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When creating a new logo design for a client, it's important to define the requirements of the brief as clearly as possible. To make sure everyone's on the same page, it's worth brushing up on some key terminology. Everyone knows what a 'logo' is, surely? Well, yes, in terms of it being some kind of visual manifestation of a brand's identity. But beyond that, the term doesn't really give away any clues about what kind of logo is required. Logo design: everything you need to know Successful modern brands must consider many more touchpoints than their logo alone. But while a logo is not always the centrepiece of a company's identity, the design decisions involved are still fundamentally important. Read on as we clarify five common logo design terms used by designers and clients, to minimise the risk of creative misunderstandings... 01. Logomark Apple has one of the most instantly recognisable logomarks in the world, and the company name is rarely shown beside it Also called a brand mark – or 'marque' if you prefer – a logomark is all about communicating the essence of a brand through a graphic symbol. While this can be accompanied with the company name, the most powerful, memorable logomarks can stand alone as a visual shorthand for the brands they represent. It takes confidence to represent your business with a symbol alone, and companies often take years to build up sufficient brand recognition to get away with it. Generally speaking, the simpler the better for a compelling logomark – and crafting a simple shape that can communicate complex brand values is no mean feat. A useful exercise it to reduce your logomark to its simplest black-and-white outline form and see if it can still achieve brand recognition – famous logomarks that pass the silhouette test include Apple, Twitter and Nike. 02. Logotype Peter Saville's decision to drop Burberry's 'jousting knight' logomark in favour of a pared-back logotype split opinion In recent years, a huge trend in logo design has been simplification – and brands such as Burberry have stripped their logomark altogether in favour of a pared-back, all-caps logotype – also called a wordmark. Effectively, this is the polar opposite of a logomark, in which the company name is placed front and centre, with no accompanying symbol. Typeface choice is paramount, and while Peter Saville's ultra-neutral sans-serif Burberry rebrand attracted criticism for stripping out too much character, other famous logotypes convey plenty of brand personality through their use of type – look at Coca-Cola or Disney, for instance. Other notable examples of logotypes rely strongly on their distinctive colour palettes to make the brand association unmistakable – such as IKEA's blue and yellow, or Google's distinctive combination of blue, red, yellow and green. 03. Combination mark McDonald's 'Golden Arches' logomark has been locked up with its logotype in a few different ways over the years In practice, it's rare for a brand to exclusively rely on a logomark or logotype alone – and a 'lock-up' of the two elements is known as a combination mark. In some cases, the typography is integrated with the symbol – Starbucks, for instance. Other brands provide the option to keep the two separate for different applications, and most brand guidelines provide a selection of different options of what to do (and what not to do), according to the intended usage. Like Apple's apple, Nike's famous 'Swoosh' is commonly seen alone – but it also forms a combination mark Nike and McDonalds are two famous examples where the logomark can stand alone – the 'Swoosh' and 'Golden Arches' even have their own nicknames – but can also be locked up with a logotype. This, however, would never be seen in isolation. 04. Brand image Virgin's scrawled red logo is distinctive, but its brand values and user experience contribute more to its brand image Modern branding encapsulates much more than a logo, and there are countless possible touchpoints that can help define a brand. Accordingly, the term 'brand image' transcends logo design – the choice of logomark, logotype or combination mark is only be a small part of the conversation. Brand image is that intangible, emotional quality that brands constantly strive to improve in the minds of consumers, formed from a broad kit of parts, including the promises it makes and the actual experience it delivers - and crucially, whether the two match up. Besides graphic design, brand image can be defined by everything from tone of voice to customer service. One great example of a brand that 'gets' brand image across an incredibly broad range of sectors is Virgin – over the decades, its risk-taking, authority-challenging, slightly cheeky attitude has translated across everything from record labels to airlines to communications to health clubs – with a distinctive customer experience weaved through it all. 05. Brand imagery Jonathan Mak's 'Coke Hands' poster demonstrates how effective Coca-Cola's brand assets are – no logo in sight Brand imagery, by contrast, is a more concrete, objective entity: how a brand presents itself to the world. It can evoke heritage or innovation, communicate quality, or imply good, honest, no-nonsense value. It helps shape brand image, but is never wholly responsible for it. By investing in strong brand assets, the result is a dynamic, versatile toolkit of parts that can command almost as much brand recognition as the logo itself. Arguable, there are some brands so strong they don't need a logo at all to create memorable campaign visuals – in the case of Coca-Cola, for instance, the 'wave' shape, the iconic bottle shape and the red-and-white palette may be simple, but are still unmistakably 'Coke' when combined. Read more: 6 huge logo trends for 2019 Discover the hidden flaws in 6 world-famous logos The best logos of all time View the full article

The January sales have started and we’re already seeing a lot of great January deals on laptops, tablets and more. A series of discounts on Microsoft’s ultra-light Surface Pro 6 tablet PC, in particular, have caught our eye this morning. Surface Pro 6 review The best Surface Pro deals right now Right now, Amazon is offering up to 20% off the new Surface Pro 6 with eighth-generation Intel processor. The biggest January deal knocks the price of the i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD model down from £1,799 to just £1,455, giving you a massive £344 saving. But a whole range of options are available in Amazon’s January sale, with even the cheapest Surface Pro 6 (i5 processor, 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD) getting a £100 discount. That drops the price from £879 to a more affordable £779. Here are the best Microsoft Surface 6 January deals right now... Read more: The best Microsoft Surface deals View the full article

