I got hired at Shopify!

After 5 months of working at Shopify on contract I got offered a position as a full timer. The best thing to happen in 2009 so far.

5 Photoshop tips nobody told me

Apply adjustment layers to entire groups

Make sure the adjustment layer is in the group, and set the group blend mode to anything but “Pass Through”

Clip thumbnails in layers

Extremely useful when working with a large canvas: Right click the layer thumbnail and select “Clip Thumbnail to Layer Bounds”.

Create a 1px solid line

Use the Rectangle Marquee Tool (M) to select the area you want the border. Then fill it with the Paint Bucket (G) keeping the selection active. Press any of your arrow keys ONCE to move the selection up one pixel. Press Backspace (or delete on Windows?). BAM! 1 pixel goodness without dicking around with the pencil tool.

Change brushes quickly

When you have a Brush Tool (B) selected right click anywhere on your canvas.

Select any layer by hovering over it

Hover over an element in your canvas and while using the Move Tool (V)  hold down command (control on windows)  and left click. You now have selected that element’s corresponding layer in the layer palette. 2 caveats: if the layer is a group, PS will select the group. Second thing is this trick can be a little finicky because other layers above the one you want to select get in the way.

5 of my biggest freelance mistakes

1. Client giving you a bad vibe? Drop them asap. This is one of the hardest pieces of advice to follow, because even after 3 years of freelance I still ignore all the signs and give into the temptation of glamor and money. I was once asked to do a websites for an international TV show and for a medium sized corporation, both of those projects ended is disaster.
2. Dont’ work alone. If you don’t interact with other designers on a regular basis you risk losing sight of the important things like broadening your design skills and discovering new fields (typography, photo manipulation, javascript).
3. Personal projects are extremely important. Working with clients can really suck up all your energy and having at least 1 personal project (design a blog, business cards, manipulate photos, print t-shirts) can reignite your passion for design.
4. Never trust anyone. Freelancers are well positioned to be taken advantage of; we are commonly seen as contractors or expendable employees. Always make sure you have a deposit before you start work and get the client to sign off on an outline (or contract) of what is expected of you.
5. Give everything a time frame. I told one of my first clients I would do updates for $12 an hour, but as your portfolio grows so will your rates and I had to break it to the client that after 6 months of service my rates are going to increase. Not too professional on my part.