Exploring Hong Kong through Neon H-ART Series

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abduzeedo/~3/-qPnAU-TPiM/exploring-hong-kong-through-neon-h-art-series

Exploring Hong Kong through Neon H-ART Series

Exploring Hong Kong through Neon H-ART Series

AoiroStudio
Aug 07, 2018

19 Tones is a visual artist, content creator and photographer based in Moscow, Russian Federation. He has created an incredible series entitled: H-ART series, what I love about it? Well even though it’s mentioning Neon, he is more focusing on the contrast instead of saturating the hues for a change (what we have been seeing a lot lately!). Well, it worked pretty well, I feel like it’s photography at its purest. Check it out!

More Links
Personal site
Behance
Exploring Hong Kong through Neon H-ART SeriesExploring Hong Kong through Neon H-ART SeriesExploring Hong Kong through Neon H-ART SeriesExploring Hong Kong through Neon H-ART SeriesExploring Hong Kong through Neon H-ART SeriesExploring Hong Kong through Neon H-ART SeriesExploring Hong Kong through Neon H-ART SeriesExploring Hong Kong through Neon H-ART SeriesExploring Hong Kong through Neon H-ART SeriesExploring Hong Kong through Neon H-ART SeriesExploring Hong Kong through Neon H-ART Series

hong kong
photography
neon


Digital display captures art like never before

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/pv_lcx7Djjs/digital-display-captures-art-like-never-before

For a lot of people, owning a piece of art is an ambition that's always going to be out of reach. Not only is a lot of original artwork itself beyond most people's budgets, but even the cost of sourcing and framing high-quality prints can be unfeasible. Factor in the possibility that lives and tastes change – rendering investing in expensive artwork or prints a risk not wholly unlike adorning your body in tattoo art – and it's clear to see there's a problem that needs solving.

Art techniques: top tutorials for painting and drawing

Enter Canvia, a recently launched Kickstarter project that aims to bring art to the masses. Canvia is a smart digital display that wants to make the process of choosing, displaying and enjoying art easier than before.

Canvia frame displaying a pastoral scene

Canvia makes it easier and more accessible to display art

Digital picture frames are nothing new, but often they aren't geared towards displaying the high level of detail that Canvia boasts. Thanks to cutting-edge hardware, proprietary image processing, and image-based sensors, Canvia presents and digital artwork as a high-quality painting or print.

This means that viewers will be able to see original artwork details such as colour, texture, contrast and even individual brushstrokes. And ambient light sensors, which adjust the colours depending on the image's surroundings, ensure the artwork looks as fresh and sharp as its creator intended.

Detail of a piece of artwork displayed on Canvia

Canvia captures the detail of individual brush strokes

Artwork for Canvia can be selected from a massive online library app, cutting out the hassle and expense of sourcing and displaying new pictures. And once you start using Canvia, you'll get recommendations of what to hang up next. Users can also take a photo and chuck it up on the screen.

Having worked closely with traditional artists, the team at Canvia understand how best to transfer painting from the canvas to the screen. The project has already smashed its goal on Kickstarter, with a week to go until its campaign ends. There's still time to donate though, so if you want to get in on the ground floor of this innovative device, be sure to head over to the Canvia Kickstarter page and make a pledge.

Related articles:

8 inspiring digital art portfolios and why they workHow to start your digital art journeyPainter 2018 blurs the line between traditional and digital art

How to Build Client Loyalty

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2018/08/how-to-build-client-loyalty/

Web designers are some of the hardest working people I know. Which is why I don’t envy them having to design websites and other content for clients while managing their freelance design business and continually being on the lookout for new clients.

Something I’m reminded of when I think about this, however, is the fact that it’s 25% more expensive to find new clients than retain the ones you already have. It makes sense when you think about how much time you put into scouring the web for clients, reaching out in the hopes of pitching your portfolio, and, possibly, onboarding them as a client.

it’s 25% more expensive to find new clients than retain the ones you already have

Retaining clients, on the other hand, just doesn’t require as much work. You’ve already laid the foundation and established a relationship with them. It’s simply a matter of doing things along the way that prove your continued value to their business while also occasionally surprising and delighting them. This is where loyalty comes into play.

Client loyalty is typically evidenced by one of three actions:

A client continues to purchase the same service or product from you.
A client is willing to be upsold or cross-sold on other services or products you offer.
A client regularly refers others to your business.

In so doing, the client has demonstrated that they prefer working with you over all others.

For web designers, client loyalty is huge. Think about how much easier it would be to run your business if you had a steady and predictable stream of revenue coming through. Not only that, consider the fact you’ll be able to work with the same clients (that you hopefully love as much as they love you) through the years. In exchange, your clients get a high-quality web design partner that helps their businesses grow.

7 Ways to Build Loyalty with Your Web Design Clients

In order to build loyalty with web design clients, you have to first figure out what they value most. This will differ from client to client, and industry to industry. However, these 7 ideas should get you thinking about how this could work for your business.

1. Handle the Initial Project Like a Pro

The work you do on a first-time project will lay the groundwork for any future relationship you have with the client, so make sure your process is refined and your service/solution is the best it’s ever going to be.

