Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/P8RAse3JN-Y/the-10-best-stamp-designs-inspired-by-tv-and-movies

She may live in a castle and have her face on stamps and money, but Queen Elizabeth II does have to do a lot of boring admin. And it's not just signing legislation and sending 100th birthday cards, she even has to approve each and every stamp design produced by the Royal Mail.

It's not just Christmas designs either. These days Britain’s postal service is releasing more and more limited edition stamps in order to make some extra cash from a generation that don’t actually send many letters. 

In this post, we bring together 10 of our favourites stamp designs, all created in tribute to TV shows and movies and featuring some of our favourite character designs.

01. Doctor Who

Released in 2013, this stamp design features William Hartnell as the first actor to play The Doctor 

First screened in 1963, the day after John F Kennedy’s assassination, sci-fi show Doctor Who quickly became a Saturday tea-time institution for children and adults alike. Unfortunately by the 1980s its low budget effects looked increasingly anachronistic, and it was canned in 1989. But fan love for the show failed to abate, and a successful reboot in 2005 under the helm of Russell T Davies rewarded their patience several times over. 

Assured a prime place in British television history, not to mention its future, Doctor Who got the Royal Mail seal of approval in 2013, the year of its 50-year anniversary.  

The 11 first-class stamps combined each of the different actors to have played the Time Lord on TV to date, set against a backdrop evoking the ‘time tunnel’ effect shown in the opening credits. Our favourite is featured above. Framing the First Doctor as played by William Hartnell, it’s a simple but arresting composition that feels both of its time and strikingly modern; very much a case of ‘less is more’. You can view the full collection here. 

02. Game of Thrones

Launched this January, these stamps pay tribute to this popular fantasy show

The biggest fantasy TV hit of the 2010s, Game of Thrones, may be American-led, but the UK has provided the majority of actors and hosted most of the filming, mostly in Northern Ireland. So it’s fully appropriate for the Royal Mail to pay tribute to the show that even Penny, the non-nerd character in Big Bang Theory, likes – because, in her words, “It's got dragons and people doing it.” 

Released in January 2018, the 10 stamps feature the following characters: Sansa Stark, Jon Snow, Eddard Stark, Olenna Tyrell, Tywin Lannister, Tyrion Lannister, Cersei Lannister, Arya Stark, Jaime Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen. 

Our favourite (above) portrays Kit Harington as Jon Snow, one of the show’s most popular characters and one whose parentage continues to be a source of frenzied speculation. Set against a snow-laden background, it’s a dramatic composition that beautifully sums up the epic bombast and big themes at the heart of the saga’s appeal. You can see the full collection here.

03. Star Wars 

Luke faces off against Vader in this gloriously epic stamp design

In 2018, with disappointing box-office returns for the Solo spin-off, the Star Wars franchise is starting to look on shaky ground, but this time last year the space opera series seemed unbeatable. And as British involvement in Star Wars has been pivotal (the first, in 1977, was filmed at Elstree and Shepperton, and the most recent two in Pinewood), it made perfect sense for the Royal Mail to commission a series of stamps celebrating The Last Jedi.

The stamps, which were designed by Malcolm Tween of Digital Progression, feature characters from across the saga, including Darth Vader, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Obi Wan Kenobi, R2-D2, C3PO, Boba Fett and Yoda, plus new characters from The Force Awakens Rey, Finn, BB8 and Kylo Ren. 

Our favourite has to be the one above featuring Luke and Vader, the epic father-son struggle that lay at the heart of the first trilogy. Summoning the spirit of legendary Star Wars poster illustrator Drew Struzan, but translating a poster design into one that works in a tiny space, this is a great example of elegant minimalism. You can see the full range of stamps here.

04. Monty Python

This tribute to Monty Python brilliantly harnesses their subversive spirit

It’s difficult to imagine how different comedy was before Monty Python’s Flying Circus hit our screens in 1969. Taking its cues from Surrealism and Dada art movements, the anarchic troupe completely reinvented what comedy could look like, in both their late-night TV show and ensuing films, including the widely banned Biblical parody, Life of Brian. Today the show's influence is obvious in everything from South Park and Family Guy to the phrases that have entered everyday speech (such as the use of ‘spam’ to describe unwanted emails). 

