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Software developer builds a malicious proof-of-concept iOS app that can read data temporarily saved to the device’s clipboard. View the full article

If you've been thinking about ways to continue your creative education this year, you've come to the right place. It's never too late to continue learning and finesse your personal and professional objectives. You can brush up on your design skills with the All-in-One Adobe Creative Cloud Suite Certification Bundle, now with 97% off. To extend your Adobe skills even further, you could check out our range of tutorials that include the best Photoshop tutorials, and Illustrator tutorials out there. All levels of expertise can benefit With 60 hours of content and hundreds of tutorials, this updated Adobe CC bundle is the perfect way to get more out of the programs you already use or are interested in learning. The eight-course package is geared toward various levels of experience, so no matter what your expertise, you're bound to get something out of it and master your skills in Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, Lightroom, After Effects, and more. One of the best parts of the bundle is a certification upon completion, making it a valuable asset to add to your résumé and portfolio that will give you an edge over the competition. Step your content up a gear With endless amounts of lessons, you'll get the guidance you need to build your design portfolio with the latest updates in motion graphics, logo design, user interface design, photography, and so much more. This popular bundle is available 24/7, allowing you to come back and visit when you need to reference a specific tool or need a spark of inspiration for your latest project. Take your content to the next level, explore the latest updates on tool panels for each program, and even learn how to maximize your creative workflow to save you precious time. You'll be exposed to real-life exercises that test your understanding of the content, empowering you to practice what you learn. While lifetime access to this bundle is priced at almost $2,000, The All-in-One Adobe Creative Cloud Suite Certification Bundle is currently price-dropped to only $34 - that's 97% off. It's certainly a great way to learn the latest and greatest in design artistry and continue to grow your career in 2020. Read more: The 5 best InDesign alternatives How to add fonts in Photoshop The 6 best laptops for Photoshop in 2020 View the full article

With just over a month until its release, not one but two new posters have arrived for the 25th James Bond film, No Time To Die – and one of them has finally got us excited. The first poster, shared by the official 007 social media channels on Friday, is giving us serious Sin City vibes. It's a moody, monochrome affair, and we're wondering if it means that No Time to Die will will be taking Daniel Craig's final appearance as 007 into grittier territory. Either way, we like it – and it's the closest any No Time to Die poster has come to our best poster designs list. Moody. We like it We're big fans of the film's typographical logo (in lovely Futura Black) and are rather enjoying that the designers have colour-matched it to Craig's eyes. The new poster also confirms our suspicion that said eyes are so blue, they should have their own Pantone. (If you'd like to create your own Bond stare, perhaps use the RH Hover Color Picker from our list of photoshop plugins?) Less impressive to us is the new IMAX exclusive poster, featuring Bond doing some Sid James-style gurning while riding a Massive Motorbike. While the trailers have promised that the new film will "change everything", all this poster tells us is that Daniel Craig's last ride as 007 will involve some dangerous two-wheeled driving. Nothing new there, then (unless we're looking at 007's cycling proficiency test). Is it an ad for the bike or the film? There's also little that screams 'Bond' here. "If you could swap out Craig's head with another actor in a Bond poster and it doesn't feel out of place," says Reddit user Ryecue, "it's a bad Bond poster." We can't help but agree – it's all a bit Fast & Furious. Aside from the new black-and-white offering, we've been disappointed by No Time to Die's poster campaign. We were particularly unimpressed by the initial teaser poster (below), an extremely basic effort featuring the title slapped over an image of a shifty looking 007 apparently trying to making an inconspicuous exit from somewhere he shouldn't have been. 007's walk of shame And of course, who can forget the subsequent, tantalising series of posters (below), in which the film's minor characters seemed to be showing off their LinkedIn profile pictures? "We read your CV with interest..." Taken as a whole, No Time to Die's poster campaign leaves us wishing the studio had taken more time to design. Still, the new monochrome poster finally has us excited for Daniel Craig's 007 swansong, and intrigued about where it'll be taking the character. If there's another poster to come, we're hoping for more black-and-white, and less motorbike. Read more: James Bond 'No Time to Die' trailer promises big change (but we’re not convinced) The French Dispatch poster is a meticulous masterpiece Epic posters give diseases a movie makeover View the full article

