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You're reading These 7 Multipurpose WordPress Themes Are the Best 2019 has to Offer, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! There’s a reason so many people choose to go with a multipurpose WordPress theme. The best ones excel in flexibility, the number and variety of features offered, and the ability to create almost any website type you can imagine. You … View the full article

Today Wacom announced an update to one of its flagship products, the MobileStudio Pro 16. A firm favourite among creative professionals, Wacom's creative pen computer is now armed with even more power and features to help maintain its position as one of the best graphics tablets (a lot) of money can buy. Under the hood of this high-end mobile device you'll find an Intel Core i7 Quad core processor and NVIDIA Quadro graphics card (a P1000 4GB GDDR5 if you want specifics), the combination of which promising to provide all the power needed to run even the heaviest creative software applications. The update also sees Thunderbolt 3 connectivity thrown in to the mix, it's 40Gbps speed making it up to eight times faster than USB 3.0 and providing the ability to run two 4K displays hassle-free. Add to that the convenience a Thunderbolt connection offers (to virtually any display and with a variety of protocols) and a new ‘Backdoor’ feature which makes it easy to upgrade the SSD and DDR memory whenever you need to and you've got an impressive revamp. The update will come as welcome news to any creative thinking of adding this powerful kit to their arsenal. However at over £3000 per unit, the MobileStudio Pro 16 is is far from cheap. But for professionals thinking of making a purchase, there's never been a better time to invest. The revamped MobileStudio Pro 16 will be available to purchase this month, with an updated MobileStudio Pro 13 set to follow later this year. For more information and full specs on today's new offering, head over to the Wacom website. In the meantime, you'll find the best prices on both models currently available below. View the full article

You're reading Bootstrap Buttons Guide, Examples, and Tutorials, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Buttons are baseline components of every interface. When it comes to Bootstrap, the simplest details matter. Therefore, Bootstrap buttons are not just rectangle-shaped elements; they are professional tools with predefined styles. Read about Bootstrap grid, Bootstrap navbar, and Bootstrap modal. Meeting the … View the full article

Everyone loves a good pair of Chucks, right? Nobody wants to be seen in a pair of generic basketball shoes. And the latest All Star designs will leave no-one in any doubt that you're adorning your feet in a pair of genuine Converses, because they're decorated with an absolutely massive brand name. As reported by Sneaker News, the latest addition to the massive Converse range is a set of stunning hi-tops that don't just feature the iconic Converse logo design, but also have the Converse name embroidered across both boots in an enormous script font, reminiscent of the Coca-Cola logo. The left boot has 'Conv' written along the side, while the right boot has 'verse' on it. 28 great free script fonts A big brand name is a hot look right now So if you stand with your heels together and feet spread out, people standing behind you will be able to read 'Converse' across your new Chucks. Or actually, now we look a the designs more closely, it'll be more likely something like 'Conwerse'; the cut-off on the 'v' seems a little too generous for its own good. Despite that little typographic niggle, this is a strong look for Converse. Supersized brand names seem to be a hot trend at the moment – see the recent Boots and Grolsch redesigns for great examples of going over-large with the brand name – and this is right on the money. And there's more to these distinctive daps than their immense branding. They come in a choice of fantastic-looking single-colour designs: white, red or black (with contrasting text colour), and are made from a more durable canvas blend than your standard Chuck. See? Told you. 'Conwerse' Sneaker News also reports that the insole is equipped with Nike's React cushioning, which you won't find in standard All Stars, only in Converse's new All Star Pro BB range. These glorious new Converses are expected to go on sale at the end of the month; the only downside is that so far they seem to be destined for the Japanese market only. Of course, it could be that Converse simply hasn't got around to announcing them for the rest of the world yet. We'll be watching for further updates from Converse with suitably bated breath. Related articles: Nike brings back old Swoosh logos Design a killer logo in Illustrator 5 brands that hit nostalgia hard View the full article

Implementing game mechanics and competition into the mix can incentivize employees to improve their cybersecurity posture. View the full article

American baseball team Chicago White Sox have had a huge range of logos in the past – the team's featured 10 primary logos, 20 headwear marks and a whopping 77 lettering variations adorning its jerseys. Despite this logo overload, the name of the team, 'White Sox' hadn't been used on the team's jerseys since 1990. Now, design agency Contino, has rectified this by creating a sleek new 'White Sox' logo for the team's home jersey. The new wordmark draws on elements from the previous 'White Sox' logos as well as elements of the 'Chicago' script also in use in the team's visual identity (see our free script fonts for more cursive fonts). That script font is a custom typeface called South Side Script, and has one feature that may be slightly contentious (more on that later). The White Sox logos of 1947 (left), 1987-1990 (middle) and 2019 (right) Contino says the new logo "features minor bumps and hiccups along the contours of the letters as a nod to the imperfections of baseball’s rich aesthetic history while still creating a unique mark with its own distinguished personality." We like the reframing of "a mess of different identities" to "rich aesthetic history". We also see what Contino means about the bumpiness of some of the forms, such as the 'W' and the 'e', but overall think the wordmark pulls off looking incredibly smooth. It also looks extra cool in-situ on the jerseys (below). So far, so good. For more on creating great logos, see our guide to logo design. The new logo in-situ There's only only thing that jumps out at us, though. At first glance, we saw 'White Sex'. We fully admit that this may be a product of our dirty minds, and of course, when we looked again, it seems obvious that it doesn't. There's also another 'e' to make it absolutely clear that the 'o' is in fact, an 'o'. But we still can't unsee it. Is this what Contino meant by a hiccup, we wonder? Read more: 45 free retro fonts Mock Cleveland Indian logos highlight racial double standards The 10 greatest sports logos of all time View the full article

Time is precious for creatives, and so finding ways to work smarter is essential. If you're one of the many users signed up to Adobe Creative Cloud, you'll know mastering its apps can be hugely time consuming, which is why you've almost certainly mastered some keyboard shortcuts by now. However, do you always remember the right one to use? Maybe there's few you've yet to discover? In this super-helpful Adobe CC cheat sheet from the team over at Shutterstock, you'll find the most popular keyboard shortcuts for Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, all in one place. The handy printable chart can be downloaded as a PDF, with the three app's shortcuts colour-coded (using signature shades) and organised into a periodic table-style layout for maximum efficiency. And the best bit? It's totally free! So whether you're a seasoned pro at Adobe's 'big three' and just want a little refresher, or new to the creative software and in need of a helpful starting point, this download will serve you well. We also have an excellent round of Photoshop tutorials and Illustrator tutorials should you need some extra help honing your Adobe CC skills. Click image to download Read more: Adobe MAX 2019: News, rumours and predictions The 10 best alternatives to Photoshop 39 InDesign tutorials to level up your skills View the full article

