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Researchers find six bugs in consumer D-Link DIR-865L Wireless AC 1750 Dual Band Cloud Router. View the full article

Graphic design is quickly becoming an in-demand skill for various industries and job positions, and learning how to become a designer doesn't have to be expensive or impossible. With the right tools and guidance, you can train to be the creative you've always dreamed of right from the comfort of your home. Start achieving your goals with the Graphic Design Bootcamp, now only $15. Starting with the essentials, you'll begin the crash course training bundle by getting familiar with the industry-leading programs included in Adobe's Creative Cloud. With an intro into each program application, you'll get an understanding of each app and acquire valuable tips from the pros for getting your programs started with ease. For more Adobe lessons, try our pick of the best Photoshop tutorials and top Illustrator tutorials. Get Creative Cloud Dive into hands-on projects Once you are organised and comfortable with your desktop setup, you'll dive deep into hands-on projects that allow you to put what you learn into real-world practice. Led by creative director and designer Derrick Mitchell, each project will guide you through essential design principles and step-by-step introductions to Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign software interfaces. You'll learn the ins and outs of design techniques on each platform, and cover essential tools used by graphic designers of all levels. With 65 lectures included, you'll be exposed to projects with downloadable project files for both digital and print mediums, plus learn best practices and techniques for each along the way. Projects on logo design, compositing, business card creation, editorial design, and more will get you started producing work that will help launch your career or merely help brush up your skills. Not only will you have work to show from the course, but you'll learn how to get started creating a portfolio to display your design work. Access to an exclusive private Facebook group will allow you to connect with other students for sharing and critiquing projects. This opportunity will enable you to start getting comfortable with showcasing your work and getting feedback – a variable that every graphic designer must face. Certification of completion is also included upon finishing your projects, adding valuable credentials to your résumé, and future job interviews. While usually priced at over $100, this crash course brings you everything you need to jumpstart your graphic design career for only $15 – that's 88 per cent off! Add valuable skills and credibility to your ongoing creative portfolio and continue learning today with a little help from the pros. *Prices subject to change. Software not included. Read more: The best laptops for graphic design in 2020 Graphic design history: 25 landmark design events 33 must-read graphic design books View the full article

An Apple-made CPU is the tastiest rumour we've heard for sometime, and it seems it's about to come to fruition. It's been suggested by reliable Apple leaker that the company may be about to ditch Intel in favour of its own ARM processor, and that the announcement could be coming as soon this year's online WWDC conference, scheduled to take place on June 22. If the rumours are to be believed, the 12-inch MacBook will be the first model to contain the ARM processor, which could be released in 2021 – giving outside developers enough time to catch up with the technology shift. Want to get the most out of your Apple devices? Try the best monitors for the MacBook Pro, and our pick of the iPad apps for designers you have to try. Browse MacBooks at Apple.com Will the 12-inch MacBook be the recipient of the much-anticipated ARM chip? According to leaker Fudge (@chocobit on Twitter), who shared detailed predictions on Reddit, the move comes as the next stage in Apple's multi-phase plan to have all its devices kitted out with an Apple-designed chip. Plans for this first began back in 2015, with Fudge suggesting Apple is now at the stage which sees the 'release of at least one lower end model Arm Macbook', with the final rollout scheduled for 2023-2025. As Fudge also points out, the move will free Apple from Intel's release schedule, as well as put its market-leading technological know-how into full force. Preliminary testing has, according to Bloomberg, confirmed the superiority of Apple's chips over those of Intel when it comes to graphics, AI and battery life. The A14 chip, found in the upcoming iPhone 12 The prospective Mac processor will be based on the Apple-designed chips currently found in iPad and iPhones (including the A14 chip found in the iPhone 12, above). It should also be noted that the MacBook system will continue to run macOS rather than the mobile device's iOS. We're excited to reap the benefits of the ARM chip, which look to be plentiful, including lightning-fast performance and improved battery life. Crucially, it could also mean that Apple is able to start producing even thinner devices due to fewer internal components – a potential bonus for the overall design aesthetic. But it's not all good news. These rumours also suggest the butterfly keyboard could make a comeback. Apparently, Apple hasn't given up on the system, which was replaced to thundering applause, and is working internally to correct the loud, clunky, prone to jamming setup in order to bring it back on future MacBook models. Here's hoping we hear more news on this next Monday at the annual Apple WWDC. Want a different model MacBook? Here are the best prices in your area: Read more: Is this Apple’s most ludicrous move yet? The best Apple Pencil alternatives in 2020 Apple's 2020 iMac could look like a giant iPad Pro View the full article

The June edition of the New Yorker has been released, with a cover devoted to the history of violence inflicted on black people in the United States. Entitled 'Say Their Names', the powerful illustration features George Floyd, the US citizen recently killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. It shows his body imprinted with images of individual victims, placards, scenes from history and pertinent symbolism. Kadir Nelson's cover art is interactive and can be explored on the New Yorker's website, which describes the feature as a "closeup examination of the artist’s latest cover, in which the murder of George Floyd embodies the history of violence inflicted upon black people in America". As you click through the page, you find out the individual stories of the 18 black Americans featured. The New Yorker cover is a powerful tribute to George Floyd and other victims of police brutality Prominent activists such as Martin Luther King JR and Malcom X – who were both assassinated in the 1960s – are included in the piece, and there are also victims like seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones and twenty-two-year-old Stephon Clark, who were both killed in their own homes in the last decade. The final annotation included in the interactive feature is an escaped slave – known as Gordon – whose image was circulated as a key part of the abolitionist movement because of the shocking lacerations on his back. Nelson has depicted moments of historical significance too, including the March from Selma, and the Tulsa Race Massacre, while the 'I Am A Man' placard reflects the protest signs carried by sanitation workers during the Memphis strikes. The mostly monochrome piece is interlaced with blue Periwinkle, which represents the millions of black people who died as slaves in the USA. Periwinkle was often used as a burial flower, and was often the only sign of a burial plot in the case of the resting place of many slaves. Nelson is well-known for his work depicting African-American history and culture. His work is often featured on the cover of the New Yorker, and he has also created cover art for National Geographic (see it above), Ebony and Marvel, amongst other publications. Nelson is one of the many creatives standing up in the fight against racism, in response to the killing of George Floyd and support of the protests currently taking place globally. Read more: Designers create public document listing black-owned studios Banksy reveals brilliant plan for Bristol’s toppled Colston Statue Brands show support for Black Lives Matter View the full article

