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The upcoming Star Wars spin-off, Solo: A Star Wars story, has hit a new bump in the road before its release on 28 May. Solo, which already been dogged by behind the scenes upheaval and hastily drafted acting coaches, now finds itself in a poster design plagiarism row thanks to its recently released typographic teaser posters. Unveiled back in February, the posters for Solo received a warm welcome thanks to their clever blend of typography and character graphics, not to mention the way they appeared to mix traditional and digital design elements. However, it emerged over the weekend that the Solo posters bear more than a passing resemblance to a series of Sony Music France album covers by Hachim Bahous released in 2015. With comparable colours, typography and graphics, the similarities are certainly uncanny, to say the least. Amazon graphic designer Adam Levermore shared the designs on Twitter to gauge the creative community's response. Judge for yourself whether the two designs are more than just a coincidence by exploring them below. Speaking on Facebook, Bahous said: "I am flattered that the quality of my work is recognised, but it is still pure and simple forgery, I have not been asked for my permission, I wish to be credited and paid for this work I have done for Sony!" Indeed, a monumental coincidence would be noteworthy enough. But the story becomes even more problematic if you consider that Disney could have gone through Sony to secure repurposing rights without either studio being obligated to get permission from Bahous – a theory that many online creatives have leaped upon. The whole incident has left artists and designers debating where paying homage ends and outright theft begins. And with no word forthcoming from Disney or BLT Communications, LLC, the creative team behind the posters, it remains to be seen if the dispute will be resolved. Related articles: Brutally honest posters for Oscar-nominated movies Are movie posters in a design crisis? 4 classic movie poster designs making a comeback View the full article

It took a while, but VR is here – and with it a wide range of VR headsets for designers and artists to get creative with. As well as the obvious utility for gaming, VR looks set to become big business in a huge range of other industries, including film-making, architecture and medicine. This presents a growing opportunity for designers and developers to get in on the ground level. If you want to start exploring this new form of 3D art, you'll need to choose the right hardware. Here are some of the best VR headsets around to help you decide which one is best for you. HoloLens is perfect for experiences in which the real world is mixed with the virtual The first untethered holographic computer, HoloLens overlays different CG elements onto the transparent screen in front of each eye to create real-looking 3D holograms. HoloLens is perfect for experiences that benefit from mixing the real world with the virtual – from seeing how a chair would look in your living room to highly empathetic social experiences, such as meeting a hero or figure from the news. HoloLens can really read a room. Not only can it identify what an object is, it can tell what material it’s made from. It features 12 sensors including four environment-understanding cameras and four microphones, and includes spatial sound, gaze tracking, gesture input and voice support. Sounds perfect then – if you can afford it. Sadly the HoloLens doesn't come cheap. Budget for a few thousand pounds if you really want this kit. Read our sister site TechRadar's hands on Microsoft HoloLens review The Vive comes with two handheld controllers, offering greater capability for navigation and gesture recognition The HTC Vive needs to be tethered to a powerful desktop GPU – but the result is the ability to create immersive, active VR. One huge benefit is the ability to move around space (a minimum of 2x1.5m is recommended by HTC). It works by using two sensors positioned in the corner of the room that track the whereabouts of the headset by sweeping with lasers. The Vive comes with two handheld controllers, meaning greater capability for menus, navigation and gesture recognition. The headset also sports a front-facing camera, giving designers the ability to build the real world into games or experiences. And if you feel like you'll need something even more powerful, then the duel OLED running HTC Vive Pro will soon be on the market, too. Read TechRadar's 5 star HTC Vive review The Rift’s integrated VR audio system is excellent Much like the HTC Vive, the Oculus Rift requires a wired connection to a high-spec (and often very expensive) gaming PC, running Windows 7 or higher, but the payoff is the ability to create processing-heavy interactive experiences and games. When it first launched, the Rift couldn’t do room-scale VR (so users had to sit, or stand still). But recent updates bringing in an additional low-latency constellation tracking system means users can now walk around – just be aware, not all users will have this capability. The same applies to the newly launched Touch controllers, which need to be purchased separtely to add greater interactivity. The Rift’s integrated VR audio system is excellent, and is widely considered to be better than its competitor, the HTC Vive. Learn more in TechRadar's full Oculus Rift review PlayStation VR is tethered to a PS4 rather than an expensive PC gaming rig A more affordable option than the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR is tethered to a PS4 rather than an expensive PC gaming rig. That makes it the obvious launchpad into VR if you already own a PS4. The downside of this is less power – and so potentially less immersion. The PlayStation Camera tracks nine light points on the headset so room-scale VR is technically possible, but as Sony has opted for one sensor instead of two, the tracking is not as good as on the HTC Vive. Although, at present, PlayStation VR content is more gaming-focused, the headset’s huge sales figures makes it a serious proposition for the mass market. So if you have a PlayStation already and aren't completely sold on VR, then going for this model makes a nice affordable option by way of a convincer. Check out TechRadar's full Playstation VR review The Gear VR is the go-to VR platform for many Powered by Samsung Galaxy smartphones, Samsung Gear VR effectively splits the phone screen in two to create 3D visuals, to offer affordable, wire-free virtual reality. Lacking the power of a high-spec PC, Gear VR is a natural home for 360-video (passive content) or semi-active experiences that require moving the head to hotspots, rather than hugely interactive projects. Originally launched in 2013, the Gear VR is the go-to VR platform for many. It’s widely understood by the public and a large number of experiences already exist for it. This has been boosted by a partnership with Facebook, bringing the Oculus VR store to the platform. And an upgraded headset has improved the size of the lenses to widen the field of view, making the Gear VR’s experiences feel more immersive than the original launch model. Not bad at all for the price. You can see all the specs in TechRadar's full Samsung Gear VR review Google Daydream View uses a phone to power VR experiences With the revamped Daydream View, Google has made possibly the most attractive VR headset on the market. But this isn't a case merely of style over substance - there's a lot to like about the search giant's effort and at an excellent price. The Google Daydream uses a phone to power your VR experience, but unlike Samsung’s ‘walled-garden’ Gear VR, is not exclusive to Google’s own Pixel phones – it also works with Samsung Galaxy handsets, LGs and oddly the Moto Z, and is expected to support other Android devices in future. The Daydream is best suited to passive (think 360-video and animation) and semi-active content. The headset comes with a handheld controller, for easier navigation than with the Samsung Gear VR’s on-headset buttons. The cheapest headset is fabric-covered and designed for comfort. There’s not much content for Daydream yet, but given the cost – not to mention partnerships with Netflix VR and HBO NOW VR – there’s a good opportunity to make your mark using this tech. Here's TechRadar's full Daydream View review Related articles: 20 tutorials to make the most of VR in your designs Wacom turns hand-drawn art into VR Our top tips for improving your VR creation View the full article