Take a look at Sonja Leix’s process for a good example of this.

Every base of the web design lifecycle is covered and well-explained.

For your own business, consider some of the following upgrades:

Create a client contract (if you don’t have one already) that covers every angle.
Conduct thorough research into a client’s background before meeting and, again, before commencing work.
Invest in a professional grade project management and collaboration platform.
Designs can go out of style fast, so always design with the future in mind.
Specialize. If you don’t have a design specialty or industry of focus, get one. It’ll make you a more effective designer if you’re awesome at one thing instead of being okay at a few.

2. Communicate Like a Partner

From the very first interaction you have with a prospect to the very last you have with a current one, be ready to leave a positive impression. While I realize that can get tricky—especially as you enter feedback stages—always remember that: 1) you are here to create something your clients will love, and 2) you are the professional designer that knows best.

If there happens to be a disconnect between what the client wants/loves and what you believe is the better course of action to take, the way you communicate may make all the difference in the world.

The 215 Guys are a fantastic example of this. If their website is this straightforward, relatable, and welcoming, think about how smooth their communications and relationships are when they actually work with a client.

3. Anticipate Their Needs

Web design agencies aren’t the only ones that can create tiered design packages for clients. Freelance designers could and should be doing this too. After all, your clients aren’t all going to be the same size or have the same needs as everyone else. Why not anticipate those needs to by developing packages that account for those varying needs?

Here’s an example from Tina Cook who is not only a web designer, but a marketer and coach as well.

As you can see, her packages are also a great way to up-sell clients and also get them thinking about what she can do for them in the future.

4. Offer Monthly Retainer Services

Even if clients didn’t think about what would happen after the completion of their project, you can bet they will quickly come to that realization once you’ve handed it off. Websites are a lot of work and not a lot of business owners, managers, or marketing executives have the time or know-how to maintain the design or create content; let alone do anything advanced like A/B testing.

So, have those monthly retainer service packages well-defined and ready to share with those clients when they inevitably call you a month or two later with the following: “Can you just make this small tweak?” “Can you help me publish my blogs?” “I feel like there’s more we should be doing, but I’m not sure what that is. Help!”

5. Offer Other Design Services

If you like the idea of having recurring monthly services to offer clients, but don’t want to do design tweaks and other support or testing-type services, think about using your design skills in other ways. For instance, you could design:

Fonts
Icons
Illustrations
Infographics
Blog visuals
eBooks or white papers
Email marketing templates
Social media skins
Branding elements
Website templates

Or you could branch out like Sumy Designs has done and offer writing, SEO, or development services.

6. Commemorate Special Days

From the very get-go, pay special attention to the shared moments that are important to you and the client. Like when you completed your first project together. Or celebrating the anniversary of your partnership. Send them a small gift for each special occasion or simply give them a discount on the next month’s services. Take this time to show them you value them as a client and partner.

7. Launch a Loyalty Program

Taking the last one a step further, think about launching a loyalty program. This means giving clients something extra—something that no one else has access to—in exchange for their continued loyalty. Some examples:

Lower pricing for signing long-term contracts.
Free month of service in exchange for referrals.
Discounted services when they try something new you’re about to launch.
Monthly rebate for paying each invoice by the 10th.
Free hour of support each month for filling out survey.

A loyalty program also gives you a chance to share high-quality blog and newsletter content with clients. Since they’re already primed to watch for offers and news from you, this is an audience that will be really receptive to this.

Focus on Loyalty

If you haven’t focused too much on generating longer-term relationships with clients by building loyalty, it’s not too late to start. Focus on creating opportunities in which you give them even more reason to trust you and to prefer your services above all others. If you can regularly give them something of value, you’ll find that they’re more willing to keep working with you or, at the very least, refer others to you.

Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!

Source

p img {display:inline-block; margin-right:10px;}
.alignleft {float:left;}
p.showcase {clear:both;}
body#browserfriendly p, body#podcast p, div#emailbody p{margin:0;}

Collective #439

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tympanus/~3/A7GvmHVh-eM/

C439_setapp

Our Sponsor
Get 120+ top-tier Mac apps in one suite

Setapp is the first subscription service for Mac apps. For $9.99 per month you get all the apps you need right on your Mac.

Get a free 7-day trial

C439_purecssnanny

Pure CSS Moustached Nanny

An amazing piece of animated CSS art made by Julia Muzafarova.

Check it out

C439_snapscroll

Well-Controlled Scrolling with CSS Scroll Snap

Learn about the CSS Scroll Snap feature that allows web developers to create well-controlled scroll experiences by declaring scroll snapping positions.

Read it

C439_ml

100 Days of Machine Learning Coding

Avik Jain’s fantastic journey of 100 days of coding with Machine Learning. With great infographics.

Check it out

C439_startup

Startup School

Learn how to start a startup with Y Combinator’s free 10-week online course.

Check it out

C439_reactapi

Using data in React with the Fetch API and axios

An article by Kingsley Silas on how to make use of the Fetch API and axios as examples for requesting and using data.

