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Making a logo should be a process of reduction (but not always simplicity), underpinned by a clarity of purpose and a conviction in execution. The LogoArchive project explores how designers have produced new and original logos over half a century, and conveyed an abundance of ideas through an economy of form. In these logo design tips and tricks, we'll share what we've learned. 01. Combine ideas Try to find a common ground When working two ideas together, look for commonalities of form. Although the awkward and the ugly do have their place in logo design, correlation, rather than dissonance, often delivers a more universally satisfactory outcome. 02. Make static forms dynamic Repeated shapes imply movement Use direction, pattern and repetition to give static forms a sense of motion and visual interest. This could be in the use of diagonal cuts or arrows, in the radial arrangement of objects, in the changing weight of lines, an increase in size, or a transition from one form to another. 03. Add layers Create designs with more than meets the eye Use line weight and negative space or the density of local objects to reveal secondary images. You can use this to build layers within a logo to create a visual hierarchy. This element of discovery and surprise has value for the audience, and the difficulty of its execution will help to differentiate it and secure memorability. 04. Study visual language Consider your demographic. Are they specialists or the wider consumer market? Look for connections between brand activities and form. Take the time to understand your audience’s perceptions and associations. The Idiosyncratic Look for themes in your particular field Study the visual language of the industry you’re working in. Does it have consistent and specific principles or symbols you can draw upon? Architecture, for example, has a quite a few that lend themselves well to the graphic. Space, structure, light, shade, flow and tension provide great points from which to begin constructing a logo that can engage a specific group. Many of these are recurring concepts, yet designers still manage to construct something new, distinctive and interesting from these elements. The Universal Some symbols smash the language barrier Arrows to imply speed and directness, globes to suggest the international, eyes to convey the observational. These are viable tools to communicate universal ideas. Although communicatively blunt, they can be an inclusive foundation from which to build on. Distinction can come in the way you render these, or pair them with an image, letter or form. The best examples of this type are often the product of good observational skills and an ability to recognise commonalities. This can be acquired by taking the time to really look at, rather than just browsing, tools like LogoArchive. 05. Use negative space Sometimes you say it best when you say nothing at all Consider negative space as a valuable object within your logo. Focus on the space you’ve created in and around your forms. Does it provide balance or an interesting contrast to the fill? Is it being used to add an additional image? Consider how negative space may become more prominent on screen or diminished across different substrates. Recognise and leverage this changing state. 06. Embrace the abstract Lateral thinking conjures up unique and memorable logos Logos do not need to be explicit in the ideas they convey. Abstraction frequently crops up on LogoArchive. This type of logo can be used to set a tone and convey a feeling. Look for imagery related to the business and industry, crop it down, make a pattern, reinterpret it. It doesn’t matter what people see within it. Leaving room for interpretation has value. People love puzzles, and having opportunities to make connections and draw their own conclusions. This is particularly useful in the art space. The visceral rather than the intellectual, and the subjective over the objective are also useful considerations, and are effective within the right context. 07. Find relevant symbols Your logo is free to stand on the shoulders of giants When it comes to representational forms, look to the brief. What are you being asked to articulate? How are these elements best expressed? Finding the right tool to communicate a particular idea is paramount. Logo is perhaps the most limited medium in today’s multimedia world, but still has the capacity to convey something of a brand. Is there a story to tell? Are there historical symbols or imagery associated with the brand? Are there values, history or processes unique to the brand? For broader brand identity programmes, consider how a logo can add to, complement or reinforce other ideas and assets. 08. Include contrast Opposites attract, even in logo design Consider combining opposing elements: the smooth and the sharp; the thick and the thin; the static and the dynamic; the positive and the negative; the abrupt and the transitional; the reductive and the ornate. The right contrast can be very striking, and draw impact and memorability from the simplest forms. 09. Multiply elements A single shape can be morphed into a lot of designs Use forms to build other forms. Duality and multiplicity – the creation of one image through the repetition or union of others – are good ways to draw distinction and interest from simple forms. Work together image and type or draw image from type. Use negative space and a commonality of form to work ideas together in a natural and distinctive way. Keep to just two ideas and look for a comfortable visual balance and a communicative clarity. 10. Make the most of sparse forms Remember the classic design mantra: less is more Use line weight and the density and grouping of objects to create a sense of light and shade, depth and structure. Cut out shadows and draw highlights to create a partial form but a complete image. Use illusory contours to imply rather than explicitly define shapes. Get more from less wherever possible. 11. Use fine details Make the most of modern high-definition tools Modern reproduction techniques and high-definition screens mean that designers can now have finer lines, closer shapes and more complex interwoven forms. Be open to using these. Although worth considering, scalability is a bit of a lingering and antiquated concept. Many of LogoArchive’s posts have very fine lines. Within the right context, they can convey detail, or deliver contrast to and emphasise heavier forms. Consider how you might scale up a logo while retaining its fine lines. This article was originally published in Computer Arts magazine. Subscribe now. Related articles: 10 of the best logos ever 5 big-brand logos that pass the silhouette test Logo design trends for 2018 View the full article

WordPress is a one of the most powerful tool for building professional websites, but making the most of it requires a great theme to really show off what the platform can do. This deal delivers lifetime access to professionally made, responsive themes from Dessign for just $29 (approx. £21)! The team at Dessign are professionals when it comes to crafting WordPress themes, and you can make the most of their work with this lifetime subscription. They have already put together over 170 themes that provide the flexibility and style you're after for your site, and new themes are added regularly so you'll never be left looking for more. These designs are SEO optimised and include XML files so you can make the themes your own. You can get a lifetime’s worth of WordPress themes on sale for 71% off the retail price. That makes your total just $29 (approx. £21). It's a great offer for a must-have resource for any web designer, so grab this deal today! Related articles: 40 brilliant WordPress tutorials Power a blog using the WordPress API 21 top-quality WordPress portfolio themes View the full article

Google went head-to-head with Apple yesterday as it launched the first tablet to run Chrome OS. Pitched as a rival to the iPad, the Acer Chromebook Tab 10 was unveiled a day before Apple's Education Event in Chicago. Apple is expected to reveal its own affordable, education-focused tablet range at its imminent conference. Not one to be left behind, Google's Chrome OS-powered tablet goes toe-to-toe with its competitor on both performance and price. Just like the iPad, the Tab 10 boasts a 9.7-inch, 2048 x 1536 display. It also comes with cameras that face both the front and rear, an OP1 processor, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. A USB-C port, headphone jack and microSD slot complete the package. With an estimated nine hours of battery life, the Tab 10 is perfectly suited to riding out a whole school day. One of the Tab 10's standout features is that it also has stylus support. This comes in the shape of a built-in Wacom EMR stylus that, unlike the Apple Pencil, doesn't require charging. It's a canny move, especially considering that the Tab 10 supports Adobe Illustrator Draw. The Chromebook tablets are being pitched as the perfect tools for schools Priced at just $329, the Tab 10 might be slightly more expensive than some Chromebooks, which tend to start at less than $300. For schools already used to working with Chrome OS that are after a tablet, this is still an attractive price. And it's also exactly the same price as Apple's most affordable iPad. It remains to be seen if Apple will release a device that nudges ahead of the Tab 10 at its conference, but in the meantime we can expect to see Google's tablet roll out in North America during April, with a worldwide release lined up for May. Related articles: The best cheap Wacom tablet deals for March 2018 The best drawing tablet: our pick of the best graphics tablets in 2018 10 essential tablet accessories View the full article

Buy Dinosaur Art II on Amazon Mastering how to draw dinosaurs is a mix of artistry and scientific accuracy. On the one hand, scientists have discovered clues as to what these prehistoric beasts looked like from fossils and other evidence. But when it comes to texture and colour, we have no way of knowing for sure, so guesswork and imagination must also play a part. This is Steve Wright's second volume dedicated to dinosaur art In this way, a discipline known as 'palaeoart' has grown up over the years, working in a feedback loop with palaeontologists to bring their discoveries to the wider public through books, magazines and science papers. How to draw mythical creatures Steve Wright’s second book devoted to dinosaur art showcases the work of 10 major names in this niche field. Alongside the art itself, lengthy Q&As with each artist get to the bottom of how they carry out their research, their views on current scientific controversies, and the processes they use to create their art. Features work from top artists in this niche field If your knowledge of palaeontology is limited, you might get a bit lost: there’s just a short glossary that’s not particularly comprehensive. Yet anyone who loves dino art – or just dinosaurs in general – will find this a fascinating read. Buy Dinosaur Art II on Amazon This article was originally published in ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists. Buy issue 156 or subscribe. View the full article

When I got the call from ImagineFX’s editor to draw a person – a life model – for the cover illustration, I was filled with energy and excitement. But the brief came with a hurdle: no nudity could grace the cover! I decided I would take on the challenge. 10 steps to improve your figure drawing Normally, I teach life drawing at university, but for this commission I planned to record the stages live at my first private figure-drawing workshop. I also decided to work with classic butcher’s paper (newsprint) and charcoal. Read on to find out how I created a figure drawing cover for ImagineFX issue #144. 01. Start drawing in charcoal Some of the designs were considered too risqué Time was tight for this particular commission, so I got scribbling right away. Above is a sample of some of the 22 quick charcoal poses I came up with, using a willow charcoal stick. I planned to add some ornaments to cover the more revealing poses, but they were still deemed too risqué for the cover. Eventually, the central figure was chosen, with a request to lift the head up. 02. Block in simple shapes Sometimes a plan comes together in ways you don't expect I had hired my go-to model and was all set, but on the day of the session she fell sick and was replaced last-minute by a model I’d never worked with before. These are the times an artist must dig deep for inner strength. I showed her the approved thumbnail, she struck the pose and I went to work blocking in the simple shapes with a willow charcoal stick. 03. Refer to human figure anatomy Click the icon to see the full size image During the class, I was also teaching my students about the foundation of the figure. Above you can see a study sheet drawn live during the class, which not only helps the students understand my workings, but also keeps my anatomical knowledge fresh. My motto is: Learn this stuff off by heart, then bury it in your subconscious. 04. Use 'gestural hand' for expressive lines A 'gestural hand' pencil grip makes artists draw from the shoulder To create more expressive lines I used ‘gestural hand’. This is when you hold the sharpened willow charcoal stick underhand, rather than using the ‘detail hand’ we use for writing. This enables me to draw from the shoulder rather than the stiff confines of the wrist. At this point I was refining the simple shapes and using the broad side of the charcoal for bigger tones. 05. Add solid lines with a charcoal pencil This unique pencil doesn't need sharpening Once I had found my basic shapes and proportions, I began to draw more solid lines. I used a charcoal pencil alongside willow charcoal – it's just a more dense version of the same material. A graphite pencil it would have been too shiny and grey. The pencil you can see in the image above is a ‘peel-off’ pencil that generally doesn’t need sharpening if you work big – you just peel the outer paper layer upward to reveal more of the point. It's very handy and clean to use. The best pencils for designers and artists 06. Draw without copying A model break is the perfect time for some improvising While the model was taking a break, I could work on the drawing without the old trap of copying exactly what’s in front of me. I used the time to rub into the charcoal shapes with my fingers, thumbs and a tissue. I also worked some broad gestural shapes into the background, to add movement to the figure. 07. Blend the connecting muscles Slight adjustments stop you getting bogged down in detail When the model returned, she asked if she could change her hand position for better balance. This was no problem because I rarely work on parts in detail and had barely sketched the hands. The thing with life drawing is that the model will shift slightly here and there. This isn’t entirely a bad thing, as it stops you from getting caught up in detail. With the drawing almost done, I started to study and blend the connecting muscles. At this point I was starting to consider style by making the lines more gestural. 08. Add contrast Time to deploy some artistic licence I added some texture to the background with crunched-up tissue, making the flesh appear softer by contrast. Contrast is something the eye always seeks, and we artists can add it as we please. The same goes for line: I placed thicker lines on the edge of the figure that was in shadow. 09. Pull out highlights with a kneaded eraser Use a putty eraser to pull out highlights It was time to give the drawing some love. I used a kneaded eraser to pull out some highlights – kneaded erasers are terrific because you can shape them like putty (they’re sometimes sold as Putty Erasers). Using the kneaded eraser also gave me the chance to carve into the neck and face to achieve the exotic look I wanted. At this stage the face no longer resembled the original life model at all. 10. Finish with an electric eraser Time to charge up the electric eraser Finally, for those stubborn areas that were clinging on to the grey charcoal I used an electric eraser. This tool is more commonly used on professional illustration board, which can take all kinds of punishment, but with a light touch it can also work well with butcher’s paper. This article was originally published in ImagineFX magazine issue 144. Buy it here. Related articles: Draw Faces in 15 Minutes 10 steps to improve your figure drawing Drawing techniques: 7 fundamentals of pencil drawing View the full article

