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Adding in some convincing characters has always been the best way to make any 3D art scene come to life. Architectural visualisation especially can really benefit from adding crowds of people to a walkthrough or still in order to help sell a design. Unfortunately, up until recently, the disciplines for creating a convincing 3D scene and rigging human characters have been quite difficult, especially when crowds or a street scene are involved. Then when it comes to animating, making sure the characters do not bump into each other can be yet another chore, especially when the 3D software does not have any bespoke crowd or character tools. Buy Anima 3 here Luckily, the crowd animation software Anima from AXYZ Design has been through a rapid upgrade path over the past couple of years. And with Anima 3, the team have added more refinements and improvements rather than simply reinventing the wheel. Populate your 3D scene with people in a couple of clicks with Anima 3 Anima removes most of the headache of adding people to existing 3D scenes. The main workflow of Anima is unchanged: load in a model of a scene into Anima 3, and then draw paths of where the people (or actors) are to go. The parameters of the path, such as width and directions, are easily adjusted. Anima can then populate them with a user-defined number of actors, which can be adjusted as and when required. Anima has great granular control with direction, with speed and type of walk cycle all adjusted on each individual actor by selecting them in the viewport. Anima 3’s sophisticated AI converts an actor’s walk cycle to make sure no characters walk into each other on the fly It is really satisfying to create a populated scene in a couple of clicks, using traffic lights to manage road crossings alongside seating animations to create a sophisticated population – for anything from a street scene to the crowd in a sports stadium. Things get even better when Anima 3’s sophisticated AI converts an actor’s walk cycle to make sure no characters walk into each other on the fly. Each actor can also be posed and duplicated to make new actors in the editing mode window, and turned from a standing to a running or sitting actor using the Motion Clips Library or from a predefined list in the main scene view. Unreal Engine 4 support Anima 3 supports Unreal Engine through a bespoke plugin alongside Cinema 4D and 3ds Max The primary change in version 3 is Anima stepping out from a perceived focus on architectural visualisation, allowing the software to become the basis of many character requirements across a range of disciplines. The big clue to this addition is Unreal Engine 4 support, which allows Anima 3 to integrate with the game engine and add actors to Unreal levels without having to animate them in Unreal itself. This is great news for archviz specialists who are looking to make the move to real-time visualisation and potentially VR, as one Anima project can now work with 3ds Max, Cinema 4D and now Unreal Engine, creating efficiencies for visualisations across a range of different formats. While Anima does export its characters in a wide range of formats, the plugin integration is still the best way to go in terms of raw performance and ease of use. Anima does a good job of suiting every artist, from those who need to populate either a still or animation with people quickly, to those who really want to dive deep into the animations and character modifications. To integrate Anima into studio pipelines and other applications, an API toolset is available as well. New PBR textures on the actors within Anima 3 work great with first and third- party render solutions Anima 3 feels a lot more refined than the previous version, although the UI still takes a bit of getting used to. All of the major controls are intuitive, with responsiveness and viewport speed much improved. Adding paths and tools such as escalators is much easier than before, and snapping elements to one another to create complex systems of integration is much more logical and intuitive. All the actor models when exported use PBR shading, making it easier than ever before to work with a variety of render engines and maintain the same look. The character models do look excellent and the motion cycles have also been refined. And if the models that come with Anima are not enough, there is a large online library that can be accessed and purchased directly from within Anima 3. AXYZ Design’s Metropoly characters can also be purchased and imported into Anima 3. For new users, Anima 3 is still a bargain for anyone wanting sophisticated characters within their scene, and there's a free upgrade for any user whose licence-free update period is still active. Buy Anima 3 here Also read: 5 pieces of killer hardware every 3D artist will crave This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 232; subscribe here. View the full article

Directors and film experts know how to make the most difficult shots look effortless. Don't let that fool you, it takes a lot of know-how to capture the perfect shot. You can learn how to make the most of your resources by studying the Videography Bootcamp, on sale now for just $39 (approx. £29). When you get your hands on the Videography Bootcamp, you'll have access to the tips and tricks industry experts took years to learn. There are lessons here for every level of filmmaker. You'll learn how to make the most of your DSLR camera, how to utilise tools like drones and green screens, cinematographic tricks, and how to film like a pro. Work your way through over 33 hours of content, spread over eight professionally-taught courses and you'll see your work improve right in front of your eyes. You can get the Videography Bootcamp on sale now for just $39 (approx. £29). That's a savings of 97 per cent off the retail price for a course packed with must-have filmmaking knowledge, so grab this deal today! View the full article

Great design is (rarely) created in isolation. Like it or not, taking criticism from others is a big part of a designer's life – whether it's coming from your boss, your clients, or your peers. However, with the right attitude, this feedback can help you hone your craft and improve your work, and your design portfolio. Here are some top tips for using criticism as fuel for your creative process. 
01. Get opinions early Us creatives can be pretty delicate when it comes to our work and ideas. If we're honest with ourselves, most of the time when we let others in on our latest pet project we're hoping to be showered with praise, dubbed a 'genius' and carried off into creative superstardom on a wave of positivity. This need for positive reinforcement can all too often cause us to lock ourselves away in our studios, polishing and polishing our ideas until we feel ready to unleash them onto the world. This tendency can, however, set us up for a fall. If you've spent weeks polishing an idea in secret, you're in for shock if someone you respect isn't as impressed by the idea as you are when you finally stump for the big reveal. By actively seeking an outside perspective soon after ideas emerge – casting our 'darlings' into the cold light of day early on – we can save ourselves a lot of time and pain later, and this can help soften the blow when we realise we've been polishing a turd. As much as we might, deep down, want to impress with our ideas, we should remember we can actually develop our thinking rapidly and radically with a few simple conversations. 02. Listen hard It's easy to go into defensive mode when we open up our ideas to the scrutiny of others. When feedback starts flying at you, there's a natural creative reaction to put your mind into overdrive with rebuttals that will keep the concept alive. But by letting your mind think up a response, you're not really allowing it to listen. There's little use in asking for input, if you're not going to take it in. Instead of priming yourself for debate, really listen to what is being said without thinking about what that means for you or the idea – you can mull that over later. 03. Remember it's not personal Just because someone doesn't like your idea, doesn't make you a failure. In fact, most successful innovators came up with a lot of 'wrong' ideas before they hit on the game-changer. The trick is to not to get too down about negative feedback, and rather use it as a catalyst to push yourself and your ideas further. 04. Don't take an opinion as gospel An opinion on your work is just that: an opinion. While you should be as open as possible to the feedback you're getting, you don't have to take it as the truth when it comes to developing your work later. It's helpful to take what you hear with a creative pinch of salt. See the input as research rather than an instruction. On reflection, you'll likely find some of the feedback useful and some that takes you in a direction you don't want to go in. This is your work: listen hard to the feedback and decide what makes sense to you. 05. Adjust and repeat The real power of actively seeking feedback is that it gives you a chance to reflect and course-correct before it gets too late. Each phase of listening to others should be followed by a phase of reflection and recalibration. This is your opportunity to push your ideas further. 
When you've incorporated the valuable feedback, there's only one thing left to do. Go and get more feedback, and repeat the whole process again! These tips were originally part of a Modual student workshop run by Fred Deakin. Related content: How to power up your skills as a freelancer Download the best free fonts The ultimate guide to logo design View the full article

Love them or hate them, design trends are an international phenomenon that can spread incredibly quickly, and can be hugely influential on style and creative practice across the board. Whether you choose to follow them or avoid them is up to you. Some are small, and relatively short-lived; others evolve into major global design movements that span many disciplines. Some of the biggest design movements of the 20th century, lasted years or even decades; others are still relevant to this day. Global design movements Significant design movements of this millennium so far include embracing failure; striving for authenticity; paring things back to basics; the DIY 'hacker' economy; the blend between physical and digital worlds; and the rise of experience culture. Of course, some of these have become design trend buzzwords and designers are all-too-often jumping on the bandwagon without fully understanding their significance, or applying them to their own unique practice. Read on for our essential guide to the biggest design trends of the moment. We will continue to add to this post with up-to-date examples. 01. Graphic design trends 02. Logo design trends 03. Image and illustration trends 04. Design industry trends View the full article