Read it

C439_filament

Filament

Filament is a physically based rendering engine for Android, Windows, Linux and macOS.

Check it out

C439_lazygit

lazygit

A simple terminal UI for git commands, written in Go with the gocui library.

Check it out

C439_neon

Creating an Animated SVG Neon Light Effect

Learn how to create an animated neon light effect in this tutorial by Nils Binder.

Read it

C439_jstetris

Tetris Game Using Pure JavaScript

A video tutorial on how to code up Tetris with vanilla JavaScript.

Watch it

C439_dark

Dark Pattern Design – It’s Downright Unethical & Irresponsible

An insightful summary of dark pattern design by Ainsley Yeung.

Read it

C439_toggle

Toggle-Switch Guidelines

Alita Joyce’s tips for better toggle-switch design.

Read it

C439_chrome69

Chrome 69 Beta: CSS tricks, and more

Read about all the interesting new things coming to the next version of Chrome.

Read it

C439_displacement

eTurbulence, feColorMatrix, feDisplacementMap

Great demo with an interesting typography effect made by Yoksel.

Check it out

C439_viewer

Polyhedra Viewer

An application made by Nat Alison that visualizes the relationships between the convex, regular-faced polyhedra.

Check it out

C439_mandala

MandalaGaba

MandalaGaba in a free online mandala creation suite for designing, sharing and collaborating on mandalas, drawings, sketches, doodles and works of digital art.

Check it out

C439_grain

Grain

Grain is a strongly-typed functional programming language built for the modern web by leveraging the work done by the WebAssembly project.

Check it out

C439_flex

What Happens When You Create A Flexbox Flex Container?

Rachel Andrew explains what actually happens when you add display: flex to your style sheet.

Read it

C439_applemusic

AppleMusic.js

Tanner Villarete shows us just how far JavaScript can take us with this music streaming service created from the ground up using ReactJS and Redux.

Check it out

C439_webtypo

Web Typography Resources

A growing list of web typography related apps, tools, plugins and other resources for web designers and web developers.

Check it out

C439_moceen

Moceen

A tool for creating beautiful screenshots with device mockups.

Check it out

C439_font

Free Font: UStroke

A playful stroke font made by Tikhon Reztcov.

Get it

C439_zulip

Zulip

Zulip combines the immediacy of Slack with an email threading model for group chats.

Check it out

C439_boxmenu

From Our Blog
Slide Out Box Menu

A details menu with boxes that slide out in an irregular grid. The grid items get revealed individually with delays from the top right corner of the page.

Check it out

Collective #439 was written by Pedro Botelho and published on Codrops.

Understanding module.exports and exports in Node.js

Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/understanding-module-exports-exports-node-js/

As developers, we often face situations where we need to use unfamiliar code. A question will arise during these moments. How much time should I invest in understanding the code that I’m about to use? A typical answer is learn enough to start coding; then explore that topic further when time permits. Well, the time has come to gain a better understanding of module.exports and exports in Node.js. Here’s what I have learned.

Note: this post covers using modules in Node. If you want to learn how you can use modules inside of the browser, read: Understanding JavaScript Modules: Bundling & Transpiling.

For a high-quality, in-depth introduction to Node.js, you can’t go past Canadian full-stack developer Wes Bos. Try his course here, and use the code SITEPOINT to get 25% off and to help support SitePoint.

What is a Module

A module encapsulates related code into a single unit of code. When creating a module, this can be interpreted as moving all related functions into a file. Let’s illustrate this point with an example involving an application built with Node.js. Imagine that we created a file called greetings.js and it contains the following two functions:

[js]
// greetings.js
sayHelloInEnglish = function() {
return "Hello";
};

sayHelloInSpanish = function() {
return "Hola";
};
[/js]

Exporting a Module

The utility of greetings.js increases when its encapsulated code can be utilized in other files. So let’s refactor greetings.js to achieve this goal. To comprehend what is actually happening, we can follow a three-step process:

1) Imagine that this line of code exists as the first line of code in greetings.js:

[js]
// greetings.js
var exports = module.exports = {};
[/js]

2) Assign any expression in greetings.js that we want to become available in other files to the exports object:

[js]
// greetings.js
// var exports = module.exports = {};

exports.sayHelloInEnglish = function() {
return "HELLO";
};

exports.sayHelloInSpanish = function() {
return "Hola";
};
[/js]

In the code above, we could have replaced exports with module.exports and achieved the same result. If this seems confusing, remember that exports and module.exports reference the same object.

3) This is the current value of module.exports:

[js]
module.exports = {
sayHelloInEnglish: function() {
return "HELLO";
},

sayHelloInSpanish: function() {
return "Hola";
}
};
[/js]

The post Understanding module.exports and exports in Node.js appeared first on SitePoint.

Top tips for building a WordPress theme

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/SbhbDP7LFMA/top-tips-for-building-a-wordpress-theme

Creating your first theme is a big deal. You might know how to turn a functional site into a thing of beauty, but building a WordPress theme means acquiring a new set of skills to make it function the way you want it to. 

Here are some top tips for designers looking to build their first WordPress theme. You'll learn what makes a good theme, some of the tools you should be thinking about and what you need to know about coding. 