I've been an animation director for the past couple of years and have worked with many animators, helping them hone their skills to become faster and more efficient. Initially, I found that the animators were taking too long fiddling with their keys in the graph editor, trying to fix a fundamentally flawed animation. The best thing to do was to start again with a new foundation for them to follow. So we thought it would be best to put these steps into an easy-to-follow list rather than a load of Maya tutorials. This has developed into the foundations of AnimDojo's approach to animating. How to rig a character for posing in Maya There are many things I can cover here, but I want to share with you something practical so you can get a sense of how our approach is different. This is an exercise that's recommended to be done at least half an hour before animating, just like a warm-up exercise. Doing so will help you to build muscle memory, enabling you to break free from viewing the computer or Maya as an obstacle. Instead, you'll embrace it as part of your time and work effortlessly. In time this will free you to focus on posing and animating without feeling "slow or stuck". You'll have five minutes per pose, and you can use the rig provided with this workshop and follow along in one of our pre-recorded live sessions. However, before you do that you need to follow a few simple steps to know how to do it correctly… Download the resources for this tutorial. 01. Configuring the viewport in Maya A three-view port on a single screen helps you to work faster One of the things that helped me improve my speed and efficiency in Maya was when I used the three-port view instead of having dual monitors. On the left would be my perspective (A), on the right my camera view (B), and below is the graph editor (C). The reason for this is so I don't keep turning my head between two screens, constantly checking both for every step I make. I work 90 per cent of the time directly in the camera view, and only use perspective if I can't get the pose to work because of awkward positioning of body parts to the camera. 02. Let's middle mouse it! The middle mouse button is your friend This is a term I use a lot with my animators. I've seen so many people control the rig by selecting the actual manipulators and moving them axis by axis. This is such a time waster! Grab the character's arm, then anywhere on the screen just use your middle mouse button and drag it wherever you need it to be. This is much faster, and over time you'll see the benefits of this approach. Note that this is only possible with translation, not rotation. 03. Less is definitely more Over-complex rigs aren't your friends The idea that the more complex a rig is the better it'll perform, is a pet peeve of mine. Keep things simple. Set your arms to IK mode and set their space to either hips or chest. That way, when you move the hips the entire upper body moves along with it. You want to be able to move the character with as few controllers as possible. 04. Quickly assess your line of action Draw your line of action and fit the character to it The amount of time wasted when posing a character sometimes boils down to one little thing animators forget about, and that's the line of action. Grab the hips, the chest and the head if need be, and together move them into position. This will give you a quick glance at what your line of action will look like, without spending a long time moving each body part – only to realise you haven't pushed the pose enough. 05. It's all in the hips If you've set up your rig properly, moving the hips should fix your pose Once you've posed your line of action, you'll notice that your character looks a little wonky. But that's okay, because now it's time to fix the pose to work with our line of action. Don't bother with the chest or head, and completely ignore the arms at this stage. Your focus should be on the hips. If you've set up your rig to work from the hips up like we did in step two, then moving the hips moves the entire upper body. This is also a good time to pose the legs to work with the hips. 06. Go through the spine upwards Work your way up to fine-tune the pose Now that our hips are in place, it's time to adjust the chest and head to fit perfectly into our line of action. Don't forget to tilt the shoulders in such a way that it's in balance with the hips. I always keep an eye out for twinning (when both sides of the body are mirrored) and this is a simple way to fix that. 07. Work the face early on Don't leave posing the face until last One thing that I regularly notice with animators is they tend to leave the face until the very end. This usually results in the face feeling detached from the body as it moves. A good way to get into the habit of always posing the face with the body is by following this workshop. Don't ignore things and say to yourself, "I'll get to that when I polish my animation." The face needs to be posed from the very first blocking stage. 08. The hands need attention, too Select all the hand controllers at once so they'll rotate together I often get asked how I pose my hands so quickly, and the answer is very simple. I select all the controllers at once, so when I rotate they all rotate together. It's taken me some time to get used to doing it, but once you work this way you won't want to go back to your old ways of posing. 09. Soften the edges of the character's limbs Find the balance between softened edges and a "rubber hose" look In general, for cartoon animation I always prefer to soften the edges of elbows and knees. It gives it a softer more appealing look. Don't go overboard though, otherwise you'll end up with a "rubber hose" style (unless that's the look you're going for). It's a balancing act and I always push my animators and students to work this into their initial blocking. 10. Do you have more time? Don't go over-analysing and ruining everything Now this step relates specifically to our AnimDojo workshop. If you find that you still have time to work on the pose before the five minutes are up, be careful not to over-analyse and end up ruining the pose you came up with. There's a creative freedom that you generate from the first "gesture" pose you made, and you don't want to lose that. I'd recommend focusing on pushing the details. Work more on the limbs, the face – even the character's hair could add to the pose. 11. Go one way or the other Which way will you go? I always get asked about acting and how to decide what pose to put the character in. The tricky part is how to do this in just five minutes! The way I look at posing a character is by simply going one way or the other. For example, if I were to pose the character as "surprised" I can either draw my line of action going away, or towards the viewer. There are many other ways of course, but I like to keep things simple. If I'm posing a character moving as they talk, pose one would be one way and pose two would be in the opposite direction. 12. It's all about developing contrast Don't be afraid to break the rig One of the problems I used to experience early in my career was getting my animation to look cartoon-like. I've realised over the years that the reason I wasn't getting those results was mainly down to me not putting enough contrast between my poses. Don't just go for 50 per cent of what the pose could be – push beyond and exaggerate it. Don't be afraid to "break" the rig – in other words, pushing it beyond its limits. As long as what's broken is hidden from the camera view, it doesn't matter. 13. Compiling an acting library Study people and build up your own mental library of poses One of the best ways to learn how to pose is to build a library of acting choices in your head. I love going to the park just to observe and study people. I keep a mental note of what I see and try to add it to my work. I also try to act and feel things out, to know which muscles to pull or where the weight is in my poses. This takes time, but in the long run you'll be able to pull a pose out of your head whenever you need it! This article was originally published in issue 165 of ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists. Subscribe to ImagineFX here. Related articles: How to draw movement: 16 top tips 17 expert storyboard tips for TV animation Pose a character in ZBrush: 4 top tips View the full article

Vulnerabilities, stolen credentials and an evolution of marketplaces mark the Dark Web in Q3. View the full article

Cryptocurrency wallets Trezor and Ledger are vulnerable to a number of different type attacks, researchers say. View the full article

