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Joker came out last Friday, and it seems like everyone is talking about it. It's already made over a quarter of a billion dollars at the box office, and has divided critics and viewers alike with its portrayal of a man and his mental illness. Whether or not you liked the film, or have even seen it, there's plenty of Joker fan art populating the internet for you to enjoy. We've picked a few of our favourites below. If you'd like to get involved but need a little help, don't miss our roundup of tutorials on various art techniques, as well as our post outlining no less than 61 top-class Photoshop tutorials. If you haven't seen it, watch the trailer for the film below. And if all this Joker art gets you in a spooky mood, then check out our favourite Halloween Doodles. First up is this piece by burinsnap, which creates a startling atmosphere: There there's this rather sympathetic portrayal of the Joker by James Passfield. His tweet also includes some process shots, which we always appreciate. There's a touch of Michael Jackson about this one by Chaengaroo. We love this depiction by illustrator and comic artist Eleanor Ananda, which goes for a more realistic depiction of a sorrowful Joker. While this piece by illustrator Paula Hsu Art has a poetic quality about it. There's something eerie in the expression in this piece, by Kplaxit, over on DeviantArt. And this one by Minokreit, also on DeviantArt, is downright terrifying. We love the line art here. And it isn't just drawings on the Joker that are surfacing. Tjscreates has made his own poster in homage to the film, as well as a great process video which shows his work in Photoshop (click the arrow to see it). Bryanzapp has created several different pieces of fan art for the movie. We particularly like the one below. Plenty of people are creating Joker fan art as part of Inktober. If you want to get involved, see our Inktoker tips from those who've succeeded in past years. Did we miss your favourite piece of Joker fan art? Let us know on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. Read more: Controversial BBC competition produces some incredible fan art Fan art commemorates big Game of Thrones deaths New Bond 25 poster revealed – and we're majorly underwhelmed View the full article

Everyone needs something to drink, and while it's perfectly feasible to get by on tap water, realistically we all want a bit of flavour in our lives, and maybe something with a little extra kick as well. That's why the global drinks market is so huge, and why so much money and effort goes into creating appealing brands. Drinks account for some of the largest brands in the world, and having an instantly recognisable logo design is key to success in a crowded market. And because tastes change over time, most (but not all) of the big brands need to keep refreshing their look in order to stay relevant. Here are six of the best drinks logos. 8 brands that rule at social media 01. Coca-Cola It's the real thing, but do you mind if they only have Pepsi? There's something distinctly magical about Coca-Cola's branding. And by that, we don't mean that it has a particularly brilliant logo design; it's a perfectly serviceable logotype, originally designed in 1886 and given various minor adjustments over the years. The last major addition to it was in 1969, when the white wave was added underneath, and that seems to have been largely shelved in recent years. What we love about the Coca-Cola logo is how it's wormed its way into the popular subconscious thanks to many, many years of repetition via keenly focused advertising. If you're in a supermarket and you want brown fizzy drink, you're probably going to reach for the Coca-Cola. And yet despite the power of the Coca-Cola brand, it's still somehow divorced from the product itself. If you're in a pub or restaurant and you order a Coke, only to be told, sorry, they only have Pepsi, chances are that you don't really care. Isn't that weird? 02. Pepsi Being second best in a market this big is no bad thing Forever stuck in second place in the global 'best brown fizzy drinks' stakes, Pepsi – originally launched in the 19th century as Brad's Drink – is in a constant state of trying to catch up with Coca-Cola, and so has worked harder over the years at updating its brand in an attempt to capture some of its rival's magic. For the longest period it called itself Pepsi-Cola and had a very similar red logotype; it was only around the time of the Second World War that it adopted its familiar red, white and blue design, to show support for American troops. Originally used on its bottle caps, the design has become the brand's default logo and has been tweaked numerous times over the years, most recently in 2008 to give it a smiley appearance. It's a strong look, and yet somehow it's never had the power of Coca-Cola's design. 03. Red Bull Made in Thailand Red Bull as a brand is about much more than an energy drink; today the company's as well-known for its Formula One team and other sporting enterprises as it is for its caffeine-packed beverages. However its iconic, energetic logo, featuring a pair of solid-looking bulls about to lock horns, actually predates the Red Bull brand itself. Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz came across an energy drink called Krating Daeng in Thailand and stuck a deal with its creator to create a version suitable for Western palates. And while he changed the recipe and translated the name into English, he retained the Krating Daeng logo design. It may be instantly associated with Red Bull worldwide, in Thailand you'll still see it adorning bottles of the original Krating Daeng. 04. Starbucks Mermaids and coffee, an obvious combination The Starbucks logo is a fascinating exercise in branding that shouldn't really work. Originally created in 1971 by Terry Heckler, the two-tailed mermaid design, derived from Norse folklore, has been refined over the years as the Starbucks brand has grown into a global coffee powerhouse. Quite what a mermaid has to do with coffee is anybody's guess, and yet it has become inextricably linked with the Starbucks name, to the extent that the company's 2011 rebrand by Lippincott put the mermaid front and centre, without any text. That's quite an achievement for an over-complex mark with no real link to the product it's promoting. 05. Heineken Refreshes the parts other brands can't reach Heineken may be one of the world's biggest beer brands, but it's one that's never taken itself too seriously, as its traditionally light-hearted advertising demonstrates. When the company's chairman, Freddy Heineken, brought in a rebrand in the 1950s with the company name taking prominence, he insisted that it should have a friendly appearance. So the wordmark ditched Heineken's previous all-caps look for more rounded, smaller letters, and also adopted a small backwards slant on the letter 'E', giving it a smiling appearance. 06. PG tips Nice cup of tea, anyone? PG tips may not be a global brand, but it's one that shines out as a beacon of hope anywhere in the world where there are British expats in search of a good cup of tea. There are various brands of tea available in the UK, but PG tips is the only one that really matters to a nation of serious tea-drinkers. Established in 1930 as 'Pre-Gestee' – referring to tea as a digestive aid – it soon became known as PG, and manufacturers Brooke Bond later added 'tips' to the name, in reference to it being made using only the tips of the tea plant. Its distinctive red-and-green logo, complete with a little sprig of tea tips, has been in use for years, and had become weakened by the sort of evolutionary changes that any long-lasting brand has to put up with. A 2016 redesign by Jones Knowles Ritchie took it back to basics, with a new, minimal brand mark inspired by the notion of togetherness. Related articles: 5 steps to building a strong brand voice How to make a logo in Photoshop 10 iconic logos with hidden meanings View the full article

You're reading Best Practices for Halloween Email Newsletters with Examples, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Halloween is celebrated in different cultures around the globe and provides a big sales opportunity. While some people will put faces on pumpkins, adorn their halls with spooky decorations, and try on scary costumes, email marketers send email newsletters with … View the full article

Millions of iOS users could be vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks that trace back to flawed Twitter code used in popular iPhone apps. View the full article

CVE-2019-16920 allows remote unauthenticated attackers to execute code on a target device. View the full article

