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You're reading Best Examples of Websites That Use Slides Framework, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! By now, you’ve probably heard about Slides Framework, an easy-to-use website builder that helps you get a site up and running in no time. If you haven’t tried Slides yet, this dose of visual inspiration might be just the thing for you. All of the websites below are mini-case studies that show exactly what Slides […] View the full article

In the earlier years of my illustration career I shied away from having to illustrate figures, whether realistic or simplistic. It often held me back when it came to commissioned work. So I decided to start from scratch and train myself to illustrate figures that I could fit into the scenes and landscapes I was already illustrating. 100 amazing Adobe Illustrator tutorials This tutorial will take you through the same simple steps I went through, looking at body language, physical proportions and positioning different parts of the body. 01. Start with stick figures It can be helpful to use a photo as an aid at the startLet’s get right back to basics… stick figures! When I first started out, I found it useful to use a photo. You can try this sketching technique using a digital device, drawing directly onto a print-out or using a lightbox. Here I’m going to draw straight into Adobe Illustrator. You want a photo that includes two seats, with a figure in one of them (see my starting photo here). Draw a stick figure over the real person, then using their proportions as a guide, draw another figure in the second seat. Drawing over a photo enables you to learn proportions, while also playing with graphic style. 02. Keep it basic To create graphic characters you always need to take the tidiest, cleanest optionDon’t feel that you need to aim for realistic body shapes and clothing at this point. Limbs could be one or two straight lines, a head could be a perfect circle the torso needn’t be a solid shape, but could instead be just a spine. Play around with how a super-basic skeleton might fit into the scene. If your aim is to get proportions correct, use a horizontal line for the shoulders and across the hips, which the limbs then join on to. 03. Develop your figures A really simple character can still have body language and personalityWe need to start thinking about developing the stick figures into a usable graphic art style. A first simple approach you can simply thicken up the lines (consider the style of figures on street signs). I would add curved caps and corners (using the functions in the Stroke Panel) to keep it nice and smooth. Consider different line thicknesses, arms and legs could be the same thickness, but any torso/spine might be thicker. 04. Experiment with geometric shapes Build up your characters with geometric shapesAnother approach to stylising your stick figures is to build up more forms and shapes on the body. Again, don’t aim for realistic forms, but experiment with straight lines, geometric shapes and simple curves. You could start to build up the body by adding circles for knee and elbow joints, and triangles or semi-circles for feet and hands. In order to train your brains and hand to draw graphic figure shapes naturally, I would repeat steps 01-04 a few times, developing these stick figures into simplistic but stylised figures. 05. Set the scene Your scenery should work with your figure styleMoving away from photo-study exercises and start creating scenes or locations in a graphic illustration style. Your scenery should work with your figure style – my graphic worlds are predominantly a combination of straight lines and geometric shapes. A great Illustrator tip for this is to hold down the Shift key while using the Pen tool; this will only allow you to draw lines at 45-degrees and 90-degrees, ensuring you don’t stray into more realistic/wonky line territory. 06. Add your people Edit elements such as colours to add some varietyNow it’s time to add figures to your illustrated scenes. You can either sketch them on paper before tracing in Illustrator or draw everything digitally. Remember how the proportions and body language worked on the figures you traced from photos. If you’re working in Illustrator, you could even use the same shapes from one figure to the next, noting how the proportions of body parts shift as the body moves into different positions. You can also customise or recolour parts like heads or shoes from one figure to the next to create variety. Simplicity is key in a graphic world! 07. Represent! Note how the proportions and head size vary for the childEnsure you’re drawing a broad spectrum of figures with different ages and sizes. One key trick I work with is to use the same size circle for all heads, even children. Children’s heads may actually be smaller than adults’, but I find the proportions work well, and the figures instantly look like children if the head is a little over-sized (but obviously no bigger than an adult’s). 08. Build in detail Solidify the skeletal lines and add clothing artworkThe final step is to add detail onto your line figures, building up the limb lines, adding a simple shape for a torso and then dressing them with clothing on top. When I was developing my style I started to add a simple curve shape to the calf muscles, or if the leg was clothed I widened the leg outline until it looked more like a trouser leg. Again, we are not aiming for realism, so it’s fine to leave out the neck, or have an impossibly thin joint at the wrist or ankle. 09. Find your style I’m now able to sketch graphic figures into scenes in my sketchbookI now sketch figures within scenes in a sketchbook with a ruler and circle template to hand. This allows me to not only create observational drawings, but also means I have full concepts and scenes ready to be artworked in Illustrator. By basing my figures on real people, studying real life clothing choices and hairstyles, as well as the body language and proportions of different figures, my scenes now have far more style and individuality. 10. Add some personality Props and tonal variety add interestEven a graphic figure, built from geometric shapes, can have a personality. Don’t hold back on colours, gradients or textures. Use tonal differences on skin and clothing to evoke mood lighting, and add props to tell a story and really set the scene. Related articles: How to transform a pencil sketch in Photoshop Create product icons in Illustrator Create a busy city scene in Illustrator View the full article

Ahead of its SIGGRAPH 2017 conference, leader in 3D animation MAXON has today shared details of its Cinema 4D Release 19 (R19). Headline features of the latest release include tools catered towards motion graphics, VFX, VR/AR, general design and all types of visualisation. Debuting at the week-long Los Angeles event, Release 19 promises to offer a "fast, easy, stable and streamlined workflow to meet today's challenges in the content creation markets," Maxon says. It's set to deliver powerful tools and enhancements for both individual artists as well as large studio environments. New tools and developments include MoGraph enhancements, a 360-degree camera for VR, faster rendering and improved export for production formats. "For more than two decades, MAXON has been dedicated to delivering 3D graphics solutions with rock-solid stability, outstanding ease-of-use, a fast workflow, and cross platform capability," says Harald Egel, managing partner at MAXON. "Cinema 4D Release 19 expands on those core values with outstanding new features and a first look at foundations for the future." Users can expect Cinema 4D Release 19 to ship in September 2017. The full breakdown of new tools and enhancements is as follows: Viewport improvements - This provides artists with added support for screen-space reflections and OpenGL depth-of-field in addition to the screen-space ambient occlusion and tessellation features added in R18. Results are said to be so close to final render that client previews can be output using the new native MP4 video support. MoGraph enhancements - Expands on Cinema 4D’s toolset for motion graphics with faster results and added workflow capabilities in Voronoi Fracturing. Break objects progressively, add displaced noise details for improved realism or glue multiple fracture pieces together more quickly for complex shape creation. An all-new Sound Effector - Allows artists to create audio-reactive animations based on multiple frequencies from a single sound file. New spherical camera - Allows artists to render stereoscopic 360-degree virtual reality videos and dome projections. Artists can specify a latitude and longitude range, and render in equirectangular, cubic string, cubic cross or 3x2 cubic format. The new spherical camera also includes stereo rendering with pole smoothing to minimise distortion. New polygon reduction - Works as a generator, so it’s easy to reduce entire hierarchies. The reduction is pre-calculated, so adjusting the reduction strength or desired vertex count is extremely fast. The new Polygon Reduction preserves vertex maps, selection tags and UV coordinates, ensuring textures continue to map properly and providing control over areas where polygon detail is preserved. And more: Level of Detail object - Features a new interface element that lets customers define and manage settings to maximise viewport and render speed, create new types of animations or prepare optimised assets for game workflows. Level of Detail data exports via the FBX 3D file exchange format for use in popular game engines. AMD's Radeon ProRender - This technology is now seamlessly integrated into R19, providing artists a cross-platform GPU rendering solution. Though just the first phase of integration, it provides a useful glimpse into the power ProRender will eventually provide as more features and deeper Cinema 4D integration are added in future releases. Revamped media core - Delivers Cinema 4D R19 users with a completely rewritten software core to increase speed and memory efficiency for image, video and audio formats. Native support for MP4 video without QuickTime delivers advantages to preview renders, incorporate video as textures or motion track footage for a more robust workflow. Export for production formats, such as OpenEXR and DDS, has also been improved. Robust modelling - A new modelling core with improved support for edges and N-gons can be seen in the Align and Reverse Normals commands. More modelling tools and generators will directly use this new core in future versions. BodyPaint 3D - Now uses an OpenGL painting engine, enabling artists painting colour and adding surface details in film, game design and other workflows to see a real-time display of reflections, alpha, bump or normal, and even displacement. This brings improved visual feedback and texture painting. Redevelopment efforts to improve the UV editing toolset in Cinema 4D continue with the first fruits of this work available in R19 for faster and more efficient options to convert point and polygon selections, grow and shrink UV point selects, and more. Related articles: Behind the scenes on Transformers VFX How videogame graphics and movie VFX are converging Experimental VFX videos push limits of 3D animation View the full article

Google’s top Android engineer describes how the attack surface is shrinking on the mobile operating system. View the full article