A new year is a great time to reflect on the need to upskill yourself over the next 12 months. Why? Because whatever stage you're at in your career, you need to avoid getting swept aside by the tide of history. “The role of a designer is continuously changing, now more than ever due to a revolution in the way we live and work," explains Bill Strohacker, principal director of Strohacker Design School. "So it’s extremely important for designers to keep up with these changes by continued professional development. Design is evolving, and we need to adapt across the digital experience and be relevant.” Ben Christie, creative partner at Magpie agrees. "A truly successful graphic designer develops an innate ability to continually grow and adapt to their ever-changing environment," he says. "So you should always be looking and learning. Sucking up as much of the world as you can. Sustained designer nourishment." But what skills are really going to help you grow your career? Here, we look at what's most in demand right now, and how you can meet those needs by upskilling yourself in 2019. 01. Digital typography If you're working as a graphic designer, you should already know the fundamentals of typography; if not, get started with our refresher, Typography rules and terms every designer must know. But as graphic design slowly transitions from print to online, the need to understand the principles of digital (as opposed to print) typography have never been greater. And it's not just simply a case of swapping ems for pixels. "Although the skills are transferable, there are a whole host of differences when designing digitally," says Alexandra Lofthouse, senior UX designer at Fifteen. "These include licensing, font sizes, resources, accessibility and more." And that's not even to mention new technologies like variable fonts and responsive type. Variable fonts are already in use on the website of type conference Ampersand With so much to consider, and new techniques evolving all the time, it's important to stay informed by reading around the subject, believes Jack Statham, designer at Ragged Edge. "There are plenty of high quality tutorials and blogs that cover typography for web and apps," he says. "A more in-depth approach would be to subscribe to a video course. Skillshare and LinkedIn Learning (previously Lynda.com) are two providers of graphic design courses that are put together by professionals." 02. Software skills It's perfectly possible (and indeed, surprisingly common) for graduates to emerge from respected design courses without actual software skills. And in one sense that's fine: as long as you've covered the fundamental principles of graphic design, you have a firm bedrock on which to add those skills later. But at some point, you will need to do so. In fact, it's unlikely you'll get even a junior designer job without a good grasp of at least Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Meanwhile, if you're in a later stage of your career, it always helps when applying for positions to add a few software strings to that bow, depending on which direction you wish to specialise in. To get a taste of what people are looking for, check out the job listings on a site like Design Jobs Board; most ads will list particular tools as 'must haves' and others as 'preferred'. But also remember that by the time you're fully trained, that may have changed. Will 2019 be the year you get your head around After Effects? The most important thing, then, is to focus on software skills that will help you grow in the areas that you're most passionate about. For instance, you might want to try out Blender in order to develop your 3D modelling skills; After Effects to build your abilities in motion graphics and animation, or WordPress as a way of dipping your toes into web design. “Constantly changing software, channels and end user terrain mean that nothing stays still for long,” stresses Mick Dean, creative director and lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University. “So it's important to know your strengths and play to them.” "You can't know everything about everything. But when you recognise either a commercial or academic need, and you also have the passion to drive yourself into new areas, then on completion of that journey, you'll be a better designer." 03. Image editing As the world gets more visually minded in the age of Instagram and Snapchat, editing and retouching images is becoming an increasingly important part of graphic design jobs at all levels. Primarily done using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom, it's about everything from small-scale cleanup work (removing tiny glitches from a photo such as dirt, dust, flare and glare), to cropping pictures to fit different social platforms, to full-on image manipulation and enhancements. The best way to improve your skills in this area is, of course on the job. "Since starting working here at PWAR Creative, my photo editing skills have improved massively," says graphic designer Kara Clifford. "I personally think the pressure of working for clients and also working alongside other talented designers has taught me more about image editing than any course has in the past." Cleaning up, editing and enhancing images is an increasingly important skill for designers But if your role doesn't currently involve image editing, it's certainly worth taking some time to build on your current skills. Especially as it's something that you're unlikely to ever completely 'master'. "For me, it's been a slow drip of knowledge over a number of years," says Sarah Gray, a freelance designer based in Dublin. "I've learned as I've needed to from various sources: school, projects for university, YouTube, freelance projects, skills on my internship. But Photoshop is so functionally dense I feel like there's still so much to learn." You can also boost your image editing skills by taking a course, following Photoshop tutorials or by pursuing a side project. 04. Photography As well as editing images, the ability to capture original images is an extremely useful one for designers to have. As a freelancer it means you can reduce your reliance on stock imagery and add more value to the client. And if you're working in a studio and commissioning other photographers, your personal knowledge of the discipline can help you communicate with them better and get the exact shots you need. "Although it’s a cliche, a picture really does say a thousand words," says Jacob Cass. "And for this reason I use photography in the vast majority of my projects, especially in web design. A good example would be for Brooklyn Bowl, where we had to show off artists performing on stage, the extraordinary interiors of the establishment and of course, the finger-licking food. " There are a near-infinite number of ways to hone and improve your photography skills. "I own a lot of books by photographers and I’ve read plenty of articles, but it was trial and error mainly," says Mark Dearman, a creative director based in Bristol. "Take some photos, analyse them and work out what I needed to do to improve. I’ve learnt a lot from my mistakes. There really is no substitute for taking lots of photos. I always liked the quote: 'Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.'” Building his skills with a camera meant Jacob Cass didn't need to hire a photographer for his website build for Brooklyn Bowl In practical terms, graphic designer and photographer Matthew Holland recommends: "Get a DSLR and explore all the manual settings. If you rely on automatic, like you get on a smartphone, you're only really capturing half a photo. The camera is making all the decisions for you. It would be the equivalent of laying out a wireframe and clicking a 'design' button which decides the colour pallet, typography, images etc. Only when you start to understand the power of aperture, shutter speed, ISO and white balance can you start to make informed artistic decisions." He also urges that you "shoot in RAW rather than jpg, as you can then make the processing decisions yourself. If you shoot jpg, then your camera is making the decisions on how your image should look. "RAW allows you to experiment with exposure, contrast, saturation, Levels, Curves, White Balance and dozens of other settings in post. Some people argue that this makes you lazy as you can 'fix' a photo after capturing it, but people have been adjusting their images in the darkroom for years." 05. UX design As the design industry becomes ever more focused on digital, user experience (UX) design is becoming more and more important. “Designing the part of products that people interact with is increasingly in-demand among employers,” says Strohacker. “Data has become central to many products, which has created a need for people with user interface design skills who can make those products easy for customers to use.” So what is UX, exactly? “The role of the UX designer is to take every opportunity to enhance the other person’s enjoyment of an end product, not just visually but cognitively too, removing obstacles and easing the experience,” explains Alec East, founder of Narrative Industries. Interface design work by Taxi Studio for Dolphin Solutions “UX design is not graphic design nor web design; it’s a different discipline that goes much deeper and is more aligned with human behaviour – but it is something that many designers are well equipped to perform if they have the discipline.” And it’s not necessarily about pursuing a career change to become a UX designer, but boosting your ability to do the job you’re currently in. “I believe graphic designers should aim for a wide and deep ‘T-shape’ with knowledge and appreciation for other disciplines but with a specialism (and therefore a point of view) that they excel in,” says Lee Carroll, senior interaction designer at Seymourpowell. “So it’s about graphic designers learning to speak the language of UX designers, and to communicate their point of view better, not to replace them.” Get started by learning some of the basic rules of UX design and check out some of these TED talks on UX design. 06. Coding As it is for UX, so it is for coding. Nobody is expecting someone focused on graphic design to build a website from start to finish – that would make them a web designer – but the more you can understand about the coding process, the better you can collaborate with developers and programmers on your digital designs. “I hate the ‘you must code’ dogma,” says designer, developer and artist Mike Brondbjerg. “But learning to code at some level – even if that’s scripting in Illustrator or Sketch – can help designers to generate and iterate through ideas faster, and opens up a world of design complexity that is not possible manually.” As Dean puts it: “All these skills – or knowledge of what they are and how to design with those aspects in mind – are useful. However, programming is such a vast area that the need to know how to program is less important than the need to understand how and what a programmer needs to create an outcome within a designed environment.” Follow the advice of Jessica Hische and Russ Maschmeyer: don’t fear the internet but embrace it Indeed, these skills are in such high demand now that your employer may well provide time at work for you to develop them. Nelson Bostock Group certainly sees things that way, says lead designer Laura Gibbons. “Here, our personal development plans identify areas of interest and important new skills to learn,” she explains. “We believe in self-learning; encouraging our people to use resources like SkillShare.com alongside their day to day work. We protect this personal development time and offer ‘creative days’ to inspire or realign their thinking and passion. We also encourage partners and suppliers to share skills – this happened recently with an external developer sharing their insight into HTML and responsive coding.” And even if you can’t get time at work, something as basic as HTML is pretty quick and easy to pick up. There are many good online courses, including the free ones provided by W3Schools. And if you want to go a little further, check out Don’t Fear the Internet, a learning resource from by Jessica Hische and Russ Maschmeyer that’s specifically aimed at print designers, photographers and other creatives. 07. AI/AR/VR UX and coding have been around for quite some time now, but other, newer technologies are also becoming important to design agency work, including VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), mixed reality and AI (artificial intelligence). Every graphic designer needs to keep a close eye on developments in such fields, stresses Vanessa Eckstein, D&AD Design Jury president 2018 and principal at Blok Design. “We are designing identities and branding that need to be expansive and seamless and to cross many platforms and experiences,” she says. “This means we all need to get more savvy and knowledgeable about what technologies and innovations are taking place and how these could align with the needs of a particular brand. And then try to rethink the opportunities instead of repeating patterns. “We can’t avoid being both in awe and overwhelmed about the big shifts taking place in AI, for example. This will affect many spaces we inhabit and the ways we interact with each other and society as a whole. "But the key is not only to learn about it but to understand that the movement is so rapid that whatever we think we understand today might not be so in five years; while remembering that creativity and storytelling will always be at the core of everything.” Get started by checking out 20 tutorials to help you use VR in your design work, learning how to mock up AR graphics with After Effects and how to design for artificial intelligence. 08. Print design Many experienced graphic designers have told us they feel behind the curve on digital skills. Conversely, however, there can be a skills gap with some younger designers when it comes to print design. Despite the rise of digital, the importance of print media to the design industry is still strong, so understanding how to properly set up your screen designs for the physical world is still a vital part of a designer's knowledge base. “I would encourage a junior to visit a print production house,” says Gibbons. “These guys know it all; they can share their knowledge and experience on the print process, artworking, paper stock, use of colour, finishing, and more. Print specialists Celloglas applied soft touch varnish and foils to issue 271 of Computer Arts magazine "If you are fortunate enough to have a say in the final execution, this breadth of knowledge could really benefit you when it comes to initial idea generation and finishing specs. Many designers nowadays are too narrowly focused, and this vital breadth of knowledge can really help you stand out from the crowd.” 09. Problem-solving We’ve already established that in 2018 it’s important for every designer to focus on specific software and technological skills. But Eckstein fears that some of the more important design skills may get lost along the way. “I believe we are losing our ability to think expansively about problems in ways that accept uncertainty and paradox and raise new questions,” she says. “If we rely on data and measurability too much, we lose the deep understanding and insights that are at the core and essence of new thought.” But if our problem solving skills are important, what can we do to hone and develop them? As Steve Fisher puts it: “Design is about solutions, not visuals” “Get uncomfortable, be humble and go out and experiment with something you have never done,” she recommends. “Create projects that will push your boundaries and that of the idea in your mind. See how far a concept can go, and then take it there! In my case I love collaborating with great thinkers, artists, architects etc, and I learn by doing.” This article by Steve Fisher develops the theme that design is about solution, not visuals, while this article from the Interaction Design Foundation also provides some hints and tips to help you sharpen your problem solving skills. 10. Expansive thinking Along with problem solving, Eckstein cites the "ability to think expansively" as a useful skill for designers to develop. Unlike other skills, which require formal study through books, courses or tutorials, this is more about constant and daily practice. “It is not what you do but a way of seeing and relating to the world,” she explains. “It can begin by stimulating your senses and an awareness about what is happening within our profession, a space where D&AD had established itself as a leader for us all, as much as reading about very diverse subject matters and in many cases trying to analyse situations from different perspectives.“ D&AD has established itself as a leader in disseminating information and advice about new trends within the profession “It involves everything from constantly feeding our curiosity through art, poetry, architecture or being part of conversations happening in our communities, through to being involved in projects of social justice, for example,” she continues. “Open yourself up to experiencing diversity versus falling into your usual patterns of actions and thoughts. At the core of thinking expansively lies the elasticity of our own minds.” Read more: 7 hot web trends for 2019 5 huge illustration trends for 2019 The best antivirus software for 2019 View the full article

