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The words ‘stock imagery’ bring to mind cliches such as 'Woman on telephone in call centre,' 'People shaking hands' and 'Man with furrowed brow in front of laptop.' But is that all that stock libraries have to offer? It’s certainly the case that there are some poor stock images out there, not to mention poor uses of otherwise good quality photography. But that doesn’t mean that you should discount the very real strides stock libraries have made in recent years in creating high-quality imagery that can help bring your designs to life. Here we examine some of the biggest myths surrounding stock imagery, and why they’re just plain wrong... Myth 01: Stock photography lacks authenticity 'Exercising with kettlebells gym' by Ryan J Lane The overly polished, glossy and unrealistic stereotype of stock imagery is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Search for stock images today and you’ll find a range of realistic representations of how people today really live and interact. Freelance graphic designer and illustrator Gavin Campbell believes that this change has been driven in part by demand from creatives. “I’ve been using stock libraries for about 16 years,” he says. “There’s always the issue of having 'stock that looks like stock’, and I think that over the last 10 years there’s been a great need for me to get hold of stock that doesn’t look like stock; that looks more creative. So I think it’s getting better.” Myth 02: Stock imagery is unprofessional Sophie Ebrard is a commercial photographer who’s been approached by stock image librariesYou’ll often hear from designers and agency heads that they never use stock, because their clients wouldn’t accept it. But ask yourself: has a client really ever complained about the use of a stock image – or even had any clue about where an image came from? Or are you just putting your own preconceptions into their mouths? Because the idea that stock imagery is of necessity low quality is probably more in your head than anything else. “I think there’s a shift, so photographers now really care about the images that they put on stock libraries, as if they are images they would use for their own portfolio,” says Adobe’s Richard Curtis. “Photography is a very challenged market right now,” he points out. Everyone’s got a camera, everyone thinks they are a professional photographer. So I think the opportunity for photographers is to take stock seriously. The difference is quality.” Photographer Sophie Ebrard is living proof of this. “I am a commercial photographer who makes money by doing advertising campaigns,” she explains. “I’ll also shoot my personal work and on the side I’ve been approached by a stock company that wanted some of my pictures. When advertising agencies present work to clients, let’s say Corona, they haven’t shot the pictures yet, but they want to show the work in order to present it to the client – so they need to have that image ready.” Myth 03: Stock imagery is homogeneous 'Mixed race lesbian family portrait' by funky-data Advertisement It’s easy to associate stock imagery with smiling, airbrushed models and happy, 'perfect' nuclear families. But that’s very much not the case any more. In today’s stock libraries you’ll find representations of humanity in all its diversity, including single parents, gay parents, stay-at-home dads, mixed race families and blended families. This is partly a reaction to changing social trends, but it’s also about stock providers driving change themselves. For example, iStock by Getty Images has been been actively collaborating with LeanIn.Org, the women's empowerment nonprofit founded by Sheryl Sandberg, to eradicate stereotypes in stock images and present positive role models of today’s women. Myth 04: Stock imagery is a cheap knock-off These days, photographers are taking stock seriously, says Paul SandersUsing a stock image in your designs is certainly cheaper than going out and organising a bespoke shoot for yourself. But that doesn’t mean there’s anything cheap about the product itself. In fact, pro photographers are making good money out of stock these days – more so than other areas – and so are keen to put the effort in and do the best job they can. By way of example, photographer Paul Sanders notes in Professional Photography issue 17 that when he was picture editor of The Times, “There was a chap who came in and said, ‘I want to make money in news photography.’ I said, ‘There is no money in news photography. You get paid £160 a shift and some expenses and that’s it. 'If you want to make money, go to London, photograph all the street furniture, all the signs, all the road signs, all the stuff on the pavements that say, Cycle, Give Way and everything. Put it with a stock library and you’ll make money from being in newspapers. Your name will never appear next to any pictures in a newspaper, but you’ll make money from it.’ And he phoned me up about 18 months later and said he’s making £65,000 a year – this was 10 years ago.” Photographers wouldn’t be making this much money if they weren’t providing the kind of images that people are looking for, so why not check out stock libraries and see what all the fuss is about? Myth 05: Stock is just about photography Stock image libraries now often offer illustrations, video and icons If you assumed that all you could get from stock libraries was stock photography, then think again. Stock video footage, including 4K videos, stock illustrations, stock icons, stock textures and more are all on offer. In fact, some libraries are now even providing 360-degree stock video for your virtual reality projects. In short, If there’s a design asset you’re looking for, you’ll probably be able to find it in a stock library. Take a look at some of the cool visuals on offer in our 7 sources of free design inspiration from stock libraries post. View the full article

The biggest shopping event of the year, Black Friday 2017, is just around the corner – and we're here to help you snap up the best Currys Black Friday deals for designers, illustrators and artists. Last year there were offers on LG and Samsung TVs, HP laptops and even coffee machines for those times when you need to burn the midnight oil. Currys Black Friday 2017 is probably going to include similar bargains – and better – for design studios, freelancers and students, so read on to learn how you can cash in. The best Amazon Black Friday deals 2017What Black Friday deals can you look forward to? With a little bit of detective work, we can make a strong educated guess as to what the retailer might offer this year. On Currys' very own Black Friday page they're keen to point out that last year's popular deals (including Dyson vacuum cleaners, HP laptops and Samsung TVs) are due to be topped. So if you're after a new screen, headphones or monitor, Black Friday 2017 is the time to check in and start buying. Just be sure to be online at midnight on 24 November so that you can catch the best deals. It's worth pointing out that Currys' price promise states that the shop "won't be beaten on any price". You can guarantee the team will be working hard to have the very best Black Friday 2017 offers available – and that includes for designers. Currys best Black Friday 2016 deals As we mentioned above, the best deals from Currys Black Friday 2016 included discounts on LG and Samsung TVs, coffee machines, Dyson vacuum cleaners and HP laptops. For designers, though, one of the best discounts was on the Lenovo IdeaPad 510 15.6 inch laptop, with Currys offering a saving of £160.99. If Currys is true to its word and plans to outdo its deals from 2016, there's a good chance there will be similar laptop discounts. On top of this, 2016 also saw some juicy discounts on HP all-in-one wireless inkjet printers. Combined with a discount code, shoppers were able to grab the HP ENVY 4524 All-in-One Wireless Inkjet Printer for just £31.50. How to get the best Currys Black Friday deal Great offers are all well and good, but unless you know how to get them into your shopping basket there's no point in knowing they exist. For Currys Black Friday 2017, you're going to need all the buying-know how possible to secure those deals. Looking at last year's highlights is a good indicator of what to expect. During Currys Black Friday 2016, the offers went live at 12am, with five orders being placed per second during peak trading. Some 48 per cent of visitors made transactions over a mobile device. So if you're going to nab a bargain from Currys this Black Friday, do yourself a favour and dodge the crowds by ordering from Currys online. You'll want to stay up late to get a head start (this is also a good time to put that cheap coffee machine your picked up in last year's sale to use), plus you can also register on the Currys site for the latest info and updates of their promotions. Don't forget, with Currys, Black Friday is more than a one day event. Last year there were 10 days of Black Friday discounts. They're likely to spread the offers over an extended period again this year, so don't be disheartened if you can't secure a deal straightaway. That's all we've got for Currys Black Friday 2017 for now, but be sure to check in with this page closer to the time for your first look of the best bargains for designers, illustrator and artists. View the full article

If you’re looking to take your digital art to the next level, investing in the best drawing tablet for your needs and budget is essential. Sure, a standard tablet combined with a decent stylus – or an iPad Pro with iOS 11 – can be used. But buying a dedicated graphics tablet gives illustrators and creative professionals far greater flexibility. Of course, there is a huge range of drawing tablets on the market. From powerful, feature-packed drawing tablets that come with high resolution touchscreens and advanced features, to mid-range and budget graphics tablets that find a balance between price and power, it can be tricky to choose the best one for your needs. Also, some drawing tablets display your artwork on their touchscreens as you draw, while others plug into your PC and display your illustrations on the monitor. The first option is better for artists who like to draw on the move; the second is more affordable, and enables you to see your work on a larger, higher resolution screen. To help you pick, we’ve curated the best drawing tablets right here – so you’ll be able to find the perfect graphics tablet for your needs. Wacom is a name that will be familiar to most digital artists – and for good reason. Its excellent range of drawing tablets dominate the market. The Wacom MobileStudio Pro 13 is the company's most impressive offering yet. The feature-packed graphics tablet has been specially designed for professional creatives. It boasts a gorgeous, high resolution screen that's a joy to draw on thanks to the impressive Wacom Pro Pen 2 stylus, along with powerful components that keep the Wacom MobileStudio Pro 13 feeling responsive. Colour accuracy is excellent, making the tablet fit for high-end print production work. And if you feel the 13.3-inch, WQHD display is a little too restrictive, you can get a 16-inch model with UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution instead. Read more: The incredible Wacom MobileStudio Pro 13 is also a 3D scanner Wacom chalks up its second appearance on our list of the best graphic tablets with the excellent Wacom Cintiq 13HD. Balancing cost and quality, this is a serious piece of kit. As well as a responsive, pin-sharp and highly accurate screen, the Wacom Cintiq 13HD is very comfortable to use. And despite the 13HD Touch's party trick of being finger-operable, the star of the show is Wacom's bundled Pro Pen, which comes with six nibs and offers 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt recognition. The Cintiq 13HD also features the familiar-to-Wacom-users ExpressKeys, which are fully customisable and are a real boon for Photoshop work particularly. Read more: Wacom Cintiq 13HDr review The Huion 1060Plus Graphic Tablet is our pick of the best drawing tablet for beginners. It has a low price, yet comes with enough features that you won’t find yourself held back once your ability and confidence grows. The graphics tablet works with both Windows and Mac machines, and despite its low price, still performs well – offering a quick response time as you use the stylus. The stylus itself isn’t as feature-packed as ones that come with (more expensive) Wacom graphics tablets, but it does the job well. It also comes with accessories including an artist glove, anti-scratch cover and more, making it an excellent choice for your first drawing tablet. If you’re on a tight budget, but don’t want to make too many compromises, then the Huion H610 Pro Graphics Drawing Pen Tablet is an excellent choice. Its low price and lightweight design mean it’s the ideal tablet to sling into your bag while you travel. It connects to your PC or Mac via a USB cable, and it comes with a good array of features despite its budget price, such as built-in keys along the side of the workspace, and a rechargeable stylus that comes with five nibs. This doesn’t come with the stylish design and build quality of more expensive drawing tablets, but considering its price, you get plenty of features and a solid performance from the Huion H610. This year’s iPad Pro is an excellent choice if you’re looking for an Apple-made tablet. Sure, it’s not a dedicated graphics tablet, but the fact that the iPad Pro can be used for other tasks as well as drawing means that despite its high price tag, it could be a canny investment. It doesn’t come with a stylus included, but you can use third party ones – or Apple’s own Pencil stylus, which along with a huge range of apps available from the App store, means you can comfortably use the iPad Pro as a drawing tablet without making compromises. As we’ve come to expect from Apple devices, the screen is excellent, and although the large display size makes this a big tablet to carry around, it’s also incredibly thin and light. Overall, this if you're looking for an Apple-made graphics tablet, this is a well built and desirable device. Read more: iPad Pro 12.9 (2017) review If you’d rather have an Android-powered tablet that can double as a drawing tablet, then the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is an excellent choice. It comes with Samsung’s S Pen stylus, and the screen is responsive enough to draw on. The Google Play Store is home to a huge amount of digital art apps as well, and there’s the flexibility that comes with a tablet that can also browse the web, send emails and much more. You may find the screen size a little cramped, but it’s bright and vibrant, with very good colour accuracy. It also means that the size of this tablet is kept down, making it easy to carry around with you. Read more: TechRadar’s Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 review The XP-Pen Artist 10S is the best graphics tablet for anyone looking for something that's small, light and highly portable. Thanks to its small design, you can carry it with you everywhere for when inspiration strikes. The design means the screen size is also shrunk, as is its resolution, but it’s a price worth paying for if you're after the ultimate portable graphics tablet. Buttons along the side of the screen enable you to quickly change settings on the go, and the drawing experience is responsive and accurate with the included stylus. There are a few niggles here – it’s a bit more complicated to set up and requires two USB cables to connect to your PC. And you may find you need to tweak a couple of settings to get the best results. But with it all set up and ready to go, you’ll be very pleased with the XP-Pen Artist 10S. Also read: The best laptops for photo editing View the full article

