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Bad actors are leveraging the critical Drupal vulnerability to install cryptomining malware on servers and browsers, View the full article

Here's a fun font that will have you joyfully flailing your arms in the air like the famous amphibian muppet. Meet Kernit, a free font set inspired by the work and characters of the legendary muppet master himself, Jim Henson. Nope, that's not a typo, Kernit gets its name from a witty mashup of Kermit the Frog and kerning. But then again you probably figured that out for yourself. (It took us a couple of passes before we noticed it, ahem.) Developed by independent brand experience company COLLINS and MCKL, Kernit was created to capture the sense of fun and whimsy that Henson's world has become know for. According to the designers, "it was also inspired by the bold, playful, rounded typography of the late seventies, which was so apparent in much of the Henson work." Available in two weights, Kernit Bold and Kernit Outline, the retro fonts are deisgned to be used interchangeably to give your layouts and lettering some visual rhythm. Check out Kernit in action below. Kernit was developed as part of an exploration of the Jim Henson Exhibition Kernit was developed as part of COLLINS' design exploration for The Jim Henson Exhibition at The Museum of the Moving Image in New York. By immersing themselves in Henson's work, including classics productions such as Dark Crystal, the COLLINS team were able to really get a handle on what it takes to make a font fit for the creator. Download Kernit for free here. Related articles: 20 perfect font pairings 9 golden rules for combining fonts 12 professional fonts for designers View the full article

Attackers can leverage the flaw by convincing users to open a file purported to be a recording of a past WebEx event. View the full article

Any Android owners who feel a sense of competition with their iPad-wielding counterparts may be slightly irked that SketchBook 4.0 is only appearing on their platform months after it launched on iOS. But set any irritation aside, and you’ll discover a compelling update with features artists looking for Android apps will appreciate. Chief among these is a revamped user interface that stays out of your way as you work. It vanishes if your brushstrokes veers near one of its tool panels, and many interface elements are reduced in scale. This makes some controls, like the drawers for adjusting Brush size and Opacity, a little fiddly to access, however. Tap near the centre-bottom of the screen, meanwhile, and a menu with shortcuts appears. Complicated pricing When you first install SketchBook, it’s the Free edition, with limited functionality but no time limit on how long you can use it. To unlock the full toolset, you have two options: you can either spend £4.09 on the Pro Tools in-app purchase, which gives you the tools only within the Android app; or get an annual SketchBook subscription (£4.09 a month or £24.99 a year). The subscription must be renewed each year, unlike the in-app purchase, but you get access to the full tools on the versions of SketchBook for Windows, Mac and iOS as well as Android. Shibuya Race was created by artist Ryohei Yamashita using SketchBook Bear in mind that the desktop computer editions don’t offer the one-off purchase option, only the subscription, so if you plan to use SketchBook on either Windows or Mac as well as Android, you may as well forget the in-app purchase and commit to the subscription instead. With all these complicated buying options, it’s worth mentioning first that the Android app smoothly recognises your subscription when you first log in on the app; and second that once you’ve logged in, the app keeps all the Pro Tools active even if your tablet isn’t connected to the internet. New features The main differences your upgrade awards are customisable canvas sizes; dozens more brushes, including a Inking brush with a pleasing line quality; a limit to the number of layers dictated by your device’s memory rather than the Free version’s miserly three layers; the ability to make selections and masks; and unlimited Undos. You also get access to more drawing tools, including rulers and fills. SketchBook's user interface is much improved We also like the Predictive Stroke mode, which tidies up your line after you draw it. It’s a real boon for digital inkers, and you can adjust the extent to which your lines will be altered. This release brings SketchBook for Android up to speed with other versions and maintains the software’s reputation as a quality, unobtrusive drawing tool. Perhaps more importantly for patient Android owners, the under-the-bonnet changes should see more contemporaneous updates across all SketchBook versions in the future. This article was originally published in ImagineFX issue 158, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists. Subscribe now. Read more: 95 tutorials on how to draw View the full article

Jessica Walsh is well-established in the design world. Not only is she a partner at one of the top 20 US design studios of 2018 Sagmeister & Walsh, she's also very well known for saying how it is, something which is evident from her handwritten #jessicawalshhasnofilter posts on Instagram. Now taking her thoughts and feelings one step further, Walsh has launched new project Sorry I Have No Filter – a merchandise website full of straight-talking designs, including jackets, tees, socks, pins, pillows, mugs, iPhone cases and more. Sorry I Have No Filter is a new merchandise site, full of straight-talking product designs "I started Sorry I Have No Filter as a written Instagram series of thoughts I was thinking in my head over five years ago," says Walsh. "I've realised many of my own feelings and insecurities are largely universal, and, through this, gained quite a bit of confidence. "I've learned to let go of expectations, live life on my own terms and stop caring so much about what others think of me. There are so many external pressures on women to live, act, look, smile a certain way, and I am just over it all. "My sister calls this my 'I don't give a fuck' attitude. This was part of the inspiration of the Sorry I Have No Filter site being a middle finger. It's 2018 and women should just be and behave and act however they want – and we should support each other in our own individual paths and ways of expressing ourselves." Ladies, Wine & Design Ladies, Wine & Design aims to foster women in the creative industries Sorry I Have No Filter follows on from Walsh's earlier endeavour, the popular Pins Wont Save the World, 100 per cent of the donations from which went directly to charities under threat as a result of Trump's administration. But now proceeds are shifting to Ladies, Wine & Design, an initiative Walsh set up that aims to foster women in the creative industries. "Our initiative is to mentor, champion, and foster creative women through free global events such as talks, salon nights, mentorship circles, and more. Our goal through LWD is to bring women together to form positive relationships so we can lift each other up, share resources and inspiration, and help propel each other forward," explains Walsh. You'll find more information on Ladies, Wine & Design and upcoming events via its new LWD website and Instagram page. Related articles: 12 tips to turbocharge your design career How to get to the top spot of a global creative agency 10 best portfolio templates for designers View the full article

It seems like there is another website or service being compromised by hackers every day. When that happens, your passwords and personal information can be put at risk. Dashlane Password Manager is one of the best tools around to keep you safe when those breaches happen. Get a 1-year subscription on sale now for 50 per cent off the retail price! Dashlane is the perfect solution to the extremely common problem of insecure passwords. We all know what a secure password requires, but few of us take the time to make unique ones for each and every account. With Dashlane, you won’t need to remember those long, complicated strings of letters and numbers just to make your account secure. This premium service fills in forms so you don’t have to, and gives you access to your accounts on any device. That means you can access your passwords anytime you need them. You can get a one-year subscription to Dashlane on sale for just $19.98 (approx. £15). That's a saving of 50 per cent off the retail price for a tool that will make sure your passwords are always safe and secure, so grab this deal today! Related articles: 9 security tips to protect your website from hackers Send large files: 11 free tools Download images securely with a VPN View the full article

