Archive for year: 2017

Original Source: https://line25.com/articles/packaging-design-kits

You can spot packaging design everywhere you look! Browsing through the products in a store, shopping online, basically every single item you buy has been through a creative design process. Generally, individuals judge the nature of an item by its remarkable packaging. This is why skilled designers have the huge power of grabbing the customer’s interest through their design ideas and concepts.

If you have a retail business and you are searching for ways to improve it, get inspired by some of the creative product packaging designs listed below. A flawlessly designed package will attract the potential customers’ attention, and also impact their buying patterns. Your products will stand out and your business will grow stronger and faster than ever!

Unlike packaging mockups, these packaging design kits are ready for print. They will save you a lot of time because this way you won’t have to think about the geometry of the boxes and concentrate more on the actual product’s design. Most of these packaging design templates have trim marks and guidelines included, come as editable AI vector files, contain die-cut lines and bleed and free fonts. The designs are easy to assemble and customize.

In this article, we put together some of the most inventive and affordable packaging design ideas with templates, for easy editing. These outstanding packaging kits will help you renew your product’s packaging design in a quick and affordable way. Don’t waste time on designing the templates from scratch, these are ready for print and all you have to do is put your own design / branding on them!

Want more packaging design kits? Check out these food packaging mockup sets! The food mockups don’t come with packaging design kits but are useful for showcasing your design work to your clients, in a professional way.

Multipurpose CD / DVD Dual Pack

This kit is easy to assemble and fully customizable. It includes 6 themes (each theme file contains a set of artworks with die-cut lines and bleed) and free font. The kit is also printable on standard A4 size sheets and on different materials.

Tea Box

This package design for tea boxes comes in four different color combinations. The design is ready to print on A4 paper size and moreover, it is fully resizable and color customizable.

NeoSoft_Shopping Bag Packaging

NeoSoft Shopping Bag can be found in 2 different color designs with 4 colors combined.  It is print-ready, fully resizable and includes editable texts, fonts, and colors.

Label Templates For Tea

The dimension of the label is 9,45” × 5,5”  with 3 mm bleeds. The templates are organized and have named layers which are fully editable. Dimensions can be changed. Files included: ai, eps. Font used: Arial Sofia.

CD Sleeve

This easy-to-construct packaging has well-organized layers and it is ready to print and cut.  It is also foldable without glue. Recommended paper weight: 180 – 320g/m². Files included: • ai • eps.

Pro Box

Pro Box includes .ai and EPS (CS3, CS5 ) files. It is fully resizable and very easy to construct. You can use this packaging design kit to mockup box designs for you or your clients.

GA Retro Box Multipurpose Packaging

This template is designed for a multipurpose product packet box. It is fully resizable. Files included: .ai, EPS, Vector, CMYK. It is print-ready and fully resizable. Texts, fonts, and colors are editable. Free fonts HTML links included.

Build A Reindeer Holiday Gift Box Template

This cute fully customizable gift box template can be printed on regular paper or card stock.  Helps you create your own graphics, and it is very useful for self-promotion or as DIY holiday gifts.

 

Fresh Perfume and Fragrance Package Template

This is an exquisite perfume package template. It is an ideal solution for packaging and marketing campaigns. Font used: DIN Black, Myriad Pro. Colors and texts can be easily customized. It is also print-ready, Ready to cut and includes folding guidelines.

GA Shopping Bag Packaging v.1

This packaging is created for multipurpose business/product shopping bags. Dimensions are 35” ×12” with Bleed plus Trim Mark,  EPS, Vector, CMYK. It is print-ready, fully resizable. The texts, fonts, and colors are editable. Free fonts HTML links included.

CD Sleeve v2

This is a ready to print packaging, foldable without glue, with three designs. It also has editable texts. Files included: .ai and .eps. Recommended paper weight: 180 – 280g/m².

Box Set For Business Cards

This is an ideal product for printing business cards.  It fits for standard business cards. It is fully resizable, ready to cut with well-organized layers. It is also foldable without glue. Recommended paper weight: 200-300g/m².

Lucky Draw Box Template

This is a nice template which comes in 2 color themes (Black and White) and includes .eps files. Use these simple box mockup templates to create awesome box designs with ease.

