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With their wealth of imaginative characters, creative creatures and magical settings, the Harry Potter books are an illustrator's dream. Artists have designed adults' covers, children's versions and deluxe illustrated editions of the books, but none of these can lay claim to being the first depictions of the boy wizard's universe. Yes, back in the 90s, author J.K. Rowling herself put pen to page, but this time to sketch rather than write. The result are a charming set of character illustrations depicting scenes from the first book in the series, Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone. Published on Pottermore, the illustrations show early versions of characters such as Hagrid and Snape, as well as providing a glimpse of how they evolved. JK Rowling illustrated landmark scenes from the first Harry Potter bookOther notable sketches include a Quidditch match complete with diagram-like arrows, and Harry's parents reflected in the Mirror of Erised. It's also interesting to see how Rowling imagined Peeves, a ghost character who was never realised on screen in the films. Regular visitors to Pottermore might already be familiar with these images as they accompany chapters detailing certain characters and events. But for the vast majority of the internet, these illustrations provide a new take on the familiar series, as well as offering an insight into the imagination of the woman behind the words. Diagram style arrows make Quidditch easy to understand Peeves finally gets realised Harry's family appear in the Mirror of ErisedRelated articles: 10 new tools for traditional artists this June How to design a book in InDesign 23 stunning book illustrations View the full article

The world of illustration is constantly changing. And while we’d never encourage you to unthinkingly follow trends, it’s good to stay alert to the direction in which the creative world is moving. So in this post, we’ll look at some of the biggest illustration trends to come our way in 2017 so far. But if you’re not an illustrator yourself, don’t worry; you can still get on board. iStock by Getty Images has a huge range of high-quality, low-cost and royalty-free illustrations, created by talented professionals, to quickly and easily download and use in your designs. We’ve featured some examples in this post: just click on the image to find it on the site. Alternatively, head here to see all the illustrations iStock by Getty Images has to offer, and use the site’s powerful search functionality to find exactly what you’re looking for. 01. Flat and minimal Vector trendy minimalistic red fox in polygonal style, by TechDesignWork. This illustration could be used, for example, as a menu icon on an animal welfare or animal rights website Flat design has been the big graphics trend of the 2010s, and illustrators have followed in its wake, creating increasingly minimal, pixel-perfect vectorised art to match. Magoz, Anna Kövecses, Sergio Membrillas, Malika Favre and Rob Bailey are amongst the illustrators creating inspiring and original work using this approach. With strong emphasis on reduction and subtraction, these kind of illustrations are able to cross language and cultural barriers to convey a subject instantly and clearly. And in a world dominated by mobile devices and high-resolution screens, the demand for flat and minimal illustration is unlikely to go away anytime soon. 02. Abstract and zen Ornate Circular Mandala Multicolored Design by Jennifer Borton. This illustration could be used, for example, as a background texture on a yoga and meditation website The world of 2016-2017 has been a chaotic one in which old certainties have been overturned and uncomfortable new realities are starting to sink in. So it’s not surprising that there’s been a trend in illustration towards more relaxing, spiritually inspired patterns and imagery. Influenced by Buddhism, Hinduism and abstract religious art in general, this kind of zen illustration acts as a philosophical comfort blanket in a rapidly changing and divided world. 03. Hand-drawn geometrics Vector seamless pattern with ink circle textures by Utro Na More. This illustration could be used, for example, as the background for a book cover design Geometric illustration has been a popular trend throughout the decade, but recently we’ve seen a move away from the clinical, digital vector approach and a softening of the style through the incorporation of hand-drawn elements. This kind of illustration combines the brain-delighting qualities of mathematically-based patterns with the spirit and beauty of physical drawing and painting, to create images that are alluring, inviting and potentially quite magical. 04. Tattoo art Blue phoenix art by Stereohype. This illustration could be used, for example, as a graphical element on a festival poster or program You may have noticed that these days, almost everyone under the age of 25 is covered in tattoos. No longer just for those who walk on the wild side, tattoos have entered the mainstream, with their designs become increasingly expressive and beautiful. Now popular tattoo styles are crossing over into the world of illustration too. Their influence can be seen in the work of creatives as diverse as Elena Gumeniuk, Daniel Mackie and Ollie Munden, while tattooists who’ve crossed over into full-blown illustration include Nomi Chi, Shawn Barber and Tim Lehi. 05. Illustrative icons Oktoberfest beer icon sign by pseudodaemon. With Oktoberfest-themed events taking place around the world, this illustration could work well as a hero image on an event-specific app Once, computer icons were just tiny, basic shapes made of just a few pixels. In recent years, however, rapidly increasing levels of resolution on even the smallest screens means there’s been in an explosion in demand for more sophisticated designs. Illustrators have followed suit, creating high resolution icons that make strong use of colour and complexity, while holding true to the fundamental purpose of an icon: to immediately convey a concept in a simple and easy-to-understand way. 06. Multiple exposure Multiple exposure of woman and trees by George Peters. This illustration could be used, for example, on a flyer for a rock band Creative disciplines have always borrowed from each other, and today’s creatives are getting more multidisciplinary than ever. Consequently, one of the latest trend we’ve spotted takes an idea from the world of photography (multiple exposures) and transfers it to the world of illustration. When done right, this collage-style approach offers a great way to evoke a combination of thoughts and feelings in the viewer, in an eye-catching, emotionally engaging way. 07. Vivid colour Colourful humming birds and rainbow by Cienpies. This illustration could be used, for example, to help illustrate a children’s book or leaflet With creatives looking to brighten up an increasingly dark and divided world in 2017, vivid colour has been everywhere. Evident in the work of Nejc Prah, Jack Sachs, Dominic Kesterton, Sebastian Curi, and others, vivid doesn’t necessarily mean primary, but it does mean in-your-face, mood brightening hues that can’t fail to grab the public’s attention. And that can be invaluable when incorporating an illustration into your design, whether that’s for print or online. Make your visuals stand out Whatever kind of creative project you’re involved in, visuals are key to its success. Our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text and so making sure your images stand out is essential. At iStock by Getty Images, you’ll find millions of authentic illustrations, and they even offer a free illustration to download each week. And the best news is, once you’ve found the perfect visual for your project, Creative Bloq readers can get a 10 per cent off discount with code CBTEN. View the full article

Chess is an already-beautiful game that can take any amount of customisation; search for custom chess sets online and you'll find a wealth of weird and wonderful designs, from ornate fantasy and sci-fi inspired sets through to gloriously minimal objets d'art. The latest look for chess comes in the form of a mobile game: Chess Gang is developed by Polish studio, Evil Empire, and it's based around street gang culture. Chess Gang takes it to the streetsSo instead of trying to outwit your opponent and capture their king, in Chess Gang your aim is to be the smartest and strongest on the street in order to defeat your opponent's kingpin and steal their cash. Like any good video game, it even has special moves, like promoting your pawns or castling to enforce your dominance. That's right – it's chess. You don't mess with the rules of chess. What we love about Chess Gang, though, is its powerful visuals, with all the pieces reimagined as gang members and rendered in cartoon sticker form. Konrad Kirpluk has designed a whole new set of chess piecesThey – and the rest of the game's street-art inspired visuals – are the work of Doncaster-based graphic designer and illustrator Konrad Kirpluk, and they're a joy to behold. You get baseball-wielding pawns, pit bulls as knights, gun-toting bishops, rooks and queens, and kings clutching bags overflowing with readies; cartoon fun rather than gritty street violence. Konrad created his striking chess pieces in Adobe Illustrator, and as an added bonus he's made a second set of characters that'll be coming to Chess Gang in a future update, in which instead of rival gangs you'll be able to play as cops versus yardies. The in-game graphics all follow the same street art styleYou can see the full set of Konrad's designs over on Behance; Chess Gang is available now on iOS and Android for a very reasonable 99p. Related articles: London skyline recreated in chess pieces The chess set carved from negative space Stunning type based chess set View the full article

You're reading Interview with Designer: Ivan Tolmachev, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Eager to learn about the biggest UX trends in the UK and the inside secrets of the industry, I quizzed Ivan Tolmachev, a senior Product Designer at Onfleet. Onfleet is a logistics software company in San Francisco that helps delivery businesses around the world perform their last-mile operations efficiently. Before Onfleet, Ivan was at Rackspace […] View the full article

