Jeremy Keith has written a new book all about service workers and offline functionality that releases at the end of the month. The first chapter is posted on A List Apart. Now that the latest versions of iOS and macOS Safari support service workers, I can’t think of a better time to learn about how progressive web apps work under the hood. In fact, here’s an example of a simple offline site and a short series on making web apps work offline.
News of Jeremy’s book had me going back through his previous book, Resilient Web Design, where I half-remembered this super interesting quote from Chapter 4:
If you build something using web technologies, and someone visits with a web browser, you can’t be sure how many of the web technologies will be supported. It probably won’t be 100%. But it’s also unlikely to be 0%. Some people will visit with iOS devices. Others will visit with Android devices. Some people will get 80% or 90% of what you’ve designed. Others will get just 20%, 30%, or 50%. The web isn’t a platform. It’s a continuum.
I love this idea of the web as a continuum that’s constantly improving and growing over time and so I’m sure Jeremy’s latest book will be just as fun and interesting.
In this tutorial, I will teach you how to create an African celebratory pattern in Adobe Illustrator. To bring this pattern to life, we’ll create different elements that represent African culture such as sacred African symbols, shapes, and silhouettes, and then we’ll combine all the elements to create a seamless pattern. Excited? Let’s get started then!
1. How to Set Up the Canvas
Create a new 600 px by 600 px document in Illustrator with the given settings:
2. How to Create the Triangles
Step 1
We’ll start by forming the first element of our pattern: triangles. First, select the Polygon Tool, and thenclick once on the canvas and change the radius to 50 px and the Sides to 3.
Step 2
Next, change the fill color to teal #14aaa3.
Step 3
Now that we have changed the color of the first triangle, we want to duplicate the triangle and rotate it. Activate the Selection Tool (V), and then select the shape and hold down Alt on the keyboard, and drag the shape while pressing Shift. Next, press Control-D seven times to create more triangles.
Step 4
Now that we have our triangles, we want to group them and change the rotation. Activate the Selection Tool (V), select all the triangles, and press Control-G to group them.Next, select the grouped elements, Right-click, select Transform, and then Rotate. Change the angle to 180.
Step 5
Now, we want to center the shapes. Select the elements, and then press Shift-F7 to bring out the Align panel and click on Horizontal Align Center. Make sure to select Align to Artboard in the Align adjustment panel.
Step 6
Next, we want to add another layer of triangles on top. Activate the Selection Tool (V), and thenselect the triangles, hold down Alt, and drag the shape slightly on top while pressing Shift. Fill it in yellow #edb71e.
3. How to Create the Circles and the African Symbol
Step 1
Create a new layer and name it medium circles. Then, activate the Ellipse Tool (L), fill it with red #e22227, and click on the canvas. Change the Width and Height to 20 px.
Step 2
Next, place the circle between the first two triangles. Activate the Selection Tool (V), select the circle, hold down Alt, and drag the shape down while pressing Shift as shown below.
Step 3
Now, we want to duplicate the circles between each triangle. Activate the Selection Tool (V), select the circles, and press Control-G to group them. Then, hold down Alt and drag the shapes into the spaces while pressing Shift as shown below.
Step 4
Before creating the African love symbol, we want to separate each part with thin rectangles. Activate the Rectangle Tool (M), fill it in red #e22227, and then click on the canvas and change the Width to 600 px and Height to 5.3333 px as shown below.
Step 5
Next, activate the Selection Tool (V) and place the shape under the triangles. Then duplicate the shape by pressing Alt on the keyboard, and drag the shape as shown below.
Step 6
Now we want to create the African love symbol. Create a new layer and name it Love symbol. Then, activate the Pen Tool (P) and start by drawing half of the shape as shown below.
Step 7
Then duplicate the shape by pressing Alt on the keyboard, and drag the shape as shown below.
Step 8
Now, we want to reflect the shape. Select the duplicated shape, Right-Click, and select Transform>Reflect.
Step 9
Now that we have reflected the shape, we want to finish the symbol. Activate the Pen Tool (P), click on the bottom right anchor point, and draw the shape as shown below.
Step 10
Next, select the Pen Tool (P), and click on the top left anchor point to finish the left wing as shown below.
Step 11
Now that we have finished drawing the symbol, we want to change the color. Fill it in a light yellow #fcde62. Next, activate the Selection Tool (V) and make the shape smaller, pressing Shift while resizing. Then, select the symbol and place it as shown below.
Next, we want to duplicate the shape. Select the symbol and hold down Alt on the keyboard, and drag the shape while pressing Shift. Next, press Control-D until the space is filled.
4. How to Create the Woman Silhouette
Step 1
Create a new layer and name it woman. Then, activate the Ellipse Tool (L) and fill it in cream #f4eabc, and click on the canvas. Change the Width and Height to 15 px.
Step 2
Then, select the Pen Tool (P) and start drawing the body as shown below. Start from the circle to the left arm and keep moving.
Step 3
Now that we have finished drawing the silhouette, activate the Selection Tool (V) and place the shape under the rectangle shape. Next, we want to duplicate the shape. Select the silhouette, hold down Alt on the keyboard, and drag the shape while pressing Shift.
