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IllustrationMeet Award-winning Illustrator Owen Davey
Discover the wonderful world of this multi-talented British artist as he tells us about his creative process, influences, and inspiration Owen Davey (@owendaveydraws) is passionate about illustration. His award-winning children’s books have been published in every continent except Antarctica. Working from the English coastal town of Worthing, Owen is known for his geometric vector illustrations, limited color palettes, and his love of drawing animals. Among his clients, he counts Google, Facebook, Sony, The New York Times, National Geographic, Microsoft, Lego, the Two Dot app, and many, many more.
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DesignWhat’s a Mockup and What’s its Design Purpose?
Discover how to polish your designs using this important resource, with Francisco Andriani and Clara Fernández, founders of Asís studio
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Design7 Sustainable Design Studios to Be Inspired By
Discover the studios that put our planet first when it comes to developing a design project Spanish creative director and graphic designer Núria Vila Punzano (@nuriavilapunzano) fuses her passion for the visual arts with today’s most pressing issues: sustainability and protecting the environment. While at university, Núria was drawn to experimental books and learning about alternative production techniques. Worried that her work lacked purpose (after all, what was her objective, just to make money?), she decided to turn her attention to environmentally-conscious design. She was disappointed by the standard of what was being classed as "ecodesign" around the world and decided to become the Irma Boom of sustainable design. Her Domestika course, Introduction to Sustainable Graphic Design, seeks to train other designers and creatives to focus their work on these issues, encouraging people to develop an aesthetic that respects and defends the planet. Below, we present seven design studios that prioritize sustainability and which Núria considers important references: La page This Catalan design studio sets out to develop projects with a zero-carbon footprint and analyses how much damage each stage of the process causes to the environment, from production to distribution. La page has launched BlueTool, an eco graphic design tool for public use.
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IllustrationWhat Is Watercolor Painting, and What Materials Do You Need to Start?
Peek into the fascinating world of watercolor and learn about pigments and techniques from scratch Watercolor painting is an ancient technique used to apply color onto paper or cardboard using pigments soluble in water. The technique is based on the overlapping of transparent layers while using the white of the paper to achieve touches of light and effects. Tones in watercolor are achieved by adding or removing water using brushes, sponges, and cloth. Starting in watercolor is simple; however, the results that can be achieved with this painting technique can be as complex and rich as the history of this art. Find out some of the things you need to know if you are interested in watercolor.
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Typography, Calligraphy and LetteringBrief History of Lyric Videos in Music: Type in Motion
Learn about the origin of music videos where typography is the protagonist The lyric videos are the music videos in which instead of seeing stories or the musicians performing the song, the main element is the typography. Since the advent of music videos, they have been a creative resource used by bands of all genres. For about a decade now, bands have often released a song with a lyric video before releasing the official one. For independent musicians, this type of video is attractive as it can be made with fewer resources than traditional productions, while fans can learn the lyrics of the songs. They have become so popular that in 2014, MTV included a lyric video category in their annual Music Video Awards. Here are some exceptional examples that truly bring the use of typography to the spirit of each song.
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MarketingInstagram Tutorial: The Secret to Engagement
Learn the most effective ways to connect and engage with your audience and network on Instagram, with Dot Lung An active and engaged Instagram following is considerably more valuable than a large and inactive following so knowing how to maximize engagement is key to any successful Instagram account. With countless contradictory messages, It can be difficult to understand what strategy to adopt when interacting with people on social media. That is why social media expert and Mother of Social Media Dragons Dot Lung has created this tutorial to explain the best ways to up your engagement.
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DesignDiscover the Colors That Will Trend and Triumph in 2021
We analyze the main color trends in fashion, decoration, and design so you can use them in your projects For Eva Heller, author of the book The Psychology of Colors, colors - and how we perceive them - change according to context. This is how we connect colors with experiences, languages, thoughts, feelings, and times. For this very reason, brands, designers, artists, and specialists regularly focus on the color trends of the year or the season, since these will be the colors that will express the feelings and emotions of the moment and will reach the largest number of people.