Brought to you by Bristol-based creative company thread Events, Something Good is a new festival-style event promising two days of inspirational talks and practical workshops. Taking place on 6-7 October, the event aims to celebrate “the magic of the creative process”. It'll see huge industry names descend on the south-west city, including queen of colour Morag Myerscough, minimalist designer Anthony Burrill, quirky Swedish design studio Snask, digital and analog artist Brendan Dawes, Spitting Image plasticine sculptor Wilfrid Wood, the city’s own Gavin Strange of Aardman animation (aka JamFactory) and more. Creative Bloq readers can get 20 per cent off talk and workshop tickets with the code: CreativeBloq20. To give you an idea of what to expect from Something Good, we caught up with Ben Steers, founder of thread Events. The festival boasts a stellar speaker lineup Putting on a brand new event must be exciting and nerve-wracking – what made you decide to create Something Good? Ben Steers: With thread, our mission was to create a series of events that harnessed the creative community of Bristol and the South West. The events are designed to be comfortable, open and diverse, while creating a space for creatives to come together, meet and get inspired. After a year and a half, and seven sell-out events, with talks (and quizzes) from the likes of Jon Burgerman, Mr Bingo, Animade, Hey, DesignStudio and ustwo, we’ve been blown away by the popularity of the events and the feedback we’ve had from guests. Morag Myerscough will speak about her creative process on Friday 6 October The next question was a fairly natural one: can we go bigger? In a city with a thriving creative community, which is famous for its diverse range of festivals, it seemed strange that there wasn’t a festival dedicated to the creative arts. Our mission, therefore, was to bring the ethos of thread to a larger audience and create a festival that focuses on, and celebrates, the magic of the creative process. We wanted to avoid it feeling like a conference, and instead, create a design festival that is exciting, inspiring, comfortable and open to everyone. What are you most excited about for Something Good? BS: All of it! For the inaugural year we’ve got some brilliant speakers coming from across the UK and Europe, including the likes of Anthony Burrill, Morag Myerscough, Snask and Trapped in Suburbia, super talented creatives and studios in their own right. We’ve also got a load of stuff going on throughout the day, as well as a number of surprises planned for our guests. It’s going to be a lot of fun. How is it different to other design events? BS: For a start, we’re not using the ‘c’ word: ‘conference’. The ethos of Something Good is laid back and comfortable, creating a space for creatives to come and enjoy inspiring talks and workshops while having a good time. We’re planning the whole experience around the festival, from the moment guests arrive on the Friday morning, to when they leave a workshop on the Saturday. It’s two days of creative events across the city; that’s something that hasn’t been done before in Bristol. Learn to make plasticine portraits with satirical sculptor Wilfrid Wood on Saturday 7 October Bristol has an incredibly vibrant (and perhaps competitive) creative scene. How does setting the event there affect the event’s format and content? BS: It does indeed and it’s something the city should be really proud of. I’m super proud to be part of the creative community here and there’s definitely less ego and bravado here than somewhere like London. I’ve always found the creative community to be very open and friendly, with people willing to get involved and help where they can. It’s part of what makes this city so great. See the Something Good speaker lineup See the Something Good workshop schedule The Snask team are coming over from Stockholm to speakBeing a Bristol festival, we’ve made sure that there’s plenty of diversity across the programme of events. We’ve got a really diverse team of creatives, who work across various different disciplines, speaking on the Friday, as well as a really varied programme of hands-on workshops on the Saturday. We’re also collaborating with some great local creative businesses and there’ll even be some live music to boot. You’ve managed to score some pretty big names, how did you lure them away from London? BS: Simple: we asked! It’s a bit of a cliche, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get. A good example was how we managed to secure Anthony Burrill. When we originally asked him, he was a little unsure. So I travelled to London to a Nicer Tuesdays event he was speaking at to try to convince him that it’d be a good idea. Luckily he’s a really nice guy so he didn’t need much convincing. Anthony Burrill will share his creative process in a talk and teach an intimate letterpress workshopFor others coming from outside the UK, including Snask, we were really surprised at how up for it they were. I think having a clear vision for the festival, and a good-looking identity for the festival, helps. We had a hit list of creatives that we wanted on the lineup (some were pretty ambitious) and we’ve managed to get the majority of them, which is great. The open workshops around the city sound really fun and inclusive, what was the thinking behind them? BS: That’s great that you think that because that’s exactly the vibe we were trying to acheive: fun and inclusive. The reason for the two days and the format of talks on the Friday and workshops on the Saturday, is that we give people the opportunity to get inspired and then get their hands dirty the following day. Make your own linocut tarot cards in artist Sophy Hollington's workshop on Saturday 7 OctoberOur aim was to create a programme of workshops that was diverse and covered a range of creative disciplines. Run by creative practitioners, workshoppers will get an insight into their working process, while learning new skills. Can you tell us any more about the talks – what themes do you expect to hear? BS: The focus of the talks will be on the blood, sweat and tears behind the work. Our guests can expect to get an insight into how these creatives work and how they developed their style; how they tackle commercial briefs and tricky clients; as well as creative side projects and what keeps them stimulated outside of work. Catch Something Good on 6-7 October, and get 20 per cent off the price of talk and workshop tickets on the Something Good website with the code: CreativeBloq20. Related articles: 25 names every graphic designer should know The best laptops for photo editing Top 20 new creative tools of 2017 so far View the full article

https://www.digitallife.gr/apistefto-idi-polountai-maskes-ypnou-gia-tin-prostasia-apo-tin-klopi-taftotitas-meso-tou-face-id-tou-iphone-x-81343 … View the full article

Users who run four different types of VMware products, ESXi, vCenter Server, Fusion and Workstation, are being encouraged to update to address a series of vulnerabilities, one critical. View the full article

Every autumn, Computer Arts celebrates the best branding from around the world at its annual Brand Impact Awards ceremony – which took place on 14 September at the Ham Yard hotel in London’s trendy Soho. The results are on display in an extra-special edition of CA, which showcases 47 world-class projects: 16 of which are highly commended, with just 11 of them outright winners. Buy Computer Arts issue 271 now But it’s not just about bringing home trophies. Making the BIA shortlist at all is no mean feat, and the special report at the core of CA issue 271 taps the wisdom of all 32 shortlisted agencies. Print readers can also enjoy two foils on the cover – a sophisticated matt gold, and a striking shiny copper are a nod to our Winner and Best of Show trophies. There are also two colourways: slate grey, and subtle cream. You can watch a making-of video, filmed behind the scenes at CA's print finishing partner Celloglas, here: Diversity in design The BIA ceremony puts many top creative directors in one room for an inspiring showcase of branding at its best. However, events like these can also highlight the relative lack of diversity at the upper echelons of our industry. With this in mind, and following a recent government report that further emphasised the dominance of white men in the creative sector, we’ve grasped the nettle to explore some of the barriers in place for people to enter and progress through the industry, plus advice to help your studio encourage a more diverse pool of talent. Also in issue 271 of Computer Arts In our video profile, DixonBaxi reveals why it pays to be creatively restless CA's junior designer manual series continues with a guide to retouching images Plus: the best new graphic design, illustration and motion work from around the world Subscribe today to secure your next special issue Next month is another special issue, as CA reveals the top 50 in the fourth-annual UK Studio Rankings – the result of an extensive peer reputation survey of over 80 creative directors. The collectable glow-in-the-dark cover will be designed by the number-one agency on the list, but you’ll have to wait to find out who that is: subscribe today to guarantee your copy! View the full article

Hailing from the heart of the Lake District, Derwent is the quintessential UK brand when it comes to artists’ quality pencils. Derwent has been crafting pencils since 1832, so should know a thing or two about what makes a good one. Always drawn to perfection, its previous coloured pencil ranges have been highly acclaimed among pencil enthusiasts worldwide, made famous by the company's innovative approach to product ranges, pigment-packed leads and top-quality wooden shafts. Following Derwent’s popular Artists, Coloursoft and Studio ranges comes the brand-spanking new Procolour range for 2017. Available in an array of tin quantities, there’s a set to fit most budgets and any of these would make a handsome addition to your studio set-up or sketching kit. Pencil performance The 72-pencil set should definitely be on the studio wish-list, though. This comprehensive set is presented in two vac-form trays tiered within a sturdy metal tin, perfect protection for carting about across dale or on a more urban trek. UK: Get Derwent Procolour Pencils tin of 72 US: Get Derwent Procolour Pencils tin of 72 The tin itself is adorned with the new Derwent branding of the dark-blue toned Union flag design, which makes it instantly recognisable and looks pretty cool, too. The product design makes for a pencil that feels substantial, with each one having a sturdy circular shaft that slots well between the fingers. They look the part too, sporting a sleek matte-grey body embossed with silver type declaring the country of origin, brand, inventive moniker, a handy reference number (for when you drop the lot and need to put them back in order) and finally a lovely gloopy wedge of colour for quick and easy identification. The wooden shafts and leads sharpen effortlesslyWhen it comes to pencils the proof is always in the drawing and the new Derwent Procolour don’t disappoint. Due to its substantial design, the pencil sits comfortably in the hand and its sturdiness gives you the confidence to wield it with unabashed fervour. The lead also feels well balanced on paper. Not too waxy (you can get softer pencils from Derwent if that’s what you’re after) and not too brittle. The high pigment levels are evident from just the lightest of touches, and applying increments of greater pressure gives a wonderful gradation of pure colour without pushing into the surface of your paper or support. The pencils obviously blend wonderfully, but the colours might be best served using a build-up of cross-hatching that allows the purity of each colour to sing out. Sharpening is also a doddle with the wooden shafts and leads reacting effortlessly to a quality metal sharpener or scalpel. There’s a special relationship we artists have with what goes on between the tip of a pencil and our minds’ eye – it’s a subtle balance of trust and experience. If you’re new to the world of pencils, you won’t go far wrong with Derwent. And if your allegiances lie elsewhere, it might be time to gift yourself the chance to try something new. UK: Get Derwent Procolour Pencils tin of 72 US: Get Derwent Procolour Pencils tin of 72 This article originally appeared in Paint and Draw issue 9. Subscribe today. Related articles: How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorials How to hold a pencil correctly How to improve your character drawing View the full article

