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The attack allows malicious applications to break out of their sandbox and access the entire operating system, giving an adversary complete control of the targeted device. View the full article

As the champion of designers everywhere, we at Creative Bloq are keen to encourage work opportunities for the creative community. But there are limits. Some logo designs are so beloved, so iconic, that as long as we live, we simply never want to see them radically redesigned. That doesn't mean we're opposed to tiny tweaks or subtle refreshes, every now and again, to adapt these assets to modern style sensibilities and the demands of new devices. And we're not opposed to new, adapted versions to give these logos life in new arenas such as motion design, stereoscopic 3D, virtual reality and beyond. But when it comes to the underlying design of these decades-old logos, it's a case of 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'. And anyone who tries will have to come through us first. 01. Coca-Cola Coke's cursive wordmark is instantly recognised the world over Coca-Cola has undergone a lot of changes since it first launched its trademark in 1887, from the removal of cocaine as an ingredient in 1893 to its distribution in Burma in 2012, making the drink officially available in every nation except Cuba and North Korea. But one thing has stayed pretty consistent throughout, and that's its instantly recognisable logo. This classic cursive was introduced on May 8, 1886, and has remained largely unchanged since, attracting only minor tweaks and a colour change (black to red) along the way. Its ubiquity throughout the 20th and 21st centuries means that today it's one of the most easily recognised pieces of writing on the planet. This fact was made evident by a billboard campaign in 2000 which featured zoomed in, closely-cropped sections of the logo. Even with only these tiny portions of the logo visible, it was still instantly recognisable as Coca-Cola. 02. Nike Nike's super-simple emblem sings with positivity Whenever huge amounts of time and budget are being spent on the tortuous process of creating a big brand's identity, it's instructive to remember that some of the world's best known logo designs came from much humbler origins. Take the world-famous Nike tick (or 'swoosh'), which was sketched by Portland student Carolyn Davidson in 1971, and for which she was paid the grand sum of $35. 7 iconic logos and what you can learn from them Later on, in 1983, she received a gold swoosh ring embedded with a diamond and an envelope containing Nike stock... and rightly so. Now one of the world's most recognisable emblems, this symbol embodies an upbeat and positive feel that can be extended to literally every sport, proving that it's often the simplest ideas that are the best. 03. Playboy Playboy's logo has become its biggest asset Another relic from the days when logo design was cheap and cheerful, the Playboy rabbit took half an hour to draw in 1953, according to Art Paul, the magazine's art director at the time. In fact, he believes if he'd spent more time finessing it, the logo might not have turned out so well. This stylised silhouette, wittily playing on the virility of the rabbit species, hasn't just survived half a century of sexual revolution and counter-revolution intact, it's more or less moved from representing the business to becoming the business. In short, Playboy's licensing of its logo – from clothes and beauty products to bars and clubs – is now one of its main sources of income. And though rumours that the magazine is to close have been flying in particular since Hugh Hefner's death, in 2014 Playboy was ranked 42nd on a list of the top 150 global licensors. Not bad for a quick sketch that was originally envisioned as an endnote for the magazine's second issue. 04. Shell Shell's vivid, minimalist logo is a real keeper Founded in 1897, The Shell Transport and Trading Company's first logo was a mussel shell lying on its side. Seven years later, that got swapped for an upright scallop: a more confident design, suggesting a sunrise and bright new future, which has in large part survived to this day. Shell's first service stations arrived in California in 1915. Wanting them to stand out, the firm picked bright red and yellow colours due to the state's Spanish connections. These colours became incorporated into the logo in 1948. Then in 1971 French-born designer Raymond Loewy simplified the logo, removing some clutter to create a cleaned-up design that remains virtually unchanged to this day. Who wouldn't want to design something that lasted four decades and counting? Above all, the Shell logo proves that crisp minimalism isn't just something that's trendy right now, but an approach that's potentially timeless. 05. Disney A little bit of Disney magic in logo form Walter Elias Disney's signature must surely have become one of the most famous in history, thanks to this everlasting design. His looping script was said to have inspired this logo, which has gone relatively unchanged since the 1930s. But did it? The internet is packed with claims that Walt's actual signature was nothing like this jolly script, along with plenty of photographic evidence to back this up. Others insist the wordmark was actually based on the signature of the Disney employee authorised to sign autographs on the great man's behalf. Whatever the truth, this friendly logo does its job, and does it well. Instantly conveying a sense of childlike joy, it's become a byword for family fun and entertainment worldwide, as well as being incorporated into sibling logos such as those of Walt Disney Pictures and the Disney Channel. 06. Volkswagen The logo that became a fashion accessory in the 1980s Volkswagen's logo has changed remarkably little in the 75 years since its inception, largely due to the simplicity of the idea: a V above a W, encapsulated in a circle, representing the straightforward and unambiguous nature of the original German 'people's car'. But while it's done sterling service to the car maker, its popularity became a problem for some in the 1980s. After Mike D of rap group the Beastie Boys appeared on TV wearing a chrome Volkswagen emblem, attached to a chain-link necklace, Detroit area dealers reported a sharp increase in the disappearance of four-inch hood and grille emblems. While a true design classic, the VW logo does continue to evolve. The most recent version, in 2012, has seen the shadowing and highlighting effects become distinctly more pronounced, with extra bevelling on the letters enhancing the 3D effect. A new logo to reflect a new era of electric cars is also expected soon. 07. Ford Even Paul Rand couldn't better this design When it comes to logo design, Paul Rand (1914-1996) might be considered the heavyweight champion of all time. The American art director and graphic designer was known for his logo designs for IBM, ABC, Westinghouse, UPS, NeXT Computers and (ahem) Enron. And in 1966, he was even asked to rethink and modernise the much-loved Ford logo. The radical new design Rand created was an impressive piece of work. But ultimately Henry Ford II couldn't bear to part with the familiar scripted oval logo, which had been used on its cars since 1928. Originally drafted by Childe Harold Wills, an engineer and one of Ford's first executives, this iconic logo, which remains largely unaltered to this day, is rendered in Spencerian script, which is coincidentally also used in the Coca-Cola logo. And much like that iconic asset, it's now almost impossible to think of Ford's logo ever being changed dramatically – however cool the designer. 08. McDonald's These golden arches speak of calories and capitalism As familiar as the Statue of Liberty, and equally imbued with political and cultural significance, McDonald's iconic Golden Arches logo has virtually become a symbol of fast food itself – for hungry consumers and angry protesters alike. The arches themselves were originally designed to be part of the building that house Richard and Maurice McDonald's first franchised outlet in the 1950s. Ultimately, the brothers instead brought in a sign-maker, George Dexter, to design two giant yellow arches that were added to opposite sides of the restaurant. It wasn't until a decade years later, after entrepreneur Ray Kroc had bought the business, that the distinctive arches were combined into an 'M' to form its new corporate logo. The logo now appears on more than 36,000 McDonald's restaurants in 120 countries worldwide, with more branches opening every year. 09. Penguin The Penguin emblem is beloved by bookworms everywhere Think of publishing and you'll probably think of Penguin, thanks in part to the friendly flightless bird that adorns everything it publishes. Since its first iteration, this charming mascot has become a globally recognised symbol of good reading and good breeding. It was originally created in 1935, when Allen Lane of the publisher Bodley Head decided to produce a new range of cheap but good-quality paperbacks, apparently inspired by the lack of decent reading material while waiting for a train in Exeter. Lane decided on the name Penguin Books at the suggestion of his secretary Joan Coles, and dispatched 21-year-old designer Edward Young to London Zoo to sketch some penguins. (He came back with the observation: “My God, how those birds stink!”) Staring the reader straight in the eye, the emblem is so iconic, it's easy to assume it hasn't been tweaked at all over the decades. It has, however, been redrawn a handful of times, most recently in 2003 by Pentagram partner Angus Hyland, who actually made the bird 15 per cent slimmer. 10. Firefox Firefox's emblem symbolises a web browser for everyone Another animal logo, the symbol of Mozilla's popular web browser is the most recent on our list, but no less deserved of long-term protection. This detailed yet dramatically effective design was originally created in 2004 by Jon Hicks, based on a concept from Daniel Burka and sketched by Stephen Desroches, which Hicks then rendered using Fireworks MX. A fiery fox encircling a stylised earth, the emblem has been subtly simplified over the years, enabling it to remain clear even at the tiny sizes demanded by mobile devices. But its essence remains: symbolising Firefox's twin aspirations for global reach and a speedy internet, it's truly deserving of the title 'modern classic'. Related articles: 5 big brands that pass the silhouette test Best World Cup logos ever Famous logos redesigned as fonts View the full article

What does a rainbow taste like, anyway? As we all know, a rainbow's merely a colourful effect caused by the reflection, refraction and dispersion of sunlight through tiny water droplets in the air, so it's unlikely to taste of anything unless you have a particularly rare form of synaesthesia. We doubt that the people at Skittles have lost much sleep over this, to be honest. What we're much more interested in right now is Skittles' treatment of its logo and packaging design for a new campaign supporting the LBGT+ community and raising awareness for this year's London Pride parade. For the past two years, Skittles has done its bit for Pride by dropping the rainbow colours from its logo so that Pride has the rainbow to itself; in 2016 it brought a completely monochrome float to the Pride parade and handed out black and white packets of sweets; this year it's selling limited edition black and white packs to raise money for Switchboard, the LGBT+ helpline. And to help get the message home, campaign organisers adam&eveDDB have commissioned a set of fun animated shorts from assorted animators, showing various ways in which Skittles might lose their trademark rainbow colours, with beavers, piranhas and even a Wagnerian opera singer finding ways to drain the rainbow. The various shorts were directed by Chris Bristow at Blinkink. If you need a little less colour in your life and fancy supporting a worthwhile cause, you can find the limited edition packs of Skittles for sale in branches of Tesco. Related articles: Rainbow flag designer commemorated with free font family The stories behind Pride flag designs 6 times brands temporarily changed their packaging View the full article

