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Design sprints, popularised by Jake Knapp, a design partner at Google Ventures (now called GV), have fundamentally changed how startups and large organisations alike design products, services, and experiences. To put it simply, a design sprint is a framework created to optimise your chances of creating something that people actually want. Here we'll explain how design sprints work and why you should consider a design sprint for your brand or business. Design sprints maximise short timescales Influenced by Eric Ries' Lean Startup principles, design sprints emphasise short time constraints and prototypes, using small, cross-functional teams to quickly iterate and validate ideas. This eliminates, or at least reduces, the odds that a product will be found to be completely useless to the end user after a significant investment of time, effort, and money. Design sprints have not only been used by Google Ventures to accelerate growth at startups like Slack and Nest, but internally at the parent company to create Gmail and Google X products. Knapp himself describes the five-day sprint as follows: Day 1: Understand - Dig into the design problem through research, competitive review, and strategy exercises. Day 2: Diverge - Rapidly develop as many solutions as possible. Day 3: Decide - Choose the best ideas and hammer out a user story. Day 4: Prototype - Build something quick and dirty that can be shown to users. Day 5: Validate - Show the prototype to real humans (in other words, people outside your company) and learn what works and what doesn't work. In only five days, the team uncovers issues, brainstorms solutions, makes strategic choices, prototypes, and observes real users experiencing the product. These cross-functional teams focused on the consumer, data, design, and technology short-circuit longer waterfall processes and incorporate agile thinking to do better work, and faster. The business constraints, teamwork, and outcomes of a sprint can inspire and ignite teams forward. Knapp is the first to admit this model is based on the design thinking methodology created by Stanford's d.school and innovation firm IDEO, now used by creative organisations the world over to create human-centred products and services. Design sprints can build brands Not unlike other practitioners of design sprints and thinking, at Digital Surgeons we've primarily used our constrained framework (that includes game storming techniques developed by Dave Grey) to build better products, services, and experiences. But what about brands? Brand building is typically viewed as part of a long-term engagement. Organisations, and their internal, agency, or consultant teams invest in a discovery (typically through an agency briefing process), a visual exploration or moodboard, and a brand and identity strategy that culminates into a 'big idea' campaign with brand guidelines, strategic planning, a website, a communications plan, and media buying. Design sprints create artifacts that help focus teams, brands and designsWhile these artifacts are incredibly valuable, and necessary, a design sprint offers immediate clarity that can then be used as a creative springboard into other key deliverables. We've had great luck 'cracking' big idea programs in single sprints that have led to multi-year campaigns that attack various business challenges. It's ultimately all about transforming brands with velocity and allowing the sprint to act as a rally cry that connects people from multiple departments and points them towards what's next. Brand-focused teams can take inspiration from product teams and use design sprints to eliminate brand dogma and validate ideas in quick, inexpensive bursts of time and energy. Design sprints should happen regularly At Google Ventures, Knapp recommends that product teams hold at least one sprint a quarter to gut-check the status of long-term projects. A sprint can challenge long-held, and possibly false, assumptions within your brand strategy to separate what's working, from what desperately needs triage. And best of all, at the end of a design sprint, you're left with designed brand artifacts to help keep up with the rapid race to create 'real-time' and opportunistic content. I recommend that sprint teams use a 'war room', a set aside space with walls that can be covered in sticky notes, tape, images, and other outputs to capture the thinking of the team. Mimic your favourite detective show and cover a wall or board with forensic thinking. Not only does this provide a canvas for shared work, it helps visual and kinaesthetic learners to absorb and retain information. By the end of a sprint, the walls of your war room will be covered in low and high-fi deliverables ready to be used as content. Learn how to run design and content sprints at Generate London in a few weeks Why you should hold a design sprint Here are five of the reasons you should consider a design sprint for your brand or business: 01. To gauge creative chemistry Creativity is a team sport so it's critical that teams work well together. One benefit of a design sprint or study is you can work together and see if you are creatively compatible before jumping into a long term engagement. 02. To get alignment across disciplines Design is also a team sport. A cross-functional sprint gets UX designers, engineers, marketers, and communications professionals on the same page from the start. Getting input from key stakeholders throughout the process shields a design team from the dreaded scenario in which weeks are spent on a project, only for the all the work to be scrapped by a HiPPO (highest paid person's opinion). A design sprint also creates brand alignment with a shared visual language. Google's Material Design is a fantastic example of how a well-articulated visual language can revolutionise a brand's design. Mailchimp's Voice and Tone demonstrates how a shared language can be used to drive best-in-class content strategy. 03. To produce actionable artifacts Everyone has moodboards or style sheets, but these are often made up solely of inspiration from other places. A design sprint takes this to the next level so you are owning it yourself and not just copy catting. 04. To gain validation Empowered by the convergence of digital platforms, today's consumers control brands. Brand loyalty is an increasingly scarce commodity, and today's fickle consumers live in micro-moments. As a result, brands must grow and evolve constantly. Just as you must break and learn from your prototypes in agile product development, it is critical to 'break' your brand and challenge outdated assumptions. 05. To get maximum value from minimum time Constraints drive creativity. A design sprint builds brand transforming velocity by introducing constraints that force teams to focus on outcomes, not outputs. When a team only has a week or two, they are forced to focus on solving the challenges that matter most to the bottom line. Drive immediate conceptual and design value through a sprint that produces ideas, concepts, and visual language that reveal opportunities for businesses and brands in record time. Steve Fisher, experience architect and founder of The Republic of Quality, will run a full-day workshop on design and content sprints at Generate London on 20 September, followed by a keynote talk on 22 September. Discover how to get the right setup for a successful sprint, how to create a testable prototype, and much more. Book now and save £95 on a combined workshop and conference pass! Related articles: Steve Fisher reveals how to run design and content sprints The secrets of Google's five-day design sprint 7 ways to improve teamwork with design View the full article

Procreate 3.2 is a powerhouse of a mobile digital art app, with system requirements to match. You don’t just need an iPad to run it: you need an iPad or iPad Pro capable of running the very latest iOS version – iOS 10 or iOS 11 beta – which limits the range of models that Procreate is compatible with. This is because Procreate developer Savage Interactive has invested in a state-of-the-art rendering engine before applying a raft of tools and options on top. This is no ordinary painting app. The basic template for this version was established with Procreate 3.0 in 2015, and version 3.2 builds on top of that release with some major new features. Procreate 3.2 specs Silica 64-bit rendering engine 16K maximum canvas resolution (on iPad Pro) Over 120 brush presets that are customisable Smudge and blend controls Streamlined inking system Layers system with groups Includes layer transformations Video capture with narration Video streaming support with an external app Photoshop document import Requires an iPad or iPad Pro running iOS 10 or later You can now import full Photoshop documents and retain their layers and blend modes: for example, iPad keyboard users can work faster with the help of keyboard shortcuts. Get Adobe Creative Cloud The big two changes, however, are layers and video capture. Redesigned layers panel The new layers system makes it easy to select multiple layers, create layer groups and moreA redesigned layers panel gives you more control if you’re creating complex illustrations, where having lots of layers is pretty much a given. You can now select multiple layers simply by swiping to the right on each layer you want to choose. This swiping mechanism is faster and easier than picking at checkboxes, and makes the Layers system feel more intuitive in use. The introduction of multiple layer selection leads to a host of possibilities. As well as moving them in the stack or deleting several layers in one go, for example, you can now group your selected layers together, then apply the same effects to the entire group. You can also use Transform functions on individual layers or groups, such as moving an element across the canvas or distorting its shape. New video support You can now record yourself as you workThe second major change is designed for artists who like to share their working process. Video support means you can now record yourself as you work; a switch preference enables you to choose whether to record your voice narration through the iPad’s microphone at the same time. You can then export the video file to edit in another app, or share it online. Better still, you can also stream your working process direct to the internet. This relies on the presence of a compatible streaming app, such as Periscope or Mobcrush, which use iOS’s Extensions system to appear as options within supporting apps. The execution is much simpler than the description: once you’ve got a streaming app installed, you just select Procreate’s streaming option, choose the streaming service you want to use, then 3, 2, 1... you’re live! Procreate 3.2 performance If Procreate 3.2 has a fault, it’s that it’s in danger of becoming too powerful. The iPad app has so many tools and options that playing with them can distract from the artwork you’re supposed to be making. There’s an overwhelming choice of ways to customise any brush preset, for example. If you paint on your iPad because you want a spontaneous, rapid creative fix, you might find that working with Procreate is biting off more than you want to chew. But if your vision of your iPad is as a substitute for your Windows or Mac OS computer, and you’re looking for the slickest, most powerful art app around, Procreate is a strong contender for the title. This review originally appeared in Imagine FX magazine. Subscribe today. Related articles: iOS 11 preview for designers: release date, news and specs The 12 best iPad apps for designers 9 iPad Pro apps that make the most of Apple Pencil View the full article

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A previously undocumented kill switch for a remote management feature baked into many Intel chips can be switched off. View the full article

For a second time this month, a Locky ransomware variant called IKARUSdilapidated is part of a calculated phishing attack targeting office workers with fake scanned image attachments. View the full article

Siemens fixed a session hijacking vulnerability in its LOGO! logic module Wednesday but says a second issue, one that could help facilitate a man-in-the-middle attack, has no fix currently. View the full article

In this tutorial, we take the mechanical drawing toy Etch A Sketch as an inspiration and attempt to implement these features for modern devices, with web technologies. Using the (aptly named) canvas, we first focus on tablets, which are akin in shape to the authentic toy. We can take advantage of touch events to control the dials, and device motion events to erase the content. Not leaving phones out, we will also explore how to use WebSockets to enhance the possibilities by splitting the controls and drawing area. 01. Get the assets This tutorial will use Node.js. Before we get started, go to FileSilo, select Free Stuff and Free Content next to the tutorial – here you can download the assets you need for the tutorial. Then run the commands below, which will install the dependencies and launch the server. We're using Node to create a localhost, and it will also serve us later for WebSockets. 02. Use the draw() function In main.js, the draw() function will be the centre point of our application. We use canvas to draw a line between two points; the origin (x1, y1), being where we last left our drawing, and the destination (x2, y2), the new point we want to reach. We now need to trigger this function to observe any form of drawing. 03. Implement keyboard events Before we implement dials, let's quickly add a keyboard listener that can trigger our draw function. You've already been provided with the different keyCodes in the example, but you will need to amend the listener slightly to trigger the draw() function we defined previously. Now refresh your browser and see what you can draw with the arrow keys. 04. Resize the canvas You may have noticed that our canvas element doesn't have a size assigned to it yet. For our drawing board, we will want a bigger space, maybe even the whole window. The code below takes care of the resize event, but don't forget to call adjustFrame() in init() as well. 05. Add a frame We want the application to look like the original toy as much as possible, so we want to add a frame around the drawing area. To do so, we can define a margin value and amend the CSS for #sketch to margin: 20px auto; to centre the canvas horizontally and keep a bigger space at the bottom for the dials. 06. Create the dials We've already given you the CSS for the dials in public/css/styles.css, so feel free to have a look. Next, add two <div> tags under the <canvas> in the HTML file, as described below. As a convention, we will use the left dial for horizontal drawing, and the right for vertical. We're also adding new variables to the init() function to prepare for touch events. 07. Use ZingTouch The canvas with added dials, tied to the draw() functionZingTouch is a JavaScript library capable of detecting various touch gestures, and will also handle mouse events. It is provided for you in the /public/lib/ folder, as we use it to control our dials. Below is the implementation for the left control; you will need to replicate and amend it for the other side. 08. Implement dial bounds To block the lines from going off-screen, we use the canDraw() function, which returns a boolean. We pass it the direction, either 'horizontal' or 'vertical', and the value of either the horizontal or vertical variable. We call this function in the 'rotate' listener of both dials, and only if 'true' do we increment the angle and call the draw() function. 09. Avoid dial problems With the bounds we've just implemented, there is a chance the dial might get stuck at one end if the value goes over the limit, even by a decimal point. To avoid this situation, we should handle the case where canDraw() is false and reset the value to a previously valid one, as shown here for the horizontal controller: 10. Get the drawing board on your tablet It is always recommended to test on your targeted devices as early as possible. Our application is now in a good shape, and can respond to touch events. Follow the steps on accessing localhost remotely to get the drawing board on your tablet. Next, we will use Safari and the Develop menu to inspect the application on an iPad. For Android devices, use chrome://inspect. 11. Test the accelerometer Testing the accelerometer in Safari [click the icon to enlarge] Connect your tablet to your computer via USB and inspect the application using the developer tools. With the code below in place, you should be able to see the various acceleration values, as you move your device around. In order to reset the canvas, we've decided to consider an acceleration on the x axis over 5, and slowly decrease the opacity (eraseRate). 12. Shake to delete We've seen in the previous step how to check for motion and acceleration. We now need to call fadeDrawing() when our condition is met. In this instance, we redraw an exact copy of the canvas at a different opacity. Reset the globalAlpha to 1 in draw() and set the globalCompositeOperation back to source-over. 13. Make it look like the real deal Our application with shake-to-delete functionalitySo far, our application looks quite bland and flat. In order to give it some depth, we will add a frame colour, a shadow inside the frame and a bit of volume on the dials. The CSS for the dial shadows is already provided, but you will need to add those two elements at the end of the body. Complete the CSS for the elements suggested here: 14. Use WebSockets At the beginning of this tutorial, we briefly mentioned using WebSockets through our Node server. Now that you have a standalone drawing pad for tablet, we will look at making it available for your phone as well. However, phones might be too small to display both the screen and controls. We are therefore using sockets to communicate between phone and computer screen. 15. Detect the device size In the main HTML file, replace main.js with extra.js. The latter contains all we've done so far, with modifications to handle devices and sockets, which we'll inspect in the following steps. Have a look at detectDevice() – this method now gets called on load instead of init() and will decide which 'mode' to handle for the application. Below is the particular case of a phone being detected: 16. From phone to computer From phone to computer, remotely drawing through socketsThroughout extra.js you will notice bits of code such as socket.emit() or socket.on(). These are the emitters and listeners for our controls (phone) and screen (computer) instances. Every emitted event needs to go through the server to be re-distributed to all connected sockets. In server\index.js add a few more listeners in the 'connection' function and restart the Node server. 17. Fix phone orientation Visit the localhost on your computer, while accessing it remotely with your phone (like you did previously from your tablet). You should now see a line being drawn on your screen while turning the dials on your phone. You will notice, however, that the dials don't fit properly if the phone is in portrait mode. We can fix this with some CSS: 18. Make the toy more realistic Touching your tablet leaves some temporary fingerprintsLet's get back to our tablet version. Sadly, the Vibration API is not available on iOS, so we can't implement haptic feedback when the dials are turned. In the original toy, though, you could leave temporary black fingerprint marks on the screen if you pushed it. We can add a touch event on the device to replicate this feature. Set these listeners in init() and explore the functions they call: 19. Save a copy of the canvas In the drawFingerPrint() method, before we do anything else, we save a copy of the current state of the canvas to a hidden element that we use to restore our drawing when clearing the print. That only happens on first touch, and not on the subsequent calls that increase the size of the print every 100ms. 20. Run the application offline You could now make the application truly standalone by saving it to your tablet as a Home Screen app. We won't be able to do the same for the phone, as it requires connection to the server. In /public, locate the file named sketch.appcache and replace all the instances of 'localhost' by your IP address. Now, amend the HTML to read as follows: 21. Save the application Now visit the application again on your tablet and select the Add to Home Screen option. A new icon should appear on your desktop. Open it once while still being connected to your localhost remotely. The cache manifest we set up previously will download all the necessary files for offline use in the background. Turn the Wi-Fi off and open the app again. Voilà! This article originally appeared in Web Designer magazine issue 263. Buy it here. Read more: 15 Web APIs you've never heard of A beginner's guide to designing interface animations A guide to writing better CSS View the full article

