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Can a dead brand be brought back to life? In the month that Toys R Us (which went bankrupt in 2018) relaunched in partnership with Target, the answer is clearly 'yes'. But that yes needs to be a qualified one. The history of branding is littered with attempts to resuscitate ailing brands, and while it's easy to generate headlines at the time, it's by no means guaranteed you'll succeed over the longer term. In this post, we look at some of the best examples of how to revive a brand, plus a couple when it all went wrong, and pull out some of the main lessons for branding in general. 01. Old Spice Once seen as old fashioned, Old Spice has been successfully reinvented for the 21st century The problem: By 1990, Old Spice seemed like a brand that would never again be considered 'cool'. The men’s fragrance, which first launched in the 1930s and had become hugely popular in the 1960s and 1970s, was now associated with the ageing 'medallion men' of that era, and the butt of endless jokes. In short, no self-respecting young man wanted to go near Old Spice. But new owners Procter & Gamble were determined to attract a new generation to the brand. So how did they go about it? The solution: Rather than targeting adults who saw Old Spice as old hat, they went straight for the teen market: kids who hadn’t even been alive during its heyday. That way, they were starting with a clean slate. P&G expanded the brand to include washes and deodorants, and worked hard to associate it with sports and health, handing out free samples and promo swag for school health classes, high school games and skate-park events. They also radically improved the product itself, tackling the residue issues of old so that it no longer left tell-tale stains following application. All this work was complemented by the work of ad firm Wieden and Kennedy, who created fun, youth-oriented campaigns such as Swagger in 2008, and the award-winning The Man You Wish Your Man Could Smell Like in 2010 (below). This was the point that most older people started to notice Old Spice again, and many assumed its revival was due to the ads alone. But in fact, it had been the leading brand in the US market for some years already. Lesson learned: A brand revival isn't just about having a hit commercial, even if it might seem so to consumers. Typically, as in the case of Old Spice, it’s only through a larger marketing effort, over a succession of years. 02. Lego Given the success of the Lego Movie, it's weird to think that the brand was in crisis in the early 2000s The problem: It seems weird to say it now. But back in 2003, Lego was in crisis, with $800m of debt and sales down year-on-year by 30 per cent. The solution: Lego's saviour was new CEO Vig Knudstorp, who’s been dubbed the ‘Steve Jobs of toys’. Part of his strategy was simplification: selling off its loss-making theme parks to Merlin Entertainment, and halving the number of individual pieces Lego produced, for example. More significantly, though, Lego began engaging deeply with its fan community; something they had never been done before. Most importantly, Lego started crowdsourcing, promising those who suggested winning ideas one per cent of their product’s profits. This not only meant fans felt valued and engaged with, but it resulted in a continuous series of new and commercially successful products, including sets based on Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Minecract, and the ninja-themed Lego Ninjago line. From 2008 to 2010 the company’s profits quadrupled, even outstripping Apple’s. Turning to the fans and crowdsourcing new ideas for sets was a transformative movie for Lego Lego had always been about creativity and unleashing the imagination. Harnessing the creativity of its most ardent fans led to an unprecedented period of product innovation, and ensured that the brand would become increasingly popular and valued by generations to come. Lesson learned: Your fans are your greatest resource. Use them (or lose them). 03. Polaroid Dutch company Polaroid Originals has revived the once-defunct brand The problem: Back in the 1960s and 1970s, if you took a photo, you’d have to wait days, weeks even, for it to be developed. It was for this reason that Polaroid’s instant camera, which printed out your photos mere moments after you’d taken them, was a must-buy device for sociable and outgoing youngsters. However, once digital cameras became popular in the 2000s, the instant version seemed suddenly redundant. And sure enough, in 2008, Polaroid filed for bankruptcy and announced it would cease production of its films and cameras. The solution: Although the original company was gone, the brand was acquired by the Dutch company Impossible Project. In 2017 it renamed itself Polaroid Originals. And since then, it’s managed to revive the Polaroid brand and make a commercial success of it once more. The company manufacturers its own instant cameras and film, and while they use the latest technology, from the consumer’s point of view the operation remains basically the same. So how did they manage to succeed where the original firm had failed? Essentially the answer comes in two parts. Firstly, unencumbered by the original firm's massive debts, they were able to operate at scaled down level that’s fully sustainable. But secondly, it’s essentially been a question of time and patience. A special Stranger Things-themed camera has exploited the nostalgia for Polaroid evoked by the hit Netflix show What is embarrassingly outdated and unfashionable one year, suddenly becomes retro and hip a few years down the line. It's happened to vinyl, it’s currently happening to cassettes, and it’s also happened to Polaroid. The thread that links all of them? A yearning for the physical and analogue in a world dominated by the invisible and digital. (And the showcasing of Polaroids on nostalgic shows like Stranger Things hasn’t done any harm either.) Lesson learned: If the pull of nostalgia is powerful enough, you can go a long way on the maxim, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ Keep your operation small and manageable, patiently wait for the trend cycle to renew itself, and a defunct brand can potentially be revived for a new generation. 04. Marvel Avengers Assemble proved beyond all doubt that Marvel's movie strategy had paid off The problem: Marvel had once been king of the superhero comic. But in the 1990s, a general collapse in comic book sales, along with a string of bad business decisions, left it in dire straits and massive debt. In 1996 the Marvel Group filed for bankruptcy, which prompted a nasty two-year court battle for control of the company. The solution: Once things were settled, new CEO Joseph Calamari turned his attention to a new strategy: targeting the movie business. In retrospect, rarely has a company made a smarter move. In the early days of 21st century Marvel movies, though, that wasn’t so obvious. Although the Blade, X-Men and Spider-Man movies were successful, the box office wasn’t anything to write home about. And even worse, Marvel itself made shockingly little from licensing its properties. Of the $70m revenue that Blade generated, for example, it took home a measly $25,000. In 2003, talent agent David Maisel suggested to Marvel that they produce the films themselves. This would give them financial and artistic control, and let them crossover characters from movie to movie. With backing from Merrill Lynch, Marvel reacquired the characters they’d licensed to others, and began work on the first Iron Man movie. Released in 2007, Iron Man made $585m, and kickstarted what's since become the biggest franchise in movie history. Two years later, Disney came knocking, with an offer of $4.3bn. That seemed like an eye-watering amount at the time, but from today’s vantage point, it actually seems like a bargain: the recent Avengers: End Game alone pulled in $2.8bn (and rising). So why have Marvel movies been so successful across the last decade, given that most of the characters, other than the Hulk, were previously unknown outside the comic fan community? Marvel didn't reply on existing star power to promote its movies, but used them to create stars of its own Key has been the concept of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which saw characters appearing across multiple movies, in a way that essentially makes every film like an episode of a TV series... just one that you have to go to the cinema to see. (DC, in contrast, keeps using different actors for the same characters across its movies and TV shows, breaking all continuity). Marvel’s also been smart in eschewing A-list actors and directors, whose egos can often get in the way of smart decisions, and whose salary demands can eat into budgets. (Chris Hemsworth, in contrast, got just $150,000 for the first Thor movie.) Meanwhile, the partnership with Disney ensured the franchise was on a sound financial footing, and added all the marketing, production and merchandising experience of the world’s biggest entertainment company. But perhaps the best thing Marvel has done is to believe and trust in its brand. In stark contrast, Sony had the chance back in 1998 to buy ALL of the Marvel characters for a minuscule $25million. But they rejected the offer, and instead paid $10million for Spider-Man alone, telling negotiators: “Nobody gives a sh—about any of the other Marvel characters.” Marvel knew different. Lesson learned: Believe in your brand and stick to your guns. You'll constantly encounter naysayers, because it's easier to hate than create. But be patient, trust your audience, and in the end you'll have the last laugh. 05. Nintendo The Nintendo Switch is the latest in a string of hit Nintendo devices The problem: Originally launched in 1889 as a playing card company, Nintendo dominated the world of video game consoles in the 1980s and 1990s with products like the Game Boy and SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System). By 1995, it had sold one billion game cartridges worldwide, 10 per cent of those being Mario games. But consumer tech moves fast, and in the 2000s Sony and Microsoft’s superior PS2 and Xbox sent the company reeling. Nintendo’s response, the Gamecube, was poorly received and sent the brand into third place for market share. The solution: With no DVD player, no online capabilities and generally poor titles, the Gamecube was never going to compete with what was dubbed the ‘next generation of consoles’. It also looked kind of dumb. At this point, Nintendo could have doubled down, and tried to improve its tech to catch up with Sony and Microsoft. But instead they decided to retreat, rethink, and come up with something completely different: the Nintendo DS. This little handheld device was initially met with ridicule, but it and its successors turned out to be an incredible success. It also gave Nintendo the confidence to experiment further, launching the Wii, whose motion senor controls heralding a whole new type of gaming. The Wii and Wii U have attracted people who wouldn't normally play video games The commercial and cultural success of both devices lay in charting a “third way” between games aimed at children and those aimed at hardcore adult gamers. Carving out a whole new niche of “casual gaming”, which attracted adults of all ages (the kind who previously would have said “I’m not into video games”), Nintendo successfully reinvented its entire brand for a new era. Lesson learned: When competitors enter the market and do what you’re doing, better, you don't always have to confront them head on. Sometimes it’s sometimes best to pivot into a completely new market instead. The examples of Old Spice, Lego, Polaroid, Marvel and Nintendo all show that it's possible to bring back a classic brand to life. But that doesn’t mean it's going to be easy, or that success is guaranteed. These two examples show how even the best-known brands can sometimes prove un-revivable... MySpace MySpace has reinvented itself as a music site, but has disastrously lost its audience's trust The problem: Launched in 2003, MySpace was many people’s first ever experience of social media. By 2006, it had became the most visited site in the US, and helped launch stars such the Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen. In 2005, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp bought it for $580 million. So what happened? Facebook happened. MySpace became a desert as its users flocked to Mark Zuckerberg’s superior version of “digital crack”, and in 2011, Murdoch unloaded it at a fire-sale price of $35 million. The attempted solution: The common wisdom at the time was that an “old media guy” just didn’t understand the internet, or what young people wanted. So when the site was bought by Justin Timberlake's Specific Media Group, and relaunched with a cool redesign, a new focus on music, lots of publicity and multiple celebrity endorsements, hopes were high. And indeed, what was called “Myspace 2.0” drew a high of 31 million visitors in its first weeks. Ever since, MySpace has been quietly, gradually, getting its act together again, establishing itself as a platform, refocused on music and entertainment, and boasting 15 million monthly active visitors in 2016. People whispered that it might, just might, actually become cool again. Stranger things have happened. But in 2019, disaster struck. MySpace announced it had accidentally lost every single piece of content uploaded to its site before 2016, including millions of songs, photos and videos, many of which simply didn’t exist anywhere else. Whether you believed, as many conspiracy theorists did, that this was a purposeful act to cut costs, or bought the company’s explanation that it was due to a faulty server migration, this trust-decimating event has made it extremely unlikely MySpace will ever return to its former glory. Lesson learned: Trust in a brand isn’t just about image: it has to be earned. It’s easy to squander the trust people have in you, but winning it back is just about the most difficult thing you can do. Woolworths The Woolworth's brand failed online just as it had in the high street The problem: Originally a division of the American F. W. Woolworth Company until its sale in the early 1980s, UK retail chain Woolworths was once a regular staple of the British high street, with 807 stores at its peak. But in the 2000s, its traditional strategy of offering something for everyone, from CDs to its famed pic’n’mix sweets, failed to adapt to a rapidly evolving retail world. The company went into administration in 2008, closing every single one of its stores overnight and putting 27,000 employees out of work. The attempted solution: Believing there was huge public goodwill towards Woolworths, Shop Direct Group bought the brand and domain, and relaunched it as an online store in 2009. Yet ultimately, the attempt failed. Woolworths.co.uk was closed in 2015, with its URL instead redirecting to Very.co.uk. Ultimately, the failure of the Woolworths brand highlights that what the public SAYS it wants isn’t always the same as what it ACTUALLY wants. In successive polls, Brits have said they’d like to see the return of Woolworths to the high street; but their actions suggest that they wouldn’t necessarily shop there if it did. Lesson learned: Nostalgia alone isn’t enough to revive a brand. There has to be a compelling reason for its existence, which in an age of endless shopping opportunties, offline and online, Woolworths simply didn't have. View the full article

