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Microsoft patched 25 critical vulnerabilities, including a remote code execution bug in Windows Search. View the full article

You're reading How to Upload Themes and Plugins on WordPress.com, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! WordPress announced the implementation of long-waited functionality to upload and use themes and plugins to WordPress.com. If you download or purchase a WordPress theme or plugin, you can upload it to your WordPress.com website. People love WordPress because it’s absolutely customizable. With support for plugins and third-party themes, WordPress.com business customers may be able to connect […] View the full article

Adobe today pushed out its first Flash Player update since announcing it would end-of-life the software in 2020. View the full article

If you’re in search of some fresh and inspiring reading material to take on holiday this year (or to read in office with a coffee if you're not going away), then look no further than these gorgeous magazines. Large-scale commercial magazine publishing houses may be under pressure from every angle these days, but the independent design magazine scene has never been so exciting, with new titles launching regularly on every esoteric topic you can think of. We’ve gathered a sterling selection of magazine recommendations from those in the know. So here are nine magazines for you to check out while the sun is still shining... 01. Special Request Special Request is a new broad culture journal, currently on issue 2“It is too simple a thing to look at one part of a culture... culture is the combination of many different things working in concert.” This is the mantra by which the beautifully produced journal Special Request operates. Its lofty ambition is to explore “the entire human experience piece by piece... subjecting it to sometimes forensic, sometimes scathing, sometimes interesting analysis from the world’s finest minds.” Jeremy Leslie, founder of magCulture, is a fan, and recommends the newly-released second issue, which celebrates the golden age of television across 124 pages of 120gsm offset stock, finished off with a gold-foiled 400gsm cover. Leslie picks out some personal highlights from the issue: “Antoine de Caunes recalls Eurotrash, Ben Loory and Haruki Murakami offer some new fiction, and the visual highlight is Alex de Mora and Marisha Green’s still-life tribute to Beavis and Butthead,” he says. “It closes with an image of an old-fashioned cathode ray television set, floating away against a 70s New York skyline.” 02. Berlin Quarterly European title Berlin Quarterly combines in-depth reportage, literature and visual cultureCalling itself a “European review of long form journalism, literature and the arts”, Berlin Quarterly is a fascinating blend of in-depth reportage, literature and visual culture that Steve Watson, creator of indie mag subscription service Stack, firmly recommends. “It’s a heady mix of essays, fiction, poetry, photography and artwork,” Watson enthuses. “Based out of the German capital, it wears that city’s bohemian reputation on its sleeve.” It's definitely worth slipping into the suitcase for when you fancy getting stuck into some meatier content. 03. The Plant The Plant is produced in Barcelona twice a yearAccording to its creators, The Plant magazine delivers content by plant lovers, for plant lovers, in a “simple, personal and cozy way”. It’s currently on its 11th issue, Leslie recommends taking a look. “Horticulture is just a starting point for this magazine, now a mainstay of the indie scene,” he explains. “Ryan Lowry’s opening photographs of the landscape, cacti and fences of the US-Mexico border set a manifesto-like tone that continues throughout issue 11. Mercedes Villalba looks at the resilience of nature, and Lindsay Sekulowicz examines Amazonian artefacts to learn how humankind has always cultivated nature.” “Against all this, a guide to growing Aloe Vera may seem prosaic – but this element remains a key part of the magazine,” adds Leslie. The Plant’s team describes itself as “a curious observer of ordinary plants and other greenery”, and this simple love for natural life shines through on every page. 04. Racquet Racquet says it's about tennis, but it covers so much more, so beautifullyRather like The Plant, Racquet is “one of those indie titles that purports to be about one thing (in this case, tennis) but in fact uses that as a prism through which to explore all sorts of things. You’re never quite sure what you’re going to turn the page and read about,” says Rob Alderson, former editor-in-chief of Printed Pages, who now heads up WeTransfer’s editorial division, This Works. A quarterly title that celebrates the art, ideas, style and culture that surround tennis, Racquet “fondly remembers the swashbuckling sport of the tennis boom of the 1970s and ’80s” and aspires to “restore some of that swagger to today’s game.” “It looks and feels beautiful – as a lot of indie titles do – but the writing is exquisite and it’s edited really well too, which makes for a perfect print experience,” adds Alderson. 05. Shelf Heroes Each copy of Self Heroes issue F includes a free Fifth Element woven patch, three postcards and a stickerA wonderfully simple editorial premise lies at the heart of the intermittently printed fanzine Shelf Heroes, the magazine “created by people who love cinema.” It’s working its way through the alphabet, and celebrating a diverse batch of films that start with each letter: “Some great, some not so great.” Issue one, as you might expect, was A – with films including Alien, Apocalypse Now, Avatar and American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt. “Shelf Heroes has now reached the letter ‘F’ – and I can’t wait to dive into Festen, First Blood, Fargo and Four Weddings,” chuckles Watson. 06. The Happy Reader The Happy Reader is a book-loving collaboration between Penguin Classics and Fantastic ManA collaboration between Penguin Classics and Fantastic Man, The Happy Reader is a ‘virtual book club’. It's now on its ninth instalment, which includes a focus on Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. “This classic is contextualised by musician Andy Partridge writing about sailor’s songs, a visual taxonomy of messaging flags, and a treasure hunt – although the prize has just been won,” reveals Leslie. “It’s all fronted with a lengthy interview with model/actress/bookshop owner Lily Cole, all beautifully presented as ever.” Clearly The Happy Reader is worth a look this summer, as Watson picked it out as well. “I can’t think of better beach reading,” he grins. 07. Pit Pit is a new magazine for BBQ aficionadosNothing says summer like a sizzling barbecue, and Pit magazine has capitalised on our enduring passion for cooking outdoors over a open flame with an artisan publication like no other. According to the team, it’s all about “the smell of smoke in the air, the singed hairs on your fingers and the pink ring on a rack of ribs you cooked at the end of your garden.” But within that overarching topic, the magazine delves into global cultures: “From the American BBQ to the Polynesian Imu fire pits, Jamaican jerk drums and mackerel grills lining the shores of the glittering Bosphorus in Istanbul.” Pit plans to release three issues during the (hopefully) warm months of the year, with the second due out in August. “I’m really hoping I can get hold of it in time for the holidays, to give us some inspiration over the coals,” says Watson. 08. Real Review Real Review issue 4 reviews everything from the EU flag to Japanese boyfriends for hireThe quarterly flagship publication of the Real Foundation, Real Review was named Launch of the Year at the 2016 Stack Awards. Since then, according to Watson, it has gone from strength to strength. “Its roots are in architecture, but this ingenious review ranges far and wide to challenge the way we see the world,” he explains. Leslie is also an advocate, drawing attention to the title’s unique format: square, with a vertical fold. “Real Review deserves praise too for its editorial design and content,” argues Leslie. “It examines contemporary life with a spare and intelligent vocabulary that both tests and thrills. Content and form that should be at utter variance somehow complement each other perfectly.” 09. mono.kultur Each issue of mono.kultur is dedicated to one artist from various fieldsAlso hailing from Berlin, quarterly A5 title mono.kultur focuses on art and culture, or more specifically the creative minds who make the most exciting music, film, literature and visual art happen. One at a time. Each issue features just a single interviewee, carefully selected and beautifully designed. Its online description is a paragon of German efficiency: “Questions and answers. Conversations with the interesting few. In full length and depth, extensive and unfiltered.” The current issue, 43, is dedicated to artist/musician Fatima Al Qadiri, and it’s Leslie’s final pick. “The presentation is smart but simple, with text and photography clearly defined and separate,” he begins. “The exciting part is the additional images, printed on a special acetate substrate called Stafix – static electricity makes these ‘stick’ to the pages of the magazine, allowing the reader to peel off and replace images over other images.” What better way to spend your summer? To explore the indie mag scene in more depth, magCulture will be running its fifth-annual ModMag conference in London on 2 November, an event that never fails to inspire. Related articles: The 20 best magazine covers of 2016 5 things every creative needs to know about print design 30 beautiful examples of paper art View the full article

Prototyping is perhaps one of the most important parts of the web design process. By building a website prototype we can test ideas with users, we can be wrong, we can learn, but most importantly we can do this quickly. But choosing the right prototyping tool can make or break the outcome. 10 top prototyping toolsWhen picking a prototyping tool, be sure to ask yourself these three questions: 01. What do you want to learn from your prototype? If you want complex features in your prototype, use something like AxureWant to test if you have the flow through a process right? Look at tools like InVision or Marvel. Want to know if users can complete an online form usefully? You’ll need tools like Axure or a real coded prototype. 3 top ways to build a website prototype02. What resources do you have to build a prototype? Use a tool like Marvel if you need to get things done quicklyIf time’s short, explore quick paper prototypes (you can use InVision or Marvel to turn these into clickable prototypes). Have a bigger team, and dev skills? There’s nothing better than a coded prototype, as the code can go towards the final product. 10 top prototyping tools03. How will you test? InVision makes it easy to test and incorporate user feedbackAre you testing with real users? Are there technical constraints with the test? How will you record the test or collect feedback? And what will you do with the prototype? All these decisions will help you choose the right tool. This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 294. Buy it here! Related articles: All you need to know about mockups, wireframes, and prototypes 10 top prototyping tools Rapid prototyping using Photoshop CC View the full article