So you've completed your course, and you're on the lookout for job opportunities. Or perhaps you've already got some work, but are still feeling a little unsure of yourself. Starting off in your new career can be both exciting and terrifying. There are some things you can do to make your life easier – getting your design portfolio in order for instance – or checking out our list of design jobs if you're after a new challenge. Apart from that, it's often just a case of getting stuck in and doing what you can. Getting advice from those who've been there often helps, of course. Here, we spoke to graduates who've been there to find out what mistakes other juniors have made, and what you can do to avoid them. 01. Missing a key email "One of my first clients was YouTube Official, which invited me to contribute to an art book," says Nadine Kolodziey, a visual artist and art director based in Germany who’s been working freelance since she graduated in 2013. "I thought the message was spam and deleted it. Eventually, they called and asked for my first drafts. I was in shock, but super-happy." Not every potential client will call after a missed email, though, so make sure you read carefully before sending an email to the bin. 02. Not making the most of placements “On my course, we were encouraged to seek placements, but it wasn’t compulsory,” says Hattie Windle, who graduated from Leeds College of Art (now Leeds Art University) in 2017, and is now a middleweight designer at Robot Food. “I’d feel the 25 per cent of students who didn’t do one missed out. Not only does it help you secure a job, it’s also the best place to learn. I’ve learned more about design at Robot Food than I ever did at university!” If you're currently on a placement, internship or are in a new role, remember that just clocking in won’t get you far. “What you get out of it depends on how much you put into it,” says Joseph Lebus, who graduated from a design course at Shillington and is now a junior designer at Made Thought. “If you aren’t doing the work you want, or learning the skills you’re looking for, it’s up to you to make that happen.” 03. Not specialising In a diverse industry where it’s impossible to be all things to all people, it can pay to specialise, as Neil Gilchrist did after graduating with a BA in interaction design from Glasgow School of Art. “I started thinking about my university work and what I’d found interesting,” he says. “This took me in the direction of studios producing the work I wanted to do. Then it was all about curating my portfolio.” Gilchrist now works as a junior designer at DixonBaxi. 04. Giving up Don’t get disheartened when obstacles appear. “Many people turned their noses up when I mentioned I hadn’t taken the traditional route into the design world,” says Lebus. “But in the end, it gave me a stronger drive to keep pushing myself and get my voice heard. Lebus used his Instagram account to get his work out there, "and this led to me securing my first few internships,” he says. This article originally appeared in Computer Arts issue 294. Buy issue 294 or subscribe here. Read more: How to refine your design portfolio 4 portfolio tips that junior designers need to know How to become a junior designer View the full article

What makes a specific camera the best camera for wildlife photography? You may think that pretty much any camera will do the job, but in truth, wildlife photography is a particular discipline that has its own requirements, and some cameras will be much more suitable than others. So what do these requirements include? Well, wildlife photography is a fast discipline. You’ll be attempting to capture subjects that will not stay still for very long, and may flee if they realise you are near them. This means that a camera with a fast frame rate is critical. As you’ll be out and about you also want to have solid battery life, and a camera that isn’t too heavy to carry for long distances (our pick of the best camera bags around will help you with that). The ability to use telephoto lenses and shoot at range is critical, meaning you want to either pick an interchangeable lens camera with plenty of telephoto optics available, or a compact (i.e. fixed lens) camera that has a decent maximum focal range. A fast autofocus system is an absolute must, and ideally one that has plenty of AF points that cover the majority of the frame. There are plenty more factors to consider, and we’ve tried to cover a broad range of them with our list. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the best cameras for wildlife photography that you can buy right now... Best camera for wildlife photography overall It’s built like Nikon’s pro DSLRs, but comes at a significantly lower price point. Nikon’s D500 is a dream come true for many photographers, and, for the money, it’s currently the best camera for wildlife photography. Its burst rate of 10fps is paired with a generous shot buffer that allows the camera to keep shooting and shooting, even in RAW mode, with up to 200 continuous shots possible. Its sensor is APS-C not full-frame, which does mean reduced dynamic range but provides the advantage of increasing the effective focal length of telephoto lenses – a boon for wildlife photographers. Ruggedly built and dependable, this is the workhorse wildlife shooter for all seasons. Best high-end camera for wildlife photography The Canon EOS-1D X Mark II is the current gold standard for professional photographers. It shoots and shoots with speed and accuracy, and if you don’t mind paying the premium price tag, it’ll produce superb results when photographing wildlife. It’s an absolute beast of a camera, able to keep churning out shots at 16fps with the mirror locked up, or at 14fps with autofocus enabled. Access to the Canon EF range of lenses ensures you’ll always have glass for the occasion, with some of the best telephotos in the business on its books. It’s the camera equivalent of a pneumatic drill – if you know what you’re doing, you’ll get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Best budget camera for wildlife photography While Nikon’s true entry-level range is its D3000 series of cameras, we reckon the D5300 is a better buy for the wildlife photographer on a budget. This highly capable DSLR provides a generous 24.1MP of resolution and 5fps burst shooting, as well as an autofocus system that’s surprisingly sophisticated for a camera of this class. Add in access to the extensive Nikon F range of lenses and you’ve got a camera that equips you with all the tools you’ll need to get started with wildlife photography, all at a really competitive price. It’s weather-sealed too, so you need have no fear of the elements. Best point-and-shoot camera for wildlife photography The fourth iteration of Sony’s big RX10 bridge camera, the RX10 IV pairs a 1-inch sensor with a 24-600mm f/2.4-4 lens for amazing versatility and image quality. All this range would already be ideal for wildlife photography, but the fact that the camera is capable of shooting at an impressive 24fps with autofocus, to a maximum buffer of 249 frames, really seals the deal. The autofocus system is fast enough to keep up thanks to its 315 AF points, with Sony claiming focus-acquisition times as snappy as 0.03sec. All this comes at a premium price – if it’s too dear for you, consider previous models in the RX10 range, which you should be able to find at a much friendlier price. Best DSLR camera for wildlife photography All right – technically it’s an SLT camera, but Sony’s A-mount does so many things right that it’s up there with the best DSLR cameras for wildlife photography. It’s capable of shooting at up to 12fps with autofocus enabled, and it’s designed with the kind of intelligent ergonomics that make DSLRs so intuitive to use, with a generously sized handgrip and intelligently laid-out controls. Its autofocus system is sophisticated and accurate, and while the fact that it’s a few years old means it’s missing some of the latest bells and whistles, this also means the a77 II can be picked up for a bargain price. Best mirrorless camera for wildlife photography While Sony has many fantastic full-frame mirrorless cameras in its Alpha 7 range, we like the a6500 for its combination of lightweight build, super-speedy shooting and incredible autofocus coverage; a massive 425 points spread across the frame ensures that the a6500 will be able to lock onto even the most elusive of subjects. The a6500 is also incredibly lightweight, and its APS-C sensor pushes the focal length of your lenses just a little bit further, which is a boon for photographing wildlife. An incredibly feature-packed camera for its size and price point, the a6500 is a superb achievement of imaging technology. Best Nikon camera for wildlife photography You’ll find no shortage of Nikon photographers eager to tell you why they swear by the D850 – it’s basically a premium all-rounder, a solid DSLR that does pretty much everything really well, and is undoubtedly one of the best cameras for wildlife photography. With 45MP of resolution, class-leading dynamic range, a weather-sealed construction, excellent noise-reduction systems and truly outstanding image quality, especially in RAW files, the camera is just an absolute workhorse. You can connect to SnapBridge for instant image transfer from the camera to your phone, and thanks to the generous battery life, you can shoot for absolutely ages. An all-around winner. Best Canon camera for wildlife photography When Canon updated its EOS 7D camera, it didn’t just bump up the resolution, it remade the camera from the ground up to make it an absolutely superb APS-C DSLR in practically every category. It can burst shoot at up to 10fps and its lightning-fast Dual-Pixel autofocus system can keep up with everything. Add in a sophisticated metering system, a rugged body and a host of other useful functions (albeit no Wi-Fi, and an LCD that isn’t touch-sensitive), and you have a seriously competitive DSLR for capturing wildlife. Canon did an excellent job of overhauling the EOS 7D – the EOS 7D Mark II is outstanding. Read more: The best books for photographers in 2019 15 top tips to boost your photography skills The best photo apps and photo-editing software View the full article

Unless you've been living in an Amish village for the last couple of decades, you'll know that Apple products are sleek, clean, and powerfully understated. And while this means that its devices look cool and minimalist, it also means they're a blank canvas waiting to be customised. And that's just what Apple celebrates in this new video. If you're an iPhone user – and we can't blame you if you are, what with all those free iPhone apps for designers – you might listen to your device with AirPods. These wireless headphones are housed in cute little charging cases, which are made even more adorable with a bit of personalisation. Crafty AirPod owners have made them their own with charming heart decals, knitted sleeves, and even keychains. To celebrate its community's creativity, Apple in South Korea has compiled this supercut of super-sweet modifications. Cool, huh? Of course we could see some more changes on the way for the iPhone. A recently released invitation to an Apple event hints at the launch of the iPhone 11, and has got people speculating as to whether it will feature a new colourful logo. Now that's a design detail we would really love to see. To get your own Apple AirPods, see today's best deals below: Related articles: The 100 greatest Apple creations It cost 50K to digitise: 5 surprising Apple logo facts The 10 most beautiful Apple products (and the 5 ugliest) View the full article