Android is the world's most-used mobile OS – so what are the best Android apps to download if you're a designer, illustrator or artist? With increasingly powerful Android devices entering the marketplace, there's more choice than ever before for designers looking to create while on-the-move. But the Google Play store can be a bewildering place to attempt to separate the wheat from the chaff. That's why we've tried out a vast number of the best Android apps for designers and whittled our list down to our top 20. Whether you're looking to create vector graphics with your S Pen on a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, or sketch out a wireframe on your Google Pixel 2 XL, there will be an Android app to download here for you. Adobe launched its vector app Adobe Illustrator Draw on Android back in 2016, but even now it is virtually the only credible way to create vector drawings on a mobile device (unless you opt for a Windows-toting tablet). Illustrator Draw will be familiar to anyone used to its desktop sibling, and it doesn't scrimp on features, with configurable pen tips, layers, merge options, and more. Of course, Adobe hopes you will use Illustrator Draw with a Creative Cloud subscription, and that is really how to get the most out of it, with the ability to instantly send your work to Illustrator and Photoshop CC, license Adobe Stock images in the app, and publish direct to Behance. Download Adobe Illustrator Draw Autodesk is more renowned for its class-leading 3D applications, but in Sketchbook it has a powerful mainstream drawing app with arguably the most natural drawing experience of all. Features include 170 customisable brushes, full PSD layer and blending support, and switchable predictive stroke which transforms your hand-drawn lines and shapes into crisp, precise forms. Paired with a top-spec Android device – especially one with a stylus – Sketchbook is probably the best free-drawing app around. Download Sketchbook An app that caters more for big statements than subtleties, Photoshop Mix lets you cut out and combine elements from different images, blend layers and make adjustments to your creations on your Android device. PS Mix majors on ease-of-use, and it live-syncs with Photoshop CC meaning that when you make a change on your phone, it’ll show up instantly on your desktop. Usefully, you can take advantage of all the CC benefits with an Adobe Photography Plan, which saves a fair bit over a full Creative Cloud subscription. Download Adobe Photoshop Mix Developer Sean Brakefield completely overhauled his SVG vector graphics app Infinite Design in 2016, and with the very latest updates it is now a real alternative to Adobe's dominant Illustrator Draw. Infinite Design, as the name suggests, features an infinite canvas (pan, zoom, or rotate), but also infinite layers, infinite path editing, and infinite undo and redo with a history slider. It has myriad layer options; a transform tool to translate, scale, rotate, flip, distort, and skew; automatic shape detection; grids for reference or snapping; but its standout feature is the ability to create 3D images with five perspective tools. Also, a neat addition for users of Android apps on Chromebooks is the baked-in keyboard shortcuts. Download Infinite Design Photoshop Sketch is just one of many sketching apps in our countdown, but Adobe's offering will gravitate to the top of any Creative Cloud subscriber's list due to the benefits of concomitance that belonging to Adobe's suite of tools provides. However, it is a great sketching app in its own right, with features including blend modes, perspective grids and natural drawing tools, plus the ability to turn any photo into a brush using Capture CC from within the app. Download Adobe Photoshop Sketch Canva has been around as an online design tool since 2012 but has only very recently made the move to Android – so recently, in fact, that the only press image we could get hold of is the iPad version. The Android flavour is near-identical in terms of interface and features, which are excellent and plentiful respectively. More of a full graphic design suite than a cut-down photo editor, Canva can be used to create everything from logos to web mockups with access to a huge library of templates, icons, photos and fonts, many of which are free although 'premium' assets require an in-app purchase. Download Canva Mockups and wireframes have never been easier to create than with Adobe Comp. Using natural drawing gestures with your finger or stylus, you can sketch out rough layouts and Adobe Comp will transform it into a crisp, professional mockup. Brilliant for sketching on-the-fly during an ad hoc meeting or presentation, you can pull in vector shapes, images, colours and text styles, and then send your comps to Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign or Muse to finish on your desktop in an instant. Download Adobe Comp CC If computer-aided drafting is your business, Autodesk's AutoCAD app is the perfect mobile assistant. It brings your technical drawings to any Android phone or tablet, and includes the ability to view and edit 3D and 2D DWG files. The smooth and intuitive interface is perfect for the touchscreen format, and crucially for site visits you can work offline. When online, the app synchronises with AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT on your desktop to ensure a continuous workflow. AutoCAD is free to download to your phone but, as befits a serious tool, it will cost you £6/$5 per month for the Premium version and double that for AutoCAD Ultimate, which adds 100GB cloud storage and 40MB maximum file size. Buy AutoCAD Popular iOS and desktop painting app Procreate has not made the journey across to Android, but fear not – Infinite Painter is here to provide a similar-feeling experience, and arguably a better one. Over 80 brush presets are available, or you can create your own, and there are Photoshop-compatible layers and blend modes. You can create 3D images with five perspective views, and it has tools aplenty: Transform tool, Pattern tool, Liquify tool, Gradient and Pattern Fill, and you can rotate and flip the infinite canvas with ease. Download Infinite Painter If you are looking for the incredible experience of 3D painting in virtual reality… you will need Google's Tilt Brush software, a hugely expensive workstation, and an HTC Vive or similar VR headset. Paint VR is a great bit of fun, however – an app to enjoy with your Android phone and a budget/bundled headset like Google Daydream or Samsung Gear VR. OK, it's incredibly simple with a standard colour wheel and a basic set of brushes to choose from, and the painting action is very awkward, but it is strangely addictive fun trying to create with such limitations – like using MS Paint with a cheap mechanical mouse in the 1990s. Buy Paint VR Find My Font is the original font-identification software, having debuted as a desktop app into which you would import photos to discover the fonts used – or a visually similar equivalent. Turning this clever tool into a mobile app opened up its horizons and allowed type-hungry designers to snap any piece of type in the wild and instantly discover something similar for use in design projects. With a database of over 150,000 fonts, the Android app can identify connected or fragmented letters and claims to achieve accurate matching results down to a mere 20px text height. Download Find My Font Adobe Capture is a real Swiss Army Knife of design apps, helping you to turn anything you see or sketch into vectors, materials, brushes and shapes for use in your projects. Capture also uses Adobe's advance AI tech to recognise type shapes and suggest visually similar fonts, creates geometric patterns from any image, and can create colour palettes from any photo in an instant. And coupled with a Creative Cloud account, your creations are available instantly in all the Adobe desktop apps you use. Download Adobe Capture CC Paperless is a solid, simple app for Android tablets that lets you draw and paint with pencil, watercolours, feather ink, and brushes. A series of basic tools are available, including Eraser tool, Paint bucket tool and Color picker tool, and usefully you can set line thickness, size, opacity and smoothing. Paperless could not be your only drawing app, and unfortunately its last update was in 2013 which suggests it will not be developed further, and you can only export to PNG, but as a straightforward digital sketchbook it works well. Buy Paperless This basic sketching app features 12 brushes, colour picker and eraser, but the user interface is the real winner here, as Sketcher Free enjoys an excellent tool picker and the beautifully responsive drawing engine is actually the much-vaunted web-based Sketchy tool from Mr Doob. This version of Sketcher is free to download, but you can splash out $0.99/£0.80 for Sketcher Pro and enjoy additional features such as adjustable canvas size and the ability to pan/zoom. Download Sketcher Free Remember Kuler, Adobe's colour-picking app? The developer of Color Reference does, and that's why this app is perfect for those who are less than impressed by Adobe's transformation of Kuler into the browser-based Color CC. Color Reference lets you create and export colour palettes, and features the ability to select colours from imported images and a wealth of auto-generated palettes. A bit of fun is the wallpaper creator, which allows you to design wallpapers for your phone based on your colour palettes. Download Color Reference The myPantone app enables you to create colour palettes on the move, cleverly extract Pantone colours from images, and quickly look up the reference number of a Pantone colour if you're out and about. You can export palettes for use in Adobe's Creative Cloud apps (and QuarkXPress, too). At a cent shy of $8, it is expensive for an Android app (which are usually free), but with no in-app purchases to worry about and access to Pantone Colour Libraries built-in, you are getting good value. Buy myPantone The highly rated ArtFlow app is an evergreen entry in our app lists, mainly because it gets the two essential basics of interface and drawing feel so right. It is user-friendly and simple, but that does not mean childish and basic – ArtFlow is definitely a tool that professional designers will find useful. It supports resolution up to 4096×4096 pixels, and its clever ‘Palm Rejection’ feature means it will never mistake your resting hand for your sketching one. You get access to 20 tools with the free version, plus only two layers and six levels of undo, but upgrade to Pro and you'll find your toolkit stuffed with 70 brushes, infinite undo, 16 layers and much more besides. Download ArtFlow Type:Rider is a stylish platform game that also teaches you about typography. In true typographic form you control a colon, acting as a linked pair of dots, and the action is simple left, right and jump with a selection of intuitive control schemes to work from. The levels themselves are typographically themed, with the landscape made up in part of letterforms from various typefaces. As you progress through the history of typography you meet newer typefaces and get to know their letterforms, often as you tumble off the edge of them and plummet to your death. Buy Type:Rider Related articles: 10 apps for endless design inspiration The 34 best photo apps The 28 best iPhone apps for designers View the full article