Put your best pencils and doodle art to one side – it's time to delve into the art of pastel drawing. In use by artists for centuries, pastels are an especially portable medium, enabling you to create colourful art with no need for water, brushes or palettes. But first, what exactly is a pastel? The definition isn't completely clear, and there's been some debate within art societies as to what exactly qualifies as a pastel. The Pastel Society in the UK, however, states the following media are acceptable for its exhibitions: "Pastels, including Oil pastel, Charcoal, Pencil, Conté, Sanguine, or any dry media." Note that an artwork made using pastels is also called a pastel (or a pastel drawing or pastel painting). Pastel used as a verb means to produce an artwork with pastels. And of course, none of these terms should be confused with the use of pastel as an adjective, to mean pale in colour! Pastel drawing lets you produce vibrant colour with the ease of drawing with pencilsThe pastels themselves come in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all coloured art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation. Getting started with pastels Soft pastel sticks do become dusty or dirty when transporting, so carry a cloth to wipe them off before pastel drawing. It's generally easier to work on a toned surface rather than on pure white. You can buy toned paper, or tone it yourself using an acrylic or watercolour wash. To prevent over blending and smudging when pastel drawing you can use a mist of fixative on that area. Beware: if the fixative is sprayed too heavily, it dramatically dulls and darkens the vibrancy. Do some quick trial runs spraying the fixative to experiment with the light mist approach. With these foundations in place, let's get started with pastel drawing. 01. Pick your pastels Use specific pastels for different techniquesSoft pastels have a rich, buttery feel and are easy to blend. Hard pastels, including pastel pencils, are great for adding detail to pastel drawing. Oil pastels have an oil binder, are less opaque than soft pastels and don’t smudge as easily. The newest water-soluble pastels create semi-transparent washes when water is brushed over them. 02. Layering and smudging with pastels Building up pastel colours can create unique texturesPastels are blended on the art surface, rather than on a palette. A variety of colours can be achieved through layering and smudging. Start with darker colours, working up to light. Blending is done by layering the pastels with various strokes such as crosshatching, dots/pointillism or smudging with different tools, from cotton swabs or #9 brushes, to fingers. 03. Select a pastel paper Selecting the right surface texture is crucial for pastel artThe key to selecting paper for pastel drawing is to choose something that has texture or tooth. If it's too smooth, the pastels won't adhere. Check that the paper is pH-neutral. If it's not acid free, it can shift the colour and cause brittleness. Good choices are canvas, watercolour paper, pastel paper and sand board. 04. Experiment with soft and hard pastels Soft and hard pastels create drastically different texturesSoft pastels are rich and luminous in colour, provide a loose grainy texture and are easy to blend with varied surface effect, but are a little fragile. Hard pastels are a little less vibrant in colour, but more stable than soft pastels. They're great for adding detail to your drawings. 05. Test drive pencils and oils Artists like to use pastel pencils to create fine detailsPastel pencils come in a pencil 'lead' form and are easy to control. They're ideal for fine detail and rendering, and are a harder lead than soft pastels. Oil pastels contain an oil binder. They have a thick intense colour, but don’t smudge and blend like soft/hard pastels. 06. Create washes with water-soluble pastels Create a watercolour wash with water soluble pastelsWater-soluble pastels can be used just like a regular soft pastel, except that you can also create watercolour-like washes with a brush and water, providing great variety in the artistic effects you can achieve. You might also like these: 5 things you need for oil painting Paint a portrait like the Old Masters How to fix your finished pastel artwork View the full article

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Siemens patched two vulnerabilities in products, SIMATIC CP and XHQ, commonly found in industrial control system setups this week View the full article

Ask any freelancer what their biggest worry is, and it’s likely to involve money. How do you decide what to charge for your talents when you're first starting out – or negotiate higher rates once you know what you’re doing? And can you get enough invoices paid on time each month to cover your outgoings? Subscribe to Computer Arts and get 5 issues for £5! That freelance dream of being your own boss, taking on the projects you want, setting your own hours, and working in your underwear (if you so choose) may be clouded by this financial uncertainty if you don’t get your affairs in order. Cash in as a freelancer – advice on pricing, pitching, persuading and more...But fear not. The cover feature in July's Computer Arts is packed with great advice to help you conquer all your cash concerns as a freelancer – from selling yourself to new clients, to chasing up late-paying existing ones. Character design trends and branding tips New trends in character design, according to PictoplasmaWith the help of the co-founders of Pictoplasma, CA also investigates the vibrant world of character design with an inspiring journey through the four hottest trends to watch out for this year. How The Clearing creates "clear, defendable territory" for its clientsElsewhere, take a trip to The Clearing to discover why finding ‘clear, defendable territory’ should be the goal of any branding project. The Brand Impact Award-winning agency sheds some light on its process, and shares some tips for how to defend that territory once you find it. Buy Computer Arts issue 268 now! This issue is bursting with other inspiring design content, including: Sign maker Luke Stockdale reveals why signs should be beautiful as well as functional Showcase features the very best graphic design, illustration and motion work How to make judges notice your work, according to D&AD New Blood Behind the scenes with Studio Sutherl&, most-awarded design studio at D&AD 2017More from Computer ArtsView the full article

Mike Mimoso and Chris Brook discuss the news of the week, including Citizen Lab's latest report, WannaCry hitting Honda, GhostHook, and Fireball. View the full article

We have a cracking selection of new tools for graphic designers in this month’s round up. From the new iPad Pro to a wildly discounted collection of world-class fonts, vintage Smart PSDs and all the best new books and design bundles, you’ll find all sorts of goodies here to speed up your workflow and boost your skills. And don’t forget, it’s graduate show season. That means D&AD New Blood is back, and with it another bumper crop of talented creatives ready to set the world alight with their ideas – you’ll find details below. Read on for June’s 10 best graphic design tools… 01. iPad Pro Apple brings the iPad Pro closer to the MacBook replacement you need Out now, Apple’s new iPad Pros boast brighter and more colourful screens that respond faster to both touch and the Apple Pencil, so if you’re looking to create on the move, they’re worth a look. Replacing the 9.7-inch iPad Pro is a new 10.5-inch model, which benefits from a 20 per cent larger screen – meaning it can accommodate a full-size digital keyboard. And the 12.9-inch version has received an update, too. See also: Apple unveils new iMac Pro for design professionals What if Apple made a Surface Book? 02. SST typeface The SST font has variations for Thai, Arabic, Japanese and other alphabetsMonotype has released a new sans serif font, SST. Originally designed for Sony, the typeface lies somewhere between Frutiger and Helvetica in design. It can support nearly 100 languages and numerous consumer touchpoints, and aims to strike “a careful balance between style requirements and cultural sensitivities”. Available in six different weights and italics, it’s ultra-legible. 03. The Ink Fanatic's Bundle: PSD Kit Currently on sale for $49 instead of $79, so get in quick!Need to quickly add some vintage ink effects to your designs? RetroSupply is running a sale on a massive bundle of seven of its best-selling Smart PSD ink packs. Effects include halftones, ink rollers, screenprints, letterpress, matchbook effects and 70s ink effects – and each pack comes with bonus brushes and textures. 04. D&AD New Blood Plan your visit to spot some new talentOk, the D&AD New Blood Festival is in July, but now’s a good time to put it in your diary. From 5-6 July, once again London’s Old Truman Brewery will be hosting work from this year’s best and brightest design, advertising, illustration and animation graduates. Bringing industry and new creative talent face-to-face, this is the place to be if you’re looking for new gradates, collaborators or if you simply want to get a glimpse of tomorrow’s creative superstars. Plus, we’ll be reporting from graduate shows the length and breadth of the UK, so keep an eye on the site throughout the summer. 05. The Inspiring, Creative Vector Collection Thousands of vectors are on offer, with a huge range of stylesExpiring on 3 July, The Inspiring, Creative Vector Collection brings you a huge collection of world-class vectors licensed to use in commercial work for $29. The full price of the bundle is $2,503 so it’s a bit of a bargain. Head over to Design Cuts for a full run down of all the fonts in the bundle. If you miss out on this deal, click on 'Current Bundle' at Designcuts.com to see if the current deal is of interest to you. 06. Bittersweet: Noma Bar (Limited Edition) Noma Bar's illustrations have featured in Empire, the New York Times, Wired, the Guardian, Time Out and moreIllustrator and master of negative space Noma Bar has released a dazzling collection of some of his favourite illustration in this limited, slipcased edition, which became available on Amazon this month. Packed with creative inspiration, it’s perfect for the studio bookshelf – and comes with a print, too. 07. The Photocopy Hate Machine Priced at $29, the Photoshop bundle is packed with gritty textures scanned at 1200 DPIInspired by 90s alternative rock flyers, half-dead high school photocopy machines and the possibilities of cheap, mass duplication, the Photocopy Hate Machine Photoshop bundle is packed with gritty high-res textures, texture brushes and a smart PSD for instant results. 08. Fur, Hair and Grass Brushes These $10 brushes emulate the textures of fur, hair and grassFor $10 you’ll get 52 realistic, high-res, 3D rendered fur, hair and grass brushes for Photoshop in this pack from Instanbul-based Mehmet Sensoy. It contains two abr files: brushes below 2500px are for CS2-CS5 users, while brushes up to 5000px are for CS6-CS2017 users. 09. Stencil Type: Steven Heller and Louise Fili Pick up the cheaper paperback version of popular 2015 title, Stencil TypeThe paperback version of Steven Heller and Louise Fili’s 2015 hardback title, Stencil Type, is officially on sale from 6 July this year – but available now on Amazon. A follow-up to cult typography volumes Scripts and Shadow Type, this 352-page title presents hundreds of examples of stencils from the 19th to the 20th centuries. It’s a rich resource for any designer looking for type inspiration. 10. Watercolor ink Photoshop brushes These brushes were made from scanning real watercolour brush strokesAfter some realistic-looking watercolour Photoshop brushes? Try this set of 30 stamp brushes from MiksKS. Ranging between 387px and 1799px, the brushes were handmade and create a transparency effect when layered. Liked this? Read these similar articles: Is your design retro… or just dated? Are movie posters in a design crisis? What creative pros want from the next Illustrator CC release View the full article

