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News of a new iPad Pro 2020 for will come as welcome news to many artists and designers looking to add the powerful tablet to their arsenal. Despite giving many of its core products annual updates, 2019 saw Apple surprisingly overlook the iPad Pro. Rumours suggest this won't happen again this year, and so we're looking forward to seeing what Apple has up its sleeve with its iPad Pro for 2020. So what do we know about a potential new iPad Pro? One thing we know for sure is whatever its new features and specs, there will be some great iPad Pro apps for designers, artists and illustrators to work with. Here we take a look at the leaks and rumours that have started trickling in on the new iPad Pro 2020. iPad Pro 2020: release date and price Late last year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman suggested the release date would be early 2020, which is interesting when you consider Apple usually unveils new tech at its annual October event. Does this mean that Apple skipped a 2019 iPad Pro launch with the intent of releasing two in 2020? Only time will tell. There's no current news on the price of the new device, however with over a year between updates, we expect this iPad Pro refresh to be significant, in terms of both cost and capability. iPad Pro 2020: design rumours In the middle of 2019, Apple registered another two tablet models with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) regulator. And both of these new models didn't match any models that aren't in the current line-up, which has led to a number of iPad Pro 2020 rumours. One of the most reliable ones, however, comes Sonny Dickson (below). The pictured posted is believed to be the back of a dummy iPad Pro 2020 unit, on which there are three cameras. Being that the current iPad Pro only has one rear camera, it hints that Apple has put the devices photo-taking abilities at the forefront of its focus. iPad Pro 2020: what we'd like to see While we wait for official confirmation from Apple, we can only speculate what the new iPad Pro 2020 will actually offer. However there's no doubt that the new iPad Pro will be a top-end, power-packed tablet. The current 12.9-inch model boasts a very powerful A12X Bionic processor, so expect even more processing power for demanding creative tasks like photo or video editing. Our biggest wish for the iPad Pro 2020 would be a bigger screen. Maybe as there is no MacBook Pro 15" anymore, how about an iPad Pro 15" to fill the gap? The extra space would be perfect for designers, illustrators and artists to express themselves with an Apple Pencil. We'll update this post as and when more news drops on the new iPad Pro 2020. But if you can't wait that long to get your hands on one of these powerful devices, you can currently get some great deals on the 2018 iPad Pro models. Here are the best prices in your area: iPad Pro 12.9 review Photoshop on the iPad is finally here 20 best drawing apps for iPad View the full article

Veganuary is now officially a thing, and Italian/American restaurant chain Frankie & Benny's is trying to get in on the action with its vegan menus. Its campaign ad spot sees Meat Loaf's new manager trying to convince him to change his name to Veg Loaf. He's not impressed. In an increasingly ridiculous bid to get Meat Loaf to agree, his team try to lure him in with food such as the Viva La Vegan burger and the No Cheese Cheesecake. Meat Loaf becomes increasingly irate. It's worth watching till the end (see video below) for the inevitable line about what Meat Loaf will and won't do. For comedy value, we think it's up there with some of the best print ads around. The campaign was created by new agency Idea Farm and Lucky Generals, and is based on an actual pitch. "Funnily enough, our new video isn't far off the original real-life pitch to Meat," says Elise Ash, director of strategy and brand at Frankie & Benny's. "While we couldn't convince him to rebrand to Veg Loaf, we're delighted he's the headline act for our new vegan menu to help spread the word on the benefits of tucking into our meat-free dishes." Meat Loaf has apparently agreed to go plant-based for Veganuary. It was just the name-change thing he didn't want to do. We think this is a clever piece of advertising. With more and more outfits trying to break into the vegan or veggie market, Frankie & Benny's has shown how laughing at yourself is sometimes the way to go. Of course, getting a big name to sign up helps, and one with a meat or veg-based name is even better. Might Halle Berry or Kevin Bacon be next? Read more: Creative agency spends $10,000 on blank ads New ads lead people to imaginary Burger Kings 2020 letterpress calendar is the most beautiful thing you'll see all day View the full article

The aviation industry is a giant industry with millions of passengers booking flights to journey from one part of the globe to another. With over 100,000 flights taking off and landing every day, it is evident that the industry runs …View the full article

That annoying switcheroo between tablet screen and keyboard may not be the most dramatic issue you're facing today, but it's certainly irritating enough to interrupt your workflow. A Korean designer has recognised the issue and created a nifty bit of kit to solve the problem. Enter: the SLIDE keyboard. Sometimes it feels as if you need a desk the size of a table tennis table to fit everything onto it, and shifting around between the tablet screen and the keyboard doesn't help. This keyboard design integrates the two pieces of tech. Why have two products on your desk, when you could only have one? Park's mood board, highlighting how desk space comes at a premium Conceived by industrial design student Cheolsu Park in a project for Chung-ang University’s Aura Design Lab, the design incorporates a tablet within the base of a keyboard. You can see his project detailed on his Behance page, which includes an impressive mood board detailing his process (see our mood board post on how to make your own). "SLIDE is a combination of tablet and keyboard," explains Park. "I designed this product to relieve the inconvenience of using tablet and keyboard at the same time. "Having two products on your desk at the same time takes up a lot of space on your desk, and when you need to use only your keyboard, you need to put the tablet aside," Park continues. "However, with SLIDE, you can use the tablet simply by pushing it up. Once you've used the tablet, you can simply get it down and it's back in the form of the keyboard." The SLIDE's base is weighted, to ensure ideal weight distribution when the keyboard is extended, and the keyboard also locks into place so that it doesn't spring out of place when in use. There are handy buttons at the side of the keyboard to block the slide. Park has also created sleek tablet pens to match the keyboard. The SLIDE keyboard and stylus Park has been working on other problem-solving products, too. These include a smart suitcase for blind people, self-driving and designed to identify surroundings in the same way as a walking stick. We think the keyboard is great bit of design. It looks weighty and professional, and we bet the slide function feels pretty satisfying to operate. This innovation solves a problem in a similar way to this AI website prototype, which attempts to fix our posture. Both creations are courtesy of young designers who were looking for solutions to everyday issues, a great starting point for successful design. Read more: The top design trends for 2020 The best tablet keyboards in 2020 The best keyboards for designers in 2020 View the full article

Having your own small business can be daunting, especially when it comes to the workflow and administrative aspects. As creatives, these tasks are often the last thing we want to deal with at the end of the day. ProjectDue, a complete business suite for small businesses and self-employed entrepreneurs, can be the ticket to getting all your ducks in a row and organising your projects. But there's even better news – for a limited time, you can get this lifetime bundle for just $29.99. Keep your creative team on track If you're looking for a place for your team to connect with seamless communication, this feature will be your knight in shining armour. With an easy to use interface and simple to follow instructions, you'll be able to assign tasks to employees (or yourself) and track the progress of each project as each assignment is added. Advanced time trackers and a Kanban Board logs your complete timeline and clarifies who does what for flawless communication. Get detailed reporting and analytics on your projects, so everyone is on the same page. No more vague duties, your projects will all be recorded and assigned in an easy to follow work chart. Manage your freelance gigs If you are your boss and employee, you'll love the freelancer software features. You'll be able to easily invoice your clients and manage payments all in one spot. Other features include tracking your expenses, creating estimates, and adding notes to invoices in case something changes last minute. With your time tracked and everything in one place, you'll be able to access financial reporting and updates on each project efficiently. Find future potential clients With so many projects in the works and so little time, it may seem daunting trying to organise potential new leads. ProjectDue makes it simple for you to easily track progress made with any lead, as well as every detail about your clients, efficiently keeping your lead follow-ups on course. The software even provides your employees and clients with their dedicated portals, where they can manage all project-related activities. While a lifetime subscription to ProjectDue.co is valued at $900, it is currently only $29.99. Give yourself the gift of making your business workflow a lot easier in 2020 and focus on the things that matter to you and your brand. Read more: 19 ways to streamline your workflow 10 productivity tools you can't be without in 2020 Grow your influence and increase your income View the full article

Have you been itching to acquire the skills needed to become a master photographer? Learn how to take stunning photographs and edit like a pro with The Photography For Beginners Mastery Bundle, a comprehensive look into all things photography. Read on to learn more about some of the captivating master photography courses included in this complete bundle. Get started with the basics We all need to start with the fundamentals to build a foundation for our career. With over 30 hours of training across all five courses, you'll get started with The Ultimate Photography Course For Beginners. This comprehensive course covers everything you need to get started in photography. You'll learn composition techniques to help improve your images, understand fundamental treatments known in the world of photography, a successful workflow for capturing and editing seamless photos, and so much more. Learn the techniques of master photographers As you get more familiar with the elements of photography, you'll move on to courses such as Advanced Creative Photography Skills. You'll gain an understanding of more complex fundamentals, such as learning the science of light and acquiring the necessary composition techniques used in street and city photography. With access to 15 easy-to-follow lectures and content that's available 24/7, you'll be able to come back and visit each lesson whenever you need to. Take your photography to the next level and get guidance on artistic tips and tricks from the pros. Capture fascinating images with any camera Not only will you learn the essentials needed to use any camera, but you will also gain a complete understanding of how you can capture breathtaking images of your own. With a Creative Photography Composition Master Class and The Complete Photography 101 Master Class, you'll master how to use manual mode, gain an understanding of studio settings to create beautiful portraits, master photography’s visual language, and so much more. You'll even learn how to sell your images and grasp how to kick off a photography business of your own. While a lifetime membership to The Photography For Beginners Mastery Bundle is valued at almost $1,000, it is currently price-dropped to only $19.99. With over 200 lessons covering everything photography, it's undoubtedly a great way to get started on shooting and editing impactful images for creative projects of all types. Read more: How to use photography in design Street photography: 11 expert tips How to take perfect portraits View the full article

