Rss Bot

Finally, it's the all-important day that you unveil your new product or service to the world. Congratulations! This is the moment you've been building towards. You might think you've reached the end of the road – and, shortly, you can enjoy a well-earned beverage of your choice – but really this point is just the beginning of the journey. How to launch a creative businessEmail a primer All being well, you should have an email list in place with an audience that has expressed an interest in what you're doing. A day or two before your launch, you can build anticipation by emailing your list (using one of the 10 best email newsletter tools) and letting them know that the countdown has begun. This primes your audience and ensures they're on the lookout for your launch email. Connect on social media Email is, of course, just one way to connect with your potential customers. Equally important are your other social media channels, which you should have prepared content for (check out our 5 golden rules for social media strategy article for guidance). If all goes well on the day of your launch, you'll be incredibly busy, so ensure you've prepared everything in advance. On launch day it's critical to share your story far and wide. Focus on getting the message out and engaging with your audience, and you'll maximise success. Contact influencers The Product Hunt community is perfectly positioned to promote your productTo help spread the word, it's a good idea to contact your influencers, priming them for your launch. An email or a direct message a day or two beforehand will ensure they're ready for the reveal and lined up to help spread the world. They will give your campaign a helpful boost. In our connected world we're incredibly fortunate to have a wealth of tools at our disposal that we can use to help promote the products we make. Tools like Product Hunt, Hacker News and other product galleries are perfect for driving traffic to your site. Product Hunt is a passionate community that's focused on sharing new products – it's an excellent tool to share your story, enabling you to reach others who might not be on your mailing list or following your social channels. Engage with followers Your goal is to get a conversation going and engage with potential new customers. Conversations work best when they're natural, not scripted. When replying, be courteous, and remember: you're not a robot so don't just copy and paste generic replies. Instead, respond to individuals individually and seek to nurture relationships. Your followers will appreciate your humanity and they'll support your cause by spreading the word. Clear the calendar for launch day Clear the decks for the day of your launch, ensure your calendar is empty and focus your mind on the day ahead. All being well, when you unveil your product it will – to use a well-worn phrase – fly off the digital shelves! This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 295. Buy it here. Related articles: How to turn your design studio dream into reality The designer’s guide to Brexit 21 free business card templates View the full article

The internet is overflowing with awe-inspiring design portfolios and creative resumes. To stand out in this tough market, it's important to make your online portfolio as impressive as you can. Get Adobe Portfolio free with Creative CloudIt's not just the examples of work that need to blow away your potential clients (although they do help) it's the way they're presented. You don't have to be a superstar creative director or web designer; a touch of creativity and innovative thinking will get you a long way. And there are plenty of free online tools, such as Behance, to help you build a portfolio without any coding knowledge. So, check out these inspiring examples of online design portfolios, both for individual designers and design agencies – to help you angle your own in just the right way… The best laptops for graphic design01. Daniel Spatzek We love how Daniel's bio zooms into viewDaniel Spatzek is freelance graphic designer and art director from Austria, and his site does a brilliant job of showing off both his design and web skills. Using plenty of WebGL and CSS tricks to bring everything to life, it's a selection box of hot web techniques that's packed with animation, but all put together in a restrained way so as not to overload the viewer. 02. Arturo Wibawa There's some exemplary use of SVG animation on Wibawa's siteArturo Wibawa's site is worth checking out just for the detailed breakdowns of projects he's worked on, complete with wireframes, flowcharts, palettes, fonts and plenty of information about his process. But it's also a slick, brilliantly executed site with loads of smart effects and visual tricks, including some masterful use of SVG animation. 03. Femme Fatale Nice Velvet Underground reference, tooBased in Paris, Femme Fatale is a creative studio focused on culture, luxury, editorial and art. It pitches itself as being somewhere between sophistication and simplicity, and its portfolio site reflects this tone excellently, combining swish parallax effects with bold imagery. 04. Alexandre Rochet It looks dark here but the colour soon kicks inAlso based in Paris, Alexandre Rochet is a French designer who's passionate about image and specialises in web design, identity and interface design. His site's packed with parallax effects and smart colour fades. What it sacrifices in straightforward navigation it more than makes up for in wow factor. 05. Bert Big and bold, Bert's site is in your face, with all the facts you needNetherlands-based Bert's creative specialists work on an international level in branding, design and development. The studio's single-page case studies are a joy to look at, packed with punchy imagery interspersed with informative chunks of text. 06. Yul Moreau Welcome to the neon jungleBorn in Seoul, based in Paris and raised by the 80s, Yul Moreau's site grabs your attention from the off with its splendidly garish background montage of retro video. The single-pager site does a brilliant job of showcasing the art director's work, combining video, images and clever scroll effects to show everything off nicely. 07. Steven Mengin Just watch this undulate for a few hours and everything will be fineTo be honest we could happily sit and gaze at Steven Mengin's WebGL splash page, with its gently undulating cloudscape, for hours. However, it's worth dragging yourself down the page to enjoy his work, ever so slightly spiced up with a light ripple effect on each image as you mouse over. Great work by Samsy. 08. Studio Schurk Studio Schurk brings humour to its animated site designAnimation studio Studio Schurk (meaning 'Studio Rogue') shows off its sense of humour in its bold and punchy site design. The animations highlight off the duo's talent while being interesting and fun. Scroll down to see their equally bold designs. 09. Melanie Daveid Melanie Daveid's site shows that simplicity come sometimes say it allUX designer and art director Melanie Daveid's portfolio is simple yet beautiful. Her intricate illustrated logo opens and closes the (almost) infinite scroll design that brings her resumé to life on your screen. "Artworks and illustrations were my gateway to the creative industry," she says, "which led to the foundation of my own studio and to first steps in the digital world." Something that is crystal clear from her portfolio. 10. A Dandy Punk The Dandy Punk expresses his multifaceted talents through a multimedia portfolioA Dandy Punk hasn't just created a beautifully intricate illustrated portfolio but an online presence and alter-ego. The site mirrors this, with the character "existing to inspire and motivate creativity, non-conformity, whimsy, intense curiosity, do-it-yourself mentality and everyday eccentricity in everybody." The best laptops for photo editingNext page: 11-20 on our list of brilliant design portfolios 11. Sean Halpin Sean's simple yet cute portfolio site contains everything it needs to in one neat designScroll through Sean Halpin's kitsch little green world to discover how he can help you build your perfect site. His design is simple and easy to read, yet effortlessly displays his skills and talent for bold, stand-out web design. 12. Christopher Lee Christopher Lee displays his passion for toys and 90s cartoons in his designsChristopher Lee doesn't just share his name a legendary actor, but apparently a creative talent too. His design site, The Beast is Back, showcases his punchy designs and illustrations influenced by 90s cartoons and urban street culture. 13. Resn Resn has a portfolio site unlike any otherNew Zealand-based creative digital agency Resn is known for its boundary-pushing websites, and its own portfolio is no exception – in fact, this bonkers creation is pretty difficult to sum up in words. The homepage features a glimmering, 3D gem, and when you hold down your mouse button, weird and wonderful scenes appear before you. Let go, and the site springs back to the gem. It lacks any kind of structure, so you're probably not going to want to go for this approach on your own site, but it's worth a visit just to marvel at the team's creativity (not to mention enviable technical skills). 14. Gisele Jaquenod Jaquebod's cute cartoons capture her personality perfectlyArt has dominated much of Gisele's life, and that is evident from her quirkly cartoon-styled portfolio. The designer's site expresses her personality, from her obvious love of animals to doodling. However, she doesn't overcomplicate things. The menus are simple and easy to navigate, and strategically, her Etsy selling page takes centre stage on the homepage. 15. Adhemas Batista Adhemas Batista's colourful work contrasts with a monochrome homepageA Brazilian-born graphic designer and artist based in Los Angeles, Adhemas Batista has worked with some of the world's biggest brands, including Adidas, Coca-Cola and Sony. His homepage design is monochrome, which makes for a powerful contrast with the riot of colour and pattern within the portfolio that follows. 16. Ryan Scherf Web developer Ryan Scherf's one-page portfolio site is simple but very effectiveIn-between web designing, developing, writing, teach and building, Ryan Scherf found the time to create this eye-catching portfolio site. A gorgeous example of a one-page site, simply scroll down past the beautifully illustrated landing page to a number of example websites that he's worked on, followed by contacts at the bottom. Simple but very effective. 17. Charlotte Tang Tang's portfolio lets her work do all the talkingToronto-based interactive designer Charlotte Tang 'strives to marry the love of web and graphic design by finding a harmonious balance between functionality and aesthetics'. And is something that she's clearly applied to her portfolio site. Users are greeted by little port holes, featuring a black and white taster of her work. Hover over each and they come to life in full colour. Click and you're led to a beautifully big image of said work, plus a short description. 18. Robby Leonardi Robby Leonardi stars in his own interactive design portfolioRobby Leonardi is a multidisciplinary designer based in New York City. Specialising in illustration, graphic design, animation, and frontend development, he has worked with the likes of Fox, Speed TV, FX Networks, myNetworkTV, and G4. He's laid out his portfolio site as a video game that the visitor can actually play. This incredibly fun interactive design portfolio will have you scrolling for hours. 19. Björn Meier A beautifully simple and easy to navigate portfolioThis beautifully minimal, easy to navigate portfolio from Björn Meier is a feast for the eyes. Designed by German based agency BASICS09, the portfolio went on to become recognised on the AWWWARDS. 20. Sadok Sadok's animated beard galaxy adds a comical touch to the siteProduct designer and coder Sadok has a beard full of secrets. But he also has a great portfolio site. Each project is summed up succinctly in a singe page, with the background echoing the work on show. It's a relatively simple site, but these touches help it shine. Next page: 21-30 in our list of inspiring portfolio designs 21. Marc Thomas Fun colours and a responsive layout make this a portfolio to die forThis portfolio from designer Marc Thomas teams a playful icons with bright shades. He manages to fit you need to know onto a single screen: details of his skills and current role, previous clients, and links to his social accounts and contact details. It's neat, memorable and packs a punch. 22. Rosie Lee Images of the agency's work take centre stage on this siteRosie Lee is a hybrid creative agency, with on- and offline expertise in branding, advertising and retail design. The agency's work takes centre stage on its website, with plenty of colourful, full-width images, videos and carousels showing off what it can do. 23. Studio Airport An unusual vertical carousel helps this site stand outStudio Airport is a design agency based in the Netherlands, with a strong online presence embracing airport graphics, large photographs and strong typography. There are quirky touches throughout its website, including an unusual vertical-scrolling carousel of its projects, and an About Us section in which the photographs interact with one another when the user mouses over them (scroll down the homepage for a look). 24. Paul Currah The design portfolio of Paul Currah is clean and simplePaul Currah is an award-winning multidisciplinary graphic designer, delivering creative, innovative and engaging solutions to communication problems across brand identity, print, packaging, environmental and digital. His scrapbook-style portfolio is a clean and simple offering, with each project photo fading in and out, showcasing different aspects of the creation. 25. Smart! The online portfolio of Smart! has a simple structureSmart! is a multidisciplinary team of professionals in graphic design, communication and information technology that have two offices in Buenos Aires and Peru. Their online portfolio has a simple structure, with the grey images turning to full colour once you hover over each project. We love that the selected images from each project are presented in a horizontal line. 26. Olly Gibbs The online portfolio of Olly Gibbs shows real attention to detailOlly is a London-based, multidisciplinary designer and illustrator who has already worked with the likes of Warner Bros, Muse, and The Salvation Army. It's the attention to detail within his portfolio that really makes it stand out. The sense of fun immediately showcases Gibbs' personality, whilst the typography and layout makes it work aesthetically. We especially love the 'About' section. 27. Pollen Pollen has won a slew of awards for its workDigital and branding agency Pollen has won a slew of awards for its work, and its online portfolio is beautifully structured and art directed. For each project, the team has put together a series of images, videos and short chunks of text, each of which is displayed alone on a full page – as the user scrolls, a new item jumps into view. 28. Viget The online portfolio of design agency Viget shows the power of photographyWorking as a team of 58 creative individuals, Viget has got some impressive projects under its belt. Set up by brothers Brian Williams and Andy Rankin and their Dad, Wynne 'Pop' Williams, Viget Labs was established back in 1999 when the internet was changing. The portfolio showcases just how important photography and user experience is within this industry. Pops of primary colour and subtle animation help create a playful, highly usable experience. 29. Super Awesome The online portfolio of web design agency Super Awesome is, well, super awesomeWith a name like Super Awesome, you'd expect this web design agency's portfolio to be pretty, well, awesome. And it's safe to say that it is! Making sites not suck since 2007, the team have gone for a cutting-edge layout reminiscent of print design, complete with vertically running text and staggered imagery. We love that the site isn't afraid to produce statements such as 'portfolios are boring' and 'we don't do meetings'. Bold, super awesome stuff. 30. Tawn The design portfolio of Ashleigh Downer immediately grabs the user's attentionIn a world of quick clickers and impatient scrollers, it's important to instantly grab the attention of your potential clients. Too much text on the homepage could scare away the curious, so it's a good idea to entice them with an image. Here, Ashleigh Downer does just that with a quirky landing page before showcasing her incredible collections. Remember, you want to make your visitors click, and you can't help but do just that with this portfolio. Next page: 31-40 in our list of great portfolio websites 31. Small Studio Small Studio portfolio is whimsical and interactiveSmall Studio is an award-winning creative agency, founded in Melbourne in 2007 by directors Paul Kotz and Todd Proctor, and it's portfolio is well worth a visit. The moment the visitor lands on the homepage, they are invited to cut the balloon's cord to send it flying into the sky, and there are plenty of whimsical and delightful moments to follow. 32. Bleed Bleed aims to challenge conventions with its workBleed states that it represents "a mix of cultures and disciplines to challenge today’s conventions around art, visual language, interaction, media and identity". This mode of thinking is implemented within its online projects. Full-screen imagery and large type engage the user whilst scrolling through the site, and its studio manifesto at the end is a nice touch. 33. Kendra Schaefer The online portfolio of Kendra Schaefer is packed with personalityKendra Schaefer likes to mix up her portfolio, but every version is packed with personality. The designer recently moved to China, and has embraced this as her theme. And with comments like "THIS SITE USED TO BE FUNNY, now it just feels sexually inadequate (guess who's over 30!)" it's clear she's maintained her sense of humour. 34. Cast Iron Studio The online portfolio of Cast Iron Studio is full of creative flairCast Iron Studio's portfolio is a modern delight. The studio has taken on a nifty little cast iron pan as their logo and evokes its environmentally responsible ethos with a simple, naturalistic design and infinite(ish) scrolling. Each project section goes in-depth into each aspect of the work, so there's plenty to explore, too. 35. DJNR The online portfolio of DJNR truly stands outThis is an online portfolio that really stands out from the crowd. DJNR crafted this highly interactive site, which includes a GIF of a working day that coincides with the bar running at the bottom of the page. There's also music and a highly eye-catching colour scheme. You can browse through all the projects on one page, which includes development, games, animation and design. It was even an FWA site of the day! 36. Strangelove The colours on this site complement each other perfectlyThe phenomenon of Pinterest has meant a huge rise in Pinterest-style layouts. This is far from another copycat site though – graphic designer Gareth Strange has managed to make this one his own. The homepage directly focuses on his illustrations, with the colours nicely complementing each other. The visitor is able to immediately gauge Gareth's design approach, which certainly makes for a successful portfolio. 37. Maria De La Guardia Maria De La Guardia's portfolio site is easy to navigateUX and visual designer Maria De La Guardia's portfolio site was built using the Craft CMS. It's an impressive lesson in clear navigation. It's split into sections – work, contact details, recommendations – all signposted with bright bands of colour. Meanwhile, the icon-studded homepage background lends personality. 38. Steven Bonner Steven Bonner's portfolio site barely includes any words at allIllustrator Steven Bonner's work deserves to be splashed across any screen. Thankfully his online portfolio does just that. In the most recent version of his portfolio, he's taken a confident approach and shunned words altogether, instead opting to let his work speak for itself. The homepage features a selection of tantalisingly cropped images of previous projects, and he invites the user to get in touch to find out more. 39. Jesse Willmon The design portfolio of Jesse Willmon is playful and funThis playful portfolio comes from designer Jesse Willmon. As soon as you arrive on the homepage, you know you're in for a treat. A cute aesthetic helps you feel welcome, along with a chatty tone, felt-tip font and colourful imagery. It only gets better once you click on the links, as Willmon's signature illustration style continues throughout. Next page: 41-50 in our list of 50 awesome portfolio sites 40. Seymour Powell The design portfolio of Seymour Powell offers a interactive visual insight into their workSeymour Powell is a multidisciplinary group of design researchers, brand experts, product, UX and UI designers, and makers. As you can see from the grab above, they're not afraid of a splash of colour. The site also features a modern take on the parallax trend of yesteryear. 41. Lounge Lizard Lounge Lizard's portfolio takes the bar theme and runs with itWebsite design and marketing agency Lounge Lizard has been making waves on the design circuit for almost 15 years. The team describe themselves as 'brandtenders', and this bar-themed portfolio is the perfect execution of their work and style. The site is packed full of case studies and information while still maintaining a fun, drinkable vibe. 42. Tim Lahan The design portfolio of Tim Lahan is perfectly laid outNew York based graphic designer and artist Tim Lahan presents his portfolio in a simple yet stunning way. Thanks to the sticky header, the important logo and information stays firmly at the top of your screen as you scroll through colourful examples of work. The drawings and designs are also perfectly laid out to really show them off; with no framing or barriers to distract the visitor or alter the work's effect. 43. Justin M. Maller Justin Maller's portfolio lets the vibrant imagery do the talkingThe Australian designer's portfolio site keeps things reasonably simple, and so lets his vibrant work – he's going through a delightfully crystalline phase at the moment – do the talking. It lets you get straight to the artwork; the only fancy stuff going on is a lovely little gradient at the bottom of the main index window, subtly fading everything in as it scrolls up. 44. Tim Smith HTML5 tricks bring this portfolio site to lifeBoasting 'Brain-powered graphics fun', Tim Smith's portfolio site uses CSS3 to mix a spotlessly clean look with some clever HTML5 tricks such as the cut-out titles for each piece, which disappear as you mouse over. We love the sidebar as well, featuring social links on the front page and then used for navigation between portfolio pages. 45. Delete Delete's action-packed site has plenty going onBig, bold and in your face, Delete's site opens with an animated introduction to the agency and a recent project. The rest of the portfolio meets the expectations created on the front page, with plenty of animation and graphic touches throughout. 46. Studio Contents We love the smoothly responsive images on Studio Contents' site The front page of Studio Contents' site seems basic – minimal text sitting on top of a big carousel image, with a grid of smaller images beneath that – but it's fantastically responsive and smooth with it, images resizing with the browser like a dream. It's all about presenting the work in the best possible way, and this does a great job. 47. Bob Galmarini Bob Galmarini took a template site and made it his own'Bright' and 'crisp' are good words to describe the personal portfolio site of Bob Galmarini, an award winning art director at {e} house studio. "Like a lot of other designers, my work has been hidden within the portfolios of the companies I have worked for," says Galmarini on the goal of his new site. "I needed a simple, easy to update place to host my body of work." Galmarini started with a template theme but heavily used CSS to make it unique. It’s a good example of how altering fonts, colours and other CSS styles can make a difference. 48. Hayk Check out the brilliant use of colour on Hayk's siteHayk is a full-time freelance designer who also happens to be a music producer by night. After high school he continued to study on his own, reading and gaining experience working as a graphic designer. This cleverly crafted portfolio has a lovely colour scheme and an ace scrolling experience. 49. Stereo A creative portfolio site for StereoLondon-based agency Stereo Creative has created this simple yet striking portfolio site. Each case study is well thought out and beautifully presented, with a carefully chosen slogan introducing each one. 50. Fieldwork A clean-cut portfolio for the team at FieldworkFieldwork is a focused team of makers and doers that specialises in crafting engaging experiences across digital, web and branding. Founded in 2012 by Loz Ives and Andy Gott, the company has worked with a number of brands including craft beer brewers and illustrators. Its lively portfolio is clean-cut, colourful and easy to navigate. Related articles: Get noticed: 6 tips for getting your portfolio seen 10 tips for building a killer portfolio website 5 quick ways to improve your portfolio dramatically View the full article

