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Building a product is a lot like putting together a puzzle with a group: lots of pieces that all need to come together, and the more hands involved, the trickier it is to make everything fit just right. Communication and teamwork take effort and planning. Ideally, a productive team consists of productive individuals, but that's not always the case. In our time making InVision, we've learned a lot about how a team works. To help, we've rounded up our favourite ways to design some productivity and good vibes for your team. 01. Design sprints (work with structure) Applying sprints to your design process has real benefitsTo some, sprint is a dirty word. But the point remains: working with structure and measurable goals is an awesome thing. Sprints and boards and standups are usually more at home in a development world, but applying them to our design process has real benefits. Working on things in small, measured segments keeps focus tight and progress digestible. Since design is such a creative and subjective process, it's susceptible to slippery timelines, and worse, the critical eye of a crunched project manager ('Why isn't this done yet?!'). Setting realistic goals about when things will be done and when developers and engineers can start working provides your team with a rhythm it desperately needs. If you can swing it, work in the same task/agile/PM tool as the development team to provide transparent insight for your team into your process. If that doesn't work, try a tightly organised Trello board. 02. Hackathons Blow off your creative steam with a hackathonOne key to designing in sprints: schedule downtime between your larger efforts so everyone can blow off some design steam. Enter hackathons. Traditionally viewed as development exercises (yeah, it has 'hack' in the title), hackathons give an otherwise focused designer a wild creative outlet. Take a break from conversion, style guides, and business goals and create something goofy for the office with your team. This is an opportunity to foster teamwork by pairing developers and designers together on a common, enjoyable task. Removing the stress and pressure from a working relationship helps build a foundation for when/if those things return. 03. Communication (that doesn't feel like work) Real-time chat can give your working day a shot in the armEmail isn't fun. I get why we use it, but you'd be hard-pressed to find someone on your team who's dying to tackle a full inbox. It's a slow, often hard-to-follow way to tell someone something (re: re: re: etc.). Chat apps like Slack and HipChat not only provide your team with lightning-fast communication, they add a big dash of fun. Virtually every (modern) work chat I've been a part of has been filled with jokes, GIFs, and general good vibes. That's not to say that work doesn't get done. Both Slack and HipChat have some serious integrations under the hood for GitHub, Trello, and all the other major players you're already using. Pulling quick conversations out of the inbox and into real-time chat is a huge shot in the arm for teamwork and productivity. Gathering feedback is quicker, action items multiply, and everyone gets on the same page. Next page: 4 more top teamwork tips To find out more about improving teamwork, come to Generate London, where Alison Coward will share her tips on creating good team habits that stick 04. Lunch-and-learns Lunch-and-learns don't have to be liquid lunches, but it helps…As software and design continue to solve new problems, we've got an interesting new hurdle: working in areas where we have no idea how things traditionally work. For instance, I spent years building a consumer auto insurance app at a startup, but before that I'd never thought about how my insurance actually worked (let alone the industry behind it). Until I got my feet under me, I spent a lot of time conversing with our insurance agents and others on my team who knew the space. I'm sure they thought, 'Who is this clueless dude roaming the halls?' One of my favourite tools is the lunch-and-learn, a quick meetup where team members share knowledge and insight – sort of like a high-level show-and-tell for professionals. At that startup, lunch-and-learns happened sporadically, or when a new team member joined. The more you learn about the tough decisions your teammates face, the more you can help out when they arise – and the less you'll bother them over small things. Gaining confidence in an industry that used to be foreign to you will definitely show in your design and the decisions you start to make. 05. Pair program (and design) Pair programming is a good way of fostering the mentor-protégé relationshipFor a young developer, pair programming is a huge boost and great chance to learn from a more senior member of the team. I'm not sure if pair designing is even a phrase, but dang it's useful. Exploring your process with a team member (especially a non-designer) makes you really evaluate the choices you might otherwise take for granted. It's also a great way to give a dev or engineer a head start on things in the pipeline. Simply being familiar with a design before it hits their plate can make building things so much easier for a developer. 06. Team social accounts Getting to know people by the brand rather than the person is just as valuableOne of my favourite recent developments on Dribbble is the rise of the team account, a way for folks working on the same thing to share as a group. Beyond that, there's been a general rise of the 'team member' on all social networks, and it's been awesome. There's a bunch of folks I came to know through the brand first, before eventually beginning to recognise the person. 'Oh, hey – it's Andy from Visage' or 'It looks like Phi from Funsize made this'. The faces and stories behind a product are a big part of the product itself – and sharing them provides insight into your goals and company culture clearer than any marketing copy ever could. There are some agencies here in Austin that take time to generate design prototypes specifically for social channels, in the form of micro-design explorations created for Dribbble (and to learn, I'm sure). One manager's 'wasted time' is another's 'team-building exercise'. 07. Design critiques Share your design and get feedback from your teamA good designer is not an island. Gathering feedback from your team should be the hallmark of your design process. Painful as it is, having your design picked apart eventually leads to good things. Do it however you want: call everyone into the conference room, start a new group chat, or email the team. The important part is to share the design and start collecting feedback. One of my favourite ways to do that involves creating a prototype and inviting the team to leave comments all over the place. Processing feedback in context is a lot easier for me, and threaded comments provide better tracking than endless email back-and-forth. A side effect of a solid design critique is that non-designers start to nab a stake in the design process. Seeing their contributed ideas take shape gets the whole team excited about a (previously) mysterious process. Conclusion Open your process and others will follow. Disappearing into a hole and emerging with a solution isn't teamwork. Opening your design process to anyone interested not only builds a better product, it builds a better team. As your team grows and you add pieces to the puzzle, who better than a designer to make sure all the pieces fit just right? For more on how teams can take a proactive approach to better collaboration, don't miss Alison Coward's talk at Generate London on 22 September. The conference will also feature a workshop on design and content sprints, run by Steve Fisher, talks about prototyping at Netflix, how to successfully have a good work/life balance while producing creative work for both, and loads more. Get your ticket today! Like this? Read these! How to design teamwork 5 tips for managing your team's time View the full article

You're reading Gradients in Web Design: Trends, Examples & Resources, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! The gradient trend started with web 2.0 and has advanced quite a ways since then. Modern gradients can be designed purely in CSS3 so it’s easier to build them into buttons, backgrounds, and even typography. Let’s delve into this trend of gradients in modern web design to see how they’re advancing and where they might go in […] View the full article

Every modern web designer should know the principles of responsive web design – how to get your sites to render perfectly on whatever device or screen size it appears on. (If you need a refresher, check out our pro’s guide to responsive web design). But theory is one thing, and practice is another. To ensure your site is fully responsive, you actually need to test it on different devices. Most of us, though, don’t have the budget to get hold of the hundreds of physical devices you’d need to carry out a real-world test. But fear not! These tools provide a halfway house by letting you test your responsive designs within a virtual environment. 01. Responsinator See what your site looks like in different viewports with ResponsinatorThe beauty of Responsinator lies in its simplicity. Just type in your web page's URL and this free, browser-based tool shows you how your web page renders in the most popular screen shapes and sizes. Brilliantly, you can then interact with your page, clicking on links, typing into search fields and so on. Note that these are generic devices, though, not specific ones. 02. Screenfly Check how your website appears on different devices, including TVs, with ScreenflyScreenfly is a free tool for testing a website on different screen sizes and different devices. It’s been around for a few years now, but it’s still popular and does its job extremely well. Just enter your URL, pick your device and screen size from the menus and you’ll see how well your website is working on it. Featured devices include desktop computers, tablets, televisions, and smartphones. 03. Google DevTools Device Mode DevTools Device Mode emulates different devices within ChromeDevTools' Device Mode offers an easy way for developers to simulate mobile devices within the Chrome browser. Use it to learn how your site appears across different screen sizes and resolutions, including Retina screens. You can even simulate device inputs for touch, geolocation and device orientation within the emulator. 04. Google Resizer Resizer helps you to establish Material Design breakpoints for your responsive siteGoogle’s Material Design guidelines include advice about using breakpoints, responsive grids, surface behaviours and user interface patterns. And last year, it launched a free tool so you can see what following that guidance looks like on real-world devices. Google Resizer allows you to enter a custom URL and view a site across Material Design breakpoints for desktop and mobile. If you want to see a demo first, click on the address bar and select ‘Pesto’ or ‘Shrine’ from the drop-down menu. 05. Ghostlab Ghostlab’s focus is on simultaneous testing across a bunch of devices and browsersA paid-for website testing app, Ghostlab allows you to test your website on a multiplicity of browsers and mobile devices simultaneously. Start testing in one browser or device and all the others will mirror your actions, whether you’re clicking links, selecting buttons, filling out forms or reloading the page. Handily, you also can take a screengrab from any device, annotate it, and drag and drop it to your bug tracker. See it in action in this video. 06. Browser Stack Browser Stack is a paid-for testing tool aimed at enterpriseBrowser Stack is one of the most advanced, full-featured testing tools around. The paid-for app offers access to more than 1,000 mobile and desktop browsers for testing purposes, a list which is continually being updated, based on market trends and usage statistics based on Browser Stack’s 36,000 customers. With users including Twitter, Microsoft, AirBnB and Mastercard, it's obviously doing something right. 07. CrossBrowserTesting CrossBrowserTesting offers a huge array of real-world devices and testing featuresBrowser Stack’s biggest rival in the testing space is CrossBrowserTesting, which offers more than 1,500 browsers and devices to test your responsive website on. Its all-in-one platform allows you to run parallel automated tests, compare screenshots visually, swipe and interact with your website on real-world devices, and remotely debug your code as you go. View the full article