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Top digital illustrator Justin Maller has recently become chief creative officer of art community DeviantArt. This new role doesn't just mean a return to his roots – Maller started his art career at DeviantArt – but also involves a geographical uprooting, as he's moved from New York to Los Angeles. Read on to discover why this new role appealed, and how Maller plans to balance it around other projects. How did you new role come about? I’ve been a part of the DeviantArt community since 2001 – it’s where I got my start as an artist. I was actually one of the earliest volunteer staff members, picking daily features and whatnot. I’ve maintained a great relationship with the site and its admins over the years, particularly with Angelo, the CEO. He broached the idea of me taking the role prior to us going on a trip last year, and after a few long conversations, I started to see the fit. What will your new role involve? I’ll be working with the in-house and Tel Aviv studios, as well as across product and marketing to develop new tools for the community and then share them with the broader world. I’ll also be working on offering more to artists, and ensuring that everything is done with artistic credibility. There’ll be a lot of strategy development that goes in to all that, of course. I think the biggest challenge is going to be executing all of this across such long timelines when I'm used to operating in a very nimble and immediate environment. Justin Maller's apparel illustration for Jordan/Nike How will you balance your new job with other projects? I’ll take some jobs here and there to maintain my standing as a working artist and the relationships I’ve developed, but it will be a much smaller part of my day to day. I hope to make a great deal more personal work, and DeviantArt is very encouraging about that! How do you think you'll adjust to life in LA? I'll miss the hell out of NYC. The friends I made there are like family to me. Leaving them and the life I built in NYC over eight years is really hard. But I’ve done it before, moving from Melbourne, so I’m sure I’ll adjust again. I don't think it'll affect any projects, hopefully I'll just be able to relax more in the open space and free my mind to make some cool new stuff. Is it important to be open with your fans? To an extent, yeah. I don’t bring a lot of personal stuff to my social media. However I think people got used to seeing a certain volume of production of art, and due to personal circumstances I was way below my usual levels in 2017. I posted on Twitter that I've been having some personal issues because I wanted to have a little bit of frank discourse and remind everyone that I am still a human being, and their Goku wallpaper might have to wait. Any tips for keeping on top of projects? Flail frantically at them in a frenetic and disorganised fashion until you’re exhausted. Then take a nap. This article is featured in issue 279 of Computer Arts, the world's best-selling design magazine. Buy issue 279 now or subscribe. Related articles: How to start your digital art journey 5 ways to improve your digital art skills DeviantArt gets bought by Wix View the full article

Some digital content creation applications have the ability to add crowds of people into a scene, but most however do not. This is where Anima by AXYZ Design comes in, as it is an excellent tool for adding crowds to both animation and still 3D art projects for software that does not have native crowd support. Anima functions as a standalone application with plugins that allow the importing of Anima files into Cinema 4D, 3D Studio Max and now Unity. The fact that Anima has a 3ds Max plugin, which is an application that does have its own crowd creation tools, indicates that Anima actually offers more than potential first-party software. So what can Anima do? Well, in a nutshell, Anima makes complex crowd creation quick and easy, which makes it a great, worthwhile product. Anima has a free trial version which lets artists play with the basics before committing Mike Griggs Anima comes with a library of character (actor) models that are both animated and for stills use, and more can be bought through the Anima application itself. Anima also has a sophisticated import system which, when coupled with the edit mode, allows the adjustment of any actor within Anima itself, including on motion cycles and poses. Anima supports seated groups as well, and motion paths can be adapted on the fly for most purposes. The crowd tools within Anima enable an artist to place either random or specific actors into a scene to follow paths and go up stairs, ramps and escalators. Stop lights and object avoidance can also be added with a simple toolset. Anima supports OBJ import for scenes, and multiple scenes can be worked on and imported within the Anima project structure to create hugely complex patterns of interaction quickly and easily. Anima has a free trial version which lets artists play with the basics before committing to this excellent software, which can be both a timesaver and a great way to enhance existing scenes. Find out more about the software and download the trial here. 01. Make a scene for Anima For complex scenes, it's best to start by making a low-polygon version Anima imports scene meshes from other applications using the OBJ format. If the scene is complex, it is best to make a low-polygon version of the scene which can be imported into Anima; the original scene model, if imported, could slow Anima down and make it harder to review animations. When creating the scene and importing into Anima, make sure that the units match and that any export elements such as model flipping are consistent. 02. Create a simple path One project file can contain multiple scene models Once the correct model is loaded into the background, paths can then be added to the scene. Anima works with a project paradigm, so one project file can contain multiple scene models within it. Paths are drawn just as they are in most applications, and Anima snaps the path to the imported model’s geometry. The width of the path can be adjusted, either at points on the path or along its whole width. 03. Add people to a path It's time to populate the scene When the path is in place, use the tools under Path Properties to add either a random selection of people to the path, or drag a selection of people models (actors) to the Crowd box in the Properties palette. Once all the parameters for speed, orientation and actor interaction have been defined, simply click on the Generate tab to populate the path with actors. Now press the play button to see them animate. 04. Modify actors Actors are easy to customise Actor models can be modified either with simple changes within the Properties palette such as colour variation, walking speed or the loading in of a new motion style. If the Edit tool is selected with an actor selected in the Library palettes, the model can have its pose and motion cycle edited along with the adaption or addition of extra textures for clothing. Any change to the actor is instantly propagated back to the Anima scene. 05. Additional movement features Stairs pose no problem for Anima Anima has only a few tool types, but each of these have been designed to allow a huge variety of different types of bespoke crowds. Seated actors can be easily added with a couple of clicks. While the Anima path tool copes easily with stair geometry, there is a dedicated tool within Anima to create escalators through which a path can run. Traffic lights and the Avoid tool are a great way to make sure that actors interact convincingly within the scene. 06. Use the Anima plugin Scenes can be imported directly without having to export a file 3D Studio Max, Cinema 4D and now Unity all have plugins for Anima, which allow the direct importing of a scene without having to export a file. Using the plugin offers a range of benefits: first of all, any change in the Anima scene can be reloaded without having to re-export. Also, the Anima plugin has a range of options to allow smooth playback in the host application, such as swapping out the actors for proxy geometry on the fly. This article was originally published in issue 232 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 232 here or subscribe to 3D World here. Related articles: How to model concept art in Cinema 4D How to sculpt in Cinema 4D How to create cartoon characters in Cinema 4D View the full article

Instagram has been around for a while now, but recently – since the launch of Instagram Stories, in particular – the medium has really taken off as a way for freelance creatives and brands to supplement their design portfolio and build their audience. Designers everywhere are getting experimental with their feed, and new uses are being discovered almost daily – for more on this, see our designer's guide to Instagram Stories or take a look at our article on how to make money on Instagram as a creative. One creative whose Instagram account has attracted global media attention is Pablo Rochat, an art director and designer, and former director of Creative Lab at Tinder. At the recent D&AD Festival, Rochat's Lo-Fi High-Fun talk explored how to create playful and humorous social content, and how he uses Instagram to generate positive attention for brands and raise a smile in his followers. In this exclusive interview filmed at the festival, Instagram creative lead Kay Hsu asks Rochat about his creative process, from his limitless quest to create for new formats to how he works within the constraints of each platform. Read more: How to use Instagram as a digital sketchbook 20 illustrators to follow on Instagram 10 social media tricks you didn't know about View the full article

Here's a story that will make you smile. The team at independent publishing imprint Standards Manual have just launched a Kickstarter for a book and smartphone keyboard dedicated to the original emoji drawings (above). Simply titled Emoji, the book will study the 176 icons designed by Shigetaka Kurita and released by Japanese telecommunications company NTT DoCoMo in 1999. This includes a look at the 12 x 12 pixel grid drawings made by Kurita, which were acquired by New York's Museum of Modern Art in 2016, as well as technical data for each character. One of Kurita's favourite emoji is the heart icon - because it makes people smile Given that emoji have become such a common part of everyday communication, it's fascinating to track the ancestry of useful icons we're now all familiar with. Kurita was just 25 when he was tasked by NTT DoCoMo to create illustrations of faces, objects and places in only four to six weeks, but his creations have gone on to spawn thousands of variants over the years. "Various things influenced emoji," explains Kurita. "One was the pictogram. Pictograms are used as signs in many places in Japan like stations and public places. The second was the Japanese art of Manga, which uses graphics to express emotion. Lastly, it was Japanese magazines. All of these things that organise and communicate information came together to influence the creation of emoji." Backers will be able to download the original 176 emoji Alongside the book, Standards Manual also hopes to launch a keyboard extension, available for download in the App Store and on Google Play, which will allow users to send the original emoji. For people in the Western world, this will be the first time they have access to these groundbreaking icons. "As graphic designers, we have become fascinated by the occurrence of accidental masterpieces," say Jesse Reed and Hamish Smyth from Standards Manual. "Mr. Kurita did not set out to create work that would be acquired by MoMA – he was simply working on the assignment that he was tasked with. But inadvertently, he has created what we consider one of the most influential designs ever created." If this project is making you feel all heart-eyes emoji, be sure to head over to the Kickstarter page and make a pledge. Related articles: 7 must-read books for design students 9 of the best graphic design books to read in 2018 What's wrong with Google's burger emoji? View the full article