This design was released by the Royal Mail, appropriately enough, on April Fool's day in 2015 as part of a special range of ‘Comedy Greats’ stamps. Featuring the classic Monty Python team of six (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin), it’s a perfectly chosen shot that effortlessly captures the untrammelled energy of the young team. And it’s been beautifully integrated with an image of John Cleese from the Ministry of Silly Walks sketch, providing an instant blast of nostalgia for any Brit of a certain age. You can see the full range of British comedy stamps here. 

05. Dracula

This stamp design, based on 1958 movie Dracula, brilliantly conveys the melodramatic essence of Hammer Horror

When the British film industry looks back on its glorious past, it tends to focus on the highbrow and critically acclaimed stuff, from Alfred Hitchcock to Ken Loach. But it’s important to remember that some of the most successful and popular British movies have been more towards the cheesier end of the scale. And so in 2008, the Royal Mail decided to pay tribute to two so-bad-its-good traditions in UK film-making: the Carry On series of bawdy comedies, and the melodramatic series of horror movies made by Hammer Films between the 1950s and 1970s. 

Starring Christopher Lee as Count Dracula and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, Dracula was a critical and commercial hit on release in 1958, and it’s now considered a classic of the genre; ranked the 65th best British film ever in a 2017 poll for Time Out magazine. And this marvellously crafted stamp harnesses the best of horror poster and book jacket design in reminding us of just what an impact it made on audiences. 

The colours, typography and use of hyperbolic quotes are all note-perfect, and the way that the Queen’s silhouette has been effortlessly co-opted into the design is quite unnerving. You can see the full range of stamps here. 

06. Harry Potter

Dumbledore is taking no prisoners in this Harry Potter stamp tribute

No list of popular culture-inspired stamps could fail to include Harry Potter, one of the most critically and commercially successful film franchises of all time. That's partly thanks to author JK Rowling's insistence that the movie be made in Britain, with British actors. This move both ensured the distinctive nature of the novels translated perfectly to the big screen, and kick-started London's nascent VFX industry into the bargain.

Released in 2011, the Royal Mail's Magical Realms series included two gems paying tribute to the series, featuring arch-villain Voldemort and his adversary, Albus Dumbledore (shown above). It's a striking composition, featuring the magical professor in full combat mode against a background of swirling, menacing auras; a reminder that for all the schoolyard hi-jinks, there's also a dark and gritty backbone that lies at the heart of the series' appeal.

07. A Matter of Life and Death

One of the greatest British movies of all time is honoured with this simple stamp design

If you’ve never seen the 1946 film A Matter of Life and Death (released in the US as Stairway to Heaven), then do something about it. The fantasy-romance revolves around a mixup in heaven, leading to an airman surviving a crash when he was actually meant to die. In a similar way to It’s a Wonderful Life, it had an emotional and powerful effect at the time on audiences, who were all coping with losing loved ones in the war. More recently, it was picked by Total Film as the second greatest British film ever made (in case you're wondering, Get Carter was number one).

This stamp was created as part of the Royal Mail’s Great British Film series, released in May 2014, and features Kim Hunter and David Niven, enclosed in a simple black rectangle. It's an elegantly minimal design that perfectly encapsulates the classic, iconic nature of its subject. You can check out the full series here.

08. Paddington Bear

This stamp shows the story of Paddington in a nutshell

It may have taken a while to come to the big screen, in the form of 2014 film Paddington and the 2017 sequel Paddington 2. But the bear from Darkest Peru with a taste for marmalade has been a hit with kids for decades via the Michael Bond books, first published in 1958, and the spin-off TV series created by London-based animation company FilmFair in 1975. 

The latter entranced youngsters with its unusual visual approach, combining a 3D stop-motion puppet of Paddington with minimal 2D drawings of backgrounds and other characters. (In one memorable scene, the bear’s adopted parent Mr Brown hands him a jar of marmalade that becomes 3D when Paddington touches it.)

In January 2014, the Royal Mail paid tribute to Paddington with this stamp design, part of its range of Classic Children’s TV stamps, and all the essential elements are there. The 2D background of Paddington station, the ‘Please look after this bear’ label, and the bear himself, striking a characteristically jaunty pose, tell you everything you need to know. We particularly like the playful ‘cut out and keep’ element where Paddington’s head and elbow break out of the traditional rectangle of the postage stamp; very children’s TV. You can see the full range of children’s TV stamps here.

