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The two critical cross-site request forgery flaws in the online learning non-profit Khan Academy have been resolved. View the full article

SandboxEscaper has released her latest local privilege-escalation exploit for Windows. View the full article

We all remember the periodic table on the wall of the school chemistry lab. For over 100 years the table, developed in the 19th century by Russian scientist Dimitri Mendeleev, has been the accepted representation of the chemical elements. It's a useful visual tool because it groups the elements according to their predominant properties in a way that makes it easy to understand both the elements and the relationships between them. However as a piece of data visualization it's not without its problems; there's much more to every element than the properties illustrated in the periodic table, and there have been arguments in the scientific community for years over whether the table should be rearranged, and if so, how. The 55 best infographics But now there's a compromise that should please everyone from teachers or students who just need a simple visual guide to the elements, through to more serious scientists and researchers who require more some of the more esoteric properties of elements to be on show. It's the work of Russian design studio Art.Lebedev, and it's addressed the challenge by creating an adaptable version that enables users to set their own properties and create a brand new table based around them. There are any number of ways to construct your own periodic table Art.Lebedev says that there are over 100,000 possible permutations of this customisable table. There are some ready-made versions supplied, such as the classic classroom table, a more complex college table and even a table that shows where each element was discovered, but the real fun lies in the ability to roll your own periodic table in any colour scheme you like, arranged by more characteristics than a non-scientist would think possible. Once you've constructed the periodic table of your dreams you can download it as a massive print-quality PNG, ideal for turning into a large-scale poster and sticking to the wall, and the whole process is completely free. The hardcore option is for badass super-scientists only If you've ever dreamed of creating your own periodic table - and who knows, maybe discovering relationships between the elements that the scientific establishment had somehow overlooked until now - you can find Art.Lebedev's new version here. Related articles: 35 incredible dataviz tools 6 ways to get into creative coding Use Chart.js to turn data into interactive diagrams View the full article

If the world tends to blur after you've had a few drinks, then stay away from Ambev Brewery's latest campaign. The Brazilian brewery recently switched up the letters of the names of its beers, for example, changing 'Bharma' to 'Brahma' and 'Corona' to 'Cronoa' during the broadcast of a major Brazilian football match. The brands were initially changed without explanation in order to get consumers asking questions. And it worked – there were over 619,000 interactions with the campaign in the first 48 hours, with many thinking that the brewery had simply made an error. A big one. The next day, through a combination of print ads, and other mediums, the brewery announced that the campaign was actually about responsible drinking, in particular, drink driving. "Soemtimes you drnik and evethyring appaers to be ok. But it's not. If you drink, don't drink," say the ads, which were created by SunsetDDB. This clever campaign focusing on how our perceptions are altered through drink is a great way to get people talking about drink driving. The impact is particularly strong as there were several brands involved. It's not the first time that brands have switched up their names or packaging in order to raise awareness of an issue. Skittles has 'given up' its rainbow for Pride and Lacoste has recently replaced its famous crocodile logo for endangered species. This is certainly a good way to get people's attention, although some have questioned the ethics of big brands attaching themselves to issues in this way. Whether this campaign will make a difference when people are out drinking remains to be seen. Read more: 6 times brands temporarily changed their packaging Join the fight for gender equality in design How Nike's circular design aims to save the world View the full article

You're reading Get Location Data for Your Website with Open Source API, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Do you ever wish you knew more about website visitors to provide more personalized experiences? IP Geolocation API does just that. It’s a free an open source tool for IP to geolocation. It’s fairly easy to use and can help … View the full article

