Rss Bot

If you were to think of wireless headphones, chances are you'd picture Apple AirPods. But it looks like Amazon wants to stake its claim in that market as it revealed its own make of wireless headphones, called Echo Buds, during its annual hardware event, yesterday. From Amazon's point of view, breaking into the wireless headphone market makes total sense. Apple's AirPods are so popular that in 2018 alone it sold 35 million units. You might've even purchased some for less with the help of our Apple AirPods deals page. The ultimate guide to Amazon devices And while AirPods will usually set you back $159, Amazon looks set to undercut Apple with an RRP of $129.99 for the Echo Buds. The pair are equally matched when it comes to battery life too, with both giving five hours of music playback per charge. Meanwhile the Echo Buds charging case can hold up to 20 hours of charge. Expect to see a lot of the Echo Buds in the future... Complete with Bose's Active Noise Reduction Technology and a sealed in-ear design, Echo Buds promise to deliver a crisp and immersive sound. They also provide hands-free access to Alexa, leaving users free to stream music, play Audible books and make calls more easily. And with a tap, Echo Buds can access other voice assistant such as Apple's Siri and Google Assistant. The Echo Buds will be officially released on 30 October, but you can preorder yours from Amazon now. Related articles: Apple shares how AirPod users personalise their cases – and they look amazing! The best Bluetooth speakers in 2019 The best noise-cancelling headphones in 2019 View the full article

Calligraphy fonts are one of those typographic options that you rarely need, but when a project comes up that requires handwritten look, then it's useful to have a decent assortment of suitable fonts to hand. Unless, that is, you have the pen skills to do your own calligraphy. There's an astonishing number of calligraphy fonts out there right now, and sorting through them all to find the best ones is quite a challenge. That's why we've found a selection of our favourites for you; they're all free for personal use, and if you want to use them commercially then they can all be licensed at very reasonable prices. You can also find more free fonts here. 01. Scotland Proper old-school calligraphy For many people, Scotland will be exactly the sort of thing they'll be thinking of if you mention calligraphy fonts. Rather than being based on ornate, swirly handwriting, this one is inspired by early blackletter type; the sort you might see in medieval manuscripts, and which requires special wide-nibbed pens and lots of practice to carry off in real life. For a hugely retro look this is one to have in your library. 02. Maheisa Script We love Maheisa's swirliness If you like prefer your calligraphy fonts to be swirly and ornate, however, we have plenty of options for you here. Maheisa Script is a modern vector font by Jamalodin, designed to be used for beautiful text in greetings cards, invitations, logos and more, and comes with both upper and lowercase characters as well as symbols and a stack of accented letterforms. 03. Angelinatta Angelinatta's wonderfully bold and expressive A lively calligraphy font from Kokok Studio, Angelinatta features bold strokes and a set of wonderfully expressive uppercase and lowercase characters, plus numbers and a handful of symbols. A more advanced licensed version, featuring full punctuation, ligatures and alternates, is available now for just $8. 04. Marthin A more laid-back calligraphy font For a gentle, relaxed look, they don't come much more laid-back than Marthin. Created by Subectype Studio, it's a beautifully loose handwritten font with lazily flowing characters. The free version comes with uppercase and lowercase letters – no numbers, though – plus symbols and punctuation, as well as all the accented characters you're likely to need. 05. Glarious Glarious is ideal for hip logo projects There's plenty of energy to Glarious, an Opentype calligraphy font from Motokiwo. Featuring beautifully heavy strokes with flared touches, it's just the thing for hip logos or as a display font. For free you get upper and lowercase letters and not much more, but for $16 you'll get all the characters you need, plus alternates and swashes. 06. Beautiful Heart Beautiful Hearts is all about the smooth strokes Created by Garisman Studio, Beautiful Heart is a relaxed but elegant script font with some lovely smooth strokes and eye-catching swashes. It's a generous free offering with both upper and lower sets, numbers, punctuation, symbols and accented characters; the licensed version at $20 also gets you more swashes, ligatures, stylistic alternates and stylistic sets. 07. Soulmate An elegant font with some lovely ornate touches Another elegant calligraphy font, this time from Haksen Letters, Soulmate is packed with ornate touches that make it suitable for use with luxury products or high-class events. The free version has upper and lowercase letters, plus punctuation and some symbols; pick up a $20 licence for all the characters you're likely to need, plus alternates and ligatures. 08. Cameliya Stark Get a load of those crazy swashes There's something delightfully quirky about Cameliya Stark, a free calligraphy font from Moly Mol. What really stands out about it its use of enormous swashes on some of the lowercase letters, giving it a look of super-energetic handwriting. A commercial version, Ladies Script, is available for just $8. 09. Basya Jalai Basyar Jalai is splendidly tall and thin Described by its creator, Alif Quentin, as a light and fresh handwritten font that will inspire any design project with its incredibly romantic feel, Basyar Jalai's splendidly tall and thin with plenty of energy. Get the full licensed version, which features the full set of glyphs plus extras with all manner for flourishes, for $12. 10. The Doctor This signature font is just the right side of illegible Doctors are notorious for their terrible, almost-illegible handwriting. The Doctor, created by Putracetol Studio, isn't quite the baffling medical scrawl you might expect, but a handwritten signature font with a loose, stylish flow, and comes with uppercase, lowercase and symbols. Related articles: 13 cool fonts to give your work an edge Font types: A designer's guide 12 best free comic fonts of 2019 View the full article

Users scrambled to find a fix for the problem and eventually Google took responsibility for the issue. View the full article

