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  2. Carrie Cousins

Carrie Cousins

Carrie Cousins

Carrie is the chief writer at Design Shack, with years of experience in web and graphic design. Sports fanatic. Information junkie. Designer. True-believer in karma.

10 Tips & Examples for Creating a Real Estate Listing Brochure

Business / 15 May 2023

10 Tips & Examples for Creating a Real Estate Listing Brochure

A real estate listing brochure is a popular tool to help buyers compare residential and commercial properties.

Many agents use both printed and digital (or PDF) brochures, or brochure websites, to help their clients view properties at a glance before visiting.

If you are a real estate agent or designer working on a listing brochure, we’ve gathered some tips and starter templates to help you create a design that will dazzle clients and help put the best properties forward.

10+ Examples of Web AR Experiences Done Well

Trends / 11 May 2023

10+ Examples of Web AR Experiences Done Well

Web-based augmented reality is a growing trend in website design that allows users to interact with realistic experiences from desktops or phones in-browser with no additional app required. This technology takes a little bit of everything and often includes HTML5, Web Audio, WebGL, and WebRTC to develop.

The result can be pretty impressive and leads to a level of engagement and interaction that keeps users wanting more.

WebAR is short for Web-based Augmented Reality, and it’s a relatively new technology that does not require a mobile application to function. Users can access AR experiences directly from their smartphones using the native camera and mobile web browser. This seamless user experience is one of the main reasons WebAR is rapidly growing in popularity.

Here’s a look at some examples of websites using Web AR to inspire your projects.

Using a Business Plan Template: Tips & Ideas

Business Templates / 8 May 2023

Using a Business Plan Template: Tips & Ideas

A business plan template can help you take ideas for your business idea and put them in a format designed to help you share information about your business.

A business plan template includes the outline for elements you need to consider and a visual format that allows you to share that vision with others. A business plan template might be in the form of a booklet or brochure or a business plan presentation that you share in person or virtually.

Here, we’ll look at a few business plan template ideas and tips for designing a plan that helps sell your idea. Plus, all the examples are from Envato Elements, so you can easily download and use these templates.

50 Best Website Color Schemes of 2023

Trends / 3 May 2023

50 Best Website Color Schemes of 2023

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.

10 Design Tips for Real Estate Brochures + Presentations

Brochure Templates / 3 May 2023

10 Design Tips for Real Estate Brochures + Presentations

The perfect real estate presentation can help you sell quicker and entice more prospective buyers. It highlights your brand as a real estate agent or company and helps you position yourself in the marketplace.

But what does a stellar real estate brochure or presentation look like? It’s a unique piece of design work, that needs to convey a specific type of information (and still aim to convert a potential sale!)

We’ve got 10 great examples from templates you can download and use with tips for creating a brochure that you’ll keep sharing over and over again.

25+ Cool Photoshop Effects Tutorials & Templates

Photoshop Actions / 2 May 2023

25+ Cool Photoshop Effects Tutorials & Templates

Experimenting with cool effects and finding new techniques to use Photoshop is something that never gets old. And if you’re excited about learning new Photoshop tricks, then this guide is for you.

For designers, the learning never ends. You can always learn new Photoshop effects and try different trends to make your designs look extra special.

We found some cool Photoshop effects tutorials to help you learn a few new tricks. All of these tutorials are free and beginner-friendly. Even if you’re completely new to Photoshop, you can follow these tutorials step-by-step.

UXPin Merge: Build a Better Design Process

Reviews / 2 May 2023

UXPin Merge: Build a Better Design Process

If you find yourself doing the same things over, getting stuck between the design and developer handoff or want to create better collaboration and consistency, you aren’t alone. These are some of the most common challenges with digital design.

UXPin can help mitigate these issues and solve your problems with its technology, UXPin Merge, is made to facilitate design-to-dev collaboration. It actually allows designers to sync coded components and helps designers and developers use it as a single source of truth.

Here, we’ll look at some of the ways UXPin Merge might help you create better workflows, create more consistent products, and improve collaboration.

What Are Lower Thirds? Tips, Ideas & Video Examples

Software / 1 May 2023

What Are Lower Thirds? Tips, Ideas & Video Examples

While you may not know it by name, you probably can identify the use of lower thirds and lower third templates in video production. This is a graphic that’s at the bottom of the screen to help provide information about the video you are seeing.

The most common use of lower thirds is in news production, where the subject’s name and title are placed on the screen while they are interviewed.

But this isn’t the only application of lower thirds for your videos. Here, we’ll look at some tips, ideas, and video examples for design inspiration.

How to Design With Handwritten Typefaces: 10 Tips

Font Collections / 27 Apr 2023

How to Design With Handwritten Typefaces: 10 Tips

Plenty of designs – both in print and online — are featuring handwritten typefaces in a big way. From custom options to fonts that you can sync online or buy for print projects, this flair for letting is quite popular. The most trendy use is as a dominant headline element in a hero header-style homepage design.

This style can be tricky to use, though, and is not a fit-all solution. Today, we’ll look at eight ways to make the most of the handwritten typeface trend in your design projects.

5 Tips for Designing With Graffiti Fonts

Font Collections / 24 Apr 2023

5 Tips for Designing With Graffiti Fonts

Graffiti fonts can add a cool or edgy vibe to design projects, but can be a bit tricky to use if you aren’t careful. The reason for caution mostly lies in readability, due to letterforms that might be somewhat irregular or touch and merge in different ways.

For the right projects, though, graffiti fonts can be a fun way to add something special and really get to the heart of the emotional connection you want to make with the design.

We’ve put together five tips to help you use graffiti fonts well with five extra graffiti fonts you can download and use from Envato Elements.

What Is a Pitch Deck? (And How to Make One)

PowerPoint Templates / 21 Apr 2023

What Is a Pitch Deck? (And How to Make One)

It’s a tool that every startup business or entrepreneur needs – a great pitch deck. A pitch deck is a presentation that you’ll use to help explain or showcase your product or service and potentially drives sales or investment. It needs to be polished and professional to do the job well.

Today, we’ll take a look at what a pitch deck is, how to make one, and how to establish a design that will wow people who come in contact with your new business.

We’ll also feature a few stunning pitch deck templates along the way, to help you get started fast.

The Geometric Design Trend: Patterns, Fonts, and More

Trends / 20 Apr 2023

The Geometric Design Trend: Patterns, Fonts, and More

One of the design styles that’s been gaining popularity is the use of geometric elements including patterns, geometric fonts, and other elements to create a design scheme. Often these patterns and elements are rather simplistic, but they can have complex elements as well.

Geometric shapes and elements can be used for almost any part of a design, from a hero element to the full aesthetic.

Here, we’ll take a look at this design trend, characteristics, and tips to help you use it well.