When we think of UX, we tend to think usability, or at least we used to. However these days UX is a much broader church with many more aspects to consider than straightforward usability. Like web design tools, UX rules and best practices keep on evolving, and if you've been sticking to the same UX process for the past few years then they're almost certainly in need of an update. Whether you need to overhaul your UX workflow completely or just want to check that you're ticking all the right UX boxes, take a look at the 7 essential rules of UX for 2019 and beyond. 5 emerging UX trends in 2019 01. Design for users Never forget about the users Falling in love with 'good' ideas is easy. Too easy, in fact, and seemingly harmless until we realise that it's not love at all – it's infatuation, and infatuation inevitably fades with time. This is what causes freelance designers to constantly redesign their portfolio; they're motivated by their temporary infatuation with visual aesthetics rather than the user's needs. Thankfully, figuring out whether or not ideas have user-value (or at the very least, business-value) isn't too difficult. It revolves around asking users two core questions: "Do you want this?" (asked during user testing) "Can you use this?" (asked during usability testing) Not very romantic, we know, but at least we won't end up wasting resources and time designing the wrong thing (or the right thing in the wrong way). It's safer to simply ask users what they want and need. Scarier, sure – but safer, and when the results are in, you'll feel relieved, even if the feedback is negative. Substituting guesswork for qualitative feedback from users should be observed as more of a blessing than something to be feared, and when done correctly, it can bring huge amounts of motivation, positivity and clarity to the product roadmap. With the right attitude, feedback can be our mightiest resource! User testing It's likely that you already know what user testing is, and have heard the benefits of doing so countless times, so here are some undervalued testing tips that often end up taking the back seat: Maintain a list of loyal testers and use them often Award free access in exchange for regular feedback Have fun automating the workflow with various apps Regularly sit down with the team and organise the feedback All-in-all: don't overthink it (too much) and simply enjoy building high-quality relationships with your main advocates. Gathering feedback Getting face-to-face with users, either in real life or with remote user testing tools, is what designers fear most about user testing, but it's actually really useful, not to mention the best way to build relationships with our main advocates. That being said, don't let it be known that face-to-face interviews are the only way to receive quality feedback. Here are a few excellent tools that are not only useful individually, but can be superhumanly powerful when linked up using automation software like Zapier. Free feedback survey tools include Typeform and Google Forms, and free feedback management tools include Trello, Asana and Google Sheets. How a Zapier workflow works Zapier is also known as a 'Zap'. To use it, collect feedback with Typeform, then send it to a column in a Trello board (aptly named 'New feedback to discuss'), then, optionally, create a notification in Slack. Setting up these workflows is really fun, not to mention it saves bundles of time, allowing teams to collect feedback at the drop of a hat. 02. Provide absolute clarity Keep things clear so you don't confuse users When users become confused, a number of things happen. They become stalled, they trust our brand a little less, and most importantly, they hit the back button, never to return again. Sadly, we live in an increasingly impatient world, where a cheaper, faster, better alternative is always right around the corner. Users cannot be taken for granted, so being clear is an absolute must. But, what exactly do we mean when we say clarity? Let's take a look at a few examples. Colour Colour is one of the many ways users learn how to use and understand how an interface works. Where it's human nature to recognise rather than recall, colour is subtly one of the most recognisable aspects of everyday life, despite colour meaning different things in various cultures, and in different contexts. Want to convey error? Well… the best choice is to use red. Design principles As well as colour, a combination of contrast, repetition, proportion and proximity* can help to establish clarity. Contrast Contrast, in short, helps elements stand out. We can optimise contrast with colour, size, depth and more, which in turns aids clarity by shifting the user's attention. It's a non-verbal way of clarifying what the user should be looking at above all else. Repetition Reinforcing a concept through repetition is another sure-fire way to infuse clarity. Is the next step in the journey to click a certain button? If so, contextually display it a few times. Proportion Proportion — similar to 'size', but with one fundamental difference. Proportion is a relative measurement, size is the measurement in itself (ie making something large doesn't add clarity if other elements are just as large). We can optimise visual hierarchy by ensuring that important elements stand out simply by being relatively sized in relation to other elements. Proximity A tap target by itself is just that – a tap target – however, where the link is displayed can say a lot about what it does and in which scenario users should click on it. A tap target in the main navigation tells users that it's a link to somewhere else, but it might not necessarily be the link the user needs. Alternatively, a set of horizontal cards each containing a button (think: a pricing table on a pricing screen) illustrates that a choice needs to be made. So, as you can see, proximity conveys how various elements are related, whether that's for choice-based interactions or navigational items. UX copy Last but not least, there's the wording itself. Imagery is subjective, but words offer a chance to be literal. The intent of a button saying 'Let's do this' could be inferred from the context, but the added cognitive load from this (and other contributing factors) just isn't worth the chance to sound cool. Hitting the submit button on a contact form infers that the user's email was sent, however, a properly worded confirmation can go a long way, especially in the event of a lost connection. Words matter! 03. Give users control Giving customers control can really enrich their experience As humans, we haven't yet evolved to mind-read, and given the endless options that some apps and websites offer, that's a shame. Let's take eCommerce stores for example, which often have a ton of items in a ton of categories. On top of that, items can be further distinguished by defining features such as colour. This means that search results are often further narrowed by filters and tags, requiring more interactions than the average interface, but that that's not a bad thing, and this doesn't get mentioned enough. Users want to customise their experience. The benefits of control A holidaymaker isn't just looking for an Airbnb, they're looking for their Airbnb; the home that's going to make their holiday special in a way that no (or not very many) other Airbnbs can, indicating that control goes way beyond the considerations of usability; it actually enriches the overall customer experience. Control can also lead to the development of new features and boosted engagement. Think about it: despite a few usability setbacks, Slack users could create 'Private Groups' long before they existed, simply by direct messaging multiple users at once. These setbacks would eventually warrant the implementation of the feature itself, but until then, control allowed users to tailor their experience in a way that suited their own agenda. The negatives of zero-control Micro-interactions are often hindered by a lack of control, but even when user flows are designed to be relatively linear (for instance, a sign-up flow or some other form-based interaction), control means the user can fix and edit without any trouble. If we compared this to a human-to-human interaction, a lack of patience would surely make the encounter less than friendly. Consider splitting up lengthy forms into several smaller micro-interactions (where the user can save their data periodically and even navigate back-and-forth between the different sections), and also adding a confirmation screen so that the user can check over their input before hitting the magic button. As an added bonus, if the user can log in and correct mistakes after they've been 'sent', that's even better. In short, let the user take the wheel. 04. Predict, then adapt Don't overload visitors with too much choice Hick's Law states that the time it takes to make a decision correlates with the amount of choices the user has to make — too long, and the user won't make a choice at all. This kind of cognitive overload is known as analysis paralysis, the act of not being able to make a choice when there are too many options. Let's take a look at two ways to reduce choices. Context Luckily, by keeping layouts minimal, both conceptually and visually, we can help users make decisions faster, and thus increase the likelihood of conversion. But, is this a task easier said than done? After all, it can be quite difficult to force an element to take the back seat in favour of something else, especially when said element is also somewhat important. The solution? Context What's important on one screen may not be important on another screen, in which case tucking away not-applicable-in-the-current-context menu items in a hamburger menu actually makes sense (yep, the hamburger menu isn't as bad as we might think!). If that seems risky, there are a number of data-driven ways to lesson the risk. Firstly, there's analytics tools that track user behaviour, and then there's heatmap tools, which can show us where users are actually clicking (or not clicking), which in this scenario is the better option. If you'd rather take a toe-dip approach, A/B testing can help us test layout changes with a fraction of our audience before committing them app/site-wide. Here are three tools to help you kick things off: CrazyEgg (A/B testing and heatmaps) Hotjar (heatmaps and on-site feedback tools) Google Analytics (free web tracking software) Relation Artificial intelligence helps users access relevant content without them having to search for it. Here are a few examples: Further Reading Similar Books Products You May Like Customers Also Purchased These types of UI components are built upon data, either data collected from the user themselves (hopefully with consent), or collected from other users (ie Customers Also Purchased). Personalised experiences have proven to be highly valuable in recent years. From Spotify's Made For You Playlists to Netflix Recommendations, users enjoy products that seem as if they were built just for them, and while the ability to customise products is of course a huge selling point, the true value proposition is revealed when artificial intelligence does the bulk of the work. Remember, design dynamic products that users can customise! 05. Maintain consistency Don't mess with those mental shortcuts Consistency has long been a key element in branding, but consistency also contributes heavily to user experience as well. Brains are designed to learn mental shortcuts, right up to the point where we don't even realise we're doing it. When traffic lights turn green, we don't analyse the situation and then make a conscious decision to accelerate, we just do it instinctively. Now imagine that one day, the typical green, yellow, red setup was replaced with Go, Get Ready and Stop. You'd be taken aback for sure, and even if just for a few seconds, you'd contemplate what the hell is going on before accelerating off. Problem is, these few seconds are critical when it comes to design. Users simply expect things to make sense, and can quickly become frustrated when they don't. Let's take a quick look at a more digital example: sharing something on Facebook. You already know that to share something on Facebook, you'd flick to the top of the screen and write your status in the input field. To share something in a group, even if you'd never done so before, you'd mimic that behaviour because it's what you'd expect. This is an ideal example of consistency. Measuring consistency Back to colour. We fill out an online form, then submit by clicking, say, a blue button. Then we fill out another form, and the submit button is also blue. Eventually, we decide to subscribe, and the call-to-action is… blue. Every time we interact, we become better, faster and overall more efficient by learning how things work and recognising design patterns. The time that it takes, known as task time, is one of the metrics used to measure the level of usability, which again shows the benefits of usability testing as mentioned earlier. Consistency and innovation Naturally, consistency limits innovation; however, innovation can be a game-changer so long as the lack of consistency is worth the value it brings to users in the long run. In this scenario, a well thought-out onboarding UX that introduces users to the app (or certain features) can be a suitable alternative. In a nutshell, don't underestimate the power of sameness! 06. Treat users as customers and vice-versa Wait, aren't users and customers the same thing? A user is somebody that uses the app or website, but some users are also customers (ie they pay us for something). Others – well – we just wish they were customers, because at the end of the day, money is the nutrition businesses need to stay alive. But what happens once a user becomes a customer? Do we stop caring about them? Well, actually, many companies do exactly that – sell the product, abandon the customer, and then acquire new customers because it's much cheaper to do so than it is to take care of current customers. It's a method labelled 'Churn and Burn'. Here's why that's really bad business for most businesses: Consumers often experience anxiety about their purchase even after purchasing, which can result in buyers remorse A bad customer experience could mean they'll never return Bad reviews could stop other users from becoming customers The solution? Treat customers like they're still users. Go for hard sell at every opportunity, never stop giving. And vice-versa, treat users like your best customer, and they will be. Customer experience Curious about how to improve the customer experience? Follow up with free updates, feedback requests, or simply just check up on the customer to see if they're doing alright. Perhaps let them know we're around if needed by reminding them of our customer support, or that we can answer any questions they may have on social media. A huge contributor to customer experience is how we treat the user or customer when they're not being a user or customer. It shows we care beyond the revenue. Also, if you happen to catch their name, use it during communications. Users love to hear the sound of their own name! 07. Communicate value proposition Value isn't understood subconsciously, it has to be communicated and consciously understood. As human beings, we constantly look for instant gratification, and at the surest sign that there isn't any, it's all too easy to close the tab and move on. When we think value proposition, we think about the product itself, but if we can remind the user of the positive outcomes of even the most boring interactions, the sense of fulfilment is higher. Don't get me wrong, we're never going to convince users that forms can be fun, but a little encouragement can be the motivation the user needs to keep going. If the user feels like you want them to stick around, they'll want to stick around. Long story short, treat every step like a fun adventure, where each one has its own objective and benefit once completed. And at the end, say, for example, when the user is checking out, make sure to remind them of the product benefits… to be safe. This article was originally published in issue 285 of creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 285 here or subscribe to Web Designer here. Related articles: Performance UX: a primer 7 steps to a solid UX strategy Get to grips with the theory of UX View the full article