Designed from the ground up for large scale creative projects, the AMD Radeon Pro VII is the graphics card you need if you’re used to processing large amounts 4K or 8K video – it’ll give you top-level performance in spades. Available at the end of this month, the Radeon Pro VII GPU is an absolute workstation powerhouse built for demanding 24/7 environments and made with the latest stress-tested components. Whether you’re a film maker, editor or VFX specialist, you’ll appreciate the boost it gives your craft. Of course, AMD graphics is behind many world class workstations. The Radeon Pro VII GPU itself uses the latest-generation 7nm manufacturing process and is based around AMD’s market-leading “Vega” architecture, used in some of the world’s fastest supercomputers. With up to 13.1 teraflops (FP32) of high-class graphics performance, it’ll power your Windows 10 or Linux machine through everything you can throw at it – especially as part of a balanced system with a blazing fast CPU like AMD’s Ryzen™ Threadripper™ offering multi-core workstation-level performance. Supercharged If you love working with multiple displays on demanding broadcast or time-sensitive projects, this is the card for you. It boasts six separate mini DisplayPort 1.4 outputs enabling you to drive six individual 4K displays, three 5K displays or a single 8K display. The dual-slot card also boasts support for PCIe 4.0, the latest generation of the hardware interface that offers double the throughput of the previous version of the standard. And with 16GB of state-of-the-art HBM2 memory (second-generation High Bandwidth Memory) on board the card, you won’t run out of headroom for large projects. Memory bandwidth of over a terabyte per second means your pro-level software will absolutely fly, working wonders for heavyweight apps like Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve, Avid Media Composer and Foundry Nuke in 4K or 8K. The Radeon Pro VII GPU has undergone an extensive certification process to help ensure reliability in the high-end software you use every day. Foundry Nuke, for example, may have modest entry level hardware requirements, but it can support multiple GPU processing while advanced features are GPU accelerated. Crucially, the Radeon Pro VII bats away I/O bottlenecks when working on 4K or 8K projects thanks to the stellar amount of memory bandwidth and PCIe 4.0 support. And in DaVinci Resolve, all image processing takes place on the GPU. The AMD Radeon Pro VII offers twice the recommended graphics memory for UHD projects and can easily cope with the challenges from complex 8K projects. “Radeon Pro VII will be a great addition for creative professionals who need a revolutionary PCIe Gen 4 GPU to process both 8K and Blackmagic RAW 6K content in DaVinci Resolve in real time” says Dan May, president of Blackmagic Design Inc. “The support from 16GB HBM2 memory will be great for DaVinci Resolve users who can use the PCIe Gen4 for faster transfers of content and media on projects up to 8K content.” Double up For particularly demanding scenarios you can run two Radeon Pro VII GPUs side-by-side with AMD Infinity Fabric™ Link using a two or three-slot bridge connector available separately. Your premium workstation can then use the combined graphics memory of both cards together, so there’s the potential of 32GB of superfast HBM2 memory at your disposal. AMD is working to make more third-party software apps compatible with this standard. The Radeon Pro VII graphics driver gives you enterprise-grade stability, and performance as well as additional features such as high-resolution screen capture, recording and video streaming. The Radeon Pro VII also supports the GPU-accelerated experience of AMD Remote Workstation so you’re able to access your physical workstation from anywhere, meaning you can get project work done remotely should you need to. The remote workstation capability is built into the AMD Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise driver. The AMD Radeon Pro VII workstation graphics card is purpose-built to deliver high-class performance to media professionals within a reasonable price. Follow @AMD and @RadeonPro on Twitter for all the latest information around the launch of the Radeon Pro VII GPU later this month. View the full article

Designed from the ground up for large scale creative projects, the AMD Radeon Pro VII is the graphics card you need if you’re used to processing large amounts 4K or 8K video – it’ll give you top-level performance in spades. Available at the end of this month, the Radeon Pro VII GPU is an absolute workstation powerhouse built for demanding 24/7 environments and made with the latest stress-tested components. Whether you’re a film maker, editor or VFX specialist, you’ll appreciate the boost it gives your craft. Of course, AMD graphics is behind many world class workstations. The Radeon Pro VII GPU itself uses the latest-generation 7nm manufacturing process and is based around AMD’s market-leading “Vega” architecture, used in some of the world’s fastest supercomputers. With up to 13.1 teraflops (FP32) of high-class graphics performance, it’ll power your Windows 10 or Linux machine through everything you can throw at it – especially as part of a balanced system with a blazing fast CPU like AMD’s Ryzen™ Threadripper™ offering multi-core workstation-level performance. Supercharged If you love working with multiple displays on demanding broadcast or time-sensitive projects, this is the card for you. It boasts six separate mini DisplayPort 1.4 outputs enabling you to drive six individual 4K displays, three 5K displays or a single 8K display. The dual-slot card also boasts support for PCIe 4.0, the latest generation of the hardware interface that offers double the throughput of the previous version of the standard. And with 16GB of state-of-the-art HBM2 memory (second-generation High Bandwidth Memory) on board the card, you won’t run out of headroom for large projects. Memory bandwidth of over a terabyte per second means your pro-level software will absolutely fly, working wonders for heavyweight apps like Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve, Avid Media Composer and Foundry Nuke in 4K or 8K. The Radeon Pro VII GPU has undergone an extensive certification process to help ensure reliability in the high-end software you use every day. Foundry Nuke, for example, may have modest entry level hardware requirements, but it can support multiple GPU processing while advanced features are GPU accelerated. Crucially, the Radeon Pro VII bats away I/O bottlenecks when working on 4K or 8K projects thanks to the stellar amount of memory bandwidth and PCIe 4.0 support. And in DaVinci Resolve, all image processing takes place on the GPU. The AMD Radeon Pro VII offers twice the recommended graphics memory for UHD projects and can easily cope with the challenges from complex 8K projects. “Radeon Pro VII will be a great addition for creative professionals who need a revolutionary PCIe Gen 4 GPU to process both 8K and Blackmagic RAW 6K content in DaVinci Resolve in real time” says Dan May, president of Blackmagic Design Inc. “The support from 16GB HBM2 memory will be great for DaVinci Resolve users who can use the PCIe Gen4 for faster transfers of content and media on projects up to 8K content.” Double up For particularly demanding scenarios you can run two Radeon Pro VII GPUs side-by-side with AMD Infinity Fabric™ Link using a two or three-slot bridge connector available separately. Your premium workstation can then use the combined graphics memory of both cards together, so there’s the potential of 32GB of superfast HBM2 memory at your disposal. AMD is working to make more third-party software apps compatible with this standard. The Radeon Pro VII graphics driver gives you enterprise-grade stability, and performance as well as additional features such as high-resolution screen capture, recording and video streaming. The Radeon Pro VII also supports the GPU-accelerated experience of AMD Remote Workstation so you’re able to access your physical workstation from anywhere, meaning you can get project work done remotely should you need to. The remote workstation capability is built into the AMD Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise driver. The AMD Radeon Pro VII workstation graphics card is purpose-built to deliver high-class performance to media professionals within a reasonable price. Follow @AMD and @RadeonPro on Twitter for all the latest information around the launch of the Radeon Pro VII GPU later this month. View the full article

Researchers warn that the Earth Empusa threat group is distributing the spyware by injecting code into fake and watering-hole pages. View the full article

When the highly mysterious (cough...confusing) trailer for Christopher Nolan's latest film arrived in December, it was accompanied by a simple yet effective logo, with the final two letters of the palindromic title flipped upside-down. While this has led to various fan theories about a symmetrical structure for the film itself, the real mystery is how the studio managed not to spot that its logo already existed. Ensuring that your logo isn't easily mistaken for another is one of the fundamental rules of our logo design guide (which it seems Warner Bros would do well to read). After the trailer was released, a bicycle company named Tenet Components posted to Instagram, complaining about the "apparent negligence" of the logo's similarity to its own: This is where it gets interesting. Rather than faceless legal correspondence from the studio, Tenet Components' owner Tyler Deschaine received a letter (below) from Christopher Nolan himself. The letter assured him that the similarity was coincidental, and noted that Nolan designed the logo himself "over the last six years" (perhaps one of our Photoshop tutorials could have sped things up a little). Tenet Components' email from Christopher Nolan (as posted to its website) Deschaine shared the email in a blog post on Tenet Components' website, along with his reply, asking that Nolan's logo "use a different font or stylisation" to make it more distinct from his own. Lo and behold, the latest Tenet trailer features an updated logo (below) with the same font as before, but the final two letters no longer upside-down. The movie's new logo It's refreshing to see a situation like this resolved so amicably, with no apparent bitterness on either side – Nolan's personal offer to stop using the logo seems particularly gracious in a world of lawsuits and cease-and-desists. But it also feels like an admission that, yep, his logo is literally the same as Tenet Components – and the bike company got there first. Perhaps Nolan can take some solace from the fact that he isn't the first to lose a logo race – the US government recently had the Space Force logo swiped by Netflix. Next time it comes to designing a logo, we'd recommend Nolan checks out our logo design inspiration guide. it's full of tips for kickstarting the creative process and coming up with an original design that you won't have to back-pedal on. Read more: Punisher creator campaigns to reclaim controversial skull logo for Black Lives Matter Banksy reveals brilliant plan for Bristol’s toppled Colston Statue Fan ‘fixes’ video game logo – but is it better than the original? View the full article