Not ready to build a WordPress theme yet, or looking for something different? Take a look at our roundup of great WordPress tutorials to pick up some more skills.

01. Explore existing themes first

Before you begin building your first WordPress theme, you need to have an idea of what works and what doesn’t. This is the inspiration stage. Now, that doesn't mean stealing other people’s work. 

What it means is researching into what different themes look like, how they function, and how they are put together, taking that idea, and turning it into something different. It’s all about the execution. Take a look at these WordPress portfolio themes for some inspiration.

02. Don't dilute the purpose

When it comes to building a WordPress theme, you should have the end goal in mind at all times. What do you want your site to do? Do you want to create a theme to sell products? Or maybe improve brand awareness? Or build a blogging platform? Or drive lead generation? Decide on the purpose of your theme, and keep it focused – don’t dilute things by choosing too many different aims.

03. Start with a template

You’ve got your goals in mind and the foundations for a strong theme are laid, so now you need to decide whether you are going to build your WordPress theme from scratch or customise an existing template. 

Starting with an existing template and adding your own customisation is an easy way to start. Take a look at our roundup of great free WordPress themes if you want to go down this route. Using an existing theme framework means you’ll get access to a lot of functionality and structure (which could be key if you don’t want to spend hours learning basic coding). However, you won’t have the same level of customisation you’d get if you were building a WordPress theme from scratch. 

04. … or code from scratch

To build from scratch, you need to be prepared to put in the time to learn code. If you do decide to go down this route, embrace Stack Overflow and the WordPress Codex to help you build and customise your theme. 

The WordPress Codex serves as an incredibly useful online manual from the developers of WordPress. It’s a huge resource bank of information on every template, function, plugin and feature you can think of, including tutorials on how to use and develop WordPress sites and themes. 

Stack Overflow, on the other hand, is an unofficial but trusted online community for developers to learn and share programming knowledge. Both are very useful. WordPress also has a helpful tutorial on how to develop a WordPress theme from scratch.

05. Hunt out some quality images

You want your website to look the best it can and perform to a high standard. This means you need images that will catch the eye. 

The good news is tools like Design Wizard are readily available and easy to use to help you create stunning images. Design Wizard actually has thousands of pre-made templates to suit every need. Other tools, such as Pikwizard, PixelDropr and IcoMoon allow you to gather free stock images, create buttons, icons and fonts. Check this out for more essential web design tools. 

06. Don't forget plugins

One of the best things about WordPress is the amount of tools – called plugins – that are readily available to add functionality to your site. WordPress plugins can easily be integrated with your theme to capture information, insert social posts, add Google Maps and so on. While building, you’ll need to ensure sure your theme is compatible with any major plugins you may want to include. Here are a selection of popular plugins to consider: 

Yoast SEO: An SEO plugin for improving website visibility and search rankingsContact Form 7: A customisable, flexible contact formAkismet: A spam-fighting plugin to protect against comment and contact form spamJetpack: An all-in-one plugin for analytics, design, marketing and securityWP Rocket: Rocket fuel caching for speeding up WordPress and improving web traffic
07. Don't mess with core code

Just keep in mind, everything you want to build should be done in the WordPress wp-content folder – you don’t want to be messing around with core code! There are lots of folders within WordPress, each of which are responsible for different functionalities. 

A word of caution before you make the decision to build from scratch or not – it’s fairly easy to end up building a theme that looks nice, but doesn’t work. So be careful to ensure you don’t end up with a theme that doesn’t actually function and requires hours of effort to improve the coding. 

Read more:

6 top tips for CRO success in WordPressHow to start a blog: 11 pro tipsThe 14 best iPad apps for designers

JAM Icons – Iconfont With 800+ Free Icons for Your Website

Original Source: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/jam-iconset/

Free, high quality and unique icon pack to be used on any website.

The post JAM Icons – Iconfont With 800+ Free Icons for Your Website appeared first on Hongkiat.

Visit hongkiat.com for full content.

Elegant Brand Identity for Hairlines by BULLSEYE

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abduzeedo/~3/PtBsHLwkJZw/elegant-brand-identity-hairlines-bullseye

Elegant Brand Identity for Hairlines by BULLSEYE

Elegant Brand Identity for Hairlines by BULLSEYE

abduzeedo
Aug 06, 2018

BULLSEYE – Aim on branding shared yet another beautiful brand identity project. We have featured them a few times, but they keep delivering great work. This time they worked don the hairdresser branding design, Hairlines, with a sensual and modern feel. Our challenge for this project was creating a logo and a visual identity that was expressive, yet elegant. Having in mind, the feminine world, as the brand’s target audience. 

For Hairlines brand, we’ve established a color scheme according to the space’s harmony, a deep and colored scheme, with the evidence of copper metal, which is a current trend. We strive to enhance the luxurious and sensual tone of the brand, associated with their wellness environment created to provide a unique experience to its costumers.

Brand identity

Bullseye – Aim on Branding is a multidisciplinary and creative studio based in Oporto, dedicated to create experiences and emotions in the various areas of Design, from Branding to Web and from Packaging Design to Editorial.

