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The Apple Pencil is a glorious thing. A true designer's tool that feels right to hold, it's weighted perfectly, and it pairs with the iPad Pro and various apps to create a peerless digital drawing experience. If you own an original Apple Pencil, and why wouldn't you, it's still compatible with the iPad 10.2-inch (2019), iPad mini (2019) and iPad Air (2019) from the current line-up and a host of older models. Then this collection of tips is definitely for you. See our cheap Apple Pencil deals if you are in need of a new stylus. There is one problem with the first-gen Apple Pencil though, which has been since fixed in the second-gen model (see our Apple Pencil 1 vs Apple Pencil 2 post), and that's the fact that the Apple Pencil is completely cylindrical. And this leads to a major issue – it can roll off anything but the most level surface, and that can lead to it being lost or damaged. So how can you keep hold of your precious Pencil? We took a look at some of the available accessories plus some devilishly clever hacks to ensure your stylus stays put. For more on what you can do with the Apple Pencil, see our iPad apps for designers post. 01. Mildly magnetic iPad Smart Keyboard The Pencil just about hangs on when held upright… If you are using a Smart Keyboard with your iPad Pro, you'll find that it is mildly magnetic along the left-hand edge, and the Apple Pencil will just about cling on. Okay, this is not a long-term solution, but it will stop the Pencil from rolling away on its own if you leave your desk. 02. Moxiware Magnet sleeve Moxiware has produced a very Apple OE-esque set of sleeves for the Pencil, that give it a truly magnetic connection to your iPad Pro. It works with an iPad 9.7" and iPad Pro 12.9" and 10.5". 03. Pencil clip hack This is an old one but still a good one. Reddit user texasdoesitbest discovered that the Pentel Sharp Automatic Pencil's removable metal clip fits the Apple Pencil exactly. And as it is chrome, it even matches the Pencil's shiny metal band. Discover how it's done here – great gadget hack! 04. Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop Leuchtturm1917's pen loop is designed for the company's sumptuous notebooks Premium notebook-maker Leuchtturm1917, which is the notebook preference of some of the CB office, sells a handy pen loop to attach to its stationery. It is a quality item, as befits the Leuchtturm1917 brand, and Tumblr blogger #MykeWasRight spotted that this would make an excellent Apple Pencil holder. He's right – it looks neat and you can select a colour to suit your iPad Pro or Smart Cover's dominant hue – but what you really need to do it pair it with the pencil clip hack (03, above) just to ensure that there is something stopping the Pencil from escaping. Belt and braces, and all that… 05. Belkin Stand for Apple Pencil Belkin's stand keeps the tip protected and looks great on your desk Belkin's Stand for Apple Pencil gives you an elegant storage solution to keep your stylus protected between uses. It holds the Apple Pencil upright and protects the tip while also allowing easy access to the device. The compact accessory is made of anodized aluminum and comes with a bead-blasted finish that mirrors the minimal design of the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro, and looks great on your desktop. 06. Make a stand out of Lego Take a leaf out of foul-mouthed Glaswegian illustrator @davidgalletly book and put your Lego to good use. And as David says, it looks f*****g cool. 07. Stylus Sling The Stylus Sling straps your Pencil to your iPad The Stylus Sling is a way to strap your Apple Pencil to your iPad to ensure it's with you at all times. A little utilitarian in design, it maxes on effectiveness – and it cleverly has a little pocket to slot the lightning connector cover into so you don't mislay that, either. Read more: 4 reasons you need an Apple Pencil 23 best iPad Pro apps for use with Apple Pencil The 100 greatest Apple creations View the full article

Black Friday is over, but there are still a few deals here and there. This one from B&H is a standout that's worth checking out even if you (like us) are suffering from deals fatigue. Right now you can pick up Corel Painter for 70% off – but the offer is only live for a few hours so you'll need to be VERY fast. Corel has recently released its 2020 Painter update, but the 2019 version is still a very capable tool for digital artists – we gave it four stars in our Corel Painter 2019 review – highlights included its clear, clean interface and its impressive brush selection. In fact, the only real downside was the price. While you can pick up a copy elsewhere for below the RRP of $429, this is by far the cheapest price we've seen. Not quite what you want? You can still save big on Creative Cloud right now, if that will suit you better (for more alternatives check out our roundup of the best digital art software). Read more: The best camera phones in 2019 Is your new 13-inch MacBook Pro randomly turning off? Here’s what to do KFC's What the Cluck?! advert banned after complaints View the full article

You've just got your hands on a brand new MacBook Pro 13". Your heart starts to race as you power up the machine and get ready to open up your favourite creative software. Then completely unexpectedly your MacBook Pro shuts down. This is exactly what has been happening with the 2019 13" MacBook Pro with two Thunderbolt ports. You switch the machine back on and notice that you still have plenty of juice left in the battery before it randomly shuts down again. This is incredibly frustrating and irritating, but don't worry you are not alone. Vigy_K reported on the Apple forum that it happened on their first 13" laptop and their replacement machine. While your machine is out of action you could get your hands on a mac decal to make it look prettier than ever. That might make you feel better (sorry if it doesn't). So, what's the problem and how can it be fixed? Apple has acknowledged the issue and released an official document that offers a quick guide on how to fix the issue. Thankfully the process is reasonably straightforward. But it isn't exactly a quick fix as you will find out by following the steps below. 01. Make sure battery is below 90% The first thing to do is make sure that your MacBook Pro's battery is less than 90 percent charged. If it isn't then you need to wait until the battery percentage drops below 90 percent, before you can continue. 02. Connect charger and quit applications The next steps are to connect your MacBook Pro to its power adapter and quit all open applications. Once you have done this close the lid of your MacBook to put it into Sleep mode. Now you need to leave the machine for at least eight hours. So, make sure you don't need your MacBook Pro for a while. A backup machine is always good to have and our best MacBook Pro alternatives for designers post offers some great options. 03. Update macOS Once you have waited for eight hours all you need to do is spend just a little longer updating to the latest version of the macOS. You can find more on how to do this within Apple's how to update the software on your Mac post. Warning: this solution might not work Be warned though the Apple Support document doesn't guarantee that this will fix the issue, simple stating that it might help. If you are one of the unlucky ones that is still encountering random shutdowns after trying the fix you will need to contact Apple Support for further assistance. Read more: MacBook Pro 13" vs MacBook Pro 16": Which one should you buy? iPad Pro vs MacBook Air: which should you buy? How to take a screenshot on a Mac View the full article

