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You're reading Free Bootstrap Dashboards and Landing Pages, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Whatever you plan to create, you have a reliable companion in Bootstrap. It provides a solid, trustworthy foundation for a web project with a bulk of features for building and extending functionality like Bootstrap dashboards. The free Bootstrap dashboards are … View the full article

Flaws can potentially affect every device and user on the network by directing them to malicious websites or blocking their access to important data or resources. View the full article

This year has so far been full of exciting and daring creative expression as people look for new ways to stand out and create something unique, whether this be through advertisements, on the catwalk or in movies. At Shutterstock, we released our Creative Trends Report back in January to predict the top influences for design and visual production in 2019. The trends were forecast by gathering and analysing data across images, video and music and included billions of searches and downloads within Shutterstock’s collection of 280 million images by customers around the world. The top three major trends for 2019 were Zine Culture, '80s Opulence and Yesterday’s Tomorrow, and we also predicted some rising trends, which included a trend for Japanese cuteness, Kawaii. As we head into September, we look back at the past eight months to see whether these predictions have come to fruition, and predict where they may still have influence throughout the rest of the year and beyond. Want to see how these trends have influenced the world of design? Check out how they've been incorporated into these inspirational design portfolios. 01. Zine Culture The Zine Culture trend is all about paper cutouts, noise and texture Historically, zines have been venues for the counterculture to freely share ideas. They disseminate the voice of people through DIY-style media. This made it a perfect theme for creative agency, Don’t Panic, to spark political debate with its flyposters, carrying the hashtag #stickittotheman, which appeared all over London following Boris Johnson becoming the new Prime Minister. The zine-inspired poster campaign encourages pedestrians to stick their used chewing gum onto the face of Boris Johnson. The zine culture trend was originally expected to predominately be seen on social media, but it has recently influenced product design like the Nike Air Force 1s and multichannel advertising campaigns, including Bombay Sapphire’s Discover the possibilities ad (above), created by AMV BBDO. This ad follows three individuals in a hyperreal representation of the creative process as they bring their masterpieces to life. In particular, the first two individuals feature random objects that are presented in a zine-like video format, but as we witness, this is part of the process to showcasing their individual creativity – a key element of zine culture. This example shows how zine can be applied in videos and in ways other than the typical loud and collage style that we regularly see. Read more about the rebirth of the zine . 02. '80s Opulence Outside of advertising, ‘80s Opulence – all about animal prints, clashing and attitude – has become increasingly relevant as high-profile celebrities bring back fashion trends that were popular in that era. Taylor Swift donned an outfit for the MTV VMA’s by Versace (above), featuring the quintessential chains that are key to the ‘80s Opulence trend. The huge popularity of the '80s-based show Stranger Things has also given fashion brands the chance to hijack the launch of the third season and create items that appear in the episodes, for example, Levi’s ‘Stranger Things’ Hat. Other Stranger Things-related items include New Coke's comeback. 03. Yesterday's Tomorrow Yesterday's Tomorrow is all about old becoming new (again) In terms of entertainment, we can see the Yesterday’s Tomorrow trend having an influence on games with the recent launch of World of Warcraft Classic, and the planned release of Disney’s retro games Aladdin and The Lion King later this year. All these games originally used basic vector graphics and synth music that will be brought back within these games in 2019. As well as video games, the designs associated with Yesterday’s Tomorrow have also been prevalent in music and entertainment, particularly Muse’s Simulation Theory album cover and show design (above), John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum poster, and Pokémon Detective Pikachu. 04. Everyday Futurism As well as the major trends from the report, there was also a list of Rising Trends predicted to have a more subtle impact in 2019. Adidas and HYPEBEAST have recently created a campaign to promote the new Adidas originals Ozweego (above) for the Chinese market. Based in a futuristic setting with innovative graphics, it fits in with the Everyday Futurism trend from the report, which celebrates technological advancements in our society. The ad also has a scene that features influencer Lala Takahashi creating her own zine-inspired poster. 05. Rococo Romance Rococo Romance is all about maximalism, and Old World paintings Additionally, there was the rising trend Rococo Romance, which focuses on the Rococo period and its dramatic vintage patterns, soft pastels, sensual light and shadow, and elegant curving lines. Galaxy adopted this trend completely with its Accidental Renaissance campaign, created by BBDO Dublin. The ads focus on moments of everyday 21st-century life, with a dramatic painterly vibe that is synonymous with the Rococo Romance trend. 06. Kawaii Cuteness goes mainstream with the Kawaii trend Another rising trend was Kawaii – the culture of cuteness in Japan – which is taking the world by storm. We saw this trend come to life in London at Hyper Japan – a three-day festival celebrating Japanese culture. We expect this trend to continue to gain momentum when the Rugby World Cup in Japan starts in mid-September. It’s likely that brands will want to channel the local culture around the global event by using creative designs influenced by Kawaii to resonate with the right audience. Creative trends for 2020 It’s clear to see that the Creative Trends Report has made accurate predictions so far this year, especially with the major trends. There are so many possibilities for these trends to be used in diverse ways and through multiple mediums that we expect they will continue to have an influence beyond 2019. Read more: Are trends any good for branding? 6 big portfolio trends for 2019 TikTok app: What is it and why should you care? View the full article

When a elementary school student created his own logo representing the University of Tennessee Volunteers, his hand-drawn design was mocked by other students. In a heartwarming twist, the university has adopted the logo for use on one of its official T-shirts, with proceeds going to an anti-bullying charity. The logo design has proved so popular it caused the university's online shop to crash. 42 best free handwriting fonts The story starts when a Florida boy, a University of Tennessee fan, didn't have a Volunteers shirt to wear on his elementary school's Colors Day, so he decided to make his own. He wore the hand-drawn logo pinned to an orange T-shirt, and his efforts attracted the ridicule of fellow students. Quick pause for non-US readers here. 'Volunteers' – often shortened to 'Vols' is the name adopted by the University of Tennessee in reference to Tennessee being a Volunteer State in the War of 1812. College Colors Day is a US celebration in which university students, parents, and alumni are encouraged to celebrate their team spirit. This Florida student didn't have a Vols T-shirt for Colors Day, so made his own The boy's teacher, Laura Snyder shared the story on Facebook, explaining that the child was a big University of Tennessee fan and had been heartbroken when others had made fun of his handiwork, and reaching out to the university with a request for some Vols merchandise to cheer him up. The story quickly went viral, and the University of Tennessee responded by not only sending a mega box of stash, but adopting the design for an official university T-shirt. The design now adorns one of the University's official T-shirts The design is featured on a T-shirt in the University's official Tennessee orange, with a portion of proceeds being donated to US nonprofit STOMP Out Bullying. When the shirt went on sale in the VolShop, demand was so overwhelming it caused the website to crash. It's now available to preorder again, for delivery in late September. Read more: 10 iconic logos with hidden meanings 5 ad campaigns that changed the world Why have the words disappeared from Dairy Milk bars? View the full article

The Japanese restaurant chain YO! has recently rebranded its Richmond branch as YO!SushiRamenKatsuStirfryCurryBaoBurgerGyozaFriesYakisobaMochiBallsFriedChickenPopcornShrimpBeefTeriyakiChocolateBrownie! The new 121-character name features 17 menu items and is displayed on a monster sign that extends over 12ft. The aim is to highlight the choice of food the restaurant offers – there are over 80 dishes available (thankfully they didn't all make it to the new name). YO!'s website also announces the change, suggesting that perhaps it could become more widespread. Although having such a mouthful of a name is certainly not an approach to logo design we see very often, what is familiar is that the rebrand is linked to a social media campaign. Customers who upload a video to social media of them successfully saying this tongue-twister will be entered into a draw to receive a £50 voucher. Yo! Look at this massive sign! Will having of the longest, most unpronounceable names do YO! any good? Well, if the town Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch in Wales is anything to go by, then yes. Because the chances are, you've heard of this long-named destination, and if you went there, you'd probably take a selfie at the train station. YO! said in a press release that it hopes this name will "inspire Britain to be more adventurous and discover the world of fresh, exciting and delicious Japanese food. To support this vision, the brand is relaunching to show that they are about more than just sushi with over 80 colourful dishes on its current menu." It also notes that this is based on research that discovered that 55 per cent of the public think that sushi solely means raw fish. There are a few questions that remain about this rebrand though. First of all, how will it fit on packaging design, business cards or menus, for example? Will it be all over the walls? Will the people who work at YO!SushiRamenKatsuStirfryCurryBaoBurgerGyozaFriesYakisobaMochiBallsFriedChickenPopcornShrimpBeefTeriyakiChocolateBrownie! have to answer the phone saying this name? And finally, does anyone really associate chocolate brownie with sushi? Read more: Six-year-old designs logo for London restaurant Can a new Byron logo save the struggling burger chain? Why have the words disappeared from Dairy Milk bars? View the full article

