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The latest major release of Node.js brings many significant improvements to the JavaScript community, including an updated JavaScript engine, npm version 5, Google's V8, Node.js API, async_hooks, a WHATWG URL parser, more secure Buffers and more. Here we'll update you on these features and the other most important aspects of this release. Node.js 8 is released under the code name Carbon, and is available now from the Node.js site. It will be actively worked on for another 18 months (no new features, just bug fixes, security improvements and npm updates), before going into maintenance mode. As with previous releases, during maintenance mode releases will only receive critical security updates and bug fixes. 20 JavaScript tools to blow your mindIt is safe to say that since Node.js has been around, this is one of the biggest updates that the runtime has ever received – it changes how native add-ons are written and also brings additional security and performance improvements. RisingStack has been helping companies succeed with Node.js for four years with training, consulting or development. One of the biggest struggles we had was adding native dependencies to projects. Before Node.js 8, if applications were dependant on modules with native code, whenever major new Node.js versions arrived, as an application maintainer you had to recompile your dependencies. If you were lucky, they worked at first. This process was made possible with the tremendous work module maintainers put into making their modules work across incompatible Node.js versions, mostly with the help of a module called NAN (Node.js Native Abstractions). This process is far from ideal, as lots of companies failed to get their dependencies updated if they could not be compiled, and it also put a huge extra workload on module maintainers. To solve this issue, the Node.js API (or N-API) was introduced. 01. Enter the Node.js API Machine agnostic: Native modules now work with Microsoft’s Chakra as well as different Node.js versionsThe Node.js API is one of the most significant improvements of Node.js 8. It brings a well-defined ABI (Application Binary Interface) to Node.js to make its virtual machine agnostic. This means that native modules will not only work with different Node.js versions using Google's V8 JavaScript engine, but with Microsoft's Chakra too. For now, the N-API is in an experimental state, meaning significant changes may happen to both the implementation and the API. With this said, native module maintainers are encouraged to try out the new interface and give feedback. If you are a module maintainer, you can release an N-API version of your module in parallel with your main module version. To do so, the official recommendation is to publish a version of your module with the n-api tag to npm. To publish an N-API version, you have to: Publish the non-N-API version as normal. Publish the N-API version: Update the version in the package.json file by adding a dash and the napi tag – so if you had 1.0.0 previously, it becomes 1.0.0-napi Publish to npm using npm publish --tag n-api This way you ensure that the N-API version won't become the latest release, so if someone installs your module, by default they get the non-N-API version. Yarn, the package manager created by the engineers of Facebook, was released in October 2016. It tried to address some shortcomings of the official npm client, mostly by becoming more performant and deterministic. Most of these innovations are featured in npm 5 as well. 02. Say hello to npm 5 Just like Yarn, npm 5 introduced a lock-file mechanism – whenever you are installing a new dependency to your project, it will be added automatically not just to package.json, but a new file called package-lock.json as well. You may ask what the difference is between package-lock.json and npm-shrinkwrap.json, as npm-shrinkwrap has been in npm since forever? Long story short, they are essentially the same, but package-lock.json is automatically created. Their purpose is to describe exactly what dependency tree npm must create for your package. If you have both, npm-shrinkwrap will take precedence. Based on npm's recommendation, you should use npm-shrinkwrap.json if you want to publish it, so your module consumers will use it too. On the other hand, you should use the package-lock.json internally – even checked into repositories. But improvements to npm 5 have not stopped with adding a lock file – with the new version, all the modules you are installing are automatically saved as well, and they will be added both to your package.json and package-lock.json file. The way npm scripts work has also changed a bit. First of all, preinstalled scripts now run before everything else, so they can modify the node_modules directory before the CLI actually reads it. Besides this, two new scripts have been added – prepack and postpack. They both run on npm pack and npm publish as well, but not on npm install. In the heart of Node.js is the JavaScript engine that interprets your JavaScript code, creates bytecode from it and lets your application run. With the new Node.js 8 release, this was updated as well. 03. Updated JavaScript Engine Big news: Node.js will be able to update the V8 engine without a major release With the updated V8 engine, major performance improvements are introduced – but more importantly, it is guaranteed to have a forward-compatible application binary interface. This means that Node.js will be able to update the V8 engine without a major Node.js release. This is crucial, as the newer versions of the V8 engine will introduce a new compiler pipeline, which will introduce further performance improvements to Node.js. This update was so important that it was the reason the original Node.js 8 release date was postponed. The current pipeline is way too complex, and introducing new language features usually means touching multiple parts of the pipeline. With the new pipeline, it will become a lot simpler. Ignition, the new interpreter, and TurboFan, the new optimising compiler, have been in development for almost three and half years. They are the foundation on which new language features will be built upon. They include the experience that the V8 team at Google collected from measuring real-life JavaScript applications. 04. Welcome Async Hooks To better understand what Async Hooks are, let's take a step back and get to grips with continuation-local storage first. They work like thread-local storage in threaded programming, but in Node.js it uses callbacks to pass down context. Imagine that you are writing an application that fetches a product from the database, then later on you want to send it out in your HTML response: Later on, if you want to access the user object, all you need to do is grab it from the local storage: This technique is extensively used by application performance monitoring providers, such as Trace by RisingStack, to keep execution context and collect monitoring information from production systems. With Async Hooks, a similar feature is moved to the Node.js core – it helps track asynchronous requests and handlers through their lifecycle. The async_hooks module provides an API to register callbacks tracking the lifetime of asynchronous resources created inside a Node.js application. 05. Improved promise support Before Node.js 8, if you wanted to use the core modules in an application that uses Promises, you had to manually wrap the core modules so they could be used the same way. It looked something like this: With Node.js 8, a new helper method is added to the util core module, util.promisify. It allows standard Node.js callback-style APIs to be wrapped in a function that returns Promises. Using this function, the above snippet is simplified and becomes this: 06. More secure Buffers Before Node.js version 8, Buffers allocated using the new Buffer(Number) constructor did not initialise the memory space with zeros. As a result, new Buffer instances could contain sensitive information, leading to serious security problems – even popular modules such as mongoose, ws or the request module were affected. But how did we get there? When JavaScript was moved from the browser to the server side, there was a need for fast and easy data processing – so the Buffer class was added. Buffer is a mutable array of binary data. When used with the constructor that asks for the size of the new Buffer, it just reserved the memory space, but did not clean it. As your server can serve multiple users at the same time (unlike your browser), it is possible that the freshly allocated memory space contains sensitive information from other users (even passwords!), and can potentially be exposed to an attacker. While it was an intentional decision to boost the performance of the new Buffer creation, for most of us, it was not the intended use – even if it was documented. Because of this, starting with Node.js 8, Buffers allocated using new Buffer(Number) or Buffer(Number) will be automatically filled with zeros. 07. Changes in debugging Before Node.js 8, if you wanted to debug your Node.js applications, one of the easiest solutions was to start the built-in debugger, using node debug index.js. With Node.js 8, this is being removed and replaced by node-inspector. You can still use the CLI debugger, but it will be removed shortly. From now on, you should use node --inspect index.js, or node --inspect-brk index.js if you want the debugger to put a breakpoint on the first line of the application. Once you run it, you will receive a WebSocket link that Google Chrome can use to connect its debugger. You should head over to chrome://inspect in your Chrome browser, and it will automatically recognise the running Node.js application, enabling you to connect. After you have connected to your process, you will get Chrome's debugger to inspect your running Node.js application. 08. Introducing static error codes Previously, if you wanted to check an error you received in runtime and act accordingly, in most cases you had to check the error message. This was error prone, as error messages may have changed with new Node.js versions. With Node.js 8, static error codes have been assigned to most of the errors – it is still a work-in-progress, but once it is finished, these error codes won't change, even if the message in the error does. For example, the newly introduced WHATWG URL API will throw an ERR_INVALID_URL error in the following snippet, as the parameter is not a valid URL: As you can see, the release of the Node.js 8 update has brought plenty of new and exciting improvements to the JavaScript community. To start experimenting with all of these new features yourself, head over to nodejs.org, download the Node.js 8 binary and start playing with your new toolset! This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 296. Buy it here. Related articles: 20 Node.js modules you need to know 30 Chrome extensions for web designers and devs 3 top ways to build a website prototype View the full article

Yesterday, three leading artists from around Europe set off on a road trip like no other. Road to MAX is a nine-day journey across America, sponsored by Adobe, that aims to open up fresh viewpoints, push creative limits, and inspire the next generation of photographers. You can join the artists as they document their trip at #RoadToMAX17. The journey kicked off in Los Angeles yesterday and will end in Las Vegas ready for the launch of Adobe MAX, The Creativity Conference, which will run from 18-20 October. The lucky individuals on board are Rich McCor from the UK, Thomas Kakareko from Germany and Nathalie Geffroy from France – all celebrated photographers with their own unique aesthetics. The #RoadtoMax17 photographers will be creating inspiring work along three visual themes: Nature, people and the artificial world. With the aim of using creativity to unlock new perspectives, the trio will be challenged to capture iconic landmarks – from Beverly Hills to Palm Springs to the Grand Canyon – in novel and exciting ways. They'll also be pushing their own boundaries by exploring their travel companions' distinctive visual styles. Rich McCor is one of the talented artists on his way across AmericaTo make this all possible, the artists will be making the most of the entire collection of Adobe apps, from Photoshop to Capture CC. They'll also have the chance to play around with the latest Creative Cloud photo tools (which will be officially launched at Adobe MAX), to see what possibilities they offer. The Road to MAX journey is all about using creativity to challenge perspectives: Enabling creative collaboration, using new tools and plenty of experimentation to see the world through new eyes. If you want to join these three top photographers on their journey – and get a sneak peak of the new tools Adobe will be announcing at MAX – you can follow their progress in their travel diary. View the full article

