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There are plenty of reasons to consider one of the best flip phones next time you're in the market for a new handset. Some of the newest models are effectively small, powerful tablets that are ideal for sketching on the move, and fold up small enough to tuck into a pocket when not in use. A more basic flip phone could be a great choice if you already have a powerful camera phone for work. but want something minimalist to help you avoid distractions, or put work behind you at the end of the day. It's also a good idea to invest in a secondary phone on top of one of the best smartphones if you travel frequently and don't want to be seen pulling out a high-end flagship handset in public. A rugged flip phone, which can survive the occasional knock and is less tempting to thieves, would do the job perfectly. We've picked out seven of the best flip phones you can buy right now, whatever your requirements and budget. The Motorola Razr 2019 is a spiritual successor to the hugely popular Razr V3, and blends the older phone's classic design with cutting edge technology. The new Razr's key selling point is its screen, which flips out to give you an extra wide 21:9 display that's well suited to creative work. Unlike the Galaxy Fold, below, there's no visible seam in the screen where it flexes, and the display is bright and crisp. When you're done, fold it shut and you've got a compact, palm-sized block that can be tucked easily into a pocket. The hinge adds a little bulk, but the folding mechanism feels pleasant, and almost as satisfying as the snap of the old V3. This isn't a phone you'd buy on the strength of its camera (check out our guide to the best camera phones if you're interested in mobile photography), but the Razr's 8MP rear camera is sufficient for capturing basic stills and videos. The Motorola Razr 2019 isn't out yet, but you can register your interest on the Motorola website. Although it's not advertised as such, we like to think of the Samsung Galaxy Fold as a flip phone that hinges along the vertical rather than horizontal axis. Its design has a lot in common with the new Motorola Razr, but rather than extending to give you an ultra-wide display, the Fold opens to reveal a 7.5-inch mini tablet that's ideal for sketching with the Samsung S-Pen. In its compressed form, the Galaxy Fold looks and works just like any 'candybar' smartphone (albeit an unusually chunky one). Its cover features a 4.6-inch display that's ideal for messaging and calls, and its narrow body means it's much easier to slide into a pocket than a Samsung Galaxy Note (for example). Unfortunately, the Fold isn't without its problems. Its hinged screen is fragile, and although Samsung has made a lot of improvements since its disastrous early launch, when reviewers (many of whom had accidentally removed a vital protective layer thinking it was a piece of packaging) reported the phone breaking in days. You'll have to take care of the Fold, but when you're paying this much, that probably goes without saying. Looking for a simple secondary phone for travelling? The Nokia 2720 Flip could be just the thing. Its sleek, minimalist design is faithful to Nokia's classic flip designs, and is far lighter and smaller than more feature-filled devices like those from Samsung and Razor. The Nokia 2720 Flip uses Nokia's own KaiOS operating system rather than Android, which greatly limits your choice of apps, but that's no bad thing if you're looking for a minimalist flip phone that'll help you avoid distractions when you're working (or trying to get away from work). But why choose the 2720 when other, older models are available more cheaply? The answer is simple: 4G LTE. You could pick up a five-year-old flip phone for very little, and it may serve you well, but the lack of 4G support will leave you struggling with slow data speeds, which could be a real pain if you need to stream video for work, or send large files. This phone gives you the best of both worlds: a sleek retro design with modern hardware where it counts. Before the Fold, there was the Folder. The Samsung Galaxy Folder 2 was released without fanfare back in 2016, and has largely been forgotten in the shadow of its flashier younger sibling. That's a shame, because it's still an excellent flip phone and more practical than the Fold in many ways. Its design is a little more luxe than the Nokia 2720 above, and the fact that it runs a full version of Android means it could work well as either a primary or secondary phone. Again, it's a great choice if your design work takes you around the world, particularly because it's capable of holding two SIM cards plus a microSD memory card, so you can easily switch networks while overseas and avoid incurring roaming charges. Without a flexible screen to worry about (the phone's lower portion contains a set of reassuringly tactile physical buttons), it's more likely to survive the rigours of daily use than the Fold, and with no screen on the outer shell it's less prone to scratches. This is a sensible choice for frequent fliers. If you like the look of the Samsung Galaxy Folder 2, but are keen to stick with Verizon, the LG Exalt VN220 is well worth your time. Its clamshell design ensures the screen is always protected, and its durable hinge will survive many years of use. The 5MP camera won't set the world on fire, but it's surprisingly good for a budget flip-phone, and sufficient for basic tasks. It's just a shame there's no flash. You do, however, get a generous 8GB storage for your stills and videos. With hearing assistance, text-to-speech and large, clear buttons, the LG Exalt VN220 is also a strong choice if you find modern touchscreen smartphones tricky to use, or are buying a handset for a senior family member. As its name suggests, the Samsung Rugby 4 can take a good kicking and keep on going. This super-tough little feature phone is dust and water resistant, so you don't need to worry about throwing it into a suitcase or it getting damaged if you're working on location. This is a feature phone rather than a smartphone, so you won't have access to the full contents of the Google Play Store, but you do still benefit from GPS navigation, which is all but essential when you're working away from home. It can provide turn-by-turn directions, and even provide traffic updates. The Rugby 4 is a superb flip phone to have in your corner when the going gets tough (or unusually dusty). It's cheap too, so if you do find a way to break it (or, more likely, it's stolen), it won't be the end of the world. A classic flip phone can be a great choice for older users, or anyone who finds slippery glass touchscreens awkward to use. The TTfone Lunar TT750 is specifically designed with seniors in mind, and has been thoughtfully designed to be as accessible as possible. Its smooth, pebble-shaped chassis fits neatly and securely in the hand, and the included charging dock means there's no struggling to plug in tiny USB-C cables. It opens to reveal large, tactile buttons for easy dialling, plus a one-touch SOS button that can be set to call a relative in an emergency. Call volume is easy to adjust, and the dual screen is high contrast, with clear fonts. The TTfone Lunar TT750 is only available in the UK and Europe, but if you're in the US, the Jitterbug Flip is very similar. Read more: The best budget camera phones How to Photoshop on the iPhone 13 free creative iPhone apps for designers View the full article