Up to 25 percent of valid vulnerabilities found in bug bounty programs are classified as being of high or critical severity. View the full article

If you're stuck staring at a blank canvas, or faced with a brief that has a lot of room for interpretation, having the right tool to hand can help you get your creative mojo on. And if you need to generate a variety of ideas and concepts as quickly as possible, Photoshop CC's Pattern Stamp tool can be a godsend. Creating variety is where the Pattern Stamp tool excels. It generates interesting textures and colour variations from texture sheets, and also creates enough room for happy accidents to occur which can be beneficial to the early stages of the creative process. Get Adobe Creative Cloud Here we'll take you through the process of creating your own custom patterns and how to apply them to a value sketch. Based on the outcome of placing the patterns, we'll refine the sketch to a working idea, before bringing that idea to a more refined finish. Download the custom brushes for this tutorial. 01. Gather pictures Collect some pictures to form your patterns Before I start, I gather pictures to build my library of patterns. I'm using photos that I take myself or collected from friends and family. I'm building up my own reference library by storing photos on a cloud server. That way I can use my own photos, knowing there are no copyright restrictions on them. 02. Use the Pattern Stamp tool Paint your canvas with the Pattern Stamp tool The Pattern Stamp tool enables me to paint or fill my canvas with a pattern that I choose from a pattern library. Similarly to the Brush tool, I can select a brush tip to paint the pattern with. There are pre-made patterns available but for this workshop I'll make my own. I've created several patterns that can be downloaded from my website under the Resources tab. 03. Create patterns to use with the tool Ensure the lighting and shadows in your photos match I make a new document and copy-paste photos from my reference library (A). By double-clicking my layer (B) and using the Blend if… option under Layer Style (C), I can blend layers together by excluding colours. Holding Alt while dragging will split the slider in two, resulting in a smoother transition. I make sure that I arrange the photos in such a way that the lighting and shadows correspond with each other. 04. Refine and edit the chosen patterns Retouch the edges with the Content Aware tool To retouch the edges of the photos, I use the Content Aware tool under Edit > Fill. In the dialog I choose Contents > Content Aware. By clicking OK, this tool fills the selection with the surrounding pixels and blends them together. I click Filter > Other > Offset to make the pattern tileable. 05. Warm up and create a series of sketches Get going with a bunch of sketches At this point I have no idea in mind so I use the Pattern Stamp tool to warm up, and to show how effective it is in the early phases of a painting. I start my sketches with limited values and use the standard Round brush to keep the shapes simple. After producing multiple sketches, I decide to develop one of them so I can show my whole process from start to finish in this workshop. 06. Refine the value sketch Adjust your foreground and background values to enhance the perspective I create the feeling of atmospheric perspective by making the foreground values darker, and those in the background lighter. I deliberately avoid adding any light or shadows because I want the Pattern Stamp tool to do that for me. At the same time, I rearrange different layers to come up with a pleasing composition. I want the round shapes to contrast with the straight lines. 07. Block in the colours Use Impressionist mode to block in colour I use the Impressionist mode of the Pattern Stamp tool to block in the colours. The Impressionist mode will generate colour variations based on the colours Photoshop identifies in the active pattern. I block in the colours of each layer on a separate layer so I can add them as a clipping mask (B) and adjust them later on. 08. Make the most of those happy accidents If something goes wrong, try working with it I create a new layer to paint with the Pattern Stamp tool with the Impressionist mode turned off. This is the moment where a happy accident should help take an idea to the next level. For those not aware of the phrase, a happy accident in painting is when something unique and unexpected happens. It turns out to be beneficial to your work and guides you on to a new path that you might not have considered. 09. Rethink the story Happy accidents can lead you to exciting new ideas By placing the Pattern Stamp tool I come up with the idea of having derelict communication spheres that are partially buried under the desert hills. I use the Pattern Stamp to create the sea and clouds in the background. Because I use clipping masks for all the coloured layers, I can easily adjust the values to the underlying greyscale layer. 10. Clean up the focal points Upscale the image and add more detail Once I'm happy with the overall positioning of elements, I upscale the image to a bigger resolution. This enables me to add more details on the focus points. By adding more layers with the Pattern Stamp tool and applying a Distort > Spherize Filter on them, I generate more details on the foreground communication hub. 11. Refine the figures Use an tool like Mixamo to add characters to your scene Mixamo is my favourite tool to add figures to my paintings. It's an online service designed to rig and animate your custom 3D characters. It also holds a library of pre-made models and animations that are free for use. I pick a model and animation and screengrab the pose to add it to my painting. This model will help me to achieve the correct pose and proportions. 12. Check the readability of the composition Use light and shadow to draw the viewer into the scene Using an interesting light and shadow pattern, I lead the viewer in and through the painting. By creating a repetition of shadows and lights I'm able to push the feeling of depth even more. I fix the values of the background hubs and add more perspective to the clouds in the sky. 13. Add greyscale and colour simultaneously Use a custom proof setup to view colour and greyscale versions at the same time I go to Window > Arrange and create a new window for my open document. For this new window I change the viewing options: View > Proof Setup > Custom. In the dialog I choose sGray for the Device to Simulate menu. By placing the two windows next to each other, I can paint in colour and values at the same time. 14. Add finishing touches A few more fixes and you're done Working on the values and colours at the same time enables me to keep my values in place while making the finishing touches. I rearrange my layers slightly to create some more breathing space around them. I add extra small details to give everything a more finished look. After getting feedback from friends, I fix small parts of the painting, such as the perspective of the clouds. This article was originally published in issue 173 of ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists. Buy issue 173 here or subscribe to ImagineFX here. Related articles: How to resize an image in Photoshop All the best free Photoshop brushes The 10 commandments of Photoshop etiquette View the full article

GIMP is a popular image editing tool, but its name isn't as universally loved. The software's title, which is an acronym of GNU image manipulation programme, is a word that can also be used as an ableist slur, and has sexual connotations. To fix this, a new fork of the GIMP editor, called Glimpse, has been created. Given that GIMP is one of the most popular pieces of free graphic design software, you would have thought that its makers would have addressed this naming issue. However it came down to Bobby Moss, a technical writer a database giant Oracle, to address the situation. Moss had seen a discussion topic opened by developer Christopher Davis on Gitlab called 'Consider renaming GIMP to a less offensive name'. Finding Davis' arguments against the name to be well reasoned, Moss decided to fork the project into Glimpse. Speaking to The Register, Moss said that Glimpse not only remedies the rather unfortunate name, but that it also aims to overhaul the entire UI of GIMP. "Initially I thought it was just going to be a quirky project on my own private GitHub but people expressed enthusiasm for it," Moss told The Register. "It's evolved now into this new thing where you’ve got multiple people running it, myself, Chris who originally posted the issue, and another woman called Clipsey … it's all kind of ballooned out from there." Better name, better UI, what more could you want? The team behind GIMP are clearly aware of the issues surrounding its name. On the software's FAQ page, it says this in response to the questions about whether or not it will rename GIMP: "With all due respect, no. We’ve been using the name GIMP for more than 20 years and it’s widely known. The name was originally (and remains) an acronym; although the word “gimp” can be used offensively in some cultures, that is not our intent." While GIMP and Glimpse are on different pages when it comes to naming conventions, there is some common ground to be had. That's because Glimpse developers plan to continue contributing upstream code to GIMP, meaning that its development will continue at a steady pace and ensure that there are no incompatibility issues between the two applications. Related articles: The best digital art software in 2019 Paint like a pro with free digital art software 4 tools every digital artist needs View the full article