This year would probably be known as the year of the dark mode if, you know, there wasn't a whole bunch of other stuff going on. Everything's getting a dark mode right now; iOS 13 has brought it to Apple devices, Android has its dark theme, and loads of apps – most recently, Slack – now have the option to switch to an eyeball- and battery-friendly dark look. Which is great, until you open up one of those iOS or Android apps that haven't been updated and it's like staring directly into the sun. And that's where we're currently at with WhatsApp; it doesn't yet have a dark mode, but reports indicate that it's on the way. How to turn on Instagram's Dark Mode This is what the WhatsApp dark mode looks like on Android, according to WABetaInfo According to WABetaInfo, hints of an impending WhatsApp dark mode are turning up in beta versions of the app. While there isn't an actual dark mode in the WhatsApp beta yet, the 2.19.327 beta update for Android contains a new dark wallpaper based on the same colours as Android's dark theme. What does this mean for you? Not a lot, right now; you could sign up for the WhatsApp beta programme on Android and download the beta, but even with that you're not going to get a dark mode yet. Some of the necessary assets are in place, but the mode itself has yet to be implemented and you'd almost certainly be signing up for a more crashy experience than you get with standard WhatsApp. These dark wallpapers are hidden way in the latest WhatsApp public beta WABetaInfo reckons that the Android WhatsApp dark theme is almost done, while the iOS version is lagging a little behind, with some labels and cell backgrounds still appearing as white. It seems likely that WhatsApp will want to launch its new dark mode on both Android and iOS simultaneously, so we'll have to wait for the iOS issues to get ironed out before it's ready to install on either platform. The WhatsApp sleuths at WABetaInfo admit that they don't know when the dark mode update's going to roll out. However the current state of play suggest that it's looking good for a release before too long, so watch this space. Related articles: How to implement light or dark modes in CSS The 21 best iPhone apps for designers Mobile app design: A beginner's guide View the full article

For many designers, going freelance is the logical next career step after putting in the hours at an agency. Other designers skip the in-house bit altogether and jump straight into the freelance life. And while the benefits of being your own boss can be immense, going freelance is a major step that you need to be prepared for. Whether you're an experienced art director or a fresh-faced graduate, it's near-impossible to be perfectly prepared for the freelance life, but are plenty of things that you can do to ensure that you're ready to hit the ground running when you make the jump. You also need to be ready to take care of your own finances without the safety net of an employer to pay you regularly and deal with your taxes, and on top of all that you owe it to yourself not to work yourself into the ground. There's lots to think about before embarking on the freelance journey; luckily we have a whole stack of essential advice ready for you. Studio vs freelance: The pros and cons Getting started So, you've decided to go freelance. Before you hand in your resignation, though, check out these guides to make sure you've got all your ducks in a row. 4 ways to go freelance Going freelance isn't just about quitting your job and making a break for freedom. There are four main ways of becoming a freelancer, each with their own challenges, and knowing which route you're taking – and how to be prepared for it – can help you make a proper go of it. Here we speak to designers and illustrators who have taken each path, and get their pro tips to help you enter the freelance world successfully. The art of going freelance There's more to going freelance than having an amazing portfolio and knowing how to network. Obviously both these things help, but if you really want to prosper in the freelance world then here's a handy list to help you make the transition, from establishing your goals through to achieving happiness and success (not to mention all the fiddly details in-between). 9 things you need to sort before going freelance There's nothing like being properly prepared to take much of the risk out of going freelance. Eliminate most of the likely obstacles to a rewarding freelance career by ensuring you can tick all the boxes on this list before you make the jump. 6 things to know about getting freelance clients Going freelance means that you have to be a business person as well as a creative, and that can be a barrier to a lot of designers. The long and the short of it is that you're not going to make money if you don't have any clients, so follow our guide to luring them in and making sure that they stick around to give you even more work. 9 tools to help you work remotely as a freelancer One of the best things about being a freelancer is being able to buy new kit in the knowledge that it's tax-deductible (don't forget to keep those receipts). And if you're planning to work remotely then it's essential to have all the necessary tools to do your job, no matter where you've set up shop for the day. Be prepared with this guide to the gear you're likely to need. Money tips Being a freelancer isn't just about the money, but you're not going to get very far without it. Follow these tips for managing your finances, bringing in more cash and not getting tripped up by taxes. Freelance finance: How to make more money There's nothing quite as simultaneously exciting and terrifying as going freelance. Without a regular pay cheque you're entirely dependent on your own efforts, but if you get it right you'll never want to go back to a full-time job. We spoke to a number of creatives who've already made the leap, to get their advice on how to make it work without ending up in a financial hole. How to be a thrifty freelancer The tides of freelance existence can be unsettling; one month you'll be rushed off your feet, while the next you might find that nothing's coming in at all and you're wondering if you'll ever find work again. The easiest way to get through those fallow months is to be thrifty with your money so you always have a comfortable financial buffer when things go a bit quiet; we asked leading freelance artists, designers and photographers for their advice. How to manage your freelance cashflow All freelancers have to face up to three key financial issues: keeping on top of paperwork, getting paid and, crucially, making sure the taxman doesn't throw you in prison. It's the tedious bit of freelance life that takes up time you'd rather spend on actual work, but it has to be done. We asked other freelance designers how they manage it. 9 tax return tips for freelancers If you're in the UK, you have to have your tax return for the previous financial year filed and paid by 31 of January. Save yourself some last-minute pain by following these tips for getting it all done on time and without any nasty surprises. Self-care If you're working every available hour as a freelancer and never taking a break, you might not be doing it right; here's some advice for keeping your head straight and maintaining a decent work/life balance. 5 tips for taking guilt-free holidays as a freelancer The eternal freelancing dilemma is that if you don't take time off you'll burn yourself out sooner or later, but if you do take a holiday then you'll miss out on work, clients will immediately drop you in favour of someone with a better-tuned work ethic and you'll end up dying in penury. In reality, though, it's entirely possible to take holidays as a freelancer without wrecking your career; here are five ways to do it. 25 tips for staying sane as a freelancer Finally, despite the many advantages of being a freelancer, sometimes it can all feel a bit much. When you're out there on your own, working all hours and often having to fight to get paid, the pressures of freelance life can become overwhelming. But you're not the first freelancer to feel like that, and there are plenty of ways to get you back on track; we asked around and gathered up 25 great tips for staying sane and keeping your focus. Related articles: How to cope with a freelance apocalypse Survey reveals how much freelancers are really charging 8 recent changes to social media that freelancers need to know about View the full article

