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Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/J32twDhakC4/books-graphic-designers-11135231

There are hundreds of fantastic graphic design books out there, offering words of wisdom, design inspiration, and refreshers on key principles and techniques. Whether you're looking to swot up on design theory or recharge your creative batteries, we've curated the best titles here, in this essential reading list.

And with Amazon Prime Day launching on the 16th and 17th July, it should be possible to find some bargains on select books, too. Our price comparison tool will show you all the best Prime Day deals on our favourite books in the guide below – or you can peruse more deals directly on Amazon:

See more Amazon Prime Day deals: US | UK | Australia | India

You'll find plenty of classic titles in this list from the great names of graphic design, but there are also plenty of books you might be less familiar with. Whether you'd like to know more about logos, go further with type, or get to know more about your favourite graphic designers, this list of great books for graphic designers has something for you.

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Logo and branding books

Taschen produces some truly spectacular books, and Logo Modernism is no different. Bringing together approximately 6000 trademarks, registered between 1940-80, Jens Müller examines the distillation of modernism in graphic design and how these attitudes and imperatives gave birth to corporate identity.

Müller includes a variety of logos, organised into three chapters – geometric, effect and typographic – in order to both educate you as well as provide a comprehensive index of inspirational logo designs to inform your own work.

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Leading graphic designer Michael Johnson demystifies the branding process in his latest book, Branding: In Five and a Half Steps. Dividing the process into five key steps – investigation, strategy and narrative, design, implementation and engagement – Johnson also acknowledges the non-linear nature of branding with a crucial half step, which marks the fluid relationship between strategy and design.

A no-nonsense, six-question model structures the first half of the book; the second analyses the design process, using over 1,000 contemporary brand identities from around the world.

This is the ultimate step-by-step visual guide to creating a successful brand identity. It’s an essential read for anyone in the branding industry, and a particularly valuable resource for students and new designers.

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Typography books

First published in 1992, this history and guide to typography from Canadian typographer, poet and translator Robert Bringhurst has quickly become a major typographic resource. Leading typographers Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones call it "the finest book ever written about typography" – and it isn’t difficult to see why.

The Elements of Typographic Style is a beautifully written manual combining practical, theoretical and historical information, while also sharing a deeper philosophy and understanding of the topic. If you’re looking for a book covering the finer points of type and typography, you’ll save a lot of money by starting with this one.

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Graphic designers are trained to look at typefaces, but Simon Garfield's book Just My Type will encourage you to look even closer, taking in the rich history of fonts, as well as looking at their powers. 

A well-chosen font communicates to the reader on an almost subliminal level and it can make (or break) a design.

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How to be a graphic designer

Sound advice from Adrian Shaughnessy on gaining employment, setting up as a freelancer, forming a company, dealing with clients, pitching and loads more fills this book.

As graphic design books go, How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul is insightful, intelligent, accessible and simply full of great advice, with the author calling on such luminaries as Neville Brody, Natalie Hunter, John Warwicker and Andy Cruz to help pull together his ideas.

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Veteran designer and Pentagram New York partner Michael Bierut released this inspiring, highly readable monograph, manual and manifesto in 2015. Featuring 35 projects, Bierut – who’s a protégé of design legend Massimo Vignelli – illustrates the varied role that graphic design plays in the modern world.

Rough sketches and rejected ideas sit alongside finished work. How To (full title How to Use Graphic Design to Sell Things, Explain Things, Make Things Look Better, Make People Laugh, Make People Cry, and (Every Once in a While) Change the World) is packed with insights into the creative process, making it a valuable resource to new and established designers alike.

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Inspired by the many questions that David Airey – author of Logo Design Love – receives on a daily basis, Work for Money, Design for Love is a refreshing, straightforward guide that tackles the essentials of starting your own design business.

Touching on everything from the mindset needed to be a designer and how to take that first step into being your own boss, to business basics, this is a must-have read for anyone thinking about going it alone.

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Alan Fletcher, the legendary co-founder of Pentagram, penned various thought-provoking tomes during his illustrious graphic design career, but The Art of Looking Sideways is perhaps the best known – questioning the way designers think about everything from colour to composition.

Once you've digested his seminal text, give Picturing and Poeting a go, exploring the link between imagery and meaning through a series of visual mind-teasers, games and visual puns, assembled from his personal notebooks and diaries. Another great work by Fletcher, Beware Wet Paint, is a more conventional monograph, looking back over 35 years of inspiring work and putting it all in the context of Fletcher's remarkable thought process.

