions for half a price. Get ready to buy all possible themes from TemplateMonster with 50 per cent off. Take a pen right now and mark these very days - November, 19-29. Do not lose your chance to get the most amazing digital products at the best prices! View the full article

A Christmas film made by indie filmmaker Phil Beastall for a mere £50 has gone viral. The tear-jerker short shows a man counting down the days to Christmas. But instead of waiting for mulled wine, mince pies and presents under the tree – or indeed to give someone else a present as John Lewis' 2011 advert showed – he is waiting to listen to his Walkman. Yes, that's right, he sits down and puts in an actual cassette tape into a Walkman, though there is a reasonable explanation – he does so to hear a message from his mother, which she recorded before she died. The film ends with three lines: 'Love is a gift, that lasts forever, Merry Christmas.' This heartwarming tale was originally created in 2014, but Beastall reposted it this year in response to John Lewis' advert featuring Elton John, which reportedly cost around £7 million to make. People are now calling for the department store to hire Beastall for next year's advert. Beastall has already done work for big-name clients such as Adobe, and we don't know yet whether John Lewis will consider this option. However, the amount of publicity generated from this campaign just goes to show that a) side projects matter, and can lead to paid work eventually b) if you can connect with people in the right way, your work will go far and c) everyone loves a good Christmas ad. If all these tear-jerking ads are a bit too much for you, check out Lidl's more light-hearted response to the John Lewis ad, below. Read more: Aldi trolls Coca-Cola with copycat Christmas van Iceland Christmas ad banned due to political message The ultimate Christmas gift guide for freelancers View the full article

If you're making a big purchase, Black Friday is definitely the time to do it. One of the best Black Friday deals on Amazon gets you £154 off a Panasonic LUMIX G80 compact camera, reducing the price from £629 to £474.99. The LUMIX G7 is available for a similar discount: £449.99 instead of £599.99, which is a saving of £150. The best compact cameras in 2018 The G80 is a great choice for capturing fantastic images in fast-paced, challenging environments. Dual Image Stabilisation technology helps to correct and compensate your shots to avoid blurry images when shooting on the move, and the camera is rugged enough that you can use it in any weather. The body and lens kit are splash and dust-proof to keep out moisture and grime, so you don't have to stop shooting when things get messy. The Panasonic Lumix G80 has a 3-inch LCD display On top of this, there are some really cool features such as Post Focus which lets you take a photo and then touch the area you want to be in focus after the fact. A similar feature, Focus Stacking, lets you select several focus points in the same image - so you can take more time over important decisions. The G80 shoots 4K video, and it enables you to capture the perfect shot in a fast-moving situation by letting you to select frames from video sequences and saving them as images. If filming video is as important to you as taking photos, the LUMIX G7 might be the right choice. It shoots 4K video at 30 frames per second and has Panasonic's Depth from Defocus Auto Focus technology which helps with maintaining focus while filming. It also has the Post Focus features and ability to pull out individual frames from video sequences just like the G80. Whichever one you choose, you're set to make an excellent saving of around £150 if you buy it from Amazon this weekend: deal ends on Monday! View the full article

This unbelievable Black Friday deal sees the price of Sony’s original A7 camera and FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS lens kit cut by a staggering amount. The Sony A7 was the first full-frame compact system camera on the market, and although it’s been superseded twice now, the fact that Sony has kept it available should speak volumes as to just how relevant it remains. The best camera phones in 2018: take better photos on the move And at this incredible price it's an opportunity not to be missed if you're looking to buy your first full-frame camera. Right now, this Sony A7 and lens kit is the cheapest it has ever been, reduced on Amazon UK from £875.24 to £659. But the savings don't stop there, you can also claim £150 cashback from Sony on a purchase, taking the actual price you pay down to a staggering £509. That's insanely cheap for a full-frame kit, which is more than we saw the A7 reduced by on Amazon Prime Day. The sale is open everybody, but Amazon Prime members will benefit from a 30-minute early access period to the deal. Don't want to miss out? Sign up to a free 30-day Amazon Prime trial and get access to all deals as and when they become available. (You can cancel your trial afterwards with no strings attached.) Sony Alpha A7 key features The Sony Alpha A7 (also known as the Sony ILCE7KB) was the company’s first foray into the world of full-frame photography. Inside its compact body the A7 boasts a 24MP sensor that's capable of capturing Full HD videos to 60p. A tilting LCD and high-resolution electronic viewfinder help you compose images and videos with precision, while Fast Hybrid AF and Eye AF are also on the specs list – as is Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity. And as you’d expect, image quality is fantastic. The A7 represents a fantastic (and now ridiculously affordable) entry-point into full-frame photography for anyone who’s been thinking about stepping up to the next level. View the full article

Whether you're a mountain biker wanting to record your latest daring ride or a commuter cyclist looking for a way to hold motorists to account, this excellent Black Friday GoPro bundle deal has you covered. It's got everything you need to capture all your adventures, but the main thing in the box is the HERO5 black camera, which records impressive 4K video, has a 2-inch touch display, and also handy features such as voice control for when your hands are engaged with more pressing matters. The best GoPro Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals 2018 No doubt you will be using your GoPro to capture shaky action footage, so the HERO5 has built-in technology that helps to stabilise your video. It comes with a 16GB memory card, but if you get a GoPro Plus subscription the camera will automatically upload your video to the cloud so it's always safe. The Casey case keeps all your GoPro accessories organised and safe from any roughhousing If you like to share your exploits while you're on the go, the QuikStories features saves you the fuss of trying to edit video from a forest or mountain peak - footage is sent to your phone and edited for you into something shareable. For your underwater adventures, the camera is waterproof to 10m. The great thing about this bundle is all the most useful accessories are included. There's the Shorty mini extension pole and tripod for when you want to do some more sedate filming, a rechargeable battery, flat and curved mounts, mounting buckle, USB-C cable and a Casey case to keep it all organised. No matter your action recording needs, this great Black Friday deal covers all bases and you can get it today for a special price of £259 instead of the usual £329. View the full article

Digital artists and graphic designers have been spoilt for choice with 2018's Black Friday deals, and these Wacom tablets are the latest discounts to grab our attention. Courtesy of Amazon, you can now save over 30% on medium Wacom Intuos Pen tablets in a choice of two colours. This means that you can now pick up one of these devices for just £109.99. At these prices we don't expect stocks to last long, so don't hang around - if you like the look of it, order it! The Intuos Pen Tablet is a new device from Wacom that enables digital creatives to sketch, retouch photos, and share your work with colleagues and clients. And seeing as it comes supplied with either Corel Painter Essentials 6, Clip Studio Paint Pro or Corel Aftershot 3, you'll be armed with everything you need to start bringing your art to life. Also included in this deal is a 4K battery-free Wacom pen. When paired with the tablet's 2,540 lpi resolution, the stylus' 4,096 pressure levels allow artists to work with incredible accuracy. Equipped with Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity, the Wacom Intuos Pen Tablet is compatible with Windows 7 or higher and anything above an OS X 10.11. If you're interested, bear in mind that you've only got today to snap up the Wacom Intuos Pen tablet at this amazing price. If you're looking for your first 'proper' pen tablet, you can't go wrong with these models. Popular with digital creatives thanks to their slimline design and sturdy build, the Wacom Intuos Pen tablets are intuitive to use and save you worrying about battery life. And at this knock-down price, you can't go wrong. Still not certain if this is the Wacom device for you? Fret not. We've rounded up a whole range of Wacom Black Friday deals to help you find the perfect drawing tablet. Related articles: The best drawing tablet for kids 2018 The best drawing tablet: our pick of the best graphics tablets in 2018 The best tablets with a stylus for drawing and note-taking View the full article

