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At Black Hat, Google's Parisa Tabriz discussed how to navigate the complex security environment with long-term thinking and a policy of open collaboration. View the full article

Rather than eliminating bugs, the idea is to add large numbers of non-exploitable bugs to software as decoys to waste cyber-criminals' time. View the full article

Originally designed in 1974 and launched internationally in 1980, Rubik's Cube is a design classic that's sold by the hundreds of millions. Over the years, it has delighted – not to mention infuriated – countless people around the globe. 11 inspiring design toys for your desk The original cube was an extremely clever piece of design and engineering that defied improvement; it's been refined so that speed-cubers can turn it even more times without the cube falling apart, but basically this is one of those situations where the design thinking was absolutely bang on the first time. Pick up any Rubik's Cube, or indeed any imitation cube, and you know exactly what to do with it – even if you don't know how to solve it. Who needs a high-tech update when the original just works? The GoCube - like the Rubik's Cube, only smarter Well, it turns out that lots of people do. Designed in Israel by Tel Aviv company Particula, the GoCube is pitched as the Rubik's Cube reimagined with brains. It still behaves the same as a standard Cube, but now has loads of clever high-tech features designed to help you learn how to solve it, improve your times and even race against friends online. The GoCube tracks its movements using built-in sensors, and connects via Bluetooth to an app that displays your cube on your phone or tablet, and also features various games and challenges to improve your cube handling and instincts. The GoCube app will help you solve the cube then improve your times It's set to retail from an eye-watering $119 for the basic GoCube, but if you want to get your hands on one at a substantial discount, you'd better hurry over to the GoCube Kickstarter, where you can save around 40 per cent on various GoCube packages. The GoCube might sound expensive but that's not holding anyone back; it's torn right through its original Kickstarter goal of $25,000 and has clocked up over $800,000 of pledges. There's now less than 24 hours left to run on the campaign. Related articles: Create your own art toys 10 ways to transform your creative thinking 8 must-have products for a smarter studio View the full article

Using a handcrafted element, such as bespoke typography or clever use of illustration, as a core part of a brand's visual identity is a trend that has been gaining momentum of late. The latter is enjoying a particular resurgence in food packaging design, but there are impressive and imaginative examples popping up in a range of different industries. For a closer look at the trend for illustration in branding, and why it's becoming so popular, take a look at our feature on how to bring a brand to life with illustration. Or read on for five brands that have used illustration to add some magic to their identity scheme. 01. Robot food for Vocation Brewery Representing each beer through pictures helped elevate this startup Leeds-based agency Robot Food created the naming, branding and packaging design for Vocation Brewery. According to design director Mike Johns, the project was "very much an open brief", and the approach looked to communicate something, "a bit gritty and new-school, in design terms." The solution was to use an intricate, tattoo-inspired illustration style created in-house with icons and graphics that subtly communicate the story of each brew. "We want to portray the tasting notes of each beer through the illustration, so the American Pale Ale is a celebration with fireworks, while Heart and Soul is more a heaven scene," says Johns. "We wanted to add elements and details that tell the story. The main thing about Vocation is getting across what each beer is about pictorially." 02. Together Design for Pearson Pearson used illustration to cross cultural barriers Together Design has worked with education brand Pearson for the last three years. As the lead agency for its global rebrand, Together Design "created hundreds of pages of guidance in many different languages," says creative director and founder Heidi Lightfoot. Illustration was a vital part of this new approach, enabling easy, direct communication across numerous languages and cultures for a company that has over 30,000 employees. Together commissioned five illustrators located in different parts of the world including Singapore, the US, Australia and the UK to create hero illustrations "for communicating big themes", as well as producing designs in-house for infographics, pictograms and patterns, to create a comprehensive "kit of parts" visual asset library for Pearson's global operations. "It was important to have different illustration artists around the world that the Pearson teams could commission directly," says Lightfoot. "So there may be imagery which is market- and product- specific, but it all ties in seamlessly with the global library that is accessible to all." 03. Silas Amos for Red Red A touch of the surreal gave flavour to this stew-pot brand Without the budget for a conventional ad campaign, African-inspired stew-pot Red Red's approach was to create a ‘design campaign' orchestrated by creative strategist and designer Silas Amos and based around the idea of ‘a lunch less ordinary'. Nigerian artist Dennis Osadebe was brought in for the punchy illustrations used across various brand touchpoints, creating slightly surreal characters that mix humour, nuance and subtle use of African patterns. Parent brand Unilever was looking for a key visual, an image that communicated the brand's essence while also showcasing the product. Sign up for the Computer Arts newsletter "We gave Dennis the brief to do his work in the mildly surreal way he does, but then we let him loose," says Amos. "He came back with an astronaut lady, a Caesar character…" Osadebe adds: "We knew exactly what the brand represented: it was then a case of finding how to best bring it to life, visually. This inspired me to work with the feeling that the brand gave me – a mixture of fun, vibrancy, innovation, timelessness and most importantly diversity, in the sense of merging of different cultures together." 05. Sid Lee for Blue Goose Illustration added an artisanal twist to a meat and fish company The Toronto studio of creative agency Sid Lee was briefed to create new packaging designs for Blue Goose, a range of meat and fish that prides itself on being ‘clean protein' – the brand's emphasis is on transparency and tracing the product back to its farming origin. Agency executive creative director and partner Tom Koukodimos says that going down the illustration route and commissioning Ben Kwok was perfect, as it allowed the agency to capture a complex story in its simplest form and "do it in a way that's unique and ownable, and visually distinct". The solution sets the brand apart from competitors, which often lean towards simple images showing potentially generic images of farms. "The illustration was meant to feel artisanal, but without leaning into artisanal visual shorthands," says Koukodimos. "It needed to be new and imaginative, and a little inventive. The style has a craft feel to it, but without getting into those dated cliches of craft." 05. Thirst Craft for Loch Lomond Brewery An updated look for an established brewery Glasgow-based agency Thirst Craft was brought in to create a new look for the relatively established beer Loch Lomond; and a key part of the brief was to refresh the look and feel without alienating existing customers. "If we made them unrecognisable, they'd have a drop in sales," says creative director Matt Burns. "So we wanted to keep what was working well and where they have strong equity, and that was in landscape illustration and unusual colour palettes." The agency brought in illustrator Jack Daly for the project. "The way he uses light and shadow is great," says Burns. "There's so much to explore there – he has a beautiful use of curves and colour. Also, it was great as he grew up [near Loch Lomand]. It's quite a subtle detail but we wanted to capture that sense of a whole day at the Loch." This article was originally published in Computer Arts, the world's best-selling design magazine. Buy issue 279 or subscribe. Read more: The designer's guide to illustration The illustrator hotlist 2018 20 illustrators to follow on Instagram View the full article

A Black Hat talk demonstrates the ease of poking holes in firewalls: How to break, bypass and dismantle macOS firewall products. View the full article

A focus on user experience is vital for a great product. Unfortunately, the catch-22 is that small businesses – a valuable part of our community – need to grow online and so still need to offer a relatively sleek experience to their users. However, there are ways to deliver a great UX for clients working with smaller budgets, which we'll explore here. We'll also look at some web design tools that can help you out. I once believed that a UX was a catch-all improvement for everything. That was until I started working with small businesses, where brand recognition and volume of traffic is lower; navigation, content and audience segments are simpler; and objectives are easier to distil. It became clear that the balance of return on investment against the cost of UX as a percentage increase in sales was negligible. UX increases performance by increments. Where traffic is high this generates considerable revenue on low percentage increases – but drop that traffic to less than 5000 visits a month and the sums just don’t add up. In this article, I'll run through nine ways to grab the low-hanging fruit in terms of UX. 01. Learn from bigger competitors Big businesses tend to spend considerable sums on user experience, so do some research on competitors and large corporations in your client’s line of business. Select five to carry out a competitor comparison, and try and get a good idea of the dos and don’ts. There’s often treasure to be found in these big brands' online reviews as well. Crayon is a great free tool to help with this. It showcases businesses (organised by sector or keyword) alongside previous versions of each website, so you can explore how they have improved over time. 02. Get UX experience Employing a designer who has plenty of experience in hands-on UX is a great asset to a small businesses and a key USP in your pitch. There are always ways to practice, study and shadow UX professionals, so do your homework. 03. Use Google Analytics With Google Analytics, we can gather information about customers' behaviour, location, devices, user flow and actions, without having to talk to them. There are plenty of ways to use this to improve your UX. For example, you can figure out where users are bailing – if it is halfway through a purchase or action, then what’s stopping them? Even knowing which blog posts get the most visits can help shape your client’s content strategy. 04. Look at heatmaps If you can’t watch a person using your site then heatmaps are a great alternative. Free sites such as Smartlook allow you to add tracking code to provide important information about user behaviour. Just remember to list them in the site’s cookie policy. 05. Organise a focus group Everyone likes a party, especially one where they get to air their views. Inviting five customers over with their laptops for a ‘lunch hour’, with nice food and perhaps a little going-home goodie, can result in some remarkable discoveries. It also helps create loyalty and a feel-good factor for your client. Plan meticulously and be clear in advance what will be involved and why. Allocate half an hour for the customers to individually complete set tasks on the website, documenting how they are doing and what they feel. Follow this up with lunch and a half-hour group discussion. 06. Ask the customers Most businesses have a mailing list, so why not ask their customers? Set five simple questions that will open up a discussion rather than just garnering yes/no answers. Think carefully what will give you most insight into the problems you are trying to solve. Mention all replies will be entered into a prize draw, creating goodwill whilst receiving valuable feedback from real users. To distil findings from your replies use a tool such as Survey Monkey. 07. Increase conversions Multivariate tests (MVT), conversion rate optimisation (CRO), and A/B testing are powerful tools in a UX designer's toolbox. But if you don’t have the traffic then the results will be inconclusive. Still, there are gains to be made by learning from the above methods and implementing small changes measured through analytics and heat mapping to increase visitor traction. 08. Focus on first impressions If the website doesn’t have a lot of traffic or you are still in the design phase, UseabilityHub’s Five Second Tests are a great little tool to get a snapshot of what people think. Ask a few short questions and get users' gut responses. 09. Sketch! Website mockups are a key stage in figuring out how users will interact with a site. These approaches can be used for a variety of UX tasks. What pages are needed, what your client’s goals are and what customers are looking for can all be brainstormed and sketched out with a pencil and pad to create a very usable site map, page map, actions, content structure and user flow. This article was originally published in net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 308 or subscribe. Read more: What are the main barriers to good UX today? 37 sets of free icons 6 trends that are changing the face of UX View the full article

