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Multiple critical memory safety bugs in Firefox 69 and Firefox ESR 68.1 in particular affect medium and large government entities and enterprises. View the full article

People are a fickle bunch, always getting bored with things and demanding exciting new stuff all the time. Wouldn't it be lovely if design could maybe just draw a line under everything and decide, yeah, that's it, it's all just going to look like this from now on? Then we wouldn't have to worry about keeping up with trends. But no, designers have to keep trying out new experimental design, ditching old ideas and techniques, and playing around with different palettes and styles, and if you don't stay abreast of what's happening then you'll quickly find that nobody loves your work any more. Harsh, but that's the way of the world. And let's face it, we all love a good trend. If you want to still be relevant this time next year, you'll want to feast your eyes on this new infographic from Coastal Creative. They've identified eight hot design trends that they reckon are going to be massive in 2020, and put them all down in a visual format. Are trends any good for branding? This is Coastal's sixth annual set of trend predictions, and they reckon that, being the first year of a new decade, 2020 is going to bring around some hugely exciting and eye-catching new looks. If you want your designs to hit the 2020 zeitgeist hard, then these you should be looking into incorporating some of these looks into your visual language. Forget about flat; realistic texture's back First up is VR panoramas – adding depth to web design by taking a leaf from the VR playbook and adding panoramic, parallax backdrops to sites. Next there's surreal product photos; rejecting naturalist settings for product shots, and dropping your product in front of surreal dreamscapes. Another innovation for promotional campaigns is zero gravity – using 3D modelling techniques to have your product floating in the air. And while flat design has been having its way for a long time, Coastal is predicting an upsurge in realistic textures, with plenty of tactile grain and contour to them. With so much data to try and make sense of, another prediction is a raise in abstract data visualisation – thinking beyond graphs and charts and finding more engaging ways of turning data into digestible narratives. Coastal believes that 2020's big colour is going to be yellow; it's the colour of youth and confidence, perfect for a fresh new decade, so expect to see yellow backgrounds and accents all over the place. For further visual impact, Coastal expects multimedia portraits to become a big thing; instead of using photographs or sketches of people, designers are mixing up various mediums within a single portrait to create much more exciting representations. And the final trend prediction is Earth & Sky 2.0: fantastical imagery of the earth and sky, inspired by cartography and astronomy to create something thoroughly other-worldly. You can see the full infographic below; to find out more, head for the more in-depth post over at Coastal Creative. Related articles: 5 of the hottest typography trends 3 trends that changed the design industry forever 6 big portfolio trends of 2019 View the full article

CSS is constantly evolving and a host of exciting new features have been added to make the specification an even more powerful weapon in a web designer's toolset. CSS Grid takes layouts to new levels not seen before, custom properties introduce the concept of variables while feature queries check for browser support. Media queries moves up a level with new accessibility properties, variable fonts offer maximum creativity with minimum code bloat while scroll snapping eliminates the need for JavaScript. Check out our cool CSS animation examples to see what you can create. For those looking to get a creative there is CSS Shapes for uniques layouts and a host of blend modes and filters to introduce Photoshop style design effects. Read on to find out how you can use these must-try features in your latest builds. 01. Custom properties If you’ve use a preprocessor like Sass, or indeed a programming language like JavaScript, you’ll no doubt be familiar with the concept of variables — values that are defined for reuse throughout your code. Custom properties enable us to do this in our CSS, without the need for preprocessors. Variables can be set at the :root level (creating global variables) or scoped within a selector. They can then be called using the syntax var(-›-myVariableName). For example, we might set a variable called --primaryColor like this: Now we can use that variable as a property value: Custom properties are inherited, which has some very useful implications. One of those is theming. Take the above example: We can define a global variable ( #f45942 – a bright orangey red) for --primaryColor at the root level, so every instance where we use this variable the value will be red. But we’re also redefining the same variable within a selector, with a different value (#4171f4 – medium blue). So for every instance where we use the --primaryColor variable within that selector, the computed value will be blue. Setting defaults The scoping of variables is a great feature, but one that might catch you out on occasion! If you try to use a variable that is not yet defined, the resulting value will fall back to the browser default, or an inherited value, rather than a variable defined further up the cascade. In some cases, it might be appropriate to set a default value: How do custom properties differ from preprocessor variables? Custom properties differ from preprocessor variables in a few key ways. Preprocessor variables are compiled before your code is sent to the browser. The browser never sees that a value is a variable, it only sees the end result. Custom properties are computed in the browser. You can inspect them in modern developer tools, change the variable and see the resolved value. They are dynamic variables, meaning their values can be changed within CSS, or at runtime with JavaScript. Unlike preprocessor variables, custom properties can’t be used within selector names, property keys or media query declarations — only CSS property values. CSS preprocessors still have plenty of benefits, so we’re likely to see them sticking around for a while longer, but they’ll likely be used more often in combination with custom properties. 02. Feature queries Feature queries are a way to test whether a browser supports a particular CSS property-value combination within your CSS file. They virtually remove the need for feature-detection libraries like Modernizr. The syntax is similar to a media query: You use the at-rule @supports, followed by your property-value pair, wrapping the code to be executed if the browser meets the specified conditions. Feature queries are well-supported in modern browsers, but they are relatively new, and one “gotcha” is that some browsers you might want to test for support might not support feature queries themselves. Often the best way to handle this is to provide fallback styles first (outside of the feature query), then wrap your enhancements for supporting browsers inside the @supports rule. Be aware, feature queries need only be used sparingly. One of the great features of CSS is that browsers will simply ignore any properties or values that they don’t understand. It’s best to only employ feature queries when not doing so would cause a visual bug, otherwise you could be setting yourself up for a lot of extra work. Check the caniuse.com website to check browser support for feature queries How to use feature queries To test for support of a single property value, we can provide the fallback first. In this example, we’re providing a flexbox fallback for browsers that don’t support Grid layout. 03. Media queries You’ll likely be accustomed to using media queries to detect the width and height of the viewport, and the type of media (most commonly screen or print). The level 5 Media Queries specification brings us some newer media features to (optionally) test for, which are already supported in some browsers. These offer some great benefits for accessibility. Users with vestibular disorders, and those who suffer from motion sickness, may not appreciate web pages with a lot of motion, such as animations and parallax scrolling effects. Using the prefers-reduced-motion media query, we can provide users who opt out with a reduced-motion alternative. It’s becoming increasingly popular for websites to provide an alternative dark theme. Prefers-colors-scheme allows us to query whether the user has set a system-wide preference (using the keywords dark, light, or no-preference), and show the appropriate colour scheme accordingly. 04. Variable fonts Check out Axis-Praxis, a website for playing with OpenType Variable fonts In general, if we want to include a number of different fonts faces of the same family on our webpage, we would need to load the same number of font files. The more font files you load, the more weight you add to your page, with an impact on performance — so it’s usually wise to load a maximum of three or four font files (depending on your performance budget). Variable fonts change all that. They enable us to load a single font file for an entire font family. Although this file will usually be larger than a single font would, if you want to take advantage of different weights and styles, then a variable font is the more performant solution. Variation axis Not only that, but with variable fonts, we’re not limited to a small subset of font weights. When working with regular fonts, the available font weights are given in multiples of 100. Typically, 400 might be the regular weight, 300 the light weight, and 700 the bold weight — with different families supplying more weights or fewer. Variable fonts have an axis of variation, which provides us with a range of values for properties like the font weight. A font might have an axis of 1–900, which would provide us with access to 900 different weights! The axis of variation is not just limited to weight. Variable fonts can have different axes for x-height, slant, serif length and contrast (to pick just a few examples) — meaning that a single font file could give us access to hundreds, or even thousands of variations! We could even animate these properties, enabling us to achieve some really cool effects. Mandy Michael (https://codepen.io/mandymichael) has a whole load of creative demos that really test the limits. Browser support for variable fonts is pretty good, and many font foundries are actively developing new variable fonts that you can start using now — although these often come at a premium, especially for the more fully-featured font families. If you just want to get started playing around with variable fonts to see what they can do, there are a number of variable font playground sites: Be aware, if you want to use variable fonts right now you need to make sure you’re using an up-to-date operating system — they won’t work on older OSs. Font-variation-settings While we can alter the font weight easily enough with the font-weight CSS property, font-variation-settings is a new property that gives us full access to a font’s different axes of variation. These include both registered axes and custom axes. Registered axes There are five different registered axes, which correspond to various CSS properties. Each of these has what’s known as an “axis tag”. The registered axes are: wght (font-weight), wdth (font-stretch), slnt (font-style: oblique/angle), ital (font-style: italic), opsz (font-optical-sizing). We can access these axes either by the CSS property, or with font-variation-settings. These axes are not necessarily all included in every variable font (some may only have one or two axes), but they are likely to be the most common. Custom axes Custom axes are bespoke axes included by the font designer, and could be anything at all. They could include (for example) serif length, x-height, even something more creative (and less typographically typical), like rotation. Both types of axes must be expressed as a four-character tag. Registered axes must be lowercase, while custom axes are uppercase. Both can be combined in the font-variation-settings property. Font-variation-settings is animatable, which can allow for some very cool UI effects! Some very interesting experiments have been produced using icon fonts too. 05. Graphical effects CSSgram is a tiny library for recreating Instagram filters If you’re familiar with design tools like Photoshop and Illustrator, you might be aware of blend modes and how they can be used to produce different effects on images. The way blend modes work is to blend two or more layers together using mathematical formulae to calculate a resulting value for each pixel. The layers could be anything — images, gradients or flat colours. Some blend modes produce a darken result (e.g. multiply, which multiplies the pixel values of the layers), some a lighter one (e.g. screen and overlay). We don’t need to understand the maths in order to use them, however. Playing around with different blend modes can give us a good feel for which of them produce the desired results when combined with different layers. With the CSS properties mix-blend-mode and background-blend-mode, we can achieve Photoshop-like image effects in the browser. Both properties take the same values, but work slightly differently. Background-blend-mode Background-blend-mode blends together the background layers of the element we’re targeting. Our element could have background images, colours and gradients, and they would all be blended with each other without affecting the foreground content. We can specify multiple values for background-blend-mode, one for each background layer. Mix-blend-mode Mix-blend-mode affects how the element blends with its parent and its siblings, including any foreground and background content, and pseudo-elements. Some interesting creative effects can be achieved by blending overlaid pseudo-elements (::before and ::after). CSS filters CSS filters can also be used to create striking visual effects, using the filter property and filter function values. Unlike blend modes, they apply a graphical effect directly to the element they are targeting, and an element can have multiple filters applied. Convert to grayscale We can manipulate the colours of an element with a greater degree of control than relying on blend modes. Filters can convert an image to grayscale, adjust the brightness, contrast and saturation, blur an element or add a drop shadow. They can also be animated too, and look great with hover effects. SVG filters CSS filters are in fact simplified versions of SVG filters. The CSS filter property also takes a url() function, allowing us to pass in a URL to an SVG filter. SVG filters are extremely powerful and allow for some incredible image effects — but they’re also far more complicated than CSS filter functions! Sara Soueidan has a wonderful article series on Codrops if you’re interested in diving into coding your own custom SVG filters. Check out the article at https://tympanus.net/codrops/2019/01/15/svg-filters-101/ Clipping and masking: beyond rectangles We’re used to dealing in boxes on the web, but not everything has to be rectangular! Clipping and masking are two sides of the same coin, and are different ways to hide and show different parts of an element so that the background shows through. This gives us the power to introduce interesting and creative shapes to our designs. Clip-path The clip-path() property allows us to “cut out” an element by defining a path. It takes a number of basic shape functions, inset(), circle(), ellipse(), or polygon(), which allows us to craft more complex cutout shapes using pairs of xy co-ordinates to define the path. Alternatively, we can also pass in an SVG path using the path() function, or using url() to provide an SVG path ID. Not inside the path Clipping an element clips everything outside of the path you define, but the element itself is still a rectangle. If you have content which extends out of the clip path’s boundary, that too will be clipped — it won’t wrap inside the shape. Mask-image mask-image enables us to show and hide parts of the image by using an image (SVG or transparent PNG) or gradient as a mask. Unlike clip-path, we can add texture to our images with masking, as the mask source doesn’t need to be a path — it allows for degrees of transparency. 06. CSS Shapes The CSS Shapes specification allows us to wrap text around floated geometric shapes, creating some interesting, magazine-like layouts. This is made possible using the shape-outside property. Similar to clip-path, we can give this property a basic shape function circle(), ellipse(), inset(), polygon(), or a URL to an SVG path, and in fact the two work in harmony very well! shape-outside will wrap our text effectively, but it won’t affect the floated element. If we want the text to look like it’s wrapping around the image or floated object, we can use the same value for clip-path. Use shape-margin to add whitespace between the shape path and the content wrapping it. Take a look at the Stuff & Nonsense site to see how CSS Shapes is used to wrap text around a central image. Firefox has a shape-path editor within the dev tools panel, which is especially useful for working with complex shapes. However, use with caution. Wrapping the leading edge of a paragraph of text is great for artistic effect, but is not always great for user experience. Complex jagged shapes can make blocks of text harder to read. For important content, you might want to steer clear. 07. Scroll snapping Michelle Barker's CodePen demonstrates scroll snapping in action Many websites take advantage of JavaScript libraries to provide a slick, native app-like scroll experience, where content “snaps” to points as the user scrolls. Now, with the Scroll Snap specification, we can do this right within our CSS file — there’s little need to import in heavy JS modules to bloat your page! To implement scroll-snapping we need an element to act as our scroll container. The direct children of the container dictate the points that will be snapped to, and can be aligned in various ways within the snap area. Scroll snapping can be even more effective when combined with another new CSS property value — position: sticky. This position value “sticks” an element to a specified position while scrolling within its container — another behaviour that was previously only possible with JavaScript. Check out this Scroll snap with position: sticky and intersectionObserver example. 08. CSS Grid and layouts Front-end developers have hacked layout with whatever tools were available to use at the time — most recently flexbox, which a lot of modern grid systems use. But flexbox was never designed for building strict grids — its purpose is flexibility! CSS Grid is the first specification that’s designed for two-dimensional layout, allowing us complete control over building a layout and placing items on both the row and the column axis. Building a responsive layout with Grid doesn’t require calc() or hacking around with negative margins. The secret weapon is the fr unit — a new unit exclusive to grid. The fr unit sizes grid tracks (rows and columns) as a proportion of the available space. It takes into account any fixed tracks, gutters and content, then distributes the remaining space accordingly. Jen Simmons coined the term “Intrinsic Web Design” to describe the new era of web layout that Grid ushers in. How to use CSS Grid Grid requires an element with the display property value set to grid, to act as the grid container. The direct children of the grid container are the items that can be placed on the grid. We use the properties grid-template-rows and grid-template-columns to define the tracks (rows and columns) of the grid, and column-gap and row-gap to define the gutters (the gaps between the tracks). We’re using the repeat() function to keep the code more concise, as an alternative to the longhand (e.g. grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr). This example also uses the shorthand gap for row-gap and column-gap. The code above gives us four row tracks, each 100px high, and four column tracks that each fill an equal proportion of the available space, using the fr unit. It’s worth noting that this isn’t the only way to create grid tracks. Implicit tracks can also be created by placing grid items. It’s useful to read up a bit about this if you’re using Grid, as it pays to get a deeper understanding of how Grid behaves under different conditions, and can make coding a layout much easier. We can place items on the grid by referencing grid line numbers, which are numerical lines that sit between each track. Here, we’re using the shorthand grid-column and grid-row for grid-column-start, grid-column-end, grid-row-start and grid-row-end. These tell the browser at which line our item should start and end on each axis. Grid provides us with many different ways to place items: we could instead name our grid lines: Alternatively, the grid-template-area property lets us “draw” a grid layout with text. Using either of these methods, we can simply reference the corresponding grid area when placing a grid item: This article was originally published in creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 290 now. 10 best CSS frameworks in 2019 How to add animation to SVG with CSS 52 web design tools to help you work smarter in 2019 View the full article

