Carrie Cousins

Freebies / 6 Jan 2023

10 Best Free Stock Video Sites in 2023

Need video? From moving images for your own website, to b-roll for clients, having a solid place to find quality stock videos is a must. Today, we’re going to help you “stock” your toolkit with ten places to find amazing, free stock video for a variety of projects.

We are giving you basic information about using stock videos from each vendor; make sure to check specific license agreements before using any stock image or video. These can vary quite a bit, and it’s worth making sure that any video use is a good fit for your project license-wise!

Reviews / 6 Jan 2023

Wondershare Filmora 12 Gives Creators More Freedom

Video editing is easier and more cost-effective than ever for creators with Wondershare’s Filmora 12. The easy-to-use video editing software is designed with all the features you want, plus a budget-friendly price.

Here, we’re going to take a look at Filmora 12, its key features and tools, and how it might work for you in video projects.

Read on to find out if Filmora 12 might be a good contender for your next project.

Affinity Publisher Templates / 5 Jan 2023

25+ Most Useful Affinity Publisher Tutorials (+ Reviews) in 2023

Affinity Publisher is a powerful design app available for Mac and Windows. It’s a standalone tool that is made for creating printed projects, such as magazines, brochures, posters, and other collateral pieces.

Use it to combine images and other graphic elements to create outstanding layouts for publishing. Whether you are new to Affinity Publisher or not, great tutorials can help you master specific or general skills to help you make the most of the tool. Here, we’ve collected some of the best to help you jumpstart projects.

Affinity Designer Templates / 2 Jan 2023

25+ Most Helpful Affinity Designer Tutorials (+ Reviews) in 2023

Affinity Designer is a vector or raster app. It’s a competitor to Adobe’s Illustrator and allows you to design various elements for print or digital publication.

It’s part of the Affinity package of design tools made by Serif. Use it to do anything from making a business card to mock-up an app. Affinity Designer is made for Mac iOS, Windows, and iPad.

Here, we’ve collected some of the best for everyone from beginners to more seasoned pros, a mix of video and written tutorials. It’s a great place to start for upskilling with your first steps in Affinity Designer!

Final Cut Pro Templates / 26 Dec 2022

22+ Best Final Cut Pro Tutorials for Beginners 2023

Goal: Edit videos, add effects, and create better productions with ease in Final Cut Pro. Solution: You need a stellar tutorial that walks you through all the steps in this increasingly popular video editing tool.

Thanks to great tutorials from pros, you’ll be able to capture just the right moment, with the right effect quickly.

We’ve rounded up some of the best Final Cut Pro tutorials out there for beginners to help you make the most of this software. Note that Final Cut Pro is a robust tool, but it is only available for the Mac.

Software / 24 Dec 2022

The 8 Best Photoshop Alternatives for Windows (2023)

Looking for a faster and better alternative to Adobe Photoshop? While Photoshop has been a standard for years, that’s starting to change with plenty of new tools for Windows that make easy work of photo editing. Many of these new tools include smart functions that will speed up workflows.

The best Photoshop alternatives pack in just the features you need without a lot of fluff you won’t use. Here’s a list of the best Photoshop alternatives for Windows in 2023.

Take note of special features to find the one that’s right for you.

UX Design / 23 Dec 2022

Microinteractions Are Growing Up: How to Design Them in 2023

Microinteractions aren’t a new concept in UX design, but they keep getting more impressive. We’ve been talking about microinteractions here at Design Shack for a while because they are so vital to the overall success of web projects.

Microinteractions are those tiny details that turn an ordinary user experience into something more memorable and engaging. The little things that surprise and delight, adding a layer of enjoyable UX to your app or website.

Here’s a look at how designers are using microinteractions in 2021 with examples of how this design technique has grown up.

Instagram Templates / 19 Dec 2022

10 Key Instagram Trends for Designers to Watch in 2023

From hard-core ‘grammers to those that post the occasional pic, Instagram is the social media platform that’s practically made for designers because it is so visual.

So, you’ll probably want to be on-trend when it comes to posting. Here are nine ways to create images that look modern with a few examples and Instagram templates to help you get started.

From #nofilter, to framing, overlay elements, carousels, and more, we’re exploring all the trends you need to know.

Business / 16 Dec 2022

17 Tips for Speeding Up Your Website in 2023

It’s not a trick question: is your website fast enough? Page load times can impact everything from how long users stay on your site (or if they see the content), to search rank and overall conversions.

Speed matters on two fronts – for desktop and mobile devices – with mobile speed mattering more than ever. Not only does your website have to load fast; it needs to load fast everywhere.

So how do you do it? Start by running a Google PageSpeed test to see where your site ranks (you’ll get a few suggestions for speeding up your site there as well). Then, start making these tweaks to make your website lightning fast this year.

Software / 15 Dec 2022

The 10 Best Photoshop Alternatives for Mac (2023)

You don’t have to use Adobe Photoshop on your Mac to edit images like a pro. There are plenty of Photoshop alternatives for Mac that you can download or use in-browser to create just the right images and graphics for your projects. And some of them are completely free!

None of these are necessarily one-size-fits-all solutions. Each tool tends to serve a specific purpose; Do you want to edit online or on a desktop? Are you editing photos or multiple file types? Is all the work for web or will images get printed?

Here’s a list of the best Photoshop alternatives for Mac in 2023, but not in any particular order. Have a read through to find the one that’s right for you.

Christmas Templates / 13 Dec 2022

The 2023 Christmas & Holiday Gift List for Designers

The countdown is on and retailers are telling shoppers to get their gift orders in early. So now is the time to get your holiday shopping taken care of.

We’ve collected a list of super cool gift ideas for designers, to help you be the perfect secret (or not-so-secret) Santa this holiday season. We all know that designers can be tough to shop for, so our gift list should be a life-saver!

Find something unique and different for the person close to you, with these wonderful gift ideas.

Inspiration / 12 Dec 2022

20+ New Year’s Resolutions for Designers in 2023

Happy New Year! Today, we’ve got a nifty guide to resolutions that are specifically for designers. What changes do you hope to make in 2023?

Did you know that people have been making resolutions to improve themselves and their lives since the time of ancient Babylonians? I’ll admit to making a few of these myself… now if I could only manage to keep them all year!

Good luck with your resolutions and have a wonderful New Year.