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Designing an ecommerce website is big business, and it's now easier than ever for companies big and small to launch an online store. Bespoke ecommerce site software – such as Shopify, which offers an amazing library of customisable templates – makes it easy to create beautiful and highly immersive online shopping experiences. Here are 12 great ones that have caught our eye. So read on for some top web design inspiration... 01. Simply Chocolate Each product on this site has plenty of space to shineSimply Chocolate is a chocolate company based in Copenhagen, Denmark. A vibrant and fun site design gives each product plenty of space to shine. A parallax effect means that as the user scrolls down, a chocolate bar floats above the content, unwraps, and breaks into chunks. Meanwhile the ingredients of each bar – coconut slices, almonds, mint leaves – animate gently in the background. These in-your-face effects work because there's only a little information displayed in the background at any one time, so it doesn't become overwhelming. Inspiring feature: In-your-face parallax effects put each product front and centre. 02. Kvell Each section is carefully art directedKvell is a contemporary homeware brand based in Canada, and its website is truly a thing of beauty. The homepage displays each range in situ, with the user navigating through by clicking the horizontal scrollbar. They can also dive in to explore each range in more detail (the navigation at this point switches to vertical, but the style remains the same). The bright colours, bold typography and balanced product shots used throughout make this collection a joy to explore. Inspiring feature: Consistent and appealing art direction used throughout. 03. Drybar Tiny animations add a touch of fun without being overwhelmingA great colour scheme paired with subtle animations gives this site both style and personality. Mouse over the little hairdryer and it bounces on its cord; hover over the icons at the top and a tiny animation gives you some feedback. Touches like this make the site fun to use without being overwhelming or annoying. Inspiring feature: Adding colour and movement on hover gives nice feedback and feels fun. 04. Nordstrom Product filters help shoppers narrow down what they're looking forFor a site with a diverse and large range of products – from fashion to furniture to kitchenware – the challenge is to make sure your users can find what they're looking for. Where Nordstom excels is in its product filtering options. After choosing the general area they want via the main header navigation, users can narrow down their search as much as they want to using further filters displayed down the left hand side. Essential for happy shopping. Inspiring feature: Great product filtering options. 05. Northernism A minimalist design makes this site undemanding for the userThis site creates a fresh look by moving away from established ecommerce design patterns, placing images and text on a grid that feels much less familiar. There's plenty of white space and each page contains a few simple images, making it seem a lot less busy than most of the web. Inspiring feature: Great use of photography makes the products feel luxurious. 06. The Practical Man A practical UI for The Practical ManA blocky layout, bold type and strong colour palette give this site for a men's sportswear retailer a distinctive, memorable style. Unlike many ecommerce sites, where an unusual aesthetic is confined to the homepage, the design here is consistent throughout – information on individual product pages is separated into a defined grid (price, colour, size, overview and so on). Inspiring feature: Large, chunky menus are easy to navigate and satisfying to use. 07. PRESS Get the feeling of a cosy bookshop on this beautiful siteThose who love bookshops but can't always make it to the high street can get a taste of a bricks-and-mortar bookstore on PRESS' website. The 'Books and things' shop has a website that makes use of beautiful photography to mimic the atmosphere in a tranquil bookshop. Scroll down and the products appear in a striking black and white chequered grid. Inspiring feature: Huge product shots let you get a feel for each book. 08. A Book Apart A Book Apart's ecommerce website makes a visual feature of its book coversWhile many ecommerce websites rely on large beautiful photography to sell their products, A Book Apart instead uses the block-colour covers to vividly display its series of 'brief books for people who make websites'. This works especially well when displaying the entire collection of books, available as a bundle. Inspiring feature: Makes the most of its simple, colourful book covers. 09. Ada Blackjack Leather goods ecommerce website Ada Blackjack shows off its products with photographyAda Blackjack is a brand of handmade bags and leather goods. While relatively traditional in terms of design and layout, this ecommerce website excels with its expressive use of large hero images. Photos are simple and clean, and let the product shine, as well as emphasising that it's quality that's the focus here. When viewing a large version of a product on its individual detail page, the designers chose to move away from the traditional popup by overlaying the large image within the page. Click the plus icon to see the effect. Inspiring feature: Simple photography shows off the high-quality products. 10. Bellroy Bellory's ecommerce website includes a fun interactive demonstrationLand on the homepage of wallet maker Bellory and you'll be greeted with a relatively simple layout. Delve a little deeper into this ecommerce website and you'll find a wide variety of very different designed pages highlighting individual products. Incorporating fun demonstration videos, the Bellroy site is a great example of how flexible Shopify can be when presenting your products online. The Slim your wallet tutorial is a fun and interesting guide to 'losing the wallet bulge', culminating in some rather nice photographs of the product and links to all its products. Inspiring feature: Fun video demonstrations and an interactive guide. Read more: How to build an ecommerce site from scratch 4 money-making ecommerce redesigns to learn from How to sell your work online View the full article

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Busy studios are only successful when they can handle their workload efficiently, otherwise things will go into meltdown: deadlines are missed, budgets squandered and clients lost. That’s where resource management is essential. In a special feature in association with Resource Guru, we paid a visit to two similarly sized London agencies to find out how they stay efficient. Locket Aebischer is senior account manager at SomeOne, and Dan Moore is co-founder and MD of Studio Output. How do you keep track of who works on what? Locket Aebischer: A Google sheet. It’s live, everyone can see it remotely, and we plan two to three weeks ahead. Account managers have a channel on Slack to talk about projects, and the design directors and founders have another so they can feed new business into us. Dan Moore: We also have a big, bulky, custom-built Google sheet that includes design, strategy, copy and whoever else needs to be on it. All the permanent teams are on there, and freelancers. Projects are manually allocated across the week, normally at least four weeks in advance. It gets looked at daily by the project director, then more formally by the producers and design directors if a pitch comes in or a project moves. We ensure there’s as much communication as possible, but you need to be flexible, as you never know what’s around the corner. Our spreadsheet does the job, but it could do it better. How accurate is your current method? DM: We need to get better at allocating actual time from a project into actual time on resource. Generally, people know they have a resource allocated, but also specific tasks. Four hours means you have to get x, y, z done in that time. When we first brought it in, the real challenge was people understanding that time has to have something at the end of it – it’s not just there to be looked at. It’s that balance between the creative resource understanding what there is versus being spoon-fed a bunch of stuff. You want people to take ownership of things, but you also want that level of control from the producers. Whatever tool you use needs to be friendly and accessible, but also make sure everyone’s voice is heard. Some people want to be micromanaged, others want to know what their week looks like and just get on with it. How do you avoid clashes between projects? LA: Usually it’s quite smooth. As I said, we talk a lot on Slack if we’re not in the same room, so if something comes up or there’s a big issue, we can shift things around a bit. Our clients are usually super-flexible and understanding, so if we need more time, it works out OK. Do freelancers fit into your system effectively? DM: When we get freelancers in, it’s generally to do a particular project or task, so their time is easier to resource out – it’s either speciality or overflow. Occasionally, we get someone in just as a pair of hands who can juggle different stuff. Over the years, we’ve built up maybe three or four people who can work for us on that basis. It’s like having a family member come back; they get straight into it, and know where everything is. We just make sure they know what they’re doing in our twice-daily stand-ups. LA: A lot of our freelancers are recommended by designers in the studio. They don’t necessarily come with time-sheets, or stuff that an agency might give them. We have another Google sheet to plot who’s available when. But if we do get a freelancer in, it’s usually for a particular project so we know exactly what hours they’ve spent. Studio Output’s rebrand of AutoTrader was run 'semi-agile'How do you respond to unforeseen issues? DM: You have to be agile to stay in business, but the key is to have as few unknowns as possible. If things jump out of the woodwork, it’s usually because of a communication issue – whether internal or with a client. Sometimes it gets to the point where you have to say ‘no’, or deal with it in a stronger way, but that’s rare. Being independent means we can go down that route if we need to, but we pride ourselves on great communication. When unforeseen things happen relating to health or weather, we have a tight enough team that everyone knows what’s going on. People pitch in. LA: We’re agile. If anyone’s free, or their project has quietened down a bit, they’ll mention it on Slack, and someone else snaps them up. Is staff burnout ever a danger? DM: It’s always a danger, but we’ve tried to foster an environment where people work hard within their contracted hours. They’ve got a life, and come back refreshed the next day. It’s not always possible; sometimes there’s more work than resource. With some projects, everyone wants to put the hours in; for others, they need to because it’s not worked out for some reason. Generally there’s a good balance. Doing things at weekends is rare in terms of projects – it might happen for an event or a shoot, but we make sure the team is happy doing it, and are transparent about time off in lieu. There are times when people do get to that burnout stage. It tends to be because they’ve got their head down and have tried to deal with it, and not shared it. We’ve had to go in and say: “Look, let’s talk about this. Let’s work it out.” If that’s happening, it’s on my shoulders. LA: Overtime isn’t usually a huge issue, but we have just done a 600-page book in two months, which is mad. There were definitely some late-night Deliveroos with that. Usually we’re good at plotting things far enough in advance so that our timelines are fairly manageable. Do time zones ever pose a challenge when you’re working on global projects? LA: Our international clients understand we’re in London, so mostly it’s fine. If it’s really urgent and needs to be done out of our time zone, our Sydney office can help us out. Occasionally someone stays late, but we try to avoid it. Part of SomeOne’s branding for the London 2017 World Para Athletics ChampionshipsYou have both spent some time with Resource Guru. How have you found it so far? DM: The approach is similar: you’re plotting projects on a timeline. But there are definitely time savings that will add up, and that becomes interesting. I like the way you can drag and drop, and queue up jobs – that’s something we have to do manually on our Google doc. The reporting tools are most interesting to us as an agency I think. I like how it puts more care into how resources are communicated to the people doing the job; it feels more personal for each person to have a dashboard, for instance. Some people are fine to be spoon-fed, some want the opposite, and having something like this where there is visibility is really useful. LA: Yeah, it’s super-easy to use. It’s great to be able to plot actual times against people, because on our current Google sheet we only really have ‘morning’ and ‘afternoon’. With Resource Guru, you can plot in times of day much more accurately, which has been quite helpful for scheduling meetings and so on. Which features in Resource Guru do you think your studio would benefit from most? LA: I think being able to see further ahead than one or two weeks would be really useful, so we can put in the deadlines of the biggest projects, and see when people have to work on them. At the moment we only do it one or two weeks ahead, which can make it harder to see the big picture. It feels like it’d be a real improvement to see meetings and deadlines all in one place, instead of having to check multiple calendars and tabs along the bar. DM: Daily email updates are a particularly good idea. It’s something we’ve tried to do manually over the years, and it’s just dropped off. Once there’s some project data in there, I’d be keen to explore the reporting tools in more detail. The bigger we get as an agency, the fewer people have eyeballs on each individual job. We need to review things from a global view, so it’s useful to have it all there at your fingertips. I think that’s where tools like this are useful – they give you a real-time look at what’s going on. Read more: How to build a thriving studio 56 best free fonts for designers How to futureproof yourself as a designer View the full article

