The good news is that Nintendo's decided to give something back to US gamers after they ended up bearing the cost. It's launched the two-week Nintendo Customer Appreciation Sale, with discounts until 26 September on Nintendo Switch games, accessories, amiibo, apparel.

Nintendo says the Customer Appreciation Sale is one of its biggest promotions yet. It's "our way of saying thank you to Nintendo players for their continued support and is made possible in part by tariff-related refunds,” the company says. Sadly, the generosity doesn't extend to recent Switch 2 exclusives at this point, but there are discounts of 30% on Switch games compatible with all consoles. There are some additional Switch game deals at Amazon too.

Here's my pick of the best.

• Browse Nintendo Customer Appreciation Sale
• Shop Nintendo Switch games at Amazon

If you don't have a console yet and you're not sure which is right for you, read why the Switch 2 has become our digital art/3D editor's console of choice.

The scene takes place in an imposing and gloomy fortress, characterised by large, vaulted columns and the ruins of the battle. The atmosphere needed to be inspired by classic epic fantasy.

This aesthetic is what I grew up with, meaning that it was easy for me to imagine a scene reminiscent of these types of covers, the works of the master illustrators who have always inspired me. The tone needed to be warm, with reds and oranges dominating; Joe Abercrombie’s novel The Devils was recommended to me by way of an example.

If you want to follow a similar process, you'll need digital art software, and you might want one of the best drawing tablets to work on.

Today's best drawing tablet deals

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Original Force, the studio leading production alongside series director Rodrigo Blaas, has shown off a batch of work-in-progress material from the series, including character designs, storyboards, animation tests and a preview film, and the early artwork has a loose feel I didn’t expect from a big CG adaptation, and joins Pixar’s Gatto in trying something new.

The three character designs for Sandpaw, Rusty and Graypaw are a good example, as they all start from the same basic feline anatomy, but the artists have pushed the proportions, faces, markings and silhouettes enough that you can tell them apart immediately. The eyes are particularly expressive, while the bodies have that slightly elongated, springy quality that makes the cats feel ready to move rather than simply stand around looking pretty.

Designing personality in Warrior Cats

The storyboard work, my favourite of the new behind-the-scenes images released so far, shows the cats being thrown into big, exaggerated poses, with legs stretched out, tails curling around the action, and bodies twisting in ways that would be unreal. That's exactly why it works, I thought, because good animation needs a little licence with anatomy, especially when characters are fighting, running or reacting to something, and the trick is pushing those shapes without losing the feline character underneath.

That's something Original Force says the team has worked on from the start, looking at skeletal structure, fur, movement, character silhouettes and camera language, with a particular focus on keeping the cats readable during fast action. When you're dealing with hundreds of creators and thousands of shots, those decisions have to become more than good ideas in a concept artist's sketchbook; they need to become a visual language everyone working on the series can actually follow.

These early drawings reveal the rules being worked out in real time: how far a cat can stretch before it stops looking like a cat, how much expression you can put into a face before it becomes too human, and how much personality can come from the way a character moves. With Warrior Cats, it’s a unique approach, though not too different from many animations, because these aren't meant to be ordinary animals wandering around a photorealistic forest. The books' appeal comes from the cats' strong personalities, and the animation has to make those personalities visible without turning them into furry little humans.

If the finished animation can hold onto some of that expressive energy, rather than smoothing everything into generic CG perfection, Warrior Cats might have found a strong visual identity.

Visit the Warrior Cats website for more on the animation, books, games, and more.

Throughout his career, Tom has created impactful work like the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism’s “Stand Up to Jewish Hate” campaign, which was awarded a Gold Effie. As part of our 5 Questions series, I caught up with Tom to discuss the danger of chasing relevance, imposter syndrome and his ultimate creative pet peeve.

Over on X, people have been flagging up poster designs for traditional art classes and graphic design courses that use what appear to be AI-generated illustrations and graphics. Some of the flyers are from social media posts, while some of them were spotted out in the wild as on-street advertising.

But would anyone be prepared to take drawing and painting lessons from a teacher who resorts to AI art?

The irony is not lost on those commenting on the posts on X. Some suggest that the as well as casting doubt on the teachers' art skills, the use of AI imagery is an insult to the budding artists they want to attract amid concerns about the impact of AI on creative jobs. It's not exactly placing great value on the skills the students will supposedly be learning and practising.

"Promoting something artistic made with AI just kills any desire to actually learn the craft. Even a shitty scribbled portrait would’ve looked more pro," one person writes. "How can you trust them if they don't even believe it themselves?" another person wonders.

"The worst part is that it isn't all that complicated to get AI to create a decent poster. But even that requires brains and design knowledge. That said, knowing how to draw isn't the same as knowing how to put together a decent poster," someone else points out.

Elsewhere, there are complaints that high schools and universities are also resorting to AI imagery for internal comms.

"When schools use generative AI to create their flyers, logos and art deco, they're telling their art students that their work does not and will not matter," one person writes on Reddit. "They are making it clear that the arts, which are already hard to make a career out of, is now even more fruitless".

To be fair, there are some creative courses in which AI has a place in the curriculum itself. Graphic design and digital art, for example. Students today need to know how AI tools work and what can be done with them – and need an understanding of the issues around law, ethics, quality and control.

That doesn't mean it's a good idea to use fully AI-generated assets to promote a course. That just smacks of laziness. As for drawing and painting tuition, it's like someone advertising cookery classes with a photo of a KFC bucket or a Big Mac.

While many of the best logo designs are often abstract marks, they can also tell a story about a brand and its product in ways that you can feel even if the exact inspiration isn't immediately apparent.

Designed by Nouvelle Idée, the new identity for the Montreal bakery chain Toledo is based on the shape of the irregular air pockets formed in laminated dough. These organic shapes turned out to be a highly practical design inspiration, providing for the creation of a flexible visual system that adapts be adapted for packaging, signs and decor.

A contemporary sans serif wordmark contrasts with the ornamental details, while a warm colour palette draws on the hues of flour, butter, coffee and fresh bread. The result is a rebrand that feels both classic and fresh: a visual language rooted in French baking traditions but designed to appeal to a new generation.

That's exactly what creative agency hasan & partners did when they were approached by Train Factory, a new food, drink, sport and culture destination built inside a historic locomotive manufacturing site in Finland's capital, Helsinki.

The site was once central to Finnish rail manufacturing; a place where the majority of the country's locomotives were built. That's a lot of history to carry, and some designers might have leaned on it too literally. Happily, the studio instead went the extra mile, and set out to look for something more specific.

