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Redesigns can be a dangerous business. Whether you're dealing with a familiar logo, a popular website or a well-known character, if you mess with the DNA of a design that people know and love then you're running the risk of a backlash – all the more so these days when people can take straight to the internet to announce their displeasure. A lot of the time it's simply a matter of people fearing change, and even if you're giving a tired brand a much-needed update there'll still be people who hate the new look. Sometimes, though, you'll see a company introducing a baffling and unwanted new logo or rebrand that draws a torrent of well-deserved ire (or at least it seems well-deserved at the time). Here, then, are seven of the most rage-inducing redesigns in recent years; take a chill pill before you read on, or read our guide to logo design to see how to avoid angering your audience. 5 logo redesigns that got it right 01. Twitter One month on and we still hate it Let's kick off with the big redesign that's still provoking plenty of rage. A big redesign of a popular app or website is always bound to cause consternation, but Twitter's recent rollout of its new site has angered users in their masses. And it's not hard to see why; it's brought everything you hate about the app version – such as repeatedly trying to show you 'top tweets' rather than a chronological list, an unwanted Bookmarks option and a confused layout – to the desktop. From Twitter's point of view it makes sense, as the platform's now a progressive web app that works across everything, meaning that it doesn't have to maintain a stack of different versions. For the rest of us, though, it's still a pain to use; we're waiting for Stockholm Syndrome to kick in. 02. Gap Admit it: you've grown to quite like it, haven't you? Gap's disastrous 2010 logo escapade is a textbook example of how not to do a redesign. Ditching its 24-year-old logo – a restrained work of tall and sober serif text against a calm navy blue background – and replacing it with a combination of Helvetica and a gradient was, in retrospect, never going to go down well with its customers. It stood out far too much, and nobody buys clothes from Gap because they want to stand out. After a tidal wave of complaints the new logo was withdrawn within a week. Looking at it nine years on, however, it doesn't seem too bad; there are so many minimal logos around these days that it's hard to muster any real disdain right now for Gap's effort. Perhaps it was just too ahead of its time? 03. Airbnb Hard to see what all the fuss was about, really By contrast with Gap's hapless logo adventure, let's revisit Airbnb's headline-grabbing redesign of 2014. As with Gap, Airbnb's Bélo logo drew no end of criticism when it was introduced; a high-concept piece by DesignStudio, it was described as "an expression of what it truly means to belong anywhere", and was meant to evoke thoughts of a hug, a map and a heart. Everyone else, however, thought it looked more like female genitalia, and not only that, it bore a striking resemblance to various other old logos. With a shape that simple, though, there are bound to be similarities to any number of other designs; there have been plenty of cases over the years of a company adopting a minimal shape for a logo that's been used elsewhere before. While Airbnb had to put up with an initial slew of criticism and mockery, unlike Gap it held its ground, and now the logo has settled in nicely. 04. BP It was wrong in 2000 and it's even more wrong now BP's controversial 2000 rebrand, led by Landor Associates, managed to provoke outrage on two fronts. The headline factor was its stratospheric cost: £4.6 million for the logo, and total rebranding cost of £136 million. That's a lot of money, but when you put it into perspective and factor in the business of rolling out the rebrand across a global company, it's not quite so eye-watering. The real misfire, though, is the sunflower-style logo itself. Designed to promote BP's investment in alternative energy, it was slated at the time as an attempt to 'greenwash' BP's environmentally-unfriendly reputation. Today, with climate change a bigger issue than ever and BP still invested heavily in the fossil fuel business, it feels disingenuous and even insulting. 05. American Airlines Why would you even do that? What do you do if you have a company logo that's arguably a classic, created by one of the biggest names in design ever? Obviously you'd hold onto it; that is, unless you're American Airlines. In 2013 it got rid of its bold and iconic logo, designed by Massimo Vignelli, and replaced it with a bland diagonal effort from FutureBrand. The old logo was a fine-looking and symmetrical piece, featuring a stylised cross-winged eagle between twin 'A's; the new one's more like an emaciated tailfin adorned with a minimalistic beak. No-one liked it, and even Vignelli himself felt the need to weigh in: "It has no sense of permanence," he told Bloomberg BusinessWeek. "There was no need to change. Every other airline has changed its logo many times, and every time was worse than the previous one." 06. Leeds United Don't mess with the football fans An important thing to bear in mind when approaching a big redesign is the loyalty of your brand's audience. If you have a lot of committed followers who have been with you for a long time, it's likely that they're not going to react well to an enormous change. And they don't come much more committed than football fans. So you have to wonder what Leeds United was thinking when it proudly announced a new club crest in 2018. Conceived as a way of celebrating the club's fans and, Leeds United said, the product of six months of research and a consultation of 10,000, the crest portrayed the 'Leeds Salute', a gesture used by fans on match days. And despite it being all about them, the fans were not happy, with a petition to get rid of it quickly attracting over 10,000 signatures. The result? The 2018 crest has already been replaced by a more traditional design. 07. Sonic the Hedgehog Sweet merciful heavens, those teeth Let's bring this collection of infamy to a close with another big design horror from this year. Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the most instantly identifiable characters in video games, and while his look has been tweaked a number of times over the years, nothing could prepare people for what emerged in the trailer for the upcoming live-action Sonic movie. Gone was the lovable cartoon character, replaced by a CG monstrosity straight out of the uncanny valley, a nightmare-inducing chimera complete with human teeth. The backlash was swift and brutal, and Paramount's response was suitably speedy; within hours of the trailer's release, the film's director was on Twitter promising to go back to the drawing board and start again. Related articles: 5 rebranding hurdles designers face today The best (and worst) rebrands of 2019 so far 7 great tips for redesigning a logo View the full article

