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We're entering a golden era of collaboration tools. Distributed teams are much more common, and it's easier than ever to work with individuals in different cities... or even different continents. Collaboration tools make it easier and faster for designers to get feedback and approve artwork in a professional manner, with nothing getting lost in translation. In this article, we gather together some of the best online collaboration tools that enable creatives to work together in real time. Some are created specifically for designers, others serve as a concept crafting whiteboard. We've also included some more full-on project management tools for when you need to take your collaborative project to the next level. After something different? Take a look at our guides to the best infographic tools, web design tools, or tools for graphic designers. 01. Slack Keep in touch with your team – wherever they may be – with Slack [Image: Slack] Want to improve communication within your team? Or work remotely but still stay in touch? Collaboration tool Slack is a fantastic solution for clear, real-time communication that keeps everyone in the loop. It's so popular now, chances are you're using it already. Perfect for anyone managing a team of remote employees, Slack enables project development to move forward more smoothly. Different channels help keep conversations on track, while having all team communication in one place ensures no one gets left out of the loop. Slack can also help you grow your design business by reducing email and meeting times. 02. InVision InVision is a top tool for prototyping [Image: InVision] Created specifically for designers, InVision is a web-based tool and mobile app that turns your designs into fully active prototypes, complete with gestures, transitions and animations. Clients can provide feedback in the form of comments on your designs , and you can keep them up to date with the project’s progress in real time through actionable to-do lists. Getting started on your first project with InVision is free, but any more than that and you'll need to move to a paid plan. 03. Asana Keep track of your tasks on an Asana 'board' [Image: Asana] Asana will help you stay on top of your workflow by enabling you to create to-do lists, keep track of tasks via a project 'board', set deadline reminders, comment on others' posts, and send requests to colleagues. Employers can also use it to keep track of how projects are progressing. This collaboration tool first launched in 2008, and is still very popular. 04. Trello Share your to-do list with others in real time using Trello [Image: Trello] This project management tool is like a magical customisable to-do list on a single interface, which you can share with others in real time. Based on a system of 'cards' (which are essentially Post-it notes), you can categorise and order text, photos, drawings and mockups whichever way you want. There's also a nice progress gauge so you can keep an eye on your project's pipeline, as well as the ability to set appointment reminders. Most brilliantly of all: Trello is completely free. 05. Visme Visme puts all your team activities in one central place [Image: Visme] Browser-based collaboration tool Visme collects all your team activities in one place. It's especially good for designers because it enables you to create a variety of visual projects, including presentations and infographics. There are built-in features to help you monitor on each user’s workload, progress, and activity on ongoing jobs. 06. Google Keep Share lists and ideas with Google Keep [Image: Google] Google Keep is a fantastic way to share lists and ideas (or keep them to yourself). You can access Google Keep through its website or using the iOS or Android App. If you're looking for an easy-to-use list app, check is a collaboration tool that's definitely worth checking out. 07. appear.in Put a face to a name with this video conversation app [Image: appear.in] You want to see all your team's smiling faces, right? That's not always possible when working remotely, but online collaboration tool appear.in is the next best thing. This brilliant video conversation app allows up to eight people to converse in a chatroom, with no login or downloads required. It's free to use, or you can bump up to a paid Pro plan for extra features. 08. Basecamp Basecamp has been around for over 10 years [Image: Basecamp] The daddy of project management, Basecamp was created when 37Signals couldn't find a project management app that wasn't insanely complicated, and so decided to build its own. It worked so well that clients wanted to use it, too, and things grew from there. Featuring a whole suite of collaborative tools including to-do lists, wiki-style documents, file sharing and messaging, it packs in just about everything you need to keep any project running smoothly. You can use it via the web or with iOS and Android apps, and if you want to get a feel for it you can sign up for a 30-day free trial. 09. Podio Podio gives you a way to organise confusing workflows [Image: Podio] Online collaboration tool Podio aims to help you improve the structure of your workflows by offering a way to organise unwieldy stacks of work and assign different employees specific tasks. It enables you to share files, get feedback on work, and view the status on ongoing projects. One of the most enticing features is its third-party integrations – it works with a whole load of services, from Dropbox and Google Drive to Evernote. There are also mobile apps for use while you're out of the office. 10. Red Pen Want constructive criticism? This feedback tool makes it easier [Image: Red Pen] More fun than a teacher's marking pen, this feedback tool is particularly great if you're a freelancer looking for some constructive criticism on a project. Specifically created for designers, Red Pen lets you drag and drop your designs into a dashboard and invite specific colleagues (or even clients) to let you know their thoughts in real- time as you roll out your latest updates. One of Red Pen's best features is that it keeps track of the numerous versions so you can always reclaim that earlier design if you change your mind. 11. Mural Gather and sort ideas and resources in different formats [Image: Mural] Mural is a creative tool for you to drag-and-drop rich media files, links and documents onto a big HTML5 drawing board, which is a great way to collect inspiration and gather your thoughts. It also supports collaboration that allows designers to brainstorm cool ideas remotely. Plus, it is optimised for iPad and gesture-friendly. Mural is not just designed as a pinboard like Pinterest – its main goal is gathering and organising ideas. Anyone can join you to edit and collaborate, and changes are reflected on the board in real time. Just send an email invitation or set up a password for the board and you are ready to go. Tools like Mural are lighter than some of the more traditional brainstorming tools, and if you're new to collaborative brainstorming then this could be a good place to get started. 12. GoVisually GoVisually allows you to comment, annotate and discuss a project [Image: GoVisually] Free tool GoVisually allows you to mark annotations and place comments on any part of your project. With it, designers and clients can collaborate to revise projects online without sending painful emails, which should ultimately increase productivity. For your annotation you can chose an elliptical, rectangular or lasso selection, as well as customising its colour and weight. These functions are very useful, and are as simple to apply as you'd find in a basic drawing app. When multiple team members are on the same page, GoVisually applies layers for each user, like in Photoshop. Clicking on each user hides or displays relevant content, which is particularly useful when collaborating with different departments. Revisions can be easily upload and it is simple to switch between different versions of the same document or project. 13. MindMeister MindMeister is a collaborative mind-mapping tool [Image: MindMeister] Mindmeister is a powerful mind-mapping tool, but also has the functionality of many collaboration tools, so designers can use it to craft ideas and concepts. It might feel a bit quirky to organise a design idea through mind mapping, but this is still a great collaboration tool to try out. You can create up to three mind maps for free, or swap to one of the paid plans if you find this tool works well for you. 14. Conceptboard Conceptboard is an instant whiteboard tool [Image: Conceptboard] Conceptboard is an instant whiteboard for teams and projects, and designers can also reap benefits by using it as a collaboration tool. Indeed, it's optimised for creatives and is more like a one-stop solution for crafting concepts, managing projects, and providing feedback at any time. There's a free version, but you'll only be able to add up to 50 objects to each board you create. If you need more than that, you'll need to swap to a paid plan. 15. Ideaflip Compose, collect and clarify your ideas with Ideaflip Ideaflip makes it easy for your team to quickly turn thoughts into ideas, and share or refine them – whether your collaborator is in the same room or on the other side of the world. A beautifully simple web app, Ideaflip is perfect for group brainstorming and individual ideas, and offers a great way to compose, collect and clarify your ideas. With this collaboration tool, it's free for guests to view and contribute to boards, but to create a board yourself, you'll need to subscribe to a paid plan. 16. ProofHub Another web-based project management and collaboration tool, ProofHub promises that it'll enable you to plan, organise and deliver projects of all sizes faster. It offers all the tools you'd expect, including Gantt charts to help schedule and track multiple tasks, and a proofing tool that aims to ease the whole process of approving and reviewing designs. It's available as a online, or as an Apple or Android app, and you can try it for free for 30 days. 17. Concept inbox Concept inbox features visual feedback and real-time collaboration [Image: Concept inbox] Describing itself as the simple way for designers, teams and clients to collaborate, Concept inbox provides you with a straightforward dashboard where you can upload images, get fast feedback from clients and add revisions with full version control. It also enables you to create interactive prototypes; just the thing if you have a brilliant idea for an app and want to communicate how it would work. 18. Cage This online collaboration tool is specifically for designers [Image: Cage] Cage is an online collaboration tools specifically built for designers. The original app allowed you share images of designs and get contextual feedback on them, but it's now much more comprehensive. You can add tasks, approve files, and even explore a more engaging experience with web-based presentations. Read more: The best free fonts for designers A guide to Google's web tools 20 top UX tools and resources View the full article