The concept for this project, Mushroom Goblin, comes from a drawing by my friend Adrian Smith. I have been working on making this concept into a 3D printed collectible for the site Industria Mechanika. Prep your work for 3D printing: 8 top tipsI used ZBrush to create a 3D sculpt, Polypaint for quick texturing and V-Ray for rendering. I will share my entire process with you, explaining how I took a 2D concept and turned it into a 3D illustration. 01. Study the drawing The original concept for this project is by Adrian Smith Before diving into any project, it’s important to do what I call a ‘warm up’ to get the hang of the character. This warm up could be drawing the character from different angles or messing around with clay for some basic forms, for example. Warming up first means that the digital sculpting process becomes more free-flowing. I also try to draw roughs of the character in T-pose if not provided in the concept so that I can get a good sense of the proportions. Always try to nail the proportions of a concept because they are what make the character look cool in the concept art. You can modify the original later if required, but it’s a good idea to stick to original proportions at least at first. 02. Create a base mesh Sculpt a base mesh using ZSpheres I usually make a base mesh in Maya and get it ready to be sculpted in ZBrush, which is kind of an old-school method. But for this project, I use ZSpheres to make the base mesh. Zspheres mean I can quickly extrude body volumes and create an armature in minutes. This armature acts as my base mesh. You can choose whichever method you like to get your basic mesh. 03. Basic sculpting Keep checking the concept when sculpting I start sculpting basic forms on the base mesh, but only add secondary forms after I feel it’s time to unwrap and pose. The rest of the detailed sculpting can follow later. It’s important not to hesitate when changing proportions and forms in the process. Keep visualising the form, check how it reads in the concept art and try to fill in the third dimension. A good understanding of anatomy is essential while sculpting a character. So if you don’t know much about anatomy then at least refer to reference. 04. Retopologise model Using Maya's Quad Draw Tool is a quick way to retopologise Retoplogy of the basic sculpting can be done directly in ZBrush. I used to prefer TopoGun but I now I tend to use Maya’s latest Quad Draw Tool, which is really handy and quick. Try to capture mid-level details while retopologising to get better results after subdivisions. This is also useful when projecting details later. 05. Sculpt secondary details At this stage, focus on getting the details right Secondary forms help to add details to the existing primary forms by giving it a more finished look. So when you zoom out, the primary forms should read neatly, and when zoomed in a bit, the secondary shapes should just complement rather than supersede. 06. Unwrap your model There is more than one method for unwrapping your model There are various ways to unwrap your model. I use Maya for basic unwrapping and then UV Master in ZBrush. I define the seams of the UVs where necessary in Maya, and then in ZBrush press Unwrap, keeping the existing UVs, and it’s done. ZBrush does the relaxing of UVs quite effectively, especially if the seams are defined properly. 07. Pose using Transpose Master This model is posed sitting on a mushroom After unwrapping the model, I start to pose the character using Transpose Master – a simple masking method – and the rotate tool. It’s not always 100 per cent accurate, but is a quick way to get a pose for illustrative purposes. Posing will help you realise if you need to make any further changes to the proportions – do so now if necessary. After posing there will be areas to clean up. Next, you can move onto adding more details. 08. Add detailing The artist created some of his own alphas for this stage For detailing, again it’s important to retain the secondary shapes and any detailing should complement the forms instead of just using of random alphas. I use the DragRect stroke with alphas. 09. Polypaint in ZBrush Polypainting adds instant life and realism to the model Polypaint in ZBrush is an amazing tool that helps to quickly paint over your model in layers. I use the Spray stroke and Alpha 07 in ZBrush to paint the basic colours to get the overall character covered. Then I keep adding layers of colours and strokes until I feel that it’s close enough to the concept artwork. 10. Extract maps Some of the maps used for this project Multi Map Exporter in ZBrush helps to extract different maps as required. I usually extract some basic maps such as diffuse, specular, SSS, displacement and normal maps. These maps can be then be used to plug into the various render engines. I use V-Ray for this. 11. Set-up in Maya Scaling various elements of your project is vital Using a real-world scale for your models helps you to get accurate results when rendering. But sometimes you have to deal with scaled-down models for specific needs. My goblin character is around two-feet-tall when standing up and in this case, the lighting, exposure, and other factors need to be adjusted accordingly. I don’t recommend using displacement maps if your machine is not super-powerful. Instead, it’s better to export a decent high-res model from ZBrush and normal maps, especially if it’s for a fixed camera angle. That way, you will get quicker results. However, if your machine is powerful enough, then you should go for displacement maps. For this project, I have varied subdivision levels from subtool to subtool exported as per the distance from the camera, which is fixed in Maya. 11. Render in V-Ray Keep testing before finalising the lighting set-up I use VRayLightRect and VRayLightSphere lights to light the scene. Now it’s time to test lots of rendering before finalising the lighting set-up. I place a few area lights from the top. Their intensity and angles vary. Not all of the lights actually light the character. There are a few that are exempt from lighting different parts and a few are included to light the hidden areas. This is not a traditional three-point lighting set-up, but it works for the look I am aiming for. For the grass, I used VRayFur, which is super-fast and gives decent results with a few tweaks. 13. Start compositing A selection of render passes done for this project I do various render passes in Maya with V-Ray, including Diffuse, Specular, SSS, ZDepth and fur pass. It’s also good to have a selection pass, which is helpful to select regions in Photoshop. Play around with the Layers in Photoshop and try to go through and check all the filters (I use Dissolve, Multiply and Overlay between different Layers) to get the desired output. It’s fun. For me, there is no specific method to achieve a specific look. I’m always experimenting and the compositing process is constantly evolving for me. This way of working often leads to happy accidental results that I try and embrace if I can. 14. Final render Colour correction adds the finishing touches Once I am happy with the final look of my piece, I usually export a high-res .tiff file as the master file. Then, with all the Layers merged, I try to colour correct a bit more to enhance the overall look. Usually this means playing around with the colour balance settings in Photoshop until I’m totally happy with my project. This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 224. Buy it here. Related articles: Sculpt realistic anatomy in ZBrush The 10 best ZBrush plugins Top tips for sculpting a creature in ZBrush View the full article

Studying design is about crafting a great design portfolio that will wow potential employers, right? Well, yes. But don't discount the importance of astute creative thinking, and expressing yourself eloquently through the written word. In short, your design dissertation matters. "I don't believe that design students should be focused entirely on portfolio work," argues Myrna MacLeod, programme leader for Graphic Design at Edinburgh Napier University. "They should also be able to demonstrate an interest in the contexts that underpin their work, and the histories and connections that have informed our practice." 5 top tips for graduate designers"Think of a dissertation as an opportunity, not a burden," urges Craig Burston, Graphic and Media Design course leader at London College of Communication (LCC). "It gives us visually-minded people an opportunity to demonstrate that we too can construct arguments and distil complex notions." As Burston points out, this is not just an academic exercise: the power of persuasion is often key to success as a commercial designer. "Clients seek clarity, and project concepts or proposals need to be put into context," he says. Read on to discover some top tips from leading tutors and their students for nailing your design dissertation first time… Treat it like a design brief "A great dissertation should be a designed artefact, and portfolio-worthy in its own right," believes Burston. And like a design brief, it should be about solving a problem: "Make sure it has clearly stated aims, strong focus, and doesn't lack opinion or rhetoric," he adds. "The value of a designed dissertation as portfolio piece is that it is a holistic view of the individual," agrees Sarah James, senior lecturer in Visual Communication at Arts University Bournemouth (AUB). "It shows, type, editorial, research, and aesthetic skill, as well as the personal interests and convictions of the individual." For her AUB dissertation on responsive type, Maarit Koobas conducted an extensive research processJames identifies AUB student Maarit Koobas, who investigated responsive type in both her dissertation and final project, as a particularly strong example of this. "Her design version was one of the most authentic, restrained and elegantly expressive I have ever received," she enthuses. Koobas conducted a huge amount of initial research into both the contexts in which responsive type can be seen – such as advertising, product design, science and material cultures – and the theories behind its analysis, including semiotics, philosophy and politics. "Creating and analysing ideas, before they end up in your portfolio, is what design is all about," argues Koobas. Write about your passion "To develop essay questions, AUB students are asked to consider what they love, hate, or are puzzled by in their practice – essentially, what moves them," explains James. "A poor dissertation is inauthentically chosen for ease as opposed to interest," she adds. "It rambles and blusters, using complex language to mask insufficient research." "You can tell a mile off when the writer isn't interested," agrees Burston. "How can you expect the reader to care about it if you don't? Write about something that reflects your interests, focus and direction. I've read fascinating dissertations on topics as diverse as patterns in nature, and Brutalist car parks. Make me interested in what interests you." Research by Napier graduate Fiona Winchester on typography in graphic novelsFor Edinburgh Napier graduate Fiona Winchester, this topic turned out to be typography in graphic novels. "I love reading them, but I think people still don't take them seriously as an art form, which is a shame," she says. For her dissertation, she conducted qualitative interviews using modified pages with and without imagery (shown above). Her advice is simple: "Narrow down your idea to be precise as possible. The smaller your question, the easier it is to research and try to answer it." If you're struggling to get the ball rolling on the actual writing process, Winchester advocates starting with whichever bit you have ideas for. "If you're stuck, it's so much easier to write in whatever order it comes to you, and then edit it into a dissertation, than to try write straight through from beginning to end," she insists. Don't be afraid to talk to people "I always think my students get the most out of the new streams of knowledge they find from talking to people," says McLeod. "It breaks down barriers and allows them to find answers to problems. Hopefully they will adopt that approach when designing for people also." In some cases, this can involve interviewing your design heroes: "Students are very surprised when they send a question to Stefan Sagmeister, Milton Glaser or Michael Wolff and they reply with the most precious nugget of knowledge," smiles McLeod. But remember: it's your dissertation, so don't get lazy and expect your interview subject to do all the heavy lifting. Kaori Toh's CSM dissertation on Mapping as a Creative Agency: Revelations and Speculations in the Age of InfrastructureIn other cases, it could be as simple as asking friends or family to help proofread. "It is quite daunting writing such a large body of text," admits Kaori Toh, a recent graduate from Central Saint Martins, whose dissertation explored the politics of design and technology. "I often felt I'd get lost in all that text and research," she confesses. "Therefore, I would often send my drafts to a couple of friends to have them look through, and keep my writing cohesive." Reflect on your design practice Most of all, dissertations are an opportunity to reflect on, and develop, your creative process as a designer. "Ultimately, it's your job to make your work relevant and credible, and the dissertation helps you learn how to do this," adds Burston. Of course, writing doesn't always come easily to visually minded people – and Burston highlights the fact that dyslexia is not uncommon amongst designers. "You're not on your own – in our profession, quite the opposite in fact – so do seek academic support, and just enjoy thinking and writing about 'stuff' that informs your practice," is his advice. Entitled New Faces, Tom Baber's thesis at LCC discusses the craft of type design in the 21st century, inspired by his own experience creating a working typeface: Elephant GroteskOne of Burston's stand-out students from this year, Tom Baber, welcomed support from the university to help with his dyslexia. Baber's dissertation focused on type design, and particularly the extent to which the longwinded design process is worth the effort, compared to using an existing typeface. "I saw it as an opportunity to approach other type designers and see what they thought. Turns out I'm not the first to ask the question," he smiles. "Writing my dissertation helped me change from a 'maker' mentality to a 'designer' mentality, and be more critical of my ideas." Related articles: 15 things they didn't teach you at design school The skills every design graduate needs 5 alternative routes into design education View the full article

Adobe applications are still the gold standard for designers after all these years. These are the tools you'll absolutely need to know how to use if you want to get work as a graphic designer, and you can master these programs with Graphic Design Certification School. Get it on sale for 96% off the retail price! You're going to need to have at least some familiarity with Adobe products if you want work as a graphic designer. The Graphic Design Certification School will teach you how to make the most of Adobe's powerful design tools – including Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. You'll get tons of actionable lessons that will teach how to take your ideas and bring them to life on screen. You can also get certifications to prove your skills after each course you complete! The Graphic Design Certification School is valued at over $1,197, but you can get this incredible bundle of courses on sale for 96% off the retail price! That means you pay just $39 (approx. £30) for a bundle that will help you improve and certify your skills, 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. View the full article

