Carrie Cousins
Carrie Cousins has more than 20 years of experience in online media, web design, and content marketing. She has worked with a diverse range of clients, from small businesses to large corporations, helping them create engaging and effective digital strategies that drive results. Now, she serves as the Director of Digital Marketing and has been featured on Blue Ridge PBS (Roanoke) and VPM's Buzz4Good (Richmond), where she helps nonprofits get more from their design and marketing efforts.
Latest Articles
-
What is an Interaction Designer?
These two little words are being used a lot in the design sphere these days. But what truly is interaction design? And what makes you an interaction designer? Here, we’ll answer both of those questions and offer a showcase of …
-
17 Tips for Designing with Type on a Photo
One of the best techniques to have in your toolkit is designing with type on and around images. But it can also be one of the toughest concepts to pull off successfully. You have to have the right photo, a …
-
20 Places to Find the Best Free Stock Photos
Good images are a key part of putting together a great website. But finding images to use can sometimes be difficult. Your options are to take the photos yourself, buy images from a photographer or stock image site or to …
-
Free Fonts You’ll Want to Use Now, Trends and Examples
Every new year comes with lists of new design trends and techniques you’ll be using in the months to come. But what about typography? While type trends are often parts of these lists, there aren’t as many devoted to fonts …
-
Working with Color: Create a Monotone Design Scheme
Creating a dark color scheme can result in a beautiful, elegant design. There are a variety of ways to do it, from creating pop with sharp contrast or working with a more monotone color palette, which we will focus on …
-
Everything You Need to Know About Dark Patterns
They are everywhere. Little tricks on webpages, in apps and with popups and forms that “trick” you into completing an action online. These so-called dark patterns have a negative impact on user experience, frustrate website visitors and should be avoided. …
-
How to Be a Great Email Designer: Essential Tools
It can be hard to get excited about email design. But it is an ever-growing and ever-important part of branding and design for a large number of businesses, freelancers, and even designers. Email design can make or break the messages that …
-
Use Color Accessibility Tools to Improve Your Website Design
Did you know that more than 4 percent of the population is color blind? Different variations of color blindness and other sight impairments can impact the readability and usability of your website. It’s up to you to ensure that your …
-
Codester Has Everything You Need to Start Design Projects Fast
No matter what your level of design is – from beginner to master coder – there are times when you need ready-to-use web development assets. Codester is a one-stop-shop for everything from PHP scripts to app templates to themes to …
-
The Economist Redesign Does It Right
It’s been decades since one of the oldest news magazines in the world has looked different. That all changed in October when The Economist launched a redesign that freshens up the look of the news and makes it easier to …
-
Design Stereotypes: Masculine and Feminine Design Techniques
A user’s first impression of your site can be a lasting one. In the first few seconds, a person decides to stick with your content or move on. They will also make decisions about whether your site fits their needs. …
-
How to Create Perfect Color Combinations
One of the most challenging and tricky parts of the design process can be choosing a color palette that represents your brand or message, while creating an amazing base for the design. Creating perfect color combinations is more than just …
-
Design Trend: Parallax Twist Effect and Websites Examples
The newest trend in web design has inklings of parallax, but it’s not quite parallax. It involves moving elements, but it’s not really animation. It includes plenty of great color and physical elements, but it’s not material. This background trend …
-
What is Invisible Design?
Design is not always an in-your-face art. It is subtle, usable and often undefinable. Quite simply, good design is often invisible. And just to be clear – invisible design is not about adding layers or transparencies or hidden meanings to …
-
Why Good Design Gets Better Marketing Results
As designers we all know the importance of visually pleasing websites. But it goes much deeper than that. Good design does more than just look good; it’s a branding and marketing tool that really can help deliver results. Here, we’ll …
-
Designing a Truly Delectable Restaurant Website
Designing around food can be tricky. Think about it: Taking a photo of food is difficult. How can you explain the aroma of a great meal digitally? But there are plenty of things you can do when designing a website …
-
How to Use Pastel Colors in Web Design Projects
The use of pastel colors in web design is more than a recent trend, it is a technique designers have used for years to create impactful visuals. When you hear “pastel”, pale pinks, blues and yellows might come to mind, …
-
Online Courses and Resources where Anyone can Learn to Code
We are in the midst of a digital era of design. From websites to apps to wearables, understanding how digital design is written and comes together is increasingly important. That’s where learning and understanding code comes in. Your don’t have …
-
Make the Most of Your Design with a Hero Header
One of the biggest trends in web design right now is the use of big images. And not just large, but completely oversized images that seem to come to life on screen. When used at the top of a page, …
-
Primer on Web-Based Grid Systems
What’s in a grid? A grid-style framework is the backbone to almost any web design project, providing the structure for your site as well as a way to organize content, elements and images. There are a variety of grid systems …
-
Designing Website Text for Readability
Text can be beautiful, simple, wild, engaging, exciting and a wide number of other things. It can stir emotion and helps users understand your message. Type can be a wide number of things but one thing is common – it …
-
Design Trend: Ghost Buttons in Website Design
The biggest trend of 2014 is something I’m not sure we saw coming. And it’s all based on one of the smallest design components of almost any website – the button. Ghost Buttons – those transparent, clickable items – are …
-
10 Ways to Promote Your Design Project
The life of a designer is not always an easy one. There are projects that you do for clients and sometimes projects that you do just because you want to create something new. Getting those projects out there can be …
-
Tips on Using White Backgrounds in Website Design
It seems like everyone is using a white background these days. Gone are the dark and patterns that have been a big part of the design process for a while. And while using a white background may seem like the …