Want to design video games for a living, rather than simply playing them? The School of Game Design will set a great foundation for your career as a game developer. Best of all, it's only $59 – that's 99% off the regular price. The School of Game Design features a huge library of training videos, so you can learn from expert instructors at your own pace. That means being able to set your own schedule, whether you're learning the very basics of game design or practicing advanced techniques using Unity 3D. The best cloud storage 2019 You'll master the coding secrets behind computer modelling, animation techniques, and digital artistry, and you'll learn the essential skills necessary to make it as a game developer. Thousands of dollars of game art and textures – royalty-free – are also at your fingertips, to help you create your very own games. Get the School of Game Design for the low price of just $59. Related articles: 3D art: 27 stunning examples to inspire you Convert Flash games to HTML5 Create an atmospheric game environment View the full article

In these times of impending climate disaster, it's become clear that every industry needs to radically change its thinking and become more sustainable. And if that means going back to the drawing board in many case, then designers are going to have to shoulder some of the responsibility, up their design thinking and start creating in a more sustainable way. That's the reasoning behind a new manual for designers created by Nike along with students from Central Saint Martins. Inspired by Global Fashion Agenda and its aim to make sustainability fashionable, Circularity: Guiding the Future of Design details the principles that manufacturers need to address in order to create products that eliminate waste and avoid negative environmental impact; a process called circular design. Available for free online in both a web version and an 89-page PDF workbook, Circularity guides designers and manufacturers through these 10 principles: Nike's 10 principles of circular design Via a series of thought starters asking difficult questions about the materials, processes and environmental effect of projects, plus a selection of case studies and inspirational examples, it aims to make designers think hard about the impact of their work and ultimately create longer-lasting products that are designed with the end in mind. Nike's plan covers the whole product cycle, from design to recycling "We have an obligation to consider the complete design solution, inclusive of how we source it, make it, use it, return it, and, ultimately, how we reimagine it," says Nike's chief design officer, John Hoke. "The guide and its related workbook share principles that support a universal call to action for our industry: We must all come together and have a more positive impact on our planet." Nike's guide to circular design is available online; you can download the more detailed PDF version here. Why Nike's latest rebrand oozes flexibility 13 design-led ways to tackle climate change at WDCD What is biophilic design and how can it increase creative productivity? View the full article

Mozilla has released a host of fixes for its browser as it rolls out its latest 67 version of Firefox, which touts better speed and privacy. View the full article

Intel has issued fixes for a slew of vulnerabilities, separate from the side-channel bugs disclosed last week. View the full article

Enjoy the video replay of the recent Threatpost cloud security webinar, featuring a panel of experts offering best practices and ideas for managing data in a cloudified world. View the full article

A flaw in the Secure Boot trusted hardware root-of-trust affects enterprise, military and government network gear, including routers, switches and firewalls. View the full article

No matter what stage you’re at in your creative career, whether you're a beginner or an art director, there will be times when you’re working on a new project and campaign where you feel like, if you’ll pardon the word, shit. In fact, there’s a cycle to the feeling. First, you feel awesome. You’ve come up with an idea that you’re sure is the best thing ever, one that’s certain to pick up lots of shiny and coveted D&AD pencils. Then the doubt creeps in, you realise that actually your killer idea for a new ad is in fact incredibly tricky to pull off. This doubt then sends you into a spiral where you realise that not only is your idea shit, but you are shit, too. [Disclaimer: none of you are shit.] Sound familiar? If so, don’t panic. Everyone has doubts in their work at some time or another. In fact, this feeling of doubt is a good thing. “Embrace it!” says Alice Tonge, the first female creative head of 4creative, during her talk at D&AD Festival 2019. “It means you’re trying to come up with something original.” Of course, coming up with something original is easier said than done. But to help you work through those feelings of first draft despair, where you realise that your initial idea isn’t exactly all that, Tonge is on hand to share her hard-won advice. Her words of wisdom will help you get out of a creative rut and power through those first draft woes. 01. Do the opposite of the obvious All too often a project will come along that has a lot of no-brainer possibilities. For Tonge and the team at 4creative, this was definitely the case when they were tasked with creating a video advert for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics to air on Channel 4. There are lots of associated images of the winter Olympics it could have used, bobsleighs and snow and the like, but instead they found an eye-catching new angle with the anthem Gay Mountain. Created in response to Russia’s restrictive legislations against LBGT people, this pop banger parodies the Russian national anthem to get across its inclusive message. The sideways look at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics paid off. Gay Mountain was a viral smash, and it was accompanied by a rainbow coloured rebrand of the Channel 4 ident graphics. It’s also a prime example of how digging deeper and finding a unique angle can yield incredible results. 02. Go commando! Keep your pants on, Tonge means this metaphorically. By ‘going commando’ she means, create your own brief. While this might not be a possibility with every single creative commission you find yourself involved with, it’s one to keep in mind when you have slightly more free reign. Tonge readily admits that she’s fortunate to work with Channel 4 because “diversity is stitched into the very fabric of the channel". The 100 years and Counting campaign is a prime example of how Tonge and her team went commando to do their own thing. Designed to celebrate 100 years of women’s votes, this powerful video features footage of women doing all the things that the patriarchy has told them they can’t. It’s definitely a project that taps into Tonge’s viewpoint on female empowerment. "There aren’t enough female leaders out there,” shes says. “There should be more.” So if you’re frustrated with a brief, think to yourself, what would I create if I had the chance to make anything? It’s a great way of generating ideas, and you might be surprised where they lead your project. 03. Fail harder “What are you more afraid of, fucking up or making boring work?” It’s a strong question, but one that’s sure to resonate when your stuck in the doldrums of a tedious project. To save yourself getting to this point, you need to stop being afraid of failing. In fact, the harder you fail, the better your work will become. While this might sound like an inspirational quote from the corporate end of the spectrum, the example Tonge uses to illustrate this point is amazing. As part of a push to include alternative voices on Channel 4, the 4creative team reached out to people with Tourette syndrome and cerebral palsy to provide announcement voice overs to idents for prime-time shows. However this idea only struck once other angles had failed, proving that there’s always a good idea around the corner once you get the duds out of the way. 04. Keep on crafting “Even when you think it’s perfect, keep on going,” says Tonge. This approach to a project, where you refine it and refine it, can produce work the likes of which you’ve never seen. Or, to put it another way, “an idea without craft is nothing,” says Tonge. Case in point is the campaign 4creative made for The Grand National, which focused on the jockeys instead of the horses. Titled ‘The Original Extreme Sport’, this television spot used special cameras to film jockeys like never before, and uncover the people behind the riders. In fact the characterful portrait of one female jockey proved so moving that it won the 2013 Photographic Portraiture Prize. As Tonge points out, “just because it’s an ad doesn’t mean it can’t be art". 05. Think bigger than the brief Going above and beyond what’s expected is a sure-fire way to smash a campaign. You just need to tune into the message of what you’re trying to achieve and go from there. In the case of the E4 Shutdown, Tonge and the team fought hard to see that E4 was effectively deactivated for the 2015 general election as part of a bid to get young people to vote. Its thinking was that if the channel wasn’t there to distract younger voters, they would be more likely to make their voices heard. And if all these tips sound a bit out of reach, Tonge has a piece of advice for creatives struggling with their resources. “Pull favours and be nice to people!” Sounds simple, but Tonge believes that a bit of kindness and a DIY attitude can produce some memorable work affordably. Related articles: Build a better personal brand 5 ads that tried to be cool, but failed Why are there so few D&AD Pencils in Design? View the full article

