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When patched last week, the bug affected at least 1 million websites. Zero-day exploits were going on then. View the full article -
Are you having a difficult time making your digital content stand out? Copywriting is one of the most overlooked elements in a business. Take your digital skills to the next level and learn to create writing that sells with The 2020 Complete Digital Copywriting Master Class Bundle. Effective and clear writing is essential in any position, especially if you want to sell more products and progress in your career (for more advice that'll help your career progress, see our post on how to network). Whether you're looking to build a career in content marketing or you need ways to help your business, this 11-course bundle brings you everything you need to transform your writing into a profitable career. What will you learn? Alan Sharpe, a 30-year veteran copywriter/persuasive mastermind, teaches you step-by-step techniques to take on effective business writing. You'll learn how to carefully craft your message and avoid common mistakes. Become familiar with industry best practice on writing catchy product descriptions that rank well in search results, direct-response copy that generates online sales leads, how to effectively write white papers that stick, and so much more. With access to over 150 lessons, you'll quickly become a master at generating traffic to your website and converting that traffic into sales. If you're looking for a course that will help you get started on a new website or blog for your brand or online business, this bundle has it. Danny Liu, a seasoned 15-year career technologist, teaches you the ins and outs of building and setting up your own WordPress site to host all your content. Lay the foundation needed to scale your website as your brand grows, and learn how to build a professional-looking website in a fast and efficient way. You'll even gain top insights on how to select the best hosting, theme (see our pick of the best WordPress themes), and plugins that are best for your industry. Easy to follow lectures and 24/7 access to the content will motivate you to revisit top-notch advice from the pros whenever you need it. Updates are included, automatically providing you with the latest tips for a successful copywriting career. This comprehensive bundle is even equipped with a certification of completion, allowing for a great résumé booster for your next endeavour. The 2020 Complete Digital Copywriting Master Class Bundle is usually priced at $700, but, for a limited time, you can start writing like a pro for only $39, that's 94% off! Transform your writing and help launch your career today. Read more: 13 of the best creative resumés The best pencils for colouring, drawing and sketching The most powerful laptops in 2020 View the full article
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WB Montreal has been teasing a (currently unannounced) new Batman game for a few weeks, and now two new images have emerged on Twitter, appearing to show a brand new bat symbol inside the studio's HQ. The bat symbol has undergone several transformations since the caped crusader first graced the cover of Detective Comics in 1939 – some more dramatic than others. Non-fans might not bat an eyelid at the new logo, shared by games reporter James Sigfield on Twitter (below). It's just a silhouette of a bat, same as ever, right? Not so fast – logo design is a complicated business (although our guide to logo design certainly simplifies things). So is this possible new logo any different? To help you tell one bat from another, Reddit user rdgxxx recently shared a fascinating look at the evolution of the symbol from 1940-2012 (below). Spot the difference While the logo in Sigfield's tweet doesn't completely match any of these iterations, it perhaps most closely resembles the one for 1999's Batman Beyond (compare them below). The head and wings in this new version are rounder, though. One thing's for sure – it's a departure from the logo for the recent Arkham game series. We're pleased to see a return to an all-black design, without the rather obvious 'Batman' splashed across the wings (we get it, guys). The leaked logo and the one from Batman Beyond The Bat symbol is clearly close to fans' hearts – users were quick to comment on rdgxxx's post to declare their favourite – usually the one which evoked the strongest childhood memories. Djentleman5000 says, "I remember the ‘92/‘95 ones. I had The Batman cereal that came with Batman shaped piggy bank. I had a ninja turtles one too. Nostalgia...", while rdgxxx "used to watch the old TV Show every afternoon at home eating croissants with a home made latte! The '66 Logo!" Although it remains unannounced, the studio has teased the new game with a series of mysterious images and videos of, each including the caption 'Capture the Knight'. Fans believe that the crests on display could be related to the Court of Owls, a secret crime group from the Batman comics: Still, for all the teasing and mystery around the game, WB Montreal appears to be playing it safe with the new logo. It doesn't look likely to wind up on our list of controversial moments in logo design, which is just as well – when it comes to the fans, a dodgy bat symbol isn't going to fly. Related articles: Batman and Catwoman swap exposes gender stereotypes Incredible fan art reimagines your favourite superheroes Then and now: The evolution of 3 iconic logos View the full article
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A default password would let anyone access the Cisco Smart Software Manager On-Prem Base platform, even if it's not directly connected to the internet. View the full article
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Durex has revealed its sexy new-look flat logo, and we think it hits just the right spot with the design coupled with its clever font name ('One Night Sans', in case you missed it). But as soon as we published our excitement over the Durex rebrand, our enthusiasm was dampened once we received a tweet about it, and discovered a design flaw that could prove to be a major turn off for typography enthusiasts. Digital creative Helder Cervantes has pointed out that the placement of that 'd' seems to be just a teensy bit off. And it's left us a little hot under the collar – not in a good way. (If you'd like to look at some well-spaced logos, you can check out our best logos post). Cervantes has measured the distance between the top and bottom of the 'd', and what those red lines show is potentially not pretty at all. The 'd' looks like it's placed further down than it should be. It's not enough to notice at first glance, but a niggle that is enough to get on your nerves at closer inspection. Once you've seen it, you won't be able to unsee it, which may drive the most pernickety of designers to choose a different brand. After all, no one needs a design-induced migraine at an inopportune moment. Does the 'd' render this one a dud for you? It may not be as big as these design fails that were so bad they were actually good, but if Durex could shift that 'd' up a bit, we'd be interested to see how that compares to the new logo. What do you think? Let us know on Twitter and Facebook. Read more: Do people still dislike last year's most hated rebrands? Where to find logo design inspiration 8 of the best animated logos View the full article
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Two critical Adobe vulnerabilities have been fixed in Adobe After Effects and Adobe Media Encoder. View the full article