It was a big day for Star Wars fans yesterday as the final trailer and poster design for The Rise of Skywalker dropped. And while the trailer (above) promises lots of thrills, spills, and epic confrontations, our excitement levels have also been raised by Dan Mumford's incredible illustrated poster for showings of the film in IMAX theatres. We've already taken a look at stunning poster designs to inspire you, and this one definitely sits up there with the best of them. Realised in Mumford's distinctive style, the poster sees Rey confronting Kylo Ren in a storm-lashed wreckage that could be the remains of the Death Star. Roll on 20 December The shot depicted in the poster is taken from one of the trailer's more talked-about sequences. Just where are the two characters fighting? And crucially, who will win? We'll have to wait until The Rise of Skywalker is released on 20 December 2019 to find out. Check out these incredible posters for movies that never happened But what we love about this poster is Mumford's masterful use of colour. The use of red and blue in the lightsabers and the background indicates that this will be a spectacular confrontation. Combined with his swirling line work and dynamic composition, we think Mumford's created a poster worthy of the film. And if you look closely, you'll see that this is poster one of four. Mumford confirms on his Instagram that there are "more to be revealed later this year", and we can't wait to see what he comes up with next. Mumford is no stranger to Star Wars when it comes to illustration. On his official site, you'll see artwork for The Last Jedi, The Empire Strikes Back and A New Hope, so it's satisfying to see him complete a full set of drawings for the franchise. As for the official theatrical poster for The Rise of Skywalker, check it out below. Just who are those new characters? Is this the end of the saga? Related articles: Star Wars artist on how to land that dream job 5 striking Star Wars posters Solo movie posters are a typographic treat View the full article

