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Did you know that Nando's hold the world's largest collection of South African art? You can enjoy the 21,300 pieces of art (and admire the impressive art techniques used) alongside your peri-peri chicken in branches around the country. But the chicken chain's foray into art has recently met some controversy as one of the paintings has been labelled racist. A Half a Loaf Is Better Than None, a painting by black South African artist Khaya Sineyile, was on display on the wall of a newly opened Birmingham branch of the restaurant until a customer spotted it and contacted Nando's CEO, Colin Hill. The customer expressed his outrage and Hill responded with an apology, and a promise that the artwork had been immediately removed following the complaint. Hill admitted that on this occasion Nando's had "got it wrong" and assured the customer the art selection process would be reviewed. But the customer felt the apology didn't go far enough, accusing Hill of "corporate nonsense". He later explained his reaction: "It shows four people of colour who would have been historically subject to degradation and hardship in an implement – here, a toaster – used to cook or burn bread. To me, it’s akin to hanging a picture of someone in an oven or being chopped up. It’s completely dehumanising people of colour." There's no denying the imagery is shocking, but what were the artist's intentions? Is it fair to say it is racist? Or is there more going on here? Let's look at what we know about the artist. Sinyile is an artist from New Crossroads in Nyanga, Cape Town. Freelance writer Themba Tsoti describes his approach as "attempting to cultivate an alternative consciousness regarding how artists from his background are perceived." Sinyile's artwork often plays with the connection between people and household objects, exploring how social station or personality can be imprinted on an object, and how the physical environment effects and impacts the psyche. The work above – Usana Olungalilyo Lufela Embelekweni, 2017 – depicts people inside an eggbox in another example of the interplay between society and the objects ingrained within it. Lorna Ferguson, Former director of the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg, put the piece into this context when she gave her interpretation of A Half Loaf Is Better Than None to Sunday Times Live: "South Africans are used to having open talks around race and racism, this translates into our artwork. We are used to seeing protest work. This piece does not mean that black people should be toasted, instead it can be interpreted as black people have been toasted by racism and oppression." Ferguson added, "Of course there are many ways to interpret art… The background is a total juxtaposition which creates a quirky piece." Nando's has since defended the work, labelling it a statement on the "far reaching effects of social inequality in South Africa". South Africa has a nuanced and complex history, and its artwork is likely to reflect that. It isn't easy to explain, especially in the time it takes to eat that peri-peri chicken. So to take a piece of art with imagery as horrific as this and place it in a restaurant, with no context, explanation or background on the artist, was perhaps not a wise move. It's not the first time that a bold branding choice has resulted in controversy (see our post on 18 controversial moments in branding), but this is more complex than most. Read more: 'Monstrous' hand statue results in controversy Should I go to art school? Pixel art: retro examples View the full article

League of Legends has a new logo to accompany its 10th anniversary this month, and it seems that no one is happy about it (or else the happy people are keeping their joy very quiet). The action-strategy game, owned by Riot Games, is the biggest PC game in the world, and has a maximum of eight million players playing at the same time every single day. That's a lot of users, and therefore a lot of angry people. What are people complaining about? Our logo design guide discusses the importance of striving for difference. And some people aren't so sure this new look helps League of Legends stand out from the crowd. Plus, as usual, they don't like change. Let's compare the two logos. The old League of Legends (LoL) logo had a definite feel to it. You can have no clue what the game is about, yet look at the logo and you are transported to a world of warriors, treasure, deadly battles and eerie landscapes. Saying that, that feel is quite similar to other gaming or fantasy logos, so perhaps it wasn't the best in terms of standout. What about the new logo? It conjures up... well... something gold. And a bit distressed. It looks a little Indiana Jones, if we're honest. It does look more contemporary, but we wouldn't exactly say it wins on striving for difference, either. In its official announcement blog talking about the game's anniversary, Riot Games said: "We think this is the perfect time to set the stage for the next ten years by modernising the official League of Legends logo." But users were not convinced. The comments are pretty brutal. See below for the most popular one: Ryan Rigney, communications lead on LoL posted this tweet in response to some of the Reddit hate. When BrandNew recently posted about the logo, designers weighed in to share their dislike of the new look. Tom Neish said: "Another piece of interesting type bites the dust." Sandy34 said it was "Boring as hell." While Vincent Biss said: "Feels like a Guardians of the Galaxy logo, but without any soul or energy. A least it doesn't feel like a D&D old kitsch logo like the old one. There must be a perfect proposition between those two?" A few weeks after the official launch of the new logo, we're interested to see that Riot Games has not updated the logo on the official League of Legends site. Although when you go on the site to play the game, you do get the new branding. And actually, in context, it doesn't look too bad. A video compiling 10 years of LoL music has been doing the rounds over the past few days (see below), and has been receiving a lot of love. Which just goes to show that people are fickle (and that the music is very cool). As for the new logo, will gamers get used to it? Will designers ever stop moaning about new logos? Will Riot Games give in and revert back to the old logo? Only time will tell. Read more: The surprising story behind the Joker logo These logo design mashups will mess with your head Paris 2024 is mercilessly mocked View the full article

As a designer you're going to need stock content regularly, and you'll be aware of just how many libraries there are to choose from. And while you're probably already familiar with the iStock name, what you might not know is just how its content stands out from the competition, no matter what you need. Read on to learn more about iStock, and how it gives you access to world-class, premium content – at not-so-premium prices. Localised content from over 200,000 contributors iStock's contributors use their local knowledge to get the best shots Whenever you search on iStock you'll find content that feels authentic – and that's because it is. iStock's contributors come from all over the world, bringing local knowledge to their work and offering different perspectives that translate to professionally-photographed content. They know how to take the relevant pictures you need to elevate your creative work and make connections with your audience. So, when you're out to impress a picky client that's asking for specific regional or travel imagery – whether it's from the mountains of the Andes or the plains of Kazakhstan – rest assured that iStock has contributors there, creating visuals that your audience can relate to, in a way that only a local can authentically capture. Expert content curation Well-curated content means you'll soon find what you need Don't you just love it when you search for a term and find that the exact image you need comes up straight away? That's a regular feeling on iStock, but there's nothing magical about it; rather, it's all down to the hard work of its expert visual editors. They meticulously vet every single image that gets uploaded to iStock to ensure that it's not carrying duplicates, or a dozen versions of the same image with slight variations – iStock cares about quality, not quantity. As authorities on visual trends, iStock's editors are able to compile galleries of its best-in-class, top-trending content into collections and galleries. So whenever you're not exactly sure what you're looking for and need a spot of inspiration, simply find a gallery on iStock's homepage or on individual content pages, and you'll be able to browse through it and find the content you need to give your creative work the edge it needs. It's not just images iStock also has templates, vectors, video and illustration While you're probably coming to iStock for images – that's what it's known for, after all – bear in mind that it has many more content offerings that can make your creative life easier. If you're in need of a template for a restaurant menu, or some vectors to add a stylish twist to a design, there'll be something to fit the bill. iStock also has an expansive video collection, covering everything from b-roll to ultra-high quality 4K stock footage, and whether you're after something quirky with hipster appeal or straight-edged stock for B2B purposes, you're sure to find it. iStock's illustration collection is similarly broad, ranging from the whimsical to the business-focused, with everything in-between. Best of all, iStock upholds the same standards for its templates, icons, illustrations, videos and more, as it does for its images, so you can be sure that everything you find will be high quality and affordable. Everything you need in one place Finding the perfect images, illustrations and videos for your creative projects shouldn't be stressful – and with iStock it's a breeze, thanks to flexible plans and pricing (and images starting from only $12) that offer a solution for any budget. Regardless of the nature of the project, you'll be able to find the perfect creative assets for it – and much more besides – on iStock. iStock's visual experts are constantly updating its collection, so keep checking in to find the latest and greatest visuals in the industry. You can also save 10% on all credit packs until the end of the year. Just use code ISTOCK10 at checkout. View the full article