Watercolour is a versatile and flexible medium that can yield a variety of results. Also known as aquarelle, it's a painting technique in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle. Dating back thousands of years, watercolour is a tricky medium to master, but there ares various watercolour techniques you can adopt to help, and it's certainly a skill worth pursuing. When you create a painting in watercolours, light reflects off the white of the paper and bounces up through the colours, giving it a luminosity that can be truly magical. Get to grips with the medium with these must-know watercolour techniques. 01. Buy a range of brushes It's important to have different brush optionsIt's important to have a range of brushes. Your choices will depend on how large or small you work. I tend to work on the smaller side so my brushes range from 000 to 6. Experiment with different sizes to work out what your favourites are, but I'd also recommend getting hold of brushes that are smaller than you think you'll use. These will come in handy for those little details you don't anticipate. 02. Get some good quality paints Good quality watercolour is an investmentIt's important to invest in good quality watercolour. It will last longer and won't yellow or degrade as much over time. There are lots of different brands and levels available in stores and online. I use a variety from Holbien and Winsor & Newton. Buy a few colours from different brands and find out which you prefer. Start small: you can mix a variety of colours using a limited palette. 03. Explore dry versus wet Manipulate the paint's pigment by adding different amounts of waterThere are two major factors to consider when painting with watercolours: wet and dry. As the name suggests, watercolour is a water-based medium. We can manipulate the darkness and saturation of the pigment depending on how much water we add. There are many ways to paint in watercolour and as you try them, you'll find the ones that work best for you. I've found working dry to wet helps me achieve more control. 04. Work from light to dark Working from light to dark takes a lot of planning but the results are worth itAnother important watercolour technique to remember is that we're working from light to dark. This means that anything we're keeping white or light in our painting needs to stay that way for the whole duration of the work. We'll build our values up layer by layer to arrive at the effect we want. This does take a lot of planning but the results will be worth it. 05. Stock up on paper towels The paper towel almost acts as a kneaded eraser for watercolourOne very important tool to have in your kit when working with watercolours is a paper towel. This almost acts as a kneaded eraser for your watercolours. Laying down a wash of colour and then lifting parts of it up is a great way to add layers of detail gradually. Paper towels are also very useful for correcting mistakes or redirecting the paint. 06. Splatter your watercolours Using your index finger, pull back on the bristles and let them snap forwardOne handy trick to add some energy to your watercolour painting is to use a splatter watercolour technique. This can help suggest water spray or floating dust. Hold your paintbrush between your thumb and middle fingers. Using your index finger, pull back on the bristles and let them snap forward. This method is a bit unpredictable, but can yield some very fun results, so I’d urge you to give it a try. 07. Bleed colours into one another A good way to bleed colours into one another is through 'blooming'A good way to bleed colours into one another is through the 'blooming' watercolour technique. Add a good amount of water to the pigment in your brush and apply it to the paper. When the stroke is still wet, add in another colour with the same amount of water. You can manipulate the colours to where they need to be at this point. Allow this to dry and you'll notice that there are subtle gradients throughout the stroke. Take a look at our guide to the wet-in-wet watercolour technique, too. 08. Get the textures right It's important to try to depict objects and materials with their textures includedYou'll notice that working in watercolours on a rougher paper does have its advantages. One of the obvious ones is that you don't have to work to hard to achieve a nice texture. That said, it's important to try to depict objects and materials with their textures included. This means using lights and darks as well as wets and drys. 09. Pull in colour Pulling in colour is a great way to show form and indicate a light source or edgeWhen you apply a dry, more saturated stroke, you can pull from that stroke with just water. This watercolour technique is a great way to show form and indicate a light source or edge. Apply a stroke using very little water and more pigment. Before the stroke is dry, take a moderately wet brush and pull the colour out from the darker stroke. You can pull the colour quite far depending on how dry that initial stroke is. 10. Layer your colours Because watercolour is a thin medium, you'll need to build up colour graduallyBecause watercolour is a thin medium, you'll need to build up colour gradually. This is another advantage to the medium as you can do some colour mixing right on the paper. Take one colour and lay it down. Allow it to dry and then revisit with another shade. You'll notice where they overlap, the pigment mixes and you're left with a different colour. This is great for building up flesh tones. Next page: 8 more watercolour techniques to try out 11. Try scumbling Scumbling is a watercolour technique used create soft hues of layered pigmentScumbling is a watercolour technique also used by many oil painters to create soft hues of layered pigment and light. You're essentially layering the colour in soft, indirect layers to create the hue and look you want. Simply lay in semi-wet strokes of paint in watercolour. As I apply more colour, I'm careful to keep adding water so the colours blend and stay soft. It can be easy to overwork and produce a muddy look, so less is more. 12. Lift the colour You can lift away colour to correct a mistake or adjust the lighting in a pieceSometimes you'll need to 'erase' your watercolour. While you can't return the paper to 100 per cent white, you can lift away colour to correct a mistake or adjust the lighting in a piece. Work with an already dry swatch of watercolour and using clear water, paint in the shape you'd like to lift out. Let it set for a just a minute then dab away the water with a paper towel. You'll see the colour lift out in the shape you painted in. 13. Use salt to create texture Salt can provide an interesting texture with little effortWatercolour is all about layering and texture. Salt can provide an interesting texture with little effort as the salt crystals absorb the water, leaving a unique pattern in the pigment. Lay down a swatch of watercolour and while the paint is still wet, sprinkle over salt. Let this sit until mostly dry and simply wipe or blow away the salt. This technique is useful for adding texture to natural surfaces like rocks or tree bark. 14. Apply paint using a sponge Another household item you can use to apply watercolours is a spongeAnother household item you can use to apply watercolours is a sponge. Simply mix your pigment in a small dish or tray, dip the sponge into the paint and blot onto your paper. You can alter the wetness of your paint and achieve different effects – a drier look would be suited for plant life or scaly skin, while a wet application might be more suited for waterscapes or clouds. 15. Explore negative painting Think about where you'd like your whites and lights before you apply paintWatercolour is about planning. Think about where you'd like your whites and lights before you apply paint. It's vital to keep control of your brush as you paint in the edge of where you'd like your negative space to begin. Load it with semi-wet pigment and paint along the edge of where you'd like your negative space to begin. Then pull the colour away from the edge of the stroke to fill in where you'd like pigment. For more tips, take a look at our guide to negative painting in watercolour. 16. Use tape to add clean edges Use tape to mask of areas you'd like to keep clean and whiteYou can use tape to mask of areas you'd like to keep clean and white. This watercolour technique is useful for hard edges involving machinery or architecture. Just lay down the tape where you'd like the paper to stay white. Use a tape that won't rip your paper, such as drafting tape or painters' tape. Paint over and around the tape. Once your paint is dry, remove the tape slowly and you should have a straight, clean line. 17. Use a 2H pencil for your underdrawings A hard pencil will withstand the addition of waterHere I've used a pencil with 2H lead to ensure my guide drawing will withstand the water from painting. Then I can go in and lay in some light paint strokes with a medium sized brush. My paint is very watery so won't stain the paper right away. 18. Save your darkest darks for fine detail Save your darkest darks until the endResist the temptation to use your darkest darks until you reach the end of your painting. Because watercolour painting is a transparent medium, you'll need to make sure you keep your lights light, and save the darks and details until the end. This article originally appeared in ImagineFX bookazine How to Paint & Draw. Subscribe to ImagineFX here. Read more: Choose the right brushes for watercolour painting Top tips for keeping watercolour paintings fresh and loose Choose the right paper for your watercolour painting View the full article

Time was a web page background was a tiny tiling image – and often hideous, assaulting every visitor’s eyeballs. Today, backgrounds form the foundation of much online graphic design. This revolution in backgrounds on the web has been driven by advances in CSS. Web standards now afford far more control, so you can carefully define a background’s position, work with gradients, and add multiple backgrounds to a single element. Covering everything in this area would require a book, and so we’ve picked some important starting points to get you going, and the odd choice link for you to explore further. Enjoy! Add CSS backgrounds to web page elements CSS backgrounds require the background shorthand property, or the use of more specific properties, such as (but not limited to): background-color; background-image; background-position; background-size; background-repeat; and background-attachment. These can be defined for the web page’s background (through the body selector) or page elements like headings, divs, and so on. At the most basic level, you could use background to turn a page red: Going a little more advanced, you could add an image that’s horizontally centred, 20px from the top of its container, not repeated, and fixed in place as the web page scrolls: An image as a background (note: avoid this low level of contrast in your own designs)If you wanted to write that out without using background shorthand, it would look like this: Should you want to add multiple backgrounds to an element, you can comma-separate value sets in the CSS declaration. Note that whichever item is specified first is at the top of the stack, meaning it’ll be displayed ‘above’ other backgrounds. In this case, one image appears as per in the previous example, and the one ‘below’ directly in the centre of the content area. Resize background images So far, we’ve avoided background-size. But that one’s pretty important, because it enables you to control the size of a background image. Specifically, you can define the horizontal and vertical dimensions of an image in pixels or percentage terms, such as: There are also two keyword values, which can be used instead: contain and cover. These are broadly similar, in providing a way to scale an image within an element’s content area. The difference is that contain is designed to make an image as large as possible, while still showing all of it within the content area (meaning you usually get gaps around it), whereas cover completely covers the content area, but may result in some of the image not being visible. The latter is commonly used on sites that use photographs as backgrounds. CSS ‘contain’ (top) versus ‘cover’ (bottom) valuesNote that you can add background-size to a background shorthand definition – place it after the background-position values, with a forward slash separating the two: Use high-res Retina background images When adding high-res Retina backgrounds, background-size is also useful for forcing such images to appear at the correct size. For an example, imagine a div with an id of logo. This, suitably, has a logo applied as a background in CSS. It’s 150 pixels square, and so the basic CSS you’d use is: High-res complicates things. We don’t want to force older hardware to load larger images, and so a media query must be used to load the higher-resolution logo only on supported hardware. The problem now is the @2x high-res image is 300 pixels square (since it has twice the resolution of the original), but used as the background for a 150-pixel-square container. So at this point, you only see a quarter of it. A high-res image before a resize fixThis is fixed by assigning a specific background-size value for #logo: The high-res logo, now snugly inside its containerA more modern method of working with multiple background resolutions and achieving the same result is CSS4’s image-set: The benefits of image-set are simpler CSS, and the user agent determining the image that should be used. The downside is browser support – at the time of writing – remains incomplete. Visit this test page for a quick means of checking how browsers you support fare. (This is perhaps why many designers use scripts to automate serving high-res imagery.) Work with alpha channels and gradients Our final tip in this blazing fast (in website tutorial terms) article concerns alpha channels and gradients. When the internet was steam-powered, you often had designers use ‘checkerboard’ GIFs to simulate alpha channels (every other pixel was transparent). Now, you just assign colours in RGBA: In the above example, the background would be 70 per cent white, allowing whatever’s beneath it to show through. You need to be careful to retain clarity when using semi-transparent backgrounds that are above complex imagery, but they can be great for adding visual interest to web pages. Alpha channels, gradients, and some questionable colour choicesSimilarly, web designers used to output and tile GIFs if they wanted a gradient as a background, but that’s no longer necessary either, unless you want to party like it’s 1999. These days, you’ll be wanting CSS3 linear-gradient and radial-gradient properties, for which you define directions and colour stops. Here’s a CSS rule with a basic gradient: This would be applied to level-one headings, giving them a linear gradient that goes from left to right, starting with solid white and ending in transparent white. Using angles and multiple colour stops, you can go much, much further with gradients. To experiment, try using a Photoshop-like CSS gradient generator and examining the code output (being mindful the linked example adds syntax for older browsers – just grab the linear-gradient line for your own use). As the CSS Patterns Gallery shows, you can do really fancy things with CSS gradientsIf you fancy checking out what seasoned web professionals can do with gradients and background-size, check out Lea Verou’s CSS3 Patterns Gallery. There you’ll find loads of live examples that use CSS gradients to create all kinds of seriously impressive background patterns. And, yes, there’s a hint of where we came in regarding eyeball assaults in some of them. But as with everything when it comes to web backgrounds, the key is to ensure what you add is relevant in the context of your design and – most importantly – that backgrounds don’t distract from content, or make it illegible. Related links: A guide to writing better CSS Create a responsive layout with CSS Grid CSS tricks to revolutionise your layouts View the full article