The Reel Talk guide is available now from Escape Studios If you’ve mastered Maya and learnt your Edge from your elbow, it’s time to show off your skills and experience in a showreel. Maybe you’ve made a reel before, but it lacks the pizzazz to accelerate your career. Or maybe it’s your first one. Either way, you’re in luck. A new guide from Escape Studios brings together expert advice from across the 2D and 3D VFX, games and animation sectors to create the ultimate reference for creating showreels that shine. Escape Studios – which has 15 years’ experience of helping budding artists to turn their passions into careers – has worked with its leading industry partners at Framestore, Rushes, Blue Zoo and Bithell Games to create the Reel Talk resource, packed full of ‘reely’ good advice. Avatars represent the different roles of the disciplines of 3D, 2D VFX, animation and games in the guideBlue Zoo Animation Director Will Cook, like the other working pros who contributed to Reel Talk, draws on his experiences of watching applicants’ showreels to offer some dos and don’ts. He says in one video: “The main thing I look for in an animation reel is how the characters move. It’s all about the body mechanics – if you nail the mechanics in a showreel you are a pretty good animator and all the rest can be taught at a studio like Blue Zoo.” Such inspiring and actionable tips run throughout each strand of the guide, helping you see where you can stand out for the right reasons. Reel Talk not only offers tried and tested advice for showreels across the whole VFX industry, it also describes specific, technical must haves and must nots for each separate discipline, to help you tailor your showreel to the area you’re most passionate about. Consisting of text guides, illustrations and videos, Reel Talk is packed with pearls of wisdom. So for budding 3D VFX pros, Framestore Lead Modeller Chris Cook says: “You need to show you have a good understanding of the VFX pipeline as a whole. If you’re making models, we’re looking for you to show that you also understand how a model will be textured and shaded further down the pipeline. It’s very important that you can show us you can work with other departments in mind.” These icons are used throughout the guide to represent each disciplineShowing that you can consider the bigger picture crops up again when Mike Bithell, Founder of Bithell Games, advises game artists: “Put showreel content into Unity or Unreal Engine and render off for your showreel. Make sure you tell us this is being rendered in real time – it demonstrates you understand the pipeline and you can take what you’ve made into a games context.” Another step that Mike Bithell suggests is showing a breakdown of how you’ve put your work together, to show potential employers how you’ve done it. “It shows you can work in a team and that you understand process and production,” he explains. Escape Studios has drawn on its huge industry network to bring you pertinent advice from working professionals that will help you get noticed and take your showreel from low poly to legendary. Discover Reel Talk today. Escape Studios also offers a range of invaluable courses delivered by inspirational tutors with professional industry experience, all of whom have worked or currently work in the VFX industry. It offers all students career development support from day one, including help and advice on showreels and job applications – and the help continues for up to a year after finishing a programme, if you need it. As a provider of vocational education for 15 years, and with over 4,000 alumni, students leave studio-ready. Find out more about Escape Studios’ courses and open days to see what you could learn. View the full article

For all the books on design and creativity, there’s no substitute for having a stream of mentors in your life – either as a creative student, intern or new designer. I learned this lesson while studying at London’s School of Communication Arts. Despite being called a school, it doesn’t have any teachers. Instead, it has a network of over 1,000 mentors, who all donate a couple of days a year to share their knowledge with the students. I spoke to the school’s dean, Marc Lewis, about what you should look for in a mentor, and how you can best build a powerful working relationship. Here I share tips from both of us on how to get the most from your mentor. 01. Be there in person Never underestimate the value of face-to-face meetingsThink about closing your laptop and getting out into the world and meeting people. You’re not going to meet like-minded creatives and potential new contacts while sat at home all the time. When I wanted to meet my current boss, Andy Sandoz, I called the office where he worked, saying that it was the half-term break, and rather than work at home in my pants, did they have a free desk I could use? I ended up with a desk for a week, where I met a bunch of brilliant creatives before finally, at the end of the week, one of them introduced me to Andy. 02. Kiss a lot of frogs “Every frog might be someone’s prince(ss),” says Lewis. “My advice is that creatives need to get themselves into situations where they can meet lots of interesting people.” When you start searching, do so with an open mind. People don’t always need decades of experience to teach you something. Creatives who are newer to the industry can often empathise more with the stage you’re at and could also offer you more relevant advice. 03. Check your motives (and theirs) Make sure you and your mentor have the same goals in mindIt’s always worth checking what you actually want from a mentor before you go looking. Although mentors can open new doors, you shouldn’t be angling for a job offer or a big name that you can drop into conversation. Lewis also recommends asking the same question of potential mentors, “The role of a mentor is not to ask, ‘What’s in it for me?’ or, ‘What’s in it for us?’ but ‘What’s in it for you?’” he says. 04. Act on advice You'll get the most from your mentor if you act on the advice they give youThe people you want to talk to are often short on time, which forces you to prioritise what you want to ask them. ‘What would you do if you were me?’ is often a great question that forces your mentor to empathise with your current position. And if you trust that they have your interests at heart, act on their advice, however difficult or uncomfortable to hear, Lewis says. Then give them feedback, tell them how it went and ask them what they suggest you do next. 05. Expand your network Lewis says, “Mentoring is fluid and you should be constantly on the lookout for new mentors who can help you on your journey.” Once you have a solid rapport with a mentor, it’s always worth asking if they know anyone they think you should meet that could help you. Not only does this help to grow your network, but receiving a personal introduction will carry a lot more weight than emails and cold calls. 06. Challenge your mentor Your mentor could often do with some advice themselves You should always feel able to challenge your mentor’s advice. “There is no ego in the room when I engage with one of my mentors, and debate is encouraged,” says Lewis. “I find that when I am challenging advice, I am really asking myself the important questions in pursuit of the right answers. Mentoring is not about one person telling another what to do, it is about working things out together. It should be active, not passive.” 07. Keep them in the loop Your mentor wants to feel like the time they spend with you is helpful, so let them know what happened next. Some form of contact every month is enough to let them know how you’re getting on. And it doesn’t have to be all about you; if you see an article or news story you think is relevant to their interests, share it! 08. Give thanks The School Of Communication has postcards you can send as thank you lettersIt’s important not to abuse the generosity of a mentor. Lewis says that School of Communication Arts is built on a model of reciprocity: “I believe that giving thanks is incredibly important. All social transactions should be fair, and ideally should be win-win.” Handwritten notes feel much more personal than an email, and showing thanks is essential to maintaining a healthy relationship. This article was originally published in Computer Arts issue 264. Subscribe here. Related articles: How to transform a design internship into a job 50 brilliant design portfolios to inspire you Top designers reveal their first paid commissions View the full article

For new designers and graduates, once you've made a beautiful online portfolio and perfected your creative resumé, it's all about landing your first paid commission or design job. How to transform a design internship into a jobThere are a multitude of ways to get that first design commission. And – as we'll see – a multitude of ways those commissions might turn out. Here, top designers look back on their early days in the creative industry. They reveal how they got their first commissions – and what they learnt from them. Whether these early paid jobs are fond memories or recurring nightmares, they all show that even the most successful designers had to start somewhere, and that every experience is a chance to learn. 01. Simon Manchipp Simon Manchipp, executive creative director and co-founder of SomeOne, had an early start in the world of paid design – aged just 14. "Like many of my generation, I was entranced by all things computer. They were new. Odd. Expensive and quirky. I loved computers," Manchipp tells us. "I’d noticed that the local Currys electronics shop in Reigate, Surrey, had a pretty terrible window display – a sorry affair of four TVs lined up in the window, stuck on the BBC. All night." "As I cycled past I thought this was a desperately wasted promotional opportunity, and so went about my first ever creative pitch." Manchipp approached his first client in an interesting way"I wrote a program, in BASIC, on my rubber-keyed ZX Spectrum, which sent robotic men walking across the screen carrying promotional messages, like ‘Computer Games £1.99’, ‘VHS Tapes on sale' and the winning: ‘ALL TV’S 20% OFF’." "The following Saturday I walked in armed with a cassette tape holding the data. I secretly loaded it up on the shop's demo computer, while my brother distracted them by trying to loudly play a new shipment of stylophones." "Once up and running on screen, I politely asked to speak to the manager. When I explained that this could be a way to advertise his wares, all night, on the high street, for free, he loved it." "He asked me to create a series of ads that would run over the next three months. I would turn up as they opened, get briefed, dash home, code it up, dash back and have it installed ready for the evening." "Sales went up. Everyone was delighted. My parents were mystified." SomeOne London, which Manchipp co-founded, has won awards for its branding work for huge names"I was 14, so I couldn’t be legally paid. I negotiated a hard line and instead got paid in computer games and tech. By the end I had all the latest games and duplicates for friends who had helped." "I knew I wanted to do more of this kind of thing – something I loved, and got paid for. From then on, everything started to click. Commercial creativity was forever in my blood." Manchipp's bold approach certainly paid off, and perhaps helped sow the seeds of confidence that led him to set up SomeOne in London. 02. Oisín Hurst Oisín Hurst, creative director at wondr.io, found that an early paid commission provided a steep learning curve. “A long time ago I designed a buttermilk carton for Tesco," he says. "It was one of my first packaging design pieces, created in an FMCG agency sweatshop in Dublin, where I was employed as a designer. I designed it on the flat keyline and didn’t think to mock it up." "So I never spotted the offending shapes. To be honest, I didn’t give it a second glance. Why would I – it was buttermilk – what could go wrong?" Neither Hurst nor his senior colleagues spotted any issues with the shapes in this design"Not only did it get past everyone, it sat on the shelves for about seven or eight years before anyone – including myself – noticed. Now every few months it pops up on my Facebook and Twitter feeds to remind me how fallible I am. But I’m glad it does." Here are three lessons Hurst learnt from his buttermilk commission: Own the end result – good or bad Everything matters – the little details and the smaller jobs Design in context – specifically the consumer, audience or customer’s context. This is especially true when designing digital experiences. Hurst is now creative director at wondr.io in Dublin, which has won awards for its beautiful websiteHurst learnt a lot from this formative experience, proving that the odd mistake is indeed more valuable for learning than success after success. He is now producing stunning designs at digital agency Wondr.io. 03. Jamie Kelly Kelly's first design commission – for a friend – was paid for in drinksJamie Kelly, creative partner at Brand Up North, won his first commission through a stroke of luck... “My route into design wasn't the most orthodox," he says. "After graduating from Liverpool School of Art I found myself in the world of print sales – an experience that's still one of my most valuable. I did this for two years, and although I enjoyed it, I had that burning desire to go back to my passion." "Luckily, at the same time I decided this, a friend of mine set up his own print sales business and asked if I would look at his identity." Kelly's design is still being used 10 years later"The fee was predominantly libation-based. I of course agreed, and took what was a good brief with some clear direction. The result was an identity that hit the brief, was on trend – at the time – and pleased all four directors." "At this point, I was essentially a graduate designer, not understanding the power of a proposition or positioning to help shape a business and its identity. I also wan't remotely a master of my craft. But this didn't matter: they loved it, therefore I loved it." "The business is now in its 10th year, doing very well and they still use the same identity. It's emblazoned across their livery, offices and machines." "This inspires me, because although I would change many things looking back – my approach, my rationale and the construction – it's still being used with pride. This is all I can ask for from any of the work we do here at Brand Up North: has it helped the business and are they proud of it?" Now creative partner at Brand Up North, Kelly has led big branding projects for the Co-op, Brother UK and more"10 years later I'm working with the same business on a new offering they have, where I can apply the past 10 years' learnings and hope that I have the same response, with the same longevity and result." Kelly's successful early commission shows that seizing opportunities – even jobs for friends – is key to gaining valuable opportunities. Although we advocate getting paid in money for your first commissions, not beer. 04. Kyle Wilkinson Kyle Wilkinson, founder and creative director of Wilkinson&Co, got his first commission by using his initiative and reaching out locally. "Like a lot of early projects, they didn't come to me for this one – I contacted them touting for work," recalls Wilkinson. "I called a local charity to see if I could help out with anything." "Luckily, its old agency had sold up, so the charity was on the hunt for a designer to create a campaign for its upcoming charity event, the Midnight walk." Wilkinson approached a local charity for work when he landed his first commission"The event invited women of all ages to dress as cowgirls and walk 10 miles at midnight to raise money. I jumped at the chance to design for it and went down an illustrative route, as it was to be used on a lot of different mediums, of all shapes and sizes. It was even printed onto pocket mirrors." "I remember learning a lot about managing a client, which was something I had very little experience of. I learnt what to say, how to get across ideas and so on." "It was a steep learning curve, as with most things, but invaluable and acted as a foundation to build upon over the years. Looking back, I actually don't mind the design too much." Wilkinson now specialises in creating bespoke display typefaces, typography, imagery and visual identities for brands and publications at Wilkinson&CoContacting local charities and businesses is a great way for new designers to gain some early experience. Though Wilkinson's style on his Instagram feed and website has developed, that early chance to work closely with a client to create something they love is invaluable. Share your first commission by commenting on our Facebook page or Facebook group, or Tweet us with the hashtag #FirstCommission. Related articles: 50 brilliant design portfolios to inspire you 20 tips for design interview success 15 free resume templates View the full article