In 2018, there are many ways to harness social media to benefit your career. You might use it to attract attention, make money, win clients, lure collaborators, get feedback on your design portfolio, or just spark conversations and creative ideas with like-minded professionals. Unfortunately, if you do a lot of social media posting, it can very quickly become mind-numbingly tedious. Feel like you're on a social media treadmill? Then ask yourself if any of the repetitive tasks that suck at your soul could be automated to make your life easier. In this post, we list 10 top tools that might provide a solution. 01. Hootsuite Schedule your social posts before your holiday using Hootsuite Launched in 2008, Hootsuite remains the go-to app if you want to set up and schedule social media posts in advance. The free plan allows you to manage up to three social profiles, and schedule up to 30 posts each month. You also get some decent analytics and follower-tracking tools, and two RSS feed integrations. Hootsuite supports more than 150 apps, including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, WordPress, YouTube and Pinterest. Even with apps that are essentially mobile-only, such as Instagram, you can use Hootsuite to create posts and schedule them using your desktop computer (as long as you have an Instagram business account). Most importantly, you can set it to post automatically when you’re going to be away, or if you’re just too busy at work and don’t want to be distracted. Note, however, that Hootsuite can’t do everything you might want it to. For example, it doesn’t allow you to add a location or tag people on your scheduled Instagram posts. 02. Later Later enables you to line up your Instagram posts using a desktop computer If Instagram is your main jam, then you may want to consider Later (previously known as Latergramme) as an alternative to Hootsuite. As a bespoke tool for Instagram, it’s a much more visually focused platform than Hootsuite. For example, its calendar displays thumbnails of your posts to help you balance things out aesthetically over the month. Later also offers a handy media library, where you can store images in advance, ready to be turned into scheduled posts at a later date. Like Hootsuite, you can schedule up to 30 free posts a month with the free plan. Later also what it calls a Linkin.bio feature that enables you to link Instagram posts to pages or products, which is great if you sell your wares through Instagram. This is, however, not available until you sign up to the $16 per month plan. 03. Tweetdeck Although the mobile apps have been closed, Tweetdeck remains the best desktop tool for managing your Twitter streams Twitter can be a confusing, chaotic beast, and if you need a web app to help you make sense of it, we’d recommend the free app Tweetdeck. Its main uses are to enable you to schedule tweets, from multiple accounts, and to keep track of whatever you want to keep track of; whether that’s direct messages, mentions or just tweets containing a specific word, phrase or hashtag. The great thing about Tweetdeck is being able to add columns that contain the specific info you need. Basically, the more columns you add, the more useful it becomes, particularly if you’re using more than one Twitter account. That does mean it’s pretty useless on mobile, though. But on a wide screen with a good internet connection, Tweetdeck can save you a lot of time and effort compared to fiddling about in the normal Twitter app. 04. Storyheap Storyheap is used by celebs such as DJ Khaled So far, we’ve talked about scheduling posts, but increasingly, social media is about stories. Launched last year, Storyheap allows you to upload, schedule, and analyse your Instagram and Snapchat Stories. The app has a drag-and-drop interface that means you can build stories just as you would within Snapchat or Instagram, along with its own filters and photo editing tools to add some extra pizzazz. Then you can either post them immediately or schedule them; and most usefully, you can sync your Instagram Stories to your Snapchat and vice versa. Boosted by web entrepreneurs like Gary Vaynerchuk and celebrities such as DJ Khaled, Storyheap has made a big splash and seems to have cornered this niche market for now. It’s not cheap, though: plans start at $49 per profile per month. But if you have a big following, or are working for a client who does, it’s well worth checking out. 05. Botletter Send newsletters to your Facebook audience using Botletter You might think newsletters are just for email. But with more and more people living their online lives on Facebook, it can be much more effective to keep your followers up-to-date via Facebook Messenger. Botletter is a great app that enables you to send newsletters or updates on Facebook Messenger to an unlimited number of people. So it’s basically MailChimp, but for Facebook; with all the analytics tools and ability to customise your newsletters and subscribers lists you'd expect. You just need a Facebook Page, and it’s a pretty simple process to set up. You pay per message, and that can add up to quite a lot of money if you have more than a thousand fans. However, the open rate with Facebook newsletters does tend to be a lot higher than that of email newsletters (where the ‘delete spam’ impulse is much more ingrained), so it may well prove worth the investment. 06. Bit.ly Bit.ly makes your links simpler and more social media-friendly Bit.ly isn’t a social media tool as such, but it is an invaluable (and free) tool for anyone using social media. It does one thing, and does that thing very well: takes a long, cumbersome looking URL and turns it into a shorter, cleaner one. As a result, your posts look instantly more appealing than if they were cluttered up by a long and code-laden looking web address. Also, some social platforms, such as Instagram, don’t allow you to include clickable links in your posts, so a bit.ly link is much easier for your followers to type in manually. Finally, bit.ly allows you to see exactly how many people have used your link, along with info such as where they are, what site they were referred from, and so on. Once you’ve signed up for bit.ly, it’s very simple to use. You just paste in the long URL and then you get a shorter one back (eg. https://www.creativebloq.com/features/the-10-best-stamp-designs-inspired-by-tv-and-movies becomes bit.ly/2LKl0vB. You then have the choice to customise your URL to make it easier to read: we chose bit.ly/stamp-design. 07. AddThis Share buttons A free way to add social buttons to your site Let’s face it, even if people like your website content, most people are either too lazy or too busy to share it on social media. So make it easy for them, by adding a one-click share button. AddThis offers a variety of free website tools to download and use on your own sites, and its Share buttons are an excellent way to get your content shared around a possible 200 social networks. (We don’t recommend you add a button for each of these, but you get the idea). These buttons are all customisable, mobile-friendly and look pretty darned good too. 08. Refind Save your own links and browse those of other creative pros It’s astounding how you often you find a great link, think ‘this will make a killer social media’ post… but then three days later, can’t find it again for love nor money. Crawling through every single link in your Google history is like searching for a needle in a haystack, and you eventually give up, tired and cross. If this happens to you a lot, you might want to investigate Refind. It’s a free browser extension that makes it super-simple to store important links for when you need them. You save each one by clicking the extension button in the corner of your screen, and you can add tags if you like too. There are also Refind apps for iOS and Android. In recent years, Refind has started to extend its offering to become a bit of a social network in itself. So now, as well as saving your own links, it also offers to "deliver the most relevant stories from around the web to your homepage, app, or inbox" based on your interests and relevant links saved by its membership (which is invite-only, presumably to avoid people gaming the system). 09. IFTTT Automate your social apps using IFTTT Searching high and low for a social media tool that will do a very specific thing, but can’t find one? Chances are, IFTTT will be the answer. Standing for ‘If this, then that’, this free tool is a way of making all the apps you use talk to each other in a quite magical way. It does this via automated actions known as ‘recipes’. One recipe, for example, might be that all your Instagram photos get automatically stored to Dropbox. Or you could determine that every time your Facebook profile pic changes, your Twitter pic changes to the same image. Or that every post you recommend on Medium automatically gets posted to your Facebook page. Or… well, you get the idea. Note that IFTTT is not limited to social media: you can use it with anything web related, including smart home devices. But if you do a lot of boring repetitive tasks on social media, and like the idea of automating them instead, then you should definitely check it out. 10. Antisocial Save yourself from burnout with AntiSocial We've all done it. You fool yourself into thinking you’re spending useful, productive time on social media "for work", when you’re actually just scrolling blindly and wasting hours you could be spending designing stuff. So it’s important to keep track of how much time you’re actually spending on social media. And in fact, Facebook and Instagram have just released in-app tools to help you do so. But if you want to track your time spend across all social media platforms, our favourite tool has to be the free Android app AntiSocial, for its easy to use interface, low impact on your phone battery, and simple to understand reports. Read more: 10 social media tricks you didn't know about 6 Instagram hacks to transform your feed How to make social media work for you View the full article