A design degree can seem like the best and safest option to kickstart a career in graphic designer, providing both a foundation in skills theory and the relevant qualifications needed to get a job. But it's not the only route into the industry. In fact, many junior designer roles are hired based on portfolio and experience as much as qualifications. Studying for a design degree isn’t without its own challenge and negative sides either – not least the fact it will take up three to four years of your life and cost quite a substantial amount of money. So here are 10 things you can do if you find out (or decide) you're not going to be studying design at college or university, to make sure your dream still happens. 01. Take time to specialise Logo design skill are always in demandGraphic design is a broad industry that encompasses many specialities. While a graphic design degree may set you up with a foundation in the theory of many of these areas, if you don't go down the degree route, you can focus your attentions on a specific niche or specialty. Developing a deeper knowledge of a specific skillset could give you a competitive advantage when it comes to applying for jobs. Logo design is one area that is always in high demand and suits those who enjoy the communication theory behind consumer behaviour. If your personal interests lie more in tech than pencil and paper, then mobile app and website design are two other niches where a specialisation could set you up for success. Attending local hackathon or startup events is a great way to get some valuable experience in this side of the industry. 02. Master the software Photoshop skills are pretty much essential for graphic designersWhether you enjoy it or not, you can’t fully escape technology in the professional design world – so it’s a good idea to start mastering it now. Even designers who prefer to work in traditional materials will often have to use online systems to make digital copies or work on project edits remotely. Get Adobe Creative Cloud now Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are the two obvious software choices (as well as InDesign for those who plan to work in print). A strong understanding of one or both is a real asset when a design degree is missing. Luckily, there are ways to self-teach or learn online when it comes to both. PSDTuts and TutsPlus offer some of the most popular in-depth tutorials, but there are many more to choose from. Take a look at our roundup of Photoshop tutorials to get started. 03. Invest in the tools Invest in a good laptopYour computer and its software will be two of the key components of your professional graphic design work, regardless of whether your do a degree or not. Software like Photoshop can require significant speed and space from an operating system, so it’s a good idea to invest in an up-to-date computer. The biggest challenge tends to be choosing between a PC or Mac. Mac is most commonly used among professionals and in design agencies, but the purchase ultimately comes down to budget and personal choice – take a look at our guide to the best laptops for graphic design to start making your choice. 04. Learn how to write OK, this might seem off topic, but a designer’s job is about more than looking after the pictures or making things look aesthetically good. A great designer will also have some skill with copywriting, and understands that good design is about the correlation between imagery, colours and language. There are plenty of online blogs and traditional design books dedicated to writing for design so get to know the basics and try replacing that 'Lorem Ipsum' text in your next design drafts. Take a look at our 10 tips for starting a blog. 05. Develop your style Style can often be the differentiating factor in becoming a successful graphic designer, whether that means securing an in-house role or building your own freelance business. Of course your own personal preference will take time to come to the fore, as you practice with different styles. However, when you do start to find your style groove – that area where what you’re best at meets what you prefer to work on – that’s the time to start honing it. A good way to practice your style is to take other people’s work and recreate it as your own version. Then you can move on to creating projects from scratch in your style. 06. Build an online portfolio A great online portfolio is essential to getting your name out While this article explains the many ways you don’t necessarily need a degree to work in graphic design, one thing there is no workaround for is the need for a design portfolio. It can feel frustrating building a portfolio from scratch, without the educational projects or work experience to fill it. One way to show both design theory and showcase your designs at the same time is to take poorly designed logos, websites or posters, and place them beside your own, improved versions. Then you can explain the issues and why your design is more effective. Just remember to keep only your best work for the portfolio showcase, and clearly state that it's an unsolicited redesign. As for whether your portfolio should be in paper form or online again, is a personal decision, however you would be advised to put some 'shop front' on the internet, even if it’s only a selection of your work. A huge amount of networking and inspiration in the industry comes from online sites like Dribble and Behance and a website is an easy business card to reach a marketplace of millions. 07. Get to grips with user experience User experience in design (often referred to as UX) is the process of creating products that have been designed with both usability and user pleasure in mind. That means it incorporates elements of branding and design as much as practical usability and function. This is an important area for designers to understand, as they will often be designing graphically alongside web designers or app builders for example, who will expect the designs to reflect important concepts like designing for screen, eliciting emotional responses and ease of use. 08. Learn the business of design Graphic design is a creative job, but like all professions it operates within a business environment. That means there are skills you can bring to a role in the industry that lie outside the theoretical or practical teachings of a degree course. Skills like client negotiations, designing to briefs or writing business development proposals, as well as learning how design work is costed, how the time is tracked or the elements that go into design contracts. A lot of this can be learned online by reading design blogs and by keeping up to date with the latest advice for people who work creatively with clients. Take a look at our career articles. 09. Don’t forget the theory Principles like colour theory underpin great graphic design workAll of this practical experience and industry research will go a long way to helping you compete with design degree graduates. However, it would be foolish to think that not studying a degree means ignoring theory altogether. Understanding design principles remains important and many of them can be self-taught through reading and research. You can break the theories down into categories and start small, with colour theory for example. Or you could look to a more structured course such as the TutsPlus graphic design self-study course. 10. Get a job as a designer In order to take your own knowledge, skills and portfolio to the next level, it will eventually become necessary for you to gain real world work experience. This may seem like a chicken and egg scenario (a job without experience, experience without a job) but there are creative ways to find these opportunities, even at the early stage of your career. Researching companies you may be interested in working for, connecting with people through networking sites like LinkedIn, pitching for internships or mentoring, are all ways of getting noticed and gaining industry experience. But there are many more. Similarly, there are online jobs boards where you could pitch for freelance projects, such as Fiverr or Upwork, and there is always the option to pitch a project yourself to a voluntary organisation, a friend’s business or a local shop. Related articles: 20 tips for design interview success 30 brilliantly creative resumés 14 great places to sell your design work online View the full article

The web is always changing, but the tools that make it run are consistent. You can get up to speed in no time with the fundamental languages that make the web work with the help of the Adobe Design Expert Package. Grab it on sale for 98% off the retail price! Get Adobe Creative CloudWhen it comes to any kind of design work, there is no more trustworthy source than Adobe. You can lean on the expertise of the company that makes the most relied upon design tools around by grabbing the Adobe Design Expert Package. This collection of 20 courses will fill you in on the fundamentals of web design, from editing and creating graphics to building and securing your website. Access the courses at any time so you can learn when it's most convenient to you, and by the end you'll be building your own sites from scratch! You can get the Adobe Design Expert Package on sale right now for 98% off the retail price. That means you pay just $44 (approx. £34) for an amazing amount of expert knowledge available on demand. If you’re at all interested in web design, this is a deal you can’t pass up! View the full article

The first time I speak to Ralph Steadman, he interrupts me at hello. "You're Gary Evans, right?" he says. "Evans, Evans, Evans and Evans: they're a company of some sort. I call them up." He broadens his slight Welsh accent: "'Could I speak to Mr Evans?' 'He's in a meeting.' 'Perhaps I could speak to Mr Evans?' 'I'm afraid he's on holiday.' 'Oh. Maybe I could speak to Mr Evans?' 'Unfortunately, he's not been too well.' 'I see. Can I speak to Mr Evans then? 'Speak-ing!'" He laughs, thoroughly, and I never regain control of the conversation. Ralph’s stories meander through topics including, but not limited to, aircraft engineering, a pig farm, the Kentucky Derby, yacht racing, boxing matches, marathon running, Scientology, extinct and endangered animals, Leonardo da Vinci, Sigmund Freud, guns, Donald Trump, and, of course, Hunter S Thompson. His conversation is like his work: chaotic, yet perfectly ordered. What separates artist and art is violence. He shows no sign of it; his art is full of it. Ralph in real life is your favourite uncle. Ralph on the page is your worst nightmare. Steadman pioneered the gonzo art style in the 1970sThe artist spent much of his early career as a cartoonist for British newspapers. While in America, in 1970, he received a call from the editor of a magazine – the short-lived Scanlan’s Monthly ("named after a Nottingham pig farm, for some peculiar reason …") – who asked if he’d like to cover the Kentucky Derby with a journalist named Hunter S Thompson. The idea was this: Thompson returns to his hometown, Louisville, to cover the Derby, but instead of writing about the famous horse race, he writes about its infamous spectators, their drunkenness, their crudeness… and Ralph illustrates the whole thing. The pair end up being every bit as drunk and crude as their subjects. The article reaches its climax when Thompson catches his reflection in a mirror. Staring back at him is ‘that one special face we’d been looking for … a puffy, drink-ravaged, disease-ridden caricature.’ The reporter had become the story. An editor at the Boston Globe described the article, titled The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved, as ‘pure gonzo.’ Ralph, however inadvertently, had helped Thompson invent a completely new style of writing: gonzo journalism. Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan commissioned Ralph to draw characters from the showTogether they went to the 1970 America’s Cup yacht race (they attempted to graffiti one of the boats while under the influence of hallucinogens), 1974’s Rumble in the Jungle boxing match (Thompson sold the tickets, so they never saw Muhammad Ali and George Foreman fight), and the 1980 Honolulu Marathon (they stood on the home straight and shouted abuse at competitors). Ralph didn’t go with Thompson on the trip that would become Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the writer’s most famous work, but he illustrated the book. "I said, ‘No one would have noticed that book if it wasn’t for my drawings.’ He said, ‘How dare you, Ralph!’ It’s still, somehow, become part of what I’m known for. I did have an affect on it, because I did the drawings. They were the kind of drawings… we just hadn’t had anything like that. They were slightly crazy because I was trying to step up to the plate, as they say, and do something special to suit Hunter’s weird style of writing." They were opposites in many ways: Ralph the quiet, gentle Brit, and Thompson the loud, violent American. But they shared a vision, a distrust of authority, a compulsion to speak truth to power. Their repeated takedowns of the disgraced ex-president Richard Nixon are among the most brutal in the history of satire. It’s impossible to read Thompson’s words without seeing Ralph’s pictures, and vice versa. Going in with the ink Ralph describes his art as, "Erratic, controlled, sometimes complex, and interesting – even to me." He carries a sketchbook in which he doodles and notes down ideas. He takes these ideas into his home studio and works up the best ones, the "most evocative." He never uses a pencil. He goes straight in with ink, black Indian ink, usually a big splash of it, thrown onto the page with a practised flick of the wrist. He sees an image hiding within this blot, or else he drags one out of it. He uses a pen with heavy bronze nib, and he scratches and he smears. He draws around the splash, adds to it, takes away. He uses an ink compass, and sometimes a diffuser to spray ink over the page. The result is occasionally light and playful, but more often than not it’s dark and unsettling. "Accident is important," Ralph says. "I am never afraid of mistakes. A mistake is an opportunity to do something else. It evolves. I must see wet ink. I must see it on a page. I can’t construct everything inside a computer. The drawing is wet ink. I see a lot of drawings and know they’ve been done on a computer, and there’s no life in them." All Steadman's drawings start in black indian ink – never pencil Ralph was born in Wallasey, near Liverpool, in 1936. His mother was Welsh. When the war started, they moved to Wales, to the more remote Abergele. As a boy, he built model planes. After leaving Abergele Grammar School at 16, he worked as a trainee engineer at the nearby De Havilland Aircraft Company. He hated life in the factory and quit within a year. But it was here that he learned technical drawing: the geometric shapes that would feature throughout his career as an artist. Next, Ralph took a job as stockroom boy in a department shop. Here he learned – or cemented – his distrust of authority. "I was sweeping the floor at the front of the shop," Ralph says, in an accent somewhere between Welsh and Liverpudlian, "and along came this headmaster, this hideous headmaster. He said, ‘Look at you. You’ve ruined your life. You could have been something if you’d stayed at De Havilland.’ I was only a bloody 16-year-old boy." Ralph saw an advert in a newspaper for an art correspondence course. It read: ‘Learn To Draw and Earn Pounds.’ He signed up and practised his drawing during military service, working as a radar operator in the Royal Air Force. He drew in barracks and in pubs. He charged a pint for his pictures. Ralph won the the Francis Williams Book Illustration Award for his 1967 work on Alice in WonderlandHe later moved to London, took evening classes at East Ham Technical College, and studied at the London College of Printing and Graphic Arts. He freelanced as a cartoonist for satirical magazines like Punch and Private Eye, and began illustrating books. During this time, Ralph became friends with Gerald Scarfe – the cartoonist who went on to create artwork for Pink Floyd. They practised together and agreed to send work to the same publications. Ralph annoyed Gerald going it alone at Private Eye. Their friendship never recovered, but their art remained similar. "Eventually," Ralph says, "he more or less took over my style of work. My first wife, unfortunately, wrote him a letter and accused him of stealing my approach to things. That finished it. We were never friends again." Ralph starts the day with a swim. And then, from 9am until lunchtime, and from 2pm until early evening, Ralph works in his home studio. Books fill shelves. Ink pens and paint brushes cover every surface. Pictures hang on the walls, other people’s art, his own too, because he never sells originals. There are wooden stools for perching on, a ukulele for picking on, film cameras, digital cameras, a framed photo of Picasso, lights and lamps, easels and filing cabinets, trinkets, statuettes, and a number plate that spells out the word GONZO. "Some people think my studio is untidy," he says, "but I think it is immaculate because I know where everything is." No concessions, no compromises Ralph recently illustrated the poster for Louis Theroux’s film Scientology. He did the artwork for musician Ed Harcourt’s latest album. And later this year will publish Critical Critters, the third in a trilogy of books dedicated to extinct and endangered animals, put together with filmmaker Ceri Levy. He worked with some of the 20th century’s most notorious writers, from William Burroughs to Will Self, and illustrated editions of novels like Alice in Wonderland and Animal Farm, and books about Leonardo da Vinci and Sigmund Freud. But throughout his career, Ralph has refused to make concessions in his art. Ralph brought Animal Farm to life for a 1995 edition of George Orwell’s polemic"I never compromise," he says. "We can discuss things, but I end up doing what I do, which I cannot help. I prefer my own projects, but I like the ideas and fun that come out of a collaboration. That’s why, when a collaboration works, you just keep on wanting to do things with that person. It’s fun with Ceri Levy. It was fun – sometimes dangerous – but always fun with Hunter." The last time I speak to Ralph it’s by email, through his daughter, because he’s unwell. He’s 80 now and sometimes wonders if he’s done too much work. "I start to look upon it as pollution," he says. "But, at the same time, I can’t stop. I don’t know what else I’d do. I have no desire to become a racing driver." He collaborated with Thompson until the latter’s suicide in 2005, aged 67. He thinks that, were he around today, Thompson would be an important voice. Ralph Steadman certainly is. His political cartoons have lost none of their vitality, none of their venom. You only need mention the name Donald Trump to get him going again. "He disturbs me and I feel I have to do something about him. I found the perfect idea. It has not been used yet … Keep it going, as I say to people. Keep it going. Don’t stop the immense dream. Dangerous, dangerous …" This article originally appeared in Paint & Draw issue 8. Buy it here. Related articles: The 7 best modern cartoons Hand-draw a manga character How to draw movement: 16 top tips View the full article

