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In certain areas of the industry there's still have a prejudice against using stock imagery in design work. But as much as designers might want to craft a bespoke typeface, say, for each and every project, budget and time constraints mean it often isn't possible. Doing so is often impractical – especially when you can pick up a beautiful set of fonts from a font foundry that fits your design vision perfectly. The same applies to stock imagery. These days, the quality of photography and imagery coming out of the best stock image libraries is sky-high, and there are millions of great images to choose from. So in this post, we offer five tips for making the best of what’s on offer. 01. Harness libraries' powerful search tools Increasingly sophisticated search tools means you can find the right image for your project more quickly Stock image libraries can save you a whole heap of time compared to setting up your own photography shoot, crafting your own illustration or designing a new set of icons. And if it’s taking you a long time to find the right image, you’re probably doing something wrong. In 2017, the best stock image libraries have highly sophisticated search engines that allow you to hone your search according to a range of technical and creative criteria. For instance, you might only want to search for images with or without people, or within a particular colour spectrum, or in a specific aspect ratio. Keywords are also a great tool for finding what you’re looking for, and it’s worth trying words that both specifically describe what you’re looking for (like ‘dog’, ‘pet’, ‘canine’) and the kinds of feelings or themes you want the image to evoke (like ‘happiness’, ‘excitement’, ‘affection’). For more advice on how to search for stock images, check out our Quick tips for finding images faster. 02. Search within Photoshop and Sketch You can now search for images directly within Sketch or Photoshop using Craft Stock from InVisionTraditionally, if you were looking for an image to use in your design project, you’d have to exit the design software you were using and open up a new window to search the stock library site. It's not the worst problem in the world to have, but a little bit clunky nonetheless. More recently, though, stock libraries and design software companies have been teaming up to save you from having to perform all those extra clicks. And so there are now plenty of free tools and plugins that help you search for and download images directly within Sketch and Photoshop. For example, Craft Stock from InVision enables you to search from millions of premium images from the iStock and Getty Images libraries without the hassle of having to exit Photoshop or Sketch. That means you can populate your designs and mockups in a single click. Handily, tools like this often let you download watermarked versions of stock images so you can try them before you buy. By experimenting this way, you can get a lot of benefit from stock imagery even without parting with a penny. 03. Take inspiration from library images Elegant Stripe Waves, a stock illustration by Jobalou available from iStock by Getty Images (click the image to see it on iStock) Another way to benefit from stock imagery without paying for it is simply to use it as visual inspiration. Stock libraries are filled with millions of images, including photography, illustrations, 4K videos and other graphical elements such as patterns, textures and icons. And these can all be great inspirations for your own creative vision. Plus, because they’re neatly categorised, with powerful search functionality, it’s easy to find ideas that relate to the subjects you’re looking for, fast. For more tips on using stock libraries for creative inspiration, check out our 7 sources of free design inspiration from stock libraries article. 04. Make your images and typography work together This design was created using Photoshop and InDesign and some floral imagery from a stock library (click to go to our tutorial) Like it or not, some designers are still sneery about stock imagery. That’s often because they associate it with cheesy photos plonked willy-nilly on a page by amateur designers. But as with every kind of asset, getting the most out of stock imagery is about finding the right visuals and incorporating them carefully and creatively into your design, so they work harmoniously with the other design elements. In our How to use stock photography creatively within your design work tutorial, you’ll learn how to do just that, by creating the striking design shown above using Photoshop and InDesign and some floral imagery from a stock library. Similarly, our How to design an event poster using stock photography article walks you through setting up a simple grid within InDesign, type setting, as well as choosing and editing the right images for your poster design using stock imagery. 05. A/B test your images A/B testing allows you to try out two versions of the same web page with your audienceIf you’re using your stock images in a web design project, then there’s one surefire way to check whether or not they’re resonating with your audience. A/B testing, also known as split testing, involves setting up two versions of the same web page and seeing which performs better. By creating versions with alternative images, you can see whether a particular image (or crop of that image) gets more clicks. The results can often be surprising and may challenge your deep-seated assumptions about your audience. You can learn more about A/B testing in Hubspot's A/B testing checklist, and you’ll find a deeper dive into the topic in our article, How A/B testing can fuel your creativity. Meanwhile for further stock image advice, check out our 10 ways to use images better in your agency projects article. View the full article

You're reading Stockio, the Free Stock Website for Creatives, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Stockio.com is a new contender in the already overcrowded “free stock resources” ecosystem. But, I won’t complain about that. More free resources mean a boost of creativity. While there are quite a few sites where you can find photos, various kinds of icons, lots of music and even videos for both personal endeavors or commercial […] View the full article

At Generate London in a couple of weeks, Giles Colborne will analyse opportunities as well as pitfalls of conversational interfaces. Get your ticket today. In the mid-2000s, virtual agents and customer service chatbots received a lot of adulation, even though they were not very conversational, and under the hood they were merely composed of data exchanges with web servers. Chatbots are the latest form of artificial intelligence to cause a stir in the tech scene. Even though a huge number of examples of ‘weak AI’ exist (including Siri, web search engines, automated translators and facial recognition), with major investment from big companies, there remain plenty of opportunities to hack the conversational interfaces of the future. 5 essential chatbot learning resources Giles Colborne will look beyond the hype of conversational interfaces and chatbots at Generate London As well as being trendy, chatbots can be useful. They don’t need to feel like a basic replacement for a standard web form, where the user fills in input fields and waits for validation – they can provide a conversational experience. Essentially we’re enhancing the UX to feel more natural, like conversing with an expert or a friend, instead of web browser point-and-clicks or mobile gestures. The aim is that by providing empathetic, contextual responses, this technology will become embedded directly in people’s lives. Here is a practical way to design and build a chatbot, based on a real project-intake application in a service design practice. 01. Set a personality It’s important to ensure the chatbot’s personality reflects that of the company it’s representingAs this practice serves over 110,000 members globally, the goal was to provide a quick, convenient and natural interface through which internal stakeholders could request effective digital services, instead of having to fill out confusing forms. The first step was to establish the chatbot’s personality, as this would represent the voice of the service design team to its stakeholders. We built on Aarron Walter’s seminal work on design personas. This greatly helped our team develop the bot’s personality traits, which then determined the messages for greetings, errors and user feedback. This is a delicate stage, as it affects how the organisation is perceived. To make sure we had as much information as possible, we immediately set up stakeholder workshops to nail the appropriate personality, colour, typography, imagery and user’s flow when engaging with the bot. After we had gained all the necessary approvals – including seeking legal counsel – we set out to convert archaic request forms into a series of back- and-forth questions that mimicked a conversation between the stakeholders and a representative of our design services team. 02. Use RiveScript This simple scripting language provides everything you need to design and build a chatbot POC We knew we didn’t want to get too deep into AI markup language for the processing part – we just needed enough to jump- start the experience. RiveScript is a simple chatbot API that is easy enough to learn and sufficed for our needs. Within a few days we had the logic down to intake a project request from the bot, and parse it with enough business logic to validate and categorise it so it could be sent it through JSON REST services to the appropriate internal project tasking queue. To get this basic chatbot working, head to the RiveScript repo, clone it and install all the standard Node dependencies. In the repo you can also gain a taste of the interactions you can add with the various example snippets. Next, run the web-client folder, which turns the bot into a web page by running a basic Grunt server. At this point we can enhance the experience to suit our needs. 03. Generate your bot's brain The next step is to generate the ‘brain’ of our bot. This is specified in files with the .RIVE extension, and thankfully RiveScript already comes with basic interactions out of the box (for example, questions such as ‘What is your name?’, ‘How old are you?’ and ‘What is your favourite colour?’). When you initiate the web-client app using the proper Node command, the HTML file is instructed to load these .RIVE files. Next we need to generate the part of our chatbot’s brain that will deal with project requests. Our main goal is to convert a selection of project tasking intake questions into a regular conversation. So, for example: Hello, how can we help? Great, how soon do we need to start? Can you give me a rough idea of your budget? Tell me more about your project... How did you hear about us? A typical accessible web form would look like this: With web forms, we’re very familiar with certain patterns: you click the ‘Submit’ button, all form data is sent to another page where the request is processed, and then most likely a cheeky ‘Thank you’ page pops up. With chatbots, we’re able to take the interaction of submitting a request, and make it more meaningful. 04. Design a voice To convert this form to a conversational user interface served in RiveScript’s chatbot web client, we need to convert the information architecture from rigid to fluid; or field labels into UI strings. Let’s consider some accessible field labels, and their related question tone: Request: How can we help? Not sure? Do you mind if I ask a few questions? Timeline: How soon do we need to get started? Budget information: Can you give me a rough idea of your budget? Project description: OK, can you tell me a summary of the problem to be solved? Reference: Also, who referred you to us? Next we need to convert the web form’s code into AI script, following RiveScript’s very learnable processing logic for two-way conversations: 05. Request submission As opposed to standard form variables being sent to another page or service to process, chatbots can validate and submit information entered by the user in a chat window (or spoken) immediately, which means users can also revisit previously entered values easily. We needed to send the user’s request entered in the chatbot UI via the JSON REST API to an external project tasking server. In RiveScript-js we are free to make use of an XMLHttpRequest object to submit the request almost simultaneously, as the data is entered by the user: 06. Fear not Soon, current ways of interacting with computers to obtain information will give in to AI-based technology like chatbots, where people just make simple voice commands or text queries. The web design community need not fear – we should all be embracing the added value of this new technology. It could be a game-changer for the companies it works for, offering fully scalable customer service and improved customer intelligence. This article was originally featured in net magazine issue 290. For more on designing conversations, don't miss Giles Colborne's talk at Generate London on 22 September. The two-day conference is preceded by a day of workshops covering design and content sprints, user experience strategy, building scalable responsive components, and how to sell your ideas to stakeholders. Reserve your spot today and save £95 on a combined workshop and conference pass. Related articles: How chatbots are learning - interview with Giles Colborne 5 essential chatbot learning resources How conversational interfaces are innovating banking View the full article

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The Apache Software Foundation released a patch on Tuesday for a critical vulnerability impacting all versions of Struts since 2008. View the full article