This may seem like an odd way to start an article on black and white drawings, but when I was a kid, my favourite drawing tool was a blue crayon. I drew everything in that one colour – the sky, the sea – and things that weren’t even blue, like my neighbour’s cat, our house, and my family. These monochrome drawings helped me develop the skills to know how to draw in black and white. Ballpoint pens make readily accessible and easy to use drawing tools for black and white pictures. They also present their own challenges and limitless possibilities, which we'll explore in these drawing tips. You might prefer to draw your black and white artworks in pencil or with marker pens, which we'll explore too (or if you'd rather try charcoal, check out these 10 expert tips for charcoal drawing). Have a look at the video below, then read on for nine tips for creating beautiful black and white drawings – or blue and white, if that's your thing… 01. Mind excess ink The right isn’t a drawing; it’s excess ink from my penBallpoint pens are great to draw with because we can make beautifully thin lines with them and create a lot of contrast. However, pens can also be very unforgiving: every mark is permanent – and so is every errant ink blotch! A big ink blotch could suddenly form and ruin your drawing forever. To prevent this, periodically roll the sides of your pen tip on a scrap sheet of paper to remove ink buildup. 02. Use various tones of black A variety of markers = a variety of tonesWhen drawing with markers, try to get a variety of black tones to work with in order to create a maximum range of values. Markers draw really quick and clean but can be a little difficult to work with if you're not used to the starkness and graphic nature of marker work. Hopefully these next tips will help you get over the learning curve quickly and with ease. 03. Support markers with pencils Sketch with non-permanent pencil before using permanent markerWhen working with markers, do a rough sketch of your idea in pencil first before making permanent marker pen marks. The great thing about sketching a marker drawing in pencil first is that after the marker ink has dried, you can take an eraser to the entire illustration and remove the initial pencil sketch, leaving the marker intact. 04. Keep your fading markers The unintended benefit of almost-expired markersBecause markers use so much ink, they tend to run out quickly. However, just because a marker is fading doesn't mean it's not useful anymore! Markers that are running out of ink are great for creating texture or blending together tones. I find them just as necessary in the drawing process as fresh new markers. 05. Harness the versatility of pencils Pencils are versatile for all the different marks they can makeBehold the humble pencil: so simple and basic yet so full of possibilities. Like handwriting, everybody draws differently from everybody else. Our various styles will inform how we use our pencils so experiment with different types of pencil marks to get the full range of use out of your pencil. This will be valuable especially when using different types of marks to describe textures and elements as completely different things. Drawing techniques: 7 fundamentals of pencil drawing06. Keep it light Light sketching helps you explore and refine your drawingWhen drawing with pencils, we tend to make lines too dark too early. We should sketch with light lines because these only suggest edges and borders; dark lines are for the later stages because they are definitive and not open to interpretation. Lines can darken prematurely if it takes a few tries to get the exact line you want. If that happens, slow down and be more careful; speed up again once you get the hang of it. 07. Use multiple pencils These are my preferred pencils: 4B, 2B, and HBWe can do a lot with one pencil but we can broaden our range of values if we use a variety of pencils. I prefer to use two or three different pencils, starting with a 2H. Pencils with the letter “H” have harder lead, which won’t mark my paper as much so their lines will have a lighter tone. “B” pencils make blacker marks than H, so I use these more towards finish. 08. Protect your work in progress The low tech way of protecting your work in progressJust like when drawing with ballpoint pen, a blank sheet of scrap paper can come in handy when drawing with pencils too. Pencil drawings—particularly those done with B pencils—can smudge very easily so I like to put a blank sheet of paper under the heel of my hand as I draw so as to protect my work in progress. 09. Draw thumbnails first The thumbnail (left) helps compose my drawing (right)Before I begin drawing in earnest, I like to first plan out my drawings using small thumbnails. Regardless of what drawing tool I’m using, thumbnails help me figure out composition and readability, which helps me avoid errors before I commit them to paper. Employing thumbnails also allows me to explore ideas quickly and by sketching small, I force myself to simplify and focus only on the important elements of my drawings. Related articles: Doodle art: 52 great examples How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorials 10 top traditional art tools for September View the full article

There are billions of people on social media, which means your audience is out there. Now is your chance to reach them. Social Media Marketing Masterclass 2017 is an online course that will teach you how to make the most of social media, and you can get it on sale this week only for over 92% off the retail price. Social media is an essential piece of any marketing professional’s job. You can learn how to make the most of platforms such as Facebook, as well as how these relate to Google and SEO. Discover how to bring your products and services to those who will be most interested in them with the Social Media Marketing Masterclass 2017. You'll find over 5.5 hours worth of lessons and 87 lectures will teach you how to use social media to drive traffic to your site and turn visitors into customers. You can get the Social Media Marketing Masterclass 2017 on sale for over 92% off the retail price. That makes your total just $15 (approx £11) rather than the usual price of $195. It’s a deal that will pay for itself in no time as you attract more customers, so grab it today. Creative Bloq deals This great deal comes courtesy of the Creative Bloq Deals store – a creative marketplace that's dedicated to ensuring you save money on the items that improve your design life. We all like a special offer or two, particularly with creative tools and design assets often being eye-wateringly expensive. That's why the Creative Bloq Deals store is committed to bringing you useful deals, freebies and giveaways on design assets (logos, templates, icons, fonts, vectors and more), tutorials, e-learning, inspirational items, hardware and more. Every day of the working week we feature a new offer, freebie or contest – if you miss one, you can easily find past deals posts on the Deals Staff author page or Offer tag page. Plus, you can get in touch with any feedback at: deals@creativebloq.com. View the full article