Adobe Capture CC is a fantastic app that enables you to find fonts and colours simply by taking a photo. You may be wondering what fonts have been used in your favourite magazine, for example, or you may wish to take colour references from an object or scenery. In this article we'll run through three ways to get the most from Capture CC. You can find the app on the iOS App Store or Google Play. Get Adobe Creative Cloud 01. Find colours from a photo Create a colour palette based on a photo From the Colors tab within the app, simply tap the ‘+’ button and point the camera towards the object or scenery you wish to capture. You will see that the app is already working at finding popular colours. Once you’re happy with your arrangement, take the photo and refine it further. You can proceed to save your captured colours to a library, picking them back up and using them in other Adobe tools. 02. Identify fonts Identify any typeface You can also use Capture CC to identify the fonts that have been used in a printed design, or find closely matched fonts. Head over to the Type tab within the app and direct the camera over the typography you wish to capture. There will be a blue line to help you with alignment. Once you have the typography in view, take the photo and then make sure the app has cropped the text correctly. Press the big tick and let Adobe analyse the image. Once it has finished analysing, it will provide you with a list of best matched fonts within Adobe Typekit that you can then go on to use. 03. Create a shape Turn images into vector shapes Finally, you can use Capture CC to create vector shapes. Shape is a very useful feature for a number of reasons. It’s a great way of vectorising an object so that you can play around with it further in Illustrator. For example, you may wish to vectorise a signature or perhaps some freehand typography. It’s great for capturing elements that are just easier to draw with pen and paper. Read more: 7 tips to manage colour better on the web 5 tips for understanding colour theory The best colour tools for web designers View the full article

