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Rachel Inman backs inclusivity in her team at Google This interview took place in 2016. Rachel Inman doesn't like exclusivity, which directly ties into her role as at Google where she works on perfecting the user experience. Describing herself as a "bit of a nerd" growing up, it reminds her of when one group of kids felt entitled to exclude others. In a business environment, people can often unconsciously create an 'us versus them' mentality too. "The 'them' could be the clients, the project managers, your engineering team – anyone you perceive just doesn't get what you're trying to create," she says. "You feel like they are against you or threaten your power. This is dangerous because it can lead to secrecy and defensiveness. Communication breaks down. Egos flare." A design solution from an engineer is just as valid and celebrated as an engineering idea from a designer Thankfully in her role as UX designer at Google, Inman is able to ensure everyone on her team has a say. "It's baked into our process," she enthuses. "Engineers, PMs and designers are writing user stories together, disseminating research, and forming a shared understanding of the 'why'." Not only does this make for a more effective workflow, it also has a positive effect on job satisfaction. "Morale is high because there are no more walls. A design solution from an engineer is just as valid and celebrated as an engineering idea from a designer." Bigger picture Inman didn't get to Google with a traditional Computer Sciences degree: she received a BFA in Industrial Design from the Carnegie Mellon School of Design, and also dabbled in architecture and urban design during her time there. "I think I was giving my academic advisor a headache," she remembers. "Every semester, I was maxing out on the units I could take." Prior to university, she'd attended an art school and concentrated on sculpture of "the type you can't really give your mom for her birthday because it's too unwieldy to put on a shelf." She had planned to continue experimenting with these large sculptures, but found herself questioning her path. "I started thinking more about what I wanted to put out into the world as a creator. Were my creations making life better for others? I wanted to find a more direct way than sculpture to do good in the world." Rachel was part of the Google Earth Outreach team The choice led her to CMU. Taking part in industrial design classes there was to, as Inman puts it, "fulfil a desire to affect the entirety of a person's experience." For one project, she spent an entire summer conducting research around Pittsburgh, sitting in public spaces for hours and taking notes on people's activity. Inman credits the diverse curriculum and opportunities at CMU with helping her see the bigger picture – something that has come in handy at Google. Small but mighty Since joining Google, Inman has worked on a wide range of teams and projects. She is currently engaged in building business applications for Google employees to use. Last year, as part of the Google Earth Outreach team, she worked on the launch of Global Fishing Watch – an initiative to monitor fishing activity. "One of my most exciting days was coming to the UN headquarters to watch my programme manager present a demo to an assembly of island nation representatives," she enthuses. "It was so inspiring to see them get on board with the idea that this tool could really empower their local leaders and environmental activists." Our project team is small but mighty, which I find really exhilarating Inman also led the team that redesigned the public-facing site introducing Google Earth Engine. Earth Engine is a resource exploring changes in the Earth's surface; users can sign up to gain access to a wealth of geophysical, climate, weather and demographic datasets. A key aspect of the redesign was to make the site responsive, enabling users to learn about this tool anywhere. One challenge was to establish what users from different academic disciplines needed to see in order to use the platform in their projects. "Finding out what users wanted wasn't hard; it was narrowing that down to the essentials that was tough, " Inman explains. "Our project team is small but mighty, which I find really exhilarating." Working at Google has also enabled Inman to learn a different side of UX. Prior to joining the company, she spent three years as a senior experience designer at R/GA, which she describes as "a wonderful training ground" for her design career. However, predominantly working on commercial sites aimed at helping people buy things meant she soon found herself questioning her path again. "My desire to feel useful took over and I gravitated towards Google because the products they create provide such great utility to people around the world. They don't rely on flashy interactions – they aim to be intuitive, simple, and occasionally smile-provoking." Personal goals Recently, there's been discussion within the industry that some basic aspects of design have become lost under the weight of 'unnecessary' embellishments. Whilst some could argue that designers are failing to focus on their user, Inman says that the basic aspects of design are relative to the individual designer. However, she does concede that at one point or another, all designers will lose their focus on the user. "We have the best intentions, but other constraints push us in a different direction," she offers. "It's unfortunate, but it happens. Though, if you notice it happening a lot in your workplace, you might want to speak up or head for the door." Usefulness is a key requisite of Rachel's work She also emphasises that each designer's priorities depend on their personal goals. "Maybe you want to design a game for users to play that will likely distract them from what they really need to do, but does bring them temporary joy. That's valid." Inman, however, is not interested in creating games. "My definition of necessary is very rooted in a desire to create useful things that help people do good in the world." The key questions she asks are: Does this solution help people accomplish a core goal? Does it engage the user as little as possible, while still giving them maximum value? And finally, can this solution spark exponential good? How, why and who Taking all this into account when tackling a new project – at such a large company – is undoubtedly a daunting prospect. Inman begins by investigating the project's background, stakeholders, and the user problems they're trying to address. This usually means digging through a load of documents about previous projects, reviewing research findings, and sometimes learning about a new subject altogether. "Being transparent about research, insights from users, and my own intentions is an incredibly important part of starting a project," she urges. "Everyone should try to come to a shared understanding around why we're doing this project and who we're doing it for, before we can move on to the 'how'. You can always go back to the 'why' and the 'who' you defined in the beginning, to remind your team of the original mission course." Everyone should try to come to a shared understanding around 'why' and 'who', before we can move on to the 'how' Inman also makes diagrams for herself, in order to better understand the problems she's solving. While it's not something she was formally taught, she thinks a lot of designers find this approach helpful, purely because they're visual thinkers. "I used to do this sort of thing as a kid in science class so I could remember how to complete experiments," she laughs. "The teacher would demonstrate and I'd quickly sketch what she was doing so I could replicate it later." Despite busying herself with an array of projects at Google, Inman makes time to work as an expert in residence for the General Assembly's New York campus, teaching 'Introduction to UX Design'. She covers a wide range of topics during the 12-week course, but it's a taste for experimentation that she wants her students to gain from the programme. "In many cases, they come in with no design experience, and leave with a foundation they can build on," she begins. "If my students walk away with any message, I hope it's that they don't need permission to create and experiment. Aside from understanding their users, I really want them to feel free to keep making, testing, failing and continuing. That's the only way they'll get better!" A vision of the future While she's busy inspiring others, Inman finds her own inspiration in artists, designers and other thought leaders. Current influences include illustrator and writer Maira Kalman, sculptor Henry Moore and World History of Design author Victor Margolin. One quote from Margolin has had a particular impact: "Designers occupy a dialectical space between the world that is and the world that could be ... To plan effectively in the present requires a vision of what the future could and should be like." "This quote resonated with me during a slump," says Inman. "I had been working very hard on several projects and they were all technically going well, but I'd lost the fire inside me." Rachel hopes her work will make the world a slightly better place Around that time, a white paper from CMU arrived in the post. In the margins, the author had included quotes from designers and design thinkers like Margolin. Inman took photos of the quotes, and kept looking at them throughout the week. "This quote reminded me of the reason I got into this crazy world of design – to try and make the world just a tiny bit better than how I found it," she recalls. "That might seem like a naively optimistic goal, but I still believe it to a certain extent." This article was originally published in net magazine. Subscribe now. Related articles: Why design is key to Airbnb's incredible success Designing for the web's most vocal users What are the main barriers to good UX today? View the full article

