CF #23: 7 fresh ways of emphasizing text

3 Effective Tips

1) 7 fresh ways of emphasizing text

Excuse the silly headlines that follow.

a) Highlight it

b) Rotate it

c) Add stroke. Remove fill.

d) Change the typeface entirely

e) Gradient fill

f) Circle it

g) Add inline icons

2) Every type of layout needs to...

Do the following 3 things

1. Convey information
2. Convey a mood
3. Sometimes: Have a call-to-action

.... at varying degrees depending on the type of layout.

A landing page layout selling a product will emphasize points 1, 2 and 3 differently than an album cover layout.

Landing page layouts serve the purpose of conveying information & feel about a product or service and then urging action via a button or form.

Whereas album cover layouts mostly serve the purpose of communicating the identity of the music contained.

Every type of layout follows a general checklist that falls in line with the above concept. Some examples:

E-commerce product pages must communicate:

✅ The product name, look, and feel = Information & mood

✅ What the product is about - descrip, price, reviews = Information

✅ Purchase options = Action

Album cover:

✅ Album title, artist name, tracklist = Information

✅ The identity of the music within = Mood

Mobile app user sign up screen:

✅ Demonstrate the value in signing up = Information

✅ Communicate the brand identity & feel = Mood

✅ Easy sign up form/buttons = Action

Of course, these are NOT hard rules. There are no hard rules in design.

Context, testing, and feedback. Do them.

3) Change your life by building something that's yours

Last week, I got multiple emails essentially asking:

What steps did you take to figure out what you like / what you're good at?

I only really took 2 steps:

Step 1: I found 1 ambitious person I trusted

Step 2: I asked them if they wanted to create a product with me

There are no other steps for me. Everything that ensued was just a result of those 2 steps.

I didn't know what to create. I just wanted to build something.

I wanted to feel what creating value out of thin air was like.

We sat down, brainstormed, figured something out, built it, designed it, marketed it, presented it, pivoted multiple times and much more.

The full story is  here.

That initiative changed my life (the project failed btw).

It's what helped me figure out what I enjoy, what I don't enjoy, and what I want to do more of.

 You can read about my trajectory here . Lots and lots of pictures.

If you have the freedom to do this then give it a shot.

Some QUICKSTART ideas for you:

• APP: Build an app using a no-code tool like  Bubble  or  Glide 
• AGENCY: Build a marketing, branding or design agency  using this amazing guide  by Louis Grenier (who I look up to SO MUCH)
• PHYSICAL: Build a physical product. Use this  awesome Shopify guide . My friend Ali took this path and went from 0 to 1000 sales in a just over a year with  his Etsy & Shopify store .

I'm definitely not giving any new groundbreaking advice here, but reading it again might inspire you to give it a go if you're in a position that allows you to do so.

3 Useful Tools

Creatorfuel Resource: Copywriting Inspiration

Need some fresh & clever writing inspiration for your next project?

I've got you covered.

The new  Creatorfuel Inspo Center  I launched recently has a copywriting category.  Check it out. 

1) Quillbot

My new favourite writing tool.

I'm ditching WordTune for  QuillBot . The rephrasing tool is so incredibly smart and intuitive.

I use it daily to rewrite sentences that I'm not quite happy with.

Oh and it's free.

2) RepliQ

This one's for any freelancers reading this:

 RepliQ  allows you to send personalized cold outreach videos IN BULK.

It's super easy:

Record 1 video.

Upload a CSV with all your prospects' info.

RepliQ creates a personalized video for EVERY prospect. Done.

3) ClipChamp

Kapwing was my go-to super-easy-to-use video editing tool since 2018...until last week when I discovered ClipChamp.

 ClipChamp  does the exact same thing as Kapwing (nearly identical interface) but has remained free (the paid plan is also super reasonable).

This was a welcome discovery because Kapwing recently went from free to $32/month.

3 Ideas to Think About

1) Take advantage when you're obsessed

Your interest in something is highest when you're completely average at that thing:

• Your confidence is highest when you suck
• You then realize you know nothing which tanks your confidence, but you become obsessed
• You push through, learn some more, which grows your confidence

2) Momentary needs & relevance matter A TON in design

When creating any sort of digital experience, it's most important to ask yourself the following question:

"What will be most relevant to the user in this moment?"

We talk about basic layout organizing strategies such as visual hierarchy, alignment, grouping etc, BUT...

....often times users are in a frame of mind that completely overrides the effects that these organizing strategies are trying to have on them.

They'll completely ignore things you've made visually prominent because their mind is set on finding one specific thing.

Maybe, after a sequence of events, users land on a page expecting to see the price of a product but the design didn't anticipate this well enough (perhaps the layout didn't make it prominent or left it out altogether).

Get feedback, run tests.

3) Mental trick for taking action

Whenever you have a problem or fear, ask yourself: “What would I do or say if I wasn’t scared?”. Then, do that thing.

Shower thoughts

1) Millions of people wake up at the exact same second from using their cell phone as an alarm clock.

2) The anti-vacation. Go somewhere really shitty and do something awful for a week so when you return, your life seems really good.

3) It’s considered less taboo to constantly pump yourself full of a liquid stimulant drug to keep yourself awake throughout the day rather than laying down for a quick mid-day nap.

Via Reddit