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You're reading Postcards 2 Updated with Online Editor & Projects Features, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! A long waiting feature is here! Now you can save email templates directly in the Postcards app and edit it later. If you regularly send newsletters, you will not need to edit the same template and data, just duplicate the template … View the full article

For most brands, the real success of a Twitter campaign will depend on cold, hard clicks, and ultimately conversions. But it's likes and retweets that help broaden the reach of a campaign, and magnify its effectiveness. Many of the most shared tweets of all time originate from world-famous individuals with followers in the millions and a sphere of influence that far transcends social media. We can't all be Barack Obama, Ellen DeGeneres or One Direction. But celebrity isn't a prerequisite for viral Twitter success: the top spot, after all, is just a guy who loves chicken nuggets. Sometimes retweets are explicitly asked for as part of the original post. But trying that approach without something shareable that capture's people's imagination will surely backfire. If a brand asks for retweets without some substance behind it, it simply looks desperate. So what can we take from all this? Read on to discover six lessons to be learned from the world's most-retweeted images... 01. Support the underdog In a sea of selfie-taking celebs and global brands, a guy from Nevada called Carter Wilkerson stands alone as the man behind the most-tweeted image of all time. When he tweeted the notoriously snarky @Wendys asking how many retweets would win him free chicken nuggets for a year, Wendy's took the bait: 18 million. Impossible, surely? Wilkerson wasn't discouraged. Accompanied by a screenshot of his reply from Wendy's, his simple plea 'HELP ME PLEASE. A MAN NEEDS HIS NUGGS' captured the imagination of the world, and eventually the endorsement of global multinationals like Microsoft, Amazon and Google. The hashtag #NuggsForCarter absolutely flew, and it took just 34 days for his tweet to sail into the number-one spot, overtaking global celebrities, music superstars and even the President. He got his nuggs, too, despite ending some way short of 18 million. What can we learn from this? Simply that everyone loves an underdog, and savvy brands should never shrug them off. 02. Give behind-the-scenes access Before Carter Wilkerson swooped in to claim his bucketloads of nuggs, the number-one most-retweeted spot was held by one of the most start-studded selfies of all time: Ellen DeGeneres was definitely in the right place at the right time at the 86th Academy Awards. Packing in Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Kevin Spacey, Julia Roberts, Channing Tatum, Meryl Streep, Lupita Nyong'o and more, the tweet sailed past the previous top spot, held by none other than Barack Obama, in just over half an hour. Clearly, having a roomful of superstar celebs to pull together in a huddle isn't an asset most brands have at their fingertips – and even if you have the budget to hire them in, that's not necessarily enough to command hundreds of thousands of re-tweets. People will see through it. The lesson here is about giving people candid, behind-the-scenes access – the snap by DeGeneres feels immediate, natural and relatable, despite its star-studded credentials, and gives people a totally fresh view of the Oscars. 03. Show some genuine humanity Barack Obama's thoughtful, reasoned, appropriately statesmanlike tweets may seem like a long, long time ago in the inflammatory, reactive age of @realDonaldTrump, but his most popular offering is still one of the most retweeted of all time, much to his successor's chagrin no doubt. Following his second election victory in 2012, the beautifully human image of Obama embracing the First Lady with the simple caption 'Four more years' caused a Twitter storm. It evoked joy, relief and passion – it wasn't boastful, reactive or arrogant. Perhaps the current President can learn a thing or two from that – as can brands the world over. As long it comes from the right place and isn't forced or manufactured, showing some humanity can truly engage people. 04. Support a good cause When Pedigree pledged to donate one bowl of dog food to needy animals for every retweet in its #tweetforbowls campaign, 210,000 hungry dogs got fed. The lesson here is simple: if a simple retweet leads directly to a brand putting its money where its mouth is and supporting a good cause, people will get involved. Bizarrely, the tweet that broke the bank wasn't from Pedigree's branded account – it was from political columnist Andrew Malcolm, who received over 800,000 retweets alone. If your campaign has a good cause at heart, influential figures are more likely to endorse it, and magnify its reach. 05. Engage with the big issues Another offering from Barack Obama next, and it's the first in a three-part quote from the late, great Nelson Mandela: "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion [...] People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love [...] For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." The other two parts received retweets in the hundreds of thousands, but this first one – accompanied by a touching photo of Obama smiling at a group of children through a window – is currently on a staggering 1.7 million. Tweeting quotes by luminaries such as Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King won't make your brand a beacon of anti-racism. If you do it clumsily or disingenuously, the backlash will be swift. But make it relevant – and more importantly, back it with action – and you will surely engage your audience. Just look at Nike. 06. Sometimes, fakery works So after a lot of talk about humanity, integrity, meaningful engagement and, er, chicken nuggets, we're ending with a rather more lighthearted example. No doubt inspired by Wilkerson's nugg bounty from Wendy's, Dean Baer from Iowa fancied some of the action – but upped the ante a touch by shooting for a cruise liner. Five minutes in Photoshop gave him the 'evidence' he needed for the challenge: two million retweets and the Oasis of the Seas was his. Despite Royal Caribbean patiently wading into thread several times to assure eager retweeters that it was clearly fake, Baer still secured almost 700,000 retweets. And may have inadvertently tempted a few of those to book a Royal Caribbean cruise in the process. The lesson? Everyone loves to share something that seems unbelievable. We don't recommend Photoshopping 'evidence' though. Related articles: 5 ways to go viral on Instagram 8 tools for creating better social graphics 5 great Instagram Stories templates for creatives View the full article

Foxit Software has patched over 100 vulnerabilities in its popular Foxit PDF Reader. Many of the bugs tackled by the company include a wide array of high severity remote code execution vulnerabilities. Foxit on Friday released fixes for Foxit Reader 9.3 and Foxit PhantomPDF 9.3, which addressed a whopping 124 vulnerabilities. It’s important to note […] View the full article

The most dire vulnerability targets the Android framework and could allow an adversary to execute arbitrary code on targeted devices. View the full article