You're reading 10 Original Ways to Slide Out a Menu in Web Design, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! The slide out menu came to life right with as a popular option for mobile applications. Not only was it a nifty solution to gracefully flow the main menu into the small interface, but it was the only valid, rational … View the full article

If you want to take your photography skills to the next level, you'll want the Professional Photo Editing Bundle. This comprehensive training bundle will teach you how to use Lightroom like a pro – you'll learn how to edit photos so well that they'll look like they belong in a magazine. You'll gain hands-on practice by taking sunset shots and balancing them perfectly, and you'll also discover how to create time lapse effects for truly eye-catching photographs. You'll even learn the techniques behind taking great night photographs – it can be tricky, but you'll find out the secrets to success in this bundle. Get the Professional Photo Editing Bundle for just $19 – 88% off the regular price. Related articles: 45 best photo apps and photo editing software The 5 best laptops for photo editing in 2018 Create illustrated portraits from photos View the full article

As a designer, it's no secret that some tasks are a serious time-suck. And when all you want to do is crack on with actually designing something, that can be hugely frustrating. But it doesn't have to be that way. Whether your biggest bugbear is creating invoices, contracts and other admin paperwork, or you spend far too much of your day creating design mockups, or maybe you waste hours to-ing and fro-ing with clients on tiny amends – we hear you. There are plenty of tools for designers that can help you claw back some of that all-important creative time. For a start, you could automate common design tasks, or install useful design plugins to make your process easier. There are plenty of productivity tools and collaboration tools for designers to choose from too. If that's still not enough, read on to discover ten time-saving tools for specific design tasks, all of which could save you time right away. Most of these tools are also free, at least initially... 01. Design product mock-ups quickly with PlaceIt Mock up your latest app design on a phone with ease If you find yourself spending too many hours stitching screengrabs onto product images to show them off in situ, once you discover PlaceIt, you'll wonder what you've been doing with your life. With more than 2,500 Creative Commons images in its library to use as templates, this handy mockup generator might just prove a godsend when you need to show something on a phone, tablet or other device. 02. Find complementary colours with Impalette Generate a whole colour palette from a single image Wasting time with the Color Picker in Photoshop, trying to find the right palette to complement a particular image? This needs to stop. The wittily tiled Impalette (which features an impala in its logo, in case you missed it) has a simple but invaluable function: import an image, and it'll provide you with a Pantone-based grid of dominant colours, as well as a selection of complementary hues. 03. Keep track of expenses easily with Expensify Take the pain out of your expense reports Let's go ahead and assume that keeping track of your expense receipts isn't why you became a designer. So why are you wasting so much time doing it? Expensify makes the process easy, from receipt scanning through to reimbursement (if you're employed). If you're self-employed, you can import the data into third-party apps ready for every freelancer's favourite time of year: tax return season. 04. Create social graphics faster with iStock Editor Crop your chosen image to size right within iStock Stock images are great for creating graphics for social campaigns, but if you're bothering to download them, import them and crop them to different sizes, guess what? You're wasting time. With iStock Editor, you can create simple graphics quickly and effectively, right within the image library – it even has all the crop sizes you need for different social platforms ready and waiting. 05. Track down that typeface with What Font Is Upload an image to determine what fonts are used in it Do you keep seeing a distinctive typeface in use that would be ideal for your next project, but have no idea what it is? Sure, you could waste precious time on research, or ask around to see if anyone recognises it. Or you could cut out the hassle and use the aptly named What Font Is. Upload an image or specify a URL, and it'll generate a list of type matches for you to experiment with. 06. Make pattern design a breeze with Patterninja Turn any image into a pattern quickly and easily Sometimes single-purpose apps are the most fun to play with. Sure, you could fire up Illustrator and create all the pattern designs you need for your next design project, but why use a sledgehammer to crack a nut? Patterninja simply takes any image you give it and converts it into a pattern. There are a broad selection of vector shapes and icons in its free library to get you started, too. 07. Make client approval smoother with ProofHub Cut out the email tennis with clients over project feedback Be honest: how much time do you waste playing email tennis with clients, colleagues and collaborators as the agonising process of dealing with feedback and amends plays out? Project management tool ProofHub provides a central place for all project-based discussion, feedback and changes. There are various markup tools baked in, so you can highlight and annotate directly on the file. 08. Test out your chosen fonts with Type Anything Experiment with CSS type formatting on the fly to save time Your website design may look great on the mockups, but what happens when you get it into CSS and it doesn't work as planned? Rather than wasting time tinkering, or going back to the drawing board altogether, test it out in a live environment first using Type Anything. As well as exploring font combinations, you can adjust size, spacing, weight, opacity, margins and many other variables on the fly. 09. Simplify client proposals with Proposify Win over clients with effortlessly interactive proposals Designing client pitches and proposals is a drain on any studio or freelancer's time – and unless you win the work, you can't chalk it up as billable time either. But you still want a polished presentation, and Proposify is one solution. Using the tool, you can create an interactive, mobile-optimised, fully white-labelled experience quickly and easily – and there are plenty of templates to use. At $25/month for an individual, or $75/month for a small business, you have to pay for the privilege though. 10. Cut out the invoicing hassle with Invoice.to Collect payments quickly and easily through Stripe or PayPal Our final inclusion on this list is another very simple but effective single-purpose tool. While many project management apps will incorporate an invoicing system, if you're a freelancer who just wants something super-quick and easy to take the hassle out of invoicing, Invoice.to might be just the thing. Plug your Stripe or PayPal account into it, and you're away. Related articles: Essential guide to tools for designers 10 plugins to make your design process easier 8 simple productivity tools for designers View the full article

The new strategy allows an attacker to instead lift ID information directly from the router, within minutes. View the full article

For a lot of people, owning a piece of art is an ambition that's always going to be out of reach. Not only is a lot of original artwork itself beyond most people's budgets, but even the cost of sourcing and framing high-quality prints can be unfeasible. Factor in the possibility that lives and tastes change – rendering investing in expensive artwork or prints a risk not wholly unlike adorning your body in tattoo art – and it's clear to see there's a problem that needs solving. Art techniques: top tutorials for painting and drawing Enter Canvia, a recently launched Kickstarter project that aims to bring art to the masses. Canvia is a smart digital display that wants to make the process of choosing, displaying and enjoying art easier than before. Canvia makes it easier and more accessible to display art Digital picture frames are nothing new, but often they aren't geared towards displaying the high level of detail that Canvia boasts. Thanks to cutting-edge hardware, proprietary image processing, and image-based sensors, Canvia presents and digital artwork as a high-quality painting or print. This means that viewers will be able to see original artwork details such as colour, texture, contrast and even individual brushstrokes. And ambient light sensors, which adjust the colours depending on the image's surroundings, ensure the artwork looks as fresh and sharp as its creator intended. Canvia captures the detail of individual brush strokes Artwork for Canvia can be selected from a massive online library app, cutting out the hassle and expense of sourcing and displaying new pictures. And once you start using Canvia, you'll get recommendations of what to hang up next. Users can also take a photo and chuck it up on the screen. Having worked closely with traditional artists, the team at Canvia understand how best to transfer painting from the canvas to the screen. The project has already smashed its goal on Kickstarter, with a week to go until its campaign ends. There's still time to donate though, so if you want to get in on the ground floor of this innovative device, be sure to head over to the Canvia Kickstarter page and make a pledge. Related articles: 8 inspiring digital art portfolios and why they work How to start your digital art journey Painter 2018 blurs the line between traditional and digital art View the full article

