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There was once a time when, to be taken seriously as a creative agency, you had to be based in a capital city – ideally London, Paris, Berlin or New York. But in these digital days, it’s now perfectly possible to do quality work with big, global clients wherever you feel happiest and most comfortable. And with rents sky high in London, what UK-based designer wouldn’t want to branch out geographically? With your physical location now less important, the ‘shopfront’ of your business falls more and more to your portfolio website. We've already looked at the 7 best London agency websites of 2017 and 7 best New York agency websites of 2017, but these agencies, all based in Greater Manchester, England, have made their sites work brilliantly in attracting attention and new clients. And we can all learn something from what they’ve put together... 01. Music There’s a unique and original design sensibility to Music’s website Music is an award-winning branding and communications agency based on Lever Street, central Manchester. Launched in 2007, its clients include Nike, Triumph, The Brit Awards, NHS, Polaroid and Brew Dog. “We won’t follow due process or take the road well trodden,” it promises. “We won’t hide behind the agency/client divide and we won’t create work we’re not proud of.” And the design of its website provides evidence that these are not mere words, but a real philosophy that infuses its designs. We particularly love the confident, full-screen carousel that greets you on arrival; the day-glo rainbow coloured list that pops up on clicking the hamburger icon; and the artful, confident typography that finds the sweet spot between cocky and professional. 02. BGN New agency BGN’s site is beautifully put togetherFounded just this year, BGN is a strategic, brand-led agency based in Charlotte Street, central Manchester. It’s a small but perfectly formed team of six people, with 46 years of creative agency experience among them (plus, somewhat unusually, Business and Psychology degrees). Their clients to date include Brand Attic, Forse Cycling, Capo Juices and The Moorings. Their portfolio website is beautifully put together, with confident use of all-caps titles and an inspired palette of pale pink-on-black that really shouldn’t work but somehow does. As a new company, it’s a nice touch that they also list the clients they’ve worked with individually over the years, quickly conveying the depth of experience amongst them. And we love how clicking ‘Say Hi’ produces not the boring contact form you expect, but a lively looking conversational interface; a sign that these old dogs are still alive to new tricks. 03. WDC WDC Creative’s website draws on its interior design smartsWDC Creative is a boutique creative design studio specialising in commercial and retail interiors and graphic design. Founded in 2001, it’s based in Hilton Street in central Manchester with a client list including the likes of Asics, Godiva, Chelsea FC and P&O Ferries. Specialising as it does in interiors, you’d expect the design elements of WDC’s website to be perfectly balanced, with generous use of white space… and you won’t be disappointed. This elegant layout brings together some enticing photography with a lovely selection of fonts to produce a visual experience not unlike leafing through a high-end magazine. There’s a fascinating blog, too, with posts on topics such as ‘What Makes a Good Office Design?’ and ‘What Can Environmental Graphic Design Do for You?’ 04. AHOY AHOY makes clever use of geometric line drawings to draw everything togetherAHOY is an integrated branding agency offering brand strategy, ecommerce and digital marketing. Launched in 2008, it’s based in Heaton Moore, Stockport, Greater Manchester, and with clients including the likes of Greene King Beer, Barburrito, Pizza Hut, Lancashire Farm and Neighbourhood. AHOY’s slick website does an excellent job at presenting its extensive portfolio of work, usefully enabling you to filter projects by type or industry. Visually, a collection of geometric shapes, often subtly animated, brings it all together and provides a delightful visual consistency. And we love how, instead of containing a lot of waffle and jargon, the ‘About’ page gets straight on with introducing you to the members of the team. It’s a nice touch that gets to the heart of the matter of why a client might choose to work with them. 05. Flow Creative Flow Creative’s site presents a lot of images and information in a laid-back, easy to navigate wayFlow Creative is design-led production company made up of a small team of designers, illustrators, animators and directors. Founded in 2016, it's based in Lever Street, central Manchester (a few doors down from Music) and its clients include the BBC, Porsche, JD Sports, Apple, Manchester United and GlaxoSmithKline. There’s a beautiful sense of, er, flow to its website, which packs a ton of information and images into a one-page site that’s quick and easy to navigate around. Using icons to identify the multitude of services it offers is a genius move, as a plain list would have just become a blur of unwieldy text. The portfolio itself is nicely categorised into seven clear and understandable categories, making it easy to find what you’re looking for. Oh, and boy do we love that logo. 06. Instruct Studio Instruct’s website ditches visual trickery for good, solid designInstruct Studio is a multi-disciplinary communications studio working within the architectural, media and cultural sector. Founded in 2009, it’s based in Stevenson Square in central Manchester's Northern Quarter (just around the corner from Music and Flow Creative). Current clients include Bench, British Cycling, The National Football Museum, Manchester Airport Group and Universal Pictures. The studio’s homepage goes for a bold and colourful image grid, with minimal text, that seems perfectly positioned for the Instagram era. Across the rest of the site, there are no clever tricks or animations, but with original and inspired typography, powerful images and an artful, elegant layout, who needs them? 07. Tile Creative Tile Creative’s site is businesslike yet infused with a subtle sense of the dynamicTile Creative is a design studio specialising in strategy-led creative work across brand projects requiring elements of print, digital, moving image and physical design. Founded in 2012, it’s another one based in Lever Street, central Manchester (that street really is a hub of creativity) and its clients include Adidas, TalkTalk, Ryder Cup and SpaceZero. Its website is businesslike: with no overblown effects to distract you, you can get on with just finding the information you need quickly. That said, there are some little transitions and animation going on as you peruse the site that add a subtle sense of verve and dynamism to proceedings. That, along with the fun and friendly typography and bright and cheerful colours, make this a website that’s a delight to explore. Liked this? Then check out these related articles: 6 famous agency websites and what they can teach us 10 great uses of imagery on agency websites 5 uses for stock images you might not have thought of View the full article

You're reading How to Speed up the Design to Development Handoff: Use Justinmind, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Looking for a tool that designers and developers can agree on? Justinmind is made for web and mobile app prototypes and Hi-Fi website wireframes. It has all the capabilities expected in prototyping tools such as resizing, drag and drop placement, formatting and more. In addition, it features a lot of goodies including widget libraries, reusable […] View the full article

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If you're busy working from home or in the office and want a quick break, reading a comic is a great way to get some much-needed downtime and inspiration – and web comics are free and easily accessible. Some of the world's most well-known fictional characters were born through the medium of comics. The likes of Batman, Superman and Spider-Man have all won the hearts of successive generations of readers – to such an extent that, despite the rise of the internet, the printed comic industry is still booming. Best free WordPress themesThat doesn't mean the web is irrelevant to comics, though – far from it. Indeed, it's given birth to an array of inspirational online-only creations that have transported the medium into the modern age. Here, we pick 21 of our favourite web comics... 01. Webcomic Name Alex Norris' Webcomic Name is an actual good thing that happened in 2016The first and the newest web comic on this list, Webcomic Name first appeared in July 2016 and swiftly became a firm favourite. It's the work of UK-based artist Alex Norris and it never fails to amuse us with its excellently naive artwork, blobby characters and simple jokes, usually topped off with Webcomic Name's staple 'oh no' punchline. It shouldn't really work but it very much does, every single time. 100 amazing Adobe Illustrator tutorials02. Achewood There's so much brilliance to Achewood, especially Speaker SneakersFrom one of the newest to a venerable classic. Chris Onstad's Achewood first appeared in 2001 and focuses on the strange lives of a thoroughly diverse cast of stuffed toys, pets and robots. Absurd by nature and often thoroughly surreal, Achewood's simple artwork belies its complex storylines and often glorious use of the English language. There's a huge archive to work through; Onstad helpfully provides links to the big Achewood story arcs, but we'd honestly advise you to start at the beginning and just go with the flow. 03. Bird Boy Hellboy creator, Mike Magnola, is a fan of Bird BoyAnne Szabla's Bird Boy follows the story of Bali, a 10-year-old Nuru boy who is keen to prove his worth to his tribe. After being banned from the ceremony that would make him an adult, he stumbles upon a legendary weapon and must flee across a dangerous land of gods, men and beasts to prevent it falling into the wrong hands. The story was picked up by Darkhorse comics and has been compiled into graphic novels Bird Boy Volume 1: The Sword of Mali Mani and Bird Boy Volume 2: The Liminal Wood. With a thumbs up from Mike Mignola, it's definitely worth checking out. 04. Hark! A Vagrant Kate Beaton uses her comic to remind us of women's forgotten historyCanadian comic artist, Kate Beaton, blended her expertise in history and anthropology with a talent for visual storytelling to give us this popular webcomic. Kate started the web strip during her breaks from her day job and they were surprisingly all created in MS Paint (I know right?!) Her simple, whimsical style, caricaturing Western historical figures from James Joyce to Ada Lovelace make Hark! A Vagrant a particular favourite of ours, and won the artist multiple awards. Step Aside, Pops, a collection of her Hark! A Vagrant comics, topped The New York Times graphic novel bestseller list in October 2015 and in the same year, a poll ranked Beaton 14th among the top all-time female comics artists. 05. Necropolis Within a month of the comics online release, Image were already in talks to publish a print editionWritten and drawn by Jake Wyatt with a helping hand from Kathryn Wyatt, this ongoing fantasy web comic is the tale of one girl's quest for revenge. Updated every Wednesday, the duo have been painstakingly developing the story and stunning visuals for over a year. It is yet to be revealed when the comic will conclude, but there are already plans to release a graphic novel with none other than Image, when it finally finds its ending. 06. The Sad Ghost Club The Sad Ghost Club was created to be an outlet for anyone who's ever felt aloneRun by Lize Meddings and Laura Jayne Cox, The Sad Ghost Club is a web comic with a cult following. "The Sad Ghost Club is a club for anyone who’s ever felt sad or lost," they explain in their manifesto. "It's the club for those who don’t feel like they're part of any other club; we love creating comics and zines to highlight the issues that a lot of ghosties go through." Branching out into tote bags, beanies, tee-shirts, badges and more, the duo have come a long way with their tales of a lonely little ghost. Meddings' and Cox's approach ensures you'll be smiling through each story, knowing you're not alone in the world after all. 07. Oglaf Oglaf isn't for the faint hearted – this is one of the tamer offeringsCreated by Trudy Cooper and Doug Bayne, Oglaf is often a very NSFW web comic centred on a medieval fantasy realm which is decidedly sexual in nature. Not for the faint-hearted, Cooper and Bayne bring their world to life through hilarious short stories and inspirational illustrations – just don't let your boss catch you reading it. 08. The Order of the Stick You'll love The Order of the Stick if you're into medieval shenanigansIf you've embarked on role-playing games or dipped your toes into the world of medieval fantasy stories, you'll know that people tend to take both very seriously. The Order of the Stick is a web comic that pokes fun at the subjects with a unique flair. Created by Rich Burlew, the artist brings the stick figure into the modern age. 09. Botched Spot Smack down! James Hornsby pokes fun at professional wrestlingArtist and writer James Hornsby has been parodying and lampooning professional wrestling culture with his hilarious Botched Spot ever since 2008. Creating his own characters including Olav Orlav and Rad Bad DeBone, this is one of those web comics that anyone can enjoy - whether you like wrestling or not. 10. Deathbulge Deathbulge hosts an array of hilarious heavy metal charactersDeathbulge was initially a comic series about a death metal band, but illustrator and writer Dan came to believe that was too limiting, so decided to draw whatever he felt like. It seems his change in direction worked, as the web comic has become a firm favourite among web comic fans. With out a new issue every Monday, there's always something fresh. 11. Bad Machinery Bad Machinery channels the wit and charm of our favourite '90s girl DariaBad Machinery, by John Allison, tells the stories of six young sleuths - three boys and three girls - attending Griswalds Grammar School in Keane End, Tackleford. An inventive web comic with colourful illustrations and witty dialogue that MTV favourite Daria would be proud of. 12. You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack Tom Gauld's hilariously witty comic strips have made him a favourite among fansTom Gauld is a hero of sorts among the illustrator and comic-loving crowd. Based in London, not only does he draw a regular cartoon for the Guardian newspaper, he's also created a number of comic books. Although You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack is indeed, a printed publication, you can sample its delights on his Tumblr. 13. Sketchbook Diaries Gemma Correll charts her 'mostly boring' life in her daily diariesGemma Correll describes herself as a cartoonist, writer, illustrator and all-round small person. It's arguable whether her sketchbook diaries technically count as a web comic, but they're so charming that we just had to include them here. Charting her 'mostly boring' life, cute illustrations teamed with refreshingly honest observations make for some delightful reading. Related articles: How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorials 7 key typographic trends in Marvel movie logos How to create a comic page View the full article

