The best Web hosting services in 2019

Welcome to Creative Bloq's guide to the best web hosting services in 2019. Whether you're a web designer or developer looking for the best web hosting deals, or an illustrator who has finally decided to sort out their online presence with a dedicated website, this guide is here to help. Figuring out the best web hosting service for your needs can be confusing, so we've reviewed all the leading providers to give you a clear view of your options.

We've considered a range of situations here. Whether you're a freelancer looking for a website on a budget and just need shared web hosting, if you're after more flexible VPS hosting, or are a bigger operation that needs all the bells and whistles that dedicated servers provide, there's a service here for you. If you're not sure which is the best level for you right now (or for where you want to be in the future) – you’ll find a detailed explanation of the different tiers at the bottom of this guide.

Or read on for our pick of the best web hosting services, no matter the size of your website or budget.

01. InMotion Hosting

The best overall shared web hosting
Domains: 1 | Number of sites: 2-unlimited | Bandwidth: Unlimited | SSL: Included | Email addresses: Unlimited

The best web hosting service right now is InMotion Hosting, thanks to excellent performance, great features, and helpful tech support. InMotion has been around since 2001 and is one of the world's largest independent web hosting companies. It offers several shared hosting plans, with prices starting at a very attractive monthly cost.

To sweeten the deal, all of InMotion's plans come with a ton of great free features that other services might charge extra for – think malware and DDoS protection, basic backups, 'spam-safe' email and a WordPress-based website builder (if you're looking at WordPress options specifically, take a look at our dedicated guide to the best WordPress hosting services).

InMotion offers both cPanel and Softaculous-powered hosting. In testing, InMotion’s overall performance levels ranked well above average. That’s great news for anyone who wants to see fast-loading websites (which is all of us, let's face it).

02. Bluehost

The number one preferred partner of WordPress
Domains: 1 | Number of sites: 1-unlimited | Bandwidth: Unmetered | SSL: Included | Email addresses: 5-unlimited

WordPress is still the most popular website builder, and Utah-based web hosting company Bluehost is WordPress’ preferred partner. Bluehost does a good job of balancing price and features for less experienced businesses while offering lots of options for more advanced users. Its shared hosting packages start with a very reasonable 'basic' plan, targeted at home users.

WordPress plans are naturally more expensive, but there are discounted introductory rates available. With those, you get automated setup for WordPress, as well as other popular apps via a Mojo Marketplace-powered system. Plus, there’s a cPanel-based area, so if you know what you’re doing, you can tweak things.

Bluehost also gives you a free domain and provides a free Weebly-based website builder to create a site up to six pages, although website templates aren’t included. And bear in mind that none of the plans include SSL, but certificates are available as an add-on.

03. HostGator web hosting

The best cheap web hosting option out there
Domains: 1-unlimited | Number of sites: Not specified | Bandwidth: Unmetered | SSL: Included | Email addresses: Unlimited

When it comes to cheap web hosting, HostGator’s Hatchling plan is our top choice. The well-known Dallas-based company offers an impressive amount of unrestricted features in its basic Hatchling plan: there are no limits on bandwidth, web space, subdomains, MySQL databases, FTP and email accounts.

There's also one-click WordPress installation, cPanel-based site management and a 99.9% 'uptime' guarantee covering both server and network failures; plus 24/7 customer support, and $100 (around £75) worth of Google and Bing Ads credits.

As you might expect with a cheap hosting plan, you can only operate one website on the Hatchling plan. And you won’t get a free domain name for a year, either. But we like the super-low pricing and the free transfers for new accounts within the first month after you’ve signed up. A 45-day money-back guarantee means that if you’re not happy with the service, you can cancel it.

04. GoDaddy

A good all-around service that's well-known, respected and trusted
Domains: 1-unlimited | Number of sites: 1-unlimited | Bandwidth: Unmetered | SSL: Higher plans only | Email addresses: 1, for the first year.

US-based GoDaddy is one of the largest web hosting companies around. As one of the few that’s done television advertising, it’s probably the best known, too. Even its cheapest web hosting package comes with 100GB storage, unmetered bandwidth, and a free domain – with plenty of options due to GoDaddy's vast domain name repository. GoDaddy also boasts a guaranteed 99.9% uptime, free backup and restore, and expert hosting support available 24/7, all year round.

