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Users of the popular file-compression tool are urged to immediately update after a serious code-execution flaw was found in WinRAR. View the full article

Good design might be innovative, influential or memorable. Great design will be all three, and the best design contains the secrets of its own success. Each of the following designs is not only successful in its own right, but also contains clear lessons that we can benefit from when approaching our own work. Whether it’s nurturing creative relationships to get the best results, daring to take risks, or simply remembering to retain the fun, these projects show how to make work that matters…. Why you should embrace design thinking 01. Blackstar album cover Jonathan Barnbrook’s epic, intelligent minimalism for Bowie’s Blackstar album. "The duty of a designer is to make the world a more beautiful place," he says Jonathan Barnbrook’s extraordinary album sleeve design for David Bowie’s final album in 2016 was the culmination of a 15-year creative partnership, and a perfect example of how nurturing creative relationships over a period of time can yield increasingly rich results. Barnbrook’s previous work on The Next Day had earned the wrath of Bowie fans, distraught to see a brutally redacted old album cover but for Blackstar, Barnbrook and Bowie executed an even more controversial design, stripping away everything on the new album sleeve title except for a large black star and sequence of smaller, mysteriously broken stars. Was it a code? What did it say? What could it mean? And why was one Britain’s foremost typographers eliminating type (and the artist) from the sleeve? Such radical (and impactful) design was only possible because Bowie and Barnbrook had developed such a deep understanding of each other. "Mutual respect," Barnbrook explained when we asked him what the key to such a long a fruitful relationship was. "You both need to value each other’s role and understand that the sum of both of you is the important thing. Many jobs fail because one side doesn’t respect the other." Creating a media sensation as well as concluding a legendary creative partnership, the Blackstar album sleeve demonstrated the benefits of client and designer working hand in hand. "Each job is a partnership," Barnbrook explains, "not a war to get your own way". 02. Agatha Christie stamps The stamps contained fun features such as UV and thermochromic ink Marking the centenary of Agatha Christie’s first crime novel and the 40th anniversary of her death, this set of stamps for the Royal Mail was a perfect showcase for the playful design ethos of Studio Sutherl&. The exquisite details and clever print techniques earned rave reviews and awards in 2017 – including a prestigious D&AD Yellow Pencil – and established the tiny studio (comprised of ‘just’ industry legend Jim Sutherland and ex-The Partners designer Rosey Trickett) as the smartest, coolest creatives around. Sutherland has admitted that he loves to create work that looks effortless. “Often it’s a question of removing layers until you are left with the fundamental idea,” he told Computer Arts magazine last year, and the story-based stamps are both wonderfully immediate and devilishly sophisticated. The genius of them is that the idea is honed down to the purest form (wonderfully executed by illustrator Neil Webb) and sprinkled with wit (check out the hidden clues scattered around the stamps). Profiled in the iconic A Smile in The Mind, Sutherland revealed the principle behind all this work: "If you put thought and joy into a project, the person at the other end gets some of that back." These beautiful stamps perfectly show how it’s possible to take that initial, playful fun of brainstorming all the way through to the final, sublime execution. 03. SPIN/Adventures in Typography The wonderful debut issue of SPIN/Adventures in Typography When Unit Editions’ experimental type magazine was launched back in 2017, it instantly became the coolest design publication of the year. And it says a great deal about about the talent involved – SPIN and industry heavyweight Adrian Shaughnessy – that this slim, black and white title became so hot, despite being a seemingly random collection of visual thoughts about typography that admits it's "teetering on the edge of legibility". Last year’s follow up issue, delivered even more radical experiments to a growing audience of enthusiastic readers. But how does a journal of beautiful failures, become a sell-out title in an environment of print decline and magazine closures? "All Unit Editions books are made with passion," Shaughnessy explains, when asked what made Adventures in Typography so popular. "Our first assessment of a title is – is this a publication we’d like to see in print? Only after we’ve answered that question do we consider its sales potential. The only thought was to make a publication that was genuinely different and genuinely experimental." SPIN’s Tony Brook was equally adamant that the project should be "born out of enthusiasm rather than commercial or practical imperatives". The devoted fanbase eagerly anticipating issue three proves that passionate, beautiful work will almost always find its audience. 04. Uber rebrand The Uber rebrand wasn’t based around a logo redesign, but a total rethink of how users interact with the company The recent Uber rebrand by Wolff Olins garnered just the right mix of professional peer grumbles and blogosphere cynicism to guarantee huge media coverage, a welcome bonus for the (then) beleaguered taxi company. But critics who bemoaned the seemingly ubiquitous redesign redux (san-serif, wordmark only) missed the point of the brief, which was to create “a holistic brand system to accommodate everything from bikes, to tuk-tuks and flying cars,” Creating a shared language that would work across the 660 plus Uber cities across the world is more than setting old and new logos side by side, it’s about understanding how the brand will be experienced. Utterly functional and flexible, the Uber app logo immediately looks as if has always been around (and always will be), while the fresh typography by MCKL Type Foundry brilliantly adapts to messaging and branding across all languages and orientations. The 'U' of Uber is also used as a container to house wonderful photographs related to the brand. Judging the redesign based on a still image of the Uber logo is as pointless as reviewing a movie based on a single frame: it’s the fluid interaction between the design and the public that matters, and here, the Uber redesign is a wonderful masterclass in how to understand your real-world application. Old-school logo designers may feel non-plussed, but to watch the logo and branding in action is to see corporate design delivered to the highest standard. Read more about the initial reaction to the Uber rebrand here. 05. 1984 book cover Rather than simply being struck out, the title and author information is hidden by black foil – a wondrously subtle touch Penguin’s legendary book covers have become part of our shared design DNA: pioneering work by Jan Tschichold and Romek Marber in the '50s and '60s was largely responsible for a revolution in editorial design. But more recent work at Penguin has been equally influential, most notably the designs of David Pearson. His stunning Great Ideas series celebrated language itself through stunning typography, treating book lovers with respect and letting them share in the experience of discovering a new title. "I often try to slow down the process of looking and reading," he tells us. "The hope is that people will stay a while and start to build a relationship with what they see." His famously reductionist cover for George Orwell’s 1984 – a blank book cover with redacted title – shows Pearson at his brilliant best: playful, daring and most importantly, true to the theme of the book he was designing. "You can push people too far and they will ultimately leave frustrated," he admits, "but if you can judge it right, the reader will become an active part of the process and the exchange becomes much more meaningful and memorable." Pearson's smart design for smart readers has been as influential as anything in Penguin’s illustrious history, and since leaving to set up his own agency Pearson has further enhanced his enviable portfolio while refining his underlying philosophy. "Ultimately, it's about treating people with respect; inviting them in and not trying to prescribe their thought processes." Read more: 10 of the best logos ever The 53 best infographics How to make your logo stand out in the digital age View the full article

Whether you're in need of stock photos for your personal blog or HQ audio for your company's website, we have a time-saving solution for you. StockPop Mega Bundle makes finding these stock assets a breeze, and though a lifetime subscription typically retails for $499, it's currently available for an amazing 94 per cent off at just $24.99. Trying to hunt down professional stock photos often feels like searching for a needle in a haystack. And once you find the perfect photo, then you have to worry about copyright and whether or not you can legally use the image. Let StockPop save you valuable time and worry by providing exactly what you need via its private collection of over 17,000 copyright-free stock images. Aside from photos, StockPop also boasts an impressive collection of HD videos and HQ audio files to set your web projects apart. You never have to worry about copyright, and the StockPop library is neatly organised into handy categories to make searching and finding the perfect asset easy and enjoyable. Snag a lifetime subscription to the StockPop Mega Bundle for just $24.99 here. Related articles: 18 top stock photo libraries The best camera for creatives right now A beginner's guide to using camera lenses View the full article