Fighting attackers needs a new approach that leverages a public-private data sharing framework, enabling immediate and collective responses. View the full article

Freelancing looks idyllic from the outside. Working with the best clients, choosing fun projects, determining your own hours and working from home or wherever you like. But there’s a lot that happens under the hood to keep the momentum going. Doing the actual freelance work for your clients never takes up 100 per cent of your time. Soon you’ll be swamped with paperwork and admin – writing proposals, drawing up contracts, sending invoices, writing down tasks and managing your workflow. To accommodate that, we’ve seen an abundance of tools spring into the market to assist freelancers. You can now write proposals and send them directly to the client without ever opening up your email. Instantly glance at your revenue for the month and compare it to last year’s. Check how much time you spent on that new project last week. To help find the best, I’ve broken down the tools into the following categories: proposals, finance, legal, time management, workflow and bonus tools. Let’s begin! Next page: Proposal tools for freelancers The value of a great proposal shouldn't be underestimated – they can be the key to winning or losing a project. These tools aim to make things simpler by providing templates and customisation features. Many also enable you to send the proposal smoothly to the client and track its progress. 01. Prospero This stripped-back proposal tool will also help you price your projectProspero not only helps you create a proposal but also helps you price the project. There are no dashboards or even account settings – its strength lies in helping you create a proposal, rather than just letting you fly blind. It promises 'More client, more money, less headache'. When you create a proposal, Prospero asks you some brief questions, such as your rate, the time it will take you to complete the project, and the type of work you're doing (Prospero covers print and branding proposals as well as web and app design). It then smartly generates a proposal based on your answers, which you can edit. There's no design customisation (only text editing options), but the default design isn't bad. When you're finished with the proposal, you can download it as a PDF or send it directly to the client. It costs $20 per signed proposal on the Pay As You Go plan or $25 per month for unlimited proposals. 02. Nusii The proposal editing in this tool is attractive and simple, and once completed you can send it straight to the clientNusii's dashboard not only lets you create proposals, it also lets you glance over your sales revenue or proposal acceptance rate. It uses the available data in a useful way so you can keep track of how proposals are progressing. The 'send to client' experience is smooth, and you're notified when a client views it. The proposal editing process in Nusii is attractive and simple. However, visual customisation is limited and you can't insert tables – an odd decision considering freelancers often like to include a breakdown of deliverables and expenses in a table. A nice touch is that the tool supports a range of currencies and languages, so you can use it almost anywhere. It costs from $29 per month. 03. Proposify Select a proposal template to get started with this WYSIWYG optionA true WYSIWYG tool, Proposify comes with a range of templates. Though pretty bland, the templates give you a nice place to start if you're new to writing proposals, and the editor includes a range of customisable features (and even some basic drawing tools). However, it is quite like a word processor – you don't get that beautiful proposal writing experience. Priced from $40 per month, One of the benefits of Proposify is that you can embed videos and images. It also lets you create content snippets to drop into your proposals and reuse, which is a great time saver. Next page: Finance tools for freelancers Keeping track of the money coming in and out is essential to the sustainability of any business. If you're looking to get better insights into your earnings, try one of the following finance tools. 04. Invoiced This tool lets you work with whichever payment method you preferInvoiced was co-founded by a freelance web developer, and inspired by his own personal struggles. This tool makes it nice and easy to create and send invoices to your clients. The specific payment method is up to you – Invoiced integrates with Stripe so you can set up online payments via credit card, Bitcoin, PayPal, or even offline. The smarts of Invoiced are in its ability to track your collections efficiency, how long it takes on average for you to get paid, and any monthly recurring revenue (useful for clients on a retainer). It costs from $99 per month and if you're using an accounting tool to keep track of finances, Invoiced integrates with both Xero and QuickBooks. 05. Zipbooks This new, free accounting tool lets you track all of your financial informationZipBooks is an accounting tool that's not only free, but also beautifully designed and simple to use. You can use it to create invoices, track your time, manage payments and clients, track your expenses, and more. Once you're logged in you'll see a nice dashboard that displays your billings versus collections, revenue in the last 12 months, average collection period and more. Handily, you can set up late payment reminders for those clients that need them. 06. Momenteo With a travel expense feature built in, Momenteo is perfect for freelancers who like to roamWith its travel expense feature built in, Momenteo is a great invoicing tool for freelance digital nomads. Momenteo will also turn approved estimates into invoices without any additional work. Refreshingly, unlike many other tools, Momenteo just has one pricing plan, with the option to pay $20 per month or $200 annually. You'll get access to all features and unlimited use of the tool during your subscription. 07. Bonsai Send contracts, create invoices and collect payments, all via a seamless UX in this free toolBonsai is a free tool that gives freelancers the ability to send contracts, invoice and collect payments. Not only is the functionality of Bonsai great, but the design and user experience is seamless. The tool is easy and enjoyable to use, omitting any unnecessary clutter. When creating a contract, Bonsai will ask you a few questions, including your basic info, project brief, rate, when you'd like to be paid and so on. The tool will then provide an editable contract on your behalf that you can send to the client straight from the tool. Once electronically signed, Bonsai generates an invoice for you to issue. You can also set the invoices to be recurring – handy. 08. Wave This free tool contains all the bare bones of accounting software without the unnecessary extrasWave is another popular, free option. This straightforward tool has all the bare bones you'd expect from accounting software, but without the unnecessary bells and whistles. Its invoice flow moves through visual steps, making it easy to keep track of where a project is up to in the payment process. A nice touch is that you can create free, unlimited invoices on the go via the iOS or Android app. It's easy enough to send a receipt, set up a Stripe integration and connect your own bank account. Payroll features do exist, but are currently limited to the US and Canada only. You'll probably want to invite your accountant in to take care of the reporting features, like balance sheets and income statements. Next page: Legal tools for freelancers Not the most fun category, but definitely one of the most important. Contracts don't have to be as scary as they sound, and they're good for you and your client. While these tools are helpful and often include templates, if you're unsure about the laws in your country you should consult a professional. 09. Termsfeed TermsFeed has a range of free terms templates for you to useSelling products online? Chances are you're going to need some legal documentation, such as a returns policy. TermsFeed has a range of free terms templates for you to use, including Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Service. There's also a generator that asks you a range of questions and then builds a contract best suited to your use. 10. Shake Need a contract? Choose from a range of templates and get expert adviceA basic contracting tool, Shake by LegalShield lets you choose from a range of free contract templates. A nice addition is that you can choose a contract template for an assignment-based or licensing project, and send the contract through the app or via email to be signed electronically on a smart device. Once you've created your contract, you can choose to get it reviewed by a lawyer. While this sounds generous, Shake redirects you to a law firm, which requires an additional fee. The design of the contracts is very basic, and you can't currently edit the look and feel yourself. Next page: Time management tools for freelancers The one thing we all wish we had more of is time. Unfortunately, we can't make more time, but we can choose how to spend it. Covering everything from time tracking to scheduling to estimation, time management tools are useful for any freelancer, even those who don't bill based on time (like me). 11. Cushion Rather than tracking time, Cushion lets you schedule your hours for work and time offRather than tracking time, Cushion helps you schedule your time – and not just at work. You can schedule time spent on projects, as well as time off. It highlights when you've overbooked yourself, to help you avoid burnout and encourage you to manage your time better. Priced from $5 per month, it's easy to set up. Cushion also lets you display a badge on your website to show when you're available, which is helpful for those interested in working with you. 12. Timely A feature letting you compare your planned and logged hours helps you plan your time betterElegantly simple time tracking software, Timely greets you with a calendar view the first time you log in. There's no timer – rather, Timely encourages you to fill in the hours you've worked on a particular project. You can view the history of a project and gain a good overview of time spent across all areas of the business. This tool lets you enter both your planned and logged hours so you can see the difference in your estimations – a nice way to teach you to estimate your time better if you're always getting it wrong! Priced from $14 per month, Timely works in the cloud or via your browser. 13. Harpoon Create projects, track time, allocate invoices and record expensesThough it may seem overwhelming at first, once you've spent a little time with Harpoon and oriented yourself, you'll see it's a powerful tool. Harpoon lets you create projects, from which you can then track your average revenue per project (or per month, day or hour, if you prefer) and check outstanding invoices. There's also an event revenue forecast, with spaces where you can set yourself goals and define your work habits (for example, how many hours per week you work). This makes it a great place to encourage you to plan ahead and keep track of your goals. Costing from $19 per month, Harpoon is almost like an all-in-one tool, with smart reporting and dashboard features. The only things it lacks are contracts and proposals. 14. Freelancy If you bill by the hour, Freelancy will turn your tracked time into invoices – no maths requiredFreelancy lets you turn time tracked into invoices, quickly and easily upon project completion. If you bill per hour, it works out your fee. Freelancy's reporting feature gives you a calendar overview of when you split your time, which you can filter by date or by project to see how long you've spent on what. You can download these reports as CSVs and charts to send to clients. While automatically creating invoices from your time tracked is handy, you can also create invoices manually if you prefer. There's a one-off charge of $29.90 per person, for "unlimited everything and email support". 15. Toggl Track the time you spend on projects and view summary reportsAfter tracking the time you've spent on certain projects, Toggl uses that data to generate reports. The desktop app reminds you to track your time and lets you do so without having to log in to the web app. Toggl also lets you create private and team-wide workspaces. So you can manage your own time as well as collaborators' time, to work out the total time spent on a project. Toggl costs from $9 per user per month. Next page: Workflow tools for freelancers Workflow tools can often take a little more effort to get your head around as they can be complex, yet powerful. If you want to upgrade from a paper-and-pen to-do list, a digital workflow tool has benefits – especially when it comes to organising bigger projects. 16. Flow In this tool, you can set up tasks to work on privately before sharing them with your teamAt its core, Flow lets you create workspaces and tasks so you can keep on top of your projects. Like many workflow tools, Flow lets you collaborate with team members through task assignment and in-built chat. There's also a 'focus mode' that turns off notifications temporarily and lets your team know when you'll next be available. Users create tasks to be completed, which are then organised into projects. You can create team-wide or private tasks that you can share with your team members later. The calendar view gives you a nice overview of what's coming up soon, and you can filter to see just your own tasks or everyone's. If you find a bit of free time you can navigate to the 'unassigned' section to be pick up a task. Flow costs from $17 per month. 17. Azendoo Filter tasks, check the calendar overview, create repeating tasks and moreAzendoo is a powerful workflow and communications tool with a beautiful design and user experience. View analytics, attach documents, and group and organise your tasks into subjects. The whole experience has been thought through – you can filter on tasks, see a calendar overview, create repeating tasks, set due dates and add checklists. You can also broadcast messages, send direct messages to team members (if you have any) and view notifications. Priced from $7.50 per user per month, it's a great tool for keeping you on top of things. Next page: Bonus tools for freelancers There's more to freelancing than just finance, time management and proposals. Sometimes freelance life can throw up more unexpected challenges. We've rounded up three bonus tools to help you boost your creativity, get paid on time (without the stress) and prototype your ideas quickly and easily. 18. Just Tell Julie Got a client that won't pay? Just call in Julie Elster to get your money in the bankStuck in a situation where the client isn't paying? Julie Elster offers to work as your accounts receivable virtual assistant to help retrieve absent payments. She works by calling your client on the phone and being "thermonuclear nice". She has a proven track record, and is highly rated within the freelance industry. You pay $99 upfront, then when she collects she keeps 35% of the fee. 19. Briefbox Pick from a diverse range of hypothetical briefs to get your creative juices flowingBriefbox is a collection of hypothetical briefs to help keep your creative juices flowing when you're between projects. The team at Briefbox write a range of imaginative briefs – everything from designing local currency to creating branding for a painter – so you just need to pick one and get designing. Once you're done, you can upload your work to the site and get feedback from the community. A basic account is free, while a Pro account costs from $6.75 per month. Pro accounts offer tips from trade professionals, and constructive criticism on every submission. 20. Atomic Prototypes are a great way to get ideas across, and Atomic offers a quick way to build and share themCreate and share prototypes with your client with Atomic, the fastest way to design beautiful interactions. Import an existing design from Sketch or Photoshop (or design in the tool itself), then link the pages together and fine-tune the transitions to create your prototype. Once finished, you can easily share your prototype with the client by sending them a link. The client can then add any comments or feedback on your design. It's free for one user to create one prototype, or from $19 per month for more. Full disclosure: Femke van Schoonhoven works in marketing and design for Atomic. This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 284 and has been updated. Related articles: 25 tips for staying sane as a freelancer 7 underrated apps for freelance creatives How to market yourself as a freelance designer: 7 top tips View the full article