Step 4
Next, we want to fill the space with more silhouettes. Press Control-D until the space is filled as shown below.
5. How to Create the Man Silhouette
Step 1
Before drawing the man silhouette, we want to break the designs with more lines and circles in between. First, drag one of the previous red rectangles, hold down Alt on the keyboard, and drag the shape while pressing Shift. Duplicate the shape twice, as shown below.
Step 2
Next, we want to fill the space between the two lines with small circles. Activate the Ellipse Tool (L), fill it in yellow #ecb71e, and click on the canvas. Change the Width and Height to 9 px.
Step 3
Now, use the Selection Tool (V) to place the circle between the two shapes, and duplicate the circle once. Press Alt on the keyboard and drag the shape while pressing Shift.Duplicate the circle as shown below.
Step 4
Next, we want to fill the space with more circles. Press Control-D until the space is filled as shown below.
Step 5
Now that we have broken down our pattern a little bit, we want to draw the man silhouette. Activate the Pen Tool (P) and draw the silhouette as shown below.
Step 6
Next, we want to draw another shape between the arms and the trumpet. Activate the Pen Tool (P) and draw the shape as shown below.
Step 7
Now that we’ve finished drawing the silhouette, we want to change the color and duplicate the silhouette to fill the space. Select the silhouette and fill it in cream #f4eabc. Then, select the shape between the arms and fill it in green #10755b. Next, select both shapes and press Control-G to group them. Then, press Alt on the keyboard, drag the shape while pressing Shift, and pressControl-D until the space is filled as shown below.
6. How to Create the Waves, Triangles, and Background
Step 1
First, we want to break down the pattern a little bit. Activate the Rectangle Tool (M), fill it with cream #f4eabc, and draw a thin rectangle under the silhouette as shown below.
Step 2
Now, we want to draw the waves. Choose the Pen Tool (P), fill it with blue #17aaa3, and then place each wave between the silhouettes as shown below.
Step 3
Next, we want to duplicate the triangles and circles from the top to the bottom. Select the triangles and circles and press Control-G to group them. Then, press Alt on the keyboard and drag the shapes under the rectangle as shown below. Hold Shift while duplicating. Next, select the duplicated elements, Right-Click, Transform>Rotate.
Step 4
Now that we have finished drawing all objects, we want to add our background. Create a new layer and name it background. Place this layer under all layers. Then, activate the Rectangle Tool (M) and fill it in green #10755b. Next, drag the rectangle all over the canvas as shown below.
7. How to Make the Pattern Seamless
Step 1
Now, we want to readjust the design to be able to make it seamless. All elements except the lines have to be inside the artboard. Activate the Selection Tool (V), select all the objects that are hanging on the sides, and resize them as shown below.
Step 2
Now that we have adjusted everything, we want to make a clipping mask to remove any objects hanging around the artboard. Activate the Rectangle Tool (M), fill it with white #ffffff, and click on the canvas. Change the Width and Height to 600 px. Then, select all elements, including the background, and Right-click > Make Clipping Mask.
Step 3
Here is the fun part! We can now make it seamless. Select the artwork, and then go to Object> Pattern > Make. Change the Width and Height to 600 px.
Congratulations! Our African Celebratory Pattern Is Done!
Great job! We’ve finished creating our African celebratory pattern. I hope this tutorial brought you a joyful mood and helped you to discover some new tips and tricks which will be useful for your future artworks! Keep creating.
In this tutorial we’ll create an editable business card mockup using very simple photography and Photoshop techniques. You’ll be able to transform your photo into a customizable template, to showcase your design with elegance.
A mockup is an editable template that you can use to showcase a replica/model of your final product: in the graphic design field, it’s used to offer your clients a very detailed preview of what they ordered—in this case, a photo of their printed business cards.
The Workflow
These are the steps we’re going through for this tutorial:
How to Design Your Card/Flyer. Use any software you prefer; Illustrator and InDesign are recommended when designing printable graphics.
How to Photograph the Business Cards. Place blank cards or any stationery element on a surface and take photos of them.
How to Choose and Edit the Photos in Photoshop. Choose the best photos and retouch the composition.
How to Add Smart Objects to the Photographs. The card design will be added using these smart templates that automatically apply transformations and filters to a given image.
You can apply the techniques used in this tutorial when creating any type of stationery or branding mockup, so that you can show your customers a photo of the final printed result, without having to actually print it.
Not everyone has access to professional photo shooting tools, but I will show you how to achieve a professional looking mockup nonetheless. For this tutorial, you need Adobe Photoshop CS5 (or superior) and the best camera that you can access (even a good smartphone camera is surprisingly efficient).
1. How to Design Your Business Card
Step 1
When you have to design a standard business card, consider the country to which you will have to deliver it and establish with your client the dimensions before starting your work. Each country has its own most used dimensions; you can refer to this guide for more information.
You most likely want to set up your document in Illustrator or InDesign, because they’re specifically created for the printing process. However, Photoshop can prepare a print document as well.
