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Instagram introducing IGTV: First Impressions
So...Instagram launched its latest feature called: IGTV. What is it? It's a new update where you will be able to watch long-form and also vertical videos from your favourite creators. What's interesting is that Instagram is pushing creators to actually use it, it's almost the same feel we all had when we were first introduced to Vine. One feature where Instagram could really shine is the fact that the videos that you are filming or uploading can be one hour long. That's just crazy! In terms of UI/UX, it's very similar to what's been already done on Instagram Stories. It's the same behaviour except it's with TV. What this would mean to its competitors like Snapchat. YouTube and more. In their words IGTV is different in a few ways. First, it’s built for how you actually use your phone, so videos are full screen and vertical. Also, unlike on Instagram, videos aren’t limited to one minute. Instead, each video can be up to an hour long. Welcome IGTV More Links Read more on Instagram We’ve made it simple, too. Just like turning on the TV, IGTV starts playing as soon as you open the app. You don’t have to search to start watching content from people you already follow on Instagram and others you might like based on your interests. You can swipe up to discover more — switch between “For You,” “Following,” “Popular” and “Continue Watching.” You can also like, comment and send videos to friends in Direct. Also like TV, IGTV has channels. But, in IGTV, the creators are the channels. When you follow a creator on Instagram, their IGTV channel will show up for you to watch. Anyone can be a creator — you can upload your own IGTV videos in the app or on the web to start your own channel. Playing with IGTV (@Abduzeedo)
Operationalize your Design Workflow with DesignOps Handbook
Our friends over at InVision keep delivering amazing content. Today they launched the DesignOps Handbook, an excellent resource for companies that are willing to invest in design. What are DesignOps and when is it time to build a team around it? As companies mature and invest in design, they need to operationalize workflow, hiring, alignment between teams, and more so designers can focus on design work while someone else takes care of the rest — enter DesignOps. They’re the key to scaling digital product design teams with more efficiency, but the craft of a DesignOps team is a process. Below are some of the key things to keep in mind when you start to build out your team. Know when to put DesignOps processes into place It can be hard to gauge when to ramp up a DesignOps function, but three scenarios are good triggers: Craft specialization: it’s no longer feasible for roles to blur Operating a design team at scale: it’s no longer possible to keep everyone in sync Safe harbor: designers need protection from the grind and thrash of creative development. What makes a great DesignOps leader? The most effective DesignOps teams are servant leaders to their organizations and respected peers to design leaders and teams. Whether in an operations or project support role, the DesignOps function is there to push projects forward while providing creative teams the space and time to create. Design program managers should be able to set expectations with the broader company, get the right people with the right skills on the right projects, scope phases, and manage those expectations to delivery. Hiring the perfect team Regardless of the situation, there are some universal qualities and skills to look for in a DesignOps candidate: Hire someone who can build cross-functional relationships while representing design, and who understands the design process. These relationships will necessitate understanding the product development process and product engineering principles. The role calls for an excellent project, time, budget, and resource management, and an understanding of different project management ideologies (like waterfall and Agile, among others) The ideal candidate is calm in ambiguous and changing environments. One size doesn’t fit all. Make the mission clear Well-written mission, vision, and value statements can unify and inspire design teams. Think of these as the glue that brings and holds teams together — they’re great resources to be used within the design organization during onboarding and recruiting, and during those times when designers need guidance to tackle a tricky problem or scenario. These statements should also be shared with cross-functional teams as a reference to better understand how the design organization aspires to operate, solve problems, and define success. Collaborating outside of the design team Relationships are so crucial to successful outcomes for both design and DesignOps. When tackling any design challenge, whether it’s designing a new product experience or designing a new process, identify key cross-functional partnerships and stakeholders who can spot the opportunities for design to provide the most value. Establishing and fostering strong cross-functional partnerships ensures that all possible solutions are surfaced by balancing the user experience with business needs and company goals. Helping others get comfortable with change Managing through chaos is a superpower and flexibility is the most valuable asset. Change is inevitable and happens on all levels at all scales. When working in DesignOps, teams are on the front lines, helping everyone do outstanding work amid the chaos and rapid change. DesignOps keeps design teams focused on the work, not the processes. As everything is subject to change—from the company level down to the individual pixel—it’s important for DesignOps to remain calm and collected. By talking to an extended group of stakeholders, leaders can gauge where the organization stands and determine the strengths, weaknesses, biggest problems, and biggest opportunities.
