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Typesetting might sound like an antiquated term. But it is, quite simply, the art and science of arranging text on a page in an attractive and legible manner. It’s a phrase originally used to describe the arrangement of physical, metal type in editorial design. But nowadays, it’s normally used to refer to the arrangement of digital type on screen, using software such as Adobe InDesign. “Traditional typesetting used to be quite a fixed mechanical process,” says Luke Tonge, senior creative at LIFE, an award-winning creative agency based in Birmingham. “So the variables were easier to control, but obviously much more time-consuming and complex. In our fluid digital times, thanks to computers, we type with total ease, so achieving consistency across countless devices and platforms is the new aim.” Modern typesetting, then, is all about the choices that can be controlled by the designer, including typefaces, sizes, placement and colour. And it should always take into account where the type will eventually live: be that outdoors, indoors, on a desktop or tablet computer, printed, or on a tiny watch screen. All these variables mean that the potential for bad typesetting is huge. “Software is a poor alternative to the kind of experience and eye that comes with years of studying and understanding type as a stand-alone craft,” Tonge points out. “So the onus is on designers today to ignore the default settings and pay even more attention to it.” Typesetting challenges LIFE recently completed a fun campaign to launch Chicago Town’s Pizza Kitchen, using a more playful and extravagant type than it uses for most restaurant clients All this means that as a junior designer, your first forays into typesetting for a real client can be quite a challenge. Michele Stocks, who was recently promoted from junior designer to designer at Nelson Bostock Unlimited, recalls her initial experiences. “It started off being very difficult to choose the right typefaces,” she recalls. “Then if a secondary typeface was needed, that would prove really hard to get right. Because when it’s even slightly not right, it’s very obvious. It was frustrating, because when I looked at beautiful typographic pieces, they made it look so easy. But what I had in my head wouldn’t come out right on the page.” Thankfully, though, she soon got the hang of it. “You start to get to know what can work and what doesn’t, and quite quickly I found I knew what I was doing,” she says. Ultimately, it was practice that helped her improve, as well as looking at a lot of different types of inspiration. “There are no real shortcuts: it just takes experience to get it right,” she says. For Pizza Kitchen, LIFE worked with an illustrator to create four key statements "and then built up the type around them, riffing off the personality that each statement embodied," says Tonge Maya Walters, who has been working as an artworker at Hogarth Worldwide since 2015, recalls that one of the biggest challenges she faced early on was dealing with multiple client guidelines. “Having a large list of clients, each with a wide variety of fonts and typefaces, meant a steep learning curve,” she explains. “I needed to understand which rules were applied to each typeface in terms of font size, leading, tracking, horizontal scaling, and so on. In the first few months, even maybe the first year, I remember checking my notes, client guidelines and magazine tips many times a day while working on various projects. The more jobs I worked on, the more aware I became of the importance of typography and guidelines as part of my skill set.” And it wasn’t just her day-to-day work that helped improve her typesetting skills. “After this initial learning stage, working on freelance and personal projects was another great way to put all of these skills into practice,” Walters adds. “I continued to face new challenges, working with typesetting skills that were outside of my comfort zone.” And that’s an important point, because typesetting isn’t something you ever completely master, but something you should strive to develop and improve throughout your career. Not doing so may adversely affect your career prospects, and Tonge stresses that it’s not always the juniors in a studio who have the worst typesetting habits. Typesetting sins LIFE used a combination of Memphis (the slab serif) and RBNo2.1a (the sans) in various weights, embellished with shadows, key lines and gradients “There’s a roll call of typesetting sins that designers of all ages can commit,” Tonge grimaces. “The obvious ones I’ve spotted over the years include too much shouty CAPITALISATION, stretching type awkwardly to fit a space, and excessive line lengths. "But probably the biggest mistake I see is around quantity of text. No-one is going to read several paragraphs of text on a presentation slide, especially at 30 words per line in 8pt! Brevity is highly underrated.” Avoiding such pitfalls and progressing your skills involves a combination of creative flair and technical craft, he adds. “It’s relatively easy to teach technical craft: this is often what college courses do, and certainly something juniors should be picking up from seniors and artworkers. "But the more difficult aspect to teach is the expressive/intuitive part, which is evident when someone just ‘gets’ type and typesetting. Educating on this is more about exploring why certain approaches work, what’s been successful in other work, and so on, than instilling a specific formula.” How to break the rules LIFE also undertook a ‘design refresh’ of the winter menu for Thyme, the restaurants found within the Premier Inn hotel chain, using far fewer eye-popping type effects in favour of technical attention to detail Improving your typesetting abilities is a process of learning the rules, then learning to break them. “You need to learn the accepted rules and basics,” says Luke Tonge. “Understand hierarchy, learn about rhythm and visual flow, figure out the difference between readability and legibility, get your grammar, punctuation and consistency nailed. Then… forget the lot! Fall in love with abstract and expressive type, hand lettering and brush work, collage and experimental, barely legible type.” The point he’s making is that type can sometimes be a dry subject if all you do is follow the rules. “But it needn’t be, you just need to know how and when to break them,” stresses Tonge. “Study typographic legends like David Carson, Neville Brody and Jonathan Barnbrook. Explore the output of typographic outsiders such as James Victore, Sister Corita Kent and Neasden Control Centre. Always ask yourself: ‘What does this collection of shapes emotionally convey – not just say?” Ultimately, being good at typesetting is indivisible from being good at design, he notes. “At its most distilled, graphic design is words and pictures, plus hopefully an idea. Type is the clothes words wear, which means typesetting is of huge importance when evaluating a designer’s work. “Typesetting is like writing,” he concludes. “You can spot a good bit of copy (and equally a stinker) at a glance; it is very difficult to hide poor typesetting. The proof of good typesetting usually means the typesetting isn’t noticeable, it feels natural and confident, and helps deliver a great piece of work.” How to create your own font: 18 top tips 5 top typesetting tips Readability was vital for these menus, so LIFE used a mixture of clean sans families Tide Sans for headers, and Gotham for the body copy 01. Take your time “Getting typesetting right is something that will largely come with time, says Stocks. “So just keep practising, and don’t get put off when it doesn’t look good immediately. I recommend looking at a lot of inspiration too, because it helps you get an idea of what works well together.” 02. Keep studying “First you need to learn the tools: font size, leading, tracking, horizontal and vertical scaling, paragraph styling, language settings and grid systems,” says Walters. “Then you need to extend your knowledge: there’s always something new to learn. Read a book on typography and set challenges for yourself to put your new skills into practice, such as working on a personal project.” 03. Read books For reading matter, Tonge suggests Type Matters! by Jim Williams and Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton. And if you really want to treat yourself, he adds, The Visual History of Type by Paul McNeil is “the best book on type this year”. 04. Use online resources “There are countless online resources to help you improve your skills too,” says Tonge. “They include ilovetypography.com, typographher.com, letterformarchive.org, typewolf.com and fontsinuse.com. Plus, on Twitter there are heaps of amazing foundries, magazines, designers, publications and organisations to follow, to further immerse yourself in the world of type.” (Check out these 50 design agencies to follow on Twitter for a start.) 05. Put clients first “Above all, find out about the client’s needs when it comes to typesetting,” says Walters. “Do they have guidelines and styles? If so, they should be made a prime consideration for the typography you create.” This article was originally published in issue 274 of Computer Arts, the global design magazine – helping you solve daily design challenges with insights, advice and inspiration. Buy issue 274 here or subscribe to Computer Arts here. Related articles: How to create digital assets Be a better artworker 30 books every graphic designer should read View the full article

The number of freelancers, or ‘independent workers’, is growing rapidly in Europe. Research from EFIP shows that more people are taking the plunge and launching new businesses in almost every EU member state. The largest number of new freelancers are found in western Europe, the UK, France and the Netherlands. There's more to going freelance than knowing how to network or having an amazing design portfolio. In this article, we'll offer some top advice on how to go freelance, including what to prepare before you go freelance, how to find clients, and the secret to a happy life as a freelancer. 01. Establish your goals One of the first steps is understanding your reason for going freelance. Simply put, if you don’t know where you’re going, chances are you won’t get there anytime soon. It's impossible to reach your goal if you don't know what your goal is. Take some time to consider why you’re going freelance. Is it to have more time with your family? Would you like to travel and work remotely? Or do you want to build your very own business empire? Don’t worry; there’s no right or wrong answer here. Your passions will change with time (that’s a good thing!) and your reasons for freelancing will too. 02. Save up a financial buffer Anticipate 2-3 months without a regular income Before I started freelancing, I saved for a couple of months to give me a tiny bit of financial security. Now don’t kid yourself; you’ll still have to tackle financial stress, but this way you’ll be certain you can still pay your rent and eat decent food. Keep in mind that even committed clients may take some time to pay you while you are working. Anticipate two or three months with no regular income. Having this financial buffer allowed me to put everything I earned into my company for the first six months, which gave my company a great financial start. 03. Have clients ready When you make the leap, you don’t want to spend your first day chasing clients. Instead, make sure you have a couple of clients on standby for when you’re ready to begin. You can even start working with them while you’re still in your full-time job using evenings and weekends. That way, you’ll have a feel for the freelance life in all its glory: client communication, deadlines, delivering work, invoicing, financing and so on. If you hate it, you can go back to your day job the next morning. If you hate parts of it, look into what you could eventually outsource to someone else, but save that added expense for later on. 04. Plan your days Make sure your days have structure When you don’t have real actionable tasks you need to complete, it’s so easy to just hang out in Slack channels, check out Twitter, or look for inspiration on Pinterest. These things feel like work, but there’s no-one paying you for that time. This is something I occasionally still struggle with after nearly 10 years. I’ve found that dividing my day into two or three chunks with a clear task for that period works best for me. When you’re working in a company, you’re usually paid a monthly salary, and regardless of what value you bring and how many hours you work, within reason. When you’re running your own company, you’re in charge of making sure that money comes in, and regiment is important. Being a freelancer doesn’t mean freedom from a schedule. 05. Find your niche No-one will come to you unless they have a problem. Whether you are a developer, designer, bookkeeper or plumber, your client has a problem they need you to solve. It’s crucial to fully understand their needs to plan the right solution. I have had clients come to me and say they want a website. As much as I’d like to make that a complete reality, I only do design and strategy work. I wouldn’t solve their problem by handing them a beautifully designed Sketch file and waving them off. Solving their problem would take finding a copywriter to work on their content, and then handing the design and assets off to a developer who’ll code and launch their website within their timeline. A Sketch design file would get them closer to their solution, but it wouldn’t have solved their problem. The problem you’re solving may not be the same as what you do, or even what they hire you to do. Try to find your niche as tightly as possible – it’s OK to go outside your positioning on occasion, but the quicker clients can understand exactly what it is that you do, the faster they’ll know you are the right person to hire. 06. Make the most of friends and colleagues There’s no easier pitch than the one that a friend, an established colleague, or a prior client sets up for you. I’m extremely grateful for the testimonials that clients have given me, because their kind words do the selling for me. After all, a product that all of your friends love gets your attention, right? The same goes for your services. If you can get your network to advocate for you (through word-of-mouth, LinkedIn, a testimonial on your site or introductions), you will see immediate benefits. 07. Engage with online networks Where do your potential clients hang out online? Is there a forum where they talk? A LinkedIn group? Regardless of where they are, try to pitch in. Coming in with guns blazing can be bad, but be as engaged as possible. Offering free advice will position you as someone they can value. Working with you will be a more natural choice for them since you’ve positioned yourself positively. 08. Pay extra attention to recurring clients The easiest way of keeping busy all the time is to keep the clients you already have. This does not mean they deserve better treatment than new clients, but it’s worthwhile to invest effort into maintaining these relationships. New clients may seem much more inspiring than older clients, but there’s no comfort or security in what’s new. If you’re like me and not a big fan of the ‘hustle’, staying with recurring clients can simplify your business. I cannot stress enough how valuable this has been for my success. 09. Play the long game Meetings don't always yield results immediately I’ve had meetings with clients that I thought went really well, and then never heard back from them. There are so many factors around why things don’t always take off straight away and, on a couple of occasions, these companies have reached back out several years later. Things don’t always take off right away, so don’t be too hard on yourself. Often, it really is a marathon. 10. Learn to swallow your pride Three years ago, I got a call from an agency asking if I could help them out with a client. The job was just to create a couple of buttons and modules for a website. While this is not normally the kind of job I would usually take on, I decided that I might as well take it because I had a slow month. Since then, that client has become my biggest on a yearly basis, and I’m now on its product development team. Why? Through creating those buttons, I showed them my value and how they could benefit from integrating me earlier in their process. When you provide true value to clients, you will be rewarded. Sometimes you just have to start a bit lower down the food chain. 11. Find happiness, then success Happiness will lead to better work I am going to let you in on a secret I discovered just recently. You see, for years I was chasing the same thing that most of us are: success. Whether that is in terms of money, fame, respect or something else – it comes down to how we define what ‘success’ really is. We all know this feeling. We all follow a similar path. And I want to be perfectly clear: it’s not entirely a bad thing. Striving for the next great thing is part of what will make you successful, because you won’t just settle. I’m guessing you’re familiar with the expression ‘happy wife, happy life’? The expression wants us to believe that our miseries are all because of our wives, and if we’ll just make our wives happy, then our lives will be filled with joy. I think it should be the other way around: Happy life, happy wife! When I’m happy, I’m able to express gratitude and kindness towards my wife, which makes her happy. The same applies to us freelancers: Happy life, happy… bank statements! When we’re happy, we do better work. The best way to do this is different for all of us, but it usually consists of eating well, exercising, meeting friends, watching movies; just doing what you love. Find happiness, then success will follow. Main Illustration by Marcus Faint This article originally appeared in issue 299 of net, the magazine for professional web designers and developers – offering the latest new web trends, technologies and techniques. Buy issue 299 here or subscribe to net here. Read more: 4 ways to go freelance How to manage your freelance cashflow 20 top tools for freelancers View the full article

