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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When designing a website layout there are some common mistakes that often pop up, especially with interns and new designers. In this list of steps to the perfect website layout, we cover what every new website builder working within a digital agency should know and do before starting a new project, and what they should pay attention to during the process to avoid making these mistakes. These principles cover not only design aspects but also general workflow tips that will get the job done nicely. Follow them and you'll soon be on your way to creating professional website layouts. 01. Define what success means Talk to your clients to find out what the goals areBefore starting the work you need to know what is it you are designing for. Besides the description of the site, you need to know what the expectations are for it. Take a news site for example, what’s the goal? Is it to make make as many ad impressions as possible or is it to provide the best reading experience? How are those goals going to be measured? Good redesigns are not necessarily the most flashy ones but the ones that improve performance over time. Talking to your clients before starting your design is key to define all of this. You need to learn what their concerns and goals beyond the written SOW (statement of work) are. 02. Put your thoughts on paper first Very early sketches of an illustration series about cities around the world (click the top-right icon to enlarge the image)This seems very obvious but I've found too often that designers jump straight into their work before giving any thought to the problem they are trying to solve. Design is about solving problems, and those problems can't be resolved through gradients or shadows but rather through a good layout and a clear hierarchy. Think about the content, the layout and the functionality before starting to drop shadows. Make sure those thoughts are in line with your client’s goals and feel free to share them. No client ever has complained to me about over-communicating ideas. 03. Start sketching a top-level framework Sketching a basic wireframe will help you structure the layout (click the top-right icon to enlarge the image)When I'm asked to create a look and feel for a project, the first thing I do is to come up with a top-level framework that solves all the design problems. The framework is the UI that surrounds the content and helps the user perform actions and navigate through it. It includes the navigation and components like sidebars and bottom bars. If you approach your design from this perspective, you will have a clear understanding of what your layout needs will be when designing sections beyond the homepage. 04. Add a grid An example of a 978 grid with a 10px baselineIt's as simple as it sounds. Before starting to design anything you need a proper grid. There are no valid excuses for starting without a grid – and if you don't, I can assure you, the design won't look as good. A grid will help you to structure the layout of the different sections; it will guide you through the specific screen size requirements, and help you to create responsive templates, so you're consistent in terms of spacing as well as many other design issues. To find out how to do this, take a look at this guide to creating a grid that adapts to all screen sizes. 05. Choose your typography A general rule of thumb is to use no more than two different typefaces in a website layoutExploring different typefaces and colours is part of the discovery phase of a project. I would recommend not using more than two different typefaces in a website, but it really depends on its nature. Overall, choose a font that is easy to read for big chunks of text, and be more playful with titles and calls to action. Don't be afraid of using big fonts and be creative and consistent when using typography. 06. Select your colour theme Tools like Color Hunt are designed to help you pick a palette During the process of choosing a set of typefaces, you should start exploring what colours you will use in the UI, backgrounds and text. I recommend using a limited set of colours and tones for the general user interface. It's important to apply those consistently across the UI depending on the element's functionality. Think about the layout of sites like Facebook, Twitter, Quora and Vimeo. Besides the UI there shouldn't be any colour restriction for illustrations or graphic details, as long as they don't interfere with the functionality of the components. If you get stuck, take a look at our list of free apps for picking a colour scheme. 07. Divide the layout Simple layouts tend to be easier to navigate The simpler the structure of the site, the easier it is for users to navigate. Each section in your site needs to tell a story; it needs a reason and a final outcome for the user. The layout should help the content to highlight what are the most important pieces in that story. In reality there shouldn't be too many calls to action on a page – everything should drive to that final 'What can I do here?' Think about the most simple layout you can imagine for a simple purpose and start adding components that are necessary. In the end you'll be surprised how hard is to keep it simple. 08. Rethink the established Search buttons are becoming obsoleteDo we really need a search button any more? In most cases the answer is no. As designers we shape the way users browse the internet, it's up to us to decide how many steps a simple action will take and how efficient our site will be. Some conventions are there because they work, but some are there because no one spent enough time evaluating them. It's important to rethink the established interactive patterns of all components to see how we can improve them. 09. Think in motion Motion is essential when designing interactive experiencesMotion is essential when designing interactive experiences. No design can be judged on its own or as a static comp any more; every component is defined by its relationship with the system, and that relationship needs motion to be conveyed properly. Motion can illustrate dynamic effects on content or interactive states within your layout. For that second purpose I recommend taking your designs a bit further into prototyping. 