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Now that the checkm8 BootROM vulnerability has a working exploit, security pros are warning of potential attacks. View the full article

Hold on to your hankies, and get ready to unleash your opinions on the world, because the John Lewis Christmas advert is here. Except this year, it's actually the John Lewis and Partners, and Waitrose and Partners Christmas advert. Or just John Lewis and Waitrose. Either way, this year's Christmas tear-jerker features an accident-prone dragon called Excitable Edgar. The ad by Adam&Eve/DDB has already prompted plenty of hot debate, such as whether or not this particular dragon resembles Julia Donaldson's Zog the dragon (it doesn't), and whether this advert is too sad for children. But we are here to tell you that the premise of the whole advert is fundamentally flawed. If you haven't seen it yet, you can watch it below. For more inspiration, check out our roundup of the best print ads ever made, or explore our character design masterclass. A quick plot synopsis for those who can't be bothered to watch, or were too overwhelmed with emotion to get to the end: Edgar the Dragon keeps setting fire to just about everything. It's hard to be a dragon around snowmen, it turns out, and ice rinks, and most festive celebrations. His friend, a red-haired girl, watches Excitable Edgar's failed attempts to fit in and wants to help him. In order to do so, she decides to camp out outside his house when he doesn't answer the door. It's unclear why camping is the way to help, but she stays outside for an entire night, even blowing out her lantern (why?! It's pitch black!) and still doesn't get anywhere. In the next shot, she's cooking bread when she has an idea. She takes Edgar to a festive banquet, where everyone initially hides when they see him, and then he presents a Christmas pudding and sets fire to it. People seem pleased. This is the end of the advert and the moment we are all supposedly supposed to be overcome with emotion and rush out to Waitrose to buy ingredients for a feast. But really, we're just not convinced. This does not seem like a happy ending. Let's imagine that Edgar sits down and this fiery Christmas pudding is shared among the banquet guests. So far, so good. But then he tastes it, and enjoys it and snorts some more fire out of his nostrils. The banqueters didn't like that before. But it's Christmas, so they may be able to forgive him once. But then what if he wants to embark in a little bit of Secret Santa? And ends up setting fire to all the wrapping paper and in fact the whole table, which looks like it would go up in flames pretty quickly? We really think the year that the village invited Edgar the Dragon for dinner would probably go down in history as the absolute last time he would be invited. Or maybe even the last time there was a village left to celebrate in (too far?). So this advert doesn't have a happy ending. Also (like most John Lewis Christmas adverts), it has absolutely nothing to do with John Lewis. Or really Waitrose. Except we imagine JL will be shifting a lot of stock of Edgar the Dragon. And there might be a small upswing in sales of Christmas puddings. And maybe matches. Read more: IKEA's first-ever Christmas ad is the best thing you'll see today UK finally bans sexist adverts How to generate ideas View the full article

Black Friday is just around the corner but if you're looking for a decent iPad Pro today then look no further than Walmart's latest deal. It is offering an Apple 10.5-inch iPad Pro Wi-Fi 512GB for the incredibly low price of just $599 – that's an impressive reduction of $400. You will struggle to get a better deal than this. The model is second generation from 2017, and while it doesn't include some of the newer nice-to-have features of the 2019 model, such as Face ID or a USB- C connectors, it still packs enough of a punch for today's casual consumer, digital artist or illustrator. You can also match it with a Apple Pencil (see our best Apple Pencil Black Friday deals here). The 2017 iPad Pro specs include a 10.5-inch Retina display, a powerful A10X Fusion chip, a Touch ID fingerprint sensor, a 12 megapixel camera with 4K HD video, a 7 megapixel FaceTime HD camera and up to 10 hours of battery life. This is a great set of features at an even better price. This is undoubtedly a very strong early Black Friday deal, and we can expect more as this year's big shopping event gets ever closer. November 29 will bring with it impressive deals on all your favourite hardware and beyond. Make sure you don't miss out on a great Apple tablet deal by visiting our best iPad Black Friday deals page. If that's not quite the right deal for you, see more iPad Pro deals below. Read more: Apple Black Friday deals: The best offers on Apple kit in 2019 4 reasons you need an Apple Pencil New 16" MacBook Pro leaves previous model in the dust View the full article

Craft trends aren't something you might have paid a lot of attention in years past, but in 2019, they've been more visible than ever before. This is, of course, thanks to the internet, but particularly to Instagram. The social media platform has created crafting communities that span continents, making the sharing process quick and easy. Craft is at the basis of the design process, and the act of crafting can be both professionally and personally fulfilling. Makers follow trends that are born out of consumer and social preferences, and the increased visibility of crafting has meant these trends have evolved alongside those in wider design. This year, that's meant a focus on environmentally aware design that's gone hand-in-hand with a search for authenticity. To discover this year's hottest craft trends, we've spoken to crafting pros, who have shared their thoughts on how these trends have affected the wider design industry, plus what to look out for as we head into 2020. We've got plenty more celebration of craft here on Creative Bloq. Why not check out our examples of paper art? Or make your own cut-and-paste mood board with these tips. 01. Visible mending Charlotte Jenner's retreats host people new to visible mending Visible mending makes a feature out of fixing worn or damaged fabric. According to Charlotte Jenner, who runs A Nest of Gentle Makers, a crafting retreat in the New Forest, this is due to a backlash against the way we consume. "People seem to want to mend clothes as they are reading more about the downside of 'fast fashion'," she says, "both in terms of using up the resources of the planet and also the poor treatment and conditions that many of the workers have to tolerate when making clothes for our consumption." Kate Sekules, a repair champion who runs an established visible mending website, agrees that consumption culture has paved the way for the craft's popularity. "Clearly it's the craving for the handmade and unique in our culture, owing to the metastasising cancer of mass production," she says. "If everything's the same, of course we start to want a different look, and nothing shows the individual hand more than visible mending." Kate Sekules has seen a swing to embellishment that's reminiscent of visible mending How has this craft trend affected professional design? According to Sekules, whose book MEND! A Refashioning Manual and Manifesto will be published by Penguin in Summer 2020, visible mending has had a huge impact. She's seen a general swing to embellishment and detail in fashion design that's a reflection of visible mending. Sekules explains: "I'm seeing it in all sorts of consumer goods – the display of joins, instead of slick smoothness – think Kintsugi (porcelain repaired with gold) and boro (historic Japanese patch-on-patch with sashiko stitching), both ridiculously trendy and adopted all over. I've seen 'boro' cushions in TJ Maxx. This is going too far." The trend is set to get more elegant and refined, according to Sekules The interest in visible mending certainly hasn't peaked, says Sekules. She believes that the increasing anxiety people hold about the environment will continue to have an impact on their design preferences. "I think people are really waking up to the impact of their consumer choices so will continue to gravitate to design that's recycled, upcycled, hand-done." But will the aesthetic change? Sekules thinks so. "It's going to get more elegant and refined, not so scrappy and messy. This is more than a trend, since there's so much philosophy behind it. Creative reuse is essential now, and will be reflected in all parts of the design field." 