Post pobrano z: Good Morning: The Trojan Beer
Design
Great developers and creatives can be very hard to reach with job ads, as most of them are perfectly happy where they are.
So to get to them, we needed to get under the radar.
Advertising Agency:Good Morning, Oslo, Norway
Creative Director:Petter Gulli
Creative Team:Martin Abbedissen Fauskanger, Mateus Porto Hopland
Designer:Tone Næss
Photographer:Kent Jørgen Hilleren
Post pobrano z: The Christ Hospital: #EverydayChampions
Film
The Christ Hospital
Advertising Agency:ReviveHealth, USA
Creative Director:Paul Hackett
Producer:Kate Caverno
Production:Alkemy X
Postproduction Company:Alkemy X
Managing Director:Nick Litwinko
Director Of Production:Jim Huie
Vp Of Business Development:Sara Iversen
Director:Rob Adamo
Editor:Dave Bradley
Line Producer:Shannon Oakley
Senior Producer:Jason Sonner
Senior Colorist:Janet Falcon
Editor Assist:Alexander Hughes
Sound Design:Bob Schachner
Mix:Bob Schachner
Post pobrano z: Telesoftas: Portraits
Film
Telesoftas
Telesoftas, a Lithuanian tech provider, decided to launch a campaign offering their services to other companies in order to help them to step forward and make a move to make life better for humanity.
With this video, Telesoftas is also communicating its own work philosophy, which is all about making a better world for every human being through technology.
Advertising Agency:Clandestinos, Vilnius, Lithuania
Creative Director:Antonio Bechtle
Art Director:Asta Ostrovskaja
Copywriter:Antonio Bechtle
Post pobrano z: Improve your SEO With These Web Design Tips
You can achieve better search engine optimization via better web design. Whether you currently have a site or plan on launching one, you’ll want to know what you can do. With that said, below are a few tips to get you off to a good start.
Web Design That’s Responsive
Your site needs to have a responsive design, because it allows your site to run smoothly on various devices, including iPads, Smartphones and so forth. A responsive website has a URL for its main site, as well as one for its mobile site. Don’t worry though because doing this is relatively easy and you will increase your external back-link count when you do it.
Fast Navigation
Your site needs to be easy and fast to navigate. As soon as your website’s users land on your site, they should have no issues finding what they’re looking for. Make sure the search bar is placed on the left top part of the page or in the middle of it. This makes it easy to find and use.
Semantic Layout
You want to have a semantic layout that is clean. The good news is this is easy to do, and it can improve your SEO. When you use certain HTML5 elements, then you will make it easier for Google to tell which content is not valuable and which content is valuable. This is really a minor thing, but you should still consider doing it.
Don’t Overdo It With JavaScript
When you design your site, you should don’t overdo it with JavaScript. Crawling issues can occur when you use too much JavaScript. Not only that, but many people don’t really like using a website that has JavaScript, especially if they are using their mobile phones. The best thing to do is to not use it at all, but if you do, then sparingly use it.
Variations Of Meta Tags
Meta tags are used to notify Google and other search engines of a site’s keywords, title and index rate. Before a website is ranked by Google, it will read the meta tags. Long tailed keywords tend to rank very well because of how specific and unique they are. A website has a good chance of ranking if it is specific.
Here’s a tip, look at your site to see if meta tags are missing. All pages should have meta tags. If tags are missing, then add them right away.
Remove Double Sidebar
The double sidebar is not in style and it just weighs down SEO efforts. Your website can work very slowly when you use double sidebars because they increase media files on a web page, as well as increase links. When a site has too many external links or images, then it will work slowly. Not only that, but most mobile devices don’t view sites too well when those sites use a double sidebar.
Either remove the sidebar or reduce it. There’s nothing wrong with having white space in the area after you remove it. So, go ahead and get rid of the double sidebar.
Keep Design Minimal
You can boost SEO by keeping your website design minimal. This is because the design is easier to understand and it is more straightforward. In short, if you want an SEO friendly website and an attractive design, then keep things minimal.