10. Prototype, prototype, prototype Prototyping is the best way to test interactionsPrototyping is the best way to test interactions and technology. There are lots of prototyping tools that make it easy nowadays, and you don’t need to be a coding guru to create effective prototypes. This is yet another way you can get your client excited and on board with concepts and ideas that would otherwise need a lot of explanation. 11. Challenge yourself I encourage every designer out there to challenge themselves on every project. Innovation isn't always a requirement for the project, so it's up to us to come up with something fresh. Examples of different challenges could include using a new grid system, creating a new component, or even minor challenges like avoiding blend modes or using a specific colour. 12. Pay attention to the details Work in progress: detail viewThis statement has been overused lately but it's not always visible in the final product. Depending on the concept behind the project, that 'attention to detail' can mean different things. It could be a small interaction, an unexpected animation or an aesthetic touch like a little gradient in a button or a subtle stroke around a box in the background. But overall this touch is essential – and it will come naturally if you really enjoy what you do. Next page: 11 more steps to the perfect website layout 13. Refine every component Treat each component as if it were for a design contestTreat every component as if it could be presented to a design contest. If you pay attention to every component, the whole will be more than the sum of its parts. I have to admit that this piece of advice is not mine. I heard it in the past at a previous agency and I was shocked by how clear and true this statement was. Each component needs to be designed as it could stand alone as the best component ever. Sometimes designers leave certain parts of a site until last on their to-do list, and end up not showing them much respect. 14. Sharpen your work Set the right contrast between strokes and backgroundTo avoid blurry pixels, try to set the right contrast between strokes and background or background colours. Besides any aesthetic considerations, there are some common things that have to be avoided in order to create a clean and correct piece of work. Some things you should be on the lookout for when trying to sharpen your work include gradients banding, blurry edges, font rendering options (some fonts, depending on their size are best viewed, on a specific render mode), and strokes that merge badly with the background. These are just a few basic examples of issues to look for, but in reality the list is endless. Always look at your design as a whole to see if everything works well and then analyse each component individually more carefully. 15. Tidy up your design files This (along with the use of a grid) is one of the most important pieces of advice, no matter what design tool you are using. Regardless of the size of the project and the number of designers working on it, you need to keep your files clean. This will make it easier to export different sections, to speed up the design process and to work collaboratively with other designers. 16. Design the best case; prepare for the worst Bear in mind how your layout will work on different devices and screen sizesBear in mind how your layout will work across different devices and screen sizes. As designers our job is to solve problems through different constraints. With web design, the constraints range from conceptual and technical problems to content-related issues. We need to build a site that can work not only in the ideal scenario, but also in the worst-case scenario. For instance, a user could be using a really small screen and check the site when there is barely any content on it so it looks broken. However for the purpose of presenting our work I always strongly recommend building the best case scenario for it. Therefore we are going to display the ideal amount of text and we are going to show the site inside the ideal browser size that should be the most common scenario for most users using it. 17. Obsess over the design until you hate it If you are passionate about design I'm sure this is something you are already doing. Whenever I finish a comp I feel proud of, I tend to make that comp a part of my life. I take screenshots of it, check it out it different devices, make wallpapers of it and even print it and hang it on the wall. As a result of this process, I get to a point where I finally end up hating my design. I start seeing everything that's wrong with it and eventually I change it. Disliking your previous work is sign of maturity, and it means that you are finally learning from your own mistakes. 18. Share designs with clients early on When proposing an interactive concept or a design 'look and feel', you need to ensure that you and the client are both on the same page as soon as possible. Avoid spending too much time on a concept before sharing it with the client. Once the initial concept is approved you can relax a little bit and start production. But after presenting the first concept, if the client doesn't fall in love with it, you should gather enough feedback to bring a second more appropriate concept to the table. 19. Be your developer's best friend Developers are creative people and they love their jobs as much as you do. But they are not always included in a project from the very beginning, and often only get involved when the concept is decided and their creative role has been overridden. This process is wrong; some of the best ideas come from the development team, so make sure you team up with them from the very beginning of the project. Sharing your concepts and excitement with them will lead to better ideas and a better execution in the end. 20. Present things as clearly as possible It's just as important to produce great work as it is to present it. Your best design can be ignored or thrown away if you don't present it properly. When it comes to presentations, you want to explain your work like you're showing it to a four-year-old. Always keep in mind that what is totally clear to you might not be that clear to somebody seeing your design for the first time. 21. Don't get too attached to your ideas There is a thin line between knowing when to advocate for your ideas and learning to recognise when your team or client doesn't see them as 'the one'. As a designer you need to firmly believe in what you do, but you should also be open to quickly turning over any of your ideas and coming up with something else. Don't forget that there is more than one solution. 