Carrie Cousins

Premiere Pro Templates / 21 Jul 2020

Final Cut vs. Adobe Premiere Pro (Which to Choose? Pros & Cons)

Almost everyone is shooting video these days. From social media clips to full feature moving images for websites and more. But you have to do more than just take video, to get the right finish requires a solid video editing tool.

Two of the best options available are Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro. These solid video editors are packed with features and can help you polish video clips for a more professional feel.

But which one is right for your projects? Here, we’re taking a look at each tool and key pros and cons to help you choose the video tool that’s best for your daily workflows (and budget).

Trends / 14 Jul 2020

Design Trend: Strong Hero Images With Subtle Text

This website design trend is all about contrast… or the lack thereof. More designs are popping up that have large and stunning hero image areas, but text elements are much more subtle. This is a shift from oversized hero area text that has been big (literally) for some time.

These designs make you look because of this difference. It establishes a sense of contrast with other websites, while maybe not creating so much contrast in the design itself.

Let’s take a look at websites with strong hero images and subtle text to help you generate inspiration for your next project.

Reviews / 13 Jul 2020

Get Real-Time Market Data With Marketstack

Do you need to get the same stock market data on your website as some of the major players, such as Uber, Amazon, and Credit Suisse. That must be super complicated, right? Turns out that it’s easy with the right tool, such as marketstack.

marketstack is a real-time, intraday, and historical stock market data API. It delivers market data to your website and users to create better online experiences.

Here’s a look at the tool, key features, and how it works.

Instagram Templates / 8 Jul 2020

11 Tips to Boost Your Design Profile on Social Media (Without Looking Sleazy)

Most designers have no problem creating great visuals to share on social media. (That’s almost a no-brainer!) But how can you boost your profile on social media channels without looking sleazy?

There’s a fine line between fun, engaging content, and pushy or overwhelming. There’s a lot of value in showcasing your work online, and you want to do it the right way.

Here, we’re going to look at how to make the most of your design profile on social media. These tips work for personal and business accounts, and they help you walk the path of using social media in a genuine and helpful way.

Trends / 6 Jul 2020

Design Trend: A New Generation of Image Sliders

Website sliders are one of those design elements that we don’t love but have learned to live with. Generally, they don’t provide a lot of click value, but clients seem to love them.

A new design trend that features a new style of image sliders, fixes some of the functionality (and design boredom) issue of sliders. These aren’t your old-school image scrollers (and you won’t recreate these techniques with plugins).

Here’s a look at different design elements and ways of using this design trend so you can find renewed inspiration next time a slider is part of a project.

Trends / 24 Jun 2020

Design Trend: Geo Shapes & Patterns (With Animation)

Stylish geometry is a design trend that keeps coming back around. This time the new twist is that shapes and design elements include touches of animation to bring shapes and patterns to life. It’s easier than ever to implement animation on the web, in a simple and widely-supported way.

It’s also a nifty little design technique that can add visual interest to almost anything and works for all types of elements, from logos or icons to backgrounds to hero images.

Let’s take a look at this website design trend in action.

Business / 22 Jun 2020

How (And Why) to Design for Local Businesses

Designing for a local business can be one of the most rewarding projects that you take on. When done well, you create a relationship with someone in your community that helps them grown and succeed.

Whether you’re creating a website or designing menus or flyers, working with a small business can stretch your creative muscles but it will make you think about the process a little different. Small businesses can be quite different than some of your bigger clients. They have a lot more on the line when it comes to design services and return on investment, they may have more questions, and they need to know how design can help them grow.

When you take a small business client, your approach to design will likely be a little different. Here’s how to think about it.

Trends / 15 Jun 2020

Split Screen Web Design: The Trend That Keeps Growing

Website design with a split-screen aesthetic is a trend that keeps evolving and growing. A split-screen design can be good for a number of reasons, including mobile compatibility and user-friendliness. Plus, many of these designs just look great!

Shifts in the trend show that there are so many different ways to create an effective split screen design that users will love. Consider this your introduction to split-screen design in the new and improved era!

Graphics / 3 Jun 2020

How to Add Text to a Video Online: 7 Tips & Tricks

Everywhere you look in web design, the hero image seems to be replaced with a hero video. And many of these videos include some type of text elements to provide additional information that draws you into the design.

When done right, the result can be rather stunning. When done wrong, video and text elements fall short of conveying a proper message.

Here, we’re going to look at how to ensure your video and text combinations are understandable, readable, and functional in your next design project.

Let’s dive into our assessment of how to add text to a video online, and the rules you should aim to follow as you do so!

Trends / 1 Jun 2020

Design Trend: Transparent Text With a Bold Background

Who said typography has to be boring? Designers are having a lot of fun with interesting type options, including the super trendy method of layering transparent text elements with interesting backgrounds, animations, and images.

There are plenty of ways to incorporate this website design trend into a project (or put your personal spin on it for printed projects as well).

Here are some ideas and inspiration to help you get started with using transparent text on a bold background.

Font Collections / 21 May 2020

How to Add Fonts to Photoshop (Mac and Windows)

There’s no need to be intimidated when it comes to adding fonts to Adobe Photoshop for use in projects. Whether you’re on a Mac or Windows, adding a font to Photoshop can be a straight-forward process.

Any designer will regularly need to be working with new fonts and typography, and knowing how to quickly get them working in your design app is a key part of your workflow.

Today, we’ll walk you through how to add fonts to Photoshop (using a few different methods) so that you can speed up your workflow like a pro.

PowerPoint Templates / 20 May 2020

How to Loop a PowerPoint

A self-running or looping PowerPoint presentation can be great for using in booths at conferences, displaying information on screens before a live event/presentation, or even to use in the waiting room of a business to showcase information.

The great thing is that if you can create a PowerPoint presentation, saving it for a looped playback is a breeze.

You can loop a PowerPoint in two different ways depending on playback method – as a PowerPoint or as a video file.

Here’s how you do it.