Remember Frozen? If you were a sentient human in 2013, chances are the fantasy film's musical number Let It Go popped into your head when you saw this article. So it makes sense that the Disney Theatrical Productions have adapted Frozen into a Broadway musical, set for release next spring. To promote the movie, a new poster was in order. Organising one fell to Andrew Flatt, Disney Theatrical's senior vice president for strategy, marketing and revenue. Frozen's tale of the newly crowned Queen Elsa struggling with her magical ice-controlling powers is a story seared into the memories of children and patient parents around the world, so it makes sense that the poster needed to focus on these elements. Flatt also wanted to stick to a recognisable ice-cold colour palette. The chosen design emerged from among several submissions by advertising agency Serino Coyne and was created by Olly Moss, a British artist based in Winchester, England. It features a stylised snowflake that incorporates the main characters through a clever use of negative space, which many observers might not notice immediately. Olly Moss is well known for creating alternative posters for old moviesOver 100 poster concepts were submitted by Serino Coyne, which have been generously shared with comments by Flatt. They provide a fascinating insight into how big companies sift through potential designs. Explore these potential posters in the gallery below by clicking left to right. Each caption sums up Flatt's feedback. Related articles: Negative space: 18 brilliant examples How iconic fantasy film posters were made How to animate the Disney way View the full article

Google's August Android Security Bulletin featured patches for nearly a dozen remote code execution bugs impacting Google's Pixel and Nexus handsets. View the full article

Smartphones have made it easy to snap photos and apply filters, but it's still hard to beat a photo captured on a powerful DSLR camera. Go beyond point and click to capture images you could never imagine on a phone. Get the DSLR Photography Course Bundle for 93% off the retail price! The DSLR Photography Course Bundle offers two in-depth courses that will teach you how to get started with your camera, then how to master the advanced tricks to capture incredible photos. Using a DSLR is an entirely different experience than using compact cameras or smartphones, but once you understand it, you’ll be able to take photos you'd never see on a smartphone. The over 10 hours of content in these courses will help you make the transformation. You can get the DSLR Photography Course Bundle on sale right now for 93% off. That’s an amazing saving on a course bundle that usually costs $394, and is too good of an offer to pass up if you want to master the art of photography! View the full article

If you work in web design or development then you'll want to attend Generate London on 20-22 September 2017, for lots of good reasons. The fifth annual conference for web designers and frontend developers is net magazine and Creative Bloq's flagship web event. Featuring 17 fantastic speakers, it covers web animations, performance, UX strategy, adaptive interfaces, accessibility, design and content sprints, and much more. Plus, on Thursday 10 August, get 50% off two-day conference passes and bundles in the 24-hour flash sale. And if all that wasn't enough to tempt you, here are even more reasons you don't want to miss this brilliant event. 01. There's a top lineup of 17 speakers We've gathered together some of the biggest names in web design for Generate London 2017 to share their knowledge and inspire you to create better work than ever before. Our stellar lineup includes Seb Lee-Delisle, Anton & Irene, Zell Liew, Jaime Levy, Aaron Gustafson, Steve Fisher, Léonie Watson, and nine other great speakers. Check out the whole lot here. 02. It's in an amazing venue The fifth annual Generate London will take place at the Royal Institution, home of the Christmas Lectures, which has promoted scientific learning and research since 1799. It's the perfect place to talk about the future of the web! 03. You'll learn about tomorrow's trends today Things move pretty fast in the web business, and whether you're in web design or frontend development you need to be up to speed on the latest web trends. Over two days and 16 sessions you'll learn about web animations, adaptive interfaces, prototyping, performance, UX strategy, accessibility, conversational design, and much more besides. The conference programme will also give you an inspiration boost. If you're running low on creative energy it can be easy to let your work become mundane. Attending events like Generate puts you in a room with energised, vibrant people who will remind you why the web is amazing and give you new perspectives from which to view your contribution. 04. You won't miss a thing Ever found yourself torn between two equally appealing conference sessions happening at the same time? That's not a problem at Generate London, as it's a single-track programme, which means you'll be able to attend all the sessions without missing out on anything. Also, videos and slide decks of all the sessions will be made available to attendees after the event, so you can dig deeper and don't have to spend ages taking notes. You can then even share them with the rest of your team. In fact, sharing what you've learnt is positively encouraged! Up your skills and get ahead of the game; book your Generate ticket today! 05. You'll enjoy a whole day of workshops As well as two days of inspiring and practical talks, Generate London also features an entire day of in-depth workshops. On 20 September, you can learn new skills from the best in the business. There are four workshops to choose from; you can learn to build scalable responsive components with Zell Liew, run design and content sprints with Steve Fisher, master user experience strategy with Jaime Levy, and concept, create, and sell with Anton & Irene. 06. It's a great networking opportunity As well as a lineup of quality speakers, Generate London also offers a great opportunity to forge new contacts among the other delegates. Whether it's during one of the session breaks, or later on at the post-conference happy hour, it's the perfect chance to meet other web professionals and expand your network. 07. You will stay ahead of the competition If you're not offering up-to-date services then you can be sure that potential clients will seek out other studios and agencies that do. Generate London is the perfect place to boost your skillset and get insight into where you should be focusing your efforts for the future. If you're not there then you can be sure that your competitors will be. Don't get left behind; book today! 08. There's a goodie bag and lunch Attendees will receive a jam-packed Generate goodie bag full of useful content, including the latest copy of net magazine. Lunch and refreshments will also be provided every day. 09. We're having a party, too Of course there's also a party, where you'll have a chance to do even more networking with the speakers and fellow attendees. This time we're at Fifty9 on Berkeley Square, straight after the first conference day on Thursday evening. 10. There's a variety of ticket options There is a variety of ticket options to suit everyone's schedule and budget. You can book a workshop-only pass, a single- or two-day conference pass or a full conference + workshop pass. There's also a student conference pass. And this Thursday, 10 August, you can get 50% off two-day conference passes as well as the conference and workshop bundles! If you buy the latter, you’ll be spending just £297.50, which is almost £100 cheaper than a standard conference pass alone! But you will need to hurry – there’s only a limited number of tickets available for Generate London's 24-hour flash sale, which starts and ends at midnight BST. Related articles: PixelPyros creator Seb Lee-Delisle shares why he loves open source Adaptive Web Design author shares his accessibility quest Interview: Anton & Irene View the full article