One feature we particularly like is that on every package you can increase hosting capacity on demand directly from your account – handy if you experience a sudden surge in traffic.

05. tsoHost

The best UK-based shared hosting service
Domains: 1 | Number of sites: 3-20 | Bandwidth: Unlimited | SSL: Included | Email addresses: 100-unlimited

UK-based tsoHost offers flexible plans at very reasonable prices. You can choose from WordPress hosting, cPanel hosting or cloud web hosting. The cheapest 'Startup' plan is a bargain, and although it only offers 500MB storage, you also get access to unlimited bandwidth, Let’s Encrypt SSL and 10 mailboxes.

tsoHost's site proclaims 24-7 support – but actually, if you run into problems between the hours of midnight and 7am that support comes in the form of the ability to raise a problem ticket. The rest of the time there are people on phones and at the end of the instant chat. Performance levels are solid, and there's a 30-day money back guarantee if you're not happy with the service.

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8 Of the best free logo design tools

Here are eight of the best online tools that can help you create a full-blown logo, or at least build some concept that can later be worked up into a finished design. All of them are free to use and most will let you download a low-resolution version of your logo for free. However, if you need a scalable vector version of your logo then you'll usually have to pay, but thankfully the prices are all pretty reasonable.

01. Hatchful

Shopify's Hatchful is one of the easiest free logo makers we've seen; simply feed it a few useful facts about the business you need a logo for, decide on the style of logo you need and how you'll want to use it, and it'll generate a stack of potential logos for you to browse through. Once you've found one that hits the spot, you can adjust the font, palette, icon, and layout until everything's just right, and then download your logo in all the forms you're likely to need.

02. Ucraft Logo Maker

For a more hands-on approach, Ucraft's Logo Maker gives you just enough tools to create your own logo from scratch in short order. It's basically a bare-bones vector editor that gives you a big selection of icons to play with and supplement with text, shapes, and colour until you achieve the look you're after. You can download your finished logo as a PNG for free; if you'd prefer a scalable SVG you can have it for just $12.

03. LogoMakr

A slightly more sophisticated option comes in the form of LogoMakr. It offers the same basic tools as Ucraft, but with a friendlier front end and a few more options and fonts to play with; the only thing we'd like to see is the option to use gradients as well as flat fills. Again it's a matter of finding a suitable icon and bringing in all the text and shape elements you need to build your logo design; once you're done you can download a free PNG version, or for $19 you can get it in SVG and PDF flavors.

04. Designhill Logo Maker

Designhill's Logo Maker is another easy way to quickly come up with a fantastic-looking logo for practically any company. It starts you off by getting you to provide all the basic information it needs – company name and the nature of the business, plus preferred symbols and color schemes – and then it uses this to generate a collection of professional-looking logos that you can then customize. This part's completely free; once you've hit the right look you'll have to pay to download your logo, with prices starting at £15 for a basic low-resolution file.

05. DesignEvo Free Logo Maker

Whether you want to build a logo from scratch or work from a ready-made template, DesignEvo's Free Logo Maker can help you out. It has a searchable selection of over 6,000 templates to choose from, enabling you to quickly find a good starting point for your logo, but if you prefer to do it yourself you can start with a blank layout and build a logo using symbols, shapes, and fonts. When you're done you download a free low-resolution logo; for scalable vector versions prices start at $24.99.

06. Tailor Brands Logo Maker

Using an AI-powered system to generate a suitable logo for your brand, Tailor Brands' Logo Maker is the perfect tool for anyone who can't face scrolling through hundreds of templates to find the perfect logo design. Instead, it asks for the name of your business and a description of what it does, as well as getting you to choose between an icon, text or initial-based logo, then it uses a 'This or That' tool to get a handle on the design style you're after. With all that information to hand it goes to work on creating a logo that you can then customize if you want; when you're happy with it you can download a low-resolution for free, or pay for high-resolution files.

07. Canva Logo Maker

Canva's online design tools cover a whole lot more than logos, but if a logo's all you're after then it's ready and waiting to help you out with its Logo Maker. Like many online logo creators, it'll ask you about your company and get you to select a handful of templates you like the look of before it comes up with a design that you can customize using its intuitive tools. There are plenty of free elements to play with; if you need more choice you can pay to use a larger selection of premium elements. Once you're done, you can download your finished logo as a PNG or print-ready PDF for free.