It's often only when we look back on a period of time that we realise how far we've come. And that's exactly what happened when we asked seven web professionals what lessons they'd learned in the last year. Covering everything from how to do less to why you should stick with just one stack, these lessons could be just what you need to shake up your workflow this year. Read on for the gems of wisdom these web designers and developers have discovered. Web design tools to help you work smarter 01. Use clear language For Guy Utley, creative director of Tall, using the right language is key. "I’m finding more and more that a straight-talking approach goes down better with clients than fancy words," he says. "As an industry though, there seems to be a constant urge to create overcomplicated words to present what we do. This has meant some agencies have pretty much constructed their own language. Examples include: ‘Reach out, with our ideation’ or ‘Modern consumers' movement’. Say what? I personally love the quote by Sir Winston Churchill: 'If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.'" 02. Find the right environment "We spend most of our time at work" points out Jeremy Clemans, back end developer at FINE, "so it needs to be somewhere we can be ourselves. My message to companies is to create an environment that inspires people to do great work and grow. For job seekers, it’s to be authentic and focus on providing value to others. Many people think of job hunting as CVs and interviews, but you want to find a connection both ways, and that’s more about the people and company culture, less about checklists of skills." 03. Don't be a one-trick pony Solmark Creative, a branding and digital studio specialising in the wellness and fitness space, focused last year on retaining clients, according to the studio's owner and creative director, Jenni Schwartz. "While we were predominantly hired for one-time projects, we believed we were capable of so much more than just the initial build. The problem was that our clients were not aware of our full expertise," Schwartz explains. "So we began to clearly define the specific services clients can benefit from, allowing them to budget for an ongoing relationship. In doing so, we’ve matured and shifted from being task-driven to results-oriented and our client relationships have become stronger and therefore more rewarding." 04. Stick with a stack Adam Innes, senior PHP developer at 50000feet has learned to ‘stick with a stack’. "The proliferation of new libraries, technologies and ways to do things is a dangerous path to time-wastery," he explains. "The implications of learning a new thing can be far-reaching into the development process and have a major impact on the project budget and your programmers’ sanity. So keep your core stack stable and experiment in increments. Throwing your team onto the latest technological trend is a decision that needs to be well planned." 05. Use new tech in your projects "In the past 12 months, I’ve learned to implement new technology in every new project I start," says front end software engineer, Marco Poletto. "Everything serves the purpose: new syntax, new tools, new framework. This approach helped me a lot in this fast-paced world and, thanks to these small, continuous inclusions, I’ve been able to reduce the time I spend keeping myself up-to-date outside my working hours. It's been a very productive year and my passion for web development has been (and is) continually increasing." 06. Learn to do less "What’s the most important lesson I’ve learned over the last 12 months as CEO of a digital agency? That has to be the power of saying ‘no’," says Amanda Seaford, US CEO of Mirum. "In other words, in order to accomplish more, you actually have to do less. "In practical terms, that means fewer meetings, fewer emails, fewer initiatives and even fewer new business efforts – which might sound like you’re achieving less. But in reality trying to do everything leads to many unfinished or poorly done tasks, whereas saying ‘no’ drives focus and focus drives results. With focus, we can accomplish anything we set our minds to." 07. Educate your clients Over the last 12 months, one thing's become clear for Chris Day, agency owner. "Marketing of WYSIWYG software packages has become so exaggerated that many of our clients believe they can deliver any functionality they can dream of in seconds, for free," he says. "So now we have to provide more education early on in our project processes and clearly define the level of flexibility they will get. In addition to this, we talk to them about the importance of brand consistency, accessibility and compliance, which can also suffer in a WYSIWYG environment." This article originally appeared issue 314 of net, the world's leading magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 314 or subscribe here. Read more: The best laptops for programming The future of web design Web design tools to help you work smarter View the full article

There's a myth out there that artists are born, not made. We believe this statement is false, and that nearly anyone can learn a skill if they know what resources to use to help them learn. Whether you're just starting out or you're a long-time artist, this list of the best drawing books will help you improve your knowledge, and provide you with some great reference material too. While this isn't an exhaustive list, this is our pick of the best drawing books we recommend for artists of all skill levels. For more inspiration and advice, take a look at our roundup of How to Draw tutorials. Andrew Loomis' Drawing the Head and Hands is a classic, and excellent if you're looking for a solid foundation on drawing hands and heads. There's a ton of info inside, so you'll want to take it slow, especially if you struggle with drawing hands. Loomis' explanations are detailed and engaging, and it's hands-down (pun intended) the best anatomy reference book despite its age. Loomis' systematic approach will help you understand the principles behind drawing realistic portraits. Aside from the benefits of learning how to draw, Drawing the Head and Hands makes an excellent coffee table book too. Volume 1 of Walt Stanchfield's Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes is a super-dense drawing book that you'll need to read slowly. Stanchfield takes a different approach to learning how to draw by focusing more on the emotions, life and action than proportions and technical accuracy. With a heavy focus on gesture drawing, don't expect a book filled with finished drawings. Drawn to Life is about capturing the moment. If you're interested in creating drawings with character and flow, this is a must-have reference. If you're looking for some warmup sketch ideas, The Sketch Encyclopedia: Over 900 Drawing Projects is a great place to start. This drawing book breaks down each project, of which there are over 1000, into four key steps (sketch, line drawing, and two that build up and complete the form) that makes it easy to follow along. With creatures, people, buildings, famous landmarks, vehicles, and nature you're sure to find something to get you started. The Sketch Encyclopedia also includes an extensive introduction covering tools, line making, light theory, perspective, and texture. This revised 'definitive' edition of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards is excellent for professional illustrators or drawing hobbyists. Edwards delivers a lot of interesting concepts as she encourages you to explore the importance of creative thinking. She approaches learning how to draw by teaching you how to see differently and explains everything from technique, to materials. If you're an art educator, don't skip this one! No drawing books list is complete without a word from Stan Lee and John Buscema. If you're looking for a crash course in figure drawing, or if you're an aspiring comic-book artist, animator, or illustrator, do yourself a favour and grab a copy of How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. In addition to figure drawing, you'll learn about composition, shot selection, perspective, character dynamics, and more. Are there newer, more in-depth books out there, sure, but if you're a comic book junkie, then you need this book. Part of learning how to draw is learning how to have confidence in your own work. The Silver Way: Techniques, Tips, and Tutorials for Effective Character Design is written by Stephen Silver, the man behind the character design for Kim Possible, Danny Phantom, and The Fairly OddParents (to name a few). It offers guidance, encouragement, and inspiration in addition to easy-to-follow tutorials and drawing techniques. Art Fundamentals: Color, Light, Composition, Anatomy, Perspective, and Depth by Gilles Beloeil (Assassin's Creed series), Andrei Riabovitchev (Prometheus and X-Men: First Class), and Roberto F. Castro (Dead Island and Mortal Kombat) is one of the most comprehensive drawing books on the market today. In this book, you'll discover all sorts of goodies, including the rule of thirds, rule of odds, Golden Triangle, and Divine Proportions. But it goes well beyond composition. You'll also learn about colour and light, perspective and depth, anatomy, and portraying emotions. Drawing the Head and Figure: A How-To Handbook That Makes Drawing Easy by Jack Hamm is packed with helpful advice. You could say that this book is in direct competition with Loomis' drawing books, and you'd be correct. However, Hamm's approach to drawing the figure is more simplistic than Loomis'. His step-by-step approach will have even the most inexperienced artists drawing better and more confidently. Although some of the drawings are a bit dated, specifically the hairstyles and clothing, it's still an excellent primer for learning how to draw and can be easily applied to what you're making today. Cartooning is fun, and in Modern Cartooning: Essential Techniques for Drawing Today's Popular Cartoons, Christopher Hart shows you the essential techniques you need to know to unleash your full potential. Aimed at beginners, Modern Cartooning takes you step-by-step through the process of creating cartoons. You'll learn how to draw faces, bodies, backdrops, and more. As an added bonus, Hart's YouTube channel regularly shares easy-to-follow, step-by-step videos on how to draw cartoons, manga, animals and everything else. Why is an animation book included on a 'best drawing books' list? Because it's amazing! Written by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, two long-term Disney animators, The Illusion of Life takes its readers back to the beginning. Although it's not a tutorial book by any stretch of the word, it does offer a lot of advice and guidance regarding styles, effects, colour selection, and more. It also formed the basis for the 12 principles of animation still used today. This drawing book will inspire you to create through its many uses of photos, paintings, sketches, and storyboards – all of which can be used to help you become a better artist. Read more: 33 books every graphic designer should read The best online art classes in 2019 The best pencils for colouring, drawing and sketching View the full article