Chrome's DevTools are great, but it's possible to add even more exciting features to your internet browser to make web design and development easier. Here are 30 of our favourite Chrome extensions for web designers and developers. 01. WriteWell WriteWell can help you get any writing project up and runningAward-winning writing software WriteWell is a useful productivity tool to help with any writing project. The Chrome extension offers a vast template library as well as outlines, tips, samples and smart phrases to guide you through the writing process – articles, ebooks, novels, blogs, etc. 02. DomFlags A new way to work with DevToolsRadically speed up the processes of styling elements with DomFlags, a truly great extension that lets you create keyboard shortcuts for DOM elements! It's like having bookmarks for navigating the DOM; this will change the way you work with DevTools. 03. Highly Highlighter Highly, a new way to participate in industry conversationHere's an interesting way to bring people into a discussion: Highly lets you share highlights from articles on the web, so you can draw attention to the most significant bits of writing. 04. Booom Get a better Dribbble experience with BooomBooom makes Dribbble better by showing larger shots in lists; putting Like and Add to Bucket buttons in lists; making GIFs autoplay and bringing infinite scroll. 05. CSS-Shack This Chrome extension lets you create layer styles and export them into a CSS fileThis powerful Chrome extension allows you to create designs then export them into a CSS file for use on your site. It supports layers and contains a plethora of the tools that you're used to from your regular photo editor. 06. Marmoset With Marmoset you can create gorgeous code snapshots within secondsThis brilliant extension will take your code and output snapshots for your demos and mockups. You can also add themes and effects to create images for promo and your online portfolio. 07. iMacros for Chrome iMacros Chrome extension lets you record actions and save themAs a web developer, you may be required to test your webpages. Repeating the same actions over and over again can be a tiresome process. iMacros is a handy Chrome extension that lets you record your actions and save them so you only need to do them once. After that you can test your pages over and over again, repeating the action with a click of a button. It saves valuable time, freeing you to concentrate on more pressing matters. 08. Window Resizer This Chrome extension re-sizes the browser window in order to emulate various resolutionsThis Chrome extension is a useful tool that does exactly as it says on the tin – resizes your browser window to help you with your responsive website designs. Choose from a list of popular monitor dimensions or add custom sizes and resolutions for increased accuracy. 09. Project Naptha With Naptha you can highlight, copy, edit, and translate text from any image on the webIf you ever find yourself working from a mockup image with embedded text, Project Naptha could save you a world of mild irritation. Thanks to some smart OCR trickery it enables you to highlight, copy and paste text from any image; it can even translate it for you too. 10. WhatFont What font are they using? The WhatFont Chrome extension can tell you!A very useful Google Chrome extension, WhatFont allows developers and designers to identify the fonts being used on a webpage. So, if you stumble upon a fancy-looking web font that you want to use in one of your future projects, just hover over it and find out instantly which font it is. Next: 10 more Chrome extensions 11. YSlow YSlow tells you what's slowing your page downThis tool doesn't just check how quickly your webpage loads, it also tells you what, if anything, is slowing it down. YSlow tests your webpage against 23 of the 34 rules identified by Yahoo's performance team. It's an extremely useful tool to analyse webpages and it also suggests ways to improve their performance. 12. Web Developer The Web Developer Chrome extension provides a range of useful dev toolsAs a web developer, you might ask yourself how you have lived without this extension. It adds a toolbar button to Chrome with a plethora of useful web developer tools. It's the official port of the Web Developer extension for Firefox. 13. Page Ruler Draw a ruler to get pixel dimensions and positioning with Page RulerPage Ruler is a great tool for precisely measuring the elements on any webpage, then manipulating it for your benefit. Draw a ruler to get pixel dimensions and positioning. 14. Web Developer Checklist Fix issues quickly with this handy Chrome extensionThis tool allows you check if all of your webpages are following best practice when it comes to SEO, usability, accessibility and performance (page speed). So if, for example, you don't have an H1 tag on a webpage or if a webpage is missing its meta title or meta description, it will notify you so that you can fix the issue quickly. If you click the 'more info and help' link at the bottom of the extension, you will find a more in-depth checklist. 15. DevTools Autosave Automatically save any changes to a page's CSS and JS to its source fileA true gem for all web developers out there, DevTools AutoSave allows you to automatically save any changes that you make to a webpage's CSS and JS via the Chrome Dev Tools environment to its source file. It's easy to set up and use and it will save you lots of time and stress. 16. Instant Wireframe View live webpages with a wireframe overlayTurn any webpage into a wireframe with just one click. This Google Chrome extension helps web developers and designers view webpages, whether local or live on the web, with a wireframe overlay. 17. ColorZilla With ColorZilla you can get a color reading from any point in your browserThe ColorZilla Chrome extension is an advanced eyedropper, colour picker, gradient generator and useful colour tool that will help you in your design – right there in your browser window. 18. Streak CRM for Gmail Turn an email conversation into a trackable, assignable ticketStreak is the ultimate tool for managing CRM and support emails within Gmail. It allows you to turn a single email or an entire conversation into a trackable, assignable, organised ticket that you can manage yourself or share with others. 19. Search Stackoverflow Get your questions answered quickly with this must-have extensionIf you're a web developer then you've probably heard about Stack Overflow, the go to place for any development related issues. If not, then you definitely need to check it out. The community is thriving and it covers a wide range of topics from C# and Java to PHP and jQuery. This fantastic extension adds a search box directly into your browser, allowing you to search the vast resources of Stack Overflow. It's a must-have extension! 20. PHP Ninja Manual All the PHP 5.5 documentation you need without leaving the browserIt can be difficult to remember every function, so if you've been wasting hours searching for specific PHP functions on Google, this extension is bound to attract your attention. The PHP Ninja Manual provides you with all the PHP 5.5 documentation with examples in eight languages without having to leave your browser. Next: another 10 Chrome extensions 21. PerfectPixel This extension helps you ensure your site matches the design pixel for pixelDesigners hate it when their stunning design doesn't match up perfectly when it's coded. Perfect Pixel really is the perfect extension for web developers who are striving to develop sites that are accurate representations of designs. This easy to use extension allows you to put a semi-transparent image overlay over the top of your webpage and perform a per pixel comparison between them to ensure it is 100% accurate. 22. Code Cola Edit your webpages' CSS on the spotNot only does this tool allow you to view the source code of what you've been working on, but it also functions as a CSS editor. This means you can edit your webpages' CSS style on the spot and see the changes instantly. 23. User Agent Switcher See how your site looks using different devicesA great tool for seeing how a site looks using different user agents such as an iPad, iPhone or an Android device. This can be extremely useful if a site has been hacked, as you can view pages the way search engines see them. 24. IE tab Test webpages with different versions of IEOne of the most popular and useful IE emulators available on the web, this allows web developers to test webpages with different versions of IE directly in their Chrome browser. 25. PicMonkey Grab every image from a webpage with a click of a buttonThis is an easy-to-use free online photo editor that allows you to edit webpage images and screenshots. But that's not what makes it so good. PicMonkey also lets you grab every image and a screenshot of the entire page with a click of a button. Once you select an image you can edit it in any way you wish, from applying effects to changing exposure. 26. Chrome Daltonize Create images more suitable for viewing by those with Colour Vision DeficiencyColour Vision Deficiency (CVD) or colour blindness affects millions of people across the globe. This ingenious extension uses Daltonization, a technique that allows the creation of images more suitable for viewing by those with CVD. This fantastic extension can be used to simulate how images appear to people with CVD and to help you design a more accessible web app. 27. Check My Links Check My Links crawls through your webpage and looks for broken linksFinished building a site? Ah, but have you been through and checked all the links? No matter how careful you are, it's inevitable that you'll have overlooked one or two, and checking them all is a tedious chore. Unless! With the Check My Links extension you can simply put it to work and it'll comb through all the links on any page, highlighting valid ones in green and broken ones in red. 28. Flickr Tab Smarten up your Chome tabs with beautiful Flickr imagesAre you tired of your Chrome tabs looking dull when you open a new one? The answer to your prayers has arrived in the form of Flickr Tab. It's a simple little Extension that displays a popular Fickr photograph each time you open up a window. Click the photo to view it in Flickr, or click the username to see more photos from the photographer. 29. Google Art Project Make each new Chrome tab an adventure in art and discovery with the Google Art ProjectSimilar to Flickr Tab's glossy photos, Google's Art Project extension treats you to a high-res masterpiece from the likes of van Gogh and Monet in each new tab you open. If an image sparks your interest, click on it to go to the Google Cultural Institute website, which is full of information about the work and its creator. 30. Data Saver (Beta) Save cash when viewing designs on your mobile with Google's compression based Data SaverSo, your latest bill from your mobile provider was rather toe curling? Don't panic. You need Data Saver, from Google. The extension does what it says on the tin: it reduces the amount of data used when browsing the web. When enabled, Chrome will use Google servers to compress pages before you download them. There's only one caveat: SSL and incognito pages won't be included. Contributions: Creative Bloq staff Related articles: 3 handy Chrome extensions for frontend developers How to use Chrome developer tools to test layouts 23 steps to the perfect website layout View the full article

Whether you’re looking for freelance work, seeking a new job, or just wishing to build your personal brand, an online design portfolio is a must-have for any creative. But is yours letting you down? In this post, we provide a simple checklist of common portfolio mistakes, and how to fix them, quickly and easily. You might also want to check out these excellent design portfolio examples. 01. Addressing the wrong audience How to do it: interactive designer Nic Stauber has the right audience firmly in focus at his website When you first launch a portfolio website, your first feedback comes from family, friends and co-workers. So there’s always a natural impulse, conscious or subconscious, to fashion something that these particular people will go ‘wow!’ at. But that’s not the audience you need to be worrying about. You need to consider what a potential client or employer will be looking for and how they’ll be viewing your portfolio, which will usually be completely different from a friend or colleague. The former, for instance, will probably spend a long time looking at different aspects of your site; the latter will be seeking much more specific information, much faster. Once you start thinking along these lines, what you need to include on your portfolio site and how you organise it becomes a lot clearer. 02. Too much work on show You’re proud of everything you’ve done, and people want to see as much of your work as possible, right? Wrong. Potential clients and employers don’t wish to spend ages trawling through your back catalogue until they find something they like. They’re more likely to glance at one or two pieces, and make a snap decision. So you need to be ruthless in selecting only your absolute best work and putting it front and centre. While people are willing to rummage for cheap items at a jumble sale, when you enter a high-end store you see much smaller collection of carefully curated items. Apply the same logic to your portfolio site and you won’t go far wrong. There’s no 'ideal' number of examples to exhibit; that’s going to vary from creative to creative. But one thing’s for sure: the more work you do include, the more organised it needs to be, with a clear hierarchy and everything categorised in an easy-to-understand manner. Our list of 6 famous agency websites and what they can teach us has some examples of good portfolio organisation. 03. Lack of context How to do it: product designer Bjorn Meier provides plenty of detail about his projects There’s no point in just posting visuals by themselves, with no explanation of the context for which they were created. Let’s return to our potential client or employer. Ask yourself: what will they want to know? At the very least, probably a combination of the following: When was the work created? How was it created? Is this entirely your work, or a collaboration (in which case, who else was involved, and what part did you play?). What was the brief? Was the client happy? What was the timeline? What elements of the project are not shown here? That’s the bare minimum you need, but it doesn’t hurt to provide more. Remember in maths at school when you were told not just to give the answer, but “show your working”? That’s a good rule to apply to portfolio sites too. So if it’s possible (check with the client first!), consider writing a full case study, including notes on the design process; early sketches; rejected concepts and designs, and so forth. 04. Too little work on show While including too many examples of your work is the most common portfolio mistake, designers at the beginning of their careers can often make the opposite mistake: showing too little. Put simply, if the Work section of your website is too sparsely populated, it doesn’t give a great impression. Not had enough commissioned work? Then there’s nothing wrong with posting student projects, as long as you clearly explain what the brief was and how you fulfilled it. Don’t have enough student projects? Then just do some designs of your own, label them as ‘personal projects’, and again, explain the thinking behind them. Real-world commercial work is always preferable of course, but demonstrating that you can deliver something to a brief, even an imaginary one, is much better than leaving a blank space. 05. Vague and incomplete personal information How to do it: UX designer and art director Melanie Daveid has a top-notch ‘About me’ page As well as providing information about the work itself, you also need to provide a clear explanation of who you are and what you do, normally in an ‘About Me’ section. There’s a current trend to just add a ‘snappy’ or ‘witty’ tagline under the designer’s name, something like “Designer of things for money”. You might be able to get away with this if you’re extremely well known, but if not, this is a massive turn-off for clients or employers. Another common portfolio crime is making your contact details hard to find, or even non-existent. Again, if you’re a world-famous designer then refusing to give an email and saying “The best place to find me is on Twitter" might be acceptable. For the rest of us, it’s not, so just provide a damn email address. If you’re worried about spam, you can always write it in ‘code’, eg recast 'myname@gmail.com' as ‘myname [at] gmail [dot com]’. 06. A lack of purpose Many portfolio websites avoid making the previous obvious mistakes but are still failures because it’s just not clear what they’re trying to achieve. Often that’s because the designer doesn’t know themselves, beyond a general ‘well, you’ve got to have a website, haven’t you?’ But if you don’t think about what you want your website to achieve, how will you know if you’ve achieved it? So before you start, sit down to have a long, hard think about what your main goals are. For instance, if you’re looking to get a job, have you made that clear? People are not telepathic so if you don’t say, people will assume you’re happy to remain a freelancer. Alternatively, maybe you already have enough freelance work, but wouldn’t mind getting some better paid commissions? In which case, why not make your preferred rates clear, and avoid long email conversations with time-wasters who just want to lowball you? Or perhaps you don’t want more work right now, but just want to steadily build up your name and reputation. In which case, you’ll want to think about including testimonials, press reviews and other ‘social proof’ to bolster your standing. 07. It doesn’t work on mobile How to do it: Design director Jürgen Hassler’s smartly art-directed site performs as well on mobile as on desktop The best way for someone to view your portfolio is always going to be on a big, beautiful widescreen monitor. But you can’t guarantee that’s what will happen. These days, it’s increasingly likely that potential clients and employers will be viewing your portfolio site on mobile devices. So you need to make sure it’s not going to look awful on a small screen. Most importantly, can you view the images properly, or do they reduce down to tiny, formless thumbnails? If the answer to that question is yes, then your site is not fit for purpose. 08. It’s out of date Once you’re happy with your portfolio site, don’t just ‘set it and forget it’. Potential clients and employers may well look at your site a number of times over the course of a year. If nothing new is added, they may assume you’ve had no work. So think about how you can refresh the site on a regular basis. Could you add new work examples, refresh the design or maybe even add a blog? Also, sign on with Google Analytics to find out how many people are visiting the site, and which bits they’re most interested in. Don’t jump to unwarranted conclusions, but do use this information to improve the site and its content, bit by bit, over time. Finally, it’s always helpful to check out what other creatives have done with their portfolio sites to get inspiration for improvements to yours. Start with the great examples we’ve featured here, from Nic Stauber, Bjorn Meier, Melanie Daveid and Jürgen Hassler, then check out our full selection of the best design portfolios. View the full article