London's Science Museum has revealed its new look courtesy of top branding agency North Design – much to the annoyance of the team behind the museum's previous award-winning identity, Johnson Banks, which took to Twitter to voice its opinions. The rebrand was announced on the Science Museum's Twitter page this week, complete with an eight-second animation that showed off its new typographic logo. Typography is the centrepiece of the rebrand, with 'Science Museum' now spelt out in an all-caps, sans-serif font that becomes thinner and thinner as the letters go on. This echoes the gradient shading and colour palette that accompanies the redesign. How to choose the right typeface for a brandThe agency behind the rebrand, North Design, has been remarkably low-key about the rebrand so far. There's no mention (at the time of writing) of the work on its website, and the museum itself hasn't further explained the thinking behind the new identity. What we do know is that the rebrand covers the brick and mortar museum itself, plus the Science Museum website and social media platforms. And while the typography thins out in the name of the museum, this distinctive typographical quirk is saved only for one headline on the Science Museum's site. Perhaps this is for the best: if you were to type a sentence with that font it would vanish before you finished. Controversial rebrand The rebrand includes a new look for the Science Museum websiteSo why has the Science Museum rebranded? The old identity by Johnson Banks – with its angular font, which looked like it needed decoding – won a D&AD award in 2011, the year after it launched. Today, it’s firmly entrenched as a design favourite in the public eye. There are some similarities: Johnson Banks' branding for the Science Museum was also typographically playful, for example. Blocky and laid out in rows and columns, the logo took its cue from code and digital typefaces. The Science Museum's previous branding by Johnson Banks features a distinctive, angular typeface"It takes a little bit of working out, but ‘decoding and sharing’ seemed an apt analogy for the museum itself," Johnson Banks explained on its website. "It also provided [the Science Museum] with what they’ve never had – a unique wordmark to identify themselves which could be literally ‘stamped’ onto everything they do, and an immediate solution to their brand architecture issues, which were solved virtually overnight." There's no information currently available about North Design's brief. But one thing’s for sure: Johnson Banks isn’t impressed. So far, Johnson Banks' negative reaction to the new Science Museum identity hasn't quite hit Spiekermann levels of backlash, but it has invited other designers to weigh in with their opinions on the rebrand. The general consensus within the Twitter design community seems to side with Johnson Banks. But that's not surprising: we're hardwired to resist change. And sadly we see this initial knee-jerk reaction time and time again with rebrands. We're more interested in how opinions will sit in a few months' time, when the public have had time to digest the new design – and when we have more information on the brief given to North Design. North Design is remaining tight-lipped in the midst of all this drama. So we won't be seeing a bitter back and forth Twitter spat between Johnson Banks with the Science Museum caught in the middle. It's a family institution after all, won't somebody think of the children? Related articles: Have designers become lazy? 6 embarrassing examples of bad kerning 10 top tips for kerning type View the full article

In this short Illustrator tutorial, designer Will Paterson walks through how to create a perfectly geometric logo design in Illustrator. Get Adobe IllustratorFrom creating an initial pattern using smart guides to removing areas from shapes using the Shape Builder tool or Pathfinder tool, adding gradients and using keyboards shortcuts, you’ll learn a host of handy techniques for working more efficiently in Illustrator – which you can apply to your own designs. You can either choose to follow the video tutorial here, or work through the written steps below. 01. Create a diamond shape Select the Rectangle tool from the Tools panel, and hold Shift to create a square shape. Select the square, choose the Rotate tool (or hit R) and hold Shift to rotate it 90 degrees. 02. Duplicate the shape Choose the Selection tool, highlight your shape and duplicate it by holding Shift and Alt/Opt. Without deselecting the shape, hold Cmd+D to duplicate the effect again. 03. Create a pattern Make sure your smart guides are on by using the Window menu, or hitting Cmd+U. Select your bottom shape, hit Alt/Opt and drag the new shape diagonally, placing it below the middle shape. Use Illustrator's smart guides (View>Guides>Show Guides) to help you. Repeat the process to build a larger diamond shape. 04. Create a new artboard Create a new artboard by clicking on the Artboard panel (Window>Artboard). Duplicate the larger shape and drag it onto your new artboard. Press Cmd+G to group the shape. Next, hold Alt/Opt+Shift and drag the new shape slightly to the right. (We’ll leave the original shape where it is, in case we need to come back to it later.) 05. Knock out the colour Select white from the Swatches palette with the duplicate shape still selected. This will knock out part of the original diamond shape, leaving you with an interesting, more complicated shape. Again, drag a duplicate to the top of the artboard by holding Alt/Opt and dragging and dropping it. (Leave it there in case you need to come back to that stage.) 06. Cut the shapes out with the Pathfinder tool… There are two methods you could use for cutting the shapes out of the main image. The first is the Pathfinder tool... Open the Pathfinder tool (Window>Pathfinder). Select your group of white shapes and hit Cmd+8 to make them into a compound path. Now select the group of black shapes and repeat the process. Highlight the two shapes, go to the Pathfinder panel and select minus front. 07. …or use the Shape Builder tool Highlight everything, select the Shape Builder tool from the Tool menu (or press Shift+M). This lets you merge shapes together by selecting them. Hit Opt, and drag the Selection tool through the shapes you want to remove. 08. Ungroup the duplication Duplicate your shape and ungroup the duplication by right-clicking it and selecting Release Compound Path. Now select the central shape, rotate (R) it 90 degrees and reposition it in the centre of the larger shape. 09. Add a gradient Highlight the shape, and hit G or go to Window>Gradient. Select two colours from the Swatch palette and drag them into the Gradient panel. This will give a gradient to all the individual elements in the shape. To apply the gradient to the larger shape as aa whole, hit G and pull the slider across the full width of the shape. And you're done. Related articles: The 23 best Illustrator brushes The 17 best Adobe Illustrator plugins 30 amazing vector art tutorials View the full article

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When you see or hear the word 'prototype', what comes to your mind? Perhaps a scale model made from low-cost material? Or maybe something that can be physically interacted with? 10 top prototyping toolsEither way, in many industries, prototypes are not the finished article – nor are they expected to be. In the web industry, prototypes are a huge part of our lives. They are incredibly useful and informative, but I fear that they are often misused and misunderstood. And this leads to "the perils of prototyping". Consider each of the following scenarios... Prototyping scenario one A project team is asked to investigate the feasibility of an idea for a new digital product. The developer uses a framework (or many) without justification or research, they take little care when coding and there are no code reviews or best practices. It is all hosted on a computer that is in no way near a mirror of a production environment. The developers declare it "pretty much ready" and equally the project manager sees it as "done". Stakeholders are led to believe it is ready, and sign it off to be launched immediately. It either goes straight into production with a huge amount of technical debt or takes much longer to launch than expected. Prototyping scenario two A project team is asked to demonstrate some new functionality for an existing digital product. The designer throws something together in the modern prototyping software of their choice. This shows interactions, transitions, animations and so on. It doesn't account for any performance considerations or how much complexity is involved in coding it. The designer declares it "pretty much ready", the PM/client/stakeholders believe it to be done and sign it off for an immediate go-live. The prototyping software may potentially be able to generate code, but there is no awareness of the quality of it or indeed how easy it would be to integrate into a real working codebase – it may well need to be written from scratch. Failure In both cases the projects are deemed a failure; the expectations of stakeholders, however, were completely disproportionate to the reality due to poor communication from all members in the project team. Can you see a pattern here? The problem isn't with prototyping per se; it is with those who do not communicate fully to their colleagues/clients about the status of their work at the early prototype stage, and what is still required to make it viable for production (be it an MVP initially or a fully fledged product). They assume that just because the prototype looks finished, there is no further work to be done. The solution to this problem comes down to taking responsibility. It is the designers' responsibility to understand and communicate that their prototype still needs to be coded (and with that, a whole raft of conversations and tasks need to take place). It is the developers' responsibility to communicate what is still needed technically, understanding that it may well require help from other teams. And it is the PM/clients' responsibility to not assume that the work has been finished at this very early stage and they can then start to work on a plan for resourcing the project appropriately. Taking responsibility In my opinion, it's a project managers' duty at this stage to clear the way for their team to have time and space to continue their investigations – because it is here that the prototype will really begin to take shape and help to drive the direction of an MVP and beyond. Ideas will be reworked, code will be rewritten, but a prototype should not be deemed finished until all pieces of the puzzle have been investigated. This should include infrastructure, security, performance, SEO, content strategy and everything in between. These are often forgotten during the product development process – sometimes until just before the go-live date – but why not start earlier? As long as we start to consider all aspects then the entire team (and client) will be given a much better indication of the feasibility of the product. This is what a prototype should really be about. As web professionals we shouldn't be afraid to say that something hasn't been finished. If we can all communicate in a better way, there will be less failed projects and more joy in developing great digital products for our users. This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 296. Buy it here. Related articles: 10 top prototyping tools How to choose the right prototyping tool How Netflix handles prototyping View the full article