If you have your own business, you know how competitive the landscape is. The key to standing out is making sure your branding is comprehensive and impactful, and true to your cause. The Personal Branding Bootcamp Bundle brings you everything you need to make your brand thrive in a sometimes oversaturated world. Read on to learn more about some of the helpful courses included in the bundle. Personal branding for creative professionals You've got the beautiful work you've spent so much time creating for your brand – now what? This 16-hour course will teach you the skills you need to successfully build your creative brand and set up an online and offline presence, and so much more. You’ll learn exactly how to make a lasting first impression, create strategies for connecting with the right people in your industry, and how to successfully craft and convey the exact message you want to voice about your work. Dorie Clark, the author of Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future, shows you how to make your brand thrive by giving you the best ways to showcase your creative projects. You'll soon be equipped with the best strategies to display your portfolio, make your work stand out, and so much more. Communicate like a boss Learn to communicate better with this course It's no secret that one of the essential milestones of seamless branding execution and career advancement is having strong communication skills. With lifetime access and nine comprehensive courses, this master class will equip you with the tools you need to communicate while remaining true to yourself and your brand. Dia Bondi, a renowned communications strategist/coach, will help you develop your skills as an effective communicator by showing you how to deliver your message in compelling ways that come from the heart. Improve your skills and finally get the guidance you need to become a great communicator. Become an engaging presenter If you're the type that dreads presenting, this course may be for you. With 15 lectures and plenty of tips and tricks, you'll learn how to improve your presentation skills and start actually (gasp) enjoying the entire process. Andrew Whelan, Late Night with Conan O’Brien performer, accomplished career coach, and small business owner, teaches you the ins and outs of becoming an engaging and magnetic presenter. Whether you need to pitch a new idea, present the latest findings for your business, or need to present a deck on your most recent campaign, you'll be able to refine your process, manage anxiety, and handle the unexpected. Access to the Personal Branding Bootcamp Bundle is valued at over $200. This month only, this bundle is price-dropped to only $19. With all the content available 24/7, you'll be able to effortlessly finesse your branding skills and make your beautiful work stand out and thrive, no matter your industry. Read more: Has branding become boring? Branding quotes: The good, the bad and the ugly The 6 best branding books View the full article

The start of a new year and decade can only mean one thing. Yes, it's time for some new stationery – hurrah! If you've not yet managed to find a 2020 calendar you like the look of, you're in the right place. As calendars go, they don't come better than this stunning letterpress design. The Mr Cup creative manifesto letterpress calendar is the brainchild of Fabian Barral aka Mr Cup. Available in two editions (standard and deluxe), this calendar design is a thing of a beauty. The deluxe version is fully hot oil printed on dark papers, and the standard has a hot oil printed front cover, with each month's design letterpress printed on light papers. There's something so appealing about the tactile nature of letterpress. The design is stunning but more than anything we just want to run our hands over it. A collaborative effort, Barral enlisted the help of 11 graphic designers and typographers to create unique works for each calendar month. An annual project, this year's edition features exclusive designs by Scotty Russell, Srdjan Vidakovic, Nikki Mihalik, Viktor Baltus, Cody Petts, Jason Carne, Reno Orange, Salih Kucukaga, Jef Millotte, Kelsy Stromski and Benjamin Charles. If it's motivation you're after in 2020, having this hung on your wall is sure to help. The combination of quality craftsmanship and printed words of wisdom are guaranteed to inspire you all year round. You can buy both editions of the letterpress calendar via the Mr Cup online shop. Read more: 40 inspiring examples of letterpress business cards The best calendar apps of 2020 10 productivity tools you can't be without in 2020 View the full article

Are there one or two productivity tools that can help you get the routine and boring parts of your job done more quickly, and allow you more time to spend on the creative, imaginative and fun sides? At the dawn of a new year, it's an important question to ask, and if you're honest with yourself, the answer will very probably be yes. Of course, we know it’s a tough ask to spend your hard-earned money on paid-for tools, especially when there are free alternatives available on the web. But think about that phrase "hard-earned". If the best productivity tools make your money easier to earn, aren't they worth the investment... and then some? We recently found some of the best web design tools to help you work smarter in 2020. In this post we round up some of the best productivity tools for creatives, and explain what they do, who they're aimed at, and how they can help you in your creative work. If you’re seeking productivity tools for a creative collaboration, then your first stop should be Trello. Available across web, iOS and Android, it’s a great tool for keeping everything on track, in a delightfully visual and frictionless way. Trello is basically a to-do list that you share with others and update in real time, so everyone on your team knows what’s going on at any given moment. Based on a system of cards, which are essentially like virtual Post-it notes, the system is very flexible and easy to adapt to however your project is structured. It lacks some of the advanced features of a fully featured project management tool, such as time management and reporting. But that said, its beauty lies in its simplicity and we’re not sure we’d want its interface to become too overcomplicated. Trello has been widely adopted across the graphic and web design professions, so your collaborators stand a good chance of being familiar with it already. But if not, it’s very intuitive and easy to use anyhow. Best of all, Trello is free for most purposes, and you’d only need to graduate to the paid-for versions for large-scale enterprise use. Over the last three decades, Apple’s launched a lot of laptops and had as many misses as hits. So we’re pleased to report that its latest offering, the MacBook Pro 16-inch, is a real winner. With a larger screen, double the storage, a higher-resolution display, a better keyboard and generous battery life, it’s an all-round excellent performer that will handle multiple tasks smoothly and efficiently. In short, it's the perfect laptop for busy creative professionals, especially those who do a lot of processor-intensive work like animation and 3D modelling. As ever with Apple, it’s not cheap. But if your current machine crashes and slows down a lot, then consider how much more creative work it might help you get done in a typical day, and how much money you could earn as a result. There's only real downside we could find with this model: it features only four Thunderbolt ports, so for devices with a USB connection you’ll need an adaptor. For full details, read our review of the MacBook Pro 16-inch. The Adobe Creative Cloud is a subscription service providing a full suite of desktop apps, mobile apps and services from Adobe. The best known of these are Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Photoshop Lightroom and Premiere Pro, but there are plenty more you may not have heard of, such as notably Prelude (video logging), Flash Builder (app building) and Story Plus (screenwriting). Note though, each tool needs to be separately downloaded to each Windows or Mac OS device you use it on: despite the ‘Cloud’ name, this is not browser-based software in the Figma or Google Docs sense. Your subscription also gets you access to typefaces via TypeKit; cloud storage for your projects; Adobe Portfolio, a tool for building your portfolio; and stock images, videos and templates with Adobe Stock. While there are some decent alternatives to Photoshop and other Adobe apps these days, there’s quite simply nothing to rival the Creative Cloud ecosystem, and as the industry standard it’s a no-brainer for most professional graphic and web designers, not to mention photographers, digital artists and illustrators, and increasingly, 3D artists and animators. Having to pay a monthly subscription might put you off, but the productivity benefits of having access to the entire CC ecosystem cannot be understated. To take one example, Adobe Stock allows you to find, try out and licence stock images directly within apps like Photoshop, which can save you an awful lot of time and effort. Check out the latest Creative Cloud deals to help you save some money as well. Are you struggling with an old-school stylus that suffers from a lot of lag? Then you'll likely get a huge productivity boost by investing in a newer model, and if you're an iPad user, we'd highly recommend the Apple Pencil for its accuracy, speed and precision. In short, it's the best experience we've had drawing on the IPad, and the closest to using a real pencil on real paper. It looks pretty darned stylish too. There are actually two versions of the Apple Pencil available today: the first generation model, originally released in 2015, and the Apple Pencil 2, released in late 2018. Both offer the same level of performance, but the later version justifies its slightly higher cost because of its nicer feel in the hand, its flat edge (which keeps it from rolling away when put to one side), the ability to double-tap said edge for extra functionality, and the way you can attach it magnetically to the side of an iPad Pro. (For a full rundown of the differences, see our article Apple Pencil vs Apple Pencil 2.) If you've been struggling on a low-powered tablet, then here's some great news. Although Wacom has long led the market in high quality, responsive and powerful drawing tablets, they've also been very expensive... until now, that is. The Cintiq 22 offers a device that's cheaper than similar predecessors, and yet still provides all that a digital artist or graphic designer needs to create high quality, professional work: a large, anti-glare and full HD screen, a capable, pressure-sensitive stylus, a flexible stand to set up the perfect drawing angle, and the reliable performance you'd expect from a Wacom. The main downside of this model is the colour gamut, which at 72 per cent is a little limited, but overall the Cintiq 22 offers outstanding value. Okay, it's still not the cheapest drawing tablet on the market, but for any professional creative it's going to be worth the investment over time, enabling you to work faster and more accurately, and just generally making your work more enjoyable. For more details, check out our Wacom Cintiq 22 review. There are many great apps to keep track of our daily activities, but at the end of the day there's nothing nicer than the feel (and smell) of a new, physical diary. And if you want elegance, style and quality, then there's really nowhere else to go but Moleskine. The Italian notebook brand is beloved by creatives around the world for its superior quality and attention to detail, and this large softcover daily diary is no exception. Featuring a new page for each day, ruled for notes and appointments, it also includes a ribbon bookmark, an elastic closure, and three sheets of organisational stickers. Quite simply, it's a gorgeous piece of design that won't just make you more productive, it will make you want to be more productive. The Surface Pro 7 is a tablet that’s powerful enough to run full Windows 10 programs, while remaining sleek and light. It also doubles up as a laptop with the separately sold keyboard. Using Intel’s latest 10th generation processors, the Pro 7 is a step up from previous models in terms of performance, and the more expensive model does a great job at handling graphic-intensive tasks, such as video rendering. While this device is still no match for the performance of a powerful Windows desktop, it does offer a superbly flexible way to stay up to date on the move, for anyone who needs to run full Windows 10 tools like Photoshop and Illustrator, rather than lower-powered Android or iOS alternatives. Want to do some digital painting while you're away from your desk? Then you need to check out Procreate, a raster graphics editor app for digital painting for iPhone and iPad. Closely replicating the feel of physical drawing in a digital format, it supports a range of styluses, including the Apple Pencil, along with hundreds of high quality brushes and a suite of innovative features. In short, everything you need to create sketches, paintings, illustrations and animations while you're out and about. And if you want to analyse your process and improve it, there's a very handy feature that lets you make recordings of every single brushstroke. Prefer the physical approach to sketching to the digital? Then you'll need a quality set of pencils, and we'd highly recommend these graphite drawing pencils from Derwent. Sold individually and in sets, they make smooth, easy lines on the paper and are ideal for both fine detailed illustrations or adding shading and texture. Crucially, they're also easy to sharpen and break-resistant, helping to smooth and speed your workflow while sketching. If you're a freelancer, then you may find that keeping track of how you spend your hours, and charging for it accordingly, is taking up an unreasonable amount of time and energy. In which case, we'd recommend introducing an element of automation by using Harvest, a time and expense tracker that includes tools for invoicing, expensing and team management. Available for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS and browser, it's easy to use, integrates with many similar apps, such as Quickbooks Online, and there's a free plan to get you started, although you'll probably need to upgrade to the subscription version once you get going. If using Harvest means your clients pay you faster, though, it's going to be well worth it. Read more: The best calendar apps of 2020 This year's top design trends The best travel laptops right now View the full article