If you haven't yet heard of Google Easter Eggs, you've probably led an extremely productive life up until this point. Well, all of that is about to change, and we promise you won't be sorry about it. Once upon a time, you may have relied on the word on the street and a secret handshake to feel like an insider, but now you can be the one sharing secret tricks, as we've chosen the best of the Google Easter Eggs and listed them right here. If you'd like to insert some Easter Eggs in your site, check out our guide to the best web design tools out there right now. Or if you want some advice on user testing, we've got a guide for that too. What is a Google Easter Egg? The term 'Easter Egg' has two meanings. Both eggs are hidden, but one is likely to be found in a garden during a frantic hunt whilst the other is buried inside a design – a secret feature that only those 'in the know' will be able to enjoy. These Easter eggs are often videos or games built into the code of a program or website that can only be unlocked by performing a certain action. So you have to know what to do to be able to take part. To find Google Easter Eggs, all you need to do is type the search term into the Google search bar then follow our instructions for some Easter Egg fun. Some work slightly differently, but we will keep you updated as we go. But we should warn you, now you know the extent of the content of this deliciously addictive feature, your workflow may suffer as a result. 01. Sonic the Hedgehog Do you miss the original manifestation of everyone's favourite hedgehog? We certainly do. Here's your chance to enjoy the 1991 version of our spiky friend, complete with those evocative jumping noises. Type 'Sonic the Hedgehog video game' into the Google search bar and you'll find Sonic waiting for you to the right of the screen. After a little while, he starts the foot tapping that used to give us all palpitations, letting you know you're taking too long. Click on Sonic to see him jump, and hear the 'boing' that was the soundtrack to hours on end of hoping the Mega Drive didn't overheat. Keep clicking, and after 25 times, he will transform. 02. Google in 1998 For a trip back in time, try searching 'Google in 1998'. Although it's less feature-packed than other Easter Eggs, it's certainly interesting to check out how Google used to look. You can't actually search on this page, but we enjoy the retro aesthetic and pondering how Google has evolved since then. Check out the links at the bottom of the page that suggest the user try searching through some of the other big search engines of the time. That's certainly a feature that's unlikely to return. 03. Minesweeper Sometimes we long for the simplicity of the days when playing PC games was limited to those found in the Windows start menu. Solitaire, Hearts and... that other one with the King's head that turned from side to side. And of course, Minesweeper. Here's your chance to immerse yourself in the numbered battle against the computer. Type 'Minesweeper' into the search bar to partake. 04. Friends Google released this super-fun series of Friends Easter Eggs this year, in celebration of the 25th anniversary (yes, really) of our favourite group of chums. And it's really our favourite. We won't go into all of them, we don't want to ruin the surprise, but try typing in the full names (we know you know them) of the characters and watch what pops up. We've demoed 'Joey Tribbiani', because everyone loves the Joey Special. 05. Wizard of Oz There will be no place like your Google homepage after you type 'Wizard of Oz' into the search bar. Click on Dorothy's sparkling Ruby slippers and watch the world turn upside down as the eponymous tornado comes to town. This one was created earlier this year, for the 80-year anniversary of the film's release in 1939. 06. T-Rex Runner This is a Chrome-specific Easter Egg that the dinosaur-mad among us will get a kick out of. If you've ever tried to browse offline on your Chrome browser, you might recall the Lonely Dinosaur illustration that appears before you. But have you ever taken much notice of it? To start the action, Android/iOS users need to tap on the dinosaur, while desktop users press the space-bar or the up arrow key. This launches the T-Rex Runner game, in which users control the running dinosaur by tapping the screen or pressing the space-bar or up arrow to avoid obstacles. The features of this game are updated periodically, and reaching different point totals changes the entire screen. It's seriously hard to believe that such an abundance of fun has been right in front of our eyes this whole time and we never knew. What a great reason to get offline. 07. Colour Picker This one is not a novelty piece of fun but a useful tool that we bet you'll be using regularly from now on. Type in 'colour picker' and a colour picker tool will be displayed on the screen. You click and drag your cursor inside the picker area to highlight a colour on the right. Add Hex, HSL, RGB or CMYK values to find a certain colour, then click and add to your palette to save it. And you can enter 'rgb to hex' to be provided with a colour picker that is also an instant colour value converter. 08. Pac-Man Remember that Google Doodle from 2010? It is still around and waiting for you to get involved. Type in 'Pac-Man', 'play Pac-Man' or 'google Pac-Man' and an ear-splitting (honestly, do turn the sound down a bit before you start, we had a cat in the room that almost jumped out of the the window) version of the game will appear on the screen. Use your arrow keys to move him around the screen. 09. Breathing exercise If you've ever found yourself stressed or angry whilst sitting at the screen, you might enjoy this one. We didn't realise Google had our backs here, but if you type in 'Breathing exercise' to the search bar, a (sort-of) calming blue screen appears along with some helpful instructions to complete a breathing exercise. Perhaps not as effective as leaving your computer and going outside for a walk, but certainly enough to tide you over in a non-emergency. Thanks, Google. 10. Harry Potter: Fantastic Beasts It's not just the Google search engine that has delights in store for Easter Egg hunters. Google Maps has loads to explore, too. So hold on to your wizard hats Harry Potter fans, as your minds are about to be blown. Diagon Alley, the cobblestone alley from the Harry Potter films, has been added to Google Maps. Peek into the windows of Slug & Jigg Apothecary, and Flourish and Blotts bookshop. You will have to put up with other tourists, though, as the images are taken from the Warner Bros Studio Tour location in London. You can also type in 'Fantastic Beasts, New York City' and drop Pegman onto the map and you'll be transported to MACUSA the Headquarters of the Magical Congress of the USA, the governing body of wizarding in America. You can have a good look around the magical building that features in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, visit The Blind Pig and more. 12. Doctor Who There's a bunch more Google Maps action, such as the option to travel by dragon (from Snowdon to Breacon Beacons) or the Loch Ness Monster (from Urquhart Castle to Fort Augustus). But we are obsessed with this Doctor Who-themed Easter Egg. Type in 'Earls Court Road Police Box' into Google Maps and drag Pegman to the location that appears. Suddenly you're inside the TARDIS – prepare to be captivated by the 360 degree internal view you're treated to. It's, fittingly, actually trickier than it sounds to gain access. You have to aim for slightly to the left of the Police box drop pin, and make sure Pegman's feet are floating to the left too otherwise you'll be rudely dropped onto the boring old road. (NB: Apparently this Easter Egg doesn't work every time on the new Google Maps interface. If you're having trouble, put yourself into incognito mode and things should improve.) 12. Pegman Talking of Pegman (the little guy you drop into Google Maps to see the streets up close), he loves to be involved in Google Easter Egg surprises. Turns out, he isn't always always dressed in yellow. Some places, and special days, will bring him to life and give him a bit of personality. Drop him onto Buckingham Palace to see him turn into Peg Ma'am, or try Groom Lake, Nevada or Area 51 to transform him into a UFO, or near to the ocean in Hawaii to see him shape-shift into a mermaid. 11. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy There is a whole host of number-based Google Easter Eggs that are calculator-related. And this one, based on the Douglas Adams series, is said to be the very first Easter Egg ever embedded into the system, predating the calculator on which the answer is now revealed. Type in 'the answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything' to see the famous digits appear. 12. Do a barrel roll Enter 'do a barrel roll' into the search bar and enjoy the somewhat geeky (but awesome) reference to Nintendo's Star Fox as the screen rotates 360 degrees. 13. Snake The retro game that kept us awake all night on our Nokia 3310s, is still with us. We can't believe we didn't know. Type 'Snake' into Google and fill your boots. Use the arrow keys to control the little guy, this is possibly slightly easier on the thumbs than the little keyboard of those old Nokias. It is in technicolour, which was a slight disappointment, but it still provides (almost) the same levels of fun. You can also play Tic Tac Toe, just FYI. Read more: The best new UX books right now Brilliant UX tips you need to know The best Google Doodle designs View the full article