08. MarkMaker

MarkMaker uses a simple, clever approach to creating the right logo: type in a company name and it'll start generating suggestions, and by clicking on the ones you like it'll create ever more designs informed by your preferences. You can further influence the process by adding information about what your company does. Keep on scrolling and clicking until something crops up that you love, then hit the edit button to fine-tune it; there are loads of options and sliders to play with until you hit that sweet spot, then you can download your logo as a PNG or SVG; both are free, but you can throw in a little donation if you like.

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The new Firefox logos have officially arrived

Mozilla has officially revealed its new Firefox logo, part of a new icon family for the browser. The launch of the designs, which have been more than 18 months in the making, coincides with a shift in brand positioning for Mozilla. Whereas before Firefox was often used to refer the browser, Mozilla wants to reposition the word to cover the entire family of Firefox apps and services.

The road to these logos has been a long one. Mozilla previously invited the public to share their thoughts on potential ideas as part of the logo design process. We got a tantalizing sneak peek of the designs last week when Firefox's communication design leader Sean Martell tweeted a picture of a box of stickers that appeared to leak one of the final designs.

This design appears in the new branding system (below) as the logo for the Firefox browser. Alongside this logo are three line-based graphics for other services including Send, Monitor, and Lockwise. The whole system comes under a general Firefox logo umbrella, which relies on the motif of a circular, swooshing fox tail.

In a video that traces the evolution of the Firefox brand (below), the creative team reveals how the umbrella logo for Firefox was a major step away from what has gone before.

Having run two design systems by audiences, they concluded that "we got a very clear signal that we didn't actually have to show a fox for people to know that it was Firefox".

In a blog post announcing the designs, Mozilla also says that the new brand "is about more than logos". To be specific, it's based on four key word pillars, namely 'Radical', 'Kind', 'Open' and 'Opinionated'.

This also ties into Mozilla's aim to create a design system that has what it takes to last long into the future. Included in this system is a new and expanded color palette that makes it possible to use gradients. A modern and rounded typeface that reflects the logos completes the rebrand.

And seeing as all of these elements were developed with an emphasis on accessibility standards in mind, it looks like the new Firefox is set to deliver user-friendly products. The brand's focus on privacy only sweetens the deal.

Notable designers have been linked to the development of these logos. Michael Johnson provided early inspiration, while the designer of the original Firefox logo, Jon Hicks, was on hand to give advice. Meanwhile, Ramotion's Michael Chu has been credited as a driving force behind the new brand.

Mozilla also adds that we can expect more from the rebrand: "We have to stretch our brand guidelines even further in the months ahead, so we’re interested in hearing your reaction to what we’ve done so far."

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Does Eurosport's Tokyo 2020 logo embrace the spirit of manga?

There's just over a year to go until the opening of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. To get ready for the biggest event in the sporting calendar, television network Eurosport recently unveiled its official logo and brand identity for the games. And in a distinctive bit of design, the identity takes its inspiration from Japan's signature art style: manga.

The channel, which describes itself as the Home of the Olympics in Europe, settled on the logo (above) as a way to bring Eastern and Western cultures together. It claims that the angular typography borrows from the comic books aimed at both adults and children. Eurosport also hopes the Tokyo 2020 logo also wants to usher manga into a new era.

Given that plenty of artists around the world want to learn how to draw manga, it makes sense to target this aesthetic. The versatile identity was announced in a tweet (below) and is designed to smoothly integrate with the Eurosport logo and the image of the Olympic rings.

In a blog post about the new identity, Eurosport's Vice President of Marketing, George Aivazoglou, said: "We wanted our Tokyo 2020 brand identity to create a unique symbol that incorporates and respects Japanese culture and the iconic Eurosport logo, to become instantly recognizable and resonate with millions of people watching the Games across Europe."

And over the next 18 months, sports fans and viewers can expect the identity to underpin Eurosport's marketing campaign ahead of the opening of the games on 24 July 2020.

"With this design, we believe we have created a visual identity that is versatile, conveys the dynamic side of the Games and engages younger generations – truly visionary," Aivazoglou adds.