From making false teeth to firing flaming arrows and painting magic wossname for fantasy author Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, British artist Paul Kidby has had long and eventful career, as he tells us. Kidby grew up in suburban London in the 1960s and 70s. As a boy, there was a lady's house on his street that he found fascinating. In the window was a skeleton. And when he heard what this lady did for a living, 
he found her house all the more fascinating. But he was well into his teens before he dared knock on the door of Miss Ockingdon’s. At that time, he’d just dropped out of sixth form and worked on a Youth Opportunity Program making false teeth. He’d been interested in art from a young age. He’d make plasticine models of the orcs and elves from the books that his big sister would read to him. He was always drawing, too. He had plenty of supplies, since his dad was a stationary salesman. As a teenager, 
he drew imaginative pieces influenced by his two interests: fantasy literature and punk rock – The Lord of the Rings and The Jam, War of the Worlds and The Clash. Aged 17, Kidby “plucked up the courage” to introduce himself to Miss Ockingdon. “Miss Ockingdon,” he says, “had been an anatomical artist working in operating theatres, and was an adept draughtswoman and calligrapher. She had taught art at Ealing Art College. Her students included Pete Townsend, Freddie Mercury and Ronnie Wood. “She told me, in no uncertain terms, that if I was serious about becoming 
an artist, I had to learn the nuts and bolts of my craft, starting with perspective, anatomy and composition. I had to ditch my imaginative illustrations and start drawing from life.” Kidby began illustrating for Sir Terry Pratchett back in 2002 and remained close with the author until his death in 2015Kidby visited Miss Ockingdon every week. She critiqued his work and set him challenges. Technically, he learned a lot from her. But above 
all else he learned that to be a successful artist you need discipline. “It was the start,” the illustrator and sculptor says, “of a life-changing process in my artistic development.” In the early 1980s, Kidby designed and painted roller blinds in a factory. He was working, but not hard. He and a friend would clock in and then go jogging. If they weren’t doing that, they were doing something far worse. 
“We made bows and arrows to fire across our department into the rolls of cardboard. This stopped after we got carried away and fired flaming arrows, as we realised things might be getting a tad out of hand.” By the mid-80s, he was working 
as a commercial illustrator, first as a freelancer in London, where he created greetings cards and packaging, and later at Future Publishing in Bath (which publishes Imagine FX and Creative Bloq, among others), where he drew covers for magazines like Sega Power, GamesMaster, and Commodore Format. “I had the optimism of youth,” he says, “but it 
did mean working a lot harder, including weekends. The days of firing arrows, flaming or otherwise, were well and truly over.” "I had no idea how popular he was!" “I painted this in 2014. It’s a large-scale piece, acrylic on canvas, and features over 70 Discworld characters. It’s for the Terry Pratchett Hisworld exhibition, at the Salisbury Museum.” I shook his hand and gave him my envelope of sketches... a few weeks later, he rang me up and suggested that I create some artwork for him. Paul Kidby Kidby remembers the day that would define his career: his first meeting with best-selling author Sir Terry Pratchett. “In 1993, my sister gave me The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett for my birthday. This was a pivotal gift,” he recalls. “At once, I was able to visualise Discworld and its inhabitants. I sketched up some of the characters and took them to a book signing in Bath.” At the time, Kidby had no idea how popular the late author was and was rather surprised when he joined a very long queue to meet him. “I shook his hand and gave him my envelope of sketches. I expected to hear nothing further. However, a few weeks later, he rang me up and suggested that I create some artwork for him. It was a very exciting moment.” Pratchett told him that the character designs he presented him with were the closest anyone had got to how he himself imagined them. “That for me was hugely encouraging, as was his endorsement of my creative work by allowing me 
to illustrate for him. "I would visit him often at his home and we would discuss the character designs and develop the look of the environments. Terry’s work remains a great inspiration for me and my gratitude for the opportunity he gave me is huge.” Depicting Discworld Wryd Sisters - “I started this piece in 2002 and finished it in 2013. It was for an exhibition at the Russell Coates Museum in Bournemouth. Granny Weatherwax looks like my mum.”Since 2002, Kidby has designed book jackets for the author’s celebrated Discworld series and its various tie-ins. Kidby used to have direct contact with Sir Terry until the author’s death in 2015. They’d flesh out designs together. Now Discworld commissions come from publishers or the Pratchett estate. For book jackets, Kidby receives a brief, then he works with an art editor until their ideas aline. “My job is to visualise the brief,” he says, “so it’s not a matter of compromise for me, rather a case of giving the client what they want to see. Sometimes I input additional ideas when I submit my designs, but it’s a collaborative process overall and one that I enjoy.” Kidby begins by drawing a very rough sketch, which only he’ll ever see. He doesn’t develop it into a series of working sketches. Instead, once he has the idea straight, he starts work on what will eventually be the finished piece, adding lines, taking them out, working with the pencil and the eraser until he’s entirely happy with the composition. He shades for form and tone. If he’s going to colour the work, he’ll create a detailed underpainting in sepia tones, which “provides the bones for the drawing by strengthening the lines and form.” He adds thin washes of colour. “The Reformed Vampyres, drawn for the 2003 Discworld Diary. I tinted my pencils digitally.”In the final stages, Kidby uses colour pencils for details and highlights. He describes himself as “modern old school.” He strives for accuracy, in perspective, in proportion, in the things that always underpin his paintings. He makes final tweaks in Photoshop. By his own admission, he’s not a fast worker. “Even if the subject matter is fantastical,” he says, “such as a dragon, I’ll apply my knowledge of anatomy to make it believable. My work has a historical feel and my colours tend to be muted. "I’ll often give an illustration a humorous slant, and sometimes I parody an existing painting, but only if it’s appropriate. I think the underlying thread that ties all my work together is ‘magical wossname’ – a useful Pratchett term.” Kidby works every day, often including weekends. He wakes up a 6.30am and runs on the treadmill. He gets cracking no later than 9am, after breakfast and a strong pot of coffee. He stops for lunch, walks his dog in the afternoons, and does Pilates to “counteract the hours I spend hunched over my drawing table.” He’s usually done by 6pm and rarely works at night. Kidby likes oils, acrylics or coloured pencils, and a smooth Bristol board on which to apply them. He doesn’t have a dedicated studio. He works at the dining table or in the conservatory. He uses an iPad, but for reference more than for making art. Other than that, he has no “fancy art equipment.” Immortalised in bronze This large-scale bronze statue of Sir Terry was created for the city of Salisbury, where the author lived. “Terry’s ongoing legacy is extraordinary, and there’s still a wonderfully rich body of work for me to illustrate”Kidby put together a project to honour the Discworld author, a sculpted portraiture bust of Sir Terry Pratchett. “I made it as a preliminary study for a full length, large-scale sculpture that I’ll be making of the writer for the city of Salisbury.” The bust is made in the oil-based clay Chavant, Kidby explains. “It has no wire armature inside. Initially, I worked from photographs until I was happy with the basic proportions. I then began to work from memory to try and capture the expression of the man I knew. Only when I was satisfied that I had a likeness of Terry did I tackle his glasses and trademark hat.” Kidby says that Pratchett’s signature glasses were very fiddly to make. “They’re formed with fine wire with a light skim of clay. The hat was made separately and can be removed. The sculpt was then taken to the foundry, Sculpture Castings in Basingstoke, where a team undertook the process of mould making and casting. “The final stages are fettling the raw bronze, before applying the patination and a beeswax polish. There will be only 12 bronze casts.” Interacting with viewers Great A’Tuin II - “This large-scale painting depicts the Discworld, on the backs of four elephants, who are standing on a giant turtle, travelling through space. Pratchett genius at work.”“As an illustrator,” Kidby says, “it’s my job to always consider my viewer and to convey information from the text into visual form.” He finds exhibiting in galleries the most rewarding part of his job as it enables him to show work as he intended it to be seen, free of text, titles or changes made digitally by clients. It’s when 
he can interact directly with the viewer, the most intimate kind of artist-viewer communication. Kidby is working in collaboration with Sir Terry Pratchett’s estate and the Salisbury Museum on a major exhibition titled Hisworld, which runs until January 2018 and features over 40 original Discworld paintings, including Kidby’s concept design for the large-scale bronze statue of Sir Terry for the city of Salisbury in England, where the author lived. He has some new collaborations lined up, too: “Although Terry has sadly passed away,” Kidby says, “his ongoing legacy is extraordinary, and there’s still a wonderfully rich body of work for me to illustrate, so there are plenty of exciting new projects on the horizon.” “This was done for a French book jacket in 2011. It became an iconic work because it was released during the time that Terry was battling Alzheimer’s. I painted it so that Terry’s chess pieces are positioned to win.”After two decades of these collaborations, Kidby’s art is almost inseparable from Pratchett’s writing, and vice versa. But being the go-to artist for one of the world’s most successful authors hasn’t changed the way he works. He sometimes spends years developing a piece before he puts pencil to paper. One single colour illustration can take six weeks to complete. And it all goes back to the discipline that he learned from his time with Miss Ockingdon. “I prefer to plough my own furrow,” he says, “and this doesn’t involve attending publishing parties, conventions, entering contests or being the focus of attention. So I guess courting praise is not important to 
me. In fact, the most important thing to me is to be left to get on with my work undisturbed.” This article originally appeared in ImagineFX issue 151. Buy it here or subscribe here. Read more: How Tove Jansson and the Moomins continue to inspire 8 things you didn't know about design for film How to draw and paint - 100 pro art tips and tutorials View the full article

Love it or hate it, Halloween is well and truly here. It's the time of year where thousands of young 'uns (and not-so-young 'uns) dress up as their favourite scary character and pumpkins adorn homes across the world. But not all pumpkin carvings are created equal – and these examples of creative pumpkin designs have truly blown our minds. 01. Pennywise Tim Curry's original Pennywise While there may be a new Pennywise in town these days, Ben Angotti (and friends Maniac Pumpkin Carvers) decided to pay homage to the original nightmare clown, played by Tim Curry. The design you can see here is entirely carved from pumpkin, lit with an LED bulb – no paint or markers. 02. BB-8 This two-pumpkin masterpiece comes complete with flashing LEDsMore cute than terrifying, this Halloween version of Star Wars' BB-8 is an impressive effort by imgur user Magnetic Attitude. It was created by stacking a little pumpkin on top of a bigger one, and lit with two light sources plus some flashing LEDs. Bonus points for creating a design that works from all angles, too. Head to imgur to see a 360-degree view of this masterpiece, plus GIFs of it in action. 03. Smiler This scary smiler was created by Villafane StudiosThis pumpkin carving comes from Villafane Studios, a group of specialist sculptors that makes incredible sculptures from pumpkins, sand, and other materials. This scary smiler is part of the Enchanted Pumpkin Garden exhibition that the studio puts on each Halloween. 04. Walking Dead The Walking Dead design is the second offering here from Maniac Pumpkin CarversWant to make a bold design statement this Halloween? You could do worse than to be inspired by the Maniac Pumpkin Carvers, aka Brooklyn-based artists Marc Evan and Chris Soria (which helped create the Pennywise design at the top of this article). Maniac Pumpkin Carvers is a full creative art studio that specialises in elaborate pumpkin art, and have clients including Honda, Yahoo, and the BBC. 05. Haunted castle The candle really brings this castle pumpkin design to lifeThe full glory of a pumpkin design is never quite realised until a candle is placed inside. This is certainly the case for this haunted castle design, with its intricate carvings of windows, bats and an almost 3D feel. The huge moon in the background really makes this one. 06. Bored squash Another amazing creation from Ray Villafane and his teamWe know we're cheating a little here, as this bored looking face wasn't actually carved from a pumpkin. It was etched into a squash and was created by Ray Villafane and his Villafane Studios team (which also created the Smiler design, at number 3). Come on - you didn't expect us to include just one of his designs?! 07. ET ET gets a spooky makeoverThis creepy ET design is part of the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular, hosted annually by Passion for Pumpkins. "Basically, what we put on here is an illuminated art show set to music,” explains founder John Reckner. The event begun as a small, family-run show, but has exploded in popularity – the event has been attended by over a million patrons to date. Check out further masterpieces in its online gallery. 08. Elephant This wizened elephant design is beautifulA beautifully crafted animal creation with this pumpkin design. We can't get over the amazing attention to detail with this one – from the carefully placed wrinkles to the wholly realistic eyes. Notice the 3D aspect of the trunk too. 09. Spider-Man Spidey makes his pumpkin design debutThere are plenty of superhero pumpkin designs out there, but we have to say that this crawling Spider-Man impressed us the most. Looking like he's crawling from the top of the pumpkin, the attention to detail with his web-like costume makes this a winner at Creative Bloq. 10. Game of Thrones The pattern work on this Game of Thrones pumpkin design is brilliantAnother television show-inspired pumpkin design is this awesome Game of Thrones opening credit creation. The pattern work with this one must have taken a bucket load of patience, with the carefully etched wolf silhouettes proving wholly inspirational. Liked this? Read these: 8 golden rules of handmade 100 amazing Adobe Illustrator tutorials Doodle art: 52 great examples View the full article

