Carrie Cousins

Trends / 28 Oct 2019

The Art of Website UI Button Design: 10 Trends & Tips

Great button design is something that most website users never think about… because when it works well, it’s almost invisible. The best buttons are easy to click or tap, have an obvious function, and help users interact with the design without thinking.

It’s a fairly simple formula, but it can be hard to design if you leave it as an afterthought.

Today, we’re looking at trends in button design, plus a few tips to help you design a UI button that people click over and over again. Give your button design a boost with these tips, trends, and ideas to spark inspiration.

Business / 23 Oct 2019

Passive Income for Designers: 5 Tips to Get Started

Passive income is money that you keep earning on a product or service with little or no maintenance. While it takes some work to get started, a plan for generating passive income can be a great supplement to a designer’s revenue stream.

There are plenty of things you can do – create an e-book or t-shirt design; sell UI kits, themes, or design elements; develop an online course; join an affiliate program, or provide hosting services for website clients.

But how do you get started? Here are five tips to help you turn your passive income idea into a revenue-generating reality.

Flyer Templates / 16 Oct 2019

How to Make a Flyer for an Event (Using a Template)

Event flyers can be fun projects that give you a little more freedom with your design. Many events come with a design style of their own, providing ample opportunity to bend or break some of your brand rules.

The downside to event flyer design is that it often comes with tight turnarounds. So how do you make a flyer for an event quickly, that is designed well?

Start with a template. Here, we’ll take you through everything you need to know to create an event flyer from a template, from thinking about content to preparing the file for printing. We’re going to use a template from Envato Elements.

Typography / 7 Oct 2019

8 Things to Stop Doing With Typography (Right Now!)

Good typography is an art that shouldn’t be messed with too much. Letterforms flow together to form words and phrases that are readable and have subtle visual meaning.

But if you aren’t careful, it’s easy to ruin typographic beauty in an instant.

If you have slipped into any of these design traps, this is the time to stop doing anything on this list to type and clean up your design pieces. (Your portfolio will thank you.)

Trends / 2 Oct 2019

10 Website Design Trends That Are Fading (Thankfully)

Website design trends can be a lot of fun to experiment with and incorporate into projects, but if you aren’t careful these elements can add a dated look to projects. Sometimes trends fade out as quickly as they rush in!

Here, we’re going to look at some website design trends that are fading. (And that’s a good thing.)

If you have these elements on your site, it might be time to consider a refresh.

Business / 25 Sep 2019

What Is a Website Privacy Policy (And How to Write One)

Maybe you first noticed it in WordPress, when the admin started settings asking for a link to a privacy policy. Maybe you’ve been following news and the passing of GDPR. Or maybe you’ve just been talking it over with peers. Regardless, it’s probably time to include a privacy policy in website projects.

But with so much legalese, where do you start? What is a privacy policy? How do you write one?

Here, we have help! Since we aren’t lawyers, it’s always a good idea to have your counsel read over your policy, particularly if it gets complicated in any way.

The good news is that it doesn’t need to be earth-shatteringly complex to fairly quickly have a privacy policy on your site that covers off the most common issues.

Reviews / 16 Sep 2019

Show Real Time Weather Data With Weatherstack

What’s the forecast? Answer the question on your website, or in your app, with weatherstack, a freemium API that gives you access to real-time and historical weather information.

Weather information can be beneficial for several different website types and applications, but all weather data isn’t equal. weatherstack goes into a greater level of depth than many other options and surfaces the data in a super easy-to-use way.

Here’s a look at how to use this tool and how to make it work for you.

PowerPoint Templates / 11 Sep 2019

How to Convert PowerPoint to Video

Did you know that you can turn a PowerPoint deck into a video that plays automatically? This can be a great option for online sharing or creating a video loop to play at events or as a background collage.

The best part is that you don’t have to have extra tools because you can convert your slides right into a video file from PowerPoint.

We’re going to walk you, step-by-step, through how to convert a PowerPoint template to a video. We’ll also pay special attention to video settings, formats, and conversion options to make sure you wind up with just the right type of video for your project.

Business / 9 Sep 2019

How to Make a Personal Marketing Plan (With Examples)

You probably understand that everything you do online – and in-person – contributes to your personal brand. But did you know that having a personal marketing plan to establish, maintain, and promote that brand can be equally important?

Particularly for freelancers and anyone working in the gig economy, both full-time or part-part, having a distinct personal brand can impact your design work. Your brand will attract a certain type of potential client and work. Do you have a plan to draw in projects that are most appealing to you?

It can start with a personal marketing plan. Here’s how you do it.

Business / 3 Sep 2019

5 Tips for Building a Website for Friends or Family

How often does someone in your inner circle ask for a website? It happens quite often! Building a website for friends or family members can get tricky fast. These can sometimes your best (or worst) customers.

If you start projects with the right ground rules and a few tools, you can navigate these projects easier. And you can avoid any potential fall-out from setting the wrong expectations or committing yourself to a project that blows way past the time you have to spend on it.

Here are a few tips for approaching a family or friends project in the right way, and setting yourself up for success from the start.

CV & Resume Templates / 3 Sep 2019

What’s the Best Font for Your Resume or CV?

It might sound a little silly at first, but the typeface you select for your resume design can speak volumes to potential employers. The font represents your design style and professionalism. It can also impact how the person looking at your resume perceives the information at hand.

The typeface you select makes a first impression with every person you might meet in the interview or hiring process. (They’ll likely see your resume before they ever meet you.) Make sure to set the right tone from the start.

We’re exploring the best free fonts for resumes today. Here are a few top-notch font choices that are resume-ready, and all completely free!

Typography / 3 Sep 2019

What’s the Deal With Em and Rem?

With all the talk about designing for responsive websites, two little words keep cropping up – em and rem. But what are they?

Em and rem, along with pixels, are units and methods to measure and resize type. Em and rem are relative, rather than static, units and are being used more and more for responsive web design schemes. Let’s dive into this concept today and explain things a little more clearly!