A new year means a new calendar of events to look forward to. There are dates every designer needs to keep in mind, from major national and international events that can inspire commissions to industry events where designers can network (see our how to network guide), meet colleagues and catch up on the latest trends. Here we round up ten dates for the diary that will be setting the agenda for 2020, in date order. 01. Vertex 2020 Vertex is THE event for 2D and 3D artists in 2020 27-28 February Supported by Creative Bloq, ImagineFX and 3D World, Vertex is the ultimate conference for 2D and 3D artists, even if we do say so ourselves. Taking place at London’s Olympia Conference Centre in February, it's the place to brush up your skills and learn from leading industry artists and the world’s best creative studios, whatever area you specialise in. Themes cover video games, VFX, VR, concept art, real-time creation and much more besides. 02. The UX Conference 2-3 March The theme for this two-day London conference for UX and UI designers this year is collaboration. It's a good place for it, since a limit of 300 guests make it intimate enough to allow quality networking. There are 16 speakers invited to give talks on day one and hands-on workshops on day two. 03. Generate JS Generate JS is a one-day JavaScript bonanza 2 April This one-day event hosted by net magazine and Creative Bloq brings together JavaScript experts for an exciting roster of talks on all things JavaScript, including the latest libraries, trendiest frameworks and more than a hint of vanilla JS. There are also breakout activities, drinks and plenty of opportunities to chat to fellow web designers and developers. 04. OFFSET Creatives descend on Dublin for the annual OFFSET festival in April 3-5 April The eleventh edition of OFFSET Dublin is the perfect excuse for a visit to Ireland with 2,500 other creatives. Presenters include leading graphic designers, photographers, animators, and illustrators as well as people from the worlds of fashion, film, making it a place to get very varied perspectives on creativity, inspiration, trends, collaborations and practice. The event offers a packed agenda of panels, debates and demos, plus a marketplace and networking spaces. 05. Euro 2020 There’ll be no escaping football this summer 12 June-12 July Whether you’re into football or not, there’ll be no escaping the beautiful game this summer as Europe goes football crazy for a month during Euro 2020. To mark the competition’s 60th anniversary, games are being held not in one host nation but in 12 cities scattered across the continent, including London, Glasgow and Dublin. England, in group D, are being tipped as having a good chance to make it through to the final at Wembley on 12 July, so expect to receive design commissions with St George’s flags flying high. Scotland also still have a chance to qualify through play-offs in March. 06. Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games All eyes will be on Japan this summer 24 July-4 August The sporting event of the year though, will be getting underway in Japan just a couple of weeks later. All eyes will be on Tokyo for the Games of the XXXII Olympiad. This year’s summer Olympics adds a few new twists with medals in softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding. Expect clients to be asking after Japan-themed commissions, so get ready to dig out the Kaneiwa and Fat Sushi fonts. 07. London Design Festival London will stake its claims as design capital of the world in September 12-20 September London Design Festival makes a bold claim to celebrate and promote London as the design capital of the world. The Festival returns to venues across the city in mid-September promising major large-scale installations and commissions from some of the world’s best designers and events across 11 design districts in the city turning the capital into a source of inspiration. The festival also features trade shows including Design London, formerly 100% Design, and the London Design Fair at Truman Brewery. 08. Design Matters A good excuse for a trip to Copenhagen this September 23-24 September Run by designers for designers, Design Matters is a two-day conference focusing on new movements in digital design and the role that designers will play in shaping the future. Particular themes of interest this year include the design possibilities opening up in the areas of immersive worlds and mixed realities. On top of that, it's hosted in the design capital Copenhagen, which is worth the trip alone. 09. Adobe MAX Expect new updates from Adobe at this year’s Max in LA 19-21 October Adobe Max is the annual Adobe bash that brings together 10,000 graphic, web, and multi-disciplinary designers as well as creative and art directors, film, video, and motion graphics pros, photographers and other creative leaders in Los Angeles. It's one of the world's biggest design gathering for networking, and there's the option to head into town early for two days of immersive pre-conferences full of productivity tips and tricks. It's also the place to hear firsthand of new Adobe product updates. 10. Expo 2020 Dubai Dubai stages the greatest show in the world from October 20 October-10 April 2021 Held every five years, the world expo has previously witnessed the unveiling of the telephone (Philadelphia, 1876), the Eiffel Tower (Paris, 1889), the Ferris wheel (Chicago, 1893), the X-Ray machine (Buffalo, 1901), the ice cream cone (St Louis, 1904), the commercial broadcast television (New York, 1939), IMAX (Osaka, 1970), touchscreens (Knoxville, 1982) and the humanoid robot (Nagoya, 2005), so just what will Expo 2020 in Dubai have in store? Incredible futuristic architecture for sure, while the major themes include mobility, sustainability and communication. World expos were originally designed to showcase the achievements of nations and may seem like a quaint anachronism in the 21st century, but Dubai is planning to make a splash as the host city of this six-month event running from 20 October. This is the first time that what is one of the oldest international events on the planet is being held in the Middle East, and the organisers are expecting a record 25 million visitors for what they promise will be "the world's greatest show". Read more: The top design trends for 2020 6 incredible design secrets you need to know 12 design fails that were so bad they were actually good View the full article

CES has kicked off with a bang, with Samsung revealing one of the most futuristic home entertainment designs we've seen in quite some time, a TV that rotates by itself. The Samsung Sero (sero means vertical in Korean) made its first global public appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show on Sunday, and its ability to pivot between vertical and horizontal orientations was unveiled. Let's take a look at this mind-boggling piece of tech that's perfect for YouTube (and if you're stuck for something to watch, here's our pick of the best animated music videos). Now, some might say this is a tad unnecessary. What's wrong with a standard flat screen? We hate to tell you that if that's you, you're probably too old to be in the target market. This TV is firmly geared towards Generation Z and Millennial customers who use their smartphones as another mode of entertainment. The TV aims to be an extension of your smartphone, connecting to your phone over NFC and orientating automatically to mirror the content you're watching on your small screen. Websites and content optimised for a horizontal view will stick with the standard TV format, but if you happen across a site that's best enjoyed in a vertical view, your TV will take on a life of its own and rotate 90 degrees to an upright position. Think YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat videos on the huge 43-inch screen. It does beg the question, however, as to what this means for videographers. The use of vertical video has risen dramatically over the past few years with the introduction of Snapchat and Instagram stories. And if the standard orientation of a monitor and TV is set to switch, this could see a big shake up in the video creation and editing industry. Twitter reacts (badly) Unsurprisingly, some might say, Twitter isn't convinced. This tweet pretty much sums up the response, with most users agreeing it's a gimmicky move from Samsung: It's a cool piece of kit that has clearly been designed to solve a problem some people must be experiencing, but we're not sure how this one will sell (unlike this problem-solving slide keyboard concept, which we would love to come to fruition). However attached to their smartphones people may be, is it not enough to just view the content on the phone itself? We can't imagine buying a TV purely to watch social media videos on. Or maybe we're just too old. If you're happy with the usual non-rotating screen set up, here are are some of the top TV and monitors in your area, at the very best prices. Read more: The ultimate guide to screen resolution The best projectors: get your designs on the big screen The best smartphone lenses View the full article

Podcasts are an excellent way to keep up with web design industry news, learn something new, or listen to something fun. With podcasts becoming more popular, there is quite a large selection that covers a lovely array of topics relevant …View the full article

There has been plenty of criticism thrown at the Cats movie since its release at the end of last year. But a new theory has arisen as to what the real problem with the film is: the cats' human noses. It seems too simple to be true, but the more we dig into it the more we think there might be something to it. In contrast to the stage show upon which it's based, which uses heavily stylised cat costumes, the creators of the film decided to embrace the powers of CG when it came to bringing the cats to life. So-called 'digital fur technology' was used give the actors their realistic feline coats (although it wasn't quite finished when the movie premiered, which led to Universal having send out a new version to cinemas with CGI corrections). Problem is, these realistic feline coats are combined with decidedly un-feline hands, feet, and – yes – noses. The result is, to put it politely, distractingly odd. 8 appalling CGI fails in modern movies How the characters are brought to life can have a huge impact on how effective a story is (see our roundup of character design insights for more on this). Writer Dana Schwartz sent out the following tweet last week. Since then the tweet has blown up – and there's plenty of evidence stacking up in favour of Schwartz's statement. First of all, check out these (nose-free) paintovers from artist Sae, showing how the characters could have looked. In her reimagining of Taylor Swift's Bombalurina (above) and Sir Ian McKellen's Gus 'Asparagus' the Theatre Cat (below), Sae has not only done away with those offending noses, but also added some more personality to the characters' coats. While at face value we'd say it's a strong improvement, we know that its one thing to paint over a movie still and quite another to realistically mimic that look in 3D over the course of a feature film. However, there are more examples to consider. One tweeter shared a shot of the 'Catkind' race that featured in classic British TV show Doctor Who. Again, no human noses – and we think all the better for it. There's not much information about how these humanoid cats were brought to life, but it looks much more like prosthetics and makeup than CGI. Finally, we have the original stage show itself. This doesn't even shoot for realism, but instead uses stylised costumes and makeup to capture the essence of its feline characters. And somehow, even that looks more cat-like than Paramount's efforts. While we wouldn't go as far as to say it's are the sole reason Cats has flopped, we can't help but agree a more cat-like nose could have made all the difference. For a look at 3D effects done well, check out our roundup of the greatest CGI movie moments of all time. Read more: Baby Sonic is here to steal Baby Yoda's thunder MPC Vancouver closes doors after Sonic fiasco 3D news 2019 roundup: We look back at the biggest stories of the year View the full article