If you like to work in Photoshop when it comes to printable graphics, you can use these useful Photoshop Actions: they automatically create documents in CMYK mode, 300DPI, with most of the standard international print sizes, including bleeds (necessary for the printing process).
Step 2
When creating a mockup, you don’t need to consider the bleeds and cut size because you can just place your design in the correct position. However, you should always design a business card in vector format, with print-ready colors, and consider the necessary bleed amount. Check out more detailed guides on how to design a business card if you want more information.
For this tutorial, we’ll use this simple design that I prepared.
2. How to Prepare the Scene and Take Photos of Blank Business Cards
When it comes to photography, there’s a great abundance of guides and books dedicated to the photo shooting process: the lighting setup, the camera setup, etc. I’m not going to pretend to give you a complete explanation of these vast topics in these few lines, but I will tell you the simple key steps that will make your photo decent, even if the setup and the lights are not ideal.
Step 1
A darker photo is always better than a brighter one. To deal with an underexposed photo is easier than an overexposed one.To retouch a darker photo is better than a darker one because in Photoshop you can restore information from darker shadow areas and reveal some of the lost details a lot more easily than you can from areas that are too bright, where sometimes all the pixels are just plain white.
Step 2
Always have one or more dominant light sources. Try to have a clear light direction in order to create an attractive defined contrast between lights and shadows that will make your design a lot more distinguishable.
If you have no distinctive light in your scene, the subject will be very dull and bland in the final photo. You can use as many lights as you want. If you think the natural available light is too strong and will burn your shot, tune down the exposure in your camera: the correct exposure is always between 0 and -1.
Step 3
Be generous with the subject’s background.Maybe this is personal, but from experience I think it’s always better that you take a photo which includes more background than you will actually need: you can crop the photos in Photoshop carefully and focus on the exposure and scene while taking the photos.
Many times it will happen that you want more „air” on your subject, and you’ll have to create parts of the background because we took the photo too close to the subject.
For this tutorial we’ll be working on this sample above: as you can see, I included more background than I would need, so that in Photoshop we have an easier time cropping the subject and a lot of space to work with. Below,you can see the actual final area used.
Step 4
Prepare the scene, being consistent with your task. Take your time positioning your elements on the surface and use your taste trying to create a composition that makes sense. Showing two sides of the card is the most obvious choice, but not mandatory.
For example, it’s not a fixed rule that the cards have to be placed with geometry (as I do in most my mockups because they look more institutional/corporate): in fact, they could be scattered on the table, or even aligned as a card castle as long as you think it’s attractive for you or your client.
Experiment, and don’t stop trying other positions, moving the elements on the surface. Take many photos from many angles, change the light direction and intensity, etc. Always guarantee yourself plenty of selections at the end of the shooting section.
3. How to Do the Photo Selection and Retouching
Step 1
Once we have finished the photography phase, transfer the photos from the camera to the computer and open Photoshop. If you prefer Lightroomto adjust lighting and contrast, that is also a very valid alternative, but you will need Photoshop to create the Smart Objects for the business card design.
Let’s continue with our sample: we’ve reached the point where we’ve decided how to crop our photo to enhance the subject. Use the Cropping Tool (C) or make a Selection with the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and then go to Image > Crop.
Step 2
Now let’s move on to adjusting the lighting, color, and contrast, and removing eventual spots and unwanted details. Before doing anything, we want to remove dust and spots that sometimes will be visible on the surface that we used, especially if it’s dark.
Step 3
Select the Clone Stamp Tool (S), Alt-click on a clean spot to refer to that portion of image, and then click on the spot that you want to cover. Also, the Healing Brush Tool (J) can be used efficiently. Below is the clean photo.
Step 4
To reduce the reddish tone of the photo, I applied these „Black & White” adjustment settings. To create a new Adjustment Layer, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black & White…
Step 5
I added also a soft light in the center to brighten the scene a bit. To create that soft light effect, pick a large Brush (B) with hardness set to 0%, and paint a white circle on a New Layer. Change the Blending Mode of this layer to Soft Light, and our document should look like the image below.
Step 6
Now it’s time to add the Smart Objects that will contain our card designs. First of all, we need a template the same size as the card, so we create a selection using the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) in Fixed Ratio mode, and enter the proportions of our card, which are in this case 3.5 x 2 since the card itself is 3.5 in x 2 in.
It’s not important that this selection matches the actual size of the card design; however, it is mandatory that we use the same proportions. In this step, you have to create a selection which is as close as possible to the business card below. It depends on the photograph’s dimensions.
Step 7
Fill the selection with any color on a New Layer and name this layer Front Card. The layer in blue named Front Card will become our front card design.
Step 8
Right Click on it in the Layers panel and Convert to Smart Object.
Step 9
Set the Front Card Layer to Multiply Blending Mode so we can see what happens, and transform the layer using the Free Transform Tool (Control-T). At the corners of your layer there are anchor points indicated by small squares; while holding Control, clickon each of them to position this layer and match the card’s perspective.
Step 10
Sometimes you will also need to use the Warp Tool while transforming, because the cards bend slightly. (The Warp Tool on Smart Objects is available only from Photoshop CS5 and higher.)