WWDC 2019 was a particularly exciting event. Apple used the conference to announce the spectacular new Mac Pro and XDR monitor (and its not-included $999 stand). But while the eye-wateringly expensive hardware has been grabbing most of the headlines, there were plenty of bombshells for Apple Developers, too. With over 100 sessions this year and many exciting announcements, it's easy to miss something or not know where to focus your attention. So, what are the key takeaways for developers about this year? In this round-up, we'll take a look at the top seven frameworks and announcements that Apple developers are most excited about at this year's WWDC. The best web hosting services in 2019 01. SwiftUI SwiftUI brings with it a single set of tools and APIs for building interfaces [Image: Apple] SwiftUI is a new way for Swift developers to build user interfaces for all Apple devices using a single set of tools and APIs. With SwiftUI, you'll gain automatic support for dynamic type, dark mode, localisation, and accessibility all while keeping your code simple, clean, and compact. It's integrated into the new Xcode 11 (more on that at number 2). SwiftUI also lets developers use declarative syntax. In other words, they can simplify their code by simply declaring what the user interface should do, and at runtime, the system will understand what to do and how to behave regardless of state. Watch the talk: Introducing SwiftUI: Building Your First App 02. Xcode 11 A new preview option lets devs see a live rendering of their UI alongside their code [Image: Apple] The new year offers developers a new version of Xcode. Xcode 11 is faster and more efficient than previous versions and includes more options and better overall flexibility. With Xcode 11, you get the inclusion of SwiftUI and its companion design tools, and you can also now bring your iPad app to the Mac simply by selecting a checkbox in Xcode. Xcode 11 also includes a new preview/real-time view option. With this option, developers can quickly get a live rendering of their app's UI alongside their code. Watch the talk: What's New in Xcode 11 03. PencilKit PencilKit is a small framework that lets developers use the input captured from the Apple Pencil or the user's finger, with tools for creating, erasing, and selecting lines. Developers will be able to save this information and turn it into an image for later use within an iOS or macOS app. Creating drawing and note-taking apps is about to become a whole lot easier. Watch the talk: Introducing PenilKit 04. ARKit 3.0 The hottest announcement this year centers around ARKit, Apple's framework for creating augmented reality experiences. In ARKit 3.0, Apple has added people occlusion, motion capture, collaborative sessions, and multiple face tracking features – all of which will help developers create more immersive AR content. Plus, with additional improvements like better plane detection using machine learning, developers will have an easier time setting up the AR environments in the real world. Watch the talk: Introducing ARKit3 05. RealityKit & Reality Composer Apple has made it even easier for developers to work with realistic 3D content [Image: Apple] It's clear that this year Apple is focused on augmented reality and its ARKit framework. And thanks to the new RealityKit framework and the Reality Composer app, Apple has made it even easier for developers to create and add realistic 3D content using the data provided by ARKit. With RealityKit, developers can create and import full models made with the Reality Composer app, place audio sources within the environment, animate objects, and synchronise AR experiences across devices. Developers can also create sophisticated models for use with AR Quick Look. Watch the talks: Introducing RealityKit and Reality Composer and Building Apps with RealityKit 06. Console Controllers for AppleTV and iOS 13 Apple is adding support for Xbox One and Dual Shock 4 controllers [Image: Apple] When designing and developing games, controlling the action is extremely important. For many developers, especially those targeting tvOS on the Apple TV, options for controllers were limited. Good news! This is no longer this case, thanks to some updates to the Game Controller framework. Apple is planning to support Xbox One controllers and Dual Shock 4 controllers (PS4) on the Apple TV and within iOS 13. This, along with the new Apple Arcade Services, will help developers make exciting new gaming content for everyone to consume. Watch the talk: Supporting New Game Controllers 07. Independent Watch Apps Before WWDC 2019, developers that wanted to target the Apple Watch had to also build a companion app for the iPhone. Not any more. With the new watch0S 6, Apple is allowing developers to build Watch-only apps. To sweeten the deal, users will be able to download and install watchOS apps directly from their Apple Watch using the App Store, which is now available on the Watch. Watch the talk: Creating Independent Watch Apps Read more: Is Apple ditching its 'i'? 19 best iPad Pro apps designed for Apple Pencil The best VPN service 2019 View the full article

The vulnerable kits also offer a point of entry to compromise legitimate website servers. View the full article

Video editing is an important skill across many fields, whether you're a marketing manager, a blogger, an entrepreneur, or a journalist. And one of the most-used pieces of software for editing videos is Adobe Premiere Pro CC. To learn everything this top-notch video editor has to offer, sign up to the Adobe Premiere Pro CC Masterclass: Video Editing Made Easy. Broken down into easy-to-follow classes, this course is packed with tips that will help bring your footage to life. The best cloud storage 2019 That's because with this course you'll learn how to start a new project, edit footage, improve audio, and add transitions and titles. You'll even learn more complex skills like adding visual effects and colour-correcting your video. Plus, you'll get hands-on experience in editing a one-minute documentary using footage supplied to you by the course. By the end, you'll be well on your way to editing your own videos! Get Adobe Premiere Pro CC Masterclass: Video Editing Made Easy for just $21 -- that's 89% off the regular price. Related articles: The best free graphic design software The best video editing apps in 2019 The best video editing software in 2019 View the full article

We're entering an exciting era in tech. From robots to smart appliances, many things that fell into the sci-fi category a few short years ago have now become reality. The creators of cult classic Back to the Future II envisaged a crazy world in which you could control your home using only your voice. Now, not only is it perfectly possible to switch your lights on or select music using your voice, you can do these things via an app on your phone while you yourself are miles away. And although the technology driving these smart tool is complex, designing the UX for them doesn't need to be. UXPin's API Request feature enables you to prototype these kinds of experiences from directly within your design tool - with no need for code. As Doc Brown would say: Jumpin’ Gigawatts! You can get a taste of it in action in the video below. As you can see, API Request enables you to create app prototypes that 'talk' to your products – for example, simulating the changing colours of your smart light bulbs. Or if you were working with a car manufacturing company, you could build a prototype that would be able to communicate with the car; even saving data from the prototype to a spreadsheet. It works by enabling you to send HTTP requests to an external API. UXPin is known for merging design and engineering to enable web professionals to develop products quickly and easily, no matter how complex or cutting-edge the technology being prototyped for. API Request is the latest addition to UXPin's Interactions capabilities. Try the new feature for yourself with a free trial, and start prototyping the user experiences of the future. View the full article