Five years ago, I was a brat who was overconfident about my art skills. I drew the same four poses over and over again, but since I drew them well, it just fed my ego! Then I met one of my heroes, who was kind enough not to throw my sketchbook away, but harsh enough to let me know that I didn't know how to draw. "Your drawings have no life. You need to feel what you are drawing. Your back needs to ache if you're drawing someone bending over," he said. Honestly, I didn't understand a thing. But it did set me off on a hunt to understand what he meant. Three years later, after having regularly sketched every day, I got the first glimpse of what he was getting at. While sketching a girl sinking into her sofa, I realised I was sinking myself, to feel the pose. This wasn't my only experience, though: there were numerous more that shaped my observation. Each of them opened me up to a world of possibilities. Through this workshop, I would like to share my ideas that could give you that little push to explore the world for yourself. My aim is to help you personalise the worlds that you create through your art. 01. Include specific physical attributes Patterns and physical features add lots to an illustration Crooked noses, hair styles, moustaches, tattoos, fashion accessories… there's so much to observe and recreate on the canvas when painting human characters. And don't forget the patterns on various surfaces. They just add so much to an illustration. How to improve your character drawing 02. Observe nuances Little nuances can make a world of difference Observe how subtle changes in body language can change the attitude of a person. A raised eyebrow can add volumes, although there's little physical change. Nuances could be atmospheric, too. Imagine a young boy reading a book. On the wall is a poster of Lionel Messi. Switch the poster to one of Albert Einstein and there's a complete change in context. 03. Break symmetry People are rarely symmetrical Here's an early observation and important lesson that I learned: our actions are rarely symmetrical in nature. Even the simplest of gestures like sitting or standing aren't evenly balanced. You'll often hear artists say that symmetry is boring, and this is simply because it makes things feel too organised and forced. Generally, if a moment is something that calls for attention – say, an action that's grand or epic – is resorting to symmetry the best way forward? 04. Understand the nature of light Understand how the lighting might work in your scene To understand light, ask yourself the following. Is the light warm, cool or neutral? Is it direct or is there ambient light? How intense is the ambient light compared to the main light source? Is there a secondary light source? What's the nature of these sources: direct, rim or diffused? And note how intense the light from one source is with respect to the other. 05. Capture the balance of tension and relaxation Get your combination of tension and relaxation right Any form will generally have a combination of tension and relaxation. It's one of the things that brings life into the form. Keep observing the switch between the two states. Student artists often ask me why their drawings look stiff. One of the most glaring issues I see is that people overlook which areas of their character's body are tense and which ones are relaxed. They draw hands, legs, the torso and so on well, but everything is almost rigid. If the entire body is tensed then the artwork will look stiff, too. 10 steps to improve your figure drawing 06. Try acting Facial expressions are just part of communicating emotion Acting isn't just about the face. It's also body language. At any given point, the human form is involved in 'acting out', or communicating emotion. If you think it's enough to observe just the facial expressions, try acting in front of a mirror. Let's try anger. Do you feel your neck edging forward, or some neck muscles stretching? Some tension in your flexor group of muscles in the lower arm? Is your whole body moving forward? Now you see it, don't you? This is gesture drawing. 07. Take note of anomalies Be on the look-out for strange or anomalous details you can use Is there something you observe that seems like a misfit? OK, to tease your grey cells, imagine a pistol in the bedroom of a 15 year old. Now, that's wrong and highly unlikely, but maybe you'll come across something less dramatic, such as someone using a first-generation Nokia phone, or a Rubik's Cube in the hands of a four-year-old. While you can cook these up from memory for your next project, you'll still need a rich visual library to trigger ideas at the right time! So, be on the look-out for the stranger things in life. 08. Include a secondary story A secondary story can give your artwork extra visual impact Can you see a story evolve in front of you? Perhaps it's something as mundane as the struggle of someone holding a mug of hot coffee (conflict), then using a tissue to blanket the mug, and holding it more comfortably (resolution). Even if it's not the intended story, these little beats can help add a secondary level of narration to your artwork. 09. Drive the dominant emotion Try to capture the dominant emotion of your scene I want to distinguish this from acting. The dominant emotion is the mood of a scenario before you. Here's an example: there's a frenzy among a group of fans because the home team has just won a league match. People may react differently, but the dominant emotion is one of euphoria. If it's a split-second emotion, you might not have the time to draw it, so just capture the essence in your memory and then make gestures to document it. You can also present it as the mood that you want to document. 10. Tackle your values Values don't come naturally, so play around with them I had trouble doing value studies. Somehow I couldn't put similar values together. So I reinvented the wheel for myself. I started with pure blacks documenting only in black and white. A nearby coffee shop was an excellent place for my studies because it had strong overhead spotlights on the seats. These created crisp shadows and were easy to document. Slowly, I started introducing greys. I still have to think about values though – they don't come naturally. 11. Consider how subjects interact with their surroundings Observe how we adjust to fit in with our environment Have you ever observed a person positioning themselves in a way that they almost fit into a particular space? Or a person's arm going around the edge of the sofa while they lean on it? While a bowling ball wouldn't make adjustments to fit in, we often do. It's enlightening to observe how we knowingly – or unknowingly – make adjustments to interact with our environment. You can also observe the tension and relaxation at such times. 12. Look at the nature of materials Different materials behave in different ways, such as the folds on a leather jacket While I was working on the sets of a film, I noticed the nature of walls: how they reflected light, the way they age, their weight distribution, and so on. The nature of different materials means that they offer the artist a range of exciting possibilities. Only when you know how a material behaves under different conditions will you be able to portray it realistically. Observe the folds on a leather jacket and those on a cotton shirt, or the sharp highlights on a metal ball, versus those on a rubber ball. 13. Document cultural underpinnings Observe and document cultural underpinnings Culture is an all-encompassing term here. It includes regional, political, racial or even scientific culture. If you observe certain cultural underpinnings of a group or an individual and document them, then it'll help you define the personality of that group or individual a little more. 14. Use form, weight, proportion and perspective Remember that bodies behave differently depending on how they're positioned The only way I can deal with these four heavyweights in one paragraph is with this exercise. Make someone lie on the ground with their knees bent at right angles, similar to the posture they achieve when they're sat on a chair. Stand closer to the legs so you can see the figure receding in perspective. Compare this to someone sitting on a chair. In the two figures, you'll be able to compare parts of the body, in terms of form, proportion, perspective and the body's response to gravity. 15. Go beyond reality Mess with reality a bit to give your work extra impact One of the exercises that I often do during my observational drawing sessions is stir things up for myself, just to turn the excitement dial a notch or two higher. I experiment with my drawings and go beyond the reality of the moment. Sometimes I exaggerate the tension in the figure to levels that are not achievable by the human body, or push the existing scenario into a different world of physical laws. Purists might contest that this isn't observational drawing – and perhaps they're right – but I'm certainly having fun! This article originally appeared in issue 137 of ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists – packed with workshops and interviews with fantasy and sci-fi artists, plus must-have kit reviews. Subscribe to ImagineFX here. Related articles: 10 sketching tips for beginners How to draw manga characters The best drawing tablet: our pick of the best graphics tablets View the full article

Web developers are the people who keep the internet running. They make sure the gears keep functioning behind the scenes on all of your favourite applications and sites. It's a career that rewards structure as much as it does creativity, and you can join their ranks by working your way through the Ultimate Front End Developer Bundle of courses. This comprehensive set of training is on sale now for just $39 (approx. £28). For any aspiring developer, the Ultimate Front End Developer Bundle is the perfect place to get your start. This collection of eight professionally-taught courses can help anyone – even a complete beginner – learn how to code using the most important languages in web development, from JavaScript to HTML5 and CSS3. Work your way through this bundle of courses and you'll pick up the skills you need to bring your dream website designs to life and just may launch a new career. You can get the Ultimate Front End Developer Bundle on sale for just $39 (approx. £28), which is 96% off the full retail price. That’s a massive saving on a bundle that could help you get a start in a growing industry, 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: 25 top-class website templates 30 Chrome extensions for web designers and devs 7 game-changing web design tools for 2018 View the full article