Email newsletters are a great way to communicate your brand message for very little outlay. And, there are some great tools out there that will help you build and manage email newsletters with ease. If you're keeping it simple, then most of the tools in our list will have you covered. However, if you want to up the ante and include more specific or advanced features then you need to do a little more research to make sure you get what you want. If you want to add top quality templates to your chosen plan, check out our free newsletter templates post. In this roundup of the best email newsletter tools, we've outlined the particular strengths of each service so you can pick the right one for you the first time around. We've included some pricing information that will give a quick guide to the basic plans, but they are more plans available. 01. AWeber Create good-looking templates in seconds with AWeber Price: Starts at $19 a month AWeber is a long-standing tool with a host of powerful features including its free Smart Designer that allows you to create good-looking templates in seconds. What else does it do? It automatically creates emails from blog posts, has a drag and drop editor with over 700 mobile responsive email templates and the option to apply tags to trigger automated email campaigns. There is a suite mobile apps to use, subscriber management and segmenting and email tracking to gauge performance with analytics. 02. MailChimp MailChimp is known for its cheerful copy Price: Get started with a Free account MailChimp is the first thing to pop into many people's head when they think of email newsletters, and for good reason. There's a huge template selection and loads of features that make it easy to run a great-looking campaign that displays well on nearly all email clients. MailChimp integrates with the major ecommerce providers including WooCommerce, Shopify and Magento, so you can use your purchase data to improve your emails. 03. Benchmark Benchmark is available in nine different languages Price: Start with a Free account Benchmark's superpower is its international focus – if you need things in lots of languages this is probably the one for you. It's available in nine different languages. The email newsletter tool also emphasises its high-quality, international customer support as a key selling point, and the company has offices in 15 countries including China and Japan. 04. Campaigner Campaigner gives you fine control over your campaigns Price: Starts at $19.95 a month If you want fine control over your campaign, Campaigner has some really advanced features that enable you to send emails based on very specific triggers. For example, you can send email based on what customers did with a previous email, when they fill in particular forms on your website, or when they make a purchase. 05. GetResponse GetResponse is a full marketing suite Price: Starts at £11 a month Sometimes marketing activities end up growing beyond what was initially intended. GetResponse has a pricing structure that enables you to start with email marketing and move into landing pages, webinars, autoresponders and enterprise features if and when you need to. The email editor has a built-in mobile preview function, 220 email templates, 700 webform templates, 5000 stock images, and segmented lists which enable you to target customers more accurately. 06. Mailjet MailJet delivers your emails promptly Price: Starts at $8.69 a month Timing is often a big factor in the effectiveness of your email newsletter strategies, and that could be ruined by a service that's too slow to deliver. Performance is a strong focus for Mailjet, as are resources for developers – if you want to build something that sends email, this one is a good choice for you. Like Benchmark, it also has good international capabilities with offices in seven countries and support in four languages. Mailjet also emphasises its capacity to work at scale – it is a good option if you're a large company with huge email lists. 07. MailUp MailUp lets you pay according to how quickly your messages need to arrive Price: Depends on features and delivery speed In situations where cost is more important than timing, MailUp is a good pick. It has a clever pricing structure where you pay according to how quickly you need the messages to arrive. As an example, you can send 6,000 mails in 2 hours using the Web plan for just $60 a month. It's a great price if slower mail is OK. 08. Emma The user experience at Emma is top notch Price: Starts at $89 a month Emma distinguishes itself from the rest of the email newsletter tools with its exceptional design and user experience. It's a joy to use (as far as these things can be!), and it has a lot of powerful marketing features that are presented in a way that won't intimidate a new user. The built-in templates are beautiful and easy to customise, and it has all the features you'd expect from a serious email newsletter service. There's also editions tailored to the needs of universities, restaurants, retailers and non-profits, which we haven't seen elsewhere. 09. Constant Contact Constant Contact offers a 60-day free trial Price: Starts at £15 a month Constant Contact is often said to be one of the more reliable services for its price bracket, and you can try that out thoroughly for yourself, as you can trial this email newsletter tool free for 30 days. Includes WooCommerce integration, dozens of mobile-friendly templates, landing pages and access to a free gallery of stock images. 10. Sendloop Get great features for a good price Price: Get started with a free account We like Sendloop for its combination of powerful features and pricing that offers good value for money. It's great if you want a really easy builder for non-technical people, and marketing tools to target your campaign just the way you want. There's also a developer platform for building marketing apps that you can sell to other users. 11. Campaign Monitor Campaign Monitor's AppStore lets anyone build an app to customise how things work Price: Starts at $9 a month Campaign Monitor is easy to use, has loads of features and is reasonably priced, but Campaign Monitor's major advantage is its AppStore, which facilitates integrations with a large number of other apps and services. Check out the AppStore to see what it can do. Related articles: The creative's guide to email management 19 tips for great email newsletter design 78 best free fonts for designers View the full article

If you have fond memories of playing Tetris or Pokemon on a chunky '90s Game Boy, an upcoming console from American tech company Analogue is sure to appeal to your nostalgic side. That's because the Analogue Pocket can play classic Game Boy cartridges, and it makes them look better than ever before. Given that the Game Boy inspired generations of creatives to make their own games and pixel art, this release is sure to go down a storm with readers of a certain age. After all, an emulator just isn't quite the same as slamming in a cartridge and giving your thumbs a good workout on a portable handheld system. Described by Analogue as a "tribute to portable gaming", the Analogue Pocket is compatible with the 2,780 plus cartridges that Nintendo put out for the Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance. And with the help of an adapter, it can also play retro games from Sega's Game Gear, SNK's Neo Geo Pocket Color and the Atari Lynx. Just when you thought you'd outgrown Tetris Scheduled for release in 2020, the Analogue Pocket has a screen resolution of 1,600 by 1,440 pixels. To put that in context, that's 10 times the clarity of the original Game Boy screen. It also has a 3.5-inch LCD screen and "pro level color accuracy," meaning that your favourite games from yesteryear will look crisper than ever. However the layout of the buttons on the Analogue Pocket might play havoc with your muscle memory if you spent your youth with a Game Boy permanently gripped in your hands. Not only are they unlabelled, but the 'start' and 'select' buttons have been moved to the right-hand side of the console. Speaking to Dezeen, Analogue founder and CEO Christopher Taber said" "I think with all Analogue products we're approaching the design with a 'perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away' philosophy." We don't recommend playing games like this Another nice touch is the inclusion a music creation software called Nanoloop. This pre-installed tool works as a sequencer and synthesiser. This is a welcome addition considering that the Game Boy's previous music program cartridge, the Little Sound DJ, is as rare as hen's teeth. If you want to get your hands on an Analogue Pocket, head over to the Analogue site now and sign up with your email address. The console will ship for $199, which is pretty reasonable when you remember that back in the day a Game Boy would set you back $89.99. Related articles: Playdate is the most adorable games handheld ever 5 casual games for designers How to create a video game character in ZBrush View the full article

The Qode Instagram Widget and Qode Twitter Feed both have bugs that could allow redirects to malicious sites. View the full article

