This Tips and Tricks post discusses my image research services and advice on bespoke photography, licensing and copyright, model release, free image resources, paid image resources, search terms and good practice.

You’ve heard the phrase ‘judge a book by its cover’, I’m sure and it’s very true when it comes to publishing, in particular, self-publishing when authors have more control of spend and choices. What to put on the cover and how to brief it, who to commission and who does what can be exhausting and overwhelming. I’m going to assume you’re an interested author. This blog post aims to give an overview of the styles of book covers, who does what and best practice. Grab a seat and a cuppa as it’s going to be a long but useful post!

The starting point is a clear direction. Your brand values affect messaging considerations and design preferences for your logo, making it so much easier to work with designers, copywriters, strategists and internal teams. Here’s some questions to consider.

It can be really easy to get into knots with websites. If you’re not sure what the goal is, then it’s tempting to add in plug-ins and features you may not need. I am planning my goals for this website and making a list of actions I need to take. As a website designer, it’s far too easy for me to start tinkering! I’ve deliberately sat on my hands on all my own sites this year until I had space in my diary to focus. December and January now feel like good times for me to review this website and I’ve scheduled the task into my diary. I thought it would be useful to make notes as I go along and document in future posts so that we can learn together. What do you think?

Earlier this summer, Carter and Cone and David Berlow’s Font Bureau removed all their fonts from the Adobe Font library. In March, House Industries also retired their fonts. Carter and Cone’s decision took away 50 families or 700 fonts. This isn’t uncommon, not all business relationships are endless, but it has an impact on creative work.

Have you ever wondered what file type works best on which platform and why? Maybe a file ending .AI has arrived in your emails and you can’t open it? And why can’t you use a TIFF on a website? Here’s a guide on what to use and where.

This video was made for Digital Women and covers 10 key areas of choosing fonts for your next project. I hope you find it useful!

There are lots of sites on the web that offer advice on fonts. Here’s my list of some of the best resources including books, blogs and learning tools. This page will be updated.