In addition to making animations, iClone can be used to facilitate the compositing process by enabling you to add backgrounds or billboards, textured with real footage, to your 3D models. The tool reduces the number of meshes needed to create complex sets, while at the same time ensuring the scene is highly realistic. See how the process works in the video below, or read on for a full explanation and some expert tips for taking advantage of this feature in your own projects. All these methods are surprisingly straightforward and flexible, allowing you to make adjustments on the fly. The video footage or still images used as textures can be edited like any other material used in your project. This means it’s possible to define masking areas, making part of the billboards transparent. If you're using tessellated planes, you can also include displacement maps to create depth deformation in your surfaces. Find out more about iClone As all the elements are part of the same project, the lights within the scene will automatically interact with the billboards – so the billboard within the scene will cast shadows over its surrounding 3D models, and vice versa, depending on where the lights are placed. Finally, it's possible to set the billboards so they're light-emissive. This enables you to illuminate the CGI objects within the set using a light that perfectly matches the images they contain. For example, you could simulate the flickering light emitted by screens or TVs very easily, but it's also possible to illuminate the 3D models in a very convincing way using real footage of explosions, fires or atmospheric effects. Particle effects and atmospheric effects can also be included in the scene, and similarly interact with the billboards. Being able to mix video billboards with 3D models is very useful. We can control the effect of the lights and the cameras, observing the interaction between all the elements of the scene in real time. Working with iClone, what you see is always what you get, so we don’t need to wait for slow renders and further compositing operations to be sure that the shots have been properly arranged. Working like this, the whole scene can be rendered in a single step, and there is no need to create render layers for compositing. It's an excellent way to speed up animations, saving a lot of time and effort in post-production. Here are some top tips to help you make the most of iClone's compositing tools. 01. Use videos as a texture iClone enables you to use videos as a texture by simply dragging and dropping the video file over a billboard prop. Using these panels with real footage as background and CGI props in the foreground means that we can move the camera to create a cool parallax effect. Set these panels to be self-illuminated, as well as not receiving and not emitting shadows, so they're unaffected by the light conditions of the scene. This way, they can be easily configured to match the original illumination of the footage. 02. Combine videos with transparent areas and CGI props Images containing alpha channels can be loaded as a texture in iClone billboards. The transparent areas of the picture will also be transparent within the billboard, enabling you to create dioramas that mix CGI props, characters and particles with several layers of panels that combine still pictures with transparent areas and video footage. Again, you can create a cool parallax effect when moving the camera through the scene, and some of the panels can be set to be affected by the light of the particles to integrate them more effectively. 03. Use panels with video to illuminate scenes By setting the billboards as self-illuminated and increasing their Global Illumination parameters, they become a source of light within the scene. This way we get a perfect integration between the background videos and the light in the scene, especially when this light changes during the sequence, like in this example of a sci-fi city on a stormy night. Combining 3D models with light emissive billboards, rain particles and panels texturized with semi-transparent fog animations, we can obtain integrated results in one single step, with no need for any extra compositing. 04. Mimic camera motion from real footage iClone enables us to set a video as a fixed background. As it’s not affected by the iClone’s camera movements, we can track and simulate the original camera that filmed the video using dummy characters placed in strategic areas of the footage. Once the iClone’s camera mimics the background footage, we can add CGI elements that will integrate naturally into the scene, thanks to the situation and proportion provided by the dummy characters. View the full article

When patched last week, the bug affected at least 1 million websites. Zero-day exploits were going on then. View the full article

Are you having a difficult time making your digital content stand out? Copywriting is one of the most overlooked elements in a business. Take your digital skills to the next level and learn to create writing that sells with The 2020 Complete Digital Copywriting Master Class Bundle. Effective and clear writing is essential in any position, especially if you want to sell more products and progress in your career (for more advice that'll help your career progress, see our post on how to network). Whether you're looking to build a career in content marketing or you need ways to help your business, this 11-course bundle brings you everything you need to transform your writing into a profitable career. What will you learn? Alan Sharpe, a 30-year veteran copywriter/persuasive mastermind, teaches you step-by-step techniques to take on effective business writing. You'll learn how to carefully craft your message and avoid common mistakes. Become familiar with industry best practice on writing catchy product descriptions that rank well in search results, direct-response copy that generates online sales leads, how to effectively write white papers that stick, and so much more. With access to over 150 lessons, you'll quickly become a master at generating traffic to your website and converting that traffic into sales. If you're looking for a course that will help you get started on a new website or blog for your brand or online business, this bundle has it. Danny Liu, a seasoned 15-year career technologist, teaches you the ins and outs of building and setting up your own WordPress site to host all your content. Lay the foundation needed to scale your website as your brand grows, and learn how to build a professional-looking website in a fast and efficient way. You'll even gain top insights on how to select the best hosting, theme (see our pick of the best WordPress themes), and plugins that are best for your industry. Easy to follow lectures and 24/7 access to the content will motivate you to revisit top-notch advice from the pros whenever you need it. Updates are included, automatically providing you with the latest tips for a successful copywriting career. This comprehensive bundle is even equipped with a certification of completion, allowing for a great résumé booster for your next endeavour. The 2020 Complete Digital Copywriting Master Class Bundle is usually priced at $700, but, for a limited time, you can start writing like a pro for only $39, that's 94% off! Transform your writing and help launch your career today. Read more: 13 of the best creative resumés The best pencils for colouring, drawing and sketching The most powerful laptops in 2020 View the full article

WB Montreal has been teasing a (currently unannounced) new Batman game for a few weeks, and now two new images have emerged on Twitter, appearing to show a brand new bat symbol inside the studio's HQ. The bat symbol has undergone several transformations since the caped crusader first graced the cover of Detective Comics in 1939 – some more dramatic than others. Non-fans might not bat an eyelid at the new logo, shared by games reporter James Sigfield on Twitter (below). It's just a silhouette of a bat, same as ever, right? Not so fast – logo design is a complicated business (although our guide to logo design certainly simplifies things). So is this possible new logo any different? To help you tell one bat from another, Reddit user rdgxxx recently shared a fascinating look at the evolution of the symbol from 1940-2012 (below). Spot the difference While the logo in Sigfield's tweet doesn't completely match any of these iterations, it perhaps most closely resembles the one for 1999's Batman Beyond (compare them below). The head and wings in this new version are rounder, though. One thing's for sure – it's a departure from the logo for the recent Arkham game series. We're pleased to see a return to an all-black design, without the rather obvious 'Batman' splashed across the wings (we get it, guys). The leaked logo and the one from Batman Beyond The Bat symbol is clearly close to fans' hearts – users were quick to comment on rdgxxx's post to declare their favourite – usually the one which evoked the strongest childhood memories. Djentleman5000 says, "I remember the ‘92/‘95 ones. I had The Batman cereal that came with Batman shaped piggy bank. I had a ninja turtles one too. Nostalgia...", while rdgxxx "used to watch the old TV Show every afternoon at home eating croissants with a home made latte! The '66 Logo!" Although it remains unannounced, the studio has teased the new game with a series of mysterious images and videos of, each including the caption 'Capture the Knight'. Fans believe that the crests on display could be related to the Court of Owls, a secret crime group from the Batman comics: Still, for all the teasing and mystery around the game, WB Montreal appears to be playing it safe with the new logo. It doesn't look likely to wind up on our list of controversial moments in logo design, which is just as well – when it comes to the fans, a dodgy bat symbol isn't going to fly. Related articles: Batman and Catwoman swap exposes gender stereotypes Incredible fan art reimagines your favourite superheroes Then and now: The evolution of 3 iconic logos View the full article