The tech space is more significant than it used to be in the past few years. The rate at which innovative products evolve has set one into deep thought on how our future is being shaped by technology. Wherefore, as …View the full article

Cisco patched three authentication bypass bugs tied to its DCNM platform used to manages NX-OS. View the full article

The issue came to light after a Reddit user claimed being able to see strangers on his Xiaomi Mijia smart camera. View the full article

Everyone has too many things to get done. There are, in any given person’s life, an almost endless amount of tasks, projects and things to do. They range from the boring (routine work tasks, mowing a lawn or doing homework) through to fun (a date, a game, playing with the kids) to the original (a challenging new project at work, getting to grips with a new website builder or planning a party). No matter what, though, you can create more free time if you think carefully about managing your time. Time management is almost no one’s favourite topic to discuss. It brings to mind schedules and lists, often triggers yawns and perhaps causes some of us to get out a buzzword bingo card or two. However, if you make it a goal to use some very basic tools and habits to manage your time, you can really change the way your day works. You can be more productive on the job and complete more tasks (using less time). There are several facets to time management that we can investigate. In this article, we'll explore some practical ways to improve your productivity and help you organise your days better. Click the image to find out more and pick up your tickets Tip #1: Track your working time (and your breaks) Make sure your breaks are real breaks, and not filled up with more work The key thing to focus on is actually keeping track of your working time and, just as importantly, your breaks. As the workday goes on, people generally begin to work less efficiently. Everyone has experienced the slow burn as they lose attention, become tired or simply find themselves less effective at their job the more hours they are 'on the clock'. This can also present itself in subtle, harder-to-identify ways: slower reaction times, less creative energy and other effects that can hinder you without raising red flags. You may not be falling asleep at your desk but your body and, more importantly, your mind, is recognising the strain anyway. This tendency to work 'harder' by working long hours without ceasing often simply results in low productivity and people who are no longer doing quality work. Focus can also be a challenge during the workday. Many of us try hard to multitask but science has shown us again and again that human brains are better at focusing on one task at a time. One way to combat this stress of constant work and stay focused on one thing at a time is to think of your time as if it were split up into two categories: Task-focused work: Blocks focused on getting a single task done Breaks from work: These allow you to disconnect, recharge and relax There are a couple of working methods that can help improve your ratio of work to breaks, as well as boosting your single-task focus throughout the day. Solution: The Pomodoro Technique The Pomodoro Technique is a simple way to break up your workday into chunks of productivity. You use a timer to clock the units of work (‘Pomodoros’). You can use a physical Pomodoro timer or download a phone app. You pick a single task and power through that task during a 25-minute working block (or customise the times to meet your needs). When done, you take a five- or 10-minute break, again with the timer, then start a new Pomodoro. You can concentrate on the same task again or pick a new one. At the end of four Pomodoros, you take a longer break of maybe 20 to 30 minutes. The important part about the breaks is that they need to be breaks. Get up, talk to someone, talk a short walk, stretch, look out the window, read a book. Breaks aren’t for doing other work. If you are interrupted during your Pomodoro, end the interruption as quickly as possible, jot down a note if there is another task you need to do because of it and continue with your work. Try not to get derailed: stay focused. Solution: The Flowtime Technique One thing that many people don’t like about Pomodoro is that the working blocks are so severely regimented. A consistent complaint is that you might finish a task in less time and not need the whole block or that you might be 'in the zone' when the timer goes off, which of course harms productivity rather than helping it. You can solve this by using what is called the Flowtime Technique. Instead of hard limits for the timers, you try to work in flexible blocks of, for example, 20 to 60 minutes. The goal is not for every block to be the same but rather for each block to be a unit of cohesive, focused work on one task, with a maximum length so that you don’t work on that task for hours without a break. With this technique, you will just be stopping for a break when you need a break and trying hard to be honest about that. Tip #2: Figure out where your time is going A second important facet of working smarter rather than harder involves knowing when you have been working, on what, and why. Time tracking is a handy way to, over time, build up an idea of what you have actually been doing. If you are using the Pomodoro or Flowtime techniques already mentioned, tracking your time will be that much easier. When you start a Pomodoro, you’ll just start a timer or jot down the time and when you finish, the same. Some Pomodoro apps can even do this for you and if you ever forget to write down starting or stopping times, the fact that you’re working in recorded chunks should make it easy to go back and grab that information later. You can see patterns of what distracts you and when; you can see what times of the day are your most productive and for what types of work Jeff Smith Once you can gather enough of this data, it becomes invaluable to you. You can see patterns of what distracts you and when; you can see what times of the day are your most productive and for what types of work. This will be your guide in restructuring the workday as much as possible to maximise your productivity – doing creative or complex work during your more productive times and filling the gaps between meetings, interruption-heavy time blocks and periods where you often have trouble focusing with more menial work. Solution: Try a time tracking tool There are low-energy solutions for tracking time spent in applications already for Windows, macOS and for the various phone platforms. You might use some of them already. These features enable you to see what applications you use and for how much time per day or week. What we want to do is similar but on a task level. Rather than knowing whether you had Chrome or Slack open this afternoon and for how long, we instead want to know if you were in meetings or writing code, preparing taxes or writing customer communications. One of the best free/cheap time tracking solutions out there is Toggl. Toggl has an app that is so-so for iOS and Android but the web service is superb and can be tied into services like Zapier or IFTTT for automation. Additionally, there are other time tracking tools that are integrated into the software you already use. Employee time-card systems, if you fill out line items for tasks, are one. Another is the invoicing tool you use, if you freelance – many of those contain time tracking features as well, to help with generating those invoices. Tip #3: Supercharge your to-do lists Last, but certainly not least, consider the use of some sort of task-management system. These can vary wildly, from pencil and paper setups (see our guide to the best notebooks for designers) to phone apps or computer software. The goal is to keep track of all the items you need to do in a given day or for a given project and ensure things don’t get forgotten. Task managers are useful in a lot of ways. You can simply use them as an organised to-do list if you wish but their real strength comes when you lean on them hard. Every new task that comes to mind gets dropped into an inbox, you sort tasks into projects, label them and you depend on the system absolutely. It can always be depended upon to guide you on what you should be doing, when and often where. The system does need to be reviewed on a daily or weekly basis to make sure that tasks don’t fall between the cracks, buried at the bottom of a project with perhaps no due date. In essence, the task manager can be a second memory for the things that you need to get done. An important distinction here is that we are looking at task management rather than project management. Project management tools, such as Trello, Basecamp, Asana and many others like them, are very different to task managers. When we manage tasks, we’re thinking of to-do lists – what tasks need to be done at work or at home. Project managers are a much wider scope and less focused on individual tasks than on the entire breadth of the work that needs doing. Solution: Keep a bullet journal Bullet journals can be used to manage entire projects, track daily tasks, capture notes and more Your first choice will be whether you want an analog (paper) or digital (mobile/computer) system. If you intend to keep track of your tasks on paper, one of the best methods to manage it all is via Bullet Journaling. It’s an amazing system that enables you to capture thoughts, notes and tasks and works quite well alongside focus-driven Pomodoros (and also provides a place to note times for time tracking). Solution: Use a digital time-tracker If you’d prefer a digital time-tracking system, the best overall recommendation for any platform is Todoist. Todoist is an amazing application that lets you sort tasks into projects, nested projects, subtasks, labels, due dates and a whole mess of other features, while still letting you have a single simple to-do list if you’d like. Power users can share tasks with others, sync with calendars or even use the API to integrate with thirdparty services such as Zapier or IFTTT. For Apple ecosystem users, the favourites are OmniFocus for serious task management with a more ‘Getting Things Done’ (GTD) flair and Things for everyone else. Both of these apps are amazing task managers and, for a macOS/iOS only user, can provide in some cases more useful features than even Todoist. Tip #4: Combine your time management tools These three parts of working smarter dovetail together very nicely. If you have a to-do list for the day, you can take an item off of that list, do a Pomodoro or two to complete it and then track the time you spent engaged with that task before picking another one. This can be a lot to get used to at once, so it is also perfectly acceptable to take one of these ideas and incorporate it into your daily routine, then – once you’re familiar with using it regularly – consider the idea of looking into one of the others. 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 today. Related articles: 5 ways a stylus will boost your productivity 21 ways to improve productivity with npm 8 powerful productivity apps to help you get things done View the full article

