I’ve been planning something special for you guys over the last few months, and I’m finally ready to share about it! For the next few weeks I’m diving into a new deep dive series called ‘designer tools.’

As designers, we can get comfortable in our own processes, and sometimes neglect growing our skill-sets. I know I’m guilty of this with each new release of Adobe CC — I sorta hide behind the last version, scared to update and learn what’s new! But you know what? If I did that each and every time, I’d miss out big time on some of the most used shortcuts in my arsenal.

I’ve got some fun live workshops + tutorials coming your way over the next few weeks! So, stay tuned! I’ll be sending reminders, so you guys won’t miss any live workshops.

Back to what especially makes this new ‘designer tools’ series special.

I’m opening up the doors and letting a few of my most trusted designer friends in to share their specific zone of genius.

I’m all about collaboration, and can’t wait to share what’s in the queue over the next few weeks! Here’s the workshop info below:

Shopify for Designers

My friend Morgan of October Ink has prepared a free workshop all about Shopify. Morgan and I have been friends since the beginning of Spruce Rd. (4 years ago), and met in person last year at a conference. She’s such a great designer + developer, a great teacher, and someone you feel like instant friends with. She’s niched down into offering e-commerce web design — specifically on the Shopify platform.

In this workshop, Morgan is going to show you:

• Learn the ins + outs of how knowing Shopify can help you attract larger budget clients and take your business to 6-figures

• See a breakdown of how Shopify compares to other platforms like Squarespace and WordPress, and why it’s the best solution for ecommerce clients

• Learn why Shopify is an accessible platform for designers and how you can design stores for clients with zero coding knowledge

• Hover over Morgan’s shoulder as she walks you through the backend of Shopify

• Learn how you can get started making passive income with Shopify

Creating a Pricing Sheet with InDesign

I’m so excited for this next part of this series covering one of my fav. designer tools — InDesign. I’m co-hosting a FREE (and pitch-free!) workshop with my pal Kelsey from Paper + Oats. Kelsey is the queen of Adobe InDesign, and she’s going to be showing us exactly how to design a services pricing sheet using one of her favorite InDesign tools!

During this pitch-free workshop, we cover —

• The best InDesign tool to create custom pricing sheets — tables!

• How to insert, edit, and customize your pricing sheet table

• Two of Kelsey’s favorite ways to style a table for a super clean look (she’ll share her screen so you can see exactly how she sets it up — this is your permission to hover!)

• How to speed up your workflow with table styles + cell styles

• Swipe the native InDesign file used in the live demo to use for yourself

• Q&A time for any hangups you have about designing with tables + using InDesign

This workshop is great for you if —

• Designing a new pricing sheet is on your to do list, and you need some inspo to finally get it checked off

• You haven’t played with the table tool much in InDesign and would love to see some practical ways to use it

• InDesign freaks you out a lil’ bit, and you just need to peek in on another designer’s process

• You just need to talk shop with a couple designer pals to finish out your week (we get it 😉)

Adobe CC Libraries

If you’re into designer shortcuts + streamlining your design process, I know you’ll be nerding out over this week’s tutorial — Adobe CC libraries!

As Adobe makes updates with each new release of CC, I feel like I might be missing something. Be it a new tool, shortcut or improvement. It took me a while to set aside the time to learn how to best utilize Adobe Libraries, and I’m so thankful I did.

Rather than searching through endless articles or digging through forums, I’ve created a brief 4 minute tutorial below showing you how I take advantage of the Adobe CC libraries for my own brand and with clients. Enjoy!

PS: Got any other ideas for designer tutorials (software, tutorial, etc.) drop them below in the comments!