A default password would let anyone access the Cisco Smart Software Manager On-Prem Base platform, even if it's not directly connected to the internet. View the full article

Durex has revealed its sexy new-look flat logo, and we think it hits just the right spot with the design coupled with its clever font name ('One Night Sans', in case you missed it). But as soon as we published our excitement over the Durex rebrand, our enthusiasm was dampened once we received a tweet about it, and discovered a design flaw that could prove to be a major turn off for typography enthusiasts. Digital creative Helder Cervantes has pointed out that the placement of that 'd' seems to be just a teensy bit off. And it's left us a little hot under the collar – not in a good way. (If you'd like to look at some well-spaced logos, you can check out our best logos post). Cervantes has measured the distance between the top and bottom of the 'd', and what those red lines show is potentially not pretty at all. The 'd' looks like it's placed further down than it should be. It's not enough to notice at first glance, but a niggle that is enough to get on your nerves at closer inspection. Once you've seen it, you won't be able to unsee it, which may drive the most pernickety of designers to choose a different brand. After all, no one needs a design-induced migraine at an inopportune moment. Does the 'd' render this one a dud for you? It may not be as big as these design fails that were so bad they were actually good, but if Durex could shift that 'd' up a bit, we'd be interested to see how that compares to the new logo. What do you think? Let us know on Twitter and Facebook. Read more: Do people still dislike last year's most hated rebrands? Where to find logo design inspiration 8 of the best animated logos View the full article

Two critical Adobe vulnerabilities have been fixed in Adobe After Effects and Adobe Media Encoder. View the full article

Devs often struggle with the design of their websites. One thing that holds their designs back the most is the way they handle type, so in this video, we’re looking at 6 simple steps for you to follow to make …View the full article

