Design Shack

Software / 25 Mar 2019

Affinity Photo vs Photoshop: Should You Switch?

Affinity Photo has been receiving rave reviews from designers and photographers alike, looking for a photo editing software solution that’s not crazy-expensive but has in-demand features. But can it replace Photoshop?

While Affinity Photo isn’t super-cheap, you only have to buy the software (and any add-ons you like) just once, making it a somewhat viable option if you don’t like the monthly subscription fees that come with Adobe Photoshop.

Here’s a look at a few of the reasons you might switch from Adobe Photoshop to Affinity Photo (and a few reasons why it might not be the best fit for you!)

Inspiration / 22 Mar 2019

30+ Best Microsoft Word Brochure Templates

Today, we’re bringing you a set of professionally designed Microsoft Word brochure templates to help you get a head start on your next brochure project.

Every designer has a collection of pre-designed templates. These templates not only allow you to enhance your workflow but also save hours of time otherwise spent searching for an inspiring starting point.

Whether you’re working on a brochure for a business, a case study, report, or a project proposal, you’ll find plenty of options to choose from in this collection of templates (and even more in our full series on brochure templates!)

Inspiration / 21 Mar 2019

50+ Best Infographic Templates (Word, PowerPoint & Illustrator)

An infographic can give you a way to represent information in a graphic format, designed to make it more understandable, relatable, and engaging. But they can be tricky to make! We’ve gathered together a collection of stunning infographic templates, to get you started quickly (whether you’re using Word, PowerPoint, or Illustrator!)

Infographics usually require icons, schemes, progress elements, charts, timelines, maps, different arrows, graphs and much more. They’re a great way to convey a complex message in a simple way. Each of these infographic templates contains dozens of infographic elements that you can combine and use in different ways to display data, and it’s much quicker than making everything yourself from scratch!

Inspiration / 20 Mar 2019

30+ Laptop Mockup Templates (PSD & PNG)

When it comes to presenting website and graphic designs to clients, using a laptop mockup can substantially boost its appeal. Do you have the right laptop mockup to take your work to the next level?

There are many different ways you can use laptop mockup templates. You can use them to showcase your designs in your portfolio, website design, social media posts, client presentations, and more. We’ve found a set of professional laptop mockups that you can use on all those occasions.

In this post, we’re featuring some of the best laptop mockup templates for designers, both MacBook and Windows laptops. The collection includes templates from Envato Elements, where you get unlimited access to over 650,000 design elements for a single price. Have a look and start downloading.

Accessibility / 20 Mar 2019

10 Tools for Improving Website Accessibility

There’s no doubt that you understand the need for your website to be accessible for as many users as possible. But reading through all of the guidelines and standards can be a little overwhelming. You can find the latest W3C recommendations here, but do you need to know every word, and follow every guideline?

Today, we’re going to try to make it all a little bit easier with some tools and resources to help you improve website accessibility (and maybe even some checks to consider that weren’t on your radar!).

Whether you’re looking to ensure you have enough visual contrast, a site that’s accessible to screen readers, or even create accessible emails, we’ve got you covered!

Inspiration / 19 Mar 2019

40+ Best Sketch Templates of 2019

Sketch is a unique app that offers amazing features and functionality for creating app UI designs and mockups. Creating an effective UI for an application requires time, detailed attention, and—most importantly—an idea to get started with!

In order to streamline the design process for creating your next app interface, we’ve collected the best Sketch UI templates and materials that you can use for your next app project. All these packs come with hundreds of UI design elements and can be easily implemented in your design. Enjoy!

Inspiration / 19 Mar 2019

30+ Best Tri-Fold Brochure Templates (Word & InDesign)

Are you working on a new tri-fold brochure design for your business? Want to make them look even better than your competitors? Then you’ve come to the right place. We’re featuring some of the best tri-fold brochure templates you can use to easily design a stunning brochure with a minimal budget.

The design of a brochure says a lot about a company and the quality of the business. The colors you use in your brochure, the way you format the content, and the fonts you choose, play an important role in showing off professionalism and authority.

For this collection, we carefully handpicked the best brochure templates designed by professionals to help you choose the right design and get a headstart on your own tri-fold brochure design.

Typography / 18 Mar 2019

What’s the Best Font for Subtitles? 5 Examples Compared

When it comes to choosing the best font for subtitles (or any other captioning), nothing matters more than readability. Clear subtitles are more than just identification on the screen, they can be a means of accessibility for many users.

You’ve probably seen a fair share of good – and bad – subtitle font options. (I remember watching a movie where the subtitles were yellow and nearly unreadable in some scenes. That’s not a good choice!) Closed captions are also common for viewing video on social media – who wants to play the sound at work? – and to understand content in another language.

