Blueprint — page 8 | The Gradient

Paramount, Warner, and the Price of Consolidation

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Paramount, Warner, and the Price of Consolidation

Ben Sanders on self-publishing, experimentation and giant bottle caps

Artist and designer Ben Sanders joined us on the Nicer Tuesdays stage in Los Angeles to talk about his absurdist airbrush paintings with frames made out of salt, pool noodles and art objects of enlarged metal bottle caps. Breaking from reality and travelling into a bizarro visual world for clients such as Nike, Louis Vuitton

Why Google’s DMCA Crisis Is Bad And Will Only Get Worse.

The online publishing community is experiencing a crisis driven by malicious entities that are filing fake DMCA notices in order to remove competitors from the search results. Many are asking Google to do something about it because publishers are trapped by a copyright protection law that has become weaponized against them. Disclaimer: This article is

Media Buying Briefing: It’s a world party at the World Cup, unless you’re looking to get in now

Happy 250th Birthday, America! As one of three host countries of the 2026 World Cup, you received a bit of a gift from the U.S. Men’s National Team, which is on to the round of 16 having beaten Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 1 to advance. Today the team faces Belgium in hopes of getting

This machine is magic: How I used the xTool F2 Ultra UV to engrave a dino

Laser engravers are pretty powerful tools, but never did I think one would be able to engrave INSIDE glass so easily. I’m new to using some of the best laser cutters and engravers on the market, and was thrilled (though a little anxious) when xTool offered to send me its F2 Ultra UV laser for

Safari’s New MCP Server Enables AI Debugging For SEO And CWV

Safari announced they are introducing a new MCP server that will enable web developers and SEOs to debug websites with an AI agent. The AI agent connects to the Safari browser window and collects data like network requests and the DOM which are helpful for debugging bottlenecks related to Core Web Vitals or anything else

Il Sole 24 Ore – Editorial illustrations 2026

During this year, I had the opportunity to work a series of illustrations for the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. Here it is a selection of these editorial illustrations and covers for special issues.

Google Put AI Visibility Inside The SEO Tool On Purpose

Google added AI search visibility reporting to Search Console, and the place it chose to put it is the whole argument. It is not a new product, and it is not a separate “Generative Console.” The same tool you already open to see how you rank in search now also shows how often you turn

HubSpot’s Warmly deal points to the next generation of CRM

HubSpot’s acquisition of Warmly yesterday is another example of CRMs evolving into systems that identify buying opportunities, recommend the next step, and even take action on their own. Warmly is best known for identifying individual website visitors and using AI agents to help sales teams engage them. For HubSpot, this isn’t just another AI feature.

Silvana Trevale’s photographs of Venezuelan youth are a love letter to a generation growing up in uncertainty

The decision to focus on youth grew out of an earlier project, Nosotras, which celebrated the women of Venezuela and “how hard they worked to keep their families afloat”, Silvana says. Returning to Venezuela afterwards, she found herself thinking about beach days with friends as a child, and the realisation that the country’s youth –

Microsoft Just Proved A Point About Search Today

The company that owns a major web index just documented, in its own product, that ranking a page and citing a passage are different jobs. Web IQ arriving at Build on June 2, and AI citation data showing up inside Bing Webmaster Tools earlier this year, were not surprises. As I know well, having built

Nike’a 2026 Q4 growth margin increased 890 basis points

Nike says it’s in a better financial position as it awaits nearly $1 billion in refunds related to tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. On Tuesday, Nike shared that its growth margin for its fiscal fourth quarter of 2026 increased 890 basis points to 49.2%, “primarily due to the expected recovery of the IEEPA

Prepped for a 4th of July BBQ? Not without these summer garden essentials, you aren't

Save up to 40% on outdoor tech and accessories for hosting, relaxing, and entertainment.

Cloudflare’s AI Crawler Rules Can Block Googlebot

Cloudflare is updating its method of identifying and blocking AI crawlers, which may result in Googlebot being blocked on sites that prevent AI training. The company announced the update as part of its second Content Independence Day. The new controls let websites manage automated traffic based on three behaviors rather than a single “block AI

CareDx Illustration System

For CareDX, a California-based biotechnology and precision medicine company leading the field of transplant care, we developed a flexible illustration system based on continuous line drawings. Commissioned by Mucho and created together with our friends and talented partners at Familia, the system translates the brand’s commitment to transplant care into a warm, human and consistent

A Copyright Claim Can Remove Your Page From Google Search

A copyright complaint can remove a page from Google’s search results based on a notice, even if ownership claims are later disputed or inaccurate. Press Gazette saw this happen twice this year. In late June, the journalism trade outlet reported that a second piece of its reporting about the marketing company Clickout Media had been

AI visibility depends on who writes about your brand

A client called after Google’s May 2026 core update, worried that a flagship product page had slipped from position two to eight. The rankings had dropped, but that wasn’t the first question worth asking anymore. The real question was whether buyers could still find the brand when they asked ChatGPT, Google’s AI Mode, or another

At Warsaw’s The Poster Festival, a new school of artists emerge alongside an overlooked history of graphic design

Part of the festival was a whopping eight-hour conference bringing together a wealth of designers from across Europe, from Switzerland’s ‘atelier’ Kolly Gujer and Graphic Matters to institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and the International Poster Biennale. The discussions, talks and panels reached topics such as ‘is the poster dead?’

AI Search Is Nothing Without SEO & It Knows It

As AI summaries compress traditional organic space, referral traffic to publishers is being squeezed, creating a world where search is more used than ever, but the search interface is also retaining users for longer, where it has historically acted like a switchboard. The outlook from publishers is pessimistic, with traffic expected to halve in the

Inside Electronic Art’s bet in-game ads can out-earn CTV

Gaming is the next big ad medium after social, CTV and retail media. That’s according to Electronic Arts’ vp of advertising and sponsorship, Alex Dao, who’s building out their ads business. The unit launched last month and covers brand partnerships and gameplay integrations, ad units in 3D sports simulations, enhanced targeting and measurement capabilities as

Off to college? These dorm room deals suit every type of student

Beth is Creative Bloq’s Ecommerce Writer and has the fun job of finding you the very best prices and deals on creative tech. Beth kicked off her journalistic career writing for Digital Camera World and has since earned bylines on TechRadar and PetsRadar too. With a Master’s degree in Photography, Beth loves getting to tinker

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