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Carrie Cousins

Carrie Cousins

Carrie is a freelance writer with years of experience in web and graphic design. Sports fanatic. Information junkie. Designer. True-believer in karma.

Border Design: 8 Tips & Modern Examples

Graphics / 27 Jan 2025

Border Design: 8 Tips & Modern Examples

Graphic designers have been using borders for as long as they have been designing things. And they’re a fun element to play with. We’re taking a look at eight border design concepts (most of them you can actually download as project starters), along with tips for usage and some examples that you can try in projects.

Sometimes a great border can help separate your design for other elements, such as around the perimeter of an ad. Other times, a border can serve as an element to help break up different parts of a design, or frame messaging or content.

While borders are most frequently thought about in terms of print design, they can be a valuable digital design tool as well. A good border defines a space so that users know where a design begins and ends. (Pretty simple, right?)

10 Crucial Elements for Any Website Design

Layouts / 24 Jan 2025

10 Crucial Elements for Any Website Design

While every designer may have a different plan when it comes to building a website, they do have a common checklist. No matter how you try to avoid it, there are a few elements every website should (and usually does!) include.

From plenty of whitespace and great images, to search functionality and clear calls-to-action, these common elements are the things that users expect when it comes to using a site with ease.

Today we’re taking a look at ten elements you should prioritize on your website, perfectly designed examples of each, and tips on how to use each in your next website design project. As the saying goes, “the devil is in the details.”

10 Poster Design Ideas & Inspiration

Poster Design / 20 Jan 2025

10 Poster Design Ideas & Inspiration

Creating a poster can be one of the most fun – or frustrating – design projects that you ever take on. Posters are a highly visible, public design project that can lead people to attend an event or generate buzz about something.

These designs are often large in scale and there’s nothing like seeing something you create in a physical form.

Here, we’ve rounded up some great poster design ideas and inspiration to get you excited about your next poster design project.

15 Tips for Creating a Great Website Footer

Layouts / 17 Jan 2025

15 Tips for Creating a Great Website Footer

One of the most important locations on your website is the footer. Yes, seriously. It may not be the area of the greatest design or most impressive content but it is a place where users frequently look for information. So it is vitally important that you don’t neglect this area when planning a web design project.

But what elements should you include? How can you keep the footer organized and in line with your overall aesthetic without being obtrusive? You’ve come to the right place. Here we’ll look at tips for creating a great footer with examples of some websites that are doing it well.

The Golden Ratio in Design: Examples & Tips

Layouts / 13 Jan 2025

The Golden Ratio in Design: Examples & Tips

This might feel like a math lesson but hang in there. The golden ratio combines a little bit of math, a little bit of nature, and a lot of practical application for designers. Let’s take a look at what the golden ratio means for design, and a few tips for using it in your design projects.

The golden ratio has been used throughout history to create design elements that have an ideal visual appeal. Because the shape is rooted in nature and mathematics, it’s the perfect combination of balance and harmony. And it’s a superb tool to have up your sleeve as a designer.

What to Put on a Business Card: 8 Creative Ideas

Business Card Templates / 10 Jan 2025

What to Put on a Business Card: 8 Creative Ideas

What to put on a business card? It’s a tricky question. A business card that contains just the right information (and a stellar design) will grab attention and help you stand out. It’s the thing that makes someone else remember you, or your pitch.

Even in the digital age, a business card is a popular–and necessary networking and communication tool. Having a great business card provides legitimacy to your or your business, it’s a quick and easy way to exchange information, and can provide ways to help promote your work.

What you put on your business card says a lot to others. Here’s a guide to what to put on a business card, with plenty of creative ideas to help you get started.

40+ Best Illustrator Logo Templates 2025

Logo Templates / 9 Jan 2025

40+ Best Illustrator Logo Templates 2025

So you need a logo right now? That’s where an Illustrator logo template can come in handy. A logo template is often a kit of pieces to build a vector logo with a few tweaks—such as changing colors or fonts. These are our top picks!

