Rss Bot

If you only ever did client work, you might go a little crazy. So it’s a wise employer that lets its designers blow off a little creative steam in the form of an occasional side project. These might not make a direct contribution to the bottom line. But getting together as a team and working on a collective passion project can generate untold benefits in the long term. Here, we share some of the best agency side projects we’ve heard about this year. Meanwhile, if your company has a side project you think we should hear about, let us know via Twitter or Facebook. 01. Conran Design Group: May the Fourth fun This fun campaign hit the right tongue-in-cheek note for social mediaConran Design Group is an award-winning design agency in London, UK, that’s been around for more than 60 years. It places high importance on projects that sit outside of mainstream client work, and actively seeks out competitions, pro bono work and cultural events to take part in throughout the year. Tapping into cultural events is important to the agency, so this year it targeted Star Wars Day, an unofficial celebration that takes place across social media every May the 4th (it’s of course a pun on the line in the movie, ‘May the force be with you’). Tapping into cultural events is important to the agency – even silly onesMore and more businesses are getting on board with this social media phenomenon. So this year Conran Design Group joined in the fun by creating six images of Star Wars characters taken from everyday items found in its new King’s Cross offices. The campaign tied Star Wars into the agency’s workplace in a clever wayExploiting an internet meme to push a company is a tricky thing to pull off, and runs the risk of either enraging social media users (by being too overtly commercial) or failing to promote your brand (by being too subtle). This clever campaign hit all the right notes, by not taking itself too seriously while subtly promoting the agency in a way that delighted rather than deterred future clients. 02. Bozboz: Events and exhibition space Bozboz’s designers are passionate about music and culture, and some are even DJs themselvesBozboz is an independent digital and design agency based in Brighton, UK. Founded in 2007, its designers are passionate about music and culture. So as an adjunct to its client work the company has launched its own creative space, where it hosts exhibitions from top talent in the contemporary art world. “When we searching for a new agency building, we actively sought out interesting and creative spaces that were inspirational and evocative to be in,” explains Bozboz’s Kitty Hennessy. “The space lends itself so well to alternative uses: exhibitions, launches, private parties. And it means our clients can take advantage of it too. Although separate from the core business, the exhibition space is nonetheless available to clients“Mike Hollingbery, our founder, already had an extensive private collection of contemporary and urban art and it felt like an awesome fit. Clients and staff alike walk through the gallery to get to the main agency premises, so it's almost a visual intro to what Bozboz is all about. "Recently the space has been home to Mal-One and Mau Mau, as well as Chelone Wolf, Richard Martin and Stephen Bunting, who featured in the Nu:Blood show.” The space acts as a “visual intro” to what the agency is about“In terms of working together, the creative space is very much a separate entity and we host independent exhibitions that are not directly connected to Bozboz,” she explains. “But we try very hard to only show work that upholds our values and creativity. In a society where work life and play often collide, and no-one ever really switches off, we're proud to have turned that into a pretty major plus.” 03. Carter Wong: Bespoke designer notebooks The notebooks showcase Carter Wong’s design smarts in an original wayCarter Wong is a independent, multi-disciplinary London, UK, design agency founded in 1984. Every year, it partners with printers Boss Print to create a new and unique notebook. The idea is to show off both Carter Wong’s design smarts and Boss Print’s printing prowess to clients and partners. The emphasis here is firmly on the quirky side of creative. So Volume 1, entitled Found Fonts, featured a selection of 3D letterforms that the Carter Wong team collected on their travels. The first volume focused on 3D letterformsVolume 2, A Cut Above, includes a collection of beautiful razor blade wrappers discovered in a Roman flea market in 1993. And Volume 3, Heidelberg Ephemera, incorporates a series of tickets, wrappers, tags and receipts that document a year that a young woman spent in Germany in the mid-1960s. Two sneak peeks from this year’s Carter Wong notebookWe can’t actually show you the 2017 notebooks yet, as they won’t be released until November, but Carter Wong has shared the two sneak peeks above, to show you just how cool the final product promises to be... 04. Superimpose Studio: Post-truth showcase Tonight’s show is a visual exploration of the post-truth worldSuperimpose is a “next-generation creative studio” based in Shoreditch, East London. Alongside its everyday work with clients including Adidas and Hermes, it also has a small internal division called Services Unknown. This gives the team an opportunity to take ideas that clients didn’t buy into and develop them for itself. The very latest project out of the division is Perspectives, a visual exploration into the polarity between perceived truths and factual evidence (or the ‘fake news’ controversy, as it’s known to most of us). Opening tonight (October 18 at 7.30pm, UK time), at The 100 Room on the rooftop of London’s Ace Hotel, the showcase spans various forms of art and media, from graphics to fabrics, from animation to photography and sound. The aim is to champion the studio’s belief in honesty and imagination as creators and contributors to the evolution of visual culture. 05. Snask: Rock band Snask’s house band VÄG have been bringing heavy rock attitude to an often staid design sceneSnask is a Stockholm-based creative agency with a rock ‘n’ roll attitude and numerous side projects, not least its own heavy rock band, VÄG. The quirky agency gives regular presentations to design conferences around the world, and VÄG plays an integral part in the experience. If there’s an afterparty, the band plays that too. And as anyone who experienced Snask's keynote to Bristol’s Something Good will attest, it’s quite an experience, and certainly unlike anything else you’re likely to witness at a design event. As to the band’s origins, Snask explains on its website that: “The singer in a rock band sold his band to Snask at 04.30 at an afterparty for $3,000 with the condition that we could change the band name as well as their style of music. The day after the singer changed his mind but we had his signature in blood. But just to be fair we decided to start a record label (Snask Recordings) and sign them with the same conditions. “We changed their name to Road and their style of music to 70’s psychedelic rockn’roll. We then contracted one of Sweden’s best producers, Johannes Berglund, who changed them into 'singing' in Swedish. So we just translated the name to Swedish, which becomes VÄG (Road). No, we never had any thought that it is short for vagina to the rest of the world.” So now you know. Related articles: Where to find unusual images for your design projects The student guide to working at a top agency 6 rock-solid ways to improve your graphic design portfolio View the full article

Three critical SQL injections vulnerabilities in Oracle's popular E-Business Suite make up a total of 250 bugs patched for the company's quarterly Critical Patch Update, View the full article