Art director is an impressive job title that a lot of people yearn for, but can mean different things in different organisations. The job of art director exists in a number of creative fields, including advertising, marketing, publishing, film and television, web design, and video games. It generally involves managing a team of designers working on a creative project, but the degree of responsibility and autonomy can vary. Becoming an art director involves more than just having the right design portfolio and creative resume. To get the lowdown, first we asked a pair of leading art directors to share their thoughts and experiences on what art directors do and what makes a good art director. Following that you'll find five pro tips for becoming an art director (skip to the tips here). What is an art director and what do they do? James Fenton, founder of Blimp Creative, tells us: "To begin to understand what is expected of an art director, it's first worth considering the term as both a role within a team, as well as a creative discipline in itself. "As an art director you must be a leader; someone who inspires and guides the vision of the design team. However, someone who sees themselves as the design top dog will inevitably be heading for a embarrassing fall. You have to be able to recognise the talent in those around you and learn how best to get the best from you. An art director who sees themselves in a position of hierarchical authority is simply a glorified manager. James Fenton runs multimedia design studio Blimp However, Fenton emphasises that there are aspects of management in the role – for example, critiquing people's work, working to deadlines and budgets, and (on occasion) disciplining any designers who have become lazy. But your primary concern is to inspire and guide your team. The role of the art director could be compared to that of a chef James Fenton, Blimp Creative "The role of the art director could be compared to that of a chef, fusing together ingredients to produce a menu of delightful dishes," Fenton explains. "All designers inject their individual personalities, tastes and style into their work. Even working within the constraints of brand guidelines, there is plenty of room for creativity and originality. It is the art director's role to identify and understand the different flavours each member brings to the team, an then carefully infuse them to complement one another and ultimately creating an exciting and balanced sensory experience. "Yet it is vital to understand art direction not simply as a visual experience. The fundamental role of art direction is to direct and guide an audience through the information being presented to them. "An art director must appreciate the written content as much as visual, taking on the role of a storyteller, marrying together words and imagery, creating structure and order through layout and typography, providing weight and emphasis which conveys message and meaning, resulting in the ease of the audience's understanding. You must be a mediator between writers and designers, understanding both disciplines and working closely with each." What makes a good art director? But what makes a good art director? Fenton adds: "For me, a good art director has to be open to influence, inspiration and the expertise of the people around them, appreciating their talents, strengths and weaknesses, whilst maintaining a clear vision of delivering a message that speaks directly to the reader, viewer or user. "There is no single formula for what makes a good art director: it's not a discipline taught in design schools, there are no books or guides that define the steps to success. Every art director will have forged their own path, have their own definition of what their role is and their own approach to getting the job done and done well. Sometimes this may be learned from their own mentors and passed down in a master-apprentice way, whilst others may formulate their process utterly independently, through their personal experience, trial and error." The definition of an art director "What is an art director?" asks art director Jenny Theolin. "It sounds like a simple question, but having to define somebody's job role in one or two words is surprisingly difficult. "Designer, art director, creative director – all these titles are necessary to create a structure within agency departments, for the client's benefit, and for the recruitment process. And to add to the confusion, descriptions like 'Web Ninja', 'Pixel Guru' and 'Creative Wizard' infiltrate our world as well. But how relevant is all of this to the job we do?" Jenny Theolin has performed a series of art director and senior art director roles "In many companies the traditional team structure has evolved into paired creative polymaths," Theolin continues. "Ask any creative team working today, and you will see that they share a lot of their work tasks. Copywriters scamp, art directors write, including contributions to blogs, books and magazines. But does this make them any less an art director? "For me, the main difference between working as a graphic designer and as an art director was that I worked more with people than computers. And since I prefer to see the creative industry as a peoples' industry, this collaboration and co-working was key to creating exciting new work." 5 tips for becoming an art director Here are art directors Jenny Theolin and Ed Robinson's tips for anyone who wants to take on the role... 01. Put together a killer portfolio Ed Robinson: "Show a good design portfolio of work that represents the style of art direction you employ and want to strive for." Jenny Theolin: "A book that is controversial, that scares, intrigues and has balls. As a graduate and/or junior, you will probably not have as much 'real work', so fill it with whatever is inside your head. Make it memorable. Ninety percent of the books I see are instantly forgettable – I would much rather see your take on Magritte's flying penises, than another bloody Guinness ad." 02. Be selfish, but don't be horrible Jenny Theolin: "You are the new generation, get to grips with what's been done, evolve it and do it better! Come up with wild ideas and have them fuck each other to spawn mutant idea babies who'll take over the world. Why? Because a great idea is one that scares the living pants off of you." Ed Robinson: "Art directing the corporate and brand shoots that I have over the years it is always a people based role so character and personality are a big deciding factor when considering an art director." 03. Make friends Jenny Theolin: "Hound your heroes and ask to meet them. Many love to talk about themselves, so ask to meet them for advice, to pick their brains – and to see their work! However, don't be surprised if your icons actually turn out to be old, grumpy farts. If you do meet them, make it your priority to provoke them by demonstrating that you could be better than they ever were – within the right environment and with the right people of course. Trust me, they want to be challenged." 04. Gain knowledge of the job Ed Robinson: "Prior knowledge of what is achievable with equipment photographers and post producers use is a must." Jenny Theolin: "Stay on top of blogs and trend-reports. Keep the momentum up and don't get stuck in a bubble. Creative exploration is one of the benefits of this industry, so get out there and do different things differently." 05. Get yourself noticed – in a good way Jenny Theolin: "Get your voice heard and speak up, but not by blowing hot air – you'll most definitely get caught out." Ed Robinson: "Be creative – have the ability to create from briefs that, on the surface, don't appear to be that creative themselves." Illustration: Malika Favre This article was originally published in Computer Arts, the global design magazine – helping you solve daily design challenges with insights, advice and inspiration. Subscribe to Computer Arts here. Related articles: How to be a great creative director 30 brilliantly creative resumés Get noticed: 6 tips for getting your portfolio seen View the full article

Animating for kids obviously has a lot in common with any other animating task, but there are certain elements that could do with a little extra attention and focus. At Blue Zoo, we have increasing experience with kids' animation, so here are my top tips for this subject. 01. Know your audience This doesn’t mean dumbing down – get to know who will be watching and make decisions accordingly. Don’t simply get carried away with what you think is funny in the moment. 02. Turn off the soundtrack If you can’t follow the story because it requires exposition coming from dialogue, then the visual narrative isn’t clear enough. 03. Character comes first As entertaining as a big action event can be, the story should be driven by character. What journey have they been on and what have they learnt? 04. Focus! With every shot, you should know precisely what the audience will be focusing on – don’t let them be distracted. Every moment should have a reason and progress the story forward. 05. Be kind to your characters Young children learn at an extraordinary rate, absorbing everything. Yes they need to be shown characters making bad decisions, but there should always be a consequence. Don’t use being mean as a way to get a quick laugh. More at Vertex 2018 Vertex is the event connecting all areas of the UK visual effects community, for a day of presentations, workshops, recruitment and discussion. Come to watch talks by some of the world's biggest names in VFX, including Scott Ross, Chris Nichols, Sébastien Deguy and more. Book tickets for workshops run by some top artists, from Glen Southern to Mike Griggs among others. If you want to get your hands on the very latest tech, then the expo access tickets are for you and are even free, but you do need to register, so book now over at the Vertex site. Related articles: The ethics of digital humans Scott Ross at Vertex Win Access all areas tickets to Vertex View the full article

The move adds to Google's efforts against malicious apps on the Play store. View the full article

Hotspot Shield has been downloaded more than 500 million times, according to its creator AnchorFree. View the full article

A recently filed Apple patent could shake up how artists use digital drawing tools – if it ever becomes a reality. The tool in question is a stylus that builds on the capabilities of the Apple Pencil by letting creatives draw and write in mid-air. The headline features of the stylus are outlined in the extensive patent notes, which reveal that "[c]ontent can be [created] using an input device without a touch-sensitive surface." It goes on to add that "the content can be generated based on tracking position and/or motion of the input device without requiring contact with a surface." Also read: The best Wacom tablet deals for February 2018 It might all sound a bit too futuristic to be true, but VR devices such as the Oculus Rift have already made huge steps forward in connecting motion and digital art, so it's about time Apple got in on the action. The patent says that the new stylus would be capable of scribbling 2D notes in the air, and would enable users to draw three dimensional objects without the need for a surface. Given that many digital artists currently prefer styluses that accurately simulate the bite of a pen or pencil as it draws across a screen, it will be interesting to see whether the Apple tool will replicate this sensation. Outside of usability issues, we're also interested in which platforms the tool would be compatible with. Currently the Apple Pencil only works with the iPad Pro. Tying such a tool into Apple's ecosystem would fit the firm's marketing strategy – but fly in the face of any new-found drawing freedom. As with all innovative patent ideas, we'll believe it when we see it on the shelves. However, seeing as Apple filed this patent claim over six months ago, there's a chance the company could be about to release it sooner than we think. Related articles: 9 iPad Pro apps that make the most of Apple Pencil The best MacBook and MacBook Pro deals The best Wacom tablet deals for February 2018 View the full article