Apple's conferences always cause a stir, and this year was no different. Key takeaways from WWDC 2019 included the announcement of the most powerful (and eye-wateringly expensive) Mac ever – the new Mac Pro, as well as a stand for it that costs almost $1,000, and the introduction of a new App Store for the Apple Watch. And in the spirit of out with the old, in with the new, Apple also announced it is ditching its once much-loved music service, iTunes. The now bloated iTunes will be replaced by newer apps that form part of Apple's Services offering: Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Podcasts. iTunes was once the apple of Apple's eye/i (sorry), and its removal suggests a much wider brand positioning shift from the company. It also suggests that Apple could be slowly phasing out its 'i'. There is, after all, no 'i' in many of Apple's latest products, including Apple Music, HomePod, Apple Watch and Apple Pay. Amazon Prime Day 2019: Where to get the best deals A brand moving forward There will be some mourning the loss of what is now an almost retro music service, but the loss of iTunes, and potentially the 'i' in Apple's products may actually signify Apple staying ahead of the curve when it comes to meeting their customers' expectations. According to Manfredi Ricca, global chief strategy officer at Interbrand, this is just another example of Apple being Apple, that is: focusing on modernity, introducing innovative new products, emphasising ideas and experience over purchases and products, and crucially, ditching old ideas and products that no longer work. The discontinuation of iTunes shows that Apple is looking forwards and not backwards, says Ricci, and is "addressing customer expectations through utility, another distinctive trait in Apple’s approach." As Apple has slowly and discreetly dropped the 'i' symbol, it has introduced a new era, says Ricci, including a host of new products that don't need the 'i' to show they're part of Apple. What does this mean for Apple's 'i'? Apple Music will replace iTunes, and it does have a nice-looking logo. We'll miss the musical notes, though [Image: Apple] Why was the 'i' so important anyway? What does it actually stand for? In 1998, the 'i' in 'iMac' meant 'internet', but Steve Jobs later added that it could also mean 'individual', 'instruct', 'inform' and 'inspire'. These are all fairly vague sorts of words, and today, companies all over the world try to make themselves synonymous with such ideas. One reason for ditching that 'i' could be that having the word 'internet' before your products sounds pretty old-fashioned in 2019. The internet is now everywhere, so distinguishing between an 'internet phone' (have you ever thought of your iPhone like that?) and just a phone, or 'tunes from the internet' (iTunes sounds even older now) versus just 'tunes' seems almost redundant. Also, when something is called Apple 'something', you can use the Apple logo with the name, à la Apple Music, and that looks pretty sweet (see above). According to Ricci, the 'i' itself doesn't really matter. "Whether the i-prefix will stay or not is, in a sense, marginal," he says, "However, its gradual removal makes Apple’s offer simpler to navigate and more cohesive, and prepares the ground for a true subscription-based business model, where content becomes increasingly important." Apple's move to Services It seems, then, that the removal of iTunes is a symbol of Apple's focus on Services, which includes not only Apple Music, but iCloud, the iTunes Store, and Apple Pay. "And for good reason," says Ricci. "Analysts have been paying a lot of attention to Apple’s Services, not least of all because it’s shown solid growth." Apple has also recognised that with the power of its brand – one that has a logo so great it's one of our favourite textless logos – it can transform its business model with much less risk. As for its 'i', we can imagine it being phased out further, although we predict that Apple will keep the 'i' in 'iPhone' and 'iPad', because these products and brand names are such a big part of everyday life. Plus, we can't imagine Apple calling its tablets 'Pads', and Apple Pads sounds like a new form of sanitary towel. As for Apple being the most forward-thinking brand on the planet, we're pretty convinced. Though this is a company that has also had its fair share of misses, along with the hits (see the most beautiful and the ugliest Apple products ever made). It also remains to be seen whether Apple Music will ever seriously take on Spotify, and whether the $1,000 monitor stand gamble will pay off. Read more: First look: Apple Pro Display XDR monitor Logo design: everything you need to know Apple Card: Is this Apple's sleekest design yet? View the full article

For a while now we've been pre-empting the date Amazon Prime Day 2019 will fall on. But if a recent PR email is to be believed, we might be able to be a lot more specific. Picked up by our friends over at Real Homes, it looks like Amazon Prime Day 2019 is due to start on Monday 15 July. And if this is the case, creatives on the hunt for a bargain can expect deals to last through until Wednesday 17 July. So how did they deduce this useful piece of information? An innocent PR email about a Prime Day vacuum cleaner offer, which is due to start on 16 July, is to blame. Knowing an opportunity when they see one, the team at Real Homes pushed the advantage and asked if this was indeed part of the Amazon Prime Day discounts. That's when the PR contact appears to have let the cat out of the bag by replying: 'Yes, this is part of Amazon Prime Day deals on July 16th. The promotion will run July 16th to 17th.' Gotcha! (You can read the full story over on Real Homes). The ultimate guide to all Amazon devices There are a fair few assumptions at play here, the first one being that the PRs information is, indeed, correct. But this is our best insight so far as to when Amazon Prime Day 2019 will kick off. Admittedly, the email to Real Homes doesn't cover how long the deal will last, and we're assuming, based on last year, that Prime Day 2019 will start on a Monday. But as far as educated guesses go though, it's pretty solid. If this has whetted your appetite for all things Amazon Prime Day, why not check out our guide to how to get the best Amazon Prime Day deals for artists and designers. Here you'll find killer tips and tricks on how to bag the best creative bargain. Related articles: The best cheap iPad deals in 2019 The best super-fast fibre broadband deals in 2019 The best Dell XPS 15 9570 deals View the full article

A working exploit for the critical remote code-execution flaw shows how an unauthenticated attacker can achieve full run of a victim machine in about 22 seconds. View the full article

What does your to do list look like? If it’s anything like mine, it includes things like grocery shopping, laundry, buying dog food, putting gas in the car, sweeping the floor, walking the dog, and cooking dinner. Colloquial wisdom holds that a good number of to do items for each day is roughly 6-12 items, assuming that each take 30 minutes to an hour. That’s nice and all… but we haven’t even gotten to my work to-do list. So how, as humans, do we manage to get all of this done? The answer, obviously enough, is prioritization. pri·or·i·ti·za·tion /ˌprīˌôrədəˈzāSH(ə)n,ˌprīˌôrəˌtīˈzāSH(ə)n/ noun the action or process of deciding the relative importance or urgency of a thing or things. We all know how to do this; we do it literally every day of our lives. Buying dog food is more important than sweeping the floor, because the dog gets grumpy when he runs out of food. Easy enough, right? But what about more complicated issues? What about things where we can’t always tell what’s more important? What about issues like cyber security, where every report has a potentially catastrophic outcome? What is your process then, to decide the importance of a thing? There’s an app for that. Sort of. Vulnerability Management is a type of tool designed to be able to help provide insight into how to prioritize overly length InfoSec to do lists, with the ability to get clear views of not only what your potential exposure is, but how pressing each item is. Flexera is taking it one step farther, by integrating the proprietary research from the Secunia team, and applying it towards enabling prioritization and optimization of processes for managing software vulnerabilities to mitigate exposures, before the likelihood of exploitation increases. By understanding and prioritizing the criticality of patches applicable to your environment leveraging our vulnerability and threat intelligence insights, you’re able to get your list down to a manageable number – and still buy the dog his food on the way home. Source View the full article

You're reading Transactional Email Design: Examples and Best Practices, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Transactional emails and promotional emails lay a sound foundation for every email marketing campaign. While the first one is responsible for luring people in, promoting products, and keeping the readers up-to-date, the second one is used for numerous notifications. Even … View the full article