Today, we’ll look at some of the best fonts for subtitles, and tips for creating small text elements on a moving video background that people will actually want to read.

Graphics / 17 Mar 2019

The Democratization of Logo Design

It’s getting easier all the time for you to create a logo design. It’s no longer purely the realm of expensive design agencies, those with years of Illustrator knowledge, or marketing teams.

Better tools are making it easier all the time for you to put together icons and text for a logo design that works for you. Not sure where to start? We have some ideas that can jumpstart your creativity and help you create a logo design.

Will it be a logo that ignites a global brand for decades to come? Possibly not. But it might be the perfect logo for your startup, local business, or website.

Inspiration / 15 Mar 2019

50+ Best Lightroom Presets of 2019

If you’re looking to supercharge your design workflow this year, updating your Lightroom presets with a new, powerful collection is a good idea! Lightroom presets let you instantly fix, improve, and enhance your photos with a single click. And we’ve found the perfect set of presets just for you.

Having the right set of Lightroom presets can be a huge time-saver for designers. Everything from retouching portrait photos, to adding stunning visual effects, enhancing interior photos, optimizing HDR photos, adding retro effects, and much more is possible with the Lightroom presets we’ve included in this list.

Inspiration / 14 Mar 2019

30+ Best Fonts for Resume + Cover Letters

Writing the perfect resume or cover letter takes careful creative thinking. And choosing one of the best fonts for a resume or cover letter can help your words have an impact, look professional, and stand out!

Of course, the contents of these documents are the key thing. But you do need to carefully consider the design of your resume or cover letter to make it appear professional.

In addition to finding the right resume template to represent yourself, choosing the best font for your resume and cover letter is one of the most important tasks that requires attention. It might determine whether you’ll come across as a true professional or an amateur (especially for any creative position).

There are many different styles of fonts you can choose to design a resume or cover letter. To help you get a headstart, we handpicked a collection of the best fonts for resume and cover letters to help you find the right font for your design.

Best of luck with your job application!

Software / 13 Mar 2019

T-Shirt Design Software: 3 Options & Approaches

Almost every brand, website or even individual has a custom t-shirt. It’s one of the best ways to promote a product, message or just a cool design. But where do you start? Do you need t-shirt design software to get your creative idea on a shirt? Let’s compare a few options.

Today, we’re going to explore three different approaches to t-shirt design (from beginner to advanced), as well as three different ways to get your design from the computer to a wearable format.

For each of these, we’ll look at a software option that can help get you started.

Inspiration / 12 Mar 2019

50+ Best PowerPoint Templates of 2019

The key to winning your audience is a perfectly designed PowerPoint presentation. Whether you’re speaking at a conference, pitching to an investor, or talking about sales projections at a business meeting, this collection of the best PowerPoint templates will help you speak to your audience.

The way you design your PowerPoint slides will play a key role in the success of your presentation. You need to use the right colors in your slides, structure the content for readability, and visualize data with charts and graphs to deliver a compelling presentation.

It usually takes hours to design a great PowerPoint presentation. But, you don’t have to go through all that trouble. We’ve found some of the best new PowerPoint templates you can use to quickly set up a professional presentation slideshow within a few minutes.

Reviews / 12 Mar 2019

How to Find the Right Name for Your Small Business

One of the toughest challenges for a startup can be actually coming up with a great name – and website domain – for the business.

While the brainstorming process can be a lot of fun for some, it can also get taxing. Using a tool to facilitate the process can help. That’s where a tool like Business Name Generator can come in.

Here’s a look at the tool and how it could help your small business or startup.

Font Collections

This is our series of beautiful, inspiring collections of fonts and typefaces. These articles feature bold poster fonts, decorative scripts, and everything in-between! Find the perfect font for your next design project with one of these collections.

How to Design a Logo

Everyone wants their logo to stand out, and represent their brand perfectly. But it's no easy task! Our helpful feature will walk you through how to design a logo. From brainstorming logo ideas to practical logo design tips, you'll be in a great position to create the perfect logo for your business.

Photoshop Actions

Photoshop Actions are the perfect timesaver to save you doing the same processing on multiple images. Using other people's actions can help you tap into creative techniques, cutting edge post-processing styles, and beautiful effects. In this series, you'll learn how to use Photoshop Actions and find professional examples to use in your own design work.

PowerPoint Templates

Microsoft PowerPoint (PPT) is the go-to choice for creating presentations. This series shares tips and ideas for working with PowerPoint, as well as beautiful PowerPoint templates and themes to make your presentations look stunning.