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Jonathan Ford, the founding creative partner and CEO of brand design agency Pearlfisher, recently claimed that “designers have become lazy”. It might sound shocking, but with the huge influence of technology, social media and viral trends on designers today, does he have a point? Earlier this year, a bar in Bridgnorth, England, caught the internet’s attention thanks to an 'efficiently designed' poster for its music nights. Looking for all the world like a text exchange between a client and a designer, it went viral as it left viewers wondering if the designer really did simply take a screenshot of his smartphone, send it to the printers and call it a day. Is this poster as lazy as it seems? It’s a piece of design so simple and effective that some designers might be left kicking themselves. It didn't showcase stunning photography or deft illustration; rather, on the surface it appears to be laughably, arrogantly lazy. The beauty of the poster is that there’s more to it than meets the eye. Clever design disguised as lazy design? On closer inspection you can tease out where Dave Blackhurst, the man behind the poster, has played the realism card perfectly. There’s the 85 per cent battery life, the page indicator and the time of day that isn’t rounded to the nearest five minutes, let alone the hour. Everything about it is so deliberately imperfect, it’s no wonder so many people were temporarily fooled. Creating a viral poster that makes headlines for a day is the dream of plenty of graphic designers, so it’s comes as a shock that Blackhurst is actually a copywriter. In fact, the inspiration behind the poster came from humorous internet memes, a notoriously crude area of design that has already been accused of heralding the era of bad graphic design. All of this could be enough to leave graphic designers bereft. Did we waste our time studying? Is it time to throw away our Moleskines and retrain as a plumber? Of course not. However, pieces of meme-influenced anti-design like Blackhurst’s poster do tie into Ford’s accusation that “designers have become lazy". Predictable thinking Ford speaking at TYPO Berlin 2017 © Gerhard Kassner / MonotypeSpeaking at TYPO Berlin 2017, Ford made the bold statement as part of his talk on how a high-tech/low-tech fusion leads to creative thinking that can transform lives. In particular, Ford took issue with how powerful tools such as your everyday Google search and Pinterest board have led to a predictable style of creative thinking that leads to unchallenging design work. Unsurprisingly, Ford’s opinion struck a chord with an audience of aspiring designers and seasoned professionals. Johnson Banks' Michael Johnson says that when it comes to the beginning of a design project, there is a tendency among junior designers to be over-reliant on Google images and endless Pinterest boards. Michael Johnson thinks certain creative directors need a kick up the backside © Gerhard Kassner / Monotype“We’re always at pains to NOT design by mood board, or by what’s gone before and to genuinely search for something new – however hard that might be,” Johnson reveals. “Conversely, senior designers – and yes, creative directors – can sometimes need a gentle kick up the bum because they’re coasting or only doing ‘just enough’." New technology designed to automate things we once did manually is also a factor. "If we interpret ‘laziness’ in terms of technology, yes, the machinery and some programs do take a lot of the grind out of projects. And, yes, sometimes what the computer can do makes you think in a way that you didn’t before," he continues. "But – the machines never have an idea, and they definitely can’t hold a pencil.” Making an effort As we’ve seen from Blackhurst’s poster, which was created using a basic online text message generator, sophisticated tools have levelled the industry playing field, and opened it up to many who simply wouldn’t have had the chance to get involved before. It’s up to you whether or not this is a good or bad thing, but as far as high-end signmaker Luke Stockdale is concerned, the best designers still need to know their craft to succeed. The owner and creative director of Sideshow Sign co argues that while his area of the design industry has become lazy, sign fabricators still need to understand the essentials of construction and the materials involved. Signmaker Luke Stockdale defends designer tools © Gerhard Kassner / Monotype“When any new technology comes in, it has made someone’s life a lot easier and they’ve become lazy. But there are always those people who use it properly, and also make sure they’re learning the fundamentals and respecting it for what it is,” Stockdale explains. “You take photography, for example. You can go and buy a really nice camera and take a beautiful photo, just point and shoot, which you could never have dreamed of doing 30 years ago. But there’s still the cream of the crop who are pushing it, and are still taking better photos than anyone else, and they still could take those photos with a film camera. Technology makes people lazy. Isn’t that the point? So you don’t have to do anything; so you don’t have to do the work.” An honest representation Freeing up creatives from the more tedious aspects of design puts more of an emphasis on perspective, according to Rough Trade magazine’s print designer Bruce Usher. Taking Ford’s comment that designers have become lazy at face value, Usher dismisses the claim for being as lazy as the designers he’s putting down. “If technology makes it easier for anyone to communicate through design, then surely what we encounter day-to-day can only become more of an honest and exciting representation of what it is to be alive today? That's far more important to me than designers having to work hard to find the right font,” Usher reasons. “To really have an impact on the visual culture around us now, and be heard, I'd argue that we can afford to be less lazy than ever before – technology provides a platform for us to encounter so many different, incredible voices every day. Thankfully, it's now not enough to simply own the tools of production to have a monopoly on communication – and I find this a far more inspiring culture to be a part of.” Rough Trade print designer Bruce Usher finds design culture more inspiring than everBlackurst’s text conversation poster – shared via Imgur – is definitely a new voice that would never have reached a global audience if it wasn’t for new technologies. Yet the design is also a great example of Michael Johnson’s view that designers should be endlessly searching for verbal and visual solutions that push at the outer edges. “There are some companies who don’t do this,” Johnson explains. “In fact, there are quite a lot, because ‘pushing at the edge’ takes balls and tenacity and often involves debating ideas that don’t fit neatly into any mould or pre-ordained category. Our ‘Dear World… Yours Cambridge’ idea breaks all the conventions of the education sector, and yes it took some careful explaining to get it through. But it was worth it, both creatively for us, and financially, for them.” Pushing at the edge takes balls and tenacity, and often involves debating ideas that don’t fit neatly into any mould Michael Johnson This throws a spanner in the works, if we're using Blackhurst’s viral poster as an example of lazy design. He might have used tools that make the whole design process much easier, but his work found a unique way to get its message across – one that fooled and impressed hundreds of thousands of people around the world. In fact, given that the poster wasn’t a straightforward screenshot that trades purely off its laziness, you could argue that it’s a perfect example of sophisticated design created by an amateur who made clever use of the tools at their disposal. Not so lazy after all. A trade-off So where does this leave us when it comes to judging whether designers have become lazy? Just like television and publishing in the wake of the internet, it seems that the barriers surrounding design have been drastically lowered thanks to powerful tools, not in spite of them. You’re always going to have people that take shortcuts or produce work that doesn’t follow design fundamentals, but the trade-off is that you see plenty more work from people who previously wouldn't have had a chance of being found. As for the idea that professionals are resting on their laurels, we’ll leave you with Michael Johnson’s summary of his past year: “I’ve written and published a book, reconfigured our website, pushed through dozens of big global branding projects, written 60 speeches for the University of Cambridge, rebranded Mozilla entirely in the open, and am in the midst of countless speeches and conferences off the back of all this. Generally speaking I take Saturday morning off, if I can, then my week starts on Saturday afternoon and then doesn’t stop. So, not sure if that counts as laziness or not.” Read more: Are movie posters in a design crisis? Graphic design student creates the 27th letter of the alphabet New talent 2017: Best graduates outside London View the full article

Version 10g of Oracle Access Manager suffers from vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to hijack sessions. View the full article

Adobe's apps are the tools experts turn to for their design work. Familiarise yourself with these powerful applications with the Adobe CC Essentials Training Bundle. It's on sale now for just $29 (approx. £22)! Whether you want to give your photos extra shine to make them stand out on social media or you'd like to launch a new career as a graphic designer, you'll want to know how to use Adobe's products. The Adobe CC Essentials Training Bundle comes with three courses teach you the ins and outs of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro. Go from novice to total pro with lessons from expert instructors. You can get the Adobe CC Essentials Training Bundle on sale now for 97% off the retail price. That means you'll pay just $29 (approx. £22) for a can't-miss bundle for any designer, so grab this deal today! View the full article