News of a new iPad Pro 2020 for will come as welcome news to many artists and designers looking to add the powerful tablet to their arsenal. Despite giving many of its core products annual updates, 2019 saw Apple surprisingly overlook the iPad Pro. Rumours suggest this won't happen again this year, and so we're looking forward to seeing what Apple has up its sleeve with its iPad Pro for 2020. So what do we know about a potential new iPad Pro? One thing we know for sure is whatever its new features and specs, there will be some great iPad Pro apps for designers, artists and illustrators to work with. Here we take a look at the leaks and rumours that have started trickling in on the new iPad Pro 2020. iPad Pro 2020: release date and price Late last year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman suggested the release date would be early 2020, which is interesting when you consider Apple usually unveils new tech at its annual October event. Does this mean that Apple skipped a 2019 iPad Pro launch with the intent of releasing two in 2020? Only time will tell. There's no current news on the price of the new device, however with over a year between updates, we expect this iPad Pro refresh to be significant, in terms of both cost and capability. iPad Pro 2020: design rumours In the middle of 2019, Apple registered another two tablet models with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) regulator. And both of these new models didn't match any models that aren't in the current line-up, which has led to a number of iPad Pro 2020 rumours. One of the most reliable ones, however, comes Sonny Dickson (below). The pictured posted is believed to be the back of a dummy iPad Pro 2020 unit, on which there are three cameras. Being that the current iPad Pro only has one rear camera, it hints that Apple has put the devices photo-taking abilities at the forefront of its focus. iPad Pro 2020: what we'd like to see While we wait for official confirmation from Apple, we can only speculate what the new iPad Pro 2020 will actually offer. However there's no doubt that the new iPad Pro will be a top-end, power-packed tablet. The current 12.9-inch model boasts a very powerful A12X Bionic processor, so expect even more processing power for demanding creative tasks like photo or video editing. Our biggest wish for the iPad Pro 2020 would be a bigger screen. Maybe as there is no MacBook Pro 15" anymore, how about an iPad Pro 15" to fill the gap? The extra space would be perfect for designers, illustrators and artists to express themselves with an Apple Pencil. We'll update this post as and when more news drops on the new iPad Pro 2020. But if you can't wait that long to get your hands on one of these powerful devices, you can currently get some great deals on the 2018 iPad Pro models. Here are the best prices in your area: iPad Pro 12.9 review Photoshop on the iPad is finally here 20 best drawing apps for iPad View the full article

Veganuary is now officially a thing, and Italian/American restaurant chain Frankie & Benny's is trying to get in on the action with its vegan menus. Its campaign ad spot sees Meat Loaf's new manager trying to convince him to change his name to Veg Loaf. He's not impressed. In an increasingly ridiculous bid to get Meat Loaf to agree, his team try to lure him in with food such as the Viva La Vegan burger and the No Cheese Cheesecake. Meat Loaf becomes increasingly irate. It's worth watching till the end (see video below) for the inevitable line about what Meat Loaf will and won't do. For comedy value, we think it's up there with some of the best print ads around. The campaign was created by new agency Idea Farm and Lucky Generals, and is based on an actual pitch. "Funnily enough, our new video isn't far off the original real-life pitch to Meat," says Elise Ash, director of strategy and brand at Frankie & Benny's. "While we couldn't convince him to rebrand to Veg Loaf, we're delighted he's the headline act for our new vegan menu to help spread the word on the benefits of tucking into our meat-free dishes." Meat Loaf has apparently agreed to go plant-based for Veganuary. It was just the name-change thing he didn't want to do. We think this is a clever piece of advertising. With more and more outfits trying to break into the vegan or veggie market, Frankie & Benny's has shown how laughing at yourself is sometimes the way to go. Of course, getting a big name to sign up helps, and one with a meat or veg-based name is even better. Might Halle Berry or Kevin Bacon be next? Read more: Creative agency spends $10,000 on blank ads New ads lead people to imaginary Burger Kings 2020 letterpress calendar is the most beautiful thing you'll see all day View the full article

The aviation industry is a giant industry with millions of passengers booking flights to journey from one part of the globe to another. With over 100,000 flights taking off and landing every day, it is evident that the industry runs …View the full article

That annoying switcheroo between tablet screen and keyboard may not be the most dramatic issue you're facing today, but it's certainly irritating enough to interrupt your workflow. A Korean designer has recognised the issue and created a nifty bit of kit to solve the problem. Enter: the SLIDE keyboard. Sometimes it feels as if you need a desk the size of a table tennis table to fit everything onto it, and shifting around between the tablet screen and the keyboard doesn't help. This keyboard design integrates the two pieces of tech. Why have two products on your desk, when you could only have one? Park's mood board, highlighting how desk space comes at a premium Conceived by industrial design student Cheolsu Park in a project for Chung-ang University’s Aura Design Lab, the design incorporates a tablet within the base of a keyboard. You can see his project detailed on his Behance page, which includes an impressive mood board detailing his process (see our mood board post on how to make your own). "SLIDE is a combination of tablet and keyboard," explains Park. "I designed this product to relieve the inconvenience of using tablet and keyboard at the same time. "Having two products on your desk at the same time takes up a lot of space on your desk, and when you need to use only your keyboard, you need to put the tablet aside," Park continues. "However, with SLIDE, you can use the tablet simply by pushing it up. Once you've used the tablet, you can simply get it down and it's back in the form of the keyboard." The SLIDE's base is weighted, to ensure ideal weight distribution when the keyboard is extended, and the keyboard also locks into place so that it doesn't spring out of place when in use. There are handy buttons at the side of the keyboard to block the slide. Park has also created sleek tablet pens to match the keyboard. The SLIDE keyboard and stylus Park has been working on other problem-solving products, too. These include a smart suitcase for blind people, self-driving and designed to identify surroundings in the same way as a walking stick. We think the keyboard is great bit of design. It looks weighty and professional, and we bet the slide function feels pretty satisfying to operate. This innovation solves a problem in a similar way to this AI website prototype, which attempts to fix our posture. Both creations are courtesy of young designers who were looking for solutions to everyday issues, a great starting point for successful design. Read more: The top design trends for 2020 The best tablet keyboards in 2020 The best keyboards for designers in 2020 View the full article

Having your own small business can be daunting, especially when it comes to the workflow and administrative aspects. As creatives, these tasks are often the last thing we want to deal with at the end of the day. ProjectDue, a complete business suite for small businesses and self-employed entrepreneurs, can be the ticket to getting all your ducks in a row and organising your projects. But there's even better news – for a limited time, you can get this lifetime bundle for just $29.99. Keep your creative team on track If you're looking for a place for your team to connect with seamless communication, this feature will be your knight in shining armour. With an easy to use interface and simple to follow instructions, you'll be able to assign tasks to employees (or yourself) and track the progress of each project as each assignment is added. Advanced time trackers and a Kanban Board logs your complete timeline and clarifies who does what for flawless communication. Get detailed reporting and analytics on your projects, so everyone is on the same page. No more vague duties, your projects will all be recorded and assigned in an easy to follow work chart. Manage your freelance gigs If you are your boss and employee, you'll love the freelancer software features. You'll be able to easily invoice your clients and manage payments all in one spot. Other features include tracking your expenses, creating estimates, and adding notes to invoices in case something changes last minute. With your time tracked and everything in one place, you'll be able to access financial reporting and updates on each project efficiently. Find future potential clients With so many projects in the works and so little time, it may seem daunting trying to organise potential new leads. ProjectDue makes it simple for you to easily track progress made with any lead, as well as every detail about your clients, efficiently keeping your lead follow-ups on course. The software even provides your employees and clients with their dedicated portals, where they can manage all project-related activities. While a lifetime subscription to ProjectDue.co is valued at $900, it is currently only $29.99. Give yourself the gift of making your business workflow a lot easier in 2020 and focus on the things that matter to you and your brand. Read more: 19 ways to streamline your workflow 10 productivity tools you can't be without in 2020 Grow your influence and increase your income View the full article