According to Creative Equals, only 9.8 per cent of creative leaders are female. But unlike some other industries, design doesn't have a problem attracting women. Approximately 70 per cent of design graduates are female, although only around 40 per cent of working designers are women. This suggests there's a problem within the industry – in retaining, promoting and nurturing female designers. But is this really what's going on? How do such statistics affect those working in the industry? What impact do they have on design thinking, and subsequently, the work created? And perhaps most importantly, what can be done? We spoke to a range of creatives to get under the skin of the issue and find out what practical measures we can all take to challenge the status quo. The 'baby question' Women at a Kerning The Gap event When trying to understand gender inequality in the workplace, it’s very easy to blame one thing. “We need to move on from ‘women are leaving to have babies’,” says Nat Maher, CEO of Pollitt & Partners and founder of collective Kerning The Gap. “First of all, 70 per cent of graduates are women but 11 per cent of creative directors are female, so there aren’t enough babies to account for that being the only reason.” And when we focus so much on the ‘baby question’, Nat adds, we forget to look at what else might be going on. The design industry itself seems to pose problems for women – although of course, everyone’s experience is different. “Unlike many sectors, creative careers are subject to how well you network or achieve within the – very biased – system,” explains Ali Hanan, creative director and founder of diversity championing organisation Creative Equals. “It depends on what account you’re put on, if you have the chance to pitch, if your work is put forward for awards, if you’re given the right kind of training, whether you have the same kind of feedback as your male colleagues, if your portfolio is given the chance to develop equally – you don’t just get put on the ‘pink’ brands – and so on.” It’s a culture created around the assumption that you don’t have anything else going on in your life Marei Wollersberger The working hours can also be problematic. “It’s common for people to stay in the office until eight or nine o’clock, or even later, often at short notice,” says Marei Wollersberger, co-founder and futures director of design agency Normally. “That’s difficult to sustain if you have other responsibilities. It’s a culture created around the assumption that you don’t have anything else going on in your life. ”What most of the statistics don’t tell us, adds Maher, is what’s going on with those who aren’t in full-time employment. What about the part-timers or freelancers? And what about the gender pay gap in smaller businesses that aren’t legally obliged to publish their numbers? “We’re a micro industry. Ninety per cent of our businesses have 10 or fewer people in them,” she says. “That means we don’t have HR departments, most of us are founder owned and led by men.” Of course, she continues, just because an agency is run by men, doesn’t mean they’re not switched on to supporting diversity. “But we employ and recruit in our reflection by default, so businesses led by men are drawn to have men in senior positions, and they become more senior, and they sometimes take over or set up businesses themselves, and the situation self-perpetuates.” Creative networks A campaign by Mr President, where Laura Jordan Bambach is CCO The good news is there are plenty of people campaigning for change. Fed up of being the only two women invited to speak at events, chief creative officer of Mr President, Laura Jordan Bambach, and Ale Lariu, brand experience consultant, set up creative network SheSays in 2007. SheSays focuses on the engagement, education and advancement of women in the creative industries, because, as Jordan Bambach puts it, “you can’t be what you can’t see”. It runs various events, including mentoring, coaching sessions and portfolio reviews, and is now active in over 40 cities around the world. “We’ve focused on what can we do with women to make their work better and make them more successful in the workplace,” explains Jordan Bambach. “If you’re unsure of something and you feel uncomfortable asking about it at work, you can come to one of our events and find out all about it, and then go back to the office and absolutely smash it. ”It’s working, too. “I know so many women who got their first job through SheSays or have grown through the company ranks because of attending a SheSays event and how confident it’s made them,” says Jordan Bambach. Issues of confidence crop up again and again in this debate. “Every conversation that I have around gender balance is about women’s confidence, or lack thereof, and the belief in what they’re capable of,” says Maher. Like SheSays, Maher’s collective Kerning the Gap focuses on practical ways to get more women in leadership in the design industry, including by building confidence. “That’s not to say that every woman should want to or have to be a leader, but on the journey of solving the challenges of why we don’t have more, we’ll make the lives of every woman better in the design industry,” she explains. Kerning the Gap runs events and mentoring across the UK, and one of its core propositions is to involve men in the conversation. “Men are invited to everything, and we have men on our mentoring program,” explains Maher, adding that although men cannot be mentees, they often learn a lot about the difficulties women face through reverse mentoring.Why haven’t these conversations happened previously? “There’s been no language around it, so there’s been no way to talk about it without it feeling like it was an attack,” says Maher. “And now there are so many other opportunities for men to understand the challenges that women experience, they’re developing new empathy and sympathy for it. Our current debate is more ‘what can I do to help?’ as opposed to ‘I don’t see why there’s a problem’.” Challenging gender norms Flower Up's work challenges typical gender norms In response to the toxic masculinity he witnessed at university, and the effect it had on his mental health, Alex Evans began fashion and design brand Flower Up. “The term ‘flower it up’, asks an overly aggressive masculine male to chill out and get in touch with his sensitive or so-called feminine side,” he explains. Flower Up isn’t seeking social change, but it applies the concept of ‘flowering it up’ to challenge gender stereotypes. Through its work with Terra Firma Records it’s been able to poke fun at and “highlight the overtly masculine aesthetics” of the scene. Flower Up’s designs have meant the label is now “resonating with a wider audience” – including more females. Of course, Evans isn’t alone in addressing gender imbalances and disrupting stereotypes through his work. “I don’t think I’ve received a female portfolio this past 12 months that doesn’t touch on gender equality,” says Katie Cadwallader, designer at Supple Studio. Sara Andreasson and Amber Vittoria are just two of many illustrators depicting femininity and womanhood, while illustrators such as Tianju Duan are providing different takes on what it means to be male. Changing studio culture Work for the Royal Mail created by Supple Studio If we are to achieve gender parity in the design industry, then we need to make changes in our structures, and for many, that means studios and their cultures. While working long hours is often seen as part and parcel of agency life, Wollersberger believes that such expectations often affect women disproportionately. “In our society, women tend to be given the added responsibilities – looking after ailing parents, or children, and running the life admin stuff – so this culture tends to impact them more,” she explains. “Also, women are less considered for roles because of the belief that these jobs require longer working hours, and there’s an assumption that they’re not up to it.” To combat this, everyone at London agency Normally works four days instead of five. “There is no emailing, no excuses and no exceptions in terms of saying, ‘this week we’ll work five days’,” explains Wollersberger. “We started the four-day week because we saw a lot of waste in what we did – producing work that wasn’t necessary, being there when our presence wasn’t required, and we thought that presence took away our reflection time and made us unproductive.” Does it work? According to Wollersberger, the studio has seen huge positives in terms of the quality of its work, and the team have all seen benefits in their home lives. “We also have an extremely low churn rate – very few people leave. This is often a gender-related thing, because companies usually find it hard to recruit and maintain women in their teams,” she says. The gender pay gap Normally has also taken steps to eliminate its gender pay gap. “Before, we had a traditional process based on past salaries. But we realised there was a big difference in terms of what people were asking for – the difference mainly being that women and introverts were asking for a lot less,” she recalls. Recognising that the management team was biased, Normally developed an algorithm to calculate salaries, which takes into account experience and nothing else. “It’s been brilliant,” enthuses Wollersberger. “It’s totally transparent and has blown away the sense of people being treated unfairly.” According to Wollersberger, making changes such as the four-day week and the salary calculator algorithm are “good first steps” to addressing the bias towards male culture in design. “This is a systematic bias rather than one reflecting people’s own beliefs,” she points out, “so we need to be as creative with our response as we are in our work projects. Be resourceful, think about how we can design the way we work.” Supporting parents Ali Hanan at a Creative Equals event The way parents are treated in the workplace may form part of this bias, and Maher believes that if we saw parenting as more of a “team sport” rather than a job for women, we’d all benefit. “Once you ask, ‘how are we supporting not just the women in our businesses, but how are we supporting the men and the parents?’, it then becomes all about responsibilities and pressures outside of work.” You also need to be careful, says Maher, that by looking after parents, you’re not expecting more of those who don’t have children. “Just because those without children can work until eight o’clock in the evening, doesn’t mean that it’s acceptable for them to do that,” she warns. For Jordan Bambach, it’s about levelling the playing field. “There needs to be equality in terms of allowing people backup,” she says. “Whether it’s paternity leave, or having equal parental leave, and equal pay – these things are so important because they get rid of this idea that childcare is a woman’s problem.” When Jordan Bambach came back to work after having her son, she found that the industry had changed: after just nine months, the ad format terminology was different. “People were talking about these things, and I had no idea what they were, and I was too embarrassed to ask ’cos I was the boss and I should know,” she recalls. “And that experience was uncomfortable.” Bambach had to scour the internet for help, but initiatives like SheSays and Creative Equals are now running programmes to get women up to speed on industry trends. Creative Equals runs three-day courses in Manchester and London that, as Hanan explains, “aim to build bridges back to work for women who have been out of the industry for all sorts of reasons – illness, parenthood, caring breaks and so on, and help them gain the tools and skills they need for today’s marketplace.” The programme has partnered with agencies that offer flexible working, such as the BBC, AMVBBDO, Toaster and LEGO, to run live briefs, as well as paid-placements following the course. Aiming for inclusivity A SheSays event in Singapore Like notions of gender itself, inequality in the industry is complex and often multi-layered. To help studios navigate these layers, Creative Equals launched the Creative, Digital and Media Equality Standards – recognised kitemarks that give companies a diversity and inclusion review, rating and action plan. “The standards look at all aspects of diversity – gender, race, LGBTQI, education, faith, age, disability, neurodiversity – and examine company policies and practices, top to bottom, in and out,” explains Hanan.“ The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive,” she adds. “However, the Equality Standard is hard to gain – and most companies fail the first time. Becoming an accredited company takes courage, time and commitment. So the Gold standard shows you deserve it.” Fifty-fifty isn’t the goal and gender inequality isn’t the only important thing Rosh Govindaraj As Rosh Govindaraj, founder and lead designer of Issara bags, points out, inclusivity is beneficial not just for the people in the industry, but for the work created too. “Representation is important, and we need a balance of gender, age, ethnicity, and other factors – not just for ‘fairness’ but to ensure that we design solutions that will meet the needs of all kinds of people,” she says. “Fifty-fifty isn’t the goal and gender inequality isn’t the only important thing,” she continues. “I think the goal should be to design with inclusivity in mind – try to think from the mindset of all those different people who might be interested in using your products and come up with solutions that will improve their experience.” Cadwallader agrees. “The more eyes and the more points of view the better, so the more diverse and differing the characters in the studio, the stronger our output will be.” And what about those who don’t fit into stereotypical categories of gender? “If I think about what things were like when I was in my 20s, the conversation has moved on phenomenally, and that’s great,” says Jordan Bambach. In terms of what that means for design, Jordan Bambach believes it’s about people feeling safe and supported. “People should be allowed to be their authentic selves at work,” she says. “That’s super-important, whatever gender you are, whatever sexuality you are, whatever religion you are, you need to feel safe to be yourself at work.” More inclusive boards perform better financially, more inclusive creative teams have better ideas, and create more inclusive design Laura Jordan Bambach Being an inclusive workplace is also good for business. “There’s a huge amount of research showing that more inclusive boards perform better financially, more inclusive creative teams have better ideas, and create more inclusive design,” explains Jordan Bambach. “It’s an inequality issue, but it’s also business issue. I think the more that’s taken on, the quicker things will change.” Wollersberger believes we need to change workplace culture to keep up with the times. “It’s not about women and men necessarily, but recognising that skills such as listening, empathy and collaboration are growing in importance in the design industry due to the need to work across disciplines. Old-fashioned authoritarian behaviour no longer helps us to solve problems.” How likely are we to see real change in the industry? “We’re going in the right direction,” sums up Jordan Bambach, “but it’s not going to happen fast enough unless everyone takes responsibility… It’s not a women’s problem that women should be solving, it’s a cultural problem that culture should be solving.” This article originally appeared in issue 290 of Computer Arts, the world's leading design magazine. Buy issue 290 or subscribe here. Related articles: What you can do to champion gender equality How gender affects design 9 agencies to follow on Instagram View the full article