Inspiration strikes

The essence of a place is often found in the small details, and so it proved here. Inspiration struck in the form of a small, unglamorous piece of industrial signage: a graphic used on the sides of train cars to indicate where the vehicle could be safely lifted during maintenance.

It's the kind of symbol most of us would walk past a thousand times without registering. But for this rebranding project, it turned out to be the perfect foundation. They repurposed and redesigned this utilitarian mark into the brand's primary 'T' logo.

It's a lovely bit of lateral thinking: a symbol whose entire purpose was mechanical and instructional, telling a crane operator exactly where to attach a hook, becomes the symbol of an entirely new kind of elevation: elevating a disused industrial site into a vibrant, bustling place for people to gather together for fun and friendship.

Why this matters

There's been a lot written in the last few years about the declining use of minimalist, geometric, sans-serif logos. Some of this by yours truly. And I certainly think that the tech world definitely has taken a design style that had a lot to offer and wrung it dry, by repeating it unvaryingly, across seeming every logo and redesign known to man.

But that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with using clean, minimalist, geometric sans-serif typography in general. It's just a question of doing it unthinkingly, simply because it's "on trend", rather than using it because it's the right choice for the story you're telling.

That's why this case study is such a great example of how to do utilitarianism right. This sans-serif wasn't picked off a shelf because it was what everyone else is doing. It evolved organically out of a graphic stencilled on train cars, and it carries the weight of that history in every squared-off letterform.

In short, clean, minimalist sans-serif typography isn't dead, and nor should it be. It just needs a reason to exist. And in the case of The Train Factory, hasan & partners gave it one.

Key specifications

Design, build and display

• Thin and light
• No colour options

Well built and stylish, the Galaxy Book 6 Pro is going to have people wondering where the Apple logo is, as it uses a wedge-shaped casing reminiscent of MacBook Airs of the pre-2024 era. The casing feels like plastic rather than metal, but it’s nice and stiff and, importantly, extremely light. At just 1.24kg, it’s barely going to notice once you’ve slipped it into a messenger bag or executive attache case, and as the machine is barely half an inch thick, it’s all very impressive.

It is rather grey, however, with only one colour option available no matter which model of Galaxy Book 6 you choose. Would it have hurt Samsung to offer the same rather splendid Cobalt Violet or Sky Blue colour options as the Galaxy S26 Ultra smartphone? Just because something’s got ‘Pro’ in the name doesn’t mean it has to be boring.

Among all the grey on the back of the lid there's a small Samsung logo, with the same below the screen that’s almost lost in the black bezel, but there's no Galaxy Book branding anywhere. It’s exquisitely understated, and as a result does more to concentrate attention on the 3K AMOLED touchscreen, which is bright at 500 nits and covers 98% of the P3 colour gamut (as well as 100%of sRGB and 95% of Adobe RGB).

Design score: 4/5

Features

• Thunderbolt 4
• Fingerprint reader

It’s good to see that Thunderbolt has settled into PCs now, rather than being an Apple peculiarity. The versatile USB-C ports mean manufacturers don’t need to have things like HDMI or USB, but Samsung has chosen to put both on the Galaxy Book 6 Pro, with a full-sized HDMI and a USB Type-A alongside the two TB4s. What you don’t get is a dedicated charging port, as all that’s handled by a Thunderbolt, which makes it much more convenient for use with a dock or a monitor’s powered USB hub. And there's no SD card reader either.

Around the front there's a white-backlit keyboard that wouldn’t look out of place on a MacBook, if it weren’t for its Copilot key, which has a discreet fingerprint reader at its top right corner and a curiously stiff action that may require more force than some light typists are used to applying, even with the shallow travel required to fit them in such a thin laptop. There's no numpad, so even on this 14in chassis the keys aren’t tightly crammed together, though the F row and arrow keys are rather small. The touchpad is comfortable and responsive, with a good click action when you press down on it.

Feature score: 3/5

Benchmark scores

We test every one of our laptops using the same benchmarking software suite to give you a thorough overview of its suitability for creatives of all disciplines and levels. This includes:

• Geekbench: Tests the CPU for single-core and multi-core power, and the GPU for the system's potential for gaming, image processing, or video editing. Geekbench AI tests the CPU and GPU on a variety of AI-powered and AI-boosted tasks.
• Cinebench: Tests the CPU and GPU's ability to run Cinema 4D and Redshift.
• UL Procyon: Uses UL Solutions' Procyon software suite to test the system's ability for AI image generation in Stable Diffusion, its Microsoft Office performance and its battery life in a looping video test.
• Topaz Video AI: We use Topaz Video AI to test the system's ability to upscale video and convert video to slow-motion.
• PugetBench for Creators: We use the PugetBench for Creators benchmarking suite to test the system's ability to run several key tasks in Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro, as well as its performance when encoding/transcoding video.
• ON1 Resize AI: Tests the system's ability to resize 5 photos to 200% in a batch process. We take the total time taken to resize the images and divide by 5.

Performance

• Efficient CPU
• Not a strong GPU

The new third-generation Core Ultra processors are a bit of a step forward for Intel, as they make gains in both efficiency and graphics processing. The Ultra 7 356H installed here is a 16-core chip that has only four Performance cores, splitting the rest between Efficient (8) and Low-power Efficient (4). It’s a conservative choice, hitting just 4.7GHz, but it makes a good match to what’s likely to be the executive’s choice, as this restrained performance not only matches the machine’s design but allows it to eke out the battery life: it managed nine and a quarter hours in our looping video test,

And so, when subjected to the battery of tests Creative Bloq requires of its review candidates, we see it sitting slightly behind machines such as the HP OmniBook X Flip 14 and the MSI Prestige 13 AI+ Evo, both of which use second-gen chips (an Ultra 9 in the case of the MSI). It even loses out to the Geekom IT13 Max mini PC, which has a first-gen Ultra 9 in it (but isn’t as thin, giving it more room for cooling).

This result is repeated across rendering and AI tests, though the Samsung does better in the Procyon office productivity test, which sees it juggling spreadsheets and presentations, and rises to the level of Apple’s M4 in Geekbench 6’s multi-core workout (it sits halfway between the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro of that generation). The little integrated GPU - with four cores rather than the 12 of the flagship Arc B390 module in chips like the Core X9 388H - supports ray-tracing, but there's little reason you’d want to try that out. That said, it is possible to play games on this GPU, as long as you’re happy with 1080p and low to medium settings. However, in the Geekbench 6 GPU test, it scores half as much as the graphics cores in the Apple M5, the 2025 ASUS Zenbook Duo and even the Geekom mini PC, leading to the conclusion that this isn’t a strong GPU for creative work.