It's no secret that making a good first impression is crucial in the professional world. That's especially important when pitching ideas for the first time or trying to win over new clients. A rock-solid, visually pleasing pitch deck is a necessity for displaying the credibility you need. If you're in a creative industry that continually needs presentations, the Slides Pro Plus Plan may be for you. Read on to learn more about this lifetime subscription, now only $49. This innovative slide editor solution is intended to assist in curating decks that help pitch ideas, raise business capital, drum up late-stage funding, or present the latest metrics on a campaign. Creating a presentation? The best infographics will keep your audience interested. Create presentations with zero stress Available straight from your Google Chrome browser, this presentation maker is a stress-free fix to creating decks that can many times take hours to create. Working with co-workers or collaborators to create stunning presentations, especially during tight deadlines, has never been easier. You'll get started by choosing from hundreds of customisable templates that reflect various themes, and use or take away elements. The easy to use interface will allow you to change the style of your deck by picking a preset or create your design combinations and add your company brand colours, logos, assets, and content. You can even add custom animations with a new Auto-Animate feature. Add all your information with just a few clicks, and voilà – you've got yourself a brand new presentation deck. Once you've accomplished your desired visual look and feel and your content is set, you'll be able to send your deck to anyone with ease. Control your slides from your phone during a presentation with Live Present Mode and even use your phone as a remote with your presentation notes attached. With innovative tracking, you'll be able to review who has viewed your deck and follow up with the right people that are genuinely invested in your ideas. The tracked metrics will allow you to optimise your pitch based on real-life results, and further customise your next round of decks based on your findings, streamlining your process efficiently. While a lifetime subscription to Slides Pro Plus Plan is usually priced at over $500, you can start creating stunning presentations today for only $49 – that's 90 per cent off! Dominate your presentation skills and easily create decks that make a lasting impression with just a few clicks. *Prices subject to change. Read more: 5 tips for presenting your work on social media How to be a better speaker: presenting and pitching tips View the full article

In 2020, we are blessed with a number of frameworks and libraries to help us with web development. But there wasn't always so much variety. Back in 2005, a new scripting language called Mocha was created by a guy named Brendan Eich. Months after being renamed to LiveScript, the name was changed again to JavaScript. Since then, JavaScript has come a long way. In 2010, we saw the introduction of Backbone and Angular as the first JavaScript frameworks and, by 2016, 92 per cent of all websites used JavaScript. In this article, we are going to have a look at three of the main JavaScript frameworks (Angular, React and Vue) and their status heading into the next decade. For some brilliant resources, check out our list of top web design tools, and this list of excellent user testing software, too. 01. Angular AngularJS was released in 2010 but by 2016 it was completely rewritten and released as Angular 2. Angular is a full- blown web framework developed by Google, which is used by Wix, Upwork, The Guardian, HBO and more. Pros: Exceptional support for TypeScript MVVM enables developers to separate work on the same app section using the same set of data Excellent documentation Cons: Has a bit of a learning curve Migrating from an old version can be difficult. Updates are introduced quite regularly meaning developers need to adapt to them What's next? In Angular 9, Ivy is the default compiler. It's been put in place to solve a lot of the issues around performance and file size. It should make applications smaller, faster and simpler. When you compare previous versions of Angular to React and Vue, the final bundle sizes were a lot a bigger when using Angular. Ivy also makes Progressive Hydration possible, which is something the Angular team showed off at I/O 2019. Progressive Hydration uses Ivy to load progressively on the server and the client. For example, once a user begins to interact with a page, components' code along with any runtime is fetched piece by piece. Ivy seems like the big focus going forward for Angular and the hope is to make it available for all apps. There will be an opt-out option in version 9, all the way through to Angular 10. 02. React React was initially released in 2013 by Facebook and is used for building interactive web interfaces. It is used by Netflix, Dropbox, PayPal and Uber to name a few. Pros: React uses the virtual DOM, which has a positive impact on performance JSX is easy to write Updates don't compromise stability Cons: One of the main setbacks is needing third-party libraries to create more complex apps Developers are left in the dark on the best way to develop What's next? At React Conf 2019, the React team touched on a number of things they have been working on. The first is Selective Hydration, which is where React will pause whatever it's working on in order to prioritise the components that the user is interacting with. As the user goes to interact with a particular section, that area will be hydrated. The team has also been working on Suspense, which is React's system for orchestrating the loading of code, data and images. This enables components to wait for something before they render. Both Selective Hydration and Suspense are made possible by Concurrent Mode, which enables apps to be more responsive by giving React the ability to enter large blocks of lower priority work in order to focus on something that's a higher priority, like responding to user input. The team also mentioned accessibility as another area they have been looking at, by focusing on two particular topics – managing focus and input interfaces. 03. Vue Vue was developed in 2014 by Evan You, an ex-Google employee. It is used by Xiaomi, Alibaba and GitLab. Vue managed to gain popularity and support from developers in a short space of time and without the backing of a major brand. Pros: Very light in size Beginner friendly – easy to learn Great community Cons: Not backed by a huge company, like React with Facebook and Angular with Google No real structure What's next? Vue has set itself the target of being faster, smaller, more maintainable and making it easier for developers to target native. The next release (3.0) is due in Q1 2020, which includes a virtual DOM rewrite for better performance along with improved TypeScript Support. There is also the addition of the Composition API, which provides developers with a new way to create components and organise them by feature instead of operation. Those developing Vue have also been busy working on Suspense, which suspends your component rendering and renders a fallback component until a condition is met. One of the great things with Vue's updates is they sustain backward compatibility. They don't want you to break your old Vue projects. We saw this in the migration from 1.0 to 2.0 where 90 per cent of the API was the same. How does the syntax of frameworks compare? All three frameworks have undergone changes since their releases but one thing that's critical to understand is the syntax and how it differs. Let's have a look at how the syntax compares when it comes to simple event binding: Vue: The v-on directive is used to attach event listeners that invoke methods on Vue instances. Directives are prefixed with v- in order to indicate that they are special attributes provided by Vue and apply special reactive behaviour to the rendered DOM. Event handlers can be provided either inline or as the name of the method. React: React puts mark up and logic in JS and JSX, a syntax extension to JavaScript. With JSX, the function is passed as the event handler. Handling events with React elements is very similar to handling events on DOM elements. But there are some syntactic differences; for instance, React events are named using camelCase rather than lowercase. Angular: Event binding syntax consists of a target event name within parentheses on the left of an equal sign and a quoted template statement on the right. Alternatively, you can use the on- prefix, known as the canonical form. Popularity and market Let's begin by looking at an overall picture of the three frameworks in regards to the rest of the web by examining stats from W3Techs. Angular is currently used by 0.4 per cent of all websites, with a JavaScript library market share of 0.5 per cent. React is used by 0.3 per cent of all websites and a 0.4 per cent JavaScript library market share and Vue has 0.3 per cent for both. This seems quite even and you would expect to see the numbers rise. Google trends: Over the past 12 months, React is the most popular in search terms, closely followed by Angular. Vue.js is quite a way behind; however, one thing to remember is that Vue is still young compared to the other two. Job searches: At the time of writing, React and Angular are quite closely matched in terms of job listings on Indeed with Vue a long way behind. On LinkedIn, however, there seems to be more demand for Vue developers. Stack Overflow: If you look at the Stack Overflow Developer Survey results for 2019, React and Vue.js are both the most loved and wanted web frameworks. Angular sits down in ninth position for most loved but third most wanted. GitHub: Vue has the most number of stars with 153k but it has the least number of contributors (283). React on the other hand has 140k stars and 1,341 contributors. Angular only has 59.6k stars but has the highest number of contributors out of the three with 1,579. NPM Trends: The image above shows stats for the past 12 months, where you can see React has a higher number of downloads per month compared to Angular and Vue. Mobile app development One main focus for the big three is mobile deployment. React has React Native, which has become a popular choice for building iOS and Android apps not just for React users but also for the wider app development community. Angular developers can use NativeScript for native apps or Ionic for hybrid mobile apps, whereas Vue developers have a choice of NativeScript or Vue Native. Because of the popularity of mobile applications, this remains a key area of investment. Other frameworks to look out for in 2020 If you want to try something new in 2020, check out these JavaScript frameworks. Ember: An open-source framework for building web applications that works based on the MVVM pattern. It is used by several big companies like Microsoft, Netflix and LinkedIn. Meteor: A full-stack JavaScript platform for developing modern web and mobile applications. It's easy to learn and has a very supportive community. Conclusion All three frameworks are continually improving, which is an encouraging sign. Everyone has their own perspective and preferred solution about which one they should use but it really comes down to the size of the project and which makes you feel more comfortable. The most important aspect is the continued support of their communities, so if you are planning to start a new project and have never used any of the three before, then I believe you are in safe hands with all of them. If you haven't had a chance to learn any of the three frameworks yet, then I suggest making it your New Year's resolution to start learning. The future will revolve around these three. This content originally appeared in net magazine. Read more: The next big thing in web design: 7 trends you need to know The best JavaScript libraries The best laptops for programming in 2020 View the full article