So the biggest shopping event of the year is upon us, which is great for designers in need of a new laptop or monitor. But what you might not know is that there's also some great Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals to be had on creative software. Yes, it's not just the prices of hardware that have been slashed this weekend, there are also top deals on everything from photo editing apps to productivity software, and everything inbetween. Here are the best creative software deals for artists and designers available right now. Best Black Friday Adobe deals Best Black Friday Corel deals Best Black Friday productivity software deals Best Black Friday animation software deals View the full article

Last month, Adobe held it's annual Adobe MAX conference in Los Angeles. And what an event it was. Across a creativity-filled three days, the Adobe team wowed audiences with some seriously impressive innovations, not least with announcements on the next generation of its Creative Cloud apps. An almost 15,000-strong audience sat in awe as Adobe project leads revealed major updates to the company's flagship titles, including Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC, Premiere Pro CC and Adobe XD. And even more excitement filled the room when Premiere Rush CC, Adobe's first all-in-one, easy-to-use video editing app, was introduced, swiftly followed by the preview of two new apps, Photoshop for iPad and Project Gemini, a new drawing app driven by Adobe's new AI Sensei technology. The magic of MAX To celebrate the innovation unveiled at Adobe MAX 2018 and the upcoming CC release, Adobe is hosting an exclusive event in London on 28 November, which will bring together some of the most creative minds in the UK. And you can be there too via Adobe's live stream. Attendees will get to spend the evening being inspired by TED-style talks from luminary speakers, among them, Patricia Bright, one of the fastest-growing lifestyle YouTubers in the UK with a following of over three million spanning the globe. Multi-award-winning Bright is a self-made entrepreneur, having launched a hugely popular beauty product with MAC Cosmetics. Completing the impressive line-up is MinaLima, the graphic design duo of the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts film series, and Rufus Deuchler, Principal Manager of Creative Cloud Evangelism at Adobe, who will demonstrate how you can use Adobe’s next generation of Creative Cloud tools in your next creative project. Trust us when we say this will be an evening of inspiration you won't want to miss. So mark 1900 (GMT) on the 28 November in your diary, bookmark the live stream and join us and some of the UK's brightest minds at the Adobe Creative Meetup, right here on 28 November. View the full article

Skyhooks and stripy paint. Literally making something out of nothing. Sounds like a classic agency swindle doesn’t it? Only it’s not. It’s a very real and highly critical emerging issue that everyone in our sector needs to address, now. It may well be the future of the entire industry. What was once the stuff of Minority Report is happening in our living rooms. Amazon is close to releasing drones that will make haulage vanish from the street, with factories of invisible workers who will never need to commute, alongside the invisible drivers of autonomous vehicles. And the landscape of channels in which brands can communicate has transformed too. Traditional branding, with systems anchored in visual mediums and static logo design, is over. Even supposedly ‘cross-platform’ or ‘tech-ready’ versions are almost obsolete. We now communicate with brands on levels that go beyond words and pictures Over the past few years, we have all been communicating with brands on a much deeper level that goes far beyond words and pictures – Visa’s slick haptic and sonic devices, the dulcet tones of Alexa and Siri, and the olfactory experience present in Emirates’ first-class cabins. Brands now have intelligent identities that reach all the senses and stimulate new kinds of conversation. It’s exciting, but why does all of this sometimes result in brands that feel ordinary, dull even? It’s all about mindset. Relentless optimisation Tech has made life easier. It cuts out the nonsense, delivering a phenomenal number of benefits that are much needed. But by smoothing out the bumps, and relentlessly optimising, it can cloak life’s tough – and important – bits. It makes the real complexity of our journeys less visible. If we import that thinking into brand building, it leads us to weird territory. When our lives are frictionless and seamless, we lose the unpredictability. This gives us less of the good stuff that happens by accident. Less surprise, less delight. When our lives are frictionless we lose the unpredictability... Less surprise, less delight There’s much to be learned from the incremental sprint mentality of engineers, but there’s more to creating a meaningful brand than simply getting to a minimum viable product. Just because a product works doesn’t mean its brand automatically does too. The creative process benefits from leaps of faith. The Windows Metro interface risked cheesing people off at launch but, years later, the logic of blending laptop and tablet interfaces makes total sense – so much so that it now feels prescient. The recent, divisive Lush Spy Cops campaign and the launch of Dirty Lemon, an order-by-text-only soft drink, has got everyone talking. All this is to say that when taken, leaps of ambition can pay off exponentially. Highly considered incremental gains can work brilliantly well for testing product but, for brand, they can push us toward the lowest common denominator, until eventually everything can start to look, feel and behave the same. Customers order bottles of Dirty Lemon by text only The Dropbox and eBay refreshes appeared at the same time as each other, and at times felt interchangeable. Flat gradient graphics might look better on smartphone screens, but we need more. Good design makes the world a more beautiful place, and if it’s driven by a clear brand purpose and built on a kick-ass product or service, it makes the world more interesting to boot. When these things come together, they express uniqueness and provide a powerful reason for being. IBM’s Watson – a question-answering computer system – is a masterclass in all of the pieces working in concert. Headspace is another example. Far from being a one-dimensional voiceover, it’s a rich world of illustration and motion that’s brimming with character and confidence. Brand alchemy So, who is responsible for making this alchemy happen? Product teams, marketing teams, brand teams, agencies? I’d say all and none. Brand-led thinking should criss-cross the fabric of an organisation, and everyone should put thought into how it influences design and product, from the frontline staff, all the way up to the CEO. Tesla achieves this. With its Easter eggs built into product, launch theatre and gloriously flippant tone of voice it becomes way more than an electric car manufacturer. It is one of one. Putting a car in space may not have had any practical uses (for now, anyway), but this wasn’t just a stunt. It was a true manifestation of intent, and a spectacle in its own right. It’s pure brand that is innovative and gets people talking. If we were feeling especially brave, internal brand teams would be disbanded immediately As a rule of thumb, companies often still stick ‘brand’ in a silo, headed up by a marketing lead, rather than framing it as a cross-functional discipline. If we were feeling especially brave, internal brand teams would be disbanded immediately. They would be replaced by an adaptable task force who can have a genuine impact on the things that matter, at source. It might appear basic to suggest that organisations need to talk to each other more, but the amount of fragmentation I have seen, personally, is staggering. The irony in all this is that technology is infinitely capable of making brands more vibrant, exciting, joyful, beautiful and human. By using the power, reach and intelligence of the technology we have at our disposal in an unfettered way, us creative types can make future years a golden era for branding. Tesla's approach is innovative and gets people talking The mind-bending madness of teams like Boston Dynamics proves we are on the cusp of big things – but we need to continuing being brave where possible. We need to embrace radical invention and harness our glorious naivety to make things the world never knew it needed. We also need to ask ourselves tougher questions. In a world of #MeToo, why must a voice assistant sound like a breathless movie star? How can we make machine learning inspire the design process, even if jobs are lost? What happens if we go against A/B testing, just because the result might be cooler? The things we create should not only offer answers, they should get the world asking even more questions. To get the most out of any technology, we must push it to breaking point and beyond, because the things at the edge have a higher chance of staying the course. The rules of this new era are yet to be written, and the truly brave designers will make sure they never are. This article was originally published in Computer Arts, the world's best-selling design magazine. Buy issue 284 or subscribe. Read more: 4 huge design trends we'll be seeing more of in 2019 How to make a brand more human 4 ads that tried to be cool, but failed View the full article