The written word has come a long way since its beginnings, when words were all crammed together wily-nilly. ITWASNTALLTHATLONGAGOHISTORICALLYSPEAKINGTHATANY WRITTENTEXTLOOKEDBASICALLYLIKETHIS. (That was “It wasn’t all that long ago, historically speaking, that any written text looked basically like this,” incidentally.) Best free fonts for designersEarly punctuation arose as a system of cues to a reader, since early written text was never read silently, but read aloud. This proto-punctuation began by hinting to the reader when he should take a breath, for example. FOR·A·WHILE·WE·EXPERIMENTED·WITH·THIS·WHICH·WHILE· A·LITTLE·EASIER·TO·PARSE·IS·REGARDLESS·MUCH·TRICKIER· TO·READ·THAN·A·MODERN·SENTENCE·WOULDNT·YOU·SAY It wasn’t long, though, before we had developed a rich, expressive and widely adopted system of glyphs that were used to make meanings clear and to make printed text look beautiful and elegant (although not all of us use them properly – read 10 typographic mistakes everyone makes for more). Discarding conventions These are not always mistakes, however. In recent years, as a society we’ve started both deliberately and inadvertently rationalising the list of glyphs we use, abandoning hard-won, useful and beautiful characters. We haven’t quite regressed back TOTHISSORTOFTHING but for lots of reasons we’re discarding many of the conventions of typography that previous generations would have insisted were the only right and proper way of doing things. What are these changes, and what do they mean for designers and to the rest of society? Let’s explore. A typesetter would correct typographic errors created on a typewriterUp-front, we should say that we’re not being prescriptive or didactic here; fashions, needs and limitations change in typography just as in grammar, and anyone who tries to hold back that tide of change is not just doomed but misguided. Communication is a live, writhing thing, and you will note, for example, that we’re using these new-fangled paragraph thingies here rather than setting the whole thing as a solid wall of text which is broken up only with ¶ (pilcrow) characters. But still, some people would rail against what they’d see as typographical mistakes and dumbing down. Let’s take the first example from our 10 typographic mistakes everyone makes piece – typographic or ‘smart’ quote marks. "These" are dumb (or neutral) quotes, while “these” are smart quotes. In the first example, both double-quotes are identical, while in the second you have 66 and 99-style pairs (although you might need to bump up the point size before you can see the difference). Typographically speaking, those dumb quotes have no role at all, and should never be used. They come from the days when typewriters were introduced, when adding separate keys for “, ”, ‘ and ’ would have added complexity and additional points of failure. The desktop publishing revolution And for a long time, it didn’t matter, because much of what would be produced on a typewriter would then be sent to a typesetter and set properly with curly quotes. But then computers came along, and to ease the transition their keyboards copied the layout that typewriters had been using. Even then, having only dumb quotes didn’t matter, for the same reason. Then, though, came the desktop publishing revolution, and then the internet, and the stuff that was being written on computers was being published directly, without the intervention of someone whose job it was to make sure text adhered to established standards and customs. And the computer itself wasn’t the answer. Sure, some apps – and even OS X – can convert dumb quotes to smart, but they can make mistakes. The only sure-fire way to get your smart quotes right is to type them manually – or at least to watch what your computer is writing, and correct it if necessary. But for most of us these days, that’s too much work for too little reward, since the meaning of a sentence won’t be impaired by some sub-standard typography. 'Bad' typography on the web Indeed, there are often many good reasons to use ‘bad’ typography like this. One is that there might be technical limitations imposed by, for example, a content management system, or the platform to which it will spit content out. Websites like this one are the readiest example of this. And what’s more, because websites will be viewed by people using a range of browsers on a raft of operating systems on a plethora of devices, by using the lowest common denominator, typographically, you’re giving yourself the best chance possible that characters will display. Sure, "these quote marks" might be ‘wrong’, but if you can’t guarantee they’ll display properly, some would argue it’s better than than ⍰these quote marks⍰ or something like them if your reader’s browser can’t handle “these quote marks”. What’s more, as more and more content gets repurposed across multiple systems – sometimes being copy/pasted, sometimes referencing a canonical file – then there’s a temptation to use whatever basic character set is common to all, even if the majority of the platforms can use richer typography. The best free web fontsTypography across borders A similar thing happens when we’re sharing documents internationally, where different text encoding standards might prevail. An example of Unicode scriptsThere are robust systems to combat this, however, at least at a technical level. The old ASCII system – which encoded 0–9, A–Z, a–z, some basic punctuation and control codes – has long since been superseded. For a time we had lots of per-platform text-encoding solutions, but as a world we’re beginning finally to settle on an agnostic standard, Unicode, usually specifically UTF-8. Unicode supports over 136,000 characters (with plenty of headroom for more) covering 100 scripts – versus 128 characters for ASCII – as well as right-to-left scripts, combining ligatures and a huge range of other typographic niceties, so so long as documents online and off correctly identify themselves as being UTF-8, say, there’s no excuse for dumbed down typography… at least technically. Choosing simplicity Regardless, people might choose to use a simplified system of typography. Smart quotes, for example, will of course break HTML (another score for Markdown, which doesn’t use quotes in its syntax). It’s also not unheard of for coders to denigrate richer typography even in content (as distinct from the back-end that powers it) and for them to brow-beat writers and editors into adopting simplified typography. That's either because they don’t understand or value typography, or because they’re not motivated to support rich character sets such as UTF-8, despite it being part of the HTML spec since 1997’s 4.0 declaration. Ultimately, though, the gradual abandonment of some of the established typographic conventions isn’t down to technological constraints. It’s because many people aren’t even aware they’re doing things ‘incorrectly’. After all, Unicode, a global perspective, the increasing pressure on foundries to make fonts with rich character sets, and capable tools mean that we can do proper typography with relative ease these days. But if you don’t know that you should write £29·99 instead of £29.99, that 90º is wrong but 90° is right, or that there’s a proper character for inches – 12″ rather than 12" – then even though modern systems make it possible to enter them, you won’t. There are fewer old hands around to educate, and with a move away from print to the brisk, throwaway nature of much of the internet, not only are typographic traditions being abandoned but fewer and fewer people even realise it. So what? you might ask. Like with grammar, even if it’s wrong, your meaning is usually clear; nobody will think ‘90º’ doesn’t mean ‘ninety degrees’ just because it uses the wrong symbol, just as “I ain’t done nothing” can be clearly understood even though it technically means the opposite of what it says it does. Future proofing Maybe so. But quite apart from the satisfaction that comes from doing things right, there is a cost in the future, too. Good typography, like good grammar, isn’t a frivolous decoration, there to constrain your meaning. It’s there to make your meaning unambiguous. Take, for example: 3 1/2". It’s supposed to say three and a half inches, and since we humans are good at decoding the world we can read it as such, but you could also read the numbers as ‘three, space, one or two’. And that mongrel of a double-quote glyph could signify any manner of things. Write 3½″, however, and not only is it easier to read now, but it will be easier to read in the future, by computers, which lack our intuition and fuzzy logic, as well as by humans. Honouring typographic conventions like this is thus a kind of metadata, and “metadata is a love note to the future”. ITSVERYHARDTHESEDAYSTOREADTEXTWHICHISSETLIKETHIS. But mix robust standards such as UTF-8 with established, hard-working typographic conventions today, and as well as looking beautiful and honouring the traditions of typography, you’ll ensure text is readable long into the future. Related articles: 10 typography tricks every designer should know 20 fonts every graphic designer should own 50 top typography tutorials View the full article

There's more to Instagram than beautiful snaps of avocado brunches. In fact, artists and designers have long been using the photo-sharing application to find an audience for their work. Now one of the biggest names on graphic design, Stefan Sagmeister, is getting involved by using his Instagram account as a design clinic. That's right, one half of the legendary and occasionally naked New York-based design firm Sagmeister & Walsh, Stefan Sagmeister is inviting designers to send him their work with a view to it being shared with his hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers. If your work is deemed worthy, it will be posted on his account with a short review written by the man himself. Once live, his legion of followers will be able to weigh in with their opinions, too. 50 brilliant design portfolios to inspire youSpeaking to Dezeen, Sagmeister revealed that the idea came about a while ago, but that he's only been able to put it into action during his year-long sabbatical. "Designers send in work they want to have reviewed," he told the site. "I select from the many that come in, either because they are very good and can be an example for others, or because I think they could be improved with some simple reconsiderations." Designs are largely met with helpful and constructive feedbackUnlike a lot of internet feedback, the vast majority of feedback on the work that Sagmeister shares is refreshingly positive. "I have found that the Instagram community was very helpful," Sagmeister added. "Most commenters genuinely want to improve the work, it has been very constructive. There's been very little snark." Followers of Sagmeister's Instagram account can expect work from designers to be shared several times a week. The designer aims to continue the clinic for the remainder of his sabbatical, so if you want to get your work appraised by one of the biggest names in the business, you've got six months left to get involved. Are you feeling brave enough? Related articles: How to craft a standout portfolio 9 brilliant freelance portfolios for 2017 32 graphic designers to follow on Instagram View the full article

The 19th century was a wonderful time for art. Artists were held in high regard and the public was educated about art. There was a very high level of skilled technique on display thanks to the rigorous academic training available. Artists such as Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Frederic Leighton and William-Adolphe Bouguereau created works of great beauty, classicism and elegance and drew upon inspirations found in contemporary life, but especially antiquity. They all followed a similar process, creating thumbnails, detailed drawings, life studies, colour studies and then the final painting. A great amount of planning and effort was expended before brush ever met canvas. How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorialsWe can learn a lot from these masters and not hurry through the process of creating an oil painting. Do not rush through the thumbnail stage. This is the best and easiest place to explore your composition. If you can, let your sketches sit for a day or two and then come back with fresh eyes. Once the thumbnails are completed, you can spend a little more time refining a sketch to flesh out the idea. Flaming June by Frederic Leighton, 1895, provided some inspiration for this art tutorial For this project, Birgitte Smoot not only modelled but also helped with the costume. Erin Bjorn made us a costume that was historically accurate, which helped elevate the whole effort from the beginning. We used Blue Ridge oil paints on a wood panel, using Rosemary & Co brushes, and a New Wave Art Expressionist Confidant arm palette. Paint what delights you and you will find an audience that feels the same way about your work. Follow these steps as we attempt to create a painting that echoes the masters and then go and create your own painting inspired by your favourite artists. You will learn more about them, and yourself, in the process. 01. Find inspiration Dolce Far Niente by John William Godward, 1897, also inspired this painting Study examples of the art you love from 19th century masters such as Leighton, Godward and Alma-Tadema. At this stage you're looking for inspiration for your painting. Confidences by Alma-Tadema, 1869, also got the creative juices flowing There is a richness in palette and a refinement of line that is very exciting in these paintings. How can you not be inspired by such beauty? These inspiring artworks will also help you to add some historically accurate details to your painting. The internet is another wonderful tool. You can find references for mosaics on the wall and floor as well as a bronze brazier online, giving you authentic details to put into the painting to add significant visual richness. 02. Test possible compositions Use thumbnails to explore compositions (click the top-right icon to enlarge this image) Explore how to compose your painting by sketching thumbnail images. We created many thumbnails for this painting – here are four of them. You can see they aren’t very pretty or particularly meaningful to others. A quick line or mark can represent a piece of furniture or figure. Imagination is important at this stage and adds a thrill as one imagines the possibilities. 03. Create a sketch to solidify ideas Develop your favourite thumbnail into a sketch Take one of the thumbnails and take it further as a sketch. We did this one in Photoshop, but you could also use charcoal or pencil. The goal at this stage is to solidify the idea so that you can gather proper references and direct the model. 04. Use photography as a tool An inspiring reference photo will help a lot, but use artistic license to interpret it as a painting Unless you have the enviable means to have a model in your studio full-time, photography will most likely be an invaluable tool. Do what it takes to get the very best photo reference possible, but don’t be a slave to your photographs. You are the artist, not the camera. Trust your creativity and use all the tools at your fingertips. 05. Draw out the composition Use a grid to draw your composition onto your canvas This painting is 12 x 16in so we made a 1-inch grid on the panel to draw our final composition onto. You don’t need to draw every detail, though we drew in much of the mosaic, hoping to take advantage of the dark lines in the final pass. Once it was drawn in, we inked the critical lines with a Pigma Micron pen. 06. Tint the canvas A golden imprimatura tint will add warmth to the painting Erase the pencil grid and start the imprimatura, or tinting the canvas with colour. This does a couple of things. It make it easier to judge the accuracy of subsequent layers of paint, and the warm colour will show through in places and help to add warmth and vibrancy in a subtle way. 07. Apply a colour wash A thin colour wash will help your drawing to show through Now apply a thin colour wash over the whole painting. A medium composed of five parts turpentine, one part damar varnish and one part stand oil makes the oil paint seem almost like watercolour, and it dries quickly. It also keeps the paint semi-transparent, to allow the drawing to show through. 08. Make the first pass Start with the head and hands as they will draw most attention The first pass of the painting is underway. Starting with the head and hands lets you establish the quality and value range on what is usually the most important part of a painting containing figures. When painting flesh under cool daylight, keep the shadows warm and lively. 09. Pace your effort You can go over areas again once they've dried When working through the first pass, it is important to remember that you will have the chance to go over everything again once it dries. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to add all the polish and finish in the first stage. It takes some experience but you will soon learn when you are just pushing paint around and when you are actually making progress. 10. Complete the first pass We're nearly finished now The first pass is now complete. Notice that areas are still flat and washy, but the values and colours are well established. The fun part really begins where each stroke seems to make a big impact and you can choose what parts you want to focus on. We're about 80% of the way towards the finish at this point. 11. Start the second pass A brush with a fine tip will help you add tiny details In an effort to paint like art heroes, it pays to be meticulous with the details. For the smallest details, buy a medium sized round brush with a very fine tip. This will let you get all the detail you need and the brush will hold a good amount of paint. Don’t just make marks, be thoughtful about how you are applying paint. Think about the correct colour, value and shape with each stroke. 12. Apply the final touches Add final details such as wrinkles We're almost at the end of the painting. This is the stage to refine the delicate transitions and add in subtle details such as the wrinkles in the hands and veins underneath the skin. You can also glaze and intensify colours, using transparent colours and no medium. The entire process for this painting, from the idea to finish, took 48 hours, with 44 hours of painting time. 13. Frame your work Don’t forget to find a frame to enhance your artwork (or make your own frame). This frame, from Masterworks Frames, is handmade and uses 16k gold leaf for a sense of history and grandeur. The arch of this frame influenced the composition of the painting. This article originally appeared in issue 9 of Paint & Draw magazine. Buy it here. Related articles: 15 tips to improve your brush skills 10 top traditional art tools for September 10 incredible online art schools View the full article