In March, the Angular team released version 4, and with it some exciting new features to explore. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to make an app using some of these new features, as well as demonstrating some of the powerful performance-enhancing, under- the-hood changes. What's new? The Angular team is calling it an ‘invisible makeover’, because most of the changes are in the background rather than with core coding functionality. An important change is the move to ahead-of-time compilation as standard, which has the potential to drastically improve performance when used correctly. TypeScript 2.1+ is also now supported, which gives us access to all the new features of ES2015. That’s not to say there aren’t also any notable changes to the basics – for example, there's a useful new template-binding syntax that enables us to simplify our code by adding an else option to ngIf, and the ability to assign local variables within an ngFor. Did I miss 3.0? Angular 4 is the first major version release of the framework adopted of semantic versioning. So don’t worry, you didn’t miss 3.0 – there were two major updates, and both were rolled into version 4.0. Note also that Angular 1.x is now known as AngularJS, and Angular 2+ is simply referred to as Angular. Be wary as some third-party tutorials and libraries may not have updated their use of these terms. Get the tutorial files In this tutorial, we'll be working with a Flower Shop app. To download the example app, go to FileSilo, select Free Stuff and Free Content next to the tutorial. Note: First time users will have to register to use FileSilo. Once you're logged in, you can download the example app here. Let's get started! 01. Start with Node Download and install Node.js by following the instructions in the wizard Let's starting from scratch, and use the Angular CLI to build a Hello World app. If you want to update an existing app, skip to step 4. If you haven’t already, download Node, which comes pre-packaged with npm. If you already have Node, check it's at least Node 6.9.x and npm 3.x.x from the command line. 02. Set up a new project Create a simple Hello World app in the Angular CLINow we have a package manager we can use it to install Angular and the Angular CLI. Amongst other things, the CLI enables you to easily generate new projects and components. 03. Check versioning If you’ve not seen an Angular project before, take time to familiarise yourself with the file structure generated by the CLI. For our new project, our package.json should list version 4.0.0 Angular packages. 04. Upgrade to Angular 4 If you have an existing Angular app with 2.x versions listed, it’s really easy to update to version 4 in most cases. We just need to install and update the relevant packages from the command line. Mac: Windows: 05. Download the tutorial app From now on we’ll be working with an Angular 2 example app that you can download from FileSilo (for full notes on how to do this, see intro above). Note that this app has been created purely for illustrative purposes. Once you’ve downloaded theFlower Shop app into your root directory, install dependencies and launch in the browser. 06. Upgrade Flower Shop to 4.0 Our custom modal module needs renaming [click the icon to enlarge) Within the flower-shop directory, upgrade to 4.0. We have some UNMET PEER DEPENDENCY errors after upgrading. 07. Fix peer dependencies Peer dependencies are for managing projects that have packages relying on different versions of the same dependencies. You have to add these manually to your package.json file. The peer dependencies that we need for Flower Shop include older versions of @angular/{core,http}, rxjs and zone.js. Review the errors in the terminal output and add each missing dependency to package.json. 08. Watch out for name changes Our Flower Shop app makes use of an open-source custom component called ng2-modal. However, the author has since updated their naming convention to ngx-modal. We need to modify our dependency name and ng-module imports accordingly. 09. Check versions Our custom modal component also needs updating to a more recent version, so be sure to update it with npm. 10. Check your work Now we’ve patched up our dependencies, it’s a good idea to clear node_modules and build it again from our package.json. If all goes well you should have a clean build! If you don’t, something may still be missing in your dependency versions. Take another look. Next page: Steps 11-20 11. View engine Let’s see what new features we can use in 4.0. The new view engine compiles to a much smaller bundle, meaning extra performance benefits from using AoT compilation with the Angular compiler ngc. This means that compilation happens at build time, once, rather than multiple times in the browser at runtime. Let’s give it a try with our app. 12. Create AoT config file We need to create a new config file to tell our ngc compiler what’s what. Create a new file in the project root and name it tsconfig-aot.json. Enter the following configuration: 13. Initiate AoT compiler We can now run our ngc compiler, and there’s an intentional bug in our code so we can see it working. 14. Fix the bug In our items.component.ts file, we’ve forgotten to assert the type of our ‘item’ parameter. This doesn’t show up as an error in the editor but might cause problems at runtime. Ngc enables us to catch these issues early. Correct buyItem and cancelItem. 15. Email validator Another handy new feature in 4.0 is the new email validator, which makes it much easier to validate an ngForm input type of email. Maybe our Flower Shop needs a newsletter. First, import the FormsModule to ngModule. 16. Form template Next, add an ngForm field in the item.component.html template. 17. Handle inputs Include handling for the email address input form field to item.component.ts. 18. Test in the browser Our email validator easily recognises only valid email addresses We should find that we can only use the Submit button when we’ve entered a string that meets the basic criteria for an email address. Well that was easy! 19. Update the structural directive syntax The final thing we’re going to update is our structural directive syntax. ngFor and ngIf both have extended syntax options. ngIf now allows an else conditional. Let’s modify our ngIf in items.component.html to include an else. The element selected by the else condition must be within an ng-template. 20. Update the ngFor syntax We have updated syntax in ngFor iterators to enable the as keyword to track an index. It’s trivial and doesn’t add much value to our Flower Shop app, but say we were receiving high volumes of item.json objects over HTTP and wanted to limit or count how many we are displaying on the page, this change makes that much easier. 21. New pipes Titlecase pipe applied to flower description text forces the first letter of each word to be capitalised Finally, we have a new pipe! Titlecase can be used to force capitalisation of the first letter of each word in a string. This can be useful for consuming data from name and address form fields, for example. Let’s test it out on the interpolated item descriptions. There’s lots more 
to explore with Angular 4, with the most significant improvements in larger apps, but hopefully this tutorial has made updating seem a little less daunting! This article first appeared inside Web Designer issue 262 – buy it now. Related articles: Design for offline How to build a full-page website in Angular Build a Material Design app with Angular 2 View the full article

Idea generation and the selling of the idea is not just something reserved for creative directors – all creative thinkers have the ability to do this well. Brooklyn-based design duo Anton & Irene will bring their popular workshop to Generate London on 20 September. In it, they'll show you how to quickly come up with a solution to a client brief, and create a convincing presentation that sells your idea either to your internal team or the client, within just a couple of hours. Where most digital agencies spend days or sometimes weeks crafting ideas and generating designs, Anton & Irene believe the pressure of time gets the creative juices flowing and will make you come up with concepts you would never have considered had you been given more time to reflect. Heavy emphasis will be placed on creating key designs that will communicate the project’s core features and user experience to the internal team, the client, and the users. You’ll learn how to sell your idea, make a convincing argument, tell a compelling story, and present effectively in front of a large group of stakeholders. This workshop is for anyone within any department in digital design – designers, UX designers, project managers, copywriters, content strategists, developers and programmers are all welcome! Irene will give hands-on advice at the Concept, Create, and Sell! workshopAnton & Irene will also present a talk at the conference, in which they will share their experience on how to establish a good work/life balance while producing creative work for both. Other Generate London workshops include Steve Fisher on running design and content sprints, Zell Liew on building scalable responsive components and Jaime Levy on UX strategy. The event will also cover adaptive interfaces, web animations, performance, accessibility, chatbots, better teamwork, and much more. Don't miss it! If you buy a combined workshop and conference pass for Generate London, you will save £95. View the full article