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a good prototype is worth a thousand meetings. In user interface design, being able to share clear prototypes that all stakeholders can follow and understand is key to achieving smooth and efficient development and handoff without the headache. Prototyping helps keep designers and clients on the same page at all stages by giving clients a clear window into what is being created and the ability to respond with feedback. There are many prototyping tools on the market and no single perfect solution that serves for every product, or every stage of a product's development. Each tool has some benefits and features that others lack, so the best tool for a particular project or task depends on what you need in terms of fidelity, adaptability, collaboration, ease of use, and, of course, cost. Here are eight of the most useful tools on the market now for developing and sharing prototypes for feedback and usability testing. (Also check out our dedicated post on user testing.) 01. InVision InVision is easy to use to create simple click-through prototypes Best for: A low learning curve Price: One prototype, free; unlimited prototypes, $25 p/m Web-based InVision is one of the most popular tools for creating interactive prototypes of static screens that don’t require high-fidelity microinteractions or sophisticated state transitions. The app has a low learning curve thanks to its similarity to the design tool Sketch. It offers an easy connected workflow that allows designers to upload static screenshots and create clickable prototypes in a very simple way. Timeline animations are supported and interaction is quick and easy to understand, though performance can still be choppy with more complex prototypes. Project collaboration features allow feedback but don't reach the real-time collaboration offered by Figma. Another downside is that with no desktop app, you’re limited to online editing. There is a mobile application for native prototyping, but some designers complain that it doesn’t work as well as the browser. InVision also offers its own design app, InVision Studio for both Mac and Windows, which allows designers to skip Sketch or Photoshop and design directly in InVision. 02. Marvel Marvel App is another of the easiest to use prototyping tools Best for: Simplicity of use Price: One project, free; unlimited projects $12 p/m One of the easiest and most intuitive prototyping tools around, Marvel is another good option for making simple screen-linking prototypes if you don’t need to test more complex microinteractions. It works directly from pre-designed PSD or Sketch documents, so visual drafts can be used without conversion formatting. It’s perhaps the easiest app for non-designers to follow, and is very straightforward for stakeholders to use to give feedback. Like InVision, Marvel is limited to an online app. 03. Figma Figma is great for teams thanks to its real-time collaboration tools Best for: Collaborative working Price: Starter account, free; professional account $12 per editor p/m Figma is billed as the collaborative UI design tool and this aspect is what has made it so popular. Real-time collaboration makes it comparable to working on a Google document. The app retains smooth performance even with several team members working on a project at the simultaneously. This makes it great for sharing prototypes with multiple stakeholders and getting immediate feedback, and saves time by allowing teams to ditch the piece-by-piece approach and work across an entire project at the same time. Again like Google docs, previous versions can easily be retrieved, making it easy to keep track of iterations. The web-based tool also has desktop versions for Windows and iOS, and prototypes can be easily shared to Windows, iOS and Android. One drawback for now is the lack of animation features, with no support for lottie files as yet. 04. UXPin UXPin allows prototypes to include animations that come closer to the real thing Best for: Animations Price: From £20 a month If you need to present powerful animations in a prototype rather than simply link screens together, then UXPin is one of the better options. You animate between different versions of any element and update properties between states with a single click. You can also add a layer of logic to prototypes and set rules for when interactions should happen, making it a good tool for showing how interactions will really work in the finished product. You can also use JavaScript to create computational components like shopping carts, and prototypes can easily be shared to iOS and Android via the UXPin Mirror. UXPin also has collaborative tools and provides automatic specs for handoff, making it an all-in-one package that can be uses from the initial design stage right through to delivery. It’s available for Windows, Mac and online. 05. ProtoPie Best for: code-free high-fidelity prototypes Price: $13 p/m ProtoPie comes into its own when you need to show more complex interactions that come close to the real thing. It allows you to demo interactions with an object, trigger, and response flow. It also provides the ability to control smart device sensors in prototypes, including as compass, tilt, sound, and 3D touch sensors. This all makies it one of the best options at the moment for creating high-fidelity prototypes without coding, and for real usability or UX evaluation purposes when you need to show advanced user journeys using variables and conditions that can handle logic and dynamic inputs. Shareable prototypes can be displayed and experienced interactively within the browser app, or more usefully deployed on a mobile device to allow them to be tested like a real native app by simply scanning a QR code. 06. Adobe XD Adobe XD offers an all-in-one package from design to prototype Best for: Designers working with Adobe products Price: £9.98 p/m, per user If you’re committed to the Adobe suite of products, Adobe XD integrates well and offers an all-in-one UI design option with a prototype tab that’s easy to switch into. It feels rather different to other Adobe products, but offers seemless integration. Of course it works on Windows as well as Mac, making it an alternative to Sketch for designing for Windows users. It’s also one of the very few options for creating prototpyes with voice command triggers and playback, which can make it useful for very specific projects. 07. Framer X Best for: Designers who code Price: $144 p/year Framer X is one of the most versatile of all prototyping tools. The caveat is that to use its full potential, it helps to be comfortable writing some code. The majority of prototyping tools are code-free, but Framer X uses the JavaScript library React (read more about how Framer X works here). This and the lack of friendly controls mean that the learning curve can be daunting to non-coders. But if you can code, or are prepared to get up to speed, Framer X allows you to create prototypes that can be almost indistinguishable from the final product. This allows you to demo fully interactive prototypes and collect reliable feedback on natural user behaviour. It offers seamless support for HTML, CSS, and Javascript. It supports calling the system keyboard, inputting real text then using it as data, and real control and monitoring of audio and video. Through its component store, you can also add analytics and heatmaps to test prototypes. 08. Principle Principle allows prototyping of specific complex animations Best for: High-fidelity specific animations for iOS Price: $129 Principle excels at smoothly displaying specific, complex animated interactions for iOS mobile apps. It offers the option to look at individual assets and how those assets animate independently, right down to timings and easing, which is great for prototyping minor interactions within designs. It can import Sketch files, and the Sketch-like interface makes it easy to learn to use. Users of Adobe After Effects should also find the adding of animations to layers quite familiar. Principle is an offline app available only for Mac, so it lacks collaborative tools. The mirror app for live testing is also only available for iOS, with no option available for Android. Read more: 10 painful UI fails (and what you can learn from them) Master the golden rules of incredible UI design The 8 most disruptive apps of all time View the full article

Barely a day goes by in the design world without a cleverly reimagined logo popping up. But every now and again, one truly captures our imagination – like this concept Adidas sandals ad (above) shared by reddit user u/aLp. The witty design takes Adidas' famous three-stripe logo and, with the addition of a single horizontal line, turns it into an image of the company's also very well known slider sandal (below). It's an ingeniously simple, why-didn't-I-think-of-that concept, which is particularly striking because of the immediately obvious iconic Adidas logo. While the three stripes didn't quite make our list of the 10 best logos of all time, it's certainly one of the best sports logos. The real deal Over on reddit, users are fully appreciating the simplicity, although many were quick to point out what else the image could represent: a sailboat, the Sydney Opera House, an ice cream cone sitting sideways on a chopping board. For our money, it could also be a (very small) handkerchief poking out of a tuxedo pocket. Other were not so keen, with reddit user RomanBlue_ saying: "While interesting, I believe you are harming the identity of the logo. A big brand logo is not something to be toyed with." Here at Creative Bloq, we love a clever logo concept, especially when they rival the real thing – like this smart new crocs concept, or this vastly improved Paris 2020 logo. And this isn't the first clever reworking of the Adidas logo we've seen. Earlier this year, architect Karina Wiciak included the stripes in a stunning series of logos reimagined as houses. Overall, as a concept design, we think this works really well. The incorporation of the logo in the design and its placement makes both the product it's trying to promote and brand immediately obvious. Of course there's an argument not to mess with iconic logos, but we like this one so much, we'll let it slide (sorry, couldn't resist). Related articles: New Adidas site takes it back to the '90s The 20 best sneaker designs of all time Is this Paris Olympics 2024 logo concept better than the official design? View the full article

More than 55 percent of medical imaging devices - including MRIs, XRays and ultrasound machines - are powered by outdated Windows versions, researchers warn. View the full article