Making objects and typography appear as though they're reflected in the surface they're sitting on isn't complicated. It is, however, a little more complex to make it look convincing within the environment that it's placed in. Over the next few steps we'll run through how to use Adobe InDesign to quickly create an environment for your type to sit in that follows the basic rules of directional light. We'll then demonstrate how to place the type within the environment and create a reflection so that it appears convincing. Get Creative Cloud01. Create the basic scene Start by creating the environment that the type will sit within First we need to start by creating the environment that the type will sit within. Begin by drawing a large rectangle that fits to your document bounds by using the Rectangle tool. Now draw another one in a lighter shade that is half the height and sits flush to the bottom of the document creating the effect of a horizon line. Next use the type tool to draw a large text box and type out the word that you want to work with. Take some time when choosing the typeface, bolder sans-serif faces will have more impact than serifs. In the above example, we've used Gotham in its Black weight and then kerned the letters back by holding alt and the left and right arrow keys. 02. Set the light source Draw a large circle in the top-right of the composition by using the ellipse tool while holding shift Draw a large circle in the top-right of the composition by using the ellipse tool while holding shift. Fill this circle with a shade lighter than your background colour and then navigate to Object > Effects > Basic feather. Increase the feather width until you're happy with the results, in this case 30mm, then hit OK to apply the results. 03. Apply gradients to create depth Now select the background and apply a linear gradient to it by bringing up the gradient panel Next, select the background and apply a linear gradient to it by bringing up the gradient panel. By default this will be a black to white gradient. To make it a smooth gradient create three swatches that range from dark to light in your chosen colour covering the shadows, mid tones and highlights. Next, drag the swatches onto the gradient slider in the correct order so that the gradient gets lighter towards the light source. Set the angle to 30 degrees and then repeat the process for the horizon line but with a 90 degree angle and with its blending mode set to multiply. You may want to lighten the light source at this point. We made it white and changed its opacity to 50 per cent. 04. Apply a highlight sheen to the type Apply a gradient to the typography Next, apply a gradient to the typography using the lightest of your three swatches and white so that the white runs towards the light source, then apply a 30 degree angle to the gradient. Now navigate to Type > Create Outlines so that the type is no longer live text and will now act as a vector object. Copy the type and paste it in place so that it sits exactly on top of the original type. Fill it with white and then draw a large rectangle that covers the bottom half of the type. Use the minus function from the pathfinder panel to delete the bottom half of the type Now select both the top type and the rectangle and use the minus function from the pathfinder panel to delete the bottom half of the type. Reduce the opacity slightly and use the gradient feather tool to make the sheen more subtle, then finally apply an overlay blending mode to the sheen. 05. Create the reflection Now that the scene is set, creating the actual reflection effect is relatively easy Now that we've set the scene, creating the actual reflection effect is relatively easy. Simply select both the bottom type and the highlight and hit cmd + G to group them. Copy and paste them in place and, ensuring that the bottom reference point is set in the top-left, hit the Flip Vertical function found in the top bar and then set the blending mode to overlay. Now you can use the Shear X Angle tool, also found in the top bar, to skew the reflection away from the light source to give it a more realistic effect. Use the Shear X Angle tool to give the reflection a more realistic effect 06. Add further details You may want to take things a step further by increasing the contrast of the darkest and lightest tints We've covered the essentials in the above five steps but it's up to you how much further you take it. You may wish to add more depth as we've done above by increasing the contrast of our darkest and lightest tints. In the above example, we used the same method that we used to create the reflection to create a shadow behind the type. In this case, simply use your darkest swatch colour and set the blending mode to multiply. As a final tweak we added some yellow to the mid-tone swatch to make it a little warmer and more natural. View the full article

"Weird Al" Yankovic - It's All About The Pentiums https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpMvS1Q1sos&feature=share … View the full article

Apple said that macOS' native Gatekeeper security feature would protect against a Keychain attack disclosed this week, but researcher Patrick Wardle said that won't help against Mac malware signed with an Apple certificate. View the full article

When running a design business, it is impossible to underestimate the importance of client relationships. From freelance creatives whose clients are other industry firms, to agencies blessed with rostered regulars – looking after your fee payers should be priority number one. Get Adobe Creative CloudAccording to the great Paul Rand, design is futile "unless it is acknowledged by those that the designer exists to serve – the clients". At its most basic level, a good client relationship means trust, communication and accountability. Client relationships should be a mutually beneficial partnership between you and your client. Your expertise and critical opinion should be valued, while your clients should feel they can trust you in creating the most suitable work for their products. Getting to this stage takes time, hard work and investment in a client relationship strategy, but it is easily achievable for creative outfits of all sizes. Illustration: Ola VoloClient relationships can be an uneven see-saw: you can produce the best work possible, on time and to budget and still lose a client, while you can watch others produce mediocre work and enjoy repeat business. It's unfair, annoying and disruptive. But it is avoidable. Investing in client relationships leads to repeat work, more money and strengthens word-of-mouth promotion. Strong relationships enable the creation of more satisfying, worthwhile projects, which is what all designers strive for and, appropriately, the best way to increase visibility and win new work. In short, strong client relationship skills are where it begins for growing your creative reputation, generating more turnover, and ultimately creating even more fulfilling work. The figures paint an even more convincing argument: according to BDI (British Design Innovation), for every client lost, UK design businesses have to spend around 20 per cent of a project fee on new business activity through promotional means and cold pitching. For repeat work, that figure is zero per cent. Understanding people "Every client is worth holding on to. Winning clients is difficult in itself, so holding onto them is absolutely critical," says Katy Cowan, managing director at Boomerang, the creative agency with a roster that includes retailers, manufacturers and healthcare accounts. "Essentially, business is about people," she continues. "So it's about understanding how to work with people, maintain healthy relationships and be someone that people enjoy working with. Of course, it's also about offering value – ensuring the work you are doing is making a real difference to your client." Winning new clients and establishing a solid working relationship with them takes time and effort, and is traditionally looked after by an account handler or client director. Yet it's vital that all relevant staff are aware of the client and contribute towards the relationship – from creative directors to artworkers. "It's critical that everyone involved in an account knows who the client is, who the contact is, and what the client likes and doesn't like," says Mark Haynes, a new business consultant who was previously client services manager at marketing services company Chime UK. "At Chime, we worked exceptionally hard to get under the skin of our clients' brands, and offer the type of service that fosters trust. You cannot allow even one person to stray off-brief and damage that trust." For agencies and studios like Boomerang and Chime, a client retention plan is critical. This can take the form of a top-sheet of essential client information, for example: contact points for different areas of the account. A more fully-fleshed client retention plan might include a history of the client and the work you've completed for them, as well as a creative overview of the brand and information on any strategic objectives that the client has highlighted. "Being able to pick up the phone and speak to the right person is vital," explains Haynes. "There might be an entirely different person in a different office who has sign-off on artwork, while budgets and strategy are handled elsewhere. You need to keep your communication channels open and make sure you speak to the right people about the right things." It's also advisable to identify some sort of hierarchy and make sure everyone in your business is aware of it. Ideally you need to ensure that, should one of your contact points be unavailable, you know who's next in line to consult. What's more, by identifying a hierarchy within your client's business, you are more likely to be able to cut out 'middle-men' and engage directly with the decision makers - whether that be a creative head, or a strategic or financial manager. Keeping clients Retention plans also generate new business organically. If an initial client brief begins as a rebrand, it can quickly escalate to a full 360-degree project if you prove yourself in the initial stages. "Most of our clients are retained," says Cowan. "The nature of our work relies upon ongoing support, as we provide an iterative service. For instance, we might build a website or app, carry out ongoing user testing and then add new features along the way." Client relationship management isn't about 'schmoozing', as Cowan points out. In fact, very few of those we spoke with gave the impression of Mad Men-style long lunches and big nights out on expenses. Successful client relationships are about communicating and delivering on your promises: basic project management skills. "We have regular meetings and we plan what we're going to do each and every month," says Cowan. "Internally, we use systems like Basecamp to project manage and we'll track time involved using FreeAgent. For some of our clients, we might use software to ensure smooth running – for example, for our social media marketing we use apps like SproutSocial." But don't be tricked into thinking client relationship management is just for agencies and design studios, however. Freelancers too need to treat their clients with care, as the freelance illustrator Steven Bonner points out. "Freelancing is just being a small business-owner so the principles of relationship management are the same," he says. "For me there's no magic to it: you simply treat people well and do what you say you'll do for them. If you deliver on your promises, are accommodating to reasonable requests and can do it all with a smile on your face, then you'll be fine." Bonner is a typographer, illustrator and designer who was won numerous international awards. For him, building and maintaining a relationship is about being professional, and being personable. "You've got to work hard to build relationships, then harder again to make them strong," he says. "It's a small industry where everyone knows each other, so building a good relationship with someone can be a great way of networking and getting a foothold in new companies." Healthy relationships However, it's important to remember that there has to be some give and take. Unhealthy relationships can come about, for instance, if a client never listens to your advice. If that's the case, it might be worth moving on. It's obvious when you find a client with whom you work well, but it's also important to spot bad clients early on. "Clients worth holding onto are those who brief and art direct really well," Bonner says. "Vague briefing and non-existent direction are the bane of a freelancer's life, as they eat into budgets, time and quite frankly, your patience. The good client is the one who understands how to work with you." Managing your client list doesn't just mean picking and choosing who to work with, though. As well as identifying those clients with whom it's possible to have a broader creative relationship, it's also smart to avoid stage managing too much. "It's not something we budget for necessarily, but we do often entertain clients," says Cowan. "It's nice to pop out for a coffee or lunch and offer to pay. I've just had an informal lunch with one of my biggest clients, and it was nice to chat over some sandwiches. Like I said before, business is about people, so offering that bit of give and take always helps to strengthen relationships." Above all else, client relationship management is about treating other people with respect. When your client asks you for a project update; shifts a deadline or drags its feet on a decision, professionalism means you don't get fiery. In fact, according to Bonner, the best relationship technique requires general good manners, and taking an interest in the person as well as the project. "Clients are people too," sums up Bonner. "And people like to deal with people that they can relate to. I'm not saying you need to be their best friend, but it's nice to be able to have a friendly conversation about other things too." Words: Tom Dennis This article originally appeared in Computer Arts issue 220. Liked this? Read these! Illustrator tutorials: amazing ideas to try today! Create a perfect mood board with these pro tips The ultimate guide to logo design View the full article

Back in September 2015, Google waved goodbye to the serifed logo that had served it well for years. In its place was a chunkier, sans serif typeface, complete with a 'G' symbol used across apps and other web domains. While it didn't take long to get used to the new logo, the 'G' letter symbol has been niggling keyboard critics over on Reddit. Brought to light in a thread by Reddit user A_freakin_t-rex, the images of the symbol (above) question the mathematics behind the shape and colour of Google's 'G' symbol. And while A_freakin_t-rex claims not to have made the image (taking credit only for posting it on Reddit's 'mildly infuriating' board), a stream of comments on the thread shows that other designers have taken issue with the symbol design. But what's the problem with the letter? Everyone can read it clearly; the colours communicate the main Google wordmark. Does a great logo design – or any design, for that matter – always have to be geometrically perfect? A closer look As you can see in the images above, the 'G' symbol isn't quite as circular as it appears on first sight. Where it curves in towards the limb, the bowl is slightly squeezed in as well. On top of that, the angles between the lettering and the colours don't line up. Thanks to grid theory and principles like the Golden Ratio, we know that establishing a set of guidelines for type, and the way in which elements should be positioned within a layout, creates visual harmony and helps viewers understand a design. The problem is that design principles like these are often slapped over photos or pieces of art by commentators as a stamp of endorsement; as if by obeying this set of logical design rules – and this set alone – the image in question is of good quality. Which isn't always the case. And especially with type. Optical vs metrical design A key part of typeface design involves managing the friction between reality (what your eyes see) and optics (what your eyes think they see). Take Helvetica’s ‘H’. The crossbar is positioned ever-so slightly above the centre – but it appears to be central. That’s because for a given weight of line, horizontal lines appear heavier than vertical lines. If you positioned Helvetica’s crossbar mathematically in the centre, it wouldn’t appear to be central. Many letterforms therefore need to be optically corrected so that readers don’t notice reality – the same principle is involved in kerning. Google itself explains the decision on its Evolving the Google Identity document: "The Google G is directly derived from the logotype ‘G,’ but uses increased visual weight to stand up at small sizes and contexts where it needs to share space with other elements." "Designed on the same grid as our product iconography, the circular shape was optically refined to prevent a visual 'overbite' at the point where the circular form meets the crossbar. The color proportions convey the full spectrum of the logotype and are sequenced to aid eye movement around the letterform.” See how Google's real logo (left) compares to a geometrically perfect version by maxt0r (right)To illustrate the point, user maxt0r created a new Google 'G' symbol that stays circular and divides its colours more evenly. The result is a subtly different logo with uneven visual weighting. Other users commented that the real logo has more character. Of course, this isn't the first time a global brand has sparked designers' OCD. Back in 2012, Twitter unveiled a new logo that relied entirely on two different sized circles for the shape of its bird icon. Circles are the secret behind Twitter's current logoAs Google's 'G' symbol suggests, there's a time for maths – and there's a time for optical trickery. Related articles: How to use logos in web design 5 expert tips to design the perfect logo 11 places to find logo design inspiration View the full article