A group of designers and architects have come together to create a public Google file compiled of design, architecture, engineering or planning studios founded by black, indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC). Entitled BIPOC Studios, the list was created following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, and aims to promote opportunities at these design studios, and those owned by women or non-binary people. Set to public, anyone can view the spreadsheet, which also includes whether the studios are hiring and any specific opportunities available. Architect Dong-Ping Wong, one of the brains behind the spreadsheet, announced the project on June 4, the same day the list was made live. His most recent post (above) shares the success of the project up to that point, along with a request to "keep it going", and details of how to add a studio to the list. If you want to be included on the database, Wong asks for a DM or email to bipocstudios@gmail.com with details of your studio. On the BIPOC Studio sheet is the list of studio names, whether they are black or indigenous owned and if the owner is female or non-binary. Though job vacancies are included, Wong is quick to point out that designers shouldn't be put off if it appears a studio isn't hiring. "Send them your portfolios anyway," he says. "It doesn't mean they aren't hiring and trust me you never know where an office is at week by week, including mine." The other creatives involved in the BIPOC Studio spreadsheet are Louis Vuitton menswear artistic director/founder of Off-White Virgil Abloh, designer Mahfuz Sultan, artist Hassan Rahim, architects Dominic Leong, Joey Swerdlin, Naïla Opiangah, Oana Stănescu, Preeti Sriritana, and critic Esther Choi. This group is just one of the many examples of the way creatives are standing with the black community in the fight against racism. Read more: Brands show support for Black Lives Matter Punisher creator campaigns to reclaim controversial skull logo for Black Lives Matter Banksy reveals brilliant plan for Bristol’s toppled Colston Statue View the full article

Whether you use it for work, entertainment or to shout about things from inside the White House, there's no denying that Twitter can be a quite a fiery place. The social media platform has recently been doubling down on the spread of misinformation and now, in an attempt to promote informed discussion, Twitter is testing a new prompt asking if users really want to share an article they haven't actually read yet. It's easy for articles to go viral on Twitter based on their headline alone, and while you'd hope most users actually read what they share, time is of the essence when there's an argument to be won (especially in 280 characters). If this tweak does help curb misinformation, perhaps it could finally nudge Twitter into our list of the best social media platforms for artists and designers. There are some limitations to the feature. Not only is it currently being tested exclusively on Android, but it can also only detect when an article has been opened within Twitter itself. This has already proved a point of contention for some users carrying multiple devices, or those (we assume there are still a few) who don't find all of their news on Twitter: One parody news website has found an amusing way to prove Twitter's point. The Science Post published an article with the headline: 70% of Facebook users only read the headline of science stories before commenting. It has currently been shared almost 130,000 times – despite the article itself being made up entirely of filler 'lorem ipsum' text. As you might expect (this is Twitter after all), the response to the feature has been heated. Those who disapprove have accused the social media platform of "playing God" and treating its users "like toddlers". Others have welcomed the proposal, calling it a "great initiative" and a "superb concept". Twitter's product lead Kayvon Beykpour expanded on the rationale behind the idea: Time will tell whether the feature will make it beyond Android testing. In the meantime, now that you've reached the end of this article, feel free to share it on Twitter. You could even use one of our favourite social media schedulers, if you're busy. Read more: Netflix swipes Space Force logo from the actual Space Force Punisher creator campaigns to reclaim controversial skull logo for Black Lives Matter Banksy reveals brilliant plan for Bristol’s toppled Colston Statue View the full article

Tonight, after much anticipation, Sony finally revealed its next generation Playstation 5 video game console (above). Hailed by CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment Jim Ryan as "the most striking design console yet", the PS5 consists of a brilliant white outer case wrapped around a black core system, complete with blue LEDs. When you compare the PS5 design to the ever-so-drab PS4, its fair to say Ryan has a point. However not everyone, including us, is totally sold on this 'striking design'. As one might expect, Twitter was quick to react to the new console, with many users quick to point out – and mock – the PS5, saying it bares a striking resemblance to that of a wifi router: However there are some loving the PS5's 'sexy' new look: So what do we think? Honestly? We're not quite sure yet. There's no denying the PS5's design makes an impact, but we've got various questions about its build and functionality. For example, we've yet to see how the console looks laying down, or, indeed, if it even can (especially the one with the built-in disc drive – how does that work?). We do, however, admire the bold, brilliant white colour change after countless years of all-black designs, although how long it will stay shiny white out of the box remains to be seen. There's also something to be said for the PS5 being the polar opposite of the Xbox Series X. It would have been easy to follow the signature black console design, but Sony's brave move to stand out means there's certainly no confusing them. It's interesting how the Xbox also had its fair share of ridicule when it was released, with the likening of it to a fridge so relentless, Microsoft crafted a special tweet to clarify the situation (below). Right now the PS5 design feels very much like a marmite situation, people either love it or hate it, with very few in between. Except us, maybe. We can totally appreciate the amount of brave decision-making, time and effort that has gone into the design, we're just not 100% sold on the end product. We'll certainly never look at our wifi router the same again, that's for sure. When will Playstation 5 be released? The official PS5 reveal did not include or share any definitive launch dates or price for the console, however Ryan did confirm that the system is still on track to be released later this year. If you can't wait that long, or aren't bothered about getting your hands on the shiny new futuristic device, here are the best PS4 prices in your area: View the full article

