That's a lot cheaper than most of the best office chairs for back pain, and the Doro C300 Pro has a wide seat, breathable mesh, lumbar support, lots of adjustability and fantastic armrests.

Today's best office chair deal

• Browse office chairs at Amazon

We recognise that the C300 Pro is not the most beautiful office chair, and, like all Sihoo chairs, it takes some patience with assembly. But once you've got it set up, it is very comfortable.

The highlight is the lumbar support, which is one of the more comfy that we've tested, helping to support the back's natural 's' shape without making you feel like it wants to break you into submission.

Most of the chair's adjustability is as you'd expect from a higher-mid range ergonomic chair, but the armrests stand out. They go up/down, forward/back, and tilt and, most impressively, move laterally in and out from your chest. This is no minor detail: it provides more options for how you sit and allows you to freely move your arms as you want.

Not in the US? See the best budget office chair deals in your region below. Once you've made your choice, make sure you know how to sit properly in a chair.

The response has been pretty spectacular. The remake is sitting at 96 on Metacritic, with a hefty collection of perfect scores and very few critics finding much to complain about. That's quite an achievement for a game whose original version already has such a place in gaming history.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake launches on 5 November, and Nintendo has done rather more than give Link a fresh coat of paint. Hyrule has been rebuilt with a striking new visual style (while staying tonally true), the soundtrack has been re-orchestrated, and the original's occasionally clunky controls have been updated. Now it offers free jumping, a modern camera, and fully voiced cutscenes, alongside redesigned dungeons and expanded character interactions.

It's a substantial overhaul, even if the adventure itself remains reassuringly familiar to those who grew up on this classic Nintendo game. If you're a fan, take our Ultimate Zelda quiz and test your knowledge.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time review scores

GamesRadar+ awards the remake five stars, calling it "a remake for the ages". Reviewer Anna Koselke is particularly taken with how Nintendo has brought Hyrule to life without losing the original's charm, praising its "stunning visuals" and newly voiced dialogue.

TechRadar is equally impressed, awarding five stars and describing the remake as "a thoroughly well-thought-out retelling of one of the most loved video games of all time". Reviewer Josephine Watson highlights the redesigned locations, enemies and puzzles, as well as the refreshed soundtrack. There is a little caution, though, with TechRadar suggesting the remake could have been more ambitious and that some of the original's difficulty has been lost along the way.

A familiar adventure, with a few surprises

Game Informer awards the remake 9.25/10, describing it as "a straightforward recreation. But an admittedly very good one." Reviewer Kyle Hilliard likes the visual overhaul and improved camera but feels Nintendo has played it relatively safe with the changes. It looks new, he argues, without necessarily feeling like an entirely new adventure.

Shacknews is considerably more enthusiastic, awarding a perfect 10/10 and calling the remake "a tour de force that redefines what remakes can be". Its review highlights how Nintendo has made familiar mechanics feel fresh, from the reworked combat to the redesigned dungeons. It also singles out Navi, who has been given a much bigger role as a companion rather than simply popping up to shout "Hey! Listen!"

Destructoid also hands out a 10/10, calling it "one of the best examples of how to properly reimagine an enduring masterpiece". The review praises the improved visuals, 60fps performance, and updated controls, though it agrees the remake can feel a little too easy in places.

The Guardian's Keza MacDonald is similarly impressed, scoring the game five stars and describing the remake as "a dream come true". Her review makes an interesting observation about the new art direction, comparing Hyrule to detailed theatre scenery and Link to a handmade doll, with his equipment looking like exaggerated props. It's a more stylised approach than simply chasing photorealism, and one that suits the fairytale quality of the original.

Not everyone is entirely convinced with Ocarina of Time

Reviewers are highlighting the lack of Master Quest is a notable omission for returning players wanting a tougher adventure, while the more generous clues and quality-of-life improvements have softened some of the original's challenge.

GamesRadar+ also flags the absence of Master Quest and the single-save-file restriction as drawbacks. Game Informer, meanwhile, feels the remake could have been a little more adventurous in how it reinterprets the original.

These aren't deal-breakers, but they're worth considering if you've spent years exploring Hyrule and know the N64 version inside out.

A new generation gets to discover Hyrule

For anyone who grew up with the original Nintendo 64, this remake is clearly wrapped in an enormous amount of nostalgia. But Ocarina of Time is more than a fond memory for those of us who played it back in 1998. It helped establish the language of 3D adventure games, from lock-on combat to sprawling interconnected dungeons, and its influence still runs through modern game design.

Nintendo has had to do a lot of work to bring the adventure up to date, but it hasn't had to fix what made it special in the first place. The world design, the sense of discovery, and that slightly odd fairy-tale atmosphere are all still there, only now with the visual detail and fluidity the original hardware could never manage.

And Nintendo is very good at this too, with the recent Star Fox remake also proving popular on Switch 2, and the many Metroid and Mario updates and remasters proving a reason to buy Nintendo Online.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launches on Nintendo Switch 2 on 5 November.

Canva's just revealed another side of the story: the tech companies driving the change aren't immune to its impact. The Australian design software giant has announced the biggest restructuring in its 12 years of history, with plans to eliminate or relocate more than 1,200 jobs. That's almost a quarter of its global workforce, and it will include staff who helped to build the platform.

Canva aims to “collapse layers” in its organisation and bring “more teams together in person”. It's handling the layoffs in the classiest way possible, promising six months of salary and 12 months of healthcare to those affected, alongside career support, a fund for those who want to start their own business – and it's letting people keep their MacBooks.

But the layoffs highlight an inescapable contradiction. Even those responsible for the ubiquity of AI image generation are suffering from its expansion. Rather than a push for growth and innovation, Adobe and Canva's rollout of AI tools feels more their own desperate fight for survival, and it's a fight they might not be able to win.

"Success in our first chapter doesn’t guarantee success in the next," Canva CEO Melanie Perkins writes in an update to staff. "This has been our hardest year yet, and as we shared earlier this year, our growth has slowed for the first time in a decade."

There's been talk of an “SaaS-pocalypse” as AI becomes advanced enough to make specialised software redundant. We've already seen the release of an open-source vibe-coded Adobe alternative, and it works to an extent. Generating your own software is only going to get easier, as is asking an AI bot to generate design assets directly.

Despite its heavy investment in AI, Adobe's stock price has fallen by around 25% in the past year and over 60% in the past five years. It's not clear that even AI leaders like OpenAI and Anthropic, the makers of ChatGPT and Claude, can become profitable as Chinese rivals emerge delivering similar technology at a cheaper price.

Some creatives opposed to AI might feel a twinge of satisfaction at seeing a prominent proponent floundering. But Canva has also been a positive force, even if you don't use it's AI tools. As well as its premium platform, it has one of the best free Adobe alternatives in its free Affinity app, providing much-needed competition.

Creatives using the app might have cause to worry about how long it will be offered as a loss leader. Canva's shown a strong commitment to it so far, recently adding new raw editing tools and an iPad app. But its recent decision to pull the previously free Remove.bg into its paid suite shows that the structure and availability of creative software is constantly in flux as developers try to work out how to respond to competition from AI.

WoW: Forever, the new version of the iconic MMORPG, released today, takes players back to the original Azeroth, with reworked environments, lighting and atmosphere. It won’t get a full visual overhaul or take on the look of the recent expansions. Blizzard wants it to feel like coming home to a place that’s more alive. That's a tricky task, given that World of Warcraft is one of the defining video game art styles many look to and love.

“We believe WoW Classic’s art style is timeless,” says Matt Heyman, lead environment artist at Blizzard Entertainment. “Which is why our focus was not on changing the game art but on small ways we could push specifically things like the environmental effects. Such as the way rivers now flow in Elwynn Forest, or the way the fog rolls in the Duskwood at night. Or the way the moonlight breaks through the leaves in the Ashenvale. It’s the same original Azeroth that players fell in love with all those years ago, with just a few small but powerful effects and updates to make it more immersive than ever.”

The fine balance of WoW: Forever

World of Warcraft: Forever is designed as a permanent home alongside modern and Classic WoW. It returns players to the original continents and the level 1-60 journey while adding new stories and experiences, and Blizzard says it will keep expanding this version of Azeroth over time.

For this unique release, the team needed to build something new without disturbing the memories players already hold. The work covers around 40 existing zones, new locations such as Zephras Isle, home of the new Skyborne race, and changes to familiar places including Dalaran.

“We asked ourselves, ‘What does it mean to evolve a timeless world?’” says Heyman. “We wanted to take that original ‘Vanilla’ version of Azeroth and combine it with the version that lives in our heads. Where our experiences, nostalgia and imagination all shape the ways we remember it.”