A lot of different ingredients go into creating the perfect co-working space. For a start, the space should be beautiful, but also supremely functional. I t helps if there's a sense of history to the building, providing a unique atmosphere. Plus there should be a sense that you're not just about making a fast buck from renting desks, but a wider goal and visual that creatives can truly get behind. Of course, all that will count for nothing without that elusive ingredient 'X': an atmosphere and a sense of community that makes your co-working space more than simply the sum of its parts. And that's supremely challenging to achieve in practice. These 11 co-working spaces have somehow managed to do just that. Read on, as we salute these brilliant businesses, which day in, day out, inspire the independent professionals that gather and work there towards true creative greatness. 01. Gather Round (Bristol, UK) Gather Round was designed by creatives, for creatives Gather Round is a co-working space created by creatives, for creatives. It was founded in 2018 by Ben Steers and Jason Smith after they’d tried and failed to find a suitable workspace for their Bristol design studio, Fiasco Design. Speaking to other creatives, they realised that they weren’t alone in their quest, so they decided to do start their own space instead. After two years of research and planning they designed and built Gather Round, a co-working space that’s been specially crafted to encourage community and collaboration. Recommended to us by Nicolas Alpi, web developer and co-founder of Cookies HQ, and Lisa Hassell, creative consultant and director of Inky Goodness, Gather Round is located on the ground floor of the Cigar Factory, an original 1900s red brick building a stones throw from North Street in Southville. It features both fixed and casual desks, private studios, meeting rooms, a large communal kitchen, and intimate break-out areas for meetings, events and workshops to take place in. 02. The Ministry (London SE1, UK) The Ministry brings the glamour of its sister nightclub to the co-working scene A sister organisation to the famed Ministry of Sound nightclub, The Ministry is a sumptuously designed shared workspace converted from an old Victorian printworks in London, SE1. Four floors of light, spacious offices, and two floors of facilities add up to a place that’s home to a buzzing and vibrant community of creatives and entrepreneurs. Recommended to us by Jules Beazley, agent and co-founder of Create Zine, The Ministry is aimed at “the artistic and the innovative” and their cultural programming celebrates underground, homegrown talent, and thought-provoking talks and events. You'll also find here London’s longest copper bar, a 39-seat cinema, private sound studios, gym, a cafe and private dining rooms, an outdoor heated garden with bar and a welcoming dog policy. There’s even a Tequila and Mezcal bar in, er, the public restrooms. You certainly won’t find that in your local Starbucks. 03. Second Home (Spitalfields, London, UK) This visually stunning space is filled with light and colour Second Home is a chain of visually stunning co-working spaces stretching from Los Angeles to Lisbon to London. They have four offshoots in the UK capital, at Holland Park, Clerkenwell, London Fields and Spitalfields, and if we were forced to choose a favourite we’d probably pick the latter, although it's a close-run thing. Designed by Spanish architects Selgascano, Second Home Spitalfields is a mix of visually stunning workspaces created for individuals and teams, near the famous Brick Lane area of London. Recommended to us by freelance design director David Moloney, it aims be a “workspace as creative as you are”, and include a rooftop roaming space, thousands of plants and trees, cool breakout spaces, a light-filled cafe, a bookshop, and an event space for up to 200 people. 04. Platf9rm (Brighton, UK) Friendly, light and bright, Platf9rm is a co-working gem on the south-east coast PLATF9RM in Brighton and Hove offers contemporary workspaces that enable its members to flourish through collaboration. Members get access to a range of desk space, from collaborative and shared working environments to private office rooms. There's also a programme of educational and social events, encouraging people to connect and reinforce the collaboration the space is designed for. Set up in 2016, its co-working space has grown to over 600 members across both the Brighton and Hove sites. “I've been working out of @platf9rm in Brighton for a few months, and it's very thoughtfully designed,” says Tom Prior, freelance digital product designer and co-organiser of UX Camp Brighton. “It’s friendly, bright and the staff are lovely,” adds freelance copywriter, editor and proofreader Matt Chittock. 05. The Guild (Carlisle, UK) The Guild in Carlisle is full of quirky, arty touches The Guild is a shared office space in Carlisle offering co-working and hot desking to help bring companies and creatives closer together. It also hosts monthly social and business events, from going out bowling to peer-to-peer sessions aimed at turning business problems into opportunities. “I frequently work from Guild Carlisle and it's lovely,” enthuses freelance web developer Dan Matthews. “We even have our own piece of street art on the side, courtesy of Austrian artist TABBY." 06. Tribe (York, UK) Tribe is a dedicated space for social entrepreneurs in York Recommended to us by York-based freelance designer Grace Abell, Tribe has a bit of an early 90s rainbow vibe going on, as you can see from the picture above. But that’s not the only thing that makes it stand out. Tribe is York’s first social incubator, providing space and support for businesses, entrepreneurs and innovators. In other words, unlike most co-working spaces, you can only become a member if you have a social purpose and do something good for the wider community. The interior has an authentic, industrial feel, with lots of different desk options, all housed in a Grade 1 listed building, along with a bike shelter and free fresh coffee, biscuits and fruit. 07. Fueled Collective (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) Based in the old Grain Exchange, Fueled's downtown Minneapolis space is strikingly beautiful Fueled Collective has five locations across Minneapolis, St Paul and Chicago, but it’s the Minneapolis Downtown space that’s made the most impact on Carolyn Porter, graphic and type designer and author of Marcel’s Letters. “It’s been converted from the former Minneapolis Grain Exchange, and it's stunning,” she enthuses. But it’s not just about historical good looks. Offering co-working memberships for freelancers and remote workers, alongside private and semi-private workspaces for businesses with employees, the ethos of Fueled Collective is all about encouraging a collaborative environment for productivity, networking and socialising. The concept is founded on the idea of bringing together work life, nightlife, events, and most importantly, people, in one place. In their own words: “You can work in an entrepreneurial community, connect at our social club, or host events and meetings that make a real impression.” 08. 1909 (West Palm Beach, Florida, USA) 1909 encourages experimentation and big thinking 1909 is a non-profit collective of creators who believes that if they work together, their ideas, projects and innovations will better the community. “We are unapologetically experimenting,” they explains. “We are a place for the process, the mess, the imperfection. We are a place for the unknown to become known.” Recommended by Jenni Schwartz, creative director at Solmark Creative and founder of Creative Mornings Palm Beach, this gorgeous-looking workspace has been deliberately crafted to inspire creative breakthroughs. And to be blunt, if you just want to keep your head down and do your work, they don’t really want you there. “Don’t join 1909 because you need a cool place to work,” they stress. “Join because you're ready to be part of something bigger than yourself.” To help you achieve this, 1909 offers a community space for creation and collaboration; a mentorship platform to connect you with advisors and expanders; a startup accelerator; and a series of community gatherings for art, technology, wellness, and music innovators. 09. Starspace 46 (Oklahoma City, USA) Starspace 49 wants creatives to build startups locally, rather than leave for Silicon Valley "Check out what this neat little group has done in this tiny city of ours," the folks behind media collaboration and project management app Cage told us. Well, we did, and we very much like what we see. Starspace 46 is Oklahoma City's co-working community for all things entrepreneurial and tech. Offering flexible coworking spaces, meeting rooms, and small offices for rent, it's a place where technologists, investors, designers, entrepreneurs and dreamers can all meet, collaborate, share and create new ideas and new businesses. Perhaps most importantly, StarSpace - like many similar hubs around the US - aim to help convince tech-minded Oklahomans to stay in their own area and build something new and exciting there, rather than migrate to existing hubs like Silicon Valley. 10. Crew Collective Cafe (Montreal, Canada) Crew Collective Cafe offers spectacular surroundings with a laid-back vibe Many freelance creatives don’t ever use co-working spaces, and prefer the informality of workings in a cafe. But you can never be quite sure what kind of environment you’ll find there from day to day, and boisterous kids, disruptive teens, or raucous groups of adults can often combine to ruin your mojo. So how about a cafe that’s also a co-working space? That’s exactly what Crew Collective Cafe in Montreal has to offer, allowing you to “work by the month, the hour or the coffee”. Recommended to us by Noemi Stauffer, founder and curator of the Fresh Fonts newsletter, Crew Café is open to anyone and free to enter. But if you’d like to become a member of the Collective, or work in a private meeting room, that’s easy to do too. In short, it's an imaginative response to the current trend of viewing work and workspaces in less formal and more flexible ways. The cafe is owned and operated by people with tech company roots, and that’s obvious through the integrations that you’ll find in the space, from online ordering and delivery to your spot, live-updating menus, online meeting-room bookings, and Slack channels for members. All this, and you’re in quite sumptuous surroundings, too: on the ground floor of 360 St. Jacques, the original Royal Bank of Canada headquarters built in 1928, a lovely architectural echo of old Montreal style. 11. The Work Project (Singapore) The Work Project offers high-class co-working with luxury touches throughout Looking for truly high-scale co-working? Then The Work Project has you covered. Its award-winning co-working spaces in Singapore and Hong Kong consistently make ‘Best of’ lists by the likes of Forbes and Huffington Post, and for good reason. Filled with the kind of touches you’d normally only see in luxury hotels, these workspaces are both beautiful in form, and high-performance in function. Our favourite has to be the Asia Square Tower space in Singapore, which covers a majestic 41,000 square feet and features a first-of-its-kind vertical garden landscape, by renowned botanist Patrick Blanc and art installation by Gallery HUUE. View the full article

Should I go to art school? It's a question you'll be asking yourself if you want to join a big-name studio, work on AAA video games, blockbuster films or a groundbreaking TV series. Is a degree the best option, or would it be better to teach yourself through online tutorials and courses? We've spoken to artists who have lived through that decision, and come out the other side with great advice on which choice might be the best one for you. Whatever choice you make, though, you'll need a killer design portfolio, and you might even find a dream job or internship over on our design jobs board. So how do you decide? Usefully, Lauren Panepinto, creative director and VP of Orbit Books, has created a tongue-in-cheek flowchart that can help guide you towards an informed choice. Click to enlarge But if that hasn't quite helped you make up your mind for you, here are some more words of wisdom from successful artists. The formal path worked for artist Daniel Tal (Firefighter) In 2016, Daniel Tal graduated with a BA in applied arts animation from Sheridan College in Oakville, Canada. He’s since been employed as a story artist with Pipeline Studios in Hamilton, so the formal path clearly worked for him. Yet he has a startling admission. “I realised about a year or two into college that the entire curriculum, more or less, “was doable on my own,” he recalls. “Almost everything school teaches you, you can learn yourself through books and the internet.” That said, Tal doesn’t regret his BA. “I’m not the type of person who can self-regulate well,” he says, “and going through a formal programme forces you to avoid procrastination.” It also exposes you to things you might not have considered. “I only found interest in storyboarding in my second year of college,” says Tal. “Had I not gone, I don’t think I would have ever tried it.” School doesn't have it all Melanie Bourgeois sees the benefits in both pathways (art not named but based on The Wicked King, a book by Holly Black) Not all courses are perfect, of course. Mélanie Bourgeois, now a concept artist for Volta, had a less-than satisfactory experience studying 2D and 3D animation at a university in Quebec. “I was part of the first cohort, so a lot of things moved around when I attended,” she says. “None of the teachers were 2D animators, and while they were very nice, none of them had the skills to mentor a student hands-on when it came to 2D.” Consequently, Bourgeois had to fill in the gaps herself, using online learning resources. Yet she’s unsure how well she’d have coped if she’d self-taught entirely. “School helped me focus; I might have found it overwhelming all on my own,” she says. “Online learning also doesn’t provide the same level of contacts and networks, or force you to consume culture outside your personal tastes.” The choice largely depends, Bourgeois feels, on the individual. “I know many successful artists who are self-taught,” she says. “And no one is going to turn down a good artist because they don’t have a piece of paper.” Self-teaching can be overwhelming and frustrating, says Nick Fredin (artwork: Houdini) But if both paths are valid, which is right for you? “It’s a very tough decision, with many factors to consider,” says Nick Fredin of online course provider CG Spectrum. A major one is cost: “In the US, degrees can cost over $100,000, with no guarantee of a job at the end of it.” Going it alone, though, can be daunting. “Without structured pathways guiding you towards your goals, self-teaching can be overwhelming and frustrating,” he cautions. “Opening a tool like Maya for the first time can be pretty scary.” Student debt can be a factor Panepinto might have done thing a little differently (artwork for Petrovich Trilogy) So what's Panepinto's personal take? “I’m glad I went to art school,” she says. “But if I had to do it again, and go into deep debt as a result, I probably wouldn’t. I’d go to a community college, get a cheaper, well rounded degree, and study art on the side. I’d use the money I’d saved to travel to seminars and conventions, and take online mentorships.” You’d might expect Sean Andrew Murray – a concept artist for the entertainment industry who also teaches Illustration at Ringling College of Art and Design in Florida – to disapprove of self teaching. But he, too, can see the benefits. “It enables you to craft exactly the kind of education you want, without all of the stuff you don’t,” he says. “You can learn at your own pace, whether that’s slow and steady – perhaps while working another job – or rapidly, to get into the field quicker than the standard four year higher education program.” Building a network CG Spectrum offers courses in animation, VFX and game design One big disadvantage, though, is that it’ll probably be harder to build your network. “The best schools connect students with a network of professors – many of whom may be industry pros themselves – as well as advisers, visiting artists, networking and recruiting events, and also other students, who act as your support system for years to come,” Murray says. In truth, though, for most students it’s not a case of choosing between two directions, but a mixture of both. Those in academia will supplement their courses with online learning, while going the self-teaching route doesn’t necessarily mean taking a scattergun, isolated approach. Some online courses are pretty close to those offered by traditional universities. Take CG Spectrum, which offers courses in animation, VFX and game design. “We offer specialised online education taught by award-winning mentors who are working in the industry, so you’re being taught by the very best.” says Fredin. “Our courses are built with input from major studios, so you graduate with the skills that employers are hiring for. We cut out all the noise and only teach what’s industry-relevant, so students aren’t wasting their hard-earned money.” A virtual classroom The Oatley Academy offers a different approach to art education The Oatley Academy of Visual Storytelling, which helps artists further their careers in animation, illustration, games and comics, takes a similar line. As its founder, Disney artist Chris Oatley, says: “Although we’re an online school, we offer real-time mentorships, where you work with the instructor and your fellow classmates in a virtual classroom setting, just like you would in a physical school. To me, ‘Physical or online?’ is not the question. The question is: ‘How effective is the education?’” In general, Oatley recommends what he calls a “Frankenstein approach” to art education. “Seek out the best teachers – whether online or offline – and learn from them,” he advises. “It really can be that simple… and far more affordable.” This article was originally published in ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists. Subscribe to ImagineFX. Read more: How to break into pixel art How to get a design job: 7 expert tips Design jobs: find your dream role with Creative Bloq View the full article