Applying for a job in the design world can be a frustrating business. You’re certain in your own mind that you could ace this role; why can’t employers just take you at your word? In reality, nobody is ever going to take you on, or even invite you in for an interview, until you’ve first wowed them with a knockout design portfolio. But what if you're already pretty happy with your portfolio and creative resume and you're still not getting interviews? What you're probably looking for is that extra something that makes you stand out from the crowd. To find out what the people doing the hiring want, we asked two experts: Eddie Opara, partner at Pentagram, and Lou Hunter, creative director at Superunion, about what they are looking for in a portfolio, and how you can transform yours from good to great. Eddie Opara Eddie Opara is a partner at Pentagram. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art What do you look for in a portfolio? There are some fundamental things. I’m looking for craftsmanship. Are the fundamental aspects of craft there, in terms of typography, composition, art direction, and so on? And equally importantly, I’m looking to see whether your work has solved the challenge you were presented with. Beyond that are the added plusses; the things that take your work to another level. That you’ve extended your approach in regards to that composition, in a different way than people might have expected. That there’s a sense of energy and dynamic to the work, depending on what the work is and what the context was. And from my point of view, I’m also looking for experimentation; the idea that you’re not scared to take a leap of faith. Eddie Opara led the rebrand of real estate brokerage firm, Halstead I’m not looking for every portfolio I see to tick every one of these boxes. Some designers are just ‘anchors’, with a very degree of high craftsmanship. They may base their principles on minimalism, simplicity, function before form, and you really need these kind of designers. But then you have that other kind of designer, who can bring an entirely different aspect to it. I believe you need a balance between the two; I call it the rough with the smooth. As long as I get the balance in the end, then that’s fine. Is there anything that's generally lacking in the portfolios you see? There’s a key element that I don’t really see any more, and that’s process. How did you come up with the work? Did you write about it, did you query yourself, where’s the research towards it? I was always told to show my workings, how I plied everything together, the rationale behind it, and you don’t get that any more. Or at least, I haven’t seen it for quite some time. So I want to know: what were the failures? What were the successes? Why did you choose this particular approach over another one? I want to see that you have really thought about these things, especially if you struggled with it but then found a solution. That tells me more about you than just a final piece of work. A spread from Eddie Opara's book, Color Works It’s not that designers don’t think about these things, it’s that they don’t seem to write about them in their portfolios any more. When I actually sit down and have a conversation with people, they usually do start talking about process. I can settle for that, but I’d love to see more of that in the portfolio. I want to see the great narrative that one can show; that graphic design is not just this ‘Instagram’ piece of work. There’s a lot of shit that went into this. Did it instantaneously arrive there? Of course it didn’t! So what was the process, what are the challenges, what are the conversations you had? How did you fundamentally get there? What about the design and layout of the portfolio? What’s problematic is that everybody’s using the same system. Where’s the fun in every portfolio having the same look and feel? I find that to be quite upsetting. Is there another way you can think of to show your work? Right now, we live in a time of image. It’s a cacophony, it’s imbued our retinas and our brains, and to a certain degree we’re tired of it, but it keeps coming. So I do notice the homogenisation of work that’s occurring. I’m not the only one who’s talked about this. If I see that in your portfolio, I worry: is this particular designer going to constantly do that? So I’d advise people: even if it was an idea that was rejected, show it. Show who you are rather than what you want people to think that you are. That’s really important. We always say that design is about solving problems, you constantly hear this. Graphic design is an artistic, creative profession. So use your portfolio to express yourself. Try, anyway. Any more advice for a great portfolio? When I’ve done portfolio reviews at conferences, or schools, I’ll ask: have you travelled? Have you left your home town, county, city state, country? If so, did you go to any studios to hang out and talk to people? If the answer’s no, that’s one of the things that you’ve got to do. You’ve got to stretch your mindset. It’s a diversity of thought; that’s what makes a good designer. Lou Hunter Lou Hunter has worked within a wide range of disciplines including visual identity systems, strategic brand creation and live events How should you approach the design of a portfolio? The work is the hero, so you’re showcasing the projects that you’ve done, and you want that work to sing. But that said, you want that work to sing in a beautiful way. If you’re applying for a design job, you want people to feel like your portfolio has been designed, rather than, ‘Here are some images and here’s some copy.’ You want it to feel a bit more crafted, because that’s your craft. You don’t want it be overdesigned, of course. The majority of portfolios we see are fairly clean and simple, which normally works best. But you need to pay close attention to detail. For example, if you have a paragraph of copy with a little widow – one word on its own – and then you talk about having a passion for typography, no one’s going to believe you. It’s little things like that which make the difference. A new identity for the International Chamber of Shipping by Brand Union (which has since become Superunion) Should you include personal work? I think that’s a great idea, I really do. Because often you’ll have a fantastic idea, but in the world of commercial design sometimes it doesn’t end up the way you first imagined it, for any number of reasons. So, yes I think showing personal work in your portfolio that demonstrates how you think about ideas, your approach to work and so on, alongside your client work, is a great way to show off the other things that you can do. You don’t want it to dominate, but including some personal pieces can be a nice way to talk about things you enjoy, and demonstrates you’re someone with a bit of passion. How can you make your portfolio stand out? When I get a portfolio, I want to feel that the person who’s sending it loves their portfolio. Because it’s something that represents you as a person. If I look at something and I get that sense that someone’s proud to share that, that’s what I’m looking for, essentially, whatever level you’re at, whether that’s at the junior level or at the design director level. How do you achieve that? I think it’s largely about putting in the time and effort. In truth, people can tell when a designer has lavished care and attention on a portfolio, rather than just chucked some work in a layout and that’s it. There’s a consideration to the length and the projects that are included, it’s not too dense, and it’s almost like you’re telling the story of yourself. If a portfolio has that feeling, it definitely becomes more engaging. Lead image by Thomas Burden. This article originally appeared in issue 279 of Computer Arts, the world's best-selling design magazine. Buy issue 279 or subscribe here. Read more: How to curate a creative portfolio 8 great graphic design portfolios for 2018 The dos and don'ts of perfect portfolios View the full article

Getting to grips with colour theory can seem a little bit too much like learning maths or science. You may feel you just want to be creative and express yourself, not work out calculations. 3 huge colour trends for 2018 But colour theory is one of the fundamental art techniques you need to learn in order to progress and grow as an artist. Read on to create a colour theory chart that will transform your creative life. 01. Grab some pencils You can use any medium you want, but pencils are easiest The following exercise can be completed with acrylic, oil or watercolour paints, but colouring pencils are best. Not only do you just need the pencils themselves – there's no need for water, spirits, brushes or a palette – but they're are also a lot less messy than other mediums. And they're so portable – this exercise can be completed on the bus if needs be! If you're not sure which pencils are right for you, read our post on the best pencils. 02. Draw a square Start with a square then divide it horizontally and vertically I recommend using an A2 piece of quality cartridge paper, but you could scale the exercise down. Draw a square of 300x300mm (12x 12in). Then divide that square up into 12 equal parts (the squares should be 25x25mm or 1x1in). Starting from the bottom left corner, mark 1–12 running horizontally and vertically as shown in this image. 03. Choose your colours Pick out 12 colours to represent your spectrum The wonderful thing about the spectrum is how the colours all work together. Understanding the relationships between the colours is key to getting great results while mixing. Using the lovely Derwent Procolour pencils, I chose the following 12 colours to represent the full spectrum: Ultramarine (31) Midnight Blue (40) Racing Green (44) Grass Green (49) Primrose Yellow (02) Buttercup Yellow (03) Middle Chrome (08) Spectrum Orange (10) Primary Red (12) Plum (15) Imperial Purple (26) Dark Violet (27) 04. Pure colour Add your first square of pure colour Start with the bottom left corner (square 1–1) and shade it in with the Ultramarine (31) pencil. If you're using good quality pencil, a light touch is all that's needed. This will be one of our 'pure' colour squares. There will be a line of 'pure' colour squares running in a diagonal from bottom left up to top right as the two sets of colours converge. 05. Extend your lines Now fill in all the squares in the corresponding row and column Now it's time to extend the Ultramarine line out horizontally and vertically. Still try to shade each square as an individual though, it will help keep them consistent and stop you from making some much darker than others. Don't worry about going over the lines, just give it a nice relaxed feel. And don't get too uptight whilst laying down your colour, it should be fun. 06. Add another colour Now start doing the same with other colours Then move to colour 2, square 2-2, colour in this square as one of your 'pure' colours. Then add Midnight Blue in squares 1-2 and 2-1. Continue with the rest of the colours, colouring in the 'pure' square first and then the surrounding colours. As you're starting off with the blues and greens, the initial effect of mixing won't be obvious at first, but stick with it. 07. Build up your chart Repeat until you've completed your chart As you move into the oranges and reds, the effects of the 12-step colour mixing wheel becomes more apparent. See how the colours that are opposite each other on the 12-step wheel seem to 'cancel' and 'grey each other down' when mixed together. This effect of desaturating the colour is one of the cornerstones of effective colour mixing. This article originally appeared in issue 11 of Paint & Draw. Related articles: 21 outstanding uses of colour in branding 10 sketching tips for beginners Generate endless colour palettes with Khroma View the full article

Voice interfaces are one of the hottest user experience trends in recent years. New figures reveal that one in 10 Brits now owns at least one of these devices. But how are we really using them? Code Computerlove polled over 1,000 smart speaker owners, and turned their findings into this top infographic. And if this inspires you to put together your own data visualisation, take a look at our list of the best infographic tools around. Read on for some surprising facts about how UK residents are using this amazing new smart speaker technology. That's right, a fifth of us are using our clever invisible friends to make sure we don't overcook our eggs in the morning. It's a task that can be accomplished using a normal clock, but, hey, where's the fun in that? In fact, mundane tasks lead the way when it comes to smart help – 65 per cent of owners used their assistant to play music or the radio, and over half use it to check the weather forecast. Furthermore, Alexa still rules the roost in the voice assistant space, with Amazon Echos making up 70 per cent of the devices owned. There are other good options available though (take a look at our sister site TechRadar's guide to smart speakers for more info). The big question with any new technology is: is it just a fad? Perhaps not, judging by the fact that 25 per cent of owners chat to their smart assistants every day, even taking it to bed with them. However, a further 30 per cent have forgotten they even have a voice assistant in the house. Less encouraging. For more interesting finds – including our deep-seated fears about voice assistants – take a look at the full infographic below. Click on the infographic to see the full-size version. Read more: The 5 biggest UX design trends for 2018 How to create amazing infographics How to design a chatbot experience View the full article

Need inspiration for your next graphics assignment? Or access to thousands of royalty-free photos? A lifetime subscription to Stock-Graphics has you covered. For just $19, you can have access to thousands of stock photos and vector graphics, and enjoy unlimited downloads, year after year. Whether you're a graphic design professional, an entrepreneur, or an art hobbyist, you'll find good use for the 13,500+ photos and 2,900+ vectors available on Stock-Graphics. You'll find hundreds of images across multiple categories, including icons, people, and a whole lot more. Take your newsletters, web pages, banners, and flyers to the next level for only $19. Related articles: The ultimate guide to image resolution 5 tips for better image manipulation How to use reference images: 8 essential tips View the full article

Introducing effects to text and typography can add a whole new perspective to the user experience on a website. But text is to be read, and getting too smart or clever with an effect can defeat the purpose of it. So be smart, be clever, but make sure that your kinetic typography effect actually works, just like it does on Patrick Heng's website – featured in the image above. Read on to find out how... 1. Create the intro text Open the project files and you will see that there is the velocity.js and blast.js library. Blast splits text up, while velocity is a tween engine. There are three offset variables to make each piece of text move at different intervals. 2. Split the text Using blast, each of the text characters are split into their own span element. Then the top layer of text is looped through and the offset is increased for each letter so they animate independently. 3. Add velocity Now the velocity library adds the movement and opacity so that the letters move up and fade in. Each letter is offset, and the duration and easing are set for each of the letters. 4. Call the action Now the ‘anim’ function is called and this triggers the animation to begin. A ‘setTimeout’ function now staggers the second block of text that will be yellow. Again, it is triggered using velocity as in the first example. 5. Move on The delay, duration and easing are set so that the second yellow text moves correctly. Then the last piece of text which is orange is controlled in the next ‘setTimeout’ function to delay this moving a little longer before starting. 6. Add final letters Now the final letters are moved into place. This gives the same effect as Patrick Heng’s site, which has layers of text moving. Patrick actually uses WebGL to move the text but this is a simpler way with DOM elements. Learn more at Generate London See Richard Rutter, Sarah Parmenter and Bruce Lawson, and more talk at Generate London 2018 Richard Rutter has a love and fascination for typography and co-founded Fontdeck, a pioneering web font service. As a self-appointed web typography evangelist, Richard is chief organiser of Clearleft’s Ampersand web typography conferences. At Generate London 2018, his workshop will help you create websites with engaging, appropriate, distinctive, expressive and readable web typography, which adapts for screens of all shapes and sizes. You will learn how to combine centuries-old craft with cutting-edge technology – including variable fonts – in order to design and develop the best experiences for your readers. Over the course of a day, you will participate in hands-on activities, applying each new technique to a detailed example site which you can take back with you. This will form the perfect resource for you to refer to in the future. And if that’s not enough, every attendee will walk away with a free electronic copy of Richard’s acclaimed Web Typography book. Don't miss out, get your ticket now Related articles: Perfect JavaScript in 1,000 projects Pro digital type tips for graphic designers 7 great web type resources View the full article