Step 11
Do the same process with the card back, creating a New Smart Object (we’re using a red color this time). The fastest way to do this is to create a duplicate of that Front Card Smart Object.
So Right-Click on the Front Card Layer and choose the option New Smart Object Via Copy, which will create a new editable copy of that Smart Object.
Step 12
Enter in the newly created Smart Object (Right Click > Edit Contents) and fill this one with another color (I used red) so we can distinguish them better. Finally, name this red layer Back Card. Apply the same transformations as we did with the blue layer, trying to match the corners as precisely as possible. The document should look like this.
Step 13
In this case, for the red Back Card layer, we will also have to apply a Layer Mask because the card at the back is partially covered by the ones in front. To do so, hold Control and clickon the Front Card layer in the Layers panel; this will create the selection that we need.
Step 14
Then clickon the Back Card layer and then on the Layer Mask icon.
Step 15
We just need to Invert the Layer Mask for our task, so click Control-I on the Layer Mask.
Step 16
Make manual adjustments if needed; below you can see how it was necessary to cover a bit of the card space that didn’t match the starting selection. Using the Lasso Tool (L), we select the small parts that still need masking.
Step 17
Now we need to blend the cards smoothly into the photo. The Multiply Blending Mode and the Layer Mask already do a great job, giving the illusion that the tops of the cards are now blue and red, but there’s a detail that makes the composition still not realistic, and that is the depth of field.
To give the illusion of depth of field in certain areas, we just need to blur the edges of the Smart Objects so that they match the amount of blur in the photo below. Select the Back Card Layer (and not the Mask), go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and choose an amount that matches the photograph below—for our photo, a value of 2/3 pixels.
Step 18
Below you can see the edges before and after the blur. Remember to work on the Smart Object so that it will register the Blur Filter as a Smart Filter and it will not modify the starting image inside of it. That’s why it’s called non-destructive, because it doesn’t actually modify the content of the Smart Object, but it works on its appearance.
As you can see on the right where the Blur has been applied, the corners and edges blend together with the photo, resulting in a more realistic effect. But not only the edges—once you apply the design on the card, it will look out of place if it’s really focused and sharp, while the area surrounding it is all blurred.
The blur amount must be consistent throughout the picture in order for the design to really blend in the photo.
Step 19
Select Back Card, Right Click on the layer, and then Edit Contents: doing so will open a new document (the Smart Object) where you can see our red layer.
Step 20
The content of the Smart Object should look like this.
Step 21
At this point, we just need to place our design into this document. Go to File > Place and select your image.
Step 22
Close the Smart Object now and Photoshop will ask you to Save. Click Yes and the Smart Object will automatically update the image, maintaining transformations and adjustments, so instead of the red color we have our design now.
Step 23
Do the same process with the Card Front Layer, and you have your beautiful, ready-to-use, customizable mockup.
Awesome! Our Mockup Is Ready to Be Used
Test this mockup with other designs: the Smart Object will do all the work for us, and we can utilize this template to preview as many as we want. They can be also used to showcase flyers and posters because the photo doesn’t give any reference to the real size of the paper sheets. So they could be any size you need, as long as the proportions of the card and your design are more or less maintained.
Before using it on the poster, we will remove the background and use the bust that is in focus. To do this, in the Layers panel, Duplicate the Background layer by pressing Command-J. Click on the eye icon to Hide the visibility of the original Background layer.
Step 3
While selecting the new layer in the Layers panel, click on the Vector Mask button to add a Layer Mask to Layer 1.
Step 4
While selecting the new Layer Mask, select the Brush Tool (B). Use black as the foreground colorand paint over the image to erase the background.
Step 5
Once we have painted over most of the image with the Brush Tool (B), we can Zoom in (Z) and work on the details.
Step 6
If needed, tap the backslash key (\) to display a red overlay on the layer mask. This is useful to check if we have erased the right parts of the image.
Step 7
Let’s go ahead and crop the image using the Crop Tool (C) and crop the bust to a manageable size.
2. How to Set Up a New Document, Create Rulers, and Duplicate Layers
Step 1
In Photoshop, go to File > New. Name the document The Future of Philosophy, and set the Width to 1275 px and Height to 1650 px. I am using this composition as an online pamphlet, so I will be using 72 dpi with Background ContentsWhite. Click OK to create the document.
Step 2
Activate the rulers by pressing Command-R. I am using inches—you can change this by going to Photoshop > Preferences > Units and Rulers.
Step 3
Click on the rulers and drag towards the page to create guidelines. I’ve set mine to 1 inch on each side. Hold Shift to drag the guideline to an even number.
Step 4
Let’s duplicate the bust layer with the layer mask onto our Future of Philosophy file. To do so, select the layer and Right Click > Duplicate Layer. Under As, change the name to Bust and select Document > The Future of Philosophy. Click OK to continue.
Step 5
Let’s make the image smaller by using the Transform Tool (Command-T). I am leaving about 1 inch on the top and the bottom as margins. You can hide the guides by pressing Command-;.
Step 6
Select the background layer and paint the layer using the Paint Bucket Tool (G) and black as the foreground colour.