It's that time of year when there are all manner of bugs going around, and what with Coronavirus hitting the headlines on a daily basis, it's all too tempting to head for the doctor's when you have a bit of a cough. Just to be on the safe side, you know. Assuming you can actually get an appointment, is that the right thing to do? According to a new campaign from the NHS, maybe not. Plenty of minor illnesses can be dealt with just as well by speaking to a pharmacist, and to get the message home the NHS has commissioned a set of fantastic movie-style poster designs from graphic designer and digital illustrator, Doaly. A designer's guide to printing a poster Each of the three posters is based around taking the drama out of minor illnesses by seeing a pharmacist rather than a GP, and covers a typical ailment that you probably shouldn't bother a doctor with, in an unmistakable cinematic style. Think twice before bothering a GP with your gammy eye There's a horror poster – 'The Night of the Itchy Eye' – that instantly recalls George A Romero's iconic zombie movies. 'Sore Throat and the Lost Voice' is an unmistakable nod to the Indiana Jones movies, while 'Earache Strikes Back' has more than a hint of Star Wars to it. There are even animated versions of all three posters; they're not quite as epic as the original films, but we appreciate the effort. As well as the note-perfect illustrations by Doaly, there's another clever layer of information added at the bottom of each poster. What looks like the usual set of credits that nobody ever reads is in fact a helpful list of symptoms that you might encounter from each ailment. It's a fun and useful additional feature. Don't skip the credits If you're impressed by Doaly's confident touch when it comes to movie-style posters, there's a good reason for that. Over the years he's created artwork for plenty of movie studios, including Disney, 20th Century Fox (sorry, we mean 20th Century Studios), Lucasfilm and Warner Bros, so this is definitely a style he's at home with. To see more of Doaly's impressive illustration work, simply head for his site. Related articles: Check out these incredible posters for movies that never happened The 12 best London Underground posters Is this the defining movie poster trend of the decade? View the full article

A new Emotet campaign is spread via SMS messages pretending to be from banks and may have ties to the TrickBot trojan. View the full article

Durex, one of the world's biggest condom manufacturers, has revealed a new brand identity designed by Havas London, in a bid to position itself as an activist championing the "positive reality" of sex. Another new addition to the flat design movement, Durex's new logo does away with the original's convex, reflective style while maintaining the lozenge shape. It's got rid of the light flare so that the 'x' of its name is more prominent, which feels appropriate, given that this only emphasises the X-rated nature of its products. This more modern, simplified mark is another trend we're seeing more and more of (and something you can read all about in our logo design guide). Durex is keeping it clean Havas' rebrand also includes a new bespoke typeface by Colophon Foundry, with an ingeniously simple yet effective name: One Night Sans. This delightful play on the phrase 'one night stand' is certainly Twitter's most appreciated element of the new identity. If you're inspired to switch up your fonts, take a look at our list of the best (but admittedly less pun-tastic) free fonts. But despite the fun typeface name, Durex isn't screwing around. Elliot Harris, RB global executive creative director at Havas says the rebrand, "could be the most important piece of work we ever do", positioning the 91 year-old brand as an activist against sexual stigmas and taboos. A series of posters declaring 'porn's not the norm', and 'STD's are kinda real' (all based on the findings of Durex's 2017 Global Sex Survey) accompany the new look. A sobering message for your morning commute We love the cleaner look. Havas says it "needed a brand mark that behaved like a stamp of authenticity and trust", and the new, less glossy logo looks certainly makes us feel nice and safe (pun intended). That 'x' is hitting the spot for us It's great to see a new sense of brand activism from Durex (we certainly like to think it's possible for design to change the world). "Make no mistake, this is a proper commitment," says Harris. We applaud Durex for its ambition – and for making us laugh with that typeface name. Related articles: The 10 best logos of all time Brewdog gets neutered in sensible rebrand Do people still dislike last year’s most hated rebrands? View the full article

Today is Photoshop's 30th birthday. And to celebrate, Adobe has rolled out a number of updated tools and new dark mode support for the Mac version of its popular image editing software. These updates coincide with Adobe offering an incredible deal on its Photography Plan, with which you get full access to Photoshop, Adobe Spark and Lightroom CC for less. We must, however, admit to being a little confused by the announcement that dark mode had arrived for Photoshop. The UI is pretty dark already, right? But the news actually refers to Photoshop supporting the Catalina Mac OS feature overall. So while the main Photoshop UI hasn't changed, system dialogues such as File > Open and File > Save can now match the settings and look of dark mode on your Mac (get started with our guide on how to download Adobe Photoshop). If you're on Windows or using Photoshop for iPad, then you'll still have to keep the lights on (it seems that like Facebook's dark mode, darkness isn't accessible to all users just yet). Photoshop now has three appearance options The update means Mac users now have three appearance options: Light, dark and Auto. If the dark UI is enabled, systems dialogues will be, well, dark. Other updates to Photoshop rolled out today include an enhanced Content-Aware Fill tool – which Adobe says has been a big customer request. Users can now make multiple selections and apply multiple fills without leaving the workspace, using a new apply button to make changes before committing to a final design. The Lens Blur feature has also seen some love. Now on the GPU, its overall realism is significantly improved, plus it now delivers more colourful bokeh via the specular highlights. For Photoshop for iPad users, the most significant update that'll get creatives excited is the arrival of the Object Selection tool. Using Sensei AI and machine learning to automatically make a great selection, the tool reduces the selection process time on even the most complex of images. Below, Adobe's Russell Preston Brown demonstrates this much-needed new feature: While these aren't huge updates, they are the kind of improvements that will make life easier for creatives working within the software, and show that Adobe is committing to continually updating its tool (after all, it needs to stay ahead of the game with all the Photoshop alternatives biting at its heel). If you don't have Creative Cloud yet, then you can sign up here. Or for full details on all of today's Photoshop updates, visit the Adobe blog. Read more: Photoshop for iPad review The 13 best alternatives to Photoshop How to add fonts in Photoshop View the full article