Affinity users have been champing at the bit for updates to its software suite, and this week their patience has been rewarded. Not only has Serif announced the launch date of Affinity's desktop publishing app, today it also revealed the biggest-ever updates to Affinity's Designer and Photo tools. The v1.7 upgrades see Affinity push the performance of its apps even further thanks to the introduction of GPU compute acceleration, HDR monitor support, and a rewritten memory management system. Improvements are being rolled out across across Mac and Windows versions of the tool, as well as the iPad version – already at the top of our list of the best iPad apps for designers. Not only that, but the Designer and Photo apps are now optimised to work on the incredible new Apple Pro Display XDR monitor, as well as being tweaked to run faster than ever on new Macs. New features are iPad-compatible too [Image: Affinity] The good news keeps on coming for Mac users as Affinity revealed that they will now be able to enjoy end-to-end Metal compute acceleration. In terms of how this pays off in the software, all raster layer and brush operations will work 10 times faster than before. The support of multiple GPUs, either as internal or externally connected units, can also take these performance gains further. Windows users aren't left behind though. Serif promises that a hardware acceleration is on the way for them too, and in the meantime it's delivered a rewritten memory management system that sees its tools running up to four times as fast as current speeds. Not only that, but Dial and Pen support for Microsoft Surface devices have been upgraded. What's new for Affinity Photo? Get ready for a faster and better-performing Affinity Photo [Image: Affinity] As for the individual tool upgrades, Affinity Photo has been given an improved RAW processing engine that will load files faster. This will also benefit the tool's new demosaicing algorithm, deliver more effective noise reduction, and assist with hot pixel removal and wide colour space development. Affinity Photo users are also treated to a rewritten brush engine that includes all-new multi-brushes. A 32-way symmetry mode and nozzle rotation powered by shortcut keys accompany the launch of these brushes. Completing the upgrades to Affinity Photo are improved batch processing, a new assets panel that allows creators to simply drag and drop commonly used elements, and an overhauled layers panel. "Using Affinity Photo with an HDR monitor offers a simply stunning experience," says Serif Managing Director Ashley Hewson. "It's amazing the detail and dynamic range the latest SLR cameras capture when shooting in RAW, and Affinity Photo now offers the opportunity to actually see all that depth while editing on an HDR monitor. "But this isn't just for high-end photography. As more and more graphic content is being consumed on HDR displays, it will start to become important that designers are using an app which can both work in a 32bit colour space and render the results on an HDR monitor. Affinity Designer is the first professional graphic design application to do both." Affinity Designer upgrades Images pop on that new HDR display [Image: Affinity] Speaking of Affinity Designer, the popular tool at the heart of many a vector art tutorial has been gifted new isometric tools that allow designers to work on any isometric plane. This feature will also fit existing elements to a plane with a single click. Not only that, but vector shapes can now contain an unlimited number of strokes and fills. Users can control how these are blended together, and there is complete freedom to interleave different attributes. Almost all of Affinity Designer's vector art tools have been given an improvement, too. A wider selection of lasso modes, a sculpt mode for the pencil tool, and a new point transformation tool are just a taste of the many updates to hit the software. "This update isn’t only about the big new features and performance gains – we've also made literally thousands of little tweaks and improvements to both apps based on all the feedback we get from our customers every day," adds Hewson. "It's a lot of these little enhancements which add up to mean both Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer are more productive than ever before." Thankfully, one of Affinity's tastiest lures, its one-off fee, is still present and correct. The new 1.7 versions of both Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer are available now with a 20% discount ($39.99 desktop, $15.99 iPad), while existing users can download the updated versions for free. Related articles: Get started with Assets in Affinity Designer Affinity Designer video tutorial: Use Symbols The 9 best alternatives to Photoshop View the full article

With the size of the 3D industry growing year on year, it's more important than ever to make sure your work stands out from the crowd. Whatever your skill level as a 3D artist, there are key principles that are sure to take your character animation up a level. Character movement and gesture are vital for ensuring your characters are realistic and watchable. That means many of these tips are geared towards improving your skill as a puppet master making your characters dance. If you want to learn more about how to design excellent characters, check out our post on character design. 01. Research, reference and record There are many ways to study character. Make it a habit to plan your work. Look at people other than yourself. Look at actors who are similar to your character. “Good artists copy, great artists steal,” claimed Picasso. The trick is to not steal from other animation. Always take from life and make it the essence of what you referenced. 02. Notice the design in movement Animation is designed movement and all sorts of paths of motion exist in a character. You have to design movement to fit the scene. Sometimes the design of movement in animation is overdone. Focus on how your gestures move through space. Look for ways of making it feel physical but also beautiful to watch. 03. Embrace the power of stillness Often it makes sense for your character to be still When in doubt, throw it out! Often it makes sense to just do nothing. I’m not saying don’t move the character, but look for moments to tone down the animation or find other things to do besides gesturing. In live-action films, some of the most powerful moments are subtle. Animation does not need to be overdone. 04. Understand the gesture space It's important to understand the area the character is gesturing in. Is it inside the body space, outside, near or below the face? What is the story point? Does it read? Does it need to be a large open gesture, or is it meant to be a secondary element? Look for areas to change between gesture spaces – contrast is a great tool. 05. Consider contrast Texture and timing is important. Contrast: show something tense, relaxing, or a loose gesture changing into a quick move. Break up the enemy of animation: evenness. Movement can be even, but always having evenness is boring and uninteresting to watch. Think about where can you put a punctuation on a gesture. 06. Reinvent clichés A cliché used to be a genius idea, but it was used over and over until it turned into the worst idea; an idea that everyone knows and has seen. Some common ones in animation are neck rubs, points, W gestures. If you’re going to use a popular gesture or cliché, do it a different way. Find a way to make it yours. 07. Add props Gesturing with props feels real In animation I love the idea of giving the character objects to use. You are trying to make things in animation look spontaneous. Gesturing with props feels real. An animator needs to find ways of squeezing the entertainment out of scenes – just don’t overuse or overspice the shot. Use it as something to accent a scene. 08. Use head movements Every part of a character can move, so let’s just think about the ways you gesture if you can’t use hands. If you had to tell a story using just the head, what do you do? How do you describe things? What angles does your head take? When you animate head gestures, start simple and polish. Take into account the weight of the move. 09. Avoid common mistakes The biggest mistake is just too much. Less is more. Another is to not polish it well. It’s important to make gestures feel like they have weight and physicality. Understand that we’re trying to create characters that have a truth to them. A toy, a bug, a superhero – each will gesture differently, and will have its own language of gestures. 10. Imagine the future What could be next for character animation? I’m interested in interaction – the ability to move cloth, hair, etc. Capture tools could be useful for gestures; a hand pose capture, a way of moving the character that might be easier than manipulated a rig... I want to see animation that pushes acting ideas in different ways. Be original, entertaining and true to the character. This article was originally published in issue 130 of 3D Artist. Buy issue 130 or subscribe to 3D Artist. Read more: How to draw a character in pen-and-ink Insider advice from a master film character designer How to create a video game character in ZBrush View the full article