22. Follow your design into development If you work inside an agency you'll probably know how easy it is to find yourself struggling with the design of a new project when the previous one is being developed. Contrary to general belief, your work on a project doesn't end when the PSD and style sheet are delivered. If you really care about your designs and interaction ideas being well executed, check in on your old best friends the developers from time to time, and help them as much as they need to ensure every little pixel is perfect. 23. Show your work in progress Share your style sheets and work in progress components with the communityAs part of a community of designers, we all love to see not just the final results but also the work in progress. Sometimes the best part of a project is left out for several reasons and gets lost in your Archive folder. Once the project is done and you get the approval from the client/producer promote it, and if possible create a case study with the work in progress and designs that didn't make it to the final release. You will be helping by contributing to the community's knowledge and you will get valuable feedback in return. Like this? Read these... 50 brilliant design portfolios to inspire you Best designed 404 error pages 20 websites that use minimalism beautifully View the full article

Does the thought of standing up in front of people and delivering a presentation cause you to break out into a cold sweat? If so don't worry, you're not alone. In fact, 75% of people around the world suffer from a fear of public speaking. To help people overcome stage fright, executive communication coach Malcolm Andrews has put together this useful infographic on how to deliver a world class presentation. As well as covering practical tips to help you approach presentations in a positive way, this infographic also contains some useful statistics to help reassure you that your fear of presentations isn't so irrational after all. Check it out below. Click the arrows icon in the top-right to enlarge the infographicYou can read more about giving presentations on Andrews' website. Related articles: 10 top movie infographics 8 free tools for creating infographics 7 great infographics by graphic design agencies View the full article

Hey Studio is an attitude, not just a particular style of design or illustration. The studio's work transmits positivity that runs like a thread throughout its eye-catching portfolio. Specialising in brand identity, editorial design and illustration, its output is defined by clever use of geometry, together with clean typography and a lively colour palette, summed up by studio founder Verònica Fuerte as 'works that transform ideas into communicative graphics'. Fuerte set up the studio in 2007 after several years spent as a post-graduate working for a variety of design studios in Barcelona. Within a year she was joined by fellow Elisava graduate and Hey Studio partner Ricardo Jorge, and together they built Hey into the multi-disciplinary studio that it is today. Here we bring you this interview with Fuerte, from the archives... Every year, Hey Studio uses a different handmade technique to represent award scheme ArtFad's 'A' as part of its graphic identityComplementing Fuerte's extensive design skills with Jorge's illustrative flair, the pair quickly established a foothold in the Spanish design industry, creating work for Gandules, ArtFad contemporary arts and crafts awards and Monocle magazine. "We were only two for a very long time," says Fuerte. "Initially we only had a few clients – most of them were friends. We worked a lot together to have a big portfolio and develop Hey's style. International clients also came and over time we started to have a lot more projects." Since then the studio has added designer and typographer Mikel Romero, Eva Vesikansa, who joined as a student in 2013, and creative manager Paula Sánchez. Situated in the historical neighbourhood of Barrio Gótico in Barcelona, Hey works out of a shared workspace. "Our location is very inspirational," continues Fuerte. "Before arriving to the studio we pass through theatres, shops, galleries, institutional buildings and so on, and see people and daily scenes that give us ideas for projects." Hey Studio's five-strong design team works out of shared space in Barcelona's Barrio Gótico neighbourhoodThe size of the team, and close-knit working environment, naturally leads to high-energy conversations and brain storming sessions where they can each bounce ideas off each other; producing consistently impressive, bold and colourful designs for clients like Apple, Monocle, Nokia, Microsoft, The Wall Street Journal and more. In 2014, Hey was also chosen as one of the 17 'up-and-coming' artists for Pick Me Up London. When a new brief comes in, the process is always the same. "We research, observe, work things up in a group and then settle on ideas," says Fuerte, who actively encourages a collaborative approach, with little hierarchy. "We are four designers – each of us can resolve an idea in an aesthetically different way. It's good for the client to see a multitude of solutions." Their marked styles mean that the formal process is faster, though this varies for illustration commissions due to the often tight deadlines. "We don't have time to create different solutions in these cases," says Fuerte. "The first idea needs to be a good one." A new graphic frontier Every year, Hey handles the design of the CCCB's open-air cinema season Gandules in Barcelona. Each season there is a different topic, and the team works