Fonts come in all manner of designs – retro fonts, handwriting fonts and script fonts, to name a few. In this article, we're focusing on brush fonts, which can add a playful, human approach to your designs. Plus, they look great printed. Here, we've scoured the web to find 20 top examples of free brush fonts to put to good use in your projects. Enjoy! 01. Atmosphere Atmosphere's slightly dry brush texture really brings it to lifeThere are plenty of reasons to love Yasir Ekinci's brush font, Atmosphere, not least that it's free for both personal and commercial use. The font features both uppercase and lowercase characters, as well as numbers and all the punctuation and symbols you'll need, all of them hand-drawn with an authentic and wonderfully scratchy brush texture. And as an added bonus, Yasir has thrown in a set of 20 watercolour splotches to help liven up your work. 02. Rustico Rustico is a great statement font with an energetic feelMade by Hustle Supply Co., Rustico is a bold brush font that's designed to help you make an eye-catching statement, whatever you're creating. Free for both personal and commercial use, its all-caps letterforms are drawn at a slight italic slant, and the rough and realistic brush texture gives Rustico a lively and energetic feel. 03. Westfalia Westfalia provides an authentic hand-drawn feel with its messy edges and varied line thicknessA hand-painted, free brush font, Westfalia was created by the team at Pixel Surplus. Providing an authentic hand-drawn feel with its messy edges and varied line thickness, Westfalia is great for any outdoor and exploration-themed design work. 04. Wild Youth Wild Youth is a modern font with the distinct influence of adventure and the great outdoorsWild Youth is beautiful hand-drawn brush font from designer Jeremy Vessey. Available on Behance, Wild Youth is described as 'a modern font with the distinct influence of adventure and the great outdoors'. Perfect for logos, quotes, stationary, apparel and much more, Wild Youth is free for both personal and commercial use. 05. Banaue Banaue is a handwritten brush font with a homemade lookHand brushed by Ieva Mezule, Banaue is a handwritten free brush font with a homemade look. The name is taken from the Philippines, Banaue being a place in the north where rice terraces stretch around mountains, hence the lady in the blue raincoat, a local rice planter, featured in the main image. Banaue features 104 characters, with all the basic glyphs. 06. Brusher Brusher is a bold and modern brush fontCreated by Vlad Cristea and Raul Taciu, Brusher is a bold and modern brush font. It includes 100 glyphs (including full uppercase and lowercase sets) crafted with precise strokes and smooth lines to give a fresh, modern look. The uneven letter sizes and shapes create a pleasingly hand-drawn effect, while still remaining neat and controlled. 07. Summer Hearts Summer Hearts brush fonts is great for a variety of print and digital projectsSummer Hearts is a hand-painted, all-caps brush typeface designed by Hustle Supply Co, aka Jeremy Vessey, a type designer based in Charlottetown, Canada. The slightly spiky nature of these letterforms would make this free brush font great for a variety of print and digital projects, including posters, branding and logo design. 08. Selima Selima is free for both personal and commercial useThis font was designed by Jroh, is a creative agency based in Aceh in Indonesia. Selima is beautiful and elegant brush font, which is free for both personal and commercial use. Its curved letterforms are combined with slightly raw edges to give a haphazard, free feel. 09. Rissa Rissa is perfectly suited to stationery, logos and much moreWith an authentic brush, handcrafted feel, Rissa is perfectly suited to stationery, logos and much more. This free font comes from Maulana Creative, a graphic design and typography collective from Indonesia. 10. Kust Kust was created using a thick brush using pure black inkKust was created by fashion designer and painter Ieva Mezule. The letters were drawn on hard paper with a thick brush using pure black ink. Featuring 80 characters, every letter has a unique structure, with a distorted look. Next: 10 more great free brush fonts 11. Beacon Beacon is a beautiful hand drawn fontBeacon is a wonderfully fluid serifed typeface created by Cuong Truong Van. Free to download for both personal and commercial use, this font is packed with idiosyncrasies that are sure to add some personality to your work. We particularly like how the open letters and uneven curves give this font a rough wobbly finish. 12. Ampad Brush This scratchy font comes in different stylesThanks to its fading brush marks, Ampad Brush creates a distressed look as the letters appear to be scraped across the screen. Made by Gene Gilmore, Ampad Brush is the go-to typeface if you're looking to inject a sense of horror to your artwork. Ampad comes in four different styles, so you can pick the best one to suit your project. 13. True Lies Create slick, edgy text with True LiesScreeching over the page like a car burning rubber, Jonathan Harris' True Lies font is free to download for personal use. As well as covering the alphabet, thie typeface also includes numbers, symbols and punctuation marks. With a gritty, uneven finish and not a serif to be seen, True Lies is sure to make your text look rough and ready. 14. Goatskin Brush Add a touch of Asian influence with this flowing fontThe broad ink strokes in Måns Grebäck's Goatskin Brush are ideal for artists looking to add a splash of Asian influence to their work. Carefully simulating the type of marks you would expect to find in East Asian calligraphy, Goatskin Brush is the best of both worlds as it adapts the style to fit the English alphabet. Including uppercase and lowercase words, plus a selection of punctuation marks, Goatskin Brush is a must-have typeface for your toolkit. 15. Surfing Capital Surfing Capital has a suitably washed out lookLooking as if it's been bleached by the sun, Surfing Capital is a pleasant, relaxed font created by the Branded Quotes. Thanks to the different layers of shading, Surfing Capital has a greater sense of texture than your average typeface, making it a sure-fire way to add a spot of personality to your message. 16. Levi Brush This paint splatter-style font comes in two free varietiesThis free brush font was designed by the Romanian designer Levi Szekeres. The paint splatter holds similarities to album covers from David Guetta's 'One Love' to Coldplay's 'Viva la Vida'. A variation called Levi ReBrushed is also available for free and includes variations on the paint splatter. 17. Brush Hand New Brush Hand New is a refinement of Edwin W Shaar's Flash BoldBrush Hand New is a free brush font based on Flash Bold, a typeface created by Edwin W Shaar in 1939. K-Type's New version simplifies, lightens and smoothes out ragged edges. Outlines are improved to remove any remaining harshness, resulting in softer, smoother flowing glyphs ideal for titles and display purposes. 18. Paint Hand Distorted brush font Paint Hand is ideal for child-focused designDistorted and ragged, Paint Hand is a free brush font designed by Ursula Hitz from Switzerland. The typeface we feature here is playful and ideal for child-focused products or content. Hitz has cultivated diverse talents in typography, graphics and cheese making. Since moving to London a decade ago, her work has focused on location and place, and has been exhibited in a range of galleries. 19. Cylburn Cylburn offers a nod to the art of sign paintingCylburn is a semi-connected script by Dai Foldes. Cylburn structurally based on Roundhand but written with a pointed brush and restrained tension that separate it from its traditional roots. Dai Foldes lives in Baltimore, applying his background in painting to lettering and type. We love this free brush font for its balance between the imperfect hand and pixel perfect rendering – a nod to the art of sign painting. 20. Mothproof Script Mothproof Script has a visual weight similar to traditional blackletter formsMothproof Script is a expressive and broad calligraphy typeface designed by Diego Quintana. This free brush font has a visual weight similar to traditional blackletter forms, with better legibility. Quitana is a self-made freelance graphic designer and self-taught web programmer. He enjoys projects that try to change and move people over selling them products. Related posts: 7 new typography tools for 2017 How to choose the right typeface for a brand 20 perfect font pairings View the full article

An agency’s online design portfolio has to tick a lot of boxes. It needs to present a wide range of clients and an impressive breadth of skills. It needs to showcase what it can do for new clients in the digital space. It needs to be good looking and user-friendly. It needs to make full use of large, high-end screens but also work well on small ones and low-bandwidth connections, as well as conforming to accessibility standards. In truth, not more agency websites can claim to have a perfect scoresheet in all of these areas, especially accessibility. But that doesn’t stop us from learning from, and being inspired by, the areas they do score highly in. In this post, we look at seven of the coolest new sites from agencies in the Big Apple this year. We hope they inspire your own agency websites. 01. BRAVÒ BRAVÒ’s new website makes it clear what they’re all aboutBRAVÒ is a multidisciplinary team of creatives led by Ivan Olita, specialising in developing films for both editorial and commercial outlets. Based on West 16th St, its impressive rosters of clients (including Adidas, Hugo Boss, Condé Nast, Campari and Rémy Martin) is usefully listed on the homepage in the centre. Appropriately enough, this is set against some beautiful video backgrounds, so you’re left in no confusion about exactly what BRAVÒ is about. 02. Form& Form&’s new site is beautifully art-directedBased at 200 Hudson, Form& creates innovative, high-end branding for clients including Ebay, Havas and World of Watson. Its new website is beautifully art-directed, with sparing use of huge type, a wonderfully off-kilter layout and an uber-confident use of white space. There are some kinetic bursts of movement, from the most unexpected directions, to keep things interesting too. 03. Croscon Croscon’s site makes brilliant use of geometric shapesCroscon is a digital product studio that specialises in designing and building digital businesses, located at 134 W 26th St. There’s a smart focus on geometric style on its new website, which carries forward from the homepage throughout the site. The inventive method of presenting screengrabs from projects, shown in the example above, is used across all the case studies, and adds an original touch to a colourful and attractive website. 04. Zero Studios Zero uses full-screen imagery to create a cinematic viewing experienceZero is a digitally driven design and branding studio based at 442 Broadway, with clients as diverse as Stones Throw Records, Dune Resorts Branding and Concord Music Hall. Rather than the normal approach of chucking lots of imagery on their homepage, Zero’s new site simply lists the clients, making for a cool looking monochrome experience. Hover over any one of them, however, and a beautiful piece of full-screen photography or video appears. It’s a cinematic approach that really pays off and marks Zero out as a studio with creativity in their DNA. 05. Coop Brand CO OP’s new site makes it easy for you to find what you’re looking for, quickly and easilyWith studios in New York (at 75 Broad Street) and Boston, CO OP is a full-service creative company with the tagline 'We Make Brands Work'. Its new website presents everything in a fairly standard image grid, but it’s an elegantly constructed one, with some nice transitions on hover. The studio has also done a stand-up job of categorising everything so you can find what you need quickly: you can filter either by type of work (industry, real estate, media, and so on) or capabilities (visual identity, art direction, photography). 06. The Future Forward The Future Forward’s site has some quirky touchesBased in Brooklyn, The Future Forward is a creative agency helping brands achieve greater influence through strategy, design, and technology. And it's got a smart and slightly quirky new website for 2017. The grid-based homepage makes full and unrestrained use of the colourful and high-end photography from their various projects. We also love the cute little symbol in the top-left corner, which spins when you jump from page to page, and that the site is '© 2021'; a cheeky little reference to the company's name and associated ethos. 07. Canvas United Canvas United’s retro-themed website riffs off the notion of new technologyWith clients including Showtime Networks, Credit Suisse, BBC Worldwide, and Estee Lauder, Canvas United is a full-service digital agency located at 104 and 5th. While some agency homepages assault you with a blast of vibrant colour, Canvas United’s new website takes a somewhat different route. Riffing on the notion of being at the cutting edge of tech, it uses a fuzzy and distorted black-and-white video background to add a touch of the avant garde. Combined with a retro-futuristic colour scheme and typography, it works quite brilliantly, and is carried through the whole site with admirable consistency. Read more: 10 brilliant image-led portfolio sites for 2017 Create the perfect design portfolio: 30 pro tips 8 common portfolio mistakes (and how to fix them) View the full article