JavaScript is an incredibly important coding language that is running behind the scenes in all of your favourite websites and apps. You can learn how to make the most of this powerful framework with the 2018 Essential JavaScript Coding Bundle, on sale now for 96 per cent off the retail price! The 2018 Essential JavaScript Coding Bundle is packed full of lessons that will help you master this coding language. You’ll learn the concepts of web and app development powered by JavaScript as you work your way through the more than 29 hours of professionally taught courses and 900 pages worth of actionable instruction. If you've ever wanted to build your own app or website, or even launch a career as a web developer, this is your chance. You can save a whopping 96 per cent off the retail price when you pick up the 2018 Essential JavaScript Coding Bundle, on sale now. This is a massive saving that you shouldn't miss out on, so grab this deal today! Related articles: Animate SVG with JavaScript 5 of the best JavaScript frameworks Perfect JavaScript in 1,000 projects View the full article

Nowadays, your typical web or desktop app looks sleek and tidy. And that's what the average user expects it to be, too. Think about Things by Cultured Code, Dropbox or Fantastical by Flexibits. What do they all have in common? A nice UI and a consistent and appealing icon set. A good icon set may often be taken for granted, but a bad one is immediately noticeable. Creating an icon set may seem like an easy task, but it poses quite a few challenges. Many designers find it easier to design a unique icon rather than creating an icon set. That's because a set of items presents a different type of rules. All icons need to work together as a team: you need to consider the weight, the strokes and the shapes in order to achieve a consistent result. This process may take a few iterations to get to your desired result, but it's rewarding and interesting. 31 stunning iOS app icon designs Although you can choose whichever vector programme you like, Sketch is a great option. It is primarily designed to be a graphic application for web and mobile designers, UX designers and icon designers, and is becoming a solid alternative to the most common screen design software. The application looks and feels great, is well designed, and easy to learn if you are used to other design tools like Illustrator, Fireworks or Flash. 01. Set up artboard and drawing area Launch Sketch and create an artboard (A). Draw an area with your mouse or Wacom pen on the canvas – you can tweak the dimensions afterwards in the inspector panel on the right-hand side. You can also change the position and the background colour and select the features you prefer. In Sketch, you can work with multiple artboards. This is extremely handy for projects that have different views (for example a UI view and an icon view). 02. Insert a rectangle This icon set is designed to fit a webmail UI, and we will be designing a set of six consistent icons. There will be the plus icon (indicating 'more'), a bin icon (delete), a bell icon (notification), a mail icon (refresh and get emails), a pen icon (write a message) and a back arrow icon (previous email). Let's start with the plus icon. Insert a rectangle (R) and draw a rectangle of 100 x 20px, then modify the radius to 40 so you have rounded corners. 03. Use the Inspector panel Now you can copy and paste the same rectangle with rounded corners, and change its rotation to a 90 degree angle. You can do that through the Inspector panel, under Transform. The icons we are creating are all vector-based, so we can adjust the size later by increasing or decreasing their dimensions. If you are used to working with rulers, adding them in Sketch is simple (View > Canvas > Show Rulers). You can click anywhere on the ruler to add manual guides, and they'll stay visible as long as the rulers are visible. 04. Group the icon in a folder Let's group the first plus icon in a folder – this is how Sketch will display items when you hit Cmd+G. In the Layer panel, you will see a folder with two separate items (rectangles) that are still individually editable. This is handy if you want to tweak the shapes afterwards – for instance, to remove round corners or modify the radius. 05. Start bin icon Let's move on to a more complex icon: the bin. The primary shapes are similar to the plus icon, which is the reason why we started with the plus. Draw a Rectangle (R), roughly 15 x 84px. Copy and paste the same shape and start building the body of the bin. We will have to set the radius to 40 here as well, to keep the set of icons consistent. 06. Build up bin Keep going and use the same shape again for the body of the bin icon, simply by rotating it by 90 degrees. For the handle at the top, keep the same radius, and the angles will come out smooth and tidy. The rectangle at the top of the bin is 65 x 15px – basically 40px shorter in width than the base of the bin, which is 105px. 07. Add final details The bin icon is slightly more detailed than the others. If you want a more simplistic approach, you can leave the surface blank, but instead let's give it a final touch here by drawing 'dents' in the middle, to mimic the surface of a real bin. Part of this icon, as well as the plus icon, can be reused later on in the tutorial. 08. Begin bell icon The second icon of our set is ready; let's move on to the bell icon, which is more complex again. We want the icon to fit into the same surface area on the screen. To ensure this will work, we can draw circles on top of each icon that will function as guides. We can position the circles a distance of 70px from each other. This way when we finish the set, we'll have a nice row of horizontally aligned icons, each of which occupies the same space on the screen. Next page: Create more icons to add to your webmail icon set 09. How to see Union If you are used to Illustrator, this step is going to be fun: draw a simple circle (O) 89 x 89px. Then, go to Borders in the Inspector Panel and select 'Inside Position' with 15 thickness. This value is important – when we were drawing the rectangles for the bin, the shapes were 15px wide. This value needs to be the same in the bell, so the outlines will look consistent. Zoom in and draw a rectangle on top of the circle, then choose Union from the top menu. 10. Make icon bell-shaped You will now have a horseshoe shape that needs to be tweaked and transformed into a bell. In Sketch, select a shape and then press Edit in the toolbar at the top so the anchor points of the shape become visible. You will see a round point in each of the corners. By clicking any of these points and dragging them around, you can change their position. You can drag the anchor points and change the height of the bell too. Pretty handy! 11. Add a notification sign Use the same shape that formed the bottom of the bin lid (about 105px in width) to design the bottom of the bell. The next step is to draw a full circle, cut it in half and centre it. This will represent the clapper inside the bell – it's just a tiny detail, but useful in making the icon recognisable. You can also add a notification sign at the top by using a full circle filled with red. The notification icon will alert the user to a new message or any other related activity. 12. Draw mail icon The mail icon is an interesting one. Although it may seem more complex than the others, it is actually one of the easiest. Draw a rectangle (R) sized 110 x 110px. The corner radius will be only 20px in this case – we don't want the rectangle to look too rounded. Copy and paste the shape, and rotate the new one 45 degrees anti-clockwise. Copy and paste the first rectangle again and then intersect the rotated one to give the envelope flap. 13. Combine shapes So far, we have been keeping the shapes separate in the layer list for each of our icons. In Sketch, when you combine two shapes, you can still tweak each shape separately until you press the Flatten button in the Toolbar. When you flatten a shape, Sketch will combine the multiple paths inside the shape into one path. Some people prefer to use flattened shapes, but there is no real need for that here. 14. Make pen icon Let's focus on the last two icons. The pen will look like a rounded pen on a sheet of paper. For this, let's use a rectangle of 30px width and rotate it 45 degrees. To make the top slightly rounded, let's draw another rectangle on top of it, 24 x 24px. We'll put the radius at 5, to make the shape nice and smooth. We can use the same shape we used for the bottom of the bin lid to create a sheet supporting the pen. 15. Create 'previous' icon The last arrow icon can be easily made using the plus icon as a starting point. Use the same thickness as the plus icon to create an arrow pointing towards the left to signify 'previous'. To do that, take exactly the plus icon and rotate it by 45 degrees. Then adjust the width of the sides of the arrow, tweaking each rectangle individually. 16. Flip arrow to make 'next' icon The 'previous' icon could easily be flipped horizontally to also create a potential 'next' icon. The roundness of the arrow is exactly the same as the plus icon. Now you just need to make sure these new icons fit in the guideline circles, like the rest of the set. You now have a full set of six consistent icons to be used in a user interface for a webmail service, but you also have a solid foundation for building other icons that can fit in the same set. You can now extend this icon set or create the same one in different sizes for different purposes. In Sketch, you are dealing with vector shapes so it's easy to adjust the size of each icon. This article was originally published in net magazine. Subscribe here. Related articles: 15 top Sketch plugins Free graphic design software Download the best free fonts View the full article