We are a studio, which focuses every day to help our customers to connect with their audience in an innovative, unique and effective way. We believe that design is a state of mind and that complex ideas should be transformed into simple and functional solutions, thus surpassing the expectations of our customers. We approach the challenges from several angles, betting on a team of remarkable and passionate people that make the difference creating a successful project.

Credits
Art Direction & Design: Bullseye aim on branding
Client: Hairlines*
Released in 2018

 

branding


We Are Just Getting Started: 1,000 Smashing Members

Original Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/08/1000-smashing-members/

We Are Just Getting Started: 1,000 Smashing Members

We Are Just Getting Started: 1,000 Smashing Members

Vitaly Friedman

2018-08-03T13:50:31+02:00
2018-08-06T08:19:27+00:00

We’ve all been there: bringing a new product to the market is a tough nut to crack. It requires patience, commitment, and a bit of healthy stubbornness. That’s the exact attitude we started off with when we launched our shiny new Smashing Membership last October — a friendly and respectful community that keeps this website alive, along with books, webinars, discounts, networking, and a seasoned selection of fancy cats.

Thanks to the generous support of Smashing Members, we’re incredibly honored to have crossed the 1,000 members mark today. This is a very important day for us, and frankly, it’s quite flattering to see 1,000 people actively supporting our little site and sharing our goals. In fact, with Membership, sometimes it feels like walking around a small town in which everyone knows each other and their friends, and so we know many members by name, and we’ve also met some of them at Smashing Conferences. It’s a wonderful family that shares similar values and wants to get better at their work. But it’s also a family that wants to bring along a shift in the industry.

The People Behind The Scenes

When looking at obscure avatars and nicknames appearing in remote corners of the web, it’s easy to forget that there are actually real people behind them. That’s why it was important for us that the Membership experience is focused around real names and real faces of the community members — both on the new Smashing Magazine website and in our Membership Slack channel. It’s the people who shape the community and make it feel like home, and so Membership should become a humane product, with approachable and friendly authors, contributors and attendees.

We reached out to a few members to ask them why out of all the wonderful resources on the web, they chose to support the red, cat-friendly, and quirky Smashing Magazine, and what they found useful or remarkably painful during their Membership so far.

Allen Brady

Allen Brady

Allen is based in Knoxville, TN. He is passionate about building great experiences on the web for companies and their audiences. Currently he is learning to make the web more accessible with great HTML, CSS and inclusive design.

“I wanted to support Smashing Magazine as soon as they launched their membership program because not only have they been an excellent resource over the years with all the fantastic articles, books and conferences, but also because they’re so great at amplifying the voices in this industry, which is really important. I know that with my membership I’m getting a diverse range of perspectives that’s really helped shape me into a better developer.

The best part about this membership is the community. There’s a fantastic Slack group where you can talk about your projects, ask for help or just chat about whatever. The webinars have also been great. My favorite part is that we get to chat with the hosts and each other during the live recording. Involving the community in everything they can seems to be a theme with Smashing Magazine. It sets them apart from other resources out there and I love it.”

Verena Vertonghen

Verena Vertonghen

Verena’s journey in the development world started 6 years ago. She studied Multimedia Technology with a specialisation in Web&UX in Antwerp.

“Now I’m a front-end developer who also picks up some design challenges from time to time. I love creating all sorts of things and going on walks with my dogs. Because Smashing Magazine has been an invaluable learning resource for me throughout my studies and my career. I decided on membership to support the continuation of all the great work that Smashing Magazine already offers. But also because you get even more goodies when you do.

Some of the things I really like about it are the eBooks, previews to articles, webinars and the Slack channel that gives me the opportunity to connect with people that have a similar profile. The user experience is overall really great, and SmashingMag cat mascot gives a very playful and personal vibe!”

Emily Serven

Emily Serven

Emily is a recent college graduate and new member of the workforce. In her spare time, she like practicing photography, listening to foreign music, and occasionally playing Overwatch.

“I remember checking SmashingMag regularly as far back as middle school and have always loved the quality and steady quantity of content. I know I can trust the quality of writing on Smashing (especially considering there’s so much content and noise from other places to sift through nowadays)!

I’m also a cat person, for sure. I’ve found the available resources to be really useful (eBook library and book discounts), and I can’t wait for the printed magazine to come out. That’s the other thing about Smashing; even though the medium in which I express my work as a web dev is primarily digital, Smashing still recognizes the value of well-produced and attractive physical media. I love getting the physical books for that reason.

Oh, another thing. I used to freelance more back in middle school until I got my full-time position recently. When I found Smashing for the first time, I really loved how it really ‘got’ me and my job. There was coding, but also design (Photoshop, UX, etc.) and freelance articles specifically. It all felt very well balanced. I think that helped me develop my dev skills and the other auxiliary talents in a way that led to my holistic view of dev nowadays, too.

Arthur Leonov

Arthur Leonov

Arthur is a product designer that also codes front-end. He is a firm believer that merging design and technology can solve even the most difficult problems.