You're reading Web Development Portfolio Tips: Ultimate Guide to Show Your Skills, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Portfolio design articles usually focus on creating portfolios for visual designers. But web developers & programmers need portfolio sites too! Custom developers portfolios typically have varying trends for showcasing their work. It’s tough knowing where to start a new website but it helps if you can study others to get some ideas. That’s why I’ve […] View the full article

Apple places pride, focus and effort on great design. Its hardware is rigorously refined and tuned to improve the user experience with every iteration, and the same is true of its software. Rather than interface elements that ape the real world, what you interact with on iOS is minimal, with icons that look more like icons rather than photorealistic art. Since then, there’s been a slight increase in texture and form, but to add subtle depth, rather than to return to what went before. What the new iPhones (iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone X) mean for designersWhy icon designs matter Apple’s obsessive attention to detail rubs off on users and designers alike. Owners of Apple kit expect great design, and if something doesn’t look right, they’ll be put off. With icons, it’s crucial to get things right. In the App Store, a good icon can make the difference between a sale and being ignored. And on the Home screen, great icons encourage engagement, and therefore need to be compelling and easy to spot. To help you on your way, we’ve collected a group of beautiful, innovative and stylish icons. We hope you find them a useful source of inspiration for your next iOS project. 01. 1Password Zero marks for imagination here, going for the Captain Obvious padlock, but 1Password’s icon immediately tells you what it's about. It will be easy to find on your iPhone or iPad, and packs authority in the app store. It conveys security at the heart of the app and service alike. You feel that whatever’s stored within will be safe. 02. A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build Game characters are usually too complex to be used in their entirety on an icon. Not so with A Good Snowman’s adorable monster. It stands out from other icons on your home screen and is even waving at you. It's impossible to resist, unless you’re the monster. 03. Assembly For an app that’s the digital equivalent of felt shapes but that wants to seduce designers and kids alike, its icon needs to be fun, creative, sharp, and colourful. Job done with the Assembly icon. 04. Blek This game’s all about controlling living calligraphy, coaxing it to collide with targets. That concept’s too much for an icon, but Blek’s icon nonetheless gets across the game’s elegance and visuals with a swoosh and memorable line. 05. Clear Todos To-do app Clear Todos is one of approximately a million productivity apps using a tick. But this icon's positive, upbeat nature suggests how your life might be better when using the app, and the colours differentiate it from comparatively hum-drum, overly serious competition. 06. DEVICE 6 Simogo’s iOS gaming classic dumps you into a world of spies and conspiracy, leaving you to explore a mysterious world and figure everything out. The icon’s subdued menace and bold colours evoke the feel of the game perfectly. 07. djay 2 This icon showcases that a modern, minimal approach needn’t mean eradicating texture entirely. And for an app that brings to mind spinning vinyl (even if its decks are virtual), the nod to realism is appropriate, welcome and smart. 08. Doo – Get Things Done Manage to get everything done in your to-do list and you feel like you’ve just scaled a mountain, hence the inspiration for Doo’s icon. Furthermore, it’s far more imaginative and fun than yet another tick. 09. Duolingo Learning a language can be daunting, and too many app icons in this space are boring flags or dry corporate icons. Duolingo bucks the trend with a friendly, cartoonish approach. Also, we suspect that this hypnotic owl (or is it Orville the duck?) has you use the app more than you realise. 10. Earth Primer This gorgeous interactive tome about delving deep into the Earth has an icon with the book’s subject matter in microcosm. The subtle textures and drop shadows add plenty of depth. 11. Fantastical 2 You might think it illegal these days to have icons that aren’t flat, but calendar app Fantastical’s page curl draws the eye on your Home screen, as do the vibrant colours that scream “OPEN ME!” rather than “Oh no. Work.” 12. Grayout It’s rare to see photographs integrated into a modern iOS icon (at least, a good one), but Grayout’s terrified eyes ‘trapped’ behind a slab of colour perfectly symbolise the woes of the game’s protagonist, trapped in her head after an accident. 13. iA Writer A masterclass in minimalism, iA Writer’s icon manages to convey the brand and what the writing app does, all with a couple of characters and a blue line. 14. Launch Center Pro This app’s designed to speed up launching things, hence the super-speedy rocket. The icon further benefits from friendly, chunky curves and concentric circles for added depth and interest. 15. MindNode Mind-mapping apps are all about the spread of ideas, and MindNode’s interface has a kind of flowing elegance that’s rare in business-oriented apps. The icon conveys this with a memorable, bright illustration, rather than corporate greyness. 16. Miximal Children’s app icons are often awful, but Miximal has a kind of welcoming and goofy charm. It also smartly hints at the app’s design, which allows you to slide parts of the screen to construct oddball animals. 17. Papers, Please Game icons work best when evoking the feel of the game. Papers, Please is set in an oppressive communist regime, hence the stark, brutal iconography atop a subtle explosion of black and grey. 18. Pigment Modern iOS minimalism doesn’t get across the scribbly nature of colouring in, but modern icons eschew messiness. Colouring app Pigment solves this issue by marrying sharp illustration with imperfectly coloured areas. 19. Pixelmator Pixelmator’s OS X icon recalls classic Adobe fare, twanging your nostalgia glands. On iOS, everything’s simplified, but the icon remains recognisable and leaves you in no question as to what the app does. 20. Procreate A digital tool for artists, Procreate offers a classy multicoloured brushstroke for its icon. It feels restrained but elegant – much like the app itself. 21. Prune One of the more complex images in this round-up, Prune’s icon displays two main components from the game: fragile trees you help grow, and poisonous floating red orbs. It’s an arresting image that looks great on your Home screen. 22. Silly Sausage in Meat Land Showcasing that seriousness isn’t mandatory in icons, Silly Sausage grabs the attention with a daft cartoon dog. It fits the bonkers game perfectly, and grabs the attention while browsing the App Store. 23. SKRWT This one’s quite clever. The SKRWT app is all about correcting angles and perspective in photos. The more vibrant shapes in the icon are perfect, but faded shadows are crooked, hinting at how the app works. 24. SPL-T This puzzle game feels like it was sucked out of a TRS-80, and the icon is suitably old-school. Its black and white stylings are striking, not least when among more elaborate iOS game icons. 25. Strata Strata is a puzzle game about weaving ribbons, and its icon’s simple pattern feels at home on iOS. Yet the details – subtle shadows; faint textures – recall real-world materials the game simulates. 26. Threes! One of the smartest things about Threes! was infusing a sliding-tile puzzler with personality. This follows through to the bright, breezy icon, with its bold number and cheeky face. 27. TodoMovies 4 A list maker? Best use a tick, then! About the cinema? Add some red curtains! Few marks for imagination, but the result is effective and very smartly executed. 28. Transmit Popular OS X FTP client Transmit’s long had a 3D truck for its icon. On iOS, it’s flattened into something akin to a road sign. It’s distinct, and the colour scheme has a nicely industrial worky feel. 29. Tweetbot Tapbots' conceit is each of the company’s apps is a little robot. Prior to iOS 7, its icons appeared plucked from Pixar animations. Today, everything’s subtler, but Tweetbot retains a sense of character without gloss and overt 3D. 30. Wunderlist: To-Do List & Tasks Wunderlist is an easy to use task management app. Its icon is slightly reminiscent of 20th century communist and nationalist imagery – not a bad thing if you want your working life to be regimented and organised! 31. Year Walk Imperfect edges make Year Walk’s icon more wood carving than polished illustration. It draws the eye in the App Store and feels like the perfect entry point into the Scandinavian horror of the game itself. Related articles: The 12 best iPad apps for designers 5 killer icon design tips Review: iPad Pro 12.9 (2017) with iOS 11 View the full article