Welcome to our list of the best cheap 4K monitor deals in 2018. Happily, these days upgrading to a 4K monitor doesn't have to mean spending obscene amounts of money. Here you'll find a carefully curated selection of brilliant ultra HD monitors that won't break the bank. Many of the screens below are aimed at gamers, which means they're also perfect for video editors, photo editors, designers and digital artists – in fact, anyone who wants to see accurate colours on their screens. That's because using a monitor with 4K resolution (also known as UHD, as it's a bit less than 4K, with a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160) enables you to view your work in all its glory. And if you choose a 4K monitor with HDR (High Dynamic Range), your colours will look even more vibrant and realistic – however bear in mind that 4K screens with HDR support can be more expensive. Before investing in a cheap 4K monitor deal, there are a few things you should keep in mind. You'll need decent hardware to power the monitor, so you'll need a relatively recent discrete graphics card. Try the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti or 1070 Ti, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 or AMD’s Radeon Pro SSG Graphics card. Also, watch out for refresh rates. Some budget 4K monitors cut corners and may only offer 30Hz refresh rates. While that's okay for working, it might cause your monitor to feel a little sluggish when displaying animations. You'll want to get a 60Hz panel if possible. Some budget 4K monitors also have narrower colour gamuts, which will lead to colours not looking their best. The best monitor calibrators for designers You won't find these issues in the brilliant budget 4K monitors we've got here, though. Read on for our pick of the best cheap 4K monitors – and 4K monitor deals – and find the perfect UHD screen for your needs and budget. The best cheap 4K monitors and deals Balancing budget and performance, the Iiyama ProLite B2888UHSU is our pick of the best cheap 4K monitor overall. While many 4K monitors are expensive, the Iiyama ProLite B2888UHSU does an excellent job of providing brilliant 4K performance for video and photo editors at a competitive price point. It comes with a TN panel, which isn't too hot at viewing angles – but you'll be fine when sitting directly in front of it. And it has a large number of video inputs as well. This is a fantastic cheap 4K monitor, and you'll find the best deals available above. If you've got a little more money to play with, Acer’s S277HK is our top choice for the best mid-range 4K monitor out there. It isn't as cheap as our best budget pick, above, but it's still affordable compared to many 4K monitors, and it offers heaps of value. With a 1,000,000,000:1 contrast ratio, a colour gamut of 1.07 billion and a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160, the Acer S277HK excels at image quality. And while the minimalist design might not have a lot to shout about, some will appreciate its pared-down looks. The best cheap 4K monitors for photo editing The LG 27UD88-W represents an excellent cheap 4K monitor deal, thanks to its (relatively) low price. It's a winner for photo editors in particular, as it comes with a wide selection of display modes, including sRGB, although there's no dedicated RGB preset. However, colour accuracy is excellent, and it comes with plenty of ports and a stylish silver design. This is a fantastic 4K monitor for creatives on a budget. Sure, the NEC MultiSync EA275UHD's design is a little boring. But it's what's on the screen that matters, and this is an excellent 4K monitor for photo editing. Colour reproduction is very good, and it has its own photo-viewing mode. The screen does need a bit of calibration out of the box to fully realise its potential, but if you don't mind fiddling with the settings, you'll get an excellent 4K monitor for your money. The best cheap 4K monitors for video editing Okay, so the BenQ PD3200U isn't exactly cheap, but its screen size and resolution make it a savvy choice for video editors, 3D designers and creators generally. It boasts a generous 32 inches of screen real estate, so you can fully appreciate the 4K resolution of your video footage. Meanwhile, 3D designers will be grateful for the inclusion of a CAD/CAM mode, and everyone else will appreciate the factory-calibrated colour accuracy and Rec. 709 adherence. If you have a little more money to spend, the ViewSonic VP3268-4K is a top-class mid-range 4K monitor that makes for another ideal choice for video editors, thanks to its large screen size and impressive contrast ratio. It also includes a HDR mode, which many video editors will feel is an essential feature for a monitor, allowing you to edit your HDR footage. It's not the best when it comes to Adobe RGB coverage, but for the price you're getting an excellent 4K monitor, and there are some great deals out there to get the screen even cheaper. The best cheap 4K monitors for graphic design The Asus ROG Swift PG27AQ is a cheap 4K monitor that's mainly aimed at gamers, but here's the thing: it's also an excellent screen for graphic design. As well as giving you accurate colours and a good contrast ratio, it's got some great pre-set modes to help make your work look as good as can be. And while it's expensive for a gaming monitor, it's a very reasonable price if you're a professional graphic designer looking for a 4K screen. (And if you fancy playing a few games on it as well, then even better.) As the name suggests, the ProArt PA329Q is Asus' cheap 4K monitor aimed at digital creatives. This means it comes with high colour accuracy, with almost 100% Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 colour spectrum support as well – making it an excellent choice for creatives. It also comes with plenty of input ports, the screen size is nice and large, and with a 60Hz refresh rate, it feels fast and responsive as well. This is an excellent mid-range 4K monitor. The best cheap 4K monitors for digital artists The Dell UltraSharp UP3216Q wasn't a cheap 4K monitor when it was first released, but now that it's been out for a few years, there are some excellent deals to be had with this screen – making it our pick of the best affordable 4K monitor for digital artists. You want the colours displayed on your monitor to be as accurate as possible, and, for the price, the Dell UltraSharp UP3216Q's colour accuracy is excellent. Dell is well known for making very good monitors, and its reputation is ensured with this brilliant cheap(ish) 4K screen. It doesn't have some of the features that some newer monitors have, such as HDR, but it's still a top choice if you're looking for a bargain. Related articles: Empty list View the full article