Painting a portrait can be a difficult task. Even if you've mastered how to draw a face, you can easily end up lost in details and jewellery. So before starting anything, have a basic rough idea of the final image. Here, I want to depict a portrait inspired by the Venetian carnivals, but without the mask, because we want direct eye contact. We'll be using Photoshop. Get Adobe Creative CloudLight is a key part in any portrait piece. It's how the character stands out – it brings volume, life and intensity – so it must be carefully worked. The light is challenging here, mainly because of the amount of detail. Indeed, I don’t want the detail to become too distracting, which can soon be the case when there’s a lot of it. Remember – if you're not satisfied, don't hesitate to go back and change the elements you don’t like. Sometimes I even restart the entire illustration. For me, that’s just a part of the painting process – and it’s often for the best! Download your resources for this tutorial 01. Assemble some concept sketches Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageThe pencil sketch is an important step. I always do a few of these before starting the real painting, to help me visualise where I want to go. I can quickly add details like the crown, or think about what kind of costume I want for my character. It’s a good base to start from. 02. Create colour thumbnails Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the imageThen I scan the pencil sketch into Photoshop and do some quick colour thumbnails. I pick a harmonious colour scheme and start to mix those colours, to see whether they work well together. The challenge when there are multiple elements is to develop something consistent; I find doing a quick colour sketch really helpful in this respect. 03. Lay down colour blocks Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image I start the face in huge blocks of colour, to quickly get everything placed correctly. I try to develop a lot of colour variations in this area because it’s the focal point of my painting and so it needs to be realistic and feel alive. I mix some red and pink for the eyes, mouth and nose to help achieve this effect. 04. Adjust the composition Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image At this point I change the composition and go for a classic dress instead of a neck ruffle collar. The dress will be covered with colourful patterns and some hints of golden embroidery. I always use a big, round, soft brush to sketch patterns, because I need to blend colours quickly at this early stage. I find it helpful to ensure all the details work as a whole and are well integrated; the soft brush is ideal for achieving this. 05. Develop the carnival-esque crown Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image This portrait is carnival-inspired, so my character will be wearing an outlandish crown with feathers. I start with a pyramid shape made up of many little baroque-style curves. I visualise my idea on another layer and start to correct the previous shape based on this. I want the crown to be completely gold, so I pick a colourful yellow/brown to paint the base. I don’t work up the light yet – before starting that, I need to refine the entire crown and add some texture. 06. Define the facial features Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Now I start to add more details to the face. I work the eyes, add eyelids and eyebrows – this is an important step because it’s now that I decide what expression and attitude I want for my character. I choose to try to make her look mysterious, so her eyes will have a lot of makeup. I use some deep, dark violet to paint the eyelids. I never use pure black for shadows or creases, because that will only make other colours look muddy. Always colour your shadows! 07. Give the skin a sense of texture Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image I’m happy with how the face looks and I can now start to work on texture. For this I use my scribbling technique. I add colour variations and volume all over the face with a one-pixel, Hard-edged brush. I work the light and shadows, but also on some details such as the eyelids. This is a long process but I like the final render – once it’s smoothed it adds a lot of tiny texture or grain. A speckled brush also gives this effect. 08. Design the costume Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image I want my character to be colourful, so I create a specific pattern for her dress with turquoise and red. I keep the design simple because I don’t want it to distract the viewer too much. I also refine the ruffles and crown. I leave the feathers very dark and blurred – they aren’t the main decorative element and must stay discreet. 09. Revise the composition Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image I decide I’m not happy with the composition: it needs to be brighter. The character’s position was too stiff, so I move her slightly to the side to develop a more natural pose. I also change the crown and the light on the upper part of the composition, opting to add more red instead of yellow, and bring in more light there, too. 10. Update costume elements Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image I now take the opportunity to change the ruffles – I found the previous design too boring. I also quickly sketch some more rounded curves to give a sense of lightness to the dress and character. I bring in a degree of transparency, which will help an object look either very light or fragile. I approach the crown in the same way, painting thinner, longer, baroque curves to break the heavy style of the previous one to help produce a more feminine, delicate look. 11. Paint a lace collar Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image I decide to add lace fabric to increase the delicate look of my character and add some mystery. Lace is intricate, but it’s easily done: I use a textured brush to roughly draw some curves and flowers – it doesn’t need to be precise. I add a few dots of light on it to create some volume so that it doesn’t look too flat and unrealistic. 12. Add more life Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image I accentuate the colour of the character’s lips and cheeks, picking a deep pink/red to do this. Red and pink are the perfect colours to add life to a character, especially on the face. Then I select a very small, precise brush and create some long, curvy eyelashes to give her eyes a more dramatic and mysterious look. I always blur the extremities to make them more natural. And finally I add some beauty spots here and there on her face – this quick extra detail is particularly effective when you want to create realistic-looking skin. 13. Introduce texture to the crown Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Now I need to add more texture to the crown, especially on the feathers. I use a basic Round edge brush (with Hardness at 100 per cent and Opacity Jitter set to 100 per cent), and then paint some little brush strokes all over the feathers, to create a myriad of colour variations that mimic the texture of their real-world counterparts. I do the same on the crown to emulate the appearance of old, slightly tarnished gold. I don’t want something clean. Including flaws helps to achieve more realism in the scene. 14. Make some final adjustments Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Now it’s time to add some extra light coming from the top. I choose to use a pink colour close to the one in the background, to retain some unity and bring in a colourful glow all over the crown and feathers. I use a big, Round, soft-edged brush to create this special effect, and adjust the layer’s Opacity if I go too far with it. I repeat the same process on the face, this time picking a pale blue to contrast with the background colour. Finally, I use a Brightness/Contrast adjustment to slightly correct the general contrast of my illustration. And we’re done! This article originally appeared in ImagineFX issue 147. Buy it now. Related articles: 95 top Photoshop tutorials How to make manga faces with a touch of realism Get better at figure drawing View the full article

In this month's round-up, we take a look at some of the iOS apps that were recently updated to work with the new features in iOS 11. The best drawing tablets in 2017We also jump into some options for Windows, and we look at an exciting new tool, which is currently in beta. So without any more delays, let's take a look at the picks we have for September... 01. Pixelmator Pixelmator is an easy-to-use alternative to Photoshop$4.99 (iOS) / $ 29.99 (macOS) Primarily an image editor, Pixelmator is an easy-to-use alternative to Photoshop. With full iCloud support, you can start your work on one device and finish it on another. The team is also working on a Pro version, which promises an all-new digital painting experience. 02. Sketch Club Sketch Club is built around a community of mobile artists$19.99 Sketch Club for iOS is more than just a drawing app for your iPad – it's built around a community of mobile artists who can create and share their work. If you're new to the mobile art scene, this is a great place to start (take a look at our round up of great drawing apps for iPad for more). 03. Procreate Procreate 4 includes some killer new features$9.99 Recently updated to include support for iOS 11, Procreate is one of my favourite tools for creating art while I'm away from my computer. The new update includes a completely rebuilt painting engine and support for drag and drop. Take a look at our full Procreate 4 review to find out exactly what it can do. 04. Mischief $25 Mischief is one of those apps you don't know you need until you start using it. One of the features I like best about this digital sketching tool is how you can drop pins anywhere within your canvas and immediately be taken there. 05. Microsoft Surface Studio This sports an ultra-thin, 28-inch adjustable PixelSense displayDespite not being a Windows user, the Surface Studio is on my radar as one of those devices I'd like to see in my own studio. The zero-gravity hinge allows you to tilt the Surface Studio with the slightest touch, yet keeping it locked in place while you're using it. And that Ultra-thin, 28-inch adjustable PixelSense display... oh my! Learn more in our hands-on review. 06. Paint 3D This free drawing tool is great for beginnersFree While we're sticking to the Microsoft Windows platform, let's take a look at one of the free drawing tool options available. Paint 3D is basically a remix of the old MS Paint (which recently narrowly avoided getting canned for good). While I wouldn't say this version is fantastic, it's a nice way to ease into things if you're not quite ready for something like Photoshop and the excellent Creative Cloud (or if you spent all your money on the Surface). 07. Mental Canvas authoring system Although this software is not yet available to the general public, what I've seen so far looks stunning. It takes 2D drawing to a whole new level. If you're interested in testing it out, contact the group to do so. There's also have a player available, which you can download now. 08. Digital Art Masters Digital Art Masters comes out annuallyIf you're looking for some inspiration, grab a copy of 3DTotal's Digital Art Masters. This annual series has been around since 2005 and covers both the technical and artistic aspects of 2D and 3D art. 09. ImagineFX ImagineFX includes tutorials, interviews and plenty of fantasy art inspirationFrom $19 (quarterly) Our own ImagineFX magazine comes packed with in-depth articles, tips and tricks, interviews, galleries and more from some of the leading fantasy and sci-fi artists out there. Take your subscription to the next level by ordering the Print + Digital bundle. 10. Ctrl+Paint This website is ideal if you want to get started with digital paintingA site created and maintained by Matt Kohr, Ctrl+Paint is geared for beginners. On his site, you'll find tutorials to get you started with digital painting and drawing. Most of the tutorials are completely free – however, he does have a store where you can order in-depth tutorials on specific topics. Read more: 10 incredible online art schools How to use digital tools to create a hand-drawn look How to paint a castle with SketchUp View the full article

Photography is one of those skills that just keeps evolving alongside technology. Having a basic understanding of the art will go a long way, and you can always add new abilities to your skillset to get even better results. The Digital Photography with Adobe Bundle is here to help make your photos shine, and you can get it for 98% off the retail price! Get Adobe Creative CloudRegardless of your skill level, you’ll find plenty of useful information in the Digital Photography with Adobe Bundle. With courses that teach you the way around Adobe’s powerful photo-editing tools like Photoshop and Lightroom, plus an introduction to graphic design, you'll learn how to make your photos shine with post production flair. There are 10 valuable lessons to work through that will be sure to teach you something new, and you'll even get a degree to show what you've accomplished! This bundle usually retails for $1,580, but you can get the Digital Photography with Adobe Bundle for 98% off the retail price! That’s huge savings on a bundle that will up your digital photography game, so grab this deal today. Creative Bloq deals This great deal comes courtesy of the Creative Bloq Deals store – a creative marketplace that's dedicated to ensuring you save money on the items that improve your design life. We all like a special offer or two, particularly with creative tools and design assets often being eye-wateringly expensive. That's why the Creative Bloq Deals store is committed to bringing you useful deals, freebies and giveaways on design assets (logos, templates, icons, fonts, vectors and more), tutorials, e-learning, inspirational items, hardware and more. Every day of the working week we feature a new offer, freebie or contest – if you miss one, you can easily find past deals posts on the Deals Staff author page or Offer tag page. Plus, you can get in touch with any feedback at: deals@creativebloq.com. Related articles: The best photo editing laptops 30 Photoshop secrets to improve your skills View the full article

