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A patch is currently under revision but has not yet been incorporated into the Linux kernel. View the full article

Fox Entertainment has taken some big gambles in its time. After all, this is the brand that brought viewers groundbreaking shows like The Simpsons, The X-Files and American Idol. And for its latest leap, Fox has unveiled a risky new rebrand that repositions the network in the constantly changing entertainment landscape. Created in collaboration between Fox Entertainment and Trollbäck+Company, the new look was unveiled during the 71st Emmy Awards. It comes off the back of Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox back in March, and Fox Broadcasting breaking away to become the independent network, Fox Entertainment. Our guide to logo design looks at when a company should rebrand, and it looks like Fox Entertainment chose its moment well. The new identity will appear across the entertainment company's 17 stations, as well as more than 100 affiliate stations. Elements of the Fox lettering form a geometric backdrop In a statement, Fox Entertainment's head of marketing Darren Schillace said: "We needed to break down our brand in order to reimagine it. Trollbäck+Company worked with us on a focused and ownable strategy that looked to our past to reimagine our future, and their design-forward aesthetic brought us a smart and flexible design that is unlike anything else we've seen." Meanwhile, Trollbäck+Company's executive creative director Elliott Chaffer added: "The way the industry is today, the middle of the road is the best place to get run over. We needed to bring back and champion the brand's ability to take big swings and bigger risks." Ssh, it says Fox, not Vox This all sounds very impressive, but how does it translate into reality? Perhaps the most noticeable bit of design work is a geometric version of the Fox logo. Its chunky letterforms form the basis of a background pattern, which sees their shapes broken down and sprinkled around the network's name. If we were to be picky though, we'd say that the lettering is easy to misread. The 'F' in particular has become so angular and streamlined that you'd be mistaken for thinking the network was called 'Vox' Entertainment. In promotional videos for upcoming programmes though, it looks like the geometric logo transitions into a more recognisable Fox identity. In fact the abstract design appears so briefly, we wonder why it was made at all. Perhaps, like many recent rebrands, it was done with a digital presence in mind. The new logo can already be glimpsed in promotional idents Either way, the patterns and pieces are a smart way to give the Fox brand some cohesion. Viewers can expect to see the new look on billboards, social media posts, and large-scale environmental settings. Related articles: 5 innovative startup logo designs from 2019 Where to find logo design inspiration 18 controversial moments in logo design and branding View the full article

At what point will infiltrating companies via the "insider threat model" become less costly and difficult than using malware? Threatpost discusses with a SolarWind expert. View the full article

Typefaces can be controversial things. One person's Times New Roman could be another's Papyrus. Perhaps the only sure-fire way for a typeface to win the hearts of designers is if they're reasonably priced. (We even went one better and sourced the best free fonts for you to download right now.) But how do you separate the good typefaces from the bad? Such a task would surely require a chart breaking down the gradations of font quality. Luckily, we have exactly that. The chart follows a pattern you're sure to recognise if you spend a lot your time plugged into social media. It's based on the Dungeons and Dragons character alignment scale, but the structure has become a popular design meme in itself. In this chart, typefaces are split between good, neutral and evil types, then further sub-divided based on whether they're lawful, neutral, or chaotic. Do you agree with how these famous typefaces have been sorted? See the original thread here. As you can see, the old reliable Times New Roman is the most clean-cut of the typefaces as it takes the lawful good crown. On the other end of the scale, Papyrus occupies the chaotic evil spot. Meanwhile, Cambria sits slap bang in the middle. Although we can't help but notice the absence of Helvetica, which would surely sit comfortably alongside the good guys? But as Michel points out, this is a typeface scale for writers, who have different priorities when it comes to letter shapes. This begs the question: what would a typeface alignment chart for designers look like? We bet it would look a little different, although Comic Sans would probably still be filling in one of the evil sections. Related articles: QUIZ: Which typeface are you, really? Font vs typeface: the ultimate guide How to choose the right typeface View the full article