Welcome to Creative Bloq's guide to canvas painting for beginners. Making the move from working in a sketchbook to painting on canvas can seem daunting to the uninitiated, so this article will fill you in with everything you need to know – from the kit you need to how to prepare your canvas for painting. Canvas is an archetypal artists’ support (artists’ canvas and paper are referred to as supports), and offers a wealth of advantages over paper. If you need more advice on painting, see our posts on art techniques or oil painting techniques. We're going to help you weave your way through the many choices available to an artist and help you enable your work to stand the test of time. Use the drop-down menu opposite to jump to the section you want. Types of canvas For centuries, oil paintings were done on specially prepared wooden panels. These gave a great rigid surface to paint on but environmental factors could cause cracking and warping. They were also heavy to transport. Soon, lightweight stretched canvas soon became the popular choice for painters. Walk into any art shop and the most common canvases available are made from cotton canvas pre-primed with acrylic gesso, with linen canvas primed with oil primer at the more expensive end of the ‘pre-made’ market. If you're going to really splash out, larger art shops will often offer a bespoke canvas-making service. You'll end up with a quality pre-made canvas that will stand the test of time, but expect to pay a proper price for it. Which canvas should I buy? When choosing a canvas, remember you get what you pay for. Linen offers a fair superior surface to paint on due to its greater strength and finer surface, when compared to cotton. Given the choice, we'd always plump for fine Belgium linen primed with an oil primer to give a lovely smooth and non-porous surface. However, if you're just getting started with canvas painting, it might make sense to pick up a cheaper cotton canvas to experiment on first. You can always improve a cheap pre-made cotton canvas by re-priming with an oil primer. ... a note on wooden corners One element of canvas painting that artists often miss is the little bag of wooden wedges supplied with each canvas. These are really important but often thrown in a drawer. These wedges are designed to be hammered into the holes on internal corners of your canvases to create tension on the canvas surface. This is vital to ensure a taut surface so you can control your brushstrokes. You might want to invest in a good rubber mallet for knocking in your wedges without damaging the stretcher bars! Alternatives to canvas Canvas boards are great for studies, they’re thin, lightweight to transport and smaller sizes don’t tend to warp. As the name suggests, they’re made by glueing primed canvas to a board, usually a cardboard. Because they’re made using canvas they tend to have a tooth to the surface which is great for showing off brushstrokes. If you're handy at DIY, a homemade version could save you money overall – take a look at our guide to how to make your own canvas boards. Gessobords by Ampersand are expensive compared to canvas boards but well worth the investment. They’re made from a high-density hardwood so they’re much stronger and still lightweight. They also come in a variety of thicknesses from standard 1/8” to 3/4”, 1 1/2” and 2”. They have a non-porous and lightly sanded surface that allows for great brush control, making Gessobords a top quality alternative to traditional wooden panels and linen canvases. Metal can be a great alternative to wood as its extremely smooth, naturally non-porous, doesn’t rot and is lightweight. Copper is the best choice, but aluminium is also a good option. It’s important to still treat the surface with decent oil primer to make sure your paint bonds to the metal. Take care though, most boards and canvases will take the odd knock but a metal support will need extra TLC. Primers: Porous or non-porous? Whatever material you choose to use for your support, you’ll need to prime it. Primed canvases can be put into two main camps, porous and non-porous. An acrylic gesso primer will make your canvas porous, while an oil primer will make your canvas non-porous. The basic principle is that a porous primed support will enable the paint to dry quicker as the water content of the paint is drawn into the support itself. A non-porous support will allow the paint to dry naturally through evaporation only. The two main advantages to using a non-porous primer are the paint will stay wetter and more workable for longer and the oil paint will keep more of its lustre, or life. On porous primers the paint can look dead and chalky, because it has dried too quickly. A non-porous primer like Michael Harding Oil Primer will also give you more control of your brushstrokes, as the paint will glide over the surface, and stay wetter for longer. A non-porous primer will tend to drag the paint from the brush. How to prime a canvas When priming a support use a wide priming brush like a C Roberson to give an even finish. Start from one side of the support and work horizontally across the entire surface in one direction, and then allow to dry. Once dry turn the support 90-degrees and repeat the process, working across the brushstrokes of your first coat and allow to dry. Repeat as necessary. How to prepare your canvas for painting First: kill the white! Or put less dramatically, apply a ground of colour on your canvas. This not only gets rid of the daunting white, but also acts as a harmoniser. As you paint some of the ground will inevitably show through the brush strokes, creating a visually pleasant, harmonious effect. If using oil paints, I would advise applying the ground colour thinly mixed with a little Liquin drying medium the day you want to start painting properly, before to give it enough time to dry. Apply the ground colour roughly with a brush and then scrub it in with a wad of kitchen towel. Don’t be too precious, it doesn’t need to be perfect. Try experimenting with different coloured grounds. You will need to add more paint over a darker ground compared to a lighter one, but this can also give interesting results. Using a mahlstick You don’t need much equipment to get started with canvas painting, but what little you do need it’s worth investing in. A mahlstick is a great tool for canvas painting. It's basically a stick with a cork ball on the end covered in chamois leather. It’s primarily designed to give something for painters to lean when working on larger canvases, but they come in very handy with smaller canvas too. For more information, take a look at this article on how to use a mahlstick. Canvas painting for beginners: Get started So you've got your kit all ready, and your canvas primed and good to go. Time to start painting! How to approach this depends heavily on what kind of paint you're using. We've gathered our best advice articles together to help you continue on your canvas painting journey. Dive in... Oil painting Working in oils can feel scary – and to master oil painting requires knowledge of certain techniques you might not be used to. Explore these 10 essential oil painting tips for advice on getting started and how to manipulate the paint. For more advice on getting kitted out, take a look at this article detailing five things you need for oil painting. Acrylic painting Acrylic paints dry fast and can either be used straight from a tube or thinned with water and used more like a watercolour. This article runs though the acrylic painting tips you need to know to start working with this versatile, vibrant medium. General painting advice Ready to take your skills to the next level? Explore this painting techniques article for some more advanced tips, including using dry brushing, glazing and sgraffito. There are tips here that can be used for canvas painting with a range of different paint types. Read more: The best art easels in 2019 How to stop perfectionism from ruining your art How to find your art style View the full article

A survey of nearly 300 Black Hat conference attendees this year showed strong agreement that service accounts are an attractive target. View the full article

By monitoring their environment, companies can be ready to take action if any weakness – usually a software vulnerability – is found. View the full article

Online shopping has come a very long way in a relatively short space of time, and these days it's easy for anyone to set up their own online store. It might seem like a daunting prospect, but today's ecommerce platforms make it a breeze to get a store up and running. If you're a designer or illustrator wanting to earn more money from your work, setting up a store to sell your own prints or clothing is a straightforward job. And if you're a web designer, being able to build ecommerce websites on trusted platforms is a great way to bring in extra clients. There are loads of ecommerce platforms to choose from, and most of them offer free trials; to save you time, here are six of the best. The golden rules of awesome ecommerce experiences 01. Shopify Shopify's one of the biggest names in ecommerce It's hard to go wrong with Shopify. Almost certainly the biggest name in ecommerce platforms, it's been around since 2006 and promises that anyone, regardless of technical and design ability, can use it to easily set up a beautiful responsive store in minutes. Getting up and running is thoroughly straightforward; if you don't feel the need to design your own shop then there's a huge range of templates to choose from, and Shopify has its own CMS with which to manage your store, as well as mobile apps so you can run things when you're out and about. Shopify offers unlimited hosting for stores, accepts most credit cards and features Level 1 PCI compliance and 256-bit SSL encryption; there's also 24/7 support by phone, instant messaging or email. Prices start at $29 per month and there's a 14-day trial if you want to get a feel for it. 02. Volusion Volusion has plenty of customisable themes Designed as an all-in-one ecommerce solution that gives you all the features you need to create, manage and expend your store, Volusion's keen for you to test the waters with a free 14-day trial with no credit card required. As with most other ecommerce platforms it provides you with a set of fully customisable themes to play with, as well as an intuitive content editor; if your coding skills are up to the task then there's also a CSS editor that enables you to fine-tune your store's look. It offers hefty SEO tools as well as the ability to sell through Facebook, eBay and Amazon, and enables you to boost sale through gift cards, discounts and deals of the day. Volusion supports most payment methods, from credit cards through to Amazon Pay, PayPal, money orders and even good old-fashioned cash, and it provides a PCI-certified secure checkout as well as a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Prices start at $29 per month. 03. Bigcommerce Sell through social media with Bogcommerce's tools If you want to expand your market then Bigcommerce features some really useful tools for increasing your reach. It's recently updated to include integration with Amazon and Instagram, making it easy to either list your products on Amazon or sell directly through Instagram shopping posts and stories. Setting up your own store with Bigcommerce is nice and easy; it has plenty of templates and themes to choose from as well as the option to design your own store, and it also has its own CMS that enables you to run an entire site, not just a store, on its platform. Bigcommerce has over 40 pre-integrated payment pathways, heavyweight security including DDOS protection and fraud alerts, plus plenty of built-in marketing and SEO tools to help with visibility. Its small business-friendly Essentials service starts at $29.95 per month, and you can test it all out with a free 15-day trial. 04. 3dcart Need a gift-wrapping service? 3dcart can help Need a little extra from your ecommerce platform? If so, 3dcart has some cool features that are well worth exploring. On top of all the usual online store options that you'd expect, there are also neat modules that enable you to offer a gift-wrapping service, run a loyalty programme and allow recurring orders; all useful features if you want to go the extra mile for customer service. 3dcart provides a good free selection of customisable responsive templates to work with; you can build your own store from scratch if you prefer, and 3dcart can help you set things up so that everything's at the highest possible standard. It promises 99.9% uptime and SSL certification is available if you need it, and with over 200 payment methods supported it'll be easy for your customers to hand over their money. Pricing starts at $19 per month for a startup store, and there's a 15-day free trial available. 05. CoreCommerce All of CoreCommerce's features are available across its pricing tiers The trouble with the various pricing tiers available on most ecommerce platforms is that you'll find that some useful features are locked down to the more expensive plans. Not so with CoreCommerce; almost everything you get in its top-level Enterprise plan is available in some shape or form in its $19-per-month Personal plan. The only exception is custom SSL install, which we doubt will matter to you much. CoreCommerce provides all the tools you need to set up your own online store, with customisable responsive themes as well as a design service if you'd rather not do your own build. There's a setup wizard to help you get your products online and take care of taxes, shipping and payments, plus a mobile-friendly admin system and loads of integration options for third-party ecommerce tools. There are also over 70 payment gateways with a PCI Level 1-compliant checkout, and secure hosting via Rackspace with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. And as with most ecommerce platforms, there's a free trial available; 15 days in CoreCommerce's case. 06. Wix Stores Wix has a great ecommerce offering at a cheap starting price While you might think of Wix primarily as a website builder, it also has a sturdy ecommerce platform that enables you to sort out both your site hosting and store without having to juggle multiple accounts; perfect if you want to keep things simple. Wix Stores has over 500 templates that you can use to build your online store, complete with pro design features and business tools, and as well as enabling you to create a custom storefront with product collections, galleries, wishlists and more. You can use it to sell through Facebook and Instagram, and its secure online checkout accepts dozens of payment methods in over 40 currencies. There also SEO and other promotional tools to help you drive sales, and its prices start at just £13 per month for the Business Basic plan. Related articles: 4 money-making ecommerce redesigns to learn from Build an ecommerce site from scratch How to improve the performance of ecommerce sites View the full article