02. Wabi-sabi Manuela Metra stresses the importance of understanding the whole philosophy of wabi-sabi Wabi-sabi is the art of imperfection. An ancient Japanese tradition rooted in Buddhism, the philosophy aims to remind us of the transient nature of life. In design terms, it's the ultimate rebellion against products that are shiny, new and sterile. It’s seeing the beauty in flaws: a cracked pot or a frayed edge – a celebration of the parts of an object that show its history and use. If you search #wabi-sabi on Instagram, you'll see a stream of mismatched imagery that encompasses design of all sorts – in line with the philosophy. "It's of fundamental importance to embrace the whole concept, without cutting any part; neither philosophy nor aesthetics," says Manuela Metra, a wabi-sabi ceramic artist and fine art photographer, who has run the Alice In Wonderland art atelier in Milan for over 20 years. Rather than being a single skill, wabi-sabi is an approach to making and design as a whole, and Metra predicts that the concept will only become more widespread. "I think that wabi-sabi will, in the immediate future, contaminate new areas not directly connected with ceramics," she says, citing design, fashion and textiles as potential new areas for wabi-sabi to infiltrate. 03. Dirty Pouring A round pour by Carruthers Dirty pouring is not as obscure as it sounds. It simply means mixing multiple colours of acrylic paint and pouring onto a surface. As the paint leaves the cup, the colours mix, creating an other-worldly effect that takes on different patterns. It's possibly one of the most accessible crafts (gravity plays a big part here) and the results are pretty delightful right from the outset. Crafters can add different materials (think glitter) to create varying effects, but the skill is in the tilt and the ratios of paint that dictate the outcome of the piece. There's an enormous online presence for acrylic pouring, with thousands of guides and videos that show the popularity of this at-home craft technique. Australian fluid artist Shelee Carruthers offers an e-course in fluid art. Her website invites you to 'Join the Fluid Art Revolution', and it certainly seems to have been a revolution in her own professional life, replacing charcoal as her medium of choice many years ago. This fluid pour was painted to look like a fly that was buzzing around Carruthers' paintings Carruthers has seen acrylic pouring rapidly grow in popularity over the last year, and thinks she knows why. "I believe the ‘instant painting’ you get when pouring instead of using a brush is very attractive to not only artists, but novices and the inexperienced creatives that want to try something new. Anyone can do it and with a bit of luck, you may just create an absolute masterpiece." And she believes that the technique is certain to affect other areas of design. "I most certainly have seen this style evolve and move into other areas like prints, homewares and wallpaper. "In my own personal experience, my work is about to feature on luxury haute couture gowns at the January Paris fashion week! Everyone loves the organic feel of fluid art." Carruthers believes that as we move into 2020, we are sure to see the continuation of the surge of popularity for acrylic pouring. Just as with visible mending, the act of creation is a relaxing antidote to stress and anxiety. And as Carruthers points out "it’s better than meditation because you get a nice piece of artwork in the end!" 04. Pyrography Pyrography is performed with a pen-like tool that burns into the wood Pyrography is the process of etching into wood with charcoal then scraping off the burned wood to reveal the bare, un-scorched wood below. The ancient technique, which used to involve charcoal, is now performed with a wood-burning tool that looks like a pen with a metal tip. Hobbycraft's pyrography search page shows wooden items ranging from spoons to doll's houses, demonstrating the versatility of the technique and the range of items that can be customised – making it an attractive skill to learn. There's a strong community of pyrography artists, too. From Instagram pages to Etsy stores, pyrography inspiration is readily accessible online. Jimmy Wänfelt, artist and admin of the Pyroartcollective Instagram page, says there's something so special about that artform that he sees artists become engulfed, often leaving their previous crafts behind. Wänfelt sees pyrography's tools and techniques evolving over the next year Wänfelt sees differences in the design process to other crafts. In fact, he believes less actual design takes place because of the high-risk nature of the technique itself. "Most [pyrography] is mimicking photos and going for photo realism," he explains. "When people design on their computer or on scrap paper, there are not very big consequences when a mistake is made. You either eras­­­e or start over with very little thought. You can design on those platforms and then take that design to your pyrography, but then you end up making the same piece twice, and many don't have time and energy for that." The future for pyrography lies in different tools and techniques being used, as Wänfelt predicts experimentation such as using a torch as a brush and carving as a highlighter tool. This will make for faster burning and new ways to pyro. 05. Weaving Anthropologie is just one of the places at which weaving has been a massive trend The precise craft of weaving has roots in countries around the world. There are hundreds of weaving techniques, some grounded in culture and tradition, and others more modern. And crafters and designers alike are experimenting with the varied forms, for almost every purpose you can imagine – clothing, wall hangings, jewellery, toys, pet accessories... you name it and you'll find it weaved on Instagram. The trend has found its way into design across the board, including featuring heavily on the high street, with stores such as Anthropologie going big on weaved wall hangings. A peaceful, meditative process, weaving is one of the oldest and most traditional crafts, but it is finding new purpose in the modern design world. Journalist and crafting and colour expert Momtaz Begum-Hossain believes that the year ahead will see craft take a turn toward the extroverted. "2020 is going to be the year of performance craft and we’ll be seeing more ‘live crafting’ mixed in with cabaret style performances." And it won't stop there, as weaving continues to evolve from its tranquil roots. "In recent months I’ve seen knitting inspired catwalk performances, human weaving, someone dressed ‘as knitting’ and even seen metal crochet that creates music," she continues. "It’s all possible and they’ll be more people trying this type of multi-media and live crafting." Read more: The art of craft: inspirational handmade designs How to break into pixel art How to draw: the best drawing tutorials View the full article