If you're a regular web user, you'll no doubt have seen notifications from websites you regularly visit appear in the top right-hand corner of your screen. Every website has to ask permission to send these, but just because you pressed "Allow" once, doesn't mean it has to stay that way. Should you ever change your mind, you can turn web notifications off or stop them at any time. While push notifications from Creative Bloq are a great way to keep on top of the latest design industry news and trends, we recognise and understand that you might not want to receive them. That's why we've put together this article to help you disable notifications on Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Safari whenever you want. Note: iPhone and iPads automatically prevent web notifications, so anyone with a portable Apple device needn't worry about deactivating these. How to turn off web notifications in Google Chrome Open up Google Chrome on your device and go through the following steps: and head to the ‘Settings’ tab, found on the drop down menu when you click the three vertical dots in the top right hand corner of the browser itself. Scroll down to the ‘Advanced’, and open up the ‘Content Settings’ section under ‘Privacy and Security’. Open 'Settings' (find via the three vertical dots in the top right hand corner of the browser) Scroll down to 'Advanced' Open the 'Content Settings' section under 'Privacy Control' In here you'll find a 'Notifications' tab, which when clicking on it, will reveal all the sites you've both allowed and blocked from sending you web notifications. To block a site, simply click on the three vertical dots next to its name under the 'Allow' section and hit Block. Choosing the Remove option will mean the website in question will be able to ask you if you want to reactivate web notifications next time you visit, which is something to bare in mind. And if you want to switch them back on? Simply the follow the same steps above but instead of hitting Block, click Allow All setting changes are applied to your Chrome account, so you don't need to worry about updating individual devices (as long as you're using the same browser login in for each). Turn off web notifications in Firefox (PC, Mac, Android) If Firefox is your browser and you're using a Mac or PC, the easiest way to turn notifications off is by entering about:preferences#privacy directly in the URL box at the top of the browser. Then follow these steps: Scroll down to ‘Permissions’ Then ‘Notifications’, and click ‘Settings’ From here you can edit which sites to Allow and Block from sending you any in-browser pop-ups before hitting Save Settings at the bottom. Firefox on a phone requires heading directly to the website you want to stop notifications for. Find the padlock in the top left corner, click on it and 'Edit Site Settings' will appear. Press that and you'll see a 'Notifications' option with a check box on the right hand side. Click the 'Clear' button at the bottom of this window and you will have unsubscribed. Turn off web notifications in Microsoft Edge (PC) If you're a Microsoft Edge user, you need to access the Over Edge section (main menu) via the three horizontal dots in the top right corner. Here you'll find an option called 'Settings' followed by 'View Advanced Settings', which has a 'Notifications' option. Here you need to click on 'Website Permissions' to control what each page can do with your Microsoft Edge browser, including unsubscribing from web notifications. Turn off web notifications in Safari (Mac) Safari, again, is a little different. With this browser you need to start by opening up Safari Preferences and finding the 'Websites' option along the top of the screen. Click this and in the list on the left you'll find 'Notifications'. Here you'll find all the sites you're subscribed to, and you can check either Allow or Deny in the drop-down menu next to each. View the full article

It's no secret that the animation and gaming design industries are expanding extensively. Job opportunities are growing daily in the field, and more and more qualified applicants are being scouted. With the right tools and fundamental training, you can let your imagination run free and become a trained professional. These course bundles bring you everything you need to kickstart the career of your dreams or finesse the skills you already possess. The Complete Beginner's Guide to Animation Bundle Learn all the fundamentals you need to become a successful animator with this complete beginner's guide bundle. You'll learn how to use essential Adobe tools like After Effects, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro and learn concepts such as techniques on how to speed up your animation time and how to design memorable characters with strong personalities. The 8-course bundle includes over 250 tutorials, helping you become an expert animator and trained professional. MSRP: $549.92 / Buy Now: $24.99 (95% OFF) Viddyoze Animation Templates: Lifetime Subscription Video is quickly becoming one of the best mediums for engaging with an audience and driving sales. Viddyoze brings you an immense library of easy to use video templates that are designed, tested, and approved by a dedicated team. The lifetime subscription comes complete with licenses for both commercial and personal use, allowing for customised animations for projects of any scale. MSRP: $2,000 / Buy Now: $89 (95% OFF) 3D Game Modeling & Animation with Blender Course With more than 40 lectures and 22.5 hours of content, the Blender 3D creation suite will help you tackle the art of 3D modelling and animation. Bring your