There's no point having a beautifully designed website if no one can find it. That's where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes in. SEO is both an art and a science, it's all about ensuring that when people search for a relevant term online – for example, 'cheap hotel in Birmingham' – your website appears high up the results page, in a way that grabs attention and encourages click-throughs. You might think SEO is something you can hand over to someone 'technical' once the website layout has been agreed on and the whole thing is designed. But rather than being bolted on after the event, it's increasingly baked into the design process from the start. "For brand new websites, SEO is definitely something clients want to discuss straight away," says Mark Stringer, managing director of Manchester agency AHOY. "And for those undertaking a refresh, it's usually the next question after the UI discussion." Exactly what's requested will vary from client to client. "Smaller businesses and sole traders tend to ask about marketing in general, or maybe even how to get on Google," says Eji Osigwe, head of design and development at Cedarwood Digital, also in Manchester. "Larger businesses seem more aware of the terminology and the kind of work involved, and so may ask for very specific work." How SEO works Cedarwood Digital worked to improve SEO on improvisational comedy group Impro Quo's website. This mainly involved research into what people are searching for, considered copywriting, and good use of headings There was a time when SEO was a dark art involving tricks like 'keyword stuffing', which meant visitors were often greeted by the mindless repetition of a phrase like 'cheap hotel' through a site. Thankfully, in 2018, search engines are more sophisticated, and so nowadays the most fundamental building block of SEO is, quite simply, to create a quality website people will love. "Strong, quality content that keeps visitors engaged – especially content informed by an up-to-date keyword strategy – will help you move higher in search results," says Eric Johnson, director of experience design at 50,000feet. "Think of the winning formula as visitor time spent + high-quality content + keywords." Techniques for boosting your SEO Fireworx rebuilt and redesigned the website of wealth management firm Edison; it was crucial to preserve the site's current link equity with a comprehensive plan for 301 redirects One is to structure the information on your site so it can be displayed as a separate section within your main listing. "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) is a good example of high-quality, useful content that will get included," notes Johnson. "The next time you search on Google, check out the 'People Also Ask' module, which displays questions that are similar to your search; this will help you get an idea of questions to include in your FAQ." Another important thing to consider, especially when it comes to refreshes and rebrands, is 301 redirects. These little bits of code send both site visitors and search engines to a different URL when, for example, a temporary campaign ends and you want people to visit the main site instead. Broken links will get you penalised on Google, so a solid 301 redirect strategy is vital to good SEO. SEO is not an exact science, though, because the algorithms used by search engines like Google to rank sites are both secret and constantly changing. For this reason, optimising the SEO of a site is not a 'one and done' deal, but something that needs constant attention. Thankfully, it's easy to gather data on how your strategy is working, and tweak accordingly. 35 brilliantly designed 404 error pages How to measure SEO "SEO is very easy to measure with analytics tools such as Google Analytics and a range of other platform tools," explains Adam Innes, technical architect at 50,000feet. "Insights gained from these tools include key search terms, visitors by type of device, and duration of visits – all of which are vital in continuing to optimise the experience for engagement and performance." It's also important to keep an eye on trends. For example, Google has made it a priority to measure the speed at which web pages load, with slow-loading sites getting demoted in the rankings. Google also puts huge stock on responsive web design – essentially whether your site adapts seamlessly to mobile or other devices. Innes, meanwhile, believes other factors will become important in future. "With a growing awareness of fake content, there will be more emphasis on a website's TrustRank and user security," he predicts. "Google has already taken steps to include a small bump in preference to sites using HTTPS. Providing not only quality and engaging content but also truthful and secure content will become more and more important." Learning about SEO Frontend and backend development helped support both topical browsing and targeted keyword searching on 50,000ft's website for Sappi Limited, a South African pulp and paper company (also featured in lead image) Regardless of the specifics, one thing is clear: SEO is something all creatives need to be aware of. So how can designers develop their awareness of it? Firstly, says Stringer, know your limitations. "Understand that this is not your forte, and it's hard enough for SEO specialists to keep up with Google's changing algorithm let alone a graphic designer." But at the same time, the more you can learn about SEO the better. "Take responsibility and get up to speed so you have a rough understanding of best practice," Stringer urges. "It's better for your career, your sanity and the team. I've always found that learning from your peers is the most useful way to gain new skills, and the digital sector is probably one of the most community focused sectors out there, so you’ll never find a shortage of people willing to help," he continues. "If you are lucky enough to work in a team that has a search specialist in house, or that comes in to help, don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions and don’t let the account manager or project manager do all the work for you," says Stringer. "As the sector grows, there will always be more and more people you can call upon for a skills swap." This article was originally published in issue 279 of Computer Arts, the world's leading design magazine. Buy issue 279 or subscribe here. Read more: The best laptops for graphic design in 2018 Why graphic designers need beautiful websites 6 hot new websites to be inspired by View the full article

Half of breached firms say they were compromised due to a vulnerability for which a patch was available but not applied. View the full article

Although many creatives aren’t aware of it, you can actually get a qualification in software like Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC and InDesign CC. You just need to take the Adobe Certified Expert Exam (ACE). However, these qualifications are not (usually) necessary to get work as a designer, illustrator or animator. So why exactly should you bother? There are several reasons you might want to become Adobe certified. Your employer might insist on it, or suggest it will help you get a raise or promotion. Having an official ‘Certified’ badge on your website may help you win clients as a freelancer. You may wish to teach Adobe skills to others. Or you may just realise there’s a lot of things you’ve never learned to do within the software, and fancy a challenge. If you pass the test, you get a certificate and can put this badge on your site That’s exactly what spurred Jamie Carroll, a graphic artist based in Missouri, to pursue Adobe accreditation. “After working as a designer for many years, I knew I didn’t necessarily need the certification,” he recalls. “But I needed a new challenge at the time and I was ready to learn new things, and test my knowledge of the software.” (You can read about his experiences in detail in this blog post). It was a similar story for Garrett Scott Schue, a graphic designer for the marketing department of Liberty University in Virginia. “My reasoning for taking the test was to push myself to learn as much as I can,” he explains. “This test is the industry standard for design and I wanted to prove that I had mastered these programs.” In this post, we’ll explain how to go about becoming Adobe certified and offer tips on how to succeed. 01. What the test involves The Adobe training website is your first port of call to getting certified To become an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in, say, Photoshop you need to pass a test that involves multiple choice questions about the different tools and functions within the software. Just to be clear then: you don’t actually have to do any creative work at all. You’re not tested on your ability to design, illustrate or animate; only your knowledge of the software. That means that even if you’ve spent many years using the software in question, you'll still need to read up on the tools and features you’ve never needed to use. To give you a flavour, here's a sample question from the Photoshop test. 'How could a user apply a non-destructive vignette to an image?' The possible answers are: A. Use the Burn Tool to selectively brush in image edge darkening B. Add a Photo Filter layer and adjust the vignette slider for each edge C. Apply a Black to Transparent Gradient to the edges of an overlaid empty layer D. Select the Multiply blending mode and use the Brush tool to paint the darker areas (To find the answer, scroll down to the bottom of the post). 02. How do I book a test? The website will point you towards your nearest test centre To book a test, you’ll need to create an Adobe ID if you don’t already have one; you can create one here. Then head to the Adobe Certification Exams website and scroll through the options to find the specific software you wish to take the test in and click on the blue ‘Schedule an exam’ button. You’ll be given the option of taking the test at a physical test centre, or taking the test online. If you choose the former, you just enter your address and will be presented with the nearest test centres and a list of available dates and times. If you opt for the latter, the website will check that your system is compatible, so it helps if you apply on the device that you’ll be using to take the test. Oh, and did we mention you have to pay? Right now, it costs $180 to book the Photoshop test, whether you are taking it online or in person. 03. What might trip you up? However well you know your software, there may be some traps along the way Desmond Du, a Singaporean currently studying motion media design in Georgia, found one thing particularly surprising about the test. “The most challenging part was the ambiguous phrasing of some of the questions and answers,” he recalls. “Based on how you interpret the questions, you might arrive at two plausible answers, but there can only be one correct choice.” Carroll agrees. “The most difficult part of the test is the way the questions are worded,” he notes. “The answers are generally similar and worded in a way that makes you second guess your choice.” For this reason, doing as many practice exam questions as possible in advance comes highly recommended. Also be aware that what you commonly use Adobe software for may not be the whole story. “When I took the tests the biggest surprise for me was that InDesign has a large part of the questions based on animation,” recalls Schue. “This completely caught me off guard.” One thing particularly struck Du when took the Photoshop exam (which he details in full in this blog post). “You have to know every nook and cranny of the software, such as the function of some shortcuts,” he stresses. “If you don’t, you’re bound to fail.” Schue takes a similar view. “You need to to study hard, and make sure you just know the full program,” he says. “It’s easy to master your day-to-day work flow, but it’s very challenging to master parts of a program you never use. This is not a test for beginners, and I would recommend many years of experience before taking the test.” “I have received a few personal messages from designers that have attempted the test and not passed,” adds Carroll. “My advice is to focus on preparation and diversify your training resources. I took the preparation very seriously and studied for several weeks leading up to the test, dedicating much of my free time to preparation. Many hours.” 04. How to prepare for the test You can't wing this test; you need to study How the best prepare for the exam will of course depend on the software in question, your level of expertise and experience, and your personal study pattern. But in general, Du offers the following tips. Examine the software. Open up the software which you will be tested for, and examine every single button in there. If something seems foreign and confusing, research and clarify your doubts about their functions. Read the manual. This might be a little extreme, but I actually printed the software manual PDF for After Effects and read it like a textbook to study for my exam. Having a hard copy to read was more comfortable for my learning than reading the PDF off the screen. Read a book. Of all books that I found, Adobe Photoshop CC on Demand is the perfect book to prepare you for taking the Photoshop exam, as it covers almost everything you need to know about Photoshop. It is detailed and concise with each spread covering one or two specific components of the software. Test the waters. Take the Photoshop exam first because it is the easiest compared to the ones for After Effects and Illustrator. That way, you can understand the structure of the exam and gauge your knowledge of the software." (Du has written separate guides to the Photoshop test, Illustrator test and After Effects test.) 05. The joy of passing Pass the test, and it can be a boost to your design career If all this sounds like a big headache for something you don’t necessarily need, then note that there are also many benefits to getting Adobe-certified. “Although I would always put more emphasis on a designer’s portfolio than credentials, the certification does set you apart,” believes Carroll. “Since getting the certification, people will contact me more frequently asking for freelance work,” reports Shue. And for Du, it was life changing. “In retrospect, studying for the Adobe Expert exams became my first step to rebuilding myself after being rejected by local universities,” he explains. “I would have never foreseen that it would someday help me get into one of the best art schools in the world [The Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia]. “On a technical level, studying for the exam made me realised there are so many hidden functions inside Photoshop that can improve my workflow, such as automation using Create Droplet," he adds. "On an interpersonal level, my peers respected me more and trusted my skills in the software, so much so that I even got offers to become a software instructor.” If you do decide to pursue Adobe certification, then we wish you the best of luck. Oh, and that sample question? The answer was C. Read more: The future of design: AR will be bigger than the internet 60 top-class Photoshop tutorials to try The 10 commandments of Photoshop etiquette View the full article