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It can be difficult to keep focused and stay on task throughout the day, especially when you have tons of information to balance across numerous platforms. When you need to focus, you can trust Moo.do Premium to keep you going. You can get it on sale for just $59.99 (approx £45) for a lifetime subscription. There are tons of applications that hold vital information that you need throughout your day. The problem is, balancing them all can be a pain. That problem disappears with Moo.do Premium. This organisational tool integrates all of the services you need most into a single platform, minimising the amount of effort you need to put in to find what you need. Keep track of your emails, to-do lists, important documents, and more in a single app. You can get Moo.do Premium on sale right now for just $59.99 (approx £45) for a lifetime subscription. That's a 75% saving off the full retail price of $245. If you'd rather not go the whole hog, you could get a one-year subscription for $19.99 (59% off) or three years for $39.99 (72% off). All of these bargains are fantastic for an application that will keep you focused when you need it most, 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 30 best iPhone apps for designers 10 of the best free Udemy courses for designers 20 top tools for freelancers View the full article

As many freelance UX developers will testify, going it alone can be an exciting ride, but it can also be a little overwhelming at first. Not only will you have to manage all those clients you’ve been quietly nurturing over the years; you’ll also have to manage your accounts while working from home, organise your projects and stay up to date with UX trends and methodologies. All on your own! Luckily, technology comes to the rescue in the form of these 10 essential tools for freelance UX designers, including tools for user testing, user surveys, UX analytics, wireframing and prototyping tools, time management, accounting, producing proposals and more. These will cut down time wasted and let you focus on what you do best – user experience design. 01. Harvest Keep track of your hours with this reporting toolTime management is one of the biggest challenges facing new freelancers, who can get bogged down in too many projects (or too few!). Using Harvest you can track your hours, plus the hours of any fellow freelancers you might work with. The reporting tool lets you track both time and budget for projects and, most importantly, the future project estimation tool works beautifully. The interface is intuitive, and you can integrate Harvest with more complex tools like Asana or Quickbooks. 02. Zipbooks Quickbooks is crucial for keeping your accounts in checkSpeaking of QuickBooks, you’ll have to keep right on top of your accounts as a freelancer. Quickbooks is a classic accounting tool for freelancers, but it might be too powerful for new freelancers. Newcomer Zipbooks is a free alternative that will enable you to track your time (and put a price on the time you spend on a project), make invoices, monitor payments and track your expenses over time. What’s more, you can set up late payment reminders and send them out to clients – an effective stress reducer. Zipbooks is also incredibly easy on the eye, with the central dashboard collating all essential information into one user-friendly screen. 03. Proposify Want to win over clients? Proposify will help you land workProposify is a whistles and bells proposal building tool that will impress the heck out of potential clients. Based on design-leaning templates, you can create customised proposals that streamline the sign-up process with features like online signatures. You can save all your previous proposals as templates too, which will save time in the long run. While the Sales Team features (which track sales metrics) will probably be way too in-depth for the average UX freelancer, it never hurts to be able to track proposal success rates. Packs start at $25 per month. 04. Typeform Run surveys easily with TypeformWith your time and your accounts organised, you can get on to your actual job. Typeform is a neat little tool for running user surveys that will cut down on the time spent perfecting survey questions and answer choices. Use Typeform's interactive templates to create branded, engaging surveys for any device, even with custom logic and and notifications. The analytics have a reputation for being useful and actionable, and there’s a free version of the tool that allows you to send as many surveys as you like. If you need more powerful features, prices start from $30/£24 a month. 05. POP Sketch the old-fashioned way but on your screen with P.O.P. appNo matter how hi-tech our workflows become, some people still think better with a pen and paper in their hands. If you’re one of those people, then POP (Prototyping On Paper) is a simple tool that allows you to sketch ideas the old-fashioned way then convert them to linked prototypes. Just draw up the wireframes on paper, snap photos on your phone, then link them together with the basic transitions and gestures offered by POP. You can then share the mockups with clients or colleagues securely, and even carry out early user testing. While it’s not equipped to create high fidelity prototypes and lacks conditional logic, POP by Marvel is nevertheless simple and fun, and definitely a cool app for group brainstorms. 06. User Testing Record how visitors interact with your site by using User TestingUX freelancers looking for a testing tool that covers more than surveys can do little better than User Testing. The established tool makes it easy to video record users interacting with a website or app, so you can analyse results at your leisure. The tool has a database of over one million users - all you do is select the demographic you’re targeting and then either write the tasks or have User Testing handle task definition for you. This is a sound option for UX freelancers who don’t have the time or resources needed to do large-scale user testing solo, but still need to get up close to real users. Feedback can be ready in one hour as well, if projects are running short on time. Run up to 15 video sessions per year for $49 each. 07. Lookback Lookback gives you an insight into your visitor's emotionsWith the rise of chatbots and virtual assistants, the way we interact with devices is becoming increasingly “human”. So it makes sense that user testers make the most of tools that tap into our everything from how we talk when using an app to our facial expressions. Lookback aims to do just that: built by the UX guys from Spotify, the tool allows you to understand not just behaviour, but emotions and experiences as well. You can even record the full screen of a device, and use the reverse camera to record the user’s facial expressions at the same time. The recordings appear on Lookbacks dashboard, where a team of people can analyse the results. At $29 per person per month it’s not cheap in freelance terms, but if you plan to do lots of mobile app testing then it could be what you need. 08. Mixpanel Figure out your funnel pathways with MixpanelMixpanel has UX analytics covered. The comprehensive tool enables tracking of each individual user’s journey through a product, from engagement through retention to funnel pathways. And the best part is that you only pay for the metrics you use: Mixpanel automatically collects everything (making life a lot easier), but you’ll only be charged for those metrics when you start analysing them. Start out with the Free plan, on which you get 20M data points per month, so if you’re only freelancing on the side you this may prove enough for your needs. Otherwise, you’ll have to step up to $99 per month for unlimited and full core reports – a hefty price tag for many freelancers. 09. Balsamiq Balsamiq lets you whip up wireframes in an instantBalsamiq is a great little tool for putting together quick wireframes and mockups. It’s a good choice for all the traditional UXers out there, as the tool aims to reproduce the feeling of wireframing on a whiteboard, but digitally. Its cute, sketch-style interface and drag and drop UI elements make for super-fast UI building; the resultant mockups can then be used for basic user testing. From $12 a month for the paid version, it’s not a bad option for freelancers. You might also like to check out these other great wireframe tools. 10. Justinmind Justinmind is tailored towards more basic wireframesFor freelancers who need more than basic wireframing abilities, Justinmind is designed to cover both wireframing and interactive prototyping in one tool. The tool can create lo-fi mockups as easily as high fidelity prototypes with requirements tracking and multi-device simulation. Prototypes can be created from zero - just select the device you want to prototype for then drag the pre-baked UI elements to the canvas and add interactions. The tool gives you loads of flexibility in terms of interface design, and Sketch and Photoshop integrations make it possible to import already-started projects and add conditional logic and interactions to them. Justinmind is also a good option for freelancers working with big clients thanks to its teamwork features: clients can add their own comments and requirements to individual features and then track changes in the version history. The price point of $19 per user/month isn’t a bad deal, either. And finally... We couldn’t resist including these (probably) non-essential tools that will nevertheless improve your UX workflow, and your day. Coggle Share your thoughts with Coggle's mind map toolsCoggle is pretty use-specific, but it really does add something new to the usual arsenal of design and UX tools. The free tool lets you map out brainstorming sessions into beautiful mind-maps that can then be shared with friends and colleagues. Their examples will win over any design-savvy UXer. Figma Figma makes it easier to share and collaborate on projectsFigma is an awesome new tool that brings the handiness of Cloud-based collaboration to interface design. Kind of like Google docs, you can work on projects at the same time as multiple colleagues and the design updates in real-time. Work is saved in a version history automatically, and changes sent along to your mobile device as they happen. Prospero Prospero is a purpose built tool for polishing proposalsAlthough it’s designed for designers, Prospero proposal writer is a good option for UXers as well. The neat tool lets you create gorgeous proposals based on those of design agencies, and lets you know when clients open and sign them. The Prospero team also takes care of the copywriting, which is a big boost for time-poor freelancers. Related articles: Outstanding examples of CSS 3 top ways to build a website prototype 4 ways to cash in as a freelancer View the full article

Making your own canvas boards is fun, quick and saves you money. It also gives you a superior product and the flexibility to create whatever size or shape you need for any given project. You don’t need any specialist skills or tools and you can pick up everything you need from any hardware or DIY store. It's also a great way to explore new painting techniques without splashing loads on money on boards. 01. Gather the equipment All of your tools can be bought from the high streetTo start making your own canvas boards you will need 3mm thick MDF, a metal ruler, a pencil, a utility knife, canvas material, sandpaper, primer, a priming brush and a cutting mat. A good right angle is a handy tool for checking your corners are 90 degrees, but it isn’t essential as long as you take care with your measuring. 02. Cut the board to size A right angle can help here, but isn't essentialCheck you’re working from a good corner on your sheet of 3mm MDF and measure up the desired dimensions of your board. Once marked up you can cut the board with the knife, using the metal ruler as a guide. Start lightly and let your knife do the work. It will take a few runs to cut through the board. Take care, fingers don’t grow back! 03. Apply your canvas Stick the canvas to your board using primerOnce you’ve sanded down the cut edges (do this outside and wear a mask if possible as MDF dust is nasty), you’re ready to paint a coat of primer on the front of your panel. Take your canvas, apply it to the wet primer and press firmly. Take care to line up the weave of the material so it runs perpendicular to the edges of the board. Bonus tip: Painting onto a smooth board can give great results too, so you don’t even need to add the canvas to the board. Follow steps 01 and 02 then just prime the board a few times, giving it a light sanding between coats. 04. Add a coat of primer The number of coats will depend on how much of the weave you want to retainPaint another coat of primer on the canvas and allow it to dry thoroughly. Repeat this process a few times to create a really solid surface, depending on how much of the weave you want to retain. Once completely dry, flip the board over and trim the excess canvas to finish your hand-crafted canvas board. This article originally appeared in Paint & Draw magazine issue 10. Buy it here. Read more: 7 tips for smashing Inktober 2017 9 top tips for drawing in black and white Level up your painting skills with a mahlstick View the full article