Each zone has its own colour palette, mood and atmosphere. “We often talk about the world as the main character of World of Warcraft, but I like to imagine it as a cast of characters,” he says.

Reanimating memories in World of Warcraft

Duskwood shows the problem well. Players remember a gloomy forest full of spiders, wolves, undead and skeletons, with the Night Watch patrolling Darkshire by torchlight. “However, while it’s an awesome and iconic zone, it’s probably not as dark and creepy as people remember,” says Heyman.

For WoW: Forever, the team is leaning into the remembered version, with moonlight cutting through the branches around Darkshire and fog drifting through the graveyards.

New tools can tempt artists to change things just because they can, so Blizzard has set a guiding rule. “Changing a world that players have cherished for such a long time has risks. We approach it carefully and responsibly,” Heyman explains. “We developed a central artistic principle that everything must be authentic. That’s both authentic to our world but, most importantly, authentic to the memories we have of Azeroth when the journey began in WoW.”

He points to Durotar, the arid, vibrant homeland of the Orcs. A cool blue atmosphere would look natural and realistic there, he says, but it wouldn’t be authentic. “The correct approach is to go in with purpose and to lean in and push the fantasy that the region already has.”

Giving Azeroth more atmosphere

Most of the changes sit in the rendering technology, according to lead software engineer Jason Scott, who describes work on fog, lighting and water. Fog has been part of WoW’s look since the beginning, creating depth and gloomy vistas. Blizzard has replaced the original distant fog with volumetric technology, which gives artists much more control.

“We can control fog like we never have before,” says Scott. “Now we can increase the sense of creepiness in Dustwallow Marsh, and we can see the effect of wind in a zone. The texture of dust as it sweeps across plains.” It also extends sightlines across the map, which adds to the sense of scale.

Lighting has changed too. Until now, the sun and moons didn’t cast light into the world, a gap that would have been obvious once volumetric fog went in. Light now shines through the fog in a process called scattering, with the size and shape of the rays set by whatever blocks it, whether trees, mountains or other terrain.

“Now in WoW: Forever, when the sun comes up at dawn, there are streams of light that now cascade down the mountains, and we created similar rays for the moons as well,” says Scott.

To make that work, the team had to be sure the world properly blocked light and that the sun and moons lined up with the illumination on the ground. “There are still creative and artistic choices that we make, but it altogether makes the world feel much more alive,” he adds.

How Blizzard is making water feel like water

Rivers used to move simply, without resembling a river. For Forever, Scott says, the team studied how water moves, how wind and waves affect its surface, and how light interacts with its colour, transparency, and reflections. Rivers now follow their course, bend around rocks and produce foam where they hit them. Artists have full control over the effects, so different kinds of water can be tuned to look the way the team wants.

The models and textures remain the foundation of Warcraft’s look, even though the style has shifted with each expansion. Heyman says Forever is deliberately holding on to the character of the original assets.

“There’s an edge and grittiness to the way those assets look, and it just feels like Warcraft,” he says. “It’s a little bit of old, and a little bit of new. It’s maintaining that timeless iconic look matched with new rendering updates that breathe life into the world.”

World of Warcraft: Forever is available from today on Mac and PC (Pacific Time).

I mean working from home in a home office that is actually a spare room. And a spare room with crap light to boot. But there's a bit of tech for that, and over the last month or so I've been working with a SAD lamp right next to me. And it's had a massive positive impact on my day.

So I looked around and found the best SAD lamps from the best manufacturers in the US, all of which are on Amazon. As I explain below, you really can't go wrong with any of these, and as long as they're emitting 10,000 lux of brightness, you're only really paying more for the design and features of the lamp. For me, I really like the idea of having a magic pyramid on my desk!

How Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) lamps work

In a nutshell, SAD lamps mimic morning sunlight to balance internal body clocks. As their light enters our eyes it stimulates retinal cells. These cells then send signals to the brain to decrease melatonin (the sleepy hormone) and increase serotonin (the neurotransmitter that regulates happiness and energy). And this isn't all just vibes-based. Clinical trials confirm light therapy treats winter depression. I've had one for the last month, and I have absolutely felt the benefits.

For SAD lamps to be effective, they need to be able to pump out 10,000 lux of brightness from a normal sitting distances. All the lamps on this list achieve that. What's most interesting is that the more expensive lamps offer zero additional mood benefit. Budget boxes with certified output match luxury models, so you're just paying for design aesthetics and features (which admittedly are important).

A note on the light temperature – therapeutic lamps emit cool white light, so you won't be getting lovely honey-warm light with these. Blue wavelengths stimulate circadian photoreceptors in the retina. Warm white bulbs lack that blue spectrum and fail to trigger the internal wakefulness response, so keep that in mind before you click 'buy'.

Made with McCann London, the beast comes from John Nolan Studio, the creature effects team behind animatronics for Jurassic World and Harry Potter. That pedigree shows. Rather than a console wedged into a novelty shell, this is a properly crafted creature, sculpted in clay, built up in fibreglass and finished by hand, with detailed scales and textured skin.

The Series X-Bite stunt is the latest in a series of events to publicise GTA 6, following Rockstar's takeover of Miami, including real-world billboards for in-game brands and the recent filthy South Park episode in which new footage was shown inside the cartoon show.

Scroll past the photos of the collectable Series X-Bite box to learn how to win one.

Photos of the Xbox Series X-Bite

The idea riffs on Florida’s chaotic reputation, which is what inspired GTA 6’s Leonida in the first place. Between the alligator run-ins and the real-world headlines that read like Rockstar mission briefs, it’s an easy fit.

Sadly, there’s no word on a new console design for the rest of us. But you can win this one-of-a-kind creation through Xbox’s social channels, such as Xbox Facebook and Xbox Twitter, with the giveaway running until 19 November.

It’s daft, sure, but it’s a smart way to tap into the GTA 6 hype without just slapping a logo on a box. Just keep it away from the pool, or your fingers.

Watch the Xbox Series X-Bite reveal video:

Pre-order GTA 6 and buy an Xbox Series X:

It’s the perfect call to action for anyone stuck in colder climates, timed to coincide with the yearly spike in searches for holidays in sunnier places. See the gallery of images below, then head to our best print ads roundup.

I'm obsessed with the dark, moody photography that encapsulated that feeling of being damp and drizzly in the midst of a British autumn-winter. I also love how the images need a second glance to make sense of, with the figure in the foreground in such close focus they make an impact with shape alone before you notice all the details.

Photographed by Daniel Benson at Making Pictures in an unscripted reportage shoot, the outdoor work is live now across Rail D6s in London, placed by MG OMD.

This isn't a big-screen game console; it's a mix of board gaming and retro tabletop bar video games. The flat-lying 24-inch touchscreen tracks the physical pieces you slide, spin and pick up. Includes the co-op cooking game Chop Chop and the six-game Retro Arcade Collection.

Those seven games and pieces are essentially modern takes on Asteroids, plus Chop Chop is a co-op culinary party game in the vein of Overcooked. You can expand your library with additional packs, but there's no subscription, and you can buy extras one at a time.

Why is Board worth a look?

The 24-inch anti-glare screen suits families and groups, with solo, co-op and competitive modes. There’s Wi-Fi 6 and 64GB of storage under the woodgrain-effect frame. It ticks my need for a new way to play games, feels retro and modern all at once, and I can see the family loving this like they do Nex Playground, particularly as some of the games feature party play and Tamagotchi ideas – Mushka is a little dog that lives inside Board and can be played with.

The pieces are the smart idea here. Board’s PieceSense tech identifies each piece, where it is, and how it’s moving, so kids who’d fumble a standard controller can pick up a plastic spaceship and fly it straight away. That active interaction gives Board an old-fashioned Nintendo appeal.

Get the extra Board games:

This is just one of the many logos subject to the Mandela effect, a psychological and social phenomenon that convinces us of visual elements that simply don't exist. A few years ago, we reported that scholars at the University of Chicago studied the effect and found that people share the same false memories of a range of logos and icons. The very best logos are memorable, but some of them have false additions in the minds of many people.

We decided to revisit this study after a chat in the office brought up the design details that actually don't exist in real life – and we want to know, have you been subject to the Mandela effect in these cases? If so, let us know in the comments. And if you have any other logos you've misremembered, can you draw your version and upload them in the comments?

Neuroscientist Wilma Bainbridge and lab manager Deepasri Prasad at the University of Chicago's Brain Bridge Lab found that people have confident and consistent false memories of famous icons. The team trawled internet discussions for logos and characters people commonly misremember, then added their own picks and made small tweaks to see if people could spot the real thing. In total there were 40 images, including the logos for Apple, Bic, Disney, Fruits of the Loom, Ralph Lauren and Volkswagen, plus the Bluetooth symbol, Pikachu, C-3PO, Wally and Curious George.

