Slate
Blackcurrant
Watermelon
Strawberry
Orange
Banana
Apple
Emerald
Chocolate
Marble
Slate
Blackcurrant
Watermelon
Strawberry
Orange
Banana
Apple
Emerald
Chocolate
Marble
-
Content Count
17,058 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Never -
Feedback
N/A
Everything posted by Rss Bot
-
As the end of the year approaches, it's a good time to take a look back at the biggest illustration trends of 2017 – and to forecast what we expect to be the most exciting illustration trends of 2018. Of course, the best illustrators have their own distinctive art styles, and when commissioned they'll work towards fulfilling the creative brief as specified by the client. But none of us exist in a vacuum, and looking back over the past year, it’s possible to identify common themes across some of the best new illustrative work that we've seen. Whether you decide to put your own stamp on these and push your work in an unexpected direction, or you prefer to avoid popular trends at all costs, it's helpful to know where the industry's at – particularly when it comes to justifying your creative decisions to clients. Here, then, are some of the hottest illustration trends of 2017 that we’ve noticed over the last 12 months... 01. Playful colours When Ana Jacks created the visual language for the Facebook event House of Us, bold colour was at the forefront In 2017, illustrators haven’t been shy in using bright and playful colours to bring their work to people’s attention. It’s an illustration trend that can be seen everywhere in editorial illustration, from the eye-catching hues of Berlin-based visual artist Siggi Eggertsson to the chaotically colourful pattern-collages of Hamburg-based illustrator Max Knicker. It’s also evident in the more “out there” work too, such as the eerie, goblin-like characters of Londoner Alex Gamsu Jenkins and the psychedelic imaginings of Belgian illustrator Ellen van Engelen. Not to mention the vibrant trad-children’s book stylings of Brazil-based Jana Glatt or the uncompromising female character studies of Daiana Ruiz. There are some who raise colour almost to the level of a special effect, as can be seen in the zesty, humorous scenes of Anka Bara, the in-your-face character studies of Isle of Man-based illustrator Ana Jaks (above), and the distinctive and evocative work of Madrid and Barcelona-based artist Josea Roda. And it’s an illustration trend that’s set to continue into 2018, predicts illustrator Fiona Wade, creative collaborator with Brown&co. “I think the trends in illustration next year will be summed up by one word,” she says. “Colour. Bold, intense, saturated, colour. Lots of it. “Colour will be used as a concept all on its own – becoming a feature, rather than simply background information in a picture. Particular colours that will be popping up in both illustration and fashion prints will be pastel ice-cream shades and rich jewel-like teals and golds.” 02. Female empowerment Hamburg artist Helena Ravenne is known for her images of female empowerment From the Weinstein scandal to controversy over the gender pay gap, gender issues have rarely been out of the headlines in 2017. And illustrators haven't been shy in bringing forth their perspectives on issues of female empowerment and solidarity. New York-based designer and illustrator Amber Vittoria is among those challenging the societal assumptions placed on women through her defiant work, based around physical traits such as body hair, overtly extended limbs and rounded features. Melbourne-based illustrator Jordyn McGeachin, meanwhile, is focused on normalising notions of women’s sexuality. Less confrontational but just as powerful is the work of Polish designer and illustrator Weronika Anna Marianna, which explores the “wild and sacred sides” of women, or that of Hamburg-based illustrator Helena Ravenne (above) who recently launched a series called Girls are Back in Town, celebrating talented and strong women. And it’s not just about individual efforts, but collective action, too. For example, 2017 also saw the launch of Women Who Draw, an online community of female illustrators, artists and cartoonists, with the aim of increasing their visibility and give them a stronger voice worldwide. It’s currently 2,700 creatives strong, and counting. 03. Absurdity and surrealism Felix Decombat’s interactive homepage at felixdecombat.com is the trippiest thing we’ve seen this year The world of 2017 has felt like a place where, for good or bad, anything can happen and increasingly, anything goes. So it’s not surprising that we’ve seen increased visibility this year for strange and unusual illustration styles. These include the delightful head-scrambling lunacy of German illustrator Sebastian Schwamm, the delightfully deconstructive visions of Ottowa comic artist Michael Haddad and the futuristic and weirdly subversive stylings of French illustrator Felix Decombat. Also well worth checking out are the the gruesomely spaced-out sci-fi works of Norwegian illustrator Derek Ercolano, the hilariously surreal work of Russian illustrator Andrey Kasay and the jagged, dysmorphic characters of Oslo-based illustrator and animator Steph Hope. 04. Anxiety and alienation The Weather of the World, by Yann Kebbi for the New York Times It’s been a year in which all the old norms of politics, society and culture seemed to be crumbling, austerity gathered pace, the distance between citizenry and their representatives widened, and even nuclear war seemingly became a possibility. This sense of global anxiety and alienation was reflected in the work of a number of illustrators. For example, French artist Yann Kebbi took the ideas of catastrophe and fracturing as the inspiration for a number of impactful pieces, including one for the New York Times, shown above. And similarly, New York illustrator, printmaker and comic book artist Evan M Cohen’s Noise series portrays the stress, fear and delusion of modern life in stark monochromatic scenes. Ominous and disturbing, the work of Brooklyn-based illustrator Minju An takes delight in the deconstruction of body parts, while German artist Max Guther draws on the influence of Bauhaus architects to hold up a dispassionate mirror to the empty banalities of modern existence. Elsewhere, Illustrator Noa Snir’s series Disorder explored a variety of common psychological problems through dramatic black and white linocuts. 05. 1990s retro The 90s influence is strong in the work of Igor Bastidas In uncertain times, there’s always safety and comfort to be found in the familiar. For a long while, we’ve all been indulging in 1980s nostalgia, but 2017 saw that finally start to give ground to 1990s retro. Yes, it’s finally time to look back longingly on the last decade of the last century, and leading the pack is Miami-based illustrator and animator Igor Bastidas, whose work for MTV, Converse and Cartoon Network highlights his love of clean lines and solid colours. Other exponents of the 90s vibe include Rotterdam-based illustrator Xaviera Altena, whose work is peppered with 90s pop culture references, and Amy Sutton, who’s strongly influenced by the vibrant colours of 90s cartoons. 06. Japanese style Part of Andrew Archer’s Edo Ball series, which combines images of basketball and Japanese art Whether its traditional Ukiyo-e art, anime-style art or artworks inspired by Japanese culture, cities and fashions, one 2017 illustration trend to have continued developing is that of Japanese influence. Take for example Edo Ball, a series by New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based illustrator Andrew Archer inspired by “basketball, culture, Japan and Ukiyo-e art” (above). Or there’s The Tokyoiter, a spoof illustrated series of tributes to covers of The New Yorker and The Parisianer, established by British illustrator Andrew Joyce, French art director David Robert, and Japanese illustrator and creative director Tatsushi Eto. The Japanese influence is also central to the work of Nick Alston, a British illustrator based in Tokyo; Karan Singh, an Australian artist and illustrator in Amsterdam; Polish watercolour artist Mateusz Urbanowiczs; and many more besides. 07. Digital meets hand-drawn This 2017 illustration trend isn't new. It's been around for years now – but with mobile creative tech continuing to take over the market, it's set to become one of the strongest illustrations trends of 2018, too. “Above everything else I’ve seen this year, it’s been illustrators mastering elements of the iPad Pro to sketch and draw in a way that speeds up workflow,” explains Jamie Clarke, who designs illustrative type and lettering and edits the typography blog Type Worship. “In the lettering world there’s a digital hand-drawn style that's wedging itself comfortably between vector artwork and paper-drawn,” he continues. “Those who are really getting to grips with it, such as the Oregon-based designer Jordan Metcalf, are allowing the technology to influence the final piece.” The lines between hand-drawn and digital are also being blurred in the work of Chinese freelancer Samuel Chen, who creates digital work that looks like it’s been crafted traditionally. Similarly, Austrian illustrator Nanna Prieler's work is based in physical media but looks like it includes digital elements. Related articles: 8 design industry trends for 2018 5 free apps that can boost your creativity 5 uses for stock images you might not have thought of View the full article
-
If you're looking to bag a Black Friday deal on a Surface Book, Surface Pro or any other model from Microsoft's fantastic Surface family, then you've come to the right place. We're collecting all the best Microsoft Surface Black Friday deals right here, throughout Black November, as soon as they appear. So far, the best savings we've seen have arrived in the form of Black Friday Surface Book deals. That's because the Surface Book – our laptop of the summer – was recently replaced by the stunning Surface Book 2 and retailers are looking to shift their older stock. We gave the Surface Book five out of five stars when we reviewed it. It's powerful, flexible and has a stunning screen – so if you don't mind buying an older model, there are some incredible savings to be had. And if you're in the market for more creative hardware generally, don't miss the following articles: Best cheap laptop deals, Best monitors for creatives, The best Wacom tablet deals, 6 smartphone deals for designers, and our exclusive Adobe Creative Cloud deal. Read on for the best Black Friday Microsoft Surface deals to be had right now... 01. Surface Book 2 Black Friday deals At 15-inches, the beautiful new 2-in-1 Microsoft Surface Book 2 introduces a larger form factor to the original Surface Book. This is currently the world’s best 2-in-1 laptop: it’s incredibly powerful, with a dazzling 13.5-inch PixelSense display, and boasts a battery life up to 17 hours. It’s also incredibly flexible – with laptop, tablet, studio and view modes – and lightweight to boot. Prices are unlikely to come down much, but if there are any Black Friday Surface Book 2 deals to be had, you’ll find them here. 02. Surface Book Black Friday deals The first iteration of the Surface Book remains an impressive model – and with huge Black Friday price cuts likely while stocks last, Microsoft's first-ever 2-in-1 laptop makes an irresistible prospect for creatives. With an innovative Performance Base that delivers crisp, vibrant graphics and up to 16 hours of battery life, if you can get your hands on the Surface Book you won't regret it. 03. Surface Pro Black Friday deals Thanks to a powerful Intel Core processor, the Surface Pro delivers great speed and performance that previous models. This has lead to Microsoft describing it as the most powerful Surface Pro ever. With all this power under the hood, the new Surface Pro provides users with a smooth experience to help them stay productive. It can also switch between laptop, studio, and tablet modes easily to keep up with your demanding workflow. Ultra-light and versatile, the Surface Pro gives users the best of Microsoft at their fingertips. 04. Surface Studio Black Friday deals With an impressive 28" PixelSense Display, the Surface Studio is specially designed for the creative process. Capable of switching and adjusting to follow how you work, the Surface Studio is powered by Intel® Core™ processors and an NVIDIA® GeForce® dGPU to help bring your work to life. Paired with the Surface Dial, the Surface Studio is changing how creatives are working for the better. 05. Surface Laptop Black Friday deals The beautifully designed and crafted Surface laptop matches its elegance with its performance. Boasting a vibrant 13.5" PixelSense Display with immersive touchscreen, the Surface Laptop gives users more room to get creative. Available in four colours to suit your style (burgundy, platinum, cobalt blue and graphite gold), this laptop packs the best of Windows and Office. Related articles: The best Amazon Cyber Monday deals 2017 5 best laptops for video editing in 2017 The best drawing tablet for illustrators and artists View the full article
-
When you're starting a new illustration – whether doing quick sketches or highly realistic pencil drawings, you want to have your best pencils and drawing tools at the ready. But buying the drawing tools for your needs is largely a question of trial and error. When first becoming acquainted with using pencils for artwork, we'd recommend buying one of each grade from 9H to 9B to become familiar with the hard/light and soft/dark qualities of each. Experiment with various surfaces, and a wide variety of strokes and mark-making. 01. Graphite pencils KOH-I-NOOR makes these 'woodless' graphite pencils If you're just starting out, you'll no doubt want to stick with the familiar. Graphite pencils are the most common type of drawing tool as their composition allows for the smoothest strokes. Once you grow in confidence, though, it's time to start widening your scope. For instance, you could try solid graphite pencils. These are solid sticks of graphite and clay composite (as found in a graphite pencil), which have no casing other than a wrapper or label. Often called woodless pencils, they're used primarily for art purposes, as the lack of casing allows for covering larger spaces more easily, creating different effects. Buy KOH-I-NOOR Progresso Woodless Graphite Pencils: $6.15/£7.99 for 6 02. Charcoal pencils Derwent makes these charcoal pencils Charcoal pencils, as the name suggests, are made of charcoal and provide fuller blacks than graphite pencils, but tend to smudge easily and are more abrasive than graphite. Sepia-toned and white pencils are also available for duotone techniques. "I use charcoal because it's a versatile drawing tool that produces a variety of effects, from thin lines to bold strokes," says Jean-Sébastien Rossbach, an award-winning illustrator, concept artist and painter. However, he adds a word of warning: as with blending tools, "those just starting out can find it tricky to control, with the results often looking messy." Buy Derwent Charcoal Pencils: $9.05/£7 for 6 03. Ink Ink drawing with different nibs can produce stunning results Of course, drawing isn't just about pencils: ink drawing is another popular medium that can lead to some beautiful results. Traditional pen and ink consists of black ink and white paper, creating space through thick or thin lines, repeating marks for texture. There are many options for working in ink so, just as with graphite, you'll need to find which best suits you by experimenting. Read our guide: Get started with ink drawing for more on ink drawing tools and techniques Buy Speedball 2964 Sketching Pen Set: $7.28/£7.89 including 6 nibs And Winsor & Newton Water Resistant Drawing Ink: $9.27/£6.15 for 30ml 04. Pastels We gave SAA Artists Soft Pastels 4.5 stars in our review If you want your drawing to feature vibrant colours then you'll probably want to investigate pastels. Pastels are a great medium for producing colourful artwork easily, with no need for water, brushes or palettes. The main types of pastels are soft and hard pastels, oil pastels, pastel pencils and water soluble pastels. Read our guide: How to start pastel drawing for more on key tools and techniques Read our SAA Artists 12 Soft Pastels review Buy SAA Artists 12 Soft Pastels: $24.42/£21.12 05. Carbon and watercolour pencils We gave the Staedtler watercolour pencils five stars in our review And that's not all! You can also try using carbon pencils, which produce a fuller black than graphite pencils, but are smoother than charcoal. There are grease pencils, which write on almost any surface including glass, plastic, metal and photos. Plus there are watercolour pencils, designed for use with watercolour techniques. (They can also be used by themselves for sharp, bold lines). In short, there's a world of different drawing implements out there. So start trying different drawing tools, and don't hold back. Read our Staedtler watercolour pencils review Buy the Staedtler Karat Aquarell watercolour pencils: $44/£31.75 for 36 06. Blending