“I’m a designer that codes front-end. What a combo, right? I also believe that merging design and technology can solve even the most difficult problems in this world. The Smashing community keeps me inspired and informed day in and day out.

I catch up on SmashingMag every morning because it is one of the few online magazines in this industry who puts a lot of emphasis on good quality, relevant, and practical content.”

It might sound like an overstatement, but these people have already made a difference. They’ve helped us initiate projects that we wouldn’t be able to support otherwise. Now, don’t get me wrong: with dwindling ad revenues facing us, of course our aim was to earn enough with the help of the Membership to keep the magazine independent and self-funded. But that’s just one side of the story. Our aim was also to support design education and new voices in the industry; reward great people doing great work; foster open, diverse, inclusive and accessible initiatives. Last but not least, we wanted to help community events and projects, and the people behind them.

Did we achieve any of these goals with the money we’ve earned? I’m glad you asked.

So How Much Money Did We Earn? Total: $33,128

Initially, we were hoping to provide a larger financial support for new design/tech education initiatives and open-source projects, but with limited resources we had to be more realistic and pragmatic. We reached 1,013 Smashing Members in 257 days, with 30 supporters, 562 members, and 421 smashers. That makes a current total of $6,689 gross per month for August 2019.

Since the launch of the Membership, Smashing Members contributed a total of $33,128 net over the course of 10 months (including current month):

Month
Net revenue

Total
$33,128

November 2017
$1,104

December 2017
$1,530

January 2018
$2,130

February 2018
$2,181

March 2018
$2,748

April 2018
$4,015

May 2018
$4,440

June 2018
$4,750

July 2018
$4,990

August 2018
$5,240

It goes without saying that these kind contributions massively helped us cover monthly costs, from maintenance to honorarium for authors, in particular:

Honorarium for authors contributing articles and chapters for Smashing Magazine, our eBooks and printed books,
Honorarium for reviewers, editors, proofreaders, illustrator Ricardo Gimenes and front-end developer Ilya Pukhalski,
Honorarium for all webinar speakers,
All design education initiatives and community support is enabled by Smashing Membership,
All money was reinvested in the Magazine and Membership projects.

From day one, we kept things fully transparent; we’ve been sharing monthly reports on how much money we’ve earned and how we spent it. So here’s what happened since the launch of Membership last year.

Smashing TV: 24 Live Sessions

Each month, we are proud to host 2 curated webinars for Smashing Members. We’ve teamed up with active members of the community to run 1:1 interactive sessions with Smashing Members. Overall, we ran 24 Smashing TV webinars on front-end, UX, ethics, performance, accessibility and design workflow. With Marcy Sutton, Val Head, Dan Rose, Ada Rose Cannon, Martin Splitt, Michael Riethmueller, Sara Soueidan, dina Amin, Rachel Andrew and Dan Mall, among others.

The goal of every session is to be highly practical and provide actionable insights and learnings — be it in front-end or in user experience. Everyone can also suggest topics for upcoming webinars in the Membership Slack channel, and we’ll invite speakers to cover the topic. Of course, live recordings of these sessions are available as well, and are later released publicly for free for everybody.

Smashing TV: “Smashing Big Bang Redesign” with Vitaly Friedman

Design/Tech Courses And Trainings

These days there is always something to do, learn, or wrap your head around these days, and because all of us tend to get lost in small details, video tutorials and courses can be quite helpful. There are of course huge video course platforms which are wonderful, but there are also many fantastic one-man-show-teachers out there in the community who produce courses and tutorials for everybody to learn from.

That’s why we’ve teamed up with some of these teachers to provide community discounts for training and video courses. For example, for a “Debugging” course run by Remy Sharp, or “DevTools Web Performance Course” by Umar Hansa, or “CSS Layouts Course” by Rachel Andrew or “React/ES6” courses by Wes Bos — with many more courses coming up over the next months.

Supporting Community Initiatives

It’s not easy to maintain and grow a community, and we are proud to help community initiatives around the world to connect like-minded designers and developers.

Here are the projects we’ve supported so far:

Prjctr Design School (Kiev, Ukraine),
MinskCSS/MinskJS (Minsk, Belarus),
UX Salon (Tel-Aviv, Israel),
WebdeLDN (London, UK),
Osijek Digital Design Academy (Osijek, Croatia),
New Digital School (Porto, Portugal),
Ladies that UX Berlin (Berlin, Germany),
UX Day (Amsterdam, Netherlands),
ExConf Bratislava (Bratislava, Slovakia),
Kyiv ReactJS Meetup (Kyiv, Ukraine),
Ladies That UX Amsterdam (Amsterdam, Netherlands),
PiterCSS (Moscow, Russia),
DesignX (Toronto, Canada),
Local communities in Kairo, Egypt.

If you are running a meet-up or a community in your city, we’d be happy to support you as well. Just drop us a line and tell us a bit about your community, and we’ll make it happen!

Smashing Book 6: New Frontiers In Web Design

It took us a while, but we are almost there. The brand new Smashing Book 6 is coming out early September, with contributions by Laura Elizabeth, Marcy Sutton, Rachel Andrew, Mike Riethmuller, Harry Roberts, Lyza Gardner, Yoav Weiss, Adrian Zumbrunnen, Greg Nudelman, Ada Rose Cannon, and yours truly.