In this RenderMan for Maya tutorial, we'll cover a variety of topics starting from creating a compelling composition all the way through to shading, lighting and rendering a production-quality image. We'll use polygon modelling techniques to create the environment, taking into consideration our camera position to avoid unnecessarily over-detailing our set. After preparing our models for shading, we'll explore how to use Substance Painter to create high-quality textures, as well as techniques for shading elements without UVs using RenderMan's texture projection manifold. To add another level of detail and complexity to our scene, we'll look at a few methods of generating snow in Maya using displacement and Maya's nParticle system. Adding atmosphere is essential to any environment, and we'll look at what goes into creating environment fog using a combination of RenderMan shaders and Maya fluids. Finally, we'll light and render our scene and output different render passes for composition in Fusion. And remember, if you're feeling stuck at any point, there are plenty of Maya tutorials out there to help you out. Download the files for this tutorial. 20 tips to master Maya 01. Set your camera Find the right focus and camera angle to tell your story The origin of this piece came from Pixar's RenderMan Timeless Art Challenge, where they teamed up with Kitbash3D and SpeedTree to provide assets for participants to use to create a scene. After familiarising yourself with the provided models, decide what the focus will be and find a camera angle that helps support your narrative. Fill the frame, but try to avoid letting the main assets stray too close to the edge of the image. Keep in mind the rule of thirds, breaking down the scene in thirds both horizontally and vertically, and find an interesting silhouette. 02. Block in shapes Build your composition with initial shapes and models In this phase, you'll block out initial shapes and models to fill your composition and support your narrative. This will help you get a better feel for your final shot and where you need to spend your time adding details later. Don't worry about detailing your models at this point though, just keep it rough to iterate quickly. Using a fence to create leading lines, the viewer's eye is drawn down the pathway to the focal point. Duplicate similar geometry to efficiently fill out the scene and create an interesting environment, such as adding trees for the background. 03. Refine models Use Maya's Soft Selection and sculpting tools to add irregularities to your objects Once you're happy with your composition, you can now begin to refine the models by adding some extra variation and details. Try to spend most of your time on key objects, or ones closer to the camera. Objects in the real world seldom have perfect silhouettes and angles, and spending extra time in this phase heavily influences realism. Maya's Soft Selection and sculpting tools are great for adding irregularities to objects. It's beneficial in this phase to add a simple Dome light with an HDRI to execute test renders. You can start to see how your models interact with light, even with a basic grey material. 04. Prepare for shading You'll need clean UV layouts to generate texture maps Now that you're satisfied with your models, it's time to prepare them for shading. For generating texture maps using Substance Painter, clean UV layouts are essential. Using Maya's UV tools, work through your scene and UV unwrap the models. Ensure all seams are facing away from the camera and avoid overlapping UVs. For better organisation in Painter, assign a basic Lambert material to each texture set you'll want to be associated with your model and name it appropriately (e.g. iron, concrete). Each texture set will equate to a separate material in RenderMan. 05. Create textures using Substance Painter Use layers and masks to add details and wear to your textures Make a new PBR – Metallic Roughness project, import your FBX and bake the mesh maps to start. Starting with a smart material or a substance from Substance Source can save you time, then work procedurally and stay non-destructive by utilising layers and masks to add details and wear. Export a smart material of your procedural shader if you'll be shading other, similar objects, then add hand-painted and/or model-specific details towards the end to finalise your textures. For use with RenderMan's PxrSurface shader, export maps for Diffuse, Height, Roughness, Specular and Normal DirectX. 06. Set up RenderMan shaders Make sure you use the right colour space for each texture With RenderMan's uber shader, PxrSurface, load into Maya the Substance Painter textures and connect them to the appropriate inputs. All colour textures (diffuse, specular) should be loaded using sRGB colour space (linearised), and all data/numeric textures (height, roughness, normal) should be loaded as RAW (non-linearised). The specular model for PxrSurface should be set to GGX and the Specular Fresnel Mode set to Artistic. You can overlay the height map over the normal map using the PxrNormalMap Bump Overlay input. 07. Create ground snow using displacement Use a displacement map to create snowy terrain Using a displacement map, you can create detailed terrain with footprints and other realistic details to support your narrative. In Photoshop, start off with a 50% grey layer. As you paint, values above 50% will displace upward along the surface normal, and any values below 50% will displace downward. In Maya, load this displacement map and connect it to a PxrDispTransform node with the Remapping Mode set to Centered. Then, using a PxrDisplace node, connect the displacement map to the shading group for the ground geometry. To ensure smooth and accurate displacement, add the RenderMan Subdiv Scheme attribute to the geometry to render it as a subdivision surface. 08. Generate snow using Maya nParticles Turn nParticles into polygons to create snow-like geometry To generate snow on the surface of objects, Maya nParticles can be converted to polygons to create blobby, snow-like geometry. Duplicate the target object and delete all the faces except those facing upward. With the object selected, create a Surface type emitter and play the simulation to generate particles on the surface. Once satisfied with the particle coverage, convert the nParticle object to polygons. Dial the Output Mesh parameters on the nParticle object until you're pleased with the snow geometry. You can also manually paint particles using the nParticle Tool to get more natural particle shapes. 09. Develop a snow shader With the right shader settings you can create a convincingly snowy look Much of the look of snow comes from the specular and the subsurface properties of the material. Start with a PxrSurface with an off-white diffuse and Jensen Dipole Subsurface enabled. Using the Primary Specular lobe, establish the overall, broad specular of the surface with high roughness. Building on that, use two PxrFlakes patterns with a high and ultra-high frequency and assign them to the Rough Specular and the Clear Coat Bump Normal inputs, to produce the specular glints you often see on the surface of snow. Add a high-frequency PxrFractal to the bump input to break up the surface. 10. Let there be light You'll need a variety of lights for your scene to look realistic Add lights to the scene to bring it to life. Using a PxrDomeLight, add an HDR image that captures the general mood you're after. Using an HDRI without a strong direct light source provides more flexibility by allowing you to create a separate key light, such as a PxrDistantLight or a PxrEnvDayLight for sunlight. Add other analytic lights throughout the scene where necessary, such as inside windows or lanterns. Running an IPR while establishing your lights provides real-time feedback and allows quick iteration. 11. Use fog to establish atmosphere Add a Volume Primitive with a PxrVolume shader to make things foggy Introduce depth to your scene by adding atmospheric fog. Create a Volume Primitive and scale it to encapsulate the entire scene. Assign a PxrVolume shader to the primitive and, to get a constant fog, set the density very low (0.001). To create a density gradient, or to control the density of the volume in world-space, assign a manifold with a 'world' Coordinate System to a PxrRamp and assign that to the volume's Density Float input. Using the ramp you can increase the density closer to the ground. 12. Add billowy fog using Maya fluids Simulate ground fog with Maya fluids Use Maya fluids to simulate low-hanging fog or mist. Create a 3D fluid container and scale it to the appropriate size. Adjust the resolution of the grid to get a smoother simulation. With a constant Density Gradient, enable the Texture Opacity and use Perlin Noise as the Texture Type. Run an IPR and adjust the texture parameters until you get a desirable patchy, billowy look. Adjusting the Shading parameters such as colour, transparency and opacity can further enhance the look. 13. Create falling snow Use an nParticle volume emitter to bring in some falling snow Add some falling snow to really sell the cold, winter atmosphere of the scene. Create an nParticle volume emitter, scale it up, set the desired particle rate and add some wind to the nucleus object. Since snowflakes are generally flat, create a small, snowflake-sized plane and use it as the source for a particle instancer. Assign a double-sided snow material with a snowflake alpha cutout to the plane. Create a new Dynamic Attribute and set a random value for the creation expression. Using runtime expressions, increment the value to continue the rotation. Under the instancer, set your new attribute as the rotation source. 14. Prepare to render Don't mess your snow up with a denoiser Since the snow shader contains tiny glints of reflections, using the denoiser isn't an option since it mistakes those glints for noise. The sampling will need to be slightly higher to accommodate – somewhere around 512 max samples with a 0.005 pixel variance results in a clean render. Denoising can be enabled for the fog render passes, so you can utilise a lower sampling rate for those. Enable motion blur for the falling snow render pass, and add any AOVs you desire for the scene, including mattes for masking in post. 15. Composite in Fusion Finally, put everything together in Fusion Load your render outputs into Fusion. Start by adding a background image or matte painting for the sky and add the beauty pass over it. Next add the constant fog pass, adjusting the exposure and gamma to dial it over the beauty. Perform a similar merge for the billowy fog layer, then finally add the falling snow layer on top of everything. Perform any colour grading and add lens effects such as vignette, edge blur, chromatic aberration and film grain, if desired, to combat the 'rendered' look. This article originally appeared in issue 133 of 3D Artist. Buy issue 133 here. Related articles: The 11 best Maya plugins How to speed up retopology in Maya Pixar Animation Studios: 4 secrets to success View the full article

