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Around a year and a half ago, Reddit embarked on the first major redesign the site had seen in a decade. With a dated and convoluted codebase and a reputation of being overwhelming to new users, the decision seemed unavoidable, but with a 330 million-strong, highly opinionated and vocal user base, the new look was both highly anticipated and a big risk. Reddit decided to open up the process, and build the new look based on feedback from moderators, long-term users, and other redditors. 18 months later, the redesign is being rolled out. At The Next Web, CTO Christopher Stowe spoke to a packed audience (many of them 'Redditors' themselves, an early show of hands revealed) about taking the high-stakes project. We caught up with him afterwards to find out more. With such a big userbase with a huge variety of interests, it seems like there is no 'typical' Reddit user. Did this make it difficult to know who to design for? It definitely makes it more complicated. Part of the point of the redesign was to start addressing the concerns of users we don't necessarily even have yet. That was where having the dedicated UX team helped a lot. We did user interviews with people who are much more casual users. 'Lookers' - who just read - are actually a very large fraction of the community. The nice thing is, voting is a core competency of comments. So we generally addressed concerns in order of the number of votes they got, which is a pretty good way of determining who feels passionate about what. In those threads we do dive pretty deep into the deep, dark nether regions at the bottom. The condensed view You spent a lot of time getting users' opinions. How did you choose which views to listen to? Was it literally based on the ones that got the votes? No. It's complicated. We're trying to balance addressing concerns that we can fix quickly and basically trying to assuage everyone else that 'no, we hear you, were working on this, it's a moving target. It's going to take us months to get this straight.' We've launched this current product and it's mostly done, it's pretty far along. But mostly done is the first 90 per cent and the remaining 10 per cent is everything else that you don't expect. When it comes to things like user requests, there's that old joke that users don't actually know what they want. Well, they do, sometimes! But they don't know what they need. Reddit is necessarily quite text-heavy. How do you go about making that volume of text appear welcoming? One of the things we wanted to build into the redesign was a card view that actually made sense with our aesthetic. It was one of the first things we launched on our mobile apps: we had not just the text view but a card view. For the web, we've found that over the years there's been a drift towards more images and videos, kind of unsurprisingly because there's more of it available. In the last couple of years we've launched our own video hosting and image hosting, which also fits a lot more cleanly with the experience. The new Reddit card view You launched a redesigned mobile app in 2016, which introduced a new look to the website people were used to. Did you have the web redesign in mind when you were working on designing the mobile app? It was something we'd talked about a lot, for sure. If anything we knew it was going to be much more of a beast than doing the mobile app. The first thing we did was to launch a mobile app we actually liked and wasn't something we'd just cobbled together. Then we went in and attacked our mobile web experience next. We rebuilt that stack and it gave us an opportunity to test out new redesigns on the web stack and also to test out new technology. Those two things together gave us enough confidence to say: Okay! Let's do this. Rip the band aid off... over the course of 18 months! So the mobile app wasn't a strategic way to get users used to a different look? I think what happens is users break into these relatively clean cohorts. There is a lot of overlap between our core engaged user base and the mobile apps, but we also have a rather large group of people who mostly engage with the web. Still. Where there's been some tension is in addressing the concerns of that group, who don't care about aesthetics and they don't like the apps. The way I've heard it described is almost like ... the most powerful way to use a computer is the terminal. And its also the most user-unfriendly part. But if you know how to use it, you're a super power user. Reddit has a tendency to lean towards that. A very steep learning curve, but if you've made it over the top you're sorted. You spoke in your talk about 'structured styles' - tell us a bit about that. Community moderators have permission to create style sheets for their community that users can opt out of using. It gives an opportunity to have a very customised aesthetic for your community, and it also meant that the community independently developed things - like when hero images became a thing, they started plopping them on the top bar. Structured Styles was a response to that. CSS is still a very tricky tool for a non-expert to use. It's a tricky tool for an expert to use! We found there was basically a set of about 10 distinct, almost like CSS packs that had been generated by the community over the years by a handful of users, and these were just being copy-pasted across the site. So we built out a styling system in React where you can make copy edits and styling changes with colour pickers, and see live updates. And that's Structured Styles. We covered what we thought was the majority of features required to make it complete. But there's no real way to test whether or not we hit everything until we launch it, and find out all the places that it breaks. Or the cases that some intrepid community has gone and made something either really beautiful or terribly horrible. There's some really awful layouts that people actually like. Like R/ooer. They optimise for aesthetically offensive I think. It's interesting that you let users change their styling so much. Is having a coherent brand identity important to you? We have two main guiding principles. One of them is 'let the humans do the hard part'. So we have moderators, we have people involved in the interaction. The other one is 'Reddit should always feel small'. And that necessitates a certain ability to carve off a chunk and have your community feel like a small piece of the pie. We're still going to take the best across the communities and surface it on the front page because the font page to us is a major product surface by itself, and it accounts for a good chunk of our pageviews. And it's where people can start to engage and see the styles of the communities and feel the different flavours that are available. Read more: 6 inspiring redesigns of agency portfolios Rebuild a 2004 Flash website for 2018 5 tips for super-fast CSS View the full article

Have you ever wanted to recreate your favourite characters from books, television series, or movies? What about reimagining Chucky the possessed doll as the new spokesperson for off-brand cereals? Or maybe you just want to pay homage to your heroes. With all of the fan art out there, how do you compete? How do you come up with something original? Where do you find inspiration? What art techniques and tools will bring your vision to life? To find out, we contacted a range of artists who create fan art and asked them for their tips for creating original work that looks great. 01. Learn the basics first Jamie R. Stone suggests getting the basics down before finding your own style Jamie R. Stone is a T-shirt artist operating under the handle Punksthetic Art. "It's OK to be inspired by your favourite movies and borrow certain elements to create your own visual style,” she advises. “But start with the basics of making art first." Once you have the basics down, then you can start to mix and match different concepts to come up with new ideas. 02. Play around Christopher Pierre draws inspiration from everyday life Don't overthink your design or get locked into an idea. By doing so, you may be cutting off a potential masterpiece. Christopher Pierre, a digital artist from the Caribbean Islands, likes to keep all of his options open. He says that everything has an impact on the shape and scope of his artwork because he takes a wide-eyed approach to everyday life. "One of the best pieces of advice I received was a quote: 'Look at life through the eyes of a child'," says Pierre. "I definitely use that philosophy in sketching, drawing... any and everything." 03. Adapt your tools to your lifestyle Jody Parmann finds digital art much easier to fit into her day Time to create is limited these days, and if you're raising little ones like Jody Parmann, time to create can seem non-existent. Parmann was a painter before she had children, but now she does most of her art digitally, using Adobe Draw. "Pulling out my paints and spending an afternoon being messy in the studio is a thing of the past,” she says. “The iPad and Apple Pencil is easy to pick up when I have a few spare moments and put way when my children need my attention." Her advice to anyone trying a new tool is to be patient. "Have purpose for what you're trying to make, but don't immediately expect to be at the same level as you are with more familiar tools,” she smiles. 04. Build depth with layers Rebecca Marshall builds up layers to create a 3D look Flat images can be great, but if it’s a 3D look you’re going for, you need to add some layers of colour. Adding highlights, shadows, and blended colours and tones will help bring things to life. Rebecca Marshall, a storyteller and graduate of Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, uses multiple layers to create depth in her work – much like a painter might start with an underpainting. "It can be a tedious process," she explains. "It never looks like much at first, but everything comes together with the more layers that you apply." 05. Be true to yourself and your style John M. Tatulli recommends having confidence in your own style Being true to your style is key for John M. Tatulli. He firmly believes that when you draw enough, your style will begin to rise to the top; you just need to trust it and allow it to be what it is. While it's OK to be inspired by your biggest influences – which for Tatulli are Jake Parker and Will Terry – you don't have to make your work look like theirs. "Trust your style and shine,” he says. “You were designed to be different." 06. Use a lighter touch Lowering the sensitivity of his Wacom helped transform Oliver Harbour's work Don't over-grip your pencil or stylus; if you're using a Wacom or other touch-sensitive tablet, adjust its settings to suit your style – for instance, a reduced sensitivity helped with the airbrushing of these wings. It may sound trivial, but Oliver Harbour says it can make all the difference. "You don’t realise how much pressure and strain it's putting on your wrists and fingers,” he says, “and how much more control you'd have with a tighter touch." 07. Take your time Virginia spends time researching before embarking on a piece When Virginia Kakava sits down to start a piece, preparation is key. The first thing she does is to study the subject and learn more about the character. She uses her initial sketch to figure out the style, clothes, and environment, before getting started on the final artwork. Kakava's fan art combines photo manipulation and digital painting. "The final rendering is very important," she emphasises. "It’s the last chance to decide the feel you want your artwork to have, either by changing the brightness etc. or by adding filters to make a more unified result." 08. Keep practicing It's been said that to become a master at anything, all you need to do is work on it for 10,000 hours. For US-based artist, Vincent Turner this advice is spot on. Turner has been experimenting with different techniques for a long time. "The more you do it, the better you get," he smiles. So if you haven’t quite mastered a particular technique or approach, don’t shy away and try and avoid it in your work – work at it, and you’ll improve. 09. Relax Brian Allen thinks the best work emerges when you have fun creating it Brian Allen of Flyland Designs reminds us not to lose sight of the reason we create fan art in the first place. "The best artwork materialises when you're having a lot of fun creating it," he says. So relax, and don't take yourself so seriously! 10. Be original Adam W Rodriguez originally shied away from fan art Adam W Rodriguez was first inspired by cartoons and comic books but avoided fan art because he felt it wasn’t "original art". To which his six year-old niece argued, "Then make your fan art original." The lesson Rodriguez learned was that exploring different genres will only help you grow as a creative. Understanding different types of art can, in turn, help make your own art more unique. "Don't limit yourself by hating certain styles of art; instead challenge yourself and make your contribution to that style,” he says. “So, hate less and explore more." Read more: How fan art can get you paid Sci-fi and fantasy art painting tips 14 fantasy artists to follow on Instagram View the full article