You may not think your site has anything worth being hacked for, but websites are compromised all the time. The majority of website security breaches are not to steal your data or mess with your website layout, but instead attempts to use your server as an email relay for spam, or to set up a temporary web server, normally to serve files of an illegal nature. Other very common ways to abuse compromised machines include using your servers as part of a botnet, or to mine for Bitcoins. You could even be hit by ransomware. Hacking is regularly performed by automated scripts written to scour the internet in an attempt to exploit known website security issues in software. Here are our top nine tips to help keep you and your site safe online. 01. Keep software up to date It may seem obvious, but ensuring you keep all software up to date is vital in keeping your site secure. This applies to both the server operating system and any software you may be running on your website such as a CMS or forum. When website security holes are found in software, hackers are quick to attempt to abuse them. If you are using a managed hosting solution then you don't need to worry so much about applying security updates for the operating system as the hosting company should take care of this. If you are using third-party software on your website such as a CMS or forum, you should ensure you are quick to apply any security patches. Most vendors have a mailing list or RSS feed detailing any website security issues. WordPress, Umbraco and many other CMSes notify you of available system updates when you log in. Many developers use tools like Composer, npm, or RubyGems to manage their software dependencies, and security vulnerabilities appearing in a package you depend on but aren't paying any attention to is one of the easiest ways to get caught out. Ensure you keep your dependencies up to date, and use tools like Gemnasium to get automatic notifications when a vulnerability is announced in one of your components. 02. Watch out for SQL injection SQL injection attacks are when an attacker uses a web form field or URL parameter to gain access to or manipulate your database. When you use standard Transact SQL it is easy to unknowingly insert rogue code into your query that could be used to change tables, get information and delete data. You can easily prevent this by always using parameterised queries, most web languages have this feature and it is easy to implement. Consider this query: If an attacker changed the URL parameter to pass in ' or '1'='1 this will cause the query to look like this: Since '1' is equal to '1' this will allow the attacker to add an additional query to the end of the SQL statement which will also be executed. You could fix this query by explicitly parameterising it. For example, if you're using MySQLi in PHP this should become: 03. Protect against XSS attacks Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks inject malicious JavaScript into your pages, which then runs in the browsers of your users, and can change page content, or steal information to send back to the attacker. For example, if you show comments on a page without validation, then an attacker might submit comments containing script tags and JavaScript, which could run in every other user's browser and steal their login cookie, allowing the attack to take control of the account of every user who viewed the comment. You need to ensure that users cannot inject active JavaScript content into your pages. This is a particular concern in modern web applications, where pages are now built primarily from user content, and which in many cases generate HTML that's then also interpreted by front-end frameworks like Angular and Ember. These frameworks provide many XSS protections, but mixing server and client rendering creates new and more complicated attack avenues too: not only is injecting JavaScript into the HTML effective, but you can also inject content that will run code by inserting Angular directives, or using Ember helpers. The key here is to focus on how your user-generated content could escape the bounds you expect and be interpreted by the browser as something other that what you intended. This is similar to defending against SQL injection. When dynamically generating HTML, use functions that explicitly make the changes you're looking for (e.g. use element.setAttribute and element.textContent, which will be automatically escaped by the browser, rather than setting element.innerHTML by hand), or use functions in your templating tool that automatically do appropriate escaping, rather than concatenating strings or setting raw HTML content. Another powerful tool in the XSS defender's toolbox is Content Security Policy (CSP). CSP is a header your server can return which tells the browser to limit how and what JavaScript is executed in the page, for example to disallow running of any scripts not hosted on your domain, disallow inline JavaScript, or disable eval(). Mozilla has an excellent guide with some example configurations. This makes it harder for an attacker's scripts to work, even if they can get them into your page. 04. Beware of error messages Be careful with how much information you give away in your error messages. Provide only minimal errors to your users, to ensure they don't leak secrets present on your server (e.g. API keys or database passwords). Don't provide full exception details either, as these can make complex attacks like SQL injection far easier. Keep detailed errors in your server logs, and show users only the information they need. 05. Validate on both sides Validation should always be done both on the browser and server side. The browser can catch simple failures like mandatory fields that are empty and when you enter text into a numbers only field. These can however be bypassed, and you should make sure you check for these validation and deeper validation server side as failing to do so could lead to malicious code or scripting code being inserted into the database or could cause undesirable results in your website. 06. Check your passwords Everyone knows they should use complex passwords, but that doesn’t mean they always do. It is crucial to use strong passwords to your server and website admin area, but equally also important to insist on good password practices for your users to protect the security of their accounts. As much as users may not like it, enforcing password requirements such as a minimum of around eight characters, including an uppercase letter and number will help to protect their information in the long run. Passwords should always be stored as encrypted values, preferably using a one way hashing algorithm such as SHA. Using this method means when you are authenticating users you are only ever comparing encrypted values. For extra website security it is a good idea to salt the passwords, using a new salt per password. In the event of someone hacking in and stealing your passwords, using hashed passwords could help damage limitation, as decrypting them is not possible. The best someone can do is a dictionary attack or brute force attack, essentially guessing every combination until it finds a match. When using salted passwords, the process of cracking a large number of passwords is even slower as every guess has to be hashed separately for every salt + password which is computationally very expensive. Thankfully, many CMSes provide user management out of the box with a lot of these website security features built in, although some configuration or extra modules might be required to use salted passwords (pre Drupal 7) or to set the minimum password strength. If you are using .NET then it's worth using membership providers as they are very configurable, provide inbuilt website security and include readymade controls for login and password reset. 07. Avoid file uploads Allowing users to upload files to your website can be a big website security risk, even if it’s simply to change their avatar. The risk is that any file uploaded, however innocent it may look, could contain a script that when executed on your server, completely opens up your website. If you have a file upload form then you need to treat all files with great suspicion. If you are allowing users to upload images, you cannot rely on the file extension or the mime type to verify that the file is an image as these can easily be faked. Even opening the file and reading the header, or using functions to check the image size are not foolproof. Most images formats allow storing a comment section that could contain PHP code that could be executed by the server. So what can you do to prevent this? Ultimately you want to stop users from being able to execute any file they upload. By default web servers won't attempt to execute files with image extensions, but don't rely solely on checking the file extension as a file with the name image.jpg.php has been known to get through. Some options are to rename the file on upload to ensure the correct file extension, or to change the file permissions, for example, chmod 0666 so it can't be executed. If using *nix, you could create a .htaccess file (see below) that will only allow access to set files preventing the double extension attack mentioned earlier. Ultimately, the recommended solution is to prevent direct access to uploaded files altogether. This way, any files uploaded to your website are stored in a folder outside of the webroot or in the database as a blob. If your files are not directly accessible you will need to create a script to fetch the files from the private folder (or an HTTP handler in .NET) and deliver them to the browser. Image tags support an src attribute that is not a direct URL to an image, so your src attribute can point to your file delivery script providing you set the correct content type in the HTTP header. For example: Most hosting providers deal with the server configuration for you, but if you are hosting your website on your own server then there are few things you will want to check. Ensure you have a firewall setup, and are blocking all non essential ports. If possible setting up a DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) only allowing access to port 80 and 443 from the outside world. Although this might not be possible if you don't have access to your server from an internal network as you would need to open up ports to allow uploading files and to remotely log in to your server over SSH or RDP. If you are allowing files to be uploaded from the Internet only use secure transport methods to your server such as SFTP or SSH. If possible have your database running on a different server to that of your web server. Doing this means the database server cannot be accessed directly from the outside world, only your web server can access it, minimising the risk of your data being exposed. Finally, don't forget about restricting physical access to your server. 08. Use HTTPS HTTPS is a protocol used to provide security over the Internet. HTTPS guarantees that users are talking to the server they expect, and that nobody else can intercept or change the content they're seeing in transit. If you have anything that your users might want private, it's highly advisable to use only HTTPS to deliver it. That of course means credit card and login pages (and the URLs they submit to) but typically far more of your site too. A login form will often set a cookie for example, which is sent with every other request to your site that a logged-in user makes, and is used to authenticate those requests. An attacker stealing this would be able to perfectly imitate a user and take over their login session. To defeat these kind of attacks, you almost always want to use HTTPS for your entire site. That's no longer as tricky or expensive as it once was. Let's Encrypt provides totally free and automated certificates, which you'll need to enable HTTPS, and there are existing community tools available for a wide range of common platforms and frameworks to automatically set this up for you. Notably Google have announced that they will boost you up in the search rankings if you use HTTPS, giving this an SEO benefit too. Insecure HTTP is on its way out, and now's the time to upgrade. Already using HTTPS everywhere? Go further and look at setting up HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), an easy header you can add to your server responses to disallow insecure HTTP for your entire domain. 09. Get website security tools Once you think you have done all you can then it's time to test your website security. The most effective way of doing this is via the use of some website security tools, often referred to as penetration testing or pen testing for short. There are many commercial and free products to assist you with this. They work on a similar basis to scripts hackers in that they test all know exploits and attempt to compromise your site using some of the previous mentioned methods such as SQL Injection. Some free tools that are worth looking at: Netsparker (Free community edition and trial version available). Good for testing SQL injection and XSS OpenVAS Claims to be the most advanced open source security scanner. Good for testing known vulnerabilities, currently scans over 25,000. But it can be difficult to setup and requires a OpenVAS server to be installed which only runs on *nix. OpenVAS is fork of a Nessus before it became a closed-source commercial product. SecurityHeaders.io (free online check). A tool to quickly report which security headers mentioned above (such as CSP and HSTS) a domain has enabled and correctly configured. Xenotix XSS Exploit Framework A tool from OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) that includes a huge selection of XSS attack examples, which you can run to quickly confirm whether your site's inputs are vulnerable in Chrome, Firefox and IE. The results from automated tests can be daunting, as they present a wealth of potential issues. The important thing is to focus on the critical issues first. Each issue reported normally comes with a good explanation of the potential vulnerability. You will probably find that some of the medium/low issues aren't a concern for your site. There are some further steps you can take to manually try to compromise your site by altering POST/GET values. A debugging proxy can assist you here as it allows you to intercept the values of an HTTP request between your browser and the server. A popular freeware application called Fiddler is a good starting point. So what should you be trying to alter on the request? If you have pages which should only be visible to a logged in user then try changing URL parameters such as user id, or cookie values in an attempt to view details of another user. Another area worth testing are forms, changing the POST values to attempt to submit code to perform XSS or uploading a server side script. Related articles: How to make it in the web design industry 18 great examples of WordPress websites The 10 best HTML5 template designs View the full article

Google, Microsoft, security researchers and hacking groups have lined up to protest the bill, which would criminalize unauthorized computer access. View the full article