Getting social media right isn't easy, but it's an essential tool for brands wanting to keep themselves in the minds of their customers. All too many companies set up social media accounts and then either forget about them or use them as a straight marketing channel. That's never a good look, regardless of how impressive your Instagram fonts are. To give you some ideas on how to create a social presence that'll reel the punters in, we've found eight brands that are killing it on social media right now. Whether you want to work across multiple platforms, develop a distinctive brand voice that customers will identify with, or simply promote your brands in ways that traditional marketing techniques don't allow for, you'll find some inspiration here. How to nail your social media strategy 01. Lego Lego's Instagram account is where it's at With over 13 million Facebook fans and more than 600,000 Twitter followers, Lego is a titan of social media, which isn't surprising given its position as one of the world's leading toy brands. The brand has a never-ending stream of cool new stuff as well as an openness to suggestions through its Lego Ideas portal. But it's on Instagram – where "everything is awesome" and it has a cool 4.5 million followers – that really Lego stands out; Instagram's visual nature makes it the perfect place for Lego to showcase inspiring projects and new product launches to swallow up your disposable income. 02. KFC Smart brands know their audiences and how to address them, and some of the best-performing brands on social media are the ones that nail a brand voice that might not sit well in the board room but cuts right through to the target market. KFC is a master of this, not only through its main account but also its international franchises. Take for example this epic shade thrown at the Conservative party by the UK KFC account: Our favourite thing about KFC on Twitter, though? Well-known for its secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices, its main Twitter account follows just 11 people: When you get it, you'll get it 03. Charmin Social media's a lot more relaxed than other promotional channels, meaning that brands can often use it to say what they can't in their more traditional campaigns. For example, toilet paper adverts have always been dressed up in assorted euphemisms, generally focused on comparing its softness to assorted cute fluffy animals rather than ever addressing what it's actually used for. For US toilet paper brand Charmin, though, when it comes to Twitter, the gloves are off. It still makes a big deal about how soft its paper is and gets a lot of mileage out of its bear mascot, but it doesn't shy away from the nitty gritty of toilet paper and it makes liberal use of the poop emoji, and for that we love it. 04. Paddy Power Regardless of how you feel about gambling, it's hard not to at least feel a little grudging admiration for the way in which Paddy Power has revitalised the industry's image. Gambling used to be all about grim-looking high street betting shops, but with its killer eye for mischief and controversy, Paddy Power has shaken things up a lot, and its Twitter presence radiates its own particular brand personality. It's a non-stop stream of sports talk – and accompanying odds – but alongside that it's never afraid to tackle bigger issues. 05. Disney When you're as big as Disney and have so much beloved content to draw upon, even a half-hearted social media presence would do the job. So it's to Disney's credit that it nails its social game, with some staggering numbers to prove the point: 52 million Facebook fans, 6.4 million Twitter followers and another 20 million on Instagram. As with Lego, it's probably on Instagram that Disney's image and video-let social feed works best, but its greatest recent use of social media came when it summoned all its assorted properties to move to its new streaming service, and they all responded in kind. 06. Casper Sleeping's great. Everyone loves a good slumber, and industry disrupting sleep brand Casper loves to play on this in its social media output, with a great line in photos of cute sleepy animals that are guaranteed to ramp up the 'Awww!' factor. Right now it's pulling out all the sleepy stops for 'Sleptember', a month dedicated to celebrating all things sleep; we're not sure it's going to catch on, but we love its dedication. Get some snoozey listening on the Casper Sleep Channel As a hungry challenger brand, Casper is active across all the usual social media platforms, as well as some you might not expect. For the most unlikely – and brilliant – piece of social media marketing, check out the Casper Sleep Channel on Spotify: "a magical slumberland of sounds, meditations, and bedtime stories to help you sleep". Nighty night. 07. MoonPie We're not entirely sure what a MoonPie is – to our UK-based eyes it looks a bit like a Wagon Wheel, and that's fine by us – but we're utterly entranced by its Twitter feed. It's a glorious stream of consciousness with a flagrant disregard for punctuation, apparently written by a hapless, MoonPie-obsessed social media intern. It's clearly aimed directly at the younger market and is so beautifully observed. We're unlikely to ever eat a MoonPie but we've still given it an enthusiastic follow. 08. Pop-Tarts The official Kellogg's Twitter account has its moments, but it seems to spend more time responding to consumer complaints than sharing hot content. Its Pop-Tarts brand, though, absolutely nails it – and has more than double the followers of the corporate brand to show for it. Again, it's a brand aimed at the younger market, and the tone reflects this; like the MoonPie account it's super-casual and occasionally wonderfully edgy – check out its tweet from 20 April this year for a great example that the kids will get but a lot of adults won't. Related articles: 5 social media tricks to help your brand thrive 5 ways (not) to lose followers on social media 10 social media tricks you didn't know about View the full article