Angular 8 is the latest version of Google's Angular – one of the best JavaScript frameworks around. In this article, we'll run through what's special about Angular 8, and show you how to get started. First, a brief look back at what's happened with the framework so far. Angular's introduction led to a paradigm shift in web development: while most libraries limited themselves to providing support to developers with relatively limited architectural impact, Angular's developer team went in the other direction. Their product forces you to use a specific architecture, with deviations ranging from difficult to commercially pointless. In fact, most Angular code runs through a relatively complex transpilation toolchain before it ever hits the browser. Due to the immense success of Angular, both inside and outside of Google Inc, development has – by and large – stabilised. This means that breaking code changes are few, while the semi-annual upgrades are focused on adapting the framework to changes in the web browsing landscape. In the case of Angular 8, for example, a new JavaScript compiler is deployed (albeit still experimentally). It optimises generated compatibility code to be significantly smaller and faster at the expense of older browsers. Furthermore, Web Worker support is integrated to increase Angular's processing capability. In short, there is a lot to see – so let us dive right in. 01. Run a version check Angular's toolchain lives inside the NodeJS environment. As of this writing, Node.js 10.9 or better is needed – if you find yourself on an older version, visit the Node.js website and get an upgrade. The code below shows the version status on this machine. 02. Install Angular Angular's toolchain resides in a command line utility named ng. It can be installed via the well-known NPM. Be careful to answer the question shown in the image below. Click the icon in the top right to enlarge Getting version info out of the tool is quite difficult – not only is the syntax unique, but the output is also verbose (see image below). Click the icon in the top right to enlarge 03. Create a project skeleton ng generates the Angular scaffolding for us. In the following steps, we want to add routing, and use Sass for CSS transpilation. Should the deployment fail for some reason, empty the working directory, and restart ng with superuser rights. 04. Harness differential loading The new version of Angular optimises backward compatiblity code for reduced impact – a file called browserslist lets you decide which browsers are to be supported. Open browserslist and remove the word not in front of IE 9 to IE11. 05. ... and see the results Order a compile of the project, change into the distribution folder and purge unneeded map files. Invoke tree to see the results – ng creates multiple versions of various code files (see image below). Click the icon in the top right to enlarge 06. Spawn a web worker Web workers let JavaScript enter the last frontier of native applications: massively parallel processing of tasks. With Angular 8, a web worker can be created right from the comfort of the ng command line utility. 07. Explore the code ng's output is likely to look intimidating at first glance. Opening the file src/app/myworker.worker.ts in a code editor of choice reveals code which you should know well from the WebWorker specification. In principle, the worker receives messages and processes them as needed. 08. Set up scaffolding Angular applications consist of components. Firing off our web worker is best done inside the AppComponent, which is expanded to include a listener for the OnInit event. For now, it will emit status information only. 09. Don't worry about the lack of constructor Experienced TypeScript developers ask themselves why our code does not use the constructor provided by the programming language. The reason for that is that ngOnInit is a lifecycle event which gets fired whenever an initialisation event takes place – this does not need to be correlated to class invocation. 10. Execute a small compile run At this point in time, the program is ready to run. We will execute it from the server inside of ng, which can be invoked via the serve command. A neat aspect of this approach is that the program detects changes and recompiles the project on the fly. Take a look at the figure to see this in action in the image below. Hit the icon in the top right to enlarge the image 11. ...and find the output ng serve putputs the address of its local web server, which is usually http://localhost:4200/. Open the web page and open the developer tools to see the status output. Keep in mind that console.log outputs data to the browser console and leaves the console of the NodeJS instance untouched. 12. Get to work At this point in time, we create an instance of the worker and provide it with a message. Its results are then shown in the browser console. 13. Explore Ivy Future versions of Angular will use a more advanced compiler, leading to even smaller views. While the product is not finished yet, an ivy-enabled skeleton can be spawned via ng new ivy-project – enable-ivy. Alternatively, change the compiler settings as shown in the snippet. A word of warning: Ivy leads to amazing size reductions, but it is not free. The product has yet to stabilize, so using it in productive environments is not recommended. 14. Try modified ng processing Angular's ng command line tool used child scripts internally for some time. Angular 8 ups the ante in that you can now, also, use this facility to run your own tasks as your application is assembled and compiled. One neat application of ng scripts involves directly uploading applications to cloud services. The Git repository provides a useful script that uploads your work to a Firebase account. 15. Enjoy improved migration Developers migrating away from Angular 1.x, also known as AngularJS, have had a fair share of issues getting the navigator to work right in 'combined' applications. The new Unified Location Service aims to make this process smoother. 16. Explore workspace control Large projects benefit from the ability to change the workspace structure dynamically. This is done via the new Workspace API introduced in Angular 8.0 – the snippet accompanying this step provides a quick overview of the behaviour. 17. Accelerate the process Building large JavaScript code bases gets tedious. Future versions of AngularJS will use Google's Bazel build system to accelerate the process – sadly, at time of writing it wasn't ready for primetime. 18. Avoid the walking dead Even though Google takes extreme care not to break code, some features simply need to be removed as they are no longer needed. Check this depreciations list to learn more about features which should be avoided. 19. Look at the change log As always, one article can never do justice to an entire release. Fortunately, this change log provides a detailed list of all the changes – just in case you ever feel like checking the pulse of a feature especially dear to you. This article was originally published in creative web design magazine Web Designer. Read more: Add multi-language support to Angular The best JavaScript APIs How to code faster, lighter JavaScript View the full article

You're reading Make These Changes to Meet Web Design Accessibility Standards, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Accessibility is a key function of any web design or app strategy. New government accessibility regulations in the UK mean that all public sector websites created on or after Sept. 23, 2018, must be accessible. Mobile apps must be accessible … View the full article

Saturday was James Bond day and fans of the British spy were treated (we use the term loosely) to a look at the first poster for upcoming Bond film No Time to Die. The poster sees Daniel Craig doing his usual smouldering thing up against a faded turquoise background. It also shows that same font we saw in the killer typographic logo, released earlier in the year (read more about the No Time to Die logo here). The text, of course, reads No Time to Die. And the 007 is also present and correct. But to be honest, there's not a lot more to it. The poster has been met with a mixed reaction online. A lot of people are not happy with the look and feel of the poster. Some felt that there could've been a lot more to the poster design (see our favourite poster designs here). Others felt that the design team had had 'no time to create'. And some picked at the font, saying it was hard to read. One Reddit user, bobrformalin even said it was "worse than papyrus". Ouch. Although of course, there are plenty hardcore fans who are just excited about the film, glad to see the poster, and desperate for a glimpse of the trailer. Overall, we can see why the No Time to Die poster may be underwhelming for Bond fans. It doesn't exactly scream of slick action that'll set your pulse racing. Mainly, Daniel Craig just looks a bit like he's kind of wishing he hadn't signed up for another Bond film. It's not quite as bad as that Spider-Man poster though. No Time to Die will be out in the UK on 3 April 2020, with the US release following a few days later on 8 April 2020. Read more: Graphic design in film: the ultimate guide Check out these incredible movie posters for films that never happened The 12 best London Underground posters View the full article