It's almost 30 years since Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira was released in Japan on 16 July 1988. Otomo's epic animated tale of teenage biker gangs and rampant genetic mutations in post-apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo took another three years to make it to the West, but once it arrived it quickly became a cult hit and is largely responsible for bringing the word 'manga' to Western vocabularies. How to colour your manga art like a pro Akira's notable for its insanely smooth and detailed hand-drawn animation, giving it an almost CG look years before actual CG animation became the norm. And while talk of a live action remake of Akira keeps cropping up, so far it's yet to materialise. So for now we'll just have to make do with Awaken Akira, an amazing CG tribute created by a couple of dedicated Akira fans, Ash Thorp and Zaoeyo (XiaoLin Zeng). Awaken Akira only lasts a minute – and that's including the credits – but it's a glorious taster of a dream Akira remake that we'd love to see in full. It took Thorp and Zaoeyo a year to make, fitting in work on it between other commitments, and demonstrates a similar attention to detail to that which you'll see in the original animated film. Tetsuo! Awaken Akira comes across like a teaser trailer or taster reel; rather than replicate action from the film, it instead recreates a selection of key shots from the film in CG, focusing on locations and items rather than the characters. It does an incredible job of conjuring up the flavour and atmosphere of Otomo's iconic original, and the enterprise is lent further impact with a score by Pilotpriest that echoes the original soundtrack superbly. If you're keen to see how Thorp and Zaoeyo did it, they've thoughtfully collected a number of their processes into a YouTube playlist, showcasing and explaining their techniques over the course of 26 in-depth videos. Kaneda! The sheer amount of work that's gone into creating this minute of video gives you a whole new appreciation of the effort that Katsuhiro Otomo and his team must have put into animating the original film. It's a beautiful love letter to an animated classic, and even if it's all over just a little too quickly, it's just the incentive to dig out your DVD or Blu-Ray and watch the original again. Enjoy! How to draw manga characters The 27 greatest animated music videos 6 manga artists to watch out for View the full article

Researchers found a critical remote code execution vulnerability afflicting two Schneider Electric products that could give attackers to disrupt or shut down plant operations. View the full article

We've all become used to having decent type online these days thanks to web fonts, but if you're a web designer without a background in typography, you might be unaware of some of the lesser-known features of your fonts that can really help bring your website layout to life. Better web typography in 13 simple steps Now, though, there's a free tool online that makes it easy to unlock your fonts' full potential. It's called Wakamai Fondue and it's designed to answer the question, 'What can my font do?' Geddit? It's the work of Dutch developer Roel Nieskens, and it's incredibly simple to use. Simply go to the the Wakamai Fondue site, drag a font onto its big circle (or just click the circle to upload a font instead), and it'll tell you all about the font's features that you probably didn't know about. So, if your favourite font has a whole load of extra glyphs, ornaments and ligatures that you weren't aware of, this is the perfect way to find out about them. And more than that, Wakamai Fondue helps you use all these features online. How well do you really know your fonts? As well as a summary of the font's details, its features and character set, Wakamai Fondue also provides you with all the CSS you'll need to take advantage of your font's features in your web projects. Simply download the auto-generated stylesheet and you'll be able to unlock a load of layout features that you might not have realised existed. Wakamai Fondue reveals your fonts' hidden features and gives you the CSS to use them It's the perfect way to help pump up your web designs with extra print design flair, and used wisely, these extra features will make your pages not only easier on the eye, but more readable, too. Combine your newly found font features with the wisdom in these typography tutorials and you'll soon be able to take your web layouts to the next level. Related articles: 5 web typography trends to look out for The rules of responsive web typography 4 top typography tools for web designers View the full article

There's no denying Debbie Millman is a big name in the branding world. She served as president of Sterling Brands for 20 years, working on major household names like Burger King and Häagen-Dazs, she also co-founded the world's first graduate branding course. However, in her talk at D&AD Festival, she said that working in the branding industry made her feel like her "soul was withering away". We caught up with her afterwards to find out what made her feel this way – and the shake-up in the industry that means she's much more optimistic for the future. Millman helped launched the world's first graduate branding course "I wouldn't say it was a negative experience, it was just a complicated experience because it was all very commercial and I'm also an artist," Millman explains. "I felt the artist in me was dying.” When we ask if she thinks the situation has changed or improved, she mentions a new branding trend that she's excited about, and which is less to do with profit margins and more to do with positive change. Branding has become democratised... It’s something people can use to create symbols to signify change and movements and options Debbie Millman “Branding has become democratised,” she smiles. “I believe that branding is no longer relegated to the consultants and the marketers. It’s something that people can use to create symbols to signify change and movements and options.” While branding has always been created and controlled by professionals, now regular people have started taking back control and adopting it for their own – non-commercial – causes. A pivotal moment was the terrorist attacks in Paris. Artist Jean Julien created a pictorial tribute ‘Peace for Paris’, which combined the Eiffel Tower and the peace symbol. He shared it on Instagram with the accompanying hashtag #jesuisparis, it gained momentum and became almost the official symbol of the attacks, with thousands of others sharing it in solidarity. The repost on Instagram’s official feed gained over 1.5 million Likes. Jean Jullien's Peace for Paris became a symbol of solidarity with the victims of the attacks Other terrorist attacks saw similar behaviour, and then came Black Lives Matter, Time’s Up and #MeToo. “What I consider to be one of the biggest and most important brands of our time was created right after the election and came to global prominence by March 2017, which was the pink pussy hat,” says Millman. “You know: it’s a colour and a shape – all the tangible, tactical requirements of a great brand.” A brand called you There's another side of branding that has been on the rise recently: the idea of a 'personal brand'. Millman herself offers a course on CreativeLive entitled A Brand Called You – but it's not quite what it seems. “It’s called a Brand Called You with a bit of a nod and a wink. I have very, very strong feelings about people as brands," she says. "Brands are manufactured meaning. We create a mark to symbolise something else. It’s created, it’s manufactured, it’s constructed. People, I believe, shouldn’t aspire to be brands, because otherwise you’re manufacturing a personality and a persona.” To position yourself as a brand is to eliminate the richness and the character of what it means to be human Debbie Millman While launching a brand to represent your style is fine (a range of dishware, for example), when designers take that one step further and become the brand themselves, with brand attributes they must adhere to, is where things get dangerous, says Millman. Somewhere along the line, the designer will invariably end up doing something off-brand, and it will all fall apart. “There are aspects of branding that can help you create a broader dialogue with the public so they might understand your point of view or your style," Millman explains. "But to position yourself as a brand is to eliminate the richness and the character of what it means to be human.” Millman spoke at 2018's D&AD Festival about her complicated relationship with branding Rather than suggesting its students become a ‘brand’, Millman's course aims to teach confidence and how to network, so that students can position themselves where they want to be within the marketplace and have as meaningful a job as possible. Millman noticed that while students are taught a lot of useful processes and theories – typography, kerning, colour theory, layout and so on – there’s not a lot on how to get a job or how to talk about your work and present ideas. “I believe that who you are and what you believe is as important as your portfolio,” she says. Tomorrow's branding trends Millman's CreativeLive course is an extension of the class she teaches at the School of Visual Arts in NYC; part of the branding programme she launched in 2009 with Steven Heller and still a big part of her life. While branding may have been a cynical place when Millman was working in that sphere, the attitudes of her students today are a cause for optimism. “It’s almost uncanny how consistent the students are now about wanting to make things to help improve the world, and it’s really really exciting,” she smiles. “As I see the new generation coming up through the ranks, I’m very very optimistic that we’re in good hands. That we have people who will be the leaders of tomorrow who are really really clear about their priorities and doing things and making things and contributing things that make this planet better as opposed to worse. There’s still obviously a need to make money, but it’s far less selfishly capitalistic than it once was.” More from D&AD 2018: How to create amazing infographics How to get to the top spot of a global creative agency Video exclusive: How to break the rules on Instagram View the full article