Of course, it remains to be seen how the full marketing campaign will be put into action. However, we hope that as it progresses, the identity will include more overt manga allusions.

As it is, we're struggling to see the link between the design and manga. The angular lettering is, at a push, reminiscent of the Japanese alphabets. And while this is a nice touch, it currently feels like a bit of a stretch to make the comic connection. The lettering also has legibility issues as the number '2' in 2020 is easily mistaken for the letter 'r'.

For a list of amazing typefaces that do nail their design both in terms of theme and appearance, why not check out our list of the best free fonts available to designers right now?

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The best graphic design jobs in June 2019

You might want to stay close to home or have an adventure elsewhere. Either way, we've got the hottest new job opportunities in the UK, USA and worldwide for you to explore. We will keep adding the newest graphic design jobs as soon as they become live, so if you don't find your perfect new career straight away, keep checking back to make sure you don't miss out.

If you're looking for a brand new challenge, head over to our new design jobs, art jobs and web design jobs boards, which have lots of active job listings from awesome employers just waiting for you to apply.

Graphic design jobs: US

Graphic Design/Art Director

• Location: Miami, Florida
• Salary: Competitive

Thr33hold, a communications, brand and PR agency needs someone who can conceive and present ideas whilst executing the ideas of their teammates flawlessly. You will need 2+ years of graphic design experience, preferably with agencies, and preferably a good understanding of social media campaigning and content.

Brand Graphic Designer with motion experience

• Location: Nashville, Tennessee
• Salary: Based on experience

DC Shoes require a Brand Graphic Designer to join their legendary brand. Damon Way and Ken Block, the renowned founders, have shaken up design in loads of different ways and they want a creative designer who can continue in the same way. The right candidate will create the key art assets and style guides that fuel DC's global advertising, product marketing, and brand storytelling across regions and channels.

Graphic Designer
A Graphic Designer for print and digital advertising is required by the El Dorado News-Times. This is an exciting role for a designer who thrives in a fast-moving and action-packed environment.

Graphic Designer, Print & Pattern

• Location: Baltimore, Maryland
• Salary: Based on experience

Under Armour, the athletic apparel company, are searching for a Designer-AOP specialist for women and girls. You will utilize your experience in cutting-edge, trend-right and brand-right textile and graphic designs by contributing to the vision of the brand. 5+ years of relevant work experience is required for this role.

Lead Global Retail Graphic Designer

• Location: Baltimore, Maryland
• Salary: Based on experience

Under Armour is seeking a Graphic Designer that can take responsibility for creating visual communications that mirror the Global Retail concepts and goals. The role involves lots of collaboration across departments and the ability to respond quickly to briefs. The right person will enjoy the buzz of tight deadlines!

Graphic design jobs: UK

Graphic Design Manager

• Location: London, UK
• Salary: Negotiable

An interim Graphic Design Manager is needed by a dominant high street fashion retailer. The right candidate will be heading up its large design team and will be someone with hands-on experience and creative background.

Graphic Design Assistant

• Location: Cheshire, UK
• Salary: Competitive + benefits

A candidate with a creative flair is required by a prestigious travel company to fill the role of a Graphic Design Assistant. If you have an eye for detail and a passion for graphic design, this role could be right for you.

You will need the ability to adapt your style to the brief at hand whilst creating artwork across the company's output, which includes brochures, the website, advertising, and magazines. The company is keen to take your career to the next level.

Creative Graphic Designer – eco

• Location: Oxford, UK
• Salary: Up to £35,000

Do you have an interest in the environment and sustainability? If you are a creative and talented designer then this is the role for you. You will be coming up with creative ideas and engaging designs across print, digital, web and exhibition. You will work with the in-house teams on campaigns, producing all marketing collateral, providing creative input with the aim to tell a visual story and working together with the organization's clients on their projects.

Creative Graphic Designer - superyacht media brand

• Location: London, UK
• Salary: Up to £35,000 + pension + benefits

This is a truly exciting opportunity to work for the definitive luxury yachting and lifestyle website for high-net-worth individuals who want to charter, purchase or refit a superyacht.

This role will be instrumental in developing a new website and a number of ongoing print projects alongside daily banner advertisements, invitations, and proposals to design for our clients. A diverse and challenging role for a multi-skilled designer.