A trip to Disney's all-new land, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge – which opened at Hollywood Studios yesterday – wouldn't be complete without a souvenir. But visitors hoping to remember their visit with certain Star Wars-themed Coca-Cola bottles might want to think twice before boarding their flight home. That's because the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has said they won't be allowed on flights. It's all to do with the look of the bottles. We've already seen some standout packaging designs on Creative Bloq, but these Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, and Sprite bottles have attracted the wrong sort of attention because they bear a resemblance to thermal detonators from the Star Wars films. Thermal detonators are basically space-age grenades. So it's not a huge surprise that the TSA is being extra cautious and saying that the bottles "aren't allowed" on flights. The issue was raised on Twitter, when a user asked the TSA if they could pack them in their luggage. According to CNN, a TSA representative shed more light on the situation by saying: "these items could reasonably be seen by some as replica hand grenades... While we continue to review this issue, TSA officers will maintain the discretion to prohibit any item through the screening checkpoint if they believe it poses a security threat." The important word in that statement is "discretion". Some users have said that they had "zero issues" taking their bottles with them on a flight. But it's probably best for travellers to play it safe and enjoy their Star Wars Coke experience safe within the Star Wars galaxy. There's no denying the bottles look, well, edgy. Earlier this year, Scott Trowbridge, the lead Imagineer on the Galaxy's Edge project enthused about the bottles, saying they were "cool, kind of thermal detonator-ish" during a panel. The bottles are available for $5.49 from Star Wars lands in both Disneyland and Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney World (which recently revealed its 50th anniversary logo). Related articles: 6 free Star Wars fonts Is this the luxury Star Wars furniture you're looking for? How to illustrate a Star Wars-inspired environment View the full article

As creatives, we all have a long list of things that we’d like to work on or achieve. But sometimes we can quickly lose momentum with the goals we've set ourselves. However, it's never too late to continue learning and get started on your creative ambitions. To help you do just that, brush up on the design skills you’ve always wanted to refine with The Complete Adobe CC Training Bundle, now with 95% off. With over 60 hours of lectures and over 200 tutorials, this Adobe CC Training Bundle is the perfect way to get more out of the programmes you already use. And if you haven't already signed up, get Adobe Creative Cloud. This seven-course training programme is geared towards various levels of experience, so no matter where your degree of expertise stands, you're likely to get something out of it. You'll be able to improve your skills in Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and so much more. There's even a course dedicated to the ins and outs of the art of animation. This will teach you valuable skills that will be useful for industries needing animation elements for video games, interactive media, education and event reconstruction. With more than 39,000 students already enrolled, this popular training bundle is available at any time, allowing you to come back and visit it when you need to reference a specific tutorial or get a spark of inspiration. Explore the tool panels in each program and get exposed to real-life exercises that test your understanding of the content. Great for work and play, this training bundle is a gem for both the budding and seasoned creative. While a lifetime bundle membership usually sells for $673, it's currently price-dropped (for a limited time only) to $29 – that's a saving of 95%. It's certainly a great way to elevate the design artistry you already possess, or start up a new career in the digital arts. Related articles: Build prototypes with Adobe XD Get started with Adobe Dimension CC Create perspective in Adobe Illustrator View the full article

The right projector will make it easy to present your work in the best possible light, with rich colours and super sharp picture quality. If you're looking for a projector for your studio, it's wise to invest in one that can be mounted permanently on the ceiling. A high quality model will be able to project a crisp image at sizes over 100 inches. If you're showing work to clients, and one of the best 4K monitors won't suffice, a portable projector could be a good option. These compact devices are small enough to tuck into a bag, and take minimal time to set up. Many even offer Bluetooth connectivity so you can display work directly from a laptop, tablet or phone without any cables. It's also worth bearing in mind the two main projector technologies: LCD and DLP. Images from an LCD projector tend to be brighter, with better colour accuracy, while DLP projectors typically offer better contrast and tend to be smaller. If cost isn't an issue, there are also laser projectors to consider. These use less power, produce an extremely crisp image, and the light source lasts far longer than the bulb in a standard projector. We've picked the best projectors with both technologies so you can decide which one is right for you. A few years ago, a projector with 4K resolutions and high dynamic range would have been prohibitively expensive, but the feature-packed Optoma UHD40 is surprisingly affordable. It produces a crisp picture with punchy colours and rich blacks to make your work shine. There's also an Ultra Detail mode, which can give images an extra edge when used in moderation. The UHD40's HDMI connection allows you to easily connect it to a PC or laptop, and the added USB port means you can display images and video directly from a memory stick. It's not the prettiest projector around, but that's not a major concern if it's mounted on your studio's ceiling. A superb performer at a bargain price. Laser projectors like the Optoma UHZ65 cost significantly more than their traditional lamp-bearing projectors, but it's hard to beat the picture quality – particularly for videographers and animators. Optoma’s PureMotion technology eliminating any blurring or judder, and the projector is capable of reproducing the full Rec.709 colour gamut. Vertical lens offset makes it easy to line up the image with the screen (even if you have limited space available) and the laser light source is rated to last the whole life of the projector (20,000 hours according to Optoma), so if you can afford the initial outlay, it's a great long-term investment. The BenQ TK800 is a stylish, affordable projector that was originally created with gamers in mind, but is also a superb choice for any interactive graphics and live demonstrations thanks to its minimal input lag. It also supports 4K, which seems surprising for such an affordable unit, but there’s a slight catch: the TK800 actually takes a 1,920 x 1,080 image and flashes it four times in very rapid succession, creating the effect of ‘true’ 4K. It might sound like a cheat, but qualifies as 4K by industry standards. This is further helped by a high quality glass lens specifically designed for 4K content. This projector’s biggest drawback is its noise, which might be a little distracting. One of the Optoma UHD51A’s key selling points is its Alexa integration, letting you control it with voice commands via a smart speaker. It might seem like a gimmick at first, but in practice, not having to hunt for a remote when a client is visiting can be a real boon. The UHD51A delivers stunning picture quality – rich and sharp – with the unusual addition of 3D support, provided you have the necessary Active DLP Link glasses. Its built-in speakers won't do justice to projects with audio, but add a quality surround-sound system and you’ve got one of the best projectors going. Despite its name, the Epson Home Cinema 4010 (also known as the EH-TW7400) is ideal for work as well as play. This is another projector that simulates 4K picture quality using a native resolution of 1,920 x 1,080, but it’s a trick that works well in the capable hands of Epson’s engineers and helps keep the price down. 4K content is reproduced in crisp detail, and there's 3D support (reproducing the full three-dimensional Rec.709 colour space). Although its chassis is on the large side, this is one of the quietest projectors around, allowing clients to focus on your work rather than a whirring fan. The Epson EH-TW650 doesn’t offer 4K support (native or simulated), but at this price, it’s hard to complain. At 3,100 lumens, it produces a picture bright enough to be seen clearly in daylight, with bright whites and deep blacks. It produces a fair amount of heat, so make sure there’s plenty of room for ventilation when setting it up (a process made a little trickier than average due to the lack of vertical lens shift). Once you have the picture lined up correctly, you can stream your work directly from a mobile device thanks to the EH-TW650's its Wi-Fi connectivity and Epson's iProjection app. A great choice for students, or any creatives working to a tight budget. The dinky Anker Nebula Capsule has an unusual design, looking more like a Coke can than a conventional projector, and is ideal for popping into a bag for client meetings. It can connect to your laptop using the regular HDMI connection or Micro USB, though sadly it lacks the Wi-Fi connectivity of the Epson projector above. It uses a rechargeable Li-ion battery rather than a mains power supply, so you won't need to hunt around for a power outlet when setting it up, but this does have drawbacks: its resolution is just 854x480 and it’s rated at only 500 lumens. If portability is your main priority though, it's well worth considering. The LG Minibeam PH550G has a more conventional design than Anker’s Nebula Capsule, but is still tiny and comes with a smart case that means it's equally portable. Setup takes a matter of seconds, with no cables at all thanks to the Minibeam's built-in rechargeable battery (rated for two and a half hours), Bluetooth sound and screen mirroring from a phone, tablet or laptop. You can also present work directly from a USB stick, or use the conventional HDMI input. The choice is yours. Like the Nebula Capsule, its resolution is low at just 720p and it doesn’t produce the richest colours, but that’s the price of portability (for now). Read more: The best mechanical keyboards in 2019 The best trackpads in 2019 The best USB-C monitors in 2019: charge your laptop too View the full article