When you’re building a website, where should you place its logo? A quick glance around the most popular sites on the web provides a clear consensus. It needs to go in the top-left corner. Need evidence? Just check out YouTube, Vimeo, Amazon, Instagram, eBay, Adidas, BBC, Wikipedia, Reddit, Dribbble, Netflix, Ford, BP, Levis, Shell, O2, Sony, NASA and even this very site. McDonald’s website follows convention by slapping its logo in the top-left corner of the pageIn these particular examples, the logos are all wordmarks. But it's the same deal when it comes to symbol logos, as can be seen on the Airbnb, Spotify, Nike, Facebook, Pinterest and Apple websites. So is that it? Should you follow the crowd and stick your logo in the same place that everyone else does? Centre logos for a print look Well, if you were to centre your logo or place it in the top-right corner, you wouldn't be entirely alone. One category of website that often centres its logo is that of newspapers and magazines. The approach here is to replicate the familiar look of the printed version’s masthead. Examples of sites that follow this convention include Washington Post, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Times, Financial Times, The Spectator, New Statesman, British Vogue, Radio Times and Wired. Online magazines like Wired replicate the print experience by centring their logo on their web pagesEven if you're not a newspaper, you may still want to convey the feel of a traditional printed document, newsletter or newspaper by centring your logo in this headline-style way. Examples of this strategy can be seen on this sites for Virginia’s Smithfield Station hotel, the foundation for artist Richard Diebenkorn, and fashion house Sunspel. However, let’s be clear: print publishers are in no way united on centring their logos online. Most British newspapers, for instance, stick to web norms by placing their logo in the top-left corner, including The Sun, The Mirror, Daily Telegraph, Mail Online and Daily Express. Doing so signals that the publications are forward-facing and fully immersed in developing their digital offerings. Logo placement outliers Away from traditional print publishers, examples of logos on websites that are centred or placed on the right are few and few between. Samsung is among a rare breed of website that centres its logoThere are some other sites that centre their logos, including Samsung, while the sites for Amnesty International and the Guardian have theirs placed on the right. But in the main, these are lonely outliers. Another notable exception to the rule appears to be search engine homepages, including Google, Bing, Yahoo, Duck Duck Go, Wolfram Alpha and Baidu, where the logo appears next to or above the search bar, although this can be very much considered a special category of website. Search engine homepages are a special category when it comes to the placement of logos So what’s behind this overwhelming consensus about where to place the logo? Why are logos usually placed top-left? Historically, placing the logo on the left was partly a function of how browsers rendered websites on screens. A fixed browser width meant that if your logo was positioned on the right (or even in the centre) it might not have appeared at all, depending on the size of the screen and the shape of the browser window. For the client who was already urging you to 'make the logo bigger', that was always going to be a no-no. The logo’s placement in the top-left has a long historyThe shift to the left also relates with how those in the West (as opposed to Asian and Arabic cultures) traditionally read printed content: left to right, and top to bottom. These deep-seated habits have naturally carried over to reading on digital devices, as eye-tracking research from the Nielsen Norman Group has shown. Why buck the logo placement trend? Given that the pattern of placing the logo top-left is so established, the only logical reason for placing your logo elsewhere is to deliberately flout this convention, perhaps in an attempt to catch people’s eye and make your site look different and innovative. And you might think that’s fine. Because although you’d never consider confounding users by moving the search box, menu button or main nav bar from their standard positions, that doesn’t apply to logos because they have no functional purpose, right? Wrong. Whether you realise it or not, your users do expect that logo to serve a functional purpose. Which is that when they click on it, they’ll be returned to the homepage. And so if it’s not where they expect, it’s going to massively disrupt their normal customer journey. Research by the Nielsen Norman Group shows how important logo placement is for the usability of a websiteIn fact, according to research, users find getting back to the homepage about six times harder when the logo is placed in the centre of a page compared to when it’s in the top-left. Maybe if you have a centred logo but a ‘Home’ button in the top-left corner, as Aberdeen agency JAMstudio does, then users won’t feel quite so disrupted. But in general, we’d recommend that if you’re trying to make your design eye-catching and innovative, you should probably just find a better way to do it. Logos in multiple places Placing your logo in the top-left corner doesn’t mean you can’t also feature your logo elsewhere on the page, of course. Many sites like to give more voice to their branding by also including the logo in the sidebar or footer. The Envato Tuts+ network boosts its branding by featuring its logo in the footer as well as the top-leftA good example of this is the Envato Tuts+ network of free tutorial websites. It’s easy to imagine clicking through from Twitter, following an entire tutorial and still not noticing which site you’re visiting, so it makes sense to add a little extra emphasis to its branding in this way. But while there’s nothing wrong with including multiple instances of your logo on your website, always bear in mind that users will expect each and every one of these to function as a link back to the homepage. Surprisingly, this is something Google currently fails to do on many of its satellite sites, such as Gmail or Google Drive. Even though the Google logo is widely associated with its search page, clicking on it within these services actually takes you back to the homepage for the sister service, rather than to google.com. Wherever you are in Apple’s ecosystem, the Apple logo takes you back to apple.comIn contrast, on all web pages in Apple’s network, including iTunes, clicking the Apple logo always takes you back to your local version of apple.com. Thanks go to Stewart Ainslie, WithPrint, Montgomery Kern‏, Mark B‏ and Alon Koppel‏ for their help in writing this article. View the full article

