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Make a huge saving this Amazon Prime Day with this deal that sees a Sony Xperia XZ2 smartphone drop in price from £529 to £399, that's a discount of 25 per cent! This is an amazing saving on a popular phone, and you're able to grab it as long as stocks last this Amazon Prime Day. (Don't forget, if you're not a Prime member you can sign-up for a free 30-day trial to take advantage of this offer.) Amazon Prime Day homepage: see all deals Amazon Prime Day smartphone deals With a regular price of £529, this high-end Sony smartphone is capable of recording 4K HDR Movie clips thanks to its 19MP Motion Eye camera. And with Amazon cutting the price down by 25 per cent to an appetising £399 it's even more tempting than ever. This phone is a popular device so stock aren't going to last forever - you're going to want to pick this up while you can! If you're after a phone that delivers on display and sound, you've come to the right choice. With its 5.0", 18:9 Full HD and HDR display, complete with X-Reality for mobile HDR up-conversion, as well as High-Resolution Audio, it's no surprise that this smartphone has found its audience. And seeing as it's from Sony, you know you're in for a quality smartphone that won't let you down. Not only does it offer a superior performance, but with this Amazon Prime Day discount it's also a cost-effective choice. Don't get caught short, grab yours while you can! Jump straight to Amazon Prime Find more Amazon Prime Day deals on Creative Bloq View the full article

Introducing the best-value Amazon Prime Day deal we’ve seen so far: you can now get Sony's excellent A7 full-frame camera and 28-70mm lens kit for just £719, down from £1,549. That's insanely cheap for a full-frame kit – Amazon has knocked more than half off the price for Prime Day, which is more than we saw the A7 reduced by on Black Friday. (Not a Prime member? Sign-up for a free 30-day trial to take advantage of this offer.) Amazon Prime Day quick links Amazon Prime Day homepage: see all deals Amazon Prime Day camera deals The Sony Alpha A7 (also known as the Sony ILCE7KB) was the company’s first foray into the world of full-frame photography. Inside its compact body the A7 boasts a 24MP sensor that's capable of capturing Full HD videos to 60p. A tilting LCD and high-resolution electronic viewfinder help you compose images and videos with precision, while Fast Hybrid AF and Eye AF are also on the specs list – as is Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity. And as you’d expect, image quality is fantastic. The A7 represents a fantastic (and now ridiculously affordable) entry-point into full-frame photography for anyone who’s been thinking about stepping up to the next level. Jump straight to Amazon Prime Find more Amazon Prime Day deals on Creative Bloq View the full article

There's never been a better time to treat yourself to a brand new mouse – this great Amazon Prime Day deal will bag you a Logitech MX Anywhere 2 AMZ Wireless Bluetooth Mouse with 47% off the usual price. Instead of £52.99, you can get your hands on this fantastic wireless mouse for just £27.99, saving you an irresistible £25 on an essential piece of studio kit. It's just one of an amazing range of Amazon Prime day deals you won't want to miss out on; if you're not a Prime member you can simply sign up for a free 30-day trial to grab this bargain. Amazon Prime Day quick links Amazon Prime Day homepage: see all deals See more Logitech Amazon Prime Day deals If you're in need of a versatile mouse and fancy getting one for almost half price, look no further than Logitech's MX Anywhere 2 AMZ Wireless Bluetooth Mouse. It would normally cost you £54.95, but you can get it right now for just £27.99, saving you 47% – that's £26! And you'll be getting a lot of mouse for your money: the MX Anywhere 2 AMZ is designed for productivity, and it's built to be used anywhere – at home, in the studio or on the go. Its laser tracking sensor makes it ideal for those precision design jobs, and its battery will last up to two months on a full charge, so you can be sure it won't die just as you're running up to a deadline. With its Pico Unifying receiver and Bluetooth Smart wireless technology it's easy to connect it to any computer you like, and as it's Logitech you can be certain of its quality. And at this price you're really not going to want to miss out on it; order now to avoid disappointment! Jump straight to Amazon Prime Find more Amazon Prime Day deals on Creative Bloq View the full article

This unmissable Amazon Prime Deal slashes the price of a Dell XPS laptop by 29 per cent - taking it down from £1,349.99 all the way down to 959.99. That's an amazing discount of £390 on a stunning laptop that was already reasonably priced for its market. At this price stocks aren't going to last forever, so make the most of the Amazon Prime Day deals while they last. (Not a Prime member? Sign-up for a free 30-day trial to take advantage of this offer.) Amazon Prime Day homepage: see all deals Amazon Prime Day laptop deals Normally, if you wanted to pick up Dell's XPS 15.6-inch FHD laptop you'd be expected to fork out £1,349.99. Given that this is a stunning laptop with a top-notch display, going under a thousand pounds is a true bargain that surely won't last for long. At even better value for money than it already was, the Dell XPS 15 boasts a 4K display with multi-touch capabilities. Pair it with a Dell stylus and you've got a portable sketchbook that can make the most of the 15.6-inch screen with UHD definition. That means a lot of pixels with an unparalleled sharpness for images. Dell is famed for its cost-effective products that don't compromise on quality, and the XPS 15.6-inch laptop is no exception. And now at an unbeatably low price, they're sure to find plenty of new homes. Jump straight to Amazon Prime Find more Amazon Prime Day deals on Creative Bloq View the full article

Art fanatics will know that supplies can be pricey, which is why we're excited by this great Amazon Prime Day deal, which knocks 44 per cent off the price of a tin of 120 Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencils. That means Prime members can get 120 colour pencils for £79.98 instead of £143.95, saving a whopping £63.97. There are all sorts of Amazon Prime Day deals on art materials coming in, but demand is high, so make sure you snap them up fast. Don't panic if you're not a Prime member, you can sign-up for a free 30-day trial to get this offer. Amazon Prime Day homepage: see all deals Amazon Prime Day arts and craft deals With a normal retail price of £143.95, these 120 pencils are usually more than a pound each, but with a knock-down price of £79.98, they are now around 60p each – which is a fantastic price for pencils of such high-quality. The blendable pencils are perfect for artists of all ages and abilities. They are water resistant and smudge proof, and the oil-based lead means that the vibrant colour they produce will last for decades. They also come encased in a metal box, meaning they are sure to last a lifetime. This is a massive saving on a highly coveted item for art lovers, so we suggest you get it quickly. If it's pastel pencils you're after, try this deal on Faber-Castell Pitt Pastel Pencils (24 Pastels Pencils) instead. Faber-Castell has also discounted the following products in time for Amazon Prime Day too - you lucky lot. Jump straight to Amazon Prime Find more Amazon Prime Day deals on Creative Bloq View the full article

This spectacular Amazon Prime Day deal slashes 34 per cent off the price of a Microsoft Surface Pro 12.3 inch laptop with a platinum type cover – taking it from £1,129 down to just £749.99. That's an amazing saving on a fast and powerful device that's perfect for sketching – but you can only grab this deal during Amazon Prime Day. With Amazon Prime Day deals attracting a lot of attention, you'll need to move fast if you want to snap up this bargain. (Not a Prime member? Sign-up for a free 30-day trial to take advantage of this offer.) Amazon Prime Day homepage: see all deals Amazon Prime Day laptop deals Easy on the eyes and straightforward to use, Microsoft's Surface Pro is tailored towards digital drawing, with 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity. Normally priced at well over £1,000, this hybrid device has become more accessible for designers thanks to Amazon cutting the cost down by over a third. If you're looking for a simple-to-use device with bite, you've found the right laptop. Microsoft's Surface runs Windows 10 so you're free to install your Creative Cloud software. From there you can choose to use apps in either standard or Touch Input modes. Compatible with both the Microsoft Surface Dial and the excellent Apple Pencil, the Surface Pro can easily become a versatile digital sketchbook. Its comparatively steep price has been the main barrier to entry for a lot of potential users, but with this Amazon Prime Day discount there's no better time to pick up an amazing device from an industry-leading brand. Jump straight to Amazon Prime Find more Amazon Prime Day deals on Creative Bloq View the full article