Photoshop is the world's go-to photo editor – so much so that the word has become verbified, like 'Hoover' or 'Google'. This might give the impression that Adobe's photo editor is the undisputed champion, but that all depends on what you use it for – for your purposes it may be a case of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. There are a wide range of capable alternatives to Photoshop, some of them paid-for and some free (go to page 2 for the free apps), but this list of the best photo editors wouldn't be complete without the ubiquitous Adobe application as well. The best laptops for photo editingPromoted: Adobe Lightroom CC Platform: Windows/Mac $9.99/£9.98 (per month) Adobe Lightroom allows you to keep all your photography in one place, and organise, edit and share it from anywhere. Many creatives opt to use Lightroom as it can tackle the complex image management jobs Photoshop is not designed for, making light work of day-to-day enhancements and raw files. With Lightroom you can store images on your computer, iPad, iPhone or Android device and even transfer photos automatically from your phone into Lightroom as you shoot them. Syncing takes care of itself, so when you make an edit or flag a favourite in one place, it’s automatically updated everywhere else. Read our Adobe Creative Cloud 2017 review 01. Affinity Photo Affinity has quickly become the go-to Photoshop alternative Platform: Mac, Windows, iPad $49.99/£48.99 We will never waver in our love for Serif's Affinity Photo, especially as it's available for Windows PCs and iPad as well as macOS, making it the subscription-free Photoshop alternative that everyone can enjoy. The latest version boasts plenty of amazing features, including full HDR merge support, 360-degree image editing, recordable macros and batch processing, plus a tone mapping workspace that enables you to turn any image – whether it’s a standard JPG or an HDR photo – into a dramatic scene, bringing out details you never realised were there. Read our Affinity Photo brings professional photo editing to iPad story 02. PaintShop Pro Shout out to everyone who used Paint Shop Pro on Windows 3.1 Platform: PC $79.99/£69.99 PaintShop Pro has been the budget Photoshop alternative of choice on PC for over 20 years, and it's still holding its own. The new 2018 version promises to be easiest, faster and more creative than ever. It features ready-made project templates, a built-in screenshot function with a smart capture mode that lets you grab part of the screen, a gradient fill option and improved support for graphics tablets and styluses. On top of the standard version, you can pay a little extra for PaintShop Pro 2018 Ultimate, which adds professional-grade raw editing, automatic photo corrections and screen recordings to the mix. Read our PaintShop Pro X9 review 03. Photoshop CC It's Photoshop. What you gonna do, eh? Platform: Windows/Mac From $19.99/£19.97 (per month) Photoshop CC is head-bangingly brilliant, and has too many features to summarise in this small space – but you can read more in our Photoshop CC 2017 review and explore its capabilities further in our Top Photoshop tutorials article. There's no doubt that the latest Photoshop is a hugely impressive photo editing application; probably the best out there. But it comes at a monthly cost. 04. Acorn Acorn includes non-destructive filters Platform: Mac $29.99/£28.99 Image editing software Acorn debuted back in 2007 and has provided hobbyists and artists on a budget with a great, affordable piece of photo editing software. Features include layer styles, non-destructive filters, curves and levels, blending modes and much more. Acorn 6 features non-destructive filters, which includes a great interface to chain filters together to create unique effects. You can even save and modify your filters after you've closed and re-opened your Acorn image. 05. Photoshop Elements Somewhere inbetween Photoshop and Touch, Elements is a powerful standalone app Platform: Linux/Windows/Mac $79.99/£86.56 This is the basic alternative to Photoshop CC, as reflected in its great Quick and Guided Edit modes, but don't think that means it lacks power under the hood. Also, unlike Photoshop CC, Elements doesn't require a subscription. It's now on the 2018 version, with better organisational tools, intelligent editing tools such as the ability to open closed eyes, options to print your images and features to make it easier to share images via social media. Read our Photoshop Elements review 06. DxO OpticsPro DxO is limited in its scope but what it does, it does very well Platform: Windows/Mac $109/£99 for Essential version $167/£159 for Elite version Things get a bit specific with Optics Pro 11, but what it does, it does very well. Its results are spectacular, but it's a specialised and sometimes complex tool to use. It's arguably the best raw converter of all, but that's just about all it does. DxO Optics Pro automatically compensates for the different degrees of distortion, chromatic aberration, edge softness and vignetting common to practically all digital camera lenses. It's also a raw converter, and DxO has applied just as much scientific rigour to this process as its lens corrections. You can browse the images on your computer, folder by folder, then select an image and choose from the default conversion/correction setting or a range of presets The results are excellent. However, it would never be your one and only image-editing tool. 07. Camera+ Camera+ is adored by iPad users and has subsequently arrived on iPhone - hooray! Platform: iOS $2.99/£2.99 for iPhone $4.99/£4.99 for iPad The Camera app that comes on the iPhone by default is not brilliant: yes, you can use it to take some decent shots, but it doesn't offer you much creative control. This is where Camera+ excels. The app has two parts: a camera and a photo editor, and it truly excels at the latter, with a huge range of advanced features. Camera+ doesn't just limit you to editing new pics – you can quickly import your existing photos into the Lightbox where you can breathe new life into them. 08. Pixelmator Workflow is often much quicker using Mac tool Pixelmator Platform: Mac $29.99/£28.99 Pixelmator uses Mac OS X libraries to create fast, powerful image editing tools, which allows the software to integrate seamlessly with the likes of iPhoto and Aperture, as well as iCloud. There are also built-in export tools for Facebook and Flickr. Colour correction tools such as Hue/Saturation, Shadows/Highlights and Contrast are all present and correct, and Pixelmator supports filters and comes with a collection of 150 to play with. You can also open and save images in many of the popular formats, including PSD, TIFF, PDF and PNG. When saving or opening Photoshop documents, layers are preserved allowing you to collaborate effectively with colleagues using Adobe's software. 09. Handy Photo Handy Photo is all about the interface and photo editor tools Platform: iOS/Android $2.99/£2.99 for iOS $2.85/£2.89 for Android The selling point of photo editor Handy Photo is its interface, which uses the corners of the screen to cater for rotating menu options. It's all designed to keep the central area of the screen clear, allowing you to use swipe gestures to tone your effects up or down. It's a powerful photo editor; the UI isn't for everyone, but this is an amazing price for the effects you get. The 'Move Me' tool enables you to clip out objects and move, resize or flip them. Next page: Free photo editors 10. Pixlr Pixlr's mobile photo editing software comes with more than 600 effects Platform: iOS, Android Price: Free Pixlr claims to be "the most popular online photo editor in the world", which may have something to do with the fact that it's free. But it also boasts more than 600 effects, overlays, and borders and lets you do all the main things you'd expect from a photo editor, from cropping and re-sizing to removing red-eye and whitening teeth. And if you're used to using Photoshop you'll find Pixlr's user interface easy to pick up quickly, as it's very similar. 11. GIMP GIMP is a popular open-source photo editing software Platform: Linux/Windows/Mac Price: Free An open-source photo editor that debuted on Unix-based platforms, GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. Today it's available in versions for Linux, Windows and Mac. GIMP offers a wide toolset – everything you're accustomed to is within easy reach, including painting tools, colour correction, cloning, selection, and enhancement. The team that oversees development has worked hard to ensure compatibility too, so you'll be able to work with all the popular file formats without any trouble at all. You'll also find a very capable file manager built in, along similar lines to Adobe's Bridge. 12. Paint.net For photo editing, free Windows tool Paint.net is an excellent option Platform: Windows Price: Free Paint.net is a surprisingly capable and useful tool, available completely free of charge. The focus is on ease of use, and there's a definite tendency towards photo editing rather than artistic creation. That said, there are a range of special effects available, allowing you to easily create fake perspective, blend and push pixels around the canvas, tile and repeat selections, and so on. A good range of selection tools, support for layers, and adjustments such as curves and brightness/contrast mean that Paint.net is a great alternative to Photoshop for photo editing, especially if you can do without some of the more recent additions to Photoshop's toolset. 13. Sumo Paint Sumo Paint works in the browser, and requires Adobe Flash to use Platform: Web browser (requires Adobe Flash Player) Price: Free for basic online version Sumo Paint is a highly capable browser-based image editor. All the standard features you'd expect from a desktop tool are present and correct and by buying the Pro version for $19 you can install a desktop version of the app if you prefer. You need the Adobe Flash Player to use this tool, so you're not going be using Sumo Paint on your iPad. The standard range of tools and adjustments you'd expect are all included. Brushes, pencils, shapes, text, cloning, gradients and so on are all quickly accessed from the Photoshop-esque floating toolbar. It can also open saved documents from your hard drive, making Sumo Paint a perfectly viable option for editing and reediting. There are, however, limitations that will put off some users. The most important of these is that the editor appears to be RGB only, limiting its use to screen-destined artwork only. No CMYK, Lab or other colour models to be found here. 14. Photo Editor by Aviary Aviary strikes a balance between serious photo editor and playful app Platform: Web browser/iOS/Android Price: Free Aviary is a pleasantly designed app that strikes the perfect balance between serious photo editing (with blemish removal, tooth whitening, resizing and adjustments) and playful photo-decoration functions (such as stickers, coloured overlays and the ability to add mem-style text) without looking bland or childish. Related articles: Top Photoshop tutorials The 5 best laptops for photo editing 15 inspiring photographers to follow on Instagram View the full article