Is your current role holding you back? What do you want from your job this year: progression? New skills? More experience under your belt? Maybe you're motivated by the prospect of a pay rise, or recognition from your peers. No design job is perfect. But if you're no longer being creatively challenged at work, or feel that your skills aren't being fully utilised or appreciated – or you're just not giving it your all anymore – we have good news: there's never been a better time to quit. 6 terrifying job interview questions tamed First, a caveat: we don't mean wildly sticking one to your boss in the morning. These are politically and economically unpredictable times, after all. We're talking about using your initiative to find something more rewarding – and there are plenty of opportunities out there. According to Gov.uk, the number of jobs in the UK's creative industries rose by five per cent in 2016, compared to a 1.2 per cent increase in the wider UK workforce. So what are your options? And how can you make them happen? 01. Change studios Kath Tudball spent almost 15 years at leading London agency Johnson Banks before joining The Partners as design director in early 2016. "I chose to move on when I did because the small physical size of the agency meant there was a natural limit to how far I could progress," she explains. "Joining a larger company gave me the opportunity to lead my own team, work across more projects, experience a wider client mix and take on greater overall responsibility." She says that one of the biggest dangers of staying at a studio too long is becoming too comfortable, and not being creatively challenged. "Too much of the same routine can lead to complacency and, at worst, stagnation," she says. "It's better to always feel just a little bit scared. Doing unfamiliar things may be daunting, but it's also incredibly motivating. If you don't have enough new challenges or opportunities coming your way, try to create them. But if that doesn't work, it might be time to move on." Kath Tudball worked at Johnson Banks for nearly 15 years before jumping ship Her best advice for finding the perfect new job is to do your research. Find out as much as you can about the agencies that interest you and aim for the ones whose work, philosophy and overall approach you genuinely admire. "Real enthusiasm and shared passions will come across and increase the chances of a great fit," she points out. "So who do you really want to work for, and why?" She continues. "Also, don't be shy – try getting in touch directly with the people you admire for an informal chat. A personal connection or recommendation of some sort always helps. Just remember: don't act like a stalker." Koto senior brand strategist Tom Moloney agrees that asking people you admire for career advice is a good move. "Ask your mates and colleagues who they rate; where they've worked; who they know. Just don't say, 'I'm thinking about moving on…' first," he laughs. "Also, get your shit together – your CV, website, portfolio; whatever it is. There's no shortcut. Just start doing it." Moloney took the opportunity to refocus his career by moving to Koto in September, after six years at NB Studio. "It was a combination of things: a very personal desire for a new challenge, and a professional ambition to focus on brand strategy," he explains. "By moving to Koto, I was able to achieve both of these." He agrees that when it comes to knowing it's time to move on from your current role, there are warning signs to watch out for. "If you're not looking forward to going to work the majority of the time, or your motivation is dropping and you know that you're not giving the role or your work your best effort, then it's time to move on," he says. "But that doesn't mean that it's easy to leave somewhere, or to find a new job." Watch out for the warning signs that it's time to move on, says Tom Moloney This is especially true if you've been out of the job-seeking game for a while, or you've been too comfortable in one role for too long. Many long-serving employees report a creeping uneasiness about the transferable value of their specific skills. If you feel like this, it's a clear sign that you're in danger of becoming institutionalised – and the only way to tackle it is to initiate change. 02. Start your own studio If you're not feeling fully satisfied in your current position, another option is to start your own studio – which is exactly what Studio Texture founder Stuart Youngs did in March 2017. Previously a partner at brand consultancy Purpose, he launched Texture for one reason: autonomy. "I believe it's crucial for studios to explore, experiment and take risks in pursuit of progress," he explains. "It's our creativity and ability to innovate that makes us attractive to clients. But to pioneer takes time, investment and an awful lot of practice. In my experience, that's more difficult to do in a studio with bigger overheads and demands, where failure is often not an option." In his new role, Youngs is no longer accountable to a board. He has sole accountability to his family, team and clients. And although he admits this is far more pressure, he can now move faster and is free to make mistakes. "It's sharpened the mind and, interestingly, made me more purposeful," he reflects. So what about Brexit? Given our current political and economical backdrop, is there an argument for staying secure in a role – even if it isn't creatively satisfying anymore? Not according to Youngs. "The age of security has long since gone," he says. "The world is moving too fast for that. Today, it's essential to be looking to tomorrow." Rather than fit in somewhere else, you could just start your own studio like Stuart Youngs For Youngs, the single biggest industry threat faced by designers who want to get a new job is fear, and the paralysis it perpetuates. "We can't afford to sit still and hope," he says. "I believe we're on the cusp of the biggest transformation our industry has ever seen. We're about to enter the age, not just of artificial intelligence, but the more profound augmented intelligence. The consequence is even more pressure on creativity and ideas; on originality and distinction – where the machines can't compete." That said, don't feel you have to move jobs for the sake of it. "Nobody should feel uncomfortable just from being in a studio for a long period of time," he points out. "If you're challenged, progressing and fulfilled, you should stay put. The grass isn't greener. Promise." And don't move purely for money. "If you're moving for money, you're missing the point. Move for opportunity. Money will follow if you pick the right opportunities and you'll be much happier." 03. Get a promotion Of course, you don't have to change studios to find new opportunities. Your studio might not be advertising new job roles, but if you can make yourself invaluable to the team, you're in a strong position to negotiate a promotion. Reiss Hinds started at multi-disciplinary design agency BLUP on a three-month placement as a junior designer. During that time, he paid attention to the daily process and workflows used by his directors. "Email was the biggest one," he recalls. "We were going back and forth so many times for alterations, so instead I suggested that we use Basecamp as our project management tool. It's cut down our email time and kept all client services projects in one place." Reiss Hinds bagged a promotion thanks to bright ideas and hard work He continues: "I tried to provide my directors with as much value as possible – no job was too large for me to tackle. When my three months came to an end, I suggested that there was a need in the business for someone to help streamline and execute on brand strategy, for both our clients and for Studio BLUP's brand." His advice? "Find a gap in either the market or in someone else's business that you know you can enhance, and in return you could end up becoming the next big creative in your space." 04. Move client-side Sometimes finding a better job involves playing the long game, as creative entrepreneur Simon Waterfall explains. The former D&AD president first started talking to Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia in 2014. Three years later, it took Waterfall – who's co-founded a number of leading digital studios and consultancies, including Poke, Fray, Social Suicide and Deepend – a total of 29 interviews over six months to land his new job as creative director of Samara, Airbnb's recently launched design and innovation studio. That many interviews might have put off other candidates, but not Waterfall. So why was he so committed to moving client-side at Airbnb? "I was looking for a very simple thing: I wanted to change the world," he explains. "How many places, people or brands can do that? Where are they? What do they do? Have they done it before? When you address these points, there are only a handful of companies – and most are in Silicon Valley," he continues. "Working inside means you're already in charge of the biggest asset: the community and audience you want to change." Simon Waterfall is playing the long game When you're aiming for the stars, like Waterfall, reaching your goals isn't going to happen overnight. He says you have to be prepared to really grind – and advises being patient. "Big dreams need time to solidify," he reasons. And he agrees that the biggest industry threat to designers isn't the likes of Brexit and a flailing economy, but simply sitting still. "It's the tiny, almost unnoticeable threats that are the real killer," he says. "Murder by Powerpoint; death by meetings about meetings. Don't go quiet, my friends: scream into the page and tear it up. Good luck." This article was originally published in issue 275 of Computer Arts, the world's best-selling design magazine. Buy issue 275 here or subscribe to Computer Arts here. Related articles: 5 tips to give you the edge when job hunting How to tailor your portfolio to different jobs 8 tips for coping when you hate your job View the full article

A normal photo is worth 1,000 words, but the advanced editing tools of Photolemur Spectre will leave people speechless. Get this photo editing app, which is enhanced with artificial intelligence to make your pictures pop. You can get a family license on sale for just $19 (approx. £14)! Photolemur Spectre makes it easy to pull out the best elements of all your pictures thanks to its advanced tools that make editing a breeze. This app is the world's first automated photo enhancement tool for Mac. It's powered by artificial intelligence that can analyse a photo and touch it up in a matter of minutes, saving you tonnes of manual labour. This app will work its magic on any photo to make it ready for your to share proudly on social media or frame on your wall. You can get a family license for Photolemur Spectre on sale for just $19 (approx £14). That's a savings of 61% off the retail price for tool that will improve your photos with nothing more than a click, so grab this deal today! About Creative Bloq deals This great deal comes courtesy of the Creative Bloq Deals store – a creative marketplace that's dedicated to ensuring you save money on the items that improve your design life. We all like a special offer or two, particularly with creative tools and design assets often being eye-wateringly expensive. That's why the Creative Bloq Deals store is committed to bringing you useful deals, freebies and giveaways on design assets (logos, templates, icons, fonts, vectors and more), tutorials, e-learning, inspirational items, hardware and more. Every day of the working week we feature a new offer, freebie or contest – if you miss one, you can easily find past deals posts on the Deals Staff author page or Offer tag page. Plus, you can get in touch with any feedback at: deals@creativebloq.com. Related articles: The 13 best photography websites 5 reasons to use photography in your designs 15 ways to improve your photography skills View the full article