'Oh, that'll take months to replace.' 'We can't touch that… [in a whisper]... we really don't know what it does, let alone how it works.' I've lost track of the number of times clients have said these kinds of things to me. But all is not lost. You can innovate with your existing tech solutions; you don't have to throw everything away and start from scratch. Web design automation: tune up your design process Imagine this scenario – quite a few years ago, a factory created piecemeal systems to support its internal functions, such as finance, manufacturing, dispatch, marketing and dealing with visitors. As customers' expectations have grown, its website has not been kept in check. Now more than half of the business's traffic comes from mobile or small-screen devices but the website does not properly adapt. And the IT solutions are all glued together but still work in silos, similar to the physical teams – making it almost impossible for them to all serve the same customer. This means that five, 10 or 20 years down the road, the business' IT systems and lack of attention to responsive web design are now inhibiting its growth. It is possible to build something out of old ruins So how do you adapt? Use the same principles you take while refurbishing a building. Think about when you've walked into a meeting room that has just undergone an almost overnight refresh. You are startled and pleased by the instant transformation but if you think about it, you know the building itself has all the same structure, heating, water and electricity. A plasterboard stud partition can hide a whole load of history and messy plumbing, cabling and ducting. Look a bit closer and you will see the same services but modernised with the help of now-universal sockets. The meeting room now has things such as USB power sources, VGA and HDMI ports for displays. However, behind the scenes, they all feed into the same tangled mess of electrical cables. We can take this same approach to old IT systems. The goal would be to connect these systems so that we can deliver a seamless user experience across channels. But what could be some of the challenges working with legacy systems? Let's take a look at some of the hurdles that you might face along the way. Duplicate customer information: multiple instances of the same individual could exist across different systems such as finance, web, visitor marketing or dispatch. In our fictitious example, there would be six different versions of the same customer across the six different systems. Depth of data: systems hold information in different ways and to different depths. For example, the operational side of business will often use code numbers for products with the shortest of English descriptions and contain data about things like composition, source of materials and weight. Conversely, marketing material tends to contain copious amounts of text to advertise the features of the product, in addition to including images and consumer pricing. Different methods of exporting data: in this case you might find some systems will only offer a data export, while others use a 20-year-old standard like SOAP or others use a modern interface like REST. Interface: some of these systems may have no web interface. Even if they do have one, it may fail to meet accessibility standards or adapt to mobile devices, let alone look consistent from a brand experience. New channels: there is no way to deliver a service to a new channel such as a Chatbot. Scale: some systems will be designed to service a small number of users, while others will be designed to be used at internet scale. Reliability: depending on how they were built, some of these systems may not be reliable or even available all of the time. Build modern facades to legacy systems A lick of fresh paint can make the world of difference To build a modern web or mobile experience for a business that will better stand the test of time, we look for the frontend to concern itself only in the experience, adapting to the medium the user chooses. The frontend should be flexible enough to be composed of multiple independent functions. In building refurbishment, we put up new plasterboard and paint the walls, while the superstructure, electricity supply and plumbing behind the scenes stay the same. We can follow the same approach for breathing new life out of your old IT systems: we can put up a new facade that connects to the back-end functions like product data or order management. Overcome technical complexity Despite the seemingly insurmountable barriers to accessing monolithic old systems, there are still ways that enable you to create clean connections between the backend and the modern frontend. Picture that faceplate that exposes the modern meeting room sockets we require: HDMI, USB, etc – this is what you need to overlay over your 'legacy' systems. We call these APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). The importance of APIs as a concept cannot be overstated. One of the factors in the success of Twitter, for example, is that it launched its platform along with an API and openly encouraged developers to create rival frontends or apps with the ability to tweet directly from developers' own products. Your organisation, like the factory, should be creating APIs like product API, order API and account API. Initially, these APIs would be for internal use (but a bold organisation will make them available to outside parties). Design API contacts The design of the API is the most critical phase – your stakeholders need to consider what information would be needed for all cases and ensure the API is scoped to deliver it (this is called an API contract). This can then be filtered so that a consumer won't see all of the manufacturing data and instead only receive the information they need. Implement APIs Apigee can help implement API With the APIs decided upon, it's then about implementing the API and retrieving the data from the one or more underlying systems. This is often the hardest part of the process but there is a wealth of software ready to assist with this, for example Apigee and IBM DataPower. Some other software options, while still being enterprise-grade, are free to use, such as WSO2's API Gateway and WSO2 ESB. These tools are capable of translating between SOAP to REST, file-based transfer (exports), handling concurrency, caching results and transforming them. That alone ticks several of the requirements we've already covered. Once the API contracts are approved, you can start building new services – such as an Alexa skill or an order-tracking app – upon them. You'd will no doubt expect multiple consumers to access the same API; a mobile app, Chatbot or website would all need access to the product API, for example. A separate part of the website would give access to authorised users for historic orders via the order API and so on. If the original backend doesn't offer a function to, say, issue a tweet or send a mobile phone notification, then a new function can be added to the API. If you want to add a new website function, app or new channel to market, just set these up as new consumers to your APIs. And you can be sure there will be new consumers: social media applications, Alexa skills or AI Bots. Whatever is next around the corner. Working with legacy technology is similar to refurbishing an old building. The general idea is not to throw out your legacy IT systems but merely wire them into a new API – transforming data along the way as necessary – to give them new life. Illustration: Kym Winters This article was originally published in issue 308 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 308 here or subscribe here. Related articles: 10 tips for better testing The web designer's guide to Flexbox UX for emerging experiences View the full article

If you're a fan of Pixar films, you know how powerful animation can be. Just as animation can move us to tears and make us laugh, it can also be used as an effective and successful marketing tool. With Animatron Studio Pro Plan: Lifetime Subscription, you're getting a set of tools that will allow you to create exciting graphics and pretty animations, even if you have no graphic design experience whatsoever. You'll be able to choose from a varied collection of thousands of totally free, pre-animated characters and backgrounds, and you can also edit your own images, audio, and even video content. You'll be amazed at all the amazing artwork you can create directly on your browser. Get Animatron Studio Pro Plan: Lifetime Subscription for only $49.99. Related articles: Create and animate SVG polygons Understand Disney's 12 principles of animation Perfect your animation portfolio with these tips View the full article

Given that Generate London offers an unparalleled opportunity to learn direct from some of web design’s brightest minds, there are already plenty of good reasons to buy a ticket. But generous souls as we are, we’ve decided to add another: for just 24-hours only – running from midnight to midnight BST – you’ll be able to get 50 per cent off full-price tickets in our flash sale, meaning two days of conference and a full day of workshops can be yours for just £297.50. And we’re sure you’ll agree that’s not much moolah for a whole lotta conference. Here’s just a few of the benefits... See amazing conference speakers for half the price Out of the gate, your ticket will give you the opportunity to attend conference sessions from the industry’s best and brightest designers and devs. For example, Ricardo Cabello, the designer and developer who brought the world three.js and frame/js, will explore the WebVR and WebXR APIs and help you to start crafting your first VR and AR projects with three.js. Meanwhile, keynote speaker and founder of You Know Who, Sarah Parmenter will offer up insight into making sites marketing sing, covering how to hold quarterly website design reviews with a “design once use everywhere” mantra and diving into the ever changing world of Instagram algorithms, Facebook marketing, and topical social media takeaways. Packed with more top design and development talent, the conference schedule also features: Alexandra Etienne, AR/VR evangelist, Lightform Bruce Lawson, web standards lovegod / fashion consultant Cassidy Williams, head of developer voice programs, Amazon Kristijan Ristovski, founder, React Academy Marpi Marcinowski, digital artist, marpi.pl Richard Rutter, co-founder, Clearleft Sara Soueidan, front-end UI developer Steven Roberts, creative developer, Asemblr.com Further stellar speakers still to be announced Enjoy additional perks and benefits But a ticket to Generate London doesn’t just offer up a chance to catch these great conference speakers in action. Tickets also include: Two full days of conference sessions A full-day workshop of your choice (with the three-day pass) Lunch and refreshments each day Free drinks at the after-party Goodie bag that includes net magazine Free workshops by our sponsors in the break so you can squeeze in some extra learning Access to videos of all the sessions list So if you want to save some cash while securing your place at the hottest conference in web design, don’t hesitate: grab your ticket to Generate London this Thursday. Related articles: Further web design royalty confirmed for Generate The best colour tools for web designers Create a responsive layout with CSS Grid View the full article