First impressions matter: so much so that brands that redesign their ecommerce sites regularly report a 20-30% increase in revenue within three to six months. The industry average for year-on-year revenue growth is less than 25%, so that's quite a boost. Design plays a crucial role in driving every business goal for online brands. Most successful online brands update their design every three to six months and iterate on that design regularly throughout, altering colours, photos, metadata and more to increase organic search ranking, sales and customer lifetime value. When is your next redesign? A brand redesign can be the difference between success and failure in such a competitive online market, so let's look at four examples of online stores that have designed excellent user experiences that result in greater conversions. 01. NatoMounts NatoMounts uses Amazon Pay for an easy checkout experienceNatoMounts has done what nearly everyone in the online selling industry wants to accomplish: create a seamless selling experience from homepage to checkout. The only difference between NatoMounts and everyone else is that the brand only has a homepage and a checkout. Brandon Chatham, founder of NatoMounts, worked with a designer to design first and foremost for mobile audiences, knowing that those on mobiles don't have the time or patience to click a bunch of small buttons. The homepage is long; perfect for mobile scrolling. It also uses Amazon Pay at checkout to connect mobile shoppers with the industry's fastest checkout method (all customer payment data is automatically served by Amazon). The result? Chatham has had multiple customers land on the site and purchase in 43 seconds or less. In total, NatoMounts has a 5% conversion rate for mobile audiences, and 80% of their sales come from mobile devices. "The whole experience from landing on the site to checking-out has got to take a minute or less. Our goal is to have them order as much as possible, as quickly as possible," says Chatham. "Our eCommerce platform, BigCommerce, has built integrations with one-click payment systems, and the platform's optimised single-page checkout helps me do just that." 02. Native Union Native Union uses slick collections to show off its productsNative Union isn't your average online seller. The brand uses Kickstarter to launch new products, which immediately gives it a long list of interested customers. Plus, Native Union products can be seen offline as well – and in such notorious shops as Paper Source and Free People. It is innovating in the industry regularly, too, which is why its homepage redesign was so incredibly crucial. "Our website is the window to the Native Union brand," says Arthur Maitre, ecommerce manager at Native Union. "Often times, the first touchpoint a customer will have is to see our products on shelves in retail locations. "Although our products tell a story, being able to create an exploration experience on our website allows users to discover our brand values and product lines in a much more controlled and aesthetically pleasing way." So, Native Union has redesigned its site to focus on collections, using a merchandising strategy to push new visitors down a path of least resistance to checkout. A clean layout and luxury images appeals to a techie audience, one which is likely wooed by Apple's own branding. Minimalism runs throughoutThe site relaunch, however, hasn't resulted in increased conversions, but it is making the brand more money. Relying on a collections strategy allows for individual collection pages to rank incredibly well on Google – organically – and thereby save the company money in AdWords and Google PLAs. Instead of paying for pricey ad placements, its optimised pages attract free visits from search engines. And those who do purchase are purchasing a whole lot more than they ever used to. AOV and order count are both up, 8% and 41% respectively. "Since the redesign, traffic has increased by 67%, orders have increased by 41%, AOV has increased by 8%, and page download speed increased by 19% ," says Maitre. 03. Soundwall Soundwall uses images to powerful effectNot every redesign is exclusively focused on increasing customer conversions. This is especially true if you can make more money in bulk orders from industry leaders, such as hoteliers. This is exactly what Soundwall has done. Soundwall's redesign has increased not just B2C conversion but also improved the site's performance for large B2B customers. "The big win stemming from this redesign was the ground swell of interest from the hospitality space, which led one of the largest distributors of goods to the hotel industry globally to pick Soundwall up as the newest featured luxury product in their line," says Adam Goodman, president of Soundwall Inc. So what is it that it ultimately changed? First, they cut down on the number of pages needed to explain the product. Today, Soundwall uses a direct, response-inspired homepage and a visually-focused product page. Minimal clicks. Beautiful visuals. And the changes have led to results. "Since we relaunched, average time spent on site has increased by over 200%. Average pages per session went from 1.25 to 2.5. We've seen a 60% increase in engagement from home to shop page with a 4x increase in average time on site and 50% reduction in bounce rate," says Goodman. 04. ONYCHEK What better way to ensure customers love your site than to ask them? NPS (Net Promoter Score) – if you aren't familiar – is an industry best standard of customer satisfaction. Customers are allowed to rate your company on a scale of 0-10. Your goal is to get to a 9 or 10 for every one. However, almost no company is able to achieve that, save for ONYCHEK. "We send NPS surveys to all of our customers, and so far we have had NPS scores of 10 and zero product returns," says Emmanuel Chekwas Nwokocha, founder of ONYCHEK. "This is because, with the minimal design, we describe our products well enough that customers know exactly what they are getting." When you land on the ONYCHEK page you will immerse yourself in a luxury fashion experience akin to what you'd see for NYC-based brands. Except that these guys aren't from NYC – they are an African-based fashion brand and use powerful branding and visuals to draw customers in and then give back to their local community. Using merchandised collections, new product features, and a "buy now" footer, the site pushes users to explore additional content and products and make more purchases than most other sites. "Our conversion rate this April increased by 138.46% compared to March, " says Nwokocha. "We put UI and UX in the forefront of our design idea to make it really easy to shop. Here is an exact quote we received: 'I love your site – it's simple and focuses mainly on your products'." This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 296. Buy it here. Related articles: 10 steps to an engaging user experience 10 brilliant image-led portfolio sites for 2017 Build an ecommerce site from scratch View the full article

Sydney, Australia-based dyslexia correction organisation Sydlexia has combined typography and clever poster layouts to create a piece of design that clears up some of the confusion surrounding the learning difference. Created in partnership with branding and communications specialists BBDO Dubai, the branding campaign aims to challenge the misconceptions associated with dyslexia. Rather than treating dyslexia as a disability, Sydlexia wants to move the conversation towards treating it as a learning difference. And with this innovative paper art it hopes to capture the attention of a diverse range of people. Before they're folded, the type on the posters is pretty unintelligible. Origami folds transform them into wordsThe campaign comes from the idea that people with dyslexia often report that they find written words to appear broken up and rearranged. BBDO runs with this angle by translating it into a visual design for posters based around fractured typography. Words such as 'dog' or 'fox' are deliberately sliced up and jumbled to communicate how people with dyslexia see letters on the page. When looking at the posters, most people would struggle to piece together the words, but once they're folded together in a certain way into origami objects, the words become completely clear. Watch how the clever design takes shape in the video below. The posters, which are being used as newspaper adverts and displayed on billboards, as well as online, double up as interactive learning tools. "Once folded correctly they help forge the connection of the word to the object it represents in the dyslexic mind," says BBDO Dubai. Instructions for folding the paper is on the Sydlexia websiteWith 1 in 10 people worldwide diagnosed with dyslexia, this campaign goes some way towards challenging preconceptions about the learning difference. Topping off the campaign is an optimistic logo that ties together the name of Sydlexia and the scattered lettering present throughout the identity: linking together the d and s in Sydlexia is a smile icon that puts a positive face to dyslexia. Related articles: The designer's guide to printing a poster Are movie posters in a design crisis? 4 classic movie poster designs making a comeback View the full article