It's over a year since Prince left us, but his legacy lives on and now he's received perhaps the ultimate accolade in the form of his very own Pantone colour. Naturally, it's a shade of his trademark purple. Created by the Pantone Color Institute, along with The Prince Estate, the colour is represented by Love Symbol #2, the symbol (pictured below) that he created and used instead of his name for a large chunk of his career. It was inspired by his custom-made Yamaha purple piano, which was originally scheduled to go on tour with the performer before his death at the age of 57. The distinctive Love Symbol #2 shade will be used across all manner of Prince-related productsLove Symbol #2 will now become the official colour across all of Prince's branding, although Pantone notes that the entire spectrum of the colour purple will still be used in respect to Prince. "The colour purple was synonymous with who Prince was and will always be," says Troy Carter, entertainment advisor to Prince’s Estate. "This is an incredible way for his legacy to live on forever." "Love Symbol #2 is emblematic of Prince's distinctive style," adds Laurie Pressman of the Pantone Color Institute. "Long associated with the purple family, Love Symbol #2 enables Prince's unique purple shade to be consistently replicated and to maintain the same iconic status as the man himself." Expect to see Love Symbol #2 on various Prince-related products in the near future. Related articles: How to master colour theory Why colour gradients are a hot new visual trend Pantone app puts every colour in your pocket View the full article

The App Store logo has been given its first major redesign, alongside new icons for Maps and AirPod animations. These redesigns have been released as part of Apple's sixth developer beta for iOS 11, which also included bug-fixes and performance upgrades. Perhaps the most significant feature of the new App Store logo (above) is that it ditches the pencil and paintbrush graphics that have been a key part of the app's previous icon designs. Instead, these artistic tools, which effectively teased at the sort of content users could expect to explore when they tap the symbol, have been replaced by a sleek letterform. The old logo incorporated art tools into its designApple has made big moves to ditch skeuomorphic designs on its mobile apps before. And while it's debatable whether or not the App Store logo is strictly skeuomorphic, it's another decision by Apple to move away from using real world objects in its icons. One bonus of the redesign, though, is that the updated icons look better at higher resolutions. Check out some more updated app squircles in the Tweet from iCulture below. Related articles: 10 commandments of logo design 35 beautiful band logo designs to be inspired by 11 brilliant resources for logo designers View the full article

It takes time, patience and countless hours of practise and Illustrator tutorials to master the art of character drawing. During my early days at Disney, while working on films such as The Lion King, Mulan and Brother Bear, we would go through hundreds of variations of character designs. Because these films were hand drawn it wasn't too difficult to imagine how these rough designs would look in the finished film. However, after the advent of films such as Toy Story and other computer animated works, it became more difficult for many artists working traditionally to present characters as they might appear in the final film. One of my greatest discoveries when I first started working digitally was that I now had the ability to create an image that looked like a frame of finished film. I was able to convey texture, mood and lightning – all in one image. This has great value when trying to present ideas to film executives, art directors and the rest of the crew. Being able to quickly show my concepts that appeared closer to the finished look of the film cut down the number of development iterations. This means there was less back and forth during the process, and therefore we saved money on the film's budget and increased our approval rate. In this workshop I'll take you through my process and show you how I apply my background with traditional art mediums to creating digital characters that look like they're ready to step from the screen. Watch the full tutorial 01. Tone document and rough sketch I fill a document with a mid-tone grey, which enables me to judge my values (light and dark) more accurately. I create a new layer above the grey background and label it Rough Drawing. At this stage I draw loosely. Keeping it rough speeds things up and means I can try out new ideas without any restrictions. I explore proportions and spacing of features. 02. Refine the sketch I reduce the Opacity of the rough to about 30 per cent and create a new layer labelled Refined Drawing. Now I find the details of the design – wrinkles or nose details, for example – that need defining. This stage is key, because the drawing will serve as the blueprint for the rest of the rendering process. Good draftsmanship is the first step to great paintings! 03. Bring in local colour Local colour is the colour of an object without light or shadow. I create a layer under the drawing layers and call it Local Colour. For this stage I use a large, natural-looking brush. I start with green as my dominant colour and roughly lay it in. Next, I add other varying colours to create interest. This stage can still be loose and quick. It's good to experiment! This is the foundation of the colour work that will follow. 04. Create the first shadow layer I create a new layer on top of everything, call it Shadows and set its Blend mode to Multiply. This enables the local colour to show through the shadow layer. With a cool mid-tone colour selected, I begin to lay in the shadows. To do this out of your head accurately you should be drawing from life as often as possible. I also stay loose and quick at this stage… but accurate. 05. Paint direct light into the scene Next, I create a new layer on top and name it Direct Light. It's important to remember colour temperature at this stage. I use a cool neutral colour for the shadows, but will be going warmer and more pure with the highlights. I begin to paint in the light areas where the multiple light sources fall on the character, using warm greens and yellows. The creature is starting to take shape. 06. Consider reflected light Within the shadow areas, light will bounce from lit areas and produce reflected light. I create a layer under the direct light layer and name it Reflected Light, then select a colour that's a little warmer and brighter than the surrounding shadow colour. Subtlety is key: I want to only slightly adjust the values. I imagine the light source that's being reflected and model the form. Next page: 8 more steps to improving your creature design 07. Make use of highlights I create a new top layer and call it Highlights. It's time to shift back to the lit areas. (I jump from shadow to light and back again to keep everything balanced.) I select the Color Picker, grab some direct light colour and brighten the colour up significantly. Then I paint areas that require a bright highlight. I also start adding rim lighting and some deeper shadows. 08. An autumnal background Next, I create a layer underneath all layers and name it Background. Using a natural brush I very quickly start laying in some autumnal colours to complement the greens of the creature. I treat it loose and abstract, and use darker values to ensure that the creature pops from the background. I then click Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, and set the blur at 25 pixels. 09. Introduce photo textures Elephant textures make great creature skin. I select a section with the Lasso tool, drag it over to the illustration and reduce the Opacity to 30 per cent. Then I click Image> Adjustments>Exposure, increase the Gamma setting and adjust the Exposure to increase the contrast. I tweak these adjustments and the Opacity until the texture looks right. 10. Fit the texture to the creature Next, I click Edit>Free Transform, resize the texture to fit and then select Edit> Transform>Warp. Now I can start to shape the texture to fit the creature's form. I then repeat steps eight and nine to create a mosaic of textures on the creature. I experiment with a variety of textures – here I've used both elephant and leaf textures. 11. Add highlights to textures By the end of this stage the textures should feel like a part of the creature. I start by creating a layer on top and calling it Texture Highlights. Then I select a fine brush and start to highlight over the textures where the light falls. This should be done tastefully. A little goes a long way here. 12. Apply markings Now I create a layer under the Texture Highlights layer and call it Markings. I set the layer's Blend mode to Multiply. Now using mid-tone greens and reds I go in and delicately add markings to the creature's skin. This stage adds interest and believability, and helps to describe the form of the creature. 13. Depict foreground elements I create a new layer on top and begin to loosely lay in foreground leaves and branches. Because this will be blurred there's no need to get detailed. However, I do build it up, using several layers. Once everything is laid in, I combine the layers and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Then I set the blur to about 35 pixels. This will give the piece a nice feeling of depth. 14. Depth of field and finishing up I copy all of the creature layers and combine them into one layer. Then I turn off all of the original individual layers. I select the Blur tool and pick the Airbrush setting. I set this to about 300 pixels and a strength of 50 per cent. Now I go in and begin to blur out areas of the creature layer that I want out of focus. I do this to divert the viewer's attention to areas of interest, such as the face. This also gives the image a bit of a photographic look. Finally, I flatten the image and adjust the exposure and saturation to get the composition nice and bright. This article originally appeared in ImagineFX issue 116. Subscribe today. Related articles: How to draw a manga character The 60 best free Photoshop brushes How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorials View the full article