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Heralded by many as one of the fathers of modern branding, Paul Rand has several inspiring books to his name. Design, Form and Chaos is unfortunately out of print, but if you can track down a copy it's worth it to immerse yourself in his talent for simplicity, and to explore the thinking behind some of his best-known identities.

A Designer's Art, meanwhile, probes more deeply into the process of graphic design in general: why it's important; the impact it can have on society; what works, what doesn't, and most importantly, why.

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Written by Tibor Kalman and edited by Peter Hall and Michael Bierut, Perverse Optimist is another notoriously hard-to-obtain volume which, like Rand’s Design, Form and Chaos, is sadly out of print. But second-hand copies do appear…

Dedicated to the visionary editor-in-chief of Colors magazine and creative director of Interview, Perverse Optimist is a weighty tome by any standards, and packed with high-impact images and insightful analysis of the art direction process behind them.

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Another insightful resource from designer and industry commentator Adrian Shaughnessy, Graphic Design: A User's Manual brings you everything you need to know to survive and prosper in the complex, ever-shifting world of graphic design.

Organised from A-Z, topics include annual reports, budgeting, kerning, presenting, dealing with rejection and more. This is an entertaining and invaluable resource that’s packed with pro advice on all the things you won’t have been taught at design school.

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In his follow-up to New York Times best-seller, Steal Like An Artist (another must-read), author and writer Austin Kleon reveals what can be the most challenging part of your career as a designer – how to get your work seen. 

In Show Your Work! 10 ways to share your creativity and get discovered, Kleon is full of helpful hints and tips on how to become findable, how to appeal to the community and use the network to sell your work. If nothing else, it's a useful little pocket guide to remind you to be open, generous, brave and productive.

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Don’t judge The Little Know-It-All: Common Sense for Designers by its cover or size – it’s possibly the most useful book you’ll own as a designer. Everything from light, colour and perspective to law and marketing are covered in succinct, beautifully carved chapters.

It’s the kind of book that you never stop reading once you start; the kind you’ll always refer back to, making it a winner on pretty much every level.

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Design theory and history  

Grid Systems in Graphic Design remains the definitive word on using grid systems in graphic design. Written by legendary Swiss graphic designer Josef Mülller-Brockmann, this visual communication manual for graphic designers, typographers and 3D designers is packed with examples on how to work correctly at a conceptual level. 

It’s a must-read resource for any student or practising designer – regardless of whether you prefer the David Carson approach.

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Conceived as a handbook and teaching aid for artists, instructors and students, Interaction of Color is an influential book that presents Josef Albers's singular explanation of complex colour theory principles.

It’s been over 50 years since this tome was first published, but it remains an essential resource on colour, demonstrating principles such as colour relativity, intensity and temperature; vibrating and vanishing boundaries; and the illusion of transparency and reversed grounds.

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You'll find this book on the must-read list on every self-respecting graphic design course, and with good reason. Neville Brody may have been president of D&AD and head of Research Studios' global studio network, but it was arguably his 1980s heyday that had the biggest impact on contemporary graphic design.

First published in 1988, The graphic language of Neville Brody explores the thought process behind some of his best-known work, including his genre-defining art direction of The Face magazine.

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Like Brody, Peter Saville famously built his reputation in the 1980s with iconic album artwork for Factory Records-signed bands such as Joy Division and New Order – but this 2003 publication was the first to chronicle his career.

Starting in 1978, Designed by Peter Saville inevitably covers the Factory era in detail but also explores Saville's design and art direction for the fashion and advertising industries, taking in brands such as Dior, Stella McCartney and London's Whitechapel gallery.

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If Brody and Saville defined the 1980s, Carson conquered the 1990s with his unconventional approach to page design, using distorted type and fragmented imagery that played with notions of legibility – particularly during his tenure as art director of Ray Gun.

He went on to work with a stellar client list that includes Pepsi, Nike, Armani, Levi's, Sony and MTV. While the approach outlined in The End of Print: The Grafik Design of David Carson is very much of its time, the insight that the book provides into the iconic surfer/designer's process is unrivalled.

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Visual communication rests on the power of semiotics, a concept that David Crow examines in expert detail within this seminal text. 

Dealing with the principles of written communication and its relationship to imagery, and rounded off with an examination of audience understanding, Left to Right is a valuable assessment of academic yet essential design theory.