09. Thomas the Tank Engine

Thomas seems to have his eye on the Queen in this tongue-in-cheek stamp

Another of Britain’s biggest children’s TV exports, Thomas the Tank Engine is a fictional steam locomotive who first appeared in The Railway Series books, which were created by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry. Thomas is based on a toy train he made for his son, Christopher. 

On TV since 1979, the show has become an award-winning hit around the world, and narrators have included everyone from Beatles drummer Ringo Starr to controversial American stand-up George Carlin. In June 2011, the Royal Mail marked the 100th anniversary of the Reverend Albry with a special series of stamps. Six featured images from the TV series, Thomas and Friends, and four others featured illustrations from The Railway Series books. 

Our favourite, shown above, uses a 'widescreen' format to bring forth a cinematic feel; perfectly evoking the jaw-dropping wonder of a railway as it appears in the mind of a child. We also like the cheeky way Thomas seems to be giving the eye to the Queen. You can see the full collection here. 

10. Thunderbirds

A blast of nostalgia comes in the form of this Thunderbirds-themed stamp 

Created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson between 1964 and 1966, Thunderbirds was a children’s sci-fi series that combined marionette puppetry with scale model special effects. Broadcast in more than 60 countries around the world, it had such an influence on successive generations of youngsters that it has since returned in a number of formats, including a 2004 live-action movie and a 2015 computer animation.

The Andersons created a lot of other hit shows too, including Stingray, Captain Scarlett and Joe 90. But nothing will be more nostalgia-inducing for a certain age-demographic than the classic countdown: “5-4-3-2-1 Thunderbirds are go!”. And so it’s to the credit of the Royal Mail that their stamp tribute focuses not on a particular character but that iconic sequence. You can see the full range of Anderson stamps here.

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Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/nyKBIbc4vxE/bring-a-brand-to-life-with-illustration

Many brands choose to use illustration to do at least some of the talking for them, and if it’s true that an image speaks a thousand words, it’s easy to see why. Whether through content, style, implicit narrative or (likely) all three, an image can communicate what copy and typography often can’t, at once setting out a mood, tone of voice, target audience and attitude in a succinct visual. 

The illustrator hotlist 2018

The idea of using illustration not just in a campaign, but as a core part of a brand’s visual identity is perhaps less common than it once was, and seems more aligned to certain sectors than others. Luxury food packaging design, for instance, especially on seasonal ranges: think high-end Christmas chocolate boxes. Or craft beer, a sector that’s seemingly indefatigable when it comes to both new variants and breweries.

An illustration route is straight to the point: it’s an instant emotional connection that can surpass language barriers

Chloe Templeman, Design Bridge

So what can illustration do that type, photography and copy alone can’t? For one, it shows a uniqueness, and in the right hands, it delivers on-shelf standout like few other approaches can. There’s far less chance, for instance, of a brand commissioning the same illustrator, style and image as there is of it using a similar typeface or colourway. 

Broadly speaking, a brand commissioning illustration also subtly communicates a level of thought and attention. In a similar way to brands working with bespoke, hand-drawn typography, even digitally created illustration hints at a person behind a brand. This helps build its story and tells us that there’s more to the product than just ‘buy me’.

As Chloe Templeman, creative director at Design Bridge puts it, the notion of image as story is as, “old as cave paintings and hieroglyphics, and has come full circle to emojis. An illustration route is straight to the point: it’s an instant emotional connection that can surpass language barriers.”

Boozy illustration

Thirst Craft is a Glasgow-based branding and design agency specialising in the drinks sector, whose portfolio boasts no shortage of richly illustrated designs – including the design for Loch Lomond Brewery used as the headline image for this article. According to creative director Matt Burns, it’s little surprise that the craft beer sector in particular has latched onto illustration as the perfect conduit for communicating a brand’s attitude and uniqueness. 

Hired Guns Creative created this packaging for Driftwood Brewery

“Illustration is created by the hand, and that hand-rendered touch lends itself nicely to craft beer, and the whole ‘brewed by hand’ story,” he says. “There’s something personable about illustration, so it’s a great way to communicate and tell a story of that brewery, but there’s also something kind of quite edgy and visually exciting about illustration, which is why it works well on pack.”

Burns adds that illustration is engaging and has a lot of energy, meaning that people can really relate to it. “It captures that level of excitement and emotion… rather than being a sales tool, it’s a piece of art. People want to keep the cans, and you don’t get that with other packaging.” 