The hardest part of any creative endeavour can often be simply getting started. The fear of a blank page can be an overwhelming thing, but a new addition to popular iOS sketching app, Paper, aims to help get nervous artists past all that and start drawing. We're big fans of Paper; it even made it to our list of top iPad apps for designers. Paper is a fun app that's suitable everything from note-taking and annotating pictures through to doodling and sketching, with quick and easy gesture-based navigation to help keep things flowing. But if you simply don't know what to draw then there's now a whole stack of inspiration available. How to draw: the best drawing tutorials The new Paper Store features a collection of journals that are designed to encourage budding artists, make drawing, sketching and doodling more approachable, and help bring your ideas to life. There are three types of journals available: tutorials that'll teach you how to draw anything and everything, exercises to kick-start your creative thinking, and artist showcases that provide inspiration from some of the leading names in the business. A few minutes with Jon Burgerman and you'll be doodling all over everything There are 28 journals available in the Paper Store right now, and one of them hooks you up with a free doodling lesson from the kind of doodles himself, Jon Burgerman. At his doodle school he wants you to have fun and feel creatively uninhibited, and he takes you on a step-by-step journey through the world of doodling using Paper's tools. There are all manner of handy exercises designed to help you approach a blank page without fear, until finally you're rewarded with your own doodle school diploma proving that you've mastered doodle art. Chuck out that silly Central Saint Martins diploma and stick this on your wall As well as Burgerman's doodle school there are also showcases from other artists including Catherine Madden and Lucy Bellwood, and if you have a dig through the Paper Store you'll find guides to drawing creative creatures, faces, flowers, cacti and much more. Each journal is available as an in-app purchase from the Paper Store, at $1.99 a shot. The Paper Store has plenty of journals to get you drawing WeTransfer promises that there'll be more inspiring journals from top creatives and artists coming soon, as well as more journal categories to expand your talents even further. If you don't yet have Paper you can find out more about it here, or simply download it for free from the App Store. Related articles: Art techniques: top tutorials for painting and drawing Create a fast and anatomically correct sketch Boost your creativity with daily sketching View the full article

Building a website for yourself or your company can often feel like a daunting task. However it might not be as difficult as you think. Create beautiful, functioning websites today with these comprehensive web design training bundles, now with an additional 40% off during the month of October. Simply enter code 40LEARN40 on any of the following courses to get the extra discount. Devslopes Coding Academy: Lifetime Membership With over 300 hours of programming courses and essentials, this training will help you create the website you've always wanted. Finesse your coding expertise and master the most relevant, desirable skills, from iOS and Android development to back-end development to game creation and achieve your goals with the help of expert instructors at Devslopes. Now just $29. The Complete Web & Mobile Developer Bundle Ft. Rob Percival If you're hoping to leverage your web and mobile app development skills in the ever-changing design world, you'll want to start by learning the core fundamentals. Rob Percival, the best-selling co-creator of CodeStars, brings you six unique courses that will guide you into the development industry and all that is required to thrive in the process. Now just $35. The Complete Python Certification Bootcamp Bundle Learn the leading general-purpose language that is Python with this 85-hour bundle. The 12-course bundle is filled with tutorials and will teach you how to build programs, analyze data, master the major plotting libraries, and so much more. Now just $34.99. The Complete Full Stack Web Development Master Class Bundle With over 250 lessons covering today's hottest web frameworks and technologies, this bundle brings you an endless amount of materials to learn the complexities of web development comprehensively. Seven in-depth courses will teach you applications such as Angular, Spring, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and more and help you become the rarest type of coder out there. Now just $19. The Complete Microsoft & Oracle SQL Certification Bundle If you're looking to take a deep look at Microsoft and Oracle database concepts and tools, this bundle is for you. The 11-course certification will guide you through 1,400+ lessons that will help master the fundamentals and fast track your way into the data-driven career you've been dreaming of achieving. Now just $39. View the full article

Instagram bios are an important part of your Instagram feed. They're often the first thing people look at when they click on your feed, and if you don't include the right information in them (i.e. your contact details), you could end up losing clients. But what exactly makes the perfect Instagram bio? Here, we examine some of our favourite Insta bios, and extract five top tips on making your own killer bio. An extra trick you may also like to try is adding your own custom font to your Insta profile, see our dedicated how to change the font in your Instagram bio post for a step-by-step on how to do this. To edit your Instagram bio, just go to Edit Profile on Instagram, and then click on the Bio section to edit. Once you're there, here's what to do... Follow Creative Bloq on Instagram 01. Be super-succinct You only have 150 characters to play with in your Instagram bio, so you can't waffle on too much even if you wanted to, but keep your message as succinct as possible. Think about what a person who has no idea who you are and has just stumbled across your feed needs to know. Who are you? Where are you? What are your interests? What should people expect to find on the page? What you write in your Instagram bio will depend on what exactly you are aiming for with your Instagram account. Personal accounts might list your interests, while more work-focused accounts should list what you do, perhaps including the company you work for or any clients (with an @), perhaps not. It's a good idea to list your location, if you think that's relevant. You can also include hashtags and keywords (see the next point). Concept artist Donglu, who has over 28,000 followers, keeps things simple with her bio, which says what she does and links to her employer. 02. Include hashtags We don't recommend including lots of hashtags in your bio, because that usually looks a bit #toomuch, but the odd hashtag can help people find your page, and also shows what you're about. To search for relevant hashtags, click search within Instagram and look under 'Tags'. You can then see a list of hashtags and how many posts use them daily. You can also include any hashtag that you want people to use when referencing your content, or a particular campaign you're involved in, just as D&AD does (above). Also note how D&AD has quite a long Instagram bio, but that it is still clear and succinct, and tells you exactly what you need to know about the organisation. Including your own hashtag can seem a bit over-the-top if you're just starting out, so probably don't include your name as a hashtag if you've only got 100 followers. You might find it isn't used in the way you'd hoped. In general, remember that people have a limited attention span online, particular on Insta, so keep all of your bio text short and sweet, and make sure it is easy to scan. You can do this using line spacing and emojis (see below). 03. Use line breaks and emojis One way to break up your bio and make it look better is to space it out, and add interest and colour with emojis. Paper artist Hattie Newman does this brilliantly in her bio, which lists what she does, her location, and describes her book. She breaks this info up on different lines and with emojis, ensuring that nothing gets lost and it all looks eye-catching and colourful. Creating line breaks in your Insta bio can be a bit fiddly, and the same rule applies in your bio as it does when creating line breaks in captions on Instagram (read our post about Instagram hacks such as making line breaks if you're not sure what we mean). To create a line break, write on one line, and then click Return immediately afterwards. If you leave a space before you click Return, you won't get a proper line break. You may find this is easier to do on desktop rather than mobile. Getting the spacing of your emojis right can also be a bit fiddly on mobile. Make sure you check everything is lined up nicely once you've clicked save. And if not, just go back and edit until you get it looking how you want. 04. Include a call to action It's best to include a call to action (CTA) on your Instagram bio. This sounds like a marketing term (because it is), but calls to action are vital for anyone who wants people to interact with them, their work, or their feed. Think about someone you don't know clicking on your feed. What do you want them to do? Would you like them to buy your work? Click on your website? Follow your other account? Comment on your posts? Whatever it is, don't be shy about it. Include this information in the form of a button that says 'email' or 'contact' for example. This is for business accounts only and happens automatically when you include your contact details on your profile (see how to switch to a business account in our post on how to make money on Instagram). Your CTA could also be a link, and you can use emojis to point at this link to direct people to it. Note how doodle artist Hattie Stewart keeps her profile short and sweet with just two words and an emoji, and then one link to her website – that's her CTA. Also note the use of emojis for her Instagram Stories – read more about crafting Instagram Stories here. Remember that you only get one link on your Instagram profile, so choose it wisely, you might want to include your website, a link to your shop, or perhaps a link about you and your work you want to direct people to. You could even link to another social media account if you have more work there. If you want to include more than one link, there is a way (sort of). See the tip below. 05. Use Linktree for multiple links Instagram doesn't let you include more than one link in your bio. But if you want to be sneaky, you can use Linktree to add more than one. Linktree is designed specifically for Instagram and it creates one URL that then links out to multiple links, so you can have your website, your shop, your Facebook page, your Behance, and so on, all in one place. It's free, you just need to sign up. You can see Linktree's own Linktree (meta, we know) above. Read more: Instagram designers: Who to follow for creative inspiration How to make money on Pinterest as a creative 5 social media tricks to make your brand thrive View the full article