There are many different PCs available, all at different price points, in a variety of shapes and sizes, and with a bewildering range of specifications. And while you shouldn't overspend, it may not be wise to head too far downmarket either. With the continual improvement in computer components and technologies, the line between what constitutes a consumer PC and a workstation is somewhat blurred, but for our purposes we’ll delineate the two as follows… A consumer PC is one that’s designed for general use: email, web surfing, some Microsoft Office perhaps, storing and editing of photos, playback of music and movies, casual gaming – that sort of thing. None of these are particularly demanding tasks, and even a relatively cheap laptop should be able to handle most of them. With a workstation, we’re generally talking about a desktop machine that’s intended for daily use (see our round up of the best computers for graphic design for some excellent examples). It needs to do a lot of heavy lifting – image manipulation, video editing, motion graphics, 3D visualisation, programming, game development, CAD and so on – and needs to be powerful, stable, durable and reliable. Whether it’s in an office or at home, you probably rely on it for your livelihood, and so things like slow-down, endless progress bars, and insufficient RAM and hard drive space need to be avoided. Don't spend unnecessarily There’s also the issue of budget: you may not want to spend a lot of money on a PC that’s going to be used by the whole family, with the threat of chocolatey fingers and fizzy-drink spillage; but a workstation should be properly specced with the best components you can afford – if you work for yourself it’s a tax-deducible expense anyway. Consumer-level PCs start cheap – very cheap in fact. For around £200 you can pick up a system that will do most of the tasks we described, but will be limited in terms of CPU power, amount of RAM and HD space, and will probably feature an integrated GPU – one that’s built into the CPU chip – and which might prove to be a bottleneck when it comes to anything graphics related, be it games or content creation. However you only need to jump up to the £500 mark to find systems with quad-core processors, a terabyte of storage and a more powerful (though still integrated) GPU. It may only come with 8GB of RAM or so, but this is easily expandable and RAM is cheap these days – you can add an additional 16GB for just over £100. Clearly this isn't a workstation, although you can certainly do work on it. A PC of this standard will handle apps like Photoshop and Illustrator, maybe even Premiere Pro, but you may find that it struggles with big files and grinds to a halt with complex, multi-layered projects. This is where a proper workstation comes into its own – albeit at a higher price. No matter what hardware you need, your workstation should be properly specced with the best components you can afford The benefit of having a bigger budget is that you can configure your PC exactly how you want it. Cheaper machines tend be pre-configured with stock components, but with workstations you can specify them to suit your needs. For example, you could shift some budget to a better GPU, knowing you can upgrade the RAM further down the line; or opt for a more powerful processor while sacrificing storage. Workstations also tend to come in a ‘tower’ form factor, which gives you room to expand; the motherboard will be capable of supporting multiple hard drives and lots of RAM, should your work require it. Entry-level workstation-class PCs tend to start around the £900-£1,000 mark, and with these you’ll see a marked difference in components: CPUs are 6- or 8-core, with higher clock speeds; you get more, higher-rated RAM, larger SSD drives and better I/O options. However you could still be limited to an integrated graphics processor, and so it might worth paying extra to have a machine with a dedicated GPU, especially if you’re doing lots of graphics-intensive work, or your apps can benefit from GPU acceleration. Things start to get interesting around the £1,800-£2,500 mark, with machines that posses real grunt. As well as having a wider choice of multi-core processors, you might also be able to specify a second CPU for extreme workloads. Mid-level workstations will happily support up to 256GB of error correction code (EEC) RAM and lots of internal storage, including NVMe (non-volatile memory express) drives. ECC RAM isn't essential, but if the work you do requires accuracy or long computation times, then its something worth thinking about ECC RAM isn't essential – its rare that the memory errors cause major issues – but if the work you do requires accuracy or long computation times, then its something worth thinking about. Just bear in mind that motherboards on lower-spec machines won't necessarily support it, so check beforehand. Another advantage of workstation-class PCs is that you will get a better warranty, which is normally included in the price (with consumer PCs you may have to pay for it separately). This can include five instead of three years coverage, plus things like free technical support, data recovery and collection for back-to-base repairs. Again, if PC downtime equals lost earnings, this can prove very useful. If you can afford it, a high-end workstation will provide the most flexibility and expandability, with support for the fastest, most powerful components; huge amounts of RAM and storage; plus multiple GPUs which can be important for things like 3D rendering, video editing, visual effects, complex simulations, machine learning and so on. The base machine will be expensive, but you can spread the cost of expansion over the coming months and years. Workstation vs consumer PC: which should you buy? Choosing between a consumer and workstation PC can be tricky, especially in the mid-range, where the distinction isn’t so clear-cut. But the main things to consider are power and reliability: do you require a powerful computer that’s working all day, every day, or do you really just need something to run Microsoft Office with occasional forays into a few creative apps? Either way you should always choose the most affordable computer that fulfils your needs – there’s little point in spending more on multi-core processors that will be running single-threaded tasks, or buying an expensive GPU that sits there twiddling its digits all day long. Conversely, you should always think ahead and make sure you get a machine that can expand and grow with you, your family or your business, over time. Read more: The best graphics cards in 2019 Why graphics cards matter and how to pick the right one for your needs The best laptops for graphic design in 2019 View the full article

A KFC advert that said 'What the Cluck?!' next to '£1.99 fill up lunch' has been banned in the UK by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) due to complaints. The ad had previously appeared at bus stops and in The Sun and The Metro newspapers. One version of the ad also featured what ASA described as an "elongated 'cluuuuuck'." Which is a great turn of phrase if we've ever heard one. The argument about whether or not the ads should be banned centres around whether the word 'cluck' is being substituted for a swear word (no prizes for guessing which one), and many who complained were concerned that the ads were in places where children would see them. It doesn't look like this ad will be making it into our best print ads ever roundup. The full (now banned) ad KFC said they would respect the ruling, but also argued that 'What the cluck?!' would be the customer's response to such a great deal (Are you saying you *haven't* used that phrase?). They also argued that, "the word 'cluck' was used as an onomatopoeic reference to the noise of a chicken, which was in context and wholly relevant to the deal, the product featured and the brand." So clucking apparently only makes everyone think of chickens, and absolutely nothing else. And this is what this campaign is based on. Okay. Interestingly, typography and layout has also made it into this debate (see our typography tutorials if you want to brush up on your skills). ASA's ruling states: "KFC said the ad did not use the word “fuck” and they did not believe there was any ambiguity in the typeface or arrangement of the wording in the ad which could have allowed for it to be interpreted as an expletive. "They said they believed it was unlikely that children would make any connection between “cluck” and “fuck” given the clear typeface they used and would more likely connect it with the sound made by a chicken." There was no backlash to this campaign KFC also said that none of the ads had been within 200 metres of schools, and they'd deliberately been placed in newspapers with adult readerships, and not in the front 20% of the papers for this reason. So, what the cluck? Well, it's an odd one. People are very easily offended, and perhaps KFC had pushed the 'clucking' a bit too far (sorry). But what's particularly interesting about this story is that there was no such response to KFC's FCK apology campaign when it ran out of chicken. In fact, it went on to win a D&AD Yellow Pencil. KFC has had a few other potential misfires though, there was that KFC bucket hat, for example. We loved it, but we're not sure if it caught on. But it looks like KFC will have to be a bit more careful in future. This is what the ASA describes as the 'Action' from its ruling: "The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Kentucky Fried Chicken (Great Britain) Ltd t/a KFC to avoid in future alluding to expletives that were so likely to offend." So running another FCK apology would probably not be wise. Whatever your thoughts on this, if you've got a bit of time to spare, we recommend you check out ASA's ruling, if only for the gloriously pedantic nature of the 'cluck' debate. Read more: Why everyone's in a flap about the Tories' JFC stunt Coca-Cola launches print ads you can actually hear How to create an identity people can't forget View the full article

Getting your branding right is critical for getting your business noticed. A cool font, a contemporary colour palette and a unique twist are all essential ingredients to success and London-based arts and music venue Kings Place's new branding has all that and more. Its unique twist is a logotype created using sound. The brand was brought to life by digital media artist Joe Pochciol and London design agency Studio Sutherl&, who were looking to bring the energy of Kings Place events and integrate that into the physical branding. And its an approach to logo design that we haven't seen before. How did they do it? Pochciol and Studio Sutherl& got together and built a bespoke software package for audio analysis, visualisation and rendering known as SoundWaveMachine. This generates a unique new logotype based on sound files. The machine does this by producing the initial logotypes, which can be static or animated, then the soundwaves are manifested into a graphic that is overlaid onto the original logotype. To add a new level of uniqueness, the amplitude, gain and modulation can be tweaked to produce a further version of the original soundwave. All clever stuff. Fancy creating your own unique font? Then find out how to make your own font. The SoundWaveMachine generates a unique new logotype based on any sound file But before they could step in and create a logotype like no other Studio Sutherl& founder Jim Sutherland revealed that the first step was to bring "some rational and common identity to everything". A colour palette of red, combined with a bright pink was used to add energy. A contemporary font is crucial in branding and Champion Middleweight was combined with Neue Haas Grotesk, both included for "their modernity and boldness". To show off the new logotype at launch, a flick-book was produced with an animated logotype based on a Bach Cello Suite in G Major Prelude piece (the first piece of music performed in the hall when it opened in 2008). The beauty of the SoundWaveMachine is that bespoke sub brands can be created at will. So, whenever a new event or mini festival needs some new unique branding, it simply a matter of choosing a sound file from the event and calling upon the the SoundWaveMachine to work its magic. But it wasn't just events that got the bespoke treatment, every single member of staff got their own unique business card and email sign off. They all picked a track that had a connection to them and the venue and their very own bespoke design was theirs to enjoy forever. Check out the Kings Place branding in action on the venue's website. Read more: These font football kits are perfect for type nerds Font types: A designer's guide 3 ways tech is changing type View the full article

First hitting the newsstands in 1995, print magazine Computer Arts quickly became the 'Bible' of the design and illustration industries, a role that it's retained ever since. Now this week, it's celebrating its 300th issue and a quarter of century of publication. And some of the leading lights in the profession are coming together to help mark this landmark occasion. In the issue, which is available to buy on Friday 6 December, famed designers such as Milton Glaser, Paula Scher, Noma Bar and more share their recollections of the last 25 years in design and the biggest creative milestones that have shaped the industry along the way. And of course, it's not just about the best logos. In the meantime, Greg Quinton, chief creative officer at Superunion, has done the same, but in a different way. He's written a special poem for Creative Bloq and Computer Arts readers, in which he looks back on his design highlights from the last 25 years, with help from some magic wordsmithing by John Shaw. How many of them do you remember...? A letter sized Apple Mac, tiny byte, So rare that we share it. Worth the fight. Kalman’s Colours mag, watches and data, Charts of weird flotsam. Wonderfully beta. Jony’s pink iMac’s freeze parallel motion. A shocking new order: the RA’s Sensation. Saatchi, Hirst, Hume and Emin’s dirty bed, All the YBA’s. Frieze. Quinn’s bloody head. The titles of Se7en, all scalpels and tension, Sin-crafted frames. Skin-cracked emulsion. Sagmeister’s cronies, helmets shot bare. No idea why. Just giggle and stare. Why not? cut acres of pure granite letters, A comedy carpet. From laughter’s big hitters. MySpace & Vine, Insta & Pinterest, The doodles of Google. Infinite interest. The greatness that stands out from visual diarrhoea With one true essential. A big fat idea. Issue 300 of Computer Arts will be available on Friday 6 Dec in all good booksellers and direct from My Favourite Magazines. Read more: Michael Wolff lists this biggest design influences of his career How to generate ideas Has branding become boring? View the full article