The W3C has a comprehensive list of requirements that can be completed to achieve web accessibility, be that at AA or the stricter AAA level. However these are not enforced and, as a result, often overlooked. They're also not exactly up to date, as the last full version of the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) was released nearly a decade ago. But don't worry, there are many simple ways to make your sites more accessible, and ensure that as many people as possible can enjoy your content. Here are seven tools that will help you on your way to a website layout and site that works for all... 01. Sim Daltonism A great Mac/iOS app for live previews If you’re using a Mac or iOS, this great app by Michael Fortin enables you to overlay a window directly over any web page or application you’re viewing and see a live preview of what it looks like with each form of colour blindness. You can resize it to any size and you aren’t restricted like you are with the web page. It also has an iOS version where you can use the device’s camera. 02. A11Y checklist The A11Y project work tirelessly on providing clear advice and tips on web accessibility. It contains its own list of resources, an accessible widget and pattern library, and is worth visiting for its blog on new approaches. 03. Contrast Ratio Want to test a combination of two colours before using them in a design? Lea Verou has made a neat online checker that will show you an example of how it looks, and displays the contrast ratio level and what level it passes. 04. Lighthouse Is your page up to scratch? Try Google Lighthouse to find out Lighthouse is a tool that audits the accessibility performance, best practices, and PWA standards of any web page. It’s built into Chrome’s audit panel in the web inspector, is brilliantly detailed, and can be run instantly. 05. HeadingsMap The HeadingsMap extension generates a tree, based on the headings on a page and highlights any that are out of place in terms of hierarchy, or have been skipped entirely. It’s important for both screen readers and SEO. 06. Validity A nice and easy Chrome extension to perform inline HTML validation checks on your pages, with the results being outputted to the browser console (yellow for warning, red for error). This extension is also available in Firefox. 07. VoiceOver The most comprehensive of the screen reading software mentioned, VoiceOver is built into every major Apple operating system and gives you a great insight into your web page’s performance for those with blindness or low vision. Create typography for all Generate London 2018 – the conference for web designers Every day millions and millions of people look at text on the web. We’re reading email, newspapers, magazines, blog posts, reviews, reports, gossip, weather forecasts, bank statements, social network updates, and much more besides. As designers, we should be striving to make those reading experiences as good as possible. Check out Richard Rutter's workshop on Responsive Web Typography at Generate London 2018. Related articles: Get to grips with accessible web typography 10 essential tools for freelance UX designers The 40 best free web fonts View the full article

Is anyone else going to scream if another GDPR re-permission campaign email lands in their inbox? If you didn't know (from the hundreds of emails you've already had), today is the day companies have to make sure they're compliant with GDPR. What is GDPR? A good question. GDPR stands for the General Data Protection Regulation, and is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for everyone within the European Union. In short, it's a big deal, and so companies want to make sure they're compliant. The repermissioning campaigns filling up your inbox are an attempt by each company to ensure they are up to standard with the law, which is being enforced today. So we get it, they're only doing what they have to with these emails. But, jeez, you'd think they could come up with a few ways to make them more interesting. That said, we can't knock them all. Some organisations have recognised that GDPR isn't exactly the most exciting subject and used their creative prowess to deliver a campaign that won't immediately make your eyes glaze over. Here are the best examples we've seen, and a few of the worst... 01. Glug Click the image to see the Glug opt-in email in all its glory We'd like to start by thanking the guys at Glug events for giving us a laugh with their opt-in email this morning. It immediately caught our attention with the subject line 'We decided not to', quickly followed by a series of highly appropriate and hilarious GIFs. The team go on to report their own stats for amount of GDPR or what they call the *what-shall-not-be-named*-regulation emails they've received, with co-founder Nick Clement joking (we hope) with one million. Any email that has an N-Sync GIF in gets our vote. Nicely done, guys. 02. ASOS ASOS went for a simple yet effective approach Fashion brand ASOS stayed true to its demographic, sending out this trendy infographic-style opt-in campaign to its consumers. The subject line was simple and clear: 'The law is changing. Are you set to get your ASOS emails?', followed by a very obvious 'Opt in' call to action and simple graphics detailing exactly what that means. Simple, but very effective. 03. Cancer research The team at Cancer Research were way ahead of the game when it comes to GDPR, choosing to go opt-in only back in July 2017. The company backed up its move with an engaging 'Just A Tick' campaign, which included this informative yet creative video, which makes it very clear to its supporters how vital consent is in the fight against cancer. The video ends with the tagline 'A tick doesn't sound like much, but it has the power to do great things'. Bravo Cancer Reasearch, bravo. 04. Dune Dune harnessed FOMO in its email One of the most powerful tools in the marketing arsenal is FOMO: Fear of Missing Out. So we wonder why more GDPR emails haven’t exploited this technique? Fashion brand Dune knows all about this psychological principle, and has put it into full effect with this striking call to action. Be honest: who wouldn’t want to press the yes button in these email, as quickly as possible? (Thanks to Mel‏ @MZ_Creative for passing this on). 05. NailsInc NailsInc invites its customers to become VIPs While Dune’s newsletter (above) wields a scary stick, NailsInc instead offers a juicy carrot. While the easy option is to ignore these emails, or just snarkily click ‘Opt Out’, Nails Inc offers us an incredible inducement to do so. All we have to do is opt in and we become ‘A VIP for free’ which includes ‘Free standard delivery’ and ‘Amazing gifts’. We’re not sure how amazing these gifts will actually be, but the glitzy graphics suggest they’ll be pretty amazing indeed – and all you need to do is click? Well, who wouldn’t? 06. Good Design A laugh surely equals an 'opt-in'? Have you noticed how nice, polite and often fussily formal these GDPR emails have been? Well, here’s a palette refresher from the good people at Good Fucking Design Advice. By cleverly subverting the standard wording with more down-to-earth language, it shows the power of humour to win round even the most recalcitrant newsletter-receiver. 07. Yorkshire Wildlife Park Who could resist a Lemur's plea? Awwwwww. Well, if you don’t respond to this little Lemur baby’s pleas, then you’ve got to have a heart made of stone. Yorkshire Wildlife Park not only found a way to pull on the heart strings with their GDPR campaign, but they made an event of it, cheekily building up expectations on Twitter with the following quote: 08. Matt Richards Illustration Clean illustration and honest words may stand out in your inbox We couldn’t complete this list without hearing from one of our own… With his GDPR email, illustrator Matt Richards has shown the way: treating the eye with a lovely image and using humour and plain speaking to make you feel like you’re being addressed by an actual human. In fact, just reading the opening sentence (“One day you’re on top of the world, and the next some secretary’s running you over with a GDPR lawnmower”) gives you an immediate sense that you want to click yes to this man. But as we all know to our cost, not everyone has got it right. Here are some of the worst examples of GDPR emails, as called out by the people of Twitter… 01. Sometimes the humour just doesn't quite land... 02. Layout, hierarchy, wording... what isn't wrong with this? 03. Someone needs to hire a copywriter 04. Just. Not. Appropriate 05. Worst or best subject line ever? Related articles: 10 great WordPress plugins for beginners Keep your hands in shape with this infographic What does OFFF really mean? View the full article

Lately, we've noticed a lot of designers using geometric patterns, shapes and styles in their logo designs, vector art and more. Using these shapes, the designs become a simple yet wholly striking work of art channelling influences from the design era of art deco. We've rounded up our favourite examples of geometric patterns and designs featuring geometric shapes. See what you think... 01. Seis x Six Geometric patterns feature prominently within Morales' portfolio Based in Bogotá, Colombia, Silvino González Morales is a photographer, visual artist and graphic designer whose work often features geometric or fractal patterns. Seis x Six is one such project, in which Morales takes simple hexagons as his starting point, and then works them up into complex and beautiful patterns. 02. Luminous Design Group This geometric identity for E-Jet is inspired by the company's precision cutting work Tasked with creating a logo design and corporate identity for E-jet, a company that specialises in cutting, machining and forming materials using high precision machines, Luminous Design Group from Athens looked to the cutting process itself and came up with a geometric design that reflects the complex decorative designs that E-jet carries out. On a second level, the geometric shapes that make up the pattern can be rearranged to make the name of the company. 03. Metaltations The metallic meditations are available to download as wallpaper Ari Weinkle is an artist and designer from Boston, MA, whose work breaks apart and reappropriates different forms such as the human figure, organic shapes and typography. This work, entitled Metaltations, is a series of six metal meditations merging blended metals – copper, silver and gold – and repeated geometric shapes, and was made using Photoshop and Cinema 4D. 04. Sub.Division GMUNK uses intricate geometry to mind-bending effect GMUNK's Sub.Division is a series of perceptual landscapes where graphic complexity emerges from the structure of simplistic three-dimensional forms; by subdividing basic primitive shapes into various levels of geometric intricacy, GMUNK aims to create perceived movement and patter. The series was created using Maya with the MASH procedural plugin, and rendered with Arnold. 05. Eric Broug Eric Broug's art is inspired by Islamic geometric design Dutch artist and designer Eric Broug discovered Islamic geometric art as a student in Amsterdam, and has been pursuing it ever since. Because the use of figurative images is forbidden in Islamic art, he often uses intricate geometric patterns, created by the repetition, overlapping and interlacing of squares and circles, following mathematical rules. Broug taught himself about Islamic geometric art by trying to deconstruct and recreate its patterns with a compass, ruler, pencil and paper, and has created books such as Islamic Geometric Design, which examines Islamic geometric design in terms of its historical and cultural context. 06. Jeremy Booth This piece demonstrates Jeremy Booth's geometric approach to illustration Born and raised in Kentucky, Jeremy Booth is a self-taught designer and illustrator whose style has been described as 'vector noir', with an emphasis on strong angular lines with plenty of bold light and shadow. Much of his work features distinctly geometric elements, as can be seen in the illustration above, entitled Curiosity. Head to his site to see more examples of his eye-catching work. 07. City of Melbourne This cool design is as multi-faceted as the city itself Bringing a city together through branding is no easy task, especially when the city in question is a diverse as Melbourne, Australia. However that's exactly what branding agency Landor had to achieve with its aesthetic for the City of Melbourne Council. Thanks to a clever geometric design, the chunky 'M' logo is flexible enough to reflect the different aspects and personalities of the city. Accompanied by a broader branding campaign that spreads across print and online platforms, Landor has successfully tied together the city through angular imagery. 08. Trig This dynamic packaging really complements the jewellery Australian designer, printer and podcaster Olivia King created this beautiful collection of concept packaging, which is suitably called Trig (as in trigonometry). With a focus on angles and a bright visual identity, this design links up physical products with a digital app. 09. Vector animals This geometric vector series is a marvel of inspiration This project from designer Hope Little, which began back in 2012, is a marvel of geometric design. These vector animals have proven so popular that Little has even started taking requests for portraits. "I wanted to steer away from my usual melty, disproportional illustrations and try for something clean and balanced," explains Little. "I started experimenting with shapes, settling on a triangle to keep things clean and simple. I wanted the illustrations to be bright and colourful, so I searched for animals, due to the fact the fur offered a wide variety of patterns and colours." 10. Spray paintings This series of paintings were created by New York artist Adam Daily This series of beautiful geometric paintings was crafted by New York artist Adam Daily, whose work spans a variety of media and techniques, including painting, photography and collage. These paintings were imagined through a combination of digital and analogue tools and were eventually created by hand, using acrylic on PVC panels and applying paint with a spray gun. Next page: 9 more glorious geometric designs 11. Geometric clothes Will you really be wearing these geometric patterns in the future? Icelandic designer Sruli Recht has taken geometric design to a new level with these designs for a range of futuristic fashion. Recht explains the concept thus: "The simplified disastery of polygonal geometry – breaking the body down into a pixelated memory." The clothes are made from "walnut wood material on a wool base. Once grown, the wood is deconstructed into pieces, and then attached to a textile base, creating a material that is half wood, half textile, and completely fragmentary." 12. Landshape The poster was created for a Tame Impala gig in Rio Liam Brazier is a freelance illustrator and animator based in London. He creates geometric designs for a range of clients including Cartoon Network, Dazed & Confused, and Glastonbury Festival. This poster design was created for a Tame Impala gig in Rio and is based upon the band's album artwork. 13. Bird Mural Tobias Hall created this mural for Zizzi Freelance illustrator, letterer, designer and mural artist Tobias Hall worked closely with UK-based Italian restaurant chain, Zizzi to create a number of bespoke wall paintings. We particularly love this geometric bird design. 14. Pattern Booth Patternbooth creates a number of geometric pattern designs The patternbooth is a collection of fresh, abstract and geometric pattern designs created by Cara Holland for interiors, fashion and products. She has a number of inspiring examples on her website, but we particularly enjoyed the colour scheme of this one. 15. Matt W Moore Matt W Moore has been painting geometric pattern designs for over half his life We love seeing inspirational examples of street art – often brightening up grey and drab architecture with a lick of paint and a load of creativity. Boston-based artist Matt W Moore has been painting on walls for over half his life, and this geometric pattern design is just some one example of his incredible work. 16. Geometric Daily An inspiring geometric pattern design is posted up every day on this tumblr The geometric daily tumblr is dedicated to sharing new, minimal geometric compositions. It's no longer being updated daily, but there's still plenty of geometric eye-candy to explore. Proving to be one of the best tumblr blogs for designers, it's packed full of minimalist inspiration and gorgeous colour schemes. Scroll away! 17. Oh My God These well-known Gods were created for an exhibition in Barcelona This brilliant new series of geometric deities comes straight out of Barcelona-based creative agency Hey Studio. They were created for the aptly titled 'Oh My God' show at the Mitte-Barcelona space. The modern vector illustrations make us look at these well known figures from a new perspective. 18. Sakir Gökçebag Geometric food art that looks good enough to eat Who needs Photoshop when you're this handy with a knife? Turkish artist Sakir Gökçebag has breathed new life into everyday produce such as apples and watermelons and turned them into something quite beautiful. The geometric shapes created have not been digitally remastered or altered in any way! 19. Mirage animation This vivid animation 'Mirage' was created by video and sound designer Frederic Kokott. Using abstract and geometric forms, Kokott brings an unnamed city slowly into focus in the four-minute short. Featuring flat colours and simple shapes, the designer used Adobe Illustrator and After Effects to bring all the elements together. Related articles: Create a repeating pattern in Photoshop Create product icons in Illustrator 9 brilliant freelance portfolios for 2017 View the full article

