Rss Bot

You’ve racked up tons of data over the years, and now you need a place to keep it all. Zoolz Cloud Storage can keep your most important data safe and easily accessible so your favourite photos, videos and files are always there when you need them. Get a lifetime subscription on sale now for only $49.99 (approx. £36). Zoolz Cloud Storage provides both the convenience of access and the peace of mind of knowing your files are always safe. This cloud backup system quickly and quietly backs up your files and stores them in the cloud, where you can view and access them anytime you want. You'll get a total of 2GB of space: 1TB of Instant Vault, where you can drag and drop your files from desktop or mobile, and 1TB of Cold Storage, which provides a swift and automatic backup. You can get a lifetime subscription to Zoolz Cloud Storage for just $49.99 (approx. £36). That's a saving of over 98 per cent off the retail price, so grab it today to safeguard all your files! Related articles: Google's free cloud storage app is finally here 8 best external hard drives and SSDs for Mac and PC users in 2018 Here's how hackers are stealing your data View the full article

Over the past several years, I've noticed the term 'visual regression testing' cropping up in web development conversations more and more... and for good reason. It promises to provide tremendous value for those who are tired of manually checking their sites for style issues. With this growing popularity, it seems like every month there's a new tool released, each promising to provide awesome visual regression testing automation. Unfortunately, I've found most to be more dream than reality, the truth being that these types of tests are deceptively complicated. There are, however, a few that stand out from the crowd. While each has its benefits and drawbacks, I believe every tool in this list is worth a look. A quick chart looking at the major features of five of the most popular visual regression tools out there [click the icon to enlarge] 01. Wraith Wraith has been around for several years. It was one of the first tools on the scene, and it continues to see enhancements in functionality, with over 200 pull requests closed in its GitHub repo. It's the go-to tool for anyone developing in Ruby. Try it out From your project directory, run wraith setup. Then run wraith capture configs/config.yaml. This will run a set of tests on two different versions of the BBC homepage. After completing your test run, check out your screenshot gallery by opening the newly created shots/gallery.html page in your browser of choice. You can also customise your tests. In the configs/config.yaml file you can update the sites and pages to test, along with setting screen widths and diff mode. Pros and cons YAML configuration file is simple to work with You can compare two different URLs Installation can be tricky if you're not familiar with Ruby Running interactions specific to individual pages can be difficult 02. PhantomCSS Another veteran option, PhantomCSS has been a popular choice among frontend developers. Its familiarity and functionality make PhantomCSS a great choice for frontend folks looking to stretch their legs in terms of website testing. Built on top of PhantomJS/CasperJS, PhantomCSS adds to the fantastic functionality provided by those two tools. Try it out Create a new JavaScript file with the following code: Then run your file via the CapserJS CLI: casperjs test myfile.js. Your script will run in the background and your images will be saved to the screenshots folder. Pros and cons Many tutorials and presentations on it Built on top of CasperJS, allowing integration of page actions into tests Tests limited to PhantomJS No interface for reviewing/managing screenshots 03. Gemini I find Gemini appealing because it packages traditional Selenium testing in an interface that isn't too complicated. As with PhantomCSS, you can define custom actions around your screengrabs. Unlike PhantomCSS, Gemini goes several steps further by providing 'test suites' that can help organise your code. Try it out Create a .gemini.yml file with the following contents (replacing the URL to your Selenium grid server): Then create a test file, and put it into the gemini folder in the root of your project. The file can be as simple as: Next, create your baseline images by running gemini update. You should see one test passed. You can run a regression test via gemini test, which will compare the new images with the ones stored inside the gemini/screens directory. Pros and cons Selenium integration allows you to test on a wide variety of browsers and devices Well-documented site with various examples Provides a framework for sorting tests into suites No direct access to Selenium, limiting the type of actions you can take on a page Running the same test on multiple resolutions requires advanced configuration 04. WebdriverCSS First, a caveat: the future of WebdriverCSS is uncertain, as there are efforts to replace it with a more up-to-date module. That said, I think it's still worth mentioning, as the same basic structure will carry on to the next implementation. Like Gemini, WebdriverCSS hooks into Selenium for its functionality. It also sits on top of another tool: WebdriverIO. Because it is part of the WebdriverIO ecosystem, it benefits from everything that framework has to provide. This includes hundreds of commands you can send to the browser, before and after taking screenshots. WebdriverCSS also integrates well with test frameworks like Mocha, Jasmine and Cucumber.js. Add in connectivity with cloud Selenium services like Sauce Labs and Browserstack and you've got a full-featured functional test suite with visual regression testing as the cherry on the top. Try it out Create a new JavaScript file (test.js) in your project with the following content: Run the test by typing this command into your command line: $ node test.js. Validate the images that were created by checking the webdrivercss folder. If you run your test again and the screenshots change, you'll notice a diff folder will be added and the respective diff images will be inside of it. Pros and cons Since it uses WebdriverIO, you can take advantage of all the features that framework provides Quick configuration of different screen resolutions Enables you to hide/mask certain areas of the screenshot Future uncertain as this specific plugin is no longer officially maintained Requires you to learn how to use WebdriverIO 05. Spectre Unlike the other tools on this list, Spectre doesn't run tests. Instead, it focuses on providing image comparison capabilities, along with an admin interface for managing screenshots. In normal use, you'd pair Spectre up with a tool like WebdriverIO or PhantomJS. The latter would do the work of capturing the screenshots, while Spectre would manage storing and processing of images. I'm a fan of this, as the separation of concerns makes it easier as a community to have a testing tool of our choice, but also build out a common admin interface. Try it out On your Spectre website, open up the path /tests/new/. From there you can customise the test information and upload an initial screenshot. After submitting your test, go to the main page of your site where you'll see a 'Test Project' created, along with a notification of 1 passed. You can click on any of the links on that page for further details on the test. Next, go back to the /tests/new page and upload a new image. When completed, return to the main page and you'll see that Spectre ran the comparison and is now reporting a failing test. Pros and cons Clean, friendly interface for managing screenshots Doesn't try to do too many things, focusing efforts on a specific area of the testing landscape Requires knowledge of Ruby server setup Requires you to know how to send data/screenshots via a REST API Honourable mentions There are a few tools that I feel are worth mentioning, even if they didn't get a featured spot in the list above. They are: Galen Framework Shoov BackstopJS For a comprehensive list of tools and articles on the subject, check out visualregressiontesting.com. What next? 'That list is great, but can't you just tell me which tool to use?' I hear you ask. Well ... no, because it greatly depends on what you're testing. If you're checking a fairly simple site, Wraith or Gemini are great options. But if you need to mimic user actions, then WebdriverCSS or PhantomCSS would be a better fit. If you're unsure, don't worry. Just pick one and try it out. No matter which tool you choose, you'll learn valuable lessons about frontend testing and just how powerful (albeit complicated) it can be. This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 290; buy it here! Related articles: All you need to know about mockups, wireframes, and prototypes 15 web design secrets from the world's biggest brands Join UXPin's free online conference on agile UX View the full article

Presentation is crucial in a design portfolio. And whether the final outcome is digital or printed, a beautifully art-directed approach to photographing your work can help you stand out from the crowd. The best cameras for creatives in 2018 This is particularly true of printed collateral and packaging work, as it's always hard to do justice in a flat, still image. The more creative, dynamic and original the approach, the better. Read on to discover six top design agencies that have nailed the art of shooting work for their portfolios... 01. Add punch with a vibrant backdrop Mexican studio Anagrama shot its Cocofloss project on a vibrant coloured background One of the simplest but most effective ways to add punch to your portfolio images is to shoot your work on a brightly coloured backdrop. Although shooting on white and then adding a background colour later in Photoshop is always an option, coloured backdrops – perhaps even combined with coloured lighting – can achieve a memorable effect that leaps off the page or screen. Mexican branding agency Anagrama used exactly this technique to shoot promotional images for Cocofloss, a California-based company making flossing a "fun and rewarding experience for everyone". Anagrama developed a fun, vibrant visual language, using a pastel-based colour palette and holographic foil to break from the clinical white usually favoured by oral care brands. Shooting on a bright backdrop not only complemented the vibrant packs themselves, but also reflected beautifully in the foil detailing. 02. Art-direct a scene to add interest New York agency Vault49 took the time to art direct a simple scene to show off its PARKS!DE Brooklyn branding Showcasing digital work in print is, if anything, more challenging than doing the opposite, as any interaction and motion design elements are lost in the static image. And while showcasing online work in its natural habitat is theoretically as simple as including the appropriate hyperlink, sometimes a stylised image is needed to add some extra wow factor when it's presented in a portfolio environment. Stock imagery of laptops, tablets and smartphones can be great to mock up digital work in situ for this purpose, and can save both time and money shooting the same hardware yourself over and over. But sometimes it's worth going the extra mile. The branding scheme features beautiful hand-drawn illustrations, which also feature in the portfolio showcase New York-based agency Vault49 did exactly that to show off its branding work for The PARKS!DE Brooklyn, a luxury NYC apartment complex. Tasked with appealing to millennials with a lifestyle-driven message, the agency created a comprehensive branding system, and accompanying promo materials – with refined handcrafted illustrations used to add a touch of sophistication. In Vault49's online portfolio, the PARKS!DE Brooklyn website is showcased on a laptop, iPad and iPhone in a carefully art directed 'scene' that continues the lifetime theme, complete with miniature shrubs, textured backdrop, and accessories such as a notebook and wooden pencil holder. 03. Arrange print collateral in quirky ways Hey Studio's gridded notebooks could have been shot on white, but the grid pattern adds an extra stylised twist Just as with digital work, sometimes a high-quality stock image can help you showcase your print collateral effectively – comping your latest identity work onto stylish shot of some blank stationery will certainly save you time and money. However, a quick search for branding work on a platform such as Behance will demonstrate just how many similar shots of isometric collections of stationery there are. It can pay off to do things differently to suit the project at hand, or to establish a unique style of art direction for your studio. Raising one notebook on a jet-black box adds an extra dimension to the portfolio shoot To promote its range of high-quality gridded notebooks, Barcelona-based Hey Studio photographed them carefully aligned on matching grid-patterned paper, for an incredibly striking effect. In one image, Hey also made use of a jet-black box – also perfectly aligned with the grid pattern – to raise one notebook above the others, creating an eye-catching geometric interplay between the different objects that adds an extra stylised twist. 04. Adds GIFs and slideshows to demonstrate processes Trapped In Suburbia used a simple animated GIF to demonstrate the 'bake to reveal' process for its Talking Ceramics book Sometimes still images aren't quite enough to communicate why people should care about a project, especially if there's an exciting creative process or dynamic interactive feature to show off. Dutch studio Trapped In Suburbia has built a reputation for its innovative, boundary-breaking uses of special print treatments and engaging interactive technologies, and its Talking Ceramics book was certainly no exception. In homage to the transformative, unpredictable power of a ceramicist's kiln, the book – white at first – must be baked in an oven to reveal the cover design. The Dutch studio also took plenty of before-and-after photos, and shows a selection of spreads in a slideshow format While the studio took plenty of before and after sequence images for use in the portfolio, the exciting nature of the process needed something more in-depth to show it off to full effect. Trapped In Suburbia created an animated GIF to show the book cover at different stages of 'baking', as well as producing a video explaining how it all works. A special edition version of the book also featured a 1mm thick porcelain cover intended to crack over time, to encourage the reader to embrace the beauty of mistakes. 05. Explore different angles and detail shots Entitled Paper Wraps Stone, Build's sample book for Arjowiggins Creative Papers needed to be shot carefully When it comes to printed portfolio items, particularly where different paper weights and textures, and special inks and finishes are involved, it's worth taking the time to shoot a range of different angles on the piece to show it off to best effect. For its promotional notebook for Arjowiggins Creative Papers, entitled Paper Wraps Stone, Leeds-based studio Build worked with a selection of different papers, as well as a debossed cover and metallic silver Pantone. Build took the time to photograph a range of different angles and detail shots to show off the texture of the paper The final book has a matt grey cover with simple black type, and many of the colours inside are fairly muted, such as pale blue, beige and soft peach. If not photographed carefully for a portfolio, it's the kind of project that could recede easily. Accordingly, Build shot the book to accommodate a wide range of different angles and close-up details, ensuring a range of angles and perspectives as well as showing off the soft sheen from the metallic Pantone, the crispness of the binding, and the subtle texture of the special papers. 06. Combine video and stills to explain experiences FIELD begins by showing off the stunningly immersive generative visuals from its Vision Wall installation in video form Showing experiential work in a portfolio is one of the biggest challenges a designer can face: in many cases, it's impossible to replicate the immersive experience of actually being there in person. This is particularly true of a print portfolio, but even online with video at your disposal it can still provide a unique set of hurdles. It's important to document the actual installation as faithfully as possible, using whatever tools are available. Specialising in generative design and interactive, immersive installation work, FIELD has mastered the art of documenting experiential design work – and in most cases, it involves finding the perfect balance between stills and video. The agency then moves on to show the visuals in situ on the giant screens at the KAPSARC Centre One example is its Vision Wall, a permanent installation of three ever-changing generative artworks in the KAPSARC Centre, Saudi Arabia, designed as metaphors for the spirit of scientific research. FIELD leads the case study in its online portfolio with a screen-filling explosion of motion graphics, but then features a wide range of images of the giant screens in situ, with a mesmerised onlooker in the foreground. It's an important addition to add scale, but also to try and put you in that person's shoes. As all the above examples attest, the best way to treat any given project in your portfolio depends largely on context, but the common factor is that taking the time and effort to document it effectively will really pay off in the long run. Related articles: 5 brands so strong they don't need a logo 7 ways to make your design studio a better place to work 5 inspired self-promo ideas for design agencies View the full article