As a young painter, Matisse’s subject matter of languid women, artful objects clustered about them, pretty colours and decorative fabrics all felt way too middle class and bourgeois for my young and rebellious eye. But then I discovered that it was Matisse who goaded that other 20th century master, Picasso, into his experiments with Cubism. And while Matisse may have called Picasso ‘the boss,’ Picasso referred to Matisse as ‘the magician.’ How to frame your own art Magician, he certainly was. Matisse’s handling of colour and space had cast a spell on the world of art and design and influences us to this day. But how did he do this? Matisse said that he didn’t paint a subject literally, but rather he relayed the emotion it evoked for him; a very liberating idea if, like me, you’ve ever become bogged down in realistic portrayals that ticked all of the boxes but failed to stir the soul. So let’s dive into Matisse’s world, to create a free-flowing masterpiece in his style. 01. Pick an existing sketch with Matisse potential Sketches are the raw material of the painting If you want to paint like a master artist, getting into good sketchbook habits is essential. For this painting, pick a nude study from your sketchbook. If you don’t have any, or none that are quite right, sketch a few different poses, then pick one with potential for the Matisse treatment. 02. Paint a bright layer Block out the white canvas with a bold colour Paint a thin acrylic coat of Hansa Yellow all over your canvas board and set it aside to dry. The Hansa Yellow may be eye-wateringly bright, but it will prompt you to use other colours to match its saturation and brightness to make your painting pop. 03. Sketch carelessly Sketch as fast as you can to keep it loose Working on a sheet of A2 cartridge paper, rapidly sketch your chosen form using charcoal. Try to get this new drawing to fill the paper, and to make it as carelessly as you can. It’s easy to lose your nerve at this stage, but if the work is too tight now, there will be little hope for it later. “Exactitude,” said Matisse, “is not truth.” 04. Sketch again It takes a lot of work to appear effortless Before you even get a chance to be critical of your first charcoal sketch, wipe it off with a rag or a piece of kitchen towel and start again. You can’t force the marks you need for this type of work, they have to arrive in their own time – even if they take all day. Although it’s a sublimely simple painting, Matisse was occupied with The Dream for a whole year. 05. Join the sketches Reduce the sketch to its simplest form After sketching and rubbing the figure out several times, your last drawing should be a distillation of all of the previous ones, and executed in less than 10 lines. I got this tip from the magician himself, when I visited the chapel he designed in Vence. The adjoining gallery is filled with his drawings for the Stations of the Cross; each one worked and re-worked in this manner, with progressively fewer and fewer strokes. 06. Transfer with a square Transferring takes time, but it's worth it Square up your drawing so you can transfer it onto the now-dry canvas board. It’s a painstaking but essential step to make sure you get your composition right and preserve the simplicity of your original idea. Use a grid made up of 10cm squares and transfer your image using a large, soft pencil or charcoal. 07. Paint freely Keep the painting as loose as the drawing Mix up a colour like this combination of Phthalo Green with plenty of Titanium White, and apply it to a part of the background. To help keep your brush strokes loose and expressive, use a large varnish brush with splayed hairs. It doesn’t cover properly, and as it’s too big to go neatly up to the edges and into the corners – it’s ideal! 08. Build up skin tone Turquoise takes off the pink edge Mix a pink flesh colour by using Quinacridone Magenta and a smidgin of Hansa Yellow, then Titanium White, and a tiny dab of the turquoise mix to make it look less like candy floss. Include more greens and blues to make a darker skin tone. 09. Balance your colours’ harmonies and contrasts The colours don't quite fit yet The Cadmium Red Medium across the top doesn’t quite harmonise with my pink, and really jars against the turquoise. The idea is to try to get your colours to contrast without being too different tonally. If you’re not sure if you can achieve this, try taking a picture of the colours on your phone, then desaturating the image to greys. If the main colours (the pink, yellow and turquoise here) become pretty similar greys, then their tones are similar too. 10. Add patterns Crude techniques create amazing results Take inspiration for fabric designs and patterns from other sketches, roughly painting them on and scratching out details from the wet paint using a palette knife. Your painting really can be this crude, because it’s Matisse’s signature simplified nude and colours that ultimately hold everything together. Keeping the yellow ground energises the entire composition and the Cobalt Blue, top right, echoes the bottom left. 11. Outline the figure Time to get precise Now for the tricky part! Adjust the pressure on your size 8 Filbert to try to accentuate the figure’s form in black lines without tightly delineating it. You’re aiming for a sense of rhythmic sensuality, using a line that comes and goes, not an exact design. The line should unite the figure with the whole composition. “An expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence,” is how Matisse described it. 12. Make adjustments Green highlights finish off the image Down tools and put the painting out of sight. A few days later, you can return to it with a fresh eye and renewed energy to make any necessary alterations. I adjusted the line, added more red, varied the flesh tones and highlighted the pink with a complementary lime green. There are no shadows in Matisse’s world, only colour. “Colour,” he said, “exists in itself, possessing its own beauty.” This article was originally published in Paint & Draw magazine issue 3. Buy it here. Related articles: The secret to painting like Monet Review: I Love Art acrylic painting set Paint an epic New York scene View the full article

If you've bought anything from Amazon in the past few years, you'll have probably noticed a surprising number of adult colouring books topping the best-seller lists. Once a niche, colouring books for adults are now big business, with users extolling their calming virtues. But why? How effective is art as a therapeutic technique? And does this mean artists are the best-adjusted people on the planet? How to draw animals, people and landscapes Scottish illustrator Johanna Basford, whose colouring books for grown-ups have sold over 16 million copies worldwide, attributes their popularity to two aspects: accessibility, and a nostalgic craving for non-digital activities. "I get so many emails from people in all walks of life to say the books have helped them through a tough patch," says Basford. "From stressed-out 911 call operators in the US, to teens recuperating at eating disorder centres, elderly folks struggling with Alzheimer's or new mums with post-natal depression." An illustration from Johanna Basford’s adult colouring book, Lost Ocean The therapeutic benefits of art – whether it's basic sketching, more intricate pencil drawing or painting – have long been documented. And while psychotherapists point out that colouring isn't an automatic ticket to mindfulness, they do agree that the process of art-making can be a health-enhancing practice, which positively impacts the quality of life. Cathy Malchiodi is an international expert, writer and educator in the fields of art therapy and art in healthcare. She believes that while there are times when we need professional support – be that from a therapist, doctor, mentor, friend or community as a whole – art exists as a natural remedy for many of life's challenges; loss and trauma in particular. "There isn't any one particular way that this occurs," Malchiodi says. "But many artists have used their creative process to cope with their depression or other issues. Each person has his or her own path to reparation and recovery." A quick look at the rich heritage of famous artists who have explored intense psychological themes in their work proves Malchiodi right: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Edvard Munch, Vincent van Gogh… the list goes on. Whether the process is a vent, time out or something more complex altogether, it's clear that people have long sought therapeutic participation in art. One strategy among many Darren Yeow viewed torment as almost a superpower for characters like Wolverine For concept artist Darren Yeow, it's proven useful as one of myriad mental healthcare strategies he's undertaken over the years. However, he points out that art couldn't 'fix' some serious mental health issues he was facing, which needed the guidance of a professional counsellor. Yeow was sexually abused when he was young and says that he struggled with the fallout for many years. As a child, he drew monsters and "angry, scary-looking things". He explains: "That's probably why I liked to draw Venom, Wolverine and Batman: torment was almost a superpower for those guys. When I drew them, I felt like I channelled some of that hurt out on to the paper. It was just an unconscious act of self-soothing." In his teens, Yeow turned to martial arts as a way of regulating feelings of shame and hurt, to prevent them morphing into physical violence. Everything was fine, until a few years ago when a period of significant business and personal stress brought up a torrent of latent anger. "I found that I hadn't really tackled the underlying issues," Yeow admits. "When a particularly stressful incident occurred and I couldn't recall that I had punched a hole in the wall as a result, I felt it was time I needed to seek out professional help in dealing with my emotions, before things spiralled out of control." Incarnations of Immortality, by Rebecca Yanovskaya, is based on the series by Piers Anthony There's another angle, too. As every artist knows, the process of making art isn't always relaxing. For freelancers it can be lonely stuck at home in front of a screen all day, and for all creatives it can be frustrating – as Toronto-based illustrator Rebecca Yanovskaya knows only too well. "As much as I love art-making, it brings me a certain amount of anxiety as well," she says, "because of the need to create great pieces and live up to my expectations." So what about professional art therapy? Do artists have anything to gain in a professional forum? Yanovskaya has visited an art therapist before. She remains unconvinced as to how effective art can be as a therapeutic technique for working artists. "We're immersed in art in a money-making capacity," she argues. "Therapy for us might work better if it's something far removed from what we do every day." Non-artists can still benefit Johanna’s customers find solace in her adult colouring books – in the simple pleasure of putting pen to paper However, Malchiodi thinks there can be as much value for artists as for non-artists, as long as participants are committed to the process. "If one wants another perspective, and to experience art-making in a different way, then art therapy might be helpful," she says, "especially since one of its goals is to guide the individual toward new insights and experiences that support a sense of well-being through art." For anyone thinking about getting involved, there are plenty of options. "Online art-making communities offer art-making experiences for self-exploration and self-care, rather than therapy per se," she says. "Artists who are new to the idea of making art as self-care or as self-exploration may find this approach uncomfortable at first, but give it a shot; it sometimes even provides a new direction for your own artistic style and intentions." Just remember to leave your ego well out of it, warns Yanovskaya – and Yeow agrees: "Don't turn it into a study session or illustration assignment," the artist advises. "There's no need to impress other people. Just let the stylus flow." This article originally appeared in ImagineFX issue 137; buy it here! Related articles: How to draw animals, people and landscapes 6 top mindfulness tools for creatives Can pro artists achieve mindfulness through art? View the full article

No design job is perfect. But if you're no longer being creatively challenged at work, or feel that your skills aren't being fully utilised or appreciated – or you're just not giving it your all anymore – we have good news: there's never been a better time to quit your job. 5 tips to give you the edge when job hunting You have a number of options: you could switch studios, go freelance or start your own studio. Here, we're looking at the first option – but how do you know which studios are flying right now? What if you've been in your current job for a while and your contacts books is out of date? Here are five pro tips to help you scope out the jobs landscape and decide which studio to work at next. 01. Research online You'll find all the latest news and work from the design industry on Creative Bloq "Whilst the market is far more complex than it used to be," begins Stuart Youngs, "it's still comparatively small. There are so many more ways to discover which studio's are doing interesting work through blogs, social media, magazines and industry award schemes, for example." 02. Network at events For the best way to scope out the competition, though, you need to know how to network. "We're an industry awash with events," says Youngs. "My advice is to get to them and get chatting. You'll learn and you'll connect." 03. Engage with the community "Engage in the wider creative community in any way you can," agrees The Partners' Kath Tudball. "Find your voice on social media, immerse yourself in creative culture, attend the talks, ask questions, have an opinion and share it. Get out there and talk to people." 04. Check Computer Arts' UK Studio Rankings Computer Arts' annual ranking is a hit list of potential employers Every autumn, Computer Arts polls Britain's leading creative directors and studio founders to find out which studios they've been most impressed by over the last 12 months. The results feed into its annual UK Studio Rankings Top 50, which makes for valuable reading if you're looking for a new job. Find the latest list here. 05. Put out content Don't just scope out the competition, let them see you, too. "Put out content on a daily basis on every visual platform – Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube – that's relevant to your discipline," says Reiss Hinds from BLUP. "Also, use LinkedIn and a personal blog to get your work in front of every potential new employer that your work is congruent with." This article was originally published in issue 275 of Computer Arts, the world's best-selling design magazine. Buy issue 275 here or subscribe to Computer Arts here. Related articles: 6 terrifying job interview questions tamed How to tailor your portfolio to different jobs 8 tips for coping when you hate your job View the full article