and sharpening tools Blending stumps are ideal for creating gradations and half-tones After gaining an understanding of the abilities and limitations of each pencil, you can then investigate further with blending tools and erasers for different effects. A blending tool can be anything you can use to add texture to your graphite marks. The most obvious tool you have already to hand: your fingers! Other blending tools you can potentially use include tortillions, blending stumps, paper, cloth, cotton wool, make-up wipes, chamois, paper towels, paper tissue, paintbrushes, and probably a dozen other things we haven't thought of. Blending stumps are made from tightly wound paper, formed into a stick and sanded at both ends to create points. Used ideally to create gradations and half-tones, the sanded area is ideal for blending while the point (ideally kept clean) is best used to blend light-toned areas. Unlike fingers, blending stumps leave no oily smears. Blending tortillons are made from rolled, loose-fibre paper and are pointed at one endBlending tortillons are made from rolled, loose-fibre paper and are pointed at one end. The softer paper texture of blending tortillons gives a different blending texture to stumps, and they can be used to push colour and soften pencil edges. Be warned, though: attempting the use of blending tools too early can look smudgy and amateurish, so don't rush into this. You also need to keep your pencils sharp. And while a pencil sharpener is fine when you're just using a pencil to write with, for drawing we'd suggest you're better off using a scalpel or craft knife. Buy the Stumps And Tortillions Set: $4.56/£6.36 for 10 05. Kneaded eraser Kneaded erasers are dry and don’t smudge or leave flaked residueUnlike standard office erasers, kneaded erasers are dry and don’t smudge or leave flaked residue. Their softness makes them ideal on sketching paper with a lot of ‘tooth’. These erasers can also be formed into points for picking out highlights in eyes and hair. Buy the Prismacolor Premier Kneaded Rubber Eraser: $3.12/£3.01 What to look for Illustrator Terese Nielsen explains how to pick your paper, pencils and more... 01. Choose the right grade Pencils are graded on a scale from H (hardness) to B (blackness)Pencils are graded on a scale from H (hardness) to B (blackness). Generally a 2-4H pencil is as hard as one needs for light areas, an H-B is for midrange, and a 5B-6B is for dark areas. Rather than switching pencils for each tone, experiment with altering the pressure. Brands vary, so experiment to see what suits your temperament. 02. Choose the right paper The paper you choose is going to be equally significant as the pencil choice As much as pencil choice requires careful consideration, the paper you choose is going to be equally significant. If attempting to create a highly realistic style, for example, you could try using a smooth, hot press/plate finish surface. We prefer Arches 140 lb hot press watercolour paper or Bristol Board plate finish. 03. Try some strokes Many strokes can be employed to indicate textures of various objectsMany strokes can be employed to indicate textures of various objects. If you’re attempting a highly realistic style then use very small circular strokes with your pencil; otherwise unwanted banding of pencil marks occurs. Try shading with a variety of tools from blending stumps to paper tissue for better finishes. Check out more of our art posts: How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorials Improve your character drawing today How to draw manga characters View the full article
-
You're reading Google Maps Updated with New Design for the First Time in Years, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Google released an update to their eponymous Maps service. Product Manager Liz Hunt revealed changes focusing on prioritizing the information presented, what is displayed according to the user situation, and how it is displayed in the UI in terms of icon and colors. Maps Will Present the User with the Most Relevant Information Google states […] View the full article
-
Named after the brutalist architecture movement from the mid-to-late 20th century, web brutalism gleefully ignores all the web design best practices established over the past 20 years and is throwing out work that's inventive, exciting and challenging – even confrontational. Brutalist websites range from the wilfully chaotic to the obstinately minimal, but they're united by a rejection of mainstream web trends. There comes a time in every creative movement when some of its practitioners decide to push back against the accepted way of doing things and start breaking the rules, usually to the outrage of the establishment. The origins of web brutalism Brutalist architecture is unconcerned about looking attractive, and it's this – as well as the idea that brutalism was conceived as a reaction to the more frivolous architecture of the 1930s and 40s – that led Pascal Deville, cofounder and creative director of Freundliche Grüsse to co-opt the term. "I've had a high interest in digital design and the web design community since the early days of the web, " he tells us. "In the last couple of years I noticed a trend toward streamlined, almost neutralised interfaces that completely missed any sense of brand attributes or characteristics regarding the content or purpose they serve." Deville also noticed designers starting to experiment with a kind of web design anti-trend: a rough and back-to-basics approach on how websites could work outside a perfect UX world, and it's this aspect that reminded him of the original brutalists. Deville keeps track of the latest brutalist websites on brutalistwebsites.com Since then Deville has been curating Brutalistwebsites.com, where he gathers sites that fit in with his ideas of web brutalism and interviews their creators. "It serves as an inspirational platform for young designers," he says, "Something I want to give back to the community." Defining features of web brutalism A trawl through Brutalistwebsites.com will quickly demonstrate that it covers a broad range of styles and aesthetics; nevertheless there are a few commonalities. Interactive designer Bruno Landowski, who in 2013 worked on an early example of a brutalist site for the 13th Istanbul Biennial, sums up the brutalist approach like this: "It uses big fonts, solid-colour backgrounds, geometric shapes and raw features… It doesn't care about the general public." Any Studio's site breaks all the rules, brilliantly Jakob Kornelli from Any Studio in Berlin, which boasts a gloriously brutalist website, also points out the movement's use of bold and somewhat radical typography. "But even more than that," he tells us, "we believe that a brutalist website pushes the boundaries of its medium, especially in terms of interaction. Even though web design has been around for some time now, the interactive and aesthetic possibilities of it are seldom used to their full potential." French multidisciplinary designer Pierre Butin has made a name for himself with his Brutalist Redesigns project, in which he reworked popular apps such as Tinder, Google Maps and even Candy Crush to striking effect. He has his own theories on brutalism: "Some seem to define it as a crude approach, whilst others tends to embrace this loose definition," he says. "This got me wondering: is brutalism in digital design more about Swiss minimalism or just raw coding? For this reason, I tried out different styles that could be deemed as brutalist. I used system fonts, basic web colours, a simple colour scheme and stuck to the original UX of the app. My objective was to start a conversation about what's coming UI-wise and how it should be done." Giacomo Miceli believes that brutalism is all about simplification For Giacomo Miceli, whose monochrome portfolio site is a masterpiece in Courier, it's about simplification, and there's nothing new about it. "Just look at the homepage of Google, " he observes. "17 years ago, AltaVista was a thing and its homepage was cluttered with useless stuff. Google came in with a website that did one thing, did it really well, and was unconcerned with looking pretty. Google definitely gives more attention to the eye these days, but the core remained the same." It's Detroit-based designer Kikko Paradela who sums web brutalism up most succinctly, though: "Typographic. Content-driven. Straightforward." How to build brutalist sites Perhaps a great part of brutalism's appeal is that you can neatly sidestep all the initial preparation that traditionally comes with building a site, and simply get on with it. Many creators of brutalist sites take a distinct pride in the fact that they do virtually all of their design and development work in that venerable Windows mainstay, Notepad. Landowski quickly summarises his brutalist process: "Rock–paper–scissors to make choices, a pen to sketch them, Photoshop and Illustrator to specify them, and a text editor to make them alive." Although, he points out, this isn't an approach that would work for everyone; he comes from a graphic design background which, he says, makes him more sensitive to user experience. The 13th Istanbul Biennial site is an early example of the brutalist approach Kornelli agrees, noting that much of Any Studio's work focuses on strong typography, clear messages and the occasional unexpected twist to keep things interesting. "The website we recently designed for the film production company Very Film shows this approach," he tells us, "with its bold and crisp black-and-white typography combined with only one distinctive interaction that is reminiscent of a curtain closing and opening." For a donation-based poster design service called This is Shit, web designer Jon Matheson had other priorities. "I think the whole point of brutalism in web design is not to be limited to what you're expected to use as a web designer," he explains. Matheson prefers to avoid looking at a screen if he really doesn't have to, and so he designed This is Shit on paper, with an ink brush for the header and footer, Sharpie for the menu tabs and white gel pen for the social media icons. "Most of the site is just scanned in sections of that design," he reveals. And the results are brilliant. And in Paradela's case, both his site and his practice are influenced by where he lives and works. He explains that his site is, "a reflection of my design approach and thinking. I've always aligned myself with the anti-mainstream or 'anti-Jesus' aesthetic because it challenges conventional and convenient truths including my own. This approach is also pertinent to the current social and political environment of Detroit, which is where I live and base my practice." The benefits of brutalism Paradela's philosophy resonates with many of the reasons that designers have given us for building websites that go so strongly against the grain of modern web design. So what are the benefits to this concept? "Instead of this tip-toeing around carefully crafting a modern, expected site," suggests Matheson, "it's like the creators are going 'Here's the site. If you don't like it, your loss' and I love that." There's more to it than that, though; Daan Lucas feels that there's an honesty to brutalism that's perhaps missing from more polished, corporate offerings. "I think brutalism intends to show the core and deduct it from distraction," he says. "I like that. I think it's also the right thing to do these days. People know when they are bullshitted. In our work we always try to make a real connection with people. Make them wonder, invite them to play. If you bullshit people they will walk away and be annoyed." You can see brutalism's playfulness on sites such as Bong's homepage, featuring a giant Newton's cradle and links to the agency's work scrolling around the edge. It might go against the rules, but it's a different and exciting experience for users, and Any Studio is keen to mine the possibilities of this approach to web design. Bong turned heads earlier this year with its new site for johnson banks "Not playing by a certain set of rules or applying different ones – like classic Swiss modernist graphic design rules – has the advantage that the results tend to be more unique and therefore more captivating for the user, " says Kornelli. "Also the influx of avant-garde graphic design opens the field to tons of new and striking aesthetic possibilities, which in return generate more interesting experiences for users and clients." More than punk rock? So maybe this is more than just a punk rock moment. While there's a degree of that – Kornelli points out that there's been a glut in recent years of boring UX-driven web design, creating an environment of functional but bland website clones, and in many ways brutalism is a 'fuck you' reaction to that environment – designers see brutalism as a way of driving web design forward and actually increasing usability. Butin explains: "Straightforward brutalist elements might improve the overall experience users have of an app. UX experts like Luke Wroblewsky show again and again that, for example, the word 'Menu' in an interface generates more engagement than the hamburger icon (as goes the saying, 'obvious always wins'). For this reason, I do not think that brutalism in digital design is incompatible with a UX-driven approach." And looking through the pantheon of brutalist sites, it's hard not to draw comparisons with the world of graphic design. You can see clear parallels between brutalist sites and the work of designers such as David Carson, Stefan Sagmeister and more recently Richard Turley, who used audacious and provocative design to turn stuffy old Bloomberg Businessweek into one of the most talked-about magazines. Kiki Paradela's site is a brutalist goldmine well worth exploring Kornelli agrees that there's definitely a graphic design influence, and Any Studio welcomes this development. "Until recently web design was, for some reason, kind of detached from the long and great tradition of graphic design," he tells us. "Graphic designers treated web design as an unknown medium and didn't really know what to do with it. Now there is a new generation of designers emerging that feel at home in both worlds. Web design is becoming fully integrated into the vocabulary of contemporary graphic designers." This matters, because graphic design is a mature discipline that for many years has been addressing and solving the issues that web brutalists are now taking on. "This is the space where we usually operate," says Paradela. "We deconstruct and understand visual language so we can have it at our disposal to communicate effectively. We are self critical with what's going around us." Where's it all going? Like brutalism, graphic design often goes to provocative extremes, but always in the name of clear communication. While graphic designers tend to go all-out for their portfolios, the work that they produce in the day job is generally a lot less full-on; and this is how the brutalist approach will leave its influence on web design in general. "I found that a fair amount of brutalist websites are small scale; designers' portfolios or personal projects," observes Butin. "Yet, an increasing number of designers work on (popular) mobile apps. It would then not be surprising if they transferred this taste for brutalism/minimalism to the products they design." Matheson's approach to brutalism was to draw his poster site by hand Matheson hopes that this could be a huge turning point for the web in terms of design. "I hope at least that more designers, artist and creatives will have less fear of experimenting with brutalism," he says, "or at least the carefree approach to their work as more and more of these designs and approaches reveal themselves." And Kornelli believes that brutalism is about to establish its relevance and will probably stay for a while, giving designers increasing rein to create a beautiful, communicative web. "Thanks to the evolution of interfaces and software, designers will soon be empowered to create top-notch websites without handing sketches off to a developer – the developers will provide the appropriate tools beforehand instead." This article originally appeared in issue 297 of net, the magazine for professional web designers and developers – offering the latest new web trends, technologies and techniques. Buy issue 297 here or subscribe to net here. Related articles: 16 amazing HTML examples How to survive as a web designer beyond 2020 Get started with HTML canvas View the full article
-