It’s not clear why, but something about a change in the calendar makes us mega-confident that this year, we really will turn things around. Yet you only have to look at February’s empty gym changing rooms to know that keeping to resolutions is harder than it might seem. In this article, leading creatives share previous design-related resolutions, why they failed, and what we can learn from their experiences. 01. Learning a new skill “My New Year’s resolutions have often involved learning a new skill to keep pace with the ever-changing digital world,” says Dan Bradshaw, design director at TH_NK. “This year, I wanted to learn how to design for AR and VR, which then took on the form of having to pick up 3D as a skill.” But this turned out to be his first stumbling block. “Whilst I read and immersed myself in the world of VR and AR - both literally and metaphorically - when it came to learning the 3D software I hit a wall,” he explains. “Learning the new software is expensive and finding time were factors – least not because they’re not needed at the moment in my day to day work. “So far, I have a much better understanding, and have explored the worlds of AR and VR from a design theory point of view. Now I just need to do it. So a key resolution for 2019 is: set a much more pointed goal, a time frame, and actually set aside time to do it.” There's much more to VR than meets the eye. Image credit: Jeshoots.com It was a similar story for Tom Moran, UX lead at TH_NK. “My 2018 new year’s resolution was to draw more,” he explains. “My design put a lot of value in craft and as a UX lead it’s critical for me to be able to communicate an idea clearly and articulately. A good scamp or mock-up, even of boxes on a page, can go a long way. “I used this as an opportunity to learn how to draw with a tablet too… and this could be the reason resolution didn’t stick,” he muses. “A bad workman quarrels with his tools, and in time I probably would have got there, but in the short run it was enough to fall by the wayside. Next year, my plan is to draw more, but maybe stick to paper.” Lesson learned: If you hit a wall, take a step back and see what is achievable. Rather than just giving up, be like Bradshaw. Reframe your resolution (in his case: not becoming an expert practitioner, but still having a rounded knowledge of the subject). And then craft a more suitable resolution to carry things forward the following year. 02. Taking on creative challenges "As a social media addict, I find myself constantly scrolling and finding design challenges in hashtags such as #inktober or #36daysoftype," says Alexandra Francis, junior designer at Flow Creative. "Every year I have tried to participate in more hashtags but found myself excited to start and never finishing." So at the start of 2018, she resolved to do things differently this year. "I decided to tweak the 36 days of type challenge to suit me, and made a new year’s resolution to draw the alphabet," she explains. "But instead of completing the challenge in 36 days I posted a letter on my Instagram whenever I had time, aiming for once a week. Once a week fitted better into my schedule, didn’t give me added stress and meant I actually enjoyed drawing each letter as opposed to rushing my way through the alphabet. Alexandra Francis tweaked her resolution for 2018, and got a job as a result And the result couldn't have been better. "On top of making the challenge suit me, I accidentally lined up my Instagram grid so that each letter appeared directly on top of each other. Liking how this looked and wanting my Instagram to act as a mini portfolio, it forced me to draw a letter so that this was maintained. In doing this I was headhunted by Flow Creative, who saw my feed and I landed my dream job! "I am now on the letter Z and in giving myself a weekly brief, I have been able to really push my style and technique," she concludes. "I have gone from only traditional drawing to experimenting with Paint, Procreate and Illustrator." Lesson learned: A daily design challenge sounds like a fun thing. But are you really that flexible with your time and schedule that you can realistic fulfil it? Consider whether changing it to weekly, fortnightly or monthly might be more achievable. 03. Better work/life balance Designer, artist and illustrator Craig Minchington made one major resolution at the start of 2018: having a better work-life balance. But soon after coming back after his Christmas break, he slid back into old habits. “I found myself diving head first back in to work,” he recalls. “Twelve to 14-hour days were standard. I would finish client work and then work in to the early hours doing personal projects, chasing new business, working on my portfolio.” He soon realised that he was ignoring all his past mistakes, and actually being less work effective. “So then I made a conscious effort to balance out my work and down time hours. Craig Minchington, who specialises in 3D illustration, typography and high end image creation, has perservered with his 2019 resolution "Non-working hours didn’t mean I wasn’t creative as I became obsessed with gardening." he continues, "but also began running seriously again for some mindful reflection time. I realised I needed these alternative to decompress, reflect, sleep better and evidently make me more effective in my 9am-6pm hours.” “I am not sure if those early months of chasing new business helped, or whether things just occurred naturally, but for the rest of the year work seemed to keep coming in, whilst balancing out my life and most importantly – avoiding burnout,” he adds. Lesson learned: Just because you fall off the wagon doesn’t mean you can’t jump right on it again. Stick to your guns, and you’ll get there in the end. 04. Saying no “I think the resolution to ‘say no more often’ is probably on many lists every year in most industries,” says Darren Ammar, a designer at Purple Creative. “But the reality is that it's a luxury not every agency or freelancer can afford. And it is not always clear at the beginning of a project whether it is worth doing or not. I've seen dead ducks become KPI-beating swans, and a pearl of a project become a complete nightmare.” Learning to say no is a useful skill. Trying out Jessica Hische's client email helper can be a good start. So what he’s learned to do more of over the last 12 months is the importance of spending time considering why something is a great thing to do. “When you get that initial desire to turn a project down, make sure you fully kick it around and understand what is driving it, and whether it's justified,” he advises. “If it is, then the answer should always be no.” Lesson learned: If your resolution requires willpower, then to stick to it you’ll need to build up a habit of taking decisions more slowly and carefully. Otherwise, you’ll end up panicking and breaking your resolution through a rush to judgement. 05. Doing more side projects Sometimes you don’t quite achieve your resolution in full because other things get in the way that are, let’s face it, more important. That’s just what happened to freelance web designer Robert Fenech in 2018. “I made a resolution to do one mobile app design/layout per week to hone my skills on that side of things,” he explains. Web designer and "wannabe ninja" Rob Fenech notes that resolutions aren't the be-all and end-all "Random brands and ideas, but just 52 unique designs. I managed a total of 39. I ended up skipping weeks due to work commitments rather than it just fading out. It was always client work that got in the way, but that is never a bad thing.” Lesson learned: Sometimes other things are simply more important than keeping to your resolution. As long as you’ve given it a good go, and you’re happy with the compromise you made, there's no point in beating yourself up. 8 tips to help you keep your resolution We can learn as much from creatives who have kept their resolutions, as those who haven’t. Here we here the stories of New Year’s resolutions that went well, and some lessons that can help us pull off the same level of success ourselves. 01. Revisit previous resolutions There’s no rule to say that you need to make fresh resolution each New York. Revisiting the same resolutions can be just as, if not more important. “Every year I resolve to step away from the computer, detach from all the blog inspiration that we are sent and get outside,” says Claudia Morris, design director at B&B Studio. “To get sketching, really look, immerse in the unfamiliar. Getting this headspace to explore, away from our online world continues to be a resolution that I need to keep revisiting! It’s one that always pays off and one that we encourage across the design team.” 02. Build on your resolutions from year to year As well as just setting the ‘reset’ button on previous resolutions, it’s also good to develop and evolve your resolutions from year to year. Mark Davis, co-founder and creative director of property branding agency me&dave, offers an example. “At the start of 2018 we resolved to work towards changing the way all parties approach the pitching process. We wanted to work out how it could be done better and in a way that benefits all parties. As it stands, it’s not good for clients, it drains agencies’ resources, and it’s certainly not good for the creative process.” Such an endeavour, of course, can’t be fully realised in just 12 months. “So our 2019 resolution is to endeavour to make the pitching process more relevant for today’s industry and market. "We’re set out three manageable steps towards achieving our goal: insisting on chemistry meetings, refusing to pitch against more than two other agencies, and advising prospective clients that a pitch should be a direction to interpretation, not an exposition.” 03. Make it a regular thing If your resolution is something you can do at any time, chances are, you’ll never do it. So it can be useful to turn it into a regular ritual. At the start of the year, Becca Mitchell, head of agency operations at Purple Creative, made a resolution to “Be inspired more and be more inspiring”. She explains: “You know what it’s like when you’re working to tight deadlines day in, day out? You get tired. Then you decide not to go to that gallery or exhibition that evening because you’re too exhausted.” So she set up a monthly creative get-together she called Sidekick Series. “The objective was to put randomly selected people together every month – so they can spend time with each other and learn what each do – and get one pair to ‘host’ a creative evening for about two hours. “It’s their job to decide what we do: things like invite in someone inspirational to talk, go somewhere new, learn something. To date we’ve had a guided architectural tour of the Barbican, a candle-making workshop, a talk by a photographer and a pasta-making class. What I love about it is that it’s a group activity; it gets people together, excited and inspired.” 04. Apply focus At the end of the day, you need to focus hard on keeping your resolution; it won’t happen just by itself. Dave Bowers, head of strategy at Likely Story, offers an example from 2018. “This year, we wanted to get better at understanding our utilisation,” he explains. “So we started using Asana for our tasks, which lets us see what time we need to spend on each task so we don’t over-service and end up out-of-pocket. It took some discipline for a couple of months, but now it’s helping us keep our profit margins.” 05. Find the appropriate time Too many people fail to keep their resolutions because of a ‘lack of time’, but if you need time, you have to proactively make time. Jamie Fleming, copywriter at Purple Creative, made a 2018 resolution to get in the habit of creativity by writing more. He reached it by finding a specific time to do so, and sticking to it. Jamie Fleming kept to his 2018 resolution by resisting the pull of Angry Birds “I commute into work, which can take anywhere between 60 and 90 minutes over the course of a day,” he explains. “It’s dead time really – so I decided that I’d stop podcasting, Angry Birding and Spotifying and put pen to pad. It wasn’t always good, I didn’t always want to do it, but eventually the ideas start coming and the writing started flowing.” The last creative we’ll hear from is Neil Richards, who (almost totally) fulfilled a New Year’s resolution he called 'Analogue 366'. “As I primarily work with computers, I tried to do something 'non-digital',” he explains. “So throughout the year I took a screen printing course, fixed and shot film cameras, did more hand drawn sketches, did some Lino printing, printed digital photographs - and more. If you check out the Instagram tag you can see the 362 photos I posted, so somewhere along the line I messed up! I possibly ended up in hospital; I can't remember!” To our minds, 362 out of 366 counts as a success. And so here are Richard’s two tips for fulfilling your design-related New Year’s resolutions. 06. Take a step back “Think of the bigger picture," says Richards. "It's so satisfying to look back at the end of the year and see how it was shaped by your resolution.” 08. Be flexible “Don't beat yourself up if you have to skip a day, or change the parameters. The only person that it matters to is YOU, so do what's right for YOU. "There will be hits and there will be misses, but you probably wouldn't get the hits without learning from the misses. I loved the fact that I learned new skills on my year, and some of the smaller projects made the bigger ones better." Read more: 9 must-have design tools for 2019 5 ways to get more freelance work in 2019 7 hot web trends for 2019 View the full article