Participants had to pick the correct version from three options. Apple and Ralph Lauren did well, with around 80 per cent getting them right. Monopoly, Volkswagen and Fruits of the Loom did not: only 20 to 30 per cent chose the real logo. Most people also insisted Pikachu’s tail has a black tip. It doesn’t.

It wasn’t just a multiple-choice problem either. When asked to draw the images from memory, people made the same mistakes unprompted. Bainbridge says it’s a strong effect: people hold a false memory of an image they’ve never actually seen.

Why does it happen?

Nobody knows yet. The study doesn’t identify a cause. One suggestion is schema theory, where our brains add details that fit the theme. A monocle says ‘wealthy Victorian gent’, so in it goes.

That doesn’t explain everything, though. A cornucopia isn’t an obvious addition to a plate of fruit, which is the problem with using schema theory to explain the Fruits of the Loom logo. (The scene does exist in art, but that’s a stretch.)

Why should designers take note?

The researchers say the findings could matter for logo design and for choosing images in education and advertising, where accurate memory is the whole point. Bainbridge also linked it to wider questions about the images used in the media.

It’s a useful reminder that ‘memorable’ and ‘remembered correctly’ aren’t the same thing.

But how well do you know the history and lore of Hyrule? Are you the hero of time or the weakest Link? Put yourself to the test with our Zelda quiz below.

How did you do? Let us know below.

Coca-Cola's AI Christmas ad was one of the most controversial, while McDonald's pulled its festive effort due to the backlash. This year, it seems we're seeing a strong counter movement, with big brands making a point of their commitment to handcrafted art.

First, there was the glorious Prada Christmas ad, directed by former Disney animator John Pomeroy. Now Levi's has pulled out the stops for a very different animated gem, showing that it's not just luxury brands that see the value of human craftsmanship in advertising.

Levi's Let’s Get Fuzzy stop-motion holiday campaign was produced by the London-based production studio Blinkink . The animation begins as a play on horror movies, making it a fun segue from Halloween. A monster interrupts a group of friends' cosy festive retreat in a snow-covered cabin. But Fuzzyeti's discovery of festive jumpers makes him quickly succumb to the holiday spirit.

The medium of painstaking stop-motion animation was chosen to highlight Levi's heritage of craftsmanship. As shown in the making of video below, a six-person team spent more than 2,000 hours over six and a half weeks building and painting the sets, including three cabins at different scales, along with 400 miniature trees, and four faces for each character.

The clothes are miniature replicas of real Levi's products – a stylist was on hand to ensure accuracy. They were moved for every frame of the animation to make them feel life like, but requiring four hours of work of every second of animation.

A reference edit was made with actors and the directors themselves acting out the roles (including a specialist monster actor for Fuzzyyeti). This was then used as the guide for the animators.

Levi's has form in animation, from the psychedelic 2D short The Stranger in 1971 to Clayman with Shaggy’s Boombastic in claymation in 1995. Today, the decision to use such a laborious handcrafted process makes a bigger statement, creating added distinction and value amid so much AI-generated content.

Your local food truck might not worry about their ugly AI flyers if they can do the job for cheap. But for big brands, proof of work like the behind-the-scenes video above has become as important as the finished advert. Avoiding the embarrassment of an 'AI content' label isn't enough, they're taking steps to proactively signal that an advert was human made.

Hermès and Ralph Lauren are just two fashion brands that have been doing this by mentioning the people behind their ads in the captions on social media. Naming the creative team behind a campaign has become a signal of craftsmanship, and the implication is clear: human-made art is seen as a sign of a premium brand.

Apple's also been on the trend with its embroidered logo and the stop-motion ad for Apple Games, which was also made by Blinklink. The resurgence of interest in stop motion is likely to continue to grow with Laika's Wildwood doing well at the box office.

The pricing and timeframe is not yet fully defined, but, according to the Financial times, Spotify aims to launch AI remixing by around February 2027 for a $4-$5 monthly surcharge on top of the price of a standard Premium plan. So far the reaction among both users and musicians has been tepid, but visual artists should also be watching what happens.

Spotify's proposal might seem reasonable. AI remixing will be an optional feature for users who want it, and artists can choose whether to opt in to license their work for it. For those who do, their fans get new ways to engage with their music, and they receive a new stream of royalties.

That sounds reassuring until you consider how platforms like Spotify work. If enough artists join, participation could quickly turn into an economic necessity. If remixable songs receive more engagement, appear in more playlists and generate more activity, non-remixable work could become harder to discover. There's also a concern that AI-generated remixes themselves could crowd out original music.

Beyond Spotify, It's also a test case for a question facing every creative sector. Should technology help audiences discover artistic work, or treat art as raw material for endless algorithmic recombination?

In Spotify's vision, a listener might turn a ballad into a dance track or make one artist appear to perform another artist's song. The value shifts from the original work to how much it’s ‘reimagined’.

On social media, TikTok and Instagram already allow users’ visual content to be ‘remixed’. Applying the same concept to art transforms it from something we experience into something we personalise. Think the artist chose the wrong pitch? Change it. Don’t like the ending of a movie? Generate a different one

On Spotify’s own community forum, one person describes this as like spitting in the face of artists. It trivialises their intent and judgment.

Art's power often comes from the fact that someone else made the decisions. The point of encountering another person's creativity is not that it reflects our own preferences, but that it shows us a perspective we didn't have before. When every creative decision becomes are our own choice, artistic intent becomes insignificant . That's bad not just for the artists, it also for the consumer's ability to critique art.

Some of the worst design fails are so blindingly obvious that it's a wonder they made it past the first design meeting, let alone into the real world. But what looks like an unforgivable oversight to the rest of us can be surprisingly easy to miss when you're knee-deep in the design process.

Below we revisit 14 ginormous design fails, covering packaging, UI, logo design and UX, all of which offer us all something to learn from. If you'd like to see more on what you should do, see our guide to logo design.

01. Instituto de Estudos Orientais

Kicking things off is a hilarious example of ambiguous imagery, from Instituto de Estudos Orientais. Despite being quickly dropped by the university almost a decade ago, it's gone down in history as one of the worst logos of all time. Why? Well, just look at it.

This one's so infamous that one designer, Emanuele Abrate, decided to fix it as part of his 'Worst Logos Ever Redesigned' project in 2020 (above).

02. Anal Malaysia

The first example in our selection of design fails hit a real bum note, rolling together two huge blunders with unintentionally comical results. The Chinese streaming service iQIY was forced to apologise for this embarrassing Malaysia Day poster.

The design is supposed to read 'Anak Malaysia' (which translates as 'Child of Malaysia') to promote shows available to stream during Malaysia Day 2020. But perhaps in a case of a designer thinking they were too clever to make a mistake, the phrase was stylised to incorporate the crescent and star of the Malaysian flag, resulting in legibility issues that still have us on our bottoms laughing.

Not only does the design make it look like the phrase says 'Anal Malaysia', it also looks like there's a figure squatting down between the two words. Quite how this made it through rounds of approval we're not sure. It leaves us asking whether anyone gave it a look over other than the original designer.

03. The OGC logo

But the potential pitfalls of typography go further than the example above. It's sometimes not enough to only check that your design reads well on a horizontal plane. It's best to check how it looks when turned in other directions too.

The UK Office of Government Commerce existed from 2000 to 2011 with the objective of improving efficiency in public spending. In 2007 it commissioned FHD to design a new logo that would show the body's bold commitment to driving up standards. The problem was that the logo was printed on pens, mouse mats, and all manner of other stationery items that would be viewed from different orientations.

It took the government department's employees mere seconds to notice something that the logo's designers hadn't. Rotated 90 degrees the logo looks rather rude. Incredibly, the OGC decided to stick with the new logo. A spokesperson even quipped: "It is not inappropriate to an organisation that's looking to have a firm grip on Government spend."

04. Flickering Lights

Choosing the right font is only the start when it comes to ensuring the typography is right for a design, and that applies to packaging as well as anything else. A little kerning to add space between the 'L' and the 'I' would have been a good idea to prevent misreadings of the product name in the case above.

Always run your design by several people and ask them what they see. Chances are they might have a very different interpretation from those who know what the message is intended to be. And tread very carefully when the word you're designing has any similarity at all to a word you want to avoid.

05. Lisa Jackson Deserves to Die

"As he watches, her body drifts below the water's surface, forever altered. Before he disposes of each victim, he takes a trophy. It's a sign of his power, and a warning…" We're not sure that this novel sounds like the best read out there, but we would never go so far as to demand this fate for the author.

There are many ways to establish text hierarchy – through font, weight, colour, location of text – and sometimes tweaking more than one of these is necessary. In this case, switching from all caps to title case was not enough to prevent an unintended reading of this design, with title placed directly under the author's name. Remember that as a designer, you're not only responsible for how things look but also for their context and how they'll be read.