Although we’re working in paperless offices more and more, the business card is still a mainstay of business. If you haven’t got a card that you can hand out to prospective clients or collaborators, you’re missing out on a key marketing opportunity. Not all business cards are created equal, however. We live in a world where the average small business can design their own cards and order them from well-known online printers for the price of a dinner. But these cards tend to be of an inferior weight, and typically use twee clipart to relate themselves to the business being advertised. 55 inspiring examples of letterpress business cards What this means is that there are a lot of poorly designed business cards out there. This is both a challenge and an opportunity: to stand out you need to create a design that looks fantastic, and helps you differentiate yourself. If you can make it tactile and feel pleasant in the hand, you’ll be well on your way. Create an effective card and you can elevate your business above your competitors before the prospective client has ever seen your website. So, with all that in mind we’ve brought together 10 of our top tips for creating effective, innovative business cards. 01. Remember basic design principles The basic principles of paper-based design apply to business cards It might seem obvious but it’s worth reiterating that a business card is a piece of printed material like any other. Because of this, the basic principles of paper-based design apply to business cards: Keep all your key copy at least 5mm from the trim edge Work at 300dpi for best image reproduction Ensure you maintain a minimum size for your typography to maintain legibility Design in CMYK unless you’re working exclusively with spot colours Many designers also find it helps to use a grid to lay out their cards, as this can help you to achieve the right hierarchy of information as well as ensure your alignment is sound (if you need a reminder, take a look at our guide to grid theory). 02. Get creative within the constraints Marine Laurent's cards use a portrait orientation to keep things fresh There are a couple of 'standard' sizes for business cards, depending on where you are in the world (perhaps because wallet sizes also vary slightly from country to country). One typical business card size is 55 x 85mm, although you'll see many other sizes quoted on the web. Even though you only have a tiny canvas, you can still get creative with the space. Start by considering the key information you want to include, which will typically be a name, phone number and email address, then work your design around presenting this information in a creative way. 03. Avoid common pitfalls Beware: a border like this one will show up any printing misalignments There are some common pitfalls to designing business cards that it helps to be aware of. The first and most obvious is to ensure you provide a bleed as specified by your printer. This is commonly 3mm, but can be 5mm, so check! For more information on bleeds and other printing needs, read our 5 things every creative needs to know about print design article for some tips. Just as important is to avoid using a straightforward border around the entire of the card, as this will show up any misalignment in the trim if the card isn't perfectly cut. 04. Use special finishes This guitar tutor’s card features a UV spot to highlight fret positionsAn instant way to add impact to your business card is to use a special finish. Special finishes include the likes of foil blocking, spot-UV and metallic inks, and can add significant cost to your print. What they offer, however, is the opportunity to make your card more tactile, visually impressive and memorable. If you're not sure how to approach this, take a look at our guide to creating special print finishes in InDesign. Different printers offer different options for finishes, so speak to them to find out what they can do for you, and don’t be afraid to go to a specialist if your usual printer only offers straight four-colour print. 05. Cut into your card Even just rounding the corners of your card can help it stand out A great way to make your card unique is to use a die-cut process to remove elements from the card stock, leaving a void. You can either use a die to change the shape of your card (by rounding the corners, for example), or you can cut shapes out of the centre. Dies are expensive to create the first time, although increasingly printers are offering laser-cut options that make it economical to create a die-cut look on shorter print-runs. There are some amazingly creative examples on the web, like this die-cut letterpress stationery, and when combined with creasing you can use the process to create architectural features in your card design. Also, don't overlook letterpress as an option. 06. Try out unusual materials This cheese company's business card doubles as a grater Most business cards are printed on card stock. This is the most cost-effective option for printing your cards. If you’re willing to get a little more creative, you can print onto all sorts of different materials including transparent plastics, metals, wood and even slate. Here dog treats have been used as a business card material, allowing the card to serve two purposes simultaneouslyKeep in mind that cards need to be portable, and easy to file away in a pocket or briefcase, but get creative with your choice of stock material and you'll instantly stand out from everyday business cards. 07. Make it useful This business card designed by Emily Berry converts into a chair for your phoneOne of the problems with paper is that it’s everywhere. Some people hold on to every bit of paper they receive, amassing a paper mountain, while others are far more ruthless and recycle things at the first opportunity. To avoid the risk of being recycled, make your business card work as more than simply a calling card. This card, by Jamie Wieck, includes a seed that sprouts after a few days of soakingSome of the most memorable designs incorporate function as well as form, ensuring they survive longer than most business cards. Examples include business card that act as a holder for hair clips or turn into a miniature armchair for your phone. 08. Make your own Design studio Lo Siento uses a stencil to create unique business cards If you’re feeling creative, why not make your own business cards? You can find letterpress kits on eBay at reasonable prices, allowing you to convert any card stock into your own business card with ease. Or you could use one of these beautiful free business card templates. Making your own is a time-consuming but very satisfying way of expressing yourself in a card. 09. Recycle old cards These cards were made by hand out of birthday cards, Christmas cards and screenprints that went wrong Old business cards, postcards or packaging can be repurposed and given a new life as your business card. Recycling is both environmentally sound and can allow you to express your creativity in new and exciting ways. There are some fantastic examples on the web like the one above, to get your creative juices flowing. The process can be as simple as getting some stickers printed, or as complex as hand-illustrating over the top of each old card to suit the recipient. 10. Double-check your artwork If your card has words, make sure they're spelled correctly This tip applies to every bit of print work you do, but it’s so crucial that it’s worth repeating for business card design. When sending your artwork off to the print shop, make sure you’ve double-checked every single detail. There’s nothing worse than getting back your cards and discovering a typo in the email address or name. Check twice, print once is a well learnt adage! Related articles: 10 business card fails 20 innovative business card designs 9 great business cards for type and lettering designers View the full article

Google is always making upgrades to its mobile operating system Android. The latest version, Android Oreo, is available now and making its way to devices all over the world. You can learn to build for the increasingly popular platform by grabbing the the Complete Android Oreo with Kotlin Bundle. It's on sale now for just $34 (approx. £25)! Android has the biggest install base of any mobile OS. That’s a lot of people waiting to get download your apps. Now you just have to build them. You'll learn how to do just that with the Complete Android Oreo with Kotlin Bundle – an in-depth look at the latest version of Android and the essential programming language that makes building apps easy. Kotlin has become the standard for many Android developers, and this bundle of more than 105 hours of lessons is the perfect collection to help you get up to speed. The Complete Android Oreo with Kotlin Bundle usually retails for $795, but you can get it on sale for just $34 (approx. £25). That’s a savings of 95% off the retail price for a deep-dive into Android Oreo, 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: 7 free Android apps for creatives 5 free apps that can boost your creativity View the full article