The CSS Grid Layout module introduces a new and versatile system for positioning elements within a website layout through the use of a highly customisable grid. CSS Grid is now supported by the last two versions of all major browsers so it’s about time we start adopting it in all our projects. In this tutorial we will take an in-depth look at how to use main properties of CSS Grid. Check out the code for this tutorial What is CSS Grid? With CSS Grid, designers can create completely different device-specific layouts in pure CSS CSS Grid is an extremely powerful tool for element layout. It introduces unprecedented flexibility in layout, using just pure CSS and without absolutely positioning elements (a technique that can lead to many problems). CSS Grid enables us to achieve extremely diverse and device-specific layouts from the same exact HTML markup. We no longer have to rely on hacks, absolute positioning nor JavaScript DOM manipulation to realise dynamic, shape-shifting layouts. CSS Grid gives designers a blank canvas to create whatever layouts they desire without having to worry about how to achieve it, ushering in a new era of web design and development with freedom from the CSS limitations and workarounds of the past. How to define the Grid In order to create a grid within a container it must be given the CSS property display: grid. The number of columns and rows are determined by the number of space-separated sizes assigned to grid-template-columns and grid-template-rows respectively. Sizes can be any valid CSS unit such as px or vw, or the auto keyword that enables columns or rows to stretch across available space. For instance, grid-template-columns: 10px auto leads to a 10px column followed by a second column that fills all available space. Grid also uses a 'fractional' unit fr that causes any remaining space to be distributed to columns or rows based on the ratios of these units. grid-template-rows: 1fr 2fr creates two dynamic rows with the second twice the size of the first, while grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr defines four equal-sized columns. The latter can be simplified using the new repeat() function to grid-template-columns: repeat(4, 1fr). Grid with equally sized cells resulting from equal-ratio, dynamic-width columns and 75px tall rows A grid can therefore be created inside a container of class grid with four equally sized, dynamic columns and four 75px tall rows (as shown above) using: Complex grids with unequal sized cells can be created by combining the different units mentioned earlier. We can also use the minmax() function to define the minimum and maximum sizes of dynamic columns and rows. Hence, grid-template-rows: 40px 2fr repeat(2, minmax(75px, 1fr)) leads to four rows with the first 40px tall, the other three stretched over remaining space in a 2:1:1 ratio, and the last two having a minimum height of 75px, which sets the minimum height of the second row to 150px. Once a grid is created, grid lines, represented by dotted lines in the images, are automatically numbered from the top for rows or from the left for columns. The lines are also given a second, negative number relative to their index from the bottom for rows or from the right for columns. For instance, the first dotted vertical line on the left in the grids above is 1 and -5, and the third line is 3 and -2. These numbers can be used as the boundary lines of items placed in the grid. The grid lines can also be named by adding a string between square brackets in the property declarations, e.g. grid-template-rows: [1st] 1fr [second-line] 1fr [last]. Grid with minimum and maximum heights created using a combination of px and fr units and the minmax() function Similar to Flexbox, the horizontal and vertical position of items placed in the grid can be controlled by setting justify-items and align-items respectively, to start, center, end or stretch. The same is applicable for grid column and row positions within a larger container using justify-content and align-content respectively. Valid options for these properties also include space-between, where extra space is divided between columns/rows, as well as space-around and space-evenly where space is divided evenly between columns/rows with the same or half the amount of space on the ends respectively. We can also define align-content and justify-content (in that order) using place-content, and align-items and justify-items using place-items. Positioning items using line numbers To place an item in the grid we can set its grid-column-start and grid-column-end properties to the vertical line numbers between which the item should be stretched. For rows, the properties are grid-row-start and grid-row-end – and of course the numbers refer to the horizontal lines. Items can be contained within a single grid cell or stretched across multiple columns and grids We could also make use of the shorthands grid-column and grid-row, by setting them to only the starting grid line, causing the item to automatically stretch to the next grid line only. As per the image above, using these methods, item1 can be placed between vertical lines 2 and 4 and horizontal lines 3 and -1 (last line or first from bottom), and item2 from vertical line 3 and horizontal line 1 to the next grid lines using: To simplify further, the declarations grid-column-start: 2 and grid-column-end: 4 can be combined together as grid-column: 2 / 4, with the same applicable for rows using grid-row. The caveat with using these placement methods is that some of the declarations are somewhat misnomers. For example, grid-column-end: 4 and grid-column: 2 / 4 can be misinterpreted as meaning 'end item placement in column 4' and 'place item in columns 2, 3 and 4' respectively. This is of course not the case as the numbers represent the grid lines rather than columns. To avoid this potential pitfall, we can declare the starting grid line number and the number of columns or rows the item should span across use the span keyword. Use the span keyword to determine the number of columns or rows you would like an item to span Using these methods, we can reposition item1 between horizontal lines 2 and 4 and vertical lines 1 and 2, and item2 starting from vertical line 2 and spanning across three columns and from horizontal line 3 spanning across two rows (as in the image above) using: Believe it or not, item placement can be simplified even further with the property grid-area, which is a shorthand for grid-row-start, grid-column-start, grid-row-end and grid-column-end in that order. If only the first two properties are defined the item will automatically be placed between those lines and the following ones. This grid property also enables line numbers to be combined with the span keyword. Applying these methods, we can reposition item1 and item2 as such: Positioning items using area names Although using grid line numbers and the span keyword is a great way of positioning items, there is an even more intuitive and easy way to place items in the grid. It involves using the grid-area and grid-template-areas properties. To achieve this, each item to be positioned in the grid must first be given a name by setting its grid-area property to a string that can then be included in the grid’s grid-template-areas declaration. It then becomes possible to define grid-template-areas using a visual ‘map’ in which rows are enclosed in quotation marks, with the contents of each grid cell represented by a string pertaining to the grid-area names of the items. Empty cells are symbolised by a full stop (.) and spaces signify vertical grid lines. The rows can be placed on new lines to provide a visual representation of the grid, as follows: How to create a responsive layout using CSS Grid CSS Grid can be used with media queries to restructure items on different screen sizes without changing the markup. Item shape, size and position can all be completely changed, thus leading to a truly responsive and highly customised layout. Figure 1 Let’s say we have a list of elements generated from this HTML markup (figure 1): Figure 2 Using what we have learned about Grid so far we can apply styles for screens that are wider than 720px, using a media query (figure 2): Figure 3 We can also easily reposition and resize the items for larger screens that are wider than 1000px using another media query (figure 3): That’s not all – the number of grid columns and rows can even be changed to make allowances for certain screen sizes, if this is desired, by redefining grid-template-columns and/or grid-template-rows within the media queries. Overlapping elements can also be achieved using CSS Grid. Multiple items can occupy the same grid cells and hence can overlap with one another, utilising the z-index properties of the items to control the order in which they stack. Figure 4 For example, we can add a semi-transparent element with the class toolbar inside the grid container and position it in the right-most column so that it overlaps with all the other elements (figure 4): Figure 5 The final aspect we will discuss is the spacing between columns and rows or gaps (figure 5). Items in the grid can be separated using the grid-column-gap or grid-row-gap properties that set the size of the gap between columns and rows respectively. The shorthand property grid-gap can set both. CSS Grid fallbacks for older browsers Laying out CSS Grid properties below mobile properties ensures browsers that still don’t support Grid will ignore it and render the mobile version. We can alternatively add a basic fallback layout using @supports, a query that applies rules based on browser support for a specific CSS feature. We can thus set a fallback layout for screen sizes wider than 720px: If for some reason you need this fallback to be shown for Internet Explorer 10 and 11, which don’t support Grid nor, ironically, the @supports query, you can use a well-known query that applies styles only in IE10 and 11: If you require IE9 and older support, load an additional stylesheet in the HTML with the relevant styles using: CSS Grid resources For more information and tutorials on the CSS Grid Module have a look at the following resources. MDN web docs As always, the Mozilla Developer Network web docs site is a great place to start with – or continuously return to depending on how strong your memory is – for web developer resources. Its CSS Grid layout page in particular has explanations for all of Grid’s properties, as well as interactive examples for you to try yourself. Scrimba interactive: CSS Grid tutorial Scrimba is an interactive code courses platform. You can pause the videos, edit the code in them and see the results before resuming the tutorial. It’s a fantastic way to learn coding and Per Harald Borgen’s free, 14-part CSS Grid course is great for those who prefer video tutorials. Grid Garden game A great interactive way of learning to code is through games. Grid Garden is an online game that has you watering a carrot garden by typing CSS Grid properties into an editor. It’s a lot of fun and surprisingly satisfying, even if your harvest is just a digital one. This article was originally published in net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 309 or subscribe. Read more: CSS tricks to revolutionise your web layouts 6 web layout myths busted CSS Grid Layout secrets revealed View the full article