creations to life by learning techniques on low poly modelling and how professionals use them to create 3D models, characters, and VFX for games. There are even quizzes, and interactive chatrooms included so you can put your skills to the test. MSRP: $199.99 / Buy Now: $19 (90% OFF) Master SVG Animation Using HTML & CSS: Build 8 Projects SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) programming is a top tool needed to code two-dimensional graphics. With 55 lectures and 24/7 access, you'll learn the ins and outs of SVG and have the ability to design your logos, images, and complex animation. Taught by Kunal Asudani, a seasoned web developer, this lifetime course even includes a certification of completion once the course initiatives are mastered. MSRP: $199 / Buy Now: $10 (94% OFF) Related articles: How to move from animation to illustration Create animated CSS art Is this the new Lucasfilm Animation logo? View the full article

Creatives from all walks of life have become increasingly reliant on the internet to get their work seen. You might share your designs to an audience of millions on social media (complete with your personalised Instagram font, of course), but you could also be leaving yourself vulnerable to hackers. With cyber attacks on the rise, it's enough to make anyone paranoid. After all, your personal information or financial details could be floating around on the internet for hackers to steal. That's where ex-hacker and Twitter user @somenerdliam comes in with his thread "How to delete 99.9% of your digital footprint from the internet". And it seems to be the advice that users have been waiting for. Despite having only been posted a couple of days ago, at the time of writing the thread currently boasts over 110,000 retweets and 439,000 likes. Perhaps he's on to something... While his advice isn't going to help you disappear completely (the author admits his knowledge isn't completely up to date, and the "99.9" claim in his title isn't a practical claim), the tips in the thread are a good starting point when it comes to monitoring your digital hygiene. It makes for chilling reading. Not only does it ask you to trawl through a decade's worth of email addresses, it also acts as a wake up call to the amount of data people willingly share. Take a look at some of the stand-out points below. To read the full thread, click here. One point highlights the importance of using a VPN, which @somenerdliam admits is a personal preference. Find the right one for you with our guide to the best VPN services in 2019. And as for @somenerdliam, he's not letting his new-found viral fame go to his head. Instead, he's been wondering why the thread struck a chord. His conclusion being that the tips were popular because they were accessible. Related articles: 9 security tips to protect your website from hackers Here's how hackers are stealing your data Is it okay to build sites that rely on JavaScript? View the full article

CodePen is a killer toolkit for rapid prototyping, with an inspiring and supportive community of contributors. It has become one of the industry's favourite web design tools by offering hassle-free iteration of creative code, eliminating the headaches of generating fresh development environments, and enabling users to easily tackle myriad frontend concepts ranging from the whimsical and ridiculous to the practical and deploy-ready. In this article, we've pulled together 10 top tips for getting more from the web industry's favourite coding playground – these will change how you use CodePen forever. If this inspires you to get creative, you might also want to check out our roundup of CSS animation examples, or the most exciting open source projects on the web. 01. Explore something new using Topics Searching for tools and tips that suit your project? Look no further CodePen Topics are a relatively new community-driven feature offered to users of all levels, and they’re a great way to set about exploring new frameworks, UI Patterns or JS libraries. Upon opening the Topics page, you’ll be met with a host of options, filtered by category and even further by subcategories. Once viewing a topical category, for instance Vue.js, we’re met with an overview screen with multiple options. Need a starter template to help build out that Vue component? Here’s a list of popular components, and a nifty 'New Pen from Template' button to help us get started. Want to see some expertly curated examples of the framework in action? Filter on over to 'Featured Vue Pens' and you’re met with inspirational works by framework masters and novices alike. While browsing these Topic overviews, we’re offered persistent links to official sites, framework or library documentation and guides, and the project’s core GitHub presence. 