collaboratively to produce a design or illustration which can be applied to the Gandules progammes. For its 2010 identity, Hey illustrated a new dawn to represent the cinema season theme of 'Action!' and how crisis generates new approaches and possibilities. More recently the theme of 'Away from Home' was chosen for 2014, with the studio creating a series of bold geometric illustrations that depict a flag and the sea, which Fuerte describes as "a frontier between countries and cultures." Hey's 2014 identity for Gandules represents a flag and the sea as a frontier between countries and culturesWhen questioned about what has been Hey's most experimental work to date, Fuerte references the studio's brand identity for the Film Commission Chile; an organisation set up to promote Chile as a movie production destination and assist production teams on choosing destinations. "It was quite ambitious and they got in touch with us directly," Fuerte says. The team grabbed the opportunity to apply its own signature style to the branding project, taking inspiration from duct/gaffer tape. "The tape is omnipresent in the world of movie production. Tapes unite, join, mark, hold, point, remind and help to work," explains Fuerte. Illustrations of the tape resemble the classic movie celluloid film, and as a concept the tape serves to speak about the linking missions of the FCCh. Hey Studio was inspired by duct/gaffer tape during the creation of FCCh's visual identity"The image is drawn up in different directions with variations in the colour palette created to represent the diversity of landscapes we can find in the Chilean territory." Together all elements combine to compose a unique image, with a well-defined personality. Almost all of Hey Studio's client base is international. The studio made an appearance at BCN/MCR in 2013, as one of the most innovative and cutting-edge, Barcelona–based design agencies, alongside Lamosca, Lo Siento, Mayúscula and Mucho, curated by Manchester-based freelance designer Dave Sedgwick as a culture exchange between the two cities. Colour brings clients Following on from numerous speaker engagements, G F Smith together with It's Nice That invited Hey Studio to take part in their 'Colour in Context' event in Edinburgh, alongside photographer Jess Bonman and art director Sarah May. Fuerte took the stage to discuss how Hey uses colour, referencing an early project for the Spanish Laus Design Awards in 2010. "It was a real challenge for us to design something that was for designers – all the eyes would be on the execution." Creating an abstract campaign that reflects the passing of time, the 'L' – standing for Laus – was represented in different colour paper sheets in the shape of a die. It was a launchpad for a collaboration with ArtFad that still endures today. Monocle: Marunouchi - an illustration created as part of Hey's long-standing relationship with MonoclePerhaps one of the studio's most high-profile projects to date has been its work with Monocle magazine, which covers global affairs, business, culture, design and more. Hey's initial commission from the client back in 2010 was to design an illustrated cover on the subject of re-imagining the working day. This was in fact one of the studio's first forays into character design, however it has since led to a lasting working relationship with the London-based publication. "Monocle magazine is known worldwide and the publication has an extensive network of designers and collaborators, so the first time they contacted us was an amazing moment," says Fuerte. Complementing Hey Studio's creative output, self-initiated projects provide further opportunity for creative exploration, described by Fuerte as vital to the studio "in order to explore, innovate, and move forward." When Hey Studio was approached by San Miguel and Athletic Bilbao football club, it provided the ideal platform to play with characterHey's 2013 solo exhibition at London's Kemistry Gallery prompted a further exploration of character design – a cheeky reimagining of ancient Greek gods – each with their own powers, weaknesses and back story. For Hey, it's clear that personal projects are almost as important as its commercial works. "We always try to make our work reach a wide audience and be simple to understand," says Fuerte. "Playing around with this synthesis, you come upon solutions that are quite basic and obvious, and which many people usually like." Hey Instagram Riding the wave of its newfound interest in character design, the studio conceived 'EveryHey' – a project that exploded on Instagram. Illustrating an icon from pop culture and posting it every day, the dedicated account has amassed over 44,000 followers since its inception, becoming the studio's most well-known personal project – not bad for something that simply began as a bit of fun. "Side projects give us the space to push our creative boundaries and develop a passion that is then injected into clients' work." The project also inspired the production of the limited edition Hey Characters: A Book for Friends, which the studio sent out to clients and friends in order to showcase "literary characters, designed the way we like." Three illustrated characters from the studio's popular personal project, EveryHeyFuelled by a need to share its passion for typography, illustration and bold graphics, the studio has now branched out into online retail, on the back of a successful pop-up at OFFF Festival in Barcelona. It's natural to wonder if this entrepreneurial behaviour led to more client work, or if selling work became a goal in itself. Fuerte answers: "Selling work is definitely something we aspire to do. Our shop is truly what Hey is. So the high purchases are synonymous of our success as designers and creators. We are very glad people like what we do." Profitable character design As the studio grows, character design continues to enrich its creative output; from cover illustration for quarterly design publication Process Journal, to a recent Studio DBD and TwentyTwentyTwo gallery collaboration further evidencing the studio's versatility. Hey illustrated a book titled Gol! featuring characters of individual star players from all 32 