Want to download Adobe InDesign CC, but aren't sure how? Don’t worry: in this post, we’ll tell you everything you need to know. Whether you’re looking to download InDesign for free, or wish to buy a subscription to InDesign through Creative Cloud, we’ll explain the various options and what you need to do. Adobe’s advanced page layout software is the industry standard for publication design, and widely used by both students and professionals to create posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers, presentations, books, ebooks and more. So read on, and find the best ways of downloading it to your Mac or PC. Can I download InDesign for free? The short answer is: yes – kind of. InDesign is a paid-for tool, but Adobe does let you download a free trial of InDesign for both Windows and Mac. Once you’ve done that, you’ll get seven days to use the full version of the page layout tool, which gives you access to all the latest features and updates. To take out a free trial, you’ll need an Adobe ID. If you don’t have one, don’t worry, it’s free and only takes a couple of minutes to create. Just go to the Adobe account page, and click Get an Adobe ID. You’ll also have to give Adobe your credit card details. If you cancel your subscription before the end of the trial, you won’t be charged a penny. If you don’t, though, Adobe will then bill you for an ongoing subscription, so do keep your eye on the calendar. Taking out a free trial is quite simply the ONLY way to download InDesign for free. Downloading a pirated version from the murkier parts of the internet is not only illegal, it’s also highly dangerous to the security of your devices and data. Along with the pirated software, you’re likely to unwittingly download viruses and malware, and your bank account might end up getting emptied as a result. So this is very much a false economy and we certainly wouldn’t recommend it. How do I buy InDesign CC? The only way to buy InDesign is as part of a Creative Cloud membership, for which you pay either monthly or annually. Your cheapest option is to subscribe to InDesign alone. Alternatively, you might prefer to take out the All Apps subscription, which is more expensive, but will give you access to all of the Adobe Creative Cloud apps, along with a range of other benefits. (If you’re not sure which CC apps would benefit you, then check out our article Adobe software list: Which apps do you need?). Tempted by the latter, but worried about the cost? Adobe often runs promotions that might change your mind. Plus, there are always discounts for students and teachers, as well as separate pricing for businesses, schools and universities. So it’s always worth having a look to see what discounts are on offer. What’s the price of InDesign CC? Global warming designs by Shangning Wang & Jiayan He The cheapest way to buy InDesign CC is through the Single App InDesign plan, which at time of writing costs £19.97 / $20.99 / AU$29.99 per month on an annual plan, and will give you just InDesign, plus 100GB of cloud storage, Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, and Adobe Spark. The other way to buy InDesign CC is through the Creative Cloud All Apps option, which gives you access to InDesign as well as Adobe’s entire collection of creative desktop and mobile apps. At time of writing, the All Apps plan is one sale, and so it costs £30.34 / $29.99 / AU$43.99 per month on an annual plan. InDesign discounts for teachers and students If you’re a student or teacher, you can buy InDesign as part of a discounted All Apps plan at a much lower rate. So at time of writing, you can get all the Creative Cloud apps, plus 100GB cloud storage, Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, and Adobe Spark for just $15.99 / £13.15 / AU$21.99 per month for the first year, and $29.99 / £25.28 / AU$43.99 thereafter. How do I get started with InDesign? InDesign is used for both print and digital design Once you've downloaded InDesign, head over to our collection of the best InDesign tutorials to get started with the software, and improve your skills and understanding. We’ve gathered together a great range of InDesign lessons, all free to access, which will teach you new tricks and how to work smarter and more creatively, whether you're a beginner, intermediate-level or a professional user. InDesign CC: key info you need to know Debuting in 1999, InDesign CC is now 20 years old and has become the industry standard for page layout software in the newspaper, magazine and book publishing sectors. It’s typically used by graphic designers, editorial designers, marketing professionals, art directors and production artists to create posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers, presentations, books, and more. It's primarily used for print, but it also has digital publishing capabilities. InDesign is often used in conjunction with the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite to create content suitable for tablet devices, and it supports export to EPUB and SWF formats for the creation of ebooks and other digital publications. It also supports XML, style sheets, and other coding markup, allowing for the export of tagged text content for use in other digital and online formats. As part of your CC subscription plan, you’ll receive all InDesign updates free. The latest version is Adobe InDesign 2020. Recent additions include support for importing SVG files, a new reverse spellcheck feature, the ability to search for similar images, new self-serve resources available within InDesign to help you get started, support for column rules in a multi-column text frame, support for variable fonts, and support for five new South-East Asian scripts. You can read more about the new features in this Adobe blog post. Adobe InDesign: Android and iOS apps InDesign is currently only available for Mac and PC desktop computers. However, you can use the free app Adobe Comp to create layouts on your iPad, your iPhone or your Android device, and send those files to InDesign to work on further. Terry White walks you through this process in the video below. InDesign alternatives In our view, the best InDesign alternative is Affinity Publisher, which was launched last year by Serif, the makers of Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. Affinity Publisher is available for a low-cost, one-off fee and requires no subscription. Another good paid-for options is Quark Xpress, which predates InDesign and still offers a decent alternative for those who prefer a one-off payment to a subscription (albeit a much more expensive one than Affinity Publisher). Our favourite free alternative, meanwhile, is the open source tool Scribus, which does a pretty good job at page layout for creatives on a budget. Read more: Create special print finishes in InDesign How to design a book in InDesign 11 inspirational working spaces to make you more creative View the full article

We all know how revolutionary touch has been to user interfaces, but what about digital pens and styluses? They may still be a niche product for consumers, but for a digital artist or designer using one as part of your everyday work can dramatically increase productivity and help you to get brilliant ideas out of your head and onto the screen more easily. If you have an iPad Pro you’ll know you can use one with Apple Pencil, but then you often need to carry two devices around for work – one for creating and another for doing. And, of course, Macs don’t even have touch screens meaning they’re unable to be used for the kinds of hands-on creativity that drawing or painting on a display can bring. If you’ve got a touchscreen PC already, you’ll know how useful touch can be. HP’s ZBook series is designed for uncompromising performance on the move, use the latest Wacom Pen technologies alongside a matte touchscreen designed to feel like paper. They’re, also certified for Adobe Creative Cloud and have the very latest hardware to boot including 10-bit displays with over a billion accurate colours thanks to HP’s DreamColor technology that’ll give you accurate colours from screen-to-screen and screen-to-print. HP’s colour technologists have endured that colours on screen as true to life as is possible. Which stylus? HP offers a Wacom AES pen for the Zbook Studio x360 2-in-1 convertible PC and Wacom EMR pen for the ZBook x2 tablet PC with detachable keyboard. EMR (which stands for Electromagnetic Resonance) is a professional-level technology that’s best for digital artists. It’s also used in Wacom devices such as the Wacom Mobile Studio Pro. The digitiser is the screen, meaning there’s no delay in responding to your stylus movement and it can also crucially tell the difference between pen and touch input, which you’ll notice especially when zooming and moving across and image. The pen itself is passive, so doesn’t need to be charged. It's also lighter in the hand as a result of having no battery, too. There used to be numerous issues with EMR, such as cursor drift - the distance between the pen tip and where the cursor is registered by the digitiser on screen - but these issues have been resolved by device manufacturers, mostly due to improved display technologies. AES (Active Electrostatic) is still plenty good enough for designers and photographers to use – the digitiser reacts to the pen tip itself. As the name suggests, the pen itself is active so needs power. HP’s Pen is self-charging, responds instantly with near-zero latency and has 4,096 levels of pressure so you’ll always feel like it’s doing exactly what you want it to. So why should you use a stylus? 1. Easier to do the basics With a stylus, it’s way easier to open apps, move files, change settings - yep, all the basic stuff you have to do with a much less natural trackpad. It’ll be quicker to do it with an HP Pen, trust us. You can even type with it using the on-screen keyboard, too. 2. Get to know Windows Ink Windows Ink is the software that enables you to use your HP Pen to do more than create in particular apps like Adobe Illustrator. It also means you can write and draw notes in apps like Microsoft Office OneNote or any other apps that support inking. You can also use the built-in apps in the Windows Ink Workspace. These include Sticky Notes, Sketch Pad as well as Screen Sketch to draw on the screen. And then there’s Microsoft Whiteboard, which is a freeform canvas for your ideas. 3. Easier to move from idea to sketch to final work A stylus makes it much easier to get your ideas onto the screen and share them with others. Sketch and send so you can get feedback at the early stage you need, rather than later when too much work has been done and you need to backtrack. And, of course, you can easily incorporate ideas you receive from others, too. 4. Greater accuracy With a stylus or pen, you can be more accurate in your creativity. HP’s Wacom EMR pen responds instantly as you move across the HP DreamColor display and has 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity meaning you can get the accuracy you want with zero latency. Advanced tilt detection means drawing or painting using it gives you similar results as if you were holding a brush, pencil or pen. 5. Annotate away Sending work to others has never been so easy. Annotating images, screenshots, documents and even emails means you can give contacts a clear idea of what you want from a project. No longer do you need to type reams to express a creative idea - just do it on screen. Choose the stylus that's right for you So which of the two stylus types should you go for? Well if you're after the best experience as a digital artist, then go for EMR. The Wacom EMR pen from HP will give you supreme accuracy and, because the dual-digitisers can tell the difference between touch and pen input, it really is a better experience if you're doing that kind of work on a day-to-day basis. That said, the Wacom AES pen from HP will be more than enough for many; the pens are still extremely accurate for everyday use. HP’s ZBook series of workstation PCs are designed from the ground-up for power, portability and creativity. Explore the HP ZBook range. View the full article