A brand new series of Looney Tunes has begun airing on HBO MAX, with new episodes designed to capture the look and feel of the well-loved originals. But while classic characters such as Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd have returned, one detail hasn't survived the transition to streaming in 2020 – Elmer Fudd's gun. In fact, there are no guns whatsoever in the new series. "We're not doing guns," executive producer Peter Browngardt told the New York Times. That means along with Elmer Fudd's famous shotgun, Yosemite Sam's pistols won't make the cut either. Whether these weapons are part of the characters themselves is up to you (although our character design guide does prove that it's possible to design an iconic character sans guns). While guns might be disappearing, less realistic forms of violence will remain. "We can do cartoony violence," Browngardt told the Times. "TNT, the Acme stuff." (Acme is the cartoons' fictional corporation whose products often catastrophically backfire). With the show pretty much entirely based on animated characters fighting one another, we're unsurprised to hear that there'll still be some, you know, fighting. Still, it seems explosive TNT isn't enough for some people. Many fans were outraged to hear of Elmer Fudd's farewell to arms. "Sam and Elmer Fudd are nothing without their trademark weapons" one Twitter user argued, while another (above) claimed the missing gun was like Yosemite Sam losing his moustache. So, what has Elmer's gun been replaced with? A giant scythe. In some ways, you could argue that a huge, sharp scythe is just as terrifying as a gun – but it's probably worth remembering that, while gun culture is an actual thing, as far as we're aware, scythe crime isn't rife. One Looney Tunes artist recently clapped back (above) at those outraged, claiming that the potential for gun jokes is limited, and "the old guys" already had them covered. Michael Ruocco also took the opportunity to explain the decision: "Our show started production in late 2017, early 2018. Right on the heels of a record number of mass shootings." Whatever your views on the removal of the guns, it's refreshing to hear that the team are using it as an opportunity to get creative. If the lack of guns hasn't put you off (and to be honest, we hope it hasn't), you can catch Looney Tunes on HBO Max – but only if you're in the US. If you're not, you could do a lot worse than snapping up a free trial for that other brilliant, brand new streaming service, Disney Plus. Read more: Netflix swipes Space Force logo from the actual Space Force Punisher creator campaigns to reclaim controversial skull logo for Black Lives Matter Banksy reveals brilliant plan for Bristol’s toppled Colston Statue View the full article

In a twist that feels straight out of a sitcom, the US government has reportedly had global trademark rights for its new 'Space Force' swiped from right under its nose – by none other than the Netflix comedy of the same name. In case you've been living under an asteroid, the real Space Force is a new branch of the Armed Forces dedicated to, er, space. According to Popular Mechanics, Netflix began submitting applications for 'Space Force' in January 2019, long before the US Department of Defence. As a result, Netflix, whose parody series premiered on 29 May, now own rights to the official Space Force logo (below) in Europe, Australia, and Mexico and more. Conversely, the US government merely owns a pending application for rights to the logo in the US itself. Just goes to show it's not just the quality of your logo that matters (even if its one of the best logos of all time) – rights are equally important. The US Space Force logo In practice, this might not be a huge issue for the American government – US copyright law allows duplicate trademarks to coexist, as long as they're in "completely unrelated" fields. Nobody is likely to confuse a comedy show about a Space Force with an actual Space Force. Things could get more complicated, though, when it comes to merchandise. As The Hollywood Reporter says, if the logo ends up on an item of clothing, "who’s selling? The U.S. military or Netflix?". Basically, if the real Space Force decides to branch out into T-shirts, things could start to get messy. Branding-wise, the US Space Force has had a rather turbulent time. When the logo was first revealed this January, its similarity to Star Trek's Starfleet logo caused a furore online. Its Netflix namesake has had an equally rough ride, with some abysmal reviews (The Verge called it "an astonishingly bad show") – the show may have been aiming for the stars, but reviewers haven't been quick to hand them out. If you're looking for logo inspiration, our logo design guide will teach you everything you need to know before embarking on a brand identity project. Just make sure you get it trademarked. Read more: Punisher creator campaigns to reclaim controversial skull logo for Black Lives Matter Banksy reveals brilliant plan for Bristol’s toppled Colston Statue Fan ‘fixes’ video game logo – but is it better than the original? View the full article

Seventy percent of the U.S. population uses email daily. It comes as no surprise that every entrepreneur tries to involve email marketing in his or her business. Don’t make the same mistake as the majority of newcomers: Choosing Outlook or …View the full article

Because remote workers' devices are all connected to a home network, they don’t even need to be attacked directly. Instead, attackers have multiple avenues of attack that can be exploited. View the full article

Two critical flaws in Intel AMT, which could enable privilege escalation, were patched along with 20 other bugs in its June security update. View the full article

For digital creative, our workstation setups are incredibly important. They help us create our art, and offer the tools and performance we need to work comfortably. But, over the years, these workstations have evolved from big and bulky desktop computers, to thin, light and mobile laptops, like the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo, which give you all the features you need to unleash your creativity without being chained to a desk. So, let’s look back at the kind of workstations we used to use for our creative work, and how we’ve ended up with a powerful, mobile and feature-packed modern workstation that is the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo. Power and performance Throughout their history, workstations – especially ones designed for digital creatives – have represented the pinnacle of power. This means they’ve always been packed with some of the most cutting-edge components around – especially when it comes to processor, graphics and RAM. After all, the more powerful the workstation, the quicker it’s able to complete complex tasks, such as rendering 3D scenes and editing high-definition video. In the early days of workstations, these powerful PCs were large, power-hungry, devices. They needed large cases to fit in all the hardware, as well as allowing plenty of airflow to keep those powerful components cool. They were also fitted with loads of fans to help with the airflow. While these kept the hardware cool, it also meant they could be pretty noisy with all the fans kicking in at once. These PCs also needed plenty of electricity to keep everything going, which meant large and heavy PSUs (Power Supply Units), which again added to the size and weight of those older workstations. For anyone who had to move desks or change studios, you’ll remember how difficult these workstation PCs were to shift! A big workstation revolution happened with the creation of all-in-one PCs. These had their components built into their screens, which meant they are much more convenient. Their designs save you space on your desk, they are easier to move, and there are no ugly wires lying all over your desk. Over the years, all-in-one workstations have become ever more powerful, while also getting slimmer, though they have struggled to match the performance of traditional desktop PCs. Meanwhile, workstation laptops have also been growing in power, and many of them now can compete with desktop PCs when it comes to power, thanks to the continued evolution of mobile components. They also offer the portability that desktop and all-in-one workstations can only dream of. The ultimate mobile workstation, the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo, is a perfect example of this. It features a high-end 8-core 9th Generation Intel® Core™ i9 and can come with up to 32GB of RAM, which means it can give even the most powerful of desktop PCs a run for its money. It also comes with Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics cards, which allows the ZenBook Pro Duo to handle graphically-intensive tasks with ease. Digital artists can also use advanced ray-tracing lighting effects thanks to the GPU. Intel and Nvidia have both been working hard on getting their mobile components as small as possible, while offering performance that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. Along with the advanced cooling technology Asus has included in the ZenBook Pro Duo, this is an impressively thin, light and powerful device that means it doesn’t just feel like an evolution of those big and bulky desktop workstations of yesteryear, but an entirely new species altogether. Sight and sound For most creatives, the workstations they used were only as good as the peripherals they plugged into them. Years ago, this meant having an expensive, professionally-calibrated, monitor for photographers and video editors who needed top-notch image quality and accurate colours. Meanwhile, if your main creative outlet is music, or working with sounds, then you’d need to plug in professional-grade speakers, so that you can hear your work the way it’s supposed to sound. These extra peripherals were essential, but they also meant spending more money – and they were yet more devices to cram on top of our increasingly-crowded desks. Fast-forward to today, and the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo does away with the need for expensive extra monitors and speakers, proving that it’s the ultimate all-in-one workstation. It features a gorgeous 15.6-inch 4K OLED display that supports 100% DCI-P3 colour space, as well as sRGB. It can handle HDR (High Dynamic Range) content for mind-blowingly vibrant images, and it’s Pantone validated as well. In short, it’s the ultimate screen for creative professionals, and it’s built right into the laptop. The Asus ZenBook Pro Duo’s no slouch when it comes to audio, either, with Harmon Kardon-certified speakers. The Asus audio team worked with Harmon Kardon to ensure the speakers in the ZenBook Pro Duo sound perfect, with smart amplifier technology that lets you whack up the volume without the sounds distorting, making this the laptop a formidable workstation for musicians and producers. Extra screen space It’s hard to believe, but not too long ago, we had to make do with cramped 3:2 aspect ratio monitors with our workstations. These boxy screens didn’t give us much room to work with, especially if you wanted multiple apps open at once. Thankfully, widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio monitors became more popular throughout the 2000’s, and this extra screen real estate was a blessing for creatives. However, what if you wanted even more space? Back then, the answer was clear: get another monitor. Hooking up two (or more) screens to your workstation is a revelation when it comes to productivity, as you’re able to have multiple windows open with ease, allowing you to quickly switch between the apps and tools you need. Extra screens come at a price, though, and we’re not just talking financially. The more screens you have plugged into a workstation, the more crowded your desk becomes. The Asus ZenBook Pro Duo is a unique workstation laptop because it actually comes with two screens built-in. Not only does it have that gorgeous 15.6-inch 4K screen up top, but there’s a second 14-inch 4K touch display, known as the Screenpad Plus, above the keyboard. By dragging apps and windows down to the second screen, you instantly free up the main screen so you have even more space to work with. The Screenpad Plus can also hold tools and menus from your creative apps, giving you quick and easy access to the features you use the most. Drawing tablets and digital canvases For digital artists, a workstation wasn’t complete without a drawing tablet hooked up to it. These devices allow you to draw with a stylus, and your pen-and-brush strokes will appear onscreen in the creative app of your choice. They are the ideal tool for anyone who wants to make the move from traditional drawing and painting to digital art. Drawing tablets aren’t just for drawing on, either; they let you write and annotate digitally as well, making them perfect for note taking. They’re great devices but – you’ve guessed it – they are also an additional gadget that can take up room on your desk. Modern workstations have evolved to include touchscreens that allow you to draw or write directly into your favourite apps, either using your finger or a stylus. Meanwhile, the ZenBook Pro Duo takes this even further. Not only is its main 15.6-inch screen a touchscreen, but so too is the Screenpad Plus. With the Screenpad Plus located on the bottom of the laptop, above the keyboard, it can be used like a drawing tablet, and it’s incredibly comfortable – and convenient – to use. Once again, the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo proves it’s the ultimate creative workstation by learning from the past and looking to the future. View the full article

