Blog – Sourav's Resume

Creative Banner Design – A Step by Step Guide

Designing a creative banner campaign can be a long, complicated process involving many different people. The longer the process gets, the easier it is to forget certain steps, or ignore certain parts due to time constraints. Thankfully, you needn’t worry any longer. We’ve created this checklist to assist with your creative banner design, so you can make sure you’ve got everything covered, and are working in the most efficient way possible.

Step 1 – Decide on your offer

First and foremost, you need to decide the central point of your campaign. Do you have a specific offer, or do you want to raise brand awareness and profile? Do you have a physical item for sale or a service? You need to think specifically about what you want to achieve first, as it will make the rest of the process so much easier.

Once you’ve decided on the focus of your campaign, it would be normal to think you need to go ahead and work on ideas for the concept, but that would mean missing a vital step in the process, which is to identify your audience.

Step 2 – Identify Your Audience

Before you start thinking about your new banner designs and campaigns, it’s really important to think about who your banner advert is aimed at. If you haven’t already, try to identify your potential audience using Buyer Personas. Once you’ve done this, you’ll have a clear idea of who your audience is, and a persona to aim your ad it. It helps you visualise the users, which in turn helps you design a campaign made especially for them.

Identifying your audience will ensure that you maximise your chances of engagement, as your audience will be more likely to pay attention to your ad if they feel like it’s directed at them. It will actually help with the creative process too, as you can really get into detailed concepts and ideas without having to try and appeal to every single person who would potentially see the banner. This exercise isn’t about putting any limitations on your imagination or potential reach, but it is about maximising every impression on your campaign.

Step 3 – Brainstorm Ideas

Whether you’re working on it with a whole team, or going it alone, it’s now time to get your ideas out there and brainstorm. Write anything down, from vague concepts to tiny details you want to include. Write down every idea you have, and keep writing until the well has run dry. Cross out ideas you don’t like as you go, too, in the hope that most of what you’re left with will be useful in some way.

There are many different ways to brainstorm, and you can find so much advice and guidance on how to do it effectively. One way that almost always gives great results is to start really broad. There are no bad ideas, and no one says ‘no’ to anything. From here, focus on each idea, and pick a handful to go to the next stage with. Then open it out again, and come up with the details for each of these ideas. Again, there are no bad suggestions at this point, as the next stage drills down into each idea to decide whether to finalise it. After this process, you should be left with a near fully-formed idea, with necessary details and a solid overall concept.

Now you should be left with a board, or a few pages, or whatever you and your team decided to write on, which is bursting with ideas. Maybe some sketches of how the campaign will look, along with places where it would be good to buy ad inventory. You should have a few copy ideas there too, and maybe a rough framework of how the campaign will work overall. Will there be one banner? Multiple? Will you utilise Live Banners? Videos? Is it purely a banner campaign or will there be other media? These are the kinds of questions to ask yourself and the team whilst you’re brainstorming. Chances are there’s no definitive answer at this point, and all options are worth considering, depending on how they fit in with your target audience.

Step 4 – Conceptualise

Now it’s time to narrow your focus, and work through all of the ideas from the brainstorming session. Some will work, and some won’t, so be prepared to cast aside some really good input (saving it for future campaigns, of course). Get your best, or most suitable ideas in front of you, and mould them into an overall concept.

This should include a rough framework for the campaign. Sketches of what the banners will look like, what kind of sizes they will be, and a design concept including the type of image or video you’d want to use. Also, as part of the campaign framework, decide where you want it to appear and why. After conceptualising, you should have a clear idea of where to start with your designs, and where you want them to go.

Step 5 – Choose your format

You have your framework, and a clear idea and vision of what you want to do, so now you should be looking into which format suits your aim the best. If your campaign is going to be mainly mobile focused, maybe you want to include more interactive elements with rich media, so users can swipe and manipulate the ad. Are you using pictures or would a video suit your message better? Will a straightforward, static banner work for you or does it need to be animated?

For some marketers this is one of the biggest decisions, as it can determine whether or not you have a huge time investment on your hands, but in truth, it doesn’t need to be so seismic. By using Bannerflow, it takes minutes to edit sizes or insert videos, and there’s no need to republish. Everything is altered in real-time.

Step 6 – Size it up

This goes hand in hand with the format. Depending on where you’re putting your ad, you’ll need to size it appropriately. The best thing to do in most cases is to create a whole range of sizes which are also responsive, but without the right software this can take a lot of time. You or your design team would have to code each individual size and refit all of the elements within, so everything remains in proportion. Understandably, many marketers avoid this as much as possible due to the sheer amount of time it takes.

If you use Bannerflow, however, this process takes minutes. It’s merely a case of selecting another size and using the original as a template. All elements and animations will be brought in automatically, and scaled, but if you want to check to make sure everything still looks the way you want it then that’s possible. It only takes seconds if you do want to make changes too.

