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Splash pages – introductory pages that users have to exit to explore the main site – are old right? They’re certainly not as common as they once were, and they may not be the best choice for SEO or user experience, but splash pages should not be written off. There are still enough examples out there of good use of splash pages that they cannot be overlooked by web designers, and there are times when a splash page may still offer the best UX. A splash page is a preliminary initial page that visitors see when arriving at the website before advancing to the first page proper. They can serve as a gateway that customers pass through before getting free reign to the whole site. They're usually heavy on visuals and include a call to action to help the visitor decide what to do next. They can serve simply to wow the visitor with impressive CSS animation or graphics, or to deliver a crucial message such as an upcoming event or special promotion, but they can also serve to check people are arriving at the right place, check where they want to go, check they’re the right age in the case of accessing restricted content. Here are seven good examples of where a splash page can still be a good idea. 01. Zara Zara uses its splash page to impress while checking where we want to go Most websites that operate across regions and languages will now automatically detect location and language and take you the site that fits, but it’s not an exact science and can still end you in a site in a language you don’t understand struggling to find the language selector. The official Zara website still uses a splash site to ask visitors to choose. It also avoids the common error of confusing language and region, not assuming that everyone in a particular country prefers to communicate in the dominant language, so the US store, for example is available in both English and Spanish. For a brand with stores in 96 countries, it makes sense and avoids sending people away from the site all together if they arrive at a store they weren’t looking for. But Zara also takes advantage to dazzle with impressive imagery. In the case of the Zara page, the site stores your preferences for the next time you visit, to avoid getting tired, and they change it every couple of months to make sure people are seeing something new if they visit again. 02. Yeezy (Adidas) Yeezy Boost's splash page gives visitors a warning A splash page can be just the ticket for a newsworthy event or to respond to something happening now. In this case, Yeezy's splash page (on the Adidas site) serves to preempt visitors’ disappointment, making it clear before they begin the order process that a new limited edition model has sold out, and providing the chance to join the waiting list. This also serves to promote the excitement around the product, making it seem even more desirable and hard to get. 03. Smooth Hound Smith Smooth Hound Smith uses a splash page to give fans the chance to go straight to tour dates or new material Users of certain sites have particular common behaviour. Fans of a band for example are often want to get straight to the latest tour dates or newest material from the group without needing to go to the main site. Nashville Americana duo Smooth Hound Smith provide a basic splash page that previews new material while giving option to go straight to tour dates or to join the mailing list or go to social media accounts, as well as continuing to the homepage. The site lets us see the band’s new material and provides a clear and concise roadmap for the most common actions. The video in the background highlights new material and promotes the duo’s music, accompanied by a couple of good-sized quotes from reviews, 04. Glassful Special events may also be worth creating a splash page Special events are another source of splash-worthy material. In this example, wine club Glassful used a splash to promote its first birthday party, with all the information needed and a call to action to RSVP Ideally, splash pages should be as lightweight as possible to load quickly and avoid SEO or usability issues. A simple event invitation does the job nicely. 05. Schmoll Schmoll Creatives uses a splash page to define its personality A splash page can be just the ticket if you have a message you want to get out there before people are distracted by anything else. Schmoll Creative’s minimal splash page says a lot without trying too hard, with a bold claim of "less agency, more creative", it defines its personality, and offers a boldly direct call to action "hire us". It’s clear and concise and gives you a good idea of what the agency is all about before seeing a single piece of its work. 06. Resn Resn breaks the rules and takes us on a journey Here's another agency splash page, but this one has a very different approach. New Zealand-based Resn showcases not only a direct message, but takes splash pages as an opportunity to have some fun and show off its creativity by taking us on a wandering journey through a greyscale, apple-themed kaleidoscope; a bat with a ouija board that uses its x-ray laser beams to strip the flesh from people in old paintings; a psychedelic bottle that tips out bizarre clipart. It breaks all the rules of designing a splash page in that it’s meandering, has a vague point and is not entirely useful, but then a production agency can get away with such things if it highlights its creativity. The result is compelling enough that it works as something of a filter. You're likely to keep digging around if you like the style, and it’ll make an impression that will stay with you. If it’s not you thing, you’ll move on and not waste the agency's time with an enquiry. 07. Football Choose any sport, as long as it’s football Language and region settings are not the only thing you might want to give a visitor the chance to choose from when they hit your site. If you’re providing widely different products or services, a splash page can be a quick way to divide the experience and allow visitors to choose which service they want and avoid them having to wade through irrelevant menus relating to other services. American football website football.com for a time took a fun advantage over the confusion around the use of the term “football” in North America versus the rest of the world to check with visitors just what they were looking for with a visual clarification. Read more: 7 totally distinct brand Instagram feeds 6 questions you need to ask your new client Discover the unknown stories behind everyday icons View the full article

Zoom has patched a flaw that could have allowed attackers to guess a meeting ID and enter a meeting. View the full article

This issue, along with our usual reviews, inspiration and regular Q and A sections, we show you how to create our stunning fan art cover, with a masterclass in character creation using Cinema 4D. We also delve into the world of de-aging in visual effects, look at the the beautiful work done for Carnival Row and delve into Houdini 18, with a huge tips collection to help you su skill. With a mix of features, interviews and training, you'll soon be on the road to mastering your own 3D projects. We take a look inside 3D World 257 to find out what else is in store... Buy issue 257 of 3D World here Subscribe to 3D World here Read more: Become a better 3D artist The 10 best 3D movies of 2019 The best new 3D tools for 2019 View the full article

To download the accompanying files for 3D World issue 257, simply click this link and a zip file will automatically download the content to your Mac or PC. If you've missed this issue or other editions of 3D World start a subscription. If you have any problems downloading this content, please email: rob.redman@futurenet.com Read more The best cities for 3D artists OctaneRender: A beginner's guide 3D art: 27 stunning examples to inspire you View the full article