Anton & Irene will be presenting a special 'Concept, Create & Sell!' workshop at Generate London next week. Here are Irene Pereyra's three favourite websites... The Goldfinch Made by This Page Amsterdam Maybe I’m biased because I am Dutch, or maybe it’s because we all love to root for the underdog, but a site that celebrates a small tiny painting of a tiny bird in a grand scale really tugged at my heartstrings. I knew the painting, but before diving into this interactive experience I did not know the painting was by Fabritius, who is widely considered to be Rembrandt’s most talented pupil. As you scroll through the site, beautiful and simple animations reveal contextual and historical content for the user – like how back in the 17th century goldfinches were kept as chained pets in small cages, never allowed to fly. We also discover how the goldfinch appeared in other historical paintings, and what its role was in Christian symbolism. The musical score sets the right tone and the interactions invite you to dive deeper into a story you never thought you’d be interested in. You come away from the experience feeling like you’ve learned something new and a newfound appreciation for something you may have never otherwise noticed. Shantell Martin Made by Anton & Irene Shantell is a good friend of ours, and also a fantastic and influential emerging artist who is known for her playful, illustrative drawings. So we wanted to create something playful and original that didn’t follow current web trends and really captured her and her style while also giving fans a way to personally interact with her artwork, beyond just case studies. At the beginning of each chapter there’s a Campaign Status ticker showing the amount of money donated to this cause so far. This makes it clear the issue is not someone else’s problem, and moves this project from simple storytelling to advocacy. You navigate around her ‘body of work’ and zoom in and out of the website’s sections that are positioned around her body. The art on the interactive homepage reacts to the user’s mouse movements, and by clicking on the word ‘play’ you launch a hidden Easter egg panel where you can control the way the illustration reacts to your interactions. A is for Albert Made by Studio Lovelock Inspired by his first child, creative director Joe Lovelock created a typographic homage to parenting that takes the viewer through all the letters of the alphabet accompanied by little stories that all parents can relate to. When I first saw the site, I was immediately drawn to the flat, geometric illustration style and the simple animation. The big letters are all made of circles, squares and triangles, and the illustrations are made of simple shapes. The colour palette combines in multiple ways but remains consistent in every variation. And yet the words, and how they animate to tell a story, are what really makes this project sing. By the time I got to the bottom I was double impressed by the fact that this was a labour of love, an unpaid side-project that was done in-between client work. When I contacted Joe and asked him why he decided to do this personal project, he told me that he really just wanted to do something for his own satisfaction that would let him push his skills further, without any of the constraints from a commercial brief. He also thought it might garner some attention for the studio, and that long shot panned out – Studio Lovelock is currently working on animations they’ve won directly off the back of this project. This article originally featured in issue 293 of net magazine. Buy it here. Anton & Irene will be presenting a special 'Concept, Create & Sell!' workshop at Generate London next week. You’ll learn how to sell your idea, make a convincing argument, tell a compelling story, and present effectively in front of a large group of stakeholders. There are a limited number of tickets for the workshop still available. Make sure you grab your ticket now before they sell out! Interview: Anton & Irene 5 Classic designs that inspire Irene Pereyra Irene Pereyra on the USA Today redesign View the full article

Equifax divulged on Wednesday that the culprit behind this summer's breach of 143 million Americans was an Apache Struts vulnerability, CVE-2017-5638, patched back in March. View the full article

The Vecteezy Editor is a free vector editing suite that runs right in your browser. This tutorial covers the basic shape tools and editing tools you can use to edit any vectors on the site. This way you can build badges, buttons, logos, or anything else with relative ease. The GUI for this editor feels similar to Adobe software, so if you already use Photoshop or Illustrator, you'll have an easier time learning the ropes. But even complete beginners can dive into this and pick up the basics from scratch. Get Adobe Creative CloudWe're going to use these shopping icons from Vecteezy. Just visit the icons page and click the 'Edit & Download' button. This opens the editor right in your browser so you can customise and build upon these graphics. For this tutorial, we'll show you how to nab some of these icons and convert them into a larger progress bar graphic – the perfect choice for any eCommerce homepage. So with those shopping icons open in the Vecteezy Editor, we can get started! 01. Pick the icons Click into the icon group and select one icon, then click Duplicate at the topDouble-click on the icon group to select all the icons (you might need to double-click twice). I'll use three specific icons for this tutorial: the shopping bags, the credit card and the gift box. Select the shopping bag and click Duplicate at the very top of the page. This should give you a duplicate of the whole icon. Move this up towards the top and duplicate the other two. Note: the gift box isn't fully grouped, so when you click to duplicate you'll only select a piece of the icon. To fix this, just drag a selection box over the entire gift icon, then at the top click Edit->Group. Now, you can duplicate the whole present icon with one click. Once you have duplicates of all three icons, double-click anywhere on the empty canvas. This brings you outside the group of icons so you can select other objects on the page. If you click any of the older icons, you'll select the whole group. This is perfect, because you'll want to drag them down off the canvas so they're out of sight. 02. Clear the rubbish Change the background opacity if you want it to be white instead of transparentDouble-click on each duplicated icon to access the individual shapes inside. We only need the main icon, so you should select and delete the colourful circle backgrounds and drop shadows. To do this, simply zoom in very close and select the background circle. Then press Delete, and it should disappear. If the entire icon disappears – don't panic. Just click Undo near the top or press Ctrl/Cmd+Z and try again. You may need to double-click to get inside the icon group. By the end, you should have three clean icons ready to use. If you don't like the transparent background you can always access the Background panel in the left-hand menu (third button down) and increase the opacity to 100 per cent for a pure white background. 03. Adding text Add text labels under each icon with the same font settingsThis progress bar will be incredibly simple; just advertising three stages of an eCommerce shop. To emphasise this process, let's add labels underneath each icon. In the left-hand toolbar, find the Text tool (second button) then click underneath the bag icon to add a text block. Add the text 'SHOP' and hit Enter on your keyboard. This auto-selects the text so you can move it around and find a good position. But if you select the Text tool again, you can change the font family, colour, size, letter spacing and other features. I'm using Open Sans Semi-Bold size 30 with a -1.50 letter spacing. Text colour is #525252. Duplicate this text twice and place the duplicates under the other icons. Use the text 'PAY' under the credit card icon and 'RECEIVE' under the gift box. You should use the Select tool for repositioning the icons above the text. Also, space each icon close to equidistant apart if possible. 04. Adjusting graphics Shift+click to select the ribbon shapes and change the background colourBefore creating the progress bar, you can alter any colours you like in the icons. To do this, double-click to enter any icon group, then select whatever shape you want to change. In this case, I'll edit the gift box ribbon to change the colour from blue to green. Once you're inside the icon group, hold Shift while clicking to select more than one item at a time. I'll select the horizontal and vertical rectangles, plus the bow shape at the top. In the Select panel (first icon in the left-hand menu) find the Fill settings. You'll see the default colour is #2e3192. Click that Fill menu to access a drop-down colour wheel. Here, you can either drag around to find the colour you want, or enter a hex code directly. Enter #518531 and hit Enter. This should save the result and update all three shapes at once. Feel free to play around with any other colour settings you'd like to change! 05. Starting the progress bar Click the top-left circle in the Elements panel to add a new circle to the canvasTo create a progress bar, you only need two shapes: circles and rectangles. Thankfully, both of these are available in the Elements panel located at the very bottom of the Tools menu. Click to Elements panel and select the circle shape, which is the very first item in the list. It'll automatically place a dark grey circle in the centre of your workspace. You can resize the circle by dragging the little white square boxes in the corner or the select boundary. This works well, but it's not as precise as the direct resizing feature. So instead go back to the Select tool and make sure your new circle is selected. At the very top of the Select tool panel, you should see a selection size with a height and width value. Enter 100 in both fields and drag your first circle under the first icon. 06. Duplicating circles Resize the circle and duplicate twice, then move them under each shopping iconWith your circle shape selected, click Duplicate in the top menu. Now, reposition this duplicate so it aligns closely with your original circle. Try to get it right on top of the first circle so they look like one shape. Now, if you hold Shift and click, you can drag this duplicate circle in a straight line horizontally. This lets you perfectly align all your circles together in a straight line (or close enough to one). Do this until you have three different circle shapes at 100 x 100, each placed underneath the three icons. 07. Add some connecting lines Select the rectangle shape and arrange it behind the three circlesMove back to the Elements panel and find the square shape. Click to add one square onto the canvas. With this shape selected move back to the Select tool and find the width/height size panel. Since this rectangle should span the entire width of the progress bar, we just need one really long shape. So change the height to 10 and the width to whatever number you need to connect all your circles together. Mine is 750 wide. Now, with this rectangle in position, look towards the bottom of the Select panel where it says Arrange & Flip. Click the second icon in the top row, which lets you move any selected shape behind the other shapes. Note: you may have to click the Lower button a few times to get the rectangle behind all three circles. But now the connecting rectangle is only visible between the circle shapes, so we can add text into the circles later. 08. Recolouring Recolour all the shapes and include a small stroke on the three circlesThe current progress bar looks a little dark, so let's alter the colour a bit. Click to select the long rectangle and find the Fill Settings in the Tools panel. Change the colour to #c5c5c5 and hit Enter. Now, click anywhere off-canvas to deselect the rectangle. We also want to change the circle colours, and they should be lighter, using the darker grey as a border colour. Hold Shift, and click each of the three circles. Adjust the fill colour to #f5f5f5, hit Enter and then click the X icon to close the fill colour select panel. Below, you'll find stroke settings. Change the stroke fill to #c5c5c5 and hit Enter. Click the X icon to close this colour selection panel, then change the stroke size to 6. At this stage I also recommend grouping all the circles and the rectangle together by dragging a selection box and going to Edit>Group. Now, you can adjust the position of all shapes at once with ease. 09. Adding progress steps Add a text label into the first circle and duplicate the text for all three shapesLet's add some numbers into each circle to finalise the progress bar design. Click the Text tool and enter the number 1 into the first circle. I'm using Open Sans Extra-Bold, size 45 with the colour #c5c5c5 to match the borders. Drag this text so it's positioned in the centre of the circle. Duplicate the text element and move it into the second circle with the text '2'. Do the same for the third circle with text '3'. 10. Highlight the first step Recolour the first circle blue so it appears like the active progress stepAs a finishing touch, let's highlight the very first step using a lighter blue outline. First select the number '1' you just created, and change the fill to #4976a3. Then click to select the circle behind the text. Find the Stroke Settings and change the stroke colour to #4976a3. This should add a dark blue border around the circle. With the circle still selected, click the Fill Settings and change the colour to #e2ebfa. And that's it! Now you can export this as a PNG/JPG using the Download feature in the top-right corner. You can also hide the white background to export this as a transparent PNG and change the overall document size using the Background panel (third button in the left-side menu). Or if you'd like to save this for future changes, just go to File>Save For Later. You'll have to create a free Vecteezy account but it's a great way to keep your hard work saved for future reference. This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 295. Buy it here. Read more: 10 golden rules for responsive SVGs Explore the exciting new features in SVG 2 Supercharge SVG animations with GSAP View the full article

WPP, the world's largest communications services group, has announced that five of its top brand consultancies and design agencies are being merged to create a massive new global brand agency. The new agency will have a network of 750 people in over 20 countries, with client billings in excess of $100 million worldwide. 25 logo design tips from the expertsIt might seem a strange decision to create an enormous new agency at a time when the trend seems to be for small, agile operations staffed by a handful of creatives at most. But WPP says that the decision has been made as part of a client-centric plan for growth. "It will enable clients to engage with a wider array of specialists, provide a more connected set of services, and will make the strategic, creative and client-focused excellence of each of the five agencies accessible at scale," the company explains in its announcement. The Partners' branding for the London Symphony Orchestra won Best of Show at the Brand Impact Awards 2017One of the five agencies involved in the new super-agency is The Partners, which triumphed at the recent Brand Impact Awards 2017, winning the Best of Show accolade for its work with the London Symphony Orchestra. It also scooped the prize in the Entertainment category for its Arte branding, created alongside another agency that's part of the merger, Lambie-Nairn. As well as The Partners and Lambie-Nairn, the other agencies coming together will be Brand Union, Addison Group and VBAT, and each one has been chosen to bring a specific strand of expertise to the new Voltron-style branding outfit. The Partners and Lambie-Nairn also won in Brand Impact's Entertainment category, with their work for ArteWPP explains: "It will combine Brand Union's strategic strength and global influence, The Partners' award-winning creative excellence, Lambie-Nairn's unparalleled history in identity and motion graphics, Addison's unique understanding of corporate audiences, content development and digital delivery and the premium packaging offer of VBAT (which will continue to operate under the VBAT name)." The new agency will be led by Jim Prior - currently CEO of The Partners and Lambie-Nairn - as Global CEO, and Simon Bolton - CEO, Worldwide of Brand Union - as Executive Chairman. As yet it doesn't have a name, but there's plenty of time to sort that out, as it's not launching until January 2018. Related articles: How to craft a brand voice How to build a brand the KLF way How to create effective brand guidelines View the full article