This week, Computer Arts magazine is publishing its 300th issue, marking a quarter of a century of print. And some of the leading lights in the profession are coming together to help celebrate. In the issue, which is available to buy on Friday, 6 December, famed creatives such as Milton Glaser, Paula Scher, Noma Bar and more look back on some of the biggest creative milestones that have shaped the industry. In the meantime, to get you in the mood for this special issue, iconic designer Michael Wolff, co-founder of Wolff Olins, shares the key moments in design that have influenced him and his career. "These are the ones that sprang immediately to my mind," he explains. "I’m sure many examples of brilliant work are missing in this spontaneous trawl. But for all of them it was their originality, their skill, their wit and to some extent, although clearly not always, their unreasonableness and bravery that have stayed with me." 01. Dave Abbott’s glorious Economist posters. There’s a wonderful book on the Economist campaign, by Alfredo Marcantonio, called Well-written and Red. 02. Fallon's ‘Balls’ commercial for Sony Bravio, made in San Francisco by Fallon. Directed by Nicolai Fuglsig, this featured 250,000 rubber balls (real, not CG) bouncing down a street. 03. The Apple name and symbol, and the ‘VW beetle-like’ design of Apple’s idiosyncratic Macintosh, as well as the amazing campaign that launched it in Newsweek. Apple bought all the available advertising space in a single issue to run their classic 39 page Mac-launching ad, in 1984. Apple's 1984 ad went across all 39 advertising pages of Newsweek 04. The original pace-setting DDB campaign naming, launching and promoting VW’s Beetle in the USA in 1959. It's a campaign that often been emulated, but never surpassed. DDB's campaign for Volkswagen changed advertising forever 05. The wonderful cover for the Sergeant Pepper vinyl by pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, depicting the Beatles posing in front of a tableau of celebrities and historical figures. Peter Blake and Jann Haworth cover art for Sergeant Pepper is one of the most iconic in history 06. Andy Warhol’s banana, the cover art for the self-titled album by the Velvet Underground & Nico. (See more iconic record cover art in our article, The 20 best album covers of all time.) Andy Warhol's album cover is elegant in its simplicity 07. Robert Brownjohn’s peace poster. He designed this for the New York Peace Campaign in 1969. Robert Brownjohn’s peace poster is proof of the maxim: less is more 08. Graphic designer Derek Birdsall’s 2000 redesign of the English Prayer book, which made great use of Gill Sans. Derek Birdsall's much-praised redesign of the Church of England's Common Worship prayer book in 2000 09. Twen magazine (1959-1970) by German designer Willy Fleckhaus, which some call the greatest looking magazine of all time. Its approach to grid-based design was revolutionary for the era. Layouts from Twen magazine, as featured in Design, Revolt, Rainbow published by Hartman Books 10. Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir’s motorway signs in the UK. Created between 1957 and 1967, they have influenced signage design across the world. Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir’s motorway signs became instant icons of graphic design 11. The CND symbol, designed by Harvard science professor Gerald Holton in 1958. It's based on the semaphore signals for letters N and D. The CND symbol is one of the world's most recognisable symbols 12. Illustrator Tony Meeuwissen’s magical cards, the result of his three-year passion project in the 1990s, The Key to the Kingdom, which won a D&AD award and is now being revived in book form. Tony Meeuwissen became the first illustrator to win a D&AD Gold Award Black Penci for his passion project The Key to the Kingdom 13. Biomuseo, Frank Gehry’s astonishing natural history museum in Panama City, which was conceived in 1999 and opened in October 2014. Biomuseo was Frank Gehry's first design for Latin America 14. Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation building in Marseilles. It's a modernist residential housing design principle he developed with the collaboration of painter-architect Nadir Afonso from the 1920s-1940s. The design and layout of la cité radieuse was ground-breaking at the time 15. Antoni Gaudi’s Barcelona’s Cathedral, the Basílica de la Sagrada Família . It began construction in the 1880s but has never yet been completed. The Sagrada Família is one of Gaudi's greatest achievements 16. The restoration of two beautiful railway stations: St Pancras in London and Gare d’Est in Paris. St Pancras Station in Euston road, London, is home to the Eurostar 17. Product design: there are many examples but, to my mind, the first Apple Mac and the iPhone 5 are the most influential. The iPhone 5 was a design game changer Issue 300 of Computer Arts will be available on Friday 6 Dec in all good booksellers and direct from My Favourite Magazines. View the full article

The December security update stomped out critical denial-of-service (DoS) and remote-code-execution (RCE) vulnerabilities in the Android operating system. View the full article

You're reading How to Get a Remote Job, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Virgin Media Business recently predicted that 60% of office-based employees will regularly work from home by 2022. You’ve had enough of office life? Need a change? You don’t need to be stuck with the job positions offered by your local … View the full article

The time has come for Apple's 'Best of 2019' awards, where the company's App Store editorial team pick their favourites on everything from the iPad and iPhone to Mac and Apple TV. This year creativity reigned supreme, which is great news for the many creatives using mac and iOS devices. Looks like we now have some new entries to add to our round up of the best iPhone apps and the best iPad apps for artists and designers. So, who made the cut? Serif walked away with Mac App of the Year award for its not long released desktop publishing app Affinity Publisher. The Serif team are no strangers to Apple accolades, having previously won Apple Mac App of the Year with Affinity Photo back in 2017. Moleskine also took the top spot in the iPad App of the Year category with its ever-popular Flow app, a tool that enables users to draw, sketch, and take notes in a digital Moleskine notebook. Super surprises Both well-known, high-quality creative brands, it was not a shock to see both Serif and Moleskine reach number one in Apple's 'best of' lists. The surprise winner for us was Spectre Camera, which won the best iPhone app of the year. We'll be honest, we'd not heard about it up to this point, but are now rather excited about. Powered by artificial intelligence and frankly a mind-blowing amount of tech, Lux Optics' Spectre Camera app enables users to take breathtaking long-exposure photos with ease. We have no idea how this magical app produces the goods, but it looks very impressive... For a full list of Apple's 'Best of 2019' app winners, head over the Apple blog. But we can't go without mentioning the most downloaded free apps of 2019. This is packed with all the old favourites, with YouTube taking top spot closely followed by Instagram and SnapChat. Check out the full most downloaded apps list for the best free and paid for apps for 2019, where we're sure you'll find something of use. Read more: Apple Pencil vs Apple Pencil 2: which should you buy? 23 best iPad Pro apps for use with Apple Pencil The best photo apps and photo-editing software View the full article