The best monogram logos are so effective, you may not have even considered that they're monograms at all. The traditional monogram – usually someone’s initials woven together to create a form – remains a powerful tool in modern identity design. If you can find a way of connecting two or more letters so that they remain recognisable while at the same time creating a memorable new shape, this is often a better solution than trying to design a logo or icon from scratch. The coup de grâce that leads to a killer monogram logo comes when not only is the letter-based form intriguing and legible, but its aesthetic qualities express something about the brand’s values or unique selling points. (These same qualities often make good logos in general, see our guide to logo design as well as our list of the best logos ever made.) Everyone has their own favourites, and debates about which logos are best will rage until the end of time. Here, we’ve brought together nine of the best monogram logos, many of which have lasted decades. While some of them may have iterated and been updated, there’s a monogram element at their core retaining a clever message and, if not that, then instant recognisability at least. For more logos made from letters, see our feature on the best 3-letter logos. 01. Roger Federer A legal battle over Roger Federer’s superb monogram is on the cards, as former sponsor Nike still owns it As with Alan Fletcher’s legendary V&A logo, sometimes the best thing about a design is what’s left out. In this case, the vertical strokes of both the 'R' and the 'F' in champion Swiss tennis player Roger Federer’s monogram are missing and yet every sports fan in the world recognises the remaining elements to be his mark. According to Federer, this little piece of design genius is based on a scribble jotted down by his wife, Mirka, in 2003. However, it seems that Nike finalised the monogram in 2010 and currently owns it. Now sponsored by Uniqlo, the athlete is working to reclaim his monogram logo, which he also uses to promote the work of his charitable foundation. 02. The New York Yankees Officially called the team’s primary emblem, the Yankees’ monogram has been tweaked only slightly over the years since its introduction in 1909 There’s some fascinating folklore behind the development of this iconic American sports brand. Prior to 1909, the team simply had the letters 'N' and 'Y' side-by-side on their caps. The inspiration to overlap them came from part-owner Bill Devery, a former policeman who had seen the design on a medal of honour presented to an officer shot dead in the line of duty. That medal, it so happens, was made by Tiffany & Co in 1877. While it isn’t the team’s official logo, the Yankees’ NY monogram is one of the most recognised sports emblems in the world and still appears on the players’ jerseys and caps. 03. Chanel As with any good monogram, we know this is Chanel’s mark without any words to tell us Like the New York Yankees, Chanel also owes its interlocking Cs monogram to an earlier design genius. The story goes that Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel first saw the emblem in 1925 while visiting Château de Crémat, a castle built in Nice in 1906. Two 'C's, crossed over, can be seen to this day in the stained-glass windows of the chateau. However, recreating this device in a geometric modernist typeface and cleverly using it – for instance on the clasps of handbags – the designer and her proteges have turned it into a worldwide icon for French fashion. 04. General Electric General Electric’s monogram logo has remained virtually untouched since 1934, and with good reason One of the most powerful logos ever created, GE’s monogram sits as comfortably in its circle at the tip of a lightbulb as it does emblazoned on the side of an enormous wind turbine generator. Although Wolff Olins reworked GE’s global brand architecture for the company in 2005, adding a typeface inspired by the monogram, for example, the script-based 'G' and 'E' remained within their embellished circle, relatively untouched. There’s an interesting rundown on the GE brand and monogram on the company’s website. 05. Grant Associates Famous for its Gardens by the Bay project in Singapore, Grant Associates could soon be better known for its superbly crafted monogram logo Designed very recently for the international landscape architects Grant Associates, this monogram locks up two mirror image letters – a lowercase g and lowercase a – quite brilliantly. In a brand redesign centred on the concept of connecting people and their environment, Supple Studio conveyed GA’s ethos in its monogram. The modern, rounded lettering emits an organic vibe also reflected in a typeface that the studio modified for the client, and a set of icons to represent the various fields the practice works in. 06. Warner Bros A shield device is an effective way of locking up a monogram logo, as seen in Warner Bros longstanding identity To film viewers, the Warner Bros logo seems timeless. A golden shield bearing the letters 'WB', three dimensional and floating – usually in front of a pleasant-looking sky. In fact, the company has changed its logo dozens of times (see our piece on the Warner Bros most recent logo update, in November 2019). In the 1970s, Saul Bass gave the company a modernist 'W' with no shield at all. Earlier, when the company was bought by Seven Arts Inc, it had an emblem merging a 'W' and the numeral '7'. However, it has always returned to the protection of the shield, the upward horizontal of the 'W' straightened to parallel the vertical stroke of the 'B'. This design has been tweaked and changed plenty. Indeed, the company has encouraged filmmakers to adapt it in their productions. And yet the basic shield design it uses, commonly seen in online logo templates, has retained its timeless quality, for Warner Bros, at least. 07. H&M H&M is the retail brand everyone recognises. Tweaks to its monogram in 1999 aimed to capture the buzz of the city and the calm of nature The Swedish department store Hennes bought a rival chain and became Hennes & Mauritz in 1968, and the hand-rendered H&M logo was born. Today, shoppers know it only as H&M and while the youthful, free-and-easy style of the H&M monogram was redrawn in 1999 by BVD to look more balanced, it still feels well-proportioned, with enough space about it to breathe and feel impactful over time. Some would even call it under-designed. However, it has proven highly successful in the 60 countries where H&M has opened shops, putting the logo on shopping bags at scale. This translates to free, mobile advertising care of an effective monogram logo. 08. PlayStation Unlike a traditional monogram, the PlayStation logo links a 'P' and an 'S' to form a unique 3D icon – an ideal brand for a games console While the recently unveiled PS5 logo has been ridiculed for its lack of innovation, let’s not overlook the very clever design work that went into the original PlayStation monogram. Launched in 1994, the gaming console’s logo was designed by Manabu Sakamoto. With the 'S' lying down as though it is a shadow of the upright 'P', which stands at an angle, the overall design embodies the original product’s key selling point – its 3D graphics capability. The red, yellow, green and blue express the vibrancy of the product and its games, though it works beautifully in mono as well. 09. Volkswagen 2019 saw what is probably the biggest shift in VW’s logo since 1945, but the stacked V and W remain at the heart of this identity The VW monogram has been a part of the Volkswagen identity since the company was founded in Germany, under the Nazis, in 1937. Indeed, early iterations don’t just look mechanical, they look positively militaristic. After the War, the monogram, stacking a 'V' within the upper half of a 'W' and capturing the form in a circle, has been modernised in line with automobile technology on average every six years. Created in 2019 by VW’s chief of design, Klaus Bischoff, the latest iteration is with a clean, slim and flat. Interestingly, the points of the 'W' don’t quite touch the bottom of the circle as they do in earlier versions. This version gets back to basics while feeling very modern at the same time. Read more: Where to find logo design inspiration The PS5 logo we all wanted is here 8 of the biggest logo redesigns in 2019 View the full article

Have you ever wondered what Henry VIII would look like now? How about Julius Ceasar? It's difficult to imagine figures from history as having been real people. This is partly down to the styling of the era, the formality of their portraits, and also due to the medium used to depict them – it can be hard to connect with a marble sculpture or oil painting. But graphic designer Rebecca Saladin has given history new life with her Royalty Now project, which reimagines what historical figures would look like today. A highly original way to approach the art of character design, the results are both amusing and fascinating – so much so we found comparing the new and old artwork weirdly addictive. Take a look for yourselves... Saladin uses Photoshop to photo-manipulate well-known figures from history, bringing them to life with modern dress and styling. The renders bring the subjects firmly into the 21st century, changing the way viewers see, and potentially feel, about them. (To improve your own Photoshop skills, see our piece rounding up the best Photoshop tutorials around). The Royalty Now Instagram account is packed full of these reimagined historical characters, and there are certainly some names you'll recognise. Queen Elizabeth I is in the mix. Known for her heavy makeup and over-the-top hairpiece, it's amazing to see her her completely stripped back and post-work-drink-ready. Those curls are a modern take on Queen Elizabeth's usual hairpiece This transformation of Henry VII into a suit is particularly amusing. A haircut and a smart attire is all it took to bring him up-to-date. Henry VII belongs in a business meeting You can check out more of Saladin's work over on Instagram, which contains renders that are way less disappointing than these real-life renders of animation bedrooms. Read more: 7 totally distinct brand Instagram feeds PSD to 3D: Turn Photoshop images into 3D scenes 9 of the best 3D apps View the full article

Apple has filed a patent that suggests future iMacs could have a radically different design. The patent details a slick, mostly glass, all-in-one (AIO) design with a distinctly futuristic vibe. There are some similarities to the current aesthetic – the curvy junction between the screen and its stand; the generally minimalist, sleek approach – but other than that it's a whole new ball game. Below is the current Apple iMac (incidentally, our pick of the best computer for graphic design, and the best computer for video editing right now). This brushed aluminium look has been around for a while now Below, you can see the diagrams of the potential new design included in the newly published patent. The distinct screen, housing and separate keyboard encased in brushed aluminium have been replaced by an AIO made mostly of glass. The accompanying text details "a glass housing member that includes an upper portion defining a display area, a lower portion defining an input area... a continuous, curved surface between the upper portion and lower portion." A new patent shows a mostly glass all-in-one design The patent also includes a support structure on the rear, which TechRadar suggests could contain the machine's computing power, with the glass section being fitted solely with sensors for the inputs, display and camera. See the full patent here. Apple has gained plenty of news inches for its design decisions over the years – even something relatively minor, such as the replacement of Forest Green for Navy Blue in the iPhone 12 lineup – has people talking. So we're doubly excited at the prospect of something potentially radical to follow in the footsteps of the Mac Pro 'dustbin' and 'cheese grater' designs, for example. When, or even if, this spacey new look will become reality is quite another thing. At the moment, it's still in its research phase, so it's certainly not on the cards any time soon. Although it's worth noting that while the patent was published on 23 January 2020, it was filed last May, which means Apple has been exploring this direction for a little while now. Read more: The best Apple Watch apps in 2020 Apple Pencil vs Apple Pencil 2: which should you buy? The best cheap Apple laptop deals View the full article