Attack vectors disclosed last year are still fully exploitable, researchers demoed at Black Hat USA 2019. View the full article

Samsung's Galaxy Book S is a super-light 13-inch touchscreen laptop that promises to offer the benefits of a smartphone – including a headline-grabbing 23 hours of battery life. It will go on sale in September with prices starting at $999. The device was announced at Samsung's Unpacked event, along with news of the new Samsung Galaxy Note 10. So what's new about this laptop, and will it be good enough to rank amongst the best laptops for graphic design? Let's take a look... Let's start with what everyone is getting excited about: the promised 23-hour battery life. TWENTY-THREE HOURS. Imagine. You could do out for the day and not even bother to bring a charger. If these claims are true (the actual promise was "up to 23 hours of continuous video playback", so with heavier use that figure is going to drop), it's a big selling point. The laptop also charges via a standard USB-C cable, which is handy if you do run out of juice. The super-slim design is suited to on-the-go productivity What are you sacrificing for this super-impressive battery life? Well, the Galaxy Book S is the first laptop to come powered by a Snapdragon 8cx, Qualcomm's 7-nanometer chip created for PCs, which has implications for performance. While the laptop will be capable of lasting, it'll have much less horsepower. That said, Samsung claims the Galaxy Book S will bring a 40 per cent improvement in CPU performance and an 80 per cent improvement in graphics compared to the Galaxy Book 2. The essence of a smartphone, in a laptop "It looks like a laptop, but it has the essence of a smartphone," said Samsung’s Hassan Anjum at the event. And there are plenty of smartphone-like benefits here. As well as that battery life and USB-C charging, the Galaxy Book S comes with LTE connectivity (it's always connected to the internet, via a data plan) and Nano SIM support. You can use Microsoft's Your phone app to pair up the device with your phone, and sync photos, apps, and notifications. The anodised aluminium frame is also ultra-slim and light, weighing in at under 1kg, so it'll be perfect for toting around. In essence, it's probably not the best pick for your main computer. However, for practical, on-the-go productivity, it's got a lot going for it. Other features include 10-point multitouch, and a fingerprint sensor for unlocking and logging in. It'll run on Windows 10, and come in two colours: Earthy Gold and Mercury Gray. For more details check out our sister site TechRadar's hands-on review. Read more: The best laptop deals Samsung announces its answer to the MacBook Pro Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 review View the full article

Amazon Prime Day 2019 kicked off on Monday 15 July and ran across not one but two days, ending at midnight on Tuesday 16 July. It's longest and best yet, we scoured Amazon to bring you all the best Prime Day deals for artists and designers. And goodness, there were there some cracking offers. Amazon Prime 2020 may be a year away, but based on what we saw this year, we're going to make some predictions as to what we think Prime Day 2020 holds in store for creatives. So if you're on the hunt or saving up for a new designer-friendly device, you might want to read this first... What is Amazon Prime Day? Prime Day is an annual sales event that takes place every July. The first one was in 2015 to mark Amazon’s 20th birthday. Slightly misleading with it's title, Prime Day isn’t just a one-day event. Prime Day 2017 and 2018 ran for approximately 36 hours, and Prime Day 2019 a full two days. Just to make things more confusing, some Prime Day deals last year, such discounts on Amazon’s own Alexa-powered devices, were available before Prime Day. When is Amazon Prime Day 2020? It's way too early for an official date to be released, but our money is on Amazon Prime Day 2020 being another 48-hour event that will start on Monday 13 July and end at midnight on Tuesday 14 July 2020. Having said that, previous Prime Day's have started earlier, so there's every possibility it could begin on Monday 6 July. Cant wait that long to make a saving? Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2019 are rapidly approaching and we'll bring you details of any great deals that come up and in the meantime. What sold well on Amazon Prime Day 2019? Last year saw a number of incredible deals for artists and designers across all manner of categories, but the most popular were hardware, creative software and art supplies. Items including the Microsoft Surface Pro, Apple iPad Pro, Copic Markers, Adobe Creative Cloud, memory cards and power banks all saw significant reductions, with some prices dropping to a record low. Here are details of the some of the best Prime Day deals from 2019: What can we expect from Amazon Prime Day 2020? It’s a bit early to tell, but we can make some confident predictions: during Prime Day 2020 Amazon is going to push Amazon’s own products and Alexa-compatible products such as smart bulbs heavily, because it always does. We’d expect to see some good deals on the outgoing console generation, on Windows laptops – especially high-spec ones – and on peripherals, plus the usual selection of kitchen gadgets and bits and pieces. And for creative types, we’d expect very similar deals to the ones we’ve detailed above, including even more deals on various iPad and Microsoft Surface models. We’d expect even more rivals to get in on the act in 2020 too. Can't wait that long? Here are some of the best deals on Amazon Prime Day 2019 bestsellers right now: View the full article