The Comprehensive Compliance Guide can help security leaders save time and resources from creating their own compliance evaluation methods. View the full article

Part of the joy of working in the creative industries is that every year new tools come along that can speed up your workflow and give you new options and capabilities that you previously wouldn't have dreamed of. Just keeping up with them all can be a struggle, and that's before you get to the business of actually affording them. That's why we've looked around at this year's new arrivals and narrowed them down to a selection of our favourite creative tools. Whether you're a freelancer or art director, there's bound to be something here that tickles your fancy; remember, though, that there are bound to be some great Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals coming up, so don't rush into a purchase if there's a chance of getting a discount soon. The best laptop deals in 2019 01. Adobe Fresco The subscription model's hard to swallow, but there's no denying Fresco's great drawing tools Adobe Fresco is a bit of a weird one; it's a fantastic new art app for iPad with a slick and intuitive interface, good drawing and painting tools and the ability to blend vector, live and pixel brushes to create eye-catching and distinctive artwork. The problem with it is that artists on iPad are already well-served by the likes of Procreate and ArtRage – the latter providing much more impressive oil-painting tools – and both of those are apps that you simply pay for once, rather than subscribing for £10 per month. However if you have a Creative Cloud subscription – which is pretty likely if you're already working as a designer – then its powerful drawing and painting tools (especially the watercolour brushes) make it a no-brainer. 02. iPad mini 5th generation Combine it with an Apple Pencil and the iPad mini's a perfect pocket-sized drawing board We've never quite seen the point of the iPad mini until this most recent version. Now with a serious power upgrade, plus support for the Apple Pencil, the iPad mini has become a perfect little creative platform that you can easily take with you anywhere. It's ideal for sketching and drawing on the move, and now that Photoshop for iPad is finally out, it's even suitable for more demanding creative applications. 03. Wacom Cintiq 22 Finally, a full-size Cintiq that you can probably afford Wacom's Cintiq displays are the sort of hardware that many artists and designers dream of, at a price that makes you think that maybe you can get along with your current workflow for a while longer. The Cintiq 22 changes all that, though; it's a full 22-inch HD pen display that gives you plenty of space to create in, at a price that's not exactly cheap, but a lot more palatable than what you'd have to pay for a Pro or HD model. 04. Wacom Intuos Pro Small This Intuos is small but perfectly formed Another essential creative tool from Wacom, the Intuos Pro Small is a lightweight and durable drawing tablet that manages to pack all the professional features you're likely to need into a compact package. It comes with a battery-free Pro Pen 2, with 8,192 pressure levels and 60 levels of tilt recognition, plus six customisable ExpressKeys and a touch ring, and at $199.95/£199.95 it hits that sweet combination of price and performance. 05. Corsair One Pro i180 A workstation-grade PC that you'd be happy to put on display rather than under the desk When you get to the bottom of it, it seems that the big appeal of Macs to designers and other creatives is just how lovely they look; you don't mind paying extra for a computer when it's also a stunning piece of desktop eye-candy, and it's hard to find a PC that isn't either a dull box or a garish boy-toy clad in too many LEDs. Corsair's One Pro i180 has us tempted, though; it's packed full of power, squeezed into a compact case that's very easy on the eye with subtle LED lighting, and surprisingly near-silent, even when running the most demanding apps. At a shade under four grand it's far from cheap, but you'll struggle to find a more attractive workstation-grade PC. 06. Procreate 4.3 Procreate's new type tools are a game-changer Adobe Fresco and Photoshop for iPad are all very well, but they're going to have a hard time luring artists away from the established king of iPad drawing apps, Procreate. Version 4.3 came out earlier this year, putting it more into Photoshop's league with a much-demanded set of text tools as well as other improvements. The big excitement now is focused on the upcoming version 5, which promises a faster graphics engine and the potential to combine brushes to make custom Dual Brushes, as well as the ability to import Photoshop brushes. 07. Affinity Publisher Can Affinity Publisher shake InDesign's dominance? One of the big creative stories of recent years has been Serif challenging Adobe's dominance with a range of reasonably-priced but feature-packed apps that are doing an excellent job of luring designers away from the Creative Cloud. Both Affinity Photo and Designer are the go-to alternatives to Photoshop and Illustrator, and now there's an alternative to the mighty InDesign in the form of Affinity Publisher. This one's a tough nut to crack; InDesign is baked into just about every publishing workflow you could care to mention, but with all the features that most people need from a publishing app, including Master Pages, facing-page spreads, grids, tables, advanced typography, text flow and full professional print output, Publisher is a serious alternative option. 08. MacBook Pro 16-inch It's far from cheap, but this brand new MacBook Pro's an enticing choice Squeaking in at the last minute comes this heavyweight addition to Apple's MacBook range. The brand new MacBook Pro 16-inch is an absolute beast of a laptop, promising up to double the performance of the 15-inch model and packing a 16-inch Retina display with 500 nits of brightness, a P3 wide colour gamut and a razor-thin bezel. Best of all, it's abandoned Apple's terrible butterfly switches and has a keyboard with more reliable scissor switches. Of course it's not cheap; the basic 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD model with a 6-core 9th-generation Intel Core i7 processor and Radeon Pro 5300M GPU is going to set you back $2,399 (£2,399), but we doubt that's going to stop it becoming a must-have piece of hardware for many creatives. Related articles: The best camera for creatives in 2019 15 essential tools for graphic designers in 2019 19 ways to streamline your workflow View the full article