In a broad arena like illustration, which stretches across national borders and multiple media (from packaging design to posters, newsprint to digital, boxes and billboards, print ads and beyond), identifying trends accurately is a bit of a minefield. But with that said, looking back on 2018, we still believe it's possible to pull out some broad themes about what kind of illustration has been in demand from clients. (Whether you approve of them or not, well that's a different story.) So in this post, we point to five big trends in the world of illustration that have both dominated the past year and look likely to influence the next one, too. We're not saying you need to follow these trends yourself, but it's certainly handy to know that they exist... 01. Bright colours and simple shapes Packaging designs for pasta brand Barilla by Olimpia Zagnoli When it comes to branding, advertising and packaging, the overwhelming trend in graphic design this year has been for simplification and reduction. So it’s not surprising that that spirit has carried over to the world of illustration as well. “The most notable trend I’ve seen in packaging design this year is a move towards cleaner and more iconic packs,” says Patrice O’Shea, design director at Design Bridge London. Step Design’s packaging for A Piece of Lovely Cake "With the rise of niche, start-up challenger brands that are seen as more ethical, the big corporate brands are having to re-think their marketing and creative strategies to respond to the consumer need for greater transparency," he continues. "Brands are removing unnecessary claims in a bid to be more single minded, simultaneously making them work more effectively on shelf and in ecommerce.” While that doesn’t necessarily mean ruling out an illustrated approach, it does mean that where illustration is used, it’s often based around bold, simple shapes and strong colours. Meroo Seth’s packaging designs for Rico Chico chocolate Italian illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli’s work for pasta brand Barilla is a clear example, as is Illume's revamp of Target’s fragrance aisle; the packaging for puff pastry brand A Piece of Lovely Cake by Chinese agency Step Design; the limited edition Coke can, themed on a Big Mac, by Brazilian agency DPZ&T; and Meroo Seth’s packaging designs for Rico Chico chocolate. This trend is sure to continue and strengthen in 2019, but O’Shea urges caution. “Sometimes, the stripped-back aesthetic can end up becoming overly simplified,” he warns. “In a world saturated with own label and copycat brands, you still need to establish a distinctive and ownable visual brand language that emotionally connects with consumers to ensure that you stand out from the crowd.” 02. Organic and handmade Poster by Rebecca Sutherland for Heathrow Express While colourful, geometric, 2D vector art still dominates the landscape, there’s been somewhat of a counter-trend, in the form of illustration that's organic, hand-drawn and hand-crafted (or at least feels that way, even if it was created digitally). “We live in a super-digital world, which means there are tons of designs that are super-clean, sharp and sleek,” says Andrea Stan, aka Mky, a graphic designer and lettering artist. “But there is just such beauty in a hand-drawn piece, with all of its imperfections. And in 2018 I've noticed a repeating pattern in style preferences from clients, in that they seem to be attracted to things that look organic and human made." Animal Spirit by Maxim Shkret It’s a trend that can be seen in the book cover art of Charlotte Edey , which is imbued with an earthy sense of the hand-drawn; the editorial illustrations of Maëlle Doliveuxand, beautifully constructed out of layers of colour paper; the striking work of Maxim Shkret, whose animal illustrations are modelled in CG but look like intricate paper art; and even corporate designs such as Rebecca Sutherland’s posters for Heathrow Express, featuring illustrations physically constructed from upcycled train rubbish. Illustrated by Charlotte Edey, The Spirit Almanac is published by Penguin Random House “Hair, trees, skyline and clouds are all elements that can add an organic playfulness to your designs,” notes Gerard Keely, the freelance illustrator also know as Spoon Lancer. “Wobbly shapes are used to frame illustrations, and look great especially when placed beside text.” 03. Quirky and abstract Universal Sketch Support designed by Jan Vu Nam for Avocode As another reaction to the dominance of bright, shiny 2D vector art, could we be seeing a return for abstract illustration in 2019? “Right now, more and more illustrators are mixing images, textures, shapes and lines to create fun abstract designs,” says Keely. “It’s a style where anything goes and abstraction is king; it looks great as long as you get the balance right.” The trend can be seen in packaging, such as Thirst’s organic visuals for Commonwealth Brewing Co, or Gander’s trippy illustrations for Misfit Juicery. But it’s perhaps most significant arena for growth is in interface design, where consumers may well be tiring of identikit vector graphics everywhere. Intercom's website is dominated by abstract illustrations While ‘don’t trip up the user’ is still the go-to guideline for app and web developers, some brave brands are starting to experiment with something more visually interersting. Take Janis Andzans' illustrations for Avocode, or Intercom's website, which is plastered with dramatically abstract illustrations. Website illustrations for Adobe's Creative Cloud And most significantly, Adobe's Creative Cloud has taken a much more abstract approach to their website illustration (shown above), which really show it pushing the envelope visually beyond the same old vector icons we're all getting bored of looking at. Now the tech giant behind Photoshop and Illustrator has shown the way, we're putting money on the fact that other digital platforms will follow suit in 2019. 04. Playful and fun Postcard by Design Lad to celebrate World Vegan Day Since the tumultuous world events of 2016, there’s been an observable trend for dystopian and depressing themes in many illustrators’ work. But in 2018 there were signs that some people are getting tired of all that, and that a sense of playful fun might be back on the menu. 3D illustrator Design Lad’s hiliarious postcards to celebrate World Vegan Day (above) were a case in point, as was Andrea Johansson’s illustrated homage to our guilty food pleasures (below). Andrea Johansson pays homage to our love of steak There was fun to be had, too, in the quirky characters of Stina Jones, the comic-book stylings of Seb Agresti and the pop culture energy of Dennis de Groot, aka Punchdouble. Bar for Monicker Art Fair by Egle Zvirblyte Not to mention the childlike glee of Sam Hinton, the multicoloured creations of Richard Keeling, and the wonderfully zany and OTT world of Egle Zvirblyte. In 2019, will it be finally time when we can kick back and have a little fun again, in illustration as well as life in general? We certainly hope so... 05. '90s style Illustration by Lauren Carney for Happy Socks "As an illustrator attracted to vintage and retro-style I couldn't help noticing that one of the biggest trends of 2018 has been a roaring sprout of 1980s and 1990s inspired illustrations," says Italian designer Massimiliano Emili. Fashion has been leading this trend, with 1980s style references abounding everywhere from streetwear to high fashion for the last few years. And more recently, that influence has bled into illustration and graphic design in general, in the form of what Emili describes as "wild use of bright and loud colour combinations, often including neons, light blue, teal, pink, peach and light orange. This trend is also evident in the use of solid lines and solid colours, as well as camcorder VHS glitch effects in web design illustrations." Shin Morae's illustrations are strongly inspired by '90s anime However, Emili believes that that right now, 1980s-inspired illustration is rapidly giving way to 1990s illustration. "A large part of both designers and design targets were kids or teenagers in the '90s," he points out. "And this revival speaks directly to their hearts, hitting their emotional chords and winning their interest, as it does with me, a guy born and raised in the 1980s." Pop Girl by Dutch illustrator Xaviera Altena Georgian designer and artist Nikta Savinov agrees. “Nineties, early 2000s, brutalism, rave and web 1.0 aesthetics are in style now across both illustration and design," she says. "Colour palettes are limited; monochromatic and single-colour designs are on top of the game. You can see lots of typographic and geometric compositions, from minimalistic to super overloaded; patterns made from simple geometric figures or repeating texts (logos or slogans); patterns from abstract, irregular shapes and forms." Read more: 6 huge logo design trends for 2019 Typography trends in 2019 to look out for The best Christmas gifts for illustrators View the full article