Web designers are known for applying their design eye to every product they own, so they can be tricky to buy for at Christmas – and at other points in the year. But don’t worry, we won’t let you go wrong. The gifts below are a selection of useful tools, books, amusements and other things made by brands that are well-loved by designers for their attention to detail and stylish, practical products. We've organised our gift guide into different price bands, too, so there's a gift to suit your budget and the recipient's tastes. If you're buying for a few different creatives, fear not. We also have gift guides for graphic designers, illustrators, design students and even creative kids. Best gifts for web designers under £20/$25 Power users are often dissatisfied with the charging cables that come with Apple devices because they start to break after a while and are expensive to replace. This ultra-strong reinforced one from Native Union is much more suitable for someone who pushes cables to their limits: it's 4 feet long and claims to be six times stronger than standard Lightning cables. It has a cool print design, a luxurious leather strap to stop it from tangling, and even comes with a lifetime warranty. This may seem excessive, but bear with us. No-one likes a dirty keyboard, and cleaning the crumbs out of the little gaps between your keys requires a dedicated tool. Help your developer friend keep their workspace hygienic with this handy little jointed brush. It has two rows of bristles of different lengths for removing debris from every crevice of your laptop, and it's made from oiled beech wood and goat/horse hair. Did you see the video of the racist soap dispenser? If not and you don't want to click, it's an automatic soap dispenser that only works for white people; a darker skin tone gets no soap. This book is essentially about that: the processes, biases and assumptions that lead to digital products that fail us in horrible, cringeworthy ways. Anyone who designs products will benefit from reading it. The design world is full of aphorisms such as 'there are no new ideas', 'rules are there to be broken' and so on, which are often assimilated into the minds of young designers without question. In this fascinating and entertaining read, multi-award-winning design director Craig Ward dissects each of these mantras in turn and gives many of them a good debunking. The result is a handbook that will make any designer wiser about how they approach their craft. Best gifts for web designers under £50/$75 This portable wooden stand gives you the ergonomic layout of a desktop setup wherever you go. If you're only working for a few hours a day you might get away with putting your laptop on a desk, but having to look down for long periods will start to hurt eventually and cause neck and back problems. This stand allows you to put your laptop at eye level for a healthy sitting position. 06. Field Notes Project Kit Price: $54.95 (around £41.50)Many web designers like to sketch their ideas on paper first, and if your loved one is a big user of notebooks then this set will go down well. Field Notes is a brand loved by designers because so much thought has been put into every element of the product, from the choice of paper and typography to the dimensions and rounded corners. This set has four different types of notebook and a set of carpenter pencils. Tabletop board games are a favourite among web designers and developers, so this could be the ideal gift that doubles as something fun for everyone to do over Christmas. We asked the people at board game cafe Chance & Counters what they would pick for a web geek and they recommended The Networks. "It's so good," said Steve Cownie. "You play as upstart TV networks, trying to amass the most viewers over five seasons. It's a solid combination of silliness and strategy, with lots of funny parodies and pop culture nods throughout." Best gifts for web designers under £100/$125 08. Street Fighter II hard drive Price: $99.99/£78.12 Let the web designer in your life back up their data in style with this fantastically retro external drive, lovingly crafted from an original SNES Street Fighter II game cartridge. Inside there's a 1TB hard disk (or 2TB if you go for the pricier option), which is more than enough for them to safely store all of their important stuff, and its USB 3.0 connection means everything gets transferred nice and quickly. Other games such as Zelda or Super Mario World are also available. This stylish leather case has a clever design element: it holds your phone tightly and is lined with felt so that the screen gets a polish every time you use it. It's the right size for an iPhone X, but you can do a custom order to get other dimensions. Best gifts for web designers over £100/$125 If the web designer in your life is a freelancer, a decent set of headphones is a must for getting work done in cafes or coworking spaces. These ones aren't a new model, but T3 still ranks them at the top of its list for wired, over-ear headphones because they have yet to be outdone in terms of comfort, sound quality and style. The double-hinged headband makes them highly portable, the ear cushions are soft and comfortable so you can wear them for hours, and they sound fantastic. Noise cancelling headphones are another option, but you’ll have to go into a higher price bracket for those. A hybrid smartwatch is a way to get a fitness and sleep tracker that looks like a normal watch, and the Nokia Steel strikes a great balance between functionality, style, battery life and budget. It tracks walking, running, swimming, calories burned and distance, as well as providing sleep cycle analysis. The battery lasts up to eight months and it looks good enough to wear all day, even with a formal outfit. Read more: How accessible are your designs? How to power up your menus with CSS animation How CodePen made itself secure View the full article
-
As Black Friday 2017 and Cyber Monday 2017 creeps closer, we're working hard to bring designers, illustrators and artists the best bargains on creative tools. But we haven't neglected our daily deals; today we've got you a great discount on training to boost your graphic design skills. If you want to work as a graphic designer, you're going to have to know how to use Adobe applications. Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator are the tools experts rely on and are packed with tools to help make your work truly shine. You can master these programs with Graphic Design Certification School. Get it on sale now for a special Black Friday price of just $25 (approx £19). Graphic designers love using Adobe's suite of creative apps to bring their art to life, and you can learn why with this bundle of courses. The Graphic Design Certification School will teach you how to make the most of Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. As we also have an exclusive 15% discount on Creative Cloud subscriptions until 27 November, now is the time to get into Photoshop, Lightroom and Adobe's other great programs. Get your 15% discount on Adobe Creative Cloud hereYou'll get tons of expert-taught lessons that will show you how to take your ideas and bring them to life on screen. You can also get certifications to prove your skills after each course you complete. The Graphic Design Certification School is valued at over $1,197, but you can get this incredible bundle of courses on sale for just $25 (approx £19) for Black Friday. It's a deal you won't want to miss, so grab it while you can. About Creative Bloq deals This great deal comes courtesy of the Creative Bloq Deals store – a creative marketplace that's dedicated to ensuring you save money on the items that improve your design life. We all like a special offer or two, particularly with creative tools and design assets often being eye-wateringly expensive. That's why the Creative Bloq Deals store is committed to bringing you useful deals, freebies and giveaways on design assets (logos, templates, icons, fonts, vectors and more), tutorials, e-learning, inspirational items, hardware and more. Every day of the working week we feature a new offer, freebie or contest – if you miss one, you can easily find past deals posts on the Deals Staff author page or Offer tag page. Plus, you can get in touch with any feedback at: deals@creativebloq.com. Related articles: The 60 best free Photoshop brushes Get 15% off Adobe Creative Cloud with our exclusive deal The best Black Friday phone deals 2017 View the full article
-
Don’t have access to a photogrammetry camera array to carry out a 3D scan? No problem, these tips and tricks will show you how to capture an actor quickly with great results for 3D modelling – and all you need is a camera or smartphone. Imagine you’re on a movie location with little equipment and only a few minutes with your actor. Getting an accurate scan and generating a useable CG model is now possible with just a smartphone and a laptop running Agisoft PhotoScan software. LA-based Emmy and VES Award-winning visual effects artist, Johnathan R Banta, from Agrapha Productions, breaks down his five-step ‘RapidCapture’ photogrammetry process, taking advantage of professional tools. Christmas offer: Save up to 49% on a subscription to 3D World 01. Get the actor ready Capture the subject using quick-fire photogrammetry Have your actor sit or stand (either is fine as long as they remain stable) and fix their gaze on a point in the near distance. Try to avoid direct sunlight or hard shadows. Our example here was in a room with fluorescent tube lights, but any ambient illumination is fine. Clothing does not matter too much, but try to avoid solid colours, especially white, as the photogrammetry software finds this harder to solve (although in our example, the subject did in fact have a white shirt on). 02. Photograph your actor These are the resulting 15 photos from this capture session Use any camera app on your smartphone (or use any camera). Try an app that lets you fix exposure for better results. In this example, we captured a portion of the actor’s face with just 15 photographs following a geodesic capture pattern at a consistent distance from the actor. Starting at a 45-degree angle to your subject, take a total of 15 photographs in a ‘plus-cross-plus’ configuration. Take one photo in the centre of the angle, stretch arms up, down, left, and right while taking photos pointing at the subject (ie, a plus pattern). Cross-step 45 degrees around to the front, and photograph in a cross pattern. Take one photo in the centre of the angle, stretch arms to the upper left, upper right, lower left, and lower right while taking additional photos pointing at the subject. Step 45 degrees around again, then repeat the plus pattern. You can always take more photos – a full rotation around the subject is likely to be 48-50 photos – but remember that the idea here is to carry out this scan as quickly as possible. 03. Solve the scan PhotoScan solves the positions of the photographs Import your photos into PhotoScan. Choose one photo as the representative angle before picking the Align Photos option. This produces better results, and sometimes will determine the success of the algorithm. There are several options in the software for resolution and point correspondence. The most consistently successful setting at this point has been to use the MEDIUM solving resolution, and leave everything else at default. If you are pleased with the alignment, go on to the build dense cloud step, which will use your solved cameras and sparse point cloud as a guide for a more involved algorithm. There are several resolution options, but to test the solve, a resolution setting of MEDIUM can produce results good enough to evaluate with. There is often extra material in the dense point cloud that is not your subject. Use the lasso tools and other selection methods to delete this excess data before going any further. 04. Mesh and texture model The resulting model will still need cleaning up, but clearly resembles the actor PhotoScan can take the resulting point cloud, and build a mesh of polygons to re-create the surface. Depending on your photos and detail of the subject matter, results can vary. Again, it loves detail, so areas of flat, smooth colour may end up a little noisy (most actors wear make-up to smooth out their skin, and this can result in a noisy solve). The open-source software MeshLab has many capable tools that can take your exported points and build a surface, and if you need to work quickly, it can sometimes do this faster than PhotoScan. If you are serious about this, it is worth a try, but PhotoScan can do a very reasonable job of it, too. The resulting mesh can be exported to other software as a guide for clean-up and modelling. As long as you keep the original scaling and orientation exported from PhotoScan, you can re-import this model for texturing. This is not necessary for quick evaluation, though, and you can build textures directly on the solved mesh as well. The final step is to build texture on the object by projecting every single solved camera image onto the 3D model, and average the result inside PhotoScan. With properly aligned geometry, it is possible to achieve credible results quickly. 05. Export your 3D model Export your model to a 3D program for whatever you need. Export formats include FBX, OBJ, PLY and more, which means you can work with the model in tools such as Maya, ZBrush, Mudbox and 3ds Max. It’s in one of these tools that you can also do further clean-up, or take advantage of the dimensionally accurate model to aid in tracking, matchmoving or digital make-up work. Remember you have the original photos for reference, too. (Thanks to R Brent Adams, director of the Center for Animation at Brigham Young University, for volunteering to be our scanning subject.) This article was originally published in issue 227 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists – packed with expert tutorials, inspiration and reviews. Buy issue 227 here or subscribe to 3D World here. Special Christmas offer: Save up to 49% on a subscription to 3D World for you or a friend for Christmas. It's a limited offer, so move quickly... Related articles: The secrets of 3D scanning 15 mighty Maya tutorials to try today 30 inspiring examples of 3D art View the full article
-
Experimenting with new drawing and painting techniques is a great way to bring new flavours to a piece that's almost finished. Try to approach it in an organic, playful way, discovering new things you hadn't even thought of when embarking on an image – these experimental pieces may end up making a great addition to your design portfolio. Here's a portrait I've been working on: it's at a stage where I feel I can play with textures and experiment, using a range of techniques to drive the piece forward to a different place. Start experimenting with textures to add new flavours to your workI'm excited to see what digital techniques can do to the piece and how they can give it a different perspective to what I've previously envisioned. I'll show you how I go about experimenting with this in the written steps below and the video further down the page. The hard part is to be able to open your mind to enable the piece you've been working on to be altered and played with. 01. Add texture Finding stock images can add interesting texture to your piece I now look for photos and textures that are stock-free and have something special in them that I find inspiring. It could be a small pattern, or the silkiness of a fabric, or even the way the light's being cast on a surface. 02. Experiment Crop, invert and rotate stock images to use them as a background texture Once I have some images, I insert them on top and play with the settings and blending modes to see what happens. This is a structured way to achieve happy accidents. I then rearrange them and eliminate parts to fit my piece. 03. Use Color Range Play with colour and levels to create interesting painterly effects This is a quick tool that grabs a similar grouping of colours and values and selects them. You can then copy the selection to a new layer and experiment with it however you wish. Watch the full video This article originally appeared in issue 116 of ImagineFX , the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists – packed with workshops and interviews with fantasy and sci-fi artists, plus must-have kit reviews. Subscribe to ImagineFX here. Like this? Read these: How to improve your character drawing How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorials The best drawing tablet: our pick of the best graphics tablets in 2017 View the full article
-