Hired Guns Creative is an agency based in British Columbia, Canada which, like Thirst Craft, has chosen to specialise in solely creating designs for alcohol, with most of its work across the craft beer sector and the majority of that work relying on illustration in one form or another. So why is craft beer such a rich font of illustrated packaging?

Rather than being a sales tool, it’s a piece of art

Matt Burns, Thirst Craft

“A lot of it comes down to trying to compete on shelf,” says managing partner Leif Miltenberger. “The craft beer market in North America and in the UK is exploding, so every product on that shelf is trying to scream as loud as it can for attention. Really bold, eye-catching illustration is a good way to stand out, and is difficult for other companies to emulate. A lot of craft beer companies have packaging design that’s very minimalist, and although you can stand out through typography, bright colours, or certain printing techniques, it’s easier for another company to come along and replicate that.”

For craft beer in particular, brands are selling an attitude as much as a liquid: “A lot of people in that space really try to align themselves with counterculture through their brand, and illustration is a great way to do that. You can design things for the craft beer guys that major beer or spirit brands would be too scared to do,” says Miltenberger. Somewhat unusually, Hired Guns chooses to create all its illustration in-house, mostly by creative director Richard Hatter.

Investing in craft

When a brand commissions illustration work, it’s not only a way of augmenting or creating a more cohesive brand world or message, it sends out a signal that it cares about its product, and the people that are buying it. A distinctive, characterful illustration is a symbol of uniqueness and distinction, immediately elevating it above nondescript system fonts or less ownable colour palettes. 

Silas Amos gave Red Red a surreal vibe with illustration

“It shows they value the appearance of the product as well as what’s inside,” says Miltenberger. “Some people think that if the product is good enough, it’ll be successful, but that’s not the case. It’s a super-competitive market. Sometimes you get the feeling from the illustration that they’re trying to target a certain demographic – maybe something hand-drawn to feel authentic and appeal to millennials or hipsters or whatever name they have on their demographic. But bigger corporations more and more are co-opting that approach: a hand-drawn gin label doesn’t mean its created in small batches by someone who cares.”

Being seen as a creative brand is priceless… The more avant-garde you are, the more you’re making a difference

Silas Amos

As Burns points out, such intricate packaging is also a crucial hook – especially within the craft beer sector: “The packaging is what makes people buy the first one, and the product makes them buy the second, third and fourth.”

Careful and considered commissioning also gives the sense of a brand being not just about product, but artistry. “Being seen as a creative brand is priceless,” says creative strategist and designer Silas Amos. “For brands, it’s about creating an aura around themselves. The more avant-garde you are or the more you visually snag, the more you’re making a difference.” 

There’s also the question of how much a brand is seen to be investing in craft, continues Amos. “Craft is telling a story, and that tends to be whimsical – pictures are a good way to tell whimsical stories.”

One of the reasons we’ve recently seen a wave of illustration that hints at care, craft and heritage is the fact that so many brands are celebrating landmarks. Their 100th or 150th anniversary is a perfect chance to put their flag back in the ground, and show a world full of shiny start-ups that they’ve been in it for the long haul; they’re reliable, an institution. 

Design Bridge played on the heritage of Hellmann’s with this design

At the forefront of Design Bridge’s recent work for Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, for instance, was stripping the aesthetic away from synthetic-leaning imagery to usher in a new, softer, watercolour-like, hand-drawn style of illustration. “It feels like more love has been put into it,” says Templeman.

Brand storytelling

It’s that ability for illustration to convey narrative that brings London-based studio Together Design to draw on it (excuse the pun) for so many projects. As creative director and founder Heidi Lightfoot puts it, illustration is perfect for branding projects as it can communicate, “really big themes and messages that you just couldn’t sum up in a photograph.” 

In a photograph, Lightfoot explains, you really have to feel some resonance to the people being featured. “But in illustration it’s often less personal, so we tend to find illustration really useful in communicating big themes that are part of a client’s message.”

Together Design put together this packaging and illustration for Fortnum & Mason

That sense of illustration as a succinct and easily manipulated conduit for a brand’s message extends into what it says about the brand itself – again, what’s “inherent in a drawing is artistry and craft in a way that’s harder to communicate in other ways,” says Lightfoot. 