Are you in the market for a new laptop but you're not sure what to get? Here's an excellent pointer for you. We're keeping track of all the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday laptop deals as they come in, and this offer from HP looks like a must-have for creatives. The HP ENVY x360 is the perfect blend of power and versatility, a convertible laptop that's ready for any situation, and it's available now with £250 off its usual price of £1,249.00. Running Windows 10 Home 64, it's powered by a quad-core Intel i7 processor running at 1.8GHz base frequency and up to 4.6 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost technology, with 8GB memory plus 16GB Intel Optane Memory, as well as a terabyte of hard disk to give you all the storage you need. The HP ENVY x360's 4K screen will bring out the best in all your work If you need a really clear view of your work then you're going to love its 15.6-inch screen; no 1080P HD here, this is a full-on 4K Ultra-HD IPS display running at 3840 x 2160, giving you maximum detail, and to keep things running smoothly the ENVY x360 has an NVIDIA GeForce MX450 with 4GB of fast GDDR5 memory taking care of graphics for you. You want more? The HP ENVY x360 also features Bang & Olufsen audio for crystal-clear sound, a webcam for those inevitable video conferences, plus a backlit keyboard, HP Fast Charge and fingerprint reader. This flash deal is available right now but there's limited stock available, so if this sounds like the right laptop for you then don't delay. To take advantage of this offer you'll need to use this e-voucher code: BLACK2. Looking for more sweet deals? Check HP's website for more deals on its stock, and keep an eye on our main Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals post so you don't miss out on any amazing offers! Related articles: The best laptops for graphic design in 2018 The best laptops for programming The best Walmart laptops in 2018 View the full article

So you’ve decided to introduce photography into your creative work – snapping your own product shots or portraits, for example – and you need a dedicated camera. If you’re new to the world of megapixels then it makes sense to pick up an entry-level model from one of the main manufacturers, and that’s a category that includes Nikon’s D3400. And you've timed it well as there's already some great Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals to be had. The best camera phones in 2018 The 24.2-megapixel D3400 has a plastic body, without the magnesium alloy inner frame of pricier Nikons, but it doesn’t feel cheap, and has a nice chunky handgrip for a secure hold. It offers instant image sharing via Nikon’s SnapBridge functionality, which works using Bluetooth rather than Wi-Fi and is useful for quick sharing to social media. If, for example, you’d like to share some quick work-in-progress shots of your latest project on Instagram, this is a great tool to do so. Bear in mind though that it doesn’t transfer images at full resolution. The aforementioned plastic construction means the D3400 is nice and light, to the tune of just 445g, which is lighter than its predecessor the D3300. Unfortunately this has come at the expense of some useful features – the D3400 lacks in-camera vibration sensor cleaning, a useful tool for shaking stray specks of dust off the all-important image sensor. Similarly, its impressive CIPA-rated 1,200-shot battery life is undeniably handy, but does come at the cost of a weaker built-in flash than other comparable cameras (CIPA battery tests require some shots to be taken with the flash on). There are many thing that make the D3400 a great choice for creatives, not least its price. Buying into Nikon gives you access to the amazing stable of Nikkor lenses, and you can rent rather than buy these if budget is an issue, meaning you’ll be able to cover your bases for whatever photos your latest project might require. It shoots in JPEG or RAW file formats – handy for playing in Photoshop – and captures decent HD video. If you have very specific needs, such as fast-action burst shooting, then it may be worth looking at something more specialised, but for a solid all-around camera that’ll do its job well, for a good price, the Nikon D3400 is a strong choice. View the full article

Ahead of the holiday shopping bonanza, the security community is talking to consumers about IoT security. View the full article

Every designer wants a MacBook Pro in their life, right? But we all know that they tend to be priced outside of the average designer's budget, so if you have your heart set on one then you're probably keeping a watchful eye on the latest Black Friday MacBook deals. Well here's the good news: we may well have found exactly what you're looking for. This hot deal from Laptops Direct presses all our buttons: it's a 15-inch MacBook Pro that's dripping with all the high-end specs you're after. That means an Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB RAM, a 256GB SSD and, best of all, a Touch Bar that'll put all the context-sensitive commands you need right at your fingertips. Normally you'd expect to pay well over two grand for one of these punchy little beauties, but Laptops Direct is selling this one for just £1599.97 – that's £590 off the usual price, and well worth jumping on right now as we doubt you're going to see a much sweeter offer among all the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. There's one tiny downside: you'll have to wait until 7 December for delivery, but we reckon that's an inconvenience that's well worth putting up with. And if this deal's still a bit rich for your budget, it's worth taking a look around the Laptops Direct site for some top deals on older refurb models that you can snap up for under a grand. Related articles: The best cheap Apple laptop deals of 2018: MacBook, Air and MacBook Pro deals The best Apple Black Friday deals in 2018 The best Black Friday and Cyber Monday laptop deals View the full article

In the run up to Black Friday, Dell has slashed the price of its industry-leading laptop, the Dell XPS 13. The device, which comes armed with 8th-generation Intel Kaby Lake Refresh processors, three USB-C ports, Windows 10 and a microSD card slot, has been described by our sister site Tech Radar as the best 13-inch laptop on the market right now. The main criticism levelled at the Dell XPS 13 was its steep price, but over Black Friday and Cyber Monday you can pick it up for just £969. This special price is a massive £410 reduction from its rrp of £1,379. To put it bluntly, this is the best price you can expect to pay for the best laptop. This amazing offer is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2018 deals. If you want to keep up to date with the best discounts on creative and design products as and when they go live, be sure to bookmark Creative Bloq and check back in over the weekend. Read more: The best Walmart laptops in 2018 The best laptops for programming The best laptops for graphic design in 2018 View the full article