A great way to grab attention – and keep hold of it – is to create a website layout that showcases your talents from the off. Ukraine web agency Vintage's site is a great example of this, drawing you into its VR design portfolio with an eye-catching combination of a pulsating logo built from glass particles and a lovely bit of glitch that activates on hover. Web animation: No code required A simple glitch effect used sparingly can give your site a vital little extra bit of visual interest, and it's surprisingly easy to implement. Here's how to do it. Download the files for this tutorial. 01. Add code to the body tag of your page Vintage's glitch effect is easy to reproduce if you know its secret Creating a simple glitch effect can be done in so many different ways. Here we are going to do it by having an animated GIF over the top of the text, which will be turned on and off in the display. First up, add this code to the body tag of your page. 02. Styling the display The content will use a specific typeface from Google Fonts called Work Sans. Grab the link from there and place it in your head section; then add the CSS to either style tags or a separate CSS file. The page is made black with white text and the holder is styled up for the text. 03. Displaying the glitch The glitch effect is going to be a background image that is placed directly over the top of the text. The important part here is that it is made invisible by reducing the opacity to zero so that it doesn't show up until the user interacts with the text. 04. Hold everything Add script tags to the end of the body section and create a cached reference to the 'glitch' div in the document. Then a variable named 'over' is set to false. This will be turned on and off when the user moves over the text. 05. Running the glitch The glitch function is called when the mouse moves over the text. If the glitch is not running then the glitch visibility is turned on and it is turned off after one and a half seconds. You can experiment with this and use a random number to make it more unpredictable. 06. Back to normality The glitch effect should not stay on as it would be too annoying to the user, but as an interactive element it works well. Here, the code resets the opacity back to zero so that it isn't visible over the top of the text. Get your ticket for Generate New York now Three-day web design event Generate New York is back. Taking place between 25-27 April 2018, headline speakers include SuperFriendly’s Dan Mall, web animation consultant Val Head, full-stack JavaScript developer Wes Bos and more. There’s also a full day of workshops and valuable networking opportunities – don’t miss it. Get your Generate ticket now. This article was originally published in issue 270 of creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 270 here or subscribe to Web Designer here. Related articles: Create glitch art with these intricate photo filters Animate SVG with JavaScript 10 great CSS animation resources View the full article

You're reading How to Start a Web Design Project [Infographic], originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! There’s a first time for everything — and it’s finally time for your very first web design project! While landing your first gig is a huge accomplishment in itself, keeping your first client happy requires a whole different set of skills. … View the full article

If you've been in the frontend dev community for a while you have probably heard of a little thing called Atomic Design. Coined by Brad Frost, Atomic Design is a methodology that involves breaking a website layout down into its basic components, which are then reused throughout the site . There are many benefits to using Atomic Design. I will go through 10 important ones in this article. 01. You can mix and match components By breaking down components into basic atoms it's easy to see what parts of the site can be reused, and how they can be mixed and matched to form other molecules and even organisms. These five basic elements can be remixed to create a range of pages For example, let's say a site only contains five atoms: a small image, large image, paragraph, list item, and a link. You could create a very usable web page by duplicating and combining these atoms to make molecules. 02. Creating a style guide is simple If a site is created according to Atomic Design principles from the get-go, all the atoms and molecules that are created before the site is built can serve as a basic style guide. Even for sites that haven't been built atomically, it isn't difficult to extrapolate the basic components and put them together to construct more pages. Bear in mind, though, it is always best to create a site atomically from the beginning, rather than trying to introduce Atomic Design principles to a site later on. 03. Easy to understand layout The code of an atomically designed website is typically much easier to read than one created a more traditional way. This is true not only during the time of creation, but in the future when a site is being looked back on for reference or small tweaks. Because of the documentation around what atoms molecules and organisms are being used and where, it's easy to see what each part of the code represents. Another bonus of this is that it makes it easier to explain the codebase to a new developer. 04. Code is more consistent Pattern Lab is a collection of tools that make Atomic Design easier With Atomic Design, you use predefined atoms to create the site layout, it is easy to see which components are being used for different parts of the site. This reduces the likelihood of writing duplicate code. For example, if someone creates a site without using Atomic Design and they require, say, a red button, they would have to look through the whole site to try and find an existing one. If this did exist, they would need to copy and paste that code to the new instance. If there were no red buttons, they'd need to create a new one. With Atomic Design however, it is easy to go back through the list of atoms and find that exact red button. This becomes a much easier process when the Pattern Lab library is involved. Pattern Lab is a collection of tools that make Atomic Design easier. In our example, it would provide a search bar for atoms, making it easy to search for and find that exact red button. 05. No focus on pixel-perfect designs As the idea behind Atomic Design is to use atoms as the building blocks for site creation, it is less likely that a web developer will create many atoms for a similar thing. Instead, they can simply look through the list of existing atoms, and tweak them to create new atoms if required. A great example of this would be for titles on a site. Let's say a creator has a list of titles used for the site, all in black: a main header, sub-header and paragraph title. They haven't worked in the site in a while and need to come back to the site to add a new blue title. They could take a look at the titles that already exist and customise one of them to get the result they desire. 06. Quicker prototyping Having a list of atoms before site creation begins means you can mock up pages quickly and easily – all that is required is to pick and combine the required elements for the page. The mockup can then be customised and refined for the final site. 07. Easier to update and remove parts of the site As only one atom, molecule or organism is being changed at any one time, it is easy to ensure that any updates to a component are carried across to all other instances across the site. Similarly, unwanted components can easily be removed. 08. More modular file structure Although Atomic Design is very prevalent when it comes to markup (HTML), I believe these techniques can also be used for CSS, JavaScript, or any other languages used to create a site to make overall code more modular and reusable. I myself use atomic CSS for websites I create and have found great benefits to this approach. However, I believe with the arrival of things like HTML components it would make sense to separate CSS and JavaScript specific to an atom into its own folder along with the HTML, so if anything needs updating or deleting, you know exactly where to go and what to change. 09. Fewer components overall If a creator has a list of atoms, molecules and organisms presented to them before site creation begins, they are more likely to use what already exists than create new components for small variations. If a title with a font size of 4.5em is required for a design but there is already a 4em size title in existence from the list of atoms, it is more likely a creator will pick the 4em one than create a completely new title. This will result in fewer atoms being used overall, making for a cleaner and leaner website. 10. Explore Pattern Lab Pattern Lab is a static site generator, also from Brad Frost This isn't really a benefit so much of Atomic Design but a great tool created by Brad Frost and Dave Olsen to help with the process. It is essentially a static site generator that uses mustache for templates and a JavaScript viewer for interactivity. It's created with mobile-first design in mind with options to resize pages, add comments to sections of the site and code snippets. The original version is written in PHP, but there are two Node versions: one for gulp and the other for Grunt. I highly recommend messing about with the demo on the Pattern Lab site to give you a better understanding of how it works and Atomic Design in general. Related articles: 40 web design freebies to make your life easier How to build a full-page website in Angular How to create a pyramid layout with CSS Shapes View the full article

Creating a truly compelling social media campaign often depends on finding the perfect image for the job. It's all about attracting attention in a busy, cluttered, multi-channel environment, and telling a story quickly. According to research commissioned by iStock by Getty Images, demand for stock imagery has increased across the board, but there has been a notable shift towards digital uses. Social media leads the way with a staggering 74 per cent increase in the past year. With the number of brands competing for attention on social on the rise, it's more important than ever to get the messaging right. So read on for our six-step guide to finding the perfect image for your next social campaign... 01. Choose bold, attention-grabbing images Give people a reason to focus on what you're saying with an attention-grabbing image People scroll through their social feeds quickly and distractedly, often participating in multiple conversations at once. Put simply, if you don't give them a reason to focus on what you're saying, then they'll keep scrolling. When it comes to choosing the right image for your social campaign, high-contrast backgrounds, simple, dynamic compositions and vivid colour palettes are likely to stand out more, so generally steer away from overly complex subject matter or muted colours - although bright text can punch out of a black-and-white image beautifully. Ideally, you want people to digest your message in a split-second glance, and not have to spend time deciphering what's going on, or unpick an obscure visual metaphor. Simple images work best, so when you're searching for an image make sure your keywords are clear and specific. Using the Filters menu on iStock, you can refine your search quickly and easily. You can select the number of people in the shot, and the composition: one person, cropped in close, will likely be a more attention-grabbing choice for a small canvas on social media than a wide shot of a group. 02. Pick content with a human connection Consider the types of content that people choose to share on social media: they tend to be subjects that have genuine emotional resonance for them, their friends and family. They could be amusing, or thought-provoking, or just be a shrewd observation on everyday life Shareable content tends to be simple, easy to digest, and fairly universal in terms of relevance. Stunning, inspiring landscapes can be effective in the right context, but human faces, and people interacting in familiar social situations, are particularly universal. Pictures, or videos, of animals or children can inject humour and personality into a campaign, and the 'cute' factor can also encourage people to like, share or click through - again, provided it's pitched appropriately for the brand in question. When you're searching for an image, be as specific as you can to narrow down the results. A search for 'cat' on iStock returns over 90,000 images, whereas 'playful cat' gives you less than 900. It's a huge time-saver. Again, the Filters menu is useful to narrow things down quickly. If you plan to feature a face, select 'Portrait' or 'Close-up' under 'Image style' to find something with a dynamic composition. Look for images with flat-colour backgrounds, as clear space is ideal to add a campaign message. 03. Make the image tell your story Tell the right story with carefully selected images There's not much time to get your message across, and space is at a premium, so the message needs to be unmistakeable. Part of picking the right image for a successful social campaign is telling the right story: a visual shorthand to add context. For instance, if the campaign makes reference to a particular person, object or event, parodies another campaign, or includes some kind of standalone visual pun, you need to convey that reference as quickly as possible, so it's not lost in translation. Finding the perfect stock asset for this kind of purpose is all about knowing what you want before you search, as you could be trawling the image library for hours otherwise. As above, the more descriptive you can be with your keywords, the better. 04. Choose a suitable crop Optimise your images for every platform When you're designing a campaign that runs across multiple social networks, bear in mind the image dimension requirements for each of them. Take the time to optimise your campaign assets, rather than forcing the same image crop into many different formats. If you’d like to test the suitability of an image for a particular social platform, iStock Editor is a great tool that enables you to crop, add text and filters quickly and easily, without firing up Photoshop – see below for more. Also, inside iStock’s Filters menu is an 'Orientation' panel, which enables you to pick between vertical, horizontal, square and panoramic. Square images tend to suit Twitter and Instagram in particular, although remember that you'll need space to add the campaign message - so you may need to crop them differently to make room . Again, you can do this quickly and easily within iStock Editor. Content varies between platforms, as well as crop sizes: the kind of image that resonates strongly on one network may not fare so well on another. For instance, beautiful, evocative imagery works well on Instagram, whereas Facebook users are more likely to share funny, entertaining content and Twitter is all about fast-paced, interesting information. 05. Consider cultural relevance People are likely to respond to familiar imagery With the best will in the world, sometimes the only sure-fire way to see what kind of imagery works most effectively for a social campaign is to put it to the test. The beauty of platforms such as Facebook is that you can laser-target different campaigns according to age, location, interests and many other demographics. If a campaign is running in a particular territory, focus your efforts on testing different versions to put any assumptions to the test. People are likely to respond to familiar imagery: this could be as simple as featuring a local location, particular patterns or colours, or when it comes to faces, people of a particular nationality, ethnic or cultural background. Again, the Filters menu on iStock is an ideal tool for finding the right image as quickly as possible. You can search for images based on the overall colour of an image, and also narrow down locations by country or city to ensure local relevance. 06. Test images before you buy them iStock Editor comes complete with pre-set image dimensions so you can test how your image of choice will look cropped for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest If you’ve whittled down a shortlist of possible images and would like to see them in situ, iStock Editor is a simple online tool to help you mock up social graphics straight from the iStock library. Simply select ‘Edit this image’ from your asset of choice and you can crop, resize, add text, apply filters, and upload and place your own branded graphics in situ on the watermarked image. Once you’re happy, you can download the edited image to remove the watermark. As an additional time-saver, iStock Editor even has a range of popular web and social media image dimensions built in as pre-sets, so you can play around with different crops on the fly. iStock offers millions of exclusive images, illustrations and 4K video, perfect for your social campaigns. Visit now and new customers will receive 12 per cent off any product with code 12CBLOQNEW. Valid until 20th June 2018. View the full article