You're reading Tabbed Widgets in Web Design: UI Examples & Free Plugins, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Certain layouts work really well with tabs. You can show/hide content on the page like Q&A sections or to load dynamic content via Ajax. The trouble is adding tabs into a page that work well and are easy to setup. … View the full article

Artist Tony Zhou Shuo explains how he creates a moonlit scene in historical London When creating game art, atmosphere is key – and even the best photo editing software and Illustrator tutorials can't do that for you. This piece was created to establish the mood and important gameplay elements in Assassin's Creed Syndicate's Tower of London mission. The theme of the image is player versus the environment and, in this case, it's the new playable character and master assassin Evie, versus the Tower of London. The colour palette used here is complementary: specifically, mauve and pale yellow. The mission is a stealth mission, hence I knew it was important to create a clear difference between light and shadow in the environment. 4 steps to creating realistic shadows As a high-level conceptual design, the main focus of this artwork was to establish atmosphere and reinforce the art direction. It's a great tool for level artists, lighters and level designers to visualise the available space. We wanted to focus on the big picture instead of fine details. At first, I came up with a few quick composition sketches, trying to find something epic and showing the scale. Once we had chosen one that we thought would work, I produced a few lighting sketches, trying to capture the atmosphere we wanted. Fortunately, it didn't take us too long before we realised our vision. From there on it was simply tweaking, blocking in and painting. For efficiency purposes, I mostly used photos, a 3D mesh from the game and my previous boat illustrations to block in contents. 01. Tell a story Evie's capivating pose tells the character's narrative The theme of the image is Evie vs the Tower of London. Here Evie is placed on a higher position than the tower to establish her dominance. The backlight makes her stand out more and adds some mystery to the character. These are very simple, but effective ways to tell a story in one image. 02. Produce a rough sketch Block out the composition before adding further detail This sketch was chosen because it had the most potential to deliver the atmosphere and lighting we wanted to see. The challenge here was the lack of height variation in the surrounding buildings, which made it hard to show depth. Flipping is always a good way to check if a composition is balanced. 03. Block in the scene Use layers and photographs to create an editable version of your scene I use photos to create a base for painting later, paying attention to hue and value (check your values in greyscale using a black layer set to Saturation mode). I keep different planes on separate layers, so I can easily tweak them when necessary. Adjustment layers and clipping mask can be very useful here. 04. Paint the details Add your details, and tweak the composition – use values to create depth I tweak almost everything. I change Evie's pose, the height of the Tower of London and the surrounding buildings to refine the composition. To create depth, I play with the smoke and fog to create more layers and add a crowd in the distance to show scale. I always try to maintain the values that I've established in my sketches. 05. Add emphasis with light Place emphasis on your character and add a thematic feel I place the moon behind Evie to push the silhouette and give it a romantic feel. The light direction creates planes of light and shadows that help emphasise the focal points. Local lights in areas of shadow generate interesting value variations and tertiary points of interest. 06. Use filters Make use of filters – Overlay, Smudge and Displacement are invaluable tools I flip and transform part of the image, and change the Blending mode (usually Overlay), then use the Smudge and Displacement filters to create the reflection. I use boat illustrations, which I created earlier, to save time. I also review the perspective, luminosity and contrast so they blend in well. The reflections are lower in terms of luminance, compared to the light source. This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe here. Related articles: Download these Adobe Illustrator brushes today These vintage posters showcase the best in design Great examples of doodle art View the full article

Thanks to auto-play, it’s possible to crash Windows systems by simply inserting the drive into the USB port, no further user interaction necessary. View the full article

A slew of products from medical dispensing company BD are susceptible to the KRACK vulnerability disclosed last fall. View the full article