Step 7 – Design

Now for the fun part. You have your sketches, your planned sizes, and your chosen formats, so it’s time to design. First, you and the creative team decide on a final plan, and start to source anything you need externally, like a video or picture of specific location. Then you need your copy, whether that’s just for the call to action or something a little more in depth. As long as you always know who you’re talking to, in terms of your audience, this part should come naturally. If you can’t decide between a couple of ideas, try both! You can either field them to the rest of your business, or do some live A/B testing.

Then you need to bring all of your elements together and create your banner. Depending on your software, and the complexity of your ad, this can take anything from minutes to days. Minutes if you are using Bannerflow, as you drag and drop your elements onto a ready made canvas, with no coding. Days if you’re doing everything from scratch and coding for each individual element and size.

Some things to consider in the design are how effectively you are using the space you have, and how your positioning will work. Effective use of negative space can really catch the eye, and can be used in really imaginative ways. If you’re doing it well, you’ll make the user really look at your banner, as it will have more to it than initially meets the eye. Positioning of your various elements is really important too. Where will you put your call to action? Do you want copy at the top of the banner, or to the right? Do you need to shorten your text for it to look more appealing? There’s no right or wrong answer, and every ad is different. First and foremost, ensure you and your team is happy with the look and layout, and proud of the campaign.

This step is so important overall, as this is where you bring together everything you’ve been working on. You want the ad to run perfectly, and to be pitched at exactly the right level for your audience. Whichever way you and your team decide to work, make sure that you’re previewing everything, and that you’re not allowed to make changes and sacrifice things you loved in the initial stages. Check every little detail, and make everything look amazing, as this banner is the key to your campaign’s success. You need it to demand the attention of your audience, and engage them enough to interact with it. Succeed in this, and your campaign will perform fantastically well.

Step 8 – Text and Translation

After you’ve finalised your master banner, you’ll need to think about all the different places where it’ll be shown. If you’re keeping it restricted to your local market, you don’t need to worry about this, but if you’re going international with your campaign, you need to think about localisation.

This isn’t as simple as just putting your carefully crafted copy into Google Translate. As good as that is, it can’t pick up on the nuances of a language, you generally get more of a gist of things than a like for like translation, so you’ll probably need to send to translators to get the job done well. This has design implications too, as word length varies from language to language, and some can change the look of an ad completely, so you need to be mindful of this when asking for the translated texts.

When you’ve got all your translations back, if you’re not using dedicated software, you then have to manually create banners in every size, for every language, which is a huge task. This is something which Bannerflow excels at, as scaling up campaigns and translating them takes minutes, rather than days. This frees up more of your time to spend on the fun parts of a creative banner design.

Even if you don’t need translations, you may still want to utilise this sort of functionality to try different versions of your text to appeal to the different segments of your audience. For there you can measure the performance of each and see which copy performs the best, too.

Step 9 – The Final Checks

Everything else is finished, so you just need to check through all of your banners, and preview them. If they’re all working, and all look as good as you and your team envisioned, it’s time to get them published! You have many, many options here, but in terms of the creative part, you’re all done! Now sit back and watch the audience engage with your amazing campaign.

There it is, your very own step by step guide to making an awesome banner ad campaign. If you want to know more about how Bannerflow can help you, don’t hesitate to apply for a demo today!

Creative Banner Design – A Step by Step Guide sourav 2021-08-28T14:53:42+06:00

How Design a Logo

7-Step Logo Design Process

Introduction

In this article, I will walk you through my proven 7-step logo design process and do so on a real-case scenario.

So that you can see my going through these steps and get inspired to make your work more efficient and more effective as well.

“Logo design process demands a combination of investigation, strategic thinking and design excellence.“ — Alina Wheeler, Designing Brand Identity

So whether you’re a designer, or you’re looking to hire one, this article will give you a valuable insight into the logo making process.

Now, my client approached me with a rebranding project and I know you want to see the logo before and after so here you go:

Now, before we talk about each and every step that led my to that final design, it’s important to briefly remind ourselves what makes a great logo in the first place.

What makes a good logo

Every designer will give you a slightly different definition of what makes a great logo, but basically you can boil it down to the three fundamental logo design principles.

And as the famous logo designer, Sagi Haviv said:

We judge each of our early design concepts by the following criteria: Is it appropriate? Is it simple? Is it memorable?—Sagi Haviv, Identify

These three criteria come in the form of questions that we can ask ourselves when developing logo designs.

Now, let’s explain each of those principles shortly to understand what they really mean.

Is it appropriate?

Appropriate means that the logo is relevant in form and concept to the client and its industry.