We all know how NASA loves a good logo design, and as well as the new Artemis mission logo, which draws inspiration from the classic NASA 'meatball' logo as well as the original Apollo mission logo, it's just released an Artemis logo to celebrate it sending a woman to the moon. There's a special meaning to the Artemis programme's name; the first moon mission, Apollo, took its name from the ancient Greek god, and Artemis was Apollo's twin sister as well as being goddess of the moon. The main Artemis mission logo is inspired by the original Apollo logo And that's especially relevant to this new mission, with NASA's commitment to sending both men and women to the moon. While space exploration has traditionally been a bit of a sausage party (although tell that to Margaret Hamilton, who famously led the team that developed Apollo's in-flight software), NASA's aiming to set things straight this time around, and has already demoed a spacesuit design that's suitable for both men and women. NASA has kept Artemis' features deliberately abstract in this logo Artemis, NASA explains, encompasses all its present efforts to return humans to the moon and, as her role as the "torch bringer", will light NASA's way on the journey to Mars. The logo shows a representation of Artemis illustrated by the highlights and shadows of the crescent moon topography; it's a stylish and minimal design that keeps Artemis' features deliberately abstract, so that all women can see themselves in her. Apparently. There are loads of colourful desktop and mobile backgrounds to download That's a fantastic touch; while the first woman went into space in 1963 (the Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova), it's always been men that have dominated the space business. This new logo changes all that and provides a much-needed piece of feminine iconography for the space programme. Clearly hoping to fire everyone's imagination with this forward-looking logo, NASA has provide a whole stack of designs based around it to be used as desktop and mobile wallpaper, in plenty of colour schemes. You can find them all here, and you can read more about the Artemis programme here. Related articles: These logo design mashups will mess with your head 7 logos by famous designers and why they work Design a killer logo in Illustrator View the full article

Houdini software is a 3D animation program that's invaluable for 3D artists. We've got a set of tips and tricks to speed up the animation process and help to get great results, fast. First up in this post are some general tips on using the new tools and functions found in Houdini 17.5, followed by a tutorial on creating hair in Houdini (jump straight to page 2 to create hair in Houdini, and follow the links opposite to jump straight to the section you're after). Elsewhere on the site, our comprehensive review has our full verdict on Houdini 17 Banshee , and if you want to check out other 3D software, we also have a rundown of the best 3D modelling software around. 01. Condensation tool Find it on the Particle Fluids shelf On the Particle Fluids shelf we can find the new Condensation tool. This creates the usual triple geo level node setup, one with the selected geometry which prepares it for the simulation, a DOP network with particle simulation, which uses the new POP fluid solver, introduced in the Whitewater tool in H17, and the output geometry which generates the continuous surface around the particles for rendering. So for now we are just a few clicks away to add the usual rolling droplets onto the glass for a beverage ad. 02. Measure 2.0 Check the documentation for detailed notes for every mode This is a revamped version of the original. Now we can use it on points, not just on primitives – there’s also many variations of measurement modes. It’s advised you check the documentation, as there are detailed descriptions and extra notes for every mode. We can use this node to drive shading effects from SOPs, rather than relying on render-time calculations, define selection groups or weights for procedural modelling, or prepare objects for simulations: separate parts, measure the volume of the parts, slope, curvature etc. 03. Viewpoint volume rendering Convert the other geometry to volume, gain its density and combine with the main volume The display of the volumes in the viewport now use ray traced OpenGL shaders, thus the self-shadowing effects are pretty accurate. However they still doesn’t use the parameters of the attached render material, so we need to use Volume Visualization for that. The shadow interactions with other objects are also missing. The work around is to convert the other geometry to volume, gain its density and combine with the main volume. 04. Select output and visualize The right-click menu offers all the outputs for viewport display under the Flags/Output for View submenu Using the middle mouse button on any input or output of a node displays the node info panel with the data related to the specific input or output. Pressing Ctrl while clicking keeps the panel open after release, where we can also choose the desired output. Here a click on any underlined attribute creates a quick scene level visualiser for that in the viewport, however we may tweak its type in the visualiser settings panel. The right-click menu offers all the outputs for viewport display under the Flags/Output for View submenu, but clicking on any of them with the Shift+Ctrl+Alt brings up the items in the Hotkey Manager, so we don’t need to navigate to this submenu if we bind hotkeys for these. 05. SOPS 2.0 It automatically includes all the upstream nodes From H16, we can access the optimized and multi-threading based version of the SOP context by using compiled blocks, which is basically the optionally accessible SOP’s 2.0 environment. There are some restrictions and nodes which aren’t compatible with this yet, that’s why we should manually manage it. However in H17.5 there are additional compatible nodes such as File, Volume, and Cloud Light. The most significant speed gain using compiled blocks is with for-each loops, but it’s still useful for others, because Houdini handles the nodes in a block as a single node, so the memory use especially with OpenCL nodes is more efficient. The Compiled Block in the Tab menu creates two nodes and is the easiest way to wire the last node of the original node chain to the bottom one (Block End Compile). It automatically includes all the upstream nodes, so it may fail if there are nodes which aren’t compatible with it. The Non-compilable SOP Badge in the Network View Display Options flags all of these nodes with a crossed cog icon, so we can wire the top compile node (Block Begin Compile). 06. AliceVision The AliceVision framework is open source We can say that the price of Houdini includes an advanced and versatile photogrammetry module, as the AliceVision framework is open source and recently the developers of Game Tools implemented it as a toolset, for Linux as well. For further info, check the Resources page on my ArtStation site. 07. Physics painter This tool is useful for layout artists This tool can be very useful for layout artists, even for ones working in film and animation. As a versatile interactive scattering tool, we can populate the scene with arbitrary objects, much like how set dressers do their job. The input of this node is for the geometry on which we want to paint. The easiest way to pick the objects for the brush is selecting all of these SOP nodes and drag & drop to the Quick Add field in the Dynamic section of the physics painter parameter panel. It automatically creates slots for each of these geometries and we can also define higher resolution render meshes and dynamic properties here. There are two modes of the brush in the viewport, one is the normal: as you draw the curve it lays down the objects piece by piece. We can activate the second mode with the Paint Bucket Mode toggle to spread the objects more rapidly. With our brush, the red sphere in the viewport represents the volume of the scattering. It can easily slow down the interaction, so it’s also possible to paint in normal mode and use this toggle occasionally to see the result. 08. Building generator This node was much requested Luckily the developers of Game Tools added this very complex and much requested node to the toolset. It is a rule-based module system, we can feed our building part assets into it and use a base mesh as the floor plan of the building. Additionally with the Mapbox and OSM tools we can generate real world data based cities. Check the Resources page on my ArtStation site for further info. 09. Dirt Skirt and Voxelmesh These tools melt together interpenetrating geometries We can use any of these tools to melt together interpenetrating geometries. The Dirt Skirt node generates a connectivity geometry between the two input geometries. The Voxel Mesh node is a single node tool for the common VDB from Polygons > Convert VDB workflow, thus it is more versatile, an alternative to the boolean union tool and a good remesher. Switching on the Sharpen Features allows us to use this tool for hard surface modelling, as it avoids the otherwise voxelated sharp edges. The Adaptivity slider simplifies the geometry on the less detailed and flat areas. 10. Curve branches We can achieve tree-like geometries This node feels like a first attempt for a tool similar to Maya Paint Effects. Not at that complexity, but if we chain together multiple, copies of this node, each representing a level of the structure, we can even achieve tree-like geometries. 11. Thicken Thicken is an easy tool for a simple task An easy tool for a simple task, as it adds thickness to a surface geometry. With this tailored version of PolyExtrude we can simply extrude all the faces of a geometry using a single slider, namely Depth, without getting lost amongst the other parameters. 12. Straighten and axis align This task can be quick with these two Game Tools nodes It’s a boring and time consuming task to manually align and rotate objects to a neutral pose, especially with photogrammetry ones. Luckily this task can be quick with these two Game Tools nodes. Firstly we orient the object with the Straighten node by selecting the desired upward and forward facing parts for the two input fields respectively. Then the Axis Align node brings the geometry to the origin and we can chose the actions for all three dimensions. The default setting is useful, as it lays down the object on the ground using its lowest part. 13. Quick material Create and assign materials to objects or groups without leaving the SOP context The advanced version of the original QuickShade node. We can quickly and effectively create and assign materials to objects or groups without leaving the SOP context, and access the basic parameters and texture inputs of the available material types: Principled Shader, GameDev PBR and Matcap. 14. Quick merge Start by selecting the nodes you want to merge Select the nodes you want to merge, then Alt+drag down the output of any of them. If you press Ctrl rather than Alt, or just simply click with RMB, it will popup the tab menu, and you can choose other nodes with bulk input like Switch. 15. Viewport hotkeys Open the HotKey Manager and check the available actions It’s worth opening the Hotkey Manager and checking the available actions under Houdini / Panes / Geometry Viewers / Operations / View Operation context. This is the secret place where we can add or modify all the Space+something keystrokes for the viewports, like Frame Selected (default shortcut: Space+F). So all the shortcuts here work just by holding Spacebar, or with the active View tool (left toolbar). Actually, we can change the Space to anything else, or add alternatives, which is the Volatile View Operation, directly in the Operations context. There are some really useful shortcuts like the Cycle View Context and Toggle Local/World View Context. They affect the state of the view context switch, the second button from the right on the network controls bar above the viewport, so we can quickly hide/unhide/ ghost all other geometries except the ones in the active SOP context. The Move Camera to Geometry shortcut is also useful, as a kind of teleport function – the viewport camera jumps to the geometry element under the cursor. 16. Fullscreen mode Finally, a dark mode is here Usually a work session in Houdini takes a while, so most of the time we don’t need the interface elements of the operating system. On Linux it’s easy to go fullscreen, the KDE environment offers it in the titlebar’s right click menu. In the System Settings we can also bind shortcuts to any UI actions like this. In comparison customising the other two OS feel extremely restrictive, but at least after decades of user requests macOS finally ships with an optional Dark Mode. It matches with Houdini’s native colour scheme, thus the menubar at the top doesn’t feel like an interrogation lamp. 17. Nextgen Renderman for Houdini It's worth trying the new Renderman for Houdini You may find Mantra slow, laggy and memory consuming so it’s worth trying the new Renderman for Houdini (22.5+). It feels more cosily integrated with its state of the art interactivity. Do we need dedicated lighting/rendering softwares anymore? Next page: How to create hair in Houdini Tips for creating hair in Houdini 17.5 These tips are for grooms, so have been written with fur in mind, but most of them are all-purpose. Artists ranging from beginners to mid-advanced in Houdini will be able to use these tips, but note that this is not the step-by-step guide. You should know the Houdini interface, basics of creating guides and hair, brushing it and editing. Houdini comes out with three shelves for creating and manipulating hair and fur. The tools from Hair Utils shelf are for setting up hair and fur objects, jumping between object nodes, and setting up animation and simulation. The Guide Process shelf contains the procedural tools for styling hair. This article was originally published in 3D Artist magazine. Buy issue 134 now. Read more: These 3D portraits are unbelievably realistic Brilliant free 3D models The best free 3D apps View the full article