As a designer, you ultimately live or die by the quality of your work – but some careful self-branding can do wonders to make you more memorable. Crafting your own identity is often the first step in setting up a design agency, but it can be a useful exercise for freelancers too. Self-branding can add personality to your services, or authority to your work, by positioning you as an expert in your field. As a freelancer, branding yourself can also make you appear bigger and more versatile. If you work in branding, it will also show what you're capable of, and it’s good to practice what you preach. It's not essential by any means, but if you're going to do it, make sure you do it right. Read on to discover four freelance creatives who have nailed their personal branding, and what you can learn from them to create your own brand... 01. Studio Juli-ette As well as her simple typographic logo, Studio Juli-ette's business cards have a more ornate 'J' emblem embossed Sometimes a simple exercise in restrained, skillful typesetting is all you need to develop a distinctive personal brand. One great example is Juliette Kim. Although born in Seoul, South Korea, the founder of Studio Juli-ette has lived globally – including Indonesia, Australia and most recently, the United States. "Multicultural personality has always been one of the biggest characteristics of my work. So I wanted to communicate that in my logo in a subtle way," she says. Studio Juli-ette's logomark is a twist on the English and Korean spellings of her name A subtle typographical twist combines the English spelling of her name with its Korean equivalent – Nahyeon, or 나현. "That’s why I have the little dash in Juli-ette," Kim explains. Studio Juli-ette's wordmark is supplemented by a J-shaped marque that resembles a treble clef. This is embossed onto Kim's business cards, and she has plans to expand the studio's offering in the future by launching a line of products under this more playful sub-brand. 02. Manon Gabriëls Manon Gabriëls chose complementary pastel colors for his business cards Where Juliette Kim chose to combine subtle typography with a cool, neutral shade of cream, Manon Gabriëls opted for a more colorful approach in his personal branding. Keen to convey a sense of fun, the Belgian designer chose complementary pastel colors – including peach, sky blue and lilac – for his business cards. For the logo itself, Gabriëls rearranged the letters of his name into a stylish composition, which combined with chunky, rounded underlines beneath the 'm' and 'n' forms a distinctive logo marque. Using his personal branding, Gabriëls developed a 'portfolio box' to showcase his favorite projects Finally, 'graphic designer' is curved around a path to complete a typographical lock-up with the main marque. "The half circle has become a useful graphic element," adds Gabriëls, who has also used the logo on the cover of his case study booklets, which continue his pastel palette and are contained within a portfolio box. 03. Lindsey Kugler Lindsey Kugler's identity is designed to be "edgy and eye-catching, but also sophisticated and constrained" Personal branding is a great way to practice what you preach in terms of style and approach and show clients what you're capable of. LA-based designer, Lindsey Kugler, developed a cohesive identity system with this in mind. "I wanted something edgy and eye-catching, but also sophisticated and a bit constrained," she explains. "The design is simple but bold, and the straight and diagonal lines have a strength to them, yet they are still traditional in form." Kugler's cohesive personal branding system carries effortlessly across a range of stationery Kugler's minimalist logo is based on her initial, L and K – but rather than simply applying the logo to everything, she treated each piece of stationery as its own canvas, demonstrating how her flexible identity system works in practice across different materials. "When those lines are combined to create the pattern on the back of the letterhead, that's where I was able to bring in that edge and playfulness," Kugler continues. "The black and white palette was an obvious choice because I'm obsessed with all things black-and-white, but I love the rawness it conveys, and the contrast." 04. Joy Li Joy Li's playful and eye-catching range of business cards incorporate her name into various famous quotes Sometimes it takes a little more creativity and conceptual thinking to turn a self-branding exercise into a campaign in its own right. Sydney-based Joy Li is a great example, having created an eye-catching campaign as a third-year student. "I was lucky in that my name lends itself to multiple meanings and contexts, as well as for good copy puns," she smiles. "My purpose and process as a designer is to bring a little bit of ‘joy’ to everything I create, so I looked at meshing my name to create partial insights into my personality and interests." Li's integrated self-promotion campaign goes far beyond business cards, and is built around various 'Joy' puns Li's business cards use the word 'joy' in the context of memorable quotes from authors and artists. "Design trends come and go, so I wanted my identity to be built on a concept rather than a certain aesthetic," she explains. "I wanted something that could be updated, without compromising the core idea." For a typeface, she chose Harbour by Gareth Hague as she was impressed by its blend of modern and medieval lettering influences. "It's sort of contradictory to set such delightful copy amongst moody tones and gothic-style type," she admits. "But I think it’s what makes it more engaging, and a bit unexpected." Once you've nailed your personal branding, it's time to put it into action to wow potential clients and collaborators – and digital print and design company moo.com can help. You’ll find a wealth of fun, affordable, easy-to-use tools for creating premium business cards, postcards and other stationery to really do your brand justice. Related articles: Create better business cards in 5 minutes Project your work onto the global stage 10 steps to go freelance this year 6 ways to build your creative network Nail the art of networking: get more from events 3 tips for crafting stunning print promo View the full article

Picking the right font can be crucial for the success of a design project, whether it's a tagline on a poster or an expanse of long-form copy for a piece of editorial design. Type shapes personality, determines legibility, and achieves impact. When you need to pick the right typeface for a brand, the importance of type is magnified as a few characters need to convey the values and personality of a brand, as well as helping to achieve standout from the competition. So how do you make that all-important choice? There are many factors involved, from the emotional features you need, to the types of application, to the technical, linguistic and logistic requirements. One key step is choosing what class of typeface you need, so read on for our guide to how five distinctive varieties can have an impact on a brand... 01. Traditional serif North's rebrand of Southbank Centre uses a distinctive serif that bridges the gap between authoritative and edgy There's a good reason that serif fonts exude gravitas and class: they have their origins in the inscriptions that were chiselled into stone in Ancient Rome. Used appropriately they can make a brand feel from cultured, sophisticated, and authoritative – and are often used in fashion, academic and culture sectors. North's rebrand of Southbank Centre is bold and confident, designed to act as an all-encompassing 'masthead' brand for the organisation. The previous condensed sans-serif marque was replaced with a modified version of Noe Display. Modern and high-contrast, its sharp, blocky serifs echo the brutalist architecture of the building. It feels authoritative and sophisticated, but still forward-thinking and edgy. Superunion went for a classic serif when five well-established (mostly sans-serif) agency brands were combined The two brands we're looking at here use serifs in very different ways. Second, we have one of the most closely-watched agency rebrands of recent years: when WPP merged The Partners, Brand Union, Lambie-Nairn, Addison and VBAT into a 750-strong mega-agency, everyone was curious to see how the new branding behemoth was to be positioned. The answer was 'Superunion', and the font choice was a crisp, traditional serif – with a playful half-ligature between the 'u' and the 'n' adding character. Given that most of the constituent companies sported sans-serif marques beforehand, the choice clearly marks Superunion as a new entity, but also feels confident, established and timeless, emphasising the team's considerable combined experience rather than wiping the slate clean and choosing something more contemporary. 02. Geometric sans-serif Geometric sans-serifs are everywhere these days... Compared to the ancient origins of their serif counterparts, sans-serif typefaces are a much more recent phenomenon that developed alongside advertising, commercial communication, and the broader Modernist movement in the 19th and 20th centuries. Rather than denoting heritage and sophistication, their smooth, clean lines convey simplicity, purity and functionality. This is particularly true of geometric sans-serifs, whose satisfyingly homogenised proportions are well-suited to digital and technology-led companies keen to communicate values such as innovation and efficiency. Over the past decade, geometric sans-serifs have been at the heart of a relentless drive for minimalism across many different sectors. Pentagram's pared-back rebrand of MasterCard and Google's decision to drop its distinctive serifs are symptomatic of this trend – as is DesignStudio's Airbnb wordmark, although the accompanying Bélo symbol drew most of the attention. Sometimes a brand name lends itself perfectly to a geometric type treatment, Badoo being a case in point In short, geometric sans-serifs are everywhere – and the trend doesn't show much sign of waning. If you're planning to use one in your next branding project, consider whether there's a sound creative reason to do so – is it just the safe option, or is there scope to add a playful flourish? For instance, the above logo for social discovery network Badoo – completed in-house – lends itself perfectly to a geometric sans-serif treatment. Structured around a line of five circles, it emphasises the complementary bowls in the characters of its name beautifully. It feels warm, playful and satisfying where a different company name, set in a similar typeface, could just feel generic and tired. 03. Chunky slab-serif Johnson Banks bucked the sans-serif trend for its Mozilla rebrand, opting for a typewriter-like slab-serif instead Unlike the natural elegance of many traditional serifs, slab serifs tend to have a much blockier, more workmanlike feel that is more reminiscent of clattering typewriters than ornate inscriptions. When used in all-caps at display sizes, they can also evoke the spirit of posters from the American Old West. However, one of the most interesting recent applications of a slab serif in a branding scheme came out of Johnson Banks' extensive open-source creative process for Mozilla – which laid bare the agency's workings on several different potential solutions, and involved the online community in helping to develop them. The fact that coding is often done in 'typewriter-style' fonts is a neat link that helped the final route be chosen, alongside the witty incorporation of the '://' protocol to replace the 'ill' of Mozilla. But crucially, the identity also bucks the overwhelmingly sans-serif route favoured by web and technology firms the world over, giving the not-for-profit a chance to 'own' that particular typographic look and feel. 04. Characterful script Petfinder is a rare example of a brand moving to a cursive font for a rebrand... and is much warmer as a result Many of the world's best cursive logos are made more friendly and approachable thanks to the scrawled look and feel of handwriting – such as Virgin, Kleenex or Kelloggs – while high-end brands such as Harrods or Paul Smith are 'signed' by their founders as a stamp of authenticity. Coca-Cola is in a class of its own. These are all well-established classics, however. Many more recently designed script-style logos have fallen in the wake of the minimalist trend – Pinterest's distinctive scrawling ligatures were replaced by an identikit chunky sans-serif, for instance. This makes it all the more comment-worthy when a modern brand decides to go cursive. A particularly charming example is POSSIBLE's 2016 rebrand of Petfinder, which replaced a slightly jaunty, spindly serif with a smooth, rounded, upright script that's much warmer and more satisfying – although not as satisfying as the first time you spot the dog's face subtly hidden in the centre. 05. Playful stencil DesignStudio's branding for Treatwell puts a contemporary, individual twist on stencilled type There's no two ways about it: stencil fonts can be tough to get right when it comes to branding. In particular contexts – such as combined with faux-graffitied, 'dripping' paint letterforms – they're downright cliched. Used sympathetically and appropriately, however, a more subtle stencilled approach can exude class and style, and give an extra layer of depth compared to a standard serif, for instance. One such example is DesignStudio's branding scheme for beauty brand Treatwell. Part of the brand strategy was to shift the focus from simply 'beauty' into a broader theme of self-expression, confidence and individuality. While the stencil typeface references the traditional look and feel of a beauty brand, its treatment is more contemporary, subtle and unique. When it comes to picking a typeface for a brand, don't be afraid to explore unexpected avenues – it can lead to some strikingly creative solutions. Related articles: 7 best car logos of all time 5 ways to pick the perfect app font Pick the right font for your social campaigns View the full article