With Apple's WWDC event just around the corner (albeit in online-only form this year), rumours are rife about what products might appear during the presentation on 22 June. With the focus of WWDC normally on software, we can safely expect to see our first glimpses of iOS 14 and macOS 10.16. But new leaks suggest some exciting hardware updates could also be coming our way. According to Apple leaker Sonny Dickson (below), the company plans to reveal a brand new iMac, with an updated design inspired by the iPad Pro. This suggests an all-screen design with much thinner bezels. The 2019 iMac is already our best computer for graphic design, but with an even more immersive display, this new model sounds guaranteed to bump it from the top spot. As well as the edge-to-edge display, Dickson says the new iMac will feature AMD Navi graphics and an Apple T2 Security Chip. It will also do away with the mechanical fusion hard drive, in favour of entirely flash storage. Browse Mac computers at Apple.com Could the new iMac resemble the Pro Display XDR? While we don't know what display size to expect, smaller bezels should mean more screen real estate, which will no doubt make the new iMac an enticing proposition for digital artists. "Don't be wrong about this," one Twitter user replied to Dickson, while another adds, "If this is real, my wallet is about to get lighter". Apple's Pro Display XDR for the Mac Pro also features tiny bezels, so perhaps the new iMac will resemble the 2019 monitor (above). At $4,999 (plus $999 for a stand), though, that monitor costs almost four times the price of the basic iMac, so we can't see its high dynamic range making its way to the 2020 iMac – not without a significant price jump, at least. While new products are usually announced during Apple's keynote presentation on the first day of WWDC, the online-only event will be taking place from 22 - 26 June, via the Apple Developer app. But you don't have to wait until then to get hold of an incredibly powerful iMac – check out today's best deals below. Read more: Is this Apple’s most ludicrous move yet? Apple iPhone 12 design finally revealed (and it’s not what we expected) Move over iPad Pro – the new iPad Air could be incredible View the full article

Marvel fans know the Punisher as a vigilante who first appeared in a Spiderman comic back in 1974. Since then, his image has controversially been co-opted by several groups as a political symbol – including during the Iraq war as an unofficial symbol of the U.S military and, most recently, by police officers protesting against the Black Lives Matter movement. With the aim of reclaiming the skull as a symbol of justice, rather than "lawless oppression", Gerry Conway, co-creator of the Punisher, launched Skulls for Justice, a charity t-shirt campaign, with all proceeds going to BLM. Skulls for Justice began after Conway sent a tweet asking asking young artists to lend their talents to a fundraising project, the results of which Conway shared yesterday. The BLM – Skulls for Justice project is now live, consisting of a range of t-shirts displaying redesigns of Frank Castle's iconic skull emblem alongside a Black Lives matter tagline. And as Conway said in another tweet, the set is also numbered – for the collectors out there. Responses on Twitter show the campaign struck a chord from the outset, with lots of artists praising the project and asking how to get involved. Many fans are grateful to have the skull brought back into the comic book domain, after years of seeing it used elsewhere. Some voices on Twitter questioned whether the Punisher can even be seen as a symbol of justice at all, to which Conway responded: "I agree that's an open question. What it must *not* be is a symbol of oppression. I want to deny police the use of the symbol by claiming it for BLM. Call it irony." Conway is not the first to take issue with the use of the skull insignia by the police. Last year, the plot of Punisher issue 13 saw Frank Castle tackling the police over the matter, and asking them to stop supporting him as the 'anti-hero'. Members of the comic book community have also been quick to point out that the Punisher is a mass murderer, with no concern for the law – not the most obvious choice for a police symbol. And Marvel themselves have recently stated that they are "taking seriously" any unauthorised use of the insignia. This issue has provoked an outpouring of support among the comic book community, a response we are seeing across the board. For more, see our post on how creatives are standing with the black community in the fight against racism. Read more: Brands show support for Black Lives Matter New Banksy artwork supports Black Lives Matter Banksy reveals brilliant plan for Bristol’s toppled Colston Statue View the full article