It’s always exciting to see new digital art tools hit the market. But in 2017, it feels like there’s something extra-special in the air. Right now, merging technologies are ramping up digital art software like never before. We’re seeing better representation of traditional art techniques, better interpretation of digital artists’ strokes, and new virtual environments for art creation. In this post, we round up six of the best recent releases taking advantage of these trends. But things move fast, so keep checking Creative Bloq to make sure you don’t miss the next wave of tools to hit the market. 01. Corel Painter 2018 Corel Painter’s Thick Paint feature lets you apply digital paint in layersCorel Painter is an established name in digital art software, with its makers keen to funnel user feedback into each new iteration. And the 2018 version, released last month, fits right into that mould. Its most talked-about new feature is Thick Paint, aimed squarely at artists from a traditional painting background. When used in combination with a new selection of brushes and palette knives, Thick Paint enables you to apply digital paint in layers, which means you can pull, push, scrape and build it up with your stylus in a way that’s significantly closer to the physical experience of slapping actual paint on a canvas. Other additions to the 2018 version include a new range of 2.5D Thick Texture brushes and a new Natural-Media brush library. Plus there’s the Texture Synthesis tool, which lets you select a particular area of an painting and tell Painter to automatically generate a larger image based on its texture. You can learn more about the new features in Corel Painter 2018 here. 02. Rebelle 2 Budget tool Rebelle has improved the realism of its brushes with its latest releaseWe’ve long been fans of Rebelle, a popular budget painting tool from Escape Motion. It’s essentially a decent, cut-price version of Corel Painter with some cool little features all of its own, such as the Blow tool, which simulates your breath on the digital canvas in a similar way to how it would affect wet paint. Released in April, the latest version of Rebelle follows its pricier rival in bringing traditional and digital painting practices ever closer together. In particular, Rebelle has made big strides in improving the realism of its watercolour brushes, which can now more accurately mimic the colour mixing, blending, wet-diffusion and drying that take place in physical painting. For example, you can now smear your watercolour paint, blow wet washes across your canvas, and even tilt it to create drops and runs. Learn more about the new features in Rebelle 2 here. 03. CorelDRAW’s LiveSketch tool LiveSketch interprets what you’re trying to achieve with your strokes to create smoother lines and curvesCorel doesn’t just have one digital art tool up its sleeve. To complement its raster-based Painter, it also produces a vector drawing program, CorelDRAW. And this year’s iteration comes with a very useful tool for digital artists: Corel LiveSketch. LiveSketch uses sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) technology to interpret what you’re trying to achieve with your strokes and reproduce it on screen. In other words, if you’re unable to draw a long, smooth, continuous line with your stylus naturally, you can tell the program to create one based on a series of short strokes. It sounds like dark magic, but our reviewer found it worked a treat. Learn more about CorelDRAW here. 04. Google Autodraw Google Autodraw is a digital art tool, though it’s not exactly aimed at digital artistsCorel isn’t the only big player experimenting with AI drawing technology right now. In April, Google brought out its own intuitive art tool in the form of Autodraw. Autodraw specialises in taking amateur doodles, matches them with images in its database, and then transforming them into something slicker. While it is a digital art tool, it’s not one aimed at digital artists. In fact, it’s primarily for people who are no good at drawing at all. Still it’s free to download to your phone or desktop, and a lot of fun to play around with. 05. Google Blocks Google Blocks lets you create low-poly art within a VR environmentIf Autodraw is aimed at amateurs, Google Blocks, released this month, is a lot more interesting for pro artists. Available for free on the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, Google Blocks aims to help you make colourful, low-poly, 3D art in virtual reality. Blocks is as intuitive in use as Google’s other popular VR drawing program, Tilt Brush, which it complements rather than replaces. And it can be used to make some pretty impressive artwork, as its website’s gallery demonstrates. Once you’ve completed your artwork, you can export it to VR and AR software as an .obj file, or show it to everybody on the web in the form of an animated GIF. 06. Edvard Munch brushes These Photoshop brushes simulate those used by expressionist painter Edvard MunchPhotoshop is still a favourite tool of many a digital artist. But while 2017 hasn’t yet seen a new version of Adobe’s warhorse, digital artists have had one treat in the form of some cool new Photoshop brushes. You may or may not know the name of Norwegian expressionist painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944), but you’ll certainly recognise his most famous painting, The Scream. And last month, as part of a painting contest, Adobe released a free set of Photoshop brushes that replicate the ones used by the man himself. These were created in collaboration with Oslo’s Munch Museum and Photoshop brush maker Kyle T Webster, based on scans of the original brushes in 3D. Learn more about the new Photoshop brushes here. 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https://www.facebook.com/fightfortheftr #netneutrality #BattleForTheNet pic.twitter.com/TRBi5Q4K3F View the full article

https://blog.cpanel.com/netneutrality/ View the full article

The Katyusha Scanner can find SQL injection bugs at scale, and is managed via the Telegram messenger on any smartphone. View the full article

Microsoft releases a total of 57 security patches, part of its July Patch Tuesday, with 20 rated critical. View the full article

Microsoft today addressed two NTLM-related vulnerabilities privately disclosed by Preempt Security. The flaws allow for credential relay attacks. View the full article

Adobe only fixed six vulnerabilities in two products, making it the company's smallest security bulletin of the year. View the full article

Painting ‘alla prima’ (that is, painting wet-on-wet, in one session) is the ideal technique for embracing the nature of oil paints. There is something about the medium that is so generous. Its fluid, glossy, rich texture enables you to make thick brushstrokes, which can be spread and layered with so much satisfaction. Also called ‘direct painting’, alla prima is all about being spontaneous and making rapid decisions, as the goal is to produce a painting in one go (often in one setting), without letting any layers dry. If there’s one thing that painting wet-on-wet can teach us, it’s to be confident. There's no room for fiddling with the brush, no retouching dry layers, and no glazes to hide the mistakes – every brushstroke counts! Painting alla prima particularly suits working plein air, but you can still apply it to your studio work. In fact, it’s a great way to help add more freedom and spontaneity when working in this environment. In this workshop, we will work from a photo, but will attempt to capture the essence of the scene with the same energy and speed as if we were painting from life. 01. Lay down a base and initial sketch A warm base helps to emulate a summer glowAdding a ground to your canvas will harmonise the colours in the final painting. Here, we’ve picked a warm colour to convey the hot summer’s day in the scene. It will also carry a warm feeling across the whole painting. If you want to accurately transfer the image onto the canvas, you can lightly draw a grid onto the board and copy from a gridded version of the original photo, as we have done here. There’s no need to put details in at this point, it’s just about defining the main shapes. 02. Block in one colour Build up the mid tones as a wholeFill the canvas with your mid-tone colours first – you’ll have the chance to add darker and lighter accents after. Start sculpting your painting with strong brushstrokes, to give an early sense of movement, composition and colour. The paint needs to be thin at this stage (diluted with turps or water). Use large brushes to start with, going smaller as you go more into more detail. Instead of working in small areas, try tackling one colour at a time across the whole canvas – here, we're working on all the greens in one go. 03. Define the shapes Keep in mind how brushstrokes can affect the compositionThe chances are your diluted first marks will now look slightly faded, but now is the time to add some contrast to the scene. The paint can be used pure or with a medium, but it needs to be thicker than before. The direction of the brushstrokes is also important, as these marks will guide the eye and strengthen the composition. The marks at this stage are often the heart and soul of the painting – they are bold enough to make a statement without being lost in the details. 04. Paint the subject Break down the figure into abstract shapes to avoid a rigid lookPainting characters can often be daunting or look a little rigid. To avoid this, try to forget you are painting a figure with limbs, and instead depict them as abstract shapes. Make sure the figure fits into the rest of the painting in terms of tone and colour. A character will look awkward if it is cooler, warmer, lighter or darker than the rest of the painting! Make sure you are consistent with light across the canvas. 05. Add the final touches Time to fill in the gaps and refine some detailsThe painting is almost done and just needs final details and a bit more depth. This is the time to adjust any contrasts, such as adding some darker brushstrokes in the shades and highlights in the greens that will convey energy. Make sure the lines of the figure have been refined, and gaps have been filled across the painting. When working wet-on-wet in oils, watch out for unwanted blending that can happen when adding details. Working alla prima often means having a spontaneous unpolished result – embrace it! You might also like these art articles: How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorials Improve your brushstrokes in oils 7 must-know painting techniques for artists View the full article

