Design Shack

Business / 25 Jan 2021

8 Data Points That Will Make You a Better Web Designer

Website design is such a creative exercise that sometimes it is easy to forget all of the left-brain things that go into a stellar project.

A good design uses solid data and analytics to help shape decision making, map user journeys, and include just the right visual elements to make the most of the design for visitors. (Almost every new website project I take on begins with looking at the analytics of the current website.)

So what data points are important? And how do you use them?

These tidbits are extremely useful for new website projects, but you can also use them to help find and fix issues with existing designs. Data-powered visuals can make almost any project more impactful.

Final Cut Pro Templates / 22 Jan 2021

20+ Best Final Cut Pro Title Templates 2021 (FCP Titles)

When it comes to creating video content, one of the most challenging tasks you have to deal with is designing a killer title scene. But, what if there was a way to instantly insert an amazing title scene into your videos with just a few clicks? That’s exactly what you can do with pre-made Final Cut Pro title templates.

If you’re a fan of Final Cut Pro, you’ll have no trouble adding unique title scenes to your videos when using title templates.

To help you get a headstart, we even went ahead and gathered a collection of  Final Cut Pro title templates you can use in your video projects. The list includes both free and premium templates. Go ahead and download them all.

Premiere Pro Templates / 22 Jan 2021

50+ Best Premiere Pro Templates 2021

Today we’re featuring a collection of easy to use Adobe Premiere Pro templates you can use to quickly craft professional-looking scenes for your videos.

Whether you’re looking to make an opening scene for your YouTube channel, a title sequence for a video, slideshows, or even product promotions, this list of Adobe Premiere Pro templates has it all.

We’ve included a mix of free Premiere Pro templates and top-notch premium options too. So there’s something for every budget!

Inspiration / 21 Jan 2021

25+ Best Moodle Themes of 2021

Moodle is a powerful learning management system which is widely used by academics and students to build online course management and e-learning websites for universities and institutions around the world.

Moodle templates and themes let you quickly establish a great looking platform, without too much development time and resource. These templates are easy to implement and offer full customization. Some of these templates cover the corporate arena, while others focus more on education and learning. They’re a great starting point when developing your own platform!

Trends / 21 Jan 2021

Fractal Art: A 101 Design Intro

Art elements rooted in math and algorithms might seem like a futuristic idea, but it’s a growing and popular concept.

Fractal art has been around since the 1980s but it seems to be having a moment with more designers looking to this style for backgrounds and main art elements. Another reason for the growth in popularity? Use of this style as an interior design element for wall hangings and more.

This can be a fun design element to think about and incorporate into projects. Here’s everything you need to know to get started with fractal art.

Photoshop Actions / 20 Jan 2021

30+ Best Photoshop Text Effects 2021 (Free & Premium)

The title is the most important part of almost every design. Whether it’s a poster, flyer, banner, or even a website header, the title is what attracts the audience’s attention and keep them hooked.

When it comes to designing titles, sometimes you have to get creative and make unique text designs that stand out from the crowd. And this is where Photoshop text effects can be used to go above and beyond with your designs.

Photoshop text effects allow you to completely transform your ordinary text into incredible designs without an effort. They are quite popular among YouTubers and Twitch users for designing channel cover images as well.

We handpicked a collection of the best Photoshop text effects you can use to design all kinds of titles and headings. There are both premium and free text effects in the collection. Have a look.

Inspiration / 20 Jan 2021

25+ Best Free Photoshop Plugins 2021

Photoshop Plugins are one of the hidden features of the photo editor that many designers fail to notice. We created this list of the best free Photoshop plugins to show you how plugins can help improve your workflow.

When it comes to graphic design, the way you organize your Photoshop app interface and plan the workflow plays a key role in efficiency and productivity. That’s why every designer should experiment with Photoshop plugins as they can permanently improve your workflow.

With a single plugin, you can create gradients instantly. Or sharpen an image with just a few clicks. Or even find high-quality stock photos without ever having to switch to Chrome.

Explore our collection of free Photoshop plugins and you’ll find a whole new world of useful tools.

