Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abduzeedo/~3/CFkmfkNoF1o/ashes-beautiful-art-benefits-california-wildfire-relief-funds

From the Ashes: Beautiful Art Benefits California Wildfire Relief funds

ibby
Oct 13, 2017

If you’ve been following the horrific wildfires ravaging our beloved wine country here in California you may enjoy a moment to take in a small piece of positive news proving art can really rally a movement for good. Enter the amazing husband/wife duo Eric Rewitzer and Annie Galvin, the founders of printmaking workshop 3 Fish Studios located in San Francisco’s Sunset District. Annie created a lovable watercolor print of a California poppy rising from the ashes to pay homage to the victims of this heart-wrenching natural disaster while also doing their part to contribute to the relief effort. Through today, ALL proceeds of 3 Fish Studios iconic I LOVE YOU CALIFORNIA collection will go to support relief efforts for those affected by the California wildfires. 3 Fish have also just released a set of inspirational cards, printed on donated 16-point card stock featuring the “rising from the ashes” print. The four-card packs ($10) will also benefit ongoing relief efforts. An inspiring story from an inspiring couple doing their part to make a difference through art. 

ABOUT 3 FISH STUDIOS

Eric Rewitzer and Annie Galvin are printmakers and painters, husband and wife, and founders of 3 Fish Studios. The Outer Sunset hub is home to their workshop and studio, where art happens daily and visitors are always welcome; they love collaborating, making, and sharing creative projects with cool folks.

Annie was born and raised in Ireland. She worked as an illustrator in a Dublin agency before moving to San Francisco in 1989, two weeks before the earthquake.  Annie is inspired by San Francisco, Vogue magazine, comic books, Josef Frank textile designs, gardens, Mexican wrestlers, the short stories of Haruki Murakami, and her own dreams and daydreams. She doodles constantly.

Eric was born and raised on the industrial shores of Lake Michigan. He studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art, and moved to the west coast in 1987. Eric finds constant inspiration in the scale and diversity of the the California culture and landscape, and will forever love the mix of natural beauty, urban grit, and human diversity on display in San Francisco.

Annie and Eric met in Berkeley in 1998, were married in 2001, and started 3 Fish Studios in 2007. From its original space in the Dogpatch to its now permanent place in the Ocean Beach Republic, the pair have created a dedicated space where they can make and show their work together, and invite people—neighbors and newbies alike—to do the same. 

watercolor
3 Fish Studios
california wildfire

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/ag5mUpLgq3k/colour-theory-11121290

Colour is such a pervasive part of everything we visually encounter in the world, that for many designers it becomes an intuitive choice. If you think back to school though, you'll recall being told at a young age that there are three 'primary' colours – Red, Yellow, and Blue. We were all taught that any colour can be created by mixing these three colours in varying quantities.

It turns out that this isn't quite right (although it's still workable enough in practice to be taught the world over to five-year-olds).

Get Adobe Creative Cloud
How colour is formed

Colour theory stretches back to at least the 15th century

Understanding how colour is formed and, more importantly, the relationships between different colours, can help you to use colour more effectively in your designs.

The Bauhaus school understood this in the 1920s and 1930s, with staff and students going on to develop colour theories for evoking particular moods and emotions through choice of palette in design and architecture.

The theory of colour is a discipline that stretches back much further than that – at least to the 15th century – and encompasses physics, chemistry and mathematics to fully define and explain the concepts. However, much of this is unnecessary to being able to use colour effectively. 

This quick primer will give you a handy overview of all the important aspects to help you start making informed decisions.

Colour systems

There are two primary colour systems – methods by which colour is reproduced: additive and subtractive (also known as reflective). We use both on a daily basis – the screen you’re reading this article on uses additive colour to generate all the colours you see, while the book you’re reading uses subtractive colour for its front cover.

In simple terms – anything that emits light (such as the sun, a screen, a projector, etc) uses additive, while everything else (which instead reflects light) uses subtractive colour.

01. Additive

Additive colour is based on red, green, and blue – RGB for short

Additive colour works with anything that emits or radiates light. The mixture of different wavelengths of light creates different colours, and the more light you add, the brighter and lighter the colour becomes.

When using additive colour, we tend to consider the building block (primary) colours to be Red, Green, and Blue (RGB), and this is the basis for all colour you use on screen. In additive colour, white is the combination of colour, while black is the absence of colour.

02. Subtractive

Subtractive colour is based on cyan, magenta, and yellow

Subtractive colour works on the basis of reflected light. Rather than pushing more light out, the way a particular pigment reflects different wavelengths of light determines its apparent colour to the human eye.