Which approach should you take when building an app? Should you take up the PWA/web technologies route or should you go native and design for specific platforms? Both options have their pros and cons, and in this article we concentrate on a few of the popular choices used to create web and native apps. PWAs (Progressive Web Apps) aka web apps, are built with popular web technologies HTML, CSS and JavaScript and work in a web browser. (Check out some of the essential HTML tags to help with your builds.) PWAs are effectively mobile websites designed to look like an app, and the use of web APIs gives them functionality similar to a native app. For more advice on app building, see our post on how to make an app. PWAs vs. Native apps: What's the difference? Progressive Web Apps have the advantage of being installable and live on a device without the need for an app store. And, part of the process is the Web App Manifest which allows developers to control how an app appears and how it's launched. Also, web designers/front end developers will already have the skillset needed to start building immediately. There's no need to learn a new language, unlike native apps. Native apps are built with a specific OS in mind – ie. iOS and Android – and use a framework or language to fulfil that purpose. iOS applications typically use Xcode or Swift, and Android apps, JavaScript. But, for this article we concentrate on a couple of JavaScript-based open source frameworks – React Native and NativeScript – that work for both platforms. The advantages of native apps is that they typically bring better functionality as they make better use of a devices hardware and software, are faster and more responsive and you get quality assurance though ratings in app stores. But, it will mean having to learn how to use a specific framework or library. Here we look at three different options – one for web (PWAs) and two for native (React Native, NativeScript) – for building an app. We run through how they operate, what they can do and look at their strengths and weaknesses to help you decide which option you should choose to build your app. Progressive web apps: Building for the web PWAs use the web stack – HTML, CSS and JS Strengths of PWAs Apps also work in the browser Distribution: browser, enterprise and app stores Can utilise React, Angular, Vue, vanilla or other frameworks Weaknesses of PWAs No access to every native API Abilities and store distribution on iOS and iPadOS are limited It’s in continuous evolution PWAs are the current design pattern to create high-performant, offline, installable apps using just the web stack: HTML, CSS, JavaScript and browsers’ APIs. Thanks to the service worker and the web app manifest specs, we can now create a first-class app experience after installing for Android, iOS, iPadOS, Windows, macOS, Chrome OS and Linux. To create PWAs, you can use any architecture: from server-side, vanilla JavaScript, React, Vue, Angular or other client-side frameworks. It can be a single-page application or a multi-page web application and we define how are we going to support users while offline. In this approach, we don’t need to package and sign the resources of our app: we just host the files in a web server and the service worker will be responsible for caching the files in the client and serve them after installation. This also means if an app needs updating, you just change the files on the server and the service worker’s logic will be responsible for updating them on users’ devices without user or app store intervention. In terms of distribution, the most common method is the browser. Users install the app from the browser by using the Add to Home Screen or Install menu item, by accepting an invitation to install or by using a custom web app user interface on compatible platforms. It is worth noting that Apple rejects pure PWAs published in the App Store and encourages web developers to distribute it through Safari. The user interface is purely managed by the web runtime, which means the web designer is responsible for rendering each control on the screen. If you use a UI framework, such as Ionic, or a Material Design library, HTML and CSS will mimic native interfaces on Android or iOS but it’s not mandatory. When doing PWAs, applying web performance techniques is mandatory in order to keep a good user experience. In terms of abilities, a PWA will have access only to APIs available in the browser engine on that platform and it can’t be extended with native code – with the exception of app store PWA distributions. In this matter, iOS and iPadOS are the more limited platforms for PWAs, while Chrome (for Android and desktop OSs) has more availability and is working hard to add every possible API to JavaScript with the Fugu project. React Native Facebook's React Native is JavaScript-based and similar to React.js Strengths of React Native Same patterns as with React.js Some web APIs are exposed Web and desktop support Weaknesses of React Native Can’t reuse web UI components The native bridge needs some work React experience is needed React Native is an open-source JavaScript-based component framework, sponsored by Facebook, that uses React design patterns, as well as JavaScript language to compile native apps for iOS, iPadOS and Android from one source code. But no HTML elements are accepted for rendering; only other native components are valid. Therefore, instead of rendering a <div> with a <p> and a <input> element with JSX, you will be rendering a <View> with a <Text> and a <TextInput>. For styling components, you still use CSS and the layout is defined through Flexbox. The user interface won’t be rendered in a browser’s DOM but using the native user interface libraries on Android and iOS. Therefore, a <Button> in ReactNative will become an instance of UIButton on iOS and the android.widget.Button class on Android; there is no web runtime involved in React Native. However, all the JavaScript code will be executed in a JavaScript virtual machine on-device, so there is no JavaScript to real native code conversion when compiling the app. There is a set of well-known APIs for web developers, such as the Fetch API, WebSockets and the browser’s timers: setInterval and requestAnimationFrame. Other abilities are deployed in the platform through custom APIs, such as animations. You can start a quick React Native project with two free CLIs: Expo or the more advanced and official ReactNative CLI. If you use the official CLI, you also need Android Studio to compile and test the Android app and Xcode to do the same on iOS and iPadOS, so you will need a macOS computer for that platform. React Native compiles native apps for iOS and Android, which means the distribution of your app will follow the same rules as other native apps: app stores for public apps, enterprise distribution and alpha/beta testing. Typically, you can’t distribute an app through a browser, although React Native for Web and Microsoft’s React Native for Windows platforms can help. NativeScript The NativeScript framework works with Angular, VueJS and vanilla JavaScript Strengths of NativeScript Good tools for coding and testing Extensive gallery of apps ready to play with All Android and iOS APIs are exposed in JS Weaknesses of NativeScript Small community Can’t reuse web UI components No web, desktop or React support NativeScript is not as well-known as React Native but it competes in the same field: native iOS and Android apps from JavaScript and web frameworks. It lets you use JavaScript or TypeScript and an XML user interface file to create native apps. It also supports Angular and Vue right out of the box, so it’s a great solution for developers used to these frameworks. The advantages of NativeScript are clearer when you use Angular or Vue. For Angular, you create the same components you are used to but using XML instead of HTML for the template, including all data bindings. In the XML, instead of a <div> with a <p> and an <img>, you will place a <StackLayout> with a <Label> and an <Image> component. CSS and Sass are supported with similar styles to CSS in the browser. Routing and network management are done through implementations of the standard Angular services. For Vue, it’s something similar; you write the template in XML instead of using HTML in the same <template> element in your .vue file. NativeScript includes a collection of components that are then mapped to an Android or iOS native control, so when you render a list or a picker, it will be the native app, using the same idea as in React Native. Your JavaScript or TypeScript code (transpiled) is executed in an on-device JavaScript virtual machine with a bridge to/from the native environment. In that bridge, the entire native APIs from Android or iOS/iPadOS are exposed so despite having access to cross-platform APIs, we can instantiate or call any Java or Objective-C code from JavaScript/TypeScript and NativeScript will marshal data types. NativeScript has great support for tooling, including VS code plugins, the CLI, a hot-reload testing system and a NativeScript playground app, so you don’t need to install all dependencies while testing, as well as several additional services such as an online playground. Finally, NativeScript only compiles an app for Android and iOS that can be installed from official distribution channels and app stores if you comply with their rules, enterprise distribution and alpha/beta testing. Typically there will be no way to distribute apps from a browser and there are no solutions for desktop apps for this platform. This article was originally published in issue 325 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 325 or subscribe to net. Learn how to build better JavaScript at GenerateJS Join us in April 2020 with our lineup of JavaScript superstars at GenerateJS – the conference helping you build better JavaScript. Book now at generateconf.com Read more: A guide to Google's web tools Write HTML code faster 13 of the best JavaScript frameworks to try View the full article