So you’re kicking off your first year at design college. Congratulations, this could be the start of a flourishing creative career – if you play your cards right. Design education in the UK is facing a crisis, with a drop of about 14,000 applicants for art and design courses between 2016 and 2017, according to UCAS. But there are still tens of thousands of design students competing against you for attention, so it really does pay to put the effort in to ensure you stand out and start creating a design portfolio you can be proud of. At the end of it, you may even be named as one of the best graduates of your year. Here are nine sure-fire ways to stay ahead of the curve from day one. 01. Build a studio bookshelf University of Huddersfield graduate Andrew Fish created an impressive series of publications for his final-year project, inspired by dementia No doubt your course will provide a reading list to help you grasp the fundamentals of good design. This kind of theory is crucial, but it’s not everything. Take the time to build your own studio bookshelf to dip into for reference and inspiration: this list of 5 must-read books for design students includes some great insights into the design process. 02. Explore some new skills Entitled Look At Me, Evelina Sara Stasyte's final-year project at the University of Westminster explored borderline personality disorder through illustration Design studios are increasingly looking for multi-disciplinary, versatile creatives to hire. Don’t rely on your course to give you all the skills you need: be proactive, experiment, and give yourself an edge. Codecademy is a great starting point for learning to code, for instance, and there are some great free Udemy courses for designers on the basics of animation, 3D, WordPress and more. 03. Get smart with money Chelsea College of Art graduate Yeong Eun Yoo created her final-year project Regather Hangul to encourage unity and resolution between North and South Korea Whether you plan to make a living as a freelancer, work your way through the ranks of an agency or even start your own studio, you’ll need to get your head round the financial side of things. Take advantage of every opportunity you have to hone your budget management skills, whether it’s through organising the weekly food shop or getting involved with a student society, and you’ll immediately be on the front foot. 04. Fill your sketchbook Sure, you’ll need to show your working for your course projects as they develop. But a good sketchbook should be about more than that: use it as a place to record and evolve all manner of ideas as they occur to you. Get into the habit of thinking conceptually, and turning random sources of inspiration into something more constructive. Who knows, that quick thumbnail sketch could be perfect for a brief further down the line. 05. Maintain your portfolio Medicine For Modern Times was University Centre Southend graduate Mark Nevard's final project, which explores 'functional psychopathy' For many third-year students, the last few months leading up to the final degree show and graduation is a chaotic frenzy, pulling together the best portfolio possible in the time available. Once you’re in the world of work, maintaining your folio will be just one more item on a never-ending to-do list. So use any spare time you have available while studying to craft, develop and maintain it as you go. 06. Start a passion project One of the best ways to bulk out that portfolio with the work you really want to do, as well as creating a distinctive calling card for yourself, is to set your own briefs. Many creative pros indulge their passions and develop their style through personal experiments and creative side projects alongside client work, and as a student there really is no better time to get into the habit. Perhaps it could spark off a fruitful collaboration with a fellow student who you end up founding a studio with down the line. 07. Build up your contacts Plymouth College of Art graduate Penny Chan amassed an impressive portfolio while studying, including her own zine: GIRLHOOD They say it’s who you know, not what you know. While a lucky few might have a contacts book started already thanks to friends and family, when it comes to setting up those all-important placements and internships, it pays if you’ve been proactive during your design school years. Go to design events, festivals and talks, ask questions, get yourself out there early and you never know where it could lead. 08. Freelance while studying Ruth Gardiner's Londependence project while at Kingston University explored what an independent state of London would look like Once you’ve found a style, developed a fledgling portfolio packed with passion projects to supplement your coursework, honed your skills and built up your contacts book, it’s time to start thinking commercially. Don’t be afraid to pitch your skills before you graduate: you may get some knock-backs, but as with all of the above, start early and reap the benefits. Main illustration: Camelia Pham for Computer Arts. Read more: Why it's time for students to stop relying on software 7 organisations design students need to know The student guide to working at a top agency View the full article

Lenovo customers are being told to update their Android tablets and handsets to protect themselves against a handful of critical vulnerabilities impacting tens of millions of vulnerable Lenovo devices. View the full article

https://thehackernews.com/2017/10/microsoft-bug-tracking-breach.html … View the full article

For today's daily deal, we've got you a great discount on a bundle of courses that will teach budding web designers essential frontend development skills. And if you're after more amazing deals for web designers, graphic designers, illustrators, artists and more, bookmark our Best Black Friday deals 2017 page. Web developers are always working behind the scenes to keep the gears turning on all of our favourite applications and sites. It's a career that rewards structure as much as it does creativity. If you want to get in on this exciting field, grab the Ultimate Front End Developer Bundle on sale now for just $39 (approx £29) – plus save an additional 50% off when you use the coupon code BUNDLE50 at the checkout. If you're an aspiring web developer looking for a place to get your start, look no further than the Ultimate Front End Developer Bundle. This collection of eight expert-taught courses can help even an amateur learn how to code with the most important languages in web development, from JavaScript to HTML5 and CSS3. As you work your way through this great collection of courses, you'll start to bring your dream designs to life as you work through 48 hours of actionable lessons. You can get the Ultimate Front End Developer Bundle on sale for just $39 (approx £29), or 96% off the usual full retail price of $1,016. That’s already a massive saving on a bundle that could help you launch a new career, but today you can save a further 50% of that if you use the coupon code BUNDLE50 at checkout. The full titles of all eight courses in this bundle are: Complete Guide to Front-End Web Development & Design JavaScript & jQuery Basics for Beginners Learn to Code JavaScript For Web Designers & Developers The Complete HTML & CSS Course: From Novice To Professional The Complete jQuery Course: From Beginner To Advanced JavaScript: Gentle Introduction for Beginners Advanced JavaScript Website Wireframing with HTML5 & CSS3 About Creative Bloq deals This great deal comes courtesy of the Creative Bloq Deals store – a creative marketplace that's dedicated to ensuring you save money on the items that improve your design life. We all like a special offer or two, particularly with creative tools and design assets often being eye-wateringly expensive. That's why the Creative Bloq Deals store is committed to bringing you useful deals, freebies and giveaways on design assets (logos, templates, icons, fonts, vectors and more), tutorials, e-learning, inspirational items, hardware and more. Every day of the working week we feature a new offer, freebie or contest – if you miss one, you can easily find past deals posts on the Deals Staff author page or Offer tag page. Plus, you can get in touch with any feedback at: deals@creativebloq.com. Related articles: The best Black Friday deals 2017 25 top-class website templates All you need to know about mockups, wireframes, and prototypes View the full article

Starting your first design job can be very daunting – you've gone from working from home in your pyjamas to being surrounded by brilliant senior designers and creative directors. There's no two ways around it, you're going to mess up at some point in your first job – it's inevitable. But you're not alone. These leading designers have already been there and come out the other side still smiling. Here are some common pitfalls that can happen in the workplace – and some advice to help you avoid making these mistakes. 01. Forgetting your target audience Jacek Utko's newspaper redesigns now focus on the content“For one of my first newspaper redesigns, we were in a rush but had a clear idea of what we wanted," reveals consultant newspaper and web designer Jacek Utko. "We changed the logo radically; all new type, cut the size in half and gave it a completely different layout. It was a clear, powerful concept and a fast, smooth delivery. "Perfect case, right? Not really. Readers didn’t share our excitement. Sales and advertising went down. I’m still sure it was a good design – but not for the audience or product. Now I think more before designing, and compromise for the market and product legacy. And I design from a strategy and content perspective, not just for pure design.” 02. Pretending you know it all (when you don't yet) Kelli Anderson now embraces design jobs that offer chances to learn [click to see the full infographic] Artist and designer Kelli Anderson says: "With my first few client projects, I went to great lengths to conceal the fact that I’d bitten off more than I could chew. This assumed a pathetic, ‘No, really, I’m a professional’, tangibility through my boring business cards, polished letterheads and detailed (but inaccurate) estimates. I realise now that learning on the job is what makes for a sustainable career." "When you ‘don’t know what you’re doing’, you can’t apply stale stock solutions. You must think with your wits, fly by the seat of your pants and engage with the problem on its own terms. Now, I seek out jobs based on how little I know." 03. Forgetting to go home "I animated a section of The Bigger Picture until four in the morning, and then slept on the studio floor," says animator, writer and director Daisy Jacobs. "I woke up and reviewed the footage to find everything past my normal going-home time was completely unusable. My advice? I would suggest going home at a reasonable hour and sleeping in a bed." 04. Failing to check everything Studio Output learned the hard way to double-check all artwork before it goes to printGroup creative director at Studio Output Dan Moore advises: "My biggest learning is to always check everything – be that preflighting your artwork before print (or learning the hard way when you get a full set of 16 x 5000 A6 flyers back with the DJs overprinted, in white) or using spellcheck (so you don’t spell ‘Nottingham’ with one ‘T’, like our first ever Studio Output job). "Also just simply check you're using a phone properly (and not airing your early career frustrations at the client just before you speak to them, without the mute button on)." 05. Wasting time at the wrong company Daniel Aristizabal Arias now happily runs his own studio"I would say my biggest mistake was not quitting at the right time," reveals illustrator and art director Daniel Aristizabal Arias. "I took a job in a small ad agency in Medellín, Colombia, and from the get-go it was a very unfortunate adventure. I was underpaid, working on really crappy projects and my bosses were kind of dickish with the staff." "I lasted for six months there. At the end they lost a big account and they fired all the new people. For me it was a huge relief, and I still thank them for letting me go.” 06. Fudging the truth Jane Stockdale knows the importance of supporting your colleagues"In my first job I designed a flyer for MTV," says photographer Jane Stockdale. "But when we got it back from the printers, I’d accidentally spelt ‘MTV Beatch Party’. "It was obviously my fault but my workmates had my back and said they didn’t know who did it. I told my boss later and he knew it was me but was cool about it. So I’d say if you make a mistake, be honest about it. And always have your workmates’ backs." This article originally appeared in Computer Arts issue 255. Subscribe here. Read more: Top designers reveal their first paid commissions 50 brilliant design portfolios to inspire you The 8 biggest typography mistakes designers make View the full article