You're reading Progress Step UI Design Patterns: Tips, Freebies & Code Snippets, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Progress steps are great for user experience. You typically find these on signup pages and checkout forms where the user needs to enter data across multiple steps. Breadcrumbs can also use this progress UI since they flow in a natural hierarchical order. But how can you design a progress bar structure that works for your site? […] View the full article

Web performance analyst Henri Helvetica will be sharing his pro tips on how to boost your site's performance at Generate New York 2018. Get your ticket now. Performance is finally becoming a bigger part of the conversation in web design and development. However, it can still be a challenge to get people to actually consume the great content that’s out there and adopt a performance approach on a more regular basis. Fortunately, freelance developer and web-performance analyst Henri Helvetica (real name Henri Brisard), is on hand to offer his top tips on souping up your site’s performance. 01. Endeavour to measure Helvetica suggests that first of all you have to ensure you measure. “You can never improve what you don’t measure, ” he explains. “Once you have your measurements and data laid out, you have to figure out what important elements to measure. You could have two pages that load in nine seconds, but one may have the viewport filled in much quicker, so you have a better user experience. "You have to measure what is important in the load process for your site and your commercial enterprise. Think about what’s important for your users to interact with. Every site has its own individual needs.” Once he’s had a look at a page load, which helps him pick up on how and when certain items load, Helvetica’s next step is usually to fire up Chrome DevTools to assess exactly what’s going on. It’s an obvious choice, because it’s right there and it’s free – you don’t need to jump into another tool to try to discover why a page may be slow. Yet many developers barely use it. “DevTools is a bit like a smoke detector, ” Helvetica argues. “If there’s a fire, DevTools will tell you. It will at least show you where the smoke is.” 02. Lose some page weight Then Helvetica looks at the waterfall, which will indicate various issues such as the size of an asset and the latency that was involved in loading it. If the site contains poorly sized images, for example, you will usually see a very long waterfall, which is one of the easier pain points to quickly pick up on. Images are one of the biggest culprits for a slow-loading site – an issue that can be fixed fairly easily. As they’re the largest source of data, images are also the largest source of data savings. “I would always take account of your page weight ,” Helvetica explains. “No matter how you slice it, if you have one image that’s 3MB, or even three images at 1MB each, you’re likely going to have a user-experience challenge. "That page weight will also be the victim of your network, because a cellular network can never really be predicted. So you want to make sure your assets are small and optimised for the viewport, which means you shouldn’t be able to see any desktop-size assets on a mobile device.” Helvetica also recommends lazy loading, a technique that delays the loading of an object until it’s needed. “Not all users are going to make it to the bottom of a page ,” he warns. “Quite often you may be loading assets that are never going to be seen. Employing lazy load is going to be very beneficial because you’re saving on data as well as battery drain or memory management. If you’re not loading the image, you’re not going to have any memory to usurp on the device.” 03. See how you stack up Another reason Helvetica favours DevTools is because it now also provides metrics like the first paint (the time it takes for the user to see the first pixel of content) and the first meaningful paint (the time it takes for the page’s primary content to become visible). Then there is the filmstrip (either in DevTools or performance tool WebPagetest) that shows incremental screenshots of the browser rendering a site, so you can see what a page looks like when it loads. By examining them you can figure out which assets were loaded when and look into ways of loading some of them at an earlier time in the timeline. In WebPagetest – which Helvetica praises for its inspiring level of detail – you can also export a video of the load and compare the filmstrip with that of a competitor. “Once you connect the dots, you can explore how to improve the user experience by bringing these assets into the viewport faster,” Helvetica explains. 04. Cut the clutter Helvetica highlights that design decisions have an impact on performance as well, and that your first load into the viewport ideally should not just be as quick as possible but also as clutter-free as possible. For that reason you need to understand the series of events that take place to render the initial view of a web page – the critical rendering path. These events can be optimised by avoiding loading assets that are not necessary and by making decisions around the selection of web fonts and image formats. “Make sure you keep your SVGs as complexity-free as possible ,” Helvetica suggests by way of an example. “Then you’ll have less code when you render your SVG. I hear this from developers all the time. They’ll get an SVG from the designers and have to send it back because it would affect performance.” This article was originally published in issue 303 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 303 or subscribe to net. Want further insight into souping up your site's speed? Henri Helvetica is giving his talk Planet of the APIs: A Tale of Performance & User Experience at Generate New York from 25 - 27 April 2018 If you're interested in ensuring your pages load lightning fast, make sure you grab a ticket for Generate New York. Henri Helvetica will be perusing present-day and even experimental practices employed in measuring web apps, and providing performant user experiences, as well as offering more insight into measurements such as first paint, meaningful paint and time to interactive. Generate New York takes place from 25-27 April 2018. Get your ticket now. Related articles: 7 expert tips for nailing web performance 3 top tools for testing web performance Why web performance needs to feel fast View the full article

Illustration is hot right now, but that doesn't mean finding success is easy. At Offset Dublin, The AOI gathered together top illustrators – London-based Irish artist Claudine O'Sullivan, Karan Singh, who has worked everywhere from Tokyo to Sydney and is now based in Amsterdam, and Scott Bakal from Massachusetts – to discuss how they made it in this competitive industry. The good news is there are some simple dos and dont's to set you on the right track. Read on to find out their advice for breaking into illustration. 01. Do some personal projects Claudine O'Sullivan's personal leaf project led to new client work Throughout your career, but when you're first starting out in particular, personal projects can be a great way of building up your portfolio and steering the kind of work you're getting commissioned for. O'Sullivan started her career with just personal projects in her book, and off the back of that landed projects with MTV and WeTransfer. If you feel like you don't really have time, think again – a personal project can be something really simple. O'Sullivan uses side projects as a way to wind down and recharge after a big or stressful project, and as such likes to keep them simple. One involved just drawing leaves, and it ended up winning her lots of new work. 02. Do think about what you actually want This piece by Karan Singh is part of a personal exhibition "The natural instinct is to say yes to everyone [to start with] because you're just so grateful someone likes your shit," said The AOI's Lou Bones. But if you're saying yes to the kind of clients or work you don't really want to do, that's always going to be the kind of work you're commissioned for. Singh suggested figuring out the kind of creative environment you prefer and going after that. It might not always be big brands – some illustrators work better with a smaller, more personal client experience. "Our lives shouldn't hinge on client work; we're artists first," added Bakal. He spent the first seven years of his career doing what he thought was expected from him as an illustrator. He was successful but unhappy. Then one much more personal project set him on a totally different path. The lesson? Do what you want, not what you think you should do. 03. Don't follow trends At college, O'Sullivan found her style by just drawing While it's good to be inspired by a texture or an element of something you've seen, its a slippery slope to copying another illustrator you admire. "Don't follow trends!" emphasised Bones. "Speaking as someone who's seen all the illustrations in the world ever, a poor man's Malika Favre sticks out a mile." Where to go for inspiration, then? "At college, I was looking at all these artists," said O'Sullivan. "Eventually my tutor just said to me: stop looking at illustrators and just draw something!" 04. Don't move house A poster Singh created with Studio Koto to promote the city of Tokyo for Airbnb Unless you want to, that is. "You can be an illustrator anywhere," said Bones. "And if you speak english, you should be getting commissions from all over the world." In fact living somewhere doesn't mean that's where all your work will come from: when Singh lived in Tokyo, he only did two projects with local clients. With the help of the internet, promoting globally is easy. So there's no need to up sticks go the nearest big city to find success. 05. Do ask for more money Bakal offered advice for not undervaluing your skills Don't be scared of asking for more money. The worst that can happen is that the client will say no. There's no need to overthink it, either. "I just say: Can you do a bit better on the price?" explained Bakal. "Sometimes I don't even try and justify it." That little question alone can get the client to bump up your fee. Not only does every little help when you're just getting started, but it's also an important lesson in not undervaluing yourself. Read more: 5 ad campaigns that embraced a stupid idea How to break into children's book illustration Do you really need an agent? View the full article