We've said it before and we'll say it again: if you need a heavyweight laptop for your design work, you need to look at gaming laptops. If it can run the latest PC games at full resolution without dropping a frame, it's going to cope with absolutely everything you can throw at it, and if it's Black Friday and Cyber Monday laptop deals you're after, this offer from Amazon is just the sort of thing we're talking about. The Razer Blade PRO V2 is, let's be quite clear about this, an absolute beast of a machine that's capable of eating all your most demanding creative apps alive, possibly all of them at the same time. It has a massive 17.3-inch FHD screen, so you'll never have to squint to see what you're doing, and that's just the start of its tip-top specs. It's built for gamers but the Razer Blade PRO V2 makes an epic design workhorse At its heart ticks a quad-core Intel i7-7700HQ processor clocked at 3.8GHz, and it's backed up by a whopping 16GB DDR4 RAM as well as an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 GPU that'll give you all the graphics power you need. It also comes with a hefty hybrid drive comprised of a 256GB SSD and a 2TB hard disk, meaning that you get the best of both worlds: lightning-fast start-ups combined with absolutely loads of storage. When you need to plug peripherals into it you'll find a Thunderbolt 3 port as well as an extra three USB3 ports, as well as an HDMI slot, and it's all packed into a surprisingly slim 0.88-inch CNC aluminium unibody chassis. But perhaps our favourite thing about it is its RGB backlit keyboard that not only makes it easy to type when you're pulling a late night session, but can also be set to provide all manner of cool lighting effects. Actually, that's not quite our favourite thing about it. Our favourite thing about the Razer Blade PRO V2 right now is its price: it's available from Amazon right now for just £1,699.99 instead of the usual price of £2,199.00. That's £499.01 off; get ordering before the deal expires at midnight on 26 November! Related articles: The best laptop deals for 2018 The best laptops for programming The best laptops for graphic design in 2018 View the full article

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Adobe has slashed the price of its full Creative Suite of apps by almost half in an unbelievable Adobe Black Friday deal. The software company is offering an almost 40% discount on its All Apps package. That means you can now pick up Adobe’s entire collection of 20-plus creative desktop and mobile apps, and more, for just £30.34/€36.29/$22.99/month, instead of £49.94/€60.49/$52.99/month – a rare deal indeed. Unfortunately, the offer isn’t open to everyone worldwide. But if you’re based in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Brazil or Japan, you can claim the 39% discount. Save almost 40% on Creative Cloud now If you’re based in the Americas (apart from Brazil) or the Asia-Pacific region (Australia, China, India and more), however, Adobe is offering a comparatively more modest 25% discount on Creative Cloud. That’s still a quarter off the normal price though, which is a sizeable discount. Students and teachers get lucky too, with an additional 20-25% discount – that's on top of the 60% discount already offered. The offers are all valid until 24 November, so if you’re interested, you'll need to sign up by then… What’s included in the Creative Cloud All Apps plan? Adobe's Creative Cloud All Apps plan includes: The entire collection of 20+ creative desktop and mobile apps, including Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, and Adobe XD CC 100GB of cloud storage Adobe Portfolio Adobe Fonts Adobe Spark with premium features The option of up to 10TB of cloud storage The programs are fully integrated, so you can work between them (and different devices) seamlessly – whether you’re out and about or in the studio. Built-in templates help you jump-start your designs, while step-by-step tutorials will help you sharpen your skills and get up to speed quickly. This deal expires on 24 November 2018. Related articles: The best Adobe Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals 60 top-class Photoshop tutorials The best 4K monitors for designers 2018 View the full article

Design competitions can be a divisive subject. While some swear they are excellent for getting your graphic design portfolio up to scratch, or for forcing yourself to learn new skills and work to a deadline, others feel they're a waste of time, or are a way of getting free work from inexperienced designers. Computer Arts asked its readers whether they think design competitions are beneficial overall, and here's what they had to say... 01. You get to work on a live brief Freelance designer Grace Abell knows first-hand that design competitions can lead to paid work. "When I was a student, entering design competitions was a rare opportunity to work on a live brief. They offered an exciting focus beyond those that tutors set. In my case, a gig poster competition entry, pinned to the wall at college, proved to my tutors that I was serious about pursuing a creative career. The poster went on to become part of my portfolio for university applications," she says. "I acknowledge that some design competitions for professionals are ethically dubious; if someone doesn’t want to hire a pro, they shouldn’t expect the work of an experienced creative. But for me, winning led to paid work. "Passionate students, wanting to work in a competitive field, will take the chance. A competition entry in their portfolio could give them the edge when applying for the same jobs as their cohorts.” Andrea Kaye White agrees: "They can be an amazing opportunity for students, especially at the local level. It can lead to recognition and the opportunity to network with professionals." 02. You gain confidence “You don’t need to win a competition to benefit from it," says design student Emma Jayne. "As a design student, it’s also a great way to receive the kind of real-world feedback that’s necessary to our development and understanding. "I recently entered a competition for a print magazine; I submitted a piece that I had created during my studies, because I was proud of it. It was a great way for me to get noticed and to get my name out there. I was rejected, and obviously a little hurt by that, but I believe this helps us students to build resilience. We need the confidence to pitch work, so that when it comes to clients and businesses, we can adapt to what they’re seeking and be able to deal with likely rejection. "It’s this kind of experience that makes or breaks a designer, testing whether this is the right career path, and helps to build one’s personality.” Lindsay Kempter agrees that it's a good idea to submit work you've created for something else. "I enter projects that I do at work, not in my free time," she says. "Two birds with one stone, still designing for a client but then getting some bragging rights in the process." 03. They're just superficial Others are less positive about design competitions. Dennis de Groot says they're only beneficial or important "because we allow them to be. In essence they’re superficially creating a distinction between the 'best' and the rest," he explains. Andrea Roze also isn't sure about their worth. "All it appears to be is other designers showing off," she says. "Instead of trying to impress, we should be designing for the client or customer." 04. It depends on the competition Design competitions vary widely, so it's no surprise that some think you should choose the competitions you enter wisely. Dave Brown, co-founder and 2D design lead of Brown&co says that the best kind of competitions for agencies to enter are those that measure the impact and effectiveness of design in-market and reflect the ability to deliver tangible return on investment. "So, I’d put the DBA Design Effectiveness awards right up there," he says. "These awards aren’t a lottery, based on a closely knit judging panel with voting based on subjective creative excellence, or indeed any perception of cronyism. No, they are measured by results. Winning awards gives that feel-good factor internally, gets the agency noticed and builds reputation amongst peer groups, and of course more importantly, within the world of brand owners out there. Some awards programmes are a waste of time and effort, though. Naming no names but you know who they are!” Joshua Marsch agrees. "I think it actually depends on the competition itself. If the final award helps the designer get more clientele then yes, definitely," he says. Related articles: 10 life lessons for designers 10 ways to make your mark as an illustrator 5 damaging habits designers need to break View the full article