The group is using the More_eggs JScript backdoor to anchor its attack. View the full article

Invites to Apple's next major launch event, which will see the unveiling of the iPhone 11, have recently been distributed. Save 10 September in your diaries Apple fans, because this is the date of the special event, which will take place at The Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino. But rather than everyone focussing their attention on what might be on the cards for the shiny new iPhone 11, it's the event invite that's got everyone talking. An (obviously) minimal design, the invitation design simple features a beautiful new colourful version of the iconic Apple logo and a witty one-liner reading "by innovation only". There have been rumours that Apple might bring back its rainbow logo, so is this a tease of an imminent redesign? (We can't help but hope so!) Twitter is rife with speculation, with some suggesting the new logo design features the different colours the iPhone 11 will be available in. Whatever it means, given that the iPhone is already a popular tool with creatives – it's a regular in our best camera phones round-up – the unveiling of a shiny new version promises to be an exciting event. Will you be there? As for the iPhone 11, this is expected to arrive in three flavours. These will likely be the standard iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max. We've already got an idea what the iPhone 11 could look like, but how about its technical capabilities? According to Tech Crunch, these models are rumoured to feature a triple camera array with an ultra-wide lens. Could this supersede the iPhone XS camera? The iPhone 11 is also suggested to boast a new A13 chip, and wireless power sharing. The invite comes days after Microsoft sent press invites for its Surface event. And just like the Apple invite, it featured a unique logo that excited interest with the press. We'll have to wait until 2 October to see if Microsoft launches a dual-screen Surface device though. Related articles: The 100 greatest Apple creations It cost 50K to digitise: 5 surprising Apple logo facts The 10 most beautiful Apple products (and the 5 ugliest) View the full article

Google is looking to battle the malicious apps - and apps abusing user data - on Google Play by improving its bug-bounty program arsenal. View the full article

Earlier this month, we jetted off to New York to watch the culmination of Wix Design Playground. If you’re not familiar with it, this three-month programme sees lucky participants tasked with creating a non-profit site, developing an online marketing campaign, and building their own portfolio. In other words, it’s a fantastic way for budding designers to expand their design skill set, get familiar with web design tools, and kick-start their careers. Now in its second year, the Wix Design Playground continues to deliver. During the programme’s final presentation, we saw how multidisciplinary designers had worked together to revolutionise the websites of non-profit organisations. This inspiring demonstration was the result of months of workshops, and sessions taught by industry-leading designers. Seeing the finished sites, and the looks of amazement on the faces of the website owners, was a proud moment for all involved. We already spoke to Wix head of design and branding, Hagit Kaufman, to hear about how the company is helping designers and clients to create better sites. But what about the designers themselves? What have they got out of the Design Playground? We caught up with creators from this year’s programme, as well as the inaugural course, to hear how it aided their development. 01. Participants learn how to tell a story Mentors helped Trisnadi to refine the photographic assets of the HERoines,inc. site One of the fundamental things to keep in mind when creating a brand is its story. And nowhere is this more true than when it comes to non-profits. A story is a way to put a company’s values front and centre, which was one of the biggest realisations for Wix Design Playground 2019 student Valerie Trisnadi. “It was important not to focus on just the aesthetics of the website, like making it look nice or just cleaner,” explains Trisnadi, who worked with Qiuyu Guo to reimagine Jolaubi Osho’s organisation, HERoines,inc.. “Portraying the values of the site was something huge. It was fundamental to making sure that its message would get across, and that would lead to getting more membership for the organisation.” 02. Creators are paired to promote growth By working with other designers, creators are able to share their skills and learn something new. This is because they are carefully paired so that everyone is in a position to be exposed to new techniques. Take illustrator and designer Kristina Filler, who took part in the 2018 Wix Design Playground to design the ARTE website. “The Wix team did a really good job of pairing artists together,” she reveals. “I have very strong illustration skills and client relations skills, but I don't have very strong typographic skills. So they paired me with typographers who were really great at developing the structure of the website, and I interspersed some illustrations into it.” 03. Designers are encouraged to play Filler and her team created a fresh and powerful colour scheme for ARTE This mingling of skills and personalities means that the Wix Design Playground lives up to its name. “The whole theme of the programme was to encourage play,” adds Filler, who tends to usually work with small teams. While this allows her to have a hand in all parts of the process, it comes at a cost. “The downside is that you don't have a big budget to mess around and experiment,” she says. “And if you do that, it's kind of on your own time.” With the Design Playground though, she had more opportunities to try out new tools and approaches. “It reminded me of the value of that, and how I need to do more of it.” 04. It reinforces the value of design One recurring theme at the Design Playground presentation was that non-profits can overlook the importance of good design. However this programme does an amazing job of demonstrating how valuable it is, and why non-profits and other businesses should invest in design. “A lot of companies undermine the importance of design,” says Trisnadi. “For them, as long as there’s a logo and some information, they’re good. They don’t realise how visuals can impact a person and make them reach out or donate. And if there’s no interest, that pro-activism won’t continue. And that’s what design does, and organisations can undermine that.” 05. The course isn't the end Wix Design Playground is an invaluable networking opportunity Graduating can be a scary moment, suddenly you find yourself adrift in the ‘real world’. This isn’t the case for the Design Playground attendees though. “It didn’t end when the Playground ended,” says Filler, “I really feel like they are genuinely interested in seeing us grow.” It’s more than Wix just wanting to create something that reflects well on them, too. For Filler, the connections that she made at the Design Playground resulted in the sponsorship of her social good and feminist podcast, Women Crush Weekly. If you want to get involved with the Wix Design Playground 2020, click here to be taken to the application page. Good luck! Related articles: Who are the unsung heroes of web design? 8 steps to inclusive web design The hottest web design trends of 2019 View the full article