Every web designer needs the right collection of tools in their creative arsenal to help create the site they want. Everyone has their favourites, but there are always new tools appearing that have something to offer. Here you can find a selection of tools to help you create the perfect colour palette, add drag and drop functionality, quickly create a static site, create a logo in double-quick time and check for broken links and duplicate titles. 01. Duotone Create duotones quickly Need to create complementary duotones in double-quick time? Then this tool is the ideal option for the job. All you need to do is upload an image, choose two colours (or pick from the preset options) and download the finished result. Simple. 02. CSS Gradient Find the code for the perfect CSS gradient Need the code for the perfect CSS gradient? Check out this tool for the answer. There is the option to specify the size, colour, type and angle. Once you've picked the gradient you want, all you need to do is copy the generated code into your stylesheet. 03. GatsbyJS Gatsby lets you build static sites fast Gatsby is a super-fast static site generator for React. So what does it have to offer? A static PWA (Progressive Web App) generator, it builds sites fast using the power of the latest web technologies – React, webpack, modern JavaScript and CSS, and more. And it enables you to pull in data from a host of sources using GraphQL. 04. Pigment Create complementary colour palettes This tool allows you to explore colour combinations via the use of pigment and lighting. By default, a grid of colour combos are displayed with the option to tweak and view side-by-side fullscreen. Once the colour options are complete, copy the HEX codes into your stylesheets. 05. Logomaster Create a logo quickly Need a logo fast? Then this neat tool is a quick option for getting a business card built in minutes. Of course, ideally you'd get a professional to do the job – but if you're in a major hurry, this might just do the trick. Kick off by adding your company name and hitting the Try Me button. Then it’s a quick step process of selecting a category, logo style, colour, slogan and fine-tuning to get the final result. When finished save for further editing or buy to keep. 06. Dragon Drop Create accessible drag-and-drop lists Dragon Drop (there is a clue in the name) is a drag-and-drop list reorder plugin. It offers straightforward reordering of list items plus a few more complex options. Reorder your schedules and quickly reorder nested lists. 07. Checkbot This extension checks your site's functionality Checkbot is a browser extension that checks for broken links, duplicate titles, redirect chains, invalid HTML/JS/CSS and more. Plus, it can boost your SEO. Sign up for Generate to discover the best tools Tools, best practices and accessibility are just a few of the essential elements needed to create the perfect web site or experience. Sara Soueidan, an award-winning freelance frontend UI developer and author from Lebanon, knows how to put them all to good use. At Generate London 2018 she will talking about how to use CSS (and SVG) for the good of UX. Plus, she will be running a workshop entitled 'Front-End Meets UX: Designing & Creating Universal UI Components'. Get more details on both and get your ticket today. Related articles: 10 top prototyping tools 7 tools to create a site that works for everyone The best graphic design tools for April 2018 View the full article

Two Canadian banks reported that they may be targets of a hack after fraudsters claimed that they electronically accessed personal and account information. View the full article

Attack uses ultrasonic sound waves to disrupt HHD read/write operations, which could lead to a system crash. View the full article

An exploit for the bypass vulnerability required an HTTP parameter pollution in a web application. View the full article

Researchers have discovered a banking trojan making waves in Brazil with an array of tricks up its sleeve, including using an unusual command and control (C&C) server. View the full article

Building a brand that really connects with your customers can seem like an uphill struggle, with more than a little guesswork thrown in for good measure. Even if you have one of the best logos ever, it can still feel like branding is a process of trial and error. However there's one technique that you can use to create brands that really connect with their audiences, and all it needs is a little psychology. 9 embarrassing branding blunders What you need to start thinking about is brand archetypes. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung came up with the term 'archetype' to describe fundamental personality types that we all respond to, one way or another. According to Jung there are 12 archetypes, each of them characterising universal patterns of behaviour that we all understand instinctively because they appeal to basic human desires that are hardwired into us. Because we're all individuals with our own tastes, quirks and desires, we're all attracted to different archetypes. The 12 archetypes and the basic desires they appeal to Brand archetypes reflect the same behaviour patterns; the trick here is to align your brand with an archetype that your customers will react positively. If you can do this, you can create a much deeper connection with your audience and reap the benefits in the long term. So how do you find your brand archetype? It's all down to knowing your customer's personality, and then selecting an archetype that will appeal to them. So for example, if you discover that your customers just really want to belong and fit in, the Everyman archetype is the one that should speak to them. If your brand promises to take customers on a transformational journey, it's probably a magician The challenge, of course, is giving your brand a personality and tone of voice that reflects your chosen archetype; you need to really go for it. If you try to hedge your bets and appeal across a wider board, your brand will just sound confused and you won't make the deep connection that you'll get with a keenly focused brand archetype. You just need to bite the bullet and accept that your brand archetype will definitely alienate some potential customers, but the ones you attract will stick with you through thick and thin. Want to know more? Branding agency Iconic Fox has come up with a helpful guide to harnessing the power of brand archetypes, complete with useful infographics that'll help you define your brand strategy. If you want to create brands that really seize your customers' attention, take a look today. Related articles: 5 big branding mistakes to avoid The good, the bad and the WTF of brand apologies How to interpret and follow brand guidelines View the full article

There's some brilliantly designed 404 error pages out there but often the 'About' page can lack a little love. As one of the most important pages of an agency's website or online design portfolio, it has to look the business. Here, we pick some of the best. 01. Anton & Irene Anton & Irene is a design agency based in Manhattan. Its whole portfolio site is led by quirky photography of the agency's founders Irene Pereyra and Anton Repponen, and the About page is brought to life with some impressive snowy parallax effects. The duo have also included personal details – their favourite pieces of design work and their dream projects – to add an insight into their personalities. 02. ToyFight Some assembly required Manchester agency ToyFight has an amazing-looking site packed with parallax scrolling and animation, on which its two founders, Leigh Whipday and Jonny Lander, are recreated as anatomically-correct action figures. And for their about page you get to see them in their disassembled state, along with their bios and some cool accessories; it's the perfect mix of fun and informative. 03. Couro Azul Couro Azul's about page is a great-looking guide to its history You're unlikely to ever need the services of Couro Azul – it specialises in the production of leather furnishing for cars and trains, so while you may have encountered its products you probably won't be buying them. However you should definitely take a look at its about page, which mixes cutting edge techniques with vintage documents, varied layouts and subtle animation to give a stunning overview of the company's history. 04. Pierre Caron Pierre Caron has a very personal About page French artist and wood sculptor Pierre Caron shares his story, along with beautiful quotes and photos of his labours of love. 05. Blake Saurez Blake Saurez's About page is whimsical but informative Charleston-based designer Blake Saurez gives readers a glimpse of his goofy personality through his photo, along with long and shortform versions of his bio. 06. Cornett What would you showcase as the most important 'things' in your life? Kentucky based agency Cornett decided to add a little more personality where it matters. Here, their employees showcase what matters to them most. "We set aside a day to take some photographs and asked all of our employees to bring in their 10 essentials – 10 (or so) items they can't live without," they explain. It was like an agency-wide 'show and tell' day. Related articles: 6 inspiring redesigns of design agency portfolios How to write engaging case studies for your portfolio The best colour tools for web designers View the full article