At the start of every year, millions of people jot down their resolutions then give up on them by the end of January. Crank up your creative juices and start the year by following through with the goals you want to achieve in 2020. Whether you're looking to start a new career or want to brush up on the skills you already have, these creative bundles will boost your artistic abilities in the new year. If you want to improve your Adobe skills across the board, check out our posts rounding up the best Photoshop tutorials and Illustrator tutorials. You can now get Adobe apps with an amazing discount. Get 20 per cent off single apps including Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator – but hurry as the offer ends today! 01. The 2020 Adobe Illustrator CC master class bundle Was: $284 / Now: $39.99 (85% OFF) Dreaming of becoming a digital artist? With over 30 hours of training, you'll soon be able to master the techniques and tools in 2020 Adobe Illustrator, the industry-standard vector graphics program. The six-course training bundle includes over 250 lessons, starting with concepts such as scaling and aligning your objects with ease, and moving on to more complicated techniques such as advanced anchor point and pen tool tricks. Several project-focused tutorials will teach you how to redraw real-world examples of famous logos, give you workflow tips to speed up complicated graphics, show you how to build a professional portfolio website with your designs, and so much more. 02. The Adobe After Effects & Nuke VFX production bundle Was: $617 / Now: $29 (95% OFF) If you want to master After Effects to create realistic visual effects (VFX) shots and not just motion graphics, this course is for you. With over 120 lessons, you'll learn visual effect techniques for movies and screen editing, straight from the creative mind of a Hollywood Artist. You'll start with the fundamentals and work your way into more advanced techniques in 2D compositing, rotoscoping, and so much more. Vicki Lau, a Hollywood VFX artist for movies such as Guardians of the Galaxy, War for the Planet of the Apes, Aquaman, and more, brings you a hands-on approach to the secrets and tricks by providing you with real-world projects that will put your skills to the test. You'll even be equipped with a course on becoming a visual effects supervisor for live-action film production, taking your expertise beyond sitting behind your computer. 03. The 2020 Adobe InDesign CC master class bundle Was: $221 / Now: $39.99 (81% OFF) Looking to design a digital magazine this year? InDesign is quickly becoming the industry-leading tool for creating digital layouts, eBooks, posters, lookbooks, and more. With lifetime access to five comprehensive courses, you'll learn everything you need to navigate the design software for both print and digital media. You'll start with InDesign interface essentials and master your way towards more advanced concepts such as creating semi-flat presentations, working with various layers, mastering text-wrap and masking, and more. With over 200 lessons, you'll soon become a pro at the InDesign interface, and learn professional workflow shortcuts for formatting your text and images. Hands-on projects are provided, allowing you to practice what you learn and apply each layout technique to real-world documents. Read more: The best alternatives to Photoshop The best laptops for Photoshop in 2020 The best InDesign tutorials View the full article

Which approach should you take when building an app? Should you take up the PWA/web technologies route or should you go native and design for specific platforms? Both options have their pros and cons, and in this article we concentrate on a few of the popular choices used to create web and native apps. PWAs (Progressive Web Apps) aka web apps, are built with popular web technologies HTML, CSS and JavaScript and work in a web browser. (Check out some of the essential HTML tags to help with your builds.) PWAs are effectively mobile websites designed to look like an app, and the use of web APIs gives them functionality similar to a native app. For more advice on app building, see our post on how to make an app. PWAs vs. Native apps: What's the difference? Progressive Web Apps have the advantage of being installable and live on a device without the need for an app store. And, part of the process is the Web App Manifest which allows developers to control how an app appears and how it's launched. Also, web designers/front end developers will already have the skillset needed to start building immediately. There's no need to learn a new language, unlike native apps. Native apps are built with a specific OS in mind – ie. iOS and Android – and use a framework or language to fulfil that purpose. iOS applications typically use Xcode or Swift, and Android apps, JavaScript. But, for this article we concentrate on a couple of JavaScript-based open source frameworks – React Native and NativeScript – that work for both platforms. The advantages of native apps is that they typically bring better functionality as they make better use of a devices hardware and software, are faster and more responsive and you get quality assurance though ratings in app stores. But, it will mean having to learn how to use a specific framework or library. Here we look at three different options – one for web (PWAs) and two for native (React Native, NativeScript) – for building an app. We run through how they operate, what they can do and look at their strengths and weaknesses to help you decide which option you should choose to build your app. Progressive web apps: Building for the web PWAs use the web stack – HTML, CSS and JS Strengths of PWAs Apps also work in the browser Distribution: browser, enterprise and app stores Can utilise React, Angular, Vue, vanilla or other frameworks Weaknesses of PWAs No access to every native API Abilities and store distribution on iOS and iPadOS are limited It’s in continuous evolution PWAs are the current design pattern to create high-performant, offline, installable apps using just the web stack: HTML, CSS, JavaScript and browsers’ APIs. Thanks to the service worker and the web app manifest specs, we can now create a first-class app experience after installing for Android, iOS, iPadOS, Windows, macOS, Chrome OS and Linux. To create PWAs, you can use any architecture: from server-side, vanilla JavaScript, React, Vue, Angular or other client-side frameworks. It can be a single-page application or a multi-page web application and we define how are we going to support users while offline. In this approach, we don’t need to package and sign the resources of our app: we just host the files in a web server and the service worker will be responsible for caching the files in the client and serve them after installation. This also means if an app needs updating, you just change the files on the server and the service worker’s logic will be responsible for updating them on users’ devices without user or app store intervention. In terms of distribution, the most common method is the browser. Users install the app from the browser by using the Add to Home Screen or Install menu item, by accepting an invitation to install or by using a custom web app user interface on compatible platforms. It is worth noting that Apple rejects pure PWAs published in the App Store and encourages web developers to distribute it through Safari. The user interface is purely managed by the web runtime, which means the web designer is responsible for rendering each control on the screen. If you use a UI framework, such as Ionic, or a Material Design library, HTML and CSS will mimic native interfaces on Android or iOS but it’s not mandatory. When doing PWAs, applying web performance techniques is mandatory in order to keep a good user experience. In terms of abilities, a PWA will have access only to APIs available in the browser engine on that platform and it can’t be extended with native code – with the exception of app store PWA distributions. In this matter, iOS and iPadOS are the more limited platforms for PWAs, while Chrome (for Android and desktop OSs) has more availability and is working hard to add every possible API to JavaScript with the Fugu project. React Native Facebook's React Native is JavaScript-based and similar to React.js Strengths of React Native Same patterns as with React.js Some web APIs are exposed Web and desktop support Weaknesses of React Native Can’t reuse web UI components The native bridge needs some work React experience is needed React Native is an open-source JavaScript-based component framework, sponsored by Facebook, that uses React design patterns, as well as JavaScript language to compile native apps for iOS, iPadOS and Android from one source code. But no HTML elements are accepted for rendering; only other native components are valid. Therefore, instead of rendering a <div> with a <p> and a <input> element with JSX, you will be rendering a <View> with a <Text> and a <TextInput>. For styling components, you still use CSS and the layout is defined through Flexbox. The user interface won’t be rendered in a browser’s DOM but using the native user interface libraries on Android and iOS. Therefore, a <Button> in ReactNative will become an instance of UIButton on iOS and the android.widget.Button class on Android; there is no web runtime involved in React Native. However, all the JavaScript code will be executed in a JavaScript virtual machine on-device, so there is no JavaScript to real native code conversion when compiling the app. There is a set of well-known APIs for web developers, such as the Fetch API, WebSockets and the browser’s timers: setInterval and requestAnimationFrame. Other abilities are deployed in the platform through custom APIs, such as animations. You can start a quick React Native project with two free CLIs: Expo or the more advanced and official ReactNative CLI. If you use the official CLI, you also need Android Studio to compile and test the Android app and Xcode to do the same on iOS and iPadOS, so you will need a macOS computer for that platform. React Native compiles native apps for iOS and Android, which means the distribution of your app will follow the same rules as other native apps: app stores for public apps, enterprise distribution and alpha/beta testing. Typically, you can’t distribute an app through a browser, although React Native for Web and Microsoft’s React Native for Windows platforms can help. NativeScript The NativeScript framework works with Angular, VueJS and vanilla JavaScript Strengths of NativeScript Good tools for coding and testing Extensive gallery of apps ready to play with All Android and iOS APIs are exposed in JS Weaknesses of NativeScript Small community Can’t reuse web UI components No web, desktop or React support NativeScript is not as well-known as React Native but it competes in the same field: native iOS and Android apps from JavaScript and web frameworks. It lets you use JavaScript or TypeScript and an XML user interface file to create native apps. It also supports Angular and Vue right out of the box, so it’s a great solution for developers used to these frameworks. The advantages of NativeScript are clearer when you use Angular or Vue. For Angular, you create the same components you are used to but using XML instead of HTML for the template, including all data bindings. In the XML, instead of a <div> with a <p> and an <img>, you will place a <StackLayout> with a <Label> and an <Image> component. CSS and Sass are supported with similar styles to CSS in the browser. Routing and network management are done through implementations of the standard Angular services. For Vue, it’s something similar; you write the template in XML instead of using HTML in the same <template> element in your .vue file. NativeScript includes a collection of components that are then mapped to an Android or iOS native control, so when you render a list or a picker, it will be the native app, using the same idea as in React Native. Your JavaScript or TypeScript code (transpiled) is executed in an on-device JavaScript virtual machine with a bridge to/from the native environment. In that bridge, the entire native APIs from Android or iOS/iPadOS are exposed so despite having access to cross-platform APIs, we can instantiate or call any Java or Objective-C code from JavaScript/TypeScript and NativeScript will marshal data types. NativeScript has great support for tooling, including VS code plugins, the CLI, a hot-reload testing system and a NativeScript playground app, so you don’t need to install all dependencies while testing, as well as several additional services such as an online playground. Finally, NativeScript only compiles an app for Android and iOS that can be installed from official distribution channels and app stores if you comply with their rules, enterprise distribution and alpha/beta testing. Typically there will be no way to distribute apps from a browser and there are no solutions for desktop apps for this platform. This article was originally published in issue 325 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 325 or subscribe to net. Learn how to build better JavaScript at GenerateJS Join us in April 2020 with our lineup of JavaScript superstars at GenerateJS – the conference helping you build better JavaScript. Book now at generateconf.com Read more: A guide to Google's web tools Write HTML code faster 13 of the best JavaScript frameworks to try View the full article