Heading off to uni this year, and looking for recommendations for books to keep you inspired? Or just bored of the set texts on your reading list and keen to expand your mind further? 26 books every graphic designer should readThe following five books will add real-world context to your studies, give you that extra spark of inspiration, and help you hit the ground running as a more rounded designer when you enter the industry. 01. How to be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul Adrian Shaughnessy is a no-nonsense bible for design studentsDesign consultant and writer Adrian Shaughnessy’s seminal text is a no-nonsense career manual to help lead you through the perks and pitfalls of the modern design industry. As the title implies, at the core is the premise that once you graduate and take your first steps into professional life, there’s a risk of settling into mindless and unfulfilling bread-and-butter projects if you’re not careful. Shaughnessy’s book is a manual for independent-minded designers who prefer to work on something more meaningful and rewarding, and as such is packed with the kind of advice you won’t get taught at college. This revised 2010 edition includes chapters covering professional skills, the creative process, and global trends: including green issues, ethics and the rise of digital culture. 02. A Smile in the Mind Beryl McAlhone, David Stuart and Greg Quinton update the seminal design guide of the 90sA Smile in the Mind was fast-established as one of the most influential design books when it was published in 1996, and was given an overhaul 20 years later under the watchful eye of The Partners’ ECD Greg Quinton. While How to Be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul will shore up your business savvy and get you ready for the machinations of the industry, A Smile in the Mind is visual stimulation for the mind: a springboard for ideas-driven design. Ultimately, the book establishes wit as the magic ingredient to develop a truly engaging brand, as illustrated by an extensive selection of inspirational projects from around the world over the last four decades. All told, a great reference for developing and strengthening your ideas. 03. Branding In Five-and-a-Half Steps Track the process of a design mogul as he graciously reveals his processJohnson Banks’ recent ‘open-source’ rebrand of Mozilla put the award-winning agency’s thorough creative process firmly in the public eye, inviting comment and critique from the public at large. In a similar spirit of transparency, creative director Michael Johnson lays bare the wisdom of over two decades at the forefront of the branding industry with his 2016 book Branding In Five-and-a-Half Steps - an invaluable manual about the creative process. For Johnson, there was a perfect sweet-spot in between the many dense tomes on brand strategy, and the equally prolific inspirational showcases - a book that demystifies the links and overlaps between the two, and is both practical and inspirational. In it, he breaks down the five steps in Johnson Banks’ branding process - including a fluid ‘half—step’ between strategy and design - and explains how it all works, from the perspective of a world-class studio. 04. How to use graphic design to sell things, explain things, make things look better, make people laugh, make people cry, and (every once in a while) change the world Michael Beirut: a man of few wordsIf the 10-word title of Shaughnessy’s book isn’t quite wordy enough for your newly established design bookshelf, up steps Michael Bierut to triple it. In 2015, the veteran designer and Pentagram New York partner puts a fresh twist on the conventional monograph here, by treating it as a combination of manual and manifesto. Using 35 projects by way of demonstration, Bierut illustrates the varied role that graphic design plays in the modern world, from his own invariably entertaining perspective. By including rough sketches and rejected ideas alongside the finished work, he also makes the towering success of his career much more accessible to anyone at the start of theirs - and the book is packed with insights into the creative process. 05. Graphic Design Rants and Raves Steven Heller's text explores design from a cultural and psychological perspectiveSo far your new bookshelf will help you refine your creative process and forge a meaningful career in design that’s driven by ideas and substance rather than eye-candy and fluff. Our final recommended addition is also the newest book on our list: a fascinating 2017 anthology of thought-provoking essays by art director, author and lecturer Steven Heller that will help hone your critical edge and question the changing role of design in the wider world. Covering the full spectrum of graphic design and related art and culture, Heller’s 40-plus essays cover everything from the relationship between design and sex to the role of design in the recent US Presidential race. Read these five highly-recommended books, and you’ll be well on the way to becoming a well-rounded, 21st-century designer when you graduate. Related articles: How to become a junior designer How to create the perfect design resumé 100 amazing Adobe Illustrator tutorials View the full article

You're reading Exit Intent Modal Windows: Design Trends & Examples, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! It seems like exit intent modals are the norm with every major blog, SaaS product, and digital ecommerce shop. These exit intents are modal windows that appear on top of the page once your mouse cursor leaves the website. It’s used as a marketing technique to draw people back to the page, or to convert them into […] View the full article

British designer and artist Brendan Dawes mixes digital and analogue materials to explore the interactions between people, objects, technology and art. As well as authoring two books on interaction design – Analog In, Digital Out and Drag, Slide, Fade – Flash ActionScript for Designers – he's worked for clients including Airbnb, Google and Twitter. Next month, Dawes will be speaking at Something Good – a new two-day design festival in Bristol, UK (Creative Bloq readers can get 20 per cent off tickets with the code: CreativeBloq20). We caught up with him ahead of his talk. How to start a side project: 21 pro tips Dawes was commissioned by EE to create a digital portrait for each city formed from millions of bits of data as people talked and interacted about the biggest events of the day How would you describe your work? The feedback I often get is my work seems very human, even though I work mostly within the digital world, which maybe sometimes can seem quite cold. I'm not sure it's a conscious effort on my part, that's just how I am and how I think about things. Did you have any bumps in the road or make any cringey mistakes in your early career? (Our first commissions article has a classic mistake, for example.) All the time, but that's how you learn. Very early on I'd do work without a contract, which I wouldn't advise anyone to do. But when you're starting out you're just excited to be working on something so you think asking the client to sign a contract might in some way sully that relationship, which of course it doesn't. Also try to avoid working with sociopaths. Do you make time for personal projects, or have any habits to nurture your creativity outside of your main work? Yes all the time, or at least when time allows, though really they're all part of my work output – I don't really separate the two. Often even when I have a deadline I might spend the morning doing something seemingly unconnected because at that moment I feel the need to do something else. That might be something physical, maybe an electronic thing or just simply writing a letter to someone and taking time to get the paper and envelope just right, or it might be writing some code for an idea I have that I might use at some point later on. Personal projects for me are important because they act as a beacon for what I'm about, like the Plastic Player I created, born out of my love of both analogue and digital music and how I might merge the two. That project got quite a bit of attention and so I would encourage anyone else to do the same if you're trying to get your name out there. Exploring Deep Cyberspace – created for The Atlantic in partnership with Seagate – visualised the real-time flow of data through five of the internet's biggest platforms What’s the secret of your success? I wish I knew! I don't think there's any one thing, I guess it's more of a collection of things: put work out into the world that deserves to exist; be prepared to fight for your work; realise that clients are not the enemy – most want to help you make great work; and practice, practice, practice. Also don't be a dick; learn new things all the time; don't worry what everyone else is doing; become an expert (as much as you can) in your own work; stay off Facebook; be curious and be interested in things other than your immediate work; be yourself; and be generous. Local Murmurs was a story-sharing installation for Airbnb at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival How do you deal with vague creative briefs? It's up to me to dig deeper. Have a conversation with the client. I mean an actual physical conversation. When you talk to someone there will be nuanced moments that will arise and they might be the gold you're looking for. That rarely happens on email. Together with that, I sketch what I'm thinking – sometimes in pencil, sometimes as little coded things. I make lots of iterations early on that I show the client, creating something to criticise so that I can get that conversation going. Dawes in front of his EE portrait of LondonWhat sorts of themes or advice can visitors expect from your talk/workshop at Something Good? Well to be honest I'm still figuring out what I'm going to talk about, but I think a theme that constantly runs through my talks is attempting to create work that resonates with people in more nuanced ways rather than huge but vacuous epic moments. If I had a barometer made from film directors, I want to be at the Terrence Malick Malick end rather than the Michael Bay end of the scale. Hear more of Dawes' story at Something Good in Bristol, UK, on 6-7 October. Creative Bloq readers can get 20 per cent off tickets for both Friday's talks and Saturday's workshops with the code: CreativeBloq20. Related articles: Why you should make time for creative side projects Brendan Dawes on stories hidden in data Anthony Burrill interview: Why minimalist design speaks to more people View the full article

I can't begin to tell you how many Adobe Illustrator files have been passed to me for animation that were clearly not ready for After Effects. The file often contained one giant layer, was saved with the wrong colour profile, had elements that only partially fitted inside the artboard and/or contained a plethora of other issues that make it impossible to work with in After Effects. It really does causes a lot of confusion and friction between the illustrator and the animator, which is not a great place to start a project. Get Adobe Creative CloudThe most surprising thing I learned was that the designer rarely had any idea that they were causing any extra work. They simply weren’t educated on what animators need from an Illustrator file in order to be set up for success. To ease the pain, I’ve come up a list of basics that every illustrator should be aware of when preparing Illustrator graphics for After Effects. 01. Create multiple layers If your vector graphic is complete but you only have one or two layers inside of Illustrator, you’re not done yet. In order to animate your new graphic, you’ll need to separate each part (sub-layer) into its own layer. Animating a single layer that has many parts to it tends to give in a rigid and unprofessional result. For example, if you have a logo with three letters, you’ll want to make one layer with all the elements that make up the first letter, then another layer for the second letter and another for the third. You can then easily animate each letter independently in After Effects. If you had just saved it as an ‘.ai file’ without making additional layers and brought that in After Effects, it would be one flat layer. Click the target icon to identify which item is which In the Illustrator Layer panel, click the target icon next to each element to identify which item is which. You can also toggle the visibility of each item to see what the item is. Create new layers using the menu shown above Make several new layers by clicking the ‘Create New Layer’ button on the bottom of the Layer Panel, and name each of them. As you identify each item, move it into the appropriate layer. Be mindful to ensure that the new order of items in each layer does not cause issues with how they appear. Moving each item independently into different layers can be tedious, but there is a much simpler way. If everything is in one single layer, simply select that layer and then choose ‘Release To Layers (Sequence)’ from the Layers panel menu. This will convert all items inside the layer into layers themselves. These can then be dragged out of that layer to populate the full list of layers. Make sure you label your layers appropriately All of the layers in the layer panel will then be visible in After Effects, so you can animate them independently. If some of the new layers turn out to be small parts of others then simply drag the two together to combine them. Help the animator out by making sure you name each layer appropriately! When the file is moved into After Effects, the layer names will be retained. Calling each layer what it actually is will make identifying each one quick and painless. 02. Resize your artboards The size of your artboard and the graphics inside matters when importing to After Effects. If you have a 10x10px artboard with a tiny graphic imported into a 1920x1080 After Effects composition, it will require a good deal more work to get everything to the correct size before animating. Make sure your artboard in Illustrator is scaled so it's a similar size or larger than your After Effects composition. Ensure your artboard is a similar scale to your After Effects composition Before you save, be sure that no part of your graphic is cut off by the edges of the artboard. It may look great as a still image in Illustrator, but if it needs to be scaled down for animation, it's no good if the edges are stuck the same shape as the edge of the artboard. Whatever is inside the artboard will show up in After Effects and anything outside of it will not. Simply put, be sure everything you will need animating is within the boundaries. If you have multiple artboards you can save them out as separate files. When you're saving your file, you'll be asked to set your Illustrator options. Be sure you check ‘Save each artboard to a separate file.’ You can then go to each new Illustrator file and ensure all layers are separated and named appropriately for animation. 03. Change the document colour mode CMYK is only for print – set your colour mode to RGB Before you save your file for import into After Effects, make sure you are working in RGB. CMYK is great for print but if you’re moving to After Effects chances are you won’t be printing this version of your graphic, and you want to ensure the colours show up correctly in your final animation. You can do so by going to 'File > Document Color Mode > RGB Color'. 04. Select the correct file type Save your work out as an ai fileThe ideal file format for After Effects is an Adobe Illustrator (ai) file. Avoid EPS or SVG files as they won’t import as a composition with many layers. Save your vector image by going to 'File > Save As > Format: Adobe Illustrator (ai)'. Make sure you have ‘Create PDF Compatible File’ checked When you are prompted with more options, make sure you have ‘Create PDF Compatible File’ checked, or the file will not import correctly to After Effects. If the animator is working in an older version of After Effects, you can choose to save as a legacy version of Illustrator at the top of this prompt. Otherwise, the default settings are great. Click ‘OK’ to save. 05. Import into After Effects After you’ve formatted your Illustrator file, it's time to import it for animation. In After Effects choose 'File > Import > File' and choose your Illustrator file. You will be prompted on how you want After Effects to treat the file, be sure the ‘Import Kind’ is set to ‘Composition’ or all of those layers you just spent ages splitting apart will be combined back together. Set to 'Composition' to preserve your layersThe Footage Dimensions are up to you. If you want each layer to stay the same pixel size as the space it takes up then choose ‘Layer Size.’ Alternatively, if you would like each layer to be as large as your entire artboard choose ‘Document Size.’ Your layers should all appear within your Timeline When you click ‘OK’ a new composition will be created inside the Project panel. Double-click on your new composition for it to open up all of your new layers inside the Timeline. They should all be named just as they were in Illustrator and easily animated independently from the rest of your layers. You’re now set up for success in the creation of the highest quality animation possible! About Pluralsight Pluralsight is an enterprise technology learning platform that delivers a unified, end to end learning experience for businesses across the globe. Through a subscription service, companies are empowered to move at the speed of technology, increasing proficiency, innovation and efficiency. For a free trial and more information, visit www.pluralsight.com. Related articles: How to move from Photoshop to After Effects 43 amazing After Effects tutorials Top tips for creating animations in After Effects View the full article