This is a hands on review of the Surface Studio 2 to give you the chance to see what the new all-in-one desktop is all about as soon as possible. We'll be expanding and upgrading this review shortly with more information and a score. The all-new Surface Studio 2 has finally arrived, and early impressions are good, to say the least. The team at Microsoft have pulled out all the stops for the shiny new version of their all-in-one desktop PC, focusing in particular on digital media artists. A robust digital drafting table with all the capabilities of a regular desktop PC, this machine will undoubtedly be desirable to artists and designers. But it's by no means cheap, so before you go breaking into your piggy bank, let's go under the hood in a little more detail. Surface Studio 2: Price and availability The Surface Studio 2 is now readily available all over the globe, with prices starting in at $3,499 in the US and £3,549 in the UK. This will get you a 7th-generation, Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of DDR4 memory and a 1TB NVMe SSD. So, like we said, it's not cheap, but is still significantly cheaper than an entry-level iMac Pro, which will set you back $4,999/£4,899. Having said that, the two aren't really comparable, being that the iMac can't be used as a graphics tablet. Surface Studio 2: Display and drawing experience With the incredibly pin-sharp 28-inch 4500x 300 resolution PixelSense touch screen responding to every deft stroke, chunky daub or precise click, the Studio 2 opens up a new world of creative opportunity. The thin display of the Surface Studio 2, along with lack of parallax and lag, puts you closer to the pixels than ever before, making for a much more authentic experience. The Surface Pen experience has also seen an improvement, with pixels and the stylus tip really converging into one, without parallax or lag, even when using sweeping quick strokes. If there was a disconnect in this department, it would be very hard to look past, so it's great that this element of the creative process lives up to the other design features. However, an increase in pressure sensitivity and a way of charging the Surface Pen up on the side of screen would be welcome additions. The super-thin display of the Surface Studio 2 puts you closer to the pixels than ever before Couple the stylus experience with the still magical ‘gravity hinge’ on the Studio 2, which allows you to effortlessly lower the screen to a 20-degree angle, but still supports you as you lean across a drawing, and you've got a unique digital creative experience. Though huge in size, the screen moves very easily around a table, just like moving paper on a desk, and yet doesn’t feel like it could slip or be pushed away accidentally when in use. Whatever angle you choose to work at, the screen has enough resistance to comfortably work on – again without fear of untimely slips or lowering. Knowing you can lean across the screen when it's fully lowered without fear of rogue touches or breaking the display makes for a very involving and natural experience. Surface Studio 2: Features The ability to switch instantly between colour profiles from sRGB to vivid and DCI-P3 modes is a massive help. Knowing that what you see on screen in sRGB is what will be printed provides a lot of confidence when setting palettes out correctly. Knowing that DCI-P3 is there too means if you ever want to develop more into film-making and editing for a YouTube channel, for example, then you're covered on that front, too. The bump in power on the new Surface Studio 2 means you can be confident it can handle whatever you throw at it too. And in terms of design, aesthetically, it is still one of the most beautiful machines on the market. Despite all the positives, there are areas for improvement that hopefully we'll see with the next iteration of the Studio. Other stylus companies have pushed the sensitivity levels of their pens to over 8,000 levels, which is around double that of the Surface Pen. For most users this wouldn’t be too noticeable, but if your job day-in-day out is drawing, these subtle delicate levels do become apparent. Also, the lack of recharging of the stylus is a bit of a let-down, and will bother some more than others. The AAAA batteries are cheap and easily found online, but if you draw a lot, you'll find they don’t last as long as you’d like, and so the option to magnetically charge the pen on the side of the screen, like other companies offer, would be great. The Surface Pen is lovely to use and accurate, but hopefully a new version is on the horizon with the next iteration. Another issue is the lack of options to upgrade the hardware, which may be a concern if you are truly at the bleeding edge of graphics, 4K rendering or just into that kind of tinkering. It would also be great to have the option of using the display as a separate monitor – just in case the computer element of the machine breaks in some unrepairable way. Having such a beautiful screen become redundant in years to come because of hardware issues would be a huge shame, so this could be addressed too. Surface Studio 2: Early verdict For freelance digital artists working from home, the last thing you want is multiple machines replicating what, in essence, should be a natural drawing experience akin to painting on a canvas or doodling on paper. The Surface Studio 2 allows artists and designers to streamline their creative process into one machine that can happily produce complex graphics and paintings just as comfortably as it can office admin and Netflix marathons in 4K resolution. As an all-in-one drafting table, creative centre and home PC, the Surface Studio 2 ticks all the boxes for both studio or home-based artists and designers. For digital creatives, it is one workstation that's going to be hard to beat. Read more: Hands on Wacom Cintiq 16 review View the full article

Earlier today, Samsung unveiled its much anticipated new Samsung Galaxy S10 to a packed crowd at its 'Galaxy Unpacked' media event. As expected, there are three shiny models set to launch on 8 March – the standard S10, smaller S10e and larger S10+ –and you'll find the best deals on all of them right here. The best SIM-free Samsung Galaxy S10 deals If you've already decided the new S10 is going to be the best camera phone for you in 2019, you can pre-order handsets right now. Here's how much the new SIM-free S10 handsets will set you back plus the best SIM-free deals available right now: Galaxy S10e: £669 Galaxy S10 128GB: £799 Galaxy S10 512GB: £999 Galaxy S10+ 128GB: £899 Galaxy S10+ 512GB: £1,099 Galaxy S10+ 1TB: £1,399 The best Samsung Galaxy S10 deals on contract If you can't stretch to buying the handset outright, you're looking at a two-year contract. Here are all the best Samsung S10 deals on contract: The Samsung Galaxy S10 models The Samsung Galaxy S10 is available in three different models As expected, tonight Samsung unveiled not one but three shiny new Galaxy S10 models; the standard S10, S10e and S10+. All three will come complete with an Infinity-O display, Samsung’s no-bezel, all-screen design, making it perfect for seeing art and design work in all its glory. Samsung Galaxy S10: key features for creatives When it comes to the best smartphones for creatives, there are many considerations, but undoubtedly two of the most important are performance and camera capabilities. And the new S10 looks to have both in abundance. But we can't go any further without first mentioning the Galaxy S10's Infinity Display, Samsung's no-bezel, all-screen design, which is a huge selling point. The 6.1-inch almost edge-to-edge screen makes it perfect for viewing artwork and photography in all their glory. Depending on which model you opt for, the S10 builds on its older siblings impressive camera, with users now able to capture stunning shots any time of day or night with a triple aperture lens on the back – 12MP regular lens, 12MP optically zoomed telephoto lens, and a brand new 16MP ultra-wide lens. On the front you'll find a single 10MP camera with dual auto-focuses. And to that the IP68 water resistance and even the rain means you'll never miss a moment. In terms of performance, the Galaxy S10 is powered by new top-of-the-line Snapdragon or Exynos chipsets, depending on what country you're in, so speed is very much of the essence. It also boasts 8GB of RAM and includes options for 128GB or 512GB of internal storage. And the 3,400mAh battery means all-day battery life is a cinch. The best Samsung Galaxy S9 deals It's worth noting that the release of the S10 will almost certainly mean there will soon be some brilliant deals to be had on its older but still super sibling, the Samsung Galaxy S9. If you don't mind not having the very latest device, the S9 is still an excellent buy – and it's just about to become a whole lot more affordable. Here are the best Samsung Galaxy S9 deals available right now... View the full article

An ongoing phishing campaign is targeting hundreds of businesses to steal their email and browser credentials using a simply - but effective - malware. View the full article

1Password, Dashlane, KeePass and LastPass each downplay what researchers say is a flaw in how the utilities manage memory. View the full article