Everyone wants to know how to generate ideas. That's because strong ideas are the bedrock of the creative industries. They keep the work fresh, but also help engage audiences who are overwhelmed and fatigued by the relentless noise coming from brands. Strip away the craft, and if there isn’t a compelling thought beneath there’s a risk that even the most beautiful piece of design risks becoming little more than decoration. If you're not sure what constitutes a good idea (it's usually a lot easier to tell with other people's work than your own), then check out our examples of experimental design. “Ideas are what engage and delight an audience,” confirms Jim Sutherland, multi-award-winning founder of Studio Sutherl&. “Being able to sum up an idea in a few words is a good way to know you have a strong and simple solution,” he adds. “You should be able to tell someone your idea over the phone.” “Ideas come first, always,” agrees Matt Baxter, co-founder of Brighton-based design studio Baxter & Bailey. Design is about thinking, solving problems and innovating, asserts Baxter. And in order to have maximum impact, you need people to understand your ideas as easily as possible in order to get excited by them. “Ideas resonate," Baxter explains. “They can make people change the way they think, behave, act. Great ideas change culture, influence politics, shape the world. What that thinking looks like is secondary, but also vitally important – the craft or execution of those ideas can increase that resonance massively.” Studio Sutherl& used two types of bracket, together forming a 'P' as a device to contain the diverse collections at Pallant House Gallery “Ideas have the power to change the way people think,” believes the veteran creative director, Rosie Arnold, who after more than three decades at BBH, followed by a stint at AMV BBDO, is now an independent consultant. A firm believer in design’s social impact potential, Arnold was instrumental in introducing the White Pencil Award while D&AD president from 2011-12. “Whether you’re creating a brand, changing opinion or changing the world, without that great idea you can’t do anything,” she says. "I think if you don’t have a great idea to start with, then it’ll never be great," adds Susan Hoffman, chief creative officer at Wieden+Kennedy. "The only argument is: ‘Does it emotionally get you?’ Entertainment can do that, long copy can do that, a song can do that. Many things can," she continues. For this quirky KFC campaign, W+K put Colonel Sanders at the heart of all manner of stunts and branded merchandise As a fiercely independent agency that beats its own drum away from the big networks, Wieden+Kennedy prides itself on being wonderfully off-kilter both in its culture and its work – and the agency has made weirdness work for brands as diverse as Old Spice, KFC and its founding client, Nike. “But it’s getting harder for us to be weird,” admits Hoffman. “You need a balance of right and left: if you don’t you’re in trouble. We use phrases like ‘the right kind of crazies’ and ‘ship of fools’ to describe the agency, to remind ourselves not to be too serious, have fun, and be human.” For Hoffman, it all boils down to finding a relevant ‘truth’ about the brand in question to build from. Fabricate something just to fit a brief and you’re building a campaign on quicksand in an age where consumers are demanding substance and authenticity. “We really shouldn’t get out of the starting gates until we know that truth. I’m not saying it’s easy to find, or to execute, but if you bank on truth you stand a better chance of pulling it off, and you know that it’s right,” says Hoffman. “It’s always there, you just have to dig hard to find it.” Where to find a great idea Finding a killer idea is certainly no mean feat, and it often takes an open mind to spot potential and bring it to the surface. Sutherland’s creative process involves hundreds of scribbled ideas: “It’s about experimenting and testing out all sorts of approaches,” he explains. “I constantly add new thoughts and ideas in notebooks, on scraps of paper and so on.” In order to whittle all these rough starting points down into ideas that have legs, the next step is to talk them all through and determine which have the most potential to “grow and flex”, as Sutherland puts it. “Best-seller ideas tend to stand out under scrutiny,” he explains. “Keep looking, talking and reflecting. You should work hard, but it shouldn’t be hard work – it should be good fun. It’s like a pig snuffling for truffles, if you enjoy the process and you unearth the reward.” “Brilliant ideas are tenacious. They hang around and refuse to be squished down,” agrees Baxter. “When you spot a great idea lurking amongst the doodles in a notebook or sketchpad, you generally feel that initial lurch of excitement. You may well move on to other ideas through your design process, but you return to the good ones – or they return to you.” For P&G's Olympics sponsorship campaign, W+K made the atheletes' mums the stars Hoffman gives the example of W+K’s long-running Olympics campaign for P&G, not on the face of it an easy brand to link with sporting achievement. The solution was beautifully simple: behind every world-class athlete is a mum who believes in them, and has brought them up for greatness. “It was the most relevant, authentic angle,” she says. With the tagline ‘For teaching us that falling only makes us stronger’, the initial campaign for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics tracked several athletes’ journeys from early childhood to Olympic glory, their mums always there to pick them up whenever they fall. P&G, in turn, was the ‘Proud sponsor of mums’. All of a sudden FMCG products such as nappies, detergent and shampoo – the everyday ingredients of growing up – were seamlessly woven into a genuinely uplifting narrative concerning sport. Subsequent campaigns adapted the concept to explore mental strength in the face of adversity and fear (‘It takes someone strong to make someone strong’, Rio 2016) and acceptance in the face of prejudice and persecutive (‘Imagine if the world could see what a mum sees’, PyeongChang, 2018). Inspiration outside the office Inspiration can strike at any time and according to Arnold, more often than not this will happen when you’re more relaxed, rather than straining to find a breakthrough sat at your desk. “Making a cup of tea is good. Your brain is like a computer: when you stop programming it, it carries on working,” she believes. “And don’t go to the internet for ideas,” urges Arnold. “You’ll get sucked down a rabbit hole, and because you’re specifically looking for stuff, you’ll end up with tunnel vision.” She reveals that her best ideas often come following a trip out of the office – bookshops in particular. It’s vital to spend time away from work to inspire and refresh your brain Jim Sutherland “I love the photography section, and especially the illustrations in kids’ books. They’re fabulous, very simple. Flicking through stuff that might have absolutely no relevance to what you were doing helps you think outside the box. It’s a randomisation idea process, rather than selecting to see something just because you’ve gone into a search engine.” “It’s vital to spend time away from work to inspire and refresh your brain,” agrees Sutherland. “The more amazing visual, verbal and aural things you feed in, the more interesting work comes out the other end. It’s a very poor approach to think you need to sit in your studio at a computer to generate ideas. Most ideas come thorough conversation, inspiration and when you’re not expecting them.” How to nurture a great idea Great ideas need to be nurtured and protected if they are ever to reach their full potential – particularly in the face of pressure from the client to mould them in ways that compromise their integrity, or keep tagging on extras that dilute or distort them. "It’s easy to put too much irrelevant stuff in," admits Arnold, who compares the situation to the kids’ game Buckaroo. "If there’s a lot of stuff in the brief, don’t try to misshape it to answer everything. Strip it back and think: how is this idea the best it possibly can be? Sometimes you need to persuade the client that there are a few things they wanted that can drop off, if it solves one thing really well." That’s the key, for Arnold: when you’ve found an idea that’s still compelling in its very simplest form, you must stay faithful to that essence throughout the process. "Think, what are the pieces that we do not want to lose? Would we rather walk away from the idea than make it like that? Therein often lies the problem," she admits. “Time gets in the way,” she adds. “You’ve been to-ing and fro-ing about an idea for weeks, and suddenly the deadline is coming up and the idea looks nowhere like it did at first because everyone’s had their input. It’s shifted. And yet you have to make it, even though it’s nothing like what you intended. Sometimes you don’t have the luxury of saying, ‘No, I don’t want to make it like that,’ although you should.” Collaborating on ideas W+K Sao Paulo’s vibrant Drink Right F*** Right campaign for Skol turned the anti-drink-driving brief on its head Collaboration is an integral part of the creative process, but Arnold believes the best ideas need ownership and singular creative vision, whether from an individual or a small creative team. “Collaboration can make it wonderful – working with the right director, or illustrator for instance – but ideas need ownership,” she insists. “You need a benign dictator to inspire people. The minute you fragment it, even sometimes with two creatives, it makes it harder to realise,” Arnold continues. “The ownership of the idea needs to rest with one person. Otherwise there are too many cooks. Sorry, but that’s the way it is. Everybody wants to be creative: you’re not.” Hoffman disagrees. “I don’t think it works that way any more,” she counters. “In the olden days the idea sat with the copywriter and art director. Now it sits with a lot more people. Although you have to make sure it’s not too many, and you have to make sure it’s the right people.” Sometimes, Hoffman continues, the right idea comes from a totally different place from the original challenge. She gives the example of a brief for Skol beer that came into W+K Sao Paulo, which on the face of it was about raising awareness of drink-drinking – but the team decided to take a different tack. “They realised that when you get drunk you make bad decisions, and maybe go home with the wrong people,” she explains. The result was a striking, psychedelic animation that turns the original concept on its head, shifting the focus from driving to sex, with the tagline: ‘Drink Right, F*** Right’. The role of an idea within a project, and the impact it has on the outcome, can vary significantly based on the discipline in question. For Arnold, advertising is the heartland for verbal ideas – communicating a particular concept by telling a story in the best way possible. Branding, on the other hand, is where simple visual ideas cut through the noise. Cossette’s Follow The Arches campaign for McDonalds demonstrates the power of iconic brand assets To illustrate this, she gives the example of McDonalds’ 2018 D&AD Wood Pencil-winning campaign ‘Follow The Arches’ by Canadian agency Cossette, which used tightly cropped elements of the iconic Golden Arches logo to represent roads – a beautifully simple way to give directions to the nearest restaurant. “That’s an example of fantastic branding: you know exactly what that brand is and what it’s saying to you, just using parts of the logo,” she enthuses. “To me, that’s what you’re trying to do as a brand: create an iconic image. Advertising is more fluid, and the message is often more complicated, so it needs to be about the idea.” How to pitch an idea Baxter & Bailey's award-winning identity for Bog Eyed Books came from an idea scrawled on a scrap of paper while in a pub Once you’ve found a suitably infectious, flexible, durable and simple idea – no mean feat – then pitching it to the client should, theoretically at least, be the easy bit. “Great ideas sell themselves,” insists Sutherland. “I don’t ever feel that I’m ’selling’ an idea, I simply try and explain why we feel it’s the right approach. You take clients on the journey of the thought process and rationale.” At an early concept stage, Baxter & Bailey will always follow the process of discussing ideas internally using rough sketches – but it’s rare that those rough sketches will ever find their way in front of a client. “At the sketch stage, ideas feel embryonic and open to change. By looking at a sketch, we’re scrutinising the idea, rather than the execution,” reasons Baxter. “But clients generally – and quite rightly – want to see that the ideas we present have the flexibility and strength to work for them,” he continues. “If it’s a brand identity, we’re keen to present the idea as broadly and comprehensively as possible. Can it stretch from a tiny animated GIF to a massive billboard? If it can, it’s likely to have legs.” Nevertheless, even the strongest ideas can buckle under the strain of ‘design by committee’, and Sutherland believes resolve and determination are essential to keep the standard of output high. “Good ideas need to adapt and flex, but it’s so important to keep single-minded and strong to keep the integrity of an idea,” he says. “And it’s the responsibility of everyone involved to keep that fundamental idea alive.” On rare occasions, adds Arnold, it becomes an uphill struggle not to sell an idea to the client, but to the rest of the agency internally. She gives the example of 2010’s ‘rapping farmers’ spot for Yeo Valley that she headed up while at BBH – which spawned a hit single for fictional ‘farmer boyband’ The Churned the following year. “The client said, ‘I run a real farm, and I want to make organic produce available to the masses, not middle-class Waitrose mums’,” she explains. “He was actually prepared to lower prices to make it more affordable.” Tired of people saying the brand name incorrectly, he added that ‘Yo’ is the right pronunciation – which soon set the cogs whirring. “It may have been the corniest idea in the world, but rapping farmers seemed suitably fun, populist and mainstream,” explains Arnold. “We won the business on it, but had to push it hard within the agency as people thought it was too cheesy.” It went on the win a D&AD Pencil for Music in Advertising. You know when you’ve landed on a great idea, Arnold continues, and those are the ones where you have to fight. “Some of my best work is where I’ve seen an opportunity I hadn’t been briefed on, and tried to do that,” she adds. “If it’s something you haven’t been challenged with, you’re freer.” When to fight for an idea, and when to flee Packed with crazy scenes and witty dialogue, Nike’s Nothing Beats a Londoner applies W+K’s penchant for weirdness Ultimately, of course, the client needs to share your vision to get great work made. Sometimes the will isn’t there and it’s a waste of everyone’s energy to force a square peg into a round hole. “Sometimes there’s a point where you have to go, ‘Yeah, the client actually doesn’t want it’,” Arnolds admits. “You have to fight a lot,” urges Hoffman, who admits W+K has had projects where a concept has been pulled around so much in meetings that the soul has been sucked out of it. “In those situations, you need to talk about what’s happening,” she says. “Limit the idea to what absolutely needs to be heard, and make that the most important thing.” Arnold adds that it takes guts to tell a client that suggested changes are going to undermine, rather than improve, an idea. “Everyone likes to feel they’re getting somewhere,” she reflects. “You know, ‘This bit doesn’t work, change this.’ It’s like chopping up a Mozart symphony. Then you play it, and it doesn’t make any sense. ‘But we’ve got somewhere?’ No you haven’t, you’ve just wrecked a really good composition.” It’s so much easier for clients to look intelligent and clever if they say ‘no’ Rosie Arnold Part of the problem, according to Arnold, is that clients are concerned that a simple thumbs-up to a great idea makes them look like they don’t have anything constructive to add. “It’s so much easier for clients to look intelligent and clever if they say ‘no’,” she remarks. “Sitting round a table, everyone feels they have to have an opinion. This is their opportunity to shine in front of their boss, you know: ‘It’s really good, but I’m worried about this.’ By the time this poor little idea has had 14 people try to look clever and brilliant, it’s dead.” As a rule, she continues, the more senior and self-assured the stakeholder, the more likely they are to simply say ‘yes’ to a strong idea. “There’s a reason certain people are at top of the tree – they’re actually really good around creative work. But they’re not around it enough,” she laments. If you are forced to compromise on elements of your idea, Arnold advocates focusing on the best possible execution instead. “It may be bread and butter, but you can still make it as brilliant as you can,” she insists. “Use a photographer you’ve always wanted to work with. Make the music the best. Get the best illustrator. That’s where I shelter: let’s make something beautiful. Don’t ever do something totally joyless.” Client frustrations aside, it takes a great creative mind to conceive a great idea, and steer it faithfully to completion. Baxter lists the characteristics he believes all the best designers share: “Energy, tenacity, perseverance, resilience, an open and curious mind, a broad thirst for knowledge and an ability to collaborate,” he reels off. “The biggest internal obstacles occur when we run out of those things,” Baxter continues. “Of course we have to balance principles and creative ambition with practical requirements like deadlines and budget, but great ideas don’t require huge budgets and generous timelines. They need clarity of thinking.” This article originally appeared in Computer Arts 296. Buy issue 296 or subscribe to Computer Arts. Read more: Has branding become boring? How to use photography in design 5 winning personality traits all design studios are looking for View the full article

Roughly how much time do you think you've spent taking screenshots to sample colours in After Effects? Wouldn't it be great if you could just use the eyedropper tool outside of the software? Big news, everyone, you can! To sample a colour outside of the After Effects user interface, press the Return or Enter key on your keyboard instead of clicking the mouse button and voila! Pressing the Return or Enter key works on both Windows and macOS, whether you’re sampling a colour inside or outside of After Effects. By not using a mouse click, the operating system in use won't switch to the application you sampled the colour from and you therefore never leave After Effects. Clever, huh? How to get a HUGE discount on Adobe Creative Cloud A recent tweet from creative lead Chris Zachary included a simple After Effects tutorial on the feature, accompanied by him commenting the "discovery changed my life". And hundreds of artists and designers, who also had no idea it existed, have responded similarly. Question is, does it work in other Adobe apps? Twitter user @raffonmars replied suggested the functionality also extends to Photoshop and Illustrator. Having tested it, just to make sure, in Photoshop and Illustrator CS6, we can confirm it does. The handy feature might not come as news to some, as, believe it or not, this small but mighty eyedropper trick has been around since 2014 (in After Effects at least). However, for those Adobe CC users not in the know, this is one small tool set to make a big difference. If this brilliant little feature is the push you needed to sign up to Creative Cloud, be sure to check out our best Adobe deals post, which has details of all the latest offers. Read more: The 13 best alternatives to Photoshop How to remove wrinkles in Photoshop 12 amazing Adobe After Effects plugins View the full article

