The 10 best stamp designs inspired by TV and movies

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

Stamp showing William Hartnell as The Doctor

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

Stamp showing Kit Harington as Jon Snow

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 

Stamp showing Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in a light sabre duel

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

Stamp showing the original Monty Python team

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

Stamp showing Dracula about to bite a comatose woman

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

Stamp featuring Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore

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

David Niven and Kim Hunter

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

Paddington Bear waiting to be adopted at Paddington Station

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 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

Stamp showing the Thunderbirds rocket taking off

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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5 Great HTML5 Video Players

Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/5-great-html5-video-players/

There has been an increasing demand for creators to develop their own custom video platform which they can use to advance their own advertising, marketing or branding goals. Although YouTube and other similar platforms are generally more promising, hosting videos on your own and using a video player of your choice offers more control over how your videos are used.

Irrespective of whether you are a YouTube video creator or social media influencer, we've compiled a list of 5 of the greatest HTML5 video players. This list has been compiled after taking into consideration a few important needs, such as:

Fast and responsive
Easy to install and use
Compatibility quotient across browsers
Robust and all round playlist options
Ability to include an advertisement at various stages of the video – before, during or after
Ability to integrate self-hosted videos with those from channels like YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, etc.

Now that we have an idea what to look for, here is a list of the top 5 HTML5 Video Players.

VideoJS

VideoJS, an open source HTML5 video player is built using JavaScript and CSS. It's an HTML5 video player with optional support for Flash. Having Flash as a fallback option is especially helpful when you're using it on browsers that do not support HTML5. It can extend its support to Vimeo and YouTube.

Launched in the year 2010, VideoJS currently serves more than 400,000 websites across the internet. VideoJS is equally compatible on mobile devices as well as desktops.

Some of the top features of VideoJS include:

Plugin Support: VideoJS supports multiple plugins like analytics, advertising, playlists as well as support for advanced formats such as HLS and DASH. A full list of supported plugins can be found VideoJS plugin page.
Skinning: Everything about VideoJS is customizable. You can easily customize the way it looks by editing the CSS style. Steve Heffernan has a codepen demo for customizing VideoJS skin that should help you get started.
Ready adaptability to various plugins makes this player much more useful. Some sample plugins include:

Analytics: Ability to track Google Analytics events from the VideoJS player
Brand: You can add the logo of your brand to the player
Playlist: Support for playlists
Chromecast: Ability to cast a video to a device using a Chromecast device

JW Player

JW Player has been around for ages and was one of the most popular Flash video players for the web. Later on, it extended its support for HTML5 video playback. JW Player is completely customizable, has a responsive HTML5 video and has a large variety of features right from analytics support to accessibility and full HTML5 video controls.

It has perhaps the best website video player with its wide array of video supported solutions. JW player also works very well as an HTML5 video player for WordPress websites. It can also be used as an alternate option for YouTube's video player. Interestingly, before Google purchased YouTube, the original YouTube video player was based on JW Player.

One of the key reasons that the JW Player is above its peers in this category because of the sheer amount of features it provides via a number of different add-ons. These can range from advertising partnerships to closed captions as well as popular social networking tools.

As mentioned earlier, the player is completely customizable and supports a number of custom user-defined themes. It also comes with an integrated API. It has a number of different plugins to support the more popular CMSs, which makes integration fairly simple.

Kaltura HTML5 Video Player

Kaltura Player is a free-to-use, open source HTML5 video player that can be used to create multiple and custom inter-browser and inter-device skins that can match or complement the design of your website. The Kaltura player comes with numerous player templates to choose from.

Some of the key features include:

Robust, all-round Performance
Multi-platform support
Advertising & Analytics: It supports most ad formats including VAST v. 3.0 as well as integrated plugins that can be used across a wide range of video ad networks. These include Google's Doubleclick Ad Platform, FreeWheel, Eye Wonder, Ad Tech, Tremor Video, AdapTV and many more.

Flowplayer

Flowplayer is an extremely simple video player for creators who wish to include video playback on their websites. Integrating and the markup process for Flowplayer is decidedly straightforward, which is one of its major benefits.

At the outset, it is important to note that Flowplayer is primarily aimed at those creators who host video files independently. In case creators are using a streaming service such as Vimeo or YouTube, both streaming services provide code that can be used to embed the player itself onto the website or landing page.

Flowplayer is 100% customizable as well as skinnable and comes with support for including subtitles, modifying the playback speed, including video analytics and monetization opportunities.

The post 5 Great HTML5 Video Players appeared first on SitePoint.

Bring a brand to life with illustration

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. 

hellmann's mayonnaise bottles

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.”

fortnum & mason biscuit packaging

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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Popular Design News of the Week: July 23, 2018 – July 29, 2018

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2018/07/popular-design-news-of-the-week-july-23-2018-july-29-2018/

Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers. 