Performance score: 3/5

Price

Just as Samsung and Apple vie for supremacy in the smartphone arena, so they will in the court of the laptop. The Galaxy Book 6 Pro starts at $1,799/£1,799, which is slightly more than the base-model MacBook Pro, but is far more than the 13in MacBook Air. The model tested here is a little more, at £2,499/$2,449.99, which makes it more expensive than the ASUS ProArt PZ14 and only a tiny bit less than the Zenbook Duo.

Value score: 2/5

Who is it for?

• The boss

The Galaxy Book Pro is beautifully thin and light, and looks understated and smart. It doesn’t matter if you’re not the former, as walking into a meeting with this under your arm will make you look the latter.

Buy it if...

• You want to look like a pro
• You want something thin and light
• Integrated graphics are enough

Don't buy it if...

• You need a bigger screen
• Or more graphics power
• Or really like RGB backlights on your keyboard

Also consider

One of these is Zoner Studio, which comes with a subscription, albeit a lower one. It offers similar organisation and raw image processing features to Lightroom alongside a layer-based editor that brings retouching, sharpening, painting and morphing tools before moving on to printing or exporting. And there's video editing too.

So can Zoner Studio join the big boys on the list of the best photo editing software? It’s certainly got a huge list of features, so let’s find out.

Zoner Studio: how I tested

I used Zoner Studio to import raw files from a Sony mirrorless camera, as well as opening the images already on my PC. I used all the features I'd usually turn to as part of my raw processing workflow, and tried out many of the new ones from Zoner's latest update. I also made sure to use the AI tools that are included in the app to compare them against others on the market.

Zoner Studio: plans and pricing

• Free trial
• Two subscription levels available

Zoner Studio is only available with a subscription, but there's a seven-day free trial before you'll need to start paying. With the individual and family plans, you get 20GB of storage on Zoner Photo Cloud, as well as a premium account on the Zonerama online gallery service where you can upload unlimited photos and create online albums to show them off.

Interestingly, the Family Plan is limited only to the number of people 'in your household,' without a hard limit on the number of people who can sign up. It's also less than twice the price of an individual subscription, making it good value if you're signing up three or more people.

Value score: 4/5

Zoner Studio: setup and getting started

• Requires account
• Simple installer

Zoner Studio is Windows-only and installs easily. Make an account, set up a subscription, and you can download an app installer that logs you straight in.

The app is split into modules and opens in the Manager screen, from where you can import photos from memory cards or access folders of image files already on your PC. The app claims support for more than 500 camera types, and can make use of the Adobe DNG Converter app if your body isn’t on the list. One oddity we noticed is that, at the time of writing, the Sony A7CII wasn’t supported, even though the A7CR and original A7C were. Yellow exclamation mark icons show files Zoner can’t deal with, and while they will still appear in the Manager, you can’t take them through to the Develop or Editor windows. Pointing the app to the Adobe DNG Converter’s installation folder in its preferences pane fixed the issue.

And while the app is fairly straightforward to get to grips with - folders on the left, tools on the right, big preview in the middle - there are also loads of tutorial videos on the Zoner Studio YouTube channel, accessible to anyone, to talk you through things such as removing shine from skin in portraits, focus stacking, exposure bracketing and using the app’s search function.

Setup score: 4/5

Zoner Studio: features

• Fully featured
• AI tools easy to spot

As an app that attempts to cover both of the main image editing workflows - raw image development and layer-based editing - as well as video, Zoner Studio has a whole lot of features. So many, in fact, that it can be intimidating at first contact. If you’ve used something like Lightroom, PhotoDirector, On1 Photo Raw or Capture One Pro before, you’ll be able to pick out how it works, but starting afresh with a new app can always be a slow process.

The Manager lets you assign ratings, colour codes and keywords to your files. You can also sort them according to a dizzying number of criteria, including ISO sensitivity, orientation, and GPS coordinates displayed on a map if they’re embedded in the raw file.

Over in Develop you’ll find tone curves and sliders for common edits such as exposure and white balance, along with an AI-powered auto enhancement option. There is also a pop-out menu of one-shot presets, including some with an AI flag on them that will isolate your photo’s subject, sky or background before running. What Zoner doesn’t have is AI noise reduction like Lightroom or On1, though it does have extra noise reduction sliders that will target separate colours and levels of brightness.

Moving your image over to the Editor window reveals a Layers palette on the right of the interface, with tools and adjustments harder to find. The folder structure always stays on the left unless you turn it off, and the same is true of the filmstrip of images at the bottom of the screen, but there's no separate toolbar here: if you want to paint or crop further, they are to be found in an unusual horizontal bar across the right-hand sidebar, while a pop-out Adjustments menu contains other tools such as Levels, document resizing (including content-aware and AI options), vignetting, text overlays and effects filters. Again, there's a lot here, and it has been laid out in a sensible way that might take a bit of time to get used to, but once you’ve edited a few folders of images with it, it starts to make more sense, helped by the ability to add tools to a favourites list that appears at the top of the menu.

Feature score: 4/5

Zoner Studio: user interface and experience

• Could be tough for beginners
• Lots of tutorials

Zoner Studio makes some odd UI choices that can be off-putting at times, especially if you’ve been using another company’s products for years. Why, for example, is the Preferences option on the View menu instead of Edit, where it’s found on many other apps? It’s also found on the account dropdown that displays the email address you’ve registered with, and to the left of that you’ll find a small ‘?’ menu that is the only place you can find out which version of the software you’re using and manually check for updates.

There's a lot of good in Zoner Studio’s interface beyond these niggles, though, including tabs so you can have multiple images in multiple modules open at the same time, a menu that handles displaying the app on multi-monitor setups, and the ability to choose whether full-screen mode covers the Windows taskbar or not.

This is a complex app with a lot of functionality, and so can be daunting for beginners, making a trip to the online tutorials more or less mandatory. The fact that everything is kept very clean is a bonus once you’re familiar with the tools’ locations, but can lead to lots of hunting around when you’re new. The ability to highlight new features is a nice one to have, allowing you to home in on a recently added tool and try it out.

The video section offers a small timeline to organise your clips, snapping them together and adding transitions. It is perhaps a strange thing for such a photography-focused app to have, but as all our mirrorless cameras and most DSLRs are capable of shooting video, not to mention smartphones, perhaps it has a place here.