Mattel, the manufacturer behind Barbie, has released a new range of gender neutral dolls that are designed to help children express themselves while they play. Released earlier this week, the Creatable World range sees binary identifiers ditched in favour of dolls that are more open to interpretation. Considering that Barbie herself has become a target of ridicule due to her unrealistic proportions (you certainly wouldn't want to use her as an artist's model for realistic figure drawing), this is a progressive step forwards for Mattel. To help break down barriers, the Creatable World toys come with stylishly vague bodies and faces. They also come supplied with diverse clothing, hairstyle and accessory options, allowing kids to deck out their dolls with either dresses, skirts, trousers, or a combination of the lot. Mattel is the latest in a line of brands tapping into progressive social issues. And while we've looked at 3 times big brands that tried to be woke and failed miserably, the Creatable World toys appear to have been handled carefully. According to The Independent, Mattel has worked with a "dedicated team of experts, parents, physicians and most importantly, kids" to perfect the look of the dolls, which come in a variety of skin tones. "Through research, we heard that kids don't want their toys dictated by gender norms," added Kim Culmone, senior vice president of Mattel's doll design. The product launch includes a video that promotes the doll's personalisation potential, rather than being heavy-handed with an inclusivity agenda. Complete with the hashtag #AllWelcome, the Creatable World dolls look like they're ready to take on a modern market. Creatable World dolls are available now for an RRP of £34.99. Related articles: 8 of the best design ideas in the world (and 3 of the worst) The best drawing tablet for kids in 2019 The best cameras for kids in 2019 View the full article

You're reading Subject Line Ideas for Black Friday and Cyber Monday Emails, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! The busiest season for emails is looming. The weekend after Thanksgiving promises to be special. Whether you are a buyer or a seller, Black Friday and Cyber Monday is a period of great deals for sellers and shoppers. While customers … View the full article

When it comes to tablets, Apple arguably dominates the market. And the company looks set to maintain that position with the arrival of its 10.2-inch iPad. The new version of the company's most popular model, which is half an inch taller and boasts a new Smart Connector (for compatibility with the Smart Keyboard), is now available online and in selected stores. When it comes to product updates, this all looks fairly standard for Apple, until you get to the price, that is. It's rare to see Apple products at a cost one might refer to as affordable (which is why we're already keeping an eye out for the best Black Friday iPad deals). But despite the newly updated, significantly bigger device, Apple has maintained the model's entry-level pricing. The new 10.2-inch iPad, which features Apple Pencil support and is powered by Apple's powerful A10 Fusion chip, starts at $329 for Wi-Fi models or $499 for those including cellular data. Those in education wanting to get their hands on the device can do so for as little as $299! These are the kind of prices we'd typically only see as part of the best Apple Black Friday deals, so to have them set at retail is a great result for consumers, and creatives in particular. Not only is the extra screen space is a big draw, literally, for artists and designers, it's more portable than ever, weighing just one pound, according to the Apple newsroom. Add all of this up and it's hard to see how anyone can compete with this entry-level device, in terms of both power, functionality and now cost. We'll have a full review on the new iPad coming soon, so stay tuned. You can order the 10.2-inch iPad via the Apple online store now, and it will appear on shelves in selected Apple stores by the end of this week (varies by country and region). After a different iPad model? Here are the best iPad deals in your area: View the full article

Magecart Group 5 has been spotted testing and preparing code to be injected onto commercial routers - potentially opening up guests connecting to Wi-Fi networks to payment data theft. View the full article

The issue in the Rich Reviews plugin is being actively exploited. View the full article

A known threat actor, Tortoiseshell, is targeting U.S. military veterans with a fake veteran hiring website that hosts malware. View the full article

To celebrate Abbey Road's 50th anniversary, a clever redesign of the iconic Beatles album cover has fixed a dodgy piece of parking that's been invading the pavement for half a century. And while it's a neat redux, it's also subtle but worthy print ad for Volkswagen. If you're not familiar with the album cover, it sees the Fab Four walking on a pedestrian crossing near Abbey Road Studios. But if you look in the background, you'll spot a hastily parked white VW Beetle obstructing the pavement. Created in partnership between VW and Nord DDB Sweden, the new Reparked Edition sees the car finally shift a few feet to the right and park correctly. And it's not just because VW wanted to swerve into the cultural conversation surrounding the anniversary. The automaker also wanted to promote its Park Assist technology, which makes it easier to parallel park. What's more, this ad wasn't just dashed off in a couple of minutes in Photoshop. It's a slick recreation that's even being sold as a print, with the profits being donated to Swedish children's rights nonprofit, Bris. See how it compares to the original Abbey Road cover, below. Beatles not included "Volkswagen continuously innovates to make the driving experience better and safer for drivers and pedestrians," said Jeanette Asteborg, marketing director at Volkswagen Sweden. "We want to show how far our technology has come since that little parking mishap, so that no one else has to live with a constant reminder of their parking fail." So if you've ever worried that you take too long to park, console yourself with the fact that at least it didn't take you five decades. Related articles: 5 ads so entertaining the message got lost New Volkswagen logo breaks its own rules 5 ad campaigns that changed the world View the full article