Socialika Social Media CD Sleeve & Sticker

This packaging is very useful for any kind of social media business CD/DVD presentation. Includes bleed, trim Mark, .ai,  EPS, Vector, CMYK. It is print-ready and fully resizable. Also comes with editable fonts, colors, and text.  Free fonts HTML links included.

Spice Package Design

This is a very fresh and clean product design. The package includes easily changeable colors, texts, background etc. The dimension of the font used (Open Sans) can be also changed. It is also Print-Ready.

Minimalistic Perfume Box Packaging Templates

This minimalistic perfume box packaging template comes in four different sizes and has unlimited color versions. It is very easy to customize and print-ready. Free font used: Playfair Display, Lora. Minimum Adobe Version required: CS 5.

Retro Perfume Box Templates

This box packaging template can be customized as you please. It is print-ready and includes a logo. File format included: ai, eps. You can easily use these perfume box templates to add your own designs on them.

Men Cosmetics Box Templates

This box packaging template can be customized without restriction. It comes in different sizes and unlimited color version. It is print-ready and includes a logo. File format included: ai, eps.  Also includes organized layers and colors.

Mango Juice Label Template

This modern and fresh template comes in 3 color versions (Green, Orange, Silver) and has very useful specifications. It is fully editable and print-ready. Help file included. Free font used: Roboto, Aller. Size: 11.5” x 4.5”.

Label Design Template Candy Bar Nutrition Granola Bar

This packaging includes labels for candy bar / granola bar / chocolate bar. The labels are in different layered graphic files format for flexible and easy editing. It is also scalable and editable. Size: 6.89” × 5.5”.

Supplement Label Template

This packaging contains two amazing label design. Files are easily editable.  Colors, images, text and graphics can be easily changed. It is fully editable with 3mm bleed. File Supported: PSD. Customer support is included.

Salad Dressing Bottle Label Templates

These labels can be used for any homemade dressing, sauce or condiment. It is fully editable.  Colors, images, text and graphics can be easily changed.

Juice Bottle Label Template

This template includes 7 labeled .psd file and 1 help .txt file.  All text styles are included. The main file includes images with 7 flavors: Apple, Mango, Guava, Pineapple, Strawberry, Orange and Banana.

Shopping Bag Packaging

This creative shopping bag packaging is perfect for any kind of e-commerce or online shop business. It is print-ready, fully resizable and texts/fonts/colors are editable. It comes in 4 handmade color variations. Trim marks and guidelines are included.

The post 20+ Outstanding Packaging Design Kits appeared first on Line25.

Original Source: http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/from-working-in-a-call-center-to-senior-developer

In the 90s, coding was just a hobby for Aaron Marks and too much fun to consider as a potential career. As life progressed, Aaron began coding less and less. It wasn’t until years later when he was working at a call center – in a job he couldn’t stand and desperate for a career change – that he decided to return to coding. That’s when Aaron joined Code Louisville and began learning with Treehouse.

By the time he finished his first cohort with Code Louisville, Aaron had brushed up his coding skills and successfully landed a software support position, which transitioned into a full-time developer role. Today, Aaron is a senior developer for a law firm and an instructor at a local university where he teachers web and mobile development. In his free time, Aaron is even studying for his Master’s degree in IT and working with local non-profit organizations to help them harness the power of the web to achieve their goals.

We asked Aaron to share his experience going from a call center to senior developer and his advice with other aspiring developers.

Start learning to code today with a free trial on Treehouse.

What first encouraged you to learn to code and pursue a career in the tech industry?

Programming was a hobby for me in the 90s. I started off with BASIC on a second-hand Commodore 64 that my family picked up for me – but I didn’t see it as a career. Code was too much fun to be considered “work”. As the years passed, I wrote less and less code each day until, one day, I had basically forgotten how to program at all! My tech career started on a really bad day at my job in the call center industry. I kept hearing about these coding bootcamps that promised to make you a programmer and I figured “well, I loved this stuff as a kid and I certainly don’t like my job answering phones so… let’s do this thing”.

Code was too much fun to be considered “work”.

What were you doing when you first joined Code Louisville and started learning with Treehouse?

When I signed up for Code Louisville, I had just started my first term back in college after many years. I was working for a cable company answering phones and processing business cable install orders.

You’re now working as a full-time developer and teach coding. Tell us a little about how your career evolved since learning to code.