In an increasingly connected world, illustration trends can spread globally very quickly. But there are still pockets of location-specific inspiration to be found. One such example is sunny Barcelona. The city that gave birth to OFFF – one of the world's most vibrant design events – boasts as an incredibly bright and dynamic illustration scene. We spoke to several of Barcelona's leading creatives about what makes their city special. Read on to discover five inspiring visual trends... 01. Dynamic eclecticism Illustration for Brigitte Magazine by Finnish-born, Barcelona-based Pietari Posti First on our list is a theme that might initially seem counter-intuitive when discussing trends that draw a scene together. Barcelona has a huge amount of converging influences, with many renowned international illustrators – such as French-born Malika Favre and Finnish-born Pietari Posti – relocating to the city recently. "Lots of upcoming internationally working illustrators want to live and work in Barcelona, both locals and foreigners," confirms Posti, who has worked with Starbucks, Random House, Wired and the Guardian. He calls his adopted home a "big small city". As he explains: "The vibe is relaxed, and the illustration community is friendly and supportive." Marina Capdevila's unmistakable character design work is particularly striking in mural form "Barcelona is a city with a lot of movement, and the illustration reflects that," agrees Barcelona-based illustrator Marina Capdevila, whose clients include Reebok and Estrella Damm. (If you came to this article from our Facebook or Twitter channels, you'll have seen her image, Good Vibes Only, used as the opener.) Barcelona born and bred, Alex Trochut – something of an icon when it come to the city's illustration reputation – is now based in New York, where he misses the Spanish food and sunny weather. From across the Atlantic he draws attention to the vivid colours and organic, rounded shapes that permeate much of the city's illustration output. But he backs up the notion that Barcelona's influx of cultural influences makes it more dynamic. "It's as eclectic as the world," he smiles. 02. Vivid Mediterranean colours One of the most distinctive features of Barcelona's inspiring illustration scene is the rich, vibrant colour palettes. "The Mediterranean feel is something that, in my case, has lured me into making my illustrations full of vivid colours," reflects Lorena G, a graphic designer and illustrator whose clients include Google and Adobe. "You just have to walk around the Barcelona port and see all those colourful nautical signal flags – they caught my eye the very first time I saw them," she enthuses. Ice Cream Melts, by Swedish-born Petra Eriksson, who feels her colour palettes have become brighter since moving to Barcelona Petra Eriksson originally hails from Sweden. She moved to Barcelona after several years in Malta, and a few months in Berlin. "Since moving here, I definitely feel like I've started working with brighter colours," she says. Eriksson's experiences prove your surroundings can have a direct influence on your style. And Veronica Fuerte, co-founder of Hey Studio, agrees. She was born and raised in Barcelona, and describes it as a hub of creativity. "I think the city inspires me to use more colourful colours: bright and fresh," she adds. 03. Playful optimism Brosmind's Juani Mingarro draws attention to Barcelona's optimistic vibe, reflected in the duo's bright character-led work It isn't only colour palettes that are affected by Barcelona's unique creative vibe. For Juani Mingarro, one half of creative duo Brosmind along with his brother Alejandro, the city's "nice weather and great people" influence the creative process too. "We feel a lot of optimism in people’s work here," says Mingarro. "Barcelona is constantly changing – it’s a city of transit that doesn’t keep anything for too long. It’s hard to define, because it's more of a feeling, but there's definitely something in the environment that pushes people to create and share here." This Space Trivia poster, advertising the Google Home Mini, demonstrates Brosmind's cheeky, playful style As siblings, Brosmind grew up together, sharing experiences and influences. "Barcelona was an important part in our development, but we could have ended in the same place if we'd lived in Paris or Tokyo," he reasons. "Creative processes are moulded by individuals based on personal experiences: you need to find a place that makes you feel good and inspired." 04. Illustration meets design Hey Studio's graphic pattern work for Uniqlo shows how the studio straddles illustration and design World-class Barcelona-based design studios such as Hey and Vasava are also notable for their in-house illustration skills. And both demonstrate a fusion of styles and disciplines that's notable across the city. "Barcelona is an open-minded city that has always had a focus on visual arts," reflects Maria Picassó, a "graphic illustrator" with a distinctive vector style of character design. "Since as long as I can remember, top-notch illustrations and graphic design have filled the streets, especially in poster and billboard form." Describing herself as a 'graphic illustrator', Maria Picasso has a distinctive vector caricature style Picassó recalls the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, for which mascot designer Javier Mariscal was a leading proponent of stylised illustration, design and communication working together. "For me, the Barcelona 'vibe' is where illustration joins graphic design to communicate in this very stimulating and inspiring way," she adds. "Sometimes it looks simple, even naive and carefree, but it transmits a lot." 05. Simple but beautiful This 'Six of Diamonds' playing card design by Vasava may be simple, but it's beautifully crafted Petra Eriksson draws attention to an abundance of stylised, graphic pattern work in Barcelona. "If I compare it to Sweden, where I come from, there's a lot more hand-drawn and realistic-looking illustrations," she says. "Here, it's more graphic. I also think there's a level of playfulness in many artworks here that I really enjoy." For Bruno Sellés, founder and creative director of Vasava, the balance between simple ideas and playful, stylish execution encapsulates what Barcelona's illustration scene is all about. Vasava's poster for hip hop producer Just Blaze demonstrates the studio's passion for craft and intricate detail "There's simplicity in composition, but complexity in execution," he argues, making the point that beautiful craft has value in and of itself. "Intricate techniques serve the universal language of images." "Overall, Barcelona's illustration is colourful, vibrant and irreverent," concludes Sellés. "Sometimes it's conceptual, sometimes it's more decorative – but it never leaves you indifferent." Related articles: 7 biggest illustration trends of 2018 5 fascinating stories behind unusual logo designs 3 major visual trends that capture life in 2018 View the full article

Report outlines lucrative rise of nefarious cyrptoming groups and their complex new business models. View the full article

You're reading WebFonts Working Group Announces WOFF 2.0 File Format, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! The WebFonts Working Group has published WOFF 2.0 as a W3C recommendation. According to the WOFF 2.0 Evaluation Report, the new specification provides improved compression and decompression compared to WOFF 1.0. This is achieved by combining a content-aware preprocessing step and improved entropy coding. The preprocessing step removes redundant or duplicate information or any other […] View the full article

Equifax said that an additional 2.4 million Americans have been impacted by a 2017 data breach, bringing the total of those implicated to around 148 million people. View the full article

This week's DDoS attack against GitHub is a harbinger of attacks to come that will use the highly effective memcached amplification technique, say experts. View the full article

If you spend a lot of time working in front of a computer, you'll know how important it is to have the best desk possible for your budget. Anyone who’s sat at an uncomfortable desk all day will know the associated woes. A desk that’s too low or too high can cause you back problems; too much or too little space can hinder the organisation of your creative life. So when it comes to buying a new desk, where do you start? There are a few key factors to bear in mind, and you’ll need to decide which are most important to you. Are you all about ergonomics? Do you want an adjustable desk so you can sit or stand as you work? Is cable management important to you? Overall design? Are you solely basing your decision on price? Or do you just want something with a decent warranty in case something goes wrong? Whatever your requirements and budget, we’ve rounded up five of the best desks of 2018 to help you choose the right desk for you. Proving that simple is usually best, our choice for the best overall desk goes to Opendesk’s Studio Desk. Suitable for both a home office or studio environment, the Studio Desk has neat cable management via a hidden panel inside the leg, which feeds into a discreet removable cable cover in the desk. The unique thing about Opendesk is that you can choose to download the design and make it yourself, if you’re feeling adventurous. Or you can get a quote from a local maker, who will put it together and deliver it direct. Not only are you helping other designers, you also get to feel smug about the fact that your new desk is made from sustainably grown FSC-certified baltic plywood. Other desks in the Opendesk range include collaboration tables, a hot desk and the Lift Standing desk, which, as the name suggests, can be adjusted to become a standing desk. Your posture will likely improve with a standing desk, and if you have a bad back then periods of standing up can be incredibly good for you – but a lot of adjustable desks will set you back a small fortune. As a more affordable option, the Tribesigns Computer Desk gets our vote for best standing desk. It doesn't just look cool – it can also be adjusted to one of seven different height options via locking pins in its legs. It also includes cleverly incorporated shelves that are hidden in the desk’s legs, meaning you can stash all your design books and stationery out of the way. At almost one-and-a-half metres wide, this Tribesigns desk is also large enough to house two monitors, or one monitor and a big sketchbook, although bear in mind that adjusting the desk can be more difficult if you have a lot of heavy stuff on it (another reason why the shelves are useful). This desk is available in black or white, is easy to assemble, and comes with an 18 month guarantee. If you need a brilliant space-saving desk, look no further than John Lewis’ Loft Desk. It's an affordable and handsome solution for anyone looking to save space in their office or studio. The slideable top – which extends from 52cm to 78cm – takes up minimal space when you’re not using it, and the holes in the back mean that cables can be kept neatly tucked away. There’s also a drawer and five cubby holes on top for storing notebooks and stationery. The Loft Desk is available in ash, white or white/ash – we think the combination of the two is the most stylish. Matching cabinets are also available, and John Lewis has a generous two-year warranty period. Note that this desk can be a bit tricky to put together due to its various cubby holes. And at 29kg, it’s also pretty heavy, so your best bet is to enlist some help when assembling it. Another good option for small studios, the Ameriwood Home Haven Retro Desk with Riser is a stylish addition to any room. And it doesn’t scream ‘work desk’, either – which is great if you want it to blend into your bedroom, say. It has two levels – allowing you to have your laptop on the lower level and plants, design books or whatever else keeps you inspired on the top. It doesn’t have any drawers, forcing you to keep things clutter-free, and the thin spindly legs mean you won't be in danger of constantly knocking your knees against them. Make sure you have a flat floor surface though, otherwise it has a tendency to wobble. Overall this desk is quick to put together – it should take around 20 minutes, maximum – and is a solid option that should please anyone looking for an affordable and compact desk that doesn’t scrimp on style. It’s available in four colours – walnut, espresso, sugar pine or weathered oak. We like espresso the best. Most corner desks are hefty, unattractive affairs in heavy dark wood or ugly metal, but this Germania Slide desk provides light relief. Our choice for best corner desk, the workstation houses four cupboards, this desk is ideal for brightening up a forgotten corner of your office or home, as well as hiding clutter. The flexible German design allows you to slide the doors from left to right, and the doors are reversible, so if you get bored of one colour or want to switch to either ‘home’ or ‘work’ mode, you can turn it round to see the other side. The assembly is also ‘reversible’ so you can have this desk in either left or right-hand configuration. The Germania Slide is available in black with reversible oak finish doors, and white, with either oak finish or lime green. We’re not convinced by the green, but both black and white with oak are good options. Liked this? Read these: The best keyboards for designers The best laptops for graphic design Turn your design studio dream into reality View the full article