Mark October 27 in your calendar as the day you need to sign back up to Netflix (or at least enrol in another free trial) because Stranger Things is back in town. You remember Stranger Things, right? The sci-f/ fantasy '80s nostalgia fest was the show on everybody's lips last year thanks to its gripping story, charming characters, and an aesthetic that managed to look retro without appearing dated. It also spawned animated mashups, plus an 8-bit videogame makeover. Prepare to return to the Upside Down [Click to see the full size poster] We've already seen how the official poster for the first series was created, but with a second batch of episodes on the way it's only fitting that series two got its own promotional artwork... First and second series compared – what does the darker look suggest about the content of the next series?Fans of the show have already exploded with excitement online thanks to the new poster, and it's sure to lead to some rampant speculation – is that the monster from the first series lurking in the clouds, and most importantly, where's Eleven? We've got to wait a couple of months yet until we find out, but in the meantime there's also a brief video teaser to tide you over. Related articles: Are movie posters in a design crisis? Best movie posters from the 1990s Is your design retro… or just dated? View the full article

A good mobile app must boast a great UI design and an engaging user experience, of course, but people also judge by appearances. In a crowded marketplace, developers must make sure that their app is beautiful enough to stand out. I work at EffectiveSoft, a custom applications development consultant, which often advises developers on integrating animations into their UIs in order to win over customers. Get it right, and it really works. However, that's not as easy as it sounds. Use too many animations or use them in the wrong places, and it can create an irritating or noisy experience. Animations, when used properly, help reduce cognitive load, attract and direct users’ attention, and make an experience easier to follow. So, when are animations appropriate? This article pulls together some best practices for using animation in mobile apps. 01. Animated app launch screens Studies show that people expect apps to load instantly, but with complex mobile apps this isn’t always possible. Loading animations can help distract users and make the load time appear shorter than it is. There are a lot of different animation options for load screens. A simple option is to use an animated logo, as Édouard Puginier has done here in his design for the launch screen of Wit. App launch screens are prime locations for animations Other designers like to get more creative, and tie their animation in with the theme of the app itself or the rest of the branding. In the loader design below, Anton Drokov has animated a spacecraft travelling to the stars. Theme your animations to create excitement as your app loads 02. Animated login screens Some apps ask users to log in before they launch. Here, an awesome background illustration can help liven up a login screen, and keep new users on side so they’re willing to take the time to log in. In the login animation below, @herac1es has used a time-lapse animation of a busy city to add momentum to the process of logging in. Jazz up a login screen with animation Other apps use animation to distract the viewer while they check the username and password that has been entered. In the space-inspired concept below, Oliver Günther has even designed an error state. Getting your password wrong has never been so fun 03. Animated onboarding screens Software developers understand the importance of the onboarding process. This helps first-time users to become familiar with the app – there’s a real risk people will abandon the app if they do not understand how to work with it. Showing static slides to users is a common approach to the onboarding experience, but animated walkthroughs are much more engaging, as this calming onboarding animation from Zhenya & Artem proves. Walk users through the app with animation 04. Animated progress and activity indicators It is common knowledge that people are impatient and hate waiting. Developers do their best to ensure their apps work smoothly and speedily but sometimes waiting is inevitable – for example, when something needs to be loaded or a new element is installed. Apps often employ animated progress or activity indicators to capture users’ attention. These could be circular or linear, and developers tend to choose indeterminate indicators for operations that are performed quickly, and determinate indicators for actions that take more than two to three seconds. However, some app designers make their activity indicators more distinctive. For example, Domaso’s circular progress indicator has been turned into a cute cat that stretches as it moves. What else could be a fun play on the spinning wheel? Andrey Davlikanoff has also plumped for a cute creature. His tiny snail moves forward to indicate progress. This is certainly more fun than most progress indicators Other developers have chosen to tap into our obsession with food. Such indicators are a great choice for mobile apps that deal with food delivery, recipes or cooking. For instance, Giedrius Butkus’ mouthwatering pizza preloader design would fit a pizza delivery app perfectly. Just hope your users don't get hangry Roman Kryzhanovskyi has opted for a simpler, geometric design in his Android app server search progress screen. We love the sonar-style ripple effect (You might have to refresh to make this one play) Finally, Mark Martemianov has decided to combine a circular and linear progress indicator in his Material Design-style subscription button. Next page: UI animation ideas for buttons, menus and error pages 05. Animated buttons and controls Developers extensively make use of animations when it comes to different buttons and controls. A common example might be an animated handset to indicate there is an incoming call – as in this design by Andreas Storm. Animated toggle buttons are also popular. The toggle switch below, by Tsuriel, enables the user to switch between day and night modes. 06. Menus Mobile app menus offer plenty of scope for imagination. Most designers use different fonts and backgrounds to make them beautiful. Some go a step further and take advantage of animated buttons and fonts to make their apps to be even more distinctive. This charming menu animation from Anastasiia Andriichuk is a sweet surprise for users. 07. Pull-to-refresh Both users and developers love swipe-to-refresh patterns. This method for updating content involves a physical interaction between the human being and the app, almost like a dialogue between the two. This pull-to-refresh animation from Jon Rundle takes a simple approach, with a satisfying elastic bounce effect when the user lifts their thumb. In other cases, more complex animations can work better. Ramotion’s liquid pull-to-refresh animation for Dribbble adds a touch of fun to the experience. It's a good idea to use animations that match the overall style or subject of the app. Dmytro Prudnikov’s design for a rentals app gives the user a cheeky peek of a skyscraper in the sunshine. 08. Error pages In an ideal world, errors would never occur. But realistically, sometimes things don't go to plan. Putting some effort into your error pages can help diffuse the frustration of hitting a dead end. A custom error page can help retain users. Sathish Kumar's 'no internet' animation shows a bee falling out of the sky when the user's connection isn't working properly. These kind of animations work well when designed in tandem with other error pages – for example, Kumar has designed an accompanying animation for when something goes wrong, which shows a bee being blown off course – sure to take the sting out of not getting the information you were expecting Similarly, Scott M Thigpen's design for a weather app introduces an element of surprise and humour when an error page occurs. Related articles: Understand the 12 principles of animation Supercharge SVG animations with GSAP A beginner's guide to designing interface animations View the full article