Taken a look at your resume and realised the skills section could use a little padding? Check out the Virtual Training Company. With a lifetime subscription, you'll have access to more than 1,000 courses in a variety of different fields, including animation, programming, game design, and more. With so many to choose from, you'll definitely find something that piques your interest, whether you want to improve your employability in your current industry or even go in a new career direction. You'll learn valuable knowledge and important skills under the tutelage of industry experts, and best of all, you can work from anywhere. Easily access the courses from your computer when you're studying at home, or from your tablet when you're on the go. A lifetime subscription to Virtual Training Company is only $89. View the full article

When I first discovered Procreate I was stunned by the idea of having a portable device that enabled me to paint digitally. Over the years Procreate has transformed from a great drawing app to a professional tool. Nowadays, I do most of my work in Procreate, using an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. Yet there are a few things I still do in Photoshop, such as cropping, resizing and preparing the image for publishing. Discover the best Procreate brushes In this Procreate tutorial, I’ll be drawing a Roman-inspired woman in her garden accompanied by three ravens. I’ll show you the full process of how I produce paintings using an iPad and Procreate in this tutorial. We’ll also try some of the interesting new features introduced in Procreate 4, such as Wet Mix. I believe this Procreate tutorial will be of interest for people who have moved from traditional to digital art, but also for those artists who are keen to see what can you achieve using modern tablets. 01. Sketch an idea Sketch out some ideas I create a few rough sketches, trying out different ideas, compositions and poses of the character. Once I produce a sketch I’m happy with, I set up a new canvas filled with medium-dark grey and copy the sketch on to it. Then I resize it slightly to ensure that the proportions work better on the canvas. 02. Put in the solid lines Start painting I start the painting by drawing solid lines on top of the chosen sketch. Then I create a new layer and draw the outlines using a standard Procreate 6B pencil brush. I don’t think about any details – I’m only drawing on the character and main objects in the painting. 03. Introduce local colour Get some colours on the canvas I want to apply local colour – the real colour of objects not affected by lighting or shadows. Having a local colour will help me to correctly apply light and shadows later on, while retaining my intended colour of all objects. I create a new layer for each group of objects (main character, ravens, tree and the background) and add colour in each layer. 04. Set up a Wet Mix in Procreate 4 Enable Wet Mix Most of the time, I only use two or three brushes. Procreate 4 has introduced a new feature called Wet Mix that makes any brush look like it was used on a real wet painting. I think that using it will make the painting look soft and more realistic, especially in the background,. To enable Wet Mix I tap on the brush and in the Settings menu select Dynamics and Wet Mix. 05. Add light and shadows Draw in the light and shadows I want to have two light sources: a cold blue as the main light and warm light as a secondary. This will help me to show off the shape and structure of all my objects. I enable alpha lock on each of layers that I’ve painted a local colour on, then start quickly drawing the light and shadows without too many details. Using alpha lock prevents me from drawing outside of the layer’s content. 06. Consider anatomy Tidy up the anatomy I move on to the main character and start drawing her face and clothes. I mirror the picture so that I can control the proportions of her face and correct any early anatomy mistakes. Always try to take advantage of your digital art tools. For example, instead of drawing the character’s second eye from scratch, I just copy the first one and use it as a base. 07. Add a pattern to the character’s clothes Draw in a pattern I create a new layer and start drawing the pattern without light and shadows. After I’m happy with the pattern’s look, I tap on the layer, choose Select and create a new layer with the selection preserved. Now I start to paint over the selection, bearing in mind light and shadow. When working with the patterns, you should always keep in mind that a pattern will follow all folds and creases on the fabric. 08. Move on to the ravens Create raven layers All three ravens are on the same layer, so I need to move each one on to separate layers. I select them using the Selection Tool, open the Transformation toolbar, and cut and paste the selection to a new layer. I move and resize them until I’m happy with the composition. 09. Make use of references Assemble reference photos I assemble some raven reference photos into a single image, open the reference board image in Photos and keep it open using the iPad’s Slide Over mode. Previously, you could only put a secondary app on the right-hand side, which was uncomfortable for right-handed users. iOS 11 enables you to rearrange the position of the secondary app. 10. Adjust curves Get to work on the curves I zoom out of the picture to check I’m happy with the progress I’ve made. I think that the main character is too bright for this type of lighting and her skin tone is too pink. I tap a Magic Wand icon on the top-left corner of the screen and choose Curves. I select Red channel and slide the curve down to reduce the red. 11. Develop background depth Draw in and refine the background The background is a forest in the golden light with no sharp edges but only a silhouettes of trees. I think it’s the perfect part of the painting to use the new wet brushes. First I draw the background. Then I add a few branches between the background and the main tree to create a mid-ground and give the image even more depth. I use lighter values for the mid-ground to show the distance. 12. Render the tree Render and tweak the tree The last part of the illustration is the tree that the main character leans on. After rendering the tree, I feel that it looks too cold compared to other objects in the scene, so I duplicate the layer with the tree and reduce the blue colour cast using Curves. The tree trunks in the mid-ground should be lighter than the main tree, so I remove all changes made to mid-ground trees from this layer. 13. Finish with the lighting Get the lighting just right Now I want to make the light more intense. I create two layers and switching them to use Hard Light mode by tapping the 'N' character near the right-hand side of the layer, then choose Contrast. Using a soft Airbrush I add a few rays of light. I then lower the opacity of these two layers to enhance the realism. 14. Add final details Go away… and come back to it After I’ve finished my painting, I leave it for a few hours before I add any final touches. This helps me to look at it with fresh eyes. It’s even better to come back to it the following day. I decide to add a few strokes to the main character’s tiara, bring in more details on the tree and make the background a little bit less saturated and bright. This article was originally published in ImagineFX magazine issue 155; subscribe here. Related articles: How to create original fan art How to use the rule of thirds in art Colourise greyscale work in Photoshop View the full article