Every designer deserves access to great tools in order to create. VectorState provides just that. Dip into this huge library of assets any time you want by grabbing a two-year subscription, on sale now for 80% off the retail price. VectorState understands what creatives need to work. It seeks out quality vectors that could be used in just about any project and makes them available for designers. With VectorState, you get royalty-free access to more than 1.1 million curated vectors. That number is always growing, so you can be sure you'll never run out of inspiration. You can get two-year access to VectorState on sale for just $31 (approx £24). That's an 80% saving off the retail price for an essential library for designers, so grab this deal today! View the full article

There's nothing quite like the sight of a playful pooch to put a smile on your face, right? This brilliant selection of dogs are more than part of the furniture at various design offices and studios – they're an essential member of the team. And they're not just in the office on Bring Your Dog to Work Day(today!), but every day! Including everything from a high-energy Vizsla and flatulent Bulldog, to a couple of small but mighty Chihuahuas and a menace of a Jack Russell, here are some of the most characterful canines to brighten up your day. 01. Freddie the Jack Russell Freddie is Creative Bloq's unofficial office dog – don't be fooled by those big brown eyes!We're huge fans of our four-legged canine friends here at Creative Bloq, but, sadly, CB HQ is unable to allow them into the office. However, that doesn't mean we don't have an office dog. This furry fella, eight-year-old Freddie the Jack Russell, has recently started joining the CB team on monthly meetings, stealing the hearts of all the staff in the local coffee joint and luring them into a false sense of security with his big brown dinner plate eyes. He helps his human, CB associate editor Kerrie Hughes, keep the world's top design website running by keeping her very alert and on her toes. How so? By regularly stealing unsuspecting lunch-goers' sandwiches and generally being a total menace. 02. Sloane the Vizsla Sloane is quick to let her human Steve Fisher know when he's been working too longSloane the Vizsla makes the life of human Steve Fisher, the founder of Canadian UX, content strategy and web technology consultancy the Republic of Quality, all the better. "Sloane is a high-energy Vizsla that loves to go for hikes in Vancouver's north shore rain forest with me pretty much every day [photographic evidence can be found on Instagram @hellofisher]. She’s quick to let me know when I’ve been working too long by climbing up onto the chair with me. My office is made 100 per cent better with her around. #ilovemydog." 03. Ziggy the Bulldog "Ziggy is the glue that holds the whole operation together," says FrostLife is never dull for web designer Brad Frost with Ziggy the Bulldog around. "I work from home with my brother and my wife who runs her own business. Ziggy is the glue that holds the whole operation together. His snores contribute to conference calls, his gas clears rooms (it's his way of telling us we need to get up and stretch our legs), and his hilarious presence ensures there's never a dull moment in the office." 04. Scruffy and Duff the Shih Tzus (cross Spaniel) Scruffy (left) and Duff belong to podcast host Debbie MillmanAdorable creatures are Scruffy (left) and Duff provide their human, author, educator, brand strategist and host of the podcast Design Matters Debbie Millman with nothing but unconditional love. Scruffy, a male, is a Shih Tzu while Duff, the female, is a mix of that and a Spaniel. In an interview with Core77, Millman was asked about design and her dogs: "On their best day, brands could aspire to be like dogs, evoking that sense of connectivity," she said. 05. Franklin the Shiba Inu Franklin the Shiba Inu keeps designer Justin Maller groundedWe'd like to introduce you to Franklin the Shiba Inu, whose human is New York-based freelance designer and illustrator Justin Maller. "Being a freelancer is lonely," Maller admits. "Usually, there are no other people around. This has its pros and cons – people are great for loneliness but usually a pain in the ass for everything else. "Dogs are like people, but furrier and more awesome – they don't talk back, they learn tricks, do cute shit constantly and basically unequivocally think you're great. They also force you to get up from your desk and leave the house a few times a day to go on things called 'walks'." 06. Mattie the Australian Shepherd Mattie is Paula Scher's absolute favouriteMattie the Australian Shepherd accompanies Pentagram partner Paula Scher to the office every day. During in an interview with Fast Co Design, Scher was asked what the favourite thing she owned was: "My dog! He’s an Australian shepherd, my fourth one. Their names have all started with M–Matty, Mickey, Molly, and Mimi." 07. Sir Oliver Ottoman of the High Country the Havanese Sir Oliver Ottoman of the High Country, or Ollie for short, is always around to provide his designer human Stanley Hainsworth with some creative inspiration. The founder and chief creative officer of Tether, a creative, cross-discipline studio, Hainsworth is never far away from Ollie, who (as you can see from his Instagram account) accompanies him in the office and on design jobs regularly. 08. Olivia the Golden Retriever mix "Olivia is the most reliable creative partner we have," says Neo Pangea founder Brett BagenstoseOlivia the Golden Retriever mix is the resident office dog at digital boutique Neo Pangea. "Always ready for a brainstorm or a belly rub, Olivia is the most reliable creative partner we have… just don’t leave food out on the counter," says Brett Bagenstose, founder and self-titled 'Baron of Pixels' at Neo Pangea. Related articles: 10 ways to make your desk more comfortable What time should designers get up in the morning? The expert guide to working from home View the full article