For example: If you’re designing for a fashion brand, then the logo needs to be elegant, but if you’re designing for a sports brand, then the logo probably needs to be bold and dynamic.

Is it simple?

Simple means that a logo has to be focused on a single story and in most cases it must be uncomplicated in form.

A logo must be simple so it can work effectively and flexibly in a wide range of sizes and media e.g. in small size on a business card, and in big size such as a signage.

Is it memorable?

Memorable means that while the form must be simple, it must also be distinctive enough to be easily remembered.

Of course the simpler the form is, the less special it tends to become, so the challenge is to keep it simple while making it distinctive enough so it can be remembered.

Ok, so without further ado, let’s jump right into the first step of my logo design process which is the discovery phase.

1. Discover—Get to know the client’s business.

Now, every designer will have a slightly different approach, but most would certainly agree that running a discovery phase and developing some sort of a brand strategy is an absolute must.

Discovery is about getting to know the client’s business, it’s history, industry, competitors and audience.

And this is because logo design is not art, so we shouldn’t just start coming up with logo ideas out of thin air relying purely on our sense of aesthetics.

You see, a logo should serve a specific business objective, so therefore you need to stay objective in the process in order to design something that is appropriate.

A logo is the centerpiece of all brand communication—it’s literally everywhere—so it should stand the test of time.

We naturally don’t want to redesign that logo in the foreseeable future, so we want to give ourselves the best possible chance at designing a logo that will endure.

Before you actually open up the Illustrator and start playing with type, color and shape—you must first brief the client and create a foundation for your creative exploration.

Now, different designers will go to different extent with the discovery phase.

Some designers will just send a branding questionnaire or have a more informal discovery phone call.

However, I use my proprietary brand strategy framework that I run with my clients prior to embarking on any design work.

So I run the strategy workshop with my client, and during that session we go through a series of branding exercises that help me extract all the necessary information about the project.

2. Research—Find out about the industry and competitors.

Now, in the second step, I take all the information form the discovery phase and conduct further research to draw insights that will serve me later on in the ideation phase.

Research is all about analyzing the industry in more detail, conducting visual research and drawing conclusions.

Researching the industry helps you as a designer get a sense of the environment the logo’s going to live in.

The goal of this phase is to better understand the client’s field in order to ensure that the solutions that you will later come up with can work for them effectively.

Now, you need to know what can work and what’s appropriate and most importantly how to differentiate the company from its competitors.

And this understanding may be achieved by experiencing the organization from a customer’s perspective.

So stepping in the customers shoes and further analyzing the industry and competitors is a crucial step in logo design process.

It will help you steer your creativity later on and you will avoid making a mistake of designing something that is too similar to their competitors.

During the strategy session (5th exercise), we start doing some competitive analysis with my client and now I take it further and conduct additional research.

I gain insights from navigating competitors’ websites and evaluating their brand identities.

Then I take notes on what are their strong and weak points, so that it can serve me in the next step—the brainstorming step.

3. Brainstorm—Develop ideas and decide on art direction.

In the brainstorm step, based on the discovery and research performed, I simply start outlining my strategy for generating logo ideas.

Brainstorming is about thinking through all possible design directions that would steer creativity in the right direction.

So here is where I seek out a look or a style that could convey my client’s brand persona (the third part of my strategy framework).

I use the brand personality and tone of voice exercises to help me brainstorm ideas and create moodboards.

And here I also use the mind map (9th exercise of my strategy framework) to start searching for visual representation of the most important keywords distilled from previous steps.

As a result I put together three different mood boards that are basically a collection of visuals that capture the strategic insights.

I simply look at the strategy to distill some keywords and then I browse websites like Behance, Dribble or Pinterest to find some visuals that would make for a great art direction.

I search for the font, color, style etc. and consider all aspects of visual langue that would embody our brand strategy.

For Medihuanna I created three mood boards: Credible, Innovative (above), and Natural and then I review them together with my client.

Next, we discuss those possible solutions and we make some decision on what direction should we proceed with.

By narrowing our focus with mood boards we try to stay objective, so that we can base our sketches in the next phase on solid strategic understanding.

4. Sketch—Create logo concepts based on strategy.

Sketching logos is where real creativity comes into play, but since I’ve done my homework I’m able to judge my sketches against clearly defined criteria.

The goal of sketching is to find a connection between an idea and the creation of a form.

Some designers use a sketchbook while others start right away on the computer, but most professional logo designers sketch logos by hand, using pen on paper.

This is because sketching by hand gives you an immediacy of artistic expression and I believe that very logo designer should absolutely start this way.

It’s also important to decide whether we need a symbol or simply a memorable typographic treatment of the brand name (wordmark).

In case of my client, the name, Medihuanna, is pretty self-explanatory (Medical + Marijuanna), so we’ve decided to go on with a distinctive wordmark.