A customer journey map is a visual representation of the different steps a customer goes through to achieve a goal within your company’s website or product. It’s meant to provide insight into what’s going through a customer’s mind as they’re …View the full article

With Instagram font generators, you can customise the text in your Instagram bio, captions and comments. There are several 'font generators' for Instagram (we'll explain those quote marks in a minute) that make it easy to use custom text styles on Instagram, helping you to make your posts stand out from the crowd. To be honest, these services are all pretty similar. But there are some small differences in terms of reliability, usability, cost and the number of ads. So in this post, we've selected our five favourite Instagram font generators. As we explain below, none of these Instagram font generators are exactly perfect. But overall, these are the best we've found online, and as an added bonus, they're all totally free. Once you've found a design you like, head over to our how to change the font in your Instagram bio article for full details on how to customise your grid. How they work (and why they sometimes don't) Want to use wacky text styles like these on your Insta? Then read on... All the tools on this list work in more or less the same way: You type in your text and change the text style it's set in You open the Instagram app You cut and paste your customised text into your bio, caption and/or comment Simple, right? Unfortunately, nothing's ever simple on the internet, and in practice, this process doesn't always work. That's because, despite being called "font generators", you're not actually generating fonts at all, but a special kind of symbol that's part of a system called Unicode. In theory, Unicode should work perfectly in every browser and on every device, but in reality it just doesn't; not yet anyway. And so depending on what OS and hardware you're using, your text may not show up as it's supposed to, and just appear as blank squares. When the device or browser doesn't play nicely with the Unicode, you get a lot of blank squares where the text should be Where this happens, there's not really much you can do to be frank, other than look at the text styles that have rendered correctly, and choose between those. Also note that all of these fonts can also be problematic for those using screen readers, so make sure you consider this. With all that in mind, then, we now present our favourite font generators for Instagram. (Just please don't blame us if they don't work on your system!). 01. Meta Tags Font Generator Get a feel for your new Insta font with a live preview Meta Tags Font Generator is superior to the other Instagram font generators in this post because it allows you to preview what your new font will actually look like in Instagram by mocking it up on a profile. With the other generators, you have to copy and paste the font you want over to Instagram and click save, and then you only get to see what your new shiny font looks like on your profile once it's live. With the Meta Tags Font Generator, you can preview how your font will look in Instagram or Twitter without having to touch either profile. Once you've got the look you want, you just click 'copy' and then you can paste the whole thing over to your social media profile. There are also quite a few Instagram font options, including some with stars and other such excitement. So there's plenty to choose from. We'd say if you want an Instagram font generator, you'd be wise to start here. 02. Instagram Fonts Type or paste your chosen words into Instagram Fonts, and it will render it in a range of fun text styles Instagram Fonts is our second favourite font generator for Instagram, because it does one thing, and it does it well. The interface is clean and easy to follow, and when we tested it out on both phone and laptop, there was zero lag. You simply type or paste your text into the first text box you see, and then scroll down to see your words rendered in a variety of crazy looking text styles. If you find one you like, you can then paste it into your bio, caption or comment on Instagram. The site sets your words in a variety of text styles, quickly and easily If you don't see anything you like, just click the 'load more fonts' button at the bottom and you'll get more (although don't get too excited, as these are essentially variations on a theme). Beneath all this are some ads. Then below that is a detailed summary of how the Unicode system works, which is very interesting. Don't worry, though: this is purely background information, and you don't need to read it to use the tool. 03. Instagram Fonts Generator Don't try to delete the placeholder text – you can't – just start typing or pasting Number two on our list, Instagram Fonts Generator, works in exactly the same way as the entry above. You type or paste your words into the first text box, and then scroll down to see them cast in a variety of styles, ready for pasting into Instagram. The main difference here is that there are a ton of emojis at the bottom of the page, which you can also add to your text, should you feel the need. This font generator for Instagram comes with added emojis (copy and paste to use them, you can't just click) On the minus side, we found it the act of pasting in our text to be a bit unintuitive and clunky. Specifically, we assumed that we needed to highlight the bold placeholder text and replace it with our own. In fact, you just start typing and the placeholder text disappears; but it took a bit of fiddling for us to work that out. 04. Fonts for Instagram by LingoJam This font generator shows the new and old text side-by-side Fonts for Instagram by LingoJam is another similar tool, the main difference here is a nicer interface, particularly the way the new text appears to the right of the original text, rather than below it. Its creator is clearly keen to improve it further, as there's a suggestion box at the bottom, as well as a facility for comments. A shame then, that most of these comments are just "please follow my Instagram account" and this section could do with a bit of pruning. There are quite a few ads too, but on the whole this site delivers if you're looking to create some cool text for your Instagram. 05. Try Fonts Online Neither fun nor attractive, but it does work Sprezz Keyboard is an iOS app for creating custom keyboard themes and fonts for iOS 8, largely through in-app purchases. But on the site promoting it, Sprezz, there's also a font generator that's free to use within your browser. It's a bit fiddly, and not a particularly fun or attractive visual experience to be honest. But hey, if all the other sites on this list are down or broken for some reason, then this one will at least get the job done. You simply scroll down the page to 'Try Fonts Online', click on the placeholder text, and type or paste your chosen word. They will then appear in a variety of styles below, which you can copy and paste into Instagram. Related articles: How to hack the Instagram algorithm A designer's guide to Instagram Stories The best free fonts for designers View the full article

The internet has gone wild over President Trump's 'Star Trek' redesign of the Space Force logo, which was unveiled on Friday 24 January. Framed as a hilarious rip off of the fictional Starfleet's logo, the logo is extraordinarily similar to that found on the uniforms of the Starfleet personnel. But is it really that simple? We're somewhat disappointed to point out the logo redesign (see here for some of the best logo design out there) may not be as ridiculous as we want to believe it is. Or at least, it looks as if Trump wasn't the one to first emulate the Star Trek logo, anyway. John Noonan tweeted the above just after the Space Force furore began, alerting the Twittersphere to the fact that the logo already looked a lot like the Starfleet Command one. The emblem is the same as it has been since 1982, the starry background is reminiscent of the original, and there are still loops circling the emblem. The reduction of the number of loops from four to one definitely emulates the design of the Starfleet logo, that's for sure. But there's more precedent to this design in the history of U.S. space branding, which may let the current incarnation off the hook. U.S. Space Department logo comparison This image (taken from this SlashGear article which examines the origins of the various logo incarnations in more detail) shows that the single loop is a proud part of the NASA logo. And different numbers of loops can be found in all of the U.S. Space Command insignia dating back to 1985. And the circling typography is also in the Space Command insignia, though the font and placement is definitely more Star Trek than it has been previously (which does make a big impact). Space Command logo comparison So who copied who? Well, the Starfleet Command logo was actually first found in... drumroll please... 1996. In fact, according to Ex Astris Scientia, the Star Trek Sticker book contains an inscription from Mike Okuda (a notorious graphic designer who worked on Star Trek and created the insignia) that states: "The Starfleet Command seal was first seen 'Homefront' (DS9) and later in 'In the Flesh' (VGR), although the agency itself, of course, dates back to the original Star Trek series. The symbol was intended to be somewhat reminiscent of the NASA emblem." The US government branding existed first, and Star Trek emulated it intentionally. However, the current Space Fleet incarnation is clearly the most like the Star Trek insignia out of all the previous versions, and it could definitely be argued that Trump and his team should have noticed and avoided derision by shaking up the branding. The design definitely takes the specific parts of the previous logos and puts them together in a decidedly Star Trek-like fashion. Maybe it's a deliberate branding decision (note: the government says it isn't). Playing with the connotations of futuristic space travel, plus enhancing a link between popular culture and the government is sure to invoke strong feeling from the public – whether positive or negative. In either case, it's one of those controversial branding moments that's got people talking – and just before an election, too. Read more: Has branding become boring? Where to find logo design inspiration Designers give iconic logos a radical makeover View the full article