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If you run a blog or website, you know the importance of having great photos to act as visuals on your platform. But taking your own photos can be time-consuming and difficult, which is what makes royalty-free stock images so great. With The Stock Photo Mega Bundle: 80,000+ Images, you'll access a huge library of photos across a wide variety of themes, from travel to lifestyle to nature. You'll even find drone footage and animated motion backgrounds. Use these images on any application or medium to make your content pack more of a punch. Get The Stock Photo Mega Bundle: 80,000+ Images for just $29.99 – 94% off the regular price. Related articles: 18 top stock photo libraries The 13 best photography websites Photography cheat sheet helps you take better photos View the full article

If 2019 is the year you've decided to branch out on your own, or get started in the design industry, then let us offer some help. The world of freelance design is tough and getting regular commissions is no easy feat, but nothing worth doing is ever easy, right? Kick off the new year in the right way, with this expert advice to help you get those freelance payments rolling in from day one. 01. Get yourself seen A service like Squarespace can help you create a website without needing coding skills It may sound obvious, but if you’re looking to branch out and go freelance then you need to let the industry, and potential clients, know that you’re for hire. The first step, if you haven’t done so already, is to get yourself a web presence to showcase your design style and portfolio. Use a tool like Squarespace, WordPress or Drupal - the first one's a good option if you have zero web skills. Check out this full selection of the best web builders to find the software that works best for you. Most importantly, you need to clearly highlight on your page that you’re available for commissions - you'd be surprised how many freelancers don't think of this. Add this statement to your site or blog, as well as your personal social media pages, and make sure it's the first thing people see. If you haven’t many projects to showcase yet (or have too many that use the same skill set), get creative with a few self-initiated projects so you can show off all of your abilities as a designer. 02. Promote yourself Start pressing the flesh, and handing out your business cards Once you’re happy with your portfolio, the next step is to promote your work. Brush up on your marketing skills and get your name and freelance status out there with some effective social networking. Avoid the hard sell – no one likes being spammed. Instead, try to form organic online relationships with potential clients and agencies and join in with the design discussion to show your expertise in the industry. Also read: 50 inspiring examples of letterpress business cards Social recommendations also count for a lot, so ask your peers or any designers you may have previously worked with to help spread and endorse your work across the internet. And remember that networking isn't just digital. Get out there in the real world and start handing out physical business cards, all the while following our networking tips for designers. 03. Be proactive Approach agencies, brands you’d like to work for or even your local butcher if you spot that their branding needs a much-needed facelift whilst picking up your sausages! Also, take a look back through your inbox and spot any potential clients that you may not have thought of before – perhaps you did some freelance work for a company two years ago, or there was that job you never got but built a good relationship with the person that interviewed you. Be imaginative with your client ‘hit list’ and don’t leave any avenue unexplored. 04. State your costs Don't leave it till you invoice to discuss your rate - get it agreed up front Before embarking on a marketing mission, you need to be sure of your hourly and daily rate so that potential clients know off the bat how much you’re likely to charge. No matter how much you need the work, it’s important to be realistic with the client when you take on a job how long that will take and what the fee will be, otherwise you may find yourself struggling to meet the demands of a very unhappy client. Don’t forget that there’s also a range of online project management tools out there, such as Basecamp and Trello to help you get organised and meet all of your deadlines. 05. Build on your success Once you’ve completed the work, make sure you’re not the only one shouting about how brilliant it is. There’s nothing better than a shining endorsement from someone who’s worked with you to help build your personal brand reputation. Ask your (satisfied) client for a quick quote about the work and their working process with you and then add this to your online portfolio or blog before posting on your social networks. Remember, the more people endorsing you, the more buzz you can create about you and your work. Read more: Illustrator tutorials: amazing ideas to try today! Download the best free fonts The ultimate guide to logo design View the full article