Colour is a powerful tool for designers, and gradient colour is currently being used to add depth and manipulate perceptions of shape and form in a range of products. From mirrors to scarfs, these ombré effects applied to solid objects give them an ethereal quality, while subtle gradients serve to enhance angles and form. Here's our selection of some eye-catching examples of the gradient colour trend in action. The designer's guide to using colour in branding 01. Curved mirrors Germans Ermičs’ Shaping Colour collection forms an investigation into the relationship between colour and shape. Applying dense pigment bleeds to simple geometric forms, Ermičs' work celebrates the power of colour to transform. 02. Mirrors with a coloured hue Offround Hue is the latest addition to the Seeing Glass collection by Sabine Marcelis, in collaboration with Brit van Nerven for Etage Projects. The shaped mirrors aim to disrupt the viewer’s perception of objects and the spaces reflected in them. 03. Menswear A contrasting design by Northern Ireland's Jonathan Anderson At JW Anderson’s spring/summer 2017 menswear show, oversized shirts in cool blues and greys had the appearance of having been dipped in warm shades of yellow and brown. 04. Perfume packaging A subtle bleed transforms this fragrance bottle Fragrance brand Regime des Fleurs makes its fragrances stand out by using distinctive packaging, which blends vintage aesthetics and baroque detailing with super synthetic colour bleeds. 05. Clothing and accessories The colour cascades down this scarf as it slinks down the stairsPrint All Over Me has collaborated with wallpaper designer Calico and Brooklyn concept store Swords-Smith to produce a collection of scarves and garments printed with Calico’s Night and Aurora designs. This article originally appeared in Computer Arts issue 266. Buy it here! Related articles: The designer's guide to using colour in branding Mix more realistic-looking colours How to pick the perfect colour palette every time View the full article

Impressionist artwork was fresh and spontaneous, and executed with bold brushstrokes that didn’t reveal too much detail. For this workshop, I’ll paint a contemporary café scene in watercolour using Impressionist artist methods (and a photograph) for reference. Impressionistic techniques also match the essence of painting with watercolour. Washes are applied with one decisive brushstroke, and are never corrected or smoothed out. This gives the painting an almost unfinished look, enabling the viewer to finish the picture. How to draw and paint – 100 pro tips and tutorials I usually try to create a painting in four stages: 01. Visualise how I want the final painting to look You can produce a small pencil sketch or tonal study, if it helps. This stage will help cement the composition, the focal points and sources of light. 02. Start to paint very basic shapes with a large brush This sets the tones and overall mood of the work. At this stage you should avoid adding any details and leave large areas of paper untouched. 03. Turn the basic shapes into more 3D objects Next, once everything’s dry, I turn the basic shapes into more 3D objects by painting shades and shadows, reflections. I also start adding in people (though I did this early in this painting), while still avoiding any details. 04. Add details and accent colours Painting with either the tip of the brush or a smaller brush, I use thicker pigments and explore dry brush effects. At this point, it’s best to hold back in case you overwork the composition. Slow down and paint decisively and then leave it alone. Remember, it’s for the viewer to 'finish the picture'. With this four-part process in mind, I’ll now walk you through how I would paint a contemporary café scene in watercolour. 01. Start with light colours Find the focus of your painting. For my picture, this will be the window and the waiter. I mix a light wash for the walls and paint in that area. Making sure I follow the correct perspective, I have the left and right window visible in the picture. I then start to paint in the background around the waiter. 02. Add the figures Using a thicker mix of black, Ultramarine Blue and a bit of red, I paint the person on the left, as well as the waiter’s trousers and head. I leave an unpainted area for the two chairs in front of these figures. I will use this negative-space painting method throughout the scene. 03. Paint the foreground Moving to the bottom of the paper, I paint the foreground. Using lots of water and pigment, I create swift, spontaneous brush strokes with my largest brush. I leave the top of the chairs unpainted. 04. Add the tables Continuing with a dark colour, I make the paint a bit thicker and hold the brush at a steeper angle to the paper, to paint the round tables. I leave the tops white and paint in the reflections with vertical strokes, using more water. Every brush stroke is done once, then left alone. 05. Curtains and reflections I paint reflections on what looks like two mirrors in the centre, at the top of the paper. For the red curtains I apply a dark tone on the top of them, using wet-in-wet. The colour will run a bit with this technique, but don’t try to correct anything. It’s tempting to add details, but leave them for the last step. 06. Abstract speed Now I go to the top left-hand side to add in a grey/blue colour. I try not to be precise, because this isn’t an important part of the painting. It’s even better if it’s painted quickly in an almost abstract manner. I now step back, take a break, and assess what I’ve done so far. 07. Paint the ceiling I mix dark greys and use more water and a larger brush to paint the ceiling. This is the last area to be finished before I start on the shadows. With the tip of the brush, I roughly paint in some details, such as the cornice details where the walls meet the ceiling. 08. In the shadows In the reference photo the light is coming through the windows, so I paint the shadow line at approximately 45 degrees on the wall. For shadows, I use a grey-blue mix. It should be watery and transparent, but with enough pigment so that I only have to paint it once. 09. Add details I take a thick dark pigment and practice on a piece of paper to check the brushstrokes. They should look like they were painted with a dry brush. I work with short, thick strokes, only adding in a few details from the photo. I have also added some light ochre to the bottom of the pane. 10. Final observation If you stand back, you’ll see many areas that could be ‘improved’ or areas where more details could be added. Don’t do it! The only things I add are a few broad strokes indicating creases in the fabric at the bottom of the picture. I also make the very bottom of the picture darker, so as not to draw attention to that area. This article was originally published in Paint & Draw issue 7. Buy it here. Related articles: How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorials 15 inspiring examples of pointillism How to paint realistic waves View the full article