Some of the better logo template options might include multiple elements in a file that you can piece together for a design that’s a little more custom.

Logo templates are best for small, quick projects that need something cost-effective and visually pleasing. While a logo template won’t give you all the flexibility and design choices as a custom logo, they create a significantly less expensive option. (Which can be great if you have some design skills and an idea of what you want your logo to look like.)

Just make sure when you are hunting for that perfect logo template, that you find a vector set to work with. Adobe Illustrator files are the most common and will give you the tools you need to create a design that will work at any size when you are finished making the logo design.

Here are 20 of the best Adobe Illustrator logo templates we could track down, as well as a few helpful tips for using an Illustrator logo template.

Best Free T-Shirt Design Software in 2025

Software / 6 Jan 2025

Best Free T-Shirt Design Software in 2025

When it comes to designing a shirt, you have two primary options – design it yourself using graphic design tools such as Adobe Illustrator or use software made for the job. The good news is that there are plenty of free t-shirt design software options to consider!

There are a growing number of platforms that specialize in t-shirt design and can help you create something that people will want to wear. Some of these tools integrate with a t-shirt sales portal as well, making the process even easier.

Here, we’re going to look at some of the best free t-shirt design software options available and how you can make these tools work for you.

How to Install & Apply a Lightroom Preset

Lightroom Presets / 3 Jan 2025

How to Install & Apply a Lightroom Preset

Whether you are a photographer or designer with a need to edit photos, Adobe Lightroom can be a great tool. Designed for photo editing, it allows batch work that can be cumbersome in programs such as Photoshop.

One of the most popular elements of Lightroom are the number of presets available. These tools within the tool are super filters that allow you to enhance photos, add creative effects and add functionality to your design workflow. If you’ve used any Adobe product, the feel of Lightroom is familiar and easy to learn. Get started by installing and using a few cool presets. Here’s how to do it.

Choosing the Best Font for PowerPoint: 10 Tips & Examples

PowerPoint Templates / 30 Dec 2024

Choosing the Best Font for PowerPoint: 10 Tips & Examples

There’s a fine art to creating a great PowerPont presentation that wows. With so many tricks and features in this little bit of software, it’s more likely to see a bad presentation than a good one (and you don’t want to be that person!)

While there are a lot of factors that contribute to the overall design, choosing a suitable font for PowerPoint is near the top of the list. The audience needs to be able to read the words on the screen with ease, to ensure that your presentation is as effective as possible.

So how do you do it? Where do you start when choosing a font for PowerPoint? We have 10 tips for you with a few examples of PowerPoint slides (and templates) that will impress your audience.

10 Skills Every Designer Needs on Their Resume

CV & Resume Templates / 23 Dec 2024

10 Skills Every Designer Needs on Their Resume

Even if you aren’t actively looking for a job, your resume is an important piece of your digital portfolio. From sites such as LinkedIn to personal portfolio pages such as Behance that showcase your work, glimpses into your design career are everywhere.

You want to control that message to ensure that you are putting the right vibe out there about who you are, the work you do and why (quite frankly) you are a rock star designer. And while a stellar portfolio is a great way to start that conversation, your resume is equally important. It should highlight some of the skills that aren’t as apparent from looking at a few marquee pieces.

As a bonus, every example resume here is a template from Envato Elements. Visit and download usable graphic design assets to boost your resume design today!

Serif vs. Sans Serif Fonts: Is One Really Better Than the Other?

Font Collections / 20 Dec 2024

Serif vs. Sans Serif Fonts: Is One Really Better Than the Other?

There is an ongoing debate among designers – both print and digital – about what makes an ideal typeface for a project. The debate almost always breaks down to a single question: serif or sans serif?

Before you answer that question, think about all of the things you know about serif and sans serif typefaces and all the myths associated with them.

Today, we’ll take a look at both categories of type and try to determine if one is really better than the other, and in what circumstance.