These spooky Halloween doodles are the perfect thing to get you in the mood for what is arguably the best holiday of them all. With just a couple of weeks to go until the big day, soon people all across the globe will be carving pumpkins, picking their favourite scary movie and stocking up on candy in preparation for Halloween. It's clearly a favourite for Google too, with the Google Doodle team each year releasing an awesome Halloween doodle to mark the occasion. The first was seen in 1999, with the company releasing a new one each year since. We've yet to see a bad design so choosing our favourites was tricky, but there were a few standouts, which you'll find details of below. And if how these designs have evolved are anything to go by, we can't wait to see what Halloween doodle Google comes up with for 2019. Want to make your own Halloween doodles? We've got the best digital art software and expert Illustrator tutorials to help get you started. Halloween doodle: Wes Craven (2008) Kicking the list of the best Halloween doodles off had to be this 2008 entry from none other than legendary horror movie director Wes Craven. After featuring a number of animated doodles up to this point, Google opted for a static design from Craven, letting his dark imagination do all the talking. A wonderfully sinister-looking pumpkin and candle replace the 'o' and 'l', and we particularly love the inclusion of the kitchen knife, which was a weapon of choice in so many of his films. Halloween doodle: Bram Stokers 165th birthday (2012) A few years later, in 2012, Google Doodler Sophia Foster-Dimino created another incredible static illustration to mark what would have been Bram Stoker's 165th birthday. The man behind legendary villain Dracula, Foster-Dimino researched the author extensively in order to bring this beautiful black-and-white image to life. "I immersed myself in the source material by reading the thoroughly well-documented annotated edition of Dracula by Leslie S. Klinger," the illustrator says on the Doodle blog. "I wanted to give a nod to each of the major characters in the story, as it is their collective observations which shape the saga. I invite our users to see if they can identify seven protagonists, four antagonists, and one who falls somewhere in-between." Halloween doodle: Scooby Doo (2010) A couple of years earlier, Google released this impressive Scooby Doo-themed Halloween doodle, which consisted of five panels for the user to click through. In true Hanna-Barbera style, Velma, Daphne, Fred, Scooby Doo and Shaggy investigate Halloween-style clues in a bid to solve why the Google logo is missing. There was no sign of Scrappy though, much to our dismay. Halloween doodle: Witch's cauldron (2004) The fifth Halloween doodle to be created was this simple but beautiful design from 2004, which features a number of witch's vital items incorporated in to the famous Google logo. The designs became way more sophisticated as the years went on, but there's something so truly Halloween about the illustration that it remains a firm favourite. Did you notice the eyeball? Genius. Halloween doodle: The Witch (2013) When it comes to interactive designs, the Google Doodle team are masters of their craft. Intricate, clever and humorous designs, one of our favourites is this design released in 2013, where users could choose which ingredients the witch puts in her cauldron. The results differ depending on what the user chooses, although our favourite has to be the game of grab the zombie hand before it disappears. As much as we love and can appreciate the the static doodle images, there's something really special, not to mention fun, about the interactive ones, and so we really hope the Halloween doodle for 2019 follows the witch's trend. Read more: Art techniques: top tutorials for painting and drawing Ink drawing: Expert tips to get you started Best Black Friday iPad deals View the full article

If there's something that's sure to get people talking, it's a logo design competition. And here's one with a unique angle. The Community of Metal Designers has unofficially rebranded Dunkin' Donuts. The who? We hear you ask. For the uninitiated, The Community of Metal Designers (let's call them COMD) is a Facebook group set up to promote metal designers. Metal being the music genre, and not people crafting things out of steel. It regularly runs (unofficial) logo redesign competitions to showcase the imaginative talents of its members. Past projects stayed within the remit of the group, and included on-brand redesigns of logos for metal bands Signs of the Swam and Melecheshv. The COMD has now asked its members to focus their talents on the pink, fluffy, sprinkle-topped rings of loveliness that are found at Dunkin'. And it's produced some pretty awesome results. We should also note that Dunkin' Donuts is now officially Dunkin', following a rebrand from JKR, but this rebrand uses Dunkin's previous name. The energetic designs burst off the page Ranging from abstract splatters to more traditional band branding, the designs turn Dunkin' into a convincing metal outfit. There is some incredible skill at play here, transporting Dunkin' from a friendly, wholesome baked goods brand into an angsty, fierce entity with energy that bursts off the page. Designers have used motifs that are integral to the Dunkin' brand (cups, steam, lights, sprinkles... you get the idea), as well as playing with the colour palette, font and company name itself. This could be a metal band pin, or on a T-shirt according the CoMD members The logos have provoked some insightful comments from page users, ranging from how the logos make them feel, to potential uses for the design. Craig Davis Pinson said the image at the top "perfectly sums up my morning commute". (We feel the angst too.) Sara Elisabet thinks the image above would be "so cute for a metal pin or badge", whereas the one below is "perfect for a Simpsons Halloween special", according to Even Tan. It's clear from the comments that the page is serving its purpose in giving designers a positive, supportive platform to showcase their work to potential clients. The designers have created some cool slogans to reposition the Dunkin' brand The designers have also created some new slogans for Dunkin', including 'America Hates on Dunkin' (above), and 'America runs on Dunkin' (below). The varied logos reinforce how a different point-of-view can totally transform a brand image Logo reimagining projects reinforce how pivotal the right branding is for a company or music artist. These just-for-fun projects often throw up some surprising results like this logo design swap, or these reimagined logos. We think that the Dunkin' competition is a great example of what can be done by designers coming at a project from a new angle. Read more: 10 logos from 2019 that defy trends Is this the most blatant logo theft ever? 10 iconic logos with hidden meanings View the full article

It's no secret that decent cameras are expensive. However, this one will make your photography kit look like a kid's toy. The Phase One XT is a field camera that packs 150 megapixels of power and comes with a $57,000 price tag. Yes, you read that correctly. Clearly this is not your average camera, and for the vast majority of people it's not necessary. The Phase One XT is aimed at high-end, professional landscape photographers looking for the very best image quality, but in a portable bit of kit. For something more affordable, take a look at our guide to the best cameras for creatives, or even our guide to the best camera phones in 2019. For now, let's get back to that Phase One mega-camera. Brand ambassador Rueben Wu has taken the XT out for a spin, to give you a taste of kind of photos you can take with one of the most expensive cameras in the world. Hit the icon in the top right of each image to enlarge it. The light effect seen here was created using a drone with a light attached. "My style is taking a familiar landscape and casting it with an unfamiliar light," Wu explains in the Phase One video (below). Wu took a week travelling around Bolivia to put the super-expensive camera through its paces. The incredible image above shows Wu's trademark light effects. "Taking pictures at night really amplifies an experience for me, because it allows me to look harder at where I am," he says. You can watch the video below. Read more about the Phase One XT on our sister site Digital Camera World. Read more: The 10 best point-and-shoot cameras in 2019 Portrait photography: How to take perfect portraits The best photo apps and photo-editing software View the full article