In 2015 the art director of UK-based Lucid Games, Chris Davie, contacted me to help them design 10 independent vehicles for a 4x4 ground-based combat game to be published on PlayStation 4. The best 3D modelling software 2018 After I made a proof of concept for them, they gave me the go-ahead on nine other cars. In this Cinema 4D tutorial, I'll show you my general approach on one of the vehicles. 01. Make a simple sketch Making a rough sketch will help you get your proportions right Before starting to work in 3D, I first make a simple sketch of my idea in Photoshop. This is a good way to begin, as it's nice to have the size and some proportions ready before we start modelling. I suggest that you try to put a good amount of time into this initial step, rather than just starting completely from scratch in 3D. 02. Set up your scene Working in real-world sizes will make the rendering stage easier Once I set up the background with my sketch I can go ahead and scale everything to the correct sizes. It's best to work with real-world sizes as this comes in handy when rendering later. An easy way to do this is to think of, as an example, how large the wheels should be in real life. Just take a circle spline object and type in the required size (that you considered before). In the viewport preferences you can manually scale up the background image to the preferred size – referring to the circle spline as a reference. 03. Block out geometry Block out your geometry using whatever method works best for you As we now have our scene set up nicely, we can go ahead and block everything out. It's basically like laying everything out for the first time in 3D. There's no need for any special techniques here; just do it the way you are most comfortable with. You even can use primitives and stack everything together as you like. 04. Activate shadows Turn on shadows in your viewport for a better idea of how your model's progressing A nice little helper when fiddling out a design is activating visible shadow in your OpenGL viewport. Just use a simple light and activate Shadows in the light source as well as in your viewport. Position it so that the light source casts a nice shadow. It's fast, effective and without rendering you can get some good results in the very first stage of modelling and design. 05. Placeholder objects Use placeholders for any elements you'd rather work on later If you are set with your blocked-out design and everything is approved by yourself or by your client you can go ahead with detailing. I leave out the wheels at this stage because I normally do them towards the end. At this stage you can use placeholder wheels from other projects if you like, or just use dummy objects or primitives for this. 06. Model the cockpit Follow these tips for building a cockpit Using the reference drawing, I start to create the cockpit. The method described below works best for me, but there may be other alternatives that may be better suited for your way of working, or that may result in cleaner meshes – but as this is just for a design I am satisfied with the result. The first step is drawing a spline with the shape of the side cockpit. Then draw in the window shapes and merge everything down to one spline object. Next, select the edge points and chamfer them on at a point. When you have done this, duplicate the spline object and put the two splines into a Loft NURBS object. Move one of the splines away from the first spline object to gain thickness. Now you can use Fillet Cap in the attributes of the Loft object. To make your model look more interesting, you can scale down the window shapes of the second spline object. Simply select the spline points (you must be in point mode) and scale them down a bit. Next put this side of the cockpit into a symmetry object and you're ready to go for the top section. Repeat these same steps with the top and position it correctly over the sides. As for the windows, just use simple planes that you place inside the windows. They don't need to be cubic objects as we don't want to make them translucent in the end. When we're done with this, group everything that belongs to the cockpit together into one Null Object and name it correctly. 07. Main body parts Make sure you keep your blockout and sketch to use as reference Now we are heading over to the main body, focusing first on the front fender objects, where the lights will be positioned too. Always keep the blockout and the sketch as a reference. Drop in a primitive object (cube) and make it relatively flat so that it corresponds with the blockout object. Use the cut tool to make cuts at the position where you want to 'bend' the cube. Select the points and 'bend' down the cubic shape following your blockout template. Make sure to angle the points at the front and where you cut it down a little bit. Use some polyextrudes to make the fender look more appealing. Bevel the corners of the cube and than afterwards bevel the surrounding edge from the top and bottom surface. 08. Detailing Use booleans to cut out the headlamp holes For the holes where the front lights will sit in, I simply used booleans. Just position the negative objects and subtract them with the object. Check 'Create single object' and 'Select intersections'. After converting the boolean with the 'c' hotkey you can double-click the new edge selection icon which appears in the object manager. You can now use this selection to bevel the edge. Again, group everything together within a null and use a symmetry. Then, simply follow the same technique as described above for the other parts. 09. Model small props Make your model more interesting by adding assorted props To make the surface a bit more striking I made a small amount of props which I placed at some significant and interesting points. These are mostly cylindrical objects, on which I used some polyextrudes and bevels. 10. Suspension system Work out a basic suspension system, then jazz it up a bit Keeping in mind that the vehicle will be fully movable, I had to figure out a basic suspension system for the wheels. Therefore, I first made some basic beams out of a cube object. To give it more visual interest I modelled in some holes, in order to make it appear more technical and also lightweight. I used Inner Extrude and the Bridge tool, which works really well in Cinema 4D. Afterwards I added some more extra details like springs and cables, which can be easily done with Sweep NURBS. 11. Wheel design attempt 1 You want your wheels to look good whether they're spinning or noit For the wheels I was aiming for a high-tech pattern. I was also keeping in mind that the wheels will spin when driving, so I had to make a pattern that looks appealing while the wheels are spinning. As I had to do one wheel design for each vehicle (ten in total) I knew this would be a bit challenging. As I had done some wheels before for other designs, there were two different approaches for modelling the wheels. The first approach is simply building up one piece of the overall pattern and cloning it with a cloner object or an array – this is a very sleek and fast method. 12. Wheel design attempt 2 Try cutting your wheels from a cylindrical object The other technique is utilising a cylindrical object and using the sections with the help of Inner Extrude and Extrude to make something like a pattern. You can split up poly selections and use them as new additional pattern objects, for example. Alternatively you can use HyperNURBS to smooth everything down. If you do so, you need to set some additional cuts with the knife (Loop Cut), otherwise it will be too rounded. 13. Add interest by filling up the body Spend extra time on building the bits players will see the most of As the viewer will see the vehicle from the rear during most of the game, I had to fill in some extra details in order to make it look interesting. As I had done some stuff before, I made use of some of the geometry and just filled in the additional elements. 14. Save time and re-use parts Always recycle useful parts if you can Be aware that, even within the existing model you are creating, you can make use of some of the parts again. For example, I used some of the front fenders as mudguards for the wheels. 15. Simple studio setup It's not hard to create a basic studio setup for shooting your model I decided to use two light setups and settings for the final look. For the studio setup I created a standard studio background. There are many ways to create this. For example, you can draw a spline and rotate it 180 degrees within a Lathe NURBS object. I placed some area lights around the object and used an HDRI to lighten everything a bit. This also gives you some extra nice reflections, instead of merely having the reflections of the area lights. 16. Outdoor scene setup An outdoor setup is another way to show off your work to best effect For the other light setup I thought of creating an outside scenery in the desert. Nothing complicated as I had to be fast in this job. I used a simple Octane Daylight object. I added a ground plane and used some real displacement shaders. This gives you really nice results that look fantastic even in close-ups. 17. Add emotional images Play with background imagery and focus to bring the shot to life To add some emotion to the scene I played a bit with the sun size and added some volume fog. In combination with long focal length (100-500mm, like a real-world tele) you can get a very pleasant effect. Be sure to play around with the f-stop as well, but don't exaggerate it. It can look like a miniature if you use the wrong f-stop values! 18. Octane Dirt node Create a weathering effect using inverse ambient occlusion Since I did not do any UV Maps, I used inverse ambient occlusion to create a weathering effect on the edges of some parts. This is fully procedural and works great in Octane with the Dirt node. You can also combine some noises or a grunge texture to break the used edge up a bit more. 19. V-ray Dirt VRayDirt is another great way to make your model look lived-in This also works the same way within V-Ray (or any other renderer), although sadly there is no node tree (yet) for setting up shaders like in Octane, but you can get almost the same results. Just use the V-Ray PowerShader and VRayDirt, be sure to check inverse ambient occlusion and you are ready to go. Like in Octane you can add shaders or textures to bring it a bit more to life. 20. Render settings Octane's default path tracing settings should do the job most of the time For rendering in Octane I used the default path tracing settings – this works for me most of the time. For post-production I made use of the Octane render layer settings. Be sure to double-check everything you would like to have for your post work, and you're ready to render. 21. Post-production decals Rather than adding decals to the actual model, fake them in Photoshop A fast way to apply decals to your render, as long as you have one perspective, is by applying them in Photoshop. It's much faster than dropping them on your model in your 3D app, as you don't have to create a material, alpha, spec map and so on. So if you have one single shot, this is a real time saver. Just find some decals you like on Google and drag them on your model. Try out some fill methods and choose the one which looks best. Use the Transform tool in Photoshop to adjust the decals to the correct perspective of the model. You can use some geometry parts as guides for the transform. Once you have placed it, you can used a grunge brush to make some imperfections. You can also use the layer transparency. 22. Post-production general Don't overdo things with your ambient occlusion map If you are set with your decals, you can do some adjustments with the help of the material id pass. Normally I just do some levels adjustments on a few parts. Sometimes an ambient occlusion map can come in handy. But don't exaggerate this either – just use a small amount of transparency on this layer and multiply it. This article was originally published in issue 230 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists – packed with expert tutorials, inspiration and reviews. Buy issue 230 here or subscribe to 3D World here. Related articles: How to break into movie concept art Tips for drawing anime-style vehicles Concept design tips for artists View the full article

Awwwards is the leading conference for UX designers, and its 2018 event is bringing you more than 20 inspirational talks from design visionaries and innovative thinkers. This year, you can follow all the action as it happens on the Adobe Live stream, which will run from 8-9 February from 10am CET. Several Awwwards speakers will be joining the Adobe team discuss UX/UI industry trends and share their tips for good experience design, as well as working live in front of the camera and answering questions from the online audience. Watch Adobe Live from the AWWWARDS 2018 Those sharing their expertise include leading lights in the field of UX and virtual reality, digital visionaries and design professionals such as Tobias Ahlin (experience design director at Minecraft), Jeany Ngo (experience designer at Airbnb), designer and entrepreneur Michael Flarup, and Irina Spicaka (senior UX/UI designer at Holoplot). Plus, you’ll get a sneak peek of a brand new Adobe XD feature, plus free access to three exclusive collections of icons, designed by some of the world’s top icon designers, as a special thank you from Adobe. One talk worth setting a reminder for is Khoi Vinh’s keynote Never Not Striving: Things Designers Could Be Doing Better, which will take place at 16.10 CET on 9 February – watch it in the livestream above. Khoi is a lead contributor to Adobe XD, and has been instrumental in design's transformation into a key element of modern business over the past two decades. Follow Adobe on Twitter for live updates from the event and to ask questions during the live stream using #AdobeLive and #AwwwardsBerlin. View the full article

If you want to create incredible 3D art, you need the right 3D modelling software. Whether you’re a designer or illustrator looking to up-skill this year, or you’re a seasoned 3D artist looking to upgrade your existing tools, there's a program out there to suit you – and you’ll find it in this list. When it comes to choosing which 3D modelling software to go with, there are some key considerations to first bear in mind. As a general rule, any kind of 3D work will require around 16GB RAM and up. Most of the 3D software applications here require roughly 5GB of disc space to install, but you need to take rendering into account too. If you're taking your digital art seriously, then investing in a graphics card with a fast processor and a lot of memory is highly recommended. This way you're much less likely to experience a lag when displaying complex 3D scenes. Read on for the best 3D modelling software packages the market has to offer... Ask any 3D artist what the best 3D modelling software is, and most will choose Autodesk Maya. Used by many leading VFX and animation studios, including Pixar, Maya's robust set of modelling tools are unrivalled. It's a seriously impressive and powerful piece of kit, which means it's also one of the most complex and hard-to-learn. And it also comes with a pretty hefty price tag. However, for those who have the time, skill and patience to master Maya, it's the best 3D modelling software around and it's worth every penny. Want to get started with Maya? Our selection of mighty Maya tutorials will help you take a step in the right direction. Subscribe to Maya Download a free trial of Maya If you're dedicated to a new career in 3D and have some money behind you, then you should consider investing in Maxon's Cinema 4D. It's a professional, complex piece of software, with which you can create some show-stopping work – and it's also the app with the smallest learning curve. Perfect for creating motion graphics, Cinema 4D boasts fantastic interaction with Adobe After Effects. And there's an absolutely huge library of how-to videos online – including our list of brilliant Cinema 4D tutorials – to help you go from newbie to pro in no time. As user-friendly programs go, you won't find a better piece of 3d modelling software for beginners. Perpetual licenses for this software don't come cheap, so make sure you take advantage of the try-before-you-buy option, which gives you 42 days to experiment for free. Maxon also offers short-term and student's licenses at a reduced cost. Buy Cinema 4D Download a free trial of Cinema 4D Cinema 4D R18 review If you're after some free 3D modelling software, you won't find better than Blender. The open-source program has been around for a long time now, and subsequently has an army of highly dedicated artists, teachers and enthusiasts behind its continued development. And boy, for an open-source project, have they created something special. Blender boasts a highly impressive 3D modelling toolset, and is considered a completely viable alternative to paid modelling programs. That said, it's a bit non-standard – so if you're thinking of upgrading to more expensive software endeavours at some point, you might face a steep learning curve. But it's a brilliant starting point for checking whether 3D floats your boat (we have a host of fantastic Blender tutorials to get started with elsewhere on the site). And it's capable of producing images and animations that are on par with just about any other 3D modelling software on the market. Download Blender 3ds Max is Autodesk's PC-only professional 3D computer graphics program. When it comes to 3D modelling, like its sister software Maya, 3ds Max also has a very robust toolset. However, if you are new to or an intermediate 3D artist, 3ds Max has a huge library of different modifiers, which can make the modelling process a little easier than Maya. However, like Maya, 3ds Max also comes at a considerable cost, but students can get the software for free and there is also a trial version available for 30 days. Subscribe to 3ds Max Download a free trial of 3ds Max As long as you can export geometry from the 3D modelling software you're using, you can also use it for 3D printing. But some programs lend themselves to it better than others. ZBrush, for example, is a popular choice among artists wanting to 3D print vinyl toys and action figures. So if you're familiar with the ZBrush toolset, we'd recommend using this 3D modelling software for 3D printing. But if not, the other softwares mentioned in this list are also highly capable of producing quality 3D prints, so stick to what you know. Buy ZBrush Download a free trial of ZBrush Related articles: How to get your first CG job How to create custom rig controls in Maya How to create a video game character in ZBrush View the full article