3. How to Use Adjustment Layers
Step 1
The image is looking yellow in tone, so let’s manipulate it to give it a futuristic feeling. On the Layers panel,select the Bust Layer and click on Create New Fill or Adjustment Panel > Black & White. This will add a layer on top of our image without committing to turning the image itself Black and White.
Step 2
The Properties panel will open up, and we can adjust the colours that are turning black and white. The highlights are looking too burned and we are losing some definition, so let’s look for the blue colour and move the slider to the left. That looks better!
Step 3
To make it even more futuristic, let’s add a blue overlay. On the Layers panel, click on create a New Layer. Using the Bucket Tool (G), select a foreground colour of blue with the following code: #0030ff. Paint over the layer and set the Blending Mode to Overlay.
4. How to Use the Liquify Tool
Step 1
Select the Bust Layer and duplicate it by pressing Command-J. Hide the visibility of the original layer by clicking on the eye icon, and go back to the copy.
We need to keep the masked image only. If we go ahead and use the Liquify Tool, we will only see the results on the spaces the mask is revealing. While selecting the bust layer, hold Command and select the Layer Mask. This will select the spaces we didn’t hide at the beginning.
Step 2
Make sure that the bust layer is selected and not the layer mask. We want to delete the opposite of this, so let’s inverse it by pressing Shift-Command-I and Delete.
Step 3
Deselect by pressing Command-D. Delete the Layer Mask by clicking on the layer mask, Right Click > Delete Layer Mask.
Step 4
Go to Filter > Liquify (Shift-Command-X), and a new window will pop up showing the selected bust later. For this specific image, we want to create a digital glitch look.
Step 5
Let’s use the Forward Warp Tool (W). On the right side of the window, we can tweak the Tool Options. Since we want to make small glitches, we can start with a Brush Size of 150, Brush Density of 100, and Brush Pressure of 50. We can now brush over the image. Feel free to experiment with other settings! Once you are done, click OK.
Step 6
We have our image almost ready. To give a more digital look to this traditional bust, we can reinforce the brightness and contrast. At the bottom of the Layers panel,click on Create a New Fill or Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast. The Properties window will pop up, and we can adjust the settings to Brightness:-15 and Contrast:70.
5. How to Add Text
Step 1
In order to create a contrast with the horizontal lines we created on the bust, we will use vertical text. Press T to add a new text layer and add other details. Set the font to Lato Regular, at 75 pt in white, and select Underline on the Character panel to add prominence to the title. I also used two text boxes for the title of the poster. In the first, type „The Future of Digital Philosophy” and in the second, „A New Way of Thinking About Physics”.
Step 2
Select both of these text boxes by clicking on one, holding Shift, and clicking on the other. Rotate by pressing Command-R and hold Shift for an even rotation. Let’s place them on the bottom left corner margin.
Step 3
You will notice that the white text is slightly conflicting with the image. Let’s add a gradient to darken the bust. On the Layers panel,select the blue layer and add a new layer.
Step 4
On the toolbar,select the Gradient Tool (G). Set your background and foreground colours as black and white. Drag from the left side of the poster to the centre to create a partial gradient. Let’s set the Blending Mode for this layer to Multiply.
Step 5
Now let’s add more details to our poster! Using the same Text Tool as before, we can add more components to bring it to life. I added dates and the kind of event at 46 pt in size, and to create balance on the poster I placed this text on the opposite side to the title. I also added bits of information parallel to the bust to reinforce the theme of the event and add another layer of detail with the same character style, but this time at 18 pt in size.
6. Saving the Poster for Web
Click File > Save As to save the file as a .PSD to later edit it. For a lower-resolution web jpeg, click File > Save for web (Shift-Option-Command-S) to save the file as a .JPEG. Here you can alter the quality of the image and the image size. Click on Save… and save the file.
Congratulations on Finishing This Tutorial!
We have covered some interesting skills for putting together a promotional piece for social media. Today, you’ve learned to:
Clean up an image using Layer Masks.
Use Adjustment Layers to tweak images endlessly.
Use the Liquify Tool to change a traditional object into a digital one.
Format typography and use it in different directions to interact with the image.
I like to jog. Sometimes it’s cold out. Sometimes it’s cold out, but it looks like it isn’t. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping. Then you step outside in shorts and a t-shirt and realize you have roughly 2 minutes before exposure sets in.
I decided to solve this first world problem using a lightbulb to display a certain color based on what the temperature outside is. It works better than I expected, and that’s saying something because usually nothing works out like I want it to.
This was a fun project to build, and since it is essentially a hosted service running on a timer, it’s a perfect use case for Serverless.
Now you might be thinking, “um, wouldn’t it be easier to just check the weather?” Well, it would, but then I wouldn’t have an excuse to buy an expensive lightbulb or write an article with the word “Serverless.”
So let’s look at how you can build your own Weather Bulb. The final code is not complicated, but it does have some interesting pieces that are worth noting. By the way, did I mention that it’s Serverless?