No matter how successful you become, how much money you make, how many awards you win, you will still make mistakes. In the age of online perfection, it's easy to forget that even those with the most gorgeous design portfolios have at some point dropped a clanger. So we contacted some of our favourite designers and asked for their worst, most painful stories about design disasters. Yarza Twin shared a chilling story about how a typo lead to a pop star's sister threatening to have them deported. Craig Black explained that just because someone says they know more than you, doesn't mean they actually do. Brand Brothers said they were once bullied into bad design by a tech giant. Raquel Quevedo did something you should never do when it comes to sending stuff to the printers. And Love told us why it’s a bad idea to shop for black snow in China. Read on for a selection of design disasters, and what you can learn from them. Too good to be true Yarza Twins grappled with an unfamiliar language and an unreasonable client At the start of their career, Yarza Twins Marta and Eva received an offer from the sister of a "very famous and controversial singer (who we will keep anonymous)”. This client made various products and wanted a catalogue. The budget was next to nothing, but the Spaniards were new to London at that time and were trying to get their studio up and running. It was a three-day deadline, but the job sounded easy enough. The client would send images and Yarza Twins would lay them out alongside text. "It was a big deal for us," Marta Yarza says, "so we felt very lucky and accepted it." We cannot share pictures, because we don't want that woman back in our lives Marta Yarza, Yarza Twins The client sent the images she wanted to use – over 3,000 of them, including duck-face selfies and holiday snaps. None of them were named. Yarza Twins had to guess which picture went with which text. Then the client started adding to the brief. She wanted website banners, contact cards, posters … "We were inexperienced and stupid," Marta says, "so we accepted to do all that work." They worked till four in the morning every day and got the work done. But the client spotted a word, in Arabic, that had been misspelled. Yarza Twins don't speak Arabic, and the word was incorrectly spelled when they received it. But the client freaked out, refused to pay and began to make threats. She claimed she was hiring a famous lawyer to get the twins deported from the UK: "All because she spelled badly an Arabic word that could be super-easily replaced on the design," Marta says. "We cannot share pictures, because we don't want that woman back in our lives." What can you learn from this? If you have a bad feeling about a client and a deadline, you should listen to your instincts, and don't let a client add more work to a brief without the promise of more pay. To infinity and beyond… and back again Craig Black is a lettering specialist. Branding agency MadeBrave approached him to paint a mural in their studio and it sounded like a simple enough job. The client knew exactly what they wanted: ‘To Infinity and Beyond’ – one of its brand values. Black came up with a concept that had the lettering set against a yellow background. The client signed it off. Time to get painting. The wall was already white – a blank canvas. "However," the Scot says, "I was informed by a paint specialist that I should use a grey primer paint on top of the white wall to make the yellow background paint stand out. I was unsure about it. It's something I'd never previously done but I followed the paint specialist’s instructions." It didn't work. The grey primer muddied the yellow, and Black had to cover the grey with two coats of white paint and three coats of yellow to get rid of it. "This had a knock-on effect, as there was a videographer booked in on those days to capture the making of the mural, which had to be delayed due to this mishap, inadvertently costing the client more than what was intended." The lesson? Sometimes you really do know best. A date with disaster ... when is this taking place again? (hit the icon in the top right to enlarge the image) Can you spot what's wrong with the poster above? Raquel Quevedo made it for the Understanding Design festival. The Barcelona designer and art director says there's a ton of possible reasons why this mistake happened: the deadline was very tight, the brief repeatedly changed, she had to really beat the keys on her knackered old keyboard … But she isn't solely to blame. "Despite being seen by a thousand eyes," the Spaniard says, "no one noticed that the date was wrong." Quevedo put the date of the festival not as 2017 but 2007. Thousands of flyers and posters were printed and distributed throughout Barcelona. "Not many people noticed the failure," she says. "The lesson? Do not send anything to print from one day to the next, even if the client demands it!" Client control Band Brothers' idea of futuristic tech turned out to be different from its client's In 2014, Brand Brothers – which has studios in Paris and Toulouse – got a job from one of France's leading tech companies. They had to design and make 100 metal boxes, which would be given out to the tech company's clients at an event, alongside various promotional materials. Johan Debit remembers being excited about the project because they had full creative control. The problem was the deadline – a month, by the time the contract was signed – and that the elements that made up the box were coming from five different suppliers. The client, Debit says, was "impossible to talk to”. They kept asking for strange revisions. Brand Brother hit their deadline, but by then, there had almost no creative control. The finished pictures for the promotional materials, as requested by the client, showed business people (stock photos) using "futuristic" touchscreen holographic technology. It looked like something from a dodgy '90s sci-fi film. We were ready to go to court if the client persisted in withholding the payment that was due Johan Debit, Band Brothers "We were getting to a point where we had been so excluded from the creative process that we just wanted to get this work over with," Debit says. Things got worse. The manufacturer delivered the parts: foam inlays didn't fit the boxes they were made for. Plus, some of the boxes had been damaged during delivery. Brand Brothers paid for remanufacturing out of their own pocket, but the client became increasingly bad-tempered and refused to pay for anything. A shouty meeting followed. The tech company tried to use its size advantage to intimidate the small design studio. "We reminded him that, even if he was a major client, we had honoured our commitments and he had not, and that we were ready to go to court if he persisted in withholding the payment that was due. Our determination paid off: the client eventually gave up his blackmail and we won. The full payment was received within only a few days." The lesson? Listen to your instincts, and ensure you've always got a contract. Broken promises Photo: Adrian Taylor In 2007, Sony marketed the PlayStation 2 console as gateway to a dark, sinister world called ‘The Third Place’. Sony asked Manchester studio Love to create something suitable to hold a USB that it would sent out to journalists. We wanted to impress," says Chris Myers, "and developed a dark, sinister snow globe – complete with black snow and a twisted Christmas scene within." The client liked it, but Love's production team worried the deadline and budget were too tight. "Plus," the senior creative director says, "this was clearly not an off-the-shelf item." We developed a dark, sinister snow globe... This was clearly not an off-the-shelf item Chris Myers, Love The production team eventually found a supplier in China. Contact was infrequent and only by email. Messages were vague and noncommittal. "After weeks of stress," Myers says, "the supplier sent us the picture of our prototype snow globe, adding we could have as many of these as we wanted: the image was of a tacky, regular, white snow globe – the kind you get from a Christmas store for a £1”. Love had lost weeks waiting for this ‘prototype’. They had to admit they wouldn't be able to deliver the black snow globes, which Sony wasn't happy about. Love managed to keep PlayStation as a client, but an important lesson was learnt: "Never present an idea to a client if you don't know how you are going to make it a reality. At least have some idea of cost and production, or you could end up looking like creative fools." Read more: Top designers reveal their first paid commissions 6 mistakes designers make – and how to avoid them 34 brilliant design portfolios to inspire you View the full article