UX is a profession that never stands still, but the latest theories, practices and sub-disciplines can take quite a bit of explaining, and can't just be summed up in a quick tweet or Facebook post. To keep your UX skills up to date, then, new and up-to-date books can be invaluable. And this year there have been a lot of excellent and important releases. Here, we’ve selected seven books on user experience, all written by experts in the field and published in 2019, which have been making waves. Whether you’re a UX designer, a manager or just someone who needs to stay informed, they’re all well worth checking out. Also see our favourite graphic design books, or if you're after a different type of UX tool, check our best web design tools roundup. 01. Loops If you're building a new digital product, this is the book for you Buy it from Amazon In 2019, launching a new digital product is a careful balancing act between speed and quality. When budgets are limited and time is tight, how do you ensure you create a product that gets to market quickly but is also fit for purpose? The founder and president of Nine Labs, J Cornelius has been building digital products since 1996 and shares the benefit of his experience in this superb new publication. A practical guide focused on getting products out of your mind’s eye and into the real world, it covers the processes, exercises, and methodologies used by some of the world’s fastest moving and most successful startups and corporate product teams, in a way you can apply to your own products. 02. Strategic Writing for UX Writing is as important as visual design in UX, and this book explains how to do it right Buy it on Amazon When it comes to UX, visual design is usually the area that gets discussed the most, but getting the words right is just as important for the success of a website or app. And yet it’s a subject that’s often overlooked. This book sets out to fill that gap. Author Torrey Podmajersky has written UX content for Google, OfferUp, Xbox and Microsoft, and teaches at Seattle’s School of Visual Concepts (SVC), so she has some great advice to offer in this area. In Strategic Writing for UX, she explains how UX text patterns work with different voices, and how to produce text that’s purposeful, concise, conversational, and clear. Other topics addressed include how UX content works with the software development life cycle, how to use a framework to align the UX content with product principles, and how to explore content-first design to root UX text in conversation. 03. Building Design Systems Everyone's talking about design systems right now, so make sure you know what you're talking about too Buy it on Amazon Design systems have been probably the most discussed topic among UX professionals in 2019. Essentially, they allow a design team build a framework that meets their needs by bringing together all of the critical design components, including style guides, pattern and UI libraries, CSS frameworks and other resources, in one place. Written by two leaders in the field, Sarrah Vesselov and Taurie Davis, this book guides you through the process of defining a design language that can be understood across teams, and explains how to sell it to key stakeholders and other contributors. You'll learn how to use an interface inventory to surface inconsistencies and inefficient solutions; establish a component library by documenting existing patterns and creating new ones; and create self-documenting styles and components to streamline your UX process. 04. Design for How People Think Getting under the hood of the human brain can dramatically boost your UX design skills Buy it on Amazon UX design is ultimately about user behaviour, but how much do we really know about how people really think and act? This book aims to delve deeper into brain psychology to provide some practical answers. John Whalen has a background as a psychology professor and now works as strategic product/service researcher and designer, so he's the perfect person to write it. In the book, he shows you how anyone on your team, without any specialised training in psychology, can conduct what he calls "contextual interviews" to unlock insights into customer behaviour. You’ll then learn how to apply that knowledge to design brilliant experiences for your customers. The book also explores practical examples of how Fortune 100 companies have used this system to build successful and profitable experiences. 05. Ruined by Design Half rant, half call to arms, this book by Mike Monteiro explains how you can help fix the world by taking the right attitude to design Buy it on Amazon Most books about UX are relentlessly positive and upbeat, and that can sometimes get a bit wearing. So here’s the perfect antidote, in the form of ever-controversial web designer Mike Monteiro. As a starting point, he points out sardonically that “The world is working exactly as we designed it”. For example, “Facebook’s privacy settings, which have outed gay teens to their conservative parents, are working exactly as designed. Their ‘real names’ initiative, which makes it easier for stalkers to re-find their victims, is working exactly as designed. Twitter’s toxicity and lack of civil discourse is working exactly as it’s designed to work.” But this isn’t just one long rant: it’s also a call to action to make better decisions as designers, and change the world as a result. And it also provides you with the tools to do so, explaining how to evaluate the potential benefits and harm of what you’re working on, and how to present your concerns, using data and good storytelling to decision-makers, in a way that will actually make them listen 06. Emotionally Intelligent Design New technologies and techniques can help you engage emotionally with audiences, as this book explains Buy it on Amazon Another publication probing the moral and ethical issues of UX design, this book explores new research about emotion and examines how design can help promote emotional well-being. To help you do so, author Pamela Pavliscak, a design researcher and advisor to Fortune 500, examines new technology that engages emotion, and new emotional design practices. In the process, she draws on both her own research and the latest thinking in psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics. Along the way, you’ll learn, among other things, different methods for blending well-being interventions with design patterns, new principles for merging emotional intelligence and design thinking; and how to use a relationship model for framing product interactions and personality. 07. Think Like a UX Researcher User research is the foundation of UX; learn about the latest techniques in this book Buy it on Amazon People are unpredictable, and so second-guessing how users are likely to behave in using your website or app is the road to failure. Instead, research is vital, but what’s the best way to go about it? This book takes a deep dive into the theory and practice of UX research, and offers practical advice on how to plan and conduct it, analyse data, and persuade people to take action based on the results. Written by researchers David Travis and Philip Hodgson, who have 55 years experience between them, as well as each holding a PhD in Experimental Psychology, this book would be useful to UX researchers, designers, project managers, scrum masters, business analysts and marketing managers. It includes workshop ideas to build your UX maturity, and stories from seasoned researchers, outlining how their research methods can be tailored to your own projects. Read more: The best new typography books of 2019 The ultimate guide to user experience 7 golden rules of UX View the full article

EDR is still recognized as quite efficient against many of the advanced threats security professionals encounter, but today's threatscape demands Next-Gen EDR solutions. View the full article

We're not sure what the Venn diagram of football fans and typography enthusiasts looks like. But if you fall in the overlap between the two, this is the Kickstarter project for you. Created by self-described football mad design professional Mark Jenkinson, TypeKits is a Kickstarter project that sees typefaces transformed into football shirts. Besides free fonts, what more could the typography obsessive in your life want? In TypeKits, six famous typefaces and their designers are celebrated as they're cleverly realised as football shirts. There are even a few parallels between the funny old game and type design thrown in for good measure. Check them out in the gallery below. The mashup of football kits and the world of typography has already been featured in football magazine Four Four Two, despite not having yet reached its pledge goal. Speaking about how the project came about, Jenkinson said: "I love footie and I love typefaces so one random day I just had the idea of 'what if I mashed these two loves together?' And so began my TypeKits journey. "What was intended to just be a one off Helvetica jersey quickly started to spark new ideas that brought more parallels between football and design. The history, the men behind them and the passion people feel for them." The fonts in question include Helvetica, which uses its historic connection to Swiss design to become a red and white kit. It's also emblazoned with the year 1957 in reference to the year it was made. We're sure you won't get any funny looks if you wear this to a stadium Any project about popular typefaces wouldn't be complete without the infamous Comic Sans getting a look-in. And TypeKits doesn't let us down. The use of the Millwall chant 'no one likes us. We don't care' on the back of the shirt is clever touch, and the dotted pattern is a nice nod to its comic strip roots. Other fonts in the collection include Futura, Optima, Franklin Gothic and Johnston Sans. And if football shirts are a bit much, you can also show your support for your favourite typeface with a scarf instead. To back the project, head on over to the TypeKits Kickstarter page. Related articles: 50 top typography tutorials The ultimate typography cheat sheet 8 invaluable online typography tools View the full article