02. Prototype quicker with templates Every developer at some point has likely felt real pain when setting up a local development environment, no matter the stack; even a boilerplate setup can require far more time than one is looking to invest in to create and test something like a few submit button prototypes. With CodePen, you’re already there – an IDE standing ready for you to easily dump the contents of your creative mind. But by using CodePen’s template feature, it’s now even easier to spin up the exact environment you need to get the job done. A template can contain any number of predefined external scripts (you can include another pen as an external asset), will allow you to preset your preferred HTML/CSS/JS preprocessor (which will neatly auto compile on the fly), and will even preserve any existing code that you care to preserve. Rapid prototyping gets turbocharged with dialed-in dev environments It’s quite simple to specify a Pen as a template – with your Pen opened, mash that Settings button, click on through to Pen Details, and from there you’ll see a neat little toggle offering the option to save as a Regular Pen or a Template. So how does this differ from forking an existing Pen? Setting a Pen as a template will allow you to choose this setup immediately upon opting to create a new Pen, with no need to search through your previous pens to fork and modify them, no need to re-import all your scripts of choice from the ground up, and no need to reselect all of the syntax options and settings you might prefer for the given concept. Additionally, starting a new Pen from a template treats your Pen as a wholly new creation, whereas forking will create a pen that links back to the original, with a distinct history rather than a blank slate. Upgrading to a CodePen Pro account offers you an incredibly valuable set of expanded features, but even the free user accounts will allow for unlimited template generation. 03. Start a collection CodePen Collections offer a great way to group and locate concepts If you enjoy having the ability to seek out resources using CodePen Topics but wish you could curate your own, Collections are the answer you’re seeking. Adding a Pen to a collection is as simple as selecting the 'Collections' drop-down from any Pen’s edit view, where you can specify a Collection or create a new one. Again, it can be anyone’s Pen (and if you’re a Pro user, you can set your Collection to private). The beauty of Collections is the ability to view all of your Collections in one place with robust filter, sort and search options — a great way to define resources by stack or framework, keep a running list of inspiration, or cluster Pens by UI concepts. Interested in another user’s public Collection? You can even subscribe to the Collection via RSS to stay on top of updates. 04. Improve efficiency with preprocessors Let’s face it, most of us spend more than enough time behind screens than we likely should. Many of us are so overwhelmed with practical career-related endeavours it’s hard to find the time to build a library of useless toggle switches or WebGL page transitions, and while CodePen strips away typical setup time and allows us to get straight to work, efficiency can always be improved. This is where CodePen’s native preprocessors come in handy. For instance: want to build a grid of a few hundred HTML cells, each one’s style attributes randomly updated via JavaScript? You could go about copying and pasting div after div, sure. And by the end of this all the editor window is nearly impossible to navigate. Here’s where HAML, Pug or Jade shine: from the Pen’s settings window, select an HTML preprocessor with ease, write a simple loop, and generate these elements in roughly two lines. Not sure where to get started? There’s Pen for that: a search of 'HAML Loop' at CodePen yields a good number of boilerplate Pens that will give you a cursory understanding of how to efficiently generate your page elements. Preprocessors get your concepts off the ground even faster With CSS preprocessors like LESS and Sass, we can build mixins and predefined functions that accept a multitude of arguments, making them a perfect addition to your CodePen templates and allowing you to write otherwise complex styles with relative ease. Perhaps you’re building out UI elements for a greater project – you can now define all your colour, typeface and spacing variables with clear and concise naming conventions; and again including these in a CodePen template allows you to iterate with virtually zero setup. Enjoy the efficiency of CoffeeScript, TypeScript or Babel? CodePen can natively compile your JS preprocessor of choice too. If at any time if you’d like to peek under the hood and see what your compiled code looks like, you can simply select 'View Compiled' from your code editing pane of choice to get a feel for what your final output will look like – and you should; working with loops and advanced functions can make setup and iteration incredibly fast, but can also wind up spitting out a good amount of unused syntax. If at any time you intend to use these creations in production, be sure to view all of your code fully compiled, and make any reductions or adjustments necessary for performance. 05. Explore CodePen's coolest new feature: Projects Even if you’re writing production-ready code, CodePen’s got your back Still a somewhat fresh feature, CodePen Projects are sort of an unsung hero – CodePen’s original three-pane HTML / CSS / JS setup already allows for custom external includes and real-time preprocessor compilation. So what makes Projects stand out? In addition to the standard editing pages, you are able to add your own local files – meaning you can flesh out your own file structures as you would on a local environment, creating multi-page sites or applications in a singular, self-contained environment without the need to set up complicated Gulp or Webpack configurations, for instance. CodePen projects make it easy to drag and drop your existing files, and will neatly maintain your structure or allow you to make changes from within the editor. And if you’re a Pro level user, it gets a bit sweeter: when you’re ready to deploy your work, you can deploy the environment of your choice with a single click. 