We also decided that we need a symbol that can act as a visual shorthand, so that It can be used in small sizes where the full name would become illegible.

Now, sketching logos might be time-consuming, so it’s important to take breaks and let your ideas mature and develop in the back of your head.

So that when you get back to your project after a break, then you can have a fresh look, renewed enthusiasm, and therefore you can be much more effective.

You’ve probably also heard about the fact that the best ideas usually come about in the least expected moments.

While your conscious mind is consumed by other tasks (like driving a car, or exercising), then your unconsciousness comes up with some really great ideas.

That’s why I always recommend designers to carry something that you can sketch on.

This step usually takes a few days as you really need to go for quantity here and sketch a ton of logos.

And this is because we need to have many great ideas, so that in the next step we can pick a few strong ones and execute them digitally on computer.

5. Design—Select best options and execute them digitally.

So once you have a ton of sketches, then you can judge them against the strategy and select the most promising concepts to execute them digitally.

Now, design part is all about translating your sketches into digital form and then further testing viability of each concept.

So don’t rush here to execute every single logo idea that you have, but rather focus only on concepts that you think can work effectively for your client.

By now, you should have a lot of criteria for what could and what could not work for your client.

If you feel like all of your sketches are weak, then you can go back and forth between sketching and designing until you got some pretty exciting logo concepts.

Once you have a few strong logo ideas, then you just need to use Adobe Illustrator to design vector graphics.

Here I simply recreate those sketches on computer and then design multiple variations of each idea in order to arrive on the best option.

The design part can take a very long time (a few days to a few weeks) before you actually execute your ideas in a way that is aesthetically pleasing.

I tweak the designs and test different colors, fonts, spacing, alignment and so on—always making a new copy so that I can always go back to the previous version of my logo.

This step is simply about testing many different ways in which you can execute your logo sketches in order to arrive on the best aesthetics.

Now if you do this the right way (and don’t rush this step) your logo concepts will improve and become stronger very quickly.

6. Present—Show the concepts on relevant applications.

Once I’m done with designing my logo concepts (and I’m pretty happy with the outcome), then I just need to show them to my client in the form of a presentation.

Show the client your three strongest brand identity concepts on relevant applications.

Remember to share with your client only those solutions that can work for them effectively—don’t make a mistake of showing something that you’re not really proud of.

Each of these three logo concepts is the result of the disciplined but creatively open process I describe here.

While each of those concepts are different, they all revolve around the strategy.

I selected a few applications relevant to the client: a business card, a book cover and a bag in order to show my client how these logo will look like in real life.

How do I know what kind of mockups should I create?—In the exercise six of my strategy framework I list all the key marketing initiatives my client would be interested in, so that now I can use these findings to pick 3 to 5 mockups.

And again, as with other steps in my logo design process, you might need to go back and forth between designing your logo and testing it on applications until you arrive on a great solution.

You simply need to test the viability of each logo concept by creating beautiful mockups to see how it will work in real life.

Learn more about logo presentation (together with my template) in my other article.

If you followed my steps, then your client should be very impressed with the accuracy of your presentation at this point.

My client liked the first concept, so we just tweaked a few details like for example: the leaf alignment, so that the logo looks more balanced.

Sometimes clients can be skeptical about your logo design concepts, but this is simply because all new logos tend to feel foreign at first.

You need to remind your client that only after a logo is officially adopted, we can really embrace it and attach a meaning to it.

In this step you might still want to tweak a few things, combine elements of different concepts and polish the designs before the final approval.

So together with my client we review the advantages and disadvantages of each solution and arrive at a preferred logo design.

7. Delivery—Prepare logo artwork and style guide

Once you have your client’s approval, then it’s time to deliver the brand identity package including logo artwork and a style guide.

The delivery package should include logo source files and a style guide that describes on how to use that logo.

And again, you will know exactly what kind of files you should deliver based on the applications outlined in the strategy part (5th exercise).

However, in general make sure to include basic variations of the logo, such as full color, black, white and monochrome.

You should also save logo files for different use both in print and digital (vector & raster) e.g. AI, ESP, PNG, JPG etc.

Remember to inform the client about any commercial fonts being used in the logo or brand identity, just in case they want to design other applications in the future.

Finally, you need to work on a style guide that would show all the logo variations and how to use them (like safe space, placement on dark vs. bright background and so on).

In your style guide you also should specify on other brand identity elements like: color palette, typography system, photography style, perhaps illustrations, animations and other elements.

Depending on the client’s needs and of course on their budget, you can go from a very basic one page style sheet to a more comprehensive brand guideline.

Final word about delivery—remember to always underpromise and overdeliver—I’ve done so by providing my client with an extra logo animation.