“Type can feel quite cold, and photography can occasionally feel quite glossy, but with an illustration you usually see the hand of the artist. That artistry in craft communicates care, warmth and a bespoke quality, which is lovely for brands who want to communicate those attributes. Then if you’re using one style across different materials, it becomes part of the brand’s handwriting.”

Choosing the right collaborators

A few years back, the typical way for an agency to find the right illustrator for a project would have been through submitted physical portfolios or using agencies and organisations such as the AOI. Nowadays, it’s more a mix of good old-fashioned ‘who you know’ and trawling through online portfolios and social media, most notably Instagram, and for Together Design, sometimes Pinterest too. 

For Burns, finding the best illustrator for the project is “more gut instinct than anything else,” and he warns against the temptation to simply hire the person who’s available at the right time, at the right price – especially when up against tighter deadlines and smaller product budgets.

For Amos, the process of hiring an illustrator to work on a brand is similarly instinctual. “There’s no hard and fast rule or set process [for commissioning], but as a designer, I think in pictures, so I’ve already got something in my head and I’m looking to translate that into a picture. Sometimes you see a person’s work and think ‘their style would be great’, and that informs the answer; but sometimes you have the answer and you’re looking for the style.” 

The artist will always bring their own take on something and that brings a whole new angle

Heidi Lightfoot, Together Design

Of course, as Burns hints, you can’t always get what you want when it comes to your dream commission. You have to take into account budget, availability, and the opinions of any other stakeholders who might have a say in the final look and feel.

But what makes a person great to work with, should they fit all of those more pragmatic criteria? For Amos, the best sort of relationship is “a little bit of a ping-pong match,” and Lightfoot agrees that it’s vital to find someone willing to collaborate, and work through potentially numerous iterations with the designers.

“No matter how perfect the brief is, when you see the first rough there will always be ways to improve, or perhaps the emphasis on different elements has changed,” she says. “It’s nice to be able to have a conversation about that rather than one stage and one stage only, though that’s very rare as illustrators are usually very open to ideas from both sides. The artist will always bring their own take on something and that brings a whole new angle. It’s all about collaboration, not just telling people what to do.” 

The key to that sort of working relationship is both clarity and flexibility: setting out a clear brief, but being willing and open to listen to new ideas and seeing an illustrator not as a gun for hire, but a crucial cog in the bigger creative machine.

When to illustrate

Of course, as with any other design communication tool – be it copy, typography, photography, pattern or colour – designers working with global brands have to do some careful research into any unexpected signifiers that might say something they don’t want to say in other countries.

When Design Bridge worked with Timorous Beasties on a set of highly illustrative packaging for Fortnum & Mason, for instance, the team soon discovered that moths are seen as unlucky for certain cultures; and had to take care with the shape and colouration of the butterflies that appeared in the work. 

Design Bridge worked with Timorous Beasties on this packaging

As we’ve seen, illustration and craft beer are superbly comfortable bedfellows, and many food brands, too, use illustrative imagery to convey their message and create on-pack details. So are there any sectors where illustration wouldn’t work?

According to Lightfoot, not really. “There might be sectors or client types you wouldn’t think could use it, but illustration can disrupt in an exciting manner,” she says. “Even with a product where photography might be king – maybe with something like a tech brand – there’s always a way that illustration can play a part in the marketing, and I’m excited about brands that use it as part of their core messaging.” 

Templeman agrees: “An illustration route goes straight to the point in conveying a brand’s message. It has so much stretch and there’s such a huge spectrum of different styles – from more linear, stripped-back work to infographics to beautiful artworks – that I can’t think of a brand that illustration would never be right for.” 

This article was originally published in Computer Arts, the world's best-selling design magazine. Buy issue 279 or subscribe here.

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Original Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/07/logging-activity-web-beacon-api/

Logging Activity With The Web Beacon API

Logging Activity With The Web Beacon API

Drew McLellan

2018-07-27T13:40:14+02:00
2018-07-27T14:14:35+00:00

The Beacon API is a JavaScript-based Web API for sending small amounts of data from the browser to the web server without waiting for a response. In this article, we’ll look at what that can be useful for, what makes it different from familiar techniques like XMLHTTPRequest (‘Ajax’), and how you can get started using it.

If you know why you want to use Beacon already, feel free to jump directly to the Getting Started section.

What Is The Beacon API For?