User Experience score: 4/5

Zoner Studio: AI tools

• Fast on a discrete GPU
• Unclear which model is being used

All the AI tools are clearly marked (though the ‘AI’ flash is a bit small), so you know what you’re getting into and can avoid them if you’d rather. In the app's preferences, there's an option to use your local GPU (you can choose between them if you have more than one installed) for not only AI, but more vaguely defined ‘calculations’ too. An integrated GPU is supported for image display, but Zoner really wants a separate card. On our test PC with an RTX 5080 on board, we heard the fans spin up occasionally, especially when running auto-enhancement, AI resize or noise reduction tools.

And while auto-edits aren’t really the point of an app like this, the AI option here didn’t apply heavy-handed saturation boosts as it can elsewhere. Instead, it gave the colours a subtle kick, especially in the mid-tones, while increasing contrast and retaining detail. It’s not as good as the fully manual approach, but it’s not bad. The same is true of the AI resizing, which increased an image from 7000 to 14000 pixels across while retaining detail in properly focused areas and without the appearance of patterns or additional noise in the defocused background. Zoner doesn’t divulge what model it’s using, but it seems effective and is fairly fast at smaller size boosts; increasing from 7000 to 28000 pixels across took a lot longer even on the RTX 5080.

Automatic selection and masking allow you to remove the background from your subject with a single click, with the option to save a layer mask too. This left a rather soft edge, especially where the border fell out of the plane of focus, but the AI masking available in the Develop module appears fast and accurate.

Support score: 4/5

Zoner studio: who is it for?

• Photographers

Zoner Studio is fully featured and will suit those looking for an all-in-one editing app that doesn’t require them to keep on top of multiple subscriptions and updates. Those used to the way other apps do things may become frustrated and take some time to come around, but for beginners, there are many online resources that will help them pick up the app and make the most of it. The low price helps here too.

Buy it if...

• You edit a lot of raw files
• You want an all-in-one app
• You don’t want to spend too much

Don't buy it if...

• You’re set in your ways, and those ways are Adobe’s
• You prefer even more AI
• You use a Mac

To get that maximum discount, you'll need to trade in a high-spec configuration of last year's flagship and commit to sticking with a carrier with your new iPhone. You can also claim up to three months of Apple Music and one month of Apple TV free if you're a new or returning subscriber.

Not for you? See the best current foldable phone deals and dumb phone deals.

iPhone 18 Pro deals in the US

• Best Buy: Browse iPhone 18 Pro deals
• Apple: up to $885 off with trade in, or lease from $34.99/mo
• AT&T: up to $1,200 off with a trade-in
• Verizon: up to $1,200 off with a trade-in
• T-Mobile: iPhone 18 Pro free with switch or trade in
• Xfinity Mobile: 18 Pro Max free with trade in and line

iPhone 18 Pro deals in the UK

• Apple: up to £855 off with trade in

iPhone 18 Pro details

Working closely with Paul, I refined the framing and atmosphere to push it to the final image seen here. The serpent design was supervised by Christian Bull and modelled by Laurens Rasti and Wilmar Ballespi of Shoot First.

How I created a large-scale serpent scene

Gear up

If you need to build your own art setup, see our guides to the best drawing tablets and the best laptops for 3D modelling.

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions are available.

Creative Bloq is now easier to access than ever before with our on-the-go app, which brings you all the content you know and love from our website, but in a super-streamlined design.
Download the Creative Bloq app for iOS
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I've become pretty sceptical of these backlashes recently. It's hardly a secret that the internet feeds of controversy, and in most cases, people aren't reacting to the actual design logic behind a rebrand. But when it comes to British beer brand Timothy Taylor's new look, I'm sad to say I agree with the outcry.

The Yorkshire brewery has unveiled its first major rebrand in more than a decade, with a new logo, new packaging, new pump clips and, most notably, a new man on the front of its signature beer, Landlord.

The brand is allegedly trying to appeal to Gen Z drinkers, who are developing a taste for cask ale. CEO Andrew Carter says the refresh is not about changing what the brewery makes, but about ensuring “the quality and care that go into every pint are reflected in how Timothy Taylor’s is presented today”. The brewery wants to remain “just as relevant to the next generation of drinkers as we’ve been to the last”.

But I can't help but look at the new Landlord character and think, why does he look like that? Why is he suddenly younger, fitter and more handsome? Why has he got a head (and chin) full of hair? The old bloke looked like a character, like your stereotypical idea of a pub landlord. This one looks like an actor you'd cast as the head of a fledgling microbrewery.

I've no problem with a brand choosing to modernise its image, particularly when that brand is on the up. Timothy Taylor's Landlord is the UK’s best-selling cask ale by both value and volume. But I fear the brand has mistaken old-fashioned for unfashionable. Brand heritage is more important than ever in today's world of fleeting design fads and, yes, artificial content. The cultural currency of history is clear, with countless brands resurrecting old logos over the last few years.

It's the little peculiarities, unfashionable colours, old fashioned text and, yes, old-fashioned characters, that prevent brands slipping into homogeny in today's world of flat design and sans serif text. Timothy Taylor's had something that a lot of contemporary brands would pay agencies a lot of money for: genuine character.

I don't think this one ranks up there with Jaguar when it comes to branding misfires. And I don't think there's much ideology behind it – we don't need a bunch of thought pieces about "woke beer", or even responses, like The Spectator's calling the rebrand "a disgrace". It's just a UK beer brand updating its packaging. We'll all survive, and the beer will still taste the same.

But I do think there's a useful lesson here for brands and designers. Modernising a heritage brand doesn't have to mean making it look modern. After all, Timothy Taylor's is riding high, and already hugely popular among younger drinkers. The old landlord was clearly doing something right.

With opportune timing just as an Anthropic researcher warns that AI "could kill all humans" within 10 years, Desigual is joining the fight back. The centrepiece of its campaign is a film in which a model tries to break the circuitry of a robot based on the Tesla Optimus. And there's an immaculate real-world subtext: the model is Vivian Jenna Wilson, the estranged daughter of Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Desigual's Born to Disobey campaign is the work of ProdCo, with the film being overseen by PSG (Yukihiro 'Sho' Shoda, Pau López and Gerardo del Hierro, formerly known as TURBO).

Throughout the short, Vivian deliberately pushes the programming of a robot named DESI 84 – a reference to the year that Barcelona-based Desigual was founded. She tees off on the robot's chest, walks it on a leash and tries to teach it how to perform in the bedroom. After the robot malfunctions and ends up banging its head against a wall, Vivian concludes "Some things aren't meant to be fixed").

There are some little Easter eggs. Vivian is shown reading R.U.R., Karel Čapek's 1920 sci-fi play, which gave us the word 'robot'. And this robot is, in fact, a human actor, an ironic twist when there are fears about robots and AI replacing human jobs. The actor studied videos of the Tesla Optimus in order to imitate its movements.

