Carrie Cousins

Software / 4 Apr 2018

8 Best iPad Apps for Design & Illustration

When you want to work on the go, being able to keep a project moving along on an iPad can be a great solution. The device is more portable and a lot easier to travel with than a more bulky laptop. The challenge is finding the right apps and tools that help you make the most of your skills.

Thankfully, there are some great options out there that compare to and even exceed the usefulness of some desktop software. While all of these apps work on different iPad models, there’s increased functionality for most if you have an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil. These are eight of our favorites (in no particular order).

Wedding Design / 2 Apr 2018

10 Design Tips for Wedding Cards & Invitations

Wedding season is here. Whether you’re planning to design invitations and cards for your own wedding, or for a client or a friend, there are several wedding card design tips that you’ll want to consider!

Wedding invitations present an opportunity to work with some beautiful elements and printing techniques to create a piece of art that isn’t part of the usual workflow. From scripts with long tails to foiling and amazing paper stocks, designing wedding cards and invitations can be a lot of fun (and a bit of a design challenge).

The big thing to keep in mind is that the invitation should evoke an emotional connection to the couple. It should reflect their personality and style.

Layouts / 30 Mar 2018

7 Tips for Creating a Time-Saving Design for Users

Users have short—very short—attention spans. That’s probably evident just looking through your website analytics. This makes it more important than ever to deploy design techniques that help users scan and get the most information from your website in the shortest time possible.

It is your job to understand what users need to glean from the design at a glance and help them get that information, so maybe they’ll stick around and explore your website. Here are a few ways to do it!

Inspiration / 28 Mar 2018

6 Unique Notebooks for Designers

Some of the best ideas start with a pencil and paper. That’s why it’s a good idea to always have a sketchpad or notebook nearby to record those ideas when inspiration strikes.

How you use those concepts and sketches can determine what kind of notebook is best for you. (I actually have several go-to notebook styles – one for my desk and a small one that’s always with me in my bag.)

Here, we’re showcasing six unique notebooks for designers that can help you capture ideas and even facilitate projects.

Layouts / 21 Mar 2018

10 Web Design Commandments for Every Project

Do you have a rulebook when it comes to website design? There are some rules that apply to pretty much every web design project—let’s call them the “web design commandments”.

No matter how large or small the website, these rules are the foundation for good design. If you follow along with these basic guidelines, and make them part of your thinking for every project you start, you’ll avoid many of the pitfalls that designers can stumble into!

Instagram Templates / 19 Mar 2018

25 Incredible Designers to Follow on Instagram

Curating your Instagram feed with designers creating beautiful work can be a great source of visual inspiration. From designers who create for print, web, packaging or almost anything—to creatives that share their process/side projects—the social media platform can be a great place to jumpstart your creative thought process.

And we’re here to help. We’ve gathered a list of 25 incredible designers to follow on Instagram to provide gems of visual gold each time you log in. What’s exceptionally fun about following this collection of designers is that many provide a glimpse into their professional projects as well as real life.

Layouts / 15 Mar 2018

10 Tips for Designing Landing Pages That Don’t Suck

A landing page is the first experience your customer (or potential customer) will have with your brand. It has to convey information, encourage a call-to-action, and reflect your personality. It’s difficult! Today we’re sharing ten landing page design tips to help.

If you just stick your logo and product image on a template, it’ll be obvious. The page won’t provide the experience or information your customer expected when getting there. Whether it is hard to navigate, difficult to read, or a mess of visuals, designing a landing page that doesn’t suck takes planning and precision. Let’s take a look at ten tips on how to do it better.

Reviews / 15 Mar 2018

Build a Website for Any Business With Wix

Different business niches have completely different requirements when it comes to their website. Restaurants need a booking and menu system, musicians need support for playing their tracks, photographers need a beautiful gallery.

No matter what business area you’re currently working on a project for, it’s worth taking a look at what Wix has to offer. They have a range of professional designs and functionality to use a range of businesses—large and small.

Today we’re taking a quick look at the features and templates on offer, whether it’s for your business, portfolio – or for a client.

Software / 12 Mar 2018

10 Best Safari Extensions for Web Designers & Developers

Apple’s Safari web browser is beloved by many Apple and Mac enthusiasts. It’s a solid alternative to Chrome (and often does a great job on the privacy and security front). There are some great Safari extensions that can help designers increase their productivity, and create a better browsing experience.

You can find all of these extensions in Apple’s extensions gallery, but we’ve curated some of our favorites below. Whether you’re wanting to improve your typeface recognition, understand what’s powering a website behind the scenes, or better check your grammar—we’ve got you covered!

Business / 7 Mar 2018

8 Ideas for Creating Evergreen Website Content

Developing evergreen content for your website is an important element in your overall strategy. Evergreen content is information – pages or blog content – that remain relevant and don’t get old. It’s a practical approach to making your investment in content pay off long-term.

The best evergreen content is directly related to the core information on your website. It complements more timely news and information and can help boost search rankings over time as well. But you can’t just post and forget about it; even evergreen content will need the occasional update to ensure that it remains relevant over time.

Here are eight ways to create evergreen website content (with examples of websites that are doing it well).

Typography / 5 Mar 2018

Serif, Sans, Script & Slab: 4 Font Types Explained

Always wanted to know the difference between serif, sans, script, and slab fonts? Look no further. Take your typography game to the next level, and quit guessing if certain typefaces or font pairs work together. Back your logic with a little design theory!

Having a better knowledge of fonts and typography can make explaining your choices to clients easier (always a bonus), and will give you more confidence when selecting font pairs. Here’s a primer (or refresher) on four common font types and how to use them in your design projects.

Reviews / 2 Mar 2018

5 Reasons to Be Counting Your Words

Almost everyone is a writer in some way. Whether you’re crafting copy for a website, working on a paper for a class, or a content marketing professional trying to develop the perfect tweet, Word Counter is a tool that can make your life easier.

A good word counter helps you stay on target with your writing without wasting time trying to guess how much you’ve written by eyeballing it on the screen (or even worse, counting words manually.)

If your writing tools don’t have built in word counters (or you want something a bit more powerful), we’ve got a helpful suggestion for you.