Landing your dream job isn't just down to perfecting your design portfolio or creative resume – you also need to present yourself the right way in your interview. I have been in the room for a lot of web tech interviews, and on the way, I have picked up a few tips for web designers and developers looking to land a new job. The following advice will help you convince interviewers you're right for the job – and lots of this is relevant to other disciplines beside web design. 30 brilliantly creative resumés01. Dress like them Don’t show up to an interview for a tech job wearing a suit. Unless perhaps you are interviewing to be the CFO – but probably not even then. I don’t know any companies where designers or developers wear suits. It makes you look out of place, and that is the opposite of your mission – your goal is to convince them that you belong there. How should you dress? Like them! This is easy if you have a chance to visit the workplace in advance. If that is not an option, look at the photos on the company’s website and learn what you can from its About us page. Many team photos are taken in the office, during a work day. If they have a blog, you will almost certainly find photos from events that give you a sense of what the dress code is like, if there is one at all. When in doubt, just wear whatever clothes you would normally wear when you want to look ‘nice’ but still feel comfortable and natural. Don’t buy brand new shoes that will hurt your feet, or wear itchy new underpants. 02. Know what you're walking into Some companies conduct really casual interviews over coffee, while others have a very formal process with multiple sections. Some companies will ask you to do a sample project, or present an example of your work. In order to feel confident, it really helps to know what you should prepare for. So when you're invited to the interview, it's perfectly reasonable for you to ask about the company’s process. Be respectful of their time (hiring is very time-consuming) and don’t ask so many questions that you seem desperate or paranoid. But feel entirely justified in requesting the following facts: Who are you meeting with? Which position are you being considered for (seriously, this gets confused a lot)? Are there any tests or evaluations that you’ll be asked to perform? Where does this interview fit within the overall hiring process? 03. Ask questions At some point in the interview you’ll be asked if you have any questions. ‘No’ is the wrong answer. Having zero questions makes you seem disinterested and clueless. When I am the interviewer I learn as much about a candidate from what they ask me as from what I ask them. I’m much more likely to hire a candidate who asks smart questions about things that matter rather than someone who just wants to know how long lunch is. The questions you decide to ask the interviewer are your chance to talk about anything you want to. You might take this chance to (subtly) demonstrate your familiarity with the company, or mention something you want them to know about you. At the very least, it’s an opportunity to show what kinds of things you are interested in. Don’t waste it! 04. Don't panic about tests Some companies ask candidates to do puzzles or tests. I have never used these as an interviewer because they tend to make candidates anxious, and at best they demonstrate how someone works when they are nervous and uncomfortable. Hopefully this doesn't strongly resemble what it will be like to work at that company. Knowing this won’t necessarily get you out of doing them, but hopefully you can relax a bit in the knowledge that the interviewer’s attempt to test you has actually revealed something silly about them. Remember, you can learn a lot about an organisation from their hiring process. For an entry-level job, it’s probably safer not to point out that you know their hiring process is flawed, but you can use this knowledge to your advantage by not getting fooled into thinking it matters how quickly you solve the puzzle. So stay calm. By simply not panicking, you demonstrate you are smart and confident enough to know that solving a silly brain teaser doesn't indicate how intelligent you are. Seize every chance to interact in ways that show your ability to be part of the team I recommend thinking out loud and asking plenty of ‘meta’ questions. For example, if you are asked how to calculate the total number of ketchup bottles in North America, ask what the figure will be used for and explain that the goal affects the accuracy requirements, which will dictate your methodology. If you are asked how to move Mount Fuji, ask ‘How far?’ (after all, it is already in motion). This helps shift the focus away from whether you get the ‘correct’ answer (if there is one) and more towards your process for solving problems. 05. Pretend it's your first day An interviewer’s job is not only to find someone with the skills to perform the work, but also who enhances the existing team. If there are dogs in the office and you are a dog lover, pet them (without being annoying). If a designer is using a special pen you love, compliment it, and if a conversation strikes up, don’t forget to introduce yourself. If a technical question arises and the interviewer pulls in one of the current engineers to help answer it, welcome the situation as if you are already colleagues. Seize every opportunity to interact in ways that demonstrate your ability to do the work and be part of the team, even if it’s only for a minute or two. Don't try to prove that you are better than the existing employees. You're not competing with them for the job, and it will make them dislike you. A smart boss will be more impressed by your ability to empower others than to upstage them. 06. Know what they do If you're interviewing at a design agency that has one or two long-term clients, know who they are and what they do. This is a good idea for a number of reasons. It helps to show that you ‘get it’. You don’t want them to start telling you about something important, and be forced to interrupt them to ask who they are talking about. If you are interviewing with a startup, download their app and spend some time learning how it works. If there are features or design decisions you don’t understand, or if you have ideas on how you could improve something, these are great questions to ask (politely) when it’s your turn. Just make sure you are also respectful and complimentary. 07. Be on time Do I really need to explain this? If you are hired, most jobs will expect you to get to work on time, so demonstrate you are good at that. Know in advance where you’re going and how long it takes to get there so you arrive with extra time. Don’t show up for the interview super-early. That’s awkward. Find a coffee shop or somewhere comfortable nearby to relax, then arrive five or 10 minutes before your appointment. 08. Interview a lot Practice makes perfect, and the more you interview the more comfortable you will feel. So do it a lot – not just when you desperately need a job. At this point in my career, I genuinely enjoy going to interviews. I don’t get anxious because I know that if the interview is unpleasant, working there probably would be, too. I also like seeing how others teams work, and I treat it as a chance to meet interesting people and expand my professional network. This is important because it lets me focus more on the process and less on the outcome. Even if nothing comes of it initially, I don’t consider it a failure. There have been many instances when I have worked with someone long after the interview, on a completely different project. So stay positive (even if you think it is going poorly) and have fun. This article was originally published in net magazine issue 288. Subscribe here Related articles: How to interview for a design job 6 terrifying job interview questions tamed 30 brilliantly creative resumés 15 free resume templates View the full article

WordPress powers some of the web’s biggest and most impressive sites. Now it can host yours as well. Pick up the skills and tools you need to get your site online with the Wpbasin Ultimate WordPress Bundle, on sale now with 98% off the retail price! There's no web hosting platform more malleable than WordPress – you just need the right tools to make the most of it. You'll find everything you need in the Wpbasin Ultimate WordPress Bundle. You'll score tons of HTML templates to design your site, themes to make it look great, and plugins to give it all the functionality you require. You'll even get a full year of hosting to get your site online as soon as it's ready. The Wpbasin Ultimate WordPress Bundle is valued at $3,655, but you can get it now for 98% off the retail price. You won’t find a better deal on such an incredible bundle, so grab it today! View the full article

Writing better CSS doesn't have to be a painstaking ordeal. A few minor adjustments to how you work within your CSS code file can have a big impact. In this article, we'll take a look at eight simple ways you can improve your CSS skills and write cleaner, more efficient, and better CSS code. 01. Start with a CSS Reset CSS Reset gives you a clean base to work withSome might argue that using a CSS Reset is unnecessary. However, a CSS Reset allows you to start with a clean base, making it easier to style your website, with more predictable outcomes across the board. A CSS Reset resets or overrides the default styles of the browser. You may write your own, use one of the many resets available online, or use a combination of the two. 02. Know when to use CSS shorthand Shorthand should reduce your file size and help speed up load timesCSS shorthand enables you to set multiple properties of an element in a single line. Using shorthand saves space and takes less time to load. However, you shouldn't use it for everything. Sometimes longhand provides much-needed clarity. But more importantly, when you only need to set one or two properties – or you simply need to override something – longhand may actually be better. Something else to remember: when you're using shorthand, the ignored properties will reset, which could have an undesirable effect. 03. Keep it DRY Don't repeat yourselfQuite possibly the best advice for writing better CSS code is to follow the DRY methodology. DRY means 'don't repeat yourself' – essentially, don't use the same bits of code over and over again. One way to keep things DRY in CSS is to group things together. Let's look at an example. Original CSS Refactored and DRY As you can see, not only will this reduce the overall size of your CSS file – which creates faster load times – but you'll also benefit in the area of maintenance too. If the color property needs updating, you're only updating it one spot. You can also use CSS custom properties to help stay DRY. Custom properties are created like so: And then can be used anywhere within your CSS code, as often as you'd like: 04. Stop over-using !important There are very few occasions where you need to use !important. It's one of the most – if not the most – misunderstood and over-used declarations. Don't get me wrong, !important does have its place, but generally web developers use it in desperation when things don't look right. So to fix things, they give their rule a little more weight by adding the !important declaration to it. The problem is, this starts to create a domino effect that rapidly turns into a maintenance nightmare, as more and more things are declared !important. Only use !important when it's absolutely necessary. 05. Keep consistent Regardless of how you write your CSS, and in which order you add the properties, keep it consistent. Some people order their properties alphabetically, while others use more of a logical approach – for example, organising things by line length or type. I opt for the former, but it's entirely up to you. The bottom line is whatever you choose, stick with it so it's easy to find things later. 06. Name things intelligently Use a standard naming convention for your selectorsThis seems like a no-brainer, but when naming your selectors, don't get overly complicated. Be succinct and stick with a standard naming convention. Some things to consider when coming up with your selector names: Avoid presentation words: These are the ones that involve colour and display location (for example, green-text or top-menu-bar) Only use lowercase: CSS is case-sensitive, so don't create names like, MeNuBaR. It should be noted, however, that camel case (menuBar) is an acceptable practice, just not preferred in some cases Separate multiple words using a dash: For example, main-menu. You may also use camel case (mainMenu), but again, this is often not preferred Don't be too specific: You'll end up using multiple selectors for the same type of element. For instance, list-one and list-two can be combined, creating a single list-items 07. Add comments when appropriate While it's true that good code doesn't need comments, it's also true that adding comments to code is necessary in some cases. The rule of thumb here is that if the source code will benefit from the comment, then add it; otherwise, don't. If you're wondering when comments might be necessary, here are a few examples: Commented code: If you comment out a specific portion of code, for a particular reason, leave a comment explaining that reason. If you don't, you may not remember why you commented it out in the first place Hot fixes: If you add a 'hot fix', it might be a good idea to add a comment explaining it too Reminders: You're likely working on more than one project at any given moment. If your attention is pulled before you have a chance to complete something, you can use comments as a reminder for what you still have left to do Explanations: If a section of code is unclear, and you feel an explanation would help clear it up, then add a comment – it's that simple 08. Explore Flexbox Flexbox is the latest game-changer in web designWhen it comes to aligning elements on the page, the Flexible Box Layout module (or Flexbox) gives you complete control. Using flex containers and flex items you're able to precisely define how things look. Flexbox also enables you to arrange items vertically on a page, which wasn't possible with floats. It's a little tricky to get your head around, but well worth it. Start by reading our Web designer's guide to Flexbox. Read more: 5 tips for super-fast CSS 5 of the best resources for learning HTML and CSS What CSS framework should you use? View the full article