You can't beat an Apple keynote for getting people riled. If there's not something in there that makes someone utterly furious then Apple's probably not doing its job properly. So it's no surprise that this week's WWDC 2019 reveal of the new Mac Pro has provoked a torrent of online scorn; not for the Mac Pro itself, but for the Pro Stand for its swish new Pro Display XDR monitor, which comes separately for $999. What? $999 for a monitor stand? Is Apple stupid? LOLZ!!! Clearly we're into uncharted territory here. You buy a monitor, you kind of expect the stand to come with, right? And you absolutely, definitely don't expect to be stung for a grand. The best Amazon Prime Day deals for artists and designers And so the big takeaway from WWDC seems to be that Apple's completely lost the plot with its $999 monitor stand. Because seriously, what sort of idiot's going to pay that sort of money for something you should get thrown in for free? The Pro Stand does all this, but is it really worth a grand? [Image: Apple] Well, hold your horses for just one second. For starters, Apple clearly isn't stupid. It does very nicely indeed out of high-end kit where you pay a premium for the Apple badge and the slick design. Everyone knows that for the price of the average iMac or MacBook you can buy one of the best computers for graphic design that are a whole lot more powerful but some of which look like they've been hit with a sack of ugly spanners, and for many people that distinction makes it well worth paying the additional Apple tax. So we have no doubt whatsoever that a healthy chunk of that $999 Pro Stand price tag is pure profit aimed straight at the top of Apple's ever-growing cash mountain. But we also have no doubt that Apple has done its sums and its research and decided that this is the right price for the Pro Stand. Built to perform When you look at what the Pro Stand actually does, it becomes apparent that this is a serious piece of kit that's built to perform. It's described as making the seven-and-a-half kilo Pro Display XDR feel weightless, it enables you to adjust the height and tilt it effortlessly, and it leaves the screen absolutely stable once it's in place. We're not engineers, but that sounds like quite an achievement to us, especially when you factor in that as well as doing all that, the Pro Stand has to be utterly reliable and built to last – after all, it's the one thing stopping your $5000 monitor smashing onto the desk. So, we suspect that, as with so much other Apple kit in the past, once the Pro Stand's out there and people get to play with it, they're going to love it. And they're probably going to go on and on about it. The bastards. Still, though, selling a $5,000 monitor that doesn't have a stand at all feels like a bit of a misfire. If you're not sold on the Pro Stand then there is of course another option: the $199 VESA mount that you can use to attach your Pro Display XDR to the wall mount or desk stand of your choice. We've had a bit of a look around, though, and there doesn't seem to be any sort of VESA stand that looks as good or works anything like as nicely as the Pro Stand does. Of course, what Apple could have done is ship the XDR with a basic stand like the one on an iMac, with the Pro Stand as an optional extra. But hey, that's Apple; we suspect that this would be an inelegant solution in its view. Selling a monitor without a stand seems like madness, but if Apple included the Pro Stand and bumped the XDR's price by $1,000, anyone who instead wanted to wall-mount their monitor – which, given that a lot of Mac Pros are going to end up in editing suites and the like, could be quite a proportion of the market – would be rightly annoyed at being charged for an unwanted high-end stand. If your workspace doesn't look like this then $12,000 of new Apple hardware probably isn't for you [Image: Apple] And ultimately, it seems that most of the people complaining about the Pro Stand and its price aren't actually the people who are going to be buying it. The new Mac Pro isn't for the average creative, it's for serious video and film production companies and the like, and while it's clearly expensive for what it is, it's also clearly going to find a market, with all the expensive extras and complete with the Pro Display XDR and its $999 stand, because it's Apple and because it does exactly what these high-end studios need while looking fantastic. Suck it down, haters. Related articles: Apple's new free system font isn't actually that new The best laptops for graphic design in 2019 The 10 most beautiful Apple products (and the 5 ugliest) View the full article

Experts at Infosecurity Europe shed light on how IT and operational technology teams can better collaborate as industrial IoT takes hold. View the full article

The Brand Impact Awards celebrate the very best in branding produced around the world, with the sixth annual show taking place in London this September. There's still time to enter, but only if you're quick! Entries close this Friday 7 June at 5.30pm BST. Presented by Computer Arts magazine and Creative Bloq, the Brand Impact Awards have a fluid, celebratory and colourful new look this year, as the result of a collaboration with the ‘code poet’ Zach Lieberman. Submit your best branding now If you missed last year’s celebrations, here’s a brief look at the awards (and drinks) that were dished out. Who should enter the Brand Impact Awards? Entries are welcome from design studios, consultancies, branding agencies, ad agencies, in-house design teams and brand owners, and work can be branding programmes and branded campaigns commissioned nationally or internationally. Superunion won several trophies last year, including for its project Inside the Mind of Mark Denton (self-branding category) The list of previous category winners is a who’s who of creative talent, and in previous years best-of-show winners have included Superunion, Johnson Banks and Rose. It doesn’t matter if the work comes from a massive agency or a small studio, just as long as it catches the eyes of the judges. How are the BIAs judged? Entries are judged on their originality, how well they serve their original brief and consistency – specifically consistent quality of idea and execution across two or more brand touchpoints. They are also judged in context of their market sector – product design is not lumped in with sports, just as self-branding is judged exclusively from fashion. And lastly, campaigns that extend or enhance existing brands are accepted, unlike with many other award schemes. To find out more about this year’s Brand Impact Awards and the awards ceremony, plus all the categories, how to enter, and to see last year’s winners, head over to the new website. Read more: Brand Impact Awards 2018: winners revealed Build a better personal brand 7 ways illustration can help brands stand out View the full article

Want to take a big step forward in your career development? Want to land that big promotion that could put you well on your way to achieving your dreams? You're in luck, the Virtual Training Company: Lifetime Subscription can help you get there. For just $79 you'll get your hands on one of the world's largest producers of online learning. You'll also get access to video tutorials and helpful content covering everything from Apache to Dreamweaver to Flash. The best antivirus software in 2019 Plus, you'll get a strong foundation in skills like animation, graphic design, and MySQL, and you'll learn to code in languages such as HTML5, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, and a whole lot more. Get Virtual Training Company: Lifetime Subscription for just $79 -- that's 96% off the regular price. Related articles: How to use an HTML boilerplate: A guide 14 of the best JavaScript APIs Revealed: The latest JavaScript trends View the full article

