This week in Twine Creative News: Ever wondered what Donald Trump would look like as a hipster? Or why online websites insist on 2D photos?

Making hipstory: illustrator reimagines world leaders as hipsters

If you’ve ever lamented that the world leaders are just so not with the times, Israeli illustrator Amit Shimoni has got you covered. He’s redrawn some of the most iconic leaders in history as modern-day hipsters. Shimoni explains: “I often find myself thinking about the differences between these world’s greatest leaders, their beliefs and motivations, and our self-centred generation. The ‘Y’ generation is constantly looking at fashion and style as their way of self expression while steering away from the big ideologies. HIPSTORY wishes to reimagine the great leaders of modern history and place them in a different time and culture – ours”.

The verdict’s still not in or whether a style change would improve Donald Trump’s disastrous approval ratings.

Read more at QCostaRica.

Feel like GIFs are taking over the world? You may soon be seeing them in the workplace…

Your work’s tired old Code of Conduct document (that appears to have inherited its values from the 1840s) may soon draw its last breath. Branding firm Wolff Olins has realised the fact that nobody really reads it is in fact a major UX flaw. Having faced trouble with ethical compliance in the past, Telia, a Swedish telecommunications company, has revised its code of conduct withWolff Olins’s help. Their amazing new website comes complete with GIFS, which condense a long, boring document into 17 core policies – e.g “Don’t launder money”.

They’ve even got a game, where players have to shut their laptops on a plane to avoid the prying eyes of the passengers around them. And of course, some nicely designed posters to make sure the message is clear on and offline.

Read more over at Fast Company Design.

Animator Thomas Romain turned his kid’s drawings into awesome original characters

Kids’ drawings are charming, adorable and fun, but (in the kindest way possible) not necessarily brimming with great artistic ability- which is why this news piece is really awesome! Thomas Romain, a French anime creator who now lives in Tokyo, took his sons’ drawings and developed them into amazing original characters. Even better – every time he posts them, he gives credit to his sons as the original designer! As Nextshark put it: “Romain’s sons really take after him as they love to sketch from their imagination. Dad then uses his professional skills as an anime artist to turn their drawings into characters from out of this world.”

These women are tackling outdated cliches in animation!

Did you know that for most of the California Institute of the Art’s 47 year history, most of its animators were men? It’s perhaps no surprise that some of animation’s cliches have persisted for so long. As CNS News put it, most animated women have been portrayed as “nerds, sex bombs, tomboys or ugly villains”, most obvious in the princess with the waist so tiny she “wouldn’t be able to walk” and the menopausal/post-menopausal female villain.

Today, 75% of the animation students at CalArt are women and for the past two years the Institute has hosted “The Animated Woman Symposium on Gender Bias”. This new generation of animators is determined to finally eliminate these archaic stereotypes and also gain greater representation in the animation studio itself. Marge Dean, president of the industry group Women in Animation, is pushing studios to up their current percentage of women from 22% of the workforce, to a far more even 50% by 2025.

3D is coming to a website near you

2D pictures of items you’re about to buy don’t really tell you a lot. People want to look at their potential purchases from every angle, not just one. And it seems ecommerce websites are beginning to realise that. With AR and VR the next big things on the horizon, it seems 3D images of products will arrive soon! Australian shoe company Shoes of Prey are pioneering the technology on their online store – not only can you examine the shoes from every angle, you can also customise them right there on the website.

On top of providing a better shopping experience for customers, 3D will save businesses money. Rather than spending a small fortune on photoshoots to get the product looking its best, they can get it rendered in 3D with the help of a designer far more quickly and cheaply!

Read Shreyas Nivas’s article on Mumbrella to find out more.

Manchester start-up approve.io is making it easier to manage design work

Manchester start-up Approve, a “superfast tool to feedback, iterate and approve your designs”, are making it easier for designers to manage their work with clients. Removing the need for email, the tool provides creatives with a centralised interface to organise file versions. Clients and collaborators can leave comments on the different versions and approve the final design. Approve lets you track the whole creative process and know who said what. Definitely worth checking out!

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Dance music to listen to in bed (instead of at a club)

Queer producer Will Wiesenfield has been re-defining the purpose of dance music with his ambient electronic project Geotic. He explains: “So much of dance music is about partying and going out and having a really hardcore social experience. Dance music has never been that for me. So much of my experience listening to music is being by myself—at home or in my car.” Rather than focusing on the extremes that EDM is most known for, Will prefers to draw out the subtleties found in softer electronic music. You can enjoy his debut LP on the 31st March.

Read more over at Out.

Oscar nominations announced!

You’re probably well aware that the Oscars nominations are out, but we’ve picked out some animation highlights for you:

Google’s animated VR film Pearl has been nominated for the best Animated Short Film, bringing focus to the artistic potential of virtual reality.

Disney’s Zootopia has been nominated for Animated Feature Film. If they win, Disney will have won the accolade 9 times in 10 years.

Avant-garde festival favourite Blind Vaysha by Montreal animator Theodore Ushev has been nominated for Animated Short Film.

Check out the full list of Oscar nominations here.

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