In the 1920s, a group of psychologists in Germany developed a series of theories of visual perception. The Gestalt principles – or Gestalt Theory, as it's also known – form the basis of many design rules we follow today. Get Adobe Creative CloudThat's why it's important for graphic and web designers to learn the principles. If you understand what they tell us about how we perceive visual objects and their arrangements, you'll be able to create a more coherent design that will better connect with your audience. What is Gestalt Theory? The term Gestalt means 'unified whole', which is a good way of describing the over-arching theme behind the Gestalt principles. These refer to the way in which humans, when looking at a group of objects, will see the whole before we see the individual parts. If you collect together your design elements in a visual arrangement using one of the various approaches that we explain below, your design will feel more connected, coherent and complete. The prominent founders of the collection of theories and principles were Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, and Kurt Koffka. But while the principles were developed over a number of years, they came to prominence in part thanks to Rudolf Arnheim's 1954 book, Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye. This became a must-have art book of the 20th century, and regularly features on university course text lists. Six Gestalt principles The best way to understand Gestalt is to look at the different principles. It's well worth reading Arnheim's book, but to summarise there are six common, basic Gestalt Principles. We've broken each of these down with a simple example below. 01. Similarity This design has similarity because the individual elements that make up the design have the same basic shape characteristicsWhen objects looks similar to one another, viewers will often see the individual elements as part of a pattern or group. This effect can be used to create a single illustration, image or message from a series of separate elements. Attention is drawn to the different element in this composition because it breaks the pattern of similarityThe similarity between different elements can be shape, colour, size, texture or value. The more commonality that individual elements have, the greater the sense of coherence, thanks to similarity. This cover for the Beatles' album Hard Day's Night uses the principles of similarity and anomalyA particular element can be emphasized when it's dissimilar, breaking the pattern of similarity. This effect is called an anomaly. 02. Continuation In this example the eye is led through the first design element towards the star that aligns with the curveContinuation is the principle through which the eye is drawn along a path, line or curve, preferring to see a single continuous figure than separate lines. This can be used to point towards another element in the composition, and is seen where a line is cut through one object, often in a curve, aligning perfectly with a secondary element. This illustration consists of 4 lines that meet at the central point, but we prefer to see two intersecting lines rather than 4 lines that converge03. Closure The World Wildlife Fund logo uses the closure principle to describe a panda, even though the shape is not fully closedClosure is a common design technique that uses the human eye's tendency to see closed shapes. Closure works where an object is incomplete or the interior space of an element is not fully closed, but the viewer perceives a complete shape by filling in the missing information. This technique is often associated with stenciled artwork, but is also closely associated with logo forms. Next page: more on the Gestalt theory 04. Proximity (aka grouping) The arrangement of boxes on the left are not close enough to have proximity, while the group on the right is perceived as a single whole elementProximity uses the close arrangement of elements to create a group association between those objects. If individual elements are also similar, they will tend to be perceived as a single whole, even though they are separate elements. The shapes don't have to be regular to achieve proximity. Similar shapes arranged together to describe a bigger image, such as this illustration of a flameProximity or grouping can be achieved with lots of different commonality including shape, colour, texture, size or any other visual attribute. 05. Figure/ground Figure and ground often uses the idea of light and shade to help create an image that jumps out from a series of shapesThis principle describes the eye's tendency to see and separate objects from their surrounding background. A classic example uses a vase/candlestick illustration to show two faces peering at each other, but you can also see this effect in a variety of logo designs. It works because human eyes want to see the figure (foreground object) and background (ground) as two different planes of focus. MC Escher's famous woodblock Sky and Water 1 (1938) uses the figure and ground principleEverything that is not figure is considered ground, which can be used to create some interesting visual effects and tricks, particularly when the designer or artist introduces deliberate ambiguity - a favourite technique of the surrealist MC Escher. 06. Symmetry and order Put simply, this principle says that a composition should not provide a sense of disorder or imbalance, as otherwise the viewer will waste time trying to locate the missing element, or fix the problem, rather than focusing on the message or instruction. The symmetrical figure that makes up the windmill shown below provides a sense of order and balanceYou can achieve symmetry by providing a good balance or sense of symmetry in your design elements, such as the windmill illustration below. This provides the viewer with a feeling of harmony. Related articles: The designer's guide to the Golden Ratio The designer's guide to grid theory 25 logo design tips from the experts View the full article

Contemporary character design is both exciting and ever-evolving. As technology advances and becomes ever more complex, designers are using these advances to go in the opposite direction – playing with their characters in ways that are perhaps simpler and more child-like than in the past. Best iPad art apps for painting and sketchingNew technologies are shaping the way that characters are created, and the way they interact with audiences. And as we become increasingly obsessed with our own image, tweaking the way our own ‘character’ or self is portrayed online, artists are reimagining faces and expressions in innovative ways. Read on to discover more about how modern life is shaping character design, and sometimes, vice versa, with these five exciting character design trends. 01. Viral design Edel Rodriguez’s depiction of Donald Trump has taken on a life of its ownNot so much a design trend as an audience trend, more so than ever before, the characters we design do not belong to their creators. As they become charged with our projection, imagination, fantasy and longing, they gain a virtual identity or life 
of their own, making them independent from their creators. This has arguably always been true, but the internet has increased the speed of their diffusion. Characters now act as autonomous agents, roaming freely across media, spreading like wildfire across social networks and attaching themselves to other artefacts beyond our control. The recent Pictoplasma Conference explored this trend. Its theme was Character Upload, and the opening titles and the talks explored the challenges for artistic creation and authorship that designers face in our age of viral circulation. One character that has taken on a life of its own is Edel Rodriguez’s illustration of Donald Trump, which has been featured on many magazine covers, from Time to Der Spiegel, and has been appropriated by many people at political demonstrations. Rodriguez has made this Trump icon his signature, constantly recombining the colours and elements, and his viral work draws on other trends in illustration, with an eschewing of realistic depictions in favour of typographic and symbolic abstractions. Sean Charmatz turns everyday objects into charming charactersAnother example embodying these issues is Sean Charmatz’s Secret World of Stuff. Charmatz creates characters by using Photoshop to add simple lines to his photos of found objects, such as egg boxes, pizza, leaves and bin bags. He has a huge following on Instagram and his work is often shared without proper credit – a big issue for artists today. The reason for his viral success probably lies less in the character design itself, but in the work’s ability to tell simple short stories in one image. There are silly stories, but also images related to friendship, family, death or loneliness. This emphasis on storytelling is present in many fields, from branding to interface design, and makes this an exciting time for designers and their characters. 02. Illustrating with 3D shapes Jack Sachs' Shhh! for Tate BritainIn many cases, character design is about breaking down shapes into geometrical forms. This is one of the fundamental rules of animation production, and has been essential for enabling international teams to work on the same thing in different places. Currently playing with such geometrical elements for character design in an inspiring way are 3D artists. In sharp contrast to the hyper-realistic simulation that has long been dominant in 3D, artists can have fun experimenting with a simple way of juggling geometrical forms to create pleasing new characters. Jack Sachs, who recently moved from London to Berlin, works as animator and illustrator. He studied illustration at Camberwell College of Arts, but while recovering from a hand injury, he had to take a break from traditional drawing and started making 3D work on the computer. These two practices have fused to become the work he makes today: jumbled up faces, bright colours, and lumpy shapes, inspired by the pioneers of early CGI. His 3D renders are often consciously misplaced into live action video footage, with characters emerging from a solid floor, as in his recent work SHHH! for Tate Britain. Cecy Meade's Toxic BoyCecy Meade from Monterrey, Mexico, has a similar approach – exposing the geometric configuration of 3D modelling. Her works often depict characters head-on and in a less dynamic way than Sachs – leading to a direct confrontation with the viewer. Like many 3D illustrators, she constructs her work based on hand-drawn sketches, which she then reconfigures in geometrical elements. Tube Dude by Julian GlanderJulian Glander, from New York, works in various genres including comics, video games, short films and illustration. He never sketches, but combines simple geometric shapes straight in the free and open-source 3D software Blender. His pastel toned yet vibrant Florida-inspired colour palette stands in contrast to the often violent and dystopian undertones of his work. 03. New expressions in selfie culture Fabio Tonetto began digitally overlaying heads in photos a few years agoWe live in times of photographic terror. Our smartphones, the internet and the speed of data means we are constantly producing and reproducing our visual identity through selfies, and playing with it through face-swapping apps, Instagram and Snapchat filters. This selfie cult has sparked various artistic reactions. Artists and designers have come up with creative alternatives to reinvent facial representation. Italian artist Fabio Tonetto began digitally overlaying heads in photos a few years ago, while Paris-based Geneviève Gauckler has long been experimenting with the combination of mundane photorealistic objects and graphical identities. Geneviève Gauckler combines mundane photorealistic objects and graphical identitiesGauckler's artwork replaces the head in photos with simple geometric shapes and combines elements to form new faces. Her work is all about nostalgia for mundane everyday objects and her love for the absurd. The simplicity of her character design emotes the feeling of being a spectator, an outsider looking at things as if for the first time. Guillaume Kashima's Face-off self-portraitGuillaume Kashima is a French-Japanese illustrator living in Berlin. His style is minimalist yet bold – he works mainly with black and white, plus strong, primary colours to create simple facial designs for a range of contexts. Recently, he has started to experiment with classical portraits, giving them warped facial features, multiple eyes and thoughtful poses. His Classics series of Risograph prints subvert traditional ideas and artwork by inserting playful images, such as fed up-looking naked woman farting, on classical vases. Ton Mak's Flabjacks series is an extension of the artist's doodlesAfter quitting her job in a branding agency, Ton Mak from Shanghai decided to fully concentrate on what she had been unconsciously doing most of the time – doodling. Within a short time, she simplified her style to create the expanding Flabjacks universe, a lumpy, chubby species differentiated through hairstyles, clothes and props. Their curious, ambiguous faces are a vehicle for the artist to reflect on her own identity. She also experiments with photomontage, which she bases on portraits of herself and her family. 04. Interactive characters Eran Hilleli creates mysterious characters in his signature geometric style In 1994, Karl Sims, computer graphic artist and MIT researcher, released Evolved Virtual Creatures – animated videos showing creatures that had been tested to see whether they could perform a given task, such as swimming or jumping, and then evolved accordingly. They reacted to their environment and interacted with the others, similar to characters in a game. This ground-breaking work is still influential today. Eran Hilleli, an animation filmmaker from Israel, is currently expanding his work in this direction. He is renowned for his geometric style and mysterious characters created with cinematic flair. In addition to animated shorts, music videos and adverts, he experiments with GIF loops, such as a group of characters around a camp fire or some ethereal-looking vegetation moving in the wind. For his animated trailer for the Style Frames conference, he first tested the walking cycles of his characters constructed of geometric shapes to see if they felt organic. From this exploration, he put together his cast of eclectic characters for the parade featured in the animation. Hilleli's Character Synth is an interactive installationHilleli’s latest exploration Character Synth is an interactive installation, in which a male character is portrayed on a computer screen. Visitors can sit at the desk to interact with the character through a midi controller, which operates oscillating sine waves and random noise and results in the character deforming as if injecting waves into its bones. By combining different commands through the midi, players can observe endless different ways of transformation, meaning that Character Synth is a system that can be stimulated and interacted with, rather than a linear animation with different options that tell a story. Character Upload by Mate SteinforthAnother animation artist expanding his practice is Mate Steinforth, creative director at Berlin studio Sehsucht. His Instagram feed is an exploration of the behaviour of detached parts in a hyperrealist rendered setting – hands float through the air, geometric forms bounce at each other, a face is a Tinder screen to swipe through. These clips are neither interactive, nor based on a program within a system. Rather they seem to be experiments of Technoself Studies – singling out specific contexts of our cultures and letting them spin in autonomous loops. Based on such experiments, Steinforth worked on the animated trailer for the recent Pictoplasma Conference. He created a cast of occult monks and allowed them to move through void 3D environments. Following this research of the behaviour and movement of his characters, he created the final animation. Seoul-based animation director and media artist Jun seo Hahm adds a biological perspective to this type of research, replacing real creatures in the natural world with artificial ones in a CG environment. He examines the behaviour of simple forms and how their movement is based on their restrictions, and his film project Walking Follows Form is a stunning expression of how a character’s body structure informs its style of walking. 05. Breaking the rules of gaming Pikuniku by Rémi Forcadell and Arnaud de BockFrom Space Invaders to Super Mario, early computer games have been key to defining the aesthetics of contemporary character design. Games have the potential to develop a character-driven narrative, in particular when the design defines the characters’ abilities to move and act within the designated world. Mainstream titles have tended to design characters to fulfil a function in a given story, but within the current movement of indie games, it is character design that is at the forefront of the development process. There is also increasingly room for plots that are not about winning but exploring. Currently under development, Pikuniku breaks the traditional rules of gaming. It is a “therapeutic playground where the player will need to think creatively.” There are no enemies to fight or kill, the avatar is not a hero, and, most importantly, you cannot die. The character is a red, oval shape with just two eyes and thin, long, waggly legs, and its mission is to rebuild a community. The character’s design is also key – it was the starting point for the game. One of the two creators, Rémi Forcadell, had animated a short clip of its movement, and when Arnaud De Bock saw the short GIF online, he contacted him and proposed working on a game together. Pikuniku has not only maintained the character’s oddness but bases everything on it. It moves through the game seeming helpless at first, but learns to act socially through encountering other creatures that require its assistance. Rebecca Cordingley and Ben Wasser's OobletsIn a similar tone, Ooblets is also about creating social coherence through farming little creatures, the Ooblets. Though it’s much more refined and polished in its look than Pikuniku, Ooblets also began with design rather than concept. The promotion of Ooblets has also been outside of traditional norms, as creators Rebecca Cordingley and Ben Wasser have been actively promoting the game’s characters and scenes online in order to build a fan base before the 2018 release. Samuel Boucher's FacesThe recently released GNOG is a puzzle game about exploring virtual toys, and has the option to play in VR via PlayStation VR. The player has to experiment with a new GNOG head in each level – by pushing and pulling different levers or rotating the head, for example – to uncover its secrets. Its lead designer, Samuel Boucher of Montreal-based KO_OP studio, has a passion for experimenting with facial designs, and it shows. In GNOG, the character’s vibrant face is the environment – it’s a facial machine to operate and to play with. Once again, there are no winners or losers as such, making the experience more akin to child’s play than is traditional in gaming. This article originally featured in Computer Arts issue 268. Buy it here. Read more: How to improve your character drawing Make your own character bible 10 best video game character designs View the full article