Vulnerability in iOS 13 and iPadOS affects keyboards installed for iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. View the full article

If there's one thing that can be relied upon in web design, it's that when you've spent ages designing a stunning site that ticks all the boxes – beautiful responsive design, all client requests (both reasonable and otherwise) met, fast load times, the works – the client will come back at the last minute with something like this: "Hey, yeah, love the site. Just showed it to the directors and they think it's great; only one little request. Can we make it more engaging?" Before you reach for a large drink, hang on; it's doable, and it can be done fast. If you really want to delight your clients – and their directors – with an irresistible engagement fix, some eye-catching visuals are the way to do it. And while some striking stills will do the job, to really elevate a site you should incorporate some content that includes movement. Right now, over half of consumers want to see more video content from brands and businesses they support—and with 85% of all internet users in the US watching online video content monthly, it's time to tap into that need for video and give them what they want. Read on to discover some motion-forward options for driving engagement. Cinemagraphs A little motion can draw the eye Depending on the nature of the site you're working on, you might be concerned about the performance impact of using motion content. There's no getting around the fact that moving images result in larger file sizes, and that can affect load times, so let's start with the quickest option with the smallest file size: cinemagraphs. A cinemagraph is an optimised form of GIF that only has a portion of its content animated – for example it could be a cup of hot coffee that's still except for a continuous wisp of hot steam coming from it, or a beach that's motionless, except for clouds that continuously roll across the landscape. The contrast between the stillness of the majority of the image and the animated portion makes for a really eye-catching effect, and it's a great way to introduce motion to your stories and sites. It can help bring your stories to life, and as cinemagraphs are still relatively uncommon, this content is a great way to engage your audiences' interest. Fully animated GIFs A fully animated GIF can make a lot of impact To make a bigger impression you can use fully animated GIFs. Invented over 30 years ago, GIFs predate the web and they're still popular today thanks to their animation properties, making it easy to use a continuous video loop to create new content. If you want to connect to your customers, using animated GIFs is the way to go – they're instantly recognisable and used all over the internet, usually in the form of memes. GIFs are also incredibly effective in presentations, social media, and more –they're eye-catching and engaging, and can range from hilarious to serious, and anything in between. You can find a huge amount of video content on iStock that's perfect for turning into GIFs – just find the perfect video, download it, and use your design skills to create a new clip that drives engagement. Videos SPEED RAMP Motocross rider jumping into air stock video If file size is no problem then video is the ultimate way to add motion to your stories, and at iStock you can find video content for every occasion. And if you're really interested in visual impact then you'll be delighted to know that all of our 4K video content costs the same as HD. The beauty of video is how malleable and editable it is; once you've found some clips that suit your project, you can edit them together to create new and unique content that fits perfectly on your site, complementing your designs and engaging your audience. Research shows that on average, 88% of users spend more time on websites with video; that's why 87% of marketing professionals are adding video to their marketing toolkit. If you're not reaping the benefits of video yet, now's the time to start. Fill your stories with motion Now that you've learned about new ways to add motion to your creative campaigns, it's time to get started by searching through iStock by Getty Images to find the perfect, motion-packed content for your clients and their needs. You can also save 10% by using code ISTOCK10 at checkout, only until September 30 2019. View the full article

Overall, Adobe released three patches – one for an “important” flaw and two for critical flaws –in the 2016 and 2018 versions of ColdFusion. View the full article

You're reading Abstract Can Help You Design with Confidence, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Some days the hardest part of your job – and the biggest time suck – can be searching for files, exporting across tools, and gathering feedback. But design work can be easier. That’s where Abstract comes in. The tool is … View the full article

You may have been to a design conference before. But have you ever been to one that starts when the sun goes down? That's the secret ingredient behind Us by Night which takes place in the evening, leading to a special different atmosphere, that's markedly different from other creative events. Taking place in Antwerp, Belgium this Thursday, Friday and Saturday (26-28 September), Us by Night is packed with fun activities, including an arcade, a night market, a delicious selection of local food, and fluorescent ping-pong. But of course, the main attractions are the briliant and inspirational speakers from across the world, and one of the top attractions this year will be the return of Sebastian Curi. Who is Sebastian Curi? Sebastian Curi is an Argentinian illustrator and animator, currently based in Vancouver, who's known for his fun characters and bold illustration style, characterised by strong lines, big shapes and simple colour palettes. Illustration for mobile payment service Venmo by Sebastian Curi Having spent a decade working in the animation industry, he's recently switched his main focus to illustration, working with a variety of agencies, clients and artists including Apple, Warby Parker, Collins, The New Yorker, IDEO, WeWork, CNN, Soul Cycle and others. We caught up with him to find out what he'll be talking about at Us by Night, and why you shouldn't miss his talk. How did growing up in Argentina influence your work? I’m from Buenos Aires. Growing up, my parents moved a lot around the province in search of better job opportunities so I’m not really from any neighborhood. I started working when I was studying in high school and, as my family had little money, my creative development moved slowly until I reached a job in a graphic design studio. Argentina is a country of contradictions and instability. As a by-product of that, you learn how to deal with lots of things at the same time. In my case that involved studying and working at the same time and working in different positions around the design and animation industry, until I found what I liked. Kind of a jack of all trades, master of none situation. How did you come to live in Canada? After working for some years in different studios in Buenos Aires, I went freelance as an animator. At some point I felt really stuck with my career, and sent a couple emails to studios in the world that I liked. Amazingly, I got an offer from a big production company in Los Angeles, and that started a whole different stage for me. LA is an amazing city but travelling the world seemed such an exciting thing to do. Outdoor Voices 1 by Sebastian Curi After two years at this production company, I didn’t feel connected to my work and my illustration stuff was still something that I thought as a side job. So I went looking for a smaller and more cosy studio and that’s how I arrived at Vancouver, Canada to work at Giant Ant. Was your recent move from animation to illustration an easy one? I worked in animation for 10 years and leaving that was a very hard move to make. I was very hesitant, and because of that I kept working on studios until I was completely sure I could sustain myself and my wife without problems. That also created its own problems. Having two jobs put me in a place of lots of stress, little time and all of that impacted in my health a lot. It took me more than a year of working every morning or night, and putting some weekends into my illustration stuff, to feel that I have something interesting to bring to the industry. I finally moved into illustration because I feel I can have more ownership of my work as an illustrator. I love the freedom I have to work, how clients move in this industry, the time it takes me to finish a project. Every little thing about illustration seems magical to my “animator eyes”. Is it important that you create characters with flaws? I’m all about bold and simple drawings. I like the spontaneity of my process and how they lead to joyful and lively results. For me, illustration is a way to create moments and have some fun, and this people I draw are perfect for conveying the things I want to say. Illustration for mobile payment service Venmo by Sebastian Curi In the beginning, the imperfections in my drawings were due to a lack of ability to draw perfectly. But at some point I fell in love with the textures and handmade vibe they give overall… so I stuck to them. How much do you collaborate with others? I love to collaborate. You are as good as the people you work with, and I really like to work with people that I can learn from. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of animation with some amazing animators. Also, I worked a week on a huge mural for the Vancouver Mural Fest. I would say collaborating is the only thing I really miss from animation. Illustration can be a bit lonely. What’s your approach to colour? For me, colours have beauty in themselves. It’s all about proportion and vibration. I prefer to work with big shapes and just let the colours do their thing. Outdoor Voices 2 by Sebastian Curi I usually tend to start with high vibration colours in big sizes and then I just add details of lines and patterns with low saturation colours. It’s never the same, I like some combinations but I try to keep things fun at this stage. Colour gives you the tone of the story. It creates the context. What are you speaking about at Us by Night? This is my first talk at a design festival so I’m pretty nervous about it. I love to attend these kind of events, listen to podcasts and read about the industry - but saying something that helps people or brings value is a challenging thing to do. On show at Apple Today My talk is going to be about changing over time in search of keeping it fun. How to find something you love and make it a job but in a healthy and sustainable way. Basically, it will focus on my journey, how each step took me to where I’m at now. Us by Night takes place at Antwerp, Belgium from Thursday September 26, 2019 – Saturday September 28, 2019. View the full article