06. Turn on the telly CodePen TV offers a delightful diversion for your downtime Hidden amongst all of the powerful, practical tools offered by CodePen is a whimsical distraction known as CodePen TV. CodePen TV is simply a randomised sampling of Picked Pens that gradually rotates in a screen saver-like fashion. Perhaps you don’t care to look at a random selection of Pens and want to curate your own 'channel' of Pens featuring cats — you can also launch a CodePen TV channel based on any CodePen Collection (including Collections created by other users). And if you’re a Mac user, you can even use CodePen TV as a standalone OSX native screensaver! 07. Embrace the community spirit Coding communities are notorious for exclusivity, creating veritable breeding grounds for impostor syndrome that can feel impenetrable and unwelcoming to even the most seasoned designers and developers. This is where CodePen stands out – and why becoming an active member of the community offers such benefits. See a Pen that sparks joy? Mash that heart button, and show another user a little love. You can go ahead and click it up to three times if you really, really love the work they’ve done. Feeling inspired, or maybe thinking of an alternate take on another user’s Pen? With a single click, you can fork a Pen, and then impart your own creative flourishes, or even refactor it as you see fit. Alternately, if you see a better approach, or you find a flaw in a user’s code, consider commenting on the Pen with any constructive suggestions that you have. While most of the comment sections on sites like these are typically an uncontrollable dumpster fire of negativity, the community typically does an excellent job of self-policing, encouraging positivity, and bolstering others. Community is CodePen’s true superpower Perhaps the best way to dive into the community is by joining CodePen’s Spectrum chat – an open forum for sharing work, soliciting advice, and creative collaboration. One example is Pass the Pen, a concept from CodePen user Kristopher van Sant, wherein a Pen is created, and then iterated over by users who would like to contribute. CodePen also offers weekly challenge prompts to keep you creatively engaged. You may not feel your work is worthy of sharing, but you’re probably wrong. Take to CodePen’s Spectrum chat and show off what you’re working on no matter how big or small. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how supportive and helpful the average CodePen user is, and probably learn a few different things along the way. 08. Attend a meetup IRL At the core of what makes CodePen an essential tool for frontend developers is the community. But sometimes it’s helpful to take your skills offscreen – and there’s no better way than to host or attend a CodePen meetup. CodePen will graciously supply you with swag for attendees, and with the help of their sponsors, they can even help you secure reimbursement for food and drink – the location and date are up to you. Meetups provide an excellent opportunity to pair program, publicly solicit strategies or concepts, complete a team challenge or just better get to know what motivates your fellow coders. Or maybe you’re just there for the free pizza. We forgive you. 09. Upgrade to Pro The depth of functionality CodePen offers free of charge is really quite remarkable, particularly considering the burden of thousands of users simultaneously cobbling together some incredibly server-intensive creations. Out of the box, it’s a pretty well rounded experience – that is until you’ve taken a bite from CodePen Pro. So why make the jump? While it carries many useful expanded features, one feature alone makes it worthwhile: the ability to save Pens privately. For non-Pro users, every Pen created is publicly indexed, which is often just fine. But what if I want to flesh out some UI flourishes for a yet-to-launch client project? This is where the ability to save privately comes in super handy – 'private' doesn’t mean hidden, you can still share direct links to your pen with your internal team, for instance. But your pen is otherwise indiscoverable. Perhaps you just need an environment to test out new concepts, or you have limited time to work on a creation and intend to return later – this is where privacy options make the difference. Get a taste of the features of Pro and you’ll never look back So what else does a Pro account include? Asset hosting! Within a 2Mb per file limit, CodePen will host your Pen’s assets, meaning no need to upload images or scripts to an external host, and allowing more flexibility when working with frameworks with strict cross-origin specifications. Pro accounts offer access to Live View – allowing users to see their edits reloaded on-the-fly across multiple windows – Collab Mode – which allows for live pair programming and includes a handy chat option – and Professor Mode, which will broadcast your code updates alongside the Pen’s live preview in real time, ideal for code instructors or conference-circuit masochists alike. CodePen Pro also offers the ability to edit your very own profile page, including custom CSS and JS, and an optional Pen embed as page header – because knowing their audience means knowing frontend developers are clamoring to customise, customise, customise. 