Calling all recent design or illustration graduates who want to win a £800 commission to create a Computer Arts magazine cover! For six years now the CA cover comp has inspired generations of brilliant creatives to create original designs to a brief, and get their work in front of thousands of other creatives around the world. And this year, it's easier than ever to enter! In partnership with our friends at D&AD New Blood, this year’s competition is offering a £800 prize for the winner, and with the addition of a special decorative print finish from our friends at Celloglas, this will be a unique addition to the winner’s portfolio. Subscribe to Computer Arts magazine and save up to 70% Cover comp brief To enter you must be a current student or recent graduate (within three years), which includes mature students. You can be based anywhere in the world. The winning cover image will be shown on our annual New Talent issue (on sale 19 July). Inside we will be looking at the very best of this year’s UK creative graduates. As such, we’d like a cover that speaks to the spirit of new talent – but you can visualise that anyway you want. Be abstract, funny, literal – just make sure the foundation idea is strong and gets communicated immediately. Have a look at the previous winners to get inspired. The special print treatment from Celloglas will depend on what works best with the winning entry. Maybe it'll be six metallic colours, or scratch and sniff paper? Maybe, like last year's winning entry, we'll go for fluted foil and Pantone acid green? Or we might decide that glow in the dark works best. Take a look at what treatments Celloglas offers, and by all means tell us if you have a favourite. Download the cover template Your first step should be to download the cover template so you work to the exact cover dimensions. Once you’re happy with your idea and your design, and you've worked it to a final stage, you’re ready to enter! How to enter Although we expect finished artwork entered, this competition is a little different to others – as this is a cover design, and there are additional coverlines to be added to the cover, the winner will need to work with CA’s art editor to make sure their image works perfectly with other cover furniture. We need some information about you, including a link to your portfolio, and a short paragraph giving it a bit of context to your entry – maximum 100 words, including when you graduated/if you're still studying. Send all that and your design to hello@computerarts.co.uk with the subject line: CA Cover Comp. Entries will be judged by the CA team based on creativity of concept and suitability for use as a magazine cover – and the winner will receive a paid commission of £800 to develop it into a final cover with direction from CA's art editor. This may take a day or a week, but is an integral part of the commission – so only enter if you're available to work on the cover from 20 June to 4 July. Deadline for entries: Midnight (BST) Thursday 20 June 2019. We will also showcase a selection of the best entries on Creative Bloq, including a paragraph about the artist and a portfolio link. Good luck! Hi-res artwork (or any amends) will only be requested from the chosen designer once the commission is set up. All IP remains with the creators. Read more: Take a look at Computer Arts' articles on CB How to create special print finishes in InDesign The best laptops for graphic design in 2019 View the full article

Adobe Premiere Rush, Adobe's video editing software, was launched at Adobe Max in October last year. The software is available for iOS, Mac and Windows on the desktop, so Android users, once again, felt left out in the cold. However, they haven't had to wait too long, with Adobe today announcing Premiere Rush for Android. But why now? Over the years we've seen many companies, Adobe included, wait years before rolling out an Android version of their latest software, so it may come as a surprise to some to see Premiere Rush arrive on Android just seven months after it was initially launched. But the Adobe team are a business-savvy lot, and with more and more content creators using their phones to create videos on the go, it makes total sense to be able to offer the app to what Macworld reported earlier in the year as the more popular mobile platform. Get 40% off Adobe Creative Cloud "What we've been seeing recently is a huge explosion in online video content creation, especially on social media," says Adobe Premiere Rush principal project manager Danielle Darby. "And upon further investigation, we found these online video creators are different from our professional creators and have very unique needs, which we want to focus on with Rush." That focus is on the ability to create professional-looking results fast, without delving too deep into getting the perfect edit like one might have to with Adobe's more complex, professional editing tools such as Premiere Pro or After Effects. Image: Adobe "Our goal is to make creating and sharing online content easier than ever," Darby says. We've yet to give Rush a go so can't say yet if Adobe has achieved that. A quick hands-on with the iOS version of the software looks promising, but we'll be putting Rush – on both iOS and Android – to the test in a full review very soon so stay tuned. Adobe Premiere Rush is available on Android now, and you can get for free via the Premiere Rush Starter Plan, which includes access to all its features, plus the ability to create an unlimited number of projects (but limited to three exports). Premiere Rush is also available for $9.99 per month to individuals via the Adobe website, Samsung Galaxy Store or Google Play Store. Rush is also included as part of Adobe's All Apps, Premier Pro single app and Student Plan Creative Cloud memberships. Read more: The best video editing laptops money can buy The best video editing apps for mobile The best online video editing courses View the full article