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Designer monographs

Paul Sahre is one of the most influential graphic designers of his generation and has operated his own design consultancy since 1997. Working out of his office in New York City, his clients have included The New York Times, Google and Marvel Comics and he lectures about graphic design all over the world.

His book, Two-Dimensional Man, is part monograph, part autobiography, part art book and part reflection on creativity. Combining personal essays discussing the realities of living creativity during his 30-year career, he proves that throughout highs and lows, humour can be a saving grace.

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Austria-born, New York-based designer Stefan Sagmeister has hit the headlines a couple of times in the few years with his nude promotional shenanigans, but his two monographs, published in 2008 and 2009, are all about his creative approach and output.

Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far revolves around 21 thought-provoking phrases, transformed into typographic works for various clients around the world and has been since updated. His second text, Made You Look, is fully illustrated with a red PVC slipcase and spans 20 years of his graphic design in depth. The two complement each other excellently.

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An iconic studio for the modern age, Non-Format is a fruitful transatlantic collaboration between Oslo-based Kjell Ekhorn and US-based Brit Jon Forss.

Their 2007 monograph, Love Song, is packed with awe-inspiring imagery and insight into the duo's creative process over five years between 1999 and 2003, from advertising work for Coke and Nike to stunning art direction for The Wire magazine.

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Unsurprisingly, given its status as arguably the world's most famous design agency, Pentagram has attracted its fair share of monographs over the decades: seven so far and still counting. 

Marks simply reproduces four hundred of the hugely diverse identities that the agency has created since 1972. An incredible cross-section of design history.

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It was a long time coming, but this definitive 528-page monograph of the iconic Parisian duo Michaël Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak, aka M/M (Paris), was worth the wait.

Chronicling two decades of stunning work spanning the worlds of music, fashion and fine art, M to M of M/M (Paris) is presented as a reshuffled alphabetical dictionary, starting and ending with M. The studio's highly distinctive, unique approach to type, print design, drawing and photography shines throughout.

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Ideas and inspiration

The Graphic Design Idea Book: Inspiration from 50 Masters covers all the key elements of great design, featuring seminal works from acclaimed designers such as Paul Brand, Neville Brody and Stefan Sagmeister. It's sure to spark inspiration and keep those creative juices flowing.

Honing in on those professional techniques, authors Steven Hiller and Gail Anderson refresh your knowledge on colour, narrative, illusion, humour, simplicity, ornaments and more.

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First up, Illustration Play has one of the most beautiful, special and intriguing covers you’ll see, each one being individually stickered by hand. 

This is to echo the explorative approach taken by all of the illustrators featured in the book – looking at new ideas and ways to realise concepts within contemporary illustration. A lovely object.

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Exploring the omnipresent power of graphic design and illustration in today’s society, Graphics Alive 2 (the first book also being great) is not only beautifully designed in itself, but also packed full of highly inspirational T-shirt graphics, shoes, signs, wallpaper and other everyday objects and ephemera that top designers have lent their eye to. An intense, head-hurting experience.

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Picking the right colour palette for your design work is always a difficult decision. While some favour the more understated, others opt for the bold and bright. Palette No 4: Neon, New Fluorescent Graphics is a beautiful 296-page book (again by Victionary) showcasing the applications of fluorescent colours in the design world, examining where they work best.

Including branding, interior design, and fashion, a total of 110 loud and colourful projects by designers across the globe are featured.

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London's Underground system is over 150 years old, and this book by David Lawrence tells you all you need to know about the famous London Transport logo design.

A Logo for London celebrates the instantly recognisable bar and circle, also known as the bullseye. With 250 colour illustrations, this charming and informative tome charts the history and development of the symbol from the early 20th century to the present day.

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What is the Joker's favourite question for Batman? Are there more deaths by human or by zombie in The Walking Dead? Those are just some of the questions answered in this book via an array of inspirational infographics. 

Even if you're not a comic book fan, the variety of infographic styles on offer in Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Comic Book Universe by Tim Leong will bring you tons of inspiration.

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Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Designrfix/~3/R12VbSw7AsM/ultimate-front-end-development-bundle

So you want to become a web developer? Well, you made the right choice. As we progress towards a more tech-filled future, the demand for web developers is increasing. Companies are upping the salary to ensure that they hire the best talent out there. The good news is that you don’t need a degree to […]

The post 96% Off: Get The Ultimate Front End Development Bundle for $39 appeared first on designrfix.com.