Brain.js is a fantastic way to build a neural network. Simply put, a neural network is a method of machine learning that works in a similar way to a human brain. Given the correct answer to a question (like ‘which option will this user choose?’), it slowly learns the pattern and relationship between the inputs and answers. One example of a neural network is Facebook’s facial recognition system, DeepFace. But due to the complex domain language of neural networks and seemingly steep learning curve, it can be hard to get started. In this tutorial, we will distil the theory down to need-to-knows and, importantly, get stuck in with actually using brain.js to create a neural network. By the end, you will have a web app that asks multiple-choice questions about a user’s optimism. When they submit, these answers will train a neural network to the probability of our user selecting each option for a brand new question. Download the files you'll need for this tutorial. 01. Set up the project Firstly, download and install the necessary dependencies. This tutorial presumes you have a working knowledge of React, or the equivalent mapping to a preferred alternative. Create a React app using your desired method. You can try Facebook’s create-react-app tool, installed using the following: 02. Start your app Now we can build, install brain.js, and start our app: We are going to perform the neural network computation on the browser. Neural networks are resource intensive and should be offloaded to a server. However, this way is quick to set up and fine for our basic needs. Now let’s add brain.js to our entry point (in my case, App.js). 03. Define your training questions A visualisation of our neural network. The inputs come from the optimism value of each option for a question. These are then manipulated by the hidden layer to give us the outputs we want – the likelihood of each option being selected We need to define our training questions next. In a separate questions.js file, we’ll need a trainingQuestions and validationQuestions array. You can find my list on the Git repo or create your own. The more training questions you have, the more accurate your results. Remember to import these into your entry point. For both arrays, we need a question, an array of four options that contain a label and an optimism value. This value will be the input for our neural network. Ensure you vary the order and balance of values, or the neural network may focus too much on the index of the options in the array! Our neural network takes four inputs and gives four outputs. Our training data needs to match this, so in our constructor we need some state for the quiz and the user’s options: 04. Initialise the neural network The initialisation of trainingAnswers creates an array for each question containing [0, 0, 0, 0] – our default state with no selection. We’re also going to need to initialise our neural network – just a single line with brain.js: Each item in our training set must consist of two arrays; one input with the optimism value of each option and one output containing the selection our user made 05. Build the quiz framework To build the framework for our quiz, we need to loop over our training questions and options. This is quite verbose and not very interesting, so I’ll give an example output for you to aim for instead: If you’re new to React, see the documentation for building forms. We can write our isOptionChecked and onOptionChange functions next: 06. Train the neural network Our UI so far, showing one of my training questions and its options. I’ve used CSS in order to hide the actual radio buttons and give them a toggle button appearance Now, when our user clicks an option, we update the relevant trainingAnswers array to feature a 1 in the selected index and change the state of the radio button to show it as checked. Time to add our onSubmit function, where we build the training data and train the neural network: Looping over trainingQuestions, we create the input and output arrays we need. We get the input data by taking the optimism value of each option and we get the output data from looking in the trainingAnswers array at the same index as the question. After that, we update the state with training: true to inform the user that the neural network is learning. Depending on the processing power of the client device and how many questions you have, the process can take seconds, minutes or longer! Finally, we pass the training data over to our neural network and tell it to train asynchronously. This returns a promise that is fulfilled when the network has found the pattern or given up. Keep an eye on the error rate we log in trainAsync. Ideally it should be between 0 - 0.05. If it’s higher, check your training data. From there, we can get our predictions: Using net.run, we ask our newly trained neural network to give us its predictions for each of the validation questions we defined earlier. For the grand finale, we add our conditional loading logic and present a finding to the user. 07. Extend the network Here’s our final results view, with my validation question and options. I’ve passed the probability through to another div to display it as a bar Now you have the basic framework for the quiz, try extending it with the following: Find the real error rate of your neural network by letting your user answer your validation questions. See how many times they chose your best guess. Train the neural network with these additional answers and see if you can improve the accuracy. Move the neural network calculations over onto a Node server with the brain.js toFunction() and toJSON() methods. This article originally appeared in issue 321 in net magazine, the world's leading web design magazine. Buy issue 321 or subscribe to net. Read more: The best JavaScript libraries 9 of the best JavaScript frameworks to try 22 brilliant jQuery plugins View the full article

Built by artists, for artists, Corel Painter 2020 is designed to not only enhance but make sure nothing stands in the way of your creativity. Renowned for its traditional media emulation, Painter 2020 digitally replicates real-world brushes and paint effects with incredible results. Accessible for beginners, but also packed with advanced features for professionals artists and photographers, Painter 2020 is armed with all the tools you need to bring your creations to life, and backed up by powerful technology to help you do it in record time. Custom built for digital artists, let’s take a closer look at the innovative features Painter 2020 has to offer... Brush Accelerator The Brush Accelerator is pretty special. Analysing your system’s individual specifications, it configures the software to provide peak performance on your machine. Multiple GPU and CPU options and enhancements means Painter moves at lightning speed – perfect for photographers doing complex image edits and artists creating complex digital paintings. The functionality, highlighted in the above video, is hugely impressive, there’s even the option to disable GPU acceleration for specific brushes. Impressive interface Painter 2020’s interface is super-easy to navigate and controls are now even easier to access. This is due in part to a revamped Property Bar, which enables easy and quick access to some of Painter’s most popular tools (previously only available via the menu bar). The brush selector highlights new brush previews, making choosing the right brush for your project a cinch, and consolidated Library Panels make way for more precious painting space. These enhanced features not only help display artwork in all its glory, but put everyday tools right at your fingertips. Complementary colours Picking the right colour for a project can be tricky, especially for beginners. Until now, that is. The universal colour selection advancements in Painter 2020 make selecting the right hue for your project a breeze. Need more than one? Six new colour harmonies, highlighted in the video above, offer complementary colours based on your selection and can be saved as colour sets for future use. A highly accomplished piece of software, Painter 2020 is a powerful creative tool that offers a truly authentic painting experience. You’d be forgiven for thinking that this premium product comes with a price tag to match, but in an environment where subscription models reign supreme, Painter comes out on top, offering its entire toolset for a one-time, affordable fee. Want to try before you buy? Sign up for a free trial today! View the full article