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The best art jobs in June 2019

Are you looking for your next art job? Whether you're a traditional, digital or a games artist, we've got your next job move in the bag with our new art jobs listings.

You might be wondering where the next openings in the UK are going to be, maybe you are seeking a new adventure in the US or even elsewhere around the globe. Wherever you want to be, we'll be updating the listings with new art jobs all the time so bookmark this page and keep checking back.

Our sparkling new graphic design jobs and web design jobs boards can help you if you have decided to embark on a new career adventure, it has thousands of active design job listings just waiting for you to apply.

Art jobs: UK

• Games Artist, 2D, Art, UI
• Location: Leeds, UK
• Salary: Up to £30,000

A prestigious games company is searching for a 2D games specialist to join their ambitious and fast-paced team. You might have played some of these well-known games in your childhood, and here is your chance to get involved in their creation today! Candidates should have solid 2D art skills, as well as UI design experience. Knowledge of the Unity 5/Unreal 4 engines would be advantageous to an application. If you are a passionate artist they want to hear from you.

Art Director
An Art Director is needed by a leading marketing agency to oversee its team of creative individuals. If you have an outstanding portfolio, multi-channel experience and at least 5 years agency experience then keep reading. You will be eager to lead from the front when overseeing all campaigns, marketing communications and advertising. This role is strategic and very hands-on as you will be responsible for the development of the creative department. If this sounds like the next challenge for you, don't hesitate to apply!

Senior CGI Artist

• Location: Gaydon, UK
• Salary: Competitive

A great opportunity to become part of the Digital Assets Imagery Creation team for an automotive company. If you think you can provide efficient delivery, have a positive impact and maintain high performance levels, this could be a great job for you.

Art jobs: US

Art Director
Want to work for the world's leading action sports and lifestyle company? Boardriders, Inc designs, produces and distributes branded apparel, footwear and accessories. Working on one of its brands, Vonzipper, the Art Director will craft and curate the visual identity & creative direction of the brand. Working alongside product development, sales, marketing and VZ's advocates, a technical knowledge of all the creative suite applications is a must, as well as familiarity with still and video photography.

• Location: Irvine, California
• Salary: Depends on experience

3D Art Generalist – Unity

• Location: New York City
• Salary: DOE

MLB Advanced Media, the owners of Major League Baseball, are looking for a flexible all-rounder 'swiss army knife' type of person. You will utilize your 3D graphics techniques including high poly modelling and be responsible for 3D models of natural and architectural environments. The right candidate will have three years experience in the video game industry on Console or Mobile AAA with one shipped title.

Game Design Intern

• Location: Orlando, Florida
• Salary: Renumeration/expenses not disclosed

An amazing opportunity for someone looking for an internship. EA Games makes market leading games like FIFA Soccer, NBA LIVE Basketball and Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and they are seeking a games design intern to join their team full time for three months. You will need to look after the core and meta-game while creating new features and must have two years experience in the industry.

Art jobs: Rest of the World

Senior Art Director/Packaging Designer

• Location: Paris, France
• Salary: Up to €60,000 DOE

An agency in Paris that specializes in luxury clients is looking for an Art Director/Packaging Designer. Those clients include luxury wines, spirits, Champagne, Cognac and also some more mainstream products. You will have 5 yrs experience in an agency or in-house creative team and have an excellent grasp of Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. The agency is looking for someone that can work with the Project and Account Management team and that can create new work and see it through to completion.

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Apple Pro Display XDR monitor

Apple’s just made a monitor that costs $4,999 – and you can spend a further $999 to attach a fancy stand to it. However, the brand is claiming that its new Pro Display XDR monitor is going to save the creative industry reams of time and money, offering some key features that are only available on reference monitors many times its price.

Read our news story on the release of the Pro Display XDR monitor for more about the upcoming release, and if you're looking to bag a bargain on a non-Apple monitor, then don't miss our post on what to expect from Amazon Prime Day, but here, we get up and close and personal with Apple's new monitor. Just how good is the Apple Pro Display XDR in real life?

Pro Display XDR: key features

Let’s explain something off the bat: XDR stands for Extreme Dynamic Range, as it ‘goes beyond’ the traditional world of HDR.