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Is your toolkit all that it should be? A new year is a great opportunity to consider whether a particular device, software, tool or app could aid your career over the next 12 months. It's easy to get stuck in your ways, and assume there's only one way of doing things. But if you invest a little time in checking out the bewildering variety of software and hardware available for creatives right now, it can really pay off. In this article, we'll help you out by drawing your attention to nine tools and services you might not be aware of, but which could potentially offer a huge boost to your creativity and productivity. Plus, apart from anything else, it's nice to have new things, right? You work hard, so you deserve to spend a little money on yourself.... particularly if it's going to help you earn more money in the longer term! Get a new perspective on your work by using your iPad as a second monitor As humans, our vision is designed to be panoramic. Our evolutionary need to spot predators from a distance has programmed us to be happiest when we can scan a wide horizon. That's why as designers, the more we can see, the easier we find it to design and be creative. Not surprising then that ultrawide monitors are so popular right now. But you don't necessarily have to spend a lot of money on a huge monitor to get extra screen real-estate. If you already have an iPad then you can connect that up wirelessly to act as a second screen, using a clever device called the Luna Display. Available for Mini DisplayPort or USB-C, Luna sets up in seconds and instantly works with your existing Wi-Fi. It works with any modern iPad (iOS9.1+) and the app you need to operate it comes free. Note, though, that the Luna Display only currently ships to the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and the European Union. How many times have you experienced a situation like that brilliantly parodied in the video above, where your team has worked on so many different versions of a design that no one has a clue which version is the latest one, least of all you? It's a problem that has long bedevilled web designers, leading to the rise of what's known as version control systems, which keep track of everything for you. But you had to really be a coder to work out how to use any of them. Now, though, this kind of solution is available for graphic designers working in Sketch, and it's easy and straightforward for any non-techie to use. Abstract offers a system for teams of designers working in Sketch to keep track of all their assets, and allows you to roll back to earlier versions if needed. So you'll never again be bedevilled by confusing filenames like design.sketch, design2.sketch, .designfinal.sketch and designfinalfinal.sketch. Daniel Schwartz outlines exactly how it works in this article. This keyboard's special dial helps make Photoshop, Illustrator and other Adobe tools more responsive and easier to use When you think about it, it's kind of ironic. We spend our whole time trying to come up with designs that are more responsive, user-friendly, faster and more useful to society. And yet the main tool we use for this - the keyboard - is essentially a glorified typewriter that's rarely ever improved upon for the task in hand. The Logitech Craft, then, is a very rare thing: a keyboard designed purposely for use by creatives. Specifically, its aim is to make it easier for artists, illustrators and designers to work with Adobe apps such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Premiere pro. Its main innovation is a multi-function dial, which enables you to control parameters in these tools and others (Microsoft Office, for example). So it makes adjusting brightness in Photoshop, changing stroke weight in Illustrator, editing images in Lightroom, and countless other fiddly little tasks much less cumbersome than using a traditional keyboard. You can't use the full version of Photoshop on an iPad, but you can use Affinity's similarly-powered rival Do a lot of travelling? Fancy using a full-blooded photo editing and graphic design tool on your tablet? While most iPad versions of design tools are stripped down versions of the full software, Affinity Photo for iPad offers the full range of features found in its desktop cousin. Fully optimised for Apple's tablet, Affinity Photo for iPad is capable of supporting huge multi-artboard canvases with thousands of layers and can zoom to over one million per cent. You can check out our full review of it here. Possibly in response, Adobe announced at its Adobe Max conference this October that it would soon be bringing out a full version of Photoshop to the iPad. But while we wait for that, Affinity Photo for iPad is currently the most powerful app available for doing photo editing and graphic design work on a tablet. See your 3D models in actual 3D: no glasses or headset needed! We're still pinching ourselves, as well as checking the date isn't April the First. But in fact, this is absolutely real: a holographic display on which 3D artists can see their designs in 3D, without the need for a headset or glasses. And at the time of writing, the price has been slashed to just $499! The Looking Glass works using a sophisticated combination of lightfield and volumetric display technologies within a single three-dimensional display system. Forty-five unique simultaneous views of a virtual scene are captured on a computer at 60 frames per second. These multiple views are encoded into a video signal that's sent via HDMI to the Looking Glass, which decodes the video signal into a full-colour three-dimensional scene. As you move around the display, your eyes are exposed to different sets of 3D information, creating a life-like, 3D experience for groups of people. Okay, so technically it's not a hologram: strictly speaking it's a lightfield display with volumetric characteristics. But to all practical purposes, it's the closest we've come to a Star Wars-style moving hologram, and if you want to wow your visiting clients, we'd suggest this will do the trick better than anything else on the market. PDFShift does one thing and does it well Some of the most useful design tools you'll ever find are the ones that do one thing, but do it well. And here's a great example. PDFShift is a browser-based tool that converts a web page into a PDF, quickly and simply. If you've ever tried doing that the long way round, you'll realise it's an enormous pain in the backside. So if you have to do this task a lot, paying the subscription will save you an enormous amount of time and expense. On the other hand, if this is a task you only have to do occasionally, then great news: this handy little app is available free for up to 250 conversions per month. Plus you can even get more free conversions by, for example, promoting the tool in a tweet. You can also customise your PDF, for example by adding a header, footer or watermark, plus there's a sandbox version for testing. All in all, this tool solves a common problem brilliantly and effectively. These cards could be the creative catalyst you need When we think about how tools can help us become better designers, we often think in terms of functionality and productivity. But what about creativity itself? We are creatives, after all; so what can help us out in that department? A Few Minutes of Design: 52 activities to spark your creativity is a colourful set of cards created by Emily Campbell that aim to stimulate your imagination and fire up your creative mojo. Each contains a (deceptively simple) task designed to free you from creative block, help start a new project or finish an existing one. Each should take about 15 minutes, and could be a great way to start your working day and get your creative juices flowing. Pentagram partner Michael Beirut described this set of cards as “a marvellous invitation to anyone with an interest in creativity, invention, and design”, and we're inclined to agree. You don't need to be a trained 3D artist to create 3D models with Vectary More and more designers are getting into 3D nowadays, but you don't have to fully retrain as a 3D artist to dip your toe in the water. Vectary is a browser-based tool that allows you to create 3D models, simply by using their editable templates and dragging and dropping from a library of objects. Your creations are saved to the cloud, and it's easy for teams to create models and scenes collaboratively via the web, hence the tool has been dubbed 'Google Docs for 3D design'. You're not going to be able to create anything that's particularly sophisticated with this tool, but for knocking together something quickly and easily for websites or social media, it's very handy. Find out how much time you're really spending on design tasks If you're serious about improving your productivity in 2019, you really need to start measuring how much time you're actually spending on different tasks. Only then will you have a true picture of what areas you need to work on (and perhaps, what distractions you need to minimise), to become a more productive designer overall. There are many time tracking apps available, but right now Timely is our clear favourite. It works in the background - because the last thing you want to do is waste time operating it - and even applies project tags automatically, which you can of course customise later. All your tracked data is kept in a secure, private timeline only you can see. And best of all, Timely gives useful reports about the way you conduct your work in practice, and makes sensible suggestions about how to increase your profitability, productivity and efficiency as a result. Read more: The best new tech products for designers in 2019 69 fantastic free web tools The best computer for graphic design in 2018 View the full article