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Devs often struggle with the design of their websites. One thing that holds their designs back the most is the way they handle type, so in this video, we’re looking at 6 simple steps for you to follow to make …View the full article
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If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a good prototype is worth a thousand meetings. In user interface design, being able to share clear prototypes that all stakeholders can follow and understand is key to achieving smooth and efficient development and handoff without the headache. Prototyping helps keep designers and clients on the same page at all stages by giving clients a clear window into what is being created and the ability to respond with feedback. There are many prototyping tools on the market and no single perfect solution that serves for every product, or every stage of a product's development. Each tool has some benefits and features that others lack, so the best tool for a particular project or task depends on what you need in terms of fidelity, adaptability, collaboration, ease of use, and, of course, cost. Here are eight of the most useful tools on the market now for developing and sharing prototypes for feedback and usability testing. (Also check out our dedicated post on user testing.) 01. InVision InVision is easy to use to create simple click-through prototypes Best for: A low learning curve Price: One prototype, free; unlimited prototypes, $25 p/m Web-based InVision is one of the most popular tools for creating interactive prototypes of static screens that don’t require high-fidelity microinteractions or sophisticated state transitions. The app has a low learning curve thanks to its similarity to the design tool Sketch. It offers an easy connected workflow that allows designers to upload static screenshots and create clickable prototypes in a very simple way. Timeline animations are supported and interaction is quick and easy to understand, though performance can still be choppy with more complex prototypes. Project collaboration features allow feedback but don't reach the real-time collaboration offered by Figma. Another downside is that with no desktop app, you’re limited to online editing. There is a mobile application for native prototyping, but some designers complain that it doesn’t work as well as the browser. InVision also offers its own design app, InVision Studio for both Mac and Windows, which allows designers to skip Sketch or Photoshop and design directly in InVision. 02. Marvel Marvel App is another of the easiest to use prototyping tools Best for: Simplicity of use Price: One project, free; unlimited projects $12 p/m One of the easiest and most intuitive prototyping tools around, Marvel is another good option for making simple screen-linking prototypes if you don’t need to test more complex microinteractions. It works directly from pre-designed PSD or Sketch documents, so visual drafts can be used without conversion formatting. It’s perhaps the easiest app for non-designers to follow, and is very straightforward for stakeholders to use to give feedback. Like InVision, Marvel is limited to an online app. 03. Figma Figma is great for teams thanks to its real-time collaboration tools Best for: Collaborative working Price: Starter account, free; professional account $12 per editor p/m Figma is billed as the collaborative UI design tool and this aspect is what has made it so popular. Real-time collaboration makes it comparable to working on a Google document. The app retains smooth performance even with several team members working on a project at the simultaneously. This makes it great for sharing prototypes with multiple stakeholders and getting immediate feedback, and saves time by allowing teams to ditch the piece-by-piece approach and work across an entire project at the same time. Again like Google docs, previous versions can easily be retrieved, making it easy to keep track of iterations. The web-based tool also has desktop versions for Windows and iOS, and prototypes can be easily shared to Windows, iOS and Android. One drawback for now is the lack of animation features, with no support for lottie files as yet. 04. UXPin UXPin allows prototypes to include animations that come closer to the real thing Best for: Animations Price: From £20 a month If you need to present powerful animations in a prototype rather than simply link screens together, then UXPin is one of the better options. You animate between different versions of any element and update properties between states with a single click. You can also add a layer of logic to prototypes and set rules for when interactions should happen, making it a good tool for showing how interactions will really work in the finished product. You can also use JavaScript to create computational components like shopping carts, and prototypes can easily be shared to iOS and Android via the UXPin Mirror. UXPin also has collaborative tools and provides automatic specs for handoff, making it an all-in-one package that can be uses from the initial design stage right through to delivery. It’s available for Windows, Mac and online. 05. ProtoPie Best for: code-free high-fidelity prototypes Price: $13 p/m ProtoPie comes into its own when you need to show more complex interactions that come close to the real thing. It allows you to demo interactions with an object, trigger, and response flow. It also provides the ability to control smart device sensors in prototypes, including as compass, tilt, sound, and 3D touch sensors. This all makies it one of the best options at the moment for creating high-fidelity prototypes without coding, and for real usability or UX evaluation purposes when you need to show advanced user journeys using variables and conditions that can handle logic and dynamic inputs. Shareable prototypes can be displayed and experienced interactively within the browser app, or more usefully deployed on a mobile device to allow them to be tested like a real native app by simply scanning a QR code. 06. Adobe XD Adobe XD offers an all-in-one package from design to prototype Best for: Designers working with Adobe products Price: £9.98 p/m, per user If you’re committed to the Adobe suite of products, Adobe XD integrates well and offers an all-in-one UI design option with a prototype tab that’s easy to switch into. It feels rather different to other Adobe products, but offers seemless integration. Of course it works on Windows as well as Mac, making it an alternative to Sketch for designing for Windows users. It’s also one of the very few options for creating prototpyes with voice command triggers and playback, which can make it useful for very specific projects. 07. Framer X Best for: Designers who code Price: $144 p/year Framer X is one of the most versatile of all prototyping tools. The caveat is that to use its full potential, it helps to be comfortable writing some code. The majority of prototyping tools are code-free, but Framer X uses the JavaScript library React (read more about how Framer X works here). This and the lack of friendly controls mean that the learning curve can be daunting to non-coders. But if you can code, or are prepared to get up to speed, Framer X allows you to create prototypes that can be almost indistinguishable from the final product. This allows you to demo fully interactive prototypes and collect reliable feedback on natural user behaviour. It offers seamless support for HTML, CSS, and Javascript. It supports calling the system keyboard, inputting real text then using it as data, and real control and monitoring of audio and video. Through its component store, you can also add analytics and heatmaps to test prototypes. 08. Principle Principle allows prototyping of specific complex animations Best for: High-fidelity specific animations for iOS Price: $129 Principle excels at smoothly displaying specific, complex animated interactions for iOS mobile apps. It offers the option to look at individual assets and how those assets animate independently, right down to timings and easing, which is great for prototyping minor interactions within designs. It can import Sketch files, and the Sketch-like interface makes it easy to learn to use. Users of Adobe After Effects should also find the adding of animations to layers quite familiar. Principle is an offline app available only for Mac, so it lacks collaborative tools. The mirror app for live testing is also only available for iOS, with no option available for Android. Read more: 10 painful UI fails (and what you can learn from them) Master the golden rules of incredible UI design The 8 most disruptive apps of all time View the full article
