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The WordPress community is big. Really big. We're talking thousands of designers and developers, tens of thousands of writers, and millions of users, all contributing to pushing WordPress forward. And one very popular way to do this is designing and developing free WordPress themes. Free Wordpress themes are a great way to get a blog or website off the ground – and there are countless WordPress tutorials online to help you do just that. You might want to start writing about a topic but don't want to invest the money in a custom site design on top of hosting and a domain. And once your site is up and running, there's nothing to stop you dissecting them, building on top of them and learning from them. 01. Mallow Mallow is designed with writers in mindAimed at writers of all kinds, Mallow is a well-balanced and flexible theme designed to be a blank canvas to express what’s on your mind. Perfect for blogging and case studies, it's fast and fully responsive with complete browser support and regular updates; upgrade to the Pro version for a live theme customiser and unlimited colour choices. 02. Bandana Bandana is responsive and versatile with plenty of useful featuresFeaturing responsive layouts and Font Awesome support as well as custom menus, widgetised sidebars, custom background, featured images and more, Bandana is a free, clean and simple WordPress theme that's tested in modern browsers and fully optimised for SEO. And if you don't mind getting handy with code, you can fork it on GitHub to create your own version. 03. Sydney Set your business up for success with SydneyIf you're looking to improve your online presence and attract customers or clients, Sydney is an excellent choice. It was built with business owners and freelancers in mind, and provides a wide array of customisation options that will help your website stand out. Sydney is also fully responsive, supports translation, and makes social media integration a cinch. 04. Illdy Illdy boasts plenty of plugin supportBuilt on the Bootstrap framework and fully responsive and mobile-friendly, Illdy is a fantastic-looking multipurpose theme. All the heavy lifting is done via the WordPress Customizer, enabling you to build your site on the fly using preview mode, and it's entirely compatible with popular plugins such as Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms and Yoast SEO, with WooCommerce support coming soon. 05. Hemingway Classic blog template with large textUnless you want to change themes every year it's best to pick something that won't look dated as design trends evolve, and Hemingway is a good option in that regard. It's a simple, elegant two-column layout with classic typography and large, readable text. Bloggers will find it ideal. Hemingway is built to be responsive, so will work on desktop and mobile. 06. SKT Full Width Fill the browser with your large imagesThis is a nice one if you've a site whose main purpose is to display images; it uses the whole browser window and lets you add discriptions via overlay text. The only thing to watch out for is whether your images will stand up to being displayed on very large screens. 07. Origin Origin, beautiful type for long readsIf you want to fit a lot of text onto your homepage, Origin does a good job of that without looking messy or cluttered. Your articles are arranged in a column that gives each one space for a decent intro length, and the type looks great. A good choice for a site with a lot of reading. 08. Upright Upright is a free Wordpress theme that can be used for portfoliosUpright is a fully responsive blog magazine theme for WordPress that leverages big imagery and portfolio functionality to present content effectively. Featured sliders, sidebar colour pickers, and custom background images allow users to create unique websites without having to code. Upright is search engine optimised from the get-go which helps increase traffic. 09. Fashionista Bold headlines for a magazine blogFashionista is another type-driven theme that's good for magazine-style blogs. We like the bold headlines and pleasingly busy layout that will look good on both desktop and mobile. 10. Hatch The image grid shows visitors your work with no clicking or scrollingIllustrators, photographers and artists will love this theme: the layout has one slot for your main image and then a grid of 12 that instantly gives visitors a sense of what your work is like. It's a great use of space that fits a lot of content into one screen. 11. Future Lite Creative agencies might want to check out this smart, feature rich themeA clean, creative, feature-rich and multipurpose theme that would be perfect for creative agencies, creative portfolios or freelancers. The responsive layout of this WordPress theme adapts well to the screen size of different device your visitors are using. Future is also retina ready and will look sharp on high resolution displays. It's powered with custom menu, custom header, sidebar widget, featured image, theme options, nice typography and built-in pagination features. 12. Lightly This free WordPress theme is another that can be used for portfoliosLightly is a clean, minimalist blog magazine theme for WordPress that puts your content centre stage. The theme's refreshing design features a home page slider and a widgetised home page that allows users to create custom layouts by simply dragging and dropping everything into place and high quality coding ensures your site performs optimally every time! 13. Longform Tell all your stories with LongformGreat for storytellers, Longform is a free WordPress theme designed to be fully compatible with the powerful Aesop Story Engine plugin. It includes beautiful styles for all Aesop story modules with no code snippets or extra configuration required. Fully responsive, retina-ready and super easy to customise. 14. Moesia As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words...Moesia is perfect for building your business's online presence. Choose from eleven predefined blocks and build the homepage that best suits your company. Each of the homepage blocks can have a parallax background image and its own set of colours. Featuring a good selection of Google Fonts, two types of layouts for the blog page, cool animations and effects, a parallax header and much more... Make sure you have a great header image to grab attention! 15. TA Dailyblog A great blogging template for the avid blogger!TA DailyBlog offers a simple and clean design with full optimisation for smartphones, tablets, desktops and any other devices. This free WordPress theme would be ideal for blogging, especially for daily or hobby bloggers who love to share their stuff. It's very flexible and fully customizable with 16 color schemes and smooth and fast user experience. What’s more, the theme is SEO friendly, with a Schema compatible structure that will make Google love your website. It supports most popular plugins, too. 16. InterStellar InterStellar is a clean, sophisticated designCreate and manage your portfolio or blog with ease with this clean and sophisticated InterStellar design. With multiple portfolio page layouts, this theme's options allow you to change the layout, colour scheme, logo and add your Google Analytics code, buttons, Google maps, columns and more. 17. Arcade Create a stand-out site with fully responsive HTML5 theme ArcadeCreate a stand-out website with Arcade, a lightweight and fully responsive HTML5 theme. Customise it to your taste by adding your own header image, page layout, site width and more. Each post can be distinguished with one of the eight supported formats; video, image, aside, status, audio, quote, link and gallery. 18. vFlex vFlex was designed specifically with designers and bloggers in mindDesigned specially with bloggers and designers in mind, vFlex is a stylish, free, responsive WordPress theme. Its main features include an inbuilt FlexSlider so you can simply select featured images, and an integrated VibeOptions panel, which supports logo upload, import and export settings and many other features. vFlex's responsive layout also means the theme looks great on iPad, iPhones, and other devices. 19. Meeta Don't overlook this 'plain Jane' themeSometimes "Plain Jane" themes like Meeta get overlooked. However themes like this are easily converted and modified to fit your site and content. With two navigations, a featured graphic and a responsive layout, this free WordPress theme will act as a great foundation for your site or blog. However you will need to dedicate the time to customise it a bit. 20. Folder Free WordPress theme Folder is perfect for showcasing projects and productsFolder is a free WordPress theme with a slight retro feel to it. With a design dominated by images, this responsive theme is perfect for displaying projects and products. Features include custom project posts and admin panel, five different widgets included (video, latest work, contact form, twitter feed, recent posts), and more. Next page: 12 more awesome free WordPress themes 21. YAMINTH Yet another minimal WordPress theme available for free downloadThere's no shortage of modern and minimal WordPress themes available online. But YAMINTH (Yet Another Minimal Theme) and its unusual image layout caught our eye. The free theme comes with light colors, dark footer, Google Web Fonts and jQuery fade in, fade out of images. It also has an options page for easy customisation and is free for use in both personal and commercial projects. With an unlimited selection of colour themes this theme would be appropriate for any blogger. Another feature, which has been cropping up on some of the newer WordPress themes, is the Translation-ready abilities, reaching new audiences in a foreign languages. 22. Thoughts Thoughts takes it cue from flat designLike flat design and want to use large images on your website or blog? Want it to be responsive? Then as free WordPress themes go, Thoughts is probably good one to investigate. 23. Glider Who needs images? Glider brings text to the foreDon't want to mess about trying to find beautiful imagery? Looking for free WordPress themes that focus on the text, to make that look beautiful instead? This minimal text-focused theme is all about seamless reading: no page loads, no interruptions, just a quick and easy way to access content. 24. Travelify Travelify is inspired by natureThe Travelify free WordPress theme is inspired by nature. Fully customizable, with several Theme Options and page templates, this theme is an obvious choice for travel blogs, green thinking and adventurists. 25. Clean Retina Clean Retina is simple, clean, responsive and retina-readyClean Retina delivers exactly what it says on the tin. The theme is simple, clean, responsive and retina-ready. There is a selection of nine homepage layout options, also a large homepage slider with space for supporting text. This is one of those free WordPress themes that would work nicely for bloggers or small business owners. 26. Simple Corp Simple Corp has plenty of time saving featuresSimple Corp is a responsive HTML Theme by Site5. It includes plenty of time-saver features, so no need hunting around for plug-ins. The contact page consists of a built-in contact form furthermore and a large Google Map. Multiple colour styles can be easily accessed via the colour options tab. One of the best free WordPress themes we've seen for business, it can update a corporate website with a fresh vibe. 27. Photo Photo is the ideal free WordPress theme for photographersPhoto is, you won't be surprised to hear, best suited for a photographer, as its major feature is the responsive gallery. The theme is clean with a bold header that emphasizes your logo. This is perfect if you're looking for a minimal and versatile theme. 28. Great Great is exactly what it claims to beWith an unlimited selection of colour themes, as well as being SEO Optimized, this free WordPress theme would be appropriate for any blogger. Another feature which has been cropping up on some of the newer themes is the Translation-ready abilities, reaching new audiences in a foreign languages. 29. Grid Grid is great for a graphically rich or photo-heavy siteGrid gives you the feeling you're on a site that's had a lot of thought put into its design. This free WordPress theme would work really well for a portfolio, artist or event site. It's very graphic or photo-heavy, so make sure you have the content to back it up. One plus is that this theme maintains its responsiveness quite well. 30. Sensitive Sensitive features a Metro-styled accent to its designSensitive is a fully responsive theme built using Twitter's Bootstrap framework with Metro Styled Accent. It ships with three different page templates, support for custom backgrounds and menus. It's a great option if you're looking for clean and modern, without a lot of fussy code. 31. _ARCHITEKT Architekt is a minimalist, responsive themeArchitekt's layout and minimalistic approach to design makes content (especially photos) stand out well. This is a really nicely designed and well thought-out responsive theme. 32. Panoramica With a full-width slideshow on the homepage, Panoramica is perfect for showcasing your photosIf you want to showcase images in all their glory, free WordPress theme Panoramica may be just what you're after. Its design heavily emphasizes the use of images, with its appearance fully customiseable through an extensive options panel. Panoramica also features a full-width slideshow on the homepage, perfect for grabbing prospective client's and employer's attention. Contributions to this article from: Aaron Kitney, a freelance graphic designer and art director based in London and Vancouver. Jesse Friedman, a veteran WordPress developer. Sam Hampton-Smith, a freelance author and front-end designer/developer based in Scotland. Tanya Combrinck, who has been writing about the web for over four years. View the full article