As humans, we naturally seek out and identify patterns; it’s how we’re programmed. So when it comes to logo design, as with all design work, it's natural to look for identifiable trends. But there’s also a lot of confusion, and often wishful thinking, when it comes to identifying whether a trend actually exists or not. What are logo design trends? “Finding trends in the vast sea of great work can be tricky,” says Chris Harmon, art director at Loyalkaspar. “Sometimes you gravitate to your own taste, and trends become self-fulfilling prophecies.” Take, for example, negative space. We’ve seen a number of great examples of negative space being used in logo design this year, from Buzzfeed News to Jetsave Tours. But does that make it a trend, or just a timeless technique? We’d argue the latter. At the same time, it’s inarguable that some clear logo trends do exist. And although you shouldn’t unthinkingly follow them, it’s still useful to know what they are, even if it’s for the express purpose of avoiding them. Here, we identify six logo trends from 2018 that look set to continue into 2019 and beyond. What you do with this knowledge is entirely up to you... 01. Simplification Pentagram simplified the American Express logo even further in 2018 We’ll start with a trend that’s been popular for years now, but still shows no signs of abating: simplification. We’re talking about, in the words of FINE’s design director Joe Flory: “an overarching trend to eschew extraneous ornamentation in favour of a simpler and uncompromising visual aesthetic”. As Alastair Holmes, associate creative director at This Place, explains: “When it comes to logo design and branding, there seems to be a trend towards simplifying things, so either taking the existing brand or logo and simplifying it, or completely redesigning the logo to be cleaner. "Good examples of this are Pentagram's American Express rebrand, which tweaked and cleaned up the original, and the Uber rebrand, which was a total redesign in order to freshen up and simplify.” The US Open emblem and wordmark got a reductionist makeover courtesy of Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv He notes that while the trend for simplification is all-pervading, the reasons for doing so can differ. “Some companies that have their logos and brands freshened up are happy with what they stand for,” he says. “In the case of Uber, however, the redesign was part of them trying to move away from recent controversies and present themselves in a new light. In both cases, though, it's an ongoing way of evolving an established brand to make it feel more current and contemporary.” Other examples abound: Best Buy, Mills & Boon, the US Open, Santander, City Gateway, Ogilvy, Fat Face, MailChimp… the list goes on and on. And logos will likely continue to become simplified throughout 2019 and beyond, believes Holmes. “This trend probably has a fair way to run,” he says, “because it's at least in part a reflection of what's been happening in the design of digital interfaces... and digital is only going to become more important for all big companies.” 02. Responsive logos The full versions of the Coke and Chanel logos Beth Anderton-Allen, a creative at Amplify, agrees that the needs of digital are having a big effect on how we design our logos, and points out that it goes beyond mere simplification. “Due to the increase in mobile platforms, responsive logo design is becoming increasingly important,” she says. If you want to see what a responsive logo looks like in practice, just head to responsivelogos.co.uk, resize your browser window and see what happens. The logos become less embellished at smaller sizes to retain clarity and readability A responsive logo is fully scalable for the modern web, but it’s not just about size, says Yego Moravia, executive creative director at Stink Studios. “We're also seeing a trend in dynamic identity, where logos are beginning to behave differently than before by using data, and changing based on whether a user is signed in or out,” he explains. “For example, when a user logs into their Google mail inbox, there’s an icon at the top-right corner that differs from their personal account to their business account. Between accessibility, tools, and photo, this is just one example of logos adapting their image depending on the data attached." 03. Authenticity The hand-drawn logo for Mexican chain Wahaca is in keeping with its shabby-chic heritage Not every brand in 2018 has been trying to simplify its logo, and nor should they, says Holmes. “This idea of simplifying things is particularly relevant for any brand with a strong digital presence,” he notes. “But where it might not be so relevant is for brands that perhaps want to communicate a more natural aesthetic. "For example, consider wine labels and earthy food brands, such as the organic food retailer Abel & Cole. It does have a digital presence, but it also has a more rustic feel to its branding in order to reflect what it's about.” So what exactly does ‘authenticity’ mean in the context of identity design? “It means being yourself, and being honest about who you are,” says Harmon. “Brands are asking themselves: 'How can I be myself if I’m using the same font as a hundred other brands, especially when that other brand is a real asshole?' In response, brands are making custom fonts that honestly feel like themselves, and no one can copy them." Superunion's logo for Shakespeare's Globe (far right) was based on the shape of the original theatre, and crafted using real wood and ink "Brands are asking how can I break through to millennials using the same pink everyone is using? Well, you can’t, so they’re finding new approaches to colour, taking steps to ensure that colour speaks to who they feel they are as a brand, and not viewing colour as data points to their target audience's liking.” In short, there’s no one blueprint for being authentic with your logo design, but that’s kind of the point. As Harmon explains, it’s all about asking questions. “For example, if our brand is brief and snappy, should we be using a bold and condensed font? If we’re all about relaxation, should we open up our kerning and let our message breathe? A level of self-reflection is influencing every design decision being made, and if brands aren’t asking those questions they’ll soon be scrambling to catch up.” 04. Sustainable logo design Taxi Studio aimed to give Carlsberg a logo that would be sustainable over the long term Does the need for a brand to appear authentic conflict with the urge to simplify? In the eyes of Chris Maclean, creative director of Wolff Olins, it doesn’t have to. “A big reason for the simplification and graphic reduction of logos we’re seeing is that whilst identity systems might evolve as design trends change, logos have a much longer timeline,” he explains. “A more classic logo design will stand the test of time better than one tied to the stylistic trends of the day, while the surrounding identity can flex according to changing expression requirements. For this reason, we think we can expect to see more brands simplifying their logo in favour of expressive brand systems that can flex more rapidly.” Healthcare app Zocdoc's instant-classic of a logo won't need to be redesigned for years In other words, rather than bringing out a totally different ‘on trend’ logo every couple of years, Maclean believes we’re seeing a return to classic design values, where brand innovation comes from various touchpoints, but specifically not the logo. He cites the 2018 logos for Uber, healthcare app Zocdoc, communication protocol Zigbee as examples of this trend. Another recent example can be seen in Taxi Studio’s rebrand of Carslberg; on its launch, creative partner Spencer Buck told us: "The new design system is very much anti-trend. It's designed to be permanent, or more permanent than any iteration of the design system has been before. There shouldn't be any need to change this for a good long time. That's part of the sustainable thinking that was built into the very core of the brief." “Trends are short-term,” points out Troy Wade, strategy head and co-founder, Brown&co. “And that’s great if you’re in advertising, but not if you’re trying to create something that’s going to last, and still look appropriate in the medium or long term. Think about Coca-Cola’s identity, which transcends any trend, versus Pepsi, which keeps trying to change and be trendy.” 05. Getting playful with fashion logos Look what Virgil Abloh did with the classic Nike logo If brands are becoming more focused on the long-term when it comes to their core logo designs, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for fun and innovation in secondary or one-off logos. And the fashion world has been leading the way this year in getting playful with its once-sacred logos. “Over the course of the past year, major brands have begun to engage heavily and publicly in creative collaboration, such as between US fashion designer Virgil Abloh and Nike,” says Charley Lewis, executive creative director at Optimist Inc Los Angeles. The latter, interestingly, includes a fun new take on the classic Nike logo, shown above, which might once have been considered too important to mess with. Another example in 2018 was the collaboration between H&M and Moschino, with the resulting logo 'H&MOSCHINO' appearing on T-shirts, innerwear and accessories. There was also a similar mashup between Moschino and MTV, to create an 'M[tv]OSCHINO' logo. Moschino has been mashing up its logos with other brands including H&M and MTV For a Swedish fast-fashion brand and a high-end Italian couture house to dilute their respective identities in this way might have been unthinkable a decade ago, but the pull of mashup culture is a strong one, believes Lewis. “These collaborations are at the core of how brands are connecting with a generation who are constantly trying to differentiate themselves,” he explains. “For Gen Z, personal style choices are not necessarily dictated by a particular subculture, as they once were, but rather by the amalgamation of all contemporary culture. What really matters is standing out as an individual with a unique perspective on style.” 06. Gradients Mozilla asked for public feedback for these two logo designs in July If core logo designs are being streamlined and simplified in 2018, then one way that designers have attempted to add a bit of added interest has been through colour. “This year has seen a growing trend towards the use of gradients within logo design,” says brand identity designer Helen Baker. But while the use of gradients can be quite full-on, most notably in the branding of Apple and Sky, it can also be used more subtly. The Waitrose logo by Pentagram uses gradients in a subtle but effective fashion “The John Lewis and Waitrose Partnership rebrand by Pentagram earlier this year, shows the new Waitrose logo with different bands of green, a sort of deconstructed gradient,” Baker notes. “The spacing between the bands of the colours also achieves a feeling of transparency, a key feature brands want to portray." Other notable brands to use gradients in their logo redesigns this year include Disney Plus, Firefox and Trivago. Read more: Typography trends in 2019 to look out for 5 key trends in character design Discover the hidden flaws in 6 world-famous logos View the full article