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It's now under a month until Black Friday 2017 will bring you some great discounts on creative tools, but in the meantime, we've got you a great daily deal on a stock image service. Stock art is an essential part of any creator's toolbox. Having the right image to fit a project is important, and you can always find the one you want with Stock-Graphic's massive library. For a limited time, you can get a lifetime subscription for just $29 (approx £22). Stock-Graphics is packed full of perfect images just waiting to be put to use in any project you can imagine. There are invaluable tons of assets, from one-of-a-kind vectors to a massive collection of editable images that can be used as you see fit. There are more than 13,500 photos and 2,900 vectors with new content being added every month, meaning you'll never run out of inspiration. Download as many images as you need and put them to use in all of your projects. A lifetime subscription to Stock-Graphics usually runs at $4,999, but you can get full access on sale now for just $29 (approx £22). That's a massive 99% saving off the retail price for an essential asset for any designer, so grab this deal 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 best Black Friday deals 2017View the full article

Horror and gothic art will never lose its appeal as long as humanity maintains its fascination with death. For some artists, the macabre provides a release from internalised fear. For others, it's a playful way to seek a reaction from their viewers. Whatever the motive, managing to capture a truly frightening scene, and present the viewer with a disturbing yet beautiful image, is a real skill. In honour of Halloween, we have updated this list of great contemporary artists who focus on dark fantasy themes, with many revealing why they paint such deadly themes. 01. Keith Thompson Keith Thompson's Pestilential Advent illustration If you haven't heard of Keith Thompson, you have almost certainly been privy to some of his inner artistic workings, bringing to life some of the most revered film director's characters (including Guillermo Del Toro) and injecting his creativity into video games and book projects. A concept artist, creature designer and illustrator, Thompson recently worked on 2017 horror flick The Ritual, to create the movie's 'big bad'. He's also worked on Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan book series. One of Thompson's illustrations used in Guillermo Del Toro's Don't be Afraid of the Dark (in the film they are maddened illustrations created in 1909 by character, Blackwood) Thompson's work focuses on characterisation and that is what makes his art so terrifyingly good. His characters are believable, and could be injected into any good work of horror fiction. 02. Scott M Fischer Copper X: Fischer painted this stunning piece on engraved copper, so the piece changes dramatically as you move around it You might recognise Fischer's intricate artwork from his years spent illustrating for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer graphic novel covers, and their various spin-offs. His process is no less than artistic alchemy, each image meticulously layered full of glorious detail and lyrical line work – it's a treat to watch, and he generously allows his fans to witness it through videos posted on his site. Fischer uses a unique variety of techniques, including painting on copper. Cover for Dark Horse Comics, Angel #3. Fischer worked in FWink on Duralar, hitting both sides of the translucent material Of course, not all of his work is horror, but all maintain a distinctly eerie, yet romantic feel to them – perhaps an unwitting insight into the artist's own delights and his gravitation towards all things fantastical. 03. Wes Benscoter Part of Benscoter's album cover design for death metal legends Mortician's Darkest Day of Horror Wes Benscoter is a master of metal music album artwork. His terrifying visual skills have been enlisted by pretty much every self-respecting death metal band, including Cattle Decapitation, Morticia, Kreator and Autopsy, not to mention thrashers Slayer, and heavy metal masters Black Sabbath. Autopsy's Skull Grinder finished album cover with featured artwork by Benscoter It takes a seriously strong stomach to take on the challenge of lending your hand in illustrating merch for such brutal acts – one that many an artist would understandably find a little hard to handle. Benscoter never fails to deliver, no matter how gruesome and gory. He'll happily intricately etch a corpse's entrails or set up a more subtly sinister scene. 04. Alexandros Pyromallis Pyromallis's Visual Horror Sequences evokes the golden age of horror flicks with a VHS vibe [Click for the full image] Pyromallis is the co-founder of Viral Graphics, a music-related artwork collaborative set up back in 2006 with fellow artist and music aficionado, Konstantinos Psichas. Under this name, they have provided some stand-out poster art for bands like Soundgarden, the Melvins and Swans. One of Pyromallis' T-shirt designs for Cvlt Nation. The artist also designs skateboards and band posters Pyromallis explains that he is "influenced by the plague of culture, horror films/comics, the metal of death, monsters, the hidden paths of the mind, human stupidity and fear." He practises what he calls "analogue illustration" – traditional techniques using ink, brushes and paper. He seeks to add his "own ideas and manifestations into the ever-boiling Cauldron of Depravity", and his illustrations certainly don't stray away from this macabre manifesto. 05. DZO: Olivier Olivier's illustration Persephone, originally drawn for guitarist Adam Crossman French illustrator Olivier (or DZO, as he's also known) wishes to go deeper into his exploration of the "noosphere" (a philosophical concept about human thought) with his art. Conjuring up the aesthetics of old etchings and religious engravings, occult manuscripts that flirt with alchemy, witchcraft and blasphemy, the artist creates intricate drawings dull of enigmatic detail. Close up of Persephone, black ink on Canson paper A mix of sensuality, darkness and mythology, he strives to create pieces that are disturbing, haunting and stimulating, oozing with mystery and fascination. 06. Anne Stokes Summon the Reaper: "the girl stands with confidence, in control of time as the darkness swirls around her," says Stokes "I am a fan of all things fantasy and much of horror falls into this. It's the dark side of fantasy with many monsters, characters and fantasy situations," reveals illustrator Anne Stokes. "I love the style of the gothic architecture with its soaring, sweeping shapes and detailed carvings. Dark and deathly imagery offer great scope for artists and the possibility of suggesting a sinister story in the picture. I like the possibilities for contrasting softer and darker subjects." Stokes has created works that have been used for metal band albums, poker decks, tees and zippo lighters (like this design) "I have always enjoyed the creativity and look of gothic clothing and enjoyed visiting the Whitby Goth weekends," Stokes continues. "Many people who attend make a great effort to dress up for the occasion which provides an interesting spectacle as the picturesque old town gets taken over by Goths." 07. Aly Fell Tiffany May recalls the vibe of classic tongue and cheek slasher flicks "I’m not really a 'horror' artist as such, but the 'Gothic' is an aesthetic that has always resonated with me, from music, fashion, literature and of course visual art. Confronting the shadows is the best way to come to terms with them," says artist Aly Fell. Fell classes his art as gothic rather than horror "That 'long night' is waiting for us all, pretending it doesn't exist is to kid yourself. My fluffy bunnies have teeth, but 'Death' looks good in a tutu." 08. Michael Whelan Smiler is sinister rather than gruesome Illustrator Michael Whelan is one of the most important science fiction illustrators of our time, having been the first living artist inducted in the Sci-Fi Hall of Fame in 2009 "I just think about things that seem eerie, or recall frightening situations from my own experiences then adapt them to the exigencies of illustration," admits Whelan. "I don't go for blood and gore; that's about creating revulsion, not fear. I'm inclined towards establishing a situation that provokes more of a feeling of unease than anything else. It's really very hard to actually create a sense of fear in an image alone. Deadend: Whelan is known for his surrealist art, beginning his career as a book cover illustrator "We, as viewers, are so accustomed to hearing soundtracks with scary noises and music to trigger a 'fear' mood that to do it with an image alone seems almost impossible in these jaded times." 09. Laurie Lipton Tete A Tete: Lipton describes this unnerving image as her "shadow" "I do not love horror. I draw about the things that annoy or frighten me," explains artist Laurie Lipton. "When I visited Mexico after my mother died, I realised that I could grab onto my fear of death and feel an illusion of control by drawing about it." Family Reunion Of the image above, Family Reunion, the artist says: "Death will reunite us with our ancestors. This is how I imagined it will look." 10. Godmachine Godmachine's horror-shaped illustrations have been printed by major gothic apparel companies as well as for skateboard designs Godmachine is inspired by pop culture visions. "There was this video shop in my village when I was a kid, the only video shop for miles around. It was run by one of my older brother's friends and it was wall to wall awesome video cases of drawn, bad photo manipulations and terrible moustaches (a la Tom Selek)." Darkness inside: Godmachine's work varies from pop-culture posters and intricate gothic illustrations to striking graphic designs like this one "I think without fail that shop defined my outlook on the art I am creating at the moment. I am working towards refining my shit but as a starting point; "My inspiration came from a video shop in a small village (think Werewolf in London) crossed with the little curiosity shop in Gremlins where he buys the Mogwai and Royston Vasey... these fictional places created a great launching pad for me." Next page: 8 more superbly creepy horror artists 11. Aeron Alfrey Baba Yaga is multi-layered in its creepiness "I enjoy the mystery that a disturbing or frightening image can evoke. I also like the power that a frightening artwork can hold over a viewer," explains Aeron Alfrey. "I enjoy pushing and pulling lights and darks by moving textural elements across countless layers. Madhouse Cover combines different textures "I'm obsessed with surface textures, and I'll construct an artwork from a wide variety of textures that I sculpt into anything from a face to a landscape. "But I'm also fascinated with the world of monsters that is often found in horrific imagery. Scenes of hell from the likes of Hieronymus Bosch, Cornelis Saftleven, Bruegel to Jacques Callot. I enjoy losing myself in landscapes of fantastical beasts." 12. Steve McGinnis Vincent Price is an all-too familiar face to horror junkies, featuring in fright flicks for decades from hero to villain Steve McGinnis started drawing at an early age. "My aunt, who's a huge horror fan, used to babysit me and we'd watch all the 70's Hammer films, Jaws, The Universal Monsters, and pretty much anything that would keep me up all night," he reveals. Michael Myers' white-out Captain Kirk mask provided a fearsome face for the Halloween films, yet Steve has managed to make him a little more terrifying in this ghostly image "It started reflecting in my art at a young age. I have some art I did at six featuring Grover vs Jaws. From then on, I was a horror fan. I grew up in the perfect time for horror; I was a kid in the 70s watching Hammer films and in the 80s watching slashers and so on. "I draw just about everything but when I get to sit down and draw a horror character I really put everything I have into it. I guess you'd say it's my passion." 13. Rovina Cai Rovina Cai says that her image of Dorian Gray was "the perfect opportunity to use animation to create something unexpected" Artist Rovina Cai says: "I like the idea of creating something beautiful with just a bit of danger lurking around the edges. It's a challenge to get the right balance between dark and beautiful elements, but when it works, it creates something unexpected that makes the audience want to look closer." Frankenstein's Monster: Cai depicts the monster as a sympathetic character, to make the grotesque beautiful "I created these images for the Month of Fear challenge. The first is an illustration of Dorian Gray – it was the perfect opportunity to use animation to create something unexpected. "The second is an illustration of Frankenstein's Monster – I wanted to depict the monster as a sympathetic character, to make the grotesque beautiful." 14. Dave Kendall In Houses of the Holy for the Madefire app, Kendall's expert use of colour provides a ghastly backdrop that would make even the more ordinary image appear ghastly "From a very early age, I've been drawn to the gothic and macabre," explains illustrator Dave Kendall. "It started with exposure to the old Universal monster films and carried on with literary forms. Early exposure to Stoker's Dracula and the world of Stephen King cemented that." Kendall has provided his gothic imagery to capture 2000AD's Dark Judges in Dreams of Deadworld – a match well made "That love has carried over into many on my projects. Foremost among them was Houses of the Holy for the Madefire app, and illustrating The Dark Judges for 2000AD's Dreams of Deadworld." 15. Kim Myatt Myatt uses a minimal palette to create her haunting art, leaving plenty of darkness to allow the viewers own imagination to fill in the blanks Artist Kim Myatt says: "Horror is a fascinating subject for me. I like to go beyond the shocking and grisly blood 'n' guts and get into that more subtle terror. The unsettling feeling that follows you home at night. "Nothing is scarier than what is already in the viewer's mind, and creating truly haunting pieces is a delicate dance of what to show and what not to show. Creating these images helps Myatt understand her own fears "Horror is personal, and nothing pleases me more than to hear someone have a genuine reaction to my work. It's like I've tapped into a part of their psyche they keep secret. Something unknown. "On my own personal note, creating these images helps me understand my own fears and understanding is a method of control. Once you lance a boil it doesn't hurt anymore. That's why I paint what I paint." 16. Martin McKenna The Old Dark House: Drawn from a still from The Old Dark House (1932) when McKenna was about 15 years old For Martin McKenna, the appeal of horror is simple. "Drawing these things would be a way of prolonging my sojourns in the shadowy realms of my favourite genre books and movies; to revel in, and attempt to recreate, some of their atmosphere. I like spooky stuff!" he says. Curse of the Mummy was done as a cover for the book of the same name written by Jonathan Green, published by Puffin Books as the final release in the original Fighting Fantasy series "This illustration (above) shows Akharis the mummy, his half-mask giving me the chance to use a nice shiny golden death mask similar to Tutankhamun's, while still allowing a glimpse of his shrivelled flesh. "His desiccated face recalling my favourite screen mummy, Karloff's Imhotep from 1932. The sarcophagus in the background pays tribute to the Doctor Who story Pyramids of Mars, itself a gothic horror classic!" 17. Kevin Crossley Crossley's work is full of dark fantasy creatures, which he says is purely accidental! "Any horror and darkness that appears in my art is curiously accidental in a way! "It was never something I set about trying to achieve during my formative years, but nevertheless it does seem to have crept into much of what I do," admits artist Kevin Crossley. This Red Queen illustration is from Alice's Nightmare In Wonderland "I enjoy working with nightmarish concepts, but I never start a piece with such a theme in mind. This might sound strange, but some images just let you know, as you're working on them, that they'll be heading down a 'darker path', and these instances I find are the most rewarding: "The content evolves on its own terms, often inspired by botanical or skeletal themes mingled with insect anatomy and other natural influences. Out of such a pot all sorts of wonderfully twisted things can arise." 18. Iris Compiet Misfortune Teller was part of Compiet's Freaks and Monsters side project, which combines her fascination for freak circuses and early photography "I tend to gravitate towards the horror side of things, have always done so," says illustrator Iris Compiet. "Yet I stay away from the obvious blood and gore stuff. Instead I like to seek out the subtle feeling of unease, of despair, of horrific feelings. "I try to lure people in under the pretence of things being normal and okay and as soon as you take a closer look you'll see something's off. To me horror is more about a feeling, about the little hairs in the back of your neck, about a shiver and shudder. Compiet's creepy sketches of witches are reminiscent of the goblin-like evil beings that reside in legend (and in Roald Dahl novels) "The whispers in the dark, the scary tales at night. The folktales, the urban legends. The seemingly normal, the darkness that's in each and everyone of us. There's never black or white, good or bad but both and everything in between." Related articles: The 11 best horror movie logos of all time 7 must-know painting techniques for artists 9 scarily effective horror novel covers View the full article

