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CLONE ANY WEBSITE TO YOUR PAGE BUILDER

ClonewebX allows users to clone, customize, and transfer websites between page builders like Webflow and Elementor without coding, streamlining design and development tasks.

THIS BLUE DOT IS TAKING OVER NEBRASKA. IT MIGHT BE THE BEST POLITICAL LOGO WE'VE SEEN THIS ELECTION

A blue dot has become a political symbol representing Nebraska's potential influence in the state's unique electoral vote system, which apportions votes by congressional district. Designed by Jason Brown, the blue dot signs, which bypass HOA restrictions on campaign signs, have gained popularity in Omaha, resonating with Democratic voters in a predominantly Republican state.

HOOK'S BRAND EVOLUTION: A MASTERCLASS IN MOTION DESIGN

Hook Creative Studio uses motion design to enhance its brand identity, treating it as a dynamic, evolving entity that reflects its creativity and innovation. Its approach demonstrates the power of motion design in storytelling, emphasizing fluidity, engagement, and a compelling narrative to create a memorable brand experience.

DECENTRALIZING UX WITH ML & GENAI

The decentralized UX framework leverages machine learning and generative AI to automate manual steps in UX workflows, reducing costs and providing personalized user experiences that enhance business KPIs. By integrating AI for real-time UX research and personalization, companies can improve user satisfaction and potentially increase revenue by up to 40%.

COMMON PROBLEMS CREATIVES ARE FACING THIS AUTUMN, AND HOW TO SOLVE THEM

Build routines to avoid autumn slumps, develop a unique brand, diversify income and platforms, and keep momentum with early planning and networking to stay ahead.

FLUX.1 IS A MIND-BLOWING OPEN-WEIGHTS AI IMAGE GENERATOR WITH 12B PARAMETERS

Setting a high standard with 12 billion parameters, Flux.1 outperforms models like Midjourney V6 and Dall-E 3 in detail, prompt adherence, and diversity.

HAIDER ACKERMANN IS THE NEW CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF TOM FORD

French-Colombian designer Haider Ackermann will become Tom Ford's creative director, debuting in A/W 2025, succeeding Peter Hawkings.

NO, THE NIKE LOGO ON LIVERPOOL FC'S NEW KIT ISN'T A MISTAKE

Liverpool FC's new third kit showcases a seemingly ordinary design but features a unique detail: a vertically aligned Nike logo. This isn't a design error - it subtly honors the strides in women's football, merging tradition with empowerment. The iconic Nike logo, typically unchanged due to its vital historical and cultural significance, was thoughtfully reimagined in this context.

LUMA AI DEBUTS DREAM MACHINE 1.6 VIDEO GENERATOR WITH CAMERA MOTIONS

Luma AI's latest video generator, Dream Machine 1.6, introduces precise tools that allow users to apply 12 camera motions through text prompts. This innovation addresses a significant limitation in AI video generation by offering better control over the resulting clips. Positive feedback from early adopters highlight the considerable upgrade in dynamic motion and user-friendly options. Competing with Runway's Gen-2 and OpenAI's Sora, this advancement demonstrates rapid progress toward achieving near-traditional film quality with AI.

JAPANESE PUBLIC TOILET IN TOKYO HAS WINDOWS THAT CHANGE COLOR WHEN YOU USE IT

The Tokyo Toilet is a project in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward comprising 17 unique public restrooms designed by 16 global creatives. Among these is the "Transparent Toilet" in Yoyogi Fukamachi Kokoen, designed by Shigeru Ban, which transforms from see-through to opaque when locked, ensuring privacy. While some users have noted issues with the glass becoming opaque more slowly in colder weather, this has become a must-visit spot for tourists intrigued by cutting-edge bathroom design.

THE FUTURE OF BRAND GUIDELINES PROMISES BIG CHANGES. TOGETHER WITH BRANDPAD, WE DECODE WHAT'S TO COME

Brand guidelines are evolving into dynamic, collaborative digital tools, with AI-driven automation and suggestion-based design shaping their future. This shift will foster ongoing collaboration between studios and clients while agencies take on a more strategic role in navigating branding complexities.