Part of honing your skills as an artist involves learning how to draw the world around you: animals, people, landscapes and so on. The other part involves getting to grips with art techniques – mastering composition, light, shadow and so on. Creative Bloq regularly invites the industry's most exciting artists to share their best pro drawing techniques here on the site. Elsewhere, you'll find our favourite Photoshop tutorials, Illustrator tutorials and vector art tutorials, as well as painting tips and more. In this article, we bring together a host of fantastic tutorials to help you add more pro art techniques to your creative arsenal – whether you're looking to improve your sketching skills, learn how to add perspective or capture movement. You'll be able to explore some different styles, as well. You'll find a mixture of traditional and digital tutorials below. Regardless of media, each one provides insight into a wide range of different art techniques that can be applied to any art project – so dive in. 01. Sketching techniques 02. Composition techniques 03. Light and shadow 04. Practical effects 05. Workflow and inspiration Related articles: 95 pro tutorials for drawing anything How to draw movement: 16 top tips How to draw hands View the full article

Practically every site now is built with at least a nod to responsive web design. The way we structure these responsive styles has a direct relation to how complex the project will be to maintain and edit in the future as updates are made and the project grows in size. How to get started with Sass Despite this, it seems as though a widely accepted approach for how and where to structure these responsive styles is yet to be adopted consistently by developers. Although nowhere near as bad as 'the old days' of CSS, before preprocessors and naming methodologies, this is causing an inconsistent and often messy approach to structuring the responsive styles for elements. 'The Old Days' To understand the problem we're facing, let's go back to the beginning. One of the reasons that CSS preprocessors such as Sass or LESS were created in the first place is because CSS can get extremely messy and is famously hard to maintain. We used to find that after a while, even small websites had lines upon lines of CSS styles that were left in place just because the developer was unsure if it was required or the remnants of a removed feature or outdated element that could be deleted. Take the following scenario as an example: Although you may think that it is safe to assume the .title element is the title for the .heading element in this context, in fact you can't actually be completely sure that it is not used to style any other title element in the site. Also, where is .title_alt class used and is it still required or in use? You can see how even with such a simple example it can become a time-consuming exercise to check all of this before making changes. Because of this, lots of developers would save time by adding a new class to the element or using a more complex CSS selector to make the changes they desired, which then in turn increased the complexity of the CSS another level for the next time a change was needed. Preprocessors, naming conventions and Modular CSS to the rescue Thanks to the ability to nest styles, use variables, extend other classes and more, preprocessors revolutionised the way that we create and maintain CSS. Unfortunately they don't fully solve the problem of messy, outdated styles that spread and grow throughout a project as it ages like an infection. Along came naming conventions and CSS methodologies such as BEM, which when applied give a much greater level of context to styles. When combined with making variations, modifications and the styles of nested elements self-contained by using CSS Modules, a really strong way to structure your styles was born. Below you can see how these improvements can solve the problems we encountered with our earlier code example: It is instantly clear that the title styles here are specifically contained within the heading element. You can safely remove/edit these without worry of affecting other elements. You can also see that the small title was a variation of the header title but that the alt title style was for another element. In my opinion, when following this combination of structure and naming methodology, it is fairly easy to create clean, easily maintainable CSS styles. Context can quickly be gained and self-contained modules of CSS can be copied and pasted in other projects, or amended and removed with ease. It may seem as though the problem of messy and unmaintainable code was resolved. But as responsive design became more and more relevant, it became apparent that we were repeating many of our mistakes over again and generating badly structured, overly complex approaches to creating responsive websites. Solving this problem is where media query bubbling comes into play. Media query bubbling Thanks to the mentioned improvements in our approach to creating CSS, whenever I inherit or collaborate on a project these days, I rarely experience the dread or concern that I was opening myself up to fall into a fire of specificity hell or structural disorganisation that I used to have in those situations. I now know that I can quickly find and understand relevant classes and styles thanks to naming methodologies and make my changes without unimaginable consequences to other elements, thanks to Modular CSS. Unfortunately one major cause of frustration I encounter is that responsive styles are still inconsistently located throughout the project. They may well be contained within a modular structure and named appropriately in a naming methodology, but project by project I see many different ways that developers choose to include their responsive styles. Some create a separate Sass partial named _mobile.scss or _tablet.scss for example. Some place media queries at the bottom of the relevant file in ascending or descending order and others just place them randomly between styles for other elements. With this approach I find myself tabbing between files and scrolling to the top and bottom of files just to gain a full understanding of one element's styles across different breakpoints. As you can see, there are many problems with this that all combine to cause the developer to spend more time working on changes/amendments than is actually needed. It duplicates styles and makes the process of maintaining and finding all relevant styles for a component harder. You have to look in multiple locations or files to get a complete picture of an element's styles. The element is no longer self-contained. You cannot easily reuse it in another project or confidently delete/amend it without adverse affects or lingering code remaining. For each new project, time is wasted figuring out how that project approaches responsive styles. Switching between projects becomes harder because you have to switch between approaches in your head. This can lead to projects accidentally having a mix of approaches, which again leads to messy CSS. The solution that I like to implement to fix this is called Media Query Bubbling. The simplest way to explain it is to consider media queries to be like any other variation of your modular element. The same as a BEM variation class of .heading__title is .heading__title—variation, for example. This means that the media query should be nested within, just like your modifying classes. See the following code as an example of this: In this example you can clearly see in one location that the background for the header changes to white at 640px or higher. By self-containing the media query along with the element's styles, you have once again created a totally self-contained module that can be reused or edited with confidence. There is no need to cross-check a _mobile.scss file or search the project for other mentions of the class to be sure you have covered all breakpoints. Nested media query bubbling Again, I have seen many variations of how developers choose to structure the responsive styles of their elements. This should be considered no different than styling the parent element and all media queries and styles should be self-contained. See the following example: You can see that the font size for the heading__title gets bigger when the viewport is 640px or bigger and how the smaller variation of the heading title also enlarges but is defined to be smaller than standard. Using this technique, it is very important to apply the BEM methodology strongly to ensure you don't end up nesting several levels deep. For example, ensure that the .heading__title element is a self-contained CSS module that is not needlessly nested within the .heading element. Cleaner responsive styles By taking what we learned from the benefits provided by BEM and Modular CSS and applying it to media queries within the same structure, we stop ourselves from repeating the mistakes of our past. By working with media queries in this way, you don't have to learn a totally new methodology or structure for your styles. We're basically taking the Modular CSS approach and applying it to our media queries, which should feel fairly natural. We're also creating cleaner CSS with less duplication of CSS classes across files and saving development time by removing the need to check multiple locations when making amends. This article was originally published in issue 300 of net, the magazine for professional web designers and developers – offering the latest new web trends, technologies and techniques. Buy issue 300 here or subscribe to net here. Related articles: What is Sass? 8 essential Sass resources to sharpen your skills How to write cleaner CSS and smarter Sass View the full article

Computer games get a bad press – they're blotting paper for time, destructive, bad for the mind and terrible for the creative soul. That's probably true, but only if you're playing the wrong games. 20 best designs in video games Here's our collection of five casual games that will help hone your design skills, and also let you have some fun along the way. 01. Pixactly Put your pixel skills to the test with Pixactly So, you think you're a master pixels pusher? If somebody says: "draw me a box 54 by 35px", could you? Pixactly puts your intuitive feel for pixels and on-screen dimensions to the test by firing out dimensions. You're then challenged to produce rectangles with the requirement measurements. It sounds easy but it's not and if you're your hopeless, the game won't pull its punches! 02. Kern Type Put your kerning skills to the test with this quick-fire game Kern Type is a fiendish game that explores the science – or black art - of kerning. Game play is simple. You're presented with a word whose kerning leaves a little to be desired. Just pick up the letters and sort out their spacing. You'll need a steady hand, a sharp eye and plenty of finesse. Each new round ushers in a different typeface. It's great fun and good practice. 03. Hex Invaders Hex codes meet space invaders in this addictive game The aliens are coming and it's your job to save the world! Hex invaders is a variation of the classic Space Invaders riff. As you play, the game flashes up a colour's hex code and you're tasked with taking aim at the invader whose colour corresponds with the code. The game is fiendishly addictive. 04. The Bézier Game Learn how to use Photoshop's Pen Tool with this gentle game The Bézier Game is slightly more gentle. It's designed to help designers master Photoshop's Pen Tool. As you play, the game displays shapes and you need to redraw them using only the prescribed number of clicks or nodes. As each turn progresses, the shapes become more complex. You'll even be introduced to keyboard shortcuts. 05. I Shot the Serif Take aim on serif fonts with this shooter To be a winner at I Shot The Serif you need to take aim at the serifs and leave the sans typefaces alone. It sounds easy but, given the time constraints, it's surprisingly difficult. If you're a winner, you'd be promoted from junior, through middle-weight and hopefully right up to senior. Related articles: Build your own WebGL physics game Jump-start your inspiration with The Game of Creativity 13 tips for making a VR gaming world View the full article