When it comes to new blockchain ventures, you may think the look of your website is of secondary importance. If the project is sound, it shouldn’t matter how its site is designed, right? Wrong. A great looking website is essential if you want to encourage investment and inspire public confidence. Let’s say a hopeful investor is searching every corner of the internet for upcoming Initial Coin Offerings. They look at its whitepapers to discern its concepts, technology, token distributions, techniques and vision, and it all seem promising. But its website looks like it was patched together by amateurs. Instantly, they begin to wonder if it’s a shady venture, and are deterred from investing. The team behind an ICO can have the most brilliant engineers and visionaries, but unless they present themselves well, they do not give off the impression that they know what they are doing. A well-designed website is imperative for blockchain companies to inspire confidence in both investors and the public (not convinced? Take a look at this article on how to spot and ICO scam). The stakes are too high, for everyone involved, to put out a mediocre blockchain website. Well-composed sites offer a feeling of legitimacy and potential. Outright stunning websites are even more confidence-inspiring, communicating to audiences that not only does the team behind the project know what they’re doing, they care about the details and users’ experiences. Here are a few of the most beautiful blockchain websites to look to for inspiration and guidance. 01. Dispatch Labs Dispatch Labs provides a blockchain application other businesses can use, accounting for network speed and size unlike any venture before them with its Delegated Asynchronous Proof of Stake consensus algorithm. With a version of blockchain that takes the technology a step further (and may be confusing for some), it’s vital Dispatch’s website appears approachable. The front page of Dispatch’s website works as an introduction to the project. All information is organised horizontally, which immediately puts the viewer at ease. This is one of the chief principles of design: because English speakers read left-to-right, anything else is psychologically disruptive. The colours are vibrant and contrasting, but the white spaces between give readers’ eyes a break, enabling them to absorb information better. The text is bold, too, to establish the company’s confidence in its mission. 02. Muirfield Investment Partners Muirfield Investment Partners is a real estate investment firm that uses blockchain to solve prevalent structural issues with typical private equity funds. The company recently redesigned its website to prepare the public for its rumored TAO (Tokenized Asset Offering). Its website’s monochrome colour scheme (broken up with a few splashes of red), and hero image of a fictional city (the first thing site visitors see), work together to create a futuristic mood. The company aims to revolutionise private equity real estate investment investment, so the suggestion of heralding a new era is appropriate. 03. Cryptfunder Cryptfunder helps other ICOs acquire funding. Because blockchain is not exactly mainstream yet, many people still consider it to be a futuristic technology, despite the fact it is poised to disrupt multiple industries. Cryptfunder’s website, like Muirfield’s, opts for a futuristic feel, but this time through a different kind of imagery: microchips, planets, and stars, all washed with cool blues and purples. The sheer artistry of the website’s graphics lets visitors know that a significant amount of time went into the design. If a company puts that much effort and care into its aesthetics, its whitepaper is worth looking into. 04. GeekWrapped GeekWrapped is not hosting an ICO, but a cryptocurrency news aggregator. Though the website is not trying to convince investors and customers of its legitimacy, it’s helpful for blockchain websites of all kinds to look authentic and considered. GeekWrapped’s main page features various cartoony (but not too cartoony) landscape imagery. The aim here is to create something that feels familiar: while blockchain remains a field many do not fully understand, news resources should appear much more accessible. View the full article

As a designer, your portfolio is your calling card - a carefully curated selection of your work that should show you at your very best. When it comes to presenting projects, don't settle for flat artwork. Whether it's a range of branding collateral, a brochure, a website, or an app design, mocking it up in situ makes a huge difference. In an ideal world, you'd bring all your work into a studio and art direct your portfolio beautifully and consistently. But not everyone has the time or the budget to do so. Fortunately, you can achieve a professional effect using some premium stock images and a bit of mock-up time in Photoshop. So read on for our guide to the best images to use for five common portfolio tasks, complete with top recommendations from iStock by Getty Images. Branding collateral Click to view image on iStock You're working on a new brand identity for a client that incorporates everything from a business card to a website. How do you show it off in your portfolio? Individual images of the different components is one way, but a single hero image that pulls everything together is much more effective. There are many premium stock images available that could work as a hero image across common brand applications. Once you choose one, you just need to mock up your final designs onto blank templates. And, if you have an additional design that’s more unusual or bespoke, you might want to show it off separately. Responsive websites Click to view image on iStock All the best websites are fully responsive, but you can't expect potential clients browsing your portfolio to follow links and bother testing it out in all those different contexts. To show how your design works across devices instantly, a premium stock image featuring a laptop, a tablet, and a smartphone is a great starting point. Just mock up screengrabs onto the different screens, placing particular emphasis on pages of the website that scale most noticeably. Posters and billboards Click to view image on iStock Digital ads may just need an in-situ screengrab, but if you've designed something tangible—whether it's an A1 poster, or a 96-sheet billboard—make the effort to give it some context. There are many premium stock images available that show blank advertising hoardings, or posters in interesting looking studio settings. It's much more engaging than just showing the flat artwork, without the time, cost, and hassle of scouting an actual location. App designs Click to view image on iStock Screengrabs and icons are all very well on the App Store or Google Play, but if you're featuring an app design in your portfolio, make the extra effort to mock it up it on a phone. After all, if you've designed an app that works across iOS, Android, and other platforms, a high-quality promotional image that shows it in situ on different devices will tell that story immediately. Best of all, there are plenty of premium stock images available that show multiple devices in one shot - such as the one above. Brochures and annual reports Click to view image on iStock Although brochures, annual reports, and other printed materials are standard in the design industry, that doesn’t mean they have to look bland—think outside the box, and try to make them look as visually appealing as possible. Best of all, they are likely to conform to a standard size and aspect ratio, such as A4—meaning you're spoiled for choice when it comes to premium stock images on which to mock up your design. Click to view image on iStock You should include a stylish shot of your cover and place it in an environment where it can take centre stage. Also, take the time to create some particularly engaging internal spreads to show off your ability to mock up consistent, on-brand designs. If the images above could fit nicely into your own portfolio, you're in luck: iStock by Getty Images is offering new customers 12% off all credits by using code 12CBLOQNEW at checkout. Good luck revamping your portfolio! View the full article