There was a time when a product launch was about announcing the sale of a physical thing, like a car. Nowadays, a "product" can equally be a virtual, digital entity like a new app or website. But either way, the importance of a successful product launch cannot be overstated. When you think about product launches, Steve Jobs waving around the original iPhone comes to mind. But if your company isn't yet as famous as Apple, how do you get anyone's attention in today's ultra-competitive landscape? Here we look at five recent examples of successful product launches, and pull out the lessons learned, which can be applied to products across the board. 01. Dollar Shave Club The story of Dollar Shave Club is one every entrepreneur should learn. In the simplest terms, two guys met at a party and chatted about how expensive razor blades were. They set up a website that sold them more cheaply, and five years later it was bought by Unilever for an astonishing $1billion. Yes, that's right. One billion. The genius of the brand lay largely the simplicity of the idea. And so when it came to the product launch, writer Michael Dubin and director Lucia Aniello created an explainer video (above) that got right to the point, with just the perfect level of cynical humour and straight to cut right through to the target market. Note that the clip isn't entertaining in itself: it would be of little interest, for example, to someone who doesn't use razor blades. But for those who do, it's compelling viewing and a perfect example, seven years on, on how to launch a product via online video. Lesson learned: Your product launch doesn't have to be a big-budget production. A straight-talking video that makes the right connection with its audience needn't cost much, but can be worth its weight in gold. 02. KPOP Foods K-Pop Foods officially launched on Kickstarter, but its creators put in the groundwork well before then The Dollar Shave Club was developed with venture capital. But you don't necessarily need a big investment to bring a product to market. Using a crowdfunding mechanism like Kickstarter, you can raise the funds in advance to develop and produce it, directly from its intended consumers. While that sounds great in theory, though, it can be devilishly difficult in practice. Because if the first anybody hears about your product is when it appears on Kickstarter, it can be a leap of faith to expect them to part with money immediately. One popular tactic, then, is to do a "soft launch" in advance of the full launch on Kickstarter, to raise awareness and build excitement. That's exactly what two MBA students did when they launched KPOP Foods, a brand intended to popularise Korean food in the USA. Their first product was KPOP Sauce, a Korean chili sauce based on a recipe from Theo Hanmi's grandmother. To build awareness, he and co-founder Mike Kim designed a cute container in the shape of a piglet, and began handing them out to everyone they could. Word quickly spread around campus, and beyond, and a community started to build around KPOP Sauce. When the Kickstarter went live, the two "dialled for dollars"; drawing on the pre-existing community of fans, as well as family, friends and classmates, to boost the number of pre-commitments, share the project on social media, and grow buzz around the product. This helped them become a top trending Kickstarter project, and they reached their goal of $10,000 in under eight hours. Lesson learned: If you're going down the crowdfunding route, don’t wait for the launch to start selling or promoting. The majority of your effort to build awareness and take pre-orders needs to happen well in advance. 03. Nike’s House of Go Nike are the giants of product promotion. But the sports shoe company truly surpassed themselves with their 'House of Go' campaign, to launch the Epic React Flyknit running shoe. For a whole month, the Nike on Michigan Avenue in Chicago opened a multi-floor pop-up called the “House of Go", which included a high-tech treadmill surrounded by three giant screens filled with animated avatars that actually react with your movements. Everyone who visited got to test-drive the new Epic React Flyknit running shoe while using the treadmill. The experience was free, as long as you signed up to the Nike+ program via their app. The brilliance of this campaign was that it pulled in countless people who would never have considered buying a high-end sneaker. As Sonia Thompson wrote for Inc.com, "I've never considered myself a runner, and the likelihood of me going into a store and lacing up a pair of running shoes to 'see how they feel' was pretty close to zero." But the fun, child-like nature of Nike's pop-up store changed all that. "Not only did the euphoria of the experience get me to try the shoes on," she writes, "but the convincing staff somehow persuaded me to run around the block with the shoes, while wearing a skirt." Lesson learned: We can't all afford a big budget immersive experience for our customers. But what we can take away from Nike's "House of Go" is that a launch needn't just target the core market. Think creatively, and seek out ways to pull in an whole new audience for your brand through your product launch. 04. Under Armour The Under Armour campaign celebrated an unexpectedly diverse range of sportswomen There was once a time when advertising and branding professionals were rigid and conservative about featuring the "right" kind of models in their promotions. That's all quickly changing now, though. And wisely New York agency Droga5 went precisely in the opposite direction to debut sportswear brand Under Armour's FW2017 collection. For the launch, Droga5 created a series of social media videos, titled “Unlike Any”, that purposely portray atypical female athletes, capturing exactly what's different about them. Featuring action from the likes of ballerina Ms Copeland, stuntwoman Jessie Graff, and Zoe Zhang, an actress and Taekwondo Black Belt, the sequences were accompanied not by the pop music you might expect, but poetry by Saul Williams, Aja Monet, Kojey Radical, Dominique Christina and Aristophanes. Under Armour's Adrienne Lofton said at the time: "Our brand aims to inspire women everywhere to continue making history in their own lives, and this campaign is a reminder that we stand for and with her.” As a result, the #UnlikeAny hashtag went crazy on Instagram, and the campaign proved to be one of the most successful product launches of recent years. Lesson learned: You needn't just talk about qualities of the product itself. Infuse your brand a purpose and ethos from the launch onwards, and you’ll be able to engage hearts as well as heads. 05. Stranger Things Season 2 With streaming video exploding all the old certainties, how do you promote a new TV series these days? If the launch of Stranger Things season 2 is anything to go by, the answer is: by getting as nerdy as some of its most hardcore fans. In a cheeky campaign by mysterious billboards appeared around LA and New York advertising 'Hawkins Power & Light'. To anyone unfamiliar with the show, that wouldn't mean a thing, but to fans, it's a shadowy corporation that plays an intimate role in the plot. The ads featured a 1-800 number, and if you called it you heard a recording (shown in the video above) that gave you clues to what was going to happen in season 2. Why advertise to people who were already going to watch Stranger Things anyway? Because sometimes, by focusing on a small minority of loyal and passionate people, you get them so excited that it causes a ripple effect, drawing in casual viewers and even those unfamiliar with the show altogether. That was clearly the case here, as fans gradually discovered the campaign and speculated feverishly about what it all meant across networks such as Twitter and Reddit. Combined with more mainstream advertising such a Super Bowl ad, this proved a winning strategy that made Season 2 a huge hit. Lesson learned: Sometimes with a bit of creativity, you can pull in a broad audience by focusing on in a narrow one. So whether you're launching a new season of a TV show or the latest iteraton of a tech device, think about what makes fans passionate about your product, and ways you can stoke that passion. If you get it right, you'll turn them your most successful brand ambassadors. View the full article