What does your role as web performance engineer at Fastly involve? Patrick Hamann: Fastly is an edge cloud platform that underpins some of the world's largest brands. My role predominantly focuses on R&D; working with teams within Fastly to utilise client-side technologies and web standards to improve the performance and delivery of our products and – most importantly – our customers' services. Some current projects include initiatives around browser performance monitoring, metrics and Service Workers. Before you joined Fastly, you spent time at both the Guardian and the Financial Times. How did they approach web performance? PH: Performance is no longer a post-deploy add-on or checklist item. It needs to be a constant effort that every person in the organisation considers, from design through to delivery. This is something these news organisations realised very early on, introducing practices such as building monitoring infrastructure to measure and compare performance against competitors, prioritising the delivery of content over other features and utilising technologies like Service Workers. What's the biggest obstacle to a fast experience online right now? PH: One word: JavaScript. I guess I should elaborate on this slightly: The web is at the peak of a JavaScript obesity crisis. The average web page now delivers around 500kb of script. Script which takes more than a second to just parse – let alone execute – on a low-powered device and greater than five seconds to get to a state which the user can interact with the page. Therefore, the only way to improve the user experience of our sites is to measure, optimise and reduce our JavaScript – above all else. WebPageTest runs a free website speed test from multiple locations around the globe using real browsers and at real consumer connection speeds What are your favourite tools to optimise web performance? PH: I am a strong believer that you cannot optimise what you haven't yet measured. So my toolbox is heavily weighted to measurement and profiling tools. For synthetic measurement, I’ll always reach for WebPageTest and browser developer tools (network and performance panes) first. However, nothing beats measuring real user experiences too (R.U.M), so a good knowledge of the browser performance timing APIs helps as well. You've worked on some very large codebases. What are the challenges of working at scale? PH: By and large I'd argue that a big codebase shares most of the problems you'd find in a smaller one: eliminating unused CSS (a problem I think is unsolved), caching, asset build pipelines and versioning, and so on. You also get more 'bit rot' – best practices becoming anti-patterns over time. But personally I've found most of the challenges at scale are people problems, not technical ones. I'm yet to work in a large organisation that isn't affected by Conway's Law. You call yourself a progressive enhancement advocate. What is it about that approach that resonates with you? PH: Contrary to popular belief, our users actually use the products we build in the real world: one full of non-ideal browsing conditions and failure around every corner. Progressive enhancement enables us to build experiences that are inclusive to all our users and are resilient to the failures of the real world. It's quite simple: just start with the basics, not a 300kb JavaScript library that your local barista told you about. We should not forget the basics. What are you excited about in frontend development at the moment? PH: The web is under threat. Users are spending more time in native – and thus siloed – app experiences away from the openness of the web. Yet we still seem to be building sites that take 20 seconds and cost £1.20 per load on my roaming connection, ultimately driving our users away further. Fortunately, technologies like Service Worker and associated APIs are here to help. I can't wait for a new era of fast, resilient websites that still function offline, can synchronise my data in the background and notify me with updates. Some people are calling this progression 'progressive web apps'. I prefer the term 'the web'. In his talk at Generate London Patrick Hamann will explore the current, past, and future best-practices for loading assets in the browser What can people expect to learn from your talk at Generate London? PH: To the outsider, serving a website seems pretty simple: send some HTML and CSS down the wire then the browser decides what to do next. However, a lot is actually going on under the hood, all coming at a cost to our users. How does the browser determine what asset to request next? How can we measure the perceived speed of our websites? How can we use modern web platform features to influence the priority and speed of our assets? Hopefully my talk will answer these questions and more. Giving the audience the tools to create faster, more resilient experiences for their users. Generate London on 21/22 September features 15 other presentations covering web animations, UX strategy, prototyping, accessibility, responsive CSS components, and much more. There are also four workshops to choose from on the day before the conference but tickets are very limited. Reserve your spot now! View the full article

Starting a new design project is a great opportunity to do something new with typography. But it doesn’t always go to plan. With tight deadlines and a lack of creative ideas, it’s so easy to end up falling back on the same old fonts and font pairings. Best free fonts for designersNew for 2017, these tools all aim to help you find new ones, so you can put a bit of sparkle back into your typography... and hopefully a bit of joy back into your design soul. 01. Fontface Ninja This browser extension provides an easy way to see which fonts other designers are usingEvery wondered which font a website is using? Wonder no more. Fontface Ninja is a free browser extension that lets you lets you inspect, try and buy the fonts being used on any websites. Once you’ve installed the extension, you just have to click the icon and then hover over a font to see its name, line height, size and other specifications. Click on any font you like the look of in the drop-down, and you can type into an overlaid box to see if it will work for your text. 02. Find Great Google Fonts A web app to help you find Google Fonts fasterLooking for free fonts? One of the best places to find them is Google Fonts, a collection of more than 800 fonts that are available to use for free on any website, whether it be personal or commercial. But finding the best Google fonts for your project can be tricky, so this handy new tool aims to make it a bit easier. The idea behind this intuitive site is that you search for fonts according to visual categories rather than terms like serif and sans-serif. Tap the filter button in the left-hand vertical menu and it will all become clear. Once you’ve found a font you like, just tap its name and you’ll be taken through to its page on Google Fonts. 03. Calligraphr Create your own fonts based on your handwriting with this web-based toolIf you can’t find the right fonts, you always have the option of creating your own. Launched in February 2017 by Maklabu, Calligraphr is a tool for converting your own handwriting into fully functional vector fonts. This app provides you with template to download. Complete it with handwritten letters and Calligraphr will then translate your writing into fonts. You can then go on to edit and perfect your fonts within the software, as well as creating your own ligatures. Pricing plans ranges from free to $8 per month. 04. Prototypo Prototypo offers another easy way to create your own bespoke font. This tool provides you three basic typefaces – Prototypo Fell, Prototypo Grotesk and Prototypo Elzevir – and lets you customise them by changing more than 20 parameters, such as thickness, aperture and roundness, as well as fine-tuning the serifs. Once you’re done, export your fonts as .otf files for use on websites or the desktop. There’s a limited free plan, while full-featured plans start at $15 per month. 05. IDEO Font Map Discover new and exciting font combinations with this machine-learning toolWant to break away from the same old boring font combinations? Ideo Font Map offers an imaginative way to generate original and unusual font pairings. The creation of Kevin Ho, it’s basically an interactive map of more than 750 fonts that uses AI to surface new relationships across fonts. If that sounds obtuse, it all becomes clear once you start playing around with it, so go give it a try. 06. Fontjoy This web app lets you determine the level of contrast in your font pairingsAn offshot of the IDEO Font Map (see above), Fontjoy is another deep learning tool for finding new and unusual font pairings. Created by designer and engineer Jack Qiao, it allows you to choose how similar or contrasting you want your fonts to be via a slider at the top of the site. Then click the ‘Generate’ button and you’ll be instantly given a match. 07. F37 Foundry This type tester is inspired by the features in Adobe IllustratorBack in February, F37 Foundry, the type foundry of Rick Banks, launched a highly granular in-browser type tester to promote its typeface. Inspired by Adobe Illustrator’s features, it lets you test out typefaces within your web browser in an intuitive and sophisticated way. You can, for example, move, resize and rotate text, as well as tweaking the leading, kerning, tracking and colour. This cool tool was created by Banks along with digital designer Francis Smith and developer Tom Duncalf. Related links: 20 perfect font pairings The 26 best free cursive fonts 82 top-quality typography tutorials View the full article

http://www.zdnet.com/article/onliner-spambot-largest-ever-malware-campaign-millions/ … View the full article

Researchers warn a retooled ‘Jimmy’ Nukebot no longer steals bankcard data, rather focuses on avoiding detection as it downloads malicious modules. View the full article

The internet's video content overlord, YouTube, has clicked play on a new logo (above) to accompany a fresh, clean site redesign. YouTube is constantly tinkering with how its site looks (remember star ratings?) but this is the first time the composition of its logo has changed since the site was launched in 2005. Get Adobe Creative CloudPreviously, all YouTube logos boxed the word 'Tube' in a red screen. Sure, YouTube has played around with the colour of the screen before, even had a go at gradient colours and highlights, but never before has it separated these design elements so abruptly. The new logo puts the emphasis on the play button by putting it in front of the name, and rams the message home by making the red brighter than ever. It's a crisp, tidy logo backed up by some sound brand guidelines that show how it will work on different backgrounds. 25 logo design tips from the experts The old YouTube logo has been in action for 12 yearsOver on its official blog, YouTube had this to say about the redesign: "The bright red cherry on top of this update sundae is a refreshed YouTube Logo and YouTube Icon. Designed for our multi-screen world, the updated Logo combines a cleaned up version of the YouTube wordmark and Icon, creating a more flexible design that works better across a variety of devices, even on the tiniest screens. "Why’s it more flexible? When room is limited (say on a smartphone) you can use the brightened up Icon as an abbreviated Logo, which will be seen more easily and read more clearly." The new logo is rolling out to mobile and desktop devices today, with an update arriving on other apps and services in the not too distant future. Watch the new logo and site in action in the video below. Related articles: The 8 biggest logo designs of 2017 so far Meet the artist drawing millions of YouTube views 10 ways for designers to earn money on YouTube View the full article

