Borrow My Tools of the Trade for Development and Design
I consume so much content as I try to build Clew into something that matches my vision. I’ve benefited tremendously from free resources, paid offerings, a few workshops, and more. I also fell for toxic sales tactics, messages that played on my fears and insecurities, and spent money on some real duds. Everything listed in this section has my strong recommendation based on personal experience. I have no interest in gatekeeping anything. New resources are added often.
I do not have any affiliate relationships with the brands and service providers below.
Graphic Design
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These fonts are totally my jam. Brandon often makes fonts available free for a limited time to email subscribers. I’ve also purchased fonts from his shop.
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I am not a graphic designer, but in my heart I want to be a graphic designer. I have purchased many assets from Creative Market (too many, probably) but I also find myself downoading free assets from their weekly drop. Sign up for the email and start getting those free downloads.
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Another favorite font resource. I have purchased the Geomanist font family. They often have a “pay what you want” option.
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I do everything in Canva. Everything. I purchased a subscription in 2018 and haven’t looked back.
Squarespace
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I have used free resources from Big Cat and find their blog posts incredibly helpful. I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase one of their products.
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Another expert who provides great free resources and blog posts. I just signed up for her (free) Squarespace Image Optimization Mini Course.
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I am running so many free plug-ins from Ghose Plug-Ins on this website that I have lost count. I have also purchased plug-ins like the Pressy Button.
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This website uses the Vertical Accordian plug-in from Will Myers. Great value and great educational resources to support installation.
Writing
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To minimize distractions, I like drafting blog posts in the free online tool 750 Words. The platform recently re-launched and also includes streak-tracking and prompts for writing.
Stock Photography
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My favorite source of stock photography from photographers around the world. I use the free plan and try to alway provide attribution. If you notice missing attribution, please let me know.
Unsplash
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Limited buyt highly curated free stock photos and videos. Every photo is part of a photoshoot, which is helpful for consistency if you find something you like.