Every designer needs something to spark their creativity or put the finishing touches on a project. You won't find a better place to kickstart your next project than the ByPeople Premium Design Bundle. You can get a lifetime subscription to this service now for just $39 (approx £30)! There is no such thing as having too many assets to work with when you're a designer. That's why lifetime access to the ByPeople Premium Design Bundle is sure to get plenty of use. You'll get unrestricted access to all the contents of ByPeople's DesignShock and TemplateShock sites – trusted sources for designers. Get all the icons, logos, avatars, cartoons, templates, and brushes you need in this bundle. Lifetime membership to the ByPeople Premium Design Asset Bundle is valued at $129, but you can save 69% off the retail price. That means you'll pay just $39 (approx £30) for this must-have bundle, so grab it today! View the full article

Aaron Gustafson, web standards advocate at Microsoft and author of Adaptive Web Design, will deliver the closing keynote at Generate London on 22 September. We caught up with him ahead of the conference to talk about adapting interfaces to suit users' ever changing needs. How are our interfaces changing and adapting? Aaron Gustafson: The interfaces and means we use to access content and services provided on the web have expanded greatly as we have imbued more and more devices with connectivity. When I started out on the web, screens were small – 800x600 was considered large – connections were slow, and folks were either accessing the web via a terminal interface like Gopher or Lynx or they were using a very early graphical browser on their desktop. Most screens only supported about 256 colours and interaction was only possible via keyboard and mouse and generally required round-trips to the server (or refreshes of a frame within the web page). We’ve only begun to scratch the surface when it comes to how we adapt our interfaces beyond visual design Aaron Gustafson Things have obviously changed a lot since then in terms of how we interact with the web. We’ve still got mice and keyboards, but computers can also respond to our touch, gestures, our voices, and other physical implements like dials and pens. Some computers have tiny screens, some have giant ones, others have no screens at all. Over the years, the practice of designing for the web has generally followed a consistent path of taking advantage of more and more screen real estate, but with the advent of mobile, many of us shifted our focus to enabling users to accomplish core tasks like reading an article or purchasing a product. Media queries and design approaches like responsive web design have allowed us to adjust our layout and designs to provide experiences that were more tailored to the amount of screen real estate (and its orientation), but we’ve only begun to scratch the surface when it comes to how we adapt our interfaces beyond visual design. How to create a great adaptive interface What’s the first step to creating a great adaptive interface? AG: Planning is absolutely the best first step. Think about each component part of your interface and brainstorm the different ways it may need to be experienced. Iterate on that. Ask tough questions. Being mindful of things like source order and how each component is explained via assistive technologies – screen readers, yes, but also digital assistants like Alexa, Bixby, Cortana, Google Assistant, and Siri – should be part of this discussion. Of course you’ll want to think about how the purpose of the component can be achieved in various screen sizes, with and without JavaScript, and via other interaction methods as well. Consider the performance implications of your choices. Can you provide a default state that is streamlined and lightweight? When might it make sense to incorporate richer imagery and the like? Are there alternative ways you can approach that enrichment? Taking the time to ask questions and plan out the experience ahead of time – even in broad strokes – will pay dividends when it come to copywriting, design, development, and testing. Aaron Gustafson will deliver the closing keynote at Generate London on 22 September The interface elements you choose matter What are some recurring mistakes you see in regards to interfaces and how can we avoid them? AG: One of the issues I see time and time again in web projects is improper use of semantics. Whether this comes from a lack of understanding of the purpose each element in HTML serves or a lack of concern for the implications of poor element choices, it’s a problem. Real people are folks who can only afford older or lower-end hardware, folks without constant network connectivity Aaron Gustafson As a simple example, consider a form. Users need to submit that form. I’ve seen developers use button, input, a, and even div elements to provide a clickable button. But these choices are not equal. An input or button element, when given a type of submit, can provide this functionality easily. Anchors and divs need help. Neither will look like a button without CSS and neither can submit the form without JavaScript. And then there’s keyboard focus and interactions. Choosing either of these latter two elements necessitates a whole lot of extra work and code to fulfil an otherwise simple requirement. And on top of that, if any of their dependencies are not met, the interface is rendered unusable. The elements we choose matter. What can people expect to learn from your talk at Generate London? AG: My hope is that folks who see my talk will have their perspective broadened, even if only a little bit. I want them to become more aware of the ways in which real people use the products we create. Real people are folks who can only afford older or lower-end hardware, folks without constant network connectivity, folks who rely on keyboard commands or their voice or their eyes to browse and interact with the web. When you become aware of the myriad ways people can and will access the web, your work naturally becomes more inclusive. And that’s my goal: increasing the inclusiveness of the web. Over the course of three days, Generate London will feature four workshops and 16 talks, presented by some of the most talented and influential speakers of the web design and development industry, including Steve Fisher, Léonie Watson, Chris Gannon, Anton & Irene and Zell Liew. You'll also learn how to design interfaces for novice tech users in emerging economies, opportunities and pitfalls posed by conversational interfaces, how Netflix builds prototypes, and loads more. Get your Generate ticket today! Related articles: Steve Fisher on how to run design and content sprints Anton & Irene on becoming hands-on Léonie Watson on accessibility as an integral part of the web design process 10 best web animations by Chris Gannon Top web dev Zell Liew shares what he's learnt from being self-taught View the full article

We live in fast changing times for branding, marketing and advertising. As more and more of us use recording devices that let you skip TV commercials, along with ad-blocking software online, how does a brand get its message across? One increasingly popular strategy is to use branded content. From sponsored magazine articles to online webisodes, music videos to short films, this kind of content is so entertaining, informative and engaging that consumers are happy to view and share it of their own volition. The marketing message may be upfront or almost invisible, but that's not what's important. It's all about making people want to see it, rather than being forced or tricked into seeing it. Here we look at some of the best examples of branded content in the 2010s so far. 01. Newspaper article: Netflix The New York Times worked with Netflix for this drama-inspired branded contentWith the number of people willing to pay for newspapers and magazines falling, old media needs to find new sources of revenue – online as well as in print. One way to boost income is to run sponsored articles, but matching the right marketing message with engaging and informing content can be a tricky business. This New York Times article, Women Inmates: Why the Male Model Doesn't Work, hits exactly the right note. Sponsored by Netflix's hit prison drama Orange is the New Black, the longform read is fascinating, relevant and elegantly presented. Interactive images, a captivating video, and strong journalistic content all add up to a great article that ticks all the boxes for both brand and reader. 02. Music video: Honda OK Go is an alternative rock band from Chicago known for its funny and creative music videos. And its video for 2014's I Won't Let You Down, which debuted on NBC's Today Show, put a whole new spin on product placement. In it, the band members cavort around on Honda's UNI-CUB self-balancing unicycles, which represented a massive PR coup for the company. Although there's no actual mention of Honda, the video on YouTube – which has so far had almost 35 million views – linked to an interactive website (now offline), allowing people to see behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, and information about the Honda UNI-CUB itself. 03. Print magazine: Net-a-Porter Porter magazine is produced by fashion retailer Net-a-PorterAs one door closes, another opens. And with traditional publishers reluctant to launch new magazines, companies are fast stepping in to fill the vacuum. One of the most critically and commercially successful to date has been fashion retailer Net-a-Porter's magazine, Porter. By combining access to the website's audience data with global magazine market intelligence, the company has been able to target the magazine's content with laser accuracy, and achieve a circulation of around 150,000, outselling many traditional fashion magazines and even coming within spitting distance of Vogue. As well as making money from the cover price, Net-a-Porter has put a lot of effort into making sure the bi-monthly title also drives retail sales. For example, readers are able to scan a print issue with the Net-a-Porter app, and immediately arrive at the relevant purchase page, making for a seamless shopping experience. Porter's sister title The Edit is even more transparent about its brochure-like ambitions, with buttons in the free digital magazine taking readers to 'shop the issue'. 04. Viral video: Dove Dove's Real Beauty campaign stems from research suggesting that only four per cent of women would describe themselves as beautiful. This short video highlights this gap between perception and reality in brilliant fashion. A sketch artist creates two drawings of a series of women. One is based on their own description of how they look; the other based on a stranger's description. The discrepancy between the two highlights powerfully how inaccurate women's own views of their beauty are. With 170 million views on YouTube, this was the most watched online branded content of 2013 and the third most shared branded video. While it says nothing about the qualities of the product itself, the campaign got the world talking, and Dove has been part of that conversation – boosting sales massively in the process. 05. Radio station: Pedigree Content marketing isn't just about print, TV and online: broadcast radio remains a powerful and popular medium, and fertile ground for branded content. But perhaps the most unlikely example comes in the form of a New Zealand radio station for dogs. K9FM was based on advice from pet experts that people should leave the radio on when they leave the house, to keep their dog company. But rather than a normal radio station, Colenso BBDO Auckland thought, why not one tailored to dogs themselves? The agency created hours of original content to play all day, every day on the channel, including discussions on topics like 'The Frisbee: Voodoo, Magic, Science?'; a sports section called Fetch in the Park, and a thought for the day entitled 'Chew on This'. K9FM received more than 1,000 phone calls from dog owners during the first two weeks of broadcasting, and within the three months of the campaign, Pedigree dog food enjoyed a three-year sales high. 06. Short film: Procter & Gamble The maker of Always, Procter & Gamble, wanted to place puberty's profound impact on girls' confidence into the media spotlight. So it commissioned this short documentary by filmmaker Lauren Greenfield, which approaches the topic via the phrase 'like a girl'. A series of interviews show that for young children, 'like a girl', means to do something well, whereas for teenagers and young women it means to do it ineffectively. The fourth most viewed ad in 2014 on YouTube, the video was followed up by several positive #LikeAGirl videos featuring sporting and cultural role models offering proactive solutions. A 2015 video featuring Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams, Unstoppable, encourages girls to smash limitations set on them by society, which are visually interpreted as boxes stamped with prescribed roles for girls. 07. Feature film: Lego You know you've succeeded at branded content when people are having so much fun, they don't even notice they're being marketed to. The hilarious and surprisingly clever Lego Movie earned a worldwide total of over $469 million, all the while promoting Lego to a new global generation of kids. It has been followed up so far by the Lego Batman Movie and the soon-to-be-released Lego Ninjago Movie, with more in the pipeline – proving that when you get branded content right, everything really is awesome. View the full article