The topic of UI vs UX crops up regularly in any UX forum – it’s a seemingly constant debate. However, the reality is they’re intertwined, and you can’t have one without the other. You can’t have a user experience (UX) without a user interface (UI), and the UI is an integral part of the UX. And getting either one right requires a lot of user testing (see our favourite user testing software). In reality, it’s a fruitless argument. So, why is it still such a thriving debate? Both terms originate in the academic field of human-computer interaction, where the interface is the vital bit that allows both parties to communicate. Back in the early days, the UI was represented by switches and buttons. It then evolved into a graphical UI with keyboards, monitors, and mice as the interface. These days, when we have touch, gesture, and voice as common UIs, there’s a tendency for people to forget that it isn’t always a graphical thing. UI vs UX when looking for a job It’s important to understand the difference between UX and UI when you’re looking to join a company in a new role, or if you’re looking to add to your team (see our design jobs page if that's you). When searching for a job in UX, you’ll quickly notice that there are an array of different roles. Some want a UX person to do everything from copywriting to coding, while others want a UX/UI person who can make beautiful interfaces, as well as conduct user research and define high-level strategy. A job advert is a window into the soul of the company. You can often ascertain the level of understanding that they have of the field and how important they think the role is, just by the advert. If you’re looking to contribute to both UX and UI, which I believe you should, you need to seek out roles that want research to be a part of the process. Jobs that actively encourage learning and collaboration with other teams, and not just putting a tick in a box to say they now have UX/UI covered. Too many roles just want a UI designer but have an inkling that they need UX, so they’ll add it to the job spec in the hope the designer can work out the specifics. If you suspect this, dig deep in your interview to uncover the real desire to do UX and ensure the company actually has the time and budget to put towards research. You’ll usually know within minutes what appetite they really have for UX. UI vs UX when recruiting If you’re looking to grow your team, it’s important to understand how people describe themselves, and where they sit on the UX/UI debate. Some want to do the blue sky UX thinking without getting involved with the intricacies of UI. On the other side, you have UI designers who purely want to make things look pretty without thinking about the bigger picture. A quick scan through Dribbble shows this in action. Some UI designs are beautiful, but would be pointless and ineffective in the real world. If you are building a team, beware of specialists with a narrow view who don’t seem interested in collaboration I believe that sitting firmly on one side of the fence or the other isn’t a great place to be. In my team, I seek a more rounded view. That’s not to say that every UX person should have fantastic design skills and every UI designer should have to do big-picture UX work. However, there should be a strong willingness to collaborate, and an appreciation of other people’s contribution. If you are building a team, beware of specialists with a narrow view who don’t seem interested in collaboration. In reality, the only reason that the differences between UX and UI matter are when you are assigning the responsibility. They are two different skill areas that are co-dependent on each other. If you’re building a team, you need both skill sets working closely together. Meanwhile, if you’re looking to join a company, make sure that the role you are going for allows you to work closely with others who have different skills. It shouldn’t be a case of UI vs UX, but UI and UX in collaboration. This article originally appeared in issue 288 of Web Designer. Buy issue 288 or subscribe to Web Designer. Don't miss Generate CSS. Book your ticket now Join us at Rich Mix, Shoreditch on 26 September for Generate CSS, a bespoke conference for web designers brought to you by Creative Bloq, net and Web Designer. Book your Early Bird ticket before 15 August at www.generateconf.com. Read more: Top UI trends for 2019 6 UI mistakes that are killing your conversion rates 7 golden rules of UX View the full article

A raft of bugs in six popular models can allow a hacker to wreak havoc on a corporate network. View the full article

Platforms like Instagram change their algorithms constantly, so it can be hard to keep up with the best way to beat the system, and get your posts seen. And while some tips and tricks might be more about making your feed look good (changing the font in your Instagram bio, for example), others yield more concrete results. Illustrator and character artist Mariana Avila has uncovered one such trick. She's discovered that Instagram favours posts that use its filters – as opposed to #nofilter or VSCO filters from elsewhere. The problem is that many artists and illustrators are importing an image they are already happy with to Instagram, and so don't want to add an extra filter, but Avila has a way round this. She suggests using any IG filter with a low percentage. To do this, select a picture to upload in Instagram, choose a filter, and then tap that filter again. A slider will appear, and you can use it to adjust the filter strength. Go for a low strength, between 2-5 per cent should do. It's a simple trick, but one that divided opinion on Twitter. Some people, such as @foxville_art thought the whole thing was ridiculous. While others thought it had already worked for them, and could be the reason why some of their posts do better than others. @thedragonsen said: "Sometimes I up the brightness of my art in Instagram before posting or do some last minute touch-ups and I realise now those posts always seemed to do a little better." While @RobbyBloom5 said the trick explained, "why some of my older posts got so much traction because I slapped filters on there". Others, such as @sandforte were willing to give it a go and report back. When Avila saw her tweet was getting a lot of attention, she flagged up the Instagram influencer who she got the tip from, Courtney Quinn (aka @colormecourtney). See Quinn's post below. Quinn also has some tips about timing, stating you should schedule your posts 15 minutes before your audience is most active. You can find out when they're online by switching to a business profile – this post on making money on Instagram shows you how. And for more Instagram tips and tricks, see our post on how to hack the Instagram algorithm. But of course, this could all be set to change soon, as it's recently been announced that both Instagram and WhatsApp are being rebranded in order to make it clearer that they're owned by Facebook. Fingers crossed this filter hack still works on what is soon to be 'Instagram by/from Facebook'. Read more: Amazon releases Echo Wall Clock, and it's pointless Nike brings back old Swoosh logos A designer's guide to Instagram Stories View the full article