The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week.

Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that were posted, so don’t miss out and subscribe to our newsletter and follow the site daily for all the news.

The Future of Mobile Web? It’s all About Progressive Web Apps

 

Finally… Capture your Screen Without all that Mess on your Desktop ✨

 

Google Video Shows All-white Redesigns for Gmail, Google Photos, and More

 

Forget About your Logo. Nobody Cares.

 

Fresh Fonts Freshen up your Font News

 

Your Coworker with the Annoying Sit-stand Desk May Be Onto Something

 

20 White Texture Background Graphics

 

What if People were Paid for their Data?

 

We’re Underestimating the Mind-warping Potential of Fake Video

 

5 Ways to Take Better Control of your WordPress Website

 

Keyframes: A Community for Animators

 

Designers Talk: What We Didn’t Expect

 

Hacking User Perception to Make your Websites and Apps Feel Faster

 

Site Design: Emergence

 

Queer UX Experience

 

How to Give Project Estimates—and When not to Estimate at all

 

Timeqube – Beautiful Timer that Helps Waste Less Time in Meetings

 

8 Logo Design Cliches You Should Avoid

 

One Year After Massive Takedowns, Dark Web Marketplaces are Thriving

 

User Research: Is More the Merrier?

 

Netflix is Launching a New TV Interface Starting Today

 

How We Improved Our Landing Page Conversion Rate by 500%

 

Why Logo Placement is Essential to your Company Website

 

7 Design Lessons from Silicon Valley’s Most Important Failure

 

Adobe Shares Pantone’s Summer Trending Colours

 

Want more? No problem! Keep track of top design news from around the web with Webdesigner News.

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

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Logging Activity With The Web Beacon API

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

Smashing Editorial
(ra, il)

Exclusive Freebie: Communication  Icon Pack

Original Source: https://inspiredm.com/exclusive-freebie-communication-icon-pack/

The power of communication cannot be underestimated, especially not with the Freepik Communication Icon Pack. It has everything that you could think of in relation communication in the modern world. 

From smart slick cameras, tablets, and folders you have everything you can think of. Communication is all around us and is changing as the world evolves and modernizes. This icon pack is a constant reminder of that. There are three versions of each icon available and they are 100 percent editable which means you can customize them to suit your needs.

Each icon is free to download and even better you can find more styles on the Freepik and Flaticon websites. You can use the icons from anything to postcards to stationary. Free for personal and commercial use!

Download this awesome resources from here.

The post Exclusive Freebie: Communication  Icon Pack appeared first on Inspired Magazine.

What it's like to be a Batman artist: Tony S Daniel shares his story

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.

Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Batman and the Flash striking a heroic pose

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.

Batman looking down on the Joker surrounded by doll heads

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.

Catwoman feasts on pop corn as she watches Batman fight the Joker

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.

Deathstroke and Harley Quinn amongst the ruins of Gotham

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. 

Related articles:

How to create a comic page5 ways to improve your digital art skillsHow to colour comics

Collective #438

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tympanus/~3/zfuMSJF18o8/

C438_WOTW

Inspirational Website of the Week: Volt By Drive

A great game-like design with some nice animations. Our pick this week.

Get inspired

C438_NW

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Earn your master’s in Information Design and Strategy

Learn to blend digital skills like information architecture & experience design in Northwestern’s online master’s program for designers.

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C438_city

Little Big City

A fantastic project by Yi Shen: generating a real city on a little planet with the help of ClayGL.

Check it out

C438_game

Pyxel

Pyxel is a retro game development environment in Python.

Check it out

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Introducing Fusion.js: A Plugin-based Universal Web Framework

Leo Horie from Uber Engineering introduces Fusion.js, an open source web framework for building lightweight, high-performing apps.

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The Cost Of JavaScript In 2018

Addy Osmani covers some strategies you can use to deliver JavaScript efficiently while still giving users a valuable experience.

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theDoodleLibrary

A fantastic collection of free, reusable drawings and doodles in a vector (SVG) format.

Check it out

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CSS exclusions with Queen Bey

Chen Hui Jing writes about CSS Exclusions and new CSS features in general,? and why we should keep them out regardless of current browsers’ support.

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Taskbook

Taskbook enables you to effectively manage your tasks and notes across multiple boards from within your terminal.

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The Clipboard API Crashcourse

A practical guide to the Clipboard API by David East.

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C438_bullshitweb

The Bullshit Web

A very interesting article by Nick Heer on the course the web took concerning unnecessary page load for questionable purposes.

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Dynamic resources using the Network Information API and service workers

Learn about the new Network Information API that allows developers to determine the connection types and the underlying connection technology that the user agent is using. By Dean Hume.