These days, there are a number of tools and services available to speed up web design processes. Many designers have found that taking a couple of hours to hunt out the best tools for the job can save time in the long run. Rather than building from scratch a website, you can easily pick a website builder, or you can opt for a WordPress theme with a drag-and-drop editor that will help you fully customise a website design in less than 30 minutes. As a web designer, web developer or online entrepreneur it is very important to have at your disposal a stack of tools for the everyday use. In this roundup we’ll take you through a selection of popular web design and development resources. Within the 27 tools on offer, you’ll find a WordPress event ticketing system, a premium multi-purpose animation platform, an ultra-fast and securely managed WP hosting solution, a web design agency with fixed prices, and much more. If you are looking to get things done quickly without compromising on quality, any of these web resources are great options. Some of them offer free trials or even free forever plans, so there’s no reason not to give them a try. Let’s take a closer look at each one, and find out how they can help you in your projects. 01. Tickera – WordPress event ticketing system Tickera is among the most recommended WordPress ticketing plugins. More than 95,000 users have downloaded it so far, which is perhaps the best testimonial of its caliber. Tickera is a ticketing event system that aims to help you sell tickets online in a professional and organised way. Tickera will work with any well-coded WordPress theme on the market, following the themes styling to blend seamlessly with the rest of the content. Its workflow is as streamlined as it comes, and there are over 25 professional add-ons to help you expand its functionality to suit your needs. This tool comes with check-in apps for iOS and Android platforms as well as a brilliant, cross-platform, Chrome desktop app that’s perfect for checking in attendees at larger events or those without internet coverage. Tickera also supports hundreds of payment gateways: there are over 20 built-in payment gateways. What’s more, it also supports all WooCommerce payment gateways, thanks to its Bridge for WooCommerce add-on, which allows you to create and sell tickets like any other WooCommerce product. Another notable feature is the ability to create a floorplan of your venue and let your customers select the exact seat they want for your show. This functionality comes from Ticket’s latest add-on, Seating Charts. Everything is well documented and easy to read. However, should you encounter any bumps during setting up or using Tickera, you can contact its friendly and efficient support team. 02. LayerSlider – Responsive WordPress Slider Plugin LayerSlider is a premium, multi-purpose animation platform for creating sliders, image galleries, slideshows with mind-blowing effects, landing pages, animated page blocks, popups, or even a full website. It powers more than 1.5 million active sites daily. LayerSlider is packed with tons of features and options to help you convert a regular website into a brilliant one. Its versatile layout options mean you can easily implement a full-width, full-size or OS-native fullscreen slider, which can be used on billboards and more. Keep in mind that it’s fully responsive, so your sliders will look great on smartphones and tablets as well as desktop computers. Using the drag-and-drop visual editor you can easily build fully customised sliders in a couple of minutes – and there’s no need for any coding skills or previous experience. The LayerSlider responsive WordPress slider plugin costs $24 (or $15 for the jQuery version) with lifetime updates included. There is an excellent documentation with clear language and helpful online assets such as FAQs, as well as a dedicated team of professionals ready to help you with the installation and configuration. 03. Pagely – Managed WordPress Hosting Established as the first ever managed WordPress hosting solution in 2009, Pagely provides impressive innovation, speed, scalability and security. The Pagely Managed WordPress Hosting stack is built on Amazon Web Services. Simply put, this allows it to leverage a near-infinite amount of resources and advanced tooling to scale and support your WordPress application as required. There are three managed WordPress hosting solutions to choose from. Virtual Private Seller Hosted plans (single node from $299/mo and high-availability pairs from $1,249/mo), Enterprise plans (from $2,500/mo) and Elite Publisher, aimed at the most demanding applications and clientele. They represent an impressively comprehensive, flexible and powerful managed WordPress solutions. All the plans include the latest technologies and features, beyond what you would expect from a professional WordPress hosting solution. 04. Goodie – Web Development Service Goodie is a professional web development service that launched 10 years ago, and will help you have a great website from $999. Goodie is super simple to use. You start by selecting your ‘Goodie’ – a web developer. Every Goodie is well-vetted and certified in building websites the Goodie way. Next, upload your project details, and your Goodie will work with you to fully understand your vision and make recommendations for how to make it even more awesome. Goodies will not only work hard to build your site to perfection, but they’ll also keep you in the loop, sending daily updates on their progress. 05. Ultra – Powerful WordPress Theme Ultra is a powerful and flexible WordPress theme created by Themify, which makes it easy to create a beautiful, responsive site quickly. Take full control of your theme design, from header to footer. This must-have theme includes a powerful drag-and-drop Themify builder, which you can use to fully customise your website. 06. WPKube WPKube is a great WordPress theme developer dedicated to building wonderful themes for bloggers, writers, authors, designers and entrepreneurs. There are six themes available at the moment, but with several new ones scheduled to launch soon. All WPKube’s products are pixel-perfect and work great on any device. 07. Colorlib – Appy If you are a developer with a new product on the horizon, don’t miss out on the free mobile app website template Appy. This one-page website template includes all the elements you’d need – within its modern and neat design, there are dedicated sections for features, testimonials and screenshots to help spark your user’s interest. It’s optimised for first-class performance, with lightning-fast loading speeds. 08. Postcards Use Postcards to quickly create beautiful and responsive emails. The powerful drag-and-drop builder includes over 70 beautiful pre-designed blocks to make your campaign stand out. Try the free version to explore all the different functionality on offer. 09. Slides With slides, you can create a website in minutes. Choose the slides you need from a huge collection of over 180 elements. Combine them to create a website that meets your needs and will give your business a boost. The code is exquisite, customisation is fantastic, and the Slides code generator can save hours of toil. 10. Codester Codester is an excellent marketplace for web designers and developers. Here, you can buy and sell PHP scripts, app templates, themes, plugins and much more – and save money and time. Browse Codester and see what’s on offer. 11. MeridianThemes MeridianThemes is a powerful WordPress developer that is quickly growing from one month to the next. Its products are multi-purpose, pixel-perfect, easy to customise and look great on any device your users may have. 12. uiCookies – Frame Some studies indicate that single-page websites yield higher conversion rates compared to multi-page websites. Frame is a free one-page HTML5 website template using Bootstrap. This multipurpose template is suitable for business startups, or for use as a landing page for any business. It has features section, parallax scrolling, pricing, reviews and contact sections, as well as an awesome design. 13. LogoAI LogoAI is an simple and intelligent logo platform that will make you a new beautiful design in minutes – at a budget-friendly price. Try it for free and check what the tool is capable of. 14. MailMunch MailMunch captures leads from your website and converts visitors into life-long readers, email subscribers, and customers. You can create beautiful opt-in forms without writing a single line of code, so forget about complicated solutions that require special knowledge, and try MailMunch instead. 15. WhatFontIs Using WhatFontIs you can quickly find a font or similar free fonts for your needs. Its font detection feature can identify a font from an image almost instantly, using a database of over 400,000 fonts. There are also handy links to where you can buy the fonts from. 16. Pixpa Pixpa's easy, drag-and-drop website builder enables you to create your own beautiful portfolio website without any coding experience. Choose from a range of fully customisable, stunning website themes to showcase your work. Your mobile-ready, online portfolio website comes with all the features and tools you need to grow your creative business. 17. SuperbWebsiteBuilders SuperbWebsiteBuilders is a trusted niche resource on a mission to provide users with unbiased, trustworthy and up-to-date information about website builders. The service contains dozens of reviews and comparisons of the most renowned web building services used to launch different types of websites. The website also offers articles with useful tips and recommendations on how to get the most out of the web building process. 18. uKit uKit is a modern and fast-evolving site builder that makes it super easy to create online presence if you are a DIY small business owner. uKit brings a powerful stack of built-in tools for analysing your clients and marketing your services to them in an effective way. There’s everything from CRM to mailing lists to callback options to contact forms and much, much more. 19. uCalc uCalc is a modern solution that makes it surprisingly easy to create calculators and forms to meet your needs. The building process is a breeze due to the intuitive drag-drop technology – you just pick an element and place it in the desired position. There’s no coding knowledge required at all; everything happens in the visual mode. Select your field settings and input values to get a customised professional form. Voilà! 20. IM XPRS IM XPRS is a free cloud website builder that provides a wide array of options for anyone looking for a good quality, professionally-designed website. The system comes with a WYSIWYG visual editor, responsive design, powerful ecommerce and blogging options, as well as a decent White Label solution for professional web designers, large businesses and hosting companies. This is a worthy investment that will help you complete a variety of web building tasks. 21. InvoiceBerry InvoiceBerry is a complete, easy to use invoicing platform that’s a perfect fit for small and medium-sized companies. With it, you can create fully customised invoices in less than 60 seconds. It’s available on a ‘free forever’ plan, and enables you to monitor its functionality day by day. 22. SalesMate SalesMate is a smart CRM system which will help you become better organised and build stronger customer relationships. Save information about your customers, so you can congratulate them on their birthday and other special events. Prices starts at $15/mo. 23. uCraft Ucraft is a website builder created with the needs of businesses in mind. The service is predominantly used to launch business websites and landing pages. It is simple and easy to understand, whether you’re a newbie or a web design pro. The website builder comes with a set of free designer tools dedicated to elements such as typography, UI and layout. There are also advanced ecommerce options enabling you to build a professional web store with no hassle at all. 24. Controlio.net Controlio is a web-based employee monitoring software with the functionality of a complex surveillance system. It’s like having the most advanced control centre in your pocket. Controlio records every second of a PC's screen activity (like a movie), provides app and web usage stats, gives alerts on non-work-related activity, blocks websites and much more. 25. EverGreenFeed EvergreenFeed is an add-on tool for the social media management platform Buffer. Once set up, EvergreenFeed will automatically send social media updates to Buffer that will then be published on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. This tool promises to save you time and enable you to post social media updates, even when you are not able to do so yourself. 26. Uncode Uncode is a complete, creative WordPress theme that you can use for any project you may have. It has been built with terrific attention to detail and performance, and is one of the fastest and best looking WordPress themes on the market. 27. RumbleTalk – WordPress Social Chat RumbleTalk is an excellent social chat service for websites, allowing you to add a group chat to any website in just one minute. You can chat using mobile or your PC or laptop, or make private live video calls with any participant. View the full article

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but when it comes to professional work, artists need to be careful that they aren't just stealing someone else's material. Plagiarism is tricky to define and expensive to challenge, and for Chinese art professor Fan Yu, it cost him both his job and an award. How can designers deal with plagiarism? The former art professor at Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts was found to have plagiarised the work of British illustrator Russell Cobb. Yu's artwork, which won the Red Dot: Best of the Best award for communication design back in October, has since been since been stripped of its prize-winning status. Yu's four part poster series, titled Open Air Cinema National Museum, was originally designed for the Xi'an Concert Hall. Its drawings are said to “explore how the brain, the ‘strange cavity’, works and processes information with its countless cells and lobes”. However the only information it appears to have processed are elements from Cobb's 2011 work, the ironically titled, New Ideas II. Chinese social media users noticed the similarity The similarities were highlighted on Chinese social media platform WeChat. Account Chaoxiart, or "the art of plagiarism", posted side by side comparisons of the artworks to underline its point. Apart from some colour changes, most other assets have clearly been lifted. Cobb, a teacher at the University of the Arts London and former chairman of the Association of Illustrators, told Chaoxiart that he had not met or heard of Yu until 21 April. This date was when Yu contacted Cobb in an effort to collaborate on a piece of art, a demand which intensified after Cobb discovered his work had been copied. Fan Yu faces a lifetime ban on taking part in Red Dot competitions Xi'an Concert Hall said that it only knew about the poster series on 24 April, which was when Chaoxiart exposed the story. It added that it had not contacted Yu or commissioned his poster series. Meanwhile, Red Dot has removed Yu from its website and said that anyone else who infringed on copyright via plagiarism would face a lifetime ban from taking part in the award. [Via South China Morning Post] Related articles: Tokyo 2020 Olympics logo binned after plagiarism row Plagiarism website shames logo thieves Are the new Solo posters flattery or forgery? View the full article