Over 70 per cent of freelancers say a client has stiffed them on paying their invoice. The best way to avoid these cheapskates is to use a solid contract and get paid upfront. But, if preventative measures have failed you, here are six steps for getting what you deserve. 01. Don't work without getting paid By working without pay, you remove your client’s primary motivation for paying you in the first place. “If you are still invoicing for past work and you’re not getting paid, immediately stop,” suggests Brennan Dunn, founder of Double Your Freelancing. 02. Charge late fees This handy invoice template comes from Free Agent (click to see the full infographic) Begin to charge payment late fees when your contract stipulates it will happen. Most invoicing software can automate late payment fees for you. Resend your invoice with the added late fees. Start sending it by email and snail mail if you don’t get a response. 20 top tools for freelancers03. Don't leave it alone Always pursue payment truancy. Half the payment horror stories on Clients From Hell could be solved by the submitter being less polite. You’re running a business, and that business needs money to survive. An automated warning that a client is about to be charged late fees is an excellent way to motivate clients without baring your teeth. 04. Waive late fees for a short time By saying you'll waive late fees for a limited time, the combination of urgency and savings can motivate clients to pay up. 05. Send a letter from your attorney or a collections agency Attorneys and collections agency are hard to ignore, but they’re not cheap solutions. Consider this option as a next-to-last resort. 06. File with a small claims court The final option is to resolve the issue in a small claims court. Make sure the amount is worth it, as this option will drain time and a bit of money. See GOV.UK for guides in the UK. In the US, the process and point of contact varies from state-to-state, but this guide from the California Department of Consumer Affairs may be of use. This article originally appeared in Computer Arts magazine issue 268. Buy it here. Related articles: Why designers need to talk about money How to balance money and happiness as a designer 25 tips for staying sane as a freelancer View the full article

You're reading Why Developers Use (and Love) Slides Framework (Survey), originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Designmodo created a 10-question survey for users to gather feedback about Slides Framework. Everyone connected with Designmodo fell in love with Slides Framework pretty much at first sight. But the real question was if other developers would love it too. The natural answer was to ask them. View the full article

Whether it be rendering 3D environments, 2D character sprites or slick UI, talented artists and designers play an absolutely crucial role in video game development. 20 best designs in video gamesGaming is a medium that has incredible scope for artistic variety, from collapsed underwater civilisations to worlds populated with Russian dolls. But it's also one that demands very different considerations of its artists. After all, encoded in a game's art are messages that the player must understand and respond to accordingly in order to progress, which makes for a unique relationship between designer and consumer. Celia Hodent, director of UX at video game behemoth Epic Games and holder of a PhD in psychology, has written a book on this subject called The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX Can Impact Video Game Design. In it, she sets out to explain how cognitive science and an understanding of player psychology can make for better design decisions. Below are some of her practical tips on how game artists can design around the complexities of the human brain. 01. Consider a diegetic interface Some semblance of an HUD (heads-up display) has long been a staple of video game UI design. The principle behind this is simple: that key information, such as health or ammo supply, is always available to the player. But more recently, games like Dead Space – which stylishly displays the health bar on the spine of the playable character – have experimented with diegetic UI elements. Dead Space shows the health bar on the spine of playable charactersThis means that unlike with a traditional HUD, the information is contextualised within the game world and made visible to characters themselves. Another example of diegetic UI is the iconic Pip-Boy from the Fallout series [below]. But cognitively, there are cases both for and against. “If you can actually convey some information where the eyes are looking and where the attention is, it's going to help the player not having to try and find information in the corners,” Celia Hodent tells Creative Bloq. In her book, she explains that this is down to the way in which our visual perception works, with visual acuity far sharper in the centre of our gaze than in our peripheral vision. “When you look at eye-tracking for shooters, the eye is really towards the reticule at the centre of the screen,” she adds. The Pip-Boy 3000 is a pre-War electronic Personal Information Processor (PIP) in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas manufactured by RobCo IndustriesAnother argument for the diegetic interface is that with the HUD stripped away, players are able to immerse themselves more fully in the game world. Hodent is not fully convinced of this. “A lot of people say 'if you want a more immersive experience, remove the HUD and then you got it',” she considers. “Which is not always the case. If you try too hard to do that at the expense of usability principles, this is when you have a problem.” Indeed, she adds that such a move can have the unintended result of increasing a player's 'cognitive load' – in other words, increasing demands on attention and memory – which can lead to frustration. 02. Have form follow function Adapted from Jakob Nielsen's set of oft-cited usability guidelines, written in 1994, Hodent's book includes her own 'Seven Usability Pillars for Game UX'. One that particularly stands out is 'Form Follows Function', which quite succinctly encapsulates the task faced by video game artists. She argues that “the visual expression of a game element should intuitively inform the player how to interact with it.” Of artists, she adds: “their assets are constrained by what players need to understand, and that they need to follow 'Form Follows Function' as an aesthetic guide.” In an interactive experience, everything has to be cohesive to boost the gameplaySimply having a brilliant imagination and incredible technical ability isn't enough to be a great game artist. For that, you need some sense of coherence with the overall vision. “One of the misconceptions about UX is that it is going to hamper your creativity,” Hodent explains. “But in an interactive experience, everything has to be cohesive and you're here to serve gameplay.” “The art has to serve two purposes: it has to really support the gameplay elements, and it has to delight the players. A lot of times, there's design there but I'm not sure what it's saying to me.” 03. Don't make players read Similar to the idea that form follows function, another of Hodent's usability pillars is 'Signs and Feedback'. Signs are what invite the player to take a specific action – like a flashing red screen may prompt a player to use a health pack – while the appropriate feedback both affirms the action and effectively teaches for the future. Effective use of signs and feedback can significantly minimise the need for blocks of tutorial text, which Hodent believes should be avoided where possible. “The brain is taking shortcuts all the time, the brain wants the minimum workload,” she says. “We're actually using heuristics ourselves to go straight to the point.” “If you have a lot of text, it's likely that the player is not going to read it, or try to parse it for keywords. Motivation is the origin of any behaviour. If you just give them instructions, that's not going to be as compelling.” 04. Test with real people Front cover of The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX Can Impact Video Game DesignIf there's one thing from her academic background that Hodent would like to see implemented in the games industry, it's the rigorous approach to testing a hypothesis. You think your UI is intuitive, but how will you really know until it's in the hands of players? Big game companies such as Epic have a whole protocol in place for this kind of testing, but Hodent maintains that even small companies can take steps towards assessing usability. “Really get the basic understanding of how perception works, the Gestalt Principles,” she advises. “Study the principle of memory; don't rely on the memory of the players, assuming that when you put a tutorial text that: one, they read it; two, they understood it; and three, they're going to remember it. “You bring people over and they test your game, and they can't see that little thing in the HUD,” she continues. “Once you understand that they're not doing it because they don't have the same context that you do to understand the HUD, that helps you iterate faster. “And when you ship the game, it's going to be way more likely to be successful.” The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX Can Impact Video Game Design, published by CRC Press, is available now. Related articles: Review: Unreal Engine 4.16.1 How to press start on your game art career 10 best video game character designs View the full article