If you’re looking for new arenas to put your 3D skills to productive use, have you considered the world of branding? Right now, creative and design agencies are at the forefront of developing innovative 3D apps and experiences for brands, not least in the rapidly expanding VR and AR space. Here we bring you 6 cool branding campaigns that make full use of the latest 3D technologies, and chat to the people behind them to discover how they were put together. 01. Vodafone Vodafone wanted to say ‘thank you’ to its channel partners at Christmas, so OneBite created an immersive environment where they could all get into the Christmas spirit and win a night out for their team. “Cross-browser functionality was key, so we needed to use software that would work across multiple devices and all screen sizes as a VR experience, and give a good experience in the major browsers if accessed on desktops,” explains developer George Anderson. “We decided to use krpano,” continues developer Marcela Bohorquez. “It’s a very flexible VR web development platform that supports high quality rendering and great performance in the web. The panorama viewer allows you to see the experience in HTML5 as well as a VR experience on mobile. "It also allowed exporting the final experience for desktop as a standalone application, so it can be distributed and viewed without an internet connection as well.” They also provided the BD sales team and Vodafone partners with mobile VR headsets that were compatible with their smartphones to view the full VR experience. Browser testing Throughout the development of the projects, the design team constantly tested the experience in the browser and in VR headsets to make sure that all was functioning correctly. “Then once we had fully built each environment, we user-tested on fellow OneBiters and family members of all ages, to make sure they were simple enough to use and worked as expected in both browser and VR experiences,” says Anderson. “As the Vodafone experience was a find and point-style game, we simply asked users to play the game and to let us know if they experienced any bugs or difficulty.” Technical challenges The biggest technical challenge the OneBite team faced was making realistic-looking 3D environments work with interactive 3D elements within krpano. “We ended up building each of the environments as 3D models that we could then take a 360 degree photo of from points within each of the rooms to create each of the ‘scenes’ in our virtual experience. “For BD we had the idea of having 3D screens to display the content on, and this could be interacted with to display each bit of content when the user was ready to read it," says Anderson. "We couldn’t create a realistic-looking 3D screen with HTML to layer onto our 3D room, so we ended up building the screens as a 3D element within the scene itself and then layered the HTML/JavaScript content on top of this. This could be interacted with to display the content. “It was a great solution that once we saw working in the environment, as we planned, was a great celebratory moment," Anderson recalls. Lessons learned And the biggest lessons learned? “Looking back now,” says Bohorquez, “we think that one of the challenges with VR is that it is all very new (although more literature is coming up now), it is still a world to be discovered and at every step of the project there will be lots of uncertain elements and findings, making it very exciting to work with but also difficult to predict the results. “Modern day web users expect extremely fast load times, so this needs to be taken into consideration when developing rich immersive experiences like this for the web.” 02. Bayer: A Journey around the Human Body Polish creative agency Immersion creates 360 degree VR and AR experiences for the likes of Samsung and HBO, as well as working with museums and heritage sites to create immersive experiences for its visitors. In a recent project, pharmaceutics giant Bayer asked them to create an informative and immersive presentation of the human body and the processes that happen inside it. “We created realistic 3D models of the human eye, heart, brain and stomach, and created interactive experiences that explain various conditions that are linked to each body part,” explains Piotr Baczyński, CEO of Immersion. “This enabled Bayer to have discussions around its products in a more engaging way.” Immersion’s graphic designers and programmers worked closely with a group of doctors from different specialisations to build the 3D representations. “This close relationship ensured that the look, scale and movement of each body part was as accurate as possible,” says Baczyński. “3D was extremely important for this campaign as the primary goal was to enable users to get a lifelike visualisation of the human body – this was only possible in 3D.” Interface and storyline And that was just the beginning. “After developing the models, textures, animations, special effects and sounds, the biggest challenge lay within the interface and storyline,” he continues. “It was important that the interface was not only visually pleasing but also intuitive and easy to use. “This is a particular challenge when working with VR as it could be people’s first experience of VR. For example, doctors sometimes struggled to understand how to operate the controls, or couldn’t grasp the fact that they could move freely and look around to discover the whole area. The app guides the user, using movement of the environment, voiceovers and highlighting certain areas. “For this, the user must understand that objects can be picked up, buttons pressed and so on. Quite often a first-time VR user expects to see the action only in front of them, so they're not actively exploring the space.” Despite the teething problems, Baczyński believes the benefits of VR for branding are significant: “particularly in an industry that requires technical or sometimes difficult discussions. When placed inside of a VR representation of the human body, the user gets a strong sense of presence and understanding, that allows for better explanation of key processes that happen inside.” 03. Ballantine’s This new campaign is centred around beautiful models sculpted by Si Scott using Google Tilt BrushHere’s a sneak peek at a campaign that hasn’t even launched yet, but looks like being very cool from where we’re standing… The promotion for a new whisky series makes innovative use of a series of 3D VR sculptures. The campaign aims to promote the three single malts from Ballantine’s and reinforce their relation to the original blend. So Cubo worked with award-winning illustrator Si Scott to created a range of 3D VR sculptures, each representing the energy and heart of Ballantine’s original blend ‘escaping’ into the new range. Polish and magic “We loved the idea of mixing a traditional artist with the latest tech – this is how the idea originated,” explains Jonathan Sant, creative director at Cubo. “As a traditional illustrator, normally using just pen and ink, Si Scott was the perfect person to match with Google Tilt Brush, technology that lets you paint in a virtual space, for this campaign.” Cubo hired a studio in London for a couple of weeks and set up the Tilt technology for Si to work his magic and design a sculpture. “We imported the virtual shape into Cinema 4D, and spent a lot of time crafting textures, transparencies and luminosities,” says Sant. “For the stills, we worked into Photoshop and added extra polish and magic. We wanted the sculpture to look like is was emitting light into its surroundings: this was all done in Cinema 4D.” Technical challenges As you’d expect in such an innovative space, it wasn’t all plain sailing. “As we were working with the first version of Tilt, we encountered a few technical issues along the way,” says Sant. “Some of the functions are quite restrictive. “Transferring the artwork from Tilt to Cinema 4D for example isn’t as easy as you think. The line work also transfers only as a single line of data, so line weight, colour, thickness and stroke angles all had to be recreated. “Additionally, as you can only see the sculpture through the headset, providing feedback to Si, who wasn’t wearing a headset and therefore viewed things differently, was also slightly challenging. The sculpture looks so different depending on how and where you are viewing it from. You can look very silly flapping about and providing comments and feedback to someone that can’t see the same things as you. “The bird was very beautiful in the virtual space and it’s a shame more people couldn’t have seen it. It was an intense project, but a very rewarding one and everyone is delighted with the results.” So how will the VR sculptures be shared with the target audience? “We’ve created a toolkit to be activated globally by local markets,” says Sant. “There’s an 80-second launch film made to be shown in airports and also at point of sale to feature wherever Ballantine’s Single Malt Whiskies are sold. It will also be available to view online on the Ballantine’s website.” 04. Ford Performance Burrows, a creative design and production agency based in Essex, was asked by Ford Performance produced some enticing content made up of 360-degree footage, 3D graphics and also a variety of historical footage, all stitched together into a 360-degree/VR experience. You can see the full 360 footage here, but not everyone has a VR viewer yet, so Ford also asked VR experience company Igloo Vision to build a 360-degree dome and took it to Le Mans and Shanghai to let fans experience the footage in a shared environment. The key to utilising 3D content in brand campaigns is not just about the content itself but more about how it’s delivered to the viewer. VR headsets by their nature make the experience isolated, so we’d expect physical solutions like this to become an increasing important part of the branding mix in the months and years to come. 05. Audi’s virtual showroom ZeroLight helped Audi provide virtual test drives in their showroomsIt was only a matter of time before car manufacturers started grasping the VR nettle. And so this September, Audi was the first to announce it is rolling out a VR experience to its showrooms across the UK and Europe. These days there are so many different options when it comes to your car, including exterior paint finish, interior surfaces, seat leather, stitching, alloy wheel styles, and more. But most drivers don’t feel comfortable looking through material swatches and colour charts; they just want to see for themselves what the car will look like. Working with digital retail specialist ZeroLight, Audi has developed a system that it says will allow you to view “an extremely realistic experience of your individually configured car, down to the last detail”. And that’s not all. You’ll also be able to take your virtual car out for a spin, and see how it handles in virtual locations, such as the pit stop at the Les Mans race track. To allow the complex data models to be processed for virtual reality, Audi worked with its strategic visualisation partner Zerolight to develop an especially high-performance graphics engine. More than 400 “Customer Private Lounges” – their term for a digital consulting suite – are already in use, and more are coming soon. 06. FGM campaign A new campaign against female genital mutilation uses shocking imagery created using a mixture of in-camera film and motion trackingEach year Within Design takes on at least one pro-bono project. Past campaigns have included: UN No Man Is An Island. And Alzheimer’s Society A Cure for Derek. This year they’ve teamed up with Leyla Hussein, a campaigner and survivor of FGM (female genital to demonstrate the shortcomings of the 1985 UK FGAM Act, which has not secured a single conviction in over 30 years. So they’ve created a dramatic video, entitled First Cut (which is still in its early stage and has not yet been released) that aims to highlight the impact that FGM really has on a woman and how it affects seven different parts of the body. “First we filmed the mannequin, shooting it with a paintball gun to create our ‘holes’,” they explain. “We then filmed our model in 4K looking directly down the camera lens for a few minutes to get our foundation shot for the film. “As we were unable to directly shoot our model (without being sued) we took the footage from the mannequin shoot and overlaid it over the footage of the model. We then motion tracked our model to attach the paint to her movements, before enhancing the colour of the paint to create a bright green that we then ‘keyed out’ of our image, thus creating a hole in our model. “To create the illusion of depth in the footage, we took the footage, multiplied many layers of it on top of each other and then spread them out in 3D space. With this applied, when an internal virtual camera is used the hole suddenly has depth and after randomising the position of each layer behind the hole, this creates a rather interesting look and feel.” View the full article