Louis Vuitton's latest collection is a glorious homage to sci-fi and horror books and films of the '70s. The fashion house has drawn on some mega stars to model for its Pre-Fall collection, including the likes of Jaden Smith, Sophie Turner, Robyn and Chloe Grace Moretz. (If you didn't know that 'Pre-Fall' was a season, you're not alone.) To create the campaign, Louis Vuitton designer Nicolas Ghesquière photographed the stars in the new clothes, and then created made-up B movies or sci-fi or horror book covers around them. The results manage to be gloriously chic and modern, yet with a real retro edge. They may even be up there with some of the best poster designs ever made. Oh, and the clothes look good too. Fancy creating something similar? See our roundup of the best free retro fonts. And if you think that some of the images have a dreamlike quality about them, you wouldn't be far off. According to Vogue, Robyn's cover was inspired by a dream she had where she meets a talking tiger. That became The Night Chaser. The quirky campaign seems to be part of a trend for major fashion houses pushing the boat out with their collection campaigns. Earlier in the month, Gucci caused a major stir when it unveiled a bizarre new logo to promote its Fall Winter 2020 Men’s Collection. Swedish pop star Robyn's poster was inspired by a dream she had What's particularly interesting about Louis Vuitton's campaign is that it was the idea, rather than the clothes, that came first. "William Peter Blatty, who wrote The Exorcist, gave us the rights to print the cover of the book. It started there," Ghesquière told American Vogue. "It’s such a great symbol for me to use a fiction and incorporate it into an outfit. I thought, what’s the reverse? To use the fiction as the illustration of the fashion. It’s a kind of a mirror effect in this action of representing them all in these different characters." We think this is a stunning example of how effective use of character design and illustration can enhance a campaign. See our character design tips for more on creating your own worlds. Read more: Is this the defining movie poster trend of the decade? Hilarious parody posters reveal the truth behind Oscar-nominated movies 5 brilliant brand collaborations (and what you can learn from them) View the full article

If you missed all the early January sales, never fear. Adobe has launched an amazing late January Creative Cloud deal, shaving an impressive 20% off its top apps for users living in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The price reduction applies to image editing favourite Photoshop, vector graphics editor Illustrator, web development tool Dreamweaver, desktop publishing app InDesign, motion graphics software After Effects and video editing powerhouse Premiere Pro. Usually £19.97 / €23.99, this mega deal means you can now get hold of them for just £16.18 / €19.19 each, per month. But you'll need to be quick, this is a four-day-only offer, ending today at 11pm GMT (Monday 27 January). If you're not in EMEA regions, be sure to check out our dedicated Adobe Creative Cloud discount page for the best deals in your area. All of Adobe's apps 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. Need the whole suite of Adobe apps? Here are the best Creative Cloud deals in your area: Related articles: Top-class Photoshop tutorials to hone your skills The 13 best alternatives to Photoshop The best web hosting services for designers View the full article

The flaw could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to enter a password-protected video conference meeting. View the full article

Modern web hosting companies are generally more reliable than they used to be. Gone are the days when uptime was the only deciding factor in choosing a host. Today it takes something special to stand out. 20i is a UK web hosting company that’s rapidly becoming the go-to choice for those whose business is the web. Its Reseller Hosting product is ideal for freelancers and agencies – users can host an unlimited number of websites, which can be a great way to add extra value to the business. 20i was created by Jonathan and Tim Brealey, the original founders of Webfusion, 123-reg and Heart Internet. Their vision is clear: “With 20i we wanted to create a hosting package focused on the web professional; those with a large number of websites to host. They might be designers, developers, agencies or those wishing to start a web hosting company. We understand these people, and it’s our ambition to give them better value than any alternative.” Using their experience in the industry, Jonathan, Tim and the team are succeeding in that ambition: 10,000 websites move to 20i every month. Jonathan and Tim Brealey's vision was to create a hosting package focused on the web professional What makes 20i so special? Key to 20i's success is the talent Tim and Jonathan Brealey employ. By developing their own platform instead of relying on off-the-shelf software, they can include features and optimisations you can't find anywhere else. A good example is 20i's new free CDN. As you’d expect, it gives you global edge caching that increases loading speeds wherever you are. It also includes a sophisticated web acceleration suite, which optimises all your content, from images to code – a feature you'd need to pay for with many other providers. My20i is an exclusive, free-forever hosting control panel focused around making bulk site management easy 20i's hosting is managed through My20i – an exclusive, free-forever hosting control panel focused around making bulk site management easy. Resellers’ clients can be given access to a highly customisable control panel, StackCP, through which they can manage their own hosting. By ‘white-labelling’ all its products, 20i gives businesses the freedom to keep their branding consistent across the hosting services they offer. The 20i team can develop new features quickly, and include them for free. For example, in 2019, they released HostShop, which automates most of the routine tasks involved in running a web hosting business. Another example is WordPress Tools, which not only provides one-click WordPress staging, but also enables users to control many WP functions from the hosting control panel. Lightning-fast reseller hosting It isn’t just the ‘extra value’ features that are important to 20i. Its core product – lightning fast, super-reliable shared hosting – is where 20i really shines. Instead of relying on outdated software, 20i offers a unique autoscaling platform that means busy websites aren't confined to single servers. This gives busy sites access to 20i's full hardware estate; as many high-spec servers as the site needs. It ensures busy sites stay fast, and don’t affect other sites on the shared platform. 20i's innovations ensure lightning fast, super-reliable shared hosting Late last year, 20i developers saw an opportunity to further improve performance for their clients. By writing their own PHP-FPM and OPcache code they were able to improve on existing commercially available options. While other solutions will apply limits on cores, memory, bandwidth and processes, 20i's code achieves this without imposing any such restrictions. It gives further credence to 20i's promise of ‘truly unlimited hosting’. Making the switch Switching to 20i is a breeze, thanks to the service's automatic Migration Centre for resellers. Just enter your current hosting credentials, and all your site files, databases and emails are transferred over – no fuss. “People are always pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to move over to us," says customer services manager Austin Brealey (20i is a family firm!). "While our support team is always there to help with any concerns, it’s a quick, simple automatic migration, without any downtime.” This support is another way that 20i is different. Instead of going for remote or outsourced options, the whole support team is based at 20i's HQ in Nottinghamshire, where they have direct access to the developers working on the product. "This means that solutions to customer problems can be found quickly, and if necessary, we can apply updates immediately,” adds Austin. From 20i's reviews, this strategy seems to be working: its Trustpilot score is a perfect 5.0 out of 5.0. You can trial all of 20i’s Reseller Hosting features for just £1 for your first month, at 20i.com. View the full article

The graphics card world (yes, that's a thing) is currently all in a flurry. That's because the battle between AMD and Nvidia, the big players behind basically all the best graphics cards, is heating up. AMD is rumoured to be testing the 'Big Navi' GPU, nicknamed the Nvidia killer. This supercharged graphics card is expected to come out in 2020, as confirmed by AMD's CEO Lisa Su at this year's CES. The latest rumours are suggesting there won't be that long to wait either, as it may launch at Computex in June. Why is the Big Navi so special? Well, according to rumours spotted on the Chiphell forums and reported by our sister site TechRadar, the Big Navi (aka Navi 21 GPU, or maybe the Radeon RX 5950) will run on a completely new form of architecture, compared to previous cards. This new RDNA2 architecture will have 80 CUs (complete units) – that's 5,120 stream processors. This could (emphasis on the 'could') make it doubly as good as AMD's RX 5700, which has 40 CUs. It is also rumoured to feature hardware support for ray tracing, making it the first of AMD's cards to do so. Other rumoured features (according to WePC) include variable-rate shading, mixed-precision compute improvement, better caches, higher instructions per clock and advanced voltage regulation. Which all adds up to a pretty sexy sounding card, if it works, of course. We'll assume that's what the testing stage is for. And if the rumours are to be believed, this means AMD's new card will be in a strong position to fight off the competition from big rival Nvidia. This new super graphics card could end up being 30 per cent faster than Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (number one in our best graphics card roundup), so the nickname Nvidia killer may well be appropriate. However, Nvidia is also set to release its own super-charged consumer graphic card at some point in 2020, too. And these Ampere GPUs are expected to be, well, AMD killers. It's a hard one to call, at the moment. So while we're only working on rumours, and AMD is testing its Big Navi, we'll reserve judgment until we can fully test these new GPUs. In the meantime, we'll settle for twiddling our thumbs and buying ourselves one of the best laptops for graphic design, instead. Read more: Why graphics cards matter and how to pick the right one for your needs The best computer for graphic design in 2020 iPhone 12: Surprising design decision revealed View the full article