If you have even the slightest interest in films, then it's hard not to be aware that this Sunday, 24 February, is the date for the 2019 Academy Awards. And even if you're not a huge movie fan, if you have a foot in the design world then you're probably going to want to keep an eye on some of the award categories. Of the 24 little golden men up for grabs, there are a few categories that should be of interest to anyone with an eye for design or visual arts. The award we'll all be looking out for, naturally, is the Best Animated Feature Film, and this year it's a strong category. While Pixar's Incredibles 2, Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs, Disney's Ralph Breaks the Internet and Mamoru Hosoda's Mirai are all in the running, it looks like they have their work cut out against the brilliant Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. While there's no such thing as a dead cert when it comes to the Oscars, if the betting odds are anything to go by, then Spidey has this one sewn up. You'll also want to keep an eye on the Best Animated Short Film category, where Pixar may well clean up with Bao, an adorable little short about a Chinese dumpling that comes to life. Other candidates for the Oscar are the Animal Behaviour from the National Board of Canada, Cartoon Saloon's Late Afternoon, One Small Step from a pair of ex-Disney artists, Andrew Chesworth and Bobby Pontillas, and there's another Pixar-related entry in the form of Weekends by Trevor Jimenez, who used to work there as a story artist. Beyond the animation, we're sure you'll want to watch out for the awards for Best Visual Effects and Best Production Design, and there ought to be some great-looking threads on show when it comes to the award for Best Costume Design. Whatever your reason for watching, though, you're going to want to make sure that you can enjoy the whole show without any unexpected difficulties. And while this should be plain sailing if you're watching a live broadcast on TV, if you plan to watch the 2019 Academy Awards online, then it won't hurt to be prepared for all eventualities. So here's our foolproof guide to streaming the show, wherever you might be in the world. How to watch the 2019 Academy Awards from outside your country If you're away from your country on Oscars night and don't want to miss out on the fun, you might have to jump through a few hoops if you want to watch on your laptop or mobile. If you try to watch through your usual streaming service, it'll almost certainly be geo-blocked, so it's best to have a VPN ready to go so that you can watch as if you were still at home. A VPN changes your IP address to that it appears that you're logging into your streaming service from a completely different location. If you don't have a VPN then they're easy to set up; read our guide to the best VPNs available right now, but if you're in a hurry then these are our top picks: ExpressVPN With over 1,800 servers across 148 locations, ExpressVPN is a great choice if you're looking for speed, security and ease of use. It supports just about every device you might have, and if you sign up now you can get your first three months for free. TunnelBear If you find the idea of setting up a VPN intimidating, TunnelBear's the choice for you; it'll help you set up in a matter of minutes and while its optons are limited compared to other services, it does the job well. CyberGhost For more advanced users, CyberGhost is probably the best option right now, giving you full control over all your configuration options. How to live stream the Oscars in the USA For viewers in the States, watching the 2019 Academy Awards couldn't be easier; simply tune into ABC, sit back and enjoy. But if you'd rather watch online, then things become a little more complicated. The obvious option would seem to be to stream it on abc.com or through the network's app; however this is only available in Chicago, Fresno, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham and San Francisco, and you'll need your cable provider details. Failing that, these online streaming services have ABC listed among their channels, and they all offer some kind of free trial; check that they're definitely showing the Oscars before you sign up, though. DirecTV Now $55 per month - DirecTV Now also includes CBS, Fox, NBC, and ESPN. PlayStation Vue From $45 per month and the ideal choice for PS4 owners thanks to its access to the likes of ESPN, NBC, Fox, Disney and other essential networks. For a bit more you can add the likes of Showtime and HBO, too. YouTubeTV $40 per month – YouTubeTV also gives you access to Fox, NBC and ESPN. How to stream the Oscars live in Canada Watching the Academy Awards is almost as easy for Canadians as it is for Americans; it's being shown live on CTV. If you don't have a TV or would rather watch on your laptop or mobile, you can watch via the CTV website; you'll need to select your TV service provider and sign in with your CTV account. How to watch the Oscars online in the UK for free If you're a Sky subscriber in the UK then you'll have an easy time tuning into the 2019 Oscars; it's being shown live on the Sky Cinema Oscars channel or via Sky Go if you'd rather stream, starting at 10PM GMT with the red carpet coverage that'll go on until the main show starts at 1AM. If you don't have a Sky subscription, that's not a problem. Just sign up instead for a Now TV Cinema Pass, which enables you to watch all of Sky's film channels for £9.99. Even better, if you've never signed up for Now TV before you can get a 14-day free trial and enjoy the Oscars without having to pay anything at all! And remember: if you're going to be out of the country on Oscars night, simply download and install a VPN and you'll be good to go. How to live stream the Oscars for free in Australia Aussies get the best deal when it comes to the Oscars; not only do they avoid having to stay up half the night to watch the show, they can also watch it for free. This year's Academy Awards are being shown live on Channel 9 with the fun starting at 12pm AEDT. If you're watching online then simply use the 9Now app to stream the action, and if you're likely to be on your travels then have a VPN installed and ready to go so you don't miss out. Related articles: Oscar movie posters get a pop art makeover Infographic: The Oscars by numbers Brutally honest posters for Oscar-nominated movies View the full article

GitHub is offering unlimited rewards for critical vulnerabilities - and has added "safe harbor" terms to its bug bounty program. View the full article

CSS is one of the most important tools of any web designer. It adds the design styling to pages, but it has become far more important than that. Having the ability to add animations to pages and provide feedback on interactions is central to creating a compelling user experience. CSS now performs many tasks that previously needed JavaScript, such as off-screen menus, drop-downs, lightboxes, accordians and parallax scrolling. This makes your site more performant. Read on for three cutting-edge properties you can start investigating today. Want to explore further? Have a go at recreating these cool CSS animation examples, or try these 10 amazing new CSS techniques. 19 great parallax scrolling websites 01. Design for display cutouts Phones increasingly have notches that cut into the screen space The advent of phones with 'cutout' sections or 'notches' on the display has meant that web designers have to think about how to design for those pages. Currently, web browsers on these devices add an extra margin to accommodate these cutouts. Web designers often like to use the full screen, and now there is a way to do that, with Chrome leading the way. Add this meta tag to the document: Then use the CSS safe environment variables to lay out your content: Now you just have to test your design in landscape and portrait on the device. Read more about designing for display cutouts here, or watch the video below. 02. CSS clip path The CSS clip path is one of those properties that has really helped push visual effects. Originally this was CSS clip and is used to clip out part of the element. There are a number of ways to use this, including inset, which would inset the element by however many pixels on each side: There is also polygon, which would enable multiple points to be added so some more obscure shapes can be made. Circle and ellipse are fairly straightforward, but it’s also possible to reference a path from an SVG image: 03. CSS conic gradients You can do things with conical gradients that aren't possible with radial gradients The conic gradient is very similar to a radial gradient. However, you can’t create a colour wheel in radial gradient, whereas you can with a conical gradient. Where radial gradients radiate between points, the conical moves around a circle and blends between colours. At first you may think this isn’t really anything special, but with a little creativity to add stops in the right places, there are some great results that can be achieved. At present this can only be achieved using a polyfill. Check out this guide by Lea Verou. This article was originally published in creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 282 or subscribe. Read more: Get started with CSS art Create cool UI animations with CSS How to create glitch text and image effects in CSS View the full article

You're reading Decluttering a Landing Page for Better Design and Higher Conversion Rates, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! When it comes to improving the metrics of a landing page campaign, there is no magical trick. There is definitely not a one-size-fits-all approach. However, with the right UX strategy, it’s significantly easier to set up landing pages for success. … View the full article

The city of Paris has revealed a new visual identity that celebrates the capital's welcoming spirit. Created by branding agency Carré Noir, the design overhaul includes a modern, single stroke logo that draws on the nautical nave historically associated with the city. Described by Carré Noir as an identity that sees Paris having a rendezvous with itself, the logo and accompanying branding represents the strength and benevolence of the place and its people. "Paris is proud, Paris is beautiful, Paris is plural," the design firm explains. The nave as it originally appeared, alongside the new rebrand For a city with so many famous cultural and historic associations, the decision to use the boat nave as the basis of the design might seem like a surprising one. However, when the City of Paris launched its call for potential identities, the nave was a mandatory part of the brief to designers. In its specifications, it outlined that the motif had to be preserved but evolved. Originally used by water merchants who brought considerable wealth into the city, the symbol has a long standing association with Paris. By reinterpreting it in this sleek logo design, Carré Noir has elegantly celebrated what made the city great, while also looking to the future. The single stroke logo can suit a range of colours With its tapered line work and measured weighting, the single stroke logo gives an impression of movement and stability, while also remaining instantly recognisable as the historical emblem. Officially set in a monochrome navy blue to give it a modern finish, the logo is also adaptable enough to fit a range of different domains and colour schemes. Accompanying the nave is a Paris logotype that seems to say 'bienvenue' thanks to the subtle curved crossbar in the letter 'A'. Carré Noir chose Montserrat as the identity's official font. Bespoke typography finishes off the identity Related articles: The story of the Tour de France logo New Banksy artworks discovered in Paris Then and now: The evolution of 3 iconic logos View the full article