You're reading The Ultimate UX Design of: the Credit Card Payment Form, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! The Peak Point of eCommerce and SaaS – the Credit Card Payment Form If you’re selling something online, you know it’s not the easiest thing to do. You need to find a prospective customer, present your product in a good light, drive her through a process full of forms and finally… collect her money. At […] View the full article

Love it or hate it, Photoshop continues to be the design software of choice for millions of designers across the globe for a wide range of tasks, including photo editing, graphic design, typography, illustration, 3D modelling and animation. Here, we round up the very best Photoshop tutorials from around the web covering all of these areas and more, whether you're rocking Photoshop CC or using an older version of the software. And to save you from unnecessary confusion, we've organised these video tutorials and written step-by-step tutorials and guides to suit your level of Photoshop skills. Choose your difficulty level and get started! Beginners' Photoshop tutorials (this page) Intermediate Photoshop tutorials Advanced Photoshop tutorials Photoshop tutorials for beginners 01. Master Photoshop layers: 6 top tips It may take a bit of time, but learning to use Photoshop's layer system is the key to unlocking the software's versatilityPhotoshop is a complex bit of kit, which can take years to learn properly. The language of layers can be a difficult thing to master, but having a good understanding of Photoshop layers gives you a solid foundation to build your digital art. Our Photoshop layers tutorial for beginners is here to help. 02. 7 top tips for using Photoshop layer masks These helpful layer mask tips will help to streamline your digital art workflowAs any beginner Photoshop tutorial will tell you, layer masks are one of the most fundamental parts of the software. Without them your work is sure to look flat. To help you work more quickly and easily with layer masks, we've put together this list of seven tips and shortcuts. 03. Make quick selections in Photoshop Simple cut-outs and masking tasks form the backbone of much design work in PhotoshopThe ability to perform simple cut-outs and masking tasks is a basic requirement of any designer and often forms the backbone of any Photoshop work that you may undertake. We run through three basic techniques for creating simple selections, and then cover the layer mask options and how they work a little more in depth. 04. Get creative with Face-Aware Liquify Face-Aware Liquify makes caricaturing easyThe latest version of Photoshop CC's Liquify tool has some powerful facial recognition skills, enabling it to detect areas of the face, such as the eyes, mouth, nose and overall face shape, so you can adjust and warp them with impunity. Here T3's art editor, Luke O'Neill, explains how to get the most of it, from simple adjustments to crazy facial distortions. 05. Create a kaleidoscope effect in Photoshop Drawn and photographed elements come togetherAmber Grayson reveals how to combine handmade and digital elements to create a kaleidoscope effect in Photoshop. 06. How to customise animated GIFs in Photoshop Alter any animated GIF to fit the style of your latest projectAnimated GIFs are a great way to make your designs more eye-catching. With Photoshop, you can customize any animated GIF to fit the style of your project. 07. Reduce camera shake in Photoshop CC Get to grips with Photoshop's Camera Shake Reduction filterAs a photographer, it's inevitable that you will wind up with the occasional blurry image. Fortunately, in Photoshop CC, Adobe has a special 'Camera Shake Reduction' filter to help you repair these images. 08. Age a photograph in Photoshop CC Turn any photo into an aged, sepia-toned image in PhotoshopAgeing a photograph in Photoshop is a classic technique that can turn even a ho-hum, full colour image into something striking. If your design work requires a vintage look, replicating the look of a distressed old photo digitally can work wonders. However, it’s more than merely converting a photograph to sepia tones and calling it a day. In this article, we explore how to age a photograph using the duotone technique. 09. How to use Photoshop's Image Sizing tool We explain how to get the best out of the Image Sizing tool in Photoshop CC. 10. Transform a pencil sketch in Photoshop Make your hand-drawn sketches easier to work with digitally using these quick stepsColourising a scanned hand-drawn pencil sketch to get rid of the black lines can save an artist lots of work and aggravation. Dark, black lines are hard to paint over while maintaining the sketch. Thankfully, there's an easy way to colour and soften those black lines using Photoshop. 11. Turn day into night in Photoshop Turning this daytime scene into night was inspired by the superb effects work in Lars von Trier's film Melancholia. Shooting landscapes at night can present all sorts of challenges – and even more so if you were shooting a moving image and couldn't use long exposures. 12. How to use the Burn Tool One of our own Photoshop tutorials, hosted on the Creative Bloq YouTube channel, introduces the Burn tool. In the easy-to-follow video, discover how to selectively darken areas of an image, with an overview of settings and tips on working with Shadows, Midtones and Highlights. 13. How to use the Colour Replacement Tool Another of our YouTube Photoshop tutorials, this short video introduces the Color Replacement Tool, which lets you paint roughly over an area of an image. Discover how to replace colours based on Hue, Saturation, Colour and Luminosity. 14. How to use the Content-Aware Move Tool This Photoshop tutorial introduces the Content-Aware Move Tool. In the easy-to-follow video, we reveal how Photoshop can analyse pixels and heal unwanted portions within an image. 15. How to use the Custom Shape Tool This Photoshop tutorial introduces the Custom Shape Tool. Choose from a large selection of different shapes and learn how to use various settings such as Fill, Stroke and more. 16. How to use the Dodge Tool This Photoshop tutorial introduces the Dodge tool. You'll learn how to selectively lighten areas of an image. Learn about brush options, Range, and Exposure. Brighten eyes, pick out details, and much more! 17. Make a poster from a template in Photoshop Adobe's Photoshop tutorial will show you how to make a poster from a template in less than 60 seconds 18. Add a bokeh effect to your images Create out-of-focus highlights from scratch with a little help from Photoshop CS6's new time-saving shortcuts, in this easy to follow, four-step tutorial. 19. Turn photos into simple caricatures Master Photoshop's Free Transform tool and use it to warp portraits of your subjects into comical caricatures! 20. Get the toy camera look Combine a number of different simple but effective techniques to imitate the retro, lo-fi toy camera look, using simulated light leakage and a vignette in Photoshop. 21. Make your own pop art portrait Create an Andy Warhol-style multi-image pop art pictureConvert a bland portrait into a pop art masterpiece to get creative and enliven your forgettable shots. For this tutorial, we'll be using Photoshop filters, selection tools, Adjustment Layers and Layer Masks, and the Hue/Saturation command. 22. Recreate a fish-eye effect Get a 60s psychedelic style imageGive images the super-distorted fish-eye treatment, then crop and add text to get the look of an iconic album cover. 23. Digital painting with Photoshop CC for beginners Get to grips with digital painting in Photoshop with this handy guideIf you can work on a canvas with paints, then many of the same painting techniques you use will transfer directly over to digitally painting in Photoshop. Core principles such as composition, colour theory and perspective still apply. This article breaks down the process of creating a simple digital painting, from start to finish. 24. Apply a quick vintage look in Photoshop Use Photoshop CS6's Color Lookup feature to change colours within an image, in four simple steps. 25. Add frames to photos using Photoshop and Lightroom Using a combination of Photoshop and Lightroom, here you'll discover a few ways to add frames and borders around your photos. The workflow includes using tools such as Photoshop blend modes, custom brushes and layer styles. 26. Create tilt shift photography Recreate a tilt-shift effect using PhotoshopTilt-shift photography refers to the use of camera movements on small and medium format cameras. The guys at animhut show you how to re-create this effect using Photoshop CS6. 27. Add dramatic rain to a photo in Photoshop Tony Aube demonstrates how to add a dramatic rain effect to a photo in Photoshop, then goes a step further and shows how to make the image more photorealistic by adding reflections and small puddles. 28. Make a pure white background in Photoshop In this easy-to-follow tutorial, the team at Phlearn show you how to create a perfect white backdrop without losing too much detail in your images. 29. Colourise a black and white photo Take control of your image colouring with this tutorial from Ben SecretDesigner Ben Secret show how to take control of your image colouring with Photoshop's Color Balance tool. 30. Working with video in Photoshop While Photoshop is best known as a photo editor, it also includes some powerful video editing tools. In this short, simple tutorial, learn how to use the timeline panel to apply smart filters and adjustment layers to your videos. 31. Remove skin blemishes with the Spot Healing brush Learn how to repair lips with the Spot Healing brushEveryone wants to look their best and in this tutorial you'll be able to do just that. You'll learn how to remove any skin blemishes, acne or any other problems to create the perfect image. 32. Quickly select skin tones If you want to know about the Skin Aware technology in CS6 then this is the tutorial for you. Learn how to quickly select skin tones and get to grips with this awesome feature. 33. How to change eye colour in Photoshop CS6 Check out this quick two-minute tutorial, which will show you how to change a subject's eye colour. 34. Take care of fly-away hairs This super time saving tutorial will teach you how to get rid of stray and fly-away hairs using the dust and scratches filters. 35. Change hair colour in Photoshop CS6 Here, you'll discover how to use the new tools of Photoshop CS6 to change any hair colour. From blonde to red and brown to green, the choices are endless! 36. Create a repeating pattern in Photoshop You can create all manner of images and effects in Photoshop CCHere we'll show you how to create a single 'tile' for a repeating pattern for the stripes; then you can fill as big or as small an area as you like with it... 37. Create an easy abstract blur pattern design Spoon Graphics demonstrates how to make a cool geometric gradient pattern using Photoshop and a bit of Illustrator. 38. Create a fast and simple Instagram effect Don't have a smartphone but long to create those vintage Instagram effects on your photos? This simple and quick tutorial will show what effects to add to accomplish an easy 'Instagram look'. 39. Use Photoshop Actions to apply multiple effects We show you how to record a series of edits as an Action that can be quickly applied to images, as we create a cool retro effect in Photoshop CS6. 40. Add a colour splash effect Want to mix black and white imagery with a bit of colour? This three-minute tutorial will show you exactly how to isolate a specific colour in your photos. Feeling more confident? Head to the next page for some intermediate-level Photoshop tutorials. If you're more confident than a beginner, but not yet an expert Photoshop user, then these creative Photoshop tutorials for intermediate-level designers are for you. 41. Create style frames in Photoshop Make style frames to convey the mood of motion graphicsA style frame is a snapshot of a finished frame as it would look within a longer animation. It aims to capture the overall look and feel of an animated or live action video, but in a still image. For this tutorial we'll use an example for a title sequence that would precede a new TV show. 42. Make a double exposure in Photoshop Adobe's 60-second Make It Now video shows you how to use Photoshop to make a double exposure. 43. The Refine Edge box tool explained Learn how to use the Refine Edge box perfectly every timeIf you've ever tried to change the background of a person with frizzy hair or a horizon dotted with bushy foliage, you'll know just how intensely time consuming and nigh-on impossible this can be. Luckily the Photoshop CC Refine Edge box tool is here to make your life easier. To explain this crucial tool, we run through its seven main features. 44. Combine traditional and digital skills to create a comic cover Draw and ink by hand, then go to Photoshop to do your colouringIf you like working with traditional materials, there's still plenty you can do in Photoshop to give your work more impact. Here Chris Visions explains how to draw a comic cover by hand then take it into Photoshop to colour and light it and to add eye-catching filters. 