As a creative professional, the last thing you want is a monitor that can't keep up with your needs. BenQ's PD series monitors are specifically crafted for creatives, with unique features and outstanding colour accuracy designed to enhance your workflow and help you bring your ideas to life. For a taste of some of the technology and features that could revolutionise your workflow, read on. 4K definition and unparalleled colour accuracy For clarity of image, BenQ's monitors are unbeaten. The 4K UHD (3840x2160) resolution reveals the finest of details and depth of textures to help you really make the most of your imagery. This is a real game-changer if you work in animation, visual effects or photography – but even for less visually intensive work, it'll add a new dimension to your work. BenQ’s PD range offers reference-grade colour performance Any designer will know the importance of colour accuracy in a monitor – there's nothing worse than your vision being skewed by a mismatch of pixels. BenQ's PD series monitors offer reference-grade colour performance, and cover 100 per cent of sRGB and Rec.709 colour spaces. The advanced IPS wide viewing angle technology also helps minimises colour shift, so you can have complete confidence in your designs, and know that what you're seeing is also what your client (or final audience) will see. Dedicated modes for different specialisms Different design specialisms require different monitor features. To ensure your monitor is working efficiently for you, PD series monitors come with a range of different modes, tailored to specific design tasks. Fine-tune animation work with incredible precision Animators can switch to a dedicated Animation Mode to enable them to fine-tune their work with exceptional precision. Don't get left in the dark – a wider variety of screen display brightness controls offer maximum control when drawing in ambient lighting. For 3D artists, Darkroom Mode is perfect for post-processing work. The image brightness and contrast are optimised to ensure superb clarity and sharpness of detail when working in darkened post-processing environments. Finally, CAD/CAM mode offers enhanced image contrast ideal for detailed technical illustrations. It ensures the fine lines stand out so you can be confident you have all the information you need. Try BenQ Professional Design monitors BenQ's PD range of monitors has everything you need to enhance your creative workflow and help you bring your ideas to life, just as you imagine them. To find out more, take a look here. View the full article

There's a difference between a design that looks good and a design that looks and feels good to use. Your users want apps and websites that are intuitive and easy to use when they interact with it. Learn how to oversee projects that are total successes with the Become a Senior UX Design Strategist Course. You can get it on sale for just $39 (approx £28). The Senior UX Design Strategist Course is a five-hour crash course that will teach you how to build and execute a successful UX strategy. For anyone interested not just in the art of design but also in the art of project management, this course is a must-have resource. It's the best way to learn the principles of creating engaging and interactive design, from understanding what users want to managing a team that builds those incredible designs. You can get the Senior UX Design Strategist Course on sale right now for just $39 (approx £28). That's a 59% saving off the retail price of $995 for a bundle that will improve your design projects, so grab this deal today. About Creative Bloq deals This great deal comes courtesy of the Creative Bloq Deals store – a creative marketplace that's dedicated to ensuring you save money on the items that improve your design life. We all like a special offer or two, particularly with creative tools and design assets often being eye-wateringly expensive. That's why the Creative Bloq Deals store is committed to bringing you useful deals, freebies and giveaways on design assets (logos, templates, icons, fonts, vectors and more), tutorials, e-learning, inspirational items, hardware and more. Every day of the working week we feature a new offer, freebie or contest – if you miss one, you can easily find past deals posts on the Deals Staff author page or Offer tag page. Plus, you can get in touch with any feedback at: deals@creativebloq.com. Related articles: The theory of UX New skills in UX design 5 steps to diversify your UX design View the full article

Have you always fancied the freelance life, but not yet had the confidence, or the opportunity, to take the plunge? Are you worried it might not be for you, or just unsure of where to start? We're here to help you hit the ground running as a self-employed pro. Read on for our essential 10-step guide to going freelance this year... 01. Make sure it's right for you It's worth dipping a toe in the freelance waters first to make sure it's the right decision for you First things first, and this is an important one: freelancing isn't for everyone. You'll likely be spending a lot of time working alone, there's no guaranteed income, and you'll have full responsibility for everything from winning new work to filing your self-assessment tax return. But having full responsibility for everything is exciting as well as potentially daunting. You can choose exactly what you work on, and when. There's no overbearing boss to tell you what to do. And, theoretically at least, there's scope to earn more money if you play your cards right. If you're currently employed, test the water first with some out-of-hours freelance. It's a great way to start putting feelers out to potential contacts, seeing what opportunities are out there and testing whether you're cut out for managing the whole process yourself. Plus, as you'll be earning some extra cash on top of the day job, it'll also help you with step two... 02. Give yourself a financial buffer Make sure you have enough money in the bank to tide you over if projects fall through, or are late paying If you've decided that freelance life is for you, hold your horses before you get over-excited and hand in your notice. Remember, you'll be losing your regular, reliable income. Building contacts can take time, as can setting up 'live' paying projects - and even if you start working on day one, invoices still tend to take at least 30 days to pay, often longer. Savings are essential to give yourself a decent buffer. Where possible, try to have the equivalent of three months' worth of salary in the bank before you leave - this is where freelancing out-of-hours first will help. 03. Think about where you'd like to work Part of the beauty of freelancing is you can work from anywhere, within reason Next, you need to think about where you plan to set up your freelance base. This will help determine what equipment you need to invest in, as well as many other factors. Working from home is a common choice, particularly if you have a spare bedroom that you can convert into an office. Tempting as it is to roll out of bed and start working in your pajamas, having a separate, dedicated area will help you draw the line between work and play. Shared working spaces are increasingly popular, and as well as providing you with a ready-made office set-up – complete with colleagues to chat to – it'll also give you a work space separate from your home. Theoretically, however, it's possible to work from anywhere so long as you have the equipment you need, and some decent WiFi. While working from your favourite coffee shop for eight hours a day is probably not practical, it's great to have as an option when you need it. 04. Invest in some decent hardware A decent laptop is an absolute must when setting up as a freelancer, as it helps you be productive on the move Here's where your setup costs can start to escalate quickly. Once you've decided where you'll be based, you'll have a better idea of exactly what hardware and other equipment you actually need. Don't be tempted to splash out on all the latest gadgets right away unless they're essential for you to start work. The last thing you want is to eat through your financial buffer and end up in debt just because Apple brought out a shinier model. Consider what you'll be doing, where and how, and pick accordingly. Remember to keep track of all your invoices and receipts at the point of purchase, as these are tax-deductible expenses now. 05. Pick the right creative software Adobe Creative Cloud is the de facto tool of choice for most creative professionals. But do you need a full subscription? You won't get far as a freelance designer without the creative software you need to actually design stuff. As with the hardware, however, take the time to consider what you actually need from day one – you can always add things at a later date. Adobe Creative Cloud is likely to be near the top of your list, and if you're a multidisciplinary designer it's a no-brainer to go for the full annual package - even if you'll only use three or four apps regularly. Be honest with yourself here, though – if you spend all your time in Photoshop, the Photography Plan is great value. If you only use Illustrator and InDesign, two annual single-app subs are cheaper. There are alternatives to Adobe, however – such as Serif's excellent Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo – so do your research. 06. Find business tools that work for you FreeAgent is a great accounting tool to help freelancers and small businesses keep track of their finances It's not all about creative software, though. When you're freelance, you have plenty of other things to worry about besides designing: things like invoicing, accounting and project management. There are countless tools out there to help with these necessary evils of self-employment, and there's often a free trial so you can test out what works best for you and your workflow. FreeAgent and Solo are both fantastic monthly-subscription tools for keeping track of expenses, invoices and other accounting necessities, while Asana and Trello both help with project management. It may be tempting to get your teeth into your first project as soon as you can – you need that money to start rolling in, after all. But you won't regret making the effort to get these things set up sooner rather than later. 07. Set up a website to get business A website will help the work keep rolling in: potential clients will expect at least a basic online presence As a freelancer, a decent website is an absolute essential – but it doesn't need to be a huge expense. Sit down and work out exactly what you need your online presence to achieve, and then explore some of the tools at your disposal. If your services include web design, then this is a good chance to practice what you preach, and you know what you're doing already. But for illustrators or designers without web skills, there are so many template-based tools to create a portfolio out there that you won't be short of options. Registering a memorable domain name is worth it too, to give you a more professional edge for your freelance email address as well as the website – this could just be your name, or think more creatively. A logo isn't necessarily essential as a freelancer, at least when you're first starting out – but it's a great chance to show off your design skills with a bit of self-branding if you do. Make sure all of the above is sorted before you invest in your stationery. 08. Get some stationery printed Image: Tim Easley. Printing firms targeted at creative professionals, such as moo.com, are a great way to get quality stationery for less Once you have your portfolio website set up, a professional-looking email address and a logo if you choose to, it's time to combine all that essential information on some quality business stationery. Letterheads and compliment slips may not be top of your list at first, but a great business card, and perhaps some self-promotional postcards or stickers to send to potential clients, are the perfect way to get your name out there. moo.com offers a fantastic range of services and packages to suit your individual needs, with business cards ranging from 298gsm cotton right the way up to extra-thick 600gsm luxe for that premium edge. 09. Get yourself out there Don't hole yourself up in your home studio. Make an effort to get out and about at creative networking events in your local area Once you have your silky new business cards, you need someone to give them to. While potential clients will love receiving a beautiful piece of self-promo in the post, there's no substitute for meeting people face-to-face and pressing a business card into their hand after an interesting chat over a beer. Regular events such as Glug run in cities all around the world, and give you a chance to chat to like-minded creative folk and potential clients and collaborators in an informal, inspiring setting. A bigger investment would be attending a full-blown creative conference, such as D&AD Festival in London, OFFF in Barcelona, TYPO in Berlin or OFFSET in Dublin, all of which are fantastic opportunities to get inspired and meet interesting people. 10. Remember to put tax aside! Don't be caught off guard at the end of the year. Make sure you save enough of your gross income to cover that tax bill! Using your accounting software to keep track of all your income and expenses will make it a lot easier to file that dreaded tax return – remember to keep all the receipts too. But a perfectly-organised tax return is no good if you can't actually pay the bill that comes afterwards. Remember, all the income you're receiving now that you're freelance is before tax – and you'll need to save a decent chunk of it (we recommend 20 percent of your income each month) to pay later. If cash flow is difficult in a particular month, it may be tempting to dip into that money to keep things ticking along. And that's fine, so long as it's occasional and you replenish the funds when you're flush again. But don't let all of the careful prep you've done to reach step 10 go to waste and end up being crippled by a tax bill you can't pay. View the full article