A common approach to email design (and maybe app design as well) is a mobile-first approach. Since 54.58% of web traffic comes from a handheld device, it makes sense to design for smaller screens first. Responsive email design is one …View the full article

The Dell UltraSharp UP2720Q monitor is one of the first professional screens from Dell with a built-in colorimeter. The firm also claims that this is the world’s first 27-inch panel that combines a colorimeter with a Thunderbolt connection. It’s a mouthful, and the UP2720Q comes with a hefty price of $1,999/£1,330 – so you’re going to have to shell out for this display. Despite that, it’s worth paying the price if the Dell can pair its extensive range of features with image quality that can cope with high-end design work. Dell UltraSharp UP2720Q: Specs Screen size: 27-inches | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 3,840 x 2,160 | Panel technology: IPS | Colour depth: 10-bit | Response time: 8ms | Adjustment: 130mm height, 180° pivot, 25° tilt, 90° swivel, 100mm VESA | Connectivity: 1 x DisplayPort 1.4, 2 x HDMI 2.0, 4 x USB 3.2, 2 x Thunderbolt 3/USB Type-C, 1 x audio | Dimensions: 612 x 212 x 563mm (WxDxH) | Weight: 9.71kg | Warranty: 3yr RTB Dell UltraSharp UP2720Q: Features and design Dell’s display has an enviable range of features. That in-built colorimeter is the headliner, of course, and it’s a key addition: it means that the display can be calibrated to run as accurately as possible with numerous popular colour spaces. It swings out from the bottom of the monitor and runs inside a circle at the bottom of the panel. There's a whole lotta pixels in this monitor The Dell’s 3,840 x 2,160 resolution is crammed into a 27in diagonal. It’s a lot of pixels in a small space, which means you’ve got a huge amount of real-estate for working in expansive apps or in several windows at once – and the 163ppi density level means that images, text and icons are impressively crisp. Underneath all of that is an IPS panel. It’s the best technology to use for a design display because it generally ensures that best colour quality when compared to VA and TN monitors. The Dell has a conventional 16:9 aspect ratio, it’s not curved, and it has a refresh rate and response time of 60Hz and 8ms respectively. Those latter figures are not great – fine for day-to-day use and design tasks, but not ideal if you need a screen to handle fast-paced animation smoothly. Dell pairs this impressive technology with excellent connectivity. The UP2720Q has one DisplayPort 1.4 port and two HDMI 2 connections – and its Thunderbolt 3 port is capable of delivering 90W of power, transferring data and driving second screens. There are four USB 3.2 ports, with two handily installed on the lower bezel and one configured to provide a 2A charge – handy for fast-charging phones. The Dell UP2720Q looks pretty smart The Dell has a solid 130mm of height adjustment, 90°of swivel and 25°of tilt – all conventional allocations. It has 180 degrees of pivot, which means it can swing into portrait mode, and it’s compatible with 100mm VESA mounts. It’s easy to build, too: the stand snaps into the rear of the screen and the base attaches with a single thumbscrew, so no tools are required. Build quality is great throughout – this screen is robust. It looks smart, with slim bezels and a plain metal base. The stand also has a hole for routing cables, and a shading hood is included. The panel can be managed by Dell’s on-screen display or by Dell’s Colour Management application. Both are intuitive and offer a huge number of options. Luminance levels can be adjusted, grids can be placed across the screen, calibrations can be scheduled and the row of navigation keys below the bottom bezel can be customised. The Dell can be configured to use the DCI-P3, BT.709, BT.2020, sRGB, Adobe RGB 65 and Adobe RGB 50 colour spaces and it works with CalMAN software. The Dell supports picture-by-picture for two sources, but no picture-in-picture. Dell UltraSharp UP2720Q: Screen quality and colour accuracy The Dell backs up its huge range of features with tremendous image quality. Each UP2720Q is calibrated at Dell’s factory, which means great quality out of the box: without any modifications the Dell returned a Delta E of 0.27 and a Gamma level of 2.17. They’re both fantastic – good enough to render colours accurately without human eyes being able to detect deviations. The Dell’s default brightness level of 155cd/m2 is modest, but good – high enough to provide clarity but not high enough to make users’ eyes tired. The black point of 0.16cd/m2 is very deep, which means that darker shades have huge depth and subtlety on this display. Those figures create a contrast ratio of 968:1. That’s a little below Dell’s quoted 1,300:1 figure, but it’s still a good result and still good enough for the vast majority of mainstream and professional design tasks. You can ramp up the brightness and still have great colour The panel’s colour temperature of 6,872K is a tad high, and it means that this display’s colours are a little on the cool side. However, the Dell’s result isn’t far enough away from the 6,500K ideal figure to cause noticeable problems, even in professional situations. It’s a great start for the Dell. Happily, the panel’s contrast levels and colour accuracy were maintained when we ramped the brightness up to its maximum value of 255cd/m2. Calibration also saw the display maintain its excellent image quality levels. The Delta E improved to 0.24 in Adobe RGB mode, and the Delta E remained below 2.0 in DCI-P3 mode. Dell’s panel can clearly handle different gamuts, too: it rendered a stunning 99.8% of the sRGB gamut, 96.1% of the Adobe RGB space and 95% of the DCI-P3 gamut. Those figures mean that the Dell can work effectively in all of those colour spaces. Dell also claims an 80% coverage level in the broadcast-centric BT.2020 space. The UP2720Q has excellent uniformity. The Dell lost 6% of its backlight strength in the top-left corner, with its Delta E declining to 2.46. Elsewhere, the screen was far better, with sub-4% backlight loss and Delta Es that remained in line with our benchmarks. While that top-left corner is this display’s weak spot, the Dell’s uniformity results are still excellent and still better than most other screens – so work won’t be hampered at all. Dell UltraSharp UP2720Q monitor: Should you buy it? The Dell UltraSharp UP2720Q is excellent. At its core, it has superb image quality, with fantastic colours and black levels, top-notch gamut coverage and impressive uniformity alongside a versatile selection of screen modes and colour spaces. We only have minor quibbles when it comes to the display itself. The Dell’s contrast level is good, but it could be a bit better – and the colour temperature could be closer to 6,500K. Happily, these issues are small, and quality levels throughout are so good that they don’t hinder design and work tasks. Elsewhere, the Dell has great versatility: loads of connectivity and movement options, good software, a huge resolution and its colorimeter. It may not be perfect, but the Dell UltraSharp UP2720Q isn’t far away thanks to great image quality and loads of features. If you need a high-end design screen, it’s a superb option. Read more: The best ultrawide monitor right now View the full article