Rendering an image, animation of a model or even a whole scene is an important step in art creation. Without this important stage, the end result will look unfinished. Whether it is for a portfolio or commercial purposes, being able to render your work is a valuable skill. Every artist has a favourite render engine to work with. KeyShot offers a wide range of tools and simple rendering solutions, enabling the user to have a beautiful and seamless creative experience. The easier the workflow, the better and quicker the results. Knowing your way around the software allows you to concentrate on the creative side of the process. It may seem like there is a lot to learn when using this particular software, but that is not the case at all. Here are some tips to help guide you through rendering your 3D art projects, from images to animated music videos. Be aware that some of these steps are exclusive and based on the newest version of the software, KeyShot 8 Pro, and are not available in KeyShot 7 or older. Pushed for time? We've compiled the best free 3D models to help get you started. Download the files for this tutorial. How to render realistic transparent surfaces 01. Try KeyShot cloud There are loads of useful resources in KeyShot cloud This is an online library of free textures, materials, environments and backplates – there is a great variety of resources to choose from. You can also upload your own materials to share with other KeyShot users. Great community effort. 02. Choose a UI theme Light or dark? It's up to you A quick process that can greatly assist with your learning is setting up your own interface layout. Putting relevant menus and tabs in strategic places can speed up your workflow and learning process. When you know where to find the things you need, you will feel more familiar with the software. KeyShot offers two colour themes: light and dark. To change the theme at any time go to Edit > Preferences > Interface, or select it from the Workspaces Startup ribbon dropdown. 03. Use Performance Mode Performance Mode takes the strain off your CPU Once you've added a lot of lights to your project and the scene becomes 'heavy', navigation performance will drop. Moving around the scene becomes difficult and laggy. The best solution is to activate Performance Mode. It will remove certain light settings (global illumination, ground shadows) from the active render and reduce the CPU usage pressure. You can also find it in Project > Lighting > Lighting Presets. 04. Link materials Link objects that use the same materials to make your life easier If you have a material you want to apply to multiple objects, there are a few things that can be done. First, you can save out the material to your library, then apply it to the selection of objects. Option two is to material link the objects so all receive the updated changes. To do this, select two or more items and press Link Materials. Alternatively, right-click on the selected objects and from the pop-up menu select Material > Link Materials. 05. Apply materials to labels Make your labels more interesting with materials, bumps and opacity Labels do not need to be plastic and boring. Once applied to a model, labels can take on any material, bump or opacity desired. It is literally as simple as drag and drop. To add a little wear and tear to a label, just find the right texture map and drop it in the Bump slot of the Labels tab. Select a procedural map from the drop-down menu, for example, noise. If you want to apply the same texture as the parent object's, select the From Parent option. Alternatively, navigate to the parent Texture tab, select the Bump tile and tick Apply Bump To Labels located below. It will project the same map on all labels applied. 06. Create depth of field You can adjust the depth of field and focus in the Camera tab Tired of adding depth of field in post-production, faking it in Photoshop? Try adding it to your active window and see the results before hitting the Render button. Depth of Field sits comfortably in the Camera tab, where it can be easily activated and manipulated with just a few sliders. You can also set the camera focus by clicking on the part of the model you want to drive attention to. KeyShot will apply the set amount of blur based on your chosen focus and distance. 07. Region rendering Save time by just rendering the area you want to inspect This is especially useful when working on a big project, in Performance mode – there's no need to render the entire thing just to see how a little piece will look rendered. Open the Render menu and choose the region you want to render. This will save you some serious time, and prevent your machine from overheating in the process. 08. Render gloss pass Create a gloss pass by adding a glossy black material and a pin light KeyShot does decent render passes based on the materials and lights used in the scene, but sometimes it is not enough and it would be useful to have additional renders of just clean specular and gloss. The best solution is to change the environment to plain black, and apply glossy black material to the model. In the material editor adjust reflections and roughness (gloss), then use a pin light to capture the right look. 09. Emboss logo Once you've added your logo to a label it's easy to emboss it Import your logo to a label and apply it to the model. Set the scale and position using the sliders. Hold Alt and drag and drop your diffuse material on the Bump slot to copy it. Scroll down to Label Texture > Bump and set it to, for example, -1. 10. Multi-materials Use the Material tab to try out variations of material and colour In this section you are able to create a new material, duplicate it, tweak it and link textures. It is useful when creating variations of material or colour, because it allows quick cycling through them all. You can locate it in the Project > Material tab. 11. HDRI three-point light Make your own three-point light setup in the HDRI editor Artists are usually very familiar with the three-point light term. It focuses on three sources of light, which are generally enough to beautifully light the scene. These are: key light, fill light and rim light. You can simply fake that effect with pins in the HDRI editor. 12. Edit your images KeyShot also features some basic post-production editing tools KeyShot is not just a render engine – it also offers some basic post-production editing tools. While your image is rendering, click the pencil icon in the active render window. The Show Effects panel enables you to tweak elements like exposure and colour, or add effects like bloom and vignette. When only these basics are required, there is no need to involve another application. 13. Utilise image pins Blend your model with its scene with image pins You can use image pins on top of your HDRI environment to successfully blend your model with the scene. Load the image you want to use as a light source and position it by moving the pin in the HDRI editor, or click on the model to point the projection at the right place. 14. Block HDRI hotspots Hotspots are easily eliminated with a bit of clever editing What if you've got that perfect HDRI but there is a nasty hotspot ruining the image? You can block it easily, just create a pin light, adjust the size and shape, change colour to grey (or any colour to blend with the HDRI), change type to alpha and place it on top of the hotspot. 15. Preview the map Too many maps? Simply isolate the one you want to edit If you are working in the material editor applying layers of changes and adding lots of maps to the mix, you may end up struggling to see the difference it makes to the final look. A bigger problem may appear if you need to edit a single map and you cannot see much through all the layers. Simply click on the texture and press C to preview the map and KeyShot will isolate it on the model for easier editing. 16. Work in Geometry View Geometry View is great for setting up scenes, cameras and lighting Sometimes it is easier to work in the Geometry View when setting up the scene. Hit (O) on the keyboard, or navigate to Window > Geometry View and a secondary viewer will open. Navigating in that mode is a lot quicker. It allows a much smoother camera, physical lights and model positioning, scene composition as well as viewing all camera paths. 17. Take screenshots Press (P) to grab a screenshot, or just use the Screenshot button The quickest way to screen grab your active window is to press (P) on the keyboard, or alternatively, press the Screenshot button located in the bottom-right corner. It will automatically save the JPEG or PNG in the Rendering folder. The file format can be changed in the Preferences > General > Screenshot tab. 18. Understand IOR Get a firm grasp of IOR if you want to recreate real materials The Index of Refraction is very important in the re-creation of real materials. KeyShot materials already have correct IOR, but if you create your own and want to avoid visible errors, find the accurate IOR value online and adjust it in the Project Material menu. 19. Camera animation setup KeyShot can help you execute all the camera techniques you might need Whether you want to animate the camera to zoom (dolly), tilt (pan), rotate (tumble) or orbit an object, KeyShot has a very simple step-by-step setup to help you along the way. You can also lock the camera's pivot to a model and create a turntable. 20. The Pattern tool The Pattern tool is great for creating instances of models This is a useful tool for creating instances of models. Right-click on the model in the scene hierarchy tree and choose Make Pattern from the list. Unlike duplicates, instances are speed and file size effective, but it does not mean they are material linked. 21. Presentation mode Presentation mode is a more elegant way to view your model in its current state As the name suggests, Presentation Mode (Shift+F) is made to showcase your WIP without the surrounding menus. It is a more elegant way to view your model in its current state. It allows you to view all Model Sets and Studios for easy comparison. 22. Liquid simplicity KeyShot takes the pain out of rendering glasses of water Remember how you had to split your glass model into three parts to render a realistic glass of water? Not any more! One of the many incredible new features in KeyShot 8 is that the software takes care of it for you. You just need to make sure that the liquid model intersects the glass to create a proper refraction effect. There cannot be any space left between the two parts, they must overlap. 23. Create bubbles Even glasses of fizzy drinks are easier to render There is an easy way to add bubbles to your materials. Navigate to your material, open the Material Graph, right-click to bring out the nodes list, and select Geometry > Bubbles. Double-click on the Bubbles node to open the editor on the right-hand side of the Material Graph menu. The options let you edit the size, volume and scattering of bubbles. 24. Cutaway See inside your models with a cutaway This new feature is a range of materials that will allow you to showcase what is hiding inside a multi-part model. Add a dummy geo to the scene, for example, a cube, and apply one of the cutaway materials. Position the cube so it intersects the model. You can colour or exclude certain parts from being affected. 25. Scattering medium Create all manner of materials with the scattering medium Another fantastic set of new materials that can be used in lots of different ways. With just a few small tweaks of the options available, you can create all sorts of spongy looks, fog, smoke, clouds and many more. 26. Render volumetrics Generate realistic clouds and smoke with volumetrics One of the newest (and coolest) features in KeyShot 8 is the ability to render volumetrics. Consider it as a volume box with all possible effects applied to it – clouds, fog, sponge-like materials. Look for free VDB files on the net to find new shapes of volumetric effects, from simple cigarette smoke effects and clouds, to heavy smoke or nebula. Upload it in the Texture slot of your volumetric material, and from there you can adjust its density and transparency. The final look will differ as you tweak the settings, so you really have to experiment in order to get the result you like. The volumetrics will also be affected by shadows and lights too. 27. Set up HDRI maps It's not too hard to make your own custom HDRI maps KeyShot comes with a large set of HDRI images to help you highlight your scene in no time. But what I like most is to set up my own HDRI map that will fit my needs. I usually try to keep things simple. I create a main source light first, and then a rim light (a light that comes from the sides to create a light effect on the side edges of the subject). A good trick is to put the secondary light opposite the main light source: bottom if the main light is top, left if the main light is positioned on the right. Then I use the Settings parameters to fine-tune my orientation and intensity. KeyShot will always give you great lighting results. 28. Materials Explore the Material Graph editor to roll your own exotic materials Another great asset in KeyShot is its preset material library, full of accurate shaders from classic plastics and metals to more complex offerings like car paints and skin shaders. But if you open up the Material Graph editor, a whole new world opens up to you. Editing in nodal mode takes a bit of practice at first, but it gets easier very quickly. My usual set of materials always relies heavily on the object's topography. I set up rules to paint one specific material at one part of the object, like holes and crevices, and another type of material on bigger surfaces. I like to blend my material together by using the Occlusion or the Curvature texture as a mask, sometimes both for more complex results. 29. Interior mode for rendering Interior Mode is ideal for accurate and realistic renders with smooth shadows and seamless gradients KeyShot is my favourite rendering tool. It is fast and accurate, can handle heavy scenes and it can render in very large resolution in no time. It is a perfect companion for my personal illustration workflow. Among the many rendering presets (you can find these in the Lighting section) I usually prefer the Interior Mode. This mode creates smooth shadows and seamless gradients, even at super high resolution, and I can get accurate and realistic renders. Note that the Interior Mode will require you to set up a rendering time limit, which will vary depending on the complexity of your scenes. 30. Set up passes Embed all the passes you need in your PSD for easier post-processing Another great rendering feature in KeyShot 8 is the ability to select the passes you want to have embedded in your PSD files. You have a vast choice of options, like pro renders for the cinema industry, from depth pass to clown pass, specular, normal maps and more. I find all of these passes super handy for my post-processing work. This article was originally published in issue 242 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 242 here or subscribe to 3D World here. Related articles: The best cities for 3D artists OctaneRender: A beginner's guide 3D art: 27 stunning examples to inspire you View the full article