When you're focused on the design side of things it can be easy to forget just how important good copywriting can be to a finished product – if it doesn't hit the mark then it could quite easily ruin the entire package. jkr knows the importance of coming up with words to match the quality of the pictures. Here Chris Sharpe, head of brand voice, and design director Brett Sabler discuss the designer-copywriter relationship, and explain how to craft great copy. You can find the rest of our video interviews with the jkr team here. But before you go, here's some more great advice from Chris and Brett, as they share their three top tips for mastering brand voice. 01. Bounce ideas around Chris Sharpe often articulates the initial idea to inspire the design team, but it's a two-way thing. "It's nice to have a bit of table tennis back and forth," he says. Both Sharpe and Brett Stabler agree that ideas can, and should, come from anywhere. "It's just words and pictures at the end of the day," grins Stabler. "It's a 50/50 relationship, and when you work those things in parallel, the end result is much better for it." 02. Know your limits Finding the correct approach to copywriting depends on the context. "I may be best placed to do it – I can be a chameleon – but sometimes someone with experience in the sector will be a step ahead," reasons Sharpe. Stabler sees similarities in design: "Any designer can have a go at something, but it may get to a point where, for example, a calligrapher would be better because they're a real craftsman rather than a jack of all trades," he adds. "Part of design direction is knowing where your limitations are, and when you need to find a specialist." 03. Make every word count "Words are very important to any brand," believes Sharpe. "The back of a pack could make you fall in love with a brand. It might seem like a small thing, but it lifts the whole thing." He gives the analogy of giving someone a gift: "It might be wrapped perfectly, but it's the little card that tells you who it's from that lifts it that notch further, and we like to surprise and delight in that sense." Stabler gives jkr's work for PG Tips as an example: "On the box, it says '80 lovely cups of tea' rather than a cutout robot telling you that there are '80x teabags'. That human touch often comes through the words more easily than the visuals," he says. This article originally appeared in Computer Arts issue 266; buy it here! Related articles: Create the perfect brand voice 5 ways type can define brands 4 expert tips for creating a killer brand strategy View the full article

There's never a bad time to start down the career path of a mobile developer, but there's never been a better time than now, with the release of Android O. Learn how to bring your apps to life with the the Android O and Java Developer Mastery Course, on sale for just $15 (approx £12)! The newest Android OS release, Android Oreo, is available for developers now. That means there's no reason not to start learning all about the new capabilities to this operating system. Even if you're starting with next to no coding experience, this course will have plenty for you. It will introduce you to Java, the Android Studio, IntellJ IDEA, and other key tools used to create apps for Android. The Android O and Java Developer Mastery Course usually retails for $200. Right now, you can save 92% off that price and pay just $15 (approx £12). For under $20, you can learn how to build apps for Android, so snag this course today! View the full article

Renowned Italian designer Massimo Vignelli, creator of the classic American Airlines logo, once said that designers use far too many typefaces. But with so many great free fonts around, it's no surprise that creatives' collections are ever-growing. Vignelli's all-purpose toolkit features household names like Garamond, Bodoni, Helvetica, Univers, Futura, Caslon and Baskerville – between them spanning three centuries of type design history. And few designers would disagree that all of the above are timeless, albeit well-worn classics. But sometimes something a little different is required of a display face, to give it that extra punch. Sometimes the ubiquitous serifs of Times New Roman just don't quite cut it. Whatever your needs, the following list of top fonts that often get overlooked should really come in handy. We've split our list into display fonts, serif fonts, sans serif fonts and slab serif fonts to help you find the font you need. We'll start with display fonts... 50 best free fonts for designersDisplay fonts 01. F37 Bella Bella is a classical Didot-inspired beautyBased on letterforms of American typographers John Pistilli and Herb Lubalin, and Swiss typographer Jan Tschichold, F37 Bella is an award-winning display font by Rick Banks. Designed in the classical French Didot style but with a contemporary geometrical twist, Bella contains alternatives and covers an extensive range of Latin-based languages, including Western and Eastern European. 02. Eames Stencil If you're looking for a great stencil font, look no further than Eames StencilWhen you're looking for a great stencil font that's beautifully designed and not in the least bit cheap-looking or gimmicky, this House Industries favourite should be your first port of call. This top font is part of the broader Eames family, developed in homage to the late great Charles and Ray Eames. The curves in the stencil font were inspired by the curvature of bent plywood. 03. Otto Otto is Non-Format's first commercially available fontOtto is a stunning font from talented design duo Non-Format. Featuring a combination of delicate lines with flashes of block colour, it's a unique display font with two personalities that works well in large formats. 04. Poster Bodoni This Bodoni display version from the 1920s is something extra specialOkay, so Vignelli already ticked Bodoni off the list – and a beautifully classy Didone-style serif it is too, thanks to the craft skills of Giambattista Bodoni in the late 18th century. But this display version from the 1920s is something extra special for setting large, high-impact type where the extreme contrast between the stem thickness really comes into its own. A top font that's perfect for setting large, high-impact type where the extreme contrast between the stem thickness really comes into its own. 05. Cumulus & Foam This surreal display font combines simple, ultra-thin lines with bulbous, cloud-like formsDesigned by Stefan Kjartansson for YouWorkForThem, this utterly unique, quite surreal display font combines simple, ultra-thin lines with bulbous, cloud-like forms to give Cumulus & Foam its tagline, "the most beautifully grotesque font of our time." Although Kjartansson proudly asserts that it doesn't work as a typeface, this top font's "ugly beauty" and "disciplined chaos" can certainly add character to a project. Next page: serif fonts 06. Linotype Didot Didot is great for adding a classic, timeless elegance to your workThis Bodoni alternative was also developed in the late 18th century, and the mutual influence between the two contemporaries is apparent. Both share characteristic sharp, seductive serifs and harsh angles. But with more space allowed for its counterweight, Didot feels like a slimmer version of Bodoni. This top serif font is great for adding a classic, timeless elegance to your work. 07. Mrs Eaves You may recognise Mrs Eaves from its use in the WordPress logotypeWhile its unconventional name may raise a few eyebrows, Emigre's versatile serif, designed by Zuzana Licko in 1996, is a subtle modern interpretation of the work of legendary 18th century type pioneer John Baskerville, and named after Sarah Eaves, the housekeeper who would become his wife. You may recognise it from its use in the WordPress logotype. 08. Bembo Bembo was reborn under the Monotype label in 1929A 20th century revival of an old-style serif originally cut by Francesco Griffo in the late 15th century, Bembo was reborn under the Monotype label in 1929. Widely considered a great typeface for setting book copy, this top font is generally best used to express traditional, formal beauty, and is particularly notable for its stylish italic ampersand. 09. Modern No 20 Modern No 20 is perfect for adding class to your designsDesigned by Stephenson Blake, this modern serif is excellent typographical shorthand for quality and refinement. Designed by Edward Benguiat for Bitstream, it's perfect for adding class to titles the world over. There's no better testimonial than the fact that it's been employed for world-renowned design agency Pentagram's logotype. 10. Rooney Rooney typeface has a friendly feel, without ever being too cheap and cheerfulOne of a growing number of modern fonts earmarked as particularly effective for use on screen – particularly for apps and websites – Jan Fromm's Rooney typeface has a friendly feel, without ever being too cheap and cheerful. The subtle rounded serifs and terminals of this top font add personality and impact when used large, as well as having a softening effect when set in smaller sizes. It's available in six weights. Next page: Sans serif fonts The greatest free web fonts11. Gotham Gotham is a no-nonsense sans-serifTobias Frere-Jones' assertive, geometric sans-serif was inspired by New York's architectural signage of the mid-20th century. Initially commissioned by GQ magazine, Gotham has been used everywhere from Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign to the One World Trade Centre, and is available in four widths. 12. AG Book Rounded This sans serif has a considerably soft, informal feelAlthough based on the root typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk – the late 19th century precursor to Helvetica, and indeed all modern sans serif fonts – this rounded version from Berthold has a considerably softer, more informal feel, generous spacing and large x-height, all of which combine to make it well suited to easy reading in children's books and advertising. 13. Franklin Gothic Franklin Gothic boasts a broad range of weights to suit print, web and other purposesOriginally designed in 1903, redrawn in 1980 and finally updated in 1991, Franklin Gothic (or Grotesque in the US) can boast a broad range of weights to suit print, web and other purposes. Although it fell out of favour for a brief period in the 1930s after the introduction of European faces such as Futura, Franklin soon regained and maintained its popularity in the US, and is today a shoo-in for our list of top fonts. 14. Wagner Grotesk Wagner is particularly well-suited to screen useCanada Type's original intention with this extensive redesign of Edel Gothic/ Grotesque was to update, enhance and adapt the early 20th century typeface for use on digital platforms. Accordingly, Wagner Grotesk is particularly well-suited to screen use, although its impact and legibility ensure it works hard on posters and in headlines, too. 15. Source Sans Pro Adobe’s Source Sans Pro is one of the design community’s most popular free fontsReleased in 2012, Source Sans Pro was the first open source type family for Adobe, and has proved wildly popular. It was envisioned as a classic grotesque typeface with a simple, unassuming design. It was designed by Paul D. Hunt, who continues to work as a type designer at Adobe, and is available for free. Next page: slab serif fonts 16. Kondolar This top font works hard as a legible text faceUnexpected flourishes on certain characters give Cadson Demak's appealing slab serif font something of a dual personality. This top font works hard as a legible text face, but used large enough, the sweeping descenders on the 'K', 'Q' and 'R' provide just the level of detail it needs to feel special enough to carry a headline. 17. Black Slabbath If you use Black Sabbath, use it big!Besides Cumulus & Foam, this is Stefan Kjartansson's other major claim to fame – the headline-stealing, self-proclaimed "heaviest typeface in the world", with slivers of white space in between ultra-chunky geometric letterforms. Suffice to say, this one doesn't function at any size below monster – but then if you use it, you'll want it to roar. 18. Enclave Enclave boasts thick, chunky slab serifsDesigned by Terminal Design's James Montalbano with the goal of being unique but still highly legible, Enclave boasts thick, chunky slab serifs that are nonetheless softened and subtly rounded to take some of the harsh edge off, and warmth, and stop it looking too much like a typewriter font. It's another top font that works equally well large or as a text face. 19. Sentinel Sentinel was seen in President Obama's 2012 campaign messagingBased on Clarendon – one of the first and arguably most defining examples of a slab serif typeface, released in 1845 – Hoefler & Frere-Jones' "slab serif that works" overcomes many of the shortcomings of a traditional slab font by integrating a broad range of weights, and carefully-designed italics, to ensure true versatility without compromising on style. This top font was seen in President Obama's 2012 campaign messaging. 20. Rockwell Rockwell demonstrates what strong, thick, edgy serif fonts can doOne of the best-known examples of the slab serif genre, Rockwell demonstrates what strong, thick, edgy serifs, bold shapes and opposing curves can do to add clout and impact to a typeface. This top font is effective in capitals for a statement headline piece, but also features beautiful lower case forms for more versatile uses. You might also like these articles: 50 best free fonts for designers Logo design tips from the experts 5 traits that define a typeface’s personality View the full article