View Conference in Italy takes what looks like a standard animation and VFX conference and makes something special with it. Not content with simply drawing in a few top notch artists to talk for an hour or two, View surpasses expectations with a speaker lineup that many events could only dream of. From Keynote speaker Hans Zimmer (yes, really) who has had a profound impact on anybody with an interest in film (we all know sound plays a huge part), to nine-times Academy Award Winner, Dennis Muren, to Rob Bredow of ILM, everywhere you look you will find the very best of the industry. The organisers have outdone themselves, not only with top keynote speakers but in every other area of the event, including the venue, which has moved from its traditional home to the Official Grandi Riparazioni – a fitting location for this year's amazing content. Talks to inspire The speakers are there to inspire as well as inform No conference would be complete without talks, but sometimes the keynotes can be a bit dry. View is set to buck that trend with some amazing talent talking about their passions and showing off elements from some of the biggest projects in recent times. As well as the names already mentioned, Oscar winner John Gaeta will be talking about the Magicverse; Bafta and VES award-winner David Vickery will be delving behind the scenes on Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom; Troy Saliba and Aharon Bourland will be discussing the VFX of Venom; and Netflix director Phil Rynda will be looking at character before design. There are too many to list here, so take a look at the rest of the stellar talk programme to see what is on offer. Practical workshops Give your skills a boost with View's workshop programme. As much as a dose of inspiration can set you on the path for your next project, it's important to remember that learning the right skills – either to spread your wings, or to become more efficient at what you do – is vital to become a better artist. View has long had a workshop programme and 2018 (the 19th edition of the conference) sees the level of teachers and content lifted to new heights. Highlights of the programme include Pixar Effect Supervisor Bill Watral, who will be teaching you how to find the balance between realism and stylisation, and Danielle Feinberg, the DoP on Coco, will be running a workshop on visual storytelling, including a look at the visual nuggets you didn't realise you were seeing. In the masterclass section, you will find a whole host of topics covered from animation and characters with Carlos Baena, incredible developments of Renderman with Dylan Sisson, Cinema 4D R20 for Guerilla VFX with Helge Maus, and many more. Find a new job View is far more than talks and workshops, as it is also host to a recruitment fair that includes portfolio reviews, a games development programme, and the View Award, celebrating the best in CG/VFX from any level. For more on View Conference head over to the official site, where the full programme and details of all speakers can be found. Read more: Vertex 2019 The best 3D modelling software The best graphics cards of 2018 View the full article

When people make a point of talking about their IQ, it's usually because they scored pretty high. Unlike traditional tests of intelligence, though, the goal of Pantone's Color IQ test is to score as low as possible. This simple drag and drop quiz only takes a couple of minutes, and it's a great way of seeing some colour theory in action. Made up of four grids, the test challenges you to arrange a spectrum of coloured tiles by their hue. The colours at either end of each grid are fixed, and it's up to you to create a smooth gradient between them by rearranging the tiles. So for the first grid, you are aiming for a smokey red that blends into a greenish brown Sounds easy, right? Well, don't get too confident. On the face of it the challenge sounds straightforward enough, but once you start placing colours next to one another the different hues start to play on your perception. This will be an all too familiar phenomenon to artists and designers who use juxtaposing colours to achieve a dynamic effect. Can you put the colours in the right order? If you want to take the test, make sure your monitor is calibrated correctly and that the lighting around you isn't affecting your screen. After all, you don't want to get an inaccurate result. Once you complete the test, as well as getting a score you can brag about on social media, you'll also get some information about how your score compares in your demographic, and insight as to why your colour perception could be off. According to Pantone, colour tests such as these have been used in the industry and by government bodies for over 60 years. So if you've got aspirations of working for the colour authority, make sure you nail this test. Related articles: 12 colours and the emotions they evoke If celebrities were Pantone colours How to manage colours in Photoshop View the full article

Congratulations. You've learned how to network and you've got yourself some clients. So you've got to love them, right? Except when you secretly want to strangle them. Yes, of course, clients are the people who pay our wages, and so even when they're at their most frustrating, we do our best to keep these feelings to ourselves, smile sweetly and remain calm, polite and helpful. But there are some things guaranteed to get our blood boiling. We've rounded up the top culprits... 01. Can we have the layered files? We just want to tweak them in-house "You want my layers? You're going to have to come through me to get them!" It's an old favourite, and one that clients will try so they can get their in-house team (or more likely just someone they know) to have a play with the files. Even if they're just messing about with a font they don't like, this can potentially change the whole look and feel of the project. Your likely response will be: "I can't give you the layered files as they are too large to transfer and in an order only I can understand. If you want to tweak the final result, we can discuss this." But you want to say: "Why should I give you the layered file when I just know you're going to change everything and fuck it all up?" 02. Could you do something in the style of [insert name here]? Here's how this story goes: a) Client sees something they love b) Client finds out who did it c) Client realises that designer would cost them a fortune d) Client asks you to replicate this style for a fraction of the cost. It's incredibly frustrating when this happens. You thrive on having your own style and aesthetic; why would you want to copy someone else's? Plus, you're bound to get some stick for it in the design community. Your likely response will be: "I respect that style and think it's great. However, have you seen this that I did for [client]? I think this style could work equally well." But you want to say: "I'm sorry, ripping people off just ain't cool, man." 03. Can I have that in Word format? "Oh dear. You just don't get it, do you?" Some clients just don't understand design. This is something that, unless you're very lucky, you're bound to encounter at least once in your career. It's similar to the question above – but shows an even greater misunderstanding of the design process. Your likely response will be: "I can't send you a Word file as this was created in [insert software here]. However, I'm happy to send you a PDF file that you can open in the free Adobe Reader application for review." But you want to say: "Word? Word? Woooooorrrrrrrrrrddddd?!!!" 04. Just one more thing... One type of client who doesn't communicate well is known as 'The Columbo'. Just like the fictional detective, this client initially seems kind, but once your inbox starts erupting with dozens of update requests, you'll realise they indulge in circumstantial speech that meanders to the point, and the closest thing they know to a full stop is the phrase: "Just one more thing..." 05. This looks great – but can you add this image from Google please? Note to non-designers: Google listing an image doesn't make it copyright-free Another example of clients not understanding the design process, and IP laws in particular. Here's the scenario. You've mocked up a project using stock images (that you've bought). But the client doesn't like them – even though it's just a mockup and you've explained this several times. So, they do a bit of Googling and find the perfect image of a man in a suit at a desk. And they want THAT image. Sigh. Your likely response will be: "We can't use that particular image as it's the property of [such and such] and has been used on another campaign. If you want an image like that I have a photographer who I collaborate with." But you want to say: "Don't be such a fool! For one, that image is terrible. And secondly, you can't just take images from wherever you want and use them! Don't you know anything?" 06. This job will get you get loads of exposure. Can you do it for free? It's one of the oldest tricks in the book: trying to get a designer friend to do a commercial project as if it was a personal party invite. There's no excuse for it – even if you're at the beginning of your design career. It will likely make your blood boil. As for the exposure line – would you say to a bathroom fitter, "I can't pay you, but when everyone sees my bathroom I'll tell them you did it," or to your dentist "If you make my teeth whiter for free I'll tell my friends and they'll come and pay to have theirs whitened." No. You wouldn't. Your likely response will be: "Sorry, I'm busy and can't take on any non-paying projects." But you want to say: Unpublishable. But you can learn how to work through your rage by following these guidelines. 07. That's easy – I could do it Yukai Du for Computer Arts issue 233 Ah, the well-meaning idiot; 'the design savant'. These types of clients tend to know so little, they don't appreciate how little they know. They think their wall of participation awards makes them a world-class athlete, and all those hours watching House have made them a doctor – and the fact that no one ever told them otherwise makes it all true. Here's what Bryce Bladon recommends you do... 08. We don't have any content at the moment. Can you just design the site and we'll put it in later? Yep, no problem. You don't have any content whatsoever, no idea on a colour palette, not even a slogan. You haven't even decided on a company name. But of course I can design you a site. I have no idea what it will look like. Maybe I could add some teddy bears, flowers, and do the whole thing in Comic Sans? That would work perfectly with what you don't have in mind, right? Your likely response will be: "No, sorry, we will need to discuss the content of the site and your objectives before we can do any wireframing or design work." But you want to say: "Get out of my office right now and stop wasting my time, you pea-brained numpty!" 09. Can you make it pop? Ah, the old 'make it pop'! A client's favourite. Basically it's the same old codswallop as 'make the logo bigger'. It's not going to make the design better. At best, the designer will maybe settle for making something a bit brighter, and at worst, the design will start to veer towards garish. Your likely response will be: First, ask the client exactly what they mean. Do they want it brighter in general? Try to explain things logically, saying there's a reason for the existing colour palette. If they still insist, ask them to come back in a bit and while they are gone either pretend to make some changes and see what they say when they see the result, or simply ramp up the brightness on your monitor. Of course you could just make some subtle Levels tweaks. But you want to say: "Pop? Pop? I'll make it pop alright!" Then turn all the text fluorescent yellow. 10. I need to withhold payment until you do a little more... There are numerous ways a client can mess with your money. They might try to convince you that your price is egregious; they might withhold payment until you do more (essentially free) work; they might drag their feet when it's time to cough up. Fortunately, the worst nightmare client you can encounter as a designer is also the easiest to avoid. But saying that to someone who finds themselves here isn't very good advice. Here's how Bryce Bladon deals with cheapskate clients. Read more: How to win over clients How to turn clients into friends 5 ways to get clients to take more risks View the full article