The logo for the Paris 2024 Olympics has been revealed, and it's made up of three symbols that will be familiar to most. There's the olympic rings, naturally, there's the Olympic flame, and then there's Marianne, who represents France. And these three symbols have come together in a logo that plays cleverly with negative space. Look at the logo design one way, and you get a flame, that basically looks like it has lips. So, a hot flame. And look at it the other way and you get a woman with a bob and some lips, so, a hot woman. Oh là là. The gold design (apart from representing gold medals), custom-designed typeface and Art Deco styling is a nod to the last time Paris hosted the games, in 1924. "Its pure, understated lines and its original typeface take their inspiration from Art Deco, the first complete artistic movement, which reached its height at the 1924 Games in Paris," says a statement announcing the logo. For the first time in Olympic history, this symbol will be used for both the Olympics and the Paralympics, the only difference will be the Olympic gold rings or the Paralympic agitos, which are underneath the logo. The Paris 2024 website says that "The Olympic and Paralympic Games represent two halves of the same project, symbolised by a single emblem and a shared vision that sport changes lives." This seems like a good idea to us, why have two lots of logos when you could have one? So... what do we think? Honestly? We're not sure quite yet. The Paris 2024 website has some examples of the logo and typeface in context, and like most logos, it looks much better in use than it does in isolation (see our guide to logo design), and there are lots of nice uses for the typeface that make it look even better. Although confusingly, in the video below, there's a capital 'I' instead of the lowercase one used in the logo. And we're sorry to say it, but we can't help but think it looks like either a) the Tinder app logo, aka a sexy flame b) a condom packet or c) a hair salon logo. There's nothing about it that makes us want to jump off the sofa/out of bed/away from our screen to do the javelin or the long jump or pursue some other Olympic dream. Does it make us want to go to Paris? Maybe. But we already like visiting Paris. Here are some more reactions from the web. Read more: Tokyo 2020 strikes gold with its recycled Olympic medals Is the Tokyo 2020 logo better than the official design? The surprising story behind the Joker logo View the full article

It looks like Photoshop isn't going to be the only big Adobe CC tool to expand onto the iPad. According to Bloomberg, Adobe plans to preview an iPad version of its vector graphics editor, Illustrator, at its upcoming Adobe MAX 2019 conference. Given that a "real Photoshop" for the iPad has been in the works for a while, it's no surprise to hear that Illustrator is said to arrive on the iPad some time in 2020. And it's good news for Apple users because according to the Bloomberg report, Illustrator for iPad will "mirror many of the features from the desktop version". So if you've been tempted by our best cheap iPad deals in 2019 but you've been on the fence, this could be the incentive you need to click 'add to basket'. Get Adobe Creative Cloud now This tactic of bringing a desktop application over to the Apple tablet is exactly what Adobe said it was going to do with Photoshop, which is currently in beta for the iPad. However Bloomberg also reported that key features and functions were missing from Photoshop for iPad, prompting Adobe's chief product officer of Creative Cloud, Scott Belsky, to reveal that it intended to "expand the capabilities" over time. So can we expect the same gradual introduction of Illustrator for the iPad? An Adobe spokeswoman remained tight-lipped, telling Bloomberg: "We have nothing new to share at this time." This doesn't mean that Adobe isn't taking the migration to iPad seriously though. According to the well-connected Daring Fireball's John Gruber, Adobe is "all-in" for Photoshop and other Creative Cloud tools on iPad. Just don't expect everything all at once. Adobe MAX runs from 2-6 November in LA, and we'll be bringing you all the updates as and when they happen. Relates articles: This adorable ghost illustration is breaking Twitter 13 best Adobe Illustrator plugins 2019 The 10 best alternatives to Photoshop View the full article

No one ever said that working in a creative profession was easy. For every commission that you absolutely smash out of the park, you're guaranteed to have at least one where you spend ages staring at a blank sheet of paper – or its digital equivalent – with the ideas obstinately refusing to flow. Whether you're a freelancer or an art director it's all too easy to get slapped by creative block, and it's good to have some inspiration to hand in order to kick start your creative processes when nothing's happening. And now thanks to Adobe you can get a little creative boost by simply shouting at Alexa. The Adobe Inspiration Engine is a free Alexa Skill that's designed to help anyone out of a creative rut. If you have an Amazon Echo, Echo Show, Fire TV Stick or the Amazon Alexa app, you can simply say, "Hey Alexa, open the Adobe Inspiration Engine," to get a quick shot of creative juice. How to come up with ideas Get some instant visual inspiration from Behance There are four main parts to the Inspiration Engine; the first, Quick Insight, aims to fire you up with an insightful quote from a leading creative mind, with the likes of Stefan Sagmeister, Jessica Walsh and Pascal Campion on hand to dole out bite-sized chunks of wisdom. If you need something a bit more practical there are also exercises in which influencers such as Elise Swopes will take you through activities designed to help get the creative gears turning. And if you need a bit of insight into what kind of creative you actually are, whether it's a Thinker, a Visionary, a Dreamer or something else entirely, you can take the My Creative Type quiz to find out how your mind works. And if your Alexa device has a screen you can simply get some Visual Inspiration, which serves up a gallery of inspiring imagery from Behance. The Adobe Inspiration Engine was prototyped using Adobe XD (you can check out the prototype here), and it's available now in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand for free. To install it from the Alexa Skill Store, just say, "Hey Alexa, enable the Adobe Inspiration Engine." Alternatively you can find it here. Don't have Alexa? Check these deals: Related articles: 5 ingredients of a killer idea Drawing ideas: No more staring at a blank canvas Illustrators reveal who inspired them to draw View the full article

You're reading Showcase of Creative Websites and Tips to Design Unique Ones for Your Clients, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! The global market continues to expand. That should mean more business for web designers, and for you. But, as with many good things, there’s a catch. The new clients are out there. More of them than ever. That’s the good … View the full article

Microsoft has been pretty busy recently, launching a number of exciting, shiny new products, including the new Surface Laptop 3. Available today, the device offers an impressive balance of performance and portability, with Intel’s recently-launched Ice Lake processors under the hood. With this latest update, Microsoft is clearly looking to position the Surface Laptop 3 ahead of the competition, arming it with specs equal to (and maybe even slightly better than) that of Apple's MacBook Air. But is it enough to make creatives consider a total switch? In our opinion, the short answer is a big yes. The smaller Surface Laptop 3 with a 13.5-inch screen, Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB RAM and a 128GB SSD will set you back $999. The similarly-specced MacBook Air, which features a slightly less powerful Core i5 processor and a screen size that is 0.2 inches smaller, costs $100 more at $1,099. But surely the Air has portability on its side, right? Well, the answer is yes, but only just. Both machines are just 0.6 inches thick, with the Surface Laptop 3 barely five grams heavier than its rival. When it comes to connectivity, the Surface Laptop 3 also outweighs the Air's two Thunderbolt 3 ports and headphone jack, with a USB-C port, USB-A input, a Surface Connect port and a headphone/mic jack. Add all of that up and it's hard to see why anyone would opt for a MacBook Air when the Surface Laptop 3 has almost identical features for $100 less. Okay, so there's the whole operating system question, and naturally there's an army of loyal Apple fans out there who will never be swayed. But for those looking for an equally powerful and slightly cheaper MacBook Air alternative, the Surface Laptop 3 looks to be a very worthy contender. If you want a slightly bigger laptop to work on, you can currently get a great deals on the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 at Best Buy, more details of which you can find below. If you're looking other devices in the Surface range, be sure to bookmark our dedicated Surface Pro Black Friday deals articles, which we will update with all the best offers as they arrive. Not in the US? Below you'll find the best prices on the new Surface Laptop 3 and MacBook Air in your area: View the full article