Breaking the branding mould with a bold, fresh approach can be tricky at the best of times. Throw in a conservative sector, or a market stuck in a rut filled with stereotypes and tried and tested formulae, and that challenge is multiplied. Lazy broad-brush targeting of complex demographics like ‘millennials’ under the guise of innovative design just doesn’t cut it. It takes a combination of a forward-thinking agency and a brave, risk-taking client to find a new approach, and ditch those tired trends. Read on to discover five projects that have torn up the rule book for all the right reasons, and found a new way of attracting consumers’ attention… Book your ticket to the Brand Impact Awards ceremony01. Provoke and tease the audience The Zhuck app jokily provokes users into actionAsk someone to pick a market sector known for dry, corporate stereotypes and predictable uses of colour, language and iconography, and chances are they’ll pick financial services. Banks and building societies have tried hard to shake off that image in recent years, particularly after the global credit crisis dented public trust in even the most established of institutions. Younger, fresher, more off-the-wall campaigns for the likes of First Direct are worthy of mention here. Making life a bit more fun for accountants is surely a worthy causePerhaps the most category-defying example, however, is Zhuck – a project by ELSE, Daljit Singh, Michael Wolff and NB Studio for leading Russian bank Bank24.ru, aimed at disillusioned entrepreneurs, accountants, managers and investors. The word ‘zhuck’ translates directly as 'beetle’, but its local significance is more similar to ‘shark’ – a person who can be aggressive, predatory, cunning and malicious, but also savvy, clever, entrepreneurial and driven. In short, someone you want on your side. The Zhuck app jokes, provokes and even playfully insults the user, cajoling them into action, making ‘doing nothing’ seem like the difficult option. It’s a brave, and totally original approach. 02. Celebrate the brand's past impact Dear World… Yours, Cambridge won two Brand Impact Awards in 2016Winner of Best of Show at the 2016 Brand Impact Awards, Dear World… Yours, Cambridge is a branded campaign for a university with a difference. Like banking, the education sector has plenty of ingrained tropes and techniques. In a climate where students have become consumers, recruitment campaigns often focus on pushing the individual value and desirability of the degree, quoting stats, league tables or employment prospects. Presented with a brief from the University of Cambridge, Johnson Banks took a totally different tack – exploring and celebrating the past, present and future impact that the institution’s notable graduates have had on the world at large, all framed as a series of open letters that begin ‘Dear World’ and end ‘Yours, Cambridge’. Simple but effective thinkingIt’s a wonderfully simple but totally original construct that puts the campaign head and shoulders above the rest of its sector, and establishes the 800-year-old institution as an outward-facing, thought-provoking ideas lab. For even more inspiration, take a look at the Brand Impact Awards 2017 shortlist. 03. Make even mundane products fun Making paper towels mysterious was a nice touchIn an environment driven by impulse purchasing, price wars and bulk buying, the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector is defined primarily by the need for shelf standout, and not an area famed for its innovative branding. It doesn’t get much more disposable than paper towels, but in 2016 Turner Duckworth took on a brief to rebrand much-loved American brand Brawny, with particular focus on its brand character – the Brawny man. The Brawny campaign became playful very quicklyTurner Duckworth reinvented its mascot as a strong, capable giant, tightly cropped with the top half of his head disappearing off the top of the pack to give him an air of mystery. Consumers found the urge to hold the pack in front of their faces to ‘become’ the Brawny giant irresistible, and shared the photos on social media in their droves. When was the last time you tweeted a picture of you holding up a paper towel? 04. Embrace authentic cultures Geometric letterforms reveal 'Tusk'The Partners’ 2015 rebrand for Tusk Trust of the Tusk Conservation Awards, a scheme that initiates community development and environmental programmes across Africa, is a masterclass in truly meaningful collaboration. At the core of the identity is an African-style pattern, subtly constructed from the letterforms T-U-S-K for a satisfying reveal when the word emerges from the background across a variety of touchpoints, from brochures to online. The Partners worked with the people in Enkiito, Kenya, to create bracelets with the brand's patternMany agencies attempt to appropriate the aesthetic of traditional cultures from around the world for their clients – from Mexican to Japanese and everything in between. But the authenticity is often dubious, and they run the risk of cheap pastiche. Not so The Partners, which after extensive research sought out local inspiration from the people of Enkiito, Kenya on the project. They created 50 traditional beaded wristbands in the brand’s signature pattern, which attracted 17.5 million online impressions for their photos. 05. Discard traditional genre imagery Avoiding glamorised images focused consumers on the skincare aspect of the brandA bold departure from traditional ‘beauty’ imagery of immaculate glamour models art directed within an inch of their lives, SomeOne’s rebrand of D.Thomas skincare is underpinned by a striking set of photos, created by imprinting mannequins in flour. With a particular focus on problem skin, D.Thomas specialises in improving first impressions for its customers, and SomeOne set out to represent those impressions visually. SomeOne used mannequins to make these abstract images100 bags of flour were poured into ‘impression tanks’, into which the agency pressed mannequins’ faces, hands and bodies to create brand imagery corresponding to the areas that D.Thomas caters to. With no traditional ‘spa’ images in sight, SomeOne’s rebrand is a radical departure in the beauty sector, and definitely makes an impression. Related articles: 4 vital brand strategy rules How to craft a brand voice The designer’s guide to using colour in branding View the full article

Learning HTML and CSS can feel like a bit of an uphill struggle, especially because there's almost too much information out there. Where do you even start? 10 best HTML5 template designsTo help you out, we've gathered together a selection of resources that will tell you what you need to know, help you when you're stuck, and get you expanding your skills in no time. 01. HTML Cheat Sheet The HTML cheat sheet acts like an A-Z of HTMLThis incredibly helpful HTML cheat sheet includes a full list of all HTML elements, along with descriptions, code examples and live previews. You can organise the tags alphabetically or by category, and even download it as a PDF to refer to later. Read our full post about it: Nail you HTML with this cheat sheet 02. CSS Cheat Sheet Confused by all those elements? Keep track with this cheat sheetIf you're just starting out with CSS, merely remembering all the many tags and technical terms can be hugely intimidating. Don't let that put you off, though; keep this helpful cheat sheet bookmarked, or just print it out, to quickly find the elements you need. 03. CSS-Tricks CSS-Tricks is the brainchild of Chris CoyierWhen it launched in 2007, this site was all about CSS. Now it's expanded quite a bit, but there's still plenty of helpful information and tutorials about CSS and HTML for you to get stuck into. It's definitely worth a visit. 04. CSS Wizardry Learn from CSS wizard Harry RobertsCSS is easy to learn but difficult to master. Harry Roberts' CSS Wizardry has some of the best articles on the nitty-gritty of writing scalable and maintainable CSS, like the BEM methodology and refactoring (which are among the hardest parts). 05. CodePen's Yearly Top Pens This annual CodePen collection is a great way to learn from the bestOne of the best ways to learn HTML/CSS is to dissect cool demos you discover, and CodePen's yearly Top Pens are great for that. The demos range from cool to 'I didn't even know that was possible'. CodePen's integrated UI for diving into the code is also convenient. In a similar vein, you might also like to check out our 8 CodePen features you didn't know about post. 06. Web Design Weekly Keep up to date with the latest CSS and HTML developmentsHTML and CSS are both constantly evolving. To stay up to date with the latest methodologies and features, we recommend this email newsletter. It comes once a week, which is just often enough that you'll actually read it. 07. Responsive Design Weekly Useful responsive tips delivered to your inbox every weekResponsive is a vital part of the web designer's toolkit these days, and to help you keep up to date, Justin Avery spends hours every week curating the best responsive web design content and interviewing industry leaders, and sends it out as a newsletter every Friday (You might also like our post on 10 really useful responsive web design tutorials.) 08. Create non-rectangular layouts with CSS shapes Soueidan's tutorial is clear and packed with examplesSara Soueidan is known for her clear and thorough teaching style. Here she perfectly explains how to use CSS shapes as well as addressing some of the challenges that you might face. It comes with examples to look through on GitHub. A must-read! 09. Jen Simmons Lab Jen Simmons explores new layout possibilities hereIn her experimental layout lab, Jen Simmons presents the latest CSS properties and uses them in practical ways. Take a look to see what's possible if you get creative with CSS. Related articles: How to use an HTML boilerplate What CSS framework should you use? CSS tricks to revolutionise your layouts View the full article

Having an organised digital art portfolio on a single, central website is a great way to promote your work. Many digital artists share their work online in scattershot ways: a few images on ArtStation here, a Facebook post there, a random series on Instagram or Tumblr... These may excite fans and potential clients at time of posting, but a few months down the line, it’s often impossible to find them again. Having a website with your artworks in one place will help people to keep finding you. You can still post elsewhere, but link back to this main portfolio site. And services like Squarespace or Wix make it easy to design your own professional-looking site. If you are considering creating your own portfolio website, here are eight great examples of how to do it right. And even if you’re not thinking of making your own, they’re worth checking out for the fabulous art alone! 01. Jon Foster It’s easy to find what you’re looking for on Foster’s portfolio siteBased in Providence, Rhode Island, Jon Foster is an award-winning sci-fi and fantasy artist. Best known for his covers for DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics, his work has also featured in National Geographic, Teen Wolf and on a number of book jackets. In short, Foster’s website has a lot of ground to cover. So to make it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for, his art is all divided up into different section headings, including book covers, comics, sketches, concept work and digital sculpture. It’s a great example of how to present an extensive body of work in a way that doesn’t feel overwhelming. It encourages visitors to just keep clicking around and discovering more. 02. Nathalia Suellen There’s a classy, sophisticated look to Suellen’s portfolio siteNathália Suellen is an artist and illustrator based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil who combines dark art and pop-surrealism using photography, 3D and digital painting. Symbolism, retro-futurism, classical art and dystopia are all common themes in her art. She presents her unique and original work online within a classy, sophisticated-looking website, which benefits from elegant use of whitespace, refined typography and even a laid-back jazzy soundtrack (which, like her art, subtly veers off into the surreal). As well as a general gallery, pieces are listed by collection, plus there’s a useful range of information for anyone who wants to hire her or buy her prints. 03. Raphael Lacoste Lacoste’s portfolio site offers an array of visual thrillsPreviously the award-winning art director at Ubisoft on titles such as Prince of Persia, art director Raphael Lacoste stepped away from the games industry in 2007 to work as a matte painter and senior concept artist on such feature films as Terminator Salvation and Jupiter Ascending. Two years later, he came back to games, and currently works in Montreal, Quebec, as brand art director on the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Lacoste’s grid-based online gallery showcases his concept art beautifully, and we love how clicking through on individual paintings brings you not just a larger version of the image, but a few friendly words about what it is and how it was put together. There are some choice video tutorials included in the mix, too. 04. Todd Lockwood The modular design of Lockwood’s homepage helps to bring together a diverse set of offerings in a balanced and aesthetically pleasing wayWorking as a digital artist for more than 30 years, Todd Lockwood is probably best known for his artwork for the Dungeons & Dragons table-top games, and the books of R.A. Salvatore. Born and raised in Colorado, he currently lives in Washington State and works as an illustrator and author, specialising in sci-fi and fantasy. Not every artist needs their own logo, but the fact that Todd has given his name a cool typographical treatment is a nice touch, and a sign of attention to detail that emanates throughout the site. Hs extensive portfolio is neatly divided into 10 categories, shown in a dropdown menu that appears when you hover over ‘Galleries’. In general, the cleverness of this site’s layout lies in presenting a diverse range of activities and media without ever feeling cluttered. It’s not often, for example, that an artist will include a drawing video on their homepage. But a two-minute clip of Todd drawing Dragon’s Pavilion slots in effortlessly to this elegantly modular design, encouraging you to say on the site for longer than you anticipated. 05. Loish Loish’s portfolio site is itself beautifully art directedLoish, aka Lois van Baarle, is a Dutch freelance illustrator and animator with a beautifully distinctive style and a penchant for drawing breathless, wide-eyed young women. With clients including Lego, Autodesk and Guerrilla Games, she recently launched her first book, The Art of Loish, which we reviewed. It’s not often you see a digital artist’s portfolio site that’s actually art-directed: most are pretty standard, grid based offerings. But Loish’s site boasts an original and attractive design that both reflects her own style and feels light and contemporary, never overpowering the actual art. It’s great, too, to see Loish sharing not just final versions of original and commissioned work on her site but also roughs, as well as her animation showreels. And the fact she has a cool website certainly hasn’t discouraged people from following Loish on Instagram: she has 863,000 followers there, and more than a million on Facebook. 06. Kate Pfeilschiefter Pfeilschiefter’s portfolio site does a great job of showcasing her creature designsKate Pfeilschiefter is a freelance concept artist and illustrator currently living and working in Redmond, Washington State. She specialises in creature design and visual development, and clients include the likes of Paizo Publishing, Wizards of the Coast, Digital Double and Ember Lab. Other than the ‘About me’ page, her site is purely about the art, and the design is pretty simple. But that still makes it a darn sight more attractive and enjoyable to peruse than just chucking it all on DeviantArt. We like how you can view either the overall portfolio or smaller selections of work under the headings ‘3D’, ‘Painting’ and ‘Sketchbook’. It also links out to a pretty cool blog, showing behind-the-scenes stuff that gives useful extra insight into her work. 07. Noah Bradley Bradley’s portfolio site and store features 4K versions of his artworksBest known for his art for Magic: The Gathering cards, Noah Bradley is a concept artist and illustrator based in Virginia. He’s currently working on his own creation, The Sin of Man, which he describes as “a primal fantasy world, full of sombre mystery, faceless giants, and wandering nomads”. Bradley left social media in early 2015 and “never missed it”, instead using his own website to showcase his work. The top half of his homepage is a Reddit-style, text-heavy rundown of what he’s been up to, including an audio and video course entitled ‘The Art of Freelancing’. Scroll down, and you’re greeted with a gorgeous selection of concept art that will clean take your breath away. Click through to his store to see the grid-style layout pictured above. We like the fact that Bradley makes full use of the browser width to give his work the epic, panoramic framing it deserves on the homepage. And we love that you can click through to a 4K version, which you can zoom in so close on, it feels like your nose is pressed up against it. 08. Calum Alexander Watt Watt makes great use of whitespace in the presentation of his character designsCalum Alexander Watt is a freelance concept artist working for the film, TV and games industries. Based in the UK, his clients include the likes of Creative Assembly/SEGA/Fox, Framestore and Blackrock/Disney Watt does something a little different on his website homepage: he presents his character designs as cutouts on a white background. Although the idea is not exactly earth-shattering, it’s also not something you often see with artist websites. And the way it’s executed is pretty eye-catching and alluring. It’s a shame that this is, essentially, a one-page website: the links are all through to other media, and there aren’t even expanded versions of most of the artworks. But as one-page portfolios go, it’s a very nicely presented example of the genre, with a nicely curated selection of impressive work. View the full article