It's that time of the month again: the new issue of Computer Arts is on sale now. Issue 279 is dedicated to the art of the rebrand, with a special report that takes an in-depth look at how to approach them. With the help Brand Impact Award judge Nick Carson, plus previous BIA winners, this feature explores the various reasons a company needs to rebrand, as well as highlighting the routes to rebranding success. Buy Computer Arts issue 279 now In the Project Diary section, the team catch up with Jo Graham Consulting and Studio Sutherl& to discover how they breathed life into a 226 - year - old footwear brand. There's also a look at how MSQ Partners created its Got 5 campaign, which promotes voter registration in a quirky yet relatable way thanks to a clever use of photography, everyday scenes, and vibrant colours. Save up to 63% on a Computer Arts subscription Meanwhile, Emily Gosling continues her series of articles that explore the role traditional crafts can play in branding. In this issue she turns her attention towards illustration, and reveals how different art styles fit a variety of brands. Elsewhere, top designers and directors take a look at the new US Open rebrand and discuss whether or not it serves up a winning design. On top of this there's a look at the hottest up and coming talent in our design showcase, which features incredible examples of illustration and motion work from the global design scene. Finally, the team goes back to basics and looks at how designers can harness the power of responsive web layouts to make their work really shine. Take a sneak peek at what to expect from the latest issue by scrolling through the images below with the arrow icons. Computer Arts is the world's best-selling design magazine, bursting at the seams with insights, inspiration, interviews and all the best new design projects. For all this delivered direct to your door each month, subscribe to Computer Arts. Right now you can save up to 63%! Related articles: 5 small-client rebrands that attracted big attention 7 things to consider when planning a rebrand 9 embarrassing branding blunders View the full article

For this Photoshop tutorial, I’ll be creating a playable human, female video game character for a fighting, action genre. I love video game heroes, because there’s such variety in what the player can be. There’s often a huge range in styles and personalities that the player may adopt, once they’ve got the game up and running. Get Adobe Creative Cloud When they choose a character, they’re surrendering themselves to the quest of the hero. When I say hero, I don’t mean the player’s a protagonist or antagonist. I’m referring to the avatar the player experiences the rest of the game through. This is one of the most fascinating parts of video games: placing the player in an unfamiliar situation and seeing how they react. Designing player avatars is a unique process that’s different from designing other non-playing characters, simply because the avatar’s personality, actions and appearance affect their ability to make the player interested in taking on their role. In a sense you’re creating the boundaries that the player must adopt, ultimately embracing these limits by the end of the game. 01. Setting boundaries This is often the hardest step for me. Without the rest of the game to show anyone, a single character provides a lot of information about the world I’m trying to create, so first impressions are key. Some boundaries from the assignment are that she be a young, female character with a fantasy-steampunk edge, and she has a pet. 02. Creating a theme I end up with a dark character wearing a wide-brim hat, and a pet that looks like a bird. Now that I have a loose idea of the pet, I want to design the costume to reflect the animal. A lot of this idea comes from theming around her weapon, which I need to start drawing! 03. Setting the tone of the figure I want the character to be dark and mysterious, with a sense of flair. Having the wing in the foreground will be important for my composition to show it off. At first I approach it with her back turned towards the viewer, looking nonchalant and confident, and maybe a little guarded with that wing in front of her. I also block in some colours that could fit her character. Pro tip: A lot of my drawings start with a strong gesture or clear line of action. If I create any more lines of action, I want to make sure they work in concert with one another, and don’t overpower each other. I want a sense of movement in my work: keeping my gestures simple and strong is how I try to achieve this. 04. Designing her companion The character is like a superhero who bases their costume on an animal, so what does that animal look like? I imagine something fantastical and pretty, but also predatory. Since I want the character to be something like an airship pirate, I try to design a pet that could fly but also looks like it would be comfortable in water. 05. Playing around with the composition I give exploring the composition a shot. Since the image is mostly about showcasing the design, I don’t want her to be in an intense action pose. It’ll also be cropped so I can only show parts of the character. Because the weapon is the most important, I try to make sure it’s prominent in every composition. You can also see that I’m starting to explore the cultural aspects of the costume. 06. Ensure the player connects with the character I end up staying with the original composition! I start to hash out details, especially in rendering the face. Her attitude is conveyed in her posture and costume choice, but the face is where the viewer really connects with the character before they play her. I want her to feel like she borrows some attitude from her fancy pet, too. 07. Dress to slay Now that I have my pose I can really start to highlight the costume details. Despite the European ‘musketeer’ influence present in the previous images, I begin to lean towards some Asian costume design. I can’t help but think of Mongolian Eagle Hunters, and that starts to inform her look. I even start to incorporate what might be her pet’s feathers into the costume. 08. Winged and dangerous I’m feeling more confident about the costuming so I move on to the mechanical wing. I want it to look like she could use it for fighting, but maybe it has other functionality, too. She could use it to glide from ship to ship perhaps? Cutting ropes and sails to sabotage them? Especially for a video game, props can become a huge part of the character’s identity and could make them fun to play! 09. Together again at last Seeing them in the same composition, it looks like I need to make some edits to make sure they’re both framed clearly. I want to highlight both of their designs, but it’s a tight space! I’ll need to redraw the bird in a better position that flows with the same shapes and rhythms of the main character. A lot of this will be repositioning the wings and claws, which have very long, clear vectors. 10. Bird is the word I study how the characters frame each other and determine their relationship. From the design of the creature, I could see it being a swift, agile helper that assists its companion in fights and tasks. Maybe the hero could hang on to her pet’s feet and use them to glide-travel across gaps, or steal things from her opponents like a terrible seagull! 11. Framed up I feel like I’ve succeeded in allowing their individual silhouettes to be visible, with less overlap. I can start working on the overall lighting and atmosphere of the composition. Maybe an overcast day near the sea can work. All the bounce light will start to take on the neutral grey sky colour, which I’ve intentionally left at a low saturation so as not to compete with the vivid colours of the characters. Dramatic lighting or a detailed background scene aren’t necessary in this case. 12. Reinforcing the bond Now that I’ve resolved their compositional relationship, I want to start adding some storytelling elements to their appearance. The hero should look like they clearly got inspiration from this agile predator, and the pet should look like they have a relationship with its owner. An easy way to do this is with costume elements, such as a collar that resembles the same shape language as the hero. 13. Light the way I start to separate my forms with light and make the image even clearer using Overlay, Hard Light and Multiply layer modes. With all the high-contrast costume elements, it can be difficult for shapes to read together and I want to control that as best as I can. I make sure that the hero and pet start to have some visual language shared between them, but I also don’t want her to look like she’s wearing a bird costume. Pro tip: Keep it simple. One pet peeve of mine while using Photoshop is starting to paint on a layer and then realising it’s the wrong one! The way I fight this is by merging down and committing to my changes as soon as I can. I’ll also group my layers and label them by layer mode, so I know what they do without selecting them. 14. Final fight In the end, I really want the silhouette of her hat to stand out, so I make the bird creature’s wings a lighter value to pop it. I use some last-minute lighting changes to try and bring all the attention to the hero’s face despite there being so much costume and weird animal themes going on. Player One is ready to enter the game! View the full article

Earlier in the year we predicted the main typographic trends for 2018. Now, within web design specifically, we're seeing a few more themes starting to emerge. Many web designers are becoming a little more experimental with their work, and exploring new treatments to better tell their stories. In general, we're seeing headline typography becoming more integrated into the design of the page and looking less like it has just been plonked onto the canvas. Here are some examples of typographical treatments to look out for. 01. Typographic chaos Phoenix splits words across the page to create interest This trend kicked off a while ago and is still going strong. It sees web designers taking a more chaotic approach to the composition of typography on the page, splitting words and even letters to offer a more interesting look. An unconventional arrangement can pique the reader's curiosity. 02. Crop-and-cut type Designers are leaving just enough to make their work readable With the aim of creating interest and a more unique typographic design, designers are cropping or cutting letters up within a word, whilst leaving just enough to ensure the letters remain readable. There’s a really interesting neural behaviour that means humans can still read words, even if a number of characters are missing (take the game of Hangman, for example). 03. Negative space The characters of your type can be a space to show images or videos Integrating artwork into your typography is a wonderful way to make your text stand out. One great technique is to enable graphical elements to pop out of the negative space within the type itself, creating a dimensional space. In a similar vein to the image above, YouTube displayed an animation within the title characters of each story in its Greatest Stories Retold project. The homepage showed a number of different animations within the headline, as a taste of what to expect. 04. Graphical type This Austrian restaurant shouts about its love of schnitzel Enhancing flat typography graphically gives any textual elements more impact on the page. It might be that your typography is made furry or even paint-like. The objective here is to make your typography more like an object, as opposed to a character. 05. Dynamic typography Uncanny Valley plays around with moving type on its homepage Here's another trend that's been around a while but is still going strong: several campaigns and sites have combined typography with motion to create a more dynamic effect. For a taster, take a look at our roundup of the best kinetic typography. This keeps viewers engaged by forcing them to read quickly to follow the message, and keeping their focus entirely on the words that are displayed. A variation of this seen on websites is typography that moves and shifts on scroll, or in response to the user's mouse movements. This article was published in issue 271 of Web Designer magazine. Subscribe here. Read more: 4 top typography tools for web designers The rules of responsive web typography 23 great places to download fonts for free View the full article

