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D8 Studio created a new visual identity for Carlton Collection to unify 11 independent hotels without erasing their individuality. Guided by the principle “don't duplicate, complement,” the year-long project delivers a cohesive wordmark, flexible typography, and a blue–orange system that ties the portfolio together while celebrating each destination's unique character.
Foldable phones pose significant UX challenges due to their variable screen sizes and aspect ratios.
99designs conducted a study analyzing book cover designs of New York Times bestsellers that examined design trends and patterns among successful book covers.
OpenAI's Sora video-generation app experienced a dramatic decline after its stellar October launch, with downloads dropping 32% in December and 45% in January despite initially reaching 1 million downloads faster than ChatGPT. Consumer spending also fell 32% month over month in January, with the app dropping from the top spot in the US App Store to No. 101 overall. The decline is attributed to increased competition from Google's Gemini and Meta AI, as well as ongoing copyright infringement issues.
Adobe is shutting down its long-running 2D animation tool Adobe Animate as it continues to reorient its product lineup around AI, with the software set to be discontinued on March 1. While enterprise customers will receive extended support through 2029, many users are frustrated by the lack of a true replacement and Adobe's suggestion to piece together Animate features using other Creative Cloud apps. The move follows months of signals that Animate was being deprioritized, including its absence from Adobe Max and the lack of a 2025 release.
Apple is expected to launch updated MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips soon, keeping the current design but delivering major performance gains, likely alongside macOS 26.3. A larger update, expected in Q4, will introduce a slimmer redesigned MacBook Pro with Samsung-made OLED displays in 14- and 16-inch sizes, possibly a punch-hole camera, and even touch support, though some Apple-specific components are still being finalized.
Nano Banana Pro is a visual thinking engine for UI designers that offers strong spatial understanding, accurate text rendering, and 4K output to accelerate early-stage design exploration. The tool enables rapid ideation by generating style explorations, layout variations, wireframe translations, and complex dashboard interfaces through prompt-based methods. While it doesn't replace production design tools or address accessibility and technical constraints, Nano Banana Pro shortens feedback loops by producing high-fidelity mockups that effectively communicate structure and aesthetic direction.
A creative brand strategy is a structured plan that uses storytelling and creative ideas to define how a brand expresses its identity and differentiates itself from competitors. It strengthens market position by providing clarity that makes your brand the obvious choice rather than just another option, while attracting the right customers who are already halfway sold because your brand resonates with them. The strategy builds emotional connections by understanding how customers actually think, leading to stronger preference and loyalty over time.
Beyond skills, hiring decisions often hinge on fresh perspectives, values alignment, genuine engagement with the company, and thoughtful preparation—factors that can help less-experienced candidates stand out against more senior competition.
Kimi Slides is an AI-powered presentation creator that transforms ideas into stunning slides within minutes.
LTX Studio offers an AI-powered audio-to-video converter that transforms uploaded audio files, recorded voice, or generated sounds into video content.
Describe your design in plain language, and LAD will translate it into SolidWorks operations, creating sketches, features, and assemblies all through natural conversation.
AI products have evolved from behind-the-scenes models to chat interfaces to agents, and now to agent orchestration, where multiple agents coordinate on unified tasks. Intent by Augment introduces a new UI approach for agent orchestration that focuses on workspaces, context management, and specialized agents working in parallel. The platform uses isolated spaces with living specifications that allow coordinator, implementer, and verifier agents to work together while maintaining alignment through shared context.
Design systems require a three-phase approach to manage breaking changes in design tokens: deprecation, migration, and removal. During deprecation, mark tokens with flags and provide clear timelines; during migration, offer both old and new tokens with guides and tools; and during removal, clean up deprecated tokens in a major version release. Success depends on clear communication, adequate migration periods, and proper documentation throughout the process.
Branding has moved beyond static assets into flexible, evolving systems that integrate type, colour, sound, motion, and cultural awareness from the start. Design brands as living frameworks — emotionally expressive, accessible, adaptable, and culturally engaged — rather than fixed visual checklists meant only for launch day.
Icons should be meaningful, culturally relevant, and labeled when their meaning isn't universally clear.
The TARS framework helps measure feature impact by tracking the funnel from Target audience (% of users with the problem) to Adoption (% who engage with the feature) to Retention (continued usage) and Satisfaction scores.
Artist Li Wang explains how moving from Beijing to New York reshaped his painting into a deeply personal exploration of queer identity, masculinity, and memory, with his work now serving as an emotional documentation of lived experience.
