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The Bauhaus was a state-funded school set up by by architect Walter Gropius in 1919. His mission, which became clearer when the school began writing manifestoes about its purpose, was to use the visual arts to bring about a better society. He thought the way to do this was to break down the hierarchies of the creative world, which would mirror German society at the time. The Bauhaus would smash through the divisions between fine and applied arts, and develop a new aesthetic: made for the people. In real terms, this meant that crafts such as ceramics, print-making, textiles and metalworking would be afforded the same status as painting and sculpture. Later on, photography and graphics would be added to the mix, with a new focus placed on function and, ultimately, design. This has led to the design world we now know, and many of the best graphic design portfolios are influenced by the movement, whether their creators realise it or not. Over the years, The Bauhaus existed in three different German cities: Weimar (1919-1925), Dessau (1925-1932) and Berlin (1932-1933). The Bauhaus was unique at the time because it asked how the 'modernisation process could be mastered by means of design'. This year marks 100 years since the school's opening. Here, we take a quick look at the design movement, including some of the trends and philosophies connected to the school, as well as the Bauhaus logo, and ultimately the closure of the school. Bauhaus design: Mass production Barcelona Chair designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich Gropius realised machines offered a great opportunity to mass-produce appealing and practical products. The Bauhaus vision was to embrace the new technological developments unifying art, craft, and technology. It was primarily focused on clean geometric forms and balanced visual compositions. The results were both both beautiful and simplistic, from the modern Barcelona Chair designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich to abstracted line-form paintings by Wassily Kandinsky. Each practice was examined, explored and experimented further by both the students and encouraging tutors. For objects you can buy today in the style of the Bauhaus, see our post on objects to bring Bauhaus style to your studio . Bauhaus design: Futuristic trends Strong black and red typography treatment by Moholy-Nagy Futuristic designs for the real world were being considered with various mediums including wood, metal and glass. Graphic designers such as Moholy-Nagy, avid user of red and experimental layouts, set strong design trends. He was not shy to augment the typography by standing it vertically or diagonally on the page – as designers, we know this is a difficult technique to implement. Maholy-Nagy's work influenced, and was influenced by Jan Tschichold, who championed a new movement in typography and wrote many of the rules of graphic design that are still there for us to break to this day. He looked at posters, pages and double-page spreads structurally, considered the benefits or disadvantages of symmetry and asymmetry, and introduced the concept of balancing headlines and body of text along with images as forms on the layout. Bauhaus design: Typography Another key designer in the Bauhaus movement was Herbert Bayer, known for developing the typeface Universal. This 'universal' alphabet was commissioned by Walter Gropius in 1925 for exclusive Bauhaus use, unfortunately it was never cut as a typeface. The characters are formed from perfect circles, and there’s zero contrast and no embellishment whatsoever. It was meant to be clear, direct and efficient in its communication – an ideological statement of intent. Although its forms lacked balance and failed to achieve the legibility Bayer hoped for, elements of it were drawn into Joe Taylor’s typeface Bauhaus 93 in 1969. Below is a re-issue of Bayer's typeface named called Architype Bayer; It was drawn from Bauhaus Archiv sketches, based on his single-alphabet student thesis, and is now available from The Foundry. Architype Bayer designed by Herbery Bayer, Re-issued for digital by Foundry Sometimes Bauhaus typefaces are described as Art Deco, but the word ‘mechanistic’ seems more accurate. Beautifully engineered lettering for an age of mass production was part of the aim. Even today when designers wish to express a sense of purity, often the answer is to reduce characters to pure, geometric forms. Bauhaus design: the Bauhaus logo The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation – its lettering is perhaps the closest thing the movement has to a logo Although the Bauhaus aimed to develop a visual language for the future, the school never had a logo. Arguably, the work spoke for itself and the Bauhaus identity was there to be seen in the beautiful objects created. Of course, there’s also the distinctive Dessau school building itself, designed by Walter Gropius. Perhaps the closest the school came to an emblem was the side-on face created by Oskar Schlemmer. It became the motif of the movement. The machine aesthetic is there to be seen in what is essentially a composition constructed using rectangles, constrained in a perfect circle. In it, there’s the sense that the Bauhaus would reshape the world, and perhaps there is even a hint of Mona Lisa-like contentment in the expression. Joost Schmidt's Bauhaus poster The form was incorporated into a poster promoting a 1923 Bauhaus exhibition while the school was still in Weimar. With its asymmetric tilted oval form, dashes of geometry and hairline serif type, it feels like a half-way house between the school’s Expressionist beginnings and new functionalist philosophy. Many a design student has mimicked this design in their coursework – and why not? The image was directly lifted and used as a logo by a 1980s British gothic rock band fronted by Peter Murphy, which called itself Bauhaus and was influenced by German Expressionism. Bauhaus design: Closure of The Bauhaus Political pressure and constant scrutiny by the Nazi movement (which strongly opposed modernism in favour of classicism) continued to cast a shadow over the school. In 1928 Gropius resigned and was then succeeded by Hannes Meyer. The school carried on with practice as usual. In the 1930s the Bauhaus received criticism from the Nazi writers Wilhelm Frick and Alfred Rosenberg, labelling the Bauhaus 'un-German' and disagreeing with the modernistic styles the school was predominately based on. The writers characterised the Bauhaus as a front for Communists, Russians, and social liberals. Further pressure from the Nazi régime forced the Bauhaus to close on April 11, 1933. With many design movements, the outcomes look out-dated over the years. In contrast, the Bauhaus philosophy has had a constant influence on all forms of design. Most major cities incorporate design elements from this theory of 'form follows function' – such as white walls, clean lines and glass, which is even more impressive when you consider that the school that only existed for fourteen years. Parts of this article were originally published in Computer Arts magazine; subscribe here. Read more: The impact of the Bauhaus on modern culture Mid-century modern graphic design: a designer's guide The best office chair for home working View the full article