By the time I finished my first cohort with Code Louisville, I had brushed the dust off of my resume and successfully landed a position doing software support work for a local software company. Not too long after I was hired, my role transitioned into that of a full-time developer. The company was small which allowed me to learn a ton about web development, DevOps, and server management on the job. Honestly, this was my favorite part. I love being a “jack of all trades”.

Currently, I am working as a Senior Developer for a law firm here in Louisville and an adjunct instructor at a local university teaching web and mobile application development classes. At the firm, I am responsible for maintaining 65 – 70 custom applications written over the past 10 to 15 years that support the firm’s internal reporting and operations needs as well as a few web applications that support our clients’ need for data. Like my first job, I am able to wear many hats as I run around the office working on database servers, training users on how to use the applications we’ve created, and otherwise saving the world.

With my free time, I am working on my Master’s degree in IT and working with local not-for-profit organizations helping them harness the power of the web and data to achieve their goals. I used to mentor a cohort at Code Louisville, which I haven’t been able to in a good while. I miss that experience and plan to get back to mentoring as soon as I graduate.

What has the value of a Treehouse education meant to you?

In many ways, learning to code was self-care in that it was a distraction from a pretty tough work situation that also served as work toward an escape from a job I honestly couldn’t stand. Treehouse made the goal of becoming a developer so much easier than I would have imagined. The Treehouse teachers have a gift for making technical concepts easier to understand all while making the whole learning experience fun for their students. The high-quality education offered by Treehouse allowed me to make the career change I so desperately needed to make.

In many ways, learning to code was self-care in that it was a distraction from a pretty tough work situation that also served as work toward an escape from a job I honestly couldn’t stand.

What did you find the greatest challenge while learning to code?

The greatest challenge I faced while learning to code was trying to convince myself that I was actually a developer. Often I would find myself searching Google for the answers to tough situations with code, especially CSS issues. I thought that one day, once my dependency on Google had stopped, that I would finally be able to call myself a developer. Turns out – that dependency only grew. I still struggle with the fear that the day will come when my boss finally figures out that I’m an awful developer and fires me. 4 ½ years later and that day has still not come.

Treehouse made the goal of becoming a developer so much easier than I would have imagined.

What are your favorite aspects of working in the tech industry compared to your past careers?

I love to learn new things and tech jobs encourage and often require a great deal of learning. Recently I had to learn Angular for a project. Soon, I suspect I will be learning React or possibly Vue. Who knows? The only thing that is certain is that my job will never let me stop learning ways to create new things.

I love to learn new things and tech jobs encourage and often require a great deal of learning.

What advice would you share with aspiring developers?

Our chosen career requires us to learn a lot of things and it can get overwhelming. We all have moments where we can’t seem to wrap our heads around a particular concept or chunk of code and we get discouraged. We will seek answers to our questions and, sometimes, the folks we ask won’t be so nice about helping us. If I could tell new developers anything it would be this: you were a developer the moment you decided to write code. Don’t be discouraged by seemingly unsolvable puzzles, hidden answers, or grumpy people in the field. Write code, write better code tomorrow, and always love what you do.

You were a developer the moment you decided to write code. Don’t be discouraged by seemingly unsolvable puzzles, hidden answers, or grumpy people in the field. Write code, write better code tomorrow, and always love what you do.

Self-Taught Developer to Web Development Director: Jim’s Story

The post From Working in a Call Center to Senior Developer: Aaron’s Story appeared first on Treehouse Blog.

Original Source: http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/7-reasons-to-work-remotely

Working remotely – basically working from somewhere other than a traditional office – is becoming increasingly popular with both individuals and companies. In fact, at the start of this year, The New York Times reported on a Gallup survey that stated that 43% of working Americans now spend at least some of their time working remotely. At Treehouse, 52 members (which is the majority)of our team work remotely full-time from cities across the US (and even as far as the UK). We can also confidently say that the remote aspect of our company has contributed to our culture and our success.

There are a lot of perks to working remotely, whether it’s in a largely remote company like Treehouse, as a part-time opportunity from your office job, or as a freelancer. Based on our experience over the last 7 years, here are 7 reasons we recommend you consider working remotely.

Start learning to code today with a free trial on Treehouse.

