Issue 67

What ifs like Prada hotels

Hello, dear readers! 👋

In this issue, among other things:

• How to learn 3D modeling in 100 days

• How to make digital product design more accessible

• Guidelines for creating and documenting design system components

• A selection of 228 vintage bitmap fonts

• What skills are needed for a AR/VR designer

• 101 design rules from an experienced designer

• Apple vs Meta: The Illusion of Privacy

• Endless image gallery tool

Enjoy reading!

🗞 News and articles

100 Days of 3D Design

Tiantian Xu writes about how, as part of her own challenge, she managed to master Low poly modeling in Blender.

She shared the stages of her workflow and sources for inspiration, told what tutorials and techniques helped her develop skills, and also prepared tips for beginners, a list of references and a selection of interesting artists.

Tips from the article:

• Creating something on your own is more difficult than repeating the tutorial. But it is your personal experiments that will help you get to know the tool better and find suitable techniques

• Study only what is necessary to solve your problem. For example, if you create simple cartoon illustrations, then there is no point in delving into complex realistic texturing

• Don't get hung up on quality too much. An imperfect but finished work is better than the opposite. It is important to stop in time and move on to a new project

Getting into XR as designer

Vladimir Kurbatov wrote about the skills that will be required to "break into" mixed reality (AR/VR) design. There are interface design skills, 3D, motion, visual design, basic programming, soft skills.

101 design rules

Aphoristic design rules formulated by the founder and creative director of the COLLINS agency Brian Collins. There is worldly wisdom in half with design and, as in any such list, a lot of thoughts that seem banal. But I suspect that different points will seem banal to different people.

Here are nine rules that I personally liked:

• Ubiquity = Invisibility. What we’re overly familiar with, what becomes common, we stop seeing. One function of design is to restore our perception, renew our understanding, and invite us to be more alert.

• The era of problem-solving is gone. It’s too reactive in a world where the future arrives too fast. Designers must now be problem seekers, finding and anticipating problems before they arrive on our desks, because at that point, it’s already too late.

• A good designer will help a company get to where they want to go. A great designer will push a company to where they should go.

• Never take an unpaid internship. Ever. It is unethical to be offered one, and in many places, it is illegal. But more importantly, what kind of people would refuse to pay you? Oh yeah, really shitty people.

• The opposite of courage is not cowardice. The opposite of courage is conformity.

• There may come a time when someone publicly attacks you or your work. If that happens, remember this: Those who attack are the ones who fear you the most. They’ll suspect that your talents might be greater than theirs. They, in fact, become your most sincere believers. It’s a proof point when they start showing up. Watch for them. Then thank them when they arrive.

• When someone disagrees with you, do not defend yourself. Instead, listen. Ask them to explain, validate their concern, expand on it, and affirm their point of view. Only then will anyone listen to anything you have to say. I wish someone had told me this in my teens.

• Never create and edit at the same time. Get all the sloppy, ugly roughs and first drafts out. Quantity is more important than quality at the start. Mess is more.

• Mastery is not gained from intellect. Mastery is not gained from talent. Mastery is not gained from ambition. Mastery is only gained from time and focus applied to your craft over many, many years. Do not conflate it with fame.

⚡️ Briefly

At the traditional autumn presentation, Apple showed several new products: iPhone 15 with USB-C, Apple Watch 9 with gesture control and Apple Watch Ultra 2.

The official recording of the broadcast.

Apple vs Meta: The Illusion of Privacy. Growth Design talked about how the Threads application hides information about the total collection of personal data, and why privacy in the Apple ecosystem does not really work as it should.

New technologies

The HeyGen neural network was taught to translate videos, preserving the intonation and voice of a person, as well as to change facial expressions so that it coincides with a new audio track. You can also translate the sound separately. At the time of publication, translations into English, French, Italian, German, Polish, Portuguese and Hindi are available.

The price is from $30 per month with 15 credits. 1 credit = 1 minute of video.

Stability AI has released a Stable Audio model for generating music and sound effects based on a text description. The model was trained on 800 thousand tracks, which in total last more than 19 thousand hours, so the music sounds quite natural. Finished tracks can be downloaded in high quality with a frequency of 44.1 kHz.

In the free version, you can generate 20 tracks per month, no longer than 45 seconds. The professional tariff will cost $12 per month, excluding taxes, and will generate up to 500 tracks. Only owners of a paid subscription can use audio in commercial projects.

🧘 Inspiration

Cy Biopharma. The modern branding of a company that develops innovative painkillers to replace opioids. The style is based on a large amount of white color, juicy dot gradients and minimalistic typography.