Shaun Culbertson
Digital Detox IV
Far away the misty mountains call, Where I prepare to stay, despite rain’s torrential fall. I never know why or what pushes me to say goodbye, The only thing I hear is the heavenly call of nature’s cry All life’s responsibilities will be put on hold, Along with electronic devices; tremendously bold. But to seek…
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7 Ways to Boost Donations on Your Website
Before we jump into the 7 Ways to Boost Donations on Your Website, let’s first try and understand some key questions. Here are four questions (the four Ws) to think about when designing your site. “Who is Giving?” “Why are they Giving?” “When are they Giving?” “What are they Giving?” The answers are pretty simple,…
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Trend Today. Trend Tomorrow.
Be assured designers, there will be a trend today and a trend tomorrow. If you stick around long enough, you’ll recognize a lot of them. Design trends are both new and old. I know this because I have been in the industry long enough to notice. I like reading Behance’s design trends because they are typically…
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Digital Detox III
A digital detox is unthinkable! Unbearable! Being without your personal digital connection to the world is almost impossible to imagine, even though many of us would agree that life would be better without it. Palm Trees We have incredible amounts of information and access right in the palms of our hands. Digital palm trees, with…
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Curiosity? It’s Just a Button.
Curiosity can kill a designer. Wait, what?! Well yeah, sometimes. Curiosity is a natural behavior for designers. Creative studios want designers to be curious. Designers can’t help it. It’s in their DNA. But sometimes it can be deadly. Designers can get too hung up on “What if…” and the “I didn’t think of that…” and not…
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Pass Our Website Assessment with Flying Colors
Website assessment is a critical part of every brand assessment. During a website assessment, Shaun utilizes HubSpot’s website grader tool and his own website brand review to evaluate your brand’s website. dR Website Review During our review, we look to see if your site is functioning the best it can for your audience. The following…
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Kelly wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving
Kelly wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!
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Website SSL Certificate: What, Why, and How
What is an SSL certificate? I’ll explain. During our Brand Assessment process, we perform a website assessment. We utilize HubSpot’s website grader to help uncover simple reasons why a website may be underperforming. One of HubSpot’s categories is Security, which involves an SSL Certificate. So, what is an SSL Certificate? Why might your website need one?…
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My 3 Favorite Photoshop Tools
Here are three of my most important and favorite photoshop tools I use for when designing digital assets: Fill / Content-Aware I remember the day I learned this technique. It felt like being a kid on Christmas morning opening a brand new toy. Only this toy makes my life much easier. Designers are constantly challenged…
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Life Without Digital: Another Digital Detox Done
It’s done. Another digital detox. Can you hear it? Can you smell it? You can touch it, breathe it, and feel it all around you. What is it that I’m talking about? It’s Life. The dearest gift humans can be thankful for. Are we thankful enough to cherish the small things life has to offer?…
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That Awkward Moment Before You Write
Have you felt that awkward moment before you try to write something… like a blog? If so, do you like it or hate it? If you hate it, you probably don’t like blogging. But if you like it, then writing for you harbors a powerful, inner drive to inspire people. I embrace that awkward moment.…
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Brand Assessment: It’s an Inside Job
Kelly discusses our brand assessment process and shows the final product. The research we do leads to strong logo concepts perfect for our clients.
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Design Debt: 3 Things that Create it and How to Avoid it
Design debt is very much about wasted time and money. That’s why we refer to it as debt. And why it’s a good idea to avoid it. Almost everyone has experienced a design process of some sort. Whether through a marketing plan and a design firm or an interior design solution for your kitchen, design spreads across…
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Tiny Videos – Shaun’s 5 Criteria for Website Review
Brand assessment and website review involve thorough analyses of a brand’s digital footprint. There are many different ways to perform a website review. Many reviewers are subjective about what is important. Here are my 5 most important categories when reviewing a website: Information Architecture The site map and content organization are probably the least respected category in…
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Digital Design Q & A With Shaun
I’m Shaun, Digital Design Director here at designRoom. I recently took time to answer some of the most popular questions clients ask me. I decided to collect them and share them here, in hopes they can also help you. Q: I’ve been told that my site needs to be more responsive and the resolution should be…
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What Have I Learned in My First Year at dR?
What have I learned in my first year at designRoom? April 4th will be my one year dR anniversary and I’ve learned a lot things. I’m going to focus on the three important things I cherish the most. All In Before dR, most of my career was spent grinding away at bigger, competitive, neo-cultured agencies.…
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7 Quality Assurance Website Tests
Website tests for quality assurance are the only way to make sure a site looks and functions the way it’s supposed to across all platforms. A lot of time and hard work goes into creating a website: Research; Copywriting; Visual Design; User Experience Design; Development; Optimization; and more. Before any website goes live, it deserves…
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Two Bulls on a Hill
Before I get to the Two Bulls on a Hill, I’m going to tell you what I’m most thankful for in this world. It’s my father, Larry Culbertson. Since I was a kid, my father has allowed me to develop into the man I was meant to be. He never directed me, never pushed me,…
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Top 4 Back-to-Basics for Digital Branding
September 16, 2016 Here are my Top Four Digital Basics for Brand Design, because I see the need almost every day. If you feel like your logo and brand need a bit of an overhaul, or it’s been a long time since your brand has been cared for, this is for you. Good branding stands the test…
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My Digital Detox
August 5, 2016 I did my detox, and I feel better. What about you — Can you let go? We all do it. Daily. Some of us all day long. We can’t live without it. We wake up to it. Go to bed with it. And if you are like me, you take it into the…
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Designing with Color in the Digital World
Designing with color in the digital world requires a specific outlook. It’s the same new story — everyone is overbooked, multitasking, and instantly connecting to content through mobile devices. We’re spoiled by massive brands capable of delivering dynamic content quickly to the palms of our hands; we like instant gratification. Things will continue to get faster and…
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A Fresh Start this Spring
My name is Shaun Culbertson. This spring I’m making a fresh start here at designRoom Creative, one that was 11 years in the making. Eleven years ago, in 2005, I walked into a design studio in downtown Cleveland to interview for a designer position. I was just two years out of college. The room I…
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