The best multilingual fonts can help you communicate with your readers more easily. That’s because these fonts, as their name suggests, can cope with the special characters of multiple languages, meaning that an international audience will be able to read your content. You might have already seen the limitations of single language fonts while reading a translation online, or even while perusing our list of the best free fonts. If your language is not completely catered to by the site’s font, it might display a little box instead of the required character. This box is known as 'tofu' and it can detract from the design and legibility of your site. By using multilingual fonts, you can keep your text in line with the rest of your design without having to waste time designing character alternatives of your own. Multilingual fonts come in many different styles and prices, so we’ve rounded up a range of options to help you find the right one. Alternatively, you might find what you’re looking for in our other font roundups, including our favourite script fonts, brush fonts or the best font pairings. 01. Suisse Will Suisse suit you? Price: From free Download here Suisse is the centrepiece of the Swiss Typefaces library. It’s made up of six collections that include a total of 55 styles. Thanks to its clear-cut design, Suisse is perfect for contemporary projects and lends itself easily to variation. These alternate styles include Suisse Int’l, which supports Latin, Cyrilic and Arabic alphabets. If you like the clean, crisp look of Suisse Int’l but need some variation, Suisse Int’l Mono and Suisse Int’l Condensed are on hand to give different options. You can download them individually, or all in one go. The whole collection of six fonts will set you back nearly £400, but you can trial the whole lot for free to get an idea of whether it’s right for you. 02. Dominicale Get an old-fashioned look with Dominicale Price: £182 Download here With its blunt serifs and jagged, diagonal stems, there’s something of a medieval air to Dominicale. It’s no surprise then to learn that Dominicale's makers were interested in interpreting the rough and ready setting of early printed books. The angular structure of this font would be a perfect fit for projects that pastiche the past, such as the best posters or packaging designs. And with support for English, French and German characters, this trilingual edition can be enjoyed by a huge European audience. 03. Grotte Grotte is an affordable but classy option Price: From $8 Download here Multilingual fonts don’t have to be expensive affairs. Just take Grotte, a simple sans-serif font with geometric outlines and elegant curves. Available in three weights, this handy little font can be yours for just $8. And with support for Spanish, Portuguese, German, Danish and French languages, plus Cyrillic, you’re really getting value for money. Thanks to its clear yet easy-on-the-eye design, Grotte would lend itself easily to posters, packaging, commercials, signs and websites. Just what you need for an international campaign on a tight budget. 04. Omnes Omnes is a refreshing font that packs a punch Price: From $45 Download here Got a sweet tooth? If so, you might recognise Omnes. This playful, rounded font has appeared on condiment sachets and even an advertising campaign for Fanta. It’s bold shapes make it the perfect fit for products that need to appeal to your eyes as well as your taste buds, so you’ll want to bookmark this one if you design for food. As if it wasn’t already appealing enough, Omnes can support dozens of languages, including Afrikaans, Polish, Latin, Sorbian, and many more. The complete set can be yours to enjoy for $253, or you can order à la carte and choose any combination of up to six styles from $45. 05. Helvetica World What's better than Helvetica? Helvetica World Price: From £35 Download here Chance are you might have heard of Helvetica. Thanks to its clear design it’s one of the most popular professional fonts, however it’s so ubiquitous that you might be tempted to pick one of the many inspired alternatives to Helvetica. Hold on though, because Helvetica World could be the solution you’re looking for. Designed by Linotype, this font is an updated version of Helvetica that supports a whopping 102 languages and writing systems from all over the globe. And just like the original Helvetica, this font has almost limitless potential in terms of use. 06. Gill Sans Nova A British font now with international reach Price: From £49 Download here Ever since Monotype’s humanist sans-serif typeface Gill Sans first hit the scene in 1928, it’s been a favourite with designers. Over the years it’s been adapted for every publishing technology while retaining its uniquely British character, but with Gill Sans Nova it now boasts a larger character set. Launched by Monotype in 2015, Gill Sans Nova features 43 fonts that support Latin, Greek and Cryillic characters. The display weight only supports Latin, so keep this in mind as you buy each individual style, especially as prices start from £49. 07. Greta Sans The Greta Sans library is a whopper, but worth it Price: From €72 Download here We’re into the big leagues now. Greta Sans, designed by Peter Bilak and published by Typotheque, is a powerful type family made up of ten weights available in three widths. Capable of dealing with the most complex typographical situations, Greta Sans supports a whopping 217 international languages, meaning that it can cover even Hebrew, Thai and Korean scripts among many others. As you’d expect for such a powerful type tool, Greta Sans comes at a price. A single font in a selected language will set you back at least €72, while the full suite will cost you €1,400. To help spread the cost you only need to pay for whichever language you need, and considering the full suite includes 80 fonts, you’re getting a lot for your money. 08. Google Noto Bye-bye tofu Price: Free Download here Remember how we mentioned at the top of this article that not having multilingual support leads to websites displaying little empty boxes, or tofu? Well, Google Noto is here to remedy that. Taking its name from its goal to see ‘no more tofu’, Google Noto is a font which aims to ‘support all languages with a harmonious look and feel’. The core Noto Sans font supports up to 582 languages across 237 regions, and even comes in 72 styles. What’s more you can download it for free with the click of a button. Not only that but you’ll also get the dozens and dozens of variations to support different scripts and symbols. Related articles: How to add fonts in Photoshop 36 perfect font pairings 35 great free script fonts View the full article