Erik Spiekermann’s experimental letterpress workshop, 98a, is the birthplace of post-digital printingChange Is Good is a new fiction book by Louis Rossetto, co-founder of Wired, about the birth of the dot-com age. And fittingly for a book about a revolution, it's the first book to be designed and printed by typography legend Erik Spiekermann's new printing process, which he calls 'post-digital printing'. This method will use a combination of new laser plate cutting technology and letterpress to print 1,000 copies of the book, which is available on Kickstarter. We caught up with Rossetto and Spiekermann to find out more about this printing process. What are the benefits of letterpress printing compared to offset? Louis Rossetto: Offset printing handles colour really well. But at the same time, when you're reading a book that's only text, offset doesn't deliver on a quality level like letterpress used to. On the other hand, letterpress has the limitation of not being able to do typography well. What Erik's able to do in developing this new technology is marry the advances that have occurred in typography over the last 30 years to the clear benefits of letterpress, in terms of its black type and sharp forms impressed into the paper. The whole package ends up being startlingly better than what we're used to. What's the process for this new printing method? Erik Spiekermann: We bought an image setter machine that cuts into polymer plastic with a laser, and then we can print from those plates. We put these plates with metal backs in our machine, which has a magnetic base. It goes into the printing press, and stays there. And then we get the impression, the raised surface, of the letters. You can see the printing process in action in the video above Tell us about Change Is Good... LR: Change Is Good is a story about a moment that changed the world. In the 90s, there were young people with fire in their eyes, with big ideas and a passion to make change happen. Change is Good is about those people and their challenges. It's utterly appropriate that the story of this era of revolutionary change is brought out on new technology which will revolutionise printing. Change is Good is the first book to use Spiekermann's new print processAre there any types of books that you think wouldn't print well using this method? ES: Text is where letterpress shines, but we can imagine printing books using a mix of processes, for example, full colour offset and black type, or other combinations. We are no Luddites, and we like all types of printing on paper – including using our Risograph. What's the future of post-digital printing? ES: Bringing together the best of each technology: digital type and typesetting offer more choices and better precision. Letterpress printing makes type look better than watery offset. We've already printed two books for a major German publisher, and will print another five titles this year. What advice do you have for someone wanting to get more from letterpress, who doesn't have your resources? ES: Come and buy plates from us. We need to get our money back on our investment. This article originally appeared in Computer Arts issue 270. Buy it here. Related articles: 50 inspiring examples of letterpress business cards Create special print finishes in InDesign 5 things every creative needs to know about print design View the full article

After Effects CC might sound like a complex program, but once you grasp some basic concepts, you’ll be able to create a range of animation styles using Adobe's 3D, motion graphics and animation software. Get Adobe Creative CloudIn this article we'll run through some top tips for animating illustrations in After Effects, starting with the basics. And be sure to check out other great After Effects tutorials for beginners, intermediate and experts afterwards, for more practical tips and design inspiration. 01. Import files from Photoshop After Effects allows you to incorporate Photoshop files into your composition (comp). When you import these files into a project, the layers will retain their individual qualities – simply drag one onto the comp and it will appear on the animation timeline. 02. Use keyframes Use the position attribute to move the element during keyframes [click the top-right arrows icon to enlarge this screenshot] Clicking the triangle next to Transform will show Position, Scale, Rotation, and more. Each of these aspects is a keyframe – a location on the timeline that marks the beginning or end of a transition. To add a keyframe, select which characteristic you want to alter and click forward on the timeline. The position, for instance, can change from one keyframe to another by dragging it along the comp. When you play the animation, it will travel along the path you created. 03. Smooth out transitions using easing Easing can make transitions between keyframes look less choppy by organically speeding up or slowing down the animation. Find the Keyframe Assistant menu under Animation to incorporate easing. Easy Ease does what the name suggests by easing the element on both sides of the keyframe. 04. Adjust anchor points Adjust the anchor points to ensure individual parts rotate in relation to one another [click the top-right arrows icon to enlarge this screenshot] Parenting synchronises the changes of one layer with another layer’s transformation. The wheel of a car, for instance, would be the child layer of a vehicle’s body, which is the parent. In this case, every time the car is moved, rotated or scaled, the wheel goes with it. To assign the parent/child relationship, first make sure that your anchor points are correctly aligned. Think about it like the skeleton of a figure – what are the joints? When something rotates, where will it rotate from? Drag the anchor point to change its position. 05. Connect elements Click on the child element (the spiral) and drag the icon to its parent [click the top-right arrows icon to enlarge this screenshot] Once these points are determined, select the intended child element and click the spiral icon under Parent. Then, drag it to the parent element and release – the two are now paired and any changes you make will affect both parts of your new element. 06. Add motion Use the Puppet Pins to assign movement to different parts of the image [click the top-right arrows icon to enlarge this image] The Puppet tool adds natural motion to a rasterised image. A snake can bob its head while its tail shakes, for example, all with the placement of a few pins. First, click on the triangle next to effects and select puppet. Under it, you’ll see Mesh 1. Click on the triangle next to it to bring up the Deform menu. You’ll now be able to click on the areas where you’d like to to add Puppet Pins – you can experiment with this until you get the effect you are looking for. Once you’ve finished placing your pins, click forward on the timeline and use the Transform property to stretch or distort each individual pin. Your puppeted subject will be moving in no time. 07. Export your animation Export your animated illustration [click the top-right arrows icon to enlarge this screenshot]Once you're happy with your animation, export it. To export an animation into a movie, go to File > Export > Add to render queue. This article was originally published in Computer Arts magazine. Subscribe now. Related articles: 40 amazing After Effects tutorials How to move over from Photoshop to After Effects The beginner's guide to After Effects View the full article

http://wccftech.com/roca-worse-krack-crypto-keys-risk/ … View the full article

A flawed Infineon Technology chipset left HP, Lenovo and Microsoft devices open to what is called a 'practical factorization attack,' in which an attacker computes the private part of an RSA key. View the full article

https://thehackernews.com/2017/10/flash-player-zero-day.html … View the full article

The world of a jobbing designer might not always be glamorous and well paid, but it makes up for it in other ways. Whether it's personal pride or fulfilling long-held ambitions, there are different markers of success for creatives, but what are they? We reached out to the community to find out. 01. Surprise recognition Stanley Chow knew he'd made it when his children started recognising his work“When my kids, who are four and seven, recognise my work,” says freelance illustrator Stanley Chow. “I took them to see Paddington Bear at the cinema and unbeknown to me there was a scene that featured an illustration for an ad that I did for McDonald’s. When the camera was panning around Piccadilly Circus, my illustration popped up on the cinema screen – both my kids stood up in the cinema and yelped, ‘Daddy, I saw your picture!’ “Also, there are a few posters and marketing campaigns that I have done dotted around Manchester. My kids frequently spot them before I do, and ask me, ‘Daddy, is that your picture? Are you famous?’” 02. Satisfied clients For Ross Barber-Smith, nothing beats a satisfied client“When a client’s reply blows me away,” says Ross Barber-Smith, the owner and web designer of Electric Kiwi. “I’ve had clients tell me they cried with happiness and excitement when they got the draft design over, because it captured their vision exactly. “I've also had other clients come back to me after their site has been live for a while, telling me how much it’s helped them grow and enabled them to book more gigs across Europe. Hearing feedback and stories like that makes me feel great, and like I’m succeeding.” 03. Positive impact GBH's Brinley Clark thinks a design's success is measured in its impact“Success is many things. In sports, it’s trophies; in politics, it’s votes; and in design, it’s impact,” explains GBH's senior designer Brinley Clark. “I think you’ve got to ask yourself a few questions. Has the work has changed people’s perceptions? Has it made a positive impact on both the end user and the company implementing it? And perhaps most importantly – has it inspired other designers?” This article was originally published in Computer Arts magazine issue 258. Subscribe here. Read more: Johnson Banks responds to Science Museum rebrand New Star Wars movie poster suggests there will be blood Grow your design business without losing focus View the full article

https://thehackernews.com/2017/10/linux-privilege-escalation.html … View the full article