Not all of us have the time or inclination to craft our own creative resumes from scratch, but your CV still needs to clearly impart key information about your career, while displaying a little of your personality. So why not inject it with a little design flair, courtesy of a free template? Exclusive offer: Save 15% on Adobe Creative Cloud now We've had a search around and found these striking free resume templates, each of which offers something a little different. Download one of these templates today and wing your way to a job interview for the role of your dreams, or impress prospective clients with your attention to detail. 01. Elegant resume Vladyslav Tulinovskyi created this simple layout This minimalist free resume template uses subtle illustration and plenty of white space to create a clean, elegant feel. Created by Vladyslav Tulinovskyi, it's available as an editable PSD file so you can change the colour scheme as well as edit the text. This understated style will enable your information to shine. 02. Graphical resume Fay Zodiac's template is bold This resume template by Fay Zodiac isn't one for the faint-hearted. Its bold letterpress-styled icons and, patterns and text certainly pack a punch, and will ensure your CV jumps out from a pile. You'll just need the confidence in the job interview to back up your loud resume design. It comes with the fonts and icons, as well as the Photoshop resume template, and is fully editable. 03. Colourful resume Riccardo Rivieccio's template comes with matching business cards As any designer knows, colour sells. Riccardo Rivieccio's free resume templates come in a choice of six colour schemes with attention-grabbing patterns in the header. And to further sweeten the deal, he's also designed matching business cards. These Illustrator files are fully editable, too, so have fun with colour. 04. Creative Vintage Resume This wonderfully retro template comes in gorgeous earthtonesThis is a splendidly vintage-looking resume template in deliciously earthy tones, and it comes as an .AI file so that you can adjust it to your heart's content. Be aware, though, that the fonts aren't included, so you'll either have to hunt them down yourself (they're all free, luckily) or substitute your own. 05. Creative Designer Resume Template Make an instant impression with this visually-focused templateFully layered and well organised in order to keep customisation nice and easy, this bold and punchy visual template enables you to get yourself and your skills across quickly, without any messing. It comes as a print-ready 300dpi A4 PSD, ready for editing in Photoshop. 06. Project-based resume A centre-aligned layout with space for imagesDepending on the type of application process you're dealing with, it may be appropriate to include samples of your work within your CV. This template, Velli, is great if you have images of visual work that you'd like to form part of the resume, and there's also space for a cover letter. 07. Two-column layout A two-tone layout with two columnsFitting a lot of information onto your first page can help to a grab a recruiter's attention, and a two-column layout is a way to achieve that without making your page look cluttered. 08. Timeline resume Create a good first impression with this free timeline resume template This free timeline-based resume template was created by graphic designer Patryk Korycki. An AI file, the design features typeface Open Sans, with various fields available to enter education details, skills, interests and much more. 09. Stylish resume A stylish resume template that includes a timeline of your employment historyThis subtle yet stylish CV template features all the details you need to include, along with a neat sidebar holding a profile and references and a timeline – in which you can list your employment history. There's also an online profile section to show just how social media-savvy you are and a software skills bar graph so you can show your exact skills. It's supplied in PSD, AI and INDD formats. 10. Resume for icon fans This resume template has some super-stylised icons includedIf icons are your thing, check out this free template from designer Fernando Báez. A sectionalised design, complete with stylish type and icons included (you get the CV in AI format and the icons in PSD), this resume is perfect for customising with your own icons to represent your interests and achievements. 11. Resume for type fans A central typographic column enables you to list your skillsSure, this may not be to everyone's taste – but it's certainly impactful. A central typographic column bursts out to boxes in which you can add your details. The resume is supplied in AI format so you can easily export a PDF – and comes in black and white so you can get creative with colours. 12. Simple resume This simple resume template uses colour Simplicity is the key in this type-based CV that puts your profile at the top, then lists experience and education in simple boxes. There's also a professional skills section enabling you to give yourself a percentage score on languages and professional skills. The Illustrator file makes the most of colour to aid its simplicity. 13. Clean resume The Smart Object header makes it a cinch to add your own graphic to this resumeThis highly-customisable resume template comes in PSD and AI formats and has a Smart Object header, meaning you can quickly and easily link in an image of your choice. It's A4, 300dpi, with 3mm bleed – so completely print-ready. Just add your logo, bio, experience and so on and you're ready to print and send. 14. Hadi Reda Super-minimal with a neat icon style, this resume is ace for designersKeep it super-minimal with this resume template. Once again there's a bar graph for your skills (which we're still not sure about but some employers may like) along with a neat icon style to represent your social media profiles and software competence. It's supplied in layered PSD format. 15. Resume that makes a statement It's definitely worth experimenting with this contemporary resume template by Paolo PettigianiMaybe you're looking to make more of a statement with your one-pager – in which case this typographic template by Paolo Pettigiani may be just the ticket. Easy to customise and available in AI format with all the necessary fonts and icons, it's definitely worth experimenting with. Related articles: 10 beautiful paper portfolios to inspire you 30 brilliantly creative resumes 5 quick ways to improve your portfolio dramatically View the full article
-
Whether you're after the very best smartphone for designers - like the Samsung Galaxy S8 or Google Pixel 2 - or a bargain basement handset for staying in touch with clients and scanning Instagram, we've sourced all the best prices for you. We've handpicked some of the standout deals that have really caught our eye at the moment - made a lot easier by Black Friday. And below that, our comparison chart is loaded with every phone on the market we can think of. Use the filters to narrow down your ideal price range, calls and data allowance, and choice of network and we'll do the rest! Best flagship mobile phone deals: These are the mobile phones with the best screens, most powerful chipsets and most premium designs. They can sell for a handsome price, so it's worth taking advantage of our research to ensure you bag a more affordable tariff. Best cheap mobile phone deals: You don't have to subject yourself to phone bills of over £30 to get a good mobile. There are some brilliant budget handsets out there these days, or you can look to older generation models that have really stood the test of time. Best SIM only deals: If you've got to the end of your two year contract, but aren't ready to part with your beloved phone then grabbing a SIM only plan is the solution. You can reduce your monthly spend down to a pittance and remain flexible if you do see a new phone you fancy. Today's best mobile phone deals - get the cheapest price on these handsets: Related articles: See the best apps for your new iPhone Get the best iPad deal Find the perfect VPN for you View the full article
-
In the busy freelance world, how do you make yourself stand out from the pack and attract those clients you've always dreamed of having on your books? Whatever design discipline you're in – be it web design, graphic design, digital art, illustration, 3D art, VFX or other creative fields – there are some tricks that can help your freelance business to take off. Here we've outlined a few of the basics to help you get started... 01. Find a USP Illustrator and art director Justin Maller has a distinct design aesthetic Before you get yourself out there and flaunt your design skills, first and foremost it's important that you understand exactly what you have to offer. Finding a trait that makes you different to others in the industry can help make you stand out in what is often a saturated market. Once you've nailed that, tailor your design portfolio accordingly. Also consider creating or commissioning a distinctive logo design for yourself and splashing it across all your branded social media pages. Read our 30 pro tips to create the perfect design portfolio to help you. 02. Be a big fish in a small pond Maria De La Guardia makes it clear the kinds of clients she wants Knowing which type of client or specific industry you'd like to attract will also help you create a much more targeted marketing strategy, as it will affect how you pitch yourself online and where to look for new business. Do your unique skills lend themselves to a certain sector, for instance, or have you designed work for a number of similar clients that you can use to target their competitors? Finding a niche can also help you build up your name quickly and, hopefully, lead to more work. 03. Start blogging Designer and illustrator Keenan Cummings posts about works in progress Setting up a blog and updating it regularly with snippets about your projects, industry views and some personal stuff will all help you to maximise your online presence and give you a voice within the industry. Check out our tips on how to create a design blog and take inspiration from this selection of great Tumblr blogs. 04. Network online Contacts are perhaps your biggest asset as a lone freelancer, regardless of whether you're looking to market yourself online or offline. Open networks such as Twitter provide the perfect platform for you to engage in conversations with the wider design world and build relationships with your peers and potential clients. Social networks also serve as a platform for you to show off your expertise and gain some recognition. By sharing interesting and useful content with others, you can become an important voice in your industry and a designer in demand. Read our tips on How to make social media work for you to learn more. 05. Use online marketing tools Use MailChimp to send mailshots to prospective clientsThere are so many free marketing tools out there, ready and waiting for you to take advantage of. As well as social networks and blogging, there's also a huge opportunity to grab some attention with the use of a good email marketing strategy. With a database of email addresses from existing clients and a prominent link on your blog to attract new website visitors, you can send out a monthly or quarterly newsletter to keep people up-to-date with your latest projects. MailChimp is just one great and easy tool to help get you get started with your email marketing – check out our guide to the 10 best email newsletter tools here. 06. Seek out client referrals If you've had an amazing experience with one of your clients, get them to shout about it. Don't be shy to ask your most satisfied clients for a few words on their experience working with you and the process overall, and make sure you publicise it across all your digital channels. You never know, your last satisfied client might lead to your next project win. 07. Network in person Don't stay hidden behind your Mac Offline networking at industry events, conferences or even social meet-ups with other designers or agencies can also help get your name out there and provide opportunities to put your business card in the hands of potential clients. Make sure you connect with your new contacts online afterwards so that you can continue the conversation you started in person. Read more: 4 ways to cash in as a freelancer 20 top tools for freelancers How to make social media work for you View the full article
-
While gaining a higher education qualification may be required to become a doctor, teacher, social worker or solicitor, it’s definitely not required to become a web designer or developer – or indeed, a professional in any creative discipline. Having a degree might not necessarily qualify you for a well-paid job, so here are five steps to consider when looking for a job. Follow these tips to help you to shine in job interviews. 01. Seek positive influences A big problem for school and college leavers is the availability of highly targeted advice. With so much misinformation in circulation, it’s easy for teachers and careers advisors to accidentally pass on inaccurate information. The highest priority for anyone seeking to establish a career in the design industry should be to speak with people who have real industry experience. This could be through social media groups, such as on LinkedIn, or one of the many forums on which industry programmers can be found, such as Quora. 02. Develop targeted skills Use your conversations, as well as researching jobs posted on websites such as jobsite.co.uk, to gain an understanding of the types of roles and pay that interest you. Even though many jobs will be beyond your skillset and experience, you can gain an idea of skills you should develop. There’s no need to be an expert in everything (full stack development), as many jobs focus on either frontend or server-side development and pay just as well. It’s no secret that the best developers are self taught. Programming isn’t something you can become good at by attending a few classes on a course, so you’re going to have to invest time in learning through experimentation. Use tutorials such as those in net magazine to gain an understanding of web development concepts that you can apply to your CV/resume. Also use this opportunity to show employers that you are capable of managing your own skills development without their input. 03. Gain experience The truth is that qualifications have almost no value in the web design industry, and the most important thing you can have is a good resume. Employers don’t care if you have a first class degree if you can’t demonstrate how to apply your knowledge. It’s true that many job adverts list a requirement of a good degree, but this is merely a lazy way for HR to reduce time costs associated with interviewing. For those in the know, there are always routes around these HR filters. An impressive resume doesn’t magically appear from nowhere, so be prepared to do whatever it takes to gain the experience and skills that will make you stand out to employers. An effective way to gain experience and develop your skills is to pick up freelance projects from various job boards such as PeoplePerHour.com. While projects on these websites aren’t usually well paid, they allow you to develop a portfolio of work, and gain experience of being ‘client facing’ that will impress potential employers. 04. Become independent Modern schooling often places far too much emphasis on teaching to pass tests in order to meet government targets. This has resulted in many school leavers being dependent on being directed to solve each part of a task in the same way. This dependence is too costly for employers to justify providing a job, as it would cost them more time and money to support you to do your job effectively. Develop abilities to work independently in your role as a web designer or developer. This includes knowing how to solve problems through research on Google, while also being able to plan your workload to meet deadlines you’ve been assigned. Demonstrating these abilities will give employers the confidence that you can free them from more problems than you create. 05. Be proactive Another problem that employers seek to avoid is the need to micro manage their employees. Learn to identify where your skills can be applied to the bigger picture, so that whoever you report to can be relieved from planning your time deployment. Be proactive in developing and refining your skills so that you become more relevant to the work that employers need you for. This article originally appeared in issue 297 of net, the magazine for professional web designers and developers – offering the latest new web trends, technologies and techniques. Buy net issue 297 here or subscribe to net here. Related articles: How to transform a design internship into a job 8 tips to ace tech job interviews 5 golden rules for getting your first design job View the full article
-