Under Armour has accused fellow sportswear company, Hotsuit, of trademark infringement. According to Under Armour, weight-loss and sauna suit brand Hotsuit is selling too-similar clothing stamped with a logo that's a copycat of the trademark UA design. The lawsuit claims that the design "has already caused confusion and gives Defendant an unfair boost in the marketplace at the expense of both Under Armour and consumers". Under Armour is seeking a jury trial and an injunction that will order Hotsuit to stop using the logo. But is this case justified? Is the logo design really similar enough to cause confusion? Let's have a look. There's no doubt that the basic shape very similar, but the flowing lines and loop of the UA logo sets a very different tone to the blocky pointed corners of the H. The use of negative space in the H does feel reminiscent of the UA, but inverted – with UA's central block cut out and the middle join of the H filled in. The middle part being such a feature on both is part of what gives such a similar impression. But, it kinda just looks like an H. As you would expect from a brand called Hotsuit. Opinions are mixed on the subject, with some pointing out that the context matters: We do see what he means. The fact that the brands share a space in the apparel arena makes for more confusion than if they were in different sectors, as the picture below demonstrates. When in context, the designs do look similar, but do you need to squint to see it? But others still think think it's a real stretch, commenting that you need to squint from a distance to confuse the two. Others have, amusingly, suggested other brands that Under Armour might want to take on: And logos that are even more similar to Hotsuit have also been shared. The diverse reaction shows just how much grey area there is when dealing with infringement cases. Under Armour, though, is convinced that the design is a real threat to the brand. “Since 1996, we have worked hard to deliver great product and build Under Armour into the strong, global brand that we are today,” the company asserted in a statement to WJZ. “We have an obligation to enforce our rights against similar marks and prevent any confusion in the marketplace.” An image from the court filing We guess we'll wait and see what happens with Under Armour and Hotsuit, but we don't envy the folk having to make the decision. Will it go down in history as one of the many high-profile cases of plagiarism or is it too much of a stretch? Read more: These logo design mashups will mess with your head 18 controversial moments in design and branding Where to find logo design inspiration View the full article

Warner Bros, the home of programming spanning from Looney Toons to The Sopranos, is approaching its centenary and has celebrated with a logo transformation. The streamlined update of its time-honoured shield has been unveiled on the famous water tower in the Burbank lot in the presence of more than 500 employees – and a super-fancy Bugs Bunny. The original logo which must be up there with the greats (see here for our guide to great logo design), has been part of the Warner Bros brand since 1923, but has now been refreshed and modernised to take the company into its second century. Ditching the shiny gold/yellow that's been such a feature so far, the shield itself is now blue and the iconic lettering is now in a striking white. Warner Bros' two new logo formats Pentagram is to thank for the studio's cohesive new brand image, which will tie together the many branches of the studio's output. The team, headed up by Emily Oberman, tweaked the original design in an update described as a reincarnation rather than a reinvention. Dee Dee Myers, Warner Bros' executive vice president of worldwide corporate communications and public affairs, described the old visual identity as "a little dated", but it was the mismatch of identity that seriously needed to be addressed – the "logo soup" across departments needed to go. One of the previous versions of the Warner Bros logo That's where the Pentagram team stepped in, not to totally overhaul the design but to tweak and streamline the brand for modern platforms, and the modern era. Oberman told Fast Company that the shield has been reimagined to look "more sleek and clean", put into a golden ratio and thinned out. The letterforms were also redrawn to give more of a sense of balance, as the process below shows. The dimensional quality of previous logos hasn't been lost altogether though, as there are now two versions of the logo in play. The dimensional version will be used by the TV and Film departments, with the flat logo in use everywhere else. Reactions to the change are lacklustre on Reddit, with some users wondering what exactly had changed. Commenter heyimjared asked, "What's new about it? The "B" is angled now?". And others stated their dislike outright. "Doesn't have that glamour to it. I like flat designs but this one I despise", said user thoughtsmachine. On Twitter, opinions were more mixed, but it's clear the reincarnation isn't setting the world on fire. And user Elf340 would rather returned to the retro version. Accompanying the logo is a brand-new mission statement to drive the company ethos forward. Putting storytelling firmly in the centre, Warner Bros' aim is “to be the world’s leading creator and distributor of extraordinary entertainment by partnering with the world’s most inspiring storytellers.” The company's brand message is now summed up in a simple sentence. "We believe in the power of story.” It's a snappy, succinct assertion. And, with WarnerMedia gearing up to release its streaming service, HBO Max (coming next year), Warner Bros' is clearly stating its intention to be a serious competitor in the crowded streaming marketplace. Rather than a total design overhall, it's tweaking a classic logo that seems to be popular right now (see Reebok's redesign), especially for a brand with so much history. It's a branding choice that keeps consumers connected to a company's history whilst stating its intention to march towards the future. Read more: Logo memory challenge befuddled participants 6 of the most iconic drinks logos Where to find logo design inspiration View the full article

What's the best laptop for your creative work? Some cry 'Macbook!', but are they right? We'd argue that when it comes to actually getting things done, with the kind of smooth workflow that allows you to get into the zone and properly unleash your creativity, then – whisper it – there may well be better options out there. Whether you're a designer, photographer, digital artist or videographer, the HP ZBook x2 is certainly worth investigating as an alternative. The jewel in HP's crown, this powerful tablet-laptop hybrid runs Windows 10 Pro 64 and is super-flexible, incredibly powerful, and has a lot of brilliant features (more on that in a moment). But maybe you're worried about the faff of switching from macOS to Windows? Don't stress. Ask anyone in your studio who's used both Macs and PCs (which will probably will be most of them) and they'll assure you that it's really not a big deal these days. It's kind of like when you get a new phone: there are a few key differences that may trip you up from time to time, but you soon get used to them, and if you ever get stuck, a quick Google search invariably provides the answer. Let's face it: fear of change wouldn't make you stick with the same phone forever, and the same logic should apply to your laptop. So read on, as we explain exactly how the superior features of the HP ZBook x2 can save you time and energy, and make you more creative. 