Anicorn introducing Order, a timepiece inspired by NYC
We would like to introduce a cool project that launched today on Kickstarter coming from the makers of Hidden Time Watch. Now they are back and introducing Order. They have partnered with we partnered with graphic designers Hamish Smyth and Jesse Reed. You must have heard about their well-known projects like the Standards Manual, the reissue of NYCTA Graphics Standards Manual when they were at Pentagram. Following their departure, the duo team opened the only bookstore in New York specializing in graphic design (would love to visit!) and it sits right in front of their design office, Order. In their words Now, Anicorn is continuing their journey in New York City—the location chosen by backers of their first campaign on Kickstarter—and partnering with graphic designers Hamish Smyth and Jesse Reed to create the next The Trio of Time timepiece—“Order.”. Anicorn Watches Last year, they have launched The Trio of Time, a collaboration where we visit three different cities around the globe to partner with local designers and explore their perception of time. They are thrilled to introduce our newest collaboration—"Order"—a timepiece inspired by New York City. More Links Learn more about Anicorn Watches Follow Anicorn Watches on Instagram How to read the time Order has no watch hands. Instead, the entire watchface is perforated with an ascending number of dots, which rotate to align with the frame and tell the time in 15 minute intervals. The designers hope to inspire the wearer to not worry so much about the exact time; instead, to focus on the world around them. The 40mm case is designed for both men and women. Order runs on a Ronda 512 Swiss Parts Movement. The watch has a 316L stainless-steel enclosed casing, available in black or silver. The casing is ultra thin—only 8.7mm. All straps are interchangeable with TTT#1—Hidden Time Watch—thanks to the smart docking system. Introducing Order, a timepiece inspired by NYC
Adobe teasing some new features about XD and Illustrator at OFFF Barcelona
First of all, would love to salute all our friends and partners at the on-going OFFF Barcelona that is happening from May 24-26. For the occasion, the kind of folks from Adobe were there and they took the opportunity to present a teaser of new features coming soon on XD and Illustrator. Make sure to check the videos below! In their words Adobe shared several sneak peeks of upcoming features to design tools XD and Illustrator CC at OFFF in Barcelona. Adobe XD: Overlays and Fixed Elements These new features are coming soon to Adobe XD. Overlays and Fixed Elements will add richer prototyping capabilities that allow you to prototype beyond artboard to artboard transitions. Illustrator CC: Diffusion gradients A new gradient feature is coming to Illustrator CC later this year. Traditional linear or radial gradients can limit your flexibility, while gradient meshes can have a steep learning curve. The new gradient feature lets you create rich blends of colors that seemingly diffuse naturally into each other. More Links Learn more about Adobe
Getting the First Look at the #InVisionStudio Platform
Our friends from InVision took us by a storm today with the announcement of #InVisionStudio Platform. What is it? Well, it's simply to create the best screen design tool on a daily basis to achieve greatness. Cheesy?They believe that together we can build a unified work design environment for everyone. It's really nice seeing InVision engaging different companies too who really have the same goals at the end of the day. Inside the asset library for example, you will find components, icons, and typography to speed up your design workflow. Give it a first look! In their words That is our mission—our promise—with InVision Studio: to create a unified design environment that empowers creation and collaboration like never before, helping you push your vision and your craft to new heights. Coming soon, our new app store lets you connect Studio to the design, productivity, and collaboration tools you and your team use every day. We’ve been working with Atlassian, Salesforce, Getty Images, UserTesting, Google Material Design, and Dribbble to create seamless integrations. You’ll have access to the most seamless digital product design workflow ever created, with apps and assets to bring your creative work and workflow to new heights, all right inside Studio. More Links Learn more about #InVisionStudio Platform Asset Library Asset Library Through our asset library, we’ll provide a selection of incredible content to help take your screen designs to exciting new places. You’ll find UI kits to jumpstart your next project, components, icons, and typography to speed up your design workflow, and more—all without ever leaving Studio. Open API Our flexible open API will let you build apps that fine-tune you and your team’s product design process. You can keep your amazing app all to yourself—or you can share it with the community in our new Studio App Store. Design the Future InVision Studio Partners #InVisionStudio Platform
