Best Computers For Web design

What new design strings should you be adding to your bow in 2016? What do employers really want? And is it actually possible to design your life – as well as your career?

The latest issue of Computer Arts, 248, is packed with advice for becoming the best designer you can possibly be in the new year. On sale now, it's an essential read for the Christmas break.

Inside issue 248, leading designers and employers discuss how to develop your existing skills – and reveal the new skills you need to boost your career prospects next year.

Meanwhile, this month's special report explores 2016's biggest colour trends and looks at the role of brands as colour curators. Find out what's going to be big and how to harness the power of next year's top palettes in your design work.

Also inside CA 248

Frost* Collective founder Vince Frost explains how to design your life. From getting started to staying focused, his hard-won advice will help you change your design, career and life over the next 12 months.

Essential advice for improving your wellbeing as a designer

Plus, stress doesn't have to be an inevitable part of life as a designer – find out what to do if you're feeling overwhelmed at work and how to boost your mental wellbeing.

Also:

• Why branding is no longer about defining a set of inflexible regulations
• How one designer put a modern twist on classic motor racing
• The best new design, illustration and motion graphics projects from around the world
• Much, much more...

Creating the retro branding for the Mezzo 200 motor race