In this workshop, we'll show you how to paint a knight using Photoshop, as well as painting with traditional media. Painting digitally of course makes it easier to make changes, fix mistakes and paint faster in order to meet those pesky deadlines. However, with a purely digital artwork you don’t have a finished painting to hold onto. So why not combine both, using Photoshop to digitally plan out your composition, values and colour, then moving onto traditional painting with acrylic and watercolours? Let me show you how I do it. 01. Obtain a photo reference Take your own photographs at events or find references online I’ve been going to local Renaissance festivals every summer for my entire life. Each time I go, I take hundreds of photographs to use as reference for my artwork. I don’t go into it thinking, “I need this exact pose from this knight for my next illustration”. I just make sure I take pictures of everything. I photograph the buildings, the costumes, and of course the armoured joust. 02. Plan the composition in Photoshop Crop in close to your subject (click the arrows icon to enlarge this image) I open a 5x7-inch Photoshop document and create a 1/4-inch border. This will be the exact size of my painting. I create a border layer and set it on top, because when I put the final painting into a frame, it crops off about a 1/4-inch of my painting on all sides. Then I drag in my reference underneath the border, and rotate and resize it until the composition is to my liking. 03. Mask the background Mask out distracting background elements (click the arrows icon to enlarge this image) Now I have to get rid of the grassy knoll with people's legs and picnic blankets in the background. I create a mask on the same layer as the photo reference and erase the background with a Photoshop brush that has soft edges. I use a mask rather than an eraser so that I can add or take away things without them being lost forever. 04. Add another photo reference Use props as references if you have them I now realise that this knight would look a lot cooler with a sword in his right hand. So I steal my brother’s collectible Lord of the Rings sword and position my hand exactly how it should look if the knight were holding it. Then I create a new layer, resize the sword and mask out the background. 05. Choose a focal point Add a gradient to draw focus to the key areas (click the arrows icon to enlarge this image) I switch the image over to greyscale and consider the focal point. Which area of the painting should I focus on the most? In this case, it’s the centre of the image (the pauldron/breast plate area). Therefore, no other area should achieve a higher level of contrast or detail. To remind myself of this, I create a transparent and white radial gradient. This fades off the less-important areas. 06. Identify landmarks Trace the most important parts Next, I use my computer screen as a make-shift lightbox and tape up my drawing paper. I’m not just tracing the image like a robot – I’m trying to find the most important visual landmarks so that I can effectively draw this knight to accurate proportion and scale. 07. Use pencils to produce a value study Pay attention to your values as you build a pencil drawing Using the initial landmarked lines as my starting point, I use Lyra Pencils in HB, 2B and 4B sizes with a blender tool to start my drawing. I begin at the top of the page and work my way down. I’m trying to get the values as accurate as possible at this stage. I have my photo reference in front of me as I work and I constantly refer to it while drawing. The best pencils for designers and artists 08. Prepare to paint Create a print to work from I scan the drawing and bring it into Photoshop. I go to Filter>Noise>Median. This will smooth out my pencil strokes and make the drawing more photographic-looking. Sometimes I even overlay the original photo on top of certain areas because I want the armour to look as realistic and functional as possible. I then produce a giclée print and mount it to board with a combination of Moulding paste and Matte medium. 09. Choose your colours Having a digital drawing means you can test out colour palettes (click the arrows icon to enlarge this image) Now I’m ready to paint, but what colours do I use? The beauty of Photoshop is that it enables me to try a whole bunch of them out before I paint traditionally. First I create a Gradient Map on top of the greyscale image, mess around with different colours, and adjust the sliders until I get them where I want. Then I take the original coloured photo and overlay it in the focal point area. 10. Achieve texture with watercolour Create texture by adding different ingredients I achieve different textures by adding sea salt, table salt, rubbing alcohol and plastic wrap to my watercolour washes. After the first wash is applied, I apply these techniques in a few specific areas. After it’s dried, I add a second wash on top and apply some of these techniques again. The watercolour repels the salt and alcohol, leaving interesting textures behind. 11. Make an abstract background Make a dynamic background by tilting your watercolours At this stage I don’t really know what will happen – I just let the watercolour do its thing. I keep the Photoshop colour version in front of me and choose a colour from it. I blob on the colour and tilt the board so that the watercolour flows in the general upper left direction (because the knight is moving that way). I apply my watercolour textures, wait until they dry and repeat. 12. Apply acrylic washes Seal the watercolour, then apply acrylics I seal the watercolour with Matte medium and use Golden Fluid Acrylics to paint on top of the watercolour. Golden’s acrylics go on thinner than regular acrylics. This is why I like them. I don’t paint with opaque gobs – instead I use a number of transparent thin layers so that I don’t lose my value study underneath too quickly. 13. Start at the top Work from the top-down when applying acrylic I begin at the top of the illustration board and work my way down. I know many artists who work all over the painting at once. I’ve been known to do this as well, but there’s something I like about the feeling of being done with one area before I move on to the next. 14. Unify the colours Unify the piece with colours Towards the end, however, I do work all over the painting. I look for different colours that might unify the piece together and place them throughout the work. This article was originally published in issue 155 of ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists. Buy issue 155 here or subscribe to ImagineFX here. Related articles: How to create new character designs in Photoshop The best drawing tablet: our pick of the best graphics tablets How to draw: 95 pro tutorials and tips View the full article