Cartoon Animator makes it easy to create high-quality 2D animation – even if you can't draw. Formerly known as CrazyTalk Animator, Reallusion's intuitive software provides a set of ready-to-use characters and motion clips to help you hit the ground running. Now, thanks to the new 360 Head Creator in Cartoon Animator 4, you can create convincing facial animations, like a character turning their head to the side, without having to draw every frame. Using the software's built-in tools, you can control the character more like you would in a video game. Instead of worrying about your lack of traditional art skills, you can have fun controlling the character, using your creativity to tell a story. Animate a basic head turn The 360 Head Creator takes a 2D image of a character's head, then creates the illusion that it is moving in three dimensions. By repositioning, scaling and deforming facial features like eyes and ears using a control grid, you can quickly give the impression that the character is looking to the side. Once you have created three key poses – looking forward, looking left and looking right – Cartoon Animator fills in the positions in between automatically. You can even have the character do a complete 180-degree turn by making parts of the face disappear as if they have rotated to the far side of the head. Use expressions to bring the animation to life With the basic head turn prepared, you can give your character some emotion by changing its facial expressions. Using Cartoon Animator's Face Key Editor or the Facial Puppet panel, you can quickly prepare the character for animation, a process known as 'rigging', then control it as if it were a 3D puppet, using only your mouse. Cartoon Animator automatically generates the transitions, creating smooth, organic-looking movements. With Motion LIVE 2D, Character Animator's new facial motion-capture plugin, you can also control your character using your webcam: just turn your head or change your expression, and the character will follow you. With Cartoon Animator's set of powerful, easy-to-use tools, even new users can create results that could even be mistaken for traditional animation. To see how easy it is, download the free 30-day trial version of the software and try it for yourself. Related Articles: Create 2D animations easily with Reallusion's new tool Animate characters with CrazyTalk Animator Top animation tools for digital artists View the full article

It’s important for businesses of all sizes to not only view their suppliers’ attack surface as their own but also extend some of their security protections. View the full article

The flaw can allow hackers to take over typical device functions like sending messages and taking photos because users think malicious activity is a mobile app they use regularly. View the full article

An alternative take on medical packaging, which focuses on the ailment the contents treats, is causing controversy on Reddit right now. The design pares things right back and puts the spotlight on the problem the product aims to solve. For example – suffering from allergies? You can pick up the 'Help, I have allergies' packet, rather than trying to remember that you need Loratadine. The brand is Help Remedies, which was founded in 2008 with the aim of cutting through the noise in the US pharma category, and the packaging comes from PearlFisher. The brand's USP is that it does away with hard-to-pronouce names, instead naming the range of products after the symptoms they treat. Alongside the ailment-focused name, the minimalist packets also feature a colourful silhouette to help you recognise the packet's contents. The drug name is included, less prominently, on the front of the package. As a design, it certainly has impact (explore more innovative packaging design examples) – but in a category where the customer's wellbeing is at stake, is it the right approach? Not everyone is convinced... Although Help Remedies has been around a while, there's some firey discussion going on at the moment on Reddit about the packaging. User scopa0304 sums up some of the main issues people are having: "When it comes to medication and health, I don't like obfuscating the actual medication. The same reason I tell people to ignore medical labels and just look at the chemical. 'Buy Acetaminophen' I don't say 'Buy Tylenol'... It's good to give people more direction, but when it comes to health I would prefer more guidance and education as to what exactly you're taking and why." There's also the issue that many medicines have a number of different uses – for example, Ibuprofen can be used for pain relief in general, not only 'an aching body'. There's a time and a place for cute simplicity but it's definitely not when you're dealing with medicine Others point out that while drug names can be confusing and difficult to remember, they serve an important purpose. "I can't take NSAIDs because of my prescription meds, but would totally buy the 'I have an aching body' without thinking because pain can be distracting," commented _Spent_. "There's a time and a place for cute simplicity but it's definitely not when you're dealing with medicine," added three-one-five. "There's a reason those labels aren't sexy, there's important information that needs to be conveyed and it can help prevent potentially fatal mixups." All these are valid issues, but let's not be too quick to judge. The pharmaceutical industry isn't exactly a neutral landscape in the first place – we're talking about a competitive selection of brand-name medicines battling it out for customers' attentions. Help Remedies' packets do feature the active drug name, and more prominently than many of its competitors' busy packaging does (it could do with upping the contrast of the grey type on white, though). We'd argue that the problem here is relevant to our approach to pharmaceutical branding as a whole, not just this particular brand. Check out the whole Reddit thread here, or read Pearlfisher's case study. Read more: 6 times brands temporarily changed their packaging Get 40% off Adobe CC All Apps New York subway map animation is the best thing you'll see all day View the full article

New York is known as the city that never sleeps, and the famous subway system acts as the lifeblood that brings it to life. But, how do you tell the story of one of the world's oldest public transit systems, one of the most-used, and the one with the most stations? With an intricate, interactive map, of course. It stands to reason that the people bringing this story to life should be New Yorkers, with credit going to creative director Antonio de Luca and graphic designer Sasha Portis for the aptly titled New York's Subway Map Like You've Never Seen It Before. Clearly aware of the power of data visualisation, the duo's 30-part web-based project breaks down the Metropolitan Transport Authority's original subway map design. Created by design firm Micheal Hertz and Associates back in 1979, de Luca and Portis use clever animation to navigate its design, breaking down how graphic design, politics and geography have shaped over the past 40 years along the way. Click the map and go on a NY subway journey back in time And the slideshow makes for incredibly compelling viewing, detailing lead designer Nobuyuki Siraisi's unconventional approach to the 1979 map design. It also reveals fascinating insight about the the addition of colour to easily recognise landmarks and the maps eclectic mix of typographical styles. For example, did you know that in the past 40 years, more fonts have been added to the NYC subway map design and it now features over 20 different styles, ranging in weight, size, colour and letter spacing? Nope, neither did we. No matter what your thoughts about the 1979 NYC subway map, there's no denying this complex history project has been beautifully executed. Enjoy the ride! Read more: Explore data visualisation with p5.js How to make a meme in Photoshop The 13 best alternatives to Photoshop View the full article