You might not realise it, but font licensing is a vital part of typography. And beautiful typography can make or break a project. Whether you’re designing a logo, website, T-shirt or app, your creation will have unique appeal if you choose the right fonts. Their curves, proportions and nuances can give your design its own subtle aesthetic, capturing the imagination of all who see it and paving the way to success. Don't believe us? Think about how the right font pairings can create something special. Or, your project could crash and burn. Imagine how bad it would be if two weeks after launch your client was calling you up to pull the campaign, demanding to know why legal letters had arrived from a type foundry? This is why it’s always best to check your fonts are fully licensed for their intended use. If not, you could get sued, your client could get sued, and your professional reputation will land in the dust quicker than you can say ‘sans serif’. We should also say it's really important to check every type of license you'll come across – even with free fonts, you should check the terms carefully. Read on for our complete guide to font licensing (or licencing if you're in the UK, we'll use the American spelling here as it seems to be pretty ubiquitous across the web). What is a font license? Fonts are installed on our computers and as such they are considered to be software. Like other software, when you buy a font, you are actually buying a license to use it and agreeing to conditions set out by the seller. The license is a document that outlines those conditions. In the same way that copyright protects your work as a designer, enabling you to earn a living without people stealing your designs, a font license protects the typographer’s right to charge for the use of their creations. While copyright law is different in the US, UK and in other countries around the world, font licenses are written in a way that gives you the right to use the software regardless of territory. Font or typeface? Although these two terms are often used interchangeably, they have distinct meanings. A typeface is a family of fonts that share aesthetic characteristics, while a font is a subset of characters in a specific size, weight and style. For example, VAG Rounded is a typeface, while VAG Rounded Pro Bold and VAG Rounded Standard Light are separate fonts sold by Linotype. You can license VAG Rounded in its entirety, or just the specific fonts you need. Read our article font vs typeface to find out more. Font licenses and usage One of the trickiest things about font licenses is that each foundry and online font shop has slightly different terms and pricing structures. Generally, though, it all boils down to how you intend to use the font. The license you buy and its cost can differ greatly between using the font on 100 T-shirts and using it on a website with 20 million monthly page views. Below are the main types of font licenses you’ll come across. Desktop font licenses The typeface Bressay can be licensed to produce logos, documents, websites and apps from Dalton Maag According to Aideen Greenlee, head of account management at Dalton Maag, the most common question foundries receive is ‘Can I use this font to create a logo?’ With a desktop license the answer is usually ‘yes’. Sometimes called an end-user license, a desktop license enables you to install a font on your computer and use it for a whole range of offline purposes. As well as logos, you can use it for other graphics, print collateral, signage, merchandise… pretty much anything in print. What you need to watch out for is how many users can install the font under the license you’ve purchased, and whether or not you can use it for commercial projects. Sellers generally offer scalable desktop licenses. When you add desks, you buy more licenses and when your project goes from pitch to live status you upgrade to a commercial license. One thing you can’t do is give the font to your client – they’d need to buy their own license to use it, even if that’s just for editing text within a layout. Commercial font licenses These days, most desktop licenses enable you to create client work using the font. However, it is always worth checking. Some do not and in these circumstances, you’ll need to buy a commercial license – and possibly one for your client as well. Webfont font licenses Figue is an elegant and insistent serif typeface by Oslo-based Good Type Foundry, and can be licensed for desktop and webfont uses When a font is used for website text, it typically needs to be embedded into the site’s code so that it will display properly on the end user’s screen. Consequently, the font will sit on a server and will be given away, in a sense, with each page view. This isn’t really a problem, but it does mean that when you use a font for website design a different license is required. In some cases, web font licenses work on a per view basis. For example, Good Type Foundry charges €450 for its flagship Good Sans if page views are below 15,000 per month. The license scales up, reaching €2,600 if the site receives up to one million page views. When using a web font you may be asked to embed some code in a site so that the foundry can count the traffic. Other web font licenses have no traffic restrictions. Instead they have time and/or domain limits. If your client has .co.uk, .com and .net, and intends to run their site in perpetuity, then the costs will ramp up so make sure they’re covered. See our free web fonts roundup to see web fonts that don't cost anything (of course, be sure to double check the terms). Adobe Fonts licenses If you’re a Creative Cloud user, don’t forget you have access to 1,800 fonts as part of the package, but do read the license info – particularly that regarding web use Your Creative Cloud package comes with an excellent source of fonts with fairly straightforward licencing arrangements already in place. Adobe Fonts (formerly TypeKit) includes over 1,800 fonts and gives you desktop licenses to use all of them. When you start a new project you can simply log-in, browse and begin trying out new font combinations. Easy peasy, right? Get Adobe Creative Cloud Well, there are a few things to watch out for. While you do also get a web font license to use any of the fonts in sites created for clients, at the time of writing this license will expire on 31 December 2019. At that point, your client will have to buy Creative Cloud to gain licenses to carry on using the fonts on their site. Furthermore, Adobe Fonts can’t be used in server applications, nor in mobile apps, without you buying further licenses for these uses. Server font licenses This is an unusual category, but it’s worth mentioning. Server font licenses are typically used in print on demand applications. For example, if you’re designing a site that enables users to choose the fonts used on a card, T-shirt or mug that will be printed and shipped, the licensing conditions will be different. The license may have a time limit on it, and you may need to buy a license for each CPU in your server package. App and ePub font licenses If your client has briefed you to create their new website and the accompanying app, the app won’t be covered by a web font license. If the font needs to be embedded in an app, you’ll need an app font license to do so. Usually, these are on a per-app basis and costs may ramp up with the user base. The same is true for ePub formats such as digital books and magazines. One thing to look out for here is new editions. You may need to re-license a font if you update and release a new version of an ebook, and you may need a fresh license for each issue of a digital magazine you put out. There may be stipulations on readership numbers and timescale, so check the license carefully when buying. Unlimited font licenses If your client is a large organisation, it might be worth negotiating an unlimited license with the foundry. This would give them the right to use the font on as many computers as they wish and for any offline purpose they wish. From advertising campaigns to apps, they’d be covered and so would you as their design agency. Unlimited licenses usually cost over £10,000 but will keep your client out of typographic hot water in perpetuity. Exclusive font licenses This handwritten-style typeface was created by Dalton Maag exclusively for the UK cosmetics chain Lush You may even wish to contract a typo foundry to create a bespoke typeface for your client and their projects. Under the license, your client would be the only organisation able to use the fonts. The cost here would be £30,000 and up. Free font licenses Over 950 open source fonts are available at Google Fonts – worth checking before you shell out These are the best, right? Well, sometimes you get what you pay for… Many of the free fonts out there lack the quality finishing you get with bona fide fonts designed by reputable foundries. Furthermore, just because a font is free that doesn’t mean it isn’t covered by a license. Some free font licenses allow you to use them in your own design work, and even for pitches, but if they appear in published client work, commercial license conditions kick in requiring payment. However, many excellent fonts are available on a completely open source basis. Visit Google Fonts, where nearly 1,000 fonts can be downloaded, installed and used in print, web and app projects under Google’s free Apache License. You can also see our roundup of the best free fonts. Font licensing: How to avoid problems While foundries and online font shops do try to make it as easy as possible to buy font licenses and apply them correctly in your work, there are always anomalies. Furthermore, when problems occur, most of the time they are easily resolved through the purchase of the correct license. The best way to avoid a bad situation is to make license checking part of your production process – particularly for client work. Just before you show them your initial designs is a good point at which to check the fonts you’ve used have been licensed. If not, you know what you need to do… Thank you to Good Type Foundry and Dalton Maag for their help with this article. Read more: The best monospace fonts for coding Font types: a designer's guide Kinetic typography: 42 must-see examples View the full article

You're reading Scrapestack is a Free Web Scraping API, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Pull data and scrape information and rankings from platforms such as Google, Reddit, or Instagram and parse it right into your website with Scrapestack. The tool, which is a web scraping REST API, can make this task quick and easy … View the full article

Flaw impacts 18 Android models including Google’s flagship Pixel handset as well as phones made by Samsung, Huawei and Xiaomi. View the full article