Social media tips from professional designers could be just what you need to advance your career. The way you use social media can have a huge impact on getting your work out there, but if you're not taking advantage you're not alone. For every designer or illustrator who gets their big break thanks to a post or tweet, there's a dozen with nothing but sore thumbs and a tension headache. So what's the secret to making social media work for you? To start with, in 2020 it's impossible to make good use of all the different social media platforms (see our social media platforms post for an in-depth rundown). There just aren't enough hours in the day, and it's much better for your productivity (and sanity) to focus on just one or two. But which ones? Well, while everyone's different, our research suggests there are four platforms that most designers will find useful at this present time. In this article we'll look at each in turn, explain what they have to offer, and how to make best use of them. Need something more specific to Instagram? Check out the pro tips on how to boost your instagram engagement and our guide to how to change the font on your Instagram bio. 01. Instagram Around 95 per cent of Haley Tippmann's assignments come from Instagram Design work that features a strong graphical element is probably best suited to appearing on Instagram. The most visually focused of all the social platforms, it's the go-to place to see work by artists, illustrators, animators and 3D artists. On the downside, you'll have to work around the default square image format, and you won't be able to add links to posts unless you sign up to the new Instagram Checkout service for selling goods. Illustrator Haley Tippman has been using Instagram to share her work since 2017, and around 95 per cent of her assignments originate from art directors finding it and contacting her – either through DMs (direct messages) or via the website she links to in her bio. Note, though, that this doesn't always happen instantly. "Usually, the client has been following me for a while, and then contacts me when there's an assignment my illustrations would work well for," she explains. Her account has 74.5K followers, but she doesn't think it's important for everyone to have such a high number. "If anything, I feel that working illustrators with fewer followers are like ‘little gems' and feel exclusive," she says. Being sociable is the best way to get success on Instagram, says Peter Clayton Indeed, while illustrator Peter Clayton has a more modest number of followers (1,343 at time of writing), he still receives a lot of work through his Instagram feed. "Most of my success has been through marketeers, studios and startups finding me because I've posted work on a regular basis, and hash-tagged the shit out of it," he explains. "I've even had clients find work from 2014 and want to use it! Beyond that, being sociable and commenting has helped massively: likes are good, but actual interaction through comments are better." Ollie Hirst says that doing speculative work is crucial But what if you're doing these things, and still coming up empty? Then perhaps you need to take a more proactive approach, by seeking out callouts and challenges. To take one example, conceptual illustrator Ollie Hirst recently responded to a callout from @GlowingGone, a global climate campaign. "They reposted the artwork on their account, then a few weeks later, I got a DM to say WeTransfer wanted my illustration for a campaign they were doing with Adobe," he explains. "It was then made into a WeTransfer wallpaper, promoting coral reef preservation across the US and Europe. All that from one Instagram post!" If you're not receiving much attention for your Instagram feed, Hirst encourages you to get out there and respond to similar challenges."I'm a big believer in doing speculative work that's rooted in real-world briefs," he says, "because it proves to art directors that if given a bespoke brief, you're the person for the job." 02. Twitter The Lavender Tree project originated from a tweet Lately, Twitter has started to offer a new level of flexibility when it comes to images: so for example, you can now add multiple images to tweets (up to four) and add images to retweets, too. But in general, it's clearly a less-visual medium than either Instagram or Behance, so you might think that creative professionals would find it less useful. In fact, though, many designers and illustrators today are harnessing the 280-character service to drive their careers forward. Artist Emmeline Pidgeon tends to post finished illustrations on Twitter, as well as sharing news of new books and projects. "At times, I've had about 70 per cent of my work come through the platform," she says. "Many commissions come through getting to know people there, or them spotting my work after it's been retweeted, commented on, or recommended by someone else." But it's not just about sitting back and waiting, Pidgeon stresses. Twitter is fundamentally about conversation, so the key is to get stuck in and network. She offers the example of The Lavender Tree, a picture book she worked on with Aidan Moffat. "That project came about because I saw a tweet from him seeking illustrators for a children's project," she recalls. "Replying and suggesting myself felt really cringey, but I put those feelings aside and introduced myself, adding a link to my portfolio. Aidan emailed me a few days later saying he loved my work, and got me on board." Another way of getting attention on Twitter is to take part in threads such as #artshare, #HourlyComicDay and #Inktober. This approach has helped illustrator and designer Nicola Robson, gain a significant amount of work over the past six months. "Without actively looking or promoting myself other than via artshare threads, I've won a lot of great design commissions, including a tabletop board game, a book cover, and icons for a Twitch profile," she reports. And if you really want to be proactive, there's no limits to how far you can go to grab people's attention. Graphic designer Greg Bunbury offers a somewhat outlandish example (see it above). "Having signed up for emails from my local basketball team, The London Lions, I received an email newsletter from the club in Comic Sans... so I took to Twitter to flame them," he recalls. He took a picture of the email, and posted it with the words: "Odd fonts, strange colours, random graphics & lens flares. London_Lions you deserve better #design! Call me – I can help. #basketball #BBL". "An hour later, I got a call from the club director, and was hired to create new brand guidelines for its identity, and to write and build a new website." 03. LinkedIn Freelance illustrator Tahgasa Bertram uses LinkedIn to find people she would like to work with Cluttered, text-heavy and, well, ugly, LinkedIn doesn't look like it would be fertile ground for creative professionals. Yet in 2020, many designers and illustrators are making good use of it to develop client and business relationships. This is most marked at the agency level. For example, Simon Dixon, co-founder of DixonBaxi, uses LinkedIn to find not just new clients, but the right clients. "We view how we look for clients as a kind of curation; finding the right ambitious people driving significant brand change at interesting companies," Dixon explains. "LinkedIn is excellent for understanding this." And you don't have to be a studio head to take advantage of LinkedIn's level of detail, he adds: "Anyone looking to develop broader prospective client and collaborator reach could benefit." Freelance illustrator Tahgasa Bertram is one of them. "I use LinkedIn to find people in specific roles, who work at companies I'd like to work with," he explains. "That sort of information is much more difficult to find on other social networks. Once I've found the right person, I send them examples of my work and a message explaining why I'd like to work with them. Most people don't message back when you send messages through LinkedIn, so I use the email address on their profile, if it's there." Even if you're not that pro-active, though, simply being on LinkedIn can be beneficial. "I've found it a great platform for finding work," says brand and UI designer Emily Jones. "I just keep my profile up to date, and interact with my feed every now and then. The only downside is that you get a lot of spam messages for random jobs." That said, LinkedIn's detection processes are improving, and in its November report it claimed to have removed 99.8 per cent of known spam automatically, with teams manually removing the rest. 04. Behance Lots of enquiries come through Behance for design director Davide Baratta While Instagram may get your work in front of a lot of eyeballs, most of those eyeballs won't be people working in the creative industries. In contrast, Behance is tailor-made for promoting yourself directly to agencies, clients and collaborators. "During the past eight years, I've lost count of the enquiries for freelance projects or interviews I've got through Behance," says Davide Baratta, design director at Impero. "It's enabled me to connect with the design community and collaborate with other designers all over the world." At first, Baratta just used it for inspiration, and was so intimidated by the quality of others' work, he was "genuinely scared" to post. But once he took the plunge, he realised the power of the platform. "It gives you way more exposure than just having a website," he says, "and its curatorial team and galleries system set it apart from the competition." Unlike Instagram, Behance posts aren't centred on one 'killer image', but make it possible for you show more of your process. "So it's very good for long- form case studies," notes Baratta. "My advice is to try to tell the story behind the project, rather than just upload a bunch of good-looking assets." That said, it's still important to take time to craft your cover image. "There are loads of cool projects out there that don't get the attention they deserve because the thumbnail isn't right," he notes. AJ Dimarucot landed a graphic design project for Nike through his Behance page AJ Dimarucot, a graphic designer whose clients include Nike, Jordan and Adidas, adds that Behance isn't just about the work you've done, but the work you'd like to do. Early in his career, for instance, he posted a piece of fan art for NBA basketball player Keith Garnett. "That led Nike to get in touch, and commission me to design some T-shirts," he recalls. Another project he posted was an experiment on Persian- style calligraphy. "That got me a book cover for Penguin Random House, even though I'd never done a book cover before," he says. "It even won an award in an AIGA book covers competition!" This content originally appeared in Computer Arts magazine. Read more: The best social media schedulers in 2020 The ultimate guide to social media for creatives 8 brands that rule at social media View the full article

It's no secret that video content is an effective medium in all industries. Editing videos doesn't have to be expensive, or an impossible feat to accomplish on your own. Master the art of the edit with The Comprehensive Video Editing in DaVinci Resolve 16 Bundle, now price-dropped to only $30.59. Compatible with macOS, Windows, and Linux, DaVinci Resolve 16 is an industry-leading application that combines professional 8K editing, colour correction, visual effects, and audio post-production into one space. Whether you need to create a video for a marketing campaign or you're looking to edit a documentary project, DaVinci Resolve 16 brings you everything you need to conquer the final edit on a tight deadline — all without having to hop onto different design applications. Need new kit? See our roundup of the best laptops for video editing, and the best video editing apps around right now. What does the course contain? With seven courses and over 90 lessons, this dedicated bundle will allow you to dive into the video editing software and fully comprehend how to use each feature. You'll start with the basics and move your way into more advanced techniques such as screen compositing, adding music, colour correction, transitions and effects, and more. By the end of the courses, you'll be able to move seamlessly between editing, colour, effects, and audio, and feel confident in taking on your own projects. You can even join forces with other colleagues while working on the same project, taking video editing collaboration to a whole new level. Not only will you learn how to best leverage each feature of the software to produce quality content in a timely matter, but you'll also get to experience the tools hands-on. With mini projects included in the bundle, you'll be able to practice what you learn and get to know each feature by putting it to the test. You'll soon be able to grasp importing, editing, trimming, and more, and quickly export and upload your projects to YouTube, Vimeo, social media, or your desktop. The possibilities are endless. The Comprehensive Video Editing in DaVinci Resolve 16 Bundle brings you everything you need to get to know the platform and create streamlined edited videos without having to pay outrageous amounts of money on editing software. Many times priced at up to $700, you can master editing videos like a pro for only $30.59 (that's 95 per cent off). Add valuable skills and credibility to your ongoing creative portfolio and start editing your content from the comfort of your home. Prices subject to change. Read more: Video editing software: The 17 best tools for 2020 The best monitors for video editing 5 video editing tips to enhance your storytelling View the full article