That’s made possible by two key elements: a backlight array of custom-tuned blue LED lights that will locally dim on the screen to offer real contrast between dark and light scenes. They’re so bright that they’re capable of running at 1000 nits indefinitely, and can boost up to 1600 nits.

That’s a pretty impressive number – and to keep the display pumping out such high brightness, allowing video content to be assessed frame by frame without a drop in performance, Apple has designed an innovative heat sink on the rear.

The small, round ‘bubbles’ on the back are made in such a way that they disperse the heat more efficiently than ever (although, visually, they appear to be more like a cheese grater).

The brightness and HDR capabilities of this 32-inch monitor are, indeed, impressive in real life – the 6016 x 3384 resolution is so pin sharp that even practically pressing your nose to the display yields little in the way of pixelation.

We looked at the monitor next to a ‘normal’ one and the difference in brightness and colour reproduction was stark. Of course, Apple was using imagery that it knows will show off the performance of the Pro Display XDR well (we viewed the live video of the traditional Mac wallpaper mountains), but the HDR quality was truly impressive.

So were the contrast ratios here – looking at a recently-snapped photo from a studio showed incredible clarity for a high-resolution photograph, with the image appearing very close to the glass on the screen.

Even viewed off angle, the picture quality remained and was easy to see – Apple said it had worked hard on the anti-reflective coating and the sideways viewability of the monitor, and it really showed.

The colour reproduction here is 10-bit and P3 wide gamut, and a couple of creative artists we spoke to were gushing about the sheer depth of colour available on the new Pro Display.

The image we saw was purposely oversaturated, but for those grading colour, this is going to be a monitor that can really stun. We doubt it will be as good as a ‘true’ reference display, given it’s around eight times cheaper, but we can’t help but feel it will get awfully close in a number of key areas. If you want a quality monitor for photo editing, this is looking to be a very worthy contender.

Pro Display XDR: Design and build

The Pro Display XDR is a little boxy and angular in design – it’s brutal in its angles, but the thinner bezel does really help enhance the look.

You can chain up to six of these monitors together from the new Mac Pro, and that thinner bezel will help make it easier to use multiple options at once.

The $999 stand was something we didn’t get to check out, although we did get to see an exploded diagram of what was inside – and it’s another feat of engineering in there. Whether that’s going to be worth nearly a thousand dollars to anyone outside of a high-end design studio, remains to be seen.

Even though it’s supposed to have incredible counterbalance and be lightweight to use (Apple wouldn’t let us touch the display), it still will need to be hugely useful to justify that price tag.

Pro Display XDR: Early thoughts

It’s pretty likely most creative professionals will want the Pro Display XDR, simply because it looks slick, has a clean sharpness to the screen and is brilliant at colour reproduction. The HDR modes really add something to the mix in terms of performance, with the peak brightness combining will with dark blacks washing all around.

The price will, obviously, stop many in their path to buying this machine as it’s more expensive than most high-end PCs out there – see our pick of the best computers for graphic design for other options for a range of budgets. But the large 32-inch visage, combined with the enhanced sharpness 6K brings, means you’ve got a lot of real estate to play with for your latest project – we just need to stack it up next to a true reference model to see how it measures up.

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New Mac Pro has been sent to bankrupt us

A new Mac announcement from Apple is always going to generate interest, but a new Mac Pro is something else entirely. They don't come along very often; the last one was the beautiful but divisive 2013 model, shaped like a trash can and ultimately a bit of a bad idea as its lovely compact build made it a nightmare to maintain and upgrade.

Now, though, Apple has revealed the latest Mac Pro at WWDC 2019, and it's an absolute beauty at a price that's going to horrify you. And there's no sign of any great Amazon Prime Day deals to make it easier to swallow either.

But coming on like a revamped version of the now-classic G5 Mac that, combined with OSX, really started to turn things around for Apple in the pro desktop business, it's a joy to look at. And if the specs are anything to go by, we expect it'll make the cut on our best computers for graphic design in the very near future. 

The focal point of the new Mac Pro is its aluminium housing that lifts off for easy access to the internals (more on those in a bit), and features a chunky latticed grille that's all about providing maximum airflow to keep things cool and silent, and which also looks fantastic. Beneath the housing is a stainless steel chassis with feet that can be replaced with wheels if you like.