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Barely a day goes by in the design world without a cleverly reimagined logo popping up. But every now and again, one truly captures our imagination – like this concept Adidas sandals ad (above) shared by reddit user u/aLp. The witty design takes Adidas' famous three-stripe logo and, with the addition of a single horizontal line, turns it into an image of the company's also very well known slider sandal (below). It's an ingeniously simple, why-didn't-I-think-of-that concept, which is particularly striking because of the immediately obvious iconic Adidas logo. While the three stripes didn't quite make our list of the 10 best logos of all time, it's certainly one of the best sports logos. The real deal Over on reddit, users are fully appreciating the simplicity, although many were quick to point out what else the image could represent: a sailboat, the Sydney Opera House, an ice cream cone sitting sideways on a chopping board. For our money, it could also be a (very small) handkerchief poking out of a tuxedo pocket. Other were not so keen, with reddit user RomanBlue_ saying: "While interesting, I believe you are harming the identity of the logo. A big brand logo is not something to be toyed with." Here at Creative Bloq, we love a clever logo concept, especially when they rival the real thing – like this smart new crocs concept, or this vastly improved Paris 2020 logo. And this isn't the first clever reworking of the Adidas logo we've seen. Earlier this year, architect Karina Wiciak included the stripes in a stunning series of logos reimagined as houses. Overall, as a concept design, we think this works really well. The incorporation of the logo in the design and its placement makes both the product it's trying to promote and brand immediately obvious. Of course there's an argument not to mess with iconic logos, but we like this one so much, we'll let it slide (sorry, couldn't resist). Related articles: New Adidas site takes it back to the '90s The 20 best sneaker designs of all time Is this Paris Olympics 2024 logo concept better than the official design? View the full article
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More than 55 percent of medical imaging devices - including MRIs, XRays and ultrasound machines - are powered by outdated Windows versions, researchers warn. View the full article
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It's that time of year when there are all manner of bugs going around, and what with Coronavirus hitting the headlines on a daily basis, it's all too tempting to head for the doctor's when you have a bit of a cough. Just to be on the safe side, you know. Assuming you can actually get an appointment, is that the right thing to do? According to a new campaign from the NHS, maybe not. Plenty of minor illnesses can be dealt with just as well by speaking to a pharmacist, and to get the message home the NHS has commissioned a set of fantastic movie-style poster designs from graphic designer and digital illustrator, Doaly. A designer's guide to printing a poster Each of the three posters is based around taking the drama out of minor illnesses by seeing a pharmacist rather than a GP, and covers a typical ailment that you probably shouldn't bother a doctor with, in an unmistakable cinematic style. Think twice before bothering a GP with your gammy eye There's a horror poster – 'The Night of the Itchy Eye' – that instantly recalls George A Romero's iconic zombie movies. 'Sore Throat and the Lost Voice' is an unmistakable nod to the Indiana Jones movies, while 'Earache Strikes Back' has more than a hint of Star Wars to it. There are even animated versions of all three posters; they're not quite as epic as the original films, but we appreciate the effort. As well as the note-perfect illustrations by Doaly, there's another clever layer of information added at the bottom of each poster. What looks like the usual set of credits that nobody ever reads is in fact a helpful list of symptoms that you might encounter from each ailment. It's a fun and useful additional feature. Don't skip the credits If you're impressed by Doaly's confident touch when it comes to movie-style posters, there's a good reason for that. Over the years he's created artwork for plenty of movie studios, including Disney, 20th Century Fox (sorry, we mean 20th Century Studios), Lucasfilm and Warner Bros, so this is definitely a style he's at home with. To see more of Doaly's impressive illustration work, simply head for his site. Related articles: Check out these incredible posters for movies that never happened The 12 best London Underground posters Is this the defining movie poster trend of the decade? View the full article
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A new Emotet campaign is spread via SMS messages pretending to be from banks and may have ties to the TrickBot trojan. View the full article
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Durex, one of the world's biggest condom manufacturers, has revealed a new brand identity designed by Havas London, in a bid to position itself as an activist championing the "positive reality" of sex. Another new addition to the flat design movement, Durex's new logo does away with the original's convex, reflective style while maintaining the lozenge shape. It's got rid of the light flare so that the 'x' of its name is more prominent, which feels appropriate, given that this only emphasises the X-rated nature of its products. This more modern, simplified mark is another trend we're seeing more and more of (and something you can read all about in our logo design guide). Durex is keeping it clean Havas' rebrand also includes a new bespoke typeface by Colophon Foundry, with an ingeniously simple yet effective name: One Night Sans. This delightful play on the phrase 'one night stand' is certainly Twitter's most appreciated element of the new identity. If you're inspired to switch up your fonts, take a look at our list of the best (but admittedly less pun-tastic) free fonts. But despite the fun typeface name, Durex isn't screwing around. Elliot Harris, RB global executive creative director at Havas says the rebrand, "could be the most important piece of work we ever do", positioning the 91 year-old brand as an activist against sexual stigmas and taboos. A series of posters declaring 'porn's not the norm', and 'STD's are kinda real' (all based on the findings of Durex's 2017 Global Sex Survey) accompany the new look. A sobering message for your morning commute We love the cleaner look. Havas says it "needed a brand mark that behaved like a stamp of authenticity and trust", and the new, less glossy logo looks certainly makes us feel nice and safe (pun intended). That 'x' is hitting the spot for us It's great to see a new sense of brand activism from Durex (we certainly like to think it's possible for design to change the world). "Make no mistake, this is a proper commitment," says Harris. We applaud Durex for its ambition – and for making us laugh with that typeface name. Related articles: The 10 best logos of all time Brewdog gets neutered in sensible rebrand Do people still dislike last year’s most hated rebrands? View the full article
