For my 26th birthday (on December 1st), I decided I was going to set 26 goals for myself to complete over the next year. One of which was to...
Create and share helpful content with others.
In the spirit of holding myself to the point bolded above, and thinking about the past year, I figured an easy way to get myself started would be to write an article listing some of my favorite creative and organizational resources from the past year. Some free and some paid. *Listed in no specific order.
Creative Resources
Coolors Color Palette Generator
Free, online, color palette generator. You can start with a color of your own using any color code type you can think of or even from a color picker. You have the option to lock colors you like, see every shade in both directions of each color, and add as many colors as you want to your palette. Once you lock a color, you can just hit the space bar and it will automatically generate colors that match your locked one. Once your happy with all the colors in your palette, it gives you the option to export it too!
Envato
Online and paid subscription service that offers a huge variety of stock images and videos, fonts, music as well as live, working file templates for anything you can think of- PPT or Keynote templates, Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator files. One of my favorite uses for this site is the access to mock-up images- aka a blank frame hanging on a wall and it layers the file in a way that I can add whatever art I want to the inside of the frame. This is also a great resource to look for design inspiration.
Wix
User-friendly website builder and host. Both free and paid versions available. Start with a template or even from a blank page. Easily set up an eCommerce store, blog, or individual user accounts. Create pop-ups, collect information, set up an automatic email campaign, offer promotions or event link visitors to your social media. 10/10 recommend for someone new to website creation or the experienced. Wix is so user-friendly, I feel confident to build websites for clients and then share the finished site with them to manage and update with no issue.
Canva
Best for quick and easy-to-edit creative templates for flyers, social media, presentations, resumes, and more. The free version works well, but if you have the money to pay the monthly fee for their Pro account- definitely do it! This gives you access to stock photography and video, allows you to upload your custom color palette, logos, fonts, etc, and includes the options to automatically resize anything your working on, download it with a transparent background (aka png), or even compress your images to make them web-ready.
Organizational Resources
SmartSheet
Build project plans with automation and workflows, create forms, track expenses, see your data displayed in a visual dashboard, calendar view, or Gantt chart. Expanding and collapsing sections for easy data organization, plus conditional formatting to help keep things color-coded the way you need it. Easy team collaboration and live updates. An online platform with free and paid versions available.
WeTransfer
Online file sharing. Send huge packaged art files or even a zip file of a million different things all through a single link delivered via email. Load your files into WeTransfer using any browser and a link will be sent to your recipient prompting them to download. The best part is, links are only valid for 7 days! This means the recipient of the link will be encouraged to act and download. WeTransfer will even let you know if they've downloaded the files when they're about to expire, and if nothing happened with the link. Free and paid accounts available, but honestly no need for the paid version!
JotForm
If you are often having to collect the same information from people and are like me and like it automated, you'll probably create a form! Google forms, Survey Monkey, and others are available, but my preference is JotForm. Having forms with automation and alerts is a great way to keep client information organized. They offer tons of cool templates and options to help get you started. JotForm also integrates well with other online platforms. There are paid and free versions available. I have been using the free version for a few years now with no issues.
I'd love to hear your go-to resources, both creative and organizational. Leave me a comment! If you are interested in any of the above-listed resources and have questions, please feel free to reach out via direct message.