Are you ready to take your photos to the next level? You've come to the right place. This Photomatix Pro Plus Bundle is packed with tools and plugins to help you transform your photos quickly and easily – and right now it's available for a bargain price. Read on to learn more about the features in this complete photo transformation bundle. For more options, check out our guide to the best photo apps and photo editing software. Photomatix Pro If you use Lightroom regularly, you know that its high dynamic range (HDR) merge feature offers just one HDR style, limiting your desired photography results. Photomatrix Pro features six HDR styles, and over 40 built-in presets, bringing you endless options so you can find the perfect effect for each image. A free plugin for Lightroom is included, making it a seamless complementary pairing to your usual photo processing process. Other features include batch processing, advanced options for removing ghosts, the ability to blend a source exposure into your final image using a Brush Tool, and so much more. Photomatix Essentials Designed to simplify and expedite the process of creating HDR imagery, Photomatix Essentials helps to composite multiple exposures into a single image to gain greater detail than a single exposure can record. With four HDR styles and 30 preset effects, the program utilises an intuitive interface with the ability to fine-tune the final appearance of your imagery. Lifetime access to the user-customised presets come complete with automatic ghost removal and so much more. Tone Mapping Plugin for Photoshop If you're looking for a transformation tool to integrate with Photoshop, this software is for you. Bring your photos to life in Photoshop with the easy to use Tone Mapping Plugin. Features include contrast optimiser and tone balance rendering, advanced options for blending, flawless finishing (sharpening and contrast), and so much more. You'll be able to enhance images easily and edit your photos with impact. The Photomatix Pro Plus Bundle is valued at over $250, it's currently price-dropped to only $39 (that's 84% off). Kick-off 2020 with a bang and turn your images into stunning pieces of art. View the full article

The Super Bowl is a big deal for lots of reasons, so you'd be forgiven for thinking that there'd be a huge budget to create an incredible brand identity. Not so, it seems. The latest logo for next year's Super Bowl LV in Tampa, Florida has just been leaked, and as logos go, it's pretty underwhelming (and that's us being nice). The new Super Bowl 2021 logo (above) looks almost exactly like the logo for this year (below). Neither is very exciting. And as Brits who haven't grown up watching the games, we have to admit that it took us a while to figure out that the new logo isn't supposed to say LIV, but just LV. (If you're not in the US and do want to get involved, see our guide to how to live stream the Super Bowl for free.) As we detailed in our logo design guide, a good logo should be legible and understandable for those who don't know much about the brand. It doesn't look like this new logo will be making it into our list of best logos anytime soon. The current logo for Super Bowl LIV (not LIIV, apparently) What's different between this logo and the current one? Well... there's no extra 'I', so it doesn't read LIIV, just LIV (to the untrained eye). And the colour of the banner below the letters is now orange, instead of green. Wonderful. We can only assume this is supposed to represent something about the location of the event, but it's not immediately obvious what. Is it supposed to represent Florida's oranges, perhaps? Anyway, the logo follows the template for other Super Bowl logos, as you can see by looking at them in all their marvellous glory below. And while you could argue that this is similar to the PS5 logo debate, in which designers complained that Sony had just used the same logo as always but added a different number, at least the PlayStation logo is actually good in the first place. (Too harsh?) A history of Super Bowl logos in all their glory People on social media were quick to point out their disappointment. Others are still hung up on the 'LIV' thing from this year's logo. On the sort of bright side, there is also this host committee logo, which at least looks like it makes some sort of nod to the setting. There's a ship... and a ball, so that's something Overall, we've got our fingers crossed for 2022. But we won't be holding our breath. Via SportLogos.net Read more: The best Super Bowl commercials ever: and what creatives can learn from them Mock Cleveland Indians logos highlight racist double standards iPhone 11: Surprising design decision revealed View the full article

Apple's next range of iPhones has been the subject of much speculation and rumour, and news of an unexpected change to the handset design is the latest thing to cause a stir. Recent reports suggest there is going to be a significant update to the colour range available for Apple's next smartphones, predicted to be released in late 2020. Apple will be scrapping its Midnight Green shade, and replacing it with a new Navy Blue finish across the pricier iPhone 12 Pro range. Granted the placeholder name is a little underwhelming, but the shade is bang on trend right now: Classic Blue is Pantone's Color of the Year 2020. The new colour options would then be Space Grey, Silver, Gold or Navy Blue (name to be confirmed – we're hoping Apple goes for something a little more imaginative in its official release). This is pretty big news for Apple fans. If you're already an iPhone user, see our guide to the best free iPhone apps for designers. Alternatively, explore Apple's biggest competitors in our guide to the best camera phones 2020. The story comes from industry insider Max Weinbach and has broken on the popular YouTube channel EverythingApplePro, run by Filip Koroy. Check out his renders of how the new shade might look below. A new Navy Blue shade could be joining the iPhone 12 Pro lineup The decision is particularly surprising because it was the Midnight Green that sold out first when the iPhone 11 launched, suggesting this was the most popular shade. However, if Koroy's renders prove accurate, we think this replacement finish is going to look pretty sweet. Perhaps Navy Blue will be the colour to go for in 2020? There's also more speculation surrounding the housing design on the 2020 iPhones. Previous predictions stated the iPhone 12 would adopt a more angular design that harks back to the iPhone 4, but recent reports suggest the iPhone 11's current, curvier casing will be sticking around a little longer – perhaps because a squared design is chunkier and more awkward to hold. There's also more news on the expected sizing for the iPhone 12 range, which looks set to get a fairly major shakeup. Watch the video below for more details. Check out TechRadar's iPhone 12 predictions page for everything else we know so far. Read more: 2021 iPhones could be completely portless – what?! Apple Pencil vs Apple Pencil 2: which should you buy? The best cheap Apple laptop deals in 2020 View the full article