01. It's super-flexible Perhaps the most obvious thing about the HP ZBook x2 is that it's a combination of laptop and tablet in one. That means it offers ultimate flexibility wherever you're doing your work; whether that's at your desk, on the train, in a cafe, held up waiting in someone else's meeting room, or wherever. The HP ZBook x2 can be used in four different ways. You can use it as a tablet, using your fingers on the touchscreen, or drawing with an EMR Wacom pen. You can use it as a laptop, by pulling out the stand and attaching the keyboard. You can detach the keyboard and use it wirelessly. Or you can use it docked and connected to an external monitor or keyboard, with Thunderbolt 3 allowing you to connect to a 4K screen. Depending on the task you're engaged in, and the location you're working in, it really is useful to be able to switch things around like this, quickly and flexibly. Can your current laptop boast the same adaptability? Want to create digital art? Just detach the screen and use it as a tablet using an EMR Wacom pen 02. The screen is awesome Whether you work in 2D or 3D, static design or moving images, consumers nowadays are getting used to seeing everything in higher and higher resolutions, and as creatives, we need to be sure our creations are pixel-perfect. So it's great news that the HP ZBook x2 comes with a screen that is simply sensational. The world’s most advanced detachable PC screen, the HP DreamColor provides you with an astonishing one billion colours, in a 4K, multi-touch, 14-inch diagonal display that boasts high-end anti-glare technology, making it easy to use in real-world situations. In non-techie terms, that basically means your creative work will look amazing, and you're able to see everything in the minute detail that you need to ensure your designs are perfect. You can use the Bluetooth keyboard attached to or detached from the screen: it works just as efficiently either way 03. Adobe shortcuts are built in In 2019, the vast majority of creative professionals make heavy use of Adobe's Creative Cloud software. So HP has gone to extra mile, and made these easier to use on the HP ZBook x2. Both the tablet and the detachable Bluetooth keyboard come with built-in Adobe app shortcuts, and there are 18 in total. This might sound like a minor thing, but in practice makes for much smoother workflow, helping you to work more intuitively, as well as adding up over time to some serious time-saving. 04. It's mega powerful and offers great performance If you just wanted to do some light web surfing with your laptop, we'd probably recommend something like a Chromebook. But if you need to do regular professional-level creative work, using Adobe Creative Cloud apps, then you're going to need a device with serious power. And the HP ZBook x2 has plenty of that. Armed with the latest Intel Quad Core processors and up to 4.2GHz of turbo boost, the HP ZBook x2 quite simply enables you to work at the speed that you think. And anyone who's ever drummed their fingers, waiting for their laptop to catch up with their brain, knows exactly how important that can be. And there's more. Nvidia Quadro graphics provide real-time visualisation of your multi-layered artwork and creative projects, and the HP ZBook x2 comes with an impressive 32 GB RAM Dual Channel Memory – twice the memory capacity of any other detachable PC. You won't get slowed down by large assets, either: HP Z Turbo Drive storage is 4 times faster than SATA SSD and 14 times faster than traditional HDD storage. There's an impressive number of ports for a small detachable device. And the Ultrabook-class battery life, along with ultra-fast recharge, means you'll never have to cut your working day short due to a lack of power. Conclusion When it comes to laptop-tablet hybrids, HP ZBook x2 is best in class. Thoughtfully designed, supremely powerful, and above all, hugely flexible, this is a device that's perfectly positioned for professional creative work in the 2020s. Enabling you to speed up your workflow and design more intuitively, this clever laptop will help you to better unleash your imagination and truly raise the level of your creative output. And if your work is important to you, isn't that worth the investment? View the full article

Fusion 360 is a new tool from Autodesk that is taking the 3D world by storm. The tool lowers the barrier for entry into CAD software, making it a great way to utilise the precision modelling tools that CAD tools offer, which can then be exported to any 3D modelling software for the advanced texture and animation capabilities that they provide. Thanks to Fusion 360’s straightforward spline and modelling tools, along with an excellent model history paradigm, an artist new to CAD software will find their feet quickly (for more on why Fusion 360 is so innovative, jump to the section on the difference between CAD and 3D software). An example of what can be achieved in Fusion 360 Fusion 360 is an excellent way of creating hard modelling objects, as can be seen from the gun model by Boy Sichterman, shown above. As you can see from the image, a lot of detail can be created directly within the tool. And as Fusion 360 enables the modification of a model via the history timeline, it is easy to adapt as the design develops. Fusion 360 is available as a free product if being used by a student, and has a similar cost per year compared to many of the tools a 3D artist uses from day to day when using it professionally. Let’s take a closer look at the tools of features on offer. 01. Model in Fusion 360 Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Autodesk Fusion 360 allows the creation of a variety of shapes, but for bespoke elements, it is often best to start with a spline. Splines can be precisely drawn out in an elevation view. Fusion 360 provides live feedback while drawing, which shows dimension and angles, ensuring that the spline is created to a set size that can be modified later. There are a range of spline drawing tools available, from freehand to standard shapes. 02. Modify a spline and Extrude Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image The corners of a spline are easily modified using the Fillet tool. When happy with the shape of the line, it can be easily extruded using the Extrude function to a set dimension. When the extrude is complete, another spline can then be created – for example, a circle that can be used as a cutting object when it is extruded into the initial extruded shape. This technique allows the creation of complex objects in seconds. 03. Use the History timeline Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image The history timeline is a series of icons at the bottom left of the screen showing each creation stage of the modelling process. The timeline can be moved back in time to allow you to modify your design. In the example shown, the original spline has had an offset applied to it to allow the hollowing out of the initial shape via an extrude. The history timeline is a great way to both ensure changes are easy to manage and new designs are easily branched off. 04. Export to a 3D application Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image To enable the export options available in Fusion 360, the model needs to be saved to the Autodesk cloud. From here, a wide range of file types are available for export. FBX is an excellent format that can be used in a wide range of 3D packages, while also retaining a lot of the detail. It is best to experiment with a variety of different formats, as Fusion 360 makes subtle changes to the geometry dependent on the format used. 05. Explore the interface Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image One of the great things about Fusion 360 is the amount of work that Autodesk is putting in to constantly improve it. A good example is the user interface, which is in the process of being updated. To access new features, such as the preview of the updated UI, which simplifies the toolsets for new users, you can go to the Preferences menu and select Preview > UI Preview in order to see the latest update. What's the difference between CAD and 3D software? When looking at a computer screen running CAD and digital content creation software, many people would likely find it difficult to tell them apart – they both make models that can then be moved and rotated around the screen. The truth of the matter though, as many 3D artists are only too aware, is that CAD software is actually very different, using another modelling paradigm that utilises NURBS and volumes rather than subdivision surfaces, which are typically found in 3D software. Not only this, but CAD software also differs in that it operates with precision in mind, rather than the more freeform creativity that can be achieved in 3D software. This can lead to a more clunky workflow. Finally, there is the cost, which is prohibitive for many 3D artists, who only use CAD software to convert models. This article was originally published in 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 251 or subscribe. Read more: Has Paramount got it right with this redesigned Sonic? The best graphics cards in 2019 Behind the scenes of Toy Story 4 View the full article