Adding in some convincing characters has always been the best way to make any 3D art scene come to life. Architectural visualisation especially can really benefit from adding crowds of people to a walkthrough or still in order to help sell a design. Unfortunately, up until recently, the disciplines for creating a convincing 3D scene and rigging human characters have been quite difficult, especially when crowds or a street scene are involved. Then when it comes to animating, making sure the characters do not bump into each other can be yet another chore, especially when the 3D software does not have any bespoke crowd or character tools. Buy Anima 3 here Luckily, the crowd animation software Anima from AXYZ Design has been through a rapid upgrade path over the past couple of years. And with Anima 3, the team have added more refinements and improvements rather than simply reinventing the wheel. Populate your 3D scene with people in a couple of clicks with Anima 3 Anima removes most of the headache of adding people to existing 3D scenes. The main workflow of Anima is unchanged: load in a model of a scene into Anima 3, and then draw paths of where the people (or actors) are to go. The parameters of the path, such as width and directions, are easily adjusted. Anima can then populate them with a user-defined number of actors, which can be adjusted as and when required. Anima has great granular control with direction, with speed and type of walk cycle all adjusted on each individual actor by selecting them in the viewport. Anima 3’s sophisticated AI converts an actor’s walk cycle to make sure no characters walk into each other on the fly It is really satisfying to create a populated scene in a couple of clicks, using traffic lights to manage road crossings alongside seating animations to create a sophisticated population – for anything from a street scene to the crowd in a sports stadium. Things get even better when Anima 3’s sophisticated AI converts an actor’s walk cycle to make sure no characters walk into each other on the fly. Each actor can also be posed and duplicated to make new actors in the editing mode window, and turned from a standing to a running or sitting actor using the Motion Clips Library or from a predefined list in the main scene view. Unreal Engine 4 support Anima 3 supports Unreal Engine through a bespoke plugin alongside Cinema 4D and 3ds Max The primary change in version 3 is Anima stepping out from a perceived focus on architectural visualisation, allowing the software to become the basis of many character requirements across a range of disciplines. The big clue to this addition is Unreal Engine 4 support, which allows Anima 3 to integrate with the game engine and add actors to Unreal levels without having to animate them in Unreal itself. This is great news for archviz specialists who are looking to make the move to real-time visualisation and potentially VR, as one Anima project can now work with 3ds Max, Cinema 4D and now Unreal Engine, creating efficiencies for visualisations across a range of different formats. While Anima does export its characters in a wide range of formats, the plugin integration is still the best way to go in terms of raw performance and ease of use. Anima does a good job of suiting every artist, from those who need to populate either a still or animation with people quickly, to those who really want to dive deep into the animations and character modifications. To integrate Anima into studio pipelines and other applications, an API toolset is available as well. New PBR textures on the actors within Anima 3 work great with first and third- party render solutions Anima 3 feels a lot more refined than the previous version, although the UI still takes a bit of getting used to. All of the major controls are intuitive, with responsiveness and viewport speed much improved. Adding paths and tools such as escalators is much easier than before, and snapping elements to one another to create complex systems of integration is much more logical and intuitive. All the actor models when exported use PBR shading, making it easier than ever before to work with a variety of render engines and maintain the same look. The character models do look excellent and the motion cycles have also been refined. And if the models that come with Anima are not enough, there is a large online library that can be accessed and purchased directly from within Anima 3. AXYZ Design’s Metropoly characters can also be purchased and imported into Anima 3. For new users, Anima 3 is still a bargain for anyone wanting sophisticated characters within their scene, and there's a free upgrade for any user whose licence-free update period is still active. Buy Anima 3 here Also read: 5 pieces of killer hardware every 3D artist will crave This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 232; subscribe here. View the full article

Directors and film experts know how to make the most difficult shots look effortless. Don't let that fool you, it takes a lot of know-how to capture the perfect shot. You can learn how to make the most of your resources by studying the Videography Bootcamp, on sale now for just $39 (approx. £29). When you get your hands on the Videography Bootcamp, you'll have access to the tips and tricks industry experts took years to learn. There are lessons here for every level of filmmaker. You'll learn how to make the most of your DSLR camera, how to utilise tools like drones and green screens, cinematographic tricks, and how to film like a pro. Work your way through over 33 hours of content, spread over eight professionally-taught courses and you'll see your work improve right in front of your eyes. You can get the Videography Bootcamp on sale now for just $39 (approx. £29). That's a savings of 97 per cent off the retail price for a course packed with must-have filmmaking knowledge, so grab this deal today! View the full article