Black Friday 2017 is just around the corner – and with it thousands of Black Friday deals for savvy designers, illustrators and artists. But bagging the best bargain isn’t easy when new offers are thrown into the mix and snapped up every minute. So how can you get your hands on the best Black Friday offers for creatives this year? The short answer is to bookmark this page: we’ll be updating it with the best creative bargains as they’re announced. From workstations to graphics tablets, 4k monitors, speakers, headphones, cameras and more – through the best art pencils, pens and paints - we’ll curate the hottest Black Friday 2017 deals and deliver them to you right here. Whether you’re a freelancer, in-house designer, studio owner or student, we’re here to help you make huge savings on creative kit. And you don’t have to wait until the biggest shopping day of the year. We’ve rounded up the biggest retailers in the UK and US below, some of whom are already rolling out the sorts of deals we can look forward to seeing more of on Black Friday 2017. Black Friday 2017: quick links Black Friday UK UK: Amazon Black Friday UK: John Lewis Black Friday UK: GAME Black Friday UK: Currys Black Friday UK: Argos Black Friday UK: Tesco Direct Black Friday UK: eBay Black Friday Black Friday US US: Amazon Black Friday US: Walmart Black Friday When is Black Friday 2017? This year, Black Friday 2017 falls on 24 November. Marking the start of the Christmas shopping season, the bargain bonanza is always the day after Thanksgiving in the US – and it’s always followed by Cyber Monday (this year on 27 November). More recently, the event has appeared closer to a Black November, with retailers increasingly look to beat the competition by releasing early deals. Last year, Black Friday 2016 broke records with $3.34 billion spent online. And if you include the shopping done on Thanksgiving day, the total rises to $5.27 billion. This November, you can expect all the main retailers – such as Amazon, Walmart, Argos, John Lewis, Currys and ASOS to be running deals across every range of products, and that includes top kit for creatives. So what can we expect? The best Black Friday deals of 2017 Well, we can virtually certainly guarantee that Amazon's own line of products – including the Echo and Echo Dot speakers, Fire stick, Fire tablets and Kindle e-Readers will get a discount. Mobile phone Black Friday deals - Black Friday is a fantastic time of year to buy a new phone, especially if you're going with a contract. Our sister site TechRadar says that all the best prices on the best phones appear in November, with the best deals going live on Black Friday itself. Of course, Black Friday is also a good day to pick up SIM only deals. Keep your eyes on Mobiles.co.uk, Mobile Phones Direct and Carphone Warehouse for brilliant deals. Tablet Black Friday deals - iPads, Android tablets and graphics tablets are popular items on Black Friday. Amazon offered some big discounts on select Wacom and Bamboo gear for its #ShopTheFuture event a few weeks ago, and we'd expect to see a flurry of tablets on sale from everyone from John Lewis to Currys and Argos this year. 4K TV Black Friday deals - 4K TVs sell en masse during Black Friday, and we predict you'll be able to both pick up outrageously cheap TVs from smaller brands as well as bag a weighty discounts on better TVs from more prominent brands. If you're in the market for a 4k TV Black Friday deal, keep your eye on Currys, Argos, Amazon, AO.com and John Lewis. View the full article

Black Friday might be the biggest shopping day of the year, but if you're looking the best Amazon deals, then don't forget Cyber Monday 2017 – which this year falls on 27 November. Once again, we'll be rounding up the best Amazon Cyber Monday deals of 2017 for designers, illustrators and artists right here – and starting from now. Rounding off a long weekend of shopping deals, Cyber Monday is a chance for budget-conscious creatives to grab a real bargain. And where better to shop for these deals than Amazon? With a range of products in one place, each competitively priced to give you the best value for money, Amazon is the place to be for designers looking to snap up a discount. Just as with Black Friday, though, remember that Amazon doesn't reveal how much stock it has of each item. So if you find something you need, you'll need to be prepared to purchase it there and then – or risk missing out. How to grab an Amazon Cyber Monday bargain If you're after an Amazon Cyber Monday 2017 deal, be sure to bookmark this page and refer back to it on the day itself. We'll be updating it with all the best deals for designers to snap up. It's also a good idea to sign up to an Amazon Prime subscription. That's because when you sign up to Amazon Prime there's a fair chance that you'll be given a sneak preview as to what's on offer, meaning that you'll gain an edge over other shoppers. Not only that, but some deals are only available to Prime members, or exclusive to Prime members for a certain amount of time. Start your FREE 30-day Amazon Prime trial today: UK Start your FREE 30-day Amazon Prime trial today: US An Amazon Prime membership will set you back £79/$99 a year, but if you're lucky you could save that much money on deals alone. Plus you'll have access to Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Music, and other offers that crop up throughout the year. The best Amazon Cyber Monday deals The question on everyone's lips though is just what will be on offer for designers and illustrators by the time Cyber Monday 2017 rolls around? Based on the last few years, we can make some educated guesses... Graphics tablets Cyber Monday dealsChances are, Amazon is likely to slash prices on tablets on Cyber Monday. Take last year for example, where you could pick up an Amazon Fire HD 10 for just £152 (knocked down from £169.99). Another good offer our sister site TechRadar spotted was an It UK 10.1-inch Android tablet, down to just £79.99 from £325. That's a whopping saving of £245. We can almost certainly guarantee that Amazon's products – including the Echo and Echo Dot speakers, Fire stick, Fire tablets and Kindle e-Readers will get a discount too. Phone Cyber Monday dealsAfter a new phone? This could be the time to get one. Last year Amazon offered the likes of the Sony Xperia X for just £319.99, reduced from an original price of £499.99. Camera Cyber Monday dealsAgain, if last year is any indicator of what to expect from Amazon's Cyber Monday deals in 2017, there could be some tasty camera deals ahead. Last year you could have scooped up a cheap Canon EOS M3 if you were fast for £412, compared to its regular price of £479.99. Related articles: The best Amazon Black Friday deals 2017 The best laptops for graphic design 2017 The best drawing and graphics tablets View the full article

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Colour theory is a central and often overlooked area of design. On a simple level, the colours on the warm side of the spectrum – such as red and yellow – are bold, uplifting and energetic, while their cooler counterparts, blue and green, exude calmness and feel more reserved. This is particularly relevant when it comes to branding: on an emotional level, in terms of how consumers feel when they look at it; but also on a practical level, in terms of market standout. For a company to effectively 'own' a colour in its sector can provide an enormous competitive advantage, achieving instant recognition - in some cases even without a logo, or even a mention of its name. That's the power of colour, done right. Get Adobe Creative CloudOf course, owning an entire colour isn't easy, and it certainly goes way beyond the logo design: skillful planning and execution is needed across all elements of the brand and its advertising. Depending on the popularity and market saturation of a particular colour, we could be talking as specific as an officially registered Pantone shade (Cadbury 2685C, anyone?), or as general as being the only brand in competitive set to use that colour. With this in mind, we've explored how different brands around the world have staked their respective claims to 10 colours – in some cases with considerable success. Red This is a notoriously difficult colour to own in any sector, especially in its primary form. It's the colour of anger and danger, but also warmth and passion. And since it's also scientifically proven to increase your heart rate and raise your blood pressure, it's a bold choice to use it extensively. 01. Coca-Cola Coke has made red its signature colourTwo 'red' brands in particular stand out in their sectors – although the first is perhaps the world's most instantly recognised brand in any sector. Red is linked so inextricably with Coca-Cola that popular legend tells it rebadged Santa Claus to match (sadly, this is an urban myth). Recent, more minimalist packaging and advertising has pared right back to that primary red, with the customary flourish of white. 02. Target Target battles Wal-Mart's trademark blue by owning the colour redMeanwhile, America's number-two supermarket chain takes on the ubiquitous blue of its rival Wal-Mart with an ocean of red across its stores, logo, advertising and beyond. Target's shade of red is a registered trademark; Communist grocery shop owners beware. 03. Vodafone The colouring of Vodafone's logo is designed to signify communication and sophisticationDesigned in 1997 by Saatchi & Saatchi, Vodafone's logo features a distinctive speech mark symbolising conversation and speech communication, while the red stands for sound, talking and passion. It's set against a silver backdrop representing sophistication and perfection. In the new Brandz Global Brand Ranking, Vodafone is listed as the UK's most valuable brand, worth $36 billion. Orange Bright, fun and friendly, orange has a playful, childlike appeal and three very different brands claim ownership of it in their respective sectors. 04. Orange Mobile phone company Orange has taken the colour and run with itThere's no better place to start than the brand that's actually named after this colour. Few telecommunications companies would be foolish enough to try and out-orange Orange. 05. Home Depot Home Depot blankets everything it does with orangeIn the US comes a retail chain that's taken to blanketing its stores with a single colour: Home Depot has trademarked orange for use on advertising, lettering or any other signage in its sector, tying things up pretty neatly. 06. easyGroup EasyJet splashes orange everywhere it canAnd then, of course, there's everyone's favourite budget service provider, easyGroup – another ocean of orange, spanning everything from the original low-cost airline to car rental, finance, hotels and more. It's also the only contender to have tried to out-orange Orange: anyone remember easyMobile? Next page: yellow and green... Yellow Positive, sunny and optimistic, yellow is energetic and eye-catching – and particularly effective for point-of-sale messaging, as it's proven to catch the eye quicker than any other colour. 07. Veuve Clicquot Champagne brand Veuve Clicquot adds punch to its packaging with yellowYellow provides standout for premium champagne brand Veuve Clicquot – cutting through a sea of green, gold and cream with a punchy shot of bright yellow. 08. Caterpillar Caterpillar vehicles are instantly recognisable by their colourMeanwhile, in a sector that couldn't be more different, construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar has a very distinctive, trademarked shade of yellow connected to its brand – featured in the triangle on its logo, and also on the liveries of its vehicles. Of course, in the field the colour is invariably faded by constant weathering on construction sites, so it's rare to find a perfect match. 09. JCB Yellow, of course, is an excellently eye-catching colour for potentially dangerous heavy machinery, so it's no surprise that it's also used by Britain's J.C. Bamford, better known as JCB. Green Green is an emotionally positive colour, signifying growth and rebirth and, of course, nature. It represents stability and endurance, but it also prosperity and abundance, and taken to the extreme it can be a colour of wealth and luxury; a real mix of meanings. 10. John Deere Deere has used green successfully to distinguish itselfJoining Caterpillar and JCB in the large-scale vehicle corner is farm machinery firm John Deere, whose iconic bright green-painted tractors (with a touch of yellow) are instantly recognisable – especially when you're stuck behind one on a country lane. 11. Harrods Harrods opts for a darker green that's associated with wealth and privilegeAt the other end of the market, rich, dark green has associations with wealth and prestige – so it's no surprise that luxury department store Harrods has chosen it as a key part of its branding scheme. From bags and signage to all manner of own-branded products, the shade exudes class and sophistication. 12. Starbucks The green Starbucks logo is a reference to the University of San FranciscoStarbucks started life in 1972 with a brown logo – appropriate enough considering the coffee beans that it originally sold before introducing the crazy concept of selling actual cups of coffee – then in 1987 the colour of its stylised woodcut of a siren was changed to green. The reason? It's a reference to the University of San Francisco, where all three founders were educated. Next page: blue, purple and brown... Blue Blue is a cool, clear colour which has a trustworthy, dependable feel, and is often the colour of choice for financial institutions as a result – notably Barclays. 13. NHS Britain's National Health Service uses a dependable blue to enagage its usersIn the UK, the National Health Service uses a distinctive shade of blue that takes advantage of its cool, reassuring and secure characteristics. 14. Tiffany & Co Tiffany has trademarked its own shade of 'robin's egg' blueLike red, of course, blue is used so broadly in different kinds of branding that standout in a particular sector is difficult: Tiffany's solves this problem with its own iconic shade of 'robin's egg' blue, trademarked as Tiffany Blue and ubiquitous on everything from jewellery boxes to shopping bags to advertising. 15. Facebook The logo's changed over the years but Facebook retains its blue colouringOriginally designed by Cuban Council in 2006, the Facebook logo has been tweaked over the years – most recently in 2013 when it pulled the 'f' down to the edge of the box, and lost the pale blue line running beneath it – but has retained its blue colour, which Mark Zuckerberg originally chose based on his colour blindness. Purple Pale lavender has a nostalgic, sentimental feel, whereas richer, darker purple has a sophisticated tone often linked with royalty. 16. Cadbury's Cadbury's has made Pantone 2685C inseperable from its brandingPurple's the most recognisable association is with Cadbury's chocolate: Pantone 2685C is officially Cadbury Purple. Purple and Cadbury's have been happy bedfellows since 1914, and woe betide any brand who tries to lay claim to it: Nestlé tried and failed last year, and Cadbury's won the right to exclusive use for chocolate bar and drink packaging. The association is so deeply ingrained that its advertising can be confident enough to remove mention of the brand altogether, as in Fallon's Black Pencil-winning Gorilla spot. Brown Earthy, simple and evocative of honesty and simplicity, brown (as well as green) is often used by organic companies to emphasise their links to the soil – although outside of this sector its largely avoided in a branding context due to potential negative connotations with 'dirt', although this of course depends on the shade chosen. The fact that brown hides dirt can be twisted to a company's advantage – one reason for Pullman railway coaches to have developed their distinctive shade. 17. UPS UPS uses brown to evoke feelings of simplicity and honestyAnd it was Pullman Brown that the United States Postal Service plumped for in 1916, for a combination of practical reasons and the fact that the colour was perceived as the "epitome of luxury" at the time. It would become an inseparable part of UPS' branding, even becoming shorthand for the company itself, as in its former slogan: 'What can Brown do for you?' The colour has become shorthand for the company itself ('What can Brown do for you?')Next page: pink, black and white... Pink The level of intensity with which pink is used makes a big difference to its impact. Paler shades are often have 'girly' associations, while dusty pinks have a sentimental tone – both uses are relatively clichéd and absolutely everywhere, so standout with that goal in mind is next to impossible. 18. T-Mobile T-Mobile uses pink to grab attentionVibrant, hot pinks have a youthful energy and sense of fun that lends itself well to trendy, inexpensive products for young women or girls – but they're also increasingly used in other sectors where a punch of bright colour is needed. T-Mobile's eye-catching magenta has been registered since 2000, and like Orange, is splashed liberally across its stores and branding. Lastminute.com uses a similar punchy shade. T-Mobile's eye-catching shade has been registered since 2000Black Okay, so most brands use black in their branding some capacity – but used as the primary brand colour, it has a bold, powerful, classic effect that feels confident and sophisticated for more expensive products. 19. Hotel Chocolat Hotel Chocolat coats its stores, packaging and branding with blackOnce such example is premium British confectionery company Hotel Chocolat, which coats its stores, packaging and branding with black like the darkest of dark chocolate. 20. Guinness Guinness ads make great place of the drink's black colourOf course, when the colour of your product is one of its most distinctive characteristics it makes sense to shout about it in your branding: nowhere is this truer than The Black Stuff. Guinness invites revellers to 'paint the town black' on St Patrick's Day, and the Irish icon makes liberal use of black and white in its multi-award-winning advertising, including its iconic surfer ad. White Simplicity and purity are the overwhelming associations with white in branding, and its brightness immediately catches the eye when used in signage. Baby and healthcare products regularly make use of it, and as a result, standout is tricky. 21. Apple Apple uses white to evoke feelings of purity and perfectionWhere white is far from ubiquitous, however, is in the technology and computing sectors: here, Cupertino's finest has it all tied up. Whether it's the soothing simplicity of its packaging, the simple purity of its logo (which has long since ditched its rainbow stripes) or the fact that iPhones and iPads are available in white, Apple's use of white is nothing short of iconic. The silhouette ads with the white headphones say it all. The brand's use of white has become iconicRelated articles: Designers react to the Mozilla rebrand 7 stunning design studio logos to inspire you Behind the scenes of Camden Market's brand identity View the full article