adam&eveDDB's Richard Brim dropped a pretty incredible statistic into his talk at Offset Dublin: apparently, the UK spends £18.3 billion on advertising each year. Of that 4 per cent is remembered positively, 7 per cent is remembered negatively, and 89 per cent isn’t noticed of remembered at all. So how do you create work that is part of the 11 per cent that makes an impact? adam&eveDDB, where Brim is chief creative officer, has built a reputation on crafting adverts that make people sit up and take notice, and at Offset, Brim took to the stage to share how the studio found its success. "The fear of generic people laughing at you: That is where we will all fall down," he says. "Sometimes the most stupid ideas are the ones where the magic happens." It takes someone – and often it’s not the most senior or experienced person in the room, he says – to pluck up the courage to share an idea that makes everyone else go, ‘What the fuck?’ And then someone else to take a chance on it and champion it. In this article we look at some of the studio’s biggest ads in recent years, and how they all started out with someone suggesting something that was either ridiculously good or just ridiculous. Here's adam&eveDBB's rules for crafting an ad that people will remember. 01. Don’t start with an advert at all With its Love/Hate campaign, adam&eveDDB hit on something great. But it was starting to get tired. Cue a big brainstorming meeting where everyone had something to say on how to breathe new life into the idea. Mid-discussion, a junior planner piped up, ‘It must be genetic, right?’ Long story short, the studio ended up sponsoring a bone fide research campaign into whether the taste for Marmite was indeed genetically predisposed: the Marmite Gene Project. It ended up in the New Scientist, and had already started gaining serious traction when the studio ran its first TV ad for the campaign. In the midst of Brexit rows and Tesco threatening to delist the product, the ad prompted a massive uplift in sales. Tesco backed down. 02. Trust in a bonkers idea The concept behind a recent H&M campaign wasn’t too cohesive when it was first pitched to Brim. “Someone came into my office and just said: We want to shoot in Tokyo, we want Grace Jones, and we want a Wham! track.” While Brim didn’t quite know what to make of the idea, he decided to trust his team were on to something magical. While Grace Jones said ‘no’, Naomi Campbell and a host of other famous models did not. 03. Ignore the brief Skittles came to the studio wanting an ad that would appeal to millennials. One brave (or stupid) designer decided to ignore the brief entirely, instead pitching a campaign centred around Pride: during the festival, there was only one rainbow that mattered, they argued. So how about Skittles got rid of its rainbow for the weekend? The idea won over the studio, but when it came to getting the “very, very conservative” Mars on board, things got trickier. At first, they got a hard ‘no’. The idea was reshaped into an open letter from Skittles to Pride, to be published in the Evening Standard and Pride’s own magazine. Then Mars was offered a colour-drained Skittles float for the Pride parade, and someone looked into getting special white packs printed to go alongside it. The following year, the campaign took off for good, with Tesco adopting the campaign as its support of the Pride festival. Totally off brief, but hugely successful. 04. Lead, don't follow Typically, FIFA trends follow what’s going on in the real-world game, but for its FIFA 18 ad campaign, adam&eveDDB decided it would try and do things the other way round. It developed a brand new move dubbed ‘el tornado’ – a seamless dragback, flick, and spinning volley, and against the odds, managed to get EA Sports to introduce it into the computer game. The twist was that the real-would players would have to prove they could land 'el tornado' before their in-game avatars would be able to do it. And the pro footballers really went for it, with the studio even issuing FIFA certificates to those who proved their skills. 05. Take a risk with your biggest client The work that has gained the studio the most acclaim has been its long running relationship with John Lewis. Each year, adam&eveDDB is in charge of its hugely high-profile Christmas campaign, and as you’d expect, each year the pressure ramps up. 2017's ad started, much like the H&M campaign, with a not entirely complete concept. Someone pitched the idea of a load of rabbits on a trampoline, with a snowy backdrop. It would make a nice visual, they said. Then someone suggested that rabbits were’t quite right, but what about foxes? Eventually Buster the Boxer was born. “I stood back and looked at what we were filming for our biggest, most important client… and it was a load of woodland animals bouncing on a trampoline,” Brim smiles. “That was a definite ‘what the fuck’ moment.” Read more: 9 embarrassing branding blunders 25 logo design tips from the experts 6 times brands temporarily changed their packaging View the full article

When Thor’s father dies, his murderous elder sister Hela, Goddess of Death, is released from the ancient prison that has prevented her from wreaking havoc until now. She wastes no time with her new freedom and seeks to take her place as ruler of Asgard by bringing about Ragnarok; a process which necessitates thousands of hours of CG work and 3D art to successfully enact. One of the biggest 3D movies of last year, this is your typical big-action blockbuster from Marvel, except in many ways it’s not. Director Taika Waititi, known for comedies such as Hunt for the Wilderpeople and What We Do in the Shadows, has brought his special brand of humour and put his own unique spin on things. So while there’s plenty of the elaborate set pieces and high-octane frisson we’re used to, there’s an element of personality to this film that’s new. Vivid visual effects Unsurprisingly for a Marvel superhero adventure, visual effects were a core part of the production: whole worlds are constructed entirely as CG, as are several characters, and Cate Blanchett’s entire Hela costume is computer generated. Even director Taika Waititi was spotted wearing a motion capture suit during shooting. As a visual effects vendor from the start of production, the team at Framestore were on board to deliver challenging sequences at very short notice. In the climactic battle of the film, the Hulk fights Hela’s giant wolf Fenris, both on a narrow bridge and also down in the waters beneath, before returning at the end of the sequence to jump on the fire demon Surtur and rescue Thor and Valkyrie. A team at Framestore led by VFX supervisor Alexis Wajsbrot was tasked with bringing this action to life. They received previz of the whole action by The Third Floor, which was constantly being updated throughout the editing process, and started with shots of Fenris and Hulk both roaring and fighting on the bridge. “It was the first time that Framestore got to work on the Hulk, so the whole team was incredibly motivated to get the best possible version of him; we did a lot of work on the asset, in terms of the muscles rig and shader,” explains Wajsbrot. Some of Framestore’s best animators worked on the posing of the Hulk Some of Framestore’s best animators worked on the posing of both Hulk and Fenris to get the strongest position and angle, and they produced a range of options which were proposed to Marvel visual effects supervisor Jake Morrison and director Taika Waititi. The team even proposed some new shots; “One close-up of Hulk fighting Fenris in the water did make the final cut!” says Wajsbrot. As ever, capturing facial expressions and likenesses requires a thorough process. “We paid particular attention to Hulk’s facial and muscle structure, working very closely with Ryan Meinerding (head of visual development at Marvel) to nail all the subtlety of his face.“ “We actually re-designed our shot-sculpt pipeline in order to have maximum control and be able to be very reactive to feedback,” explains Wajsbrot. “We did a lot of work in Creature FX to simulate the muscles and the fur simulation, especially when Fenris is wet which used a groom variant, in order not to completely lose Fenris’ main shape.” A lot of work went into creature effects, Fenris wolf in particular A camera positioned very close to rapidly moving water and two huge creatures splashing around meant that the interaction between the water and the characters was one of the most challenging aspects. “It was really hard to clear the camera but still make it feel like a natural water simulation,” says Wajsbrot. “For Hulk and Fenris, the first simulations very quickly obscured our heroes, so it was all about finding the right balance between making the water sim big, but still showing the performances. We did push the limit of both our internal water solver fLush and our rendering engine Arnold to get the best water sim.” Battling deadlines As is typically the case on big blockbuster productions, visual effects teams on Thor: Ragnarok were required to produce complex work on tight timescales. During the final month of production the team managed to deliver two very challenging close-up waterfall shots depicting the Hulk falling and grabbing onto a cliff – “[It] was really an achievement in terms of efficiency,” Wajsbrot says. Alexis Wajsbrot’s crew wasn’t alone in this: Framestore’s capture lab was also put through its paces when they were called upon to deliver some crowd scenes on a particularly short deadline. The battle in the third act of the film takes place on the narrow Rainbow Bridge when Hela’s undead army attacks Thor’s homeworld of Asgard, and Framestore were assigned the task of populating the scene with crowds of both zombie soldiers and terrified citizens. It’s a difficult scene because dozens of characters need to be on screen at once, and they all need to be reactive to the battle going on around them. In addition, the undead soldiers move like warriors, but have the animated attributes of corpses. To create soldiers and citizens who would react in their own individual ways, two motion capture actors performed a multitude of actions Crowd simulation software would have created too much work for the animators, so instead Framestore used just two actors and their in-house capture lab to generate the members of the crowds. The capture lab is kitted out with 16 Vicon T40 cameras, and capture software Shogun Live and Post, also produced by Vicon. It is set up in one of the London offices semi permanently and gets taken out to a bigger stage occasionally for shoots that need more space. To create soldiers and citizens who would react in their own individual ways to the events unfolding around them, two motion capture actors performed a multitude of actions such as running away, jumping off things, getting shot and dying. “One of [the actors] is actually an animator at Framestore – so he really understands the whole process and performance requirement,” capture lab studio manager Richard Graham says. Mocap mayhem Some of the characters in Thor are much larger than others, which presents some challenges for mocap teams and animators. Graham explained it’s handled “by spending more effort on the re-targeting and working with the performer to make sure their motions impart the right sense of scale”. With the motion laid down as well as possible, muscle and skin sims are used to sell the final animation. With the animators under pressure to deliver on a very tight timescale, the capture lab team were able to take some of the weight. “We had to help the animation department deal with some late-breaking notes, so we did three shoots all at about one day’s notice, then delivered the cleaned, solved data back in 24 to 48hrs,” says Graham. “There wasn’t time for much mo-edit, so we shot actions specific to shots that could be placed into animators’ scenes with minimal need for any intervention.” Framestore often use dancers and gymnasts for motion capture work as they have the ability level required for stunts Much of the mocap team’s efficiency can be put down to the data processing workflow that takes place after the shoot. “It all starts with Shogun Post,” Graham adds. “We ensure that the captured data is clean and consistent, then we use MotionBuilder plus IKinema Action to solve directly onto our in-house character rigs – this way we have full control over how the performance looks and feels on the assets. Finally, from within MoBu, we manage any additional re-targeting or edits.” Following this, a data package is sent to the animation or crowd departments. “The pipeline is mostly automated, which allows us to hit some remarkable turnaround times, for Thor particularly – we processed 120 takes in two days.” This article was originally published in issue 231 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 231 or subscribe to 3D World. Related articles: 45 After Effects tutorials to sharpen your motion skills Behind the scenes on The Shape of Water How to master creature anatomy View the full article

The city of Atlanta is being extorted for $51,000 in a ransomware attack that occurred early Thursday that impacted several local government departments. View the full article