Who wants a free Nintendo Switch games console or Toshiba 4K HDR TV, as well as a new phone? Yes, you really can get all of this with EE's stunning deal, which just goes to show that the best Black Friday deals are already appearing. The phones you can get are the Samsung Galaxy A80, A70 or A40 or a Huawei P30 Lite, Huawei P30 Pro or Huawei P smart. Sign up for one of these right now through EE and you could be enjoying a nice new shiny games console or a super-sharp pixel perfect screen in your living room very soon. These deals offer some of the best phones around, some of them even made it our best camera phones post. With prices starting from as little as £28 a month these deals are not to be missed. They all include 10GB of data and there's no upfront cost on selected phones. To help you make the right choice quickly and easily we have broken down these must-see Samsung and Huawei deals. Find the one for you below. Huawei phone deals + free Nintendo Switch or 4K TV Samsung phone deals + free Nintendo Switch or 4K TV Not quite what you're after? Check out some more smartphone deals below. Read more: Amazon Black Friday: when to get the best deals The best laptop deals in 2019 How do you use your mobile phone at work? View the full article

Mo.js is a unique motion graphics JavaScript library that not only facilitates full-screen page animation loaders, but also click-to-animate micro-interactions, and tons of shape manipulations. If you have been following the web design scene for a while now, chances are that you will have come across – or perhaps interacted with – a wide array of animation techniques and libraries. Core technologies such as CSS, HTML5 and JavaScript are becoming even more powerful, and browser support is improving with time. The implication is that more sophisticated web animations can be supported across devices. Need some animation inspiration? Here are some awesome examples of top CSS animation to recreate. How can mo.js help? Web animation, as it appears, is here to stay. However, a shortcoming with most popular animation techniques is that they are gravitated towards animating conventional UI/UX elements such as slideshows, tabbed buttons and drop-down menus. As a result, using them can eventually make your site too familiar and non-exciting. Mo.js can help with this. Using the library helps to animate the not-so-ordinary site elements by utilizing its built-in components such as html, shape, swirl, burst and stagger. The library is very easy to use, fast, retina ready, modular and open source. In this tutorial, the basics of working with mo.js are introduced and two techniques demonstrated; blast and bubble. 01. Get started Begin by creating a folder, mo.js, on your desktop to store the tutorial files. Create three additional folders within it: css to store the styling files, img for images and js for the JavaScript files. HTML files will be stored in the root folder. 02. Create page structure Open your code editor and create an index.html document to contain mark up for the main web page. Begin by creating the basic structure and give a suitable title to the page. 03. Structure the page The tutorial is divided into two parts; the first demonstrates the blast technique, whereas the second illustrates the bubble concept. As a result, we prepare two HTML files, one for each technique. To kick-start the blast technique, create a div section to contain the page title. Render the page in your browser where you should observe un-styled text at the top-left corner. 04. Link the CSS Open your code editor and create styles.css file inside the css folder. Create a link to this file in your html document by adding this code in the head section, <link rel=”stylesheet” href =”css/styles.css” >. Since no styles have been added, the page renders as illustrated in step 3. Alternatively, since the styling is minimal, you can opt to use inline styling by combining the HTML and CSS. 05. Style the background Next, we style the background by adding a background image. We have used the free scenic landscape background by Nikolai Ultang from Pexels. You can download it here. Save this (or your own image) inside the img folder. Render the page to show changes to the background. 06. Style the text The text is then styled to render at the centre of the page, as it currently appears at the top left corner. Note that to centralise the text, we select an absolute position and set its exact positioning using the top, left and right margins. The text is also transformed using the text-transform property. The text-align property is also set to centre. 07. Install mo.js As with other libraries, mo.js is installed through multiple options. The simplest approach, which we employ, is accessing it directly from a CDN server. Add the following code in the body section. In case you are developing offline, the library can be downloaded directly from GitHub and installed by using the Bower or NPM packages by using the appropriate commands. Once downloaded, it can be referenced directly. Finally, create a new script.js file and save it in the js folder. We will add JavaScript functionality to this file. Link it in the body section as follows. Place it below the text title as shown below. 08. Create the first blast Before proceeding to develop the code, it wise to highlight what we are creating. To blast something simply means to break it apart into smaller bits in an explosive manner. We will create a simple object (circle) and set it up search that when a user clicks it, it breaks apart in an explosive manner. 09. Create the circle object First, the object to be blasted is created (circle). However, mo.js supports other shapes, including rectangle (rect), cross, equal, zigzag and polygon. Where you fail to specify the shape type, it will default to a circle.To create a simple circle, declare it using the var or const and assign its attributes by calling the shape function. The code creates the default circle object with the given radius. The isShowStart variable is assigned a Boolean value to specify whether you need to show the object or not. Render the code to display a small magenta-coloured circle at the centre of the page. 10. Animate the circle The code snippet specifies that the scale and opacity will change from 1 to 0, indicating that the object disappears. Aduration and delay of the animation are also set. Note that the animation does not play since we are yet to initialise it. To do so, add the function below. 11. Make exploding polygons Now that the circle is animating, we create a blast animation that renders at the same time. The first blast uses the polygon shapes to draw out the explosion. To create a blast, use the mo.js function Burst as shown in the code snippet below. The code assigns seven polygon shapes to the explosion and specifies two radii. The first refers to the overall animation, while the second focuses on the specific polygon objects within the animation. Ensure to add the burst to the event listener function so that it responds to mouse clicks. Note that two new parameters have been added; the tune and generate. Tune makes the blast to render anywhere in the page, whereas generate initialises the burst animation. Render the page. Observe the exploding elements that appear at the same time as the circle. 12. Create the second blast Next, we create the second blast by using different shape options. The code follows the structure of the previous blast and only changes a few parameters. Add the burst to the event listener function. 13. Add circle explosions In order to enhance the animation further, we add circular explosions. Examining the code in steps 11 and 12 reveals a lot of similarities existing between the two type of bursts. In creating the third blast, we avoid rewriting too much code by using the spread operator which is written as three dots (...). However, first, we declare a variable that contains the similar features that we want to reuse. Thereafter, the other two circles can be created by simply using the spread operator. The code specifies the fill type, scale, opacity and whether to display them at the end of the animation. The two circle animations are created as follows. Add the circular shapes. 14. Render a basic bubble Unlike the blast animation, which breaks the object into smaller pieces, the bubble animation, on the other hand, translates the clicked object into a bigger space. The concept adopts the analogy of blowing up a balloon where the object continually expands in size. To do this, we simply create a new variable openBackground and assign attributes that will make the entire background achieve a similar colour to the object. As a result, this creates the nuance of bubbling. Ensure to add the background variable to the event listener function. 15. Add multiple shapes Following the concept in step 14, we now advance the example to include multiple coloured circular objects, which upon clicking expand in a similar manner and display some text. Edit the existing html file and copy the code within the body. It creates the basic structure of the page. 16. Add helper libraries Next, some additional libraries are added in the body section in order to facilitate scrolling and produce sounds when the objects are clicked. 17. Advance the animation Next, we add styles for the individual classes highlighted in the html files. The mo.js functionality is then added. The full code (css and js) is shared with the tutorial files for review. 18. Learn more about mo.js While the tutorial demonstrates the bubble and blast techniques, there are further resources available online that can help you fast-track your learning process. Some of these include mo.js tutorials on Github and demos also on Github. This article was originally published in issue 291 of creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 291. Read more: CSS art gets brilliantly ruined by old browsers Best pieces of user testing software Great UI designs View the full article

Slack dark mode is here. The new theme was added on a recent update, and brings a less jarring black background to your chats. To find out how to activate Slack dark mode, read on. Dark modes are having a moment right now. Twitter kicked off the trend earlier in the year, and the new Instagram dark mode is proving very popular. It seems like a simple thing, but there are a number of benefits to activating dark mode. It'll help save battery on your phone or tablet, and is less distracting for others if you're working in an area with dimmed lights, such as a design conference. It also seems to be easier on the eyes when compared to a bright white background – if you suffer from migranes, for example, dark mode can help. No matter what type of design you do, chances are if you work with others you have Slack installed on your machine (for more handy apps and software, explore our guides to the best tools for graphic designers and the top web design tools around). Could this be the design move that redeems the tool for designers after the fiasco that surrounded the new Slack logo? How to activate Slack dark mode on desktop To activate Slack dark mode, you just need to follow a couple of very simple steps. On desktop, open the app and go to Slack > Preferences > Themes and then simply select Light or Dark. Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image How to activate Slack dark mode on mobile On mobile, open the app and tap the three dots in the top right of your screen. From the drop-down that appears, select Settings. Scroll down, and under General you'll see an option to select Dark Mode. The process should be the same for iPhone, iPad and Android. If your device is running iOS 13, you'll need to turn on dark mode in Slack from your OS settings. Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Still having trouble? Check out Slack's instruction page. You can go further and change the sidebar shade and accent colour within your dark mode. Choose from a range of excitingly titled options, from Dagobah (blue) to Noctune (also blue) to Monument (orange). Slack also offers a couple of accessible themes catering to different types of colour blindness: there's one for users suffering from protanopia (reduced sensitivity to red light) or deuteranopia (reduced sensitivity to green light) and one for those with tritanopia (where the user cannot distinguish between blue and yellow). Bored of Slack's official options? Try this After something more expressive? Pokéslack is a generator that will create a light and dark theme based on your favourite Pokémon. Read more: How to implement light or dark modes in CSS Slack sparks further outrage with tweak to new logo 18 controversial moments in logo design and branding View the full article