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The fine art of book cover design is a tricky one to master. Consider: when the graphics on the packaging of Heinz baked beans are changed, or the typography is modified on the wrappers for Kit Kats, the alterations are barely noticeable to the untrained eye. The design of household brands is tampered with as little as possible. 26 books every graphic designer should readAn even more stringent, no-tampering rule is applied to album covers. No record label would dare think about changing the covers of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Dark Side of the Moon or Nevermind. It appears that the packaging design of baked beans, chocolate bars and pop music is treated with more reverence than the jackets of literary fiction. Literature is universally accepted as high art, which might lead us to think that the covers of literary classics are free from the need for frequent stylistic updates. Not so. It is common practice amongst publishers to update the covers of the classics almost constantly, in much the same way that Nike updates its trainers. One of Suzanne Dean’s collaborations with Julian Barnes (left); David Pearson's 1984 cover (right)Book cover design challenges Sinem Erkas has been designing book jackets for eight years, and her typographic covers for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novels are a lesson in putting a fresh spin on a classic text. “At the time, Fitzgerald’s stories were out of copyright, so loads of publishers were republishing his books, and I imagined many of them would end up as pastiches. I wanted to avoid that, so instead took the opportunity to draw inspiration from beautiful Art Deco typography and the Jazz Age, but making my own custom typefaces that felt contemporary and hinted at Art Deco rather than looking like they were from the 1920s. There was no budget for finishes, so we decided to stick to a monotone colour palette and uncoated stock.” The challenge of designing a new take on a ubiquitous text is good news for designers. And even if designing a cover for a new edition of On the Road may not be as financially rewarding as tweaking the Kit Kat logotype, I know which I’d rather do. F. Scott Fitzgerald series By Sinem ErkasDesigning book covers is in one way like designing album covers: most people do it for love rather than reward. I spoke to some book cover designers to find out more about working in the field. Why be a book cover designer? David Pearson is one of the UK’s leading book jacket designers. He studied at Central Saint Martins, and after a period working as a text designer at Penguin, he now runs his own studio. “My inclination to overthink, fuss and fiddle could only be accommodated by the relatively slow-moving nature of publishing,” he says. “Working within constraints – be they because of brief or budget – also seems to speak to my nature.” Pearson’s career in publishing began while he was at university. “I was fortunate to be asked by my tutor, Phil Baines, to lay out a Phaidon book. Part of the job was to present our ongoing work to the great Alan Fletcher – at that time, creative director of Phaidon – for his feedback.” Later, during his time setting the type for the interiors of Penguin books, Pearson was to discover that he was working in what he describes as, “a nice, sedate job.” There was room to focus on the detail and lose yourself in the book. Plus: “Nobody really had an opinion on your work, unless you did it wrong.” But this all changed when Pearson began to design book covers. Jamie Keenan’s typographic illustration for this Franz Kafka cover (left); David Pearson’s design of The Communist Manifesto (right)In contemporary publishing, the cover is subjected to the same intense scrutiny as any consumer product. It’s also the case that many authors care deeply about the covers of their books. In his acceptance speech on receiving the 2011 Man Booker Prize for his book, The Sense of an Ending, the novelist Julian Barnes paid generous tribute to the book’s cover designer, Suzanne Dean. He said: “Those of you who’ve seen my book – whatever you may think of its contents – will probably agree that it is a beautiful object. And if the physical book, as we’ve come to call it, is to resist the challenge of the e-book, it has to look like something worth buying and worth keeping.” Not only must a book cover attract attention by reflecting the content, it must do this online, in bookshops and as an e-book. It must also satisfy the demands of publisher, author and designer – not to mention the book buyer. This is quite a lot to demand of a few square centimetres of card. Next page: Do you need to read the book to design a great cover? To read or not to read? Erkas stumbled into cover design after a “frustrating job as a junior designer working in corporate branding”. Does she always read the book before designing the cover? “Ideally I would read the whole book, if the deadline lets me,” she says. “What I sometimes like to do is read the book only halfway, or three quarters of the way through, before I start sketching some ideas, and then I'll finish reading it before I complete my first round of roughs.” For Pearson, reading the text first is desirable, but not always possible. “Ideally, you would read the book – key themes and ideas present themselves so readily that way – but it’s important to remember that the book isn’t always written by the time a designer is summoned,” he explains. “Often we receive only the vague promise of a book, with design work regularly taking place even before a title is settled on, which is one of the disadvantages of the cover having to be produced so far in advance. In this instance, I would look to speak to the book’s editor or, better still, the author, to try and build a sense of the book’s tone and temper.” Éditions Zulma By David PearsonThe covers for Éditions Zulma presented Pearson with a particular problem. “It’s important to point out that I’m not a French speaker, and as a result I have to lean on some incredibly visually literate editors who convey the essence of the books to me,” he says. “This process [of discussing books] plugs everyone into the design process and makes us feel collectively responsible for the outcome. It also ensures that I don’t shoulder all of the blame when the books fail to sell!” Pearson adds that the French book market is less visually aggressive than in the UK, which allows him to create more quietly suggestive covers. When designing a cover for a fiction title, Faber & Faber in-house designer Eleanor Crow, insists that reading the text is always essential. “I would find it impossible to get the tone of the writing, and a sense of the readership, without it,” she claims. “Also, small details and less obvious, but still significant, strands in the novel might lend themselves to a cover.” Jim Stoddart at Penguin Press also advocates a close reading of the text. But he adds a caveat. “With new books, the ideal set-up is to be given a finished manuscript 12 months before publication, which allows three months to read, digest, come up with ideas, create visuals, get approval for one chosen route, and complete final artwork. However, it would also be wrong to design a cover that only makes sense once you’ve read the book. The people we are aiming to appeal to are those that haven’t read the book, that may be browsing in a bookshop and literally know nothing about the book – you may have only two or three seconds to grab their interest before their eyes drift to the next book.” Next page: Design considerations for shelf appeal and online thumbnail Books as merchandise As with any commercial project, the merchandising of books is paramount. Although bookshops were widely tipped to be on the way to oblivion a few years ago, they are making a comeback, and regardless, book covers are designed to have shelf appeal, even if the ‘shelf’ is a page on Amazon. For Pearson, being aware of related titles is becoming ever more important, since books are often grouped this way in bookshops. “Knowing what you are siding with – or indeed kicking against – can really help get the design process moving,” he says. “Time-honoured classics are invariably sat alongside alternative editions of the very same book. This can present some exciting possibilities, since your own edition can do something the others are not prepared to, making them look plain by comparison.” You can even remove key content from your own design since it will be ‘filled in’ by those around it, Pearson adds. Everyone is keen for something visually arresting, rather than giving away every last plot detail on the cover David Pearson While many designers complain about the restrictions imposed by retail conventions, Crow strikes a more upbeat note. “It’s quite liberating now,” she notes, “as there has been a great deal more press coverage for book covers than in the past. Everyone is keen for something visually arresting, rather than giving away every last plot detail on the cover.” This means that covers can be more reductive, and smarter, than in the recent past, Crow continues. “Retailers are keen for things that will look striking in the window, as well as be legible in a tiny thumbnail online.” Penguin Modern Classics By Jim StoddartIn developing an update of the Penguin Modern Classics series, Stoddart and his team worked through 100 book covers, a job that involved new picture research as well as new imagery. “I’ve really enjoyed consolidating the covers for John Updike’s Rabbit series by reviving iconic Penguin covers,” he says. “In fact, the 1960s Rabbit, Run cover featured an illustration by Milton Glaser, which we’ve put back on the cover. We also asked Milton Glaser (now aged 88) to do a fresh illustration for the last in the Rabbit series, which he was kind enough to do for us, completing the circle 57 years later,” he explains. Next page: Creative media ideas for book shelf appeal Illustration, typography or photography? Looking at current book designs, it’s hard not to conclude that illustration is enjoying a fertile period. Coralie Bickford-Smith is widely celebrated for her illustrated covers, which use naturalistic patterns and motifs. When asked whether she thinks her work is representative of a preference amongst book buyers for illustrated covers, she says, “It is more likely a trend that is coming from the number of illustrated covers coming out of the publishing houses that end up adorning the bookshops, rather than the book buyers making a deliberate aesthetic choice.” Bickforth-Smith adds that the use of photography and illustration on book covers seem to go in cycles of popularity. Although she has previously used photography in her cover designs, Bickford-Smith isn’t keen on doing so. “A shoot is usually over in a day, and the results are final, bar some great Photoshop work,” she says. “I like to work slower than that. I like time to consider the idea. I need to stare at rough work a lot. I really think it’s a personal thing. Also, given how I’m obsessed with pattern, right now illustration is a perfect way for me to express those ideas visually.” The Fox and the Star, written and illustrated by Coralie Bickford-Smith, who also designed Penguin’s Clothbound Classics seriesFor Pearson, the choice is easy: “I cannot illustrate covers – I have to rope in others to do that – and I’m terrified of photography – cropping other people’s art to fit a cover shape makes me feel sick. That leaves typography, and I tend to lean on it for everything. Using lettering in place of representational imagery can also help to activate reader interpretation – I think we enjoy working for answers.” Pearson adds that typography also presents a lovely challenge for a designer – to sum up an entire book using such limited graphic means. “I think typographic covers are great for being timeless, not revealing too much, and they work particularly well if the title is just brilliant,” says Erkas. “Illustrated covers are great for capturing feelings that photography can’t. And photographic covers are great for showing something real, but can also be dreamy, abstract and illustrative.” Books online and e-Books Just as record cover designers had to adjust to the loss of the 12-inch square album cover, replaced by the reduced canvas of the CD, book jacket designers are learning to adapt to the e-book format. But what is the role of a cover in publishing e-books? In Pearson’s opinion, “beyond working as a thumbnail at the point of sale in the online shop”, there is no role for a cover in electronic format. “When the e-book is purchased and installed, there seems no good reason for a cover image at all, especially if it takes up more memory than the book itself,” he argues. Crow takes a similarly stringent line. “I have never read an e-book. I read manuscripts on an iPad, but a paperback isn’t much heavier than an e-book reader, and I prefer real pages. Our covers are used to sell e-books online in any case. It would be less interesting to buy a book from a list of titles without some visual trigger to hint at the contents,” she says. An Eleanor Crow’s cover design for Faber & Faber (left); Design by Emily Mahon, art director at Doubleday (right)For Stoddart, the need for a book to have an online presence is factored into his thinking from the start. “One recent project I’ve been very excited about is an update to the Penguin Modern Classics series, initiated with a casual discussion about whether we could make [the series] more visible as online thumbnails." "This is a contentious issue – many people will argue that more and more books are bought online and their visibility at a small size is fundamental. Yet books listed on websites are usually accompanied by text, a reiteration of title and author, and a bucket of metadata.” To find a solution, Stoddart turned to colour. “A recent update of the Modern Classics template uses Penguin ‘eau-de-nil’ – a muted light turquoise which has evolved from other parts of Penguin’s history. This eau-de-nil is a beautiful colour that works well in the flesh and online. I’ve moved it onto the spines (which were an all too crisp white) and the back covers, and have used it as a brand note on the front cover titling.” It’s flashes of creativity like this that keep the field exciting. “If all bookshops ended up having to stock books with giant titles and images, the world may as well be over,” Stoddart concludes. This article originally appeared in Computer Arts magazine issue 270. Buy it here. Related articles: How to design the perfect book cover 10 great uses of type on book covers How to design a book cover in InDesign View the full article