For many graphic designers, getting the chance to create a brand identity for a big company would be a dream come true. And while these gigs can be tough to land in real life, 10 designers have done away with convention and decided to reimagine some famous logos just for the fun of it. The results are a mixed bunch. Some are simple and effective, and deploy a lot of the pointers we highlighted in our logo design guide. In fact they're so good we could easily imagine them rolling out for real. Others, however, leave a lot to be desired, and underline just how difficult creating an effective logo can be. The hypothetical logos were compiled by Dribbble, one of the most popular platforms for design related self-promotion. In the roundup we see some recognisable identities given everything from a subtle polish to a complete overhaul. 10 of the best logos ever Take this reimagining of the Amazon logo by designer Sam Bunny. Plenty of the familiar Amazon logo elements are present and correct. Lower case sans serif lettering? Check. Orange visual connecting the letter 'a' and 'z'? Check. But all of these parts have been streamlined to create a distinctly new identity. It's all the more impressive when you learn that it only took Bunny an hour to make it. When the new logo is placed next to the existing Amazon version, complete with its arrow image and bendy 'z', we can't help but think that the real logo could benefit from a few elements of Bunny's design. Which do you prefer? Not all logos can be so easily reimagined though. The Target logo, for example, is about as minimalist as they come, yet it does a brilliant job of representing the brand. If you were to add anything to this, it detracts from its effectiveness. Designer Irvan Pratama had a shot at taking the Target logo in a new direction by incorporating a blue arrow image. We can see what they were going for. The faded and contrasting colours work well together, but it's just not as striking as the version that Target currently has plastered all over its shops. Pratama even added sneaky shadow beneath the arrow to give the design extra oomph. The trouble is, these additional bits and pieces overcomplicate what is already a straightforward and striking design. If this version were presented to the Target bosses, we could see them removing them straight away. Sorry, Pratama. Is Pratama's version (right) off target? To see some more hypothetical logo alternatives, including different versions of the PlayStation, Red Bull, and NASA logos, take a look in the gallery below by clicking left or right. And for the full collection, head on over to Dribbble, where you'll also find links to the profile's of each creator involved. Related articles: Logo swap is surprisingly disturbing Is this the most blatant logo theft ever? 10 iconic logos with hidden meanings View the full article

This is a hands on review of the Surface Pro X to give you the chance to see what the new 2-in-1 laptop is all about as soon as possible. We'll be expanding and upgrading this review in the future with more information and a score. The Surface Pro X was just one of six new devices revealed at Microsoft's Event on Wednesday. And while we've all been distracted by the excitement of the new dual-screen tablet, the Surface Neo, and Microsoft's upcoming foldable phone, the Surface Duo, that doesn't mean that we aren't impressed by the Surface Pro X (as well as the new Surface Pro 7). But what does the Surface Pro X actually offer? Could it become one of our favourite drawing tablets, or best laptops for graphic design? Read on for a first look at Microsoft's new 2-in-1 laptop/tablet. You can also watch Microsoft's introductory video below. Microsoft Surface Pro X: Design, display and Surface Pen The Surface Pro X is a logical progression of the Surface Pro series. This version is thinner and lighter than previous models. It measures 11.3 x 8.2 x 0.28 inches, and weights 1.7 pounds (774g). The device feels super-light and is slim enough to fit in most bags without a problem. This version of the Surface Pro also has slightly rounder edges than the other iterations, making it look just that bit sleeker. The display is a 13-inch PixelSense touchscreen with a 2,880 x 1,920 resolution (267 ppi) with a 3:2 aspect ratio. Colour looks great on it, the overall look and feel is good, and it's also pretty bright (450 nits). Typing feels slightly bouncier than before, but is overall an enjoyable experience. Plus, it's got a stylus, the Surface Pen – now called a Slim Pen as it's a bit flatter, which you can store easily within the device, where it automatically charges. When you pull out the Pen, the Surface automatically brings up the whiteboard app. The new Pen is just as good as before, and has the pressure sensitivity and palm rejection we've come to expect from the Surface Pen. You can turn the Pen around and use the end of it like an eraser, which is pretty cool. You can also use the Pen on its side, giving you nice soft blended effects when creating artwork. We also saw at the event that the Creative Cloud works really well on this machine, with Adobe Fresco having been optimised for the Surface Pro. Fresco will soon arrive on the Surface platform. The Surface Pro X comes in one colour: matte black aluminium, with the black Alcantara fabric Type Cover for the keyboard cover. So on the design and display front, so far, so good. Overall, this feels like a tablet that creatives could actually use. Microsoft Surface Pro X: Key specs and performance The starting price of the Microsoft Surface Pro X is $999, and for that, you'll get 8GB of RAM (memory) and a 128GB SSD, which is removable. These specs are similar for what the MacBook Air (read our MacBook Air review here) offers at its starting price. The Surface Pro X is also the first to have its own custom-built processor – an ARM-based Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU that Microsoft is calling the Microsoft SQ1. Microsoft claims that this setup provides "best in class" graphics performance. It also said that it has three times more performance than the Surface Pro 6. This all sounds great on paper, but seeing as ARM-based Windows 10 devices don't historically do so well when compared to AMD or Intel machines, we will reserve judgement until we've had time to properly test it out. The machine is also the "first Windows PC to have an integrated AI engine", creepily demonstrated during the Microsoft Event as enabling you to change the look of someone's eyes when on a video call to make it look like they're continually looking at you. Bit weird. But perhaps there are other, more useful applications. Microsoft says the Surface Pro X will last up to 13 hours after one charge, which seems kind of okay, although you may find you want more. It also has fast charging, so after one hour you'll have around 80 per cent battery, which helps. Microsoft Surface Pro X: Price and availability The Surface Pro X will be available from 5 November in stores and online, while pre-orders have already started. The starting price is $999 / AU$1,699 (about £810). Order the Microsoft Surface Pro X now. Microsoft Surface Pro X: Early verdict The Surface Pro X looks great, and if we're honest, we like the sound of the specs too, and we can imagine using it as a proper tablet. However, we'll reserve judgment on whether its performance will be enough to deal with heavy creative use until after we've tested it out properly. Thanks to our sister site TechRadar for their help with this review. Read TechRadar's full hands on review here. View the full article

Building a website for yourself or your company can often feel like a daunting task. Stop making excuses and create a beautiful site with Wix, the leading intuitive drag-and-drop website builder on the market. Take advantage and save 45% off a Premium Unlimited Plan when you get it for $82.49 today. Whether you're promoting your new business, showcasing your work, or starting a blog, Wix makes it incredibly easy to create and manage your website. The easy to use interface allows you to keep your content up to date whenever you need to. Build a custom website design yourself or choose from over 500 tailor-made templates with features including video backgrounds, scroll effects, animation, and more. Advanced editing options allow you to customise the site to your needs and choose your primary colour, palette, theme, and upload your graphics and logos. Voted "Best website builder in 2019" by Techradar, the Wix Unlimited Plan also includes industry best practices, guiding you every step of the way. Fast and reliable web hosting allows for unlimited bandwidth, while mobile optimisation ensures your website looks amazing on any mobile device. Your own personalised built-in SEO plan is also included, helping to get your website to the top of Google. Not to mention, you also can track, analyse, and optimise your website's traffic to make sure you get the right audience to your site. Usually priced at $150, one-year of access to the Wix Premium Unlimited Plan is now just $82.49. Conquer your fear of building a website and take your online presence to the next level with this easy to use plan. With one of the world’s most innovative drag and drop website builder, you can design any website you want. Related articles: 19 really useful responsive web design tutorials Who are the unsung heroes of web design? The 7 best old-school web design tools View the full article