Whether you're a creative director on the hunt for new talent, or a developer looking for some web design inspiration, Tumblr is full of inspirational work. The micro blogging service and social network makes it mega-easy for anyone wanting to know how to start a blog. Tumblr blogs can be set up in a matter of minutes, and having a Tumblr account also enables you to 'follow' other people via their Tumblr blogs. Get Adobe Creative Cloud It's this ease of use, and social appeal, that has seen Tumblr serve more than 45 million sites. This is a great number for a company publishing blogs, but for users it becomes difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. That's certainly the case when it comes to design-related blogs, of which there are huge numbers to choose from. With that in mind, we've done all the hard work for you, and brought you the best Tumblr blogs for designers, covering graphic design, photography, illustration, typography and more. First up, let's check out the best Tumblrs for design inspiration and curation. Enjoy! Inspiration 01. Richard Turley Richard Turley's Tumblr is a clusterbomb of inspirationIt's difficult to categorise Richard Turley's blog – so we're not even going try: we'll just put it first in this list, in its own category of general 'inspiration'. MTV's first-ever senior vice president of visual storytelling and deputy editorial director runs an eclectic blog full of images that inspire him or catch his eye. It's random, crazy and worth a look. Design curation Richard Turley out of the way, our first group of great Tumblr blogs seeks to surface and curate the best and most inspiring design work on the planet, across disciplines. Check them out, and then read on to discover the best Tumblr blogs for the specific disciplines of graphic design, illustration, typography, web design and photography... 02. Radiographista Radiographista's daily themes mean you always know what to expectUpdated seven days a week, Radiographista keeps things nice and orderly by posting three lovely things every day, with a set theme for every day: Sunday is web design, Monday is branding, Tuesday is typography, Wednesday is editorial, Thursday is industrial, Friday is illustration and Saturday is all about architecture. 03. Design Clever This blog was created to showcase talented designers all over the worldDesign Clever is a collaboration by Jonathan Ring and Bethany Baker – two aspiring graphic designers with a passion for everything design related. So, they created this brilliant Tumblr blog to collate anything and everything that inspires them. "This blog was created to showcase talented designers all over the world and their amazing talents," they explain. 04. Adult Art Club An elegant output for the Adult Art Club Tumblr blogA creative practice working in the grey area of design, art direction and illustration, Adult Art Club is run by Jonny Costello. The Tumblr is packed full of inspirational imagery including beautiful photography and graphic design. Head here for class and elegance. 05. Design is Fine, History is Mine Get inspiration from a time before computers took overDesign is Fine is the Tumblr blog of German lecturer Rea Riegel, curating finds from the 15th century to the present day, along with inspiring products and art from Before the Common Era. "Imagine a time with no computers," Riegel encourages. "But with lots of craftsmanship and universal creativity. I am a copy writer and lecturer for design history from Germany. This is my personal library. Anybody else, get inspired and enjoy." 06. Design Everywhere Design really is everywhere with this gorgeous Tumblr blogDesign Everywhere is a daily dose of visual inspirations found by Preston Tham and Michelle Yong. Unless otherwise stated, everything you see or read on the DesignEverywhere blog is the property of respective owners. We adore their selections, which make for that perfect impact of inspiration. 07. Fuck Yeah Interior Designs! Stare at your dream home and find some inspiration in the meantimeSurprisingly, you can find tonnes of inspiration in interior design no matter which design method you currently practise. In this Tumblr blog there are hundreds of influences and styles, which can only help to improve your own work. What's more, you can stare at your dream home for hours. 08. Curioos Curioos showcases work from up and coming designersCurioos brings you a selection of the very best digital artworks by up and coming illustrators and designers from across the world. There's plenty of inspiration to be had here, as the guys behind the blog don't stick to one discipline. Whatever illustration or graphic design style you like, you'll no doubt find a few examples here. 09. Baubau House Baubau Haus is one of the best curated-based blogs out thereBaubau Haus is here to feed your daily need for design, illustration, photography, fashion and other art-related content. Inspiring for almost every creative out there, this is one of the best curation-based Tumblr blogs out there. 10. ReformRevolution ReformRevolution provides examples from almost every fieldProviding stunning design inspiration in almost every field, you can't go wrong with ReformRevolution. Including photography, graphic design, illustration and portfolio updates from some of the best designers, this is a Tumblr blog to fall in love with. 11. Charlotte Audrey Owen-Meehan We'll be scrolling on this Tumblr for hours thanks to the colour pop findsIf you love colour, Charlotte Audrey Owen-Meehan is your go-to girl for popping inspiration. A freelance designer and illustrator based in Birmingham, UK, she works for the likes of Lonely Planet, Poke London and Orange. As soon as we clicked on Owen-Meehan's Tumblr, we were instantly transported to summer thanks to her knack for finding the brightest of inspirations. 12. Well Made Studio Well Made Studio has a well put-together TumblrWell Made Studio is a team of designers working for lifestyle, arts and publishing clients. Specialising in brand identities, print campaigns and websites, its Tumblr blog is not only full of inspiration but important opinions about the design industry itself. Head here if you're looking for career advice as well as some lovely imagery. 13. The Made Shop The Made Shop collates great design from across the globeThe Made Shop is a brilliant Tumblr blog from a brilliant team of designers, bringing you the best innovative work from across the globe, whether that be in photography, branding, illustration or film art direction. We love the way the content is flagged as either 'Things we made' and 'Things we found'. 14. Wallpaper* Wallpaper* - great print publication, great Tumblr blogThe high-end architecture, design, fashion, art and lifestyle magazine Wallpaper* has extended itself onto the Tumblr platform, bringing together the best images from wallpaper.com. The site is as pleasingly professional as the print magazine, and if you want to know more, clicking on each image takes you through the relevant post on Wallpaper*'s main website. 15. Designers of Tumblr The blog aims to offer the best of the design world of TumblrLooking for big, beautiful images of the latest cool design work? This regularly updated Tumblr blog extracts the best designs on the platform and is open to submissions. It's a great place to see the work of others as well as network with designers worldwide. 16. Design Cloud Design Cloud showcases new work from a wide range of design fieldsDesign Cloud is a carefully selective and informed blog that features images of new work covering a wide range of design fields, from graphic design to architecture. This Tumblr blog is beautifully laid out and easy to navigate. 17. Wrap Wrap magazine's Tumblr blog features the best images from the print publicationWrap magazine is a UK print magazine celebrating the very best in illustration, design and creative culture. Its Tumblr blog showcases its best work as well as work that inspires the team. Both are sure to inspire creatives from all backgrounds. 18. Dynamic Africa See all creative things Africa here...Dynamic Africa offers vibrant and colourful celebration of the continent and its visual culture. Functioning as a diverse platform for all things African and/or African-related, this Tumblr blog puts a positive spin on a continent often portrayed in a negative light. 19. Design: Related Gallery Head to Design: Related Gallery for quirky and cool designTumblr blog Design:Related Gallery is run by the guys behind community website Design:Related. Started in 2006, the website itself brings together creative people to share their work with others and the blog features projects from those in that community. If you like looking and cool and quirky designs from all creative fields then you should definitely follow this site. 20. I Heart My Art Designer Blair Prentice runs this engaging TumblrTumblr I Heart My Art is a seriously cool collection of contemporary art, videos, vintage photography and much more. Run by Canadian artist and graphic designer Blair Prentice, he describes it as a 'repository for art, music and other items of interest.' Check this site out if you're looking for something a little different. Currently, the first few pages are full of extremely inspiring, weird, and sometimes terrifying, pieces of work. 21. Inspire me now Out of the ordinary inspiration is hereRun by user experience designer Szymon Błaszczyk, Tumblr blog Inspire me now was started in 2007. Describing it as a blog for 'unconventional thinking and design', Błaszczyk regularly updates his site with the out-of-the-ordinary. From cool and unusual product design to extraordinary illustrations, visiting this site that will certainly get you thinking outside-the-box. 22. Laughing Squid Art, culture and technologyLaughing Squid is 'an online resource for interesting art, culture and technology'. And, after winning the People's Voice Award for Best Cultural Blog, it's clearly doing a good job at finding interesting and engaging content. 23. Visva We love the fashion photgraphy on this TumblrVisva is a stunning inspirational Tumblr that features the likes of photography, fashion, print design and branding. If you ever find yourself at a creative standstill, this is definitely a blog you should be bookmarking. The range of styles chosen is wonderfully diverse, while still fitting under the umbrella of design inspiration. We especially love the idea of including fashion photography and fashion design within the blog. The featured shots are simply breathtaking and will provide that much needed boost to your creative idea pool. A definite bookmark! 24. Quirksville The name says it allQuirksville is the collaborative Tumblr blog of London's graphic design and illustration duo Naomi Ray and Justina Bailey, who are part of the Vice blogging network. The blog is an instant feast for the eyes, as it features art, design, technology, fashion, music and adverts. What's great about Quirksville are its little quirks (sorry) including the tabs QV work and QV loves. It also features a paragraph or two with every post, so you know exactly what you're looking at, with handy links too. 25. Nice things we like Yep, this one's for nice creativesDon't we all love nice things? Have a look at all things nice on Nice Things We Like – a Tumblr designed for nice creatives. The blog is a perfect outlet when it comes to providing daily inspiration, featuring fonts, graphic design and illustration. We dare you to take a look at it without uttering that inevitable four letter word. 26. nvsblty There's lovely attention to detail on this Tumblrnvsblty is the Tumblr blog of designer Ross Berens, which features a range of inspirational examples of typography, print design, photography and graphic design. Ross definitely shares the Tumblr love, as most of his pictures are sourced from fellow bloggers – as well as some of his own finds, of course! The attention to detail and the little touches are what makes nvsblty a Tumblr blog that stands out. For instance, there are links to Ross's svpply and last.fm playlist. A perfect way to integrate all your passions in one place, allowing the user to really understand Ross's inspirations. 27. The design blog This Tumblr is different...The design blog prides itself on being different from most inspirational Tumblr blogs. The Croatian designer behind it, Ena Baćanović, cares about young designers and the work they're creating. Here, your work can be seen and recognised (a little bit like Dribbble) along with a range of inspirational ramblings. Moreover, a 'designer of the week' is picked, with their work featured on the blog, Facebook and Twitter. It's a great site for any budding creative. 28. Juxtapose Head here to see some nice thingsJuxtapose is the Tumblr blog of 20-year-old Daniel, who describes himself as "someone so average that it's interesting". Whenever Daniel finds anything cool, he posts it on the blog for everyone to see. There's paper craft, typography, sculptures, spiders, dogs, wooden lightbulbs... well, you get the idea. It's a fantastic blog for anyone who likes looking at nice things, which is almost anyone right? Next pages: Best Tumblr blogs for graphic design, typography, career, web design, photography and illustration. 29. The Backmatter Backmatter's posts offer more depth than your usual Tumblr fareThis isn't your average image blog. Built to showcase exciting design projects, The Backmatter goes nice and deep with plenty of high res images for each project and thoughtful, often lengthy write-ups. 30. Women of Graphic Design A design blog aimed at sparking discussion about the design industryThis is a blog dedicated to exhibiting design work by women in the graphic design field. It is meant to be a source for learning and sharing, and ultimately, a platform to spark discussion. Started as part of Tori Hinn’s degree project in 2013, its aim is to evolve into a project bigger than a degree project – a project that can reach and involve an entire design community, made up of many voices. 31. Cutting Edge Logos Poking fun at those 'cutting edge' logos"How to design a logo? 
Set the name in a retail typeface
, cut off some corners in Illustrator
 and cash a big check," says this Tumblr blog entitled Cutting Edge Logos. The blog pokes fun at some of the world's biggest logos that have simply 'cut the edges'. 32. Inspiring Ethan Ethan Daniel Kociela collates beautiful examples of graphic designEthan Daniel Kociela is a freelance graphic designer and web designer from Montague, Massachusetts. When he's not creating new works for a load of new clients, he collates beautiful examples of graphic design in this brilliant Tumblr blog. Kociela also runs another Tumblr called WTF Getty, full of hilariously odd stock images. 33. Graphic Design & Tattoos Combine your love of graphic design and tattoos with this clever tumblr blogCurated by designer Marc Ostlund, Graphic Design & Tattoos showcases the crossover between the two creative disciplines. If you just want to look at the tattoos or the graphic design images, Ostlund has provided some handy tabs at the top of the page. 34. Gura Fiku Gura Fiku documents Japanese graphic design over timeHere's something a bit different. Curated by designer Ryan Hageman, Gura Fiku – which is how Japanese people pronounce the word 'graphic' – documents Japanese graphic design over time, and catalogues the differences, and crossovers, between eastern and western approaches to graphic design. It's inspiring and enlightening. 35. Posters of Berlin Posters of BerlinSet up by UX designer Anna Weiss, Posters of Berlin follows the simple premise of showcasing posters that Weiss found in the streets of Berlin – both commercial and by street artists. "This is simply a platform that collects the visual footprints of culture left on our beloved city for your viewing pleasure," says Weiss, who has lived in Dublin and Berlin, but is now based in Gothenburg, Sweden. 36. We and the Color We and the Color has a smashing layoutWe and the Color is a creative outlet for showcasing the very best in graphic design, illustration and art inspiration. The Tumblr proves that you can find creative ideas in just about anything as they post about architecture, fashion and photography. The layout of the site is easy to use, with external links and useful websites for a creative in any field. Other pages: design curation, typography, career, web design, photography and illustration. 37. Nice Type Nice type! Yeah, you're welcome, cheersIf you like your typography to move then Nice Type is a splendid source of inspiration. It's curated by Matthew Buchanan, who scours Vimeo for the best examples of motion typography and kinetic type animation, and posts them on this great-looking Tumblr. 38. Typostrate See what you can do with the endless array of typography out thereTypography is everywhere and like most creatives, we love to see it in all its glory. Typostrate is a blog linked to a slick website about type and the endless array of things you can do with it. Showcasing the passion and power of typography, the blog's content and pictures are taken care of by Christian Goldemann. 39. The Art of Hand Lettering Beautiful hand lettering abounds on this TumblrInto hand lettering? The Art of Hand Lettering Tumblr offers a varied, inspiring collection of lettering projects in a range of different styles. From Tobias Hall to Johnny Cupcakes, you’ll find all sorts here. 40. F**k Yeah Typography Love typography? Check it outF**k Yeah Typography is a celebration of all things type, collated by a type-lover. If you've never really 'got' typography, then this is the blog to change your mind. The blog features appreciation of new and unique fonts, while also showcasing 'how-it-was-made' videos. There's also some cheeky banter thrown in for good measure – including a dig at Helvetica. Each to their own! 41. TypeToy All the type inspiration you could wantCurated by Aaron Eiland, TypeToy is an archive of graphical finds from all over the place, with minimal descriptions. Featuring a mixture of retro and contemporary design, bold typography is key to many of the images saved. 42. Font Police Who made you the Font Police?Oh, how others can get it so wrong with fonts. Here, the Font Police gets it right with a dig at those cringe-worthy offenders that make even the most laid-back scream at the screen in astonishment. Most typographers would never dream of committing such horrific crimes but do yourself a favour and check this out before you get designing. This is one blog you wouldn't want to be featured on! 43. Good typography Lots of great typography here, folksAs you can probably tell, this blog is pretty self-explanatory. Created by Costa Rican Ricardo, Good Typography concentrates on well, good typography. It's a neat little accumulation of type from around the web that's a perfect solution to any inspirational woes. Sometimes, he'll even comment on why he likes them – only if you're lucky, though. 44. Type worship Type takes a spiritual note hereOne of the largest type and lettering blogs, with a following of over 230,000 type enthusiasts, Type Worship is also now a Kickstarter-funded book. It's run by former head of design at Microsoft-turned-typographer Jamie Clarke, who has a fair few strings to his bow. As Tumblr blogs go, this is a cracker, and Type Worship showcases Jamie's love of all things typography (and he picks some really good ones) as well as reviews and interviews with typography designers. It's perfect example of how typography should be done. 45. NYC Type We love this colection of photographed typographyLuke Connolly likes New York and what better way is there to express that love than by photographing its best typography? While walking around the city, Luke takes out his Nikon D700 and clicks away at any lettering that takes his fancy. He features all five boroughs of New York, which means that the blog features a colourful expansion of every kind of typography you could ever wish for. Ok, maybe not every kind, but the whole of New York is a pretty good start! Other pages: design curation, graphic design, career, web design, photography and illustration. 46. Clients from hell Can you change the colour, type, size? Gotta love nightmare clientsWorking as a designer, it's inevitable that you're going to run into some difficult clients. If you reach the point of wanting to tear your hair out, take a look at the first site in our best Tumblr blogs list: Clients From Hell. Set up by a collective of designers, this Tumblr showcases some of the best client horror stories. Ranging from the unpaid to the plain unbelievable, Clients From Hell will have you laughing in astonishment. Our favourite? CLIENT: I can't pay you. ME: Why? CLIENT: Because my client hasn't paid me. ME: I can see how that could be frustrating. 47. Field Study There's a range of inspiration hereField Study is a Tumblr blog created by NYC based product/UX/UI designer and illustrator Keenan Cummings. Often posting about works in progress, it's a great insight into the life of a working designer. As it's also completely unedited and personal, Field Study is truer to life than most. If you're looking for a range of inspiration, interviews and openly honest commentary, then Field Study is the place for you. Other pages: design curation, graphic design, typography, web design, photography and illustration. 48. The Perfect Grid Let's hope Clement never finds the perfect grid and has to stop postingIs there really such a thing as the perfect grid? Find out here; The Perfect Grid showcases beautifully-arranged websites, apps and UI elements, and it's curated by Clement, a graphic designer and art director based in Paris. 49. House of Buttons The buttons are taken from almost every type of websiteCurated by Jason Long, House of Buttons is a collection of great UI buttons spotted in the wild. Taking examples from almost every type of website, this tumblr blog is a great source of design inspiration if you're looking to create your own button style. 50. 9-bits Get inspired at 9-Bits9-Bits is brought to you by designer and web developer David Kaneda. Having previously worked as the creative director at Sencha and inventing jQTouch, David is a man well worth listening to. The Tumblr is full of inspirational videos and commentary as well as David's own experiences. Here, you can see what works, what doesn't and what you can try out yourself. 51. Little Big Details User interface inspiration galoreLittle Big Details does just what it says on the tin, showing us the importance of the little details. Focusing on user interface inspiration, the site showcases all the components that make up some of your favourite programmes. Each post may contain details you already know about but most of the time, you'll be pleasantly surprised at the little big details of popular gadgets and creative programming. The blog also contains a job listings tab, which is a perfect outlet for aspiring developers. 52. Inspire My Web Head here for all your HTML5 needs and moreInspire My Web is a Tumblr packed full of fantastic HTML5 and design inspiration. If that isn't enough to get you clicking, the site also contains easy to follow web design tutorials focusing on CSS3, HTML5 and jQuery. Moreover, Inspire My Web also covers responsive development, which is an important aspect for any web developer. Perfect for web inspiration, tips and tutorials. 53. Steph Sassine Lovely layout on this TumblrSteph Sassine is an interactive designer, combining both digital and graphic development. Acting as a sort of online portfolio, you can browse through Steph's interactive art, web design, graphic design, shorts and fine art. The charming thing about this Tumblr is the way that it's presented. The Polaroids are neatly laid out once you hover over them, making the site interesting as well as highly interactive. There's also a questions tab, which means Steph is at hand for any queries. 54. Ely Folio There's lots to get excited about on this blogEly Folio is the online portfolio of Portuguese designer Elisa Sophia. It features her work with clients such as Volkswagen, Delta and Nike, which will serve as perfect inspiration for any budding designer. She has also dabbled in illustration and print design, which you can check out via the left-hand tabs. Next pages: design curation, graphic design, typography, career, photography and illustration. 55. Internet K-Hole Punks, goths, skaters, metalheads, crimping and random grot; save it for when you get homePreviously hosted on Blogger where it earned a bit of a reputation for its astonishingly long posts of found imagery and occasional grot from around the 1980s, the Internet K-Hole moved to Tumblr a couple of years ago. Tumblr's limit of 20 images per post lessens its impact a bit, but on the plus side it's updated a lot more regularly and still gets unexpectedly fruity and NSFW. 56. Photojojo Photojojo shows you things you haven't already seenPhotojojo, the store that sells gear for the modern photographer, also run this cool Tumblr blog, which shows off cool photography related projects. If you're tired of looking at generic photography sites then Photojojo is definitely worth taking a look at. The team manage to find some of the weirdest and most wonderful work from around the world, so you're sure to find some ideas on how to really stretch your imagination. 57. Lomograhy Love Lomography? Check this Tumblr outThe official Tumblr home of the Lomographic Society International is packed with stunning Lomographic snapshots. Have a scroll for some instant inspiration – and you can submit your own Lomographs too. 58. Megan McIsaac Stunning photography hereThis is the photo journal of professional photographer Megan Kathleen McIsaac, and showcases Megan's work and life as a photographer. There are no tiny, watermarked photos here, with all the pics presented in a large enough format to appreciate the skill that's gone into their creation. The minimalist theme really enables Megan's work to jump off the screen. It's a great example of what can be achieved with Tumblr. 59. Ann Street Studio Look no further for first-class photographyAnn Street Studio is the Tumblr of NYC-based photographer Jamie Beck and Kevin Berg. Beck is a great photographer, and you'll find a selection of her work here. You'll also find some really inspiring cinemagraphs on her site, with good reason, because Jamie was the co-founder of the whole cinemagraph movement. Other pages: design curation, graphic design, typography, career, web design and illustration. 60. Cinema Gorgeous These cinema-inspired illustrations are a joy to look atCreated by filmmaker and writer Malcolm Klock, Cinema Gorgeous celebrates beautiful art, great films and the creative lifestyle through a combination of cinema-inspired illustrations and posters, and interviews with talented creative people. 61. The Mighty Pencil The Mighty Pencil features some amazing illustration workThe Mighty Pencil collective is behind this great Tumblr blog, which features a selection of the best contemporary illustrators and some of the inspiring work they create. 62. Eatsleepdraw The perfect Tumblr to visit for inspirationPresented as an online art gallery, Eat Sleep Draw brings you huge amounts of inspirational illustration and art each week. Updated on an almost hourly basis, if the best Tumblr blogs were decided on frequency of posting, it would be a clear winner. In fact, it's easy to find yourself 30 pages into this Tumblr blog and suddenly wonder where the last two hours went (and why you're behind on that article you should have submitted over an hour ago). 63. Owen Davey Draws See what talented illustrator Own Davey is up toFreelance illustrator Owen Davey (the artist behind these big cat illustrations) has had work published in every continent except Antarctica. He's based in the UK and his clients include Orange, Microsoft, EasyJet and more. Keep an eye on his site for regular illustration inspiration. Related articles: 50 illustrators to follow on Behance 21 top-quality WordPress portfolio themes 50 brilliant design portfolios to inspire you View the full article