Original Source: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/50-most-beautiful-blogger-templates/

An updated list of beautiful yet advanced Blogger (Blogspot) templates free to download.

The post 50 Most Beautiful Blogger Templates to Download (2018) appeared first on Hongkiat.

Visit hongkiat.com for full content.

Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/building-ethereum-dapps-whitelisting-testing-story-dao/

In part 3 of this tutorial series on building DApps with Ethereum, we built and deployed our token to the Ethereum testnet Rinkeby. In this part, we’ll start writing the Story DAO code.

We’ll use the conditions laid out in the intro post to guide us.

Contract Outline

Let’s create a new contract, StoryDao.sol, with this skeleton:

pragma solidity ^0.4.24;

import “../node_modules/openzeppelin-solidity/contracts/math/SafeMath.sol”;
import “../node_modules/openzeppelin-solidity/contracts/ownership/Ownable.sol”;

contract StoryDao is Ownable {
using SafeMath for uint256;

mapping(address => bool) whitelist;
uint256 public whitelistedNumber = 0;
mapping(address => bool) blacklist;
event Whitelisted(address addr, bool status);
event Blacklisted(address addr, bool status);

uint256 public daofee = 100; // hundredths of a percent, i.e. 100 is 1%
uint256 public whitelistfee = 10000000000000000; // in Wei, this is 0.01 ether

event SubmissionCommissionChanged(uint256 newFee);
event WhitelistFeeChanged(uint256 newFee);

uint256 public durationDays = 21; // duration of story’s chapter in days
uint256 public durationSubmissions = 1000; // duration of story’s chapter in entries

function changedaofee(uint256 _fee) onlyOwner external {
require(_fee < daofee, “New fee must be lower than old fee.”);
daofee = _fee;
emit SubmissionCommissionChanged(_fee);
}

function changewhitelistfee(uint256 _fee) onlyOwner external {
require(_fee < whitelistfee, “New fee must be lower than old fee.”);
whitelistfee = _fee;
emit WhitelistFeeChanged(_fee);
}

function lowerSubmissionFee(uint256 _fee) onlyOwner external {
require(_fee < submissionZeroFee, “New fee must be lower than old fee.”);
submissionZeroFee = _fee;
emit SubmissionFeeChanged(_fee);
}

function changeDurationDays(uint256 _days) onlyOwner external {
require(_days >= 1);
durationDays = _days;
}

function changeDurationSubmissions(uint256 _subs) onlyOwner external {
require(_subs > 99);
durationSubmissions = _subs;
}
}

We’re importing SafeMath to have safe calculations again, but this time we’re also using Zeppelin’s Ownable contract, which lets someone “own” the story and execute certain admin-only functions. Simply saying that our StoryDao is Ownable is enough; feel free to inspect the contract to see how it works.

We also use the onlyOwner modifier from this contract. Function modifiers are basically extensions, plugins for functions. The onlyOwner modifier looks like this:

modifier onlyOwner() {
require(msg.sender == owner);
_;
}

When onlyOwner is added to a function, then that function’s body is pasted into the part where the _; part is, and everything before it executes first. So by using this modifier, the function automatically checks if the message sender is also the owner of the contract and then continues as usual if so. If not, it crashes.

By using the onlyOwner modifier on the functions that change the fees and other parameters of our story DAO, we make sure that only the admin can do these changes.

The post Building Ethereum DApps: Whitelisting & Testing a Story DAO appeared first on SitePoint.

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/I8ejKl528Dk/will-brexit-wreck-the-vfx-industry

Having sat in screening rooms at ILM and Digital Domain for well over 18 years, I've heard my share of comments from big-name film directors regarding their review of shots for their films.

What will Brexit mean for the British VFX and CG industry?

The comment we were always hoping to hear was 'Final'. When the director said that magic word, a thunderous cheer was often heard from the men and women that had toiled for countless hours over that five or so seconds of film. But, when the team felt that the shot should be 'Finaled' and the director said 'CBB' (Could Be Better), we knew we were in for the long haul, because oftentimes the director had no idea what he or she was actually looking for.

Brexit could have some very serious consequences and implications for the visual effects industry, both in the UK and the rest of the world. But before we look at some of the issues regarding Brexit and the VFX industry, let's get a clear picture of the business of VFX.

What drives the industry

Let's be clear, Hollywood studios are looking for the best visual effects that will be delivered on time for the lowest price. A major blockbuster movie must be released on time. There's countless hours of planning and strategy by dozens of marketing execs, having reviewed all other studios' movies and their release dates to determine their film's date and overall marketing plan.