Though attending business school has its advantages in all professional fields, not all of us have the time and money to pursue a business degree. Fortunately, The Business Professional Master Class Bundle will have you on your way to becoming a leader in business in no time, all from the comfort of home. These courses would typically retail for $11,277, but are currently available for an unbelievable 99% per cent off at just $39. Strong professional skills set you apart from your colleagues, and they're likely to help you get promoted at the office. The Business Professional Master Class Bundle can teach you administration, financial management and human resources skills that will undoubtedly come in handy at some point in your career. With over 54 complete courses, you're sure to learn a thing (or twenty!) while navigating this IAOTS-certified bundle. Hoping to strike out on your own eventually? This course also covers vital entrepreneurship skills and schools you on how to operate a small business. You'll also learn how to become a better supervisor and manager, which will serve you well when you're running your successful company one day. Grab The Business Professional Master Class Bundle for $39 here. Related articles: 10 ways to be more business-savvy as a designer 30 life skills every designer should master How to make your creative business more profitable View the full article

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 users are being asked to upgrade their encryption support. View the full article

We've all heard the phrase 'personal brand', but what exactly does it mean? If you're working as a creative professional, it's imperative to have a good grasp on personal branding skills so that you can use them to your advantage. Personal Branding For Creative Professional With Dorie Clark aims to coach you through this interesting field. Though this course typically retails for $49, it's currently available for 69% off at just $14.99. If you're a creative professional building your own small business, your personal brand could make or break your livelihood. Let Dorie Clark – former presidential campaign spokeswoman and author of Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future – guide you through the steps to building an online and offline brand, presence and portfolio. Her course will have you positioning yourself in the right way to reach your career goals. These 20 videos lessons will teach you how to make the perfect first impression both online and in person, and how to make the most out of interviews and webinars. You'll also learn how to craft and convey the message you want to give others about your line of work, the right strategies for connecting with the right people and how to use your connections to grow your brand. Get lifetime access to Personal Branding For Creative Professionals With Dorie Clark for just $14.99 here. Related articles: Build a better personal brand Traditional branding is dead 21 outstanding uses of colour in branding View the full article

Samsung has announced an exciting addition to its Galaxy Tab range. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e is a super-slim, super-light tablet, and sports a 10.5-inch screen. Read on to find out what we know so far. More details, including the price, are likely to be revealed at the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2019 event on Wednesday (20 Feb). The device will be available to preorder from March 2019, and we'll be keeping an eye out for the best Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e deals and updating this post when they become available. A smarter tablet Samsung promises 'vast' battery life (up to 14 and a half hours), and a design geared towards 'rich and immersive entertainment experiences'. Its metal body is just 5.5mm thick and weighs in at 400g. Users will be able to couple the tablet with the Samsung DeX and keyboard (sold separately) to create a desktop workstation. There's also a 16:10, 10.5-inch Super AMOLED display, with slimmed-down bezels and no visible home key. Samsung says it's geared towards immersive entertainment experiences, but it should pack plenty of appeal for designers, too. The Galaxy Tab S5e will be the first tablet to feature Samsung's new virtual assistant, Bixby, and has been optimised to offer a hub from which users can control their smart home devices. Finally, there are Quad Speakers with built-in auto-rotate stereo technology (it adapts depending on how you're holding your tablet), Dolby Atmos integration and sound by AKG. The best Galaxy Tab S5e deals This tablet isn't available to buy yet – but you can pre-register on the Samsung website. We'll be updating this post with the best Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e deals as and when they become available, so hold tight. We rated this tablet's predecessor, the S4, very highly in our roundup of the best tablets with a stylus – in fact, we thought it was the best Android tablet by a mile. Read our Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 review here, and take a look at the deals below if you think it's for you (and can't wait for the S5e). Read more: The best software for digital artists in 2019 74 best free fonts for designers View the full article