Game of Thrones has probably taken over your life and your Twitter feed for the past week or so, and now it may have even taken over your town. Four areas of the UK have now been transformed into parts of Westeros to mark the show's finale, and the release of the digital download of season eight. Essex has become Essos, London's Covent Garden is now Highgarden, Blackpool has the new name of Castle Black-Pool and Doune Castle in Scotland is now Winterfell. New signs signifying the new names have been erected at key locations in these areas. Essex – sorry, Essos – has a sign outside Colchester Castle, for example. The signs will stay up throughout the summer and people are encouraged to take selfies with them, using #GoTTakeover, naturally. Could more famous buildings be next? Let's take a look at these new areas. Below is the new Highgarden... Castle Black-Pool... The new Winterfell (which was the location for Winterfell in the GOT pilot episode)... And Essos... "Like Essex, fictional Essos is located in the east and has a dry climate," says the Visit Essex website. If that seems like too tenuous a link, then you'll be pleased to know that some of the show's stars grew up in Essex, and there are also some wolves at Colchester Zoo, and there's erm... glamping. Should a TV series be able to take over a place? It's an interesting question, and while we don't expect the tourist boards or selfie-seeking visitors to ponder it for too long, it is something to consider. Read more: How to watch Game of Thrones series 8 online Emojis are coming with these Game of Thrones hashtags What is #PortfolioDay and should you get involved? View the full article

Are you looking for your next art job? Whether you're a traditional, digital or a games artist, we've got your next job move in the bag with our new art jobs listings. Creative Bloq have partnered with Lovedesignjobs to streamline the opportunities out there and present you with the best of the best. You might be wondering where the next openings in the UK are going to be, maybe you are seeking a new adventure in the US or even elsewhere around the globe. Wherever you want to be, we'll be updating the listings with new art jobs all the time so bookmark this page and keep checking back. Our sparkling new graphic design jobs and web design jobs boards can help you if you have decided to embark on a new career adventure, it has thousands of active design job listings just waiting for you to apply. Art jobs: UK CGI Artist Location: Tunbridge Wells, Uk Salary: £25,000-£35,000 A leading Marketing Agency need you to produce high quality work in both still and animated formats. It's a varied role within the studio, creating photo-realistic scenes for auto and high end manufacturing companies. 2D Games Artist Location: Leeds, UK Salary: Up to £30,000 If you are an enthusiastic Games Artist, look no further. A ambitious and rapidly-growing games company is looking for you! Character Artist Location: Leicestershire, UK Salary: £125/day A major gaming company is looking for a character artist for a 12 month contract to help them to make their next big game. You could be a graduate or experienced gaming artist, as long as you have the talent, they want to hear from you. Senior CGI Artist Location: Gaydon, UK Salary: Competitive A great opportunity to become part of the Digital Assets Imagery Creation team for an automotive company. If you think you can provide efficient delivery, have a positive impact and maintain high performance levels, this could be a great job for you. Art jobs: US Environment Artist, Dungeons and Architecture Location: Irvine, California Salary: Competitive A Dungeon Environment Artist creates the look of dungeons, raids, and architecture in the World of Warcraft. You will need to have 2+ years of experience as an Environment Artist and can create structures from concept to completion. An amazing chance for the right candidate! Art Instructors Location: Dublin, California Salary: $14 - $16/hour + tips and bonus This is the perfect part-time position for an artist (or advanced art school student) looking for a supplemental income. Instructors will lead a two or three hour class onstage as customers follow your instructions to paint their own stretched canvases using acrylic paint. Art jobs: Rest of the World Keep checking back for more exciting opportunities around the world. Related articles: The best graphic design jobs right now How to find a new job in 2019 How to get a job as a video games artist View the full article

If it's time for you to find a new web design job to get you moving on up the career ladder, Creative Bloq can give you a push in the right direction. We've teamed up with Lovedesignjobs to offer you a selection of the best web design jobs around right now. Whether you're searching in the UK, or you're venturing further afield to the US and beyond, we have got the hottest new opportunities in web design. This page will be updated all the time, so keep checking back to make sure you find your perfect job before everyone else does. Looking for a new career path? Take a look at our shiny new design jobs boards, which has thousands of active job listings, in all disciplines, just waiting to be filled. Web design jobs: US Junior Front End Developer Location: Washington, DC Salary: Competitive Salary and package Revature, in rapid expansion mode, is looking to hire a Junior Front End Developer to build next-generation software systems as well as games, apps, middleware and network control systems across lots of different industries. Revature is an exciting business that is frequently called out for a great business to work for. UX Designer Location: Englewood, CO Salary: Competitive Enthusiastic and motivated individual for a detail oriented ""hands-on"" Senior UX Designer position. The qualified individual must have a sound knowledge in all aspects of general user interface design principles and user experience. The candidate for this position must also have strong planning, organization, communication skills and analytical skill sets. Web design jobs: UK Digital Marketing Intern Location: London, UK Salary: £15,000 A national tourism agency funded by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport is looking for an intern to work within a team responsible for promoting Britain worldwide and helping to encourage visitors from Italy to come to the UK. Web Developer Location: Bristol, UK Salary: £18,000-£30,000 Based in central Bristol, a creative agency are looking for a Full Stack Developer with solid PHP experience, to work on some of the biggest brands. Great atmosphere in a vibrant working environment in a great city! Weighty Enterprise Java Developer Location: London, UK Salary: Up to £65,000 A clean tech business is looking for a senior Java specialist to join their leading multi-award winning renewable energy company, they will pay up to £65,000. Web design jobs: Rest of the world C# Web Developer Location: Madrid, Spain Salary: DOE A large financial company is looking for a developer with excellent C# skills and experience to take responsibility in web development, AngularjS and .NET. Related articles: How to find a new job in 2019 How to get a design job: 7 expert tips How to get a job as a video games artist View the full article

Is it time you found a new graphic design job? If so, you'll want to find out what exciting opportunities are around. We've partnered with Lovedesignjobs to handpick the very best new graphic design jobs and bring them to you on a plate. You might want to stay close to home, or have an adventure elsewhere. Either way, we've got the hottest new job opportunities in the UK, USA and worldwide for you to explore. We will keep adding the newest graphic design jobs as soon as they become live, so if you don't find your perfect new career straight away, keep checking back to make sure you don't miss out. If you're looking for a brand new challenge, head over to our new design jobs, art jobs and web design jobs boards, which have lots of active job listings from awesome employers just waiting for you to apply. Graphic design jobs: US Lead Global Retail Graphic Designer Location: Baltimore, Maryland Salary: Based on experience Under Armour is seeking a Graphic Designer that can take responsibility for creating visual communications that mirror the Global Retail concepts and goals. The role involves lots of collaboration across departments and the ability to respond quickly to briefs. The right person will enjoy the buzz of tight deadlines! Graphic design jobs: UK Junior Graphic Designer Location: Bath UK Salary: Up to £24,000 A Bath based company is looking for someone with two or three years post-grad work experience. Experience in print production is a must. Junior Graphic Designer Location: London, UK Salary: Competitive salary and package Molton Brown, the luxury product company, is seeking a conceptual and passionate designer to work on global campaigns. This is a brilliant opportunity to develop your own ideas through to execution and to work with great designers on varied projects. Graphic design jobs: Rest of the world Keep checking back for more exciting job opportunities around the globe. Related articles: How to curate a creative portfolio The best web design jobs in 2019 20 tips for design interview success View the full article