You're reading Basic Design Concept of VR Design, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Over the last couple of years, companies such as Apple and Google have been investing heavily in virtual reality, or VR. We all know that VR is going to be the next big thing so why not learn something about … View the full article

A great brief is the first step in really nailing what your client needs, and creating work you'd be proud to put in your design portfolio. In this article we'll run through the things you need to include – handy if you're bringing in other creatives to work on certain parts of your project, or if your client is providing you with vague information. Before we get started with the ins and outs of crafting the perfect brief, the first thing to remember is that you shouldn’t make it too long. Don’t be obsessed with making it too short, either. Only include the information you need to include. Each client and project is unique and will likely require a different amount of information than the previous brief. Ignore the people who bang on about always wanting a one-page brief; it’s horses for courses. So now we’ve established the size, what should the brief include? There are 12 fundamental pieces of information that give us a fantastic basis to get started: 01. The task The main thing to outline is the task at hand. What problem needs to be solved – what’s the focus? Is your website the first point of contact? Your most valuable sales channel? Or does it just function as a glorified business card? 02. The deliverables What actually needs to be delivered? Flesh this part out in as much detail as possible, in as clear an order or format as possible. Bullet points are good here to keep the information ‘digestible’. 03. Background information This is a depository for relevant information. It can be communicating what you do in a bit more detail or explaining what has led you to write the brief, such as business decisions supporting the project, context for the project and reasons that have led to this project’s emergence. Get your agency up to speed with where you’re at. 04. The objectives What does this work need to achieve? What must the project do or communicate? This is also a good place to explain any key challenges/opportunities surrounding the project. 05. The target audience Who is this work for or talking to? And what do we know about them? Who are the specific audience profiles to be considered? How will they interact with this work and in what contexts? 06. Choice of channels What channel will this work live in? Is it known at this stage? This is increasingly part of our role at Salad, and we rarely approach projects channel-first. In fact, this usually comes last, once we have a deeper understanding of what needs to be said and to whom. 07. The key message What are we saying? This is perhaps the most important section. Answering it effectively can mean a large research programme, adhering to previous brand work/campaigns or simply making a call after some planning work. 08. The budget It’s easy to say “how long is a piece of string?” here, but ultimately no one wins. Any indication of the affordability from client side will help you to scope out the project in the most cost-effective way. Give a ballpark if an exact figure isn’t known – and give an indication if there may be a second phase of investment. 09. How success will be measured How will success be measured? The objective(s) should be so closely linked to the idea and the work. 10. Any mandatories There will always be some things that must be avoided or included in the work. This is such a crucial, directional section. Give direction; failing to mention some client preference here can be critical. It can be as crucial as you have to include X, Y, Z, or they don’t happen to like the use of capital letters. 11. Possible ideas Don’t be afraid to give some starters for ten in terms of what the solution could look like. A secure creative who is confident in their own ability should not be afraid of taking a good idea and running with it. It can also help to spark a different idea. Nothing is final until the work is produced, and nothing should be sacrosanct. Let your creative team challenge it if it needs challenging. The flip side is that creatives should trust their planners to be good at their job. We are huge believers in the value of a brief, and delivering against it is always our goal. Our proposition of Beautifully Effective overarches everything we do – and this helps us to achieve success. 12. Tone of voice This is critical if your agency’s role includes the written copy throughout a site. How should we talk to the audience? How do we communicate as this brand? If this hasn’t been defined, you can’t just leave it blank – it’s crucial, so take time to get this bit as right as possible. Without it, consistency is almost futile. This article was originally published in net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 304 or subscribe. Read more: The secrets of fulfilling a creative design brief 6 ways to improve your business cards The essential guide to tools for designers View the full article

Telcom firm leaves port open on customer routers after maintenance update exposing hundreds of customers to possible attack. View the full article

Click image to view full infographic If you're looking for a completely original type design, there are hundreds of brilliant paid-for and free fonts around to choose from. But why not really add a personal touch to your work and go with your own handwriting? According to this insightful infographic by National Pen, your handwriting is completely unique to you, and can apparently indicate a staggering 5,000 different personality traits. The detailed graphic pulls together detailed information on different writing habits and patterns, providing insights on our personality, health and energy levels. 46 great free handwriting fonts The study of graphology is fascinating stuff and the team at National Pen have done a great job at visualising it in a clear, concise and engaging way. We found ourselves writing different sentences while reading the infographic, to see if the information provided matched our own opinions of our personalities. Great imagination, creative, artistic and open minded are just some of the results, which we totally agree with, obviously. So, what does your handwriting say about you? Click image to see full infographic Related articles: 50 top typography tutorials 23 amazing free Google web fonts The ultimate guide to design trends View the full article