Can digital painting ever feel as natural as working in traditional media? We’re not there yet, but there’s an army of software developers dedicated to achieving the look and feel of traditional painting techniques. Painter and ArtRage are the best-known programs to offer ‘natural media’, a digital recreation of physical paints and surfaces, but Rebelle is an enticing alternative – and, in this third major release, seems capable of producing a few tricks the big guns can’t yet match. Rebelle offers a choice of media to draw or paint with: acrylic, pastel, pencil, ink and more – although not oils. But its biggest draw is its watercolour technology, which has been significantly updated in version 3. Rebelle’s DropEngine technology is what enables its droplets to behave in such a natural manner Make a stroke with one colour, then switch colour and paint over or near the first stroke, then watch as the two strokes blend and flow together in a convincingly natural way. You can also load the brush with water to increase the extent of the interaction. If you’re using Rebelle 3 on Microsoft’s Surface Pro tablet computer, you can use the device’s built-in accelerometer to control the flow of paint: try physically tipping the tablet screen in one direction, and watch the watercolour droplets respond to the effect of gravity, as fed back to the software through the accelerometer. It’s something close to magic. And unlike physical watercolour, you can ‘freeze’ the paint movement with a single key press. Rebelle’s selection of digital paper surfaces can also affect the path and behaviour of the watercolour paint, depending on how rough the grain is. Rebelle 3: Create your own brushes If there’s a drawback, it’s that you have to find the best brush settings yourself, through trial and error: there are only a few brush presets to choose between until you’ve taken the time to make your own. At least that task is made easier in Rebelle 3 with the Brush Creator. You can import graphics to represent brush shapes or grain, making some truly fanciful creations a possibility, then play with Spacing, Opacity and Jitter before saving the result as a permanent preset. Rebelle 3 enables you to work in a variety of wet and dry media, including inks, as demonstrated by Philipp Neundorf That isn’t the only trick up Rebelle 3’s sleeve: you can now paint with masking fluid on its own layer, which gives you more control over how the mask affects the flow of paint. Elsewhere, new additions include a Magic Wand tool, and canvas size that’s only limited by your computer memory’s ability to accommodate it. More technically minded artists will appreciate the options to use a ruler or set up a perspective grid, and to have a reference image displayed in an on-screen overlay. The clearly laid-out controls on the left of the screen helped Kamila to precisely control the effect of her brushes There’s still plenty of untapped potential for Rebelle’s developers to explore in future releases – more presets and more paint media come to mind – but the effectiveness of the watercolours alone is enough to make this affordable software worth adding to your creative toolbox. This article was originally published in issue 164 of ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists. Buy issue 164 here or subscribe to ImagineFX here. Related articles: The best software for digital artists How to adapt your digital art to feedback 22 best painting and drawing apps for iPad View the full article

If you're on the look out for some playful distractions from your creative work, what could be better than this build your own bundle discount from Nintendo? Famed for its innovative characters and gameplay, Nintendo titles are a great way to get your creative juices flowing in your downtime, and now you can grab massive reductions on its consoles and games. For those of you in the UK, right now you can pick up a Nintendo 2DS XL with three selected games for just £129.99. That's a reduction of up to £119.97 against it's RRP of £249.96. And considering that we've seen the 2DS XL go for more than the price of this bundle alone, you're essentially getting three top tier games for nothing. As part of the bundle you get to choose your colour of console and three games that include leading titles such as Zelda, Animal Crossing, Mario, and many more. This offer only runs while stocks last, so don't miss it! Mamma mia! After more Nintendo goodies? There are more bundles and exclusives to be picked up when you head over to its online store. If you're after even more amazing Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2018 deals, be sure to bookmark Creative Bloq as we're keeping tabs on all the creative and design discounts you don't want to miss. Read more: This Xbox One X deal is the cheapest we've seen Nintendo announces animated Mario movie Nintendo Labo makes coding child's play View the full article