Here’s a useful tip, place your site’s menu in a visible place. This is the main source your users will use to navigate content. Keep things simple and don’t go overboard with your site’s design.
Accelerated Mobile Pages
Having a mobile website is not enough these days. AMP, short for accelerated mobile pages, is designed to enhance a site’s performance and it’s designed to make the mobile web better. Users are accessing content from various sources, therefore delivering content efficiently is important. This is why Google is now delivering content using AMP.
If a site adopts AMP, then Google will likely give it preference. Take advantage of this. You might be surprised at how much better your site will rank.
Images
According to this SEO blog don’t forget about your images because images come up in Google search results. Optimize your images by doing this such as using alt-tags, which describe what the photo is. You might be surprised at the results you get when you use alt-tags, but make sure the tags are relevant.
Another thing you can do is create a title for the image, as this shows up when the user hovers the cursor over it. Also, name the image file instead of keeping it generic. Include a keyword or two in the filename and separate words with a hyphen.
Color Scheme
The brand identity of a company should match the color scheme of its website. Colors can invoke feelings, so make sure you pay close attention to your site’s color scheme. The theme will be made up by up to three different shades of colors. However, even less is better.
Mint green, orange, purple, red and blue are trending colors this year. It’s easy to create your own color scheme with some of those colors. All you have to do is download a tool and you’re good to go.
Page Load Time
Internet users want to browse sites quickly and they do not want to wait around for pages to loan. On average, five seconds is the time mobile users will wait before they move on. Desktop users wait an average of two seconds less. You can do things to speed up load time, such as not using JavaScript, using smaller images and enabling compression, as well as doing browser caching.
Do you want better SEO? The better your SEO is, the more traffic you will get. Keep the above web design tips in mind and before you know it, you will get better results with your SEO efforts.
Post pobrano z: Tips to make sure your app stays popular after launching
Your app is already on the market and it seems that users really accepted it. Your effort was worthwhile and you ensured some excellent feedback from customers who spare no words to recommend you. The next question is: How to keep this momentum and make sure popularity will be rising in future?
We’ve summarized some practical advice and methods that can maintain users’ interest in your app. The tactics are very diverse-from establishing a direct communication with the users to improving the first impression and the manner in which you’re using the benefits of different operating systems.
Launch Day is The Day
Day 1 is not simply introduction day – it is the highlight of your “marketing crescendo”.
Unless you decided to opt for a ‘soft launch’ or to introduce the app in a different country, this is the moment to rise and shine as much as possible.
This is when users open ‘four’ eyes to look at your app and when all bloggers/journalists ought to be writing about you. Make sure they know the essential information, such as location, advantages, and main functions.
Enable interested parties to give feedback and to attract new customers: make it possible through social media, blogs, forums, and hopefully real-life friendships.
Inspire other developers and make sure they throw in a comment or two on your side. Long story short. You need everyone to approve your design!
Still, you’re not expected to create the biggest buzz ever. Quality remains your strongest criterion.
Have a re-engaging plan
The initial aim of your marketing strategy, namely to promote your app in a way which will bring you many downloads, was successful. However, this is not enough to keep customers engaged. You have to improve usage and to motivate users to stay where they are.
As long as they are happy and satisfied, customers will repurchase your product and they will give you brilliant reviews. Basically, it means that your most important asset for attracting new customers are the ones you already have.
How could you do it? The best way to start is customer-orientated campaigns-you can address them with discounts, limited offers, and promotions through their emails, phones, or messages inserted within the app.
You can also make the app more personal/automatic-you can insert common keywords, individual messages, and action triggers so that the customer will feel you really care about his personal interests.
Communicate with your users
Google and Ipsos MediaCT conducted a research and concluded that the three main reasons why users choose to ignore an app are needs modification, lack of interest, and uselessness.