Design school is great. It gives you the opportunity to mature as a designer, illustrator or artist, prepares you for your future career, and helps you develop the beginnings of a design portfolio. But it can't teach you everything. Get Adobe Creative CouldWith that in mind, we've talked to some successful creative professionals and asked them what they wished they had known when they were at art college – so you get a head-start on your course mates. 01. How to actually find work Ben the Illustrator had to learn how to find work the hard way “The one key thing I don't remember being taught was how to actually find work,” says seasoned pro Ben the Illustrator. “How to market ourselves, approach potential clients and so on. Whether we were going for full-time jobs or freelancing from the outset, nobody really knew what to do once we left college. "The upside of this is that I learnt it all myself, and due to naivety actually had original ideas, but when the chips are down and the workflow is unstable, it would have been good to feel like I'd been taught some kind of foundation in self-promotion. This was late 90s, so slightly pre-internet. I know there are good colleges now that have students putting together amazing portfolio sites before they graduate, but I still hear from students who have a killer folio, and yet don't know what to do with it.” Check out our designer's guide to self promotion for expert tips for promoting yourself. 02. How to accept commissions Illustrator Aaron Miller was never taught what to do with a new client“For me, I would say there is a major void in higher education,” explains illustrator Aaron Miller. “You are taught about unrealistic deadlines and creative outputs from the start." "But a huge part of the job that was never explained to me was the ins and out of accepting a new client. Do I send an acceptance of commission doc, do I ask for a percentage of payment upfront? What do I do if it all goes wrong? Does the client really need that editorial illustration at 5:30pm on a Friday night?” 03. How to manage clients Knight Studios' Christian Day wishes he'd known how to deal with clients"I wish they'd taught us about clients,” says creative director of Knight Studios Christian Day in now what’s becoming a common theme. “How to identify them, how to connect with them. Granted, this has changed wildly since I was at university, but networking is networking!” He continues: “How to get in front of them, how to get them interested in you and your ideas, how to present and sell your ideas, how to service clients and build those relationships... you can go on and on. Having the skills and ideas is one thing, but if you can't get them in front of those clients, you'll be sat alone in a dark room.” 04. Why the AoI is important Join an association that can help you sell yourselfIllustrator and designer at Empire magazine Olly Gibbs joined the Association of Illustrators to help boost his career and client list. At art school, he feels he missed out on advice for turning yourself into a product that could actually sell. “It was great for helping people refine their ideas and find out which pathway of design they wanted to follow, but it didn’t give enough of an understanding of the real world," Gibbs explains. "I was lucky enough to have done a lot of freelance previously and during my time at art school so that helped. It just would have been great to find out more about the money side.” The moral here? Join an association that can help you sell yourself! 05. That personality counts (maybe more than your diploma) "Despite what your teachers or parents tell you, your diploma won’t necessarily get you a job," says Toronto-based web designer Janna Hagan. "Proving what kind of work you are capable of producing through your portfolio, or demonstrating passion and potential will more likely catch a potential employer's eye; compared to a student who has more formal education. Having a killer portfolio and personality will land you a job anywhere." 06. Software skills Jeffrey Bowman wishes he'd been taught Photoshop at art schoolJeffrey Bowman is a freelance illustrator and graphic designer based in the mountains of Hemsedal, Norway. Formerly of Studio Output and a lecturer at Shillington College, Bowman has worked for numerous clients around the globe. So what does he know now that he wished he'd learned at art school? "Software skills," he says. "This is probably the most important thing to really focus on when you're at college or university." When Bowman was at university, this was something he had to teach himself, because there was no real help available. "Being software-savvy is only going to help when you get out into the industry, because the way the industry is, these kind of skills will set you apart from the next person applying for an internship or junior job." 07. Real-world processes Work experience trumps theoretical knowledge, says senior art editor Jo GulliverT3 magazine's art editor Jo Gulliver has been working in magazines for 15 years, during which time she's worked with the world's top illustration talent, photographers and designers. When she was at college she knew she wanted to be involved in magazines, but was never taught the process of putting together a magazine to be printed and exported across the globe. "It would be good to explore the industry you want to go into in depth," she says. The best way to do this is through seeking out work experience while you're studying. "Also consider visiting printers, agencies, photoshoots and so on," is her top advice. "Make the most of your work experience placement and ask to see all processes of the business. It will make you much more employable when you come to get a job." 08. Commercial knowledge Daker would have liked some direction in how to make money from her skills"The main thing I know now, that I never realised at college, is that there is a market for good quality drawing," says Abigail Daker – a freelance illustrator known for her stunning perspective cityscape pencil drawings. "There was a lot of theorising about drawing on my course and plenty of discussion about the merits of drawing and its place within the contemporary fine art world, but nothing about it as a commercial product, and no advice about how to tailor your artwork to be better suited to commercial projects." Daker's advice is to scope out the latter – no matter what your intended specialism. Next page: more things top designers wish they'd known at art school 09. How to stay creative Ian Wharton thinks youngsters should be prepared for the possibility of losing their creative mojo in later lifeIan Wharton, creative director at AKQA and an advocate of young talent (he's regularly involved in judging, seminars and publications promoting young creativity). So what does he know know that he wishes he knew at art school? "How difficult, yet entirely necessary it is to hang onto the innate creative spirit of youth," he says. "It's something I took for granted." And his advice? "Explore endlessly. Every facet of creativity that excites you – dive in and don't worry about right answers. You have the time, agility and resources to do so. When you leave school, never stop learning and waste zero time making things you don't want to be known for." For more of Wharton's thoughts on the subject, check out his book: Spark the Fire. 10. How to find your niche The biggest gap in Jonathan Woodward's education was the business and marketing sideWildlife artist Jonathan Woodward's beautiful, textured animal illustrations have led him to commissions from the likes of Penguin, Transworld Publishing and Random House. What did he wish he knew? "I'm probably the same as most other illustrators in that the biggest gap in my art college education was the business and marketing side of things. I've had to learn all of this as I've gone along. "One of the most important lessons I've learned is to find a niche rather than trying to be all things to all people. It was only when I really focused on combining my two main passions for nature and illustration, specialising in being a wildlife illustrator, that things started to move forwards and the right type of commissions started come in." 11. Not to be precious Wignall wishes he'd been warned that instantly clicking with the client is not the normJames Wignall is an animator and motion graphics artist working in London. He wishes he'd learned not to be too precious with his designs. "Inevitably the client will want changes, and inevitably you'll think they are for the worse. Your job is to do the best you can for your client, not for your portfolio. There are occasions that you and the client will be on the same wavelength and you'll end up with a project that will take pride of place on your website, but these jobs are few and far between. "Behind every amazing project you've seen on a designer's website, there's probably 10 more that you don't see that pay the bills. Once you've given it all and appeased your client, boss or bill payer, you can always rework it to a state that you're happy and call it a 'directors cut'!" 12. How to take a step back Radim Malinic feels design education encourages you to be good at one thing onlyFreelance art director, illustrator and graphic designer Radim Malinic has been responsible for some stunning campaigns. "Education encourages you to be good at one thing only," he says. "When you get out into the sharp-toothed world of client work, it's easy to get consumed by focusing on small detail in your designs and not worrying about any other essential parts of the commission. "Whether you are a freelancer or part of a bigger team with the additional beady eyes of account managers or creative directors, it is about projecting your voice through the project. By taking a little bit of extra time and stepping back for short moment to oversee what has been done, you can not only scrutinise all aspects and find any errors, you can also discover potential ways of making the project go further. "Clients can have a limited vision and creative teams can play it safe to keep them happy. Great work just does not happen by accident, it is the ever-present hunger to create fresh work which makes it succeed." 13. How to be humble A little bit of humility will go a long way in your design career, says James WignallJames Wignall didn't take the traditional route into the creative industries – he's a Bachelor of Science rather than of the Arts. However, there is some advice that applies to everyone. "The first thing you should learn when going into the work place is a little humility – seriously it goes a long way!" he says. "A number of people from my course assumed that because they achieved a first class honours they were God's gift to the industry. Wrong!" "There is always somebody who's better than you and employers have no time for that kind of arrogant attitude. A workplace needs people who are easy to work with, to collaborate and bounce ideas back and forth with." 14. That it's not all self-indulgent Real-world design work is not as self-indulgent as college projects, says Jo Gulliver"At college most of the projects are pretty self-indulgent," says Jo Gulliver. "You don't really experience what it's like working for a client. It would have been good to get some live client work while I was at college – working for someone would give you an insight into how the industry works. "It would also have been useful as a learning experience on how to manage a project – pricing it, time management and so on. These are real-world things that you often discover when you're in the real world – not before!" 15. How to choose your career carefully Thinking about what kind of job you want after design school is vital, says Jonathan Woodward"My main advice for art college students today would be to really think about the type of work they want to be doing," says Jonathan Woodward. "To think about the type of commissions they really want – rather than what they think they should be doing – and then create a career and portfolio that reflects this. "If you show the type of work in your folio that you don't want, you can be sure that is the type of work you'll get," he adds. It's an interesting point – make sure only your best and most relevant work (if you're going for an interview) is in your portfolio. Related articles: 12 stimulating design offices to stir the senses How to keep your studio running smoothly Designers fury over unpaid graphic design role View the full article

At Reasons To in Brighton last month, designer Jon Hicks took to the stage to share some tips for designing icons. As the man behind the icon design for Skype and Spotify, as well as the author or The Icon Handbook, he had plenty to share. 95 top Photoshop tutorialsAs he explained, there are two types: iconic and symbolic. Iconic icons represent an object – for example, an envelope sign to indicate email. Symbolic icons are abstract, and their meaning must be learned. Think of an arrow for 'play', or more recently the hamburger icon to indicate a hidden menu. If you've decided to create a bespoke icon – rather than using a free icon – then no matter which type of icon you're using, there are some icon design tips you should follow. 01. If there's a convention, use it The most important thing is that people understand what your icon meansYou're a creative type, we know – but this isn't the time to think outside the box. "You have to have something that's instantly recognised," urges Hicks. That means if there's an existing convention, you need to use it. Look up your subject on Google image search to see if there's an established icon that users will already know. Hicks also recommends doing some research using the Noun Project, a global community that collects together icons. 02. Run your ideas through local knowledge An owl symbolises wisdom in the West, but stupidity in the EastThis is especially important if your audience is not local to you. To complicate matters, different symbols mean different things, depending on where you are. Thinking of using a thumbs up icon? You'll need to think again if your product is destined for Australia, Greece, or the Middle East: instead of indicating a job well done, you're essentially saying 'screw you' to your customers. Similarly, in the West an own stands for wisdom, while in the East it's a symbol of stupidity. Poor old owl. Hicks suggests making the most of your client's knowledge at this stage to make sure you're not making any local faux pas. 03. Use your webcam Hicksdesign was asked to overhaul Skype's emoticon set "If you're researching for emojis, you can't beat your own webcam," says Hicks. Take snaps of yourself expressing the emotion you want to capture, then work on translating that into emoji form. It's a quick and easy way to see how different facial features change to indicate different moods. 04. Keep sizing consistent Pay attention to perceived harmony as well as graphical accuracyHicks suggests starting with the baseline grid. "Ideally you want the icon to be slightly larger than the text – you don't want it to mistaken for a text glyph," he explains. While you want to work to a standard area for all of your icons, be aware that you need to pay attention to your icons' perceived size, too. This is because even if your icons are all the same height, they might not look that way to viewers. If you need convincing, take a look at our article on how a recent discovery about the Google logo sparked a heated discussion on 'correct design'. Another tip for maintaining consistency is to work on all of your icons within one document. You can't make a unified set if you work on each icon separately. 05. Keep it simple... but not too simple Icons by Universal Icons (left) and Mello for Noun ProjectIcons should be simple – everyone knows that, right? "One of the key things is not to get too fancy. Keep it as simple as possible... but not too simple," advises Hicks. Say you want to design an icon for a shopping bag. The simplest version might be a square with a loop at the top. But that exact same icon could also be a weight, or a padlock. However, add some handle details, or a 10kg label, or a keyhole, and you've removed all possible doubt. Hicks suggests adding more details when the icon is being used at a larger size. He also advises adjusting your stroke weight at different sizes in order to keep the icons balanced. Read more: How to create product icons in Illustrator 33 stunning iOS app icon designs 25 logo design tips from the experts View the full article

Cloudflare’s chief technology officer was frank and apologetic about February’s Cloudbleed bug during today's Virus Bulletin 2017 keynote. View the full article