Do you ever find that some days you're bubbling with creativity and others you're lost for ideas? Keeping those creative juices flowing can be tricky, but often all you need is a change of scenery or a flick through some inspiring design portfolios to spark your imagination. Here we asked leading creatives to reveal some tips, tricks and expert advice to help keep your creative mojo. 01. Find solutions in problems To mark the 50th anniversary of the British road sign, Lundgren+Lindqvist was invited to transform the familiar signs "Creative blocks are often caused by what at a first glimpse seems to be an unsolvable problem," says Andreas Lundgren, art director and co-founder of Swedish design studio Lundgren+Lindqvist. "Treat these problems or limitations as assets and allow them to guide and influence your solution." 02. Look at the bigger picture "Life as a designer isn't always easy, and when things aren't going so well it can be hard to step back and see the bigger picture," admits Greig Anderson, co-founder and creative director at Freytag Anderson. "It only takes a lost pitch or a difficult client at times to knock your confidence, and that can make it hard to pick up the pencil and go again. In these situations I always find it helps to remind yourself that there is more to life than design." "Get back to basics – to the core idea of what you are trying to convey," continues Anderson. "I try to shut the blogs, books and inspiration sites and open the sketchbook." "I think that the ability to see so much so quickly online these days becomes prohibitive to the design process. I find it makes it harder, and the area for original thinking (if there is still such a thing now?) become even smaller. 03. Keep thinking Blow studio created 30 original mascots to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Hong Kong's largest Japanese style department store "Doing personal work besides commercial projects can give you room to think and know more about yourself," says Ken Lo, founder of award-winning Hong Kong-based design studio Blow. "There are so many interesting people, stories and objects every day. I like to observe people's behaviour; you can always find useful information about them. Explore the city and don't stuck in the office." 04. Take time out Australian artist and designer Gemma O'Brien advises allowing time where you don't try to think of an idea. "Running, riding a bike, having a shower, going for a walk and sitting on a plane are perfect free thinking spaces to generate new ideas." "Also, look outside of the field of art and design," she continues, "and allow yourself to be influenced by literally anything in the world around you." 05. Appreciate what you have "How do I stay motivated? The circumstances into which I was born are a huge motivator," says Northern Ireland-based graphic designer and writer David Airey. "I know how different things could have been – perhaps born into poverty, or passed from care home to care home. The luck of life's cruel draw." 06. Take a walk "I go for a walk," says StudioSmall owner David Hitner, "work on another project or talk it through with Guy Marshall, my fellow partner at StudioSmall. "Also," he adds, "have experiences and reference points beyond your own industry. Work on a variety of projects. Keep learning." This article originally appeared in Computer Arts magazine, subscribe here. Related articles: 12 tips to turbocharge your design career How to get to the top spot of a global creative agency 10 best portfolio templates for designers View the full article

WordPress is the perfect platform for hosting your website because of how flexible and adjustable it can be. All you need to make your site look and work exactly as you want it is a professionally designed theme from Visualmodo. Get lifetime access to these amazing themes right now for just $39 (approx. £28)! Visualmodo's WordPress themes make it easy for you to streamline every web design project. These themes provide you with a perfect template to fit your every need. This library of professionally designed themes are a breeze to set up and will immediately give you the wide variety of features you need. These themes are customisable and can work for just about any project, but if you're having trouble making it work for you, the award-winning customer service from Visualmodo can help you out. You can get a lifetime of access to WordPress themes from Visualmodo on sale for 84 per cent off the retail price. That makes your total just $39 (approx. £28). It's a great offer for themes that will make your site even better, so grab this deal today! Related articles: The 30 best Drupal themes How to set up site theming with CSS variables 32 best free WordPress themes View the full article

Your choice of font says a lot about your product or brand. Choose the wrong one and you send out the wrong message. But get it spot on and you'll stick in people's minds for all the right reasons. But what separates your everyday, run-of-the-mill font from something a little bit more classy? 30 free font resources To help you choose a font with a touch of sophistication, we've trawled the web and rounded up 10 of the classiest sets to make your designs stand out from the crowd. 01. fancyPens A fancy font with a fancy name Format: OTF, TT Price: $9.99 | £5.99 Kicking off our list is the appropriately named fancyPens font set. With calligraphy font stylings and a scratchy, erratic feel, this single-weight font was created with several pens. The font family includes all letters and numbers, plus an array of symbols, and is an absolute bargain. 02. Eckhardt Fancy JNL We love the detailing in these letter forms Format: OTF, TT Price: $29 | £20.99 A fancy font doesn't have to include elegantly curling tails and slender stems, as this beautiful family by Jeff Levine Fonts goes to show. With its split shapes and intricate detailing, this fancy font is named in honour of talented sign painter Al Eckhardt, and was inspired by a vintage decorative display alphabet found in the type collection of the late typographer, Dan X Solo. 03. Centennial Script Easy This font includes ornate uppercase letters Format: TT Price: $15.90 | £9.99 for 1 font Centennial Script Easy is a wonderfully elaborate font from Intellecta Design, which saw it digitise a classic font by Hermann Ihlenburg that was originally created in 1876. Available in three styles, including Easy, Fancy and Fancy Shadow, these fancy fonts are sold on their own (costing $15.90/£9.99 or $29.90/£19.99 each) or as a set. 04. Bobbi Bee This single-weight font is "chock full of summer sunshine and life" Format: OTF Price: $39/£25.99 for 1 font Just because a font is fancy doesn't mean it has to appear uptight. For a case in point, just look at Bobbi Bee. This single-weight font family has a bouncy look about it, while still communicating a sense of elegance. With 361 numbers, letters and alternates in a single weight, it can cope with all your highbrow design needs. 05. RNS Oladys This set has a wonderfully down-to-earth feel Format: OTF Price: $9/£5.99 for 1 font While Bobbi Bee brings a sense of fun to the party, RNS Oladys shows you that you can be both fancy and down to earth at the same time. This hand-lettered brush font with ornaments and alternates is loaded with a cutesy charm that wouldn't look out of place next to some of the more refined families on this list. 06. Hamptons BF This display face has a sleek, confident shape Format: TT Price: $40/£25.99 for 1 font Sometimes looking fancy is all about confidence and mastering the art of understatement. This is definitely the case with Hamptons BF, a sleek font set named after the well-known New York resorts that have become synonymous with style and grace over the years. Comprised of three weights, this fancy font oozes with grace. 07. Shandy BF Shandy BF balances a lively look with a professional finish Format: OTF Price: $40/£25.99 for 1 font With its cheerful look and undulating baseline, Shandy BF reminds you that looking fancy can be a lot of fun. Bringing the liveliness of a brush script together with robust Copperplate-style elements, this set also promotes variety by making sure there is no repetition in double-letter pairings. 08. Garden Brush Go back to your roots with this stylishly pointed brush typeface Format: OTF, TT Price: $28/£17.99 for 1 font For a slightly more rustic look (while still maintaining a classy air), Garden Brush is the font set to go for. With a light and clean freshness, this pointed brush typeface comes with beautiful swash caps and end strokes. 09. Limon This huge font project took 18 months to complete Format: OTF Price: $19/£11.99 for 1 font Limon is a font family made up of 16 styles that you can download as a complete package or separately. Thanks to a host of alternates and combinations, Limon is a smart script that keeps a strong calligraphic rhythm going. 10. Heroe Heroe describes itself as an interesting combination of elegance and sensuality Format: OTF Price: $20/£12.99 for 1 font Rounding off our list is the undeniably fancy font, Heroe. By turning thins into hairlines and packing unique ball terminals, this Herb Lubalin-inspired set lends itself perfectly to high-end products and services. The set is comprised of nine fonts. Related articles: 63 best free fonts for designers Top typography trends The best computer for graphic design View the full article