The Beacon API is used for sending small amounts of data to a server without waiting for a response. That last part is critical and is the key to why Beacon is so useful — our code never even gets to see a response, even if the server sends one. Beacons are specifically for sending data and then forgetting about it. We don’t expect a response and we don’t get a response.

Think of it like a postcard sent home when on vacation. You put a small amount of data on it (a bit of “Wish you were here” and “The weather’s been lovely”), put it in the mailbox, and you don’t expect a response. No one sends a return postcard saying “Yes, I do wish I was there actually, thank you very much!”

For modern websites and applications, there’s a number of use cases that fall very neatly into this pattern of send-and-forget.

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Tracking Stats And Analytics Data

The first use case that comes to mind for most people is analytics. Big solutions like Google Analytics might give a good overview of things like page visits, but what if we wanted something more customized? We could write some JavaScript to track what’s happening in a page (maybe how a user interacts with a component, how far they’ve scrolled to, or which articles have been displayed before they follow a CTA) but we then need to send that data to the server when the user leaves the page. Beacon is perfect for this, as we’re just logging the data and don’t need a response.

There’s no reason we couldn’t also cover the sort of mundane tasks often handled by Google Analytics, reporting on the user themselves and the capability of their device and browser. If the user has a logged in session, you could even tie those stats back to a known individual. Whatever data you gather, you can send it back to the server with Beacon.

Debugging And Logging

Another useful application for this behavior is logging information from your JavaScript code. Imagine you have a complex interactive component on your page that works perfectly for all your tests, but occasionally fails in production. You know it’s failing, but you can’t see the error in order to begin debugging it. If you can detect a failure in the code itself, you could then gather up diagnostics and use Beacon to send it all back for logging.

In fact, any logging task can usefully be performed using Beacon, be that creating save-points in a game, collecting information on feature use, or recording results from a multivariate test. If it’s something that happens in the browser that you want the server to know about, then Beacon is likely a contender.

Can’t We Already Do This?

I know what you’re thinking. None of this is new, is it? We’ve been able to communicate from the browser to the server using XMLHTTPRequest for more than a decade. More recently we also have the Fetch API which does much the same thing with a more modern promise-based interface. Given that, why do we need the Beacon API at all?

The key here is that because we don’t get a response, the browser can queue up the request and send it without blocking execution of any other code. As far as the browser is concerned, it doesn’t matter if our code is still running or not, or where the script execution has got to, as there’s nothing to return it can just background the sending of the HTTP request until it’s convenient to send it.

That might mean waiting until CPU load is lower, or until the network is free, or even just sending it right away if it can. The important thing is that the browser queues the beacon and returns control immediately. It does not hold things up while the beacon sends.

To understand why this is a big deal, we need to look at how and when these sorts of requests are issued from our code. Take our example of an analytics logging script. Our code may be timing how long the users spend on a page, so it becomes critical that the data is sent back to the server at the last possible moment. When the user goes to leave a page, we want to stop timing and send the data back home.

Typically, you’d use either the unload or beforeunload event to execute the logging. These are fired when the user does something like following a link on the page to navigate away. The trouble here is that code running on one of the unload events can block execution and delay the unloading of the page. If unloading of the page is delayed, then the loading next page is also delayed, and so the experience feels really sluggish.

Keep in mind how slow HTTP requests can be. If you’re thinking about performance, typically one of the main factors you try to cut down on is extra HTTP requests because going out to the network and getting a response can be super slow. The very last thing you want to do is put that slowness between the activation of a link and the start of the request for the next page.

Beacon gets around this by queuing the request without blocking, returning control immediately back to your script. The browser then takes care of sending that request in the background without blocking. This makes everything much faster, which makes users happier and lets us all keep our jobs.

Getting Started

So we understand what Beacon is, and why we might use it, so let’s get started with some code. The basics couldn’t be simpler:

let result = navigator.sendBeacon(url, data);

The result is boolean, true if the browser accepted and queued the request, and false if there was a problem in doing so.

Using navigator.sendBeacon()

navigator.sendBeacon takes two parameters. The first is the URL to make the request to. The request is performed as an HTTP POST, sending any data provided in the second parameter.

The data parameter can be in one of several formats, all if which are taken directly from the Fetch API. This can be a Blob, a BufferSource, FormData or URLSearchParams — basically any of the body types used when making a request with Fetch.

I like using FormData for basic key-value data as it’s uncomplicated and easy to read back.