Ad agencies and art directors are continually thinking of new and innovative ways to use billboard advertising to grab the attention and imagination of their target audience. Large and prominently placed, they offer a huge canvas to target the public. But cutting through the surrounding visual noise is truly an art form. The following brilliantly creative examples of billboard design do exactly that. Which is your favourite? 01. Reebok ZPump 2.0 Swedish agency Animal came up with an impressive way of drumming up publicity for Reebok's new running shoes: it set up an outdoor billboard in central Stockholm, challenging people to a human speed test. Anyone who ran past the billboard faster than 17 km/h, unlocked a brand new pair of ZPump 2.0 shoes. The billboard used a speed camera developed specifically for this campaign, which used realtime object recognition and motion detection to identify runner's movements and calculate their pace, to great effect. 100 brilliant print ads02. AIR-INK This slogan is sure to intrigue passers-byLaunched via a successful Kickstarter campaign from Graviky Labs, AIR-INK is an innovative ink made from air pollution. A device captures particles of black soot from car exhaust fumes and chimney smoke, which is then processed and transformed into safe, top-quality ink. To promote the project, the team roped in illustrator Kristopher Ho to paint a huge billboard for London's Shaftesbury Avenue, effectively 'recycling' the pollution into artwork. To make the scale of the undertaking clear, and intrigue passers-by, the billboard has a simple slogan: This art is painted with air pollution. 03. McDrive Taking advantage of the fact that in France its client, McDonald's, operates a lot more drive-through restaurants (known as McDrives over there, because France) than its main competitor, Burger King, TBWA\Paris set up this cheeky pair of billboards near Brioude in the Haute-Loire. The ludicrously tall one gives directions to the nearest Burger King drive-through, 258km away, while the little one points drivers to a much, much closer McDrive. Formidable! 04. The Human Billboard When extreme right-wing party Le Front National won the first round of the 2017 French presidential election, the country saw a rise in racist rhetoric. Leo Burnett France and Le CRAN (Le Conseil Representatif des Associations Noires) used a different type of billboard to remind the French people the lasting damage racist language can have. Racist insults were collected via social media, and tattooed onto the body of a man to turn him into a 'human billboard'. The man then walked around Paris distributing leaflets explaining the campaign and encouraging people to join the conversation. 05. Spotify Spotify's data-driven ads provided a light-hearted look at 2016Spotify had some fun creating a series of billboards worldwide under the heading, 'Thanks 2016, it's been weird'. Drawing on Spotify's vast repository of user data, the ads, created by its in-house team, are made up of posters inspired by some of the more unusual facts and figures related to the digital music service, and pointing out peculiar and funny outliers hidden amongst the data. See more here. 06. Xbox To get a little extra attention for the new Xbox Tomb Raider game during a busy game launch period, McCann London devised an attention-grabbing new use for a traditional billboard, turning it into a gripping reality show. The Survival Billboard featured gamers standing on the billboard in an endurance test, facing harsh weather controlled by the public via a live stream, and it drew thousands of viewers for the 22 hours it took to break all of its participants' spirits. 07. Unitech This Unitech advertising takes marketing to new heightsDeveloped by the team at advertising agency JWT, New Delhi, this Unitech billboard takes advertising to new heights. Here, hundreds of dummy matchboxes were produced and and stuck together in these Lego-like high-rise structures promoting new villas gated community at Karma Lakelands in India. 08. IBM As part of IBM's Smarter Cities initiative, ad agency Ogilvy & Mather Group designed "ads with a purpose", adding a curve to the billboard to create a rain shelter, bench and even a convenient ramp while promoting the technology brand - because "if cities were smarter, life in cities would be better". The billboards seamlessly blend modern design with functionality to help people while they remind them who is behind the act of generosity – a clever way to sell! 09. Burt's Bees To promote their Intense Hydration range, Burt's Bees used their own consumers to reveal a before and after demonstration with an interactive billboard in Minneapolis, created with the company's go-to ad agency, Baldwin&. This clever use of design and construction meant that the before image literally 'flaked' away as viewers peeled off the skin of coupons attached to the board, redeemable at local stockists. Eventually, all the coupons were removed and all that was left was a shiny, flat surface and a happy, smiling 'hydrated' after image. 10. Lego These bus stop billboards feature unique lego art that blends seamlessly into the surroundingsLego has a consistently brilliant, creative and fun approach to its ad campaigns, but one that particularly sticks out is Oglivy Malaysia's bus stop billboards featuring unique lego art that blends into it's surroundings. Certified Lego artist Nicholas 'Blackbulb' Foo worked with Ogilvy’s creative team to design three separate bus stop signs: Whale, Monster and Caterpillar. From the front the murals blend into the background, with lego characters parading the streets as if the board is a portal to another dimension that's entirely made of lego. Also read: How Lego reinvented itself as a super-brand 11. Leica A picture speaks 1000 words, or in this case 12 x optical zoomA picture speaks 1000 words, or in this case 12x optical zoom. These billboards designed by the team at Advico Young & Rubicam in Switzerland display exactly how simplicity can often be the most creative and impactful form of design. Each billboard is a zoomed in image (presumably 12X and taken by a Leica V-Lux 1 camera) of the object behind it, displaying the camera's superior zoom quality that doesn't miss a detail. 12. OBI DIY chain store OBI decided to do something different by placing its billboards not in the usual places but on people's homes themselves. Its thinking was based on the question: Why promote things that make our homes more beautiful, with advertising that makes everything look uglier? Instead, with the help of advertising agency Jung Von Matt/Elbe, it came up with something much more imaginative and attention-grabbing. "The big challenge was the search for appropriate run-down houses," Jung Von Matt/Elbe's Max Pilwat explains. 13. McDonald's This billboard from McDonald's 'slashes' the price difference of its Big MacLove it or hate it, McDonald's has always managed to produce inventive advertisements and this latest offering is one such example. Created by advertising agency DDB Stockholm, this billboard takes an innovative approach to 'slashing prices' on the border of Norway and Sweden. Highlighting the price differences on the cusp of each country, the advert showcases how much cheaper the Big Mac is in Sweden. 14. British Airways This design from British Airways certainly got our attention. Designed by the Ogilvy Group UK, the company uses surveillance technology to track the flights – allowing a child to point to the overhead flights in real time. BA head of marketing Abigail Comber explains, "This is a first, not just for British Airways but for UK advertising." Channelling that childlike excitement of seeing your first ever aeroplane, the billboard is a truly marvellous example of interactive design. You can see the billboards in London’s Piccadilly Circus and Chiswick. 15. OREO One of America's favourite cookies, Oreo celebrated its 100th birthday with the 'Wonder-filled' campaign, and The Martin Agency were tasked with creating a series of inspiring animations. They then teamed up with Brand New School to take over the largest advertising space in the United States - Times Square. "It’s an amazing venue that allows the work shine in a dynamic space that naturally fills people with wonder," creative director of Magnus Hierta enthuses. "This piece also takes advantage of the Times Square space by creating a visual tapestry of sharing that spreads across the screens and leaps from building to building." 16. Formula Toothcare This billboard design tears apart the usual billboard designAn utterly creative billboard design for Formula Toothcare, with the tag line 'builds strong teeth' taken to extremes. The 'broken' metal frame makes the billboard design look all the more realistic and eye-catching – ensuring a strong execution in delivery. This would certainly catch our eye if we were walking past. 17. BMW BMW pushes the electric element of its new car with halo lightingOut-of-home communications agency Posterscope developed an illuminating outdoor advertising campaign to promote the BMW i3, which is claimed to be the world's first premium fully electric car. Posterscope's Hyperspace division worked closely with BMW's creative agency, WCRS, on the attention-grabbing campaign which incorporates 'Halo' lighting into customised billboard special builds to create an after-dark glow effect around 2D cut-outs of the i3. A companion app is available to increase the experienceKey parts of the car are separately illuminated to highlight the models hi-tech eco-friendly features and electric inner workings, while a cutting-edge printing technique accentuates the contrast with the backlit skin. Part of a larger £1m campaign running on across roadside, rail and underground sites in the UK, the advertising also encourages consumers to download a companion mobile app from the App Store, enabling them to take a virtual test drive in the BMW i3. 18. Orphea Orphea4D Protection is a powerful insecticide spray for exteriors. This brilliant campaign promotes the brand by transforming a normal billboard into a huge insect trap. Transparent glue was applied on a portion of the billboard in a recognisable shape and when flies and mosquitoes got trapped there, they made the shape visible. 19. C.A.L.M. Street art can be a great way present a powerful message. To raise awareness of the charity C.A.L.M. graffiti artists Soulful Creative created these brilliant billboards. The posters aim to highlight the fact that three men under the age of 35 take their own lives every single day in the UK. The lighting is also a very nice touch - ensuring that passers-by will almost certainly take notice of the billboards. 20. Nike: Knitting To promote their latest Free Flyknit sneakers, Nike got together with advertising giants Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai to knit a humongous shoe onto a billboard. With the help of three workers, strips of neon green were threaded together to create the shoe on top of a bare foot. The live knitting sessions took place on Nanjing East Road, one of the most heavily trafficked streets in Shanghai, raising more than a few eyebrows... Next page: More impressive billboard ads you just must see! 21. iPod and iTunes There's no confusion as to what Apple is trying to say with this billboard designApple made sure there'd be no chance of missing this advertising campaign for its iTunes store and iPod. Towering several feet in the air, the attention-grabbing design features a fountain of products that can be purchased and enjoyed on the popular portable media player. Apple's message is simple: combine an iPod with iTunes and you have an endless source of entertainment at your fingertips. 22. Black Tower Home Security TBWA/Vancouver prove that people do, indeed, steal in this brilliant campaign for Black Tower SecurityIn a campaign for Black Tower security, advertising agency TBWA/Vancouver demonstrated that some people will take whatever they can get their hands on. The agency lined a 10x20ft billboard with sought-after household items like framed paintings, rugs, pillows, and cookware on a Friday afternoon. By the end of the weekend, the board was bare, revealing the campaign's simple anti-theft message: 'People Steal. Black Tower Home Security'. 23. Sky Discovery Channel This original, wind-powered billboard design was created by DDB New ZealandThis eye-catching billboard design for the Discovery Channel was developed by advertising agency DDB New Zealand. A working model, the design replicated a circuit board demonstrating how various different elements work – the wind turbine powering the batteries, which stored power until the display read 'full', activating the neon lights and finally the light box revealing the Discovery logo. 24. BBC World Clever use of corner billboards in this campaign for BBC World by BBDO New YorkWhen BBC World became available in the US, BBDO New York chose amazing photography and clever billboard placement to tell the country the international news channel had arrived. The imagery, taken from events around the world, is enough to grab your attention alone. But the BBDO team cleverly used corner billboards to show different takes on the same situation. Simple but very effective. 25. Kill Bill Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand drenched the wall, sidewalk and three shiny white cars in its promotion for Tarantino movie Kill Bill, Vol 1Advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand went all out a few years back when promoting Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Vol 1. The cool billboard design features Uma Thurman, her priceless Hatorri Hanzo and an impressive wall spatter of blood. The installation was erected at a busy Auckland intersection to promote a local channel's screening of the movie. If anyone was in doubt as to what the film entailed, Saatchi & Saatchi made it crystal clear with this design. 26. Miele vacuum cleaner In order to promote the power of the Miele S8 monster suction vacuum cleaner, Bratislava-based adverting agency Mayer McCann Erickson placed this brilliant billboard design over a well-known tunnel. The agency then filmed traffic over a period of time, resulting in this video that gives the impression of various vehicles being sucked into the vacuum hose. 27. McDonald's This brilliant billboard design promotes McDonald's breakfast menuThe print on this McDonald's billboard is nothing to write home about. But the addition of a sundial mounted on top turns it an innovative and brilliant piece of design. Displayed is the fast food giant's breakfast menu, with the sun casting shadow on each item that corresponds to the time of day you would normally eat it. Created by ad agency Leo Burnett, the sundial not only points out what meal you should go for, it also creates a shadow of the restaurant's famous 'M' as it does so. 28. The Economist UK-based creative agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO was the brains behind this ingenious light bulb billboard designThis simple yet ingenious design comes from UK-based creative advertising and brand management agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO. The 'less is more' idea features a giant lightbulb popping out of the centre of a red background, the only words reading 'The Economist'. Using electronic motion sensors, the bulb lit up every time someone walked underneath it. A brilliant, effective way to get the message across. 29. Koleston Naturals: Change This billboard advert for Koleston hair colourant uses the sun as part of its designAdvertising agency Leo Burnett like incorporating the sun into their awesome designs, including this one for hair colourant Koleston Naturals. The innovative design features a woman's hair die-cut in the billboard to capture the variations of Koleston naturals' colours through the different phases of the day and night. The effect the sun has on this design is just brilliant, with the model's hair colour changing from blonde to black in just a few hours. 30. Bleeding billboard This billboard design 'bleeds' when it rainsThe concept for this powerful billboard design came from New Zealand-based creative agency Colenso BBDO. The team was approached by South Auckland local government bodies with a brief to create a design that would lower the number of fatal accidents on the road. Noticing that accidents had increased during a particularly wet Easter the road safety team put up this billboard that 'bleeds' when it rains. The message? 'Rain changes everything. Drive to the conditions.' If that harrowing image doesn't make people slow down, we don't know what will. 31. Panasonic nose hair trimmer Saatchi & Saatchi Indonesia incorporated real-world elements into its ad for Panasonic's nose hair trimmerWe love this comedic design by Saatchi & Saatchi Indonesia for Panasonic's nose hair trimmer. The billboards were built around actual wires and poles in Indonesia to amusingly advertise the need for the device and showcase its safety cutting system. So if you're afraid to trim sensitive nose hair, this could be just the product for you. A fun and innovative idea. 32. Colorado State Patrol Keep your eyes on the road, not this brilliant billboard by Amelie Company'Tailgating isn't worth it. Give Trucks room. It's the law.' That's the message that features on this brilliantly designed billboard by French-American advertising agency Amélie Company for the Colorado State Patrol. It's simple, keep your distance or end up looking like the billboard. This is one design that will certainly grab the attention of drivers. Although let's hope the cool campaign doesn't keep their eyes off the road for too long... 33. Science World We wonder how long it took the Rethink team to glue 9,000 diamonds to this billboard?The guys at advertising agency Rethink, Canada teamed up with the Science World Museum to create a series of brilliant billboards dedicated to promoting science in Vancouver. The Rethink team glued 9,000 glass diamonds to a billboard to promote Science World's Treasure exhibit, and to demonstrate that, compared to many other gems, diamonds aren't all that rare. Other brilliant designs include a board covered in pure gold and a stick man made from 9,000 pencils. 34. The Day After Tomorrow This innovative billboard promoted disaster movie The Day After TomorrowIn order to promote Roland Emmerich's 2004 global-warming disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow to Indian audiences, ad agency Contract submerged a billboard in the sea not far from Mumbai. The idea being to mimic the idea of Manhattan being overwhelmed by water, the team also placed a replica of the Empire State building further out to sea. Leaving just the details of the film's release and venue, the marketing campaign attracted the attention of many a passer-by. 35. Smart: Little billboard BBDO Toronto promoted Smart car's low impact on the environment with these itty-bitty billboardsThis pocket-sized design proves that when you have a good idea, size really doesn't matter. In keeping with Smart car's low impact on the environment, instead of using big billboards that pollute the environment, advertising agency BBDO, Toronto created a series of scaled down versions. The miniature street advertising boards were placed in various locations around Toronto, all of them celebrating the beauty of being small. 36. Invisible The JWT team incorporated a 'Thanks for seeing me' message behind the mannequin, in case it was vandalisedOkay, so it's not a billboard and more of a giant poster, but we had to include this brilliant yet touching campaign. The Australian Childhood Foundation partnered with advertising agency JWT to create this unique and powerful billboard design, with the aim of raising awareness of neglect as a form of child abuse. The installations were located at popular sites around Sydney, featuring a huge poster pasted over a child-sized mannequin. The design secured the JWT team the Bronze Lion at Cannes Outdoor Lions in 2010. 37. Levis Levis lets its product do the talking in this billboard designFounded back in the mid 1800s, Levi Strauss and Co has since become known worldwide for its Levi brand of denim jeans. With such a recongiseable brand and product, a simple but clever design was all that was needed for this billboard. Here, Levis lets its jeans do the talking, featuring a section of a giant pair of 501s, unbuttoned to reveal not only the the infamous numbers, but realistic detailing in the denim, stitching, buttons and rivets. 38. Heineken This eye-catching design was developed by advertising agency TBWAThis billboard for Heineken is a perfect example of how a small and simple idea that's perfectly executed can have a big impact. The three dimensional concept features a hand seemingly coming out of the background about to grab the bottle of beer. The concept for the billboard, which graced the city of Amsterdam, was developed by the team at advertising agency TBWA. 39. Absolut Vodka Absolut's long-running ad campaign transformed an ordinary billboard into a stylish NYC apartment back in 2000Absolut Vodka's long-running advertising campaign is one of the most successful consumer products campaigns in the history of advertising. Known for it creative design, the company outdid itself back in 2000 when it created this eye-catching billboard. After teaming up with fellow Swedish global brand IKEA, the company transformed a billboard in Manhattan into a stylish, but cramped, New York City apartment turned on its side - and shaped like an Absolut bottle. Genius. 40. T3 The BBDO design team constructed a visual interrogation room, using the billboard lampNew Zealand television channel, T3, went all out when promoting the latest season of Law & Order. Bringing in Colenso BBDO, the design team constructed a visual interrogation room, using the billboard lamp to spotlight the criminal. Mounted on a concrete building as a backdrop, the result is viewers find themselves dragged straight into the show itself. Related articles: 21 of the best brochure templates for designers 9 beautiful artists' business cards to inspire you 55 inspiring examples of letterpress business cards View the full article