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Today is Photoshop's 30th birthday. And to celebrate, Adobe has rolled out a number of updated tools and new dark mode support for the Mac version of its popular image editing software. These updates coincide with Adobe offering an incredible deal on its Photography Plan, with which you get full access to Photoshop, Adobe Spark and Lightroom CC for less. We must, however, admit to being a little confused by the announcement that dark mode had arrived for Photoshop. The UI is pretty dark already, right? But the news actually refers to Photoshop supporting the Catalina Mac OS feature overall. So while the main Photoshop UI hasn't changed, system dialogues such as File > Open and File > Save can now match the settings and look of dark mode on your Mac (get started with our guide on how to download Adobe Photoshop). If you're on Windows or using Photoshop for iPad, then you'll still have to keep the lights on (it seems that like Facebook's dark mode, darkness isn't accessible to all users just yet). Photoshop now has three appearance options The update means Mac users now have three appearance options: Light, dark and Auto. If the dark UI is enabled, systems dialogues will be, well, dark. Other updates to Photoshop rolled out today include an enhanced Content-Aware Fill tool – which Adobe says has been a big customer request. Users can now make multiple selections and apply multiple fills without leaving the workspace, using a new apply button to make changes before committing to a final design. The Lens Blur feature has also seen some love. Now on the GPU, its overall realism is significantly improved, plus it now delivers more colourful bokeh via the specular highlights. For Photoshop for iPad users, the most significant update that'll get creatives excited is the arrival of the Object Selection tool. Using Sensei AI and machine learning to automatically make a great selection, the tool reduces the selection process time on even the most complex of images. Below, Adobe's Russell Preston Brown demonstrates this much-needed new feature: While these aren't huge updates, they are the kind of improvements that will make life easier for creatives working within the software, and show that Adobe is committing to continually updating its tool (after all, it needs to stay ahead of the game with all the Photoshop alternatives biting at its heel). If you don't have Creative Cloud yet, then you can sign up here. Or for full details on all of today's Photoshop updates, visit the Adobe blog. Read more: Photoshop for iPad review The 13 best alternatives to Photoshop How to add fonts in Photoshop View the full article
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A common approach to email design (and maybe app design as well) is a mobile-first approach. Since 54.58% of web traffic comes from a handheld device, it makes sense to design for smaller screens first. Responsive email design is one …View the full article
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The Dell UltraSharp UP2720Q monitor is one of the first professional screens from Dell with a built-in colorimeter. The firm also claims that this is the world’s first 27-inch panel that combines a colorimeter with a Thunderbolt connection. It’s a mouthful, and the UP2720Q comes with a hefty price of $1,999/£1,330 – so you’re going to have to shell out for this display. Despite that, it’s worth paying the price if the Dell can pair its extensive range of features with image quality that can cope with high-end design work. Dell UltraSharp UP2720Q: Specs Screen size: 27-inches | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 3,840 x 2,160 | Panel technology: IPS | Colour depth: 10-bit | Response time: 8ms | Adjustment: 130mm height, 180° pivot, 25° tilt, 90° swivel, 100mm VESA | Connectivity: 1 x DisplayPort 1.4, 2 x HDMI 2.0, 4 x USB 3.2, 2 x Thunderbolt 3/USB Type-C, 1 x audio | Dimensions: 612 x 212 x 563mm (WxDxH) | Weight: 9.71kg | Warranty: 3yr RTB Dell UltraSharp UP2720Q: Features and design Dell’s display has an enviable range of features. That in-built colorimeter is the headliner, of course, and it’s a key addition: it means that the display can be calibrated to run as accurately as possible with numerous popular colour spaces. It swings out from the bottom of the monitor and runs inside a circle at the bottom of the panel. There's a whole lotta pixels in this monitor The Dell’s 3,840 x 2,160 resolution is crammed into a 27in diagonal. It’s a lot of pixels in a small space, which means you’ve got a huge amount of real-estate for working in expansive apps or in several windows at once – and the 163ppi density level means that images, text and icons are impressively crisp. Underneath all of that is an IPS panel. It’s the best technology to use for a design display because it generally ensures that best colour quality when compared to VA and TN monitors. The Dell has a conventional 16:9 aspect ratio, it’s not curved, and it has a refresh rate and response time of 60Hz and 8ms respectively. Those latter figures are not great – fine for day-to-day use and design tasks, but not ideal if you need a screen to handle fast-paced animation smoothly. Dell pairs this impressive technology with excellent connectivity. The UP2720Q has one DisplayPort 1.4 port and two HDMI 2 connections – and its Thunderbolt 3 port is capable of delivering 90W of power, transferring data and driving second screens. There are four USB 3.2 ports, with two handily installed on the lower bezel and one configured to provide a 2A charge – handy for fast-charging phones. The Dell UP2720Q looks pretty smart The Dell has a solid 130mm of height adjustment, 90°of swivel and 25°of tilt – all conventional allocations. It has 180 degrees of pivot, which means it can swing into portrait mode, and it’s compatible with 100mm VESA mounts. It’s easy to build, too: the stand snaps into the rear of the screen and the base attaches with a single thumbscrew, so no tools are required. Build quality is great throughout – this screen is robust. It looks smart, with slim bezels and a plain metal base. The stand also has a hole for routing cables, and a shading hood is included. The panel can be managed by Dell’s on-screen display or by Dell’s Colour Management application. Both are intuitive and offer a huge number of options. Luminance levels can be adjusted, grids can be placed across the screen, calibrations can be scheduled and the row of navigation keys below the bottom bezel can be customised. The Dell can be configured to use the DCI-P3, BT.709, BT.2020, sRGB, Adobe RGB 65 and Adobe RGB 50 colour spaces and it works with CalMAN software. The Dell supports picture-by-picture for two sources, but no picture-in-picture. Dell UltraSharp UP2720Q: Screen quality and colour accuracy The Dell backs up its huge range of features with tremendous image quality. Each UP2720Q is calibrated at Dell’s factory, which means great quality out of the box: without any modifications the Dell returned a Delta E of 0.27 and a Gamma level of 2.17. They’re both fantastic – good enough to render