From billboard advertising to print ads, creating a marketing campaign that grabs people's attention is no easy feat, which is why a little ingenious thinking is required. A Smile in the Mind is the definitive book on witty thinking – intelligent humour, ideas and playfulness – in design and branding. First published in 1996, the original edition by Beryl McAlhone and David Stuart became a seminal text for a generation of designers. Twenty plus years later, the book has been extensively revised and updated for the next generation by new co-authors Greg Quinton and Nick Asbury. Here Quinton, now chief creative officer at Superunion, picks 10 of his favourite witty ads that are guaranteed to put a smile on your face. 01. Nivea night cream Nivea produces the goods with a this beautifully simple shot TBWA\NEBOKO, The Netherlands, 2005 A clean product shot with a poetic twist. As the lid glides off the Nivea jar, the white creamy texture is revealed, taking the shape of a moon – a miracle of nature, waiting to be discovered. Beautifully simple, naturally minimal. 02. Good Hair Day? The wind of the train plays havoc with this model's hair in this clever digital campaign for Apolosophy Åkestam Holst/ Stopp Family, Sweden, 2014 Wit has the power of conveying a message in a single hit, with an artful combination of words and pictures. One of my favourites is ‘Blowing in the Wind’, a digital campaign for Swedish haircare brand Apolosophy. Displayed in subways, it shows models with great hair but as the trains arrive the rush of air causes havoc with their carefully managed tussles. Of course it's a simple and clever bit of interactivity but the timing and the context makes it a joyful shared experience. If only I had hair. 03. A small campaign with big potential This limited edition packaging does all the talking for erectile dysfunction remedy Clavin Ogilvy & Mather, Czech Republic, 2012 The ambiguity of wit may not seem a natural fit for health ads. But some invite controversy to promote an important message, bringing a smile often to the times when you need it most. The design that makes the pill stand out is created for a younger audience, turning function into fun. Literally. 04. Food for thought Pret A Manger's playful take on food was a big hit with its customers Pret A Manger / Balloon Dog, 2011 There are always at least two elements in a witty idea – whether the wit is visual or verbal. Combining two-in-one is the mainstay of intelligent humour, giving the viewer the pleasure of recognising the likeness between two things that are different. Pret A Manger's playful take on food – Monkey Coconut Water, Egg preserving its modesty or a potato fish for its Seas Salt chips – was a big hit with its millions of loyal customers. 05. Tickled pink This witty poster challenges the viewer to reappraise the norm Gay & Lesbian Film Festival: Pink Days. Lernert & Sander, The Netherlands, 2010 Another great example of juxtaposition of the opposites is when one seemingly incompatible element is playfully swapped with another. The fusion of two produces the typical response to wit – the spark of recognition and surprise. Joining two very different classic Hollywood posters of Travolta and Humphrey Bogart into one. Challenging the viewer to reappraise the norm, the stereotype and enjoy the Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in Amsterdam. 06. I can’t you out of my head McCann Erickson, Melbourne, Australia, 2012 Like any good teacher, intelligent humour can communicate complex information without making you work hard for it. Usefully, sometimes it can save lives. Dumb Ways to Die, the public safety campaign for Metro Trains in Melbourne, is complete with a catchy song you just can't forget and endearingly doomed characters that meet their ends by multiple witty and quite charming ways… eventually including around trains. Amazingly, over 167m YouTube views would indicate that the world is a bit safer near trains. 07. Bronx Zoo A powerful and memorable campaign for Bronx Zoo Bronx Zoo. Y&R New York, USA, 2006 Intelligent humour invites the viewer to question – and doubt – his/her preconceptions of the world around us. In this campaign for Bronx Zoo the city and wildlife are combined, with urban textures playing starring roles, appropriated to advertise the zoo's inhabitants. A powerful and memorable way that makes you stop and take notice of your environment both global and local. 08. WWF Exhaust Emissions Impact A powerful idea for a dirty problem WWF, Ogilvy & Mather Beijing, China, 2007 Wit has an enormous capacity to make the familiar seem new again, bringing a sense of urgency to what's important. Ogilvy & Mather's Beijing campaign for the WWF uses a car's exhaust fumes to fill up a huge black smoggy cloud. No words required for this impressive symbol of environmental impact – a powerful idea for a dirty problem. 09. NHS Trust Scotland Brutally direct and in the one voice the audience might listen too – their own NHS Glasgow and Partners/ GRP, UK, 2007 In 2007 NHS trusts in Scotland produced a 'True or false?' book in the style of traditional Ladybird hardbacks. The content was anything but traditional, and explored the questions most commonly circulating amongst teens aged 12-16… if and when to have sex. If the format disarms with old school charm, the content smashes you in the face. Brutally direct and in the one voice the audience might listen too – their own. This piece makes you laugh and wince at the same time. 10. Hans Brinker Hotels Hans Brinker Hotels...'Proudly ignoring standards since 1970' Hans Brinker hotel, Kessels Kramer and Anthony Burrill, The Netherlands/ UK, 1996. Hans Brinker Budget Hotel in Amsterdam took a highly unconventional approach to advertising its rooms to travellers, openly calling itself 'The Worst Hotel In The World'. This is probably not entirely true, but the self-depreciating strategy of the hotel that – and I quote – 'Couldn't care less, but will try' – clearly works, continuing, 'Proudly ignoring standards since 1970'…now spreading them in Lisbon! Related articles: 50 inspiring examples of letterpress business cards How to get to the top spot of a global creative agency 5 ad campaigns that embraced a stupid idea View the full article

It's common to hear advice about prioritising your physical health. But what about your mental health? It's just as important and now you can help take better care of your mind with Aura Premium. This program uses the power of mindfulness and meditation to help you relieve stress and anxiety. And while there are lots of apps out there that aim to improve your mental health, Aura is the only mindfulness app that incorporates the power of AI technology. Track your mood patterns to analyse what stresses and calms you, and enjoy a free three-minute guided meditation session every day to start your day or wind it down. You can also receive daily notifications reminding you to practise helpful breathing techniques to help you cope in stressful situations. Get a lifetime subscription to the app for only $79.99 - that's 79 per cent off the retail price. View the full article

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Cryptocurrency isn't typically the most accessible of industries. Those in the know are happy to get involved, but for the general public, the likes of Bitcoin and Etherium still seem futuristic and mysterious. As their popularity continues to skyrocket, more and more companies – including Luno – have started to move into the space. Last night, Luno scooped the UK local prize at the Tech5 awards in Amsterdam (part of The Next Web conference) for its remarkable growth, and came second overall. We caught up with head of product design Lana Glass to find out how they went about designing an app that appealed to the masses. In basic terms, what is Luno? Luno makes it safe and easy for people to buy, store, use and learn about digital currencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. Users download the Luno app or go to the website, create an account, deposit money from their bank account into their Luno Wallet and buy some Bitcoin or Ethereum. Luno also allows you to send and receive digital currencies, monitor the price, set price alerts and place orders on our Exchange. In the long run, our vision is to upgrade the world to a better financial system. What are your main aims with the design of the product? In early 2017 we underwent a rebrand from BitX to Luno. Most Bitcoin companies have very technical names and BitX was no different. The price of Bitcoin was increasing, our customer base was growing and changing, and our app and website needed to reflect the changes we made in our brand. We wanted to create a friendly, trustworthy, engaging app. One of the first steps was to unify our three platforms - web, Android and iOS - as we needed to make sure that the user experience and offering were the same on each platform. By creating a design system we were able to stay as close to native patterns and elements as possible, while still making each platform look and feel like Luno. Tell us a bit about your UX aims... As digital currencies are still so new, and a little scary to most people, our main focus is to convey familiarity and build trust with our customers. As we grow across markets we are focusing on localising our products so that customers have the easiest journey possible into this new financial system. This includes translating our apps into multiple European languages, testing how different demographics and regions respond to the illustrations we use and conducting usability tests with potential customers on the ground. Digital currencies are still seen as quite a futuristic, techy thing by the general public. How did you tackle this in your design? This is definitely a concern for us. There is still a lot of negativity around digital currencies and a lot of speculation and untruths. Our challenge is to separate the facts from the fiction. There are a few things we can do to build trust with our customers, including using familiar UX patterns, our choice of colour palette, and the illustrations we use and where we use them. We also understand that we have a social responsibility to educate our customers about this new financial landscape, as well as stakeholders, investors, banks and regulators, and bring this understanding with us when designing product changes or new features. What web technologies Luno is based on… Our mobile-first, responsive web platform uses mostly AngularJS, Typescript and some jQuery for coding the web frontend. We use Grunt as a build tool and Sass for our stylesheet, with Git for version control and Lighthouse for performance. We also have two native apps. On iOS we prefer not to use external libraries, meaning the base tech is all Apple. We migrated to Swift at the end of 2016 as the rebrand allowed us to review parts of our app that hadn’t had some love in a while. We have a few fans of Material Design in the office and we try to stay as close as possible to the great design system that Google has built for Android, without losing our brand voice. We are quite excited about the recent updates to Material Design that were announced at this years I/O and look forward to seeing how Material Theming can help us balance familiarity with personality. Luno came second in the Tech5 awards, in recognition of how fast the company has grown. Did such rapid growth raise any design problems? The redesign from BitX to Luno happened in three months from the first announcement to the company to the day the apps went live on the app stores. That includes CI, branding, marketing, website changes and updates to the mobile applications. With such a short turnaround time we were less focused on systems and processes and just wanted to get the best product shipped as soon as possible. This means that when we had time to catch our breath, the design team had a bit of work to do to collate libraries, clean up UI elements, make sure that the user experience was consistent and appealing, and create a design system that we can rely on for years to come. Read more: How to make an app Trends that will shape app design in 2018 How to use animation in mobile apps View the full article