Back in 2016, Nolan Lawson ignited a bit of web controversy when, during a talk at the Fronteers Conference in Amsterdam, he suggested that it's okay to build a website that doesn't work without JavaScript, and then followed up with a blog post in which he argued that narrow interpretation of progressive enhancement – start with HTML, then add CSS, then add JavaScript – doesn't really make a lot of sense. So, given that nearly everyone has a JavaScript-enabled browser what with it being 2018 and everything, is it okay to build sites that don't work without it? We asked our panel of experts. Point of failure Consultant frontend architect Harry Roberts got straight to the point: "In a word: No. In many words: Full JS apps are fine provided that a) They have their first render on the server, and b) They give me some content if that JS fails to load. It's less about availability of JS, and more about not entrusting flaky network connections with delivering our entire app in one render-blocking package. That's the problem. Don't make JS your app's single point of failure." (Sarcastically) Yes! "As long as you're fine with the site completely failing because the browser is too old, or too new, or the user's bandwidth is too constrained, or the server hiccups, or a firewall's security policy blocks it, or a dependency goes sideways, or you accidentally drop a semicolon somewhere, then sure," says consultant and author Eric Meyer, "it's OK. What you build won't be a part of the web continuum, and it will be needlessly fragile, but that's a choice you can make." Offline-first, first It's all a matter of priorities, says the man who kicked off the debate in the first place, Nolan Lawson. "The question we should be asking ourselves is not how well our sites work without JS, but how well they work under poor or nonexistent network conditions," he suggests. "These concerns are often conflated, but they're not the same. Every year smartphones represent an increasing share of web traffic, but mobile networks have not caught up. 23 steps to the perfect website layout "So offline-first – treating the network as an enhancement with JS tools like Service Worker and IndexedDB – has become the new standard for building fast, resilient websites. It is possible to do both traditional progressive enhancement and offline-first, but it's not easy. We should prioritise offline-first over works-without-JS." As long as it's done well For web designer and developer Lea Verou it's probably all right, with reservations. "For web apps (e.g. Google Docs), it's a loud 'Yes'," she says, "since their functionality cannot be replicated without JavaScript. For content-based websites, it gets a bit trickier. Sure, except for a few weirdos nobody disables JS anymore, and it is technically possible to make an accessible, lightweight site that depends on JS. Also, if there is a JS error anywhere, the content breaks, which is a terrible experience (not concatenating all JS files helps alleviate this a bit). So, I guess my answer is, yes if done really well; no otherwise." Functionality before features "The core functionality of any service on the web should be available to the widest number of people," says Jeremy Keith. "The best way to ensure this is to use the simplest possible technology for that core functionality. But once you've got that in place, you can go absolutely crazy with JavaScript ... including adding more functionality that requires JavaScript to work. I'm reminded of what Mat Marquis said when working on the Boston Globe site: 'Lots of cool features on the site don't work when JavaScript breaks; 'reading the news' is not one of them.'" Power and responsibility Developer evangelist Christian Heilmann suggests that the question isn't about JavaScript, it's more about responsibility and power. "You can create a solution delivering the most important use case using HTML and CSS and enhance with JavaScript. This could, however, be very basic and not what people expect nowadays. "If you rely on JavaScript you have full control, but also full responsibility over the delivery and the error handling. Problems like flaky connections can't be solved without JavaScript. Our job on the web is to create experiences that are available and great to use. We do this by using all of our tools responsibly." Does anything really need JavaScript? "Your project may require client-side JavaScript," says Aaron Gustafson, author of Adaptive Web Design, "I'd argue most don't. Most can benefit from client-side JavaScript to improve the user experience (including by providing a good offline experience), but creating an experience that benefits from client-side JavaScript is not the same as creating one that requires it. It's an important distinction that is often overlooked." Web design event generate London returns on 19-21 September 2018, offering a packed schedule of industry-leading speakers, a full day of workshops and valuable networking opportunities – don’t miss it. Get your generate ticket now. Related articles: 17 brilliant jQuery plugins 11 great UI designs 16 amazing HTML examples View the full article

Product design, packaging design, branding and book publishing are all well-established disciplines, filled with plenty of specialist, single-focus agencies. So for a relatively small studio to excel in all of them at once is rather impressive, but Here Design has managed it. East London agency Here is also notable in the male-dominated realm of creative directors in that two of its three co-founders are women. Driven by a shared passion for creativity in all its forms, Caz Hildebrand, Kate Marlow and Mark Paton continue to fly the flag for multidisciplinary design. We asked Paton and Marlow to tell us more... How was Here Design founded? Mark Paton: We didn’t have a written ethos, or any precise definition of what to do. We just shared a broad interest in food and drink, and sharing knowledge. Caz wanted to do furniture design; Kate was interested in textiles; I was doing other things. Initially it was about sharing infrastructure. We had an accountant in common, and just wanted a nice, creative environment to work in. It was really unstructured. Kate Marlow: It was 12 years ago now. We left our respective jobs: Mark and I were in branding; Caz in publishing, in book design. We wanted to work together in a small environment, designing for brands we believed in. As Mark says, there was no master plan, no big idea. We got on well, and had a shared ethos about what good ideas were, and how to articulate them. How did the studio evolve? MP: It’s been super-organic, and a huge learning curve: we’ve had to learn about all of decisions we should have made at the beginning. Early on, we pitched to rebrand an organic food shop, and surprisingly we won. That suddenly gave us a body of work that we were working on together, which crystallised the nature of the studio and how we could share our experience. KM: As it went on, we got more jobs in than we could cope with just three of us. So, we slowly employed people to help us and it grew very, very slowly. For a very long time, we did all our own project management, finance, everything. We were the receptionists too.We learnt what we could and couldn’t do very well. Thankfully we now have experts in areas like finance, and a head of studio. They do a much better job than we ever did. Here has published several books including a playful book on punctuation entitled This is Me, Full Stop How have you structured the agency? MP: This year we’ve employed a new tier of designer in the studio: design associates. We have four now, each with a portfolio of clients. We’ve struggled a bit to create a structure without being very hierarchical. We don’t buy into certain job titles. For us, it was important to create our own definition. T he design associates will take more of a lead on certain projects, while the partners focus on developing the business, thinking about new sectors, and also some smaller projects. It may seem a bit counter-intuitive, but we still want to design, so are happy to pick up speculative work that’d be a burden for the studio to do. Here's rebrand of Barcardi taps into the brand's rich heritage Have you struggled to stay hands-on? KM: No, in fact we’ve probably struggled to be hands off. We need to learn to do that more, so the other designers can work their way up. We’re passionate about all our projects, and as partners we lead teams and are really collaborative with the design associates and senior designers, right through to the juniors. How have you stayed multi-disciplinary? MP: We have had conversations about whether we need to specialise, but I think part of what makes Here interesting is that we work on such different topics. We very pragmatically believe that if a designer works across a book, a pack, an identity and a digital application, they will become a better designer. Here translated the physical geography of the streets around adidas Originals stores into architectural models How do you choose who works on a project? KM: Sometimes, one of us is just a really good fit for a client. That might be based on personality, or previous experience – or it might be that one of us actually hasn’t got much experience in that field, and that’s what we find exciting. They could come up with things you wouldn’t necessarily think to do, because they don’t know that genre so well. Do you work with external collaborators? MP: A lot is done in-house. At college you didn’t have the option to commission someone: you had to get your paints out and do it. We advocate the guys having a go, but there are instances where it’s beyond us, so we commission out. But the lion’s share of illustration, for instance, is done in-house. It’s partly a cultural choice: it’s nice to have people making marks and creating images. It makes for a richer experience. Here created a beautiful wooden display box for Balvenie whisky How do you attract and retain the right talent? MP: From the moment we started in Caz’s kitchen, we recognised the importance of the moments that weren’t designed. Making lunch together was a bonding experience, which sounds a bit cheesy, but it was important. We came from quite ordered environments, and wanted it to feel more homely and casual. When we were lucky enough to design this space, a creative kitchen was the first thing we set up. On a Friday, everyone tries to have lunch together and different people cook. The strength of the studio is the people within it. It’s not really us as partners – we are not necessarily the embodiment of the company. We’re just kind of trying to create a way of working that everyone can benefit from. Recognising people and allowing them to flourish –almost autonomously – is another thing that happens here that maybe doesn’t elsewhere. A junior designer can come in, be given a live project and see it through. We review things democratically too, so there’s an opportunity for everyone to speak up. I think that openness, and the fact that the opportunities are quite apparent and quite quick, makes people stick around. A lot of people have been here for a long time – we’re very lucky. This article originally appeared in issue 277 of Computer Arts magazine, the world's best-selling design magazine. Buy issue 277 or subscribe to Computer Arts. Related articles: How to build a global reputation overnight When to use humour in branding The designer's guide to illustration View the full article