I really like working in colour, whether it's in Photoshop CC or painting traditionally with watercolours. Vibrant colour will often make an illustration more decorative, but there's also a danger of it becoming flat. However, you can counteract this by adding a sense of volume in the right places throughout the composition. Get Adobe Creative Cloud In this tutorial, I'll share the art techniques I use to create a bright, light portrait in Photoshop. Watch the video below to see my screencast for this tutorial, or scroll down to read the step-by-step guide. For more portraiture advice, take a look at our article on how to draw people. Download the custom brushes for this tutorial here For inspiration I often study classic artists. You can learn a lot from them, such as how to guide the viewer's eye with help of the light, shadows and colour. I particularly like the art of Klimt, Mucha and Van Gogh. Klimt was able to capture a strong sense of character and nature with brush strokes and colours. I adore Mucha's line art. He depicted feminine beauty perfectly, and had an eye for decorative details, brilliant composition and gorgeous colours. And Van Gogh was just a genius. 01. Find some inspiration The first thing I do before starting an illustration is to browse through my folder of inspiration. Inside are plenty of sub-folders, containing images of lighting, faces, human figures, clothing, illustrations from my favourite artists, animals, caterpillars, flowers and plenty more besides. I quickly look through some folders, keeping in mind my theme or work brief. I notice what makes a particular image look good, what emotion it brings out in me, or what's actually beautiful in it. My own idea comes from studying these images. When working with colour the most inspiring thing is nature: flowers, butterflies, caterpillars, especially tropical species. 02. Produce a rough sketch Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Next, I need to visualise my idea, so I produce a series of small sketches, which are made up of flowing lines. This acts as both a warm-up exercise and a way of focusing on the task in hand. After I've finished drawing, I narrow down the options and continue to refine them, until the best one is ready to be used as a base. 03. Start refining the line art Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image I create a new layer, then reduce the Opacity of the sketch layer and select an opaque brush. Then on a new layer I create the line art. I try to do this as cleanly as possible, so that there are no unnecessary lines, and every stroke and dot serves a purpose. I lay down flowing, soft lines for this portrait of a pretty young woman, because they help to create the correct mood in the piece. 04. Pick a colour palette Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image As I said earlier, nature is a great source of inspiration, especially for developing colour combinations. Look how bold the colours are on insect and fishes, for example. So follow nature's lead: pick a vibrant colour, select a big Soft brush and start to draw. I select colours that I know work together well, and bear in mind that every colour has its tone. It's best not to rush this stage. 05. Colour the line art Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image I want to retain some of my line art in my final image. There's an interesting way to do this: I lock transparent layer pixels on the line art layer, select the big Soft brush and paint in my colours. The results vary – sometimes they’re the same tone, sometimes they’re darker and sometimes they’re lighter and brighter. Whatever the outcome, it’ll add interest to your artwork. 06. Develop the facial details Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image My favourite part of illustration is painting the face. Because I've chosen to keep the line art on show in the finished piece, I sense this illustration will become more decorative and graphic. I try to add volumetric shading only in a few spots, and at the same time, work on shaping a nose, lips and eyes. Most of the time I work with a big Soft brush, but I use a textured brush for the highlights. It's always exciting to paint! 07. Colour the face Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image I refine the colours of the face using the principles of warm colour theory. In this image I paint with bright, vibrant colours: the shadows are orange and the light is colder. Sometimes it's hard to do all at once. One solution is to first paint the face with a neutral skin colour using shading techniques, rather than simply filling in the face with a single tone, then create a new layer, set it to either Hard Light or Soft Light, and add orange in the shadows and a light purple to the brighter areas. 08. Make use of blending modes Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image I often use a range of blending modes: Soft Light, Hard Light, Overlay, Multiply and Color. All of them (except Multiply) help me to create bright, saturated colours. Try creating a new layer and setting the blending mode to Soft Light. Then pick a big Soft brush, choose a light colour and experiment here and there on your canvas. 09. Don't forget the shadows Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image I always like to experiment with colour. It's easier to do this in light areas on the canvas, but don't forget the shadows − try to paint with bright and saturated colours. There's no need to do this with all your shadows; it can just be in a small part of your illustration. Here, I've selected a bright red. This will add variety to my overall colour palette, and ensures my shadows won't look dull and boring. 10. Add hair and wings Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image I leave the face as it is and turn my attention to the hair. I paint it in purple with bluish highlights, then decide to add pink in the shadow. I like this effect because it enables me to get rid of the strong dark shadow on the bottom, which otherwise might prove distracting for the viewer. 11. Take time to set up an efficient workspace Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image I keep three windows open during my painting process. I paint in the main window, but also have up a smaller version of my WIP so I can see how the image is developing and spot any mistakes, and a black and white version that enables me to check my values. To set up your workspace, go to 'Window > Arrange > New window for…(name of your file)', once for small version and second time for black and white. To set up the black and white window go to 'View > Proof Setup > Custom > Device to Simulate > sGrey'. Then press ctrl+Y when the black and white window is active. 12. Understand how the face works Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image As an artist, it's vital to be able to draw a face. You need to know the anatomy and be able to imagine it as a simplified geometrical form. I often sculpt faces in clay, which is a great way to break down a face into basic structures such as a sphere (an eye) or two cylinders (the lips). And every shape has its own shadow, light and highlight. 13. Construct an outfit Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Because this is a stylised illustration, I don't need to draw the leaves of the figure's clothing realistically. This is why I create soft transitions of colour using light, subtle strokes. In just a few places I add contrasting shadows, which helps to boost volume. Placing a branch on one shoulder helps to add visual interest to the right-hand side. 14. Make final tweaks Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image I review areas that need polishing, and adjust colours using the Levels tool. The Selective Color tool enables me to adjust individual colours during this review stage. Finally, I add a layer of noise to my image, sit back and call it done. This article was originally published in ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists. Buy issue 156 or subscribe. Read more: The best learning resources for digital artists How to create new character designs in Photoshop 15 observational drawing tips View the full article

Over recent years Node.js has become more and more popular. It is now often used for developing the server side of web applications, or in general during the development process. At the time of writing, the homepage of npm – the package manager for Node.js – lists over a quarter of a million modules. 15 tools every web designer needs in 2017 I've put together a list of the ones I find useful in my daily work as a web and software developer, from image manipulation, string validation and PDF generation to minification, logging and the creation of command line applications. Working with images 01. Manipulate images GraphicsMagick and ImageMagick are two popular tools for creating, editing, composing and converting images. Thanks to the Node.js module gm you can use both tools directly from within your JavaScript code. The module supports all the typical image operations – resizing, clipping and encoding to name just a few. 02. Process images Sharp is based on the ultra-fast libvips image processing library, and claims to be four to five times faster than ImageMagick or GraphicsMagick when it comes to compressing and resizing images. It supports JPEG, PNG, WebP, TIFF, GIF and SVG images, and outputs data into either JPEG, PNG, WebP or uncompressed raw pixel streams. 03. Generate sprite sheets Sprite sheets are bitmap files that contain many different small images (for example icons), and they are often used to reduce the overhead of downloading images and speed up overall page load. Generating sprite sheets manually is very cumbersome, but with spritesmith you can automate the process. This module takes a folder as input and combines all the images in it into one sprite sheet. It also generates a JSON file that contains all the coordinates for each of the images in the resulting image, which you can directly copy in your CSS code. Dates, strings, colours 04. Format dates Moment.js is a great alternative to JavaScript's Date object The standard JavaScript API already comes with the Date object for working with dates and times. However, this object is not very user-friendly when it comes to printing and formatting dates. On the other hand, Moment.js offers a clean and fluid API, and the resulting code is very readable and easy to understand. In addition, there is an add-on available for parsing and formatting dates in different time zones. 05. Validate strings When providing forms on a web page, you always should validate the values the user inputs – not only on the client-side, but also on the server-side to prevent malicious data. A module that can help you here is validator.js. It provides several methods for validating strings, from isEmail() and isURL() to isMobilePhone() or isCreditCard(), plus you can use it on the server- and the client-side. 06. Work with colour values Converting colour values from one format into another is one of the tasks every frontend developer needs to do once in a while. TinyColor2 takes care of this programmatically, and it's available for Node.js as well as for browsers. It provides a set of conversion methods (e.g. toHexString(), toRGBString()), as well as methods for all sorts of colour operations (e.g. lighten(), saturate(), complement()). Working with different formats 07. Generate PDF files You want to dynamically generate PDF files? Then PDFKit is the module you are looking for. It supports embedding font types, embedding images and the definition of vector graphics, either programmatically (using a Canvas-like API) or by specifying SVG paths. Furthermore, you can define links, include notes, highlight text and more. The best way to start is the interactive browser demo, which is available here. 08. Process HTML files Cheerio makes processing HTML on the server side much easier Ever wanted to process HTML code on the server side and missed the jQuery utility methods? ThenCheerio is the answer. Although it implements only a subset of the core jQuery library, it makes processing HTML on the server side much easier. It is built on top of the htmlparser2 module, an HTML, XML and RSS parser. Plus, according to benchmarks, it's eight times faster than jsdom, another module for working with the DOM on the server side. 09. Process CSV files Node-cvg simplifies the process of working with CSV data The CSV (comma-separated values) format is often used when interchanging table-based data. For example, Microsoft Excel allows you to export or import your data in that format. node-cvg simplifies the process of working with CSV data in JavaScript, and provides functionalities for generating, parsing, transforming and stringifying CSV. It comes with a callback API, a stream API and a synchronous API, so you can choose the style you prefer. 10. Process markdown files Markdown is a popular format when creating content for the web. If you ever wanted to process markdown content programmatically (i.e. write your own markdown editor), marked is worth a look. It takes a string of markdown code as input and outputs the appropriate HTML code. It is even possible to further customise that HTML output by providing custom renderers. Next page: Explore the best minifiers and utility modules Minification 11. Minify images Imagemin is a brilliant module for minifying and optimising images A very good module for minifying and optimising images is imagemin, which can be used programmatically (via the command line), as a gulp or Grunt plugin, or through imagemin-app (a graphical application available for all of the three big OSs). Its plugin-based architecture means it is also very flexible, and can be extended to support new image formats. 12. Minify HTML This claims to be the best HTML minifier available After minifying images you should consider minifying your web app's HTML. The module HTMLMinifier can be used via the command line, but is also available for gulp and Grunt. On top of that, there are middleware solutions for integrating it into web frameworks like Koa and Express, so you can minify the HTML directly at runtime before serving it to the client via HTTP. According to benchmarks on the module's homepage, it is the best HTML minifier available. 13. Minify CSS As well as images and HTML, you should consider minifying the CSS you send the user. A very fast module in this regard is clean-css, which can be used both from the command line and programmatically. It comes with support for source maps and also provides different compatibility modes to ensure the minified CSS is compatible with older versions of IE. 14. Minify JavaScript UglifyJS2 isn't just for minifying code, but it's very good at it The popular module UglifyJS2 is often used for minifying JavaScript code, but because of its parsing features, in principle you can use it to do anything related to processing JavaScript code. UglifyJS2 parses JavaScript code into an abstract syntax tree (an object model that represents the code) and provides a tree walker component that can be used to traverse that tree. Ever wanted to write your own JavaScript optimiser? Then UglifyJS2 is for you. 15. Minify SVG Last but not least when it comes to minification, don't forget to minify the SVG content. This format has made a great comeback in the past few years, thanks to its great browser and tool support. Unfortunately, the SVG content that is generated by editors often contains redundant and useless information like comments and metadata. With SVGO you can easily remove such information and create a minified version of your SVG content. The module has a plugin-based architecture, with (almost) every optimisation implemented as a separate plugin. As with all the other modules regarding minification, SVGO can be used either via the command line or programmatically. Utilities 16. Log application output When you are dealing with complex web applications a proper logging library can be very useful to help you find runtime problems, both during development and in production. A very popular module in this regard is the winston library. It supports multiple transports, meaning you can tell winston to simply log to the console, but also to store logs in files or in databases (like CouchDB, MongoDB or Redis) or even stream them to an HTTP endpoint for further processing. 17. Generate fake data When implementing or testing user interfaces you often need dummy data such as email addresses, user names, street addresses and phone numbers. That is where faker.js comes into play. This can be used either on the server side (as a module for Node.js) or on the client side, and provides a set of methods for generating fake data. Need a user name? Just call faker.internet.userName() and you get a random one. Need a fake company name? Call faker.company.companyName() and you get one. And there are a lot more methods for all types of data. 18. Send emails Nodemailer supports text and HTML content, embedded images and SSL/STARTTLS Programmatically sending emails is one of the features you need often when implementing websites. From registration confirmation, to notifying users of special events or sending newsletters, there are a lot of use cases that require you to get in touch with users. The standard Node.js API does not offer such a feature, but fortunately the module Nodemailer fills this gap. It supports both text and HTML content, embedded images and – most importantly – it uses the secure SSL/STARTTLS protocol. 19. Create REST APIs REST is the de facto standard when implementing web applications that make use of web services. Frameworks like Express facilitate the creation of such web services, but often come with a lot of features such as templating and rendering that – depending on the use case – you may not need. On the other hand, the Node.js module restify focuses on the creation and the debugging of REST APIs. It has a very similar API to the Connect middleware (which is the base for Express) but gives you more control over HTTP interactions and also supports DTrace for troubleshooting applications in real time. 20. Create CLI applications There are already tons of command line applications (CLI applications) written in Node.js to address different use cases (see, for example, the aforementioned modules for minification). If you want to write your own CLI application, the module Commander.js is a very good starting point. It provides a fluent API for defining various aspects of CLI applications like the commands, options, aliases, help and many more, and it really simplifies the process of creating applications for the command line. Conclusion We've only scratched the surface of the huge number of Node.js modules out there. JavaScript is more popular than ever before and there are new modules popping up every week. A good place to stay up to date is the 'most starred packages' section of the npm homepage or Github's list of trending repositories. Related articles: Master Node.js for designers The 20 best wireframe tools Is it OK to build sites that rely on JavaScript? View the full article