Want to add a second screen to your smartphone to improve your productivity and creativity? Then the nifty castAway case could be exactly what you're looking for. castAway works by where housing your phone in one side of its case, while a smartphone-sized Chromium-based tablet sits in the other side, allowing you to multitask on the go. The castAway tablet comes in three sizes, 5.8", 6.3" and 6.9", making it compatible with a host of popular Android and iOS devices, and some of the best smartphones available. A custom app allows users to connect to the second screen via Bluetooth or WiFi and creates a series of folders on the phone to store images and files. On the tablet, a Chrome extension will grab any files that are added to the folders – meaning you have access on both devices. There is no doubt that a second screen brings with it plenty of plus points, especially for designers. You can keep your tools panel on one screen and design in another. You can also work on one screen and keep an eye on your social media and email on the other. But the best bit is you are not tied to the double screen. You can pull apart the screens and use them separately, and then slip back together when you want to thanks to a magnetic hinge. The castAway is exciting stuff, but it's not available yet. It's currently at the Prototype stage on IndieGoGo, meaning there is a working version of the physical product, but it's not yet in production. Get more info on the castAway here. 13 creative free iPhone apps for designers How to Photoshop on the iPhone (yes, it’s a thing) 30 Chrome extensions for web designers and devs View the full article

Pepsi has a new US tagline, and it's...well... a bit odd. 'That's What I Like' is Pepsi's first permanent new slogan in two decades, and it'll be used to advertise all Pepsi varieties including regular Pepsi, Pepsi Zero Sugar and Diet Pepsi. In fact, it's already appearing on a range of TV spots (more on that below). While it seems a sensible move to go back to one, permanent tagline, the choice of words from Pepsi has us baffled. 'That's What I Like' makes us think of several things. It reminds us strongly of McDonald's' 'I'm Lovin' It' (in fact, it's basically a longer, less catchy way to say the same thing). It also reminds us of that – dare we say it – Coke advert where the guy awkwardly announces: "I just love Coke". We're guessing that reminding its customers of its biggest rival probably wasn't what Pepsi was going for here. There's also a whiff of the much-loved, cheese-tastic '90s compilation albums: 'Now That's What I Call Music', which again can't have been what the drinks company was aiming for. Discover all you need to know about logo design with our guide. The slogan has been announced with a range of new adverts created with agency Alma and Goodby Silverstein & Partners, which feature people busting some shapes in various situations including an airport, at a BBQ and on the tube. Interestingly, all of the English-language adverts feature men rather than women as the lead characters, which we're assuming must be some deliberate targeting, otherwise it seems like a pretty big oversight. All of the characters are laughed at for their dance moves, until they take a swig of Pepsi and voila! Everyone dances along with them. The new slogan then pops up on the screen to remind us all that it's okay to like Pepsi, and to dance in public. Thanks, Pepsi. "Pepsi drinkers are comfortable in their own skin, they enjoy their life unapologetically without really worrying about what other people think," says Pepsi’s VP of marketing, Todd Kaplan. According to Kaplan, people who like drinking Pepsi also like belting out karaoke numbers, binge-watching their favourite shows and are more likely to clap at the cinema, so presumably that explains the dancing videos. Look, there's even an infographic telling us just how 'wild' Pepsi drinkers are. So it must be true. Overall, this seems like a well thought-out move from Pepsi, but we're not really loving it. It's hard to imagine that 'That's What I Like' will have real staying power. Read more: Has Diet Coke lost the plot? The 10 best logos of all time 6 incredible design secrets you need to know View the full article

We all enjoy nerding out at a design sheet, and who doesn't love a good Olympic logo? This discovery from the Logo Smith combines the two: the design sheet for the Tokyo 1964 Olympic emblem. This logo was voted by design legend Milton Glaser as his favourite Olympic logo ever. The Tokyo 1964 Olympic logo was designed by Yusaku Kamekura and features a red sun representing the Japanese flag above the Olympic gold rings, with 'Tokyo 1964' written in Helvetica. Like all the best logos, it's simple, but extremely effective. And of course, drawing the logo required precise measurements in the days before the likes of Illustrator. You can see the Tokyo 1964 logo's design sheet below. The Logo Smith has attempted to painstakingly recreate the design sheet, and it turned out not to be easy: As we head towards the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympics, we can't help but wonder how this year's logo will be remembered. The original first logo design was scrapped due to plagiarism accusations, the official logo was then unveiled to a mixed reaction, and a concept logo received a lot of praise, with many saying it was better than the official one. The official recycled medals went down a treat, though. The official Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic logos It remains to be seen just what the legacy of this particular logo is, but we do like the idea of people trying to painstakingly recreate it in years to come. Let's hope there's already a detailed design sheet in circulation. Read more: The controversial story behind the Tokyo 2020 logo Ridiculous tutorial reveals the 4 steps to logo design Paris 2024 Olympic logo is mercilessly mocked View the full article

It's January. This means it's time to google 'calendar 2020' with the intention of overhauling your organisational habits for the new year. Well, we've saved you the trouble of researching the wealth of systems to choose from by listing the best options right here. Maybe a standard wall calendar is enough for you? If so, we've found the most design-conscious options for your home or office. If you want something with more features, we've got you covered with our pick of the best wall and desk planners. Or, you could combine more than one option to make a super-system that's sure to see you smashing deadlines and going home without a head full of tasks. Keep reading for a roundup of the calendars available for you this year. And while you're overhauling your work habits, why not give your portfolio a refresh? Check out our portfolio examples post for some inspiration. 01. V&A – May Morris Wall Calendar 2020 Price: £9.99 Buy here The V&A do a beautiful line of calendars that include striking designs perfect for the wall of a creative. May Morris, daughter of William Morris, was a noted embroiderer, designer, jeweller and editor. This calendar focuses on her wallpaper designs, wall hangings and embroidery, featuring 12 stunning pieces. Not only aesthetically pleasing, this calendar has a well-organised format with large boxes, clear labelling and a handy previous/next month view. If May Morris isn't quite right for you, check out the V&A's Kimono Silks or Arts & Crafts calendars. 02. Boxclever Everyday Desk Calendar 2020 Price: £9.99 Buy here This desk calendar is compact enough to stay on your desk without taking up valuable workspace, but is still packed with useful features. It's month-to-view and has two handy notes sections as well as large boxes and a previous/next month view. But our favourite part is the super-useful 'To Do' flip page section – one for each month, with a tick box for each line. 03. Stendig Wall Calendar Price: $54.99 Buy here The Stendig calendar is chosen purely as a design statement. Lacking handy features but big on iconic style, the Stendig calendar is a modernist design classic and the only calendar in the collection of MoMA. We recommend using it in conjunction with a desk planner if you want to actually remember anything besides the date. 04. Blueline 2020 DoodlePlan Monthly Colouring Desk Pad Calendar Price: $10.59 Buy here This month-to-view desk tear-off desk pad is perfect for creative doodlers. Each page is adorned with black and white botanical designs you can colour in which is great for improving concentration and reducing anxiety. The paper is heavyweight so the the colour won't bleed through, and the back is reinforced so the calendar feels sturdy. It has a yearly calendar at the bottom of each sheet and roomy squares for each day. The calendar comes in three sizes and is made from 50 per cent recycled paper. 05. Busy B Desktop Calendar 2020 Price: £8.99 Buy here The Busy B desk calendar has a clear layout, bright design and space to add in notes, but best of all it has a pocket to stash all those little bits of paper that clutter up your desk and end up getting lost. Think bills, tickets and invites. It stands handily on your desk, taking up little space. 06. John Lewis & Partners Perpetual Calendar Price: £30 Buy here This perpetual calendar is another style piece that'll look seriously good on your desk. It's made using ash wood (known for its density) and features a line per day, date and month. Use it with a weekly planner. 07. Studio Henki – Spectrum 2020 Wall Planner Price: £9.99 Buy here This vibrant planner is A2 size and is great for viewing your entire year at a glance. Its vertical layout is cleverly formatted so its easier to scan the months than other yearly planners we've looked at, and the shape and size means it'll fit into any wall space you have available. We suggest using it in conjunction with coloured stickers if you want to really nail the organisation of different parts of your life. Studio Henki have a range of other designs if Spectrum isn't to your taste. 08. Desktop Weekly Planner Notepad Price: £12.99 Buy here We think that this tear-off planner is one of the best ways of organising your week. It is undated (there's a space to write the date) and has a week-to-view format that means you can expunge the contents of your brain into the different categories and have everything you need right in front of you. The sections on the sheet include lined columns for each day (with lots of space to scribble notes), a 'To Do' box, and even a doodle section. The ice cream design may not be up your street but there are plenty of alternatives out there. 09. teNeues Jack Vettriano Square Calendar 2020 Price: £10 Buy here With this calendar, you can display 12 works of art by one of the finest Scottish contemporary artists, Jack Vettriano. The striking images sit atop a calendar grid complete with public holidays, and in the bottom-right hand corner there is that all-important space for notes. If you like the calendar design but would prefer a different artist, teNeues also produces a Gustav Klimt calendar (among others). 10. Boxclever Press Family Home Planner 2020 Wall Calendar Price: £9.99 Buy here This may be a family calendar but, with a little repurposing, it's perfect for creatives with many projects on the go. Its month-to-view pages include six columns that come unlabelled so you can head them up with any particular labels you might need to utilise that month (for example, different companies you might be working for, or specific project headers). There's also a notes section at the bottom of each month and a roomy pocket for bits and pieces. Read more: The top design trends for 2020 10 top illustration trends The best art books for 2020 View the full article