AIAIAI

AI has sparked a significant shift in technology and morality, influencing everything from intellectual property norms to generational perspectives. While AI tools democratize content creation and drive a new digital economy, they also provoke debates about quality and human values. A counter-movement favoring personalized human experiences is likely to emerge.

TO BE A DESIGNER IS TO BE A FACILITATOR

Designers should embrace facilitation as a core principle, not just an event-specific role. This involves supporting others to understand, collaborate, and create by building shared understanding, promoting open communication, and being mindful of power dynamics. Emphasizing facilitation encourages inclusive, community-driven approaches rather than reinforcing the outdated "designer as expert" model.

EXPLORE WELL-DESIGNED LOGOS

Logggos is a catalog that offers selected well-designed logos for inspiration and research. It is sorted by industry, style, and color. Weekly updates are delivered via email.

THE WORLD'S LARGEST PUSH NOTIFICATIONS LIBRARY

Pushkeen features the world's most extensive library of push notifications, showcasing patterns from mobile apps to enhance growth and user engagement through effective messaging strategies.

PIXELS

This Figma plugin applies a pixelate or 8-bit effect to image files, allowing users to adjust the sample size via a slider. It supports both raster and vector modes.

BEHIND THE DESIGN: THE RHYTHMS OF RYTMOS

Rytmos, winner of the 2024 Apple Design Award for Interaction, combines global music genres, sci-fi visuals, and engaging puzzles. The game enables players to create music by solving levels and adding instruments to evolving songs. Developed by Floppy Club, Rytmos' design emphasizes creativity, cultural discovery, and a human touch, blending design with musical exploration.

JANE AUSTEN'S HOUSE UNVEILS A CELEBRATORY IDENTITY FOR HER 250TH BIRTHDAY

Jane Austen's House in Chawton celebrated the author's 250th birthday in 2025 with a new identity designed by Pentagram. Inspired by Austen's love of nature, wit, and elegance, the design incorporates elements like a Blush Noisette rose and the historic ‘Chawton Leaf' pattern, setting the stage for a year-long festival of exhibitions and events honoring Austen's timeless legacy.

WHAT THE OASIS REUNION CAN TEACH US ABOUT BRANDING

The success of the Oasis reunion stems from its strong brand, which evokes emotional connections and cultural significance. Design assets and the exclusivity of reunions further reinforce the band's presence and maintain its appeal.

AN ARTIST MERGES ARCHITECTURE AND ILLUSTRATION INTO A DETAILED VISUAL NARRATIVE

Owen D. Pomery, an architect turned illustrator, merges architecture with illustration, creating detailed visual narratives that capture the subtleties of everyday life and space.

VOICE AND TONE IN PRODUCT DESIGN

A product's voice is the consistent language reflecting brand personality, while tone adapts to context and user emotions.

INNOVATOR GROTESK: TYPOGRAPHY FOR THE MODERN DESIGNER

Innovator Grotesk, a new typeface by Yep! Type Foundry, offers modern designers a blend of aesthetics and functionality with a simplified licensing model, ensuring versatility and ease of use.

NIKE AND MOMA DESIGN STORE LAUNCH FIRST OFFICIAL COLLABORATION

Nike and MoMA Design Store have launched their first official collaboration series of limited-edition and co-branded products, emphasizing fitness and style. The series starts with the MoMA Nike Everyday Sock, which features the iconic Swoosh and MoMA branding. This partnership marks the first time official Nike x MoMA products have been released, despite a long-standing relationship highlighted by exhibits and exclusive releases. The collaboration will see more product drops.