The new hardware-based protections Intel announced earlier in March it was embedding into new chips will only protect against Spectre and Meltdown – but not the newly disclosed Variant 4, sources said. View the full article

On the upside, being a freelancer means you have an enviable amount of independence. But as Voltaire (or was it Spiderman’s Uncle Ben?) said, "with great power comes great responsibility." You’re in the driving seat of your own career and there’s nothing more exciting and nerve-racking than that. Whether you’re hunting down commissions, or trying to put aside money for a self-employed pension, there are plenty of trials and tribulations when it comes to working from home and being your own boss. 9 things nobody tells you about going freelance To help freelancers overcome some of the challenges they face, we quizzed some talented creatives who are already going it alone to give you the inside scoop. 01. Emmeline Pidgen "Take care of yourself and your work will be better for it," Emmeline Pidgen advises Combining both digital and traditional media, award-winning illustrator Emmeline Pidgen works from her studio in the North West of England. Having honed her skills at University College Falmouth, she specialises in narrative illustration and her work spans picture books, comics, advertising and editorial. Pidgen was awarded IPSE Freelancer of the Year in 2016 and her editorial illustrations have been featured in a range of publications including The Guardian, Stylist and The Telegraph. Take care of yourself and your work will be better for it. You’re allowed time off! Emmeline Pidgen "Working from home is tough!," says Pidgen. "Yep, technically you can lie in, wear pyjamas, and take breaks when you want – but for the most part if you want to be successful in your field, it’s a lot of work, and an ongoing battle to keep your motivation, direction and self-confidence up. "One of the biggest issues I’ve had is the idea of ‘overwork’, which on the surface fires up images of creative people scrawling away at 2am for a deadline (does happen!), but it’s also that 'I’ll just check my email real quick' whilst you’re on your day off, or scrolling Twitter at midnight in case an opportunity crops up – it doesn’t feel like much, but to avoid burnout you need space away from work. The emails can wait until you’re back in the studio, and there are always more opportunities! Take care of yourself and your work will be better for it. You’re allowed time off!” 02. May van Millingen May Van Millingen has made a name for herself with her colourful, line-based illustrations London-based May van Millingen has made a name for herself with her bright, line-based illustrations. From OXO cubes to HP Sauce, van Millingen often recreates items from the world around us in her distinct signature style. Her unique take on the world has caught the attention of clients such as Topshop, Google, Cath Kidston, Saatchi & Saatchi and Toyota. Here are van Millingen’s top tips for making the most of freelance life – from getting into a good routine to being ready for anything: "I always like to start the day with exercise, either a morning run or a yoga class. I always have a good breakfast – usually porridge and some strong coffee. I work all morning then take a break for lunch, I like to get out to a local cafe – I like having a bit of a walk – if it's not raining! – then work the rest of the afternoon. “I like to mix it up and vary where I work, so I work from home in De Beauvoir a couple of days a week, from a studio a couple of days, then I go in-house at my various clients’ offices too. “Never stop drawing. Don't compare yourself to others. Take inspiration from things you love. Travel and take inspiration from new places – take advantage of working remotely abroad if you can. Be flexible, sometimes exciting projects come in at the last minute. Be organised.” 03. Meg Hunt Illustrator Meg Hunt dived straight into freelance life after graduating in 2005 Portland-based illustrator Meg Hunt is known for her colourful character-based illustrations. Inspired by everything from National Geographic to illustrators such as Charley Harper, Mary Blair and the Provensens, whether she’s working on character and narrative or conceptual illustration and products and explorations, Hunt’s quirky and lovable style is always on-point. Hunt went to University of Connecticut and began freelance life after graduating in 2005. Since then her work has gone from strength to strength, from illustrating Deborah Underwood’s Interstellar Cinderella to creating designs for wine labels for Barrel + Ink. Signed by agent (aka Visual Ambassador) Scott Hull, Hunt received a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators in 2015. It's important to cultivate a respectful working relationship with clients; work hard, but be honest and push them to be their best too Meg Hunt “As a freelancer you'll pick up a variety of clients, and work can come from many different places. It's important to cultivate a respectful working relationship with clients; work hard, but be honest and push them to be their best too. “Don't be afraid to reach out to those clients you feel align with your strengths and values who might not know you yet – be proactive and think about what value you can add to the client beyond what you can draw. Clients will come to you not just because you can render something beautifully, but because you've got a mind that solves problems. “Self-care is really important as a freelancer – it can be enticing to equate success with self-worth, but working yourself to the bone will lead to dull ideas and burnout. Find opportunities to stretch, get outside of your comfort zone, and spend some time exploring all your other interests. They can all feed into future work down the line.” 04. Lucie Sheridan "Keep drawing, your creative brain is a muscle and needs exercising," says Sheridan Bristol-based Lucie Sheridan works in Centrespace studios and gallery. Specialising in screenprinting, her vibrant designs have been commissioned by everyone from Penguin Books to Habitat. From smiling ice cream cones (wearing bowler hats) to split-concept Labradoodles, a sense of fun is at the heart of her work. Sheridan is represented by YCN and runs the quirky and speedy project Rubbish Portraits, where she creates portraits in three minutes flat. Her bold illustrations have been seen in the likes of The Telegraph, The Sunday Times and Time Out. Lucie’s words of wisdom are short and sweet: “Keep drawing, your creative brain is a muscle and needs exercising. It’s important to draw the rubbish stuff in order to get to the good stuff. “Don’t look at what other people are doing too much, get some blinkers and stay healthy.” 05. Jane Foster Jane Foster operates from her cute yellow-doored studio at the bottom of her garden Music-teacher-turned-illustrator Jane Foster has been screenprinting since 2007. An illustrator/crafter/screenprinter hybrid, Foster won the Mollie Makes Established Handmade Business Award in 2014. Known for her bold, cheery prints, Foster is inspired by Dick Bruna, Alain Gree, Marimekko and Lucienne Day – as well as ‘50s and ‘60s era designs. Whether it’s her poster design for IKEA or her range of Templar picture books, Foster’s simple and striking illustrations are sure to make you smile. With her cute yellow-doored studio at the bottom of her garden, Jane doesn’t have to go far to create her work. The AOI is a great resource for illustrators and is well worth subscribing to Jane Foster From making sure you don’t undersell yourself, to what to listen to as you draw, here are Foster’s top tips: “The AOI is a great resource for illustrators and is well worth subscribing to as the team can offer very good advice with regards to pricing commissions, contracts and licensing. They’re available to speak to direct and ensure that illustrators aren’t underselling themselves.” “I love listening to podcasts when I’m working – I find it so inspiring listening to the background stories of other creatives in the industry, especially those that have arrived via an unconventional route! I especially like listening to Debbie Millman interview guests on her podcast Design Matters and also to Chase Jarvis’s podcast Creative Live, where he also interviews interesting creative people in the industry.” Related articles: 6 ways to save money as a freelancer 6 things to know about getting freelance clients The freelance survival guide View the full article

Climate change is predicted to have catastrophic consequences across the globe. That’s why annual design conference What Design Can Do – in partnership with IKEA Foundation and Autodesk Foundation – launched the Climate Action Challenge, a global competition inviting creatives to use design to combat climate change and its impacts. Some 400 proposals for helping communities adapt to climate change were submitted from 70 countries across the world. 13 winners were selected to enter a six-month accelerator programme – and the final projects were today presented at What Design Can Do, here in Amsterdam. The Climate Action Challenge is the latest international online design challenge set by What Design Can Do. The event doesn’t just invite leaving experts to speak about using design as a solution to the world’s biggest challenges - each year it launches a new challenge and invites the global creative community to participate. Here are the 13 winning projects - along with the lessons each team learned while turning their ideas into prototypes and business models. Read on to find out how 13 design teams translated a gigantic world problem into tangible products and services… 01. Dronecoria By: Lot Amoros Country: Spain Approach: Products and spaces; Systems Dronecoria is an automatic reforestation project that uses customised DIY drones to disperse seeds. The jury appreciated the open source and readily applicable aspects of this project, which brings reforestation into the 21st century, while mimicking nature’s most efficient way of spreading seeds: through the air. In a world where we lose 27 million trees each day, anything that helps to plant new ones is more than welcome. 02. Artificial Glaciers By: Suryanarayanan Balasubramanian Country: India Approach: Products and spaces Artificial ‘ice stupas’ store glacial meltwater in a form that makes them melt slower in spring, so that water is available when it’s most needed. To store winter for use in the summer is as unexpected as magic. This project is practical and poetic at the same time. 03. Desolenator By: Louise Bleach Country: UK Approach: Products and spaces; Systems This device offers a centralised solution to make water abundant in places where it’s a scarce commodity. It uses the almost infinite power of the sun to turn sea water into drinkable water, which is a key aspect in adapting to climate change. The jury couldn’t resist the company’s goal to make one million people water-independent in its first five years of operations. 04. Backpack radio station By: Iman Abdurrahman, Studio Joris de Groot Country: Indonesia Approach: Products and spaces; Services; Systems This portable radio station could be a life-saver in remote places where local communities are at the mercy of the forces of nature. The mini radio station and its accompanying mini database can help remote communities become more resilient before, during and after natural disasters, which we will see more and more due to climate change. 05. Nivara By: Eric Smith, Pushan Panda Country: US Approach: Products and spaces This open source do-it-yourself solution makes carbon for water purification out of locally available biomass. It’s a really simple solution for an important problem. Thermal solar is still terribly underused even though it has huge potential as a tool for adaptation to climate change, so this project is willingly welcomed by the jury. 06. The Children’s Scrappy News Whether Report By: Lisa Heydlauff Country: India Approach: Communication This project struck the jury with its clever execution and the energy of the team behind it. It takes the weather report as a starting point for a child’s view on how we should adapt to the changing climate. This ‘Sesame Street for climate adaptation’ puts children in the driver’s seat and might just be an antidote for a world that’s worn down by fake news. 07. Powerplant By: Marjan Van Aubel Country: Netherlands Approach: Products and spaces This is a greenhouse that doesn’t just grow food – it also harvests energy from the sun. It’s a beautifully disruptive project ticking all the boxes by bringing together design, technology and engineering. By reimagining something that already exists, this project can turn around an industry that’s extremely energy consuming. 08. Free Wind By: Cassandra Seah, Nik Halim, Amber Lim Country: Singapore Approach: Products and space This project is at the core of the challenge as it addresses a problem that affects the poorest in the world the most. Heatwaves make thousands of victims in slums. This affordable retrofit acts as unplugged air conditioning, demonstrating that often the simplest solutions can be the most effective. 09. Keepers: rainforest lab and kitchen By: Cascola Collective Country: Netherlands Approach: Communication; Products and spaces Sharing a meal is a good start for a conversation about where our food comes from, and how the land where it’s produced can best be used and revitalised. Land management is a key aspect of adaptation and bringing together indigenous knowledge, science, cooking expertise and design offers great opportunities for this. We need more crossovers like these. 10. EvoCCon By: Hugh Weldon Country: Ireland Approach: Communication; Services Under a name that refers to the Latin word for ‘evoking’ or ‘luring’, EvoCCo aims to offer consumers the information to make better choices. The web-based platform can help change consumer behaviour at the point of purchase, which is potentially a game-changer since consumer behaviour is at the heart of the causes for climate change. 11. The Vertical University project By: Priyanka Bista, Aashi Bhaiji Country: Nepal Approach: Systems Ancient knowledge might be able to restore the damage done to the earth. This university along the slopes of the Himalayas in Nepal encourages its students to learn from local farmers about the deep physical and biological diversity of the landscape. By bringing together landscape, community and knowledge, this project will in the end help to lower the impact of climate change. 12. Twenty By: Mirham de Bruijn Country: Netherlands Approach: Communication; Products and services This project proposes shipping detergents and other cleaning products without the water they’re usually diluted in. It not only saves transport emissions, but more importantly helps raise awareness. The project could become a powerful symbol for people helping them to rethink their everyday consumption and live a lighter life. 13. The Change Rangers By: Hannah Lewman, Rachel Benner Country: US Approach: Services Building on their own experience as girl scouts, the students behind this project realised that scouting needs rebooting. Scouts used to learn how to fish, but soon there will be no more fish to catch. Taking the existing scouting system as a starting point for preparing the next generation on how to deal with a warmer world is both essential and brilliant. Related articles: Sand wars: why designers should care that the world's sand is disappearing Be a better designer in 2018 5 ways to quickly transform your design ideas into reality View the full article