06. Tesco buttermilk

Perhaps one of the most notorious packaging blunders in history came from this own-brand buttermilk sold by Tesco in Ireland. This shot with crease in the right place went viral and was even picked up by several newspapers after it was taken at a supermarket in Dublin.

Shopper Andy Burdens wrote on Reddit at the time: "They really made a cock and balls of this branding." Tesco changed the design after the media coverage of the blunder. The lesson here? No design is too small or routine to merit making a mockup – designer Oisín Hurst told Creative Bloq he designed the piece on a flat keyline and didn't mock it up, thinking, "it was buttermilk – what could go wrong?"

07. Mama's Baking

Logos often combine ideas taken from a brand's name or function. It makes sense then that this bakery in Greece would consider combining a representation of the eponymous 'mama' and the oven in which she presumably bakes her exquisite cakes and breads. The problem is that the position of the flame in the oven makes it look like something else.

It's hard to imagine the designers weren't aware of how it looked and the design may have paid off, the bakery and cafe still proudly using the logo that has taken it to international internet fame.

In general, designers need to be careful with employing the human figure in logos as so many decisions can be misinterpreted, as is demonstrated very well by this 1970s logo for the Catholic Church Archdiocesan Youth Commission. We can perhaps ascribe it to more naive times. And after all, designers can't be expected to predict all future associations that will emerge related to their clients.

08. The Coca-Cola bottle creator

The design of marketing campaigns has grown now to encompass a lot more than graphic design. Campaigns often now also include elements of UI and the whole user experience involved in what more interactive initiatives aimed at promoting customer engagement. This kind of marketing has to be well thought through though.

Coca-Cola's custom bottle creator campaign for Pride Month resulted in embarrassment for the company when it turned out the programme would reject certain words from inclusion in the bottles, as well as swear words, the list of banned words seemed to include LGBT, transgender, black lives matter (but not white lives matter) and Palestine.

09. Thomson Reuters' values

This one was a bit of a clanger for the media conglomerate Thomson Reuters. The idea was presumably to suggest that the concepts on the left are the group's core values, but the image looks like a Venn diagram, a type of diagram used to show logical relations between different sets through overlapping curves. Read this way, the graphic appears to show that there is very little overlap between the values on the left and the comparably minute values of Thomson Reuters.

The Washington Post even picked up on the slip and praised the company for its honesty in the ironic headline, "In refreshing change of pace, company admits it's not innovative." The lesson here is to always step back and consider whether design elements you have chosen for purely aesthetic purposes may resemble any other visual language in common use.

10. Where Milan

Well-heeled travellers will have been a little taken aback when they saw this edition of Where Milan, which is published by Proedi and distributed at many of the city's most exclusive hotels. Placement of the photo cutout layered over the title makes it seem that the publishers are calling into question the reputation of their own cover model.

It's an Italian publication, so the designers could perhaps be forgiven for overlooking an error when working in a foreign language, but if you're aiming at a foreign language market, you need to be able to spot a howler like this.

11. CVS chewable hair, skin and nails

Another packaging delight, this nutritional supplement from CVS appears to be marketed for Hannibal Lecter. The problem here stems from making assumptions about what the customer knows and following the format of other items in a range of products rather than adapting the design.

For other supplements in this range at US pharmacy chain there's no confusion. The text can read Chewable Vitamin C and no unintentionally comic meaning arises, but with this product it may have been better to clarify in an appropriately sized type that the products inside are tablets avoid skin-crawling misinterpretations.

12. Graduate photography

This is apparently an advert for a graduation day photography service. Getting on the career track maybe? The light at the end of the tract representing a new dawn? Whatever the original intention, there's no getting over the fact that this graduate does not come across as overjoyed about her prospects on the modern job market. In fact, it looks like she's about to end it all by walking straight into an oncoming train.

The colour tones and even the choice of font seem to only back up the impression that the intended message is more about bereavement than celebrating graduation, with the light of the oncoming train perhaps also representing some hope that there may be some better world in the next life. Always consider the mood you want to convey and ensure colours, imagery and type are on message.

It's vital to remember that design is ultimately about clear communication. Just as a writer or speaker needs to choose the perfect words to deliver their message, designers must communicate theirs by selecting the correct visual elements, which convey exactly what they want to say.

13. The magic selfie stick

Graphic designers producing promotional material and visuals for technical instructions can benefit from having a clear understanding themselves of how the product they're depicting actually works.

When it comes to technology, if the visual material produced for the product doesn't get it right, what chance do the digital immigrants among the customer base have? Just as an aside, we love how retro this design for selfie stick packaging already looks.

14. Outon breathable shorts

These cycling shorts let you fart while riding a bike. It's a neat feature, right? But really who decided it was a good idea to communicate the breathability of these padded shorts by overlaying some gas emerging from the padded rear end?

Sometimes designers have to accept that no designing is needed at all and that conveying a message can be better accomplished by the accompanying text, with no need for added visual clarification.

15. Date formats

A little UI blooper to finish with. We're not sure why different parts of the world adopted different standard formats for expressing something as straightforward as the date and it is a phenomenon that causes problems for designers everywhere working on UI forms, but this is something that the designer should have foreseen. When you're working with dates or with any other variable content think through all of the possible scenarios that could arise.

Our top pick is the Bambu Lab P2S for $649, down from $749. For that, you'll get a fully enclosed printer with a 256 x 256 x 256mm build volume, along with an AMS 2 Pro unit that handles multicolour printing and dries your filament too.

Want something even more advanced? The X2D and H2C have both dropped in price too, and I’ve compare all three below. Meanwhile, if you want to see what discounts other brands are offering right now, check the constantly updating price widgets in our best 3D printers guide.

Bambu Lab Black Friday Sale top picks

How to choose

All three of these bundles include an AMS 2 Pro and an enclosed printer with AI error detection, so the real question is how much multicolour work you do, and how demanding your materials are.

For most people, the P2S will be the best buy. It prints in multiple colours out of the box and handles materials such as ABS and ASA, and it’s $140 cheaper than the X2D. However, bear in mind it only has a single nozzle and lacks active chamber heating.

The X2D includes both, with essentially the same build volume, making it a smart choice if you often print with separate support material, while the 65°C chamber helps with tougher filaments. Just be aware that the auxiliary nozzle supports fewer filaments than the main one.

At the top end of the scale, in terms of both price and sophistication, is the H2C. It costs nearly three times as much as the P2S and weighs over twice as much at 32.5kg. But its hotend-swapping system slashes purge waste, and in our testing, models that’d take three days or more on an H2S took just over 24 hours on the H2C. If multicolour printing is your business, this is the one to get.

If you still need some wicker in your own life, there's always the option to 3D print your own wicker husband (actually the technology they used in the film), but there are plenty of ready-to-go budget gems around. Ikea has dusted off its Tolkning bench, reinventing it as the season's must-have racy accessory, and it has plenty of other options to help you get your wicker fix. Just don't blame me for any chafing.

Get the Wickercore look

You might also want to see how they made Alexander Skarsgård's wicker suit.

The 16 Pro 9i Aura Edition boasts dedicated Nvidia graphics, 32GB RAM and a high-resolution OLED touch display, making it a solid option for video editing and content creation as well as gaming. It also comes with a Wacom stylus included, making it an option as a laptop for drawing.

Today's best laptop deals for creatives

You know the one. Aggressive brush strokes. A slight upward slant. It's loud, it's shouty, and it's everywhere. And now, people are comparing it to that other much-maligned font, Comic Sans. Which, if you ask me, is an insult to Comic Sans.

So why are so many small businesses happy to make posters using the exact same aesthetic? The clue might be in the name: small businesses. If you're looking for the quickest, cheapest and easiest way to produce a poster, and you haven't got the resources to hire a designer, perhaps you'll be happy to make do with one of the first things AI spits out. And if you're not as chronically online as the rest of us, perhaps you won't even realise this style is so ubiquitous.

But comparing it to Comic Sans? Come one, now. Comic Sans might not be the most serious looking typeface around, but it was handmade for a purpose. According to Carrick Signs' signage and print expert Mandy Roscoe, Comic Sans was originally created to solve a very specific communication problem, made to “mimic informal, handwritten speech in cartoons, not to decorate official notices." Mandy explains, "The problem isn’t the font itself. It’s when it’s used in the wrong context for the message being delivered.” And in 2020, it was deemed the world's second most trusted font.