It’s coming up to five years since Affinity Designer launched Serif’s brand new graphics suite. The vector drawing app was joined in 2015 by Affinity Photo, and this year by Affinity Publisher. Now in version 1.7, Affinity Designer remains one of very few rivals to the 32-year-old Adobe Illustrator. And, as a £48.99 purchase for Windows or Mac, costs less to buy outright than three months of a Creative Cloud single-app subscription. Affinity Designer's attractions are enhanced by a surprisingly complete iPad edition (see our Affinity Designer for iPad review), and the ability to roundtrip Designer documents to Affinity Photo or edit them directly within page layouts in Affinity Publisher. Adobe’s apps, with their diverse histories, can’t match this integration. But just how good is Affinity Designer as a drawing app, and is anything still missing? Read on for our verdict. Affinity Designer 1.7 review: Multiple fills and strokes You can now apply multiple strokes and fills to each object, with their own stacking order and blending modes Anyone who draws complex artwork will habitually duplicate objects to build up effects. It’s the oldest workaround in the book, but makes editing the shape later impractical. Why can’t you just apply multiple strokes and fills to the same path? Well, with the 1.7 update, you can. Fills and strokes for an object are listed in the Appearance panel, where you can re-order them and change their blending modes (Multiply, Overlay and so on). You can’t add fills or strokes to more than one object at once, or to live text, and the feature is isolated from the Layers panel with its effects and styles, but it’s a good start. Affinity Designer 1.7 review: The Isometric panel The Isometric panel builds on Designer’s comprehensive grid and smart snapping options Designer has excellent grids, guides and smart snapping, further improved in this update with edge and centre alignment, and the new Isometric panel builds on these to help you draw axonometrics. Grid options include more exotic projections as well as the all-important choice of traditional 30° isometric or a pixel-friendly 26.565°, described here as 2:1. (A decade ago, I proposed ‘tetarto-orthometric’ as a term for this projection. It didn’t catch on, but feel free to throw it into conversation.) Click Edit in plane, and you can flick between Front, Side and Top to skew objects to the grid as you draw them. Combined with Snap to Grid, this makes it quick to construct pseudo-3D scenes. Some 3D primitives and intersections would be a welcome addition. Affinity Designer 1.7 review: Brush tools Designer’s vector brushes respond to stylus input and can also be fully edited and reapplied to strokes For more expressive artwork, Affinity Designer is no Corel Painter, but includes a variety of vector brushes. Once you get used to the way strokes wriggle as you paint, there’s a lot of power in being able to select previous strokes, tweak them and apply different brushes. A graphics tablet or the iPad version (with Apple Pencil) is best here, but the ability to use velocity as a proxy for pressure, or even manually edit the pressure graph for a stroke, enables gestural results with any input method, and stabiliser options flatter your drawing skills. (For more iPad apps that work with Apple pencil, see our best iPad Pro apps post.) Affinity Designer’s Pixel persona includes a whole other set of bitmap brushes as well as basic retouch tools. Complemented by the option to add raster noise (grain) to fills and effects, this makes it easy to ‘dirty up’ vector artwork, which can sometimes look antiseptic. Affinity Designer 1.7 review: Performance and usability Designer’s core tools will feel familiar to anyone with vector experience, and drawing is responsive Speed has always been a strong point of Affinity – unencumbered by legacy code – and the 1.7 update brings more optimisations, especially for Apple’s latest Metal API, although the Windows version gains too. Even on less capable hardware, Designer suffers nothing worse than slightly choppy redraw when you get ambitious with its combination of vector and pixel tools. Zooming in and out is refreshingly immediate. Affinity Designer hasn’t always been free of small glitches, but we saw few issues during testing, and if it does crash, open documents are automatically recovered. Other new features in Affinity Designer 1.7 include: Arrowheads for strokes Bézier drawing aids including ‘rubber band’ preview More options for path transformations Transform multiple selected objects individually Column guides for text and other objects What’s missing from Affinity Designer 1.7? Gradient fills are extensively customisable, but Illustrator’s object blends and mesh options are missed With a full set of vector tools and effects, multiple artboards per document, decent typesetting and the raster features too, all underpinned by prepress-ready colour management, Affinity Designer feels pretty complete. There are gaps, though. While rival indie vector app Sketch supports a plugin architecture that’s seen it widely integrated into workflows, Affinity Designer has none, which also limits its appeal for jobs like cutter output. There’s no scripting or any data-driven tools to compare with Illustrator’s graphing. Nor is animation supported, although you could onion-skin in layers and extract frames as slices for assembly in a motion graphics app using the Export persona, which also facilitates batch asset generation. In Illustrator CC, complex shading is achieved using either mesh gradients or object blends, which tween one shape to another. Affinity Designer currently offers neither of these, nor object warping. How good is Affinity Designer 1.7? It’s hard to overstate what Serif has achieved with the Affinity suite, and Affinity Designer stands out in a sector that still has little competition. Yes, there are other alternatives to Illustrator and its subscription pricing, notably Inkscape, Sketch and CorelDRAW. But Inkscape’s open source scaffolding is the antithesis of Designer’s elegant code and UI; Sketch, though popular in digital, is a less comprehensive drawing app exclusive to the Mac; and the expensive, sprawling CorelDRAW is, well, an acquired taste. For more on an array of software options, see our digital art software post. For general users, Designer is a vector app that’s no more daunting than others, very affordable and hard to grow out of. Pros can have confidence in the Affinity brand, but it would be good to see some attention to Affinity Designer’s remaining limitations. Read more: The best iPad apps for designers View the full article

Ever wondered how a McDonald's Egg McMuffin is made? To help answer this burning question, and promote its popular breakfast sandwich, McDonald's worked with its advertising partner TBWA\Paris and 3D animator Matthieu Braccini to produce a series of 15 oddly satisfying animated GIFs. And it's one of the most addictive pieces of 3D art we've seen. In the GIFs, which have now been compiled into a supercut (below), we see how the core ingredients of an Egg McMuffin are prepared in a surreal production line. Watch as dozens of muffins roll themselves into toasters, an infinite block of bacon gets peeled, and endless cheese slices get fanned into place. While this isn't an accurate look at how Egg McMuffins are made (we assume), the supercut's vibrant colours and whacky assembly line make for a bizarrely hypnotic viewing experience. It's also won over the judges at Cannes Lions, who awarded it a Bronze Lion. This isn't the first time McDonald's has transformed its food in bizarre ways as part of a promotion. Earlier this year, French fries became a wayfinding tool in a series of beautifully minimalist posters. To take a look at how Braccini created his GIFs, head on over to his Behance page for a more detailed breakdown. You'll also find GIFs from the supercut that loop endlessly, which are sure to make you peckish. Related articles: McDonald's McFails with accidentally smutty cups McDonald's coffee chain gets a (very) subtle makeover World's smallest McDonald's opens for bees – and it's amazing! View the full article

