Wow, it’s already been days since I posted. I am still busy busy reading up on email, front end code and anything that looks fun.
I realised that to do my job, I am having to skill up in lots of areas including design, marketing, copywriting, content curation, anything! And the result? Trying to do everything at once. It’s not ideal, but my brain seems to need input from lots of sources to stay interested.
I have been watching some fantastic tutorials on tutsplus.com.
I first found this fantastic course on designing HTML emails, then I saw some other great courses including one on CSS typography and another on the CSS box model.
I am ploughing through the Udemy Complete Web Developer’s Course, with an aim to at least finish the chapter on jQuery.
I also downloaded a resource on Outlook and how it renders emails from Email on Acid. And I stumbled across some cheat sheets I downlaoded a few weeks ago on triggered emails, so looking forward to getting through those. Back to Envato Tuts+, and I was recommended an article by Really Good Emails on how Envato Tuts+ redesigned their entire suite of emails. The process spans three articles, looking at the design first of all, then on to the HTML coding, and the final piece, which I am still to read on turning that HTML into template in their email client.
Design
I figured that the best way to grow a pair of designer eyes was to look, and notice things. How better than to downloaded and print out some top of the range email designs from Really Good Emails? Plus, I moved onto Pinterest to search for typographical inspiration and print those out too to paste in a scrap book. This is completely old school, I accept that. However, I like the physical element of something to hold and touch the pages.
When I am not near a printer, I can still view these pages online, and to keep track of things, I use a tool recommended by Hubspot called Memit. With a browser extension in Chrome, I can snip parts of a page or all of an article to keep in a theme board for later. I can view it on any site and refer to these designs later. I use this tool for any article I think is worth saving. You can share these boards with team members if you like.
Images
The bane of the marketer’s life is finding images that one can use for free without having to credit the photographer or illustrator. Personally, I like to credit people, but in work, it seems unprofessional to place an attribution in an email or on a Facebook page, so the easier it is to source royalty-free images that don’t require attribution, the better.
Thanks to my new favourite people at Envato Tuts+, I have sourced fantastic providers of images I can use in my marketing efforts:
Very much enjoying these. A word of note, if you work in the travel sector and need images for your holiday-themed content, avoid using the term “holiday” to search pictures. I think a lot of sites are based in America, so holiday brings up images of Christmas decorations and Valentine’s balloons and all sorts. Now it makes sense why they have an entirely separate word!
Productivity
I have known about Trello for a while, but never really got into it. This week, we have been using it at work, so now I want to use it in every other aspect of my life. It is a good way to keep track of tasks, see what is progressing and what you have over looked.
So that is my round up of a lot of the cool things I picked up in the world of digital this week.
Have an inspiring weekend!
Ordinary xx
ordinaryDoesDigital 