Subtractive colour, like additive, has three primary colours – Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow (CMY). In subtractive colour white is the absence of colour, while black is the combination of colour, but it’s an imperfect system.

The pigments we have available to use don’t fully absorb light (preventing reflected colour wavelengths), so we have to add a fourth compensating pigment to account for this limitation.

We call this “Key”, hence CMYK, but essentially it’s black. Without this additional pigment, the closest to black we’d be able to render in print would be a muddy brown.

The colour wheel

The modern colour wheel has been in use since the 18th century

In order to make it easier to see the relationship between different colours, the concept of the modern colour wheel was developed around the 18th century. These early wheels plotted the different primary colours around a circle, mixing different primary colours together in strict ratios to achieve secondary and tertiary colours.

The colour wheel allows us to see at a glance which colours are complementary (opposite each other on the wheel), analogous (adjacent to each other on the wheel), triadic (three colours positioned at 120 degrees on the wheel from each other) and so on.

Each of these relationships can produce pleasing colour combinations. There are many more pleasing relationships between colours based on their position on the wheel. There are free apps for picking a colour scheme, or you could use your designer's eye to pick your own. Click through to the next page for a little help on this.

Next page: the three components of colour, colour gamut, and more…

The three components of a colour

The three component parts that help us define a colour are hue, saturation and brightness

Yellow is yellow is yellow, right? Well, actually, no; there are many different colours we could refer to as yellow. Different shades or tints, saturations and hues are all possible while still being within the yellow part of the colour wheel. As a result, there are three primary component parts that help us define a colour:

01. Hue

This is the position on the colour wheel, and represents the base colour itself. This is typically referred to in degrees (around the colour wheel), so a yellow colour will appear between 50 and 60 degrees, with the perfect yellow appearing at 56 degrees. Green, meanwhile, appears at 120 degrees on the wheel at so on.

02. Saturation

This is a representation of how saturated (or rich) a colour is. Low saturation results in less overall colour, eventually becoming a shade of grey when fully desaturated. Saturation is normally referred to as a percentage between 0 and 100%.

03. Brightness

This is how bright a colour is, typically expressed as a percentage between 0 and 100%. A yellow at 0% brightness will be black, while the same yellow hue and saturation at 100% brightness will be the full yellow colour.

Colour gamut

Colour gamut describes the range of potential colours a system can reproduce

Colour gamut is a way of describing the full range of potential colours a system can reproduce. It may surprise you to learn that the range of colours achievable in CMYK is different to that you can achieve with RGB.

This is partially because of the nature of the two different systems, but also (in the real world at least) as a consequence of limitations in our technology – screens aren’t always capable of producing the same range of colours as each other, and pigments reflect light at a non-uniform rate as you reduce their saturation.

Colour perception

Finally, it’s worth looking at how different colours can affect the way we perceive other colours. A typical illustration of this features a mid-grey tone placed over a light grey background, and the same mid-grey tone shown over a dark grey background.

The apparent brightness of the mid-grey is altered according to the context in which you see it – a trick of the eye, working to make sense of its surroundings. Hues works in the same way as tones when placed adjacent to other colours, allowing you to create different effects using the same palette of colours.

Further reading

There's more to explore in the world of colour, which is why we've got a tag for all of our articles on the subject of colour. Visit creativebloq.com/tag/colour to explore our latest colour articles, or read some of these highlights below.

01. The designer’s guide to using colour in branding

Colour sells. Whether you’re working with a product, service or space, the ‘right’ combinations of colours can influence how someone feels, thinks and behaves – with powerful results.

What are the ‘right’ combinations, and how can designers sidestep subjective debates to harness the power of colour more effectively in branding projects? Computer Arts magazine takes a look in this guide, speaking to experts in colour branding and looking at tools to help you make the right choices.

02. How to pick the perfect colour palette every time

In the 1980s, colour psychologist Angela Wright identified links between patterns of colour and patterns of human behaviour. She went on to develop the Colour Affects System, which identifies links between four colour groups and four basic personality types, based on original research involving Aristotle, Newton and German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

If harnessed correctly, designers can use the Colour Affects System to control the message of their colour palettes and, crucially, kill subjective debate around colour in client meetings with evidence to back up their decisions. This guide from Computer Arts magazine's colour issue explains how it works…

03. How to manage colours in Photoshop

This article provides a great overview for users who are new to colour management, with practical advice for managing colours in Photoshop.

It explores how to convert your images from RGB to CMYK mode, and the effect this will have on the colours within your image; how to customise your colour settings to suit your particular needs; and how to sync your colour profile across all of your Adobe CC apps, add a particular colour profile provided by your printer, and preview a CMYK version of your design without losing any RGB information.