With cyberattacks on the rise and growing ever more sophisticated, it's vital to ensure your devices are protected from the latest online threats. That's why we've put together this list of the best antivirus software for both PC and Mac. Staying safe and secure online is especially important for freelance and employed professionals: the consequences of an attack could be disastrous. Could you cope if ransomware encrypted all digital content across your network, for instance? Yes, hopefully, as long as you run regular backups, but even if that's true, you could still spend an age cleaning up your systems. You're less exposed if you use a Mac, but that doesn't mean you're entirely safe. There is some Mac malware around – and even if you avoid this, it's important that you don't pass on an infected PDF or other document to clients (horror of horrors) or colleagues. Installing a quality antivirus is a good first step in staying safe online, and it could be cheaper than you think. Although single user, one-year licences typically cost £20 ($26) to £30 ($39), most companies give you discounts as you add more devices and years. For example, Kaspersky can protect five devices for less than £8 ($10.40) each per year. Free antivirus software is another option. You need to be careful here as some packages are worse than useless (we're not kidding) but others do deliver top-notch protection. Experts can go further and build their own multi-layered security suite, maybe with a free antivirus package and a separate antiransomware app to shield your documents from harm. Whatever you're doing, there's a lot of choice available. Which is right for you? In this guide, we'll point you at five of the best antivirus software options around. Founded back in 2001, Romanian-based Bitdefender is now a top-rated security giant which protects more than 500 million users worldwide. How did they do it? Checking the specs for Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2018 gives one indication: it's absolutely crammed with high-end features and functionality, more than some of the competition offer in their full security suites. There's accurate antivirus, for instance. A password manager to manage your logons. Web filtering prevents you accessing malicious URLs. a file shredder securely deletes confidential or personal files, and a vulnerability scanner spots outdated software and missing Windows patches. That's just the start. Multi-layered ransomware protection keeps your digital content safe from hackers. A VPN protects your connection over insecure public wifi (though beware, there's only a tiny 200MB daily traffic allowance), and a secure and isolated browser keeps your banking, shopping or other personal activities safe from snoopers. For all its feature overload, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2018 is generally very easy to use. It doesn't hassle you with alerts or baffle you with complicated settings; mostly you can leave the program to handle everything itself. And whatever you're doing, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2018 keeps you safer than most. The company is loved by the independent testing labs, and for example AV-Comparatives' July-November Real-World Protection report) [https://www.av-comparatives.org/comparison] saw Bitdefender ranked second out of 21, with a protection rate of 99.9%. If you've more devices to protect, check out Bitdefender TOTAL SECURITY 2018. It may look expensive at £34.99 ($45.50) for year one, £69.99 ($91) on renewal, but that gets you protection for up to six Windows, Mac, iOS or Android devices in any combination. US prices: Best value deal Total Security 2018 (5 devices, 1 year for only $44.99) Internet Security 2018 (3 devices, 1 year for only $39.98) Antivirus Plus 2018 (1 device, 1 year for only $19.99) UK prices: Save 50% Total Security 2018 (5 devices, 1 year for only £35) Internet Security 2018 (3 devices, 1 year for only £24.99) Antivirus Plus 2018 (1 device, 1 year for only £14.99) Eugene Kaspersky began developing antivirus as a hobby in 1987. It proved a very smart choice, as he went on to found Kaspersky Labs in 1997, and the company now helps to secure more than 400 million users and 270,000 corporate clients. Kaspersky Anti-Virus can't match the feature set of Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2018. There are a few extras – an on-screen keyboard cuts the chance of typed data being intercepted by malware, while a Vulnerability Scanner looks out for problems with Windows – but mostly it focuses on the security essentials. This simplicity keeps the program easy to use, though. A straightforward interface has just four main buttons, and you can be running a full system scan in a couple of clicks. But there's also some flexibility, with options to run quick scans of commonly-infected areas only, selective scans of particular files and folders, or external device scans to uncover threats on USB keys or other external drives. Reports from the independent testing labs show Kaspersky is more accurate than most. AV-Test's April 2018 Windows test as one of only six vendors (from a field of 18) to be certified as a 'Top Product', with a 100% protection rate in both test months. AV-Comparatives May 2018 Real-World Protection Test results weren't quite as impressive, with Kaspersky ranking ninth out of 18, but it still blocked a creditable 99.6% of threats. Kaspersky Anti-Virus is a PC-only product, but upgrading to Kaspersky Total Security adds protection for Macs, iOS and Android devices. It's fractionally more expensive at an initial £27.99 ($36.40) for a 1 year, 1 device licence, but if you've plenty of hardware to cover, there are savings to be made. You can buy a 5 device, 2-year licence for £76.99 ($100), for instance, around £7.70 ($10) per device per year. US prices: 1 year and 3 devices - $29.99 2 years up to 3 devices - $59.99 UK prices: 1 year and 1 device - £22.49 2 years up to 3 devices - £69.99 Kaspersky made the headlines recently for the wrong reasons, with both the UK and US governments banning some departments from using its products . This must be a concern, but the government statements are mostly about areas of national security, and the UK says its recommendations don't apply to home users. As we've seen no evidence that Kaspersky has done anything wrong, we're not going to allow this to affect our views. Security powerhouses like Bitdefender Antivirus Plus have their place, but many professional users are looking for something simpler, more lightweight, which doesn't hog system resources or require any attention or management. If that sounds like you, it might be worth taking a look at Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus. The package is so tiny - just a few megabytes - that it installs in seconds. It grabs the absolute minimum of RAM and doesn't soak up your network bandwidth by downloading antivirus definition updates, as Webroot handles its detection in the cloud. System scans are very, very fast. The Webroot website claims an average of 20 seconds, our tests say closer to 60, but that's still a huge improvement on the 10, 20, maybe 30-minute system scan times of other products. Despite the apparent simplicity, SecureAnywhere isn't lacking in features. As well as antivirus, the package blocks attempts to hijack your webcam, protects you from identity theft and blocks access to phishing and other malicious sites. There's a major highlight in Webroot's anti-ransomware technology. SecureAnywhere not only tries to block threats before they can cause any damage, but if something gets through anyway and encrypts some files, the program can often recover them. If there's an issue here, is that Webroot isn't often assessed by the independent testing labs, making it more difficult to get a feel for how accurate it is. SecureAnywhere was included in MRG-Effitas Q1 2018 online banking test, though, where it blocked 100% of financial malware, and our own small-scale tests also suggest it performs very well. A 14-day free trial makes it easy to sample SecureAnywhere's abilities for yourself, and an exceptional 70-day money-back guarantee suggests Webroot is confident you'll be happy with the product. US prices: 1 year and 1 device - $19.99 1 year up to 3 devices - $29.99 UK prices 1 year and 1 device - £22.49 1 year up to 3 devices - £37.49 The world is full of free antivirus tools, especially for Android, but these aren't always what they seem. In March 2018 AV-Test tested 204 Android antivirus apps and found that 131 of these – a chunky 64 per cent – missed at least half the test threats. Avira products are very different, fortunately. The company has been around for years and it's built a great reputation for accuracy and reliability. Don't just take our word for it. Avira Antivirus generally scores well in independent testing, most recently ranking first out of 18 in AV-TEST's May Real-World Protection Test with a perfect 100% protection score. Although Avira started in the Windows world, it now has free products for Mac, iOS and Android. These have all kinds of tools, depending on the package you get - antivirus, ransomware, VPN, password manager, anti-theft and more - and they're all very usable, with few of the annoying ads and stupid restrictions you'll often see with other freebies. Avira's Connect system even allows you to check and manage all your Avira-enabled devices from one central console. That's good news for businesses with several employees, or if you just want to keep an eye on what the rest of the family are doing. Avira Antivirus Pro is a commercial version which looks a little pricy at £29.99 ($39), but also adds some very important features, especially for business users. You get separate layers of email and network protection, Device Control helps define which devices can be attached to your system, secure browsing enables protecting shopping, banking and other confidential internet activities, and there's email and phone support if anything goes wrong. Avira Free Antivirus for Free per month Avira Pro: 1 device / monthly subscription - £2.99 Windows Defender used to be a security joke, an underpowered antivirus with such a low detection rate that in 2012 independent lab AV-TEST refused to certify it. Microsoft has continued to develop the product, though, and the results are becoming clear, with Defender's detection rate is now comparable with some big-name commercial products. For example, AV-Comparatives' last Real-World Protection summary report (July November) placed Microsoft 13th out of 21 with a creditable detection rate of 99.2 per cent. There's clearly work to do, but Microsoft isn't lagging too far behind Avast's 99.6 per cent, and it's already beating names like ESET (99 per cent), Emsisoft (98.8 per cent) and Adaware (95 per cent). There are some bonus features, including a firewall, basic parental controls, and even simple ransomware protection with the new Controlled Folder Access. Windows Defender is ultra-lightweight, too. There's nothing extra to set up, hog your system resources or conflict with other applications. For the most part, Defender just works, leaving you to get on with what really matters. Let's be clear: Windows Defender still can't quite match the best of the competition. If you're after a single program which delivers the best possible detection rates, you're looking in the wrong place. If simplicity is top of your priority list, though, or you'd like a decent baseline antivirus which you can easily extend with other security apps, Windows Defender deserves a place on your shortlist. Microsoft Windows Defender for Free per month You can download Windows Defender here View the full article

When you need to design a brand identity, you’ll find plenty of expert advice on this site; from how to create a logo design to stunning packaging design to great examples of cannabis branding. But there are also some less obvious places to get branding inspiration. Fictional brands may be largely created for laughs, or to avoid legal entanglements. But the best of them highlight deep truths about what makes a successful brand. Indeed, some have even gone on to become real products in their own right, to varying degrees. We’ve picked our favourites to delight and inspire you... 01. Chumhum (The Good Wife/The Good Fight) Chumhum offers a beautiful parody of Google's branding and business practices If you haven’t watched The Good Wife and its follow-up, The Good Fight, then where have you been? The legal/political TV drama set in Chicago is smart, witty, and likely to be remembered as one of the most iconic shows of the 2010s. That’s partly because it hoovers up both current events and the online zeitgeist and reinvents them as captivating storylines. And whatever labyrinthine plot is unearthed in any particular episode, its nexus can often be found in a barely disguised equivalent of Google, called Chumhum. The reason Chumhum works so well as a fictional brand is that, unlike on other shows, these writers actually understand the intricate workings of the online economy, from Bitcoin to fake news. Parody only ever works well if it comes from a place of respect for the subject matter. And from its MailChimp-style mascot (‘Chummie the gopher’) to its simplified colour palette, to the multiple brand offshoots (such as the allegorithmically discriminatory Chumhum Maps), this fictional brand nails the look and feel of a modern web giant perfectly. Recently, Chumhum has even started popping up in other CBS shows, such as the US reboot of Israeli crime drama Wisdom of the Crowd. Not surprising then that real-life versions of the Chumhum search portal are now appearing online everywhere, from the UK to China. 02. Pizza Planet (Toy Story) Pizza Planet restaurant design is both beautifully minimalist and gloriously epic Kids love pizza, and kids love aliens, so what child wouldn’t want to go to Pizza Planet? Especially when the fictional fast-food chain, which appears in Toy Story and Toy Story 3, offers cool attractions like Alien Slime dispensers, a Whack-a-Alien game, and a ‘Claw’ challenge where you can win the most loveable alien toys ever. (Not to mention robot bouncers at the entrance that look suspiciously like the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica.) The design of the restaurant building itself is both beautifully minimalist and gloriously epic. Shaped like the planet Saturn, and crowned with a retro-cursive ‘Pizza Planet’ logo, it combines the best of 1950s Americana with futuristic optimism, plus the rocket launchpad at its side is truly Las Vegas-grandiose. The brand also seems infinitely extensible, appearing on everything from the Pizza Planet-branded season schedule on Andy’s wall to the Pizza Planet truck, which has made cameo appearances in every Pixar film to date besides The Incredibles. Strange to consider, then, that in earlier versions of the Toy Story script, Pizza Planet was actually going to be a miniature golf course called Pizza Putt. Pizza Planet fans will also be pleased to know that a real-life version of the restaurant is reportedly coming soon to Disneyland in California. 03. Acme (Roadrunner) The Roadrunner cartoons made the Acme brand a household name One of the reasons that the Roadrunner cartoons, most of which were made between 1949 and 1966, still resonate today is the simplicity of the concept. In every single episode, Wile E. Coyote hunts a roadrunner using absurd contraptions that consistently fail or backfire catastrophically including anvils, fold-out roadblocks and stick-on tunnel entrances. The viewer is always alive to the gag, because all these products are made by the same failing company, ironically called Acme (which means perfection in Greek). Surprisingly, though, there were actually many real-life ‘Acme’ companies throughout the 20th century, because the name meant they would appear at the top of alphabetical telephone directory listings. As far as we know, none of these got upset by the defamation created by the Roadrunner cartoons, and nor does it seem to bother the many companies with Acme in their name today, such as Acme Markets, a division of Albertsons. Perhaps a sign that as an element of the branding mix, strong name recognition counts for more than anything else? 04. Oceanic Airlines (Lost) Oceanic Airlines' logo had Lost fans scurrying to look for hidden messages Anyone who got hooked on Lost around a decade ago (and who didn’t?) will be familiar with Oceanic Airlines. The company was central to the twisty-turny plot of the hit drama, in which Oceanic Flight 815 crash-lands on a mysterious island, stranding its passengers. And as viewers struggled to guess what exactly was going on, the branding of the airline itself became the subject of frenzied debate. The colourful, stylised logo depicting an Australian Aboriginal dot painting was wildly speculated about by fans, who saw it as symbolising such things as a nazar, a bullseye, or the island itself. Meanwhile, back in the real-world, the fictional branding played a large part in ABC’s real-world marketing, with fake billboards for Oceanic placed in cities around the world as part of the Find 815 alternate reality game. Fictitious TV ads for the airline also aired on ABC and on the web, including one made in an alternate universe where flight 815 did not crash and Oceanic has a "perfect safety record" (see below). This was only the latest in a long-running screen-life for the Oceanic Airlines brand. It’s also appeared in multiple TV shows, including Alias, Castle, Chuck, Flash Forward, Diagnosis Murder, Fringe, Futurama, The Goldbergs, Once Upon a Time, The X-Files and Grey’s Anatomy. 05. Stark Industries (Iron Man) Marvel's fictional multinational is more valuable than anything in the DC Universe, claims Forbes Stark Industries first appeared in April 1963, in the Marvel comic Tales of Suspense #40. Owned and run by businessman Anthony Edward ‘Tony’ Stark, aka Iron Man, it’s been a central plot device in its comics, TV shows and movies ever since. Nowadays, Stark Industries represents the world’s largest tech conglomerate within the Marvel universe, and according to a slightly tongue-in-cheek analysis by Forbes, had a lower net revenue in 2007 than Wayne Enterprises in the DC Universe (which made $31.3 billion, in comparison to Stark Industries $20.3 billion, in case you were wondering). With bases in New York and Los Angeles, Stark Industries also benefits from superlative branding, with a heavy-set, bold-italic logo that combines a vintage feel with a forward-thrusting sense of progress. It’s all very reminiscent of real-world corporate behemoths such as Lockheed Martin, and perfectly conveys the confidence and cocky vision of its fictional owner. Featured in more than 10 movies to date, this cool and distinctive branding appears on everything from airplanes to factories, and of course, the iconic Stark Tower. Given Marvel’s cinematic productivity of late, expect to see it in at least a dozen more films and TV shows before the decade is out. 06. Cheesy Poofs (South Park) Cartman's uncontrolled addiction to Cheesy Poofs is a warning to parents everywhere What South Park fan hasn’t at one time found themselves craving a packet of Cheesy Poofs (or 10)? For the uninitiated, this is the fictional brand of cheese-flavoured snack beloved by the adult cartoon’s anti-hero, the gluttonous misanthrope Eric Cartman. And its brightly coloured, upbeat packaging style perfectly parodies the way food companies entice children to eat unhealthy snacks. It can also lay claim to one of history’s most memorable jingles (“I love cheesy poofs/You love cheesy poofs/If we didn't eat cheesy poofs/We'd be lame”). In fact, South Park’s animators did such a good job that the show’s maker Comedy Central has actually released real-life Cheesy Poofs as limited editions on two occasions. The first they sold via their website in 1998, then in 2011 they teamed up with Frito-Lay to repackage real-life brand Cheetos Puffs under the name at Wal-Mart stores. 07. Stay Puft Marshmallows (Ghostbusters) Even when he's destroying civilisation as we know it, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man makes you crave squishy treats The makers of iconic 1984 comedy Ghostbusters weren’t satisfied with creating iconic branding for the film itself (one of our five favourite fantasy logos). They also created one of the most memorable in-movie brands of modern cinematic history, in the form of Stay Puft Marshmallows. This fictional brand’s memorable 1950s-retro mascot, a boyish figure made of conjoined marshmallows in a sailor’s uniform, combines the best qualities of the Michelin Man and the Pillsbury Doughboy. And so even when, at the end of the film, he comes to giant life and destroys most of Manhattan, he remains a fun and friendly figure that any child would be drawn to, the gleeful grin on his face perfectly evoking the joy of an indulgent sugar rush. It’s not surprising, then, that not only has the Stay Puft Marshmallows brand appeared in numerous Ghostbusters sequels and spin-offs, but in 2010 and 2012, real-life Stay Puft marshmallows were released as official movie merchandise. 08. Duff Beer (The Simpsons) The Simpsons may be mocking mass-market beer drinkers with Duff, but you still want to drink it Even if you’ve never watched The Simpsons, you can probably guess from the name that Duff Beer is a satire on the kind of mass-market beverages popular with working-class Americans. But it seems that irony sells, because companies around the world have attempted to sell their own beers under the Duff branding (a practice known as 'brandjacking'), resulting in numerous legal battles. Finally, in 2015, Simpsons producer 21st Century Fox relented and began selling its own licensed Duff beer in Chile. A version of the beer is also sold at Universal Studios. To an extent, Fox has only got themselves to blame, because the fictional brand of Duff is relentlessly and superly marketed within the show, from its spokesperson Duffman (a parody of Budweiser's '70s-era mascot Bud Man) to the Duff Gardens theme park ride through a brown river of beer ("Duff beer for me, Duff beer for you, I'll have a Duff, You have one too") and the ever-present Duff beer blimp. Is it any wonder we’re all craving Duff? Sorry Family Guy, but Pawtucket Patriot Ale just doesn’t get a look in. 09. Wonka Bars (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) The 1971 Willy Wonka film was accompanied by the first actual production of Wonka bars Whether you discovered Roald Dahl’s classic children’s story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory through the original book, the 1971 movie, its 2005 remake, or the 2013 West End musical, generations of kids have been drawn to the magical lure of Willy Wonka’s magical candies. And in this case, not just in the imaginary world but the real one as well. The first company to license the brand for real chocolate was Quaker Oats, which financed the 1971 film and released its own Wonka candy bars in the same year, although they unfortunately had to be recalled from stores due to production problems. A subsidiary called Breaker Confections later developed the brand, releasing a variety of Wonka products through the 1970s. This company was later acquired by Nestle, who continue to produce Wonka branded goods for local markets around the world to this day. Although real-world Wonka products do not have the magical properties of their fictional counterparts, they do take inspiration from them. Nestle’s everlasting gobstopper, for example, is composed of several discrete layers, which allow for the colour- and flavour-changing effects described in the book. In a triumph of branding over the Trades Description Act, however, they are not actually everlasting. 10. Bubba Gump Shrimp Company (Forrest Gump) This fictional restaurant chain has become a worldwide success in real life The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company has to finish our list because it’s arguably become even better known as a real-world brand than a fictional one. Featured in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, the fictional seafood restaurant inspired a real-life chain which had 40 branches by 2015, in the United States, Mexico, Japan, Malaysia, London, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Marianas and the Philippines, generating around $400 million per year in revenue. The company is based in Houston, Texas, and has been a division of Landry's Restaurants since 2010. As in the film, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.'s menu consists mostly of seafood dishes inspired by Southern and Cajun cuisine. Movie memorabilia is on display throughout the restaurant, and customers are given a “Stop, Forrest, Stop” sign to catch the waiter’s attention. Why has this fictional restaurant brand been so successful, when the world is still bereft of a Jack Rabbit Slims (Pulp Fiction), Stan Mikita's Donuts (Wayne’s World) or Mos Eisley Cantina (Star Wars)? There are many factors but perhaps most important is that, rather than just appearing as a movie backdrop, the restaurant chain plays an important role in the plot. In the film (spoiler alert!), Forrest’s Vietnam War buddie Bubba suggests getting in the shrimping business and, ultimately, Forrest pursues this idea after Bubba's death. In this modern era where brand storytelling is crucial to the marketing mix of restaurants, it seems that even a fictional back story can help make the difference between success and failure. Related articles: 5 ways to create better brand imagery 7 great examples of branded content 9 embarrassing branding blunders View the full article

Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the icons Illustrated icons can be a super addition to your design portfolio, whether you include them to reach a new group of potential clients, or to add more elements to an illustrated scene. In this Adobe Illustrator tutorial I'll show you how to create icons simply and easily, so you can create large volumes of them in no time at all. I’m going to design two icon sets: a set of digital phone/tablets and a set of coffee-making items. 01. Know what you're representing Real-world products need a good level of research Whatever your set of products is, do your research! A client would want all the products to be correct, and you should too. Even if it’s a personal project, you can’t accidentally add a camera button to an original Nokia 3310 or put a two-pin plug on a British kettle. If you’re illustrating a product for a client, ensure you know how it looks all the way round, so you understand it as a real-world object. 02. Draw it in pencil Break the object down into simple lines You can start off however you wish – I always draw everything in pencil, but for many products you can trace a photo. If you have a tricky shape to draw and it happens to be symmetrical – for example a lightbulb – you can just draw one half of it (I’ll come to that later!). 03. Get rid of kinks Stick to straight lines, perfect angles and smooth curves When creating linework, always keep lines and angles straight and clean. Your illustrated product icons may be used quite small on the page or screen, and unnecessary kinks or curves can confuse the eye and make things unclear. There are two main tips for this. First, with the Shape tool, hold down the Shift key to get perfect circles and squares or polygons that sit straight. And second, with the Pen tool hold down the Shift key to only draw angles at 45 degrees or 90 degrees to an axis. 04. Make use of symmetry Symmetry can make your workflow more efficient Many products are perfectly symmetrical, which makes things nice and simple. Once you have the linework, select it all with Selection tool (cmd+V) and you’ll see a range of Alignment buttons appear in the top bar. Click either the horizontal or the vertical Align Centre button, depending on what you need, and everything will snap into symmetry. You can also group objects together, and then align them with other objects or groups. 05. Reflect more complex objects A simple copy and paste will keep your objects nice and tidy For symmetry on more shapely objects, illustrate one half perfectly, then select these halves and copy and paste them all in one go by holding down shift+alt and hitting the right Arrow key, this will keep these lines level with their originals. Still with the copied objects selected click Object > Transform > Reflect from the main menu, select the Vertical option and click OK. Place this side of the object to get the width correct (using only the left and right Arrow keys so they stay aligned with the other half). Using the Direct Selection tool (cmd+A) join up the two sides of each line by selecting the two line ends and clicking cmd+J. 06. Maintain consistency All products go through evolutions; show how one relates to the next If you’re working on a collection of products, make sure you're always considering the other items in the collection. If buttons are the same across products, then copy and paste them, if the curved corner is always the same size, then make sure you’re using the same corner. Often (with tech products especially) you can make one device, then copy/paste it and simply adjust the proportions to make the next icon, which can really speed up your workflow. 07. Add some colour Using grey for metal can get boring, so experiment with blues With your linework complete, move on to colour. Generally, you want to get the tones as close to reality as possible, but there are some exceptions. For example, most metals are a mid-grey, which is boring for everyone! Instead, I use a variety of blue-grey tones (light or dark) and usually stray into turquoises. Try using a transparent blue for glass, too, as white can feel cold. I also recommend oranges and yellows for wood surfaces to really bring some warmth. 08. Explore gradients Even a subtle colour gradient can make a real difference to an icon As we’re creating illustrated icons, you don’t want to go too far on minor details and textures. However, you can really sell the surface of a product with a gradient. To get the best out of Adobe Illustrator, don’t create gradients from one colour to the next (it often results in banding when printed). Instead, choose a flat colour for an object/shape, select the shape and duplicate it (in the layers panel), then add a gradient to this top object going from an opacity of 100% down to 0%. 09. Try including shadows and highlights Create your own highlights and shadows, and develop your own graphic style When I'm not using gradients, I often duplicate an object and then cut it at a corner. I use the Pen tool (again holding down the shift key) to create a shape cropped at a 45-degree angle, which I then colour in a lighter or darker shade to add a simple but effective shadow or highlight. 10. Add extra details Bring your products to life by adding extra details Finally, if the size you’re using the icons at allows, you can really bring them to life. A tech device looks uninspiring with nothing on the screen, so use this space to demonstrate its functions or sell an app. Graphic product illustrations used within a bigger illustration (for example, if these coffee facilities were part of a wider scene) will draw the viewer in. Related posts: How to create repeat patterns in Illustrator The best premium and free Illustrator brushes Create a consistent set of icons in Sketch View the full article