Adobe today released an out-of-band Flash Player update addressing a zero-day vulnerability being exploited by a little-known Middle Eastern APT group called Black Oasis. View the full article

While Adobe Illustrator doesn't have as many plugins as its raster brother Photoshop, developers take the application very seriously when it comes to building new tools, effects and workflow solutions. Extending the abilities of Illustrator isn't usually necessary, but, as with Photoshop, plugins can save time and effort. These plugins won't cause a mini-revolution in your studio, but they will enable you to carry out certain tasks quicker. Plus, many of these are designed for older versions of Ai, adding some functionality of newer versions like Creative Cloud without the additional expense of upgrading. You'll find a couple of collections in the following list, too, so there are actually way more than 17 Adobe Illustrator plugins here – enjoy! 01. VectorScribe v3 Price: $92 Compatibility: CS6 to CC 2017 Take control of your vectors with VectorScribe, described by its creators as a vector Swiss Army knife. You can use it to manage points, paths and handles, making your work easier to edit and reducing file sizes at the same time. You can create and edit shapes as well as applying different styles of corner to your work, and with VectorScribe's dynamic measurements you can quickly and accurately measure everything from simple lengths to angles and path areas, removing any guesswork when you need to get things exactly the right size. 02. Cineware for Illustrator Add another dimension to your work with Cineware for Illustrator Price: Free Compatibility: Mac OS and Windows 10 Start working in 3D with this new plugin by MAXON in partnership with TurboSquid. This entry-level piece of software is perfect for designers who have felt intimidated by 3D tools in the past but still want to experiment with the medium. The plugin works by allowing users to import any Cinema 4D file and adjust the view, lighting and textures to integrate 3D elements with 2D design. One crucial difference between this plugin and Adobe's Project Felix is that with Cineware you don't have to leave Illustrator to start rendering. This streamlines the workflow for product designers, especially seeing as changes can be made at any time and the image will re-render automatically. 03. Gold Rush Add some sparkle to your Illustrator designs with Gold Rush Price: $22 Compatibility: CS3+ Give your work a classy, presidential look with Gold Rush, a plugin providing all the metallic, glitter and foil effects that you'll ever need. Containing 218 swatches in raster format and 35 brushed elements, it's ideal for anything that needs a bit of bling. The set includes hot foil effects, crumpled foil, gold leaf, bokeh, metallic paint, and much more, not just in gold but also rose gold, black, silver and copper. 04. Hot Door Control Ramp up your productivity with Hot Door Control Plug-ins Price: $98 Compatibility: CS6 to CC 2015 Control is a set of seven plugins for Illustrator that enable you to ramp up your productivity with new techniques for editing, organising and labelling your work. Available for $20 each – or $98 for the whole set – the various plugins can help you select artwork with custom search criteria, create layer groups for organisation and printing, nudge artwork at less than 1pt increments, log your time spent on documents, call out artwork and document attributes and attach tags to artwork for counting and tracking materials. 05. Concatenate Concatenate is extremely useful and just $20 Price: $20 Compatibility: CS3 to CC 2017 Concatenate is a plugin filter that connects multiple paths into one continuous path, similar to the Merge Path command when using the Blob Brush tool in Illustrator CS4 and CS5. However, Concatenate adds a few extra features including an 'assimilate' function, which scans a selected area or layer for unselected paths, and adds them to the merge. The 'connect' function then enables users to subsequently add lines or extra segments between open paths. 06. ColliderScribe v2 Price: $33/£25 Compatibility: CS to CC 2017 ColliderScribe provides a simple toolset for Illustrator that lets you position shapes accurately, placing any object precisely next to another when they touch, and enabling you to quickly and easily arrange shapes in formations and patterns. ColliderScribe 2 includes a Rotate To Collision Tool, plus severa features and improvements not seen in version 1 – including a New Space Fill feature, which lets you fill the container path with selected objects, distributing them evenly within the shape. 07. ArtBlue Gold 2.53 Simultaneously edit paths belonging to the same group Price: $159 Compatibility: CS6 to CC 2014 (Mac OS X only) For a more pricey but sophisticated shape-creation tool, Amazon Canvas' ArtBlue Gold 2.5 comes with a range of tools and a custom shape feature that lets you import and export formations between ArtBlue and Photoshop. A Shape Transform Matrix tool – among other features – means you can convert a simple shape into common shape formations or complex geometric sculptures, and objects placed in 3D space can be edited and tracked. 08. Patharea Price: Free Compatibility: Ai 7/8/9, CS, CS2, CS3, CS4, CS6 If you need to calculate the length or area of interlocking or singular Illustrator paths, there is an inbuilt option, but it involves accessing the debugging dialog box and scanning for the appropriate info. Patharea makes the process speedier. You access it via the Filters menu, and it gives the length of a selected path, or area of conjoined paths and shapes, making precise calculations for printed graphics far snappier to retrieve. 09. EskoArtwork Data Exchange Plug-in Price: Free Compatibility: CS6 to CC 2017 ArtiosCAD is a mainstay application in the packaging design industry, and this Illustrator plugin acts as the perfect bridge. It enables users to open native ArtiosCAD files in Illustrator without the need to convert and flatten them, position them on the artboard and then apply swatches, objects and full Ai files upon the ArtiosCAD design. You can then manipulate guides and paths of the Illustrator artwork directly on the ArtiosCAD object. It also works as a bridge between Esko's other apps: Automation Engine, PackEdge, Plato and ArtPro. 10. CADtools 11 Price: $379 Compatibility: CS5 to CC 2017 As the name suggests, CADtools adds CAD functionality to Illustrator. Very useful features include the ability to snap objects and project art onto isometric grids, which can save hours. CADtools 11 also adds 92 new tools, organised into 10 groups, to the Illustrator toolbox. It's a well-thought-out plugin that can boost efficiency dramatically. Upgrading from version 8, 9 or 10 costs $229, or newcomers can get the full version for $379. 11. SymmetryWorks 6 The new Color Symmetries pane offers 46 secondary symmetry buttons Price: $364 (full version - other options available) Compatibility: Ai 10 to CC 2017 At $364 for the full version, SymmetryWorks isn't a casual purchase. It's a specialist tool, but if you work with repeat graphics and complex patterns, it'll save you a considerable amount of time. SymmetryWorks lets you quickly generate repeating graphics using Illustrator's drawing tools, then apply transformations to 'grow' the pattern. Once they're complete, patterns can be saved as swatches. LivePresets then augments this process, enabling users to update and edit these pattern swatches and symbols through a 'live edit' function. The latest version adds a new way of automatically creating patterns – by adding colour reversals to simple geometric transformations. This technique balances 'positive' and 'negative' counterparts and automatically generates spectacular, easy-on-the-eye patterns. 12. Select Menu Price: Free Compatibility: CS3 to CC 2017 The addition of 18 extra objects to Illustrator may seem unnecessary, but this plugin grants users access to guides, open paths, closed paths, unfilled paths, stroked paths, unstroked paths, dashed paths, undashed paths, compound paths, groups and more on a single object. It twins these with additional export options that, while present in Illustrator natively, can be combined here for saving transparencies and flattening images quickly. 13. Xtream Path 2 There's no need for control points with Xtream Path 2 Price: $139 Compatibility: Ai 8 to CC 2017 A brilliant addition to Illustrator's path-editing providing, among other things, the freedom to grab anywhere on a path and edit it from that position, rather than adding control points. It takes a while to get the hang of but soon becomes a very efficient way to construct artwork. The Symmetric Edit tool is beautiful and Smart Rounding is fantastic. A great suite of tools and excellent value. 14. Phantasm v3 Price: $78 Compatibility: CS5 to CC Phantasm CS's appeal is in its simplicity. It effectively plugs a hole between Illustrator and Photoshop, adding familiar bitmap-editing functions and options to a vector workflow. Such tools include Curves, Hue and Saturation, Levels and even Automation functions for all of the above. All of the effects are non-destructive, and it also offers duotone and halftone options, an overprint preview and a separations option that adds some serious prepress weight to Illustrator's arsenal. 15. FILTERiT 5 FilterIt 5 is a versatile tool that lets you create simple to complex images in seconds Price: $129 Compatibility: CS6 to CC 2017 This classic suite of plugins has been updated in response to Adobe incorporating many of the original feature sets into CS4 and CS5. For earlier version users, the 3D Transform options are still a solid choice, but now all users can benefit from its Trace Options for quick animation work, and Live Cut Out, Emboss, Live Neon, and Border features. Finally, a Live Circle feature enables users to quickly copy a single object into a circle pattern. 16. CAD-COMPO CAD-COMPO is a cheaper combination of plugins than CADtools 9 Price: $150 Compatibility: Ai 10 to CC 2017 A cheaper alternative to CADtools 9, CAD-COMPO is a combination of technical drawing plugins including BPT-Pro4, which adds a highly functional 2D-CAD program into Illustrator, and EXDXF-Pro4, which assists the import of CAD-standard DXF files to Illustrator and export of Ai files to CAD. 17. Magic Exporter Quickly export objects from your AI docs to PNGs for all devices and screens Price: $25/£23 Compatibility: CC Jeremy Marchand's Magic Exporter simplifies the process of exporting objects from Ai docs to web-ready PNG files. Instead of having to manually slice or hide layers to export the object you need, all you have to do is mark the object you need and export it using the dedicated menu. Helpfully, it can automatically create several PNG copies of the same object scaled to screen sizes. If you're creating UI elements for the web in Illustrator, this will save you valuable time. Main image: Ben O'Brien Related articles: 100 amazing Adobe Illustrator tutorials The 60 best free Photoshop brushes 55 best free fonts for designers View the full article