The start of a new decade is often the signal for fresh thinking and novel approaches to come to the fore, not least in the ever-evolving world of graphic design. So as we move from the 2010s to the 2020s, what are the emerging trends we should be keeping an eye on? To take the temperature of creative opinion, we’ve spoken to design professionals at all levels of the industry to discover the trends they’ve been spotting, and the predictions they’re making. Read on as we reveal 20 graphic design trends, covering everything from logo design to illustration, that look set to be big in 2020. 01. Intensifying minimalism The Cats & Dogs weather app shows a typical example of the rising trend for flat minimalism In the latter half of the 2010s, we’ve seen minimalist, flat design dominate the world of digital. And the designers at Grady Britton believe the trend is only going to intensify as we enter the 2020s. “In line with marketing’s ongoing quest for transparency and honesty, design will continue to strip away extra flair and embellishment and move toward a much simpler, straightforward presentation,” says group creative director Brian Dixon. “It may even veer into intentionally unfinished at times, as believability is the priority.” Designer Paul Levy concurs. “The ubiquity of flat design, involving primary colours, simple, intuitive two-dimensional illustrations and easy-to-read type, will continue to grow,” he predicts. And this isn't just about aesthetics, but function too. “The main benefit of flat design is in allowing users to quickly interact with interfaces, and find the content they're looking for.” But while flat design owes its origins to digital, its principles have started to influence the printed medium as well, he adds. “Increasingly, we're seeing analogue content being broken down into a more user-friendly hierarchy, making content relevant to the reader easier to find," he says. "In fact whatever the medium, flat design, along with the evolving discipline of UX design, is giving graphic designers a powerful tool to help people easily navigate content." And while flat design has a reputation for being cold and unfeeling, it needn't be so. Indeed, senior art director Adam Murdoch believes that in 2020, “Design minimalism will shift toward the warm and cosy, with interactive design’s white-and-light, luxury brand colour palette going warm and friendlier; and beige, sage and pale yellow showing up more frequently.” 02. Abstract 3D and vibrant colours Poster for The Tide by Droga5 Perhaps as a backlash against the popularity of flat minimalism, we’ve seen abstract 3D forms coming into their own over the last year. “Software updates that have democratised 3D render technology are helping drive this trend,” notes Tamryn Kerr, associate creative director at VMLY&R. “The stunning work produced for the Greenwich Peninsula Festival by Droga5 is a great example, both on the posters and animated for digital. Like watching a well-designed lava lamp, a mesmerising bubble shape moves elegantly across the screen, instantly catching your attention and drawing you into the information piece.” Consuela Onighi, UX designer at Illustrate Digital, is seeing similar things. “I’ve noticed that over the past few months, most designs have created a 3D feel by combining layers of typography, images and abstract shapes, often reflective of the company branding, to create depth,” she says. “This is often paired with bright, vibrant colours and gradients, which I believe will become a strong trend in the next year too.” Alex Halfpenny, design director at Elmwood, paints a similar picture. “Neons, fluorescents and bright vibrant colours continue to be the go-to for designers to help design stand out,” she stresses. “Favouring digital application, or special print colours, the addition of subtle gradients help colours feel alive, and give design a youthful and future-facing, optimistic aesthetic.” 03. Type-only approaches Will 2020 be the year that variable fonts break through to the mainstream? Have you noticed how the number of designs taking a type-only approach appears to be growing? Us too. “Finally brands are braving typographic design over photography and I expect we’ll see even more businesses adopt this attitude in 2020,” says Emily Benwell, digital design and marketing specialist at Liberty Marketing. Davide Barrata, design director at Impero, agrees. “I’ve been seeing greater use of typography and bespoke typefaces as defining elements in branding,” he says. As does Nazar Begen, head of project at Crello, who notes that “designers are playing with typography more than ever, to create more innovative and modern compositions. Artistic typography, maxi typography spilt into multiple lines, and semi-transparent fonts forming various shapes are all on the rise.” Simple, bold typography has been a big 2019 trend, and that's set to continue in 2020, believes Steve Sharp, director of Fat Cow Media. “We’re finding this technique to be extremely effective, helping brands to deliver messages via simple, strong, singular statements,” he says. "It's a good technique for brands that are straight-talking and to-the-point.” Meanwhile Chris Willis, head of design at VMLY&R, feels 2020 could finally be the year of variable fonts. “There are several high profile designers already working in this space, so it’s poised to go mainstream,” he says. “This technology is especially exciting in the digital space, where the possibilities are endless.” And Grady Britton designer Katie Larosa believes that type is only going to get more creative in this next decade. “There’s recently been a trend to break the rules that, as designers, we never thought you could break,” she says. “In 2020, I predict we’ll see more bold, decorative typography that pushes conventional boundaries, and some ‘bad’ design done on purpose.” 04. Super-maximalist and ultra-minimalist FrameWork, the identity system Gretel created for WeWork, takes an ultra-minimal, editorial approach to type Justin Au, designer at Gretel, has seen two divergent typographic trends grow over the last year. “On the one hand you have a super-maximalist approach, filled with exuberant letterforms, 3D distortion, and alternate methods of image-making such as acid graphics or collage,” he says. “An example is the work we did for Nike By You. “On the other hand, there’s a return to an ultra-minimal editorial approach, driven by tiny typographic nuances and a dedication to presentation by stripping all excess. You can see an example of that in our design system for WeWork. I think both are successful in cutting through the blandness of clean, geometric sans-serifs that have dominated subway walls and Instagram feeds alike." 05. Taking GIFs to the next level “Something we’ve seen more and more from brands in 2019 are clever, branded animations that bring to life messages in a fun and innovative way,” says Steve Sharp. “As GIFs grow in popularity across social media platforms, animations have also grown in quick succession and are more popular in email marketing and web page design than ever before." Mark Chatelier, executive creative director at StormBrands, agrees. “We’re seeing more brands use GIFs to offer quick and quirky responses to notable events throughout the year: look at Google’s mini Twitter animation for Movember for example.” And he believes an alternative approach to GIFs will begin to reshape the digital landscape in the coming year. “Think storytelling, dynamic use of identity and content, animated mascots and brand assets that move and interact with each other across websites and social media,” says Chatelier. “Designers can no longer afford to sit still. It’s time for brands to follow and explore how the popularity of the updated GIF format can work for them. Otherwise, it’s an opportunity wasted.” 06. Multisensoral moving content Multiple artists collaborated on the BBC2 idents led by Superunion Still not got around to learning those motion design skills? Then 2020 would be a good time to do so, as the discipline is increasingly in demand. “Motion design and moving images are becoming more popular than stills,” says Davide Baratta. “There has been a rise of processing and expressions in motion design over classic keyframe animation." And that’s for good reason. "Brands are becoming more aware of how important good motion design is,” says Iain Acton, head of motion design at DixonBaxi. “Not only as a tool to unify every aspect of their design but also in further communicating their key messages. A well thought out motion vocabulary lets you speak with a unique voice, helping you stand out in an ever-noisier world.” And he stresses that motion design is no longer just about ‘animating the logo’. “Here at DixonBaxi, motion design is a vital part of every project from day one,” says Acton. “Next year I expect to see more projects that invite multiple artists to collaborate, as we saw earlier this year with both BBC2 and ITV. I also expect the use of code to continue to grow as people build new tools to solve creative problems, resulting in new and exciting ideas that push design boundaries.” Emma Newnes of B&B Studio adds that, “As our attention spans get shorter and our desire for immediate gratification increases, we'll see many more brands invest in moving content. As we move into the future, brands will attempt to gain recognition for their style of motion graphic or brand sound. Visual brand equities will transcend into kinetic equities as multi-sensorial branding takes on a whole new literal meaning.” 07. Motion with intent The clever effect on the Apple Airpods site shows there's life in scrolling transitions yet (click on the image to try them yourself) It's not just that we'll be using motion design more in 2020, but we may also be using it in different ways. Kelli Miller, creative director and partner at And/Or, cites some specific trends in motion design right now, including “hyperreal geometric/sculptural 3D forms in plastic-y, colourful materials, generative computational work in both 2D and 3D, illustrative character-driven narratives, and unconventional typography animations." In general, she feels there’s an honest sense of playfulness and interest in how far we can push our digital tools at the moment. "And it seems the narrative character driven animation work is a direct response to that: it’s more crafted, human-centred work butting up against digital/computational work.” More broadly, Dan Healy, image and motion director at Bulletproof, feels we're seeing a shift towards “more meaningful motion; motion with intent. This can be seen in the use of seamless transitions, for example. And with Instagram being more and more relevant, we need to be much more efficient with our motion." Healy predicts that in 2020 motion design will appear in more and more digital formats, with a consistent feel. “There will be a continuation of using mixed media, a combination of 2D and 3D motion and cinematography. The value of sound design will play a pivotal role in brand recognition and awareness, and with meaningful motion we can really add value. And within web design, I think we’ll see never-ending scroll take on a new life, with clever scroll transitions like the new AirPods website from Apple.” 08. Ingrigue overtakes legibility “Adaptive typography has continued to grow in popularity in 2019, as designers have found more practical and productive uses for kinetic fonts,” says Alex Halfpenny, design director for Elmwood. “Interest can be found in deformed letters, bespoke glyphs and disruptive typesetting, where intrigue overtakes legibility in the design hierarchy.” Emily Benwell, digital design and marketing specialist for Liberty Marketing, points to the example of Uber Move. “They developed a sans-serif typeface that has been a major player in their rebrand, delivering their brand messaging via moving posters hyper-effectively,” she says. And Dave Gee, co-founder of Jam_, predicts this trend will continue in 2020. “We’re seeing much more from big brands using moving typography as the main graphic element in creative across the web and social,” he says. 09. Graphical disruption Like it or loathe it, you can't ignore this Go Compare advert If many areas of design in 2019 have seemed anodyne, bland and coldly functional, then hold onto your hats; things might be about to change. “We're noticing a push towards 'graphical disruption': grabbing attention and quite intentionally stopping you in your tracks,” reports Sarah Sanders, head of strategic insight at Precipice Design. “In certain categories, there is a lessening of the calm, considered and controlled colour palettes, refined fonts and negative space that have dominated. Instead, these are replaced with intense almost rebellious hues and juxtapositions, protest-like repetition of messages and bold and dense use of black.” In short, there’s a graphical sense of urgency and intensity at a level not seen for quite some time. “It's no coincidence that this shift is happening in a time of such political, social and ecological unrest,” argues Sanders. “Look from the bright, bold, intense clashes of the latest GoCompare print campaign to the material of Extinction Rebellion and you will find clear parallels. This approach won’t be right for all products, of course, and in fact needs order and control to push against. The question will be which brands and designers are brave enough to embrace the discord and create something that risks being deemed offensive or ugly.” Social media is one factor driving this trend, believes Kelli Miller, creative director and partner at And/Or. “We’re living in a time period where experimentation and playful mistakes have an easy and temporal place to live on our social media feeds,” she notes. “The work is not as permanent or labour-intensive as it once was, which makes it easier and less risky to quickly try new things. I love that playful, punk rock spirit, it’s really fun and exciting to see what people are making.” The positive feature of this trend is that people are not being precious with their work, but there is a potential flipside, she adds. “ I think it’s just as important to be aware of what feels overly trendy, and keep the parts that feel authentic and genuinely connected to an idea, let the rest of it get lost in the feed.” 10. Backlash against Insta-perfection The "Beauty in Real Life" campaign for CVS features portraits of women that haven't been Photoshopped Is the Instagram-inspired notion of showing idealised versions of our selves on its way out? “Lately, we’ve seen a huge shift in how brands are portraying people so that audiences feel a truer connection,” says Jennie Potts, design director at B&B Studio. “In a backlash against the image-obsessed, overly filtered selfie culture, we have seen the rise of un-retouched imagery, using real people over models and representing truer diversity. “Brands are realising the power in celebrating their consumers instead of promoting just one, outdated aesthetic," she continues. "This has been happening mostly within beauty and fashion sectors, but I think we’ll see it expand across different sectors as we move into 2020.” 11. Focus on Gen Alpha Brands need to start thinking about Gen Alpha as a new target market In case you’re not keeping up, Millennials are now approaching their forties, Generation Z are entering their twenties, and the focus of branding experts is now starting to fall on Gen Alpha: those born during the 2010s. “Generation Alpha are now up to nine years old,” explains Lee Hoddy, creative partner at Conran Design Group. “But what they lack in age, they more than make up for in influence in the family dynamic and spending behaviour; so brands ignore them at their peril in 2020.” Gen Alpha interact with tech more naturally and instinctively than any previous generation, and this will influence brand touchpoints and micro behaviours profoundly. “Branded moments are softer, more empathic, more ambient. It’s subtle, it’s clever, and it’s meaningful in their day to day activities.” As a result, Hoddy predicts, more brands in 2020 will move away from just using visuals to communicate to customers. “Instead they’ll craft interface-less, designed moments that surprise and delight to create long term brand loyalty, and if you’re lucky, adoration. The opportunity for designers and brand guardians is massive.” 12. Organic look and feel Good Things Brewing Company uses simple graphics that are rich in meaning Throughout the 2010s, we’ve seen more and more brand and packaging design focus on the organic, the calming and the natural. And right now, that trend is only heightening. “This is in response to the precarious relationship with our ever-depleting planet coupled with increasingly digitally connected and dissected, data-rich but time-poor lives,” says Andy Capper, creative director at Echo Brand Design. “We all crave more openness and transparency, and we’re seeing type, colour, illustration, packaging and product design influenced by this.” He offers some examples of what this looks like in practice. “From digital lifestyle brands like Uber we’re seeing a softening and a simplicity, through their use of more approachable typography with fewer capitals, more circular letterforms and clean, naturalistic icons. In recent campaigns from Nike and Adidas, we’re seeing greater honesty to styling and photography, focusing on real individuals in less staged environments, reflecting a desire for more one-on-one conversations. “Natwest and Monzo, banking old and new, are embracing softer, more naturalistic colour palettes and stripped-down illustration, a big step away from the authoritative and autocratic banking of old. And we’re seeing technology product companies adopting aesthetics and materials that are inspired by nature and in tune with our homes. Rather than the shiny black tech monoliths of old, soft forms and interesting textiles are being combined. Out is the hipster world of complex filigree and industrial masculinity for consumer brands. In are stripped back brand identities and pack graphics. Good Things Brewing Co.'s identity by Horse Studio is a great example of a simpler presentation that’s still rich in meaning.” 13. Action on sustainability The Tokyo 2020 designs are all made from discarded electronics The focus on sustainability right now isn’t just affecting what designs look like, but the design process itself. “More brands are trying to make a positive contribution by transitioning towards innovative approaches to packaging, such as using recyclable or ethically sourced materials,” says Charlie Smith, creative director at Charlie Smith Design. “The types of inks we use, the different finishes we see, and the materials we specify are all contributing to a more pared-back design trend, and this is set to gain momentum in 2020." “The global issue of sustainability and impact on climate change is one overriding theme that runs through all our design and production teams’ creative minds,” says Steve Austen-Brown, creative director at Avantgarde London. “This topic resonates with all the brands we work with, and across all design approaches. Our approach to sustainability has been key in the way we tackle 3D spatial design. The materials, and the reuse and recycling life span of structures and environments, are also spilling into the way we think about other design disciplines." Alex Halfpenny, design director at Elmwood, takes a similar view. “As designers take more responsibility for the collateral they help create, the desire to find sustainable materials, techniques and finishes are at the front of mind when every new brief comes in," he says. "These include more environmentally alternatives to things like foil blocking, dialling up premiumness while reducing material cost, embracing natural paper stocks and simplified techniques.” 14. New perspectives on gender and sexuality This September, Barbie manufacturer Mattel released a new range of gender neutral dolls Changing attitudes to gender and sexuality are certain to have a big impact on how the industry evolves in the year to come. “Design in 2020 will be more human focused, celebrating the benefit and the individual compelling product attributes, rather than just who it’s for,” says Lee Hoddy. “We’ll see even more brands moving away from the traditional ‘This is designed for a woman therefore it needs to be pink' approach, and instead celebrate personalisation and the real person behind the product. “Our job as designers will be more of the critical friend, challenging what’s been designed, what this says, and why," he continues. "How brands behave and position themselves in this environment will raise questions with consumers that could have a lasting impact on sales and profitability.” Take character design, for example. “We’re seeing the rise of gender-neutral characters in advertising,” notes Davide Barrata, “which is a reflection of what is also going on in the real world, where more and more younger people are identifying as gender-neutral.” 15. A spirit of rebellion The design of Dexter Navy's homepage is anything but conventional We live in chaotic times, and this is having a clear influence on the creative industries, believes Maisie Benson, designer at B&B Studio. “People are turning to individual activism to try and deal with the growing sense of societal uncertainty, and we're seeing this assertive rebelliousness filter into design,” she explains. "Verbal identity and tone of voice has never been so important, and 2019 has seen a rise in the bold repetition of words and sentences in typography. We've also seen more outlined type, another visual protest to the traditional rules on legibility and messaging. And brands that attempt to replicate this aesthetic in an inauthentic way certainly feel the backlash.” Designers are being energised by change-makers at the grassroots, and are also aware of their own ability to shape change, she adds. “So we’re seeing fonts inspired by handwritten protest messaging from the Berlin Wall, as well as Greta Thunburg’s handwriting.” Curro de la Villa, creative director at 72andSunny Amsterdam, offers a similar take. “Overall I have the feeling that 2020 will be the year where imperfection and rawness become a more mainstream vibe, embraced by big brands on their visual identity like never before,” he says. “While invisible design is getting slicker and more present in functional design in the UIs of our phones, global companies want to go the other way and look more human, adopting an unpolished and almost punk tone of voice: it’s no longer a visual language that belongs just to small rebellious start-ups or fashion labels." And that's a good thing, he feels. "It gives designers a chance to experiment, almost vandalise typefaces, use bold contrasty and unexpected layouts, absurd kerning, neon colours… all combined in crazy ways, embracing imperfection. This is happening in almost every discipline, and I'm loving the experimental side of it. We see it in photography: I love the messiness of Dexter Navy’s website and its photography. We see it in editorial content: the layouts of the online articles of The New York Times Magazine are always a beauty. And we see it in typography and 3D, such as Thom Yorke’s latest 3D animated music video.” 16. Device dependent design In a world of second-screening, people are demanding both device specific apps and responsive websites Do you develop a website that works across all devices, or make a device specific app that only works on one of them, such as the iPhone? Harry East, co-founder and creative director at Equals Collective, believes that in the coming year, you’ll increasingly need to do both. “In 2020, we’ll continue to see the chasm widen in responsive design,” he says. “Although styled similarly, the designed experience will become fully tailored for the platform consuming it. Expect to see websites and web apps designed with unique experiences for each format. Our experiences are now consumed differently depending on the way they are viewed and used. The best web experiences will be defined by their ability to meet this new design challenge and captivate an audience with specific designs matched to experiences across different platforms.” 17. Cause-based branding Absolut's 'Kiss with Pride' campaign is backed up by action: the brand has donated more than $40 million to gay and lesbian centres such as OUTserve, OUTFEST, and God's Love We Deliver The time when brands would avoid taking a stance on social and political issues is long gone. And that trend is only going to become more marked in 2020, believes Adam Murdoch, senior art director at Grady Britton. “Equity-focused marketing will continue, as brands continue to show they ‘believe everyone is of equal and important value’,” he predicts. “But what will change in 2020 is putting real funds toward actual causes behind their message.” 18. Immersive experiences Will tools like Spark AR raise augmented reality from gimmick to serious design tool? We’ve been hearing this for a while, but Dave Gee is convinced that 2020 will be the year of augmented reality. “We predict that AR and the use of immersive experiences is going to dominate the design industry next year,” he says. Why now? “With tools like Spark AR, and the development of phone and camera technology, it’s much easier to create professional content,” he argues. “As a result, brands are turning to AR to increase engagements and sales.” Mark Davis, creative director at me&dave, is singing from the same hymn sheet. “Something that’s already made waves in design is a focus on experience, and I think 2020 will see a renaissance in this approach," he says. "It’s about empowering the consumer to become part of the brand experience, rather than remain a passive receiver that’s endlessly dictated to. The way to do this is by marrying the digital with the physical. “Digital can’t exist in isolation,” he argues. “It needs to be integrated with a ‘real-world’ experience seamlessly and intelligently, and brands like Burberry are masters when it comes to this kind of experiential engagement. They recently used their WeChat site to create a parallel social event to a significant launch, including live streams, forums and even virtual 360 degree tours of the physical exhibition, which directly connected with people using personalised content. “Obviously, few have pockets quite as deep as Burberry’s, but crack the formula and you’ve got a blueprint for an authentic, engaging brand experience that invites people to become part of your storymaking. The best way to sell experience is with experiences: this ethos must be at the forefront of strategic design thinking in 2020.” 19. Making brand stories more believable Airbnb has raised brand storytelling to a fine art in 2020 Storytelling has been the mainstay of branding for some years now. Yet Andy Askren, partner and creative director at Grady Britton, believes that brands in 2020 will be under greater pressure than ever to make those stories seem authentic and believable. “More brands, both old and new, will work to introduce 'roots' to their stories, any way they can,” he predicts. “This has been coming for a while, but it's going to explode this year.” And what visual tricks can designers use to aid this effort? “There will be a continual looking-to-the-past for inspiration," Askren believes. "Heavier, rounder fonts mixed with larger, more pronounced serif fonts, saturated colourways and design cues from the vaults will be what’s hot.” 20. Uncertainty Which way will the world head in 2020? In truth, none of us knows In a world that seems to be becoming more unpredictable, perhaps the only solid prediction we can make about graphic design in 2020 is that anything is possible. "Nothing will be precious in 2020," says Alex Halfpenny, design director at Elmwood. "From multiple and gradient colour palettes to flexible typography and procedurally generated brand identities, design itself will have to move quickly to keep pace with the unstable political climate, on-demand culture and shortening attention spans of a society with little patience, and little appreciation for the previous generations’ meticulous approach to long-lasting, but ultimately, static design." So buckle up, and the best of luck to you all! Read more: Are these OTT brand guidelines as ridiculous as they seem? The best drawing tablet in 2019 6 of 2019's best new graphic design portfolios View the full article