Beyond session times and bounce rates, the core purpose of user interface design is to make things as effortless and enjoyable as possible for the user. And like most areas of design, having the right tools can help (see our list of web design tools). If you're looking to break into the world of UI, then take a look at our design jobs board to see what opportunities are out there. For now, though, here are 21 UI design tips and tricks based on 10 years of experience in the field. 01. Know who you're designing for Tasks like user research, wireframing, testing and information architecture design are often seen as the responsibility of a UX designer, but we’re starting to see a growing blend of the UX/UI designer role emerging. According to Invision, “66% of UX designer job postings request UI skills” , so if it has become important for UX designers to understand visual design, branding and typography, it’s only right that UI designers should get involved, or at least have a base understanding of the aforementioned UX skills. A UI designer who gets involved in the creation of, or at minimum, pays heed to, the personas, wireframes and information architecture developed in the UX workstream, will make interaction, colour and type choices that are influenced by the people using the product or service, rather than their own stylistic preferences. By taking the time to understand the users they are designing for, UI designers will create interfaces that are more likely to suit users’ needs, both visually and functionally. 02. Overcome choice paralysis Reducing the top level options in the Nike mega menu will help limit choice paralysis for users Mark Zuckerberg has a pretty simple wardrobe; it’s all grey t-shirts. In his own words: “I really want to clear my life to make it so that I have to make as few decisions as possible”. This principle maps across to interface design, as providing users with too many options makes them overwhelmed, causes them to over-analyse, and ultimately makes them less likely to complete an action or process. Where possible, we should limit the options available, or alternatively hide the options that are less relevant at that stage in the journey. 02. Help direct with default states Skyscanner opt for default states allow users to customise options Our default states can do more than just ask users to 'please select'. Websites like Skyscanner find the closest departure airport to the user, suggest dates that correlate to upcoming holidays, and preselect the amount of passengers flying. Designing default states based on what is commonly chosen reduces the amount of effort required by users, allowing them to customise preselected options. 03. Prompt action with empty states Tidal’s empty states prompt discovery of music you may have never heard before Unfilled baskets, uninhabited playlists and default search interfaces can often leave users with a sense of emptiness. Take heed from Tidal, who direct users that “don’t have any albums” towards their top recommendations. Rather than creating dead-ends within our interfaces, we should use empty states as an opportunity for discovery of new features and functions that will be of benefit to our users. 04. Fail flatteringly with error states Kitchen Stories error states apologise for not finding what the user wants In the realm of digital, things sometimes go wrong, and not designing for this can lead to the user feeling disgruntled. As UI designers, create error states that encourage positive action and sentiment rather than throwing unintelligible messages. The Kitchen Stories app handles this brilliantly, apologising when they return a blank result for a kitchen recipe, and providing a call to action that allows users to submit new requests. See our favourite 404 pages for more examples. 05. Break choices down Apple break down the process of choosing an iPhone into clear and concise steps As well as limiting and grouping choices, we can make them less complex by breaking them down into processes. One can imagine that Apple’s back end inventory of iPhone XRs is a big matrix list of hundreds of products with a variety of colours, sizes and networks. But to the user selecting a new Apple iPhone XR via its website, a simple step-by-step interface allows them to narrow down their options one selection at a time. If we are presenting a lot of configuration options, the interface should do the heavy lifting rather than the user. 06. Reduce resistance Slack’s interface does the hard work, rather than the user The interfaces we design should make it as easy as possible for users to complete the tasks within them. When signing into their mobile app, Slack leans on a 'magic' verification link that gets sent to the user’s email address to beautifully skip the odious task of remembering and typing out their complicated password. Putting the burden on the interface, rather than the user, makes them far less resistant to get to the end of any process within your website or application. If we have the technology available to speed up the interactions within our interfaces, we should design with this in mind. 07. Take only what you need Allow users to sign up with minimal information, and let them add once on board To create a path of least resistance, we should ask the user for as little information as possible at any given stage within our interfaces. The less data a user has to input, the more likely they are to complete an exercise. Sites like LinkedIn ask for the bare minimum data (First name, Last name, Email and Password) when signing up to their platform, then gamify the profile creation process by letting them fill out one piece of personal information at a time once they’re onboarded. There’s no way anyone would sign up to LinkedIn if they had to input their entire professional history just to get through the door. 08. Give a sense of progression Pinterest show progress towards the end goal of signing up with a simple visual indicator There are some instances where lengthy forms and processes are a necessity. For example, many financial applications require extensive data input and time to complete. When signing up to the Pinterest app, there is an indicator within the interface to show what step (of 4) the user is at in the journey, providing assurance that they are making progress towards their end goal. This sense of momentum makes users less likely to become frustrated about not knowing when a process will end, and therefore less likely to abandon it altogether. 09. Pay heed to conventions As UI designers, we naturally want to push our creative juices to the limit, and devise new and exciting ways for users to interact with and experience our digital products. That said, we need to strike a balance between originality and familiarity in order to ensure that our users don’t have to spend too much time learning how to use our interfaces. Apps like Snapchat – which got a new logo lately – have alienated many older users with radical navigation options, so much so that the New York Times wrote a guide to Snapchat for people who don’t get Snapchat. Given that “you can swipe in every direction and even pinch in and out to access different screens” (see more on Medium), there is an amount of time that needs to be invested in order to learn the interactions before you can effectively use the application. Younger users have embraced the discoverability of Snapchat, but adults who understand the conventions of tapping and clicking as means of navigation have adopted the app in fewer numbers. As the web has grown, a number of conventions for element positioning (like baskets in the top right and hamburger menus in the top left) have emerged and should be considered. Our interfaces should excite and delight users, but should also be predictable enough to use if we want to keep up conversions and limit bounce rates. 10. Provide visual feedback Timely feedback from Google’s Snackbars Feedback is a gift, and should be treated as such within our interface designs. Google’s Snackbars are a smart little micro-interaction that live in its Material Design system. Snackbars appear temporarily on the screen of an app or website interface to provide brief contextual instructions, errors or acknowledgements that keep the user informed of any consequences of the actions they have taken, be it saving a photo, sending an email or prompting a 'retry' when the app has an error. As UI designers, we should provide visual feedback for each of the key interactions within our interfaces. If an item has been added to the user’s basket, let them know. If their payment has gone through successfully, inform them with a thank you message and direct them where to go if they have any queries about delivery or returns. Visual cues and animations can help users to acknowledge the completion of tasks, big and small, within your website or application, giving a sense of accomplishment and helping to reduce anxiety by acknowledging that an action has been taken. 11. Utilise user-generated content People buy based on what other people say, not just the whimsical copywriting from brands. It’s the reason why so many ecommerce sites make a big thing of customer reviews. Sunglasses brand Meller increased its conversion rate by 13% by featuring images of enjoying their products on their product pages, alongside the more traditional ecommerce photo gallery. If you have user-generated content (UGC) available for the brand or company you're designing for, weaving it into the pages of our website or application UI can help increase conversions, especially if the audience are millennials. 12. Treat users as advocates GoPro’s homepage hero uses video shot by its users to demonstrate the power of the product Delighting users with products and services is one thing, but they can also be our advocates, or even form part of our marketing team. GoPro’s main hero video on its homepage features footage shot entirely by customers who have used its HERO7 camera (see the best GoPro deals to get your own GoPro). Using film shot by users of the product demonstrates the capabilities of the camera to prospective buyers in a relatable context, and also rewards the 25,000 people who submitted their videos with a bit of exposure to the GoPro community. If we have a loyal audience, there are myriad ways we can utilise their voices and content, so this should be factored in when designing our next interface. 13. Use imagery to guide users Line of vision prompting email sign up vs models looking off into the distance Beautiful imagery has the power to enhance an interface visually, but can also be used to direct attention to specific places within a page or screen. If an image contains a person, users subconsciously follow that person’s line of vision, providing UI designers with an opportunity to subtly direct them towards calls to action or useful information. The Sunglasses Hut website utilises this concept in its website footer, with the eye line of two people pointing users towards their email sign up. If you flip the image horizontally, they’re just models staring off into the distance. 14. Use negative space in clever ways There's plenty of room to breathe on the Dropbox Business site It’s a common mistake for UI designers to want to cram as much information as possible into each and every interface, but this can lead to visual overload, and will ultimately overwhelm users whose attention is being drawn to too many different areas on a page or screen. The Dropbox Business landing page uses negative space to great effect, giving each and every element enough room to breathe, whilst providing a concise overview of the product’s benefits. Strategically maximising the space around key information and calls to action will draw users towards them, without other elements fighting for their attention. 15. Start with mobile Given that in 2018, 52.2 percent of all website traffic worldwide was generated through mobile phones, it’s ever more important to craft digital interfaces that are optimised for users of the mobile web. The desktop view has often been the canvas of choice for UI designers, starting with video-led banners and interactions like rollovers and hovers, then having to strip these out or devise workarounds as we scale these down to mobile. As an alternative, designing the mobile view first forces us to strip out all of the unnecessary noise and focus on the elements that are crucial for users to perform the tasks within the interface. Scaling up allows us to add enhancements to the desktop view, adding features that are more suited to that experience once we have the key components in place. 16. Get the right type licence There’s nothing worse than polishing off a beautiful interface, preparing the assets for the development team, then realising that our font choices come with a whacking great licensing fee – or even worse, aren’t optimised for web. There are a number of different types of font licence, some of which charge per user, some per time used, and others that charge a one-off fee. Branding agency Blue Egg give a great breakdown of this. When making font choices, it’s vital that we consider the financial implications that will result, as well as the capability of the font to render on the web. If budgets are tight, open source solutions like Google Fonts offer hundreds of fonts that are free to use. Also see the best free fonts for designers. 17. Write your interfaces When we strip back an interface down to the bare bones, remove the colours, fonts, images and animations, we’re ultimately left with one thing; copy. It’s tempting to jump straight to the visual aspect of interface design, dropping in lorem ipsum and placeholder text, but taking the time to write out our interfaces first can enable us to better develop the overall tone and reflect on the messages and stories we’re verbally communicating to our audiences. We can really understand the flow of our pages when we read the copy in isolation, giving us the opportunity to accompany our words with visual assets that truly support and enforce the core of what we’re trying to say. 18. Onboard as appropriate DuoLingo's app has a neat onboarding process Onboarding is “the process of increasing the likelihood that new users become successful when adopting your product,” according to UserOnboard, and as UI designers we play a key role in deciding how best to introduce our digital products and services to those users. Language learning app Duolingo utilises an onboarding flow that drops users straight into the task-based interface, allowing them to familiarise themselves with the product’s features and sample how it works, all before prompting sign up. The user has the chance to test the product before committing to creating an account. When our interfaces contain unavoidable, complicated or unfamiliar interactions, we need to teach people how to use them, whether this is done through slideshows, explanatory videos or tutorial overlays. Giving users a sample of 'how it works' as part of the onboarding or introduction will result in less confusion once they are fully immersed within the experience, and encourage adoption from those who see value in the offering up front. 19. Involve your developers As the people who will end up building our designs, it pays to involve our developers at the earliest stage possible in a project. Designers create the things that users see, but developers enhance the experience of the interface by maximising performance, speeding up page load times and optimising what happens under the hood. Involving developers continuously throughout the design process allows them to have input into the way the interface behaves beyond the visual aspect, giving them a chance to offer more input as to how tech like the Slack magic link can be utilised to make our interfaces as effortless to use as possible. 20. Utilise a design system IBM’s comprehensive Carbon Design System Ensuring consistency across our website or application interfaces can be something of a mission when multiple designers are involved, and we can often end up with countless variations of the same UI components, meaning replicated work across the project as a whole. According to InVision, a design system is “a collection of reusable components, guided by clear standards, that can be assembled together to build any number of applications”. IBM’s Carbon Design System for example, provides a comprehensive repository of assets, code snippets and documentation for both designers and developers to access when working on UI projects, ensuring that the design team can work faster and smarter with one another. Some manner of design system, or at minimum a pattern library with all of the UI components within a specific project, should be utilised to make our interfaces consistent, assets reusable and maintenance easier. 21. Clean up design files Love it or hate it, some designers just work messy, and while this makes sense during the creative process, it can be frustrating to pick up a design file for the first time and discover that we need to invest a considerable amount of time working out which layer each element lives on. Monzo has found that “from the first .sketch file we created at Monzo, we’ve taken care to organise our design files very neatly. And as we’ve grown from a single designer to a team of 13, maintaining a sensible design environment has really paid off.” Taking the time to clean up our design files by naming our layers, artboards and folders will make it much easier for any designer (including our future selves) to pick up and work on. Your developers will thank you too! This article was originally published in issue 288 of Web Designer. Buy issue 288 or subscribe here. Read more: The best code editors 12 magically meticulous style guides 9 great UI designs View the full article