Introducing: Adobe XD CC Starter Plan & Adobe Fund for Design
What a great time to be a designer. We have incredible tools at affordable prices and we also have a lot of incentive from the big players. Today Adobe announced that Adobe XD is now free via a new Starter plan. Additionally, Adobe has launched a new $10 million investment fund for design technology and released a host of new features and assets for XD users. Introducing: The Adobe XD CC Starter Plan The free Starter plan for Adobe XD includes XD for Mac and Windows, mobile apps for iOS and Android, and services to empower users to design, prototype and share user experiences with colleagues. With this announcement and the release of new features and enhancements, Adobe XD is the only cross-platform experience design platform to combine both design and prototyping with industrial-grade performance. A milestone for the global design community, the XD CC Starter plan enables professional and aspiring designers, teams and students to learn, cultivate and apply their design skills through free access to Adobe XD and share up to one active shared prototype and design spec at a time. And, as part of Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe XD tightly integrates with designers’ existing workflows and top tools such as Photoshop CC and Illustrator CC. The Starter plan also includes Typekit Free and integration with Creative Cloud Libraries, making it easy to share and manage assets across devices. The Adobe Fund for Design Adobe also today announced the $10 million Adobe Fund for Design, which will be distributed in the form of grants and equity investments. The fund will help designers and developers innovate in the world of experience design and leverage Adobe XD as a platform supporting tooling plug-ins and integrations with third party tools and services. It is open for individuals, small teams or companies interested in or already building products to empower creatives. In addition to providing the financial means to enable growth, working with the Adobe Fund for Design will provide recipients access to industry experts, and significant resources to fuel development, including early access to technology, partnership and go-to-market opportunities, and exposure to Adobe’s network of passionate customers. New Features & Assets for UX Designers These announcements coincide with the release of new features and enhancements in Adobe XD, including time-saving workflow updates. Adobe is also releasing a series of free UI kits and resources for the design community, created by prominent designers around the globe, such as Daniel White, Ana Miminoshvili, Zhenya Rynzhuk, Steve Wolf and Mike, the designer behind Creative Mints. Let me know if you’re interested in speaking with any of the designers and I’d be happy to facilitate an interview. More information on the designers and links to download the kits can be found here. Adobe has released six Font Packs to provide users access to a collection of licensed commercial type for use in a variety of projects including UI/screen design in Adobe XD. The packs are a great way to easily experiment with fonts across a variety of design tools, and Adobe will be releasing a new pack every week for the next six weeks. More information on accessing the packs can be found here. Please visit the Creative Cloud blog for more information on the Starter plan for Adobe XD, Adobe Fund for Design and latest XD product updates.
Adobe is introducing their third visual trend of the year: Multilocalism
The awesome folks from Adobe is introducing their third visual trend of the year: Multilocalism. What is it? Let's just say it's all about going back to your roots. Where are you from? Where are your parents come from? How about your grandparents? It's an origin of a multi-cultural question but mostly it's all about: Where do you feel yourself at home? I guess this is what is more important, let's take a look at this stunning and exclusive photo gallery that reflect Adobe's connections in a multi-local world. In Adobe's Words For designers and brands, the multilocal trend requires striking a delicate balance. Images need to embrace true, local moments without appropriating them, and to celebrate the local while elevating our shared global connections. Technology, travel, and migration are shrinking the world and strengthening our connections with each other. As we flow between cultural and geographic boundaries, more of us are embracing our complex global identities, deepening our awareness across cultures, and seeking authentic, local moments. For our third visual trend of the year, we’re exploring what it means to be multilocal in 2018 and considering how the newly imagined global village is shaping visual culture. And we’re looking at how stock photographers around the world are helping brands capture genuine, respectful local images that appeal to consumers’ deepening global consciousness. Contributor Spotlight: Andy Smith Links Learn more about Adobe Blog Check out the dedicated gallery of Adobe Stock celebrating a multilocal world