The KRACK, or key reinstallation attack, disclosed today allow attackers to decrypt encrypted traffic, steal data and inject malicious code depending on the network configuration. View the full article

Once you've come up with an idea for a fantasy creature, the next step is to bring it to life by painting it with believable colours and textures. Here are our workflow tips for painting creatures in pencil and watercolour. If you're having trouble coming up with ideas, take a look at our guide to designing imaginary beasts. Then, follow these steps... 01. Brainstorm A theme may help you to brainstorm ideasFirst, get those ideas down on paper. Usually it’ll take me a while to create any shapes that I like, or even anything that I’d want to take further. Sometimes they appear fully formed and others will never make it into a painting. I use my heavy blunt mechanical pencil to make loose designs and then refine them with a sharper point. For the thumbnails above, my theme was ‘enchanted forest’ – and anything that popped into my head that may exist in such a place was extracted from my brain. 02. Use a wide pencil for rough ideas Using a wide pencil keeps ideas rough and quickMost of my creature ideas begin with a very rough thumbnail. I prefer to use a very large 5.6mm heavy mechanical pencil by Koh-I-Noor, which stops me getting obsessed with detail. I wanted to create something darkly mischievous with this guy. Buy a Koh-I-Noor 5.6mm mechanical pencil (UK) for £4.50 Buy a Koh-I-Noor 5.6mm mechanical pencil (US) for $4.90 03. Try a watercolour sketch Use a light wash to sketch with watercolourMy next step from thumbnail is sketching with watercolour. Instead of damaging the watercolour paper, which is easy to do with lots of erasing of pencil lines, I use a fine brush (my favourite is size 3 Series 7 Winsor & Newton sable) and using a light wash I draw the creature directly onto the paper. 04. Depict the fine details Work from light to dark to build up the paintingOnce I’ve sketched the design in watercolour, I make a pass with a darker wash and figure out which areas I want lighter and darker. With watercolour you need to work from light to dark. The process is time consuming, but well worth it for the final result. I’m a big fan of detail so I use very fine brushes for this. It also enables you to go steady with the value range, which in this instance I hadn’t decided on until I started the painting. 05. Build up layers Building up layers is particularly important for painting furIn the case of this Darkling Glib creature, I didn’t quite capture the dark and creepy nature of the initial rough thumbnail. However, I was really pleased with the result. With any furry creature it’s worth taking the time to slowly build up layers of washes to paint fur. 06. Throw out all your plans Drop paint onto a wet board and watch abstract shapes emerge and spark your imaginationThis is another valid way of coming up with an interesting creature. For this piece I started by soaking the illustration board (a Strathmore 500 wet media board) using a misting spray bottle filled with water. I then mixed some paints and started dropping the colour onto the paper. This made for some wonderful accidental shapes. With this approach, eventually you’ll start to see something appear among these shapes and you can then start to refine it. 07. Go with the flow Let the happy accidents roll inFor my magical being here, I saw a face, so I started to build on that. I used the interesting shapes that the watercolour made as it dried (a very handy tip is to have a small hair dryer at your desk so you can speed up the drying of each wash). Once I’d started picking out a nose and some eyes (plus an extra one!), I could continue working around the painting and further develop the face more. The great thing about using watercolour paint, particularly into wet paper, is that it’s unpredictable. It’s the perfect setup for generating those happy accidents. 08. Splash paint around to create texture Use real creatures as a reference for your fantasy beasts' texturesHave fun with patterns and shapes to give the impression of scales or knobbly textured skin. I used reference from the mouths of lizards and also crocodiles for this dragon’s jaw and then mixed it up a bit. Splash paint around and let it dry in various textures, then use the patterns from those dried splodges to guide where you might make marks. I like to keep things fairly organic-looking. 09. Use a rigger brush for fine hairs Rigger brushes create perfect fine lines for hairI used a fine rigger brush to create the very fine long hairs all over this little chap. The rigger is a wonderful brush for keeping control of fine lines and they hold a fair amount of pigment, which is always useful. The brush’s name comes from the brushes that were created to paint the rigging on paintings of tall ships. 10. Develop the eyes Again, studying the eyes of real creatures will add realism to your fantasy creature paintingsEyes are possibly the most important thing to bring a creature or strange being to life. The final dots of watery reflection in them can make or break a painting. Make sure you study lots of pictures of eyes – consider finding some eyes that don’t belong in a human face and put them there, such as the eyes of an octopus! These are the things which can create an unusual, original creature. I chose a contrasting colour for the eyes of my green man so that they instantly pop out from the greens and purples. 11. Use Acryla gouache for glossy eyes Painting spots of light on the eyes suggests wetnessGlossy eyes are essential, especially in a mammal. Once I’m ready to add highlights to an eye I bring out the Acryla gouache. This medium is permanent and behaves much like acrylic, except that it dries completely matte – just like watercolour. I use this all the time for highlights in my paintings, and it can be mixed with watercolour to tint it (or you can buy other colours in the same medium too, of course). As well as the main highlight on the eye, I always add tiny spots of light around the lids of the eye to give the impression of wetness. This article originally appeared in ImagineFX magazine issue 151. Buy it here. Related articles: How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorials 20 best iPad art apps for digital painting and sketching 9 top tips for drawing in black and white View the full article