CSS Grid is perfect for creating two-axis layouts of rows and columns. The syntax is simple and makes page layout a breeze. Layouts that would have required multiple nested containers can now be simply described in CSS. Grid works differently to other layout properties, since applying the ‘grid’ value to the ‘display’ property will affect any direct children. These elements are now grid items and will be positioned according to the rules you set on the parent (unless being specially placed). Get to grips with the grid Grid brings a number of new features: Grid gap 
Instead of using margins, Grid has its own property for defining gaps between grid items, enabling the layout of the grid to be defined and unaffected by any gaps. Grid systems (like those found in inuit and Twitter Bootstrap) usually rely on setting negative margins in order to align everything correctly. The Fr unit 
Short for fraction, this new unit of measurement is used to split the layout into fractions, with or without a gap. Grid placement 
CSS Grid allows for any element to be prioritised and positioned anywhere on the grid before all other items, which are then positioned automatically. Grid areas and templates 
Named areas on the grid are defined, which can then be referenced to define the layout in an almost ASCII fashion. minmax() 
The ‘minmax()’ property value enables you to apply a minimum and maximum size for grid items, columns and rows. This feature is sadly missing from Flexbox and every other layout module in CSS. Build your grids CSS Grid’s powerful areas and templates enable complicated layouts to be easily achieved. You start by applying a name to the elements within your grid using the ‘grid-area’ property – for example ‘header { grid-area: header; }’. Once you have named all of the areas in your grid you can then use the ‘grid-template-areas’ property to describe the layout. The code example above describes a three-by-three grid, you simply repeat the name of the grid item if you want it to span multiple columns or rows. You can also use media-queries in order to change the grid layout for different-sized screens. You can then use the new ‘fr’ unit to define how the width is split among the different columns: The example shown above will split the available width into five equal width values; in other words it will apply one-fifth to the first column, three-fifths to the second column and the final fifth to the final column. In order to size the rows you can use the new ‘minmax’ property value to size the top and bottom columns to their content and then allow the middle row to span the remaining space in the grid. This article was originally published in issue 271 of creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 271 or subscribe to Web Designer. Want to strengthen your CSS Grid skills? Brenda Storer is giving her talk Using CSS Grid in the Real World at Generate New York from 25 - 27 April 2018 As a designer and front-end developer at a software development agency, Brenda Storer has been using CSS Grid in production for websites since its initial release to browsers in March 2017 and is a big fan. In her talk at Generate New York from 25-27 April 2018, Brenda will show step-by-step how you can progressively enhance your site with CSS Grid and write a bulletproof fallback for older browsers (or even continue to use your current grid framework as a fallback), all with pure CSS: no JavaScript required. Generate New York takes place from 25-27 April 2018. Get your ticket now. Related articles: CSS Grid Layout secrets revealed Create a responsive layout with CSS Grid Get up to speed with CSS Grid View the full article

Security experts say breaches impacting Delta Air Lines and Sears customers is tied to malware planted on a third-party chat service. View the full article

If you're looking for a free blog or a platform for your design portfolio then there are plenty to choose from these days. It's always tempting to default to WordPress, but if you want a strong alternative then you should check out the brand new version of Craft CMS. Choose a website builder: 17 top tools In development for the past three years, and completely rewritten and redesigned, Craft 3 is available now and claims to be three times faster than the previous version, as well as boasting hundreds of new features and improvements to help you get your next site online with ease. Craft enables you to create custom content models so that you get exactly the site you want. You can see what your pages will look like in real-time with a built-in Live Preview that updates as you type, and with its Matrix field it becomes simple to create longer-form pages with multiple content types. And if you're aiming for an international audience, it features powerful localisation tools to help you target specific languages and territories. Essential new features of Craft Craft 3's image editor means you can prepare pictures without the need for Photoshop New features in version 3 include Multi-Site, enabling you to run multiple sister sites from a single Craft install, an image editor with which you can crop, rotate, flip, and set focal points on all your images, and an inline asset preview that lets view your photos and assets everywhere in Craft CMS by pressing Shift + Spacebar. The biggest new feature, though, is the Craft Plugin Store: a secure online marketplace that enables you to buy plugins directly through the Craft Control Panel without having to hunt through third-party sites. It's the easiest way to add extra functionality to your site or to implement extra tools to match your skillset. Get all the plugins you need in Craft 3's secure Plugin Store You can find out more about Craft 3's new features here. Cost-wise, the great news is that the Solo version – ideal if you're building a website for yourself or for a friend – is completely free. And if you're building sites professionally for clients or teams you'll want the Pro version, which comes in at a very reasonable $299 plus $59 per year for updates, and offers user accounts, custom branding and developer support. If you want to try it out you can hit the Craft demo page to get your own demo site to fool around with, but if you want to jump straight in it's available to download or buy right now. Related articles: 50 amazing tools for developers 2018 Why you need a content style guide (built into your CMS) 4 top online shop solutions View the full article

A malware family called Rarog is becoming an appealing and affordable entry point for hackers to run cryptocurrency mining campaigns, researchers say. View the full article

Whatever happened to our love for man’s best friend? It’s a question posed by a dissenter in Wes Anderson’s latest film, Isle of Dogs, which tells of a struggle between people and canines. In the stop motion film dogs are exiled to a vast garbage-dump island, but if the exhibition for Isle of Dogs is anything to go by, the love for our four-legged friends is as strong as ever. Located in The Store X on The Strand in London, the Isle of Dogs exhibition saw fans of the film queuing up in droves to get a closer look at the film’s leads. The film, which was shot over 445 days at East London’s 3 Mills Studios with a crew of more than 670 people, features more than 240 sets and 1097 puppets. This extensive amount of work went into creating the 144,000 still frames that make up the film’s 100 minute duration. A taste of this craftsmanship can be seen in the exhibition, which feels right at home in The Store X’s open gallery space. Models and sets are showcased in the open, giving attendees a rare chance to see details from the film up close and personal. All that separates you and the stars of the film are white lines painted on the floor, which ties in nicely to the totalitarian tone of the film. Here are some of our favourite bits from the exhibition. 01. The scale of the sets It’s hard to get a grasp of how large the characters and sets are when you’re watching an animated film. After all, cinemagoers have become so used to post-production ramping up the wow-factor of what we watch. However we were stunned by the size of the sets and characters on display here. From the towering Megasaki Municipal Dome to the city’s temple, the scale of these models goes beyond what we expected and gives you a greater appreciation of the handiwork that went into making them. 02. Animation insight As well as defying our expectations in terms of size, the setup of the models gave us a deeper understanding of how the film was made. For example, one sequence in the Isle of Dogs sees a tracking shot pan through a laboratory as scientists work on a cure for the canine population. Viewers would be forgiven for expecting this sequence to be stitched together from various shots and sets, but at the exhibition we see that the laboratory was constructed in such a way that cameras could easily shoot across it. The use of electrical lighting for street lights and the bauble in Atari’s headset also surprised us. Given that the film is a stop motion animation we weren’t sure if lighting would interfere with the shooting process, so it’s fascinating to see how these elements can all work together. 03. Time to catch what we missed Isle of Dogs is absolutely packed with references to Japanese art and culture. Some of these, like the use of famous paintings including The Great Wave off Kanagawa, are immediately obvious. However some of the more subtle nods to the country might have passed you by as the film plays out. The exhibition offers a great chance to mull over the small details and let some of the more artistic allusions sneak up on you. Take the model of Atari’s crashed plane, for example. This stunning set piece was permanently surrounded by admirers snapping on their smartphones when we visited, but it’s only when you take a second to step back that a similarity to a certain flag starts to emerge... 04. Attention to detail It’s a sad truth that a lot of hard art design work goes unseen by the time a film is released. While some details are lost in the edit, others are only seen on the screen for a few seconds. Getting the chance to see these models in person lets viewers explore the characters and sets on their own terms and uncover hidden gems. These include the beautiful paintings on the walls of mayor Kobayashi’s bath-house, to the intricate statues and scriptures found on the Megasaki temple. Imagery of cats in the temple are more obvious when you get more time to study the set, which helps to reinforce some of the subtle themes that Wes Anderson has weaved into the film. (Are felines behind all this hostility to dogs?) 05. A cafe set in… the cafe set When you walk into the Isle of Dogs exhibition, you’re immediately transported into the Megasaki noodle bar set from the film, complete with propaganda blaring from a television that loops with animation from the movie. In a clever bit of curation, the model of the noodle bar set is situated in the corner of the real life eatery it inspired. Once you’ve finished taking a picture of the set you turn around and find that you’re inside the world of the film. It’s a nice touch that helps to immerse you into the world of the Isle of Dogs before you head on the the exhibition proper. If this has whetted your appetite for the exhibition, you’re in luck. The Store X has extended its run from 5 April through to 8 April, so you’ve still got time to visit. Isle of Dogs is in cinemas now. Related articles: View the full article