It’s no overstatement to say that character design is one of the most exciting, creative and celebrated artistic disciplines. Creative legends H.R. Giger, Phil Tippett and Ray Harryhausen knew it, with their visions for characters inspiring thousands of creative minds and entertaining millions worldwide. So it will come as no surprise that character design is also one of the most difficult creative fields to get into. This is where CGMA’s Character Design Program can help. Designed for those already versed in the fundamentals of drawing and design, CGMA’s new program carefully builds on those core skills to give you head-to-toe training in the art of human and creature character design for the entertainment industries. By the end of the program, you’ll will be ideally placed to make the leap to a character design/concept art position at a film, animation, games or print-based studio. To enroll in the Character Design Program, you’ll need either to have successfully completed CGMA’s Foundation and Design Program or submit a portfolio that demonstrates sufficient core drawing skills and character/animal anatomy knowledge. Providing the best education possible, CGMA students are now able to take advantage of one year extended access to content (note: please bear in mind this new feature is not available retroactively). Let’s take a closer look at what CGMA’s Character Design Program has to offer… Head drawing and Construction with Christian Nacorda Building on the information covered in the initial Analytical Figure Drawing course, this course challenges students to push those skills through the introduction of additional subject matter of the human head. Students will be introduced to its basic structures, underlying muscle groups and how they affect different forms of expression, structuring of different types of hair masses and rendering and, at the end, creating a final well-constructed and fully rendered face. Character Design for Animation with Nate Wragg This course covers reference and breaking your pipeline down into things to consider regarding animation design. Beginning with using shapes as building blocks for building characters, allow your imagination to run wild and push the boundaries of design. The course also discusses exactly what it takes to become a professional designer. Costume Design with Clayton Stillwell Students will discover methods of how to ‘dress’ a figure to best suit the needs of their characters’ personalities. Using costume and props, you’ll be able to give story to your characters and bring them to life. Students will also learn about textures and proper methods of rendering different types of materials in Photoshop. Character design for Production with Nate Wragg This class will focus on taking your character designs through a production pipeline and learning to make your designs functional for animation. You will cover both common and important types of assignments that will be expected of you as a working professional. You will walk out of this class with not only the experience of a real professional setting, but with high quality artwork that you’ll be proud to showcase in your portfolio. Digital Portrait Painting with Melanie Delon This course goes over different color and texture rendering techniques for creating believable human portraits. Special attention is given to facial features drawing on surface structure, skin rendering (i.e. translucency, hue/saturation/value and color temperature, etc.), layered studies, and background/foreground manipulation. It also explores sci-fi portrait subjects as part of the options given to paint through the course. By the end of the course, students should have created one to two fully rendered portraits. Learn how to start a portrait from start to finish beginning with a pencil sketch, then lighting, color scheme, create realistic facial features, and emotion into our compositions for a successful digital portrait painting. Anatomy of Clothing with Ron Lemen In this class, you will deconstruct various materials, from their tensile strength and geometric construction to their surface properties or how they absorb and reflect light. We will work with the armature from the analytical figure drawing class and work on draw through as learned in dynamic sketching class, organising the clothing into simple easy to use forms using the draw through approach. Other concepts we will cover include the laws of folds, the seven different types of folds and how they happen, how movement affects the geometry of the drapery, tension points, abstractions and rhythms, rendering and much more. Be prepared to do a lot of construction and rendering. Storyboarding for Animation with Kevin Reed This is an introduction course where you will learn some techniques for visual storytelling. It will cover methods and exercises to help you generate ideas and learn tips and tricks used in storyboarding. The assignments will help you build a starter portfolio for storyboarding and equip with the basics for creating your own stories. Creature Design for Films and Games with Bobby Rebholz This course will teach you how to design your own creatures by using Earth’s animals as a guideline. Nature is a powerful tool when sketching ideas and Creature Design for Film and Games will show you just how to use real life references in your creations. We will begin with rough and quick sketching to generate ideas and then slowly refine these ideas into a polished portfolio piece. Students will learn how to design creatures using basic forms, how to really see the design and function of the creature, and the importance of anatomy. Character Design for Films and Games with Marco Nelor This course will teach you basic as well as advanced techniques in character creation. Students will explore the essence of a character by developing that character’s attitude and digging deep into what makes the character feel real and grounded. Visual storytelling is key in the video game and cinematic worlds, and students will learn how to portray all aspects of a character in their attire as well as the small details, such as pose, attitude, and flavour. Students will learn how to execute a powerful character from start to finish, with focus on details, lighting, communication, and clarity. Drawing and Rendering Techniques with Michal Kus Drawing & Rendering Techniques for Hardware Design covers the benefits of ideation sketching, perspective, visual language, rendering and presentation techniques, and design intent. Focusing on the fundamentals of drawing and design, student will learn a process to deliver stronger designs using established concept design processes. Focusing on designing for production, students will learn how a concept artist fits into a production pipeline. Subjects include: developing design themes, thumbnails, visual vocabulary, believability applied to literal and fantastical subjects, materials, rendering, lighting, and presentation. Students will design both vehicles and mechs from thumbnail sketches through full concept illustration. Figure Drawing: Anatomy of Style with Patrick Jones Patrick will discuss traditional drawing rendering techniques which he uses to simplify anatomy into basic shapes and gestural line to create a language your memory will use to unlock and develop your personal style of drawing. For more information about registration or employer-sponsored education, including how to get a portfolio review for course placement purposes, get connected with Admissions by phone at +1 1-800-959-0316 or email registration@cgmasteracademy.com. View the full article

The HP ZBook Studio 15 G4 shows how you can take a brilliant workstation laptop (the ZBook Studio 15 G3) and improve on it in almost every way to make an even better product. We say almost every way, as the design hasn't been changed, but since the ZBook Studio range is known for its slim and light designs, that's no bad thing. The HP ZBook Studio 15 G4 remains a brilliant laptop, and we have scoured the internet for the best HP ZBook Studio 15 G4 deals in 2018 so you don't have to. So, if you're looking to buy a HP ZBook Studio 15 G4 (and we don't blame you), then you've come to the right place - simply read on to find the best HP ZBook Studio 15 G4 deals right now. The HP ZBook Studio 15 G4 is the followup to HP's brilliant ZBook G3, and this powerful workstation builds upon its predecessor. It again features a remarkable thin and light design that looks fantastic, but which also holds some mightily powerful components. While the G3 is still a powerful machine, the components it's running on are showing their age in places. However, the G4 has had some excellent hardware revisions, with newer Intel processors (there are a few configurations you can choose from), and improved Nvidia Quadro M1200 discrete graphics. Having a discrete graphics card (rather than a less powerful integrated graphics card) is important if you're going to be using the HP ZBook Studio 15 G4 for graphically-demanding tasks, such as video editing, digital drawing or 3D rendering. The HP ZBook Studio 15 G4 also comes with 32GB of RAM. This is a huge amount for a laptop, but it means the G4 can cope with running multiple tasks and programs at once. If you need a portable laptop that offers loads of power for speeding up your workflow, then this is a great choice. The 15.6-inch screen is also an absolute stunner. Images are crisp and vibrant, and its colour accuracy is pretty great, with 85.7% AdobeRGB. However, it is the 4K resolution that really makes the display pop, and if you're working with 4K video files, this is a very compelling reason to buy the HP ZBook Studio 15 G4. Of course, all this power comes at a price, and the HP ZBook Studio 15 G4 can be an expensive bit of kit. However, we've collected the very best HP ZBook Studio 15 G4 deals from all over the internet on this page, so you can quickly and easily find the best price for this great laptop. Scroll down for more of today's best HP ZBook Studio 15 G4 prices... View the full article