What’s the best printer for home use? Whether you’re a freelancer who needs to print, scan and copy documents, a keen photographer looking for a photo printer, or an artist or designer after an A3+ printer that will give accurate test proofs of your designs, you’ll find the best laser, inkjet and all-in-one printers available here. As you'll see in the list below, we think the all-in-one Canon Pixma TS8050 inkjet is the best printer for home you can get right now. Its six-ink system produces vibrant, crisp and professional-looking colour documents and photos, and the space-saving design will fit in a desk drawer. The best chair for your home home The best desk for your home office For the best balance of quality, speed and cost, the Epson EcoTank ET-3600 (at number 03) scores highly too. It’s one of the cheapest printers to run – and it comes with a two-year supply of ink cartridges. Bargain. Choosing the best printer for you Of course, the best printer for you depends on what you’ll be using it for. Anyone looking to print professional-quality photos, prints or banners, for example, will need a high resolution inkjet model like the Epson SureColor SC-P800 A2 printer (number 06), which boasts stunning detail from its nine-ink jet system. If you'll be doing high-volume business printing instead, a laser printer might be better-suited. And look out for Duplex printing – automatic double-sided printing, which will save time, paper and money if you do a lot of printing. Jump to: How to choose the right printer Happily, most printers today have all the mod-cons, including AirPrint (which lets you print wirelessly from Apple iOS products), Google Cloud Print (wireless Android device printing) and SD card readers. The main thing to remember is that a cheap printer doesn’t always mean a good value printer, so check the ink technology and costs of cartridges before you make a purchase. If you print a lot, it can be worth purchasing a more expensive printer to buy into a cheaper line of cartridges. Whatever you need though, we’ve got you covered here. Read on for our list of the best home printers available now. The Canon Pixma TS8050 is a versatile inkjet printer that packs a surprising range of useful features into a relatively compact body. For home-workers, it offers all the standard functions – high-res printing, copying and scanning – plus three in-trays that let you print onto envelopes and any-sized paper. However, the main attraction is its cutting-edge six-cartridge ink system, which gives the Canon Pixma TS8050 an edge when it comes to printing professional full-colour documents and stunning photos. Connectivity-wise, it's also impressive: alongside an SD card slot and USB ports, it connects via Wi-Fi to Android, iOS and Windows – making it simple to print pictures or documents directly from your phone. And while it isn’t the fastest inkjet printer you can get, print speed is impressive and the touchscreen software responsive. Throw in its desk-friendly design, and the Canon Pixma TS8050 is easily one of the best printers for home-workers, freelancers, photographers and creatives. With impressive print resolution and a raft of features on top of the usual scan, copy and print functionality, the HP Envy 5540 is one of the best budget all-in-one printers for home use you can buy. Print quality is excellent, and although it can only hold one cartridge at a time, the ink it takes is cheap and, says HP, could save you up to 70 per cent on your printing costs. There’s also no faffing around with this model: it features AirPrint and e-printing, as well as Wi-Fi connectivity to print from any of your devices. The compact design makes it a popular choice for home offices, and while it isn’t designed for demanding workplaces, if you print a modest amount of documents and photos the HP Envy offers you the best of both worlds. For under $75 / £70, it’s great value for money: this is one of the best budget colour inkjet printers on the market right now. The Epson EcoTank 3600 is one of the most highly praised printers on the market – by both tech geeks and technophobes alike. It earns its place on our best home printer list because it comes ready to use and supplied with two years’ worth of ink – that's enough for up to 4,000 pages in black and white, and 6,500 pages in colour. It’s also incredibly cheap to run, with Epson claiming you can save up to 70 per cent in printing costs with its duplex system. Of course, you’ll need to print enough to justify the higher purchase price, but if you do then this printer offers fantastic value. Design-wise, the EcoTank is sleek and professional (albeit a little noisy) with an LCD display. We'd have like to see a touchscreen display too, but for anyone printing on a daily basis, the EcoTank 3600 is one of the best printers for home you can get. The Epson Expression Premium XP-830 is one of the most versatile home printers out there. As you'd expect, it can print, copy, scan and fax, and it's able to print instantly from both wired and wireless connections on a variety of mediums, making it a top choice for home use. You can print directly onto card, thick papers and even CDs, while two media trays let you print in a range of sizes as well. Apart from some initial teething issues with Apple connectivity and limited paper capacity, the Epson Expression Premium XP-830 is a great-value, well-rounded home printer that delivers decent print quality, although it's better for photos (where it excels) than for text (where it’s beaten by Canon and HP’s thermal inkjets). The Ricoh SP150 is a compact A4 mono laser printer that quietly and efficiently proves there’s still an argument for lasers over inkjets. Despite the running costs being a little higher than some models, the low initial price of the SP150 is what makes it an attractive buy – and why we’ve included it in our list of the best printers for home. It’s also incredibly small and looks smart, too; and whether you’re printing or scanning documents or images, it’s quick and reliable in terms of connectivity. In short, if you're looking for a fast, high-quality printer that's primary for black-and-white documents, this is the best-value printer you can get. The Epson SureColour SC-P800 is a professional A2+ printer that’s particularly well-suited to illustrators, artists and photographers who need to produce large, limited-edition prints for exhibition or sale. Print quality is superb – its nine-colour UltraChrome HD ink cartridges deliver impressive detailing and vivid colours – and the model can handle card. In addition, not only does the SureColour SC-P800 print at A4, A3 and A2 sizes, it features a paper roll unit as well so you can print large banners. Connectivity is good: you can print wirelessly from your phone or any other device. And the touch screen system is intuitive to use, but bear in mind that you’ll need a fair amount of desk space to allow room for the large paper trays. For us, the two biggest downsides are that the print speed isn’t overly impressive (still 3ppm), and it’s expensive. But with a wide range of features and professional colour calibration on offer, the SureColour SC-P800 is one of the best printers you can buy if you make a living from your images. Brother printers are loved for their speed and reliability, and the workhorse Brother MFC-J5330DW is no different: when it comes to printing documents on mass, it’s one of the best A3 printers out there. Well-suited to small businesses or busy freelancers working from home, the MFC-J5330DW boasts a deep 250-sheet paper input, rapid duplex (two-sided) print speeds, a 50-page automatic document feeder and zero warm up time, so you can print a high number of pages with no hassle at all. It’s larger than some models but not unreasonable for a printer with A3 capabilities, and once it’s set up, it’s super easy to print your documents from any device using Wi-Fi. This is a four-colour inkjet printer, so it can handle graphics and photo prints as well, and cost of running is average. You can expect excellent quality photos with the mid-range Canon Pixma PRO-10S, which boasts a 10-ink jet system. Able to print at a whole range of sizes, from 10x15 to A3+, the printer produces grain-free, gallery-worth images in your home. Ink can become expensive, and it doesn’t come with a scanner – so this printer is best-suited to a photographer or artist who mainly wants to use it for large print jobs. Speed is impressive: you can have an A3 borderless image in front of you in less than four minutes. The Pixma PRO-10S is also incredibly convenient to use, with AirPrint letting you print directly from any Cloud-based platform – think Facebook, Dropbox or Flickr – saving you both time and storage space on your desktop. How to choose the best printer for you The printer marker is bursting with different options. If you’re not sure exactly what you want, it can be confusing. Here, we’ll answer some typical questions to help you make sure you’re investing in the right printer for the job. What’s the difference between a laser and inkjet printer? The main difference between laser and inkjet printers is that inkjets use ink, while laser printers use powdered ink (toner). Laser printers are generally quicker, and designed for more frequent and demanding office use. They work by melting the toner in the paper so the print is less likely to smudge or run, and are best suited to black and white documents and high-volume printing. Inkjets produce better quality colour prints, and even the budget models can print decent photos. They’re usually initially cheaper too (although ink cartridges can need replacing more frequently than laser cartridges) and in recent years have become a lot faster. If you’re looking for an all-round printer for home, an inkjet is a solid bet. Which ink type is best? For inkjet printing on paper, the main choice is between dye-based and pigment-based inks. Dye-based inks are traditionally cheaper, brighter and offer a wider range of colours, while pigment-based inks are more expensive and fade-resistant. Both will run when wet. Where it can become confusing is that printer specs don’t always highlight which ink the model takes. As a rule, black inks are usually pigmented, and colour inks dye-based - the best photo printers will use pigment-based inks, though, so that the photos don’t fade. Do I need an all-in-one printer? All-in-one printers offer a scanner, copier and printer – and occasionally still a fax – to give you everything you need for home printing. Higher-end printers will also have duplex printing, where the printer is able to print on both sides of the paper. You can get both inkjet and laser all-in-one printers. Whether you need one or not depends on what you need it for. Are you just looking to print documents or photos, or do you have a range of office needs you could hit with one purchase? Illustration: Which extra features should I look for? Network connectivity - via a cable (Ethernet) or Wi-Fi - is the most useful extra feature to consider when you’re choosing your printer. Wireless printing in particular is handy, letting you connect your laptop or computer to your printer using your home WiFi network and access it anywhere in your house, so you don’t even have to be in the same room to print. If you want to wirelessly print from your tablet or smartphone, you’ll need to look out for a printer that features: AirPrint – lets you print directly from Apple iOS products Google Cloud Print – lets you print from Android tablets and smartphones Email printing – provides wireless printing from any email-capable device, and is available on selected HP printers A card reader, too, is handy for anyone looking specifically for a photo printer. And if you choose printer with PictBridge, you’ll be able to talk directly to certain cameras. What paper do I need? Paper plays an important role in determining print quality. With the right kind of premium papers, even a basic printer can produce good results, so if you’re planning on printing your CV, say, choose better quality, thicker paper. If you have a lot of black-and-white documents, a basic paper stock will normally do the job; or for photo printing, choose a glossy photo paper. Manufacturers tailor their paper stock to their printers, so using own-brand paper is a simple way to guarantee good results. However, using printer profiles allows you to achieve equally good results with paper from different manufacturers – useful for more creative projects for which you need a special stock. I'm an artist/designer/photographer – what printer features should I look for? If you're looking to produce professional-quality prints of your work, or generate accurate proofs, then the larger and higher-quality your printer, the better. Larger printers let you reproduce a wider range of work, and also give you the option to produce art prints on canvas to order (selling these is a good way to help the printer pay for itself). Also, the higher the print quality, the more accurately you will be able to reproduce fine details – and, crucially, colours. Colour reproduction is the single most important aspect of print management. Proofs must be as accurate as possible, and contain the widest possible range of colours. This is particularly important for projects using Pantone or similar standardised colour-matching systems. It isn't always possible to achieve perfection, as anyone who has had a run-in with a commercial print shop knows, but some of the newer Epson printers achieve 98 per cent Pantone colour coverage, certified by Pantone itself, so look for this in the specs. In practice, for really accurate proofing, you will probably need a 12-ink system capable of generating at least A3 prints: ideally, A2, A1 or larger. While high-end printers represents a significant initial outlay, the more you use a printer, the better value it becomes. Paper and ink typically become cheaper when bought in volume, so if you use your printer heavily every day, it may be cheaper in the long run to buy a larger unit – even if you never use its maximum print size. Some printers now track the cost of each job using built-in cost-management software so you can calculate your ROI, but realistically, you won't get a good estimate of running costs until you've been using the printer for a while. Ask around. If studios, designers or photographers similar to you have a printer they like, find out which model it is and how much it costs them to run. Finally, remember to check whether you have space for the printer you're thinking of buying: models capable of generating A2 or larger take up a fair amount of room. Check the printer's dimensions with all the extras fitted, including roll feeders and trays. Remember that a big printer can be noisy too, and weighs around 50kg. Also read: The best A3+ colour printers 5 things every creative needs to know about print design How to colour-match your print projects View the full article

WebAssembly (wasm) is different to other web APIs you might have played with. It’s a standard that defines a binary executable format for client-side applications on the web, which can be run in the browser while taking advantage of the speed and low-level hardware capabilities of machine code. While it’s a relatively new standard only now gaining attention, it’s already supported in all major browsers, and has a budding ecosystem of tools. This represents a major change for the web, where JavaScript (or abstractions of it such as TypeScript) has been the only language available for coding. The introduction of WebAssembly means that there is now a platform to enable C, C++ and other code to be written and compiled to run in the browser. In essence, if you write a wasm module, you compile it to a bytecode format, which can be executed on any platform that supports WebAssembly. This is similar to Java bytecode running on the JVM. You wouldn’t typically expect to write wasm code directly. WebAssembly benefits This is interesting for two reasons. First, it enables coding in languages other than JavaScript for the web. This is compelling to many developers who have stylistic preferences or experience in other languages. WebAssembly was originally designed to focus on C and C++ development, and it enables features of these languages, such as low-level memory management. There’s support available for Rust, another language developed by Mozilla. However, it’s also expected that a wide range of languages and compilers will become available, and it will at some point introduce support for garbage-collected languages such as Java. You’ll find experimental compilers for other languages starting to become available. Experiments show that WebAssembly code can be parsed significantly faster than JavaScript The second benefit is performance. Experiments show that WebAssembly code can be parsed significantly faster than JavaScript (up to 20 times). This opens up the opportunity to develop more complex software for the web – things like 3D graphics engines, image processing and more. As a result, one of the early emerging practical-use cases for WebAssembly is games developers looking to produce high-end games that run in browser. Epic Games has demonstrated a version of the Unreal Engine that runs in-browser as a wasm module. WebAssembly is also designed to integrate with existing JavaScript engines, which mean the two platforms’ modules should be interoperable. Wasm modules can be imported into JavaScript code, which can then take advantage of its functionality. Currently WebAssembly cannot access the DOM or web APIs directly, but it can use JavaScript to do so. Also, there’s nothing constraining WebAssembly to run only in-browser, and it’s expected it will be ported to other platforms. This could make it significantly easier to build cross-platform apps that support web and native environments. Security implications You might be wondering about the security implications of WebAssembly, since this is a general concern for low-level languages. Rather than being true native machine code, however, wasm is designed to execute in sandboxed environment, and adheres to the same security constraints as JavaScript does in browser. If you want to get started with WebAssembly, Emscripten is a compiler that supports C and C++ compilation and conversion of existing applications. You won’t find too many production applications using it yet, but it represents another step to bridging the gap between browser and native software. This is definitely one to keep an eye on, and if you’re not building wasm modules, you could well be consuming them soon. 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: Everything you need to know about WebGL Beware the cutting edge of web design 9 amazing PWA secrets View the full article

Design requires an abundance of analytic thinking – problem solving, task analysis, project management, etc. But design is both a science and an art, so it's important to also spend time learning how to be creative and innovative. That's where Mindbliss can help. A high-tech meditation tool, Mindbliss uses AI algorithms to produce meditation experiences that will fit your needs most effectively, whether you want to help your insomnia, start your day on the right note, or wind down before bedtime. Access hundreds of different guided meditations, breathing exercises, and more, and track your progress within the app. If you're having trouble making meditation a habit, Mindbliss can get you there. A lifetime subscription is only $49.99. Related articles: Can pro artists achieve mindfulness through art? Doodle art: 52 great examples 5 tips for taking guilt-free holidays as a freelancer View the full article