PS. Learn more about preparing logo files and creating a style guide on my YouTube channel.

Conclusions

Great logos do not happen by accident—they are the result of strategic thinking, exploring, failing and designing again.

Each aspect of your logo, whether it is shape, font or colors—can help you influence people’s perception of your brand.

When it comes to logo design, you have to be very intentional with the design choices you make.

Ultimately it is all about creativity and skillset, but you also must stay focused and base your concepts on solid strategic understanding.

That’s why I would urge you to NOT skip the initial phases of preparation as it will immensely benefit you later on in your logo design process.

Just see what my client said:

You will stay focused, have more clarity, make less revisions and get there much faster as you normally would if you jumped straight into the design part.

If you follow my process, you will also go beyond your personal preferences or client’s subjective opinion for that matter.

This process will help you defend your work without being defensive—If you’re a logo designer.

And it will help you feel confident when choosing the perfect logo for your brand—if you’re a business owner.

Don’t forget to check out my strategy guide if you want to learn how to run discovery sessions with you clients.

Is your logo design process very different from mine?—I’d love to hear from you in the comment below.

Looking for a custom logo for your business?—Just schedule a call to discuss your project.

How Design a Logo sourav 2021-08-28T14:44:36+06:00

Psychosocial and Socio-Economic Crisis in Bangladesh

Background: The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the partial lockdown, the disease intensity, weak governance in the healthcare system, insufficient medical facilities, unawareness, and the sharing of misinformation in the mass media has led to people experiencing fear and anxiety. The present study intended to conduct a perception-based analysis to get an idea of people’s psychosocial and socio-economic crisis, and the possible environmental crisis, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh.

Methods: A perception-based questionnaire was put online for Bangladeshi citizens of 18 years and/or older. The sample size was 1,066 respondents. Datasets were analyzed through a set of statistical techniques including principal component and hierarchical cluster analysis.

Results: There was a positive significant association between fear of the COVID-19 outbreak with the struggling healthcare system (p < 0.05) of the country. Also, there was a negative association between the fragile health system of Bangladesh and the government’s ability to deal with the pandemic (p < 0.05), revealing the poor governance in the healthcare system. A positive association of shutdown and social distancing with the fear of losing one’s own or a family members’ life, influenced by a lack of healthcare treatment (p < 0.05), reveals that, due to the decision of shutting down normal activities, people may be experiencing mental and economic stress. However, a positive association of the socio-economic impact of the shutdown with poor people’s suffering, the price hike of basic essentials, the hindering of formal education (p < 0.05), and the possibility of a severe socio-economic and health crisis will be aggravated. Moreover, there is a possibility of a climate change-induced disaster and infectious diseases like dengue during/after the COVID-19 situation, which will create severe food insecurity (p < 0.01) and a further healthcare crisis.

Conclusions: The partial lockdown in Bangladesh due to the COVID-19 pandemic increased community transmission and worsened the healthcare crisis, economic burden, and loss of GDP despite the resuming of industrial operations. In society, it has created psychosocial and socio-economic insecurity among people due to the loss of lives and livelihoods. The government should take proper inclusive steps for risk assessment, communications, and financial stimulus toward the public to alleviate their fear and anxiety, and to take proper action to boost mental health and well-being.

Introduction

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) began spreading in November 2019, in Wuhan, China. Following this, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced COVID-19 as a global pandemic on March 11th, 2020 (1). COVID-19 has advanced into a pandemic, starting initially as small clusters of transmission that combined into larger clusters in many countries, subsequently resulting in a widespread transmission (2). Social isolation, institutional and home quarantine, social distancing, and community containment measures were applied without delay (3). Through quick administrative action and raising awareness for individuals on social-distancing, stringent steps were taken to manage the spread of the disease by canceling thousands of locations that involved social gathering including offices, classrooms, reception centers, clubs, transport services, and travel restrictions, leaving many countries in complete lockdown (4). The remarkable actions and ventures in public health to quarantine mass numbers has prevented this virus from spreading exponentially between humans in China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea, despite initial cases (2, 5).

However, a surge of COVID-19 outbreaks in all inhabitable continents, with 84,187 deaths alone in the USA, indicates that the infection had passed the tipping point (1, 6). Today, as of the 26th of May 2020, total global COVID-19 cases have risen to 5,637,381, with the total number of deaths escalating to 3,49,291 (7). The accelerating spread of COVID-19 and its outcomes around the world has led people to experiencing fear, panic, concern, anxiety, stigma, depression, racism, and xenophobia (8). Bangladesh confirmed their first COVID-19 case on the 8th of March 2020 (9), followed by a nationwide lockdown from 26 March which had been extended several times until 30th May 2020 to prevent human transmission. The government deployed armed forces to facilitate social distancing on March 24th. Emergency healthcare services and law enforcement were exempt from this announcement. Yet more than 11 million people left Dhaka to return to their home districts and thus helped spread the diseases nationwide. Moreover, from the 25th of April 2020, all ready-made-garment (RMG) factories, industries, private offices, and business centers were allowed to open, leading to a “partial lockdown” in the country. The migration of RMG workers to the industrial districts and less community awareness about the disease has increased the transmission among millions of people.

The Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MFHW) and Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), is responsible for researching epidemiological and communicable diseases such as COVID-19 in Bangladesh, as well as disease control and surveillance. Initially, IEDCR was the single and centralized laboratory for COVID-19 testing in Bangladesh (9). The DGHS, on the other hand, is the responsible body for the coordination of testing and sample collections of COVID-19 patients (10). As of the 26th of May 2020, according to IEDCR, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases stands at 36,751 with 522 deaths (Figures 1A,B). According to IEDCR, those aged between 21 and 40 are with the highest number of cases (55%), while those aged above 60 have had fatal cases of the disease (42%). At present, the fatality rate in Bangladesh is 1.41% (26th May 2020) which was initially 10.4% (8th April 2020) (9).

Psychosocial and Socio-Economic Crisis in Bangladesh sourav 2021-08-28T15:19:26+06:00

AMD Ryzen vs Intel

Choosing the best hardware for your new gaming PC is never easy. Before you settle on a particular model of any piece of hardware, you first need to choose a brand.

In the desktop CPU world, the two main players on the market are AMD and Intel. While Intel definitely had the undisputed lead throughout the 2010s, the situation changed drastically in the past few years.

In 2017, AMD released its first Ryzen CPUs, which were a long-overdue return to form for “Team Red.” It’s 2021 now and the third generation of Ryzen has proven to be more than good competition for Intel’s 9th generation Core CPUs.

So, which CPU brand is better for gaming in 2021? That’s precisely what we’ll answer in this guide.

Before addressing the main question, let’s look at what the playing field was like recently.

For the most part, Intel was the premium choice, boasting more advanced technology and better overall performance, especially in the high-end spectrum. AMD, on the other hand, provided more affordable solutions that relied on raw power to be able to compete with what Intel had to offer.

Even though AMD had overall managed to keep up, things took a turn for the worse after 2013. Namely, AMD had released their FX series of CPUs, which not only came with high core counts (for the time) but also had great overclocking potential and high base clock speeds.

Needless to say, they were very viable options when they first came out. However, years went by, and AMD had nothing fresh to offer. The technology stagnated and was quickly leagues behind that of Intel, whose CPUs kept improving year after year.

Sure enough, the FX series was soon left powering entry-level and, occasionally, some mid-range gaming rigs. In contrast, the AMD A-Series APUs were only found in basic computers not intended for gaming. The only flicker of hope for AMD was the upcoming “Zen” architecture that had been in the making for years during AMD’s downward spiral.

And then it finally happened in 2017. Flashforward to current times and here we are.

The third generation of Ryzen CPUs is based on the Zen 2 architecture. It’s fabricated using a 7nm process and comprised of a number of versatile solutions at all price points.

Overall, Ryzen CPUs can be divided into five groups:

Ryzen 3 – Intended for entry-level PCs, offering good processing power at remarkably low prices.
Ryzen 5 – Mid-range CPUs that offer great value for money and are great picks for many gaming builds.
Ryzen 7 – Performance-oriented solutions that will be right at home in the majority of high-end gaming PCs.
Ryzen 9 – Enthusiast-level performance at premium prices, but usually overkill for gaming.
Threadripper – Top-of-the-line CPUs with a monstrous number of cores that offer unmatched performance, intended mostly for high-end workstations.

Since 2017, AMD has succeeded in giving Intel a run for its money, offering more powerful solutions year after year at very good prices. As a result, many gamers left the Intel camp and moved to AMD.

More specifically, however, you’re probably asking yourself how do the latest 3rd generation Ryzen CPUs compare to Intel’s 9th generation Core CPUs?

AMD Ryzen vs Intel Core

Clock speeds

In the days of their FX CPUs, AMD’s more robust architecture had allowed their processors to achieve higher base clock speeds. The situation is a little different today, as the two are more or less evenly matched in this regard.

However, clock speeds displayed on paper are a very poor way to estimate any processor’s performance. As a matter of fact, they can actually be misleading, especially in this day and age, where you won’t find a gaming CPU with a base clock speed lower than 3 GHz.

The real question is – how do they fare when it comes to overclocking?

Overclocking

As we have already mentioned, AMD processors used to be known for their overclocking capabilities. Sure enough, all Ryzen CPUs are unlocked and can be overclocked, provided that the motherboard chipset actually supports overclocking.