No matter your final use, most scenes centred on a man-made structure will benefit from a touch of the organic. The contrast in colour, texture and form can really help add interest to the final render, as well as bring life and interest into a piece. Though there are ready-made options, it's best to know how to efficiently create your own pretty easily. To do this, you can make good use of Cinema 4D's MoGraph tools, with a very low polygon proxy object used as a placeholder. The process is simple but effective and is easily adaptable to different needs. Files are available below, but try creating your own in order to get a better understanding of how it all comes together in practice. Download the files and accompanying video for this tutorial. 01. Create leaves Use the supplied leaf section or build your ownFirst off we need our leaf section. You can use the one supplied or create your own. The key is to use a format such as .png that allows for alpha channels and add a normal map as well, to help sell the details. Once you have that, apply it to a simple plane, bent in the middle to add a little life. Try to keep to around six to ten polygons. 02. Make low-poly object Use a simple low-poly object as the base for your plantNow create a quick low-poly object to act as the growth base. Remember that modelling to scale will help. Make any shape you like and add any other details you need such as stems or trunks. Then, move your leaf axis point to the start of the stem, pointing along its length. 03. Add a cloner As you clone more leaves your plant will look more organicAdd a Cloner to the scene, with the leaf as its child. At first there will only be a clone at each vertex of the underlying mesh, so change the Distribution setting to Surface and increase the count. If you have a flat underside, it might look a bit odd, in which case delete the bottom poly of the growth base object. As you go on it will begin to look more organic. 04. Add a random effector Finish off by adding some variation to your foliageTo finish up, add some variation by adding a Random Effector. Experiment with the settings to suit your needs but try to keep any scaling changes uniform, otherwise your leaves will stretch. Rotation and positional changes along all three axes can work well. If you find the faces of the leaves are too random, try changing the Up vector to +Y in the Cloner. Add more clones if you need to, until you are happy with the result. This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 223; buy it here! Related articles: Cinema 4D tutorials: 34 projects to up your 3D skills How to master Cinema 4D's new object tracker Is this the best 3D foliage plug-in? View the full article

Corel Painter 2018's range of Thick Paint brushes enable you to mimic the look and feel of thick paint in your digital artworks. Right now you can take advantage of a free, fully functional 30-day trial of Corel Painter 2018, so you can try them out for yourself. Sign up for a trial here. Since its launch, Corel Painter has brought artists the freedom to create exactly what they have in their minds. It has gained praise especially for bringing classic art practices and time-honoured techniques into the digital realm. The most recent addition to Corel Painter's range of traditional art tools is its Thick Brushes, which use state-of the art Natural Media technology to simulate thick paint effect with startling realism. Building texture The range includes all the tools you'd find in an art supply store: different sized bristle brushes and palette knives carefully crafted to mimic their real-world counterparts. You can use them to blend, build up, push, pull and scrape paint using the pressure, tilt, and rotation of your stylus. You can also adjust the transparency of your brushstrokes and control how the paint interacts with the texture of the paper, opening up a world of creative possibilities. To really give your paintings depth, use the brushes to create a traditional impasto effect, complete with ridges of paint. Adjust the shadows in the canyons and the ambient lighting and watch your digital artworks come to life. Intuitive UI Corel Painter 2018 is set up to deliver versatile, precise control over brush loading: tap the property bar shortcut and drag to load the brush, with a handy cursor that displays the exact amount and colour of paint you've loaded. Download your free Corel Painter trial now The Thick Paint property bar offers a range of presets, as well as quick access to settings that allow you to do things like ensure the brush never runs out of paint and control how your new brushstrokes blend with existing ones. All this means you can spend more time focusing on your work and less fiddling around with the UI. Sign up for your free 30-day Corel Painter trial now to start experimenting with the Thick Brush range. View the full article

When it comes to 3D portfolios, there are many good reasons to have a dedicated portfolio website. It looks a darn sight more professional than using someone else’s platform, like Behance or ArtStation, and means that clients and other people in the industry are much more likely to check you out. Whether you're freelance or a studio, having visual examples of your work all in one place is much more convincing than a website with just a basic description and contact details. In this post, we look at five new or redesigned 3D portfolio sites that have hit the web in 2017. And while most of these sites won’t win any web design awards, they still offer a decent showcase for some great 3D work. 01. Goodbye Kansas Goodbye Kansas’ portfolio site showcases its work across a wide variety of mediaGoodbye Kansas is a fast-growing Swedish studio offering VFX, CGI, motion capture and animations for games, films, TV series and commercials. And it had a very good reason to refresh its website in 2017. “This year we merged four of the studios in the Goodbye Kansas Group, when Fido, Bläck Studios, Pixel Grinder and Imagination Studios became Goodbye Kansas Studios,” explains Nils Lagergren. “This also included new logo and branding, so a new united site was an absolute necessity, and a great chance to show our unique width and scope of services.” Designed in close collaboration with OneMotion, it aims to present the company’s work to both new and returning clients, as well as artists looking for employment, he adds. “We're always looking for talented artists, and you can apply for work directly on the site.” Selecting the work to include in the portfolio was a challenge, Lagergren continues. “We don't limit ourselves to just doing VFX but supply a wide range of services... And it's always difficult to show all of that at a glance.” Its solution was to choose to feature its best work in the intro reel and showcase nine of its most important projects on the landing page, making sure it covers all of the main business areas from VFX to creature design, and mediums from games to movies. "We also use tags to help visitors browse around our extensive archive of projects.” 02. Adam Benton Benton specialises in conceptual design and photoreal visualisationAdam Benton, aka Kromekat, is an award-winning artist focusing on conceptual design and photoreal visualisation of concepts, science fiction illustration, visual tutorial creation and CG lighting. “It’s important to me to have a bespoke portfolio website,” he says. “It’s both a way of attracting potential clients (design agencies, studios etc) and the place to which I direct all incoming artwork queries, from people who may have found me via other means.” This year he decided his website, which he built using a WordPress theme, was due for a refresh. “Apart from not having properly populated the site, I was already tired of its look,” he says. “So I found and purchased a new template I really liked the functionality of (good gallery and blog layout options, as well as being fully responsive and with social media connections). I finally grabbed some time to customise the new template to suit my desired look, and made sure I put in the time to populate it fully this time. “It’s a fairly big undertaking to set up a new site,” he notes. “So I really took the time to look at how the template and site worked, and made the best use of its in-built shortcodes, and image/movie displaying options... Finally having everything integrated has totally altered the way I work with my site, and makes me want to keep it up-to-date.” Curating his work is still a tough challenge, though. “In previous incarnations of my sites, I’d upload almost everything, feeling the need for a complete overview, or archive of my work,” he says. “But, from a professional point of view, you really need to shave it down to the best, or most relevant work.” 03. Videarium Arch-viz studio wanted its work to sit front and centre on its portfolio siteVidearium is an architectural visualisation studio based in Madrid with global clients, including architects, real estate developers and marketing managers, interior designers and industrial designers. And with its new portfolio site, it wanted its work to sit front and centre. “Our goal was to get an elegant and minimalist style where, at a glance, attention was directed exclusively to the images,” explains 3D architectural visualiser and architect, Güido Pilo. “This is one of the reasons we chose a white background. We think that giving this kind of elegant and minimalist look, as well as being an expression of our personal taste, helps us to attract our target audience.” Videarium designed the site in-house, and explains that “curating the portfolio is about striking the balance between the best quality images and the need to convey wide ranging types and styles of case studies to potential clients.” 04. Husni Qamhiyeh Spanish artist Qamhiyeh recommends WordPress to other 3D artistsHusni Qamhiyeh is a character modeller and texturister/ 3D architectural visualiser living and working in Granada, Spain. He launched his website in June, and is using it to showcase his professional work to recruiters and potential clients, such as animation and videogame studios. That means careful curation of projects is of the utmost importance. “This industry judges an artist by the quality of his work,” he says, “so it’s important that the site show only the best, professional-quality assets.” Qamhiyeh built the site himself in WordPress and he’d certainly recommend the platform to other artists, he adds. “There are many templates that satisfy the needs of a 3D artist's portfolio – it’s easy to use, and isn't expensive,” he enthuses. Check out our list of top-quality WordPress portfolio themes, some of them costing as little as $9. 05. Etienne Godiard Godiard’s site showcases one project representing each of his multiple skillsetsEtienne Godiard is a French art director working for brands including La Française des Jeux, Daler Rowney and Total. And his simple yet stylish portfolio site, which he built himself, shows off his 3D, motion and branding work to great effect. So much so, that it’s surprising to hear that he’s relatively new to digital design. “Redesigning my website was a personal challenge. I used to focus on print when I finished my studies, last year. Then I realised that digital was so important and also so extraordinary to experiment with that I've learned 3D, motion, and also WordPress. “I was trying to blend all those skills in this website,” he adds. “It took me three months to build, with a combination of customised plug-ins, some skills in HTML/CSS and a lot of motivation.” His biggest challenges were to make the site responsive, he says, and to decide which projects to include in the portfolio. “Choosing what to include is always hard, which is why I've tried to represent the different kinds of media I'm working on, with one project for each.” View the full article