This weekend saw creative crowdfunding site Kickstarter roll out a surprise rebrand that flies in the face of recent design overhauls. Whereas the likes of Dropbox and eBay have reinvented themselves with vibrant colour palettes in an attempt to grab attention, Kickstarter has done the opposite and launched a bloated, single colour logo, and a pared-back website design. Created in partnership between Kickstarter's in-house design team and New York-based design office Order, the new identity is centred around a puffed up wordmark that does away with the black and green colours from the old logo. The old Kickstarter logo (above) has been superseded by a rounder design (below) Instead, what we can now look forward to when we're visiting the site is a logo that emphasises and blurs together previous Kickstarter design elements. The typography has always been firmly on the bubble writing spectrum, but the new lettering, drawn by typographer Jesse Ragan, inflates it as far as legibility allows. In terms of colour, the new logo appears to mix together the palette from the previous design to create a dusky teal that gives the design an air of seriousness. This might seem like a counterintuitive choice when you consider that Kickstarter is all about encouraging creativity, but when there's money involved it can't hurt to show that you mean business. Especially when your font is that bouncy. Accompanying the new logo is the introduction of two new website typefaces: Cooper Light and Maison Neue. These are both used throughout the new website design, which continues the logo's angle of being professional-looking monochrome text against a while background, carrying over everything that make Kickstarter a success. The new Kickstarter site takes a stripped back approach The result is a crisp and clean site that's easy to navigate and puts the emphasis, rightly so, on finding the creative projects. As with any rebrand, though, there are going to be critics. We've seen creatives and design critics taking a pop at the date that appears on the top-left corner of the homepage, but for a site that's all about project deadlines we think this makes perfect sense – or at least it stops you checking the date on your phone and getting sidetracked. Meanwhile, other designers have been leaving less than favourable reviews on Twitter... Related articles: 25 logo design tips from the experts The 8 biggest typography mistakes designers make 6 Kickstarter tips for designers View the full article
-
Design is dominated by white, able-bodied men. But it doesn’t have to be. What discourages people from entering the industry? And what can we all do to encourage more inclusivity? A recent report issued by the UK Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport made for rather depressing reading. Despite the good news that design in the UK is thriving, employing 57 per cent more people in 2016 than 2011, it revealed that the industry is mostly white, male and from ‘more advantaged groups’. Compare the figures to the national UK working population (UKWP), and the results are even more unsettling. While the UKWP has almost equal numbers of males and females, the UK creative industries is made up of 63 per cent males and 37 per cent females. The report, did however, reveal some cause for optimism. Between 2015 and 2016, the number of designers from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds increased by a whopping 49 per cent, while the amount of women increased by 22 per cent, the second highest increase across all of the nine creative industries sub-sectors, after advertising and marketing. The number of EU nationals working in design also increased by almost 24 per cent in the same period. If design agencies aren’t inclusive internally, they limit their ability to have a positive impact Marianne Waite But why does diversity matter? Aside from the ethical reasons too obvious to outline, inclusivity is also good for business. Diverse teams mean new approaches and new markets, and have been proven to be better at problem-solving. This is something that Hana Tanimura, who leads Google’s Creative Lab in London, has seen in practice. “It’s true that very different people working together on a project can sometimes require putting in a little extra time to achieve the kind of shorthand understanding that comes quickly with people from similar backgrounds,” she says, “but from my experience, it’s precisely that light ‘friction’ that enables new kinds of thinking and new ideas to flourish.” Marianne Waite, a disability activist who founded Think Designable – a collective that aims to better society’s relationship with disability – agrees. “If design agencies aren’t inclusive internally, they limit their ability to have a positive impact – the better the insight, the more accurate the output,” she says. “People with disabilities are often experts in adaptation, creative solutions and hacking.” Having a diverse team could also help tap into groups you may have previously overlooked. For example, the UK’s black and minority ethnic population has an estimated spending power of £300 billion and Gov.uk puts the spend of disabled people and their families at £212 billion. But with such a multitude of issues at play when it comes to diversity, the topic can be a tricky one to address head on – where do you start? We spoke to industry experts about some of the reasons why design isn’t already inclusive, and what you can do to tackle this. Address financial and cultural barriers There are several hurdles that prevent people from entering the design industry. “From my [West Indian] ethnic and cultural background, parents know the challenges their children will face in the workplace, so they encourage them to go into practices that are more likely to yield results,” says Greg Bunbury, who runs Bunbury Creative. “Parents are very cautious about pushing their kids into creative fields.” Unpaid or poorly-paid internships and the London-centric industry are also likely to put off potential candidates. “If you look at what it costs to live in London now, it’s hugely prohibitive,” says Ansel Neckles, co-founder of Let’s Be Brief – a platform that aims to upskill and champion creative entrepreneurs. A Londoner by birth, Neckles says that he would never have been able to get into advertising were it not for his family home in the capital. Extending diversity helps to improve and widen the pool of thought How can we address the creative industries’ image problem and show that design can be a rewarding – and lucrative – career choice? Both Bunbury, who didn’t meet another black graphic designer until well into his 30s, and Neckles, believe that visibility and role models are integral. “The design industry can be a closed-loop environment,” says Neckles. “Knowing where those doors are generally comes from a knowledge of folks on the inside of those spaces. If you have no idea who to speak to, you can forever remain looking through the window wondering ‘how do I get in?’” Helen Fuchs, design director at digital agency ustwo in Shoreditch, London, agrees. “Go out to a local comprehensive, just to show them that your career is there,” she says. “If kids don’t know anyone, or have a designer in their family, they won’t know how to get in.” Although there’s probably not much (aside from campaigning) that you can do about greater wealth inequality or the undervaluing of the creative industries more widely, studios can make sure there are routes in for less privileged talent. You can start by paying interns the Living Wage, and could consider developing an apprenticeship scheme. And everyone can support organisations aiming to widen access to creative careers, such as Pitch It, Let’s Be Brief and We Are Stripes with time, money or, even better, both. Consider different routes into design Another hurdle can be people not taking non-traditional qualifications seriously, says Haydn Corrodus, founder of We Are Stripes – which aims to address ethnic diversity imbalance in the creative industries. “If we are being honest, a lot of roles you can learn on the job, but job specs oversell what you need to have done.” Women only apply for jobs when they feel they’re a 100% match, whereas men only feel they need to meet 60% Bunbury agrees: “Everything I learned from how to set up a grid to how to pitch, I learned on the job.” When working for a larger agency, Bunbury spent every Friday afternoon holding portfolio reviews as an alternative way of spotting potential hires. “It takes a lot of time, but the results are worth it,” he says. A policy of hiring on ‘potential’ rather than ‘proof’ also helps combat gender bias. Research by Hewlett-Packard found that women only apply for jobs when they feel they’re a 100 per cent match, whereas men only feel they need to meet 60 per cent of the requirements. “If you really want to find talented people, you need to start having conversations in places that you don’t normally have them,” says Neckles. Building relationships with networks such as Pride AM, People of Creativity, Open Inclusion and Advertising and Disability can help make sure your job ads are reaching a broad spectrum of people. And think outside the box – for example, Let’s Be Brief has a show about creativity on radio station NTS, whose motto is ‘Don’t Assume’. “Find people in the places that matter to them; you can’t assume they’ll gravitate towards you,” adds Neckles. Build diversity into your recruitment process Diversity recruitment goals can help. Digital agency ustwo has an agreement with its recruiter than 50 per cent of candidates must come from under-represented groups. “I’m sure that got me on an interview list,” says Fuchs. Evaluate your current process: is your recommendation scheme just bringing in identikit designers? Are your interview questions standardised to make for fair comparison? How gender neutral is the wording of your ad? Starting a conversation about the language you use can lead you to interesting places. Social media platform Buffer changed the wording of its job ads from ‘hacker’ to ‘developer’, for example, in a bid to attract more women. “The problem with bias,” says Wolff Olins’ Ije Nwokorie, “is that we all want to think we’re not. But we’re all human beings and we all form biases.” Organisations such as Altogether Different, Equality and Diversity UK and Creative Equals all offer unconscious bias training, which helps staff identify where those prejudices might come into play. Given that research from totaljobs finds almost one in five hiring managers make a decision on a candidate within a minute of meeting them and 44 per cent decide after just 15 minutes, making sure your team is as open as possible is integral. You could also consider implementing blind portfolio reviews or using an organisation such as GapJumpers, which strips applications of identifying info. It’s not just about recruitment, it’s about retention too – and that’s something you need to work at constantly Helen Fuchs Your interview process may also be discouraging or discriminating against talented candidates, including those with disabilities. “It may be worth deviating from the standard interview process altogether and instead, provide a work trail or test,” suggests Waite. “Hypothetical or obscure industry terminology can be challenging to some people, as can questions that require overly imaginative answers,” she explains. Make work places accessible “It’s not just about recruitment, it’s about retention too – and that’s something you need to work at constantly,” says Fuchs. Luckily, many strategies for making sure people from under-represented groups thrive in the studio make the workplace better for everyone. Karwai Pun, an interaction designer at Government Digital Service, which has been improving digital services for users with all types of disabilities, says: “Having people with disabilities on staff brings greater insight into usability testing, accessibility training and design discussions. "Smarter ways of working such as remote working, home working or flexitime offer useful alternatives for all colleagues, not just those with disabilities.” Similarly, many adjustments to your space – introducing height-adjustable desks or areas for quiet concentration – give greater flexibility to all staff. “Start by auditing your space to identify where the blockers are,” says Waite. “Invite some specialists in for the day to provide recommendations. It’s crucial that you don’t base changes on the experience of non-disabled employee assumptions.” Encourage women's progression “The drop off in women in advertising and design is huge,” says Casey Bird, president of SheSays, a networking organisation for women in the creative industries. “This is often because of a lack of support when it comes to motherhood and flexible work-life balance. This makes many women think, ‘What’s the point?’ and sack it off.” In 2015, SheSays launched its Who’s Your Momma mentoring scheme (WYMM), which pairs female creatives at different levels of their careers, to provide a soundboard on challenges such as how to ask for pay rises or deal with gender bias. “Until I started working at SheSays, I could barely count the number of senior women I knew on one hand,” recalls Bird. “Programmes like WYMM really help break the cycle.” Roshni Goyate, co-founder of The Other Box – a platform for increasing diversity in creative industries – agrees: “I specifically wanted a brown, female, working class, not privately educated senior person as a mentor,” she says. “I asked everyone I knew, and most had basically never worked with another person of colour. It made me feel like I have no place in this industry. I honestly thought about quitting and starting a whole new career.” Mentoring schemes can also be run internally. King, the games company behind Candy Crush Saga, runs a scheme called Women@King, which promotes equal opportunities for women in gaming. King is also involved with RoyaLGBT & Friends, a global network that supports LGBT+ employees and allies. Interestingly, King has recently started reframing ‘diversity’ as ‘inclusion’. “With inclusion, we look as whether people feel respected and valued,” says the company’s diversity and culture manager Natalie Mellin, who also points out that people usually fit into more than one ‘category’. “From an intersectional perspective, I’m not just a woman – I also have a sexual orientation, a skin colour, and so on,” she says. “There will be different issues for gay women, for black women.” Design a team with a place that's open for everyone This thinking has also bled into King’s products. In its workshop scheme called Crush The Norm, designers can identify ways they are portraying gender or race (even in squirrels) and learn to challenge stereotypes. “There’s a growth in the type of people that are gamers today because of the mobile phone,” explains Mellin. “We want everyone to feel included.” Agency ustwo has also made a conscious move towards gender equality. Designed to disrupt the statistic that only 12 per cent of creative directors in London are female, ustwo’s new leadership programme for female employees involves women sitting in on all leadership meetings. “If you see how decisions are made, you’re more likely to think, ‘I can do that’,” says Fuchs. In March, the studio announced that male and female employees can now both take the same maternity leave – six months paid leave – and in the past year they’ve reduced their gender pay gap from 13 per cent to 3.5 per cent by in-depth analysis of pay difference and why it happens. Your accessibility and diversity champions should actively attend events and share stories on social media. Karwai Pun The studio regularly blogs about its diversity challenges and strategies – something Pun stresses is important. “Your accessibility and diversity champions should actively attend events and share stories on social media.” This is not bragging or virtue signalling, but a way to flag to designers from under-represented groups that your company would be an inclusive place to work. Both Sairah Ashman – Wolff Olins' newly appointed (and first female) CEO and Ije Nwokorie, who she succeeds, suggest that part of overcoming the disparity between the number of female employees and female leaders is redefining what those top jobs look like. “You have to be honest enough to interrogate why women are not attracted to that position,” says Nwokorie. Ashman adds: “I’m a relatively quiet person, you wouldn’t hold me up as a poster woman for leadership, but at Wolff Olins, we’ve broadened the platform enough that you can pull up lots of different people and points of view.” To address this, employees could reconsider increasing employees’ access to training and experiment with reverse mentoring, where the creative director shadows a junior employee to see where issues may be arising. Clear goals for progression and promotion can help and, in case things go wrong, make sure your HR support is as independent as possible. Promote existing diversity Knowing your own value is also integral for those from under-represented groups. It can help to push the industry to value diversity more widely. “Embrace your cultural identity; it’s not necessarily a barrier,” says Bunbury. “In all things you do, you should be drawing from a wide creative cultural palette, it’s the thing that will give you uniqueness and make your work stand out,” he explains. Self-promotion and putting yourself forward may also deter some people. “At the beginning of my career I struggled to speak out,” says Roz Fraser, senior designer at GBH, “but I’ve been fortunate to work under both men and women who have pushed me, and now I feel a lot more confident at self-promotion.” Alice Tonge, head of 4creative, agrees: “If someone shoots you down you’ve got to keep on going. Be resilient and relentless.” Resources like Otegha Uwagba’s new title Little Black Book are invaluable for creative women – and indeed all creatives – in developing strategies for things that hold them back. Make a difference When you’re not in a managerial role or are self-employed, it may feel like changing an industry-wide diversity issue is out of your grasp, but there are lots of things you can do. “Talk about it,” says Kath Tudball, design director at The Partners. “Notice hidden biases and inequalities and speak up about them.” Employers want the best staff working for them, and if they realise they’ve got a rep problem then that starts to have an effect Otegha Uwagba From calling out offensive office ‘banter’ or refusing to sit on judging panels or give talks unless there’s a representative mix of people to asking new employees whether they’re okay with whatever pronoun you have assumed to use, being open and honest is a good way to start being an ally. Push clients to rethink their audience or include more diverse faces in their campaigns, and draw on resources like illustration network Women Who Draw (where you can find female, LBTQ+ or people of colour specialist illustrators), racially diverse photo library Autograph Media and stereotype-bashing modelling agencies, such as Campbell Addy’s Nii Agency. Uwagba, who founded the creative networking platform Women Who, says that even freelancers have the ability to make a difference. “It’s about the companies you endorse. Vote with your feet. Employers want the best staff working for them and if they realise they’ve got a rep problem then that starts to have an effect.” Neckles sums up why you should be addressing diversity: “If you’re serious about existing, then you should be serious about widening the pool of people that you work with and learn from.” Illustrations: Guillaume Kashima This article was originally published in issue 271 of Computer Arts, the global design magazine – helping you solve daily design challenges with insights, advice and inspiration. Buy issue 271 here or subscribe to Computer Arts here. Related articles: How do you judge your success as a designer? How to celebrate diversity without being patronising Best free fonts for designers View the full article