different teams. In addition to this, Hey also designed two stamps for the June issue of Vanity Fair referencing a few characters from a very famous film. Keep an eye on Hey Studio, one of Barcelona's most inspiring design studiosArguably one of the most innovative Barcelona-based design agencies, Hey Studio is clearly one to watch. Nurturing close relationships with many of its clients on an international level, yet retaining a balance between commercial work and experimental projects, it enjoys a level of freedom many can only dream of. "It doesn't matter if the project is large or small, prestigious or frivolous," concludes Fuerte. "When both sides trust each other you can take things up a level and do something really exciting." The full version of this article first appeared inside issue 241 (June 2015) of Computer Arts. As it was so popular back then, we thought we'd resurface it for 2017. Liked this? Try these... 100 amazing Adobe Illustrator tutorials How to turn your design studio dream into reality 6 famous agency websites and what they can teach us View the full article

Crank handle pasta makers have found a whole new lease of life thanks to imaginative artists. Instead of using them to make delicious dishes, creatives have discovered that pasta makers are prefect miniature printing presses. We stumbled across the technique after artist Leslie Watts Tweeted about her first attempt of using a pasta maker to create a drypoint field mouse. On her blog Watts explains how the drypoint process works. "Instead of working on a traditional metal etching plate, I've scratched a piece of plastic with the tip of a scalpel to create the image," she reveals. "When intaglio ink is spread onto the plate and rubbed away with a piece of tissue paper, the scratches retain the ink." Leslie's drypoint field mouse in all its gloryDrypoint is an intaglio technique, a printmaking technique where an image is produced by etching into a printing plate, traditionally made of copper. When ink is applied and then wiped off the plate, some ink remains caught in the incisions, creating the image when pressed firmly onto paper. Watts turned to her pasta maker because she didn't have a proper printing press of her own. "I've used a pasta maker to roll a damp piece of Stonehenge printmaking paper against the plastic," she adds. "The rollers provide enough pressure to transfer the inked image onto the paper." Sadly she didn't film the process, but a quick search of YouTube revealed that plenty of other artists have turned to pasta makers to help them print pictures. They're even nice enough to explain the process. So if you're bored of just cooking with your pasta maker, check out the videos below to see how you can use it as a printing press. It seems to be the week of weird printing techniques, with Tech Insider posting a popular video of a handheld printer this week as well. Related articles: The beginner's guide to giclee printing 10 inspiring examples of screen printing Get started with screen printing View the full article

Superhero logos are surely a dream brief for any designer: create a badge to be emblazoned large on the chest of a courageous crime-fighter. Dream up a brand to truly strike fear into the heart of villainous wrong-doers. And design a marque to spruce up any secret hideout to make it the envy of fellow superheroes the world over. 25 logo design tips from the expertsUnfortunately, it’s not the kind of brief that comes along too often in real life, so most of us must be content with cladding fictional superheroes from page and screen. But even fictional superheroes can teach us a thing or two about great branding. Read on to discover the art, craft and history behind seven of the most iconic, memorable superhero logos sported by the world’s greatest crime-fighters – and what branding and logo tips you can learn from them... 01. Superman Superman was the first superhero logo to be officially trademarkedThe original superhero, DC Comics’ Superman made his debut comic appearance in 1938, sporting a distinctive ’S’ logo created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. At that point it resembled a simple red-and-yellow police badge, or shield, but after various iterations the creators settled on a large ’S’ inside an inverted pentagon. Its primary red and yellow palette is bright, strong and confident, but the colours can also be seen to represent the character’s backstory: Roa, the sun of Superman’s home planet Krypton, is red; while Earth’s yellow sun gives him his power. The logo’s bold, masculine ‘diamond’ form – especially when emblazoned across a muscular torso – also conveys courage, strength and durability. In 1945 it was the first superhero logo to be officially trademarked, kicking off a lucrative market for merchandising and licensing – notably T-shirts. This trend was later followed by Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Spider-Man and more. Superman: The Movie elaborated the ’S’ into a coat of arms, or family crest - and according to 2013’s Man of Steel, it is not in fact a letter at all, but the Kryptonian symbol for ‘hope’. 02. Captain America Captain America's iconic shield was originally triangularCaptain America may be an enhanced supersoldier, but unlike Superman, he is very much from Earth. And his unconditional love of his country of origin makes the colour palette of his logo, and associated costume, something of a no-brainer. His iconic vibranium shield was originally triangular, but after complaints from rival comic book publisher MLJ about the character’s similarity to its own creation The Shield, it evolved into its current distinctive circular form. The red, white and blue concentric circles that adorn it symbolise infinity, power and energy, while the central star gives the all-American hero a patriotic flourish; a nod to the star-spangled banner, while maintaining its own identity. While his own emblem stands alone, ‘Cap’ also has the honour of leading The Avengers, which – rather like fellow Marvel superhero team the X-Men – also sports its own stylish logo. The idea to blend the ‘A’ with a dynamic arrow symbol originally came from Marvel letterer Gaspar Saladino, and was first seen in 1972. 