From outsmarting Predator and avoiding aliens to just how the infamous flux capacitor works, these infographics all provide interesting facts on some of the best loved movies of all time. Check out this brilliant collection of movie infographics to inspire you. Use the icon in the top-right of each image to see it full-size. 01. Interstellar This infographic makes sense of Interstellar's timeline The 2014 sci-fi smash-hit Interstellar was visually stunning, but with a plot that hangs off the theories of quantum mechanics, it left more than one viewer scratching their head and reaching for the rewind button. This beautifully rendered movie infographic lays out the timeline for us, complete with character timelines to help make sense of the storyline. It’s the work of Frametale, an entertainment marketing agency with offices in Los Angeles and Instanbul, led by creative director Dogan Can Gundogdu. 02. Star Wars Episode IV Click the image to explore the full (much more impressive) infographic Why sit through the whole of Star Wars Episode IV again, when you can instead savour it in infographic form? SWANH.net, created by Swiss illustrator Martin Panchaud, turns the first Star Wars movie into an epic 123m infographic. Created in Illustrator CC, using 157 pictures across 22 separate files, it took him over a year to produce. 03. Die Hard Brilliant Die Hard infographics break down body counts, explosions and much more This brilliant Die Hard infographic breaks down body counts, explosions, plot points and much more – and there's one for each of the five films in the franchise. Having a certain way with words, we particularly like the addition of John McClane's more memorable and humorous lines. 04. Pulp Fiction Click the icon to enlarge the image Designer, photographer and Tarantino fan Noah Daniel Smith has shuffled cult classic Pulp Fiction back into chronological order in this detail-packed infographic. Back in 2012, Smith sold over 1,000 posters of his design via a Kickstarter campaign, and it’s since soared in popularity. Each character is assigned their own colour, but there’s also different line styles employed depending on whether they’re ‘moving’, ‘not moving’ or ‘dead’. Handy. There's also a Kill Bill version for fellow Tarantino enthusiasts. 05. Back to the Future The creative team at Sloshspot break down exactly how the flux capacitor sends Marty and Doc Brown on their many adventures An '80s classic, Back to the Future is a firm film favourite for many. With such a big following, there are hundreds of pieces of BTTF fan art online, including this brilliant infographic by the team at Sloshspot, which provides great insight on how the legendary flux capacitor makes time travel possible. 06. Inception A simple but beautiful design for the 2010 brain-scrambling movie Inception by graphic designer Rick Slusher We love this simple but beautiful infographic for Christopher Nolan's 2010 blockbuster movie Inception. Let's face it, given how complex the film is, a little bit of simplicity to explain it goes a long way. The illustration was created by New York-based graphic designer Rick Slusher. His elegant summary of the film depicts each character as a coloured line, and the layers of dreams as concentric circles. 07. Batman The comic book style shows how the Batmobile has evolved a lot over time Batman has many amazing gadgets, but one thing that makes him one of the coolest superheroes is his Batmobile. The vehicle's design has come a long way over the years, being continually updated to look sexier, sleeker and to incorporate the fanciest of tools. This infographic from Car Insurance charts just how much Batman's trusty Batmobile has changed throughout its history. 08. Star Wars Random facts, strategically placed, create this cool Darth Vader design Such a popular franchise, Star Wars fans everywhere are constantly creating artwork inspired by George Lucas' story. And this original design, based on Darth Vader's helmet, is another of our favourites. Type detailing random facts about the films have been strategically placed to create the clever design. 09. Alien vs Predator Useful tips for surviving Predator or aliens While it's an incredibly small possibility, it's worth taking a look at Steven Taubman's handy infographic about our chances of survival should two of the deadliest extra terrestrial lifeforms take over the world. Basically, humans wouldn't stand a chance. But it does provide some useful tips, should you encounter Predator or a face hugger. Although we're not sure how effective a bag over the head would be! 10. 250 best movies of all time Is your favourite film in this cool subway-inspired infographic? This impressive subway-inspired map of movies was created by designer David Honorat. The map shows the 250 best movies, as voted by IMDb.com users in June 2009, with the legend detailing genre of film instead of train lines. Take a look at the cinematographic subway plan and see how many stations you've already visited. Related articles: Pro tips for creating interactive infographics The 100 best infographics 10 best movie posters from the 1990s View the full article

While many great website builders and beautiful free themes make building your own portfolio site easier than ever, a little knowledge of HTML is really useful. It enables you to look under your site's bonnet to see how everything fits together, and to fine-tune things when the default settings aren't doing it for you. But all those tags can be a little daunting – especially since HTML is an ongoing project, with new elements being introduced as the technology evolves. So Digital.com has come up with this useful interactive HTML cheat sheet. Digital.com's HTML cheat sheet is a web design gold mineIt features a full list of all the HTML elements that you can browse alphabetically – in a very attractive isometric layout – as well as by category. Click on one of the html code tags to read a descriptions of that element, as well as helpful code examples that you can plunder when you try to implement a new feature for yourself. Code examples make it easy to get the hang of those pesky tagsPlus if you don't want to be eternally switching browser tabs when you can't tell your <article> from your <body>, Digital.com has thoughtfully provided a downloadable PDF version of its cheat sheet that you can save to your computer or print out and keep on your desk. There's even a PDF version to download and print outYou can find the cheat sheet – made with a little assistance from Mozilla – over at Digital.com. Related articles: 16 amazing HTML examples 5 of the best resources for learning HTML and CSS 23 steps to the perfect website layout View the full article

Cisco patched three vulnerabilities in three products this week that if exploited, could have resulted in a denial of service, crash and in some instances, arbitrary and remote code execution. View the full article

The good news is the cost of a data breach is down double-digits, the bad news the size and scope of breaches is creeping up. View the full article

Developers with Drupal patched three vulnerabilities, one critical, one being exploited in the wild, in Drupal’s core engine on Wednesday. View the full article

Researchers at CyberArk have developed a bypass for Windows PatchGuard that leverages Intel's Processor Trace (Intel PT) technology to execute code at the kernel. View the full article

When we reviewed Adobe Illustrator CC 2017 recently, it was obvious that the Creative Cloud 2017 release remains a fantastic tool for all kinds of design work – from crisp vector logos, to app icons, to UI and web prototyping, to illustration to... well, pretty much anything, really. But of course, Illustrator isn’t perfect, so we wanted to find out what creative pros really need from the app. Here's what they want Adobe to improve for the next version of Illustrator. 01. Improve Colour Picker options Photoshop currently offers superior colour picker options “This has bugged me for years,” says illustrator and design lead at Havas helia, Aaron Miller. “If you have the colour picker window open, you can’t simply select a background colour from anywhere on the screen or apply a swatch like you can in Photoshop. The cursor should change to the Eyedropper tool, so you’re free to select any colour.” 02. Boost bitmap rendering “Illustrator’s vector capabilities are second to none, but its bitmap rendering for the canvas and exporting are a long way behind,” explains Marc Edwards, founder of Bjango. “In terms of antialiasing steps for shapes, there are only a few possible steps: 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% opacity.” 03. Fix the snapping bug Illustrator Von Glitschka is very vocal about what he wants from the next version of Illustrator. “Fix the damn snapping bug that was introduced through a CC update four-plus years ago,” he says. “Snapping is a fundamental feature of vector building, and to have a so-called pro app fail at that level is absurd.” Not sure what he means by the snapping bug? Watch the video above, which he sent to Adobe’s engineers. 04. Sort out the stability "Illustrator CC 2017 21.1.0 is the most unstable version of CC yet,” continues Glitschka. He points out that at Adobe MAX in October, Adobe announced it would be focusing on making Illustrator more stable, but he hasn't seen much evidence of this so far. “I’ve been tracking my crashes since 1 January 2017 and so far I’ve had 41. March alone had 11. At Adobe MAX, Adobe stated that for the first time in 25 years Illustrator has a larger user base than Photoshop. Now, if that is true – and I’ll assume it is – why not make Ai rock-stable?” 05. Add snappy text alignment Want to align your text centrally within a button? You can't... yetIllustrator CC 2017 brings a lot of new text enhancements, but Miller wants more. “I know many people use Illustrator for a more design-based approach and work with type,” he explains. “Something that InDesign does really well is to offer the ability to align text vertically within a text box. This combined with central alignment of the paragraph would mean text could sit ‘centrally’ within a button, for example.” 06. Enable better rendering Edwards also wants better rendering performance. “Enabling Illustrator CC’s GPU rendering option improves performance, but reduces rendering quality even further,” he says. “Illustrator’s pixel preview also has many rendering issues, including stray pixels and other artefacts. Gradient rendering with dithering would improve the quality of canvas rendering, and also bitmap output, too.” 07. Increase artboard limits At the moment, artboards are capped at 100Artboards have made it possible to create multi-page documents at different page sizes, but Edwards doesn’t think the functionality is quite good enough. "I’d like the artboard limit increased from 100,” he says. “For larger projects that use artboards for exporting, 100 artboards are often not enough.” 08. Let us copy beloved effects Miller wants to be able to copy effectsThe Appearance panel is great and shows the effects and properties applied to a shape, but Miller wants more. “I do wish you could copy an effect like you can copy layer styles within Photoshop. This would make making working with effects so much easier. There are ways around this – like using graphic styles – but they feel counterproductive.” 09. Bring back default anchor points “Two releases ago, Adobe decided on the fly to remove anchor points being shown by default on vector shapes. Who asked for that? No-one, it just did it,” muses Von Glitschka. “It got so much blowback it added a preference to return it to normal.” 10. Communicate with designers better “The Illustrator team gets pushed so hard to develop features that will be used to push CC services,” says Von Glitschka. “They care more about that than stability. They’ll also actively remove features that don’t encourage CC use. For example, on the Adobe Draw app for iPad they removed the feature that gave users the ability to simply email your art to anyone as a PDF. They replaced it with uploading it to CC, so you can’t share it easily. It’s a convoluted hot mess.” Related articles: 21 Illustrator shortcuts to speed up your workflow Create product icons in Illustrator 100 amazing Adobe Illustrator tutorials View the full article