The most powerful laptops today are capable of handling incredible workloads. In the past, for tasks like video editing or graphic design that required a lot of high-performance hardware, no laptop would have been able to come close to the capabilities of a desktop. In some way, you would have had to make a compromise: the most powerful laptops were often so big and heavy as to be barely portable, and many would sacrifice battery life completely, lasting no longer than an hour away from a plug socket. That’s no longer true. The latest generation of processors with six or eight CPU cores means the most powerful laptops can perform every bit as well as desktops. Graphics cards are better – you can now get full-fat desktop cards in some laptops, not the anaemic mobile versions that were once the only option. If you want to compare, take a look at our guide to the best computers for graphic design. Screens are getting better too. Laptops now come with high-DPI colour accurate displays that look simply amazing, such as Apple’s DCI-P3 Retina displays and the 4K screens on some Windows laptops. Explore some other options in our guide to the best laptop for video editing And what’s more, this beastly portable performance won’t break your back. The lower power requirements and more intelligent resource management of modern laptop hardware means manufacturers can opt for more compact cooling systems and physically smaller batteries, resulting in reduced laptop weight and thickness. It’s very impressive how so much computing performance can be squeezed out of such a small space. We’ve listed some of the most powerful laptops on the market today, and found some great deals so high performance portable computing doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Dell describes its Precision 5530 as its thinnest, lightest and smallest 15-inch mobile workstation ever, and we’d agree. Available in 'bright onyx' or 'platinum silver', it’s a lovely machine with a brilliant specification. The two-piece silver and black chassis looks great, and inside there’s a choice of Core i5, i7 or i9 Intel processors with four or six cores. Up to 2TB of fast NVMe storage is available and unlike many other slim and light laptops, you can add a second hard disk to give you both a fast system drive with additional internal storage for media. Topping off the specification is an Nvidia Quadro 1000 or 2000 graphics card and an optional 4K touch-sensitive display to offer a premium computing experience. Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Pro is the most powerful laptop the company has ever made by a wide margin. Earlier this year, Apple began offering a new model with an eight-core 9th generation Intel processor, which is guaranteed to fly through any computing task there is. Whether it’s video editing, 3D design or photo editing, the top-end MacBook Pro will chew through it effortlessly, no matter if you choose the six or eight-core model. Bump up the graphics card to an AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16, add more storage and boost the memory to 32GB and the MacBook Pro admittedly becomes a seriously pricey proposition. But alongside the fantastic display, excellent trackpad and fantastic battery life, the MacBook Pro is one of the best laptops on the market. The futuristic looking angled edges on the lid and case of HP’s professional-grade ZBook Studio laptop befit an equally forward-thinking internal specification that features four or six-core Intel processors, up to 4TB of SSD storage (across dual SSDs) and Nvidia Quadro graphics. While other high-end mobile workstations have fantastic screens, the 15.6-inch 4K HP DreamColor display on the ZBook studio is possibly the best on any laptop. It offers 100% AdobeRGB coverage and 10-bit colour accuracy, which means visibly better colours, in addition to particularly high brightness levels with up to 600nits. Configurable with up to 64GB of memory, should you need it, this may not be the thinnest or lightest laptop on the market, but it’s certainly one of the most high-end. The ThinkPad P1 is the real star of Lenovo's ThinkPad laptop range. It has plenty of CPU power, with up to 6-core Intel Xeon or Core i7 processor, and is considerably thinner, lighter (1.7kg) and more portable that any of the other ThinkPads. Delve into the optional extras, and you’ll find the killer feature of the ThinkPad P1, a colour-accurate 4K display that looks particularly bright and vibrant, and doesn’t add too much to the price over the standard FullHD display, making it an upgrade we’d recommend. Lenovo has more than one ultra-powerful laptop in its ThinkPad range. It's also worth considering the P72, which is one of the most powerful laptops around. This 17-inch 4K mega workstation comes with up to 128GB of memory, 6TB of storage and a mega powerful Nvidia Quadro P5200 graphics card. Sporting a lovely royal blue chassis, the slim and portable 14-inch Zenbook Pro stands out as both attractive and highly capable, with processor and graphics performance in spades. And it has an interesting second display, a 5.5-inch screen built into the touchpad that can run special Asus-designed apps. Weighing just 1.6kg, it comes with a quad-core processor and discrete Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics that will give it a leg up in both creative software and gaming, with up to 16GB of memory and a 1TB SSD. Good specifications for the price that will certainly power any software you might run on it. The 13.3-inch MSI Prestige P65 is a slightly different class of mobile workstation to the high-end laptops listed above. It’s definitely a powerhouse, with Nvidia GeForce graphics and optional six-core processor. But rather than ultimate colour accuracy, MSI has bestowed the display with a 144Hz refresh rate which is indeed a lovely feature, but is particularly better for gaming on. The design is great too. The design is one of the most lightweight in a laptop, and the chamfered edges complete an overall premium look and feel that does MSI proud indeed. View the full article

We've seen many new APIs added to the web over the last few years that have really enabled web content to have the same kind of functionality as many apps have had for some time. A relatively new API is the Speech Recognition API, which as you can probably guess, lets you use your text as an input onto the page. It requires a click to start the service and again to stop. A great case for this might be in allowing accessibility among your users, giving voice input as an alternative to clicking. If your analytics show that you have a lot of mobile browsing, then think how much easier it would be to speak into your phone than using the keyboard. There have been predictions that screen-based interfaces might start to disappear within ten years. At first this might sound like science fiction, but as users get more and more comfortable with speech as input through the likes of Alexa and Siri then it stands to reason that this will become pervasive as an input method. The tutorial here will get you up to speed on speech input and then use that to leave product reviews on an ecommerce site. Download the files for this tutorial. 8 tips for designing voice interfaces 01. Start the project Don't worry about CSS as that's already written [Image: Web Designer] From the project files folder, open the 'start' folder in your code IDE and open the 'speech.html' file to edit. All the CSS for the project is written as that isn't the focus of the speech API, so add the link shown here to get the Noto Serif typeface and link up the CSS file. 02. Add the content The first elements of this will be to have a wrapper in which to hold all of our on-screen content. The first element in here will be a hidden message that tells the user if the Speech API is supported in the browser. This will only be seen if it isn't. Then a heading tells the user that the form elements that follow will be used for their message. 03. Choose the results When using the Speech API there are two ways to display the content. In one, text displays when the user has stopped speaking and the 'listening' button is clicked off. The other shows words on screen as spoken. This first radio button allows for the final speech result to be shown. 04. Radio two The second radio button is added here and this one allows the user to select the text to be displayed as they speak. These radio buttons will be picked up by the JavaScript later and used to control the speech input, but for now this allows the user to have an interface to control that. 05. Display the text The user's speech will end up in the 'transcription' text-area [Image: Web Designer] The text that the user speaks into the page will need to be displayed on the screen. Here the text-area is added that has the id of 'transcription' — this will be targeted so that the user's speech ends up here. There's also a clear button to remove the text. 06. The last interface Clicking the speech button starts and stops speech detection [Image: Web Designer] The final interface elements are added to the screen now. The speech button enables and disables the speech, so it must be clicked before speaking. Clicking again stops it. As this is a relatively new interaction, the log underneath will tell the users what to do. 07. Add Javascript Now add the script tags before the closing body tag. This is where all of the JavaScript will go. The first two lines grab the page elements with the matching ID and store them in a variable. The transcription is the text result of the speech. The log will update the user with how to use it. 08. Variable results Using the next few variables, more interface elements are cached into them. The speech button will become a toggle, letting users switch speech on and off., monitored by a Boolean, true/false variable. The clear-all button will delete unsatisfactory speech results. 09. Is it supported? The first thing our code will do is find out if this speech feature is supported by the user's browser. If this result comes back as null then the if statement throws up the hidden message, while simultaneously taking the start button away from the interface to stop the speech input. 10. Start the recognition The speech recognition is started as the 'else' for the speech recognition being available. The continuous input is started as that is the default on the radio buttons. The 'onresult' function will handle the results of the speech input. This will be added into the transcription's text field. 11. Final or interim? The if statement now checks to see if the user wants to display the text as they are talking (interim) or only after they finish speaking (final). You will notice that if it's interim, each word gets added to the text with the '+=', while the final just dumps the whole text in there. 12. Handling errors As with most JavaScript APIs there is an error handler that will allow you to decide what to do with any issues that might arise. These are thrown into the 'log' div to give feedback to the user, as it is essential that they are aware of what might be going on with the interface. 13. Start speaking! The event listener here is started when the user clicks the button to start speaking. If the user is not speaking, then the button changes colour to show speaking has started, the variable for speaking is set to true and the 'interim' radio button is checked to see if this is the user's choice for input. 14. Take the input The 'try and catch' statement now starts the speech recognition and tells the user that they should start speaking and that when they are done, 'click again to stop'. The catch will pick up the error and throw that into the 'log' div so that the user can understand what might be wrong. 15. Click to stop Now when the user clicks to stop talking, the speech recognition is stopped. The button is changed back to green from red while talking. The user interface is updated so that the user is informed that the service has stopped. The speaking variable is set to false, ready to let the user speak again. 16. Clear the text The clear button removes wrongly-interpreted speech [Image: Web Designer] The final code for this section is just a clear button to remove the speech input text in case it is wrongly interpreted. Save the file and test this in your browser. You will be able to click the button to speak into the computer and see the results. 17. Add purpose Now as you have a working example, there needs to be some purpose to the interface, so let's make this so that users can input reviews. Save the page and then choose Save As, with the new name of 'reviews.html'. Add the following HTML elements just after the <div id="wrapper"> line. 18. Total submission The submit button submits inputted speech [Image: Web Designer] The previous code will hold the reviews. The user will need to submit their speech input, so add the submit button right after the 'clear text' button, which will be around line 28 in your code. Then you can move down to the JavaScript for the next step. 19. New interface elements At the top of your Javascript add the new variables to hold the references to the new interface elements that have just been added. These will provide you with a way to submit and display the results on the screen within the 'reviews' section of the page. 20. Submit the entry Now the code here will handle when the user clicks the submit button, place this right before the 'clear' button code, which should be around line 88 in your code. First, a paragraph tag is created and the speech input is subsequently added into this. This will then be added into the 'review' section. 21. Final submission If you want to store submitted speech you'll have to use a database [Image: Web Designer] The date is added so that the review is timestamped into the document. Finally a horizontal rule is added to show where each review ends, then the text is cleared ready for new input. Save the page and test this. You will see that you can now submit your speech into the page as reviews. For persistence you would need to use a database to store these results. This article was originally published in issue 286 of creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 286 here or subscribe to Web Designer here. Related articles: 14 of the best JavaScript APIs Build an AI-powered chatbot 5 emerging UX trends in 2019 View the full article