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MarketingFree Social Media Metrics Guide for Beginners
Expert Hana Klokner explains the most used KPIs for social media management You have great content and a shiny strategy for your social media accounts. Then, you implement it and post according to your calendar. But after a while, you see no growth. What went wrong? After ten years of experience as a social media marketing specialist, Hana Klokner (@hanajayklokner) started her own consultancy business, working with clients like Amazon, glh Hotels, and the United Nations. She is a published author of Wired & Socially Awkward: New York, a short story collection for adults themed around social media.
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Marketing9 Essential Books for Digital Marketing Professionals
If you work in social media, branding, and creativity, or are simply interested in learning more, check out this reading list compiled by experts No longer is social media simply a marketing tool: for most companies, it has become the most important vehicle of communication. This is why making the most of social networks is essential, as they become increasingly more valuable. To generate effective strategies and ideas for brands, you need to learn how to use your best thinking tool. Staying up to date and getting to know this specialty in depth are the keys to success. Therefore, we are sharing a list of books recommended by Domestika teachers who are also experts in digital marketing and social media. Recommended by Juanmi Díez, Dot Lung, Núria Mañé, and Hana Kloner, the following titles touch on everything from creativity and branding, as well as the origins of digital marketing. Recommendations from Juanmi Díez (@juanmidiez), who teaches the course, Introduction to Instagram Business:
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Illustration5 Key Tips to Make the Most of Online Education in 2021
How do you decide how to educate yourself? How to get the best out of being a self-taught learner? Many of the most important structures in our lives have been profoundly changed in recent months. Our habits have forcibly changed. However, despite some limitations, new possibilities have also been created. Acquiring new knowledge, tools, and techniques through different online education formats has been one of them. Now, with so many possibilities, how to choose what to train for? And when we do, how do we take advantage of it? Patricio Oliver (@patriciooliver) has been teaching Illustration and Typography at the University of Buenos Aires for two decades. He is also one of Domestika's teachers. To discuss important aspects of online education, we talked with him about how to be a good self-taught student in 2021. These are his key tips:
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DesignDomestika Diary: Núria Vila
Núria Vila is a graphic designer and art director who specializes in sustainable design. She tells us about her daily routine and the creative process she uses to implement more sustainable and ethical projects.
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Architecture & Space5 Online Interior Design Courses for Beginners
Discover the basic principles of interior design and transform any space
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MarketingFree Exercises for Defining Your Brand Identity
Use this worksheet by Alice Benham to conceive and help build a powerful brand identity Regardless of your creative industry, having an effective brand identity is key to finding an audience who can appreciate and support your work. Digital marketing and podcast coach Alice Benham (@alice_benham) works with business owners and entrepreneurs to create strategic content that helps them reach their goals - whether they are based on profit, purpose, or both. In her English-language Domestika Live on January 25, she explains what a brand identity is, why it’s important, and how to create one and ensure that it’s reflected across your content. She will use this worksheet to explain simple, concrete exercises that you can do to conceive and build your unique brand. If you miss the Live, you will be able to find an archived version of it to enjoy later. Using this worksheet, Alice will show you how to define your brand’s core, identity, and values, and you will learn how to create an actionable mission statement that you can then use to drive your content and marketing strategy. This will help you more effectively reach and engage with new audiences, as well as build brand loyalty. Tune in for Alice Benham’s English-language Domestika Live where she answers audience questions about branding and explains how to use these exercises to build your own brand identity, on January 25, 2021 at 5pm UK / 6 pm MAD / 11 am CDMX. To watch an archived version of her Live, and all Domestika Live specials, go here.
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Photography5 Free Photography Online Classes: Best Materials and Equipment For a Professional Session
Five experts show you their favoirte material and share practical tips to help you find the ideal equipment for your needs If you want to explore your surroundings to capture new images or you would like to carry out a professional production and you are not sure about what you need, there is nothing better than spying on the brains of those in the know. In these free classes, 5 experts advise you on technical issues, present their essential equipment, and give you some unexpected advice. To watch each class, just click on its red title. Enjoy!
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Typography, Calligraphy and LetteringWhat is Calligraphy and What Materials Do I Need to Get Started?
Know the fundamentals of this creative discipline and express your love for handwriting If you are passionate about letters, maybe a calligraphy artist has caught your attention. On social media, we see captivating videos of creatives creating beautiful compositions in which written messages transcend on paper. If you too want to learn this beautiful art, you've come to the right place! Discover some basic calligraphy concepts and the materials you need to start practicing right now.