If you've been looking out for a killer deal for the HP ZBook Studio 15 G3, then you're in luck as we've collected the very best deals from around the internet. This stylish mobile workstation performs as good as it looks, making it a brilliant choice for digital creatives. It features powerful components that allow it to run intensive tasks such as 3D modelling and photo editing, and while the HP ZBook Studio 15 G3 was initially sold with a high price tag, there are now plenty of fantastic deals to be had. To make your life easier, we've collected the best HP ZBook Studio 15 G3 deals in 2018 on this page, so you can buy safe in the knowledge that you're getting the best price for this brilliant workstation laptop. The HP ZBook Studio 15 G3 is described by HP as the perfect combination of brains and beauty, and we have to agree. This is a mobile workstation that's packed with powerful components that you'd usually expect to see in a desktop PC, but rather than being big and bulky like so many workstations are, the HP ZBook Studio 15 G3 boasts a thin and light design more akin to premium ultrabooks such as the MacBook Pro and Dell XPS 13. So how thin and light is it? Well, it weighs just under 2kg, and has a thickness of 18mm, making it one of the most svelte workstations available to buy in 2018. If you need a laptop to work on while travelling, then this is a fantastic choice. If you're worried about taking the HP ZBook Studio 15 G3 out and about then fear not, as despite its thin and light design, it also features a rugged rubber material that helps cushion knocks and drops, making it a rather robust laptop as well. Specs-wise this is still a bit of a beast, even a couple of years after it was first launched. So, you get an Intel Xeon E3-1505M v5 processor running at 2.8GHz with Turbo to 3.7GHz, Nvidia Quadro M1000M discrete video card, 32GB of RAM and a 512GB PCIe SSD, which keeps Windows 10 running nice and fast. This brilliantly-engineered laptop shows that it's not just Apple that can make powerful and attractive laptops, as HP has built a fantastic mobile workstation with the HP ZBook Studio 15 G3. Scroll down for more of today's best HP ZBook Studio 15 G3 prices... View the full article

HackerOne’s 2018 Hacker-Powered Security Report showed that the average award for critical vulnerabilities has increased. View the full article

Of all the text editors available, Atom is a favourite amongst designers and developers. Atom is developed by GitHub and was open sourced in early 2014. Since then, this web design tool has grown to have more than 500,000 monthly users. Out of the box Atom is Git-aware, includes Markdown previews, auto-complete and more. It is designed to be hackable to the core. In addition to being open source, Atom is built using web technology: JavaScript, HTML and CSS. This makes Atom's core and extensibility options accessible to a wide range of developers. In this article I'll share ways in which you can extend and customise Atom, from managing packages to adding custom behaviours. Atom is built with JavaScript, HTML and CSS Package ecosystem At the time of writing, over 7,000 packages and more than 2,000 themes had been published for Atom. Atom itself is created by bundling the core app with dozens of packages for each default feature. These packages do things like add Markdown preview support, display your directory's Git status, and control Find and Replace. They can be managed through the Settings view. Atom's Settings view sets it apart because it includes a package manager by default, giving you access to the packages you have installed, as well as the thousands created by the community. You can browse and install these from within Atom. You can open the Settings view by clicking Packages > Settings View > Open in your menu bar or by using the cmd+, keyboard shortcut. Packages Use packages to extend and customise Atom With the Settings view open, you'll find the Packages tab on the left. This will display all the packages you have installed, and their type: Community packages: Packages written by people outside of GitHub's Atom team Core packages: Developed by the Atom team and bundled with Atom Development packages: Packages you have on your machine and use in Atom from local source From the Packages view, you can manage your installed packages by selecting to install/uninstall or disable/enable them. Clicking on a package in this view takes you to the package's available settings (if any) as well as the README that describes the package. If you want to know more, you can click on the link and be taken to the package's repository or issue tracker. Install packages The Install tab in the Settings view connects you to the thousands of packages available for Atom. At the top you'll find featured packages, but you can also use the search bar to find the one you're looking for. Packages are published to Atom using Atom Package Manager (APM), which is included with Atom. You'll find published Atom packages in the Install view, and they can also be found on Atom's website. Just like in the Packages view, clicking on a single package displays the README, so you can see what it does before you install it. It also links to the package's code repository. You can install new packages from the community in this view by clicking the Install button on a listed package. You can then manage packages from the Packages view. Development packages In order to use a package you're developing locally in Atom before you publish it with APM, you can link it to Atom using the APM CLI. For instance, from within the package's directory in Terminal or Bash, use the following command: Linked packages will show up in the Development Packages section in the Packages view. You can see linked packages with this command: Themes in Atom In the Install view, toggle the search bar to Themes to search the available Atom themes. Once you have themes installed, you can manage and set them as the current theme in the Themes view. UI and syntax themes Atom has themes for both the UI and the code syntax. The syntax themes style how the code looks in the editor itself, and the UI themes style how the rest of Atom looks (e.g. the tabs and file tree).You can even make small changes to Atom without creating a complete theme or package. Alternative customisation in Atom The Settings tab in the Settings view provides your options for customising Atom, but you can go beyond the default options by adding JavaScript or CSS within your config. Every instance of Atom has a .atom directory that contains its configuration settings, where you can create custom behaviour or styles. To open your .atom configuration directory, click the ‘Open config folder' button on the left side of the Settings view. Init.coffee file The init.coffee file allows you to add custom behaviour to Atom every time a new window is launched. It's executed after packages are loaded and any previous editor state has been restored. You can use CoffeeScript in this default file or create a new file, init.js, to use JavaScript. In init you can make use of the full Node.js API. For example, if each time you opened a window you wanted Atom to greet you with the version of Node.js it is using, you could add this to your init file: To interact more with Atom, you can use the Atom API. Documentation on the API is available on the Atom site. Styles.css Just like the init.coffee file, styles.css is a file that is loaded after Atom starts up. The styles you add here will override or add onto Atom's existing styles, and they will take effect immediately upon saving. For example, you could change the editor's background colour by adding this CSS: A quick way to find the property names in Atom is to make use of the fact that underneath Atom is Chromium, so you have access to DevTools. You can toggle DevTools on and off by pressing alt+cmd+I. With DevTools open, you can use the magnifying glass to select elements in Atom and reveal their class or element names. Target them in your styles.css file to change their properties. With Atom's package manager and configuration files you can customise your Atom environment right from within Atom. This introduction should get you well on your way, and if you have any questions, open an issue on the project. This article originally appeared in issue 277 of net, the world's leading web design magazine. Subscribe here. To improve your web design skills further, head to our conference Generate and experience a packed schedule of industry-leading speakers, workshops and valuable networking opportunities. Don't miss it! Get your Generate ticket now. Related articles: What to learn to upgrade your web design skills Beware the cutting edge of web design 13 best pieces of user testing software View the full article

One of the simplest ways to bring some extra life to any piece of 3D art is to add colour and texture to it. There are a variety of names given to this process, adding shaders or materials or even textures. A rule of thumb is that a 'texture' is an image that is used to drive a property of a 'material', which defines the basic properties of the surface of the object. This itself is the child of a 'shader', which is effectively a holding group for all the various elements – some software can blend materials together to give the appearance of rusting metal, for example. Rendering reflective and diffuse surfaces: 3 top tips A material is defined by a range of different parameters and again this is software dependant. While 'physically based rendering' or PBR is becoming a standard for contemporary material systems, it is not consistently applied across all software, so therefore we will try and take a look at 'legacy' uses as well. The first material property that is consistent across nearly all material types is its Diffuse properties. Diffuse or 'Albedo' properties control the underlying colour of a material on an object. The Diffuse properties are usually divided into two distinct elements, one is the Diffuse colour and the other is the Diffuse weight or value, which effectively determines the brightness of the colour underneath. Both of these properties can, if the artist chooses, be driven by textures, with Diffuse weight being driven by a black-and-white patterned image. Using the Diffuse as a base for any new material/shader system is a good way to learn the basics of creating successful and convincing materials. Even though Diffuse properties may not be used very much in metallic materials, knowing why is one of the keys to making any application's shader system work for you. 01. Diffuse colour The Diffuse colour will often – but not always – affect the rendered colour The simplest element of any shading or material preset is its Diffuse colour, which is the underlying colour. For many materials this will have a direct correlation to its rendered appearance – for example a yellow ball will have a yellow Diffuse colour – which also usually appears in the Digital Content Creations software preview window. Metallic materials do not normally have a Diffuse colour, resulting in a default Diffuse colour of black; it is the reflective qualities of a metallic material that usually give it colour. 02. Diffuse weight Set the Diffuse weight to control the brightness of the Diffuse colour The Diffuse weight of a material defines how bright the Diffuse colour is. Having these two elements separated gives artists a greater degree of control over the colour of a material. Diffuse weight is usually controlled through either a numeric value or an input – which can be a texture map or another factor such as a Fresnel value that determines the brightness of the Diffuse colour. Diffuse weight does not make a material emit light – this is another property value, normally called Emission. 03. Use textures for Diffuse properties Add a texture map to give your model extra detail Using a texture map for a Diffuse weight is a great way of helping to add some extra detail into a texture, in order to age it. This can also work in conjunction with a Diffuse colour textured bitmap that just has the colour properties, for example a logo. Bitmap textures for Diffuse weights should be black and white images, with most content creation applications using the white of a Diffuse image as the brighter areas, while using black for the darker areas. 04. Utilise presets Presets make it much easier to build your own library of materials Nearly all 3D applications come with a library of materials that can be modified to become bespoke materials for the artist. For example, by using a yellow plastic preset and changing the Diffuse colour value to red, a yellow bucket can become a red bucket. Duplicating presets is a great way of creating bespoke materials that are both realistic and suitable for the scene, without having to learn all the attributes of a material in real life and transpose them to a 3D application. This article was originally published in issue 235 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 235 here or subscribe to 3D World here. Read more: 6 expert tips for better 3D renders Create stunning tileable textures in Blender 40 top free textures to download today View the full article