Mozilla has patched a second actively-exploited vulnerability in Firefox this week. View the full article

Have you ever ordered a pizza then realised that you can't eat it in one sitting? Chances are you might have saved it overnight then reheated it in the morning for a breakfast treat. That's sort of what Pizza Hut has done with its logo, by dusting off a design from the 60s and 70s. The logo in question is the red roof design. This graphic has been the cornerstone of the Pizza Hut brand for decades, although successive iterations have tweaked it so much that the straightforward logo arguably lost its impact. However, the original red roof design, which was used between 1967 and 1999, still looks timeless. Check out the revived version in action in the video for Pizza Hut's relaunch of its Cheesy Bites pizza crust (above). It's a good example of best practice logo design in action: it's got simple shapes, crisp colours, and a clear message that all come together in one effective piece of branding. Meanwhile the logo that rolled out in 2014 (below) inverted the colours and to make the red roof white. The accompanying circular graphic brought to mind tomato sauce smeared on a doughy base, but even for the time it looked a little passé. The previous Pizza Hut logo had been in use since 2014 The new logo isn't identical to its predecessor (below) though. The colour of the roof has been bumped up from a dull carmine shade and now pops from the screen in a vibrant red. Traditionalists will be happy to see that the flowing serifed lettering is still present and correct. It's also now accompanied by the slogan 'No one outpizzas the hut', but the less said about that the better. The 1967-1999 logo makes a welcome return So why did Pizza Hut bring back the design? According to its chief brand officer Marianna Radley, it was because the chain wanted to reconnect with its roots and be "a little braver, a little bolder in our choices". Given that Pizza Hut is the first national US pizza chain, it's got a lot of legacy to draw on. Lately it has been losing ground though, with Dominos overtaking it to become the largest pizza company by sales in 2017. But with a new, old logo, NFL sponsorship and revitalised menu, Pizza Hut hopes to claw back the public's affection. "We need have more guts in what we're doing and be more confident," Radley told The Drum. "I think we shied away from that over the years." Expect to see the new identity appear on Pizza Hut's communications and promotions in the coming weeks. Related articles: Design a killer logo in Illustrator 10 of the best logos ever 11 steps to better logos View the full article

A component in SupportAssist software pre-installed on Dell PCs - and other OEM devices - opens systems up to DLL hijacking attacks. View the full article

Apple's cases and covers are notoriously expensive, but right now John Lewis is offering some big discounts that make the pricetags much more friendly. If you've been saving your pennies in the hope of snagging an amazing Prime Day deal on an Apple accessory, now may be the time to rethink your plans, with prices dropping by over 50% on some sleeves. Not sure which accessories are right for you? Head over to our guide to the best iPad accessories, which includes styluses, keyboards, cases and covers, headphones and more. If you're on the hunt for some new kit, John Lewis is also offering deals on a whole host of other Apple devices, from iMacs to Apple Watches. The retailer is coming good with its offers right now – last week we reported on a trade-in deal that meant your could swap an old smart device for up to £340 off a Series 4 Apple Watch (potentially taking it down to just £59). Read on for our pick of the best deals on Apple accessories and more. If you've got a little more to spend, there are also some top savings to be had on Apple devices. These are the biggest discounts: Take a look at all the deals here. View the full article

Taking its name from how people would display the images, the pin-up genre has entertained people for decades. If you look closely at pieces of pin-up art though, you might notice that most of them depict glamorous women in compromising states of undress. However these illustrations by David Talaski subvert the genre by showing buff guys snagging their kit on house plants, capes and shower doors. And just as pin-ups of yore would depict the fantasies of the time, these illustrations rely on today's biggest fictional characters: superheroes from the Marvel universe. So if you've always wanted to see Captain America or Thor in the semi-nude, these are the pin-ups for you. And if they cause your flatmates, friends or boss to clutch their pearls, you could always use the old excuse that you're just admiring the artist's amazing figure drawing skills. Check out a smattering of Talaski's work below. This is just a selection of Talaski's incredible illustrations. The video game illustrator and concept artist at Liquid Development has even more scantily clad superheroes for you to gaze at over in his Instagram page. And if these illustrations have really tickled your fancy, make sure you check out Talaski's Etsy page where you can pick up prints of his work. Related articles: How to make money on Instagram as a creative Marvel reveals new X-Men logo Captain Marvel website is a beautiful '90s mess View the full article

In what must be every parent's worst nightmare, a three-year-old toppled over a sculpture worth £45,500 ($56,000) at an art fair in Switzerland last week. The piece of art, named Fliege (Fly), had both its wings knocked off when the toddler reached from her buggy. However a spokesperson for the art show reported that the sculpture was not damaged. The incident took place at the Art Basel fair, a renowned exhibition that showcases the best in modern and contemporary art. No doubt the cutting edge pieces on display at the fair would sit comfortably alongside our round up of the best examples of experimental design. The plastic fly sculpture (above), made by German artist Katharina Fritsch, was positioned on a plinth before being knocked over by the toddler. The child, who was in attendance with her mum, did not damage the artwork. The Art Newspaper reports that according to an Art Basel spokeswoman, the fair is "aware of the incident” and that it was "informed by the gallery that the work was not damaged." Phew. This sort of accident would make us feel so awkward that we'd want the ground to swallow us up. Funnily enough, that's practically what happened during another high profile art exhibition gaffe. Last year a man fell into Anish Kapoor's painted hole installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art, in Porto, Portugal. We're just relieved that the sculpture wasn't damaged. And with the gallery declining to share further details, here's hoping everyone can move on from the honest mistake. Related articles: 5 ads that tried to be cool, but failed The North Face tries to "hack" Wikipedia, fails spectacularly 7 fantastic design fails – and what we can learn from them View the full article