It's always the quiet ones, isn't it? Dropbox has just unveiled its new design system and it's nothing short of staggering. We're struggling to think of the right comparison for it. Like, it's a bit like that time in the 1980s when amiable, dependable and thoroughly unexciting BBC presenter Frank Bough was revealed to be into cocaine and S&M. Dropbox is similarly dependable, and that's a good thing. You want it to just be there, holding onto some of your files so you can grab them when you need them. It's not really a brand that you even associate with design – more of a functional utilitarianism – and while you're aware it has a blue, sort of box-like logo, you'd struggle to draw it. 25 logo design tips from the experts Dropbox's new design system is an evolution of the existing brandSo to go from that to this new system, Dropbox Design, overnight, is a bit much to process. It's sort of like seeing an old friend or colleague suddenly go through the most epic midlife crisis ever; maybe not the full Frank Bough, but close. Without warning they're riding a fixie, sucking down bubble tea and buying their clothes from ASOS and Boohoo rather than Marks & Spencer. It's disconcerting, and maybe it's not the best look, and yet you know what? Fair play to them. They're not hurting anyone, and sooner or later they'll tire of squeezing their fortysomething frame into those skintight wet-look jeans and adjust back into something more comfortable, and they'll end up looking a lot better than they did beforehand, so yeah, well done. Dropbox has commissioned artwork to help showcase its new systemDropbox Design has all the echoes of a full-on midlife crisis, and yet we can't help but love it. Because right now it's at the initial blasting-out-of-the-closet phase, brimming with mad ideas and aspirations and totally into its new mission in life. It's all, hey guys, check out the new Dropbox! It wants to be vibrant and expressive and dynamic and playful, and to prove this it's brought with it an immense colour scheme that, it says, juxtaposes colour pairs in bold, unexpected ways and is designed to work with the the new logo. "We've evolved it from a literal box," the company says, "to a collection of surfaces to show that Dropbox is an open platform, and a place for creation." And along with the colours and the new logo design – which is also designed to be changed around depending on the situation – Dropbox is also pulling out all the stops with its typography. Don't call it a font; Sharp Grotesk is the full typeface packageThe company makes it very clear that it's not just using a new font – it's using a new typeface, as per the correct definition of a typeface. Sharp Grotesk is made up of 259 fonts in every conceivable weight, and Dropbox jolly well intends to use every single one of them, stating that it enables it to speak in a variety of tones. Add to that a collection of eye-catching imagery created along with a group of hot young artists and illustrators, and a new feature, Dropbox Paper, intended as a new kind of collaborative online document for creating and sharing ideas, and it all adds up to quite the entrance. And naturally, the internet hate is ready to point and laugh. There are of course more thoughtful responses; both Cennydd Bowles and Renato Valdés make useful points: And they're right, of course. Beyond the design, Dropbox is always going to be about storage (although we'll see how Dropbox Paper does in a world where everyone's trying to come up with the perfect collaborative solution). If you stop for a second and see what the actual Dropbox site looks like today, it's all pretty restrained and business-like. But the thing about this new system is that it gives Dropbox a lot of room to breathe creatively, similar to how WeTransfer brightened up its system with a collection of cool imagery. Calm down; this is what the actual Dropbox site looks like todaySo that's why we're happy to throw in our lot with the vocal minority who absolutely love Dropbox's new design system: Because yeah, maybe the company's having a bit of a midlife crisis, and okay, perhaps some of those wardrobe choices don't quite go together. But it's got people talking about and paying attention to a service that was previously just there, quietly and dependably doing its thing. And as Scott Mackenzie says: We'll drink to that. Related articles: How to challenge brand stereotypes How to choose the right typeface for a brand Create the perfect brand voice View the full article

Getting the design of your newsletter right is an extremely important affair. It's the first thing your subscribers see and the one design that will represent you in email inboxes throughout the world. Start experimenting with this range of free newsletter templates. Get Adobe Creative Cloud01. Email Monks MailChimp Master Template A massive template that you can cut to fit your needsThis could be your go-to template for lots of different email newsletters, because it has a huge number of different block styles all crammed into one document - just delete the ones you don’t want. It works with over 40 emails clients and is easy to integrate with MailChimp. 02. Pook: Newsletter Simple, reliable newsletter template that has been tested thoroughlyIf you're building any kind of email campaign you should check out Litmus, as it will help you to test your email to ensure that it breaks as little as possible. There's a great community that will help if you get stuck, and lots of useful resources. Pook: Newsletter is one of a suite of free, reliable templates on the on the Litmus site. 03. Mooza Get all your latest news across in this simplistic newsletter design from Pixel HintCreated by the team at Pixel Hint, Mooza is a clean, flat, pixel perfect free newsletter template, suited to all creative disciplines. 04. Campaign Monitor Roll your own template quickly and easyIn a rush? Campaign Monitor promises that with its online template builder you can create an HTML template in under 60 seconds. All its templates are fully tested and mobile ready, and once you're done you can either download it for free or upload it to a Campaign Monitor account. 05. ZURB An ideal range of newsletter templates for those who want to customise furtherZURB has a range of free templates available, including this newsletter. Each template is packaged with a separate CSS stylesheet and HTML file. If you're adding images, you'll need to create and compress a separate folder with the CSS stylesheet before you upload. 06. Antwort Antwort's newsletter templates work on all devicesOriginally made for transactional emails with dynamic content, the Antwort layouts are thoroughly tested – in live environments with real data and edge cases. They work across all devices too! 07. 99Designs Pick your favourite colour with this free newsletter template99Designs ran a contest asking designers to create three irresistible templates in four colour options for its customers to download and send out. Each provides a newsletter template, a promotional template and a template for email notifications, and is available in green, blue, orange and grey. 08. Email campaign Email Campaign features all the bits and bobs your newsletter needsA free, responsive newsletter template, Email Campaign features a large hero image, multiple columns and different content sections in order to fully convey any information to subscribers. Related articles: 15 awesome email newsletter designs The secrets of a successful newsletter design 10 best email newsletter tools View the full article

Ghost Rider shone as one of the new characters in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. When Ghost Rider appears you know there are going to be some really cool Ghost Rider transformation scenes, where you'll see a living breathing dude turn into a fiery skeleton. There are some interesting things that happen when Ghost Rider transforms and we'll be breaking all of them down in the same way as his skin changes: piece by piece. 22 mighty Maya tutorials to try todayThe first thing that happens is that his skin starts to boil. You can see bubbles appearing, in a similar way to when you heat some plastic. Then, the skin starts to break off in patches; it's really interesting to see these cracks as they start appearing. Eventually, the skin starts flying off, thanks to environmental factors like wind. From below, his skull starts showing but there's a very neat and sort of controlled chaos in the way his skin cracks. Let's take a look at how we can achieve these effects using Maya and a spot of After Effects. You can download the files for this tutorial here. And to view images at a larger size, simply hit the expand icon in the top-right corner of the image. Get Adobe Creative Cloud01. Prepare the footage Try to use a tripod when you shoot your footage...Before we jump into a 3D program – Autodesk's Maya, in this case – it's worth preparing for the shot. You need to capture good footage. The display is up to you but make sure you stabilise the footage or shoot it on a tripod. Get some sudden movements from the actor as well as slow ones, for when the fire is inside the character's head and burning him when he's human, before slowly turning into the Rider. 02. Stabilise the footage ...otherwise, stabilise it afterwardsIf you don't happen to have a tripod to shoot on, it isn't the end of the world. There are some useful compositing tricks that you can use in order to stabilise the footage. First of all, import your footage into Adobe After Effects, create a new composition, drag the footage into this composition and then right-click on the footage in the timeline. You'll see a Warp Stabilizer VFX button appear. Click it, and then in the properties of the effect, simply change Smooth Motion to No Motion. Do this only if your footage is suffering from camera shake. 03. Sort the geometry Find a pair of models to match your footageYou'll need two models. First, a human base to simulate. This won't contribute to the final composite but it's what we'll burn. Second is the skeleton. Get both of these models, fit the skull inside the head as well as you can and clean the geometry. Weed out any holes. In Maya's modeling module, go to Mesh in the toolbar and find Reduce. This helps cut poly from the geometry. 04. Skinning geometry Create some joints to match your model, then skin itMake some joints based on the actor model and skin it. In my case, I only have the head, and only a small portion of the head. So I created three joints. One from the chest to the neck or the bottom of the skull, another from the neck all the way to the top of the head and a third one that doesn't really do anything but I like to have in case I need changes later. 05. Animate the geometry Animate your geometry so that it matches the movement in your footageNow, animate the geometry to move like the actor in the footage. Get this as close as possible. Once done, create a copy of those animated joints using Edit> Duplicate Special (in the settings of that, check the Duplicate Input Graph to copy the animation) and skin this new joint system to the skull for a quick and accurate duplication of the actor model's motion. 06. Turn geometry into nCloth and rigid bodies You don't want your skin going through your skullUnder the FX module in Maya, go over to the nCloth menu bar and then click Create nCloth while selecting the actor model. This will transform your actor model into an nCloth on which simulations can then be made. In the same menu bar, you'll find the Create Passive Collider option. Click this button while selecting the skeleton model in order to turn it into a Rigid Body. By doing this, you can ensure that the skin on the actor model will be prevented from going through the skull. 07. Prepare for the maps Now you're going to need some animated mapsYou'll need between two and three animated grayscale maps for this part of the tutorial. Firstly, you're going to need a simple map, which goes from total white to total black – let's call this one Dynamics Map. Secondly, you'll need another map that goes from total white to having some black patches but not total blackness – we're going to call this one Tearing Map. The third map you'll need is a copy of the Tearing Map. You just need to invert the colours, offset it by a few frames and then multiply it to the original, getting the edges of the animation. 08. Dynamics map The dynamics map dictates how much of your mesh is nClothThis map will control how much of your mesh is actually nCloth and how much of it isn't. Essentially, if the map is all white, no vertex on your mesh will be dynamically simulated as nCloth. This is very important if your mesh is deforming. In my case, I made some dark areas appear in the map as the actor was moving to make it more natural. You can use the Fractal Noise in After Effects to generate this. 09. Tearing map The tearing map controls how skin breaks offThis map decides where the skin starts to break off from. Black areas will break off completely, meaning every single vertex in that area will separate. Create this like a fabric with white and black patches. Try to minimise the blackness but don't completely eradicate it. I'd say a number near 20 per cent is good. Copy this map and invert its colours. Multiply this new map with the original to create a third map. This will be used to generate sparks. 10. Input mesh attract Setting Input Attract Mesh to 1 disables nCloth simulation on the meshUsually when you turn a mesh into nCloth, you lose the animation. However, there's a setting under the nClothShape node's Dynamic Properties tab called Input Attract Mesh. Set it to 1, which disables nCloth simulation on the mesh and follows the deformation caused by the rigging. In the next tab, input the Dynamics Map into the Input Attract Map to multiply the attribute with your map. 11. Tear the skin Use the Tearable Surface setting with the tearing mapSelect the actor model and under the FX module, go to the nConstraint menu. Click the Tearable Surface button. Your surface will tear like skin. Among the newly created nodes, find one called nComponent and under the Glue Strength Map, input the Tearing Map. This way, your cloth will become weakly bonded and patches of skin will start falling or flying, depending on your settings. 12. Tweak the environment The Turbulence button will add variety to your animationNow that the skin is breaking, make some changes to the environment. Create some wind under the Nucleus node. Under the nClothShape's Dynamic Properties tab, decrease the mass to something like 0.1 or so. The number depends on the scale of your scene. Finally, select the actor model, go to the Fields/Solvers menu bar and click the Turbulence button to add a turbulence field to create some really nice variation in how the skin flies. Without this, the cloth doesn't look good. 13. nCaching the dynamics Cache nObject to stop it resimulating all the timeIn the nClothShape, find the Caching tab. Change Cacheable Attributes to Dynamic State. Go to the nCache under the FX module and go to Create New Cache (you might have to first click Enable all Cache on Selected) and select nObject. Let it cache for a moment. This will save you having to resimulate every time you change the frame. 14. Light the eyes Use a V-Ray Sphere Light to light up the eyesNow we need some fire in the eyes. One method would be to play with materials and self-illumination but that's too much work. Simply go ahead and create a V-Ray Sphere Light. Fit it into one of the eyes. Now, having already selected it, go to the Edit menu and access the Duplicate Special's settings by clicking the square next to it. Check the Duplicate Input Graph and Instance Leaf Nodes. The copy will now be able to take on the attributes of the first light. 15. Create FumeFX node Brush up on your FumeFX skills for this bitYou'll need some basic knowledge of FumeFX. Save a copy at this point. Hide the actor model if you want, to speed things up. Go to the FumeFX menu and click FumeFX Node. Go to the Node's attributes and play with Width, Height and Length to better fit the skeleton mesh, basically, a rough location where the fire lights up. Spacing is the resolution of the simulation. Next page: Create sparks, render your different elements, and finish off the model 16. Feed the fire source Time to set your skeleton on fireWith the skeleton model selected, go the FumeFX menu and pick the Object Source button. Now your skeleton model lights on fire. Run initial simulation by going into the Attribute Editor for the FumeFX node, click the button that's blue-ish and looks like a server rack, select your source from there and then click on the Play button. 17. Animate the fire rate Adjust the attributes to get your fire looking just rightYou have to decide which frame the fire starts to show up and how fast. Also, I would suggest some smoke before the actual fire appears. You have to change two settings for that. First, in the FumeFX node under the Output tab, change Start Frame to whatever you want. Select your source object and animate attributes like Fuel, Smoke, Oxygen and Temperature to set exactly how and when the fire starts, and simulate again. 18. Create sparks Generate some sparks using your third mapUsing the third map, we'll generate sparks to show some fire flying out. Select the actor model (ideally a version without nCloth simulations) and go to the nParticles menu. Click on Emit from Object. Once done, change the Emitter Type in the Emitter node to Surface. Go all the way to the bottom and in Texture Rate, input the third map and check Enable Texture Rate. 19. Sparks material Play with the intensity until you hit a setting that goes with your exposureCreate a new V-Ray Mtl Material or a V-Ray Light Material through the Hypershade. Change the colour to light orange and play with the intensity – find a setting that works with your exposure settings, if making a Light Material. If you're making a V-ray Mtl Material, turn on the Self-Illumination slider and set the colour to orange. Select the nParticle node and apply the material to it. 20. A texturing problem Things don't always go right first timeNow, I got into a problem with texturing that I think would be helpful to discuss for a bit here. You might not run into this particular sticky situation if you did some pre-planning, which is actually something that I did, but unfortunately it got lost over the four-month period that it took me to do this. Anyway, the problem is that I used Spherical Projection before I created the maps but I wanted to put a planar map as the diffuse for my actor model. That's a problem. 21. Planar material mapping Here's how to project an image without messing up UVsIf you want to project an image on a mesh without having to mess with the UVs, create a new material. In the diffuse channel (or any other) import a texture. Select File from the Texture Creator, right-click and pick Create as Projection. Now, you can project your image without messing up the UVs. Once placed, delete history or you can bake your texture into the current UVs. 22. Baking the map (optional) Use Convert to File Texture to bake your map, if you wantSimply go to the Hypershade, select the Material as well as the mesh and just go into the Edit menu and click Convert to File Texture. This will turn your projection image into a usable separate material and distort it according to your UVs rather than distort the UVs to fit your projection. If that happens, it will throw everything you have done up to this point away and you'll have no choice but to redraw the maps and everything else we have done. 23. Render the skull Render all the elements in separate filesI'd suggest you render everything in different files. Render the skull as it is. You can also use the V-Ray Material in Render Element, which basically just outputs the objects with the selected material into a separate file. Although it doesn't get you the Alpha map for those specific materials, so you'll have to keep that in mind. Use this for the skull only. The skin is a different story… 24. Render the skin You only need to render skin that's currently breakingTo composite skin on top of your footage, create a third map. What you basically need is to only render out the part that's breaking at any given moment. Stuff that's not yet broken shouldn't be visible. You can use some modified version of the Tearing Map for this. Honestly, I can't think of any other way you can do this, so maps are all you've got! 25. Render the fire Render the fire using Render ElementsSince you've already got skull and skin, you'll just need to subtract them from a beauty pass for the fire. Render it using Render Elements as well, it's good to have things in separate files so you can edit them later if you want. Now one thing, the rendering is actually very very resource-heavy due to the cloth simulation. nCache helps a bit but not by much, so you have to consider that. 26. Compositing Put everything together in After Effects and you're doneCompositing is a subjective action. You need to think about what you want from the effect and then you have to composite it to your taste. One thing I would recommend, though, is adding some glow. In After Effects, go to Effects, locate the Glow option and then add it to the overall scene using an adjustment layer. Another thing that would be nice is to add some motion blur to the scene. Go to Effects and find Pixel Motion Blur to force some blur to be added to the scene. This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 225; buy it here! Related articles: Review: Maya LT How to simulate explosions in Maya 10 of the best new features in Maya 2017 View the full article