Putting together video projects can be a pain without the right software. Filmora is the rare combination of an app that is easy to grasp but powerful and capable of keeping up with your creativity. You can get Filmora plus a collection of assets on sale now for 50% off the retail price. Video editing is made simple when you have Filmora. This impressive video editing suite, trusted by millions of people for all of their video projects, is built in an intuitive way that makes it easy to grasp. It's packed with powerful effects and additional tools such as royalty-free music, and is bolstered further by a collection of assets that can be applied to your video projects to make them shine. You can get a lifetime licence for Filmora for Windows PCs plus an additional collection of assets on sale now for 50% off the full retail price – at $49 (approx £38) instead of $99.98. It's a great deal of savings for an app that will finally make video editing easy, so grab this deal today! About 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

http://thehackernews.com/2017/09/taringa-data-breach-hacking.html … pic.twitter.com/S1HPHtCP8i View the full article

The following is an excerpt taken from Bram Stein's new Webfont Handbook – out now. Webfonts are defined in CSS through the @font-face rule. If you’re a web developer, you’ve most likely written, copied and pasted, or at the very least seen an @font-face rule. For the sake of completeness, though, let’s quickly run through a basic example: This creates a new webfont family that can be referenced through the font-family or font shorthand property. But something’s missing here. When referencing a webfont in a font stack, always make sure to include at least one fallback font in case the webfont fails to load. Here, if Elena fails to load, the browser will fall back on the generic serif font family: There’s more to fallback fonts, but for now, let’s keep our font stack simple by including only the generic serif and sans-serif font families. Font Families Creating a font family with multiple styles is accomplished by creating an @font-face rule for each style and using the same font-family name. The following @font-face rules create a family with a normal and bold style: You can use this font family in your CSS by referencing the family name and weight in your selectors. This applies the regular style to paragraphs and the bold style to strong paragraphs: Besides font-weight, @font-face also accepts the font-style and font-stretch property descriptors, which define styles such as italic and condensed. All three property descriptors can be used to create a single font family with multiple styles. Theoretically, this lets you create a family containing 243 individual styles (nine font-weight values × three font-style values × nine font-stretch values). In practice, however, you’re limited to 27 values, since some browsers don’t support font-stretch. Take a look at the table below to see which browsers you can use, and look here for more detailed information. Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image With luck, the remaining browsers will implement the font-stretch property soon, and you will be able to use all 243 font classifications. Font Formats The src descriptor tells a browser where to get a font file. The previous examples used a single font format, but you’ll often see URLs to multiple font formats combined with format hints, which are appended after the URL using the format("value") syntax. Format hints tell the browser what the format of the font file at a given URL is. If you list multiple formats, modern browsers will pick the first format they support based on the format hint. Therefore, it’s important to list webfont formats in the order of best compression to least. Even though format hints are optional, always include them – they let the browser know about the format without needing to download the font. For example, if a browser does not support WOFF2, but does support WOFF, it can skip the WOFF2 font file based on the format hint. Browsers support several webfont formats: OpenType (TrueType), EOT, WOFF, and WOFF2. Some browsers also support SVG fonts, but they’re deprecated and should no longer be used (and should not be confused with the new OpenType-SVG format). EOT, WOFF, and WOFF2 are technically not font formats. They are compressed OpenType files with varying degrees of compression. WOFF2 offers the best compression, followed by WOFF and EOT. Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image In researching coverage for all browsers, you may have come across something called the bulletproof @font-face syntax by Fontspring. The bulletproof syntax uses EOT, WOFF2, WOFF, raw OpenType, and SVG font files for maximum browser coverage: The first URL line might look a little odd to you. Versions of Internet Explorer 8 and below do not support the syntax for multiple font formats, and treat the entire value of the src property as the URL. The bulletproof syntax tricks Internet Explorer 8 and below into thinking that the remaining URLs are part of the fragment identifier of the first URL. Because fragment identifiers are ignored when downloading files, Internet Explorer 8 and below simply use the first URL. Browsers other than Internet Explorer will skip the line because they do not support EOT. The rest of the entries are what you would expect: font formats listed in order of preference. But is the bulletproof syntax still relevant? No. In fact, I think it’s harmful. SVG fonts are deprecated and only supported by browsers that are no longer in use. Most websites support Internet Explorer 9 and up, yet the syntax lists EOT as the first preferred font format. Even though Internet Explorer 9 and up support WOFF, those versions will still download the EOT file, simply because it is listed first. Because most websites no longer support old browsers, I highly recommend using a simplified syntax. This simplified syntax covers all modern browsers, as well as slightly older ones that are still in active use, such as Android 4.4 and earlier: Even though older Android versions are still used, worldwide reliance on these browsers is rapidly dwindling. Soon you will probably be able to drop the raw OpenType format as well, and simplify the syntax even further: In this case, someone running an older browser will simply see your fallback fonts instead of the webfont. That’s fine; they can still read the content in the fallback font. There’s another possible value for the src descriptor. The local function takes the name of a local font family. If the font happens to be installed on the system, the browser will use that instead, thereby avoiding an extra download. While this may seem like a great optimisation, nothing guarantees that the local font matches your webfont. You may get a different version of the font, a font with different language support, or even an entirely different font. For that reason, I usually recommend not using the local function unless you find these downsides acceptable. This is an excerpt from Bram Stein's Webfont Handbook, from A Book Apart. In it, he explores what to consider when selecting webfonts, how to use them effectively, and how to optimise for performance. Related articles: What the hell is blockchain? 30 Chrome extensions for web designers and devs 20 amazing free Google web fonts View the full article

This article will teach you how to draw a dragon, and unlike other drawing tutorials it will focus in particular on those areas that make dragons different to other creatures – just because you know how to draw a bear, for example, it doesn't mean you can draw a dragon. How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorialsLet's be clear: dragons and dinosaurs are both awesome, but dragons are not the same as dinosaurs. Studying the creatures of this world for clues on how to make a fantastic creature feel like it could exist in it is great. But by making dinosaurs and dragons interchangeable in our work, we're losing integral parts of what have made each one special in history, myth and fantasy. In this workshop we're going to examine why character and personality are important in dragons, and then work through examples on how to imbue them with character. 01. Give your dragon a story Tolkien's Smaug is more than just a violent physical threatJRR Tolkien makes a compelling case for a distinction between dragons and dinosaurs in his essay, On Fairy-stories. In it, the author recounts how when he was introduced to the subjects of zoology and palaeontology at an early age he was told by his elders that dinosaurs were, in fact, dragons. Tolkien wanted adults to recognise the distinction between fact and fantasy, and not to dismiss one in favour of the other. He wrote: "I was eager to study nature, actually more eager than I was to read most faerie stories. But I did not want to be quibbled into science and cheated out of faeries by people who seemed to assume that by some kind of original sin I should prefer fairy-tales. But according to some kind of new religion, I ought to be induced to like science." 02. Consider your dragon's motive Dragons have a motive, and more often than not it involves greed for goldIn Smaug, Tolkien's dragon from The Hobbit, we find a creature that provides more than just the mere threat of physical violence. He also offers a personification of greed – and a distinctly aristocratic greed at that (he refuses to share or redistribute his wealth, instead pointlessly hoarding it for centuries in his vast cave). In John Gardner's Grendel, the dragon is even more of a philosophical threat over a physical one. The dragon reveals to Grendel philosophical principles that he wrestles with, and is ultimately overcome by. This leads him to choose to become, and even embrace, his position as the villain in the Shaper's story. Gardner uses the imagery and the archetype views of the dragon to convey how threatening the idea is The dragon in Grendel personifies a deeply nihilistic view of the world: his final argument is about the purpose of life being that all human values are baseless and that everything we do will be made irrelevant. His best advice to Grendel therefore is to, "Seek out gold and sit on it," as nothing really matters anyway. Gardner cleverly uses both the imagery and the archetype views of the dragon to convey how threatening and dangerous the idea is, and this belief is ultimately played out through Grendel's own final meeting with Beowulf. Like these excellent examples, give your dragon a story! 03. Use symbolism Dragons offer a physical example of man's internal struggles, which is possibly why they are a creature who has stood the test of timeDragon symbolism offers something far more than a struggle of man versus nature. It does what fantasy does best: offers physical examples of man's internal struggles. It also reveals a wealth of other conflicts, external and internal. Not all dragons are evil. In Kenneth Grahame's The Reluctant Dragon, the writer acknowledges the classical archetype for a dragon, but flips it on its head to give the dragon a good heart. The dragon in this story understands her design is one of evil, but chooses to rise above it. She prefers tea parties and poetry recitals to pillaging and burning. A wealth of personality can be poured into a dragon, all the while keeping its sinister features. 04. Draw from life Gerard studies a variety of creatures in order to create a truly unique and convincing dragonWhile dragons have a largely spiritual dimension to them, they also exist in the actual world. Therefore we should seek to make them look like they belong here. This is key when learning how to draw a dragon. When we're searching for something to use as physical reference for dragons, there are many creatures alive today that provide us with a great wealth of material. Crocodiles offer what is perhaps the best and most threatening example. Of all modern-day lizards they are some of the most brutal and terrifying in appearance. Gerard goes to a reserve called Alligator Adventure in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to study one of the largest crocs in the world - UtanAs you draw from life or photos, make mental notes about your subject. How far are the eyes from the mouth? How large is the upper jaw compared to the lower? As you draw these details you're adding them to a mental library you'll be able to pull from in future. It also broadens your overall understanding of the construction of living things. 05. Use human references, too By making studies of human faces and expressions you'll soon find they creep into your artWe're searching for a visual balance between a creature that captures our sense of reptilian evil and human intelligence. For humans, you could keep a folder of images from the news of sinister-looking political figures – there are some wonderfully sinister politicians out there! So, a brief foray onto political websites turned these curious figures up. The human studies inform the expressions on the faces of the dragons Now that we have good references for human expressions of deviousness, we can turn to our dragons. The human studies inform the expressions on the faces of the dragons. As you go through these sketches, keep in mind the expressions of the human figures. And even if you don't deliberately try to, it's likely that the humans' expressions will still find their way into the corners of the smiles and the eyes of the dragons. 06. Draw dragons' eyes Eyes are windows to the soul, so make sure your dragon's eyes are full of emotionThe first place almost all biological creatures look when they identify another shape as a biological form is the eyes. They have been called the window to the soul. The same holds true for when we look at a character in a painting: we will generally always try to look at the eyes first, before we move on to the other aspects of the image. This is hard-wired into us as creatures. So, it's important to capture the eyes correctly. Take some time and make studies of reptile eyes and human eyes. Find which ones are the most expressive. Which ones communicate what you’re after the best? Try combining them to achieve something new. 07. Work from memory By studying human facial expressions and working from memory, you can create a distinctive dragon with characterAs you execute your tight drawing, combine what you've learnt from the sinister human faces and from your real life creature references. Try to stick to what you have already memorised, as opposed to directly copying your reference. If you rely too much on copying, you'll slowly suck the humanity out of your dragon until it's simply a brute animal. Try to use your reference only to check your work or when you run into a problem. This article originally appeared in ImagineFX magazine issue 91. Related articles: How to draw a face How to improve your character drawing 14 fantasy artists to follow on Instagram View the full article