45. Rapid site prototyping in Photoshop CC Photoshop CC offers a comprehensive toolset for mocking up websites quickly and easily. Antony Kitson explains how to use the key features to get an idea across to a client or developer. 46. Cut your design time when using Photoshop CC Save time and your sanity with this quick tutorialGraphic designer Paul Tysall demonstrates how to hone your Photoshop workflow to save time on repetitive pre-press tasks. 47. Use Photoshop's Tilt-Shift filter Using Photoshop's CS6 Tilt-shift blur effect, Ben Secret explains an innovative approach to saturation by creating a miniature model village. In this Photoshop tutorial you'll learn how to simulate an exaggerated depth-of-field effect. 48. The ultimate guide to adjustment layers – curves Curves allows you to adjust the tonal values in an image, increase or decrease the exposure, or automatically colour correct. This tutorial provides a comprehensive explanation of the Curves functions and how to use them. 49. Combine colour with monochrome in Photoshop Get creative with colour, learn how to create a wider tonal range, and create classic images with added impact in six simple steps! A fantastic Photoshop tutorial to boost your skills. 50. Erase unwanted backgrounds in Photoshop Use the Eraser tool to create white backgroundsUse the Eraser tools to select and delete unwanted backgrounds - or even just parts of them. We show you how in this Photoshop tutorial. 51. Post-production fixes Photography in design can be a tricky aspect. Here, 10 world-renowned designers channel their best advice on how to get the most from your photos using Photoshop in post-production. 52. Blur backgrounds easily in Photoshop Backgrounds often ruin what is an otherwise perfect pictureWished you'd taken that shot with a wider aperture? Make it happen in Photoshop using a blur filter and a painted mask. 53. The complete guide to fixing exposure in Photoshop The majority of images benefit from a tweak to the exposure or contrastWhat is a histogram? How do you fix poorly exposed photos? We answer these questions and more with this Photoshop tutorial walking you through exposure in Photoshop CS6 and Camera Raw. 54. Design a chrome and plastic button in Photoshop Making UI elements should be part of every designer's toolbox. Here's how to make a cool looking chrome and plastic button in Photoshop. 55. Create a realistic sketch effect with Photoshop Photoshop CS6 has a fine collection of filters designed to turn photos into a variety of art styles, including a Colored Pencil filter in its Artistic filter folderWith the help of Photoshop's stamp and brush tools, we reveal how you can convert your photographs into stunning pencil sketches! 56. Recreate infrared photography in Photoshop The best way of getting a similar infrared effect is to take an image with lots of green in itYou don't need a dedicated camera to take an infrared image - you can do it in Photoshop instead. We explain how, in just six simple steps. 57. Create a Polaroid pinboard effect Transform a single image into a striking montage of Polaroid shots with this fun Photoshop layers technique. 58. Create a fashionable cross-processing effect Fashion photographers used to develop film in the wrong chemicals on purpose to create striking colour effects. Here's how to achieve the look in Photoshop. 59. How to create a dramatic digital painting in Photoshop In this tutorial Trisme Trs will take you through the process of creating a dramatic digital painting in Photoshop, and show you how to illustrate an eagle and falcon battling it out in the sky. 60. How to combine brushes with texture in Photoshop CS6 Add a touch of texture to your brush strokeMake your painting really stand out by adding a touch of texture to your brush stroke using this simple, quick guide. 61. Create a mech-inspired text effect using layer styles This great 20-minute tutorial will show you exactly how to create a mechanical inspired text effect using layer styles. 62. Create a 'text in water' effect This rather specialist tutorial walks you through how to create the effect of text submerged in water. The training will help you get to grips with the liquify filter, custom brush and free transform tool. 63. Create a Chocolate Volcano Using 3D Effects Get to grips with the 3D capabilities of PhotoshopA Photoshop volcano is awesome but a chocolate volcano? Even better. Get to grips with the 3D capabilities of Photoshop CS5 and beyond. It's at an intermediate level, so only approach this if you already know a thing or two. 64. Discover Photoshop's 3D tools Photoshop CS6 Extended incorporates a new 3D tools engine, which enables your graphics card to deliver a super fast performance. This step-by-step guide demonstrates how the new Photoshop CS6 3D engine can be used to combine 3D sources. 65. How to create a micro machines inspired scene Remember that awesome collection of little cars you had as a kid? Well, this tutorial will help refresh your memory as it explains how to utilises CS6's new 3D capabilites to create a Micro Machine inspired composition. 66. Use Photoshop's animate function It's easy to forget that Photoshop also has an 'animate' function. James Wignall shows how to create the sort of hand-made animation that a young Walt Disney might have dabbled with. 67. How to create an abstract liquid effect In this walkthrough, we'll show you how to use a photograph, some 2D elements and a 3D render to create an eye-catching, abstract liquid effect with a real sense of motion. 68. How to create a stunning magazine cover in Photoshop The Phlearn team show you how to turn a photo into a magazine cover, using V Magazine as an example. Ready for anything? Flex your skills with these advanced tutorials. If you have mastered the basic tools and techniques of Photoshop and are after some creative inspiration and more advanced Photoshop projects, then try these professional-level tutorials. You might also like these 60 best free Photoshop brushes and 60 Photoshop shortcuts to speed up your workflow. 69. Create painterly effects in Photoshop CC Learn how to create a realistic antique effectAdobe's two video tutorials help you take your Photoshop CC skills to the next level, and create painterly effects using its range of Edvard Munch paintbrushes. 70. The ultimate guide to compositing images in Photoshop Master the art of convincing Photoshop composites with this comprehensive guideOf all Photoshop projects, compositing images into one fantastic frame is perhaps the most enjoyable and creative pursuit. In this Photoshop tutorial we’ll show you how to shoot, build and finish off convincing Photoshop composites like this image of a dog crossed with a human tennis player. 71. Colour in Photoshop: top tricks Discover how to paint with muted coloursDiscover how to paint with muted colours and create a festival scene tinged with nostalgia, featuring Hong Kong’s Lion Dancers, using various Photoshop effects. 72. Turn photos into 3D animations with Photoshop Photoshop allows us to add depth to photos, even animating the results, to truly breathe some fresh air into our old still albums, using its timeline capabilities. 73. Get more from custom Photoshop brushes Discover how custom brushes can enhance your workflow and boost creativityThe things that can be done with custom brushes inside Photoshop's Natural Brush Media window are almost endless! It's amazing how you can manipulate your brush to create patterns, textures, hair, skin, that painterly feel, happy accidents and so on. 74. Create a cinemagraph with Photoshop in 60 seconds Adobe's Make It Now series video shows you how to create a cinemagraph – an eye-catching moving image – in a minute. 75. Depict light glowing through fur When painting digital light in fur, Photoshop's strong light layer styles can help. By switching between Soft Light, Hard Light and Overlay, and seeing what works best, you can achieve that very particular kind of glowing light that appears when light is scattered through and between strands of hair. 76. Make interesting vector shapes in Photoshop CS6 The introduction of vector shape layers in Photoshop CS6 has opened up a wealth of new possibilities. In this Photoshop tutorial you'll find some tips so you can make the most of them... 77. How to merge vectors with photographic imagery Learn how to merge a few basic images and then mix them in with vector shapes to create a unique editorial illustration. Sound difficult? Actually no. 78. How to design a photorealistic app icon in Photoshop Roman Jusdado explains how to use light and shadow plus layer styles and masks to make realistic artwork - in this case, a stylish record player app icon. 79. How to design an iPad app UI Want to get involved in app development? It's certainly where all the action is. In this Photoshop tutorial we create two basic user interfaces for an iPad app and develop them to a prototyping level. 80. Create a 3D typographic illustration Modern artists often use more than one application to create their work. This often means working outside of Photoshop much of the time. In this tutorial, João Oliveira will create a 3D typographic illustration using Cinema 4D to build the 3D and Photoshop for the post-production. 81. Create a summer-inspired 3D text effect Discover how to create this summer-inspired 3D text in this easy-to-follow tutorialIn this Photoshop tutorial, discover how to create a summer-inspired 3D text effect, using the image editing software's 3D features. 82. Dramatic shadows in Photoshop CC Ditch the default drop shadow! Here Abduzeedo shows you how to create a design with beautiful and dramatic shadows using the 3D tools in Photoshop CC. 83. Create amazing polygon illustrations in Photoshop Using a classic image from Jaws, Rob Redman shows you how to utilise Photoshop CS6 to create awesome polygon art. 84. How to create a fantasy fairy How to create this beautiful fairy from a single source imageUse this detailed tutorial to create a beautiful fairy from a single image. Training includes lessons on how to create a fantasy background, feathers, grass and mountains. 85. Create a fantasy landscape using digital painting techniques This extensive tutorial will take you through everything you need to know to create a fantasy landscape using Photoshop CS6. Different stages include sketching, colour, defining the background, detailing, cloud creations, themes and textures. 86. Design a mixed media portrait in Photoshop and Illustrator Anthony Neil Dart reveals how to produce creative portraiture with a mixed-media approach. 87. Create a Middle Earth-inspired landscape Calling all Lord of the Rings and Hobbit fans! This in-depth tutorial will show you how to create a lush and vibrant Middle-Earth-inspired landscape in Photoshop. 88. Design a portrait collage Create a Hockney-inspired abstract photo collage in PhotoshopOur sister site, Digital Camera World, shows you how to create a photo collage inspired by artist David Hockney's 'joiners'. 89. Create a dark, vintage style motorcycle poster design Follow this step-by-step Photoshop and Illustrator tutorial to combine photography and typography and create a dark vintage style motorcycle poster design. 90. Create a comic book image Turn your portrait into pop artOne way to create an eye-catching image is to give a photograph a stylized artistic makeover. A portrait shot against a plain background is perfect for this. By using Photoshop’s filters you can simplify the colours and tones in the picture to make them look as though they were drawn and inked by a comic book artist. 91. Combine words and portraits Make striking designs in minutesShould you be looking for interesting ways to combine text and images, why not give this Photoshop technique a go? Blending a word, phrase or quote with an image could have all sorts of uses, from stylish poster designs to internet memes. 92. Create your own lightsaber Thrill the kids with this projectIn this Digital Camera World tutorial, you'll learn how to add the perfect glow effect with the Brush tool and a few layers and filters in Photoshop. 93. Create a magical shot of a person floating in mid-air Create an incredible levitating person in two shotsThis is one of those photo tricks that makes viewers think, ‘How did they do that?’ The answer is surprisingly simple and, like all the best Photoshop techniques, the real skill begins in-camera. 94. How to bend text to portraits Warp text to the shape of a portrait in photoshopText and images are sometimes hard to pair together well. We’ve all seen the typical work of novice designers, where a black box is simply laid over the image and white or coloured text placed on top. But there’s another way to team the two, using Photoshop. 95. Get creative with Photoshop Blend Modes Photoshop Blend Modes give you the power to combine layers and images for a huge variety of effectsWith 26 Blend Modes on offer, there are plenty of effects to experiment with. Here we explore what each mode does. That's it for now! Keep checking back for more Photoshop tutorials. Related articles: 60 Photoshop shortcuts to speed up your workflow 12 top Photoshop resources Review: Adobe Creative Cloud 2017 The 60 best free Photoshop brushes View the full article