In contrast, not all Intel CPUs are unlocked. Only the models marked with a “K” at the end of the model number can be overclocked safely. We emphasize the word ‘safely’ because, while there are ways to overclock Intel CPUs which aren’t unlocked, doing so is generally not advisable due to risks of hardware damage.

Needless to say, overclocking performance will inevitably vary from model to model, though Intel CPUs actually have the upper hand in this department at the moment.

Namely, high-end Intel CPUs can be pushed further than their Ryzen counterparts, leading to better single-core performance. While it’s not a big issue for most builds, enthusiasts who want to squeeze as much performance as they possibly can out of their CPU will want to keep this in mind.

Core Count

As mentioned before, the high core counts found in AMD’s FX CPUs is what helped them remain relevant even after the Piledriver architecture became severely outdated. At launch, the high core and thread counts of Ryzen CPUs were also one of their main selling points, especially since they outdid nearly every model that Intel was offering at the time.

So, how do the core and thread counts compare in 2021?

Well, first, we should quickly touch upon the subject of multithreading and hyperthreading.

In essence, these two technologies belong to AMD and Intel, respectively, but are fundamentally the same thing – a CPU with multithreading/hyperthreading features cores that can handle two tasks simultaneously, thus greatly enhancing their multitasking capabilities.

So, for example, if a CPU has four physical cores with multithreading, that means it has a total of eight logical cores i.e., threads.

Now, if we compare the 3rd generation Ryzen and the 9th generation Core CPUs, the one thing that immediately becomes apparent is that all the mainstream desktop Ryzen CPUs feature multithreading, while only the Intel Core i9 models come with hyperthreading.

Here you have a brief overview:

The Ryzen 3 CPUs come with 4 cores and 8 threads, while i3 CPUs come with 4 cores and 4 threads.
The Ryzen 5 CPUs come with 6 cores and 12 threads, while i5 CPUs come with 6 cores and 6 threads.
The Ryzen 7 CPUs come with 8 cores and 16 threads, while i7 CPUs come with 8 cores and 8 threads.
Finally, the Ryzen 9 CPUs come with 12 cores and 24 threads, while the i9 CPUs come with 8 cores and 16 threads.

So, needless to say, AMD definitely has the upper hand when it comes to thread counts and multitasking, although Intel aims to close this gap with the upcoming 10th generation Core CPUs, all of which will feature hyperthreading.

Performance

As we’ve just mentioned, Ryzen is the leader in terms of multitasking, while Intel Core CPUs can still offer slightly better single-core performance.

So, which one is more important for gaming?

Well, there’s not really a straightforward answer to that. In the past, games didn’t usually make much use of multiple cores since multi-core CPUs weren’t all that common. But things have changed. We’re in 2021 now, and there’s mainstream CPUs with very high core and thread counts – it’s a different story.

For instance, many developers now optimize their games to take full advantage of these high thread counts, which often results in noticeably better performance in some games.

However, the exact performance benefits will inevitably vary from model to model and from game to game, so it’s impossible to make generalizations in this respect.

AMD Ryzen vs Intel sourav 2021-08-14T02:56:16+06:00

Suits & Hoodies: How Work-Bench co-founder Jessica Lin brings startups and corporates together (Cornell Tech @ Bloomberg)

The Hollywood version of startup success usually involves a rags-to-riches B2C startup that struggles until it hits on a massively popular app. We think less often about a much more common scenario, where operators working in large corporations feel a huge pain point, and end up leaving to launch their own startup to solve that deep pain they felt first-hand. From there, large enterprises integrate that startup’s software into its workflows, allowing the startup to achieve slow, steady growth. These enterprises often make things most people have never heard of, because they too are making products for businesses.

Such outcomes may be less sexy than headline-grabbing consumer startup successes, but they can be just as lucrative. Work-Bench co-founder and General Partner Jessica Lin makes a strong case for collaborating with the enterprise as a B2B startup’s primary goal. Founded in 2013, Work-Bench has made more than 30 venture capital investments — and achieved 10 exits. Its portfolio companies include cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence and machine learning startups. In particular, Lin focuses on solutions for the future of work, including productivity, HR, and collaboration software.

Lin joined Scarlet Fu, Bloomberg Television and Bloomberg QuickTake host, for a talk on Thursday, August 12, 2021, as part of the Cornell Tech @ Bloomberg Speaker Series. She shared how she got her first taste in the tech world as a soccer ball designer, eventually becoming an enterprise technology matchmaker, and much more.

In a classic reflection of the American dream, Lin’s father immigrated to the U.S., working at a gas station before becoming a software engineer and later a lawyer. These experiences led her father to prize education, laying the foundation for his daughter’s being accepted at Harvard University, where she studied government and African studies. While she had visions of working in international development, she took a software engineering class as an undergrad that inspired her to pursue a career in tech.