Ask professional designers at creative agencies whether they use stock imagery in their designs, and the answer is often a knee-jerk “No!” But delve a little deeper, and you'll often discover that stock imagery is used, just not in the ways you might expect. In this post we look at five common ways that pro designers use stock as a cheap, quick and easy way to advance and promote their creative projects. 01. Social media campaigns 'Tattoos say who I am without having to speak' by People Images. This stock photograph could work well as part of a Facebook campaign In the era of Instagram and Snapchat, social media is becoming more and more about visuals. So for any kind of digital campaign, getting your visuals right is paramount. That means finding images that will grab people’s attention in an environment where the possibilities for distraction are almost infinite. It also means finding images that will work with your message and reinforce it, rather than fighting against it. When you’re creating social media posts that are part of a broader campaign, it’s tempting to use the same imagery that you’ve created for print or website use. But while there’s a lot to be said for consistency, you should never rule out using separate images for social media campaigns. On Facebook, Twitter and so on, attention is at an absolute minimum, so you need images that will strike a chord with people instantaneously... or lose them forever. By and large, most stock imagery has that kind of immediacy built in. (After all, if a library image wasn’t attention-grabbing, it’s unlikely that anyone would ever download it.) So whether you’re looking for an image for a Twitter card, Facebook cover photo, shareable infographic, PDF freebie or any other element of a social media campaign, stock libraries can provide a quick and cheap way of finding the right visuals, fast. 02. Moodboards and presentations Autumn Tree and Sun during Sunset by konradlew. This image could work well as part of a moodboard for a seasonal advertising campaign When it comes to a big brand campaign, there’s usually money in the budget to shoot your own bespoke imagery or commission an illustrator. But when it comes to pitching those projects in the first place, it’s your own money, or that of your agency, that you’re spending. So when it comes to your moodboards and presentations, it can be much better for cashflow, not to mention quicker and easier, to use stock imagery instead. Yes, you could just go to the opposite extreme and grab pictures from Google Images. But that’s technically infringing copyright, plus it usually means you’ll be using lower-resolution imagery, which will often look amateurish when blown up on a big-screen projection or printout. Stock images, in contrast, will be professionally shot, high-resolution and will help to add that touch of sophistication to your moodboards and presentations that could mean the difference between winning and losing the account. 03. Mockups, wireframes and prototypes Bright, colourful lamps hung against blurred background, by DDieschburg. This image could work well as a hero image on a website mockup So you’ve won the account, and you’re starting to build the website wireframe or app prototype that the client wants. Now you’re going to need some visuals. But you don’t want to start organising an expensive photoshoot, video production or bespoke illustration at this stage, only for the client to say that they don’t like it further down the line. It’s much better to get the fundamentals of how the design will look and function first. Right now, then, it’s better to spend a small amount of money on stock images to build your mockup, wireframe or prototype design around. Only once you have signoff on the general principles of the design and its functionality, from all stakeholders, is it prudent to go all-out on commissioning your own bespoke visuals. 04. Email newsletters Raw organic lady apples by bhofack2. This image could get readers of a recipe newsletter salivating and eager to read more If you think that email newsletters went out of fashion in 2004, then think again: they’ve shown a big resurgence in recent years. There are many possible reasons why, but one explanation is that, in a noisy world of competing messages and channels, people are craving measured curation from a reliable source. Careful editing and targeting of email newsletters is only part of the story, though. The rise of solid, reliable HTML email means that newsletters can now look as good as websites – and, more importantly, people expect them to do so. In short, a list of plain links is probably not going to cut it. Just like your website’s landing pages, you’re going to need some bright and attractive visuals that lure people into the content of your newsletter. And stock libraries can be a great place to find suitable photos, illustrations and even videos to engage and enthuse your audience. 05. For inspiration Flaming basketball player by draco77. This beautiful vector artwork could inspire your own sports-related designs In general, stock image libraries provide a high quality range of visual assets for a relatively low cost. But there’s one way in which you can benefit from stock without paying a penny – by using it as inspiration. With multiple millions of visuals at your fingertips, and sophisticated tools helping you hone down your search to perfection, stock image libraries can really help to get your creative motor running, even if you don’t buy anything. For more ideas on how to get inspiration from stock, check out 7 sources of free design inspiration from stock libraries. Related articles: 5 tips for using stock imagery in your designs 6 ways to improve your logo design 10 brilliant image-led portfolio sites for 2017 View the full article