At the start of 2014, Pip Jamieson launched The Dots – an online professional network specifically aimed at designers (think LinkedIn for creatives). Since then the platform has gone from strength to strength, with leading companies including the BBC, TATE, Facebook, Wolff Olins and Pentagram using the site to promote their brand, attract clients and hire talent. It hasn't been plain sailing though. At Reasons To Jamieson talked through her Dots journey, and Creative Bloq was in the audience. Here's what we learned about how to launch your own successful creative business: 01. Build diversity into your teams The dots team includes individuals from a range of backgroundsBefore launching the Dots, Jamieson worked at MTV. She recalls how for any given role, the company would attract hundreds of interested creatives – so to avoid having to spend hours finding the best person for the job, they'd turn to their little black book of contacts. Hiring friends and existing contacts eventually led to the output becoming stale and samey. It's unavoidable: you need an injection of fresh ideas to keep things interesting. When hiring for The Dots, Jamieson purposefully looked to employ a mix of people, a balance of genders, and people from different backgrounds, to build different perspectives into the product. 02. Go all-in... Launching any business is going to be a rollercoaster"You can't really execute a business idea unless you're all-in," says Jamieson. It's a risk, but if you really want to see the potential of your idea, at some point it has to stop being a side project. That means taking a leap of faith, giving up your main job and committing yourself fully. And even then, it's going to be tough. "[Launching The Dots] has been the happiest I have ever been, and it's also been the most desperately sad I've been in my life," Jamieson says. But she's adamant that if you're not going through a rollercoaster of emotions, you're not pushing yourself enough. And it'll be worth it in the end. 03. ... but don't burn yourself out At a certain point, working harder doesn't equate to increased productivity"It's seen as such a badge of honour to work all the time when you're starting something new, but it's actually really stupid," emphasises Jamieson. While you need to dedicate yourself, there's a point where it's proven that productivity actually starts going down. Plus, burn yourself out and you're looking at time off work, and that's not helpful for anyone. Jamieson suggests being wary if you're getting colds or feeling under the weather a lot: it's a sign you're pushing yourself too hard. She also advocates trying to pin down what saps your energy at work, then (if possible) outsourcing it. For example, if money matters leave you drained, hire a good accountant, and put your energies into things that will keep you energised. Similarly, work out what gives you energy in your personal life – whether that's doing yoga or going out on the town – and make time for that. 04. Build relationships based on trust BBH co-founder Sir John Hegarty has joined The Dots as chairmanAt particular low point in the Dots journey, Jamieson and her then-business partner found themselves three weeks away from going out of business. In a meeting, they were offered investment from an individual the pair instinctively felt was wrong for the business. Rather than take up the offer, Jamieson remortgaged, and her partner borrowed money from his parents, to buy The Dots another month. She maintains it was the best decision they could have made. "Going into investment is like going into marriage – you have to trust the people you're taking money off," she says. 05.Use OKRs rather than KPIs OKRs ask teams to take control of how to reach their goalsOKRs – or Objectives and Key Results – were popularised by Google several years ago. Unlike KPIs, OKRs provide teams with purposefully ambitious goals and asks them to innovate and work out how to reach them for themselves. Jamieson swears by them, and credits this approach with contributing significantly to the happiness of her employees. 06. Find some novel self-promo Pip Jamieson runs The Dots from her houseboat – a popular spot for client meetingsGetting people interested in your business can be an uphill struggle. Thankfully, Jamieson had an ace up her sleeve: her houseboat, Horace. While cold-emailing people to meet tended to yield poor results, invite them to a houseboat and suddenly there's more interest. "People would say yes just because they wanted to see the boat," she smiles. 07. Keep it positive Building a business difficult enough – don't let negative people into the foldOne of The Dots' core values is positivity. Building up a new business is difficult enough, says Jamieson, and when things are tough, you need people who will focus on solutions rather than problems. Maintaining a culture of positivity also means getting rid of people who are bringing negativity into the workspace. "You have enough to be getting on with to have have wingers on the team, or people who like to play politics," she warns. To try and make sure everyone stays happy, The Dots employees periodically complete a survey asking them what they're happy with and what frustrates them about their work. This gives management a chance to adjust things and make improvements that suit the team. Related articles: 5 golden rules of self-promotion How to make social media work for you Create the perfect design portfolio: 30 pro tips View the full article

The iPad Pro 12.9 (2017) is Apple's top-end iPad, sitting above the iPad Pro 10.5 that made its debut earlier this year. The iPad Pro 9.7 is no longer available. Here we're looking at it alongside iOS 11 – the latest version of Apple’s now-legendary mobile operating system. There are some significant improvements in this update that are specifically designed to make the iPad Pro more, well, Mac-like. We tested it out on our iPad Pro 12.9 to see what all the fuss is about. The 12.9-inch version of the iPad received several upgrades earlier this year to put it on an even footing with the new iPad Pro 10.5 – notably HDR video support, TrueTone display and a new Apple A10X processor. While iOS 11 is a good update for the iPhone, it’s a particularly super update if you use an iPad on a regular basis. Multitasking was present before on the iPad, but now it has been powered up to provide even more desktop-like functionality. iOS 11 availability iOS 11 is a free update for the iPad Pro and will be released on 19 September. Expect servers to be busy that day, so you might have to wait to download it to your iPad Pro. Note that we’ve been using the public beta version of iOS 11, so the final version may be ever so slightly different than the images you see here. (And to use Apple Pencil you’ll need an iPad Pro 9.7, 10.5 or 12.9-inch.) iPad Pro 12.9 design and screen The first time you see the iPad Pro 12.9 it looks daft – a big, silly joke; something ludicrously, pointlessly oversized – but it's amazing how quickly that impression passes. In part that's because it's lighter than you expect it to be for its size. It's not light enough that you would want to hold it for the length of time it would take to make even a simple portrait sketch, but it's perfectly reasonable to hold it one-handed for minutes at a time. It's also slim, such that when you're using it flat on a table surface, you can just about kid yourself that it's almost not there. That big screen is, in any case, just terrific: bright, saturated, and with liberal viewing angles. iPad Pro 12.9 video and audio The scale of the screen makes it great not just for painting on, but also – for example – to give you more room for digital audio workstations, for editing movies, for creating diagrams and for sketching out wireframes for print or digital layouts in Adobe Comp, which you can then export to InDesign, Illustrator or Photoshop. As we've already touched upon, it's a TrueTone display with support for HDR video. Viewing video on this device is a delight, while the quad speakers are surprisingly beefy. Sure, you don’t want to rely on them to fill a room, but everyone who hears them does the same 'Oh, they sound that good?' face. (There's some smarts here: there is a speaker at each corner, and for any audio all four always produce bass, since we can't tell what direction bass comes from. The mid-range and treble is then also played out of whichever two speakers are on the top, depending on orientation, for a proper stereo soundstage.) iPad Pro 12.9 performance and battery life With Apple's A10 X processor, this is a seriously powerful tablet. The big display means that iOS 11's support for multitasking – the ability to run two apps side by side, and/or also have video play in a floating picture-in-picture window – makes such great sense here and works instantly. It's entirely possible, for example, to draw on one side of the screen while referring to source material on the other, or keep an eye on your email as you type a document. The iPad Pro will easily last a day of use. Apple cites 10 hours of battery life and that's about right in our experience. However, the Smart Keyboard accessory draws power from the device, so take it off if you're low on battery. If you're tapping away with the Apple Pencil all day, this may decrease further and you will need to charge it during the day as well. iPad Pro 12.9 accessories The optional £169 Smart Keyboard cover is genuinely good, enabling the iPad Pro to shine in more of the situations where you might hitherto have used a laptop. The fact it doesn't quite work as your Mac or Windows laptop does is a little confusing though – your finger keeps twitching towards the non-existent trackpad. However, cheaper versions are available from other manufactures and, of course, the iPad Pro works with any Bluetooth keyboard. Apple Pencil Then there's the superb Apple Pencil. We've touched on its improvements in iOS 11 below. This stylus – yes, Apple made a stylus – is nothing more nor less than the best digital drawing tool ever made, and with the iPad Pro's generous 12.9-inch canvas, for some illustrators and artists it is, more than ever before, possible not just to sketch out ideas on an iPad, but take them all the way through to completion. It's a bit nuts to say you want the iPad Pro because of another bit of kit that itself costs eighty quid, but the experience of using them together is so good. The pressure- and tilt-sensitivity, the near-perfect palm rejection and the impressively low latency all combine to make it the most real and analogue drawing and writing experience you'll have today unless you're actually using pen and paper. There are some truly magnificent apps on iOS that work great with Apple Pencil; the glorious Procreate, the characterful Paper, the expressive Adobe Photoshop Sketch and the hugely useful Adobe Comp, for example – as well as productivity apps such as Evernote and LiquidText. Many apps will be updated to support iOS 11's drag and drop functionality, including Adobe’s mobile apps, Procreate and Morpholio Trace. How has iOS 11 improved the iPad Pro? Despite its success, iOS has remained an operating system for phones and tablets – not for serious professional work. Can it really turn the iPad Pro into a tool so creatives can move on from their laptops? The first of the enhancements that work especially well with the iPad is the dock. Yes, you’ve seen one of these before right? Well, yes, but the new dock works quite like the one on the Mac. It sits at the foot of the screen like the old dock but instead has support for dragging and dropping app windows and more around the screen. There’s also a recently used files pop-up when you do a long tap on an app that supports it – similar to recent files on a Mac or PC. The dock and is split into two parts; the left is where you have apps you put there yourself (drag them from your home screen) while the right-hand side features apps chosen by Siri. Most likely, these will be the three latest you have used, but it may well bring your chosen music app up when you connect your AirPods. It’s clever like that. As we mentioned, dragging and dropping works with the dock – drag and drop isn’t anything new of course, but you can now drag things around in iOS 11 using Split View, such as an image from your camera roll into an email and so on. Say you were in Photos and wanted to drag something into an email, then just swipe up the dock, and drop Mail on the side of the screen. It opens in Slide Over view, but you can just tap the line at the top of the window to go into Split View. You can even drag things onto the dock as well you don’t expect, like a link from Safari or an image. The implementation of this is really rather great. You can still run a couple of apps at once using the Split View (two apps running side-by-side) and Slide Over (two apps running with one in a floating window). You can now add a third app on an iPad Pro. Note that Slide Over and the advanced multitasking works with iPad Pro, iPad (5th generation), iPad Air and later, or iPad mini 2 and later. iOS 11 and the Apple Pencil Apple Pencil is a fantastic tool for the iPad Pro series and wonderful for artists, but you haven't been able to use it everywhere you've wanted to in all iPad Pro apps. iOS 11 powers up the Apple Pencil's capabilities significantly. Now though, you can create Instant Notes simply by drawing on the lock screen (these are then saved in Notes). Drawing on notes near existing text cleverly now moves the text out of the way. Instant Markup enables you to draw on PDFs and photos. All of your Instant Notes on the lock screen are saved in Notes where there's also a Document Scanner, which scans, crops edges, removes tilt and glare and lets you fill in forms or sign away with an Apple Pencil. You can then save and share the document. There are plenty of Apple Pencil-supporting apps that have enhancements planned for iOS 11. Don't forget to check out our guide to 9 iPad Pro apps that make the most of Apple Pencil How files are handled in iOS 11 on the iPad Pro Apple has also remedied a long-standing issue with iOS – there’s no way to access files on the device unless they’re things like images in your Camera Roll or PDFs in iBooks. OK, so Apple has fudged this for the last few years with iCloud Drive, but the fact is we’re all pretty used to storing stuff on our own devices. Now though, there’s a Files app. You can browse through files stored on your iPad as well as the files synchronised on other devices. It’s all pretty intuitive and frankly pretty basic – it’s just that we haven’t had it before. There are also more options within Settings for you to optimise the storage on your device, including the offloading of unused apps. This will be pretty useful for less tech savvy people who just want to free up a bit of space to do some work. You can also use Files to browse iCloud Drive and cloud services such as Dropbox and, best of all for you, Adobe Creative Cloud. You can tag your files and folders as well – just like on macOS. What else is in iOS 11? Naturally there are also a bunch of other enhancements, such as improvements to Control Center, Siri (it sounds more human and can translate short phrases), Live Photos, the App Store, Apple Music and more besides. One thing that might also be useful is that you can now pay contacts using Apple Pay, while there's also a driving mode. More useful for the iPhone, granted. There are also new iPad keyboard shortcuts which mean you no longer have to flip back and forward between keyboard layers. A new 'flick' gesture means you can access the hidden characters underneath. It all saves time. Control Center is accessed by continuing to swipe up from the dock. On the face of it, it is quite a mish mash. But it's now customisable so you can add and remove features at will. You can now also screen record in iOS 11, so you can send someone a 'how to' video of what you're doing. The screenshot feature has also been improved in iOS. When you take a screenshot using the Home and Power buttons, a preview now hovers in the bottom left for a short time. Tapping on it enables you to edit it right away. Safari has some nice touches, too, including suggestions based on what you were just reading. The Apple browser can also link to your iOS Calendar app, adding entries for flights and hotel stays instantly – useful for planning work trips. Final verdict There is an obvious caveat to this: the iPad Pro, of course, doesn't run Mac or Windows apps, so you're not going to be able to use the big, full, familiar apps from Adobe, Affinity or Corel. And for many – who either don't want the hassle of learning new tools or literally can't do the things they do in the way they want to do them without a traditional desktop – that's reason enough to dismiss the iPad Pro right from the get-go. The iOS 11 dock and multitasking really makes everything sing though, even if the elegance and simplicity of the iPad experience – one screen, one app, one task is now a thing of the past. The iPad Pro is – more than for any other group – for creatives. That big canvas, the sheer processing grunt and, above it all, that wonderful, you've-never-used-anything-like-it-before Pencil are all peculiarly suited to the kind of work we do. It lends itself particularly well to digital painting and illustration, of course, and Procreate is capable of some wonderful things, but it's not only good for that. The fact that you can't run, say, InDesign on it will of course mean that it can't fulfil the role of a primary computer for everyone in the creative industries. But set against this is the fact it does things that a Mac or PC can't. Can it be your only computer? No. But as a go-anywhere portable companion to a computer with full desktop apps, it's unbeatable. View the full article