A metric that won't appear on the balance sheet, but is critical to the success of any business, is the measure of productivity. Productivity is the output of your team over a given period. If you're able to use your team better, you're able to produce more work, deliver more value for your clients, pitch for more new business, and outpace the competition. At Float, we spend a lot of our time observing how the top agencies, studios and brands manage their team's time. Float is a resource scheduling application used by teams big and small to help manage their team's schedule, allocate tasks efficiently, and keep tabs on utilisation. Over the years, through many interviews and studies, we've identified consistent traits of successful companies that allow them to maximise productivity, maintain high utilisation and continue to win more business. Check out these traits and tips to see how you can apply them to your own business. At Generate London on 21 September, Alison Coward will explain how you can design teamwork 01. Limit the number of different tasks your team works on When tasks are assigned to team members in Float, we see that the average allocation is 4.5 hours per day. This means that any team member, on average, has around two tasks for the day to work on. By reducing the number of different tasks a team member works on a given day, it reduces the switching cost associated with transitioning to a new task. Time management is critical for making the most of your team's skillsMany studies have been done regarding the negative effects of switching between different tasks on productivity. Allow your team members long, concentrated stretches to complete projects, limit switches between tasks, and you'll find they can achieve more. Let's leave the term 'multi-tasking' behind. 02. Block out time for no interruptions Pop quiz: How do you make a team member work faster? Interrupt them. Yes, while counterintuitive, studies show that people who are often interrupted work faster when they return to the task to compensate for the lost time. The trade off? Studies also show that these people are more stressed and frustrated with their jobs. Healthy, happy workers are key to long-term productivity. Limiting the number of interruptions and keeping the team focused should be a top priority for any manager. The astronomical growth of platforms like Slack are changing the way we communicate in the workplace. While reducing email clutter, and centralising the team conversation, their real-time nature and ubiquitous presence make them a number one candidate for interruptions. Recently these services have recognised this issue and have started offering features to help. The Basecamp team started this trend with the 'Work Can Wait' setting, and now Slack allows you to set your own 'Do Not Disturb' time, a period where you won't receive any push notifications. Encourage your team to set these up within reasonable work hours and respect them. Also be sure to set an example of how to use @here and @channel settings. These features enable you to message all of your team at once: think of them as the modern-day Reply All. This shotgun approach to communication is disruptive, so use it wisely, and think twice before you decide to interrupt everyone. 03. Start meetings on time, end meetings on time Starting meetings on time is the easiest way to save your agency time. A team of 12 starting a meeting 10 minutes late means you've effectively lost two hours of work. Back to back meetings are a sure-fire way to deliver cascading delays throughout the day. Google Calendar has meeting efficiency built-in with its 'Speedy Meeting' setting. When you check this feature in your Account Settings, 30 minute meetings end five minutes earlier, and one hour meetings end 10 minutes early. Encourage your team to enable this for their meetings. Float allows you to schedule your resources simplyScheduling meetings with clients or vendors? Avoid the email tag and use a tool like Calendly. This gives the meeting recipient access to the hours you have available so they can pick a time that suits, and you can coordinate a meeting time in one email, not five. 04. Embrace real-time change Tools that enable teams to collaborate in real-time should be prioritised over static, locally hosted files. The Google Docs suite has had a huge impact in this space, with the ability to share, write, comment, and edit documents simultaneously among the team – a big time-saver. Float also enables managers to collaborate in real-time on their scheduling, ensuring that when changes arise, as they often do, you can react quickly and keep your team up-to-date. These tools have the added benefit of auto-saving to the cloud, ensuring no matter where you are, you have access to the latest information. If you lose your laptop, you can also be back up and running as soon as you have a replacement. 05. Value not just the work but how you work Leaders who value their team's time take proactive steps to audit, optimise and improve their company's practices and processes. If you're serious about increasing productivity, schedule regular time out of your day to critique the way your team works. If you can find ways to continuously improve, break bad habits, and introduce new ones, you'll soon see not only an increase in long-term productivity, but an increase in your bottom line. For more tips on improving teamwork, don't miss Alison Coward at Generate London as she explains how to find a good balance between creativity and productivity, run great workshops that improve team culture and create good team habits that stick. The conference on 21/22 September also covers web animation, UX strategy, prototyping, user research, performance, responsive design, adaptive and conversational interfaces and loads more. Buy your ticket today! Liked this? Try these... 20 tools to make your team more productive Top 20 new creative tools of 2017 so far 10 of the best free Udemy courses for designers View the full article

It’s beloved by movie industry studios but now, hefty speed improvements, new features and new purchasing options have made Arnold 5 even more enticing and accessible to all 3D artists. Solid Angle’s ray tracing renderer has a significantly updated core that enables faster rendering, plus new features, enhanced workflows and exciting new capabilities. These software improvements come alongside the introduction of a free version of Arnold 5 for educational institutions and a discount of up to 50% for other users. “Everything about Arnold is easier – whether it’s the straightforward controls for the artist or the clean, consistent API for the developer," reports Chad Dombrova of Luma Pictures, one of over 300 studios worldwide that uses Arnold. Arnold 5 for Maya features newly improved standard volume shadersThe three minute video below shows some of the improvements in Arnold 5. These include a new open shading language (OSL) with better closures support; improved lighting with controls over roundness and softness; improved sampling performance; a new hair shader; a new standard volume shader; smarter colour management; a VR camera; and impressive speed improvements. Simple workflows with usable new features With the rendering tool boosted to help artists create more stunning imagery than ever, it’s no wonder Arnold 5 was named one of our 8 best 3D tools of 2017 so far. "Arnold gives us outstanding image quality and the ease of setup that today’s productions demand. I’m thrilled we are able to add it to the arsenal of tools at ILM,” enthuses John Knoll of ILM, which used Arnold for its work on Pacific Rim. Arnold 5 for Maya's FumeFXAt SIGGRAPH 2017, Arnold development manager Fred Servant spoke as part of the Autodesk Vision series about the decisions and changes behind the move from Arnold 4 to Arnold 5. “We knew we needed to lay the foundations for the things we wanted to build for the next generation,” Servant says. “Along the way we tried to simplify everything we could. We tried to simplify the workflows from Arnold 4. When you simplify things, you get performance improvements, but we worked also on really improving the speed of the code.” Arnold produced photorealistic results in the Logan movie (image courtesy of Image Engine)Tried and tested by Hollywood Imagine Engine was one of the first studios to test Arnold 5’s new OSL. Servant explains that Imagine Engine used a “special cut” of Arnold 4 with OSL included to render a CG version of Hugh Jackman for the recent Logan movie, with photorealistic results. Similarly, Digic Pictures tested the newly improved standard volume shaders in Final Fantasy XV: Kingsglaive to create dramatic and high-profile smoke effects. Arnold was used in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 by Marvel Studios (image courtesy of Framestore)Arnold was also used by Framestore in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Framestore’s Martin Preston says: "Arnold has been a revelation both in the minimal time required for us to port all our pipeline to support it, and in the ease by which our lighters have switched to using it." With a gallery bulging with case studies from TV and movies, there’s no shortage of inspiration from the professionals. Take out a free trial today to see what you can create. How to get Arnold 5 Arnold 5 works alone or as a plug-in for Maya, 3ds Max, Cinema4D, Katana, Houdini and SoftimageArnold 5 is available now for Mac, Windows PC or Linux as a standalone renderer or as a plug-in for Maya, 3ds Max, Cinema4D, Katana, Houdini and Softimage. The free 30-day trial version of Arnold functions the same way as the full version. Arnold is available on subscription for £555/$600 per year for a single licence. Or, companies can save 50% by buying an Arnold pack of five annual licences for £1,387.50/$1,500 (plus VAT/tax). Students can use Arnold 5 for freeStarting on 7 September, Arnold 5 will also come free with new or renewed subscriptions to the Media & Entertainment Collection of software by Autodesk, which owns Arnold developer Solid Angle. This software package contains all the 3D pipeline tools you need, including Maya, 3ds Max, Mudbox, Motionbuilder and more. Free Arnold educational licences are available from the Autodesk Education Portal for institutions wishing to teach with the software, while students of Autodesk Maya and 3ds Max can download the latest versions that come bundled with Arnold for interactive rendering. View the full article

These days, most people know Jaime Levy from her book UX Strategy: How to Devise Innovative Digital Products that People Want, which is widely regarded as the definitive work on UX strategy, and published in six different languages. But there’s much more to the American author, university professor, interface designer and UX strategist’s career to date. Here she reveals how she started out. It all began back in 1990, when she was working on her Master’s at New York University (NYU) in Interactive Telecommunications. It was an exciting time, she recalls. “I was surrounded by people who were trying to really push technology. Even back then we were doing stuff with virtual reality, reading cyberpunk books... It was a really good time to get fully engrossed in a mindset where ‘Hey, I’m not going to be afraid of technology even though I’m a girl, even though I’m not a programmer,’” she says. Despite being born in Hollywood and going to college in San Francisco, Levy had had no interest in staying put in California. “When I left San Francisco, it still felt like a hippy-dippy scene,” she says. “Apple was starting out but it was floundering. Silicon Valley wasn’t anything like it is now. So I moved to New York because that’s where artists lived who wanted to make a big statement, and I could be part of a scene that had so much energy. Jaime Levy will be presenting her UX strategy workshop at Generate London this month “If you look at film, say, it was the lame Hollywood films that would come out of California, while New York had the people I admired, like Jim Jarmusch or Spike Lee,” she continues. “A big reason that drew me there was that it had experimental industrial music, so I wanted to live where Sonic Youth lived. People like Patti Smith or Allen Ginsberg... it was like, I can do anything because these are the people I’m surrounded by.” Taking a deep dive into the latest technologies, Levy soon became known for launching the electronic magazines Cyber Rag and Electronic Hollywood, which were programmed in HyperCard and Macromedia Director and distributed on 800k floppy disks. “And I quickly learned that it’s one thing to make something, but that’s only half the game,” she says. “The second half is you have to market the shit out of it to get it in people’s hands. Learn how UX strategy can change the world at Generate London So she lugged her disks around bookstores and worked incessantly to create publicity for them. “I sent them to magazines and they wrote articles about them. I took them to bookstores and said, ‘Sell these’. And they said, ‘What the hell are they?’ I said, ‘Just take them for free and if you sell them, give me the money.’” After Billy Idol bought one of her disks in a bookstore, Levy got a gig with EMI Records, where she designed, animated, and programmed the first commercially released interactive press kit for the singer’s Cyberpunk CD digipack. It was just one of a number of multimedia projects Levy produced throughout the 1990s, working with companies like Viacom and IBM, at the same time as working as a Professor at NYU, teaching Electronic Publishing and Interface Design. By 2000, the dotcom bubble had well and truly burst, and then another seismic event, 9/11, sucked the creative air out of New York. Levy decided to move back to California, where she would eventually start a whole new chapter in her career by founding JLR Interactive. The UX consultancy firm, which Levy now runs alongside teaching UX strategy at UCLA, has gone from strength to strength. In 2018, Levy says she's going to stop touring to focus on developing new courses and hands-on consulting projects, meaning that net's Generate London conference may be the last chance you get to see Levy talk in public for some time. The full version of this interview was originally published in issue 297 of net magazine. Buy it today. Jaime Levy will host both a workshop and a talk on UX strategy at Generate London this month. Haven't got a ticket yet? Grab one here now! Related articles: Four tenets of UX strategy The state of UX in 2016 Master user experience strategy View the full article