Realistic 3D makeovers of beloved character designs seem to be all the rage at the minute. They also seem to be causing a lot of rage, too. Just take Disney's recent Lion King remake which prompted fans to create their own interpretation, or this new ad campaign from UK car insurance company, Churchill. In the advert, above, we watch an adorably flabby and incredibly lifelike 3D bulldog skateboarding his way down the street. It's a relaxing image, and that's the point. Churchill wants to destress the process of arranging car insurance, and even goes as far as to emphasise the 'chill' in its brand name. How to draw a dog This realistic 3D mascot replaces a cute version modelled on a nodding dog toy that has been used by Churchill since 1996. Complete with his easily-imitated catchphrase ,"oh yes!", this stylised bulldog endeared UK audiences over the course of two decades. Watch him in action below. And even though nobody's really talked about the Churchill nodding dog that much recently, it seems that he has plenty of silent admirers. That's if the reaction to the new realistic CGI Churchill trailer on Twitter is anything to by. Social media user Emma Rose was taken aback, saying: "But he was always a nodding dog in the back of a car? This is like when they got rid of the Dolmio family!" Meanwhile Marc Winsland asked: "Is nothing in this country sacred anymore?" Of course, this public outcry over a car insurance company's decision to change its mascot has itself been met with criticism. It's a familiar sequence of events over on that there Twitter. It's up to you whether you think the internet needs to take a (Church)chill pill or if you think this realistic mascot is a 3D fail. Either way, there's no denying that he's an incredibly well-realised CGI dog riding a skateboard, and for that we salute it. We'll miss comedian Bob Mortimer providing the voice of the nodding dog mascot though, as it looks like he's been replaced by a soothing voiceover. But rest assured, the "oh yes!" catchphrase is still there. Related articles: 30 greatest CGI movie moments of all time The best 3D modelling software 2019 Is this dog treat branding as horrific as it seems? View the full article

Web design is an industry that's constantly evolving and innovating. This means that there are a bunch of new web design tools being released every month. And while these cutting edge tools can cater to the latest demands of web design professionals, there are some older tools that still prove to be surprisingly useful. To help unearth the best web design applications of years gone by, we talked to seven web design experts to find out which old-fashioned tools they simply can't live without. And while these tools might seem a bit basic or long in the tooth, they've stuck around for a reason: they're just really good. So if you're looking to shake up your workflow, be sure to check them out for yourself. 01. Sketch sheets Get your ideas down on paper If you're a UX or UI designer who needs to turn their ideas into sketches, Sketchize could be the answer. This site is packed with sketch sheets to help web designers create apps for mobile, tablet and desktop devices. Simply print off the relevant sheet, and you've got a wireframe foundation that you can start sketching on. For GIS application systems analyst Carolyn Novak, Sketchize is her go-to tool for creating wireframes for a new website. She also uses Post-It notes stuck on her office wall to organise content before she mocks it up in HTML. "A very archaic process, especially since I have access to modern tools," she admits. 02. Notepad++ Perfect for beginners Free source code editor Notepad++ was first developed back in 2003, but it's still going strong. That's because it's still a great tool to educate junior web designers on the fundamentals of markup. According to Andrew Minton, the head of design at Orchard, it's also a useful way to scare juniors into a false sense of security, with the likes of Dreamweaver confusing matters from the off. He adds: "my advice is to learn the basics, start with a blank page and weave digital dreams from scratch!" 03. Sublime Text Speaking of code editors, Sublime Text still proves to be useful. Originally developed 11 years ago, Sublime Text is a proprietary cross-platform source code editor that boasts a Python application programming interface. As well as natively supporting multiple programming and markup languages, Sublime Text's functions can be enhanced with community built plugins. But for Steph Boudreau, the secret to Sublime Text's success is its simplicity. "Sometimes the newer tools add complexity or extra steps that seem to only complicate things," he says. "Keeping my toolset simple and streamlined (albeit old school) lets me learn new techniques without having to continuously learn new software." 04. Save For web (legacy) As its name suggests, Photoshop's Save For Web (Legacy) is an older way to save web graphics. But that doesn't mean that it isn't useful anymore. Despite having been succeeded in 2015 by the Export As tool, Save For Web (Legacy) is still used by many, including Alec East, the design director at Narrative industries. Part of the key to Save For Web's continued popularity is that it's ideal for finding the sweet spot between a small file size and a hideously compressed image. "But it's the support for animated GIFs in Save For Web that I would really miss," says East. "The ability to tweak the bit depth in cinemagraphs and graphic banners so they’re small enough to load quickly: I’m not willing to give that up any time soon!" 05. WebPageTest An oldie but a goodie An oldie but a goodie, WebPageTest is a handy way to check the performance speed of your website. It might not be perfect for everyone, especially with plenty of shiny new alternatives available, but what's not to love about a tool that helps people to make sense of their situation? For Sally Lait, the engineering manager at Monzo, WebPageTest is an invaluable tool that she often teams up with other classics such as WAVE and even the W3C HTML/CSS validators. "I really love that the web's evolution and standards mean these are still relevant and useful," says Lait. "As a guilty pleasure, I also still have Beyond Compare installed, despite not being able to remember the last time I FTPd!" 06. File Transfer Protocol One person who can remember the last time they FTPd is freelance designer and developer Sush Kelly. For the uninitiated, FTP, or file transfer protocol, is a standard network protocol that's used for the transfer of computer files between a client and a server on a computer network. But with websites becoming increasingly complicated, the old-school approach of dragging files into servers simply doesn't cut it anymore. This doesn't mean that Kelly completely avoids doing it though. "Build tools allow us to push our changes to a server knowing that all the files will be going to the right directory and definitely the right server but there is still the odd occasion I will manually upload a few files through an FTP client." 07. Pencil and paper Tools don't come much more old fashioned than a pencil and paper. But that's just what freelance web designer and developer Robert Fenech uses at the start of every project. "It just helps me to flesh out how the pages should look and feel, without wasting time in Sketch or Adobe XD," he reveals. The fluid nature of a pencil means that web designers can quickly get a structure together, and it's the perfect tool to use with Sketchize at the top of this list. This article was originally published in net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 321 or subscribe. 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We all love getting to the nitty-gritty details of a design, whether it's the VW logo specifications, which were later thrown out the window, or in this case, the components of a very famous shoe: the Nike Air Force 1. So this week, when Reddit user Shields Matt posted an image showing the anatomy of the Air Force 1, it caused quite a stir. And they weren't all just talking about that famous swoosh, or that Nike has one of the best logos ever made. We'll be honest, many of the comments didn't exactly focus on the design. They were more concerned with whether the elements look like bones if you scroll past them, or with taking a swipe at Nike's manufacturing methods. But as DaxDiMario said: "People who talk trash about shoe designs need to see this. Love the shoe or hate it there’s so much that goes into all of them." And we're inclined to agree. Now put it back together please... This design is worth taking a second to ponder, if only to marvel at how these small elements come together to create the iconic sneaker. It also shows that the elements that make up a beautiful or functional product (or a beautiful, functional product) are often in themselves not really that sexy. Take that Nike swoosh, for example. Does it look like a much-coveted item or logo that you need on your clothes in this picture? Not really. Yet when you add it as the final touch to a gorgeously created trainer, it becomes something else, and adds an extra element. So if you take anything from this sneaker breakdown, it's that if you're despairing over something that looks a bit rubbish in its component parts, then do not panic. Add the right swoosh, stitch it all together, and it might just become legendary. You can see the original post on Reddit here. Read more: Nike brings back old Swoosh logos Why Nike's latest rebrand oozes flexibility Nike pulls 'Betsy Ross flag' sneaker line after complaints about associations View the full article

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