Building the Weather Bulb
The first thing you are going to need is the bulb. You can’t have a Weather Bulb sans bulb. Say the word “bulb” out loud about 10 times and you’ll notice what a bizarre word it is. Bulb, bulb, bulb, bulb — see? Weird.
I am using the LIFX Mini Color. It’s not *too* expensive, but more importantly, it’s got an API that is wide open.
The API has two methods of authentication. The first contains the word “OAuth” and I’m already sorry that you had to read that. Don’t worry, there is an easier way that doesn’t involve OAu…. that which won’t be named.
The second way is to register an application with LIFX. You get back a key and all you have to do is pass that key with any HTTP request. That’s what I’m using for this demo.
For instance, if we wanted to change the bulb color to blue, we can just pass color: blue to the /state endpoint.
The API supports a few different color formats, including named colors (like red, blue), hex values, RBG, Kevlin, hue brightness and saturation. This is important because it factors into what proved to be the hardest part of this project: turning temperature into color.
Representing Temperature With Color
If you’ve ever watched a weather report, you’ll be familiar with the way that meteorology represents weather conditions with color on a map.
Usually, this is done to visualize precipitation. You have probably seen that ominous green strip of storms bearing down on you on a weather map while you try to figure out if you should get in the bathtub because you’re in the path of a tornado. Or maybe that’s just all of us unlucky souls here in America’s Tornado Alley.
Color is also used to represent temperature. This is precisely what I wanted to do with the bulb. The tough thing is that there doesn’t seem to be a standardized way to do this. Some maps show it as solid colors in bands. In this case, blue might represent the band from 0℉ – 32℉.
Others have it as a gradient scale which is more precise. This is what I was after for the Weather Bulb.
My first stab at solving this was just to Google “temperature color scale” and other various iterations of that search term. I got back a lot of information about Kelvin.
Kelvin is a representation of the temperature of a color. Literally. For any light source (light bulb, the sun, ect) the actual temperature of that source will affect the color of the light it emits. A fire burns a yellowish red color. The hotter that fire gets, the more it moves towards white. Hence the saying, “white hot”. So if someone ever says “red hot,” you can correct them in front of everyone because who doesn’t love a pedantic jerk?
The LIFX bulb supports Kelvin, so you might think that this would work. After all, this is the Kelvin scale….
The problem is that there is simply not enough color variation because these are not actual colors, but rather the tinge of color that a light is emitting based on it’s “temperature.” Here is the Kelvin color wheel that comes with the LIFX app.
These colors are barely distinguishable from one another on the bulb. Not exactly what I was after.
That leaves me with trying to convert the color to either Hex, RGB or some other format. This is tough because where do you begin? I spent an embarrassing amount of time adjust RGB scale values between blue for cold (0, 0, 255) and red for hot (255, 0, 0). It was about this time that it dawned on me that maybe HSL would be a better way to go here. Why? Because hue is a whole lot easier to understand.
Hue
Hue is a representation of color on a scale between 0 and 360. This is why we often see color represented on a wheel (360°). That’s a vast oversimplification, but unless you want me to start talking about wavelengths, let’s go with that definition.
The hue color wheel looks like this….
If we flatten it out, it’s easier to reason about.
We’re ready to convert temperature to color. The first thing we need to do is figure out a set temperature range. I went with 0℉ to 100℉. We can’t work with infinite temperature color combinations. Numbers go on forever, colors do not. It can only get so hot before our bulb is just bright red all the time, and that’s 100℉. The same is true for cold.
If light blue represents 0℉, I can start at about the 200 mark on the hue scale. Red will represent 100℉. You can see that red is at both extremes, so I can move either left OR right, depending on what colors I want to use to represent the temperature. It’s not the same as the colors they use in actual weather programs, but who cares? Obviously not me.
I chose to go right because there is no pink on the left and pink is my favorite color. I also felt like pink represents warm a bit better than green. Green is rain and tornadoes.
Now we can back into a hue based on temperature. Ready? Here we go.
Let’s pretend it’s a brisk 50℉ outside.
If 100℉ is the hottest we go (360) and 0℉ is the coldest (200), then we have a color scale of 160 points. To figure out where in that 160 point range we need to be, we can divide the current temperature by the upper bound of 100℉ which will give us the exact percentage we need to move in our range, or 50%. If we move 50% of the way into a 160 point range, that leaves us at 80. Since we are starting at 200, that gives us a hue of 280.
That sounds complicated, but only because word problems in math SUCK. Here’s how the code looks when it’s all said and done…
let hue = 200 + (160 * ( temperature / 100 ));
OK! We’ve got a dynamic color scale based on hue, and wouldn’t you know it, we can just pass the hue to LIFX as simply as we pass a named color.
Now we just need to find out what the current temperature is, back into a hue and do that every few minutes. Serverless, here we come!
Serverless Timer Functions
Serverless is all the rage. It’s like HTML5 used to be: it doesn’t matter what it is, it only matters that you know the word and are not afraid to use it in a blog post.
For this example, we’ll use Azure Functions because there is support for timer triggers, and we can test those timer triggers locally before we deploy using VS Code. One of the things about Serverless that irritates me to no end is when I can’t debug it locally.