You don't have to enrol in an expensive art institution in order to become an artist. Now, you can learn how to draw online using The Fundamentals of Drawing Bundle. You'll learn how to create dynamic superheroes that are worthy of comic books; you'll master the art of figure, portrait, and animal drawing through step-by-step training, and you can learn at your own pace. There's also time to practise shading in order to truly bring your artwork to life. Get The Fundamentals of Drawing Bundle for just $39 – that's 94 per cent off the regular price, and much cheaper than art school. Related articles: How to draw: the best drawing tutorials How to draw a face How to begin a figure drawing View the full article

The update includes a security bypass bug that enables privilege escalation. View the full article

Rated as high-risk vulnerabilities, these privilege-escalation flaws could allow an unauthenticated attacker to access protected content. View the full article

Adobe has tons of design software that makes creating digital content a breeze. From InDesign to Photoshop, The Complete Learn To Design Bundle can teach you everything you need to know to become an excellent graphic designer, content creator, or virtual artist. You'll also learn the basics of HTML and CSS – important skills for anyone interested in web development – as well as web design for Wordpress. Illustrator, Bootstrap 4, and Sketch App will also be at your fingertips. The Complete Learn To Design Bundle is yours for the low price of just $39 – that's 96 per cent off the regular price. Related articles: The 38 best Photoshop plugins 63 free Photoshop actions How to manage colours in Photoshop View the full article

You're reading How to Create and Customize an Email Newsletter Template [YouTube Tutorial], originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! In this video, you’ll learn how to create an email newsletter and use animated GIF images in it. A few weeks ago, I received an email from Withings with a new product release, this is how it looks. I like … View the full article

Wacom is celebrating its 35th birthday, and offering some amazing deals to mark the occasion. We've already seen the price of the MobileStudio Pro dropping by up to £300, and now Wacom is also lowering the price of its Cintiq Pro 13 by more than £100. The smallest graphics tablet in the Cintiq Pro range has been reduced to £799.95 from £999.95 (or €859,90 down from €1099.90). It may not seem like the biggest price drop, but Wacom rarely runs deals, so it's worth jumping on this one. For more bargains, check out our article on the best cheap Wacom tablet deals. Buy a Wacom Cintiq Pro 13 with £200 off We awarded the Cintiq Pro four and a half stars in our review, and were especially impressed by how Wacom had managed to make the drawing experience feel more natural, and by the quality of the screen. Read our Cintiq Pro review here. Wacom has long ruled the roost when it comes to graphics tablets, but if you're not sure which device is right for you, take a look at our guide to the best drawing tablets in 2018. We gave the Cintiq Pro four and a half stars in our review The price cut comes as part of a series of sales and price drops being rolled out over the next few months as part of Wacom's 35th anniversary celebrations. The company launched in Japan in 1983 with the aim of finding better ways to connect humans with their computers (the name comes from the Japanese syllable ‘Wa’ for harmony and ‘Com’ for computer). It worked to develop an intuitive input device for the more creative uses of a computer, and the result was the digital pen tablet. “In combining our long-standing expertise with new opportunities offered by the ever-evolving IT industry, we stay committed to providing creatives around the world with the best digital pen experience possible” says Nobu Ide, CEO of Wacom. “Being a technology leader in the field of professional instruments for art and design, we are developing new solutions in VR to offer artists and designers the creative tools of the future.” Read more: The best software for digital artists 7 tips for smashing Inktober 2018 The 38 best Photoshop plugins View the full article

Most people see user interfaces daily, whether it's inside a mobile app or on a website, so it's important to get it right when creating them, and if you can enliven them with some CSS animation, all the better. Explore the new frontier of CSS animation While building for the web, particularly when it comes to animation, you have to consider things like browser support and performance. In this tutorial, we're going to walk you through two of the best solutions for creating UI animations and transitions. We will be using a combination of CSS and GreenSock (GSAP). We are all aware of CSS but some of you may not be aware of the GreenSock platform. GreenSock is a JavaScript framework that enables you to easily create stunning animations with HTML elements using just a few lines of code. Images and logos have particularly stood out a lot more over the last few years. How often do we use emojis rather than text? Mobile navigations seem to use icons rather than text and over time users come to know where each will take us. We are going to start by creating an animated navigation bar just using logos. When you hover over each one, it will animate to the final state, which will look similar to this screenshot. We have the six navigation icons and one of them shows off what the hover state will look like once the animation is completed Build the navigation First of all, we will create a new index.html file and set up our navigation area along with six links. Each link will be made up of an icon taken from Ionicons. We will need to assign a class to each. We won't be covering the full HTML or CSS document in detail but you can get the full code listing from GitHub. Next, we will need to create a CSS file that's called style.css and then insert the following line of code to import Ionicons: We will now set up the class navlogo for our navigation images inside the stylesheet. Here we will set up the position, height, font size etc. Next, we need to set up the animation for our .navlogo element. Here we will create the rotation and transition effects, as well as changing the element colour on hover. Finally, we will need to add an event that removes the hover class when the mouse is no longer hovering over our logos. This is to make sure that our logo comes out of its animation. Create a new JavaScript file called main.js and then enter the following code: Our navigation is now ready to go, apart from adding some hyperlinks. We have managed to achieve this just by using CSS3. Create and animate buttons on load The buttons will appear one by one with a one-second delay in-between. GreenSock enables you to do this with any HTML element We will now add four buttons to our page and use the GreenSock library to slowly bring in each button, one after the other with a one-second delay. This will create a nice transition effect. First, we will need to reopen the index.html file and create our button section using the code below: We then need to set up a reference to the GreenSock library inside the <head> section. Finally, we need to set up our animation. This will only take one line of code. StaggerFrom is a function that will stagger the start time of our element. In our brackets, we specify the name of the element. In this case it would be .anibutton. We also need to set a duration and in this case it is set to one second between each anibutton element. Background and element colour transition This is how the UI will look after the background and button transition from one colour to another The next thing we are going to look at is transitioning the website background and buttons from one colour to another. We don't often come across this feature on websites, although it would definitely be interesting for things like accessibility or for web app preferences when the user might want to set their own colour scheme. Make sure that you have a background colour and a border and text colour set up for your page in the style.css file. Next, we will create a JavaScript function to set up our various GreenSock colour transitions. We are going for more of a dark mode look here, so the background will be dark but the buttons will appear light. The first line of code will change the background colour to a darker variation over a period of three seconds. The second and third line will change the colour and border of the text to white over a period of three seconds. Finally, we will need to call the changeBackground() function from one of our buttons found in the index.html file. The project is now ready to run. Of course, you can go a lot further by adding new elements and changing the colour style for those, too. This article was originally published in issue 309 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 309 here or subscribe here. Related articles: Animate and switch titles with CSS 5 tips for super-fast CSS An introduction to CSS custom properties View the full article