This is a first look at the Apple Pro Display XDR to give you the chance to see what the new monitor is all about as soon as possible. We'll be expanding and upgrading this review shortly with more information and a score. Apple’s just made a monitor that costs $4,999 – and you can spend a further $999 to attach a fancy stand to it. However, the brand is claiming that it’s going to save the creative industry reams of time and money, offering some key features that are only available on reference monitors many times its price. So how good is the fancy Pro Display XDR in real life? Pro Display XDR: key features Let’s explain something off the bat: XDR stands for Extreme Dynamic Range, as it ‘goes beyond’ the traditional world of HDR. That’s made possible by two key elements: a backlight array of custom-tuned blue LED lights that will locally dim on the screen to offer real contrast between dark and light scenes. They’re so bright that they’re capable of running at 1000 nits indefinitely, and can boost up to 1600 nits. That’s a pretty impressive number – and to keep the display pumping out such high brightness, allowing video content to be assessed frame by frame without a drop in performance, Apple has designed an innovative heat sink on the rear. The small, round ‘bubbles’ on the back are made in such a way that they disperse the heat more efficiently than ever (although, visually, they appear to be more like a cheese grater). The brightness and HDR capabilities of this 32-inch monitor are, indeed, impressive in real life – the 6016 x 3384 resolution is so pin sharp that even practically pressing your nose to the display yields little in the way of pixelation. The brightness and HDR capabilities of this 32-inch monitor are incredibly impressive. Image credit: Techradar We looked at the monitor next to a ‘normal’ one and the difference in brightness and colour reproduction was stark. Of course, Apple was using imagery that it knows will show off the performance of the Pro Display XDR well (we viewed the live video of the traditional Mac wallpaper mountains), but the HDR quality was truly impressive. So were the contrast ratios here – looking at a recently-snapped photo from a studio showed incredible clarity for a high-resolution photograph, with the image appearing very close to the glass on the screen. Even viewed off angle, the picture quality remained and was easy to see – Apple said it had worked hard on the anti-reflective coating and the sideways viewability of the monitor, and it really showed. The colour reproduction here is 10-bit and P3 wide gamut, and a couple of creative artists we spoke to were gushing about the sheer depth of colour available on the new Pro Display. The image we saw was purposely oversaturated, but for those grading colour this is going to be a monitor that can really stun. We doubt it will be as good as a ‘true’ reference display, given it’s around eight times cheaper, but we can’t help but feel it will get awfully close in a number of key areas. If you want a quality monitor for photo editing, this is looking to be a very worthy contender. Pro Display XDR: Design and build The Pro Display XDR is a little boxy and angular in design – it’s brutal in its angles, but the thinner bezel does really help enhance the look. You can chain up to six of these monitors together from the new Mac Pro, and that thinner bezel will help make it easier to use multiple options at once. The $999 stand was something we didn’t get to check out, although did get to see an exploded diagram of what was inside – and it’s another feat of engineering in there. Whether that’s going to be worth nearly a thousand dollars to anyone outside of a high-end design studio, remains to be seen. Even though it’s supposed to have incredible counterbalance and be lightweight to use (Apple wouldn’t let us touch the display) it still will need to be hugely useful to justify that price tag. The new (almost) thousand dollar monitor stand. Image credit: Techradar Pro Display XDR: Early thoughts It’s pretty likely most creative professionals will want the Pro Display XDR, simply because it looks slick, has a clean sharpness to the screen and is brilliant at colour reproduction. The HDR modes really add something to the mix in terms of performance, with the peak brightness combining will with dark blacks washing all around. The price will, obviously, stop many in their path to buying this machine as it’s more expensive than most high-end PCs out there. But the large 32-inch visage, combined with the enhanced sharpness 6K brings, means you’ve got a lot of real estate to play with for your latest project – we just need to stack it up next to a true reference model to see how it measures up. Head over to our sister site techradar for a first look at the Mac Pro and all the latest news from WWDC. View the full article

Good design is priceless, right? That's certainly the angle we reckon Apple is spinning with its latest product release. Unveiled at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference yesterday, the long-awaited Mac Pro, Apple's first update to its standalone machine since 2013. And we weren't disappointed. It is, in our humble opinion, a thing of beauty, a total powerhouse and the price, while eye-watering, wasn't a complete surprise (although we weren't quite expecting it to be that much). However, what we're sure Apple wasn't expecting is news of the new Mac Pro stand completely overshadowing its release. Yes, you read that right - the stand. Apple's new Mac Pro, which let's just remind ourselves starts at a whopping $4,999, doesn't come with an actual stand to hold it up. At least, not included in the price, that is. The Pro Stand, sold separately, will set you back a further $999. One thousand dollars for a computer stand. What the...? We are, unsurprisingly, not the only ones a little dumbfounded. Here are some of our favourite reactions to the news on Twitter : But it's okay because the fact that it's a fully counterbalanced stand that apparently makes the Pro Display XDR feel weightless and easy to adjust totally justifies the cost, right? Okay, okay so it obviously does more fancy stuff than that, but there's nothing that we can see that genuinely justifies such an extortionate amount of money. The high cost of Apple's new standalone display will sadly have already made it unobtainable to many an artist and designer. And to add an extra jaw-dropping cost to simply be able to stand the thing up just adds further insult to injury. Right now we're really struggling to understand what on earth Apple was thinking, or which creative professionals its targeting with this new product range. Extremely wealthy ones, presumably. If you're looking for something more affordable, we've got an excellent round up of the best computers for graphic design. That said, if you've got a spare $6000 lying around, grab one and let us know what you think. We'll stick to the built-in supported screen of a MacBook Pro in the meantime, thanks. View the full article

0patch has released an interim micropatch for the dangerous LPE bug from SandboxEscaper, while we wait for Microsoft's official patch. View the full article

During Infosecurity Europe in London this week, cybersecurity experts sounded off on worries about artificial intelligence being used for nation state cyber weapons. View the full article

It's been a busy day if you're a fan of all things Apple. At its WWDC 2019 conference, not only did the tech giant introduce iOS 13 and launch a beautiful new Mac Pro with a price tag that would bankrupt most of us, it also unveiled a new system font. Stylish serif typeface New York is now available to download for free (if you need more complementary typefaces, check out our roundup of the best free fonts). Available in six weights and four optical sizes, New York is a counterpart to sans-serif typeface San Francisco. The font takes its name from a transitional serif typeface created by graphic designer Susan Kare in 1983. However, eagle-eyed Apple fans have spotted that New York isn't quite as new as the announcement suggests, as it has featured on Apple's Book app since late last year. Does the typeface in Books look familiar? [Image: Apple] There's also a pretty big caveat in how New York can be used, tucked away in the terms you'll be asked to agree to when you download it. The terms state: "THE APPLE NEW YORK FONT IS TO BE USED SOLELY FOR CREATING MOCK-UPS OF USER INTERFACES TO BE USED IN SOFTWARE PRODUCTS RUNNING ON APPLE’S iOS, macOS, tvOS OR watchOS OPERATING SYSTEMS, AS APPLICABLE." You have been warned. This isn't the only exciting piece of typography news to come out of WWDC 2019. Apple also revealed that custom fonts are among the new features for the iPadOS. These will be added to the App Store so users can start adding custom fonts into apps. "Fonts from boutique and major vendors such as Adobe, DynaComware, Monotype, Morisawa and Founder will be available on the App Store," a statement int the Apple newsroom explains. Download the not-that-new New York typeface here. Related articles: Is an Apple Paintbrush on its way? The best Amazon Prime Day deals heading your way in 2019 The 10 most beautiful Apple products (and the 5 ugliest) View the full article

Today we got word (thanks Twitter) that Serif is offering an incredible deal on Affinity Publisher. This powerful desktop publishing app has been available in beta since the end of last year and is due to launch in full 20 June, and Serif is offering a whopping 30 percent discount to all Publisher beta users by way of saying thank you. This means beta testers can walk away with the pro tool for a one-off payment of just £33.99. That's a £15 saving on an already very reasonable price tag (£48.99 usual RRP). If you're not a beta tester but still want awesome deals on creative gear, make sure you bookmark our best Amazon Prime Day deals page. We've also heard rumours there might be more discounts heading our way on Affinity Publisher. If our translation is correct, the tweet below suggests Serif will be offering a 20 per cent discount to all users on the day of launch. Fingers crossed! The end of InDesign? Just like other publishing tools, Affinity Publisher can be used to create single and multi-page documents, as well as laying out assets and media for print documents such as books, magazines and brochures. It also caters to the design of web and ePublishing and is available for both Mac and Windows. The offer is a clever move from Serif. It shows confidence in the product and gratitude towards its loyal user base. For those creatives currently using Publisher's main competitor, Adobe InDesign, Publisher's pro tools and highly affordable price tag may well be enough to sway a switch, especially if Adobe users are paying for the whole suite just to access InDesign. Affinity Photo is already listed as our best alternative to Photoshop, and with this recent release, we wonder if Serif will soon be topping the desktop publishing app charts too. Affinity Publisher has been available as a free beta release since mid 2018. In that time, users have helped the app's creators by flagging up bugs and suggesting features they would like to see in the imminent full release. Functioning in a similar way to InDesign, Affinity Publisher has been praised by beta users for its speed and power. Innovative features, such as the ability to set a document to start on the left-hand side of the page, also give some insight to the flexibility Affinity Publisher could offer. Integration with other popular Affinity tools, namely Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo, only adds to its overall value. Speaking at the beta launch of Affinity Publisher, Serif Managing Director Ashley Hewson said that it will be "an all-new app which we believe will revolutionise desktop publishing in the same way Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer have shaken up professional photo editing and vector graphic design." Related articles: Get started with Assets in Affinity Designer Affinity Designer video tutorial: Use Symbols The 9 best alternatives to Photoshop View the full article