At Black Hat USA 2019, researchers showed how a previously-disclosed flaw on Windows systems that could allow arbitrary code execution could also impact Hyper-V. View the full article

Samsung has finally unveiled its hotly anticipated Galaxy Note 10 models, and early impressions suggest the Note Plus may well cement itself as one of the best camera phones on the market. The latest arrival to Samsung's Note range, the tech giant revealed two new models, a standard Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10 Plus, the latter of which comes with a noticeably larger 6.8-inch Infinity-O AMOLED display (which brings with it an impressive 94.7% screen-to-body ratio) and a subtle but winning update to its camera system. Both models share the same 10MP front-facing camera and multi camera set-up on the rear – a combination of a 16MP ultra-wide lens, 12MP regular lens and a 12MP telephoto lens. But where the 10 Plus really shines is via Samsung's new patented DepthVision camera, which offers improved bokeh-style blur in both photos and video footage and more accurate results when measuring distances. The Galaxy Note 10 models also see added support for the Note series' unique S Pen stylus, which is already able to control a number of smartphone functions such as the camera shutter. New motion gesture support allows users to change which camera is being used and the level of zoom. Specifically, air drawing with the pen in a clockwise arc motion clockwise and counter-clockwise while holding a button will zoom the cameras both in and out. A new novel AR Doodle feature also allows you to write text or draw on images and videos in the viewfinder. Add all of this up and you're looking at a new way to take incredibly creative photos on your phone. Preorders for the Galaxy Note 10 are available now in certain regions, including the US, where you'll get $100 store credit for ordering early. The official release date is 23 August in the US and UK, and the standard Galaxy Note 10 price is set at $945/£899. If you haven't got a spare £900 lying around, the arrival of the Note 10 means we're already seeing some amazing deals on it's the model it has superseded, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9. Still a brilliant camera phone in its own right, if you're not bothered about having the latest shiny new device, there's some incredible offers to be had right now: View the full article

From government surveillance to domestic abuse, technology is being used in new and disturbing ways that threaten human rights - how can the security industry fight back? View the full article

Dino Dai Zovi, mobile security lead at Square, discusses ongoing transformation in security's role in the workplace during the keynote. View the full article

The adversaries have retooled with EternalBlue and credential theft to add a new "access mining" revenue stream. View the full article

Researchers demonstrate a new side-channel attack that bypass mitigations against Spectre and Meltdown. View the full article

A kid's tablet with security vulnerabilities is only the latest privacy faux pas in a children's connected device. View the full article

Hamburger chain Byron has revealed a new logo, which forms part of a wider redesign for the struggling UK brand. The new logo aims to bring people back together, with each letter of 'Byron' representing a person around a dining table, accompanied by the tagline 'All Hail the Table'. The brand redesign comes at a tricky time for Byron, which has faced financial difficulties and a wave of restaurant closures in recent years – not to mention a scandal involving its treatment of immigrant workers in 2016 that put a serious dent in its reputation. It looks like the chain is hoping the rebrand will help improve public perceptions – but will it provide the fresh start the company needs? The new look is set to roll out to restaurants later this year. You can watch the logo in action, and see how the letters or 'people' in the logo come together around a table, in the video below. Alternatively, see our guide to logo design to see how the best logos have created impact. According to Food Service News, Byron’s CEO Simon Wilkinson said, "The rationale behind the logo stems from our desire to bring people back around the table, to connect with each other and share quality time with friends. The logo is quite a literal translation of this, and brings Byron’s sense of fun to the visuals. "As the UK dining scene continues to evolve, our logo represents the way we hope people will experience Byron in the future – together. It's a very simple idea, but one that we really believe in." We're not 100 per cent sure that we "believe in" the new design, but it does make a refreshing change from many of the similar-looking sans-serif wordmarks we've seen lately, such as in the Uber rebrand. This new design feels like a paring back more in the style of the BT logo, yet with more of an edge. It's simple, yet feels surprisingly clever. A previous logo, often used as just the wordmark It's also worth noting that Byron has had a pretty experimental approach to its branding in the past. In the chain's early days, the logo often appeared in different iterations across different locations. So perhaps this new look also represents the brand becoming more unified. The new logo unveil also coincides with a shake-up on the brand's social media. The chain's Facebook page looks to have been removed, and the brand's Twitter handle (unverified but linked from the official website) is new this month. Its only activity so far is a note to its rival, GBK, saying its burgers were better. It seems a slightly aggressive way to turn over a new leaf – is Byron perhaps looking to start a rivalry in the style of McDonald's vs Burger King? The company's Insta account remains the same – presumably because those likes are too precious to lose. The new logo is in pride of place as its profile picture, but so far, there aren't any posts about it. Watch this space to see how this one unfolds. Read more: McDonald's McFails with accidentally smutty cups Boots reveals biggest logo redesign in 170 years Instagram and WhatsApp get a rebrand View the full article