-
Every good designer knows that at the heart of any creative is a strong visual component; one vital image can provide the key to an entire project. To kick off this creative process, Vectorplace – an extensive online collection of top-quality vector illustrations – is a great place to start. It's not always possible to create every illustration from scratch, so for busy creatives a top-quality illustration, meticulously selected and ready for use in your projects, is a real life-saver. The Premium range of images is exclusive to Vectorplace There are a number of things that set Vectorplace apart from the crowd. All images are reviewed for their technical elements and meticulously curated before they are included in the premium vector collection. The Vectorplace team hand-picks each illustration with the customer and their changing needs in mind. All images are offered under a royalty-free license, which means once you've bought one you can use it worldwide in as many online projects as you want, for as long as you want. Vectorplace offers a number of extensions to your license, so you only pay for the exact usage you need. Vectorplace offers basic edits to all the images in its Standard collection As all the images are vector format, you can easily tweak colours, scale them up or down, or basically edit them however you'd like to fit your particular project. For beginners – or if you're short on time – Vectorplace also offers a handy customisation service that enables you to order any illustration from the standard collection with basic modifications, such as switching the aspect ratio, or adding new vector elements. All of which helps you do your job faster, and frees up time for creating cool content. The collection is meticulously selected with designers' changing needs in mind Vectorplace has put a special focus on user experience. The service is intuitive to use, with a well-designed search system to help customers can find exactly what they want as quickly as possible. Pricing is easy to understand and good value, and buying an illustration is simple and pain-free – if you only need one illustration, for example, you can buy that image alone rather than having to invest in a package. If you're after unique vector illustrations, hand-selected for you, Vectorplace is a great place to start. View the full article
-
If you've seen our Black Friday 2017 and Cyber Monday 2017 early deals pages, you'll know we're working hard to bring designers, illustrators and artists the best bargains on creative tools as we gear up for the big day this Friday. And today we've got you another great deal on training to boost you UX and UI design skills. There's a difference between a web design that looks good and a design that looks and feels good to use. Your users want apps and websites that are intuitive and easy to use when they interact with them. Learn the most important elements of creating engaging designs with the UI and UX Design Bootcamp. You can get it on sale for just $39 (approx £30) – and save an additional 15% off when you use the coupon code GIFTSHOP15 at checkout. The UI and UX Design Bootcamp is filled with more than 39 hours of essential design training taught by professionals who know the topic best. For anyone interested in the art of website and app design, this bundle is a must-have resource. It's the best way to learn the principles of creating engaging and interactive design. It doesn't matter what you’re creating or what platform and tools you're working with, you'll pick up important concepts to help improve the functionality of your designs and keep your visitors coming back. You can get the UI and UX Design Bootcamp on sale right now for just $39 (approx £30). That's a 96% saving off the full retail price of $995 for a bundle that will improve your design projects, so grab this deal today – and make sure you use the coupon code GIFTSHOP15 at checkout to save even more. The courses included in the bootcamp are: Become a Senior UX Design Strategist Rapid Prototyping with Ionic: Build a Data-Driven Mobile App Android Design: Learn UX, UI & Android Marshmallow How to Build Habit-Forming Products Mobile User Experience: The Complete Guide to Mobile 'Mobile UI and UX Design' Course About Creative Bloq deals This great deal comes courtesy of the Creative Bloq Deals store – a creative marketplace that's dedicated to ensuring you save money on the items that improve your design life. We all like a special offer or two, particularly with creative tools and design assets often being eye-wateringly expensive. That's why the Creative Bloq Deals store is committed to bringing you useful deals, freebies and giveaways on design assets (logos, templates, icons, fonts, vectors and more), tutorials, e-learning, inspirational items, hardware and more. Every day of the working week we feature a new offer, freebie or contest – if you miss one, you can easily find past deals posts on the Deals Staff author page or Offer tag page. Plus, you can get in touch with any feedback at: deals@creativebloq.com. Related articles: 30 Chrome extensions for web designers and devs 10 steps to an engaging user experience 11 web design tools you can't live without View the full article
-
Responsive web design has been around for years now, and in that time we’ve seen a drastic shift in how we approach website development. Media queries let us write CSS based on a variety of conditions, such as resolution, media type and – most popularly – browser viewport dimensions. Christmas offer: Save up to 49% on a subscription to net magazine Design patterns have emerged to help us manage the complexity of building websites that respond to a range of different screens. Brad Frost conveniently maintains a compilation of patterns that you can use for your sites. Generally speaking, these patterns target content based on the full width of the browser’s viewport. In other words, they target elements at a macro level, not at a micro level. On Shopify.com, for example, each band of content is dealt with separately and collapses well on smaller devices. From a design perspective, it’s easier to manage the design for these bands. From a coding perspective, it’s easier, too. Breakpoints You can either create breakpoints at a global level or at band level. At a global level, it’s not uncommon to see mobile, tablet and desktop breakpoints defined and for the developer to choose how each element will respond within those specific breakpoints. At a band level, you have a bit more control over when each content piece should break. Maybe that two column piece should collapse into a single column at 400px, but that three-column piece should collapse into a single column at 500px. While we have a bit more control when dealing with breakpoints at a band level, we’ve also made things more complex from a design perspective. Most designers working in Sketch or Photoshop will create artboards for a few common viewports: likely portrait mobile, portrait tablet and desktop. When dealing with breakpoints at a band level, the designer needs to move away from this limited number of views and start breaking things down into smaller chunks. Yet all of these bands still need to be presented as cohesive designs, in traditional mockups. Complex web apps With many art-directed, content-based sites, the patterns are presented in a limited number of scenarios. Web apps, on the other hand, use smaller patterns across a wider array of contexts. A button group might be displayed in a header, the main body, a sidebar or a modal. Each band – the header, intro and content – can be responsively designed independently of each other and without worrying about context Now consider all of these contexts multiplied by the variety of viewports on which these pages might be displayed. We’ve gone from three possible views (mobile, tablet, and desktop) to hundreds of possibilities. With media queries, we have to use a number of context-based selectors to handle these scenarios. Many web apps need to present similar components across varying layouts of different sizes. For example, an autocomplete component might be presented differently in a wide main column than in a smaller side column. Enter container queries Media queries can only tell us what the width of the viewport is or the width of the document. Therefore, if we want to change how a component looks in a sidebar when the sidebar is larger than 400px, we have to know that the sidebar will be 400px wide when the viewport is greater than 1000px wide. Container queries, on the other hand, allow us to say ‘this is what my component should look like when it has more than 400px of space’. Before you get too excited, allow me to disappoint you quickly: there is no browser implementation for container queries. Worse, there is no specification for container queries (cue sad violins). The reason no specification has sprung up yet is because of the circular logic that can be introduced. Let’s take a look at a quick example: Here, the child element pushes the size of the container to 500px wide. Next, we add a container query to apply conditional styling when the container is greater than 450px wide. Notice, however, that we set the child element to 400px wide. That means our container query no longer applies, as the container will shrink to 400px. Since the container query no longer applies, we fall back to the original declaration of 500px. This pushes the width of the container back out to 500px and the container query applies again – and so on until the browser crashes. It’s not yet clear how to solve circular logic in container queries. Shopify solution With no specification in place, we have to solve the problem with JavaScript. At Shopify, we chose to hand-roll our own solution. We created a custom script that would find our components on the page and could conditionally apply ‘responsive’ classes when the width conditions applied. For our needs, width was the only consideration we worried about. This is by far the most popular property that is considered when building responsive designs, and some scripts only detect width . Of course, having access to query other properties like height can allow us to create more flexible and powerful designs, but this also increases the complexity. To define the queries, we created an array of JSON objects that allowed us to quickly select the elements we wanted, then test whether the parent element was greater than the min-width or less than the max-width . If it was, then we applied the responsive class to the element: The ‘component’ name was a selector – almost always a single-class selector, for simplicity’s sake. We used a naming convention to easily identify our components and continued that naming convention through to the responsive classes that were applied. Those responsive classes would be defined in the same file as the rest of the component. If you’re familiar with Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS (SMACSS), then these responsive classes behave much like states. Right: Typical layout - A two-column layout using . The content stretches to fill the column it’s in Left: Lining up - When space is tight, Flexbox automatically reflows the right column underneath the left column, and the content grows to fill it Moving fast For complex applications that have a large collection of components, it’s great to be able to focus on a single component with little concern for the context in which it’s used. With a deadline looming, the team was able to divide up the work by tackling each component separately. How would the tabs work? How would the header work? How would the layout work? Each team member could grab a piece, address its concern, create a pull request, and then move on to the next component. This allowed us to take a web application and make it responsive in under a month. ...and not so fast Going responsive in under a month? Holy cow! Why isn’t everyone using container queries and building responsive applications in such a short period of time? Truth is, much of the work took place at design level, which happened months prior to the Shopify Admin going responsive. Having a design team that was considering the impact of their work knowing that we’d eventually go responsive saved us a lot of work. Some components – like tab overflow – needed consideration well before going responsive, and a JavaScript-based solution that didn’t use container queries was built separately. In my recent time at Xero, for example, the design team was going through this process. It takes time to consider every component under every context, and more time to build the component. If the designers aren’t thinking this through then it’ll be the engineers doing it. I don’t say that disparagingly. The work needs to be done regardless, and the sooner, the better. Furious JavaScript The loop for finding elements and applying conditional classes would be executed many times: Every time the page loads Every time the browser resizes Every time an interaction affected document flow Every time content was dynamically injected The more components you have that need conditional styling, the more work JavaScript has to do. Any of these events could create a noticeable lag. The page loads, and then a fraction of a second later a discernible shift occurs when the classes are applied. Avoiding queries altogether Over a year on from when Shopify initially implemented container queries, the team is slowly moving away from using them, choosing other techniques to solve the problem. So if container queries are too taxing for now, what can we do without them? As it turns out – thanks to Flexbox – we have options. The biggest challenge when it comes to responsive design is how to handle multi-column content and reflow it in a sensible way. Let’s take a look at two common examples. Two-column offset design with side navigation Shopify has a number of screens like this: there is a side navigation and then a content area that features two columns, one larger than the other. If the two columns were both the same width, then we could just float the columns. When the page could no longer fit both side by side, one column would fall under the other. However, with offset sizes, simply floating one column under the other would look weird. As you scroll down, you’d notice the content suddenly didn’t stretch to the full width of the container. With Flexbox, we can define a min-width to our columns and a flex-wrap: wrap to the container. When the columns hit their minimum, one will flow under the other. The best part is that when it wraps, each column will now stretch to the full width of the container. By setting min-width on the primary column, we essentially define a breakpoint based on that column, allowing the column next to it to flow under when there’s no longer enough room. The Media object with actions aligned to the right on larger screensMedia object with actions The media object defines a very common pattern: image on the left, with descriptive text to the right of it. This pattern commonly needs to be augmented with a third piece: right-aligned actions. Flexbox combined with our media object allows it to reflow the actions under the contentWe’ve augmented the body of the media object with two containers: one for the content and one for the actions. Like the last example, we set flex-wrap to wrap so when we run out of room, the second container will wrap onto the next line. When the content container reaches its minimum width, set using flex-basis , the actions will flow to the next line. The actions, however, will now be aligned to the left with the content, instead of to the right. Fill 'er up As you can see from these two examples, the best approach to building a responsive site is one where you don’t have to create a bunch of media queries in order to manage the design across different viewports. Take advantage of the fluidity of the web by allowing the components of your design to naturally fill the containers they’re in. Avoid specifying fixed widths and heights that will make your site unduly brittle. The future You’ll need to evaluate your project to decide whether using a JavaScript solution to implement container queries on your site is ideal. At Shopify, it allowed us to move quickly and we accepted the performance drawbacks in the beginning. Getting a native implementation of container queries would be ideal, but we’ll need more advocacy and deep thinking about how to solve the performance and circular issues before we see progress. The ResizeObserver, if introduced into the DOM, could provide an easier and possibly more performant implementation in JavaScript. To get involved with the future of container queries, check out the Responsive Issues Community Group (RICG). This article was originally published in issue 285 of net magazine , the magazine for professional web designers and developers – offering the latest new web trends, technologies and techniques. Subscribe to net here. Special Christmas offer: Save up to 49% on a subscription to net for you or a friend for Christmas. It's a limited offer, so move quickly... Related articles 28 outstanding examples of CSS 16 amazing HTML examples Get started with HTML canvas for animation View the full article