If you're familiar with Netflix’s cult series, Stranger Things (and if you aren’t, where have you been for the past 18 months?) you'll also be aware that season two of the critically acclaimed supernatural drama is nigh – and Netflix has gone all out with the poster designs. The must-see show is not only set in the 1980s but unapologetically influenced by everything from Stephen Spielberg to Stephen King. Paying homage in every aspect of the show's design and production, the Duffer Brothers transport you straight back to the era of puffer jackets, Reebok high tops, The Goonies and, of course, OTT low budget sci-fi and horror flicks – they even managed to bag Winona Ryder in a starring role. The producers keep no secret of the influence 80's cult classics have on the showTheir approach to garnering publicity for the second series is no different, and their new marketing campaign reads like a love letter to their influences. As reported by ProMax's Daily Brief, the visual masterminds behind the show have gone all out by reimagining influential movie posters from the decade that spawned horror franchises even bigger than it’s hair-dos. Are movie posters in a design crisis?Have a scroll through the gallery below for a heavy dose of nostalgia that’s sure to get you excited for the show’s return. Can you guess which cult classic is being referenced in each poster? Season Two is set to be released just in time for Halloween, 27th October 2017 exclusive to Netflix. Related articles: Creating the official retro-style Stranger Things poster Scarily superb illustrated tributes to classic horror movies Top 25 movie posters of all time View the full article

http://thehackernews.com/2017/09/windows-zero-day-spyware.html … View the full article

Every designer needs to find a little inspiration to get started or the perfect piece to finish a project. No matter what you're after, you're likely to find it in the ByPeople Premium Design Bundle. You can get a lifetime subscription now for just $39 (approx. £30)! For graphic designers, there is no such thing as having too many assets to work with. That's why lifetime access to the ByPeople Premium Design Bundle arms you with as many as you could possibly require. You'll get unrestricted access to all the contents Designshock, Iconshock, and TemplateShock – all top, trusted sources for designers. Get all the icons, logos, avatars, cartoons, templates, and brushes you need for any project of yours in this massive bundle. Lifetime membership to the ByPeople Premium Design Asset Bundle is valued at $129, but you can save 69% off the retail price. That means you'll pay just $39 (approx. £30) for this must-have bundle, so grab it today! 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. View the full article

Those looking to create realistic creature designs using a mixture of software – ZBrush, Marvelous Designer, KeyShot and Photoshop – should look no further. I use this pipeline in my everyday work for movies, TV shows and video games – and it never disappoints. I start the process by sketching on paper and decide on the best design direction. Once I have a stronger idea of what to do, I jump into ZBrush to flesh out the design in 3D. 01. Create base mesh in ZBrush Having a library of base meshes will speed up this first step I start the model using one of the female base meshes I created a while back. This really cuts down the working time – I suggest you create your own library of base meshes that you can use on every project. For all the other elements that I need to create from scratch, I use ZSpheres. The objective at this stage is to get a strong sense of gesture in the base mesh. 02. Sculpt the face Pushing the proportions of the human face can lead to beautiful mythical creatures One of the main focuses early on in my sculpting is the face. I really want something that looks a bit creature-like, not wholly human, but is still beautiful. I decide that pushing the proportions and the features of a human face is the way to go: spreading the eyes out further than usual, enlarging the mouth, flattening the nose and pushing the bone structure in general. For the final image, I want strong eye contact with the viewer. To sculpt, I use just a few brushes: Clay Tubes, Clay, Dam_Standard, Move and Standard. 03. Detail the body Use references for anatomically correct sculpts Now it’s time for the body, I start to sculpt in more details and to really finalise the entire design. It’s important to always model with anatomy references in front of you: that’s how you make sure everything looks realistic and anatomically correct. At this stage I use the Clay brush instead of the Clay Tubes brush to build up some of the forms, so that my strokes are more delicate and controlled. 04. Pose the model Posing your model in an interesting way makes for a better creature With the main sculpting done, it’s now time to pose my model. The tail is pretty much in the right pose already, since I modelled it directly with Symmetry turned off; so now I am able to focus on the upper body. Using the Transpose function, I can move the lowest subdivision levels around; and with minimum re-sculpting of some areas, like the neck and the shoulders, I can achieve the desired pose pretty easily this way. 05. Create seaweed hair Use Marvelous Designer to create seaweed-like hair Marvelous Designer is typically used for clothing, but I thought of using it in a more creative way, using its simulation power to create seaweed hair. I simply create strings of cloths, attach one end of each string to the head of my creature and create a medium-strength wind system. Once you let it simulate, the strings of cloth will interact and intersect; to get the underwater effect just quickly let go of the wind and freeze the result right away. 06. Detail the seaweed hair Go back to ZBrush to add details to the hair After creating different patches of simulated seaweed hair, I go back to ZBrush, where I can start the detailing process. With the Pinch brush, I make the end of each string pointy and finish the detailing with the Standard brush. With the Move brush, I make sure every patch of seaweed hair is interacting perfectly with the rest, and that each part is attached correctly to the head. 07. Polypaint the model Aim for dark colours on the back of your model Before rendering, I do a quick colour pass to help me out with the final compositing. I use the Standard brush set to RGB and in Color Spray mode with Alpha_08: this way I can select two colours in the palette that I want to mix with a bit of pattern, following the principle of darker colour on the back and lighter colour on the front. With the help of some custom Alphas, I detail the first colour pass. 08. Render in KeyShot An initial render in KeyShot makes for some stunning results With the ZBrush To KeyShot Bridge, I can transfer my model into KeyShot to render with one button. In KeyShot I create a new camera angle for my renders and, with minimum adjustments to my pose in ZBrush based on the new camera, I’m ready to go. Holding [Ctrl] on my keyboard while dragging the skin material on my model, I keep my textures from ZBrush intact. For my main lighting, I use the Factory HDRI preset in KeyShot and a simple top panel I place in ZBrush. 09. Render passes in KeyShot Different render passes in KeyShot My render passes consist of a Shadow Pass, Spec Pass, Beauty Pass, Rim Light Pass, SSS Pass, Texture Passes, Thin Film Pass and Alphas. The most important is the Shadow Pass, realised with a grey material on the model and a top panel with a light material in KeyShot; and the Beauty Pass, realised with a skin material, original textures from ZBrush and the Factory HDRI preset for the lighting. 10. Composite in Photoshop Getting the right balance between passes when compositing is crucial Using Photoshop, I can merge all my renders into one image, trying to find the right balance between the different passes. I place the Shadow Pass at the bottom then apply the other passes on top, lowering their Opacity and playing with the brightness and contrast to blend them all together. The Spec Pass should always be on top of all the other passes, applied with the Screen blend mode to just have the light areas coming through. 11. Start photo-bashing Blending photos with 3D renders take the concept to a new level To take the concept to the next level, I start the process of photo-bashing, which is basically the process of blending photos with my 3D renders. I use photos of people and animals to get realistic details, always making sure that the photos I use have lighting that follows what I established in 3D. The best way to blend the photos is to lower their opacity, then enhance the contrast and erase what you don’t need. 12. Detail the photo-bashing Subtle details such as skin tone can be enhanced by photo-bashing I continue my photo-bashing process by blending a photo of an actress over the face of my creature, using the Liquify filter (Filter>Liquify) to match the position of the photo’s eyes and mouth to the face in my ZBrush sculpt. This way I’m able to obtain some subtle details that I didn’t have before, and also to get better translucency in the skin. I also use the same photo-bashing technique for the background: I blend together some underwater photos that I then blur with a Gaussian Blur (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur). 13. Paint on top of photo-bashing Painting adds the finishing touches to the photo-bashing stage To perfectly blend the photos and my 3D work together, I start painting on top of my photo-bashing: this way I’m able to add more details and fix some elements. To blend everything even better, I can paint shadows with a dark colour and light areas with a light colour on a Soft Light layer. The last pass here is to paint in some foreground details to frame my creature, and some atmospheric effects using a large soft brush. 14. Add effects Dust and bubbles images help the creature look less '3D' To make the painting feel less ‘3D’, I use some dust and bubbles photos. You can easily find photos with this kind of effect online: you need them to be on a black background so that you can blend them using a Screen layer, which eliminates the background and leaves you with the details you want. 15. Finalise the image The completed project, a creature from the deep The image is basically complete, so I flatten down all the layers. The last steps now are to use Unsharp Mask (Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask) to make the image sharper; before I apply a Radial Blur (Filter>Blur>Radial Blur), which I focus on the centre of the image. This helps to focus the attention of the viewer on the creature, and also to make the image more dynamic. You can also play with applying a Gradient Map to the image to lend more colour to your shadows. This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 224. Buy it here. Related articles: How to design and model a fantasy creature How to design better creatures 10 essential ZBrush shortcuts to improve your workflow View the full article