Digital painting techniques make it possible to depict reflections in glass in a relatively straightforward manner. Certainly, it’s much less laborious than taking the traditional media approach to painting reflections. And it’s all down to the use of layers in painting apps. How to improve your character drawingWhen painting the reflection of a person in a window, remember that window glass is different to a mirror, which produces a sharp, well-defined image. A window works differently because of the transparent nature of glass. As such, a dark background on the other side of the window is what makes the reflection possible in the first place. Some aspects of the background will emerge in the reflection as part of the image, so it’s important not to overdo the transparency effect. Keep in mind that glass is a glossy surface, but also fragile. Elements such as dirt, erosion and cracks in the glass will give it an even more realistic look. Watch the video tutorial below to see this technique in action, then read the step-by-step instructions. Now onto the steps. Begin by laying down the sketch, starting with the environment that you'll see reflected in the glass window... 01. Consider the perspective Perspective lines on a separate layer ensure the sketch is accurate In this example the focal point will be a reflection of the figure, so it is placed in the middle. On a separate layer, draw the perspective lines. Getting the reflection and the perspective correct can be the difference between a successful image and a failed one. 02. Paint the reflections as solids Paint the reflections in before you add the transparency effect (click to see the full image) Start on the background. The girl’s reflection is added on a new layer, without factoring in the transparency effect yet. Then, select the Layer dialog and set the blending mode to Screen, so everything that’s dark in the layer become transparent. 03. Weather the glass Adding dirt and scratches will convey the glass's presence (click to see the full image)  Now, adjust the Opacity and Fill settings in the Layer dialog, which affect the level of reflection. Then add weathering effects to the glass: create a new layer and paint dirt with a light grey and a scattered brush. Depict cracks on another layer. Our finished reflected portrait (click to see the full image) This tutorial originally appeared in ImagineFX issue 147. Buy it here. We think you'll like these related articles: 5 ways to improve your digital art skills How to colour your manga art like a pro The stories behind iconic fantasy film posters of the 80s View the full article

It's not just photographers on Instagram who post interesting and intriguing images – the social network is bursting with creative talent from across the artistic spectrum. Instagram is a great way to capture and share some of your favourite moments and get inspired at the same time from some of the most exciting creatives out there. To help get you started, or to spice up your feed, here's a list of the some of the biggest and best illustrators to follow... 01. Catalina Estrada Catalina Estrada's brightly coloured, nature-inspired patterned work graces everything from wallpaper and colouring books to clothing and duvet covers these days. Her Instagram account's a great place to see her latest work, as well as pictures of her and her family. 02. Berta Valló Born in Budapest and now based in London having graduated from Central Saint Martins, Berta Valló's work often explores themes of identity and female sexuality in relation to consumerist culture. Her Instagram is a great place to see it. 03. Jean Julien French illustrator and Central Saint Martin's graduate Jean Julien is everywhere right now. His account is dedicated to his satirical and colourful illustrations – some published works, some sketches in progress – all of which are guaranteed to make you chuckle. 04. Mr Bingo You'll know Mr Bingo from his hugely popular Hate Mail project. On his Instagram account, he shares his latest offensive postcard illustrations, as well as arty shots of his adventures. 05. Rob Hodgson Bristol-based illustrator Rob Hodgson shares a real mix of images on his account. Pictures of his work take predominance, followed closely by some cute – and often funny – pictures of his cat, Peggy Sue. 06. SAINER Polish illustrator and street artist SAINER creates pieces of work that are often gigantic in size and beautifully intricate. Give his Instagram account a follow to keep-up-to date with his latest artworks. 07. DailyDoodleGram Israeli illustrator Geffen Refaeli first started the DailyDoodleGram project in May 2001 and has uploaded a new illustration each day ever since. His account has skyrocketed! With 103,000 followers, make sure you give him a follow to get your daily pencil drawing fix. 08. Luke Pearson Luke Pearson is an illustrator, cartoonist and comic book artist from the UK who has produced work for clients including Penguin Books, Wired, Little White Lies Magazine and Cartoon Network. It's a great account to follow if you're passionate about character design. 09. Guy Mckinley On his Instagram account, illustrator Guy Mckinley shares shots of his intricate pencil drawings. With work commissioned for the likes of Disney, BBC, Adidas and New Balance, make sure to follow him for some truly inspiring work. 10. Hattie Stewart 'Professional doodler' Hattie Stewart's drawing style is fun, colourful, outrageous and abstract. With exhibitions at Pick Me Up, work featured in Interview Magazine and a recent solo show in Brighton, UK, Hattie's popularity has earned her a whopping 19,000 followers on Instagram. Make sure you give her a follow. Next page: more awesome illustrators on Instagram 11. Malika Favre French illustrator Malika Favre's style is graphic and bold and aims to use as few lines and colours as needed to deliver the concept. Her Instagram account showcases her work, as well as some cool photographic shots of her travels. 12. Margaux Carpe London illustrator and one third of design study Animaux Circus, Margaux Carpe creates bold and fun designs using a variety of mediums from 0.2 Rotring pens to tones of cans of spray paint. 13. Daniel Frost London artist Daniel Frost depicts everyday life in striking illustrations, created with simple colour and composition. His Instagram account acts as an online portfolio of his work, including shots of his latest editorial spreads. 14. Justin Maller Australian artist Justin Maller has worked for the likes of American Express, Grammys, Dolby and Nike. His Instagram account is a showreel of his latest designs, peppered with occasional shots of his travels. 15. Darren Booth This Canadian illustrator and letterer has created work for huge brands including Coca-Cola, AOL, Target, Disney, McDonald's. As well as sharing snaps of his work, he also shares some really hilarious pictures of his cat Dougy and Cooper the dog. 16. Ping Zhu Brooklyn-based illustrator Ping Zhu is talked about as one of the most exciting illustrators of the now. Her work is intricate, varied and playful and has been picked up by some of the biggest editorial outlets, including The New York Times and Playboy. Give her a follow and get inspired as she takes to Instagram to share snippets of her work. 17. Steven Millington Steven Millington's Instagram is an homage to his passion for illustration and hand lettering. His work is influenced by the likes of Peter Blake and Quentin Blake, and has seen him collaborate with Vans and Ben Sherman. It's a great account to follow if you're a hand lettering fan, too. 18. Christi du Toit South African-based Christi du Toit is also an illustrator, letterer and graphic designer. Check out his Instagram account for examples of his brilliant character illustrations, as well as pictures of Misty the cat. Related articles: Best graphic designers to follow on Instagram 100 amazing Adobe Illustrator tutorials 7 best new illustration tools of 2017 so far View the full article