With the right Instagram tips, you can learn to use the platform to your advantage. No longer just an image-sharing app, Instagram has evolved to become an extremely useful tool for enabling studios and individual creatives to showcase their work to a potentially huge audience. Understanding how to ride the wave of Instagram’s rising popularity and tap into this growing community can pay off dividends for artists and illustrators, and it’s no surprise that those with larger audiences reap the benefits. However, simply chasing ‘likes’ does not build engagement – this requires a clever eye, interesting viewpoint and genuine passion for what you do (and of course, simple tricks like how to change the font in your Instagram bio). Luckily for the time-poor, getting Instagram right doesn't involve as much planning as you might think. We asked six creative professionals to share their best advice for building and sustaining an audience on Instagram. Read on for their essential Instagram tips and tricks. 01. Share your working processes East London-based animation studio Animade has 141,000 followers, and predominately uses Instagram as a platform to share some of the work the team's most proud of, as well as share insight into how they make things. "It’s a place to showcase the love of our craft, share knowledge and air some of our smaller, weirder experiments," says Amy Egan, head of marketing. "A big part of our studio culture is about experimentation and play – whether that’s trying out new software or techniques, or using any available time to work on a passion project – and I think our content on Instagram reflects this," says Egan. We’ve had clients get in touch with us directly after seeing a specific post on Instagram Amy Egan, Animade Posting a mix of client work and passion projects, as well as finished animations, Animade often shares work in progress or behind-the-scenes bits that the team think might be interesting. This includes what they call 'breakdowns'; animated demonstrations of how a particular piece was made, which have proven quite popular (see above). "Often clients look to social media as a way of spotting talent, with the website as a secondary port of call," continues Egan. "We’ve had clients get in touch with us directly after seeing a specific post on Instagram; sometimes it just encapsulates what they’re looking for." Rather than sticking to a rigorous posting schedule, Animade tends to share as and when the team feel excited about something. "We try to make sure we post as often as we can to avoid any 'tumbleweed' moments." 02. Pick key themes – and stick to them Having a uniting theme can help organise your feed Rather than mapping out a rigid strategy for your content, Bristol based illustrator Rosi Yip, who has around 3,700 followers, recommends following a few simple rules. For her, consistency is key, especially to nurture an audience that will stick around. “Interact and understand your audience, consistently produce content that is in line with your ethos and most importantly make work that you love,” she explains. “For me, a great account is an authentic account; feeds that not only have unique styles but also show off the artists as a person.” Creating work which aims to challenge society's perception of what the female body should be through lighthearted illustrations and clay figurines, Yip's feed is awash with a subtle colour palette of pink, fleshy pastel hues, although it's not all about her illustrations. “I like to break up my illustrations with photos. I think this helps the illustrations stand out and not look too overwhelming,” she says. After abandoning her account for several years, Yip has managed to grow her audience from 300 followers to over 3,000 in less than six months by staying true to the issues and topics that matter to her most. It’s a sentiment shared by Detroit-based lettering designer and mural artist Lauren Ho, who has 187,000 followers. Known for her bright colour palettes, playful letterforms, and quirky copywriting, Hom has created work for clients like Starbucks, Google, AT&T, YouTube and TIME Magazine. “I use Instagram to nurture my community and connect with other artists and share the work that wouldn’t necessarily make it into my portfolio in a timely manner,” she says. Sticking to topics around creativity, freelance, food and humour, Hom narrowed down her focus based on what she was most interested in and what has resonated with her audience the most. “I often joke that the things you should explore in your instagram are the five categories you’d be the most confident in if you were playing Jeopardy!” 03. Make your space your own Since joining Instagram in 2011, Amsterdam-based illustrator Timo Kuilder, who has over 27,000 followers, has built a steady following for his pared-back characters, simple colour palettes and tight linework. He advocates trusting your instincts, and sharing the work you enjoy the most. "I’ve started using Instagram almost like a sketchbook and try to be less rigid about it. Once in a while I share a print, work in progress or a timelapse as well. Although I tend to do this in Stories instead of my feed." (see more about how to use Instagram Stories here) Less concerned about posting for the sake of likes, Kuilder says the key for him is to keep it fun. "A recent obsession was using coloured outlines and cloth and how it can wrinkle on objects. In those cases, I share a lot of style explorations and just tiny ideas or sketches. Instagram becomes a glimpse into my sketchbook. Just make this space your own, it’s your private gallery where no one tells you what to do." Japanese-born Brooklyn-based visual artist Hisham Akika Bharoocha, who has over 97,000 followers agrees. “The only thing I do is to be genuine. That’s always been my style and people seem to appreciate that.” 04. Don't over-curate Bharoocha makes a lot of work using collage, large scale mural paintings, installation work, sound pieces, and music performance. “I post at times where I feel most people are on their devices. That’s usually around lunch break, evenings after work, weekend mornings. Sometimes I need to do planned posts for commissioned jobs that involve social posts and I let the client and my agency, Hugo & Marie decide on that stuff. I just write the caption how I would say it in my own voice.” Hom adds that the concept of a curated feed is not something she has consciously pursued. “My strategy is just to double down on the things that I love, and know a lot about, and make a lot of work around those things. I wouldn’t say my feed is intentionally curated, it’s just a reflection of me." “Some people do have a ton of success with extremely curated feeds but that is not me in any shape or form, so I do not prescribe to that style,” continues Hisham. “There aren’t enough people who are not afraid to get a ton of likes. If you like it, post it if it means something to you. Personally I get very bored with over-stylised feeds.” 05. Experiment with apps For creatives keen to create a sense of unity on their Instagram feed, using image editing apps help maintain a consistent colour palette on photographs, as Daisy Emerson, who has over 22,000 followers, has discovered. “I’m fairly particular on what I post. I will spend time editing a picture so that it looks in keeping with the rest of the work posted previously and I photograph things in the same way.” Specialising in hand painted typography and lettering, Emerson paints bespoke pieces in enamel, often hand finished with gold leaf. “A big factor is the colour palette too. I wouldn’t post images if they contained certain colours which didn’t fit with my theme, again for consistency,” she adds. “ I use an app for editing called A Colour Story which is really good for achieving great-looking photos and clever editing.” 06. Find your weird “Think about what you do that’s different,” says Egan. “ It’s not something we ever planned, but we’ve noticed that some of our naturally weirder projects attract a lot of attention, like Ricard’s Watering the Plant, in which a goggle-wearing character nurtures a plant in a kind of high-tech hamster cage, with an unexpected twist. It really seemed to stop people in their tracks. It got 2.2 million plays and 480 comments. For Animade, self-initiated animations and illustrations in the studio often attract the most attention. A recent example is Frida’s Teabag, which attracted 143,000 plays. “It’s a sassy teabag dancing provocatively around a cup of tea.” says Egan. “The post with the highest engagement to date is a breakdown of Ed’s walking chili dog (shown in tip #1), showing the composite parts of the moving leg. It reached 3.4 million plays!” 07. Build your community If you’re serious about growing your audience, it pays to invest time in starting conversations in a genuine way, says Bharoca. Talking to people you’re inspired by and feel a connection to can attract more engagement on your own Instagram feed. “I do that just because I want people to know if I like their work beyond just a “like” reveals Bharoca. “Often people will look at your work and decide if they want to follow your account based on your interactions with them. I find it disappointing when people don’t engage at all. It seems selfish and that won’t grow any kind of community ethos.” Yip agrees. “I think instagram Stories are a great way to communicate with your audience too. It enables you to ask questions directly and take polls without your audience having to do much. As well as this, it’s great for sharing other people’s work and more personal parts of your day that maybe you don’t want to keep on your feed.” "I use Stories to post images of my son, events I go to, gatherings I go to, things I think are funny and don’t need to live forever online," says Bharoocha. "I’ve found that a lot more people engage with Stories and I find myself enjoying watching other people’s stories as it is a window into people’s lives that is candid.” Sharing personal work also resonates, as Yip discovered back in May. “I was feeling pretty run down creatively. I drew out the eight things I like to do, which includes my favourite go-to feel good tv show, Gilmore girls, which turned out to be the same for a lot of people!” The post was one of her most popular to date, attracting over 2,000 likes. “I think self care can sometimes come with a price with so many products out there telling us that this new thing will definitely calm us, help us sleep, de-stress but sometimes what we actually need is a bit simpler.” 08. Ditch lengthy captions Animade’s Instagram content reflects the passion and energy of the studio's culture. ”We aim to be open about our working processes by sharing experiments and showing how things have been made, sometimes in great detail. And not just for those in the industry; our ‘edumation swipes’ (above) aimed to decode animation jargon for a wider audience in a way that is still fun and engaging. We let the work speak for itself and avoid lengthy descriptions.” Bharoocha agrees. “I truly hate seeing a lot of small variations on one project unless it adds depth to what I see in the first post. Switch it up. If you post one still image, post a video about process. Talk about it in your caption but don’t write a novel, because people don’t care that much.” 09. Add value Alongside her thriving artistic practice Hom supports her community by sharing advice and industry insight, and runs a weekly ‘Hom-work’ challenge as an open invitation for artists and illustrators to participate, and create work, in response to a topic or theme she chooses. “It’s one of the things that has really helped grow my community on Instagram,” says Hom. “One of the things I noticed after talking to artists for a couple of years – and of course being one myself – is that it’s really nerve wracking to sit down in front of a blank page and want to create, but feel totally overwhelmed, and so these prompts are designed to get people started.” Hom promotes the ‘Hom-work’ challenge three or four times per week on Instagram Stories. “I get to showcase the work of other creatives to my large audience, and they get to build their community in turn. It’s a win-win.” Giving something back in this way has not only seen her engagement on the platform sky-rocket, but Hom’s infectious enthusiasm and passion has seen her build a captive Instagram audience. “A great instagram account is something that brings value and remains consistent,” reflects Hom. “It means that someone who follows you will be confident that they will always know what they’re going to get and what they can expect.” 10. Strike a balance Relying purely on social media to promote your work is not without risk. Despite her success, Hom disagrees that Instagram is essential to make it in design. “Instagram is just one method to share your portfolio and get you work. I don’t think it’s the be all and end all, and I don’t think emerging illustrators and designers should view it that way,” she confesses. “At the end of the day your portfolio, point of view and personality are more important. Instagram is just a vehicle. Social media platforms come and go, of course – check out our favourite social media platforms here. “I think regardless of the platform, as a visual artist / illustrator once you figure out who you are and what you’re passionate about you will do well on any social media platform.” concludes Hom. “I started out on Tumblr around seven years ago, and it’s not what it used to be anymore, so whilst Instagram is the big thing right now, who knows what we’ll be doing in seven years from now. The best thing you can do is focus on developing your work and your personal style.” Read more: How to repost on Instagram: A complete guide Instagram and WhatsApp get a rebrand TikTok app: What is it and why should you care? View the full article

You're reading Top Prototyping and Design Handoff Tools in 2019, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Good prototyping tools give an accurate insight to designers as to how a product under design will work once the project is completed. These tools simulate application flow, measure and test expected performance. Also, they create a valid user experience. … View the full article

Attackers can drop malware, add the device to a botnet or send their own audio streams to compromised devices. View the full article