Colour management is a huge topic. While it isn't something we'll be able to completely master in one sitting, this article will provide a great overview for users who are new to colour management, with practical advice for managing colours in Photoshop. Get Adobe Creative CloudOn this page, we'll show you how to convert your images from RGB to CMYK mode, and the effect this will have on the colours within your image. Jump to page 2 to find out how to customise your colour settings to suit your particular needs. Finally, on page 3 we'll show you how to sync your colour profile across all of your Adobe CC apps, add a particular colour profile provided by your printer, and preview a CMYK version of your design without losing any RGB information. How to convert RGB to CMYK When we're working on images at our computers, we are looking at the RGB (red green blue) colour space. In RGB we have access to many more colours than we do when we're going to output for print. When we're printing our images, we have access to cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK, where the 'K' stands for 'key'). When you start off with a document that's in RGB mode and you convert to CMYK, you're definitely going to lose some of the colours and some of the vividness inside that image. The reason that this happens is because the RGB colour space has many more colours than CMYK. One way to avoid this is by using Photoshop's native colour management system. Let's take a look at what happens when we convert an RGB image to CMYK for print. 01. Find your image mode Changing from RGB to CMYK is easy (Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image) To reset your colour mode from RGB to CMYK in Photoshop, you need to go to Image > Mode. Here you'll find your colour options, and you can simply select CMYK. 02. Note your colour profile Photoshop's warning pop-up will tell you the precise CMYK colour profile it's about to useOnce you do that, Photoshop will give you a warning letting you know that you are about to convert to CMYK using the specific profile that will be listed in the warning. The warning lets you know that this may not be what you intend to do and it even shows you where you can go to choose the correct profile. 03. Implement the change Once you click OK you should see a slight shift in colour. You are now in the CMYK colour space. Were you able to see the difference in vibrancy and the reduction in colours? It might be a subtle change, depending on your monitor. Hit the arrow icons above to compare the two images. Try this out on a couple of different images to see the results you get. This will allow you to get familiar with the changes. One thing that is unavoidable is a shift in colour when you're going from RGB to CMYK. In some cases the change will be more dramatic than others, so be prepared for that. Next page: Adjust your colour settings Now you're getting familiar with the conversion, here's how to have more control when converting from RGB to CMYK. For the very best result, you need to adjust your colour profile according to the particular printer, ink and paper you're using. The best practice is to get a colour management profile from your printer then install it on your machine and sync it up with the rest of your applications – you can find out how to do that on page 3. However, if you don't have that information, the following are the standard settings that will work in many situations. 01. Find your colour settings Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image To have full control over the conversion you want to find your colour settings, which you'll find under the Edit menu at the top of your screen (or use the keyboard shortcut cmd+shift+K). 02. Explore the standard options Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image If this is your first time opening the colour settings, assuming no-one has made any changes, you are now looking at the standard colour settings. These settings will work in most cases – however, if you are going to send your artwork to a commercial printer, you would want to ask which specific colour setting they would like you to go with. If you're new to colour settings, this window might seem a bit intimidating. Let's take a look at the main settings you want to look at. 03. Choose a specific region Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Starting at the top, you have a Settings section. If you click on the drop-down menu you'll find different settings. Choose your specific region. 04. Select an RGB colour space Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Next, you want to look at the RGB colour space that you will be converting from. There's not just one RGB colour space, you actually have many to choose from. You could test them out to find the one that works best for your particular monitor and workflow, but it's fine to leave it as-is. 05. Select a CMYK colour space Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Next you want to look at the CMYK colour space that you will be converting to. The same rules apply as when choosing the correct RGB colour space. 06. Explore conversion options Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image The last major setting to look at is going to be inside of your conversion options. Click on the drop-down menu for Intent and you'll see four different options. The one that works best the majority of the time is Relative Colorimetric, but make sure to try the other ones to see if they work better for your particular workflow. Remember if you're not sure which one to go with, just leave it as-is or ask your printer for their suggestion. Next page: Final tips There are a few final things you need to know about colour management in Photoshop. In this final section, we'll show you how to sync your colour settings across all your Adobe apps, add a new colour profile provided by your printer, and preview a CMYK version of an RGB image. 01. Sync your settings across apps Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Once you get that set up, you want to use Adobe Bridge to sync up all of your applications with the same colour settings. That way you have the same experience between Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. To do this all you have to do is launch Adobe Bridge, at the top of the application, then select Edit > Color Settings. You can then choose which setting you want to sync across all your applications. Then click Apply and that will take care of everything for you – you're all synced up and ready to rock. 02. Add a new profile provided by your printer Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image If your printer is able to provide you with the appropriate colour settings for their materials and machines, this is great. To bring them into your applications, first bring up your colour settings, and in the top right, hit the Load option. This will enable you to search for the new profile provided by your printer. Then select the correct profile, choose Open and you will see it loaded into your colour settings. Click OK to accept this change and you are good to go. You can also create new colour settings and save them for future use. 03. Preview a CMYK version If you want to keep your document and RGB workspace but you want to see what it looks like when you print it out, go into the View menu and choose proof colours. This will allow you to see the CMYK conversion without losing any of the RGB information. Some advantages of working in RGB is that file size will be smaller, and you'll be able to access all of the editing features in Photoshop. About Pluralsight Pluralsight is an enterprise technology learning platform that delivers a unified, end to end learning experience for businesses across the globe. Through a subscription service, companies are empowered to move at the speed of technology, increasing proficiency, innovation and efficiency. For a free trial and more information, visit www.pluralsight.com. Read more: 100 brilliant print adverts Create special print finishes in InDesign The designer's guide to printing a poster View the full article

In January, we shared with you some quick tips to improve your portfolio. There are, though, more deep and fundamental ways to improve your portfolio over time. These may take a little longer, but get them right and the payoffs will be immense. So whether you’re seeking to get more freelance work or a better job, follow these six pieces of expert advice and it should significantly boost your chances. 01. Showcase your personality You get a clear sense of art director and designer Frank Li’s personality from his portfolio site So you’ve got a great collection of work. But stand back a second and ask yourself: beyond that, does my portfolio give a sense of who I am? You may think your work should just “speak for itself”. But in the real world, people hire people, and they’re interested to know the person behind the designs. Agencies are often looking for a certain personality type that’s going to fit in well with existing employees. “For instance, a bit of humour, being a bit bold, a bit quirky is very much along our lines,” says Tim Smith, principal of design at ustwo. So how do you do that within a portfolio? “The style of work is one way,” says Smith. “Sometimes, if a designer has done their own website, you can see through their choice of graphic design what their personality might be or what their stylistic choices are. "And often even the little bits of copywriting – the little quirks about how they might describe a little thumbnail, or the navigation on the site, or the UI – might have some writing that conveys your personality.” Example: Art director and visual designer Frank Li offers a great example of how to showcase your personality through a portfolio. 02. Describe what you did It seems like a point that shouldn’t need to be made. But still in 2017, many designers showcase their projects through images alone. There’s little or next to no text explaining what the brief was, how they fulfilled it, what their design process was and, in the case of a joint project, what part they played. Of course, you want your portfolio to be visually stimulating eye-candy. But that will only get you so far with prospective employers or clients. As Tim Beard, partner at Bibliothèque, explains, “Design is a visual discipline and you make an immediate response based on that, but without some form of explanation it’s a bit empty. If there is a story to tell, or a context to set, then it's best explained as efficiently as you can. It’s about the journey as much as it is the destination.” Madeleine Fortescue, resource and recruitment manager at Moving Brands, agrees. “When we’re hiring, we need to understand really quickly the role an individual candidate played within a project, so the accompanying text is really key,” she says. “We want to quickly glance over the project and see some information about it, not just some images.” And we can’t emphasise this enough: get your text properly proof-read. “Spelling mistakes are always a bugbear, it’s very frustrating,” says Fortescue. “For us at Moving Brands it’s really key to be able to articulate yourself and talk about your work, to provide a rationale for what you’ve done. So not only does the work need to be perfect and have attention to detail, the text is extremely important, too.” Don’t make it too long either, stresses Tony Brook, creative director of Spin. “You’re not going to start reading an essay. It’s not great fun reading on screen, period, let alone reading long lengths of text on screen. So you have to be fairly circumspect: a small amount of explanation, a short caption, will usually do it.” Example: Creative director Jack De Caluwe gives great explanations of his multidisciplinary projects on his portfolio. 03. Empathise with your audience Visitors will often wonder how up-to-date a portfolio is. Eric Hu helpfully provides the date and time his site was last refreshed in the header These days, it seems like there’s somewhat of an arms race in terms of who can produce the most dynamic, flashy and attention-grabbing portfolio. And that’s fine if you’re a senior designer who primarily wants to appeal to your peers, and get featured on awards sites. But for most jobbing designers, that’s not the target audience your portfolio should be aiming at. If you want more freelance work or a better job, it’s all about appealing to clients and employers, and they will often have very different perspectives. Smith, for example, looks at dozens of portfolios in a typical week, but still often finds it difficult to find what he needs. “I want to know what sort of work you’re into and what kind of person you are,” he stresses. “Websites that makes it difficult to do that can be because of an ill-considered user experience, or designer ego, where they’re trying too hard to be visual and to impress. Sometimes it would be nice to be made easy and quick for me just to understand what I’m interested in.” Example: Eric Hu does a great job at anticipating what people will be looking for on his site. He even provides the date and time it was last updated in the header. 04. Ask for a critique Behance offers regular reviews to help improve your portfolio Considering your target visitor and what they’ll be looking for will get you a long way. But sometimes there will just be things you won’t think of. So it’s always worth getting another designer to critique your portfolio. That can be pretty scary, of course; nobody likes to hear criticism of their work. But let’s face it, if you don’t nip problems in the bud, people will be saying far nastier things about your work in private. And while you won’t hear that, you will experience the deafening silence of indifference. When it comes to getting a critique, you have the choice of going the formal route, by taking advantage of Behance Portfolio Reviews or similar sessions held at numerous design conferences. Or you could just ask a friend or colleague, in a more informal setting. Either way, the important thing is to explain carefully what you want your portfolio to achieve. That way the person critiquing it can analyse how well it’s performing that function, rather than just saying they like or dislike it, which is much less helpful. 05. Edit ruthlessly Victoria Spicer’s homepage is stripped back, but still makes it easy to find what you’re looking for Just as with any design work you do, your portfolio needs to be ruthlessly edited to ensure that all but the bare essential elements are included. If there’s anything that could be removed, remove it. Employers and clients won’t take kindly to having their time wasted, so prune, prune and prune some more. That doesn’t mean your site has to be minimalist, but if there’s anything unnecessary, whether that be waffly text, too many images or general graphic clutter, you need to lose it... or you’ll lose everyone’s attention. Example: Set designer Victoria Spicer’s homepage shows how little you need on your homepage while still allowing people to find what they’re looking for. 06. Be honest The point of a portfolio is to sell yourself, so the temptation is to use stereotypical sales techniques, one of which is being ‘economical with the truth’. Anonymous websites make it easy to look like you’ve had more career success than you really have, in all sorts of ways. But ultimately, that kind of approach can be counter-productive. The design industry is, after all, a small and close-knit one, and it’ll quickly become clear if you’re stretching the truth. It’s far better, in fact, to be brutally honest. If you haven’t had a lot of client work, for example, then just say so and present your personal projects as a sign that you’re keen to get on. If you didn’t have a big role in a team project, then just say what you did do, and express your enthusiasm for doing more in future. Remember how at school, if you got a maths problem wrong but you showed the right working, you still got most of the marks? It’s a similar thing with employers: it’s not just about how well the project turned out, but what you put into it. “We always like to see evidence of lateral thinking and concepts,” explains Beard. “Ideas are the most valued currency. So if there is a project that illustrates great scope, but little creativity, then share it and explain the context. "Just in the same way as an awesome idea that didn’t get any traction with the client should be shared. If you didn’t like the outcome, show us what you wanted it to be. Just be passionate about what you do, and clear about why you do it.” Sean Murphy, creative director at Moving Brands, takes a similar view. “Especially with more junior designers, we’re looking at potential,” he says. “There can be a real raw spark of something there that’s really exciting, that you know would be hard to teach, essentially. The rest you can refine. There are a lot of skills you can learn but there are some that are really difficult to teach.” Example: Andrej Cibik lists the things that he’s bad at on his About Me page. But rather than making him look weak, it’s a sign of his strength and confidence as a designer. Related articles: 10 tips for a killer design portfolio 5 ways to get more freelance work The best laptops for graphic design View the full article

Oracle released fixes for a handful of recently patched Apache Struts 2 vulnerabilities late last week. View the full article

Researcher Patrick Wardle has discovered a critical vulnerability that allows an attacker to dump passwords in plaintext from the macOS Keychain. The vulnerability is in macOS High Sierra, Sierra and El Capitan, and has yet to be patched. View the full article

https://sid-500.com/2017/07/11/setting-up-windows-server-core-with-powershell/ … View the full article