Keeping up with an ever-changing SEO landscape isn’t always easy, but with our previously published guide to Everything you need to know about SEO, and these top tools at your disposal, it should all become a little more manageable. From analysis to the presentation of data, these five great tools can help keep you at the top of search engine rankings. 01. Google Analytics Gain a better understanding of your marketing impactA tool that needs no introduction. Analyse website data in one hub for a detailed overview of how customers experience and use your website. Share your findings with the rest of your business, safe in the knowledge that your Google Analytics results are building the bigger picture for you. 02. Screaming Frog Crawl websites’ URLs and fetch key onsite elements to analyse onsite SEO The SEO Spider is an app that crawls websites’ links, images, CSS and script to evaluate onsite SEO. A favourite of Paul Tyler, head of SEO at All Response Media, it is a great way to quickly analyse onsite elements, but also an essential tool for full in-depth audits, highly customisable and good value too. 03. SEMrush Perform in-depth analysis for improved performance and strategySEMrush is another fantastic tool to be able to review organic search visibility. It’s an all-in-one workflow toolkit for SEO professionals, from a technical SEO audit to ideas to grow organic traffic. SEMrush lets you learn from your competitors and develop perfect content and advertising strategies. 04. GTmetrix Find out how well your website performsWant to discover if all that optimisation work you’ve done has actually made a difference to your site? The best way to find out is to get GTmetrix, which tests your website’s speed and performance. GTmetrix will then provide recommendations on how to improve things. Best of all, it’s completely free. 05. Google Data Highlighter Make your data and website more efficient for searchData Highlighter is a webmaster tool for teaching the search engine about the pattern of structured data on your website. You simply use Data Highlighter to tag the data fields on your site with a mouse and this enables Google to present your data more attractively in search results. This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 295. Buy it here. Related articles: 14 great landing page designs 30 Chrome extensions for web designers and devs How to make social media work for you View the full article

There’s no better way to spend Halloween than to watch a classic bloodcurdling horror movie. So, to get you in the mood, we thought we’d take a look at some of our favourite horror movie logos from cinema history. If some don’t appear quite as you remember, then don’t be too surprised. In the old days, studios took a much looser approach to their branding, with multiple, often vastly different logo designs popping up on different movie posters, video and DVD covers, as well as the title sequences of the films themselves... not to mention variants of each of these in different national markets. So this is by necessity a personal selection of logos we have real love for. But if you’ve got a favourite you feel needs adding to the list, please let us know on Facebook, Twitter or even Reddit. 01. The Exorcist This elegantly restrained logo design draws on the film’s religious themesThe classic 1973 film about a girl possessed by a demon was so terrifying, it reportedly provoked fainting and vomiting attacks in cinemas, and was banned by a number of local authorities in the UK. Created by Dan Perri as part of the film’s title sequence, this logo draws on the story’s religious themes in a subtly elegant manner. In contrast with the crazed, cartoonish titles of 1950s and 1960s horror flicks, Perri’s design instead employed the kind of formal semi-serifs you might expect on a Catholic Bible, and was all the more sinister for it. You can see Perri discuss his approach to movie title design in this video. 02. The Omen The off-centre, childlike lettering of this logo reflects the unhinged madness of the demonicA 1976 horror about a child of the devil being born into the modern era, The Omen courted controversy by incorporating the Satanic number 666 into the ‘O’ of this logo, featured on its first theatrical poster by Tom Jung. Like The Exorcist logo above, this design uses a red-on-black colour scheme and a font that’s reminiscent of medieval religious texts. But here there’s a childlike, hand-made feel to the clumsy, off-centre lettering that reflects the unhinged madness of the truly demonic. 03. The Shining Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s novel is considered one of the greatest horror movies of all time. So it’s fitting that its logo was created by one of the film world’s greatest graphic designers, Saul Bass. Centred around the outline of a mysterious evil presence in the opening ‘T’, the unbalanced typography (a weird mix of upper and lower case; the word ‘the’ being more prominent than ‘shining’) reflects the turmoil in the mind of Jack Nicholson’s central character beautifully. 04. Friday the 13th This bloodsoaked logo leaves little to the imaginationOne of the most successful franchises in history, giving birth to 12 films and counting, Friday the 13th began with a 1980 horror about a group of teenagers who get killed, one by one, at a camp. This film was intended to both scare the audience and make it laugh, and this cartoonish logo brilliantly blends the macabre and the comedic. With lettering resembling broken pieces of wood (a broken camp sign, perhaps?), the blood-drenched ‘13’ leave little to the imagination about what’s in store (bucketloads of gore for those who appreciate a sick sense of humour). 05. A Nightmare on Elm Street This cleverly crafted logo is full of menacing depthThe story of a phantom who haunts both people’s dreams and their waking hours, Nightmare on Elm Street was the archetypal 1980s horror and became a hugely successful franchise. There was a range of logos across different promotional materials, but our favourite has to be this design, created by Dan Perri for the film’s opening titles. This cleverly constructed lettering subtly evokes a street of burning buildings, conveying a grim atmosphere of hellfire and damnation; truly the stuff of nightmares. 06. Scream 1997’s Scream brought things back to basics, including its logoReinventing the slasher film by subverting its cliches (the characters are all expressly aware of horror tropes, which drives the plot), 1997’s Scream brought the horror genre kicking and, er, screaming into the modern age. This super-clean, minimalist logo from the movie’s poster added a splash of contemporary cool for the Nineties audience – and who doesn’t love the cheeky stabbing motif in the final letter? 07. The Blair Witch Project The Blair Witch logo formed part of a groundbreaking viral marketing campaign 1999’s Blair Witch Project brought us a brand new movie genre: the found-footage horror. And with it came a brand new approach to movie marketing. Rather than just appear on posters, the logo was initially circulated on the internet, along with other visual elements of the film, in the guise of a true story. One of the earliest, and most successful, cases of what’s become known as viral marketing, this creepy logo with its jagged, fractured lettering and haunting ‘stick man’ emblem, still stands up today as a design classic. The version shown above is from the DVD cover. 08. The Ring The Ring’s logo lopsided design conveys a spirit of demented anarchy2004’s The Ring, a psychological horror about a cursed videotape, is a big-budget remake of an arguably superior Japanese film, Ringu. But when it comes to the logo, at least, the American version wins hands down. The crazed nature of the lopsided child’s lettering and lumpily luminescent ring add up to a design that’s both truly original and disturbingly sinister. So sinister that (gasp!) no one even thought to add any red... 09. 28 Days Later 24 Hours Later’s logo mixed the hip with the horrificOne of the first modern zombie horrors (recasting the undead as victims of a bizarre plague), 2002 Brit-flick 24 Hours Later remains a stunningly original creation. And its logo is pretty darned original too. Combining a contemporary, stencil-graffiti aesthetic with the medieval-style etchings of devil’s horns, this is both sinister and alluring... just as any good horror movie logo should be. 10. Paranormal Activity The Paranormal Activity logo adds a feeling of menace to digital technologyTaking the found-footage concept of Blair Witch and giving it a blockbuster budget, Paranormal Activity has become one of the biggest horror franchises of the new century. This understated logo, based on coldly minimal, all-caps typography, evokes the digital technology behind the found footage, while the blurred lines, wide-set kerning and red-on-black colour scheme combine to convey the horror contained within it. 11. Saw A purposely ugly logo for the torture porn eraHeralding the rise of the ‘torture porn’ genre, the Saw franchise has brought a renewed sense of the nasty to horror movies. And this twisted, warped and purposefully ugly logo feels right at home with all of that. Distorted and out of focus, with misshaped letterforms and metal scratchings that foretell all sorts of horrific happenings, this logo signals exactly what’s on offer... and it’s certainly not a date movie. Related articles: 7 classic logos that should never have been changed The 6 best design industry logos The 10 best free graphic design courses online View the full article