Do you recognise Pantone 2685C? The trademarked colour belongs to Cadbury's Dairy Milk and it's recently taken centre stage. Cadbury has removed the words from Dairy Milk's iconic packaging as part of its heartfelt new campaign, leaving behind a vast blank purple space and the 'glass and a half' logo design. Cadbury has launched the 'donate your words' campaign to raise awareness of loneliness amongst older people aged 65 or older. This is in response to new research from Age UK which has revealed that 225,000 people can often go for a week without speaking to anyone, whilst 2.6 million people speak to three or fewer people they know in that time. As well as taking away the words from each bar of Dairy Milk to raise awareness, Cadbury is also donating 30p to Age UK from every bar sold. It says that it hopes the limited edition bar will encourage people to reach out to the older members of our society. It has even put together a list of small things you can do to make a 'real difference' to the lives of older people, things as simple as saying hello to a neighbour or writing a letter to a grandparent. How you can get involved to help make a difference Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, says: "A friendly 'hello' or 'how are you?' is something most of us take for granted – it's just part of every day life, but these latest figures show that hundreds of thousands of older people in the UK will spend today and the rest of this week alone, with no one to share even a few simple words with. "That's why Age UK’s expert advice and support services are so crucial and help people in all sorts of ways, every day of the year." Cadbury isn't the first brand to ditch its traditional branding this year. Doritos recently abandoned its logo to appeal to Generation Z in an edgy rebrand that will last until the end of the year. Mastercard also dumped its wordmark in an attempt to simplify its digital identity (see our comment on this in our roundup of logo design success stories). Removing the words from a brand's visual identity is a bold move, whatever the reason, and one for the big players who have the confidence to back it up. But Cadbury's short term move is more poignant than most. Read more: Logo swap is surprisingly disturbing 10 iconic logos with hidden meanings Design a killer logo in illustrator View the full article

A critical vulnerability found in Exim servers could enable a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code with root privileges. View the full article

Creative Bloq's readers will be well aware of the power of advertising. A good campaign can propel your business to new heights; a misfire can ruin you. While politics obviously comes with its own brand identities, rarely has a party embraced the language of modern-day brand campaigns in quite the same way as the Conservatives with their recent JFC stunt, in which they called Labour Party leader a chicken via mock KFC branding. Here's everything you need to know about why everyone's in such a flap about the campaign. Adobe Flash sale: Get 19% off Single Apps plan It all kicked off on Friday night, with the Conservative Party tweeting a picture of Jeremy Corbyn wearing a chicken outfit, along with a comment that read: "Hey @KFC_UKI, we’ve found an even bigger chicken than you." It may have been just a tweet, but at this level they might as well have put up a billboard ad. KFC, known for its forthright brand voice, swiftly responded: "This is KFC not LBC don’t @ me." Ouch. (If you don't know, LBC is a London-based radio station that deals with political and social discussions). While the initial tweet caused quite a stir, it was KFC's response that was the clear winner when it came to likes and retweets (at time of writing, the Tories' tweet had 13.7k Likes compared to KFC's 151k). Mother London, the ad agency behind KFC's widely celebrated FCK chicken shortage apology, also got involved, quote-tweeting the Conservative message with a more to-the-point: "Delete your account". To complete the campaign, the Tories sent 'JFC' branded deliveries to major press outlets. The below image comes from the deputy political editor for the MailOnline, who tweeted the message: "Conservatives committing to the whole “Corbyn is a chicken”. HARD. A “JFC” delivery has just been made to the press gallery." Press outlets were sent KFC-lookalike chicken meals The response to the stunt, as you might expect, has been mixed. Some pointed out that KFC was a chicken shop, not an actual large chicken. Others reminded us that Jeremy Corbyn's middle name is Bernard, so it should if anything be JBC. More still mused on the legality of mimicking KFC's branding in this way. Those familiar with KFC's take-no-prisoners brand voice questioned the logic of choosing this particular brand to mess with. A large majority also suggested that the Conservatives might have bigger and more important things to focus on right now. But we're a design site so we're not going to get into that. When the story first kicked off, there was also a big (and it turns out unfounded) kerfuffle about image rights. Photographer Timothy Archibald posted a tweet (now deleted), suggesting the photo was being used without permission. However, following a fairly sizable back backlash, it transpired the Conservatives did in fact have permission to use the photo. A screenshot of a message from stock image provider Getty stated: "Getty Images can confirm that the Conservative Party recently legitimately licensed a creative stock image of a man in a chicken costume, which has been used in line with their license agreement via social media... I would appreciate it if you could direct any media enquiries to me so that I can correct any implications that the image was unlicensed." Read the full message below. In this case the anger was misplaced, but it's a timely reminder to brush up on your image rights knowledge. Corbyn supporters have now, in a classic move, taken the campaign and repurposed it for their own message, rebranding it #JezzaForChange. Corbynites have reappropriated the campaign for their own message While the campaign can't exactly be called a success, it is interesting to see political parties starting to embrace the language of modern branding to try and strengthen their message and broaden their appeal. The idea of carefully crafted brand rivalries is certainly having a moment right now, most notably with Burger King versus McDonalds. Done well it can work to the benefit of both brands – whether we want to see these tactics in politics is another matter, though. Read more: 3 times big brands tried to be woke and failed miserably The best print adverts ever KFC bucket-hat: genius or one-way ticket to chicken-hair? View the full article

Monospace fonts allocate an equal amount of space to each character, so a letter 'i' will take up the same horizontal space as an 'o'. This creates unnatural spacing which makes a paragraph of flowing text harder to read, so for most applications, proportional fonts – which allow characters to take up the space they need – are usually preferable. But it’s a different story when you’re choosing a font for coding. Proportional spacing is great for word recognition but it’s much easier to read numbers and punctuation marks when they are evenly spaced. Indentation and vertical alignment is also important for code legibility and the monospace grid is good for achieving this. What follows is a list of monospace fonts designed specifically for coding. Some are paid for, and others are free fonts. In these monospace fonts, special care has been taken to make similar-looking glyphs more distinguishable, punctuation is larger than usual, and the fonts are designed to be easy to look at all day on a screen. Some are even customisable. Each one has its own personality and priorities, so your choice will come down to your individual preferences. If you want to make your coding life even easier, check out our posts on the best code editors and the best laptops for programming. 01. Fira Code A font designed for Mozilla with coding ligatures Fira Code is an extension of Fira Mono, a monospaced font designed for Mozilla to fit in with the character of Firefox OS. The code variant of Fira includes programming ligatures – these are special renderings of certain character combinations that are designed to make code easier to read and understand. So, for example, the == and != combinations are rendered as proper equality glyphs, which are supposedly easier for the brain to process than two separate characters that have their own individual meanings. How you feel about this of course depends on personal taste – if you’ve been reading normal code for years you might not want to make the change. But if this does appeal, Fira Code is a widely supported, popular programming font that makes code easy to read. It's also free and open source. The GitHub page has coding samples from a range of languages so you can see how things look. 02. Input Mono Read the creator's coding font philosophy in the Info section Input is a system of fonts designed specifically for coding by David Jonathan Ross that comes in both proportional and monospaced variants. As it has been designed with coding in mind, the proportional spacing is tailored to that application so it may be that you will consider it over the monospaced version. There’s a range of widths, weights and styles, each with serif, sans and monospaced variants, resulting in a total of 168 different styles. So you really can get exactly what you want with this font set. It is described as having generous spacing, large punctuation, and easily distinguishable characters, and the size and positioning of symbols frequently used in coding has been given great consideration. You can also customise the forms of certain key characters including the letters 'i', 'l', 'a' and 'g'. Input is free to use for private, unpublished usage in your personal coding app. If you want to publish text using something from the Input font family, you can see the prices here – prices start from $5. 03. Dank Mono Dank will add panache to any code editor Dank Mono by Phil Plückthun, bills itself as being "designed for aesthetes with code and Retina displays in mind". Like Fira Code, it has the programming ligatures, and there’s also a cursive italic variant that’s useful for distinguishing different types of text within your code. Overall this font has been created for coders who have an eye for design, and the unusual lowercase 'f' is known for being particularly beloved among Dank fans. Dank supports the Western, Eastern, Central and Southern European Latin character sets, and you can use it within CodePen. To get Dank, you'll need to pay – a personal licence is £40 and a commercial one is £100. But if you’re a type connoisseur and you’re smitten with that jaunty 'f' it might be worth treating yourself to some Dankness. 04. Gintronic Jovial font Gintronic is easy to stare at Creator Mark Frömberg describes Gintronic as "jovial" and "gentle", an antidote to what he sees as the overly technical and mechanical style of many programming fonts. Gintronic overall appears relaxed and easy to look at, with a few particular characters adding a special personality – check out the curly brackets, the question mark, the lower case ‘k’ and the numerals. Extra effort has been made to design glyphs that can be hard to tell apart – such as 'B' and '8', 'i'’ and 'l' and so on – in a way that makes them easy to distinguish at a glance. In total there are 1174 glyphs, so Gintronic has a massive character set that includes Latin, Cyrillic and Greek characters as well as a full range of mathematical and technical symbols. Gintronic is €50 for the single font, €100 for the Roman or Italic bundle and €150 for the complete family. 05. Monoid A compact, highly legible font that works with Font Awesome Andreas Larsen set out a list of priorities when he designed Monoid – he wanted it to be legible, compact (the more code you can fit on one screen, the better), and "pretty". To achieve these ends he compared three other programming fonts – Fira Mono, Source Code Pro and Pragmata Pro – and took note of features that he likes and doesn’t like from each to inform the design of Monoid. Like many programming fonts, Monoid has extra-large punctuation marks and operators; apertures are large to help make characters more distinguishable; and ascenders and descenders are kept short. Smart design decisions have been taken to make Monoid both compact and highly legible. It has programming ligatures, and there is also a special feature called Monoisome which enables you to see Font Awesome icons in your code. Monoid is free and open source, so you can even tweak it to your tastes if you like. 06. Hack Over 1500 glyphs that you can customise Among the fonts we’ve covered so far, there are some with huge character sets and several variants, so it’s likely you’ll find something that’s just right. But if you have very specific desires, Hack could be the one for you, as there’s a whole library of alternative glyphs made by users that you can add to if you like. Hack is therefore highly customisable – you can get right down into the detail of each glyph and edit it yourself if no one else has done it exactly as you want. Hack is free and open source. Head over to alt-hack, the alternative glyph library, to find out how to create your own custom version. If you're looking to learn the latest creative and practical skills to take your client work, career or agency to the next level, then join us at Generate CSS – our CSS-focused conference for web designers and developers. Find out more here. Use special offer code WEBDESIGNER2 for a 10% discount on tickets! Read more: 50 top typography tutorials 12 cheat sheets every designer needs Ethical hacking: all you need to know View the full article