Reeking of flouro inks and heavy with luxurious Fedrigoni paper, TypeNotes issue one arrived last year to a blaze of industry acclaim and promptly sold out. For a magazine largely devoted to the specialist art of typography, this immediate success was as surprising as it was gratifying for creative director Jason Smith. His London-based boutique type foundry, Fontsmith, has been creating unique fonts since 1997, providing typographical solutions for agencies such as The Partners, Dixon Baxi and ManvsMachine, and designing bespoke fonts for everyone from the BBC to Xerox. London studio The Counter Press designed TypeNotes Fontsmith’s TypeNotes blog was already a popular resource for designers to check out new fonts, pick up expert advice and absorb a broad range of design commentary. “I thought, why not open this up to a much wider audience, create new content and make an actual magazine, a genuine magazine,” Smith explains, fresh from the release of issue two earlier this year, which has won yet more industry plaudits. “We already had the concept, we just needed to rework it into a more traditional medium.” Hardcore font fetishism With little experience in magazine publishing, Smith recruited design studio and letterpress workshop The Counter Press to handle the look and feel of the magazine, and design industry stalwart Emily Gosling (senior editor at AIGA Eye on Design) to provide the editorial muscle and ensure the magazine was more than just a Fontsmith typography showcase. “The fact it’s published by Fontsmith makes no difference,” Gosling explains. “There’s total freedom with what we publish, as long as it’s interesting and relevant for our audience: people who are into typography and graphic design, either professionally or otherwise” Respected designer Astrid Stavro shares five things she looks for when she hires a designer in issue two of TypeNotes So as well as hardcore font-fetishist reports on tattooing, stone-carving and sign writing, there is also plenty of wider-reaching reporting ('Five things I look for when hiring a designer'), opinion pieces ('Has less is more gone too far?') plus profiles of industry talents. A bound-in (tragi) comic by Babak Ganjei, exposing a freelance illustrator's day-to-day subsistence, is so funny it justifies the cover price alone. And there are many welcome variations on well-worn tropes: an interview with 3D illustrator Jack Sachs discusses his creative process through his own sketchbooks, for example. Meanwhile, a bound-in (tragi) comic by Babak Ganjei, exposing a freelance illustrator's day-to-day subsistence is so funny it justifies the cover price alone. Few magazine execute a sucker punch with their first issue, but thanks to Gosling’s experience and obvious passion for design, TypeNotes effortlessly skips straight past the awkward baby steps of a fledgling title to deliver an ambitious, satisfying design journal, brimming with confidence and possessing a clear editorial identity. Type porn Issue two’s showpiece article – Type Porn – is a vertiginous plunge into the history of X-rated movie posters of the 60s and 70s, Gosling herself investigating the psychology at work behind the lurid yet often beautiful posters (think Deep Throat). A fascination with the slightly seamier side of design is also evident in an interview with Nigel Waymouth – a key figure in 60s psychedelic design – who looks back on the energy and romanticism (and drugs) that shaped the design of the sexual revolution, a font-themed entry point burrowing down into a much wider discussion of design culture. Type Porn looks at the history of X-rated movie posters in the 60s and 70s And when TypeNotes does hit hardcore full-geek mode ('To The Point' is a celebration of unusual punctuation marks) the beautiful layouts (courtesy of The Counter Press’ David Marshall and Elizabeth Ellis) are delivered so elegantly that even those with only a casual interest in the complex alchemy of typography will be intrigued. The magazine stands as testament to the passion of all involved. “Once we had the magazine in our hands, it smelt and felt great,” Smith remembers, “and the indie mag shops loved it too”. Tattoo artists talk about the intricacies of lettering onto skin in issue of two of TypeNotes His desire to “make a physical thing… something beautiful and engaging,” has been matched by Gosling’s determination to escape a “depressingly screen-based life” and make something readers could savour instead of frantically thumbing through “on a little cracked phone screen”. Just two issues down, TypeNotes already feels like an old favourite. We’re intrigued to see how this beautiful magazine continues to develop when the third issue arrives later this year. Issue two of TypeNotes magazine, £10, is available from the Fontsmith shop. Also read: 30 books every graphic designer should read View the full article

Making a name for yourself in the design industry takes time, skill and patience. It's not just about having a show-stopping design portfolio: this fast-paced industry means creative folk need to continually look for ways to upskill so you can lead from the front. Tobias van Schneider was born in Germany, raised in Austria, and now lives and works in New York City. He's gone from self-taught beginnings to lead product designer and art director at Spotify, and is currently the co-founder of Semplice, a portfolio tool for designers. He describes himself as a "designer and maker", and he possesses a spectacular beard. Here, he imparts five simple maxims to help you raise your design game. 01. Forget the idea of overnight success "We love to celebrate success stories and put people we admire on a pedestal," says van Schneider. "But we forget even the most successful people had to start somewhere and worked hard to get where they are today. There's no such thing as an overnight success." 02. Remember any project can change your life "Look at every task or project that comes your way, even the seemingly small and insignificant ones, as an opportunity," he advises. "You never know where an article you write, a video you make or a design you create might take you. Say yes until you can afford to say no." Every project that comes your way, even a side project, could bring with it a life-altering opportunity 03. Be stupid "The greatest ideas never make it into the world because we’re too afraid of what other people think. We fear failure and come up with excuses. We overcomplicate and our idea dies before we’ve even begun. Keep it simple, be stupid." 04. Trust your gut "With all the information in the world at our fingertips, we can easily talk ourselves in circles," says says van Schneider. "Information often fails us, but intuition almost never does. Your intuition is the sum of your experiences, learnings and a little magic. Do what feels right." 05. Don’t do it for money "Of course we need money to live, but it shouldn’t be our main motivator," he adds. "Aim to make what you need to get by. This will open up opportunities and relationships you wouldn’t otherwise consider, and work that actually excites you. Money usually ruins the fun, but fun brings the money." This article was originally published in issue 270 of creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 270 here or subscribe to Web Designer here. Related articles: 8 challenges to overcome to achieve your creative dreams Add a glitch effect to your website 10 great CSS animation resources View the full article

Big companies – those with millions (if not billions) of users – tend to have complex problems that attract some of the best talent the market has to offer. The bigger the company, the bigger the challenge. But bringing together so many brilliant minds also provides an opportunity to do great things. When it comes to shaping our online experiences, big companies have proven to be very influential in recent years, offering disruptive user experiences, new ways of loading and displaying content, and elegant approaches to getting the users where they want to go. That’s what happens when your teams are at the top of their game. We spoke to designers from these brands to explore how they present their products to users, and the processes that have led them to design success. 01. Be humble Cap Watkins, BuzzFeed "Be humble about your work. That’s really what it all comes down to. A lot of designers do a project and try to keep it to themselves until it’s perfect, or reject feedback because it’s not what they had in their mind. The goal of the BuzzFeed design team is to let the content shine through "Being humble allows for the possibility that your design choices may be wrong, and opens you up to receiving feedback and information from your coworkers, users, people in other departments, and so on. It’s probably one of the most important traits for anyone – designer or not – when it comes to producing great work." 02. Create a community Nick Myers, Fitbit "Our organisational structure helps designers have more impact and be more efficient. Many internal design teams are centralised, but the Fitbit UX team’s designers are integrated across product development. This means, typically, that members of the design team sit with members of product and engineering to collaborate directly on a specific feature or platform element. Designers and engineers sit together at Fitbit "This means designers can be more focused, as opposed to multitasking in a centralised agency-like model. They also have more input on product strategy and can see the work through to launch, so it’s generally a lot more rewarding. We work hard to help designers feel like part of the community by assigning design managers to support teams in clusters." 03. Share early and often Sam Horner, Netflix "The Netflix design team starts by ideating concepts, and uses a blend of speaking with users and live data to develop them. These insights allow us to build stronger ideas, unbounded by opinion or bias, and design wholly focused on our users. In Netflix’s 2015 redesign, major alterations were made to the UX, based on years of research "We share early and share often, encouraging everyone on our team to have a voice. No single person has control over what gets created, empowering designers with ownership over their work. Our flat team structure means designers are consulted by others based on their skills, not their title. Netflix doesn’t impose any processes on our designers, we simply give them access to the resources they need to create great TV experiences." 04. Learn to improve Garlon Cheung, BBC "At the BBC the audience is at our core, so gaining insights and testing is important. Because of diverse audience needs, every team works in different ways to achieve this, but the overall mentality is learning to improve. This means making design decisions backed by evidence. It’s vital we use both quantitative and qualitative research to understand what people do and why they do it. BBC sites such as the iPlayer are the result of thorough research into audience needs "New methods appear frequently and teams experiment to see what is effective and what isn’t. We’re constantly improving how we collaborate and broadening our skillset. A big organisation like ours needs great communication and great people, so we give them the freedom to be the best at what they do." 05. Be inclusive Ashleigh Axios, Automattic "Automattic is a distributed company, with people in 51 countries around the globe unifying around the single goal of making the web a better, more equitable place. We believe that open source is one of the most powerful ideas of our generation and that collaboration leads to innovation. We share as many of our ideas, resources and code with the world as we can, priding ourselves on our inclusiveness. With employees all over the world – in 51 countries – communication is key at Automattic "We Automatticians also have a hunger to learn from our peers, products and users. We’re an incredibly flat company – we believe ideas can come from anywhere and recognise that our results are better when we treat each individual as a catalyst for much-needed change." 06. Mix it up Netta Marshall, Airbnb "We have a team dedicated to creating tools for designers, as well as an expansive Design Language System, and an internal tool called Airshots that allows us to quickly and easily see what everyone else is designing. Since designers are embedded into sub-teams and sit with cross-functional members, this tool gives us visibility into what designers on other teams are focusing on. AIrbnb’s Design Language System is just one of a suite of tools created for the designers at the homestay network "Being in close proximity to non-designers is useful for picking up new skills as well. If you want to learn to code, prototype, analyse data or research, there’s someone who’s more than happy to sit down and share their knowledge with you. As a designer, being open to different perspectives as a default is great when you’re designing for such an international audience." 07. Understand the problem Fiona Yeung, Google "UX design is an iterative, collaborative and ongoing process that involves many different people along the way. My first step in any design project is to understand the problem as well as who the target users are and what they want. It’s our responsibility to understand why we are designing something first, before we can jump right in. Design staff at the search giant share work often "On my team at Google, we like to create use cases and personas, starting off with low-fidelity mockups in the early stages before moving on to hi-fi designs to demonstrate and test our ideas, catching any gaps in our solutions." 08. Open up your processes Nick Myers, Fitbit "One critical stage in our process is the group design critique. Each week, two design teams share work with the rest of the designers and researchers. The session is carefully facilitated to get the most out of the time together. The Fitbit team are very open with each other when solving design problems "A team shares the problem they’re trying to solve, the design solution, the users they’re designing for and where they are in the process. They also share the feedback they’re looking for from the rest of the team. After any clarifying questions have been asked, the team offers silent feedback via Post-It notes. The presenting team reviews the notes and open discussion happens around the bigger topics. We’ve evolved the process over many years and continue to refine it as the team has grown. "The session helps the larger team participate in projects across Fitbit. Any system inconsistencies that may arise can be resolved. A lot of productive discourse happens in this session in a way that challenges the team. Most of all, the feedback is additive and helps the team push their work further than they would have on their own." Next page: Top insights from designers at Twitter, Shopify and Etsy 09. Rethink critique Kurt Varner, Dropbox "Design critique. Such a loaded term, and one that is filled with nuance and sits differently in the mind of almost every designer. At Dropbox, we recently revamped our feedback process to align expectations and increase its effectiveness. While seemingly obvious, each piece was thoughtfully crafted to meet the needs of our team. At Dropbox, critique meetings are referred to as ‘design sessions’, to remove negative connotations "First, we’ve relabelled them ‘design sessions’ to remove negative connotations. We problem-solve together to increase idea generation and reduce the expectation that a single designer can create the perfect solution. We don’t anchor things to a TV: designers use printed flows, Post-Its, sketches, whiteboarding and so on. "There are three one-hour sessions per week, and this helps to keep the time between feedback loops short. We also keep the team size small, inviting only the people with the right context, and ensure there’s a low barrier to entry – no presentation needed – to encourage feedback early and often." 10. Focus on feedback Alexander Mayes, Facebook "For me, the single most important part about being a designer in any design process is knowing how to give and receive feedback. Yeah, yeah, in my head I say it too – ‘That’s so clichéd, we get it: Pick your battles, have thick skin, don’t be attached to your work…’ But even at a place like Instagram and Facebook, it’s something that is valued above most things. Feedback is key at Facebook "It’s something that is so ingrained in our design process that there’s literally no way to not be excellent at it. To move ahead you have to be great with relationships and there’s nothing more challenging to your relationships, as a designer than your ability to give and receive feedback. Honestly, it’s something that – even after typing all that – I can say I still struggle with at times." 11. Know your customers Randy Hunt, Etsy "It’s not about you; it’s about someone else. Call them user, customer, prospect, audience, or simply person. When they are similar to you, it’s reasonable to think it’s about you. Either you’re wrong, or you’re right but won’t continue to be as your audience grows. If you don’t know who ‘they’ are, what their motivations are, and what’s important to them, what are you doing to learn and continue learning?" Imagine your customer as someone different to you, says Hunt 12. Encourage ownership Serena Ngai, Shopify "I lead a design team at Shopify focused on our third-party partner and developer ecosystem. At the beginning of the year, I realised that our usual process wasn’t working any more. Our ecosystem was rapidly growing and our UX team was trying to accomplish too much. We weren’t achieving the quality we expect at Shopify, and we didn’t have time to go deep into finding solutions. At Shopify, each designer becomes an expert in their domain "Our new process focuses on product themes: bringing together teams and projects that share similar goals and technical stacks so that each designer becomes an expert on a certain domain. This inspires a sense of ownership within the team, and empowers us to influence priority and scope of project. Most importantly, it also gives us time to focus so we can create experiences and quality we are truly proud of." 13. Don’t design alone Malthe Sigurdsson, Stripe "You should almost never design for or by yourself – you’re a sample size of one, you’re biased, and it’s a big world out there. This is doubly true for a product like Stripe, which is used by hundreds of thousands of businesses of all shapes and sizes, from cattle companies in Nebraska to app developers in Cairo. Stripe serves so many diverse clients, talking to others is key "The solution is – as is often the case in life – communication. Talk early, talk often, and talk to a lot of your users. Obtaining a deep understanding of what they’re really trying to do will help you design a truly helpful product." 14. Adapt your approach Nick Myers, Fitbit "It’s hard to use just one approach across hardware and software with such a diverse set of features as at Fitbit. Designing for hardware requires rigorous planning and up-front design exploration over a long timeframe. If we’re designing feature updates or clearly defined new features, the process tends to be simple and straightforward and work within a standard agile approach. Designing for hardware requires rigorous planning and up-front design exploration "Most fascinating are the features we design that are completely new and push us into the unknown. In these cases, I advocate we build-to-learn, as it’s very difficult to predict how design solutions will fare when people interact with them over a long period of time. "Ultimately, we’re trying to help people live healthier, more active lives. Changing behaviour is complex, so the effectiveness of a design often doesn’t become clear until we see outcomes in the real world." 15. Keep consistent Ashlie Ford, Twitter "When a large group of designers is solving disparate challenges for an array of products, it’s no surprise that consistency becomes a challenge itself. To solve this, we’ve established a design system of reusable styles, components and patterns. A consistent design system makes life easier for everyone "The design system provides a shared vocabulary that helps teams seamlessly develop within the same product ecosystem and at a much more rapid pace than before. Since design and engineering develop system elements once, this lets teams spend more time on the user problem, rather than on the building blocks of the system." Illustration: Elly Walton This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 290; buy it here! Related articles: Do we really need to build this? Why design is key to Airbnb's incredible success Interview: Lara Hogan View the full article