From a branding perspective, Born to Disobey continues a long-running theme in Desigual's marketing. The brand has historically positioned itself around nonconformity, eccentricity and colourful self-expression. Here, it updates that philosophy for 2026, highlighting the contrast between human intuition and machine logic.

The campaign takes the cold, aimless posturing and faux profundity of the visual language typically used in high-end fashion advertising and actually says something with it. Rather than celebrating rebellion for its own sake, the campaign suggests that, in a world shaped by technology, AI and social expectations, the most radical act is to be yourself.

According to Desigual, the message is that "The greatest rebellion is no longer about fighting against the system but about refusing to be part of it. When everything invites you to obey, the answer is attitude, irony and the freedom to be yourself."

PSG said Vivian's character in the piece developed naturally with little discussion because of her genuine skepticism toward what the robot represented. The model, who is transgender, has personally criticised AI over its impact on creative jobs and for stripping art of human intention, making her the perfect choice as the face of the campaign.

The robot becomes a symbol of the systems that encourage people to obey rules, optimise behaviour and fit predefined patterns, while Vivian represents spontaneity, creativity and self-expression. On another level, it's hard not to read between the lines that the ultimate enemy is the cold and callous father bent on interplanetary domination, giving the ad a Star Wars-like oedipal vibe.

But there are exceptions, and the Australian Made logo has spent 40 long years bucking the trend.

Launched in 1986 as part of prime minister Bob Hawke's Australian Made campaign, the green triangle with its stylised gold kangaroo has barely changed since the day it was made. And it hasn't lost any of its impact either.

In a recent survey 99% of Australians said they recognised it, and it holds a consumer net trust score of +82, putting it among the country's most trusted brands of any kind.

For designers, that raises two obvious questions: what did the original designers get so right, and how can I get some of that magic?

No brief, short deadline

Interestingly, right at the beginning, there wasn't a brief at all. The logo was drawn up by renowned Aussie designer Ken Cato, working to a deadline of less than a week after a call from the government.

It sounds like the stuff of nightmares, but ultimately the results speak for themselves. As Ken recently told Retail Magazine, "It taught me a powerful lesson as a designer – never ignore the obvious, just make the obvious visible.”

A glance at the logo today, and you'll spot exactly what he means. A kangaroo bounding across a green triangle isn't a clever metaphor that needs two pages of explanation, as many logo designs from global brands do these days (I'm not exaggerating; I've read them!). It's simply an easy way to visually convey 'Australia' in an instant, with a clean, recognisable shape.

Above all, it's that sense of restraint that's the logo has survived so many decades of rebrand fatigue across the world. It was never trying to be anything cool, clever or modern, so it never felt dated, and today it still feels like it could have been designed yesterday.

The only time the logo's survival seemed under question was when the Australian government launched a separate "Nation Brand" in 2020 that was widely, and perhaps unkindly, compared to a coronavirus particle. (It was actually meant to be a golden wattle, the small evergreen tree that serves as the country's official national floral emblem.)

It turned out that this new design had never actually meant to replace the Australian Made logo. But the fact that some people thought it had, and expressed so much anger over the fact, is a testament to a design that was already over three decades old.

My takeaway? Some ideas don't need reinvention. They need someone willing to trust that the obvious answer – drawn simply and then left to do its job – was the right answer all along.

Geekom is a prolific mini PC maker, and its IT series are Intel-powered machines suited to office and light creative work. The lack of a graphics card and huge amounts of RAM may slow it down when it comes to high-res video or GPU effects, but for a little box it holds up reasonably well, and has a lot of USB ports to play with.

Key specifications

Design, build and display

• Small and unobtrusive
• Internal serial connections

Mini PCs like this tend to be rather functional in their design. When you don’t have much space to play with, yet still want to cram in a surprising number of ports and make it fit on desks, you’re going to build a rectangular box rather than something chapped like an aardvark. And that’s exactly what we have here, in a case that’s exactly the same shape as just about every other mini PC the Bloq has reviewed, though slightly larger than Geekom’s A5 Pro (and smaller than the Minisforum MS-01, which can take a small graphics card like the Nvidia RTX A1000).

Still, it’s a very friendly-looking little computer, with its rounded corners and easily accessible front USB ports. Unlike Apple’s Mac Mini, there's an on button in a sensible place too, while underneath there's a baseplate that can route cables to the internal four-pin RS‑232 and RS‑485 headers if you’re using it to control factory machines, run a building control network, or plug it directly into a CNC machine that connects that way. There's a VESA mount adapter in the box that allows you to give it a piggyback on the back of a monitor, for a really space-efficient setup.

It’s always tempting to label a PC like this as a Mac Mini alternative, and the current M4 Mini does have a model that’s about the same price as the IT13 Max. The Mini is ever so slightly smaller in both width and depth, though they’re both exactly the same height, and is lighter than the IT13 Max too, so if those dimensions really matter to you, Apple is the way to go.

Design score: 4/5

Features

• Lots of USB and other ports
• Expandable storage

Something that immediately strikes you about the IT13 Max when you take it out of the box is that it’s absolutely loaded with ports. You get two HDMI and two USB4 ports that can be connected to monitors (and the latter to a GPU dock, maybe), and it can drive four 4K displays or one 8K display. You also get dual 2.5GbE networking ports, the latest Wi-Fi 7, and a load of USB 3.2 sockets, one of which is an always-on charging port. Around the side there's an SD card slot, but if you want to add more storage, you’re going to need to get your screwdriver out. Users of docking stations or monitors with a laptop-charging USB-C port may be interested to know that one of the USB4 ports supports PD power input, so you can remove the power brick from behind your desk and run the PC that way. The power brick itself is actually quite small and inoffensive, but it’s great to see this functionality being implemented.

Being able to take the bottom off a mini PC and poke around in its guts is nothing new; Apple was doing it way back in 2005 with the G4 variant of its Mac Mini, into which you could stick a new hard drive or some new RAM. Whip the baseplate off the IT13 Max, and you can access the second M2 slot for adding an extra SSD, but the RAM is soldered to the mainboard and can’t be changed. The RAM is one of this PC’s main drawbacks, as it’s available in just two configurations: one with a 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM, the other, which we have here, with a 500GB SSD and 24GB RAM. That’s it, no more.

Curiously, Geekom plasters the IT13 Max with stickers telling you, in type almost too small to read, not to connect it to the internet during setup. This is very unusual for a Windows 11 machine, and means you set up a local account rather than signing straight into a Microsoft one. This may make it useful for anyone who wants a device they can air-gap from the internet and still use Windows on, but before it’s connected, the Start menu is a very blank and empty place, so you’ll need your offline software ready to install.