However, all of these problems change and can disappear with time. It is even questionable whether you can estimate the real needs and interests of customers at the beginning. That is why you need to communicate with them.
The best way to ‘extract’ information from your customers is to foster the so-called ‘VIP’ beta-testing community. These communities do not just need indicators – they track changes in users’ behavior and they help designers adapt to them. In addition, they can help you improve your app so that it will adapt to the new market conditions.
Creating your personal ‘VIP’ community is not complicated. Firstly, you need to select few users who rated the app lower than the others, and they had a specific attitude towards the design (made a comment, participated in a dialogue, etc).
Consider their comments and try to estimate how much time they spent using your application. Invite them to participate in the testing community and make sure your specific requests match their concerns. Remember to tell them that you appreciate their help, and soon you’ll discover you’re working with the best critics you can find.
Value depends on optimization
Insight into the functionality of your application is even better once it is officially launched. Take advantage of it!
Analyze the screen flows and the movement through your conversion funnels and you will discover new ways to expand your app and to increase its values. Is users’ behavior indicating that you need some UX/UI changes? Well, not that you know it, start working on it!
Can’t figure out what works and what doesn’t? Try experimenting. Follow some trends and use what others are using. If it doesn’t work, change the strategy.
Keep in mind that customer lifetime value optimization is your ultimate aim. The lifetime value is an essential metric for calculating the app’s ROI.
Lifetime value also indicates whether your app is worth to be used ‘forever’ and gives you incentives to improve it. Still, apps are different and they leave certain space for ROI improvement. Whatever your app looks like, try to increase its value to the highest extent possible.
Do your own research
App Stores may be an excellent choice, but they are not the only means you have. Try to do your own Google research and believe us – the results will be incredibly surprising.
For instance, let’s assume you have a music-related app. Google ‘best music apps’ and you will get a lot of interesting results.
The initial five results you’ll get are proven quality blogs you could contact to feature your application. If you manage to bring them on your side, you have nothing to worry about anymore. App featuring will ensure you’ll have the following lasting benefits:
Don’t forget the importance of first impressions
Statistics are not on developers’ side – more than 23% of users abandon apps after just one use. What you need is the opposite-you need a popular app that will keep them engaged. The best way to do that is to provide a long-lasting, brilliant first impression.
Experienced developers make users aware of the importance and usefulness of an app from the very first moment. Users need to know the app is functional and it serves a specific purpose. Real use examples or factual data is a very good approach in the case.
We understand this can be tricky and challenging (especially if the app is a pay-per-view one, or if it requires a specific action in order to run). However, you can still think of an original solution to keep users engaged.
Be prepared for modifications
As good as it is at the beginning; don’t expect an app to stay static and to keep its success. Regardless of the type/purpose, your app has to follow the evolution of users’ behavior.
It can be very challenging. You may be requested to expand audiences, value paths, or to redefine the purpose of your app.
Some of the modifications may happen unexpectedly and you will be forced to act very fast. Therefore, don’t lose focus. Track changes and expect the unexpected. The more careful you are, the more ideas and plans will come to your mind.
You’re not done with marketing
Marketing is essential before launching an app, but that doesn’t mean you have to forget about it once the app is released. You need to have a clear overview on how the app is working and to continue promoting it. Your customers need to be aware of improvements, and they should never stop discussing and sharing your work.
We summarized the most important tips and long-term methods for maximizing retention, increasing daily usage, and attracting loyal customers; and we highlighted that they don’t happen simultaneously.
You are the one who has to employ them in the service of your final goal so that customers will know you care about them and their ever-changing needs and demands.
Post pobrano z: Web Animation Workshops Dates for 2018 Announced
„I’m getting a raise!”
This was my favorite quote from last year’s Web Animation Workshops, as Val and I covered performance, tooling, and creating animations for SVG, CSS, JS and React.
Now we’re gearing up for another round of Web Animation Workshops in 2018! But we’re only offering two workshops this time since both of us have moved away from full-time consulting.