10. Dip into the well of inspiration Missing that creative spark? Dribbble is a great place to look A fresh Pen is like a blank canvas, but sometimes creative block will hit, and that canvas will take a long Nietzschean gaze into you. Feeling uninspired? Look into the latest CodePen Challenge or join in a coding challenge group like Codevember or DailyUI. Maybe head on over to Dribbble and recreate (or perhaps animate) an illustration in CSS – just be sure to give credit where due (adding backlinks to your Pen’s public details is the preferred method.) These might seem like exercises in futility, and we’ve all been privy to arguments against coding in one’s free time, but there’s another little-recognised upside to (publicly) creative coding at CodePen: potential employers and recruiters actually spend time scouring the site for folks who display creative ambition. Built some things you’re particularly proud of? Be sure to include them in your portfolio. CodePen makes embedding easy, with multiple display options, and using their new prefill embed feature, you can add a CodePen editor window with rendered code directly from your portfolio site’s codebase. This article was originally published in creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 290. Read more: Minimalist website design: 12 beautiful examples 8 CodePen features you didn't know about Top Sketch plugins to try View the full article

Clever animation can completely transform a character design. But good animation is difficult to achieve, the software is complex, and in general it's best left to the experts, right? Wrong. With Cartoon Animator 4, anyone can become an animator. This animation design software is super simple to use, with professional looking results. Find out more about Cartoon Animator 4 Try Cartoon Animator 4 for free now Take a look at the demo reel below for a taste of exactly what this tool can do. This might be just the tool you've been waiting for to take your practice to the next level. Let's say you're an illustrator or character designer. Cartoon Animator 4 will help you bring your creations to life and capture the imaginations of new clients. Maybe you're a YouTuber or video maker – CTA 4 will help relieve the pressure of daily production. Or perhaps you're already an animator, and on the hunt for a tool to speed up your workflow? It will help you out there, too. Let's take a closer look at some of CTA 4's most exciting features. 2D facial mocap with any webcam Motion capture has been a complete game-changer in the animation industry. It enables animators to capture expression and emotion in their characters like never before. Now, thanks to CTA 4, you can get started with mocap using just a standard webcam. Watch your character design – human, animal, or mythical beast – mimic your facial expressions and eye movements in real time, on screen. Filters and controls let you fine-tune the intensity of different gestures, and there's a clever feature that enables you to start building body movements based on how the head is animated. Finally, try the real time lip sync and audio recording if you want to go one step further. 360 head creator to give 3D power to your 2D art Character artists will know that one of the trickiest elements of the job is turning a 2D face design into a 3D head. This can limit the possibilities of what you can do with your character. Cartoon Animator 4's 360 head creator helps remove those limits. Use the tools to define how your face design should look from different angles, and CTA 4 will use its smart capabilities to animate the transitions in a realistic way. Again, everything is adjustable and customisable, so you can get your characters looking and behaving exactly how you want them to. Want to give it a try for yourself? Download Cartoon Animator 4 trial version and experience exactly what it can do. View the full article

Cisco has issued patches for critical and high-severity vulnerabilities in its Aironet access point devices. View the full article

The flaws in the container technology, CVE-2019-16276 and CVE-2019-11253, are simple to exploit. View the full article