In the past, webpage creation was the sole dominion of expert coders, an unavoidable hurdle that could prove expensive and inflexible. But these days, the world of web design is easier and more accessible than ever, with plenty of tools available to make the process simpler. Before coding a website in HTML, you must first design the UI layout and create assets, either for your own use or to send to a developer. Illustrator is well equipped for this, since it has a pixel-perfect interface, vector graphics, CSS generation, good colour management, as well as access to Adobe Typekit. In this tutorial you will learn how to download a website template from Adobe Stock, customise it for your own use and export as slices. 01. Search for a template When searching for templates on the Adobe Stock website, you can filter the results to only include Illustrator documents. Any design job is a careful balance of inspiration and know-how. If you’re new to web design or want a quick solution, Adobe Stock provides a wealth of templates that can make the job simpler. Illustrator’s New Document window offers a limited choice of free templates, which can be downloaded without ever leaving the app. Access these by clicking one of the tabs at the top of the window: Mobile, Web, Print, Film & Video or Art & Illustration. For a more varied choice, visit the Adobe Stock website, which is home to a library of professionally designed templates, graphics and images. Type ‘website design’ into the search bar and sort the results by clicking on the View Filters button, which opens a sidebar of options. By selecting Illustrator, you will ensure that you are only seeing projects for that specific software. Click on any template you like and license it. I used one of Illustrator’s free templates, which downloaded and opened instantly into the app. 02. Inspect the document Click on the arrows to delve deeper into the Layers panel. Use the eye icon to toggle visibility on or off. This document contains three artboards, designated by the black borders that appear around them. These are all set to a width of 1280px, a standard screen size for web. The height of the page will ultimately depend on the content you add and can be changed later on by going into the Document Setup and opening Edit Artboards. This template is broken down into a nested hierarchy of layers, which can be accessed in the Layers tab. Click on the arrows next to each layer to delve down and find what you are looking for. You can also toggle layer visibility and lock them by clicking on the icons to the left. It can be useful to place a screenshot of a web browser behind your design to see how it will look on a screen. 03. Add your own text As well as adding fonts from Adobe Typekit, you can sync and activate any missing fonts when opening the document. This template comes with textboxes already placed on the page, filled with dummy text. To edit the text and add your own copy, it’s a simple matter of double-clicking inside the textbox and replacing the dummy copy. You can also add your own textboxes with the Type tool, by clicking and dragging onto the artboard. This is the perfect time to experiment with different typefaces – you may have your own preferences or simply want to run down the list in Illustrator’s font family. You can access more in Adobe Typekit, by clicking on the cloud icon in your computer’s taskbar and clicking on fonts. If you are missing any then you can activate them with Typekit when opening the file. Illustrator comes with most of the same text tools that you find in other Adobe software. These include Leading, Tracking and Kerning, which are all useful when editing your text. Don’t spend too much time refining long passages of text, but it is worth kerning any large standout words, as well as your logo. 04. Images and clipping masks With your two objects selected, make a clipping mask to turn one into a container frame for the other. All images are represented as grey rectangles on the page. To replace these with your own images you will need to place images into the document, either by dragging straight in from Finder or using the Place shortcut Shift + Command + P (also found in File > Place). Move your image over the rectangle you wish to replace and send it behind. You can do this by dragging the layer down the Layers panel or by sending the layer back using Command + square brackets (Command + Shift + [ will send the image to the back). Select both layers and make a clipping mask by pressing Command + 7 or Object > Clipping Mask > Make. The image should now appear wrapped in a container made by the rectangle. You can still move the image around inside the mask by double-clicking on it and dragging it around. Repeat this process with the rest of the images on the page. 05. Positioning Spot the difference between snapping and not snapping to pixels by turning on Pixel Preview. After adding your own bespoke content, you may find that it no longer fits the current artboard and you will have to resize and reposition. It is important to use exact measurements when doing this as it will cause you fewer problems down the line. Change the size of the artboard by going to Document Setup and clicking on the Edit Artboards button. You can then click on the artboard and change its height by dragging the handles of the frame or typing new dimensions into the taskbar. It may help if you have previously drawn a rectangle to give you an idea of the correct height. Turn on pixel grid and make sure you have Snap to Pixel turned on in View, which will ensure your edges remain crisp and clean. You can check this by going to View > Pixel Preview, which shows how Illustrator divides objects across individual pixels. Use the Transform panel to make any pixel-precise movements or set your Keyboard Increment to a specific pixel distance in Preferences. 