Motion capture is one of those terms that gets bandied about, with the assumption that everyone knows what it means. But what is motion capture, exactly? And how is it relevant to those making 3D movies, as well as creatives in different areas? Let's find out... What is motion capture? This is the sort of image that can be created after motion has been captured Motion capture – also known as mo-cap – is when a person or object's movements are tracked through a number of sensors that are placed on them. This data is then collated and can be used to replicate the motions of the person or object. It is also possible to track a person in relation to other objects such as the elements of a set. The technique is often used in films, for when animated or CGI characters need to replicate the motions of a real person, such as for characters like Gollum in The Lord of The Rings. It can also be used to form a pattern, such as the motion capture of Sir Simon Rattle's conduction that was used to create the visuals for the London Symphony Orchestra's identity, by The Partners (now Superunion). What are the drawbacks of mo-cap? Motion capture can be very expensive, and requires a lot of specialist kit for it to work. You may have to reshoot the scene if there's a problem, rather than trying to fix the data later on, and you can't use it to replicate movements that an object or a person can't do (i.e. ones that don't follow the laws of physics). However, nowadays, innovations in AI are addressing these problems and helping to bring mo-cap to the masses. How is AI shaking up mo-cap? RADiCAL takes away the need to wear a special mo-cap suit (the figure on the left is the 3D model created from the movements of the lady on the right) When Gavan Gravesen and Anna Bellini co-founded RADiCAL, it wasn’t with a mind to move the needle on their profits; they aspired to propel massive acceleration in the 3D content pipeline. Two months after its public unveiling, RADiCAL’s AI-powered motion capture solution presents a spectacular break from tradition, cutting down the cost, hardware and skills users need to bring to the table. RADiCAL has already amassed close to 10,000 users, landed a partnership with NVIDIA, and seen interest from a number of larger studios. What is RADiCAL? The simple yet innovative AI turns ordinary 2D video into 3D data, without the need for any dedicated equipment or constrained environments. It allows 3D content creators of all stripes to utilise motion capture when animating humanoid characters. “The idea was born after Anna and I had worked together in a previous venture in a related field,” explains Gravesen. “In 2017, we decided to put all of our efforts behind building the technology that became RADiCAL – we loved the idea of solving a real problem, shipping products and breaking down a major roadblock in the 3D content pipeline in the process.” Guided by the simple principle that the solution had to be entirely hardware-agnostic and easy to use, the team combined deep learning, generative models, robotics, computer vision and biomechanics to “create an AI that would be easy enough for a novice to use, but sufficiently robust for an expert to add to their toolkit,” as Bellini explains. How can RADiCAL be used? In other words, RADiCAL aims to provide a solution that is universally available and integrates seamlessly with existing workflows. Gravesen explains: “Our hardware independence means that any camera can become your capture device, and any environment, indoors or outdoors, can be your studio.” Users are able to record and upload 2D video footage from within RADiCAL’s iOS or Android apps, or use a cloud-based custom profile that can process content from other cameras. Gravesen explains: “The final output is an FBX file rigged to the HumanIK standard that you download from our cloud service, for use in any 3D software or gaming engine. And we’ll add more rigs and file standards over the next months.” What's next for RADiCAL? In the future Gravesen and Bellini want to see the technology seamlessly powering 3D work across a variety of platforms The company will soon turn their attention towards those that remain reluctant to work in the cloud, promising to offer on-premise installations to select customers in the near future. Bellini explains how she built the technology: “Massive amounts of data are being processed to support an AI model capable of plausibly reconstructing human motion. We strive to capture and express subtle motion loyal to the actor’s movements. We don’t rely on canned motion or existing machine learning solutions. Instead, we crafted custom, low-level CUDA kernels for use with NVIDIA GPUs.” RADiCAL’s solution is not yet real-time, but the team is optimistic it’ll get there soon. “We expect to release a version of our AI that runs device-side and in real-time in early 2019, perhaps earlier,” says Bellini. “Future versions will also feature multiple cameras and accommodate multiple actors. In other words, we will offer a whole range of products with different features over the next 12 months.” The co-founders’ mission is to enable and empower independent creators and studios to embrace motion capture in a variety of new ways. Gravesen notes that “for the 3D ecosystem to grow as fast as we want it to, we need to change things up. We can’t rely on the AAAs and majors alone to create the content that we all know is needed. Rather, we need independent creators, creative agencies and studios of all sizes, corporate in-house teams, even students and academics to be empowered.” Bellini concludes: “By making a tool that’s accessible no matter the size of the project, we can help to genuinely accelerate the 3D content pipeline across the board… for film, TV, gaming, AR and VR alike. Our users have brought us into their pipelines at all stages: we see independents, AAAs and majors using us in previz as well as in production.” RADiCAL’s apps are now available, for anyone to try, on both the App Store and Google Play. Gravesen hopes that by giving motion capture to everyone, the team can continue to remove the roadblocks in content creation that involves human motion. This article was originally published in issue 237 of 3D World. Buy issue 237 or subscribe. Read more: Will Brexit wreck the VFX industry? Top blockbuster VFX you're not meant to see Turn 2D illustrations into 3D art View the full article