She spent the year after graduation merging these interests in South Africa, working on the sOccket, a soccer ball that captures cheap, clean, off-the-grid electricity when kicked, rolled, or otherwise played with. This kinetic energy is then stored and can subsequently be used to charge a cell phone or battery. This was an interesting attempt to bring an unconventional energy source to areas with limited access to an electric power grid.

After returning to the U.S., Lin spent two years working at Cisco, a tech company that builds critical telecommunications and networking infrastructure, among many other things. While there, she developed an understanding of the unique needs of large enterprises, which often possess the resources to build exciting new technologies at a massive scale, but lack the speed and agility more commonly associated with smaller startups. She shadowed engineers as they developed software using Agile methodologies, hoping to better understand and help improve their processes.

From there, Lin jumped headfirst into investing, co-founding Work-Bench, an enterprise technology-focused VC firm based in New York City. With 50 of the Fortune 500 in their backyard, Work-Bench connects large enterprises with B2B startups that are building next-gen platforms and products to help address and tackle massive technology pain points. With her background in enterprise technology, Lin can personally relate to the pain points that enterprises are experiencing, which makes her ideally suited to play such a matchmaking role.

The backyard advantage

“We’re really proud that we’ve built this New York City ecosystem, brick by brick,” says Lin. Work-Bench hosts around 200 events each year to bring the “suits” on the enterprise side together with the “hoodies” on the startup side.

Most VC firms are located in Silicon Valley, but Lin believes that Work-Bench’s being situated in New York helps them capture a lot of attention from the city’s many enterprises who are looking to partner up with emerging technology startups. Thanks in part to Work-Bench’s efforts, New York’s startup footprint is expanding to meet the demand.

“Just this year alone, the first half of 2021, there are $7 billion in venture investing going into New York City enterprise startups. Just a year ago, a quarter of that went into early-stage startups. What that means is that there’s more and more early-stage startups. These startups are then also going out to raise Series As, Series Bs, or pre-IPO…There’s no better time to be investing in early-stage and enterprise here in New York.”

Work-Bench’s matchmaking role often boils down to simply bringing people together. Lin cites their flagship NY Enterprise Tech Meetup, which meets monthly and now has over 10,000 members, as well as CEO dinners, sales workshops, women in enterprise breakfasts, summits, and other events that they help put together. Work-Bench creates opportunities for social connections to form, strengthening NYC’s tech community. This results in a bigger pond in which Work-Bench can cast its net.

“It’s been just incredible to see how the ecosystem continues to grow and give back,” says Lin. “We have founders mentoring and advising and supporting one another. That is so unique and something that really touches us every day.”

Because of the vibrancy of this social scene, Lin does not anticipate the launch of a West Coast Work-Bench branch. “This geography is why we will always be beating the drum for New York. You just don’t have this proximity to customers anywhere else. The fact that I can be uptown, downtown, within minutes. We can do a customer happy hour and also do a recruiting dinner the same day.”

Buttoning up for the suits

Enterprise sales cycles can be long, stretching well over a year. With products that may span multiple business units, involve many stakeholders, and have protracted procurement and implementation periods, it can be expensive to take on new software. This means that startups need to have connectivity among these corporate stakeholders.

Startups are structured to build great software, but they aren’t always able to navigate the procurement, legal, compliance, security, and other hurdles that enterprises must necessarily place in their path in order to safeguard their businesses. Work-Bench helps startups navigate these byzantine processes. They’ve seen and experienced it all before.

The enterprise allure

Enterprises will pay handsomely for good software, and that capital can then be used to make the product even better, and make startup life a little more livable. “If you want to do enterprise software, the reason why is you’re building a product that provides so much value to an end customer who will then pay you predictable revenue back,” says Lin. She also argues that the enterprise market can be more predictable than the consumer market. Enterprises have a singular goal—they need software that helps them get smarter, faster, and bigger. The psychological motivations of the buyer are less complex than the fickle consumer market, which chases and abandons software fads with equal speed.

“You can build a great product, you can have great traction, but if it falls out of favor or something, if the market changes, it’s largely out of your control,” says Lin. “And with enterprise software, there are a lot of things that are not in your control, but there are a lot of things that are.”

Earlier this month, Work-Bench announced a new $100 million fund. By educating more young entrepreneurs on the benefits of targeting the enterprise market, Work-Bench is nourishing the next generation of B2B success stories and helping to cultivate an even stronger tech culture for New York City. With this fundraise, they are also looking to expand the team and hire a Senior Associate.

Suits & Hoodies: How Work-Bench co-founder Jessica Lin brings startups and corporates together (Cornell Tech @ Bloomberg) sourav 2021-08-14T02:54:26+06:00