Bauhaus style never goes out of fashion. The most important school in the history of arts education, the Bauhaus, practically coined the term design. The Bauhaus merged arts and crafts with industry and technology to produce timeless objects that are as relevant today as they were 100 years ago. As the Bauhaus celebrates its centenary, there is no better time to equip your workspace with these coveted Bauhaus-esque objects, which are sure to add some serious design cred to your studio. If you're after more home studio inspiration, you can also check out our guides to the best office chair, plus the best desk. [Image: Bad Craft Studios] Never lose another second with this cheery Bauhaus-style clock, inspired by the work of Piet Mondrian. Piet Mondrian was a central figure in the De Stijl movement, and was responsible for catapulting the primary colour combo of red, blue and yellow, framed in black and white, into the mainstream. In keeping with this, this Bauhaus clock is bright and stylish, and is handmade in the USA with laser cut wood and acrylic. It could add a welcome splash of colour to more neutral colour schemes, and having it a prominent position in your studio will show clients you're serious about style (and hopefully mean your meetings won't run over). [Image: Furnwise] Aside from his buildings, German architect Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe’s biggest legacy in the world of design is the Barcelona Chair, so called because it was designed for the German pavilion at the 1929 International Exposition, which was held in Barcelona. The chair is perfect for receptions or waiting areas, or for sly cat naps after the Friday afternoon food coma hits. It also comes in the form of a two-seater sofa, for the high rollers out there who want to make a big splash in their studio. [Image: Redrook 3D] Nothing screams 'serious intellectual' like a chess set, and if there happens to be one on display in your office, then you’ll score bonus points with clients, who will forever more associate you with the 'thinking person’s game'. This iconic Bauhaus chess set is based on designs by Bauhaus sculptor Josef Hartwig in 1923, and is notable for its reduced forms, which distill every chess piece back to its essential geometric fundamentals. Hartwig started his design career as an apprentice stonemason, so it follows that his chess pieces appear as if they were hewn out of one solid block of wood (although in this case, they're actually 3D printed). [Image: Knoll International] Sometimes architecture and engineering come together in a marriage so beautiful that no one would suspect they were often duelling disciplines. Such is the case with this office chair design from Mies Van der Rohe – a 1927 creation he designed for Austrian furniture company Thonet. This is perhaps the most famous cantilever chair, owing largely to a photo of the bulky Mies reclining in the chair puffing on a giant cigar. This photo went some way to instilling confidence in the chair’s unorthodox concept, the cantilevered seat. The chair has a distinctive silhouette, with a curving, tubular steel frame across which is stretched a fabric seat and seat back. A set of the Thonet chairs can add a gleam of chrome to a conference or meeting room, or if the kitchen is the heart of your studio, they are great for bouncing into after languid lunch shared among colleagues. [Image: BePrintable] Who doesn’t love a good graphic print? Depicting the photogenic Bauhaus staircase in the Dessau campus, this angular print is executed in the colour combination made famous by the Dutch art movement De Stijl and Piers Mondrian. Mondrian was the original colour blocker, and hanging this print on your studio wall will show you know your van Doesburg’s from your Van der Rohe’s. It also couldn’t be easier to get your hands on this geometric goodie, as all you have to do is pay and print from Etsy. Go large or go home with this one. [Image: Klein & Moore] Stack em up or spread em out, the choice is yours, but rest assured that these neat Josef Albers tables will make your studio pop. Albers was both a student and a teacher in the Bauhaus, and was a central figure in modernist design education on both sides of the Atlantic, so you’re in good hands with these tables. The tables are typical of the Bauhaus’ strict geometric style, with straight lines and clean edges the order of the day. The glass tops, the underside of which are painted with turquoise, blue, yellow or orange, give the tables a glossy finish, and the recessed support underneath the tabletop gives a sense of how thoughtfully these tables were designed. Stick one at either end of a couch for maximum effect; these babies deserve to shine bright in your studio. [Image: Taschen] Any design studio worth its salt should have a book on the Bauhaus gracing its library shelves, so look no further than this one-stop shop for everything Bauhaus related by Taschen. There are countless books published about the Bauhaus, but this is perhaps the most comprehensive and engaging. It charts the history of the school, gives the global and European context of its development, includes anecdotes about teachers and students and gives thorough insight into what set the Bauhaus apart and why its legacy is so important. Go the whole hog and position in carefully on one of Josef Albers’ nesting tables (above) for full Bauhaus effect. [Image: Technolumen] You can’t go wrong with this Bauhaus Lamp. Designed in 1923 by Wilhelm Wagenfeld and Carl Jakob Jucker, this lamp design is another iteration of Gropius’ design fundamentals, and uses the simplest of geometric forms – circles, spheres and cylinders – in the creation of this iconic lamp. The opaque glass dome was particularly innovative back in the day, as this type of glass was usually only seen in industrial light fittings, so it was unusual to see it being used in a domestic object. As part of your studio furniture, it will spruce up any work desk as task lighting, or it can be used as part of an overall lighting strategy when different ambiences are required. [Image: Alessi] Smokers rejoice! There’s a new ashtray in town! Well, it’s a very old ashtray and so few people smoke in 2019, so perhaps it’s more of a showpiece than anything else. This stainless steel, hemisphere ashtray was originally designed by Marianne Brandt in 1924. Brandt was the only woman in the Bauhaus’ metalwork department, and as such became a pioneering figure in early 20th century industrial design. This ashtray would look great in a display cabinet, or on a side table, or as part of a collection of objects on a shelf or dresser. [Image: OAM] Don Draper, eat your heart out. Nothing says 'intimidating creative' like a mammoth high-gloss desk, all the better to beat irritating clients into submission with. This desk might be more Mad Men than Bauhaus, but it has all the trappings of Bauhaus design, from the sharp angles and heavy rectangular form to the metal trim under the desk top and on the drawers. This desk has plenty of storage, and can be used as a corner desk or to seat two people. The price tag might be hefty, but it will certainly impress your clients. Read more: The best home design software Mid-century modernism: 15 classic examples The best desks for your home office or studio View the full article

The update patches critical flaw (CVE-2019-11707), a type confusion vulnerability in the Mozilla Firefox code that Tor uses. View the full article

Cisco has patched a slew of critical and high-severity flaws in its DNA Center and SD-WAN. View the full article

There's no need to spend loads of time and money on expensive photography courses - the Hollywood Photography and Art Course and Certification will equip you with professional-level photography skills in no time at all. With 22 tutorials that will teach you various photography techniques, this bundle guarantees you'll walk away with in-depth knowledge about the field. The best cloud storage 2019 The techniques in this bundle will help you to get your head around shooting images for videos, articles, ebooks, and a whole lot more. Skip the distracting technical jargon and start taking professional-level photos right away! Get the course now and save 99 per cent when you buy it for just $19. Related articles: 15 ways to improve your photography skills The best camera for creatives in 2019 The best cameras for beginners in 2019 View the full article