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CodeZen

With this tool you can generate shareable and elegant images from your source code.

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Between.js

A lightweight JavaScript (ES6) tweening library by Alexander Buzin.

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UI Sources

Get real product insights from the best designed and top grossing apps on the App Store with this email newsletter.

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Performance Techniques in 2017

A slide deck with lots of info on getting native performance with new Web APIs.

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The trick to viewport units on mobile

Louis Hoebregts shows an interesting trick to get viewport units behave on mobile.

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ReportingObserver: know your code health

Eric Bidelman writes about the ReportingObserver, a new API that lets you know when your site uses a deprecated API or runs into a browser intervention.

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Improve your motion

An article by Erick Leopoldo with practical tips on how to make animations better.

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Free Font: Bivona

A playful, energetic font by Dathan Boardman from Rocket Type.

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Space Loader

A great space themed loader by Chris Gannon.

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Collective #438 was written by Pedro Botelho and published on Codrops.

Be Legendary. Nike Branding Concept for Tokyo 2020

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abduzeedo/~3/4wQsSWfJdIg/be-legendary-nike-branding-concept-tokyo-2020

Be Legendary. Nike Branding Concept for Tokyo 2020

Be Legendary. Nike Branding Concept for Tokyo 2020

AoiroStudio
Aug 02, 2018

Daniele Caruso is a freelance illustrator based in Swindon, United Kingdom. He is working mainly in illustration, graphic design and branding. We are taking a look at his branding concept for Nike: Be Legendary, for the upcoming and anticipated Tokyo 2020. With the tagline “legendary”, Daniele included mythological creatures to create an artistic atmosphere alongside with the colour palette that totally reminds me of Dotonbori (the bright heart) from Osaka, Japan. What do you think? Would you like this kind of visual approach if it was from Nike.

More Links
danielecaruso.com
Behance
Be Legendary. Nike Branding Concept for Tokyo 2020Be Legendary. Nike Branding Concept for Tokyo 2020Be Legendary. Nike Branding Concept for Tokyo 2020Be Legendary. Nike Branding Concept for Tokyo 2020

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The best colour tools for web designers

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/XoqHAngN_VI/the-best-colour-tools-for-web-designers

As web designers, one of the most important choices we make has to do with our colour selections. Choose the wrong ones, and you might just lose out on an opportunity. It's true – the colours we choose can have a psychological impact on those who view them.

For example, red is generally viewed as a high-energy colour, while blue implies calmness and peace. To illustrate this point, consider the colours you might use on a website selling children's toys versus a site for a law firm. Chances are, you'll go with bright, vibrant colours for the former, and muted tones of blue and grey for the latter.

But how do you know which colours work well together? Luckily, you don't have to be a master at colour theory to put together a workable colour palette. To help you with the important task of colour selection, here are some of the best free colour web design tools (plus one special bonus at the end for Mac users).

01. HueSnap

hue snap colour tool

Snap inspiration on the go and turn it into colour palettes

Inspiration can strike at any time. It might be the decor of a hotel room or the light in the park one evening that sparks the inspiration for your next website colour scheme. For when that happens, HueSnap is here to help. You can snap a photo and use HueSnap to extract the colours from the image and make them into a palette. 

The app is tailored for mobile use, and you can save and share your palettes with others. There are plenty of features to help you modify a palette, such as options to choose complementary and compound colours, and your palettes can have up to six colours each.

02. Khroma

khroma colour tools

Khroma uses AI to suggest colours you’ll like

Khroma is an AI colour tool that aims to help you easily browse and compare original colour combinations. With it, users train an AI algorithm to act like an extension of their brain. Users start by picking 50 colours they like, and these colours are used to train a neural network that can recognise hundreds of thousands of other similar colours. Find out more about Khroma and how to use it here.

03. Coolors.co

Laptop, desktop and mobile screens displaying colour palettes

The Explore section includes hundreds – if not thousands – of palette options

Coolors offers a wide variety of tools for adjusting the palette just the way you want it. In addition, you can export your final creation in many different formats so you can use it virtually wherever you want. 

Coolors isn’t just a tool to create a colour palette, it also allows you to view other completed creations from other users so that you can draw inspiration. The Explore section has hundreds (if not thousands) of palettes you can view, save, and edit yourself. Even better, Coolors is available on desktop computers, and as an iOS application, an Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator add-on – and even a Google Chrome Extension for easy access.

04. Adobe Color CC

Colour wheel selection screen with adjustment tools

This has been around a while, but is still incredibly useful

Free tool Adobe Color CC has been around for a while, and it's one of the best colour tools out there for picking a colour palette. Not only can you create your own colour schemes, but you can also explore what others have created. 