Have you been itching to acquire the skills needed to become a master photographer? Learn how to take stunning photographs and edit like a pro with The Photography For Beginners Mastery Bundle, a comprehensive look into all things photography. Read on to learn more about some of the captivating master photography courses included in this complete bundle. Get started with the basics We all need to start with the fundamentals to build a foundation for our career. With over 30 hours of training across all five courses, you'll get started with The Ultimate Photography Course For Beginners. This comprehensive course covers everything you need to get started in photography. You'll learn composition techniques to help improve your images, understand fundamental treatments known in the world of photography, a successful workflow for capturing and editing seamless photos, and so much more. Learn the techniques of master photographers As you get more familiar with the elements of photography, you'll move on to courses such as Advanced Creative Photography Skills. You'll gain an understanding of more complex fundamentals, such as learning the science of light and acquiring the necessary composition techniques used in street and city photography. With access to 15 easy-to-follow lectures and content that's available 24/7, you'll be able to come back and visit each lesson whenever you need to. Take your photography to the next level and get guidance on artistic tips and tricks from the pros. Capture fascinating images with any camera Not only will you learn the essentials needed to use any camera, but you will also gain a complete understanding of how you can capture breathtaking images of your own. With a Creative Photography Composition Master Class and The Complete Photography 101 Master Class, you'll master how to use manual mode, gain an understanding of studio settings to create beautiful portraits, master photography’s visual language, and so much more. You'll even learn how to sell your images and grasp how to kick off a photography business of your own. While a lifetime membership to The Photography For Beginners Mastery Bundle is valued at almost $1,000, it is currently price-dropped to only $19.99. With over 200 lessons covering everything photography, it's undoubtedly a great way to get started on shooting and editing impactful images for creative projects of all types. Read more: How to use photography in design Street photography: 11 expert tips How to take perfect portraits View the full article

If you have your own business, you know how competitive the landscape is. The key to standing out is making sure your branding is comprehensive and impactful, and true to your cause. The Personal Branding Bootcamp Bundle brings you everything you need to make your brand thrive in a sometimes oversaturated world. Read on to learn more about some of the helpful courses included in the bundle. Personal branding for creative professionals You've got the beautiful work you've spent so much time creating for your brand – now what? This 16-hour course will teach you the skills you need to successfully build your creative brand and set up an online and offline presence, and so much more. You’ll learn exactly how to make a lasting first impression, create strategies for connecting with the right people in your industry, and how to successfully craft and convey the exact message you want to voice about your work. Dorie Clark, the author of Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future, shows you how to make your brand thrive by giving you the best ways to showcase your creative projects. You'll soon be equipped with the best strategies to display your portfolio, make your work stand out, and so much more. Communicate like a boss Learn to communicate better with this course It's no secret that one of the essential milestones of seamless branding execution and career advancement is having strong communication skills. With lifetime access and nine comprehensive courses, this master class will equip you with the tools you need to communicate while remaining true to yourself and your brand. Dia Bondi, a renowned communications strategist/coach, will help you develop your skills as an effective communicator by showing you how to deliver your message in compelling ways that come from the heart. Improve your skills and finally get the guidance you need to become a great communicator. Become an engaging presenter If you're the type that dreads presenting, this course may be for you. With 15 lectures and plenty of tips and tricks, you'll learn how to improve your presentation skills and start actually (gasp) enjoying the entire process. Andrew Whelan, Late Night with Conan O’Brien performer, accomplished career coach, and small business owner, teaches you the ins and outs of becoming an engaging and magnetic presenter. Whether you need to pitch a new idea, present the latest findings for your business, or need to present a deck on your most recent campaign, you'll be able to refine your process, manage anxiety, and handle the unexpected. Access to the Personal Branding Bootcamp Bundle is valued at over $200. This month only, this bundle is price-dropped to only $19. With all the content available 24/7, you'll be able to effortlessly finesse your branding skills and make your beautiful work stand out and thrive, no matter your industry. Read more: Has branding become boring? Branding quotes: The good, the bad and the ugly The 6 best branding books View the full article

The start of a new year and decade can only mean one thing. Yes, it's time for some new stationery – hurrah! If you've not yet managed to find a 2020 calendar you like the look of, you're in the right place. As calendars go, they don't come better than this stunning letterpress design. The Mr Cup creative manifesto letterpress calendar is the brainchild of Fabian Barral aka Mr Cup. Available in two editions (standard and deluxe), this calendar design is a thing of a beauty. The deluxe version is fully hot oil printed on dark papers, and the standard has a hot oil printed front cover, with each month's design letterpress printed on light papers. There's something so appealing about the tactile nature of letterpress. The design is stunning but more than anything we just want to run our hands over it. A collaborative effort, Barral enlisted the help of 11 graphic designers and typographers to create unique works for each calendar month. An annual project, this year's edition features exclusive designs by Scotty Russell, Srdjan Vidakovic, Nikki Mihalik, Viktor Baltus, Cody Petts, Jason Carne, Reno Orange, Salih Kucukaga, Jef Millotte, Kelsy Stromski and Benjamin Charles. If it's motivation you're after in 2020, having this hung on your wall is sure to help. The combination of quality craftsmanship and printed words of wisdom are guaranteed to inspire you all year round. You can buy both editions of the letterpress calendar via the Mr Cup online shop. Read more: 40 inspiring examples of letterpress business cards The best calendar apps of 2020 10 productivity tools you can't be without in 2020 View the full article