Want more free time to spend on a side project, or just out having fun? There are many ways that Adobe Stock can save you hours, maybe even days, spent in front of your computer. So why not take advantage? Read on, as we outline five ways that Adobe Stock can help you get more work done in less time. 01. Find the right image in seconds Searching for the perfect pic? Adobe Stock has millions of royalty-free images on virtually every subject you could ever imagine. And thanks to its clever machine-learning software, you can use keywords and filters to find the exact image you’re looking for, in seconds. Alternatively, you can simply upload an image to find visually similar results, which will match the colour, tone, and composition of your original image. This intelligent and responsive search technology really comes in handy when you’re on deadline and your art ed is breathing down your neck, as the video above demonstrates in humorous fashion. (If you’d like to know how the image featured in it was created, there’s a more serious tutorial about it here). 02. Try out images within Creative Cloud apps Did we mention you don’t even have to open a separate tab to search for Adobe Stock images? Whether you’re working in Illustrator, Photoshop or any other Creative Cloud app, you can search for the right image directly within the app and import it with a single click. You’re then free to preview the image in your mockups, move it around and manipulate it to your heart’s content, and - only when you’re happy with your choice and how it’s working within your design, and have got signoff from your art ed or client - choose to licence it. This seamless integration into the Creative Cloud makes Adobe Stock the perfect tool for getting professional work completed quickly and to everyone’s satisfaction. And you don’t have to take our word for it: in the video above, freelance graphic designer Oliver Goodard explains exactly how Adobe Stock fits into his practice and makes his life a heck of a lot easier. 03. Save reinventing the wheel with Adobe Stock templates So far we’ve talked about images, but there’s another great way in which Adobe Stock can help speed up your design work: its Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign templates. These provide a professional looking ‘skeleton’ to common design types such as posters, templates and websites, saving you from reinventing the wheel, over and over again. And because they’re fully customisable, they allow you to spend more of your time being creative, choosing fonts, images, colours and so on, to create unique designs in less time. Again, because Adobe Stock is fully integrated into the CC apps, it’s super-easy and quick to use its templates directly within Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. To get a flavour of how Adobe Stock templates can save you time, check out the video above, and for a more detailed walkthrough, read our tutorial Design a poster in Photoshop CC with Adobe Stock templates. 04. Create video faster using motion templates Adobe Stock templates are not just for static design work. There are also a ton of excellent motion graphics templates available, many of which are free. Whether you’re using pro-level CC software like After Effects or Premiere Pro, or the new Premiere Rush, which is super-easy to use, Adobe Stock lets you add titles, credits, animations and more to bring your projects to life. In the video above, Amber and Stone from Stellar Image Studios explain how you can take a lower third from the Adobe Stock library and personalise it to the needs of a client. It’s a task that would normally take them around two to five hours, but with Adobe Stock takes around five minutes. Just think about that for a moment. If you can save that much time on just one task, think how much you could save over the course of year.... 05. Animate quickly using 3D assets 3D animation is probably the most time consuming of all tasks in the design world. So it’s an obvious place to look for ways that Adobe Stock can save you serious time. And yes, here too, Adobe Stock has you nicely covered. In the video above - the first of a three-part series - David Brodeur shows you how to quickly create an animation using a 3D asset from Adobe Stock, and how such assets can dramatically speed up your workflow. “We’re not going to waste a whole lot of time modelling a coffee mug," he explains. "Because today’s culture is all about: how do you keep pumping out a lot of work; how do you keep producing? We’re all short of time, and Adobe Stock can help us do that quickly and efficiently.” Conclusion You only have one life to life, so why spend it on mundane, time-consuming and repetitive tasks when Adobe Stock can help you get things done more quickly? Enabling you to find the right assets quickly and easily, and then work with them, seamlessly, within the Creative Cloud, Adobe Stock is perfectly positioned to help your design practice achieve its goals in the shortest time possible. So what are you waiting for? Get started with Adobe Stock today! View the full article

For 72 hours only, designers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa can get 19-20% off an Adobe Single App plan in this flash sale. The offer runs from today (9 Sept) until Wednesday 11 September, and is open to individual subscribers in EMEA regions. Not sure if this is the best offer for you? Take a look at our roundup of the best alternative Adobe Creative Cloud deals right now. While Adobe's Creative Cloud suite is incredibly powerful, not everyone needs all the apps in the package. This offer makes subscribing to just one app all the more appealing – right now you'll pay just £16.18 (around €19.19) a month rather than the usual £19.97. With that you get access to the app you need (Photoshop, Illustrator or Adobe XD), plus 100GB of cloud storage, Adobe Portfolio, Fonts and Spark thrown in for free. Adobe's annual creative conference is fast approaching, and we're expecting some exciting announcements on its flagship products, plus some new additions. Take a look at our predictions for Adobe MAX 2019. If you're not quite sure what you need, take a look at our Photoshop CC review or our Illustrator CC review for an idea of what each app offers. View the full article

Procreate 5 has been revealed, and it looks very exciting indeed. The latest version of the painting and drawing app has a new super-speedy graphics engine, named Valkyrie and there are also big changes afoot when it comes to using brushes and colours in the app, plus some more useful tools. For the first time, creatives can import their favourite brushes from Photoshop (see our favourite Photoshop brushes here) directly into Procreate. They can also combine brushes to make custom Dual Brushes, with over 150 brush settings. All these updated brush options are within Procreate 5's all-new Brush Studio, which is bigger – it can now be full-screen – and better – there's a new texture generator. These changes mean that when you're using Procreate 5 with Apple Pencil, you can set pressure and tilt to get hundreds of different brush variables. Seeing as Procreate is already one of our favourite iPad Pro apps, these improved features could take the app to dizzy new heights. Procreate is so popular, Adobe has even responded with its own painting app, Adobe Fresco, which is now available to preorder. But whether or not it can compete with Procreate's ever-updating app remains to be seen. Elsewhere in Procreate 5, there's now a floating Color Picker, to make it easier to play around with hues within the app, and improved Color Dynamics for easier transformation of colours, and perhaps best of all, you can now import CMYK and RGB ICC profiles. There's also a new Clone Tool so you can easily duplicate textures across your work. Animation is also set to become a lot easier with Animation Assist (above), which has features like onion skinning (which shows a faint outline of the previous layer) and instant playback. This builds on the introduction of animation in the app back in April, when the Text tool was also added. Procreate 5 was unveiled on Friday at LightBox Expo, and those at the festival were able to preview the new features. Many took to Twitter to express their excitement: Procreate also aimed squarely at subscription models (read, Adobe) with its 'Unsubscribe' campaign: Procreate 5 is still in development, with a release expected later in the year. An upgrade to the new version will be free for those who already have the app. Watch this space for more news, or get Procreate now for $10. Read more: The 13 best iPad apps for designers Harry Potter play rebrand stirs up rumours 25 stunning iOS app designs View the full article