It’s that time again. Amazon’s offering deals on products you didn’t even know existed. Adobe’s no doubt planning some discounts on Creative Cloud subscriptions. Every newspaper on earth suddenly seems to care about the cost of kettles. Yep, it’s Black Friday, which sometimes feels as if it starts in August and ends somewhere the following summer. But while some might think it’s all a bit daft and overhyped, it can still be an important time for creatives – and not just because it might mean a slightly cheaper laptop. This year the main event falls on Friday 29 November, but recent years has seen the sale period run throughout the whole of November, with retailers kicking things off as early as October. There’s also Cyber Monday, which falls on the Monday immediately after Black Friday – so this year it’s on the 1st of December. If you are on the lookout for a creative bargain, be sure to bookmark our best Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals articles, which we will update with all the best creative offers as they arrive. Black Friday history: how did it come about? There’s some disagreement on when the term Black Friday was coined, but History.com reports that it was first used back in the 1950s by US police in Philadelphia. They used Black Friday to describe the hordes of shoppers in Philadelphia who flooded the streets the day after Thanksgiving for the big Army-Navy football game held on that Saturday every year. While many retailers kicked off the shopping season with what we’d call Black Friday deals for decades, the term didn’t really take off until the late 1980s – and in recent years the internet turbo-charged it. Black Friday wasn’t always the biggest online sales event of the year, however. That honour went to Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving. That’s when everyone went back to work, realised they hadn’t ordered their Christmas presents and secretly shopped at work. Retailers started extending the duration of their sales, and eCoupons.com coined the phrase Cyber Black Friday in 2009. The cyber bit was quickly dropped because it was rubbish. It was several more years before the UK got the Black Friday bug. The first really big Black Fridays in the UK were in the early 2010s, although retailers didn’t really seem to know what they were doing and appeared to be running around the place putting SALE stickers on anything that happened to be lying around. Things got serious in 2015, and longer too: by then Amazon was well into its ever-lengthening Black Friday deals. And by 2016 the week of Black Friday was an established part of the retail calendar on both sides of the Atlantic. Why should creatives care about Black Friday? As a creative, the obvious reason to get involved with Black Friday is to get your tools for less. There will, of course, be all manner of offers on pro-level laptops and devices, which we will round-up in our best Apple Black Friday and Microsoft Black Friday deals articles, to discounts on pencils, software subscriptions and ergonomic office equipment (including the best office chairs). Black Friday is also a great opportunity for creative businesses But Black Friday is also a great opportunity for creative businesses. You can take advantage of the Black Friday ecosystem, where websites try to get all the traffic by listing every conceivable Black Friday deal no matter how small or how obscure, to drive traffic to your own sales efforts. It’s a good opportunity to shift stock to make room for new products, or to attract new or repeat business with time-limited Black Friday deals. If that’s what you’d like to do, don’t wait for Black Friday to do it. The big retailers tried panicky discounting years ago and lost a fortune; now, Black Friday is planned far in advance and discounts are carefully calculated. In many cases, they’re being used to offload end-of-line stock; in others they’re used as bait for profitable cross-selling, upselling and subscription sign-ups. How creatives can make the most of Black Friday? The big sites’ Black Friday speculation and predictions start in October, and it pays to have a dedicated Black Friday deals or offers page up and running as early as you can to ensure it’s indexed and noticed in advance of the event. All the usual promotional advice applies here: make your products or services look utterly alluring and instil a sense of urgency in your copy. Customers need to feel they’re not only getting a brilliant deal, but that the brilliant deal needs to be bought right now. Advance planning and publication is particularly important if you’re going to try and get any Google/news coverage. Planning is also important for any search advertising buys and, of course, it’s crucial for email marketing and social media marketing where you’ll want to craft scintillating copy and plan your timings well in advance. Last but definitely not least, don’t forget about the practical stuff. If your site has a checkout process, speed test everything from the landing page to the final payment processing. Online shoppers are fickle at the best of times, but they’re even more so when every other site in the universe is trying to attract their attention. Black Friday is not the day to realise that bad UX or slow servers are causing people to abandon their baskets from sheer frustration or slow page loads. That’s not the kind of Black Friday any creative business needs. If you are waiting for Black Friday to get a great deal, be sure to bookmark our dedicated product and brand hubs, which we will update with all the best offers as they arrive: The best Wacom Black Friday deals The best Surface Pro Black Friday deals The best iPad Black Friday deals View the full article