As for why AI keeps pumping out the same font, well, who better to ask than AI? I asked ChatGPT, who gave me the following answer:

AI image generators frequently use this bold, brushstroke-style lettering because they've learned to associate it with exciting, attention-grabbing design. Their training includes countless posters, advertisements and YouTube thumbnails featuring oversized capitals, distressed textures and bright colours. When asked to create something dramatic, AI often reproduces these familiar visual patterns. Interestingly, it isn't necessarily selecting an actual font, but generating lettering inspired by similar styles. This reflects AI's tendency to repeat popular design clichés rather than invent something original. Ironically, typography originally intended to look handmade, rebellious and expressive has become so common in AI-generated artwork that it now looks unmistakably artificial.

So, there we have it. Thanks, ChatGPT. You're right, it does look unmistakably artificial.

And now it's hit a new low price of $699 for Black Friday (yeah, it's more Black Month than Friday these days).

This is a great 3D printer that boasts zero waste, fast multicolour prints and excellent quality. We've picked it as our in our guide to the best 3D printers for a reason.

If you're looking for a 3D printer with zero waste, fast multicolour prints and excellent quality, look no further. It's in our guide to the best 3D printers for a reason – it's one of the speediest 3D printers you can get with zero purge.

Why is the Snapmaker U1 so popular?

I've been testing the Snapmaker U1 for quite some time now, and I'm chuffed with it. The printer is super fast thanks to the modular design, which comprises 4 separate toolheads. The SnapSwap system allows the printer to switch colours in just five seconds, all while reducing filament usage with zero purge/poop (yes, really).

The only other 3D printer at this level that I've tested is the Bambu Lab H2C, which takes a slightly different approach with a Vortek Nozzle-swapping system for fast colour changes. I've compared both machines against each other in a Vs piece to help you decide which one to buy.

Take a look at the video below to see just how fast this printer can change colours.

See the Snapmaker U1 in action

*If you can't see the video above, please refresh the page.

I honestly think Bambu Lab might have single-handedly mastered 3D printing with this mic drop of an announcement. I know that's a bold statement, but I can say with confidence, having tested the H3C for the past few weeks, that nothing else even comes close.

At this point, we might as well scrap our guide to the best 3D printers and just recommend the H3C from now on.

Jokes aside, every time the 3D printing community has raised an issue, Bambu has responded with a "hold my beer" like approach to fixing it. Purge waste? Eradicated. Wet filament? Not anymore. Long print times? Cut in half thanks to the H3C and Swaptek technology. I'm not sure what else can be improved.

VIDEO: A first look at the Bambu Lab H3C

Bambu Lab H3C: specs & features

Where to begin? The highlights boil down to the new Swaptek tool changer, comprising 9 PrintTools (nozzle + a PTFE tube), each with its own filament path for effortless and speedy colour changes in under 6 seconds.

Not to mention there's the new FlexFeed extruder, which accommodates both 1.75mm filament and 2.85mm filament for super soft TPU like the 75A Bambu Lab spools I've been testing.

The new AMS 3H is humongous, and has been superbly designed to not only store your filament but dry it too, with 2 dedicated chamber slots. Several of the spool slots also have what the company calls a bypass feed, so using materials that aren't suitable for AMS auto-loading, like TPU, has never been easier (I've got a video on this coming soon).

The only thing that the H3C is missing is a laser module, but I think that's for the best in this case and not needed for this kind of product. You can always get yourself a Bambu Lab R1 if you want to join the laser cutting club, or check out some of the best laser cutters and engravers out there from brands like xTool and Creality.

It seems like Bambu is on a mission to conquer the craft space, having launched its first standalone laser this year with the R1, and having recently announced that it's dipping its toe into 3D scanners as well. I'm calling it now: in 2027, there will be a Bambu Lab sticker maker, keyring machine, or some type of mini portable maker.

Will you be preordering one? Let's discuss in the comments below.

However, it's important to note that different tools do different things, so you need to find the right one for you. For instance, if you're writing a newsletter on a specialist topic you want to charge for, you'll have different needs to a studio wanting to send out newsletters for multiple clients.

For this roundup, I've focused on three main types of newsletter tools. Kit, Beehiiv and Substack are for people whose newsletter is part of what they sell. Ghost and GetResponse help you to add a website, memberships or courses to the mix. Finally, Flodesk, MailerLite, Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor and Brevo are more traditional email tools, which are the best choices if email is mainly there to promote your work or company.

So first, decide what you want your newsletter to do, then check the size of your list against the relevant price. I've included current prices at time of writing, but these change regularly so make sure you check the provider's website and read all the small print. Also read How to build an unskippable newsletter.

The best email newsletter tool for free subscribers

Are you a freelancer or small shop who doesn't want to pay anything for sending out newsletters, at least yet? Then Kit is the one to start with.

This tool would suit, for example, an illustrator who wishes to email around 3,000 subscribers every month about what they've been up to. You'd pay absolutely nothing, because the free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers. What if you started charging $10 a month for your newsletter? In that case, the fee for Kit would be 65 cents per payment.

The free plan only lets you set up one series of emails that send automatically, such as a welcome series for new subscribers. If you wanted to set up more, this would cost $39 a month for 1,000 subscribers. Finally, note that you can sell digital products here too, but you get fewer design options than with Flodesk.

The best email newsletter tool for paid subscriptions

If you already have a large mailing list or social following, and want your newsletter to make money through subscriptions, Beehiv is the one I'd opt for. This tool would suit, for example, someone who runs a weekly design newsletter that 10,000 subscribers are willing to pay for.

If you paid Beehiiv $139 a month, which is its Lite price at this list size, you'd keep all your subscription income, beyond Stripe's fees for processing payments. You'd also be able to run ads through Beehiiv's network rather than hunting for sponsors yourself. Beehiv is able to host your website and podcast too.

Note, though, that you'd get Beehiiv's branding on your newsletter; this is only removed on the Pro plan. There's also a free plan, which covers 2,500 subscribers, but it doesn't allow you to charge subscriptions or run ads.

The best email newsletter tool for aesthetics

If you work as a creative professional, chances are you'll want your newsletter to look as good as possible. If that's your number one priority, then Flodesk is the tool for you.

This tool was built specifically for creatives that prioritise visual presentation, and has been widely praised for its superior aesthetics. It would suit, for example, a photographer who wants every email to feel like a page from their portfolio.

For up to 1,000 subscribers, the Lite plan costs $25 a month, but the Pro plan is only three more dollars at $28 and you'll unlimited automations and a checkout, making it a slam-dunk if you have anything to sell to your readers.

Note that there is a free plan, but that's purely for forms and landing pages, not sending email. Also, ignore older reviews that praise Flodesk's flat rate, because that closed to new members in 2025.

The best basic email newsletter tool

Want to keep things simple and cheap? Then consider MailerLite the best "no frills" option here. This tool would suit, for example, a small studio emailing 200 clients and contacts. The free plan would allow you to email everyone about 12 times a month, and you'd also get automations, a website and a landing page. You'd only have to upgrade once you exceed 250 subscribers.

With MailerLite, you can build newsletters using its drag-and-drop editor, or code your own emails in HTML: whatever is easiest for you. Just watch the limit of 250 subscribers. Paid plans start at $12 a month.

The best email newsletter tool for marketing features

Mailchimp is the grandday of email newsletter tools, and still remains very popular. If you run a small business and want a familiar, all-round marketing tool, this is the one I'd choose. The newsletter builder is easy to use, and you can create templates from your logo and colours.

The free plan allows you to have 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with no automation. The Essentials plan, at $13 a month for 500 contacts, allows 5,000 sends, while Standard, from $20, includes AI writing tools and advanced automation.

The best email newsletter tool for bloggers

Do you want your some or all of your articles to live online as blog posts, as well as sending out newsletters? Then Ghost is the one to choose. You get your own website, where your articles live, and you can give readers the choice of signing up for free or paid access to your newsletter.

The Publisher plan, from $29 a month billed annually, adds paid subscriptions and custom themes, and Ghost takes zero cut from any of that. This beats Substack's 10% fee once you starting earning above $290 a month.

The $18 Starter plan, meanwhile, stops at 1,000 members and doesn't include paid subscriptions. Ghost won't help new readers find you, though, so you'll need to bring your own audience.

The best email newsletter tool for building a subscriber base

Want to ultimately make money from newsletter subscribers, but don't yet have a subscriber base? Substack makes it easy to get started with sending out free newsletters that you can monetise further down the line when you've convinced people to pay for them.

Substack is easy to set up and if your newsletter is free, you pay nothing to send it out. It also provides good features for being discovered: Notes, Chats and Recommendations all connect you with other writers and their readers.

When you start to charge for your newsletter, that's when Substack makes its money. Let's say 200 people pay you $10 a month, adding up to $2,000 of income: Substack will keep $200 before Stripe's fees. Also note that there's also no automation or integrations, and only basic reports.

The best email newsletter for agencies

If you're an agency who wants to send out polished emails for several clients, Campaign Monitor is my pick. The focus here is on templates, design control and account management, as opposed to earning money.