Are there one or two productivity tools that can help you get the routine and boring parts of your job done more quickly, and allow you more time to spend on the creative, imaginative and fun sides? At the dawn of a new year, it's an important question to ask, and if you're honest with yourself, the answer will very probably be yes. Of course, we know it’s a tough ask to spend your hard-earned money on paid-for tools, especially when there are free alternatives available on the web. But think about that phrase "hard-earned". If the best productivity tools make your money easier to earn, aren't they worth the investment... and then some? We recently found some of the best web design tools to help you work smarter in 2020. In this post we round up some of the best productivity tools for creatives, and explain what they do, who they're aimed at, and how they can help you in your creative work. If you’re seeking productivity tools for a creative collaboration, then your first stop should be Trello. Available across web, iOS and Android, it’s a great tool for keeping everything on track, in a delightfully visual and frictionless way. Trello is basically a to-do list that you share with others and update in real time, so everyone on your team knows what’s going on at any given moment. Based on a system of cards, which are essentially like virtual Post-it notes, the system is very flexible and easy to adapt to however your project is structured. It lacks some of the advanced features of a fully featured project management tool, such as time management and reporting. But that said, its beauty lies in its simplicity and we’re not sure we’d want its interface to become too overcomplicated. Trello has been widely adopted across the graphic and web design professions, so your collaborators stand a good chance of being familiar with it already. But if not, it’s very intuitive and easy to use anyhow. Best of all, Trello is free for most purposes, and you’d only need to graduate to the paid-for versions for large-scale enterprise use. Over the last three decades, Apple’s launched a lot of laptops and had as many misses as hits. So we’re pleased to report that its latest offering, the MacBook Pro 16-inch, is a real winner. With a larger screen, double the storage, a higher-resolution display, a better keyboard and generous battery life, it’s an all-round excellent performer that will handle multiple tasks smoothly and efficiently. In short, it's the perfect laptop for busy creative professionals, especially those who do a lot of processor-intensive work like animation and 3D modelling. As ever with Apple, it’s not cheap. But if your current machine crashes and slows down a lot, then consider how much more creative work it might help you get done in a typical day, and how much money you could earn as a result. There's only real downside we could find with this model: it features only four Thunderbolt ports, so for devices with a USB connection you’ll need an adaptor. For full details, read our review of the MacBook Pro 16-inch. The Adobe Creative Cloud is a subscription service providing a full suite of desktop apps, mobile apps and services from Adobe. The best known of these are Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Photoshop Lightroom and Premiere Pro, but there are plenty more you may not have heard of, such as notably Prelude (video logging), Flash Builder (app building) and Story Plus (screenwriting). Note though, each tool needs to be separately downloaded to each Windows or Mac OS device you use it on: despite the ‘Cloud’ name, this is not browser-based software in the Figma or Google Docs sense. Your subscription also gets you access to typefaces via TypeKit; cloud storage for your projects; Adobe Portfolio, a tool for building your portfolio; and stock images, videos and templates with Adobe Stock. While there are some decent alternatives to Photoshop and other Adobe apps these days, there’s quite simply nothing to rival the Creative Cloud ecosystem, and as the industry standard it’s a no-brainer for most professional graphic and web designers, not to mention photographers, digital artists and illustrators, and increasingly, 3D artists and animators. Having to pay a monthly subscription might put you off, but the productivity benefits of having access to the entire CC ecosystem cannot be understated. To take one example, Adobe Stock allows you to find, try out and licence stock images directly within apps like Photoshop, which can save you an awful lot of time and effort. Check out the latest Creative Cloud deals to help you save some money as well. Are you struggling with an old-school stylus that suffers from a lot of lag? Then you'll likely get a huge productivity boost by investing in a newer model, and if you're an iPad user, we'd highly recommend the Apple Pencil for its accuracy, speed and precision. In short, it's the best experience we've had drawing on the IPad, and the closest to using a real pencil on real paper. It looks pretty darned stylish too. There are actually two versions of the Apple Pencil available today: the first generation model, originally released in 2015, and the Apple Pencil 2, released in late 2018. Both offer the same level of performance, but the later version justifies its slightly higher cost because of its nicer feel in the hand, its flat edge (which keeps it from rolling away when put to one side), the ability to double-tap said edge for extra functionality, and the way you can attach it magnetically to the side of an iPad Pro. (For a full rundown of the differences, see our article Apple Pencil vs Apple Pencil 2.) If you've been struggling on a low-powered tablet, then here's some great news. Although Wacom has long led the market in high quality, responsive and powerful drawing tablets, they've also been very expensive... until now, that is. The Cintiq 22 offers a device that's cheaper than similar predecessors, and yet still provides all that a digital artist or graphic designer needs to create high quality, professional work: a large, anti-glare and full HD screen, a capable, pressure-sensitive stylus, a flexible stand to set up the perfect drawing angle, and the reliable performance you'd expect from a Wacom. The main downside of this model is the colour gamut, which at 72 per cent is a little limited, but overall the Cintiq 22 offers outstanding value. Okay, it's still not the cheapest drawing tablet on the market, but for any professional creative it's going to be worth the investment over time, enabling you to work faster and more accurately, and just generally making your work more enjoyable. For more details, check out our Wacom Cintiq 22 review. There are many great apps to keep track of our daily activities, but at the end of the day there's nothing nicer than the feel (and smell) of a new, physical diary. And if you want elegance, style and quality, then there's really nowhere else to go but Moleskine. The Italian notebook brand is beloved by creatives around the world for its superior quality and attention to detail, and this large softcover daily diary is no exception. Featuring a new page for each day, ruled for notes and appointments, it also includes a ribbon bookmark, an elastic closure, and three sheets of organisational stickers. Quite simply, it's a gorgeous piece of design that won't just make you more productive, it will make you want to be more productive. The Surface Pro 7 is a tablet that’s powerful enough to run full Windows 10 programs, while remaining sleek and light. It also doubles up as a laptop with the separately sold keyboard. Using Intel’s latest 10th generation processors, the Pro 7 is a step up from previous models in terms of performance, and the more expensive model does a great job at handling graphic-intensive tasks, such as video rendering. While this device is still no match for the performance of a powerful Windows desktop, it does offer a superbly flexible way to stay up to date on the move, for anyone who needs to run full Windows 10 tools like Photoshop and Illustrator, rather than lower-powered Android or iOS alternatives. Want to do some digital painting while you're away from your desk? Then you need to check out Procreate, a raster graphics editor app for digital painting for iPhone and iPad. Closely replicating the feel of physical drawing in a digital format, it supports a range of styluses, including the Apple Pencil, along with hundreds of high quality brushes and a suite of innovative features. In short, everything you need to create sketches, paintings, illustrations and animations while you're out and about. And if you want to analyse your process and improve it, there's a very handy feature that lets you make recordings of every single brushstroke. Prefer the physical approach to sketching to the digital? Then you'll need a quality set of pencils, and we'd highly recommend these graphite drawing pencils from Derwent. Sold individually and in sets, they make smooth, easy lines on the paper and are ideal for both fine detailed illustrations or adding shading and texture. Crucially, they're also easy to sharpen and break-resistant, helping to smooth and speed your workflow while sketching. If you're a freelancer, then you may find that keeping track of how you spend your hours, and charging for it accordingly, is taking up an unreasonable amount of time and energy. In which case, we'd recommend introducing an element of automation by using Harvest, a time and expense tracker that includes tools for invoicing, expensing and team management. Available for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS and browser, it's easy to use, integrates with many similar apps, such as Quickbooks Online, and there's a free plan to get you started, although you'll probably need to upgrade to the subscription version once you get going. If using Harvest means your clients pay you faster, though, it's going to be well worth it. Read more: The best calendar apps of 2020 This year's top design trends The best travel laptops right now View the full article