When you've got something to promote, you need to think of smart or clever ways to get it noticed, which is what HP has done to promote its HP Z workstations. The tech company has teamed up with creative network Movidiam to help creative freelancers get better access to computing power, and the resulting campaign includes a witty 90-second spot. How does HP try to grab your attention? A trio of talented freelance artists might tempt you to take notice. Still not convinced? Then you need to watch its little film, 'Deal with annoying comments faster…' and also note that the range its advertising includes several machines that made it to our best laptops for graphic design post. (If you're on the lookout for tech bargains then keep an eye on our Black Friday deals post, and if you're after a new screen rather than a laptop, take a look at our best 4K monitors post.) What's the film about? Well, anyone who has dealt with clients will know what joy (we use the term loosely) they can bring to a project. "It's amazing but we think..." is a line that only means one thing. More work. Then comes the inevitable question, "When do you need it by?". It's usually yesterday, but it's not in the video. The especially irritating project manager asks "Is it finished now?". The designer's answer will make you laugh. Then it's back to the client who once again puts a spanner in the works. "We love it but...". As you might expect, that leads to more ridiculous suggestions that go nowhere near the original brief. But by now there's no time to argue, whatever you might think. Is the client always right? We'll leave that one for you to ponder. Other big name brands that've recently had a go at using smarts to get their message across include Coca-Cola. Diet Coke's new campaign – the one with the two old ladies and Derek. It's definitely cringeworthy, but at the same time memorable. Probably a bit like those client comments. To find out more about HP's campaign, where you can sign up to get a 10 per cent discount on its workstations, go to the HP website. You can also see today's best HP bargains via our dedicated price-checker below. Read more: Has Diet Coke lost the plot? How to win over clients 28 amazing design portfolios to inspire you View the full article

Samsung is reportedly rolling out fixes for a glitch that allowed anyone to dupe its Galaxy S10 fingerprint authentication sensor. View the full article

You're reading Bootstrap Carousel Guide: Examples and Tutorials, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Bootstrap carousel is a generic unit of the framework that it is a standard component for cycling through elements. However, it can do much more than that and is undoubtedly one of the most sought-after details in interfaces these days. … View the full article

Smart home devices are becoming the norm. A lot of homes have 'smartened up', whether it’s with something as basic as a smart speaker or with a host of smart devices that includes a smart fridge or smart washer and dryer. After all, the best smart home devices do make doing things faster, and therefore make life easier. At best, smart home devices on the market can make creative professionals’ daily routines and workflow much e more seamless. By taking over the simplest and perhaps more tedious quotidian tasks at hand, the best smart home devices for creatives allow photographers, videographers, artists and designers to focus more on their artistic endeavours. If you're looking for more devices to make your life easier, you might also want to check out our guides to the best laptops for graphic design or the best ereaders money can buy. Benefits of smart home devices for creative professionals As creative professionals and self-professed smart home fanatics ourselves, we know this first-hand. There’s nothing better than to have our lights automatically fade in slowly like sunrise to wake us up and help us start our day right, or to have our smart assistant adjust the temperature in the room when it gets too hot or too cold. Well, at least, besides getting notifications from our phone so we can see who’s at the door without having to get up. When we’re in the middle of editing a video or a batch of photos (see our best video editing software), it’s nice to just tell Alexa to turn the music down when it becomes too distracting or have a smart switch start brewing a fresh pot of coffee. At the beginning of our day, it’s great to simply ask Alexa to start running the robot vacuum so we have some time to meditate or do yoga before hunkering down at our desk for 12 straight hours. So, you too can enjoy the benefits of having smart home devices installed in your home or home office, we gathered the best of them, all of which we tried and tested ourselves. Among the other smart speakers out there, including Google Home and Sonos Smart Speaker, the Amazon Echo Plus certainly comes out the winner in our book. It not only offers support and connectivity for most smart devices out there, but also boasts excellent range, and utilises Amazon Alexa, which is a pretty great voice assistant. As a plus, its speakers, though not audiophile level, deliver a surprisingly solid audio quality. Consider it the gateway device to other smart devices, as it lets you control everything from your smart lights and thermostats to your smart plugs and robot vacuums. For creative professionals, that means having access to practically everything without having to take your eyes off the laptop display or drawing monitor. That includes menial tasks like calling someone on their mobile, creating lists and reminders, going through the day’s headlines, and even calculating conversions. Sure, there are other cheaper smart home devices out there, such as. Google Home or Amazon’s own Echo Dot. However, with a better speaker and more capabilities, the Amazon Echo Plus is certainly worth the extra cash. Considering they’re just light bulbs, it’s astounding how many things Philips’ very popular Hue smart bulbs can do. We’re talking more than just turning on and off with voice commands, adjusting light intensity without a dimmer, and setting timers and schedules here. Having a set of the Philips Hue Colour Ambiance Smart Bulbs in your home gives you seemingly endless applications. Want your living room lights on just before you get home? You can set up a routine so that the app tracks your location and automatically turns on the lights in that room a few minutes before you get to your front door. Need brighter lights to make you feel energised and more productive while working in your home office? The Hue app has the perfect scene for you. These lights can even be set up to follow the rhythm of the music you’re currently playing, reflect the weather conditions outside or notify you if the space station is overhead. Boasting 16 million colours, the Philips Hue Colour Ambiance Smart Bulbs are pretty nifty, and it's well worth paying the premium price for all the immersive benefits they offer. If you’re looking to fill your home with the best smart home devices for creative professionals, these bulbs are a great start. Whether you like it or not, how comfortable your workspace is has a huge impact on your productivity and workflow. The temperature in that space, for one, is vital, and simply by installing a smart thermostat makes a difference. There are many reasons why we love the ecobee4 Smart Thermostat for this. That, of course, includes the fact that it includes a room sensor, which manages hot or cold spots for you, as well as reads the temperature and detects occupancy in a room, adjusting accordingly to reduce energy consumption. Unlike other smart thermostats on the market, however, this one gets our vote because it has built-in Alexa features. That means that it can perform some Alexa voice commands like playing music, setting up timers, creating shopping lists and utilising Drop In, Alexa’s intercom feature. Even better, it’s so easy to install that you can forgo the exuberant expert installation fee and do it yourself. It’s one of the priciest smart home devices on this list, but it more than gives you your money’s worth. While there are already a lot of smart home devices out there, including smart refrigerators that can organise your family schedule and even order your groceries for you, there are a large number of appliances out there that are still very much stuck in the 20th century. Though worry not; there’s still a way to ‘smarten up’ such appliances and electronics. Thanks to a plethora of smart plugs, smart power strips and smart switches out there, you can – to a degree – control them remotely through your voice assistant and/or a phone app. The Kasa Smart Plug is one such smart device, compatible with small electronics that run at up to 12 AMPs. This means that you can plug your fans, coffee makers, lamps and radios into it, then control them with voice commands, turn them on/off remotely and even set them on schedules. It even offers a feature called Away Mode, which allows you to set your appliances to on and off at random intervals to make it look like you’re home even when you’re not. Home security camera systems are not just for keeping your home and office safe from intruders anymore. With smart home security cameras taking home security by storm, they’re now also a great way to check package deliveries, talk directly with visitors when you’re not home and even see who’s at the door without having to get up from your desk. And with Arlo Pro 2, you’re getting even more bang for your buck with features like weatherproofing, wireless connectivity, 300 plus feet line of sight, and a rechargeable battery. Of course, all the essential features are there too: sound and motion detection, night vision and local backup storage. There’s two-way audio and instant notifications as well, so you can chase off intruders, if you want to. For even more coverage, you can even expand the system to include up to five cameras for free and up to 20 cameras by upgrading. Like most security cameras, this only has up to 1080p video capabilities – though, it’s not like you need 4K video quality for this purpose. When you’re a busy creative professional clocking in 12 to 16 hours of work a day, you’ll hardly find time doing menial tasks like washing dishes and cleaning your home. This is why we find robot vacuums so practical – they may not offer that deep cleaning regular vacuum cleaners offer, but they’re good enough in keeping your floors debris-, dust- and dander-free on a daily basis. If you can't concentrate on work when your workspace is a mess, that’s already plenty helpful. With the iRobot Roomba 690, you’re basically taking that further with app and voice assistant control. You can now easily customise its cleaning process, start cleaning anytime remotely, set up cleaning schedules and even tell it to go back to its home unit for charging, all without having to physically get up. It’s still plenty noisy, but all that hands-free control should give you more time to focus on other things – like doing morning yoga or making lunch. Should the noise prove a little too loud and distracting, that’s what the best noise-cancelling headphones are for. If you work from home most of the time and like to put on a show or a movie in the background or watch videos online for inspiration and tutorials, then the Fire TV Cube could be for you. Sure, our smart TVs do plenty already and offer a world of convenience when it comes to streaming content or Netflix. But, we also love the idea of not having to get up to scour the living room for the remote or simply controlling the TV without it. Touted by Amazon as its most powerful Fire TV device ever, the Fire TV Cube makes our best smart home devices for creative professionals list because it lets us do just that. Whether it’s to turn on the TV or put on your favourite shows using voice commands through Alexa, the Fire TV simply delivers a level of convenience that no other streaming device could. Great extras include built-in speakers, Bluetooth headphones compatibility and music streaming. Read more: The best mechanical keyboards The best wireless chargers The most powerful laptops available View the full article