You may have blinked and missed it, but there’s been a bit of a revolution in resolution over the last few years. Once seen as an experimental and cutting-edge technology, 4K screens are now commonplace: in TV screens, computer monitors and even smartphones. With 4K offering four times as many pixels per inch, web designers need to make sure their websites look as good as they can on the latest screens. Of course, if you’re already following the principles of responsive web design, that will get you most of the way to ensure your website looks good wherever it’s being viewed. But beyond that, here are four areas you particularly need to pay attention to in the 4K era... 01. Use scalable graphics Icons, logos and other graphics should be created as scalable, not raster imagesFor your website to look good on 4K screens, you need to use scalable rather than raster images wherever possible. With raster formats (which include jpegs, GIFs and PNGs), each image contains a fixed number of pixels and so as they increase in size, they just get more pixellated and blurry. Scalable formats, known as SVG (scalable vector graphics), in contrast, are based on geometric shapes. This means that however big they get, they will remain clean and clear. Of course, you still need to use raster formats for photographs. Which means you need to use media queries to serve high-res versions of your photos to 4K and 5K Retina screens, and much smaller, lower-res versions to mobile devices, to avoid killing your site’s performance on 3G and 4G connections. (If you’re working with a lot of images, it’s worth noting that Photoshop CC lets you export a single image in multiple sizes simultaneously.) Logos, drawings, user interface tools, buttons and so forth, though, should always be created as SVGs. This can be done in software such as Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw and Affinity Designer. To learn more about scalable graphics, read our 10 golden rules for responsive SVGs. 02. Consider larger displays The New York Times website, as screengrabbed by Jon Yabkonski on a large monitor When thinking about what your website will look like in 4K, remember that higher resolutions are making bigger and bigger screens more popular. So although we’ve only just got used to the idea of our sites being viewed on 1920x1080 monitors, we’re now having to think about what they’ll look like on displays on that are 2,560 pixels wide. Many websites can be difficult to read on these screens, where the text and content may look constricted and shrunk down, and an overabundance of whitespace. This excellent article by Jon Yabkonski on CSS Tricks addresses the technical challenges these wider displays present, and suggests some solutions. 03. Use 4K video Stock libraries like iStock by Getty Images can provide a wide range of 4K footage Because our eyes naturally respond to movement in a way that still images can’t compete with, video is a popular tool for grabbing the attention of website visitors. But whether you’re adding a video header, video background or strategic video clips to your site, right now, you have to serve it in 4K to avoid looking clunky and old-fashioned on the latest devices. There are many cheap and easy ways to shoot 4K footage nowadays, with many of the latest stills cameras, POV sports cameras and smartphones offering 4K shooting capabilities. Alternatively, if you don’t have the time, or need something you couldn’t shoot yourself, such as drone footage, most stock libraries now have masses of 4K video content for you to download. For more on using 4K video, check out What the new wave of 4K video means for designers. 04. Buy a 4K monitor Buying a monitor like the Acer S277HK takes all of the guesswork out of ensuring your site works in 4KAt the end of the day, the best way to be sure your websites will look good on a 4K monitor is – to state the obvious – to buy a 4K monitor. The good news is that it’s possible to get on for as little as £250, although as with everything, you get what you pay for. You’ll find an up-to-date roundup of the latest monitors by our sister site TechRadar here, while if your work involves 3D, motion graphics and/or video editing, you may want to check out this roundup too. Read more: The ultimate guide to image resolution The 5 best laptops for photo editing 5 tips for using stock imagery in your designs View the full article

After many impassioned debates between the world-class judging panel, just over a quarter of the projects submitted to Computer Arts' Brand Impact Awards have made the shortlist. We can now reveal those 47 projects, from 32 different agencies – scroll down for the full list. Computer Arts' Brand Impact Awards reward the very best branding from around the world. Now in its fourth year, the scheme's rich heritage of past winners represent the cream of the global branding industry. 2017's shortlist is no different. This year, the Brand Impact Awards received a record number of entries – 187 projects, from 86 different agencies. The winning and highly commended projects will be revealed at the fourth-annual Brand Impact Awards ceremony at the Ham Yard Hotel, London, on Wednesday 13 September. Early bird prices are valid until 21 July, so book your tickets now to join the world's top agencies and discover 2017's big winners. Book your Brand Impact Awards tickets Being shortlisted for the Brand Impact Awards is an accolade in itself. Standards are unfalteringly high, and if judges felt that none of the projects submitted in a category met the criteria, that category was cut altogether. Those criteria are: A strong, compelling concept that's appropriate for the client Beautiful and consistent execution across two or more brand touchpoints Branding that stands head and shoulders above the rest of its market sector Also, being the only agency shortlisted in a category does not necessarily mean taking home a coveted BIA trophy on the night. So it's all to play for. So without further ado, in alphabetical order, here are the 32 agencies that made the shortlist in the Brand Impact Awards 2017: Alphabetical Fashion Business School, by AlphabeticalCategory: Education Project: Fashion Business School Anagrama Winter Milk, by AnagramaCategory: Bars & Restaurants Project: Winter Milk Helvetimart, by AnagramaCategory: Retail Project: Helvetimart BrandOpus The Badger, by BrandOpusCategory: Wine, Beer & Spirits Project: The Badger Design Bridge Guinness, by Design BridgeCategory: Wine, Beer & Spirits Project: Guinness DesignStudio Deliveroo, by DesignStudioCategory: Retail Project: Deliveroo Premier League, by DesignStudioCategory: Sports Project: Premier League DixonBaxi Premier League broadcast graphics, by DixonBaxiCategory: Entertainment Project: Premier League broadcast graphics GBH London AB Walker, by GBH LondonCategory: Professional Services Project: AB Walker PUMA: Non-Corporate Box, by GBH LondonCategory: Sports Project: PUMA Non-Corporate Box GW+Co Reiss, by GW+CoCategory: Technology & Telecoms Project: Reiss Jack Renwick Studio Carpenters Wharf, by Jack Renwick StudioCategory: Property Project: Carpenters Wharf Johnson Banks Action For Children, by Johnson BanksCategory: Not-for-profit Project: Action for Children Mozilla, by Johnson BanksCategory: Technology & Telecoms Project: Mozilla Kontor Reykjavik Alvogen, by Kontor Reykjavik (illustrations: Noma Bar)Category: Pharmaceuticals & Toiletries Project: Alvogen MARK Studio Manchester Literature Festival, by MARK StudioCategory: Culture Project: Manchester Literature Festival 2016 Walk Through Walls, by MARK StudioCategory: Not-for-profit Project: Walk Through Walls Music Powerleague, by MusicCategory: Sports Project: Powerleague NB TypoCircle, by NB (with Studio Sutherl&)Category: Not-for-profit Project: TypoCircle Neon I’m An Activist, by NeonCategory: Not-for-profit Project: I'm an Activist for Action for Children Acumin, by NeonCategory: Professional Services Project: Acumin Pearlfisher Seedlip, by PearlfisherCategory: Wine, Beer & Spirits Project: Seedlip Peter and Paul Noiascape, by Peter and PaulCategory: Property Project: Noiascape Sagmeister & Walsh Pins Won't Save The World, by Sagmeister & WalshCategory: Not-for-profit Project: Pins Won't Save the World Salad Halo, by SaladCategory: Pharmaceuticals & Toiletries Project: Halo SB Conquista, by SBCategory: Publishing Project: Conquista SODA SODA rebrand, by SODACategory: Self-Branding Project: SODA rebrand Spy Studio H+J, by Spy StudioCategory: Bars & Restaurants Project: H+J Studio Dumbar NEMO, by Studio DumbarCategory: Education Project: NEMO Science Museum Studio Sutherl& Somos Brasil, by Studio Sutherl&Category: Culture Project: Somos Brasil Supple Studio D.R.A.W., by Supple StudioCategory: Professional Services Project: D.R.A.W. Straightline, by Supple StudioCategory: Not-for-profit Project: Straightline Twine, by Supple StudioCategory: Technology & Telecoms Project: Twine Taxi Studio Carlsberg Export, by Taxi StudioCategory: Wine, Beer & Spirits Project: Carlsberg Export Kobenhavn Collection, by Taxi StudioCategory 1: FMCG Category 2: Wine, Beer & Spirits Project: The København Collection Polo, by Taxi StudioCategory: FMCG Project: POLO rebrand The Allotment Radical, by The AllotmentCategory: Automotive Project: Radical Sportscars The Clearing Wild Cards, by The ClearingCategory: Self-Branding Project: Wild Cards The Neighbourhood Smith’s Dock, by The Neighbourhood Category: Property Project: Smith's Dock The Partners Arte, by The Partners and Lambie-NairnCategory: Entertainment Project: Arte The Butcher The Baker, by The PartnersCategory: Artisan Project: The Butcher The Baker Hello Universe, by The PartnersCategory: Not-for-profit Project: Hello, Universe London Cru, by The PartnersCategory: Wine, Beer & Spirits Project: London Cru winery London Symphony Orchestra, by The PartnersCategory: Culture Project: London Symphony Orchestra #RewritingTheCode, by The PartnersCategory: Not-for-profit Project: #RewritingTheCode Thunderclap Creative Pillars Brewery Russian Doll Campaign, by Thunderclap CreativeCategory: Wine, Beer & Spirits Project: Pillars Brewery Russian Doll campaign True North National Gallery of Ireland, by True NorthCategory: Culture Project: National Gallery of Ireland Buy your Brand Impact Awards tickets now! The Brand Impact Awards ceremony will take place on Wednesday 13 September 2017 at the Ham Yard Hotel in London. Tickets include drinks reception, canapés and bowl food, and of course a chance to toast your success or drown your sorrows at the BIA after party. Earlybird prices (until Friday 21 July): 1 seat: £99 + VAT 5+ seats: 10% discount Buy tickets now! Standard prices: 1 seat: £110 + VAT 5+ seats: 10% discount Good luck to all shortlisted agencies! View the full article