The release of RealFlow | Cinema 4D last year marked the first time Next Limit’s fluid simulation engine had been available directly within a host app. However, with a high price tag, limited functionality and rather buggy v1.0 release, it’s fair to say it wasn’t the easiest of starts. Cinema 4D tutorials: 34 projects to up your 3D skillsWith RealFlow | Cinema 4D version 2.0, though, Next Limit has really raised its game. The plug-in is still limited to medium and small-scale simulations – no Hybrido or RealWave – although in fairness, it isn’t designed for that purpose; that’s what the standalone app is for. But you do now get the bulk of Real Flow’s toolset right inside Cinema 4D. The Caronte physics engine is also absent, but then C4D has its own implementation of Bullet. New technologies RealFlow | Cinema 4D is structured like X-Particles, with a series of nodes in the Object Manager, and initial set up is pretty straightforward. Add a Scene, add an Emitter, press Play. The particles react with any C4D mesh, once you’ve added the appropriate RF tag, and then you can cache the simulation, mesh the particles and render. This release sticks more or less to the same principle, but adds a raft of new technologies under the hood. You now get a much wider range of simulation types, from granular materials to viscous fluids, while also adding the ability to use the particle system to deform geometry, creating elasticated and soft body effects. And, importantly, it now lets you combine different fluid types within the same simulation, enabling you to mix oil and water or wash a pile of sand away. Creating granular simulations takes time and patience. It takes a while to figure out what the different values do and you can still get unexpected (or unrealistic) resultsThe biggest issue with RealFlow | Cinema 4D is really learning the multitude of controls and variables, and knowing which to use to make sure your simulation looks the way you want it to. Certainly, at first, you can find yourself endlessly tweaking values, trying to balance speed, resolution, time steps, cell size, w mesh density etc, to get the fluids acting correctly and your meshes looking good. It can be frustrating at times, and takes a lot of trial and error to get the result you’re after. But once you get your head round the options and learn the correct workflow, the plug-in is capable of producing excellent results, relatively quickly, depending on your system. There are a lot of learning materials available from Next Limit’s website to get you up to speed, but we wish there were some demo scenes to show off the features and take apart. This sequence shows how you can use the particle system in collision with a surface to deform an otherwise solid objectIn use we only came across a few hurdles, one of which is the Mesher’s occasional habit of not Auto-Building meshes on playback, when you’re just previewing your sim or don’t want to spend time caching it. Also, sometimes meshes don’t render to the Picture Viewer, despite having cached the particles. You’re often forced to do a preview render straight to screen to see the mesh – or cache the whole simulation. RealFlow | Cinema 4D features New viscous, viscoelastic and granular materials Elastic and rigid body simulations Multiple fluid interactions Force daemons use native C4D falloffs Object deformation with Particle Skinner The granular simulations are great, but limited by C4D’s ability to handle tens (or preferably hundreds) of thousands of objects. So while you can create some amazing simulations, it takes time and patience to get anything meaningful out the other end. Hopefully, future versions will solve some of these issues. In terms of functionality, this new version of RealFlow | Cinema 4D is leagues ahead of the original, and the only barrier to entry is pricing. It’s steep for new buyers, and owners of version 1.0 don’t get much of a discount either (it’s €420 plus taxes at the time of writing). But at half the price of the full RealFlow, while not exactly a bargain, it’s still a very useful addition to Cinema 4D’s growing armoury. This article originally appeared in 3D World magazine issue 266. Buy it here. Related articles: 30 free 3D models Review: Cinema 4D R18 How to get started with Cinema 4D View the full article