There's no permanent free plan. The Lite plan allows around five sends per contact each month, at $13 for 500 contacts. Essentials, from $31 a month, gives you unlimited sends and automations. The cost rises considerably if your contact list grows: you'll pay around $182 a month for 10,000 contacts on Essentials.

The best tool for a big list but few emails

If you have a big list but don't email it often, pick Brevo. Because what you pay with this service mainly depends on the number of emails sent, not the number of people on your list.

Say you have 10,000 contacts and send one newsletter a month. The cheapest Brevo plan that allows that many contacts costs $29 a month and covers 20,000 emails, so you could send two newsletters. By comparison, Campaign Monitor’s Essentials plan would cost about $182 a month for the same list (although admittedly that includes unlimited sends).

If you email more often, Brevo stops being so economical: a weekly newsletter to the same list would cost about $55 a month. If you hit your monthly limit, your campaigns are paused until you buy more emails, renew your plan early or the next billing month starts.

Note that there is a free plan, but its limit of 300 emails a day means a mailing to 1,000 people would take four days, so it’s only really worth using to try the service for size.

The best email newsletter tool if you're selling courses

If your newsletter is one part of a bigger teaching business, GetResponse is a strong choice. This would be a good choice, for example, for an illustrator who's focused on selling a course in how to draw with Procreate. The $69-a-month Creator plan, at 1,000 contacts, would enable them to build a course, run webinars and manage members as well as sending email newsletters.

If you only need a newsletter, though, the Starter plan at $19 a month, makes more sense. You can try this for 14 days without a card. After that, accounts drop to a free version capped at 2,500 emails a month, without automation.

The Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 didn't disappoint. It's a lovely tablet to draw on, with a superb OLED screen and Wacom's excellent Pro Pen 3, and it finally gives Android the sort of hardware artists have been waiting for; it immediately made our best tablets list with a stylus guide.

Then I got my hands on the XPPen Magic Pro 13, and I struggled to decide which was best. I've tested quite a few Android drawing tablets, and you can find many in our guide to the best Android drawing tablets for artists on a budget, and while they've all had something going for them, I've usually found myself going back to an iPad Pro or a desktop drawing display. The problem was often a laggy pen, a processor that could keep up, or a cut corner on display specs.

But both Wacom's MovinkPad Pro 14 and XPPen's Magic Pro 13 are different. Wacom's Pro Pen 3 is excellent; the OLED cuts zero corners and its processor whizzes through any 2D and 3D app, while the new XPPen has sorted out the brand's pen tracking, given it decent processing power and, rather neatly, made it possible to plug the tablet straight into a PC and use it as a desktop pen display.

So now there's a proper choice to make. Wacom has the better screen and more RAM, but XPPen's drawing experience is surprisingly close, and its PC connectivity is arguably more useful. I've used both for drawing, painting and general everyday work, and while I have a favourite, it's not quite the straightforward win you might expect.

Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 vs XPPen Magic Pro 13: deals

Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 vs XPPen Magic Pro 13: specs compared

Looking only at the core specs, Wacom wins on display, processing power, and RAM, but the gap isn't as wide as the specifications suggest. The MovinkPad Pro 14's OLED panel, 900-nit brightness and full DCI-P3 coverage make it the better screen for colour work, while the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 makes it better suited for demanding projects.

XPPen counters with a 3K 120Hz display (that can also be manually reduced to 60Hz and 90Hz to save battery), a larger battery and a genuinely impressive stylus with tracking I couldn't distinguish from Wacom's Pro Pen 3. The Magic Pro 13 also offers direct hardware-solved PC connectivity. On paper, Wacom wins, but XPPen offers remarkable value.

Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 vs XPPen Magic Pro 13: prices

Neither tablet is cheap, although XPPen has positioned the Magic Pro 13 slightly below Wacom's offering. In my original comparison review, the difference was around $100 / £100, which is enough to make you think twice, especially if you're buying a tablet for drawing at home rather than replacing a professional desktop setup.

The MovinkPad Pro 14 is the more expensive option, but you get that OLED display and Wacom's established pen technology. XPPen has done a good job of keeping the important bits while shaving a little off the price, and I think it's a particularly interesting option for artists who want both a portable tablet and a way to work on a PC.

XPPen launched the Magic Pro 13 with an early bird discount, and the brand has a habit of offering good Black Friday and event sales. Wacom has traditionally kept its prices stable, but it does like to offer bundle deals. But the original price difference makes the Magic Pro 13 worth a closer look.

Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 vs XPPen Magic Pro 13: design

Pick up either tablet, and you'll notice something straight away: both feel like quality objects. Gone are the days when a drawing tablet meant a black slab of plastic with a few buttons around the edge; each has a slim, solid, Apple-like feel.

Wacom has gone with a white textured rear panel on the MovinkPad Pro 14, and I really like it. It's slightly cardboardy to the touch, in a good way, and feels more like picking up a favourite sketchbook than a bit of tech. Four little rubber feet on the back keep it steady on a desk, though there's no built-in stand.

I've used it in my hands, on my lap, and flat on a table, and haven't really missed one. One unique choice is removing the rear camera, which means no cluster bump on one side, so the Movink Pro 14 sits perfectly flat like a standard drawing display. The front is all glass and slim bezels, with no obvious gap between the screen and frame.

XPPen took a similar approach with the Magic Pro 13 but chose to keep the traditional camera bump. It's also white, has curved edges and a flat matte display, and at 655g and just 6.65mm thick, it's easy to hold for longer drawing sessions. I took it outside to sketch a local lane and used it on the sofa, and it worked well in both situations. There's also a rear camera, which is useful for snapping reference images, although I initially wondered whether it might make the tablet wobble when drawing flat on a desk. It doesn't.

Neither manufacturer has included a case or stand, which is a bit disappointing at this price, particularly for tablets designed to be taken out and about (though Apple doesn't either for its iPads, so the precedent is set). XPPen at least throws in spare nibs, a drawing glove, and a decent USB-C cable, whereas Wacom keeps things more basic with the pen, nibs and charging cable.

I like both designs, but the XPPen is a little easier to carry around, while Wacom has a slightly more distinctive feel in the hand. Neither will look out of place on a studio desk.

Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 vs XPPen Magic Pro 13: displays

This is the big one, and it's where Wacom justifies some of its extra cost. The MovinkPad Pro 14 has a 14-inch OLED display with a 2880 x 1800 resolution, a 16:10 aspect ratio, and a 120Hz refresh rate. It reaches up to 900 nits, supports HDR and covers 100% of sRGB and DCI-P3, with 10-bit colour.

I was impressed by the screen from the first time I started drawing on it. OLED makes a difference, particularly when working with darker colours, gradients and subtle changes in tone. Blacks are properly black, colours have plenty of depth, and the extra brightness is useful when you're working with more colourful artwork. The 16:10 shape also gives you a little more room for palettes and brushes without eating into the canvas.

XPPen's Magic Pro 13 has a 12.95-inch 3K LCD that also runs at 120Hz. It reaches 650 nits and covers 100% sRGB and 96% DCI-P3, with a nano-etched glass surface that gives the stylus a little resistance. It's a really nice screen to draw on. I like the slightly textured feel, and the 120Hz refresh rate keeps things moving smoothly as you work. You can also manually switch between 120Hz, 90Hz and 60Hz depending on what you're doing and how much battery you want to save.

But put the two side by side, and the Wacom wins on image quality. The XPPen's LCD is good, and I wouldn't mind spending hours painting on it, but it can't reproduce the same deep blacks or colour richness as Wacom's OLED.

For artists who spend a lot of time painting with colour, or who also want a tablet for watching films and general media, the Wacom is worth the extra consideration.

Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 vs XPPen Magic Pro 13: stylus

Now, this is where things get more interesting, because I tested the XPPen expecting Wacom to have the advantage. This is largely because the MovinkPad Pro 14 comes with the Pro Pen 3, a slim customisable battery-free EMR stylus with a carbon shaft. It's a lovely pen, with a little more weight than the usual plastic alternatives, and you can take it apart and add or remove weights to get the perfect balance and feel, adding different grips and nibs, including felt. I like how it feels in the hand, and Wacom has the pressure response feeling just right.

The XPPen uses its new X4 Smart Chip Stylus, which has 16,384 pressure levels – double that of the Wacom – a 2g initial activation force, 60-degree tilt and 5,080 LPI pen resolution. That last figure is worth mentioning because it measures how finely the tablet resolves pen movement, rather than simply counting pressure levels, and both brands now have the same spec, so XPPen has now caught up with Wacom with its Android tablet.