MICROSOFT DECIDES IT'S A GOOD TIME FOR BAD UI TO DIE

Microsoft is phasing out the Windows Control Panel, a 40-year-old interface linked to DOS that has been criticized for its complexity. Despite affection from some long-time users, it has always been a flawed and dangerous tool that gave too much power to the hands of the untrained. Its retirement signifies a move towards centralizing functions into the more modern but imperfect Settings. This shift highlights a broader industry issue: the lack of a shared, structured way to manage device settings, leading to user frustration and inefficiency.

CANVA SAYS ITS AI FEATURES ARE WORTH THE 300 PERCENT PRICE INCREASE

Canva's aggressive rollout of generative AI features will significantly hike its subscription costs next year. Canva Teams users globally will see a price increase of over 300%, with US rates jumping from $120 to $500 per year for up to five users, discounted to $300 for the first year. Canva justified this by citing its new AI tools' enhanced "product experience" and value. Some users have criticized the steep price hike and are considering switching to alternatives like Adobe.

WHY A.I. ISN'T GOING TO MAKE ART

Art involves numerous choices, often unconscious. AI-generated works lack these choices, leading to bland or derivative results. While impressive, AI-generated art lacks the depth and breadth of decisions found in human-made creations.

ASPECTS OF THE EARLY WEB I'D LIKE TO SEE COME BACK

The early web (1995-2005) was defined by its simplicity, lack of big data, and opportunities for originality, allowing creators to build niche communities and unique online cultures. This era's openness and focus on user privacy offer valuable lessons for shaping the future of the web.

SANDING UI

"Sanding UI" involves iteratively testing and refining a user interface by repeatedly interacting with it, like smoothing wood with sandpaper. This method identifies issues, such as non-clickable gaps caused by CSS styling, and resolves them to enhance usability. The process focuses on continuous adjustments to create a seamless user experience.

PINES UI

Pines is a UI library designed for Alpine and Tailwind projects. It provides a collection of ready-to-use animations and components, such as sliders, tooltips, accordions, modals, and more.

STYLES & VARIABLES ORGANIZER (FIGMA PLUGIN)

This plugin for Figma streamlines design system management by linking styles and variables, merging values, and enhancing design token implementation.

VISUALIZE YOUR COLORS AND FONTS ON A REAL SITE

Realtime Colors lets you instantly visualize and test color and typography choices on a website, saving time and simplifying design decisions.

REDUCING UX DEBT (OR DIE TRYING)

UX debt refers to unresolved user experience issues, often caused by poor communication and compromises in design quality, that can hurt business and team motivation. Regular collaboration between designers and developers, modular design systems, and proper documentation can help manage and reduce UX debt.

HOW TO GET HIRED AS A JUNIOR DESIGNER IN 2024

The design industry has faced instability due to the pandemic and AI, making it essential for junior designers to master UX basics and design tools like Figma. Continuous learning, seeking mentor feedback, and leveraging prior skills and networks can help you stand out to employers.

THE LOST SENSE

The digital revolution, especially smartphones, has diminished tactile experiences, impacting brain development, emotional growth, and well-being. Reconnecting with the physical world and redesigning devices to enhance touch could help counter these adverse effects.

TAXI STUDIO COLLABORATES WITH KEVIN BONGANG ON CARLSBERG FONIO BREW

Carlsberg and Brooklyn Brewery have launched a campaign featuring a premium bottle design by Cameroon-born artist Kevin Bongang and a brand film highlighting fonio's brewing possibilities and cultural significance.

THIS ILLUSTRATOR TURNS EVERYDAY OBJECTS AND FRUITS INTO HILARIOUS DRAMATIC CHARACTERS

Alberto Arni creatively transforms everyday objects and fruits into humorous characters with unique personalities, entertaining the ordinary through his playful illustrations on Instagram.

WHY CREATIVES NEED A NEW ALLIANCE TO FACE THE EXISTENTIAL THREAT OF AI

The Creative Origin Alliance, launched to protect artists' interests against AI's impact, seeks to unite creatives in response to AI tools and big tech's use of their work without consent.