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Freelancers in just about every field love the freedom that comes with their career choice but hate the paperwork and extra time it takes to manage everything. And Co helps wrangle the business side of the freelance life, and you can get a lifetime membership to the Graphite Plan on sale now for 95% off the full retail price. Being your own boss is great until it comes to performing all the administrative tasks that you need to do. And Co helps freelancers finally get a handle on the biggest hassles presented by this career path. With this deal you'll get an app that helps you keep track of every aspect of your freelance career, plus access to a real human representative who can help you streamline the entire process – from sending invoices to accepting payments and preparing to file taxes. You can get lifetime access to the And Co Graphite Plan on sale now for just $39.99 (approx £30)! That's a saving of 95% off the full retail price for an essential tool that will make your freelance career operate smoothly, so grab this deal today. Creative Bloq deals This great deal comes courtesy of the Creative Bloq Deals store – a creative marketplace that's dedicated to ensuring you save money on the items that improve your design life. We all like a special offer or two, particularly with creative tools and design assets often being eye-wateringly expensive. That's why the Creative Bloq Deals store is committed to bringing you useful deals, freebies and giveaways on design assets (logos, templates, icons, fonts, vectors and more), tutorials, e-learning, inspirational items, hardware and more. Every day of the working week we feature a new offer, freebie or contest – if you miss one, you can easily find past deals posts on the Deals Staff author page or Offer tag page. Plus, you can get in touch with any feedback at: deals@creativebloq.com Related articles: The 30 best iPhone apps for designers 4 ways to cash in as a freelancer 20 top tools for freelancers View the full article

Sketchable is a painting app for Windows 10. It enables you to paint large strokes on large images with no lag. Images are created in 'Journals', of which you can create any number at any size. It's like having multiple sketchbooks always open. This sophisticated app has a large set of features usually found only in expensive desktop programs. A few of the more obvious features found in the app are layer blending modes, customisable tools, importable brushes and paper textures, and more. 6 best digital art tools of 2017 so farThere are some features that aren't as obvious at first glance. One such gem is the ability to paint using Stencils. These give you the ability to constrain your brush stroke to a variety of different shapes. Each shape can be transformed, moved, scaled and rotated. Once you've tried painting with stencils, they will become integral to your work flow. 01. Get a stencil Find the stencil option in the FrisketsOpen the Explore the Masking, Snapping, and Symmetry options (Friskets) located on the left side of the Sketchable workspace. The icon looks like a triangle overlapping a ruler. A panel opens with Symmetry, Mask, Stencil, and Grid options. Choose Stencil. 02. Transform your stencil Use the control points to transform the default stencilAnother panel opens showing Stencil options. Turn the Eye icon on so that the Stencil is visible. It will be a blue colour. The default Stencil is a line with control points at the top, middle and bottom. You can click the control points to transform the stencil. 03. Paint precisely Now you can paint a stroke that's constrained to your stencilClick the Shape Selection icon and select a different shape. The Stencil updates to the chosen shape. Click the Stencil Gestures (padlock icon), choose a brush, and now you're able to paint a precise stroke that's constrained to your chosen Stencil. This article originally appeared in ImagineFX issue 151; buy it here! Related articles: 10 digital artists you need to know about Create a painterly feel in your digital art How to paint convincing reflections View the full article

The events circuit is pretty full these days, with attendees knowing pretty much what to expect from any given conference. However, there is a handful of events that are breaking the traditional barriers of the stage, where a speaker will talk at a group, not with them. View conference, in Torino, Italy is one of these; recognising that in our ever more engaged world, having an expert talk through a slideshow isn't enough. With this in mind, Maria Elena Gutierrez, the organiser, has put a large emphasis on attendees getting up close and personal with the experts, speakers and tutors. You will find the event has a range of hands on workshops and mixers, where you can rub shoulders with your heroes, network to land your dream job, or simply to learn a few tips and tricks to improve your skills. That doesn't mean there's a lack of cutting-edge content, though. You'll find all manner of discussions and talks on the latest developments in VFX, games and VR, the latter of which has a special focus this year. There will be Paul Debevec's insights into how the future of VR and digital humans might work, Boabab Studio's Eric Darnell will be talking about narrative storytelling in VR, an area that still needs a lot of development, to define the syntax and help directors, as well as viewers, understand the best way to move the plot forward. There will also be talks on the latest films, from Guardians of the Galaxy 2, War for Planet of the Apes and many more. If you are looking to make a career change or move, then head to the job fair, for meetings, advice and to talk to the recruiters. All in all, the 18th annual View Conference is set to be the biggest and best yet. Related articles: Start your career in games Immerse yourself in VR podcasts What to see at Siggraph 2017 View the full article

So, you want to do something a little different this year and design a t-shirt – nice one. But, before you get started, there's a few things you need to consider. Contrary to what a lot of people seem to believe, the design process isn’t something that just anyone can dive into and immerse themselves in. It’s something that requires knowledge and planning. Foresight. Caution. It’s one of the reasons you see so many terrible T-shirts on the market – plenty of folks don’t understand this, and instead blunder their way into making a shirt that misses every single mark. You need to make sure you aren’t one of them. We've already covered some top tips for better t-shirt design, and we've also got some brilliant Illustrator tutorials to help you out, but before you get started, you should really ask yourself these questions... 50 amazing vector art tutorials01. Why am I designing this? Are you trying to promote awareness of a brand? Working to launch a clothing line? Just want to put together an awesome shirt to share with the public? You need to have some idea of your core message in mind before you design, as people with different goals are going to end up creating very different shirts. 02. Who am I designing this for? Your audience is every bit as important as the core message/purpose of your shirt. Something designed for 14-year-old kids, for example, is generally going to look very different from a shirt made for twenty-somethings. Focus on the audience whose attention you want to grab, and design with them in mind. Services like Blue Cotton allow the design of custom screen printed t-shirts in a special design studio03. Is there a market for my design? Here’s the most important question – and probably the most difficult to answer, as it’ll require some pretty extensive market research. You’ve got your audience well in mind, but are you certain they’ll be interested in what you’ve got to offer? Can you say beyond a shadow of a doubt that you’ll be filling a niche that hasn’t already been filled by a competitor? 04. Do I have the necessary expertise for this project? What sort of design experience do you have? Are you confident in your ability to put together a T-shirt that’s both aesthetically appealing and suited to your purpose? There’s no shame in bringing in an external designer if you’re uncertain you can make it on your own – as a matter of fact, I’d honestly recommend calling on an expert. 05. How will I handle production? Last but certainly not least, once you’ve got the design all figured out and finalised, how will you market it? How will you deliver it to your audience? Will it be in a physical, brick-and-mortar storefront, available as a prize at an event, or available to order at an online store? In the case of the latter two, how are you going to deliver it? More importantly, what sort of price point are you going to offer? What materials will you use? These are all questions that you need to answer before you even think about designing a shirt – but once you’ve answered them, you’re good to go! Lead image courtesy of HypeForType. Related articles: Spinning tops: where art meets engineering 20 stylish custom playing cards Creating new and innovative products: 4 expert tips View the full article