Google's reCaptcha service has been cracked by researchers who devised an automated attack called unCaptcha that can break the service with 85 percent accuracy. View the full article

A Tweet about the design of Google's burger emoji has sparked an intense online discussion about how the foodstuff should look, and prompted Google CEO Sundar Pichai to say he would 'drop everything' to fix it. Seriously. If you've ever doubted the power of social media, the recent development surrounding Google's burger emoji (that's a phrase we never thought we'd have to type) will show you how impactful it can be. Following a viral Tweet from author and media analyst Thomas Baekdal, which complained about the placement of the cheese in Google's burger emoji, the CEO of the world's leading technology company has vowed to put the emoji's design above everything else. If that's not power we don't know what is. The Tweet might appear pretty innocent on the surface. After all, have you ever seen a burger that places the cheese underneath the meat? Of course not. That would be madness. Such a burger could only exist in a world gone topsy-turvy. Yet, inexplicably, there it is. This burger bizarreness could explain why, at the time of writing, the Tweet has gained nearly 40,000 retweets and nearly 2,000 comments. Clearly this is an important issue that a lot of people feel strongly about. And because people who are interested in emojis appear to be anything if not thorough, the full list of burger emojis has been dredged up from emojipedia like a political scandal for us all to gawp at and contemplate. How did we, as society, let this happen? One person clearly disturbed by this flagrant disregard for burger etiquette was Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who replied to the public outcry with this placating Tweet: This isn't the only emoji to be publicly shamed, though. Google's pint of beer emoji has been dragged through the mud like an accessory to murder thanks to its gravity-defying head of foam, which appears to hover above the alcoholic good stuff like a tipsy cloud. Perhaps they need a new illustrator, some icon design tips, or at least some decent reference images. There's no word yet on whether or not Google has fixed the placement of cheese on its burger emoji. But with the top technological minds in the world working on it, surely it won't take long to fix? Related articles: Iconic logos get an emoji makeover 18 illustrators to follow on Instagram 31 stunning iOS app icon designs View the full article

Many VFX artists and 3D animators shy away from cloud rendering. After all, it's difficult, unpredictable, and time-consuming, right? Not necessarily. YellowDog offers a solution that's straightforward and pain-free – as leading VFX artist Shahin Toosi discovered. Despite several years in the VFX industry, working on prestigious projects such as Blade Runner 2049, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and X-Men: The Last Stand for top companies including ILM, Double Negative and MPC, Toosi was reluctant to use cloud rendering. He'd tried a few different vendors and his experience had always been the same: it was a pain to set up, what with referencing and linking, and managing uploads and downloads, the pricing was unpredictable, and customer support was lacking. Shanin Toosi's personal machine couldn't keep up with his cutting-edge personal projectsIn his spare time Toosi was pushing his skills by trying out new techniques on personal projects – exploring the possibilities of 4K 360 VR and complex simulations, and pushing V-Ray to its limits. His personal machine couldn't keep up. He decided to give cloud rendering one last try, and happened upon YellowDog. It was a revelation. The team took care of the minor amount of setup that was required, the platform was intuitive, and where explanation was required, a helpful video walked him through things. What's more, YellowDog's prices were clear and fixed, with no hidden charges, and the team were on hand to help him through any issues. "I didn’t realise that cloud rendering could be this easy, it’s totally different to any previous experience I’ve had," he says. "I’ll be coming straight to YellowDog next time I need to render." YellowDog's interface is simple and intuitiveWhere other cloud computing companies didn't seem to understand their audience at all, YellowDog was perfectly suited to Toosi's needs. It looked like an extension of his farm and acted like a local render – he would never have known the rendering was taking place elsewhere. ""The YellowDog team completely got the pressure I was under to deliver, and did everything I needed to help me make my client happy," he smiles. Toosi recorded himself using the YellowDog rendering platform – take a look below. The video even doubles up as a fantastic tutorial for anyone interested in signing up. Offering fixed costs, easy set-up, and limitless compute, YellowDog is a VFX artist’s best friend. Visit YellowDog to sign up to the rendering platform for free, and explore the cloud rendering solutions for yourself. View the full article

It's now under a month until Black Friday 2017 will bring you some great discounts on creative tools, but in the meantime, we've got you a great daily deal on photo editing software that creates cutouts quickly. When it comes to editing photos, some tasks are an absolute pain. Creating cutouts is one of those necessary but time-consuming tasks. Instead of putting yourself through the excruciating process, trust Fluid Mask 3 to do it for you. You can get it on sale now for 74% off the retail price! Whether you're cutting out subjects for a project or just trying to remove a less than perfect part of a photo you want to post on social media, the process can be a total pain. Fluid Mask 3 takes the tedium out of the task. This high-quality masking app makes it easier than ever to quickly cut out images and do away with the aspects you don't need, thanks to its powerful segmented masking procedure. It's so simple that you'll wonder why you've been doing it manually for so long. Fluid Mask 3 usually retails for $99, but you can get it on sale now for 74% off the retail price. That means you pay just $24.99 (approx £19) for an app that will save you tons of time and speed up your editing work, so grab this deal today. Fluid Mask: Works seamlessly to create cutouts of people, products, and places Brushes lets you paint in your mask Finds the edges in your image, allowing you to easily separate out foreground from background Makes super fine color based mask selections w/ the Color Workspace & Sampler Allows you to isolate difficult areas and apply localised settings, combining multiple edge finding & blending techniques within one image Saves your workspace settings for batch processing Forced edge tool allows you to create your own edges Gives you complete control w/ fully customisable user interface colour settings 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: 5 things every creative needs to know about print design The 40 best Photoshop plugins Revamp your website with these WordPress Themes View the full article

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Colour correction is a phrase that often appears in job ads for junior designers, but it can mean different things to different people. If a studio mainly works with motion graphics, animation and film, the ad is probably talking about colour correction of video, aka colour grading. However, if it’s a studio dealing mainly with graphic design, branding, digital and/or packaging design, it’s more likely to be referring to the colour correction of still images. In this sense, colour correction essentially means improving the look of a photograph by adjusting the levels of particular colours within it, using image editing software such as Photoshop. It’s a key skill that any junior (or even intern) in a design role will be expected to be familiar with, and a common task they’re liable to get passed at a moment’s notice. So let's find out more about it. What colour correction involves Bring out the colours to make it look vivid and tastyScott Kimble, image creation director at London design agency BrandOpus, offers an example of what colour correction might involve: “We’ll have shot some biscuits, and you want them to look golden and vibrant when they appear on the packaging. But they’ve come out a bit green. That might be due to the level of cyan, so colour correction might involve, among other things, dropping the cyan down to take the greenness out of the image and make the biscuits look more golden.” On the image above, for Mr Kipling, Kimble says: “I needed to make the fruit and the tarts look appetising, but for the scene to still feel rich and intense. Every element was considered, from the crust of the tart to the white of the label. "I worked on each element separately. For instance, I only did one lemon at a time because you have to take into account the lighting on each one. The key to colour balancing is to make the right selections; one tip is to use the most contrasted channels to create a more natural selection.” Know the colour fundamentals Find the richness and contrasting colours in each object for added sparkleTo be able to colour correct images, you first need to learn some basic colour theory principles, such as which colours are complementary (on opposite sides of the colour wheel), so you can adjust one colour to cancel out too much of another. You also need to be able to spot where colours are the most prominent, such as when red is dominating the light areas of a photo, or blue is dominating the dark areas. It’s also about mastering the different tools in Photoshop involved in colour correction, including Curves and Levels. Similarly, you’ll need to become proficient at using Photoshop’s selection tools, so you’re able to efficiently colour correct specific sections of an image. Colour correction is particularly important when it comes to printing, where you often need to convert images from RGB to CMYK (or from the colour system used for screens to the system used to talk to colour printers). “If you’ve got something in RGB, on the screen it looks lovely and bright and fluorescent,” explains Kimble. “You’ve got the greens punching and the purples are really rich. But when you convert that to CMYK, it’s just flattened. The green’s going to go flat, the purple’s going to die a bit. So you’ve got to go into that image and punch those colours back up again, so it looks as good in print as it did on the screen.” For the Belvedere image above, Kimble says: “I needed to make the fruit look punchier and fresh; not just brightening it but lifting the colour. I kept the actual bottle in front of me to make sure I got it right. I also warmed up the wood on the cutting board to make it stand out a bit more. The whites came out of the camera a bit dull, so I used curves to brighten – dropping the cyan ever so slightly so as not to look too blue.” From principles to practice JF Rabbit's drink image was transformed with a vibrant bottle and a zesty backgroundThe fundamental principles and techniques of colour correction are relatively straightforward, and there are a number of online tutorials, videos and books that will explain them to you. As well as YouTube and Vimeo, check out TutsPlus, Photoshop Essentials and Lynda.com. But although understanding the basic rules will help get you started, colour correction is as much of an art as it is a science. And that means the only way you’ll improve your abilities over time is to practise. “Watching tutorials is great,” says Anthony Passler, senior creative artworker at Hogarth Worldwide, “But you really need to get your hands dirty, take photos of stuff and compare the photograph to the real-world item, and then try to match them up.” For example, in the JF Rabbit's picture above, Kimble relied on the real-world item for inspiration. “I needed to brighten up the white while retaining the detailing that came out of the camera. The label is a white vignette that fades to clear to reveal the liquid inside. From the camera, you couldn’t tell the colour, so I kept a bottle on my desk," he explains. "The green on the label came out a bit dull so I stripped out some yellow to match the brand colour.” Experiment with colour correction Gwendolyn Mumford, a junior designer at AIG in Texas, agrees that it’s well worth improving your skills beyond the minimum levels formally required. “When I use colour correction as part of my regular workflow for print and web graphics, these are usually fairly simple jobs,” she explains. “But it still helps to have taken courses that taught more advanced correction techniques, as it prevents that task from slowing down my workflow.” Kyriakos Kokkinos, a junior designer at London and Leeds agency Delete, concurs, and notes that practice will boost your confidence. “While I was at university I was very afraid of trying to colour correct, thinking it would look very off and not as intended,” he admits. “But, just like everything, the more you experiment and fail, the better you understand the subject. And that’s exactly what is going to get you the best end result.” This article originally appeared in Computer Arts issue 270. Buy it now. Related articles: How to master colour theory How to manage colours in Photoshop 5 things every creative needs to know about print design View the full article

As creative side projects go, this new Saul Bass-inspired minimalist animation for Stranger Things is one of our favourites. Unless you've been living in an internet black spot for the past few months, it can't have escaped your attention that the phenomenally popular Netflix show Stranger Things is back. Chances are you've even binged on series two already. We haven't had time yet – there's a lot of quality content out there to ingest, okay? – so please don't bombard us with spoilers. As well as impressing genre fans, the look and feel of the science fiction horror series has been a huge source of inspiration and nostalgia for designers. We've already seen the show's characters turned into a brilliant Peanuts-style animation mashup and the show given an 8-bit videogame makeover, but the latest passion project to emerge from Stranger Things comes courtesy of design studio Creative Mammals. Created by a team of three people, this short minimalist video rattles through key scenes from the first series such as the boys cycling through the woods, letters being spelled out with Christmas lights, and everyone's favourite outsider, Barb, dipping her toes into the swimming pool. The animation style has a beautiful handmade look to it, and we really love how it makes clever use of negative space to create some truly interesting transitions and compositions. Check it out for yourself below. What makes the animation even more impressive is that the team at Creative Mammals made it purely because it loves the show so much. The passion project was whipped up over the course of three weeks in between work from clients. Over on Reddit the team at Creative Mammals has been talking about the creative process to give users an insight into how it turned it around so fast. "We did it in the same pipeline we'd so anything for any major network. Ideation (which was me and a co worker talking at lunch.) I went ahead and did some research into the top moments of Stranger Things, listed them down, and made boards with them. "After that I handed the boards off to my creative director who would tackle it when he had free time. He is pretty fast, so his spurts would do a far chunk, plus we did this style because it's "hard but quick." "After he did all of the keys, I had a intern who just finished a project and we really wanted him to have some cool stuff on his demo reel so we asked if he could do the smoothing out, which he did." Most of the animation was done in After Effects and Cinema 4D, with everything given a black and white treatment and an eerie grainy effect. Related articles: Stranger Things titles could have looked very different 5 best agency side projects of the year 40 amazing After Effects tutorials View the full article