Twelve Bootstrap columns, five breakpoints, and Flexbox are what underlies the iconic boilerplate’s bootstrap grid system. There are a dozen predefined classes, yet, these three stand behind the flexibility of the layout. They build a concrete foundation with responsive behavior …View the full article

WordPress began as a simple blogging platform but evolved into the content management system that now powers a large percentage of websites. As the most popular CMS, its rapid success is likely down to it being a fantastic general-purpose tool in the web development world. A low barrier for entry and large ecosystem of plugins and free WordPress themes allow less technically proficient users to build complex systems. But this can be a double-edged sword if a WordPress website gains traction, scaling beyond the occasional visitor and leading to problems. The best web hosting services in 2020 The first signs of trouble appear when a new user lands on the website: load times can be excruciating and elements jump around the page as separate stylesheets load, one by one. It isn't long before the server runs out of memory, causing the database to crash, requiring a server restart to bring the website back up. By default, when a user lands on a page provided by a WordPress website, the back end runs through the theme and any plugins before rendering the page. If lots of plugins are used or the theme is poorly written, this can result in lengthy database queries and inclusion of JavaScript and CSS where it isn't needed. Thankfully, many of the major issues causing slow speed can be addressed, and in this tutorial we will look at how you can optimise even the clunkiest of WordPress websites. To boost your skills further, take a look at our roundup of WordPress tutorials to try. 01. Test the current speed The first step in speeding up a website is to find out how well it's performing to start with. An array of tools exists to help with this, including Google's Pagespeed Insights and Pingdom's page load checker. We will be using GTmetrix as it combines several checks; go to the site and enter the URL for the website. 02. Examine the results GTmetrix gives you a quick analysis of your site's performance After a short delay GTmetrix will display the results of the check and give several scores from A – F. It will also give a fully loaded time and total page size. Below this, a breakdown of several elements is given. 03. Identify the largest files One of the most important metrics is the total page size. This is the filesize of all loaded elements on a page, such as images, video, CSS and any scripts that are included in the page. Using GTmetrix, open the Waterfall tab and sort the table by size to find the largest elements on the page. 04. Compress media to reduce size Bulk optimise your media to get a speed boost Images and video are usually the largest items on a page. Eliminate unnecessary background videos and ensure to encode video at a low bit-rate if it plays automatically. Install the plugin EWWW Image Optimizer. From the Media library, a new bulk optimise option is available. Run this. 05. Resize images Shrink those massive images that are getting scaled down in the browser Sometimes images added to a page are at a high resolution and then scaled down with CSS. This wastes bandwidth as the larger size is never used. Go to the dashboard > Settings > Ewww Image Optimiser and select resize. Tick "Resize detection". Now, pages viewed by an admin will highlight images that need to be resized. Resizing these images in an image editor or using a CDN with automatic sizing will fix this issue. 06. Minification of CSS, JS & HTML This is the process of removing the characters in code that make it human-readable to reduce the size of the page. When using a third-party theme, a plugin such as Autoptimize is perfect for this. Install it, go to settings > Autoptimize > scroll down to CSS options and tick "optimise CSS code". When working with a theme that has been custom-made, minification is done with build tools such as gulp. 07. Combine CSS & JS files When using a third-party theme, the Autoptimise plugin can cover most scenarios by enabling the "Aggregate CSS files" option. This combines all the CSS for each page into a single file instead of many smaller ones. 08. Defer external JavaScript Live chat, analytics and tracking tools can bundle large JavaScript files that add entire seconds to the time the page takes to become interactive. Add the defer attribute to these scripts so that they're not executed until the DOM has finished loading. 09. Examine the plugins Treat your site to a severe plugin audit Too many plugins can cripple WordPress. With so many plugins being free, developers are under pressure to push premium versions of their software and include unnecessary, bloated features such as pushing notifications to the admin dashboard. Disable and remove any plugins that aren't being used – they can be installed again later if needed again. 10. Check web server power Your server might be slowing things down; here's how to identify if that's the case The engine of a website is the server it runs on. If its cheap, underpowered and badly maintained it will run poorly. Go to Google PageSpeed Insights and enter the URL of the website. In the results look for "reduce server response time". If this appears on the report, it's likely that a slow server is to blame for the performance. 11. Enable Gzip compression Gzip can decrease the size of your website before it's sent to a user. The user's web browser then decompresses the data automatically and displays it to them. With no drawbacks, it's important to ensure Gzip is enabled. There are several tools to check whether Gzip is enabled; try GiftOfSpeed. 12. Upgrade to PHP 7 Within the WordPress dashboard open Tools > Site health and click the info tab. Open the "Server" accordion and check the value for the PHP version. If this is any less than 7.x.x it is highly recommended to upgrade to at least PHP 7.1. Tests show changing this allowed handling of over double the simulated visitors. 13. Set up page caching Use the cache enabler to render popular pages to a faster static HTML file Go to plugins > Add new plugin and search for "cache enabler". This lightweight plugin stores pages in a cache so a visitor browsing at the same time as another doesn't cause the website to render the page twice. Instead, the plugin renders the page to a static HTML file once then serves this file to subsequent users. 14. Photon Different devices render images at different sizes, making it difficult to size images exactly as they display. Using the free "photon" service, included in Jetpack, images are automatically served at the right size. 15. Set up browser caching Browser caching tells a user's browser that certain elements don't need to be re-downloaded every time they reload a page on the website or come back and visit again. This can be done manually in .htaccess, or alternatively a plugin such as "Leverage Browser Caching" can be used. 16. Load testing with virtual users Use a service like Loader to check your site can cope with high demand To simulate real users using the website and put the website under stress, load testing should be conducted. While monitoring the server for load impact, use a service such as Loader to send traffic to the website. The CPU and memory of the server should stay within safe limits. 17. Recheck performance Once the optimisations have been carried out, you should test and gauge the improvement to the website. Run GTmetrix again and use the history tab to see the difference in page load time. If caching has been enabled, make sure that you visit the website at least once in order to "prime" the cache before carrying out testing. This article was originally published in issue 292 of creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 292. Join us in April 2020 to see our lineup of JavaScript superstars at GenerateJS – the conference helping you build better JavaScript. Book now at generateconf.com Related articles: How to turn WordPress into a visual builder 26 top-quality WordPress portfolio themes View the full article

The January sales are well underway, and we're seeing some amazing offers on hardware for creative professionals. This incredible MacBook Pro deal from John Lewis may be for an older product, but it's hard to pass up such a great saving on what is still a brilliant Apple laptop. Originally £1,569, John Lewis has the 13-inch, 2018 Apple MacBook Pro with 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD on sale for just £1,300. That's a whopping £269 off! Released just over a year ago, the 2018 MacBook Pro is still one of the best laptops you can buy, only superseded by the more recent MacBook Pro refresh, which is significantly more expensive. This 2018 model comes with a 6-core, 8th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM, Apple's brilliant Retina display featuring True Tone technology, the customisable Touch Bar and Touch ID, 4GB of video memory and four USB-C ports. So there's enough power, connections, a great screen, and functionality for any aspiring creative professional. Be sure to take a look at our pick of the best deals in the Apple New Year sale, where you'll find cheap iPads, Pencils, iMacs and more. If you're looking for something with a little more room, you can make an even more impressive saving on this 15-inch MacBook Pro model over on Amazon... Over in the US, Best Buy has some top offers running on MacBook Pros, the best of which we've listed here. If you're not in the UK or US, never fear, below are the best MacBook Pro deals in your area. View the full article

So you want to create a logo quickly? Of course you do, time is a precious commodity in a designer's workflow and any assistance saving yourself hours of work is undoubtedly welcome. Well, all you need to do is draw a design, create some shapes and colour it in. It's as simple as that. Isn't it? Well, according to one Reddit post, this is pretty much all you need to do to get yourself a handsome-looking logo. (If you are looking for more comprehensive help with your next project make sure you check out our logo design inspiration post). According to the post, there's only four steps to logo design. You just import your sketch into your software of choice, add a pixel grid to the sketch, start building the logo using shapes and, finally, combine all the shapes and finish the logo. Voila. Four steps to... something It's possible that there may be a few flaws in the process and reactions to the post have been mixed. One responder pointed out the obvious: "What comes before step one is the hardest part." Quite. Other comments were even more scathing. If you want to fill some more of those knowledge gaps, then you might be better off taking a look at our logo design guide, or top typography tutorials post. Read more: 5 big logo design trends for 2020 Logo swap is surprisingly disturbing 6 of the most iconic drinks logos View the full article

