Earlier this week I met up for coffee with a client of mine. The two of us originally met when his employeer was my client and after leaving that job he hired me to customize his personal blog and we formed our own client/designer relationship. I was excited when he emailed me last week with the […]

This Friday I attended the first day of She’s Geeky here in Seattle. It was my first experience of the Unconference Format and I had no idea what to expect, but ended up having a GREAT TIME. Discussions that I joined in on throughout the day included subjects such as Impostor Syndrome, Diversity Groups, Side- […]

I have been running CMD+Shift Design since 2008. In those 7 years I learned a lot, I made a lot of mistakes, found some amazing clients, did some really fun projects and made some good money. I’ve had ups and downs and these past 2 years have been tough… really tough. Part of it has […]

Today was my very first one-on-one business mentorship meeting with Marie Poulin at Digital Strategy School. This was the first of what will be monthly 1 Hour sessions with Marie during the 6-month Digital Strategy School course and I can already tell these next 6 months are going to be a whirlwind! The course officially […]

A couple weeks ago, I saw a tweet come through my Twitter timeline from my buddy Tim Smith, a designer and podcaster saying, “2014 was my worst year in freelance. My business revenue declined by ~10k.” I immediately related, but hesitated to reply. Who wants to talk about their failures? Business being slow is actually pretty […]

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https://uxdesign.cc/saying-goodbye-to-yesterday-and-hello-to-something-awesome-636362789e84

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2020/05/vue-survey-app-firebase-authentication-database/

https://mitchum.blog/building-a-crossword-puzzle-generator-with-javascript/

https://design4users.com/neuomorphism-mobile-design/

https://blog.useberry.com/design-sprints-complete-guide/

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We all know about the new coronavirus that has been affecting hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. And while scientists, researchers, and doctors are all working tirelessly to find a cure for this terrible disease, one thing is for sure: staying home is saving lives. The greatest tool that we have right now to help […]

Read More at Check Out These Famous Logos Practicing Social Distancing – McDonald’s, Mercedes, and More

You know what sucks? Having to navigate through dozens of tools, all on separate dashboards, just to get one job done. Nowadays, there’s a tool for everything, and while that’s amazing, it’s very overwhelming sometimes. Oftentimes, some tools are forgotten about completely. How on earth do we tackle this situation? I mean, as time goes […]

Read More at Teamstack: Everything You Need, All in One Place

There’s nothing better than finding a new design tool that will make your life a million times easier. After all, we all want to get our work done as quickly and efficiently as possible, and if there’s a tool for that, then I want it. And I did find some tools that I absolutely love […]

Read More at 5 Incredible Free Tools For Designers That You Need To Try

When you’re a freelancer and you start to work directly with your clients, there’s something crucial you need to know. Your design is not the one and only, most important aspect of the transaction. While presenting your client with an amazing design is the final goal, there are a lot of other things at stake […]

Read More at 7 Biggest Mistakes Freelance Designers Make That Will Ruin Their Career

As a designer, we’re overloaded with choices every day, but there are some apps that are absolutely worth your time and investment. Finding the best ones and most useful ones can be a difficult task, so we’re going to make things easy for you and give you our top 10 apps and websites we couldn’t […]

Read More at 10 Websites and Apps All Designers Should Be Using

'It can happen to you anywhere, at any moment, and just change your world'

By turning 'Stella' into a punchline, laughter became my medicine and sharing my story became my therapy

When Olympic gold medallist Shona McCallin was hit on the side of her head by a seemingly innocuous shoulder challenge, she suffered what was originally thought to be a concussion.

Many people think the word “disability” means people who require a wheelchair or walker. In reality, however, there is much more to disability than meets the eye. 

"This study challenges current perceptions that most people with a sports-related mTBI recover within 10 to 14 days," said lead author Dr. Stephen Kara, from Axis Sports Medicine in Auckland, New Zealand.

Patients with disabilities must receive the same level of lifesaving medical treatment from hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic as able-bodied patients, the Trump administration said.

Researchers are warning that the coronavirus pandemic could inflict long-lasting emotional trauma on an unprecedented global scale. They say it could leave millions wrestling with debilitating psychological disorders while dashing hopes for a swift economic recovery.