When you're pushed for time or lacking in inspiration, templates can help kick-start your design project. BestTemplates has an impressive collection of over 10,000 templates to fit any project or occasion – and they don't cost the earth either. What's more, there are templates available in all file formats, from Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign to CorelDRAW. Browse the collections online, download your favourite and open it up in your favourite programme where you can add, edit or replace any element and make the design yours. Or if you're really short on time, these templates are all beautifully designed, so you can just edit the text, drop in a logo, and you'll be good to go. Read on to find out more about the collections on offer. Smart brochure templates Got a brochure to design? BestTemplates has a wide selection of brochure templates for a range of industries, from business to education. Pick from bi-fold or tri-fold options to suit your content, then adjust the design to fit with your client's brand colours, and easily drop in the logo or identity elements. Click the image to find out more about this design The smart bi-fold design above is ideal for business clients. It's available in Illustrator, InDesign, Microsoft Word, Photoshop and Publisher formats, and costs just $25. Eye-catching flyer templates Flyers need to catch people's eye and set out key information clearly. You can kick-start your design process with one of BestTemplates' handy flyer layouts. Click the image to find out more about this design All the templates are fully customisable so you can pick whichever one takes your fancy, but if you're lacking in inspiration, explore the dedicated categories. There are 19 in total, including party, marketing, and event designs, so you're sure to find something that suits your needs. Explore thousands of templates All the templates are designed to save you time and get you started with your projects quickly and easily. Scroll through the slideshow below using the arrow icons to explore some of the BestTemplates collection. What we've looked at here is just the tip of the iceberg – BestTemplates also offers professional business documents in range of formats including Google Drive, iWorks and MS Office, for efficient business management. Visit the website to find out more. View the full article

I wield two powerful weapons in our business: a magnifying glass and a telescope. As a project manager I squint through the magnifying glass looking at the details. And as an owner, I gaze through my telescope so I can get my bearings and see what’s coming. These angles are magic. When I fell into project management, like many do, I didn’t have the telescope. I didn’t understand profitability. I didn’t understand revenue models. I didn’t know that two months of project drag could ruin a business. I understood that projects needed managing and I did that. Your PMs have the ability to guide your project and be a solid rudder for your company What I learned as an owner – after feeling the sting of revenue pour in and then dry up while watching payroll and expenses roll out – is that profitability and project management are fundamentally intertwined. It’s a lesson that changed how we do business, as well as the business we do. Companies who get project management know this: your company is only as good as the projects you run. The people running your projects are the sharp edge of a Ginsu in a world of identical software shops labouring over products and visions. They skilfully spin straw into gold. Call them project managers, producers, quasi-product managers, part-time scrum masters or process refiners, your project leads are in disguise. Secretly they wear other hats – that of a wry salesperson, the charming hat of a customer service agent, the cheering hat of a coach. Your PMs have the ability to guide your project and be a solid rudder for your company. It’s time to reveal their awesomeness. First, let’s talk money. Rachel Gertz loves teaching PM apprentices the role of projects in revenue and profitabilityHow agencies spend and make their money Let’s look at how your agency spends money. For most, the expenses look something like this: Payroll Taxes Rent Office equipment/computers Software Contractors Most of your expenses nestle into a predictable monthly pattern. No matter how much or how little you work each month, around the same amount of dough flows out of the company bank account. Some call this your outgoing expenses or burn rate. Your expenses scale based on the number of employees you add. However, revenue is a completely different story for most creative agencies. It varies based on a number of factors: How many clients are in the agency The price of those clients' projects The agency's billing rate Its billing frequency How quickly projects are moving through the agency Whether payments are tied to milestones or billed at intervals How many clients are repeats vs brand new The season Economic trends and new technologies replacing old For many agencies, revenue instability is feast or famine. It’s critical that your company understands how work expands and contracts over the year so you can maintain a healthy cashflow and keep revenue in line with your outgoing cash. Brett Harned understands that PMs are the link between clients and teamsConfining the PM role to managing timelines, budgets, and a to-do list is a mistake. Project management is not about box checking – it’s about people: building relationships, facilitating valuable communications and collaboration, and most of all, understanding the motivations of clients and teams, to craft a project path that works for everyone. When agencies de-prioritise a PM’s involvement with a team and clients, and don’t allow them to be active members of their teams, it shows. Details get missed, people are confused, and clients lose faith in the agency because they see the disconnect between the budget and timeline and the actual work happening. When agencies don’t allow PMs to be active members of their teams, it shows When a PM is deeply involved, things happen more smoothly. Not only are the budget, timeline and tasks in check, people communicate openly and in a timely way, details are documented, there is a better sense of teamwork, and the product tends to be stronger. PMs can keep projects ‘on the rails’ by managing the details with great care, building relationships, and supporting transparent communication around project details. Any conversations about strategy, scope, timeline, or even project possibilities need a PM at the table. They bring rational judgment and clarity around a project’s scope and if it sounds like a lot, it is. But when the PM job is done well, it’s magical. Feed the famine To run a profitable and sustainable shop, you need to keep the money flowing. One way is to fill up your sales pipeline with new client projects as quickly as possible. This is a costly process, though. You bleed time and effort landing the right clients and must often add resources quickly to get the work scheduled during dry spells. Even worse, if smaller, more demanding clients go away after a small or short project, you still spend the same amount setting up and running the project, plus you need to lay off your new team or contractors soon after. This burdens your business development team, your existing staff, and costs your team a ton in onboarding. The truth is, quick sales only address the surface level symptoms of revenue inconsistency. The second way to feed the famine is to smooth out revenue flow. Consider your most under-appreciated and under-utilised business asset: the loyal, hard-working project manager. Sure, project managers juggle calendars, put out fires, and shuffle tasks. All good project managers can ring the iron triangle of time, scope, and budget, but there are some magical things a good project manager does that can transform your business (and if your PM isn’t doing them, we should talk). Your customer service agent If you’re in the business of ‘creating great experiences’ and wowing your clients with apps that steal their breath, ask yourself: is the experience of working with you just as great? Do your clients fall in love with you and respect your processes or do they push back furiously because they don’t trust your project teams to lead? I can’t tell you how many companies I’ve worked with who did amazing work yet suffered the fallout of scope creep, mismanaged expectations, and the spotty revenue that resulted. Great project managers wear the smile of expert customer service agents. They guide teams at the elbow; project concerns get tied with a bow. PMs make sure the experience your client has during the project is as good as the lie your salesperson sold when it started. Avoid extending less profitable projects to prevent revenue gaps (left); Save money by balancing revenue and expenses (right)Project managers are the primary point of contact and set the expectations, tone, and cadence of their projects. They translate the whims of the team and push back against requests that hurt the project. When you have an artful PM dampening conflict and keeping expectations in check, your clients stay longer, pay on time, and even refer you additional work. Your secret business developer Good companies love scope creep – when they can anticipate it. Otherwise, it’ll drag your projects over budget and weeks over schedule. To deal with the slip, your team has two choices. Work overtime to accommodate the extra scope or blow project deadlines. The first leads to resentful, overworked teams and sloppy deliverables. The second leads to delayed payments, fuming clients, and old projects bumping new ones out or overlapping them. More simultaneous projects create a resourcing nightmare for you and your hiring department. And worse? You still have to pay out your contractors with money you won’t get from your client. Good project managers eat scope creep for breakfast. They anticipate it, recognise it, and know how to turn potential overages into future phases or features which means ongoing revenue and more predictable resourcing. Your project manager is a natural business developer. Look at these amazing feats: Transforming scope creep into a future backlog Prioritising high value or higher revenue requests from current clients Notifying and billing clients right away for agreed-upon scope changes Building transparent, trustful relationships with clients who refer more business your way Remember that pesky sales pipeline? The easiest sale will always be to your existing clients, and the more you can turn those current projects into long-term work, the more valuable they become. This means fewer new clients to pull in. You can be profitable while maintaining the size of your client list and avoiding the cost of hiring or contracting new faces to do the work. Oh, and project management works hand-in-hand with sales. Revenue flows in sporadically while expenses are often more cyclicalResources Having the right tools as a PM can mean the difference between clear data and guesses in the dark. Cushion is one example of a handy tool that teams can use to track their incoming revenue on projects. Additional integrations are on the way. Cushion helps you predict your target monthly and annual revenue by stacking project income visually. Your expert fortune teller Agencies are often tempted to take on rotten projects to feed a cash flow shortage. They might seem lovely on the surface, but are tar pits waiting to pull you under. Sometimes the reverse is true: agencies turn down projects that reek of mediocrity but have amazing potential underneath. How can you predict a project’s future? Well, good news: you’ve got an Oracle among you. No one is more attuned to sniffing out the darling projects from the duds than your sharp-nosed PMs. They smell red flags before that project even slides through the door. They can also alert sales to push back on requirements to align clients closer to your company’s goals while creating a mitigation strategy to guide the process. Great project managers know the difference between a red flag that costs you a small amount and one that can throw your project and your team financially overboard. Trust good fortune and let your project managers sniff out the risks on your project track before they even start. Louder Than Ten’s studio in Gastown, Vancouver CanadaLean processes, lean PMs It’s not what you do that sets you apart, it’s how you do it. Collectively, creative companies and their people are facing a tumultuous future as technology and automation blindside their best laid plans. There’s no more time for long project documents and rigid rules. Lean methodologies rein. Clients want transparency and participation. They want a real-time view of how much money they’re spending and how progress is helping them meet goals. They want authentic relationships that aren’t mired in red tape. And so do you. Lean project management is a solid way to save your agency time and money Lean project management is a solid way to save your agency time and money. Smooth, low barrier processes let you refine systems that prioritise productive flow, which means lower effort in production and in project transitions. In other words, you can charge the same for a project that takes less effort and less resources where other shops need to charge more because they stick to the same approach. Even better: great project managers are wired to seek out efficiencies, improve and simplify processes, and refine systems. They have laser vision when it comes to making operations more effective. Apprentices learn how to anticipate red flags before they derail their projectsMake the most of your PMs One thing that destroys me is when shops say they don’t bill for their project managers’ time. Without great PMs, projects fail. So if you want to start running successful projects, bill their effort to the client. Don’t make it a line item, either. They are fundamental to the process, so bake PM into your budget and give them the right ingredients to work with. Effective project managers have the ability to shape your company processes, improve your revenue, and smooth out your cash flow – if you let them. Here’s how to set them up for success: 01. Your business goals When project managers understand the grand mission of your company, they have the power to help vet and align your ongoing projects to your company goals. They can rein in requests or client behaviour that takes you further away from your goals. The more projects align, the higher the chance you’ll get similar work that propels your company further. Involving your team in the goal-setting process and getting their buy-in is paramount. If they own the process, they can drive it. 02. How to make money How much does a meeting cost? How does your company set its rates? Good project managers know. When they understand your break-even rates and how you structure your billing, they can rapidly support estimates and accurate ballparks that take red flags into account, then expand those into detailed probability-based project estimates by reviewing research and discovery findings. Great PMs can show you the double hit you’ll take on revenue when a project is a month delayed. They’ll save you a lot of money by supporting decisions on projects that keep you on track and profitable. 03. Your client’s goals Your PMs are the nucleus of your company; they’re tied to every decision maker and outcome of their projects. As key points of contact, they must understand where your clients want to go. Understanding clients’ business goals means your project managers can translate effective changes that drive more value back to clients, which can translate to more value for you. Great PMs vet these changes to make sure that they don’t take your company further away from its goals. Amazing PMs can inspire and align stakeholders so those goals are reachable. 04. The financial rhythm When your PMs understand your expense cycle, they can help design a more predictable revenue and cash flow, and can schedule projects more predictably. When you avoid the growth and shrinkage of an unstable team, you build trust with your employees. People are happier, they stay longer, and do work that brings you more great projects. On-boarding and hiring costs decrease, and there’s more room in the budget for professional development, which further accelerates your team. Your ideal client matrix is one where you take on projects that get you closer to your business goals without taking excessive riskThe ones who keep the lights on Project managers are the underdogs of the web industry. They don’t get any credit, they’re overworked and under-appreciated, and they’re constantly diverting pressure from their teams and clients so the work gets done. Shockingly, most project managers also don’t have access or input into the core variables that enable them to save your company time and money: your business goals, your revenue and expense cycle, and how you set your rates. But maybe that should change. It might take a little training to get your PMs comfortable connecting the revenue dots, but think of how much it’ll impact your company. In the end, the success of your business rests on the health of your projects and the adept hands of your project managers. Average project managers can hustle projects in and out of your company. Good ones can manage project scope and can predict their impact. Fantastic ones? Well, they’re worth more than their weight in gold. They’re the ones who truly keep the lights on. Illustrator: Marcus Faint This article was originally published in net issue 296. Subscribe here. Like this? Read these! Best project management software Manage your projects better The tools of the trade for project management View the full article