The wait is over – Photoshop for iPad is finally here – at least – in name. Even by Adobe’s own admission, this app has been released with limited capabilities, with the intention of adding more features as users get up to speed with the new way of working. Where are we with iPad apps in general? Developers are forever striving to close the power gap between tablets and desktops, but it’s only with the latest iPad (supported by Apple’s Sidecar) that we’re really beginning to see the potential of portable devices as viable working machines. Advances in technology have made it possible to perform increasingly complex photo edits on the go, with the advent of such apps as Affinity Photo and Pixelmator, but few can boast the same influence and heritage as Adobe Photoshop. Does Photoshop for iPad come anywhere close to its desktop counterpart? Has Adobe shot itself in the foot with unrealistic aspirations and a self-imposed deadline? Read on for our full Photoshop for iPad review. Photoshop for iPad review: Welcome and interface The New Document window looks familiar, but has some notable omissions, such as CMYK and Artboards The opening screen of Photoshop for iPad is encouragingly similar to the desktop app, but there are some notable omissions in the New Document window – no CMYK option, no link to Adobe Stock, no Artboards, no saved presets and no Advanced options – that’s a lot to be missing before even opening a document. Despite the tab for ‘Film and Video’ documents, there is no actual video or GIF capability at this time. Photos can be imported from Camera Roll or directly from the Camera, while PSD projects can be continued directly from the computer, thanks to cloud-based saving. Working offline is no problem and files are re-synced over CC when back online. Cloud Documents is a practical solution for cross-platform sharing and one of this app’s most attractive features. Currently your only options for export are PNG, JPEG, PSD and TIFF. There is no CMYK option After opening a document you are presented with a reimagined Photoshop. This app is a champion of minimalism ahead of functionality – presenting a stark, pared-back interface, with tools hidden behind a veil of icons and menus. Some icons are immediately obvious in their functions, while others require some experimenting to discover their use. Adobe have attempted to design a UI for smaller screens, maximising canvas size without compromising on usability, while optimising for touch and pencil. For any native to iOS, this may come as intuitively as using a mouse, but for a seasoned desktop user it takes some time to reverse years of muscle memory and adapt to new processes. Luckily there is a practical ‘help’ section in the top-right corner, which contains plenty of tips, tutorials and a list of shortcuts. In the same area is the export button, which allows you to save your document as a PNG, JPEG, PSD or TIFF. There is minimal customisation of the workspace and no way to save any personal presets. Photoshop for iPad review: Layers The Layers tab has all the same options you might expect from the standard app – Opacity, Masks and Adjustments The layers tab has two configurations – a panel of smaller squares that take up very little space and a more extensive window that resembles the Layers panel from the standard app. Both offer the same basic layer options like Opacity, Blend Modes, Masks and Groups, but not necessarily where you would expect to find them. It is frustratingly difficult to achieve basic operations, like grouping layers or moving them up or down in the tab. Add an adjustment layer by holding down the New Layer icon, select ‘adjustment layer’ and choosing the one you want Adding an Adjustment layer requires you to hold down the New Layer icon, select ‘adjustment layer’ and choose the one you want. Although a matter of seconds, it feels like an annoyingly slow and cumbersome experience, especially if you want to add multiple adjustments quickly. It does however have all the vital adjustments needed for photo correction – Brightness/Contrast, Levels, Colour Balance, Black and white, Exposure and Hue/Satuation. If you are an advocate of Photoshop filters then you will be disappointed to learn that there are currently only two currently available – Gaussian Blur and Invert. It seems you could spend just as much time talking about what this app is missing as you could one what it currently has. Adobe has previously demonstrated huge file sizes on the iPad, containing up to 500 layers, without displaying any lag. This appears to be a fair reflection of the power of the app, which is fast and responsive – seeming to perform some tasks even better than on a computer. Photoshop for iPad review: Tools Selection is fairly accurate, but cannot replace the precision of the Pen Tool. The standard Photoshop toolbar is located on the left of the screen, with a modest array of tools available, bearing recognizable icons. The image enhancement options are fairly comprehensive, certainly among the best for iPad, achieving great results for general edits. The Clone stamp, Brushes and Healing brush in particular are well suited to Apple Pencil, while Transform lets you resize and distort layers easily. But it is lacking those tools that make it recognisable as a true Photoshop app – Pen Tool, Shapes, Burn, Dodge, Blur and History Brush. The Selection and Marquee tools are fine for rough work, but without a Pen tool or a Refine Edge there is a distinct lack of precision in these selections. There is also a basic text option with the Type tool, but it suffers from the Character and Paragraph windows being combined into one diluted tab. The Clone and Healing tools work just as on the standard app If you own an iPad-friendly keyboard then standard Photoshop shortcuts are possible, as well as some useful additions like the double-finger tap for Undo. The most novel of these is the Touch shortcut, which is displayed as a translucent circle on the canvas, similar to the 'toggle button' used in mobile gaming. It works in the same way as the Shift or Command key, letting you switch between different tools without having to go back to the toolbar. It takes a bit of getting used to and can be awkward to reach for, but could prove to be a big time-saver in the long run. There are some instances where a shortcut would feel natural and logical, such as double-tapping the screen to confirm a transform, but doesn’t work the way you want it to. Perhaps this is indicative of Adobe’s long-term commitment to an evolving system that responds to the feedback of its users. Photoshop for iPad review: Conclusion "Not yet supported on this device" really says it all. Even inside the app there are signs of unfinished development At Adobe Max 2018, Adobe described this app as "not a watered down version of Photoshop, this is real Photoshop". Unfortunately this is not true, it isn’t real Photoshop, but more like a pick-and-mix of some of Photoshop’s most popular features, with the focus on retouching and compositing – Photoshop with stabilisers on. As a basic portable photo editor it certainly ranks among the best, but there are plenty of apps already available on iPad that do a similar job at a cheaper price. If you’re already a CC subscriber then it is well worth the free download, if only to experiment with as an extension of the full desktop app, allowing a smooth transition to pick up projects on the go. The technology on show is impressive and raises the expectations for the possible additions that will come down the line. However in its current state it cannot be considered a replacement for the real thing – and suffers from that inevitable comparison, like a child who can’t live up to their parent’s glory. Ultimately this comes down to your own opinion – you can either view this as a premature release that fails to fulfil on its promise or a brave first step on an undeniably exciting journey. It’s certainly a statement of intent by Adobe and it’s now up to them to follow through on that potential. Read more: Lightroom vs Photoshop: What's the difference? View the full article

If you want to capture an entire screen, a window, or just a selected portion of your desktop, macOS has some quick, easy to remember shortcuts. Here we are going to kick off with the keyboard timesavers that work across all versions of macOS, before looking at the screenshot app that comes with macOS Mojave (v10.14) or later. If you don't have the latest version of the macOS or are simply looking to upgrade to take advantage of its tasty new features then check how to get a great MacBook Black Friday deal. Or, if you just want to tart up your MacBook check our mac decals post to help add a personal touch. 01. How to screenshot on all macOS versions Drag the cursor to capture a selected screen area Capture entire screen - To screenshot the desktop 'as seen' press Shift + Cmd +3. This will add the capture to your desktop. Click once to rename and then move to your chosen folder. Capture a window - To screenshot a specific window press Shift + Cmd + 4 followed by the Space bar. This will turn the cursor into a camera icon. Now click the window that you want to screenshot. A top tip to remove the window's shadow is to hold down the Option key when you click. Capture a selected part of the screen - To screenshot any part of the desktop first press Shift + Cmd + 4 and a cursor will appear. Now hold down the mouse button and drag to select the area of the screen to capture. Capture a menu - The first thing to do is open the menu you want to capture. Now press Shift + Cmd + 4 and drag the cursor over the menu and release the mouse button to capture. Alternatively, press the Space bar to change the cursor to a camera icon and click the menu to capture. 02. How to screenshot on macOS Mojave or later If your Mac has the Mojave OS (or later) installed you can take advantage of the Screenshot app to capture your desktop. You can open Screenshot by pressing Shift + Cmd + 5, or use Spotlight to find the app. Here you will see a collection of icons for capturing. The Screenshot app in the Mojave OS (or later) Capture entire screen - To screenshot everything click the Capture Entire Screen icon (first on the left) and the pointer will change to a camera. Click anywhere to capture. Capture a window - Select the Capture Selected Window icon (second from the left) and the pointer will change to a camera. Click the chosen window to capture. Capture a selected part of the screen - First select the Capture Selected Portion icon (third from the left). Now drag the cursor to select an area of the screen to capture. Capture a menu - The first thing to do is open the menu you want to capture. Now use either of the Capture a window or Capture a selected part of the screen options to capture the menu. 03. How to capture the Touch Bar Capture the Touch Bar with a simple shortcut If you own a MacBook with a Touch Bar, and have macOS Sierra (v10.12.2) or later installed, you can capture the Touch Bar by simply selecting Shift + Cmd + 6. This will add the capture to your desktop. The best mouse for Mac in 2019 Apple Pencil vs Apple Pencil 2: which should you buy? The 100 greatest Apple creations View the full article

Apple is investigating an issue raised by a Mac specialist discovered to be storing emails that are supposed to be S/MIME-encrypted as readable files. View the full article

The American public broadcaster, PBS, has its first new logo in a decade. PBS has over 330 local member stations, and a massive audience of over 146 million people both online and through TV, making it a tricky brand to harness. PBS worked with global creative consultancy Lippincott for two years to create the new logo, which will roll out throughout 2020 to celebrate 50 years of broadcasting. How has the logo changed exactly? In crude terms, it has gone from having three faces on top of each other in a black circle, with the logotype next to it, to a tweaked version of the faces in a blue circle, with an enlarged logotype next to it. And the lettering has also been tweaked, with new custom typeface, PBS Sans. (See more examples of how to rebrand, with our guide to logo design). The old PBS logo, in use since 2009 "The new brand identity also features a new, vibrant signature colour, PBS Blue, designed to convey a sense of trust and integrity," says PBS in a press release. You'll also notice that the nose on the logotype is more rounded than before, which is basically the logo equivalent of a nose job. "We softened the sharp geometric features of the original symbol, with a subtle upward gaze that feels more engaging," explains Lippincott on its PBS project page. You can see how the PBS brand has developed below. "PBS Sans – the brand’s new proprietary typeface – is human, engaging, and highly legible across all platforms," says Lippincott. We can't help but feel that this is yet another example of an all-caps sans serif, the kind that we saw recently with Facebook's rebrand, and countless other rebrands of late. What do we make of the logo? It's quite hard to get excited about it either way. That might be because we're not American. Or it might be because it's just not that exciting. PBS says that over 70 per cent of local PBS member stations will be adopting the new branding next year. So while this new identity will definitely go some way to uniting the disparate brand, there's also a little way to go until it becomes entirely consistent. Read more: New Pandora logo includes some seriously subtle serifs The best free sans serif fonts of 2019 Font licensing: A designer's guide View the full article