The return to a traditional tower build means that there's plenty of room inside for expansion, with a whole eight PCI Express slots plus 12 DIMM slots providing the option of plugging in up to 1.5TB of memory. And if that sounds insane, we're only just getting started.

The base spec of the new Mac Pro is ludicrously powerful: it comes with an 8-core 3.5GHz Intel Xeon W CPU, 32GB RAM and an AMD Radeon Pro 580X GPU with 8GB GDDR5 memory capable of driving up to six 4K displays. Let's be honest, it's a lot more power than the average creative needs; it's for people editing 3D movies in 8K rather than running Photoshop CC, and it'll cost you $5,999 (there's no word on the UK pricing yet but we somehow doubt you'd get much change from £6,000).

The really exciting, thing, is just how much more power you can plug into this thing. As well as the potential for that 1.5TB of memory, you can also have up to a 28-core, 2.5GHz version of that Xeon W processor, and using Apple's new MPX Module system to double up GPUs, you can also have four AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duos on board, cable of running 16 4K displays, eight 5K displays or eight of Apple's new Pro Display XDR displays, which we'll get to in a bit. In short, when it comes to power and price tag, the sky seems to be the limit.

This is heavyweight hardware aimed at professionals working in 3D, film and video, and there's one last feature included to make life even easier for them. The Apple Afterburner is an additional hardware accelerator that supports playback of up to 3 streams of 8K ProRes RAW or up to 12 streams of 4K ProRes RAW video, enabling you to edit natively in both resolutions.

To make the most of all this serious graphics hardware, Apple has also introduced a top end display to go with it. The Pro Display XDR is touted as the world's first 32-inch 6K display, and it looks like a must-have for anyone who has to have the best visual fidelity. It has a 1,000,00:1 contrast ratio and 1,000 nits sustained brightness, peaking at 1,600, with 10-bit colour depth and P3 wide colour gamut. It features a superwide viewing angle and minimal glare thanks to nano-textured glass, and its back has the same machined lattice as the Mac Pro, again for airflow reasons.

The Pro Display XDR (it stands for Extreme Dynamic Range) will set you back an eye-watering $4,999, and that's before you've factored in the matching Pro Stand. It's a fully counterbalanced stand that, says Apple, makes the Pro Display XDR feel weightless and makes it easy to adjust the the height, tilt and even rotation of the display, enabling you to switch from landscape to portrait in an instant. It sounds impressive, and it really ought to be at an additional $999.

Both the new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR are scheduled to launch in the autumn, but if you want to know how they'd look on your desk if you could scrape together the just under 12 grand you'd need to own the complete kit, there's a special treat waiting for you on the Apple site.

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Affinity Designer and Photo get a MAJOR upgrade

Affinity users have been champing at the bit for updates to its software suite, and this week their patience has been rewarded. Not only has Serif announced the launch date of Affinity's desktop publishing app, today it also revealed the biggest-ever updates to Affinity's Designer and Photo tools.

The v1.7 upgrades see Affinity push the performance of its apps even further thanks to the introduction of GPU compute acceleration, HDR monitor support, and a rewritten memory management system. Improvements are being rolled out across across Mac and Windows versions of the tool, as well as the iPad version – already at the top of our list of the best iPad apps for designers.

Not only that, but the Designer and Photo apps are now optimised to work on the incredible new Apple Pro Display XDR monitor, as well as being tweaked to run faster than ever on new Macs.

The good news keeps on coming for Mac users as Affinity revealed that they will now be able to enjoy end-to-end Metal compute acceleration. In terms of how this pays off in the software, all raster layer and brush operations will work 10 times faster than before. The support of multiple GPUs, either as internal or externally connected units, can also take these performance gains further.

Windows users aren't left behind though. Serif promises that a hardware acceleration is on the way for them too, and in the meantime it's delivered a rewritten memory management system that sees its tools running up to four times as fast as current speeds. Not only that, but Dial and Pen support for Microsoft Surface devices have been upgraded.

What's new for Affinity Photo?

As for the individual tool upgrades, Affinity Photo has been given an improved RAW processing engine that will load files faster. This will also benefit the tool's new demosaicing algorithm, deliver more effective noise reduction, and assist with hot pixel removal and wide colour space development.