Get Adobe Creative Cloud
04. 10 colour management terms designers need to know

Getting your colours right means getting your head around some tricky terms. There are a number of jargon terms that might baffle you – so we've put together this handy guide. 

Have a read, and you'll soon be able to sort your spectrophotometer from your tristimulus colorimeter…

05. 4 ways to master colour in logo design

Colour is a universal language in design. It can help convey a brand’s personality, create market standout, and evoke an emotional response. This article reveals four ways to work with colour more effectively in your logo design work… 

06. Outstanding uses of colour in branding

Successfully 'owning' a colour is a big deal. With this in mind, we've explored how different brands around the world have staked their respective claims to 10 colours – in some cases with considerable success.

07. The best colour tools for web designers

For web designers, one of the most important choices to make is over colour selections. Choose the wrong ones, and you might just lose out on an opportunity.

But how do you know which colours work well together? To help with the important task of colour selection, this article points you in the direction of some of the best free colour tools on the web (plus one special bonus at the end for Mac users).

Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/warnings-and-errors-in-sass/

The following is a short extract from our book, Jump Start Sass, written by Hugo Giraudel and Miriam Suzanne. It’s the ultimate beginner’s guide to JavaScript. SitePoint Premium members get access with their membership, or you can buy a copy in stores worldwide.

Our incredible journey through Sass is slowly coming to an end, and so far you’ve been doing great! There’s one technical chapter left before we look at project architecture, and then you’ll be fully equipped to write Sass code in your own projects.

Now we’re going to look at warnings and errors. Both form a one-way communication system between the program (in this case, Sass) and the developer (you). If you’re wondering about the point of errors in the CSS world, remember that you already know the answer. Whenever you forget a semicolon or use a function incorrectly, Sass throws an error at you, explaining what you’ve done wrong and how you can fix it, thankfully! It would be a real pain to have to dig into the code to figure out what’s gone wrong.

Sass has long provided a way to emit warnings from stylesheets, but it’s only recently added support to throw errors as well—and for good reason! Over the last few years, Sass has allowed authors to build complex systems to abstract difficult or repetitive patterns and concepts, such as grids. These systems must be able to communicate with authors, stopping the compilation process with a custom error message if anything ever goes wrong.

Both warnings and errors are emitted in the current output channel. When compiling Sass by hand or by using a tool through a command line interface (CLI) such as Grunt or Gulp, the output stream is the console. For tools that include a user interface, such as Codekit or Prepros, it’s likely that they catch and display warnings and errors as part of their interface. Online playgrounds such as CodePen and SassMeister manage to catch errors but not warnings, so don’t be alarmed if you’re unable to test them in there.

Warnings

As has been stated, the ability to emit warnings in Sass is not new. It’s possible to display messages or the value of any SassScript expression to the standard output stream through the @warn directive.

A warning has no impact on the compilationprocess; it does not prevent compiling to pursue or change it in any way. Its only purpose is to display a message in the console.

There are a lot of reasons to use warnings in Sass. Here are a couple, but you’re likely to find your own:

informing the user of an assumption made about the code in order to avoid surprise and hard-to-track bugs
advising about a deprecated function or mixin as part of a library or framework

Sending a warning is dead simple to do: start with the @warn directive, then state whatever it is. Warnings are usually made to provide some information and context, so they often feature a sentence explaining the situation. That being said, you don’t have to use a string; you can warn with a number, a list, a map—whatever. Here, we print a string:

@warn ‘Uh-oh, something looks weird.’;

Using a regular CLI client, this warning will emit the following output:

WARNING: Uh-oh, something looks weird.
on line 1 of /Users/hgiraudel/jump-start-sass/warning.scss

Hey, that’s nice, isn’t it? Although this warning is far from helpful. It says that something looks weird but does not say what, why, or what can be done to stop it from looking weird. We’ll discuss how we can improve on warnings further on.

Let’s move on to a more serious example now that we know how to use he feature. Imagine we have a Sass custom function that attempts to convert a pixel value in em unit:

@function px-to-em($value, $base-font-size: 16px) {
@return ($value / $base-font-size) * 1em;
}

// Usage
.foo {
font-size: px-to-em(42px); // 2.625em
}

All good. Now, what happens when passing a unitless number—such as 42—to the function? Maybe you’ve guessed it, but as it’s not quite obvious I’ll give you the answer:

2.625em/px isn’t a valid CSS value.