For more on how teams can collaborate better, don't miss Alison Coward, founder of Bracket and author of A Pocket Guide to Effective Workshops, at Generate London next week (20-22 Sept). There are still some tickets available. You probably harbour some resentment towards meetings. Perhaps you've got a plan for getting out of them permanently. Maybe while at university, you built the next killer iApplication and it will reap such monumental rewards you'll never have to sit in a conference room in your entire professional life. Or perhaps after slaving away on award-winning client sites since before you could game Altavista with the phrase "Britney Spears", you're confident that soon royalty checks and speaking gigs should keep you from having to sit in a boring meeting ever again. If you lean towards the latter of these personas, you may resent meetings from extensive experience, watching them destroy productivity. Meetings can be time consuming, costly, and are frequently called for the wrong reasons. Gathering in groups is a deeply rooted part of our psyche that is partly based on fear, going way back to when we proto-humans realised we might fare better against assorted proto-human-eating animals if we worked as a group. Many of the meetings we call today are of this ilk, and therefore can come across feeling more like group therapy than productive discussion. It logically follows that we should eliminate unproductive meetings from our time spent building things. But one cost of doing this is that we lose our collective awareness and agreement on what we are building, and why. Although some refer to this as an illusion of agreement, we have to start with some kind of agreement, and meetings afford us a unique opportunity to drive that illusion closer to a reality. They are the only place we can apply the full range of human communication styles: verbal (spoken word), visual (written words and image), and physical (body language) to a problem as a group. If we don't iterate that shared understanding, flawed though it may be, we guarantee misunderstandings, missed deadlines, and feelings of isolation. At Generate London, Alison Coward will explain how to create good team habits that stick The three flavours of meetings Meetings fall into one of three categories, loosely based on duration: Quick meetings address a simple challenge or level-set group understanding. They can be from five to 20 minutes or so, and require a decision before ending. Business meetings explore a finite problem, and can last one or two hours. They can result in either a decision or further clarification of the problem. Longer, working sessions address complex problems and unknowns in an open collaborative manner. These last from two hours to several days, and are also referred to as workshops. Outcomes include decisions, prototypes, strategic directions, plans, and more. By remembering some basic principles for each meeting type, you can make them more effective and engaging, and even eliminate a few meetings in the process. Quick meetings (30 minutes or less) If you need to make a group decision, there are tools out there to measure consensus on a simple concept without calling a meeting. So before scheduling one, ask yourself if an email thread or using an online survey would be sufficient. If you'd like to allow the team to express their perspectives in person, however, a short meeting with some clear constraints is your best choice. Sticky note activities like the KJ technique help groups establish priorities without devolving into arguments. Have people write their ideas based on a focusing question, rather than speak them aloud, then post them in a shared viewing space. This way, each participant will have a chance to review the group's full range of thought rather than reacting to the last thing that was said. It also levels the playing field between extroverts and introverts. A workshop employing the KJ methodBusiness meetings (1 to 2 hours) At this length meetings are their most problematic. An hour can wreak havoc on a workday, destroying concentration and dividing up productive time periods. When scheduling meetings of this length, consider isolating them to certain parts of the day to minimise damage. Experiment with "no meeting zones:" chunks of time where you eliminate business meetings entirely. When having a meeting like this, for five or more people there should be a designated facilitator. A facilitator leads participants through a meeting process. A good facilitator collaborates with leadership to create the best agenda for the intended results. Facilitators are meeting process ninjas: they make sure everyone has an equal chance to contribute, except themselves. Facilitators shouldn't contribute original ideas to a discussion. If they do, participants that feel their views differ from the facilitator's can accuse the facilitator of engineering the process. For this reason, it's good to select unbiased facilitators. When that isn't possible, the person running that discussion should focus on making sure everyone is heard, and not on their own analysis of the problem. It's also a good idea to have a sense of the business culture of the attendees. Is it a group of doodlers? Let them doodle ideas. Accountants? Focus on the numbers. Align meeting content and activities with the work values at hand. If you can translate the problem into their native language, you'll increase engagement. The workshop Workshops are complex beasts that require a lot of advance planning, a great playbook of activities to draw from, and the alignment of stars and planets to make sure everyone is available. Whether you are building a project plan, a prototype, or even a new company, I suggest keeping the following one thing in mind. When characters on the television show Lost started traveling through time, they introduced the concept of "the constant." "The constant" was something that a character would try to remember, usually the name of a person, to help keep you oriented in time and space. Using "the constant" in a long workshop is a powerful tool. As you move thought the day, it could be something as simple as a single question on the wall, written in large text, where everyone can see it: How will what you are doing right now create the change that we seek? Or it could be an activity: something that all attendees can do cumulatively over the day, any time they have a break: Write down an interface design or usability improvement goal for the next six months on a sticky note every time you hear one you like, and put it on the wall. Having a good constant, whether it's a theme or an activity, helps tie the component parts of a workshop together, giving it a nice arc. Go forth and meet well The next time you are putting together a meeting, try to align the goals of the meeting with one of the three types of meetings described above. Can you come up with a way to make the decision you need to make in 15 minutes, or is an hour discussion a better fit for the problem? Perhaps you should make that kickoff meeting a workshop instead of just spending an hour describing the project to everyone, to increase engagement. Design your meetings well, and they'll be far effective and keeping you out of (unnecessary) ones. At Generate London next week Alison Coward will explore how to run great workshops that improve team culture. The conference will also cover prototyping, user research, UX strategy, performance, web animations, adaptive interfaces, conversational design, and loads more. Reserve your spot today! Related articles: Interview with Alison Coward: How to design teamwork 5 tips for managing your team's time 20 tools to make your team more productive 7 ways to improve teamwork with design View the full article

You're reading Speed Up Your Development With Themify Ultra Theme, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Never before could one decide that they desired a website, then create one with all the bells and whistles in the same afternoon. Well, the Ultra Theme by Themify is here to change all of that. In a matter of minutes, you can setup a fully loaded website, tailor made for your specific needs. Whether you’re creating an online […] View the full article

It’s that time of year again where Tim Cook et al take to the stage in California (this time in the new Steve Jobs Theatre at the Apple Campus 2) to tell us about the new iPhone. We’ve seen two new iPhones announced in recent times, but this year we’ve been treated to three – the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and, most interestingly, the iPhone X (or ‘ten’). Availability and pricing We'll cut to the chase. The iPhone X is available for pre-order from 27th October, with the 64GB version costing a jaw-dropping £999. The 256GB version costs £1,149. The iPhone 8 is available for pre-order on 15th September and costs £699 for the 64GB version. The 8 Plus is available the same date and will set you back a pound less than £800. iPhone X: new design and tech Hit the image to read our sister site TechRadar's hands-on review of the iPhone X So let’s start with the iPhone X, then. Coming 10 years after the original iPhone, the iPhone X is the most radically different iPhone – in terms of design – ever. Gone is the Home button. There’s a very minimal bezel. And there’s a new edge-to-edge 5.8-inch ‘Super Retina Display’. The front and back of the iPhone X are glass – the most durable glass ever, according to Apple – joined together by stainless steel. Spec-wise, the OLED screen looks pretty impressive, with 2,436 x 1,125 dpi resolution at 448 ppi. It’s HDR, and features Apple’s True Tone technology to adapt the screen to your surroundings for viewing comfort. Screen aside, possibly the most interesting thing about the iPhone X is Face ID. The long and short of it is you can now unlock your iPhone with your face. It’s apparently pretty accurate, too – and the company has gone to great lengths to make sure it can’t be fooled by a photo of your good self. Oh, and you can also use it to create talking 3D animal emoji. If you like. The iPhone X is powered by Apple’s A11 Bionic chip – which no doubt enables you to perform super-human feats with your smartphone. It’s splash, water and dust resistant and, even though it’s got a whopping 5.8-inch screen, comes in at a very svelte 5.65 inches (h) x 2.79 (w) x 0.3 (d) and weighs just 174g. Oh, and there’s also wireless charging, thanks to the iPhone adopting the Qi standard. The iPhone X comes in space grey and silver in 64GB and 256GB configurations. iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus TechRadar are at the Apple EventThe iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are much more familiar – with a similar form factor to their predecessors. The difference is there’s a new glass front and back design, with an ‘aerospace grade’ (who cares?) aluminium band. Like with the X, we recommend getting a case. The last glass-backed iPhone was the iPhone 4 – and this writer managed to drop and shatter his on day one. DAY ONE! Of course, glass tech has moved on since then – and like the iPhone X, Apple says the iPhone 8 features the most durable glass ever on a smartphone. The iPhone 8 comes in silver, space gray and gold, and like the iPhone X, in 64GB and 256GB models. Like the iPhone X, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are powerful smartphones, with 4.7- (1334 x 750 pixel at 326dpi) and 5.5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixel at 401ppi) screens respectively. The iPhone 8(s) also feature the same A11 Bionic chip, wireless charging and water resistance as the X. The cameras OK, let’s talk about the stuff you’re really interested in: how can the new iPhones up your Instagram game? Both the iPhone 8/8 Plus and iPhone X feature significantly upgraded cameras. And both feature some neat new portrait tools to make your shots better quality than ever. iPhone X camera Let’s talk about the iPhone X’s front camera first. This is the camera with facial recognition – and Apple is calling it, in true hyberbolic fashion, the TrueDepth Camera. This is the camera that scans your noggin to log you in. It’s also a 7MP snapper with a new Portrait Lighting feature (also found in the rear camera) enabling you to dynamically alter the lighting of your subject’s face as you shoot. So whereas Portrait Mode creates a depth map and separates your subject from the background, Portrait Lighting analyses the lighting on your subject’s face and enables you to flick between presets – not filters – as you shoot. These include Natural Light, which puts your subject’s face in sharp focus against a blurred background; Studio Light, which gives you a clean look with your subject’s face brightly lit; Contour Light – giving you dramatic highlights and lowlights; Stage Light – your subject’s face spotlit against a black background; and Stage Light Mono – like stage but in black-and-white. Turn the smartphone over and you’ll see a vertical 12MP dual-camera setup – like the iPhone 7 and 8 there’s a Wide-angle and Telephoto lens for optical zoom within the Camera app. There’s dual optical image stabilisation here, as well. In terms of video, you can record 4K at 24, 30 or 60fps and 1080p footage at 30 or 60fps. And of course it supports the new Portrait features. There’s also a new Slow Sync flash for better uniformity in low-light, more filters and Apple’s new image signal processor, which detects elements in a scene, such as people, motion and lighting, and promises to optimise your photos according to the subject matter. iPhone 8 / iPhone 8 Plus camera Image courtesy of TechRadar The iPhone 8 doesn’t feature the new Portrait Lighting option – as it doesn’t have a dual camera setup. The 8 Plus does, on the rear camera only. Aside from this, camera specs in the 8 and 8 Plus are pretty much the same as the X as far as we can tell. ARkit: what you need to know During the unveiling of the iPhone 8/Plus and X we saw a demo of some pretty cool AR games. Developers will be able to take advantage of the faster A11 Bionic chip, the three-core GPU and enhanced camera to create some amazing augmented reality experiences. It’s going to be fascinating to see what games devs do with the new power of the iPhone 8 and X – so watch this space. Related articles: The 30 best iPhone apps for designers 9 iPad Pro apps that make the most of Apple Pencil iOS 11 preview for designers: release date, news and specs View the full article