Today, the Game of Thrones star announced that 12 random people will get to win a virtual dinner with her. She’s asking people to donate money to her charity SameYou, which helps people heal from brain injuries and strokes. Pledges will be used to assist brain injury survivors in recuperating at home, who have been asked to leave hospitals to make room for coronavirus patients.

“It will get easier after you adjust."After receiving a traumatic brain injury from a car crash two years ago, the Los Angeles-based journalist Amanda Chicago Lewis has lived in social isolation. Because of stay-at-home orders to reduce the spread of COVID-19, more people are now living in similar circumstances. Below, Lewis shares how she’s adapted her apartment, her routine, and her habits to cope with being at home for extended periods of time.

In the years since he had returned from Vietnam, Elmer “Snubby” Burket was a self-described workaholic, raising a son, keeping up his house and always taking jobs where he could be by himself as he tried to put the war behind him.

Motherhood brought me one baby, one loss, and a lifetime of living with the trauma.

We’re all experiencing varying levels of trauma.

The congressional Brain Injury Task Force, co-chaired by Reps. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.), spoke to hundreds of people gathered at the Rayburn House Office Building. One area of focus was the development of a national traumatic brain injury registry, a vital step for getting a handle on how best to manage this difficult-to-treat condition.

Ken Rekowski, Shawn Hill and Jodi Graham are dealing with COVID-19 in different ways

Language sets humans apart in the animal world. Language allows us to communicate complex ideas and emotions.  But too often after brain injury be it stroke or trauma, language is lost. 

There will be Purple Hearts awarded to troops injured during the Jan. 8 Iranian missile barrage on the al-Asad airbase in Iraq, a defense official told Military Times.

Support two entities with the price of one.

For the first time, it seems, the entire world knows what it’s like to live inside my head.

In today’s Adobe Photoshop tutorial I’m going to show you how to turn anything into gold using this simple combination of Photoshop filters and tools. The effect smooths out the details of a regular image and adds an array of shiny reflections to mimic the appearance of a polished metal statue. A gradient overlay gives […]

The post Video Tutorial: How to Turn Anything into Gold in Photoshop appeared first on Spoon Graphics.

Access All Areas members have been requesting more Affinity Designer resources, so this week members can download this great set of Airbrush Shading Brushes made specifically for Affinity, courtesy of The Artifex Forge. Add organic texture shading to designs and illustrations with ease! This versatile shading brush pack contains a wide variety of textures – […]

The post Affinity Airbrush Shading Brushes for Premium Members appeared first on Spoon Graphics.

Creating vintage style designs for company brands, T-shirts, packaging designs, book covers, window signs, and countless other graphic design project scenarios has never been easier with this huge bundle of 200 editable logo templates from Heritage Type Co. Logo Templates are ready-made designs that can be easily customised to quickly create stunning badges and emblems […]

The post All The Vintage Logo Template Designs You Could Ever Wish For! appeared first on Spoon Graphics.

In today’s Adobe Illustrator tutorial I’m going to take you through the process of creating a colourful embroidered patch, based on the kinds of designs associated with National Parks. The artwork will incorporate a landscape scene at sunset, which helps to keep the design simple with a silhouette graphic and a warm colour palette. Stick […]

The post Video Tutorial: How to Create an Embroidered Patch Design in Illustrator appeared first on Spoon Graphics.

Old paper textures are one of my most commonly used design resources, as you may have noticed from my tutorials! I have always just downloaded whatever third-party assets I could find, so I thought it was about time I made a collection of my own old paper textures to keep handy in my digital toolbox. […]

The post 20 Free Old Paper Textures with Creases, Folds and Stains appeared first on Spoon Graphics.

In today’s Adobe Photoshop video tutorial I’m going to take you through my process of creating a vintage style advertisement poster with letterpress print effects. We’ll start by laying out the design with a selection of fonts inspired by the era of wood type, along with some hand-drawn graphic elements using a limited 3-colour palette. […]

The post Video Tutorial: Vintage Letterpress Poster Design in Photoshop appeared first on Spoon Graphics.

Language sets humans apart in the animal world. Language allows us to communicate complex ideas and emotions.  But too often after brain injury be it stroke or trauma, language is lost. 

There will be Purple Hearts awarded to troops injured during the Jan. 8 Iranian missile barrage on the al-Asad airbase in Iraq, a defense official told Military Times.

Support two entities with the price of one.