You're reading Postcards 2 Coming Soon, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! View the full article

Twitter is an incredible place for creators. You can share work, air opinions or gather feedback. But are you one of the users keeping Twitter alive with fresh tweets, or do you see yourself in a more curatorial role, watching discussions unfold and then throwing out the occasional Like or Retweet? Now you can find out for sure, with new web tool Tweeter or Retweeter? Simply pop in your Twitter handle and the tool will calculate your balance of new tweets to retweets, to tell you once and for all if you're a creator or curator. It's an open source project too – you can take the original source code and 'remix' it to create something new. Tweeter or Retweeter is the work of creative developer Omayeli Arenyeka. "I kept seeing people talk about being 'Twitter originals' and being super creative and clever with their tweets," she explains. "I wanted a way to actually quantify that, something that people could show as proof." Find out what your Twitter profile really looks like Arenyeka notes that a lot of what we do on social media can be unconscious, so many people's Twitter profile will look totally different to how they might expect. "I wanted to make something fun that would reveal a bit of who we are online so we can interrogate that and share with others," she adds. The tool was built on a platform called glitch, and uses Node.js to gather the required information from the Twitter API, plus JavaScript, a bit of jQuery and HTML Canvas for the downloadable graphic. The cool illustrations you see here are the work of Jinjin Sun. Curious if you're the Twitter original you thought you were? Pop your Twitter handle in at Tweeter or Retweeter? to find out for sure. Web design event Generate London returns on 19-21 September 2018, offering a packed schedule of industry-leading speakers, a full day of workshops and valuable networking opportunities – don’t miss it. Get your Generate ticket now. Read more: 10 social media tricks you didn't know about 15 Twitter accounts every web designer should follow How to make social media work for you View the full article

We know two things about blockchain: it's changing the world and a lot of people don't know what it is. Put simply, blockchain is a type of digital ledger that monitors the ebb and flow of assets among a network of users. And in the infographic below, you get to see how blockchain is revolutionising the world of art. Created by CoinCentral, this infographic leads you through the basics of blockchain before going on to explore its artistic applications. Art and blockchain may sound like unlikely bedfellows, but when you consider the ever-increasing prevalence and exchange of digital art, their links start to become apparent. So whether you're an artist trading online, a collector hoping to legitimise your collection, or simply a tech fan eager to see innovative applications of blockchain, this infographic is right up your street. And if you're still baffled by blockchain, we've got a jargon-free guide to tell you exactly what the hell it is. Click the image to see the full size infographic Related articles: Will blockchain change image libraries forever? 13 incredible tools for creating infographics Which blockchain should you use? View the full article

Every year, D&AD New Blood Festival is inspiring and exhausting in almost equal measure. The vast Old Truman Brewery in London's Shoreditch plays host to top graduate talent from design courses from across the UK, creating a sensory overload of young creatives competing for the attention of the creative press, and agencies looking for that spark of potential in their next junior hire. There's a lot to take in, and for the colleges themselves there's the difficult decision between giving a small, carefully curated selection of design portfolios room to breathe, and giving the whole course intake a shot at the limelight. Others put so much effort into an overarching 'concept' for the show, that the students themselves end up playing second fiddle and struggle even more to stand out. Fortunately, we've spent a few hours at the show to do some of the hard work for you – read on for the eight talented grads that caught our eye in 2018... 01. Christina Andrade Christina Andrade used old Victorian wood-cut illustrations as the basis for her Bitter & Twisted branding First up is Christina Dias Andrade, a Graphic Design graduate from Middlesex University who had two very different, but equally strong projects on display. The first, Bitter & Twisted, is an illustration-led branding scheme for a fictional brewery, inspired by the weird notion of 'beer cocktails'. "I used old Victorian wood cuts found in books, and stitched together unlikely things to form the brand," explains Andrade. Ingredients are showcased within the quirky illustrations, which are applied across bottles, cans, packing boxes and more. Selection of album sleeves and promo material for Nothing But Thieves, using Kinegram animation techniques Andrade's second project is for self-titled album Nothing But Thieves, and incorporates a 10” vinyl cover, a 7” limited-edition box, a CD cover, and a promotional item. Inspired by a recurrent theme of the music of feeling lost, she used Kinegram animation techniques to create eye-catching illusions created by the listener's movement – whether walking past the promotional frame, or pulling the vinyl sleeve out of its box. 02. Elena Kidman Elena Kidman generated abstract patterns based on the frequencies that Sound author Bella Bathurst could hear One of two Norwich University of the Arts graduates on this list, Elena Kidman studied Design for Publishing – and the brief for her final project was to design the layout for a new non-fiction book. She chose Sound, by Bella Bathurst – which gives a first-hand account of the deterioration of the author's hearing. Throughout the book, Bathurst makes specific references to the frequencies she is able to hear as her condition worsens. This inspired Kidman to translate the frequencies into graphic patterns, created by recording the shapes made in sand as sound is played at that frequency through a metal plate. The patterns are printed in white ink over the book text, to represent the distortion of Bathurst's hearing "I experimented with many different mediums, including watercolours, type distortions, photography and even page manipulations, such as tearing," she explains. "Then I re-read a chapter that goes into depth about the science behind hearing, and how we rely on other senses. I decided to manipulate how the reader responds to the content, to help them empathise with Bathurst." These patterns are printed in translucent white ink to interact with and distort the text of the book – a graphical representation of the sounds that Bathurst can hear. The book concludes with Bathurst having an operation to restore her hearing, illustrated with the only full-colour spread in the book. 03. Frank Coxon Frank Coxon's dark, brooding book cover for Orwell classic Animal Farm draws on Constructivism and Futurism A Graphic Communication & Illustration graduate from Loughborough University, Frank Coxon created this striking book cover for entry in the Penguin Random House Student Design Awards. “The brief was to reflect the book’s status as one of the great modern political allegories of our time,” he explains. Coxon drew on various Constructivist and Futurist influences to depict a “dark and crude impression” of the Communist regime that the novel satirises. “I set the animals on stages to give it a theatrical appearance, creating movement with repetitive motifs to demonstrate mechanical lifelessness,” he adds. 04. Hannah McInally Hannah McInally sets herself "geometric constrictions" in her work, which requires trial and error to nail the composition Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design had a strong illustration showing this year, and Hannah McInally is the first of two inclusions on this list. She had three pieces on display, two of which are shown above. On the left is her attempt to capture the essence of the Roald Dahl classic Matilda, and on the right is a "boozy dog" illustration for use on a craft beer label. "My work is playful and explorative, never taking itself too seriously," she explains. McInally places "geometric constrictions" on her pieces, with a view to creating "accidental but engaging outcomes" – a process that often requires a certain degree of trial and error, and redrawing the composition, to reach the desired outcome. 05. Libby Bond Inspired by the hot topic of 'fake news', Libby Bond rearranged various tabloid headlines into even more misleading ones Our second Norwich University of the Arts graduate is Libby Bond, who used admirable graphic restraint to explore the topic of 'fake news', and misleading headlines in particular, in a series of bold typographic posters. "People have been conditioned to trust the press, but the line between honest journalism and fake news is blurring," she says. "The Sun, The Star and The Daily Mail are renowned for their over-exaggerated headlines. Although these headlines can be humorous, they can also be dangerous, leaving people misinformed." Bond scanned headlines from those three newspapers, and then rearranged key words and phrases into new, 'fake' headlines – preserving the original typefaces. The results, which included 'Trump hired to work in Manchester nightclub' and 'May to quit after becoming Page 3 girl', were then screen-printed. 06. Louis Murphy-Hancock Louis Murphy-Hancock's identity for Slapstick Comedy Festival incorporates an icon of the genre: the bowler hat Sometimes at graduate shows, an interesting kernel of an idea shows through in a piece of work, more so than the wow factor of its presentation. This was definitely the case with University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) graduate Louis Murphy-Hancock, who had two projects in display. The first was a rebrand of the Slapstick Comedy Festival, which at its heart has a simple but versatile graphic device: a bowler hat, reminiscent of slapstick icons such as Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin, transformed into an exclamation mark. The project also features various animated versions of the full logotype, with the characters jostling and interacting in a typically slapstick fashion. Murphy-Hancock's commemorative Frankenstein stamps stitch together images from different film portrayals of the monster The second was a series of stamps to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein: eight component parts of the monster's face to assemble together, using photographs from different movie depictions over the decades – with the perforations neatly representing the stitches that hold the flesh together. 07. Lauren Morsley Lauren Morsley's Music Practice represents genres of music as characters, using colour to express key characteristics Our second Duncan of Jordanstone graduate is Lauren Morsley, whose character-led project Music Practice includes a large silkscreen print, a digitally printed book, and a collection of ceramic figures made from earthenware clay. The distinctive characters at the core of the project were also turned into a range of ceramic figures Morsley used the characters to represent genres of music, exploring how colour can be used to express aspects, such as genre, rhythm and volume. "The characters from different genres are illustrated practicing within the book, and then come together to collaborate and create music within the large print," she explains. 08. Rebecca Watt Rebecca Watt explored how Type 1 Diabetics must keep track of their food intake with this range of papercraft treats Edinburgh Napier graduate Rebecca Watt chose to explore Type 1 Diabetes in her final-year project. "My younger brother was diagnosed when he was four years old, and has now lived with it for 11 years," she explains. "I wanted to use the knowledge from his day-to-day life to communicate how Type 1 Diabetics have no option but to live with this autoimmune disease 24/7, 365 days a year." Aware that her close personal experiences of the condition might lead her to make references that the general public wouldn't understand, Watt was careful to test her ideas on as wide a range of people as possible. "This also allowed me to see where any confusion was in the understanding, and helped me pinpoint what areas really needed focus," she adds. At the core of the project was a collection of 'paper foods', covered with nutritional information – including grams of fat, sugar, protein and carbohydrate – to show the constant need to keep track of your body's intake as a Type 1 Diabetic. Read more: Top tips for design students How to transform a design internship into a job 17 free resume templates View the full article