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Everyone has too many things to get done. There are, in any given person’s life, an almost endless amount of tasks, projects and things to do. They range from the boring (routine work tasks, mowing a lawn or doing homework) through to fun (a date, a game, playing with the kids) to the original (a challenging new project at work, getting to grips with a new website builder or planning a party). No matter what, though, you can create more free time if you think carefully about managing your time. Time management is almost no one’s favourite topic to discuss. It brings to mind schedules and lists, often triggers yawns and perhaps causes some of us to get out a buzzword bingo card or two. However, if you make it a goal to use some very basic tools and habits to manage your time, you can really change the way your day works. You can be more productive on the job and complete more tasks (using less time). There are several facets to time management that we can investigate. In this article, we'll explore some practical ways to improve your productivity and help you organise your days better. Click the image to find out more and pick up your tickets Tip #1: Track your working time (and your breaks) Make sure your breaks are real breaks, and not filled up with more work The key thing to focus on is actually keeping track of your working time and, just as importantly, your breaks. As the workday goes on, people generally begin to work less efficiently. Everyone has experienced the slow burn as they lose attention, become tired or simply find themselves less effective at their job the more hours they are 'on the clock'. This can also present itself in subtle, harder-to-identify ways: slower reaction times, less creative energy and other effects that can hinder you without raising red flags. You may not be falling asleep at your desk but your body and, more importantly, your mind, is recognising the strain anyway. This tendency to work 'harder' by working long hours without ceasing often simply results in low productivity and people who are no longer doing quality work. Focus can also be a challenge during the workday. Many of us try hard to multitask but science has shown us again and again that human brains are better at focusing on one task at a time. One way to combat this stress of constant work and stay focused on one thing at a time is to think of your time as if it were split up into two categories: Task-focused work: Blocks focused on getting a single task done Breaks from work: These allow you to disconnect, recharge and relax There are a couple of working methods that can help improve your ratio of work to breaks, as well as boosting your single-task focus throughout the day. Solution: The Pomodoro Technique The Pomodoro Technique is a simple way to break up your workday into chunks of productivity. You use a timer to clock the units of work (‘Pomodoros’). You can use a physical Pomodoro timer or download a phone app. You pick a single task and power through that task during a 25-minute working block (or customise the times to meet your needs). When done, you take a five- or 10-minute break, again with the timer, then start a new Pomodoro. You can concentrate on the same task again or pick a new one. At the end of four Pomodoros, you take a longer break of maybe 20 to 30 minutes. The important part about the breaks is that they need to be breaks. Get up, talk to someone, talk a short walk, stretch, look out the window, read a book. Breaks aren’t for doing other work. If you are interrupted during your Pomodoro, end the interruption as quickly as possible, jot down a note if there is another task you need to do because of it and continue with your work. Try not to get derailed: stay focused. Solution: The Flowtime Technique One thing that many people don’t like about Pomodoro is that the working blocks are so severely regimented. A consistent complaint is that you might finish a task in less time and not need the whole block or that you might be 'in the zone' when the timer goes off, which of course harms productivity rather than helping it. You can solve this by using what is called the Flowtime Technique. Instead of hard limits for the timers, you try to work in flexible blocks of, for example, 20 to 60 minutes. The goal is not for every block to be the same but rather for each block to be a unit of cohesive, focused work on one task, with a maximum length so that you don’t work on that task for hours without a break. With this technique, you will just be stopping for a break when you need a break and trying hard to be honest about that. Tip #2: Figure out where your time is going A second important facet of working smarter rather than harder involves knowing when you have been working, on what, and why. Time tracking is a handy way to, over time, build up an idea of what you have actually been doing. If you are using the Pomodoro or Flowtime techniques already mentioned, tracking your time will be that much easier. When you start a Pomodoro, you’ll just start a timer or jot down the time and when you finish, the same. Some Pomodoro apps can even do this for you and if you ever forget to write down starting or stopping times, the fact that you’re working in recorded chunks should make it easy to go back and grab that information later. You can see patterns of what distracts you and when; you can see what times of the day are your most productive and for what types of work Jeff Smith Once you can gather enough of this data, it becomes invaluable to you. You can see patterns of what distracts you and when; you can see what times of the day are your most productive and for what types of work. This will be your guide in restructuring the workday as much as possible to maximise your productivity – doing creative or complex work during your more productive times and filling the gaps between meetings, interruption-heavy time blocks and periods where you often have trouble focusing with more menial work. Solution: Try a time tracking tool There are low-energy solutions for tracking time spent in applications already for Windows, macOS and for the various phone platforms. You might use some of them already. These features enable you to see what applications you use and for how much time per day or week. What we want to do is similar but on a task level. Rather than knowing whether you had Chrome or Slack open this afternoon and for how long, we instead want to know if you were in meetings or writing code, preparing taxes or writing customer communications. One of the best free/cheap time tracking solutions out there is Toggl. Toggl has an app that is so-so for iOS and Android but the web service is superb and can be tied into services like Zapier or IFTTT for automation. Additionally, there are other time tracking tools that are integrated into the software you already use. Employee time-card systems, if you fill out line items for tasks, are one. Another is the invoicing tool you use, if you freelance – many of those contain time tracking features as well, to help with generating those invoices. Tip #3: Supercharge your to-do lists Last, but certainly not least, consider the use of some sort of task-management system. These can vary wildly, from pencil and paper setups (see our guide to the best notebooks for designers) to phone apps or computer software. The goal is to keep track of all the items you need to do in a given day or for a given project and ensure things don’t get forgotten. Task managers are useful in a lot of ways. You can simply use them as an organised to-do list if you wish but their real strength comes when you lean on them hard. Every new task that comes to mind gets dropped into an inbox, you sort tasks into projects, label them and you depend on the system absolutely. It can always be depended upon to guide you on what you should be doing, when and often where. The system does need to be reviewed on a daily or weekly basis to make sure that tasks don’t fall between the cracks, buried at the bottom of a project with perhaps no due date. In essence, the task manager can be a second memory for the things that you need to get done. An important distinction here is that we are looking at task management rather than project management. Project management tools, such as Trello, Basecamp, Asana and many others like them, are very different to task managers. When we manage tasks, we’re thinking of to-do lists – what tasks need to be done at work or at home. Project managers are a much wider scope and less focused on individual tasks than on the entire breadth of the work that needs doing. Solution: Keep a bullet journal Bullet journals can be used to manage entire projects, track daily tasks, capture notes and more Your first choice will be whether you want an analog (paper) or digital (mobile/computer) system. If you intend to keep track of your tasks on paper, one of the best methods to manage it all is via Bullet Journaling. It’s an amazing system that enables you to capture thoughts, notes and tasks and works quite well alongside focus-driven Pomodoros (and also provides a place to note times for time tracking). Solution: Use a digital time-tracker If you’d prefer a digital time-tracking system, the best overall recommendation for any platform is Todoist. Todoist is an amazing application that lets you sort tasks into projects, nested projects, subtasks, labels, due dates and a whole mess of other features, while still letting you have a single simple to-do list if you’d like. Power users can share tasks with others, sync with calendars or even use the API to integrate with thirdparty services such as Zapier or IFTTT. For Apple ecosystem users, the favourites are OmniFocus for serious task management with a more ‘Getting Things Done’ (GTD) flair and Things for everyone else. Both of these apps are amazing task managers and, for a macOS/iOS only user, can provide in some cases more useful features than even Todoist. Tip #4: Combine your time management tools These three parts of working smarter dovetail together very nicely. If you have a to-do list for the day, you can take an item off of that list, do a Pomodoro or two to complete it and then track the time you spent engaged with that task before picking another one. This can be a lot to get used to at once, so it is also perfectly acceptable to take one of these ideas and incorporate it into your daily routine, then – once you’re familiar with using it regularly – consider the idea of looking into one of the others. This article was originally published in issue 324 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 324 or subscribe to net today. Related articles: 5 ways a stylus will boost your productivity 21 ways to improve productivity with npm 8 powerful productivity apps to help you get things done View the full article

Want to add a second screen to your smartphone to improve your productivity and creativity? Then the nifty castAway case could be exactly what you're looking for. castAway works by where housing your phone in one side of its case, while a smartphone-sized Chromium-based tablet sits in the other side, allowing you to multitask on the go. The castAway tablet comes in three sizes, 5.8", 6.3" and 6.9", making it compatible with a host of popular Android and iOS devices, and some of the best smartphones available. A custom app allows users to connect to the second screen via Bluetooth or WiFi and creates a series of folders on the phone to store images and files. On the tablet, a Chrome extension will grab any files that are added to the folders – meaning you have access on both devices. There is no doubt that a second screen brings with it plenty of plus points, especially for designers. You can keep your tools panel on one screen and design in another. You can also work on one screen and keep an eye on your social media and email on the other. But the best bit is you are not tied to the double screen. You can pull apart the screens and use them separately, and then slip back together when you want to thanks to a magnetic hinge. The castAway is exciting stuff, but it's not available yet. It's currently at the Prototype stage on IndieGoGo, meaning there is a working version of the physical product, but it's not yet in production. Get more info on the castAway here. 13 creative free iPhone apps for designers How to Photoshop on the iPhone (yes, it’s a thing) 30 Chrome extensions for web designers and devs View the full article