Designers are required to have more and more skills these days. A varied graphic design portfolio is key, which means as well as being confident creating visual identities and branding work, designers are increasingly dabbling in things like 3D art. And as we explain in this article, it's becoming more and more important that graphic designers have a grasp of coding, too. Understanding how code works can greatly improve the conversations you have with developers as well as making your digital designs better. But taking your first steps into the world of coding can be daunting. You can't jump in straight away with complex CSS animation or parallax scrolling effects. Here are six tips to help ease you into the world of code. 01. Do an online course There are plenty of online coding courses to help you get started, and these are a great place to start. “There are a myriad of platforms to help you learn coding,” says Craig Frost, product designer at Pusher. “Take your learning deeper by building something end-to-end using courses from world-class developers and teachers. It’s here where pieces start to click together; where you understand the broader picture of design on the web and the tools available to augment your design process and provide useful constraints to your design thinking and exploration.” The following are three good options to get you started: Treehouse offers a seven-day free trial to its library of video-based coding tutorials. If you like it, you can sign up for a subscription ($26/£20 per month), which allows you to choose from thousands of hours of content covering a wide range of skills and topics, from JavaScript to Python to iOS. To start coding without spending anything, you could try Codecademy – an interactive platform that offers free coding classes in a range of languages including Python, JavaScript, Ruby, SQL, Sass, HTML and CSS. There’s also a paid pro option ($19.99/£15 per month) that gives you access to a personalised learning plan, quizzes, realistic projects, and live help from advisors. Finally, Egghead offers a range of video tutorials by industry pros to help you learn the most popular JavaScript tools and frameworks, including React, Angular and Vue.js. Subscriptions cost $29/£22 per month. 02. Use code to break your routine “As a recent design graduate, I felt like I was hitting a slump after doing four internships in a row,” says Trang Minh Nguyen, a designer working in Berlin, who created the images in this article as part of a coding Instagram project. “Learning to code helped me escape this toxic mindset and open up a new realm of possibilities, especially when it comes to generative design.” 03. Make something One of Trang Minh Nguyen's daily sketches created while she was learning Processing (p5.js) “Think of a project you want to do, pick a language, and just start making,” advises Nguyen. “Get in the habit of creating. Have endless curiosity, look things up, read books, watch tutorials, wake up early so you have a fresh mind. Something will fuck up along the way and that’s OK.” 04. Ask the experts “Ask lots of questions and if someone who knows what they are talking about offers you their time, snap their hand off,” advises Matt Russell, graphic and web designer at Yorkshire marketing agency Red International. “And keep at it: you are going to hit speed bumps along the way but be patient and work through it.” 05. Don't expect to know it all “It’s okay to feel lost,” says Jun Taoka of Red Badger. “If your goal is to be a good digital designer and not a full-stack developer, you shouldn’t need to understand every single thing you hear your developers say to each other. If you can communicate to your developers your designs and their interactions then you’re doing enough.” 06. Use metaphors If new concepts in coding confuse you, try to think of metaphors that will make things clearer. “A developer who helped me start coding once told me to think of the code as if I was building a house,” says Clementine Brown of Red Badger. “The HTML is the frame and bricks, and the CSS is the paint and carpets. That really helped me understand the relationship between the two.” This article was originally published in Computer Arts, the world's leading design magazine. Buy issue 278 here or subscribe here. Read more: 8 great graphic design portfolios 16 top online coding courses 8 ways to automate common design tasks View the full article

Walmart sells a large range of drawing tablets on its website. It’s a huge retailer, which means it can be particularly competitive when it comes to price, offering great deals that smaller outlets simply can't match. But there’s a lot on offer, so we put together this selection of the best drawing tablets at Walmart to help you pick the right option for your needs. The best cheap Wacom tablet deals The best drawing tablet for kids Great prices aren’t the only reason why it can be a beneficial to buy a drawing tablet from Walmart though. The online store also offers free two-day shipping on millions of items, and there's no membership fee, unlike with Amazon Prime. Throw in a generous 90-day returns policy (you don’t need a receipt) and Walmart quickly becomes a smart choice for purchasing tech like drawing tablets, where you need to be comfortable using it and want to be sure you've made the right decision. Read on for our pick of the best drawing tablets at Walmart. The best drawing tablets at Walmart Related articles: The best cheap 4K monitor deals of 2018 The 60 best free Photoshop brushes 8 best external hard drives and SSDs View the full article

So you've taken extensive art classes during high school, read the designer's guide to the golden ratio, maybe experimented with paper art and perhaps even started to think about creating your design portfolio. Now that you feel ready to apply for art college, how do you start? Remember, applying to art college is similar to applying to any other education institution. Here are five tips to help make applying for art colleges a little less daunting. 01. Do the research Hit the web and research, research, research! It's time to do some research – and lots of it. Deciding which art college is best for you is a big decision. Fortunately, you have all the tools you need for making this important choice right at your fingertips. Surf the internet to find school directories, school reviews, ranking information, and more. Before applying to any school, be sure to consider your budget and your educational goals. Keep in mind to choose from schools that are accredited, offer financial aid, scholarship opportunities, and can offer you the art school education that you desire. Consult the school's degree offerings, course catalogues, and financial aid information. You may find that searching the web for art college directories can help you narrow down your choices. Be sure to check out what types of artists the school typically accepts. For a good overview on the types of artists thriving at the school, check out the school's galleries or affiliated exhibition spaces. Finding the school that is the right fit for you can be the key to success. 02. Apply to multiple art colleges You may not get your first pick so ensure you've a list of suitable schools Let's face it, we will not all get that coveted acceptance letter from our number one pick. This is just a fact of life. Narrow down your choices, create a list, and be prepared to apply to multiple art colleges. Start with about 15 potential schools that you would be interested in attending. From this list, choose three 'first pick' schools. These schools may have a notoriously rigorous admissions process, or be highly selective. Don't let this discourage you from applying. You have a chance of making it, but it can be a bit of a long shot. Be sure to review the admissions requirements, and send out those applications. Your 'first pick' schools may be highly selective – don't let this discourage you from applying Next, choose three more art colleges that better match your student profile. It's good to dream big, but applying to 'match' schools increases your chances of acceptance into an excellent fine arts course. These schools are typically less selective, and are more likely to accept students with your academic standing and technical skill. Round out your application list with three more 'safety' schools. These schools not only match your educational goals, but also accept students below your academic standing. In other words, a student like yourself would stand out among the crowd in terms of academic standing and technical skill. Even though safety schools are not your first or second pick, be sure that all of the safety schools on your list offer the education you desire. No matter which schools send acceptance letters, you want to be sure that you will be happy, fulfilled, and satisfied as a student. 03. Prepare a portfolio Your portfolio is worth spending a lot of time on You know that a strong portfolio is essential when applying for art college. The perfect portfolio will not only communicate your technical skills, but also inspire its audience. Include your best representative works. Be bold and choose the work that best speaks to you, or best communicates your goals and aspirations as an artist. As you apply to various institutions, you may want to tweak your portfolio from school to school to best match the admissions requirements for each institution. Another part of building a strong portfolio is highlighting your skills and goals to align with those of college admissions committees. Again, do your research! Visit admissions pages on art school websites to ensure that your portfolio meets all the necessary requirements for application. Not all schools require the same application information. Fine-tuning portfolios and other application materials to each prospective college is a great way to catch the eyes of admissions staff. 04. Prepare for interviews You need to stand out during your interview, so prepare thoroughly by practising with mentors or friends It's true, not all art colleges require an interview as part of the admissions process, but if you apply to a school that does, there's no need to sweat. As important as it is for you to find the school that is the best fit for you, institutions also strive to admit only those students that are the best fit for their courses. An interview gives you the chance to explain your goals and achievements, and present your portfolio in person. This can be your chance to turn the heads of the admissions committee. First, you need to be prepared to talk about yourself and your work. An interview gives you the chance to explain your goals and achievements, and present your portfolio in person Be honest about your processes and your achievements, and don't be afraid to highlight your successes as an artist and a student. Have you contributed artwork for local galleries or events? Did you receive any honours for your work? Let the interviewers know that you are proud of your achievements and are interested in strengthening your skills. Be sure you understand what the admissions committee is looking for; you might explain how you match their goals as an institution, or how you agree with the school's mission statements. Confidence in your work can go a long way. Practise interviewing with guidance counsellors, mentors or trustworthy friends. Interviewers typically look for candidates that can clearly articulate their reasons for application, their educational goals, and their own unique creative process. 05. Consider off-campus opportunities Look out for off-campus opportunities (a hiking club for example), or make your own ideas happen! Sure, art college is a great way to learn, make lasting connections with peers and mentors, and develop and strengthen your talents and skills. However, attending art school does not equal instant success. Ask any art college graduate. In order to succeed in the world post-graduation, you have to be your own advocate. When considering art schools, take a moment to research what types of opportunities are available for artists outside of the campus bubble. An essential skill for any artist is learning how to join a community, as well as self-promotion and valuable networking skills. Are you applying to schools in areas that are excellent cultural hubs? Are there plenty of independent galleries that accept or highlight student artwork? Consider joining social clubs or other organisations outside of school that support the artistic community – successful side projects can really propel your art career. Good luck! Read more: 60 amazing Adobe Illustrator tutorials 11 of the best creative resumes How to become an artist if you're priced out of art schools View the full article

The planned threading in shared memory update gives bad actors a way around the timer mitigations released by browser vendors. View the full article

The planned threading in shared memory update gives bad actors a way around the timer mitigations released by browser vendors. View the full article

ArtRage is a program that enables you to use real-world painting techniques on your computer, tablet or mobile phone. Put simply, you push pixels on a screen to mimic the behaviour of art mediums. The program was aimed at artists from both traditional and digital backgrounds who wanted to create believable works of art using a simple interface. 18 best iPad art apps for painting and sketching With the recent release of ArtRage 5, these ideals have been refined and tools honed so that all users, from digital novices to veritable stylus Seurats, can create beautiful art. The software can be installed on pretty much all platforms, and ranges from free simpler apps right through to the full desktop version geared more towards professional artists or keen enthusiasts. For me, ArtRage is the best program for all your painterly needs – and it's relatively cheap, too. Keep reading to see how easy it is to get up and running. Get set up in ArtRage When first trying out the app, stick to smaller paper sizes so as you can fill the space with colour easily using the medium-sized default brushes 01. Open a new canvas Start with a lovely blank canvas When starting any new piece of art, you first need to create a new blank canvas. ArtRage gives you a vast array of options from colour, size and pixels right through to the texture of the surface that you'll be working on. Begin by clicking File in the top left corner and selecting New Painting. 02. Choose your canvas size Don't saddle yourself with more canvas than you can use The New Painting box will open with a choice of options. Don't be daunted, it's just your chance to pick the size and colour of paper to work on. Select your print size and set the dimensions such as 16x12 inches for A3. Click in the Pixels/Inch box and type 300 to ensure a detailed picture. 03. Select a canvas texture Don't forget to give your canvas a bit of texture Tap in the canvas box that shows a blue stroke across it. Here you can change the colour of the surface along with the grain size and the roughness. If you tap on the arrow pointing right underneath the grain tab and select Select from collection, you're then given even more options and textures. 04. Confirm canvas and begin painting Now you're ready to go Once you're happy with your choices for the surface and texture of the canvas, simply click the tick button and this will bring you back to the Sizing screen. Click the OK button if all looks good for you. Now your fresh canvas will appear, ready to be worked on. Set up your brush Don't be afraid to use the stylus as you would a real brush with fast, emotive strokes or gentle, feathering dabs 05. Select an oil brush There are plenty of brushes to choose from The Medium Picker/Tool selector is probably the most important part on the screen, because it's the hub from which you can select what medium or tool you'll be working in. To pick your chosen medium or tool, just hover your cursor/stylus over the tools to be told what they are and click them to select. 06. Change your brush size If the brush isn't big enough it's easy to change the size Drag your finger, cursor or stylus across the brush head to the right to increase the size and left to decrease. The percentage number changes, indicating where you are on the size scale. To pick a specific size or go larger still, simply tap in the brush head area and type in the number you need. 07. Load paint on your brush You can load up your brush with plenty of paint Click Settings. Keep the brush loading down to between two and nine per cent for a really dry dab of paint, which is great for underpaintings and sketching. Slide the loading up to 50-80 per cent and the paint thickens up, creating thick glossy streaks that can be mixed on the canvas alla prima style. 08. Introduce texture Create texture by reaching for your trusty palette knife Add extra texture by laying down paint direct from the tube and smearing it with the Palette knife. Select the paint tube and apply splodges on the canvas near your brush strokes. Then push the paint with the Palette knife, building it up on the edges of your strokes for added realism and depth. Pick your colours The paint mixes fantastically in ArtRage and in such a believable way 09. Choose a colour and tone With the colour wheel you can quickly get exactly the shade you need No more endlessly mixing palettes and striving for an odd shade here! Using the Colour Wheel on the bottom right-hand side you can easily and quickly select hues across the whole colour spectrum. It's easy, simple and there's not an expensive tube of paint in sight! Tap the outer wheel to select the general colour you wish to use. Using the middle band you can click to select a tone within your initial colour selection, ranging from pale subtle colours right through to rich and deep hues. The smallest wheel shows the colour currently selected and the arrow in the corner enables you to collapse the Colour Picker, giving you more room to paint on your screen. 10. Correct errors with the Eraser... It's a lot easier to correct mistakes in ArtRage than on a real canvas The Eraser can be found in the Tool Picker menu and is ideal for loose smudges, shaping areas or when sketching. Again, like the other tools, the Eraser has settings for altering the Pressure and Softness. Simply click the Eraser and use on your canvas as you would a normal rubber. 11. ...Or go back in time! If you've completely messed up you can just undo your mistakes The alternative method of correcting a mistake is the Undo button. This is located at the top of the screen and resembles a backwards arrow. If you find you've gone astray in your work, click the Undo button to take you back to a point at which you were happy with your art. This article originally appeared in issue 8 of Paint & Draw. Related articles: Create a custom sticker brush in ArtRage The best software for digital artists How to create a digital oil painting using ArtRage View the full article