The creative industries are thriving, however, in such a competitive market, landing that dream job has never been more challenging. The good news is there are plenty of amazing design jobs up for grabs – and we've got details of them right here. Whether you want to elevate your career in web design, move up the graphic design ladder or get your first internship, we've teamed up with Lovedesignjobs to bring you the most sought-after jobs from around the globe, and provide a comprehensive resource for posting roles. As we type, there are approximately 16,000 creative jobs live on our jobs board, so you're guaranteed to find something of interest. If you're looking for discipline-specific roles, head over to our dedicated graphic design jobs, web design jobs, or art jobs posts, where you'll find details of all the best opportunities from around the globe. Otherwise, read on to discover the hottest international design jobs this week... Lead Character Artist AAA - Console Projects Location: Manchester, UK Salary: £50,000-£70,000 AAA Animation studio, who have worked with some of the biggest games and studios in the world, need a new Character Artist to lead their expansion into this area. You will work closely with the Art Director and own your own projects as well as leading and inspiring a small team. The right candidate needs at least 4 years experience as a Character Artist and to have previously worked on at least one console game. Graphic Designer Location: London, UK Salary: Up to £24,000 A great opportunity for a Graphic Designer who loves fashion. Working for Flannels, the lux fashion destination for women and men, you will be busy creating new ideas and content for the site, digital, social and article imagery and much more. Apply today! CGI Artist Location: Gaydon, Warickshire Salary: Negotiable A global CGI business seeks someone with a real passion for CGI and who is looking for their next career challenge. This is an amazing opportunity to work for an award-winning company that designs and produces high quality 3D visualisations, animations and visual effects for images, films and apps. The right candidate needs to have superior MAYA knowledge, experience with V-Ray, GI and ambient light workflows, as well as mastery of Photoshop. Weighty Enterprise Java Developer Location: Central London, UK Salary: Up to £65,000 A leading cleantech business is looking for a senior Java specialist to join this multi-award winning renewable energy business, they will pay up to £65,000. Environment 3D Artist Salary: Depends on experience Location: Lake Forest, California Visual Concepts, a top game development studio in Lake Forest, California is seeking an Environment Artist to work on a new open world project. Directed by the Lead Environment Artist, you will be expected to create, define and develop high-quality environments and ensure texture assets are fully optimized without compromising on the quality of your creative work. 3D Art Generalist - Unity Location: New York City Salary: Based on experience MLB, the partnership of major baseball clubs needs a 3D Artist with 3 years + experience on Console or Mobile AAA. They also need experience of one new shipped title. Environment Artist, Dungeons and Architecture Location: Irvine, California Salary: Depends on experience World of Warcraft is seeking an experienced environment artist who can create both internal and external architecture from concept to completion. 2+Years in game development, modelling and texturing is required. Senior Full Stack Developer Location: Berlin, Germany Salary: Up to €70,000 DOE Senior Full Stack Developer required for a start-up in the rapidly-growing digital health space. Work with experts in identifying pioneering healthcare businesses. Senior Android Developer Location: Enschede, Netherlands Salary: Competitive Salary and package Takeaway.com, Europe's leading online and mobile food ordering company are looking for an experienced Android Developer who would like to utilise their skills and experience to help develop the best food ordering app in the market. Lovedesignjobs and Creative Bloq With demand higher than ever for creative and design professionals, we have partnered with Lovedesignjobs to provide this extensive resource for both jobseekers and recruiters. At Lovedesignjobs, you'll find over 16,000 global design jobs live right now. Listings are updated and refreshed on a daily basis, and include our pick of the Job of the Week. So whether you're a graduate looking for your first role, a freelancer seeking a permanent position, or an experienced creative professional hunting for your next promotion, take a look at our thousands of creative jobs, and see where your career could take you. Creative Bloq has recently teamed up with Lovedesignjobs. From time to time, Future may receive a fee and/or commission from a third party product or service provider featured on a Future site, or if you link to and/or purchase products and services from a third party website arrived at via a Future site. View the full article

For those of you not in love with Game of Thrones Season 8 (see the petition asking HBO to redo this season), Microsoft Patch Tuesday is offering its own degree of dramatic flare. On Tuesday, May 14, Simon Pope, Director of Incident Response, Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) wrote the blog post, “Prevent a worm by updating Remote Desktop Services (CVE-2019-0708). He said, “In other words, the vulnerability is ‘wormable’, meaning that any future malware that exploits this vulnerability could propagate from vulnerable computer to vulnerable computer in a similar way as the WannaCry malware spread across the globe in 2017. While we have observed no exploitation of this vulnerability, it is highly likely that malicious actors will write an exploit for this vulnerability and incorporate it into their malware.” This turned a lot of heads. Eye-grabbing headlines appeared quickly such as “To Prevent Another WannaCry, Microsoft Patches Old OSs” (BankInfoSecurity) and “Microsoft Issues Urgent Fix For Windows In First XP Patch Since WannaCry” (Forbes). This is compounded by the reality that, using representative Flexera data, approximately 70% of customers will have a vulnerable system in their environment. So what do we take from all this and what should you do? Understand your environment: It’s simple to say and hard to do: you need to understand your environment. The consequences of end-of-life (EOL) software and hardware — and products at end-of-support (EOS) — are too great to ignore. To reduce the risks and costs associated with end-of-life software and hardware, you first must know whether you have any obsolete software and hardware, and where they reside. But finding the EOL and EOS dates and accurately locating all the instances of obsolete products isn’t easy. Update where you can: Downloads for in-support versions of Windows (Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2008) can be found in the Microsoft Security Update Guide. Upgrade when you have to: As we said above, and as Microsoft proved this week, the consequences of EOL software and hardware are significant. Out-of-support systems include Windows 2003 and Windows XP. If you are on an out-of-support version, the best way to address this vulnerability is to upgrade to the latest version of Windows. Even so, Microsoft is also making fixes available for these out-of-support versions of Windows in KB4500705. Prioritize: With tens of thousands of theoretical software vulnerabilities, it’s hard to know where to start with software vulnerabilities. How do you prioritize them all? Machine learning. Machine learning has gotten so good that, with natural language processing (AI) and human curation, we can now know what’s exploited—taken from theoretical to real. With a great degree of certainty and scalability, we can now know which of those thousands of vulnerabilities that are released every year are actually used by the bad guys. Flexera is one of the first companies in the world to put together an assessment of real software in an environment’s vulnerabilities that includes exploitation evidence. We might not get a redo on Season 8 of Games of Thrones. But with the right tools and focus, you can make Microsoft Patch Tuesday a lot less dramatic. Source View the full article

Adobe CC is made up of some pretty useful apps. Premiere is the, well, premier video editing platform used by content creators, filmmakers, and journalists all over the world. Photoshop is the go-to photo editor used by millions across the globe. And that's just scratching the surface of what Adobe has on offer. To learn how to use all the powerful tools Adobe CC features, check out The Complete Adobe CC Training Bundle. It's yours for just $29. If you're not a subscriber yet, now's a great time to sign up – right now Adobe has knocked 40% off its annual plan. The best cloud storage 2019 Adobe InDesign is a layout software that helps you create multi-page documents for books, magazines, portfolios, posters, and a whole lot more. Flash is an animation tool that powers the interactive media industry; users can wield the power of Flash to create everything from short films to TV shows. Illustrator is the perfect software for creating logos, typography, and other complex illustrations. And there's even more once you purchase the bundle! Get The Complete Adobe CC Training Bundle for just $29. Related articles: Illustrator tutorials: The best lessons to sharpen your skills Find Adobe alternatives with this helpful graphic 66 free Photoshop actions View the full article