Of all the devices that could benefit from a smart assistant built in, a clock would not be our first choice. However, the latest Amazon device to be added to the retailer's UK selection is the Echo Wall Clock. If you're thinking that Alexa can do everything a clock can do, without the need for an actual clock... you'd be right. Need to know the time? You can ask. Want to set a timer? It's only a simple voice command away. The whole point of voice interfaces is that they're not confined to a screen. But anyway. See the Echo in the corner? Your smart clock won't work without one The next piece of surprising news is that this smart clock doesn't even have Alexa built in, so you'll need to have a compatible Echo device within nine metres of the clock to get the 'smart' benefits. If you don't want to shell out for an Echo or similar, you could use the free Alexa App. So what does this clock offer? Impatient users, or those with trust issues, might like the timer tracker. Sixty LEDs around the rim of the clock visually count down one or more timers and alarms, so you can see how long you have left at a glance. It'll also automatically adjust for things like daylight savings. And it's also only £29.99 (or $29.99 in the US), which is pretty reasonable. The Echo Wall Clock was announced in September 2018 and released in the US later in the year. Presumably, sales have been high enough to warrant the UK release, so perhaps the joke's on us. Read more: How to build a voice controlled UI NHS partners with Amazon to offer health advice via Alexa Infographic: How people really use voice assistants View the full article

In today's fast-moving world of technology, a web designer and developer's work is never done when it comes to gaining new, trending skill sets. The minute you master one programming language or design software, there's an update to consider or a new hot tool on the block to master. So iterating on your skills is all but essential if you want to stay relevant. And these four online training courses can help you do just that. Plus right now, you can get up to 98% off the retail price. If you're after more specific training, check out our round-up of the best online web design courses available right now. The Ultimate Front End Development Bundle Whether you've tinkered with front end development before or it's completely new to you, the fundamentals are accessible and digestible in The Ultimate Front End Development Bundle. Over 45 hours of in-depth coursework touch on key languages and tools such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and more. You'll learn valuable concepts that are a great starting point if you decide to make front end development a core part of your skill set down the line. Plus, you can access over 500 lessons at any time, making it easy to revisit if you need a refresher. MSRP: $1,016 / Sale Price: $39 / Buy Now: $29 (97% OFF) The Complete Learn to Code Bundle If you're looking to go beyond just front end skills and take a more holistic approach to learning development, this option may be for you. This easy-to-follow bundle includes 11 courses, covering instruction on Python, Ruby, JavaScript, and more. Learn the difference between each programming language with over 50 hours of detailed and guided lectures. You'll soon be able to talk the talk, and decide which coding niche is right for you. MSRP: $1,783.99 / Buy Now: $29 (98% OFF) Web Design: HTML & CSS For Rookies Perhaps you're a graphic designer looking to transfer your skills to web – this comprehensive (and now only $9) course sets you up with a strong foundation. With step-by-step tutorials put together by software engineer and entrepreneur Brett Romero, you'll learn the most basic tools from which you can build a website from scratch: HTML, CSS, and Animate.css. MSRP: $47 / Buy Now: $9 (80% OFF) The Complete Web Developer Course: Build 25 Websites Designed for anyone – no matter where you are in your coding journey – this course is overflowing with fresh content to help you learn to build websites of all kinds. With over 280 lectures and 30 hours of content, The Complete Web Developer Course covers the basics of coding and then gives you a taste of a ton of different tools at your disposal. To start, you'll learn how to create 25 responsive websites with jQuery, PHP 7, MySQL 5, and Twitter Bootstrap. The course is taught by web developer and top-rated online instructor Rob Percival, and comes with free unlimited web hosting for one year. MSRP: $149 / Buy Now: $11.99 (91% OFF) Read more: The best web design jobs in August 2019 12 web design tutorials to keep your skills updated The 20 best wireframe tools View the full article