At its most basic, logo design can be a very literal, representative thing – and that can be effective, if done well. Think Costa's bunch of coffee beans, iTunes' musical note, or Woolmark's ball of wool. Other times, the name of the brand – even if it says nothing about the actual product or service it provides – becomes a gift for a logo designer. Step up Red Cross, Shell and Apple, and a whole gamut of animal-themed brands such as Puma, Jaguar, Penguin, Dove and Red Bull. Increasingly, the trend for minimalist logo design is paring back clever illustrated symbols altogether in favour of clean, sans serif type and very simple accompanying graphics. But a whole host of brands have built up an long-running association with a seemingly random symbol that rewards a little more digging. Starbucks and McDonalds are two iconic US brands with such unusual associations. Before the Seattle-born franchise took over the world, who would have associated a green topless mermaid and a character from Moby Dick with coffee? And while the 'Golden Arches' resemble an 'M' for McDonalds, they actually echo the distinctive shape of the fast-food giant's early roadside restaurants. Read on to discover five more household brands whose symbols hide a fascinating backstory... 01. Nestlé: the family name Nestlé's distinctive bird's nest is a shrewd modification of the founder's family crest Have you ever pondered the connection between a multinational food and drink company and a bird's nest? It all comes down to the founder's heritage. Henri Nestlé was one of the first Swiss manufacturers to develop a logo for his business, and he turned to his family coat of arms for inspiration. Nestlé means 'nest' in German, so perhaps unsurprisingly, his crest featured a bird sitting on its nest. Given the company's range of products included cereal for infants, Nestlé adapted the otherwise fairly random symbol back in 1868 to gave it a nurturing twist, swapping the solitary bird for three baby birds being fed by their mother to create the ideal fusion between its name and its purpose. Over time, the logo was progressively simplified. And in 1988 the three baby birds were reduced to just two, in an attempt to represent the 'average modern family' - albeit in bird form. 02. NBC: a colourful metaphor NBC was first associated with a peacock in 1956, to express its pride in colour television It may be a stretch to associate a peacock with a TV broadcaster in the modern era. But back in 1956 NBC wanted a visual metaphor that expressed the excitement of the recent innovations in colour televisions, and positioned the channel at the forefront. Early versions showed a fairly literal line drawing of a peacock, with a graphic rainbow tail fanned out. Each of the 11 'feathers' featured a different coloured droplet on the end, creating a vibrant explosion of colours designed to encourage black-and-white TV owners to make the switch to enjoy the full experience. Besides its famously vibrant tail, the tagline 'proud as a peacock' used the well-known phrase to help express the network's pride in its colour system. Although during the 70s and early 80s – until Chermayeff & Geismar was brought on board to overhaul the brand in 1986, it was used alongside a graphic 'N' device. Chermayeff & Geismar recognised the brand collateral in the peacock, even at a time when colour televisions came as standard rather than being any particular selling point for a network. The agency pared the feathers back to six, to represent NBCs different divisions. But the master stroke was the subtle notch that simply hints at the peacock's head - a much more elegant solution than its 1950s predecessor. 03. Domino's: counting the dots Domino's was supposed to add a dot every time a new store opened... it never happened It may now be the world's most ubiquitous pizza chain, but Domino's had humble beginnings as a small, independent restaurant called DomiNicks, after its owner Dominick DiVarti. Tom Monaghan acquired the business with his brother James in 1960, but had bought him out within a year in exchange for the old Volkswagen Beetle they used for their deliveries. By 1965, Monaghan had opened two more stores, but was unable to franchise the 'DomiNicks' name without DiVarti's permission, and it wasn't granted. An employee suggested changing it to 'Domino's', and Monaghan instantly loved it: besides the phonetic similarity and visual branding potential, he was also excited about how his franchising ambitions could be represented in the logo. The three dots in the logo represent the three original Domino's locations: the plan was to add a dot for every subsequent store that opened. It was a neat idea, except the chain was vastly more successful than he could ever have imagined - had Monaghan stuck to his guns, there would now be over 10,000 dots to fit on. 04. MGM: King of the jungle MGM's association with a lion came about simply because an ad exec attended Columbia University There are few things that'll make you sit up and take notice quite like a roaring lion. In the film industry at least, that symbol - and the accompanying noise - belongs conclusively to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, better known as MGM. Generations of movie-goers were met with the roaring big cat, framed by an unravelling roll of film as part of the MGM crest. But the association with film was purely coincidental: the king of beasts was originally used as part of the 1916 trademark for Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, as a tribute to ad executive Howard Dietz's alma mater, Columbia University - and specifically its athletic team, nicknamed The Lions. When Goldwyn Pictures merged with Metro Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures in 1924, the lion - an actual animal, named Slats - remained as the MGM brand's official mascot. While he didn't roar at first, he was first heard, via gramophone, at the 1928 premiere of the silent movie White Shadows in the South Seas. After Slats died in 1928, he was succeeded by a whole parade of MGM lions, including Jackie, Telly, Coffee, Tanner and George, before the best-known and longest-serving lion, Leo, took over in 1957. It's a rich branding heritage, and it all sprung from the fact that an executive went to a certain university. 05. Toblerone: the mountain and the bear Toblerone's 1908 logo combines two local emblems: the Matterhorn, and the bear of Bern Many brands draw on the history and heritage of the city or country they hail from, rather than the products they make. Toblerone is a great example: rather than depicting anything to do with the chocolate itself, the brand chose a geographical landmark - the nearby Matterhorn - as its emblem. That distinctive mountain shape is echoed in the triangular chunks of the chocolate bar itself, but the references don't stop there. Hidden within the snowy patterns on the sheer face of the mountain is the outline of a bear - the official symbol of Bern, the Swiss city where Toblerone was founded in 1908. Where the symbols used by Nestlé and MGM are closely tied to a particular individual involved with the business - the founder's name, where a particular exec studied - Toblerone's symbol demonstrates pride in its origins, and gives a little-known regional emblem global significance. Related articles: 5 logo design trends for 2018 How to price logo design services 5 expensive logos and what they teach us View the full article

Facebook is the number one social media platform on the planet. Using it the right way will ensure that your posts will improve engagement and give you a boost over your rivals 01. Get local If you are only going to do one thing with social media from now on then it should be this. Join as many local community groups as possible and post regularly in them. Get known, provide advice, answer questions. Just participate. People buy from people they know. So make sure everyone knows you. 02. Use memes People love to share funny pictures. The picture itself isn’t going to get you any business, but becoming known as a person who is funny isn’t going to do you any harm at all. Social media is about interaction. Be the person that everyone likes. Try to make what you share relevant. 03. Know your audience Every single Facebook tip boils down to one thing. Get to know the people around you, and make sure they know you. Talk to people, answer their questions for free, be the guy everyone likes, the first person they think of. Then when they need something, you’ll have already sold it. Recommended app Tabsite enables you to create tabs in Facebook, so you can run competitions, sweepstakes, and special offers. Create tabs in Facebook with Tabsite 04. Integrate email marketing Do you have a regular newsletter? If not then shame on you, go start one now. Then integrate the sign up with your Facebook page. There’s no point in going to all of the effort of making people like you if you don’t leverage it to get an opportunity to pitch your business. 05. Retargeting We know it kind of goes against the ethos of this list to suggest you simply pay for adverts, but Facebook’s retargeting system rocks. And even better it doesn’t have to cost much. The more people see you the more likely they are to buy, so retarget to make sure they see you again! Engage with customers Generate NYC 2018 runs from the 25th-27th April 2018 The latest addition to the Generate NYC 2018 line-up is tech entrepreneur and customer success expert, Joseph Palumbo. With over a decade of experience, his insights into product development, service delivery, design, and user experience helped some of the largest tech companies gain a competitive advantage by listening and adapting to their customer’s needs. Listen to Joseph talk about pulling from his entrepreneurial background to effectively read each audience, employing the iterative process, building a structured journey, and setting the tone with the perfect first joke. Get your ticket now RELATED ARTICLES How to master the art of advertising on Facebook 10 social media tricks you didn't know about The design secrets of Facebook, Google and Twitter revealed View the full article

You're reading Best Free Website and Mobile UI Kits for 2018, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! The modern and frantic pace of life encourages us to come up with the ways of fulfilling tasks briskly to keep up. Rapid wireframing is a product of our acclimatization. Maybe in the beginning, this seemed like cheating yet now we can’t do without it. Any business requires an own online property. Everyone understands that. […] View the full article

Firmware versions of HPE’s remote management hardware iLO3 have an unauthenticated remote denial of service vulnerability. View the full article

26 new 10p coins have entered circulation in the UK, dedicated to celebrating everything 'quintessentially British'. Each special edition coin is based on a different letter of the alphabet, from the Angel of the North to zebra crossings. Of course, in certain cases there has been some barrel-scraping (we guess it was a toss up between a xylophone and 'X marks the spot'), but in most cases the designers have really hit the nail on the head when it comes to capturing everything the Brits love most, including tea, the Loch Ness Monster and the NHS. The coin attracting most love so far is the Q, which stands for – of course – queuing. It even features a parade of tiny, etched figures queueing polite across it. Take a look through the full collection below – use the arrows on the right and left to navigate through the collection. The Royal Mint has also released a 'Great British coin hunt' app – numismatists (coin collectors, that is) can scan any alphabet coins they find, using their phone camera, then collate them into a digital 'collection'. The app will be available for free on the App Store and Google Play. Find out more about the coins on the Royal Mint website (it's currently down due to high volumes of traffic... but you can always wait in the queue). View the full article