With Halloween fast approaching you might be tasked with any number of seasonal designs that give you the opportunity to let your dark side loose. Without the right fonts, though, your finished work might not manage to get everyone screaming. Fear not, because we've rounded up 13 gloriously ghastly free fonts guaranteed to spook everyone senseless. And not only are they all free, most of them can be used for commercial projects, too. 5 of the hottest typography trends 01. Double Feature Come up to the lab and see what's on the slab It's hard to beat The Rocky Horror Picture Show for a bit of Halloween viewing, and if you want that Rocky Horror vibe for a design then Double Feature should do nicely. Based on the Rocky Horror title font with plenty of dripping blood, it's ghoulishly bold and free for both personal and commercial use. SAY IT! 02. Nosferotica Get that sexy vampire look with Nosferotica For a sexy, vampiric vibe, get your teeth into Nosferotica. A horror font designed by Sinister Fonts, it's a terrifyingly tall and thin serif, and while it's all-caps, the lowercase set is more bottom-heavy while the uppercase is top-heavy – mix them up for an unsettling effect. It's free for personal and commercial use. 03. Buffied In every generation there is a chosen font If all this vampire talk's getting a bit much, here's the antidote: a font inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Created by GemFonts, Buffied is modelled on the Buffy title font, comes with an upper and lowercase set, and it's free both for personal and commercial use. 04. Halloween Spider Halloween Spider's more scared of you than you are of it Feeling arachnophobic? Stay away from this eight-legged font, then. Halloween Spider is a bold brush script with nice thick strokes, and adorned with both spiders and spider webs. Try layering it in different colours and cutting out the spiders and webs in the top layer to add to the effect. It's free for personal and commercial use. 05. Fiddums Family CLICK-CLICK Created by BoltonBros, Fiddums Family is gloriously gothic and inspired by the creepiest, kookiest clan of them all, the Addams Family. Featuring some excellently ornate touches, including some seriously over-the-top swashes, it's a freeware font that's good for personal and commercial use. 06. Vintage Halloween All the spooky imagery you need in dingbat form As well as standard fonts, we've also found some handy dingbat fonts that'll make it easy to populate a design with plenty of ready-made Halloween imagery. First up is Vintage Halloween from Woodcutter, with a stack of useful pumpkins, bats, spiders, skeletons and more, all fully vectorised and free for personal and commercial use. 07. Freaky Halloween ...and a little more A more stylised dingbat font, Freaky Halloween features 26 glyphs covering most of the Halloween bases, rendered in a minimal, cut-out fashion. Perfect for designs with a more simple look, it's free for personal and commercial use. 08. Wild Wood Don't go into the Wild Woods alone There are few things scarier than being alone in the woods at night, especially if you've seen The Blair Witch Project. And if you want to evoke that creepy forest feeling, Wild Wood, with its letterforms sprouting gnarled branches, ought to do the job. It's free for personal use. 09. Spiderfingers Another font to frighten arachnophobes with Ideal for Halloween designs or maybe for death metal album covers, Spiderfingers features tall, grungy letterforms that taper down to viciously sharp points. Designed by Sinister Fonts, this is another freeware font you can use for both personal and commercial work. 10. Ink and Bones Now hear the word of the Lord Nothing says Halloween like a spooky skeleton, and if that's the sort of feel you're after then Ink and Bones does exactly what it says on the tin. Its hand-drawn letters and symbols are built out of bones, and while it's all-uppercase, the lowercase letters are solid strokes while the uppercase set is highlighted by some outlined bones. It's free for personal and commercial use. 11. Castle Dracustein Stay away from the creepy castle Mix up your horror brands with this sinister font from, appropriately enough, Sinister Fonts. Perfectly evoking the look of vintage horror movie posters, Castle Dracustein is another Halloween font that tapers down for a striking visual effect, and its eroded edges just add to the creepiness. It's free for personal and commercial use. 12. Hallowen Please don't write in No, that isn't a typo. Hallowen is a spooky outline serif font by Peter Olexa, and it wouldn't look out of place on the poster for a Tim Burton film. It's an all-caps font with a set of smaller glyphs in the lower case, and it really comes alive if you alternate between them, and it features some lovely spiral terminals for added visual interest. It's free for personal use only. 13. Ill October A final helping of demonic dingbats Finally, here's one last set of Halloween dingbats. Featuring plenty of skulls, spiders, snakes and more besides, Ill October is another minimal dingbat font packed with glyphs that look like they've been carved into a pumpkin, and it's free for personal and commercial use. Related articles: 21 fonts every graphic designer should own 33 perfect font pairings 10 best free calligraphy fonts of 2019 View the full article