Since Jake Knapp popularised the design sprint, it's been used by design teams all over the world. Many write about their successes, some even shortening it from a week. I wanted to share how breaking a key convention led to a form of creative tension that can sometimes go missing in the sprints that I have been involved in. Rather than co-locating the team in a war room, our design sprint ran across our London and New York studios, requiring us to work differently. We found this created an empowered team that collaborated and competed with one another. Also, the time difference meant that we could work around the clock (see our web design tools for more help on collaborating). 18 of the best collaboration tools for designers The key lessons learned Digitise the war room – we worked in a collaborative online document to share and refine our research into insights, including photos from co-creation and whiteboard sessions and tagging each other when something needed to be clarified or assigned. We communicated on Slack with 15-minute daily scrums on Zoom. Rather than losing consensus with the lack of a physical location, the experience was liberating, giving the team visibility of each other's thinking and creating 'streams of consciousness', spawning new ideas. Competition over collaboration – there were two teams, each with a strategist and designer. After day one, we split the opportunity areas across the different teams, creating some healthy competition. The result was more divergent concepts and less group-think. When we had similar ideas, we built on and stress-tested them to see which was better. The best ideas won out as everyone felt they had ownership of developing them. 24-hour shifts – rather than letting the fact we were across time zones constrict us, we turned it to our advantage. It gave us the added energy that comes with two competitive tribes versus the collaborative single-space environment. A 2pm scrum with an evening 'baton pass' between the design teams created a 24-hour work shift with a high cadence. Generate CSS is a bespoke conference brought to you by Creative Bloq, net and Web Designer. Click to book your Early Bird ticket! The anatomy of the 'remote sprint' Start and end with the user – we augmented our marketplace review with research and co-creation sessions in our London and NY studios, each using slightly different approaches. The London team shadowed and interviewed one type of user while our NY team ran interviews and co-creation sessions with another. The different approaches allowed us to go deep on attitudinal insights and revisit users with our ideas once they had started to take shape. The first 24 hours: define the problem – we brought together our marketplace review, trends and customer insights into a set of problem statements. London kicked things off by starting to define problem statements with NY coming online to build and pivot on what we were proposing. The second 24 hours: ideate, sketch, and storyboard concepts – we were ready to hit the ground running with our scrum and were able to show where we had taken the opportunity spaces and begun turning them into storyboards and concepts. The last morning: validate and refine – at the end of their day, NY referred back to the user research to rank the concepts based on which pain points they addressed. Doing the research up front meant we had a catalyst for ideas from the start and were able to validate ideas based on the contextual inquiry with users. Nurturing a stream of consciousness A multi-disciplinary team from both sides of the Atlantic allowed us to develop hypotheses, ideas and validate them quickly. It allowed the best ideas to thrive in a form of creative tension and explore a stream of consciousness together. Sometimes this is missing in sprints when the team is together. A design sprint can provide a structured way to explore a business-critical issue or product but don't be afraid to tweak it for your organisation – it worked for us. This article was originally published in issue 320 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 320 here or subscribe here. Related articles: Agile development: How to use it in your web workflow The benefits of working remotely 3 big reasons Agile projects fail (and how to avoid them) View the full article

Street photography captures unposed brief slices of time. This unpredictability means that as a photographer, you need to develop a keen eye for what will make a good image. Improving your street photography skills can help improve your skill in all types of photography, from portrait to landscape, and macro to wildlife. Due to the chaotic complexity of the discipline, there are several techniques that a photographer may want to consider before and during a shoot. For example, by having an awareness of how weather affects the light, as it restricts your compositional technique and determines exposure settings, both of which alter the look of the final shot. Of course, shooting with one of the best cameras is going to be a great way to shoot, but one of the best camera phones is just as sharp a weapon. A smartphone also has two main benefits over a traditional camera: one, you'll usually have it on you, and two, phones aren't as conspicuous so subjects are less likely to notice they’re being photographed. The latter is helpful when wanting subjects to remain unposed and unaware of your presence. So let’s take a look at 11 tips to up your street photography game. For more general tips, see our post on improving your photography skills. 01. Look for the light As the railings move diagonally through the frame in shade, direct sunlight pours onto the stairwell providing contrasting lines moving perpendicularly through the centre of the image Bright, clear days are a great opportunity for harsh, contrasting shadows. These sharp shadows can be used as devices that intersect and interplay between other shapes in the frame. For example, strong light flooding through a stairwell. Conversely, clouds on overcast days spread the light and provide softer shadows. This can be more suited for subjects that have more rounded contours, and naturally produces a narrower dynamic range (difference between shadows and highlights), which can make it easier to expose subjects. 02. Remove the unessential Messy sections of the graveyard are covered here by poppies in the foreground. The link between death in war, the graves and poppies also adds a layer of gravitas to this shot Since photographs are two-dimensional images, the only information a viewer collects is what is captured in the photo. Therefore, anything that isn’t in the frame, doesn’t exist. Shooting with this in mind will help sharpen composition better than following any of the standard compositional tropes such as the rule of thirds. The best method is to practise removing anything unessential from the frame by either repositioning yourself, the camera, or blocking part of the frame with objects in the scene. 03. Take a selfie Shooting closer to the subject makes it more difficult to get unposed shots, so you may need a degree of tact If you need to get particularly close to a subject to make the shot work, instead of holding the phone in their face and snapping away, you can become more inconspicuous by pulling a silly face to the camera, pretending like you’re taking a selfie, without actually using the front-facing camera. 04. Search for the moment As the baker leans towards the window the morning light isolates him from the darker background The fastest way to getting better street photographs is to get out and shoot. Chance encounters are more likely the longer you spend shooting, so make your street shooting more regular for a better hit rate. Actively search for pockets of light that will isolate subjects, or place yourself amongst bustling trade from busy markets for ample photographic opportunity. 05. Wait for the moment The three primary colours are in use with red in the background, blue in the woman’s dress and yellow in her hair Active searching for photographic opportunity is one thing, but preparing your shooting position can be equally advantageous. Notice key elements in the environment and then wait until a complementary subject presents itself, even for a brief moment. Here we used a crane to make a frame within the frame and waited for the right subject to walk by. 06. Look for connection The subject on the left looks into frame, towards the space around the subject on the right as they hold hands walking down the street Good street photography tells a story, and a great shot will convey the story without much need for supplementary text. Look for interaction between people, gesticulation and eye contact – these will produce strong emotive characteristics that viewers can latch on to. Frame subjects with lead space into the photo – if someone is looking in one direction, give them more space on that side of the frame. Doing the opposite of this can look jarring, but that might be useful if that’s the intended message from your shot. 07. Revisit locations Revisiting this street in both winter and summer provides strong juxtaposition in visual style despite the subject matter (the bike, railings and house) remaining the same Finding good local spots makes it easy to revisit at a later date. Attempt to shoot at different times of the day and in different weather conditions and use smart device apps to help. For example, PhotoPills is an app that provides exact solar and lunar positioning anywhere around the world at any time. Combine this with a weather apps such as MetOffice or AccuWeather and you can build a picture of when the light will be most favourable for certain locations. 08. Use black and white In black and white our eye is drawn to the brightest part of the image, our sleeping subject, rather than being distracted by the vibrant colours in the painting behind Shooting in black and white, rather than converting to black and white later on, gives a glimpse into the tonal and textural side of photography. By removing colour, you also remove distracting elements. A bright sign or vivid painting is now rendered as grey instead and no longer draws attention. This practice is also known as chiaroscuro. 09. Be selective with colour Living in a tent on wasteland next to a busy main road is a stark departure from the impeccably maintained studios that stand just metres away, but both are linked through the use of red in this photo Find colourful subjects that work well together to combine background and foreground elements. Here, a tent, pitched next to the road on some wasteland is coupled with the well-kept studios behind through the use of the colour red. It links the two despite the apparent juxtaposition between wealth and poverty. 10. Shoot from oblique angles A low angle combined with the rails in the ground here give authority to the subject and lead the eye to the centre of the frame Get up high and shoot down, or get low and shoot up. It’s easy to get shots at head height while you wander, but taking the time to change the perspective may produce more unique imagery. Lower angles, looking up at subjects tend to convey a sense of superiority and size to the subject, whereas the opposite is true when shooting down on something. 11. Use the continuous shutter As action unfolds quickly in front of you, you might not have much time to recompose or wait for a perfect expression. Instead of taking one picture at a time, hold down the shutter release button for short periods to get a burst of images. That way, you can choose your favourite later on. Read more: 6 expert smartphone photography tips The best cameras for beginners The best photo apps and photo editing software View the full article