Creatives have a number of essential items; a great notepad, the best pencils, efficient laptop, to name but a few. So a sturdy and secure bag to carry it all around in is vital. But, while a bag is a must-have item for a designer, finding and purchasing one is not necessarily something that might fill you with excitement. To help you out, we've found a gorgeous selection of accessories that might just make you feel differently... 01. Bellroy designer bags This slimline bag is one from Bellroy's new rangeLuxury lifestyle brand Bellroy has launched a new series of six beautiful bags, all of which will suit designers down to the ground. From a backpack that doubles as a tote, to a weatherproof work bag with expandable sides or a classic daypack with surprising detail on the inside, Bellroy’s range will help you carry your world around with greater ease and simplicity. With their slim and thoughtfully designed formats, you might find it hard to choose between the options in Bellroy’s beautiful new range. If you had to twist our arm, we’d have to go with its new slim backpack (pictured), priced at £149. Smart yet simple, formal yet relaxed, it will let you take everything you need yet nothing more. It's perfect for urban creatives who like things smart and streamlined. 02. Jimbag This rucksack makes the perfect 'studio-gym bag'The clue is in the name. Created specifically for busy, active people, Jimbag has a selection of beautiful bag designs. This rucksack, priced at £49.99, is our favourite. A briefcase, handbag, holdall and duffel all rolled into one, this rucksack makes the perfect 'studio-gym bag', holding both a laptop and gym kit comfortably – and doing so in serious style. 03. Alban bike bag If your trusty bike is your favourite mode of transport, then this is the bag for youIf your bike is your favourite mode of transport, then this is the bag for you. The stylish navy blue foldover Alban tote pannier, priced at $99.75 or £75, features a zip closure, deep main compartment for all of your everyday essentials and an internal slip pocket. Made from heavy-duty, water-resistant material, the tote comes with an adjustable shoulder strap so it can be worn across your body, carried or attached to a rear cycle rack. 04. Porcupine tote This adorable 'Nice Hair' tote is one of many by Lyndsey GreenSimple tote bags are great for holding everything that a designer needs. But that doesn't mean they have to be boring. This adorable 'Nice Hair' design is one of many by Lyndsey Green featuring woodland creatures. A high quality, 100 per cent cotton tote bag with long handles, the illustration is applied with a heat press to give a professional and vibrant finish. Plus, it only costs $9.76, or £7. 05. Brown paper bag Keep your food fresh with this fun brown paper lunch bagA designer's got to eat right? Keep your brain fuelled, energy levels up and your food fresh with this fun brown paper lunch bag, costing £12.95. It's made from a tear-proof, leak-resistant, tough and insulating material called Tyvek, which means that unlike actual paper ones, this bag won't split in the rain or let its contents fall out of the bottom – winner! 06. Ortlieb messenger bag The Ortlieb messenger bag offers a huge 30 litres of secure waterproof storageThe Ortlieb messenger bag offers a huge 30 litres of secure waterproof storage in a stable and durable format, for around £100. The backpack features a roll-top with Velcro so you can vary the pack height depending on the heft of your belongings, and can easily fit an A4 folder in there. Plus it comes in various bright colours so you’ll be seen even as the winter gloom takes hold. 07. Waxed canvas backpack This waxed leather backpack is one of the nicest we've seenBackpacks are back in fashion – and this waxed leather design, priced at $229, is one of the most attractive backpacks we've seen. Handmade and fully lined with a blue cotton fabric, this backpack will fit in all of your essential design items and make you look good at the same time. The design also comes in a variety of colours to choose from. 08. Booq Cobra brief This laptop bag provides ultimate protection and style for design professionalsThis lightweight and luxurious laptop bag, Cobra brief by Booq, provides ultimate protection and style for design professionals who navigate airports as often as offices. Priced at €295, it features a quilted laptop compartment, a water-repellent coating on its nylon outer layer and even a weather-proof zip. Related articles: Read our selection of the finest free ebooks for designers The designer's guide to working from home The designer's guide to how to start a blog View the full article

http://thehackernews.com/2017/09/deloitte-hack.html … View the full article

Anyone who practises 3D art knows it can be an incredibly time-consuming process, so help in the form of free textures and ready-made, free 3D models is always welcome. In recent years, a large number of websites have appeared offering just that and, while you have to pay for the majority of them, there are many free 3D models online too. You just have to know where to look. Here, we've scoured the web for resources and found a selection of free 3D models, which will hopefully save you time on your next project. Enjoy. 01. Bugatti Chiron This 3D model's probably a lot less hassle to own than a real Chiron, anywayThe chances of you ever actually owning a Bugatti Chiron - or even a second-hand Veyron - may be pretty slim, but if you feel the need to validate your existence by being seen near one, here's your best bet. Download this excellent recreation, built in Blender by Kimz Auto, render it up and paste yourself in next to it, and Bob's your midlife crisis-afflicted uncle. 02. Octopus Tentacle You'd be a sucker not to download this modelYou might, quite reasonably, be asking why anyone would want a high end, photorealistic 3D model of a single octopus tentacle. Look at it, though. It's a beautifully detailed piece of work by Tornado Studio. And you never know when you might need one; maybe as a finishing touch for a plate of seafood, a pirate ship under attack by a sea monster, or perhaps to help out if you accidentally download a 3D model of an octopus that for some reason doesn't have any tentacles. 03. Lego Pirate Grab this nine-part Lego pirate model for free over on TurbosquidSpeaking of pirates, why put up with a boring model of a pirate when you could instead have this swanky nine-part Lego pirate? It's the work of 3dlegobricks on TurboSquid, who has a range of great Lego-based models available to buy, with a few free ones like this for good measure. You can modify all of the colours easily, and the model comes in .obj, .dxf and .3ds formats. 04. Toilet This model toilet is guaranteed to enhance your bathroom interior rendersOr to give it its full title, Toilet-Lavatory-Loo, which covers most of the taxonomic bases. Created by Ieve Lickiene from Lithuania, this is a 12-part model toilet that's guaranteed to enhance your bathroom interior renders. It comes in 3ds Max and V-Ray flavours, and it's free for non-commercial use only. Thankfully, Lickiene hasn't left the seat up on all models. 05. Ramirez classic guitar This detailed classical guitar looks worthy of a quick strumIt's easy enough to find any number of ropey electric guitar models online, but if your tastes don't run to Flying Vs and knock-off Strats, this glorious acoustic model, based on a Ramirez classical guitar, ought to do nicely. It comes in obj, 3ds and blend format, and even has its own stand. 06. Dalek It's a 2005 model Dalek so yes, it can go up stairsSharp-eyed Doctor Who fans will have instantly noted that this high-poly model for 3ds Max and V-Ray is a 2005 Dalek rather than one of the classic models from the original series. It's a good vintage, we reckon; much better than 2010's brightly-coloured New Paradigm models, and plenty threatening. 07. Rigged hand This rigged, boned and muscled hand is ready to pose however you want itHands tend to look okay until you try to manipulate them, when their deficiencies start to show up. This shouldn't be a problem with this model for Maya; it's fully rigged so that you can pose it just like a real hand, and it even comes with its own muscle system to help you pose it realistically. 08. Animal collection These low-poly animals are perfect for use in real-time environmentsAvailable in every major 3D file format, this low-poly wild animals pack is perfect for use in a variety of real-time environments, such as a mobile games and apps. The pack includes a deer, bear, wolf and boar, with the geometry on all optimised for animation. 09. Male base mesh This base mesh serves as a great starting point for you to create your own male charactersHumans are one of the hardest subjects to recreate in 3D, so save yourself some time with this male base mesh, which acts as a great start for sculpting and designing your own male characters. Available as an .obj file, this download is free for personal use only. 10. Goldfish Bring your underwater scenes to life with this free goldfish modelBring your underwater scenes to life with this free goldfish model from Turbosquid user Heidycurbelo. Available in .max and .3ds formats, this asset includes all textures and materials and should be used in accordance with Turbosquid's royalty free license. Next page: more great free 3D models... 11. UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopter Download this cool UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter totally freeFree3D, formally TF3DM, offers thousands of 3D models that you can download for free. And this cool UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter by 3dregenerator is one of them. The four-bladed, twin-engine, medium-lift utility helicopter is available in .3ds, .obj, .mb, .lwo and .max formats and free for personal use only. 12. BB-8 Isn't he adorable? BB-8 here is ready rigged for animationEveryone's favourite droid from Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been recreated and made available for free from Free3D. This BB-8 model by Steve Lalonde is rigged two different ways for animation purposes and comes complete with high quality textures, and it's available on .obj, .max and .fbx formats. 13. Wine glasses Save yourself lots of time by downloading these free 3D wine glass modelsCreating realistic looking glass in 3D is both tricky and time-consuming. Here, 3D artist Mihai Panait has done the hard work for you, creating a set of various-shaped wine glasses. Available in .max, .obj and .3ds formats, the models are offered for use under a standard royalty-free license. 14. Henry and Caroline Henry and Caroline are built with animation in mind, with plenty of controlsCreated by students at Cogswell College in San Jose, this pair of adorable characters – named after the college's founder and his wife – are fully rigged for animation and designed to be both simple to use and extremely versatile. They're part of Project Avatarah, an ongoing programme to create an assortment of 3D characters for free download. It also includes a dragon because, why not. 15. Glasses Want your characters to rock the Harry Potter look? Grab this free glasses download from TurbosquidNot wine glasses this time, but spectacle-type glasses. Creating a convincing-looking pair of glasses in 3D is no easy task, but some interesting accessories like these can add personality to your characters. So, if you fancy completing your character with the Harry Potter look, save yourself some time and hassle and grab this free glasses download instead. Note: only for use in 3ds Max. 16. Animator Starter Pack Get all the urban detail you need with this heavyweight starter packIf downloading a load of 3D models one by one is a bit of an effort then this should be welcome: it's a free pack of 90 models by Shaun Keenan, a freelance rigging, modelling and texture artist. It's packed with handy resources for creating a city scene including cars, buildings, houses, fire hydrants and other miscellaneous items. 17. NASA space shuttle Create your own space adventure with Nasa's extensive range of free 3D modelsFor everything space related, head over to the NASA website where you'll find an extensive library of free 3D models like this shuttle. There's astronauts, lunar modules, satellites and more. Most models are in the common .3ds format but there are also .lwo, .fbx, or .obj formats available in some cases. Usage guidelines apply. 18. House Find this free cool house model at ShareCG.comThis cool house is offered by ShareCG, the site that hosts the web's largest collection of free computer graphics resources including thousands of free 3D CG Models. The house is offered as an untextured .obj file but the download includes separate material files for easy texturing. Note: registration to the site is required to download models. 19. Plants Download over 100 free plant and tree models courtesy of vegetation generator application XfrogHelp yourself to 130 free plant and tree models from Xfrog, the vegetation-generation application. Choose from a list of 30 species, then click the 'Try before you buy' button for a free model. Download formats include .obj as well as files for use in Maya, 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Vue, Terragen 2, modo and Lighwave. 20. Cinema 4D model pack Find all of these models in this brilliant free pack from the guys at GreyscalegorillaThis brilliant collection of free Cinema 4D models from the Greyscalegorilla community are copyright free and ready to be used in your project. The pack includes everything from a VW camper to a Lego man from various 3D artists, including Rob Redman of Pariah Studios. There is also an accompanying demo video and details on how to install the pack. Next page: even more great free 3D models... 21. Lamp Download this free wall lamp to use in any 3D interior projectNot the most exciting of models, we know, but one of those items that will always come in handy. This wall lamp is provided by online store 3D Export, where you can buy and sell models, as well as find a library of other useful free items. This lamp, offered as a .obj file, was created using 3ds Max 2010 and rendered in V-Ray 1.5. 22. Truck Visit TurboSquid for all your 3D model needsDigital media supply company Turbosquid has literally thousands of 3D models available to purchase. But they also offer a percentage of them absolutely free of charge, although you do have to register with the site to take advantage of this service. This brilliant truck model comes in available in .c4d, .xml, .fbx, .ma, .mb and .obj formats. Photoshop textures are also available for this model. Available on a standard royalty-free license. 23. Robot Download this cool robot character free of charge at Free3DThis cool character is available at 3D asset supplier Free3D. There site has a huge selection of products, organised into categories, with everything from furniture and plants to food and animals. One of our favourites is this little robot model, which is available as a .obj file. 24. T-Rex Create your own version of Jurassic Park with this awesome, free T-Rex modelThis awesome model is another from digital media supply company Turbosquid. Registration is required to download and it should be noted that this asset is only available for versions of Lightwave 7.5 and above (formats .lwo, .lw and .lws). 25. Mini Cooper Download this cool Mini model for free from 3D digital art site OyonaleOyonale is a site about computer graphics and digital art and has a section dedicated to free 3D models. Included in this section is this brilliant Mini model, which is available either in .obj format or .c4d, the latter of which includes textures and UV templates. 26. Female head This female head model offered by Turbosquid provides a great start for any character or sculpting workFrom the over 300 free models offered by Turbosquid, included is this female head, which acts a great starting point for any 3D character or sculpting work. Available as a .max file, the site also has a male head available for sale. 27. Tricycle Check out Flying Architecture to download this cool tricycle and many more free 3D assetsThis gorgeous little retro tricycle was created by 3D artist Ivan Málek, who then shared it on Flying Architecture - a CG site that provides 3D models, materials and textures. This particular model is available for use with Rhino and Modo and there is also a .obj file for download. 28. Eames chair Add a bit of designer class to your 3D project with this cool Eames chair courtesy of Rob RedmanAdd a bit of designer class to your 3D creations with this iconic Eames chair, courtesy of Pariah Studios. Founder Rob Redman has generously offered this iconic post-war chair free of charge. File formats available are .3ds, .c4d and .fbx. Textures are also included. 29. The Other Nefertiti This Nefertiti was scanned on the sly and released for free. Fight the power!The famous ancient Egyptian bust of Queen Nefertiti is the subject of an ongoing ownership dispute between Germany and Egypt, and is on display in Berlin's Neues Museum where photography of it is prohibited. But now it's available as 'The Other Nefertiti', a 3D-printed reproduction of the bust for display in Cairo, under a Creative Commons licence. It's free for download as 100MB torrent containing a super-detailed .stl file, or as a 20MB .obj file that you can download directly. 30. PixelLab Joren Kandel has a vast collection of 3D models available to download for free3D artist Joren Kandel runs PixelLab, a blog focused on motion graphics. Having worked in the industry for nine years now, he's built up a large collection of 3D assets, many of which he generously offers as a free download. All you need to do is sign up to his newsletter and wait for an invitation to access his 3D model freebies, in which you'll find everything from Christmas decorations and digital camera lenses to robots and architecture. Related articles: The 10 biggest 3D movies of 2017 30 inspiring examples of 3D art 37 brilliant Blender tutorials View the full article

IOActive analyzed 21 mobile stock trading platforms and found vulnerabilities that put transactions and personal information at risk. Of the 13 firms notified, only two acknowledged the disclosure. View the full article