Going freelance is the dream for many creatives. For many it's all about getting out of the 9-to-5 and working for themselves, while for others it's the first step on the way to setting up their own agency. Whatever your reasons for going freelance, though, it's essential that you put in some preparation first. You might have some great contacts and a killer design portfolio, but if you want the transition to freelance life to go smoothly, there are plenty of things to sort out in advance. For all the advice you're ever likely to need, read our in-depth freelance survival guide; however, to get you going in the right direction, here are nine things that you absolutely need to get sorted in advance of the big day, 4 ways to go freelance 01. Get some money in the bank It's essential to have something put by to get you through the early days [Image: Getty] Nobody goes freelance in the expectation of not making a living, but the fact is that while you're starting out you could find yourself running out of money. Even if you have plenty of work lined up from day one, you're likely to have to face a period of zero income between your final pay cheque and the first of your invoices getting paid. If you plan ahead though, and start saving up a decent cash buffer a few months in advance – say, enough to get you through two or three months with nothing coming in – you should be well prepared to get through those cash-strapped early days. 02. Register as self-employed Bite the bullet and register with HMRC as soon as possible [Image: HMRC] Now that you're no longer an employee getting your tax handled for you through PAYE, you need to make yourself known to HMRC to prevent tax problems cropping up further down the line. It's not fun but it needs to be tackled sooner rather than later, and thankfully it's pretty straightforward to register as self-employed through the HMRC website (don't attempt to do it over the phone unless you really enjoy listening to hold music). When you're starting out as a freelancer, you're most likely to want to register as a sole trader; once your practice grows it might become necessary to set up a limited company, but you're unlikely to need to worry about that right now. 03. Decide where you're going to work Working from home is the dream for many, but it can turn into a nightmare [Image: Getty] This might sound like a trivial part of the process, but the business of where you work can have quite an impact on your productivity. Many designers and illustrators are already set up to work from home and find it easy to carry on in that vein, but you may well find that while this was a great setup for after-hours side projects, it's not so good on a full-time basis. If you feel that you need to get out of the house and actually go to work, look for local co-working spaces where you can hire a desk for as many days a month as you need. It'll give your working life some much-needed structure, and it's also likely to present you with plenty of networking opportunities. 04. Start a spreadsheet You have to do your own admin now, and a master spreadsheet is an absolute must [Image: Getty] This one's simple to do but easy to put off, and the longer you wait the harder it'll be to catch up later. Create a spreadsheet detailing all your income and outgoings, and remember to keep it updated. It doesn't have to be especially complex, all you need is a record of everything you've earned and spent over the tax year so that by the time comes to tackle your self-assessment return you can do a couple of simple sums and you'll have the two most important numbers for it: what you've earned and what expenses you can offset against tax. 05. Find your clients Call up all your potential clients well in advance, and stay in touch with them [Image: Getty] If you've made the decision to go freelance then it's likely that you already have a pretty firm idea of who you want to work with (and some expectation that they'll want to hire you). The last thing you want, though, is to make the leap to freelance and then find out on day one that there isn't any work about, so it pays to prepare in advance. Once you've committed to going freelance, work up a hit list of your preferred clients and get in touch. Some of them will probably already know you, others will need a fuller briefing; in both cases, let them know when you'll be available and what you can do for them. After a few of these conversations you should be set up to start work on your first freelance day. 06. Get an accountant – maybe Not everybody needs an accountant, but the bigger your business gets the more vital it becomes [Image: Getty] Do you need an accountant? That's a million dollar question with no easy answer. If you're setting up as a sole trader, have a firm idea of what you're going to earn over your first year and it's not going to take you into any higher tax brackets (we know, chance would be a fine thing), and you're not likely to rack up loads of complex expenses, it's not too hard to sort out your own tax. That said, if you're not comfortable with that side of the business, or if you expect your business to grow pretty quickly, an accountant can be an absolute godsend (and the fees can be offset against tax). If you're not sure, find a local accountant and go in for a chat. 07. Sort out your social media Your personal social accounts might do the job, but it pays to set up separate business ones [Image: Getty] It's a given that you need a social media footprint to promote yourself and your company, and it's almost certain that you already have personal accounts set up across various platforms. But as with the question of whether you want to work from home or not, you need to ask yourself whether you want to use these accounts to promote your freelance career. Many freelancers cope perfectly well with accounts that mix personal and work, but you might well prefer to separate those strands. It's good to have discrete accounts that are all about the work – especially if you consider that potential clients might not really want to know what you thought about the end of Game of Thrones – and while juggling multiple Twitter and Instagram accounts can be a bit of a hassle, it can really help you present a more professional face to the world where it counts. 08. Build your portfolio Make sure your portfolio gets the message across fast [Image: Getty] Here's another of those things that you probably already have mostly sorted, but which will need some work before you're good to go. If you're ready to go freelance then you've undoubtedly built up a strong a body of work, but what you may not have done is build it into a portfolio that gets the message across quickly and efficiently. Simply dumping all your work onto Behance isn't enough; you need to create a focused portfolio that tells your story and demonstrates how much of an essential hire you are. Follow our tips on how to curate a creative portfolio and you'll soon be on the right track. 09. Be prepared for tax Don't get stung by an unexpected payment on account [Image: Getty] Yes, we've already mentioned tax a couple of times already, and with good reason: if you're not adequately prepared for it, the tax system can still catch you out. Even if you're diligently setting aside a proportion of your income for tax, your first tax return may well surprise you by asking for a lot more money than you'd bargained for, thanks to payments on account. In short: you file your self assessment tax return and get your bill, but on top of that payment, HMRC will also ask for the first of two payments on account for the next tax year, and this will be in the region of half your estimated bill for that year. There's nothing quite like the shock of thinking you were all sorted, tax-wise, then finding that your bill's roughly 50 per cent more than you anticipated, so make sure that in your first year of business you're putting some extra aside to cover it. For more tax advice, take a look at our tax return tips for freelancers. Related articles: 5 ways to get more freelance work in 2019 How to be a thrifty freelancer 20 tools that make freelancing easier View the full article

The Amazon Echo Dot is the perfect way to bring Amazon's Alexa smart assistant into your home or studio. With the voice activated device, creators can play music, control smart devices, and message other Echo device users. The Echo Dot is a handy way to stay on top of things without having to take yourself away from your work. What's more, it's budget-friendly as far as voice assistants go. And in the run up to Amazon Prime Day 2019, we've seen the price of the Echo Dot drop drastically. Usually you would expect to pay £49.99 for the Echo Dot, and if you were lucky enough to pick up a Black Friday bargain you might have snapped it up for £30. However no deal we've seen compares to this incredible discount, which sees Amazon offering the Echo Dot for just 99p. This beats previous Amazon Prime Day deals we've seen hands down, and chances are the Echo Dot won't be this cheap again when Amazon Prime Day comes along. To get your ridiculously cheap Echo Dot, you will need to sign up for the Amazon Apple Music Unlimited Family plan, which costs £14.99 a month. After your free trial ends, and you make your first £14.99 payment, you will then be sent instructions on how to claim your 99p Echo Dot. Once you've got it, you're free to cancel your Amazon Music account if you want. This means that the 99p deal and the single month's payment have bagged you an Echo Dot and a month's worth of music for just £15.98. Keep in mind that this offer runs until Monday 24 June 09.00 BST. That means you've only got a few days to grab this bargain voice assistant. And with the offer only running while stocks last, you'll want to move fast if you don't want to miss it. And if you want to browse more voice assistants, check out our ultimate guide to all Amazon devices. Read more: Amazon Prime Day 2019 date leaked... again The best desks for your home office or studio The best power bank in 2019: top portable chargers to power your devices View the full article