Creating your first theme is a big deal. You might know how to turn a functional site into a thing of beauty, but building a WordPress theme means acquiring a new set of skills to make it function the way you want it to. Here are some top tips for designers looking to build their first WordPress theme. You'll learn what makes a good theme, some of the tools you should be thinking about and what you need to know about coding. Not ready to build a WordPress theme yet, or looking for something different? Take a look at our roundup of great WordPress tutorials to pick up some more skills. 01. Explore existing themes first Before you begin building your first WordPress theme, you need to have an idea of what works and what doesn’t. This is the inspiration stage. Now, that doesn't mean stealing other people’s work. What it means is researching into what different themes look like, how they function, and how they are put together, taking that idea, and turning it into something different. It’s all about the execution. Take a look at these WordPress portfolio themes for some inspiration. 02. Don't dilute the purpose When it comes to building a WordPress theme, you should have the end goal in mind at all times. What do you want your site to do? Do you want to create a theme to sell products? Or maybe improve brand awareness? Or build a blogging platform? Or drive lead generation? Decide on the purpose of your theme, and keep it focused – don’t dilute things by choosing too many different aims. 03. Start with a template You’ve got your goals in mind and the foundations for a strong theme are laid, so now you need to decide whether you are going to build your WordPress theme from scratch or customise an existing template. Starting with an existing template and adding your own customisation is an easy way to start. Take a look at our roundup of great free WordPress themes if you want to go down this route. Using an existing theme framework means you’ll get access to a lot of functionality and structure (which could be key if you don’t want to spend hours learning basic coding). However, you won’t have the same level of customisation you’d get if you were building a WordPress theme from scratch. 04. … or code from scratch To build from scratch, you need to be prepared to put in the time to learn code. If you do decide to go down this route, embrace Stack Overflow and the WordPress Codex to help you build and customise your theme. The WordPress Codex serves as an incredibly useful online manual from the developers of WordPress. It’s a huge resource bank of information on every template, function, plugin and feature you can think of, including tutorials on how to use and develop WordPress sites and themes. Stack Overflow, on the other hand, is an unofficial but trusted online community for developers to learn and share programming knowledge. Both are very useful. WordPress also has a helpful tutorial on how to develop a WordPress theme from scratch. 05. Hunt out some quality images You want your website to look the best it can and perform to a high standard. This means you need images that will catch the eye. The good news is tools like Design Wizard are readily available and easy to use to help you create stunning images. Design Wizard actually has thousands of pre-made templates to suit every need. Other tools, such as Pikwizard, PixelDropr and IcoMoon allow you to gather free stock images, create buttons, icons and fonts. Check this out for more essential web design tools. 06. Don't forget plugins One of the best things about WordPress is the amount of tools – called plugins – that are readily available to add functionality to your site. WordPress plugins can easily be integrated with your theme to capture information, insert social posts, add Google Maps and so on. While building, you’ll need to ensure sure your theme is compatible with any major plugins you may want to include. Here are a selection of popular plugins to consider: Yoast SEO: An SEO plugin for improving website visibility and search rankings Contact Form 7: A customisable, flexible contact form Akismet: A spam-fighting plugin to protect against comment and contact form spam Jetpack: An all-in-one plugin for analytics, design, marketing and security WP Rocket: Rocket fuel caching for speeding up Wordpress and improving web traffic 07. Don't mess with core code Just keep in mind, everything you want to build should be done in the WordPress wp-content folder – you don’t want to be messing around with core code! There are lots of folders within WordPress, each of which are responsible for different functionalities. A word of caution before you make the decision to build from scratch or not – it’s fairly easy to end up building a theme that looks nice, but doesn’t work. So be careful to ensure you don’t end up with a theme that doesn’t actually function and requires hours of effort to improve the coding. Read more: 6 top tips for CRO success in WordPress How to start a blog: 11 pro tips The 14 best iPad apps for designers View the full article

When it comes to creating an effective logo design, most brands want something instantly recognisable yet completely unique. No mean feat. A pair of creative eyes can always find a fresh spin on a design classic, though, and that's just what award-winning Japanese designer Taku Oomura has done with these logo-cum-objects. Oomura, who is an architecture graduate and founder of oodesign, designs innovative objects for a living. And in his downtime it looks like he can't suppress the creative urge – if his Trial and Error project is anything to go by. In the project, Oomura takes iconic logos and finds a new use for them with the help of a 3D printer. So, the Honda 'H' becomes a bottle opener that utilises the logo's unique shape, while the McDonald's logo doubles up as a paper-fastener and picture holder. It's a series of clever creative spins on familiar designs, and we're sure that it'll spark your imagination and make you look at logos differently. Get a glimpse of Trial and Error by scrolling left to right in the gallery below with the arrows. If that whet your appetite, here's the full list of all 47 creations, where you'll see Coca Cola-inspired rings and Louis Vuitton business card holders. [Via BoredPanda] Related articles: Prep your work for 3D printing: 8 top tips 27 free 3D models The best 3D modelling software 2018 View the full article

Growing up, my favourite comic covers were the ones featuring characters conveying strong emotion in tense situations. I was also fascinated with watercolour techniques. The way the paint bled off the page, the visceral nuances that the brush left, the splatter, the texture, the imperfections. Now that I’m creating covers myself, the attraction for this traditional medium is even stronger. My process is pretty simple. I draw it, then colour it. I’ve always felt more of a storyteller than a painter, so I see it as less of a painter’s way of thinking, and more of an illustrator’s approach. Along the way, there might be some nuances and some happy accidents, but for me sketching and the initial sketch are the most important thing in my covers, I feel it should carry that emotion and weight to the final piece. The paint should complement it in the finished piece. How to draw people For this workshop, I chose to go with a cover for a monthly comic series created by myself and writer Jeff Lemire. The series is Descender, a sci-fi and fantasy tale about a galaxy in conflict – but really, it all comes down to a very personal story following a young robot child trying to find his human brother, and their place in the madness of it all. As much as I enjoy working on licensed properties, my biggest joy (and least amount of stress) comes from working on something that we own outright. We’re able to make every decisions ourselves, sometimes on the fly, without needing approval from anyone. Going by our own judgment and imagination to create these new worlds and characters… that’s where the biggest freedom in creator-owned comics lies. This cover features a character who we created and then watched grow over the course of the series. The finished art is close to my heart, as all Descender covers are, so drawing each one is always a joy, even if most are rushed out over a weekend! 01. Create preliminary sketch Preliminary sketches help to nail the composition I start with a quick sketch. When working on a cover for a client, I’ll normally provide between two and four different concepts for them to choose, but because Descender is a property that’s owned by myself and Jeff Lemire, I can skip all that and go directly to what I want in an image. 02. Make the face first An emotional portrait can lead an illustration For me, faces are everything. Usually, I’ll tackle the face first so it can carry the rest of the drawing for me. It’s a bit of a motivational technique. Telsa was a character we created and watched grow throughout the series, so she’s a very personal character to me to draw. 03. Consider the composition The composition allows room for cover elements I lay out the rest of the cover, making sure to leave room for cover title logos and trade dressing (the Image Comics logo, credits, pricing and so on). One of the main differences between laying out a cover versus laying out just a pin-up or poster is making sure all those elements work together, and balance out in print. 04. Start with light colours first When painting with colours, work from light to dark I normally start most paintings from the lightest colours first, which is usually skin tones and light sources. Even though Telsa has an alien blue-ish, purple-ish skin tone, I’ve become accustomed to starting with a character’s skin. I tackle that first, using a combination of Sennelier Turquoise green with Holbein Watercolor’s (HWC) Permanent violet and Prussian blue. 05. Use a wash on the background Even with steely colours there's room for variation I move on to a wash of the background. In this issue, Telsa’s on an alien ship made up of mostly cold steel. There’s not old tech or any rust, but at least a bit of age to the ship, so I try to give the background some texture. It should feel cold and harsh in this part of space. 06. Add warm colours Warm colours will be used sparingly for greater effect The few warm colours in this cover will be Telsa’s hair and the tip of the laser rifle that she’s carrying. I limit this warmth to these three colours (shown above). All my paints are usually kept in sealable containers with holes punched to the side so that they can dry, but not collect dust. 07. Carve out some details Not a drop of masking fluid to be seen Using a smaller 1/4-inch chiselled tip flat brush, I work in Telsa’s hair and laser rifle tip, leaving nuances of highlights here and there. People often ask if I use liquid masking – I don’t. It’s just easier and more natural to just not paint in the areas you want highlighted. 08. Rough it up A dark costume acts as an effective contrast On to the rest of the costume, I go with a neutral tint for her top and use a bit of HWC’s Vandyke brown and Ivory black to dirty up her boots a bit. She’s been on quite a journey up to this point, and her once-pristine military uniform is now looking tired and worn out. 09. Create a claustrophobic setting The colour helps to establish a sense of tension I move on to other parts of the page, giving the background some depth. I want her sitting near some sort of vent in the lower levels of the ship, holed up in a confined space with just a bit of room to think and breathe. 10. Lay down hard lines The fine lines will appear even thinner when scaled down in print I move on to finalising the image with some hard lines, using a soft mechanical pencil and thinner brushes for the smaller details. I use a 0.3mm pencil here for some of the details on her boots and the section lines on the wall. The fine lines become finer as I bear in mind that the image will be scaled down in print. 11. Know when to stop Leaving a painting to dry is a good opportunity to reflect and take stock I set the piece aside and give it some time to dry. My biggest fear is that I end up overworking a painting. I’ve never considered myself a real portrait painter, or even close to drawing any sort of likeness and realism, so it worries me when I spend too much time trying to perfect a painting. 12. Clean up in Photoshop Photoshop helps to fix some analogue mistakes I scan in the final piece for cleaning and touch ups in Photoshop. I spilled some paint inside the dome of the fan and decided to just make it a big hole. I had to move fast so that the paint would lay evenly, so didn’t get a photograph of the accident. It turned out okay, though. 13. Address the little things Texture and dust can be cleaned up digitally I touch up some highlights in the more saturated areas, the section lines along the walls, highlights on textures of her boots and bits of dirt. It’s mostly whatever I forgot to do in the painting phase. This is also where I clean up any dust that I scanned in by mistake. 14. Convey a sense of conflict The portrait is the heart of the picture, so it requires extra attention Some more touch ups. Using Photoshop I highlight parts of Telsa’s hair, the rifle tip and some more small details. My main focus, though, is Telsa’s eyes, brows and lips. I want to convey a sense of conflict, difficult choices to be made, and the heartache in making them. 15. Finish your image The final image allows plenty of room for cover elements Here’s the final image of the cover. I clean up around the left and bottom, making room to cropping and text placement (that’s what the white space is for). All looks good and we’re ready to go to print. This article originally appeared in ImagineFX issue 160; subscribe here. Related articles: How to create glazes with watercolour 18 watercolour techniques every artist should know Master wet-in-wet watercolour painting View the full article