The aim of these workshops is to level up your animation skills in just two days and equip you with a full understanding of animation concepts without having to rely on copying and pasting code from other people in your web applications.
These are the dates and locations:
We’re already out of early bird tickets for Chicago and space is limited, so grab yours quickly before they sell out.
We’ll see you there!
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Web Animation Workshops Dates for 2018 Announced is a post from CSS-Tricks
Post pobrano z: How to Draw a Rose
Roses
are very popular flowers, commonly seen as a symbol of love. They’re
very difficult to draw, though—they’re made of many layers of petals. You need to add them carefully one by one, and then shade the whole construction. In this quick tutorial I will show you how to do it if you want to build your own rose from scratch, without relying on a reference. But if you want, feel free to check any of these Envato Market references to help yourself:
Start by drawing a teardrop/egg shape with a hard pencil. Use very light lines. This will be the inner bud of the rose.
Draw the „opening” of this shape.
Draw little petals inside.
Close those petals into a heart shape—this will be the outline of other petals.
Connect the outline with the rest of the bud, creating a petal shape.
One more heart…
… attached to the bud.
One more time draw the heart shape, but this time make it less regular and more open.
The lines connecting it with the bud will create an effect of depth if you lead them correctly.
We need one more petal on this level. It will have a more complicated perspective, so look carefully:
We need to place the bud inside a „cup” of petals. First make it out of small petals…
… then use larger ones.
The rest of the petals should bend more and more down.
When you’re done, press harder over the lines you want to see better to bring out the final shape.
Take a softer pencil and shade the inner parts of the rose. First draw lightly…
… then press harder to achieve a darker shade.
Use the same pencil to slightly stress some edges of the petals. Don’t draw all over them!
Go back to a hard pencil and use it to add a subtle texture to the
illuminated parts. The darker your rose, the darker you can go here.
Take the softest pencil and finish shading with it, putting it in the darkest crevices.
You have drawn a beautiful rose! If you would like to publish it on the Internet, make sure you prepare the scan/photo properly first. These tutorials will help you with it:
Post pobrano z: Design deals for the week
Every week, we’ll give you an overview of the best deals for designers, make sure you don’t miss any by subscribing to our deals feed. You can also follow the recently launched website Type Deals if you are looking for free fonts or font deals.
Your typeface toolbox is going to need a serious expansion with this delicious Mighty Deal packed with a mix of 29 Fabulous Handwritten Fonts! You’ll get a wide range of styles from calligraphy to modern to wavy, not to mention a slew of OpenType Features to increase your font flexibility even more!
$9 instead of $456 – Get it now!
This massive bundle includes 60 fonts from 30 different font families with a huge 95% off the RRP
$24 instead of $438 – Get it now!
You might want to sit down for this one. This Mega Bundle is a mighty collection of 7 bundles, from Inventicons, packed with creative collections featuring Photoshop Brushes, Vector Icons, Fonts, Seamless Patterns, Presentations and Actions. It sports more than 4,000 unique elements to not only massively beef up your artistic toolbox, but arm you with everything you need to create just about any project under the sun.
$19 instead of $705 – Get it now!
It’s time to expand your already fabulous font collection! With this Mighty Deal from Mellow Design Lab, you’ll get 57 high-quality, professional fonts for 1 ridiculously low price. With styles ranging from Script to Display, you’ll also get plenty of OpenType features and an extended license to ensure you’re set to design away til your heart’s content!
$9 instead of $956 – Get it now!
The true magic in this deal is how incredibly easy it is to add magnificent beauty to your latest project. With the Magic Ombre set from Julia Dreams, you’ll get an astonishing collection of watercolor elements and individual florals. Frames, wreaths, patterns, ombres and more combine into a colorful and floral extravaganza just perfect for everything from wedding invitations to wrapping paper.
$9 instead of $15 – Get it now!