In this tutorial, we're going to show you how to flip an image in Photoshop, and blend the results with the original. Have you ever had to flip a portrait in editorial to face into the page or tried mirroring an image to create a mandala pattern? It may not be the most common request, but being able to flip an image is a basic Photoshop skill and should be in every designer’s toolkit. But as with most Adobe software, even the simplest of effects can have many different approaches. Here we summarise the basic Photoshop techniques for flipping an image and how to blend with the original. To finesse your skills even further check out our roundup of Photoshop tutorials, or boost your toolkit with some Photoshop plugins or free Photoshop brushes. Get Adobe Creative Cloud to use Photoshop, save your files in the cloud and access more Adobe software. Right now there's an incredible deal on, detail below. 01. The big flip Flip Canvas can be found hidden in the Image Rotation drop-down If you simply want to flip an entire image, without any differentiation between layers, go to Image > Image Rotation > Flip Canvas. You will find options to flip the canvas horizontally or vertically, performing the same action consistently across all layers. But if you prefer to control each layer separately then read on… 02. Unlock layer You can define a locked layer as a New Layer or simply click on the padlock icon If you have just opened an image in Photoshop, then it’s likely your layer will be locked. This means that it is protected and cannot be edited. To make any changes to this layer you must first unlock it, either by clicking on the small padlock icon to the right of the layer or double-clicking on the layer to define it as a New Layer. 03. How to flip a layer in Photoshop Flip a layer in a matter of seconds with the Transform options The most direct method to flip a layer is located in Edit > Transform. This drop down gives plenty of options for transforming your image, but we are only interested in the bottom two – flip horizontal and flip vertical. Each of these will flip only the layer you have selected, in whichever direction you choose. It is worth noting that this function works on all types of layer, not just raster images. 04. Free Transform Typing -100 for the width in Free Transform will perfectly flip a layer horizontally If you want more control over the process, you can use the Free Transform tool to resize the layer. Select the tool under Edit > Free Transform or use the shortcut Cmd + T. You can either drag the edges across by eye or type -100 into the width box in the top menu bar. 05. Check the results Make sure you check for anything obvious that appears back to front Quite often people will flip an image without giving it a second thought. But there are often noticeable artifacts of the transformation, which immediately give the game away to any eagle-eyed viewers. Most obvious of these is text, which will give you a mirrored version, much like Da Vinci’s code. Other errors to look out for are graphics, icons and distinctive marks, such as freckles or tattoos on a person. If you’re really committed to going ahead with a flip, then you could use the clone tool to remedy this or select the area with Lasso and flip it back. 06. Blending Two images can be blended easily enough by painting black onto a mask with a soft-edged brush Some images lend themselves to a mirror effect, effectively blending the flipped image with the original. To achieve this you must first duplicate the image layer and flip it. Add a layer mask to the top layer and paint black onto it with a soft-edged brush to remove the parts of the image that should be blended. It is easier when the image has a block colour or repeating patterns. Sometimes the Pen tool can be useful for more refined selections. Read more: How to make a meme in Photoshop Photoshop for iPad review The 13 best alternatives to Photoshop How to remove wrinkles in Photoshop View the full article