Google's Project Genie is a tool that generates interactive 3D virtual environments from text prompts using the Genie 3 world model. Currently available to US subscribers of the $250-per-month Google AI Ultra plan, the tool renders environments at 1,280x720 resolution and 24 frames per second for up to 60 seconds. Users can customize avatars, camera angles, and rendering styles. Google has planned international expansion and potential API access for developers in the future.
Apple is reportedly exploring a second foldable iPhone—a clamshell “flip” model—to complement an internally prototyped book-style foldable, following a dual-track strategy already used by rivals. The flip iPhone would emphasize portability and mainstream appeal, potentially offering a more accessible entry into foldables while Apple quietly tests designs, pricing, and iOS adaptations before committing to release.
Tom Allen, co-founder and creative director of Buff, explains how B Corp certification formalized the studio's people-first values and why thoughtful, brand-specific motion design matters more than ever amid generic trends and noisy AI use. He sees AI as a double-edged sword that can elevate craft when used responsibly, and believes staying relevant comes from clarity of positioning, community presence, and a distinct, human creative voice.
The current “analogue revival” in design is less about genuinely handmade processes and more about using the idea of imperfection to signal authenticity in an era where AI and digital tools make polish cheap and ubiquitous. Real analogue value wouldn't come from simulated textures or trend aesthetics, but from changing the conditions of making—slower timelines, material engagement, and systems that actually reward visible human labour rather than its performance.
AI-driven design workflows are flipping decision order, putting polished artifacts before strategy and causing designers' core work—questioning intent, assumptions, and user value—to be seen as friction rather than leadership, even as speed is rewarded. Data from Figma shows that while AI boosts efficiency, successful teams are those that pause after generation to exercise judgment, explore alternatives, and decide what's worth building at all.
Pencil is an agent-driven MCP canvas built around an open design format that lives in your codebase.
A working library for those committed to designing with uncommon care.
Apple's Liquid Glass design faced widespread criticism for poor usability, including difficult-to-read transparency effects, confusing animations, and inconsistent visual elements. The problematic rollout coincided with key leadership departures, including design VP Alan Dye leaving for Meta, suggesting deeper cultural issues at a company historically defined by design perfectionism. While fixes are expected in the March OS 27 update, the pattern of underwhelming user experience signals Apple's luxury brand status is eroding as it loses the uncompromising design ethos established under Steve Jobs.
Recorded video walkthroughs of prototypes provide crucial context that design links alone cannot convey, addressing challenges such as limited meeting time, asynchronous team collaboration across time zones, and stakeholders' unfamiliarity with design tools. This approach allows designers to articulate their rationale clearly while giving stakeholders time to absorb information at their own pace. Recording walkthroughs also serves as valuable presentation practice and creates a cohesive narrative that highlights essential details stakeholders might otherwise overlook.
Creative education requires a fundamental reset, akin to the Bauhaus movement, in response to today's systems collapse driven by AI, climate breakdown, and pervasive anxiety. This shift positions creative education as society's operating system rather than an optional extra.
Runway released research showing that over 90% of 1,043 participants could not reliably distinguish five-second videos generated by their Gen-4.5 AI model from real footage, with overall detection accuracy at just 57.1%.
The Association of Illustrators and other creator-led groups have released “Brave New World?”, a major UK report warning that unregulated generative AI is already eroding creative livelihoods through job losses and unlicensed data use, and urging urgent government action via a new CLEAR framework to protect creators' rights and ensure fair, ethical AI innovation.
Apple has lost several more AI researchers and a senior Siri executive to rivals like Meta and Google DeepMind amid ongoing internal AI restructuring.
Apple's fall lineup is rumored to shrink to just iPhone 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max, and iPhone Fold, effectively giving buyers a choice between Pro or Fold, with cameras as a key differentiator. The 18 Pro models are expected to keep two camera advantages over the Fold—variable aperture on the main camera and a telephoto lens with wider aperture—while the Fold may skip telephoto entirely.
Pixelmator Pro, a highly regarded Mac image editing app and Photoshop alternative, has finally launched on iPad as part of Apple's Creator Studio bundle. The app features a layer-based editing system, advanced tools, and machine learning capabilities, such as automatic background removal, all optimized for touch and Apple Pencil input. Projects sync seamlessly between iPad and Mac devices. It requires iPadOS 26 or later with an A16/A17 Pro chip or newer.
Microsoft is testing a new web interface for Xbox Cloud Gaming that features console-like design elements, including updated navigation, animations, and a rounded aesthetic. The company describes this refreshed UI as the "foundation" for building new Xbox experiences, suggesting it may preview future Xbox console interfaces. Xbox Insiders can access the preview through the settings menu at play.xbox.com to test the improved dashboard and library features.
