Carrie Cousins

Reviews / 27 May 2019

Core: Jump Start Your Website Design

Have you ever started building a project with a user interface kit and wished there were more to it? Core might be the fix to that common problem.

Core is a front-end feature kit packed with essential project building blocks, and you can get it free from Mason. Usability is the key feature of this kit. So many UI kits look great but fail in the actual use department. Not Core. It’s beautiful and usable.

Here’s a look at Core and what it can do for you.

Business / 27 May 2019

10 Ways to Make Women More Welcome in Your Design Space

Take a look around. How many women work in your creative space? (If you are a freelancer, think about how many women are part of your referral network.) What does that ratio look like? The design industry is not known for equal numbers in the workplace.

A study late last year by Design Museum showed that only 1 in 5 designers in the UK are women. Another study by AIGA showed that women were just 36 percent of the “design leaders” to speak at the world’s biggest design conferences. (It was even tough to find stock images to represent women as designers for this article.)

These trends just aren’t acceptable. And change starts with you.

If you want to see more ideas, more creative concepts, and more diversity of design, everyone needs to be welcome in the same design space. It can be tough to be the only woman in the room (and it happens a lot).

Here are some ways you can make women more welcome in your design space.

Reviews / 23 May 2019

FilmHERO: Stock Video Made Easy

Do you find yourself asking where other websites find such amazing video clips?

You don’t need a monster budget to get high-quality video for your website. With the right stock video, you can create a custom website experience that uses one of the trendiest and most engaging elements out there.

FilmHERO is a good place to start. The video provider has a huge collection of video clips that you can download and use in any number of projects. Here’s how it works.

Trends / 20 May 2019

5 Design Ideas That Never Get Old

There are some design ideas and concepts that never get old, no matter how many times you see them. Today, we’re exploring these timeless design ideas that you can incorporate into your own work.

These classic concepts are often deeply rooted in design theory. They might be trending styles that cycle in and out over time. They all incorporate elements that make a website design easy to look at, interact with, read and understand.

And for that reason, these design ideas never seem to get old. In fact, you can call them timeless design styles.

Reviews / 15 May 2019

IP Geolocation API: Better Understand Website Visitors

Where are your website users coming from? That’s a common question that many website owners don’t always know the answer to. Understanding where users come from—and information about their location—can be important to the functionality of your website.

Just think, you could push notifications at time zone appropriate times, or adjust language, design, or layout based on the location of a website visit.

Geolocation data can help you create a more valuable experience for website visitors. And the free IP Geolocation API is a tool that can help. Here’s a look at it and how it works.

Inspiration / 15 May 2019

20+ Best Photoshop Tutorials for Designing Posters + Flyers

What makes a great poster design? It’s often a mix of creativity and design elements that have a certain panache.

Poster and flyer design can be a lot of fun because you can often stretch your design muscles and try things you wouldn’t for other projects. It’s an opportunity to do something attention-grabbing and unique!

With that idea in mind, here are twenty different poster/flyer tutorials that you can try out. Plus, you’ll get a chance to try out some new design techniques along the way!

Trends / 13 May 2019

Design Trends: When to Use Them + When to Ignore Them

We showcase a lot of design trends here at Design Shack. Not only is it fun to look at examples of new work, groundbreaking projects, and things that are growing in popularity, but it can also serve as a bit of design inspiration.

You can use trends to determine if your projects look modern, classic or just plain dated. But design trends aren’t for everyone all the time. That trend that looks amazing for one brand or project might be a disaster for another.

So how do you know when to use design trends (and when to just ignore them altogether)? Here’s your primer!

Font Collections / 8 May 2019

6 Tips for Working With Hand-Drawn Fonts

Hand drawn fonts seem to be almost everywhere. But how do you use them in a way that’s different and effective? When it comes to hand-drawn fonts, these tips can help you create something that’s readable and matches the tone of your project.

The hand-drawn font design trend can be somewhat tricky and isn’t necessarily for all projects.

If you do go down this route, make sure you’re approaching it in a way that doesn’t compromise the goals of your design project!

Graphics / 1 May 2019

Data Visualization in Web Design: 12 Stunning Examples

Data, data, everywhere. But what do you do with it? Today, we’ve collected 12 stunning examples of data visualizations in website design to jump-start your thinking about how to work with data.

We live in a time where the ability to showcase data in new and interesting ways can be a huge asset as a designer.

Whether you have a massive collection of numbers or just information that you want to showcase, this design style can be a great tool in your kit.

Reviews / 29 Apr 2019

3 Ways to Boost Your Resume With Parsons at Open Campus

Spend your summer days building on your professional foundation, and emerge this fall poised to take on new challenges. Whether you have your eye on that promotion, a new side hustle, or a career shift, boost your resume by pursuing industry-recognized credentials through Parsons at Open Campus.

Designed with working professionals in mind, Open Campus is The New School’s destination for continuing and professional education, drawing upon the vast resources of the top-ranked Parsons School of Design.

At Parsons at Open Campus, students learn from leading experts at the top of their field, develop professional portfolios for further career advancement, and expand their networks. Courses are available on campus in New York City and online to help you gain future-facing skills while providing flexible study options to fit into your busy schedule.

How do you get started? Here are three certificates offering key skills to make your resume stand out.

Layouts / 22 Apr 2019

Single Page Website Design: 10 Tips + Ideas

Long live single page website design! There’s something almost magical about small-scale websites that fit on a single page. They can be graceful, easy to navigate and provide optimal user experiences in a contained space.

While there was a time when we shied away from single page websites, users are embracing them again (thank you, mobile!) and you should, too.

We’re looking at ten tips, ideas, examples, and suggestions to help spark inspiration for your next piece of web design work. It might be just the right time to keep it simple, and embrace a single-page strategy!

Trends / 10 Apr 2019

Mid-Century Modern Design: An Emerging Trend

Of all the retro design styles that have been trending, mid-century modern design might be one of my favorites. The phrase “mid-century modern” is more than just a staple on home improvement television shows, it’s also a classic art and design style that speaks to an era.

The best thing about mid-century modern design is that it can simplify the complex. It was a popular style in homes and décor, as well as graphic and product design in for decades spanning the 1930s, 40s, 50s, and 60s.

Now it is making a comeback as a graphic and web design trend.