If you're lucky enough to own a Surface Pro device, whatever version you have, you'll know they are powerful little machines, capable of high-labour intensive tasks. One of the best tablets with a stylus in our roundup, the Surface Pro is packed with brilliant features to help make a creative's day just that little bit easier. Some you'll be very aware of: that gorgeous screen, full-fat desktop software compatibility, for example. But the Surface Pro has other more under-the-radar features and functionality that might just surprise – and delight – you. If you're looking to invest in a Surface Pro, be sure to bookmark our Surface Pro Black Friday deals page, which we will keep updated with all the best offers as they arrive. Now let's take a closer look at some of the things you can do with a Surface Pro devices that you probably didn't know about, but which could be game-changers. 01. Take screenshots with the Surface Pen The Microsoft Surface team has been working hard to develop the functionality of Surface accessories in recent years, the Surface Pen being one of them. One of the features in Windows 10, Snip & Sketch enables the ability to take a screenshot with the Surface Pen. Simply double-clicking on the pen's eraser button will take a screenshot, which can then be edited, cropped and saved. 02. Collaborate remotely, in real time Whiteboard is an app that you can download for free on any Microsoft PC or Surface device. With an interface designed for the Surface Pen, the Surface Pro 7 lends itself perfectly to this virtual canvas, which allows you to connect and collaborate with other artists anywhere in the world. We caught up with Microsoft's Head of Industrial Design Ralf Groene, who shared his own experiences of working with Whiteboard and the Surface Pro X. "I was working with my daughter on a school project recently when she was in Rhode Island. We used Whiteboard to work through a problem, sketching together remotely," he explains. "That's such a new and profound, very productive experience. Being able to work on a project together in real time, that's a game-changer." 03. Make better human connections The recently announced Surface X (see our hands on Microsoft Surface Pro X review here) brings with it a number of impressive new features that creatives will love; touchscreen display, slim, sleek design, plenty of storage, lots of power, and so on. There's also another feature you will notice, literally, and that's gaze correction, which uses AI to adjust the appearance of your eyes so you appear to be looking straight at the camera when you’re on a conference call. "Not looking into someone else's eyes when you have a video call can cause just this little bit of friction, a little bit of distance, and so us changing this gets you one step closer to better, more natural human interaction," says Groene. "Those are the details that we spend an enormous amount of time on at Microsoft, you can make all the difference in the world this is just this tiny change." Can't wait until Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals drop? Here are the best Surface device and accessory deals in your area: View the full article

Having a well-curated collection of your finest work on show is the surest way to impress people with your portfolio, but never underestimate the power of displaying it in the best possible way. To really turn heads, it pays to spend time – or money, if you're not that technically inclined – on building a portfolio website that takes full advantage of the latest trends and technology. And if you're not sure what approach you should take with your site, you've come to the right place. We've found six of the most best new portfolio sites around, each of which do things in their own individual way and look stunning while they're doing it. Read on for a delicious helping of portfolio inspiration. You can also check out our general post of more inspirational design portfolios. 6 big portfolio trends of 2019 01. Hello Monday We could play with these squishy thumbnails for hours It's hard not to love Hello Monday's mission: to make Mondays better for everyone. This creative studio has an eight-point code of honour that starts off with the simple commitment to being nice, and its portfolio site is equally delightful. We love the squishy thumbnail images on the index page, and the way in which you can drag the edges inward until they finally snap back into place. Every project page is packed with detail and lovely big images, and if you need to know even more, many of them have a little 'In depth' link that makes an even more detailed case study slide into view. 02. Antidote Antidote's animated thumbnails tell you exactly what each director is about Antidote is a Dublin-based agency that specialises in high-end commercials, and its portfolio site's designed for instant visual appeal. Rather than drop a big mission statement in front of you – the kind that every scrolls straight past to get to the good stuff – it puts its directors front and centre; a simple list of names, each one bringing up a set of animated thumbnails as you mouse over them. It's an effective way to get an instant taste of each director's style, and clicking through takes you a page of massive animated previews that you can click to see the full videos. Further written details are available, but overall Antidote's counting on showing, rather than telling, and it's a brilliant strategy. 03. Design Embraced Design Embraced's portfolio is full of lovey eye candy As seen on Hello Monday's portfolio site, getting some movement into your page designs by deforming the edges of images is a great, on-trend look, and it's one that freelancer Anthony Goodwin, under the name Design Embraced, uses to excellent effect. As you scroll through his portfolio the assorted images ripple gently and zoom in slightly as you mouse over them; clicking activates a transition in which the thumbnail expands into the centre of the screen and the page loads behind it. Mesmerising stuff. 04. Headless Horse Come for the horses, stay for the massive portfolio gallery A glorious combination of cutting-edge technology and old-school styling, Headless Horse's portfolio site opens with full-screen video of a pack of horses, over which there's a simple text interface asking: Initiate system? Typing 'yes' takes you to the main portfolio, but there's fun to be had from typing 'no' and seeing what happens next. Once you've finished playing with the text interface, the portfolio itself takes the form of a massive black-and-white photo of pictures pinned to a wall; click on each one to see Headless Horse's various projects in depth. 05. Jamie Hunter Jamie Hunter's minimal portfolio makes a big impact with a light touch Berlin-based Jamie Hunter describes himself as a holistic design and development person, and his beautifully minimal portfolio site does a splendid job of showcasing his work. Its index page does the job with a combination of kinetic typography and animated video loops of each project – along with plenty of white space to let the work breathe. While there are only a few non-agency projects on display (he notes that a most of freelancing is agency work covered by NDAs), each one is displayed thoughtfully, with a detailed case study and enough enticing browser effects to leave you in no doubt as to his abilities. 06. Tangent Tangent takes a clever approach to luring you in to inspect its work Finally, we absolutely adore Tangent's approach to showcasing its work on its portfolio site. An identity and art direction studio based in Glasgow, it lures you in with a gallery of big black and white thumbnails; mousing over the thumbnails turns them full colour, and the briefest details of the project – the client's name and the nature of their business, and the work that Tangent did for them – appear in the four corners of the window in big, bold Helvetica. Clicking through takes you to long case studies that are all about the full-screen imagery laced with short chunks of explanatory text; the perfect way to get a feel for each piece of work. Related articles: The wrong way to build a portfolio 7 free portfolio hosting options for designers How to refine your design portfolio View the full article