Introducing Semplice 4: Packed with New Features that you will love
Semplice is a product that I personally love and use for my own online portfolio. For those who don't know what Semplice is, well it's simply a customizable CMS on your Wordpress Platform. It's very intuitive to use and they have recently launched with Semplice 4. It's packed with awesome features. Like I mentioned before, it's far away from being your typical template. It's actually a portfolio system, let's take a closer look! Build with Pride Semplice helps creative professionals show their work in the best way possible. Semplice is not a template but a powerful system. It’s a flexible tool that helps you create a portfolio that stands out. It’s for creatives who want something better than a standard template. Semplice believes in the power of the WordPress community and they believe in open source. That’s why Semplice is built on Wordpress and completely self-hosted. You fully own the code and files, you have complete freedom. Portfolio by Marina Rachello Portfolio by Mackey Saturday Semplice recently released Semplice 4 with all new features. They redesigned and redeveloped Semplice from scratch, making the portfolio tool more powerful than ever. Links Join the Semplice Family Content Editor Pop-up See the Content Editor Customize Grids The redesigned Semplice 4 content editor is clean and elegant, allowing you to create layouts with simple drag and drop design. Add animation and motion to your portfolio elements, create your own custom grids and navigations, add background video, page transitions, scroll effects, and a whole lot more. Check out Semplice 4. Portfolio by Jean-Marc Denis Portfolio by Melissa Deckhert Website by Zazu TV Portfolio by Nicolas Bonté Semplice for Developers Semplice’s goal is to give designers a tool they can fully hack and customize, even if you don’t know how to code. However, if you do know how to code you can take Semplice even further with a little bit of custom HTML, CSS and small tricks. Learn more about Semplice for developers. Links Join the Semplice Family
Standards Manual launching the First Ever Book of the Original Emoji from Japan
We have featured successful campaigns before by Standards Manual on ABDZ. Now they are back with something that we all use every single day...Emojis! They have launched the first ever book of the Original Emoji from Japan. Emoji debuted back in 1999 designed by Shigetaka Kurita, let's help reach their goal at creating the first hardcover book and smartphone keyboard of these drawings live on Kickstarter. In 1999 Japan debuted the original emoji. Now, we're releasing the first hardcover book and smartphone keyboard of these drawings. In their words In 2016, the Museum of Modern Art in New York made an unusual acquisition for their permanent collection: the world’s original emoji, designed by Shigetaka Kurita at NTT DOCOMO and released in Japan in 1999. Now, almost two decades later, we are releasing the first hardcover book and smartphone keyboard of these drawings—the direct ancestors of the emoji we all use today. The original 176 emoji, NTT DOCOMO, 1999 More Links Learn more and support the Book of the Original Emoji Shigetaka Kurita designed the original emoji for the Japanese telecommunications giant NTT DOCOMO when he was just 25 years old. The name was created from the Japanese “e,” which means picture, and “moji,” which means character. At the time, Kurita and DOCOMO had no idea that their work would leave Japan, evolve, and eventually be used by billions of people on a daily basis, and revolutionize the way we communicate today. First Ever Book of the Original Emoji from Japan Emoji will present images of sketches and digital artwork with technical data from DOCOMO for each character. It will also include an introduction by Kurita and an essay by The Museum of Modern Art's (MoMA) Paola Antonelli and Paul Galloway. Four versions of each emoji will be included in the book: color 1:1 scale, enlarged in color, black and white with underlying grid, and black and white 1:1. Smartphone Keyboard Along with the book, we are releasing a keyboard extension, available for download in the App Store and on Google Play, which will allow users to send these emoji—making them available on smartphones in the Western world for the very first time. Backers will receive a free copy of the app, and it will be available for purchase to the public when the book ships. More Links Learn more and support the Book of the Original Emoji