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MarketingTop Tips for Using Copywriting to Strengthen your Personal Brand
Copywriter Carla González lists the importance of language when building a communication strategy and offers tips to improve your texts Marketing is not a religion–although some may disagree, but we think the following biblical verse is fitting: “in the beginning was the Word.” For Spanish copywriting specialist Carla González (@carlagoon), great brand ideas and product concepts are shaped and developed on strong linguistic foundations. Copywriting has an essential role in this process. It is vital to know how to select the appropriate tone and the best words and create a unique style to strengthen a personal or company image. Nowadays, we need to choose our language carefully in order not to offend different sensibilities. We asked Carla three questions about the importance of editing when creating promotional text. Based on her answers, we have put together three great tips on using copywriting to strengthen your brand. Let’s have a look at what she suggests:
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Film & VideoBefore Hollywood, There Was Fort Lee
It might surprise you to learn that New Jersey was the birthplace of America’s film industry Once upon a time, before Hollywood, a borough of northern New Jersey was the film capital of the world. Located across the Hudson River from New York City, Fort Lee was the birthplace of the American film industry, home to the first film studios, including Universal, Solax (the first studio founded and directed by a woman: French writer, director, and producer, Alice Guy Blaché), and Fox. What brought filmmakers to Fort Lee? In 1888, Thomas Edison, who had already invented the phonograph, commissioned William Dickson to create the first motion-picture camera: the Kinetograph. In 1893, the Edison Company built what is thought to be America’s first film studio in West Orange, New Jersey. This studio was a single-room building called the “Black Maria,” which rotated on tracks to follow the sun.
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3D & AnimationThe 10 Most Anticipated Video Games of 2021
These are the games that everybody will talk about this year The launch of a new generation of Playstation (PS5) and Xbox (Xbox Series X / S) gaming consoles and the release of Assassin's Creed: Ragnarok and Cyberpunk 2077, closed a somewhat eventful year for the video game industry. Although many production and release dates have been postponed due to the extreme circumstances caused by the virus and lockdowns, 2021 is set to be a more regular year, full of highly anticipated titles that gamers will love. Now that a new generation of consoles is finally here, the possibilities are endless, and a year full of epic and daring games awaits us. In this list, we give a quick view of some of the most anticipated titles of 2021, many of which already have a confirmed release date. God of War: Ragnarök (PS4, PS5) After the roaring success of God of War (2018), 2021 will bring the next installment of the Spartan demigod Kratos' adventures. He will face characters from Greek and Norse mythology, from fantastic creatures to titans and gods. Ragnarök, the end-of-the-world battle of Norse mythology, will be a new battleground for him and his son.
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Typography, Calligraphy and LetteringFree Faux Calligraphy Practice Sheets for Beginners
Artist Annie Weir shares a guide to practice hand lettering and calligraphy
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IllustrationWatercolor Tutorial: How to Fix and Avoid Mistakes on Wet Paper
Learn how paint reacts to water on paper so you can avoid mistakes, blooms, and ineffective layering and fix any errors you do make, with Sarah Stokes Water can be a watercolor artist’s best friend and worst enemy: it allows us to blend and spread pigment to create our paintings but can just as easily spoil a picture if not used properly. Watercolorist and wildlife painter Sarah Stokes has had her work exhibited on luxury cruise liners and sold by major retailers such as Amazon and Next. In this tutorial, she explains a collection of different watercolor effects and how to achieve them.
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IllustrationFree Download: Sketch of Audrey Hepburn
Use this beautiful sketch by Connie Lim to create your own fashion illustration of Audrey Hepburn during Connie’s Domestika Live Audrey Hepburn’s beautiful features have been the inspiration for countless drawings by professionals and amateurs the world over. To pay homage to the style icon on the anniversary of her death, multimedia fashion illustrator Connie Lim will be using her unique technique to illustrate a famous image of Audrey Hepburn on her Domestika Live. Connie has prepared this sketch from a photo for you to download and print out and follow along as she takes us through her process.
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CraftMia Winston-Hart Creates Vibrant Resin Jewelry
Meet the British jewelry designer crafting one-of-a-kind pieces with epoxy resin A graduate of the University of the Arts in London, Mia Winston-Hart (@miawinstonhart) is an educator and the founder and owner of a small accessories business in the south of England. She creates brightly-colored one-of-a-kind pieces with epoxy resin–a material that has no limits, allowing Mia to explore her creativity and work with an infinite range of shapes and colors.