The best travel laptops are designed help you get stuff done while you're out and about – whether that's attending to a design event, visiting clients, or just packing in some exploring around your day job. Almost everyone travels these days, and quite a few – especially creative professionals – travel full time while also working remotely. A laptop that's robust, extremely portable and very reliable is invaluable if you want to be able to work whilst on the move. To make the hunt for the best travel laptop a little easier, we've gathered the best options available now, factoring in everything that makes each one the perfect travel companion. Looking for a more general list? See our guide to the best laptops for graphic design or the best laptops for programming. If not, read on for some tips on what to look for, plus our roundup of the best travel laptops right now. How to pick the best travel laptop Not every laptop can be a good travel laptop. Some are powerful yet too heavy to go traipsing around with, while others just aren’t powerful enough to be reliable, especially for digital nomads whose computing demands are more intensive than that of regular users. The best travel laptops must combine portability with power and durability. They must be thin and light so you can easily slip them in your backpack or carry-on, and not have to worry too much about the added weight. Anything under 1.59kg (3.5lbs) is ideal. After all, traveling as light as possible is one of the key things for a more relaxing – and cheaper – trip. They must also be powerful enough to handle your needs, whatever those may be. If you’re just looking to do travel research, stream movies and chat with friends, a less powerful laptop will do. However, if you’re planning on working while traveling, not just any laptop will do. Luckily, there are excellent mobile workstations out there that are fitted with powerful processors and plenty of memory. The best travel laptops must also be extremely durable, robust enough to not only handle hard bumps, but also accidental drops. MacBook Pros, for example, are tough enough to survive a high fall. A long battery life is also extremely useful. While most cafes, airports, stations, trains and planes provide outlets for laptop users, a portable that will last you a while on a single charge is preferred in case you find yourself stuck in a place where charging just isn’t possible. It wouldn’t hurt to have plenty of storage space, either – although Cloud storage and external hard drives are readily available, if upgrading to a bigger storage space proves too pricey for you. The MacBook Pro 16-inch may have been the talk of the town when it launched in late 2019, but it’s still a bit too big for jet-setting Apple fans. Luckily, Apple has also updated its 13-inch MacBook Pros, making them better than ever. The thin and light 2019 MacBook Pro 13-inch is touting not just new specs, but also features like Apple’s Retina display and that convenient Touch ID. The non-Touch Bar models have been phased out, so fans of the Touch Bar feature will be happy to know that they won’t be paying extra to get it. Better yet, this 2019 model keeps its predecessor’s price tag, so you won’t be paying more for these fresh updates. Bear in mind though that the MacBook Pro 13-inch won’t be able to handle the more intensive tasks like video editing and AutoCAD design. Also, it only has Thunderbolt ports available. However, if you’re only looking to send emails, write up documents and stream videos – and maybe squeeze in some light photo editing every now and then – this is the best travel laptop for you. The new HP Spectre x360 13T is gorgeous, with its elegant gem-cut design that will be the envy of everyone on your train. However, this light and portable laptop isn’t just all looks. Designed to compete with MacBook users, it also boasts plenty of power – more than enough to convince hardcore Apple fans to switch over to Windows. Not only that, but the HP Spectre x360 13T is feature-rich as well, making it in many ways better than the newer MacBook Pro models. It offers a good variety of ports, for one, so you can connect all your non-Thunderbolt devices. It also boasts great Bang & Olufsen speakers, an exquisite touchscreen display and a whopping 12-hour battery life. More importantly, it has a hybrid design so you can work in traditional laptop mode, play games in tablet mode and stream your favourite shows in tent mode. This is one of our favourite laptops for 2020, and among the best travel laptops for creative professionals who prefer the Windows environment. The new Surface Laptop 3 continues Microsoft’s tradition of crafting excellent – albeit pricey – portables. This time around, the Surface Laptop 3 comes in both the 13-inch and 15-inch models, with the 15-inch touting the latest AMD processors. It’s the 13-inch, however, that we’re singing high praises for as far as Ultrabooks for traveling. These thin and light laptops come fitted with 10th-generation Intel Core processors, plenty of memory for most computing needs and decent storage options. It delivers such an excellent performance, and boasts Microsoft’s impressive keyboard and trackpad as well, although these might be a bit of a departure from the predecessor’s. However, what really makes this among the best travel laptops out there is its weight. At up to 1.27 kg, this is lighter than most of its 13-inch rivals, so if weight is a top priority for you, this must be at the top of your list of options. For more details read our Surface Laptop 3 review, or see how it compares to its predecessor in our Surface Laptop 2 review. For years, Dell’s XPS line has topped many best laptops list. The XPS laptops are simply some of the best in their class. And, the newest 2019 models don’t fall far from the tree. However, rocking 10th-generation Intel Core processors, as well as a battery boost from the previous model, the Dell XPS 13 is more powerful than ever for most computing tasks. More importantly, Dell has finally fixed that awful webcam placement under the display – the webcam, which has also been improved with four lens elements, is now sitting in its rightful place above the screen. When video chatting with friends and family back home, they won’t be looking up your nose any more. The InfinityEdge display has been updated as well, with thinner bezels so it looks fresher than ever. Speaking of looks, it now also comes in Frost for those who think black is boring. Finally, if size is a major concern, the Dell XPS 13 is one of the smallest laptops out there. It’s the perfect travel companion, if you prefer to jet-set with just a single travel bag. Razer is no stranger to excellent gaming laptops that boast mind-blowing power, but it’s the Razer Blade Stealth 13 that’s really impressed us. While most gaming laptops are big and bulky machines, this 13-inch model has fitted all that gaming prowess in an Ultrabook laptop, so you can play all those latest games smoothly at 1080p while on the go. This updated Razer Blade Stealth may not be the cheapest gaming machine out there, but thin does come at a price. If you’re willing to pay it, this delivers enough power and boasts a stunning display. It’s not just for games, mind you – it can handle creative tasks like photo and video editing as well. There’s even a 4K option for an even better image quality. And the sophisticated and sleek non-gaming aesthetic is a bonus. View the full article