Timer Triggers in Azure Functions are specified as Cron Expressions. Don’t worry, I didn’t know what that was either.
Cron Expressions allow you to get very specific with interval definition. Cron breaks things down into second, minute, hour, day, month, year. So if you wanted to run something every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every year, your expression would look like this…
* * * * * *
If you wanted to run it every day at 10:15, it would look like this…
* 15 10 * * *
If you wanted to run it every 5 minutes (which is what Azure defaults to), you specify that by saying “when minutes is divisible by 5.”
0 */5 * * * *
For the purposes of this function, we set it to 2 minutes.
I am using a 2 minute interval because that’s how often we can call the weather API for free 💰.
Getting the Forecast From DarkSky
DarkSky has a wonderful weather API that you can call up to 1,000 times per day for free. If there are 1,440 minutes in a day (and there are), that means we can call DarkSky every 1.44 minutes per day and stay in the free zone. I just rounded up to 2 minutes because temperature doesn’t change that fast.
This is what our function looks like when we call the DarkSky API. All of my tokens, keys, latitude and longitude settings are in environment variables so they aren’t hardcoded. Those are set in the local.settings.json file. I used axios for my HTTP requests because it is a magical, magical package.
const axios = require('axios');
module.exports = function (context, myTimer) {
// build up the DarkSky endpoint
let endpoint = `${process.env.DS_API}/${process.env.DS_SECRET}/${process.env.LAT},
${process.env.LNG}`;
// use axios to call DarkSky for weather
axios
.get(endpoint)
.then(response => {
let temp = Math.round(response.data.currently.temperature);
// TODO: Set the color of the LIFX bulb
})
.catch(err => {
context.log(err.message);
});
};
Now that I have the temperature, I need to call the LIFX API. And wouldn’t you know it, someone has already created an npm package to do this called lifx-http-api. This is why you love JavaScript.
Setting the Bulb Hue
After the weather result comes back, I need to use the LIFX API instance and call the setState method. This method returns a promise which means that we need to nest promises. Nesting promises can get out of hand and could land us right back in callback hell, which is what we’re trying to avoid with promises in the first place.
Instead, we’ll handle the first promise and then return Promise.all which we can handle at another top-level then. This just prevents us from nesting then statements.
Remember kids, promises are just socially acceptable callbacks.
const axios = require('axios');
const LIFX = require('lifx-http-api');
let client = new LIFX({
bearerToken: process.env.LIFX_TOKEN
});
module.exports = function (context, myTimer) {
// build up the DarkSky endpoint
let endpoint = <code>${process.env.DS_API}/${process.env.DS_SECRET}/${
process.env.LAT
},${process.env.LNG}<code>;
// use axios to call DarkSky for weather
axios
.get(endpoint)
.then(response => {
let temp = Math.round(response.data.currently.temperature);
// make sure the temp isn't above 100 because that's as high as we can go
temp = temp < 100 ? temp : 100;
// determine the hue
let hue = 200 + (160 * (temp / 100));
// return Promise.all so we can resolve at the top level
return Promise.all([
data,
client.setState('all', { color: <code>hue:${hue}<code> })
]);
})
.then(result => {
// result[0] contains the darksky result
// result[1] contains the LIFX result
context.log(result[1]);
})
.catch(err => {
context.log(err.message);
});
};
Now we can run this thing locally and watch our timer do it’s thang.
That’s it! Let’s deploy it.
Deploying Weather Bulb
I can create a new Functions project from the VS Code extension.
I can right-click that to “Open in portal” where I can define a deployment source so it sucks my code in from Github and deploys it. This is ideal because now whenever I push a change to Github, my application automatically gets redeployed.
All Hail the Weather Bulb
Now just sit back and behold the soft glow of the Weather Bulb! Why look at the actual temperature when you can look at this beautiful shade of hot pink instead?
Can you guess what the temperature is based on what you know from this article? The person who leaves a comment and gets the closest will get a free LIFX lightbulb from me (because I ❤️ all of you), or the cost of the bulb if you are outside the U.S. (~$40).
You can grab all of the code for this project from Github.
THE ORIGINAL?
Prague Municipality – 2002
“Help us save Charles Bridge”
Source : Coloribus,Golden Watch Award
Agency : Leo Burnett Prague (Czech Republic)
LESS ORIGINAL
GoodPlanet Foundation –2018
“Get ready for global warming”
Source : Coloribus Agency : Rosapark, Paris (France)
As a space of ideas, fresh design and inspiration, the internet is a space which is constantly changing and evolving. As designers add new elements of imagination each and every day, there is no wonder design is subject to shifts.
Web designers have grown with the increase in technology. Sites are now more dynamic but still user-friendly and precise.
Each day designers create websites which fit in with business needs, adapt to new screen sizes and are aesthetic all at once.
In 2017, mobile browsing changed the face of web design. More and more users switched from desktop browsing to tablets or mobile phones.
In 2018, there is a need for designers to stay relevant by adjusting their designs to a range of different screen sizes. As a designer, you might be wondering which other trends are emerging for 2018, and how this will influence the work you are doing.