Want to build a website? Well, WordPress.org is a great system to use. One of the giants of the web, WordPress powers around 32 per cent of the world’s websites, and for good reason. It’s been around for decades, it’s free and open source, and there’s a huge and active community around it. You’ll still have to pay for your domain name and hosting, but the WordPress.org software itself, which you’ll use to build your website, is free. So this is a potentially cheaper option than many other website builders. There's quite a bit of a learning curve, so you have to be prepared to put some work in. But WordPress really is a tried-and-tested method for building websites. And so here, we'll walk you through the basics in order to get you started. If these initial steps look intimidating, though, then don't worry: afterwards we'll introduce you to some alternatives that make it even quicker and easier to build a website, albeit at a price. 01. Buy a domain name and hosting We're using Hostgator, but other hosts are available... As we mentioned, WordPress.org’s software is free to download. But unless you own your own computer server, you’re still going to need to pay someone to host your website and make it available to anyone in the world, 24 hours a day. You also need to buy a domain name: the web address that allows people to access your site. (For example, the domain name of the site you’re looking at now is creativebloq.com.) Most hosting companies will sell you a package that includes both hosting and a domain name, which makes things a lot simpler. If you don’t know where to start in choosing a hosting company, then check out the best web hosting services. For the purposes of this article, though, we’ve randomly chosen Hostgator to create our dummy website. We’ll start by visiting the Hostgator website and choosing the cheapest pricing plan. (That's something we’d usually recommend for beginners, whatever the hosting company, as you’re unlikely to use any of the advanced features in the more expensive options.) Doing that takes us to the screen below, where we're asked to choose a domain name. Our chosen domain name, 99percentmedia.com, wasn't available, but 99percentmedia.net was This may take some time, as your favoured name may have been taken, but it’s worth taking your time over getting this right. Forbes has some good advice on choosing a domain name. In our case, we were lucky. While 99percentmedia.com wasn't available, 99percentmedia.net was. And that was good enough for us. You’re then asked to enter your personal and payment details, which is all pretty self-explanatory. In section 4 of the form, there are some extra services the company will try to sell you. These are all potentially useful, but for beginners we’d recommend unticking all these boxes to keep the overall cost down. In section 5, you get the chance to use a discount code to get money off. Don't pass this up. Do a quick Google search to see if you can find a valid code. Again, it’s worth taking a few minutes over this. Once you’ve reviewed everything and are happy with your purchase, click the box saying you agree with the Terms and Conditions, and proceed to checkout. 02. Install WordPress Having bought our hosting, we're off! After checking out, we get this screen (above) telling us that HostGator is setting up our account. After a couple of minutes, it’s replaced by this screen (below). Fairly obviously, you want the left-hand option here Clicking on the WordPress option brings us to the screen below. Click on Install WordPress, near the bottom of the right-hand column It’s not super-obvious, but from here, you need to click on Install WordPress under Control Panel. This brings you to the screen below, where you need to enter some details. (You'll prob want to ignore the bit at the bottom about ‘Let a pro do it for you’.) One more form to fill out, and we'll be done Blog title is self-explanatory: it’s the title that will appear on the homepage of your website. It can be the same as your domain name, but it doesn’t have to be. Admin user is basically your username for logging into WordPress. We’ve chosen ‘admin’ but it could be your name, your nickname, or anything else that’s memorable. Also add your first and last name, and your email address, tick Automatically create a new database, agree to the terms of service, and click the Install button. Yay! You’re now finally at your WordPress dashboard, where you can start building your site. Note: in future, you can come here at any time by entering your site’s URL and ‘/wp-admin’. In our case, that's http://99percentmedia.net/wp-admin/. 03. Start building your site Your WordPress Dashboard is where you'll build your website Now the real fun/work begins! But before we get into the juicy stuff, there’s a bit of boring admin. At the moment, your site’s internal page URLs are going to be long and confusing. So you need to tweak a few setting to make them shorter and simpler. In the left-hand pane, click on Settings and then choose Permalinks. Scroll down and you’ll see that Custom Structure is selected. Instead, select Post Name, above it, and then Save Changes. That's it! Change the Permalinks setting from Custom Structure to Post Name Okay, so want to see what your website looks like at the moment? Then hover over its name at the top of the page and click on Visit site. Right now, it will look something like this: This is what a WordPress site looks like at its most basic Pretty basic, right? So now it’s time to add some style. The most common way to do this is by using themes, which are basically templates with dummy images and text which you can then customise for your own purposes. 04. Choose a theme WordPress.org comes with a few preloaded themes, or you can find both free and paid third-party themes online. Check out, for instance, our lists of the best free WordPress themes and top-quality WordPress portfolio themes. Once you find a theme you like online, then first you need to download it as a zip file. Then in your dashboard, go to Appearance and click on Themes > Add New > Upload Theme. Navigate to the zip file on your computer, then click on Install, then Activate. 05. Start customising Our site with WordPress's Twenty Seventeen Theme As you can see above, we’ve opted to use WordPress’s own Twenty Seventeen theme. There’s a lot that we now need to do to personalise this, but most obviously, the default picture isn’t really relevant to our topic. So let’s change it. We click on Appearance > Customise > Header Media. Then we scroll down to Header Image, select Add New Image, and swap our hero image for a more suitable one from Adobe Stock. Add a nice stock image, and the homepage starts to come to life Instantly, this is starting to look less like a bland template and more like a bespoke website. Obviously this is just the start of building out our website within the Dashboard. We'll need to swap out the dummy text and the other images with our own. We'll also need to change its structure, its colour scheme, add things like footers, icons, and social media links. We may also want to import plugins to add extra functionality to our site (check out our list of the best WordPress plugins). But every journey starts with a single step, and we’re now on our way. To help you through the next steps, check out WordPress’s own lessons, as well as our list of top WordPress tutorials. Best of luck! Alternatives to WordPress WordPress is great, but it's not the simplest way to create a website. So if you want an easy option, or if you need to get a quick website live today or tomorrow, then, we’d recommend spending some extra cash and opting for one of the paid-for website building platforms, such as Wix, Squarespace or Shopify. Each of these has different pros and cons, check out our selection of the best website builders so you can see exactly what the various services have to offer and which one is likely to be the best fit for you. Don't want to spend any money? Then consider whether a website is actually what you need at all. For example, if you need a place to showcase your creative work online, then could a platform such as Dribbble or Behance, or perhaps just an Instagram or a Facebook business page do the job just as well? Also note that Adobe Portfolio is free if you’re already paying for the Creative Cloud. We can’t answer these questions, of course: only you can. But they’re certainly worth asking. Because in 2019 it’s not always the case that everyone absolutely has to have a website. If you do decide you need to build a website, though, then whatever system you use, make sure you bookmark our Web Design tag. Bringing you regular doses of inspiration, tips and tutorials, you'll find plenty to aid your website building efforts! Read more: How to design a favicon: the ultimate guide 7 web trends we'd be better off without 21 UI design secrets you need to know View the full article

Reality Capture is a great way of making your own 3D scans. All you need is your camera and you can scan a range of objects to make your own assets – in this case, to use in game or animation backgrounds. This saves you creating your own models. In this tutorial we’ll be doing some 3D scanning out in nature using any digital camera – see our best camera phones if you're in need of an upgrade – and the Reality Capture software. You can quickly build up a large collection of models to use in various projects or for one big job. We’ll start with techniques for taking the pictures, then move on to Reality Capture where the pictures are loaded in, then aligned and turned into a point cloud in 3D space. Next we’ll look at merging the point cloud into a polygonal model with different levels of detail. See our roundup of 3D art for some modelling inspiration. When you’re satisfied with the model, we’ll look at a couple of different ways to add colour texture (get your free textures here). Finally, we’ll export the model and load it into 3D-Coat, where you can do some quick retopology and bake the textures and normal maps to a lower-resolution model so it can be used in your animation or game. Download the files you need here This article originally appeared in issue 133 of 3D Artist. Buy issue 133 or subscribe here. Read more: The best VR headsets Character sheets for 3D modellers: 15 top tips The best digital art software right now View the full article