This happens because you’re trying to perform a calculation between incompatible units (px and em). What we could do to circumvent this issue is assume the unitless value be expressed in pixels and convert it first:

@function px-to-em($value, $base-font-size: 16px) {
@if unitless($value) {
@warn ‘Assuming value `#{$value}` to be in pixels; attempting to convert it.’;
$value: $value * 1px;

}

@return ($value / $base-font-size) * 1em;
}

The function is expecting a value expressed in pixels. We can still make it work with a unitless value; however, we cannot be sure that this is the expected behavior. We can only assume that it’s good enough.

Because we’re assuming what is the correct behavior for our function, it’s important to let the developer know what we’re doing and why. Otherwise it could lead to bugs that are hard to track, which is not
what you should be aiming for.

Another practical example would be to warn against the usage of a deprecated function or mixin. You might have already heard of or used Bourbon, a lightweight mixin library for Sass. Bourbon is actively maintained, and sometimes requires removing helpers from the library. To avoid suddenly breaking a person’s ode, Bourbon warns about future deprecations way before it actually removes mixins:

@mixin inline-block {
display: inline-block;

@warn ‘The `inline-block` mixin is deprecated and will be removed in the next major version release.’;
}

Clever! People who still use the inline-block mixin from Bourbon are aware that the library will remove it completely in the next version, so they know to start updating their codebase to remove the mixin.

The Difference between @warn and @debug

You may or may not be familiar with the @debug directive, which prints the value of a SassScript expression to the standard output stream in the same fashion as @warn. You might be wondering why there are two features performing the same task, and what could possibly be the difference between the two.

Continue reading %How to Use Warnings and Errors in Sass Effectively%

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Designrfix/~3/x8o96OEanUY/5-common-mobile-app-development-mistakes

Forrester predicted that 46% of the global population will use smartphones by the end of 2016 and they were spot on. According to Neilson report, 89% of the time spent on smartphones is spent in using mobile apps. According to Google, 25% of mobile apps are never used while 26% of mobile apps are abandoned […]

The post 5 Common Mobile App Development Mistakes You Should Never Make appeared first on designrfix.com.

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2017/10/20-best-new-portfolio-sites-october-2017/

Hey WDD readers, it’s October, so you know what that means: it’s time for Christmas-themed websites! No, I wouldn’t actually do that to you. But I don’t have any Halloween-themed websites either. It’s probably for the best.

What I do have is yet another almost-even mix of design trends and aesthetics. Could this be the end of bandwagon-hopping? Could we possibly be that lucky? I doubt it, but the last few months have been pure pleasure in terms of variety, and I hope this continues.

Heartbeat

Today, we start off with Heartbeat, a web and app agency. Their site, while hearkening back to the days of pure minimalism, is loaded with personality, and some pretty ingenious animation. This is the first time in a while that animated inter-page transitions haven’t just annoyed me.

I’d also note how their contact form is dead simple and short. And if even that’s too much for a given client, they put their phone number, Skype ID, and email right where potential customers can find them. I’m sold, and I don’t even need them to make me anything.

Anakin

Believe is or not, Anakin has nothing to do with a certain notable whiny villain who only stops whining when they cut his limbs off, which is presumably one of the better times to whine. It’s a design studio. It’s got that post-minimalist style, lots of white space, and elegant (if somewhat small at times) typography. Some aspects of their site (especially the labels on their contact form) could use a lot more contrast, but otherwise, this site is darned pretty.

Jony Guedj

Jony Guedj is a filmmaker, and his site makes that very, very clear. I mean, the portfolio itself is basically a minimalist “film reel”, with a timeline at the bottom that is reminiscent of video editing apps. The site might be minimalist, but it’s creative, and gets the point across fairly quickly. Plus, I’d say it’s a fantastic example of how to use a horizontally scrolling layout.

George Hastings

George Hastings’ portfolio is a simple, but finely crafted affair. The colors are striking, the type is solid, and the little animations are downright superb. It feels like minimalism had a brief fling with brutalism, and the result is a site that manages to feel utilitarian in a way, but still quite pretty. Also, you should absolutely have a look at this guy’s code and design experiments.

Elsa Muse

Elsa Muse’s work is about as artsy as you can get, and so is her site. It’s got some textbook post-minimalism [I should be writing that textbook] blended rather harshly with the boldest colors out there. The header of the home page is one of those designs that’s a bit of an eyesore on purpose. It’s supposed to stand out, rather than sooth. In a way, it’s genius. With this kind of site, you’ll only ever attract the sort of clients who love your style.

Dries Van Broeck

Dries Van Broeck is a motion designer. While the rest of his site is definitely well-crafted, you’ll be coming here for the animation most of all. So obviously, all of his work and many random site elements are animated, bouncing around, and generally pretty lively. Is it a bit distracting? Yes, but that is literally his job. I’d say this site sells his skills pretty well.