A new Mac announcement from Apple is always going to generate interest, but a new Mac Pro is something else entirely. They don't come along very often; the last one was the beautiful but divisive 2013 model, shaped like a trash can and ultimately a bit of a bad idea as its lovely compact build made it a nightmare to maintain and upgrade. Now, though, Apple has revealed the latest Mac Pro at WWDC 2019, and it's an absolute beauty at a price that's going to horrify you. And there's no sign of any great Amazon Prime Day deals to make it easier to swallow either. But coming on like a revamped version of the now-classic G5 Mac that, combined with OSX, really started to turn things around for Apple in the pro desktop business, it's a joy to look at. And if the specs are anything to go by, we expect it'll make the cut on our best computers for graphic design in the very near future. The new Mac Pro reminds us of the old G5 Mac. [Image: Apple] The focal point of the new Mac Pro is its aluminium housing that lifts off for easy access to the internals (more on those in a bit), and features a chunky latticed grille that's all about providing maximum airflow to keep things cool and silent, and which also looks fantastic. Beneath the housing is a stainless steel chassis with feet that can be replaced with wheels if you like. The return to a traditional tower build means that there's plenty of room inside for expansion, with a whole eight PCI Express slots plus 12 DIMM slots providing the option of plugging in up to 1.5TB of memory. And if that sounds insane, we're only just getting started. The base spec of the new Mac Pro is ludicrously powerful: it comes with an 8-core 3.5GHz Intel Xeon W CPU, 32GB RAM and an AMD Radeon Pro 580X GPU with 8GB GDDR5 memory capable of driving up to six 4K displays. Let's be honest, it's a lot more power than the average creative needs; it's for people editing 3D movies in 8K rather than running Photoshop CC, and it'll cost you $5,999 (there's no word on the UK pricing yet but we somehow doubt you'd get much change from £6,000). The aluminium housing lifts off for easy upgrading. [Image: Apple] The really exciting, thing, is just how much more power you can plug into this thing. As well as the potential for that 1.5TB of memory, you can also have up to a 28-core, 2.5GHz version of that Xeon W processor, and using Apple's new MPX Module system to double up GPUs, you can also have four AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duos on board, cable of running 16 4K displays, eight 5K displays or eight of Apple's new Pro Display XDR displays, which we'll get to in a bit. In short, when it comes to power and price tag, the sky seems to be the limit. This is heavyweight hardware aimed at professionals working in 3D, film and video, and there's one last feature included to make life even easier for them. The Apple Afterburner is an additional hardware accelerator that supports playback of up to 3 streams of 8K ProRes RAW or up to 12 streams of 4K ProRes RAW video, enabling you to edit natively in both resolutions. The Pro Display XDR is the world's first 32-inch 6K display. [Image: Apple] To make the most of all this serious graphics hardware, Apple has also introduced a top end display to go with it. The Pro Display XDR is touted as the world's first 32-inch 6K display, and it looks like a must-have for anyone who has to have the best visual fidelity. It has a 1,000,00:1 contrast ratio and 1,000 nits sustained brightness, peaking at 1,600, with 10-bit colour depth and P3 wide colour gamut. It features a superwide viewing angle and minimal glare thanks to nano-textured glass, and its back has the same machined lattice as the Mac Pro, again for airflow reasons. The Pro Display XDR (it stands for Extreme Dynamic Range) will set you back an eye-watering $4,999, and that's before you've factored in the matching Pro Stand. It's a fully counterbalanced stand that, says Apple, makes the Pro Display XDR feel weightless and makes it easy to adjust the the height, tilt and even rotation of the display, enabling you to switch from landscape to portrait in an instant. It sounds impressive, and it really ought to be at an additional $999. Find out how your desk would look with a new Mac Pro on it Both the new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR are scheduled to launch in the autumn, but if you want to know how they'd look on your desk if you could scrape together the just under 12 grand you'd need to own the complete kit, there's a special treat waiting for you on the Apple site. Grab your iPhone or iPad and head to Apple's Mac Pro or Pro Display XDR pages, and you can find an AR option that enables you to put a plonk down a virtual version of each and have a good close look at them. Ooh, shiny. Related articles: The best cheap Apple laptop deals of 2019 iMac Pro review Why designers shouldn’t hack their Mac Pro View the full article