03. Wonder Woman Prolific designer Milton Glaser turned his hand to Wonder Woman's superhero logoWhen Wonder Woman made her comic book debut in 1941, her associated emblem was an eagle, while her name was only crudely sketched in open script on the cover. It was only in the 1980s, when DC invested heavily in its superhero trio of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, that the Amazonian warrior acquired a distinctive superhero logo of her own. As a fairly generic symbol of the USA, the eagle wasn’t easily trademarked and licensed in the way that Superman and Batman could be. Given that the character hailed from the mythological island of Themyscira, the US associations – so fitting for Captain America – were also rather confusing by comparison. Having also worked on a revised Superman logo, legendary designer Milton Glaser was drafted in by DC to help solve both of these issues, combining the two Ws with a stylised wing motif that celebrates the heroine’s ability to fly, with a subtle nod to the original eagle emblem. 04. Batman Click on the arrows icon in the top-right to see a larger version of the evolution of Batman's logoAs with fellow DC superhero stablemate Superman, Batman’s logo emphasises his muscular physique, the oval form stretched across his chest. But his emblem also has a practical function: as a silhouette on a giant searchlight, the bat signal can summon him from any corner of Gotham. It also features in many of his tools and weapons, such as the Batarang and Batbelt. While the distinctive bat has always been the central focus, the shape and form of Batman’s logo has undergone significant changes over the decades. It has shifted personalities from its comic book origins in the 1940s, through the lycra-clad camp of the 1960s TV series, to Frank Miller’s dark 1980s graphic novels – and latterly a canon of major movies, which have ranged from gritty psychological thrillers to wise-cracking action romps. Ultimately, successful branding is about understanding your target market. Unlike Superman’s powerful and uplifting logo, which inspires awe, hope and pride in the general public, Batman’s symbol is often presented as dark, moody, mysterious and threatening – designed to strike fear into the hearts of criminals. 05. The Punisher This superhero logo has gained real-world notoriety that far transcends the comic book characterWhen it comes to antiheroes, it doesn’t get much darker than Marvel’s The Punisher. His menacing white skull logo, looming out of the darkness, is the last thing his enemies tend to see before being blown to pieces by the violent vigilante. Besides the intimidation factor, The Punisher’s logo also has a practical function: to draw fire away from his vulnerable areas and towards his heavily armoured chest. In terms of his backstory, the skull harks back to the Vietnam war, where the character uses it to taunt his capturers. Comic artist John Romita Sr later developed it into a more prominent symbol. In more recent years, the skull has attracted cult appeal in certain parts of the US Armed Forces, particularly the Navy SEALs and 24th Infantry. It featured on unofficial unit patches and was spray painted onto buildings, vehicles and equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan – gaining real-world notoriety that far transcends the comic book character himself. 06. Spider-Man Like many great logos, Spiderman's logo has evolved over timeOne of Marvel’s most-loved creations, Spider-Man – like Batman – has a superhero logo that’s evolved significantly over the decades, without losing its crucial association with the creature that inspired his name (and in Spider-Man’s case, gave him his powers). When the character first appeared in the Amazing Fantasy comic, his spider badge had a round, cartoony body, echoed by the relatively handmade-looking costume. The size and shape of the symbol has changed dramatically since, developing longer legs and a sleeker, edgier body. Some of these logo evolutions have been storyline-based, such as when Peter Parker bonds with the Symbiote to create the distinctive black version of his suit. This versatility, particularly when it comes to movie adaptations, helps keep the character fresh and relevant. 07. The Green Lantern The Green Lantern logo shows that simple is memorableTechnically, DC’s Green Lantern Corps constitute a whole army of galactic peacekeepers, rather than a single superhero – bound together not just by their ability to weaponise their incredible willpower, but by a shared brand identity and colour scheme. One of the simplest superhero symbols in this list, the Green Lantern logo is not only a stylised version of the lantern itself, but can also be seen as a graphic representation of that all-important willpower quality – the central circle, symbolising the superhero’s ‘power ring’, looks to be forcing two rigid lines apart. The Green Lantern logo is also joined by six other Lantern Corps symbols covering the rest of the colour spectrum, representing Greed, Rage, Fear, Compassion, Love and Hope, as well as black and white to represent Life and Death, respectively. The seven lanterns are violet/love, indigo/compassion, blue/hope, green/willpower, yellow/fear, orange/avarice and red/rageIt’s a complex branding hierarchy that only more committed comic fans will fully appreciate, but the original Green Lantern superhero logo proves that it’s often the simplest forms that are the most memorable. You might like these related articles: 10 commandments of logo design 10 ways to find logo design inspiration Key typographic trends in Marvel movie logos View the full article

Knowing how to code can be an incredibly valuable skill. This is your opportunity to learn how. Take a hands-on crash course in the art of code with the Complete Web Developer Course, on sale now for just $14.99 (approx £11)! When you understand how to work with coding languages, you can create just about anything. It’s time to expand your opportunities and improve your resume with the Complete Web Development Course. Work your way through the fundamentals of web development by building 14 websites from scratch. You'll learn how to make the most of programming languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript and jQuery along the way. The Complete Web Developer Course usually retails for $199, but you can save 92% off that price right now. That means you pay just $14.99 (approx £11) for a course that could launch your next career, so grab it today! View the full article