Coming up with a great product is a skill, but knowing how to sell it is a totally different talent. Marketing your product online is an entirely different beast than working with old media. Luckily, the Digital Marketing Foundations Mega Bundle is here to help. Get it on sale now for 96 per cent off the retail price. Being successful requires some luck, but it requires even more know-how. In order to optimise everything about your website and grow your online presence to a size bigger than you could have ever imagined, you need the Digital Marketing Foundations Mega Bundle. This eight-course collection will teach you how to master every aspect of online marketing, from search engine optimisation to how to make the most of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest. You can improve your website and brand with the Digital Marketing Foundations Mega Bundle, on sale right now for 96 per cent off the retail price. That's a huge saving for a bundle that will help make you money, so grab this deal today. View the full article

Photography’s greatest gift to the artist is that it freezes motion – perfect for reference. So when I started learning how to draw outside and got into en plein air painting, I had to contend with the fact that reality doesn’t hold still. What is plein air painting? Painting en plain air is the practice of painting outdoors, capturing people, landscapes and scenes in natural light – rather than painting indoors from reference sketches, photographs, life models and so on. Painting outside became popular with the French Impressionists. It was made possible with the invention of transportable paint tubes and the plein air easel, and involves a unique set of challenges, skills and techniques, which we’ll walk through here. Painting moving objects en plein air When you're plein air painting, the sun moves across the sky, dragging every shadow around with it. It ducks behind clouds. It changes colour. And that’s not all. People and animals come and go. Trees move. Waves roll in and roll out. Boats swing around as the wind shifts. You don’t realise how fluid reality is until you try to paint it. How to draw movement: 16 top tips Sometimes the movement is slight, and it’s easy to adjust your drawing or painting to match. Other times, say when you’re trying to capture someone walking along eating an ice cream cone, you have seconds to capture the entire thing: posture, clothing, hair, lighting, dripping ice cream... It’s enough to make anyone hyperventilate. So take a deep breath and grab your best pencils. Everything is going to change while you work, yes, but the answer isn’t to rush to get it all in before that happens. You can’t win that battle. Instead, start by looking... 01. Think of your eye as the camera The world isn’t a photograph. It moves and changes all the time. Keeping up requires observation combined with a deep visual vocabulary. Take a “snapshot” with your eyes, trying to pull in as much information as possible: the angle of her shoulders, the hunch of his back, the way the water catches the light. Calm down, and get as much information in as you can in the moments you have. 02. Organise what you see Sketching is how artists take notes. So part of your opening snapshot should include a sketch. Make some choices about how to organise what you see into an artistic composition. When things change and you get distracted, your sketch will help bring you back to your idea. 03. Draw what you see Keep your sketches where you can see them as you paint The beauty of plein air painting, and working from life versus a photo, is that life offers perfect information. The colours are 100 per cent accurate. The resolution is infinite. Now is the time to give your close observation muscles a workout. Really work to see what’s there, as we so rarely do. 04. Draw what you know Because you only have a moment to capture things that are moving and changing, you need a broad visual understanding to fill in the blanks. There’s no shortcut to developing this, just lots and lots of drawing. Take notes with your eyes, then fill in the gaps with your understanding. 05. Lots and lots of drawing Coffee shops and retirement homes are prime sketching locations. People tend to stay still. Next time, I’ll get into what sort of gear you need to begin your plein air adventure, but here’s tool number one: a sketchbook. Keep one on you at all times. Pull it out instead of your mobile phone when you’re at the doctor’s office or coffee shop. Deepen your visual understanding. This article was originally published in issue 157 of ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists. Buy issue 157 or subscribe to ImagineFX here. Related articles: Master negative painting in watercolour Review: Rosemary & Co Pocket Watercolour Brushes Staedtler watercolour pencils View the full article

The best art is created within limitations. There is joy to arranging the bare minimum of elements for the maximum impact. Here, I’ll aim to create an impactful piece using a limited colour palette. How to generate new ideas for character designs While attending art college I dabbled in almost every medium, but nothing quite clicked until I picked up ink. Inspired by comics artists and cartoonists, I found pleasure in creating mood and atmosphere using just a jar of black ink. Recently, I’ve been trying to incorporate colour back into my work, while retaining what I love about ink. Digital tools have enabled me to experiment and develop my sense of colour, while still working in the traditional medium I love most. 01. Explore ideas Concepts are quickly scribbled down I work from my sketchbook or scratch paper, knocking out thumbnail sketches as quickly as possible, just to get something down on paper. This is often the most difficult stage for me as I figure out what the point of the piece is. I like to write down keywords to help anchor the sketching with concept, narrative or mood. 02. Lock down a concept Details decide if the concept is good to go Once I settle on a thumbnail, I’ll make a more detailed and clearer version to test out basic light and dark shapes, and to make sure the concept has enough depth to be taken to finish or presented to the client. Clarity is key. 03. Draw the final form A larger version of the idea is drawn I take the drawing to its final form. I sometimes blow up the thumbnail, print it very lightly and sketch over it. Or I might start from scratch, depending how much I liked the thumbnail sketch. For this design, I started over and drew the larger to give me greater cropping flexibility later, while still adhering to the client’s requested format. 04. Try different lighting schemes Copies are made to experiment on Once I have my final drawing, I scan and print out multiple copies of it, to try out different lighting schemes and compositions. When I find one I like I render it in pencil as a roadmap for the painting. Ink is unforgiving, so it pays to know where you’re putting down your dark shapes before you start. 05. Move onto watercolour paper Be careful you don't get sucked into mindless tracing I transfer the final drawing on to watercolour paper using a lightbox. I make a conscious effort to turn the light on and off as I draw, checking the drawing as I go. This is because mindless tracing can lead to a drawing that lacks that extra bit of life or magic. 18 watercolour techniques every artist should know 06. Lay down ink Tones are built up from dark to light Finally: painting! Working in ink wash, I take Sumi ink and dilute it into different concentrations with water. I start with the darkest area of the painting. This anchors the piece – I refer back to this area as I build up the painting, always knowing that I can’t go darker than this starting point. 07. Block in the piece It's important to build the piece up as a whole As I paint I jump around the canvas a lot, building up one area before moving to another, making sure I don’t spend too much time on certain elements. It’s important that the whole piece gets an initial pass because it’s very easy to fall in love with working on one area, inevitably overworking it. 08. Build up depth It's as if the painting is being unearthed... I really enjoy watching a piece emerge from the white paper. In my mind I’m using the brushes to push away the white, revealing the dimensional piece in relief underneath. I tuck ink into the nooks and crannies of the drawing, adding depth as I go, while bouncing back and forth between different areas. 09. Explore texture Time to realise the battered steel armour In the final tonal study I also think about what textures I’m trying to achieve, which is battered steel in this case. There’s only so far you can take it in the pencil sketch – when painting, the ink will begin to do the work of creating surface texture. Brush strokes find their marks naturally when you trust the medium. 10. Dive into colour Time to tackle the scary part The majority of the piece is now painted. I’ve left the central area bare so far, because it scares me. The whole piece pivots around getting a convincing glow from this area. I decide to break out the watercolours and try a new effect, because recently I’ve been attempting to incorporate colour back into my work. 11. Hide the evidence Sometimes things just don't go your way I hate what I’ve just painted in watercolour. I placed too much trust in my understanding of the medium to get the effect I wanted, when I should have worked on it more in the sketch and done colour studies. To fix it, I slather black ink over the mistake. Black hides all sins and can be a reset. 12. Try Plan B Time to change things up with a new medium I lean back on to white gouache, a medium that I’m much more comfortable with, and paint the lights back in. I’ll have to add colour to the piece later in Photoshop. I noodle around and paint details. This is the endless polish stage and I could live here forever, but deadlines are calling, so it’s time to scan and finish digitally. Get Photoshop CC 2018 13. Move into Photoshop A hi-res scan lets you print the image larger I scan the piece at 600dpi for archival purposes. This will also enable me to print the image larger if there’s ever a need to. Next I adjust Contrast and Levels, to bring the scan more in line with how I feel the piece looks in life, because something is always lost during scanning. 14. Add layers Dodge and Burn perfects the value structure I tune some of the value structure using the Dodge and Burn tool, then add layers for each colour element in the piece. Because there’s a fully rendered ink wash painting already, all I need to do at this stage is colourise using Photoshop’s Blending modes. Soft light and Overlay are my go-to modes. 15. Finish the piece Lighting and composition are locked down to finish the image I experiment with different colour combinations using the Hue and Color Balance sliders. Once I decide on the final colours, I hone in the initially loose digital brush marks and add hot edges to the lights, to better sell the illusion of the light source. I finish the piece by cropping the larger painting to the final trim size. This article was originally published in ImagineFX magazine issue 143. Buy it here. Related articles: Colour in Photoshop: top tricks Mix more realistic-looking colours How to master colour theory View the full article