Why do certain types of brands adopt certain types of fonts? Partly, at least, this can be attributed to a ‘trend effect’. This is a collective interpretation of design, absorbed through our familiarity with – and understanding of – the culture we happen to be part of. Best free fonts for designersBut there’s also the way brands from different industry sectors choose to position themselves. Trends within specific sectors don’t follow a strict rulebook, but certain styles of fonts represent specific emotional attributes. For instance, geometric fonts with homogenised proportions tend to represent design purity, cleanliness and simplicity – values that many technology brands are currently keen to express. Many fashion brands, on the other hand, have an ongoing love affair with high contrast modern designs with their elegant hairline strokes, bracketed serifs and smooth arching curves, expressing a timeless style. AT&T's extensive brand font comes in a number of styles all built around the same humanist structureConsumer banking also offers an interesting example, as these brands have been progressively moving away from authoritarian serif designs in favour of softer expressions, perhaps to appear more human and friendly as they aim to rebuild trust following the financial crisis. In 1923, when Poffenberger & Franken conducted research into how readers perceive different typefaces used to advertise products, they discovered that people responded almost uniformly to typeface and product combinations, and mostly used similar adjectives to describe what they felt about the different fonts they were asked to comment on. Subliminal messages Through a lifetime of exposure we learn, or are prepared to be seduced by, the subliminal messages presented to us through branding and communication. Fonts, and typography in general, contain layers of subliminal communication, and carry a wealth of meaning, even for viewers who are not well-versed in typography. The contrast and modulation of the strokes, how a stroke termination is shaped, and height to width proportions determine whether a design is perceived as warm and friendly, or cold and mechanical. Slab Serifs are typographically strong and distinctive and usually stand up well individuallyThis is why picking the right font is key to a brand’s successful communication. Just like a logo or colour palette, the right font can help consumers identify the key characteristics behind a brand’s attitude and encourage them to make positive associations with its products and services. Developing an ownable brand font Typographic consistency across different communication channels establishes a sense of empathy and loyalty between the brand and its audience over time, and is an unquestionable asset in a brand’s toolkit. So how do we choose, or develop an ownable brand font? This is a question that we’re asked every day. A multitude of parameters and features affect the stylistic and functional properties of a typeface: some are global, affecting all glyphs within a font family; some are specific to style variants, such as Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic; others apply to shared elements within each style variant; while a few relate to just individual letters. With the democratisation of type design tools and the boom of available designs you can pick from, there are a number of criteria to take into account if you choose to license a font family for a brand. Being aware of the conventions at play behind our interpretation of the emotional qualities conveyed by a typeface will always be helpful. 01. Serif or sans serif? First off, you could start by considering whether a serif or sans serif design is suitable. Serifs originate from carved inscriptions, mostly from the Roman Imperial period, and while lowercase letters have since evolved into a variety of other letter shapes, capitals and their associated serifs have survived with very few fundamental changes. This deep-rooted history brings with it an inescapable association between serifs and their antique origins, making serif fonts more suited to cultivated, academic and more thoughtful communication. The advantage of serifed letters has been understood for hundreds of years of print-based typography: they help to combine or ‘glue’ letterforms together into word elements. The internal density that serifs provide also creates more clearly defined horizontal rows of text, making the process of switching from the end of one line of text to the beginning of the next more efficient. Use this handy reference guide as a reminder of the 12 main styles of typeface (click the top-right arrows icon to expand the image)Sans serifs, for their part, made their first appearance in the 19th century and were used initially for commercial headlines and advertisements. In the age of print, their low contrast and absence of serifs made most sans typefaces harder to follow for general reading and so they were not a suitable choice for the text of a book, magazine or newspaper. But the boom of screen-based technology over the last decade or so has brought a resurgence in the popularity of the sans serif. The complex texture and density of the serifed fonts did not always perform well in digital form, and screen resolutions were not sufficient to render as accurately the reading sizes we normally find comfortable in print media. In this context, the monolinear stroke weight and functionality of the sans serif made it an appropriate choice for their association with a more rational and industrial ideology and their functionality in digital environments. 02. Consider the font contrast Next, you should consider which contrast in a font will be more appropriate for your brand. Despite the passing of many generations, the same calligraphy-inspired stroke modulation between thick and thin strokes that was incorporated into those earliest forms of movable type is still recognised today, informing the construction of digital type. High contrast fonts generally are more effective when used at display sizes, where their elegance can be appreciated. However, their use for text can prove problematic due to the delicacy of their thin strokes, which have a fracturing effect at small sizes, reducing visual definition. Low contrast fonts can also present limitations, but for different reasons. In display and larger text sizes they perform well, but for text use in general, their reduced internal space also reduces visual definition. Both extremes have an important role to play in display typography: high contrast designs can provide an impression of classical dignity and grace, while lower contrast designs can contribute a sense of robust solidity, confidence 
and permanence. 03. Think about font stress You should consider the stress or axis of the font, which refers to the angle at which contrast occurs in a letterform, usually ranging from vertical to a somewhat back-slanted diagonal. This can best be noted by looking at the letter ‘O’ and noting if the bottom left is thicker than the top left, and if the top right 
is thicker than the bottom right. If this difference exists, the letter has diagonal stress. The reason for this angled stress is due to calligraphic construction and principles applied to traditional Roman type styles we use for text copy. These ‘old style’ designs are generally considered warm and friendly with their angled stress providing a slightly coarse, organic texture on the page. The flowing rhythm of the text, enhanced by naturally occurring oblique ascender and x-height serifs, serve to combine individual letters more readily into clearly defined word elements. The irregularity and down-to-earth familiarity of these designs seems to invite the reader to enter the text and read. 04. Don't forget vertical stress If the two halves of the ‘O’ are horizontal mirror images of each other, with the sides thicker than the top and bottom, then the letter has vertical stress. Unlike the Roman typefaces which developed naturally over time, a more rational approach to verticality emerged in the 18th century with the development of typefaces we now call ‘modern’. Aside from their functional properties, vertically stressed moderns have a more refined, austere elegance about them, qualities that are best appreciated when used at display sizes for magazines and posters. At text sizes, however, they seem to convey a sense of cool clinical detachment, inviting the reader to look at the text rather than read. Letterform anatomy (click the top-right arrows icon to expand the image)Another element that should influence your font choice is a font’s vertical parameters (ascender, x-height and descender). If we are familiar with most words we encounter, when our eyes scan the page we look for clues based around the context of the passage we are reading. This makes us able to guess collections of words within a phrase or sentence based on their length, architecture and context as our eye moves forward and backward in saccades. A tall high x-height will help maintain clarity of the characters, but this may come at the expense of word and line definition. A short x-height will restrict definition within the x-height portion of a font, particularly in bolder weights, but will define more clearly the silhouette or shape of words within a text. The ideal x-height for your brand font will allow sufficient space to build lowercase letters, including the more complex ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘s’ and ‘x,’ without compromising their definition at whatever range of sizes the font is designed to cover, as well as taking into account its relationship with the ascender height. 05. Counter balance The architecture of the letters is also heavily influenced by whether the designer opted for open or closed counters. This is particularly relevant for corporate branding needs, where fonts are required to perform effectively over a wide range of media and sizes with an economy of space. Since these fonts are often monolinear the designer is required to ensure that there is sufficient internal space within the letterforms and 
to consider restrictions to their width proportions. To overcome these constraints, designers will often resort to humanist designs, where the construction and architecture of the letters helps provide more internal space. Closed counter styles are available in the form of grotesque (grotesk) designs in which the outer loops of ‘a’, ‘c’, ‘e’ and ‘s’ are hooked in towards the middle of each letter. To maintain their flexibility and legibility at small sizes, these fonts are generally made with an enlarged x-height and with the widths of the enclosed characters increased but, as discussed earlier, there is a corresponding reduction in legibility at text sizes. These are just a sample of the criteria that should be considered in your choice of a brand font and there are many features which will influence a decision that should be articulated around a solid understanding of the brand’s identity. There is no overarching formula as to which designs are right or wrong and the most important thing is to thoroughly map the requirements and context in which the typeface will be used. This will very much be determined by how expressive or functional it should be, what it should look like, and in which digital environments, operating systems and screen resolutions it will be used. 06. Finding a sweet spot Considering which required writing systems will be needed at an early stage is also paramount. After all, it would be a shame to pick a font family that looks good, but doesn’t cover all the script systems that the brand will need to communicate in its other markets. It’s possible to pair or match a Latin font in another script system, but at the risk of diluting the brand’s expression. The nature of a script font requires several variants of each character if it is to reach its full potential, as with Dalton Maag's brand font for the Rio OlympicsIn a nutshell, picking the right brand font should come from discussing emotional features, visual language, technical, linguistic and logistic requirements with the brand. If possible, you should also liaise not only with the client’s design and marketing departments, but also with IT and legal, as each team often has different or additional needs. Ultimately, the sweet spot where brand expression and functionality meets is where you’ll find the right typeface for your brand. This article originally appeared in Computer Arts issue 267. Buy it here. Related articles: 20 perfect font pairings Is no branding the best way to get attention? How to craft a brand voice View the full article