When you're drawing creatures, it's vital that they're believable. No matter how crazy your designs become, just remember that they must always be grounded in some way – usually through anatomy – if you want to keep your audience engaged. How to develop mythical creatures Here, I'll explain some tips I've learned about how to draw believable creatures, and how you can make sure your fantasy creatures look as real as possible. 01. Thumbnail creation Have fun with shapes when you're creating thumbnails A step that's often skipped in the design process – as well as in portfolios – is the thumbnail creation process. Chances are that you won't land on your best design right out of the gate. This is where thumbnail exploration comes into play with the addition of studying real-world reference. Don't worry about details at this stage. Instead, focus on shape language and just having fun with the shapes you're creating. By doing so, your final design will be that much more thought out and believable, and it'll have your passion for the creation process shining through. 02. Keep exploring Done loads of thumnails? Great, do some more You can never do too many thumbnail sketches. This stage is vital and ensures that you're exploring as many avenues as possible. A lot of times, we'll get a specific idea in our head and think that design is the final. Although this does happen on rare occasions, chances are you're far from landing that awesome final design. Thumbnail creation will ease the process and surprise you at the same time. That's why it's so fun! 03. Look beyond the norm for ideas A strong silhouette is a sign that a thumbnail's worth developing The first thumbnail that interests me is number 16. One of the important aspects about choosing thumbnails is finding an interesting silhouette. In this case, a multi-legged creature with a strange torso excites me and I go with it. I try to find silhouettes that don't follow standard shapes, which verge on the cliché. For instance, it's common to see creatures with hulking shoulders with small heads. There's nothing wrong with that; however, I'm aiming for a non-traditional design. 04. Outside the box A mix of uniqueness and familiarity can be a good combination Number 21 intrigues me, specifically because I never intended for my creature to look like fungus. The silhouette is working because we have a familiar shape while it still looks unexpected. Whenever I sketch creatures, I try to ensure there's a uniqueness with a touch of familiarity. But I'll go into more detail about familiarity in a later tip. With this thumbnail, I explore plant shapes and try to imagine how this creature will move and eat. Let's see what the third choice brings. 05. Real-world insects combined Other-worldly shapes can be worth exploring further, too This thumbnail intrigues me because it's a mix of insect shapes. Insects have been a major influence in my creature designs. In this particular case, I use shapes from crickets and spiders. The rear legs offer a unique shape, with them bowing outward and able to support the creature's weight as well as aiding in jumping. I'm also choosing this as the third thumbnail to develop because something about it says ‘other worldly' to me. It's a shape that's not common and should offer fun possibilities. Using unexpected shapes can turn into awesome designs down the road. 06. Head exploration Look at real-world animals if you need inspiration One of the most enjoyable stages in the creature design process is head exploration. Here, I'm exploring the first round of head designs. I know that I want something insect-like and creepy. So, I begin looking at references of Earth insects and arachnids. Whenever you're stuck and don't know where to go next in the design process, just take a good look at real-world animals. They offer all of the answers and give you clarity when coming up with new designs. 07. Maintaining the shape language Try to create a set of thumbnails that speak the same shape language It's important not to limit yourself when exploring with thumbnails. So I'm doing a second round of head studies just so I have a good number of ideas. It's easy to get carried away with random shapes and not-so-believable features. With these head studies, I make sure that all of the shapes stay within a unified shape language. For instance, number 5 looks like a combination of an earthworm's head and bark from a tree. I make sure that all of the shapes taper like a worm's head and the ends look like broken bark. 08. Head design finalisation Bring across your creature's personality as you refine the head Refining the head is so much fun. This is where you can really bring the creature's personality out. Here, you can see that I go into detail about the creature's face, functions and overall aesthetic. I go into the importance of call-outs in tip 12, but here you can see they're useful for describing a functional feature. And make sure that your creature has personality. This doesn't necessarily mean facial expressions, but the skull design, eyes, mouth, muscles and overall shape are very important. 09. Establishing anatomy Apply these three stages of anatomy design to your development process, and see how far you can push the believability of your imaginary creature… A) Muscles and tissue Sketch the creature's skeleton before adding muscles When thinking about your creature's anatomy, consider the bone structure first. This stage is often forgotten because we want to jump right into the cool skin textures and muscles. I sketch the creature's skeleton on the left followed by what the muscles will look like attached to the bones on the right. Now we have a clear indication of the muscle structure in front view. The skull should be drawn before any other bones because even the skull can show personality, which dictates the facial structure later on. B) Putting the legs on show An energetic rear view can help sell your design Next, I'm painting a rear view with lots of energy so that I can see this creature in action and what muscles are helping it push off the ground, as if it were running or attacking. Rear three-quarter views are just as important as front views in selling your design, because we're not limited to just one angle. I'm fading the arms off because they aren't the focal point here – the legs are. I want to make sure the legs get the attention they deserve. C) Combining anatomy elements Working out the tendons, ligaments and muscles will pump up your creature's believability Now, I go into detail about the tendons and muscles of the arms and then juxtapose that on to my original pencil sketch. I'm choosing the arm for the close-up because it's a complex array of tendons, ligaments and muscles. If you have a certain area of your creature that needs clarification, this becomes your chance to go into detail and ramp up the believability to your design. Because I've juxtaposed the muscle rendering on top of the pencil sketch, we can now see underlying anatomy. 10. Final design This design wins because of its unique silhouette Out of the three sketches I developed earlier, I'm choosing the third ideation because of the uniqueness of the silhouette. Proportions are key because it helps solidify a design. Its arms, legs, torso and head aren't too long or too short. The shapes are just the right size so we don't question something being out of place. This creature has unique proportions so I must make sure it remains believable using real-world reference. 11. Skin texture Your creature's skin texture can help tell its story Skin texture is extremely important because it adds realism to your creation. It also gives the viewer a close look at your creature's environment, eating habits and evolution. With skin texture, I'm figuring out what type of environment my creature lives in. And with this information, I can begin to tell its story. 12. Importance of call-outs Strong call-outs can give your creatures character and purpose Call-outs enable you to explain a certain feature about your creature. Movement, weaponry and feeding are just a small numbers of features you can have for your creature. The problem I see with a lot of creature design is too many ambiguous surfaces with no real thought behind them. Calling out certain areas and explaining what they are helps make the creature more believable. I use call-outs to give my creatures a sense of purpose. 13. Energy Try to give an impression of how your creature moves Showing energy and movement gives a real sense of how your creatures moves as if it were standing in front of you. Conveying that type of realism will be helpful when you're sending your sketches off to the art director and modelling department. They need to get a real sense of how your creation will behave as a living, breathing creation. Energy brings your design to life. 14. Bring in a degree of familiarity Even the most fantastic creatures benefit from some recognisable touches Establishing familiarity means you're bringing recognisable shapes into your creature design. Indeed, this approach should be applied throughout the design process. These fantasy insect sketches are based on mood boards that feature images of different insect species, because my creature is heavily influenced by bugs. The more I paint these fantastical extrapolations of real-world creatures, the more familiar I'll be with what actually exists on Earth. This will help me create a believable creature in the end. 15. Anatomical landmarks If your anatomical skills are strong then your designs will really benefit Throughout my years of designing creatures, one aspect that I can't stress enough is developing good anatomy to support your creature design. Without accurate and believable anatomy, you might as well stop sketching your creature until you learn to study this one crucial element. One thing I tell my students is by studying the skeletal and muscular structure of today's animals, you can bring a wonderful sense of familiarity and believability to your creations all at once. 16. Final sketch Turn all your research and explorations into a single sketch I combine all of the stages of my design process into a single sketch. A side view keeps things simple and can show enough of the creature to get a sense of its proportions, textures, and build. Don't limit yourself to just doing a side view, though. A front three-quarter view is also effective and can show anatomy as well. When making your final sketch, think about what story you want to tell the audience. Is your creature believable? If so, you've done your job as a creature concept artist. This article was originally published in issue 155 of ImagineFX . The world's best-selling magazine for digital artists is packed with workshops, interviews and must-have kit reviews. Buy issue 155 here or subscribe to ImagineFX here. Related articles: How to design and model a fantasy creature 15 tips for creating characterful creature art Sculpt a dynamic creature pose View the full article

Whatever your organisation, you need a great website. Creating and maintaining one that suits your ever-changing needs can be difficult and expensive. Thankfully, uSkinned's starter kits are future-proof, adaptable and easy-to-use, so no matter how much your site changes, they'll grow with it. And right now, you can get 15 per cent off of your next uSkinned theme with the code 15OFFCB. Choose from a wide range of responsive themes uSkinned's themes are designed with users in mind, and make it easy for anyone to create a beautiful, professional-looking site. Whether you’re a web designer or developer, marketing professional or non-profit volunteer, run your own business or work for a digital agency, or just want to create an exceptional website, uSkinned is the perfect solution. You need a website that’s flexible and can be up and running quickly. uSkinned themes make it simple to launch a responsive content-managed site in no time – just customise the colour palette, add your logo and content, and hit publish. You’ll have a beautiful, SEO-optimised site in moments. Top tech as standard uSkinned sites are built on SEO best practice. It's easy to add metadata, as well as SEO-friendly URLs and code that will help you get to the top of the search results. That means you can keep your visitors up to date with a fully featured blog from day one. What’s more, each theme integrates seamlessly with your tech stack, including connecting with MailChimp or Campaign Monitor, or adding video from Vimeo or YouTube. Flexible configuration options for content editors Want to adapt the layout to fit your content? Every element is customisable. Make your content full-width, add columns, grids or stacked content. Need a banner that really stands out? Add movement with a video or parallax image. uSkinned’s responsive themes work seamlessly on every device, be it desktop, tablet or mobile. This means you build your site once and your users get the same great experience every time they visit, however they view the site. Code you can customise Together, uSkinned and the Umbraco CMS give you powerful functionality – but if you want to add your own stamp, the source code is fully customisable. If you have the coding skills, you can dig in and take your uSkinned site to the next level by adding your own elements. It’s in your hands. Some of the world’s leading brands are already using uSkinned Starter Kits Some of the world’s leading brands and development teams are already using uSkinned starter kits to launch amazing new websites for themselves and their clients – see for yourself with these customer success stories. Right now you can also get 15 per cent off of your next uSkinned theme – just enter the code 15OFFCB at the checkout. View the full article