Welcome to Creative Bloq's guide to the best cloud storage solutions in 2019. Cloud storage services are extremely useful for creative professionals. They provide somewhere for you to store all your files safely, no matter how many there are or how large they are. They also mean your files can be accessed easily wherever you might be, as well as making it simple to send large files to clients. Finally, having your critical files backed up on a cloud storage solution means that if you suffer a serious tech failure or are the victim of a catastrophic human error (happens to the best of us), your work can easily be retrieved. Whether you're a freelancer or in charge of your own design business, it's increasingly essential to have some kind of cloud storage in place. Finding the best cloud storage solution can be a challenge, though, especially now there are so many different services to choose from. To help you make your decision we've picked out six of the best cloud storage solutions on the market right now. Our selections cover a range of options, from no-frills online backup right through to much more heavyweight offerings, with all the options your company will ever need. Read on for our guide to the best cloud storage solutions in 2019. Save 80% on CB's best cloud storage option: 2TB for $13.90 for 1 year We think IDrive is the best cloud storage solution overall right now. If your main priority when it comes to cloud storage is having a reliable online backup system in place, then this is a strong contender. It'll continuously sync all your files, even the ones on network drives, and if you're on its Personal or Business plans it provides a potentially life-saving free backup service called IDrive Express: if for whatever reason you lose all your local files, it'll send you an actual hard drive containing everything that's been backed up. You'll also be pleased to note that if you accidentally delete an important file, it won't be automatically deleted from the IDrive server, and it'll retain up to 30 previous versions of all backed-up files. Another cool feature is a facial recognition system that makes it easy to organise photos, and of course there's the option to share your files by email, Facebook or Twitter. pCloud's lifetime premium subscriptions give you either 500GB or 2TB of online storage for a pretty reasonable one-off payment. Anyone who's been online for any length of time should naturally be suspicious of any service that offers a lifetime subscription – after all, how many web companies from just 20 years ago are still around today? However, this looks like a good deal to us. With no apparent limit to the file sizes you can upload, pCloud is a great option for sharing large media files, and it features a built-in video player and streaming, plus an audio player complete with playlists. For peace of mind, this cloud storage solution hosts five copies of all your files across different servers, using 256-bit AES encryption. For a small extra monthly payment you can also add pCloud Crypto to your service, enabling you to password-protect your files. pCloud subscription options: 500GB: $3.99/£3.59 per month or $175/£160 lifetime 2TB: $7.99/£7.09 per month or $350/£320 lifetime If you're a Windows 10 user, Microsoft's OneDrive offers an easy way to get cloud storage. It comes built into File Explorer, so you can get started straight away with 5GB of online storage for free, or bump up to 50GB for a low monthly fee. However, if you want to share files you'll need either need to use one of Microsoft's Office 365 plans, starting at $69.99 per year with 1TB storage and including a full suite of Office apps, or look at OneDrive business plans. Note, with this service you're not limited to Windows any more: there are now apps for both iOS and Android. There's also an app available on the Mac App Store, although in typical Microsoft style it doesn't seem to work as well as the Windows version. OneDrive subscription options: 50GB: $3/£1.99 a month 1TB: $8/£5.99 a month Unlimited: $11/£7.99 a month (as part of Onedrive for Business) Like its Microsoft rival, Apple's iCloud gives you 5GB of free online storage – not nearly enough to back up your iPhone, but plenty of space for stashing your photos. However, its paid plans come at a very reasonable price. As you'd expect from Apple, iCloud integrates well with the MacOS and iOS ecosystems, making it easy to store files through Finder, and documents from the iWork suite are saved to iCloud so that you can access them from all your devices. There's also a Windows client, which seems to perform better than the Mac version of OneDrive. The downside, though, is this is strictly a storage solution – there's no option to share files outside of Apple's Family Sharing. If you want a cloud storage service that you can also use to send files to friends or clients, you'll need to look elsewhere. Subscribe to iCloud: Paid plans from $0.99/£0.79 a month For Android or Chromebook users, Google Drive is the best cloud storage choice as it's built into both systems. However, assuming you have a Google account – and it's hard not to these days, even if you don't use Gmail – then it's well worth looking into. You get 15GB of storage completely free, as well as access to Google's G Suite range of online office apps. There are desktop apps for both Windows and Mac, enabling you to sync and share files with a few clicks, and there's also a web interface that can be a bit of a pain to use, but gets the job done. If you need more than the free 15GB (it fills up quickly once you start using it) there are paid plans starting at $1.99 a month for 100GB and going all the way up to a whopping 30TB for $299.99 a month. Subscribe to Google Drive: 100GB: $1.99/£1.59 a month 200GB: $2.99/£2.35 a month 2TB: $9.99/£8 a month 10TB: $99.99/£74 a month 20TB: $199.99/£148 a month 30TB: $299.99/£236 a month Want loads of free storage? Mega's the place to go; its free service gives you a whole 50GB to play with. This cloud storage service's paid plans are similarly generous: they start at $6 per month for 200GB, and go up to a whole 8TB for $35 a month. With both mobile and desktop apps enabling you sync and upload files, Mega is easy to use wherever you are and whatever you're doing, and the service also boasts impressive security credentials. It maintains historic versions of your uploaded files, and claims that everything you store is encrypted on your device before it's uploaded to its servers. Mega also publishes all its source code and cryptographic architecture, so you can be sure that if there were any vulnerabilities in its systems, they'd quickly be spotted. Subscribe to Mega from $6/£4.50 a month Related articles: The best free tools for sending large files What's the difference between cloud hosting and shared hosting? The best VPN for creatives View the full article

Creating the perfect logo design is never an easy task. To do the job properly requires a full understanding of the client company's mission, its brand identity and the message it wants to convey, and then the skills to distil all that information into an instantly recognisable visual mark. A professional logo design needs a lot of research, plenty of iterations and of course the right tools – almost always Adobe Illustrator CC – but if you're in a rush or simply don't have the budget, there are lots of ways to do a decent enough job online. Here are eight of the best online tools that can help you create a full-blown logo, or at least build some concept that can later be worked up into a finished design. All of them are free to use and most will let you download a low-resolution version of your logo for free, however if you need a scalable vector version of your logo then you'll usually have to pay, but thankfully the prices are all pretty reasonable. 01. Hatchful Hatchful instantly generates plenty of potential logos to customise Shopify's Hatchful is one of the easiest free logo makers we've seen; simply feed it a few useful facts about the business you need a logo for, decide on the style of logo you need and how you'll want to use it, and it'll generate a stack of potential logos for you to browse through. Once you've found one that hits the spot, you can adjust the font, palette, icon and layout until everything's just right, and then download your logo in all the forms you're likely to need. 02. Ucraft Logo Maker For a more hands-on approach, Ucraft's Logo Maker gives you just enough tools to create your own logo from scratch in short order. It's basically a bare-bones vector editor that gives you a big selection of icons to play with and supplement with text, shapes and colour until you achieve the look you're after. You can download your finished logo as a PNG for free; if you'd prefer a scalable SVG you can have it for just $12. 03. LogoMakr LogoMakr has a friendly front end and lots of options A slightly more sophisticated option comes in the form of LogoMakr. It offers the same basic tools as Ucraft, but with a friendlier front end and a few more options and fonts to play with; the only thing we'd like to see is the option to use gradients as well as flat fills. Again it's a matter of finding a suitable icon and bringing in all the text and shape elements you need to build your logo design; once you're done you can download a free PNG version, or for $19 you can get it in SVG and PDF flavours. 04. Designhill Logo Maker Designhill's generated logos look great, but they'll cost you Designhill's Logo Maker is another easy way to quickly come up with a fantastic-looking logo for practically any company. It starts you off by getting you provide all the basic information it needs – company name and the nature of the business, plus preferred symbols and colour schemes – and then it uses this to generate a collection of professional-looking logos that you can then customise. This part's completely free; once you've hit the right look you'll have to pay to download your logo, with prices starting at £15 for a basic low-resolution file. 05. DesignEvo Free Logo Maker With over 6,000 templates, DesignEvo gives you almost too much choice Whether you want to build a logo from scratch or work from a ready-made template, DesignEvo's Free Logo Maker can help you out. It has a searchable selection of over 6,000 templates to choose from, enabling you to quickly find a good starting point for your logo, but if you prefer to do it yourself you can start with a blank layout and build a logo using symbols, shapes and fonts. When you're done you download a free low-resolution logo; for scalable vector versions prices start at $24.99. 06. Tailor Brands Logo Maker TailorBrands gets a handle on your tastes then generates a logo to match Using an AI-powered system to generate a suitable logo for your brand, Tailor Brands' Logo Maker is the perfect tool for anyone who can't face scrolling through hundreds of templates to find the perfect logo design. Instead it asks for the name of your business and a description of what it does, as well as getting you to choose between an icon, text or initial-based logo, then it uses a 'This or That' tool to get a handle on the design style you're after. With all that information to hand it goes to work on creating a logo that you can then customise if you want; when you're happy with it you can download a low-resolution for free, or pay for high resolution files. 07. Canva Logo Maker Canva's Logo Maker is just part of its online design suite Canva's online design tools cover a whole lot more than logos, but if a logo's all you're after then it's ready and waiting to help you out with its Logo Maker. Like many online logo creators it'll ask you about your company and get you to select a handful of templates you like the look of before it comes up with a design that you can customise using its intuitive tools. There are plenty of free elements to play with; if you need more choice you can pay to use a larger selection of premium elements. Once you're done, you can download your finished logo as a PNG or print-ready PDF for free. 08. MarkMaker Keep on scrolling and clicking until you hit the perfect logo layout MarkMaker uses a simple, clever approach to creating the right logo: type in a company name and it'll start generating suggestions, and by clicking on the ones you like it'll create ever more designs informed by your preferences. You can further influence the process by adding information about what your company does. Keep on scrolling and clicking until something crops up that you love, then hit the edit button to fine-tune it; there are loads of options and sliders to play with until you hit that sweet spot, then you can download your logo as a PNG or SVG; both are free, but you can throw in a little donation if you like. Related articles: 5 logo design terms you should know Where to find logo design inspiration 5 logo design apps for beginners View the full article