Whether you’re demonstrating the finer points of illustration or handholding viewers through a UI design tutorial, YouTube offers the perfect platform for sharing your talents with the world – and with 1.9 billion logged in monthly users, we really do mean the world. Over half of YouTube visitors use the site to work out how to do things they’ve not done before, so making your own videos is a great way to position yourself as an expert in your field, sell your work and bring in more clients. But how do you compete with the millions of other videos on the ever-growing behemoth that is YouTube? True, you could choose an alternative platform like Vimeo and access a smaller, niche audience. But you'll probably want more than the basic membership, which will cost you money (YouTube is free) and you may not appear high in search results, as Google favours YouTube videos. Then there's Instagram's IGTV, which launched in 2018 with huge promise but lags way behind YouTube, especially if you want to publish high quality, in-depth content and access viewers with longer attention spans. So, aside from getting the best video editing software, how can you make it big on YouTube, maximise your views and promote your work? Read on for some top tips from creatives doing just that … 01. Find your style Your unique style is what people will come back for. Think about your target audience and strike a balance between a style that reflects your personality and the aims/theme of your content. According to Matt Fryer from TipTut, a tutorials, reviews and resources channel with 85,000 subscribers, succeeding on the platform comes down to having a unique take, approach, personality or skill set. "Plenty of people make tutorials on YouTube, most of them suffer from poor production quality, lack of engaging personality from the presenter, or simply a lack of knowledge on the subject matter," he says. Full stack designer Jesse Showalter puts his 69,000 subscribers down to staying true to who he is and what his users want: "People connect with my high energy mixed with level of encouragement. I try to motivate and encourage as well as inform and equip." 02. Choose the right length How long (or short) are the most successful videos? Martin Perhiniak’s channel Yes I’m a Designer has 174, 000 subscribers and his most viewed video (above), which has been watched over 2.3 million times) is 40 minutes long. "In the case of educational videos, longer videos will attract more views as people will expect a more thorough explanation and more value," says Perhiniak. Fryer believes the ideal length depends on the subject matter."I've had better results splitting longer videos into series. Around 15–20 minutes works best for most subject matters," he says. "But," he continues, "the real answer is: as short as possible without skipping key information." If a video is too short, people can feel short-changed or miss vital parts of the process. Also bear in mind that 70 per cent of time spent on YouTube is watching content that the YouTube algorithm recommends. The algorithm prefers longer videos to keep people on the platform, so the longer you can keep users engaged, the better it is for your exposure. 03. Stick to a schedule Standing out from the YouTube crowd is as much about quantity as it is quality. Post less and you’ll grow more slowly. Be clear about the schedule you’re aiming for, be consistent with posting and subscribers will know what to expect. According to Perhiniak, "Frequent videos will help to engage subscribers and bring in new viewers. The more videos you publish the higher the chance one of them will get picked up by the algorithm and get featured by YouTube." Batch recording and scheduling videos is crucial if you want to publish videos frequently and consistently, says Perhiniak. "TubeBuddy is a great extension that helps doing batch editing, which came in handy many times during our 365 Days of Creativity marathon [above]." 04. Interact, interact, interact Make effective use of the platform’s community tab [Image: TipTut] To grow views and followers, you need to build an interactive community around your content. "Try to be as personal as possible and respond to comments, queries, etc, inside and outside of YouTube," advises Fryer. Calls to action encourage people to engage and it pays to be bold. "Ask them questions, tell them to comment and like the video if they find it useful," says Perhiniak. "In some cases, it is better to pick a controversial topic than something safe as it will get more engagement, but avoid click-bait videos. These can bring in a lot of views but won't help to grow your channel." 05. Shout about your business If people know you’re an expert in your field, they’ll follow you for trusted content that’s backed up by the knowledge you’re brilliant at what you do. So, make sure you tell people how qualified you are. "One thing that I believe differentiates me," says Perhiniak, "is that I have been teaching as an Adobe Certified Instructor around the world for over 10 years and that I have been also actively working as a graphic designer and illustrator for companies like Disney and Nickelodeon." Remember, too, that you’re a business: "I include reminders about my shop at the end of a video if that particular drawing is available to buy there,’ says Baylee Jae Brazeau, who has over 1.1 million subscribers. "The entire video works as subtle advertising, so I try to keep mentions of my shop brief." Just because you're mentioning your business though, doesn't mean it has to feel like a hard sell. "If you do vlog-style content, promoting sales of your own art products comes quite naturally without feeling like you're forcing a sales pitch," says Brazeau. "People see me designing products, ordering them, unboxing them, etc. Not only do they enjoy seeing the process, it doubles as advertising." 06. Promote your channel via other social media Being innovative in the way you use other channels like Facebook and Twitter can have a dramatic impact on your stats. When creating a new video tutorial, Fryer produces additional marketing materials, including motion graphics and thumbnails, that can then be used to easily promote the video. Effective hashtags will extend your content’s reach and draw in new followers. Don’t spread yourself thin – think which channels best suit your audience. Most people find a Facebook presence invaluable; in addition to that, your content may be better suited to promotion on image-based channels like Instagram than, say, Twitter. 07. Consider thumbnails and SEO Satori Graphics’ beautiful thumbnails in action [Image: Satori Graphics] What gives your video click appeal? Graphic designer Thomas Cargill, whose channel Satori Graphics has 205, 000 subscribers, says that "you need to make sure the thumbnail and title is relevant to your niche, and spikes interest and curiosity". It should be the right size, use a great image and include the title in a clear, standout font. You could also brand it to be immediately recognisable amongst all the other thumbnails. "When you have a video that gets both a lot of clicks and a good watch time metric, the YouTube algorithm will promote your video more and more," says Cargill. "SEO is still important, but not as important as it was two plus years ago, and that involves having keyword-friendly titles, tags and descriptions." Fryer adds: "If you don’t deliver decent content, those viewers won’t stick around. A combination of topical, attractive titles, and high quality content often yields the best results – for example, see our Intro to Motion Graphics series." 08. Be patient, and enjoy the process For Cargill, it took several months to get his first 100 subscribers and he didn’t make any real revenue until after 18 months. His advice is to, "be patient and enjoy the process of making videos and providing content to your audience". There are no shortcuts to getting views. "Each time you make a video you have to convince your audience to watch it by making it quality, informative and appealing," says Fryer. "Expecting a certain level of commitment from your audience is egotistical and will set yourself up for failure. Work hard, work often, make yourself relevant." The final word comes from Showalter: "Do it because you love it, do it because you want to help people. Don’t do it to become rich, famous, or feel validated by others. The people that 'make it big' are usually the ones that have been 'making it small' for a long time. Just be you and be you consistently." Read more: How to make money on Pinterest as a creative The 10 best YouTube art channels The best video editing apps View the full article

Rampant security-operations bungling allowed cyberattackers to infiltrate JPL's network, which carries human mission data. View the full article