However experienced and knowledgeable you get, you never stop learning – and great tutorials can teach you how to take advantage of new technologies, features, tools and techniques. You don’t want to end up missing out on a new trick that could save you time and energy, and help improve your design work. Here we round up the best graphic design tutorials to hit the web this year so far. We've split the list up into Illustrator tutorials, Photoshop tutorials, InDesign tutorials and tutorials for other software, to help you find what you're looking for. Enjoy! First up, it's the Illustrator tutorials. Despite the increasing rivalry from apps like Affinity Designer and Sketch, Adobe Illustrator continues to be the standard tool of choice for graphic designers and studios everywhere. Here are six of the best Illustrator tutorials we’ve spotted this year so far. 01. How to create a geometric pattern Learn to create a geometric pattern with this step-by-step guideIn this concise but incisive tutorial, Chris Spooner of Spoon Graphics demonstrates how to create a vector geometric pattern. You can either follow his step-by-step guide to create the same pattern, or remix the artwork to create your own. 02. Master dynamic gradients This 16-step tutorial demonstrates how simple shapes can be combined to create something magicalSoft gradients are a great way to build depth and beauty into your vector graphics. In this 16-step tutorial, Russian artist Alexandra Zutto walks you through the creation of a stunning owl image, which she creates through a slow and careful process of layering and building up small segments. 03. How to optimise and export SVGs Ensure your images work well on the web by following this SVG tutorialIn today’s multimedia world, when you create an SVG image in Illustrator, even if it’s intended for print, it’s important to make sure that it’s optimised for use on the web as well. In this Illustrator tutorial, Ivaylo Gerchev explains how to build fundamental SVG optimisation concepts into your creation process. 04. How to create digital particle waves Use Illustrator’s Blend tool to create this stunning effectAdobe Illustrator is commonly used to create abstract wave graphics, but here Chris Spooner explains how to use the Blend tool to create sci-fi-inspired digital particle waves. He uses Illustrator for the initial effect, then shows you how to move your pattern to Photoshop to add some extra colour enhancements. 05. How to design graphic figures Learn the fundamentals of designing graphic figures from expert Ben O’BrienIn this 10-step tutorial, illustrator Ben O’Brien walks you through the process of designing graphic figures that can fit into a scene effortlessly, paying close attention to body language, physical proportions and positioning different parts of the body. 06. How to create an editable retro text style Create editable yet attractive text using Illustrator’s Appearance panelHere Chris Spooner shows you how to use fills and strokes within Illustrator’s Appearance panel to create permanently set graphic text that is editable. The result is a set of trendy, retro-style letters with a faux 3D appearance. Next page: Great new Photoshop tutorials Adobe’s Photoshop has become so ubiquitous that in recent years it’s become a verb as well as a noun, and is now synonymous in the public consciousness with any form of image editing. It’s still the go-to software for design professionals, so here are six of the latest and greatest Photoshop tutorials to hit the web. 07. How to make quick selections Luke O’Neill explains three ways to make selections in PhotoshopA lot of the day-to-day work of a design studio focuses around cut-outs and masks, so it’s a skill that every designer must master. In this tutorial, Luke O’Neill outlines three basic techniques for creating selections, and also investigates the layer mask options and how you can use them to create cool effects. 08. How to make an animated GIF Monika Zagrobelna walks you through the creation of a GIFCreating an animated GIF in Photoshop is surprisingly straightforward. In this beginner-level Photoshop tutorial, Monika Zagrobelna teaches you everything you need to know, as she walks you through the creation of a GIF based on a wolf with glowing eyes. 09. How to create a repeating pattern Learn to construct a repeating pattern in PhotoshopThis tutorial by Christopher Phin explains how to create a single 'tile' in Photoshop and then use it to build up a repeating pattern, which can use to fill as big or as small an area as you like. He uses the example of a black and yellow 'warning' pattern to demonstrate the technique. 10. How to create a quick and easy duotone text effect Create a duotone text effect in this short, step-based tutorialDuotone text is one of the big design trends of the moment. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use a texture image, a gradient map, some adjustment layers and filters to create a duotone text effect in five short steps. 11. How to create an endless picture within a picture illusion Capture people’s attention by learning this eye-catching techniqueThe ‘picture within a picture’ concept is an optical illusion that can’t help but catch the viewer’s eye. This tutorial by Melody Nieves explains how to use simple photo manipulation techniques to create the effect. 