It's that time of year again. The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) has teamed up with Google to take the pulse of the design industry with the Design Census 2019. And its results make for eye-opening reading. In particular we were interested to see that illustrators were among the lowest paid, but they were relatively the most satisfied designers, proving that money can't buy you happiness. Perhaps this comes as no surprise to illustrators. And while it must be fulfilling to see your best ink drawings or digital illustrations get distributed to a wider audience, it must be a little frustrating to learn that you're earning much less than designers in other disciplines such as animation and motion graphics. Although apparently it's not getting you down too much. Check out how salary and satisfaction compare in this sample from the census. Click the image to read the results The Design Census 2019 was compiled with information submitted by 9,429 participants, including students, educators, freelancers and business owners. And while the survey is limited to US creatives, it helps to give us all an idea about the state of the design industry. The information compiled by the Design Census is free to read and download online. It's broken down into five sections, including 'Who's designing in 2019?', 'How are designers working today?', 'How much are designers making today?', 'How satisfied are designers?' and 'What do designers think about the future of the industry?' Other standout stats include the revelation that most designers make between $50,000 and $75,000 a year regardless of gender. Unfortunately, higher earning brackets continue to be unequal and male dominated. Check out the Creative Bloq jobs board The Design Census is a fascinating read wherever you are in your career. Junior designers will be interested to learn that their average salary stands at $44,837 – a useful sum you can use as leverage if you've been thinking of how to raise your prices. Meanwhile, if you've been in the game a bit longer, it's good to know that you can expect to earn substantially more. For example, designers with five to nine years of experience make $90,205 on average annually. To read all the results, don't forget to head on over to the Design Census 2019 website. Related articles: The best keyboards for designers in 2019 11 ways to bag your first design job 10 graphic design memes designers will love View the full article

Royal Mail has released a new mini-fleet of electric post vans, and there's something about the design that is filling us with happiness. Perhaps it's because it looks like the adorable love child of a van and a coach. Perhaps it's the pleasingly chunky, toy-like exterior. Perhaps its the smooth curves and eye-catching tomato shade. Maybe it's the confusing absence of exterior features like wing mirrors, which make it look a bit like a child's pencil drawing of a van rather than an actual van. Either way, we can't stop looking at it. Where to find the best Adobe discounts A render of the new vans, from Arrival The project's eco-friendly credentials have pleased us too. These vans are part of an electric vehicle trial that could help make the UK's postal service a little greener. At the moment, there are nine prototype vans in different sizes roaming the capital from the central London depot. The image you can see above is a digital render of the proposed final design, and slightly different to the vans being trialled. However, those missing wing mirrors are deliberate. The vans currently out and about in London do have mirrors, but the new fleet will use cameras to monitor rear traffic. The new-look vans are also going down well with the UK public, although parallels have been drawn with a certain well-loved children's TV character design. These vehicles were created by Oxfordshire car-maker Arrival, and the aim is to see how they cope with the day-to-day demands of the postal service. According to the BBC another batch of 100 electric vans for Royal Mail has been ordered from Peugeot. We'd be pretty pleased to see more of these roaming our streets. Via BBC. Read more: Yahoo makes an unexpected comeback with new logo Is it just us, or is the BK 'Meltdown' a bit tasteless? Where to find the best Adobe deals View the full article