Looking for a new design book to get stuck into? With hundreds of new titles coming out each month, it can be tough to know which ones deserve your hard-earned cash. 30 books every graphic designer should readThat’s where we come in. Each month we deliver our pick of the best new graphic design books to hit the shelves. Whether you’re looking for industry insight, practical skills or a heavy dash of inspiration to get the creative juices flowing, you’ll find something here. Read on for three brilliant design books out this month... 01. Design Genius: The Ways and Workings of Creative Thinkers Whether you’re new to design or a seasoned expert, Design Genius has something for you Author: Gavin Ambrose Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts Price: £26.39 / $38.65 In this detailed and practical guide, Gavin Ambrose enlists the likes of Erik Kessels, Anthony Burrill and April Greiman to explore the ways and workings of creative thinkers. It’s all well and good acting the troubled creative and idly sitting around waiting for your muse, but it’s not the most practical or productive way of getting something done. Sadly, while projects work to deadlines, muses don’t. So sometimes you need a book that demystifies things and knuckles down into what makes creative minds tick, which is exactly what Design Genius does. The book brings together insights from 69 leading artists, designers, creative agencies, animators, illustrators and typographers. It aims to help its readers engage with new ways of approaching the design process and creative problem solving that could be applied to any discipline from packaging to graphic design, signage to advertising. The foreword is penned by Stephen Heller, an unequivocal hallmark of a decent design book. And alongside snippets from the likes of Erik Kessels, April Greiman, Ken Garland, John Maeda and Anthony Burrill (it could do with a few more female voices), the book also presents visual and text-based explanations of design rules, theory, best practice and techniques. Colourful illustrations break up the textThe tone of voice manages to tread the fine line between thought-provoking, authoritative and encouraging without ever feeling patronising. Photography throughout provides a splash of colour, and there's light relief in the shape of Morag Myerscough’s adorable little terrier that accompanies the “organised chaos” of her bold and bonkers studio. First published in 2014, Design Genius has just been made available as a Kindle edition, so while digital viewers won’t experience the tactility of the print version’s design nuances, it can only be a good thing that these sort of often-overlooked discussions can reach more people. Morag Myerscough's studio and dog provide light reliefIt’s so refreshing to find something that broaches complex ideas around the unconscious mind as well as linguistic tricks, politics and sustainability, alongside practical tips and tricks. “We are not claiming that inspiration does not exist; it does, but inspiration is a tool that needs to be facilitated and supported by others as part of an overall design process, rather than being the only element that produces results,” author Gavin Ambrose quite adroitly points out in the book’s introduction. “Design is not a talent that a person is born with; it can be learnt and improved through experience. Design is something that you do, and like any activity, one that you need to practice in order to improve and develop,” he says. Erik Kessels sums it up even more succinctly in his discussion of how one can “learn” creativity: “I feel freer now with ideas than I did in art school... My creativity grows every day, and this comes from daring to take a risk.” 02. X-Rated Adult Movie Posters of the 60s and 70s X-Rated makes for a magnificent coffee table book Authors: Tony Nourmand, Graham Marsh and Peter Doggett Publisher: Reel Art Press Price: £20.36 / $28.33 They’re lewd, they’re rude, and they use some of the most beautiful and unusual approaches to typography and graphic design we’ve seen. The majority of designers will be aware (and in awe) of film posters like Saul Bass’s Hitchcock classics like Vertigo, Philip Castle’s iconic image for A Clockwork Orange and even Polish designers such as Jan Lenica’s superb graphic works for European releases. Are modern movie posters in a design crisis?But fewer people will have cast their eyes across the images promoting the seedier films of the era, and perused designs for films such as Flesh Gordon, Sex Cures the Crazy, or Days of Sin and Nights of Nymphomania. Hopefully, that’s about to change with the release of a stunning little volume, X-Rated Adult Movie Posters of the 60s and 70s, which proves just how innovative, cheeky and well-executed the designs for 20th century blue(ish) movies were. Brassy colourways convey good, old-fashioned filthThe brazen use of multiple fonts and brassy colourways managed to convey a combination of good old fashioned filth as well as a keen eye for lettering, spacing and composition. Yet unlike many film posters of the same era that were more above board when it comes to classification, the names of the designers have sadly been lost in time. One of the few exceptions to this is original 'Mad Man' Steve Frankfurt, a Madison Avenue graphic designer and art director whose work can be seen on posters for films such as 1974 smash Emmanuelle. The joy of these images for anyone with a passing interest in graphics and typography is in the sheer variety of styles and formats. Many use a sort of cut and paste aesthetic, giving a sense of rawness that aptly echoes the low budget sexual films promised on celluloid. Stunning hand-drawn lettering features throughout this top graphic design bookOthers echo the photomontage style seen across many French New Wave posters of the time. Much of the lettering is hand drawn and totally bespoke, not to be repeated on another film poster let alone across a set of letterforms for public use. The designs, as co-author Peter Doggett writes in the introduction to the book, “required no decoding... Their mission was to tease and to provoke, to conjure up fantasies and arouse repressed desires, with minimum budget and maximum impact. “Everything – typography, pictorials, those enticing verbal come-ons – was focused on the irresistible lure of the forbidden.” 03. The Visual History of Type One of our favourite graphic design books this month is The Visual History of Type Author: Paul McNeil Publisher: Laurence King Price: £39 / $57.80 Why we should all understand type past to understand type presence, and even show some love for Comic Sans. The vast, heavy and superlatively informative book The Visual History of Type is published by Laurence King this month, detailing every major typeface produced since the advent of printing in the mid-15th century until now. It’s been more than seven years in the making, at the hands of Paul McNeil of type design studio MuirMcNeil. 55 best free fonts for designersThe design and production have a beautiful mix of impactful and functional, with the cover taking on the feel of a classic mid-century standards manual. A bold orange belly band wraps a functional grey, making for a slick balance of coffee table aesthetic delight and information-heavy learning. The no-nonsense boldness of the cover was chosen for its mix of simplicity and on-shelf visibility; and the entire book’s text and cover type uses the original digitisation of Univers – surely a design decision that must have been fairly fraught. The book includes 320 typefaces, presented chronologically and in as faithful a way as possible to their original uses, showing both the typography itself and the pages on which it would have first appeared. This fosters a deeper understanding of how certain technologies and innovations brought about specific visual nuances in typography’s history. The Visual History of Type includes 320 typefacesThe Visual History of Type is divided into seven year-based sections that bore a particular technological development in type. 1450 marks the birth of printing; 1650 “the loosening of the Roman letter from its humanistic roots during the Baroque and Enlightenment periods” that created the foundations for modern type design; 1800 marks the industrial revolution; and so on until the present age of digital type design’s maturation. Among the most recent specimens are Jonathan Barnbrook’s gorgeous Doctrine typeface, which exploited OpenType technology to create a massively expanded character set. While mostly aimed at designers, design students and their teachers, The Visual History of Type is fascinating in its delineation of typographic history as a microcosm of history more widely. It brings home how type design has intrinsically shaped how we view our past, and the associations it engenders. For example, script serifs have become a visual shorthand for antiquation, while Gill Sans has a reassuring confidence that’s carried it from the 1920s transport design origins to the present. And bulbous, decorative typefaces such as Seymour Chwast’s 1968 Artone are synonymous with the halcyon days of swinging psychedelia. As this weighty tome proves, typography is a vital component of our visual landscape, and one as shaped by societal and technological changes as art and politics. Related articles: 10 best graphic design tools for August The best laptops for graphic design 11 brilliant resources for logo designers View the full article

We all know why creatives need beautiful websites, but once you've designed yours, you'll also need a reliable hosting service. Web hosting is not the most exciting part of running a successful design business, but it is essential to make the right choice so that you have a robust, reliable website. Discovering which web hosting service to choose is a minefield, as there are myriad options with various tailored solutions to help your site thrive. Here we try to strip away the jargon and condense the spec sheets into bite-size chunks. Here are 12 of the best web hosting services from around the world. 01. GoDaddy Region: Worldwide Price: From $3.49/£2.99 per month for first year US-based GoDaddy is one of the largest web hosting companies around and, as one of the few that has done television advertising, it is probably the best known, too. Even its bargain-basement package comes with 100GB storage, unmetered bandwidth, and a free domain – with plenty of options due to GoDaddy's vast domain name repository. On every package you can increase hosting capacity on demand directly from your account – handy. 02. Media Temple Region: Worldwide Price: From $20 per month With web hosting powering more than 1.5 million websites in 100 different countries, Media Temple has the experience and expertise to put your mind at ease. But don't think that it only deals in big business: Media Temple has hosting platforms and packages tailored for everything from simple portfolio sites to multinational corporate behemoths. Although not the cheapest, Media Temple insists that it gives you more for your money with fast hardware (with regular investment in hardware innovation), strong software, and great service and support. 03. WP Engine Region: Worldwide Price: From $29 per month WordPress is still the most popular website builder, and WP Engine is a WordPress hosting wizard. Whether you have a small portfolio site or a larger multi-site setup for your design organisation, WP Engine has a plan for you. You can try out any of the WP Engine plans free for 60 days, and with a free site migration service and free SSL certificate, switching over is simple and secure. 04. Namecheap Region: Worldwide Price: From $9.88/£7.63 per year for the first year As the name suggests, Namecheap is cheap. At least, its basic packages are super-cheap, but they offer almost nothing but some token server space. Startups can begin with the Value pack ($9.88/£7.63 for the first year, $38.88/£30.03 per year thereafter) and upgrade as your site grows. After that you'll probably want to use the Ultimate plan, which gives you unlimited storage, unlimited hosting and up to 50 websites. This costs $29.88/£23.08 for the first year then $129.88/£100.32 per year thereafter. 05. 1&1 Region: Worldwide Price: From $0.99/£0.99 per month for first year At under a dollar a month for the first year, 1&1's Basic package will literally get you started for pennies. That will give you enough to kick things off on your site, until the fee is bumped up to $7.99/£5.99 per month after 12 months. At that point you would probably be better switching to the Unlimited Plus package for only two dollars/pounds more per month. That gives you unlimited storage, databases, websites and email accounts, and full SSL certificate support on top. 06. OVH Region: Europe Price: From £2.03/€1.99 per month OVH's cheapest Personal plan gives a full 100GB of disk space and unlimited traffic (which we take to mean bandwidth), but only 200MB of database. That means that for anything but a portfolio-type site you would be better off with the Professional plan, giving 250GB of storage and four databases, still at a very reasonable £5.63/€4.99 per month with no fee staircasing after a year, unlike some rivals. 07. SiteGround Region: Worldwide Price: From $2.46/£2.46 per month for first year SiteGround's basic plan is termed StartUp, and as you'd expect it gives you the web hosting features that you'd need for a new website or an existing blog, portfolio, or small business website. After your first year, you'll pay $9.95/£8.34 per month. SiteGround is keen to make web hosting as simple and site transfer as undaunting as possible – included is a free drag-and-drop website builder, free site migration, and one of its support team will call to guide you through your set-up. 08. DreamHost Region: Worldwide Price: From $7.95 per month DreamHost is keeping things simple – there is only one plan (which comes with a 97-day money-back guarantee) and it provides a free domain for your first year. That's along with annual hosting plans, free domain privacy protection and SSL/TLS certificates, and unlimited storage, bandwidth and domain hosting. 09. Heart Internet Region: UK/Europe Price: From £2.49 per month plus £10 set-up fee Heart Internet is a UK-based web hosting service that provides packages with a minimum of 5GB storage, 30GB bandwidth and 1,000 email boxes. The beginner package is £2.49 per month plus a £10 set-up fee, which is perfect for small websites, portfolios and low-traffic ecommerce. You can administer your site using a mobile app, and Heart provides free support all year round. 10. CWCS Region: UK Price: From £2.99 per month If you hate the thought of being put on hold every time you need technical assistance, CWCS could be the web hosting service for you – its live dedicated technical support is available at all times by telephone, email and live chat, with immediate response to emergency support tickets. And it promises to respond to emails within 90 minutes. Its optional free 12-month hardware upgrade is something you won't find with most rivals, either. 11. Simply Hosting Region: UK Price: From £29 per month Formerly known as Poundhost, Simply Hosting is a UK-based web hosting service that majors on providing dependable, dedicated servers. Its server range starts at £29 per month, but Simply Hosting prides itself in offering bespoke packages tailored to your needs with a bewildering array of configurations available. You can increase your bandwidth for a smidge extra outlay, add more storage, speed up your connection – whatever suits your site's requirements. 12. Fasthosts Region: UK Price: From £2.50 per month for first year Fasthosts provide a well-judged web hosting package called Ignite, which provides 10GB of web hosting space, two 1GB databases, basic SEO tools and 24/7 support. After the first year's introductory rate expires, the price of this plan rises to £5 per month. A secure certificate will necessitate purchasing the next-level Momentum product, but for £7 (for the first 12 months, and £10 after) you also get double the space, 10 times the storage, three websites and advanced SEO tools. Related articles: 23 steps to the perfect website layout 25 brilliant WordPress tutorials 21 top-quality WordPress portfolio themes View the full article