A year can feel like a lifetime in the world of tech. In 2018 alone, traditional desktop PCs saw their dominance tested by the superlative power of tablet computers, while second-generation input devices took interaction with digital canvases to a new level. Monitors reached connectivity and resolution heights to accommodate surges in graphics power and innovations in the AR and VR space opened up novel yet CPU-intensive avenues for creativity. But with all this going on, what has been the standout tech for creative professionals in the last 12 months? Whether you want to upgrade your set-up with a game-changing accessory, or aim to take your creativity in a new direction entirely with a new workstation, keep reading to find out what got our attention on the market in 2018. Apple's latest 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models have adopted the signature slim-bezel design of the company's flagship smartphones, with stunning results. Both tablets feature crisp edge-to-edge displays twinned with an integrated TrueDepth camera, enabling Face ID authentication in lieu of a home button (plus there's no notch). But that's not all. Thanks to Apple's A12X Bionic processor, these models are also stunningly fast, able to reach speeds that would leave many PCs behind. Additionally, Apple has had the foresight to replace the Lightning Port with USB-C, which opens the device to a world of creative connectivity, including 4K/5K displays, cameras, and more. Also read: The best cheap iPad deals in 2018 If Thunderbolt 3 is the future of connectivity, OWC has ensured that its new dock for Windows and Mac won't be beaten when it comes to the sheer number of connections a single cable can carry. The slim box weighs only 1.2 pounds, but somehow OWC has packed in 2x Thunderbolt 3 ports, 5x USB-A ports (2x faster charging), 1x USB-C Gen 2 port, a microSD card slot, an SD card slot, digital audio output, 1x Mini DisplayPort, S/PDIF output, 3.5mm audio ports, and Gigabit Ethernet. It's capable of connecting up to five additional Thunderbolt devices, including two 4K displays or one 5K display, and with 85 watts of output, it can even power a 15-inch MacBook Pro. Also read: The 8 best external hard drives and SSDs for Mac and PC users Curved TVs have a dubious rationale, but curved monitors like this one from Samsung are a different matter entirely, in the way they envelope the viewer in their workspace. Samsung's C34J791 is also the first curved monitor to include Thunderbolt 3 connectivity alongside the usual USB 3.0, DisplayPort and HDMI inputs, so you can plug just about anything into it. The monitor's 3440 x 1440 resolution and 16:9 aspect is a boon for productivity and creative tasks that require several windows open at the same time, while the 3,000:1 contrast ratio and 300 cd/m² brightness rating ensure crisp consistency across the Vertical Alignment (VA) panel. Combine that with a 100Hz refresh rate and a 4ms response time, and it's also ready for demanding motion graphics applications. Apple's latest stylus is smaller and lighter than the original Apple Pencil, but not without new features. The redesign is partly thanks to the decision to drop the Lightning connector in favour a magnetic function that allows the Pencil to snap smartly onto the top of new the iPad Pro models for pairing, charging, and storage. Another advantage of the new snap-on function is that the Pencil now has a flat side where it connects, so the stylus is less likely to roll off the table. Lastly, new gestures have also been added – for example, users can now switch between app tools with a quick double tap. The original Surface Studio raised the eyebrows of many Mac-using creative professionals in 2016, and Microsoft looks bent on converting as many Apple fans as it can with this follow-up model of its all-in-one creative PC. It looks the same on the outside, but updated internal components and a brighter, higher contrast 28-inch display make for a much better overall experience. The Studio 2 can be configured to include up to GeForce GTX 1070 graphics with 8GB GDDR5 memory, up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and as much as 2TB of solid-state storage. The only disappointment is the slightly underwhelming seventh-generation Intel Core i7 mobile processor. The best Microsoft Surface deals right now Wacom has super-sized its popular Cintiq Pro for creatives looking for the largest possible high-definition pen display. This new 32-inch version recently received the prestigious Red Dot Award for product design, and with the scale of the workspace on offer, it's easy to see why. The display's 4K resolution boasts 98 percent Adobe RGB colour accuracy and support for a billion colours to deliver a true-to-life experience, while the etched glass surface – combined with new Pro Pen 2 technology – ensures the pen-on-screen experience has also been improved. Also read: The best drawing tablets right now With the introduction of Thunderbolt 3, Apple opened up the Mac to a new world of connectivity, including the ability to accelerate graphics performance with powerful external GPUs. Designed in collaboration with Apple, this second-generation Blackmagic eGPU unit promises to provide the extra oomph needed to boost pro creative software like DaVinci Resolve and VR editing apps. The case houses an AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics card offering 22 times the graphics performance of a 13-inch MacBook Pro, and is well protected by a unique thermal cooling system that's designed to perfectly balance the airflow and dissipate heat efficiently. It also boasts its own veritable hub of outputs, including 2x TB3 ports, 1x HDMI 2.0 port, 1x DisplayPort with support for 5K displays, and four USB 3.1 connections. While creative tools like Gravity Sketch are helping to open up the world of virtual reality to designers, VR headsets like the Vive Pro are allowing them to access their creations in even richer detail. The premium Vive not only has built-in headphones and outputs a better picture than the standard model, its motion-tracking base station sensors have a wider field of vision, letting users create up to a 20-by-20 foot VR space in which to experience their projects. This Thunderbolt 3 display may not be a true 5K display (it only has 5K resolution on the horizontal x-axis), but coming from a 4K or lesser resolution display, it's still a fantastic upgrade. The LG 34WK95U boasts a crystal clear nano IPS panel and a wide 21:9 aspect ratio with a native resolution of 5120 by 2160. It also features enhanced wide colour support, thanks to 98 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 colour space, and a maximum brightness of 450 nits. Microsoft has built on its dominance of the two-in-one PC market with this sixth-generation Surface, which features a slick black finish and a big boost in battery life over the previous model to ensure it can handle a full day's work. The Intel 8th-gen quad-core processor inside provides plenty of horsepower for demanding design work, and its vivid 12.3-inch 2,736 x 1,824 resolution display make colours look great. It might not be a revolutionary update, but the Surface Pro 6 is still the best 2-in-1 PC you can buy. Blackmagic specialises in portable cinema cameras, and while you'd struggle to get this one in your pocket, it's still an extremely compact unit, being no bigger than a standard SLR. It's capable of shooting both RAW and ProRes HQ in 4K DCI 60P, and the body features several useful connections including headphone and 3.5mm audio jacks, USB-C for an SSD, a HDMI 1.4 port, and a Mini XLR with Phantom power. The camera doesn't have a viewfinder, but there's a five-inch 1080p touchscreen on the back for sizing up your video, which can be captured at up to an impressive 120 frames per second. You also get the full version of DaVinci Resolve Studio 15 included in the price. If repetitive strain injury has blighted your creative projects, Logitech's latest mouse could be the solution. It sits at a 57-degree angle off the desk for an almost vertical mouse orientation. The ergonomic design of the MX Vertical is meant to reduce muscular activity and strain by up to 10 percent compared to a typical mouse, while its sensor supports up to 4,000 DPI, making small movements more accurate. A button on top of the MX Vertical lets you adjust DPI on the fly, and the mouse also supports Logitech’s Flow software, making it simple to use it with multiple devices. Creatives looking for a well-designed workstation-class laptop will find lots to appreciate in the P1, Lenovo's thinnest-and-lightest ever ThinkPad. The sleek dark oil-resistant chassis houses Thunderbolt 3 ports, a large glass trackpad and a 4K touchscreen display with 10-bit colour and 100 percent Adobe RGB output. The internals are just as impressive, with options including Intel Xeon quad- and six-core processors and up to 64GB of RAM. Despite that power under the hood, the P1 runs at a quiet 40dB, so you should be able to hear the built-in Alexa voice assistant just fine. The Surface Pro 4 was introduced back in October 2015 and has been superseded by the Surface Pro, which offers support for the Surface Dial right out of the box. Microsoft has long promised the earlier tablet PC would eventually support the Surface Dial. That was almost a year ago, so this update is definitely worth shouting about. For £76, now SP4 owners can finally dial into the onscreen creative action, controlling radial menus and selecting functions more intuitively. Looking to marry a monitor or two to a brand new Apple Mac? Then consider one of StarTech's freshly launched bus-powered Thunderbolt 3 Mini Docking Stations with additional Ethernet and USB connectivity. The dual HDMI dock supports two HDMI monitors running in 4K resolution, whereas the DisplayPort version can power two 4K DisplayPort monitors or one 5K monitor. Best of all, there's no need for a separate power cord because the included Thunderbolt 3 cable supplies all the charge your monitors need. HP has announced the highest spec tablet PC on the market to run Google's Chrome OS, which now supports Android versions of several Adobe creative apps. For $600, the Chromebook x2 comes with a 12.3-inch 2400x1600 display and a bundled keyboard cover and pen stylus. That pits it squarely against Apple's iPad Pro, but at a price point that's more forgiving on the wallet. The Chromebook x2 offers 10.5 hours of battery life, sports a Kaby Lake Core m3 processor, 4GB of RAM (upgradeable to 8GB), 32GB of storage, stereo speakers and both front and rear cameras. There's also two USB-C ports, a headphone jack, and a microSD slot thrown in. Another entry for Wacom, after it refreshed its Intuos Pen tablet range, intended for beginners pursuing digital illustration before they move on to the company's more expensive Intuos Pro and Cintiq models (see above). The new small- ($99) and medium-sized ($199) Wacom tablets are lighter to carry and feature a smaller footprint than their predecessors, but the active tablet area hasn't changed, measuring 6 by 3.7 inches and 8.5 by 5.3 inches, respectively. The pressure sensitivity also boasts an improved 4,096 levels when used with the new Wacom Pen 4K stylus, which is said to have a more ergonomic design, a slightly increased weight and a better grip than the earlier model. Also read: The best laptops for graphic design Top 4K monitors for creatives The best computer for video editing View the full article

Did you know that for any keyword search on a search engine such as Google, most of the traffic goes to the top three listings? That just goes to show how crucial search engine optimisation (SEO) is if you want to build your brand or expand the reach of your business. RankActive SEO Toolkit: Lifetime Optimal Plan can help you improve your SEO. A rank tracker function shows you how you're currently performing, while website analytics teach you where you might need to improve your SEO strategies. This SEO solution also audits your pages to find broken links or technical errors that might be bringing your website down in the rankings. Improve your SEO effectively and easily with RankActive SEO Toolkit: Lifetime Optimal Plan for just $69. Related articles: 5 ways to boost your website's SEO Climb the Google rankings: How to master SEO 10 must-know SEO tools for search success View the full article

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This great Boxing Day deal at Amazon slashes a third from the price of Wacom’s popular 2018 Intuos pen tablet. That means that right now you can grab a medium-sized new Intuos for just £109.99, instead of the usual £167.35 – that’s a healthy saving of £57.36. The Intuos 2018 is the newest model in Wacom’s entry-level lineup of pen tablets. It’s best-suited to beginner-level digital artists, or pro users who don't want to lug around their Intuos Pro and are looking for a travel-friendly additional model for on the move. The best drawing tablets right now This Boxing Day deal matches the best price on the Intuos 2018 we saw over Black Friday, and we don’t expect the price to drop any lower in the foreseeable future. It’s one of the best drawing tablets for beginners you can get – and at this price it's excellent value. This Intuos tablet is equipped with Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity and compatible with Windows 7 (or higher) and OS X 10.11 (or higher). You’ll get a medium Wacom Intuos Pen Tablet tablet in the box with a a 4K battery-free pen and USB cable. And you can choose one free downloadable software option: Corel Painter Essentials 6, Corel Aftershot or Clip Studio Paint Pro. Also read: The best drawing tablets right now The best drawing tablet for kids View the full article