Globally renowned and self-taught British product designer Tom Dixon has collaborated with Swedish furniture giant Ikea to make an innovative modular furniture system that users can customise. Described as a piece of hackable furniture, Delkatig is an open-source unit that functions as a bed straight out of the box, or it can be turned into a sofa with the help of optional bolt-ons. Fittingly, the range takes its name from the Swedish word for "involvement". The core piece of Delkatig is an affordable single bed with an aluminium frame. From here different components, or "hacks" – including armrests, backrests and a table – can be added to turn it into a sofa, or a workstation with lighting, shelving and magazine racks attached. "It's a bed first but it can turn into anything," says a press release by Tom Dixon. The range is the next logical step for Ikea, a company that has made its fortune with flatpack furniture that shoppers construct themselves. By encouraging users to customise and develop their furniture depending on their needs, Delkatig helps combat the idea that Ikea is part of a throwaway society. Collaborating with Tom Dixon is also a canny move on Ikea's behalf. As a self-taught designer, he represents the 'do it yourself' attitude its furniture is famous for. Dixon is well-known as a furniture designer thanks to his legendary S Chair, but through Delkatig, now people with more modest budgets can also have the work of a seminal designer in their home. Taking the idea of involvement even further, Ikea invited 75 Masters students from around the globe to contribute to the Delkatig hacks. Some of the hacks are available from Ikea directly, while others can be purchased from Tom Dixon's website. Related articles: Ikea print ad uses pee-responsive paper Creating new and innovative products: 4 expert tips 32 graphic designers to follow on Instagram View the full article

You're reading Best Resources for Learning Haml from Scratch, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Basic HTML is pretty simple to learn. It’s also the cornerstone of all websites and it’s a necessity for web developers of all styles. But modern preprocessors let developers write shorthand HTML to save time. One of my favorites is the Haml language running on Ruby. It can work as a Ruby templating language and it can work […] View the full article

There’s no reason for you to not have your own website online. Whether you're hosting a portfolio site, launching a blog, or setting up a storefront, all you need are the right tools to get it up and running. The Dragify Web Hosting and Builder Bundle has what you need, and you can get a lifetime of service for 91% off the retail price! Dragify Web Hosting and Builder Bundle has everything you need to get your website up and running. Start with the Dragify Website Builder, which makes it easy to put together a site that has all the features that you need. Then get your site online with Dragify Website Hosting. This web hosting service lasts a lifetime so you won't have to worry about it ever again. Dragify Website Hosting features 200GB of bandwidth per month, and unlimited email accounts and more. You'll also get great tools and resources to keep your website safe and make sure it's never overwhelmed by traffic. You can get started setting up your own space on the web with a lifetime subscriptions to Dragify Web Hosting and Builder for 91% off the retail price. That's a great deal of savings or a must-have bundle, so grab it 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: Choose a website builder: 18 top tools The 14 most exciting open source projects on the web 12 best web hosting services View the full article

After hours of looking online for some web design inspiration, you're ready to get started with a new site and now need a website builder. There are a multitude to choose from, so which is the best? Well, for a start, you'll be looking for a website builder that can create your website in the latest version of HTML, HTML5. And secondly, you'll want a tool that simplifies the process of web design and enables you to create a great site without needing a lot of programming or coding knowledge. We've scoured the web to find you the best HTML5 website builders – in no particular order – that fit these requirements and more. Let us know how you get on... 01. Duda Duda's free plan gives you pretty much all you need to get up and running online Designed with online stores, business sites, blogs and one-pagers in mind, Duda's responsive website builder has a stack of ready-made templates for you to choose from, and a drag-and-drop editor to make it easy to put your site together. It features plenty of widgets to help turn visitors into paying customers, plus integration with web-based solutions such as OpenTable, Disqus and PayPal, and even features website personalisation tools that can trigger a variety of individualised actions that'll make your customers feel extra-special. The 41 greatest free web fonts 02. Shopify An easy way to build a great-looking shop with a reliable backend If the website you need to build is an online store, Shopify is a good choice. It powers over 325,000 online shops and the pricing plans and features are flexible enough that it will work for you whether you have a tiny fledgling business or something much larger. There are loads of templates and themes so you can put your store together exactly as you want, and if you think you might need something more advanced in the future, it's easy to find an expert to help you. Prices start from $29 per month. 03. Silex Silex is free and easy to use, if you don't mind sorting your own hosting Free and open source, Silex can be used entirely within the browser and works with you, whatever your skill level. There's a friendly WYSWIG editor drang and drop interface that you can use to put everything together, with all your changes visible immediately, and if you're comfortable with CSS and JavaScript then you'll find integrated editors that enable you to get down and dirty with code in order to add styles and interactivity to your elements. There are plenty of templates - both free and paid - and widgets to choose from, plus built-in SEO. Bear in mind, though, that Silex won't host your site, however it offers advice to help you get sorted. 04. Jimdo All of Jimdo's plans offer unlimited bandwidth and plenty of design options If you want to create a site for free without getting hobbled by a lack of features, give Jimdo a try. All of its plans offer everything you need to create a professional-looking HTML5-powered website, including templates, photo galleries, Google Maps integration, plenty of storage and unlimited bandwidth, and it's easy to put everything together. Step up to one of its paid services from $5/month and you'll get your own domain, an online store, SEO, widgets and stats. 05. BigCommerce If you want to open a store, BigCommerce will scale to suit your needs Got something to sell? BigCommerce is a great way to create beautiful ecommerce websites with off-the-shelf responsive templates featuring plenty of customisation options. Its storefront editor enables you to change your site's look without coding, while you can also go completely custom using HTML, CSS and other code libraries. The basic plan will cost you $29.95/month for a full-featured online store, and if your business takes off then BigCommerce can scale to suit your needs. 06. Webflow Webflow lets you create sites across a range of devices Californian-based website building company Webflow is an astonishingly simple platform that gives everyone the power to build their perfect site across a range of devices. Suited to designers, creative professionals and entrepreneurs, Webflow is a web design tool, CMS and hosting platform all in one. Create your dream site and update it personally without having to touch a single line of backend code. 07. BuilderEngine Create large websites on the Cloud with BuilderEngine Promising to help users set-up and launch their site in seconds, BuilderEngine is an intuitive platform capable of creating any type of website. Users can get started with a free trial package, complete with template themes and hosting, then choose add-ons from their constantly updating collections of apps. Capable of creating complex sites without coding, BuilderEngine goes beyond basic text and images. If you ever get stuck you can also find one-to-one support by using their forums and Ticket Support Systems. 08. IM Creator IM Creator is free to use, and comes with some stunning templates The IM Creator was introduced in 2011 and it quickly became one of the top HTML5 website builders online. The IM Creator hosts a huge library of stunning website templates in a long list of categories ranging from sports and medicine to business and academics. You can start using the IM Creator immediately after registering for free. Start off with a blank page or choose a design of your choice from a library of hundreds of fully customizable website templates. Since the IM Creator is an HTML5 website builder, every website you create with it should work fine with all major mobile platforms. 09. SquareSpace SquareSpace offers a free trial so you can find out if it's right for you SquareSpace is a popular web-based HTML5 website builder that will help you create beautiful sites in a matter of minutes. It offers a diverse range of website designs tailored for different occasions and industries. All the templates are compatible with mobile devices as well, and contain high resolution images and graphics to add further colour to your website. SquareSpace is a paid application but you can also use its free trial with limited options. 10. PrestaShop PrestaShop is a great open-source ecommerce solution French startup PrestaShop has released version 1.6 of its eponymous open-source ecommerce website builder with a revamped frontend experience plus a backend overhaul that focuses on the business intelligence side of things. The most impressive thing about PrestaShop is its default theme, which is comfortably one of the best around – slick and easily customisable thanks to Sass Compass built-in. The back office is no less well-presented despite the huge depth of analytics that it contains, and both are fully responsive. 11. Dunked Dunk lets you make a beautifully responsive online portfolio without touching a line of code If you want to stand out, your online portfolio needs to stand out. But what happens when you don't know how to code? That's where Dunked are offering to fill the gap. Dunked provides responsive designs that are Retina-ready and allow you to create an online portfolio without any coding difficulties. You can choose from a growing collection of professionally designed templates, that are pixel-perfect, customizable and easy to use. Each template is fully responsive and will adapt itself to any mobile device - iPad, iPhone or Android. Adjust layout, colours and typography using a selection of preset options; there's also advanced CSS editing for those familiar with website markup. 12. Wix Wix has moved from Flash to become an HTML5-based website builder Originally based on Flash, Wix has now switched to HTML5. Its unique template designs stand apart, making it a great way to create eye-catching websites. Wix is primarily a paid service but does offer a limited number of features in its free version as well. 13. Mobirise Sites made with Mobirise are 100% mobile-friendly according the Google Mobile Test With a mobile-first approach and easy drag-n-drop interface, Mobirise has become one of the most popular offline website builders. Mobirise is available for Windows and Mac and comes with over 400 clever website blocks, 20,000 hi-res images, and over 6,000 icons. Mobirise Builder is free for commercial and non-profit use and has the option of publishing your website to any hosting service, local drive or free Github page. 14. Strikingly Sites built with Strikingly are visibly optimized for search engines As the name suggests, Strikingly is an HTML5 website builder you can use to create beautiful websites and designs. Its templates are not only eye-catching but are also completely responsive and compatible with major mobile platforms. They are also visibly optimized for search engines with extremely quick load times. Strikingly also offers in-depth analytics for every site you build with it. 15. Easy WebContent Easy WebContent has recently begun to embrace HTML5 Easy WebContent is another beautiful website builder that allows you to build HTML5 websites. Currently, it allows you to create websites in various forms and it recently started to embrace the HTML5 technology. You can create HTML5 websites in a matter of minutes. Begin by simply registering with the EWC Presenter for free. Once registered, you will have the option to select a theme for your website from a number of stunningly beautiful and eye-catching templates. Every template is compatible with all major mobile platforms and runs very smoothly on all browsers. You can edit every section of these templates to tailor them according to your specific needs. Along with high quality website templates, Easy WebContent helps you add more colour to your sites by giving you the option to add high resolution images, HD videos, sound clips and eye-catching graphics. 16. Weebly Use either your own domain name or a Weebly subdomain Weebly is one of the pioneers in creating HTML5 based websites and templates. It's an entirely online website builder with lots of goodies for designers. Its designs are immaculate and its features and mind blowing. Every template and website design created using Weebly is compatible with mobile devices and works smoothly on all major platforms. You can create websites with Weebly using either your own domain name or a Weebly subdomain. 17. Moonfruit Free website builder Moonfruit is a great choice for ecommerce sites Whether you want to create a personal webpage, a corporate website or an ecommerce platform to start online selling, Moonfruit will create everything for you free of cost. This online HTML5 website builder creates the highest quality of websites with minimum of effort. It also offers a detailed design editor that can be used to customize its website templates. Since all its templates are responsive in nature, you don't need to create separate websites for mobile platforms. 18. Cabanova Cabanova lets you create up to three pages for free Cabanova is another HTML5 website builder that offers a diverse set of website design templates that are compatible with mobile platforms. As a free Cabanova user, you can create websites with up to three pages and 50 MB storage. You also get to choose from over 1000 high quality website templates and designs. These limits, however, can be increased by purchasing the premium version. Related articles: 3 top tools for testing web performance Master the art of JavaScript with this development bundle Optimise your website with this powerful analytics tool View the full article