Recently, I was asked by French designer Fabien Barral of Mr Cup Studio to contribute to his beautiful Letterpress Calendar project. As part of this crowd-funded project, 13 designers were each given an inspirational phrase to incorporate into their design. My phrase was: If everything has already been done, try doing it even better. This was the perfect opportunity to show what I could do in Affinity Designer, the Apple Award-winning vector graphics editor from Serif. I discovered Affinity Designer simply by chance online, and snapped it up when it was first released. I played about with it a few times, but I only really started to use it when my subscription to Adobe had ended. From there I decided to switch to Affinity full-time. The first thing that really grabbed me about Affinity Designer was the sheer speed of the software and how intuitive and fun it was to use. There are so many features I love – especially the Symbols tool, which I will go into a little more depth about below. This software is a great option for professional designers and, given the price, there’s no excuse not to own it, even if you’re just using it as a backup. For the Letterpress calendar, I was given free rein – the only requirement was that the piece included my given phrase. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up! Here’s a step-by-step guide to how I created by piece, with some tips for making the most of Affinity Designer. 01. Set up your project Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image In my work I almost always use a grid, because this allows me to quickly and accurately check the spacing of my lines and keep things contained. With the calendar piece I needed to fit a lot of detail into a small frame, so had to make sure my design was accurate and symmetrical from the start. 02. Try the snapping feature One feature I love using is the ability to snap your lines to the grid. This makes precise linework very straightforward and helps streamline and speed up the design process, leaving you time to experiment. I almost always work in mono-line and aim for utmost precision, as this can make or break a piece of work. You don’t want to let down a great concept with sloppy execution. Affinity Designer easily matches any other software for its precision, with the ability to zoom in over 100 million per cent. 03. Build your basic frame At this stage you want to build a basic frame that all your detailing will fit inside. This saves a lot of headaches, as you can be sure all the work you’re doing is in the right place. I usually go for a square or circle and build into it, adding smaller frames and filling the inners with hatching. 04. Add hatching in the gaps Creating hatching in Affinity Designer is easy. Create a vertical or diagonal line using the Pen tool and simply hold cmd/ctrl and drag in the direction you wish the hatching to run in, then press cmd/ctrl+J repeatedly to duplicate the line as many times as you need. You don’t just have to use hatching, you could use a small repeated pattern – just be careful you don’t make your design too complicated, or it may be lost in print. 05. Add detail with the Rotate and Duplicate tools In my design I wanted to repeat the dots that appear around my vine motif. To do this, firstly make a circle to acts as a base to rotate around (this will later become part of my vine motif). Create a smaller circle above the base circle. Then with the smaller circle selected, use the Show Rotation Center tool from the top bar, and drag the crosshair symbol into the centre of the base circle. Holding down shift+cmd, drag the smaller circle around the circumference of the base circle until you reach the angle of your choosing, and release. From there press cmd+J to duplicate the smaller circle around the base. It takes a little playing about to get things spot on and a little time to ensure your pattern is evenly spaced around the base. 06. Use the Symbol tool for pattern work The Symbol tool in Affinity Designer is a genius feature that speeds my workflow up massively. With it, I’m able to create an object and mirror it in real-time. I can repeat the design as many times as I wish, anywhere on my artboard. This enables me to create patterns incredibly quickly, and see whether a concept will work as I’m designing it. This feature makes me work in a completely different way – I’ve come up with visuals I would have had difficulty dreaming up without it. 07. Prepare your work for print When preparing this illustration for print, I had made sure to group up specific segments of the piece (as pictured in the GIF above). This helped me hugely when it came to export this piece, as there were a whopping 4,578 separate objects. From there I was able to easily expand the strokes and use the Pathfinder tool to join up all my overlapping objects. The aim is to end up with as few objects as possible, in order to minimise the chance of any details or information being lost in the printing process. Get 20% off the official Affinity Designer Workbook Affinity Designer, winner of an Apple Design Award, is available now for Mac and Windows, with an iPad version in advanced development. You can learn how to do similar projects to this with the help of the official Affinity Designer Workbook, which is currently available with 20 per cent off. It’s full of information ranging from core skills, design tips and tricks, to advanced techniques. The book takes you through the whole journey using enjoyable, easy to follow projects. Buy your copy now. View the full article

You're reading Design Stereotypes: Masculine and Feminine Design Techniques, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! A user’s first impression of your site can be a lasting one. In the first few seconds, a person decides to stick with your content or move on. They will also make decisions about whether your site fits their needs. And that first impression has a lot to do with sex. Male and female users […] View the full article

Criminals used a typo-squatting technique and uploaded rogue JavaScript libraries to a popular code repository npm. View the full article

ICS-CERT published advisories this week warning users of Siemens molecular imaging products of publicly exploits for Windows 7 versions of those devices. View the full article

Card-based website layouts have taken over the web. Made popular by Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook and Google, cards have become a go-to design pattern for many different use cases. It’s not hard to see why. Cards work perfectly within responsive web design. As self-contained units, they can be moved, shuffled and mixed with different content types. They also respond easily on different screen sizes, from single columns on mobile devices to multi-column on larger devices. Steps to the perfect website layoutThe ZURB team has used card-based layouts in its design work for years. Its frontend framework, Foundation, has always sought to equip web designers with the tools they need to quickly design and build responsive websites by including a wide range of modular and flexible components. Version 6.3 added to this collection of building blocks brings a brand new off-canvas implementation, responsive accordions/tabs, and a powerful new card component. In this tutorial we’ll be learning how to create a responsive card-based UI that takes advantage of Foundation’s Flexbox-based grid to open up a whole slew of possibilities. 01. Set up a development environment The first step is to set up a development environment. For this tutorial, we’ll be using a node-based development environment, so you need to install Node.js. The details to do this depend on your environment, so check here to find out what to do. Once you have Node installed, install the Foundation CLI using npm install -g foundation-cli, which will make it easy to set up a new Foundation project. 02. Start a new project Let’s create a new project based on the ZURB template. Run the command foundation new net-magazine-tutorial, select ‘A website (Foundation for Sites)’, ‘net-magazine-tutorial’ and then ZURB Template. This will set up a project template based on Foundation, complete with build system and development server. The template comes with a sample page in src/pages/index.html. For simplicity, we’ll remove that sample and replace it with an empty <header> </header> to start from scratch building out our card-based UI. Run npm start from the command line to run the development server, and you should see a bare HTML page ready for cards. 03. Create a card Now it’s time to create our first card. For now, let’s just put it straight inside a section with the class .cards-container. When creating a card using Foundation, there are three core classes to be aware of: .card, .card-section and .card-divider. For more advanced users, each of these corresponds to a SCSS mixin (card-container, card-section and card-divider). A simple card with the Foundation Yeti on it, header and footer created using the card-divider classBut, for this tutorial we will use the default classes for simplicity. The .card class is the container; every card will live within a .card. This defines things like borders, shadows, and default colouring. The .card-section class defines an expandable content block, where you might put content, while the .card-divider class defines a non-expanding block, such as a footer, header or divider. Let’s use all of these classes to create our first, basic card. 04. Add component styles If we just do this, our card will be huge, expanding to fill the entire screen. We’re going to deal with overall sizing shortly, but for now let’s use this as an excuse to learn how to add component styles in the ZURB template. Add a file _card.scss to src/assets/scss/components/ specifying a max-width: 300px for .card and include the file in our main CSS by adding @import components/card; to src/assets/scss/app.scss. 05. Make your cards reusable In order to create a repeatable layout with multiple cards, we’re going to want our cards to be reusable components that we can plug in over and over again. The ZURB template that we’re using for this tutorial uses a templating language called Handlebars, which includes the ability to create partials, or reusable blocks of code. To move our card implementation into a partial, simply cut and paste the .card component we built into a file in src/partials, say src/partials/basic-card.html. You can then include that content by simply adding the line {{> basic-card}} in your index file. 06. Start building your layout We’ll cover different card types in a little bit, but first let’s use our reusable basic-card to start creating a larger, responsive layout for our cards. To do so, we’re going to use a concept from Foundation called the block grid. Foundation contains a few different types of grids, but they all start from the concept of rows and columns. A row creates a horizontal block which can contain multiple vertical columns. These basic building blocks make up the core of almost all layouts. With a simple block grid, we already have a beautiful, scalable layout for as many cards as we want to includeBlock grids are a shorthand way to create equally-sized columns and to allow yourself the flexibility and freedom to add an indefinite amount of content and have it lay out nicely in equal columns. You simply add a class to the row and then add as many column components as you like. Foundation will lay them out for you neatly and cleanly. Since we expect to have a very large and changing number of cards, this is ideal for our purposes. Let’s set this up quickly in a four-column grid and add a few dozen cards. For now we’ll only worry about large screens, so we’ll simply apply the .large-up-4 class to the row. 07. Make it responsive Next, let’s consider what we want to happen on different screen sizes. Foundation comes with small, medium, and large breakpoints built in, so we can simply apply a different block-grid class for each breakpoint to shift things around. Let’s put one card per row on mobile screens, and three per row on tablet, by adding the classes .small-up-1 and .medium-up-3 on the row. If we do this, and remove the stopgap max-width property we put _card.scss. We already have a beautifully responsive layout that looks good on all screen sizes. 08. Try some new card types Combine different styles of card to build your layoutNow let’s diversify our set of cards, another type is a pure edge-to-edge photo. Card sections and card dividers contain padding by default, but to have edge-to-edge content we can simply put the image directly inside of the card. Let’s add this as a photo-card.html partial in src/partials. 09. Introduce Flexbox There are hundreds of possible ways we can put together cards – for some inspiration, you can check out the Foundation cardpack repository. But let’s move on to how we manage layout when we have different-sized cards. If you insert the photo-card partial into the layout alternating with the basic-card as we did before, we end up with a bit of a jagged experience because our heights are different. This may be fine, or we may want to adjust our layout to compensate. The Foundation card pack gives you a great set of pre-built Flexbox cards to level up your card gameFor this tutorial, we’ll compensate by using our favourite new CSS layout technique – Flexbox. Foundation comes with a Flexbox mode for its grid. To enable it, you simply need to open src/assets/scss/app.scss, comment out @include foundation-grid; and @include foundation-float-classes; and uncomment @include foundation-flex-grid; and @include foundation-flex-classes;. 10. Make your cards the same height With the Flexbox classes enabled, it’s simple to get our cards to be the same height. First, we can make our columns flex parents by adding the .flex-container class. This is a prototyping shortcut for adding the display: flex; property to them. Once we do this, all of the cards will become the same height, but since flex child elements shrink by default, some of our cards get kind of narrow. We can fix this issue by simply telling those elements to grow. This is done by either targeting them with CSS and giving them flex-grow: 1; or for simplicity while prototyping, just by adding the class .flex-child-grow. Once all of this has been done all of our cards fill the columns and will be nicely the same height. This article was originally featured in net magazine issue 293. Buy it here or subscribe to net here. Liked this? Try these... 10 reasons you should be using Atomic Design Create and animate SVG Polygons CSS tricks to revolutionise your layouts View the full article