It explores common pain points and solutions from real-world projects: be it accessibility in times of single-page apps, performance loading patterns, making design systems work in real-life, AR/VR, responsive art-direction, building an advanced service worker and designing for next-gen interfaces. A book packed with practical advice for designers and developers alike, designed and illustrated by Chiara Aliotta.

The cover of the Smashing Book 6, with geometric objects shaping the letter S.

Smashing Book 6 is coming. Shipping of the book will start late September, but you can already start reading the first chapters if you order your copy today. (Large preview)

The book is being finished as we speak, but we’ve been slowly releasing chapters, so Members can actually start reading the book already before its official release. All new books and eBooks — as well as upcoming Smashing Print magazine (currently in the works) — is made available for Members free of charge. But that goes without saying, doesn’t it?

Smashing Diversity Program

There is a huge amount of discrimination out there, and not everybody is getting a fair chance even though they deserve one. That’s why we’ve launched a Smashing Diversity program, providing conference and workshop tickets for students, non-profits, and people who might not be able to afford a conference ticket or attend a workshop. We also make sure that our conference volunteers can attend the sessions they’d love to see.

Beyond that, please ping us if there is a way we can help you become a better speaker. To support and encourage new voices in the industry, I’ll be heading to Paris for Mozilla’s Tech Speaker program to provide mentorship, training, and opportunities to up-and-coming speakers from all over the world.

Support New Wave Of Digital Education

Tiego Pedras and Sara Ramos run the New Digital School, a new design education initiative in Porto, Portugal. In fact, they spoke about their project at SmashingConf Freiburg last year. Their goal is to provide students with better front-end and design education to be ready for real-life world.

Each group of students had their own project to work on at The New Digital School.

Each group of students had their own project to work on at The New Digital School. (Image source: Tiago Pedras) (Large preview)

Students presented their projects and shared their results with the group.

Students presented their projects and shared their results with the group. (Image source: Tiago Pedras) (Large preview)

For two years in a row now, I was honored to be able to explore the current state of front-end, interface design, and responsive art-direction with students from all over the world. In February this year, I headed to Porto to spend a week with students from India, Malaysia, Portugal, France and USA for an entire week. Each group of students was working on their own project, ranging from interactive VR storytelling to (hello, Miguel and Sarthak!) to Olympics leaderboards (and hello to you, Prashant and Marissa!).

It might not sound like a big deal, but it was so rewarding to see the sparkle in the eyes of the students as they were working on their projects. Being able to provide an experience that hopefully many students will remember was a huge privilege and a remarkable moment in the entire experience. And it was all possible thanks to the contributions of our Smashing Members. I couldn’t be more proud of this effort.

Berlin Design Campus

Late June is usually quite slow, with most projects slowly fading into sleep mode. Well, it was quite the opposite for us. For June, we teamed up with Prjctr Design School (Kyiv, Ukraine) to run Berlin Design Campus — a week-long trip to Berlin to explore digital design agencies and studios with students from Ukraine. It was our first initiative to improve design education by setting up a project of our own.

We visited the offices of Mozilla (thanks, Emanuela and Amin!), SinnerSchrader (thanks, Martin!), EdenSpiekermann (thanks, Daniel!), Hort (thanks, Eike!), Fjord (thanks, Simon and Jake!), Contentful (thanks, Ben!), Matteo Cevucci (previously EdenSpiekermann, Thoughtworks) with hands-on workshops in those companies throughout the week.

Branding and visuals for Berlin Design Campus, designed by Prjctr Design School in Kiev, Ukraine.

We couldn’t be more proud to team up with Prjctr Design School from Kiev, Ukraine who are trying change the education landscape in Kiev, Ukraine, and London. Visuals were designed by the Prjctr team as well. (Image source) (Large preview)

We visited both design agencies and larger consultancy firms, spoke with local freelancers, artists and entrepreneurs. We’ve set up informal evening meetings in which students could ask questions, and we organized visits to offices so students could see how other professionals work. It was a fascinating week with practical insights you would never get otherwise; a look behind the scenes in actual real-life projects with early prototypes that failed and hands-on exercises to work on.

Ukrainian students visiting design agencies in Berlin.

During Berlin Design Campus, we visited a number of offices in Berlin. One of them was Mozilla’s office, with a hands-on workshop by Amin al Hazwani. (Image source) (Large preview)

You never get to visit or see how designers in those respected companies work, and what their processes look like. So happy and honored to be a part of this little initiative, and looking forward to more adventures in the future. Again, made possible through contributions of wonderful Smashing Members.

New SmashingConf Experience

With a few more resources available to us, we were able to focus on exploring new formats for Smashing Conferences. Being inspired by our Italian friends from the NoSlidesConf, we tested a brand new format in Toronto earlier this year: interactive live sessions in which speakers were not allowed to use slides (be it Powerpoint, Keynote or Reveal.js). Instead, we encouraged speakers to show how they work, how they design and build, what their setup looks like, and give audience insights into how they think as they make progress in their work.