The striking impact of subtle shadows
Flat design has been trendy for a while now. This trend removed all shadow from a site, creating a two-dimensional effect. 2017 saw the return of subtle shadows.
However, 2018 brings a range of new options. As designers play with grids, shadows are being used more than ever. These shadows evoke imager of a world that exists beyond the screen.
Shadows not only enhance the aesthetics of the page but also assist with directing user attention. Shadows can be used to highlight a link or emphasize a call to action.
In 2018, shadows are being combined with vibrant colors and gradients in order to enhance the effect and create a striking impact.
A new vibrancy
2018 has seen the introduction of a range of vibrant new colors. The subtle, safe colors of the past are being replaced with a saturated selection.
These colors have a dramatic impact. Headers are no longer timid, and now give a shout out to viewers with cheerful hues and slashed designs. Gone are the subdued sites as the internet starts to brighten up.
Brands who want to set themselves apart from traditional designs or corporate colors are now presented with an inspiring new palette to work with.
Particle backgrounds
As the design is shifting and changing towards images in motion, so are websites. The particle effect enables designers to create an evolving background image which loads quickly.
Sites with great visual impact resonate with viewers, creating a memorable user experience. Designers use images to strike an emotional chord. A moving image has a much greater impact.
In addition, moving images can be used on social media sites, with a backlink to your site.
Design for mobile devices
2017 saw a massive increase in internet browsing via mobile devices. These devices are highly personal and can be easily used while out of office or on the run.
As a result, designers have had to adjust, ensuring that navigation panels are effective and easy to use. Imagery has to be adapted to a small screen as well.
This ensures that a carefully selected image has the impact that designers intended. Sites are becoming simpler in order to adjust to small screens.
Broken grid layouts
Grids give the designer the ability to add content, images and even videos in an orderly format. Grids bring a sense of harmony to designs.
In a quest for a new level of innovation, designers are now using broken grids to keep order without the constraint. Broken grids allow designs to drift while keeping the flow.
Illustrations become predominant
Imagery is always evocative and resonates deeply with the viewer. This is why a picture will always say a thousand words. As 2018 starts to unfold, illustration is starting to take center stage.
Both GIFs and photographic imagery still have a role to play. However, the unique very human touch that illustration brings is gaining new prominence.
Illustration creates a sense of nostalgia, taking us back to the world of 1960’s fashion. As technology grows and advances at a rapid level, illustration provides a human touch to both our websites and our lives.
Organic shapes
Sharp edges and right angles have dominated website design for the past few years, giving a clear and modern feel. However, in 2017, this started to change.
A new trend began to emerge, with big players such as Google, Twitter and Facebook adding a softer element to their designs.
However, it isn’t just site designs which are changing. Large blobs of color are starting to give a new and very organic feel to background designs.
With the corresponding rise of illustration, this means that real-world imagery is now being given a playful and almost cartoonish element.
Superimposed images and duotones
As the internet begins to burst with color, it is time for designers to be more playful. Google launched Material Design in 2014 and shifted the boundaries of internet design.
As vibrant colors become more popular web designers are also bringing in additional features such as dual toned backgrounds or superimposed images in order to create aesthetic appeal.
Contrasting colors such as red and green create both depth and interest. Add gradients and photo saturation and the end result is intriguing. Websites are becoming far more vibrant and multidimensional.
Innovative Typography Choices
In recent years, typography has focused on clarity and simplicity, but this is beginning to change. Minimalism is being replaced by a sense of adventure and innovation.
Typography is becoming an art in its own right and is no longer willing to take a backseat in web design. As a result, 2018 will bring fonts which are bolder, brighter and more innovative.
Think cutouts, misshapen words, transparent text and larger, bolder lettering. Legibility is still key, so designers need to utilize a great deal more skill to achieve a cutting-edge effect.
Spacing is unusual in 2018. This still requires the technical eye of a designer to prevent the results from being utterly chaotic. Words are more widely spaced and this impact can be very effective when done well.
Alongside the recent growth in handmade fonts, typographers will be bringing new innovations into text this year. The results will have a massive impact.
Subtle animations
With fonts becoming bigger and bolder and colors more vibrant, the animation is becoming more subtle. Designers are saying hello to a range of micro-interactions which guide users on how to use the site.
Think of the button which shakes when you enter your password incorrectly or the text which unfolds to assist you with finding your way around a site.
These subtle animations delight viewers as they offer a deeper level of engagement. However, they largely stay in the background, allowing vivid colors and bold typography to take center stage. Balance is a large part of web design trends for 2018.
Summary
As 2018 unfolds, web design presents a brighter, bolder opportunity for designers to create a massive impact. Sites are taking a more playful approach to design, with bright colors, bold text, and integrative animations.
The mobile phone era is changing the face of design, offering up the opportunity for brighter colors and simple imagery. Use of illustration is making a comeback, adding a very human touch to a technological world.
As a web designer, 2018 is a time of innovation and change. Working towards expressive sites and subtle effects allow designers to forge personality into brands or sites more easily than ever before. The move away from minimalist sites and flat design can only be a welcome change.
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