However you might feel about McDonald's, there's no denying its marketing team has some creative flair. At first glance, these new images released last week for McDonald's Thailand could easily be part of yet another seductive aftershave campaign. Soft, low lighting. Two pairs of lips about to kiss. But look a little closer, and they immediately go from from hot to horrifying. Yes, one of their noses is sprinkled with sesame seeds. Yes, their lips are made of beef, Yes, they are a burger. Yes, we wish we could unsee this optical illusion too. The ads, created by TBWA Thailand, were posted to McDonalds Thailand's social media channels to mark Valentines Day last week (which at least means there is some logic to the meat-snog). The words 'i'm lovin' it' are thrown in for good measure – though the ads take the slogan a little too literally for us. Don't expect to see these on our list of the best print ads ever any time soon. Make it stop While most of the comments on reddit fall into the NSFW category, it's fair to say that users over there have beef with the ads too – although a few suggest that the burger is simply in need of some lip balm. Still, these ads got us talking, and they're by no means the only audacious design McDonalds has run with over the last few years. From last month's striking type-only ads to a series of defaced classic paintings, the burger peddlers aren't afraid to take risks in order to bring home the bacon. And hey, at least the smut is deliberate this time – who can forget last year's cup-based epic McFail? Related articles: Minimalist McDonald's ads use fries to guide motorists Netflix brings out the smutty side of brands KFC’s Valentine’s Day card range is unexpected genius View the full article

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Everybody's talking about Neumorphism, a hot new design trend that's appeared out of nowhere over the past couple of months – but is it really all that? Designers love a good trend, and there's much about Neumorphism that suggests this could be a big one (people are already talking about it as a potential look for iOS 14) rather than an exercise in experimental design. Flat design and its Google-sponsored cousin, Material Design, have been a dominant look in interface design for a good few years, ever since iOS 7 came along and unceremoniously booted out the previous trend for skeuomorphism. The top design trends for 2020 Michal Malewicz designed these Neumorphic interfaces, and they look great While the name Neumorphism suggests a similar look, don't panic. Nobody's about to go back to the bad old days of interfaces made out of fake real-world materials. We did the whole thing of apps that made you feel like you were working on an antique Victorian bureau, and it's safe to say that we got it out of our collective system. Instead, Neumorphism combines the best of flat design and skeuomorphism; we're talking about clean interfaces, given a big hit of solidity through clever use of highlights and shadows. The name was coined by UX designer Jason Kelley in a comment on an article by UI designer Michal Malewicz, and it's stuck hard. It's near-impossible to wander through Dribbble without tripping over an assortment of Neumorphic mockups In his article, Malewicz explored how Neumorphism could be used in interfaces, and concluded that while it was a fun trend to play around with, it came with its own accessibility issues that would cause enormous problems if it was rolled out on a large scale. Specifically, buttons. To most viewers, Neumorphic buttons look great; all chunky and solid. But for users with sight problems they're not so hot; there's just not enough contrast for them to be easily spotted. And even for users with 20:20 vision, a Neumorphic button isn't exactly going to leap off the page. If you want to grab your users' attention, then Neumorphism isn't the way to do it. In his latest piece on Neumorphism, Malewicz refers to it as 'the zombie trend'. He notes that plenty of people are talking about Neumorphism, but nobody's making any products with it, and yet it refuses to die. So while Dribbble is absolutely packed with Neumorphic mockups, and Cult of Mac is dreaming of Apple implementing Neumorphic looks for iOS 14, there's very little in the way of real-world examples to give us a feel of whether it really works or not. Malewicz's latest piece on Neumorphism suggests that he might be tiring of it Chris Coyier, who shares much of Malewicz's scepticism, found this handy generator for building Neumorphic buttons in CSS. Have a play with it and you'll quickly see the problem: Neumorphic page furniture only really works with muted colour schemes. Turn up the saturation to any degree and the effect gets lost; this isn't a look for anyone who enjoys working with bold tones. Have a play with Neumorphism.io and you'll quickly spot its limitations So, while there's much to like about the Neumorphic look – and let's face it, flat design's looking a little tired, so it would be lovely to hit a new visual paradigm sometime soon – it does't seem to be ready a full design trend. Maybe smart designers will iron out the problems and turn it into a working design system – and one that's properly accessible. Right now, though, it's a pretty design toy set; fun to play with, but you wouldn't want to build a serious project with its tools. Related articles: The beginner's guide to flat design How to design invisible interfaces 7 golden rules of UX View the full article