Turning thirty is a big deal. And while it's an anniversary that can fill a lot of people with existential dread, Roald Dahl's beloved bookworm Matilda Wormwood seems to be taking it in her stride in a series of new ink drawing illustrations by Sir Quentin Blake. Unveiled by BBC News, the new set of illustrations was created by Blake to celebrate 30 years since the publication of Matilda. But rather than depict another scene from the book, which he illustrated upon its publication, Blake has imagined what Matilda is getting up to three decades on. Unsurprisingly, she seems to be doing alright for herself. While plenty of people Matilda's age are scrimping for a deposit or juggling work and life struggles, the child who famously bested the beastly Miss Trunchbull has gone on to have a glittering career, or five. We wouldn't expect anything less from the Wormwood wunderkind. Her love of books has seen her become a celebrated poet laureate, with her epic poem The Trunchbull Saga fascinating audiences across 20,068 verses. In between penning poems, Matilda finds the time to be the CEO of the British Library, an astrophysicist, special FX artist and a world traveller and linguist. Check out the illustrations by clicking left to right in the gallery below with the arrow icons. Since its release in 1988, Matilda has gone on to become the best-selling Roald Dahl book, with 17 million copies flying off the shelves. The story was turned into a film in 1996, and a musical with music by Tim Minchin even more recently, and has been taken into the hearts of generations of readers and viewers who identified with the downtrodden Matilda. Along with some quotes from the woman herself, the illustrations will feature on the covers of anniversary editions of the book, released on October 4. As well as getting Blake to check in on Matilda, the book's anniversary saw the Roald Dahl Story Company ask the British public who she's still friends with. The top answer? Her childhood best friend, Lavender. Happy 30th birthday, Matilda. [All images C. Quentin Blake / Roald Dahl Story Company 2018] Related articles: How to illustrate a children's book 23 stunning examples of book illustration How to break into children's book illustration View the full article

Some fonts are so maligned, they've become a running joke even for non-designers. Others are over-used to the point of near-total exhaustion, or misused so much we've forgotten their original purpose. It takes skill and experience to choose the right typeface, and the nuances of different types of font can make a huge impact on a brand's personality, or the tone of a piece of design. There are thousands of options out there, and yet certain fonts are everywhere. Some seem to make a mockery of the art and craft of typography in and of themselves, while others just seem like a lazy, default fall-back option. But is all the hatred justified? Read on for five of the most-hated typefaces, and why some of them might well deserve a second chance... 01. Comic Sans: the butt of all jokes Based on comic book speech bubbles, Comic Sans was originally intended to make 'Microsoft Bob' more friendly Let's get this out of the way early. Regularly mocked by designers and non-designers alike, Comic Sans is the clown in the room – the darling of children's playrooms, dodgy PowerPoint presentations, ramshackle lemonade stands and passive-aggressive workplace signage the world over. People really love to hate this font. It's famed for being amateurish, silly, chosen by people who want something informal and jaunty, but are 'designing' their poster in Word – and Arial or Times New Roman just won't cut it. We get it. In so many situations, Comic Sans is horrible. But consider its name: it's not called 'Comic' Sans because it's comical, but because it's based on the type in comic book speech bubbles. In fact, it was originally designed by Vincent Connare to give 'Microsoft Bob', a helpful dog bundled with Windows 95, a warmer, more playful tone in his speech bubbles – but was never actually used for that purpose. It wasn't meant for use outside of comic speech bubbles, and yet it's absolutely exploded worldwide. There are campaigns to ban it, and it's become an easy short-hand reference for bad typography. The reality? It's actually perfect for its intended use. It's also great for accessibility, and is officially recommended by the British Dyslexia Association. Its crime isn't use, it's misuse. Give Comic Sans a break. 02. Helvetica: death by ubiquity? Posters promoting Gary Hustwit's Helvetica documentary, by Experimental Jetset – set in Helvetica, of course Ubiquity breeds contempt, and in many ways Helvetica is a beautifully crafted typeface that has become a victim of its own success. It has become the 'safe choice', the neutral option – or for some, an easy way to be effortlessly cool and timeless. But its ubiquity is partly due to the fact it's not always used for the right reasons. Released in 1957 as Neue Haas Grotesk, and renamed three years later, Helvetica is the poster boy of the International Typographic Style, or Swiss Style – in fact, 'Helvetica' is Latin for 'Swiss'. It was embraced by cutting-edge designers throughout the '50s and '60s, and its popularity has continued to soar since. A dizzying number of brands have used Helvetica, or modifications of it, for their logos over the decades – from American Airlines to The North Face, Panasonic to Post-It, and countless more besides. Clearly, that becomes an issue in terms of standout, and brand personality. Helvetica is a great typeface. But it's not always the most appropriate choice. It's terrible for large passages of text, for instance, where its tight spacing and uniform weight interfere with legibility. It's also not as neutral as people assume: Gary Hustwit's feature-length documentary discusses how in some contexts it will blend into the background, while in others it will smack you in the face. Apply critical thought to your type choices: while Helvetica can be a lazy default option, it can also be perfect for the right project. Don't abandon it just on principle, but remember there are alternatives to Helvetica out there. 03. Papyrus: the target of SNL parody Papyrus is much-maligned and widely misused, but can actually be effective in the right context Everyone loves a bit of faux-Egyptian, slightly distressed type, right? Well... not so much. Papyrus is right up there with Comic Sans in the pantheon of hated fonts, and while Helvetica inspired a thoughtful documentary, Papyrus has the honour of being ripped into by Saturday Night Live. The skit, starring Ryan Gosling, mocks how a global blockbuster like Avatar could seemingly just type 'Avatar' into Word, and change the font to Papyrus. Besides movie posters, the font may also be irksomely familiar from everything from faux-rustic cafe menus, to church programmes, to online captchas. Inspired by Biblical times, Chris Costello created Papyrus in 1982 as a side-project while working in an agency. He later sold it to Letraset... who licensed it to Microsoft. It's now thought to exist on over a billion computers worldwide. There are entire blogs dedicated to the overuse and misuse of Papyrus, but as with Comic Sans, the blame shouldn't be levelled at its creator. It's a little baffling that such a distinctive typeface, influenced by the look and feel of ancient Middle Eastern civilisations, could be applied to so many modern contexts – the fact is, it can't. That's not to say it's not fit for a purpose; it's just not fit for every purpose. 04. Mistral: the oft-misunderstood script Mistral changes tone entirely in sentence case and all-caps, as shown in these designs for Drive and Straight Outta Compton Script fonts in general, and handwriting fonts in particular, get a lot of a flak. Bradley Hand – popular amongst teenage girls in the '90s, and now splashed across all manner of invitations, school announcements and story books – is a case in point, as it actually looks nothing like natural handwriting. Mistral, however, has a rather more interesting heritage – designed to evoke the sophistication and elegance of postwar France. But it's often tarred with the same brush as other script fonts, especially when misused. The problem is, rather like Comic Sans and Papyrus, Mistral is widely available to non-designers who don't think twice about butchering it. Originally designed to mimic a sleek, sultry 'autograph' style of writing when in sentence case, Mistral changes tone entirely when in all-caps – and looks like it's been angrily spray-painted by a teenager. Both tones of voice can be effective, if used properly. Once again, the issue here is misuse in the wrong hands. Set large passages of text in Mistral in an attempt to mimic handwriting and you're in trouble. And the shouty, more edgy all-caps approach is all-too-often diluted by badly designed signage. The examples above show how effective Mistral can be in the right hands. 05. Trajan: the king of movie posters Trajan's widespread use in film and television transcends genre conventions – but are we bored of it now? Just as the movie world seemingly keeps the same gravelly voiced individual on standby for every new trailer, the designers of its marketing materials are rather attached to one typeface: Trajan (with Bank Gothic as an eager understudy). The range of applications are vast, and transcend genre and mood entirely. Since the 1990s, Trajan has graced disaster movies such as Titanic, sci-fi flicks including Minority Report and Stargate, touching dramas such as A Beautiful Mind, and fantasy epics Game of Thrones. There's seemingly nothing this pseudo-Roman serif, which came helpfully bundled with Adobe Creative Suite for years, can't communicate when it comes to movies. In some ways, it's so over-used as to become little more than background noise as part of a movie poster, so you focus on the title rather than the font it's set in. Like the gravelly voiceover man, it's become part of the short-hand vernacular of the movie world – just another familiar trope, which has its place. But it's also an opportunity for more independently minded poster designers to stand out from the crowd with something radically different. Related articles: 5 classic fonts that are still on trend (and why) 7 logos we all love to hate (and lessons we can learn) 5 types of font and what to use them for View the full article