We were as surprised as anyone to learn this morning about the launch of a brand new apple logo and visual identity, especially one that's a radical departure from the previous version. But that's just what's been announced by the U.S. Apple Association this week, and this minimal redesign has left a pretty sweet taste in our mouths. The U.S. Apple Association represents America's apple growers, apple associations and apple-related companies, and its previous logo design was a strong piece of work – a stylised red-and-green apple with stars-and-stripes detailing – but was looking a little dated. Where to find logo design inspiration USApple's new logo is bold, minimal and forward-looking The new visual identity is the work of branding agency Mekanic, and features an abstract and minimal design; it's still red and green, albeit in much brighter, more saturated shades than the old logo's autumnal tones, and it's still clearly an apple, but it's drawn with just a pair of bold, curved and weighty strokes. USApple explains that the new logo evokes the idea of seasonality, cycles and new growth, and also points out that the leaf and stem point forward, representing the association's commitment to advancing the industry through advocacy and leadership. Getting to this new logo design has been a fairly long process for both USApple and Mekanic. USApple's director of communications, Tracy Gondine, says that the process, and Mekanic's vision for the brand, has been informed by two years of discovery work, including interviews with growers, suppliers, leadership and Young Apple Leaders. The old USApple logo had a distinctly autumnal look to it The result of all this work is a logo that really gets to the core of the association and provides it with an exciting new visual direction. And while a radical new design such as this is normally the sort of thing that provokes howls of outrage online, so far we haven't seem any adverse reaction to this at all, which is an encouraging sign. Alongside the new logo and visual identity, USApple is also working on updating its website in order to provide better functionality and the most informative user experience, as well as following current best practices. The new USApple site will be unveiled within the next few weeks. Related articles: 8 of the best free logo design tools 5 logo design fails (and what you can learn from them) 18 controversial moments in logo design and branding View the full article

If you want your website to be on-trend, bringing in some illustration is the perfect way to keep things looking bang up-to-date. It pays to do things properly, though, and to remember that illustration's more than just decoration. Adding some flat cartoon figures might make your website layout look nice, but it'll also make your site look the same as about a million others out there; for a site that stands out you'll need to go the extra mile. The best use of illustration online can be seen when the designers have clearly put a lot of thought into how it can work with – and even enhance – the site's content or a brand's message. Here are six recent examples that have wowed us with their effective use of illustration. The hottest web design trends of 2019 01. Otis Studios This 3D illustration looks amazing in the browser Otis Studios makes music – for adverts, films, games and dance floors – and also specialises in sound design. The studio prides itself on writing, recording and re-recording until everybody's stoked, and its passion for music and sound comes across in the very first thing you see when you hit its site. Created by Feral, it opens with an illustrated splash screen stating in rough brush strokes that OTIS MAKES MUSIC, accompanied by scratchy ink sketches of music gear that we're not going to even attempt to name. The real kicker is how the elements in the composition are arranged in 3D and move in response to the mouse, bringing the page to life and making it near-impossible not to scroll down to find out more. 02. The Food Dispensary The mix of visual assets works really well here Canberra's Food Dispensary produces a tiny range of ready-made meals that are a cut above the rest. It describes itself as a kitchen of real people working with real ingredients, and goes to great pains to point out that everything it produces is handmade, from its pasta to its ricotta and pancetta. The Food Dispensary's site, built by Swell, reflects that handmade ethos; a swish parallax site peppered with mouth-watering photography, it's grounded with simple pencil sketches of ingredients on a background reminiscent of rough, recycled paper. The restrained use of illustration provides a feel of tradition and authenticity, all wrapped up in a thoroughly modern site. 03. USELESS This site will make you think about all the disposable plastic you use Judicious use of illustration can really help get your message across quickly, and USELESS, built by Nice and Serious, does an excellent job in that regard. It uses illustration to highlight the problem of single-use plastic, opening with a torrent of plastic cups, bottles and carrier bags that pile up at the bottom of the page (and that you can try to shift with your cursor), accompanied by horrifying stats on the amount of disposable plastic thrown away in the UK every year. Got the idea? Great, because USELESS has a map of London's zero-waste shops, as well as a guide to cutting down on your daily waste, with plenty more illustrations to show you the way. 04. A Map of Myth, Legend & Folklore Why use a Google map if you can commission a fine artist? In an online world where it's all too easy to just bang in a boring Google map, we love this beautiful illustrated map of myth, legend and folklore from English Heritage. It's an engrossing guide to some of England's historic sites and the fascinating stories behind them, showcasing a small sample of the 400 sites in English Heritage's care, and also featuring local myths and legends as well as upcoming events across the country. The map was illustrated by fine artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins, and the whole site was put together by Gravitywell. 05. Sparky Here the illustrations really help get the message across Sparky is a marketing agency that promises to provide a fresh set of eyes for powerful brands to help them maximise moments, elevate experiences and ignite innovation, and its new site by Angle2 uses illustration to really drive that point home. The opening page is scattered with pairs of adorable cartoon eyes in various styles that animate when you mouse over them; a neat gimmick that doesn't feel forced, and which should encourage visitors to scroll down and discover how Sparky can help their brands. 06. Finding ctrl: Commissioned illustrations mix with particle shapes on this thoughtful site With the World Wide Web having celebrated its 30th birthday in March, and the internet itself coming up for its 50th in October, Nesta has put together Finding ctrl:, an 'online visions' book for the European Commission's Next Generation Internet initiative. It's a collection of essays, short stories, poetry and artworks from over 30 contributors, addressing the questions of where did we come from, and where do we go next? It's a weighty subject, and it's made more inviting thanks to a site built by ToyFight that brings in illustrations and particle-based 3D objects to set the tone for each article and provide visual interest. Related articles: 2019's rising stars of illustration How to tell a story with your illustrations 2019's illustration trends to know about View the full article