This tutorial will take you through how to design and model a new furry 3D creature. To create this strokable creature we will follow my workflow, working on the base character, blocking the hair and fur in, and adjusting the scene. In addition, you will see the design process I use to create a new piece, including blending my reference images with renders and how I rework the main subject to step up the overall quality of the design. There's a video of my process below, followed by a step-by-step breakdown of my process. Download the supporting files here01. Find a concept First, find a good reference image to work fromFirst, I look for a reference image that's natural but strong. I go to unsplash.com, where people put amazing photos up for free commercial use. I want a scene with good lighting that I can use for a backplate. I decide to test a kitchen scene. 02. Set the scene Work out the shapes of the scene and box model themNow I have my image, it's time to set the camera and perspective. With Maya it's not that easy to get the angle right – I have to tweak and eyeball a little bit. My workflow here is to get the basic shapes of the scene and box model them. Once I have the basic shapes, I set the camera and the view angle. It's really important to take your time here and make sure you have the perspective right because this will define the success of the scene. 03. Establish the basic light setup Use your reference photo as a lighting guideNow it's time to set up the light. In my reference photo I can see an area of light at the top of my scene, so I put a light there. I add one more physical light behind my camera as a secondary light. For realism and to blend the scene and the backplate, I normally add a dome light with the backplate images, which generates GI and a little ambient light, providing a dim illumination of the scene. 04. Work on character conceptualisation A basic character gives you lots of potential to play aroundI want my character to do something similar to the man in the reference image, and to blend in with the pasta in the photograph. I design a really basic character to play with – just a blob with arms and two eyes. It doesn't even have legs, because this guy will always be behind the counter. 05. Test the scene Render a quick test to spot any early issuesWith everything blocked in and the main character in position, it's time to test the scene. I put all the models in the scene with no visibility to cast shadows and render the first test. I blend the render and the photograph to test the scale, the model, the light and the angle of the camera. I find my backplate has a green and blue tint over the shadows that I'll have to remove later. 06. Do some basic grooming Use groomable splines if there's no animation involvedIt's time to start grooming. I use Core XGen, though this technique will work with any other hair system. When working with hair, the important thing is to achieve a good flow and an interesting silhouette. For this kind of character, with no animation, I like to use groomable splines. I think about how the character moves and behaves, as this will affect his fur. This specific character has to work a lot with his hands and gets covered in steam often, so his hair will look heavy and not that fluffy. 07. Adjust length and silhouette With the flow sorted, block out the silhouette and lengthOnce I have the flow of the hair, I start blocking out the silhouette and the length. I give my creature shorter hair on his hands but furrier, pointy ears and longer hair on his armpits. I block out the eyes and the mouth. 08. Set up the hair Use a random expression to give the hair some varietyNow I generate the hair for the first time to check its fidelity and how it looks. When you first generate the hair it often comes out in chunks or planes. I test first with a really low density hair, and don't overscale the model. For the hair, I break the connection on the Width and set up a random expression to define with float rand (float min, float max) to help me control the hair and add some variation to the width, making it look more natural. One the hair is visible, you can adjust the flow and length. 09. Employ the clump modifier Work out the basic shape of hair clumpsFor this groom, I use a short hair with a mid-density on the base clumps and closed tip to enhance the effect of humidity, and a higher density on the second level of clumps with an open tip. I make the clumps thicker than the regular hair, so they appear sticky. I want small groups of hairs with a wavy configuration on the noise, to look thick on the roots and thinner on the tips with a wavy end. 10. Use the coil and noise modifiers Use coil and noise modifiers to vary your clumpsOnce I have the basic shape of the clumps, I need to add a little bit of randomness, as the clumps start to reveal more detail. To add new variations I use the Noise Modifier, and for this case I also add a Coil Modifier with a low influence to simulate the wetness and oil on the hair. For the noise, I use a base modifier to add the first layer of variation, affecting the tips more than the bases, with a frequency of 4 and a magnitude of 1. This means each strand will move four times from base to tip with a max magnitude of 1 over the tips. Next page: Give your creature character and add some props 11. Make the hairs more realistic The cut modifier gives hairs a more realistic lookNow I use the Cut modifier to simulate some hairs to be cut, broken or shortened over a random parameter, giving a better shape at the edges and a more realistic look. I test the amounts depending on the scales of the hair until I'm pleased. I normally reduce 20% of the hair, and the values vary depending on the groom. For this character, I reduce between 0.0 and 0.2 units per hair. 12. Refine the shape Now it's back to the groomingWith all the basic modifiers in place, it's time to start grooming again. Now I can see how the groom will look in the future, and the shape is clear, I can adjust the basic groom to have more variance, or to be smoother, to have clumps and coils, or to have a different flow, in each part. The groom can change any time but with all the modifiers in place it's better to work out the shape now. 13. Set up the strays Add a bit of frizz with the noise modifierNext, I use an expression to define a custom percentage parameter on the Noise Modifier. With this expression on the Magnitude attribute, I can define how many hairs I affect with the noise parameters, giving me a custom stray attribute for a flexible frizz effect. Here I add two new Noise Modifiers on top of the Cut Modifier with different attributes to make the final look. 14. Test assembly Do a second test to see how it's all coming togetherWith all the modifiers in place, I do a second assembly test. This time I add a basic colour to my groom and render with the same set-up, with a colour correction for the backplate. I find some problems with the blending between the render and the actual photograph, but can see that the light is working. In Photoshop I add an exposure adjustment with a gradient to add more light into the render to blend it better into the scene. The model isn't quite working, so I decide to start exploring different options. 15. Explore characterisation Step back from your character to get a fresh perspectiveWhen working on a scene, you need to explore and to correct yourself, feed your brain and sometimes even stay away from your work for a while so that you can see it with fresh eyes. For this project, I needed to try out some different methods and add new elements into the scene. Here I try an apron, a chef's hat, different mouths and facial hair and even some weird mouth drawn onto a Post-it note. Finally, I decide to work with the apron and hat. 16. Adjust the pose A more flexible pose adds life to your characterTo make the props work I need to make the pose more flexible. I add movement to the hands and rotate the body, but keep the basic shape from the photograph as I still want to use the pasta from the backplate. I make the ears longer and separate them to give more movement and a better silhouette. 17. Model the hat A jaunty angle works wonders for any hatFor the hat, I use a really basic workflow. With some references and taking the early concept into account, I model the base shape in Maya and play around with the model to see where it could work.The hat works in the centre of the head, between the ears, with a little tilt to look more relaxed and cool. After that I take the model into ZBrush to work on the final detailing and use some cloth alphas to make the final look. 18. Model the apron Realistic aprons are harder to make than you realiseIt takes me more time to finish the apron. I work on the base model directly in Maya and test it over the groom itself because it needs to collide with the hairs. I mainly model the basic shape on a really low-poly and set the parts where the stitches should be. In ZBrush I decide to add a far higher level of detail and put a lot of work into making the apron look as realistic as possible. With the cloth alphas and also using the Dam_Standard Brush, along with stitches alphas, I manage to make a good-looking model and surface texture for the apron. 19. Test the props Do a props test to see if it all works togetherWith all of the models done, it's time to test them in the scene. I import both objects and try them directly with the high-res models. I really like the hat but am not sure about the apron. There is still something missing in the main character, a kind of lack of connectivity. I know the image I have in mind but need to make it real in the scene. 20. Redesign the character Don't be afraid to go back and remodel your characterAfter some thought and a break from looking at the screen, I decide I need to reshape the main design. I work directly in ZBrush to adjust the eye cavity to make it friendlier. I also decide to add a big mouth with some gigantic teeth, and rework the hands. The main shape is still there but the character has a lot more personality. Next page: Retopology, final render, and post production 21. Retopology Rework the topology to ensure the hair still fitsAs he now has a mouth and bigger eyes, I'll need to make selections to adjust the shapes of the hair and where it should grow. I work the retopology of the character completely on Maya, as I want total control over the flow of the edges and loops, and the new tools in Maya 2017 make the character animation-ready. 22. Make the UV map Make a UV map ready for adding texturesI need to paint the textures, and to do so, the UV will be useful – even if XGen uses Ptex it's still necessary to have a good UV map. Once more, I decide to test the new UV tools that come with the Maya 2017 update 3, which are now simpler, amazingly fast and really easy to use. 23. Re-groom It's time to go back and groom againI re-groom the new character still using the groomable splines. I repeat most of the process from before but this time I spend more time on the basic groom. I select just the faces that I want to grow hair from, leaving the eyes and the mouth out of the selection. I work even more on the flow of the hair, add eyebrows by making the hair longer over the eyes, and add more noise into the actual groom, not just on modifiers. For the hair between the character's ears, I make the hair longer and use the Part Brush to give it shape. I also reduce the length of the hair around the eyes and the mouth, giving a gradient effect between the long and short hair. 24. Import the modifiers Save time by bringing in the old modifiersI want to use all the old modifiers, so I go to the old XGen scene and right-click on each modifier, hit Save Modifier, and name each one in order as this will affect the result. To re-import them into the new scene, on the Modifiers tab I click on the folder icon and select Load User. I import my saved modifiers one by one to build up the same result as before. This time I create masks over the clump modifiers to affect less of the face, producing a smoother result with fewer clumps there. 25. Create the moustache Use XGen's Guides to make a moustacheI decide to reintroduce the moustache. For this kind of hair, the best way to work is using XGen's Guides as it's faster and the results are great. Working with guides is really easy – I draw just half of the moustache guides, repeating the same process of making the shape and adjusting the size with a rand expression as before. When I find a shape I like I just mirror the guides and the moustache shape is done. For the final detail, I use the Move Guide tool to make some irregularities on the groom. I follow the same pattern with two Clump Modifiers, a Noise Modifier and finally a Cut Modifier, with just a few strays. 26. Paint the colour This will look less horrifying once it's on your modelTo add colour to the groom, I need to create a custom attribute for the render system to read the information. To do so, I go to Preview and Output and in Custom Shader Parameters I create a Custom Colour Attribute using the root_color convention. Next I click on the option next to the Attribute to create a map. I click the brush icon and with the Maya 3D paint tool options I start painting my textures. I use a fox's colours as a reference for this guy. If you want to create a custom texture you can generate the Ptex map with Mudbox or 3DCoat – just remember to overwrite the map that Maya created for the custom texture. 27. Create material Use Redshift to create your materialsI use Redshift for this render. The basic material for hair is almost perfect, so I just make the reflection a bit glossier. I create an RS Attribute Lookup to call in the root_color info. I connect this to the internal reflection of the RShair, and with a multiply/divide node connect the Transmission colour and change the value of the multiplier to 1.5. I finally connect the RS Attribute Lookup to the diffuse slot of the RShair and change the weight of the diffuse value until I like the result. 28. Do the final render Try to match the original photograph's depth of fieldNow I set the render configuration. For smooth results with Redshift, activate Hair min pixel width under the OPT tab on render settings, to solve the transparency of the hair and fix the tessellation, making hair smoother and reducing the render time. For the render settings, I use max samples of 512 and change the adaptive error threshold to 0.01 as I want almost no noise on the render. On the camera I set an exposure photographic lens and a bokeh lens to simulate the DOF on the photograph. 29. Blend the render and the backplate Now you need to put everything togetherWith the final render in place, it's time to begin the final assembly. First I remove the colour and try to leave the backplate as clean as possible to make the blend with the backplate. I always try to remove any colour information and use the backplate in its pristine state. I mix the render and add a mask for the foreground to leave the table and the plates behind the render. Having the render on the scene means I'll need to colour-correct the render so that its colour intensity, saturation and white and black points are close to the backplate's from the image. I put a B&W adjustment on top of everything to help me to fix the values of the render from there. 30. Post-production and effects The free Nik collection is great for post-processing in PhotoshopWith both the render and the backplate under the same lighting conditions, it's now easier to work on the post-production elements. I normally use the Nik collection pack to help me with the process and with blending it better. At this stage, I can also add effects to the scene – I add more steam coming out from the stove behind the character. With a radial blur, I give a motion blur effect just to the arms. 31. Colour grading and cropping A few final fixes and you're good to goFinally at the end of the road, I can finalise the colour grading, fix the contrast and give more balance to the tones, including lightening the colour of his moustache. I am still not too sure about the look of the scene, but I flip it around horizontally and it creates the effect I was hoping for. I work a little bit more on the contrast on the wall to make the character's silhouette more visible and striking. I finally do a crop with a little rotation of the composition to fix the tension points and the render is done! This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 223; buy it here! Related articles: How to create furry cartoon characters Make your own character bible How to use blend shapes to animate characters View the full article