Hailing from Abcoude, a small town near Amsterdam, Nadieh Bremer’s data-visualisation projects are quite simply a joy to behold. Combining a keen understanding of statistics and the stories they can tell, her work pushes both the aesthetic and the communicative possibilities of this ever-evolving medium to reach new and exciting places. Illustrating everything from the differences between dogs and cats for Google to the absurd number of digital trackers that you gather when you browse the web for the New York Times, her projects have won numerous awards and stand as an inspiration for anyone wishing to pursue data visualisation. Ahead of her appearance at GenerateJS, the conference helping you build better JavaScript, on 2 April in London, Bremer explains how she made the journey from astronomy to data viz (learn more about data visualisation here), her go-to tools and how she sees the discipline developing in the future. This data viz Bremer worked on for Google News Lab explores the most popular questions that people have asked on Google to better understand their cats and dogs Could you briefly introduce yourself to anyone who doesn’t know you? I focus on the ‘creative’ side of data visualisation. I custom-make each visual to fit the data, goal and topic and love to spend time experimenting with the design side of things to make the eventual visualisation look both visually pleasing while still being effective. I like to take on the bigger datasets to visualise – those that have a lot of diversity, so I can show context and other stories besides the main insight. I’ve been freelancing under the name of Visual Cinnamon for almost three years. I work mostly on pieces that are used for marketing – either internally or externally – used for articles (in print or online), press releases or maybe even some data art for in the office. How was it that you originally got into data visualisation? My story starts with astronomy. I’ve always loved the topic and studied it full-time for five years at university. But I also knew the next academic step wouldn’t make me happy. So after I graduated in 2011, I decided to join the new analytics department of Deloitte Consulting. The word ‘data scientist’ hadn’t even reached the Netherlands then, so I was a ‘consultant advanced analytics’. I was doing analyses on people and companies instead of stars. Different but still fun and a lot more diverse actually. Yet after about three years, I started to lose my passion for data analysis. I didn’t enjoy spending that extra hour making my predictive model just a tiny bit better. During a data-science conference in 2014, I saw the speaker Mike Freeman calling himself a ‘data-visualisation specialist’ on the first slide. And then it hit me like lightning: ‘You can do data viz as a separate thing?!’ So what was it about data viz that struck such a chord? It combined the maths/data/exact side that I enjoyed with the creative side that I’d also always had. So from that conference onwards, I started to dedicate all of my spare time to learning more about data viz: reading books to learn about the best practices as well as doing personal projects to get better with d3.js. Created for the Data Sketches collaboration Bremer did with Shirley Wu, Olympic Feathers visualises all gold medal winners of the summer Olympics since the first games in 1896 You went freelance in 2017. How has your career developed since then? Going into freelancing is one of the best professional steps that I’ve ever taken; I’ve not regretted it for a single day. I’ve had the opportunity to work with clients I thought I could only dream about, such as Google, UNESCO and the New York Times. I’m also enjoying the wide breadth of clients and datasets I now get to work with, from small startups to big names and from magazines or non-profits to corporates. I generally try to have three to four clients at the same time, so that I can switch between them throughout the week. I might be working on some science-related research, cultural heritage and what people search online for about cats and dogs, all in the same week. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed that maybe the WWF, Disney or NASA/ESA will come knocking on my door at some point. What are your go-to tools? I use R to do my data preparation and analysis at the start of a project. This helps me build a mental model of what the data is about, where the interesting aspects to visualise are and how to restructure the data in a way that I need for the visual. I design using either plain pen and paper or with the Tayasui Sketches app on my iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, so the designs really stay rough. From there, I then go to Visual Studio Code to program my data visualisation with d3.js and JavaScript. Depending on the amount of data to show or the complexity of interactions, I’ll create it with SVG for simpler things or HTML5 Canvas for larger visuals. On some rare occasions I might also create the visual with three.js if the data is really big. Finally, if the finished piece is going to be a static image, I’ll export the visual I’ve made in JavaScript to Adobe Illustrator to add some final touches that are easier to do there than through code, such as a legend or annotations. That said, I’ve recently started to work with and enjoy Affinity Designer and might completely migrate to that for my vector work in future. Get Adobe Creative Cloud What are the biggest mistakes people tend to make when they are creating data visualisations? Not taking the time to think about the visual form they’ll put their data into. I see a lot of people who think that any chart form will work just as well – bar chart, line chart – as long as the data is made visual. They just go straight from the data in a sheet to the ‘available chart list’. However, getting the basic chart form right is actually the most important factor in determining whether the visual will be effective. So take some time to think about your goal. What does this visual need to teach people and what is the best way to convey this? Even sketching out some very rough possibilities and trying different chart forms can make all the difference. Created for the Graphic Science page of Scientific American, this visual reveals the different seasonal patterns that appear when babies are born in the US What do you love most about your work and which parts are the least fun? What I love most is the designing of the visual and creating the static part through code. To build up the idea with the actual data, start to experiment with design ideas and see it slowly come to life. The least fun part – aside from reading and creating contracts – is making the visual work on both mobile and desktop: there’s such a giant difference in space available to work with! It puts a no-fun constraint on my creativity. I’m also quite bummed out when I need to compromise on a design idea I have because the browser can’t keep up in terms of performance. And don’t get me started on browser bugs… What’s been your proudest career moment so far? Winning Best Individual at the Information is Beautiful Awards in 2017. Getting that kind of recognition when there were so many amazing people to choose from just blew me away. I didn’t see it coming and went on stage at the ceremony totally unprepared, overwhelmed and exceptionally honoured. It really boosted my self-confidence, especially since starting out as a freelancer that year had been such a scary step. How will data visualisation change over the next 10 years? I truly have no idea but it’s certainly getting bigger. Companies seem to understand more and more that data visualisation is a good investment and that if you want it done well, you need to hire an expert. The number of people wanting to work in data viz is also growing exceptionally fast, perhaps even faster than demand. So what would you like to see happen? Maybe in 10 years someone will have figured out how to do good data viz through AR/VR. I also hope that the general audience will have gained better graphical literacy through regular exposure to data visualisation in the news, at work and at school. A longer version of this article was originally published in issue 328 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 328 or subscribe to net. Learn how to build better JavaScript at GenerateJS Join us in April with our lineup of JavaScript superstars including Nadieh Bremer at GenerateJS – the conference helping you build better JavaScript! Book before 5pm on 31 January to save £110 with Early Bird Tickets at generateconf.com Read more: Explore data visualisation with p5.js 35 incredible dataviz tools The top 20 data visualisation tools View the full article

Looking to streamline your creative workflow? Meet the editing tool designed to enhance how you work during every part of the editing process. Loupedeck Creative Tool (Loupedeck CT) brings the tools you use into one powerful, precise and perfectly designed console. Loupedeck CT is a powerful, adaptable and custom console – designed to save you time without sacrificing creative integrity. Create and switch between as many customised workspaces as you need, and go from pen to brush, design to video, or jump between software – all with a quick tap or turn of the finger. Intuitive user experience Loupedeck CT is designed to facilitate a seamless workflow Loupedeck CT is a 'no-fuss' tool that meets the demands of the most complex and versatile creative workflows from photo, design, video, animation and even audio. The team at Loupedeck understand how essential it is to have a console that works in sync with the tools and software you normally use, without any interruption to your workflow. Loupedeck CT provides a seamless experience with your software and will display the tools you use across each working environment, meaning you can switch between Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, and have instant access to the tools required in each environment. With Loupedeck CT, you can truly enhance the way you work with unlimited customisation possibilities and the ability to organise all tools and functions into workspaces. You can match your editing style by creating as many custom workspaces as you want, which can then be assigned to Loupedeck CT’s colour-coordinated buttons and touchscreens. Ease of use Getting started with the Loupedeck Creative Tool is quick and easy. Simply download the Loupedeck software, plug in your Loupedeck CT using its detachable USB, and select the software you wish to use. By default, Loupedeck CT comes with a set of predefined tools and default workspaces, so you can get started editing in a matter of minutes. To make the integration into your workflow even faster and minimise any learning curve, Loupedeck CT comes with a variety of default workspaces, arranged by project type and editing style. Switching between tools and functions is easy Out of the box, Loupedeck CT provides native support for: Adobe Lightroom Classic Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Adobe Premiere Pro Adobe After Effects Adobe Audition Final Cut Pro X Ableton Live Who is Loupedeck CT for? Get precise control with this pro editing tool The Loupedeck Creative Tool is a pro-grade editing tool that meets the demands of those who work rigorously within a variety of creative environments and software. Loupedeck CT’s premium build gives you precise control over your work. Easily make incremental edits and fine adjustments with the turn of one of CT’s tactile dials, or dive deeper than ever into colour grading with intuitive access and control over colour panels. This is a console for someone looking for complete customisation and deeper control of their software. It's equipped with high-quality aluminium cover and dials, touchscreens and LED backlighting, while machine-quality ball bearings provide a premium haptic feel. If you’re a pro editor and find yourself doing repetitive tasks within Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, or find yourself wanting to dive deeper into video editing with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, then Loupedeck CT is for you. Sound interesting? Loupedeck CT is available for purchase in the Loupedeck Online Store, Wex Photo Video in the UK, and other specialty photography stores across Europe and US for $549/£469/€499. View the full article

If you missed all the early January sales, never fear. Today Adobe has launched an amazing deal, shaving an impressive 20% off some of its top creative apps for users living in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The price reduction applies to image editing favourite Photoshop, vector graphics editor Illustrator, web development tool Dreamweaver, desktop publishing app InDesign, motion graphics software After Effects and video editing powerhouse Premiere Pro. Usually £19.97 / €23.99, this mega deal means you can now get hold of them for just £16.18 / €19.19 each, per month. But you'll need to be quick, this is a four-day-only offer, ending on Monday 27 January (11pm GMT). If you're not in EMEA regions, be sure to check out our dedicated Adobe Creative Cloud discount page for the best deals in your area. All of Adobe's apps 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. Need the whole suite of Adobe apps? Here are the best Creative Cloud deals in your area: Related articles: Top-class Photoshop tutorials to hone your skills The 13 best alternatives to Photoshop The best web hosting services for designers View the full article

The Feds have warned on six vulnerabilities in GE medical equipment that could affect patient monitor alarms and more. View the full article