Great design is (rarely) created in isolation. Like it or not, taking criticism from others is a big part of a designer's life – whether it's coming from your boss, your clients, or your peers. However, with the right attitude, this feedback can help you hone your craft and improve your work, and your design portfolio. Here are some top tips for using criticism as fuel for your creative process. 
01. Get opinions early Us creatives can be pretty delicate when it comes to our work and ideas. If we're honest with ourselves, most of the time when we let others in on our latest pet project we're hoping to be showered with praise, dubbed a 'genius' and carried off into creative superstardom on a wave of positivity. This need for positive reinforcement can all too often cause us to lock ourselves away in our studios, polishing and polishing our ideas until we feel ready to unleash them onto the world. This tendency can, however, set us up for a fall. If you've spent weeks polishing an idea in secret, you're in for shock if someone you respect isn't as impressed by the idea as you are when you finally stump for the big reveal. By actively seeking an outside perspective soon after ideas emerge – casting our 'darlings' into the cold light of day early on – we can save ourselves a lot of time and pain later, and this can help soften the blow when we realise we've been polishing a turd. As much as we might, deep down, want to impress with our ideas, we should remember we can actually develop our thinking rapidly and radically with a few simple conversations. 02. Listen hard It's easy to go into defensive mode when we open up our ideas to the scrutiny of others. When feedback starts flying at you, there's a natural creative reaction to put your mind into overdrive with rebuttals that will keep the concept alive. But by letting your mind think up a response, you're not really allowing it to listen. There's little use in asking for input, if you're not going to take it in. Instead of priming yourself for debate, really listen to what is being said without thinking about what that means for you or the idea – you can mull that over later. 03. Remember it's not personal Just because someone doesn't like your idea, doesn't make you a failure. In fact, most successful innovators came up with a lot of 'wrong' ideas before they hit on the game-changer. The trick is to not to get too down about negative feedback, and rather use it as a catalyst to push yourself and your ideas further. 04. Don't take an opinion as gospel An opinion on your work is just that: an opinion. While you should be as open as possible to the feedback you're getting, you don't have to take it as the truth when it comes to developing your work later. It's helpful to take what you hear with a creative pinch of salt. See the input as research rather than an instruction. On reflection, you'll likely find some of the feedback useful and some that takes you in a direction you don't want to go in. This is your work: listen hard to the feedback and decide what makes sense to you. 05. Adjust and repeat The real power of actively seeking feedback is that it gives you a chance to reflect and course-correct before it gets too late. Each phase of listening to others should be followed by a phase of reflection and recalibration. This is your opportunity to push your ideas further. 
When you've incorporated the valuable feedback, there's only one thing left to do. Go and get more feedback, and repeat the whole process again! These tips were originally part of a Modual student workshop run by Fred Deakin. Related content: How to power up your skills as a freelancer Download the best free fonts The ultimate guide to logo design View the full article

Love them or hate them, design trends are an international phenomenon that can spread incredibly quickly, and can be hugely influential on style and creative practice across the board. Whether you choose to follow them or avoid them is up to you. Some are small, and relatively short-lived; others evolve into major global design movements that span many disciplines. Some of the biggest design movements of the 20th century, lasted years or even decades; others are still relevant to this day. Global design movements Significant design movements of this millennium so far include embracing failure; striving for authenticity; paring things back to basics; the DIY 'hacker' economy; the blend between physical and digital worlds; and the rise of experience culture. Of course, some of these have become design trend buzzwords and designers are all-too-often jumping on the bandwagon without fully understanding their significance, or applying them to their own unique practice. Read on for our essential guide to the biggest design trends of the moment. We will continue to add to this post with up-to-date examples. 01. Graphic design trends 02. Logo design trends 03. Image and illustration trends 04. Design industry trends View the full article

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Top digital illustrator Justin Maller has recently become chief creative officer of art community DeviantArt. This new role doesn't just mean a return to his roots – Maller started his art career at DeviantArt – but also involves a geographical uprooting, as he's moved from New York to Los Angeles. Read on to discover why this new role appealed, and how Maller plans to balance it around other projects. How did you new role come about? I’ve been a part of the DeviantArt community since 2001 – it’s where I got my start as an artist. I was actually one of the earliest volunteer staff members, picking daily features and whatnot. I’ve maintained a great relationship with the site and its admins over the years, particularly with Angelo, the CEO. He broached the idea of me taking the role prior to us going on a trip last year, and after a few long conversations, I started to see the fit. What will your new role involve? I’ll be working with the in-house and Tel Aviv studios, as well as across product and marketing to develop new tools for the community and then share them with the broader world. I’ll also be working on offering more to artists, and ensuring that everything is done with artistic credibility. There’ll be a lot of strategy development that goes in to all that, of course. I think the biggest challenge is going to be executing all of this across such long timelines when I'm used to operating in a very nimble and immediate environment. Justin Maller's apparel illustration for Jordan/Nike How will you balance your new job with other projects? I’ll take some jobs here and there to maintain my standing as a working artist and the relationships I’ve developed, but it will be a much smaller part of my day to day. I hope to make a great deal more personal work, and DeviantArt is very encouraging about that! How do you think you'll adjust to life in LA? I'll miss the hell out of NYC. The friends I made there are like family to me. Leaving them and the life I built in NYC over eight years is really hard. But I’ve done it before, moving from Melbourne, so I’m sure I’ll adjust again. I don't think it'll affect any projects, hopefully I'll just be able to relax more in the open space and free my mind to make some cool new stuff. Is it important to be open with your fans? To an extent, yeah. I don’t bring a lot of personal stuff to my social media. However I think people got used to seeing a certain volume of production of art, and due to personal circumstances I was way below my usual levels in 2017. I posted on Twitter that I've been having some personal issues because I wanted to have a little bit of frank discourse and remind everyone that I am still a human being, and their Goku wallpaper might have to wait. Any tips for keeping on top of projects? Flail frantically at them in a frenetic and disorganised fashion until you’re exhausted. Then take a nap. This article is featured in issue 279 of Computer Arts, the world's best-selling design magazine. Buy issue 279 now or subscribe. Related articles: How to start your digital art journey 5 ways to improve your digital art skills DeviantArt gets bought by Wix View the full article

