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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.

35+ Background Design Trends & Styles for 2025

Background Textures / 8 Oct 2024

35+ Background Design Trends & Styles for 2025

One of the most important early design decisions you will make is what kind of background will carry a project. Should it be a single color, colorless, use trendy elements such as geometric shapes, gradients, or wood grain patterns? Or would a solid background design can help make a project shine?

Staying on trend with background design styles is important as well. A trendy background choice shows that a website design is modern and the content is new. A modern visual framework can even signal a user that you are thinking about their needs and making the most of the tools that will make their experience better.

So how do you do it? Here’s a look at background design trends and styles, with a few great options to try.

Halloween Graphic Design: 15 Spooky Tips & Ideas for 2024

Inspiration / 7 Oct 2024

Halloween Graphic Design: 15 Spooky Tips & Ideas for 2024

Witches, goblins, and ghouls can make for some pretty amazing design projects. While Halloween might not be top of mind when it comes to design, it’s an opportunity to do something a little different with projects.

Halloween graphic design centers around something that will be around for a short time. It might be different than the typical vibe of a brand or project and often has a theme that’s fun and friendly.

Adding a spooky element to a design can delight users and show that the design is new and timely. It gives users reasons to come back to your projects because they know that it will change again after the holiday. You can use holiday-themed graphic design as a trick to keep users coming back!

30+ Typography Trends for 2025

Font Collections / 4 Oct 2024

30+ Typography Trends for 2025

Want to give your design a quick facelift? Using new and interesting typography trends might be the answer. Designers are using bold colors, cutouts, gradients, and even customizations to create lettering that stands out.

Changing typefaces or recreating an image or header in a trending style can give a design a fresh look without a full-scale overhaul. Not sure where to start? This list features typography trends with examples to use as inspiration for how to use them.

Here’s a look at the top typography trends this year.

Autumn & Fall Design Inspiration + Tips

Graphics / 20 Sep 2024

Autumn & Fall Design Inspiration + Tips

Do you change your design style seasonally? Even if you don’t plan major refreshes every time the weather changes, there are some advantages to using seasonal changes as a time to evaluate and think about design elements that might need a little tweaking.

Autumn can be one of the most inspiring times to make some of these changes. With deep colors, crisper air and that sense of energy that comes with cooler days, you might be inspired to add a touch of fall design to your projects.

Not sure where to start on your fall design refresh? We have plenty of tips, tools and design inspiration.

10 SEO Habits That Will Increase Website Traffic

Business / 13 Sep 2024

10 SEO Habits That Will Increase Website Traffic

Everyone wants more website traffic, right? But are you doing all the little things that help boost search engine ranking with every new image upload or content update?

Creating the right habits from the start will keep your website in tip-top shape and hopefully result in bonus points from the Google algorithm.

The good news is that this list is packed with actionable, everyday tips. Start with a solid website framework and then employ these techniques with every update to get on the path to creating great SEO habits that won’t be tough to maintain.

Pitch Deck Design: 10 Tips to Stand Out

PowerPoint Templates / 12 Sep 2024

Pitch Deck Design: 10 Tips to Stand Out

A good pitch deck is designed for specifically one thing – to help your startup get funding from investors. But how do you stand out from the crowd, and make a memorable impression?

There’s a delicate balance to creating a deck with just enough slides to entice potential funders, without providing so much information that they are overwhelmed.

Most pitch decks contain less than 20 slides. So how do you create a pitch deck design that stands out? Here are our ten tips to help you get started.

How Much Should You Charge for Design Services?

Business / 12 Sep 2024

How Much Should You Charge for Design Services?

It might be one of the most asked questions among freelance designers: what do you charge clients?

There can be so many variables in setting rates that you can stick to, and you have to make a choice between hourly and fixed options. Either way, a good pricing strategy can help you get the clients you want and earn a solid income from freelance work.

After you figure out pricing. Which is a challenge for almost anyone!

What Is a Lookbook? (+ 20 Stunning Examples)

Business / 19 Aug 2024

What Is a Lookbook? (+ 20 Stunning Examples)

Whether you’re a designer wanting to show off work or have a request to create one for a client, a lookbook can be an effective way to showcase a variety of elements in a single design.

A lookbook is a portfolio of sorts and has wide application in a number of fields, including website design, graphic design, and development.

Here’s a guide to what a lookbook is, what to include in one when you start designing it, and some examples that are sure to help you find a little lookbook inspiration.

20+ Procreate Tutorials (For Drawing, Lettering, Sketching + More)

Procreate Brushes / 1 May 2024

20+ Procreate Tutorials (For Drawing, Lettering, Sketching + More)

Procreate is one of the hottest drawing apps on the market. It’s a robust tool that you can use for fun, personal projects as well as professional and client work on your iPad.

With a tool that has so much functionality, it can be a little overwhelming to think about it all. Working through tutorials can help, so we’ve collected 15 for Procreate to help you get started. These cover off all different levels of knowledge, and help you learn how to draw, letter, sketch and more in Procreate. Grab your iPad, pencil, and dive into some creative work!

And the best part is that every one is free.

35 Beautifully Designed Shopify Themes for 2024

Shopify Themes / 16 Apr 2024

35 Beautifully Designed Shopify Themes for 2024

There are over 3.7 million online stores built on Shopify. If you were to explore some of these stores, they would mostly look the same since many of these stores still use the default free themes.

The key to building a successful Shopify store that drives continuous sales is to use a high-quality and professional theme that makes your shop look more authoritative and memorable. Today, we’ll help you achieve that goal.

In this post, we showcase some of the best and most beautifully designed Shopify themes you can use to setup an online store that stands out from the crowd.

The visual appeal of the theme design is important but we also made sure these themes have proper layouts that boost engagement and responsive designs that look great across various devices and platforms. Rest assured, you can’t go wrong with any of these Shopify themes.

Everything a Web Designer Needs to Know in 2024

Business / 16 Apr 2024

Everything a Web Designer Needs to Know in 2024

The job title “web designer” keeps expanding. Depending on your role and how many people are on your team, the term “web designer” can mean a number of things, and the scope that it covers seems to keep growing with every year that passes.

It can be beneficial for you to be familiar with multiple roles to help be the best, most functional, web designer you can be in 2023.

Here’s everything you need to know. From having a grasp on your job description, to the visual elements of web design, to the functional elements of how a web project needs to work and perform.

Flyer Design Ideas & Inspiration: How to Stand Out

Flyer Templates / 9 Feb 2024

Flyer Design Ideas & Inspiration: How to Stand Out

A flyer is a great way to promote your work, event, or even a business offering. This small piece of collateral is a point of contact that can help get people excited about something and generate interest.

A well-designed flyer grabs the attention of users and is something that people want to grab a hold of.

While most flyers are on the smaller side, they can include anything from printed pieces that are postcard size to information that is the size of a sheet of office paper (and even slightly larger).

Here’s how you create a flyer design that stands out.