06. Theme it up While you can download icons from Adobe Stock and use in your projects, you don't own them, so cannot use for a trademark logo. Part of Illustrator’s appeal to web designers is its versatile colour management. While it is possible to go through and change the colour of each element individually, it is much more efficient to use swatches, which automatically update any incidence of that colour across the whole document. Go to the Swatches panel and double-click on any of the preset swatches or create a new one. The document colour mode will already be set to RGB, so you will be presented by three sliders to play around with. I used a combination of teal and orange to accent certain parts, while sticking to black and white for text. If you already have your own logo then you can paste it into the top-left corner to replace the dummy text, otherwise type your name in and set it to whatever typeface you require. You could create a quick, temporary logo by downloading an icon from Adobe Stock, but it is important to understand that you don’t own any Adobe Stock images, so cannot use them when trademarking a real logo. 07. Exporting for web Use the CSS Properties window to generate CSS style sheets for character styles and named layers. At this point it might be enough to just send your Illustrator document to a professional web designer, who can then turn it into a fully functional HTML webpage. Alternatively you may wish to do this process yourself. To move elements from Illustrator to a website, you will need to slice your design into pieces, which can then be reassembled in HTML, or export them as svgs. There are two main methods for achieving slices – Create from Guides or Create from Selection. The first requires you to draw guides over your artboard, isolating graphics you wish to export, while the other uses the slice tool to define areas you wish to export. Then go to File > Export > Save for web, selecting the slices you wish to export. To export individual elements as svgs you must first click on the object, go to Object > Artboards > Fit to Selected Art. Then open the ‘save as’ window and select svg in the drop down box and use artboards. You will need to do this for every graphic you wish to export. Illustrator can convert character styles and named vector layers into CSS. It will do this for individual elements, but you can also select all and generate a global CSS style sheet, including image assets as png files. Open the CSS Properties panel and select the style or object for the CSS code to automatically appear. View the full article

Hospitals and IoT device manufacturers must take a dual approach in securing connected telehealth devices. View the full article

Grav is a content management system (CMS) with a difference. Content management systems are commonplace in the modern web, with platforms like Wordpress powering a large percentage of websites. They provide an easy-to-use graphical interface for non-technical users to add articles and content while the developers handle the code separately. The major drawbacks come when the CMS is bloated with unneeded features, or forces developers to work in a counter-productive manner. Even a basic CMS-built website that's little more than a landing page relies on a database, which can make migration and management a larger task than it should be. Meet Grav, the CMS built with the purpose of being lightweight, flexible – and without a traditional database. Yet it still has an optional administration panel with a graphical interface, user management and the same features expected of a CMS. While Grav doesn't have a traditional database running on MySQL or similar, it does have a type of database which is stored in folders and plain text files. These files store content with the Markdown syntax with configuration stored in YAML. As with learning any new system, Grav can take a bit of effort in order to get started, and the documentation, though improving, leaves some questions unanswered, leaving you to dig through pre-made "skeletons". This tutorial will help you install Grav and add pages using the default quark theme. Download the files for this tutorial. How to choose the right CMS 01. Configure local environment Grav requires a webserver, such as Apache or Nginx, and at least version 7.1.3 of PHP. Set up a local WAMP, MAMP or LAMP server to work with. git and composer will also be used to ensure that these can be used in the command line. 02. Create a working directory Within the web root of the local server, create a new directory and call it "Grav-project" Open a command prompt or terminal and test to see if PHP is installed with "PHP -v" if a version number is returned. If not, make sure PHP is installed. 03. Install a copy of Grav The easiest way to install Grav is to download the zip file from the website and extract it to the folder created earlier. Use the git installation method to explore the Grav CLI. Navigate to the web root of the local server and run the following command. 04. Install dependencies Use composer to install the dependencies you need Skip if installing with zip. Change directory to "Grav-project", then use composer to install the required dependencies. Once installed, use the Grav CLI to install the theme and plugins. On Windows, Grav commands must be prepended with "php" 05. Test the installation Try not to get a 404 Grav can be accessed at localhost/Grav-project. Opening this page in a browser shows the Grav welcome screen. Click onto the typography page to test for errors. If you encounter a 404 error, refer to Grav's troubleshooting in the documentation. 06. Add a new page Grav pages are stored as text files A page in Grav is a text file in the directory "user/pages". To create a new page, navigate to the "Grav-project/user/pages directory" and create a new folder named 03.about, then create a new file which will be called default.md. Grav uses "Markdown syntax" to render pages. 07. Install the admin panel In order to speed up the process of creating and managing content and unlock the full, user-friendly potential of the Grav CMS, the admin panel module can be installed. From the command line, run the following command: 08. Create an admin user With the admin module installed you can create an admin user Refreshing any page on the Grav website once the admin module is installed will open up a prompt to create a new admin user. Fill in your details and make a note of the password to proceed to the dashboard. 09. Edit with admin interface With the admin panel set up click on pages in the left-hand bar then click the about page made earlier. Once this loads, you will be able to see a content entry area that allows easy editing of the content of the pages. 10. Add child pages Delete the typography page in the admin panel, then add a new page to replace it. Enter services for the title and folder name, then click continue, keeping the rest of the options as their default value. Enter some content for this page and click save. Now create another page with the "add" button, and enter a service name. Make sure that "visible" is set to yes, then continue. 11. Set homepage to modular For more complex pages, change the template to modular While being able to add text and headers easily to a page is quick and easy for basic websites, it is understandable that a website will have more complex requirements. Edit the homepage and on the advanced tab change the page template to modular. Make sure to save the page. 12. Add a module Let's add a hero module Modules are content blocks set by the theme that can be used when building a page with differently styled sections. Now that the homepage has been converted, delete the pre-made content for the homepage and save the changes. Then at the top of the page, click add > add modular and fill in the title "hero" and set the page to "home". For the modular template, pick the "hero" option. 13. Populate the Hero module Modules render into a block on their parent page Modules are treated the same as subpages in the admin panel, but instead of forming a subpage, they render their content into a block on their parent page. Edit the newly created hero module and add a header, some text and add a hero image into "page media". Save the page. 14. Add a features module Repeat the above step, but select features module. When editing the page, notice the "features" tab that allows you to set a layout, and add individual columns with an icon, header and text. Add four of these columns and give them content. 