Thinking of a career change and not afraid of diving into the deep end? If you’re capable of learning quickly in a high-intensity environment, a coding bootcamp could get you working as a software engineer (and potentially commanding an impressive salary) within half a year – even if you’ve never programmed before. If you enjoy things like maths and problem-solving, you’ll probably like programming. If you're not sure, however, most of the bootcamps on this list offer a free online coding course that you can take to help you decide if you enjoy it and have the aptitude to be good at it. You can also explore some other online coding courses, or work though some of the free courses on Codecademy, to get a sense of whether designing/making apps and website layouts is the right career for you. 30 web design tools to speed up your workflow Despite requiring no previous programming experience, some of the bootcamps on this list are extremely tough to get into. They require you to do some self-study to prepare for a rigorous admissions process that ensures they only take on people who can handle a very hard program. Others are less demanding and more suited to a range of ability levels. Learning skills that will earn you a good salary doesn’t come cheap; most of these bootcamps require a considerable fee – but there are cheaper options if you don’t have the money. Some of them allow you to defer payment until you get a job, whereupon you make monthly payments. Sometimes there’s even an employment guarantee: if you don’t get a job as a software engineer within six months or a year you don’t have to pay at all. 01. Hack Reactor The course at this competitive bootcamp has been likened to 'drinking from a firehose' Price: $17,980 tuition fees Location: San Francisco, NYC, LA, Austin or worldwide via remote study Hack Reactor is a bootcamp that teaches software engineering to highly motivated, highly competent students. It’s one of the larger, most well-known programs, and it puts students through a curriculum that’s been compared to ‘drinking from a firehose’. A statistic that’s sure to grab your attention is the six-figure average starting salary of its alumni. There’s an impressive list of companies that have taken on Hack Reactor graduates, including the likes Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and PayPal. With outcomes like that, it’s no surprise that this is a very tough course. The admissions process is highly competitive as only those who can demonstrate they’re likely to succeed with a very demanding program of study are accepted. That said, you don’t actually need any prior programming or computer science experience; you can take the Hack Reactor Prep course, which is an online course that takes five to seven weeks and prepares you for the admissions process. Once you’re admitted, there’s another 80-hour self-study course to take before you start the immersive program, which is 12 weeks full-time either onsite in San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles or Austin, or it can be done remotely online. If you can’t do it full-time, there’s the option to study part-time over nine months while still working. 02. General Assembly A range of full and part time courses to study on site or remotely Price: Various Location: Campuses in London, Australia, Asia and across North America General Assembly is a global organisation that has campuses across North America as well as London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. It offers a range of full and part-time courses covering many of the skills required by a technology business, as well as coding bootcamps. If you want to learn full-time, there is a 10- to 13-week immersive course on web development that's available in many of the campuses and can also be completed remotely online. The New York campus has an immersive Android course, and San Francisco has one on iOS development. For part-time learners, there are 10-week JavaScript and Frontend Web Development courses to study on campus, and JavaScript and HTML, CSS & Web Design circuits that can be studied online. Different campuses offer different courses, so you'll need to check up on what can be done in your area, and only certain courses run online. The admissions process for General Assembly isn't as competitive as some of the other bootcamps on this list, so it's more suited to people from a range of ability levels. Employment rates after completing an immersive course are good (you can read about them here). 03. App Academy An elite program with an employment guarantee: no job, no fee Price: From $17,000 (or free if it doesn't lead to a job) Location: San Francisco and NYC For the right person, App Academy is an exciting proposition: if you don’t get a job paying over $50,000 within a year of graduating the program, you don’t pay anything. You can also opt to defer your payment and pay by monthly instalments after you get a job; this enables the programme to select the students with the most potential as opposed to those who have the ability to pay. If you take the offer to defer your payment, you do end up paying quite a bit more: it’s $28,000 total, compared with $17,000 if you pay upfront. There’s also a hybrid plan where you can take a middle route of only deferring part of your fees, paying $23,000 in total. As you might expect, this is a tough program to get into – the acceptance rate is less than 5 per cent. But like Hack Reactor, it offers some impressive earning potential: an average six-figure starting salary for placements in San Francisco, with salaries in New York not far behind. The App Academy experience is a 12-week software engineering program that trains you in Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, React, Redux, SQL, Advanced Algorithms, Data Structures and more. It also teaches you how to succeed at the job search process. Hours are 9am-6pm, 45 hours per week. 04. Le Wagon Le Wagon creates a strong community for its alumni Price: Location-dependent (£6,500 for London) Location: Worldwide, but higher concentration of campuses in Europe Le Wagon is a nine-week web development bootcamp that teaches you to think like a software engineer and prides itself on instilling smart workflow practices in its students and maintaining a community for its alumni. It is primarily a European venture but there are campuses all over the world (although none in the US). The course teaches you to be a full-stack web developer; you'll learn Ruby, SQL, the Rails application framework, frontend work including Flexbox and Grid, as well as JavaScript. During the course you will build up your own GitHub profile, make an Airbnb clone and a personal project of your own. You can see some of the work from previous students here. Le Wagon places more emphasis on the social aspect of the experience than some of the other bootcamps. It is an intensive technical course, but all that's asked of applicants is that they're "very motivated, curious and social". No previous technical knowledge is required, but you have to complete the Ruby track on Codecademy before you get there, which takes 9-15 hours. 05. Hackbright Academy A software engineering bootcamp for women that emphasises networking and collaboration Price: Full-time: $16,895 Location: San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose Hackbright Academy has one major difference from the rest of the bootcamps on this list: it’s for women only. Like Le Wagon, there’s an emphasis on collaboration and a community that persists after the program is completed. The course teaches you to be a full-stack software engineer with a training program that centres around Python. You also learn JavaScript, PostgreSQL as well as web framework Flask and templating engine Jinja, both of which work well with Python. The idea behind the Python-centred approach is that it’s a widely used language that provides you with an excellent foundation for learning other languages. You can study full-time or part-time, and you get plenty of personal attention with 2:1 mentoring. You need to have some basic coding knowledge before you apply, and Hackbright offers a free online Python course to get you started. There’s also a four-week prep course you can take prior to the 12-week immersive program. Results for this bootcamp look impressive: there's a 99 per cent graduation rate, and a sample of 51 graduates reported a median first-job salary of $88,000. 06. Makers A London-based bootcamp that offers an employment guarantee Price: £8,000 (or free if you don't get a job) Location: London Like App Academy, Makers Academy gives you the job guarantee: if you don't get a job building software within six months of completing the course you get your money back (as long as you've put proper effort into finding one). There are two main routes into software development at Makers: the 12-week bootcamp or the Makers Apprenticeship scheme. At the bootcamp, the curriculum focuses on Agile best practices and lets you choose whether to learn Ruby, JavaScript, Python, AI or a combination of those and something else – you get to pick your pathway. Like most of the other camps, there's a pre-course to complete before you start the on-site program. It's anticipated that you could get a salary of £30k after completing the 12-week course. If you opt for the Makers Apprenticeship scheme, you sign up for 12 months. You get paid a salary of £18k-£25k from the start and receive a qualification and hopefully a job offer from the employer at the end. As with most of these courses, you don’t need much prior knowledge but there's a competitive admissions process. Read more: 18 great web design podcasts 20 top tips for design interview success Why designers need to learn to code View the full article

Many browsers on countless devices aim to support a growing web technology stack in order to deliver a great user experience for as many people as possible. Unfortunately, finding out what works where often means extensive manual testing. Thankfully, a major open source project has seen Mozilla pulling together this information into compatibility tables. In 2017, the MDN community started to migrate the compatibility information currently stored on thousands of wiki pages to a machine-readable JSON format in a GitHub repository. Having the data available in a structured form enables tools to integrate this information and flag compatibility issues at the point you’re writing code. Web content should be compatible with as many browsers as possible. Compatibility, like accessibility, is an important concern if you wish to avoid excluding people from your website or app. However, it is often difficult to tell whether a certain feature works in a given browser. Is it supported correctly? Does it require a prefix, or is it supported with a non-standard name or behaviour? These kinds of questions can quickly multiply. Do you research every feature in your code to tell if they are supported enough? If your CSS files use more than 200 properties, you will probably start guessing how far back browsers are likely to support your layout. Having no real idea about the compatibility of an entire codebase is not ideal. How can devs use this information? The mission of MDN Web Docs is to document the features of the Open Web. It contains thousands of reference pages about CSS properties, HTML elements, HTTP headers, JavaScript objects, Web APIs and much more. Most docs also contain compatibility tables, so you can check if you’re able to use a certain feature. This has been very helpful in the past, but in the age of linters and programmatic access to (big) data sources, it’s not enough. In 2017, the MDN community started to migrate the compatibility information currently stored on thousands of wiki pages to a machine-readable JSON format in a GitHub repository. Having the data available in a structured form enables tools to integrate this information and flag compatibility issues at the point you’re writing code. This means you no longer have to treat compatibility as an afterthought. The MDN community is migrating compatibility info stored on thousands of wiki pages to a machine-readable JSON format in a GitHub repo The first project to use this data set is compat-report, a browser extension made by developer Eduardo Boucas as a side project. It adds a compatibility panel to the Firefox developer tools and audits CSS usage. It can give an initial overview about potential compatibility problems with the main browsers already, and sometimes tries to suggest ways to address the problem. In the future, more tools like this could be integrated into code editors, for example offering tips about browser support, or giving warnings when your project requirements are incompatible with a certain browser version. Maybe compatibility could even be tested as part of continuous integration. A compat bot could comment on your pull request to give you hints about where support is going to break, for example. How will this data set be maintained? For now, the MDN community focuses on maintaining the compatibility data set and keeping it up-to-date together with other browser vendors. Last year Mozilla brought Microsoft, Google, the W3C, and Samsung together to form an MDN Product Advisory Board. While the MDN community always tried to provide information about web development for many browsers, this collaboration now formalises existing relationships. For the compatibility data, the board members agreed to drive updates for Chrome, Edge and Samsung Internet and help review compatibility data GitHub pull requests (PRs) that are flagged for their browsers. As opposed to the old static compat tables, the new structured compatibility data is now updated regularly. That’s an enormous benefit for the maintainers of the MDN compat tables and everyone interested in using this data. Everyone should be able to use the web with any devices and browsers. Having data available about possible incompatibilities should help with this. 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. This article originally appeared in net, the world's leading web design magazine. Buy issue 305 or subscribe here. Read more: 10 ways to avoid cross-browser compatibility issues Everything you need to know about WebGL 5 sensational new websites to be inspired by View the full article