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The winning designs from the BBC's controversial Peaky Blinders poster competition have been unveiled – and we're seriously impressed. The contest attracted over 1,200 entries from all over the UK, and the results showcase incredible artistic talent from illustrators of all kinds and from all backgrounds. The contest asked creatives to design a poster design based on one of the characters from its hugely popular period crime drama Peaky Blinders, with the winning designs appearing in the marketing campaign for the fifth series. The aim was to provide a platform for the huge quantities of professional-quality fan art the show has inspired since its debut. As a result, the contest was open to "anyone with a creative mind" – from professional illustrators to budding hobbyists. Inspired to get creative? Take a look at our guide to how to draw just about anything The winning designs appear in the official marketing campaign for the fifth series So why was it controversial? Although the designers behind the winning posters received £1,000 each, unsuccessful illustrators were not compensated for their time and effort. When the competition was announced, a number of creatives questioned why a massive organisation such as the BBC was soliciting spec work. Whatever your views on how the contest was run, there's no denying it has uncovered some incredible design talent. Read on for a closer look at some of the winning designs. Matt Clough created On a Razor's Edge (above left). "I wanted to create an image with duality, that would show both the gravity of the decisions Tommy Shelby has made, and the looming impact of the violent lifestyle he has lived in his pursuit of power," he explains. Adam Martins' ink creation, Violent Men are the Easiest to Deal With (above right), was also successful in the competition. The aim was to capture the idea that "no matter how brutal [Tommy Shelby's] actions become, he retains respect and honour". Alice Matthews turned her attentions to another key character, Polly Shelby, in her competition entry. "Polly is a powerhouse of a woman, but her character is more than just being the matriarch of the family," she says. "I wanted to paint something that showed her strength and resolve." To capture the duality of Polly's character, Matthews contrasted a strong pose with a soft colour palette and delicate detailing. Sam Ding's Already Broken (above left) explores the price Tommy pays for the difficult decisions he has to make. The artist sought to capture both strength and vulnerability in the poster design. Peter Carroll's pencil and ink Sundown (above right) is equally emotional and powerful. "I felt it was important to design a piece that was bold yet simple, so I limited myself to three primary colours, with strong black shapes and silhouettes," he says. Explore the showcase of posters on the BBC’s website. If you created any of the artworks included here and would like your website linked up, get in touch with the details. Read more: How fan art can get you paid 20 best iPad Pro apps for use with Apple Pencil How to find your art style View the full article