-
Whoever your graphic design portfolio site is aimed at, you have to remember that people’s time and attention is limited. Employers, to take one example, may look at dozens of portfolios in the space of 10 minutes. So you only have a few seconds to really grab their attention and enthuse them. You don’t want to go too crazy, though. Fill your portfolio with too many tricks and visual flourishes and you’ll end up taking attention away from the work itself, which as a graphic designer is the thing you want people to focus on the most. These eight great portfolios, all launched or updated in the last 12 months, strike a nice balance between being interesting and distinctive without overwhelming the work. Check them out and we hope you pick up some ideas that work for your own portfolio. 01. Rafael Kfouri This minimal one-page site gives Kfouri’s colourful and impactful visuals room to breathe Rafael Kfouri is an award-winning graphic designer currently working for Wieden+Kennedy Portland. He previously worked at F/Nazca Saatchi&Saatchi and CUBOCC. The one-page portfolio site is a tricky thing to pull off, but Kfouri succeeds well in giving his colourful and impactful visuals – including single images and collages – room to breathe. Giving them almost the entire width of the screen, with just a couple of slim sidebars for context, allows visitors to enjoy and appreciate the wide scope of his work at a leisurely pace. There’s only the barest of information about each project, and to be honest, we’d like to have seen more. But as a way of showcasing graphic eye-candy smartly and with minimal (if any) clicks needed to get to the goodies, this portfolio offers a lot of inspiration. 02. Jennifer Heintz Heintz’s portfolio site makes great use of colour Jennifer Heintz is a designer and illustrator living in Boston, USA. Currently a fifth year student majoring in graphic and information design, she’s also creative director of the Northeastern University Political Review. When you’re a student, you typically don’t have a huge amount of work to draw on, so careful curation and imaginative presentation become paramount. Heintz’s site scores highly on both, with a great use of colour, delightfully smooth scrolling and a snazzy eye motif. These work together to make each individual project much more enticing than it might have seemed on a more cookie-cutter site. 03. Pavel Kedzich Kedzich brings some of his own graphic style to the design of his portfolio website Pavel Kedzich is a graphic designer based in Riga, Latvia. He focuses on digital projects with typographic sensibility and an editorial slant. Most portfolio sites take a minimalist, “get out of the way” approach to interface design, preferring to let the work speak for itself, and that’s fine. But Kedzich has decided to add some of his own personal graphic style to the typography and layout here, and this certainly adds an extra little something. Presenting images as preview windows interspersed with pullquotes and typographical elements stands out, and we particularly love that he gives full credits to everyone else who worked on the project. 04. Mat Weller Mat Weller’s portfolio presents both client projects and personal experiments Mat Weller is a freelance graphic designer from the UK who’s currently living and working in Los Angeles. He’s worked with brands including Manchester United, Arsenal FC, BBC Radio 1, J Brand Jeans, BSkyB, G4S and Vodafone. His portfolio site takes quite a different approach from the norm, presenting visuals from a number of colourful projects in a full-screen carousel (although not, sadly, project details beyond the website or type of project in a word or two). More interestingly, there’s also an ‘Experiments’ section, where he’s played around with “themes of luridness, garishness, the psychedelic experience and reality distortion” in intriguing and effective ways. 05. Ade Mills This blue-tinged portfolio site evokes an earlier era of photocopier art Ade Mills is a graphic designer, illustrator and podcaster based in Bexhill, East Sussex, UK. There’s a lo-fi graphic sensibility to his monotone portfolio site that’s reminiscent of old-school fanzines and photocopier art. It’s an inspired and effective way to convey the fact that Mills works happily across both digital and analogue formats. Although it does take a couple of clicks to get to his work, the bold typography and glitch effect you're greeted with on the homepage convey a sense of his style and capabilities before you get there. 06. Ben David Sandhu Sandhu’s portfolio oozes the confidence you expect from a senior designer Ben David Sandhu is an award-winning art and design director based in London, UK, who’s collaborated with clients including Honda, Speedo, Bottega Veneta and Shangri-La. His portfolio site is super-clean, showcasing just one image at a time in a manual slideshow with the absolute minimum of cruft. Click through, though, and you get a useful amount of text and images; the former well crafted, the latter intense and attention-grabbing throughout. 07. Jean-Loïc Antunes Antunes’ portfolio site hosts a variety of design work, and neat type effects help you get to where you’re going in a fun way Jean-Loïc Antunes is a graphic designer and illustrator based in Lyon, France. His portfolio site’s homepage is based around a slightly crazy animated treatment of his name; scroll down and similar typographical trickery awaits. It’s an inventive way to convey the breadth of his multiple design skills, and helps put a smile on your face while you find the section you’re looking for. And once you’ve arrived there, the work itself – from graphic design to illustration, web design and beyond – is consistently top-class. The little photos that pop up when you hover over the main project links are a nice touch, and project descriptions are brief but clear. 08. Alex Coven Coven uses some simple tricks to make his portfolio distinctive Alex Coven, in his own words, “wears three hats”, as a freelance graphic designer, letterer and frontend developer based in Chicago, USA. He illustrates those hats literally on the homepage, which is a brilliantly simple way to convey the depth of his skills and experience. Scroll down on his site to see his work, and across on each one for more information about that project. Clever use of colour overlays again acts as a simple device to keep things distinctive and interesting. Related articles: 6 rock-solid ways to improve your graphic design portfolio The 10 commandments of working at a London design agency 10 visual storytelling tips from top agencies View the full article
-
Got a winning idea for an app, children’s book or new business venture? Or do you want to diversify your skillset to help you aim big in your next career move? Whatever your dream, stop thinking about it and go for it, with two months of free Skillshare Premium courses to empower you with the expertise you need to see it through. As illustrator Eva-Lotta Lamm says in our Why you should make time for creative side projects feature: “My advice is to just start doing something that interests you and see where it will take you.” Her sketchnotes began as an illustrated travel diary and grew into her main career as she was booked for speaking engagements and teaching workshops. “Personal projects for me are important because they act as a beacon for what I'm about,” Brendan Dawes told us in our recent interview with him, adding that the attention from personal projects can help to get your name out there. Could that great idea of yours be the key to landing a job at a top design studio, or running a successful side business? Numerous creatives like Lamm and Dawes have had success with their passion projects, but they also all had to start somewhere. You may already have design qualifications and be a Photoshop pro or a web design whiz, but still have an area where you feel less confident or have a professional gap. Or you may have a burgeoning interest in a discipline that’s new to you. Learning these skills could see you progress up the career ladder faster, and help future-proof your career at a time when flexible, eager and multi-talented creatives are in demand. If you’d like to learn new skills or make improvements in anything from logo design and typography, to crafting a standout portfolio site and pitching your skills as a freelancer, Skillshare has a course to help. Its courses are taught by working professionals with core expertise in each field they teach about, so you know you’re in capable hands. Learning from passionate creatives will empower you to be the designer or artist you’ve always wanted to be. Some of the standout creative courses in Skillshare’s catalogue include: Ink Drawing Techniques: Brush, Nib, and Pen Style with Yuko Shimizu Hand Lettering Techniques: 5 Ways to Better Work with Mary Kate McDevitt Logo Design with Grids: Timeless Style from Simple Shapes with George Bokhua Creating & Using Custom 3D Objects in Illustrator with Evgeniya & Dominic Righini-Brand Web Design Essentials: Creating Marketing Homepages That Drive Results with Dennis Field Freelancing for Creatives: Strategies & Resources from First Leap to Finances with Margot Harrington As well as driven teachers, every Skillshare class involves other students by having you learn together, exchange feedback and showcase work. Have a look at the student projects on the Skillshare site now, to see what you could be creating. If you're looking to freelance outside of work, launch a side hustle, improve your skillsets at work, or pursue a personal passion project, check out the courses for creatives at Skillshare. Click here to redeem two whole months of Skillshare Premium membership for free. That’s two months to try over 17,000 classes - which will you choose? View the full article
-
For the best part of a decade, 2K was the prevailing production norm. But in the last couple of years it has been increasingly difficult to stick at this resolution, as film production has shifted to 4K, 5K, and even 6K. The 2012 Olympics even saw some early testing of 8K television cameras. If you’re going to produce 3D art content for the market from now onwards, you will need to have the ability to produce in 4K, and preview results at this resolution. Here, we're going to look at six monitors that can give you the 4K experience, with a range of sizes and prices on offer. (With brilliant Black Friday deals already coming in, and Cyber Monday just around the corner, you might just be able to snap up a bargain on a 4K monitor if you're quick.) 5 best laptops for video editing in 2017It is now possible to purchase a 4K monitor for as little as £250. But screens at this price will primarily be aimed at consumer usage, and won’t be best suited to professional 3D content creation. Primarily, this will mean colour accuracy won’t be guaranteed to an adequate level, but could also imply deficiencies in a number of other areas. However, the screens start at £350, up to nearly £1,000 ex VAT, so there is something here for every budget. Displaying Colour The first thing to consider is what 4K actually means. This just refers to the horizontal resolution, and in digital cinema is natively 4,096 pixels across, with 2,160 pixels vertically. But the TV version maintains the 16:9 aspect ratio, and only offers 3,840 by 2,160 pixels. Virtually all 4K monitors use the latter resolution, although 5K monitors are also starting to emerge, in particular from Dell. While LCDs have generally come in a variety of technologies, including TN, IPS and IGZO, flavours of IPS are usually the norm in the professional space, including Samsung’s variant PLS. The TN panels have faster response rates, as low as 1ms, but IPS panels are usually more like 4ms, or even higher, making them slightly less optimal for interactive activities like games. But colour fidelity is usually a lot better than TN panels. Whatever the screen technology used, cheaper 4K panels could also offer lower refresh rates, such as 30Hz at 4K, rather than 60Hz or above. This might be fine for static graphics work, but will lead to less smooth-looking motion. It’s also worth considering how the monitor displays colours, including the bit-depth of the display itself and that of the signal processing beforehand. Most screens are at least 10-bit with 12-bit processing, but premium screens can go higher. Of course, all of these are on-paper specifications, so we have also tested each of the screens with PassMark’s MonitorTest software, which provides a series of patterns designed to reveal the quality of a screen, as well as displaying a selection of bitmap images, video and 3D models for more subjective testing. Read on for our results. Get Adobe Creative Cloud01. Asus PA328Q The Asus PA328Q is cheaper, but doesn't compromise on colour uniformityAsus sent us two screens, and despite both being 32in and having very similar names, they are actually more different than you would imagine. The PA328Q is cheaper and offers a broadly similar specification to other 4K screens, beyond the screen size. Usability One of the key differences between the PA328Q and its more expensive sibling is that the former calculates colour in 12-bit, while the PA329Q uses 16-bit, although both have 10-bit displays. It still manages to offer 100% sRGB and Rec 709 support. There are the usual swivel, tilt, height adjustment and portrait pivoting options. The DisplayPort and Mini DisplayPort connections are 1.2 standard, with two HDMI 1.4 and a single HDMI 2.0, but no DVI or VGA. Performance Although this is the cheaper of the two Asus monitors, colour uniformity across the screen is already excellent, partly due to brightness uniformity compensation being available as a menu option. There is some banding visible with red and green gradients, as well as white, although not with blue. Gamma wasn’t reading quite as high as the setting implied during our testing, however. Conclusion The Asus PA328Q has the slowest response at 6ms on this test, and this was discernible if you looked closely at the moving rectangles screen in MonitorTest, or the video we used for more subjective assessment. However, the text test in particular shows that 32in is a very natural screen size for 4K. So if you can afford the extra cost of this much screen, the PA328Q is definitely a contender. 