The new General Data Protection Regulation – or GDPR – laws come into effect across the EU on Friday 24 May, and it's almost impossible to ignore them, especially if your inbox is filling up with increasingly desperate emails begging you to review privacy policies, or to give companies you can't even remember ever buying anything from permission to stay in touch with you. How to launch a creative business GDPR's a bit of an annoyance if you're an ordinary individual, but it'll at least mean more control over the data that companies hold on you. If you're running a business, though, even if it's just a small operation, you need to be GDPR-compliant. And in the face of complex and seemingly draconian rules, and the possibility of huge fines if you're doing it wrong, you might – quite reasonably – be terrified by the prospect of dealing with it. However, there's no need to be quite so scared. Even if you haven't quite got around to dealing with GDPR yet, don't worry: you're not going to get slapped with a fine tomorrow morning. There are loads of companies all across the EU, not all of which have got their GDPR ducks in a row, so you're in good company if you're not ready yet, and the worst thing you can expect in the short term is a warning, and realistically you'd have to repeatedly ignore several warnings (see below) before you run the risk of an actual fine. Don't worry, you're probably not going to be fined €20 million tomorrow So if you want to sleep better tonight, you'll need some easy-to-digest information about GDPR and what you need to do about it. Thankfully the European Commission has produced just the guide you want, in the form of a comprehensive – and great-looking – infographic. From the basics of what personal data actually is and the reason for the change in the rules, through to practical tips on what your company should do to comply with GDPR and whether you need a data protection officer, this infographic neatly summarises most of what you need to know about GDPR and, with a bit of luck, should soothe any fears that you might have about it. Need to know what to do about GDPR? This infographic will get you started Need to know more? You'll find more in-depth information about GDPR over at the European Commission site. Related articles: 8 business tips for selling design goods 10 ways to be more business-savvy as a designer Grow your design business without losing focus View the full article

WordPress is both the world's most popular blogging platforms and the most widely used CMS. One of the reasons for its popularity, is that it happily supports templating and plugins, making it highly flexible and customisable to suit different website needs. This flexibility, alongside the platform's huge popularity, means there are many thousands of free WordPress tutorials , WordPress themes and plugins available on the web. That's the good news. The bad news is that sorting the wheat from the chaff can be a real challenge. So check out our choice list of the best Wordpress plugins available below, to add functionality to your website. And the best part? They're all available for free! 01. Modula Image Gallery Add a gallery to your site with ease with the Modula WordPress plugin WordPress ships with some limited abilities to host image galleries, but for a truly customisable and flexible solution, a plugin such as Modula offers a far better experience for both the web designer and website maintainer, and for the visitor to your site. This WordPress plugin offers a host of different options that allows for true customisation rather than forcing you to adopt a visual style that matches every other gallery on the web. 02. Speed Booster Pack Help your site's loading speed with the Speed Booster Pack Website visitors have always been reluctant to hang around for a slow-loading website, and as the primary consumption platform has moved from desktop and laptop computers towards smartphones accessing over 3G and 4G, this has only increased. If you want your visitors to stick on your website, you need it to be quick to load as well as engaging and useful. Speed Booster Pack helps with the loading speed by automatically minifying your scripts, removing blocking scripts, optimising database calls and loading assets asynchronously. The results can be quite dramatic, giving the impression of a huge loading-speed boost. 03. Google Analyticator Enable Google Analytics on your WordPress dashboard with the Google Analyticor plugin If you want your WordPress blog to become more popular, you need to start thinking about promotion. If you know the keywords that visitors are using, you can use those in your post. The Google Analyticator plugin adds the JavaScript code necessary to enable Google Analytics on your WordPress dashboard. After you enable this plugin, go to the settings page, input your Google Analytics UID, then authenticate your Google Analytics account with Google Analyticator. 04. Duplicator If you’re a web designer, setting up your 100th WordPress site can feel like a real chore. Most designers will have a typical base-build that they use because they’re familiar with the configuration, plugins and options, and they know what works well for their customers. This plugin helps to reduce the installation pain by allowing you to migrate, copy, clone and move a site. Set up a core build, then use it as the source for a clone operation to simplify deployment and automatically generate a new site with the basic environment already configured. 05. The Events Calendar Quickly add events to your calendar with the Events Calendar plugin There are loads of different event plugins available for WordPress, but one of the best (and most popular) is The Events Calendar. This module extends the WordPress post types with a new Event class, allowing you to quickly create events and adding functionality such as the ability to render a list, calendar view, search events and integrate maps. If you're running a club or society, or designing a WordPress-powered website for a client that regularly runs events, this plugin will save you a huge amount of time. 06. AMP for WP Whether or not you feel that Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project is a good thing, one thing is clear: Google is deliberately showing websites with AMP pages higher up the search results page than those without. With this is mind, this plugin makes it easy to add support for AMP automatically. Grab it, plug it in to your WordPress environment and that’s about it; you’ll find AMP-specific versions of each of your pages, which in turn should lead to more mobile-based traffic. 07. Page Builder Page Builder is a plugin that allows your content editors to get involved with controlling the page layout, in an intuitive, WordPress-like environment. It works with all themes and plugins, making it simple to generate flexible responsive layouts without the need for any coding knowledge at all. This is ideal for websites that will be managed by a less-technical user, who wants more flexibility than a pre-set list of page templates. 08. Wordfence Security Help protect your site with Wordfence Security Security is a massive issue for WordPress websites, just as it is for any site on the web. One of the biggest issues is that as WordPress is such a popular CMS, there’s a lot of knowledge out there about how to compromise it, and exploit security holes. While this WordPress plugin wont solve all of these for you, it does allow you to monitor attempts to maliciously access your site, and adds in support for the likes of two-factor authentication, which is a security must-have in the modern era. 09. JetPack Blogging plugin JetPack's features are wide and varied JetPack brings some of the functionality of WordPress hosted blogs to self-hosted WordPress installations. The features are wide and varied, and include cloud-hosted stats for your site, email subscription to your site, a built-in URL shortener service, social network-based commenting, inline spelling and grammar checking and an enhanced gallery system. 10. Everest Forms Create image galleries for your WordPress site with the NextGen Gallery plugin Practically every website out there features a form of one kind or another, whether it’s a simple Get in touch form, or an online registration form, there’s a definite need for a simple way to create, maintain and manage form construction and layout. This plugin makes it a breeze to create forms using a simple drag-and-drop interface to craft a layout that works just as well on smartphones as the desktop. It even includes options to support multiple languages! Related articles: 18 great examples of WordPress websites 14 best free blogging platforms How to start a blog: 11 pro tips View the full article

The manifesto at the heart of this excellent book is that collaboration matters, whether it's between different design disciplines uniting to create consistent brands, or businesses and the creatives they hire fashioning identity systems that are both attractive and effective. “Make it beautiful, but above all else make it work,” advises Jowey Roden, co-founder of London agency Koto. The shared DNA of the many, varied projects on display in Graphic Design For... is a rigorous and procedural commitment to problem-solving. The essential guide to tools for graphic designers Responding to questions from Andy Cooke – a graphic designer and creative director at Weather – key creatives divulge their rules of engagement with collaborators and clients. “Brilliant ideas do not come from thin air... or Pinterest...,” writer and lecturer Angharad Lewis reminds us in her foreword, but once these ideas are plucked from the ether, it takes imagination, skill and experience to transform tentative briefs into elegant brand identities and campaigns. And while strategies, techniques and theories of creative evolution vary wildly between studios, all interviewees offer equally informative insights that lift the veil from seemingly effortless solutions to reveal the powerful engines beneath. Cooke tastefully curates each project with crisp, unfussy layouts Combining aesthetics with function dominates the discussion, along with a weighty sense of the increased value of design as a vital component in the creation of new business, not just a veneer of branding to apply when the product is done. “It’s not just about designers providing clients with identity, packaging and marketing tools,” explains Torgeir Hjetland of Oslo-based studio Work in Progress. “It’s designers being used to shape ideas and help build business solutions.” Brand building now, more than ever, is about delivering messages at multiple touchpoints. A logo may need to work on stationery, posters, buildings and animations for indents, co-exist with photography or architecture and, most importantly, continue to evolve and adapt, sometimes without the original designer involved. Mutable design systems are as vital as inter-disciplinary skills, and these projects all demonstrate tremendous flexibility. Rare double page spreads of iconic campaigns make for satisfying pace changers Cooke’s book also exposes the occasional angst designers may suffer when dealing with Creative Cloud-wielding clients and consumers who, when confronted by less-is-more minimalism, may be tempted to think, or even suggest, 'anyone could design that'. (We all have Microsoft Word, but does that mean we are all successful authors?) Such are the perils of beautifully refined simplicity, but the exposed workings of these projects vividly illustrate the intense experimentation that is required to achieve Zen-like design perfection. Non-designers in particular should find the (relatively) jargon-free, frank discussions illuminating As creative director of Studio Makgil, Hamish Makgill, drily observes: “If [the clients] are design-savvy, they will also appreciate that they aren’t designers.” Collins’ design director Ben Crick is perhaps more gracious when he suggests that “The true value of graphic design is not just aesthetics, but insight and the creation of meaning. There’s no software for that – yet.” Non-designers in particular should find the (relatively) jargon-free, frank discussions illuminating. It’s almost impossible to choose highlights, as the book is itself a distillation of some of the very best contemporary design (when we spoke to Cooke he admitted that the book “could easily have been twice as long, there’s just so much good work out there”), but Hort’s iconic Nike campaign work , Studio Makgill’s intoxicating design system for G.F Smith and Freytang Anderson’s genius identity for Fraher Architects are all masterclasses in ambitious thinking and faultless execution. Seven different sectors across 240 pages shouldn’t work, but great curation by Cooke means it does, and proves for a refreshingly broad industry overview This is an elegantly edited time capsule of where design is now, which extracts wisdom from some of the sharpest creative minds around and is a beautiful book in its own right that can be endlessly browsed for visual and cerebral inspiration. Graphic Design For... is fascinating for fellow professionals, instructive for prospective clients looking to join forces with a design agency, and utterly invaluable for students who want to learn what the industry will expect of them. Buy Graphic Design for Art, Fashion, Film, Architecture, Photography, Product Design & Everything In Between here Also read: Port magazine review View the full article