I spent a fair amount of time testing the XPPen stylus, drawing little circles, tapping dots, scribbling brush strokes and repeatedly going over the same lines. I was looking for jitter, cursor drift and any of the little annoyances that can make a drawing tablet frustrating to use. I couldn't find any. The cursor followed the nib, lines stayed smooth, and there was no obvious wobble. In fact, I put the XPPen side by side with Wacom's Pro Pen 3 and couldn't pick a difference in tracking accuracy.

That's quite a result for XPPen, particularly when I think back to the original Magic Drawing Pad, where accuracy was one of the things that stopped me from using it as an iPad replacement for art.

The XPPen pen is a little heavier, but I found it comfortable over my usual two-hour drawing sessions, and its two programmable buttons are useful. Wacom's Pro Pen 3 still feels like a more refined tablet and stylus, and I like the carbon shaft and customisation options, but I wouldn't say the drawing experience is noticeably better.

If you told me the XPPen was using Wacom's pen technology, I probably wouldn't have questioned it.

Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 vs XPPen Magic Pro 13: performance & apps

Both tablets run Android and have enough power to create digital art without feeling like you're constantly fighting the hardware.

Wacom uses a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor, with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, expandable via microSD. It runs Android 15 and, in my testing, large canvases, dense brush sets and multitasking all worked smoothly.

I tend to use ArtRage on Android, and the MovinkPad Pro 14 handled it beautifully. Brushes remained responsive, strokes landed where I expected, and I didn't run into the stuttering I've experienced on less powerful Android tablets.

Wacom has also done a decent job of getting artists started. Clip Studio Paint comes pre-installed, with guided onboarding that takes you through layers, brushes and masking before opening up the full software. Wacom Canvas supports quick sketching, and Wacom Shelf keeps artwork and reference images together.

XPPen uses a MediaTek Dimensity 8300 processor with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, also expandable via microSD. It runs Android 16. On paper, that's a step down from Wacom, but I didn't notice it in everyday use. I painted in ArtRage Vitae, switching brushes and pushing paint around with the heavier tools, and there was no visible lag. I also tried Nomad Sculpt and added layers to my artwork, including duplicating a painting to see how the tablet coped. It handled everything without slowing down or getting warm.

I'm not someone who works with dozens of layers – I rarely get past three before collapsing them – but it's reassuring to know the Magic Pro 13 can cope when you do push it a little harder.

The extra 4GB of RAM on the Wacom gives it an advantage with very large files, and I'd favour it if you're regularly working on complex projects. But for the kind of digital painting and illustration I do, the XPPen is more than capable.

XPPen includes ibisPaint X (one of the best drawing apps for Android) and its own Canvas app, which has a Quick Draw feature that gets you straight into sketching from activating the screen from Sleep mode. It also runs split-screen Android apps, so you can check a web page or email while drawing. The 13MP rear camera and 8MP front camera are useful for reference shots and video calls, and I found the battery lasted a couple of days during my testing.

Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 vs XPPen Magic Pro 13: connecting to a PC

Here's a feature that I think makes the Magic Pro 13 particularly appealing. Both tablets can be used away from a desk as standalone Android drawing devices, but Wacom and XPPen take different approaches to connecting to a PC or laptop.

The MovinkPad Pro 14 has Wacom's Instant Pen Display mode, which supports both wired and wireless connections. The wireless option is useful if you don't want another cable trailing across your desk, but it relies on a companion app and requires you to fiddle with settings rather than use a direct hardware video connection.

XPPen has taken a simpler approach. Plug the Magic Pro 13 into a compatible PC or laptop using the supplied USB-C cable, and it works as a drawing display. I connected it to my HP Omen Max 16, and it was recognised straight away, without needing to download drivers or fiddle with settings. I then moved from ArtRage Vitae on Android to Rebelle on my PC, and the transition was easy. That's the sort of flexibility I like, particularly if you work between different art applications.

There is a catch: the XPPen doesn't have a wireless PC mode, so you'll need a cable. But the hardware-level connection is straightforward, and I can see it being useful for anyone who doesn't want to spend money on a separate desktop drawing display.

Wacom offers more flexible connection options overall, but XPPen has made turning its tablet into a PC display remarkably simple.

Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 vs XPPen Magic Pro 13: which should you buy?

I've enjoyed using both tablets, and I'm pleased that XPPen has finally made something that can go toe-to-toe with Wacom. A few years ago, I'd have struggled to recommend an Android drawing tablet as a serious alternative to an iPad or desktop pen display, but these two have changed that.

The Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 is still my pick if you want the best screen and a little more power for demanding creative work. Its OLED display is lovely, the 14-inch size gives you more room to work, and the Pro Pen 3 remains a joy to use. It's the tablet I'd choose if I were buying one primarily for digital painting and illustration.

But don't dismiss the Magic Pro 13. I was genuinely surprised by how good the X4 Smart Chip Stylus is, and the fact that I couldn't tell it apart from Wacom's pen when testing accuracy says a lot about how far XPPen has come. The LCD isn't as impressive, and the extra RAM on the Wacom is useful, but the XPPen is a very capable drawing tablet in its own right.

Then there's that USB-C connection. If you want to draw on the move and use desktop software at home, the Magic Pro 13 saves you buying another device, and that makes the price difference even more appealing.

I'd buy the Wacom for its screen, but if I wanted one tablet to take out sketching, paint with on the sofa and plug into my PC when I get home, I'd be very tempted by the XPPen.

Overall winner: Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14

"I've come across this logo from time to time and I'm so jealous I did not think of it. So simple and I love negative space," a Redditor comments alongside a logo for a brand called Ed's Electric. While it looks like it simply depicts a plug and a socket, take a look at that white space and you'll spoon spot an 'E' for 'Ed'. Like all of the best logos, this one is guaranteed to make you double-take.

"Negative space really is something; if you see the hidden wordmark, you can no longer unsee it," one user comments, while another adds, "That is top level design!"

The Ed's Electric logo was designed for a local company by Josiah Jost many years ago. Based in Canada, Jost has worked with clients from 55+ countries. Commenting on a Facebook post featuring the design earlier this year, Jost said, "I designed Ed’s Electric back in 2008 - glad to see it still getting coverage."

For more positive examples of negative space, take a look at our roundup of 10 logos that make clever use of negative space.

Blow’s brief was clear from the start, as he reveals the puzzle game “should be very easy to read the grid from the background, so it’s easy to tell where you can go, what is interactive and what is not, and so that your brain is never confused by what you are looking at.”

That idea shaped everything from character proportions to the technical features used to build the foreground play grids and how water is 'gridded' on each puzzle stage.

“One of my primary jobs in this department is just to look at a level and notice when my brain is working too hard,” Blow says. Sometimes the cause is a break with the grid, sometimes a background element that looks too “foregroundy”. There are general rules, but each level still needs its own judgement. The early days were rough, he says: “In the beginning we had a lot of problems here, but once we got the basic look of the game established, the art team was able to do many levels with relatively few problems.”

Scheu says artists have to unlearn some instincts: “As an artist, especially when starting on the project, your instincts and priorities for making something that might excite you are not necessarily aligned with making something clear and legible for the player.” Every artist on the project had to learn to picture a scene with clarity in mind. “We ultimately found that gameplay clarity and good visual design almost always go hand-in-hand, and getting this right became more second nature as the project progressed.”

The job continues after launch, as Scheu explains how, “Despite our effort to implement lessons we learned during development, issues and confusion as a result of artistic choices inevitably emerge once players start to interact with a finished level”.

Scheu explains how the art team takes notes from its game designers and player feedback, then works to remove ambiguity.

Order of the Sinking Star's three types of space

The levels come from several designers, so the art style had to work across some very different layouts. Blow sorts them into three types: “sometimes it’s a big open space with background behind it, sometimes it’s isles of varying shape (or cliffs similar to the isles), sometimes it’s tight irregular shapes that exactly determine where you can move.”

Get the style working across all three, and it can be applied to every level with fewer surprises, though Blow adds that making it look good “takes more work than it sounds when simply stated like that!”

Order of the Sinking Star also adapts earlier puzzle games, whose original looks were very different from the finished version. “We decided basically 100% of how they look […] we just had to decide harmoniously there,” Blow says.

Defining the game art direction

Scheu says the team was “trying to achieve something very classic and illustrative, with a bit of a fairytale quality to it, without making it overly stylised or wildly proportioned.” Scenes were built “with a lot of depth, detail, atmosphere and rich surfaces, while keeping the gameplay areas easy to parse and devoid of distracting visual noise.”

He became art lead partway through development, when the characters, general settings and some stylistic choices were already established. His own aim was “to bring the fidelity and feeling of richness and timelessness closer to a level you might see from a large studio working with significant budgets, while figuring out ways to accomplish this with a very small team and limited resources.”