The political landscape today is somewhat unpredictable, and certainly surprising. Yet in turbulent times – where each daily news story is greeted in the majority with “what have they fucked up now?” – those ever-bundling folk at UKIP have proved again, that above all parties and characters of politics, they are the gift that keeps on giving. Or maybe more aptly ‘the gaff...’ 25 logo design tips from the expertsLast Friday, at their party conference (in a building part-funded with EU money. Just sayin') they didn’t just hold an election for the person to lead their party, but the logo to lead it too. And in the model of the referendum they’d been crusading for since the early 1990s, it was a 'this or that' demonstration of democracy in selection process. The first choice depicted the party acronym strapped-in above the line “For the Nation”, complete with two swooshing sashes of yellow and purple respectively – the whole graphic boat-load ready to set sail out of Torquay harbour. The second option had all-but-the-same type and layout, but it swapped the seaside for the Serengeti, with the head of a lion mounted beside the text. Roaring to victory? The conceptual rigour in the two routes is clear for all to see. The first obviously represents UKIP’s primary contribution to politics: wind and hot air. The second harks back to those halcyon days in British history that the party is assumedly so proud of. You know, the times where all we had to worry about was the Church, medieval poverty, famine and disease, whilst our royalty and elites looked after themselves at the expense of global stability. Exceptional brand strategy on both counts, we can all agree. But it was the latter lion that roared to victory, winning the vote and sinking the sails to democracy. Cue pandemonium, furore and unrestrained mocking. Many swapped the usual “my kid could've done that” for “you've just nicked that”, citing the startling similarities to the lion in the Premier League logo (which is also no stranger to Simba-based scoffing). Others questioned why an anti-immigration party felt an African / Asian animal an apt symbol. The new Ukip logo (left) is similar to that of the Premier LeagueBut there are valid critiques that need to be debated here. If, in fact, a lion represents qualities of so-called ‘Britishness’ (pride, courage and so on) – qualities that UKIP is so desperate to align with – why, then, does it bear the resigned look of a lion staring down the barrel of a rifle of a rich US dentist? Or like it’s just got to the border and realised it’s forgotten its passport? Creative logo amends Social media wasn’t shy in offering some viable amends, replacing the lion render with the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz; Scar from the Lion King; a Lion from Crappy Taxidermy; and, of course, a treated version of the infamous image of a busted and bleeding Nigel Farage as he emerged from a plane accident in 2010. Others confirmed the resemblance of the lion with the protagonist of Japanese animé Dragon Ball Z (only upturned). And some just downright changed the lot. Of course, all UK political parties fall to the branding sword at one point or another. Surely everyone can remember the ‘Tory Tree’ and its subsequent tale (not to mention that the party commandeered the bulldog association through the corpulent Churchill). Labour, too, has wilted its rose under the marketing and PR press over the past few decades. However, with UKIP facing falling support and the label of redundant after seemingly achieving its one and only ambition of Britain withdrawing from the EU, a rebrand hardly feels like the most robust and defiant response to questions of its integrity and identity as a political party. No, UKIP lumped for a lion and its connotations, leaving one to only assume that it thought no animal native to the British Isles had the necessary qualities to personify their party. Whereas the weasel, surely, is a worthy consideration. Craig Oldham designed Me & EU, a limited-edition collection of postcards written and designed by UK-based creatives that were sent across Europe as a means to reconnect the UK with the EU in the wake of Brexit – available for pre-order now. Related articles: 10 iconic logos hilariously drawn from memory Brilliant sketch pokes fun at Avatar's Papyrus logo 14 best-practice rules for striking editorial design View the full article

Wireframe tools make the process of knowing how to create an app or website fundamentally easier, by visually stripping the product down and enabling all involved to focus purely on functions and user interactivity. Clients need to understand how your proposed app or website will work. But simply explaining to them verbally or in writing leaves the vast majority of functions down to their imagination – which isn't helpful for you or your client, and leaves a lot of room of error. Wireframe tools can be extremely helpful in squaring that circle. Get Adobe Creative CloudThere are more wireframe tools on the market than ever, each offering varying levels of functionality. Some software can be used purely for simple wireframes, while others will allow you to create a working prototype. Taking advantage of trial downloads or free software and finding the one that fits in with the way you work is the only way of finding out which one is right for you. Here we've selected 20 of the best wireframe tools to get you started. Enjoy... Choose a website builder: 16 top toolsPromoted: Justinmind Justinmind offers a library of UI elements and custom styling for use in your wireframes Platform: Web-based Price: $19/month Web-based Justinmind includes a library of UI elements, from buttons and forms to generics shapes and a range of widgets for iOS, SAP and Android. Custom styling is included, so you can add rounded corners, cropped images or colour gradients, or import graphics by dragging them into the browser. Prototypes can be exported as HTML. 01. Wireframe.cc Wireframe.cc offers a clean, minimal interface Platform: Web-based Price: Free-$99/month Wireframe.cc offers a simple interface for sketching your wireframes that eschews the toolbars and icons of a typical drawing app. There's a limited colour palette to help you avoid that particular avenue of procrastination, and UI elements are context-sensitive and only appear when you need them. Whether or not you enjoy this is a matter of personal taste. 02. Moqups Work collaboratively on wireframes, mockups, prototypes and more Platform: Web-based Price: Free-€49/month This tool is designed to take you through the whole process of roughly sketching your wireframes; collaborating on them with others; creating site maps, flowcharts and storyboards; and building functional prototypes. 03. UXPin Quick tutorials show you how to build advanced animations in the UXPin editor Platform: Web-based Price: $19-$99/month You can put together wireframes in UXPin at top speed by dragging and dropping custom elements. There are regularly updated libraries for Bootstrap, Foundation, iOS and Android, and your wireframes can be quickly converted to high-fidelity mockups. From there you can create fully interactive and animated prototypes of your final product. Alternatively, you can also start your designs in Photoshop or Sketch and import into UXPin for prototyping. To support the full UX process, you can then create and pin documentation to your prototypes and auto-generate specs and style guides for developers. 04. Fluid UI Each project generates a QR code you can scan to get the prototype working on your phone Platform: Web-based Price: $8.25-$41.58/month Fluid UI has 16 built-in libraries for iOS, Android, Windows and more, and pages are created by dragging in elements from these libraries. This app provides a great way for you to map out your projects visually by creating links to join screens, forming a diagram of how everything fits together. Hovering over a link gives you the option to change the kind of transition you're using. 05. Balsamiq Mockups Balsamiq Mockups aims to replicate the experience of sketching on a whiteboard Platform: Mac, Windows, web-based Price: Various Balsamiq Mockups includes several drag-and-drop elements, from buttons to lists, each styled as a hand-drawing. The basic premise behind this wireframing tool is to keep the mock-ups 'intentionally rough and low fidelity', to encourage as much feedback as possible. 06. Axure Axure lets you create interactive HTML mockups for websites and apps Platform: Mac, Windows Price: $29-$99/month per user As well as creating mockups, Axure allows you to add functionality to your layout and create an interactive prototype. Features of this wireframing tool include sitemaps and various widgets in the form of various UI elements. Interactive HTML mockups can be created for both websites and apps, and you can even view your app design on your phone with a built-in share function. 07. Pidoco Pidoco includes a handy library of drag-and-drop interface elements Platform: Web-based Price: $12-$175/month Pidoco is similar to Axure in that it includes library of various drag-and-drop interface elements, as well as the ability to add multiple pages and layers. Your prototypes can be shared online with clients, and includes functions for collaborative feedback and discussion. Viewing your prototypes on your phone is as easy as downloading the Pidoco app. 08. Visio Viseo's interface will be familiar if you're used to using Microsoft Word or Excel Platform: Windows Price: £9.80 or £11.70 per month Viseo's real strength lies in technical diagrams rather than wireframing; however, for those already accustomed with other Microsoft apps such as Word or Excel, the interface will be very familiar. It is quite clunky, Viseo does offer add-on tools such as Swipr, which allows you to create and export a usable HTML prototype. 09. InDesign CC InDesign lets you use animations and videos in your wireframes Platform: Mac, Windows Price: From $16.44/month as part of Adobe Creative Cloud By including animations, video and object states, InDesign can be used to create an interactive PDF that acts as a wireframe for your website or app. The software also includes the ability to create libraries of page elements, so you can create collections of various reusable interface graphics. 10. Photoshop CC Never thought of Photoshop as a wireframing tool? Think again! Platform: Mac, Windows Price: From $16.44/month as part of Adobe Creative Cloud Photoshop doesn’t offer libraries of interface elements, but for straightforward, fast wireframing, it is a very easy choice for designers. If you're familiar with Adobe products, it's simple to sketch out quick ideas, group various elements and layers, and build an effective wireframe. Next page: 10 more top wireframe tools to explore 11. Protoshare Protoshare puts the emphasis on online collaboration Platform: Web-based Price: $29-$59/month Protoshare is an online tool with a focus on collaboration and sharing. It includes a library of drag-and-drop elements, a sitemap, and the ability to use custom CSS and insert your own elements. Due to the emphasis on online collaboration, unlike some other tools, it can't export as a PDF, however it is worth considering for its prototyping features. 12. Penultimate Wireframing for an iPad app? Then use an iPad tool! Platform: iPad Price: Free If you're working purely for iPad design, sketching out ideas directly within the device itself is the perfect way to ensure you’re working to the right ratio and with well-sized active areas. With Penultimate from Evernote, sketches and ideas can be easily saved and sent to clients for approval. 13. Pencil Project Pencil is free, open source and comes with a variety of templates Platform: Windows, Linux, Mac Price: Free Pencil is a free, open source wireframing tool available for Windows, Linux and Mac. Features include multi-page documents, external object import, as well as aligning, z-ordering, scaling and rotation. Various templates are included as well as the ability to export to HTML, PNG, Openoffice.org document, Word document, and PDF. 14. OmniGraffle OmniGraffle has made a seamless transition from Mac to iPad Platform: Mac, iPad, iPhone Price: From $49.99 (standard iOS version) OmniGraffle is effectively an ideas tool that enables you to quickly bash together website wireframes, diagrams, process charts or page layouts. You select a document type, and OmniGraffle makes context-sensitive joins between separate elements, automatically linking lines in diagrams and aligning shapes and elements in wireframes or page layouts. 15. Gliffy Gliffy aims to 'make diagramming a team sport' Platform: Web-based Price: $4.99-$7.99/month per user Gliffy is a tool that enables you to collaborate with other team members on flowcharts, network diagrams and more. It includes drag and drop components, online collaboration, image export and version tracking. 16. MockFlow MockFlow is another great wireframe tool Platform: Web-based Price: Free-$39/month Mockflow enables you to create working prototypes, and has an emphasis on collaboration and sharing. It includes features such as a sitemap creator for pages and folders, version tracking, image and component collections, chat, and HTML5 export. 17. Frame Box Frame Box is a good free solution for simple wireframes Platform: Online Price: Free Frame Box is a free online tool for very simple wireframing. It includes a few drag and drop elements and allows you to share the web page as a unique URL. You can also give your elements titles and descriptions to help explain their function. 18. FlairBuilder FlairBuilder lets you choose between ‘high-fidelity’ and ‘low-fidelity’ style graphics Platform: Mac, Windows Price: $99 Flairbuilder features multi-page projects, site map and comments. Like the rest, components are placed using a drag-and-drop interface and a clickable prototypes can be exported as HTML or shared online. You can also choose between 'high-fidelity' and 'low-fidelity' style graphics. 19. HotGloo Wireframing tool HotGloo offers a rich range of features Platform: Web-based Price: $13-$54/month HotGloo's prototyping alone offers a rich range of features that goes far beyond simple clickable buttons. For example, users can change displayed elements depending on whether or not a user is logged in. And don't forget... pen and paper There's nothing quicker than grabbing a pen and paperYes. An actual pen. And some real made-from-wood paper. OK, so these don’t allow you to make a prototype, and there are no built-in elements. But, if you feel more comfortable using a more traditional approach, why not get your ideas down on paper first and refine them in software later? 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