Whether you're a freelancer working from home or a small studio owner, something everyone has in common is money. You do the work, you get paid, right? Sounds simple. However, making sure you get paid correctly and on time requires a lot of planning and patience, which many freelancers will attest to. There are many things you need to consider when calculating how to price your design services, so where do you start? Earlier today Mitch Goldstein, a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology’s College of Imaging Arts and Sciences, started a thread on Twitter asking creatives to share their valuable insights on money. He also pointed out that the subject was not one covered much in design schools, and so called on 'Twitters' to help. And the design world answered his call in droves. Goldstein's conversation now has creatives all over the globe sharing their experiences and offering advice and tips on everything from how best to price your services to things they wish they'd done from the start and what to avoid when it comes to money. Below are just some of the tweets that have come flooding in, and these handy tips featured represent just a snippet of the brilliant money advice up for grabs over on this Twitter feed. Do you have a money-related question? Or have you got any finance tips for freelancers? Why not join in the conversation and help out your fellow creative folk. Related articles: 6 ways to save money as a freelancer The freelance survival guide 6 things to know about getting freelance clients View the full article

Schneider Electric on Tuesday issued fixes for a vulnerability its SoMachine Basic software that could result in disclosure and retrieval of arbitrary data. View the full article

Everyone likes a good deal, and if you're after some great deals that can help you in your design career then there's a new free platform that can sort you right out. 6 sure-fire ways to build your creative network Glug Club is a brand new initiative from Glug, one of the most popular creative events around. It started out as a handful of friends talking shop and showing off their work in an East London pub in 2007, and since then has grown into an international movement with events all round the world and talks from some of the biggest names in the business. With over 40,000 global members, Glug has found itself in the perfect position to negotiate a stack of killer deals with 45 industry-leading suppliers. Glug Club has been specially curated so that there's something for everyone from young creatives to industry veterans, and members can unlock exclusive offers and perks that they might not be able to access as individuals. "We've curated the list of products and services based on the experience of a select group of Glug Ambassadors," explains Glug's Malin Persson. "They know what's worked and what hasn't, so we can pass these insights down to the next generation of agency owners and young creatives." Membership of Glug Club is free, and since its announcement last week, it's already attracted another 3,000 members keen to take advantage of its benefits. And with a who's who of top companies involved, including Adobe, Getty Images, Pantone, Slack, Fontsmith and Microsoft, it's easy to see why. Glug has been organising informal talks and 'notworking' events since 2007 "We've been working on Glug Club for some time, trying to negotiate a range of great deals for our community," says Glug founder and CEO Ian Hambleton. "With over 40,000 global members, we're now able to push brands to give our community better rates and services." Hambleton expects that as Glug Club grows, the range of services and offers it's able to share with its members will grow with it. "Glug Club embodies everything we've tried to build with Glug," he continues. "To help young creatives on their career journey and provide them with useful tips and tools to get ahead. In this case, it's not a speaker talk at an event, but rather an amazing list of tools they should use to get ahead." Want to get involved and give your career a free helping hand? Head over to the Glug Club sign-up page today. Read more: How to network successfully: 19 pro tips The essential guide to tools for designers The best laptop deals for May 2018 View the full article

Cartoon Network has been up and running in the USA since 1992, but it took another year to arrive in Latin America, making 2018 the 25th anniversary of Cartoon Network Latin America. The 7 best modern cartoons And to mark 25 years of entertaining kids (both young and old) and inspiring the next generation of animators, the ever-popular channel commissioned Buenos Aires studio Le Cube to create this 25th anniversary celebration film. Designed by Argentinian freelance illustrator Delfina Perez Adan, this wonderfully stylised short brings together a whole host of Cartoon Network favourites from the past quarter of a century, all of them rendered in an eye-catching CMYK palette. There are so many of them flashing before your eyes in quick succession that you're going to have your work cut out spotting them all. Naturally you'll notice Finn and Jake from Adventure Time – not to mention Ice King – and the eagle-eyed among you won't have failed to notice the likes of the Powerpuff Girls, Dexter and Dee-Dee, Johnny Bravo and Cow and Chicken. Le Cube's anniversary short features Cartoon Network characters old and new After a bit of frantic dashing around and the occasional scuffle, the characters all come together to form a suitably celebratory giant 25. The whole film lasts just over a minute, but there's so much action and so many details and characters to try and recognise that it rewards multiple viewings. It wouldn't be Cartoon Network without Finn and Jake For the team at Le Cube, it's been a joy to produce. "Cartoon Network has always been an inspiration for kids everywhere," they say. "So much so, that even many grown-ups who work in animation do it exactly because of how much they loved Cartoon’s creations when they were young. "That's why it was such a gigantic honour for us at Le Cube, after we too were not so long ago just kids sitting in front of the TV amazed by what we saw, to create the channel’s 25th-anniversary celebration film." Related articles: Behind the scenes of Cartoon Network's 20th anniversary video 10 top cartoons reimagined in real life Cartoon Network's Head of Design on how to succeed in your career View the full article

The Barcelona edition of OFFF kicks off later this week. If you can’t make it to sunny Spain for this three-day fiesta of creativity, fear not – you can follow all the action as it unfolds, right here on Creative Bloq via the Adobe livestream (running from 24-25 May from 11am CET). Now in its 18th year, OFFF offers creative inspiration and artistic innovation from world-class speakers. Adobe will be livesteaming the best bits of the festival across each of the three days, as well as offering exclusive interviews with speakers, pro portfolio advice, special product speak-previews, and one awesome competition – read on to find out more. This year’s lineup is stronger than ever, with industry-leading designers taking to the stage (or direct to your screens) to share their creative secrets. Adobe will be going live with the likes of French illustrator Malika Favre, motion designer Patrick Clair and the inimitable Stefan Sagmeister. Take a look at the full schedule here and make sure you get the livestream up and running so you don’t miss any of the action. As well as presenting on-stage, Favre, Clair and Sagmeister will also be getting stuck in and offering portfolio advice as part of Adobe’s Behance portfolio review. These are available to OFFF attendees as well as the online audience – so if your Behance portfolio isn’t getting the attention it deserves (and you’re feeling brave!), register for a portfolio review now. Here’s another session to set a reminder for: On May 24 at 10am CET, Adobe will host an exclusive Adobe Stock panel discussion explore the hottest new visual trends. This session will bring together futurologists, photographers and illustrators to put the spotlight on ‘multilocalism’, and how travel and technology are turning the world into one interconnected, global village. You might be missing out on visiting Barcelona, but how about a trip to Los Angeles? Adobe will be offering lucky creatives the chance to win a trip to Adobe MAX 2018 in LA in October. Special guests from the Visual Trends panel debate will each design an image inspired by the Top 30 Adobe Stock search terms for Barcelona. All you need to do to be entered into the Adobe MAX prize draw is vote for your favourite image via Twitter. The competition kicks off on 24 May. View the full article

Image: Insydium The first ever Vertex conference took place in March, and it was a runaway success. Run by the makers of our sister magazines 3D World and 3D Artist, the event brought together experts of all kinds from the CG industry to offer insights and advice to help hone your 3D skills. Included in the lineup were talks from event partners Notch, Maxon and Insydium. Matt Swoboda, real-time graphics pioneer and founder of Notch, explored the history of real-time graphics and why now is the right time to dive in; Jonas Pilz from MAXON explained how to create eye-catching motion graphics setups inside Cinema 4D; and Bob Walmsley, a technical trainer at INSYDIUM LTD, demonstrated the latest X-Particles features and hyper-realistic rendering in Cycles 4D. Scroll down to watch videos of their talks. 01. Adventures in real-time Matt Swoboda is a pioneer of real-time graphics at companies such as Sony. His software, Notch, has been used to create visual experiences for some of the world’s most memorable events, including Beyoncé and U2 world tours. In this talk, Swoboda explains why now is a really exciting time for motion graphics artists. Designing in real time, without a having to pause to wait for your work to render, brings you closer than ever before to the thing you’re creating. Watch now to discover how Notch can help you rediscover the joy of problem solving, experimenting and improvising on the fly. 02. Cinema 4D MoGraph In this presentation, Jonas Pilz introduces the powerful MoGraph tools and explains how they can be used to quickly create eye-catching motion graphics in Cinema 4D. You’ll learn how easy it is to set up any kind of graphic 3D animation, from abstract animations to moving fonts and breaking objects. Pilz will also show you how to use MoGraph setups for VFX and visualisation purposes. In short, you might fall in love with Cinema 4D while watching this talk. 03. X-Particles and Cycles 4D In this talk, Bob Walmsley demonstrates the latest versions of INSYDIUM LTD’s Cinema 4D plugins X-Particles and Cycles 4D. Using the major new features xpClothFX, xpExplosiaFX and xpFluidFX, Walmsley explains how designers can can switch effortlessly between motion graphics and VFX, within a unified system built on the intuitive particle software. Discover how X-Particles and Cycles 4D integrates seamlessly into the Cinema 4D workflow, enabling artists to immerse themselves in design, rather than getting bogged down in the technical process. Read more: 6 expert tips for better 3D renders How to model concept art in Cinema 4D Illuminate your 3D work with Dome lights View the full article