02. Asus PA329Q The colours on this screen are high quality with a rich subtletyThe PA329Q is the second 32in entry this batch from Asus, and although the housing is nearly identical in outward appearance, with just a gold strip rather than a red one along the bottom of the bezel, the circuitry inside has been considerably improved. In particular, colour is calculated as 16-bit internally, rather than 12-bit before reaching the 10-bit display. Usability The greater underlying bit depth means that the PA329Q can boast 99.5% Adobe RGB, as well as 100% sRGB and Rec. 709, plus 90% of DCI-P3 wide colour gamut, and support for Rec. 2020. It’s also factory pre-calibrated. There are subtle differences in connectivity, too, with four HDMI 2.0 alongside the DisplayPort and Mini DisplayPort 1.2, five USB 3.0 ports and an SD card reader on the edge of the bezel. Performance Single colour uniformity across the screen is excellent, with no noticeable change even at the edges. Like the PA328Q, there is a compensation option to help this. Red and blue gradients show no signs of banding, with only very minimal evidence in green and white. Overall, the PA329Q provided the best image quality on test, with colourful images having a subtle extra level of richness. Conclusion The 5ms response also means that the ghosting on moving objects is less visible than with the PA328Q, for marginally better production of moving imagery. So although this is the most expensive screen in this test, it does at least provide enough visual quality to warrant the price. If you want the best colour, it could be worth the extra. 03. BenQ BL2711U The BenQ BL2711U has good but not excellent image qualityThe BL2711U is a 27in 4K IPS screen from BenQ with specific preset modes aimed at CAD/CAM and animation, and a 10-bit screen. It offers 100% sRGB and REC 709 colour spaces, and even has certification from Dassault Systèmes for use with SolidWorks. Usability The stand enables the screen to be raised by up to 140mm, swivelled 45 degrees in either direction, and tilted up 20 degrees or down five degrees. It can also be rotated into portrait mode. There is a single Dual-Link DVI connection, one DisplayPort and two HDMIs (one 1.4, one 2.0 only), with the ability to put the image from one input inside another, but no legacy VGA is included. There is a four-port USB 3.0 hub, though. Performance When assessing with MonitorTest, there is a slight darkening along the bottom edge with images of uniformly bright colour, as well as white. Graduated blue and red is very smooth indeed, although green and white had a very slight hint of banding. Very small text was extremely clear. Overall, image quality is very good, but not completely perfect. Conclusion The BenQ BL2711U is a good all rounder for content creation. It has commendable performance with a few minor niggles, and the response rate of 4ms – which is about the best we normally see from an IPS screen – should enhance its abilities at tasks like video editing that benefit from a faster refresh. At £399.99 plus VAT, it’s very keenly priced for a 27in professional screen. 04. Philips 241P6VPJKEB This screen is slightly slower than most but is more afforableThe 241P6VPJKEB is a 23.8in 4K monitor aimed at professional applications, although not just 3D content creation. It uses an AH-IPS panel, which is a variant of IPS with improved colour accuracy, resolution, and light transmission alongside lower power consumption. This is the smallest screen in this test, and the cheapest. Usability The base allows for 130mm of height adjustment, tilting from -5 to +20 degrees, swivelling from -175 to +175 degrees, and can be pivoted into portrait orientation. Connections include VGA, DVI-Dual Link, DisplayPort, and HDMI 2.0, with MHL 2.0 support. The built-in three-port USB hub is 3.0 standard, so won’t slow down any external storage devices you attach. There’s even a built-in webcam and mic – handy for those collaborative Skype calls. Performance No glaring problems emerged during our MonitorTest session, with deep blacks across the full extent of the screen, and solid colours mostly rendered uniformly. There is a slight bit of backlight bleed around the edges of a solid blue screen, but not with solid white. Graduated colours are rendered perfectly. However, there is some unusual discolouration in curved lines, but changes in contrast are clear and small text readable, eyesight permitting. Conclusion Performance is not without the odd fault, and 4K is a lot of pixels to pack into a 24in screen. Philips only claims 99% of the sRGB colour space, where some others promise 100%. It has a 5ms response rate, which is slower than some and there is slight evidence of this in fast-moving content. But the £350 price is reasonable for a professional screen, especially given the extras like the built-in webcam. 05. Samsung U32E850R This screen is perfect for watching motion mediaThe Samsung U24E850R is the third 32in monitor in this group, although the actual screen diagonal is 31.5in. It uses Samsung’s alternative to IPS technology, called plane-to-line switching (PLS), which the company claims has some advantages over IPS. One of these is cost, which is borne out by the fact that the U32E850R is the cheapest 32in panel. Usability The U32E850R offers 97% sRGB gamut, which is a little off some of the best on offer, and Adobe RGB only stretches to 80% – quite a bit less than the Asus PA329Q. Connectivity includes two HDMI ports, one DisplayPort, and one Mini DisplayPort, with no DVI or VGA. There’s a four-port USB hub, but no built-in memory card reader. Performance Despite having a lower price than other 32in panels, the U32E850R exhibits commendable performance. Black, white, red, green and blue are all extremely uniform across the screen, and there is only a very mild, almost imperceptible darkening along the bottom edge of an all-white display. Graduated colour is similarly very smooth, with just the faintest sign of bands in green and white graduations. Conclusion With a relatively speedy 4ms response rate, this is one of the best screens on test for watching motion media as well, which was obvious from the pixel persistence test. Although this is the cheapest 32in 4K screens, you still pay a notable premium over the smaller screen sizes – you could almost purchase two BenQ 27in units for the price of one 32in screen. Nevertheless, with great image quality, the U32E850R offers the best value in its class. 06. ViewSonic VP2780-4K The ViewSonic VP2780-4K has excellent performance but a high price tagThe ViewSonic VP2780-4K is our second 27in screen, and has features to put it above BenQ’s alternative, but also a significantly higher price. While the screen is still 10-bit, colour is calculated to 14 bits of precision internally, so 80% Adobe RGB, and 99% EBU, can be offered alongside 100% sRGB gamut. Usability The VP2780-4K has ditched legacy DVI and VGA in favour of providing three HDMI 2.0 connections, two of which support MHL, plus a single DisplayPort 1.2a and Mini DisplayPort. There’s height adjustment of 150mm, tilt from 23 degrees up to five degrees down, 60 degree swivel, and the ability to rotate into portrait mode. Performance The screen is very uniform with black, white, red, green and blue, showing only very mild variation at the edges. Very minor banding is visible in some of the graduated screens. The higher bit depth internal processing is discernible with richly coloured images compared to BenQ’s 27in entry, with excellent fidelity. Conclusion The 5ms response rate isn’t the fastest here, but is par for the course for IPS panels. Compared to the 4ms panels, there was a little bit more edge blurring in fast moving screen elements. This is an expensive screen – 50% more than BenQ’s 27in entry – so while overall performance is excellent, the ViewSonic VP2780-4K is not such good value. This article was originally published in 3D World magazine issue 212. Buy it here. Related articles: The best video editing software 2017 The best laptops for graphic design 4 things every creative needs to know about 4K video View the full article
-
It's a problem that daunts even the most seasoned of creative directors: how do you know a good idea when you see one? And how do you nurture that idea so that it can achieve its full potential? To guide graphic designers through how to develop a brand, the creative directors from London-based studio SomeOne, Laura Hussey and Rich Rhodes, walk us through their creative process in the video and written steps below. 01. It should be contagious When a big idea hits, "it's like cayenne pepper: it hits you and then 20 minutes later you can't think of anything else and it explodes throughout the studio," is Hussey’s analogy. "There's a buzz that goes around, everybody cottons on and feels the same thing." As it develops, lots of people will start chipping in with ideas. 02. It could come from anywhere "We once had a designer who started with us and in the first week her idea got through," recalls Hussey. "We had a week to pull off the whole project. Some studios would take it away and give it to a more senior designer, but she got to work on it all the way through – it was just a brilliant idea and everyone bounced off it." 03. It must be flexible For Hussey, a big idea needs to translate effortlessly across different touchpoints. "A brand world is a kit of parts; a toolbox; an operating system," she explains. "It's the stuff that flexes around the main idea, and can be completely different in each type of media. Smaller ideas are limited: that's where you end up not with a brand world, but just a logo, a typeface and a colour." “A big idea is something that both answers a question but then answers another question. You can answer the brief but then, what else can it do?” says Rhodes. “It’s something that is provocative and then pushes further.” 04. It can survive rigorous testing To determine an idea's flexibility, you need to try it out in many different contexts. "Having experience in lots of different sectors is great," Hussey reflects. "Someone will say: 'Great, it works on the website, or in a brochure, or an app, but what would you do for PR? How does that work in retail?' We cross-pollinate all the different things that a brand world has to do." 05. It's prepared for the worst Best-case scenarios are great, but for Hussey it's just as important to anticipate the worst. "What happens in the brand world if something disastrous happens? Does it fall apart? Can it cope? it’s not always about telling the story you want to tell," she warns. This article was originally published in issue 255 of Computer Arts, the global design magazine – helping you solve daily design challenges with insights, advice and inspiration. Subscribe to Computer Arts here Related articles: How to craft a brand voice The designer’s guide to using colour in branding Best free fonts for designers View the full article
-
That November pay day is getting closer, so we've rounded up the best Christmas gift ideas for design students and junior designers. We've got gifts in four ranges – under $25, under $75, under $125, and (for the more generous), over $125. Books are always a safe bet, so we've got a stack of them – about type, about icons, about the best young designers in the country. We've also got the best Moleskine design of the year. And we've got a workshop that'll get any fledgling designer's Instagram photos flying. Plus there's a little phone printer to print out ideas on the move, a portfolio cover to help them stand out in job interviews, and a first aid kit for gadgets. Let's get started. Best gifts for design students under £20/$25 Did you know that van Gogh supposedly used a Moleskine? Picasso too? And Hemingway… Of course you do. Everyone does. But none of them had a Moley that features graphics by the great American artist and activist Keith Haring. Haring was one of the late 20th century’s most influential image makers, and this is easily the best limited edition Moleskine of the year. Type: A Practical Guide for Students and Designers offers a thorough introduction to typography – "a crucially important skill that underpins practically every aspect of graphic design" – and is aimed at students, recent graduates, and self-taught designers. Richard Poulin, principal of multidisciplinary design consultancy Poulin + Morris, New York State, is your guide. In his new book Thinking in Icons: Designing and Creating Effective Visual Symbols, Felix Sockwell (Google, Facebook, New York Times) talks you through everything from the "refined corporate visual systems" to the "ubiquitous emoji". These icons, he argues, have become an international language we're all fluent in, often without realising it: "This is the designer’s guide to creating the next great statement." Best gifts for design students under £50/$75 Ford Motors. Esquire. Obama. If you don't know the name Aaron Draplin, chances are you've seen his work. This book is a "mid-career survey" of the graphic designer's portfolio, which shares case studies, road stories, and advice on how he made it to the top, with loads of examples of his stuff. His commentary is lively, too. Handmade, Italian leather, pithy inspirational quote: Hope House Press knows the score when it comes to luxury notebooks. Its stuff has a "cult celebrity following." The Progress Not Perfection Notebook comes in nine different colours and you choose from plain, lined or squared paper for the pages. It also comes gift wrapped, with a handwritten note of your choice. Twenty One: 21 Designers for Twenty-First Century Britain looks at the biggest names in British design today. "They lead public taste and critical debate; they are the innovators and the explorers of new materials or processes; they are establishing new ways of working, and redefining what that work might be," it says. Author Gareth Williams looks at the folios of, among others, Troika, Jaime Hayon, and El Ultimo Grito. 07. Magazine subscription From £45/$60 (1 year digital subscription) A magazine subscription is a great option for a design student – not only is this the gift that keeps on giving all year round, it's also a great way for them to get familiar with the industry and learn all the vital info they need to master their specialism. At Creative Bloq, we represent a number of best-selling design and creative magazines, each for a different creative specialism. For graphic designers there's Computer Arts, for digital artists there's ImagineFX, for budding web designers or developers we have net and Web Designer, and fledgling 3D artists can learn plenty from 3D World and 3D Artist. Plus, all these titles have limited-time Christmas offers on with up to 49% off the price of a subscription, so they're a bargain at the moment. Best gifts for design students under £100/$125 08. Under-The-Jack Pack Price: $78The way we see it, the Under-The-Jack Pack has two functions. First, its "ultra-slim profile lets you carry your laptop covertly", which is ideal if you're worried about being robbed or you're a part-time spy. Secondly, a backpack looks rubbish on top of really smart clothes, so this product lets you carry everything you need to carry without creasing up your new winter coat. It's functional, too, with pockets and compartments for phones and headphones, and it's compatible with 13 and 15-inch laptops. The Polaroid ZIP mobile printer prints directly from your smartphone or tablet through bluetooth. Like an old-school Polaroid, it doesn't use ink. It prints 2 x 3-inch photos, full-colour and smudge-proof. The app's free for iOS and Android users. It's small and lightweight, which is a good way of quickly getting ideas off your phone and up onto the wall. This solid oak wooden speaker beefs up the sound that comes from your iPhone. You slide your phone into the slot at the back – no wires, no batteries. Furniture designer Nick James makes all speakers by hand, so you're basically getting a one-off, with no two pieces of wood being the same. Ask him really nicely and he might even chuck in the dog (probably not, though). This is a first aid kit for gadget heads, a "personalised all-in-one tech roll" that includes cables and chargers and headphones for pretty much every piece of kit you could own. And it all comes in a leather, suede-lined case. Best gifts for design students over £100/$125 This workshop introduces the "core concepts of food photography from context to composition" before you head out into London to shoot at various locations. You can do it with a phone or a camera, and the course leaders says there's something to be learned whether you're a beginner or pro. It also includes three food tastings and a drink. If your portfolio is starting to look sharp, you should keep it in something that does it justice. This bamboo wood folder is, "Designed by designers, for designers." You can personalise it, with names laser etched onto the cover, and it's available in various sizes, with any custom sizes offered on request. While it is expensive, if you're looking for a special gift for the design student in your life, you'd struggle to do better than a Surface Book (plus, the price of the original model is on its way down since the release of the Surface Book 2 – and there may be some Black Friday deals to be had if you're quick). This laptop from Microsoft is the first real challenger to Apple's MacBook Pro, and it's difficult to find anything wrong with it – read our Surface Book review for more info. Related articles: The best Black Friday deals 2017 The best laptops for graphic design 2017 26 books every graphic designer should read View the full article