Free 3D drawing software SketchUp is pretty straightforward to use, but with the right textures you can create impressive 3D art. The tool makes it easy to import SketchUp textures and modify them with its editing tools. You can even use Photoshop within the program to create the exact look you require. SketchUp supports pretty much every image format, except DDS. So any JPEG, PNG and PSD files are fine, and you can even use V-Ray’s .vismats files if you have the V-Ray rendering tool add-on. TIFs give the most realistic rendering, as these are print-quality images with super-high resolution, giving your textures the added detail that's particularly important for games design and animations. Despite this, it can be a little tiresome to collect enough high-res imagery to build up a sufficient and diverse collection of SketchUp textures to use in your 3D projects, so we’ve made it easy with our roundup of the best SketchUp texture packs that can easily be added to your catalogue. Use them for all your design needs – whether that be for your latest gaming project, or an interior design commission. 01. Wood Textures Creator: Lost & Taken Price: $10 Caleb Kimbrough runs the blog Lost & Taken with the simple goal of providing the best SketchUp textures available. On his DeviantArt account, he offers a whole host of textures for free, but in order to keep his dream alive, his full sets (and they are pretty substantial) cost a few bucks. These 52 different wood textures are a solid start if you want to a nice wood grain effect for any project. The full pack comes at a reasonable price, but for the budget (read: free) version, you can download six of Lost & Taken’s wood textures here. 02. Fabric Patterns Creator: WebTreats Etc Price: Free This pack of eight tileable SketchUp textures includes the most common fabrics you may want to recreate within your 3D composite, including denim, wool, leather and cotton with a variety of weaves to play around with. The textures are offered in two resolutions and as both PSD and JPG formats. 03. Concrete Textures Creator: Vandelay Design Price: Free Concrete textures vary hugely, and are incredibly useful for things like urban landscapes (post-apocalyptic or not). Steven Snell is a part-time web developer, blogger and dog walker, not to mention editor-in-chief of Vandelay Design. He has graciously compiled a great list of 30+ concrete textures and a set of free, high-res textures that are available to use in your own design work. 04. Marble Textures Creator: GraphicBurger Price: Free GraphicBurger is a great little design source for all your graphic needs, and volume 4 of its collection of high-res marble texture images are brilliantly easy to import into SketchUp. These real marble images will add a touch of ancient elegance to your architectural design, and can be used for free in both personal and commercial projects. 05. Stone Walls Creator: David Chumilla Liccioli Price: $6 Spanish 3D digital artist David Chumilla Liccioli regularly offers up textures for free on Gumroad. These four realistic stone wall tile textures are based on Photogrammetry meshes captured in rural and urban environments. The artist suggests a scale of 2 or 2.5 metres per tile. 06. Stone Textures Creator: Joost Vanhoutte Price: Free Digital 3D artist Joost Vanhoutte runs Texture Ninja, a textures site. Although most of his packs are completely free, he appreciates a donation to keep his textures site alive, so you can support him via his Patreon. This pack includes a whopping 111 different stone textures, so you're sure to find one that suits your project. 07. Road Textures Creator: Ezekeil_HQ Price: $40.60 This pack of 225 road textures features both JPG and PNG formats of tileable, seamless images, entirely based on real-life photos of roads worldwide. The pack contains stripes, lines, marks, arrows, manholes, reflectors, patches, signs, dust and dirt and details of various roads, making it easy to realistically recreate cityscapes or lost highways. 08. Surface Imperfections Creator: Clement Feuillet Price: 7 EUR Surface Collection 1 offers a fantastic selection of 80 textures of surfaces and imperfections in high-res TIF format – plus, most are completely tileable. This SketchUp textures pack was compiled by French digital artist Clement Feuillet. The pack includes dust, scratches, liquid, stains, cracks, grunge effects, rust, dirt, fingerprints and more to enhance your 3D digital scenes. 09. Dirt and Soil Textures Creator: Holypixel Price: $6 These 10 Seamless Dirt and Soil Textures have been designed at a resolution of 1500 x 1500px, and are sure to bring your organic digital world to life. Available in both JPG and Photoshop PAT files, they are perfect for 3D visualisations and rendering. They're completely unique, too. 10. Glass Textures Creator: Dragon Woman (dbstrtz) Price: Free Glass can be hard to capture digitally without some serious rendering skills, but with the help of Dragon Woman’s seven-image pack on Deviant Art, you can recreate a variety of textured glass to insert easily into your 3D designs. She regularly compiles free packs, so check out her stone and wood collections too! 11. Wet Sand Creator: Fiat Lux Price: $21.60 Fiat Lux specialises in 3D materials, textures and light rigs. This particular collection of five 4K textures is already fully mapped, allowing you to easily recreate the wet sand materials. Each of these SketchUp textures has been created procedurally, so they tile seamlessly. Included in the pack are a general beach sand, white sand, red clay sand, white river sand and black lava sand. 12. Metal Textures Creator: Scott R Price: Free Metals are another common texture required when building a 3D model. Although this pack is small, it contains a great variety of metallic textures and patterns, including rusted, scratched, galvanised, polished and perforated options. Plus, all of these were created using the SketchUp program itself. 13. Wallpaper Textures Creator: Rich O’Brien Price: $1.99 Whether you design for the real world as an interior designer or architect, or create your own digital worlds as a games designer, having a selection of wallpapers can really give your digital set a homely and realistic feel. Not all walls are bricks or concrete, so easily give them that splash of colour without the fuss of illustrating it yourself, with these 24 seamless wallpaper textures. Read more: 30 free 3D models 37 brilliant Blender tutorials The 10 biggest 3D movies of 2017 View the full article

For today's daily deal, we've got you a great discount on a bundle of courses that will teach you coding skills. And if you're after more amazing deals for designers, illustrators, artists and more, bookmark our Best Black Friday deals 2017 page. Knowing how to code is becoming an essential skill for all sorts of professions, and it's never too late to learn. You can pick up the fundamentals of the coding languages that makes our favourite websites and services function with the help of the Ultimate Learn to Code 2017 Bundle. Get it on sale now for just $49 (approx £37) – plus save an additional 50% off when you use the coupon code BUNDLE50 at checkout. It doesn't matter if you want to learn to code just for fun or if you'd like to eventually launch a web career based on the skill, you'll find a course that can help you in the Ultimate Learn to Code Bundle 2017. This massive collection of courses will give you the know-how necessary to become a talented web developer with the skills to craft great projects with your coding skills. With more than 80 hours of actionable content and 10 courses on everything from Python to Ruby on Rails to Java, you’ll be building your own apps and sites in no time. The Learn to Code 2017 Bundle usually retails for $1,186. Right now, you can save 95% off the retail price. That means you'll pay just $49 (approx £37) for an incredible bundle of courses that could change your career course, so grab it today. Don’t forget to use the coupon code BUNDLE50 at checkout to save an additional 50% off. The 10 courses included in this bundle are: Python for Beginners 2017 Java From Beginner to Expert Practical Web Programming 101 The Professional Ruby on Rails Developer with Rails 5 JavaScript Specialist Designation The Complete HTML5 & CSS3 Course: Build Professional Websites Angular 2 with TypeScript for Beginners: The Pragmatic Guide Learn Xamarin by Creating Real World Cross-Platform Apps iOS 10 & Objective-C: Complete Developer Course Learn Fundamental SQL Programming With SQL Server About Creative Bloq deals This great deal comes courtesy of the Creative Bloq Deals store – a creative marketplace that's dedicated to ensuring you save money on the items that improve your design life. We all like a special offer or two, particularly with creative tools and design assets often being eye-wateringly expensive. That's why the Creative Bloq Deals store is committed to bringing you useful deals, freebies and giveaways on design assets (logos, templates, icons, fonts, vectors and more), tutorials, e-learning, inspirational items, hardware and more. Every day of the working week we feature a new offer, freebie or contest – if you miss one, you can easily find past deals posts on the Deals Staff author page or Offer tag page. Plus, you can get in touch with any feedback at: deals@creativebloq.com. Related articles: Get 250 Udemy courses free for a limited period Get a lifetime of tech training from eduCBA on sale 25 top-class website templates View the full article

https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/16/16481136/wpa2-wi-fi-krack-vulnerability … View the full article

Last Sunday, Rich McCor, Thomas Kakareko and Nathalie Geffroy touched down in Los Angeles ready to set off on an epic road trip across America, courtesy of Adobe. We're now a week into #RoadtoMAX17, and what a week it has been! On Monday the trip kicked off in style, with the group rising early to catch the sunrise over Los Angeles. The trio made sure their pre-5am wake-up call was worthwhile by capturing some incredible images, before taking in the sights of Santa Monica Pier, Venice Beach and Redondo. Armed with their own shots of the sunny morning, the group made their way to Malibu to meet up with world-famous music photographer Guido Karp. Part of the aim of the road trip is to use collaboration, new tools, and plenty of experimentation explore the world through fresh eyes, and this was the ideal opportunity for the photographers to break out of their comfort zones. Along with Karp, the trio discovered how to shoot from an entirely different perspective, using El Matador Beach as the backdrop. On Tuesday, the group journeyed to Salvation Mountain, taking in the Aerial Tramway in Palm Springs and the Cabazon Dinosaurs along the way, before heading East to Phoenix, Arizona and – of course – the Grand Canyon. En route, they captured, edited and developed work based around themes of nature, people and the artificial world, with the help of Adobe's full suite of desktop and mobile tools. Since then, the photographers have been continuing their trip across the continent towards Las Vegas, where they'll arrive in time for Adobe MAX, The Creativity Conference, which runs from 18-20 October. The entire road trip is being documented, so you can follow along on the journey. Follow @AdobeUK #RoadToMAX17 for live updates or check out the official Adobe Spark travel diary. View the full article