Seb Lee-Delisle will kick off the 5th annual Generate London conference on 21 September. Expect super bright LEDs, electronics and lasers."Introduce myself?" Seb Lee-Delisle smiles, laughs and fidgets in his chair. "You know how difficult it is to write your own profile, right? Well, currently, I'm a full time artist, building digital installations... building cool stuff with computers. I do some presentations and consultation all about creative coding. I try to help people explore creative uses of computers." With a palpable sense of relief, he leans back in his chair and exhales. "That never gets any easier," he finishes. When it comes to computer-based creativity, it's hard to think of anybody whose veins course with more caffeinated bits and bytes than Seb Lee-Delisle's. He's the man behind PixelPyros, a digital firework show that's toured the world. Interactive pyrotechnics Whereas fireworks rely on gunpowder, lasers power PixelPyros. They daub sparkling arcs and eruptions of colour onto a sixty-foot screen. The show is also interactive. Viewers – or rather, participants – launch fireworks by moving their hands in front of orbs of projected light. Arduino provided Lee-Delisle with the perfect gateway into learning about electronics and connecting devices"I like challenging myself, " he explains, considering the motivation behind PixelPyros. "I like challenging myself and creating things. Sure, a big part of what fascinates me is solving problems. If I see a Rubik's Cube that's messed up, it does my head in. I have to solve it. Building stuff is just a good feeling." Other projects include Lunar Trails and PixelPhones. The former is an art installation built around a Lunar Lander gaming cabinet from 1979. As you play, a robot plots your movements on a giant canvas. The results are delicate, whimsical and strangely evocative of Bubble Chamber tracks. PixelPhones is an open source platform that turns viewers' smartphones into pixels in a piece of art. Imagine a bright constellation map of all the smartphones in a theatre and you're on the right track. Seb Lee-Delisle will open the fifth annual Generate London conference in style – with lasers So, when did computers first appear in his life? "Very early. My dad was a physics lecturer and he used to bring home computers for me to play with. I remember my brother and father had a really early computer called the Nascom. The memory was counted in bytes. Somehow they made a Space Invaders game for it. It was magic to me! I must have been nine or ten at the time." "I remember first getting my hands on a computer when I was eleven. I learned BASIC on a little handheld computer. That seems futuristic, doesn't it? I think it was a Sharp. You could print stuff [to the screen] and make it beep. That was it," he laughs. "The interesting thing is," he says, "I was always trying to make drawings, to make pictures, animations and games. Back then, of course, you had no choice but to learn programming. We didn't have Photoshop. My entire motivation for programming was to make pictures. And you know, today I just try to do the same stuff. I try to draw pictures with computers," he continues. Computer music Lee-Delisle also made music. "One of my friends ran an Amiga demo group Share and Enjoy. He chucked some of my music into a demo called Amazing Tunes II." Despite his enthusiasm for computers, Lee-Delisle spent his 20s in a band. "That was my focus. It was possibly 1996. We wanted to make a big thing about being on the internet. So, I learned how to make websites for my band. We got a lot of coverage for being one of the first internet bands." Sadly, the band didn't quite make it and its members needed to get jobs. Lee-Delisle took a job working for an e-learning firm. He says, "I was only freelance. I was doing lots of work in [Adobe] Director and then I learned Flash." Flash games Flash, it becomes apparent, was a real epiphany for Lee-Delisle. "I got really excited about Flash games. I really wanted to work for Kerb. They were a big Flash games house in Brighton. In the late '90s and early 2000s they were the bad boys of digital." A plotter from the 80s that Lee- Delisle used to make small prints from the LunarTrails projectLee-Delisle formed his own company and it went on to become the seed of Plug-in Media. "My first client was Kerb." Lee-Delisle explains. "I did maybe a couple of days a week for Kerb. I did some big projects. Something for Sony and a couple of games. "One or two of my games won awards. One in particular [Stan James Free-Kick Challenge] had millions and millions of plays. It was hugely successful. And then I started to grow Plug-in a bit. I was doing some web design work too. It was only when I focused on games, things started working properly." An artist called Dominic Minns joined Plug-in. He had contacts at the BBC so Plug-in started pitching for big projects. The BBC became a big client and Plug-in began specialising in making Flash games. "I guess this would have been around 2006," he recalls. "And Plug-in just started growing and growing over the next few years until there were around 15 people there. We started doing some really big projects like [CBeebies] Big and Small." For those who haven't frequented the children's BBC TV channels, Big and Small is a show about a friendly purple puppet and a bouncy orange one. For their efforts on the Big and Small Flash game, Plug-in won a BAFTA. Next came another BAFTA for work on the ZingZillas game, again for a BBC children's show. Moving towards open source As Plug-in flourished, Lee-Delisle began another dalliance. "I started speaking at conferences and contributing to open source. I was a member of the Papervision team, which was a 3D open source engine for Flash. I was starting to contribute to open source. Despite the success of the firm he started, Lee-Delisle began to feel increasingly unfulfilled by it. "I began to realise that [Plugin] wasn't what I wanted to be doing. I was still doing the open source stuff and writing on my blog. I was sharing everything that I learned." As he recalls the memories, Lee-Delisle breaks into a full smile. The look of joy recedes moments later. "I realised this was a bit of a conflict with the business. I think my partners got fed up when I was off in America all the time, running around doing conferences when they were doing all the work. I think it was a valuable thing to do but their point of view was..." He pauses, smiles and says: "different". And so he parted ways with Plug-in. "I just decided to leave the company, which was really difficult. It's hard to get out of something you started, right? There's a lot of emotions flying around. It's like a divorce. But, it was the best thing to do." Moving on to PixelPyros Everybody loves lasers. This R&D unit is a 1W machine (that's 2,000 times more powerful than a common or garden laser pointer). PixelPyros performances used 11W lasersOur discussion meanders its way back to PixelPyros and how it came into being. "It was a good few years ago. It was a side project. I'd seen Graffiti Research Labs had a project call Laser Tag. You could do graffiti tagging on a building with a laser... the tag would be projected on by a fairly low power projector [it's low power compared to the projectors we use but still four times brighter than most domestic projectors]. Maybe a 4,000-lumen projector. "I got really excited. I'd never considered that you could project onto a building. I knocked up a demo in Flash. I projected it at a building and did webcam motion detection, all in Flash, and made some fireworks. It was a bit crap really, compared to the massive project it became." Despite PixelPyros's modest beginning in 2007, Lee-Delisle found he couldn't shake off the idea. "Something about it really resonated with me. It captured my imagination." Pyro problems In 2012, Lee-Delisle set about building the project. "It was at the Brighton Digital festival. I started talking to people and got to know people who were good at getting Arts Council funding. Naively, I set upon this task to build this project. I applied for a grant and somehow got it and, honestly, everything went wrong!" Throughout the four or five month production phase, the team had problems with finding venues, projection, getting insurance, health and safety, crowd control, evacuation plans, finding a production manager and hiring equipment. But PixelPyros ran perfectly on the night. The show went on to tour the country, playing five dates at four venues and to tens of thousands of people. Our chat moves on to open source, which is a topic close to Lee-Delisle's heart. "I wouldn't be able to do any of the work I do if it weren't for open source," he tells us. "LunarTrails makes massive use of Processing and Arduino. PixelPyros is built on open frameworks and uses lots of contributions from people in the community." He rocks back in his chair and continues. "You know people say to me all the time: 'why don't you monetise your work? Why don't you set up a business that sells PixelPyros around the world?' But, by making it open source, it releases my sense of custodianship... of ownership." Intellectual property Clearly, Lee-Delisle isn't a complete refusenik when it comes to the idea of intellectual property and ownership. He leans forward purposefully in his chair and says: "Now, sure. If somebody took the code and made a show exactly the same as PixelPyros I'd be annoyed. People should be able to share and benefit from it." "I've had a few famous international rock stars sniffing around [PixelPhones]. One said if we're going to pay you to do this, we want to own it. I said 'no'. That's not the point of it. "I've put a lot of my own time into this. I don't want somebody to own it. I don't even want me to own it. Syncing up all the phones in a room isn't original but it's not been done in this way before because it's really hard! "I don't want other people to go through what I went through to remake it. I'd rather they used my stuff and then maybe they'd get me in to be a consultant. To me, that's much better business rather than me putting a patent on it and suing anybody who links up phones. That's bullshit. That's not what I want to be doing with my life." Lee-Delisle embraces a plethora of technologies to make and to power his projects. PixelPyros employed C++ and open frameworks. PixelPhones used JavaScript. He's also a proponent of Processing and ArduinoIs PixelPyros open source? "The source for PixelPyros is all there for you to see on my GitHub. I haven't actually attached a licence to it yet because I can't really figure out what licence to give it! You can certainly look at the source but, I'm still figuring out the best way to license it." Finally, we touch on side projects. Lee-Delisle says: "Starting a project is easy. Finishing it is the hard bit. If you actually finish projects it sets you apart from almost everyone else. People are just very unprepared for the amount of work it takes to finish a project. "That's why I always say, if you're doing a side project, make it buildable. Make it small. It's better to finish a small project than start a really big one." So what's next for the man who makes digital fireworks? "I don't know whether I should talk about this," he says, rocking forward in his chair and beaming. "I want to make a simulation of being struck by lightning. Not killing anyone, but I could make a really cool lightning effect with a laser." Photography: Rob Monk This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 251 (March 2014). As well as Seb Lee-Delisle's appearance, Generate London will feature 15 other great sessions spread over two days covering web animations, performance, UX strategy, teamwork, product design, accessibility, conversational and adaptive interfaces and much more. There's also a full day of workshops on 20 September, and if you buy a bundle, you'll save £95. Reserve your spot today! View the full article

