(headings are links)
Professional Resources
My Contract
This is the contract I start with for all my client work. Anything highlighted in yellow should be replaced with details about the project. Anything highlighted in red is explanatory text to help you understand the contract. As an added aside, I prefer HelloSign for digital signatures. DISCLAIMER: This contract is intended for use in the San Francisco Bay Area, and should be modified for use elsewhere. I highly recommend sitting down with a lawyer and discussing any contract you use to make sure it works for you.
Charging for Freelancing
Figuring out how much to charge for your services is hard work — here’s an infographic to simplify the process a bit.
Getting Paid
This article goes more in-depth on client and contract negotiation. LOTS of good advice in here on how to charge for your services.
Designing an Invoice
Can’t get paid if you never bill the client, and your invoice should tie into your brand. This is a solid guide for invoice considerations.
Brand Identity Style Guides
A collection of style guides for brands around the world. Useful inspiration!
Ctrl+Paint
Ctrl+Paint is a robust online tutorial series geared toward learning digital illustration/painting. Lessons include exercises you can work on to improve your drawing skill, and it’s a well-constructed curriculum.
Tools & Plugins
Fontbase
A fully-featured free font manager on both Windows and Mac with excellent (and cheap) premium features.
Backblaze
An automatic backup service for your entire computer. I haven’t personally started using it, but I’ve had it recommended to me.
Eye Dropper
A Chrome plugin that lets you sample colors directly from images and websites in Chrome.
Favicon Generator
Takes a vector image, converts it into all favicon formats, and exports the images and code you need to implement a favicon on a site.
Fonts Ninja
A Chrome plugin that allows you to check the fonts used in specific parts of websites.
GuideGuide
A Photoshop/Illustrator extension that allows you to set up columns and gutters in Photoshop/Illustrator.
Stylify Me
A tool that will pull color and text info from a website and generate a basic stylesheet.
Flat UI Colors
A repository of flat UI color palettes that you can copy quickly.
waifu2x
A neural network powered image upscaler that produces good results on a wide range of imagery. Great for when a client sends a logo file that’s much too small.
Copyright-free Stock Sites
Font Squirrel
A curated collection of free fonts with quality features and verified licenses. No need to scroll through hundreds of low-quality fonts, knock-offs, and potentially pirated files when you’re picking typefaces on a budget.
The British Library
A collection of old archival art in the public domain.
Texturelabs
An expansive library of free textures, plus a whole YouTube channel of clear and easy to understand Photoshop tutorials for professionals.
TextureKing
A fairly large library of free textures.
Lost and Taken
More textures, but a bit better organized.