So here we stand, at the beginning of the century's third decade, and for creative professionals, things have never looked more optimistic. The societal shift from analogue to digital means that design is increasingly seen as a central plank of every big company's success, and demand for skills like illustration, graphic design, web design, 3D and animation is hitting record highs. Of course, such global trends don't always translate instantly into rewarding, well-paid work for everyone, and so many creatives will continue to face challenges and struggles to establish themselves. But we're optimistic there's light at the end of the tunnel, and that with hard work, determination and plenty of grit, we can all achieve our creative dreams in the 2020s. To cheer you on your way, here's our list of things that all creatives can look forward to in 2020. From new tech and to make you more productive to cultural and artistic events such as 3D movies that will inspire you creatively, we present 20 reasons why 2020 promises to be an awesome year for creatives. 01. Illustrator on the iPad You’ll soon be able to use the full version of Adobe Illustrator on the iPad It’s been a whole decade since the iPad launched, but in all that time, creatives have been unable to use the full version of Adobe Illustrator on it. Sure, you could make some basic edits to your .ai files using a tool like Illustrator Draw, but that was about it. This left Serif, Adobe’s main competitor, able to pull off a coup by launching Affinity Designer for iPad in the summer of 2018. That seems to have spurred Adobe into action and finally, it announced last November that a full version of Illustrator would be coming to the iPad in 2020. (Check out our article outlining some of the super-cool things you’ll be able to do with it.) Serif, meanwhile, has upped the ante by announcing that a full version of its desktop publishing tool, Affinity Publisher, will be available for the iPad next year too; this will hopefully prompt Adobe to follow suit with InDesign. In short, the time when we’ll be able to seamlessly move from tablet to laptop with our creative work is coming... and not a moment too soon! 02. Foldable devices Microsoft’s Surface Duo offers "the perfect balance of productivity and mobility" The 2000s brought us the smartphone, the 2010s the tablet, and in the 2020s, it’s going to be about foldables. These new devices basically give you the flexibility to switch between a small screen and a larger one, and the industry is betting big that they'll be the next game-changer. With support built into Android 10, the Samsung Galaxy Fold is already here, and with Microsoft's Surface Duo, Huawei's Mate X and Motorola’s Razr coming soon, we’re sure to see Apple entering the foldable fray in 2020. We're expecting a shakeup of our best smartphones list very soon. Why is this good news for creatives? Well, if you take the optimistic line, then the added flexibility of foldable devices will open up huge potential to make us more creative and productive. Conversely, if you’re among the cynics, there’s at least going to be lots of extra work for designers rethinking websites and apps, and making them work better on foldable devices. So that’ll be a win-win, then. 03. Toyko Olympics The logos for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics Every Olympics is special, of course. But the return of the Games to Tokyo, which first hosted them in 1964, promises to be very special indeed. From the country that brought the world everything from Studio Ghibli to Baby Metal, we can only imagine what weird and wonderful visual delights the opening and closing ceremonies will bring. And we can’t wait to see what new branding magic will be unveiled once the event gets closer. If the uber-cute mascots and winning idea of using recycled Olympic medals are anything to go by, we’re in for a flurry of colourful and creative treats. (Oh, and the actual sport will probably be fun, too.) 04. The 5G revolution T-Mobile is among the mobile networks now offering 5G to its customers Yes, we know: technically 5G launched in 2019, but initial coverage was pretty limited and smartphone makers are really only now getting started with it. So it’s 2020 that will be the real year of 5G, with availability broadening and new phones like the Pixel 5, iPhone 12 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S11 allowing us to take advantage of the superfast internet it offers. As consumers, that means we’ll be to use the web without all that stuttering latency, making for a smoother and more relaxing experience. As creatives, it means we’ll have more opportunities to, for example, progressively enhance our apps and websites for 5G users, providing richer visuals and more complex interactions, from 4K video to augmented reality features. If you want to know how to get on board with the next mobile revolution, check out our sister site TechRadar's guide to everything you need to know about 5G. 05. The Year of Raphael Although Raphael’s life was short, his work was prolific, and his legacy is immortal The year 2020 marks 500 years since the death of Raphael, the painter, draughtsman, architect, archaeologist, and poet whose shaped the Western world like few artists have, before or since. And this landmark anniversary will herald a ‘Year of Raphael’, with some spectacular shows across the world. The biggest will be held at Rome’s Scuderie del Quirinale in collaboration with Florence’s Gallerie degli Uffizi, while major Raphael works will also be on display at Milan’s Ambrosiana, and the National Gallery and the V&A in London, and the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. Offering the chance to see rarely and never-before exhibited pieces by the great master, these events will offer an unparalleled opportunity to immerse yourself in some of history’s greatest artworks, and get a blast of inspiration for your own creative projects. 06. Smartphone camera wars Smartphone cameras are going to get seriously good in 2020 Right now, there’s a war raging for the smartphone market, and the consumer is only going to benefit in 2020, not least when it comes to the increasingly quality of the cameras in our pockets. Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S11, for example, will come with a 108-megapixel sensor, an ultrawide-angle lens and 5x optical zoom. It’s a feisty response to the impressive advancements in the iPhone 11’s cameras, and we expect Apple, and other rivals like Huawei, to respond in kind. So whether you use your smartphone camera as part of your job, or just for fun and inspiration, expecting plenty of cool new photography tech to inspire and excite you in the year to come. For now, check out the best camera phones available on the current market. 07. Cyberpunk 2077 A RPG of the dark future from the makers of The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077 is due for release next year There are plenty of exciting new videogames coming our way in 2020, including Gods and Monsters, Doom Eternal, Occupy Mars and The Last of Us Part II. But we’ll be honest: the one we’re most thrilled about is Cyberpunk 2077, a story-driven, open world RPG of the dark future from CD PROJEKT RED, creators of The Witcher series. Not least because of the jaw-dropping art behind it, which suggests an elaborate futuristic world that’s not bright and gleaming but morbidly gritty. The gameplay trailer suggests it’s going to be brilliantly playable too, and early reports from the E3 videogames expo have been very positive. Finally, when Keanu Reeves made a surprise appearance in a game's trailer… well, you just know this game is going to be very special. 08. New gaming consoles Xbox Series X is due for release towards the end of 2020 Next year won’t just be about new games, but brand new games consoles. Xbox Series X, the next-generation Xbox, is scheduled for release in late 2020. With a tower design that makes it look more like a gaming PC than a console (which has spawned plenty of savage memes), the new Xbox promises to be super-powerful and able to run games at 60 FPS in 4K. And that’s not all. Around the same time we'll see the launch of the PS5, aka PlayStation 5, which is predicted to include 8K TV support and 3D audio. Beyond that, we really don’t know a lot about what these new consoles will offer yet, such as whether they’ll feature VR capabilities. But it’s almost certain they’ll take video gaming to a whole new level, and provide game designers and developers a whole new impetus to imagine a new worlds, characters and scenarios to enthral us in 2020 and beyond. 09. Generate JS Our London event will feature talks from JS experts Remy Sharp and Jeremy Keith More and more creatives are working from home and only interacting with colleagues and clients at a digital level. But while that makes for better efficiency and work-life balance, it’s no substitution for interacting and forming real relationships in the physical world. For this reason, we predict that creative conferences and events will be become both bigger and more numerous in the decade to come. If you're a web designer or web developer, then you should definitely check out our own event, held in association with net magazine, on Thursday 2 April. Generate.js is a one-day conference in Shoreditch, London that's essentially a concentrated shot of skills and insight from some of the UK’s biggest JavaScript superstars. You’ll be able to attend awesome talks, network with fellow professionals, grill JS experts, check out great web tech, and unwind with some of our activities in the breaks. So whether you’re just starting out on your JavaScript journey or a pro looking to polish your skills, buy your ticket today. 10. Tenet There are lots of great-looking movies to come in 2020 but most of them, inevitably, are reboots or sequels. And so while we’re still very much looking forward to Wonder Woman 1984, Bill & Ted Face the Music, A Quiet Place Part II, Top Gun Maverick, Bad Boys for Life, Ghostbusters: After Life and Coming 2 America, it’s good to know that there’ll also be plenty of original fare to save us from franchise fatigue. Top of our must-see list is Tenet from director Christopher Nolan. The film stars John David Washington of BlacKkKlansman fame, has been given a gigantic budget, and is set in the world of international espionage but “crossing a few different genres”, according to Nolan. The trailer (above) looks incredible and quite simply we can’t wait to see this film. 11. Aladdin City An artists’ impression of the Aladdin City development in Dubai There are many famous buildings around the world to inspire us creatively. But 2020 should see the completion of a new development that promises to really take your breath away. Designed by the International Design Studio (IDS) and under construction by Meinhardt World Wide, Aladdin City will feature three towers, designed to resemble Aladdin’s magic lamp, linked by bridges and walkways. The towers will reach the height of 24, 25 and 33 storeys, at an eye-watering cost of $15bn. And if the finished version looks anything like the artist’s impression shown above, the world is certain to come flocking. 12. Action on the environment Plastic straws will be outlawed in England in 2020 If the 2010s were the decade of heightened environmental awareness, the 2020s will hopefully be the decade of environmental solutions. As creatives, we have our own roles to play of course, especially in fields like packaging and product design. But every part of society needs to pull together, so it’s good news that governments are finally starting to push through practical measures too. For example, from April 2020, plastic straws, drink stirrers and cotton buds with plastic stems will be banned from sale and use in England. Also in the coming year, Liberia will become the world’s first nation to completely stop cutting down its trees in return for development aid (Norway will pay it $150 million to halt deforestation in the West African nation). Such restrictions present big challenges to international business, but if anything designers thrive on pushing up against limitations and coming up with new creative solutions. So ideally, new environmental regulations won't just help save the planet, they'll help to further invigorate the design industry too! 13. Vertex 2020 Vertex is the must-attend event for 2D and 3D artists in the UK If you’re a 2D or 3D artist and can get to London on 27-28 February, then here’s an event to get excited about. Vertex, a conference hosted by Creative Bloq, 3D World and ImagineFX, brings together industry expertise across the world of CG, from video games, VFX and VR to concept art, real-time creation and more. You’ll get the opportunity to hone your skills with advice from leading industry artists and learn from the world’s best creative studios. Get your ticket today. 14. The Munch Museum The new Munch Museum offers a new reason to visit Norway’s capital in 2020 There are a lot of cool new museums due to launch in 2020, not least Giza’s Grand Egyptian Museum. But the one we’re most excited about is the relaunched Munch Museum in a new building on Oslo's waterfront, scheduled to open this spring. One of the world's largest museums dedicated to a single artist, it will feature an vast array of work by Edvard Munch, who’s most famous for The Scream, across 13 floors. Work by innovative contemporary artists will also be on show, plus the unusual building, designed by Spanish architecture firm Estudio Herreros, is something of a work of art itself. 15. Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener Anna Wiener’s memoir promises to be one of the most talked-about books of the year It doesn’t seem long ago since companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon were young upstarts, challenging business norms. But in just a few years, they’ve turned the world upside-down and increasingly dominate every aspect of life. Shedding light on what it was like to be in the eye of this storm, a new memoir promises to be the must-read of 2020. In her mid-twenties, at the height of tech industry idealism, Anna Wiener left a job in book publishing in New York and headed to San Francisco, where she landed at a big-data startup in the heart of the Silicon Valley bubble. Her book, Uncanny Valley, charts a world of surreal extravagance, dubious success, and fresh-faced entrepreneurs hell-bent on glory. Due for release on 23 January, this looks like being one book that everyone in the creative industries will have an opinion on. 16. Quibli Will Quibi capture the heart's of the younger generations? If you thought we’d reach a peak number of streaming platforms in 2019, which saw the launch of Disney+, Apple TV and Britbox, then hold on to your hats. New services due to come online in 2020 include HBO Max, NBCUniversal’s Peacock and Discovery Networks. But while all these offerings more or less ape the Netflix model, we’re more excited about Quibi, which is doing something a little different. In simple terms, the California-based platform is a streaming service for short-form mobile video. It’s targeted at younger viewers with premium content delivered in "quick bites" for viewing on the go. And this is no fly-by-night operation: the company has generated a billion dollars in funding from investors including Disney, NBCUniversal, Sony and WarnerMedia. While other streaming services are tightly focused on millennials, this new startup aims to win the hearts of the younger Generations Z and Alpha, and stake a claim to the future of streaming video. Will this lead to new and exciting opportunities for imaginative and inventive video creators? We’ve honestly no idea, but we’re looking forward to finding out. 17. Grimes goes nu-metal The cover art for Grimes’ forthcoming album, Miss_Anthrop0cene Whatever your creative work involves, most of us rely on a kickass soundtrack to keep us going. And there are a lot of new albums to look forward to in 2020, including the folk stylings of Agnes Obel’s Myopia, the indie sounds of Bombay Bicycle Club’s Everything Else Has Gone Wrong, the cosmic rap of GZA’s Dark Matter and the impassioned punk of IDLES Toneland. But the one we’re most looking forward to is the return of Canadian songwriter and visual artist Grimes. Known for effortlessly crossing genres across her four previous albums, including dream pop, R&B, electronic music, experimental music and hip hop, Grimes’s new release Miss_Anthrop0cene will feature what she’s described as “ethereal nu-metal”. She’s also describes it as "a concept album about the anthropomorphic goddess of climate change," and if that doesn’t intrigue you, we don’t know what will. 18. Brand Impact Awards The Brand Impact Awards 2020 opens for entries in February Is your studio producing world-class work, but not getting the recognition it deserves? Then it’s time to do something about it! The Brand Impact Awards is an international awards scheme that celebrates creative excellence and consistency across branding design. Brought to you by Computer Arts and Creative Bloq, the Awards are now in their seventh consecutive year, and the 2020 edition is open to all to enter. Check the highlights of last year’s ceremony . 19. The Photography Show The Photography Show is the premier UK event for amateur and professional photographers The UK’s biggest event of its kind, The Photography Show attracts 32,000 visitors to Birmingham’s NEC across four days, and for good reason. It offers a chance to try out the latest kit from over 300 brands, get practical advice from the experts, and hear tales from legends of photography and film-making. Whether you’re a seasoned professional photographer, keen enthusiast or anywhere in between, it’s a must-visit event for 2020. 20. Y: The Last Man Apocalyptic drama Y: The Last Man looks like being a must-watch You might love your creative work, but at some point you need to take a break and chill out in front of the TV. And just like at the cinema, there are a ton of great franchises returning in 2020, with highlights including Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, Monsters Inc spin-off Monsters at Work, Star Trek: Picard, season 11 of Doctor Who, season 3 of Killing Eve, season 2 of After Life, and many more. If you’re looking for something totally new, though, don’t fret: there are a lot of original shows coming our way that look pretty awesome. Our picks include Hunters, which follows a diverse band of Nazi hunters living in 1977 New York; January 22nd, a drama about sexual consent starring Michaela Coel; and Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, a dramedy about a computer coder who hears other people’s inner monologues as songs. But we’re most excited about FX's Y: The Last Man, an adaptation of the comic book series by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra published from 2002-2008. Starring Diane Lane, Barry Keoghan, Imogen Poots, Amber Tamblyn and Timothy Hutton, the story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in which a cataclysmic event has killed every male mammal save for one lone human and his capuchin monkey. Exploring issues of gender, race, class and survival, if this show is half as good as the original comic, it’s going to be very good indeed. Read more: Baby Sonic is here to steal Baby Yoda's thunder The top design trends for 2020 The 10 best logos of all time View the full article