You're reading 10+ Free Alternative Open Source CMS Tools to Explore, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! A content management system (CMS) is a monolithic software application or set of tools that are used to create and manage digital content. A CMS is used for web content management (WCM) or enterprise content management (ECM). It started in the 1990s when Perl or Cold Fusion were used to create dynamic pages for e-commerce […] View the full article

Much of the work of graphic designers today exists only in pixel form. But that doesn’t mean the appeal of print design has gone away; quite the reverse. Precisely because of the digital takeover of our society, there’s a yearning for the physical and tactile, so it’s not surprising that designer business cards are more popular than ever. Here are 10 of our favourite designs for your inspiration. But of course there are thousands more out there, so feel free to share your own favourites in the comments below. 01. Ryan Brinkerhoff Ryan Brinkerhoff’s passion for typography shines out in this stunning business cardTrading under the name Bandito Design, Michigan-based Ryan Brinkerhoff has a passion for branding, illustration, and poster design and the goal of “finding smart solutions that make people smile”. His beautiful typography-based design was printed by Floridan letterpress specialists Mama’s Sauce. 50 inspiring examples of letterpress business cards02. Kelli Marie Daly Freelancer Kelli Marie Daly’s poster-style card is effortlessly coolKelli Marie Daly is an art director and freelance graphic designer, currently based in Milwaukee. This vintage poster-style business card isn’t the most original concept, but it’s beautifully realised and conveys a real sense of her personality. You can see more of Daly’s personal branding here. 03. RAMA These letterpress-savvy designers have taken full advantage of their printing prowess to create these cardsRama is a group of graphic designers in Buenos Aires who founded their own letterpress and bookbinding studio. Inspired by vintage typographic posters, they designed and printed these business cards in their own workshop, using a white cardboard that they were going to throw out due to a texture problem. Instead, they used the problem to their advantage, to create the old and worn appearance they’d been seeking for the business cards. You can see the collection in more detail here. 04. Brigada Creativa Designer quotes give this business card design a unique touchBrigada Creativa is a small design and illustration studio based in Barcelona that offers “happy design, unique products and original gifts”. This clever business card shows the shop’s logo grasping a real pencil, and surrounded by inspirational quotes about graphic design. 05. Wendy Stephens Wendy Stephens’ love for typography shines through in this designWendy Stephens is a freelance graphic designer and creative artist who works from her studio in Hertfordshire. Going by the name of Dark Iris Design, she has clients across the UK and worldwide. Her quirky blue-black business card highlights her love of typography, with the reverse side featuring a stylised ‘Quick brown fox…’ pangram and a brilliant ‘Very Brief Guide to Typefaces’. 06. Anthony Cole This Swiss army knife-style card is a real one-off “I wanted to create a business card that people would remember,” says Anthony Cole, a graphic designer based in Auckland, New Zealand. “I ended up with not so much a card, but more a business army knife.” Each ‘tool’ pulls out and showcases Cole’s different design skills and contact details, as you can see in more detail here. 07. Jose Antonio Contreras A business card that will keep you amused for agesBrooklyn-based designer Jose Antonio Contreras has given people a great reason to hang on to his business card. There’s a cool word search on one side, and the clues are his contact details on the other. It's a wonderfully imaginative idea, superbly executed. Can you find all of Contreras' details?08. Whiskey Design Whiskey Design and Valhalla Studios have knocked it out of the park with these stunning cardsWhiskey Design is a small design studio based in Kansas City whose motto is ‘Raise a ruckus’. And these sumptuous, quadriplexed business cards have certainly raised a few eyebrows. Incorporating wood veneer, blind deboss and foil, they were printed by letterpress and silkscreen experts Valhalla Studios. 00. Chad Michael Smith Is this the ultimate designer business card?Chad Michael Smith is the owner and principal creative of Chad Michael Studio, a Dallas-based design studio specialising in unique package design, product development, and attractive branding. Engraved on cherry wood and painted painstakingly by hand, these gorgeous creations might be the ultimate in designer business cards. “I wanted to make obvious my scrutiny for detail and give a small nod to what I love designing most, liquor and alcohol,” says Smith. “In the end, I wanted the business cards in particular to be something that you couldn't simply tuck away in a wallet and one you couldn't bring yourself to throw away.” He clearly succeeded, and you can see his design in more detail here. View the full article