Next time you're out and about in New York and are looking for a spot to sit down and have a break, just look out for the chair logo (above). This new logo is the winning entry of a competition created by The New York City department of city planning and the Municipal Art Society of New York. They invited people to design a new logo for the city's privately owned public spaces – known as POPS. The Big Apple has over 550 of these spaces, which make up 3.8 million square feet. The new logo was created by graphic designer Emma Reed and was selected by a panel of seven experts, as well as a public vote – where over 17,000 people voted. If you want to know more about the art of creating logos, then don't miss our guide to logo design. "This image welcomes an individual or several people to sit down in a specified space. While the space is static and given dimension and a sense of weight by the use of the horizontal bar along the bottom, the arrangement of the chairs is freeform and open to the whimsy of its user," says Reed of her winning entry. The current logo in use. Image: POPS Reed's new design – named 'Have a seat' – feels both inviting and modern, and replaces a previous design of a tree, which was perhaps a little too generic. The hope is that this new logo will help better signify the existence of POPS and lead to more people enjoying them. Reed's design is expected to roll out by 2021, so in the meantime, you may still have to look out for that tree. Two other designs were also selected as 'Awardees', and there were two notable mentions, including a rather chilled out-looking Statue of Liberty taking a break. You can see all the entries on the POPS logo website. Those inclined to read the small print will see that each Awardees won $2,000 for their designs, with Reed's winning entry awarded a further $2,000. We'll leave you to ponder whether or not that's a fair price for a logo that will be rolled out across one of the most visited cities in the world. Read more: BT reveals new logo – and it's not as bad as you think 5 brilliant brand collaborations (and what you can learn from them) The illustrator hotlist 2019 View the full article

Nothing ever stands still in the creative industries. Regardless of the field, the next big thing is destined, sooner or later, to become old hat, thanks to a mix of over-exposure and a never-ending influx of new ideas and styles ready to grab people's imaginations. If you want your work to feel fresh, you need to at least have an eye on the current illustration trends. As one of the world's leading stock content marketplaces, iStock by Getty Images is perfectly placed to track the latest illustration trends, and have identified 10 key techniques employed by this year's hottest imagery. While nobody wants to blindly follow trends in their work, there are plenty of visual approaches here that you can incorporate into your illustrations – and even combine with one another – to give your portfolio a touch of the cutting-edge. 01. New retro wave colour palette Indulge in all your neon fantasies. Image: iStock/Darumo The visual style of the 1980s has never been more in demand. There's always a much-loved TV show or film from the decade being remade, loads of videogames are going for that irresistible retro look, and part of that is the new retro wave colour palette: dramatic and bold with the saturation levels turned way up. The key colour is a retina-searing ultraviolet, graduating to hot pinks, neon oranges and buttercup yellows; these palettes are everywhere right now, dominating abstract backgrounds and bringing futuristic landscapes to life. View more of the trend here. 02. Flat and funky figures There's no escaping these cartoon people. Image: iStock/Anna_Isaeva If you've looked at any startup's website lately, you can't have escaped the sight of cartoon figures drawn in an organic, naïve style to illustrate a company's services, products or values. iStock calls this style 'flat and funky' – chunky proportions, loose and rubbery limbs, and flat colours to create figure drawings that are fun, charming and whimsical. If drawing people is your thing, taking this approach is a great way to ensure demand for you work. View more of the trend here. 03. Hyper-realistic shading Shading so good you could reach out and grab it. Image: iStock/TAW 4 Thanks to advances in vector editing tools there are more options for shading than ever before, and clued-up illustrators are taking advantage of these improvements to create an amazing impression of depth in their work. By using complex shading techniques such as gradient meshes and blends, it's possible to give your vector illustrations a stunningly realistic illusion of depth that makes the viewer feel like they're looking at 3D renders. So step away from the drop shadow and basic gradient tools, and start being cleverer with your shading. View more of the trend here. 04. Warm meets cool A great way to draw the viewer's eye. Image: iStock/grivina A little bit of contrast can do an amazing job of catching the viewer's eye, and a great way to achieve this effect is by combining warm and cool colours. By rendering the object of your illustration in warm tones and placing it against a cooler background you can instantly draw people's attention to what you want them to see. And right now there are plenty of illustrators using this technique, only with a subtle, modern palette that leans toward pastel hues rather than brighter, more saturated tones. The end results are just as impactful, but they're more sophisticate and modern-looking. View more of the trend here. 05. Isometric perspectives Forget about vanishing points. Image: iStock/aurielaki Often used in technical and engineering drawings, isometric perspective is also a look that was popular in the early days of 3D video games in the 1980s, so it's not entirely surprising that the isometric look is enjoying a revival, used in everything from cityscapes to interface icons. It's an appealing way of representing 3D because you don't need to worry about perspective and vanishing points, which makes it easier to adjust your composition without having to resize everything, and the end results are always striking. View more of the trend here. 06. Fluidity Mix liquid shapes with straight edges for maximum effect. Image: iStock/layritten Those hyper-realistic shading effects we mentioned earlier? One place you can see them in action is in the preponderance of liquid effects in illustration right now, giving static imagery a glorious sense of movement. Rigid geometric shapes flow into each other and blobs of super-saturated plasma float in mid-air, sometimes combined with straight edges to provide an element of contrast. Perfect for icons and abstract backgrounds, it's also an excellent way of enlivening typographic compositions. View more of the trend here. 07. Not-so-flat design Flat design gains an extra dimension. Image: iStock/kfilonov Everyone knows about flat design these days; you can't look at your phone without being confronted by an array of simple, flat icons lacking in shading, detail and perspective. And while flat design doesn't seem to be on the way out just yet, as screen resolutions have improved it's started to evolve. The new not-so-flat design makes the most of techniques such as gradient shading, texture and perspective – especially on-trend isometrics – and colour palettes have moved on too. It's less about vintage hues and more about in-your-face, saturated colour schemes: rich blues and violets and punchy neon shades, for a bold and cheery look. View more of the trend here. 08. Metallic textures Today's metallic effects feature texture and colour. Image: iStock/Gluiki Another look that saw plenty of use in the materialistic 1980s, metallic effects are the ideal way to give illustrations a luxurious, glamorous feel, along with enough sparkle to grab people's attention. Modern use of metallics has evolved from cold but shiny gold, chrome and bronze; these days they're given an extra textural bite – think glitter, paint and foil – and unexpected colours are brought into play. We're all familiar with rose gold, but along with white gold and even green gold these are fabulous ways of giving metallics a fresh look. View more of the trend here. 09. Pearlescence Here's how to use pastel shades to dazzling effect. Image: iStock/Maxger True pearlescence – a multi-dimensional effect that reveals different colours depending on the angle you're looking from – is only really an option if you're working in print and can call upon pearlescent inks. But a simulated pearlescent effect can be just as striking, and it's an easy one to achieve using gradients and pink, blue, yellow and green pastel shades, transforming flat colours into flowing fields of light that give any composition a mesmerising and dynamic edge. View more of the trend here. 10. Glitch Glitch effects have come a long way. Image: iStock/octomesecam Finally, an ever-popular look that keeps on evolving as technology progresses. Glitch effects used to be inspired by analogue technology – the snowy white noise on a badly tuned TV set or the visual distortion caused by bad video tracking or a broken vertical hold. And while these are still great effects, today there are some equally lovely digital glitches to be used as well, such as corrupted JPG data, overdriven chromatic aberration and datamoshed video distortion. While you don't want to overdo these effects, a little bit of glitch dirtying up a clean vector image can add heaps of visual interest and give your work a touch of retro cool. View more of the trend here. Now that you know the latest trends to follow, you can create content that customers want. Visit iStock by Getty Images and explore millions of illustrations and vectors that always reflect the current trends. In addition, you can save 10% off any credit pack with code ISTOCK10 or 15% off any annual subscription with code ANNUAL15. Simply add the code at checkout before 30 September 2019. View the full article