colours accurately without human eyes being able to detect deviations. The Dell’s default brightness level of 155cd/m2 is modest, but good – high enough to provide clarity but not high enough to make users’ eyes tired. The black point of 0.16cd/m2 is very deep, which means that darker shades have huge depth and subtlety on this display. Those figures create a contrast ratio of 968:1. That’s a little below Dell’s quoted 1,300:1 figure, but it’s still a good result and still good enough for the vast majority of mainstream and professional design tasks. You can ramp up the brightness and still have great colour The panel’s colour temperature of 6,872K is a tad high, and it means that this display’s colours are a little on the cool side. However, the Dell’s result isn’t far enough away from the 6,500K ideal figure to cause noticeable problems, even in professional situations. It’s a great start for the Dell. Happily, the panel’s contrast levels and colour accuracy were maintained when we ramped the brightness up to its maximum value of 255cd/m2. Calibration also saw the display maintain its excellent image quality levels. The Delta E improved to 0.24 in Adobe RGB mode, and the Delta E remained below 2.0 in DCI-P3 mode. Dell’s panel can clearly handle different gamuts, too: it rendered a stunning 99.8% of the sRGB gamut, 96.1% of the Adobe RGB space and 95% of the DCI-P3 gamut. Those figures mean that the Dell can work effectively in all of those colour spaces. Dell also claims an 80% coverage level in the broadcast-centric BT.2020 space. The UP2720Q has excellent uniformity. The Dell lost 6% of its backlight strength in the top-left corner, with its Delta E declining to 2.46. Elsewhere, the screen was far better, with sub-4% backlight loss and Delta Es that remained in line with our benchmarks. While that top-left corner is this display’s weak spot, the Dell’s uniformity results are still excellent and still better than most other screens – so work won’t be hampered at all. Dell UltraSharp UP2720Q monitor: Should you buy it? The Dell UltraSharp UP2720Q is excellent. At its core, it has superb image quality, with fantastic colours and black levels, top-notch gamut coverage and impressive uniformity alongside a versatile selection of screen modes and colour spaces. We only have minor quibbles when it comes to the display itself. The Dell’s contrast level is good, but it could be a bit better – and the colour temperature could be closer to 6,500K. Happily, these issues are small, and quality levels throughout are so good that they don’t hinder design and work tasks. Elsewhere, the Dell has great versatility: loads of connectivity and movement options, good software, a huge resolution and its colorimeter. It may not be perfect, but the Dell UltraSharp UP2720Q isn’t far away thanks to great image quality and loads of features. If you need a high-end design screen, it’s a superb option. Read more: The best ultrawide monitor right now View the full article
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The best multilingual fonts can help you communicate with your readers more easily. That’s because these fonts, as their name suggests, can cope with the special characters of multiple languages, meaning that an international audience will be able to read your content. You might have already seen the limitations of single language fonts while reading a translation online, or even while perusing our list of the best free fonts. If your language is not completely catered to by the site’s font, it might display a little box instead of the required character. This box is known as 'tofu' and it can detract from the design and legibility of your site. By using multilingual fonts, you can keep your text in line with the rest of your design without having to waste time designing character alternatives of your own. Multilingual fonts come in many different styles and prices, so we’ve rounded up a range of options to help you find the right one. Alternatively, you might find what you’re looking for in our other font roundups, including our favourite script fonts, brush fonts or the best font pairings. 01. Suisse Will Suisse suit you? Price: From free Download here Suisse is the centrepiece of the Swiss Typefaces library. It’s made up of six collections that include a total of 55 styles. Thanks to its clear-cut design, Suisse is perfect for contemporary projects and lends itself easily to variation. These alternate styles include Suisse Int’l, which supports Latin, Cyrilic and Arabic alphabets. If you like the clean, crisp look of Suisse Int’l but need some variation, Suisse Int’l Mono and Suisse Int’l Condensed are on hand to give different options. You can download them individually, or all in one go. The whole collection of six fonts will set you back nearly £400, but you can trial the whole lot for free to get an idea of whether it’s right for you. 02. Dominicale Get an old-fashioned look with Dominicale Price: £182 Download here With its blunt serifs and jagged, diagonal stems, there’s something of a medieval air to Dominicale. It’s no surprise then to learn that Dominicale's makers were interested in interpreting the rough and ready setting of early printed books. The angular structure of this font would be a perfect fit for projects that pastiche the past, such as the best posters or packaging designs. And with support for English, French and German characters, this trilingual edition can be enjoyed by a huge European audience. 03. Grotte Grotte is an affordable but classy option Price: From $8 Download here Multilingual fonts don’t have to be expensive affairs. Just take Grotte, a simple sans-serif font with geometric outlines and elegant curves. Available in three weights, this handy little font can be yours for just $8. And with support for Spanish, Portuguese, German, Danish and French languages, plus Cyrillic, you’re really getting value for money. Thanks to its clear yet easy-on-the-eye design, Grotte would lend itself easily to posters, packaging, commercials, signs and websites. Just what you need for an international campaign on a tight budget. 04. Omnes Omnes is a refreshing font that packs a punch Price: From $45 Download here Got a sweet tooth? If so, you might recognise Omnes. This playful, rounded font has appeared on condiment sachets and even an advertising campaign for Fanta. It’s bold shapes make it the perfect fit for products that need to appeal to your eyes as well as your taste buds, so you’ll want to bookmark this one if you design for food. As if it wasn’t already appealing enough, Omnes can support dozens of languages, including Afrikaans, Polish, Latin, Sorbian, and many more. The complete set can be yours to enjoy for $253, or you can order à la carte and choose any combination of up to six styles from $45. 05. Helvetica World What's better than Helvetica? Helvetica World Price: From £35 Download here Chance are you might have heard of Helvetica. Thanks to its clear design it’s one of the most popular professional fonts, however it’s so ubiquitous that you might be tempted to pick one of the many inspired alternatives to Helvetica. Hold on though, because Helvetica World could be the solution you’re looking for. Designed by Linotype, this font is an updated version of Helvetica that supports a whopping 102 languages and writing systems from all over the globe. And just like the original Helvetica, this font has almost limitless potential in terms of use. 06. Gill Sans Nova A British font now with international reach Price: From £49 Download here Ever since Monotype’s humanist sans-serif typeface Gill Sans first hit the scene in 1928, it’s been a favourite with designers. Over the years it’s been adapted for every publishing technology while retaining its uniquely British character, but with Gill Sans Nova it now boasts a larger character set. Launched by Monotype in 2015, Gill Sans Nova features 43 fonts that support Latin, Greek and Cryillic characters. The display weight only supports Latin, so keep this in mind as you buy each individual style, especially as prices start from £49. 