There are many ways to approach a rebrand. A trend of late has been to focus on reawakening a brand's heritage by looking to the past, but sometimes a huge overhaul of a visual identity isn't what's needed. If a brand hasn’t lost its way entirely, but is becoming a little tired, sometimes the rebranding process is more about modernising, and making a brand fit-for-purpose, rather than dramatically looking either forwards or backwards for inspiration. But sometimes making small steps towards a new identity or tweaking things slightly is actually more difficult than starting from scratch or making big changes. 5 brands so strong they don't need a logo Here, leading designers reveal how to best go about rebranding in small steps. 01. Don't disregard the current brand SomeOne's rebrand of UK Parliament Like so many high-profile projects before it, SomeOne’s recent rebrand of the UK Parliament faced a wave of initial criticism for spending public money on what was perceived to be a few tiny tweaks to the portcullis logo. But as the tweets piled up, and more of the ‘brand world’ was revealed, it became clear to anyone willing to dig a little deeper that the rebrand was about digital versatility. “Only a fool rushes into an established brand with a total disregard for the brand’s history,” believes Simon Manchipp, co-founder and executive strategic creative director at SomeOne. “There’s nearly always something worth preserving,” he insists. Sign up to the Computer Arts newsletter “With the UK Parliament, the portcullis is part of the very fabric of the buildings," continues Manchipp. "The Royal documentation. Even the curtains. So there was never a question of replacing it. It’s a globally recognised symbol, which in brand terms is worth billions. “It was streamlining and making it digitally adept that formed the basis of our brand work, as well as creating systems to better clarify Parliament’s role in a modern democracy. Connecting many parts to make one cohesive whole.” 02. Make small changes that make a big impact Ericsson’s recent minimalist rebrand involved small tweaks to the angle of its lines Chris Moody, chief creative officer at Wolff Olins, compares this approach to the principle of ‘incremental gains’ embraced by Team Sky in cycling events, and admits that Wolff Olins has actively encouraged it in recent years. “However, just like Team Sky, I’m now questioning the true validity of doing this,” he adds. “It’s not so much about being unable to plug in to other people’s designs, but more that it’s more important than ever to design with totality in mind.” If you aren’t pissing someone off a bit, you aren’t trying hard enough Chris Moody, Wolff Olins If small changes make a big impact, he reasons, then it’s a course of action worth pursuing, but you need to be completely honest with yourself. “If you are fiddling with line weight for the sake of it, then it’s a waste of everyone’s time,” he smiles. Moody gives the example of Ericsson’s recent minimalist brand overhaul: “It’s pure hygiene,” he argues. “This is commendable, and a critical part of any brand design process, but it’s neither genuine ‘rebranding’ in any major sense, nor newsworthy. “Fetishising these tweaks – see also eBay, Audi, and YouTube – gives them an inflated level of importance,” he adds. “It feels like [highly-acclaimed architect] Richard Rogers making a big deal about bleeding the radiators in one of his buildings. Designers should aim for big, bold, radical change. If you aren’t pissing someone off a bit, you aren’t trying hard enough.” 03. Make a brand digital-friendly “If you’re going to change anything, you must have a good reason. Something should be fundamentally broken, or substantially shifting in the market,” says The Clearing’s Richard Buchanan. “Making sure that brands are fit-for-purpose, particularly digitally, is what people are most concerned about. If not a digital-first strategy, they need a digital-friendly strategy. Look at Audi: it’s got to work as a badge on the front of a car, but also a 16x16-pixel favicon.” 04. Let form follow function Lufthansa has taken an incremental approach to updating its logo “Small incremental changes are about subliminal reaction to the change, not overt signalling of newness,” explains North's Sean Perkins. “They’re useful when brands need to address certain functional issues to move forward, without jeopardising the equity and reputation in their existing brand recognition.” Perkins gives Lufthansa as a great example of this approach: "incremental change, with huge effect on recognition. Masterfully successful, in my opinion.” 05. Make the change visible “Tiny tweaks become very hard to justify, when you consider the cost of rebranding projects,” believes Michael Johnson of Johnson Banks. “There may be a legitimate business reason to tweak your verbal brand and not the visual – but my old boss Wally Olins called his job ‘change made visible’, and I still subscribe to that view. If nothing appears to have changed or the changes are imperceptible, it makes it much harder to re-position a brand on just words.” 06. Pick your battles A range of assets featuring the new UK Parliament identity “Change in general is resisted by all but the most progressive of thinkers,” reflects Manchipp. “Part of our position is to identify the elements of the brand that will make the greatest positive impact. In the UK Parliament’s case, the symbol is well-known and needed technical attention but not a radical creative overhaul. However, the infographic systems and iconography to aid non-written communications were underdeveloped, and increasingly sought after.” 07. Don't reinvent the wheel Johnson Banks rebrand of Historic Houses (also featured in the lead image) “As a younger designer, I avoided ‘evolutionary’ routes,” recalls Johnson. “Now? I’m a little wiser, and can see that some clients’ previous identities weren’t completely broken. They just needed to work better. We changed Action Against Hunger’s confusing symbol to simply one of food and water. Historic Houses’ monosyllabic old symbol became a visual reminder of the many houses they represent.” This article was originally published in issue 279 of Computer Arts, the world's leading design magazine. Buy issue 279 or subscribe here. Related articles: 5 rebranding hurdles designers face today 5 small-client rebrands that attracted big attention Bring a brand to life with illustration View the full article

To be a successful and effective project manager, you'll need to learn the tactics, strategies, and techniques adopted by the best. That's the knowledge you'll get with The Pay What You Want: Project Management Mastery Bundle. You'll learn the secrets to success utilised by project managers in the fields of business and engineering, and you'll also receive comprehensive training to help you pass the PMP certification exam. You'll discover how to refine the project management process to ensure top-notch, high-quality results every single time. Best of all, you'll pay whatever you want for all this knowledge. The Pay What You Want: Project Management Mastery Bundle can be yours today. Related articles: Top tips for nailing project management Best project management software The tools of the trade for project management View the full article