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Architecture & Space10 Architectural Illustrators to Follow And Get Inspired
With different styles and techniques, these illustrators capture the essence of buildings and spaces
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Web & App Design20 Useful Free Websites for Designers to Discover in 2021
These resources will prove very useful at different stages of the design process and help you start 2021 off on the right foot If you’re looking to create a library of useful resources for design projects, this list features websites that will help you fulfill your professional goals. Below you’ll find a list of websites organized into categories: from web design and branding to graphic design. If you want to discover additional recommendations for each category, just click on the category title in red. Free Websites for Creating Color Palettes Colormind Upload any image and Colormind will turn it into a harmonious color palette. Unlike other automated websites, instead of selecting the dominant colors in the image, this free website uses an algorithm to find the colors that go well together. You can also browse a selection of ready-created color palettes.
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MarketingDos and Don’ts of Client Presentations with Katya Kovalenko
Learn the dos and don’ts of client presentations so you can present yourself and your projects successfully, with presentation and data designer Katya Kovalenko Client presentations are a part of almost every professional’s life, whether you work in an office or for yourself, we all need to know how to get our ideas across, clearly, concisely, and, most importantly, convincingly. Katya Kovalenko (@katyakovalenko) created a business that helps startups become brands, using the expertise she gained over a decade in the advertising business to help them design their data and present themselves. In this tutorial, Katya will share the dos and don’ts of client presentation to help ensure that your next presentation is a success.
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Design TeacherFree Guide: The Principles of Visual Hierarchy for Design
Data Designer Katya Kovalenko shares a complete guide on visual hierarchy
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CraftWhat Are Scrapbooks and What Are The Different Types?
Learn about scrapbooking and how to use this creative tool to preserve memories and tell a story “Life is all memory, except for the present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going.” The words of American playwright Tennessee Williams perhaps explain why scrapbooking, the art of creating scrapbooks, has become so popular. But what exactly is a scrapbook? Discover below.
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Architecture & Space5 Low-cost Ideas to Improve Your Video Call Backdrop
If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that the walls of our homes have a lot to say Your wall–and no, we’re not talking about Facebook or Instagram, but the physical one behind you–sends a message. As a result of lockdown, last year, many of us had to quickly transform corners of our homes into impromptu office spaces. In 2021, these spaces can tell our colleagues, clients, and collaborators a lot about who we are. Among the interior design trends to look out for in 2021, your walls, now visible to others, have become a tool for connecting with the world. Therefore, it’s time to start thinking more carefully about how we present them (if you weren’t already!). Below, interior designer Sofi Saraví O'Keefe (@decolookbook) shares her top tips. 1. Be careful about what can and can’t be seen “By now, many of us have realized that having the ironing board, an unmade bed, or a bottle of laundry detergent visible during a video call doesn’t make a great impression. However, sitting in front of a plain, empty white wall is not the solution either. While the latter was acceptable during the first week of lockdown, that is no longer the case–it can suggest that the rest of that person's house is a mess. It also transmits that you couldn’t be bothered to make a little effort. After all this time, could you not have come up with something more interesting? If you're creative, this is your moment to shine.”
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IllustrationTop 8 Illustrators Not to Miss in 2021
Discover the upcoming talents who are inspiring our top illustrators When 2020 came to an end, we wanted to evaluate this most atypical year and compile a list of its most salient moments. We asked some of Domestika’s illustrators if they‘d made some discoveries in 2020 and to tell us who, in their view, were the illustration talents who had made a significant mark and that we should not lose sight of in the new year. Germán González, Paula Bossio, Carlos Rodríguez Casado, Ana Santos, Diego Catalán, Emma Hanquist, Adolfo Serra, and Ana Victoria Calderón tell us about their illustration favorites. 1. Germán González recommends Florian Schommer Digital illustrator Germán González (@germangonzalez) teaches the Domestika course 'Digital Techniques for Illustrated Portraits’ and admits it was not easy to choose only one person, as he discovered many talented illustrators last year. However, he was particularly impressed by German illustrator Florian Schommer's work.