It's been in beta for a while, but Affinity Publisher has finally officially launched on Mac and Windows. The news comes fresh from the Affinity Live event, where Serif also revealed a ridiculously cool new feature: users will be able to swap between Designer, Photo and Publisher personas to instantly access the full range of each app's tools. For the full story, read on. As predicted, Serif is launching its desktop publishing app with a special introductory offer: right now you can get Affinity Publisher with 20% off. As with all Affinity apps, there's no subscription, which means you can pick up Publisher for a one-off payment of $31.99/£38.99 (usually $39.99/£48.99). For more creative bargains, make sure you bookmark our Amazon Prime Day deals page. Alternatively, read on for more info about Affinity Publisher. StudioLink technology changes the game for designers Affinity Publisher has its own impressive set of vector and photo editing tools built-in, but if you own Serif's other creative apps – vector design tool Affinity Designer and image editor Affinity Photo (which both got a major upgrade earlier in the month) – you can unlock Publisher's game-changing StudioLink technology. By clicking between the three different icons at the top of the interface, you'll be able to access a full array of professional vector and photo image editing tools from within Affinity Publisher. The desktop publishing app has launched on Mac (above) and Windows [image: Serif] That means that for the first time, designers will be able to jump between publishing and image editing tasks from within the same app. Could this be the productivity feature that pushes Affinity apps to the front of the creative software race? "Affinity Publisher with StudioLink... allows you to instantly switch to the advanced photo editing features of Affinity Photo and precise vector tools of Affinity Designer without ever leaving the app," said managing director Ashley Hewson. "It’s the most fluid workflow ever conceived in a creative suite of applications, and we think it’s a game changer.” iPad app integration Serif's dedicated iPad apps can already handle Publisher documents [image: Serif] As of now, Serif has updated the iPad versions of Affinity Designer and Photo to enable them to open, edit and export Publisher documents. We'll have to wait a little longer for a dedicated iPad version of Affinity Publisher, however – a launch is pencilled in for next year. Serif has confirmed the iPad app will feature the same StudioLink technology as the desktop apps, which is very exciting news indeed. Serif has impressed with its dedicated iPad apps, with Affinity Designer for iPad ranking highly in our list of the best iPad apps for painting and drawing. We're excited to see if Affinity Publisher for iPad will follow the same trend. Affinity Publisher features Publisher includes plenty of advanced layout features, including text on a path [image: Serif] What else can we expect from Serif's InDesign-botherer? There's all the usual features you need in a publishing app – Master Pages, facing-page spreads, grids, tables, advanced typography, text flow and full professional print output – plus many more. Affinity Publisher can import and export all major raster and vector files, including layered PSD, PDF, EPS formats. And it can output print-ready documents in the latest PDF/X formats, with hyperlink support for documents shared online. Serif also promises that it'll run like a dream, even on the most content-heavy documents. Find out more about the app (and pick up a copy with 20% off) on Serif's Affinity Publisher page. Read more: Explore our Affinity Designer video tutorial series Facebook's Libra logo causes internet meltdown The best Adobe deals in 2019 View the full article

Oracle is urging users to update after a critical WebLogic Server Flaw was found being actively exploited in the wild. View the full article

Want to become a professional copywriter? You’ll likely find that your career progresses in leaps and bounds after you get your hands on The Complete Digital Copywriting Master Class Bundle. This bundle offers in-depth training so you can become an outstanding copywriter. You’ll learn everything from proven copywriting strategies to common mistakes you should avoid. The best web hosting services in 2019 Armed with these insights from this bundle, you'll be able to create engaging content and monitor its online success via analytics tools. And with SEO tips, your work will also rank up there with your competition. You’ll also learn the basics of social media and email marketing, which will help to drive growth and revenue towards your business. What's more, you can save 96 per cent on the bundle when you buy it today. Get your bundle for just $39! Related articles: The best print adverts ever How to write the perfect brief How to write engaging case studies for your portfolio View the full article

In a case of life imitating art, Resident Evil fans have spotted a lookalike logo from the game being used by a real company. The catch? The fictional logo in question belongs to the Umbrella Corporation, a malicious pharmaceutical company that gets up to all sorts of shady activity in the Resident Evil series. Hardly a company you want to make a connection with. As you can see from the image taken by a Chinese social media user with the handle SRXEABYSS (below), the logo uses the same shape and colour split. Unlike Resident Evil's Umbrella Corporation logo (above), this real-life design uses a white and turquoise colour scheme, instead of white and red. The uncanny similarities don't end there though. That's because the company using the doppelganger design, Shanghai Ruilan Bao Hu San Biotech Limited, is itself a pharmaceutical business. Maybe it should've read our logo design guide and researched its idea before approving it. Yeah, that's pretty similar [Image: SRXEABYSS] We're not saying this company straight-up stole the logo from Resident Evil though. It's just one of those neat coincidences that attracts attention because so many similarities stack up. We certainly don't expect the branding agency for a pharmaceutical company to trawl the ridiculously in-depth Umbrella Corporation Resident Evil Wiki. And if this story sounds too good to be true, a screenshot from the company's official site that's doing the rounds (below) reveals that the logo is in fact a real design that exists in the world. Looks legit [Image: Shanghai Ruilan Bao Hu San Biotech Limited] So let this serve as a cautionary tale. If you're launching a logo, maybe check to see that there isn't an evil, fictional version of your company that's already using an extremely similar design. Related articles: The 10 top fictional brands from film and TV 11 steps to better logos 10 of the best logos ever View the full article

Suddenly feeling inspired to visit Canada? The new brand evolution for the country's national tourism marketing agency, Destination Canada, must be doing its job, then. The old Destination Canada logo was a pretty standard and unexciting text-based effort, adorned with a maple leaf. For the new logo design, though, it's pulled out all the stops and stretched the word 'CANADA' into a typographic heart (with an optional maple leaf adornment to the side), and it's one hell of a striking piece of work that's definitely going to divide opinion. 18 controversial moments in logo design and branding The old logo was, you know, fine, if you like that sort of thing [Image: Destination Canada] The unevenly stretched text is guaranteed to infuriate as many people as it delights, and the heart it forms is just a little on the wide side, to the extent that it might not immediately be clear to viewers that it's actually a heart. But it's fun and quirky and not really the sort of brand identity you'd expect from Canada, which has a bit of a reputation as being maybe just a little boring, particularly compared to its brash neighbour to the south. There's also a fleeting resemblance to Milton Glaser's iconic I Love New York logo; some might even say that it's the logo I Love New York could have been, but we wouldn't pay much attention to that sort of person. If you're not sure what Canada is then the brand booklet will set you straight [Image: Destination Canada] In the accompanying Destination Canada brand booklet - a veritable goldmine of wonderfully overblown branding pronouncements - the logo is explained as, "a reflection of Canada today, a study in movement and evolution rooted in our country's bold colour and iconography. Here, we take the nation's pulse and feel its heartbeat. It's an embodiment of the positive energy that makes hearts glow." Who can argue with such passion? If you love a good design style guide, you really ought to download Destination Canada's brand booklet, which as well as providing those all-important tips on presenting the logo properly, also features loads of fantastic definitions of what Canada is, for example: 'Canada is more than a place on a map, it's a beacon to the world'. These are generally split across multiple double-page spreads along with some glorious photography, and they're all rendered in Destination Canada's display font, Separat Black, which is another undeniably quirky choice. Described as a font that stands out due to its offbeat yet approachable style, it's notable for its utterly bonkers R and K, both of which look like they've been drawn by someone who's forgotten what an R and a K actually look like. We totally stan Separat Black; just look at that R and K [Image: Destination Canada] In short, this is a brilliantly fun and unexpected piece of branding; find out more over at Destination Canada. Related articles: 21 outstanding uses of colour in branding Can you guess the brand from its original logo? 11 steps to better logos View the full article