And generally speaking, they are pretty spot on with their date (except of course Titanic, which missed its July release and was finally released mid-December, catapulting its box office to dizzying heights, but that's another story). So, delivery is critical, and that is why generally speaking, the VFX studios that are of significant size and have a history of hitting outrageous schedules, get the work.

Of course, the studios want the very best quality, except when that quality costs too much. For example, when I was at the helm of ILM, I had a rather heated conversation with the president of Columbia Pictures regarding Air Force One. Arguing my case that the VFX looked horrible, the Columbia Exec asked me what ILM would have charged to do the VFX, and I gave him a number. He laughed and said, "Your price is $1.5 million higher than what we paid, are you telling me that we would have seen considerably more box office if the VFX were better?" He had a point.

Where Disney decides to spends its money has a huge impact on the industry

So, quality is important… but price is much more important. I learned my lesson. That's why I was sure that like most manufacturing, the manufacturing of VFX would move off shore to lower-cost environments, where wages were considerably less. I'd seen it happen in animation only a decade or two before. Animation was generally produced in the US by studios like Hanna-Barbera and Disney. But as prices rose due to increased labour costs, much of the animation moved to Korea and the Far East. I assumed, incorrectly so, that much of the VFX work would wind up in China and India.

But then came tax subsidies and rebates from English-speaking countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. And while the labour costs were higher than, say, India, the rebates, the ease of communication and the careful strategic coming together of the likes of Sohonet, gave the US studios everything that they wanted… a great price due to government sponsorship, English-speaking contractors and high-quality VFX due to the enormous influx of talent from around the world. London (and Vancouver) became the nexus for VFX. 

Brexit: the pluses

Which currency will prevail post-Brexit?

Never forget, it's show business and as such, the studios and producers are always driven by price. There are two advantages that I see regarding VFX and Brexit. The pound to dollar pricing becomes quite attractive to US studios as the pound falls.

While I'm no economist, there have been several folks who have predicted that the pound will continue to fall against the dollar. The other opportunity is that the UK will no longer be bound by the rules of the EU, and as such, might make the subsidies and tax rebates even more attractive.

Brexit: the minuses

While the studios are driven by price, they are even more concerned about delivery. They are scared to death that they will miss their release date. Having done some research, the VFX workforce in London is approaching 50 per cent that are non-UK citizens, and 40 per cent of the current workforce are comprised of EU nationals.

While Brexit is not yet fully defined, it seems that it will force EU nationals to obtain the necessary work permits, which might prove very difficult, or not depending on the process – the proposed system announced recently suggests this process should be fairly straightforward. If it isn't, the result could be that London VFX studios would lose close to 50 per cent of its trained workforce. That could be disastrous. 

With a diminished talent base, London will not be able to handle the big shows, and as such will bring great concern to the studios regarding the London facilities' ability to deliver the work on time.

The possible

Will EU workers be able to stay once the UK has Brexit-ed?

If the London-based VFX studios' management is able to petition the UK government to allow their EU employees to remain in the UK, or if the proposed process for EU residents to seek settled status is put in place, then all will be well. However, if that doesn't happen, well, the proverbial will hit the fan.

The US studios will look for alternative ways to address their VFX needs. One possibility is that the London-based facilities open VFX operations in other countries, like France or Germany. We've seen that this is already happening. Unfortunately, opening up a new facility will take a great deal of cash, which, given the current margins in the VFX industry, means the parent company will take yet another financial hit.

Additionally, all the EU employees presently working at the London facilities will have to, once again, uproot their lives and move (which will also cost the London-based facilities more money). So, as you can see, this is not a pretty picture for the facilities or the workers.

There have been talks about setting up hub/spoke-based operations. That is, the hub remains in London but various tasks such as rigging, match moves, modelling and compositing take place in distant locations. While seemingly attractive, this idea creates a bunch of issues. Security, proximity, governmental tax issues and subsidies now become a problem not only for the facility, but for the client too.

Remembering my time back in various VFX screening rooms, I kept my fingers crossed every time my teams would screen their shots for the director, hoping for that magic word… Final. 

Unfortunately, Brexit looks like a CBB at best, or maybe even a famous Jim Cameron statement when viewing a shot that he didn't think was up to snuff, an 'NFG' (No Fucking Good).

This article was originally published in issue 235 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 235 here or subscribe to 3D World here.

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