Introducing the new Dell Commercial PC Portfolio
The fine folks from Dell has recently announced what they called: the new Commercial PC Portfolio in goals of providing us solutions to help our workflows, businesses and more. It features beautiful and a smarter design. Also to increase productivity and sustainability for the global demand. It's a huge lineup of exciting new products, let's take a look. In their words Dell is introducing new solutions across its commercial PC portfolio designed to help businesses of all sizes prevent security and productivity disruptions and tap into the potential of new innovations such as artificial intelligence and AR/VR. Dell’s updated commercial lineup features advances in smart design, productivity and sustainability to meet the ever-expanding needs of a global, diverse workforce. More Links Learn more about Dell Products Dell Precision Workstations have been redesigned to be thinner, lighter, smaller and “Ready for VR.” There’s a reason why five out of the last seven visual effects Academy Award winning movies used Precision workstations! Dell Precision 7730 and 7530 Includes the latest 8th Gen Intel® Core™ and Xeon® processors, AMD Radeon WX and NVIDIA Quadro® professional graphics and industry-leading 3200MHz SuperSpeed memory. The largest memory capacity for a mobile workstation up to 128GB. • The largest memory capacity for a mobile workstation up to 128GB. • Dell Precision 7530 is the industry’s first 15-inch “Ready for VR” mobile workstation. • Dell Precision 7730 enables new use cases like AI and machine learning development and edge inference systems. Dell Precision 5530 2-in-1 • Boasts the next-generation InfinityEdge 4K Ultra HD. • Includes the Dell Premium Pen, which delivers precise pressure sensitivity (4,096 pressure points) for an experience as close to sketching on paper as possible. • Ultra-thin GORE™ Thermal Insulation keeps your system cool. • MagLev Keyboard design. Your browser does not support the video tag. Dell Precision 5530 • Dell’s smallest 15-inch mobile workstation and the industry’s best-selling thin and light mobile workstation weighing just 3.9 pounds. • Offers InfinityEdge 4K Ultra HD displays with better contrast ratios, touch support and picture quality. • Enhanced 2666MHz memory speeds up to 32GB. • Up to 4TB of SSD storage so users can access, transfer and store large 3D, video and files easily. Dell Latitude Portfolio is designed for all day productivity in small form factors to allow you to get through long days involving back-to-back meetings or cross-country flights. • Equipped with an 8th Gen Intel® Core™ (i5/i7) vPro processors (H-series) and 2666MHz memory up to 32GB, NVIDIA graphics, optional Thunderbolt™3. • Up to 19 hours of battery life. • The world’s most secure commercial laptops, offering businesses the option to leverage multi-factor authentication. Your browser does not support the video tag. OptiPlex All-in-Ones • Includes a pop-up webcam, which improves video collaboration, with full HD or infrared camera • OptiPlex 7760 AIO, a powerful 27-inch InfinityEdge with optional glare-free 4K Ultra HD with HDR and High-Gamut sRGB. • OptiPlex 7460 AIO offers a 23.8-inch InfinityEdge display, providing an overall smaller footprint while optimizing screen space with edge-to-edge Full HD IPS display technology and numerous port options. • OptiPlex 5260 AIO offers a 21.5-inch display with an optional 10 point multi-touch display. • OptiPlex Tower, Small Form Factor and Micro desktops packed with 8th Gen Intel® Core™ processors and up to 64GB of DDR4 memory for today’s dynamic workforce • OptiPlex XE3, available in Tower and Small Form Factor, is an industrial-grade desktop with enterprise-class performance, combining reliability and durability to meet the needs of industries including healthcare, retail and manufacturing. • OptiPlex 7060 and 5060 Tower, Small Form Factor and Micro desktops offer rich SSD and hard drive options, next-generation AMD or NVIDIA graphics, and can power up to three monitors simultaneously. • OptiPlex 3060, available in Tower, Small Form Factor and Micro, is a compact system with up to 32GB DDR4 memory and versatile mounting options. More Links Learn more about Dell Products Cover Image by Blake Connally
The Fluid Self Photo Series by Ussi’n Yala exclusive on Adobe Stock