Some brands make us feel as if they've been around since the dawn of time. The likes of Nestle and Heinz sport packaging and logo designs that are instantly recognisable, and people pick up their products without even thinking about it. It's a level of consumer trust that brands all over the world aspire to. Artist Ahmed Morshedi recently shone a light on the concept of brand trust with a series of brilliant but brain muddling packaging redesigns. The Experiment is comprised of brand design mashups that aim to make you stop and think. And it certainly made our heads hurt. Toothpaste on your toast, anyone? The above Nutella/Signal mashup is a good example of how Morshedi has managed to confuse us. It's like we've gone through the looking glass to an upside-down world where, though nothing makes sense, everything still works. And let's be honest, who doesn't love the idea of brushing their teeth with Nutella? Well, mouthwash is basically disinfectant anyway Morshedi explains his work: “I redesigned the logos, printed them out and repackaged well-known brands in a way that will mess with your head … in a good way,” he says. But Morshedi hasn't just created this art to turn us all topsy-turvy, he also thinks there's an important message here for designers. "It's simply a different way of looking at the brands, which most of the time their teams are afraid of tackling it in such a way," Morshedi told Bored Panda. This approach makes us consider whether some brands are too ingrained in our consciousness. Do we still see them, or are some in danger of becoming background noise? Morshesdi's work certainly emphasises the impact of a brand refresh, and the importance of thinking outside of the limitations of a brand image. Cigarettes as the essence of life is super-disturbing Branding couldn't be more important for this cigarette/water switcheroo. After the transition cigarette branding has gone through over the last decades – from bright and alluring to plain with unsightly pictures and impactful messaging – it's jarring to see how the brand message of a pack of cigs can be altered. This pack looks like it could be straight out of the mind of an early Don Draper (before all the important legislation came in), bringing cigarettes to the masses with misleading and harmful imagery. Also the idea of water, the essence of life, being covered with cigarette branding is, frankly, disturbing. And not one we ever want to see come to fruition. Orange ketchup could certainly have its uses We especially like this 'Orange Ketchup', not only for the smart redesign but for the opportunity to add ketchup to a different type of meal. It also reminds us of the time purple ketchup was a thing, and we wonder why Heinz didn't continue the shake-up. Though it did have it's own wacky branding, and we kinda like the classic twist Morshedi has put on things. This isn't the first time we've seen brands go though unofficial logo mashups, but every time it happens it makes us consider whether everything we know is true, and it seems it doesn't ever get less confusing. Read more: The surprising story behind the Joker logo Is this the most blatant logo theft ever? 10 iconic logos with hidden meanings View the full article

Sapper is a framework built on top of Svelte. It focuses on speed out of the box with server rendering, link preloading, and the ability to create service workers. Combined with Svelte, the end result is a highly customisable, lightning fast site with a small footprint. In this tutorial, we will be using Sapper to build a lightweight blogging site using Svelte components (see our how to start a blog post for some less technical tips on blogging). Svelte is a framework with a difference. It analyses the code at compile time and creates a set of modules in vanilla JavaScript, which avoids the need for a runtime. If you need further help with layouts then check out our post on how to get the perfect website layout. Download the tutorial files on FileSilo here 01. Install dependencies Firstly, we need to download and install dependencies. It relies on Svelte to work and requires another framework to build the server, but the rest depends on the application being built. In this case, we need a few packages to help extract Markdown files later on. Download the tutorial files (above(, find them on the command line and install the dependencies. 02. Build out server Sapper is built in two parts – the client-side framework and the server-side rendering of that framework. This helps get that extra speed boost for those on slower networks. It is built using Node, which allows the Sapper middleware to do all the heavy lifting for us. Open server.js and create the server with Express. Using their recommendations, we include compression to shrink the files we send and sirv to serve static files. 03. Mount the application On the client side, we need to tell Sapper where to mount the application. This is similar to React DOM’s render or Vue’s $mount methods. Inside client.js, start Sapper and mount it to the root <div> element. That element is included in the template file, which we will come to later on. 04. Start the development server Any errors during the development build process are flagged on the command line. With the basic server and client files set up, we can start the development server. This kicks off a build of the server, client and service worker files, and it will start up on port 3000 by default. Whenever a file changes, it will rebuild the part of the application that changed. Run the server on the command line. Keep this window open while developing the site. 05. Create a server route Anything inside the “routes” directory will turn into a route for the application. Files with the .js extension will become what are called server routes. These routes have no UI, but instead are requested by the application to fetch data. In our case, we will use them to load up blog posts. The routes/blog/index.json.js file will create the /blog.json endpoint on our server. Import the blog posts and create some JSON from them. 06. Return the blog posts Server routes export functions that correspond with HTTP methods. For example, to respond to a GET request, we would export a function called get from the server route file. Create a get function that responds with the data that we collected in the previous step in a JSON format. Open http://localhost:3000/blog.json in the browser and check the posts are coming through. 07. Create index page Pages in Sapper are regular Svelte components. Each component is a single file with a .svelte extension, and contain all the logic and styling for managing itself. Any JavaScript this component needs to run will live inside a <script> tag — just like any HTML page. Inside routes/index.svelte, import a couple of other Svelte components that we can use to build this page. Export a posts variable that we will populate later. 08. Fetch blog post data With the page set up, we can start bringing in blog posts. We need to do this as soon as the page is loaded. In order for the server to be aware of this and then request this data when it renders the page, it needs to go in a separate <script context=”module”> tag. On the server, Sapper will look for a preload function, and wait for it to complete before showing the page. Here, we are populating the posts variable from the previous step. 09. Display post summaries In Svelte, variables are reactive by default. This means that, as they update, our components will also update too. As the posts variable now holds an array of blog posts, we can loop over these and display them. We can do this using an #each block. These will repeat what is inside the brackets for each item in an array. At the bottom of the component, outside of any tags, add the HTML to display the posts. 10. Style the container We can use components to contain any repeated logic and use them wherever they are needed – styles included. The <Container> component currently does not do anything, but we can use it to give a maximum width to the content inside it. Open up components/Container.svelte, and add some styles inside a <style> tag. Any styles that we apply inside a component are scoped to that component, which means that we can use a generic selector. 11. Define a <slot> If a component is designed to be the parent to other components, we need a way to pass those components through. The <slot> element does just that, and can be placed anywhere that makes sense inside a component’s markup. With <Container>, we are wrapping the contents in a styled <div>. Use <slot> inside the <div> to let everything else through. 12. Expose PostSummary props Not every component is going to fetch some data. As we are loading the posts from the main page component, it can be passed through to the components it renders through its attributes. Open components/PostSummary.svelte and define some attributes at the top of the file. These are getting filled in by the spread operator we added in step 09. 13. Display blog post summary When the attributes are populated, they are then accessed like any other variable. By having separate attributes for each part of the post summary, we make the markup easier to read. At the bottom of the component, add some HTML to create the summary. The classes relate to the pre-defined styles. 14. Link to blog post Sapper can fetch the information for a link as the user hovers over it for a perceived performance benefit Unlike similar frameworks such as Next.js, Sapper works with regular anchor links. At build time, it is able to detect internal links, and also to make its own optimisations. Update the markup from the previous step by wrapping it in a link. There is no need for you to create template strings in order to compose the slugged URL. 15. Fetch a post by slug Sapper is able to create pages based on URL parameters. In our case, we link to /blog/slug, which means it renders the component at /routes/blog/[slug].svelte. Inside that component, fetch the blog data like we did for the index page. The params object contains the parameters from the URL, which in this case is the slug. 16. Error if post is not found Unlike the index page, there is a chance there isn’t a blog post at the URL. In that case, we should display an error. Along with fetch, the preload method also includes error that changes the response to an error page instead. At the end of the preload method, show an error if there is no post found. Otherwise, set the post variable for the page. 17. Display the blog post Any internal links can be loaded asynchronously. This includes those written in Markdown. With the data fetched, we can now show the post on the page. Similar to the PostSummary component, we display each part of the post’s content inside curly brackets. At the bottom of the component, add some markup to display on the page. 18. Display HTML instead Looking at the page now, everything displays correctly apart from the actual post content. The markdown conversion generates HTML, but we see that printed as text on the post itself. Sapper has a HTML parser built in for this case. Placing @html in front of it will use this parser. 19. Set page <title> value Our blog functions correctly, but there are a couple of changes needed to finish it. One of those is to update the <title> on the page to relabel the tab it’s displayed in. Svelte supports a <svelte:head> element, which injects anything inside of it into the <head> of the page. Use this to set the title of the post as <title>. 20. Updating the <title> Every page goes through a template in order to stamp out the HTML for the rest of the page. This is where any setup such as font imports and meta tags would be entered. Open up template.html, and add in a hook for the contents of the <svelte:head> element from the previous step. Add this in just before the closing </head> tag. 21. Add permanent header The final thing we need to add is a layout for the blog. Instead of wrapping each page in a component, Sapper will look for a _layout.svelte file to do this job for us. Inside _layout.svelte, import the <Header> component and show that at the top of every page. It provides a convenient link back to the homepage. This article was originally published in creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 290 now. Web components: The ultimate guide 30 Chrome extensions for web designers and devs 52 web design tools to help you work smarter in 2019 View the full article