07. Greta Sans The Greta Sans library is a whopper, but worth it Price: From €72 Download here We’re into the big leagues now. Greta Sans, designed by Peter Bilak and published by Typotheque, is a powerful type family made up of ten weights available in three widths. Capable of dealing with the most complex typographical situations, Greta Sans supports a whopping 217 international languages, meaning that it can cover even Hebrew, Thai and Korean scripts among many others. As you’d expect for such a powerful type tool, Greta Sans comes at a price. A single font in a selected language will set you back at least €72, while the full suite will cost you €1,400. To help spread the cost you only need to pay for whichever language you need, and considering the full suite includes 80 fonts, you’re getting a lot for your money. 08. Google Noto Bye-bye tofu Price: Free Download here Remember how we mentioned at the top of this article that not having multilingual support leads to websites displaying little empty boxes, or tofu? Well, Google Noto is here to remedy that. Taking its name from its goal to see ‘no more tofu’, Google Noto is a font which aims to ‘support all languages with a harmonious look and feel’. The core Noto Sans font supports up to 582 languages across 237 regions, and even comes in 72 styles. What’s more you can download it for free with the click of a button. Not only that but you’ll also get the dozens and dozens of variations to support different scripts and symbols. Related articles: How to add fonts in Photoshop 36 perfect font pairings 35 great free script fonts View the full article
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However you might feel about McDonald's, there's no denying its marketing team has some creative flair. At first glance, these new images released last week for McDonald's Thailand could easily be part of yet another seductive aftershave campaign. Soft, low lighting. Two pairs of lips about to kiss. But look a little closer, and they immediately go from from hot to horrifying. Yes, one of their noses is sprinkled with sesame seeds. Yes, their lips are made of beef, Yes, they are a burger. Yes, we wish we could unsee this optical illusion too. The ads, created by TBWA Thailand, were posted to McDonalds Thailand's social media channels to mark Valentines Day last week (which at least means there is some logic to the meat-snog). The words 'i'm lovin' it' are thrown in for good measure – though the ads take the slogan a little too literally for us. Don't expect to see these on our list of the best print ads ever any time soon. Make it stop While most of the comments on reddit fall into the NSFW category, it's fair to say that users over there have beef with the ads too – although a few suggest that the burger is simply in need of some lip balm. Still, these ads got us talking, and they're by no means the only audacious design McDonalds has run with over the last few years. From last month's striking type-only ads to a series of defaced classic paintings, the burger peddlers aren't afraid to take risks in order to bring home the bacon. And hey, at least the smut is deliberate this time – who can forget last year's cup-based epic McFail? Related articles: Minimalist McDonald's ads use fries to guide motorists Netflix brings out the smutty side of brands KFC’s Valentine’s Day card range is unexpected genius View the full article
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APT34/OilRig and APT33/Elfin have established a highly developed and persistent infrastructure that could be converted to distribute destructive wiper malware. View the full article
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Websites using a vulnerable version of the WordPress plugin, ThemeGrill Demo Importer, are being targeted by attackers. View the full article
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Everybody's talking about Neumorphism, a hot new design trend that's appeared out of nowhere over the past couple of months – but is it really all that? Designers love a good trend, and there's much about Neumorphism that suggests this could be a big one (people are already talking about it as a potential look for iOS 14) rather than an exercise in experimental design. Flat design and its Google-sponsored cousin, Material Design, have been a dominant look in interface design for a good few years, ever since iOS 7 came along and unceremoniously booted out the previous trend for skeuomorphism. The top design trends for 2020 Michal Malewicz designed these Neumorphic interfaces, and they look great While the name Neumorphism suggests a similar look, don't panic. Nobody's about to go back to the bad old days of interfaces made out of fake real-world materials. We did the whole thing of apps that made you feel like you were working on an antique Victorian bureau, and it's safe to say that we got it out of our collective system. Instead, Neumorphism combines the best of flat design and skeuomorphism; we're talking about clean interfaces, given a big hit of solidity through clever use of highlights and shadows. The name was coined by UX designer Jason Kelley in a comment on an article by UI designer Michal Malewicz, and it's stuck hard. It's near-impossible to wander through Dribbble without tripping over an assortment of Neumorphic mockups In his article, Malewicz explored how Neumorphism could be used in interfaces, and concluded that while it was a fun trend to play around with, it came with its own accessibility issues that would cause enormous problems if it was rolled out on a large scale. Specifically, buttons. To most viewers, Neumorphic buttons look great; all chunky and solid. But for users with sight problems they're not so hot; there's just not enough contrast for them to be easily spotted. And even for users with 20:20 vision, a Neumorphic button isn't exactly going to leap off the page. If you want to grab your users' attention, then Neumorphism isn't the way to do it. In his latest piece on Neumorphism, Malewicz refers to it as 'the zombie trend'. He notes that plenty of people are talking about Neumorphism, but nobody's making any products with it, and yet it refuses to die. So while Dribbble is absolutely packed with Neumorphic mockups, and Cult of Mac is dreaming of Apple implementing Neumorphic looks for iOS 14, there's very little in the way of real-world examples to give us a feel of whether it really works or not. Malewicz's latest piece on Neumorphism suggests that he might be tiring of it Chris Coyier, who shares much of Malewicz's scepticism, found this handy generator for building Neumorphic buttons in CSS. Have a play with it and you'll quickly see the problem: Neumorphic page furniture only really works with muted colour schemes. Turn up the saturation to any degree and the effect gets lost; this isn't a look for anyone who enjoys working with bold tones. Have a play with Neumorphism.io and you'll quickly spot its limitations So, while there's much to like about the Neumorphic look – and let's face it, flat design's looking a little tired, so it would be lovely to hit a new visual paradigm sometime soon – it does't seem to be ready a full design trend. Maybe smart designers will iron out the problems and turn it into a working design system – and one that's properly accessible. Right now, though, it's a pretty design toy set; fun to play with, but you wouldn't want to build a serious project with its tools. Related articles: The beginner's guide to flat design How to design invisible interfaces 7 golden rules of UX View the full article