Amid AI, climate crisis, and deep uncertainty, creative education needs radical reimagining—from exam-led silos to a Bauhaus-like, process-driven model centred on making, systems thinking, judgment, and agency. Creativity should become the foundation of learning, reconnecting education, industry, and policy to rebuild confidence, empathy, and responsibility in a world where execution matters less than meaning.
AI interface design is shifting away from chat-based conversations toward one-click, ambient actions that remove friction by acting directly in context while keeping humans in control. Conversation is often overhead: the most effective AI minimizes interaction, translates intuitive user intent into precise machine instructions, and reserves chat only for ambiguous, educational, or emotional tasks.
Dylan Brouwer is a Dutch digital designer and Webflow developer who creates expressive, animated websites using no-code tools like Webflow and GSAP. His recent portfolio showcases his ability to blend bold visuals with intuitive UX, including a complex homepage hero with a 3D-rotating display and scroll-triggered animations. He also worked on Palmer Dinnerware's website at UNCOMMON, reimagining it as an immersive digital canvas rather than a traditional e-commerce catalog.
Imagine is an AI builder platform that lets users create functional products like apps, dashboards, and websites by simply describing their ideas in natural language.
Icoon is a 3D icon library offering AI-generated 3D icons, illustrations, and creative design assets for websites, apps, and print materials. The platform provides access to over 1,500 high-quality design assets.
Designing VR avatars for children works best when they strike a balance of moderate realism: clearly non-human but plausible (like an animal), avoiding both hyper-realistic humans and overly fantastical characters that can feel creepy or confusing. Research shows consistency matters most—appearance, proportions, movement (especially eyes), and distance must align—because mismatches intensify discomfort in VR, where kids' emotions and sense of reality are heightened.
Adobe's study of 415 discussions from creative professionals revealed the most loved and loathed fonts in the design community. Lato topped the loved list for being clean and versatile, while Comic Sans predictably ranked as the most hated for its childish appearance. The study showed that "safe" fonts like Arial are often more offensive to creatives than genuinely bad fonts, and trend fatigue has made previously popular fonts like Montserrat undesirable.
Volkswagen's UX design lead, Mathias Kuhn, revealed the company's three core values for user experience design: stable, likeable, and exciting, which he calls their "secret sauce." The approach focuses on user-centricity, with customer feedback integral to design decisions, as seen in the new ID Polo cockpit, which blends modern software with retro elements. Kuhn emphasizes using AI as a conductor to seamlessly integrate various technologies while maintaining simple, intuitive interfaces that avoid tech overload.
UI components like combobox, multiselect, listbox, and dual listbox handle list interactions differently based on the number of options and visibility needs.
UX signals indicate when users become lost while navigating digital interfaces.
Figma's Glass effect is now generally available with expanded capabilities beyond frames, allowing users to apply it to any object, shape, or text. The update includes non-uniform corner customization with precise radius control, as well as a new Splay property for adjusting light behavior around edges. Users can now apply variables to Glass properties for seamless integration with the design system.
Sebastiaan de With, co-founder of Halide and Lux, is joining Apple's Human Interface Design team, returning after earlier freelance work on products like iCloud and Find My. His hire comes during a wider design reshuffle at Apple following Alan Dye's exit, with Stephen Lemay stepping in to lead HIG and John Ternus now overseeing Apple's design teams, prompting optimism about the company's renewed design focus.
Android's desktop interface has leaked through a Google bug report, which revealed a new status bar optimized for large screens with time, date, battery, Wi-Fi, and other icons. The leak showed the interface running on an HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook with Android 16, codenamed "Aluminum OS" (ALOS). The status bar appears taller than in tablet versions and includes features such as a notification bell, a keyboard language indicator, a Gemini icon, and a screen recorder pill.
Information tips—brief messages triggered by hovering or clicking icons like "?" or "i"—should provide supplemental context without hiding essential information or disrupting workflow. Common pitfalls include wasting time with redundant content, hiding critical instructions that most users need upfront, and interrupting tasks with intrusive modals or page takeovers rather than inline guidance. Well-designed info tips remain short, contextual, and accessible while keeping crucial information visible at the primary interface level.
Apple Creator Studio is a $12.99/month ($129/year) subscription that bundles ten pro apps for Mac and iPad—deeply discounted for students—while still allowing one-off Mac purchases, but not on iPad. The bundle targets serious creators who work across Mac and iPad rather than iPhone-first editing, with refreshed apps like Pixelmator Pro offering strong templates, AI tools, and logo/illustration features, albeit with some brush and workflow limitations compared to rivals.