12. How to create a vintage film title text effect Using Photoshop’s 3D capabilities to create a cool text effectThis tutorial by Chris Spooner demonstrates how to use the film title styles of old black-and-white movies from the 30s and 40s to inspire your retro text designs. It makes use of the 3D feature in Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop CC to provide sophisticated lighting and shading to the letterforms. Next page: Great tutorials for InDesign, Affinity Designer, After Effects and other software InDesign tutorials Among Adobe’s tools, Photoshop and Illustrator get most of the glory, but the old desktop publishing warhorse that is InDesign remains key to a lot of design tasks. Here are four great InDesign tutorials that have surfaced in 2017 so far. 13. How to design a book cover with InDesign Laura Hawk explains how to create a book cover in this 11-step tutorialHere, Laura Hawk explains 11 steps you need to follow to ensure a perfect book cover in Adobe InDesign. This comprehensive tutorial covers everything from setting up your template, setting up the bleed and arranging the cover panels to adding the barcode and flowing in the copy. 14. Create mixed inks with InDesign Expand your ink options with this tutorial from Jo GulliverIn this tutorial Jo Gulliver, senior art editor on our sister magazines, explains how to create ink swatches and groups in Adobe InDesign. This will enable you to create the maximum number of colours with a limited number of inks, without increasing the separations used for printing. 15. How to design a typographical poster using InDesign Learn to create a type-based poster with this InDesign tutorialWant to design an impactful event poster in InDesign? Then follow this tutorial from Jo Gulliver, which walks you through the process of creating a typographical poster, showing you how to apply a document grid, and how to create and edit typography. 16. Create special print finishes in InDesign If you really want to transform your print project, you need to investigate special print finishes. In this guide, Jo Gulliver explains the processes she uses when creating artwork in InDesign for special finishes such as varnishes, foil blocking, embossing and die cutting. 17. How to add video to interactive PDFs in InDesign Yes, you can add videos to PDFs; here’s howEveryone knows about PDFs, but you may not be aware how far the format has advanced in recent years. It’s now possible to embed videos in PDFs, and this tutorial by Pariah Burke explains exactly how to go about it. Tutorials for other software Here are three other top tutorials that don’t involve Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign but nonetheless offer a great grounding in their respective subjects. We hope you find them as rewarding as we did. 18. How to create a retro logo with Affinity Designer Learn how to make a logo using this popular Illustrator alternativeSubscription-free and with some powerful capabilities, Affinity Designer is an increasingly popular alternative to Adobe Illustrator. In this Affinity tutorial, Simon Middleweek explains how to use its gradients and layer effects to create an 80s-style logotype. 19. How to create your own font Discover how to design a font, from start to finishIn this intermediate level tutorial, Yulia Sokolova explains the process of creating her first font, Bananito, from start to finish. This covers everything from drawing the initial design, transferring the drawing to the computer, and turning it into a font using software such as FontLab or Glyphs. 20. Mock up AR graphics with After Effects Create AR-style graphics in AE by following this tutorialAs a graphic designer, creating augmented reality (AR) experiences may be a little outside your technical competence. But you may well be asked to, for example, design a pitch video to show what an app with AR capabilities could look like. After Effects has some powerful tools to help you create these kinds of graphics, and in this tutorial, Laura Hawk explains how to use them. View the full article

You're reading How to Move a WordPress Website from HTTP to HTTPS/SSL, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Google announced that it has started using HTTPS as a ranking signal. And that has implications for your site and whether it uses an HTTP or HTTPS protocol. For now, it’s only a very lightweight signal affecting fewer than 1 percent of global search queries, and carrying less weight than other signals (such as high-quality […] View the full article

http://www.zdnet.com/article/researcher-who-stopped-wannacry-outbreak-arrested-in-us/ … View the full article

Cisco fixed two high severity vulnerabilities in two products this week that could have let an attacker trigger a denial of service condition or bypass local authentication. View the full article

Google is doing some incredibly creative things with artificial intelligence at the moment. We've already drawn your attention to AutoDraw, its online app that can turn your doodle art into crisp images. And there's Quick, Draw!, a high-speed Pictionary-style game that not only tries to guess what you're drawing, but also uses your scribbles to improve the effectiveness of AutoDraw. Do a bad drawing or just a random doodle...Now someone's used Google's technology to create a delightful piece of online doodling fun. Inspired by his two-year-old daughter's love of drawing – which she calls "no-ni no-ni", Google UX engineer Jongmin Kim has made NONI NONI, a website that turns your doodles into 3D structures made up of colourful balls. ...and NONI NONI guesses what it is and makes a 3D imageSimply scrawl a shape or a letter, and NONI NONI uses Google's machine learning tools to guess what it is, and then takes illustrations from AutoDraw, and also from artist Sanghee Cho, that it then turns into colourful 3D visualisations. It makes multiple suggestions, so you can choose your favourites. You can spin around and zoom in and out of the finished results either using the mouse wheel or two fingers on a touchscreen. You can then clear the image and start again either by holding down your mouse button for a couple of seconds, or by shaking your device, Etch a Sketch-style. It can even do letters, tooIt's perfect for kids (and we've had quite a bit of fun with it as well), and it's all done in HTML5 with SVG, WebGL and the Canvas element. You should definitely take a look at the site's About page, too, as it features a lovely psychedelic animated backdrop that we could watch for ages. Related articles: Amazing AI turns doodles into fine art The 40 best Google Doodle designs Doodle art: 52 great examples View the full article