A bit of illustration can be an excellent way to enliven a design and bring a bit of humanity to it, particularly when it comes to web design. It's hard to spend any time on the web without coming across a collection of illustrated cartoon figures promoting a new startup; it's one of those hot web design trends that's not going away. If you want to incorporate illustration into your designs but don't know how to draw or where to start, here's a brilliant solution from Pablo Stanley. He's created a library of hand-drawn illustrations called Open Doodles, and he's released them for free under a Creative Commons licence so that you can use them in any way you wish. How to tell a story with your illustrations Open Doodles are free to use, copy, edit, remix, share, anything Stanley's a big advocate of open design; he explains that when he was young and wanted to get into digital design he had no money, so had to pirate software and steal CDs from tech magazines in order to learn his skills – at least, until he got caught. "I now offer my stuff for free," he says, "because I know other people are equally eager to learn and are looking for guidance, anywhere they can. I hope that opening my work helps them grow, get better at their craft, and make their parents proud." They may be free, but Stanley's Open Doodles don't compromise on quality. Rather than simply release his illustration as a set of static PNGs, he's making the actual source files available for download, so that you can check the layers and see how everything fits together, as well as getting a glimpse of his untidy process. "The opportunities to improve, build on top of, fix, and reinvent are yours to discover," he says. Use the generator to quickly set up your own colour scheme While some of the Open Doodles are scans of hand-drawn sketches, most are illustrations that were drawn on an iPad in Procreate, vectorised in Illustrator and then made into a library with global styles in Sketch before being exported as both SVG and PNG. As well as the downloadable images, Stanley has also built an Open Doodles Generator along with developer Fang-Pen Lin. This provides a straightforward interface that enables you to change the colours of the ink, accent and background for the illustrations, and then download a custom illustration pack in your chosen palette. There's also a set of ready-made compositions to make life even easier, as well as a gallery of example landing pages demonstrating how these illustrations can be put to work online. There's even an inspiring gallery to give you ideas on how to use the illustrations Under the CC0 license you're free to copy, edit, remix, share, or redraw the Open Doodles images for any purpose, without restriction. Stanley hopes that this will encourage other designers to create their own kits and share them with the world, and that Open Doodles will make it easer for designers to show the value of illustration in mockups. And while he's making his illustrations available for free, he also hopes that designers will use them as placeholders before going on to hire actual illustrators to help to help tell their stories; he even provides a set of useful links. To find out more and grab your own free illustrations, hit the Open Doodles site. Related articles: The illustrator hotlist 2019 How to move from animation to illustration 6 websites that use illustration brilliantly View the full article

Creating believable computer generated trees has always been a difficult challenge for 3D artists; as with all things in nature, no two trees are the same, and traditional cloning techniques do not lend themselves easily to natural creation. To create impressive 3D art that features realistic foliage, you either need a lot of time and talent or a quality software solution. Enter the award-winning SpeedTree. With this application, an artist can create a bespoke series of trees of any size, either through the supplied templates or entirely from scratch, with full control over every aspect of the creation and position of every element, from trunk to leaf. The products within SpeedTree vary from modelling to plugins, which work with digital content creation applications to create instances throughout a scene. The core application for CGI creation is SpeedTree Cinema. In SpeedTree Cinema all the tools are available for bespoke tree mesh creation with a full PBR texture workflow, and a wide range of export options to allow a tree to work with practically any of the best 3D modelling software. SpeedTree accommodates different geometry levels for leaves and branches dependant on distance or use, and just like the branches, leaves can be modified and given features such as twist and curls. With easy exporting to a wide range of software and render solutions, SpeedTree is the easiest way to make lots of bespoke trees very quickly. This is greatly enhanced with the addition of the SpeedTree Library, which allows the searching of many types of foliage for quick placement or as a starting point for custom plant life. Create your own realistic 3D trees with this easy-to-follow guide... 9 of the best free 3D apps 24 free 3D models 3D sculpting: How to sculpt with style View the full article

You're reading Best Practices for Thanksgiving Email Newsletters with Examples, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! The greatest mistake of retailers is to think that Thanksgiving email newsletters are not worth their attention, betting everything on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Without a doubt, the holiday season is crucially important. And Turkey Day is one of … View the full article

Getting an iPhone skin is a great way to protect your precious device from unexpected mishaps, but someone always has to go too far, right? This creepy skin not only looks like freshly-flayed human flesh, but it's designed to be pinched, stroked and tickled in order to provide more human interactions. As reported in New Scientist, this weird piece of experimental design is the brainchild of HCI researcher and interaction designer Marc Teyssier and a team of researchers working at the Bristol Interaction Group. Teyssier notes that when we interact with others, we use their skin as interfaces – we're not entirely sure we agree with that premise – and the Skin-On Interfaces project is all about adding sensitive skin-like input methods to electronic devices. Apple Black Friday deals: What to expect in 2019 For this Teyssier and his team have developed an unsettlingly realistic artificial skin that works in a similar way to real human skin, and it looks like an impressive piece of work. It's described as looking and feeling just like human skin, and it can sense not only multitouch gestures drawn across the surface, but also more complex manipulations such as stretching or grabbing. The Skin-On Interface is layered like human skin The engineering element of it seems impeccable; the Skin-On Interface is layered in a similar way to human skin and definitely looks the part. And if the idea of fondling a hunk of ultra-realistic artificial flesh is just too gross for you to comprehend, they've produced a simple version that works just the same but doesn't look like it's been grafted onto your device from a human donor. The team envisages the Skin-On Interface as being about more than interacting with your phone; they also see it being used on trackpads, smart watch straps and robots. Yeah, we can see where this is going. No. No. Just no. We absolutely love the science behind all this, and we're always excited about new ways of interacting with devices – remember that a little over ten years ago, the idea of using a smartphone exclusively through a touch-screen seemed pretty unworkable, until Apple went ahead and did it anyway. This, though, feels to us like one of those situations where they asked themselves if they could do something, without bothering to ask themselves whether they should. And while we don't doubt the team's motives, we reckon it's a pretty big ask to expect people to want to interact through an ultra-realistic human skin-like interface, no matter how sophisticated it is. We dig the science, but the results just make us feel a bit queasy We're deep into the uncanny valley here, specifically the Cronenberg nightmare region. There are, we're sure, plenty of applications for realistic skin like this – most of them in medicine – but using it as an interface for your phone probably isn't one of them. If you want to know more – and we just know that you can't resist – there are plenty of details over at Marc Teyssier's site. Related articles: 3 ways touch is going to change design forever How to design invisible interfaces The 10 most iconic user interfaces in movie history View the full article

Signed up for Adobe Stock, but not used it in a while? Then it’s well worth taking another look! The world-class image and video stock provider doesn’t stay still for long, and is always adding exciting new features and resources to its offering. To give you a taster, we've rounded up 10 of our favourite additions to Adobe Stock across the last 12 months. Meanwhile, if you’re new to Adobe Stock, then here's a great offer. Try Adobe Stock free for a month and get 10 standard assets with your free 30-day trial! 01. Free Illustrator templates Floral Overprint Effect Flyers Set by by Medialoot Adobe Stock is not only free to join, but it’s packed full with free resources too. (To get the full skinny, read our article How to use Adobe Stock images in your designs for free). And news freeblies are being added to Adobe Stock all the time. For instance, if you’re an Illustrator user, you’ll want to check out these five new Illustrator templates; all new for 2019, and all new to download. They will help you design beautiful flyers, resumes, infographics, brochures and social media layouts with the minimum of effort, without costing you a penny. 02. Free Valentine’s Day templates Valentine’s Day Handcrafted Social Media Set by Wavebreak Media Time marches on, and suddenly 14 February 2020 doesn't seem so far away. So it’s a great time to check out this set of free Valentine's templates released this year for Photoshop and Illustrator, each designed to promote a brand or service on social media for the Valentine’s season. 03. Day of the Dead templates Día de los Muertos Paper Cutout Flyer Set by Roverto Castillo. There are plenty more free templates on Adobe Stock for designers, and here's another amazing set added in 2019. Earlier this year Adobe Stock worked with artist Roverto Hartasanchez Castillo, on a new set of Photoshop and Illustrator templates to celebrate Día de los Muertos, also known as the Day of the Dead. Find out how they were created, and how to download them, here . 04. Free NASA 3D models Just some of the free NASA 3D models on Adobe Stock 3D artists shouldn't feel left out: Adobe Stock has some great freebies for them too. Last autumn, for example, Adobe Stock 3D teamed up with Dimension CC to offer users a range of stunning space models to use in their projects. These include a gallery of free, hyperreal 3D models originally created by NASA and its contributors and optimised by the Adobe Stock 3D team. You’ll find more details of, and links to, the new 3D models here. 05. GoPro content Just some of the GoPro video clips available on Adobe Stock Another recent addition to Adobe Stock's content has been a new partnership with GoPro. Creatives now have access to thousands of curated GoPro video clips for inspiration and use in their projects – available right within your Creative Cloud applications. The brand-new, exclusive library of GoPro content can help you tell your story with immersive POV footage, dramatic landscapes, aerial and underwater scenes, including rare content captured from places that only GoPro HERO cameras can go. Check out what’s on offer here. 06. Find Similar controls "Find Similar" colour controls being used on Adobe Stock Perhaps the biggest news for Adobe Stock users over the last 12 months has been the upgraded search facility, powered by Adobe’s AI technology, Adobe Sensei. These are designed to help you find the perfect asset, faster than ever before. One of the new features are the Find Similar controls, which enables you to focus specific aspects of image similarity, such as colour, content, or composition, in your search. You can either search by text or image. If you have a reference image, drag and drop to kick-start your search, then refine it with the Find Similar controls to find the perfect image for your project. 07. Copy Space filter Copy space feature in use on Adobe Stock In addition to Find Similar Controls, Adobe has launched a new search filter for Copy Space. This can potentially save designers a lot of time and effort, by allowing you to quickly and easily find images that feature enough room to add text - without compromising on legibility. Learn how to use the feature here. 08. Premiere Rush templates Motion graphics templates in Premiere Rush Until recently, motion graphics templates were available on Adobe Stock for Premiere Pro users only. Now, however, Premiere Rush users can also find suitable templates, allowing you to add polished transitions, titles, and more to your videos. Read this article to learn more about motion graphics templates and how to access them directly within Premiere Rush. 09. Video loops Just some of the video loops now on Adobe Stock Another recent addition to Adobe Stock, video loops are lightweight files that are ideal for presentations, web pages, and online campaigns. To see what’s on offer, go to Adobe Stock, click the Videos tab in the navigation bar, and from there, search for “video loops.” And to learn how to use video loops to bring your presentations to life, check out this tutorial. 10. New contributor bonus Adobe Stock recently announced a special bonus for contributors that have more than 300 accepted assets between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019. In addition to any royalty payments, they’re received a one-year subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan featuring both Lightroom and Lightroom Classic as well as the latest version of Photoshop. That’s good news for those contributors, of course, but also to the rest of us. Because by treating its contributors well, Adobe Stock is continuing to ensure it has the best and most professional images, videos and templates on its site. We can’t wait to see what else will be added to Adobe Stock over the next 12 months! View the full article