"Ernie! Little old lady at 12 o'clock!" – a line die-hard Harry Potter fans will recognise as one from Dre Head, the hilarious Shrunken Head that sits – or hangs – alongside kamikaze driver Ernie Prang in the beloved Knight Bus. A triple-decker, purple AEC Regent III RT bus, Harry first encounters the Knight Bus after inadvertently (not that she didn't deserve it) inflating his uncle's sister Marge Dursley. One of the most iconic vehicles in the Harry Potter series, it was super-exciting to see the Knight Bus transformed into a Lego set. Harry Potter fans have been creating amazing inspired Lego art for years now, so it's not surprising to see Lego itself follow suit. And it doesn't disappoint. The Knight Bus Lego set retails at £34.99, for which you get 403 pieces, divided into three numbered bags. Minifigures included are Harry Potter, complete with trunk and wand, bus driver Ernie Prang and conductor Stan Shunpike, all of whom are dressed almost exactly as they feature in the film. And let's not forget aforementioned Dre Head (the first piece we searched for when opening the set), a floating head that has been design so as to swing with the motion of the bus. As always, Lego pulled out all the stops when fine tuning details with this set, right down to Ernie Prang's bald head with sideburns piece. But in terms of the actual build, what first struck us was the size of the bus. It measures six inches (16cm) high, six inches long and two inches (6cm) wide, which is quite a bit smaller than we were expecting. However we should stress this doesn't take anything away from the overall design, which is packed with lovely little touches to make it an authentic Knight Bus replica. A triple decker bus, the upper deck is somewhat bland (featuring just a newspaper title), in comparison to the bottom and middle levels, which is where you'll come across the majority of the interior design. Here you'll find a bed, for the tired witch or wizard, of course, a chandelier, because public transport can be stylish too, space for Harry's trunk (which holds important mail), Ernie in the front seat and Dre Head sat neatly beside him. The Knight Bus Lego set's design has a hinged opening side panel, which is a stroke of genius. Closed, it's almost impossible to see the interior through the tiny windows, but the panel opens enough to be able to enjoy the inside in all its glory. In terms of difficulty, this set is relatively easy, with numbered bags and the standard easy-to-follow Lego instruction booklet, which makes it a great choice for younger Lego/Harry Potter fans to get stuck in to. Once built, the bus feel very sturdy for future play/use, and there aren't a huge amount of small pieces on the outside that could be at risk of being lost. There's also the added bonus that the overall build and design means if any pieces did fall off, it would be pretty easy to put back together. Lego has released a number of Harry Potter-inspired sets, focussing on various scenes and props in the series. But if, like us, the Knight Bus holds a special place in your heart, this set offers a really authentic replica and fun building experience, with a price tag that makes it accessible to all. View the full article

If you're a web designer then we really shouldn't need to be telling you about Flexbox by now. Even non-web people have got the idea that it's a powerful responsive web design tool for creating pages that arrange page layouts in a predictable way to look good in any viewport. Knowing it's good, however, isn't the same as being able to actually use it, and while there's not actually great deal to the Flexbox specification, figuring out how it all fits together can feel like a bit of an uphill struggle. Our web designer's guide to Flexbox is the perfect way to get to grips with it, but if you're having trouble getting all the various elements to stick in your head, we've found lovely Flexbox cheat sheet that you'll want to keep bookmarked. So if you're having trouble telling your flex-grow from your stretch, head over to FLEX. It's the work of Chris Malven at Malven Co., an interactive design and development studio based in Iowa, and it contains all the most important Flexbox properties you're going to need, presented in a simple visual manner that doesn't bog you down in wordy explanations. FLEX puts all those Flexbox properties you need at your fingertips Instead, it shows what each property does via a wonderfully minimal image; simply find the property you want to use and click on it, and FLEX will copy the code you need straight to your clipboard. Easy! Malven explains that while many Flexbox resources are brilliant for learning the details of how things work, there's too much going on for them to serve as quick references. "I wanted something that was as visually condensed as possible," he says, "and easy to scan visually. I need to see what elements styled using each properly will look like." And so he built FLEX as a visual Flexbox cheat sheet; he says he uses it all the time and that it's helped him to become truly comfortable with the Flexbox syntax. You can find FLEX here; if you find it useful and wish there was a similar resource for CSS Grid Layout, then guess what? You're in luck; Malven has built that very thing in the form of GRID, which lays out all the CSS Grid properties in a similarly digestible format. Related articles: 19 cool CSS animation examples to recreate The best web hosting services in 2019 10 CodePen tricks you never knew you needed View the full article

An unsecured NFC tag opens a door to trivial exploitation of robots inside Japanese hotels. View the full article

Two high-severity vulnerabilities in a Fujitsu wireless keyboard expose passwords and allow keystroke injection attacks. View the full article

In the run up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it's not unusual for some amazing deals to appear. And that's just what's happened with this iPad Pro discount from Currys, which sees nearly to £100 slashed off the regular retail price. So if you want to grab a bargain device, don't miss this opportunity. Meanwhile, if you're after more insider information about what to expect from this year's Black Friday event, be sure to bookmark our Apple Black Friday deals page for more tips and predictions. As for the Currys' discount, this offer applies to the 2017 10.5-inch Space Grey iPad Pro. This model is compatible with the Apple Pencil and the deal comes with a smart keyboard folio for just £759 – that's a tasty £99.97 off compared to buying the iPad and folio separately. It may not be the most up-to-date iPad available, but it should still serve as a decent tool for working on the go. Below you'll find more details about this amazing iPad Pro offers (see our iPad Black Friday roundup for more discounts). After more iPad Pro deals? Check out some of the best offers available right now. View the full article

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