Whether you're an aspiring professional photographer or a casual photo-taking hobbyist, you should know how to use Adobe Lightroom. This powerful tool lets you transform your photos into truly professional-looking masterpieces. With Adobe Lightroom CC: Photo Editing Masterclass, learn how to navigate the app, import photos, fix common photo problems, and edit in the field with the mobile app. Best of all, the course instructor is Phil Ebiner, who has taught thousands of students about photography and now travels the world as a photographer. It doesn't matter if you're a total beginner – Adobe Lightroom CC: Photo Editing Masterclass is made with you in mind. Get it now for only $41. Related articles: Lightroom CC 2018 review Discover the latest updates to Adobe Creative Cloud Project Rush: Adobe announces all-new video editing app View the full article

Find a fresh perspective on creating concept art and breathe new life into your character designs with the latest issue of ImagineFX magazine – on sale today. Inside the pages of issue 164 you'll learn how the experts create polished character designs, plus we hear how they get their work out there and make a good first impression with studios. Buy issue 164 of ImagineFX here Elsewhere in issue 164 we pick up portrait tips from Simon Goinard, who reveals how he uses light to depict volume and shapes. We also catch up with Mark White to hear how you can use Photoshop to blend and mix colours to take your work to the next level. And of course, we also fill you in with the latest digital art news, review the latest software you need to check out, and showcase the amazing artwork sent in by you, our readers. You won't want to miss it! Never miss an issue: Subscribe to ImagineFX here Explore what's on offer by taking a peek at the lead features, below. Find your career path Take your next career step with the help of this expert insight It's a dilemma faced by many designers: do you stick with the stability of studio life or take a risk and go freelance, and possibly lead a happier career in the process? To help you see both sides of the debate, we spoke to artists from various walks of life to discover the pros and cons of each option. Rob Bliss keeps it real Be "ballsy, but polite", says Bliss With a career including credits such as 2000AD and the Harry Potter films, it's fair to say that Rob Bliss has found a way past the industry gatekeepers. It wasn't always the way though. For many years he was beating his head against the wall, trying to find a way in. In this interview, Rob reveals his road to success. Create a world with concept art World building is an all-encompassing design process When it comes to designing a fictional world with your art, there is no end of things to keep in mind. In this tutorial, artist Anthony Macbain shares over a decade of video game industry experience to help you create believable worlds with the power of illustration. Paint with metallic leaf Create dazzling paintings with this tutorial Trying new techniques is the secret to growing as an artist. With that in mind, artist Sophie Klesen shares how she enhances her watercolour paintings with the application of gold and sterling silver leaf. And with the help of this tutorial, you'll be able to give it a go, too. Tricks of the trade Keep your skills sharp with these techniques When it comes to the establishing a creative workflow, artist Eddie Del Rio reveals that there isn't just one process. Instead, he relies on a toolbox of techniques that help to save time and create a steady flow of ideas. In this workshop, Eddie shares 15 processes that could help spark your creativity. Related articles: How to break into movie concept art Improve your concept art skills in Photoshop Concept design tips for artists View the full article

Pastel art is a great way to produce vibrant colours with the ease and control of your best pencils. In use by artists for centuries, pastels are an especially portable medium, enabling you to create colourful pastel art or pastel drawings with no need for water, brushes or palettes. But first, what exactly is a pastel? The definition isn't completely clear, and there's been some debate within art societies as to what exactly qualifies as a pastel. The Pastel Society within the UK, however, states the following media are acceptable for its exhibitions: "Pastels, including Oil pastel, Charcoal, Pencil, Conté, Sanguine, or any dry media". The pastels themselves come in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all coloured art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation. Pastel tips Soft pastel sticks do become dusty or dirty when transporting, so carry a cloth to wipe them off before drawing. It's generally easier to work on a toned surface rather than pure white. You can buy toned paper, or tone it yourself using an acrylic or watercolour wash. To prevent over blending and smudging when using pastels you can use a mist of fixative on that area. Beware: if the fixative is sprayed too heavily, it dramatically dulls and darkens the vibrancy. There's a huge variety of pastels to choose from to create your pastel art. Here award-winning illustrator Terese Nielsen explains how to choose the right ones... 01. All pastels are not equal Soft pastels have a rich, buttery feel and are easy to blend Soft pastels have a rich, buttery feel and are easy to blend. Hard pastels, including pastel pencils, are great for adding detail. Oil pastels have an oil binder, are less opaque than soft pastels and don’t smudge as easily. The newest water-soluble pastels create semi-transparent washes when water is brushed over them. 02. Layering and smudging A variety of colours can be achieved through layering and smudging Pastels are blended on the art surface, rather than on a palette. A variety of colours can be achieved through layering and smudging. Start with darker colours in your pastel art, working up to light. Blending is done by layering the pastels with various strokes such as crosshatching, dots/pointillism or smudging with different tools, from cotton swabs or #9 brushes, to fingers. 03. Choose your surface The key to selecting paper for pastels is to choose something that has texture or tooth The key to selecting paper for pastels is to choose something that has texture or tooth. If it's too smooth, the pastels won't adhere. Check that the paper is pH-neutral. If it's not acid-free, it can shift the colour and cause brittleness. Good choices are canvas, watercolour paper, pastel paper and sand board. 04. Soft and hard pastels Hard pastels are a little less vibrant in colour, but more stable than soft pastels Soft pastels are rich and luminous in colour, provide a loose grainy texture and are easy to blend with varied surface effect, but are a little fragile. Hard pastels are a little less vibrant in colour, but more stable than soft pastels. They're great for adding detail to your pastel art. 05. Pastel pencils and oil pastels Oil pastels (right) contain an oil binder and have a thick, intense colour Pastel pencils come in a pencil 'lead' form and are easy to control. Pastel pencils are ideal for fine detail and rendering, and are a harder lead than soft pastels. Oil pastels contain an oil binder. They have a thick intense colour, but don't smudge and blend like soft/hard pastels. 06. Water soluble pastels Water soluble pastels can be used just like a regular soft pastel Water soluble pastels can be used just like a regular soft pastel, except that you can also create watercolour-like washes with a brush and water, providing great variety in the artistic effects you can achieve. This article originally appeared in the ImagineFX bookazine How to Paint & Draw; subscribe to ImagineFX here. Read more: How to draw: 100 tutorials 10 expert tips for charcoal drawing How to draw a big cat with pastels View the full article