His influences came as much from outside games as from within them. “It’s nice to have a degree or two of separation of influence from the medium we work in,” he says. Also working on the game was concept artist Liz Pulido, whom he never got to work with directly, and whose work “has a very graceful and whimsical approach to design, form, and line-making that was a joy (and a challenge!) to try and portray.”

He also cites “Studio Ghibli’s approach to clean, vibrant stylised naturalism” as a huge inspiration. Watching classic Disney films with his young daughter had a similar effect. “I found myself awestruck by the rich attention to detail and whimsical quality of the backgrounds in films like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, which until recently I had largely dismissed.”

The four worlds

The worlds share a set of visual rules, even though each has its own identity. “Despite the different worlds existing in their own unique settings, they were all crafted with the same guiding principles of style and construction, so there was never a lot of risk of the worlds clashing stylistically, at least,” Scheu says.

What separates them is geography and culture. “Creating the individual identities was more a matter of having the four worlds portray different biomes with distinct flora and geology, as well as distinct architectural, cultural, and geographic influences.”

That contrast does more than make each place look different. Each world has its own mechanics, characters, and stories, and the visual differences help give them distinct identities before the game brings them together. As those worlds collide and merge, their puzzle systems begin to intertwine, too.

With several designers contributing hundreds of levels, the art could easily drift. Scheu says, “We put significant effort into emphasising the play area and essential puzzle elements by achieving contrast in lighting, colour, value and scale.” The aim is “an immediate understanding of what is interactive, part of the grid, and relevant to the puzzle, while avoiding distraction from the background.”

Artists build levels from “a shared library of assets and materials and a modular approach to constructing levels”, which keeps the style consistent and the work moving. They also share work in progress with each other and the design team, and hold weekly feedback sessions to make sure everyone follows the same principles.

Differences are welcome, too. “We often choose to lean into the different approaches and stylistic instincts that individual artists take,” Scheu says. “Order of the Sinking Star is such an enormous game, we take advantage of the diversity of approach, style, and individual artistic preference simply to achieve more variety over hundreds of levels, as long as those core principles were maintained.”

Ten years, and only the last few looked final

“For most of development, the visuals were temporary,” Blow says. The engine was still being built, the features that make things look good weren’t there yet, and creative decisions “can only be provisional until all the final technology is in place”. The team only started trying to make the game look like the finished version “about the final 2-3 years of development”.

When Scheu joined, the vast majority of levels and the entire overworld still needed building. He took the chance to “do a bit of a reset in terms of how we were making assets and materials and constructing levels, not only to boost their quality level and fidelity, but to make the process more scalable and sustainable.”

Small teams can lean on individual strengths. “The magic of working on a small team like Thekla is that there is a real opportunity for individuals to bring certain skills or experience in techniques to the project that can have a huge impact,” Scheu says. Artist Jesse Seiterä, for example, “has significant experience and passion for creating lighting and atmosphere in scenes”, bringing techniques the project hadn’t had before.

Using a custom game engine

The game runs on a custom engine built in Jai, the programming language Blow has been developing. For Scheu, the draw was that “we can tailor and streamline it to best serve the needs of our project, and avoid the bloat that comes with an engine built to serve many different types of applications.”

Because the engine grew alongside the game, a good idea could be turned into a feature quickly, “in some cases, the very same day, which was quite remarkable!” The result, he says, was an engine that “was very lean and fast and simple to use for our needs, which made it a real joy to work with as an artist.”

There’s a cost. “It inevitably takes longer for the feature set to reach maturity and start to feel really capable, and you might never have access to some of the more robust and flashy features you might see in an engine like Unreal.”

For Blow, the benefit is focus. “When you have a problem, you can really dial in on that problem and solve it effectively.” The atmospheric effects, he says, “are very closely tuned for the kinds of scenes we render, and would either be more expensive, or not look as good, in a generalised engine.”

Scheu is more cautious. “It’s hard to say if this is something that can’t be achieved in other engines, but what I can say is that we were really able to focus on and tailor effects for our specific needs.” The fog and clouds were used to create “a very specific effect and sense of depth and atmosphere”, and they help emphasise the play area in levels that would otherwise have vast and potentially distracting backgrounds.

On Jai, Blow’s praise is brief: “It compiles really fast, and it lets you do things very straightforwardly that are a pain in something like C++. And the metaprogramming is super powerful and useful.” Some language features were built and then dropped because “they ultimately didn’t add very much relative to the complexity of the implementation”. Relative pointers and automated SOA struct generation are two examples. Starting again, he’d cut that experimentation, “but of course when you can’t see the future, this kind of experimentation is necessary!”

Open-sourcing the engine

Thekla plans to release the engine as open source. “This is meant to be a lean-meat, low-fat engine,” Blow says. “We want to provide an example of a commercial-quality shipping game, in open source, so that people can build from a good starting point.”

He adds a warning: “It’s not a no-programmer-involved engine like Unreal or Unity can be […] you’d still need a good programmer to get a good result here.”

Scheu says, “I don’t think I can speak to this with much knowledge,” but expects that “any team using it would need to heavily modify and develop it for the needs of their own project.”

All this work went into creating Order of the Sinking Star, a puzzle game that promises over 500 hours of gameplay for the most dedicated puzzle solvers across more than 1,000 interconnected puzzles. It's the kind of easy-to-play but complex-to-complete puzzle game Jonathan Blow has been renowned for since Braid, and especially since the Myst-like The Witness.

Part of that accessibility comes from Order of the Sinking Star also letting you find your own way through its enormous world. Each of the game's four realms has its own mechanics and characteristics, and if you hit a wall in one, you can head elsewhere and return later. As the worlds begin to merge, the puzzles start borrowing from one another, opening up new combinations of ideas.

Order of the Sinking Star is available now on PC (Steam and Steam Deck), Nintendo Switch 2 and PlayStation 5.

how to make things move in a 3D scene.

If you need the tools to get started, see our guides to the best 3D modelling software.

Animating a single metal ball bouncing down a staircase is a relatively simple animation which can be done by keyframing. Animating 100 metal balls down a staircase is anything but relatively simple. Animating a window opening, again simple to keyframe; animating the curtains of the window blowing in the breeze, potentially complicated.

This is what simulations are for, and it’s the same when animating liquid, or fire and smoke. Many 3D applications offer the ability to create at least hard (the bouncing metal balls) or soft body simulations (the curtains blowing in the wind), while some offer a full simulation suite which will include particle and fluid simulations.

The trade-off is control. A hand keyed animation does allow the artist to have full control of every single aspect of the animation and finesse a move, artistically, every time. A simulation does what the physics decides (which admittedly the artist has control of), but this can mean an iterative workflow of experiments of allowing the simulation to calculate the moves, the artist to review, and then go again.

Most 3D applications let you ‘bake’ a simulation once you’re happy, freezing the result into ordinary keyframes you can still tweak and play back more easily, but the physics would have gone. Understanding what can be done with a simulation and how it can make one’s life as an artist easier, whilst at the same time exploding your animation potential, is one of the many superpowers of a 3D artist.

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
Download the Creative Bloq app for Android

But could the creepiest Halloween costume of the year be something a lot more prosaic? A clever creative campaign hit hard over the spooky season by arguing that 'the ultimate monster costume' involves little effort and could just as easily be worn on any other day of the year.

On the surface, the social campaign was designed to look like a retail ad for an online Halloween costume store. But clicking through leads to a website listing what's described as a 'Real Life Monster Costume': an intentionally average men's white T-shirt and jeans with white trainers.

While, the costume immediately stands out for its apparent mundaneness, things take a turn in the description of what it includes. the site lists: friend/classmate/boyfriend/colleague/husband and outfit features: invading women’s personal space/ sharing nudes without consent/visiting chat rooms for tips on drugging.

The copy on the ‘buy’ button says 'DON’T BUY THIS BEHAVIOUR'.

The Ultimate Monster Costume was a tactical social campaign from Do Not Behave, an independent UK-based creative studio founded by creative director Jo Moore last year. The agency teamed up with educators What Makes a Man and Cheer Up Luv.

The aim of the unusual and paradoxically eye-catching ad was to highlight issues around violence against women and girls. The campaign suggests that the monsters behind sexual violence are often hard to detect because they often look like "everyday guys". Do Not Behave said it had received over 2.5k visits to the spoof site.

The agency notes that violence against women and girls is being treated as a national emergency in the UK, with studies showing that it impacts roughly one in 12 women in England and Wales, taking the form of domestic abuse, sexual assault and rape, stalking, harassment, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and digital/online abuse.

According to the Women and Girls Network, research indicates that approximately 97% of women who report sexual assault know their attacker. The campaign found a clever way to raise awareness of how commonplace the issue can be, particularly aiming get the attention of other men to ask male allies to be more vigilant.