Avanti Markets notified customers of a possible breach of personal and payment card data as well as biometric user information that likely occurred July 4. View the full article

You're reading Premium Web Tools & Services Recommended By Professionals, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! There is no secret that time is the most valuable resource that we have in this life. Most people say that there is nothing that we can do. It’s not true, every web designer, developer or the average guy using a web invoice or document signing platform knows that having the right web tool or […] View the full article

He is the one. pic.twitter.com/bwx5jBelNS View the full article

Whatever kind of design job you have, whether it be art director or 3D artist, the time comes when you ask yourself: "Why am I working for a boss when I could sell design work I've created directly to the public?" There are loads of ways to make money from your talents, and it's simpler than ever to sell design work online. You no longer have to invest huge amounts of time and money in building your own online store: there are many existing ecommerce websites that will allow you to reach a wider market to sell your products. So whether you're looking to publish a book, create your own T-shirts, or sell a series of art prints, the following sites offer a tried and tested way to make the most of your design work and start generating an income from it... 01. Creative Market Popular site Creative Market is a brilliant place to sell your fonts, graphics, website themes, print templates and other designs onlineA favourite among designers, Creative Market is a brilliant place to sell your designs online. Whatever it is you're creating – graphics, fonts, photos, even 3D assets – get it online at Creative Market and in front of its thousands of daily visitors. There's no exclusivity lock-in, you set your own prices and take home 70 per cent of each sale. Open a Creative Market shop here. 02. Design Cuts Design Cuts was set up by designers, offering quality assetsDesign Cuts is a community website offering high quality assets to designers at affordable and discounted prices. Patterns, brushes, backgrounds, fonts, graphics and other slick assets abound. "We're very exclusive and work with only the best designers in the world, curating the highest quality marketplace around," it told us. To be featured on the site, Design Cuts says to get in touch via its Contact page. 03. Art Web Art Web offers options to sell paintings, illustrations, digital art, prints, designs and moreArt Web is an ecommerce site that specialises in selling art online to buyers around the world. A community of different artists and creatives use this online platform to network and share their work, as well as to make money from it. The service works on a no-commission basis, and there's a free plan that gives you an online gallery with up to 15 images. There's also a paid-for version that gives you more images and a professional-looking website. Sell your art with Art Web here. 04. Big Cartel Create and customise your own store on Big Cartel's websiteLaunched in 2004, Big Cartel is one of the most popular platforms for any creative looking to sell design work online. Unlike a lot of websites, it allows you to build your store and customise it to give it a unique feel as well as it adapting to your existing website. Giving you all the professional tools you need to conduct market research – such as a tracking and social networking – you're given total freedom and control over the ways in which you choose to sell and promote your work. The price plan ranges from free to $29.99 a month depending on the support and facilities you wish to use, as well as the number of products you are offering. Sign up for a Big Cartel store here. 05. This is a Limited Edition This is a Limited EditionThis is a Limited Edition, formerly Click for Art, specialises in art prints, canvas prints and limited edition products from cushions to mugs and laptop cases. It features work from over 50 artists and design studios from Europe, the US, Asia and Brazil. If you're a talented artist, this could be a great avenue to sell your designs to a commercial audience. Fill out its Artist Application to be considered. 06. Threadless Open an artist shop for free at ThreadlessOpen to the community of artists and designers globally, Threadless gives you the opportunity to submit your designs to a public vote. If you get enough votes from the community you'll get the chance to make money through the site's online production and promotion of your products. It's definitely a site to look into if you have designs hidden away, if you want exposure and great networking. Look into selling with Threadless here. 07. Society 6 Society 6 takes care of the manufacturing and logistics for youSociety 6 is another online platform for creatives to sell design work, focusing on "affordable art prints, iPhone cases and T-shirts". It's free to set up, and the products are produced made, shipped, and managed for you – leaving you with only the designing to do. With the site only taking a small percentage of what you sell back, this is a great place for designers and creatives looking to get their work featured onto a vast range of products. Find out how to sell on Society 6 here. 08. Etsy Etsy has the feel of a giant online craft fayreLaunched in 2005, Etsy is a global ecommerce website that caters for the needs of creatives looking to sell design work, focusing on handmade goods, vintage items and art and craft supplies. Essentially it's an online version of a massive craft fayre. It could also be characterised as a folksy version of eBay. The site charges 20 cents per item listed, while for every item sold Etsy collects an additional 3.5 per cent commission. Open an Etsy shop here. 09. Zazzle Sell your designs on hundreds of products with ZazzleZazzle is an online marketplace that lets you sell your designs on hundreds of products. It's free and easy to create an online store on Zazzle, and its powerful tools make it possible to sell your art on T-shirts, stamps, posters, mugs, business cards, skateboards, calendars, tote bags, hats, and more. Sell your designs with Zazzle here. 10. Redbubble You can set up your own profit margin rate on RedbubbleOn Redbubble you can set your own profit margin for all product types – avoiding any dodgy percentage cuts. It also has an array of artist groups that host challenges to inspire your creativity. It's free to join, with the site sending you your earnings every month. Find out more about selling on Redbubble here. 11. INPRNT There's a three-part process to setting up your artworks on INPRNTINPRNT is a moderated gallery with a three part submission process. First, sign up for an INPRNT account and submit three of your best pieces for review. That submission is then voted on by artists already on the site. Once the submission is approved, the new member's account is automatically upgraded to an artist account and you can upload work to your gallery for sale straight through the site. Apply for an INPRNT site here. 12. Not on the High Street This online store gets over 2 million unique users per monthNot on the High Street gets over two million unique visitors per month, which then doubles at Christmas. Its TV and outdoor ad campaigns are also seen by millions, so this is a site for getting some great exposure. It's constantly looking for small businesses that are looking to grow. So if that's you, head here to find out more about selling on Not on the High Street! 13. Design By Humans Illustrators rejoice! There's a huge marketplace of illustrated wares hereDesign By Humans is an online store offering T-shirts, phone cases, prints, mugs and more with designs from over 15,000 global designers. Describing itself as a "community" of passionate artists and customers, you upload your designs and the site handles the logistics of payments, printing items, shipping orders and so on. You can even opt for a custom storefront. Sign up for a Design By Humans store here. 14. MyFonts MyFonts is one of our go-to sources of new and exciting fonts here at CreativeBloq, and you can be featured on it! Your type designs could reach a broader (paying) audience by being featured in one of the site's bundles, as well as its collections filtered by descriptive keywords. Find out how to sell your typefaces through MyFonts here. Related articles: How to start a blog: 10 pro tips 7 tips for driving traffic to your portfolio website How to network successfully View the full article