Intel said it is lights out for its Remote Keyboard app just as security researchers find three vulnerabilities that let local attackers inject keystrokes in sessions. View the full article

Intel has halted patches for older chips addressing the Spectre vulnerability, according to a recent microcode update. View the full article

In this tutorial, I'm going to share the techniques and methods I use to create hard-surface models in 3ds Max. I'm going to create a 3D version of US Space Patrol, a sci-fi drop ship concept, made by designer and illustrator Virnard Magpantay. The main goal of this tutorial is to show you how you can create any hard-surface piece using simple tools in 3ds Max (although some of the techniques can be applied to other modelling software). We'll also look at how to create a clean and organised model to fit into a production pipeline. The best 3D modelling software 2018 I hope you find my tricks and tips useful for making your own models. You can download a video walkthrough of the entire process here, and the files you'll need are here. 01. Evaluate and interpret the concept Decide how you'll break your model down into different meshes Before starting to do any modelling, I always make sure to evaluate the concept, so let's first decide how we are going to break down the model into the different meshes. It is extremely helpful to start the modelling with a good plan of what you are going to do, it will save a lot of time and effort. It is also a good idea to do some research and gather reference images to help in the development of the shapes. 02. Create the base mesh Make sure you establish initial proportions and gesture The first thing to do is to create the base mesh of every piece on the model. At this point we are not going to add any detail. Instead, we're paying attention to the silhouette. Establishing initial proportions and gesture is crucial. It is true that the model's proportions are going to change a lot from the start to finish, but having a solid initial base mesh is a good idea. At this point, we don't have any details on the model so it is easier to play around with proportions. 03. Avoid triangles When creating a high-resolution model, avoid using triangles as they are likely to give you a terrible result in some areas when a smoothing is applied. If you really must use them, then hide them in areas that can't be seen. As a general rule, using four-sided polys (quads) – even Ngons are better than tris. 04. Create the cockpit Cut the glass area away from the cockpit frame We need to separate the glass from the metal frame area, so let's take the base mesh and make some cuts that suggest the shape of the glass. Once we have the desired shape we can detach the glass object. Now we just need to apply a Shell modifier to the metal frame, and finally we can make some adjustments to the shapes and add supporting loops for the final smoothing. 05. Use connections and bevels Create edge connections to make modelling easier Now take the base mesh and start by making some connections, and move the vertices from one side to fit the shape of the cylinder. Make some edge connections along all the long geometry; this will help make it easier to select different polygons, add bevels, select one loop of edges over another and make extrusions to suggest some paneling. Take the polygons at the bottom, make a bevel and detach them, and add more details to that area. 06. Make vents Follow these steps to make your vents Take the base mesh, add some loops and select some edges to apply an extrusion. To give a more bevelled finish to this piece, select all the edges of the borders and make a big chamfer. Using the same Bevel/Detach technique as before, we can build the front area of the vents. Now take the detached polygons and make some connections, then select the polygons and extrude them to create the vents. Finally, add the corresponding supporting loops. 07. Add edge loops to support the smoothing Use edge loops to avoid stretching the geometry Use the same method of edge connect, cuts and bevels to add more details. Once this is done, it's time to add some extra loops to support the final smoothing. We need to add loops very close to the edges we want to be sharp. After this first group of loops is done, add another set of loops, this time not as close as the first ones; these will be an extra support to avoid the feeling that the geometry is stretched. 08. Cleaning up unnecessary vertices Go through and get rid of unnecessary edges After adding all the supporting loops, we may end up with a lot of edges around the model that we don't actually need. It is a good idea to make a cleaning pass and remove these so we will have a better smoothing result of the geometry at the end. To do this, check the model and start collapsing all the vertices that don't contribute on the support task and in no time at all you'll have cleaner geometry. 09. Model the bottom wing Start fleshing out your wing with extra detail So far, we have suggested a very simple geometry for the bottom wing, now go on and add extra loops to give it a more rounded shape. Add one loop, select some of the resulting polygons and apply a bevel. Now repeat the same process in the rear area of the model. Select some edges and extrude them to suggest some panel shapes. Once this is done, it is time to add the supporting loops and finally execute the vertices cleaning pass. 10. Make holes in a cylinder Don't follow the obvious route to making holes in a cylinder When we want to add holes in a cylinder, people typically think of taking the cylinder and making the holes on it, but this will ultimately result in bad smoothing. Instead, here is a simple technique I like to use: take a cylinder, make a hole, duplicate it (collapse the vertices between holes) and apply a 360-angle Bend modifier. Apply a Shell modifier to add some thickness, and add the support loops. Now if you smooth it, you will have a perfect cylinder with perfect holes. 11. Add geometries on intersections Suggest a point of attachment at your intersections Details matter when creating an imaginary vehicle that needs to feel authentic and workable. For example, in the areas where two meshes intersect, it is a good idea to add extra geometry to suggest a point of attachment and a more realistic finish: I attached a bevelled inset section to suggest a connecting point. 12. Small pieces When creating small details like joints or bolts, duplicate them around the model rather than making a new one each time. This will for help bring consistency to your model, and it will save you precious time. Also, when duplicating elements, make them instances so all of them will take any changes you make. 13. Make cables Use Beziers to finish off the model with some cables Once the model is done, it is time to add some cables. Make a simple line of three vertices (for small cables) and add a Bezier. Now start moving the vertices and the Beziers until we have the shape we want. An easier way to work with Beziers in this case is to set up the Reference Coordinate System to Screen. This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 217; buy it here! Related articles: Create stunning tileable textures in Blender Discover how this stunning Millennium Falcon model was made 5 tips for sculpting in double-quick time View the full article

For anyone working professionally in character design, a character bible is one of the most essential elements of your workflow. A character bible is the document that gathers the subject's design, turnaround, biography, hero poses, colour schemes, props and worlds in a precise, easily understood package. It's used in numerous fields of work, including animation, game development and book creation. A well-crafted character bible is the key to opening new doors, and is something you can hold in your hand to help you communicate your ideas to any potential collaborator or producer. In Pictoplasma Academy workshops, tutors Rilla Alexander and Nathan Jurevicius pay a lot of attention to all of the different aspects of the character bible, with the aim of encouraging attendees to take their ideas and concepts to the next level. Here, Pictoplasma shares some tips from the character bible workshop, to help you learn how to make your own character bible document. Workshopping characters An attendee's character drawn in the group pose The very first thing our tutors get the students to do is obsessively draw their character over and over. Despite having drawn a character for years, attendees are challenged to look at new ways of seeing their design. The idea of this exercise is to break away from old habits and open up possibilities of what could be revealed if pushed. Some of the most enjoyable and fruitful exercises involve mirroring facial expressions, human puppetry and a mind-bending fan art session. In this last exercise, everyone comes together for an intense speed-drawing event, interpreting the entire group's characters. You learn a lot from the interpretation and exaggeration of others! Character poses Working on the silhouette of a character Alexander and Jurevicius also ask attendees to work just on the silhouette of their character and cut it out from board paper. When it comes to the silhouette of your character and its most characteristic poses, it is good to reflect on basic psychological rules, such as a triangular shape standing for danger, a circle for friendliness and a rectangular form for strength. Stressing one or combining two in your design will influence how your character appears to others. The fun part is when they take this to the next step and ask students to create paper masks of their characters. Students then act out and embody their creation through a number of interactive exercises. Workshop attendees pose in a group situation This leads directly to exposing the personality of your character. As much as you work on the outer qualities, you should also think about the inner ones. We have found it practical to do a lot of brainstorming and free association – for example, filling in lists of things you like to draw, writing short biographies for your character and reading them to fellow attendees, putting your characters in a defined situation and deciding how they will react. The more you can imagine your character as a being that is independent from your creation, the more you will instinctively find out about its personality. Material world A collection of material gathered for one character in the workshop All this is done without a computer – attendees will just need a pencil or pen and paper, and occasionally some board paper, scissors, glue and staples. Next is plasticine, as you need to put your character in front of you to get a 360° vision of it. As you hold your creation in your hands, touch it and take a look at it from all sides, it's a great moment that feels like you've created a new life. You will find out a lot at this stage. Things that look great in 2D don't necessarily translate well or easily into the third dimension. If the medium you want to take your character into will remain flat, you might feel you don't need this information, but even if you aim for a two-dimensional illustration, it's good to know about your creation's volume and corporeality. Working with your own plasticine model will often give you a new understanding. It is also essential for you to draw the turnaround – six views that show your character from front and back, both sides, bottom and top. Again, you might never want to feature your character from these perspectives, but it helps to understand how it could look from different angles early on. Alexander and Jurevicius encourage attendees to document all this material on the wall, gradually building up a collection that tells the story of their character. It's at this point that we get students to transform their sketches into vector graphics, doing clean up, deciding on the most important poses, and making turnaround views precise. Background stories Jurevicius' characters with colour references At this stage, the character bible is finessed and polished by adding short biographies of your main character(s), a synopsis of the project and a definition of colour schemes in precise values (such as CMYK, RGB or Pantone). This process could potentially also include sidekicks, props that are important to the character or a map of the world the project is set in. Even if you never reveal these aspects of your character to the wider world, doing these exercises will better inform you of your character and the world it inhabits, and in the long-term, help you to create a more personal and rewarding final project. Once you start pitching, communicating to others or passing your character on for production, the character bible will be an essential tool for any collaboration. Book a Pictoplasma Academy workshop here This article originally appeared in Computer Arts issue 264; buy it here! Related articles: How to generate new ideas for character designs 10 best video game character designs Pro character art advice from Pictoplasma's experts View the full article