YouTube influencers can be an incredibly useful promotional tool for brands. Used correctly, they can help you reach new audiences and strengthen your identity. But knowing how to get the best results from YouTube influencer marketing can be tricky – which is where InflueNex comes in. This handy tool is designed to act as the nexus between brands and leading YouTube Influencers. It will help you find and contact the right influencer for your business and needs, then help you maximise marketing potential by providing you with tools to manage your relationship and analyse results. Read on to find out how, or try InflueNex straight away. Find the right influencers for you The first step in YouTube marketing is finding the right influencer for your brand. InflueNex boasts a library of over two million talented influencers. Filter by interest, location, language, reach and more to help narrow down your search and pinpoint the ones that will fit best with your business needs. Explore InflueNex's library of over two million influencers The intelligent search function makes it even easier to navigate the platform by suggesting content and channels related to your market. Use the clear dashboard to view key information about each influencer, including posting habits, viewing trends and subscriber numbers. Make a connection InflueNex will then help you get in contact with your chosen influencers so you can kick off your journey – their reply will land straight in your email inbox . Once you've connected with your ideal YouTube influencer, you need to make sure you're making the most of the partnership. InflueNex's tools help you manage your relationships easily and effectively. Analyse your results Finally, you need to make sure the marketing efforts are working for your brand. InflueNex's Analytics tools are designed to help you see which content is connecting most with your audience, so you can tailor your campaign to help boost your brand effectively. View channel data quickly and easily You can track sponsored videos in real time to enable you to calculate your conversion rate and cost per view. As an InflueNex user, you'll also have access to video analytics, a live subscriber count, money calculator and channel ranks and statistics. Want to take your first steps in YouTube influencer marketing? Try InflueNex today. View the full article

If you're having a bad day at work, spare a thought for BrewDog's James Watt, who thought it would be an excellent idea to share an early preview of the packaging design for the company's new Young Blood punk whisky on Twitter. Getting feedback on a work-in-progress design can be a great help, especially at that point in the process when you're so close to the work that you're unable to look at it objectively any more. A fresh pair of eyes on your project is often just the thing you need to help clarify what's working and what isn't. Of course, it depends on who you ask. Some trusted colleagues would be a good choice. Posting your work-in-progress up on Twitter, on the other hand, is a slightly riskier proposition; we all know how reasoned and thoughtful the discourse is there, right? What could possibly go wrong? You might infer from the fact that we've posted a screengrab of his tweet, rather than simply embedding it, that it may not have gone down too well. And you'd be right. 3 huge branding trends that might have had their day BrewDog has had its fair share of misfires along the way – let's not forget its ill-judged Pink IPA – but it can generally be relied on to produce some great-looking packaging for its products, with plenty of strong typography, bold graphics and good use of colour. Its whisky design, though, seems to miss the mark, with a black bottle obscuring the contents and a label that looks like a photocopied flyer for a punk night in the back room of a pub. Naturally, Twitter users were quick to point out its shortcomings with a slew of critical tweets, variously describing it as "tacky and cheap" the "middle aged Dad of whisky bottles", "as edgy and punk as Songs of Praise", and looking "like $7 mystery booze that might put you blind". Harsh but fair. We do rather like this alternate design put together by Fun Creative Agency, though: And as if all the hate for the design isn't enough, BrewDog's also come under fire from whisky Twitter, which seems to be just as irritable as design Twitter and even more pedantic. From a whisky point of view, BrewDog couldn't be doing it more wrong. There's no mention of Young Blood's whisky category (i.e. whether it's blended, single malt, single grain and so on), no age statement and, to top it all, the type for the bottle size and strength might be slightly too small. It all adds up to quite the perfect storm of Twitter fury, and while BrewDog's usually happy to ride these things out when it gets people worked up, that's not the case this time around; Watt has simply deleted his tweet. Whether that means BrewDog is going back to the drawing board with this remains to be seen; watch this space. Related articles: The good, the bad and the WTF of brand apologies Liquid Death is 2019's stupidest branding 9 embarrassing branding blunders View the full article

If you're a digital artist, have you considered applying your skills to the gaming industry? Gaming is a booming industry that is in constant need of fresh faces and creativity. And if you also love gaming in your free time, that's just the icing on the cake. In order to get started, you'll have to get familiar with the tools and techniques used specifically for game creation. From creating realistic game character designs to developing action-packed levels with Unity 3D, The School of Game Design will help you learn the skills needed to make game design a full-time job. With 120 hours of content and an extensive training library that ranges from beginner-level right up to advanced, this lifetime membership allows you learn game development and design at your own pace, starting from whatever level suits you. Tutorials led by leading developers include topics such as coding, 3D modelling (take a look at our guide to the best 3D modelling software), animation techniques, digital art skills, and much more. As a bonus, you'll also get unlimited access to thousands of dollars worth of royalty free game art and textures to help build up your asset library and assist in the completion of your game design projects (if that's not enough, take a look at the best places to download free textures). The content is regularly updated accordingly, so you can continuously revisit the courses as you wish to keep your knowledge relevant. While a pay-monthly lifetime membership would set you back $5,990, for this week only the price has been dropped to just $49 – that's an extra $10 off its original sale price. It's certainly a great way to kick-off your gaming development skills and get started on the next phase of your professional design career. And if you need a little help finding your next challenge, we've got lots of amazing art jobs just waiting to be filled. Read more: The best graphics cards in 2019 How to design video games cinematics you won't want to skip 20 Cinema 4D tutorials to up your 3D skills View the full article