There's a couple of weeks to wait until all the best Black Friday deals start appearing. But it looks like Adobe is kicking off the big savings early, now offering artists and designers in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region a whopping 42% discount on its entire collection of creative apps. That means, if you're in Australia, for example, instead of costing $76.99 per month, you'll pay just $43.99! The price reduction applies to the entire Adobe Creative Cloud suite, which encompasses Adobe's 20+ applications, including photo editing favourite Photoshop and digital artists' go-to Illustrator. You'll also find video editing software Premiere Pro, web prototyping tool Adobe XD and motion effects creator After Effects among the impressive toolset. Not in APAC regions? Take a look at our guide to the Adobe Black Friday deals, which we update with all the best offers when they go live. > Get Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps with 42% off As if that wasn't enough, when you buy Adobe's full package you're also getting 100GB of cloud storage (with the option to upgrade to 10TB) and premium features like Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, and Adobe Spark. And if you'd like to include Adobe Stock too, then you can get Adobe All Apps + Adobe Stock for just $83.58 – reduced from $116.58. The programmes are fully integrated, so you can switch between them (and jump from one device to another) seamlessly – whether you’re out and about or in the studio. Built-in templates help you jump-start your designs, while step-by-step tutorials will help you sharpen your skills and get up to speed quickly. This deal will be available until 17 November 2019, so if you're in APAC regions and want to save big on Adobe's entire suite of creative software, grab it before it's gone. If you're in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, you can currently take advantage of this early Black Friday Photography Plan offer: Related articles: 60 top-class Photoshop tutorials The best 4K monitors for designers The best web hosting services for designers View the full article

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The Google Pixel 4 is one of the best camera phones you can buy, whether you’re big on bright city lit photography or high-impact night shots. It’s a great point and shoot snapper that’s easy to use, after all, and the experience it delivers feels seriously considered, with its clean interface, smart controls and versatile range of shooting modes. That said, if you want to get everything you can out of the Pixel 4, you’ll need to know about its double taps, hidden Astrophotography feature and let’s not forget the Pokemon. We cover all these highlights and more in this ultimate Pixel 4 camera guide. What makes the Pixel camera so great? Google has processed billions of images – it’s a search company after all. That means if anyone knows what makes a good image, and what doesn’t, it’s the big G. Historically, its Pixel phones haven’t been anything special in terms of camera hardware, they’ve all had traditional 12MP sensors. It's the software and image processing where the Pixel 4 excels. That’s how these humbly specced camera phones have delivered better dynamic range, clarity and greater noise handling than pricier phones like the excellent Note 10 Plus and their in-excess of quadruple-camera setups. Google Pixel 4 camera: Boost shadows What specifically makes the Pixel 4 camera so good is its simplicity. Photography pros may balk at the fact it has no manual mode, but there are still some very smart overrides when it comes to fine tuning exposure. The Pixel is one of the only smartphone cameras that lets you boost shadows separately to highlights, for example, so if you’re photographing a black cat, you can pull out detail in its fur that other phones can’t. Adjust shadows via the two bars that appear at the top of the viewfinder To take advantage of this shadow boosting, tap a focus point, and if you’re holding the phone in landscape orientation, you’ll see two bars appear at the top of the viewfinder. The right-hand bar controls exposure, the other controls shadows – genius. Google Pixel 4 camera: Quick adjustments and settings You can make on-the-fly adjustments in quick settings; swipe in from the left of the Pixel to access them. Here, you can toggle motion capture, which takes a short video clip with every photo so you have a moving memento. This is also where you can set a timer, fire up the flash and change the image aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9. Swipe in from the left of the Pixel to access quick settings Tap the cog for advanced settings – overlay framing grids, turn off camera sounds, enable quick sharing options so you can fling your picture straight onto Twitter, toggle RAW shooting on or off, and so much more. Google Pixel 4 camera: Zoom The new Pixel 4 includes a 16MP telephoto camera with a roughly 1.6x zoom. That’s an optical zoom, so it holds onto more detail than digital zoom, and it’s one of the best we’ve used, outperforming the iPhone 11 Pro. How you access it, however, isn’t immediately obvious. Sure, you can pinch in and out to frame your shot, but that’s clumsy and will likely leave you overshooting the second camera’s focal range or fall short of it altogether. The solution? Just double-tap the screen to punch in, double-tap to punch out. Stick with taps over pinches and you’ll guarantee yourself the highest quality photos, whether you’re zoomed in or out. Google Pixel 4 camera: Nightsight When the lights go down, Google’s Nightsight mode comes to the rescue with its handheld long exposure and see-in-the-dark superpowers. To activate it, swipe to the Nightsight option near the shutter release button or just tap it, point your camera at your subject, hold very still and take your shot. Your Pixel 4 will capture multiple pictures for about three seconds, stitch them together and create an almighty, high dynamic range, low light marvel. The steadier your hand, the better your shot, but even if there’s a bit of wobble, the Pixel 4 will still impress. That said, Nightsight takes photos with a long exposure, so if you’re shooting someone else, they need to keep as still as possible too, otherwise, they might end up looking like a blurred spectre against a pin-sharp backdrop. Google Pixel 4 camera: Astrophotography The Pixel 4’s highlight feature, Astrophotography isn’t quite as easy to fire up as we’d have liked it to be, and out of the box, we didn’t get any instructions as to how to go about taking photos of stars and galaxies. That said, once you know what you’re doing, it’s a doddle. First, launch Night Sight. Next, access your phone’s quick settings and turn on the Pixel 4’s self-timer - an optional step, but it will give you time to position our Pixel. Next, steady the phone, either on a tripod or a surface, and when the Pixel detects it’s perfectly still, it will flip to Astrophotography mode. When engaged, Astrophotography can keep the shutter open for around four minutes. While we weren’t able to capture the stratospheric shots Google demoed at the launch of the phone due to light pollution and cloud cover in the city we were shooting in, the results still impress. Google Pixel 4 camera: Pokemon Google’s Pixels are always fun. In the past, the phones have seen augmented reality partnerships with the likes of the Avengers, Childish Gambino, Star Wars and Stranger Things; now, it’s Pikachu’s turn to steal the AR spotlight. Google’s incredibly smart object recognition overlays one of four Pokemon from the Detective Pikachu movie between you and your background if you’re taking a selfie. Alternatively, you can create a Pokemon party by positioning multiple Pokemon over your scene if you’re shooting from the main camera. To access it, tap More within your camera UI, then Playground. Pixel's Playground is lots of fun As you can see from the example above, its object recognition is great and the creatures engage with one another when multiple Pokemon are in position. It’s also a lot of fun for kids too as the Pixel can still grab pictures and shoot videos of the Pokemon in action when in Playground mode, making it a great way to engage their imagination and creativity while still giving them a screen-time treat. Google Pixel 4 camera: Anything else? While we’ve covered the main highlights exclusive to the Pixel 4, there are other features found on most phones that are so good, they’re still worth mentioning. Its portrait mode, for example, works across the main camera, zoom camera and the selfie camera too, blurring out the background brilliantly. The Pixel 4 also shoots Panorama photos, and even 360-degree Photosphere images, which can be used with VR headsets. Slow-motion mode freezes time by up to an eighth and Time Lapse fast forwards it up to 120x. Just like any flagship smartphone worth its salt today, the Pixel 4 also shoots 4K video too with impressive image stabilisation. Thinking about picking up a Pixel 4 if you don’t already have one? To find out everything else you need to know about Google’s impressive camera phone, read our full Pixel 4 review. Read more: The best smartphone in 2019: be more creative on the move Street photography: 11 expert tips 15 top tips to boost your photography skills View the full article

A designer has spotted a nerdy joke hidden in Twitter's UI, and the internet is loving it. Click on the the 'Show more replies' CTA below a Tweet, what do you get? Text saying 'More replies'. It's right up there with 'I'm hungry / Hi hungry, I'm Dad' as groan-worthy parent gags go, and surely the proudest part of one Twitter team member's design portfolio. (Sometimes, of course, you'll actually see more replies to the tweet. It looks like this response is saved for cases where the repliers' accounts have been locked, making their comments unavailable to outsiders.) The man we have to thank for discovering the quirk is Scott Jehl, a designer and developer at Filament Group. You can see the joke in action in his viral GIF below. Jehl calls it "Twitter's best dad joke". We think it's good but in our opinion, not a classic, like these: 'Did you know the first French fries weren't actually cooked in France? They were cooked in Greece.' Or this absolute rib-tickler, 'Why can't your nose be 12 inches long? Because then it would be a foot.' (We can only apologise.) Read more: How to change the font in your Instagram bio 28 awesome Tumblr blogs for designers to explore A complete guide to social media for creatives View the full article

If there's one thing that designers hate, it's inconsistency. Surely the minds behind the world's leading creative software wouldn't make such an error? Well it looks like they have: right now the mixture of rounded and square-edged app icons on Adobe's popular tools is driving designers crazy. The apparent error has been a bone of contention for some time, but the recent release of Photoshop 2020 has reignited the rage of designers everywhere. The matter is detracting somewhat from all the exciting updates from Adobe MAX 2019, including the news that Photoshop on the iPad is finally here, and Illustrator on the iPad is in the works too. Want a Creative Cloud discount? Explore our guide to the best Adobe Black Friday deals Wondering why the XD and Photoshop icons in your dock or have rounded corners, while Illustrator and InDesign remain stubbornly square? Stephen Nielson, who leads the Photoshop product management team at Adobe has taken to Twitter to explain that it's actually intentional. He tweeted that "Adobe apps get rounded corners when they become multi-device and cloud-aware". So now you know. While it makes a little more sense now you know the thinking behind the inconsistency, Design Twitter is having none of it. Neil A. Evans summed up the crux of the problem, tweeting: "An icon that has to be explained is rubbish. I don’t care if it’s multi platform, if I install it on my other platforms I’ll already know. Make the icons consistent." An icon should be the purest version of what it represents, with no prior knowledge required (see our roundup of the best iOS app icons for more tips). While the difference between multi-device, cloud-aware apps and standalone apps is a big deal for those working at Adobe, it doesn't make a big difference to the general user – and certainly not the extent of wanting a different type of icon to remind them. If you're really struggling with the non-uniform icons, there is a solution. Go into Finder, and in the app's info panel you can override its icon. Copy in the 2019 icon, and you'll have a beautifully consistent dock once again. Phew. Read more: Adobe MAX Sneaks 2019: The most mind-boggling tech heading your way The 23 best Photoshop plugins Lightroom vs Photoshop: What's the difference? View the full article

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You're reading Examples of Great Fall Email Newsletters with Tips and Tricks, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Fall is ideal for email marketing campaigns. It is that time of the year to enjoy quality time at home with a cup of warm tea and delicious biscuits while surfing the web. It is a perfect opportunity to catch … View the full article