While it's true that attackers are developing more complex viruses and malware all the time, increasingly and often forgotten, the biggest security threat to businesses does not actually come from software, but from human beings themselves. Companies can build the most secure infrastructure in the world to protect their data from external threats, with solutions such as firewalls, VPNs and secure gateways, but that doesn't mitigate the risk of threats, malicious or otherwise, from within the organisation itself. This low-tech way of hacking has become increasingly popular in recent years, with well-known brands falling victim to fraudsters contacting junior finance administrators requesting funds after doing a little LinkedIn investigating. Download images securely with a VPN Additionally, with the internet forming so much of most people's daily routine, and many employees logging into personal accounts at the workplace, it's important to remember that there is also a crossover between personal details and your business information when it comes to online safety. If a hacker obtains your personal details, they can access your professional ones too. Here, then, are four ways that hackers can bypass your security and steal your data. 01. Social engineering The genesis of any human-led cyber security threat is social engineering; the act of manipulating confidential data from an individual. Sure, hackers could infect a network with malware and go in through the back door, or better still, they could just trick an employee into giving out a password and stroll right in through the front without raising any alarm bells. Once a hacker has an individual's password, there is little you can do to stop them, since their activity will appear to be authorised. Social engineering techniques have had to become more sophisticated over the years as the average user has become savvier to the traditional methods hackers use. So hackers are now having to be smarter in the ways that they obtain data. In a business sense, something as simple as tricking a user into clicking a malicious link can give the attacker access to the entire network. People know to ignore emails from pleading strangers who are in desperate need of bank details, but when that email comes from someone you know, you are much less likely to click 'Mark as spam'. Hackers can easily scroll through a potential target's Facebook account to find the name of a friend of the victim. Then they can send the victim an email pretending to be that friend, and the victim will be more likely to fall for it if they think it's come from someone they know. TIP: On the topic of social media, be careful with the personal details that you give out. What may seem like a harmless game where 'Your rap name is the name of your first pet plus your mother's maiden name', could actually be a phishing scam used to find out the answers to common account recovery questions. Illustration: Kym Winters 02. The low-tech internal threat Instead of a faceless enemy, most internal cyber security threats actually come from current or ex-employees. These employees can gain unauthorised access to confidential data, or infect the network with something malicious. These internal threats can take many forms: Shoulder surfing 'Shoulder surfing' is the simple act of one person observing someone typing their password. There is precedent of this happening. A disgruntled or soon-to-be-leaving employee could casually stand behind a desk and observe other employees typing their passwords. This simple act might lead to unauthorised access, which could be disastrous to a business. Passwords on Post-it notes Even easier than memorising a password observed over a shoulder, internal threats can come from employees writing down passwords and sticking them to their computer monitors – yes, that actually happens. Obviously this makes it incredibly easy for someone to obtain login details that could then be used to defraud or infect a company. The good news is that this carelessness is easy to rectify. Thumb drives inserted into computers Employee machines can be infected with keylogging software loaded onto a simple USB drive. An attacker would just have to sneak the USB drive into the back of a computer, and they'd have access to the personal details and passwords of the user. TIP: To avoid these internal threats, businesses should educate their employees with security courses and communications on the importance of being vigilant with their passwords. Password manager software like KeePass or Dashlane can securely store passwords, so you don't have to remember all of them. Alternatively, you can also lock down the USB ports of your workstations to prevent unauthorised devices from being accessed via USB altogether. This approach does need to be considered carefully however, because it makes every workstation much less flexible and increases the workload for the IT department, since every new USB device will require approval before it can be used. 03. Baiting Similar to social engineering, baiting methods trick users using information obtained about the person. For example, a hacker could check social media sites and learn that the target has an interest in Game of Thrones. That knowledge gives the attacker some bait. Instead of a generic email, the attacker could send the target an email that says 'Click here to watch the latest Game of Thrones episode'. The user is more likely to click the button which, of course, is actually a malware link, and not the most recent episode of Game of Thrones. Similarly, with so much information listed publicly on LinkedIn, it can also be easy for attackers to research a reporting structure, target a junior pretending to be the CEO and request a transfer of funds to a particular account. As farfetched as that may seem, there are well known incidents of this taking place. Eavesdropping is a similar method, with attackers listening to business conversations in coffee shops, on public transport and even as a supplier in an office environment. 04. Unsubscribe buttons Another way attackers are tricking users into downloading malware from emails is through unsubscribe buttons. By law, every marketing email must contain an unsubscribe link so that consumers can opt out of receiving communications. An attacker could send repeated emails to a user that look like special marketing offers from a clothing company (or similar). The emails looks harmless enough, but if the user is not interested in the company, or thinks the emails are too frequent, they can press the unsubscribe button to stop receiving emails. Except in this hacker's phishing email, clicking the unsubscribe button actually downloads the malware. TIP: A properly configured anti-spam filter should stop these emails, but again, it's best to stay alert. The key take-away is to stay vigilant and up-to-date on the array of methods that hackers may use to steal your data. Educate your employees so they are aware of the techniques listed in this article that may be used to acquire content, such as their login details or personal data. Encourage employees to question anyone they don't recognise, and to be aware of anyone listening to conversations or shoulder surfing. Taking all this aside however, it is worth remembering that the internet remains an overwhelmingly positive and creative place to be, and the world is significantly richer for it. Providing you're vigilant, we can all continue to enjoy its benefits. This article was originally published in issue 303 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 303 or subscribe here. Get your ticket for Generate New York now The industry's best web design event Generate New York is back. Taking place between 25-27 April 2018, headline speakers include SuperFriendly’s Dan Mall, web animation consultant Val Head, full-stack JavaScript developer Wes Bos and more. There’s also a full day of workshops and valuable networking opportunities – don’t miss it. Get your Generate ticket now. Related articles: Is it okay to build sites that rely on JavaScript? 9 security tips to protect your website from hackers Should you be worried about Meltdown and Spectre? View the full article

It can be a real challenge to balance a whole team trying to get a project done. Without proper management, important tasks can fall through before you ever get to them. Keep your plans on schedule and get things done ahead of schedule with Aeon Timeline 2, on sale for just $19.99 (approx. £14). One person can't keep track of every element of a major project. That's where Aeon Timeline 2 comes in handy. This timeline building app for Mac and Windows will handle the organisation for you, making it easy for anyone to manage a workload efficiently and get everything done on time. With this app, all the information you need is right at your fingertips, exactly when you need it. Keep your team on task and get the job done right. Aeon Timeline 2 usually retails for $50, but you can save 60 per cent right now. That means you pay just $19.99 (approx. £14) for this tool that will help you get more done, so grab this deal today! Related articles: Top tips for nailing project management Best project management software The tools of the trade for project management View the full article

Using an HTML boilerplate saves you from starting from scratch every time you build a site Though websites are all unique from a content and design perspective, the underlying foundations of the vast majority of sites are very similar. So why start each one from scratch when you can use a reliable boilerplate for the initial work? Typically, people creating sites want to deal with the quirks of individual browsers, stripping out any proprietary styling that such software might add to specific web page elements. Additionally, they may use scripts for dealing with the shortcomings of older browsers, and might also drop in basic default styles, for horizontal rules and elements that are supposed to be hidden. Doing this again and again for every project is a massive waste of time and energy. Not only will you mostly be repeating yourself, you might also make unique errors during every attempt to start afresh. Furthermore, for some people there will be the horror of a blank document that leaves them simply not sure where to start. If you're smart, you won't attempt to reinvent the wheel when others have done the work for you, and you'll use an HTML boilerplate. What is an HTML boilerplate? Boilerplates are similar to templates, but more helpful, in that they often contain text and graphics to start you off rather than just layouts for these elements. An HTML boilerplate is a set of files that you can download, which provide a foundation for any website you create. Typically, they have been built by industry professionals but freely released to the community, so you can use them as the basis for your own projects. This speeds things up and ensures that the basics of your site are sound. Note that the term 'HTML boilerplate' doesn't mean you just get an HTML document or even a bunch of them. Boilerplates may contain a range of file types, including HTML documents, but also add CSS, JavaScript, placeholder images, and documentation on how to use what you've just downloaded. Popular boilerplates HTML5 Boilerplate is a good place to start. The self-described "web's most popular front-end template", is a sleek and simple HTML5 template that's the result of the pooled knowledge of many dozens of developers. It provides the basic scaffolding or framework for building an entire website. There are alternative methods, which happen to provide more assistance. Bootstrap, Web Starter Kit and Skeleton add things like a typography base and responsive grid, giving you a further head-start when working on your design. However, they do so at the expense of additional default code, which you may find yourself having to edit or override. There are also arguments that rather too many designers in recent years have relied heavily on Bootstrap, thereby resulting in many sites looking alike. Using a simpler HTML5 Boilerplate foundation and going your own way could therefore be a better choice, depending on your level of ability, confidence and needs. Using HTML5 Boilerplate When downloaded, this free, open-source boilerplate provides you with documentation and licensing in Markdown format, some CSS, two placeholder images, two HTML files, some JavaScript, and some server config files. You can click on your favourite option for each filter! On downloading the archive, make a copy and keep it clean and untouched. It can then serve as reference for any changes you make. For your new site, you can ditch all of the .md documents. First, replace the two .png files with your logo, which will appear as your site's favicon and the icon when your site is saved to someone's iOS Home screen. An online generator can help you create new images. In the HTML, there might be some things that you're not familiar with. The majority of these additions deal with issues relating to legacy browsers. The final script element is for Google Analytics and can be removed entirely if you don't use that. Leave the other script elements that are found towards the end of the file, because they load jQuery. Add content to the body of the document after the 'Add your site or application content here' comment. You'll also need to give the page a title and fill the 'content' value in the 'description' meta tag. Note also that all links are relative in this document, and so you may need to change them to root-relative or absolute links if you start nesting web pages in folders. You can add comments if you make any major changes to the HTML, to remind yourself later. CSS edits HTML5 Boilerplate is a great way to save time when creating new websites Of the two CSS documents included with HTML5 Boilerplate, there's no need to touch normalize.css. This is the reset document that ensures all browsers start on a level playing field when it comes to your website. By contrast, main.css includes what the document terms "opinionated defaults", including some basic styles for selections, horizontal rules, images, and forms, helpers for item visibility, and @media rules for responsive web design and print. Everything here is fair game for updating, although carefully consider whether you should do so. There's an area set aside for the author's custom styles (ie, yours) or you could create an entirely separate CSS document and attach that to your HTML as well. Whatever your choice, be mindful of how you'll deal with subsequent updates to HTML5 Boilerplate itself. If you edit any of the default main.css styles, changes made in future versions of HTML5 Boilerplate (which would either be added by replacing files, or replacing parts of files) won't necessarily come across to your site, or will override your own edits. Therefore, again make use of comments for any changes, thereby making later comparisons much easier. Advanced boilerplates Based on HTLM5 Boilerplate, Initializr generates a clean customizable template for you Once you gain experience, it's worth considering a custom build using Initializr, retaining the components you need and ditching those you don't. Also, if you're creating a WordPress site, explore a WordPress-specific blank theme, such as HTML5 Blank. These downloads and services are all free, so you can check out and experiment with them at your leisure. Still, whatever you do, a little work and investigation now should save you a whole lot of time later, when you just pull out your boilerplate to get cracking on a new website. Get your ticket for Generate New York now Three-day web design event Generate New York is back. Taking place between 25-27 April 2018, headline speakers include SuperFriendly’s Dan Mall, web animation consultant Val Head, full-stack JavaScript developer Wes Bos and more. There’s also a full day of workshops and valuable networking opportunities – don’t miss it. Get your Generate ticket now. Liked this? Read these: 16 amazing HTML examples 5 of the best resources for learning HTML and CSS 16 top online coding courses View the full article