Patches are available—and should be applied—that address a critical vulnerability in Windows Search that some are calling the next WannaCry. Others aren't so ready to do that. View the full article

LockState's CEO says he is “deeply sorry” about an erroneous wireless update that bricked hundreds of smart locks. View the full article

Icons have a major impact on designs, despite their small size. An icon can catch a person’s eye with just a glance. If you're trying to attract attention to your project, do it with a lifetime subscription to Icon8's massive collection, on sale now for just $49 (approx £38)! Icon8 is one of the finest sources around for professionally-designed icons. The experts at Icon8 have put together over 50,000 royalty-free icons you can use for any project you’re working on – and thousands are being added every single year. These icons come ready to be put to use and are available in a variety of sizes and formats. You can get a lifetime subscription to Icons8 on sale for just $49 (approx £38). That saves you 91% off the retail price. It’s an offer that is too good to pass up for any designer, so grab this deal today! View the full article

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The "location-based social search mobile app" (cough – hookup facilitator – cough) Tinder has launched a new logo that gives typography the boot. Distinctively coloured with shades of orange and red, the new flame logo comes hot on the heels of a new look for Tinder, both in terms of branding and navigation. 10 best logos everGetting rid of the name is a sign of Tinder's status as a brand. No longer will it be held back by pesky words, as instead it can let a single gradient-coloured flame do the talking. Check out how the old and new logos compare by – appropriately – swiping left and right in the gallery below. (Sorry desktop users, you'll have to click.) Whereas the old logo dotted its 'i' with a version of the flame logo, the new design lets the icon take centre stage. On top of a new colour scheme that follows the colour gradient trend, the new flame is rounder than the previous iteration. Related articles: Why colour gradients are a hot new visual trend 10 commandments of logo design 15 fantastic logo fonts View the full article

Wonder Woman has been one of the most talked about films of 2017. The film – which tells the story of how the Amazonian warrior version of Princess Diana becomes Wonder Woman – has racked up box office records and inspired a legion of fans to emulate the heroine. It's also made an impression on artist Kim Jung Gi. The South Korean illustrator has already achieved global recognition thanks to his characterful and realistic sketches, which can be found in a number of collected volumes. In a recent video Tweet, though, Jung Gi shared a glimpse into his creative process by drawing Wonder Woman on a comic edition with a blank cover. The mesmerising clip sees the artist build up the illustration in ink without the need for pencil guidelines. Jung Gi's grasp of anatomy and form is breathtaking – he draws a near-perfect oval in one take for crying out loud! So prepare to be amazed by watching the video in full below. Related articles: 7 things artists can learn from Wonder Woman Pro tips for illustrators Behind the scenes on seven superhero logos View the full article

Annual reports are part of the staple diet of design work the world over, seen by many as just part of the dry, bread-and-butter grind that pays the bills and paves the way for more exciting, imaginative work. But annual reports don't have to be dull, as these beautiful examples show. From cutting-edge print techniques to stop-motion animation, artful infographics to bold use of colour and integration of classy free fonts, it's all here on display to inspire your own daily work. 01. MailChimp MailChimp's 2016 annual report is a brilliant one page responsive site that provides data through colourful infographicsKnown for its fun and imaginative designs, 2016's MailChimp annual report was no exception. Presented in a brilliant one page responsive site that provides data through colourful infographics and featuring brilliant illustrations and easy-to-read facts, it's a brilliant and engaging way to look back at the past 12 months. 02. Kickstarter Kickstarter's 2016 annual report has a nostalgic feelKickstarter has a tradition of shunning printed annual reports, preferring instead to present its 2016 annual report on a fully interactive website. Showing off its highlights of the year through a combination of eye-catching headlines and figures, big visuals and simple handdrawn animations, with links through for readers to explore more, it takes readers on a journey that puts the brand in a positive light. 03. Kuoni Kuoni's beautiful annual report secured an iF design awardOne of the biggest travel agencies in Switzerland, Kuoni doesn't do dull when it comes to its annual reports. With so much fun to be had with travel themes, design agency Noord developed this beautifully illustrated book to highlight what happened in the company back in 2014. And it didn't go unnoticed – this particular annual report won the 2016 iF design award for Communication. 04. Flywheel Flywheel's 2015 annual report came with free temporary tattoos showing a battle axe, rocket ship, T-shirt, hot dog, Diet Mountain Dew can and the Flywheel logo2015 was an epic year for the Wordpress hosting and management platform Flywheel, with one of the cofounders getting the company's logo permanently tattooed onto his forearm. To celebrate this cool act of commitment, Flywheel whipped up a free set of temporary tattoos that sum up what the company did that year. Having set that precedent, it followed up in 2016 with a competition to win a free designers T-shirt on its 2016 annual report page, itself a beautiful parallax scrolling web page. We look forward to the creative 2017 offering. Data visualisation has never been so trendy! 05. Clear Media The Clear Media annual report 2014 won the Red Dot Design Award for communication designWinner of the 2015 Red Dot Award for communication design, this beautifully laser cut annual report for Hong Kong-based advertising giant Clear Media guides readers through a vibrant tour of the company's visions and values. Designed by Phoenix Communications, the report was themed "Our Space, Your Stage," with different panels depicting a stage for clients' marketing opportunities. Topped off with an acrylic film on the cover, readers could see how all the layers worked together and fused into one beautiful picture when the report was closed. 06. Sonae Ivity Brand Corp ran with Sonae's circle motif to create cogs and moreAs one of the biggest retail groups in Portugal, Sonae places huge importance on its executive reports. With a high bar to meet, the designers at the Ivity Brand Corp focused on Sonae's corporate graphic mantras – circles – for the Sonae 2012 Management Report. Deciding that the mechanics of emotion are what retail is all about, Ivity Brand Corp created a dynamic report that cleverly represented everything Sonae stands for with interlocking gears and cogs. 07. Adris Group With a reputation of focusing on growth (and achieving it) it makes sense that one annual report wouldn't be enough for Adris. Having expanded throughout 2014, as well as purchasing shares in other companies such as Croatia osiguranje along the way, this was reflected in its tiered roundup of 2015, created by advertising agency Bruketa&Žinić OM. Four books made up this annual report – one for Adris and one for each of the three successful businesses it developed (TDR, Maistra and Cromaris). These books were then linked by an insurance plate by Croatia osiguranje, which slots through the different volumes, creatively tying together all of the company's assets. 08. Banques alimentaires Québec Tin can labels unrolled to reveal this foodbank network's annual reportGiving boring data a real world punch, this 2012-2013 report for the foodbank network Banques alimentaires Québec presented its yearly roundup as a tin can – the recognised symbol of a food donation. With a label that unrolled to reveal data printed in powerfully contrasting black and yellow, designer Albertini Romain used artistic creativity to make people aware of the association's message. 09. Seguros Pelayo An innovative take on reporting facts, figures and other corporate information from Madrid-based studio Biografica, this 2012 report for Spanish insurance firm Seguros Pelayo featured everything from cutout figures to an impromptu papercraft football match, all delivered in stop-motion animation. A great example of how a slick delivery can make even the most straightforward information appear more engaging. 10. Austria Solar Jung von Matt created the first ever annual report to be powered by the sunSometimes the client's core business can spark off an innovative idea so perfect it seems it was always meant to be. This was certainly the case with this report by German agency Jung von Matt for solar energy client Austria Solar. Proudly heralded by the team as the first ever annual report powered by the sun, its pages remained blank until you took it outside, where they flooded with type and colour. 11. L-Bank Jung von Matt visualised business data as a series of art installationsAnother example of stunning report design by German agency Jung von Matt, the 2011 L-Bank annual report this time was notable for its compelling art direction rather than its innovative print techniques. Produced for L-Bank, the State Bank of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, the report visualised data as a series of gallery-style installations. Artistically arranged clusters of phones, lamps and other items, combined with stylish photography and minimal copy, told the story. 12. Zumtobel Brighten The Corners did just that with this bold approach to annual report designSet up by Frank Philippin and Billy Kiosoglou, Brighten The Corners maintains studios in both London and Odenwald, near Frankfurt. Its bold, conceptual annual report for Austrian lighting company Zumtobel comes in two volumes: one containing only the simple hard data; the other visualising a conceptual 1998 motion piece by artist Anish Kapoor, bursting with a rainbow of vibrant hues and printed using 10 neon spot colours. 13. Craft Victoria Textured paper stock and translucent section break dividers raise this annual report to another levelBorn and raised in Oslo, Norway and now based in Luzern, Switzerland, Anders Bakken completed his BA in communication design at RMIT, Melbourne. This impressive 2012 annual report design for Australian arts organisation Craft Victoria shows off his love of tactile print materials, including textured paper stock and translucent section break dividers for maximum effect. Related articles: 50 best free fonts for designers 50 brilliant design portfolios to inspire you 18 great parallax scrolling websites View the full article