Email Templates / 19 Jan 2021

40+ Modern Responsive Email Templates 2021

If you want your next email campaign to stand the best chance of success, using a responsive design that looks good on any screen or device is really important. Responsive email design is notoriously difficult, so starting with a template can be a good bet.

It’s worth taking advantage of pre-made responsive templates that have already been tested on a variety of screen sizes and email clients, then customizing them to your own requirements.

These templates are crafted by highly skilled designers, and many of them include template builders with unique customization options to make tweaking them super-simple!

As a bonus, our tips for designing a responsive email will help give you some great design pointers!

Font Collections / 18 Jan 2021

50+ Best Hand Lettering & Handwriting Fonts 2021

If you’re looking for a different type of a font to make your design stand out, a cursive font can be a great choice. Cursive and script fonts aren’t new, but they’re a less common choice for many designers. This gives you a chance to use cursive fonts to add some originality to your next project.

Fonts play an important role in every design. Whether you’re designing a book cover, a website header, social media post, greeting card, or a poster, the typography is the main aspect that captures everyone’s attention.

In this collection, we’re featuring some of the most beautiful and modern cursive fonts you can use for your various types of designs. Plus, a series of helpful tips for choosing a hand lettering font to help you make the right decision.

Lightroom Presets / 18 Jan 2021

20+ Best HDR Lightroom Presets 2021

The HDR technique is one of the most popular techniques photographers use to add more depth and range to photos. It usually takes multiple photos and a lot of work to take photos using the HDR technique.

However, if you have the Lightroom app, there’s a much easier way to create that same HDR effect with just a few clicks. In this post, we’re sharing with you a collection of the best HDR Lightroom presets you can use to add an authentic HDR effect to your own photos.

These HDR Lightroom presets are easy to customize, and they let you adjust the settings to match any kind of a photograph, whether you take it with a DSLR or your smartphone camera.

Business / 17 Jan 2021

5 Tips for Working With Design Influencers (Or Becoming One!)

Who do you look to on social media when you need extra design inspiration? Those are the people that you see as design influencers.

Have you ever thought about working with designers, illustrators, and photographers with a strong social media presence (or becoming one yourself)?

There are things you can start doing online now that will make it easier to work with influencers and show that your accounts are on trend in the design space.

Here are a few tips, plus a tool for helping you get started.

Lightroom Presets / 15 Jan 2021

50+ Best Lightroom Wedding Presets 2021

Designing a beautiful wedding album can be tough when you also have to go through hundreds of photos while enhancing and editing them as well. Thankfully, Photoshop introduced a solution to that painful process with Lightroom.

Now, all you need are a few Lightroom presets and you can instantly enhance your wedding photos in a way that looks professional and consistent. We hand-picked a few of the best wedding Lightroom presets for optimizing photos of your special day.

We’re also featuring a collection of tips for editing wedding photos, to help out with using these presets and creating stunning wedding images!

Mockup Templates / 14 Jan 2021

30+ Best T-Shirt Mockup Templates 2021 (Free & Premium)

How you present a finished t-shirt design can be a key consideration. And our pick of the best t-shirt mockup templates can be incredibly helpful in creating a stunning end result to impress your client.

Certain types of designs, like t-shirts, require a slight sparkle of presentation to showcase how the end result would appear on the final product. You simply can’t showcase a t-shirt design without a t-shirt mockup.

But, what if you don’t have the time to craft your own mockup for your t-shirt design? Not to worry. These to pre-made t-shirt mockup templates help you easily showcase any type of t-shirt design. Check out our collection and pick a mockup for your project!

Business / 14 Jan 2021

9 Tips for a Successful Design Retrospective

Sometimes the best way to inspire a creative team is by looking back at projects. A design retrospective can help you evaluate projects upon completion, look back at workflows and results, and take lessons learned to future work.

Too often there’s a negative association with a design retrospective, while constructive criticism should be welcome, there should also be plenty of opportunities to highlight wins, big and small, from a project.

Here, we’re going to look at tips for making your design retrospectives more successful. You want them to be a welcome experience.