Whether you're a busy art director or an illustrator working from home, every creative needs some downtime. And there's no better way to both relax and be inspired than jetting off somewhere you've never been before. Whenever we travel to far-flung places, we're attracted to the famous buildings. Much like a photograph, architectural designs record details of specific moments in time. But unlike an photograph, physical structures go on to have a life of their own, becoming a central and functional part of countless people's lives for hundreds, if not thousands, of years after they were built. Here we have picked 27 of the most famous building designs from around the world to inspire you. 01. Lotus Temple The temple welcomes worshippers of all faithsThe Lotus Temple is a Bahá'í House of Worship in New Delhi consisting of 27 structures resembling petals of the lotus flower that open onto a central hall around 40m high. It has nine sides, nine doors, and can accommodate 2,500 people. It's surface is made of white marble from Mount Pentelicus in Greece, the same marble used to build the Parthenon. Since its completion in 1986 it has become one of the most visited buildings in the world, attracting over 100 million people. 02. Cologne Cathedral Germany's most-visited landmarkCologne Cathedral is a High Gothic five-aisled basilica, the construction of which began in 1248 and stopped in 1473, before the building was complete. Work did not resume until the 1800s, and it was finally finished in 1880. Later work follows the original medieval plan faithfully. It is renowned as a Gothic masterpiece and houses many works of art as well as the tombs of 12 archbishops. 27 glorious geometric patterns in design03. Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem The Dome of the Rock is a masterpiece of Islamic architectureA masterpiece of Islamic architecture, the Dome of the Rock is a 7th century building, located in Jerusalem. Built by Caliph Abd al-Malik between 687 and 691, the octagonal plan and the rotunda dome of wood are of Byzantine design. The Persian tiles on the exterior and the marble slabs that decorate the interior were added by Suleiman I in 1561. The oldest extant Islamic monument, the Dome of the Rock has served as a model for architecture and other artistic endeavors for over a millennium. 04. La Pedrera, Barcelona Gaudi's La Pedrera is one of the most imaginative houses in the history of architectureNested among the urban streets of Barcelona are some unusual and beautiful buildings by infamous architect Antoni Gaudi. His unique approach to the Art Nouveau movement generated some of the most creative buildings the world have ever seen. And La Pedrera is no exception. One of the most imaginative houses in the history of architecture, this is more sculpture than building. The façade is a varied and harmonious mass of undulating stone that, along with its forged iron balconies, explores the irregularities of the natural world. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognised this building as World Heritage in 1984. 05. One World Trade Center, New York The One World Trade Center is the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere. Image © One World Trade CenterThe latest addition to New York's skyline, the One World Trade Center, is the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere. Construction began in April 2006 and the final component of the building's spire installed five years later in 2013, making it the fourth tallest skyscraper in the world. The One World Trade Center's design is no coincidence, standing at a symbolic height of 1,776 feet (541m) in a direct nod to the year of the US Declaration of Independence. Designed by David M Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the 104-story glass tower raises from a cube base before transforming from the 20th floor into eight sleek isoceles triangles. Stood adjacent to the city's beautiful 9/11 memorial, the One World Trade Center is a shining beacon for the city. 06. St Paul's Cathedral, London British architect Sir Christopher Wren took 10 years to finalise his designs for St Paul'sLondon's most iconic building, St Paul's Cathedral, was designed by English architect Sir Christopher Wren. Sitting at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, its famous dome is one of the world's largest, measuring nearly 112 metres high. The original church on the site was founded in the year 604AD. Work on the present English Baroque church began in the 17th Century by Christopher Wren as part of a major rebuilding program after the Great Fire of London. Wren started working on St Paul's in 1668, his designs for the cathedral taking a decade to complete and the actual construction taking a further 40 years. St Paul's has played an integral part of London life ever since – as a domineering element in the city's skyline, as a centre for tourism and religious worship, and most recently as a focal point for anticapitalist protests. 07. Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur The Petronas Towers are an iconic landmark in Malaysia's capital city Kuala LumpurStanding at 170 metres above ground, the Petronas Towers are twin skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The buildings, which held the titled of tallest in the world between 1998-2004, are an iconic landmark of the capital city. The distinctive postmodern style was created by architects Cesar Pelli and Achmad Murdijat, engineer Deejay Cerico and designer Dominic Saibo under the consultancy of JC Guinto. 08. The White House, Washington The White House, designed by Irish architect James Hoban, took eight years to construct. Image © Matt WadeIrish architect James Hoban was the man behind the design of the White House. In 1792 Hoban submitted a plan for the presidential mansion and subsequently got the commission to build the White House. Constructed began in 1793 through to completion in 1801. The mansion, which has been home to every US leader since the country's second president John Adams, is made from white-painted Aquia sandstone. 09. Leaning Tower of Pisa Due to restoration work carried out in 2001, the tower currently leans at just under 4 degrees. It is estimated that it will collapse in the next 75-100 years. Image © Alkarex Malin ägerThe Leaning Tower of Pisa is one of the most remarkable architectural structures in Europe. Most famous for its tilt, the tower began to lean during construction after soft ground on one side was unable to properly support the structure's weight. Building work on the tower began in 1173 and went on for over a whopping 300 years. There has been much controversy surrounding the true identity of the architect behind the tower – the design originally attributed to artist Bonnano Pisano but studies have also implicated architect Diotisalvi. 10. The Kaaba, Mecca The Kabba is a most sacred space in IslamThe Kaaba, meaning cube in Arabic, is a square building located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. A most sacred place in Islam, the Kabba is elegantly draped in a silk and cotton veil. Every year millions of Muslims travel to the Kabba for the hajj, an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. The small square building is about 60 feet high and it's walls a metre wide, with it's total size occupying roughly 627 square feet. 11. The Shard, London The Shard is an 87-storey skyscraper, which sits in the heart of LondonAlso referred to as the shard of glass, The Shard is an 87-storey skyscraper, which sits in the heart of London. Construction began in 2009 and was completed three years later in 2012, making it Western Europe's tallest building. Designed by architect Renzo Piano, The Shard is the second tallest free standing structure in the UK. It's exterior boasts 11,000 glass panels – that's equivalent in area to eight football pitches or two-and-a-half Trafalgar Squares. The building was developed to have multiple uses, described on the website as a 'vertical city where people can live, work and relax'. This motto was clearly taken on board by a fox, nicknamed Romeo, that was found on the 72nd floor towards the end of construction. 12. St Basil's Cathedral, Moscow The unique St Basil's Cathedral in Red Square, Moscow was designed by architect Postnik YakolevNo, we haven't included a piece of Disneyland architecture on our list. This garish, candy coloured cathedral is in fact Moscow's most visited tourist attraction. The famous landmark, shaped to resemble the flame of a bonfire rising into the sky, is located just outside the Kremlin gates and marks the geometric centre of the city. Built between 1554 and 1560, the cathedral was erected during the reign of Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible). Little is known about the building's architect Postnik Yakovlev, but he was clearly a fan of onion domes, sharp spikes and polygonal towers. 13. Empire State Building, NYC Construction of the world-famous Empire State building was completed in just one year and 45 daysWe couldn't put together a list of world-famous buildings without including this grand Art Deco skyscraper. Once the tallest building in the world, construction began on the Empire State building on St Patrick's Day 1930 and was completed just 410 days later. The building was designed by William F Lamb of architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon. It was declared by the American Society of Civil Engineers to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World and is known around the world as an icon of New York City. 14. Lloyds Building, London The award-winning Lloyds building was designed by Italian-born architect Richard Rogers. Image © Aurelien GuichardThis futuristic building looks like it belongs in a sci-fi movie rather than Lime Street in London. The award-winning Lloyds building (also known as the Inside-Out building) is an iconic architectural landmark and one of the most recognisable constructions on the London skyline. Architect Richard Rogers was the brains behind the innovative design, which has its services – including water pipes and staircases – on the outside. Built between 1978 and 1986, the building also features 12 exterior lifts, which were the first of their kind in the UK. 15. Colosseum, Rome The Colosseum is the largest Roman amphitheatre ever built. Image © David IliffThis elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of Rome is considered as one of the greatest architectural feats achieved by the Ancient Romans. The stadium was capable of seating 50,000 spectators and used mainly for gladiatorial games. Built from concrete and stone, construction began on the Colosseum began around 72AD and finished in 80AD. The design and shape of the Colosseum has been the inspiration for many modern day stadiums. Today it is one of Rome's most popular tourist attractions, attracting thousands of visitors each year. 16. Taj Mahal, India The Taj Mahal is a white marble mausoleum located in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. Image © Muhammad Mahdi KarimRecognised as 'the jewel of Muslim art in India', the Taj Mahal was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. Often mistaken as a palace, this famous landmark was actually built as a tomb for the Emperor's wife after she died giving birth to their 14th child. The Taj Mahal is regarded as one of the finest examples of Mughal architecture – an amalgamation of Persian, Turkish and Indian styles. Construction on the mausoleum began in 1632 and was completed in 1648. The surrounding buildings and gardens took a further five years to finish. 17. Chrysler Building, NYC The Chrysler building attained the title of world's tallest in building in 1930 for just one year when the Empire State was erected. Image Joris Van RoodenIn the early part of the 20th Century, people everywhere were in a race to build the tallest building. At the time, this gorgeous Art Deco skyscraper was almost outdone by the Bank of Manhattan but its spire (which was constructed in secret) enabled it to take the title of 'tallest building in the world' in 1930. It didn't last long though. Just a year later the Empire State Building was erected. Designed by architect William Van Alen, the skyscraper was commissioned by car manufacturer Walter P Chrysler, hence its name. 18. Sydney Opera House Sydney Opera House is the most famous Australian architectural iconSydney Opera House is widely regarded as one of the greatest architectural works of the 20th century. The innovative design came from architect Jørn Utzon, who was relatively unknown until January 29, 1957 when his entry to the 'International competition for a national opera house at Bennelong Point, Sydney' was announced the winner. The beautiful building comprises of three groups of interlocking shells, which roof two main performance halls and a restaurant. A masterpiece of modern architecture, the opera house has become an iconic symbol of both Sydney and the Australian nation. 19. Space Needle, Seattle 40 years after its construction, the Space Needle remains Seattle's best visitor destination. Image © Jordon KalilichThe futuristic Space Needle in Seattle, Washington was built for the 1962 World's fair. The famous landmark stands at 184m high and 42m wide at its widest point. The design was a collaborative effort between architects Edward E Carlson and John Graham. Not only is the architecture a marvel to look at but the building's impressive design can survive wind velocities of 200mph and can escape serious structural damage during earthquakes of up to 9.1 magnitudes. 20. Hagia Sophia, Istanbul Now a museum, Hagia Sophia is located in Istanbul, TurkeyOnce a church, later a mosque, and now a museum, Hagia Sophia is a architectural masterpiece. A perfect example of Byzantine architecture, Hagia Sophia is located in Instanbul, Turkey. The building was built for the first time by the emperor Constantine the Great (306-337). However, due to many factors, including being burned down in riots and earthquakes, the ancient cathedral has been rebuilt many times since. Despite this, Hagia Sophia is widely recognised as one of the great buildings of the world. And if that wasn't cool enough, the building also features in the opening scenes of the Bond film, Skyfall. 21. Buckingham Palace, London Buckingham Palace is one of London's most popular tourist attractions. Image © David IliffOriginally known as Buckingham House, George III bought the property in 1735 when the mansion was little more than a red brick house. Since then, various architects have worked on the building to make it what it is today, including John Nash, Edmund Blore and Sir Aston Webb. The palace also had to undergo extensive work after being bombed no less than nine times during World War II. However, still very much in operation, it's one of the few working royal palaces remaining in the world today. 22. Fallingwater Frank Lloyd Wright created this unique design for the Kauffman family in 1934. Image © SxenkoDesigned by famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1934, Fallingwater is quite possibly the most famous private residence in the world. But why? Well, the unique design makes it look like the house stretches out over a 30ft waterfall, with no solid ground beneath it. This isn't the case, obviously, but the innovative design captured everyone's attention when it was finalised in 1939. It became famous instantly and is now a natural historic landmark. It's so cool you can even get a Lego version of the architectural masterpiece! 23. Pantheon, Rome Built approximately 2000 years ago, the Pantheon continues to inspire architects all over the worldRome is home to many amazing buildings, and the Pantheon is no exception. And, like the city itself, it was not built in a day. Destroyed twice and rebuilt each time, the building started as a rectangular structure, which, over time, evolved into the gorgeous dome building seen today. An inspiration to architects all over the world over the last 2,000 years, the Pantheon roof remains the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. There is much debate between historians over which emperor and architects were responsible for the Pantheon's design although it is known that this 'Temple of the Gods' was built around 126AD. 24. Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao Architect Frank Gehry developed the unique concept for the museum after winning an architectural competition to design the buildingThe Guggenheim museum Bilbao is one of the most admired works of contemporary architecture. California-based Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry created the unique concept after winning an architectural competition to design the building. Since the museum doors opened in 1997, it has been hailed one of the most important buildings of the 20th century. Now with over a decade of success, the museum has homed over a hundred exhibitions and has welcomed more than 10 million visitors. 25. Flatiron building, New York Chicago architect Daniel Burnham designed the distinctive Flatiron building, which is instantly recognisable in New York's skylineThe eye-catching Flatiron building in Manhattan was designed by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham and built in 1902. The distinctive triangular shape allowed the building to fill the space located at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway. Another of New York's skyscrapers, it was never the tallest but remains one of the most memorable and has been a source of inspiration for artists and architects for over a century now. 26. Villa Savoye, France Villa Savoye was originally built as a country retreat for the Savoye family in 1928Designed by Swiss architects Le Corbusier and his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, Villa Savoye is an early and classic example of the International style – a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and '30s. The property was built in 1928 and, after surviving several demolition plans, was designated as an official French historical monument in 1965. 27. Burj Khalifa, Dubai Don't look down! The world's tallest building in Dubai over 800 metres high. Image © Nicolas LannuzelLast on our list – but by no means the least – is the world's tallest building Burj Khalifa. The mammoth skyscraper and magnificent centerpiece of Downtown Dubai stands at a whopping 828.9 metres high. Construction began on the 160-floor building in 2004 with its doors opening six years later in 2010. The task of creating the world's tallest manmade structure was awarded to the Chicago office of American architectural and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings and Merril LLP. Related articles: The designer's guide to the Golden Ratio Why VR could be a game-changer in the architecture industry 25 logo design tips from the experts View the full article