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If becoming a web developer has always been a dream of yours, then you're in luck. The Complete Web Developer Course 2.0 is here to take you from novice to expert while helping you build sites and apps along the way. You can get this professionally-taught course on sale now for just $19 (approx. £14)! When you understand the fundamentals of code, you can create just about anything imaginable. It’s time to expand your opportunities and improve your resume with the Complete Web Development Course 2.0. Work your way through the basics of web and mobile development and learn how to make the most of programming languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery. You’ll get over 30.5 hours of instruction and hands-on lessons that will teach you how to build 25 different websites. The Complete Web Developer Course 2.0 usually retails for $149, but you can save 87% off that price right now. That means you pay just $19 (approx. £14) for lessons that could launch your next career, so grab it today! Creative Bloq deals This great deal comes courtesy of the Creative Bloq Deals store – a creative marketplace that's dedicated to ensuring you save money on the items that improve your design life. We all like a special offer or two, particularly with creative tools and design assets often being eye-wateringly expensive. That's why the Creative Bloq Deals store is committed to bringing you useful deals, freebies and giveaways on design assets (logos, templates, icons, fonts, vectors and more), tutorials, e-learning, inspirational items, hardware and more. Every day of the working week we feature a new offer, freebie or contest – if you miss one, you can easily find past deals posts on the Deals Staff author page or Offer tag page. Plus, you can get in touch with any feedback at: deals@creativebloq.com. View the full article

If you need a handwriting font for your project, look no further. When we talk about handwriting fonts, we're not just referring to one style of typography; they can come in a variety of executions. They're in the same area as cursive fonts, but with fewer constraints and often based on freeform illustrations. Get Adobe Creative CloudRecently, this style of typography has been making more appearances than ever, with both print and digital platforms favouring it over more traditional offerings. Here, we've curated some of the best free fonts in a handwritten style for you to download and enjoy. 01. Stay Writer Add charm to your designs with Stay Writer handwriting fontCharming handwriting font Stay Writer was created by graphic designer and illustrator Syed Faraz Ahmed. "A hand-drawn display font, every single letter has been carefully crafted to make your text looks beautiful," Ahmed comments on Behance. 02. SoulMarker Handwriting font SoulMarker is available in two styles; light and boldHandwriting font SoulMarker was created by graphic designer and illustrator Faraz Ahmad. Available in two styles, light and bold, SoulMarker is great for a variety of print and digital projects. 03. Claire Hand Handwriting font Claire Hand is 'fun, bold and friendly'The team at Australian-based design agency Team Scope are behind handwriting font Claire Hand. Available over on Behance, the team describe the design as: 'fun, bold and friendly, and its handwritten style represents our commitment to creative spontaneity (you know how the best ideas get scribbled down on a napkin?). Because we're serious design tragics, we even created each letter in two different weights so it's even more individual'. 04. Cavorting Cavorting typeface is free for both personal and commercial use"This is a one-day font," says Cavorting typeface creator Missy Meyer. "I created the letterforms and did all the spacing and kerning in one day." The, in Meyer's own words, 'goofy' handwritten typeface is free for both personal and commercial use. 05. Mightype Mightype is free for personal and commercial useFree for both personal and commercial use, Mightype was created by the team at AF Studio. A handlettered script font, Mightype is great for packaging designs, branding and much more. 06. Futuracha Add a touch of elegance to your designs with this beautiful handwritten font FuturachaA group of curious designers explorers make up høly and are the team behind beautiful handwritten font Futuracha. The holy Behance page states: "The name is the combination of words futura and cucaracha (cockroach in Spanish). "The design is based on the basis of the pf futura book. The letters edges radically extend in a forceful way trying to remind the art deco's style." 07. Nawabiat Handwriting font Nawabiat is full of charm and personalityNawabiat is a free handwriting font, created by graphic designer and illustrator Syed Faraz Ahmad. Full of personality and charm, Nawabiat is great for posters, logos and much more. 08. Reis Reis is great for posters, logos and much moreThis handwritten design Reis was created by Marcelo Reis Melo. Great for posters, logos and much more, Reis is available free for personal and commercial use, with donations to the author, as always, appreciated. 09. Bellaboo Bellaboo is great for creating eye-catching headlines, posters and moreIn need of an authentic handwritten font for your latest project? Bellaboo by Marcelo Reis Melo may be just what you're looking for. A bold design, Bellaboo is great for creating eye-catching headlines, posters and more. 10. Ludicrous Ludicrous is another free handwritten font from designer Missy MeyerAnother free handwriting font from Missy Meyer, Ludicrous is great for giving your projects an authentic handmade feel. Free for both personal and commercial use, with donations to the author, as always, gratefully received. 11. Fofer Fofer is free in exchange for a tweetToday's typeface of choice is handwritten design Fofer, created by Mousse Creative founder and creative director Angie Raess. "Sometimes the best projects are the ones created from a problem," Raess comments on Behance. "We needed a specific font and couldn't find it. What better way to solve a problem than to use our own handwriting?" Fofer is available to download over on Behance, all Raess asks for in return is a simple tweet. 12. California Sans California Sans includes a full case of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and various special characters.California Sans is a handwritten font, created by Mexico-based designer Noe Araujo. Available as a free download, the design includes a full case of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and various special characters. 13. Skinny Skinny is completely free for commercial useThis handwriting font is, by far, the most popular of the type designs offered online by the artist known as notfon1234. The last update to the design saw a clean up to the spacing and characters, and the font is now completely free for commercial use. 14. Gunny Rewritten Based on his older font Gunny Handwriting, type designer Vit Condak released this new free handwriting font Gunny Rewritten. Unhappy with his original version, Condak completety remade the design and now offers it as a free download for all to enjoy. 15. Halo Handletter Designer Mario Arturo specialises in fancy and script fontsThis elegant hand writing font was developed by graphic designer Mario Arturo. One of over 20 fonts created by Arturo, who specialises in fancy and script designs, Halo Handletter is perfect example of the latter. Free for non-commerical use only. 16. LeHand LeHand is the first font from web designer Ferdie BalderasLeHand is the first font created by indieferdie. The LeHand font reflects a playful handwriting style that will be great for experimenting with on your new design projects. As a web designer and branding designer, we think there's much more inspirational work ahead for indieferdie. 17. Yore Yore is a playful take on the more traditional script fontsCreated by Vietnamese designer Poem haiku, the Yore script is a fun take on the more traditional script offerings. Pulling in his influences from illustration, Yore will be perfect for content experimentation and might even work well on a branding project or two. 18. Whatever it takes The designer asks for a $5 donation if the font is used for commercial purposesThe 'Whatever it takes' free handwriting font harks back to those school boards and chalk typography. It's free for personal and non-profit use. The designer does however, ask for a $5 donation for any commercial use, which we think is still a bargain! 19. Before Breakfast Designer Simon Stratford created Before Breakfast using iPad app iFontMaker in under 10 minutesRecently, designer Simon Stratford discover iPad app iFontMaker and shortly after challenged to create a font with it in under 10 minutes. The result? This hand drawn typeface Before Breakfast. It may not be one of the most considered entries in our free fonts list, but, as Stratford comments: "It's a fun, handwritten typeface that probably breaks every rule in typography." 20. Engine A free handwriting font that comes in an array of different languagesOne of our favourite free handwriting fonts, this design by Ferdie Balderas comes in regular and italic as well as capital and lower-case letters. He's even made it supportive of a number of different languages including French, Spanish and Polish. 21. Chomp Another free handwriting font that's playful and funWe just had to include this download in our list of free handwriting fonts. Chomp is a playful design created by Camberwell based designer William Bayley Suckling. As a student at The London College of Communication, Suckling regularly experiments with fonts and is happy for you to use it with any personal or commercial work. 22. LSTK Bembo LSTK Bembo was inspired by an age-old book font to create this free handwriting fontOne of the loveliest free handwriting fonts we've seen in a long time, LSTK Bembo is an ode to one of the real daddies of book typefaces, Bembo. This handdrawn version of this classic typeface can be used whenever you want to combine personality, tradition and a pinch of attitude. The important glyphs are included in this postscript font except the lowercase x. 23. Haiku's Script Free handwriting font Haiku's Script is Poem Haiku's first attempt at creating a typefaceHaiku's Script is Poem Haiku's first attempt at creating a font. Beginning in 2011, it took three months to finish, from July to September. It's free for personal use and Poem Haiku would love to hear any thoughts and comments about this free handwriting font. 24. Pops This free handwriting font was inspired by the designer's father's handwritingNew York based designer Sune Matras tasked himself to create a font based on one of his father's handwriting styles – a very personal and specific one – normally used for short messages and headlines. We're pleased as punch to include this gorgeous design in our list of free handwriting fonts. 25. Sketch Block Grab people's attention with this bold, headline font. Image © Lukas BischoffThis hand-sketched headline font was designed by artist Lukas Bischoff. He comments: "Created solely by me from sketch by hand and then digitized, Sketch Block makes a perfect font to create the hand-made character look, or to supplement illustrations with typography." Free for personal use only, it's one of the nicest free handwriting fonts we've seen in a long time. Next page: 25 more wonderful free handwriting fonts The best laptops for graphic design26. GoodDog Incorporate this curly, decorative font by Fonthead Design into your personal projectsA contemporary and decorative font, GoodDog was created by Fonthead Design. The curly typeface is a popular choice, having been download almost a million times since its release. This free handwriting font comes complete with a full set of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and characters. 27. J.D Handcrafted This stylish, script-style design was created by Emerald City FontwerksJ.D Handcrafted is one of 16 fonts created by Emerald City Fontwerks, the stylish design being one of the studio's most popular. The brush, script-style typeface is free for personal use, with a full set of characters at your disposal. 28. Amatic Amatic is available for free download in both regular and bold stylesA quirky, narrow and condensed design by typographer Vernon Adams this free handwriting font is perfectly suited to designs on the funny side, such as comedy strips. Amatic only includes uppercase letters but comes in both regular and bold styles. 29. Journal Free handwriting font Journal includes a full set of lower and uppercase letters, numbers and special characters. Image © FontouristCreated by Hans Gerhard Meier aka Fontourist, this beautiful script-style font's name explains exactly the type of design its suited to. This is one of three fonts designed by Meier and his most popular download by far. 30. Mari & David You can also receive numbers and symbols with this free handwriting fontThe charming free handwriting font was designed by Chilean designer and typographer Rodrigo German. The Mari & David font comes in regular, bold and extrabold, which means there's plenty to play around with. You can also receive numbers and symbols in this style when you download the font. 31. Daniel All three styles of the Daniel font are available as a free downloadDaniel is one of many fonts created by designer Daniel Midgley. Free for both personal and commercial use, Daniel includes a full set of upper and lowercase characters, numbers and various special characters. 32. Sumitra This is a handwriting font with plenty of versatilityThis gorgeous, calligraphy based handwriting font was created by Nepal-based graphic designer and typographer Ananda Maharjan. Placing the font on a base of watercolours as well as a white canvas ensure that its versatility shines. 33. LSTK Clarendon This free handwriting font comes in bold and outlineCreated by Austrian mobile studio Studio Elastik, this is their second free font to be released into the wild. They describe it as their "handlettered badass version of the English slab serif typeface, Clarendon", which explains the name. It comes in bold and outline. 34. Mawns' Handwriting This font is to be downloaded for personal use only!This free handwriting font – Mawns' Handwriting – is another created by Måns Grebäck; a graphic designer specialising in font, logotype, and typography design. Mawns' Handwriting is free for personal use, with donations to the designer welcome. 35. Bispo Nova Jackson created the bispo font after studying calligraphy for a number of monthsBispo is a script typeface made inspiring on italic chancery calligraphy, with a flat nib pen and a module of 10 pen widths. Designed by Brazilian typographer Jackson Alves, he decided to make this typeface to allow everyone to be able to create pieces with a charm of calligraphy and taking advantage of the Opentype features. 36. Scribulous Scrawlin' This free handwriting font has a great chalk effect for your designsWe had to pop a chalk-styled free handwriting font in the list and this one which was designed Alphabeta85 is a perfect addition. It comes in both capitalised and non, as well as numbers, punctuation, and symbols. As always, make sure you only use it for personal work! 37. Linny This cute font is actually the designer's real handwritingThis cutesy font was designed by Maya aka Linny. This handwriting type is actually Maya's handwriting and after being asked to develop the font for personal use, she finally did! It comes in upper and lower case, as well as numbers and punctuation. 38. Fatstack Use this heavy-duty handwriting font for bold design workWe love this heavy duty, scribble-friendly font designed by Blambot Comic Fonts and Lettering. Consisting purely of capital letters, this is a free handwriting font that would be perfect for some seriously bold design work. You can also grab some punctuation and numbers in the free package. 39. Soft Sugar Soft sugar evokes a sense of the old-school comic book fontsThis fun handwriting font can only be downloaded for free in the regular format but we think it's a great one to play around with. Evoking a sense of the old-school comic book style fonts, we're sure you'll be able to create something special with this one! 40. Architect's Daughter This neat, blocky handwriting font was inspired by architectural gridsInspired by architectural grids, this neat, blocky handwriting font Architect's Daughter was created by Kimberly Geswein. Author of over 200 fonts, Geswein offers many of her designs, including this one, free for personal use. 41. Worstveld Sling Extra Worstveld Sling Extra is a popular handwriting designOne of 82 typefaces developed by Gem Fonts, Worstveld Sling Extra is one of it's most popular hand writing designs, receiving over 400,000 downloads since its release. Free for personal use, this free handwriting font family includes a full set of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and various special characters. 42. Housegrind This cool script font was created by graphic designer Måns Grebäck. llustration © Måns GrebäckThis cool script font was created by graphic designer Måns Grebäck, who specialises in logotypes and typography. Free for personal use only, a commercial licence for Housegrind can be purchased via the Aring Typeface website. 43. VersionType VersionType is designed to be playful and looseA condensed sans-serif font, VersionType was created by senior designer Victor Coreas. "It is meant to be playful and very loose," he comments. The typeface includes a full set of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters, and it's free for personal and non-profit use. 44. Billy Billy is based on Claire Joines' own handwritingCreated by student and freelancer Claire Joines, Billy is a font made from her own handwriting. "Because it's my own handwriting it didn't take me long to make," says Claire, "So I decided to put it online for other people to use freely!" It's free for personal and non-profit use (although attribution or a thank you would be nice); if you want to use it commercially, get in touch with Claire. She'll normally ask for attribution and a small donation. 45. Novito Nova "This font was made for making people happy," Nina commentsNovito Nova was created by Russian designer Nina Z. "This font was made for making people happy," she comments on Behance. A whimsical design, Novito Nova is great for providing projects with an authentic handmade feel. 46. Mink Type Mink Type features three variations for each letter to keep things freshMink Type was created by New York-based art director Filiz Sahin. "Mink Type is a cool, handpainted display typeface that was developed using brush tools in Illustrator," she comments. "Each letter has three variations including upper and lower cases so you can create a custom feel for your designs." 47. Happy Fox All the Caldentey and Llull ask for in return for this free download is a simple tweetThis Happy Fox font design was a collaborative effort between illustrator Laura Caldentey and Fran Llull. Wanting a thin font to use in their projects, Caldentey drew an alphabet and a selection of glyphs, and worked closely with Llull to refine into this final design. 48. Dickie Freelance designer David Ellis created handwritten font Dickie using MyScriptFontFreelance designer David Ellis created handwritten font Dickie using MyScriptFont, an online tool that allows you to create a vector font from your own handwriting. "It’s a great starting point as there aren’t that many great handwriting style fonts out there and it’s a pretty quick process," Ellis comments. 49. Yunus Handwriting font Yunus is suitable for all manner of creative projectsHandwriting font Yunus is another by graphic designer Faraz Ahmad. "Every single letters has been carefully crafted to make your texts look beautiful," he comments on Behnace. The typeface includes a huge number of glyps, making it suitable for all manner of creative projects. 50. Ruffle Beauty Ideal for poster designs, Ruffle Beauty is free for both personal and commercial useIf you're on the hunt for a playful handwritten font, today's typeface of choice Ruffle Beauty by Anis Iday could be just the solution. Ideal for poster designs, Ruffle Beauty is free for both personal and commercial use. Related articles: 20 perfect font pairings The 100 best free fonts 10 best new fonts of 2017 View the full article