Microsoft fixes 25 critical vulnerabilities including one zero day under attack and one tied to the high-profile BlueBorne attack vector. View the full article

Adobe fixed eight vulnerabilities across three products, Flash Player, RoboHelp for Windows, and ColdFusion, as part of its September Patch Tuesday updates. View the full article

https://blog.cpanel.com/keep-email-abuse-off-your-machines/ … View the full article

http://thehackernews.com/2017/09/blueborne-bluetooth-hacking.html … View the full article

Researchers warned Monday of two remote code execution vulnerabilities in FreeXL that could let an attacker execute code with local user privileges. View the full article

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2017/09/12/why-are-redditors-ripping-images-from-instagram-because-they-can/ … View the full article

Internet sensation and IFX favourite Lois van Baarle, aka Loish, has launched a brand new Kickstarter project. Her new fan-funded book, The Sketchbook of Loish, allows you to delve into her personal sketchbook and see first-hand how she brings her iconic works to life. Check out Loish's new Kickstarter pageLoish has worked as a concept artist and illustrator for the likes of Lego and Coca Cola and her unique designs and self-styled career pathway has proven a major influence on the digital artist community. Loish has worked as a concept artist for global giant, Coca ColaLast time the visual virtuoso launched a book on Kickstarter, she surpassed her target by hundreds of thousands of pounds and has since become one of the most followed artists on social media. Loish revealed via her official Facebook page: “There will be a limited number of signed copies and prints, as well as special prizes and stretch goals. These ran out very fast during my previous campaign!” The campaign goes live today, so if you want to be in for a chance to win any of her exclusives, head over to Kickstarter and get backing her without a moments notice! Related articles: Adobe launches revealing video series by artists Cult YouTube illustrator launches exciting Kickstarter 5 Kickstarter projects worth watching View the full article

Mobile painting app Procreate is quickly becoming the go-to digital sketchpad for both professional and hobbyist designers and artists. That's why we've curated this selection of the best free Procreate brushes – as well as the best premium options – for you to bookmark. Review: Procreate 3.2Winner of the 2013 Apple design award and ImagineFX Editors Choice, Procreate is more than just a quick drawing tool. The iPad app transforms your iPad into a drawing tablet capable of the level of artwork previously only possible on a desktop or expensive graphics tablet dedicated to digital design. There's an unlimited library of brushes available, meaning you can have every style and stoke available at your fingertips. So which ones do you want? Read on for our pick of the best downloadable Procreate brushes to add to your collection… 01. Petra's Procreate Brush Box Vol. 1: Handlettering Price: Free Petra (StudioBurg)’s collection is an essential package, offering a selection of brushes that should suit most basic illustration and graphic design needs. She covers various pen and pencil styles as well as paint brushes, making it easy to pick your desired signature. O2. Ian Bernard's Flat Brushes Price: $5 We all have that favourite brush used time and time again for lettering, and this particular collection is directly inspired by artist Ian Bernard’s old faithful. The brushes are varied from solid to textured to give you plenty of variation for your own work. 03. The Will (Elder) Comic Ink Brush Set Price: Free Perfect for those budding comic illustrators out there. Georg’s tribute to American comic book illustrator Will Elder, who helped launch MAD comics back in the 50’s includes both inking brushes and SFX additions. The perfect addition to any illustrators Procreate repertoire. 04. Pencil and Charcoal Procreate Brushes Price: $6.46 Swiss designer Kim (aka MiksKS) has a whole host of brilliant brushes to offer. Her pencil and charcoal collection make it easy to sketch on the go, with clients or just capture a moment in a coffee shop without wasting paper. 05. Dearest Dotty Price: Free Designer, Missy Meyer has a plethora of free Procreate brushes available on her website that are all brilliant for creating graphic script. The great thing about Dearest Dotty is it’s versatility and the unique retro vibe it helps give off when used for hand lettering. 06. Flora: Vegetation brushes Price: Free Matthew Baldwin’s vegetation brush set makes light work for concept artists. Set the scene instantly and master that painterly effect digitally. Baldwin has captured every style of stroke seen by the concept masters. 07. Lisa Bardot’s Gouache brushes Price: $14.40 Bardot has a few brush packs available on her site but her gouache one is particularly unique. Emulate the classic Disney illustrative magic of Mary Blair digitally, and add depth and personality to your graphic design caricatures. 08. Summit Avenue’s Shimmer and Confetti Price: $16.80 Designing event flyers? Wedding invites? Summit Avenue have got you covered with a set of 12 confetti brushes and 24 foil and glitter textures to add a touch of sparkle to your designs. 09. Procreate Paint Box Price: $14.40 Ben Lew’s paint box has a brilliant selection of brushes, from wet pencil to bristly and his go-to watercolour brush, “gwosh”. Lew has now updated the set with his 4 pastel brushes from his “Pastellesque” set. 10. Nitty Gritty Price: $3.60 Jamie Bartlett’s Nitty Gritty texture brushes are brilliant for adding fine grit texture and an instant ageing effect to your designs. 11. Bistro Marker Price: Free As you can see from her Instagram, Leftyscript’s brushes can create some truly beautiful hand lettering designs that speak for themselves – no further illustration needed! Her bistro marker is a brilliant freebie pen that allows you to capture a hand-written signage type-face perfectly. 12. Vintage Engraving Price: $7.20 Another MilksKS brush set, this one allows you to capture the look of a black and white engraving, adding that extra special touch to your illustrations or design project. Combine a few for a classic crosshatching effect, and pick from a worn-out or clean cut style. 13. Hand Drawn Ornaments Price: $19 Calligraphy artist, Nicole Mauloni’s Hand Drawn Ornaments Procreate Brush Kit includes over 100 brushes to adorn digital calligraphy. Perfect for creating a design stamp with flourishes, shapes and motifs. 14. iPad Lettering Set Price: Free Get back to basics with this freebie set of three essential brushes: original calligraphy, rough edge calligraphy and round edge calligraphy. Sometimes simplicity is beautiful. 15. Rad & Happy Price: Free Rad & Happy founder, Tara, often gets asked what brushes she uses for her designs, the answer? These. And she’s made them downloadable, completely free of charge! Next page: 15 more awesome brushes and brush packs to download to your Procreate app 16. Studio FabianFischer’s Brush 1 Price: $1.19 Fischer created this brush out of a LYRA tip and has edited it into a fully functional, pressure sensitive Procreate brush. Create realistic hand drawn lettering with ease! 17. Thin Ink Price: $3 (AUS) Sasha Hickson, aka Peachface’s ‘Thin Ink’, is a popular brush for making quirky and modern designs. Easily replicate delicate thick and thin strokes and quickly add those feminine flourishes to your designs. 18. Monoline Price: $3 Designer at Hewitt Avenue, Sarah, makes all the brushes she uses for her own designs available to download. Her Monoline brush is a versatile addition to your brush collection and perfect for the newbie letterer. 19. Chalk Letterer Box Price: $12 Forget the dusty hands, Guerilla Craft’s brush set lets you create your chalked masterpieces on the comfort of your own clean, digital iPad. With a selection of wet chalk, smudge chalk, round chalk, flat chalk, gritty chalk and more, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better selection. 20. Dry Marker Price: $15 Everyone loves the effortless scribe of a dry marker and Bec Ralec’s (aka Pixelcolours) collection of add on brushes gives you 15 different marker pens to choose from. Ralec has also kindly included an original calligraphy brush for all your graphic needs! 21. Fat Ink Price: $3.60 Thin ink is great and all, but what about when you need that fat, bold brush to really make your lettering stand out? Sarahtypes has you covered with her super smooth brush, giving you an extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes. 22. Midcentury Illustrators Kit Price: $14.40 Go full-on retro with Lisa Bardot’s latest premium brush kit, designed to help you master that quirky 60s graphic, texture rich commercial design style with ease. 23. Matty B’s Hatch Effects Price: Free Another fantastic free brush pack from MattyB, perfect for the budding or professional illustrator. Lines, dots, scribbles, marks, you name it – it’s in the pack! 24. Lettering Brush Pack Price: $18 Ryan Hamrick’s selection of 14 custom Procreate lettering brushes allows you to produce high-end, professional lettering work on your iPad. A Beautiful selection of his own favourite brushes, there’s little you can’t do with this pack. 25. Nikko’s Brushes Price: Free Well respected Procreate digital artist, Nikolai Lockertsen, has made his own five favourite custom brushes available to download. Just check out his site to see what he had achieved with this small set of tools, it’s nothing short of phenomenal. 26. Blackletter Price: $8 Created by Boston-based calligraphy artist, Jake Rainis; the artist says he’s downloaded almost every set on the market to see what works and what doesn’t in order to produce this, his own extensive brush set. 27. The Parchment Pen Price: $3 This pressure sensitive brush mimics the look of an Eighteenth Century quill, making it perfect for calligraphy but also great for black and grey line drawings. 28. Whiskers Price: Free The Inky Hand’s Whiskers brush is a fantastic little brush, perfect for creating a unique hand-drawn, scratchy effect. Great for rough sketches and adding a touch of originality to your images. 29. Dizzy Tara’s Sketch and Ink Price: $2 A fantastic little package of inky brushes to use while sketching. DizzyTara’s 9 brushes include a variety of shaped ink pens and a board marking brush. 30. Watercolor Brushes Price: $21.60 A very comprehensive set from graphic designer, PicByKate, allowing you to master the watercolour effect in digital format. Unfortunately this collection only works in Procreate 3 and earlier, but the artist is updating it for Procreate 4 soon. Related articles: Review: Procreate 3.2 9 iPad Pro apps that make the most of Apple Pencil 6 best digital art tools of 2017 so far View the full article