Being chained to a desk is hardly the most creative environment. That's why professional concept artist Darren Yeow created the phenomenally popular Nomad Art Satchel Kickstarter back in 2014 to help fellow creatives get out of the door. Now he's back with two new artists' products to build on this success. In the years since launching the Nomad Art Satchel on Kickstarter – a campaign that raised over AU$125,000 – Yeow has been busy building his team and rebranding Nomad (due to trademarking concerns) as Etchr Lab, with co-founder Simon Frisby. With this company, the pair have more resources on hand to create their new Kickstarter products: the Etchr Art Satchel and the Etchr Field Case. The satchel can switch from a backpack mode to a sling/messenger modeWith a team of four across Australia and the US, Yeow and Frisby have leant on their team's expertise to design and manufacture the new products. The development of the Etchr Art Satchel and Etchr Field cases was felt to be a timely improvement. "Like many first-time products, the original Nomad Art Satchel was developed on a shoestring budget while Darren (the sole operator) was still working full-time as a freelance concept artist," says Frisby. The team knew that the original Nomad Art Satchel had some shortcomings to overcome and that they could deliver a quality satchel that can provide artists with an art bag and a general bag in one. "Aside from just wanting to deliver a better art satchel, we wanted to set the foundations so that we can continue to deliver specially designed carry products that make it easier for artists to get out into the world and do what they do best," Frisby adds. The Field Case is a more compact satchel to help artists get off the beaten pathThe biggest improvement of the new Art Satchel is that it has more space to store art tools and general items. Its redesigned interior system also keeps its contents safely in place, plus there's built-in storage for laptops and drawing tablets. "Overall, this product has just taken the best of the Nomad Art Satchel and levelled-up in terms of functionality, design and quality," says Frisby. "We like to think the functionality and storage capability of our Art Satchel will make it easier for artists to get out into the world and make more art." Although small, the Field Case still has impressive storage capabilitiesThe Kickstarter pledges for these new satchels are due to go live in the next 24 hours. To find out more about Etchr and its products, head over to the Etchr site. On there you'll also find a link to sign up to the company's mailing list so you can get first dibs on early bird specials for these Kickstarter projects. If the products hit their fundraising target, backers can expect to receive their Art Satchels and Field Cases in time for Christmas. Related articles: 10 traditional art tools for August 6 best digital art tools of 2017 so far Tools of the experts: Eva-Lotta Lamm View the full article

Drone manufacturer DJI announced Monday it was launching a bug bounty program to reward researchers who find vulnerabilities in its drones. View the full article

It’s back-to-school season, so this month’s round-up is bursting with the best hardware and software for graphic designers, to help you hit the ground running. Get Adobe Creative CloudAs usual, we’ve also got a brilliant collection of new design books, Photoshop brushes, actions and styles to help you work faster, more efficiently and more creatively. You'll also find a new Kindle version of cracking design title, Design Genius: The Ways and Workings of Creative Thinkers – which is our book of the month. So read on for our pick of the best graphic design tools for August... 01. Microsoft Surface Book We’ll open with some hardware... If you’re looking for a new laptop for work, freelance or study, the Surface Book is our pick of the year so far for designers. Aside from being packed with technological innovations, it's an all-round fantastic device The Surface Book is powerful, boasts a fantastic screen and an excellent keyboard. Best of all, it's extremely flexible thanks to its detachable screen with multi-touch display – which you can use as a digital sketchbook. Read our full Surface Book review for more details. 02. Dell XPS 15 If a Surface Book isn’t your thing, try the Dell XPS 15. A truly stunning laptop, it features a gorgeous, virtually borderless ‘InfiniteEdge’ display at Full HD resolution, has a blazing fast CPU and a decent battery life too. And if you spec it up you can get a 4K display with multi-touch, turning it into a portable sketchbook (although you’ll need a Dell stylus as well). The best laptops for graphic design03. The Visual History of Type The Visual History of Type is a great read for typophiles $85/£60 Paul McNeil’s comprehensive survey of the major typefaces produced since the advent of printing is a must-read for anyone with a love of type. Each of the 320-plus typefaces comes with a brief history and description of its key characteristics, making the book a cracking reference – and a welcome addition to any studio shelf. 04. Kyle’s Ultimate Concept Brushes Bulk up your brush library with these top-class Photoshop brushes$18 There are 150 Photoshop brushes for hair, fur, rain, smoke, foliage, clouds and textures of all kinds and prices in this huge set of excellent concept brushes from illustrator Kyle Webster. Suitable for Photoshop CS5, CS6 and Photoshop CC, the brush set will also be updated several times a year with new free tools. 05. Design Genius: The Ways and Workings of Creative Thinkers Design Genius is our most anticipated book of the month$44.95/£32.99 Celebrating the creative thought processes of 69 leading artists, designers, creative agencies, animators, illustrators and typographers, Design Genius shines a light on a number of key design techniques from a who’s who collection of creatives – from Ken Garland to Morag Myerscough, Malika Favre, Crispin Finn, Jean Jullien and more. Structured with chapters that include the business of creativity, thinking in images, form and shape, and more, the book offers in-depth discussions with the creatives featured, while inspiring visuals provoke and engage. Design Genius is a must-read for anyone with an interest in design and problem-solving, at any level. 06. The Complete Mockup Templates Toolbox If you're looking for a template to mock up your designs, you'll find thousands of options in this bundle$29 As any good designer knows, presenting your design work to clients is often as important as the design itself. However, creating a mockup can be incredibly time-consuming. So step up Design Cuts’ Complete Mockup Templates Toolbox bundle. Containing thousands of popular mockup templates and scene creator items, it covers everything from apparel, stationery, packaging, 3D renders, animated mockups, branding, paper, print, tech/screens, rooms, frames, posters, wine bottle – the list goes on... And it’ll set you back just $29. 07. Explosion Photoshop action Quickly add an explosion effect with this Photoshop action $6 This bargain Photoshop action gives you the ability to add a powerful explosion effect to your images and designs in just one click. Suitable for use with Photoshop CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6 and CC+, the results are adjustable. For your fee you’ll get a photoshop action file, brush file and a handy help file. 08. Lettering and Font ProCreate Brushes These Procreate brushes have been designed for hand-lettering$12 If you’re into lettering, take a look at these 13 brushes for Procreate. Created especially for hand-lettering – for script fonts in particular – the brushes come with a detailed PDF instruction guide, and you can try one of the brushes free before you buy. You can even use them to create commercial work. 09. Golden Type Photoshop style Add some liquid gold to your designs$3 Get some gold in your life with this smooth gold Photoshop style. It’s quick and easy to apply it to your favourite fonts – rounded bold fonts work best, but you can experiment with any weight or style. 10. Less is More: Limited Colour Graphics in Design Less is More, edited by Viction Workshop, explores the power of simplicity$45/£29.95 We’ll end our back-to-school round-up of the month’s best graphic design tools with Less is More, a fascinating exploration of the power of a limited colour palette. Overflowing with stunning showcased examples from across the spectrum of design – from book covers to packaging – it’s perfect for those times when you need a little inspiration. Related articles: How to master colour theory Best laptops for Photoshop 9 iPad Pro apps that make the most of Apple Pencil View the full article