Some design flaws are obvious. They smack you in the face immediately; everyone tears down the designer, and the project either gets redesigned or fades into oblivion. Other mistakes are just small enough for most people not to even notice, but once pointed out they can't be unseen. It's like have a tiny pebble in your shoe you can never get rid of. What's the point of this long-winded introduction? Someone has spotted that the Send button in Apple's Messages iPhone app is very slightly wonky. Behold: The thoroughly unwanted PSA came from Anh, and it will surprise precisely no one to hear he's an interface designer. Having announced it on Twitter, he unwittingly opened the door to other fastidious designers pointing out myriad other tiny interface flaws in iOS app icons. Bjorn pointed out that the play circle in Spotify isn't really a circle at all, but an oval. Noel Cornell flagged up this glaring error: Product designer Donnie Suazo shared flagged up this blue-one-black monstrosity within the Maps app. Ugh. Take a look at the full thread here, if you're feeling brave. Of course, some are making the point that optical illusions are often used in design – and sometimes a technically 'perfect' design looks wrong to the eye. Case in point, this massive debate surrounding Google's 'incorrect' logo. It doesn't make it any less irritating once you've spotted the inconsistency though, does it? If this hasn't put you off Apple products forever, take a look at our guide to making the most of the Apple Black Friday sale. Read more: Apple’s 2020 MacBook and iPad Pros could feature all-new display tech Surface Pro 7 vs iPad Pro Why Apple's rumoured iPhone SE 2 feels like as BIG disappointment View the full article

Twitter is a popular place for artists and designers share new projects, and digital art guru Gal Shir is no exception. The talented creative currently has over 70,000 followers, and when you scroll through his inspirational Twitter feed, it's not hard to see why. It's back-to-back with the most beautiful digital illustrations, but its his most recent post that has got thousands of people talking. With Halloween just around the corner, Shir has embraced a spooky theme in his most recent videos, the latest being this adorable ghost illustration. The one-minute video where Shir pens this little guy, on what looks very much like a new iPad in top digital art software Procreate, is absolutely mesmerising. Shir starts with a simple line drawing before going on to pencil in shadows and highlights in such a way that the spooky little fellow immediately begins to pop out from the screen – and frustratingly makes the entire process completely effortless. As a final, lovely touch, Shir added a little animation to end the video with his new pal floating out of the screen in true ghost-like style. We recently posted about the best Halloween Doodles, a list this artwork would top if it were ever to land in the laps of Google bosses. Shir's videos are no strangers to countless likes, but there's something about little ghosty here that has really captured people's imaginations. At time of writing, the tweet has been shared over 30,000 times, has racked up over 78,000 likes and that shows no signs of slowing. The post also now has hundred of comments, the majority of which are commending Shir's talents, with others very appreciative but also clearly frustrated with how the artist manages to make such beautiful artwork look so easy. While another Twitter user noticed something about Shir's workflow other digital artists might find useful: If ghosts and Halloween aren't your thing, never fear, Shir's Twitter feed has hundreds of different illustrations to suit all tastes. So if you're on the hunt for some inspiration, learning how to draw or simply want to enjoy a master at his craft, this is one digital artist to follow on Twitter. Read more: The best iPad Pro deals in 2019 The 13 best iPad apps for designers The best tablets with a stylus for drawing View the full article

A luxury phone company has released a set of iPhone 11 Pros that come with a piece of Steve Job's famous black turtleneck sweater sealed in their casings. With prices starting at over $6K, these devices are not only expensive, they also fly in the face of the Apple co-founder's design principles – we don't think Jobs would be impressed. Apple makes some of the best smartphones around, and new iPhone 11 looks set to continue that trend. However the design of the device is a key part of its popularity. That's because Jobs' was meticulous when it came to the look and feel of Apple products. The best iPhone apps for designers One of his mantras was to prioritise "focus and simplicity". Hence why so many Apple releases look so sleek and elegant. These iPhone 11 Pros throw that philosophy out of the window though, as they clutter the device with a swatch of Jobs' wardrobe and an engraving of his autograph. With price tags south of $6k, you'll be paying steeply for this bastardised design too – the standard 64GB model starts at $6,290, while the 512GB Max version goes for up to a whopping $7,460. In our opinion, you're better snapping up a bargain iPhone with the upcoming Apple Black Friday deals. Created by Russian luxury phone company Caviar, the iPhone 11 Pro Superior Jobs models is "a tribute to the immortal genius". "The strict Apple design is embodied in the body of firm titanium: only clear lines and moderate color solution," it adds. You won't want to drop this phone down the toilet Nice try, but we're not buying it. We just feel that a better tribute to Jobs would be a limited edition model that exemplifies his design principles, rather than cluttering a device with signatures and fabric. If you've got deep pockets and you're looking for a new phone though, you'll need to move fast. The iPhone 11 Pro Superior Jobs range is limited to just nine pieces worldwide. Related articles: 13 creative free iPhone apps for designers The 100 greatest Apple creations The 10 most beautiful Apple products (and the 5 ugliest) View the full article