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Facebook has been fashionably late to the dark mode party, but it seems it's finally ready to dim the lights. For the uninitiated (or the unenlightened), dark mode changes app interfaces and menus from light to dark. Not only does it look cool, but it's also supposedly easier on the eyes. After testing dark mode on desktop for select users, the social media giant has now rolled the feature out on mobile – but there's a catch. Dark mode is now available on Facebook Lite, a smaller version of the main app which, according to Facebook, is "designed for 2G networks and areas with slow or unstable Internet connections". But even if you've already got Facebook Lite, the feature is currently only available on Android, so iOS users are still forced to see the light. Still, we're not sure dark mode is enough to add Facebook Lite to our list of the best Android apps. Hello darkness, my old friend To join the dark side, you just need to head to Settings, where you'll find a new Dark Mode toggle. At present, there are no custom timing options – you can either turn it on or off. So, it isn't a perfect solution (unless you were already using Facebook Lite – anyone?), but at least it's now possible to enjoy a late-night scroll without straining your eyes. We're hoping this means the feature will soon be hitting iOS and the main Facebook app, so everybody can enjoy their first cousin twice removed's holiday photos – even at night. It seems that every app and its dog will soon have dark mode. WhatsApp dark mode is now available in beta and Instagram's is already here. Even Slack has gone dark – even more reason to pull a late one at work. It's nice to see Facebook start to dim the lights – let's hope they switch them off fully soon. Want to enjoy dark mode to the full? Take a look at our list of the best smartphones. Related articles: Facebook's new logo is just about worth a Like How to implement light or dark modes in CSS The ultimate guide to social media for creatives View the full article
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Today is an excellent day to be a photographer, and that's because Adobe is offering a fantastic deal on its Photography Plan for users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The package includes apps such as Photoshop for iPad and desktop and Lightroom, meaning you'll have all the tools you need to create images as rich as your imagination. And for the next few days only, you can get 16% off this comprehensive plan. If you're not sure whether this plan is right for you, take a look at exactly what Adobe's Photography Plan offers: Lightroom CC for desktop and mobile photo editing Lightroom Classic CC for desktop-focused photo editing Photoshop CC on both desktop and iPad to transform your photos Spark Premium to create graphics, web pages and videos Adobe Portfolio to build showcase websites easily Adobe Fonts for all your font needs 20 GB of cloud storage to get you started With all of these tools combined, there'll be no limit to what you can create. Precision editing and compositing tools allow you to combine images into beautiful, multilayered artwork, turn photos into paintings or 3D objects, move or remove objects within your images and play with colour and various effects to transform your images into something extraordinary. Don't miss out – grab this offer today! This deal is available until 27 February in EMEA regions, that's countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. If you're not in those regions, you might want to check out our other Adobe deals post, which we update regularly with all the top offers. Read more: Photoshop 2020 review How to add fonts in Photoshop How to flip a layer in Photoshop View the full article
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Logos are the centrepieces of brand identity. The complex range of stories and feelings they convey can become so deeply rooted that many of the best-known brands are hard to imagine with different marks. Would the brand be seen in a different way today if it had adopted a different logo? Would it even have survived? But many well-known brands did almost have different logos. For designers it can be instructive to look at the abandoned proposals and consider the lessons that can be learned from them (for more logo lessons, see our logo design guide). Here are eight logos that could have been, and the stories behind why they were ultimately ruled out. 01. Sony A longstanding logo can become entrenched in the public mind, coming to symbolise a timeless solidity and reliability. Even so, fear of becoming staid can lead established brands to consider something new. Sony has retained its wordmark practically unchanged for more than 50 years, but the company almost ditched it for a very 1980s crowdsourced alternative. To mark the Japanese corporation's 35th anniversary in 1981, barely a year after the launch of the first Walkman, Sony held an international competition to redesign its logo. Almost 30,000 entries were whittled down to three contenders, which included the above designs from a Mr Vilim Vasata, from the Federal Republic of Germany, and Mr Bruno Grasswill from Australia. Finally, Sony co-founder Masaru Ibuka saw sense and decided that none of the designs was superior to the original. Sony realised its mistake and fudged the competition by dividing the prize money between its board's three favourite designs without adopting any of them. Clearly products of their time, the logos that could have been lack the readability of the classic Sony logotype and would look much more dated by now, while the existing Sony logo has proved timeless (even if the PS5 logo has proved so controversial). 02. Ford Even the most esteemed designers have created work that never saw the light of day. The carmaker Ford has made few changes to its logo since 1917. The classic Copperplate script in an oval emblem is familiar and instantly recognisable. But it almost had a major redesign in 1966 at the hands of none other than Paul Rand, who designed logos for IBM, ABC and UPS. Rand was brought in by Henry Ford II to modernise the logo and its calligraphy script. Rand's proposal retained key features such as the ligatures between letters and the break in the 'O', but adopted a more modern even-stroked lettering and used the tail of the 'F' to create an elongated oval frame. The design achieved a good balance between retaining the heritage value of the existing logo and creating something fresh and dynamic, but Ford finally decided that the change was too radical. The carmaker has changed its logo several times since, but only tweaking only the oval frame and the colour and shading of the blue background. Perhaps Ford made the right decision – the logo was one of the assets the company used as collateral to obtain a multibillion-dollar credit line in 2006. 