// URL to send the data to
let url = ‘/api/my-endpoint’;

// Create a new FormData and add a key/value pair
let data = new FormData();
data.append(‘hello’, ‘world’);

let result = navigator.sendBeacon(url, data);

if (result) {
console.log(‘Successfully queued!’);
} else {
console.log(‘Failure.’);
}

Browser Support

Support in browsers for Beacon is very good, with the only notable exceptions being Internet Explorer (works in Edge) and Opera Mini. For most uses, that should be fine, but it’s worth testing for support before trying to use navigator.sendBeacon.

That’s easy to do:

if (navigator.sendBeacon) {
// Beacon code
} else {
// No Beacon. Maybe fall back to XHR?
}

If Beacon isn’t available and your request is important, you could fall back to a blocking method such as XHR. Depending on your audience and purpose, you might equally choose to not bother.

An Example: Logging Time On A Page

To see this in practice, let’s create a basic system to time how long a user stays on a page. When the page loads we’ll note the time, and when the user leaves the page we’ll send the start time and current time to the server.

As we only care about time spent (not the actual time of day) we can use performance.now() to get a basic timestamp as the page loads:

let startTime = performance.now();

If we wrap up our logging into a function, we can call it when the page unloads.

let logVisit = function() {
// Test that we have support
if (!navigator.sendBeacon) return true;

// URL to send the data to, e.g.
let url = ‘/api/log-visit’;

// Data to send
let data = new FormData();
data.append(‘start’, startTime);
data.append(‘end’, performance.now());
data.append(‘url’, document.URL);

// Let’s go!
navigator.sendBeacon(url, data);
};

Finally, we need to call this function when the user leaves the page. My first instinct was to use the unload event, but Safari on a Mac seems to block the request with a security warning, so beforeunload works just fine for us here.

window.addEventListener(‘beforeunload’, logVisit);

When the page unloads (or, just before it does) our logVisit() function will be called and provided the browser supports the Beacon API our beacon will be sent.

(Note that if there is no Beacon support, we return true and pretend it all worked great. Returning false would cancel the event and stop the page unloading. That would be unfortunate.)

Considerations When Tracking

As so many of the potential uses for Beacon revolve around tracking of activity, I think it would be remiss not to mention the social and legal responsibilities we have as developers when logging and tracking activity that could be tied back to users.

GDPR

We may think of the recent European GDPR laws as they related to email, but of course, the legislation relates to storing any type of personal data. If you know who your users are and can identify their sessions, then you should check what activity you are logging and how it relates to your stated policies.

Often we don’t need to track as much data as our instincts as developers tell us we should. It can be better to deliberately not store information that would identify a user, and then you reduce your likelihood of getting things wrong.

DNT: Do Not Track

In addition to legal requirements, most browsers have a setting to enable the user to express a desire not to be tracked. Do Not Track sends an HTTP header with the request that looks like this:

DNT: 1

If you’re logging data that can track a specific user and the user sends a positive DNT header, then it would be best to follow the user’s wishes and anonymize that data or not track it at all.

In PHP, for example, you can very easily test for this header like so:

if (!empty($_SERVER[‘HTTP_DNT’])) {
// User does not wish to be tracked …
}

In Conclusion

The Beacon API is a really useful way to send data from a page back to the server, particularly in a logging context. Browser support is very broad, and it enables you to seamlessly log data without negatively impacting the user’s browsing experience and the performance of your site. The non-blocking nature of the requests means that the performance is much faster than alternatives such as XHR and Fetch.

If you’d like to read more about the Beacon API, the following sites are worth a look.

“W3C Beacon specification,” W3C Candidate Recommendation
“MDN Beacon documentation,” MDN web docs, Mozilla
“Browser support information,” caniuse.com

(ra, il)

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/VJm6L3TFoV0/what-its-like-to-be-a-batman-artist-tony-s-daniel-shares-his-story

Just like the Joker, Tony S Daniel is wrestling with Batman. As we’re interviewing him, issue 45 of the latest series is in its death throes, and it simply won’t die.

Normally, Batman wouldn’t be such a problem for the artist, who’s returning to a character he’s pencilled numerous times during his career. The trouble is that his inker has dropped out mid-issue, so he’s on double duty, drawing and inking his boards on the fly, Fed Ex-ing them off to DC Comics while responding to our questions.

