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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+ Procreate Tutorials (For Drawing, Lettering, Sketching + More)

Procreate Brushes / 1 May 2024

20+ Procreate Tutorials (For Drawing, Lettering, Sketching + More)

Procreate is one of the hottest drawing apps on the market. It’s a robust tool that you can use for fun, personal projects as well as professional and client work on your iPad.

With a tool that has so much functionality, it can be a little overwhelming to think about it all. Working through tutorials can help, so we’ve collected 15 for Procreate to help you get started. These cover off all different levels of knowledge, and help you learn how to draw, letter, sketch and more in Procreate. Grab your iPad, pencil, and dive into some creative work!

And the best part is that every one is free.

35 Beautifully Designed Shopify Themes for 2024

Shopify Themes / 16 Apr 2024

35 Beautifully Designed Shopify Themes for 2024

There are over 3.7 million online stores built on Shopify. If you were to explore some of these stores, they would mostly look the same since many of these stores still use the default free themes.

The key to building a successful Shopify store that drives continuous sales is to use a high-quality and professional theme that makes your shop look more authoritative and memorable. Today, we’ll help you achieve that goal.

In this post, we showcase some of the best and most beautifully designed Shopify themes you can use to setup an online store that stands out from the crowd.

The visual appeal of the theme design is important but we also made sure these themes have proper layouts that boost engagement and responsive designs that look great across various devices and platforms. Rest assured, you can’t go wrong with any of these Shopify themes.

Everything a Web Designer Needs to Know in 2024

Business / 16 Apr 2024

Everything a Web Designer Needs to Know in 2024

The job title “web designer” keeps expanding. Depending on your role and how many people are on your team, the term “web designer” can mean a number of things, and the scope that it covers seems to keep growing with every year that passes.

It can be beneficial for you to be familiar with multiple roles to help be the best, most functional, web designer you can be in 2023.

Here’s everything you need to know. From having a grasp on your job description, to the visual elements of web design, to the functional elements of how a web project needs to work and perform.

Flyer Design Ideas & Inspiration: How to Stand Out

Flyer Templates / 9 Feb 2024

Flyer Design Ideas & Inspiration: How to Stand Out

A flyer is a great way to promote your work, event, or even a business offering. This small piece of collateral is a point of contact that can help get people excited about something and generate interest.

A well-designed flyer grabs the attention of users and is something that people want to grab a hold of.

While most flyers are on the smaller side, they can include anything from printed pieces that are postcard size to information that is the size of a sheet of office paper (and even slightly larger).

Here’s how you create a flyer design that stands out.

What Is a Lookbook? (+ 15 Stunning Examples)

Business / 1 Feb 2024

What Is a Lookbook? (+ 15 Stunning Examples)

Whether you’re a designer wanting to show off work or have a request to create one for a client, a lookbook can be an effective way to showcase a variety of elements in a single design.

A lookbook is a portfolio of sorts and has wide application in a number of fields, including website design, graphic design, and development.

Here’s a guide to what a lookbook is, what to include in one when you start designing it, and some examples that are sure to help you find a little lookbook inspiration.

The 13 Best Photoshop Alternatives for Mac (2024)

Software / 29 Jan 2024

The 13 Best Photoshop Alternatives for Mac (2024)

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.

50 Best Website Color Schemes of 2024

Trends / 11 Jan 2024

50 Best Website Color Schemes of 2024

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.

20+ Photography Trends in 2024

Trends / 15 Dec 2023

20+ Photography Trends in 2024

Photography trends can be a major influence on how print and digital designs come together. From filters to styles to photo angles that are trending, this part of the visual aesthetic can greatly impact how a project comes together.

Photography trends are dictated by a few things. The visual style of photographers, techniques that are gaining popularity in projects, the ability for images to work with other design elements, and even things such as social media filters.

The same photography trends that you might see in stock images (which we use as examples here) have parallels with custom photos as well. Understanding photography trends is important for any designer because you’ll want to discuss photo options (and looks) before you begin a photo shoot for any design project to ensure that your visions are on the same page.

18+ Presentation Design Trends for 2024: Create PowerPoint PPTs With Impact

PowerPoint Templates / 12 Dec 2023

18+ Presentation Design Trends for 2024: Create PowerPoint PPTs With Impact

Looking to knock your next presentation out of the park? Start with one of these design trends that will help you create a PowerPoint presentation with a lot of impact.

Here are some trending examples of current trends and techniques for delivering a modern presentation. From big, bold colors, to photo stories and big backgrounds. There’s no excuse for picking a standard design and delivering a stale, tired presentation anymore. Your audience expects more!

The best thing? If you like any of the examples here, you can download each one from Envato Elements!

How to Customize a Website Mockup Template

Mockup Templates / 8 Dec 2023

How to Customize a Website Mockup Template

A website mockup template can be a design life-saver. It makes it easy to show off a website design concept in a setting that represents actual use (on many different devices). But how can you customize a website mockup template and drop in your own design? Here’s how.

There are two ways to get started. You can either create your own website mockup template to use in projects or download one to get started quickly. The great thing is that there are so many template options out there to help clients visualize a new design in real-time.

Here’s everything you need to know about customizing a template (as well and finding a great template, to begin with).

20+ Video Marketing Trends for 2024

Trends / 5 Dec 2023

20+ Video Marketing Trends for 2024

Almost every marketing prediction, resource, or how-to guide includes the same advice: video needs to be part of your strategy. But what type of video marketing is most important right now?

From super-short (micro) video clips, to live video on social media, to full-production ads and stories, we’re going to look at some of the top video marketing trends for the year and how you can incorporate them into your design and marketing plans.

And here’s why it matters, U.S. adults spent 149 minutes per day watching digital video in 2021 and that number is only expected to rise.

Let’s dive in, and embrace video as the new marketing channel you need to get right!

30+ Background Design Trends & Styles for 2024

Background Textures / 28 Nov 2023

30+ Background Design Trends & Styles for 2024

One of the most important early design decisions you will make is what kind of background will carry a project. Should it be a single color, colorless, use trendy elements such as geometric shapes, gradients, or wood grain patterns? Or would a solid background design can help make a project shine?

Staying on trend with background design styles is important as well. A trendy background choice shows that a website design is modern and the content is new. A modern visual framework can even signal a user that you are thinking about their needs and making the most of the tools that will make their experience better.

So how do you do it? Here’s a look at background design trends and styles, with a few great options to try.