Futura: The Typeface, by Petra Eisele, Annette Ludwig and Isabel Naegele, is a vast and rather beautiful celebration of Futura, launched to celebrate the typeface’s 90th birthday (published by Laurence King Publishing with an RRP $65/£45). And, as a testament to its superb design, Futura really does look as fresh today as it did back in the 1927. It's easy to assume that it would be tricky to create an entire book about Futura. But it turns out there’s a lot of mileage in this perennially trendy typeface. Who knew, for instance, that it was the first typeface on the moon? Or that it was Stanley Kubrick's favourite font? Or, in less positive associations, that it was assailed by the Nazis in World War II, used across the party’s propaganda? Futura has a surprisingly rich historyFutura, as readers of the book will learn, was created by Paul Renner, a typographer and designer "rooted in the design traditions of the liberal humanist bourgeoisie", as well as a leading member of the Deutscher-Werkbund association of architects, artists, designers and industrialists. Rather than basing his design – dubbed "the typeface of our time" – on existing sans serifs that were, in that era, deemed inferior to their serifed peers, he looked to antique inspirations for inspiration while simultaneously creating a modern geometric typeface. The book's layout mimics the geometric stylings of the typeface itselfAs a reference to this sense of geometry, the sections in the book (and sometimes, the text itself) is divided using simple black shapes – circles, triangles and squares are dotted throughout, adding a playful feel to a book that offers a lot in terms of the technical detailing and history of Futura. The historical photographs bring a superb sense of place and context to the typeface: we see 1920s Frankfurt, Futura’s birthplace, and get a wider understanding of the letterforms’ cohesion with wider ideas around architecture and the meaning of 'modernity' at the time. Futura, as these pages prove, manages to always feel modern – hence its use on Robert McCall’s poster design for Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey from 1968 (Futura Extra Bold, to be precise). And as the recommended typeface in the 1976 NASA graphics standards manual for its 'technical character'. An embossed cover and silver page edging make the book stand outAside from its contents, the book itself is truly a thing of beauty: the pale turquoise hardback cover is set off by luxuriously embossed silvery type that shimmers like mother of pearl, and reflective silver edging. It’s a modern and reverent look for a thoroughly modern and revered typeface. Related articles: 20 perfect font pairings 5 creative uses for fonts you may not have thought of 26 books every graphic designer should read View the full article

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It’s natural to expect a student portfolio to fall somewhat below the standard of a professional designer with years of experience under their belt. But every now and again, you see something that makes you stop and pause. These 2017 students all have top-quality portfolio websites that truly mark them out as ones to watch. Check them out, and see just what the next generation is capable of... 01. Raoul Gaillard Raoul Gaillard’s portfolio website showcases both his visual and interactive design skillsRaoul Gaillard is a web developer and UI student at Hetic in Paris. His portfolio site shows off his coding smarts from the word go, with colourful, undulating geometric shapes making the transition between each page a delight for the user. Visually, it’s beautifully crafted, too, with a keen understanding of the power of whitespace and nice typographical choices. With each case study, you’re not bombarded by information but you are provided with the basics, and more details are available at the click of a button. Overall, this site is a great showcase for both Gaillard’s visual and interactive design skills. 02. Chrissen Rajathurai Chrissen Rajathurai’s portfolio uses a simple visual device to create something fresh and originalAnother student at Hectic in Paris, Chrissen Rajathurai is a 24-year-old junior digital designer and freelancer who says he likes to design “simple and friendly interfaces”. And yes, his portfolio site is indeed simple in function, but its visual design still comes across as fresh and original. The use of a darkened, blurry version of each image as page background is implemented perfectly, and really adds an inventive feel to the site. Also, Rajathurai has taken the time to be thoughtful with his microcopy, which means you’re never at a loss in terms of where to go or what to do. If only all portfolio sites could master this trick... 03. Sean Valies Sean Valies’ asymetrical portfolio presentation succeeds brilliantly at drawing you inSean Valies is a 25-year-old in his final year of his Masters in Graphic Design at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. We’re not huge fans of the idea of personal logos, to be honest, but his own wordmark – which stays in a fixed position as you navigate the site – is simple and clever enough to work effectively. Presenting your work in an asymmetrical grid is another device that doesn’t always work, but here it succeeds brilliantly in drawing you into Valies’ varied and intriguing projects. All in all, this portfolio site demonstrates that it doesn’t necessarily matter what design choices you make, it’s about how well you implement them. 04. Gemma Mahoney Gemma Mahoney’s portfolio is solid, professional, and full of great design workGemma Mahoney is currently studying a bachelor’s degree in Communication Design in Melbourne, although you wouldn’t necessarily know that from her portfolio site, which focuses on her work as a freelancer and an intern designer at Confetti Studio. Although her image-based layout isn’t particularly original, it’s been constructed in a solid and professional way that does a great job in presenting Mahoney’s high-quality work. 05. Benjamin Hunt Benjamin Hunt’s portfolio mixes an appreciation for process in with images of finished workStudio Ben is the online home of Benjamin Hunt, an industrial design student currently training at Rhode Island School of Design. If students are sometimes perceived as lazy, Hunt’s website disabuses you of that notion straight away, with footage of him actually making stuff as full-screen video. It’s an interesting approach, and definitely grabs the attention. Click through to the portfolio proper and you’ll find a visually enticing, nicely balanced presentation that makes effective use of colour, light and space to sell the skills of this talented student. 06. Ben Chan and Malone Chen This design duo’s portfolio site evokes the feeling of an old-school zineBen Chan and Malone Chen have been studying graphic design at Central Saint Martins in London for three years, and collaborating as a duo for the last two. So it makes sense to have a joint website, and a very cool and contemporary one it is too. Lovingly art-directed, with a monochrome, minimalist feel, their homepage introduces the duo and provides contact details, while clicking on each name takes you through to their respective individual portfolios. Deceptively simple and evoking the feeling of an old-school zine, this is one of the most original and imaginative portfolio presentations we’ve seen in a very long time. 07. Hieu Tran Hieu Tran’s portfolio site strikes a friendly and approachable toneHieu Tran is a graduate of the Graphic Design MFA program at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and specialises in editorial design, branding, and information visualisation. As you can see from the homepage screengrab above, he addresses the visitor in a personal tone through his portfolio site, which instantly endears him to you. Design-wise, the stripped-back aesthetic adds an extra of touch of personality and focuses your attention on his work nicely. And we love that Tran has included a ‘graveyard of failures’ under the heading Not Trash. It's an unusual and somewhat brave touch that just makes us like him more. Related articles: The student guide to working at a top agency 10 brilliant image-led portfolio sites for 2017 6 rock-solid ways to improve your graphic design portfolio View the full article

You're reading 15 Best Free Icon Design Video Tutorials on YouTube, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! The best design software can be used for creating both websites and icons. If you search around you’ll find plenty of icon tuts for Illustrator, Photoshop and for Sketch too. But written guides aren’t always enough when it comes to visual design. I often prefer video tutorials because they’re more straightforward offering a step-by-step approach. And in this post […] View the full article

You're reading Designmodo Halloween Discount 30% Off!, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! BOO!!! The Halloween Sale is Here! Website builders, UI Kits, icons, mockups, fonts and more products are discounted for 5 days only! No tricks, just treats this Halloween with a 30% discount on all Designmodo products! Add products to your cart and use coupon code HALLOWEEN during checkout to save 30%! The coupon code is […] View the full article