When you're creating an online advertising campaign you need to consider your target market, your brand image and where you should advertise. The final point is almost the most important: if your advertising appears in the wrong place, your whole campaign and even your brand is likely to suffer. Facebook had to reconsider where it placed its paid adverts back in 2013 following BSkyB and Marks and Spencer suspending massive contracts. As the marketing channels reflected badly on the brand, Facebook was in a position where it could have lost a lot of revenue. For a print campaign, you have all these considerations, plus a factor unique to print: paper. Paper choice is an important part of successful brochure printingWhen placing an order with a brochure printing company they will need to know details about the desired paper quality before they can produce your product. The paper you chose for your brochure can subliminally impact your brand image as much as a poorly thought out campaign, so it's important to make the right decisions. There are two main things to consider before looking further into brochure printing, both which will affect how your brand comes across. 01. Paper density Paper density refers to the thickness of the paper and is measured in GSM (grams per square metre). A higher GSM equates to a thicker paper which may give a more professional look to your campaigns, but it won't be suitable for every task. There are no hard and fast rules for paper density, but some types will be more obviously suitable than others. 35-55 GSM is typically used for newspapers. The paper is thin and so effective for lots of pages which are low cost and don't need to last long. 90 GSM is a typical paper for inner magazine pages. 130-170 GSM is a standard weight for a good quality poster you would expect to last for a while. 170-300 GSM would be suitable for most corporate brochure printing. You might need to compromise GSM slightly if you have a large number of pages to ensure the brochure lays flat and is not excessively bulky 350-400 GSM is thin card, so probably what your business cards are made from. If you chose too low a GSM for your business cards they will be flimsy and may give the wrong impression of your business. 02. Finishes After you've chosen a paper thickness you can consider which finish would be most appropriate for your brochure. Coated paper is treated to give it a glossy or matte finish. A product on coated paper (whether it's matte or glossy) will end up looking more expensive. Posters and photographs can be printed on paper which is only coated on one side. Untreated paper has an unreflective surface suitable for everyday printing. There are several types, each with unique qualities which may make it more or less appropriate for specific tasks. Matt paper can look as expensive and interesting as glossy pages when done properlyIf you're a charity it would be inappropriate to produce brochures which explain your campaigns and call for donations to be coated 250 GSM paper because it will give the wrong impression. Equally a company which is attempting to give a luxurious feel to their marketing might benefit from coated paper brochures. While glossy coated paper tends to look best for brochures, it is more important that the appearance of your product fits with your brand image. What's next? After you've decided on paper weight and finish for your brochure printing, there are other considerations to be made about the design of the brochure itself. Follow our handy guide to brochure design to make sure you get all design considerations just right. Related articles: Brochure design: 11 inspiring examples Illustrator tutorials: amazing ideas to try today! The ultimate guide to designing the best logos View the full article

Adding custom CSS rules to a rendered web page is a great way to test new selectors before committing them to a codebase – and the best way to test selectors in the browser is with a set of Chrome extensions. Testing selectors in the browser is advantageous because it offers you an immediate look into whether or not your new selector has adequate specificity, how it will affect other elements in the document flow, and how it looks in the live context of the page. But most of all, testing CSS in the browser is a fast way to prototype and share new design ideas. 10 really useful responsive web design tutorialsTogether, the three free Chrome plugins below give us a fast and tangible workflow for making quick preview screenshots of CSS changes to a page. We can test and preview colour changes, new typefaces, and adjust line and paragraph spacing before we actually modify the website. 01. User CSS Inject new CSS into a page that’s already rendered [click the icon in the top-right to enlarge the image]UserCSS gives us a window for adding new CSS rules to a page that has already been rendered by the browser. The chief advantage to User CSS over the default DevTools is that our CSS can be stored in a style sheet and is persistent between refreshes. Additionally, the plugin has a toggle button, making A/B screenshots a breeze. 02. Window Resizer Set your browser window to a precise width and height [click the icon in the top-right to enlarge the image]Window Resizer gives us presets that precisely set the browser window dimensions. It's helpful for making screenshots for slideshows and product screens, and for maintaining consistent sizes across many screenshots. It's also incredibly invaluable if you want to make screenshots of responsive designs. 03. Full Page Screen Capture Capture CSS changes and save as an image [click the icon in the top-right to enlarge the image]Full Page Screen Capture makes a full-page PNG screen capture of a webpage, from header to footer. It’s very simple to use: click the capture button and the plugin will generate a PNG image and open it in a new window. While you're here, check out these related articles: An introduction to frontend testing – When and how to use different frontend code testing options 10 best pieces of user testing software 10 steps to making an engaging user experience View the full article

Hold on to your popcorn buckets, it looks like going to the movies could be taking a turn for the dystopian. That's because the team at Disney Research has been working on a neural network designed to study audiences as they watch a movie. Capable of tracking and responding to facial reactions like smiles and laughter, this powerful tool is intended to analyse whether or not a film is working as intended. In fact, the network has already been used across 150 screenings of recent Disney releases such as The Jungle Book and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Test audiences have of course been a longstanding part of the filmmaking process to help refine story details before mass release. But we feel uneasy about the the uncanny telescreen (the omnipresent TV/security cameras in Orwell's 1984) nature of this network. Just who is the audience in this scenario? Fool our robot overlords by keeping a passive face at all timesOn top of reading the faces of the audience and generating millions of points of data, this network can also predict how people are going to react once it's monitored them for just a few minutes. It remains to be seen if this tool will be used on general audiences, but Disney isn't the only one taking a look at the big data audiences can provide. Other companies such as Snapchat have been monitoring performances to shape the way they produce content. And we dread to think how this could be picked up by Google Glass-style devices, should they ever take off. Related articles: This AI's inspirational posters are hilarious Should designers be worried about AI? Fix your photos with ease with new AI-powered app View the full article

Do-nothing days sound great to us (click the icon in the top-right to enlarge this image)There's a commonly held belief among imaginative types that creativity is like a muscle: to build up its strength, you need to exercise your creativity regularly. But, similarly, you need to go easy and let it recover from time to time. The balancing act between creative action and recovery is best thought of as a cycle, according to illustrator and comic artist Emily Cheeseman. To get the message across, Cheeseman drew the different phases of creative momentum in the chart above. With 'action' including output and high energy production, and 'recovery' covering research, rest and idea generation, this cycle is a valuable reminder that creativity isn't a constant state of work and results. "Let your brain rest! Obviously creators don't always have the luxury of waiting for inspiration before working, but if you learn to recognize when your brain is in Production Mode you can take advantage while it lasts," Cheeseman wrote on Twitter. Click the expand icon on the image of the cycle above to see it full size, and remember to keep the two states in balance to avoid creative burnout. Related articles: 20 tools to make your team more productive 22 ways to boost your productivity 5 top tips for creating a productive workspace View the full article