Affinity Photo users are also treated to a rewritten brush engine that includes all-new multi-brushes. A 32-way symmetry mode and nozzle rotation powered by shortcut keys accompany the launch of these brushes.

Completing the upgrades to Affinity Photo are improved batch processing, a new assets panel that allows creators to simply drag and drop commonly used elements, and an overhauled layers panel.

"Using Affinity Photo with an HDR monitor offers a simply stunning experience," says Serif Managing Director Ashley Hewson. "It's amazing the detail and dynamic range the latest SLR cameras capture when shooting in RAW, and Affinity Photo now offers the opportunity to actually see all that depth while editing on an HDR monitor.

"But this isn't just for high-end photography. As more and more graphic content is being consumed on HDR displays, it will start to become important that designers are using an app which can both work in a 32bit colour space and render the results on an HDR monitor. Affinity Designer is the first professional graphic design application to do both."

Affinity Designer upgrades

Speaking of Affinity Designer, the popular tool at the heart of many a vector art tutorial has been gifted new isometric tools that allow designers to work on the isometric plane. This feature will also fit existing elements to a plane with a single click.

Not only that, but vector shapes can now contain an unlimited number of strokes and fills. Users can control how these are blended together, and there is complete freedom to interleave different attributes.

Almost all of Affinity Designer's vector art tools have been given an improvement, too. A wider selection of lasso modes, a sculpt mode for the pencil tool, and a new point transformation tool are just a taste of the many updates to hit the software.

"This update isn’t only about the big new features and performance gains – we've also made literally thousands of little tweaks and improvements to both apps based on all the feedback we get from our customers every day," adds Hewson. "It's a lot of these little enhancements which add up to mean both Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer are more productive than ever before."

Thankfully, one of Affinity's tastiest lures, its one-off fee, is still present and correct. The new 1.7 versions of both Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer are available with a 20% discount ($39.99 desktop, $15.99 iPad) while existing users can download the updated versions for free.

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6 Cinema 4D tutorials to up your 3D skills

Cinema 4D is one of the CG industry's most popular 3D modeling, animation and rendering applications. Boasting a designer-friendly interface and powerful toolset, Cinema 4D has become a favorite among digital artists wanting to create show-stopping 3D art.

And if you are in need of some more inspiration, you can head over to our selection of the best 3D art around. Let's get started...

1. Model a low poly wolf

Follow this step-by-step Cinema 4D tutorial to create a low poly wolf model that can be used in all manner of creative projects. Here you'll learn how to create a basic 3D model, import reference images, adding lighting to the scene and basic rendering techniques.

2. How to model concept art in Cinema 4D

Here's a use for Cinema 4D that might not have occurred to you; in this tutorial, How to model concept art in Cinema 4D, Michael Tschernjajew explains how he used Cinema 4D to create concept art for a range of vehicles destined for a PlayStation 4 game.

3. Animate a simple cartoon character

Following on from the above, EJ Hassenfratz has also created a brilliant two-part Cinema 4D tutorial in which you can learn how to animate a simple character and some handy tips and tricks for creating animated GIF characters.

4. Introduction to modeling in Cinema 4D

This Cinema 4D tutorial from Pluralsight covers the basics of modeling, looking at commonly used tools and time-saving tips and techniques

In Introduction to modeling in Cinema 4D from Pluralsight, you will learn the tools and techniques that will allow you to begin modeling in Cinema 4D. A subscription is required to watch the full training, but register for a free demo account to access the first five Cinema 4D tutorials for free.

5. Introduction to Cinema 4D

If you don't have the most recent version of Cinema 4D, never fear. The brilliant team at Greyscalegorilla have created over 200 tutorials to help digital artists, including some brilliant free Cinema 4D tutorials such as this one, Introduction to Cinema 4D, in which you'll learn how to build this mine cart tunnel animation. Create the scene from scratch by learning how to light, model, animate, add dynamics and render the final sequence.

6. Make realistic plants in Cinema 4D

Add a unique touch and make your own 3D plants for your 3D project. The contrast in color, texture, and form can really help add interest to the final render. Learn how with this guide: Make realistic plants in Cinema 4D.

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