Feature score: 4/5

Benchmark scores

We test every one of our laptops using the same benchmarking software suite to give you a thorough overview of its suitability for creatives of all disciplines and levels. This includes:

• Geekbench: Tests the CPU for single-core and multi-core power, and the GPU for the system's potential for gaming, image processing, or video editing. Geekbench AI tests the CPU and GPU on a variety of AI-powered and AI-boosted tasks.
• Cinebench: Tests the CPU and GPU's ability to run Cinema 4D and Redshift.
• UL Procyon: Uses UL Solutions' Procyon software suite to test the system's ability for AI image generation in Stable Diffusion, its Microsoft Office performance and its battery life in a looping video test.
• Topaz Video AI: We use Topaz Video AI to test the system's ability to upscale video and convert video to slow-motion.
• PugetBench for Creators: We use the PugetBench for Creators benchmarking suite to test the system's ability to run several key tasks in Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro, as well as its performance when encoding/transcoding video.
• ON1 Resize AI: Tests the system's ability to resize 5 photos to 200% in a batch process. We take the total time taken to resize the images and divide by 5.

Performance

• Limited RAM options
• Older CPU, integrated graphics

The Core Ultra 9 185H is a chip we’ve seen a lot of in the PCs Creative Bloq reviews. It’s in Geekom’s own Geekbook X14 Pro, the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra and the 2024 edition of the ASUS Zenbook Duo. The year is the important part there: this is a first-gen Core Ultra processor, from the Meteor Lake days, that was released in the last quarter of 2023. It’s been overtaken by second- and third-generation chips since then, but with its 16 cores (capable of 22 simultaneous threads as Intel hung on to Hyper-Threading for its P cores back then) and 5.1GHz turbo frequency, it’s still got the goods for most office and light creative tasks. Its main drawback is its integrated GPU, which is only half as good as that in the third-gen chips, but which can still play Crysis.

You’ll wonder, in fact, what’s going to hold it back the most? The eight Arc graphics cores or that 24GB of RAM. Maybe the 35 total TOPS for AI applications?

In practice, it’s a decent little machine that actually beats the laptops equipped with the same processor in our tests, probably because it’s thicker and the fan can get a bit more air moving - it’s certainly well-equipped with vents around the sides, where the SD card slot is an island in a sea of grille.

It turns out to be a reasonably good machine for creative work, and especially image editing. In the PugetBench Photoshop benchmark, it sits between the HP Omen Max 16 and the ASUS ProArt P16, two much more expensive machines with dedicated GPUs. The fact that it manages to beat the ASUS PX13 GoPro Edition in this test is remarkable.

Likewise, in the Cinebench 2024 multi-core rendering test, it beats the MacBook Air M5 - this will be solely down to having more cores - and the Zenbook Duo with the same CPU, but comes in slightly lower than Geekom’s own IT15 mini PC, which uses a second-gen Ultra 9. It’s not a big gap though, unlike the chasm between the IT13 and Geekom’s A9 Max, with its thundering AMD Ryzen AI 9, in this test.

Overall, the more mature tech here acquits itself respectably, though video editing and AI apps certainly make it sweat - the restricted RAM pool may well be at fault here as much as the integrated GPU.

Performance score: 3/5

Price

The two versions of the IT13 Max are the same price, £999/$1,399, and with that extra M2 slot and the USB4 ports, the 24GB version might well be the best choice, as you can add extra storage but not RAM. The M4 Mac Mini with 24GB of RAM is almost exactly the same price, but only has 256GB of storage, so the IT13 Max is undercutting Apple a bit here.

Value score: 3/5

Who is it for?

• Office workers and students

The lack of graphics power is going to put off a lot of people with greater pixel-processing needs, but the IT 13 Max flies through office apps and can handle Photoshop and InDesign jobs well enough.

Buy it if...

• You’re doing image editing or graphic design
• You’re limited for space
• You have lots of USB peripherals

Don't buy it if...

• You want to do video or AI
• Or play the latest games
• Or don’t want to be tied to a desk

Also consider

Apple's iPhone Duo will start at $1,999. That's $100 cheaper than Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra at its list price, but right now this flagship foldable is reduced by $300 to $1,799 at Amazon, making it actually $200 cheaper than Apple's effort, which is coming next month.

Meanwhile, readers in the UK can save a massive $500 off the impressive Honor Magic V6, which is reduced from £1,999 to £1,499 at the Honor website.

Here's a summary of all of the best foldable phone deals going right now. If you want less screen time rather than more, you might want to consider one of these dumb phones instead.

US Foldable Phone deals

UK foldable phone deals

Taking it old-school, the ad platform has composed 100 love letters to potential partners, launching its playful billboard ads nationwide in hopes of catching their attention. From Pilates studios to fashion brands, AdPower is spreading the love in an act of brand PDA, proving that grand gestures can have a big impact.

Created in partnership with Stink Studios, the 'Love Letters' campaign features personalised billboards filled with cheeky references to the recipient. For example, footcare specialists Margaret Dabbs' custom ad reads, “I know this is a long shot. I don’t have any feet and that’s what you’re all about. But let me tell you, this relationship has legs,” while food brand SushiDog got the more playful "Wrap me in seaweed, and let’s spread the word.”

The billboards will be placed close to the brand’s offices or stores in order to grab the attention of the businesses. With a simple yet attention-grabbing design, each ad features a typewriter font for a romantic, handcrafted feel. Equal parts silly and attention-stealing, the campaign is a wonderful display of clever copy and design at play.

“We love the symmetry of one of the oldest media types (billboards) getting a modern revamp with a new platform, and using an old-school typewriter to craft messages to new brands," says Kat Thomas, creative director at Stink Studios. "With one hundred singular gestures, we’ve drawn on our out-of-home expertise and our history working with brands to understand what makes each business distinctive. We’ve then translated that insight into a personalised experience and a large-scale expression of love and respect for every brand that features in the campaign, built with craft and genuine human effort.”

For more branding inspiration, take a look at how The Economist shades AI in these sharp new billboard ads or check out Guinness' new ads that are lovely (literally).

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of her hit album B'Day, Beyoncé decided to bless her fans with a custom wooden box. Why? I'm not entirely sure. With a whopping $948.01 USD price tag, I'm sure you're asking, Bey, what's in the box? Surprise, it's nothing.

"Inspired by the beauty of traditional beekeeper crates," this unassuming box is supposedly a place to home all your Beyoncé vinyls. Made of solid pine wood and finished with beeswax oil, it's a well-crafted, unconventional piece of merch, but I'm left wondering how on earth the price is justified at over $1000 after taxes and shipping.