Pepsi has a new US tagline, and it's...well... a bit odd. 'That's What I Like' is Pepsi's first permanent new slogan in two decades, and it'll be used to advertise all Pepsi varieties including regular Pepsi, Pepsi Zero Sugar and Diet Pepsi. In fact, it's already appearing on a range of TV spots (more on that below). While it seems a sensible move to go back to one, permanent tagline, the choice of words from Pepsi has us baffled. 'That's What I Like' makes us think of several things. It reminds us strongly of McDonald's' 'I'm Lovin' It' (in fact, it's basically a longer, less catchy way to say the same thing). It also reminds us of that – dare we say it – Coke advert where the guy awkwardly announces: "I just love Coke". We're guessing that reminding its customers of its biggest rival probably wasn't what Pepsi was going for here. There's also a whiff of the much-loved, cheese-tastic '90s compilation albums: 'Now That's What I Call Music', which again can't have been what the drinks company was aiming for. Discover all you need to know about logo design with our guide. The slogan has been announced with a range of new adverts created with agency Alma and Goodby Silverstein & Partners, which feature people busting some shapes in various situations including an airport, at a BBQ and on the tube. Interestingly, all of the English-language adverts feature men rather than women as the lead characters, which we're assuming must be some deliberate targeting, otherwise it seems like a pretty big oversight. All of the characters are laughed at for their dance moves, until they take a swig of Pepsi and voila! Everyone dances along with them. The new slogan then pops up on the screen to remind us all that it's okay to like Pepsi, and to dance in public. Thanks, Pepsi. "Pepsi drinkers are comfortable in their own skin, they enjoy their life unapologetically without really worrying about what other people think," says Pepsi’s VP of marketing, Todd Kaplan. According to Kaplan, people who like drinking Pepsi also like belting out karaoke numbers, binge-watching their favourite shows and are more likely to clap at the cinema, so presumably that explains the dancing videos. Look, there's even an infographic telling us just how 'wild' Pepsi drinkers are. So it must be true. Overall, this seems like a well thought-out move from Pepsi, but we're not really loving it. It's hard to imagine that 'That's What I Like' will have real staying power. Read more: Has Diet Coke lost the plot? The 10 best logos of all time 6 incredible design secrets you need to know View the full article

We all enjoy nerding out at a design sheet, and who doesn't love a good Olympic logo? This discovery from the Logo Smith combines the two: the design sheet for the Tokyo 1964 Olympic emblem. This logo was voted by design legend Milton Glaser as his favourite Olympic logo ever. The Tokyo 1964 Olympic logo was designed by Yusaku Kamekura and features a red sun representing the Japanese flag above the Olympic gold rings, with 'Tokyo 1964' written in Helvetica. Like all the best logos, it's simple, but extremely effective. And of course, drawing the logo required precise measurements in the days before the likes of Illustrator. You can see the Tokyo 1964 logo's design sheet below. The Logo Smith has attempted to painstakingly recreate the design sheet, and it turned out not to be easy: As we head towards the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympics, we can't help but wonder how this year's logo will be remembered. The original first logo design was scrapped due to plagiarism accusations, the official logo was then unveiled to a mixed reaction, and a concept logo received a lot of praise, with many saying it was better than the official one. The official recycled medals went down a treat, though. The official Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic logos It remains to be seen just what the legacy of this particular logo is, but we do like the idea of people trying to painstakingly recreate it in years to come. Let's hope there's already a detailed design sheet in circulation. Read more: The controversial story behind the Tokyo 2020 logo Ridiculous tutorial reveals the 4 steps to logo design Paris 2024 Olympic logo is mercilessly mocked View the full article

It's January. This means it's time to google 'calendar 2020' with the intention of overhauling your organisational habits for the new year. Well, we've saved you the trouble of researching the wealth of systems to choose from by listing the best options right here. Maybe a standard wall calendar is enough for you? If so, we've found the most design-conscious options for your home or office. If you want something with more features, we've got you covered with our pick of the best wall and desk planners. Or, you could combine more than one option to make a super-system that's sure to see you smashing deadlines and going home without a head full of tasks. Keep reading for a roundup of the calendars available for you this year. And while you're overhauling your work habits, why not give your portfolio a refresh? Check out our portfolio examples post for some inspiration. 01. V&A – May Morris Wall Calendar 2020 Price: £9.99 Buy here The V&A do a beautiful line of calendars that include striking designs perfect for the wall of a creative. May Morris, daughter of William Morris, was a noted embroiderer, designer, jeweller and editor. This calendar focuses on her wallpaper designs, wall hangings and embroidery, featuring 12 stunning pieces. Not only aesthetically pleasing, this calendar has a well-organised format with large boxes, clear labelling and a handy previous/next month view. If May Morris isn't quite right for you, check out the V&A's Kimono Silks or Arts & Crafts calendars. 02. Boxclever Everyday Desk Calendar 2020 Price: £9.99 Buy here This desk calendar is compact enough to stay on your desk without taking up valuable workspace, but is still packed with useful features. It's month-to-view and has two handy notes sections as well as large boxes and a previous/next month view. But our favourite part is the super-useful 'To Do' flip page section – one for each month, with a tick box for each line. 03. Stendig Wall Calendar Price: $54.99 Buy here The Stendig calendar is chosen purely as a design statement. Lacking handy features but big on iconic style, the Stendig calendar is a modernist design classic and the only calendar in the collection of MoMA. We recommend using it in conjunction with a desk planner if you want to actually remember anything besides the date. 04. Blueline 2020 DoodlePlan Monthly Colouring Desk Pad Calendar Price: $10.59 Buy here This month-to-view desk tear-off desk pad is perfect for creative doodlers. Each page is adorned with black and white botanical designs you can colour in which is great for improving concentration and reducing anxiety. The paper is heavyweight so the the colour won't bleed through, and the back is reinforced so the calendar feels sturdy. It has a yearly calendar at the bottom of each sheet and roomy squares for each day. The calendar comes in three sizes and is made from 50 per cent recycled paper. 05. Busy B Desktop Calendar 2020 Price: £8.99 Buy here The Busy B desk calendar has a clear layout, bright design and space to add in notes, but best of all it has a pocket to stash all those little bits of paper that clutter up your desk and end up getting lost. Think bills, tickets and invites. It stands handily on your desk, taking up little space. 06. John Lewis & Partners Perpetual Calendar Price: £30 Buy here This perpetual calendar is another style piece that'll look seriously good on your desk. It's made using ash wood (known for its density) and features a line per day, date and month. Use it with a weekly planner. 07. Studio Henki – Spectrum 2020 Wall Planner Price: £9.99 Buy here This vibrant planner is A2 size and is great for viewing your entire year at a glance. Its vertical layout is cleverly formatted so its easier to scan the months than other yearly planners we've looked at, and the shape and size means it'll fit into any wall space you have available. We suggest using it in conjunction with coloured stickers if you want to really nail the organisation of different parts of your life. Studio Henki have a range of other designs if Spectrum isn't to your taste. 08. Desktop Weekly Planner Notepad Price: £12.99 Buy here We think that this tear-off planner is one of the best ways of organising your week. It is undated (there's a space to write the date) and has a week-to-view format that means you can expunge the contents of your brain into the different categories and have everything you need right in front of you. The sections on the sheet include lined columns for each day (with lots of space to scribble notes), a 'To Do' box, and even a doodle section. The ice cream design may not be up your street but there are plenty of alternatives out there. 09. teNeues Jack Vettriano Square Calendar 2020 Price: £10 Buy here With this calendar, you can display 12 works of art by one of the finest Scottish contemporary artists, Jack Vettriano. The striking images sit atop a calendar grid complete with public holidays, and in the bottom-right hand corner there is that all-important space for notes. If you like the calendar design but would prefer a different artist, teNeues also produces a Gustav Klimt calendar (among others). 10. Boxclever Press Family Home Planner 2020 Wall Calendar Price: £9.99 Buy here This may be a family calendar but, with a little repurposing, it's perfect for creatives with many projects on the go. Its month-to-view pages include six columns that come unlabelled so you can head them up with any particular labels you might need to utilise that month (for example, different companies you might be working for, or specific project headers). There's also a notes section at the bottom of each month and a roomy pocket for bits and pieces. Read more: The top design trends for 2020 10 top illustration trends The best art books for 2020 View the full article