Alex Hunting Studio

Alex Hunting Studio has gone for the white-with-black-lines style of minimalism that used to be everywhere. It’s clean, it fits the textbook modern aesthetic, and presents their projects in slideshow format. They went for that “like a magazine, but online” look, and I’d say they nailed it.

Simon Ammann

Simon Ammann doesn’t take minimalism to a whole new level, but he comes pretty close. Until you actually click through to a project, it’s all about that very small amount of text. Basically, he gets to the point. And he uses white space pretty much perfectly.

Timothy Achumba

Timothy Achumba is a product designer at Facebook, and the experience shows in his work. It’s dark, it’s sleek, it’s pretty. While the UI is simple and unassuming (as portfolios go, anyway), I couldn’t find a single flaw to criticize. Okay, maybe I would have made the contact info more prominent; but this guy’s working for Facebook. He doesn’t need regular clients to hire him often. He just needs to show off his near-flawless work until he moves on to the next billion-dollar corporation.

Matthew Vernon

Matthew Vernon’s portfolio took a fairly normal business site layout and gave it a semi-retro feel with magazine-like typography, and that classic “Internet Blue”. It’s a simple change to a simple site; but it gives the whole thing a bit of a nostalgic feel, while still looking professional.

Malte Gruhl

Malte Gruhl’s website is as psychedelic as his name. That’s really the only way I can properly describe it. Oh sure, “artsy”, “post-minimalist”, “etc.”… these are all fairly accurate descriptors. But really, it’s a bit more like a chaotic art project than a website. I don’t know if it will sell his services, but it’s definitely hard to forget. I’d almost hire the guy just to see what would happen.

Tyler Hancock

After that last visual feast, Tyler Hancock’s light, minimalist, and type-driven portfolio is soothing to the eyes, even while bordering on brutalism. With big text and bigger images, this site is a delight for anyone who prefers simplicity and order in a site design.

Matt Lee

Matt Lee bills himself as a “creative developer”, and judging by his site, I’d say he earned the title. What looks to be—at first glance—a typical dark layout turns out to be quite stylish. From the typography, to the “pixel” theme (you’ll see what I mean if you look hard at the backgrounds), to the way he uses photographs to reinforce the site’s visual themes, everything is put together beautifully.

Laboratorium

Laboratorium isn’t anything groundbreaking, but it’s a pretty, and well-made site. I do particularly like the way they handle large resolutions, though.

Ben Bate

Ben Bate’s portfolio only looks like it was made with Bootstrap. it’s actually custom made to look like Bootstrap! Okay, all jokes aside, this is an interesting one due to the sales strategy, rather than the aesthetics. Instead of depending on images or the usual copy to sell services, there’s a whole lot of social proof. You get to see the brands Ben has worked for before you even get to see examples of his work. There’s even a few classic testimonials at the bottom of the page.

Even more interesting is his sales pitch: you tell him what you want, and he’ll prepare a PDF of relevant work samples. And hey, at that point, you’re already in email contact with him, right? It’s clever, and requires no more work on the part of the client than usual.

Booreiland

Booreiland is a Dutch digital agency that combines a fairly familiar layout with basically all of my favorite little twists: The effective use of yellow. Drop shadows that don’t suck. Animation that, while obvious, feels understated, and wouldn’t totally break the site were it to go missing. Fantastic type. It’s all good.

LatinMedios

I live in Mexico, and I can tell you that design sensibilities south of the border trend toward the extremely colorful. LatinMedios doesn’t go full double rainbow, but they have kept some of that color in their branding. To be fair, it’s in some of their work, too. It depends on the client.

The rest of the site is a classic nearly-monochromatic business portfolio, with background animations and all the trimmings. It’s a blend of design thinking that could only come from the collision between two or more cultures. LatinMedios is in the U.S., Mexico, and several places in South America, so that just fits.

Upperquad

Upperquad brings us a site that’s just plain pretty. It embraces that post-minimalist style, with soft colors, big type, and some subtle (and sometimes not-subtle) animation to spice things up. The use of seemingly randomized geometric shapes adds to the feeling of asymmetry and artful chaos; but the site itself is still simple and usable.

Xigen

Xigen is another one that is just plain pretty and well-done, while not going too experimental. Give it a look!

Untold

Untold is last, but not least, with a lovely dark, elegant website that gets right to the point. Mind you, it comes with the usual drawbacks of a site that’s meant to be elegant: namely the small body text size. I don’t know when small text got classified as “modern and elegant”, but I’m going to blame the print industry, as usual. (Just kidding, I love you guys.)

550+ Watercolor Textures, Backgrounds & Elements – only $17!

Source

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