Thanks to the wonder of the internet, we live in a more connected world than ever before. Chances are notifications from your favourite sites pop up every now and then to keep you updated with news headlines and your friends’ social media statuses. But for artists looking to connect with the creative community, live streaming offers a unique way to get involved with like-minded people in real-time. Streaming sites aren’t anything particularly new. Just take live streaming video platform Twitch. The site, which focuses on video game content, has amassed a huge audience of engaged users over recent years because it’s tapped into the needs of its target audience and hit them hard with entertaining content. Another factor at the heart of streaming’s success is that people can either sit back and enjoy the videos, or they can host them. But it’s not just gamers who get to indulge in some live streaming fun, there are plenty of informative and amusing videos for artists to watch elsewhere online. Your digital art will take off online with a little help from Picarto This is sure to be welcome news for creatives, because sometimes working as an artist can feel like a lonely pursuit. Not only do you have to put the hours in to hone your craft, you also need to keep topping up your skills and somehow get your masterpieces out into the world. If you want to make it big, there’s also a tremendous amount of networking involved. Don’t fret though, because live streaming platform Picarto is here to connect digital artists and animators in order to help them share their passions. Created in 2013, Picarto is the first live streaming platform to put its emphasis on creativity. It covers all sorts of creative interests, including popular topics such as comics, anime, and character design. As long as it’s connected to creativity, artists are free to watch and share videos on Picarto. Picarto’s creativity focused live streaming is a godsend if you want to learn a new technique and build your audience. By watching artists whip up an illustration or an animation, viewers can get a greater understanding of what went into making their work. And for the creators hosting the streaming videos, it’s an opportunity to establish a fanbase and make a name for yourself. One of the biggest lures when it comes to live streaming sites is that all you need is a piece of recording equipment like a webcam and you can become a streamer yourself. With no need to edit your footage, you can begin broadcasting to your audience quickly and easily. Chuck in the opportunity to earn commissions from your work, and Picarto could even help you to make money from your art. Create the art you love with Picarto livestreams And with so many streams available on Picarto, visitors are sure to find a video that caters to their needs. What’s more, if you’ve found a creator who you think deserves a little more attention, you can help them grow by setting up a themed duo-stream session with a similar artist. Alternatively there are multi-streams which can support up to four artists, making them an invaluable way for presenters and community members to swap notes. Artists have always worked as members of a community, whether it’s the Pop art movement or the Post-Impressionists. And if artistic communities are good enough for the likes of Andy Warhol and Toulouse-Lautrec, they must be useful. So just think of live streaming and Picarto as a community that unites artists from all over the world. Once you get involved you might learn a new skill, meet new people, or even create your own fanbase. To explore everything Picarto has to offer, either as an audience member or as a potential streamer, visit the site here. View the full article

Large portions of APT3's remote code-execution package were likely reverse-engineered from prior attack artifacts. View the full article

Anyone working in web development will often feel like they deserve a medal. Trying to achieve the impossible against overly-optimistic deadlines, with clients and management breathing down their necks, errors that defy all efforts to fix them and having to deal with the fallout from user testing, who wouldn't want a little recognition for their efforts? Every career has its own rites of passage, those classic career achievements that everyone racks up along the line. If you were playing a video game, these would be the points at which you'd hear some sort of chime and get an on-screen notification that you'd earned an achievement, trophy or badge, depending on what platform you're playing on. And CSS-Tricks' Chris Coyier has been wondering exactly what these achievements might be for web developers. He kicked things off the other day with a tweet asking, "What are some classic dev career achievements or rites of passage?". 50 awesome new tools for developers in 2019 He already had a few ideas lined up, including 'Changed a DNS record and everything worked just fine', 'Refactored a large portion of CSS and didn't break anything', and 'Accidentally created own CMS', but he needed more, and the dev community stepped up in their droves. Some suggestions are those little everyday victories racked up at the code face; Eric Meyer came up with a few, including, 'Edited .htaccess without causing 500 errors', 'Used flexbox in production', and 'Launched a responsive site'. Get 25% off tickets with the code CSS25! Click the image to find out more (offer expires 6pm Friday 6 September) Christina Workman had an old-school suggestion: 'Found the missing semi-colon', something that modern developer might not ever have to deal with thanks to code linting, while Lucy Beer came up with the classic: 'Migrated a database...and it worked'. Cool story. Other ideas are more concerned with some of the realities that anyone connected with creative industries will have come across at one point or another. Steve Gardner came up with the frankly outlandish 'successfully quoted the correct amount of time for some work', while @indextwo offered the similarly unlikely 'Got paid first time, on time without prompting'. What about those ultra-rare achievements, though? The ludicrous ones that you normally only collect after months of diligent practice or thanks to sheer dumb luck. We have a winner, courtesy of Mike Price: 'Pushed to production on a Friday and didn't have to roll it back over the weekend'. Come off it, mate. Never happened. Want to discover more dev career achievements or suggest your own? Hit up Chris Coyier's Twitter thread. Related articles: How to set up a local development environment Agile development: How to use it in your web workflow How to succeed as a freelance developer View the full article

This week, the Harry Potter play – Harry Potter and The Cursed Child – got a brand new look, and it's prompted a whole lot of excitement, as well as speculation. It all started when the play's signage at theatres in New York, London, and Melbourne was quietly changed. If you're thinking that this logo looks familiar, you'd be right. The typography is now in line with the Harry Potter film franchise, which is based on the original illustrations for the books, created by Mary GrandPré. The redesign also included a brand new poster (see more inspirational poster designs here). Compare the new look (above) to the old one (below). It seems the boy within the snitch is no more. Plus, JK Rowling's name has been added, and the 'parts one and two' disclaimer removed. Bye-bye snitch? So why has a typography change caused so much speculation? First of all, there are rumours that Warner Bros, which owns the rights to the films and the Wizarding World, has bought the rights to the play. This has in turn sparked more rumours that the play could be made into a film (or two, or three). Back in 2017, JK Rowling said that there was "NO TRUTH" in the rumours about a Cursed Child trilogy. Pottermore, "the digital heart of the Wizarding World", retweeted this tweet yesterday, adding that "there is something exciting coming later on from @CursedChildNYC, but it's not a movie." JK Rowling also prompted more speculation with her first tweet in several months, which showed a rather ominous image of the Dark Mark, and the tagline: 'Sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places'. Last night saw a Harry Potter 'takeover' in New York's Times Square, which could explain the above tweets. Pottermore has today explained that JK Rowling's words, written by her as the original tagline to the play, are now the play's official tagline. Pottermore says the new designs and tagline mark "a new chapter for Cursed Child". The play is soon to open in San Francisco, Toronto and Hamburg. Pottermore doesn't mention Warner Bros, but the new poster (below) contains the Wizarding World logo. The new poster... spot the Wizarding World logo It's also unlikely to be a coincidence that's there a new book on the making of the play coming out soon, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: The Journey. And of course, the book features the same Harry Potter logo. So what's this all about? Is it just about getting the branding for the separate Potter elements in line, ready to become one huge magical (corporate) world? Is a Harry Potter and the Cursed Child film coming soon? Muggle Net reports the following from an official statement from Cursed Child NYC: "Cursed Child continues to be produced by Sonia Friedman, Colin Callender and Harry Potter Theatrical Productions in London, Broadway and all around the world, and there are no plans whatsoever for a movie. WB has always been a valued partner of Cursed Child since it’s [sic] ‪inception‬. Their role has not changed." So that's the 'official' line. It also reports that some of the employees of the New York play have now become official WB/AT&T employees, suggesting that Warner Bros has purchased a controlling right in the production. For now, we'll just go back to looking at JK Rowling's Twitter feed. Read more: Graphic design in film: the ultimate guide Is this the most blatant logo theft ever? This angle meme is making designers' eyes hurt View the full article