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Bypass works on iOS 12 and Apple's latest iPhone XS model phones allowing an attacker to access contacts and photos. View the full article

Search engine optimisation doesn't have to be complicated. Using SERPstash Premium: Lifetime Subscription, you can easily improve your search engine rankings. This tool makes SEO simple by breaking the often complex process down into three steps. First, identify, analyse and filter keywords that are relevant to the industry you're in. Second, research backlinks to figure out which sites are linking to your or your competitors' websites. And third, run an audit that will help you figure out which areas may need improvement. You'll also be able to find out your site's current rankings, so you'll know where you're starting from, and you can also test whether your site is mobile-friendly. Check out SERPstash Premium: Lifetime Subscription for just $29 – that's 94 per cent off the regular price. Related articles: 5 ways to boost your website's SEO Climb the Google rankings: How to master SEO 10 must-know SEO tools for search success View the full article

When someone finds out that I work in watercolour, their immediate response is often “But watercolour techniques are so hard!” An unsurprising reaction, perhaps… 13 incredible examples of watercolour tattoo art I discovered watercolour as a teenager, and instead of being intimidated by its unpredictable nature, I saw endless possibilities. I gradually realised that watercolour offers a unique, collaborative relationship with the artist – one that isn’t so straightforward and requires experimentation, openness and most importantly, patience. By its very nature, watercolour appears to be a difficult beast to tame. After all, its primary vehicle is water! It’s key to bear in mind that there’ll always be an element of surprise when working with watercolour. Over time and with lots of experimentation and implementation of tried-and-true techniques, I’ve learned first to control what I can, and as for the rest, work intuitively and allow watercolour to be watercolour. At times it will take the wheel whether you like it or not, but you’ll live for those moments when it pleasantly surprises you! As well as having an open mind and endless patience, working with watercolour requires a particular setup, proper materials, a little technique and a lot of experimentation. In this series, I’m going to share with you how I work with this incredibly versatile and exciting medium and make the best of watercolour’s delightfully protean nature. 01. What different watercolour papers are available? Click to see the image full size Watercolour paper comes in three textures: hot, cold and rough. Both cold and rough watercolour paper have a bumpy texture, and will give you more vibrant colours. However, I enjoy working with hot press because the smooth texture enables me to achieve sharper details. Watercolour paper also comes in various weights. I recommend starting with 140lb. The heavier it is, the less likely it is to buckle under a lot of water. Aim to use top-brand papers such as Arches or Strathmore, because the quality of your paper is very important. 02. Choose your brushes From left to right, size 1 squirrel hair mop brush, Kolinsky sable brushes sizes 6,3,2,1,0, Size 1 liner sable brush Watercolour brushes can vary widely and it can be tough making a decision on which ones to buy. There are both synthetic and natural hair brushes available for watercolour use, and each have their own strengths. I prefer to work with Kolinsky red sable brushes, because the natural fibres hold liquid better than synthetics can, although they are more expensive. Brushes come in many shapes as well, though I most commonly use Rounds ranging from size 0 up to 6. 03. Select the right palette for you A nice perk to working with watercolour is that it can always be re-wetted when dried, so an old palette can be brought back to life in a snap Responsible watercolour artists typically use a large palette divided into wells for their colours. My particular method of working with limited colour palettes has landed me on a small, cheap eight-well palette with two mixing areas. I keep several around, including larger circular palettes in rotation, so that I can dedicate one per painting. This is useful when I’m working on more than one piece at a time. 04. Pick your paints Here are some of my most frequently used watercolours, along with speciality Finetec gold and silver pans Watercolour paints most commonly come in tubes or pans. I prefer to use watercolour tubes because I can achieve better intensity right off the bat. I work with several brands, but my favourites are Grumbacher and Winsor & Newton for basic colours, and Daniel Smith for speciality colours and those that granulate nicely. My techniques for creating texture take advantage of the pigment separation that comes with these speciality colours. Student-quality watercolours won’t get you very far, so I’d recommend spending a little extra on the good stuff, since you’ll have it for some time anyway. Some of my current rotation of watercolours are over five years old! 05. Get additional tools Click to take a closer look at some of Kelly's favourite tools My favourite part of working with watercolour involves the tools that push the medium even further. I most commonly use kosher salt and ice cream salt for texture effects (the latter creates larger texture). I’ll also occasionally mask to preserve an area of paper with the aid of masking fluid or tape. This article was originally published in issue 162 of ImagineFX, the world's leading digital art magazine. Buy issue 162 or subscribe here. Related articles: Paint a mischievous hare in watercolour Create a striking figure painting in watercolour How to create glazes with watercolour View the full article

You're reading Apple Steps Into the Future with MacOS 10.14 Mojave, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Mojave is Apple’s latest version of its macOS, launched more than 34 years after the first Macintosh shipped in 1984. Mojave [Mo-HA-vey] is a North American reservation in the area between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The new name follows … View the full article

Popular email marketing service Mailchimp has launched a new brand identity and design system. The rebrand comes courtesy of COLLINS, working alongside Mailchimp's in-house design team. Notably, it sees the company doing away with its much-loved script logo design in favour of a sans-serif wordmark, and introducing a cheerful yellow as its brand colour. Although we've seen a number of companies say goodbye to their script-based wordmarks in recent years, to its credit Mailchimp hasn't joined the ranks of bland, identikit san-serif logos. The new wordmark uses a custom typeface that is equally full of character. Freddie, Mailchimp's simian mascot, has also had a makeover. The hat and cheeky wink remain firmly in place, but he's now a simplified, single-colour silhouette. The shift also means Freddie can appear alongside the wordmark as part of a more unified system. "Our beloved logo script and Freddie icon had hierarchy issues and never appeared together," explains Mailchimp. "This meant the icon wasn’t always recognisable on its own. Through a process of iteration and refinement, we've developed a wordmark that lives in harmony with the Freddie icon to build equity for both." Quirky photography and illustrations give the design system plenty of energy In 2013, Jessica Hische updated the company's original script logo, making it lighter and more legible. However, this time around Mailchimp has taken the plunge and gone for a full-blown rebrand, introducing completely new design system, and dropping the camelcase styling (it's no longer 'MailChimp' but 'Mailchimp'). Mailchimp describes the mood as "playful and expressive". Cooper Light has been adopted as the brand's main typeface, while a sunny Cavendish yellow brand colour introduces a shot of energy into the system. The new look also uses illustration much more heavily, in a distinctive, off-kilter style. "Our new illustration, motion and photography systems act as the perfect counterpoint to the standardised core brand elements. These expressive parts of our brand are more organic and playful while still communicating a message," says Mailchimp. You can find out more about the rebrand on Mailchimp's website. Read more: All hail the new Uber logo 7 logos we all love to hate (and lessons we can learn) Google logo sparks 'correct design' debate View the full article