You're reading Adobe’s Photoshop Has New Tool for Drawing Curves, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Photoshop is probably the most popular tool when it comes to retouching images or photographs. It’s also a good package for a lot of other tasks. Drawing curves, however, is not a strong point. If you have an Adobe subscription, the latest Photoshop update has a few goodies in the pipeline, including the “curvature pen” […] View the full article

Icons are a critical element of UI design and as important a part of your web project as web fonts, but creating custom icons for each project is rarely practical as it's so time-consuming. On the other hand, finding those hidden treasures in a pool of tens of thousands of free icons also takes time. That's why we've stepped in to help out – we've picked out a great selection of free icons, and hopefully you'll find at least a few sets that you can put to good use in your own projects, whether personal or commercial. 85 brilliant Photoshop tutorials01. 30 isometric icons These isometric beauties aren't just for accountantsThis set of 30 isometric icons has been created with the accounting industry in mind, but there are some fab pieces in there that could easily be turned towards more general use if you're so inclined. 02. iconmonstr You can easily download free icons at iconmonstrThe iconmonstr website is a great place to find black and white vector icons. They’re available in various sizes, and you can download them either in .PNG or .SVG format. 03. Find Icons Find icons at Find Icons - it doesn't get simpler than thatFind Icons helps you track down everything from flat black and white icons to colourful 3D icons. Uncover what you're looking for by searching by colour, background colour and even style. 04. Icon Archive Icon Archive's rating system will help you decide which free icons to downloadAt Icon Archive you'll have to sort the wheat from the chaff to a certain extent, but you are able to sort icons by colour, background colour, size, style and category, and download PNGs in four different sizes. 05. Icon Gallery Icon Gallery is literally a gallery of great free icons. Hence the nameIcon Gallery offers you with a simpler filter option to help you find the icons you're looking for. Icons are available in several sizes to download in .PNG or .ICO. 06. The Noun Project The Noun Project offer free icons devoted to a similar aestheticGaining more and more traction and use, the aim of The Noun Project is to provide free icons that all have a similar and consistent aesthetic. It’s like a 'free icon set' that's been juiced up with a search area, a beautiful UI, and some fantastic icon designs. 100 amazing Adobe Illustrator tutorials07. IconToucan IconToucan enables you to drag, drop, and download whatever free icons you likeThe primary benefit of IconToucan is convenience. The site enables you to quickly view the transparent, PNG icons and then drag and drop them into a drawer on the right side of the page. Appearing underneath is a list of those icons you’ve chosen and with a single click you can download all the free icons you've selected at once in a ZIP archive file. 08. Minicons Minicons provides 210 free icons for web design and wireframes to choose fromMinicons offers a clean set of 210, vector-based free icons with a few hidden gems. You can download all of them in a single click, and they're are free for both personal and commercial use. If you’re feeling frisky, you can open the wallet and pay $59 for the complete package of 1,500 vector icons. 09. Fontello Create your own webfonts of icons with this easy composerThis site lets you create your own free webfonts of icons. You basically select the 'glyphs' of icons you want in your font from a few different (really nice) collections. You can change the pixel sizes, customise the file names, and download your webfont bundle. Everything is generated on through the site and ready for publishing on yours. 10. Socialico Socialico offers a package of 74 free icons for social media useSocial media is everywhere these days, and the number and variety of social-based sites is increasing all the time. Every website designer seems to have the need for some good social media icons, and this collection provides some of the more common ones (Facebook and Twitter) to more niche ones (Dribbble and deviantART). The free icons come as a font, with the icons both in a circle holding shape and without a circle. Next: 10 more free icon sets 11. Modern Pictograms Modern Pictograms comes with a selection of free iconsAn OpenType font for download, this free offering provides an attractive selection of free icons. The designs were created with simplicity and competence from the folks at The Design Office and is available on the popular free fontssite, Font Squirrel. (The icons apparently look good intermingled with Helvetica.) 12. FlatIcon FlatIcon has over 184,000 icons on offerIf you need lots and lots of flat icons, then this project by FreePik will sort you right out, featuring 2,979 icon packs for free, adding up to over 184,000 free icons for both personal and commercial use. 13. Free vector icons: Retro Volume 1 Get retro with this icon set, and don't forget to grab Volume 2This set of 120 vector icons by Vietnamese designer Min Tran presses all the right retro buttons. If you want more you can find Volume 2 right here, and there are plenty more icons to be found on his Dribbble page. 14. Free UXPin icon set UXPin's free icon set is ideal for building UI prototypesUXPin's a collaborative wireframing app that's perfect for building prototypes quickly and easily, and to help out with the process the UXPin team has made this beautiful and diverse suite of over 80 icons, designed for web and mobile UI design, available to use for free. 15. Icons8 Icons8 is a comprehensive collection of 19,700 free flat iconsPromising any icon in any format, size and colour in 20 seconds, Icons8 is a comprehensive collection of 19,700 free flat icons. With categories business, clothing, food and more, Icons8 lets users download icons as both a Mac App or ZIP file. 16. Freepik Freepik's shaded vector icons are perfect for businesses and independent projectsThis vibrant collection of shaded vector icons from graphic resource Freepik is just one of the many sets they've curated. Perfect for businesses and independent projects, these icons are free for both personal and commercial use. Each set can be downloaded in an .AI, .EPS and .SVG format. 17. Iconfinder These black and white icons mix functionality with emotive ideas.Rendered in simple black and white, this set of crisp vector icons mix functionality with emotive ideas. Besides standard icons for security and messaging, such as padlocks and envelopes, this collection from Iconfinder also features hearts and eyes to give your designs that personal touch. 18. Modern UI Icons Over 1000 handcrafted flat icons for Windows, Android or iOSHere's another fantastic free resource if you're looking for modern UI style icons for your Windows, Android or iOS app. Download the pack and you'll get over 1000 handcrafted flat icons including app bar icons for Windows phone. 19. 350 pixel perfect icons These pixel perfect icons are perfect for apps and websitesAn awesome set of 350 pixel perfect icons that are perfect for apps and websites. You can use then for both personal and commercial use and scale them to any size you need. 20. 80 mini icons Need something tiny? These mini icons are small but perfectly formedFeaturing 80 pixel perfect mini icons available in both PSD and Icon Font format. These clean and elegant icons are perfect for any project. Next: another 10 free icon sets 21. Simple and practical web icon vector graphic This is a great mix of eye-catching and useful iconsA variety of extremely useful icons that can be used for both personal and commercial projects. 22. Free flat icons How much more flat could these be? None. None more flat.Fantastic set of flat designed icons that feature icons for calendars, emails, clocks, maps and more. 23. Mono icons This minimal set features 108 unique icon designsA beautiful, minimal set which includes 108 unique icon designs that are available as a PNG at 32x32px that you can customise as you see fit. 24. Metrize icons Here's a free collection of 300 metro-style icons for apps or web projectsHere's fantastic resource for designers and developers - a free collection of 300 metro-style icons that you could use for your apps or web projects. They're all free to use in both personal and commercial projects and the download includes not only the PSD, SVG, ESP and AI but also the web font. 25. Chunky Pika Icon Set Go Dutch with these chunky iconsCheck out this Pika-style vector icons released by the Dutch designers at Dutch Icon. The set includes 42 chunky pixel-perfect icons that you can use for your next personal or client project. 26. 44 Shades of Free Icons 44 minimal icons, no messingNeed some simple icons for your next client project? Here's a set of 44 icons you can use. They're in a PSD format, enabling you to easily edit and adapt them. 27. Token icon set These icons come in all the sizes and in light and dark variantsToken includes 128 unique icon designs, available as an ICO bundling of 16x16px, 32x32px and 256x256px icons, or as a PNG at 128x128px. Each icon has both dark and light variants, and comes along with a PSD which includes the layer styles for each resolution. 28. Flat icons (PSD) Last lot of flat icons not flat enough for you? Try these instead.Colourful flat icon set that you can download in a PSD format, allowing you to change colours and adapt each icon so it integrates perfectly into your new project. Check them out. 29. Free 32px icons set This set includes just about every icon you require on your new siteHere's a complete icon set that includes just about every icon you require on your new site. Starting from Skype, Facebook and Twitter icons to RSS, coffee, like/unlike and many more. 30. 48 flat designer icons Icons don't get any flatter than thisIf you're a fan of minimalism then this icon set might be perfect for you. It consists of 48 free icons for office, social and travel, all supplied in AI and PNG formats, fully scalable and in full colour and monochrome coral. Next: our final six free icon sets 31. Plex icons set Over 100 icons, covering pretty much all your needsThis set includes over 100 icons for calendars, antivirus, clocks, email, Microsoft Office applications, social media networks and more. Check it out! 32. Vectory mini free This set of over 1000 icons is great for when you're designing a new siteVectory is a huge collection of more than 1000 icons created by Icojam, all in PNG format. Great for when you're designing a new site as you can use them freely for both personal and commercial projects. 33. Eldorado mini free So is this little lotYet another large collection of mini icons from Icojam with over 1200 40×40 pixel icons that you can use on your site or on client sites. Free to use for both personal and commercial projects. 34. 2600 Flag Icon Set Never find yourself stuck for the right flag icon ever againThis epic set contains 2,600 flags in several sizes along with 2 variants – flat and glossy. 35. Social icons These monochrome social icons are designed with simplicity in mindFeaturing 150 monochrome social icons designed with simplicity in mind, this set consists of a variety of fully scalable icons provided in AI, EPS, PNG and SVG formats. They are completely free to use in both personal and commercial projects. 36. Free Furry Cushions Social Icons Set Pimp your furry site with these fluffy delightsGot a furry site? Then these furry social media icons will be perfect for your site. Download the six icons for free and use them in your projects without any restrictions. Related articles: 33 stunning iOS app icon designs Create product icons in Illustrator How to create an app icon in Illustrator View the full article