From Black Pencil-winning animated campaigns such as Honda Grrr, to a string of iconic illustrated posters over the decades for the likes of Coca-Cola and Guinness, illustration and advertising have long been happy bedfellows. Whether it's creating fantastical worlds, grabbing attention with on-trend styles or conveying abstract ideas, illustration can be a fantastic communication tool for advertisers. Read on for 10 stand-out illustrated ad campaigns, created for household-name brands in recent years... 01. Five Go On A Great Western Adventure Picking up a D&AD Graphite Pencil in 2018, this beautifully animated campaign by adam&eveDDB follows Enid Blyton's Famous Five on an adventure through the countryside. It was directed by award-winning animator Pete Candeland. Designed to reignite people’s love of rail travel, the TV spot for Great Western Railway (GWR) follows the dynamic gang through the stunning scenery of the South West and Wales. After they are accidentally separated from Timmy the dog, the children encounter their canine pal at different points of their train journey before finally being reunited at the end. The campaign shows how effective it can be to tap into nostalgia, and follows in the wake of Pentagram's high-profile rebrand of GWR, which returned the train operator to its roots after many years operating as First Great Western. 02. Adidas: Here to Create Iris London commissioned psychedelic illustrator Stevie Gee and left-field animator Nicos Livesey to create this animation for Adidas campaign, Here To Create. Gee also applied his brushstroke style to the print campaign. Winner of the Advertising category at the World Illustration Awards 2018, the spot is a distinctive blend of live footage and animation. It features legendary football stars including Messi, Pogba, Firmino and Suárez. 03. Amnesty International: Teresa's Story This poster depicts the story of a 21-year-old woman born and bred in a Kenyan refugee camp, who believes education will be her saviour For Amnesty International, illustrator Pete Reynolds was tasked with telling the story of refugees, drawing on various real-life testimonies from different countries and situations. Part of his brief was to be engaging and emotive, but not so hard-hitting that people were turned off from the campaign. Compared to the gritty photography that similar campaigns have pursued in the past, the choice to go for illustration provided a softer, more accessible angle reminiscent of simple, graphic Amnesty posters of the past. One of two illustrations distributed on postcards at Amnesty's Give A Home concert series – for which musicians performed in over 300 people's homes – the above depicts the story of a 21-year-old woman born and bred in a Kenyan refugee camp, who believes education will be her saviour. 04. iPhone people talking Pixel 2 This Google Creative Lab and Anyways Creative projects brought phone advertising to life Google Creative Lab's collaboration with Anyways Creative puts a fresh spin on phone advertising, using animation to put a more human face on a field filled with shiny gadget porn. Nine dyed-in-the-wool iPhone users were given one of Google’s Pixel 2 phones to play with, and interviewed about their experiences in short 'vox-pop' format. The recordings were then given to nine different animators to bring to life. Using a format loosely similar model to Aardman's much-loved Creature Comforts spots for Heat Electric in the early 1990s, the campaign picked up a Wood Pencil at this year's D&AD Awards. 05. TfL Safety Posters These bright and bold illustrations are a great way to depict the clear messaging of these TFL posters Transport for London has a rich and deep heritage in graphic design, ranging from the Roundel logo, to Harry Beck's iconic London Underground map, to the instantly recognisable Johnston typeface. This reputation stretches to illustration too, and the archives are overflowing with stunning posters, from Art Deco masterpieces to modern-day trend-setting styles by the likes of mcbess. Design and illustration studio La Boca recently contributed these stylish safety posters to TfL's collection, bringing such messages as 'hold the handrail', 'mind the gap' and 'take care after drinking alcohol' to the network. Bright, bold and simple, they grab attention effortlessly. 06. Fanta Mashup Owen Gildersleeve's multi-level paper-cut design is graded from white to dark orange As part of its global rebrand, Fanta teamed up with a range of illustrators to create artworks inspired by the new cut-out graphic style, as defined by London-based agency Koto, which headed up the rebrand. The paper-cut nature of the new logo suited illustrator Owen Gildersleeve's style perfectly. With a bottle as the hero, his design conveys the theme of 'refreshment' with spray gushing out of the top. The multi-level paper-cut design is graded from white to dark orange, segments of fruit scattered throughout. 07. Alvogen posters Noma Bar is a master at breaking down potentially complex issues or words into simple yet effective images Winner of a Brand Impact Award 2017 in the Pharmaceuticals and Toiletries categories, Kontor Reykjavik's beautiful series of posters for Alovogen – expertly illustrated by Noma Bar – are a stand-out example of how illustration can convey potentially challenging subject matter. Strict Icelandic legal restrictions meant that the posters were not permitted to describe the effect of the medicines they were promoting. Noma Bar was tasked with packing all that meaning into his characteristically simple, witty negative-space style – and did so in style. 08. 7UP: Feels Good To Be You This Christmas In 2015, Bruce Emmett was commissioned by Havas to create illustrators for 7UP's Feels Good To Be You This Christmas campaign. This incorporated posters, printed advertising and billboard applications. His brief was to capture the bygone feel of seasonal joy and comfort through vintage yet photorealistic images, which evoked the advertising art typical of the 1940s and 50 – drawing on the brand heritage of 7UP in the process. 09. IKEA: Apartmentology Rod Hunt's detailed illustrations create 'impossible worlds' As part of a cross-media campaign for IKEA in Russia, Rod Hunt applied his highly detailed isometric style to a large illustration. Entitled Kvartirovedenie—which loosely translates as 'Apartmentology' – it depicts 10 different families within interlocking apartments. Commissioned by Instinct BBDO, the illustrations were also used in a book and online game. The campaign demonstrates how effective illustration can be to create impossible worlds – demonstrating a whole range of different IKEA furniture solutions in one highly detailed piece. 10. WWF: Poachers Another D&AD Graphite Pencil winner, this time in 2015, Leo Burnett Sydney's highly memorable illustrated campaign for WWF highlights the depth, complexity and fragility of the illegal animal trade. The concept at the core is to give individuals the sense that they have the power to help bring down the networks involved. Three illustrators were commissioned for the campaign: John-Henry Pajak, Surachai Puthikulangkura and Supachai U-Rairat. Using a realistic – but not photorealistic – 3D style, they created a series of 'poachers pyramids', which stacked representatives at different levels of the illegal animal trade precariously on each other’s shoulders. The characters have a videogame-like feel, to help emphasise that toppling the pyramid is very much possible. Related articles: 4 on-trend illustration styles for your next project The designer's guide to illustration The designer's guide to using images more effectively View the full article

JavaScript is one of the most widely used, versatile programming languages on the planet. If you're looking to skill up, you can become an expert at it with 2018 Essential JavaScript Coding Bundle. With more than 29 hours and 900 pages of content, the bundle will help you go from being a true beginner to a total pro in no time at all. Learn how to put together effective data structures and algorithms, and master all the design patterns that you'll need under your belt. You'll also discover the power of Angular 2 and Bootstrap for web development, and you'll learn how Javascript fits into the programming world alongside other languages such as HTML5 and CSS3. Get 2018 Essential JavaScript Coding Bundle for only $29. Read more: 5 top code editors for programmers The 4 most in-demand programming languages 5 of the best JavaScript frameworks View the full article

When I started my UX career, the iPhone didn’t exist. I was wireframing screens for car navigation systems using PowerPoint. User experience consisted of interacting with the touchscreen interface with their fingers or voice. Tap was the only gesture; there was no swipe, pinch or slide. There were quite a few voice commands but they were difficult to recall, and you had to say them a specific way. Even then, the system didn’t understand it most of the time. Today, when new web design tools are released every day, swipe is the new click. Technology has made it possible for us to talk to computers as if they were human. We’re designing experiences for multiple platforms using design-specific tools. The rules have changed: the next generation of UX designers will face new challenges that will impact our everyday lives. Here’s a look at some of the themes that are changing the face of UX. 01. Conversational UX Hey Siri, find a table for six in Los Angeles tonight. OK Google, take a selfie. Alexa, ask Uber to request a ride. Tech giants Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook have embraced conversational interfaces. Virtual assistants and chatbots have exploded onto the scene. We’re seeing a growing number of applications with invisible interfaces; applications with no commands to remember or user interfaces to learn. Users can just type or talk as they would to their friends or family. Conversational UX will be one of the biggest shifts in how people interact with devices. Natural language recognition is progressing at a rapid pace. Frictionless computing can be a reality. The Amazon Echo and Google Home are AI-powered virtual assistants that have no physical interface – users interact with them entirely through vocal instructions So what does this mean for user experience designers? We won’t be designing visual interfaces as often. Instead, we will design experiences through conversations – experiences that help users achieve their goals. The future of interaction is screenless. These are some things to consider for your conversational UI designs: Start with a quick introduction and explanation of what you do Make it clear the person on the other side is a bot and not a human Avoid open-ended questions; encourage a specific answer Acknowledge valid answers before moving on to the next question 
Focus on micro-copy that is natural 
and represents the brand Conversational UI is still in its infancy. As designers, we have the opportunity to shape the experiences we want. Through the power of conversation, computers and humans will finally be able to speak the same language. 02. Focused design tools It was only a few years ago that designers had to hack existing tools when designing for the web. They’d retrofit tools like Photoshop and Illustrator to create wireframes, flows and mockups. Organisations now realise the importance of a great user experience and are willing to invest in it. New web design tools or sets of updated features are frequently released and are all vying to be a part of the designer’s workflow. Currently leading the way is Sketch, a tool focused on interface design. With a robust set of powerful features and plugins, it has become the go-to for most designers. Competitors have taken notice. Adobe got into the game with XD. It differentiates itself from Sketch by adding a prototyping component and Windows compatibility. Another tool that has been gaining popularity recently and could offer a glimpse towards the future of design tools is Figma. It runs in a web browser and allows for real-time collaboration. CAD-inspired design tool Subform adds another new dimension – it focuses on the unique constraints of responsive layouts. The prototyping game continues to evolve. InVision launched a plugin for Sketch and Photoshop called Craft. Craft helps users design with real data, sync styles, and prototype within Sketch. Facebook has developed its own prototyping tool called Origami Studio. And Framer continues to push updates, making it easier to design with code. 03. A mobile future In 2009, Luke Wroblewski wrote that websites should design for mobile first. Mobile users were growing at an alarming rate. Mobile internet adoption was on the rise. Time spent in mobile apps kept going up. It was clear mobile was here to stay. Fast-forward to today and the numbers don’t lie. There are more smartphones in the world than PCs. The time spent in mobile apps dominates the web browser. A growing population of people no longer use a PC at all. Smartphones have changed the way we communicate with each other and access information. Yet the mobile experience is still riddled with bad UX. 04. Integrated experiences If we are to design for tomorrow’s mobile experiences, we can’t be guided by today’s constraints. Phones will get smarter and more integrated and powerful. Apps are beginning to scratch the surface of contextual experiences. Enter a restaurant and get a suggestion of what to order, based on your preferences. Got a meeting across town? Your phone will tell you when to leave, based on traffic. In the future, the camera will act as another context-aware source – it will be an extra eye that can understand what it’s seeing in real time. We’re starting to see more integration of data and services. Instead of opening a specific app to complete a task, we’ll be able to do it via voice or inside another app. Apps that don’t integrate with each other will seem like a broken user experience. We’ll interact with the other devices in our home, car and at work. To provide the best experience, all devices will talk with one another. The phone will be the one device that’s always with us; the hub of the frictionless experience. The apps that will become a part of our everyday life will be the ones that can best anticipate our needs. 05. Building a library The Airbnb Design Language System is a collection of components defined by shared principles and patterns Creating and maintaining an effective design system requires a huge investment. The Airbnb team created its system by first identifying the inconsistencies in its products. Designers printed out their designs and laid out the screens side-by-side. They audited the flows in order so they could see where the experiences were breaking. Principles helped inform their decisions to standardise on components and design patterns. A pattern library acts as a centralised hub for all components of the user interface. Effective pattern libraries provide pattern descriptions, annotations and contextual information. They also showcase the code and pattern variations, and have the ability to add real data into the pattern structure. Once a design system is up and running, it’s only the first step in the journey. It needs to be living. Nathan Curtis, a co-founder of UX firm EightShapes, says: “A design system isn’t a project. It’s a product, serving products.” Like any good product, a design system needs maintenance and improvements to succeed. Both Google and Salesforce have teams dedicated to improving their design systems. The goal is a workflow where changes to the design system update the documentation and the code. The benefits realised by a thoughtful, unified design system outweigh the effort involved in establishing one. There is a consistency across the entire user experience. Engineers and designers share a common language and systems are more sustainable. Designers can spend their time solving harder problems and the actual user experience. 06. The UX of virtual reality Google’s best practices when designing for virtual reality includes just two main rules: Designers should avoid simulator sickness and establish user familiarity with interactions User experiences are not limited to a desktop or mobile screen – many everyday objects now connect to the internet. One of the more exciting design challenges is virtual reality, which has been around for some time but has recently become more accessible, thanks to headsets like the Oculus Rift. Designing an immersive experience is not the same as designing for a flat screen. Design principles for two-dimensional screens don’t always translate to three-dimensional environments. A new medium means new rules, interactions and patterns. Moving on Design has come a long way. Mobile is the face of digital. Organisations are creating large-scale design systems and a culture of design. Tools for designers are becoming more accessible. We have had a small taste of the power of conversational UX and virtual reality. When I was designing car navigation systems, the goal was to get drivers to their destination. Now, we’re seeing cars that can drive themselves and are safer than humans. As technology is always changing, so will the rules of UX. Now more than ever, it’s an amazing time to be a user experience designer. This article was originally published in net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Subscribe to net. Want to learn more on the latest UX trends? Sara Soueidan is giving her talk Using CSS (and SVG) for the good of UX at Generate London If you're interested in learning more about how you can offer your users a silky smooth user experience, make sure you've picked up your ticket for Generate London. An award-winning freelance front-end UI developer and author from Lebanon with clients including Netflix, The Royal Schiphol Group and Smashing Magazine, Sara Soueidan will be delivering her talk – Using CSS (and SVG) for the good of UX – at Generate. In it, she will show you how UX has a direct impact on how the user feels, whether they find it delightful to use and, most importantly, whether or not they can use it properly. Generate London takes place from 19-21 September 2018. Get your ticket now. Related articles: 10 essential TED talks for UX designers New skills in UX design The ultimate guide to user experience View the full article