Think you’ve been paying attention to the design world over the last seven days? Then have a crack at our weekly news quiz… Related articles:Quiz: What typeface are you? IBM reveals new design division logo Thor Ragnarok poster shows designers how it's done View the full article

The best manga art is colourful and expressive, so here I'll explain how I work with colour and form to make my manga art characters shine. I'll also go through the basic rendering techniques I use in my manga illustrations. In this tutorial I used two custom Photoshop brushes: a square brush (which I use to sharpen the edges of solid forms) and a render brush (which helps me draw and render without having to switch brushes). You can download them for free here. 01. Start off by being messy Click the icon in the top-right to enlarge the image Here’s the preliminary gesture for the final image. At this stage you can be as gestural as you want – go ahead and be messy, use construction lines and energetic lines until you find the pose that you’re looking for. Sometimes you’ll find new and interesting ways of constructing a scene through these unplanned lines. 02. Include anatomical details Click the icon in the top-right to enlarge the image I always draw plenty of anatomical details during the initial sketch stage. Even though they’ll probably fade away during the rendering stages, such subtle details will still leave an impression. For example, most of the lines in the character’s back in my initial sketch are rendered out in the final design, but the impression of underlying musculature remains. Accurate, low-key anatomy will set your manga art apart from the crowd. 03. Summon the Photoshop gods! Click the icon in the top-right to enlarge the image I want the background to pop and feel real, even though it’ll eventually have a two-dimensional, stylised look. So I begin messing with Photoshop’s blending options, filters and inverted controls. While doing this, I never know where it’s going to end up. Experiment with different layer effects until something magical happens. 04. Explore videogame influences Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image With all the colours laid out, it's time to start transforming my manga art character's features and adding details. This character needed to have a Jet Set Radio-like underlying theme. So I render out the face with similarities from the game’s unique style while trying to maintain a manga likeness at the same time. 05. Add highlights Click the icon in the top-right to enlarge the image For my final highlights pass, I use a separate Overlay or Color Dodge layer and draw out a thick highlight with Transparency turned on. Then I use an eraser to create the highlight shape. This is similar to masking but a little more intuitive, and because it’s on a separate layer you can adjust the colour with the Hue slider. 06. Colour your highlights Click the icon in the top-right to enlarge the image It’s important to separate lights by colour. Here, the red circles are the primary warm highlights – notice how these highlights are almost purely white. The blue circles are areas that take on the yellow light from the background. This helps the viewer easily distinguish between the different lights being used (essentially, it’s directional light versus rim light). I use a Darken layer for this process. 07. Use colour gradients Click the icon in the top-right to enlarge the image For my background I've used a smooth transition of colour, despite there being contrasting elements, such as the buildings against the clouds. In everything you paint, you should be looking for ways to implement colour gradients. Think of the whole image as one big abstraction of colour, and then find ways to bring certain areas of colour together. 08. Make it glow Click the icon in the top-right to enlarge the image Of course, with every splash of colour you need an element of glow. Using an Exclusion layer, I remove the green channel so I can have a green knockout glow effect behind the character. This helps lift the main character off the background and make her pop off the page. 09. Check your tones Click the icon in the top-right to enlarge the image At this point I need to check the tones within the composition to make sure that I haven’t pushed the contrast too far. I strongly believe you should be constantly toggling between colour and greyscale views throughout the entire painting process. To do this, select 'View > Proof Setup > Custom…' and apply the settings that are shown above. Now every time you press Y you can see your work-in-progress as a greyscale image. 10. Refine details Click the icon in the top-right to enlarge the image Although I’m keeping this illustration pretty simple, it never hurts to carry on detailing (at least, up to a point). I prefer to detail using highlights. 11. Correct uneven tones Click the icon in the top-right to enlarge the image To connect the character to the background’s overall palette, I change her shirt to a deep orange. Even though it’s tonally correct, her shirt was blending with the background clouds too much. It’s never too late to make these kinds of adjustments. Don’t settle for what you’ve painted until your eyes agree with the overall image! 12. Show your reasoning Click the icon in the top-right to enlarge the image I realise I need to justify why there’s rim light on the character. Art doesn’t always need to make sense, but in this case the colourful environment means I definitely need to show the cause behind the effect. What better way to do this than by painting, a giant stylised sun to match the rest of the background? This article originally featured in Imagine FX issue 149. Buy it here! Read more: Draw a bad-ass geisha Draw a figure in under five minutes How to draw a face View the full article

You’ve been eyeing up the iPad Pro since the day it was first introduced. Today could be your lucky day, as we’re giving away an iPad Pro to one lucky reader. Enter our iPad Pro Giveaway to get yourself in the running to win! The iPad Pro is one of Apple's finest feats of technology and engineering. The thin and lightweight tablet is easy to take anywhere, but Apple has still managed to pack the device with unmatched power. With its 64-bit desktop-class architecture and 10X Fusion chip, it’s ready for the future of computing with the processing speed of most desktop computers. It's the perfect tool for any creative on the go. The iPad Pro 10.5-inch retails for $649/£619, but you can enter for your chance to win one for free! All you have to do is enter the iPad Pro Giveaway by signing up and clicking the “Enter Now” button. It’s as easy as that! View the full article

MedSec CEO Justine Bone said shorting companies to profit off discovered vulnerabilities is a viable business model for the security community. View the full article

We've selected our top free tools and apps for making infographics, with some of the options here even suitable for non-designers, as templates and other features make them easy to use. The best infographics transform complex information and data into graphics that are both easy to grasp and visually appealing. The only problem is, infographics that look like they were simple to make are often anything but. Creating beautiful and instantly understandable infographics in Photoshop is often beyond the limits that time allows, which is why it's occasionally useful to use a quick and easy infographics or data visualisation app to speed up the process. Give these free tools a try and let us know which ones you get on best with on Facebook or Twitter. The 100 best infographics01. Canva Infographic Maker Canva's drag-and-drop interface is perfect for making infographicsCanva's a powerful and easy-to-use online tool that's suitable for all manner of design tasks, from brochures to presentations and much more besides, with a vast library of images, icons, fonts and features to choose from. And it features a dedicated infographic maker that you can use for free, with hundreds of free design elements and fonts at your fingertips, and many more premium elements that you can buy for up to $1. You can either use it in the browser or download the Canva iPad app to design on the move. 02. Vizualize This generator could be the start of how ‪résumé‬s will be portrayed in the futureAfter the success of our post on an infographic ‪resume‬, it was only a matter of time before this infographic ‪resume generator turned up. You can visualise your resume in one click and also take a look at previous examples. Enabling people to express their professional accomplishments in a simple yet compelling personal visualisation, we think this is the start of something big. 03. Google Charts Display real live data with Google ChartsGoogle's chart tools are powerful, simple to use, and free. You can choose from a variety of charts and configure an extensive set of options to perfectly match the look and feel of your website. By connecting your data in real time, Google Charts is the perfect infographic generator for your website. 04. Easel.ly Easel.ly offers a dozen free templates to start you offThis free web-based infographic tool offers you a dozen free templates to start you off, which are easily customisable. You get access to a library of things like arrows, shapes and connector lines, and you can customise the text with a range of fonts, colours, text styles and sizes. The tool also lets you upload your own graphics and position them with one touch. 05. Piktochart Piktochart is an infographic and presentation tool enabling you to turn boring data into engaging infographics with just a few clicks. Piktochart's custom editor lets you do things like modify colour schemes and fonts, insert pre-loaded graphics and upload basic shapes and images. Its grid-lined templates also make it easy to align graphical elements and resize images proportionally. There's a free version offering three basic themes, a lite pricing plan for $15 per month or a pro account that costs $29 per month. 06. Infogr.am Customising the data that makes up the infographic takes place in an Excel-style spreadsheetInfogr.am is a great free tool with a wide variety of graphs, charts and maps as well as the ability to upload pictures and videos to create cool infographics. Customising the data that makes up the infographic takes place in an Excel-style spreadsheet and can easily be edited, watching the software automatically change the look of the infographic to perfectly represent your data. When you're happy with your infographic you can publish it to the Infogram website for all to enjoy and even embed it in to your own website or share it via social media. 07. Photo Infographic Gen Lite Build infographics based on your photo-taking habitsThis one's a bit niche, but if you take a lot of photos with your Android phone it's worth checking out. Photo Infographic Gen Lite takes the EXIF data attached to your photos and builds nice-looking infographics from it. It's got a great interface, and the paid-for version (which comes without ads) only costs $0.99/£0.64. 08. Venngage Looking for an easy-to-use tool? Venngage is your best bet!Venngage is a great tool for creating and publishing infographics because it's so simple and easy to use. You can choose from templates, themes, and hundreds of charts and icons as well as uploading your own images and backgrounds, or adapt a theme to suit your brand. You can animate them too! Related articles: Pro tips for creating interactive infographics The 100 best infographics 15 free resume templates View the full article

It's annoying for website users to click on a link only to find that the web page isn't of interest, wasting their time. Using a picture in the page background is a great way to give users an indication of what to expect from a link before committing to loading the page. You can see a great example of this technique in use on the Ivan Aivazvsky life site. Using the page background can also help dyslexic readers or those who speak English as an additional language. In these cases you can communicate additional information to the user without overloading them with too much text. 10 steps to creating an engaging user experienceAs with any effect that combines text with background images, make sure that your text remains readable at all times. This can be achieved by placing a semi-transparent colour on your navigation links. Also consider UX readability for issues such as colour blindness that affect how users are able to interpret coloured text. Here's we'll show you how to create an interactive navigation display with useful and accessible visual cues. Download the files for this tutorial here. The Ivan Aivazvsky life site changes the background images as you hover over links (click the image to go to the website) 01. Create the HTML document Create the main HTML document template, which consists of the HTML container storing the head and body section. The head section stores description information such as the document title, as well as links to external resources – ie CSS and JavaScript. The body stores the document content. A significant feature of the body is the 'data-theme' attribute it has applied – to be modified by JavaScript to trigger CSS presentation changes. 02. Add navigation HTML The page content consists of a navigation container containing links. The navigation's ID and the titles of the child links will be used by JavaScript to listen for interactions and alter the 'data-theme' attribute defined as part of the body container. 03. Initiate the CSS file The HTML content is now complete, so create a new file called 'styles.css'. This file stores the CSS formatting rules that control the visual presentation. Start this file with rules to present the HTML document and its body to appear across the full screen using a white background and black text. 04. Set rules for visuals An important component for the effect is the use of the 'data-theme' attribute applied to the document body. A rule is set to define the data's default behaviour – which we'll use for background positioning and change transitioning. This avoids the need to repeat these rule definitions for each individual theme, which makes your web pages easier to maintain. 05. Design the theme The design of each theme is set using the value of the data-theme attribute. To achieve the desired effect, we are setting a different background image for each version of the theme. The previous step takes care of all of the default settings that these themes will inherit. 06. Add a navigation container The navigation container is used to make sure that links are presented with a consistent width placed in the middle of the screen. A width of 50% and auto calculation used for horizontal margining is applied. This approach provides a guarantee of consistency regardless of the user's screen resolution/size. 07. Style navigation links The links inside the navigation container are to be displayed as blocks set to adapt to the width of the container. This means that their 100% width is defined by the container's width. Padding, borders and background colouring are also applied to make sure that they stand out from the background images. 08. Link event listeners The CSS is now complete, so create a new file called 'code.js' for the JavaScript. The effect requires each link inside the navigation to listen and react to a mouseover event where the user hovers over a link. This listener applies the 'title' value of the link to the data-theme attribute of the document body – hence triggering styles in the CSS. After the page window had loaded, the navigation link nodes are placed into an array, upon which a for loop is used to apply the event listener. This article originally appeared in Web Designer issue 262. Buy it here! Related articles: 10 website navigation trends for 2017 10 steps to creating an engaging user experience Léonie Watson on why accessibility must be an integral part of the web design processes View the full article