Some digital content creation applications have the ability to add crowds of people into a scene, but most however do not. This is where Anima by AXYZ Design comes in, as it is an excellent tool for adding crowds to both animation and still 3D art projects for software that does not have native crowd support. Anima functions as a standalone application with plugins that allow the importing of Anima files into Cinema 4D, 3D Studio Max and now Unity. The fact that Anima has a 3ds Max plugin, which is an application that does have its own crowd creation tools, indicates that Anima actually offers more than potential first-party software. So what can Anima do? Well, in a nutshell, Anima makes complex crowd creation quick and easy, which makes it a great, worthwhile product. Anima has a free trial version which lets artists play with the basics before committing Mike Griggs Anima comes with a library of character (actor) models that are both animated and for stills use, and more can be bought through the Anima application itself. Anima also has a sophisticated import system which, when coupled with the edit mode, allows the adjustment of any actor within Anima itself, including on motion cycles and poses. Anima supports seated groups as well, and motion paths can be adapted on the fly for most purposes. The crowd tools within Anima enable an artist to place either random or specific actors into a scene to follow paths and go up stairs, ramps and escalators. Stop lights and object avoidance can also be added with a simple toolset. Anima supports OBJ import for scenes, and multiple scenes can be worked on and imported within the Anima project structure to create hugely complex patterns of interaction quickly and easily. Anima has a free trial version which lets artists play with the basics before committing to this excellent software, which can be both a timesaver and a great way to enhance existing scenes. Find out more about the software and download the trial here. 01. Make a scene for Anima For complex scenes, it's best to start by making a low-polygon version Anima imports scene meshes from other applications using the OBJ format. If the scene is complex, it is best to make a low-polygon version of the scene which can be imported into Anima; the original scene model, if imported, could slow Anima down and make it harder to review animations. When creating the scene and importing into Anima, make sure that the units match and that any export elements such as model flipping are consistent. 02. Create a simple path One project file can contain multiple scene models Once the correct model is loaded into the background, paths can then be added to the scene. Anima works with a project paradigm, so one project file can contain multiple scene models within it. Paths are drawn just as they are in most applications, and Anima snaps the path to the imported model’s geometry. The width of the path can be adjusted, either at points on the path or along its whole width. 03. Add people to a path It's time to populate the scene When the path is in place, use the tools under Path Properties to add either a random selection of people to the path, or drag a selection of people models (actors) to the Crowd box in the Properties palette. Once all the parameters for speed, orientation and actor interaction have been defined, simply click on the Generate tab to populate the path with actors. Now press the play button to see them animate. 04. Modify actors Actors are easy to customise Actor models can be modified either with simple changes within the Properties palette such as colour variation, walking speed or the loading in of a new motion style. If the Edit tool is selected with an actor selected in the Library palettes, the model can have its pose and motion cycle edited along with the adaption or addition of extra textures for clothing. Any change to the actor is instantly propagated back to the Anima scene. 05. Additional movement features Stairs pose no problem for Anima Anima has only a few tool types, but each of these have been designed to allow a huge variety of different types of bespoke crowds. Seated actors can be easily added with a couple of clicks. While the Anima path tool copes easily with stair geometry, there is a dedicated tool within Anima to create escalators through which a path can run. Traffic lights and the Avoid tool are a great way to make sure that actors interact convincingly within the scene. 06. Use the Anima plugin Scenes can be imported directly without having to export a file 3D Studio Max, Cinema 4D and now Unity all have plugins for Anima, which allow the direct importing of a scene without having to export a file. Using the plugin offers a range of benefits: first of all, any change in the Anima scene can be reloaded without having to re-export. Also, the Anima plugin has a range of options to allow smooth playback in the host application, such as swapping out the actors for proxy geometry on the fly. This article was originally published in issue 232 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 232 here or subscribe to 3D World here. Related articles: How to model concept art in Cinema 4D How to sculpt in Cinema 4D How to create cartoon characters in Cinema 4D View the full article

Instagram has been around for a while now, but recently – since the launch of Instagram Stories, in particular – the medium has really taken off as a way for freelance creatives and brands to supplement their design portfolio and build their audience. Designers everywhere are getting experimental with their feed, and new uses are being discovered almost daily – for more on this, see our designer's guide to Instagram Stories or take a look at our article on how to make money on Instagram as a creative. One creative whose Instagram account has attracted global media attention is Pablo Rochat, an art director and designer, and former director of Creative Lab at Tinder. At the recent D&AD Festival, Rochat's Lo-Fi High-Fun talk explored how to create playful and humorous social content, and how he uses Instagram to generate positive attention for brands and raise a smile in his followers. In this exclusive interview filmed at the festival, Instagram creative lead Kay Hsu asks Rochat about his creative process, from his limitless quest to create for new formats to how he works within the constraints of each platform. Read more: How to use Instagram as a digital sketchbook 20 illustrators to follow on Instagram 10 social media tricks you didn't know about View the full article

Here's a story that will make you smile. The team at independent publishing imprint Standards Manual have just launched a Kickstarter for a book and smartphone keyboard dedicated to the original emoji drawings (above). Simply titled Emoji, the book will study the 176 icons designed by Shigetaka Kurita and released by Japanese telecommunications company NTT DoCoMo in 1999. This includes a look at the 12 x 12 pixel grid drawings made by Kurita, which were acquired by New York's Museum of Modern Art in 2016, as well as technical data for each character. One of Kurita's favourite emoji is the heart icon - because it makes people smile Given that emoji have become such a common part of everyday communication, it's fascinating to track the ancestry of useful icons we're now all familiar with. Kurita was just 25 when he was tasked by NTT DoCoMo to create illustrations of faces, objects and places in only four to six weeks, but his creations have gone on to spawn thousands of variants over the years. "Various things influenced emoji," explains Kurita. "One was the pictogram. Pictograms are used as signs in many places in Japan like stations and public places. The second was the Japanese art of Manga, which uses graphics to express emotion. Lastly, it was Japanese magazines. All of these things that organise and communicate information came together to influence the creation of emoji." Backers will be able to download the original 176 emoji Alongside the book, Standards Manual also hopes to launch a keyboard extension, available for download in the App Store and on Google Play, which will allow users to send the original emoji. For people in the Western world, this will be the first time they have access to these groundbreaking icons. "As graphic designers, we have become fascinated by the occurrence of accidental masterpieces," say Jesse Reed and Hamish Smyth from Standards Manual. "Mr. Kurita did not set out to create work that would be acquired by MoMA – he was simply working on the assignment that he was tasked with. But inadvertently, he has created what we consider one of the most influential designs ever created." If this project is making you feel all heart-eyes emoji, be sure to head over to the Kickstarter page and make a pledge. Related articles: 7 must-read books for design students 9 of the best graphic design books to read in 2018 What's wrong with Google's burger emoji? View the full article

JavaScript is an incredibly important coding language that is running behind the scenes in all of your favourite websites and apps. You can learn how to make the most of this powerful framework with the 2018 Essential JavaScript Coding Bundle, on sale now for 96 per cent off the retail price! The 2018 Essential JavaScript Coding Bundle is packed full of lessons that will help you master this coding language. You’ll learn the concepts of web and app development powered by JavaScript as you work your way through the more than 29 hours of professionally taught courses and 900 pages worth of actionable instruction. If you've ever wanted to build your own app or website, or even launch a career as a web developer, this is your chance. You can save a whopping 96 per cent off the retail price when you pick up the 2018 Essential JavaScript Coding Bundle, on sale now. This is a massive saving that you shouldn't miss out on, so grab this deal today! Related articles: Animate SVG with JavaScript 5 of the best JavaScript frameworks Perfect JavaScript in 1,000 projects View the full article