Running a small creative business can be a joy and a privilege, but it's certainly not a walk in the park. Right from the start you're beset by challenges and big decisions, and as your business grows they'll level up alongside you. How to launch a creative businessForewarned is forearmed, though, so we spoke to a collection of studio heads to get their insider knowledge on the various obstacles you'll come up against when running your own business, and their tips on how to overcome them. Here's what they had to say. Recruit the best Find out how to tempt talent away from large agencies01. Focus on juniors As a small creative business, it's often easier to recruit juniors with potential and then develop them than to find fully formed talent. The Plant London is one agency that likes to nurture from below, according to founder Matt Utber. "One student who came straight to us from university ended up becoming our design director," he recalls. "And we've had a few others over the years who've done similar things. It's really lovely to nurture designers and see them grow like this." 02. Draw on existing friendship groups Friendship groups and existing contacts are another great way to find new talent. At SteadyGo, the Leeds agency he co-founded, Tom Wade tried running a recommendation policy for recruitment: "If an existing employee introduced a friend we'd pay them £250, or donate it to a charity. Quite a lot of people did the latter, which was nice." And the benefits of using friendship networks aren't just about getting in good people, he adds. "Recruiting this way has led to a very friendly atmosphere. Everyone has these connections that transcend day-to-day agency life." 03. Avoid using recruitment agencies The sentiment of our panel was that recruitment agencies are best left as a last resort. Not only are they expensive, but they're not always reliable. "Once we hired someone the agent had vetted and who interviewed okay, but had a CV that turned out to be complete fiction," remembers Alec East, founder of Bedford agency Narrative Industries. "Recruitment fees are pretty big when you're on the salaries we pay, and yet the work this guy did was so bad that in the end it wasn't actually billable." 04. Get out there and meet people Updating LinkedIn is not enough to find the right talent. You have to physically venture out into the community, believes Joe Cecere of Minneapolis agency Little & Company. "Our philosophy is that we're always connecting and getting out there, talking to people," he explains. "We're speaking at events, we're going to student portfolio shows. This keeps our name known. We use our network of employees and their past experience to keep in contact with people all around the country. So when opportunities come up, we're able to bring people in." 05. Join organisations Joining professional organisations can seriously widen your recruiting net, says Utber. "Being part of YCN, a small collection of agencies and clients, has been very good in helping us find talent." Check out local associations too, adds East. "Here in Bedfordshire, recruitment is more difficult than in London, so I got involved in Bedford Creative Arts. Part of their remit is to provide creative networking events, and they've proved very useful with freelancers or special commissions." 06. Create the right studio culture Create the right studio culture, and recruiting and retaining your staff becomes far easier. That's certainly been the case at Chicago design agency 50,000feet, says Jim Misener. "Being a small business means we've been able to develop an incredibly collaborative – almost collectivist – culture," he explains. "We keep the hierarchy as flat as possible, and this has contributed to our ability to attract and retain talent, with many citing the environment, culture and an ability to make a difference within their teams, practices, and the agency overall as reasons for joining and staying." Next page: How to keep winning new work Keep your business afloat by constantly winning new work01. Specialise If you're a large agency, clients expect you to do everything, from marketing to branding through to web design and app development. Small agencies can't compete with that – and nor should they, says East. "When we first started, we'd take almost any job that came our way. But once we recognised what we did best and what we enjoyed the most, it became easier to specialise. This, in turn, made it easier to identify new business opportunities and win them." 02. Be proactive Small agencies often get work via word of mouth, but you can't rely on that, argues Utber. "You need to be proactive. Personally I always do one thing a day. Make a phone call or reconnect to someone." It's also about getting your name out there. "We believe that raising our profile is a great way to attract clients, so we're writing a lot more thought pieces, and doing a lot more talks and panels." 03. Choose your work For new Manchester agency BGN, chasing new business is all about going after the right type of work, says founder Antonio Giansante. "We've got a clear vision of the type of client we want, so that's what we're chasing. We've been building up a campaign to target that sector including a mixture of stuff: sponsoring some awards and events, print advertising, digital advertising, some social stuff, attending events, and some old-school DM." 04. Avoid search firms Traditional ad agencies often use a search or pitch firm to generate leads. But our panel generally sees that as an outdated model that's too expensive for a small agency. "We went through a phase of working with a lead generation agency, where people would cold call for us," recalls Wade. "But it cost quite a lot per month – pretty much one person's wage. And I wouldn't say the results were exactly amazing…" 05. Harness social media Social media can be a useful tool to find new clients, says Wade. "At SteadyGo, I used the Twitter app Tweetdeck to serve me up tweets containing words from a list of 20 that were relevant to our business. I found quite a lot of work that way, and it made it easier to pick the kind of clients we wanted." 06. Sort your legal status One of the biggest questions freelancers have is whether to trade as a company or as an individual. The main factor that persuaded Dan Hett, a creative technologist and digital artist from Manchester, to register himself as a company was that it opened more doors. "I've got a couple of very large clients that I know won't deal with people who aren't set up as companies," he says. "So for me, it was important I be registered as a company." Next page: How to keep hold of clients Discover how to hang on to your clients and stop them defecting to rival companies.01. Create a sense of trust Beyond quality work, delivered in a timely manner, the main thing that will keep clients on side is trust and understanding. When you only have a small number of employees, that can be easier to achieve than in a huge, impersonal organisation, so make the most of it, says Wade. "Predominantly, it's about a shared sense of what the brand needs, its trajectory, its future and becoming a genuine partner. Pursue that, as we did at SteadyGo, and you'll end up with a lot of long-term clients as a result." 02. Provide consistency Clients like consistency, and that's another thing you should be better positioned to provide as a small business. "In a big company, a client may get shifted through four designers through the progress of the work," points out Cecere. "Or they may have an account director for six months, and then get a new one all of a sudden. In contrast, at Little & Company, you get a dedicated team that stay with you. We have decades-long relationships because of those strong bonds." 03. Recognise you both want the same things Just as you want a long-term relationship with a client, remember that they also want a long-term relationship with you. This came into sharp focus for Giansante this year when BGN was launched. He made it clear to each client that cashflow was crucial in these early days. "And everyone's responded well and paid on the dot," he says. "They were all saying: 'We want to help you through it.' So it's always important to remember that these relationships work both ways." 04. Be a good listener Often, a client will come to a small agency because they feel that bigger companies don't listen to them, or have time for them. So don't disappoint. "At 50,000feet, great communication begins by listening," says Misener. "Then, we focus on executing on clients' specific challenges – quickly and beautifully. We approach every client interaction from a service-minded standpoint: what insight can we share, what inspiration can we offer, what confidence can we instill and what trust can we build." 05. Be personable One thing people like about small creative businesses is that they're generally more easy-going and personable than big companies, so use that to your advantage, says John Spencer, founder of Middlesex agency Offthetopofmyhead. "I think you dramatically improve your chances by being approachable and friendly," he explains. "Nobody wants to deal with an agency if they're full of their own importance – and there are plenty of these agencies around. Clients want to enjoy the experience, and it's up to us to make sure they do." 06. Manage expectations Even if you do everything possible right, don't expect every client to stay with you forever, says Utber. "There's natural attrition as well. When you work on a project basis, once the brand is developed, the client will often find someone in-house or a less expensive agency to handle things. That's very much a fact of life." So build in that expectation to your projection and if it happens, don't dwell too much on it. If you're always finding new clients, then losing old ones shouldn't hurt as much. Next page: How to stay on top of things Get a firm hold on studio management, project management and cashflow.01. Make cashflow king "Cashflow is the main downfall for small creative businesses," says Giansante. Yet making sure that there's always cash in the bank to pay for everything is a big task, and easily forgotten amongst the more 'fun' aspects of agency work."So as well as using tools like Xero, I've got a budget spreadsheet on my screen 24/7," he says. "Everything we spend on a daily basis goes in there and I keep constant track." 02. Be ruthless In a small business, the person responsible for keeping clients happy may also be the person who needs to chase client payments, yet that can be problematic. "We don't like talking about money, it's a very British thing," says East. "But you need to get over that, or you may end up in trouble. Of course, you need to have proper payment systems, but beyond that it's largely a communication issue: you need to keep talking to clients about money, as well as everything else." 03. Create an 'all hands on deck' culture In a small business, everyone must be willing to pitch in with administrative tasks, believes Cecere. "We do have people that manage core areas of our business, but we're also a 25-person firm, so we talk about wearing a lot of hats," he says. "Even if you're a leader in a certain area, no one is too big to do any kind of task. People help each other out; we all roll up our sleeves when we need to." 04. Learn when to delegate When you're a small business, you can keep costs down by handling administrative tasks yourself. "But sometimes that's a false economy, and it's important to recognise where your energies are best spent," says East. "We got a great bookkeeper after about two years and it was worth the cost, because she gave us so much more information about cashflow and we could do projections. So as with design, these things are often best left to someone who knows what they're doing." 05. Manage workflow It's the kind of problem everyone wants to have, but being over rather than under capacity can still be a serious problem for a small studio. "It's a really fine line between having too little work and too much," points out Giansante. "But that's one of the biggest challenges you can have on the project management side, to strike that balance. It's hard to say no to work from a cash point of view, but there are other options, like outsourcing to a pool of trusted freelancers." 06. Review everything you do regularly With the constant hustle and bustle of agency work, it's easy to forget to take a step back and examine how things are going. But it's vital for the health of the company to do so, argues Misener. "We begin the week with a careful review of finance, operations, staffing and marketing across the entire business, developing a list of of goals for the week, along with any issues that we need to address," he says. "By minding the store, we create a sustainable and creative environment." Next page: How to establish a good work-life balance Retain your staff by offering them the right balance of work and play. 01. Facilitate good communications The biggest cause of workplace stress is poor communication and bad planning, says East. As a small business, those problems should in theory be easier to overcome than in a huge bureaucracy, but this won't happen automatically. You need to make the effort to be clear with your employees. "You need to ask difficult questions, be realistic about what's achievable, be willing to say you don't know (but can find out), and have good processes and workflows in place," says East. "Sort this out and most of the problems melt away." 02. Keep working hours realistic People working for small companies are often asked to work long hours, and often end up doing so, but that can be counterproductive, lowering productivity and encouraging staff churn. So how can you avoid too many late nights or weekends stuck in the office? "Once you're experienced enough to know how long things take, you set realistic timelines," Utber says. Then it's a case of communicating these timelines. "We find clients are very happy to let you take the lead on that, as long as you clearly tell them how long things will take. As a result, we very rarely work long hours." 03. Be flexible With a small business, you generally have more freedom to be flexible with staff than large organisations with a rigid HR department. And this can go a long way to making employees happier and more productive. "So while we have regular office hours," says Cecere, "if you want to be home one day, you can do that. If you want to go to a coffee shop and work, you can do that. If your kid has a baseball game, go do that." 04. Offer remote working Offering your staff the possibility of remote working is another way to keep them on side. Giansante offers two examples. "One lad at BGN is working a day or two a week, following the recent birth of his new baby. And our creative director has got small children, so he leaves at 5pm every day, but then he'll probably work 9 to 11pm at home. If you can fit work around people's lives, it can really make the difference to work-life balance." 05. Think about location One of the worst things about being an employee is having a long or unpleasant commute, so minimising the negative effects of that can be a great way to improve employees' work-life balance. "We're always on the lookout for ways to improve the lives and livelihoods of our staff," says Cecere. "Regarding commuting, we chose to locate our offices where there is easy public transportation from all directions, free parking, the ability to cycle, and for an increasing number of our staff, the ability to walk to work." 06. Keep the hierarchy flat One of the best ways to keep employees happy is to make them feel that as a business, you're all striving together, towards a common goal. There's no scientific method or step-by-step plan for making this happen, says Wade, but having a flat hierarchy can help. "At SteadyGo, we all had the same perks, staff and directors; we always kept things very flat as far as people were treated. And that led to a feeling of 'we're all in it to win it'." Next page: How to make sure you invest wisely Make better decisions when it comes to office space and equipment.01. Location isn't everything When it comes to office space, new agencies often start small and cheap. "We started in a craphole," recalls Wade. "It looked like a taxi office. Really cheap rates and a shared kitchen between 300 people. But it was nice, it felt like grass roots." Later the team upgraded, but he still doesn't feel that boutique agencies necessarily need expensive city-centre offices. "What you need is to create kickass work and some great clients; that's more important than the postcode," he insists. 02. Do you need an office? Does your studio actually need a traditional office? Hett runs a one-man business as a creative technologist and digital artist, and works out of an art studio. "Although it's more bare bones in terms of space, it's a lot cheaper than even renting a single desk in a shared office," he says. "It's literally just a white cube, but so far it's working for me." 03. Avoid false economies When you start a business, you need to be frugal, but don't want to take things too far, says East. "Any sizeable expense requires a cost-benefit analysis. If someone can work better, faster or easier with a certain piece of kit, then they can be more productive and generate more revenue." 04. Lease, don't buy To make sure your staff have the latest kit, consider leasing instead of buying, recommends Giansante. "If we had to buy six brand new Macs for everyone, we'd be looking at around twenty grand's worth of stuff, so we lease everything. Being able to budget and spread that across the next 24 months is perfect: I know exactly how much I'm paying. Everyone gets a brand new computer and if it breaks, it gets fixed at no extra cost." 05. Listen to your staff As a small business, you have the opportunity to talk to your staff, so take it, advises Misener. "Our approach has always been to listen to staff regarding what hardware and software they need and then develop a customised plan across the team. It's always about being attentive and being willing to adapt to new innovations, work habits, or client and staff needs." 06. Bring the fun Sometimes it's a good idea to spend a little money on things that aren't strictly necessary. "It's important to work in a space you enjoy," says Spencer. "So a bloody good sound system and a cappuccino machine are essential. It's also worth spending a little more on art, photography and design books and magazines. They're invaluable for keeping up with what's going on." This article originally appeared in Computer Arts issue 270; buy it here! 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