A strong, memorable, self-contained marque just isn't enough in our increasingly multi-channel world. While logo design remains important, brands also need to develop a toolkit of equally distinctive parts. Colour in branding can have a strong impact, and a truly 'ownable' palette is the holy grail. A bespoke branded typeface can also work wonders, as can a distinctive brand voice, or unique approach to art direction or illustration. With all this in mind, read on for five examples of brands whose assets make them recognisable even when the logo is removed... 01. O2: bubbles and blue gradients O2 has built such a strong brand association with bubbles on a blue gradient, that no logo is needed here Provided you're already familiar with the O2 brand, air bubbles rising through a simple vertical gradient of sky blue to royal blue will be enough to distinguish the brand from its competitors. And that's a powerful position to be in. Oxygen bubbles say 'O2' in more ways than one, and their use in the telco firm's branding has symbolic significance too: a breath of fresh air. Their size and position is variable, so they're not a brand marque in any conventional sense. The 'bubble' motif translates into any kind of circular application, such as the enormous O2 Arena in London, formerly known as the Millennium Dome. O2's long-running 'Be More Dog' campaign by VCCP added a playful, life-affirming twist to its marketing. And its more recent Follow The Rabbit ads keep that quirky, character-driven edge alive, but the bubbles and blue gradient remain constant. 02. Virgin: scarlet red and cheeky wit Cheeky and playful copywriting and scarlet red combine in Virgin's many diverse brand communications For a vast holding company like Virgin Group, whose diverse ventures span the globe and include gyms, airlines, trains, holidays, telecommunications, media, banking, retail and even space travel, brand coherence is an interesting challenge. Although the scrawled Virgin logo ties all of these organisations together, its distinctive scarlet is a powerful element that helps make the brand, in its own words, "sophisticated yet playful, glamorous yet cheeky, stylish yet flirty". That brand voice cuts through the competition wherever it appears. According to Virgin Mobile's guidelines, it's about cheeky wit, being friendly and natural, and keeping it fresh, simple and positive. "Our humour should be based on honest, insightful observations of human behaviour, not cheesy gags of randomness just for the sake of standing out," explain the guidelines. "We want to be witty, not weird." Combine that tone of voice with Virgin's distinctive red, and the logo becomes almost secondary. 03. IKEA: pure Swedish simplicity You don't need an IKEA logo to know instantly where these bookcase assembly instructions come from When your packaging and communications are as brutally simple as IKEA's, you need a distinctive brand toolkit to tie it all together. Its logo is distinctive, but the proudly Swedish blue-and-yellow palette is much more so. If you see a blue bag with yellow handles – or while in-store, a yellow bag with blue handles – it's pretty unmistakable which brand you're dealing with. Its choice of typeface alone is never going to punch through. For 50 years IKEA used Futura, before controversially switching to the even more ubiquitous Verdana in 2010. But a bold, all-caps treatment of a quirky, distinctively Swedish-sounding name – next to a simple line drawing of the product it describes, and step-by-step infographic instructions – doesn't need an IKEA logo next to it. It's a gloriously pared-back aesthetic that has been much aped, but never bettered. 04. Coca-Cola: blend of shape, colour and form Jonathan Mak's 'Coke Hands' poster unmistakably conveys the Coca-Cola brand without any need to show a logo That Spencerian script logo, which has remained relatively unchanged since the 19th century, is unmistakably Coca-Cola – and it's one of the most iconic American logos. But Coke has also laid claim to a handful of equally strong brand assets, as demonstrated by its recent CokexAdobexYou campaign, which invited the public to reinterpret those assets in new ways. They include the iconic glass bottle silhouette, the dynamic wave shape, and of course the red-and-white colour palette. Any combination of two or more of those assets screams Coca-Cola with no logo in sight. A strong demonstration of this was Ogilvy & Mather Shanghai's 2012 poster, designed by Jonathan Mak – who had previously risen to global fame for his 'Steve Jobs silhouette' Apple logo. Mak combined the red-and-white palette, bottle shape and wave form to create a strikingly simple graphic of two hands sharing a Coke. 05. Macmillan: distinctive type and intimate tone A five-word phrase stacked over three lines, Macmillan's brand identity feels like part of the conversation rather than a logo Sometimes a typeface and smart use of language can be enough to define a brand. When Wolff Olins rebranded cancer charity Macmillan, the agency embraced a much more personal approach that reversed its formerly 'institutional' vibe. Rather than a corporate stamp, the new branding – 'We are Macmillan. Cancer support' – felt like the start of a conversation. The accompanying communications, set in the irregular, handmade-looking typeface in two distinctive shades of green, continued in that vein by using the 'We...' construct to feel inclusive and friendly. The highly distinctive combination of type and colour does all the heavy lifting in terms of brand recognition, to the extent that the logo could easily be removed without any doubt of what brand is represented. Related articles: 5 times brands shook up their logo to create a powerful message These big-brand logos all pass the silhouette test 5 small-business rebrands that got big attention Empty list View the full article

Google updates its Android OS to address its own OS and component partners Qualcomm and Broadcom. View the full article