Websites are a company’s main calling card – and for none more so than for creative agencies, which use them both to tell potential clients about their style and values, and to showcase exactly what they can do. Of course, you can go too far down the latter road: feature too many flashy digital tricks and you risk making it difficult for people to find the information they’re looking for. These agency websites, all new or newly redesigned for 2017, manage to strike the right balance between showing that they can innovate to provide original work and remaining accessible to potential customers – which is surely what every potential client will be looking for. 01. Johnson Banks Johnson Banks’ new site overturns the rules on scrollingFounded by Michael Johnson in 1992, Johnson Banks is a relatively small London agency that nevertheless has garnered some huge clients and a stellar reputation. Specialising in visual identity and branding systems, and with a strong focus on the non-profit and charity sectors, it states that “We don’t just help brands change. We help them change the world.” In April, it also changed the rules of how an agency website functions, with a new site created in collaboration with Bong International. The two things that hit you immediately are the eye-wateringly colourful design – which carefully straddles the line between stylish and gaudy – and the defiantly experimental scrolling system. Pull the scrollbar down and the projects scroll across the screen rather than downwards. This seems to break one of the fundamental rules of usability: stick to what people know. But somehow, it’s so intuitive in use that it’s surprisingly delightful rather than annoying. 02. Ustwo The kaleidoscopic colours of Ustwo’s new site pop like there’s no tomorrowUstwo is a global digital product studio with branches in New York, Malmö, London and Sydney. Like Johnson Banks, it made our 2016 list of the 30 best design studios, and for good reason. Founded by two best friends in 2004, the agency continues to bring a real sense of creativity and originality to its mobile games, apps and websites. This May saw Ustwo launch a striking new website design, dominated by kaleidoscopic colours that seem to pop out of the screen. That mild sense of craziness, though, is balanced by a calming and measured use of whitespace, while extra interest is provided by cleverly positioned videos and oh-so-subtle use of transitions and animations. A great showcase, then, for what Ustwo does best: creating fun, functional and attractive digital experiences. 03. Ueno Ueno’s new site benefits from some subtle splashes of dry comedyFounded in 2014, Ueno describes itself as a “full-service, all-singing, all-dancing, flame-haired, fun-loving, not-quite-bohemian agency, busy designing and building beautiful digital products, brands, and experiences.” With offices in San Francisco, New York, LA and Reykjavík, its clients include Airbnb, Medium, Lonely Planet, Google, Reuters and Dropbox. What we love about its new website, launched this month, is its tongue-in-cheek sense of fun. So when the homepage loads, rather than a spectacular loading animation, we get a bathetic slice of text stating, drily, “Hi I’m preloader”. Then once you’ve scrolled down the first page, the footer is dominated by a series of ‘Meet the Team’ videos, where the staff are attacked by balloons, tennis balls and more, again with a cool sense of understated irony. Sensibly, the site avoids going overboard with these quirky bits of comedy, and the presentation of the client work itself is beautifully composed, with some lovely flurries of subtle movement that you only catch out of the corner of your eye, and which are all the more effective for it. 04. Herman-Sheer Herman-Scheer’s new website is invitingly informalFounded in 2010, Herman-Scheer is a creative agency based in LA, specialising in branding, website design, video production and digital marketing. Or, in its own words, “a galvanized group of strategists, designers, developers, and writers with a contagious case of fire under the ass”. This is clearly not a group of people, then, who communicate in an overly formal manner. And this casual style of talking like real people rather than business robots comes across clearly in its new website, launched in May. For instance, the background video when you visit the homepage presents a series of real, relatable people rather than the airbrushed models you might expect. Also when you click on the ‘chat’ button out of office hours, you get a photo and message that sounds like it was written by a real person, not an automated chatbot... hurrah! Want to become a client? Click through and you’re greeted with, “Let’s talk – who are you and how should we help?” Want a job? Their message is: “Hey, we should meet.” Getting the right brand voice in your microcopy can really boost conversion rates, and it looks like Herman-Scheer is doing everything right on that score here. 05. Random Studio Random’s new website is thrillingly arty without being offputtingRandom is an experience design studio based in Amsterdam with clients including Chanel, Tommy Hilfiger and Nike. Its staff are comprised of visual artists, strategists and engineers who constantly blur the boundaries between art, design and technology in new and interesting ways. When you’re pushing at boundaries like this, you don’t want the design of your website to look dull. At the same time, you don’t want to move so far from convention that people find it difficult to use. With it new website, launched this month, Random has managed to strike the perfect balance. The layout of projects is arty and contemporary, with generous use of whitespace providing a beautiful sense of flow, while the friendly typography and carefully sparing use of video make scrolling and clicking through to individual projects both alluring and addictive. 06. Norgram Studio Norgram uses a horizontal scrolling calendar to showcase what it has been up toNorgram is a two-person Danish design studio consisting of award-winning design directors Sebastian Gram and Mathias Høst Normark. Founded in 2016, the duo are firmly focused on design collaborations and in progressing the next generation of digital brands and experiences. And their new website, launched in 2017, is also pretty innovative in its own right. Design agency websites normally divide all the things they’ve been doing into different categories, so you have to click through a number of different sections to find out everything they've been up to. Norgram does away with all of that, and brings everything the agency has been up to, day by day, using a visual, horizontally scrolling calendar. It’s beautifully put together, both in terms of aesthetics and its functionality. And it’s a device that would work well for any new agency with a range of diverse activities to talk about. 07. P22 P22’s site goes from monochrome minimalism to colourful excitement in a surprising wayP22 is a product studio focusing on early-stage ideas. Founded in 2016, and with team members in New York, Sydney and Auckland, New Zealand, it produces its own innovative in-house ventures as well as working alongside other teams on theirs. The way P22 Studios showcases its projects online is pretty innovative. At first glance, it’s all cool monochrome minimalism, with funky fonts and acres of laid-back whitespace. Hover over any of the projects, though, and you get an immediate, colourful full page-takeover of what’s to come when you click through. In short, it’s not quite like anything we’ve seen before, and the effect is pretty darned cool. 08. Bukwild Bukwild’s site uses clever visual tricks to convey a number of complex messages in a laid-back wayA digital creative agency founded in 2001 and based in Sacramento, California, Bukwild is another business that avoids business jargon and marketing speak like the plague. Its ‘About Me’ page, for instance, begins: “We talk to you like we talk to our friends. We tell the truth. No bullshit.” And that’s a spirit that continues throughout its new site, which was launched this April. There are also some pretty jazzy transitions, web animations and little videos as you wander around the site. But it’s not about clever technology as such – more the clever and artful use of those technologies. We love, for example, the way that line drawings of simple geometric shapes have been used as an organising design feature. This helps to make what is a potentially confusing mass of information and different services into a logical, aesthetically pleasing whole. 09. WONDR.io WONDR.io’s cinema-style graphics and video deliver the wonder its name suggestsWONDR.io is a digital architecture and creative agency based in Dublin, Ireland. Founded by Dermot O'Shea and Sébastien Sicot in 2014, it launched a new website in March that feels more like a trailer for a blockbuster movie than a design agency. If you want to see how far you can take cinema-quality graphics and video in the presentation of your work, then you need to head here (preferably on a high-powered desktop computer), and turn on the sound. Admittedly, it’s a little disappointing that when you click through to individual projects, there are no case studies, just the websites themselves. But we’ll forgive the agency this once, because sometimes it’s just nice to see people push the boat out with something quite mesmerising and different. 10. Team Arnold Creative collective Team Arnold’s new site evokes a sense of fun and approachabilityTeam Arnold has ‘Team’ in its name for a reason. Rather than work within a traditional big company bureaucracy, Hamburg-based leader Melanie Arnold instead runs a global collective of freelance creatives, planners, consultants and producers. The idea is that this structure offers a greater degree of flexibility to create the right team for each client. And Team Arnold’s new website, launched in May, does a lot to convey the appropriate sense of approachability and friendliness. The cartoon figures and comic-style typography, the low-fi bursts of animation, the on-trend arty layout and the relaxed use of whitespace all suggest these are the kind of people that any hip young brand would want to work with. Not to mention the many other brands who’d like to be seen as a bit younger and hipper themselves. View the full article

Abuse of the Docker API allows remote code execution on targeted system, which enables hackers to escalate and persists thanks to novel attacks called Host Rebinding Attack and Shadow Containers. View the full article