Art techniques: top tutorials for painting and drawing

Long hours aside, Batman is where Tony’s fans want him, and it’s where he wants to be. “It’s like that feeling you get when you go back to your favourite place,” he says. “It’s still what you remember, but you’re older and wiser and maybe you can even appreciate a few details you didn’t first time around. It’s a good feeling.”

Working with writer Tom King, this latest run is kicking off with a new time-travelling storyline featuring Booster Gold, Catwoman and, of course, the Caped Crusader. Tony has always been a fan of a bigger, darker and grittier Batman, a character whose moods are shaped by the murder of his parents in Gotham City. He’s an artist who feels he’s at his most effective when he’s loose and spontaneous.

This cover variant accompanied the 2017 issue of Justice League that DC published to coincide with the Warner Bros. fi lm based on the series

There’s a sense that Tony wants to get back on track with Batman. His last significant encounter with the character was during the New 52 reboot DC carried out in 2011. Tony relaunched Detective Comics at that time, which features Batman as its lead. The run ended prematurely with Tony feeling a little burned out.

“I was overworked at that time, writing Hawkman, and writing and drawing Detective Comics. It caught up with me real fast and the quality wasn’t what I demanded of myself,” he says.

I’ve learned you have to say ‘no’ to things sometimes. It could be in your own best interest

Tony S Daniel

He continues: “I could’ve stayed on for a couple more years, but I knew it would best to take a break and regroup. I’ve learned you have to say ‘no’ to things sometimes. It could be in your own best interest.”

Batman at his best

For Tony, the best Batman he’s ever drawn was during the R.I.P. story arc with writer Grant Morrison. The partnership between Tony on pencils and Grant weaving a mad storyline began on Batman issue 670, in 2007, with The Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul. 

That first cover remains one of Tony’s favourites, and fans remember this period as one of the greatest in the character’s history. With the spontaneity of Grant’s plotting matched in Tony’s pencils, many put the artist up there right alongside the likes of Frank Miller and Neal Adams in the Batman pantheon.

Tony’s unsettling cover for Detective Comics, volume 1 – part of DC’s ambitious New 52 relaunch of its titles back in 2011

“That was a magical time for me. I was so into it,” says Tony. “I couldn’t wait to read each script from Grant, because like every other fan, I wanted to know what the hell was going on! It really was a classic story and I’m so proud to have been a part of it.” 

If it was this version of Batman that brought Tony into the mainstream, it was an earlier book called The Tenth that put him on the map within the comics world. First published in 1997 by Image Comics, Tony owned the IP and The Tenth was a platform for him to both write and draw at the same time.

Dynamic and different, it featured young people with supernatural powers, up against Rhazes Darkk and his evil supermonsters. Originally, the plan was for Tony to block out the story and for Beau Smith to write and letter it.

A new era of Batman begins with the current series issue 45, as Tony returns on pencils.

“After the first arc, I realised that I was doing more and more of the writing and dialogue, and thought I’d give it a try. It felt very natural for me,” he says.

“I love being the writer and artist. I do have a greater sense of being the storyteller, as opposed to being the artist only. I will get back to creator-owned at some point. Maybe next year, I hope. Though there’s risks with going down the creator-owned route, I’ve never shied away from risks.”

Writing on the side

After writing and drawing other comics at Image and Dark Horse, Tony was so inspired by the writing side that he took time out of comics to become a screenwriter.

Back in the world of comics, although he’s written and drawn hits like the Batman story Battle for the Cowl, and relaunched Deathstroke as artist-writer, today he prefers to draw alongside a good writer, and keep his screenwriting going on the side. He’s finishing a script with James Bonny, so watch this space.

The cover to Tony’s fourth issue of Deathstroke, featuring Harley Quinn helping to bring Gotham to its knees

At the moment, Tony has his hands full with his current comics. On top of Batman, he’s drawing Damage. Although DC already had a character called Damage, to all intents and purposes the current series is a new launch. It’s got that tell-tale strength and directness you expect from a Tony S Daniel comic, with a fresh feel and – literally – a smashing main character.

“My style has constantly mutated over the years,” says Tony. “I don’t think I’ve ever forced a style change – it’s always happened slowly, organically. I think I have a mix of realism and cartoonishness that I try to balance. I find that if I go too realistic, the work ends up looking flat.”

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX issue 160; subscribe here. 

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