Over the last half-century, a handful of giant American brands have achieved world domination. For better or worse, the eight logos below are everywhere. So what lessons can we learn from them? Well, besides their local ubiquity – repetition breeds familiarity, after all – and the objective quality of their design, there are some common factors. Like with many of the 20 biggest logos of 2017, half of these US brand logos are primarily wordmarks with small memorable details – which range from simple graphic flourishes to unique combinations of colours – that are enough to set them apart from the competition. The other half are based on very simple symbols that have achieved standalone recognition with no company name required. They have the silhouette factor: pare them back to pure black and white, with no detail, and you can still pick them out of a lineup instantly. Read on to discover what eight of the most iconic American logos can teach us about branding... 01. Coca-Cola: Respecting brand heritage Coca-Cola has kept the same cursive logo since the 19th century Dr John S Pemberton may have perfected the Coca-Cola formula in the 1880s, but it was his book-keeper Frank M Robinson who not only chose the name, but also penned it in the distinctive cursive script that would define the brand over the next century. Robinson chose an elaborate Spencerian scrawl that was fashionable in the late 19th century. But while other brands – notably arch-rival Pepsi – later dropped their 'handwritten' wordmarks in favour of something cleaner and more modern, Coca-Cola stuck to its guns. Plenty of evolution and refinement has taken place, but the confidence to stick to that cursive script logo helped shape it into one of the world's most famous logos. What can we learn from Coca-Cola? The simple adage that if it isn;t broken, don't fix it. Can you imagine setting Coca-Cola in a neutral sans-serif font? No: the heritage and brand collateral accumulated in that script is far too important to lose. 02. McDonald’s: Having the sense to change direction McDonald's has used green colour schemes in its European branches for the last decade Who could have guessed that the company that started in 1940 as 'McDonald's Famous Barbecue' would grow into the biggest fast-food chain on the planet? The first iteration of McDonald's now-iconic 'M' logo arrived in 1961, referencing the restaurant's distinctive architecture, designed by Stanley Meston: a pair of illuminated golden arches. Like Coca-Cola, the brand has seen various incremental updates – added shadows, new slogans, and notably the confident removal of the wordmark that once cut across one of the arches, leaving the symbol to hold all the brand collateral. But perhaps the biggest thing we can learn from McDonald's is about brand repositioning. In the wake of rising childhood obesity, the US chain switched its marketing focus from Happy Meal-guzzling kids to young, more eco-conscious professionals, taking on the likes of Starbucks. The distinctive golden arches remain, but the bright primary red has been swapped for a deep, hunter green in many European restaurants. The antics of Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar are a distant memory, and the whole ethos of the logo feels different. 03. Nike: Packing a simple symbol with attitude Nike's Swoosh is simple but identifiable Another stalwart of American branding, based out of Portland, Oregon, Nike has one of the simplest symbols on this list – which is all part of its appeal. Design student Carolyn Davidson was famously paid $35 to design it in 1971, and Phil Knight's equally famous response – 'I don’t love it, but it’ll grow on me' – was ultimately proved correct. Davidson spent around 17 hours coming up with the Swoosh as a way to convey motion on a shoe in a clean, classic, simple way. She sketched ideas onto tissue paper, and placed them over a drawing of the shoe to test them. While a Futura Bold 'Nike' wordmark was part of the look up until 1995, it was subsequently dropped so that, like McDonald's, all the brand equity now sits with the Swoosh. What can we learn from the Nike logo? Simple: the huge impact you can achieve with an incredibly simple symbol, if you treat it with respect and build equity – and attitude – into it over time. A child could draw the Swoosh on a napkin, but it unmistakably belongs to Nike. 04. Apple: Building brand loyalty through innovation Apple's logo has come to embody a mark of quality for fans Since the dawn of the iPhone took Apple into the mainstream, it's hard to look anywhere without seeing that distinctive fruit with a bite out of it. Few remember the earliest version of the logo by co-founder Ronald Wayne, depicting Isaac Newton beneath his apple tree. Steve Jobs quickly brought graphic designer Rob Janoff on board to fix it, and the rest was history. Janoff introduced a rainbow palette to celebrate the Mac's groundbreaking colour screen, an emblem that lasted 20 years. Sheens, bevels and other details were added and removed since the late 1990s, but that unmistakable shape has remained a constant – and definitely passes the silhouette test. We can learn many things from this Californian tech giant's ascendance, but at the heart of it all is substance: the logo has come to represent a relentless commitment to innovation and quality that you just can't fake. The untouchable gloss it had under Jobs' rein may have faded somewhat, but without the products to back it up, it would never have earned such reverence from superfans worldwide. The best-designed logo in the world can't mask a substandard product for long. 05. Starbucks: Finding brand equity in strange places Starbucks' mermaid may not be sipping a tall americano, but she marks the brand out Having started life in 1971 as a humble Seattle coffee bean retailer, Starbucks is now selling its wares in more than 60 countries, under the banner of its unmistakable green mermaid. Since the company was named after Captain Ahab's first mate in Moby Dick, the original logo designer Terry Heckler turned to old marine books for inspiration and found a 16th-century Norse woodcut of a two-tailed mermaid. The seductive siren developed into a much-loved brand mascot, an unlikely association with coffee that gives Starbucks significant market standout. She has been significantly redrawn since Heckler's original – including a major 2011 overhaul, with Lippincott's help – but remains to this day. What can we learn from Starbucks? Quite simply, how to recognise the brand equity even in a well-established symbol that – on paper at least – has nothing to do with the product you sell. The choice to bring the mermaid front and centre – at the expense of the name Starbucks, and the word 'coffee' – was an inspired one, and cements the emblem's place in the annals of iconic American brands. 06. FedEx: Adding a subtle flourish FedEx's subtle negative space trick elevates the wordmark no end It's graced many lists of the greatest logos of all time, and topped a few of them too. And for any uninitiated readers who are yet to be introduced its famous use of negative space, that may be baffling. FedEx grew from a tiny delivery company, founded by a young entrepreneur in 1971, into a vast multinational powerhouse. Its original logo spelled out the full name, Federal Express – a savvy implied association with the US Government that significantly boosted the fledgling company's growth. Designed in 1994, its deceptively simple current wordmark cut this down to the much snappier 'FedEx', and the Futura-style type is carefully crafted so that the space between the 'E' and the 'x' makes a perfect arrow – representing speed and accuracy. FedEx's success teaches us that sometimes, a clever symbol isn't necessary to achieve global brand equity: a subtle but smart typographic flourish can speak volumes. Minimalist sans-serif wordmarks are everywhere, but that arrow has helped keep FedEx on the list of iconic US brands for 25 years. 07. Google: Having the confidence to stay simple Google has avoided getting overly 'designed' with its logo Back in the 1990s, the internet search market was hugely competitive. Getting your website listed on multiple search engines was a business in itself. Now, Google is pretty much the undisputed king of search, and plenty of other things too – and the slightest change in its algorithm sparks panicked marketing meetings about SEO worldwide. In 1998, Google founder Sergey Brin knocked up a serif wordmark using free graphics program GIMP. The now-iconic green, red, yellow and blue palette was there from the outset – but in a different order. A reworked wordmark the following year shuffled them into their now familiar order, and briefly introduced a Yahoo!-style exclamation mark. By now, Google was growing fast, and designer Ruth Kedar was brought on board to refine its logo. While she experimented with various visual quirks – from targets to magnifying glasses – the company ultimately chose to stick with clean, typographic simplicity, in keeping with Google’s user-centred, ‘form follows function’ ethos. Kedar’s wordmark did, however, sport a drop shadow, which lasted from 1999 until 2010 before later iterations became flatter and more pared-back, before finally dropping the serifs in 2015, adopting in-house-developed typeface Product Sans across the entire Alphabet product suite. There are thousands of things we can learn from Google as a business, but its biggest triumph in terms of logo design is a resistance against over-complication. Back in 1999 when it was all about search, a magnifying glass or target might have served it well for a while – but Google now is about so much more than that. The brutal simplicity of the wordmark also makes its four-colour palette even more distinctive. 08. Amazon: Using wit to add warmth to a brand Amazon's smile-like arrow adds personality to the online retailer Along with eBay, Amazon is one of the few massive success stories to survive the bursting of the dotcom bubble – and is now the world’s biggest retailer. Its earliest logo, however – in the mid-90s, when it only sold books – was a visual car crash, blending the silhouette of a capital ‘A’ with a winding river. As it diversified its offer beyond books, this was later pared back to a simple wordmark: black text on white, with a gold swoosh underneath. The tagline evolved from ‘Earth’s biggest bookstore’ to ‘Books, music and more.’ Of course, the Google example shows us that being too specific in a logo can be detrimental to a company’s later expansion. Jeff Bezos brought Turner Duckworth on board in 2000, and the resulting rebrand ditched the restrictive tagline and introduced a witty flourish: an arrow, linking the ‘a’ and ‘z’ in the name, that doubles as a smile. Even in 2000, Amazon had no idea how much it would grow to dominate the world of online retail. But that logo has endured brilliantly despite that growth. As a (mostly) online business, Amazon can’t offer the same human connection that a physical retailer, with a curated user experience, can. But the logo is all about bringing a smile to your face, as a customer – and recent campaigns have developed the arrow/smile into a standalone icon. Related articles: 15 influential art and design movements you should know 5 logo design trends for 2018 10 huge graphic design trends to know View the full article