While lockdown rules are starting to loosen around the world, we’re still very much in the early stages of life returning to normal. And although many of us can technically work from home, being able to share files and have Zoom meetings over broadband is only half of the equation. Being creative requires a certain degree of inspiration and stimulation, and many of our favourite sources have now been shut off for several weeks. So if you’re feeling your creative energies starting to falter, perhaps it’s time to think outside the box. While virtual alternatives to your cancelled activities might not be your preferred choice, they’re well worth investigating, and in some ways may even be a superior experience. In this post, we look at five things designers are craving right now, and where you can go to get your virtual fix. 01. Take a live art class If you're missing live art classes, Art Studio NY can help fill the gap There have always been many ways to learn art via the web, and we round up the best online art classes on a regular basis. But what if on-demand videos don’t work for you, and you need the immediacy of a live class? The good news is that in these lockdown times, there are plenty of those too. London Drawing, for example, is running temporary online creative sessions via Zoom to keep people creating and connected. On the other side of the Atlantic (but open to the whole world), Art Studio New York is doing the same thing, across its six online studios. Alternatively, for a slightly more anarchic take on live art classes, check out the regular Facebook sessions of Dr Sketchy Live, in which two performer-models pose in extravagant costumes, and participants sketch them, before sharing their drawings with each other online. 02. Attend a creative conference Adobe's 99U conference will take place entirely online Hearing inspiring talks by your design heroes is a great way to recharge your batteries. Thankfully this year, many great creative events are moving online. Approaching soonest is Adobe’s 99U Conference, which will take place virtually via Behance, on 17 June. Speakers will include Anna Sale, Yancey Strickler, Kelli Anderson, John S Couch and Nishat Akhtar. Best of all, it's totally free to register for the event. Other events that will be free to attend online this year include Primer (22-27 June), the annual conference from the Design Futures Initiative; D&AD's New Blood Digital Festival 2020 (6-10 July), a virtual exhibition of student work and five days of digital talks and workshop; Pictoplasma’s In Isolation event (18-19 September), which will include talks from Dan Woodger, Genie Espinosa, Jing Wei and Hattie Stewart; and Adobe MAX (19-21 October), for which registration will open in late summer. 03. Visit an art gallery or museum Get your fix of culture by taking a virtual tour of the JP Getty Museum Being able to wander around an art gallery or museum is something a lot of us are missing right now. So it’s heartening that you can at least peruse many of the world’s most famous cultural institutions virtually, via Google Street View. These include the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, home to masterpieces by Rembrandt, Frans Hals and Johannes Vermeer; the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, which houses the collection of the famed de'Medici family; MASP in Sau Paulo, Brazil’s premiere modern art museum; the John Paul Getty Museum in California; the Guggenheim in New York; and plenty more besides. You can find a full list of museum street views on Google here. Meanwhile, many art galleries and museums not on Google Street View offer virtual tours via their own websites, including The Louvre in Paris, the Vatican Museum in Rome, and The Broad in Los Angeles. 04. Catch a show Shakespeare's Globe has a number of free and paid-for streams to watch online Since the lockdown began, we’ve seen a number of the world’s leading theatres share their shows for free online, including London's National Theatre and Shakespeare's Globe, New York’s Metropolitan Opera, and many more. (For a full list, Whats on Stage has a list of free streams that it's constantly updating.) It’s amazing that these performances are available to watch for free, but ultimately they are all prerecorded, and so that special feeling of watching live is sadly missing. You can get that, though, from The Shows Must Go Online, in which a group of actors use video conferencing to perform a live Shakepeare play together every week. Okay, they’re performing in front of their individual webcams and not on a big stage, but it’s still a lot of fun. Meanwhile, ‘proper’ live theatre is on its way back shortly in the UK, with the government giving the go-ahead for cultural events to happen from this month onwards, albeit behind closed doors. The first will be a socially distanced version of Duncan MacMillan's play Lungs, with Claire Foy and Matt Smith. This will be live-streamed from London’s Old Vic, from 26 June to 4 July, with a stricly limited number of tickets on sale now. 05. Enjoy a film festival Charlene deGuzman's short I Know This Is Weird is part of the Quaratine Film Festival programme It’s great that we can sit at home right now and stream the latest movies to our TV screens (don’t miss our roundup of ways to stream TV and movies for free). But while watching movies on-demand, at a time and date of our choosing, is wonderful, it can’t match the communal buzz of watching something along with a big audience in the cinema. Sadly, the time when we’ll be able to head to the local Odeon again seems a long way off. But a number of virtual film festivals are aiming to recreate the spirit of live cinema during lockdown, by bringing together unreleased movies and organising mass viewings online. For example, there’s the ongoing Quarantine Film Festival being held by The Plaza Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, but available to viewers the world over. Every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday they’re calling for the best short films to be submitted, and on Friday at 7pm local time, they have a streaming party on their Facebook page where they show that week's two winning shorts. Other forthcoming virtual film festivals are set to include Long Distance Film Fest, which takes place 19-21 June; Couch Film Festival, which is planned for 29 June, and the Melbourne International Film Festival, which will take place online from 6-23 August. Read more: Creatives stand with the black community in the fight against racism iPhone 12 design concept is the one we've been waiting for New Black Mirror Series 6 Netflix poster is terrifying yet genius View the full article

The Nintendo Switch might not be the first device that comes to mind when it comes to digital art tools, but a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign is determined to turn the gaming console into a fully-fledged digital sketching tablet. While there are lots of styluses available for tablets (check out our best iPad stylus guide), this isn't the case with the Nintendo Switch. Because the device doesn't support open bluetooth, styluses with features such as pressure sensitivity can't be used – until now. By connecting directly to the Switch's 3.5mm headphone jack, not only is the Colors SonarPen pressure sensitive, but it doesn't require a battery, or bluetooth. The stylus is designed to accompany a brand new digital painting app called Colors Live, a sequel to 2012's Colors! 3D for the Nintendo 3DS. While there are tons of brilliant drawing apps for the iPad, Colors Live will be the first for the Nintendo Switch. We can't be sure how it will compare to a tablet experience (the Switch's display is only 6.2 inches), but introducing more users to the wonderful world of digital art can only be a good thing. It's clear that there's an already excited community of would-be Switch artists. The Kickstarter campaign, started by original Colors designer Jens Andersson, smashed its original target of $16,000 in just one day, and is currently sitting pretty on over $130,000. There are just two days left to pledge, so if you want to be one of the first to own Colors Live and the Colors SonarPen (expected to ship this August), head over to Andersson's Kickstarter page. For a more traditional digital sketching experience, take a look at the best drawing tablets currently available. And if you want to grab a Nintendo Switch in time for the arrival of Colors Live, check out today's best deals below. Read more: Is this Apple’s most ludicrous move yet? Stunning PS5 UI concept is a minimal design dream Sega's new miniature Game Gear console makes zero sense View the full article