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  2. Carrie Cousins

Carrie Cousins

Carrie Cousins

Carrie is the chief writer at Design Shack, with years of experience in web and graphic design. Sports fanatic. Information junkie. Designer. True-believer in karma.

How to Add Music & Audio to PowerPoint

PowerPoint Templates / 6 Jul 2023

How to Add Music & Audio to PowerPoint

You can add a little something special to your PowerPoint presentation with music or audio. While this can be a little tricky – and requires you to know the environment where your presentation will be given – it can add a special element to the information on display.

Whether you’re wanting to add background music, sound effects, narration, or something else, it doesn’t need to be difficult at all.

Here’s how you add music/audio to PowerPoint in a few simple steps!

How to Print a PowerPoint Presentation With Notes

PowerPoint Templates / 5 Jul 2023

How to Print a PowerPoint Presentation With Notes

How many times have you walked away from a great presentation and wished you had the notes from the slide deck? Or are you a presenter that wants to provide slides and notes in a handout format for the audience or for you to uses as a reference while speaking?

Printing a PowerPoint presentation with notes attached can be a valuable tool for presenters at all levels. You can physically print and distribute presentations with notes or “print” them to a PDF for easy digital sharing.

Here’s how you do it.

How to Embed a YouTube Video in PowerPoint

PowerPoint Templates / 3 Jul 2023

How to Embed a YouTube Video in PowerPoint

You can create a more engaging presentation by inserting a YouTube video in your PowerPoint slides. Today, we’re going to walk you through the whole process of how to embed a YouTube video in PowerPoint.

While this task used to be rather cumbersome and clunky with older versions of the standard software, Microsoft Office 365 and PowerPoint 2019 make embedding videos a lot more manageable.

Here’s how you do it step-by-step for a great presentation that includes video. Now, the only hard part will be picking what video clip you want to use!

Design Trend: Cartoon Elements for Design Themes

Trends / 23 Jun 2023

Design Trend: Cartoon Elements for Design Themes

If you have noticed more cartoon-style design elements lately, you aren’t alone. Quite a few projects are using design themes that feature cartoon elements, making this a trending design style.

There are plenty of ways to use the trend, from a full cartoon aesthetic to smaller elements throughout the design.

In this guide, we will dissect the different ways cartoon elements can be integrated into designs, demonstrating their versatility.

Whether you’re just dipping your toes into this trend or planning to plunge headfirst, we aim to fuel your creativity with practical insights and stimulating examples.

Design Trend: Sticker-Style Icons and Emojis

Trends / 12 Jun 2023

Design Trend: Sticker-Style Icons and Emojis

Website design with a hint of nostalgia. That’s what you get from the latest design trend that makes you think of childhood with sticker-style elements, including icons and emojis, that add a little something extra to projects.

This design style is popping up everywhere and includes everything from a full design theme to smaller elements sprinkled throughout.

What’s great is that for a certain demographic, this look has a feel that’s a distinct throwback to the sticker books we had as kids, making this design trend interesting and engaging.

Here’s a look at everything you need to know about the sticker design trend.

Design Trend: AI-“Models” in Images or Hero Areas

Trends / 5 Jun 2023

Design Trend: AI-“Models” in Images or Hero Areas

Can you spot AI-inspired imagery when you see it?

There’s a trend in website design projects with hero images that feature models who maybe aren’t quite human. But then again, maybe they are.

The line between reality and artificially created images is beginning to get blurred all the time. In many projects, there is a look and feel that’s supposed to contain an element of AI.

Here’s a look at that website design trend.

Gothic Style Design: A Modern Font & Graphic Trend

Trends / 25 May 2023

Gothic Style Design: A Modern Font & Graphic Trend

One recent emerging trend is an increased use of gothic styles and themes. This trend captures everything from imagery and color schemes to fonts and overall styling.

It’s an almost natural progression and evolution from all of the dark mode designs we’ve seen in recent years to reversion to gothic style.

Here, we’ll look at gothic style design and how you can make this design trend – potentially – work for you. Whether that’s in a poster, flyer, typographic choice, or a website. Let’s dive in!

10 Tips & Examples for Creating a Real Estate Listing Brochure

Business / 15 May 2023

10 Tips & Examples for Creating a Real Estate Listing Brochure

A real estate listing brochure is a popular tool to help buyers compare residential and commercial properties.

Many agents use both printed and digital (or PDF) brochures, or brochure websites, to help their clients view properties at a glance before visiting.

If you are a real estate agent or designer working on a listing brochure, we’ve gathered some tips and starter templates to help you create a design that will dazzle clients and help put the best properties forward.

10+ Examples of Web AR Experiences Done Well

Trends / 11 May 2023

10+ Examples of Web AR Experiences Done Well

Web-based augmented reality is a growing trend in website design that allows users to interact with realistic experiences from desktops or phones in-browser with no additional app required. This technology takes a little bit of everything and often includes HTML5, Web Audio, WebGL, and WebRTC to develop.

The result can be pretty impressive and leads to a level of engagement and interaction that keeps users wanting more.

WebAR is short for Web-based Augmented Reality, and it’s a relatively new technology that does not require a mobile application to function. Users can access AR experiences directly from their smartphones using the native camera and mobile web browser. This seamless user experience is one of the main reasons WebAR is rapidly growing in popularity.

Here’s a look at some examples of websites using Web AR to inspire your projects.

Using a Business Plan Template: Tips & Ideas

Business Templates / 8 May 2023

Using a Business Plan Template: Tips & Ideas

A business plan template can help you take ideas for your business idea and put them in a format designed to help you share information about your business.

A business plan template includes the outline for elements you need to consider and a visual format that allows you to share that vision with others. A business plan template might be in the form of a booklet or brochure or a business plan presentation that you share in person or virtually.

Here, we’ll look at a few business plan template ideas and tips for designing a plan that helps sell your idea. Plus, all the examples are from Envato Elements, so you can easily download and use these templates.

50 Best Website Color Schemes of 2023

Trends / 3 May 2023

50 Best Website Color Schemes of 2023

Does it ever seem like certain website color schemes just get all the attention? As with every other aspect of web design, there are color schemes that tend to trend more than others. Bright colors, stark palettes, and even some mismatching schemes are elements of color that are trending.

Here’s a look at some of the best website color schemes (in no particular order). For each, we’re also sharing the color codes that make up the key elements of the design, so it’s easy to play around with these color schemes yourself too!

One of the biggest trends in color schemes that you might notice is the use of dark dominant colors and backgrounds and shades of gold and bright red or pink hues for accents. This dark/light combo is an evolution of black and red in many minimal designs from a few years ago with a more modern touch.

Here are some great examples of color choices done right, to inspire your next project.

10 Design Tips for Real Estate Brochures + Presentations

Brochure Templates / 3 May 2023

10 Design Tips for Real Estate Brochures + Presentations

The perfect real estate presentation can help you sell quicker and entice more prospective buyers. It highlights your brand as a real estate agent or company and helps you position yourself in the marketplace.

But what does a stellar real estate brochure or presentation look like? It’s a unique piece of design work, that needs to convey a specific type of information (and still aim to convert a potential sale!)

We’ve got 10 great examples from templates you can download and use with tips for creating a brochure that you’ll keep sharing over and over again.