If you’re the owner of a brand new Windows PC – or a new MacOS, iOS or Android device – this brilliant Boxing day deal on antivirus software will be of interest. Right now, you can save 50% on Bitdefender’s antivirus software packages. That means you can buy a year’s worth of protection from Bitdefender – our best antivirus software provider – for just $29.99 (usually $59.99), or £19.99 (usually £39.99) in the UK. Bargain. As you'll see below, there are three products on offer: Bitdefender Antivirus Plus (basic); Bitdefender Total Security (complete); and Bitdefender Internet Security (advanced. 8 best external hard drives and SSDs for PC and Mac Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2019 is our top pick – it's the basic option, but it’s crammed with high-end features and functionality. In fact, you get more than some of the competition offer in their full security suites, from accurate antivirus, a password manager and web filtering through to multi-layered ransomware protection and a lot more. But it’s also very easy to use, and for the most part you can leave it to handle everything itself. It’s only for Windows devices, though. If you need Mac OS, iOS or Android protection – or you have more than three devices to – Bitdefender Total Security is worth looking into. Either way, with a massive 50% off right now, these antivirus software deals are worth taking a look at this Boxing Day. Also read: The best antivirus software for 2019 The best free graphic design software The best USB flash storage for creatives View the full article

Are you a social media guru? Do you post, tweet, and stream like nobody's business? With the right training, you could be the perfect candidate to enter the social media marketing field. This lucrative field is growing every day, and whether you want to build your own brand or help a company build theirs, The Social Media Marketing Master Class Bundle can give you the coaching you need. Learn how to turn followers into revenue, and find out how to navigate different social media platforms in the most effective way. You'll also earn certifications of completion to prove your skills to employers. Check out The Social Media Marketing Master Class Bundle for just $29. Related articles: 5 ways (not) to lose followers on social media Social media for artists: A lifeline or a curse? 5 golden rules for social media strategy View the full article

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The best iPad accessories for your favourite tablet are here to help you make the experience even better. From keyboard cases that protect your iPad and make it a mobile workstation to speakers and headphones to help make your tablet experience even more immersive – we've got the lot. This guide has picked the best options from all the iPad accessory categories you can think of and has them laid out clearly below. With all the work done, all you need to do is decide which iPad accessory will get you the best out of your iPad this year. Being the official Apple stylus, the Pencil is near perfect for the job. It magnetically attaches to the iPad Pro and charges wirelessly while there. The Pencil features a double tap sensor that allows you to switch pen styles easily. This is also both pressure and tilt sensitive so can be used more like a real pen. So increase pressure for thicker lines or tilt for shading, all while leaning your hand on the screen without marking your work. The Adonit Jot Pro is a great stylus to save you some money while still keeping enough style to look good even when paired with the design perfection that is Apple's iPad. A magnetic core allows this to clip to your iPad while the precision head with clear plastic jot dot allows for super levels of accuracy where you see exactly what you're pressing against. Of course at this price you sacrifice all the smart extras like pressure sensitivity and tilt support. This is a super budget stylus option that works on all iPad devices. The Griffin Balanced Stylus Pointer, as the name suggests, is a simple way to get more control over drawing, writing and annotating on an iPad. Since its passive, it'll work on most touchscreens, doesn't require charging or connecting and even comes with a handy clip so you don't lose it. Griffin is a well known brand that is able to offer this quality stylus for a silly cheap price. If you want most of the features of the Apple Pencil but can't justify the expense then the Logitech Crayon is a good alternative. This still offers the tilt sensor and palm recognition of the Pencil. This pairs instantly when turned on and features an anti-roll shape so can be left down easily. You lose the pressure sensing and tap features of the Pencil but then you save a lot of money too. The official Apple Smart Keyboard for 10.5-inch iPad Pro is one of the best ways to turn your iPad into a laptop. You get Apple quality design and build meaning top quality keys for typing as well as a luxurious finish to the case itself. Everything attaches easily thanks to the Apple Smart Connector and the case is both thick enough to offer protection but slim enough to stay mobile. When it comes to keyboards, Logitech has been in the game for nearly as long as it has existed. That's just one of the reasons this Logitech Slim Folio Case with Keyboard is sold officially on the Apple Store. Bluetooth LE connectivity, complete iPad protection, dedicated iOS shortcut buttons, a stand mode plus a staggering four year battery life make this a winner at that low price. The Brydge 9.7 is aptly named as it aims to bridge the gap between tablet and laptop. Using its Bluetooth connected keyboard it offers a MacBook style experience with an iPad. You get a full QWERTY keyboard with dedicated iOS shortcuts, high-grade aluminium build, 3-level backlit keys and a lifetime warranty. The iPad Smart Cover is the original and accessory defining product which made tablet cases such a necessity. This not only protects the tablet display with a thin yet strong polyurethane and microfibre build, but it also acts as a stand when folded back. The case also features a magnetic connection to hold to the iPad which allows for smart awakening and sleep when opened and closed. The Griffin Survivor is a superb way to make sure your iPad stays protected. Yes this isn't the most sleek or attractive case but then it can go all the places a pretty case would be left dishevelled and your iPad broken. This is great for those with children or who lead hectic lives where the iPad is thrown in and out of bags travelling all over. This is US Department of Defense level safe too. The MoKo Case Fit for iPad 9.7 is a truly astonishing balance of super low price and multiple features combined. This offers the auto wake and sleep magnetic flip case of the official Flip Cover but also adds rear side protection with heat dissipating materials to avoid overheating. There is also shock absorption for drops and a screen protector to evade scratches. A superb feature set for the low price. The official Apple AirPods have been designed from scratch to offer the ultimate wireless audio experience with an Apple device. That means a simple tap to connect and then automatic recognition when you pop them in your ears. A tap gets you Siri for voice controls without the need to touch your iPad. You get a 24-hour battery with charges from the case plus decent audio for music and voice. The Bose QuietComfort 35 ii headphones offer a fantastic way to drown out the world around you with active noise cancellation while giving wireless connectivity and decent battery life. These are ideal for travelling or at home where background noise can affect concentration. The comfort levels are high meaning they can be worn for a long time without being noticed – the perfect flight companion. If you want to go for more subtle in-earphones but wish to stay wireless and on a budget then the Soundcore Spirit Sports are a great option. These sweat and rain resistant buds offer up to eight hours of listening before they need a charge. That makes them not only useful at home with your iPad but also great to head out the door for a run with your iPhone, getting you even more for that affordable price. The Bose SoundLink Revolve+ is a powerful yet portable Bluetooth speaker that offers 360-degree sound to fill most rooms. This even comes with Siri support allowing for easy voice controls via your connected iPad. The battery should keep going for 16-hours while the IPX4 rating means splash and dust resistance to set your mind at ease as you enjoy the high-quality sound. Sonos started the multi-room speaker revolution and is still leading the way with quality products like the Sonos One. This allows you to connect using your iPad to control the speaker, or any other Sonos speaker in the home, using AirPlay for super simple access. It also supports Siri voice controls and allows you to use two speakers for stereo sound. Sony quality sound on a budget. This Sony SRS XB-10 portable and affordable Bluetooth speaker will work with any iPad to offer decent bass for the size and enough audio punch fill most rooms. The battery life is an impressive 16-hours and with IPX5 water and dust resistance you can take it pretty much anywhere you need to go. Despite the name, the Joby GripTight GorillaPod Stand Pro actually fits lots of different iPad types. Thanks to its malleable legs it can be manipulated to hold the tablet at varying heights and angles, ideal for watching video or thanks to side-on tilting, FaceTime chatting. The rubber feet hold the unit in place and you can even wrap it around a chair back or pole, for example, to get it in place where you need. The Logi Base Charging Stand for iPad is a typical Apple style design that uses metallic minimalism at its best. The slither of a stand not only looks good and solid but also uses the Smart Connector for easy attachment and charging of the iPad Pro. The iPad can be placed in portrait or landscape mode for use as a video player, work station or even FaceTime video chat interface. The Anker Portable Multi-Angle Stand works with most iPads as well as a host of smartphones including the iPhone. This stand offers support for portrait and landscape viewing and can be titled to offer the perfect viewing angle. While this is great for videos and FaceTime, you won't have any cable hiding or charging support, but at this price would you expect to? Read more: The best laptop bags for 2019: top laptop backpacks, sleeves and cases The best cheap iPad deals in 2018 The best iPad stylus in 2018: top iPad styluses for drawing and note-taking View the full article