Sure, there's a bee engraving and a Beyoncé logo slapped on for a bit of customisation, but the design doesn't feel on-brand for Miss Sascha Fierce at all. But lo and behold, fans were buying into it, with theories quickly blooming.

"It actually doesn’t say the boxes are empty… It says there are no vinyls in the box. That doesn’t mean there isn’t something else in the box," one fan suggested. "Beyoncé giving the hive a $948.01 Beyhive collector box we NEVER asked for means she wants us to have it, which means something is in that box," they claimed. "I just can’t prove it"

Do I think there's a hidden Easter egg in Beyoncé's mysterious box? Probably not, but I'm not one to mess with the theories of the Bey Hive. Merchandise is notoriously expensive, and I think Bey and her team are simply testing how much they can push it. I'm just astounded it worked.

For more entertainment insight, take a look at these 5 celebrity brands that are nailing it, and what we can learn from them or check out why ASAP Rocky dumped this designer over leaked DMs.

It's true that most cheap office chairs don't provide real lumbar support or the kind of adjustability you need to ensure a chair that works for your body. They don't tend to be comfortable to sit in for very long either. But there are some exceptions. We're particularly big fans of the Sihoo M18, currently reduced from $170 to $147 at Amazon.

Two years after we first reviewed it, we still think this chair shines in all the important areas: style, comfort, adjustability – and value. Here's that chair, and five others that we can recommend in the sub-$600 price range.

Welcoming in the changing of the seasons can feel a little blue sometimes, but picking up a crafting hobby can be a great opportunity to still your mind and reconnect with yourself. Whether you want to spice up your interior design with a DIY wreath or test your skills with a cute fall-themed cross-stitch kit, there are plenty of deals to be found.

Unlike some in our Quote of the Day series, Mary Cassatt didn't have the easiest route into the art world. She spent years trying to build a career in an art world with very clear ideas about what art should look like, who was allowed to make it and, as a woman, how far she could realistically expect to go. She studied in Paris, submitted work to the Salon and gradually became increasingly frustrated with the conventions she was expected to follow.

Then Edgar Degas invited her to exhibit with the Impressionists, and Cassatt later recalled: “I accepted with joy. At last I could work with absolute independence without considering the opinion of a jury. I had already recognised who my true masters were. I admired Manet, Courbet and Degas. I hated conventional art – I began to live.”

It's that last line I keep coming back to. “I hated conventional art – I began to live” as there’s a sense of release in it, as though Cassatt isn't simply saying that she preferred one way of painting to another, but that finding artists who opened up a different way of working changed what being an artist actually meant to her.

That's where her quote becomes more relevant than simply ‘be original’. Cassatt wasn't working in some creative vacuum, and she wasn't pretending that everything that came before her was irrelevant. Instead, she admired Manet, Courbet, and Degas, and their work gave her somewhere to go, something to be different against, because conventions aren't necessarily the enemy.

You need to know what has come before, understand the rules before you start breaking them, and sometimes the restrictions of a particular job or project are exactly what make a piece of work interesting. The trouble starts when you stop noticing the difference between being influenced by something and simply reproducing it.

That’s relevant today, when you can see more art in a few minutes than Cassatt could have encountered in weeks – open Instagram, Pinterest, ArtStation or whatever your particular rabbit hole happens to be, and there is an endless stream of artists, colour palettes, compositions, brush styles, character designs and visual trends competing for your attention.

The problem with having so many influences is separating what excites you from what simply seems to be working for everyone else. You can absorb all of the art and styles available without really noticing – the right colours, references, texture, perhaps even the right amount of roughness to make it feel like your digital art is handmade, and yet something about it doesn't quite feel like yours.

Cassatt's breakthrough wasn't about ignoring everyone else, either. It was about finding the people who made her want to do something differently – Manet, Courbet and Degas weren't formulas for her to copy; they were artists who helped her see what could be done, what was possible, when the conventions everyone else is obeying are shut down. For Cassatt, that meant applying Japanese-inspired techniques – printmaking, flattened depth, almost geometric composition – to scenes of women and domestic life.

That's what makes “I began to live” such a good ending to think about, as it's not really a rejection of influence, but a recognition of the point at which influence becomes your own, and the things you've absorbed stop telling you what to make and start giving you the freedom to find out what else can be done.

Visit the the Mary Cassatt website for more art and inspiration.

Our pick of the best Mary Cassatt art books:

For Nolan Joseph, president of indie studio DDDistortion, developing its debut game Nightmare Operator, a third-person action horror in the style of Resident Evil 4, these older visuals have another benefit.

"One of the things that I feel about modern games is they're beautiful, but there's so much density of visual information on the screen that it becomes hard to parse," he tells me following a hands-on I had of Nightmare Operator back at BitSummit this summer. "The original Resident Evil 4, you just knew what was interactable because you could look at it and tell just because there were only so many things from the environment, but the remake has to use arbitrary yellow paint, which ends up making it feel more like a gamified thing, whereas the original felt more like a realised world."

Achieving a PS1 visual design

The irony then is that while modern games might have more photorealistic visuals, they also often end up feeling less real. That isn't to say Joseph rejects modern tools, since Nightmare Operator is being developed in Unity and uses its Universal Render Pipeline (URP), though the small team still uses custom-built shaders to create and maintain the game's low-poly, low-res look. "It has to look consistently downscaled, so if you're running it at 4K or 1080p, it still has to look like it's running at 480p," he explains. "There's all this math and behind-the-scenes rendering stuff you have to do to figure out the size of the monitor, convert it down to that size and then blow it back up."

Another key modern rendering technique the game uses to reproduce a PS1-style look is volumetric fog, even though it's a "super modern, expensive effect" compared to what the original console could do. "By specifically combining retro with new, you get these unique looks that just don't exist anywhere else," Joseph adds. "Because we're using volumetric fog everywhere, there's always this nice dithered gradient all over the place in the game, and I think it creates a really unique image that feels unfixed in any particular time period."

On the surface, Nightmare Operator's vision of Tokyo in a dystopian setting where nightmarish yokai roam its ruins is quite comparable to the hardcore apocalyptic JRPG series Shin Megami Tensei, although Joseph adds that there's also a sci-fi element to its setting of "oppressive monolithic governments" that was actually inspired by Half-Life 2's City 17 and Combine oppressors. But the Tokyo-based developer also wants to create a more authentic version of Japan's capital by reimagining the places less known by tourists, so the demo that I played was set in Nakano, which could be best described as the smaller, quieter version of Akihabara but for serious otakus in the know, while another level is set in Shimokitazawa, a hipster district better known by the locals.