NIKE HAS A SECRET DESIGN ARCHIVE. THIS NEW MUSEUM SHOW TAKES YOU INSIDE OF IT

The Vitra Design Museum's "Nike: Form Follows Motion" exhibition showcases over 200,000 rare Nike artifacts from the brand's secret archive, the Department of Nike Archives (DNA). The exhibit explores Nike's history, innovative sports designs, and future direction, showcasing the company's creative approach and groundbreaking research initiatives.

MOVE OVER MIDJOURNEY — FREEPIK MYSTIC IS THE MOST REALISTIC AI IMAGE GENERATOR I'VE TRIED

Freepik and Magnific AI have released Freepik Mystic, a new AI image generator that accurately creates hyperrealistic visuals following complex prompts. It's built on top of a series of fine-tunes of Stable Diffusion, Flux, and Magnific-built models. Offering high-resolution (2k) outputs, it is currently exclusive to Freepik premium users, but a wider rollout is anticipated.

NIKE'S OLYMPIC GAMES TYPEFACE HAS A LOT OF MUSCLE

WHY AI'S LACK OF DIRECTION IS PERFECT FOR CX'S LOSS OF DIRECTION

AI's lack of inherent direction aligns perfectly with Customer Experience's (CX) current struggles because it allows for flexibility and experimentation. AI's focus on solving simple, repetitive tasks contrasts with CX's outdated problem-solving models, creating opportunities for unexpected, innovative approaches that redefine CX by combining insights from diverse fields.

THINGS TO DO BEFORE ASKING “IS THIS ACCESSIBLE?”

Understanding context is crucial when evaluating accessibility. Key questions can be adapted for different products or services, forming the basis of a procurement checklist. A balanced approach that combines automated tools with manual reviews while also focusing on the intended audience and fostering learning in accessibility is essential.

FOCUS YOUR CV ON YOUR SKILLSET AND THE THINGS YOU ENJOY DOING

To avoid being seen as a generalist, focus on skills, enjoyable tasks, and achievements rather than job titles. Tailor CVs to each role, use LinkedIn to understand job requirements, seek mentors, join networks, and showcase leadership and project examples for senior roles.

APP MOTION

AppMotion is a mobile motion design gallery that showcases the best, hand-picked examples of app motion design. The gallery allows you to explore various design elements, such as checkboxes, pinch, spin, morph, and more.

RESEARCH VISUALLY ON INFINITE CANVAS

Noteey is a visual learning tool that offers an infinite canvas for organizing and connecting ideas, annotating PDFs, and creating mind maps.

INSTANTLY TURN YOUR FIGJAM INTO A WEBSITE

Figgy allows users to quickly build and maintain websites from Figjam files with a drag-and-drop interface. It offers instant updates and doesn't require any coding or technical experience.

A/B TESTING 101

A/B testing improves user experience, supports data-driven design decisions, and enhances product usability by measuring conversion and click-through rates. The process involves forming a hypothesis, defining changes, selecting outcome metrics, and choosing a tool based on ease of use and integration.

KEEP SUMMER ALIVE WITH TAVERN'S NEW IDENTITY FOR FISHERS ISLAND LEMONADE

Tavern rebranded Fishers Island Lemonade to evoke a classic coastal New England aesthetic, evolving it from a drinks brand to a lifestyle brand rooted in modern Americana. The new identity, with its "Worth the Squeeze" tagline, emphasizes the value of the product and the Fishers Island experience. It was showcased through a photoshoot inspired by vintage catalogs and adaptable messaging for various vacation destinations.

STUCK IN THE STEPS?

Rigid adherence to design processes stifles creativity and reduces innovation. While frameworks offer structure and efficiency, overemphasizing steps and ignoring context limits effective design. Embracing flexibility, understanding core concepts, adapting to context, and fostering collaboration allows designers to maintain creativity, enhance problem-solving, and produce more impactful and user-centered designs.

WHY A.I. ISN'T GOING TO MAKE ART

Artificial intelligence cannot create true art because it doesn't make human artists' numerous nuanced choices.