CSS Grid is quite simply the biggest story in web design right now. Giving developers the tools to build complex layouts with relatively little code, it represents a revolutionary step forward in providing control over layout behaviour, in a responsive world (see our responsive web design tutorials). There is, of course, a learning curve involved. Which is why we had to have Michelle Barker as one of the key speakers at our forthcoming Generate CSS conference (on 26 September in Shoreditch, London). A Mozilla Tech Speaker, author of the CSS {In Real Life} blog and passionate advocate for CSS Grid, Barker’s talk will identify the most common issues designers face in adopting it and how to overcome them. Read on, as she reveals how she fell in love with CSS, discusses her work at Mud and Ordoo and shares her predictions for how web design will evolve in the 2020s. Tell us more about what you do I’m a creative frontend developer with strong UX leanings and a background in design and illustration that informs much of the work I do. For my day job I’m a frontend developer at Ordoo, a mobile ordering startup. My main passion is CSS and I love experimenting and writing articles for my blog, CSS {In Real Life}. I’ve always loved writing and my blog gives me the perfect excuse to combine all of my passions in one place. Where does this passion come from? Ever since learning web development, I’ve been interested in CSS layout – it was so different from print. A few years ago I attended a workshop by Rachel Andrew and that’s where I first learnt about CSS Grid. I’ve been hooked ever since and have made it my mission to get other people as excited by it as I am. I’m really excited about how fast CSS is moving at the moment – it’s becoming more powerful by the day and there are even more exciting specifications just around the corner! Why do you like speaking at events? I’m a Mozilla Tech Speaker and speak about CSS Grid at conferences and meetups. Attending meetups is a great way to meet new friends, make contacts and get involved in the web community. I’d really recommend speaking at meetups as, in my experience, the community is warm, welcoming and great at giving constructive feedback. Working up the courage to do it for the first time is quite nerve-racking but it’s 100 per cent worth it. Speaking has opened so many doors for me. In 2016, you started working at Mud full-time. Can you tell us about the work for Warner Bros you did there? The website for Warner Bros Studios Leavesden was one of the biggest projects that I worked on at Mud. The design was by Blast and we at Mud were responsible for the development. My role was writing most of the HTML and CSS. The design presented some interesting layout challenges and was the perfect opportunity to use CSS Grid for the first time. So many of the layouts wouldn’t have been possible without Grid or would have been extremely challenging to implement responsively in ways that enabled the content creators sufficient freedom. We needed to allow for content of indeterminate length, images that could be any aspect ratio and still have the layout look good. There weren’t many CSS Grid tutorials and examples out in the wild at the time, other than Rachel Andrew’s excellent Grid By Example site. One key challenge was constructing a flexible grid that would allow some elements to align to a 24-column central grid, while also allowing others to bleed out to the edge of the viewport. Through experimentation and trial-and-error, I managed to figure out ways to solve these challenges. Several articles on CSS {In Real Life} have been directly informed by things I discovered on that project. How important is CSS Grid to the future of web design? There’s a misconception that certain CSS features shouldn’t be used until browser support is 100 per cent. It’s likely that will never be the case – there will always be older browsers to cater for and we should make sure those users get an acceptable experience. Progressive enhancement is your friend here! There are different strategies for supporting (or not supporting) Grid in older browsers: IE10 and IE11 actually support Grid’s older syntax, so that is one possible solution. The perceived training time and cost can also be a barrier for some. Like any new technology, there is an amount of learning involved and, sadly, I don’t see too many companies shouting about how they love to invest in CSS skills. It often plays second fiddle to JavaScript. Having said that, I believe Grid is going to be integral to the future of web design. Jen Simmons coined the term “Intrinsic Web Design” to describe the next evolutionary age of web layout that we’re entering into and we’re only just starting to see some of the creative possibilities emerge. I hope there will be a turning point soon, when enough people stop thinking of web design as an extension of print and start embracing it as its own medium. Within a few years, Grid will become the natural tool to reach for [when it comes to] web layout. What else is exciting in the world of CSS? There’s so much! Custom properties are pretty amazing and are starting to capture people’s imaginations. Support for subgrid, part of the CSS Grid Level 2 specification, has recently landed in Firefox Nightly and is slated for the next Firefox general release. I can’t wait to play around with it some more and figure out the creative possibilities! I’m also looking forward to experimenting a lot more with variable fonts. Mandy Michael and Jason Pamental are doing some great work creating demonstrations and talking about these. How do you see the role of frontend developer evolving in the 2020s? The role of a frontend developer has grown to encompass so much and it’s rare that you find someone equally strong at every aspect. I think it’s inevitable that we’ll end up seeing a split in roles between UI developers who write HTML, CSS and JavaScript for interactions and those who fall more into the ‘engineer’ category. It’s interesting: I feel like the ‘should designers code?’ question gets asked a lot less often these days because frontend code has become much more complex. Just starting a project can feel like a huge challenge, with a whole suite of build tools to configure before you can even begin. That’s why I decided to try and build my personal site with just HTML, CSS and nothing else – to see whether that was too unrealistic in 2019. But it’s a completely valid way to build a simple site. The way CSS is growing right now, those skills are soon going to become extremely valuable. What will you be speaking about at Generate CSS? If you’re interested in CSS Grid but are yet to start using it in production, this one’s for you. I’ve helped enough people get started with Grid to identify some common issues that many of them run up against. My talk will help people identify what might be causing them problems with their layout and how to debug these. I hope there will be something to learn, whatever your level of Grid experience. I love that we’re now seeing CSS-focused events like Generate CSS popping up. Often CSS is lumped in with frontend in general and you might go along to a frontend conference but only see one talk on CSS! This article was originally published in issue 324 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 324 or subscribe to net. Discover more about CSS Grid at Generate CSS In her talk at Generate CSS, the focused CSS conference for web designers taking place on 26 September 2019 at Rich Mix, London, Michelle Barker will explore how Grid works in harmony with (and not against!) other layout methods to build the robust, flexible web of the future. If you want to catch this and other great talks, make sure you buy your ticket now! Related articles: A comprehensive guide to using CSS Grid Create a responsive layout with CSS Grid 5 cool CSS Grid generators View the full article

Whether it was a sneaky doodle or busted out when creating poster designs, there was a time when everyone loved bubble writing. And although you may no longer be in primary school, if you want to create a condensed 'S' shape, then a child's tip may be just the thing. Lettering artist Ian Barnard has tweeted a super-short video demonstration of how to create a condensed 'S', saying that the tip came from his daughter. Barnard's condensed 'S' is sharper than standard bubble writing. It's got a cool urban edge to it, similar to the ones we see in our favourite graffiti fonts. Check it out below. The condensed 'S' has evoked warm memories for people commenting on the Twitter thread. Bonez Designz remembers it as the 'Superman S': Whereas Erica Rodriguez speaks for the crowd that made some small adjustments to make it a dollar sign: In fact, according to YouTuber LEMMINO in a video about the 'Universal S' (below), the condensed 'S' has been spotted as far back as 1890, in a book called Mechanical Graphics, so it's clearly a popular choice. But it's a tricky one to master due to the letter's awkward geometry. So next time you need to draw yourself a geometrically perfect, well-balanced 'S' just get yourself one of the best sketchbooks available, and follow the advice from Barnard's daughter. Read more: The best free handwriting fonts Free retro fonts Best graffiti fonts View the full article

Chinese microblogging giant Weibu has withdrawn its new Instagram-style app after it became apparent that its logo plagiarised a 2015 design by a Korean design studio. The new app, called Oasis – or Lüzhou in Chinese – launched on 3 September and quickly became the most popular app on Apple's Chinese app store, but was swiftly withdrawn a few hours later after a user pointed out on Weibo's online forums that the logo design had been lifted wholesale from Studio fnt's designs for the 2015 Ulju Mountain Film Festival. How can designers deal with plagiarism? Studio fnt's original design from its UMFF project Anyone who's been around the design world for any length of time knows that you can't go too long without someone claiming that a brand new logo design is a rip-off of another one. It's one of those occupational hazards of design life; after all, on the whole, nobody sets out to copy another piece of work for their new branding project. But in logo design, where you're often working with simple and minimal shapes, it's inevitable that occasionally you'll create something that looks a little – or even a lot – like an existing design. And here's the Oasis logo. Breathtaking Unfortunately for Weibo, that argument doesn't hold any water in this case. The logo, depicting stylised mountains and a sun drawn in a distinctive line art style is a straight copy of a business card design created as part of fnt's UMFF project. It even steals the visual effect of the foil printing used on fnt's business cards, but in this case achieves a near-identical look with a colour gradient. The app has already been removed from the Chinese App Store In fairness to Weibo, it took the app down as soon as it became aware of the blatant plagiarism, and posted an apology soon after in which it admitted that in the past its designers had borrowed elements from online materials. Oasis further states that it has initiated an internal review of its design process and has been contacting relevant design parties to resolve any copyright issues. Related articles: Stolen design work: the ugly truth 10 iconic logos with hidden meanings 10 of the best logos ever View the full article