The thief also had a second dataset, including the M1 Abrams maintenance manual, a tank platoon training course, a crew survival course and documentation on improvised explosive device (IED) mitigation tactics. View the full article

Cisco also patched three medium-security flaws in its network security offerings; and, it issued a fix for a high-severity bug in its platform for mobile operator routers, StarOS. View the full article

Once regarded as just a blogging tool, WordPress has quickly become a fully fledged content management system (CMS) for professional web designers and agencies, used on millions of sites across the world. Yet many still think of it as a tool for amateurs and hobbyists. To set the record straight, we've picked some of the best WordPress websites around to show you just what this incredible content management system is capable of... And if all these inspired you to make your own site, then don't miss our Wordpress tutorials or round-up of the best Wordpress themes. 01. We Virtually Are We Virtually Are's site makes great use of 360-degree video to sell its services When your business is all about enthralling people using virtual reality to tell emotive stories, you need a site that draws people into your work. And that's what boutique VR studio We Virtually Are has; its site, built by Herdl, is built on WordPress but uses plenty of cutting-edge techniques including WebGL and 360-degree video to give you an irresistible taste of its immersive services. Check out its VR test drives for Audi, complete with unexpected celebrity guests. 02. Design Museum Denmark Smart use of parallax scrolling and responsive images make the Danish Design Museum's site a must-see Built by Copenhagen-based design and branding agency Stupid Studios, the new site for Denmark's Design Museum not only showcases the museum's archives, collections and research, but also presents it in a bang up-to-date style. From its opening SVG animation of the museum's logo, through to eye-catching parallax scrolling and mood-enhancing palette swaps as you scroll through the content, it's the perfect online presence for an essential design destination. 03. The Walt Disney Company If Disney can use Wordpress to create a flawless, professional level site, there really is nothing you can't achieve on the website building tool Who hasn't heard of Disney? Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past century, you will have no doubt heard of Mickey Mouse and co. The global giant used none other than Wordpress to create its slick site that's a world away from the brightly coloured, cartoonish Disney we know and love. The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information. Via its professional and simple website, it can showcase its portfolio of brands to help differentiate its content, services and consumer products. 04. Chicago Sun Times Sometimes simplicity trumps all when it comes to getting info fast The Chicago Sun Times is an eight times Pulitzer Prize winner and the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city of Chicago. It takes a solid site framework to cope with the daily influx of hard-hitting investigative features, in-depth political reports, sports analysis, entertainment reviews and cultural commentary the paper has to offer. Although a very simple, basic template, the site offers everything you want from a newspaper – it's easy to navigate, clear, concise and not bogged down by animation and effects, meaning you can quickly and seamlessly get your news updates. 05. Katy Perry Even major celebrities are utilising the tools provided by Wordpress Pop princess Katy Perry uses none other than Wordpress to host her official website. Focusing, understandably, on visuals and social media cues, the site utilises high spec portfolio shots of the artist to make a bold statement. Scroll down to see tour dates, merch and more, seamlessly, or use the icons to discover more. It's a clean cut, yet edgy site that manages to blend the artist's distinctive bubblegum pop personal image with a user-friendly, glossy mag style functionality. Gone are the days of busy band sites packed with too much animation and music you can't stop. Perry's website proves you can pack in plenty of personality using just a simple white background and easily navigable links, giving fans the option to listen, watch and learn easily and at their convenience. 06. Da Ink Da Ink is a perfect example of a portfolio where the art speaks for itself Surprisingly few tattoo artists do themselves justice online, relying on Facebook and basic templates to sell their work. But Australian tattooist, Drew Apicture, has utilised his creative talents to create a spectacular site that not only puts his work at the forefront, but mimics it. It's not always all about white backgrounds sometimes going dark can be bold way of standing out. On his site, Da Ink, Apicture goes for a drastic and edgy backdrop of black to showcase his work, mix in some red and orange tones, a smart and minimal logo and you have a truly beautiful portfolio website. Based at one of the Gold Coast's longest standing tattoo shops, Apicture has a passion for high contrast black and grey artwork, despite being told his illustrations were too dark. The same could be said of his website, but we think it's a beautifully slick piece of design work, making practical and effective use of endless scrolling, animated menus and high-res galleries. 07. The Ink Tank Kao Collins' site is designed to make you think about ink Starting out in 1989 as a Collins Inkjet, a one-man operation supplying ink for Kodak continuous inkjet printer, today Kao Collins is one of the world's leading suppliers. And if you've never really thought about ink beyond cursing when your printer runs out, Kao Collins new site, The Ink Tank, is designed to inspire you. Built by DBS Interactive, The Ink Tank is an eye-catching WordPress site that pulls out all the stops to bring you cutting-edge news from the ink industry and to showcase some of the creative ways businesses and artists are currently using ink. The highlight as far as we're concerned is its History of Printing, a gorgeous parallax single-pager packed with animation and effects, taking you all the way from clay tablets to today's high-speed single pass printing, and looking ahead at some of the future possibilities of printing. 08. Greenwich Library Greenwich Library bucks the trend of boring public service sites Public service websites don't have a great record of being beautiful or easy to use. Luckily, that trend is beginning to fade away, and Greenwich Library's website has adopted a modern new look. When creating the site, the visual design came secondary, however – as a public service, usability comes first and anything else is icing on the cake. The redesign is the result of two years' worth of research, user testing and design. In a statement, library director Barbara Ormerod-Glynn explained that the site update was vital because it meant the library could provide its services 24/7. It also addressed issues people were having when trying to find what they needed in a sea of content. 25 WordPress tutorial themes Our favourite part is the illusion of drawing elements while the user scrolls. This is a trick many developers create explicitly with SVG, but the simple combination of CSS transformations and layering elements here creates just as interesting an effect as a more complex SVG line drawing. The colour-coded navigational elements also add personality without having to splash colour over every element. 09. Harvard University Graduate School of Design Harvard GSD's new design is striking, playful and aggressive The stereotypical university website tends to be a pretty sterile and dated affair. However, with the Harvard Graduate School of Design site's redesign this summer, Upstatement has set the bar seriously high. "The GSD is a fantastic place where all kinds of amazing ideas are being generated, and we wanted to really bring out the stories and topics inside the school and surface them in a way that showcases the ideas and energy of the community," says Mike Swartz, partner at Upstatement. GSD's design is striking, playful and aggressive, though it stands back and enables content to show through when it needs to. Thoughtful animations are intertwined at the right moments, without being overwhelming. Every hover state invokes an animation, helping users to interact with the content. The use of images is purposeful – none are used as a backdrop or a texture. All have a function and most are presented with a comment. On top of all of the visual complexities, the development team behind the site took this project to another level. "Mike Burns, Upstatement's engineering lead on this project, worked with the school to collect and modernise their infrastructure, combining it all into an API powered by WordPress," says Swartz. The Upstatement team knew this design was a success when leadership and faculty at Harvard summed up the redesign with: "It's weird, but I like it." 10. This Is Your Kingdom "This is Your Kingdom is probably one of my proudest WordPress builds," comments developer Kim Lawler This is Your Kingdom is a site that brings together style and substance to help visitors find activities in their local area. Simple in its concept, the site is much more complex when we start to consider all of its inner workings and potential. Designed by This is Your Kingdom and robustly developed by Kim Lawler, the site is built to handle growing levels of content. Lawler used WordPress to allow site editors and guest bloggers to update easily and regularly, giving visitors plenty of reasons to return regularly. The delicate, playful design hints at a wide range of activities shared on the site, and does a great job of being appealing and eye-catching, without being stereotypically girly or niche. Illustration plays a big part in the appeal of the site, paving the way for imagination and exploration. 11. Travel Portland The beautifully responsive Travel Portland site is built on WordPress Travel Portland aims to inspire people to visit Portland in Oregon, US, and to help them plan their trip with tools and content highlighting the unique opportunities in the city. Clean design is on every page of its site with images telling of the Portland experience, from waterfalls to food trucks. The beautifully responsive site is built on WordPress and uses a customised responsive theme based on Zurb's Foundation framework. Third-party APIs are also utilised throughout the site, including: Storify, MapBox, Weather Underground and ChooseCulture. The team also used MaxMind's geolocation API to give them the capability to customise content on the homepage based on the location of the visitor. This lets them serve different information for in-town visitors versus those in the planning phases. 