03. Star Wars Even films have logos, and they can be hugely important for major franchises that go on to produce a whole range of merchandise. As with any brand, the logo has to communicate a lot of information. It has to tell us about the genre of the film and something of what we can expect to experience on screen. However, early versions of the Star Wars logo suggest a camp space opera that's more Flash Gordon than the menacing threat of the Death Star. This early logo was designed before production began by illustrator Ralph McQuarrie, with text added by effects artist Joe Johnston. But the film's script and even the personalities of the main characters changed significantly during production, so that the figure in the logo, which looks more Ziggy Stardust than Luke Skywalker, had to go. Director George Lucas also sensibly decided that the direction the film was going needed a logo that looked more intimidating. He reportedly told designer Suzy Rice to come up with something "more fascist looking". She gave herself to the dark side and turned to Helvetica Black for inspiration. The logo changed as the product itself evolved to reach its final form. (See our favourite free Star Wars fonts or the best Baby Yoda memes for more Star Wars fun.) 04. Tokyo 2020 The proposed logo for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games was abandoned for a very different reason. Designed by Kenjiro Sano, the logo featured a letter 'T' for Tokyo and a red circle that was intended to represent a heart, although many couldn't help see it at the sun of the Japanese flag. But after the logo was made public, Belgian designer Olivier Debie argued that it was a rip-off of a logo that he had designed for the Theatre de Liege in 2013 and mounted a legal challenge. The accusation of plagiarism was denied but the controversy was enough to make the Tokyo Olympic Committee drop the logo and launch a competition to design a replacement. The winning design by Asao Tokolo uses a chequered pattern intended to reference Japanese heritage but also the intercultural aspect of the games. The fact that the original logo had to be dropped showed just how exhaustive designers' research needs to be before submitting a proposal. Olivier Debie's logo for the Théâtre de Liège in Belgium 05. Ghostbusters The Ghostbusters logo was everywhere after the film's release in 1984, but it's another logo that exists because of a legal problem. Originally the team's logo mentioned in the film script was only going to be used on the Ghostbusters' uniforms and the Ghostmobile, so designers hadn't put a lot of work into it. In an effort that's more ghastly than any ghoul in the film, one draft shows what appears to be Thing from the Adams Family in handcuffs. That all changed when Columbia Pictures realised it wasn't going to obtain the rights to the name Ghostbusters in time to launch early teasers for the film. They would need a strong mark that could work alone without the title in promotional posters. The original logo designs that included the word Ghostbusters were dropped, and illustrator Michael Gross stepped in to create the "no ghosts" icon that became so well known, and influenced the way that blockbusters are promoted to this day, with initial teasers often using a mark alone with no title. Funnily, Gross's design ended Columbia in legal problems all the same. The company was sued by Harvey Comics, who claimed that the ghost in the logo resembled Fatso from Casper the Friendly Ghost. The suit failed because Harvey had failed to renew the copyright. 06. Google Google can boast one of the most recognised logos in the world. It's seen by millions of people every time they search online and has inspired thousands of temporary Google Doodles. It's also a lesson in creating a simple, legible logotype. But it could have ended very differently. Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin turned to designer and Stanford professor Ruth Kedar in 1998 to improve their own self-designed logo. Her initial explorations were far busier than the stripped back logotype Google is known for. Kedar settled early on the Catull font and on using a colour scheme that would subvert the usual order of the primary colours to show that Google was about breaking the rules, but she also included illustrative elements to tell a story about what Google did. She incorporated both a magnifying glass to represent the search function and crosshairs to represent the accuracy of Google's algorithm. Larry and Sergey apparently liked the idea, although they were concerned that using both of the elements together meant that there was a lot going on. The final decision to drop both elements was taken less for aesthetic reasons, but because they were already beginning to envision a future in which Google would become more than just a search engine. They decided to avoid adopting a logo that could limit the brand and wouldn't make sense with a wider range of productions. The case shows that when designing a logo, it can serve to gaze into a crystal ball and consider where a company might be several years down the line. 07. Leeds United Sometimes a logo is dropped not because it doesn’t make it past a brand's board or owners, but because it doesn't fly with loyal customers. And there are no brand followers more loyal than football fans, who can be particularly sensitive to changes to their team's identity. Some teams have got away with pushing an unpopular change through, but this redesigned crest to mark Leeds United's centenary in 2019 didn’t even get off the centre mark. The club carried out six months of research and consulted 10,000 people in the process of designing a crest that was intended to serve for the club's next 100 years. It replaced the former blue and yellow insignia with an image that represented a headless fan performing the "Leeds salute", a gesture used by fans in the stadium. But fans weren't saluting the change. "Leeds’ new badge for the next 100 years looks like a bloke trying to elbow his way to the front of the bar," sports journalist Rob Staton quipped. "It looks like something from Pro Evolution Soccer in the early 2000s," a fan tweeted. Others claimed it even looked fascist. The club admitted it had misjudged fans' opinions and the logo was never used, showing that even the biggest research and consultation is not enough if you're not asking the right people. 08. New England Patriots The rejection of a logo concept doesn't necessarily mean it's dead forever. Dropped logos can be brought back to life when the time is right. Back in 1979, The New England Patriots found a simple way to avoid the embarrassing backtracking suffered by Leeds United two decades later. The club wanted to update its logo because the two-decade-old illustration of team mascot Pat Patriot was too detailed to apply easily on different supports. The NFL came up with a simpler logo that showed the face of the soldier with his tricone hat trailing into a flag, but the club took a last-minute decision to let fans decide. At halftime during a home game, the new logo was shown on poster boards in the stadium. It was greeted by overwhelming boos, and the old logo was used for another 14 years. But in a twist to the story, in 1993, a new logo was unveiled that seems to have been influenced by the 1979 reject. This much more streamlined version of the logo is now affectionately known by fans as the Flying Elvis. Its similarity in concept to the logo that was rejected more than a decade earlier suggests that while the original design probably needed a few more iterations, sometimes it can be a case that the timing is wrong and people aren't ready for a proposal. Or perhaps it's just that the designer is ahead of their time. Read more: 8 of the best animated logos The 10 best logos of all time How the world's biggest brands got their names View the full article
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A lack of proper code-signing verification and authentication for firmware updates opens the door to information disclosure, remote code execution, denial of service and more. View the full article