CSS must pass through a relatively complex pipeline, just like HTML and JavaScript. The browser must download the files from the server and then proceed to parsing and applying them to the DOM. Due to extreme levels of optimisation, this process is usually pretty fast – for smaller web projects not based on frameworks, CSS usually makes up just a small part of total resource consumption. Frameworks upset this equilibrium. Include a JavaScript GUI stack like jQuery UI, and watch CSS, JS and HTML sizes skyrocket. Often, developers usually feel the pinch last – when seated behind a powerful eight-core workstation with T3 internet, no one cares about speed. This changes as latencies or CPU-constrained devices come to play. 19 cool CSS animation examples to recreate Optimising CSS requires a multi-dimensional approach. While hand-written code can be slimmed down using various techniques, going over framework code by hand is inefficient. In these cases, using an automated minimiser yields better results. The following steps will take us on a journey through the world of CSS optimisation. Not every single one might be directly applicable to your project, but do keep them in mind. 01. Use shorthand Shorthand can make your CSS files much smaller The fastest CSS clause is one that never gets parsed. Using shorthand clauses, such as the margin declaration shown below, radically reduces the size of your CSS files. A lot of additional shorthand forms can be found by googling 'CSS Shorthand'. 02. Find and remove unused CSS If code's not doing anything, get rid of it Eliminating unneeded parts of your mark-up obviously causes immense speed gains. Google's Chrome browser has this functionality out of the box. Simply go to View > Developer > Developer Tools and open the Sources tab in a recent version, and open the Command Menu. After that, select Show Coverage and feast your eyes on the coverage analysis window highlighting unused code on the current webpage. 03. Do it in a more comfortable fashion Use Web Performance Audit to easily trim redundant code Navigating through the line-by-line analysis is not necessarily comfortable. Chrome's Web Performance Audit returns similar information – simply open it from the toolbar, View > Developer > Developer Tools > Audits and let it run. When done, a list of problematic elements will pop up. 04. Be aware of the problems Keep in mind that an automatised analysis of a CSS can always lead to errors. Perform a thorough test of the entire website after replacing your CSS files with the minified ones – one never knows what mistakes the optimiser caused. 05. Inline critical CSS Loading external stylesheets costs time due to latency – anyone remember the 'flash of unstyled content'? The most critical bits of code can therefore go into the header tag. Make sure not to overdo it, however. Keep in mind that the code must also be read by humans performing maintenance tasks. 06. Permit antiparallel parsing @import adds structure to your CSS code. Sadly, the benefits are not for free: as imports can nest, parsing them in parallel is not possible. A more parallelisable way uses a series of <link> tags, which the browser can fetch at once. 07. Replace images with CSS Years ago, a set of semi-transparent PNGs to create translucent effects on websites was commonplace. Nowadays, CSS filters provide a resource-saving alternative. As an example, the snippet accompanying this step ensures that the picture in question appears as a grayscale version of itself. 08. Use colour shortcuts Common wisdom teaches that six-digit colour descriptors are the most efficient way to express colours. This is not the case – in some cases, shorthand descriptions or colour names can be shorter. 09. Eliminate unneeded zeros and units CSS supports a wide variety of units and number formats. They are a thankful target for optimisation – both trailing and following zeros can be removed, as is demonstrated in the snippet below. Furthermore, keep in mind that a zero always is a zero, and that adding a dimension does not add value to the information contained. 10. Eliminate excessive semicolons This optimisation is somewhat critical, as it affects changes of code. CSS' specification lets you omit the last semicolon in a property group. As the savings achieved by this optimisation method are minimal, we mention this mainly for those who are working on an automated optimiser. 11. Use a texture atlas Loading multiple small sprites is inefficient due to protocol overheads. CSS sprites combine a series of small pictures into one big PNG file, which is then broken apart via CSS rules. Programs such as TexturePacker simplify the creation process greatly. 12. Chase down the px One neat way to increase performance uses a specialty of the CSS standard. Numeric values without a unit are assumed to be pixels – removing the px saves two bytes for each number. 13. Avoid expensive properties Analysis has shown some tags to be more expensive than others. The list accompanying this step is considered to be especially performance-hungry – avoid them when given the opportunity to do so. 14. Remove whitespace Whitespace – think tabs, carriage returns and spaces – makes code easier to read but serves little purpose from a parser's point of view. Eliminate them before shipping. An even better way involves delegating this job to a shell script or similar appliance. 15. Eliminate comments Comments also serve no purpose to the compiler. Create a custom parser to remove them before delivery. Not only does that save bandwidth but it also ensures that attackers and cloners have a harder time understanding the thinking behind the code at hand. 16. Use automatic compression Yahoo's user experience team created an application that handles many compression tasks. It ships as a JAR file, available here, and can be run with a JVM of choice. 17. Run it from NPM Should you prefer to integrate the product into Node.JS, visit npmjs.com/package/yuicompressor. The badly maintained repository contains a set of wrapper files and a JavaScript API. 18. Keep Sass et al in check Sass can get needlessly complex, so optimise it if you can While CSS selector performance is not nearly as critical as it was some years ago (see resource), frameworks such as Sass sometimes emit extremely complex code. Take a look at the output files from time to time and think about ways to optimise the results. What is Sass? 19. Set up caching An old adage claims that the fastest file is one that never gets sent across the wires. Making the browser cache requests achieves this efficiently. Sadly, the setup of the caching headers must take place on the server. Make good use of the two tools shown in the screenshots – they provide a swift way to analyse the results of your changes. 20. Bust the cache Designers often dislike caching due to fear of problems with upcoming changes. A neat way around the problem involves including tags with the file name. Sadly, the scheme outlined in the code accompanying this step does not work everywhere as some proxies refuse to cache files with 'dynamic' paths. 21. Don't forget the basics Optimising CSS is just part of the game. If your server does not use HTTP/2 and gzip compression, a lot of time is lost during data transmission. Fortunately, fixing these two problems is usually simple. Our example shows a few tweaks to the commonly used Apache server. Should you find yourself on a different system, simply consult the server documentation. This article was originally published in issue 282 of creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 282 here or subscribe to Web Designer here. Related articles: 10 amazing new CSS techniques Which is the best CSS preprocessor? An introduction to CSS custom properties View the full article

The 91st Academy Awards are just around the corner, which means that the biggest films of 2018 will be battling it out to find out who's best. And with this year's contenders including stories about legendary singers, complex characters and historical royalty, there's plenty of raw material for Shutterstock's designers to sink their teeth into. That's right, the stock photography company is celebrating this year's Best Picture nominees as part of its seventh annual Oscar Pop! poster series. For this campaign, Shutterstock's team of designers choose one of the shortlisted movies and create a new poster inspired by some of the world's most famous and iconic pop artists. 38 stunning poster designs to inspire you "This project is one that our designers look forward to each year because they get to showcase their talent, leveraging the incredible depth of our visual assets while drawing inspiration from their choice of pop artists who speak to them on a personal level," said Shutterstock’s VP of Creative, Mike McCabe. "This year's nominations allowed us to really stretch our creative limits. Each film has a strong protagonist that we illustrated by using design assets that reflect a specific artistic style or movement, elevating each character to the realm of fine art." So grab a bag of popcorn, dim the lights, and check out the posters in this year's series. How many of these films have you seen? Use the arrows to explore the gallery below. Related articles: The good, the bad and the ugly of movie posters A designer's guide to printing a poster 16 of the most imaginative movie wallpapers View the full article

