I struggle to call myself a writer. I started this post two weeks ago and completely abandoned it. I killed my darling. This is the rewrite.
Over the last seven years I’ve written countless blog posts, numerous articles and learnt sales page copy structure for business websites....
A visit to the Colour Revolution - Victorian, Art Fashion and Design exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. How colour changes society, communication and in meaning.
Recently I visited the Colour Revolution - Victorian art, fashion and design exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford....
These are my recommended books for design thinking, design inspiration and branding. There are many books out there but these are ones I have read, seen and would endorse.
Non-designers design book - Robin Williams
No experience, no clue what goes where on a page? This is the perfect start for...
Here's a nearly real time video of creating an Instagram story graphic in Canva on my phone.
How long does it take?
It takes a few minutes if you know what you want to create and know the app. But the app doesn't take long to understand. If you are a newbie to Canva, it's worth having a play...
This video is a walkthrough of how I upload books or iola bookazine to kdp which is Amazon's print-on-demand platform. This is one way that you can self-publish your book. You will need your manuscript file, a front, back and spine design file, your book blurb, keywords and an (optional) ISBN.
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You want to design an e-book as a free giveaway on your website, or to sell on Amazon or elsewhere. Whilst the access to making / designing an e-book is low-cost, and available anywhere there is internet, it is not always easy, simple, or straightforward. Here are my top tips for designing a...
Canva is great, I use it for social media posts, web graphics, even basic video editing and creation. But when it comes to books or magazines or long documents I just wouldn't use Canva for layout. I use Indesign. Before that I used to use QuarkXpress - showing my age here, but anyway, I thought...
Canva v Adobe
Designers have a love hate relationship with Canva. On the one hand it has made their job easier, on the other it has made everyone a 'designer' and a designer's job harder. This post gives you an insight as to how I use both platforms as a designer, what I think about...
Here is the process of placing photos into a magazine layout that is going to be printed. These are basic formatting details for those starting to design and layout print publications that use photos. The process below uses Adobe Photoshop and Indesign.
The article uses affiliate links.
Book cover design process
Shay came to me after listening to a webinar I gave on the three mistakes to avoid with your book cover. We had already worked together on an issue of iola bookazine. She had written her book and was self-publishing it. She knew what she wanted for the book cover and had...
What is a writer's toolkit and what would you put in it? If you want to share your written words with a reader you'd also need some tools in that kit to help with the business of publishing. Tools that help you both write and publish. Those two threads - the art and the business of...
Whether you are designing a header for your website or writing a post on social media, it feels like you need to be a professional designer with subscriptions to all-the-tools so that it looks professional and not like Stuart the intern did it in Word! The following list of design tools for...