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WordPress began as a simple blogging platform but evolved into the content management system that now powers a large percentage of websites. As the most popular CMS, its rapid success is likely down to it being a fantastic general-purpose tool in the web development world. A low barrier for entry and large ecosystem of plugins and free WordPress themes allow less technically proficient users to build complex systems. But this can be a double-edged sword if a WordPress website gains traction, scaling beyond the occasional visitor and leading to problems. The best web hosting services in 2020 The first signs of trouble appear when a new user lands on the website: load times can be excruciating and elements jump around the page as separate stylesheets load, one by one. It isn't long before the server runs out of memory, causing the database to crash, requiring a server restart to bring the website back up. By default, when a user lands on a page provided by a WordPress website, the back end runs through the theme and any plugins before rendering the page. If lots of plugins are used or the theme is poorly written, this can result in lengthy database queries and inclusion of JavaScript and CSS where it isn't needed. Thankfully, many of the major issues causing slow speed can be addressed, and in this tutorial we will look at how you can optimise even the clunkiest of WordPress websites. To boost your skills further, take a look at our roundup of WordPress tutorials to try. 01. Test the current speed The first step in speeding up a website is to find out how well it's performing to start with. An array of tools exists to help with this, including Google's Pagespeed Insights and Pingdom's page load checker. We will be using GTmetrix as it combines several checks; go to the site and enter the URL for the website. 02. Examine the results GTmetrix gives you a quick analysis of your site's performance After a short delay GTmetrix will display the results of the check and give several scores from A – F. It will also give a fully loaded time and total page size. Below this, a breakdown of several elements is given. 03. Identify the largest files One of the most important metrics is the total page size. This is the filesize of all loaded elements on a page, such as images, video, CSS and any scripts that are included in the page. Using GTmetrix, open the Waterfall tab and sort the table by size to find the largest elements on the page. 04. Compress media to reduce size Bulk optimise your media to get a speed boost Images and video are usually the largest items on a page. Eliminate unnecessary background videos and ensure to encode video at a low bit-rate if it plays automatically. Install the plugin EWWW Image Optimizer. From the Media library, a new bulk optimise option is available. Run this. 05. Resize images Shrink those massive images that are getting scaled down in the browser Sometimes images added to a page are at a high resolution and then scaled down with CSS. This wastes bandwidth as the larger size is never used. Go to the dashboard > Settings > Ewww Image Optimiser and select resize. Tick "Resize detection". Now, pages viewed by an admin will highlight images that need to be resized. Resizing these images in an image editor or using a CDN with automatic sizing will fix this issue. 06. Minification of CSS, JS & HTML This is the process of removing the characters in code that make it human-readable to reduce the size of the page. When using a third-party theme, a plugin such as Autoptimize is perfect for this. Install it, go to settings > Autoptimize > scroll down to CSS options and tick "optimise CSS code". When working with a theme that has been custom-made, minification is done with build tools such as gulp. 07. Combine CSS & JS files When using a third-party theme, the Autoptimise plugin can cover most scenarios by enabling the "Aggregate CSS files" option. This combines all the CSS for each page into a single file instead of many smaller ones. 08. Defer external JavaScript Live chat, analytics and tracking tools can bundle large JavaScript files that add entire seconds to the time the page takes to become interactive. Add the defer attribute to these scripts so that they're not executed until the DOM has finished loading. 09. Examine the plugins Treat your site to a severe plugin audit Too many plugins can cripple WordPress. With so many plugins being free, developers are under pressure to push premium versions of their software and include unnecessary, bloated features such as pushing notifications to the admin dashboard. Disable and remove any plugins that aren't being used – they can be installed again later if needed again. 10. Check web server power Your server might be slowing things down; here's how to identify if that's the case The engine of a website is the server it runs on. If its cheap, underpowered and badly maintained it will run poorly. Go to Google PageSpeed Insights and enter the URL of the website. In the results look for "reduce server response time". If this appears on the report, it's likely that a slow server is to blame for the performance. 11. Enable Gzip compression Gzip can decrease the size of your website before it's sent to a user. The user's web browser then decompresses the data automatically and displays it to them. With no drawbacks, it's important to ensure Gzip is enabled. There are several tools to check whether Gzip is enabled; try GiftOfSpeed. 12. Upgrade to PHP 7 Within the WordPress dashboard open Tools > Site health and click the info tab. Open the "Server" accordion and check the value for the PHP version. If this is any less than 7.x.x it is highly recommended to upgrade to at least PHP 7.1. Tests show changing this allowed handling of over double the simulated visitors. 13. Set up page caching Use the cache enabler to render popular pages to a faster static HTML file Go to plugins > Add new plugin and search for "cache enabler". This lightweight plugin stores pages in a cache so a visitor browsing at the same time as another doesn't cause the website to render the page twice. Instead, the plugin renders the page to a static HTML file once then serves this file to subsequent users. 14. Photon Different devices render images at different sizes, making it difficult to size images exactly as they display. Using the free "photon" service, included in Jetpack, images are automatically served at the right size. 15. Set up browser caching Browser caching tells a user's browser that certain elements don't need to be re-downloaded every time they reload a page on the website or come back and visit again. This can be done manually in .htaccess, or alternatively a plugin such as "Leverage Browser Caching" can be used. 16. Load testing with virtual users Use a service like Loader to check your site can cope with high demand To simulate real users using the website and put the website under stress, load testing should be conducted. While monitoring the server for load impact, use a service such as Loader to send traffic to the website. The CPU and memory of the server should stay within safe limits. 17. Recheck performance Once the optimisations have been carried out, you should test and gauge the improvement to the website. Run GTmetrix again and use the history tab to see the difference in page load time. If caching has been enabled, make sure that you visit the website at least once in order to "prime" the cache before carrying out testing. This article was originally published in issue 292 of creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 292. Join us in April 2020 to see our lineup of JavaScript superstars at GenerateJS – the conference helping you build better JavaScript. Book now at generateconf.com Related articles: How to turn WordPress into a visual builder 26 top-quality WordPress portfolio themes View the full article

The January sales are well underway, and we're seeing some amazing offers on hardware for creative professionals. This incredible MacBook Pro deal from John Lewis may be for an older product, but it's hard to pass up such a great saving on what is still a brilliant Apple laptop. Originally £1,569, John Lewis has the 13-inch, 2018 Apple MacBook Pro with 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD on sale for just £1,300. That's a whopping £269 off! Released just over a year ago, the 2018 MacBook Pro is still one of the best laptops you can buy, only superseded by the more recent MacBook Pro refresh, which is significantly more expensive. This 2018 model comes with a 6-core, 8th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM, Apple's brilliant Retina display featuring True Tone technology, the customisable Touch Bar and Touch ID, 4GB of video memory and four USB-C ports. So there's enough power, connections, a great screen, and functionality for any aspiring creative professional. Be sure to take a look at our pick of the best deals in the Apple New Year sale, where you'll find cheap iPads, Pencils, iMacs and more. If you're looking for something with a little more room, you can make an even more impressive saving on this 15-inch MacBook Pro model over on Amazon... Over in the US, Best Buy has some top offers running on MacBook Pros, the best of which we've listed here. If you're not in the UK or US, never fear, below are the best MacBook Pro deals in your area. View the full article