1. Explore as a digital nomad

Working remotely gives you a great deal of freedom, so if an agile workspace appeals to you, working remotely is the best way to make that happen. Provided you’re able to commit to working the hours required for your role, theoretically you can work from absolutely anywhere, all you need is stable internet. At Treehouse, some of our employees have chosen to work while traveling or spend time living abroad. This sometimes means staggering their hours to overlap with our regular US hours to allow for meetings, but in large part, the culture of our team and the tools we use facilitate the digital nomad lifestyle.

2. Embrace the flexibility

While you’re working remotely, you’re able to make decisions that work for you. You’re often able to create your own schedule in terms of how you approach your daily tasks and responsibilities. This can help increase productivity and efficiency. For digital nomads, this can be valuable, but it’s even more so for parents. At Treehouse, 48 of our team members are parents (which is more than half of the company). Due to the remote nature of the team, this allows for parents to make adjustments to their daily schedule that work around their families and routines. For example, that might mean an earlier start to the day with an earlier finish, leaving more time to spend with their kids after school.

3. Harness the tools that make a remote company culture

Although remote teams may be physically spread out, the increased popularity of the remote structure means there are an abundance of tools that help teams work productively and build a strong company culture. At Treehouse, we use Zoom for all of our video conferencing, and we spend a significant part of our week in face-to-face meetings and work sessions. Another fundamental tool for us is Slack, which we use to communicate with one another, to coordinate on team projects, and to chat on our company-wide channel.

Slack also offers a great place for the bonding aspects of our company’s culture. We have channels like “Remote Work Tips”, where we can share challenges and advice, and “Props”, a channel dedicated to acknowledging and celebrating colleagues for the great work they do to reflect our company values. What’s more, Slack has an impressive and growing number of 3rd party apps that are integrated into the tool, including Zoom, Google Drive, JIRA and InVision (all valuable collaboration tools that we use daily at Treehouse).

For more on Treehouse’s remote culture, check out this post by our CEO and co-founder, Ryan Carson.

4. Choose your ideal working environment

If you’re not drawn to the full digital nomad lifestyle, working remotely still gives you the opportunity to find or create the perfect work environment for you. That might be a home office, a co-working space or a local cafe. In many cases, remote companies will even offer a budget towards setting up your home office or working in a co-working space. Personally, after years of experience, my work space is a combination of all of the above with an office at home, a pay-as-you-go hot desking membership at a local co-working space, and the occasional afternoon spent working from my local coffee shop.

 5. Find your focus

Whichever remote working environment you choose, the assumption is you’ll be working somewhere that has less distractions, allowing you to be more productive. Being in control of your working day with limited external influences, will naturally help you find your focus to complete projects and tasks. Although your teammates will never be hard to reach with the convenience of tools like Slack and Zoom, you may find your self reliance increases and as a result the time you spend meeting with colleagues is more focused and productive. In fact, the same New York Times and Gallup survey mentioned earlier uncovered that people who work remotely 60% to 80% of their time have the highest rates of engagement (compared to people who work full time in an office alongside their colleagues). In my personal experience, when you don’t get to see your colleagues every day from 9-5, you’ll enjoy the virtual time you do spend with them even more.

6. Expand your job search

One of the reasons so many companies are onboard with remote work is that it allows them to attract talent that wouldn’t otherwise be accessible. The same applies to you. When you start to look at remote positions, you’re no longer restricted by your city or commuting distance. Most remote positions will specify if they require applicants to be in a specific timezone or country, but that could still mean you live in New York and work for a company with an HQ in Portland. Remote work removes that artificial boundary, opening up the opportunities to find the perfect position for you. What’s more, remote companies today often offer increasing competitive packages and benefits to attract the right talent to their teams.

7. Save time (and money)

Now we come to the most practical of the perks, the fact that you’ll save both on precious time and money if you work remotely. When it comes to time, there’s the obvious: no longer do you have to endure a grinding and exhausting commute. Or if you work at a co-working space, you can choose to always travel outside of rush hour. It’s also almost impossible to be late for work, which works in your company’s favor. Closely tied to saving time is saving money. As a remote employee, you’ll save on the cost of a commute, the premium cost of buying snacks and lunch five times a week (as you can rustle something up at home) and even – depending on your industry – you may even save on the cost of an office wardrobe!