The fine folks from Adobe Stock has shared an exclusive collection of gorgeous photos by Ussi’n Yala. He is a photographer originally from Gabon, Central Africa. What started as a simple hobby has now turned into a career. You just gotta appreciate his goal to challenge our perception of beauty and Adobe Stock is using their platform to bring more awareness and increase appreciation of African art and photography. A true stunning collection to share, check it out! In their words As a stock marketplace, it’s our duty and responsibility to provide the most relevant, contemporary, and high-quality images to the world’s creatives. Following British photographer Bex Day’s beautiful and authentic portrayals of the transgender community, we are proud to present Ussi’n Yala’s emotive portraits exploring gender and prejudice, exclusively for Adobe Stock. Ussi’n’s goal is to challenge the notion of beauty and break stereotypes with his images: “I hope to free people from the injustice and social barriers we face today. I want to produce a work that will have an impact on the way society works and the way we see the world.” In October of 2016, he exhibited the photo series “Pink Albino” at the African Art Fair in Paris. The portraits were created to address and shed the prejudices held against albinos in Africa. For his shoot on The Fluid Self, Ussi’n collaborated with two close friends, designers Clément Réthoré and Sandra Boutz. All three of them are based in France, but each faces a unique challenge of identity and acceptance due to their identity and sexuality: Ussi’n is black, Clément is gay, and Sandra is Jewish. “We each live in a constant state of discomfort in society and which is, in part, connected with who we are,” says Ussi’n, “and we wanted for this project to merge our peculiarities, while also telling the love story of two men.” More Links Learn more about Ussi’n Yala Check out the Adobe Blog Photography
Cool Tech: Introducing Adonit Ink Stylus made for Windows
If you are a Windows user, this should be a cool tech just for you. Made for Windows, the fine folks from Adonit introduced recently the Adonit Ink Stylus. I liked the fact that you don't need an app nor a bluetooth connection, just power the stylus and you are ready to go! Navigate, tap or write as you will and with 80 hours of battery life and a full charge time of just 45 minutes by USB, travelling with the INK could not be more convenient. In their words Certified by Microsoft, the Adonit INK provides a turnkey stylus solution to any Windows device. Write and draw in exquisite detail with the INK’s 1mm fine point tip that is both replaceable and streamlined. Ideal for design, the tip is also pressure sensitive and emulates real handwriting. Lines appear thicker or thinner depending on how hard the stylus is pressed whilst drawing or writing, meaning that intricate pieces of art can be created as naturally as if using pen and paper. The INK has a pressure level of 4096 for Surface 5 PRO and 1024 for Surface 4 PRO. Rushed business meetings or frantic note taking at the back of a lecture theatre can be much neater with the handy palm rejection feature that allows users to write naturally and comfortably without worrying about extra marks on the page or PowerPoint. If a mistake in notes or doodles is made, the two shortcut buttons allow for easy right clicking and erasing. Never get caught out again by a low power stylus with the INK’s useful LED lights that indicate whether the device is turned on or off, the level of charge and when it is charging. The quick connection is designed to fit into users’ busy, fast moving daily lives to make sure notes, reminders or design inspiration are never missed. Users can enjoy being creative whilst on long plane, train or car journeys and then simply use the clip function to ensure the INK is with them at all times. Weighing just 12g and having a 9.2mm diameter, it is a very comfortable travel companion. Whether in a board room meeting, a lecture hall, noting down recipes in the kitchen or sketching new designs, the INK makes life more convenient. Using apps such as PowerPoint and OneNote, handwritten notes can be taken for business, studying or leisure. If looking for a more creative use, the INK works with apps including Sketchpad, Autodesk SketchBook and Fresh Paint allowing users to create sketches, paintings and illustrations on the move. More Links Learn more about Adonit Ink Stylus Adonit Ink Gallery Video About Adonit Adonit creates tools for the modern digital workplace. Since its Kickstarter inception in 2011, Adonit has launched a family of award winning, carefully curated products, including capacitive styluses and accessories for iOS and Android phones and tablets. Adonit revolutionised the way a stylus is used for creation. It has received nine awards for its high performing capabilities. For more information about Adonit and its products visit adonit.net.