Designers with creative resumés may find they stay one step ahead of the rest in this fiercely competitive industry. Though most creatives will have a killer design portfolio, with so much talent around it's worth pushing your creativity even further. Unusual creative strategies will help you to get noticed, and they can be used to give your resumé an edge in the hunt for employment. If you're in need of some inspiration for your own CV, here are some of the best creative resumés out there to get your creative juices flowing. If you just want a starting point rather than creating the whole thing from scratch, then check out our free resume templates post. And once you've made your creative resume all sparkly and new, head over to our brilliant design jobs board to find your next career challenge. 01. Rikhard Hormia The attention to detail in this resumé package speaks volumes Designer Rikhard Hormia, based in Helsinki, created this Portfolio Mailer so he would have something to carry with him when he went to job interviews – "a small and neat way of presenting what I am all about", he says. The package contains a business card, a CV and a laser-engraved USB stick containing selected works from his portfolio. It's a beautifully put together package, with some great attention to detail such as the vector image of Hormia's face and the well-thought out typography. 02. Kenny Barela This resumé pairs sharp copywriting with sleek design This one's an oldie but a goodie. Back in 2010, designer Kenny Barela put together this self-promotion package to attract potential clients when he moved to a new city. Containing a screenprinted T-shirt, infographic, and a cover letter showing off his sharp copywriting skills, this tube bundle demonstrates both his creative skills and his sense of humour. All his hard work paid off big time. The hand-delivered or mailed package lead to Barela being hired as an art director at Motive, plus it was honoured as the Best of Show winner in the 2010 HOW Promotion Design Awards. We wonder if in the future he'll update this resumé to include its fantastic performance... 03. Vidar Olufsen Møller Pssst, this resumé's top secret... Keep this to yourself, right, but freelance graphic designer Vidar Olufsen Møller designed a creative resume that looks like a 'Top Secret' report. Just like Barela, Møller put this package together when he settled in a new city and had to start drumming up clients. After a phone call with a design studio who said they would file him for later, Møller couldn't get the idea of old and dusty filing cabinets out of his head. This lead to the creation of his brown folder resume that looks like it should be exchanged in a car park by a pair of shifty looking spies wearing trench coats. Inside you'll find a CV booklet, documents that look like they've been filled out with a typewriter, and even Møller's fingerprints. In a nice final touch, everything is held in place with paperclips. 04. Victor Rodriguez This cereal-themed resume is high in fibre and work history details Colombian art director and designer Victor Rodriguez, also known as Vimarovi, has an appreciation for lots of different aspects of graphic design, including corporate identity, packaging and product design. So what better way to showcase all these interests than with a resumé that brings together all these elements? That's just what Rodriguez has done with the innovative VICK cereal box. Designed to look like an everyday cereal box, this CV humorously weaves his work history and creative skills into the design. Instead of ingredients, hungry clients will find information about his personality, strengths and previous employment, and if anyone needed any proof of Rodriguez's claims, the packaging speaks for itself. 05. Andy Morris Andy Morris thought small when it came to his new CV Art director, artist and designer Andy Morris caught the design industry's attention for all the right reasons with this fantastically creative resumé. Rather than sticking with the traditional paper design portfolio, Morris commissioned a LEGO minifigure in his own likeness, complete with a tiny laptop in one hand and a mini-CV in the other. To update prospective clients with the information they need, the packaging features a bitesized run-down of Morris' skills, plus contact details. 06. Pierre-Marie Postel Postel's impressive CV shows off his illustration style Graphic designer and illustrator Pierre-Marie Postel – also known as Paiheme – decided to use his CV to show off exactly what he's best at. His creative resumé displays his impressive illustration style, and mimics a Japanese print advert. It's not style at the expense of substance, however – this CV includes plenty of key information, plus some quirky additions such as character designs to show off Postel's personality. The monochrome colour palette ensures it doesn't become overwhelming. 07. Brennan Gleason Brennan Gleason decided to combine two passions Interaction designer Brennan Gleason was nearing the end of university and needed to get his name known by potential employers. To do so in style, he brewed up a batch of blonde ale, packaged it up in a neat cardboard carrier, and printed his CV on the back. The idea being that prospective employers could sit down for a quick drink and peruse Gleason's design skills at the same time. 08. Curriculum 3D Benjamin Benhaim's 3D CV really stands out Inspired by this great-looking flat CV from Jimmy Raheriarisoa, Paris-based art director and motion designer Benjamin Benhaim set to work and made this stunning 3D rendered resumé. Created using Cinema 4D, Octane and After Effects, it covers all the bases and features plenty of playful touches, and each image took around seven minutes to render. Time well spent! 09. Robynne Redgrave You'd be all over this if it turned up in the post This portfolio mail package created by Robynne Redgrave, a Canadian graphic designer based in Helsinki, is a real attention-grabber. It contains not only her CV but a whole load of stuff including a hand-bound portfolio book, a letter of intent, application form and certificates. 10. Robby Leonardi Robby Leonardi's interactive CV caused a real stir when he launched it Robby Leonardi is a multidisciplinary designer based in New York City. Specialising in illustration, graphic design, animation, and front end development, he has worked with the likes of Fox, Speed TV, FX Networks, myNetworkTV and G4. His incredibly fun interactive design resumé will have you scrolling for hours. 11. Julia Miceli Julia Miceli's CV is testament that creativity can also be practical Julia Miceli – a graphic designer based in Buenos Aires, Argentina – managed to hit all the right notes with her creative resume. It's simple compared to many of the other in this list, but still oozes personality. The bold orange colour is unusual and eye-catching, and there isn't an element that hasn't been carefully art directed. Miceli has also considered practical aspects: the CV is a standard A4 size, but sits in a wallet that shows it off to its full potential, and there's a neat slot that holds a business card the viewer can pop out and keep. 12. Zhi Liang This is a simple and inventive approach to resumé design Singapore-based student Chen Zhi Liang was set a task by his graphic design tutor to create an inventive resumé that would make him stand out from the crowd. The semester-end assignment was to create an infographic resumé and we think he's come up trumps with this design. Showcasing the all-important qualifications and skills, the resumé is eye-catching without being overwhelming. Liang's minimal approach is perfect for an overcrowded job market. You can now also buy this template. 13. Ed Hamilton Ed Hamilton's Google Map resumé uses personalised placemarkers to highlight his skills When London-based copywriter Ed Hamilton was out of work, he decided to put his time to good use and develop a creative way to stand out to prospective employers. Using Google Maps' My Maps feature, Hamilton mapped his resumé, using different coloured pins to create personalised placemarkers, each accompanied by explanatory text. The brilliant design includes pins for where Hamilton lives, his interests and his previous employment. Related articles: The wrong way to build a portfolio The 21 best business card designs Boost your illustration career with these 6 tips View the full article

If you're waiting patiently for Black Friday and Cyber Monday to arrive to get your hands on one of Microsoft's popular Surface Pros, you're in luck. Right now, Best Buy is offering some incredible Surface Pro 6 deals, which sees various models reduced by up to $600. One of the best offers we've seen ever, you can currently grab a Surface Pro 6 with a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD for just $699. That's a whopping $200 off the regular retail price. Need more power and storage? In another epic deal, the Surface Pro 6 with Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512 SSD is also reduced by a mammoth $300, taking it down to $1,599. These impressive savings are no doubt a direct result of the Surface Pro 7 hitting the shelves this month. But the Surface Pro 6 is a powerful, highly capable machine in its own right, so much so it has maintained a very prominent position in our round up of the best tablets with a stylus for quite some time now (find out why in our Surface Pro 6 review). If you're looking for deals on Surface Pro accessories, or other devices in the Surface range, be sure to bookmark our dedicated Surface Pro Black Friday article, which we'll be updating with all the best deals as they arrive. In the meantime, we don't expect these Best Buy deals to hang around for long, so if you're in the market for a Pro 6, now's the time to buy. Not in the US? Here are the best Surface Pro 6 deals in your area: View the full article