Gordon Reid is a UK-based graphic designer and illustrator with an impressive portfolio. Reid set up his creative agency Middle Boop in 2009, and has since gone on to work for clients including Nike and Starbucks, to name a few. Probably best known for being one of the creative brains behind the Weird World Cup project, Reid is now celebrating a decade working in the design industry, embarking on a 10-year anniversary tour, with new projects and various design events in the pipeline. 2019 marks 10 years since Gordon Reid began working in the design industry And next up in Reid's busy schedule is taking to the stage at this year's Design Indaba conference in Cape Town. We caught up with him ahead of the event to find out a little bit more about the man himself and how his creative career has led him to the main stage. How did you creative career start? "I was working in a pub where I met two guys who were a few years older than me and they were doing a graphic design course. I saw their work and it was really rudimentary graphic design, but it was just one of the moments where I realised I wasn't particularly inspired by what I was currently doing. I saw their work and it was like a spark – I could do graphic design for a living. So everything happened pretty quickly after that. I quit studying English and media at college, went and did an art foundation degree. And from that moment I just knew it was what I wanted to do. I saw the work and it was like a spark – I could do graphic design for a living I knew I wanted to develop a style, but I couldn't draw and I wasn't particularly great with a computer then, but I found I was really inspired by collage artists. And that was something I could do. So I got bad grades at university for doing collage, but I didn't care as I knew I wanted to do that. "In the beginning, it was all traditional collage, so going to car boot sales and finding magazines to pull apart. But after uni, I started teaching myself properly how to create collages digitally and I started making connections with band labels and managers through a blog that I was running at the time called The Middle Boop magazine. Through that we were able to connect with designers who we were inspired by, and that's really how it all started." Tell us about the Weird World Cup beermat project "It literally came from one afternoon in the pub thinking how it would be great to do a project for the World Cup, and how it would be hilarious to try and convince an artist like Sagmeister to create artwork for a beermat that would then up in a crappy pub with someone resting their pint of Fosters on it, having no idea why there's artwork on this thing or who this guy is. I just thought there was something really funny about it. "So part of my talk at Design Indaba is how we went on to convince 20 leading illustrators and creatives to give their time to this project. And how it blew up unbelievably quickly, to the point where we ended up on TV and were selling them to people all over the globe." Illustrator Raj Dhunna depicts David Beckham's 1998 World cup red card as part of Gordon Reid's Weird World Cup project How do you go about finding new work? "Reputation goes a long way in work finding you, that's for sure. Get a good reputation in the industry and that will help massively. But I'm always doing something to come up with new self-initiated ideas that gain some traction. At the end of the day, the more I work I put out to a high quality, the more work I get. I'm always looking for new ways to push the way I present myself and work further too." Reid has worked with world-leading brands throughout a decade in the design industry What are your go-to apps to help keep you productive? Google calendar is pretty handy for making sure I don't double book meetings or forget I'm meant to be travelling somewhere. Apart from that, believe it or not, I use pen and paper and a whiteboard to keep track of all jobs and deadlines. For client-based work though, where they want to be kept updated on progress, we use project management app Trello. What skills do you think creatives need to succeed in the industry today? "Learning business skills is vital, but tricky, as no-one is really going to teach you. How you quote for a job, how you value yourself and your talent and how to not get ripped off are all things you have to learn the hard way if you have no business skills under your belt. But with a little of initiative and networking, you will be able to pull on the knowledge of fellow creatives, who can help you out and grow in confidence as to what to charge. Bring able to create a style that you're recognised for is a brilliant skill "Another important skill is marketing, and learning how to promote yourself properly. It's so easy to be able to get your work out there now with all the different social media platforms, but among a sea of others doing the same, it's even more important to know how best to market your work. There's definitely an art to being able to get yourself out there and promoted by the right people. "I think being able to create a style that you're recognised for, which is also versatile enough to be easily applied to multiple different formats and touch points is a brilliant skill to have. Not only does this open lots of doors, in terms of work, it also means people have the confidence and trust in knowing that you can manage the entire job." See Gordon Reid at Design Indaba 2019 If you want to see more from Gordon Reid, including all the takeaways from the Weird World Cup beermat project and almost certainly some hilarious cat GIFs, make sure to get your ticket to Design Indaba 2019. Kicking off in Cape Town on 27 February, this is one design event not to be missed! You can also follow all Reid's latest antics over on Instagram and Twitter. View the full article

Most 3D software is absolutely vast. These programmes provide a great number of tools, options and customisation, but that can make for a steep learning curve. With that in mind, the developers often create quick-access menus, which can be hugely beneficial, especially for tasks you do less frequently, where the mental muscle memory hasn’t been solidly created yet. Maxon has added a few of these to Cinema 4D and, although they are great for quickly finding a nested command, they also serve to allow users to create more working room for their viewports and managers. You could conceivably have an interface set up that has no buttons at all, and simply rely on keyboard shortcuts and a couple of really useful and powerful pop-up menus to navigate almost everything the software has to offer. Here are the two most important shortcuts within Cinema 4D. Once you've got to grips with them, check out our Cinema 4D tutorials for more tips and tricks. Get free admission to VERTEX 2019, the ultimate event for 2D and 3D artists 01. Open a text field Pressing Shift + C opens up a text field. Start typing the command you want and a list will appear for you to choose from, opening up the entire application. 02. Find the most useful menus Much of the time spent in Cinema 4D will be used making various selections, navigating between projects and working with plugins or snapping settings. If you hit the V key, a radial popup will open, with these common menu sets nested inside. These are the most useful menus. This article originally appeared in issue 242 of 3D World, the world's leading magazine for 3D artists. Buy issue 242 or subscribe here. Read more: How to model concept art in Cinema 4D 15 expert Cinema 4D tips The best 3D modelling software View the full article

Have you ever designed a logo, got approval from the client, then seen it in action and thought it looked unbalanced? This can happen to digital designers for a number of reasons. So, to help your logos look more rounded and cohesive, The Futur Academy recently shared a brief video packed with useful design tips as part of its logo therapy sessions. Hosted by Futur's founder, Chris Do, the short clip sees graphic designer Jelvin Base walk you through bitesized advice to keep in mind while refining your work. It's important to keep in mind, though, that these suggestions will help you to achieve an optically balanced logo design rather than a mathematically balanced one. There's no hard and fast formula for creating a balanced logo because designs vary so much. But while you won't necessarily be able to rely on the golden ratio to create a harmonious logo all the time, you will be able to use Base's insights to push your creations in the right direction. Check them out below. If this has whetted your appetite for more logo videos, head over to Futur's YouTube channel where you'll find clips covering hand lettering, basic principles, and even advice on how to price your logo design services. Related articles: Where to find logo design inspiration 5 logo design terms you should know 8 Insta feeds to follow for logo design inspiration View the full article

Making CSS art can be intimidating, but it's easy once you break graphics down into simple parts. If you peruse websites like CodePen, DevArt and Dribbble, it’s very easy to feel overwhelmed by the incredible things that developers and designers make, especially when you’re just starting out. I made my first piece of CSS art after lurking on these sites for years and eventually mustered up the courage to try and do it. Now, a few years and over 100 experiments later, it’s one of my favourite hobbies. Making CSS art is interesting and fun. It teaches you nuances of CSS that you might not normally work with, helps you see graphics (and problems in general) modularly and improves your speed when writing CSS. It’s also a great way for designers and developers to get on the same page when working on a user interface together. As you practise and refine your skills making CSS art, you’ll see an improvement in your day-to-day work (and you might even enjoy it more, too). 19 cool CSS animation examples to recreate In this article, we’re going to be making a cute ice cream bar graphic in CSS. I’ll talk through and give you the code to follow, so that you can customise it and make it your own. Let’s get started! 01. Set up your document Before we write any CSS, we have to actually have something to style. You can use a preprocessor like HAML or Pug, or just straight HTML. I’ll stick with pure HTML and CSS in our examples, but you’re free to use what you’re most comfortable with. Pull up a blank Pen on CodePen or an HTML document, and include the following for the ice cream bar in the <body>. 02. Settle on colours and sizes Normally when you have a graphic in front of you to make, you will need the dimensions and colours of that graphic. In this particular case, I’ll be providing you with those dimensions and colours. When you don’t have me around though, I recommend getting yourself a colour picker tool (I personally use Digital Color Meter on Mac and ColorPic on Windows), and a screenshot tool to figure out your dimensions (the native ones for your operating systems work just fine). Let’s add those dimensions and colours now to our document. 03. Add positioning and transforms Right now, our image is all blocky and in the corner. Before we shape everything better, let’s add some positioning and transforms. Personally, my favourite positioning techniques (generally) are absolute positioning containers, and using flexbox for everything else. If you prefer using absolute and relative positioning for everything, or even CSS Grid, go for it! Now, we have to position the container in the middle of the page (I’ll be using absolute positioning and a translate transform), and make sure the contents of the main container are centred and rotated as needed. You might notice that I also added a couple of dimensions for the '.face' and '.eyes' classes – that’s for handling the spacing within that container. Go ahead and add these changes in yourself to each class: 04. Choose your pseudo-elements Our little ice cream bar is looking pretty good, if I do say so myself! One last concept that is incredibly helpful for making CSS art is pseudo-elements. Every single element on a page can actually be three elements: the main element, ::before, and ::after. You can style ::before and ::after as if they’re separate <div>s within any element. For example, I could have changed the .eyes container to have no .eye <div>s at all, and just style a ::before and ::after for each eye. That would have been cool, but that would make styling the glare on each eye impossible. That being said, for the final missing glare on those eyes, let’s add a ::before pseudo-element to make that possible. The key things to add to a pseudo-element are a display value and content: ‘’. Check it out, and with that, we’re done! You're an artist! We made something really fun together today. If you’d like to check out my final result, you can find it on my CodePen profile (above). Making CSS art is really just a matter of applying the concepts we talked about in interesting and fun ways. You can take these techniques and run with them, and even add your own animations with keyframes and transitions. All this being said, I hope you learned something new, and this motivated you to try your hand at making something beautiful. This article was originally published in creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 282 or subscribe. Related articles: Create cool UI animations with CSS 34 web design tools to help you work smarter in 2019 Which is the best CSS preprocessor? View the full article