Introduction In my recent research, I investigated six open-source libraries for previously undiscovered vulnerabilities. I was surprised how I could uncover vulnerabilities in most of them. The vulnerabilities result in a DoS (Denial of Service) as worst impact and are rated “Moderately Critical”. This write-up provides a closer look at each of the vulnerabilities. libarchive “lha_read_file_header_1()” Out-Of-Bounds Memory Access Denial of Service Vulnerability [CVE-2017-5601] Summary The vulnerability is caused due to an error in the “lha_read_file_header_1()” function (archive_read_support_format_lha.c), which can be exploited by malicious people to trigger an out-of-bounds read memory access via a specially crafted archive file. The vulnerability is confirmed in version 3.2.2 and has been fixed in version 3.3.1 [1]. Technical Details The root cause of the problem resides in the way how LHA external sections of the input files are processed by the library. With a specially crafted archive file this can end up in the “lha->compsize” variable being wrongly set to a negative value. Let us successively track the computing of the value during processing a PoC file: lha->compsize = archive_le32dec(p + H1_COMP_SIZE_OFFSET); // lha->compsize is set directly from the input file, so we can easily set it to e.g. 4197884248 … lha->compsize = archive_le64dec(extdheader); // lha->compsize is recalculated to 48 … lha->compsize -= extdsize - 2; // since extdsize is bigger than lha->compsize, lha->compsize becomes a negative value; -86 in our case This value is then propagated to the “lzh_br_fillup()” function as “strm->avail_in” variable. Because the function expects the value to be a positive number, this ends up with looping until one of the dereferences triggers an out-of-bounds read memory access: for (;;) { const int x = n >> 3; if (strm->avail_in >= x) { switch (x) { … if (strm->avail_in == 0) { /* There is not enough compressed data to fill up the cache buffer. */ return (0); } br->cache_buffer = (br->cache_buffer << 8) | *strm->next_in++; // * crash *// strm->avail_in--; The fix [2] is a test to make sure that after all the calculations the “lha->compsize” value remains positive. If otherwise, the file is considered invalid. LibRAW “parse_tiff_ifd()” Memory Corruption Vulnerability [CVE-2017-6886] Summary The vulnerability is caused due to an error in the “parse_tiff_ifd()” function (internal/dcraw_common.cpp), which can be exploited by malicious people to corrupt memory. The vulnerability is confirmed in version 0.18.1 and has been fixed in version 0.18.2 [3]. Technical Details Very straightforward vulnerability with an easy fix [4]. With a specially crafted image file it was possible to reach the following assignment with the “len” variable set to 0: cbuf[len-1] = 0; That of course causes the offset of “cbuf” to underflow and results in writing a ‘0’ to an illegal memory address. Since we cannot control where exactly the ‘0’ will be written, this typically results in a crash. To get a better idea, these can be the two addresses – first with a ‘0’ offset (and so the address of the “cbuf” buffer) and the second one as the address with an offset set to ‘-1’ (pointing to a very distant address location): &cbuf[len] = 0x6083e0 &cbuf[len-1] = 0x1006083df libsndfile “flac_buffer_copy()” Buffer Overflow Vulnerability [CVE-2017-7585] Summary The vulnerability is caused due to an error in the “flac_buffer_copy()” function (flac.c), which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a stack-based buffer overflow via a specially crafted FLAC file. The vulnerability is confirmed in version 1.0.27 and has been fixed in version 1.0.28 [5, 6]. Technical Details Stack-based buffer overflow vulnerabilities are fun to research as there is often a potential for a code execution. In this case, it was even possible to trigger both – read and write memory access violations. The root cause of the out-of-bounds access is a loop, which, when processing a crafted file, doesn’t terminate. The reason for not terminating resides in the values of variables being used for termination. To be more precise, in the value of the “pflac->remain” variable. Let’s see how the loop header looks like (flac.c): for (i = 0 ; i < frame->header.blocksize && pflac->remain > 0 ; i++) { … for (j = 0 ; j < frame->header.channels ; j++) (a) retpcm [offset + j] = buffer [j][pflac->bufferpos] * norm ; pflac->remain -= frame->header.channels ; pflac->bufferpos++ ; … } At the first sight, this looks fine. In every iteration, “i” is being incremented by 1 and “pflac->remain” is decremented by the value of “frame->header.channels”. There is one case, though, when this logic fails. With a crafted file, the “frame->header.channels” can be set to an even number, let’s say 2, and the “pflac->remain” to an odd number, let’s say 1023. With this set-up, “pflac->remain” will eventually become 1. Everything is still fine until the next iteration, when the value – being an “unsigned int” type – turns into a very large number and the loop continues and continues until the access violation happens on (a). Let’s focus on the write memory access (lvalue of the (a) line) as that is obviously more interesting speaking of a potential code execution. The value being overwritten, “retpcm”, is a pointer to a stack-based buffer “ubuf” defined at the beginning of the “psf_calc_signal_max()” function (command.c). It was proven that it’s possible to overwrite the return address of this very function. What complicates the exploitation flow beyond a DoS is a way how to terminate the loop so it doesn’t write too far. There was a potential via the “frame->header.blocksize” variable, but this value appeared to be only very partially controllable and a reliable non-crashing test case wasn’t achieved. libsndfile “header_read()” Buffer Overflow Vulnerability [CVE-2017-7586] Note By the time of reporting this vulnerability to the maintainer, the issue was already fixed in the GIT master branch as a part of other improvements. Based on that we didn’t claim credits for the finding and rather credited the maintainer, yet we reported it as the security impact wasn’t known before. It was also quite an interesting issue to explore as at the beginning it seemed there might be a potential for an interesting outcome. After in depth research we had to rule the code execution out, though. Summary The vulnerability is caused due to an error in the “header_read()” function (common.c) when handling ID3 tags, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a stack-based buffer overflow via a specially crafted FLAC file. The vulnerability is confirmed in version 1.0.27 and has been fixed in version 1.0.28. Technical Details The overwrite happens during processing a FLAC audio file header containing the ID3 marking. When the library recognizes the “ID3” tag in the “guess_file_type()” function (sndfile.c), it continues with calculating the header offset in the “id3_skip()” function (id3.c). This is important to notice because during the ID3 tag skipping, “psf->fileoffset” is set to a value that is directly taken from the input file. The flow then continues up to the “header_seek()” function (SEEK_SET branch in common.c), where the values of “psf->headindex” and “psf->headend” are set: “psf->headindex” is assigned the same value as psf->fileoffset “psf->headend” is calculated from the input file and stores the number of remaining bytes These values are then used in the “header_read()” function (common.c). The function divides the flow using 3 “if” conditions, while all of them utilize “psf->headindex”. Since we control the value, we can choose which path will be taken. To make it even more interesting, if the second condition is fulfilled, the flow continues to a “memcpy” call where the number of bytes is only to be computed: if (psf->headindex + bytes > SIGNED_SIZEOF (psf->header)) { int most ; most = SIGNED_SIZEOF (psf->header) - psf->headend ; psf_fread (psf->header + psf->headend, 1, most, psf) ; memcpy (ptr, psf->header + psf->headend, most) ; … “SIGNED_SIZEOF (psf->header)” is a built-in value, set to “12292” (common.h) “psf->headend” reflects the size of the file and so is controllable (well, partially, there are some limitations so we reach the right path, but the value can be set between 1 and 12k bytes) The last piece of puzzle we need to put together is what and where we are going to write. In the “header_read()” function, we write to the “(void *) ptr” parameter and if we track this pointer down, we end up in the “guess_file_type()” function (sndfile.c) and its local “uint32_t buffer [3]” variable. The size of this variable is 12 bytes, which is not random but rather reflects the maximum number of bytes that would normally be written. For us, though, this is convenient because by overwriting this buffer we also overwrite the return address of the “guess_file_type()” function. It all looks promising until the point we find out what kind of data will be written. As the data source serve bytes between the “psf->headend” and the value of “SIGNED_SIZEOF (psf->header)”. Since this very part of the memory is allocated using the “calloc” call (“sf_open()” function in the sndfile.c file) and cannot be later adjusted via the input file, we end up overwriting the memory with only zeros. The likely outcome is a crash of an application using the library. FLAC “read_metadata_vorbiscomment_()” Memory Leak Denial of Service Vulnerability [CVE-2017-6888] Summary The vulnerability is caused due to an error in the “read_metadata_vorbiscomment_()” function (stream_decoder.c), which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a memory leak via a specially crafted FLAC file. The vulnerability is confirmed in version 1.3.2 and has been fixed in the official source code repository [7, 8]. Technical Details This is the only vulnerability in this write-up that doesn’t directly result in a crash. Unlike the others, this vulnerability causes a memory leak, which, in a worst-case scenario, can lead to an exhaustion of all available memory. When the library processes a specially crafted FLAC file, a memory block allocated in stream_decoder.c is never freed: if (0 == (obj->comments[i].entry = safe_malloc_add_2op_(obj->comments[i].length, /*+*/1))) { The amount of memory being allocated is read directly from the file and so can lead to a partially arbitrary memory leak. It’s only “partial” because the amount is limited to a 24bit value, which can still end up leaking well over 16MB in just one run. Conclusion In conclusion, I’d like to emphasize an important aspect of finding and reporting vulnerabilities, and that is communication. Open-source software development is often very dynamic and fast paced and I can say that so was the communication with the maintainers. Unlike coordinating vulnerability disclosure with major vendors, which can be a slow process, we received a response within a couple of days and a fix was also provided very swiftly. We consider the expedited response and release of the fix very positive as it makes the products safer and significantly limits the exploitation possibilities for the “bad guys”. References [1] https://secuniaresearch.flexerasoftware.com/secunia_research/2017-3/ [2] https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/commit/98dcbbf0bf4854bf987557e55e55fff7abbf3ea9 [3] https://secuniaresearch.flexerasoftware.com/secunia_research/2017-5/ [4] https://github.com/LibRaw/LibRaw/commit/d7c3d2cb460be10a3ea7b32e9443a83c243b2251 [5] https://secuniaresearch.flexerasoftware.com/secunia_research/2017-4/ [6] https://github.com/erikd/libsndfile/commit/60b234301adf258786d8b90be5c1d437fc8799e0 [7] https://secuniaresearch.flexerasoftware.com/secunia_research/2017-7/ [8] https://git.xiph.org/?p=flac.git;a=commit;h=4f47b63e9c971e6391590caf00a0f2a5ed612e67 View the full article

As we approach the first anniversary of the ShadowBrokers, their true identity and source of their stolen NSA exploits remains a mystery. View the full article

By Jakub Jirsek, Secunia Research at Flexera Introduction In my recent research, I investigated six open-source libraries for previously undiscovered vulnerabilities. I was surprised how I could uncover vulnerabilities in most of them. The vulnerabilities result in a DoS (Denial of Service) as worst impact and are rated “Moderately Critical”. This write-up provides a closer look at each of the vulnerabilities. libarchive "lha_read_file_header_1()" Out-Of-Bounds Memory Access Denial of Service Vulnerability [CVE-2017-5601] Summary The vulnerability is caused due to an error in the "lha_read_file_header_1()" function (archive_read_support_format_lha.c), which can be exploited by malicious people to trigger an out-of-bounds read memory access via a specially crafted archive file. The vulnerability is confirmed in version 3.2.2 and has been fixed in version 3.3.1 [1]. Technical Details The root cause of the problem resides in the way how LHA external sections of the input files are processed by the library. With a specially crafted archive... View the full article

http://www.zdnet.com/article/petya-ransomware-companies-are-still-dealing-with-aftermath-of-global-cyberattack/ … View the full article