Bluetooth attack vector, dubbed ‘BlueBorne’, leaves billions of smart Bluetooth devices open to attack including Android and Apple phones and millions more Linux-based smart devices. View the full article

Owners of Apple devices rush to update their iPhones and iPads as soon as a new version of iOS is available. You can be ready to launch your apps alongside the update by learning how to develop for Apple's mobile platform with the Complete iOS 11 Developer Course. Grab it now and start building your developer career – plus save an additional 11% when you use the coupon code IOS11 at checkout! Every version of iOS brings new and game-changing features that developers love to put to use. iOS 11 will be no different, and you can ready yourself to make the most of the update by grabbing the Complete iOS 11 Developer Course. In addition to preparing you for the latest version of iOS, you can also brush up the fundamentals of the operating system with the iOS Mastery Bundle, a collection of courses that will lay the foundation for building on Apple's platforms. You can get the Complete iOS 11 Developer Course and iOS Mastery Bundle on sale now for 97% off the retail price. This pre-sale will give you access to the iOS 11 course as soon as it's available, and immediate access to the iOS Mastery Bundle. Plus, you can take another 11% off when you use the coupon code IOS11 at checkout! View the full article

Animation on the web is here to stay. From the subtle movements that help bring our UI design to life, to fully animated Canvas experiences and WebGL experiments that are challenging what we once thought was possible in the browser. While the creativity of devs and the capabilities of browsers are increasing, animation on the web has long been a poor relation to video – something that the motion graphics community has approached with caution for years. Developers have relied on libraries such as GreenSock and Snap.svg to do the heavy lifting in reproducing animation through JavaScript. While these tools have given a lot of flexibility, they can't compare to the precision and subtlety of animation that can be achieved using After Effects' own timeline and easing graphs. From a web perspective, After Effects is very well suited to tweaking and trying out motion before committing it to code. Bodymovin: the magical 'render for web' feature Adobe forgotEnter Bodymovin, a groundbreaking extension for Adobe After Effects that exports animation directly from After Effects to JavaScript to be shown and manipulated in the browser. Created by Hernan Torrisi, Bodymovin removes many of the barriers between animator and developer. At its base level, the plugin acts as the magical 'render for web' feature Adobe forgot. At its most advanced it opens up new possibilities for interactive animation. Bodymovin is a link in the chain of new tools, plugins and systems rising to meet some of these new possibilities. Airbnb's Lottie and Facebook's Keyframes both build on these foundations – and they are finally bringing the most powerful animation tool to the web. Why use Bodymovin? SVG has taken over the internet and brought with it the expectation that everything should be high quality, light and scalable. Bodymovin renders everything in your composition to beautifully crisp SVG that keeps its vector quality at any size. No more compromising to lighten up that GIF or forcing your users to load bloated video files. As well as simplifying the process of exporting your animations, Bodymovin opens up way more potential for developers to get creative with new interactive experiences. Check out CodePen for some of the fantastic ways the extension has been used – from interactive IK rigs to animate-as-you-type interactive text. Everything is rendered to a web-friendly SVG that's both crisp and lightExported animation can be manipulated in the browser like any other element, enabling us to think of animation as an interactive and experimental tool within web design. And now because of Bodymovin, bringing your animations to the web has never been easier. In this tutorial you'll learn how to export an animation from After Effects and create a simple looping animation that responds to the user's click. How to prepare your After Effects files Support for After Effects features has improved greatly over the last year and you can expect to get pretty good results straight out of the box. That being said, your fancy flying 3D layers won't play nice so be aware of the limits before you get started. Before you begin a project – always download the latest version of Bodymovin and check the GitHub page to see which features are currently supported. Don't be too hasty to move onto the fun part… tidy files make a tidy mind. In this case they'll also help take some of the extra work away from the browser and give you silky smooth playback. Firstly, you'll want to make sure that your content is in After Effects shape layers for full vector power. To convert any Illustrator file to shape layers you can simply right-click and choose Create Shapes from Vector Layer. Any layers that aren't shapes at this stage will then be converted into images and they won't be rendered as vectors. Next, have a check through your layers and sublayers; there's a good chance you can simplify the contents of the shape without sacrificing anything. Try to cut down the number of groups, paths and fills to just the bare essentials. Take care with masks Masks are an easy way to slip up at this stage. Be aware that alpha masks will work with the SVG renderer but won't show up should you choose to switch to Canvas. Masks can be expensive in performance so use them efficiently. Rendering Bodymovin works in two parts – an After Effects extension that converts animation data to a JSON file and a Bodymovin.js player to include in your webpage that can interpret this file and render it in the browser. Think your files are good to go? Open up the Bodymovin extension through Window > Extensions and then Bodymovin. Once you hit refresh, you'll see a list of all the compositions in this After Effects project. Select your chosen comp and then pick a destination folder inside of your web project. When you're happy just click render and watch the magic happen. When it's done you'll get a 'finished' message. Congratulations! You've just exported a JSON file with all the information that the player needs to re-create the animation. Check your layers – it could be an unsupported feature or an expression used in After EffectsTo test your newly exported animation, click on Preview > Current Renders and remember to scrub through the timeline as you might spot something that looks a little different to what you'd expect. If you do spot any problems jump back and check your layers – it could be an unsupported feature or an expression used in After Effects. Some After Effects plugins such as Rubberhose now support Bodymovin. Rubberhose makes use of guide layers and hidden layers. To activate these, just click on the settings cog next to your chosen composition and tick the features you need. If everything looks good, there's just one more thing you need to do before you leave After Effects behind. At this stage you should have a fresh data.json file describing your animation, but no Bodymovin player to interpret it. In the extension, click the 'Get the player' button in the top right and save it with your JSON file. Load the animation Now you have everything you need, let's jump straight into the code and lay down the basics to get your animation showing on the page. First make a new container #anim_container to hold your animation. You also need to include the bodymovin.js file before the closing body tag. Next tell Bodymovin everything about your animation and load it into the new container. Let's walk through the setup step by step: You need to define all of the parameters for the animation. Tell Bodymovin the container you want the animation to load into and then tell it to render the animation as SVG elements. Next, tell the animation to play as soon as it's loaded and that you want it to loop back to the start when it's finished. The path property tells the Bodymovin player where to find the JSON data file for the animation. Due to the cross-origin resource sharing policy (CORS), the technique you'll be using for accessing the JSON file will only work if you are on a server or local server. To work locally, you can make that data.json into a JavaScript file that assigns the object to a variable. In that case your setup might look like this: Refresh the page and your animation should be playing inside the container! Select with your dev tools and you'll see that each element in the animation is now contained in <g> tags, and is being transformed in real-time. Looks amazing right? You should now have a beautiful, crisp animation showing in the browser (without a wretched video tag in sight…). The animation will always scale to fit its container, so go ahead and blow it up! Bodymovin has a range of powerful methods for controlling the animation after it has loaded. Calling a method like anim.pause() or anim.setDirection() will enable you to manipulate playback in different ways. Let's look at some examples: anim.setDirection(-1) will play the animation in reverse anim.pause() and anim.play() will start and stop the animation anim.setSpeed(0.5) will play the animation at half speed Add interaction In this next step you'll explore a few of the different ways to add interaction to your animations through JavaScript. In this example we export an After Effects animation with two sections: section A and section B. Section A uses frames from one to 20 (triangle is holding its pogo stick) section B uses frames from 20 to 40 (triangle is jumping up and down on a pogo stick). Now, you want to play section a on a loop then (only after the user clicks) play and loop section B. You can make use of the playSegments property to split animations up in this way. This method will take two arguments – an array with start and end values and a second Boolean – isFrame. Setting this to true will tell the animation to read the start and end values as frames, whereas false will tell it to read these values as time. Adding this tells Bodymovin to pause at the first frame and play just the animation from 0 to 20 frames. As you set up your animation with a loop: true property this will continue to play Section A again and again. Let's set up the whole example. You'll be using two segments of an animation for this example, so you'll create two functions: Way to go! Now your animation will keep looping until the user clicks on it, then it will start the second loop. The only problem now is that a jump like this is very abrupt and it can ruin the smoothness of the animation. An ideal situation is to include a third section to the animation, one that transitions from holding the pogo stick to jumping on it. Now your structure will look something like this: firstLoop – frame 0 to 20 transition – frame 20 to 30 secondLoop – frame 30 to 50 We want your animation to stay in the first loop until it's clicked. At that point you will want to wait for the end of the loop you are currently in and move onto the transition. After the transition is done move to your second loop. This sounds complicated but stay with me! Here's your code in full: On click, you're using a loopComplete listener to wait until you reach the last frame of the loop, then run your transition() function. Here you remove the last listener, play the next set of frames and then do the same again. After the transition is finished it will call secondLoop(). That's it! You've worked with a few of the features of Bodymovin today, but if you're interested in learning more about the plugin, you can find a load of information on the Bodymovin GitHub page. For more examples, check out the ever-impressive Bodymovin CodePen collection. Hopefully this tutorial will have given you an idea of the different kinds of ways that you can combine the use of After Effects and Bodymovin to produce some supercool animation for the web! A separate section for each part of the animationYou can now set up animation to be exported for the web, bring your exported files into the browser and make your animation responsive to click. Think beyond the MP4 files that you were previously utilising and look to Bodymovin for creating much richer web experiences in the future. Being able to involve animators closely in the development process is becoming more and more important, and the field of web animation is moving incredibly fast. With an ever-growing collection of new extensions, plugins and frameworks, animators and developers can expect this process to get easier and better over time. I for one can't wait to see what the future holds. This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 295. Buy it here. Read more: 5 steps for mastering web animation A beginner's guide to designing interface animations Create storyboards for web animations View the full article