Did you know IKEA has never released a Christmas advert until today? We found it hard to believe too. But later tonight TV screens will see the first-ever festive IKEA ad, and, well, we love it. The perfect antidote to the usual tear-jerkers offered up in the festive period, this hip-hop themed offering from IKEA and Mother London had us both laughing and cringing (at how relatable it is) at the same time. Encourage the nation to defy ‘home shame’ and open up their homes to guests this festive season, ‘Silence the Critics’ opens with a small flat that has seen better days. The beat drops and a, quite frankly, vulgar-looking cat teapot and various other household ornaments come to life with a brutal rap, voiced by legendary MC D Double E, that ridicules everything from the tired furnishings and cracked walls, to the lack of space. "This place ain't blessed, this place is a mess (disgusting)" – told you it was savage. We particularly like the part where the T-Rex gets chucked into the toy chest as he begins to rap more devastating blows. Not that you'd ever catch us tidying our house in such a fashion, you understand. The couple in the advert become overcome with ‘home shame' (we've been there) when faced with impending guests and the external manifestation of this is offbeat, and very funny. As Christmas adverts go, it's a brilliantly refreshing change from the usual heartwarming, sentimental offerings you see this time of year. And encompasses everything we love about IKEA as a brand, which is the ability to not take itself too seriously (something it demonstrates regularly in its brilliant print ads). Silence the Critics will first air on Friday 8 November, on Channel 4 in the Gogglebox break. But if you can't wait that long, you can watch it in full right here: Read more: 5 ad campaigns that changed the world Billboard advertising: Traffic-stopping examples The best print adverts ever View the full article

Flaws in Das U-Boot affect third-party hardware that uses the universal bootloader as an underlying component. View the full article

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are now just a matter of weeks away, meaning soon we'll be practically swimming in top Black Friday deals. And the first pre-Black Friday deals are already starting to appear. So what exactly can we expect from Black Friday 2019, which these days also extends throughout the weekend, all the way until Cyber Monday 2019? And how can you get the best Black Friday deals? Let's find out. When is Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2019? Before we dive head-first into the Black Friday deals we expect to see, let's first make sure you've got the dates marked in your diaries. Black Friday traditionally takes place on the Friday immediately after Thanksgiving, meaning this year it falls on 29 November. That means Cyber Monday is 2 December this year, three days after Black Friday. While Black Friday is a frenzied cacophony of high street and online deals, Cyber Monday was originally conceived by savvy marketers as a way to sell more of their wares online, back when online shopping wasn’t as prevalent as it is today. These days, Cyber Monday usually sees a wider range of deals across individual retailers. It's less about one-off discounts, and more about lower prices generally. Saying that, if stores need to shift stock they’ll follow up Black Friday discounts with further reductions on Cyber Monday – so expect one-off deals too. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday happening a little later than normal this year, it may well be a good opportunity to get your Christmas shopping sorted. The best pre-Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals for creatives Where will we see the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals? While we can't say for sure where and what the best Black Friday deals will be, we can make educated guesses based on previous years. It's wise to keep an eye on any sought-after items throughout the whole of November, because Black Friday deals surface earlier and earlier each year. However, the best deals have historically happened later in the month, with retailers offering bigger discounts on the most expensive items, as well as accessories that might go with them. And typically, the best bargains are still reserved for Black Friday and Cyber Monday themselves. So what kind of items are we talking about? Below are our top predictions on the creative items you might have on your Christmas list this year. But first, here's the early Black Friday deals we're already seeing, and guess what? They're on the items we predicted. 01. Microsoft Surface range The Microsoft Surface range has become hugely popular among artists and designers in recent years. The Surface Pro and Surface Go lend themselves well to the needs of a creative, so it was no surprise to see them fly off the shelves in some of the best Black Friday deals we saw last year. Microsoft has been busy this year, recently announcing six new devices to its Surface range, all of which are aimed at a creative audience. With the release of these devices so close to Black Friday 2019, it's highly unlikely we'll see any discounts on these newer models. However, with the introduction of the new Surface Pro 7 and Surface Pro X, we will almost certainly see some great savings on the Surface Pro 6. A fantastic device in its own right, the Surface Pro 6 is currently one of the best tablets with a stylus around, so if you're not bothered about having the shiniest new Microsoft model, this will be a product to watch out for this Black Friday. Bookmark our dedicated Surface Pro Black Friday deals page for all the latest deals and updates on these popular devices. 02. Adobe Creative Cloud subscription Adobe has offered big Black Friday deals in the past Last year, creative software giant Adobe got stuck in all the Black Friday deals action, offering up to a whopping 40 per cent off a subscription to its Creative Suite of apps. That meant new subscribers could snap up Adobe’s entire collection of 20-plus creative desktop and mobile apps, and more, for just £30.34/€36.29/$22.99 a month, instead of £49.94/€60.49/$52.99 a month. And let's be honest, it doesn't get much cheaper than that (unless you're a student, where we have occasionally seen around 70 per cent off). That said, Adobe offers other discounts throughout the year, so it's worth keeping an eye on our Adobe Black Friday deals post. We expect that Adobe will get involved with Black Friday 2019, and the deals usually last a few days, so should be around on Cyber Monday 2019 too. 03. Apple iPad and iPhone We expect to some great savings on various iPad models this Black Friday and Cyber Monday Apple has been busy this year, launching its new iPad Mini and iPad Air, plus the iPad 10.2-inch. With all these models offering Apple Pencil support, they are a great choice for busy creatives on the go. As shiny new additions to Apple's portfolio, we don't expect to see huge savings on these, but if there are any discounts to be had, we'll keep you posted. And if you're after an Apple Pencil, then see our Apple Pencil Black Friday deals. But the best deals will almost certainly be on older – but still very sought-after – iPad models. For example, last year saw the iPad (2018) reduced to the bargain price of just $249 at Walmart, and it, unsurprisingly, flew off the shelves. If you're after a bit more power, the iPad Pro (2017) was reduced to $524.99 (from $649) at Walmart last year too. Whatever iPad model you're after, we have details of all the best iPad Black Friday deals right now and will update as the best Black Friday deals drop. If it's an iPhone XR you're in the market for, the latest iPhone has just dropped, meaning the ever popular 2018 model will likely see some pretty impressive savings. It's worth noting that these discounts will come from retailers, rather than directly from Apple, which tends to only extend its Black Friday involvement to that of extra Apple gift cards when you make a purchase. Which is fine if you're a super-Apple fan, but not so great if you're only likely to buy one or two Apple products per year. 04. Apple MacBook Pro Oh MacBook Pro, how we wish you were cheaper It's a firm favourite among creatives, but the MacBook Pro doesn't come cheap. So it's no surprise that a load of them got snapped up last year when B&H dropped the 2017 15.4-inch model to $2,149 (from $2,799). It may not be the newest version, but the MacBook Pro 2017 is still a highly capable and powerful machine. It's rare to see big savings like this on the latest Apple products, but if you're not worried about having the most up-to-date specs, you can save an absolute packet, and grab a great bit of kit while you're at it. And the place to do so? On our dedicated best Black Friday Macbook deals post, which has all the biggest savings as and when they arrive. 05. Apple Watch We don't know about you but keeping up with what version the Apple Watch is currently on is exhausting. That said, now there are a number of models (at time of writing the most recent model is Series 5), there's quite a high chance we're going to see some good savings on older (but still highly capable) devices. If you really want to find a bargain, Series 1 and Series 2 are almost certainly going to be where it's at. But if you want the option to have GPS and Cellular connections, go for the Series 3. Keep up to date with all the biggest offers over on our best Apple Watch deals post, which will include all Black Friday savings too. See an early Black Friday Apple Watch offer on the Series 3 Watch below. 06. Apple AirPods Hold tight! You could save a packet on Apple AirPods later this year Rounding up our Apple products Black Friday review is the company's controversial AirPods. Some people love them, others think they look weird/want the headphone jack back. And the release of the AirPods Pro has been even more controversial – here's why we were pleasantly surprised by their release. Last year, the biggest discount we saw was around £20/$30, which isn't much to shout about. However, with the new improved Apple AirPods (2019) out now, plus the AirPods Pro, we're hopeful we'll see much better Black Friday AirPod deals in November (although we're not holding our breath for deals on the AirPods Pro). We'll keep you updated with any great offers that land via our dedicated best Apple AirPods deals post, so make sure to bookmark that page and check back regularly. 07. Wacom drawing tablets Will there be any Black Friday deals to be had on the new Wacom Cintiq 16? Here's hoping. It's tricky to find discounted Wacom products, which is why Black Friday 2018 was such a pleasant surprise for designers in the market for one. Various retailers dropped the price of Wacom's sought-after products, with the best Black Friday deals seeing a whopping $200-$500 knocked off the popular Cintiq Pro range. Wacom has recently released its budget Wacom Cintiq 16. It'll be interesting to see if any Black Friday deals crop up on this already affordable creative pen display. In a similar vein to Apple, it's rare for Wacom to offer discounts directly – if you want to make a saving, you're best looking at major retailers such as Amazon or Walmart. Alternatively, if you're on the hunt for a graphics tablet, but don't mind if it's not a Wacom, last year there were some great bargains on XP-Pens, so that could be one to watch out for. Better still, save yourself the hassle, bookmark our Wacom Black Friday deals page and let us do the work for you. 08. External hard drives Black Friday 2019 could help you make big savings on quality external hard drives Okay, so it's not exactly the sexiest of items, but an external hard drive can form a vital part of a designer's toolset. And, as anyone who's bought one will attest, they don't come cheap. Last year, leading manufacturer Western Digital offered some decent savings on its 'My Passport' range, which starts at around £90 for its 4TB option. We'll be keeping you up to date with any offers over on our best Black Friday external hard drives post, where you'll find all the lowest prices now and over the Black Friday period. Look out for more Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2019 information and deals coming soon! View the full article

Lego is one of the best creative tools around. Not only can you use it for problem solving and prototyping, you can also free up your mind from the stresses of daily life and get stuck into a themed set of your choice (the Lego Knight Bus is a cracker for any Harry Potter fans out there). The seemingly never-ending styles and shapes that the little brick now comes means you can now build virtually anything your mind can think of, including Christmas decorations. And Lego's latest campaign is asking the world to do just that. The Build to Give initiative encourages people all over the globe to use spare Lego, either at home or in select Lego stores, to build festive ornaments and upload their creations on social media with #BuildtoGive. For every decoration shared, Lego will donate an entire set to a child in need of play. You could create a Christmas tree, a reindeer, cake, ornaments for the tree or Santa, even. Alternatively, you could think a little more outside the box and recreate the town of Bethlehem, maybe? If you're stuck for inspiration, the Build to Give web page has a number of ideas, as well as some downloadable instructions on how to build a MySweetHeart pendant (see below). Download the instructions and start building If you want to get involved, Build to Give events are taking place around the world during November and December 2019, which is free for all to join. Simply check the Lego store locator to see what's happening in your area. Read more: Introducing Lego, as you've never seen it before The Knight Bus Lego review 9 top tips for drawing in black and white View the full article