When it comes to advancing your career, there's no reason to wait. Right now is the best time to add new skills to your repertoire to improve your resume or even send you down a new career path. Aspiring designers can make good on their aspirations with the Learn to Web Design 2017 Bundle. Grab it on sale right now for a price you can pick! There is a lot more going on behind the scenes of your favourite websites than you might imagine. You can learn how to understand and work with all of the parts moving behind the curtains with the Learn to Web Design 2017 Bundle. With more than 60 hours of lessons across nine courses, this bundle can teach you everything from the fundamentals of user interface to the coding languages like HTML5 and CSS3, to using Photoshop to bring your designs to life. The courses of the Learn to Web Design 2017 Bundle usually retail for $1,238. You can get them all now for a price you pick. Beat the average to unlock everything, get on the leaderboard, or just pay what you want. You can't go wrong at any price, so grab this deal today! The nine courses in the bundle are: Learn Photoshop, Web Design & Profitable Freelancing 2017 Adobe Photoshop CC: Your Complete Beginner's Guide Responsive Web Design: Made Easy The Complete Bootstrap Masterclass Course: Build 4 Projects jQuery UI Ultimate: Design Amazing Interfaces Using jQuery UI UI Design in Photoshop: Start Designing Web & Mobile Apps Building Websites: Learn Bootstrap for Rapid Web Development Web Design: Make a Single Page Website Carousel Controls Design a Website From Scratch: HTML, CSS, Responsive Design About 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

Good news if you're looking for your first job as a designer: right now, there are a lot of opportunities out there. So how can you seize these opportunities and land a role as a full-time designer? Having a killer portfolio, a creative resume and nailing tricky interview questions helps, but there are there other tricks, too, that we'll show you. 50 brilliant design portfolios to inspire you"It feels like, in 2017, it's incredibly healthy in design," enthuses Miles Marshall, design director at Turner Duckworth. "Employment is rising. We've taken on more juniors in the last two years than we probably did in the previous five." It's the same story we're hearing across the industry right now. But before you get too excited, here's the bad news: there's still a heck of a lot of competition out there. "We get applications every single day," says Marshall. "And unless they're from people we've built up relationships with, 99 per cent or more are unsuccessful." So getting your first design job is still a tough proposition, and many choose to just go freelance instead. But there's much to be said for the financial stability and greater career prospects a salaried job can provide. Here we examine common routes into full-time employment, and how to navigate them, using tips from the pros. 01. Shine in an internship Once you've completed your design degree and have crafted a great portfolio, it's natural to feel you've earned your right to a salaried role. But the harsh reality is that taking up an internship (or often, a number of internships) is normally the best route towards a full-time position. That's the case, for example, at The Partners. "The graduates we offer jobs to come through our internship scheme," explains creative director Stuart Radford, who leads the agency's London design team. "As an intern, you've gone through the process of meeting the designers and presenting your work, so what determines your potential job offer is what you do while you're here. You've got four weeks to make the right impression." How to transform a design internship into a jobBy that, he doesn't just mean turning up on time and being polite: it's all about exceeding expectations. "Sometimes graduates do what we've asked them to; sometimes they do what we've asked and more," he says, pointedly. "When a graduate gets into a piece of work and starts to own it, their love of what they do comes through. This can be anything from a few more hours put in to craft a piece of type, or extra thinking they've given to an idea on the bus home. But however it happens, it's always great to see." You need to be pushy, show you want to get involved and meet clients David Newton, founder and creative director at Manchester agency BGN, tells a similar tale. "Internships – fully paid, expenses paid, or even the dreaded unpaid – are ultimately a great way of getting a full-time job," he says. "It's a case of getting your foot in the door and making yourself indispensable. Quite how you do that depends on the agency and their specific needs, but if there's anything you can consistently do, anything that the agency knows they need to do but never seem to have the time to do themselves, that's your in." That is, of course, easier said than done. It's natural to feel overawed when surrounded by senior designers. And it's tempting to avoid sticking your neck out and suggesting anything too controversial or risky. But that would be a mistake, says Mark Kemp, owner of FortyTwo Studio, an Aberdeen design agency that takes on a couple of students on placement each year. "A boss once told me: 'Don't worry about taking on too much responsibility: you'll always be told when you're stepping on toes,' and I've lived by that ever since," he explains. "So when I bring in an intern, I point to the senior person in the room, and I say, 'Your job here is to get their job. They should be feeling insecure about you coming in.'" You need to be pushy, show you want to get involved and meet clients, says Kemp. 02. Apply for the right jobs An internship is not the only route into getting a full-time job, of course. It's perfectly possible to apply directly for a role at a company you've had no previous dealings with. But with so many rivals to compete with, success means putting in every ounce of your energy and imagination. You can start by exercising some empathy. "Put yourself in the shoes of your prospective employer by being tenacious but targeted," advises Lee Hoddy, creative partner at Conran Design Group in London. "Don't blanket-mail portfolios: create one thoughtful piece to raise eyebrows instead, and turn your CV/resume into a story: selling yourself, not just the work. "Try writing your profile in 140 characters, leaving the rest as an appendix. Think about structuring your work, interests, motivations and beliefs as a Pinterest page, with neat little moments that will make you stand out," he suggests. 30 brilliantly creative resumésThe most important thing is to decide who you really want to work for (rather than just applying for every job going) and tailor your approach accordingly. Once you've nailed that, why not start a conversation with your ideal employer, suggests Newton. "With portfolio sites and social media, it's much easier to get hold of the people at agencies that you want to speak to – they're just people, after all," he says. But how best to approach them? "Think of it this way: if your timeline is anything like mine, you'll constantly see creative directors saying which events they're going to," says Newton. "So go to one, and speak to them in person. You're much more likely to catch them on a good day in those situations. Because, although it sounds like a good idea to rock up at a studio unannounced, at busy times of the year there's nothing more off-putting." 03. Nail the interview So you've got yourself an interview. Well done. But don't assume you can wing it. You need to think long and hard about how to tell your story, advises David Johnston, co-founder at London design agency Accept & Proceed. "At interview, we look for people who can articulate their creative process, describe design challenges they've experienced, and explain the rationale behind their creative decisions," he explains. "Seeing these qualities in young designers gives us the confidence they can grow as part of our team. So where you do have industry experience, demonstrating everything you got out of it is crucial." 20 tips for design interview successRemember, also, that it's not just about you. "Show an interest in the agency by reading its blog and website, getting a taste of the company culture, and asking appropriate questions about it," urges Hoddy. "You should have a point of view on what you like about the agency, and build a profile in your mind. This demonstrates a curious mindset during interviews and will inform questions to create a richer conversation," he adds. Don't be too serious, though: being the right 'fit' for a company is also about showcasing your personality and conveying an upbeat attitude. "Be positive and make sure you smile: this should be an exciting experience that could change your life," says Dorina D'Ambrosio, creative director at Manchester agency The Market Creative. "Also, have some questions up your sleeve to show you're interested in the job and company. And look smart; although don't look like you're going for an interview at a bank." Finally, make sure your portfolio has been rigorously honed, says Marshall. "You have to be proud of all the work within it," he says. "An interviewer can tell when a candidate talks through their portfolio and they're not confident about some of the designs. So it's better to have no fillers and six great pieces of work, rather than six great pieces and three pieces you aren't quite sure of." 04. Work in-house Most graduates want their first job to be at a traditional design studio, but that's not your only option. What about working client-side as an in-house designer? It should, in theory at least, be easier to get a job this way. With designers more and more in demand, companies are becoming increasingly pro-active in seeking out talent; looking online, contacting colleges and even turning up to creative events. However, there are potential downsides. Working in-house will mean you spend your whole time focused on one brand, often under strict guidelines. This may make it difficult to get your next job in a studio, where working for multiple clients and thinking outside the box is the norm. For this reason, juniors who start in-house tend to stay in-house for much, if not all, of their careers. That said, Kate Baldwin, UK talent lead at Hotwire PR, believes there are many positive reasons to work in-house. "It doesn't really matter where you work, as long as the people you work with push you to create work you're proud of," she argues. "Plus, working for an in-house team, you may well learn things you wouldn't learn in a traditional design studio where there are a lot more juniors, meaning you have less exposure to seniors who you can learn from," she explains. Lauren Gibbons, lead designer at PR and communications firm Nelson Bostock, concurs. "In-house does have a bad rap, but I think you actually get a lot more exposure to your projects, and it is what you make it at the end of the day," she says. It doesn't really matter where you work, as long as the people you work with push you to create work you're proud of Kate Baldwin, Hotwire PR "So if you can find an in-house role that has potential then you should definitely fly with it." It's certainly worked for her. "When I joined four-and-a-half years ago, there was no design team so it was a massive punt," she recalls. "But since then I've built up a team of four designers, with an in-house photographer and a video editing team. "Now, as well as in-house work for Nelson Bostock and Fever PR, I also do creative design work for clients, the likes of Canon, HTC, EE, Google, Playstation and Now TV." If you do start down the in-house path, though, make sure you're fully committed. Fail to convince recruiters you're serious about an in-house role, and you'll be wasting your time and theirs. "If, for example, the interests you express on your CV aren't matched by the companies you're actually following and interacting with on LinkedIn, we're going to notice," says Baldwin. Linda Nott, group head of recruitment at marketing agency Hogarth, adds that applicants who apply for hundreds of jobs are often unprepared when they receive a call out of the blue. "We expect people to answer the phone in a professional manner," she explains. "So when they answer, 'Who? Who are you?' it doesn't help convince us they're serious." 05. Don't run back to study Months have passed, you feel you've tried everything you can, but still you're struggling to get your first job in design. So maybe you should do a post-graduate course; that will get you ahead in the jobs queue... right? Wrong. "Working in design isn't like working in science or being a doctor, where the more knowledge you have, the better," says Marshall. "Practising design in the field is a much better way to learn, so there's not really any point in doing a post-graduate course, at least in terms of improving your employment opportunities." Employers will have lots of applications, so don't be too hard on yourself if you don't make it through. Your time will come Dorina D'Ambrosio, The Market Creative Yes, such courses do offer you the chance to specialise, says Newton, but he believes that's the wrong way to go about things. "I'd say the better path is to start broad and only worry about niches once you're a few years into your career," he argues. "Leave university, research design studios, and choose somewhere that will suit you. Then get involved with as much as that studio will let you, to give you a chance of finding something you might want to specialise in. "And don't worry if you don't want to specialise at all: I never did. If you find you want to boost your knowledge of something – further study in UX, for instance – then by all means do so. But niche, postgraduate study isn't necessary for a first job." In fact, everyone we asked about this said the same. If you're failing to get your first job, you're better off devoting your energies into working out what you can improve, rather than just retreating back to university. And it may just be a matter of being patient. "Don't take it personally if your portfolio isn't resonating in the way you would want it to," advises Newton. "It might well be very good technically, but if an agency feels that it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit." Similarly, D'Ambrosio advises: "Employers will have lots of applications, so don't be too hard on yourself if you don't make it through. Your time will come." This article originally appeared in Computer Arts issue 269; buy it here! 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