Layouts, menus, forms, fonts and gestures are all things you need to consider when designing your website. However, you also need to think about how these elements are going to be viewed by visitors to your website using their smartphones and mobile devices. 10 steps to engaging user experienceHere are some key considerations that will help ensure you create the ideal user experience. 01. Include feedback where possible Add support for touch gestures in your mobile designsRollovers, hover states and animations are what bring websites to life. Add support for touch gestures, and subtle movements of iconography to draw the user’s eye. A static webpage won’t be as engaging as something that’s a bit more dynamic. 02. Forget the carousel Every time a carousel changes, the impact of the previous slide is immediately lost. Google data suggests less than 1 per cent of mobile users actually engage with carousels. Don’t hide key content behind a slider – stack it and the user will do the more natural vertical scroll. 03. Build in scope for the future If the approach is to get a release as early as possible, it’s easy to focus on only the most vital features. The problem with this approach is that it could make it impossible for developers to truly build scope. Always try to design for the most complex first. 04. Remember that less is more The mobile experience doesn’t have to be a replication of the desktop experience. Reduce certain features and content to accommodate the user’s device and screen size. For example, a long-winded product configurator to shopping basket journey could be cut down to a simple ‘quick add’ process. 05. Design for the fickle The Yazoo mobile website is bright and bold, with clearly positioned clickthroughsThere’s always a risk of mobile users losing engagement and being distracted by external variables. Ideally, try to make the interface easy to pick up from where they left off. Break big tasks and forms down, and make everything simple. 06. Reuse assets where possible One of the key pillars of user experience best practice is consistency. It is always recommended to keep a consistent library of designed UX assets across all screens, devices and resolutions. With a mobile-first approach to UX, it’s harder to ignore this rule than disregard it. 07. Listen to the best Being the unchallenged leaders of the consumer mobile, both Google and Apple have regularly maintained documentation for UX best practice. This is hands-down the best starting point for any designer. Although guidelines could be seen to stifle creativity, it’s always best to find a happy medium. See Google's Principles of mobile site design and Apple's UI design do’s and don’ts. 08. Focus on real user preferences Nest gives the perfect example of how to scale down animation/function from desktop to mobileIt’s beneficial to use real users to test if a design actually works. You can make design decisions based on fact rather than preference, and reduce the chance of confusion when articulating features to developers. Real user data is also more powerful when being challenged by the subjective taste of a client. 09. Keep text alignment readable Centred text content isn’t always bad. However, it is key to know when not to implement this. When there is lots of content, keep text to the left. If readability is a key goal of the website (it should be!), then centre-align small text blocks only. Full-page article content is almost always best being ‘left to the left’. 10. Remember the gubbins Ensuring any website has an up-to-date SSL certificate, fast loading speeds and a lightweight SVG sprite sheet guarantees a better user experience. Security warnings and unnecessarily large then scaled down imagery will put barriers up, stopping users getting to key content. This article originally appeared in Web Designer issue 263. Buy it here. Related articles: 10 best pieces of user testing software Rapid prototyping using Photoshop CC 3 ways to create website mockups View the full article

The civil trial between pop music phenomenon Taylor Swift and former Denver DJ David Mueller (AKA 'Jackson') made headlines recently as the pair battled it out over groping accusations that may or may not have impacted the DJ's career. However, some people have been drawn to the trial by the quality of the court sketches. Drawn by Jeff Kandyba, the sketches of Swift in particular have been heavily examined and criticised by fans due to their questionable likeness. Given that the music industry is image-obsessed, it's perhaps unsurprising that these sketches have temporarily stolen the focus from the legal proceedings. Swift appears in court with her lawyer and motherSwifties and cynical onlookers were quick to take to Twitter to crack wise about the sketches. Professional writers and columnists took the time to make tiresome jokes that the singer's rival, Katy Perry, had drawn the sketches in an attempt to damage her public image, while others compared the artwork to that of Tom Brady, another court sketch artist whose work has caught public attention recently. Despite the criticism, Kandyba says that plenty of people surrounding the Denver courthouse have been saying kind things about his work. Swift as fans are more used to seeing herSpeaking to the Boston Globe, Kandyba reveals that he prepared for the trial by studying pictures of Swift. There's a problem with this approach, though. “They’re all glamour shots," he reveals. "She’s not like that in the courtroom. She’s not doing a lot of smiling.” These are likely to be the only court sketches we get of SwiftCapturing a person's likeness can be hard enough at the best of times. Add to that a high profile court case and a face that lots of people feel very possessive over, and you get a high standard that's very difficult to live up to. And now that the DJ's lawsuit against Swift has been thrown out, it looks like Kandyba won't get a chance to refine his likeness of the singer. Related articles: 10 sketching tips for beginners 10 tips for sketching moving subjects 10 top tips to improve your sketching skills View the full article

I recently chaired D&AD's Black Pencil judging, where some of the most talented creatives in the world put forward their suggestions for this most coveted creative award. One Black Pencil winner was the Dot Watch – the world's first Braille smartwatch. Conceived in South Korea and developed in Germany by agency Serviceplan, it helps connect millions of blind and visually impaired people to the internet. It's an incredibly insightful and thoughtful proposition for the over 285 million affected people worldwide. This didn't come from a multinational medical corporation. This came from a start-up and a creative agency collaborating. Dot Watch – the world's first Braille smartwatch – won a coveted Black PencilSeparately, I did a talk at the D&AD festival where I spoke about a mobile site that my team recently built to help keep refugees fleeing civil war in Syria safe. We tapped into Google's Translate, Maps and Hangouts products to make a fast-loading site that was easily accessible from the islands where they landed. It's gone on to help over 100,000 people. Creative activism My talk revolved around the idea of 'creative activism' and the thought that we, the creative community, are more powerful than we think we are. It's something I've believed in for a long time, but have only recently had validated first-hand. Designers have natural problem-solving skills that combine with our storytelling and creative capabilities to become an incredibly powerful offering. One that can be used to solve real world problems alongside all the other things we do. At the beginning of my career, I believed that a designer's domain was very much around the world of aesthetic and communications, but I couldn't have been more wrong. When I started to see that many of the injustices and the disadvantaged around me were not being aided or acknowledged through the conventional and expected channels, I did what a designer does. With a healthy dose of naïvety and a pinch of self-proclaimed invincibility, I took it upon myself to try to help out where I could. RefugeeInfo was designed help keep refugees fleeing civil war in Syria safeFrom my early days in Vancouver designing rave flyers to my most recent projects in London helping refugees, I quickly realised that the role of a designer was much more important than the role I had filled at the start of my career. It is not only our role to help shape and – dare I say – define culture, but to also help in the fair and ethical application, and in the democratic running of it. The world needs us No, really, I honestly and genuinely believe this. We as designers are best positioned to tackle some of the world's biggest problems. Not just for awards and glory, but for the good of humanity. Because the world really needs us right now. As designers, our constant dissatisfaction with the status quo, and our never-ending pursuit to make things look and work better, has meant that we've been forced to step outside the traditional realms of our discipline. We've been thrown into the wider world of helping to impact things around the globe. Economically, socially, culturally and even in education, the internet has allowed us to scale up our abilities to flex our creativity. We can make meaningful contributions across some of the most important things that make the world turn. We continue to grow through our love of learning. We innovate by always outstepping our immediate remit and applying our design thinking and approaches to things well outside of what would traditionally be considered design. Because of this, things like the information on our government websites is easier to navigate, displaced people have access to vital content and the blind now have a Braille-based smartwatch. This is the power of design and the importance of our never-ending pursuit for perfection and solutions. We are designers, and we are never satisfied and always looking to improve upon… well, everything. The world needs more people like us – more malcontents with a desire to make things better for everyone. This article originally appeared in Computer Arts issue 267. Buy it here! Related articles: 6 creatives who are changing the world 5 new ways design can change the world 25 names every graphic designer should know View the full article