Post pobrano z: How to Create a Frog Princess Illustration in Adobe Illustrator
Everybody probably knows the story about princess frog, because many countries have similar stories. How do you imagine the frog princess? I imagine her as an adorable little frog princess like the one we’ll create today. This short tutorial is very easy to follow, and great for beginners.
For more amazing images of the frog princess, check out GraphicRiver. It’s interesting to see how other artists imagine this creature.
Once you are ready, let’s start!
Open Adobe Illustrator and create a new document with 850 x 850 px Width and Height. We will start by drawing the head of the frog. Using the Ellipse Tool (L), draw an oval. In the image below, you can see which fill and stroke colors you need. On the Stroke panel, make the stroke Weight very thick, about 5 px. The stroke will give our final image a cartoonish look.
Next, we will apply the Inflate effect to this ellipse. Go to Effect > Warp > Inflate. Enter the options you see below, and press OK.
Expand this shape: go to Object > Expand Appearance. After expanding the shape and ungrouping it (right-click > Ungroup), you will notice that now you have two pieces instead of one: the stroke itself and the fill color by itself. To make it into one shape again, simply delete the stroke and make a new stroke color directly on the Tools panel, which is on your left (see the second image).
Create an ellipse using the Ellipse Tool (L) using the same fill and stroke colors as before. Rotate it slightly to the left.
While keeping this small ellipse selected, take the Reflect Tool (O) and, while holding down the Alt key, click on the forehead. In the new dialogue window, select Vertical, Angle 90 degrees and press Copy. You should now have these two ellipses on the frog’s head.
Next, select all three of the shapes and, using the Unite button on the Pathfinder panel (Window > Pathfinder), unite them. Now, instead of three ellipses, we have one shape.
Finally, add two dark grey ellipses for the eyes.
For the highlights on the frog’s eyes, let’s add some heart shapes. Because she is in love, remember? Start by creating a rounded rectangle by using the Rounded Rectangle Tool. But let me show you how to make it with the Corner Widget, which is available in the latest version of Adobe Illustrator. It will be easier to adjust the roundness of the corners by using this tool.
So create a regular rectangle by using the Rectangle Tool (M). Be sure to check View > Show Corner Widget. Now, near each corner of the rectangle, you have a tiny circle. Move these circles to the middle of the shape, and the corners of the rectangle will gradually become round. (Just for practice, try moving the circles out, and the corners of the rectangle will be sharp again.)
Rotate the rounded rectangle by 45 degrees. Next, while keeping it selected, press the Reflect Tool (O) and then the Enter key. In the pop-up window, enter Axis Vertical. and hit Copy. Arrange these two shapes as shown below. The orange shaded area on the image is the area that we want to keep. So we will need to delete the rest. For that, take the Shape Builder Tool (Shift-M), select the two rounded rectangles and swipe on the orange marked areas, thus forming a heart shape. Using the same tool and holding the Alt key, click on the unmarked areas to delete them. Now you should see the basic heart, which we will use inside the eyes later on.
For older versions of Adobe Illustrator: select both rounded rectangles and press Divide on the Pathfinder panel. After that, right-click your mouse and hit Ungroup. Select those three parts of the rectangles marked orange in the image below, and press the Unite button in Pathfinder. Now simply delete the excess to get your heart shape. And your heart is ready!
Finally, place the two white hearts on the eyes. Remember that you don’t need the stroke (outline) anymore.
Now we will create the mouth. We start by creating an ellipse. Remember to use the same stroke color and no fill color. Then take the Scissors Tool (C) and click on the marked anchor points to cut off the upper part of the ellipse. Delete this part, as you don’t need it.
To create the body, place an ellipse behind the head. Place another small ellipse on the left side of the body—this will be the leg.
Hold the Shift and Alt keys together and move the left leg to the right. Now, you have the right leg, perfectly aligned.
Now we will create the arm. Start with an ellipse. Now, hit the Direct Selection Tool (A) and move the handles of the anchor points to achieve the result you see below.