Could Baby Sonic be the curve ball that saves the whole Sonic movie debacle? A new trailer and poster from Paramount Pictures Japan reveals that the upcoming movie will include Sonic's origin story... which of course means we get to see our hero when he was just a hoglet. The news follows a trend for young versions of iconic characters. At the end of last year, Baby Yoda became the nipper that spawned a thousand memes. There was also Baby Thanos, but the less said about him the better. Revealing your hero as a child seems to be an easy way to win over your audience with an instant shot of cuteness (you can also explore our character design tips). Check out the trailer above – the first glimpse of Baby Sonic appears around the 20s mark. In it, we see a young Sonic speeding happily through the hills, and in another scene, offering up a flower. The ridiculously cute critter also appears on a poster for the movie – although some of his adorableness is probably due to those anime eyes. The story of the Sonic movie has been one wild ride. When a branding deck was first leaked to the public, the design of Sonic sparked such a strong backlash that Paramount went back to the drawing board and redesigned the character completely. MPC Vancouver, the 3D studio that worked on the movie, later shut down. Although Baby Sonic's look is in line with the reimagined character design, we'd have been very intrigued to have seen the original version, if such a thing existed. So far, the public is very much on board with the design of Baby Sonic (phew), but we'll leave you with a couple of ideas of what he could have looked like. Read more: 20 top graphic design trends for 2020 Cheap Apple AirPods are the January sales deal we've been waiting for 3D news 2019 roundup: We look back at the biggest stories of the year View the full article

A new decade brings new trends, and the evolution of existing ones. Last year saw exciting developments across the spectrum of visual design that will develop and evolve in the new year. Here, we look at what’s hot in design right now and how we see it developing in 2020, covering everything from web design to fun fonts to graphic design and UI. Here are seven of our biggest predictions for what we’ll see happening in design this year. You heard it here first. 01. Branded animation With GIFs now part of how we communicate, anyone designing for digital knows that people love movement. Illustration has become big for social media and web design over the last few years, but there’s now growing demand for the illustrations to move as shorter attention spans need to be satisfied. GIFs can be a powerful way to bring brands to life. In 2020, we expect to see more fully branded motion graphics, from micro-interactions to moving logos to animated GIFs celebrating milestone events on social media. Animations will also get more continuous. The safety video from Delta Airlines (above) shows the direction branded animation is going in, with one scene rolling into the next through fluid dynamic transitions that evolve and tell a story. The trend to build each scene out of the previous one takes viewers on journeys through a transforming world. And animation doesn’t only live online or on a screen. Branded animations designed by London-based Animade were an integral part of Mailchimp’s rebranding in 2019, including the monkey logo that winks when you move the cursor over it, but the animators also created this interactive wall art. Interactive illustrations will offer a chance to reinvent communication and tools and engage with illustration in real-world environments. 02. Ultra minimalism Calendly’s ultra minimalist landing page focuses attention on the call to action Minimalism seems like it will never become passee. It looks clean, sleek and for websites, it reduces loading time and scores better in search results. Services like Slack, Monday and Calendly are aware of this and have been leading the trend for minimalist landing pages that put the focus on the call to action and conversions. With no distracting background elements, their sites are easy to navigate and make it easy to sign up. The trend is to complement the white space and simple message with an illustration - Calendly uses a modern looking line drawing to add to the clean feel, Monday opts for an animated demo with pots of colour to draw the eye, while Dropbox dispenses even with the illustration, dedicating half the screen to the sign up form. Other sectors are following the trend, opting for simple and direct approach, which will stay with us in 2020. 03. Combining realism and flat design Magdiel Lopez combines realism and flat design to stunning effect Recent years have seen a huge trend for flat design, and over the last year, isometric design has been the big thing, led especially by design for cryptocurrency sites, while 3D has been getting better and better. Now we’re starting to see more of a tendency to get the best of both worlds by layering elements of flat design and realistic 3D images. This can be through combining 3D design and flat design or through collages that combine flat design and photography like the beautiful dreamy posters created by Magdiel Lopez. His work bridges the gap between the simplicity of flat design and the complexity and authenticity of realism, and communicates interaction between the real and digital worlds. The combination of 3D and flat design can also be a way to bring goods to life, such as on the urban trekking shoe company Déplacé Maison website or highlight blended learning experiences like on the Ocean School website. 04. Playing with the elements Azure The Oceanic’s site offers an engaging sense of freedom with cursor-controlled play In web design, there’s a growing tendency to play with water, air and light to create engaging effects, which follows a trend in design in general towards rejecting rigid geometric lines and shapes in favour for soft, flowing lines. It’s fun and playful, approachable, easier on the eye and still feels new. The design and text on the Beyond Beauty project’s website seem to float around the space, conveying the sense of freedom that the project embodies. Expect to see a lot more free-floating elements in 2020 as we say goodbye to gravity. The theme for flowing shapes and lines is taken up also in the use of water and lights, for example, with cursor-controlled shimmer and ripple effects like in this site from property developers Azure The Oceanic. The Barovier & Toso website also uses cursor controlled liquid ripple and shimmer effects to give a sense of mystery and luxury to its products. 05. Heavy but simple fonts CPGD’s site is on trend for 2020 with bold simple text The trend for big and heavy fonts is not going to move easily. With people spending more of their time online on small screens, big fonts are practical, but it’s a trend that extends to the world of graphic design and even packaging, since they also look great and give personality to text. When it comes to thickness, the rule for 2020 will continue to be the bigger and bolder the better, with text taking centre stage and overtaking image and video as the main element. Designers are using bold or extra bold fonts paired with simple backgrounds or much lighter text to create interesting contrast in a design. Text may even go beyond a compositions edges, and be split into multiple lines. CPGD, a list of direct to consumer brands, is on trend with a site that uses bigger Helvetica Now Display much bolder than most ecommerce sites, which can often suffer from lots of small text. Large text is not only for headlines and titles, but sites like that of Germany agency Polar Gold show a trend to beef up the size of the text in paragraphs too, and expect to see more incorporation of movement too like in the bold and playful Piano Trio Fest site. 06. Dynamic live data visualisation The Economist showed lived data visualisation based on the reaction of fans during a football match Data visualisation has been a growing trend for years. And there’s much more to come. In 2020, complex live data – like dashboard stats – will become even more immediately available, and designers will need to showcase information in a way that adapts to changes and dynamically animates. In the past year, The Economist’s Reimagine the Game offers visualisation of fans' reactions in the stadium during football matches providing a kind of timeline of the match complete with goals and yellow cards. In 2020, expect data visualisations to go dynamic live, interactive and to cover everything. 07. AR and VR finally go mainstream AR and VR offer whole new design mediums It’s been a long time coming but VR is finally coming into the mainstream and is expected to become one of the most consumed technologies of the next few years. What's exciting for design is that more than being a trend, virtual reality offers a whole new medium to design for. UI and UX within VR is huge area in which to explore not only how we touch a screen but how we move around inside it. Expect big opportunities in holographic 3D design and virtual reality e-commerce solutions, while AR will increasingly offer more demand for digital animation, with magazines like The New Yorker bringing pages to life through our phones' cameras and Apple and Google introducing their own AR development platforms, ARKit and ARCore. And whatever happens in the areas of VR and AR is also bound to have an effect on wider design. Read more: 6 incredible design secrets you need to know 12 design fails that were so bad they were actually good 7 unexpected sources of inspiration all designers should consider View the full article