Exclusive offer: Save 15% on Adobe Creative Cloud now InDesign CC 2018 was launched in October 2017 at Adobe Max, along with a raft of updated and newly launched Adobe apps. Unlike the last version of Adobe's desktop publishing software – which highlighted a new user interface, rather than new features – this latest release does introduce some new tools, some of which InDesign users have wanted for some time. These include endnotes, paragraph borders, the ability to store an object’s size and position in an object style, plus the ability to finally store shared text assets in Adobe CC Libraries. There are also helpful new ways to filter your fonts in the Font menu, and a new file format addition for users sending files between new and older versions of InDesign. So who’s InDesign CC 2018 for? In short: anyone looking to create professional-looking publications, whether print and digital. With the ability to also publish online, plus very robust PDF exporting abilities, any design studio or small business should have InDesign CC 2018 in their arsenal – especially with the additional bonus of collaboration features in the wider Creative Cloud. Here, we’ll review the most powerful new features of InDesign CC 2018. Support for endnotes in InDesign CC 2018 Us InDesign users have been able to add and manage footnotes in documents via scripts since version CS2. InDesign 1.0 was released 18 years ago – so endnotes have been a long time coming – but InDesign 2018 finally lets you add endnotes to documents, so readers can jump directly from annotations in the text to the endnote references. You can control the formatting, numbering and layout of your endnotes. You can can also import a Microsoft Word document with endnotes already included, using the Import option. All imported endnotes will be added in a new text frame. Paragraph borders The Paragraph border feature enables you to create a border around one or more paragraphs to draw attention to them. You can also now customise corner designs to highlight a paragraph with multiple effects. We already had paragraph shading in InDesign – but now we don’t need to create an additional text box. It’s a simple enough tool, but it gives you more creative options to apply to your text. Object Styles enhancements You can now set and modify an object’s size and position across multiple pages in your documents with the updated Object Styles feature. This makes it a lot easier to make global changes throughout your document. You’ll find the size and position options in the Object Style Options dialog. Height and width options control the size; while X only, Y only, or X and Y coordinates combined options adjust the position. Text management in Creative Cloud Libraries Another new addition to InDesign CC 2018 is better text management capabilities. You can now add text assets from InDesign documents to your CC Libraries and share them with others across applications – I told you these updates were worthwhile. Formatting and styles can be saved with the attributes applied to them. Then, when text is dragged and dropped into a document, it brings with it all the formatting that was applied to it originally. These text assets can be used in both InDesign and Illustrator. Font filtering How many fonts do you have in your font list? You’re either very disciplined – or like the other 99 per cent of designers, you have a lot. Searching for fonts used to be a very arduous and time-consuming process, but you can now narrow down your results by filtering your fonts by classification, such as serif, sans serif, decorative, handwritten and so on. The Font menu also allows you to search for fonts based on visual similarity. The fonts closest in visual appearance to the font you’re searching for appear at the top of the search results. InDesign CC 2018 also boasts improvements to PDF accessibility when exporting, including alt-txt for images, group level tagging, support for footnotes, anchored frames and groups tagging, master page tagging, index tagging, list tag language, list tagging and TOC. More details of these enhancements can be found over on the Adobe website. All in all, there’s a decent bunch of enhancements with the release of Indesign CC 2018. Best in class The collaborative aspects of Creative Cloud, plus the addition of InDesign's latest features and extras – including Adobe Typekit and Adobe Stock integration – make it a robust and professional tool to use. The InDesign community is strong and Adobe seem to be listening to its user base to continue to improve the functions. What does it do well? Collaborating with Photoshop and Illustrator users is a creatively satisfying process – and a huge time-saver. It would be good, though, to be able to manipulate text more than the software currently allows. Maybe a third party solution will address this, or Adobe will find a way to add this next time around. How does it compare to alternatives? Serif keeps tempting the industry with its own version of InDesign, but the product is yet to be released. The only other player in this professional space would be the evergreen QuarkXpress, which still continues to improve. Many businesses, though, have bought into the Adobe ecosystem. So should you buy InDesign CC 2018? The app on its own is only £19.97 a month (this includes VAT, 100GB of cloud storage, your own portfolio website, premium fonts, and social media tools) or part of the complete Creative Cloud. If you design and produce content in the publishing industry, then this is the only tool you should be using. Buy InDesign CC 2017 or sign up to Adobe Creative Cloud here System requirements Mac Multicore Intel processor mac OS version 10.13, 10.12, or 10.11 2 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended) 2.5 GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation 1024 x 768 display with 32-bit video card; supports Retina display PC Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 64 processor Microsoft Windows 7 with Service Pack 1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10 2 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended) 2.6 GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation To use the new InDesign Touch workspace, you must have a touchscreen-enabled tablet/monitor running Windows 8 or above (such as Microsoft Surface Pro 3) with the screen resolution set to 2160 x 1440 or more View the full article

Farringdon-based studio Ragged Edge prides itself on having no egos. "Our strategy was always to hire people better than us," explains co-founder Max Ottington. "That's how to get better – you have to put your ego aside if you’re bringing in all these talented people who can do things better than you can." Big branding trends to watch out for in 2018 It's a great ideal, but how does it work in the real world? In this video and written interview below, creative director Luke Woodhouse reveals how Ragged Edge's open, collaborative and ego-free creative process works in practice, and how his 'T-shaped' team of designers can rise to any challenge. 01. Get T-shaped "To get that sort of integrated approach and that seamless brand experience, we've built a real mixed team with a lot of different skills," says Woodhouse. "We love the principle of having 'T-shaped' people." Ragged Edge's rebranding of Camden Market was a real passion project for many of the creatives, and won a Wood Pencil at the D&AD Professional Awards 2017 He's referring to the idea that the vertical bar of the T represents a depth of expertise in a particular field, while the horizontal bar represents a spread of more generalist skills. "All of our branding designers have something that makes them stand out, whether it's 3D, specialism in digital design, motion typography, that sort of thing." 02. Keep learning new skills "Learning new skills just happens quite naturally over the course of a project," Woodhouse believes. "We're always looking for the best ways to do something – and there's always a better way to do anything that comes along, and I think that's something really inherent in Ragged Edge's nature. We needed to make a film, so Sam learnt how to use After Effects!" 03. Collaborate and communicate Woodhouse admits that sometimes – especially when the pressure is on – the last thing you want to do as a designer is discuss your work: "It's kind of easy to revert to getting headphones on, getting your head down and doing it on your own." Ragged Edge rebranded green energy company Simple Energy as Bulb, and developed a campaign based around the idea of Positive Energy But, he believes, that's not helpful in the long run, and the more you communicate among your team, the better the results will be. "I think we have got a really good team ethic here – a good team spirit. Everyone's really collaborative and naturally supportive. When we're reviewing work over the course of a project, everything just goes up on the wall. Everyone's invited to join in, whether it's your project or not. Good ideas can come from anywhere." This article was originally published in issue 273 of Computer Arts, the global design magazine – helping you solve daily design challenges with insights, advice and inspiration. Buy issue 273 here or subscribe to Computer Arts here. Related articles: Build a better personal brand How design sprints can shape your brand The best laptops for graphic design View the full article

The vulnerability has a CVSS base score of 10.0, the highest possible, and now affects 15 products. View the full article

If you've already started your hunt for a new laptop then you'll have undoubtedly encountered the Dell XPS series. It frequently makes waves in 'best laptop' countdowns – including our list of best laptops for graphic design. So what's so good about them? Whether you opt for the 13-inch or 15-inch version, Dell XPS laptops have a reputation for combining powerful specifications, dazzling displays and a beautiful build. If you want a reliable option and don't want an Apple MacBook, a Dell XPS makes a more than capable Windows-based option. They're certainly not a bargain basement option, but Dell XPS deals do tend to come in cheaper than the likes of the Microsoft Surface Book. And if you use our price comparison features below, you can be sure that you're getting the best XPS prices on the market. Also read: The best 4K monitors for designers 2018 Quite simply, the Dell XPS 13 is among the world's very best laptops. It gets a massive tick in virtually every department, and the just-released 2018 version only improves the model still. In fact, the only real criticism we can come up with is the positioning of the webcam. So what's so good about the Dell XPS 13? Firstly, the almost bezel-free 'InfinityEdge' 13.3-inch display. Even if you don't pay extra for the unreal 4K Ultra HD option, the standard full HD default screen will lend your designs and drawings the clarity and colour they deserve. The 2018 version comes with Intel's brand new 8th generation CPU, code named Coffee Lake. Combine that with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB solid-state drive and you've got yourself a setup that's easily equipped to render images and videos with little delay. Weighing in at around 1.2kg, it's remarkably light and slim – so you'll be able to bag up for remote work, too. Read our sister site TechRadar's Dell XPS 13 review Everything that works so well in the supreme Dell XPS 13 is present here in the XPS 15 – just on a slightly larger scale. The broader InfinityEdge display is 15.6 inches of pure, unbridled Ultra HD joy. If video editing is your game then it should prove a trusted companion, with 4K 3840 x 2160 pixel precision and a touchscreen to bring cutting and editing control to your fingertips. Combine that with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 card running off 4GB of video RAM, and you have the capabilities to beat what the latest MacBook is packing. It has a seventh generation Kaby Lake processor – it's not yet been upgraded to Intel's latest chip. But it doesn't lack for processing power, with the ability to boost up to 3.8GHz. You can pay less to downgrade the screen to Full HD and opt for a lower-grade i3 processor. But if you're spending this much on your new PC, it might be worth stretching the budget to get the extra quality. Read TechRadar's full Dell XPS 15 review If you're willing to sacrifice a little bit of brawn, go for the flexible 2-in-1 alternative to the original Dell XPS 13. The name refers to the hybrid nature of the device – it's part svelte laptop, part chunky tablet. That versatility could come in handy if you often find yourself working in collaboration with others, and like to hand your work around the studio for everybody to see. Simply fold the 13.3-inch touchscreen back on itself around the 360-degree hinge, and enter Tablet mode. It also makes the device a lot easier for sketching directly on to, with Dell's Active Pen available to buy separately. Like the Dell XPS 15, the 13 2-in-1 is yet to get the Coffee Lake upgrade, and it does noticeably lack the power of its Dell contemporaries. But if you value the distinctive ergonomic functions above sheer speed, then the XPS 13 2-in-1 might be the best choice for you. Read the TechRadar Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 review Related articles: The best laptops for graphic design The best free graphic design software 15 influential art and design movements you should know View the full article

Kerning has a huge impact on how your lettering is read by viewers, so it's important to get it right. Get your kerning wrong and at best you end up with a message that's difficult to read, and at worst you could create a communication that's indecipherable or possibly offensive. Perhaps the trouble with kerning is that there are different rules depending on the shape of the letters in question. Characters with curves need to be positioned together more tightly than letters with straight edges, for example. And letters with diagonal angles have rules of their own when placed beside one another. To help you brush up on kerning rules and conventions, typography and lettering instructor Nils Lindstrom offers his advice in this crash course video, called 4 Essential Tips for Kerning Type & Lettering. Published by creative pioneers The Futur, it's one of the most concise typography tutorials we've ever seen, given that it outlines the basics of kerning in less than two minutes. Watch it below. We love this video because it's an instant refresher for typography experts, but it's also a useful and unpretentious introduction for beginners. Given that typography can bring out the most pernickety parts of a designer's personality, this video will give you the knowledge you need to kick back if someone challenges your spacing. If you're unsure as to why kerning is so important, be sure to check out our look at some examples of embarrassingly bad kerning. It might be a subtle art, but kerning can make or break a piece of typography and design. Make no mistake, once people notice that you're kerning's off it doesn't matter how good the rest of the graphics are – the wonky lettering will pull focus for all the wrong reasons. Luckily, if you listen to Lindstrom's advice, kerning is an area of design that you'll have under control. Related articles: 10 typography tricks every designer should know Tote bag design error proves the power of kerning 5 typography trends for 2018 View the full article

Illustration is a hugely subjective discipline with, in theory at least, as many styles as there are practitioners. But the field can be buffeted by trends like a ship in a storm, with boundary-breaking individuals often swimming against a surge of shared influences and identikit styles that threaten to flood the market. Spread from CA issue 276's Illustrator Hotlist 2018, featuring cover star Petra Eriksson The cover story of Computer Arts issue 276 celebrates 25 of the most exciting – and original – illustrators working today. In short, these are the people you should be commissioning in 2018. Buy Computer Arts issue 276 now Some faces are newer than others, but the range of styles and approaches on show is hugely encouraging, we hope you agree. Four of our favourites grace this month’s cover, in our fourth split-run design of the past six months. CA issue 276 features a split-run of four covers, with artwork by (left to right) Tianju Duan, Andreea Dobrin Dinu, Petra Eriksson and Rosanna Tasker Elsewhere, Logo Design Love founder David Airey has distilled his 10 golden rules of logo design into an essential crib-sheet to help keep your identity design skills razor-sharp, illustrated with a selection of famous best-practice examples from many different sectors. David Airey presents his 10 golden rules of logo design in Computer Arts issue 276 Meanwhile, in a video special CA also shares advice for crafting a better online portfolio, featuring input from an senior agent and three illustrators from top London agency Handsome Frank - in association with Wix. Also in Computer Arts issue 276 CA's Showcase section features the latest design, branding, illustration and motion work from around the world Kicking off a new series focused on digital skills, CA issue 276 includes a handy guide to UX design In one of Computer Arts' regular project diaries, Carter Wong reveals the process behind its latest limited-edition notebook Subscribe to Computer Arts today Like what you see? Make sure you never miss an issue of Computer Arts again, and subscribe here today! View the full article