Before you begin getting into the intricacies of setting type in the likes of InDesign CC, it's important to know the basics of typography. If you need a refresher on type terms then check out our key terms every graphic designer should know. For this typography tutorial, though, the most important thing you need to know is the difference between kerning and tracking. Kerning is the spacing between specific pairs of letters, whereas tracking works across a range of characters, or even entire paragraphs or documents. 75 best free fonts for designers Kerning is a fine art – and one you can quickly get good at using InDesign's tools and some tricks in InDesign, Illustrator CC and Photoshop CC. In InDesign or Illustrator, you can adjust kerning by selecting the Type tool and clicking on the gap between two characters, before holding down alt/opt and using the left and right arrows to adjust the space between them. By default the increment applied with each press of the arrow is 20 thousandths of an em, but you can adjust this preference for tighter control. Once you've got the hang of that, read on to discover how you can take your typography skills to the next level... 01. Kern upside down Kerning upside down is a well-used and tested technique Why would you want to kern character pairs upside down? Because this enables you to see your letterforms and the space between them without actually reading the words – bringing meaning to them. If you're doing something fancy with the kerning based on the meaning, this won't work, of course, but otherwise it's a well-used and tested technique and one you should try if you're struggling with kerning character pairs. 02. Blur it Another tested technique is to blur the type, perhaps by taking a screenshot and blurring it in Photoshop ... or more likely just squinting a little bit. Like Brian Hoff says: "I like to blur my eyesight a bit by squinting or crossing my eyes. This enables me to focus on the contrast and white space of the letterforms without becoming distracted by the characters themselves." It's a great technique, and you can find plenty expert kerning tricks in this brilliant article from Brian Hoff. 03. Kern with balloons Aim to space the letters so the balloons fit exactly between them Another, perhaps more abstract kerning tip is to imagine that between each letter there are balloons of equal size and volume, forcing the letters apart. As designer Tom Sewell says: "Aim to space the letters so that the balloons fit exactly between them without being squeezed out above and below". It's an interesting technique, and one that can prove very handy. 04. Use 'o' to space words Another tip is to always consider the spaces before and after the word you’re working on and ensure they are spaced correctly visually. A good rule of thumb is to imagine that the character 'o' sits between each word (thanks again to Sewell for that one). 05. Rough out headlines When working with sans-serif headlines, make sure you get a rough tracking before you kern Kerning and tracking is most obvious in headlines, so it's essential to get it right. And sans-serif fonts can accentuate your mistakes. When working with sans-serif headlines, make sure you get a rough tracking before you kern. If you have to put -10 kerning between almost every character combination, you should be using tracking at -10 before you do your individual character spacing. This goes for numbers too. The numeral 1 with anything before or after it (213, for example, or even a space) will always benefit from a tighter kern. More than one 1 (for example, combinations such as 11) needs really tight kerning. 06. Forget about small caps Never just shrink full-size caps down and call them small caps John D Berry knows his stuff – after all, he's written several books on type and typography. His top tip? Unless you know the difference between true small caps and fake ones, it's best to just forget that your design app's Small Caps command exists. Never just shrink full-size caps down and call them small caps: they aren't. If you're willing to go to the trouble of using real small caps, be sure to letter-space them properly – that is, a little looser than lowercase. 07. Keep the font count low Using fewer fonts helps create a cleaner and sharper result It's important to think of your type as a whole in your project. When you use more than three fonts in your project – say a slab, a serif and a display – it can sometimes become difficult to read and understand; the project can lack order. Usually, one font has different weights and you can create a stunning and simple design solution using these in the correct way. The result will be cleaner and sharper. So think about whether you need many fonts or a better job can be done using different weights of just one. Thanks to Hey Studio for that one. For more on the fonts that do go together nicely, see our post on perfect font pairings. 08. Rental revolution Skyfonts allows you to try fonts for five minutes before you buy them The problem with font shopping is that often you're not able to try fonts to their full capacity before you pull the trigger and purchase. Skyfonts from Monotype rectifies this by enabling you to try any font from its library for five minutes, for free. Sure, many foundries enable you to test out characters on their site, but it's not the same as trying them out in your preferred layout/design app. After all, the feeling of a particular font can be hard to establish until you start combining words. 09. Don't push it (unless you really have to) If you're going to edit a font, make sure it's with good reason Unless you're after a specific effect (or working on an illustrated piece) don't stretch, skew or otherwise alter fonts by messing with its dimensions after turning to outlines. You wouldn't stretch a photo or refined vector piece and you can often end up with an ugly, amateurish result. If you're going to edit a font, make sure it's with good reason. You don't want to ruin hours of the type designer's work. 10. Think of type as a voice Here's an interesting tip we picked up from Hoon Kim of Why Not Smile: "To deal with type is much the same as to control one's voice: [think of] selecting typefaces as voice quality; having a relationship with type in size, amount and degrees as vocal tone; and setting layouts of type as voices in space and time. Typographic design is visible as well as audible. If you have a great scenario, now it is time to cast good actors." Related articles: Create your own 3D typeface Typography trends to look out for in 2019 22 free ebooks for designers View the full article

Black Friday is coming in just a few days now, and the Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2018 deals are coming in thick and fast ahead of the big day. As well as deals specifically aimed at creatives, on laptops and Creative Cloud software, for example, there are plenty of other more general Black Friday deals that creatives could benefit from. For example, nothing quite gets the creative juices pumping like putting on some of your favourite tunes, and we're certain that you're not short on ways to listen to them. You probably have a stack of albums on your phone and even more on your desktop computer, with probably a streaming service or two thrown in for good measure. But if quality matters to you then really, you need a dedicated device that can deliver high-resolution audio, enabling you to hear all the extra detail that's usually lost when your tunes get squashed into MP3 format. Sony's NW-A45 Walkman range is just the thing to give new life to your music, and it's available right now in a great Amazon Black Friday deal for just £114.99 – that's £55 off Red model, the priciest one in the range, and a solid bargain whichever colour you opt for. Sony NW-A45 features The NW-A45 is designed to deliver better than CD-quality sound, with support for pretty much every audio format from nasty old MP3 through to heavyweight audiophile formats such as FLAC, DSD and Apple Lossless. It'll work with standard headphones or over Bluetooth, using LDAC for improved audio quality, and it'll give you to 45 hours of listening on a single charge, as well as 16GB of storage for your music that you can extend using the NW-A45's micro SD slot. Finding your tunes is nice and easy thanks to its 3.1-inch touch-sensitive screen, and it comes in a range of colours to suit your particular style. You can store as much music as you like on the NW-A45 thanks to its micro-SD slot Perhaps the biggest advantage of it, though, is that by shifting your music onto the NW-A45, you'll create lots of extra space on your phone for the best iPhone apps, which is always a bonus. Want a taste of sweet high-resolution audio? Now's the time to jump on it; Amazon dropped the price of the NW-A45 at midnight in advance of Black Friday, but it won't be around forever, so don't hang about. Related articles: This Xbox One X deal is the cheapest we've seen This Sony A7 Black Friday deal will save you over £600 Black Friday UK sale: don't miss this unbelievable Samsung Galaxy S9 deal View the full article

When it comes to unleashing kids creativity, there's nothing quite like getting them stuck into a good book. And right now, these cracking early Black Friday deals offer great savings on some of the most popular children's books around. So if you're looking for ways to stimulate young minds and encourage creative thinking, this brilliant kid's books will do just that. And they come just in time to make the perfect stocking filler or Christmas gift for kids. Top tip: Amazon Prime members can access these deals the second they become available, but non-members will have to wait an extra 30 minutes before they can cash in. Don't want to miss out? Sign up for a free 30-day Amazon Prime trialand get every deal as soon as it's available. (You can cancel your trial afterwards with no strings attached.) Let's take a look at what's on offer... Read more: This Sony A7 Black Friday deal will save you over £600 Save almost 40% on Adobe Creative Cloud now with this huge Black Friday deal This Xbox One X deal is the cheapest we've seen View the full article