Nowadays, your typical web or desktop app looks sleek and tidy. And that's what the average user expects it to be, too. Think about Things by Cultured Code, Dropbox or Fantastical by Flexibits. What do they all have in common? A nice UI and a consistent and appealing icon set. A good icon set may often be taken for granted, but a bad one is immediately noticeable. Creating an icon set may seem like an easy task, but it poses quite a few challenges. Many designers find it easier to design a unique icon rather than creating an icon set. That's because a set of items presents a different type of rules. All icons need to work together as a team: you need to consider the weight, the strokes and the shapes in order to achieve a consistent result. This process may take a few iterations to get to your desired result, but it's rewarding and interesting. 31 stunning iOS app icon designs Although you can choose whichever vector programme you like, Sketch is a great option. It is primarily designed to be a graphic application for web and mobile designers, UX designers and icon designers, and is becoming a solid alternative to the most common screen design software. The application looks and feels great, is well designed, and easy to learn if you are used to other design tools like Illustrator, Fireworks or Flash. 01. Set up artboard and drawing area Launch Sketch and create an artboard (A). Draw an area with your mouse or Wacom pen on the canvas – you can tweak the dimensions afterwards in the inspector panel on the right-hand side. You can also change the position and the background colour and select the features you prefer. In Sketch, you can work with multiple artboards. This is extremely handy for projects that have different views (for example a UI view and an icon view). 02. Insert a rectangle This icon set is designed to fit a webmail UI, and we will be designing a set of six consistent icons. There will be the plus icon (indicating 'more'), a bin icon (delete), a bell icon (notification), a mail icon (refresh and get emails), a pen icon (write a message) and a back arrow icon (previous email). Let's start with the plus icon. Insert a rectangle (R) and draw a rectangle of 100 x 20px, then modify the radius to 40 so you have rounded corners. 03. Use the Inspector panel Now you can copy and paste the same rectangle with rounded corners, and change its rotation to a 90 degree angle. You can do that through the Inspector panel, under Transform. The icons we are creating are all vector-based, so we can adjust the size later by increasing or decreasing their dimensions. If you are used to working with rulers, adding them in Sketch is simple (View > Canvas > Show Rulers). You can click anywhere on the ruler to add manual guides, and they'll stay visible as long as the rulers are visible. 04. Group the icon in a folder Let's group the first plus icon in a folder – this is how Sketch will display items when you hit Cmd+G. In the Layer panel, you will see a folder with two separate items (rectangles) that are still individually editable. This is handy if you want to tweak the shapes afterwards – for instance, to remove round corners or modify the radius. 05. Start bin icon Let's move on to a more complex icon: the bin. The primary shapes are similar to the plus icon, which is the reason why we started with the plus. Draw a Rectangle (R), roughly 15 x 84px. Copy and paste the same shape and start building the body of the bin. We will have to set the radius to 40 here as well, to keep the set of icons consistent. 06. Build up bin Keep going and use the same shape again for the body of the bin icon, simply by rotating it by 90 degrees. For the handle at the top, keep the same radius, and the angles will come out smooth and tidy. The rectangle at the top of the bin is 65 x 15px – basically 40px shorter in width than the base of the bin, which is 105px. 07. Add final details The bin icon is slightly more detailed than the others. If you want a more simplistic approach, you can leave the surface blank, but instead let's give it a final touch here by drawing 'dents' in the middle, to mimic the surface of a real bin. Part of this icon, as well as the plus icon, can be reused later on in the tutorial. 08. Begin bell icon The second icon of our set is ready; let's move on to the bell icon, which is more complex again. We want the icon to fit into the same surface area on the screen. To ensure this will work, we can draw circles on top of each icon that will function as guides. We can position the circles a distance of 70px from each other. This way when we finish the set, we'll have a nice row of horizontally aligned icons, each of which occupies the same space on the screen. Next page: Create more icons to add to your webmail icon set 09. How to see Union If you are used to Illustrator, this step is going to be fun: draw a simple circle (O) 89 x 89px. Then, go to Borders in the Inspector Panel and select 'Inside Position' with 15 thickness. This value is important – when we were drawing the rectangles for the bin, the shapes were 15px wide. This value needs to be the same in the bell, so the outlines will look consistent. Zoom in and draw a rectangle on top of the circle, then choose Union from the top menu. 10. Make icon bell-shaped You will now have a horseshoe shape that needs to be tweaked and transformed into a bell. In Sketch, select a shape and then press Edit in the toolbar at the top so the anchor points of the shape become visible. You will see a round point in each of the corners. By clicking any of these points and dragging them around, you can change their position. You can drag the anchor points and change the height of the bell too. Pretty handy! 11. Add a notification sign Use the same shape that formed the bottom of the bin lid (about 105px in width) to design the bottom of the bell. The next step is to draw a full circle, cut it in half and centre it. This will represent the clapper inside the bell – it's just a tiny detail, but useful in making the icon recognisable. You can also add a notification sign at the top by using a full circle filled with red. The notification icon will alert the user to a new message or any other related activity. 12. Draw mail icon The mail icon is an interesting one. Although it may seem more complex than the others, it is actually one of the easiest. Draw a rectangle (R) sized 110 x 110px. The corner radius will be only 20px in this case – we don't want the rectangle to look too rounded. Copy and paste the shape, and rotate the new one 45 degrees anti-clockwise. Copy and paste the first rectangle again and then intersect the rotated one to give the envelope flap. 13. Combine shapes So far, we have been keeping the shapes separate in the layer list for each of our icons. In Sketch, when you combine two shapes, you can still tweak each shape separately until you press the Flatten button in the Toolbar. When you flatten a shape, Sketch will combine the multiple paths inside the shape into one path. Some people prefer to use flattened shapes, but there is no real need for that here. 14. Make pen icon Let's focus on the last two icons. The pen will look like a rounded pen on a sheet of paper. For this, let's use a rectangle of 30px width and rotate it 45 degrees. To make the top slightly rounded, let's draw another rectangle on top of it, 24 x 24px. We'll put the radius at 5, to make the shape nice and smooth. We can use the same shape we used for the bottom of the bin lid to create a sheet supporting the pen. 15. Create 'previous' icon The last arrow icon can be easily made using the plus icon as a starting point. Use the same thickness as the plus icon to create an arrow pointing towards the left to signify 'previous'. To do that, take exactly the plus icon and rotate it by 45 degrees. Then adjust the width of the sides of the arrow, tweaking each rectangle individually. 16. Flip arrow to make 'next' icon The 'previous' icon could easily be flipped horizontally to also create a potential 'next' icon. The roundness of the arrow is exactly the same as the plus icon. Now you just need to make sure these new icons fit in the guideline circles, like the rest of the set. You now have a full set of six consistent icons to be used in a user interface for a webmail service, but you also have a solid foundation for building other icons that can fit in the same set. You can now extend this icon set or create the same one in different sizes for different purposes. In Sketch, you are dealing with vector shapes so it's easy to adjust the size of each icon. This article was originally published in net magazine. Subscribe here. Related articles: 15 top Sketch plugins Free graphic design software Download the best free fonts View the full article