Creating a design targeted towards children can be hard. If you try too hard to be 'down with the kids' you'll just appear foolish. Perhaps the best way to approach designs for kids is to speak to them on their own terms. That's the thinking behind these 10 child-friendly fonts, which range from young childlike crayon writing to fun bubble writing to neat cursive handwriting worthy of full marks in any school writing test. Comic Sans, be gone! These kids fonts would look perfect on packaging designs, posters and books. 01. Kids Crayon A great font with a cheeky messageFormat: TT Getting us started on our list of the best kids fonts is the appropriately named Kids Crayon. Doing just what it says on the tin, this textured font is taken from the crayon handwriting of creator Ian Williams' five-year-old kids. With all the idiosyncrasies that only kids could create, this charming font will only set you back £7.99 (about $10). 02. Kids Script This font balances calligraphy with children's writingFormat: OTF, TT Kids' writing isn't necessarily always clumsy and chalky. Take Kids Script, a font that is based on the calligraphic handwriting models used in Spanish schools in the 1940s. It might sound an esoteric starting point, but the result is a fresh font with a unique edge. Download the three-font family for £49.99 (about $63.50). 03. PF Kids Pro This series came about while designing birthday invitationsFormat: OTF PF Kids Pro is another font that uses real life writing as a starting point. In this case, the daughter of Alexandros Papalexis can find her writing immortalised in font form. Created while designing invitations to her birthday party, this rough around the edges font is available in three weights for £140 (about $177.50). 04. La Mona Kids This kooky font has lots of attention-grabbing gimmicksFormat: OTF Time for something completely different. Speaking to kids in their own handwriting is all well and good (and there's more of that to come) but sometimes a font needs to grab their attention. Enter La Mona Kids, a fun bubble writing font loaded with odd details that are impossible to ignore. What's more, you can grab the eight fonts in the family for just £35.99 (about $45.50). 05. Butterfly Kids We're not sure this is the best tag line for a kids' fontFormat: OTF Head over to the Butterfly Kids download page and you'll see the font describe itself as being all about "spreading cheer! Be fun. Be cute. Be happy!" With its curly letter shapes and OpenType ligatures, we'd be hard pressed to disagree. This single font is yours to download for only £13.99 (about $18). 06. Cool Crayon The beauty of blackboard chalk without the horrible noiseFormat: TTF Another font from the school-inspired camp, Cool Crayon is a typeface that emulates the gritty texture of blackboard chalk. (Although we can't help but think, do kids these days even know what blackboards are? Answers on a postcard... or maybe a Tweet.) This font is available free for personal use only, but you can licence it from designer David Kerkhoff's site Hanoded Fonts. 07. CookieMonster We all sat next to someone in class who dotted their i's with heartsFormat: TTF Maybe it's just us, but this font is a typographic flashback to sitting next to someone in school who dotted their i's with love hearts and more than likely wrote in neon gel pen. Either way, Cookie Monster is a fun kids' handwriting font that you can download for personal use for free (or negotiate a commercial license with the designer, Des, via the contact details in the font description). 08. Crayon En Folie (It's French for pencil madness)Format: TT If none of the other pencil fonts on our list are quite what you're looking for, perhaps Crayon En Folie is what you need. This kids' font takes your standard pencil typeface and gives them a splash of colour. Download it for £10.99 (about $14). 09. JollyGood Sans Condensed It's not, we repeat not, Comic SansFormat: OTF A cute font with Sans in the name? Don't worry, JollyGood Sans doesn't have the nauseating edge of Comic Sans. In fact, this typeface is pleasant on the eye and slimmed down so you can fit more letters on the page. And given that it's made for posters and books, it's a practical design choice, too. Download eight fonts for £70.99 (about $90). 10. Kids The definitively named kids' fontFormat: TTF When a kids' font is simply named Kids, you know you're on to a winner. Evoking the inky block lettering you'll find in exercise books (again, are they still a thing? Or is it all iPads in classrooms now?), this set comes with uppercase and lowercase letters, plus a whole host of numbers and symbols. Best of all, you can grab it for free. Read some of our other great posts, like: Great free handwriting fonts Typography rules and terms every designer must know 10 different fonts to give your projects a unique edge View the full article