15. Add a text block The last module on the homepage will be a standard content block. Add this and enter the desired content into this area, attaching an image and save the page. Lastly, open each block so far, including the parent homepage, and remove any CSS classes by going to the advanced tab and emptying the body classes field. These are CSS classes set by the theme that allow you to customise each block. 16. Configure options To set the site logo and an array of options for the theme, head to the "themes" menu and then click on Quark, the currently active theme. Adjust these settings, then click on "configuration" to access options such as "Site title". This article was originally published in issue 291 of creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 291 here. Related articles: Use WordPress as a headless CMS How to animate with the mo.js library 10 reasons you should be using Atomic Design View the full article

Christmas is coming and what better to give your loved ones than a photo book they can cherish forever? Now is the perfect time to snap one up with Mixbook offering up to 55% off all its products until Monday 18 November. This is one of the best early Black Friday deals we've seen so far. Before you jump in for a custom photo book, make sure your snaps are the best they can be. No one wants to see Aunt Clara with red eyes or a blurry Uncle Bob. So check out the best photo apps and photo-editing software for your smartphone. Once you're ready, start downloading your smartphone snaps and start creating with Mixbook's simple and drag and drop editor. At Mixbook, you can choose photo books with a host of styles including Holiday, Family, Seasonal, Romance, Kids, Wedding, Baby and more. They come in different shapes – landscape, square and portrait – and sizes, ranging from 8.5 x 8.5-inch to 12 x 12-inch. It's not all about photo books though, Mixbook offers cards, calendars, and a range of prints for the home. Don't miss out on this offer and get over to Mixbook today. Click the link below and the discount should apply automatically, but if for whatever reason it doesn't, enter the code: ERLYBF19A2 at the checkout. Read more: How to download Instagram photos: a complete guide Photoshop Camera: Adobe unveils super-cool, AI-powered photo app Apple Black Friday deals: The best offers on Apple kit in 2019 View the full article

If you’re new to Adobe’s Creative Cloud on Windows, we’ll explain everything you need to know in this piece, whether you're used to using the software on a Mac or you're a totally new user. Creative Cloud is the collective name for Adobe’s suite of software apps for graphic design, web development, photography and video editing (among others). There are over 20 apps in the suite, though it’s very unlikely you’d ever need them all in one go. It’s a subscription service, meaning that for a monthly fee you can get access to all of the Creative Cloud apps. You can also access only some of the apps should you want to – see more on this below. Adobe’s offline software suite was previously called Creative Suite. The Creative Cloud desktop app is at the heart of the suite How do you install the Creative Cloud suite on a PC? The Creative Cloud desktop app is the key part of the suite on Windows – simply download it and you can then install the various apps from there. It’s divided into categories in the desktop app, so you can see the apps that will be most relevant to you - you won't need the whole lot and the full list can be quite daunting. What do you need to run Creative Cloud on Windows? You’ll need the 64-bit version of Windows 10 to run the Creative Cloud desktop app – if your PC has been made in the last decade, it’s likely it will be a 64-bit machine, but you can check by right-clicking on the Windows logo in the bottom-left of your taskbar and going to System. There you’ll be able to see what version of Windows you have as well as if it is 64-bit or not. There is an older version of the app – also compatible with Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 if your machine isn’t able to run the latest version. The requirements for the different Creative Suite apps are vastly different, but the software is able to scale well depending on what kind of system you have. Crucially for Photoshop, for example, you’ll need to be running at least Windows 7 64-bit and have an Intel or AMD processor clocked upwards of 2GHz, at least 2GB of RAM – though Adobe recommends 8, as do we. You’ll also need at least 3.1GB of free space. You’re also recommended to have Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics or an equivalent as a minimum. Illustrator is actually slightly more demanding in some regards, Adobe recommends you have 8GB of RAM as a minimum but 16GB is recommended. It’s also recommended to have a multi-core processor and graphics support for OpenGL 4.0 or later. What are the key Adobe apps? As well as Illustrator and Photoshop, there are some other key apps for designers. If you regularly design apps, there’s Adobe XD for user interface design and prototyping (using associated XD mobile apps). Adobe InDesign is the industry standard for page layout, while Spark enables you to create social graphics, short-form video and visual stories for brands. Also, we all need to handle, create and process PDFs from time-to-time even if we don’t work in print, so the suite boasts Adobe DC so you can complete any PDF-related task you need. Then there’s Adobe Bridge. It’s a crucial element of the suite that handles all your assets so you can preview, organise and edit all your documents in the various Creative Cloud apps. Assets are easily found with powerful search filters, while it’s also able to bring your local storage together with any network drives. There’s a full list of all the Creative Cloud apps on Adobe’s site, of course, including all the audio, video editing, web, motion graphics and photography apps you also get access to with a full Creative Cloud subscription. What Creative Cloud plans are available? There are four main Creative Cloud subscriptions, but they’re not that flexible. The first is an all-apps subscription that will give you access to everything for $53/£50 a month. Then there’s a version of that subscription that adds access to Adobe Stock for stock images (up to 10 images a month) costing $80/£79. You can subscribe to a single app – which is quite an expensive way of doing it, since that costs $21/£20 a month. But if you really do need Adobe Illustrator and nothing else, there is that option. Finally – although this won’t be much cop if you’re a designer – there’s a $10/£10 Photography plan that gives you access to Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop as well as some online photo storage. If you’re involved in education in any way (as a student or teacher) you can get a discount on the software. What are the main keyboard shortcuts? Creative Cloud apps have many different keyboard shortcuts, but if you can master them you’ll find you get a lot more out of the key apps. This Adobe keyboard shortcut cheatsheet shows you the keyboard shortcuts for Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign so is perfect for designers to get to grips with the key controls. Read more: Adobe Fresco is now available on Windows 13 best Illustrator plugins Get started with Adobe Dimension View the full article