Stock imagery sometimes gets a bad rap. Sure, if you don't make the effort – or find the budget – to source something fresh, relevant and high-quality, you may end up descending into cringeworthy cliché. But stock has so much more to offer. It's like a logo idea. If a client specialises in ideas and innovation, would you sketch a lightbulb on a napkin and leave it at that? Hopefully not. Or if a company works internationally, will a hastily scribbled globe tick the box? Again, we hope not. So why be lazy with your choice of stock imagery? Used skilfully, a stock photo can contribute to a brand's image rather than dilute it. It can give a brand a particular vibe that connects with its target market, rather than feeling generic and tired. There are a few classic pitfalls when it comes to stock, but with the right approach you can side-step them with ease. So read on for eight well-worn clichés to avoid, and eight authentic alternatives to be found over on iStock by Getty Images... 01. Awkward corporate handshake Businessmen shaking hands is a big stock offender. We're starting with one of the biggest offenders on the list. You want to represent 'doing business', or 'negotiating', or 'reaching an agreement' – what better way than with a hearty handshake? Sure, the handshake is a fairly universal gesture. It could even be a relevant one. But there are so many pitfalls here. Two disembodied arms, in close-up, perhaps with some kind of motivational 'lens flare' effect behind to signify a new dawn of business... Just, no. Even worse: a Clip Art-style handshake, more at home on a school newsletter. These are the crimes against design for which the word 'cliché' was invented. Reaching a deal in a coffee shop, from iStock So what's the alternative? Well depending on the nature of the business, for a start it could be worth ditching the suits. In the modern world, the grey-haired, briefcase-carrying, shiny-shoed stereotype suddenly looks very old school. A handshake can be a powerful gesture, but consider a more natural, lifestyle-affirming image. Look for something set in a real-world, relatable environment, with people who look like they're mid-conversation and have actually reached some kind of agreement, rather than just gripping and grinning for the camera – like the one shown above. Believe us, it makes a huge difference. 02. Woman laughing at salad Authenticity is everything to modern-day consumers – and this falls short Everyone wants to be part of the healthy eating trend. Whether it's as specific as showcasing the virtues of home-grown produce, cooking with fresh ingredients or just promoting a healthier lifestyle in general, brands want a piece of it. But you're targeting real people, and authenticity is everything to consumers. Just as pin-striped business people flashing teeth and squeezing flesh feels fake, so does a glassy-eyed model who somehow finds a forkful of lettuce to be the most hilarious thing she's ever seen. A man harvesting his allotment, from iStock Somewhere along the line, someone decided that a woman laughing at a salad would be a logical way to represent healthy eating. In reality, it's nothing short of terrifying and certainly doesn't connect with most normal people. Again, look for images that sell a lifestyle and feel aspirational, but natural. Someone in a kitchen surrounded by piles of fresh vegetables and tackling a recipe, or out on the allotment harvesting produce in the morning sunshine like the example shown here – preferably not laughing at their lettuces in the process. 03. Plucky little seedling This metaphor is so tired that no matter how good the image, you're selling yourself short Stock image clichés are often at their worst when they're straining a well-worn visual metaphor to breaking point. Incubating new ideas, developing and nurturing talent: these are the kind of abstract themes where seedlings, saplings and all manner of verdant symbols of growth can be found. Perhaps the worst offender is cupped hands filled with soil, a feisty young plant thriving inside. Let's not get into the practicalities of having employees walking around your business caked in earth, without any hands free to do actual work – it's a metaphor. But it's such a tired one that no matter how good the image, you're selling yourself short. Little girl with green fingers, from iStock That's not to say that the natural world can't be a source of inspiration here. An image that draws you in, builds an emotional connection and tells a story is always preferable to that cold, detached metaphor. For instance, this candid shot of a young child getting to grips with gardening – a trowel defiantly thrust into the earth beside her as she enjoys a strawberry – is a much more powerful image to choose, particularly when paired with the right copy. It says nurturing new growth in many different ways, without laboriously ramming the point home. 04. Meeting of cheesy waxworks A cheesy business meeting This is the next step up from the corporate handshake. We're into a meeting room now, with a team of robotic-looking employees staring vacantly at each other with fixed, toothy grins signifying that something critically important has been agreed. There might be an artfully placed notebook and pen in shot, a glass of water or two, but otherwise it's more clinical and soulless than a dentist's surgery, and says nothing about modern business. Consider the alternative shown here. Shot from above, it shows more of the interaction between the team. There's stuff happening: papers, laptops open, half-drunk coffee and pens poised at the ready. In short, it actually feels like they're having a meeting. And they're mid-conversation – not fixed in time for the camera's benefit. Rather than corporate suits and sensible blouses, they're also more smart-casual in appearance, which sells a more relaxed, accessible lifestyle. And the group is also much more diverse in terms of age and ethnic background, giving the whole scene a more modern, contemporary vibe. 05. Motivational chalkboards Making abstract ideas too literal is a stock crime. Another classic stock imagery pitfall – at the opposite end of the scale to plucky little seedlings of growth – is to make abstract ideas too literal. In some cases, painfully so. You want to express the theme of dynamic leadership? How about an image of a chalkboard, with 'leadership' written nice and big in the middle? Maybe even a few arrows shooting off it to explain what leadership is. It's like we're in the middle of a super-productive meeting, charged with dynamic energy – better Photoshop a hand on there, holding some chalk, to be sure. Team hiking up a snowy mountain, from iStock Choosing an image like that really isn't the best way to inspire confidence in your leadership skills. Instead, consider real-world situations that demonstrate leadership, and feel inspirational without being cheesy. Something overtly goal-orientated like climbing a mountain could miss the mark if the choice of image is wrong, but if you can find a stylishly shot photograph like this one, which establishes a strong, confident leader at the head of a purposeful, engaged group, there's a powerful message that transcends that particular situation. 06. Signs to point the way A sign with the theme in question written on it is desperately clichéd Rather like a chalkboard, a sign with the theme in question written on it is desperately clichéd, and again far too literal. It feels like the result of someone struggling for ideas, shrugging and ultimately just settling. We get it. You're pointing people in a certain direction – towards an opportunity, say. Signs point people towards things. At a brutally simplistic level, it works. But it's lazy, and you can do better. Finding a high-quality image that conveys an emotion isn't always easy If you're conveying an abstract theme like this, think about the bigger picture – that feeling of optimism; that the world's your proverbial oyster; that you have it in you to reach out and grasp something better. This merits an image that makes a powerful, emotional connection. It's definitely worth more than a sign that says 'opportunity'. Finding a high-quality image that conveys an emotion isn't always easy. As with many of the examples above, the last thing you want is a posed, inauthentic 'scene' that's trying too hard. Consider this image: a silhouette of a father, holding hands with his child as they gaze out over a stunning sunset. It's a view filled with opportunity. 07. Inspirational lightbulbs A lightbulb is the go-to visual metaphor for ideas and innovation Whoever first made the association between a flash of inspiration and a glowing lightbulb has a lot to answer for. The cliché is now an integral part of popular culture. A lightbulb is the go-to visual metaphor for almost anything to do with ideas and innovation. There are plenty of beautifully shot stock images of lightbulbs to choose from, so if you're determined to embrace that cliché – perhaps with a slightly ironic twist on it – don't let us stop you, as long as the image is high quality. But given that it's neither an original idea, nor particularly creative conceptually, why not try something different? A young girl painting a canvas, from iStock There are plenty of different ways to express the idea of creativity, from abstract splashes of colour, to something more representative of the creative process itself. If you're featuring a person in the image, make it natural and effortless. Take the image above: a young girl, sleeves rolled up, fully immersed and truly enjoying the process of painting on a canvas. An image like this encapsulates the joy of creating, and feels human – rather than a detached, well-worn cliché. 08. Piles of cold, hard cash A clichéd pile of banknotes Money is an integral part of any business and, in its literal form, it's also easy to visualise. Heaps of bank notes, stacks of shiny coins, vaults full of treasure and the perennial favourite of anything to do with savings and investments: the piggy bank. Search any stock image library and you're spoiled for choice of money-related images, of varying quality. Sometimes you'll find exactly what you need for a particular purpose by searching simply for 'money', and good luck to you. Tourist in outdoor street shop, from iStock But it can be much more engaging to consider money as a form of empowerment; a catalyst for bigger things. It gives us access to experiences and opportunities. In short, it only becomes interesting, and useful, when you use it for something. The above image features a handful of bank notes, but it puts the money in context: it's in the hand of a young tourist, bargaining for something she's found in an outdoor street shop. It makes it personal, relatable, human. And that's the common theme with all of the examples here. Ditch the clichés and get real. It won’t even break the bank to do so: iStock by Getty Images is offering new customers 12 per cent off all credits by using code 12CBLOQNEW at checkout. So no excuses – ditch the clichés! View the full article