In 1999, I built my first website using Web Studio 1.0. Web Studio was a graphic user interface. It was possible to create a new landing page and drag and drop elements into it. I then set up a free domain and hosting with GeoCities and voila! I had a website. Fast forward to 2004, I wanted to go further and so, like many others, I set out to build a band website. 12 common JavaScript questions answered A lot has changed since then. In this article, I'm going to be taking a trip down memory lane and recreate the same site for the web today. Get the files for this tutorial. I built my first website in 1999 So, let's start! First off, generally every new project for me starts with mkd followed by g init. For those of you who know me, at some point, I've probably mentioned dotfiles to you. Dotfiles are files that simply begin with a dot (it took me a surprisingly long time to actually make that connection!) and they can be used for a number of purposes. Two of my favourite dotfiles are .aliasas and .functions. Let me elaborate… In bash, it's possible to create a new directory using the command mkdir then after that you'd have to change directory cd into the directory that you have just created. Using the code I have in my .functions file, it's now possible to run mkd. This will not only create the new directory, but also have changed into that directory as well. This may seem overkill at first, but I love these micro wins. Over time, especially if running these commands several times a day, they soon add up to a lot of saved time. The next command, if you're familiar with git, is simply git init, which will enable us to version control the project. I use git a lot, even for shopping lists! So rather than having to type out git every time, adding alias g="git" to .aliases again is a nice, small time saver for me. These days, there's a plethora of different frameworks and technologies. For this project, I want to keep things simple. I'm going to use HTML, CSS and if required a sprinkle of JavaScript. First up, let's create the basic HTML markup. But wait! Let's stop and think for a minute. The 2advanced.com site heavily inspired me to learn Flash Sometimes developers, myself included, can be super-excited about a project and want to get cracking immediately and go straight for the keyboard to write code. However, I find this is often not the best approach. I love to get an overview in mind of the project first. By doing this and having a much clearer vision of the project as a whole, I find it allows for much better decision making. For example, if I dived straight into the code, I might encounter an issue that I'd then have to go back and refactor. There are a few different outcomes with this approach. First, it might be that I have to delete the code entirely and start again; second, if continuing in this fashion I may end up with 'spaghetti code' making it difficult in the future to update, debug and result in performance loss; third, sometimes it does work out okay and you end up with better code, but I'd tend to say the first and second outcomes are far more common. This project is fairly small; it has a few pages: Home, News, Gigs, Media, Albums, Links and common parts among these pages: header, navigation, typography content, lists, images, videos. When originally building the Flash site in 2004, things were a lot more simple in terms of testing. The site was built in Flash, for Flash on a desktop computer with a mouse and keyboard. These days, mobile and tablet internet usage is more common than on a desktop computer, and this trend is continuing to rise. In order to make this a better experience for whoever views the site, I'm going to take a few things into account at the start of the project and use a mobile first strategy. To do so, and again, before writing any code, I'm going to get out a good old-fashioned pen and paper. First, I write out the sitemap; in doing so there are some key areas I think can be improved. For example, my original site consisted of different pages for each of the band's albums. At the time they had three albums and so fit nicely in the navigation. Now they have a lot more and potentially more to come, so already in my mind I'm thinking about ways in which to make the site more future proof (an oldie but a goodie is Dan Cederholm's Bulletproof Web Design). Now I have a rough idea in my head of the sitemap and pages, next up is to create some low-fi wireframes. From previous experience building many responsive sites, mobile comes with interesting design challenges, namely how to create a navigation, but still enable people to view the main content of the site. I'm going to go along with the design outcome we've all grown to love/hate: the burger menu approach. However, I'm going to add a little twist. The original artwork used birds, so rather than the standard burger menu icon, I'm going to use bird artwork that will activate the menu and open and close its wings as a way to indicate if the menu is active or not. Flash tree navigation in Adobe Animate CC 2018 Things in my mind are now starting to take shape, with an idea of how people will be able to navigate around the site. I'm now going to think about how the pages themselves might look. Starting with the homepage, it's fairly simple, with typography content. Next, news – again typography content, potentially images and then some sort of navigation to view older posts. Gigs – a list of upcoming gigs with links to purchase tickets. For Media, looking back at the previous site, I had 'images' and 'videos' as two different sections, but here I think there's room for improvement and to consolidate as 'media'. Albums, ah, yes Albums – now this is where doing this sort of thing pays off. You see, the Albums page has typography and an image, and is going to need some sort of navigation to view older posts. Sound familiar? Sounds a lot like the same structure as the news page! Having this top level overview I can look at and think things over at a more granular, component, some could even say atomic design level, if you're familiar with the work of Brad Frost. Now I have an idea of how the site is going to work on smaller devices and reusable elements, it's time to repeat the process with larger devices. As the site is fairly simple, and with the wireframes already created for mobile, I see the larger devices being fairly similar – apart from now we have some extra room, so we can widen the content areas and also include a side navigation. The side navigation is the bit of the site that from the offset I'm most excited about. Taking inspiration from the band's original artwork, I built the navigation as a tree silhouette with leaves. Each leaf was a button that linked to a different page of the site. Also, as you scrolled in and hovered away from the leaf, the leaf would animate, falling to the ground. Flash was great at this; it was called tweening. You could set an element at one keyframe in the interface on the timeline, create another keyframe further along the timeline and add a path for the element to follow. Taking things a little further, varying the paths, duration and speed of the falling leaves, I ended up with something I was very pleased with. But now we're not using Flash, so how do we do this? Quite often I'll jump to CodePen or JS Bin. For those of you who aren't aware, CodePen and JS Bin are online services that enable you to quickly code and save. I tend to see CodePen as more design led, and JS Bin more JavaScript focused. For this project I'll be using CodePen to create the tree navigation for a few reasons. First, I want to start building up the main mobile version of the site, and in fact by doing this, if things were time critical, I could end up with an mvp. Although there are enhancements to the site that could be made by adding the nice leaf navigation and animation, this will take longer to produce. An advantage of working in CodePen for the tree navigation means it's isolated from the main site and code base. If things get tricky with completing it, I'm able to save where I'm at, carry on with the main site build, and then come back to the navigation. Sometimes I find that in going away from a problem, or even sleeping on it, my subconscious can carry on thinking about it. Then upon returning back to the problem, a solution presents itself. SVGs! I love SVGs. Previously in Flash, I drew out the leaf assets in Illustrator. Amazingly I still had a working CD with the original artwork and was able to open it. These days I use Sketch and it did a great job of opening up the file. I now have the leaf assets all ready to be exported as SVGs. Why SVGs? There are a lot of reasons. If we were to use a jpg, or gif on a Retina device, we'd also have to supply bigger assets, otherwise they would look blurred. Also, with SVGs, we can use CSS. This is great and lets us simply change the colour of the SVG using a bit of CSS rather than having to create another image asset. This means it's easier to maintain, and as a bonus it's also more performant. If you're not familiar with SVGs I'd highly recommend reading up on them and the incredible work from my good friend, Sara Soueidan. Mobile first, responsive navigation menu With the tree and leaf assets now in place, the final thing to add is the animation. There are a few approaches I could take with this. One would be to stay true to the original Flash path tween I did. This would mean replicating the paths and using SVG and then potentially further SVG work with paths and animateMotion. I quite like this idea from a nostalgic point of view, but CSS has come on a lot over the years, and we now have transform and translate at our disposal, so this could be another approach. Taking things a step further, we could even add some JavaScript that would randomise the falling leaves. Both options sound good, but I'm swaying towards the more CSS-led route. Here's another benefit of using CodePen, I can quickly go and try out one approach. If it turns out that it's more complicated than I originally thought, or it doesn't feel right, I can try another approach with little time wasted. In fact this turned out to be a great idea! I'm still looking at options for this – please refer to the project on GitHub for the final result. With the tree navigation now sorted, I turned back to the mobile first approach, building up the navigation. If you're familiar with Sass, you've more than likely encountered variables. But did you know variables are now available in CSS? They have pretty decent browser support in Chrome, Edge, Safari and Samsung Internet as well! As I'm trying to keep to basic CSS and avoid the need for any extra dependencies, this is great news. So how would we implement this? At the top of the style sheet I declare my variables: Now that they're declared, I can call them, so for example setting the body background colour would look like this: Taking this a step further and to help with grid alignment, white space, vertical rhythm, you may have noticed I've also defined a grid size variable. Variables work extremely well with calc and that looks a little something like this: With the mobile navigation styles complete, let's tackle the functionality for hiding and showing it. For the toggle button we'll apply a label tag, then in the nav tag we'll add an input: Using the following CSS, we can show and hide the navigation menu; because we want the label in the header, we can use ~ aka tilde or (U+007E) so it works while not being immediately succeeded by the first element. With the mobile navigation complete, it's time to implement some responsive web design. Adding in the main content for the site, then using the Responsive View in Chrome Developer Tools, I'm able to increase the viewport width until I feel there's enough room to adequately hold the tree navigation. This ends up being at 600px, and for this we can use a media query: Almost there! Finally for the tree navigation to sit next to the main content area, I'm going to make use of Flexbox: Now the tree navigation takes up 100% height, with the content doing the same and sitting to the right of it. This means that no matter how long the content becomes, it will never flow underneath the tree navigation. If you'd like to know more about Flexbox, I'd recommend checking out flexbox.io by the one and only Wes Bos. There's a lot it can do! An example showing 'display: flex' preventing content from wrapping underneath the tree navigation That's all I have time for at the moment, but there are still plenty of things we could do to make this project even better. If you have any questions, or liked the article, please say hello on Twitter or through my site, or send me a pull request on GitHub! This article was originally published in issue 304 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 304 here or subscribe here. Related articles: 5 tips for super-fast CSS Animate SVG with JavaScript Understanding the CSS display property View the full article

Illustration is a beautifully expressive, versatile artform. It can add impact, style and personality to any graphic design project. But it's not always easy to get right. Whether you're visualising an abstract concept, bringing some highly complex subject matter to life, telling a compelling story, or just adding a touch of stylistic beauty to a piece of work, the possibilities are endless with illustration. Part of the beauty of working with an illustrator is they can be based literally anywhere, and with talented practitioners all over the world to choose from, it can be a challenge in itself choosing the right style for the job. In an ideal world, everyone would commission and art direct something bespoke, but if you don't have the time or budget to do so, there are also thousands of quality illustrations to be found in stock libraries. So read on for our essential guide to getting more from illustration in your design work. We will continue to add to this list in the coming months... 01. Inspiring illustrators to commission 02. Tips for using illustration in design 03. Illustration commissioning advice View the full article