The macOS Photos app began life as iPhoto: a consumer app for managing digital photographs, with a few basic photo editing tools bolted on. As of macOS High Sierra, the Photos app has come of age, with powerful new editing features that make it worth another look – even if you’re a seasoned pro. The 5 best laptops for photo editingIs Photos for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac powerful to the point where you should delete your prized copy of Photoshop CC? Of course not. But when you need to make some quick adjustments, and fancy doing so with a user-friendly – yet surprisingly powerful – toolset, Apple’s Photos app is all you need. Get Adobe Creative CloudIn this guide we show you what you can do with Apple's Photos app and how to use Photos for Mac and iOS devices for quick and easy photo editing. 01. Quickly filter images Quickly get to edited images by filtering your library It’s worth remembering that Photos for Mac can store any flat bitmap – not just photos. So you can use it to stash screenshots, bits of research grabbed from the internet, and even animated GIFs. In all cases, you can use Get Info (Cmd/Ctrl+I) and assign descriptions and keywords to items so they’re easier to find later. The new sidebar provides single-click access to key content and media types (favourites, people, screenshots, animated content and so on). Each feed also includes a Showing menu, which defaults to All Photos. Click it and you can filter the current view by favourites, edited images, photos, videos, or keyword (or a combination thereof). 02. Edit your photos The revamped editor in Photos is far more usable and efficient Images selected in the library can be flagged as favourites or rotated by clicking the relevant toolbar button, or by using options/shortcuts in the Image menu. Hit Return and load the editing view. This differs radically from the macOS Sierra version of Photos, which required you to manually load sets of adjustment tools. Now, they’re all immediately accessible in the Adjust tab, housed in a scrolling pane. 03. Crop and rotate If all you want to do is crop photos, you don’t need another app Select the Crop tab to make quick adjustments to your image’s orientation. Use the drag handles for manual adjustment, and two-finger swipe your trackpad to adjust the rotation value. In the sidebar, horizontally flip an image by clicking the Flip icon. Expand the Aspect menu to access alternate cropping options beyond Freeform. When selecting an aspect that crops your image, click-drag or two-finger swipe to adjust your image’s position within the crop. 95 top Photoshop tutorials04. Make adjustments Grainy, moody black and white, by way of a click and a couple of drags When using the Light, Color, and Black & White adjustment tools in Photos, you’ve three approaches. Click Auto and the Photos app does what it thinks works best – and this is often a good starting point. You can then/alternatively drag the vertical bar left and right to change the strength and nature of the adjustment. You can drill down further, too. Click the triangle next to Options for sliders that enable you to fine-tune many aspects of these adjustment types, such as Saturation, Contrast and Cast for Color. 05. Edit levels and curves The new Curves tool is an excellent addition to Photos The Levels tool enables you to adjust an image’s black point, shadows, mid-tones, highlights, and white point. Using the tool’s pop-up menu, you can switch between Luminance or RGB values. Along with making changes to the image as a whole, you can individually adjust the Red, Green and Blue channels. Note that each drag handle moves individually; hold Option/Alt to move both at once. The Curves tool is new to Photos on macOS High Sierra, and works similarly to the one found in Photoshop. You can use the eyedropper tools to set white, grey and black points, manually adjust the curve and add new points, and target individual channels by selecting them from the RGB menu. 06. Use selective colour You can shift red to yellow by using Selective Color Another new tool in Photos on macOS High Sierra, Selective Color enables you to adjust the appearance of a particular hue. Either select one of the six displayed, or choose a custom hue with the eyedropper. Then use the Hue, Saturation, and Luminance sliders to make your changes, and Range to determine what colour range the effect should target. Compared to Photoshop, the Selective Color tool in Apple's Photos app is arguably faster and more usable. However, it’s restricted to a single colour in any one picture. It's good, then, for removing a cast but not so great for several required bouts of fine-tuning. 07. Work with effects in Photos The filter selection in Photos is small but tasteful Explore the Adjust sidebar to find more tools. Photos' Retouch tool works in a similar way to Photoshop’s Cloning tool, albeit without the ability to adjust the brush type – only its size. The Red-eye, White Balance, Noise Reduction, Sharpen and Vignette tools all do what you’d expect – either through Photos automating the application process or you manually fiddling with sliders. The Photos app also has a small selection of filters in its Filters tab. As of macOS High Sierra, the app’s ditched aping film, and instead offers three variants each on the Vivid, Dramatic, and Black and White filters. 08. Compare, share and revert photos You can send images to external apps for major edits All edits made within the Photos app are non-destructive. On making an edit, you’ll see an A/B button at the top-left of the window, which can be used to flip between your edit and the original shot. A Revert to Original button is adjacent; when clicked, this reverts your image to how it was when it was first imported. In the Adjust tab, you can toggle individual adjustments by turning the blue ticks on and off. You can use external apps to edit your images if Photos doesn’t meet your needs. In the library view, go to Image > Edit With and choose an editor. When you’re done, the edited image will be pulled back into Photos, and you’ll still be able to revert the image should you need to. (That said, this feature is new, so consider working with duplicates: Image > Duplicate or cmd+D makes a copy of a selected image.) 09. Use Photos on iPad On iPad, Photos is far more basic than the Mac app On iPad or iPad Pro, the Photos app is basic, its editing view resembling the older version of the Mac app. It’s centred on quick fixes, cropping, and light/colour/black and white adjustments. Should you use iCloud Photo Library, images and edits alike are synced across your devices, which is handy when making quick changes on iPad and then fine-tuning them on your desktop or laptop. But if you hanker for more power when on the move, consider Snapseed or Lightroom, or even full-fledged Photoshop equivalent Affinity Photo. 10. Use Photos on iPhone The Loop animation also automatically stabilises and crops your Live Photo Even the biggest iPhone isn’t geared towards photo editing. However, on the smaller screen, the stripped-back Photos app makes some sense. On iOS 11, you can also, when browsing Live Photos, flick up any snap and switch its animation/render type. Alternatives are endless loop/bounce animations, and a faked long exposure based on the video component of the Live Photo. For something beefier, again consider Snapseed and Lightroom for iPhone. It’s also worth checking out Pixelmator, which provides Photoshop-like tools in the palm of your hand. Related articles: 10 creative free iPhone apps for designers 10 ways to improve your photography skills 6 great video editing apps for mobile View the full article

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You're reading The Design Side Of Conversion Rate Optimization, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Conversions drive the web but most designers don’t think like this. Whenever you write an article and someone finds it in Google, their click is a conversion onto your site. If they keep reading and sign up for your newsletter that’s another conversion based on different goals. Web design is about usability but it’s also about KPIs and user […] View the full article

The human figure is one of the most challenging subjects for an artist to draw. After all, we're very familiar with how a human body looks: our eyes easily pick up if an arm looks too long here, or a leg seems too short there. But perhaps one of the most tricky parts of human body to illustrate are the hands. 10 steps to improve your figure drawingThanks to their bone structure and flexibility, there's a lot to consider – and get wrong – when drawing hands. Not only that, but hands communicate a lot of character; plus they have to stay in proportion with the rest of the body. It's no wonder so many illustrators dread drawing them. Comic artist and teacher PJ Holden has summed up the frustration of drawing hands with a witty comic that he shared on Twitter – which you can read below. Carefully, carefully... argh, time to start againHolden has tapped into a feeling a lot of artists can relate to with his witty comic. After taking a first pass at drawing a hand, his comic character tries to refine it and achieve perfection, only to be left with something that looks worse than what he started with. It's enough to make you snap your pencil in half. So what can you do if, like Holt, you're a frustrated artist who wants to improve your hand drawing skills? Well, you could take a look at our how to draw hands guide by artist Brynn Metheney for starters. The secret to hand illustration is breaking them down into componentsIn this brilliant seven-step tutorial, Metheney walks through the anatomy of a hand and shows you how to build it up in 3D. By the time you've finished, you'll have a greater understanding of how hands work and how the bones, tendons and muscles all move together. Related articles: How to draw a face Get better at figure drawing Drawing techniques: 7 fundamentals of pencil drawing View the full article

Every summer in the UK, thousands of graphic design students graduate and start looking for jobs. It’s a massively competitive market, so if a student wants to get the best job, they need to stand out from the crowd. The best laptops for graphic design 2017This need for graduates to rise above the pack brings about an exciting challenge for educators, and we are constantly trying to find the best way to help our students. My most successful graduates have not always been the most technically accomplished. But they have been ambitious, able to pitch, eager to talk about their work, and with a design portfolio full of great ideas. A sense of ironic fun pervades Alexis Facca's portfolio InDesign is useless if you don’t have a good understanding of grids, typography and visual composition While I understand software skills are necessary, and the industry corroborates this, it’s important that educators prioritise ideas, a thorough knowledge of the principles of design and a good sense of how to conduct research. If you understand the principles of design, it should be easy to problem-solve a piece of software. Get Adobe Creative CloudFor example, InDesign CC is a pretty intuitive piece of kit, but it’s useless if you don’t have a good understanding of grid theory, typography and visual composition. To gain knowledge of such principles, you don’t need software, just an inquisitive mind and some time to do a bit of reading. Additionally, the skills learned through this problem-solving can also be applied to other creative tasks, such as responding to a brief. Once you have a concept and know what you need to achieve, that is the time to pick up the right tool – this may be software, or something else. Software problems The focus too many students have as they start graphic design degrees is to learn as much as possible about the associated software package. And while I would not discourage this, it needs to be just one part of a course’s focus. I ask students if they would prefer to spend three years learning something that might be completely overhauled in a month – or worse still, become redundant (think of the decline in the use of Flash). Or would they rather focus on ideas, and knowledge that never dates? With software, you never know what changes are around the cornerI’ve worked with students who have spent inordinate amounts of time working through tutorials to give typography a wood effect in Photoshop, and then give it realistic lighting and shadows to make it look ‘real’. Instead, I would propose spending 20 minutes in a woodwork studio and 20 more in a photography studio. Not only is the photographic approach quicker, but it will stand out more in a portfolio and show a greater sense of adventure and better problem-solving. If your projects are limited by the possibilities of the software you are using, the outcomes will never be innovative. Far too many portfolios look like a series of technical exercises, and this is missing the one thing the industry needs above anything else: great, innovative thinkers full of ideas. A seismic shift So, where does this idea that graphic design can be broken down into several easy-to-learn components come from? From the earliest years in education, students are sold the notion of building blocks to success. If they can learn the right answers, they will pass the test and proceed. However, in the design industry, there is no right answer – just the one you have the confidence to pitch. It’s a seismic shift for some students, but educators need to encourage their cohorts to embrace not knowing answers immediately, and then show them how to problem-solve. But how does an educator teach students the skills necessary to thrive in design, such as adaptability, resilience, efficiency and innovation? Educators need to encourage their cohorts to embrace not knowing answers immediately, and then show them how to problem-solve I would suggest that right from the first year, students should pitch, present and be encouraged to talk about their work as much as possible. Educators need to offer students as much access to the industry and live clients as possible. Real-world experience will help sharpen and focus a student’s ambitions, and meeting a cross-section of the industry will help them find the roles they want to apply for later. Many students are not aware that graphic design employment goes further than the person sitting on a Mac using Photoshop; they do not know about copywriters, strategists or account managers. While I do believe that graphic design courses should demonstrate the basics of each major software package (alongside offering inductions to Fab Labs, photography, sound recording, amongst other things), students can only innovate and show real ambition when they apply the skills they’ve learnt to solve real-world problems. This article originally appeared in Computer Arts magazine issue 270. Buy it here. Related articles: How to become a junior designer How to get into design without a degree 4 first-class ways to make your design education count View the full article

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