Meet ELIA: The world’s most intuitive tactile reading system
Back in 1829, Louis Braille introduced us the braille system. What seems to be working after all these years, studies show that the system relies on outdated technologies from the 1800s. Meet ELIA, a new, modern and efficient alternative that's incredibly easy to learn for people who have a visual impairment. This is such an interesting project that is currently live on Kickstarter. After testing this new system to over 300 participants, and analyzed over 175,000 responses, this what they came up with. Check it out! On our quest to re-examine braille, we created an easy to use tactile reading system, utilizing modern printing & technology. ELIA letters—known as ELIA Frames—leverage modern printing technology and design principles to optimize each letter’s design and create easily identifiable characters. We based ELIA Frames on the standard Roman alphabet, since roughly 70% of the world’s population uses it to read and write. Each ELIA Frame features an outer frame (circle, square, house) and interior elements that combine to form the main characteristics of standard alphabet letters. Most of you looking at this page likely aren't visually impaired—but maybe you know someone who is. Or, perhaps you're a designer who believes in the mission and would like to support the campaign by taking home a poster. Either way, we need your help and support to share our message. • About 200 million people with a visual impairment could benefit from ELIA in its current design, and another 85 million could benefit from it if customized to their standard scripts. • Currently, the employment rate among individuals with visual impairment is at an estimated 43%. For those who read braille, that rate soars to 85%. ELIA can have the same benefit for the 99% who can't read braille. • ELIA Frames can be learned tactilely in as little as 3 hours—and visually in a few minutes—since the font leverages a previously established alphabet. More Links Learn more and support ELIA on Kickstarter Meet ELIA
Congratulations to Dribbble for One Trillion Served
Woah our friends from Dribbble just hit one heck of a milestone, 1 Trillion Pixels Dribbbled! Congrats to the whole team and also to the community! It's crazy to think that the co-founders and launched the platform as a side-project. Over the course of the next few years, millions of shots were shared and now part of a daily inspiration for hundred and hundred of designers coming from all over the Globe. Again, congrats to everyone! 1,000,000,000,000 pixels dribbbled In their words For years, we’ve had a counter in our footer counting the number of pixels uploaded. Today that number became one digit longer when we surpassed a big milestone – 1 Trillion Pixels Dribbbled! 🎉 More Links Read more about it on Medium Learn more about Dribbble The Dribbble design community has come a long way… But we’re just getting started. Dribbble is growing faster than ever. Just this last year, Dribbble more than doubled its user base and more than tripled the size of our internal team, allowing us to build even more of the features the community has been asking for. We’re on a mission to build the world’s best platform for designers and creative professionals to gain inspiration, feedback, education, community, and job opportunities. We can’t wait to share with you some of the exciting things we’re building. Most importantly, we are humbled and honored to have become a catalyst for the design community to gain exposure for their work. Most of the Dribbble team comes from a creative background and has a huge affinity for design. We all feel very grateful to support the design community, to provide the network where the world’s top talent share their best work. We intend to continue this tradition of building something our members love — to elevate the profession of design in the community and to the world.
Monotype brings part of FontFont Catalog to Typekit
I was very happy to learn that Adobe announced an agreement with Monotype, one of the largest most influential type providers in the world, to make 230 of their iconic FontFonts, available for sync in the Typekit library, in addition to placing FontFont’s extensive collection of more than 700 fonts on Typekit Marketplace for individual purchase. I remember in college when I got into typography because a great professor I had introduced me to Emigre, FontFont and House Industries. It was a amazing just to browse through their catalog and now we can have part of them available for us. FontFont, one of the world’s largest libraries of original contemporary typefaces, has been featured in the Typekit library since 2009, making it one of Adobe’s most established font library agreements since Typekit was launched in 2008. With this significant expansion of the Typekit library, designers will now have access to a total of 38 FontFont families, including FF Real, FF Ernestine and FF Dax. “Adobe Creative Cloud is the go-to-resource for millions of creative professionals, and we’re thrilled that our typefaces are an integrated part of the creative workflow. By making our extensive library of FontFont typefaces available, we’re able to get premium type into the hands of more creatives, providing them with more freedom, flexibility and choice during the creative process.” - Mike Matteo, Vice President of Global Alliances & Partnerships for Monotype For more information, please visit the Adobe Typekit webpage Here are some examples of the fonts available: FF Real is an entirely new family on Typekit. Designed by Erik Spiekermann and