Stock art brings design projects to life. Having the right image is important, and having access to great stock photos and vectors makes it easy to create the visuals you want. For a limited time, you can get a lifetime subscription to Stock-Graphics for just $29 (approx £23)! Stock-Graphics is packed full of perfect images just waiting to be used in your next project. There are tons of assets, from one-of-a-kind vectors to a huge collection of editable images waiting to be used as you see fit. There are more than 13,500 photos and 2,900 vectors, with new content being added every month. Download as many images as you need and put them to use in all of your projects. A lifetime subscription to Stock-Graphics usually runs at $4,999, but you can get full access on sale now for just $29 (approx £23). That's a massive 99% saving off the full retail price for an essential asset for any designer, so grab this deal while you can! 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. There are even top competitions like the popular iPad Pro Giveaway. 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. Plus, you can get in touch with any feedback at: deals@creativebloq.com View the full article

With digital art, anything is possible. Whether you're learning how to draw using Photoshop tutorials or you're already a digital pro, master your art and you can create anything you can imagine. The following artists prove that nothing is out off limits with a humble tablet and some decent software. 01. Alyn Spiller Spiller's Northern Kingdom painting was inspired by the Aurora Borealis Alyn Spiller is a concept artist and illustrator who specialises in environment art. He’s been in the industry for over six years, during which time he has worked with clients such as Cryptozoic Entertainment and Fantasy Flight Games. He took inspiration from the Northern Lights when creating the colour scheme for his Northern Kingdom painting (above). "The sky lanterns were a late addition – I think they create a nice contrast of warm and cool colours,” he says. 02. Dang My Linh My Linh has been focusing on her portrait style Dang My Linh is a Vietnamese concept artist based in the USA. Recently, she has been refining her portrait style. “I focus on observing people around me, the way light hits their face and changes colour,” she says. She painted the two figures above at the same time, with the aim of creating a series of portraits. "I was keen to use a new style that was different from what I’d done before," she says. 03. Tara Phillips Phillips' portrait of Game of Thrones' Brienne of Tarth More often that not, you'll find Tara Phillips hunched at her desk working on a digital portrait or two with a cup of tea and a good soundtrack playing in the background. "I find inspiration from a lot of different areas, be it photography, films, books, 18th-19th century paintings, or even just an adventure outdoors," she says. The freelance illustrator loves to play with what she called "natural supernaturalism" in her works, evoking the surreal, mystery, nostalgia and reflection through her classical imagery. 04. Finnian MacManus MacManus has worked on some major blockbuster movies Finnian MacManus' explorations of – among other things – architecture, history, art, design and science fiction all inform his work. Currently working at 20th Century Fox, he has recently contributed to Star Wars: Rogue One, Pacific Rim 2 and Transformers: The Last Knight. His tips for working as a concept artist in the film industry? "No matter how skilled you are, be humble about your work, always respond well to critique, learn from those around you, and be generous in helping others. Your attitude will go a very long way in this small industry, where you regularly reunite with past colleagues." 05. Kenn Yap CMYK was Yap's first time painting a face to this level of realism At the age of 17, Kenn Yap moved from his hometown of Kuala Lumpur to Singapore to pursue his love of art. Freelancing as a concept artist and illustrator with a speciality in sci-fi and fantasy art, he has been strongly influenced by science fiction like Ghost in the Shell, Akira and Syd Mead. "I find it difficult to describe my own style much in the same way it is difficult to describe one's own handwriting," he admits. Yap's CMYK (above) was his first time painting a face that looked that realistic. "I was caught up in the character and got carried away," he says. 06. Alayna Danner St Levin is Danner's interpretation of a steampunk city Alayna Danner (formerly Alayna Lemmer) is a digital artist based in Seattle, Washington, who works mainly on video games, board games and CCGs. "My favourite thing to paint is environments," she says. "I love to draw people and characters too, but there is just something about painting wispy clouds and mountains. I am lucky enough to live in the Seattle area, which is surrounded by gorgeous mountains and the Puget Sound, so there is inspiration all around me." 07. Sergio Mancinelli Mancinelli's Pier: "Before I start a drawing I spend some time on the composition to structure it on simple geometrical shapes," he says Sergio Mancinelli pulls most of his inspiration from comics, and attended the Italian Comix School in Naples for four years. Storytelling is his passion, along with his effortless graphic lines. "My main influences are from movies. I often ask myself what lead the director chose for specific frames and what they wanted to convey with them, in order to understand how to use these ideas in my works," he says. "I'm specifically passionate about animation film where I find all the features more significant to me, such as dynamic, simple yet powerful shapes, and emotional chromatic choices." 08. AJ Frena Frena created Ragged Wood with acrylic on watercolour paper, and finished it with Photoshop AJ Frena is an illustrator who focuses on surreal imagery, most of which feature animals and various forms of wildlife. Using both traditional and digital media, Frena combines realism with the abstract and fine art with elements of pop culture. Born and raised in north Texas, Frena studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York City before moving to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Clients include Nike, Sony Pictures, Studio 8, Disney, Marvel, DC, Honolulu Magazine and more. 09. Simon Cowell Cowell's Swamp Thing is a forest-style monster held together with magic No, not that one. Originally hailing from Sydney, Australia, Simon Cowell first explored fantasy art in the original Half-Life’s world editor. Since then he’s tinkered in 3D and traditional art, and is now a freelance concept artist. "From an early age I was fascinated with creating. As I grew I experimented with many means of creativity, ranging from sculpting and drawing to digital animation and graphic design," Cowell says. "I’d wanted to make a forest-style monster for a long time," he says of Swamp Thing (above). "I imagined something perhaps created from the woods and foliage, and held together by magic." 10. Ricardo Ow Drake tells a David and Goliath story, but with dragons Having begun his career as a 3D artist, Ricardo Ow begun to focus on illustration. “It’s the perfect marriage between software and artistry,” he reveals. He is currently based in Vancouver, Canada and has worked on AAA video games, mobile games, concept art, T-shirt designs and illustrations for tabletop game publications. Ow's Drake painting (above) is a ‘David vs Goliath’ dragon story. "To spice things up and suggest scale, I decided to include a human rider. I imagined a world where humans had tamed a smaller species of dragons to stand a chance against the bigger and more menacing drakes," he explains. Like this? Read these... Top fantasy artists to follow on Instagram 8 inspiring digital art portfolios and why they work 6 best digital art tools of 2017 so far View the full article

These days, building websites or apps that attract and retain customers has become somewhat of a science. User experience designers can be likened to architects. Like the architect who builds your home, a UX team builds a comprehensive blueprint, which outlines every single detail of the site's features and functionality. But it's not a one-shot deal. Getting to an intuitive and engaging user interaction requires many steps. Here are top 10 tips to help you deliver an amazing interactive experience for your users. 01. Design for the user, really Fantasy, where Irene Pereyra worked, used colourful infographics to guide users through many facts in a fun way in Civil War 150 Back when online interaction was still in its infancy, and not much thought had been given to whom we were designing for, users were all too willing to spend their time learning the interaction required to complete tasks on websites. If users were confused, people often assumed they just weren't tech savvy or well-informed on how to navigate the internet. As more and more websites, mobile devices and tablets started popping up, users weren't as willing or patient to 'learn' on their own. Nowadays, you'll see more users becoming frustrated and even angry when they feel a product, application or website is substandard – and rightfully so. It's tempting to design with your own preferences and tastes in mind. But that won't help users complete tasks on the site if they have a whole different set of preferences and needs. Think about what users want to do and help them to complete those tasks in the easiest and most intuitive way possible. Are they browsing? Searching? Gaming? Watching video? Trying to complete a task? Looking for specific content? It's the UX team's job to look at the entire experience holistically and make sure that users' needs are always met. 02. Do your homework Listen and absorb. The more conversations you have with clients, the better informed you'll be. Dive deep into every piece of documentation, research their field, examine all content with a fine-tooth comb, understand the client's goals, document thoroughly all of the client's wishes (no matter how small) and talk to as many people across as many departments as possible. Another crucial part of listening comes from doing a thorough analysis of what competitors are doing in the same space. Are there any innovators that you can learn from? Have they made any mistakes you want to avoid? Is there one universal component that ties all of them together? Were there any missed opportunities? The types of sites you may look at during this analysis phase can vary dramatically. Looking at cat food sites when designing an application for audio equipment can be helpful as a reference as the user behaviour could well be the same for both. You can learn valuable lessons from UX best practices across completely different industries and form factors. 03. Be an advocate for the user Anton & Irene will present a talk and a workshop at Generate London in September We often think of the user as our client, though it's not entirely true. In any project, there are sets of business objectives that need to be met and it's the UX designer's responsibility to meet those objectives, while at the same time informing the client about the user's needs. That's why the greatest digital projects are often those where there is a perfect equilibrium between the client's objectives and the user's needs. Sit on that fence, and balance well. 04. Forget about 'Nancy', think user types Personas are vital when it comes to structuring the content. Look at all the content holistically and think about what people are trying to accomplish. Doing this helps prioritise the content and allows the site to be structured around the user's goals. But traditional personas – "Nancy, who is 28-35 years old, drives an economy car, has a four-year-old PC she primarily uses for email..." – won't offer much insight into the user's actual behaviour. Instead, group basic User Types into categories according to what they want to do on the site such as 'browsing', 'comparison shopping', 'killing time', 'looking for specific content'. These groupings will provide you with much more useful insights about why users come to sites or applications, the context of use (where and how), what content they're seeking and how much time they have. In turn, you'll be better equipped to design the website or application around their behaviour patterns, thus making their fictional names, ages, professions and income levels irrelevant. 05. Remember that less really is more The 20 Things I Learned About the Web and Browsers project reinvented the experience of reading a book for online users You may think this is obvious and doesn't need further explanation. But most sites and applications still manage to get it wrong. The key is to cut down tasks required by users to the bare minimum. Get rid of all the clutter that doesn't add value – or worse, distracts and confuses the user. Know exactly how you want your users to travel through your site or app, then guide them as if you were holding their hand through the entire process. Again, users want things to be as simple, worry-free and fast as possible. If they can see what's coming next before even clicking on something, they'll be happy. Next page: five more steps to an engaging user experience 06. Pretend you're working for Fisher Price Fantasy (where Irene Pereyra was working) and Google created Messages for Japan following the 9.0 earthquake that struck there, featuring big buttons Fantasy's CEO David Martin had this saying, "All interaction should feel like Fisher Price." In other words, when you make things bulky and oversized (like most children's toys) and design digital experiences for 'fat fingers', it will automatically be easier to use. So how do we translate this into designing engaging and interactive user experiences? Rather than using the standard input fields, radio buttons or checkboxes, try using big buttons, jumbo sliders and giant input fields. You'll see user engagement increase and bounce rates drop. Isn't that what all UX designers strive for? Labelling is also extremely important. Whenever you ask users to provide information, try to use cheeky, simple, and to-the-point terminology so that it will feel less like a hassle. The result will be that users will feel more emotionally compelled to complete the process. And that could mean a boost in signups, web traffic, online sales and ROI. 07. Take cues from tablets Fantasy teamed up with CBSNews.com to create an elegant and visually rich online news experience for viewers of American news program 60 Minutes, inspired by tablet app design Because you're already limited by the amount of real estate on tablets and smartphones, the need to simplify interactions is even greater. Ask yourself if your design would work on a tablet. If the answer is yes, you already have the two basic building blocks in place for a strong user experience: clear hierarchy and intuitive way finding. 08. Design your UX Adding placeholder text for copy next to some grey boxes underneath a row of navigation links does not constitute design. Visual hierarchy, content grouping, spacing, positioning and size are all things that should be solved in wireframes before a visual designer even sets eyes on it. If in your wireframes you're working within the actual site or application width, and 12px text in your template is actually 12px in design, you're on track. 09. Collaborate with all departments User experience design alone is not enough to make great work and it will surely not provide all the answers. Listen, collaborate and become the liaison between the client, the user and the rest of your internal team. Only then can you create the best possible experience for the user while still meeting all business objectives. Remember, you're not alone. UX designers, visual designers and interactive developers all have a hand in making a project a success – it truly is a collaborative and multi-disciplinary effort. When it's a shared passion and everybody pitches in with their level of expertise and voices their opinions, magic happens. 10. Don't grade your own homework The chance of you hitting the bullseye with your first shot is very slim, so be prepared to design iteratively as you gather more information about the performance of your site or application. You should only do quantitative analysis on your own work. Tracking the performance and understanding where people are dropping off is extremely important and should be done in-house. But a third party should always conduct the qualitative user data analysis so you can truly have an objective testing environment. Doing this in-house is much like grading your own homework and won't give you the depth of truth and insight that you're looking for. If you want real objective answers, let someone else do the user testing and take those learnings into your next iteration. This article was first published in 2011. Irene Pereyra is now half of New York-based design studio Anton & Irene, who will be hosting a workshop at Generate London on 20 September that will teach you how to quickly come up with a solution to a client brief, and create a convincing presentation that sells your idea, within just a couple of hours. Anton & Irene will also talk about their experience on how to establish a good work/life balance while producing creative work for both. Reserve your spot today. If you buy a combined workshop and conference pass, you will save £95. View the full article