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Carrie Cousins

Carrie Cousins

Carrie is a freelance writer with years of experience in web and graphic design. Sports fanatic. Information junkie. Designer. True-believer in karma.

20 Design Quotes… and What They Can Inspire

Inspiration / 14 May 2015

20 Design Quotes… and What They Can Inspire

Some days are just about inspiration. This is going to be one of those days. There are so many good ideas and thoughts and design practices out there that deserve to be shared.

So we have put together a roundup of 20 quotes that pertain to design or the creative process or the business itself as a conversation starter. This collection is from all over the world, from a wide range of sources and across various eras. Here are 20 great thoughts about design… and what they can inspire in each of us.

The (Sometimes Hidden) Meaning of Shapes

Layouts / 12 May 2015

The (Sometimes Hidden) Meaning of Shapes

The shapes of objects in your design may be sending a message to users that you aren’t even aware of. Whether you put an image inside a square or circle or triangle can have an impact on what people think about that image.

Sometimes a shape is more than just a group of connected lines. The use of shapes can be obvious or subtle and appear within images or as elements in a design. Here, we will look at common shapes used in design projects and the signals they may convey.

Code Free Web Design With Webydo

Business / 11 May 2015

Code Free Web Design With Webydo

Web design can sometimes be frustrating for those who are not fluent in HTML or JavaScript or other programming languages. This is especially true of responsive web design. Webydo is here to help.

The website building platform offers designers (and pretty much everyone) the opportunity to create a responsive website with a great design without knowing the first line of code. Without any technical knowledge, just about anyone can publish a website backed by a full content management system.

Get to Know Hiveage and Make Invoicing Easier

Software / 6 May 2015

Get to Know Hiveage and Make Invoicing Easier

Work. Bill. Grow. That’s the motto for Hiveage, an online billing and invoicing tool for freelancers and small businesses.

The tool can make life easier with a well-designed interface that’s easy to use and manage – especially for those who don’t have a lot of time to focus on billing. It’s a platform that can help you handle all your business basics in one place. Today we’re taking a look at how it works, and what you can expect from the app.

How to Design Content for User Experiences

UX Design / 4 May 2015

How to Design Content for User Experiences

Content is a major part of the user experience. Content is more than search engine optimization; it’s more than blogging. It is part of your site, brand identity and why users interact with your design.

Every day it becomes even more important to design for content as part of the overall function and user experience in website and app design. But how can you do it? (We can help you with some case studies and examples, such as The Hen House, which uses a variety of design and user engagement techniques to keep you scrolling.)

How to Design the Perfect Award or Certificate

Inspiration / 28 Apr 2015

How to Design the Perfect Award or Certificate

Do you ever catch one of those oddball assignments in your design career? Creating a great award or certificate design is one of them. The piece seems like a small task, but has a long shelf life, and is of high value to the recipient, making it important to design well.

But how do you even design a good award? Where do you start? Here’s a primer that takes a look at a few of the most important things to consider with award and certificate design.

8 Ways to Kern Any Typeface Like a Professional Typographer

Typography / 27 Apr 2015

8 Ways to Kern Any Typeface Like a Professional Typographer

Kerning is a subjective art. Every designer may feel differently about how combinations of letters look together. Most though can agree that almost every bit of type needs a little kerning.

Kerning – the adjustment of space between two letters – is something the untrained eye can rarely see. Good, or poor, kerning is more of a feeling as to whether type works or not. Here we have eight tips to keep you from falling into the auto-kerning trap so that you can kern type like a pro. (This post is filled with letter combinations; use them as a springboard to thinking about kerning. Do you like the way the letters or numbers work together? How would you kern them differently?)

4 Simple Tips for Writing Copy That Matches Your Design

Graphics / 21 Apr 2015

4 Simple Tips for Writing Copy That Matches Your Design

When it comes to design projects, sometimes we (designers) get caught in a trap: creating a design without understanding the content. The first step to creating an outstanding project – before you ever open a piece of software – is to read over the content. Then think about the design and how the copy goes with it.

Does the copy actually need to match the design? Should designers help write the copy? Yes, most definitely. (As a bonus, all images in this post are examples of great copy and design pairings from the Design Shack gallery.)

8 Image Mistakes to Avoid on Your Website

Graphics / 20 Apr 2015

8 Image Mistakes to Avoid on Your Website

Big images, galleries and photo-heavy designs are a big trend in web design. To make the most of this aesthetic, you want to make sure every image on your website fits the display and represents your brand well.

There are a lot of mistakes that designers make along the way, from technical issues to image quality. But you don’t have to fall into one of these traps when working with website images. Here, we will take a look at image mistakes and how to correct or avoid them altogether. (As a bonus in this post, we are featuring a collection of fun and great images from Death to the Stock Photo’s recent objects collection.)

How to Find a Great Freelancer (And Keep Them)

Business / 14 Apr 2015

How to Find a Great Freelancer (And Keep Them)

There’s a lot of conversation among freelancers about how to find clients and create business momentum. But what if you are one of those businesses looking for a freelancer? How can you find someone qualified to work on your projects? And how can you keep them working for you?

That can be a tough question to answer. There are plenty of freelancers in the marketplace, looking to work for you. Today, we’ll help you find them.

15 Things Every Young Designer Needs to Know

Business / 8 Apr 2015

15 Things Every Young Designer Needs to Know

Let’s welcome the class of 2015 to the design marketplace. It’s a bright, big, new and scary world out there for the thousands of design grads grasping their diplomas wondering what to do next. (Get a job!)

As we look forward to the new talent entering the marketplace, we also have a few bits of advice for every young designer looking to make his or her mark. It’s a tough and wonderful world out there; welcome to the adventure.

Coding for the Non-Coder: Designers Can Think Like Developers

CSS / 1 Apr 2015

Coding for the Non-Coder: Designers Can Think Like Developers

There’s been this unwritten divide between designers and developers as long as we have been making websites. People who make things look good versus people who make it work. Those days are over.

Every designer needs to learn how development works in the digital landscape. And every developer should understand basic design theories. Here, we’ll help designers better understand the language of developers, an essential skill in today’s marketplace. (As an added bonus, all of the design examples are created using CSS frameworks.)