Ralph du Carrois, it was originally conceived by Spiekermann to use as the text face for his biography. The family has been recently expanded to include 52 styles divided between FF Real Text and FF Real Head, including italics. For a grotesque typeface, there’s an unusual and impressive focus on legibility; in the Text version, features like the curved foot of the lowercase l and crossbars on the uppercase I contribute to this. FF Ernestine, by Nina Stössinger, is a slab serif that stands out from others in its genre. For starters, that g could be recognized anywhere. The whole design is influenced by choices to make it more open and friendly: ball terminals and large x-height, along with open counters and round shapes. Stössinger took care to design each style separately, rather than automating their variation in weight. This makes each style work well in its own right, without the context of the others. A special addition to Ernestine and included in the font is its Armenian version, designed by Hrant Papazian. FF Dax brings a humanist touch to a minimal sans typeface. Hans Reichel’s choice to eliminate stems on characters such as the lowercase a and u gives the typeface a casual aesthetic, while all other features are polished. This style influenced countless designs to follow. When spacing is tight, we also have the Dax Compact styles ready to sync. They have a total of 38 FontFont families available on Typekit. Take a look at the list here or check out their foundry page to see it all in the same place. FF Amman Sans FF Amman Serif FF Angie FF Avance FF Basic Gothic FF Brokenscript FF Carina FF Chambers Sans FF Cocon FF Dagny FF Dax FF Duper FF Enzo FF Ernestine FF Folk FF Ginger FF Good FF Info FF Karbid FF Kava FF Mach FF Market FF Meta FF Meta Serif FF More FF Nuvo FF Prater FF Providence FF Real Head FF Real Text FF Speak FF Spinoza FF Tisa FF Tisa Sans FF Typestar FF Uberhand FF Utility FF Zwo
Appreciation Streams and Creative Portfolio Analytics. on Behance
We are huge fans of Behance and the amazing work that Scott Belsky and his team have done in creating a design driven community with simply the best designers and digital artists out there with profiles showcasing their work. Behance is a great source of inspiration for us here at Abduzeedo and we are really promote some of the new Behance features like Statistics and Appreciation Stream. Launch Of "Appreciation Streams" - The Creative Community Can Now Curate Itself Creatives can now track who "appreciates" their work, as well as browse the "Appreciation Streams" of other members of the network. By leveraging the data and curation of millions of people, this new feature helps Behance members and visitors discover the latest (and trending) published projects by creatives around the world. Announcing "Creative Portfolio Analytics" - Tracking Your Portfolio Stats Across Many Sites, In One Central Place With our new Analytics Dashboard, users can track how their portfolios are performing on Behance.net and across the web on sites like LinkedIn, AdWeek.com, their own personal portfolio sites powered by ProSite.com, as well as 20+ other creative networks powered by Behance. For more information visit http://behance.net and start using these new features right now.
Abduzeedo Gets a Facelift
After almost a year, we have a new design! As web designers we’re always thinking about what to change in order to make the site more friendly for those who are looking for inspiration and tutorials. Our main goal was to simplify the design and also add more white-space. The images of the articles have and always will be the main asset of the blog so we wanted to drive the user’s attention to the images and text, and less to the interface itself. That’s why we have removed the stars on the header but still kept them on the footer. Also we were very inspired by magazine designs, that explains the text overlapping the images. New Features Among the main changes on the new design we could list: Bigger images Preview image at the top of the articles More white-space Thumbnail view on the home-page Threaded conversations on the comments CSS 3 for effects (sorry IE users) Big preview image with text overlapping Thumbnails view Reply to comments Navigation In terms of navigation, we split the menu in two. The main menu consists of the most important categories on the blog: Tutorials Photoshop Illustrator Pixelmator Fireworks Quick Tips Case Studies InspirationArchitecture Illustration Photography Daily Inspiration Sites of the Week Best of the Week Popular Post Wallpapers Inspiration Meebo Bar Another great feature we added (and that we're really excited about!) is the Meebo Bar! The Meebo Bar allows you to drag and share any images of the site via Twitter, Facebook or email. Also we will be able to chat while navigating on Abduzeedo. That way we might even be able to help you guys on tutorials or any questions you might have regarding posts and so on. Meebo Bar It doesn't just stop there. Abduzeedo is always under development. We try to learn as much as we can from you and we’re always open to suggestions. Our idea is always to make the experience as better and simpler as possible. We still have some features up our sleeves that will be released very soon! One thing I can reveal right now is that our iPhone app is 95% done ;) iPhone app is coming Also we want to mention and thank our hosting (mt) Media Temple for the great support during the redesign process, we were working with the 2 versions and sometimes doing crazy things but they guys over at Media Temple kept Abduzeedo up and running.