Julia Khusainova currently works as an experience designer at Airbnb, previously led design for a new product line at Shyp, worked on growth at Twitter and established design at various early stage startups. Next week she will give her first conference talk at Generate London, in which she will walk through her process for developing new products from ideation, testing and validation, development, to release and beyond — achieving business goals without compromising the user experience. We caught up with her to find out more about what product design and software engineering have in common, how collaboration at Airbnb works, how to create a compelling onboarding experience and more. You’re originally from Russia. How did you end up in San Francisco? Julia Khusainova: I've always had a passion for traveling and it was only a matter of time until I decided to leave the familiar life behind and move to a new country. I ran a design consultancy in Russia and one of my clients turned out to be a start-up in San Francisco who was looking to bring a designer on board. They wanted me to join as their lead designer. So I did. How did you make the jump from software engineering to product design? JK: In my mind, both disciplines are very similar, just tackling the user problems from different angles — what should the product be and look like vs how to build it. We even draw the same diagrams! It’s always amazing to see that as soon as design and engineering are aligned on the goal, they start singing the same song. I just wanted to try the other side of this process — the “pre-building” phase where I would be defining the user experience. I still write code for fun. You joined Airbnb earlier this year. What does your role involve, and what kind of projects have you worked on so far? JK: I design experiences for Airbnb, meaning it’s not “just” the digital product — it’s an end-to-end user journey. A big part of Airbnb happens offline, and as an experience designer, I am responsible for taking that into account when I design. I’ve worked on a variety of projects from defining the identity of a person on Airbnb to being a creative director for photography projects and writing travel stories. It’s always fun and engaging! The product goes smoother if everyone is aligned on the goals and the outcomes at the beginning of the project. I assume you work with lots of engineers, project managers, user researchers and others at Airbnb. How does the collaboration work? JK: I do indeed! The teams at Airbnb are fairly large and there’s a lot of cross-collaboration happening. I always put my foot forward to have the conversation with my engineering, product, content strategists, data scientists and research partners as early as possible. It makes the product go smoother if everyone is aligned on the goals and the outcomes at the beginning of the project. In-person communication with note taking is always best, but email works too. It’s a balance between sharing the information too early and not early enough. The proper documentation and knowledge sharing are also crucial. You were at quite a few startups before, including Shyp and Twitter. What do they all have in common when it comes to product design? JK: They all strive to deliver the best user experience. I learned a lot about working in a team setting, collaborating with engineering and product partners, as well as other designers, and prioritization and analysis of user behaviour. Also research. It’s hard to put numbers on what a good (or bad) experience is — but it’s eye opening to see how people react to your design, and it’s certainly a valuable lesson I learned while working with my research partners. In her talk at Generate London, Julia Khusainova will walk through her process for developing new products How do you approach design systems to develop products faster and more consistently? JK: I start by thinking holistically about the product and defining design principles. What do I want the product to feel like when people use it? What’s the most important part to communicate? How will users be engaging with the product? Answering these questions at the beginning as well as bringing the engineering team on board with my decisions makes it a smoother journey when designing the actual experience. It’s also important to lay the foundation — like the typography and colour scheme — that are the atomic elements of most design systems. After that, when I have the base, I can create more complex elements like buttons and tables and define their behaviour along the way. What kind of prototypes do you create and how do you use them for user research? JK: I work in InVision, Framer, and Principle for fast interactive prototypes. I create a few versions depending on what I want to test (the messaging, the storytelling aspect of it, the layout, etc) and present it to the user. I iterate fast based on the feedback, so the next person gets a “better”, more refined version of it. I have experience using paper sketches and even creating an “ideal” product with the users — it’s a lot of fun to draw together! I work in InVision, Framer, and Principle for fast interactive prototypes. What’s the secret to a compelling user onboarding experience? JK: Being clear on the benefits of using the product you’re getting onboarded on, the features, and being concise. Nobody wants to scroll or click through 40 screens of how-tos when they just went through the pain of downloading the app or registering on the website. Cut the scope, leave the three most important features you want the user to know and introduce the rest later on in the user lifecycle. In her work Julia Khusainova thinks systematically and designs for scalabilityWhat is the biggest pain point in your work as a product designer and how do you overcome it? JK: I often think like an engineer. It makes it easier to negotiate my design decisions with myself because I anticipate certain questions to be asked by my engineers. So I’m trying to shut that part off until it’s time to have a conversation. What can people expect to take away from your talk at Generate London? JK: We’re going to be diving into the exciting and challenging world of startups, and what it means to be a designer at one. How to think through, design and build the product that is innovative, different from what was previously built but still preserves the brand authenticity that is important for the existing customers. How to think systematically and design for scalability. Generate London on 21/22 September features 15 other presentations covering web animations, UX strategy, prototyping, user research, accessibility, performance, responsive CSS components, and much more. There are still a few tickets left for the workshops on 20 September, too. Reserve your spot now! 10 essential TED talks for UX designersView the full article