We may live in a digital world, but our love affair with paper art has by no means diminished. Folded into origami and kirigami, laser-cut, layered and made into sculptures, paper artists can transform a humble sheet of old tree into a spectacular artwork. Here are some great of examples of paper art being used imaginatively within contemporary design, giving new life to one of the most ancient arts. You're sure to find the inspiration you're looking for... 01. Self Preserving This campaign for Lush even movesThe Self Preserving campaign from cosmetics company Lush to promote its use of natural ingredients saw shop windows all over Europe fill with epic paper art. It was a collaborative effort, with artist Charlotte Day creating original illustrations of the natural ingredients found in the product range, which were then brought to life in 3D using textured paper to create shop window displays designed by Owen Gildersleeve. A special hero installation in Lush's flagship store in London's Oxford Street even moved, masterminded by 3D designer Thomas Forsyth. "Many hours were spent experimenting with different algorithms and code structures so that we could give the flowers more believable and animated movements,” explains Forsyth. “We’ve actually ended up creating a program in which the flowers randomly generate their own movements, so when it feels like one of the flowers has turned to look at you, it kind of has.” 02. Circling Circling is a personal exploration of anxiety and helplessnessPaper art duo Julie Wilkinson and Joyanne Horscroft aka Makerie Studio design and create showpieces for window installations, advertising and editorial clients. "Circling is an extremely personal project, one that came from trying to deal with a period of intense fear and worry," says the duo. "Bright colours and happy thoughts are usually our driving forces, but some days take their toll, and this was our way of dealing with anxiety. Making something constructive out of a stressful state of mind was a way of feeling less helpless, literally turning darkness into beauty." Each piece was handcrafted from iridescent gold and black paper, and features a central creature surrounded by circling predators. 03. Phidala Eric Standley's work echoes Islamic art and Gothic architectureVirgina-based designer Eric Standley takes paper art to a new level with his incredibly intricate, multi-layered creations, often inspired by Islamic or Gothic architecture. This detailed design is based around the fractal geometry that occurs naturally in the universe. "When a DNA braid is viewed from the top down, the layered double helix rotation abides by the golden ratio (phi)," explains Standley. "I began applying phi to the drawing processes of Kismet and Phidala." Take a look at his website for more breathtakingly detailed creations, or read our article on his laser-cut paper art. 04. Tissue series Lisa Nilsson's quilling turns anatomical cross-sections into things of beautyLisa Nilsson works in a variety of media, but for us her stand-out work involves quilling. We can't resist her Tissue series: a collection of anatomical cross-sections rendered in paper. Says Nicholls, "I find quilling exquisitely satisfying for rendering the densely squished and lovely internal landscape of the human body in cross section." 05. Forest Folks Zim & Zou's vibrant paper sculptures are featured all over the worldFrench artists Lucie Thomas and Thibault Zimmerman make up renowned paper art studio Zim & Zou. The duo's colourful paper sculptures appear all over the world – including in this series of installations in a new Hermès store in Dubai. The series is based around the theme of nature. "In this project, spectators have a sneak peek of the curious characters living inside this environment," the pair state. "This microscopic point of view, where plants... reign as masters, is like a kind of picture, a flash, a precise instant in nature’s unrestrained run." 06. European Birds It's hard to resist these detailed and colourful paper birdsColombian-born Diana Beltran Herrera specialises in amazing paper recreations of nature, her work featuring wonderfully detailed flowers and plants and the most incredibly realistic birds of all shapes and sizes. Recently, the Bristol-based artist has also started incorporating insects, butterflies and fish into her work, demonstrating the same level of attention to detail. 07. We Sent Their Briefs Back This is definitely the best way to approach a briefSouth African agency TBWA needed a way of getting clients' attention, and hit upon this novel way of tackling a brief: taking actual paper briefs and turning them into eye-catching paper art incorporating concepts relevant to the specific brand message, and then sending the briefs back to the client. The project was a huge success, attracting new work within five days. 08. Nissan Juke This life-size Nissan car was built from foam board and cardNissan wanted to create a life-size origami version of its Juke car to celebrate the model’s fifth anniversary. Inspired by its Japanese origins and the craftsmanship of UK manufacturing, the company turned to British designer and illustrator Owen Gildersleeve to make its vision reality. As with the Lush project above, Gildersleeve brought in Thomas Forsyth to lend his 3D build expertise to this epic undertaking. The final car was built from heavyweight card over a foam board skeleton. 09. The Tree of Knowledge This book sculpture represents the Tree of KnowledgeThere's plenty of paper art out there that incorporates books into the design, but Spanish designer Malena Valcárcel's designs are particularly magical. "I transform books into a new story in a way to make people stop and appreciate, if just for a moment, the magic of books," she says. Take a look at the range of book paper art designs in Valcárcel's Etsy store, along with some delicate paper jewellery. 10. Cut Scene Paper Dandy's Cut Scene exhibition recreates Star Wars scenesMaking a living from paper art is a difficult task, but thanks to his talents and enthusiasm, Marc Hagan-Guirey – aka Paper Dandy – has done just that. For his Star Wars-inspired Cut Scene exhibition, the artist create 12 kirigami models of different iconic scenes, each cut from a single sheet of paper. The project received rave reviews. Hagan-Guirey has also released a book entitled Horrogami, which includes 20 Kirigami projects inspired by cult horror tales such as Dracula, Frankenstein, Sleepy Hollow and King Kong, along with step-by-step instructions to make your own. 11. Decorex Expo We're big fans of Hagan-Guirey's wonderful paper creationsJust one example of Marc Hagan-Guirey's work in this list would seem like we were short changing you. So feast your eyes on his kirigami design for Decorex International, a company that puts on big interior design expos in the UK. Read more in our article here. 12. Fiat Dobló D'Avila Studio used overlapping paper to create depthBrazil-based illustration agency D'Avila Studio created this vibrant paper art piece as part of Fiat Motors' campaign to promote its SUV, the Dobló Adventure. The team created two prints, both of which placed the paper overlapping on layers to create an impressive depth effect. 13. Paper Dragon This dragon paper art was a team effortThis majestic dragon was created by a group of artists at INK studio in Belgium. It stands at above knee height and was made entirely of paper – it's definitely worth taking a look at the studio's website for some making-of photos. The dragon now resides peacefully – we are told – in the studio's offices. 14. Day of the Dead Koleva celebrates the Day of the Dead with intricate masksThis incredible paper art series from Bulgaria-based designer Tsvetislava Koleva celebrates the Day of the Dead with intricate and colourful masks that quite frankly, took our breath away (read our article here). Each creation takes a different theme and a different colour palette (shown here: Lace and Gold). Koleva specialises in paper art creations – her beautiful but slightly unsettling fashion masks are also well worth a look. 15. 360° Book Oono's books open up to tell their stories layer by layerJapanese artist and designer Yusuke Oono creates books that open up to tell their stories as a multi-layered 3D scene. Each page is a separate laser-cut plane, and together they make up deep and gorgeous 3D images that reveal the story as you make your way from the front to the back of the book. Next page: 15 more incredible examples of paper art 16. Malmö Festival This paper art almost looks like it was created with PhotoshopThis identity for Malmö Festival was created by Swedish design agency Snask and features some wonderfully colourful paper art creations. Used for the print advertisement as well as huge promotional art installations, this is an impeccable example of what can be achieved with patience and creativity. 17. Women White's paper art is incredibly delicateArtist Maude White likes to do something a little different when it comes to her paper art. She meticulously hand-cuts each piece to create works that are almost like lace. Inspired mostly by nature, and creating pieces that feature birds, leaves and flowers, White also creates beautiful paper art portraits of people. Each piece can take thousands of tiny cuts, with White working for hours on end to perfect each one. She updates her Instagram feed with all her latest works, and is well worth a follow. 18. Nerd Love Nerd Love is a collection of cult charactersMeghan Stratman originally started Nerd Love with the intention of creating a new piece of nerdy fan art every Monday for a year, but it turned into an alphabetical series – one geek hero for each letter of the alphabet, from How to Train your Dragon's Astrid (above) to Tali’Zorah from Mass Effect. "I like to include bright colours and a sense of humour in my art," explains Stratman, "and enjoy combining elements to humorous effect, such as badgers sporting fezzes or weasels wearing rocket packs." 19. Magic Circle Each of Brown's paper sculptures is hugely time consumingThe artist Rogan Brown is inspired in part by the tradition of scientific drawing and model making, and particularly the work of artist-scientists such as Ernst Haeckel. He explains: "My work is an exploration and re-presentation of natural organic forms both mineral and vegetal." 20. Hyundai lettering Just one of a set of tiny, detailed paper letters made by People TooThis project for Hyundai saw Russian design duo Alexey Lyapunov and Lena Erlich (aka People Too) creating tens of tiny, paper scenes. The concept was based around the slogan 'Business works better with US in it', with People Too creating letters representing different types of business (above is the 'N' for a care home company). To get a better grasp of the scale of the project, take a look at the duo's work-in-progress photos. 21. Origami animals Origami gets a unique twist using handmade Vietnamese paperVietnamese artist Nguyen Hung Curong shows off the possibilities of origami in his detailed, lifelike paper art sculptures. Curong took up the hobby when he was just five, and created his first original design when he was just 10 years old. He's continued to practise the art of origami and is now able to create amazingly detailed and lifelike models, usually from just one square of Vietnamese handmade paper called Dó. 22. Fairy Forest This magical paper art was featured in the Harrods MagazineThis charming forest series was created by Makerie Studio for Harrods Magazine. The sets were created using layers of iridescent white paper cut into plants, butterflies and miniature mushrooms. Into each was placed a fairy sculpture by Robin Wright , and luxury jewellery. 23. Little Houses These colourful creations are part of a counting bookHelen Musselwhite is an illustrator based in the UK. A creative with a particular knack for paper art, she's previously worked with The National Theatre, Nokia and Stella McCartney. For her own book, Little Houses, Musselwhite fashioned several sets of paper dwellings from around the world. Young readers can count their way from one Scottish crofter's cottage right up to 10 canal-side townhouses in Amsterdam. 24. Paper sculpture Nicholls' paper rendering of fur has to be seen to be believedAfter being introduced to the idea of paper as a medium at art school, Calvin Nicholls' first paper sculpture was a collaboration with artist Jonathan Milne back in 1983, and he quickly felt the draw of working in paper. He uses heavy paper stock for structure and lighter paper for fur and fine detail, and he constantly refers to his drawings and study photos to ensure that the assembled pieces are true to the original plan. Read more about the artist in our article on his stunning paper art animals. 25. Myths Ojala's creations aren't strictly paper artEiko Ojala's Myths designs were created digitally but without the aid of 3D software. The illustrator draws everything by hand to create landscapes, figures and portraits that look as if they’ve been cut from paper. His client list includes the likes of ADC, the Guardian, the V&A and IBM. 26. Continental Breakfast This paper art is made from old mapsMichaela Mihalyiová describes herself as a 'freelance pencil holder and Slovakian palm lover'. She creates sweet (and not so sweet... what's that ocean in the bottom left?) paper art and animations that she shares on her Tumblr site. This design was crafted from 30-year-old maps. 27. Candy Crush Yulia Brodskaya is one of the most well-known of the contemporary designers working with paper art. She combines classic design principles to create beautiful and thought-provoking visual fusions. "Paper always held a special fascination for me," says the artist. "I've tried many different methods and techniques of working with it, until I found the way that has turned out to be 'the one' for me: now I draw with paper instead of on it." 28. Visit Bristol Christmas Campaign Pierpoint assembles her nature-inspired art from card and paper, then edits it in PhotoshopInspired by nature and its never-ending beauty, Sam Pierpoint has constructed a range of colourful, 3D creations that transport you to an entirely different world. This paper art sculpture was part of Visit Bristol's Christmas campaign, and features some of the city's most loved attractions. The night-time scene was created with G.F Smith papers and lit with LED lights, which were carefully threaded through the sculpture. Watch the making-of video below. 29. La Siesta This personal project is all about hugsIn his illustrations and paper art, Juan Carlos Viñas Ballesteros (aka Jotaká) aims to create good vibes. One personal project sure to do just that is 'La Siesta' – a series of paper illustrations all about hugs; their importance and the ideal time to receive them. 30. Midnight Creatures This book has creatures hiding in the shadowsHelen Friel is a freelance paper engineer and illustrator, living and working in London, with clients including Vogue, The Telegraph and Ryan Air. Her book, Midnight Creatures, includes five pop-up scenes full of hidden creatures. To find them, the reader needs to turn the lights out and use a torch to find them in the shadows that appear on their wall. Related articles: Why you should make time for creative side projects How to draw and paint - 100 pro tips and tutorials Doodle art: 52 great examples View the full article