12. Captain Creative Designer and art director Brad James set up his own online identity using WordPress A true superhero of the web world has finally revealed himself. And he has a website! Brad James is a self-described "mild mannered designer and art director" based over in New South Wales, Australia. Although he works for agency, iQmultimedia, James has set up as his own online identity named Captain Creative. To manage James's online identity and leave enough time to save the world (wide web) he chose WordPress, "mainly because I knew I wanted a portfolio and blog combined into the one site". He adds, "I don't write code so it also helps that it's widely used in case I run into any technical problems. I'd also used it previously as a CMS for other website clients, so I was familiar with the interface." However, James warns, "It does have its downsides. I had a security issue recently where someone was able to modify the appearance of the site and even change my WP login credentials. Fortunately, I was able to sort it out without too much trouble. Lesson learnt: make sure you keep your version of WP updated!" 13. Jess Marks Photography Jess and Steve say that moving to WordPress was a "smart idea" Brisbane-based wedding photographers, Jess Marks and Steve Bliesne's online home is a fun, whimsical website bristling with personality. When it came to revamping the site, Bliesner says that they, "actually moved from ExpressionEngine to WordPress. We searched for a long time to find the right design house to do this project. We settled on Simple as Milk, and WordPress is what they worked with, so we transitioned. "Since we outsource most web and marketing related things these days, more people and companies are proficient in WordPress over ExpressionEngine, so it became little clear that moving to WP was a smart idea." "Coming from ExpressionEngine, some things are much the same - the way you create posts, enter data and so on," recalls Bliesner of the transition between CMSes. "But WordPress is miles ahead when it comes to the availability of plug-ins – and overall ease of use." 14. Work by Simon This online portfolio and blog takes full advantage of modern CSS3 techniques Work by Simon is the design studio site of Simon Carr and Elijah Wasserman. The website serves as their online portfolio and blog. The studio focuses on design and development for HTML5, CSS3, mobile websites and WordPress – which has been their preferred CMS over the last four years. "We love WordPress because it has the ability to easily translate designs to custom templates," explains Simon. "Another reason it was our top choice is flexibility for blogs and portfolio content. The portfolio section is easily controlled by using custom WordPress post types. Each thumbnail is uploaded with the featured image field, and tags are also applied to indicate the services provided." The guys have taken full advantage of modern CSS3 techniques. "Creation of CSS3 animations for the Labs, Chemical Reactions and Observatory pushed my limits of animation using CSS only," Simon jokes. But as you can see their efforts have been worth it. 15. Iron to Iron Iron to Iron also use the Pods CMS plug-in to give them additional functionality and control of their content Iron to Iron is a two-person company founded by designer Kevin Richardson and developer Jonathan Christopher. Of their site, Kevin says: "We needed to effectively display our brand as well as our philosophy." They use WordPress for all of their client work, he adds. "It makes building any website easier, ours included. Automating things, from the portfolio content population to collecting contact form submissions, is one of the many benefits." They're also using the Pods CMS plug-in to give them additional functionality and control of their content. Christopher is also a member of the development team for the plug-in: "We devote a consistent amount of time to that project in order to better utilise it," he says. 16. Yoke The design and build of the site was a team effort by co-founders Jay Bigford and Alister Wynn Yoke is a studio based in Bristol. The design and build of the site was a team effort by co-founders Jay Bigford and Alister Wynn. "The key to the success of our website as a marketing tool for our business is to have valuable expertise-based content on there," explains Bigford. "We're constantly adding blog posts researching into topics that relate to our target clients." The guys selected WordPress as their CMS. "We can add posts seamlessly and easily, then set up good interrelated articles between these posts, offering the user a less linear journey through our content," says Bigford, who goes on to discuss workflow. "Using WordPress enables us to speed up the build by narrowing the number of templates we use. We know we're designing for a CMS, so we're strict with our output and always stick to a maximum of three templates. This allows us to make sure we get fewer, tighter and more polished templates, rather than many, loose pages." 17. Girl With a Camera Ashley knew WordPress was hugely customisable and would give her a lot of flexibility Girl With a Camera is the photo blog of Ashley Baxter where she shares photography of her life and her commissioned work. The site was designed by Matt Brett, who migrated Baxter from Tumblr to WordPress. "I was using Tumblr for a good while, but became fed up with the constant downtime," she explained. "I knew WordPress was hugely customisable and would give me a lot of flexibility over how I could display my photos." Meanwhile, Brett says the feature he's most proud of is the way that each post's layout and background colour can be changed to best suit the content. "One of my absolute favourite things about WordPress is how fast I can go from an HTML template to a working theme." 18. Tinkering Monkey Everything on the site is made in the garage-turned-woodworking-studio of Mike Cheung Tinkering Monkey is an online shop that sells simple wooden goods for everyday living. Everything is made in the garage-turned-woodworking-studio of Mike Cheung, product designer and creator, and Paula Chang, who manages the business and developed the site. "We used two CMSes," explains Chang, "The store is run through an open-source shopping cart system called OpenCart, and the other pages are managed through WordPress." There are many e-commerce tools to choose from, but Chang wanted to avoid the fees and functionality limitations of other solutions. "It had all the features that we wanted built-in already," she says, "and a back-end that was easy for us to jump in and make changes. It basically gave us full control while keeping our costs to a minimum." 19. Jenny Bristow It's refreshing to see HTML5 being used for client work Love food? Love HTML5? Then look no further than the home of Ireland's Good Food Ambassador, Jenny Bristow. Created in WordPress by the team at Web Design Northern Ireland, this site is a breath of fresh air – it's refreshing to see HTML5 being used for client work. Developer Derek Johnson explains the decision to go with HTML5: "The nature of WordPress makes it easier to distinguish between <article>, <section> and <div> content," he says. "When I was planning this project, it just seemed more logical and straightforward to use new HTML5 elements than to have a lot of nested divs. The site uses a host of new elements, a couple of new input types ('search' and 'email'), ARIA roles and block level links. I also love the way sectioning content works to create a document outline and give semantic structure to web pages," adds Johnson. 20. Derren Brown The site was built using Photoshop CS6 and Illustrator CS6 "Derren Brown is a witch!" According to some, this is all we need to know about England's foremost head fudger. But millions of people want to learn more about this leading illusionist, mentalist, hypnotist, painter, writer, and sceptic, and with his site often pushing past two million monthly page views, it's clearly the web that people turn to to find more info. Pixel Dandy's Marc Hagan-Guirey, the man behind the redesign says, "The project took about six months. The team comprised of Duncan Godwin, who built the site, Abeo the project manager and myself with the design and concept. "The site was built using Photoshop CS6 and Illustrator CS6. Duncan, the developer, built the site using WordPress with a sprinkling of jQuery plug-ins, lots of emails, and cups of tea." 21. Entyce Independently-owned design and digital marketing agency Entyce chose WordPress for its website The independently-owned design and digital marketing agency Entyce, based in Chester, has shown its worth its salt even on its own portfolio site. Creative director Jane Entwistle reveals that, for the site, they used the world's most popular CMS, WordPress. "WordPress is an established system, and we like the concept of open source – it's very versatile and can easily be modified and styled as required," she adds. "As with any software, there are a few flaws, but in our opinion these are outweighed by the pros". In advocacy of WordPress, Entwistle adds: "It's a great software to work with and it's free! It's easy to use, well documented and has a great community with lots of articles if you get stuck or need help". 22. Ghosthorses WordPress drove the redesign of Ghosthorses, the portfolio site of Stephen Fairbanks Ghosthorses is the portfolio site of Stephen Fairbanks. This lovingly crafted site, laden with visual treats appealing to both the casual observer and the web-savvy, serves to delight as well as showcasing his works. When choosing the CMS to drive his major redesign, Fairbanks knew it had to be WordPress. "I've been using WordPress for as long as I've been building sites because I like how malleable it is, and the fact that it's so popular means there's a really good community of support behind it. Also the Featured Image function does all the legwork of cropping, resizing and embedding my images." He's also felt the blight of WP's limited media handling capabilities, but has found a suitable solution. "I've moved the Multiple Post Thumbnails plug-in into my functions.php file by default now for all my sites to easily add scrollable galleries." 23. Design the Planet Marketing agency Design the Planet are big fans of WordPress Marketing agency Design the Planet is a group of self-described 'planetary engineers'. Based in New Orleans, they claim to be able to break your brand free from 'generic mediocrity'. Looking at the DtP portfolio site, they're definitely the folks to do just that. To make it, Design the Planet chose WordPress. "WordPress is our go-to CMS," vice president and COO Perryn Olson explains. "We find it easier to work with and much easier for our clients to quickly pick up on without having a steep learning curve like Joomla or Drupal." Olson is a big fan of established CMSes, it turns out. "We've seen a backlash against proprietary CMSes from prospective clients, because of poor experiences with previous companies," she says. "Some companies feel trapped if they use a proprietary CMS – because they can never leave and their website becomes a hostage – while WordPress is universal and fairly portable from one company to another." Read more: 10 inspiring ecommerce website designs 15 really useful responsive web design tutorials The 10 best HTML5 template designs View the full article

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