When designing a website layout there are some common mistakes that often pop up, especially with interns and new designers. In this list of steps to the perfect website layout, we cover what every new website builder working within a digital agency should know and do before starting a new project, and what they should pay attention to during the process to avoid making these mistakes. These principles cover not only design aspects but also general workflow tips that will get the job done nicely. Follow them and you'll soon be on your way to creating professional website layouts. 01. Define what success means Talk to your clients to find out what the goals areBefore starting the work you need to know what is it you are designing for. Besides the description of the site, you need to know what the expectations are for it. Take a news site for example, what’s the goal? Is it to make make as many ad impressions as possible or is it to provide the best reading experience? How are those goals going to be measured? Good redesigns are not necessarily the most flashy ones but the ones that improve performance over time. Talking to your clients before starting your design is key to define all of this. You need to learn what their concerns and goals beyond the written SOW (statement of work) are. 02. Put your thoughts on paper first Very early sketches of an illustration series about cities around the world (click the top-right icon to enlarge the image)This seems very obvious but I've found too often that designers jump straight into their work before giving any thought to the problem they are trying to solve. Design is about solving problems, and those problems can't be resolved through gradients or shadows but rather through a good layout and a clear hierarchy. Think about the content, the layout and the functionality before starting to drop shadows. Make sure those thoughts are in line with your client’s goals and feel free to share them. No client ever has complained to me about over-communicating ideas. 03. Start sketching a top-level framework Sketching a basic wireframe will help you structure the layout (click the top-right icon to enlarge the image)When I'm asked to create a look and feel for a project, the first thing I do is to come up with a top-level framework that solves all the design problems. The framework is the UI that surrounds the content and helps the user perform actions and navigate through it. It includes the navigation and components like sidebars and bottom bars. If you approach your design from this perspective, you will have a clear understanding of what your layout needs will be when designing sections beyond the homepage. 04. Add a grid An example of a 978 grid with a 10px baselineIt's as simple as it sounds. Before starting to design anything you need a proper grid. There are no valid excuses for starting without a grid – and if you don't, I can assure you, the design won't look as good. A grid will help you to structure the layout of the different sections; it will guide you through the specific screen size requirements, and help you to create responsive templates, so you're consistent in terms of spacing as well as many other design issues. To find out how to do this, take a look at this guide to creating a grid that adapts to all screen sizes. 05. Choose your typography A general rule of thumb is to use no more than two different typefaces in a website layoutExploring different typefaces and colours is part of the discovery phase of a project. I would recommend not using more than two different typefaces in a website, but it really depends on its nature. Overall, choose a font that is easy to read for big chunks of text, and be more playful with titles and calls to action. Don't be afraid of using big fonts and be creative and consistent when using typography. 06. Select your colour theme Tools like Color Hunt are designed to help you pick a palette During the process of choosing a set of typefaces, you should start exploring what colours you will use in the UI, backgrounds and text. I recommend using a limited set of colours and tones for the general user interface. It's important to apply those consistently across the UI depending on the element's functionality. Think about the layout of sites like Facebook, Twitter, Quora and Vimeo. Besides the UI there shouldn't be any colour restriction for illustrations or graphic details, as long as they don't interfere with the functionality of the components. If you get stuck, take a look at our list of free apps for picking a colour scheme. 07. Divide the layout Simple layouts tend to be easier to navigate The simpler the structure of the site, the easier it is for users to navigate. Each section in your site needs to tell a story; it needs a reason and a final outcome for the user. The layout should help the content to highlight what are the most important pieces in that story. In reality there shouldn't be too many calls to action on a page – everything should drive to that final 'What can I do here?' Think about the most simple layout you can imagine for a simple purpose and start adding components that are necessary. In the end you'll be surprised how hard is to keep it simple. 08. Rethink the established Search buttons are becoming obsoleteDo we really need a search button any more? In most cases the answer is no. As designers we shape the way users browse the internet, it's up to us to decide how many steps a simple action will take and how efficient our site will be. Some conventions are there because they work, but some are there because no one spent enough time evaluating them. It's important to rethink the established interactive patterns of all components to see how we can improve them. 09. Think in motion Motion is essential when designing interactive experiencesMotion is essential when designing interactive experiences. No design can be judged on its own or as a static comp any more; every component is defined by its relationship with the system, and that relationship needs motion to be conveyed properly. Motion can illustrate dynamic effects on content or interactive states within your layout. For that second purpose I recommend taking your designs a bit further into prototyping. 10. Prototype, prototype, prototype Prototyping is the best way to test interactionsPrototyping is the best way to test interactions and technology. There are lots of prototyping tools that make it easy nowadays, and you don’t need to be a coding guru to create effective prototypes. This is yet another way you can get your client excited and on board with concepts and ideas that would otherwise need a lot of explanation. 11. Challenge yourself I encourage every designer out there to challenge themselves on every project. Innovation isn't always a requirement for the project, so it's up to us to come up with something fresh. Examples of different challenges could include using a new grid system, creating a new component, or even minor challenges like avoiding blend modes or using a specific colour. 12. Pay attention to the details Work in progress: detail viewThis statement has been overused lately but it's not always visible in the final product. Depending on the concept behind the project, that 'attention to detail' can mean different things. It could be a small interaction, an unexpected animation or an aesthetic touch like a little gradient in a button or a subtle stroke around a box in the background. But overall this touch is essential – and it will come naturally if you really enjoy what you do. Next page: 11 more steps to the perfect website layout 13. Refine every component Treat each component as if it were for a design contestTreat every component as if it could be presented to a design contest. If you pay attention to every component, the whole will be more than the sum of its parts. I have to admit that this piece of advice is not mine. I heard it in the past at a previous agency and I was shocked by how clear and true this statement was. Each component needs to be designed as it could stand alone as the best component ever. Sometimes designers leave certain parts of a site until last on their to-do list, and end up not showing them much respect. 14. Sharpen your work Set the right contrast between strokes and backgroundTo avoid blurry pixels, try to set the right contrast between strokes and background or background colours. Besides any aesthetic considerations, there are some common things that have to be avoided in order to create a clean and correct piece of work. Some things you should be on the lookout for when trying to sharpen your work include gradients banding, blurry edges, font rendering options (some fonts, depending on their size are best viewed, on a specific render mode), and strokes that merge badly with the background. These are just a few basic examples of issues to look for, but in reality the list is endless. Always look at your design as a whole to see if everything works well and then analyse each component individually more carefully. 15. Tidy up your design files This (along with the use of a grid) is one of the most important pieces of advice, no matter what design tool you are using. Regardless of the size of the project and the number of designers working on it, you need to keep your files clean. This will make it easier to export different sections, to speed up the design process and to work collaboratively with other designers. 16. Design the best case; prepare for the worst Bear in mind how your layout will work on different devices and screen sizesBear in mind how your layout will work across different devices and screen sizes. As designers our job is to solve problems through different constraints. With web design, the constraints range from conceptual and technical problems to content-related issues. We need to build a site that can work not only in the ideal scenario, but also in the worst-case scenario. For instance, a user could be using a really small screen and check the site when there is barely any content on it so it looks broken. However for the purpose of presenting our work I always strongly recommend building the best case scenario for it. Therefore we are going to display the ideal amount of text and we are going to show the site inside the ideal browser size that should be the most common scenario for most users using it. 17. Obsess over the design until you hate it If you are passionate about design I'm sure this is something you are already doing. Whenever I finish a comp I feel proud of, I tend to make that comp a part of my life. I take screenshots of it, check it out it different devices, make wallpapers of it and even print it and hang it on the wall. As a result of this process, I get to a point where I finally end up hating my design. I start seeing everything that's wrong with it and eventually I change it. Disliking your previous work is sign of maturity, and it means that you are finally learning from your own mistakes. 18. Share designs with clients early on When proposing an interactive concept or a design 'look and feel', you need to ensure that you and the client are both on the same page as soon as possible. Avoid spending too much time on a concept before sharing it with the client. Once the initial concept is approved you can relax a little bit and start production. But after presenting the first concept, if the client doesn't fall in love with it, you should gather enough feedback to bring a second more appropriate concept to the table. 19. Be your developer's best friend Developers are creative people and they love their jobs as much as you do. But they are not always included in a project from the very beginning, and often only get involved when the concept is decided and their creative role has been overridden. This process is wrong; some of the best ideas come from the development team, so make sure you team up with them from the very beginning of the project. Sharing your concepts and excitement with them will lead to better ideas and a better execution in the end. 20. Present things as clearly as possible It's just as important to produce great work as it is to present it. Your best design can be ignored or thrown away if you don't present it properly. When it comes to presentations, you want to explain your work like you're showing it to a four-year-old. Always keep in mind that what is totally clear to you might not be that clear to somebody seeing your design for the first time. 21. Don't get too attached to your ideas There is a thin line between knowing when to advocate for your ideas and learning to recognise when your team or client doesn't see them as 'the one'. As a designer you need to firmly believe in what you do, but you should also be open to quickly turning over any of your ideas and coming up with something else. Don't forget that there is more than one solution. 22. Follow your design into development If you work inside an agency you'll probably know how easy it is to find yourself struggling with the design of a new project when the previous one is being developed. Contrary to general belief, your work on a project doesn't end when the PSD and style sheet are delivered. If you really care about your designs and interaction ideas being well executed, check in on your old best friends the developers from time to time, and help them as much as they need to ensure every little pixel is perfect. 23. Show your work in progress Share your style sheets and work in progress components with the communityAs part of a community of designers, we all love to see not just the final results but also the work in progress. Sometimes the best part of a project is left out for several reasons and gets lost in your Archive folder. Once the project is done and you get the approval from the client/producer promote it, and if possible create a case study with the work in progress and designs that didn't make it to the final release. You will be helping by contributing to the community's knowledge and you will get valuable feedback in return. Like this? 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