'Iconic' is a big label. But there's more to an iconic brand than just the logo. It certainly helps, but you'll often find that the biggest brands aren't the ones with the best logos. Logo design aside, what makes a brand iconic? Ask the experts and they'll tell you that it's a combination of things. "We respond to experiences," says Ben Marshall, creative director at Landor Associates, "stories we can pass on, and frankly, some things that are simply unusual or inspired." Michael Johnson of Johnson Banks agrees that an iconic brand should deliver on multiple levels – the product or service itself, the environment it appears in, its tone of voice, and more. "Thinking about 'branding' from this cinematic perspective is relatively new," he admits. "It's pretty difficult to deliver successfully." In some cases volume of exposure can force brands into public consciousness, but it can be enormously expensive. "I can't tell you how many times we've been asked to design a logo as iconic as the Nike tick," says Paula Benson, partner at Form. "Our question: do you have the budget to repeat it boldly and consistently all over the world?" With all this in mind, we asked these experts and others to select 20 brands that they feel qualify as iconic. Here's what they came up with... 01. The Red Cross The Red Cross: universally associated with medicine and saving lives Top brands can be universal in what they represent; the Red Cross logo is so ingrained into our collective consciousness that we automatically associate it with medical assistance. "Some of us have never interacted with the Red Cross, yet we perfectly know what it stands for and how it changes people's lives across the world," says Andra Oprisan, strategist at Saffron Consultants. "We are able to recognise its logo anywhere." 02. Apple Apple's iconic logo is instantly recognisable without the name. "It embodies all the company's principles," says Paula Benson It would have been inconceivable not to include Cupertino's finest on any top brands list. "It's a truly great brand because it's become synonymous with innovation and outstanding design," says Form's Benson. "Its brand values permeate through absolutely everything, from usability to design to language to packaging to retail stores." "Apple has large revenues but only a very small number of products," Benson adds. "The real hallmark is care." 03. Bass The Bass logo and branding has recently been redesigned to give it a clearer standout The Bass logo is by far the most venerable of this collection; the Bass brewery was founded in 1777, and its red triangle logo is notable for being the first trademark registered in the UK, on 1 January 1876. For Kieren Thorpe, creative director at BrandOpus Australia, Bass's bold use of a very simple primary shape and colour has helped it towards top brand status. "It's since been redesigned with a bigger icon and a smaller word mark, giving it a much clearer standout," he believes. "We recognise colour and shape before the written word," explains Thorpe – and Bass goes for the jugular on both. 04. Uniqlo English and Japanese characters appear side-by-side in the identity, which Michael Johnson heralds as a "masterstroke" Founded in Japan as the 'Unique Clothing Warehouse', this basics-clothing line became Uniqlo, or yoo-nee-koo-roh in Japanese. "What sounds very Japanese actually derives from English," explains Johnson. "They'd already developed a world-class product and environment – the bilingual logo was the masterstroke that pushed them into being iconic." 05. Subway If you want a quick sandwich, you probably think of Subway Logo Design Love's David Airey believes all of the top brands offer the 'go to' product or service within its market. "If you want a quick sandwich made with care, you think of Subway," he observes. "Some people might consider them great simply because of the product or service that backs up the brand: ultimately, that's what it's all about." 06. Ralph Lauren According to Geoff Phillips, Ralph Lauren "owns American style and all its permutations" – and the brand is never static Although its logotype may be relatively uninspiring in and of itself, Ralph Lauren is unquestionably iconic and one of the top brands in the world. "It has successfully connected the Ralph Lauren mythology with the American collective psyche and the American dream. Together, they form the brand," suggests Geoff Phillips, design director at MetaDesign. "That goes much deeper than any logo itself could achieve." 07. Veuve Clicquot The Veuve Clicquot label combines its anchor heritage mark with beautifully set typography This champagne brand, according to Thorpe, has used colour to great effect to stand out from its competitors. "As a distinctly yellow brand in a world of category conventional colours such as black, gold and cream, the scope to create instant recognition across a multitude of touch points is clear," he points out. The identity carries across its advertising, with the signature becoming the flourish of an artist's brush. 08. Zippo Marshall believes that, rather like Victorinox Swiss Army, the Zippo logo is "simply a reassurance" For Landor Associates' Marshall, Zippo is a prime example of a brand that easily transcends its logo, which he dubs almost irrelevant. "It's a great innovation – windproof – and has great integrity in its history, having switched from commercial to military-only supply in the war," he says. "Its form, interaction and even sound are all unique." "I love the smell of a Zippo," says Marshall. "Face it, even people who don't smoke want a Zippo." 09. Adidas According to Benson, Adidas' Olympics ads were loud and proud, but not overly attention-grabbing or corporate Two distinctive graphic devices lie at the core of the Adidas brand: the trefoil of Originals, and the three stripes of the Sports division. "It also received the most positive uptake of any brand involved with the Olympics, which helped it secure its iconic status," says Benson. 10. Google Google's visual identity is expressed through its logo, the signature colours, and its much-loved 'Doodles' Google is another must-include on this list – although its logo alone is hardly a work of art. "Consider the bigger picture," advises Oprisan. "Google's brand lives in its products; its culture (those famous job interviews); its environment (its enviable creative offices); its advertising; and also its visual identity." 11. Paul Smith Paul Smith's signature excudes an effortlessly classic quality The Paul Smith signature wordmark is beautifully crafted in itself, but for Thorpe it's the continuity of the pinstripe livery that brings the brand iconic status: "It represents the 'classic with a modern twist' ethos." Johnson concurs, having nominated the same brand: "This recognisable 'graphic wallpaper' makes everything from carrier bags to scarves instantly recognisable." The pinstripe livery is at the heart of the brand's iconic status 12. IKEA Ikea has become shorthand across the world for cheap self-assemble furniture Airey believes that modern customers are looking for a complete experience, and highlights the free coffee that IKEA gives family-card holders as part of the global home furnishing giant's wider brand experience: "If you want to kit out a new home without spending a fortune, you think of IKEA," he adds. 13. Charity Water Sophisticated infographics and National Geographic-style photography help define the brand's look and feel Compared to most non-profits, argues Phillips, Charity Water has particularly high design acumen. "The founder said that charities' poverty mentality reflects in their brands: he wanted a more aspirational approach," he says. "The jerrycan logo is an iconic symbol of water accessibility. It has some notoriety, but it's not in the top brands yet – although it deserves to be." 14. Toms The Toms logo isn't over-designed, which for Thorpe, fits its brand personality Like Charity Water, Toms is another brand tipped for iconic status in the future: "It doesn't necessarily have a great logo," admits Thorpe: "A modern-looking san serif font, in the context of an Argentinian flag – the place where inspiration struck. But it's a cause-related brand dedicated to making things better, or in the words of the founder: 'Making things that matter.'" 15. Dyson "The product is innovative, the result is better, the aesthetic is unique. It's these qualities that truly elevate," reflects Marshall Marshall advocates a simple mantra: "to be iconic, be the first, best or only." In the modern marketplace, this often means truly innovative products cut through the competition. "When I was a kid, a vacuum cleaner was a Hoover; it was the byword," he recalls. "By using new, radical (and importantly, better) technology, Dyson eclipsed all others in people's minds." 16. The Rolling Stones Homage to Mick Jagger's famously full pout, the graphic is one of rock's best known logos Designed by John Pasche in 1970 and first used on the Sticky Fingers album cover, the illustrated lips and tongue became an iconic emblem for the Rolling Stones. "It sums up the band brilliantly, and is one of the world's most instantly recognisable symbols of rock and roll," argues Benson. 17. Coca-Cola "Coca Cola has seemingly endless possibilities through its core design," says Thorpe If any of the top brands have nailed global ubiquity, it's Coke. "It's a shining example of continual evolution, as relevant and desirable today as it was over a century ago," believes Thorpe. And the highly distinctive script logotype has remained a constant throughout its lifetime – compare that to bitter rival Pepsi's multiple radical rebrands. 18. The V&A "Everything about it is working; I think few Londoners would disagree," says Johnson of the V&A brand Alan Fletcher's V&A logo has been a classic since the late-'80s, but Johnson recalls a time when it was better loved than the museum: "It was dusty, labyrinthine – the kind of place a design student loved to get lost in, but confounded the everyday visitor," he says. "It's since elevated itself into one of the world's greats." 19. Pixar "The animated intro of the bouncing lamp isn't grandiose, like most production company intros," Phillips observes. "It's witty, simple, down-to-earth and intimate. Pixar's brand is rooted in original stories, rather than sampling traditional children's literature, sugar coating it and watering it down. They've proven that audiences don't always want what they've already seen and heard." 20. Irn-Bru Scotland's other national drink. Made from girders! Perhaps a slightly unconventional choice from Marshall: Scotland's finest, Irn-Bru. "Looking beyond its distinctive neon-ginger aesthetic and brilliant straplines, why is it one of the few markets that outsells Coca-Cola?" he poses. "Because it's part of the Scots' outlook. The challenger. It will always be this." This article first appeared in Computer Arts magazine. Subscribe here. 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Good design, much like anything, begins with a solid understanding of the basic principles. By building a strong foundation and mastering the fundamentals, you can quickly gain the skills you need to bring even your wildest creative visions to life. But where do you start? In the first of a series of free ebooks, The Ultimate Study of Design by Route 1 Print has everything to help you fully grasp the infrastructure of graphic design. Volume I kicks things off with some of the most fundamental elements of design - line, shape, composition and scale - features which are used to create designs and enhance user experience. Learn all about the different line types, their purpose, style and intentions, before moving on to an in-depth look at shapes and what they can mean for your designs. Symmetry and asymmetrical design is also on the agenda, and last, but by no means least, the subject of scale, including balancing design elements, how to use the golden ratio and how scale can be used to fully communicate your artwork. Marvel-ous case study Alongside all the in-depth technical advice, The Ultimate Study of Design also features an inspirational case study on Sony’s upcoming movie Venom. Based on the Marvel comic book character, The Ultimate Study of Design takes a closer look at the decision to create a symmetrical identity for the alien character whose eyes have always been represented, in the comics, as unpredictable, asymmetric forms. Download the ebook now for more details and see what you think. Download The Ultimate Study of Design: Volume I By the time you’re done with all this amazing content, the team at Route1Print will be ready to keep you busy with Volume II, featuring colour, texture, pattern, repetition and depth. So what are you waiting for? Download your copy of The Ultimate Study of Design today and become a design pro! View the full article