Designers all have neat beards and play ping pong a lot. Oh, and they’re all men, who – when they’re not playing ping pong – just sit around drawing all day, right? Hmm. Maybe not. There's a lot of misconceptions (some damaging, some plain daft) floating about the place, which can make entering the creative industry seem a little daunting. But don't be put off finding that dream design job. Here we explore and dispel some of the most common myths about the industry, and lay bare a couple of surprises too. 01. It's all digital these days “From the perspective of a graphic design educator, one of the biggest misconceptions my students have had about the design industry is that it's 100 per cent digital,” says Rob Walker, Wakefield College lecturer and owner of glass signwriting company Signs by Umberto. “It’s true that a great deal of design output is digital, however the path to getting the desired result can often be multidisciplinary.” Rob Walker proving not all design is digital [Image: Rob Walker] 02. Hiring a top senior designer is best A senior designer isn't always what's needed, says Hadrien Chatelet, designer and creative director of PR company The Wern: “A junior/middle-weight designer is always much more eager to push new ideas and try out different creative processes,” says Chatelet. “In a middle-to-large agency, a top senior designer is going to be too high up the food chain to be as creative as perhaps they once were. This is because the agency model means that with seniority comes team management, strategy and new business responsibilities taking you away from design on a day-to-day basis.” There is also the risk of repetitive ideas and a fixed point-of-view at senior level, in Chatelet's opinion: “Too often clients respect the archaic hierarchy, but companies that champion youth boards of directors can help businesses keep fresh.” 03. You need a design degree “I think most people assume designers all went and studied the same thing: 'design’, says Sally Bell, co-founder of strategic design consultancy b1 Creative. “But I don’t even know if there is such a thing as a ‘design’ degree. I studied visual communication and at b1 we have people who studied product design, illustration and photography. We also have some who didn't study at university at all but learned skills on the job, YouTube or online courses. "Equally I know many creatives who studied nothing close to 'design'. I once worked with someone with a PHD in forestry, so traditional qualifications are not as important as talent and skill.” 04. Design is all about aesthetics "This is an extremely common misconception," says Steve O’Connor, design lead at Sigma. "Making things look great is only one aspect of design work. A client once said to me in a kickoff meeting for designing a mobile app, ‘Oh, you just make it look nice’. I laughed and then went on to describe my input to the process: understanding them; understanding their target markets; working with them to refine their aims; research; concepting; user flows; prototyping; user research; designs for build; user interface animation design; oh, and I make it look nice!” 05. The best design is conducted by a solo genius Design is a team activity Paul Jervis-Heath, Modern Human Think the best design takes just one creative brain? "Nothing could be further from the truth," says Paul Jervis-Heath, co-founder of design practice and innovation consultancy Modern Human. “Design is a team activity. At Modern Human we put a lot of thought into creating teams with the right balance of acquired and inherent diversity so that we can create new products and services that make a meaningful difference to the world and our clients.” Johnny Rae-Evans, head of creative at Capgemini, agrees: “The truth is, most designers don’t work alone. They’re part of teams or communities. They seek insight and knowledge from those folks with subject-matter expertise. You want your designer to redesign a complex healthcare service? Yep, they shouldn’t be doing that alone. It’s hard work – it’s about process and it’s about collaboration.” 06. Creativity cannot be taught "It's a common misconception that creativity cannot be taught," says Emily Benwell from the design and marketing Team at Liberty Marketing. "But people can go to school to learn to be creative. I held design workshops recently for the different teams at Liberty Marketing to get them to grips with basic design principles and our new mature branding; the feedback I’ve received since has been great. It’s the simple things, such as knowing about balance and white space that has made the most difference.” So that's the common misconceptions covered, now for a couple of design industry insights you might not have heard... 01. Product design isn't just 'stuff' “With the rise of service design, digital design, speculative design, etc, product design has become as broad as the mind can imagine,” says Lauren Davies, founder of multidisciplinary design studio HEKA. “Hence the Royal College of Art in London offering a course in Design Products, rather than Product Design. This opens the definition of the outcome being anything that is the product of a design process.” 02. Design is about managing relationships “On a degree course you are often the sole ‘author’ of the work you produce and autonomy when it comes to making decisions is encouraged,” says Izabelle May, graphic designer and owner of May Creative. "This can be a surprising change when you enter the workplace," May continues. "The multiple stakeholder aspect of doing design work is one which is difficult to replicate in design education, even when answering briefs as a team, where you tend to work with your peers.” She adds: “Learning to navigate power balances, differing stakeholder views, achieving design sign-off and learning to present and make the case for design work with persuasion is a huge part of a designer’s skillset.” Read more: Graphic designer's pricelist is (still) priceless 6 of the best free online graphic design courses 39 books every graphic designer should read View the full article

Mozilla released a new update for Firefox after discovering a critical flaw under active attack. View the full article

Facebook has come a long way from the days when each status was prefaced with 'is' and all your updates appeared on one ungainly page. In 2019 the social media giant is branching out in new directions, including the announcement that it will launch a cryptocurrency app, Libra. However Libra's logo has lead to confusion thanks to its distinctly Aquarian symbol. If you missed the announcement earlier this week, let's quickly get you up to speed with Libra. The global cryptocurrency service is Facebook's first step towards blockchain domination. And don't worry if you don't know what blockchain is, our plain English guide explains all. Basically, Libra is Facebook's answer to Bitcoin. Although unlike Bitcoin, Libra is backed by a reserve of assets. Facebook hopes it will be the first mainstream cryptocurrency, so expect to see a lot more of it in the near future. You'll probably be using Libra to buy all sorts of things, maybe even some sweet Amazon Prime Day deals. But enough of the technobabble. This is a design site after all, and we were attracted to Libra thanks to its distinctly un-Libra logo (above). Our guide to everything you need to know about logo design stresses that brands need to focus on clarity. But this seems to have passed Libra by as it's gone for a more Aquarian logo. (If your star sign knowledge is a little rusty, the Aquarian glyph is a pair of jagged wave symbols.) Think we're reading too much into this? We're not alone. Plenty of social media users came to the same conclusion when Libra was unveiled earlier this week. Other social media users were a bit more off the wall with their reactions to the Libra logo. What's all the more frustrating is that the Libra star sign is symbolised by a pair of balance scales. You know, those tools that are used to weigh the value of things. What could be better as a visual shorthand for a cryptocurrency service backed by assets?! We despair. This isn't the only time Facebook's designs have made waves (sorry) recently. Earlier in the year it came under fire for redesigning its app logo, and as part of its biggest redesign in over a decade, Facebook said goodbye to its distinctive blue bar. Angry reaction emojis all round. As for Libra though, it's set to launch next year. When it takes, off these controversial waves will probably make a home on your smartphone screen, just like the Facebook app itself. Related articles: 5 logo design fails (and what you can learn from them) 5 logo design terms you should know 18 controversial moments in logo design and branding View the full article