Knowing how to follow brand guidelines can be a bit of a mystery. It's a practice that isn't taught much at design schools, so students can sometimes emerge into the workforce with no experience of how to process a brief. Fortunately, though, the concept is simple enough. Designers are provided with an outline by their client, along with assets and how they are intended to be used. However, keeping work consistent with a client's existing branding is a whole other challenge in itself. To help designers get the right look, we spoke to branding guideline geniuses. 01. Do your research “Some big brands make their guidelines available on Issuu,” says Jess Dutton, junior designer at Mobas. “Look for a brand you know and like, and read their style sheet. You’ll change your perspective, gain an understanding of the design process, and realise what goes into creating something.” 02. Stay creative “Don’t let brand guidelines hold you back on your creativity,” says Joe Bembridge, junior designer at Brandon. “These guides are put in place not to limit creativity, but to help a brand stay recognisable and consistent,” he points out. “But if you do go against the guidelines, make sure you have a valid reason for doing so.” 03. Make suggestions “If you feel something could be improved, suggest that to the client, or even make a concept variation to show how a brand could look with your improvements,” says Andrius Petravicius, digital designer at Superrb. “Yet if the client insists you follow their guidelines, don’t ignore them.” 04. Harness software “To make sure I follow the guidelines carefully, I’ll take a screengrab of the most important parts: the colour references, font, and point sizes,” says Tom Tennant, motion graphics designer at Gramercy Park Studios. “I also find it helps to copy the brand colours into whichever software you’re using so you have a palette that’s easily accessible.” 05. Ask questions “Raise any questions you have as soon as possible, rather than when you’re midway through the work,” advises Laura Wynn-Owen, junior designer at Nelson Bostock Group. “If there’s anything you’re unsure about, ask. Even senior designers need guidance. There are no stupid questions when it comes to brand guidelines.” Related articles: Build a better personal brand 5 big-brand logos that pass the silhouette test When to use humour in branding View the full article

While the best films may look effortless, they take an incredible amount of work. It's a matter of having the right tools and knowing how to get the most out of them. You can learn how to make the most of your resources by studying the Videography Bootcamp, on sale now for just $39 (approx. £28). The Videography Bootcamp will give you the advice that industry experts took years to learn. From making the most of your DSLR camera to making use of tools like drones, utilising green screens and cinematographic tricks, and even editing your film like a pro – there are lessons in this bundle for every level of film maker. Work your way through 33.5 hours of content spread over eight professionally taught courses and you'll see your work improve right in front of your eyes. You can get the Videography Bootcamp on sale now for just $39 (approx. £28). That's a saving of 97 per cent off the retail price for a course packed with valuable filmmaking lessons, so grab this deal today. Related articles: The best computers for video editing 2018 The best video editing software 2018 6 best laptops for video editing 2018 View the full article

Public speaking – done well, and for the right reasons – can be one of the most effective tools for self-promotion in a designer's armoury. As a creative, it can give you credibility as an expert in your field and supercharge word-of-mouth about your services. Instead of fighting for a voice, suddenly everyone wants to talk to you. But the skills involved in public speaking are just as valuable off-stage. Being able to talk confidently about your work in any situation – while pitching, during an interview, over a beer – is a fundamental design skill that differentiates the good from the exceptional, and is crucial if you want to elevate your practice to the next level. Of course, being invited to talk at an event is the first hurdle. The speaker circuit is highly competitive, and without the weight of experience it can be tricky to bag your first speaking gig. How to break onto the speaker circuit John Davey, founder of award-winning UK conference Reasons to be Creative, travels the world to source new speakers for his three-day celebration of design and technology. He rarely ask speakers to talk at Reasons unless he's seen them first and has chalked up thousands of hours at design events in his quest to secure the best possible creatives. Here, Davey shares his top tips for breaking onto the circuit and making it as a speaker. From persuading a conference curator to take a chance on you, to what makes an outstanding presentation and what not to do, read on for his expert advice… 01. Watch the pros in action Aardman senior designer Gavin Strange, aka Jam Factory, on stage at Reasons to be Creative 2014 in sunny Brighton, UK "I would encourage everyone to go to as many conferences as they can afford. Why? To see the presentation styles of as many speakers as possible," says Davey. "I've seen so many wonderful presenters that it would be unfair to single one out alone. However, I can give you a few names who are absolutely terrific: Stefan Sagmeister, Eric Spiekermann, Brendan Dawes, Mr Bingo, Paula Scher – they're just a few." 02. Nail your proposal "The best proposals are the ones where the speaker is going to show work, demonstrate something or teach something. Of course, you want them to be entertaining, but content is key." "I can often predict the style of a session by semantics. If the proposal says 'lecture' then it's usually delivered differently to proposals that mention 'talks' or 'sessions'. I know it sounds picky, but it's worked for me for the past 10-plus years." 03. Don't tell designers how to design Dutch studio From Form designed the stage furniture and opening titles for 2014's Reasons to be Creative conference. Photo: Marc Thiele "Proposals that say the session is going to talk about how to be a better designer, and then show hardly any work, or bland slides, often fall flat. An attendee has paid to go to an event – often they themselves are designers. I've seen first-hand the audience turn off when told how they themselves should design." "It's as if they're saying to themselves: 'What qualifies you, speaker, to tell me that I should do it a certain way?' Of course, if the speaker has an impressive body of work, it immediately qualifies them." 04. Apply for The Elevator Pitch "How do you get onto the circuit? Well, that's exactly the reason we run The Elevator Pitch – 20 newbies get three minutes to pitch their presentation. We have a dedicated AV team who deal with bringing laptops to the stage, plugging in and getting them ready so that when you step on stage, your mic is working and visuals are on screen." "There are no gaps, it's extremely tightly run and I'm very proud to say that The Elevator Pitch is one of the most popular sessions at Reasons. It's produced more than 20 new speakers who I now see regularly on the international circuit." 05. Good news spreads "Apart from opportunities like The Elevator Pitch, it's down to leg work. Start with local events [like Glug and Blab in the UK], meet-ups and user groups. If you're good, the word will get around." Next page: five more tips for breaking onto the speaker circuit 06. Give 'something extra' Hvass & Hannibal addressing the crowd at OFFF 2014 in Barcelona "I have a theory, which sounds like a joke – but actually I think it's true. I believe there are a lot of people in the audience who are waiting with baited breath as the speaker waves their arms around, hoping that some of the speaker's talent is going to waft over them." "I know it sounds silly, but who of us has never wanted to be as good a footballer as Pele, or as good a singer as Elton John? Maybe it's a juvenile idea, but I think the child in us would always hope that something good rubs off." "I also think that the 'something extra' is a speaker who talks about their failures as well as their successes. How did they overcome hurdles? Who do they admire? Where do they draw inspiration from? All of these are of interest." 06. Delivery is key "I've seen hundreds of talks, many fantastic and some quite poor. What makes the difference? Delivery. I've seen the most incredible work by artists and designers but their delivery was terrible, and equally, I've seen brilliant stage craft, but dull work. So, obviously, the work is important, but equally important is the way you deliver on stage." 07. Engage with your audience Jon Burgerman is an experienced speaker. Here he talks to 3,000 people at OFFSET in Dublin "Does the speaker engage? Do they feel relaxed? Do they know what they're talking about and appear passionate about it? These are all things that are whizzing around my head whilst watching presentations." 08. Don't panic if it goes wrong "Thankfully, I've not seen many real problems. Things like microphones failing, or 'clicks' that the speaker seems to be the only person unaware of, I've seen a few times." "How to overcome that? The event should have someone dedicated to AV; someone who's prepared to run on stage and swap mics. How does a speaker deal with it? The best speakers are the ones that deal with it naturally, relaxed and without panic." 09. Never cut it short "The worst thing I've seen is someone 'short' their presentation by a lot. I've seen a 60-minute presentation shortened to 20 minutes. That's a nightmare." Liked this? Try these... 18 golden tips for presenting your work 13 great tools for pitching to clients 7 rules for creating the perfect pitch View the full article

Learn how to create eye-popping comic art in the latest issue of ImagineFX magazine - on sale today. Inside issue 160 you'll hear from some of the biggest artists in the comics industry about how they got to where they are today. Perhaps their words of wisdom will help you on your own path to artistic greatness? Buy issue 160 of ImagineFX here! Besides all the news, reviews and amazing art from readers that you've come to expect from ImagineFX, there's an added treat this issue as we're giving away a free 148-page Comic Artist ebook worth £7.99. With over 10 hours of professional videos packed into its digital pages, you won't want to miss it. Take a look at this issue's headline features below. Click here to subscribe to ImagineFX Explore Tony S Daniel's glittering portfolio Tony S Daniel is regarded as one of the leading Batman illustrators Famous for his loose and spontaneous art style, Tony S Daniel has become regarded as one of the greats of the Batman illustrators, up there with the likes of Frank Miller and Neal Adams. We talk to the artist about how he learnt from the best and how he balances art and writing. Tell your story through comic colours Dave McCaig was the colour supervisor on the Batman animated series Colour is one of the more creative ways comic artists can tell their story through their illustrations. As well as establishing the tone of a story, colour can flesh out character details and set the pace of the action. Award-winning artist Dave McCaig shows you how to add extra layers to your story with these colour tips. Capture a character's facial expressions Neil Edwards has created comic art for titles such as Spider-Man, Justice League, and Doctor Who Drawing a comic character's facial expressions is a tricky balancing act. On the one hand each one has their own distinctive look, while on the other there are certain anatomical rules to keep in mind. Neil Edwards shows you how to make the most of both to create emotional characters in this workshop. Painting watercolour comic covers Dustin Nguyen was drawn to watercolours from an early age When it comes to creating a piece of comic cover art, artist Dustin Nguyen believes the medium should compliment the finished piece. In his workshop, Dustin shares how to create an emotional comic scene using the sensitive medium of watercolours. Thinking positive Even the best artists struggle with self-worth It's a sad fact of the industry that plenty of artists are plagued by self-doubt. In this feature leading artists share how they cope with negative thoughts and combat the dreaded imposter syndrome. Buy issue 160 of ImagineFX now! Related articles: How to create a comic page Tips for guiding a reader through comic art How to create a manga comic strip View the full article