Select a colour from the wheel or from an image and apply colour rules such as only using complementary colours, monochromatic colours or shades of the colour you select, to generate a colour palette. Or, click on each colour and explore the colour wheel to customise the selection. As an added bonus, you can save the themes you create to your Adobe library.

05. Colordot

Bars of colours with reference numbers

Use simple mouse gestures to build up your colour palette

Colordot by Hailpixel is an excellent free online tool for creating a colour palette. Using simple mouse gestures, you can select and save colours. Move your mouse back and forth for hue; up and down for lightness; scroll for saturation and click to save a colour to your palette. Click the tog icon to see each colours RGB and HSL values. It also has a $0.99/£0.99 iOS app that allows you to capture colours with your camera.

06. Eggradients

eggradients screen shot

Gradient inspiration and thought-provoking names

Eggradients offers ideas for beautiful gradients to use within your design work, put together by someone with both a great eye for colour and an interesting sense of humour. Each gradient, displayed in an egg shape, comes with its own thought-provoking name. Examples include 'Wozniak’s Broken Heart' for a pale blue and 'Merciful Enemy' for a yellow to green transition. 

07. 147 Colors

Grid of multicoloured swatches

This free tool includes the standard CSS colours

When you're responsible for generating easy-to-read CSS, sometimes using standard colours and colour names is the way to go. Thanks to 147 Colors by Brian Maier Jr, you can get a glimpse of all of them, and pick the ones that work for you. 

It contains the 17 standard colours, plus 130 other CSS colour names. Filter the results by shades of blue, green and so on, or choose from the full rainbow of 147 colours.

08. Canva Color Palette Generator

Canvas tool colour selection screen

Create a colour palette based on an image

The Color Palette Generator by Canva is perfect if you're looking to create a colour palette based around a particular image.  Although other tools offer similar options, Canva’s is super-simple to use: you upload an image and the generator will return a palette of the five main colours contained in it. You can click on the colours you like and copy the HEX value to your clipboard.

Unfortunately, this is where the usefulness of Canva’s offering ends, as this is all you can do with its palette generator – you cannot adjust the colours of the palette. The only other options you have are to copy the hex values provided or upload another photo.

09. Material Design Palette

Material Design Palette selection screen

Create a palette based on Google’s Material Design principles

With Material Design Palette you can select two colours, which are then converted into a full colour palette for you to download, complete with a preview. 

The company also offers Material Design Colors, which enables designers to see the different shades of a colour, along with their corresponding HEX values.

10. ColourCode

Bars of colours with HEX values

Save and export colour palettes as SCSS, LESS or PNG files

ColourCode by Tamino Martinius and Andreas Storm is similar to Colordot, but it offers a bit more guidance. This free tool hits you right in the face, showcasing a background that changes colours with your cursor movement. Besides that, this tool offers different categories for the palette (analogue, triad, quad, monochrome, monochrome light etc). 

With ColourCode, you can set different options along the colour wheel to create an original combination. You can also save your palette or export it as a SCSS or LESS file. You can even export to PNG, if you'd like.

11. Color Calculator

Colour Calculator instruction screen

Select a colour and a colour harmony, and this tool will generate a colour palette

The Color Calculator is straightforward: you select a colour and a colour harmony option. In return, you get back the results of your recommended colour scheme. 

What's nice about this site, however, is that it also goes into a little bit of detail about colour theory and how it relates to your colour choices.

12. HTML Color Code

HTML Color Code download screen

This suite of tools includes a list of standard colour names

This bulging free suite of tools by Dixon & Moe includes an in-depth colour picker with plenty of explanations of colour rules; a series of colour charts featuring flat design colours, Google's Material design scheme and the classic web safe colour palette; and a list of standard HTML colour names and codes. 

This site also offers tutorials and other resources for web designers, and options to export results from its tools as HEX codes, HTML, CSS and SCSS styles.

13. W3Schools: Colors Tutorial

Colors Tutorial naming examples screen

This free tutorial includes links to a number of handy colour tools

If you're looking for an all-in-one solution that includes a guide to colours, as well as a number of different tools, then the Colors Tutorial at W3Schools is the perfect choice.

Not only can you learn about colour theory, colour wheels, and colour hues, but you'll also be able to use the other tools it has, such as the Color Converter. With this tool, you're able to convert any colour to-and-from names, HEX codes, RGB, HSL, HWB and CMYK values.

14. Digital Color Meter (Mac)

Example of Digital Color Meter in action

Mac’s built-in tool lets you grab colours from your screen

OK, Mac users… this one's for you. With your machine's built-in Digital Color Meter tool, you can 'grab' a colour from anywhere on your screen, then get the values for that colour as a decimal, hexadecimal, or percentage. Plus, you can even 'copy' the selected colour as a text or image.

Read more:

If celebrities were Pantone colours3 huge colour trends for 2018How to pick the perfect colour palette every time