Gemma O’Brien presenting with no slides at SmashingConf Toronto 2018

One of those unforgettable moments. When Gemma O’Brien brought her entire studio to SmashingConf Toronto, a conference where speakers weren’t allowed to use slides. We’ll be rolling out this format at all Smashing events in 2019. (Image credit: Marc Thiele) (Large preview)

Instead of speaking in front of a podium, we set up a coffee shop-alike setting with speakers sitting at the desk and literally walking the audience through their thought process. It was a quite special event. Some speakers felt challenged and excited about the new format, and attendees appreciated the fact that every session was unique and pushed the speakers outside their comfort zones. That’s why we’ll be rolling out this format for SmashingConf 2019, along with lightning talks, design nights, and a book exchange board. It goes without saying: all Smashing Members are getting a heavy discount on all Smashing Conferences.

Giving Back To The Community

Of course, Smashing Magazine has always been free, but with Rachel Andrew joining us on board last year, we now have a strong and keen Editor-in-Chief focusing on getting the best articles out there every single day. Since then, we’ve published 87 articles — all thoroughly reviewed and edited by the Smashing Editorial team. We refocus back on the heart of it all — yours truly Smashing Magazine.

We are committed to make the content we get out there accessible to as many people as possible. That goes for our eBooks as well. That’s why we also publicly released “Inclusive Design Patterns” eBook by Heydon Pickering (PDF, ePUB, Amazon Kindle), a wonderful book on inclusive design patterns — for free. Why? Because accessibility matters.

We Are Just Getting Started

1,000 is a first major milestone for us. Not many people know it, but the entire Smashing team is actually quite small, with just 13 of us floating from one project to another. Frankly, we might be a bit slow at times, but we are trying our best to bring along a positive change to our industry.

We need less craziness and narrow-mindedness around us, and we need more respect, care, and constructive help. That’s the goal we are aiming to provide with the Smashing Membership, with our next projects, and with your help. There might be something in it for you, too. We are in it for a long game. We are, after all, just getting started.

Huge thank you to Cosima Mielke for helping with preparations of this article, and Scott Whitehead for his kind support and work on the Smashing Membership. You are truly smashing!

Smashing Editorial
(cm, sw, il)

With so much happening on the web, what should we really pay attention to? At SmashingConf New York 2018 ?? we’ll explore everything from PWAs, font loading best practices, web performance and eCommerce UX optimization, to refactoring CSS, design workflows and convincing your clients. With Sarah Drasner, Dan Mall, Sara Soueidan, Jason Grigsby, and many other speakers. Oct 23–24.

Check the speakers →

SmashingConf New York 2018, with Dan Mall, Sara Soueidan, Sarah Drasner and many others.

How to illustrate animal eyes

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/pCj04eI5SYw/how-to-illustrate-animal-eyes

When learning how to draw animals, one tricky aspect to manage is the eyes. There are some critical – yet simple – steps and techniques to follow that will improve your artwork.

Because the viewer of your image will be drawn to the animal's eyes, you need to depict them correctly. It's a good idea to practice sketching different eyes to become familiar with their structure. Draw what’s there, rather than what you think should be there.

Here we'll walk through the key considerations to make when drawing feline eyes. In this case we're drawing a leopard, using pastel pencils  on Clairefontaine Pastelmat, but these same principles will apply for drawing the eyes of most animals.

Once you've watched the video above, use our written steps below to help you draw your own realistic animal eyes.

01. Study animal anatomy

sketch of an eye with parts labelled

Getting the anatomy right will help you draw the eye correctly

Being aware of the eye’s anatomy will help you understand where everything should be and what happens to the fur or skin covering that area. For example, the lacrimal gland over this eye will cause the fur to curve up and over it, ridging slightly to form the eyebrow and giving a shadow underneath it. Reflect that when you add the fur.

02. Emphasise the eyeball

eye shaded in

Shading will help curve the eyeball

This sketch shows how the underlying structures influence form. Remember that the eyeball is a sphere, and not a flat disc with the top covered by the upper eyelid. Check the pupil placement on your reference image, as it’s tempting to place it in the centre of the eyeball portion that you can see. Here, use a paper stump to smudge shadows under the lower lid.

03. Reflect what they see

sketch of an eye with pupil coloured in

Imagine what the animal is viewing for real authenticity

You’ll only see a perfectly round white-dot reflection if the eyeball is reflecting a cloudless sky with a bright sun. Typically, the reflection will contain trees or similar structures, as is the case in the example here, where there's blue sky at the top and a band of white cloud reflected in the iris, filled in with a range of ochres.

04. Draw furry surroundings 

sketch of leopard eye next to image of a leopard

The area around the eye is important in creating a lifelike drawing

At this point you can add in the surrounding texture – in this case, the fur. The comparison helps to gauge the strength of the colours in the iris and to adjust the values correctly.

You’ll also be able to see where the shadows and highlights need to be deepened or lightened – typically on the eyeball under the brow, and in the corners.

This article originally appeared in Paint & Draw magazine. 

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