Summer is finally on its way, and with it comes a whole load of great new web design tools. One of the most exciting of which is Lobe, a system that enables you to use machine learning in your apps to create powerful features. Perhaps you already have the idea for an app but don’t have the coding skills required to build it? Lobe could be the answer. We're also excited about Jeremy Keith’s new book on Service Workers. Read on for more details on these, plus our pick of eight more useful new tools and apps that have emerged this month. 01. Going Offline by Jeremy Keith Make your app behave gracefully when it's offline using Service Workers When connectivity is poor, your users expect your app to still work – or at least deal with the situation gracefully. Service Workers are how you make that happen, and Jeremy Keith is one of the smartest writers on this topic. In his new book he explains how Service Workers function and provides some great strategies for getting the best out of your app when the internet connection fails. This is a great resource, whether you're new to the topic or looking to improve your Service Worker game. 02. Lobe Incorporate the power of deep-learning models into your apps Lobe is very cool. It enables you to build and train deep-learning models, that can be easily incorporated into your app, without writing any code. The introductory video shows you some examples of what can be done – one model uses the camera to detect the angle at which someone is holding their hand, another reads handwriting, another detects what type of musical instrument is being played. In a further example, an artist scans in some flower petals and trains the model to generate new petals that look like natural variations of the originals. You could use Lobe to build the core functionality of a very interesting app. It's available now in beta form. 03. Fugue Link back to this site and use the music for free Fugue is a great selection of royalty free music for your videos, websites and other projects, which you can use without payment if you set a link back to the site. The material is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported licence. If you don’t want to link, you can pay $20 per month instead. Overall quality is high, and the site has a sticky player that's always in place, ready for you to click through the tracks. Music is organised according to themes, genres and moods for easy browsing. 04. Layoutit! Get Grid code using a simple interface The new CSS Grid generator tool at Layoutit! generates CSS Grid code for you based on your input to a graphical interface. Define your grid by adding rows, columns and the amount of gap you want and hit the button to get the code; it will also add IE10 and IE11 support if you want. If you're not up to speed with Grid this could be a useful stop-gap, or an aid to your learning. There's also a Bootstrap Builder tool to help you create Bootstrap UIs with a drag-and-drop interface. 05. Unique Create your own custom fonts and logotypes by choosing a template and tweaking it Unique is a custom font generator that you can use to make a logotype or unique font for any purpose. It's from the people behind Prototypo, which is a more complex tool for doing the same thing – the difference is that Unique is simpler and faster to use for people who aren't designers. Creating your font or logotype is straightforward: just tell the app whether you're trying to create lettering for a logo or another purpose and you're presented with a selection of templates that you can adjust to design your own unique font. 06. Site Palette Extract the main colours from a website and generate your own palette This Chrome extension extracts the main colours from a website and generates a shareable palette. It's compatible with Google Art Palette and Coolors.co so you can export to either of those for editing and refining, and it also generates a shareable link to the palette so you can easily show it to collaborators. You can download a Sketch template, and there is also Adobe Swatch support. 07. My Morning Routine Morning lifehacks from successful entrepreneurs and creatives My Morning Routine is an online magazine that publishes an interview every week with a successful person about how they start their day. It has just released a book of 283 interviews with a range of vibrant individuals, including tech entrepreneurs and creatives such as Julie Zhuo, vice president of product design at Facebook, and podcaster Lily Percy. These inspirational conversations are full of life hacks that will help you to get more out of your work days by starting better. The website also has an interesting section on statistics which gives a broader picture of people's routines. 08. GDPR Checker by Siftery Track GDPR statements from over 1,100 SAAS vendors, plus other data privacy information No doubt you've heard about the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); it starts 25 May and affects any organisation that handles personal data. To ensure your organisation is compliant, you'll need to know how your SAAS vendors are handling privacy and security, which is where the GDPR Checker comes in. From this interface you can get easy access to GDPR compliance statements from over 1,100 SAAS vendors, as well as information about whether they have self-certified for EU-US Privacy Shield and offer a DPA. 09. CSS Blocks High performance, maintainable stylesheets CSS Blocks is a CSS authoring system that helps you create high-performance, maintainable stylesheets. Its creators tout its capability for static analysis as one of the most powerful features. According to the project's GitHub page, "static analysis means css-blocks can look at your project and know with certainty that any given CSS declaration will, will not, or might under certain conditions, be used on any given element in your templates". It’s component-based, and CSS errors are detected at build time so they're caught before they cause you any headaches. 10. Spirit Studio Create and manage web animations Spirit Studio is a powerful, easy-to-use Mac app for designers and developers that enables you to create web animations without needing in-depth coding knowledge. You can animate SVG or HTML, and once you've connected the app to your site you can edit live animations directly. There is currently no way to try it out without subscribing, but a free trial is in the works, and Windows and Linux versions are also in the pipeline. Related articles: 10 apps for endless design inspiration How to make an app The future of web design View the full article

If there's one piece of advice that all 3D artists, no matter which field they are in, should be given, it’s to learn how to work from references, preferably anatomical human references. This builds many skills, from learning about silhouette and form, to understanding light and shadow, as well as surfaces and materials. These are all key to a good skill set for 3D artists. 30 top examples of 3D art The problem is choosing which references to invest in. You could create your own, but selecting something pre-made is usually better. Here, there are many options available. One of the best is this multipart kit from 3dtotal which, although not cheap (at around the £200/$260 mark) is thoughtfully developed to account for certain tricky areas to master. The kit, which stands at over a foot tall, is cast in smooth resin, which is well finished – even if there are a couple of lines that could do with a little trimming (an easy job with a craft knife). The sculpted details are captured well and the transfer to casting has kept a great definition of detail. The real benefit of this kit is that it comes with multiple options to enable the artist to focus on a particular task, from muscle deformation to skeletal details. These are themed around arm and hand poses, which are often tricky to get right. This reference model is one of the most thoughtfully developed and covers many bases There are also two torsos, which really complete the posing, as much of what happens when an arm is moved has an effect in other areas. This in itself shows a good level of thought from the designers, as does the fact that the pieces connect via socket and peg, with magnets fitted to keep things from moving. These small details are what make this an attractive option for anyone looking for references that cover écorché, skin, bone and particularly muscular details. A few minutes' clean up time after opening the model and you’ll be set. If you often need anatomical references, then this is a fantastic resource that has been thoughtfully developed with the artist in mind. This article was originally published in issue 233 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 233 here or subscribe to 3D World here. Related articles: Illuminate your 3D work with Dome lights 6 expert tips for better 3D renders Where to find free textures for 3D projects View the full article

If you’ve got great ideas and a passion for design, this is your chance to work with Computer Arts and create a one-off cover, showcasing your talent to the creative industry. In partnership with our friends at D&AD New Blood, this year’s competition is offering a £700 prize for the winner, and with the addition of a special decorative print finish from our pals at Celloglas, this will be a unique addition to the winner’s portfolio! The brief To enter you must be a current student or recent graduate (within the last two years). That includes mature students, and you can be based anywhere around the world. The issue your cover will adorn is our annual New Talent issue. Inside we will be looking at the very best of this year’s UK creative graduates. As such, we’d like a cover design that speaks to the spirit of new talent. You can visualise that anyway you want – be abstract, funny, literal, whatever – but it must be at the core of your design/illustration. The special print treatment from Celloglas will depend on what works best with the winning entry. Maybe it'll be six metallic colours, or scratch and sniff paper? Maybe, like last year's winning entry, we'll go for Mirri, or we might decide that glow in the dark works best. Take a look at what treatments Celloglas offers, and by all means tell us if you have a favourite! Download the cover template, and make sure your idea works to the Computer Arts' cover specification. Once you’re happy, you’re ready to enter! How to enter This competition is a little different to others, as it accepts mockups as well as finalised art. This is because entrants span designers, typographers and illustrators, so it may not be possible to provide the finished article straight away. Also, the winner will then need to work with CA’s art editor to make sure their entry works perfectly as a cover with a main hit and other coverlines. Therefore, we need some information about you, including a link to your portfolio, and a short paragraph giving it a bit of context to your entry – maximum 100 words. Send all that to hello@computerarts.co.uk. Entries will be judged by the CA team based on creativity of concept, its suitability for use as a magazine cover, and the quality of your existing portfolio – and the winner will receive a paid commission of £700 to develop it into a final cover with direction from CA's art editor. Deadline for entries: Midnight (BST) Sunday 24 June 2018. We will also showcase a selection of the best entries on Creative Bloq, including a paragraph about the artist and a portfolio link. Good luck! Hi-res artwork (or any amends) will only be requested from the chosen designer once the commission is set up. All IP remains with the creators, until a contract is set up with the winner. View the full article

I’m not a typographer. And if my shoddy handwriting is anything to go by, I’m not very good at creating letter shapes either. I am, however, lucky enough to write about design for a living, which means I get to meet all sorts of creative folk who help make people like me experience what it’s like to make something. That’s just what happened at this year’s TYPO Berlin as I got to dabble in a typography tutorial with a difference. For the uninitiated, TYPO Berlin is an international conference where the biggest names in typography and design come together to share their stories, reveal how a project was made, and generally dish out inspirational advice for creatives to put into action. This year we learnt how some technical wizardry with OpenType features can help you design a handwriting font that isn’t boring. Another amazing part of TYPO Berlin is the workshops. Hosted by big names in the design industry, these sessions are an invaluable opportunity to watch experts like logo designer Aaron Draplin in action. This year I dipped my toe into the world of type design first-hand as I attended a Tricotype workshop and created lettering out of a rarely used font medium: wool. Multiple strands of wool can be fed through the knitting machine As well as being new to typography, I’m also an inexperienced knitter. (My portfolio consists of an unevenly knitted length of wool I generously call a scarf.) Thankfully, just as digital tools can take out some of the strenuous legwork of illustrating, there was a domestic 1970’s knitting machine hired from the Electronic and Textile Institute Berlin that made knitting idiot-proof. That was the knitting process sorted, but what about the typography? In the workshop hosted by artist and videosmith Sam Meech and Jonathan Hitchen, even this became easy thanks to the use of punch cards. Simple punch card grids can create lots of different lettering styles With the help of the grids on these punch cards, typographers (and me) can create lettering that looks like a piece of pixel art. All you have to do is pencil-in your letter shapes in the grid, punch out the marked squares with a hole punch, and you’re ready to feed the card into the machine. If you’re familiar with a jacquard loom, you’ll know what happens next. Once the machine has cast on the wool, and you’ve created a few layers by moving the mechanism left to right and back again by hand with a satisfying shunk-shunk, it’s time to feed in the punch card and change the settings. Thanks to a simple turn of a dial, the hooks on the knitting machine change position and start feeding a new strand of wool through the gaps in the punch card grid. A few more shunk-shunks later and the lettering starts to appear. It’s like a combination of ancient computer coding and traditional crafty materials. Different colours of wool create dynamic combinations It only took a few minutes for the punch card design to be knitted. And it turned out that the knitting machine did make the process idiot-proof. Mostly. Occasionally, the wool slipped off one of the many sewing hooks, but luckily Sam was on hand to recast and easily fix these little mistakes. I think they give the finished pieces an extra level of character. Like all of the workshops at TYPO Berlin, this one was incredibly popular. Each workshop walked six people through the process, with each person creating a letter for a knitted alphabet. The workshops build up an entire knitted alphabet The finished pieces showcase just how much flexibility there is for type design, even when you’re working with a standard grid. And thanks to the different colours of wool, no two designs looked the same. All of the finished designs will be compiled into a pattern zine so members of the type and knitting community will be able to recreate the letters. Want to stay in the loop for when future workshops are on the horizon? Be sure to bookmark the Tricotype site and check in for updates. Related articles: The 10 commandments of typography The rules of responsive web typography How to improve your digital typography View the full article