Wireless chargers are a great way to ensure your phone and other gadgets don’t run out of battery mid-way through the day. Pop one on your desk and you can ensure your device is constantly charged up without having to plug it into a cable. Or you can have one next to your bed at night so you don’t have to have a cable hanging out from your bedside table, ruining the aesthetic. A lot of modern smartphones use Qi wireless charging, which is the particular standard supported by most devices that sport the feature. All recent iterations of the iPhone include this, as well as a lot of Samsung Galaxy devices and a wide variety of other Android phones. Before you buy one of our picks for the best wireless chargers, you’ll want to be certain your device supports Qi wireless charging. We’ve listed the maximum wattage for each charger, but it’s important to note that it won’t be guaranteed to offer that speed for your device if it isn’t capable of specific quick charging features. Here’s our list of the very best wireless chargers you can buy right now. For more ways to keep your devices juiced up, take a look at our guide to the best portable power banks. If you don’t want to spend much and you don’t need a super-fast charger, the Boost Up Charge Wireless Charging Pad from Belkin is a solid option. It comes in either white or black, and offers an attractive design… well, as attractive as wireless chargers come. There’s an LED light on top so you’ll be certain that your phone is charging. This can be particularly useful if your device has run out of charge entirely and doesn’t have enough power to display the charging logo. It comes with an AC adapter in the box too. This is designed to work with phones that have cases on too, and as long as they’re not more than 3mm thick you should find the charging tech works just as well as it would on your naked phone. Belkin is a trusted brand, and that makes this one of the best wireless chargers on the market. Looking for a cheaper option than the Belkin above? The Anker PowerWave Pad may be ideal for you. It’s important to note that the version we’re recommending here doesn’t come with an adapter to plug it into the wall, so you’ll need to source that yourself. It comes in either blue or black, and while it may not have the most fashionable design it’s a piece of tech that works well and is easy to set up. Just place your device on the top of this charger, and it’ll automatically charge it up with relatively impressive speeds for the price. This doesn’t come with any bells and whistles, and instead the PowerWave Pad is attempting to offer a basic wireless charger in its cheapest form. Want to be able to see what’s happening on your phone while it’s charging? One of the best options is the RAVPower wireless charging stand, which also happens to be one of the more affordable devices on this list as well. It comes with up to 10 watt wireless charging, but that’s only available with some devices. A number of Samsung Galaxy models support this, as well as the Huawei P30 Pro, but there are a bunch of phones that don't (including iPhone), so check before you buy to avoid disappointment. It comes with temperature monitoring technology that allows you to make sure your phone or the charger won’t overheat, plus it looks attractive when sat on your desk. You can even lay your phone in landscape orientation on the charger, which is handy if you want to use it to watch videos without battering your remaining battery life. After a more attractive device that still allows you to use your phone while it’s charging? The Samsung Fast Charging Station acts as a stand for your phone as well as a fast wireless charger, so you’ll be able to see your notifications come in while your device is powering up. That’s not really something that a standard wired charger can offer you, so this makes sense as a place to prop up your phone during the day if you work at a desk. There’s cooling technology here to ensure this doesn’t overheat your phone, and it reaches some impressively high speeds too, with a maximum of 10 watts. There are a few different models in this range, for charging different devices. It comes in white, grey (although we think it looks more beige) and black so you can colour-match this device to your surroundings as well. Before we go any further, you may have noticed this is the most expensive option on this list. But it’s also arguably the most useful too. What if you could take your wireless charging pad with you wherever you go? The Mophie PowerStation Wireless XL is part wireless charger, part power bank. That means you can throw this 10,000mAh battery pack into your bag and take it wherever you go, and you can just place your Qi-compatible device on top, without plugging it in, to charge it back up. If you want faster charging speeds, or you have another device that needs charging up but it doesn’t work wirelessly, you can also plug in cables making this the most versatile device you’ll find on this list. The charging speeds aren’t incredible for the wireless options, but it’s enough to get your device back up to working order in a short space of time. Read more: The best free fonts for designers Where to find the best Adobe discounts The best noise-cancelling headphones in 2019 View the full article

Remember Yahoo? Once upon a time it was the most popular starting point for web users, but those days are long gone. This doesn't mean Yahoo is dead and buried though. In fact yesterday it rolled out a new look and logo redesign (above) created in partnership with Pentagram. Announcing a new logo design is an important part of any brand launch. And it looks like Yahoo's new logo reveal is suitably timely, with the web services provider promising to roll out new products and features soon. The latest logo is Yahoo's third since launching more than 24 years ago, and the first significant change to the brand since 2013's '30 days of Change' design campaign. This new logo reflects Yahoo's updated brand strategy, which design consultancy Pentagram says focuses on "helping users find a more personalised, customised experience online". The new logo design and brand identity as it appears on the Yahoo homepage So what's new with the logo? Well, the colour purple is still the cornerstone of Yahoo's design. Considering that it's been Yahoo's signature colour since 2003, it makes sense that it's still there. However the palette has been refined to include a primary purple dubbed 'grape jelly', and secondary purples called 'hulk pants' and 'malbec'. Meanwhile the wordmark is set in Centra No.2 Extrabold. The letters have also been changed to be more geometric and compact. Topping off the logo design is an italicised exclamation mark, which just like the 'y' is set at an angle of 22.5 degrees. According to Pentagram this forward tilt suggests "a sense of momentum and excitement." The online landscape has changed a lot since 2013, so the new Yahoo logo has been optimised to keep up. This includes the ability to work across various platforms and scales, and the introduction of a simple 'y!' monogram which is perfectly suited to favicons and social media. This monogram will also be used to connect sub-brands such as Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, and Yahoo Weather. The previous Yahoo logo was the result of a lengthy design campaign As for those new products and features, they've already started rolling out. On its refreshed news site, Yahoo said that its new Yahoo Mail app will help users to organise their life. It also promised there is much more to come "in our quest to make things simpler, give you control, and put the things you love at your fingertips." "In the decades since Yahoo first launched, the internet has grown to be so big and ubiquitous, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with information," Pentagram adds. "With its new products, Yahoo will empower users to better sift out irrelevant parts of the digital world, giving them more control of what they see and when they see it." Related articles: Logo swap is surprisingly disturbing Is this the most blatant logo theft ever? 10 iconic logos with hidden meanings View the full article

Having a good-looking portfolio website is one of the basic things you need to take care of as a designer. But if you're just starting out, or even if you're simply cost-conscious, you might be reluctant to spring for a paid portfolio hosting option. Finding a free home for your design portfolio isn't easy – there are usually restrictions to the level of service that you won't get with a paid plan. But it's still possible to find a free hosting option for your portfolio that doesn't involve too much compromise; we've found seven of the best services. 6 big portfolio trends of 2019 01. Portfoliobox The free version's a little limited, but Portfoliobox has plenty of options Billed as offering everything you need to create a professional portfolio website, Portfoliobox is specifically geared towards creatives and offers a stack of ready-made templates and layouts that you can edit in the browser through a drag-and-drop interface. The free version gives you a portfolio with room for 30 images and 10 pages, plus a zero-commission ecommerce platform; the pro version removes the Portfoliobox branding and also gives you a free domain and 24/7 support. 02. Behance Even if your main portfolio's elsewhere, a Behance presence is useful Behance might not be your first choice when it comes to finding some portfolio hosting, but as a hugely popular creative network it's the perfect place to show your work. Even if you have your main portfolio elsewhere, it makes sense to have a presence on Behance and to keep it updated with your latest projects. It's not particularly sophisticated in terms of options, but its straightforward interface makes it easy to design basic pages on which to share your work, and as a free service it's hard to beat, especially once you start picking up followers. 03. Adobe Portfolio If you have a CC account then Adobe's Portfolio is a good choice Another Adobe offering, Portfolio isn't strictly free – you need a Creative Cloud account to take advantage of it. But unless you're a staunch Adobe refusenik, always looking for the best Photoshop alternatives, you probably have a CC account, in which case Portfolio is definitely worth investigating. It has plenty of themes to choose from, all of which can be easily customised – there are loads of examples on the Portfolio site to demonstrate just what the platform's capable of – and naturally it features Behance integration, as well as Adobe Fonts and the option to import photos from Lightroom. All of Portfolio's themes are fully responsive, and once your site's ready to share you can use your own domain name. 04. Crevado Crevado's free service is limited but worth a look Like Portfoliobox, Crevado offers a free portfolio hosting service alongside paid plans that offer more capacity and features. And while you might find the free plan a little restrictive – it gives you a maximum of five galleries and can hold 30 images, and doesn't provide a contact form – it's a good starting point that you can build upon later if you want to use a custom domain or sell your work online. Crevado prides itself on taking care of all the technical issues so that you can simply create a fully responsive portfolio with minimum effort; it also has an extensive selection of example sites for you to check out and get an idea of what you could create for yourself. 05. Coroflot Are you good enough to get a Coroflot account? Portfolio hosting is just part of the deal with Coroflot; it's a serious online community created by designers for designers, aimed at helping creative professionals and hiring companies to connect with each other. So if you're looking for more work, having a portfolio on Coroflot is a must, assuming you get accepted. That's the tricky bit; you can't simply sign up and get your portfolio space. Instead you need to submit an application that demonstrates the quality of your work, and you'll only be accepted if it meets Coroflot's standards. Thankfully it's also provided a guide to getting your application right; make sure you read it before hitting Send on your application. 06. Dribbble Come for the portfolios, stay for the palettes Dribbble, like Behance, isn't necessarily the place to host your main portfolio, but as a hugely popular design community it's definitely a place to show your work and also works in progress, and hopefully get seen by potential employers and clients. As a busy social network for designers it's also a great platform for getting feedback from other designers and also for seeing what other creatives are working on. And our favourite feature? Dribbble automatically generates palettes based on each hosted shot, so if you see a colour scheme you like the look of you can download it instantly. 07. Wix Wix is a strong all-rounder with plenty of portfolio options It's hard not to be aware of Wix as it's made a name for itself with as an easy-to-use website builder with a generous free package. And while you might not think of it as the place to build a portfolio website, it's well worth a look. Among its vast assortment of customisable ready-made templates you'll find a good few options for building a good-looking portfolio. As long as you don't mind your portfolio having a Wix domain name and Wix brand ads then the free option should provide you with plenty of a value; if you want your own domain name, no ads, more storage and additional bandwidth, its paid plans are reasonably priced. Related articles: The wrong way to build a portfolio 10 on-trend portfolio templates The best web hosting services in 2019 View the full article