After that, take the Scissors Tool (C) and click on the path segment marked in the image below. This will be one arm, and we still need another. Place this arm on the left side of the frog’s body, under the head. While keeping it selected, hit the the Reflect Tool (O) and press the Enter key. Be sure that in the new dialogue Reflect window Vertical is checked, and press Copy. Using the Right Arrow key on your keyboard, move the newly created arm to the right.
Make a new copy of one of the hearts that you placed on the frog’s eye. Change its fill color and set the same stroke color as before. On the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke), check Corner: Round Join.
Then delete the fill color, so that you only have the stroke color. Now, using the Line Segment Tool (\), draw a line.
Click on the heart to have in the AI memory the same fill and stroke
color as you have for the heart. Draw a rectangle using the Rectangle
Tool (M) on the other end of the line. Using the Direct Selection Tool
(A), select the two upper anchor points of this rectangle. Move them to
the right.
While keeping this rectangle selected, take the
Reflect Tool (O) and press the Enter key. In the new dialogue window, check Horizontal and press Copy. Move the new copy down. The arrow is
done!
For your convenience, select the whole arrow and group it (right-click > Group).
Place the arrow in the frog’s mouth. Be sure the arrow stays in the mouth, not over it. To achieve this, select the mouth, cut it off (Control-X) and place it in front (Control-F).
Now we will create the crown. Leave the same stroke color, and change its fill color to yellow.
Then we need to make a cutter to cut off one part of the crown. For this, we need to draw a triangle: take the Polygon Tool and click on your artboard. In the new dialogue window, type 3 Sides with any Radius. Then click OK. Finally, turn it upside down, and place it as shown below. While holding the Shift and Alt keys, move this triangle to the left. You’ll get the second upside-down triangle. Select them and unite them: press the Unite button on the Pathfinder panel (Window > Pathfinder).
Keep this shape selected and select the yellow rectangle. Press the Minus Front button on the Pathfinder panel.
To finalize our crown, go to Effect > Warp > Bulge. Enter the options presented below and press OK. The crown is ready!
Place the crown on the frog’s head. Isn’t she cute?
Let’s create the lotus leaf where our frog will sit. Keep the same stroke color and change the fill color to blue, and then draw an ellipse.
Create a cutter again: this will be a triangle which you’ll make using
the Polygon Tool. Place the triangle (the cutter) on the ellipse as
shown below. Hit Minus Front on Pathfinder.
Now we want to make the edges of the leaf smoother. First, check Show
Corner Widget (View > Show Corner Widget). After that, using the
Direct Selection Tool (A), drag the outer corners inside and the inner
corner outside to make them smooth.
A reed will be a nice addition to the lotus leaf. Start with an ellipse. To create a leaf shape of the reed, you’ll need to create sharp corners using the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C). Simply click on the top and bottom anchor points of the ellipse. And, yes, it’s the same fill color as the lotus leaf.
Delete the fill color and leave the stroke color as it is. Take the Arc Tool and draw a curve.
Set the fill color you see below and draw a rounded rectangle using the Rounded Rectangle Tool. The reed is ready!
Place your froggy on the lotus leaf. Add the reed and, if you want, add a few more reeds by making copies.
For the background, create a light blue square with no stroke color and with 850 px Width and Height. To make the square, select the Rectangle Tool (M), click on your artboard, and then enter the options needed.
Place the background behind the frog: select the light blue square, cut it off (Control-X), and put it behind (Control-B).
Add a few water ripples: create a few ellipses with no fill color and with the stroke color presented below. They should stay over the background and under the frog.
Make a new copy of the heart, set the fill color presented below, and delete the stroke color. Distribute the hearts around your froggy.
And we are done! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and learned
something new about using Adobe Illustrator. This image is perfect for
Valentine’s Day, and also perfect for anyone you love. Print it out, give
it as a card, or simply keep it where it is.
See you later!
Post pobrano z: Gifts of the Gills – Life Advice from Fishing
