Issue 05

Skeuomorphism is back! …Wait, what?!

That’s right. Nine years after Apple ditched skeuomorphism in favor of a flatter iOS interface, it's back in the mainstream — although this time it's not so in-your-face. Whether you still love the old style or you prefer the more modern ‘neumorphism’, welcome back to the fold.

To celebrate (and to test your design skills), we recently ran a #Sketchmorphism challenge on our social channels. And boy, did you folks deliver. You can find some of the best entries below.

Of course, we also have some big product releases for you this month. Artboard Templates are a whole new kind of Component that will make designing faster and easier than ever. And we’ve given alpha masks a major update too. Dive in — and as always, let us know what you think.

See you next month!

Stephen Ashby

Editor, Beyond the Canvas

What's new in Sketch?

Artboard Templates

You can now turn any Artboard — and its content — into a template. That means you can create an Artboard, add pinned navigation and menu bars, set the right grid and layout settings, then save it all as a template to use again and again. Artboard Templates behave like any other Component, so you can share them as part of Libraries and reuse them across documents.

Tell me more!

Use any layer as an alpha mask

Want to use an image as an alpha mask? Now you can! In fact, you can now use all types of layers as alpha masks. Simply set your layer to act as a mask and Sketch will figure out the most appropriate type to use based on the layer type and its fills.

Discover

On our radar

Blog

Made with Sketch: How Gavin Nelson puts the ‘icon’ in ‘iconic’

“I try and strike a nice blend between the old super realistic skeuomorphic icons, and a more refined, stripped-back icon that works better in context. When you get it right, it doesn’t look out of place, but still hits this nostalgic chord.”

Video

How to make photorealistic art in Sketch

Get some quick tips on creating a skeuomorphic design from Mike as he shows off his realistic record player recreated entirely in Sketch.

Malewicz

Designer and content creator

Interview

Women in engineering: Meet María Gil, Director of Engineering at Sketch

In honor of Women in Engineering Day, we sat down with our very own María Gil, Director of Engineering to learn about her journey, insights into the engineering field, and her hopes for the industry’s future.