Nightmare Operator has a cool retro aesthetic that complements its nightmarish creations and atmosphere, and it has much smoother combat than other horror games of the era it evokes, but the special sauce is that it also has a fighting-game design. That's down to the weapon your protagonist, Misha, has, which uses a Clutch system that allows you to change the module to turn it into another gun by performing motion inputs like those in Street Fighter, like the Hadouken's forward quarter-circle or the Shoryuken's forward-diagonal.

Incidentally, you can also use your modular weapon for melee combat, which then borrows a little from Super Smash Bros where a neutral input or holding the stick in a certain direction will result in different kinds of attacks. But the two styles synergise: shooting overheats your gun, while melee helps reduce the heat faster.

"This is like a Trojan horse to try and get people interested in fighting games," Joseph admits. "But we're taking those systems that are really hard and stressful in the context of a fighting game, and putting them into a context where a monster is coming at you. Even though it is high pressure, it's a completely different type of tension than a fighting game. And I think it's more conducive to helping people learn those initial unique quirks of the inputs."

My one gripe is that, as someone who mains Chun-Li in Street Fighter, the Clutch won't include charging inputs like holding down back then forward, since that would take too long when you're being pursued by tricky, fast-moving enemies. Even so, this indie action-horror has a distinct retro aesthetic and innovative design that's high on my radar.

Nightmare Operator is coming soon to PC, and you can wishlist on Steam.

The latest to join the ranks is Guinness with its new 'LoVely' campaign. Drawing on its brand heritage and iconic logo, the simple yet charming ads are a prime example of how unfussy design can create timeless billboard ads.

Created in collaboration with advertising company AMV BBDO, the premise is wonderfully simple. Harking back to its 1930s tagline, 'Lovely Day for a Guinness', the new campaign expertly extracts this nostalgia, placing the word 'lovely' over slice-of-life moments made better with a Guinness in hand. The 'V' is cleverly replaced with the brand's iconic harp logomark, further reinforcing the brand's heritage, while the serif font gestures to the Guinness wordmark without feeling too dated.

“Sometimes the best ideas are right in front of you," says George Hackforth-Jones, Global Creative Director, AMV BBDO. "What we're most proud of with LoVely isn't just the beautiful simplicity of the design thinking or the photography. It's that the campaign captures the breadth, spirit and relatability of these moments, and with one simple word gives new depth and meaning to a brand platform that’s been around for nearly 100 years.”

For more creative inspiration, check out how The Economist shades AI in these sharp billboard ads, or take a look at these ingenious Lego billboards that demonstrate how sometimes less is more.

Below, Heather talks us through three examples of his work.

Harvest Moon

“I painted the ‘moon’ in soft colours to balance the warm details. The glossy original painting and the more matte, textured acrylic that I added created a lovely effect of texture and light that cannot be captured in print.”

To Isengard

“I couldn’t resist adding in a portrait of the popular meme of a twiggy tree running to Isengard! I love that he’s so tiny yet leading the way – much like the hobbits were eager to help their friends in battle.”

As You Wish

“I chose to paint this tender moment from The Princess Bride before they kissed, because when I watched this epic film as a kid, I always had the same disgusted thought: ‘they’re kissing again!’

You can see more of Heather's work on her website.

Get the gear

Inspired to replenish your own art supplies? See below for deals on the gear you need for acrylic painting.

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions are available.

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If you are exploring your options, take a look at our guide to the best monitors with a webcam.

Key specifications

Design and build

• Excellent FlexStand ergonomics
• Clever cable‑management system

The EV3450XC follows EIZO’s minimalist FlexScan design language. The bezels are slim, the lines are clean, and the cabinet is available in black or white with matching stands and cables. The FlexStand is one of the best ergonomic stands available, and offers smooth height, tilt, and swivel adjustments that make the heavy 12.1 kg unit feel surprisingly easy to position (once you've managed to lift it onto your desk, that is).

The cable‑tidy system on the rear, with a removable snap-on panel concealing the ports, is a standout feature. It keeps the monitor looking clean even when you are using it as a full docking hub. Build quality is strong overall, although there is more plastic on show than you might expect from a premium Eizo display. The webcam and microphone are integrated discreetly into the bezel, maintaining the clean aesthetic.

Design score: 4/5

Features

• USB‑C docking with 94W power delivery
• Built‑in webcam and microphone with Windows Hello

This is EIZO’s first monitor with an integrated webcam and microphone, and the implementation is thoughtful. The 5‑megapixel camera delivers a clear image and supports Windows Hello for quick, secure logins. The microphone uses noise‑cancellation and echo‑cancellation to keep your voice clear during calls, and the stereo speakers are neatly hidden in the bezel.

Connectivity is where the EV3450XC excels. USB‑C handles video, audio, data, and power delivery up to 94 watts, which means most laptops can run from a single cable. The built‑in LAN port is ideal for laptops without an Ethernet port, and the USB hub provides enough ports for everyday peripherals. Picture‑by‑Picture lets you run two systems side‑by‑side, and Screen InStyle software adds useful desktop‑organisation tools.

Features score: 4.5/5

Performance

• Reliable IPS colour with useful presets
• Comfortable curve for productivity

The 34.1‑inch IPS panel offers a wide, comfortable workspace with a gentle curve that suits productivity and general creative work. The UWQHD resolution keeps text sharp and gives you plenty of room to arrange multiple windows. Brightness is rated at 300 nits, and using my colorimeter, I measured it at 296 nits, which is close enough to call it an accurate claim. This brightness, in an era of OLEDs everywhere, feels adequate rather than impressive. Colour performance is reliable, and the preset profiles are genuinely helpful for creative tasks.

The curve is subtle enough for photo and design work, although you will still notice some distortion at the edges when working on precise layouts. The OSD is excellent, with clear menus and intuitive navigation. Eizo's eye‑care features, including Auto EcoView and Paper Mode, make long sessions more comfortable (especially the latter when I have been reading long texts).

Performance score: 4/5

Who's it for?

• Hybrid workers who want a single‑cable ultrawide workstation

The Eizo FlexScan EV3450XC is perfect for users who want a monitor that simplifies their desk setup while offering strong ergonomics, reliable colour, and integrated communication tools. It is not a reference‑grade creative display, but it is an outstanding productivity monitor with enough colour accuracy for everyday creative tasks.

Buy it if:

• You want a single‑cable USB‑C workstation
• You need a built‑in webcam and mic for hybrid work
• You value ergonomics and long‑term reliability

Don't buy it if:

• You need high brightness for a bright studio
• You want top‑tier webcam quality
• You prefer a flatter screen for precise design work