Here is the definitive guide to the best photo apps around, covering iOS (that's iPhone and iPad) and Android apps. Some you won't have heard of, others you'll be more familiar with. None are going to replace a great DSLR, mirrorless or compact camera (see our guide to the best cameras for creatives) and a couple of hours with a photo editor such as Photoshop CC, but they're all great at what they do. Get Adobe Creative Cloud Let's start off with apps to transform your current photo collection: photo editing apps. You'll also find apps for taking photos and artistic photo apps on the other pages of this article, so click through to those if that's what you're after. The 5 best laptops for photo editing 01. Photoshop Lightroom CC for mobile Platform: iOS, Android Developer: Adobe Price: Free Adobe makes a number of photo apps but if you’re serious about photo editing on your device, you only need one: Photoshop Lightroom CC for mobile. It's a free app that gives you a powerful yet simple solution for capturing, editing and sharing your photos. You can shoot raw photos (on compatible phones), or transfer from your camera onto your device, and easily organise and tweak them, then automatically upload them to the cloud so they don’t take up space on your device. It has presets to keep your edits quick and simple, but you can also go deeper and fine-tune images to perfection. Signing up to a Creative Cloud account - including the Lightroom CC plan, adds the ability to work across phone, tablet and desktop with instant synchronisation. 02. Photoshop Express Photoshop Express offers the sort of professionalism you'd expect from Adobe Platform: iOS, Android Developer: Adobe Price: Free As you would expect from Adobe, the interface and user experience of the Photoshop Express photo app for Apple and Android devices is faultless. It fulfils all the functions you need for picture editing and will probably be the one you turn to for sheer convenience. 'Straighten' and 'Flip' are two useful functions not included in many other apps. However, none of the filters really jump out, and some are surprisingly naff for an app that comes from the developer for designers. Ultimately, if you are looking for a more professional tool, look towards Lightroom CC for mobile, but the cut-down feel and familiarity of PS Express will suit some. 03. Photoshop Mix Platform: iOS, Android Developer: Adobe Price: Free Photoshop Mix is an app that caters more for those looking to make big statements than those making subtle adjustments, and it’s none the worse for it. PS Mix enables you to cut out and combine elements from different images, blend layers and make adjustments to your creations on your device, and it majors in ease-of-use. Usefully, it live-syncs with Photoshop CC, meaning that when you make a change on your phone, it’ll show up instantly on your desktop – and you can take advantage of Creative Cloud benefits with an Adobe Photography Plan, which saves a fair bit of cash over a full subscription. 04. Photoshop Fix Platform: iOS, Android Developer: Adobe Price: Free With Photoshop Fix, you can make the most common image adjustments very easily, right on your smart device, without having to transfer your photos to a desktop computer and use expensive photo editing software. At your fingertips are the tools to liquify, heal, lighten, colour and adjust your images to perfection, plus you can experiment with painting tools and vignettes, control exposure, contrast, saturation and focus. As with all Adobe mobile apps, having a Creative Cloud account opens up the ability to instantly share your work with other CC apps on desktop or mobile, but Photoshop Fix is probably best Adobe app for those just looking to make their smartphone photos better without requiring deep knowledge of editing tools. 05. Photo Editor by Aviary Aviary strikes a balance between serious and playful Platform: iOS, Android Developer: Aviary Price: Free Aviary is a pleasantly designed app that strikes the perfect balance between serious photo editing and playful photo decoration functions, without looking bland or childish. Since it was first launched, the number of tools has exploded from 20 to 1500, giving you plenty of room to play. The 'Strato' filter creates one of the most convincing vintage effects from all the apps tested. 06. Google PhotoScan Platform: iOS, Android Developer: Google Price: Free It's all very well being able edit photos on your phone or computer, but what about those old pre-digital prints you have lying around? If putting them all through a scanner's too much for you, there's an app that makes digitising your ancient snaps much easier. Google's PhotoScan enables you to scan photos with your phone in seconds, without unsightly glare and shadows; head this way for some great tips on how to get the best out of it. 07. Pixlr Pixlr has such a huge array of effects and tools that you can get lost in it for hours Platform: iOS, Android Developer: Autodesk Inc Price: Free Boasting over two million combinations of effects, overlays and filters, Pixlr contains enough tools to keep you busy for hours. You can also layer your images, add text captions, and it is also an excellent collage maker. Plus you'll also find an eraser to auto fix the colour and automatically adjust contrast. Not bad for a free app. 08. Fotor Platform: iOS, Android Developer: Everimagining Price: Free Looking for a flexible photo editing app that's easy to pick up and produces quality results? Fotor delivers all of this, and best of all you can download it for free. This versatile app enables you to edit, collage and share images, plus you can discover masterpieces snapped by other users. Fotor also offers a focus feature, enabling you to control depth of field and clarity to simulate DSLR effects. Simply select a focal point, adjust the emulator to your preference, and create a high definition finish. 09. Qwik Qwik is crammed with filters, fonts and frames Platform: iOS, Android Developer: Guillaume Babusiaux Price: Free Qwik describes itself as 'the fastest and easiest way to make pretty photos,' and with over 50 filters, plus tons of fonts and frames, it's hard to argue with it. Edit your images in seconds with straightforward hands-on tools, and share them with Qwik's online community. With new filters and features being added every week, Qwik is constantly keeping itself fresh and exciting. 10. PicLab Use the photo editor to quickly create trendy infographic images with this photo app Platform: iOS, Android Developer: MuseWorks Price: Free PicLab is a nifty app for creating those inspiring images that you get all over the internet these days. You know, the ones featuring a photo – probably with at least one retro filter applied – with a helpful aphorism layered over the top in an attractive, friendly typeface. Yeah, those – like the silly AI-generated ones we've featured, but better. PicLab HD makes them an absolute doddle to create, enabling you to either snap a photo or grab one from your photo library, then go to town on it. As well as adding typography – lots of fonts and full control over size, positioning, opacity, rotation, and colour – you can also layer illustrations, ornamentation and other design elements on top of your image. PicLab features full layer-based editing and also packs plenty of tools for making your original photo look its best, with loads of lighting and film effects to choose from as well as preset photo filters and adjustment tools for fine tuning the brightness, contrast, exposure, saturation, and the blur level of your photos. 11. Handy Photo Platform: iOS, Android Developer: ADVA Soft Price: $2.99/£2.99 (iOS), $2.99/£2.89 (Android) The selling point of photo editor Handy Photo is its interface, which uses the corners of the screen to cater for rotating menu options. It's all designed to keep the central area of the screen clear, allowing you to use swipe gestures to tone your effects up or down. It's a powerful photo editor; the UI isn't for everyone, but this is an amazing price for the effects you get. The 'Move Me' tool enables you to clip out objects and move, resize or flip them. 12. Facetune Hide your blemishes, wrinkles and more with Facetune's photo editor Platform: iPhone, iPad, Android Developer: Lightricks Price: $3.99/£3.99 (iPhone), $5.99/£5.99 (iPad), $5.99/£3.99 (Android) Embarrassed about your laughter lines? Feeling blue about those blemishes? Fear not, Facetune is here! Grab a photo from your Camera Roll and start your makeover; you can remove unwanted freckles, blemished skin or hide bags under the eyes with Smooth; reshape that wonky nose or misshapen jawline with, er, Reshape; and make subtle tweaks of colour using Tone. The results of this photo editor are truly impressive. You can share results over Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr – if you dare. 13. PhotoWonder Photo Wonder has a good collage feature with multiple layouts and photo booth effects Platform: iOS, Android Developer: Beijing Baidu Netcom Price: Free Excellent user interface makes Photo Wonder one of the speediest smartphone photo apps to use. It also has a good collage feature with multiple layouts and photo booth effects. The filter selection isn’t huge, but many are so well-designed that you’ll find them far more valuable than sheer quantity from a lesser app. The 'Vintage' filter works magic on photos of buildings or scenery. Combine with 'Sweety' for a dreamy retro effect. 14. Rakuga Cute Look beyond the cuteness and Rakuga Cute has some interesting features Platform: iOS Developer: Tatsumi Electronics Price: Free At first glance this iPhone photo app seems aimed at Japanese schoolgirls rather than discerning designers, but Rakuga Cute actually contains some unusual editing functions which makes it an interesting addition to your photo repertoire. The 'Mosaic' option lets you selectively pixelate any part of a photo, quite useful for blurring out license-plates, identities or should you feel so inclined, body parts as well. Next page: Camera apps 15. Halide Halide puts pro camera controls at your fingertips Platform: iOS Developer: Chroma Noir Price: £4.99/$4.99 If you love the convenience of mobile photography but miss the control you get with a full-on SLR, Halide is well worth snapping up. It'll work as a simple point and shoot, but with a swipe you can open up a whole load of lovely manual options, giving you tactile control over focus, ISO and shutter speed, as well as a live histogram to help you get the right exposure. You can review your photos Tinder-style, with a right swipe to add them to your favourites, and a left swipe to trash them, and Halide can even export as RAW to give you more flexibility when you edit your shots. 16. Camera MX Platform: Android Developer: Appic Labs Corp Price: Free The Android exclusive photo app Camera MX combines powerful enhancement tools with a beautifully simple user interface. Thanks to intelligent image prcoessing you can take visibly sharper snaps, as well as cutting and trimming them to perfection in the edit. In the latest version you can create dynamic photos with the 'Live Shot' feature. By saving the last seconds before you actually take the photo, this app lets users capture moving snaps that can be relived and shared. 17. Lensical Platform: iOS (iPhone) Developer: Apptly, LLC Price: Free Lensical makes creating face effects as simple as adding photo filters. Lensical is designed for larger displays and utilises one-handed gesture-based controls making it the perfect complement to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S Plus's cameras. 18. Camera+ Camera+ is adored by iPad users and has subsequently arrived on iPhone - hooray! Platform: iOS (iPhone and iPad) Developer: tap tap tap Price: $2.99/£2.99 (iPhone), $4.99/£4.99 (iPad) The Camera app that comes on the iPhone by default is not brilliant: yes, you can use it to take some decent shots, but it doesn't offer you much creative control. This is where Camera+ excels. The app has two parts: a camera and a photo editor, and it truly excels at the latter, with a huge range of advanced features. Camera+ doesn't just limit you to editing new pics – you can quickly import your existing photos into the Lightbox so that you can breathe new life into them. 19. Clone Camera Pro Double up your images with Clone Camera Pro Platform: iOS (iPhone) Developer: Peta Vision Price: $1.99/£1.99 A smart photo-compositing app that allows you to double up on your images. Clone Camera lets you produce a 'photo' of a scene with the same person in it multiple times. It's simply a case of taking up to four photos of the same person in a different location, and then selecting the areas you want to stitch together into the final photo. The app works best if you have a tripod, or can otherwise keep your device still. 20. Camera360 Camera360 offers a huge range of functions and no ads Platform: iOS (iPhone), Android Developer: PinGuo Price: Free Camera360 is a remarkable smartphone photo app. It's perfectly self-contained with a huge range of functions, no ads and no insistence in promoting paid content. Touching the photo after applying a filter produces a nifty quick comparison of the 'before' and 'after' versions. One drawback is that the process of importing photos is slightly tedious, with one too many clicks involved. Tip: go to Enhancement>Night for a great filter to correct slightly dark or underexposed photos. 21. LINE Camera You can add text to your pictures in over 100 fonts and 20 colours Platform: iOS (iPhone), Android Developer: Naver Japan Price: Free Sleek and easy-to-use, LINE Camera comes with a solid range of filters, borders, icons and stamps. You can also add text to your pictures in over 100 fonts and 20 colours, making this free smartphone photo app one of the best for typography. Check out Stamp>Heart Symbol>Shine for a nice selection of kitschy sparkle brushes. 22. Paper Camera Paper Camera's interface is quirky to say the least Platform: iOS (iPhone and iPad) Developer: JFDP Labs Price: $2.99/£2.99 (iOS), £2.39 (Android) Filter effects aren't exactly a new thing, but Paper Camera takes a different approach to the post effects found in the likes of Instagram. What does it do? Well, it displays effects in real time on your camera as you're using it. There are some neat effects on offer – including cartoon, half tone and sketch. 23. Lifecake Platform: iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android Developer: Lifecake Price: Free Save and organise pictures of your children growing up with Lifecake. In a timeline free from the adverts and noise that clutter most social media channels, you can easily look back over fond memories and share them with family and friends. Touted as 'a time machine of your child's life', you can skip to select stages and compare different dates. You decide who can see your images, and because Lifecake is now a Canon company you can order a printed album of your precious photos. 24. VSCO Cam Platform: iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android Developer: Visual Supply Company Price: Free Connect with amazing photographers from around the world, and create your own stunning photography with VSCO Cam. Create your own VSCO Journal to join in with the community and find inspiration form other users. Unlike other social platforms, your followers and clout are not displayed, giving everyone an equal creative playing field. VSCO Cam comes packed with top performance features, including high resolution imports, and before and after comparisons to show how you built up your edit. Introduce yourself to the community by downloading it for free. Next page: Artistic photo apps 25. Prisma Prisma uses AI to turn your snaps into works of art Platform: iOS/Android Developer: Prisma Labs Price: Free Better than any filter-based photo app, Prisma can transform your photos into masterpieces in the style of famous artists such as Van Gogh, Munch, Mondrian and Picasso. It uses an AI technique called style transfer to do its artistic magic, and it's no longer restricted to still images; it now works on video as well. 26. Instagram With a few simple edits, Instagram transforms photos into works of art Platform: iOS, Android Developer: Instagram, Inc Price: Free Even if you're new to the world of photo apps chances are you've heard of Instagram. Capable of turning the most everyday photo into something glamorous thanks to its range of custom-designed filters and editing tools, Instagram has won over a legion of fans and dedicated users. Put simply, there is a reason Instagram is so popular. It's powerful, versatile, and best of all it's free. Thanks in part to its ownership by Facebook, Instagram has also become a social media platform in itself. Instagram Stories let you communicate a diary of images to your followers, and offshoot apps Boomerang, Hyperlapse and Layout help you create striking video and collages. And – praise be! – Instagram has finally tweaked its feed to make newer posts more likely to appear near the top. But please just make it chronological again! 27. PixelWakker PixelWakker transforms your pics into pointillist art Platform: iOS (iPhone and iPad) Developer: PixelWakker Price: £2.99 If you're a fan of pointillism then this is the photo app for you. PixelWakker breaks down your images into their component pixels and that's where the fun begins. You can apply one of four great effects – pixel image, dots, line, or colour rain – to your pics and watch in wonder as dot art unfolds before your eyes. 28. Sktchy You'll either love or hate sketch-based community photo editor app Sktchy Platform: iOS (iPhone and iPad) Developer: Sktchy LLC Price: Free Connecting with people around the world in a new way, here you can choose from a selection of photographs, uploaded by the Sktchy community and create a portrait from that image. Sktchy co-founder Jordan Melnick comments: "Our community of artists is growing every day because Sktchy is the perfect place for them to find inspiration and share their art with the world, in part because of the neat way we layer portraits over the photos that inspired them." 29. Photochop Photochop - Chop Up and Distort Your Photos does exactly what it says on the tin Platform: iOS (iPhone and iPad) Developer: Big Bucket Software Price: $0.99/£0.99 We probably like this app for its name (in full: Photochop – Chop Up and Distort Your Photos) as much as for its function. It's a cheap and cheerful little photo editor tool for mucking about with pictures. Simply pick a snap from your iPhone's photo library, chop it up into a set of tiles and then go crazy. You can either work directly with the tiles, dragging them around, rotating and resizing them to create a collage effect, or there's a warp mode that works in the same way but results in a distorted image rather than a collage. Obviously it's nothing you can't easily do in any image editing app in a couple of minutes and you'll be hard pushed to find a serious application for it, but it's a fun graphical toy to have in your pocket. 30. Path On Add images to your text with Path On Platform: iOS (iPhone and iPad) Developer: Peta Vision Price: $1.99/£1.99 Path On lets you add funky text to photos in unique ways. You draw the path you'd like the words to take, then type in your message – the text then flows along the path. The custom options are the real killer feature here, with you being able to adjust the font, the letter space, and the alignment. Although it's a little fiddly, Path On is probably the best adding-text-to-photos tool around. 31. Geló Persevere with Geló and the results will speak for themselves Platform: iOS (iPhone) Developer: James Moore Price: Free A splash of colour can alter the look of an photo dramatically. Give your iPhone shots some extra oomph with this cool app for the iPhone. Gradients have become a lost art in iPhone photography, but Geló fills that gap in the market well. It needs a little more patience than your average photo app, but persevere and the results are excellent. Once you've taken or imported an image, you see a carousel of 'gels'. Cycle through to choose a colour, tap it, and then it’s applied to your shot. Using the sliders you can tweak how the filter affects your shot, and you can easily apply specific RGB values though, that might mimic your favourite tints in iPhoto or Photoshop, say. 32. Retromatic Retromatic can be frustrating at times but it portrays a great vintage feel Platform: iOS (iPhone and iPad) Developer: Peta Vision Price: $1.99/£1.99 1950s-inspired photo app Retromatic enables you to import your photos, cut them out using an instant alpha tool, and then apply vintage effects to them. It's quick and easy to use, and looks great, although expect frustration if you want to do anything more than the basics. The instant alpha tool works well, but you have to hold down on the screen to make it switch between a brush and pinching to zoom. 33. Tadaa Tadaa is great for fine-tuning photos Platform: iOS (iPhone) Developer: Menschmaschine Price: Free Tadaa lets you adjust the strength of all its filters, which is ideal for people who like fine-tuning their photos with subtle effects. This iPhone photo app tries to get you to use its own social network, but you can still use all features without a login. Click on the frame icon to access a nice range of photo film borders. Unlike Instagram and Magic Hour, you're not limited to a square and can apply the film border to a photo of any size. Related articles: 40 sets of free icons The best new art apps of 2016 HelloGiggles' elegant redesign focuses on community View the full article

Panera is in hot water after sitting on a massive data leak for eight months on its website - and then trying to downplay the amount of customers impacted by the leak. View the full article