UK design studio Koto has shot to success impressively quickly since it launched in 2015. It has rapidly built its reputation on the global design scene, and managed to snag 11th place in the Computer Arts Studio Rankings this year (you can find out more about that here). The studio's ascent was kick-started when Coca-Cola entrusted it with a global rebrand of Fanta, and since then it has worked with the likes of Airbnb, Gumtree and PayPal. Client manager Katey-Jean Harvey handles Koto’s Coca-Cola and Airbnb accounts, and knows that multinational companies require a special touch. Here, she shares her tips for working with huge clients and keeping complex projects running like clockwork. 01. Use time differences to your advantage Koto's Fanta rebrand was a complex challenge Koto’s global rebrand of Coca-Cola-owned Fanta required a complex account management process that ranged from the main rebrand to myriad detail-orientated, research-heavy smaller tasks, like what a logo looks like in Thai or Arabic, or on a tiny label versus a massive billboard. “It’s very much a case of being a collaborator,” says Harvey. “We speak constantly on Google Hangouts, and it’s like: ‘What can we do to help you get what you need?’ We know they’re moving at a million miles an hour behind the scenes, so we use our time difference to our advantage, and make sure they wake up and have files when they need them.” 02. Embrace the chaos “No two days are the same, which could be a problem for some people,” admits Harvey. “Although some people quite like the regularity of a day-to-day job, I prefer the chaotic moments: juggling lots of different things at any given time is a really satisfying challenge. “You’re essentially a translator, and a diplomat at times – for me, that’s the most rewarding part: seeing the chaotic messages come through, and translating them into design. That’s how I get my kicks.” 03. Build relationships – and not just with the bosses “With more stakeholders involved, you may have to go through a political minefield to get answers, which slows things down,” admits Harvey. “You need to know when to respect the timeline; when to ease off and ride the wave so it doesn’t stress you out.” Although many challenges between large and small clients are similar, she points out that the larger the client-side team you’re working with, the more time you need to invest in building relationships. “Obviously you’ve got the CEOs and the people on a higher level, but make sure you make good contacts with people like producers, developers and designers too,” is her advice. “Make yourself an extended part of their team on all levels.” This article was originally published in Computer Arts, the world's best-selling design magazine. Buy issue 274 or subscribe. Read more: 5 ways to create better brand imagery What happens when famous logos swap colour palettes 10 huge graphic design trends to know for 2018 View the full article

To us at The Book Designers, the layout of the pages inside a book is just as important as its cover design. After all, the pages are what people experience as they read the book. This tutorial provides a basic step-by-step process for designing and laying out a book that's driven by its text. 22 free ebooks for designers Over the following steps we'll show you how to design a simple text-driven book using InDesign, which is part of Adobe's Creative Cloud software. However, this process can also be applied to more dynamic layouts, as it covers the basics of flowing in and formatting text for a book layout. 01. Plan the layout Click the icon to enlarge the image Plan your book layout first. Where are the table of contents, copyright page, introductions, preface, forewords and so on going to be located? If you're uncertain, ask your client or refer to books already in print to see what the standard is. Make sure the text you receive is supplied without hard formatting, otherwise you might spend a lot of time stripping out italics, bold and so on – over-formatted text distracts readers. Now open InDesign and go to 'File > New Document'. 02. Set properties The inside margins need to be large enough to accound for the gutter Set your document properties. Choose Facing Pages, set the trim size and margins, and set the columns to one. Pay attention to the inside margin as when your book is bound at the spine it will take in some of this paper. We suggest inside margins of at least one inch. We're working in inches – ctrl+right-click on the ruler to change the units you work in. Deselect the lock icon in your margin settings so you can set each – top, bottom, inside and outside – individually. 03. Drag guides Click the icon to enlarge the image You can drag guides for your layout off the rulers, just click and pull down or across. Use the Pages panel to see your layout in thumbnails and to access and apply master page items. To do this, click on the A-Master icon at the top of the Pages panel. 04. Create text boxes Once you access your master page, you can create text boxes to fit your margins as well as set up any page elements like page numbers and folio items. Whatever you do on your master pages will be applied throughout the rest of the document. Create two text boxes using your Type tool and position them within your margins. 05. Link pages Adjust your settings so the text flows from page to page Next, using your Direct Selection tool, select the text box on the left and locate the small square on the lower-right corner. Click this and you will see your cursor change to a text flow icon. With this text flow cursor icon, click on the right-hand text box and see the cursor change to a link cursor icon. This enables your document pages to link from page to page as you flow your text in. Next page: page numbers, flowing in text and more 06. Page numbers You can automate page numbering by making a text box and typing in a number wherever you want page numbers to appear in your layout. Select the number you typed, ctrl/right-click on it, and from the pop-up menu that appears select 'Insert special characters > Markers > Current page numbers'. You will see the number change to the letter A. This signifies that your page numbers are now applied to all your pages. 07. Populate opening pages The first few pages need to follow a different format Now, click on the first page of your document in the Pages panel and you'll see the items you created on your master pages have been applied. The first page is typically a 'half title' page, typically followed by a full title page with the subtitles, and name of the author and publishing house. Create these and a table of contents before flowing in the main body copy. To remove master items from a page, cmd/ctrl+shift+click on an item and it will be broken out of the master, then hit Delete. 08. Flow in text Now flow in the text. cmd/ctrl+Shift+click on the first text box and then press cmd/ctrl+D and select the text file on your hard disk. Your text will flow into the first spread. Select the second text box and click on the small box at the lower right corner. Hold Shift and it turns into an Auto-flow cursor icon. Click in the first text box on the next spread, and flow it in to the end of the document. 09. Adjust font Adjust your fonts using the Character and Paragraph panels Using your Text Selection tool and Character and Paragraph panels, adjust the font, size, colour and other character attributes that may be needed. Justified text is common for book body text. Your font size should be 10-12pt, with leading 13-15pt. Your text should have few hyphens and have an over all 'greyness' to it when viewed with a squinted eye. Good fonts are designed to have ideal kerning pairs but make sure headers, sub-headers, section breaks and drop caps get extra attention for a breathable hierarchy. For kerning tips, check out this article. 10. Tidy up Click the icon to enlarge the image You can apply any number of text treatments to your page, as well as import images to flow throughout your text. You can create any number of differently shaped boxes to import images into. Using the Text Wrap panel, set a 'runaround' so that text can flow around the images. Once done, export your book for press by packaging your document, saving it as a PDF for print, or ebook or e-pub formats. Liked this? Try these... 10 steps to freelance success The secrets to better client relationships The designer's guide to working from home View the full article

The Oscars are almost upon us. Whether you indulge in the awards ceremony or think it's just a self-congratulatory pat on the back, the Oscars are a great opportunity to pause and reflect on the state of current cinema. There's also the chance there'll be a hilarious gaffe like last year's Moonlight/ La La Land mix up. There's plenty for designers to get excited about in the run up to the Oscars, with some using the awards as an opportunity to offer their own creative spin on the year's biggest films. Take illustrator Olly Gibbs, who has been creating amazing illustrations of Oscar hopefuls since 2014. "I thought it would be a fun idea to represent each Best Picture nominee by dressing up the Oscar Statue in the costumes from the films," he explains. "I continued to do this each year developing the idea a bit further by introducing props and other elements to help show the film more as in some cases a costume wasn't enough." The project started out as an Oscars game for Empire Magazine, but when this fell through Gibbs kept on creating the statues to hone his illustration skills. "Each year the statues become more refined and more detailed," says Gibbs. "If you compare the first set I did with this year's you'll see a massive difference in detail and connection with the film. I do it all in Adobe Illustrator and tend to a lot of research before hand working from trailers and released film stills." Check out the full gallery of this year's Oscar illustrations below. When it comes to creating his illustrations, Gibbs always tries to be as accurate as possible while creating a cohesive collection. "Colour is also key when creating the final piece as I try to strike a balance with all the statues so I will determine which costume to choose (if there are multiple) by how it works with the others," he reveals. "I also like it when there's one that stands out a bit more than the rest. Last year I did Amy Adams in the orange hazmat suit from Arrival and that made for a really striking image. This year Guillermo Del Toro's Shape of Water allowed me to create a non-human statue for the first time - this was by far my most favourite one to create and probably the most beautiful one yet. I worked hard to be as accurate to the costume/character as Del Toro's designs are always stunning." Having posted his Oscar illustrations since 2014, Gibbs' creations have started to take on a life of their own. "I'm always blown away by the responses each year I post these and this year was no different," he says. "I had a lot of people emailing and commenting when and if I'd be doing them which was nice to see. "As far as what's next I have a few ideas and one of them is to work with a 3D artist to create them in 3D and get them 3D printed. I've always wanted to see them turned into sculptures although I'm not sure where to begin with that! If not I'll just stick to illustrator and focus on improving the illustration technique!" The Oscars take place on 4 March. Related articles: Infographic: The Oscars by numbers Brutally honest posters for Oscar-nominated movies Brilliant posters celebrate the Oscars View the full article