A competitive analysis is a critical part of any businesses marketing plan. A well-reasoned competitor analysis will structure your whole marketing strategy and position your business for future success. Having a better understanding of the competitive landscape, an insight into what your competitors are doing well, and how you compare, will ultimately help you capitalise on it. Whether you are upscaling your existing website environment (here are the latest web design tools to help you out), developing a new marketing campaign, or launching a new product or service, you need to know how your competition is performing in the same field. This tutorial will explain how to gain insight into your competitors’ positioning, efficiency, traffic sources and how they got there. This includes their keyword targeting, social media presence, content marketing efforts, PPC targeting, position in SERP’s, backlink profile, reviews, differentiators, Call To Actions (CTA’s) and page traffic. By identifying your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses, benchmarked against your own, you can effectively capitalise on new opportunities for growth. Striving to do one better than the competition, standing out and increasing meaningful engaged traffic to your website domain. 01. Identify and qualify your competitors It’s important that you understand who your competitors are, not only from an industry perspective, but also online. Start by Googling your product or service, and review who appears within your competitive space. 02. Investigate online presence Detail how the competition appears online; are they in the local pack, do they pay for advertising (PPC), do they take advantage of rich answers, do they use schema data, do they have multiple landing pages, who are their referrals. Identify strong and weak points in your competitor’s marketing. 03. Analyse reputation and reviews Analyse customer opinions of your competitors Analyse customer opinions of your competitors, from online reviews such as ‘Google Reviews’, product reviews, social reviews and comments left on blogs. Read both the positive and negative comments, learn what your shared audiences find positive and negative, then capitalise on it. 04. Track mentions of your competitors Track your competitors Track and monitor online mentions of your competitors, as well as your own business, with a Google Alert. You can also monitor the web for new content created around your products, services or anything else. 05. Analyse your competitors’ PPC efforts Gain insights into what keyword terms your competition believe are worth bidding on. Utilise both primary and secondary keywords within the search engines. You can also use third party tools to save time – it will break down which ads are image, HTML or text. Analyse the pages that the ads lead to. 06. Find out competitor keyword positioning Review what keywords your competition appears for in the top 100 results with ‘ahrefs’ Having an insight into what keyword terms your competition is ranking for can give you a huge advantage. Review what keywords your competition appears for in the top 100 results with ‘ahrefs’. 07. Compare Keyword gaps A Keyword Gap Tool will take you one step further Go one step further, with the help of a Keyword Gap Tool. Perform a side-by-side comparison of all the similarities and differences between your keyword (organic, paid, or product listing Ad) portfolios and that of your competitors. 08. Review the competitions link profile Save time by studying your competitor’s backlink profile, and try to win some of their links for your own website. Look at the referral relationships that give backlinks to your competition, and draw conclusions on the quality of those relationships and their suitability with your own website. 09. Evaluate content Evaluate what content your competitors cover, and the opportunity to do it better. Scan the competition for all types of content, (onsite and offsite) landing page copy, blogs, news, events, whitepapers, FAQs, case studies, infographics, e-books, videos, webinars, podcasts etc. 10. Snoop on social media Determine which social platforms your competitors are using, what type of content they post and its regularity, who they engage with, their audience size and the tone of voice they use. You will also get a good idea of how customers feel, what does and doesn’t work well for engagement. 11. Engage with the competition Review your competitors Having an insight into what your competitors are doing can detail what is working well for them and how you can capitalise on it. Behave like one of their customers and add yourself to their email newsletters, blog and social platforms. Review their interactions and their content, as well as their Call To Actions and engagement. 12. Analyse SEO Review the SEO implementation across your competitors Review the SEO implementation across your competitors. Viewing the source code will highlight on-page meta priority, header hierarchy, og metas, schema data, url structures, image alts, and so on. Utilise Google tools to also review mobile friendliness and speed. 13. Review user experience Put your mindset in that of a user, and navigate across your competitor’s website pages. Look out for where the Calls To Actions are placed, what they say, how they are represented (text/imagery/video), how they push you down the sales funnel, how they incentivise data capture and contact. 14. Categorise your competitors Tailor your efforts and focus – group your competitors into those which are direct competitors (those targeting the same audience or have a similar product) and doing it well, and secondary competitors, those which are targeting similar products/services, but the audience is diluted. 15. Benchmark yourself against them Understand how you fair against your competitors Now it’s time to compare your competitor’s key metrics to your own. From your observations and insights, you will understand how you fair against your competitors within the shared marketplace, and steps are needed to position yourself against them to stand out. 16. Implement positive change Take what you have learned, and start to implement positive change. Start with the quick and easy wins (strike at their weakest channels) and move onto the more competitive actions. Competitor analysis is ‘always on’ – monitor and report on your actions, and split test appropriately. This article was originally published in issue 289 of creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 289 or subscribe to Web Designer. Read more: 8 steps to inclusive web design Useful responsive web design tutorials 5 inspiring web design case studies View the full article