Carrie Cousins

Business / 16 Jan 2023

How to Be a Freelance Graphic Designer in 2025: A 10 Step Plan

Do you have dreams of ditching your day job and becoming a full-time freelance graphic designer? Start putting your plan in motion.

Most freelancers start with graphic design as a side hustle, but with determination, business planning, and a solid work ethic, you can build as much business as you want to create a sustainable career.

Here are 10 steps to help you get started. (Trust me, I’ve tested them all in my decade as a freelancer!)

Reviews / 16 Jan 2023

Emailvalidation: Automate Processes With an Easy Email Validation API

Do you want to ensure that your email lists are clean and verified? emailvalidation is flexible and reliable API that can help to take that burden away from you (and do a great job of it at the same time!)

Whether you are trying to validate a single email address, or an excel file containing thousands of addresses, emailvalidation can help. It’s packed with integrations, and is fully GDPR complaint as well.

Here’s a look at the tool, and how it might work for you.

How to Design a Logo / 13 Jan 2023

5 Logos We’d Love to See Redesigned in 2025 (And Why)

Sometimes a logo just doesn’t work. It happens to everyone from startups to major brands. (You’ll definitely know when you see these logos.) Maybe it’s too complex. Maybe it’s too generic and similar to other logos. Or maybe it’s just not dating in a timeless way.

So, we collected five logos from established brands that we think are in need of a redesign this year!

See if you agree with our takes on these marks. Logos are famously subjective—you might have a completely different opinion!

Software / 10 Jan 2023

20+ Best Free Portfolio Website Tools & Templates in 2025

Do you need a portfolio website right now? There are a variety of online tools and templates that can help jumpstart the process so you can feature your work online quickly.

This list is packed with options that provide free plans to help you get started. (Note that many do also offer paid options with the ability to customize or add premium features.)

Here are a few tools that can help writers, designers, photographers, artists, or pretty much anyone get their portfolio online this week.

Inspiration / 9 Jan 2023

35+ Inspiring Personal Portfolio Websites in 2025

I just love digging around portfolio websites for design inspiration. You can learn so much about the personality of a designer from the way a portfolio looks, and the interactions therein.

A portfolio site is also a great playground because it gives you the creative freedom you can’t always express with a normal client project.

Here, we have a roundup of personal portfolio websites that can impart a dose of instant inspiration. Explore new ideas, design trends, and themes that you can take and use in your own projects.

How to Design a Logo / 7 Jan 2023

How Much Does Logo Design Cost in 2025?

When considering how to design a logo, one of the most common questions has nothing to do with the creation of a brand element. It’s about pricing. How much does a logo design cost?

The answer is pretty complicated and depends on a lot of factors. Today, we’re going to look into logo design costs (and benefits of a professional design). Even if we can’t narrow down an exact price for you, this guide can serve as a starting point.

It should help you get a feel for the different price brackets of the options you could choose, and set off on the right path!

Freebies / 6 Jan 2023

12+ Best Free Stock Video Sites in 2025

Need video? From moving images for your own website, to b-roll for clients, having a solid place to find quality stock videos is a must. Today, we’re going to help you “stock” your toolkit with ten places to find amazing, free stock video for a variety of projects.

We are giving you basic information about using stock videos from each vendor; make sure to check specific license agreements before using any stock image or video. These can vary quite a bit, and it’s worth making sure that any video use is a good fit for your project license-wise!

Reviews / 6 Jan 2023

Wondershare Filmora 12 Gives Creators More Freedom

Video editing is easier and more cost-effective than ever for creators with Wondershare’s Filmora 12. The easy-to-use video editing software is designed with all the features you want, plus a budget-friendly price.

Here, we’re going to take a look at Filmora 12, its key features and tools, and how it might work for you in video projects.

Read on to find out if Filmora 12 might be a good contender for your next project.

Affinity Publisher Templates / 5 Jan 2023

25+ Most Useful Affinity Publisher Tutorials (+ Reviews) in 2025

Affinity Publisher is a powerful design app available for Mac and Windows. It’s a standalone tool that is made for creating printed projects, such as magazines, brochures, posters, and other collateral pieces.

Use it to combine images and other graphic elements to create outstanding layouts for publishing. Whether you are new to Affinity Publisher or not, great tutorials can help you master specific or general skills to help you make the most of the tool. Here, we’ve collected some of the best to help you jumpstart projects.

Affinity Designer Templates / 2 Jan 2023

25+ Most Helpful Affinity Designer Tutorials (+ Reviews) in 2025

Affinity Designer is a vector or raster app. It’s a competitor to Adobe’s Illustrator and allows you to design various elements for print or digital publication.

It’s part of the Affinity package of design tools made by Serif. Use it to do anything from making a business card to mock-up an app. Affinity Designer is made for Mac iOS, Windows, and iPad.

Here, we’ve collected some of the best for everyone from beginners to more seasoned pros, a mix of video and written tutorials. It’s a great place to start for upskilling with your first steps in Affinity Designer!

Final Cut Pro Templates / 26 Dec 2022

22+ Best Final Cut Pro Tutorials for Beginners 2025

Goal: Edit videos, add effects, and create better productions with ease in Final Cut Pro. Solution: You need a stellar tutorial that walks you through all the steps in this increasingly popular video editing tool.

Thanks to great tutorials from pros, you’ll be able to capture just the right moment, with the right effect quickly.

We’ve rounded up some of the best Final Cut Pro tutorials out there for beginners to help you make the most of this software. Note that Final Cut Pro is a robust tool, but it is only available for the Mac.

Software / 24 Dec 2022

The 8 Best Photoshop Alternatives for Windows (2025)

Looking for a faster and better alternative to Adobe Photoshop? While Photoshop has been a standard for years, that’s starting to change with plenty of new tools for Windows that make easy work of photo editing. Many of these new tools include smart functions that will speed up workflows.

The best Photoshop alternatives pack in just the features you need without a lot of fluff you won’t use. Here’s a list of the best Photoshop alternatives for Windows in 2023.

Take note of special features to find the one that’s right for you.