Food was the theme of the latest edition of thread, a series of creative events in Bristol curated by Fiasco Design. Over the course of the evening, in between trips to the pizza van and making tortillas in mini kitchens, there were three talks about food, design, and how they can work together. Australian food stylist Peta O'Brien, aka POB, talked of how long it takes to soft-boil an ostrich egg (47 minutes), Tom Hovey revealed why he always draws in red and blue when illustrating for the Great British Bake Off ("‘cos it makes me feel like I’m a fancy architect and not just someone drawing cakes all day,”) and Sam Bompas from sensory experience curators Bompas and Parr showed the audience how gherkins can make “really rubbish lightbulbs,” before passing round ‘lightning vodka’, which he described – quite accurately – as “horrible.” But we weren’t just stuffing our faces. What did we learn from the night? Here are our favourite tips from the evening: 01. Don't be afraid of seeming 'weird' Some of Bompas and Parr's books on food When you’re a food stylist, and you have to do things such as demand 300 identical mackerel from your local fishmonger, you can't worry about being different. “Everybody whose anybody is vegan, I’m not, I really like meat,” said O'Brien, as her slides jumped between offal and liver. “This liver is 7.3 kilos in weight,” she said animatedly. “I took it out of its vac packed bag and it was like holding a baby.” O'Brien attributed this passion for flesh to her days as an oral surgeon's assistant. “I love flesh. And I love stitching things back up,” she revealed. When Bompas was starting out, “food wasn’t cool.” People used to ask him why he didn’t get a ‘real job’, but he pursued a career in using food to make experiences that people will love. This has led to projects such as an ‘architectural jelly banquet’, cooking steak with lightning, and exploding wedding cakes (as bad as it sounds, apparently). 02. Stay focused Precision and patience are key in food styling, especially when working with models Hovey has created over 2,000 illustrated bakes for the Great British Bake Off. Perfecting this art has enabled him to move on to his own personal projects. “If you do one thing over and over again you get better and then you can do other stuff,” he said. Bompas agreed that focusing on one task or element of design is the answer: “If you really focus on one small thing you can really take it quite far,” he said, before demonstrating his gherkin lightbulb for the crowd (see below). In the world of food styling, it’s especially important to be precise, focus on details. and be patient while in bizarre situations. “For this shoot (above), I had to tweezer sweets into the model’s mouth one by one, and tell her not to swallow," said O'Brien. "She held it for so long she had a mouth full of saliva, which is what the photographer wanted because he wanted it to be wet. And just before she drowned...we got it.” 03. Take opportunities The 'gherkin lightbulbs' before they were (dimly) lit “Within a month of being in London I got my first illustration gig,” says Hovey, who had moved to the capital after spending more and more time there doing street art murals. He soon landed a non-illustrating job on a new TV show called the Great British Bake Off, but the producers realised “it was hard for viewers to visualise what was going on." He was asked to come up with a new way to help viewers see what was going on, and has been the show's illustrator ever since. “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity,” he said, quoting Seneca. 04. Know when to readjust work-life balance Just some of the illustrations Tom Hovey has done for GBBO That luck and opportunity doesn’t stop work being hard or life getting in the way, though. “My girlfriend would wake up pretty often and I’d be face down in biscuits,” said Hovey. On going digital he said: “I felt like I’d drawn with pens and pencils for my whole life and by removing them, I was removing part of my soul. But with my daughter being born, I knew that I had to get rid of wasted time.” He also added that there’s no point stressing too much about your own work: “No one’s really paying as much attention to your work as you are. They’re on screen for like six secs even though they might take three days to draw. Basically, no one cares.” After 35 years in the industry, O'Brien is also choosing her projects wisely: “I just don't have any sense of fun if I’m doing something ghastly,” she said. “So I don’t do anything ghastly anymore.” 05. Pursue side projects Peta O'Brien's personal project was inspired by a breast biopsy Hovey admitted he’s become much happier since pursuing his own projects. “Self-initiated work is really important and if you put yourself out there hopefully people will ask you to do more of it, and then you’ll make money, which is the most important thing,” he grinned. For O'Brien, personal projects have helped her work through personal issues. After having a breast biopsy, she had to create something: “The only way I can process shit like that is to turn it into a project. It really put it to bed for me,” she said. “Now, I found that I’ve just got this whole creative surge going on. And I’m kind of thinking it’s ‘cos I’m at the end of my career and I want to get out everything out there. I’m doing shitloads of personal projects. So watch this space.” For Bompas, bizarre experiments with food and design are part and parcel of his everyday job. “We’re lucky as we live in a time where we’re getting food for pleasure. What we try to create is another form of entertainment,” he said. Read more: How to use Instagram as a digital sketchbook How to photograph food: 10 pro tips Get started with food packaging design View the full article

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

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

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