Black Friday may have come and gone, but there are still some amazing deals to be had. In fact, this HP laptop deal, which knocks £640 off the HP 15t, makes it cheaper now than ever before! Powered by an intel Core i7 processor, 8th-generation Intel Whiskey Lake processor, 12GB of RAM and 256GB SSD, this laptop is perfectly suited to your everyday computing needs. If you're after a device for day-to-day tasks, this is the machine for you, especially as it will only set you back $339.99 as opposed to its regular price of $979.99. While the HP Envy 15t isn't the most powerful device available, it's more than good enough to take care of the basics. And at this knock-down price, this is one of the best laptop deals we've seen so far this year. Microsoft also has this cracking deal still running on the HP Envy 13 too. If this isn't quite the deal or laptop you're looking for, check out these other amazing offers on a range of HP devices. View the full article

If you missed all the action over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, never fear, there are still some cracking deals to be had. It's usual to see older products discounted, not so normal to see new model with any reductions – especially from Apple. So we were super excited today to find BT still offering a very decent £220 saving on the shiny new 2019 16" MacBook Pro. Released just a few months ago, the 16" MacBook Pro is one of the best laptops for graphic design. A popular choice among creatives, not only is it now the most powerful MacBook Apple has ever made, it also boasts a slightly bigger (and even more beautiful) screen that makes all the difference when it comes to seeing your design work in all its glory. This BT deal takes the new device down to £2,179, which is still, by no means cheap. If you're looking for a cheaper model, or a different device, be sure to check out our round up of the best MacBook Cyber Monday and Apple Cyber Monday deals that are still available. View the full article

The Microsoft applications are vulnerable to an authentication issue that could enable Azure account takeover. View the full article

External hard drives aren't the most glamorous bits of kit you'll see on sale this Cyber Monday, but there are big discounts to be had. You can get an enormous amount of storage for much cheaper than you'd normally pay. These deals are selling really fast, so fast we can barely keep up in fact. And some are only live for a few more hours so now is the time to click 'add to basket'. The best Cyber Monday external hard drive deals are on reputable brands such as Western Digital and Samsung – for example this 6TD NAS hard drive which has a massive 37% off, taking it down to £122.99. In the US, there's also deals on WD and Samsung hard drives, with this best-selling deal of a 1TB hard drive, which is down from $109.99 to just $37.99 and was so popular it's now not in stock till 7 December. Never fear though, there are plenty more deals still available, and we've listed our top picks below. Why might you need a external hard drive? Well, a decent external hard drive can save you a lot of hassle, as you can use it to store all your most important documents, either using it as a way to back up your computer or free up space for you to work on more stuff. Not sure which hard drive is for you? See our best external hard drives buying guide and more Cyber Monday external hard drives in our dedicated deals hub. Below are the best US deals, scroll down for the UK deals below. In the UK? See the best hard drive deals below. And if none of these are for you, see our best deals on a range of hard drives below. View the full article

If you've been waiting around all weekend for the best MacBook Cyber Monday deal, you'll be pleased to know it has finally arrived. This incredible deal from Best Buy knocks $300 of the 13-inch MacBook Pro, taking it down to just $1,199 – an all-time low price for this model. The MacBook Pro has become a highly sought-after device within the creative community. Boasting a the power of a Core i5 processor, a sharp Retina display, 8GB RAM, two Thunderbolt 3 ports and Touch Bar and up to 10 hours of battery life, this 13-inch version can handle pretty much any creative task you can throw at it. As well as that, the particular model comes complete with a roomy 256GB of storage, and at the same time, the lower spec version, with 128GB SSD will set you back $1,299. That's $100 more than the model on offer here now, which just shows what a great deal this is. Double the storage for 100 bucks less. Bargain. If you're in need of a different MacBook Pro model, be sure to check our round up of MacBook Cyber Monday deals, which has all the latest and best offers. Deals in the UK aren't quite as impressive, but we did find this slightly lower spec MacBook Pro at Currys, with a discount not to be sniffed at. Find more top MacBook Pro deals available now below. View the full article