Those are some of the greatest perks of working remotely, but it’s important to also mention that there are challenges to remote work. Tune in next week for a roundup of the greatest ones we’ve experienced at Treehouse, and our (tried and tested) recommendations for how to overcome them.  

10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Treehouse

The post 7 Compelling Reasons to Work Remotely appeared first on Treehouse Blog.

Original Source: https://webdesignledger.com/20-fresh-creative-404-error-pages-just-for-fun/

It’s necessary to have a beautiful and appealing 404 error page. It appeared when a user used wrong URL or broken link. Besides, it can show up when the page URL was changed or redirected.

When a user has landed on 404 page, there is a huge chance he or she will leave without having to see what else your website can offer. Thus, once it happens, you need to help them get back to the homepage.

In this list, we have collected 20 fresh and creative 404 error pages to see just for fun. Or, you can use their ideas to create some cool 404 error page for your site or blog.

1. Dropbox

2. The useless web index

3. Bluegg

4. Dan Woodger

5. Figma

6. Bitly

7. tinsanity

8. Lego

9. Airbnb

10. Grantburke

11. BrandCrowd

12. IconFinder

13. Blizzard

14. Cooklet

15. Hoppermagic

16. Template Monster

17. ShutterStock

18. MailChimp

19. Repair Pal

20. Starbucks

21. Designoholic

Read More at 20+ Fresh & Creative 404 Error Pages Examples For Your Inspiration

Original Source: https://webdesignledger.com/top-notch-web-apps-designers-design-teams/

Whatever your business or occupation, you want to make the best use of your core competencies. These might involve web design, project management, or business management.

Your responsibilities can also involve necessary, yet tedious and time-consuming tasks. If these to be done manually, can be error-prone as well.

When these tasks require frequent attention, you’re left with less time to do what you do best.

The best solution is to invest in apps that automate these tasks. In fact, a high-quality web app can make completing them easier and faster. Many of these apps, however, require installation and updating.

These web apps can be superior choices for the solutions you’re looking for. They don’t require installation or maintenance.

 

Apptivo

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This web app features a powerful online CRM system that sits at the core of an integrated suite of business apps. Apptivo automates your sales and marketing tasks, and provides a total view of your customer base.

You can also access this web-based system from your mobile devices.

 

Webflow

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This web app enables you to do both design and develop custom, responsive websites — without writing a line of code, or relying on a template. It also lets you create a bespoke CMS for any website, with structured content tailored to the site’s purpose. That’s how Webflow helps creative teams break down their silos and simplify collaboration between design, dev, and content.

 

Paymo

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This full-featured management app is suitable for individual designers and developers as well as for teams. Paymo enables you to manage your projects, track your time and expenses from start to finish. It also manages your invoicing and resource scheduling.

 

Nutcache

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Whether you’re an old hand at managing Agile and Scrum projects, or relatively new to the game, you’ll find Nutcache to be extremely helpful. This robust, business-oriented web app manages the total project lifecycle, and does so within the Agile set of principles.

 

pCloud

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Storing your videos, documents, photos, and other information on the cloud has its definite advantages.pCloud gives you 24/7 access to your stored information, whether it’s from your PC, tablet, or phone. It is also the first cloud storage system to offer lifetime use for a single payment.pCloud is one of the top Dropbox alternatives that you can find.

 

Keep up to date with the latest trends; the easy way

Every day we witness new design and project management tools appearing in the marketplace. Considering the rapid pace of development, it can be hard for a professional to keep up. Time spent on learning about the latest and greatest is also the time that’s taken away from the work at hand.

Nevertheless, you want to know about any new products that appear that can make your work easier. New tools can help you improve processes and deliverables, and boost your productivity.

If you want to save time, you’ll need to let others do the searching for you. Like that, you will still be able to improve your workflow and make your life just a little easier.

Read the reviews, study the pros and cons and find out what the potential learning curve of a new tool might be. By doing so, you can save yourself lots of time and trouble.

 

Summary

Design processes can vary in accordance with project types, team sizes, and the like. However, we tend to settle on a preferred set of tried and tested tools.

There is always a room for improvement. Moreover, continuous improvement should be one of the goals of any web designer.

New and improved tools, including web apps, deserve a close look. You’ll often get a significant return on your investment once you’ve put them to use.

Read More at Top Notch Web Apps for Designers and Design Teams