Good Stuff
Tools & People I Love & Recommend
My desire for the right tool borders on obsession. From sketching first concepts with pen and ink to launching powerful software, I delight in what feels right in my hands; brings my ideas, objectives, creativity to life; works with graceful precision; or enlightens and connects me.
Below is an ever-changing list in my quest for the best. Be sure to come back. I make updates frequently.
Measure Your Marketing
Get Clicky
A prettier way to view your website stats and understand your visitors.
Kiss Metrics
A great way to get to know your website visitors by asking questions and offering surveys.
Self Publish Your Book or Magazine
Print on demand
Blurb
Easy peasy book publishing
MagCloud
Affordable magazine publishing
ReadyMag
Super easy, dynamic digital publishing for browsers, tablets and smartphones
Digital Printers
Conveyor Arts
Excellent customer service and a sweet portfolio of artists books. They have a nice range of papers and cover printing options. Book a printing slot early.
Edition One Books
Another digital book printer I recommend. They, like Conveyor specialize in artists’ books.
Printers for Promotional
& Identity Pieces
Digital
Moo.com
Affordable, high-quality print promotion and identity printer. I love Moo for many things but I personally would avoid their “letterpress” business cards and give my money to an artisan letterpress printer.
Modern Postcard
Great reproduction, excellent customer service and a super easy process.
Letterpress printing
Mama's Sauce
Super friendly and beautiful work. They also offer screen printing. An invitation I designed for a friend/client were printed with them.
The Cranky Pressman
Gotta love the copy on their website. Nice, responsive and they have excellent information about letterpress printing.
Backup & Share Files
Dropbox
A great place to store, backup and share lot of files but I wouldn't store anything confidential or financial here. It does work great for collaborative projects when many files need to be shared/distribute to a group.
WeTransfer
A great and free service that allows you to share a folder of gigantic files.
SpiderOak
I’ve researched how secure many of the cloud-based storage and sharing services are and SpiderOak wins. The only other service I would consider paying good money for would be Wuala by LaCie.
Others I've tried
Minbox
Super zippy file sharing app
CloudApp
Sharing files made easy via mac
Browser Add-ons
PicScout ImageExchange
Find and buy images. Easy peasy.
Chrome SEO
Check your keywords, backlinks, pagerank and more.
Tin Eye
Find out where you images are being used or how to find images
Design and Build a Website
Coda
For elegant hand coding of HTML and CSS
Sketch3
Seriously, say goodbye to Photoshop. Design wireframes and high-fidelity mockups for any screen size. Super intuitive and a great community to boot.
Squarespace
Easy, low-maintenance website creation platform. Beautiful straight out-of-the-box.
Splash
Perfect for promoting an event. It has a lot of great features including integration with social media tools for live streaming your event.
ExpressionEngine
Robust content management system for those who require complex functionality and content relationships
Website Hosting
Sustainable Web Hosting (Canvas Host)
{Affiliate link} Excellent customer service and good for the planet.
SiteGround
{Affiliate link} Excellent customer service and great WordPress expertise.
Edit and Manage Your Photographs
To manage my photography archives
Photo Mechanic
The fast and easy way to edit, pair and rate your images
Lightroom
Super beefy (for me) but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty amazing.
Sell Your Photographs
Photoshelter
The best way to sell your images and share with your clients. Secure, stable and a great resource for photographers
Sell Your Products
EventBrite
Sell tickets, classes, events and more. Easy to use and easy to brand and integrate with your website.
Shopify
If I had a lot of products to sell, this would be the service I would use. I’d also recommend getting in touch with this designer to help customize your Shopify storefront.
Travel
Karma Go
Take WiFi with you everywhere. Use my code for $10 off yours: Deborah invites you to join Karma | Karma
You can learn more about how it works but if you want $10 off before, come back to this and use the link above.
Verizon JetPack MiFi
We were using this before we discovered Karma Go. Works great; just more expensive.
Hire Talented Creative Partners
Kelly Parkinson : Copylicious
Business Advisor. Marketing consultant.
Dawn Klingensmith
Copywriter. All-around wordsmith.
ExpressionEngine Developer
Detail-oriented. A designer’s developer.
WordPress Developer
Excellent WordPress developer. Reliable and responsive.
My Favorite Typefaces
Sweet Sans, Pitch, Quickpen, Dalliance … oh I have more I just can't think of them right now.
Tools for Teaching & Presentation
Screenflow
For training my customers how to update and manage their new websites and giving feedback to my students
GradeBooPro app
The alternative to Excel spreadsheets for tracking grades, attendance and more.
Slide Captain
Stylish online presentation tool
Flowvella (formerly Flowboard)
Gives Keynote some competition.
Social Media Management
HootSuite
To manage my Twitter strategy while at the desktop, laptop, or iPhone; keep up-to-date with my community; and engage my customers
BufferApp
Simple management and analytics for your social media accounts. They also make great suggestions for content. It comes without the noise of multiple streams.
Share Your Photography
Instagram
Hands down the best place to share images and be discovered.
Exposure
“Photo narratives” big and beautiful.
Storehouse
An app that pulls in all types of content for you to tell any story (recipes, photo essays, fashion shows, and more).
Flickr
To share photos with my family, friends, and colleagues
500px
Another great place to share your images with a larger community
My “Happy Snap” Cameras
Polaroid SX-70
If I had more play money, I’d buy more film and make so many more polaroids.
Fuji Finepix x10
Years ago, photography worked its way into my soul, life, and work. Lightweight, unobstrusive, stylish.
Publications I Love
More Magazine
Makes me feel smart and beautiful even at “a certain age.”
Audrey
A magazine devoted to featuring and sharing the Asian American female experience. If only this had been around when I was a teenager!
The New York Times
Conveniently delivered to my inbox with top-notch storytelling
National Geographic
One of the best places to see stellar photography
National Geographic TRAVELER
The magazine I have loved since it first came out; the best travel magazine on the planet.
Website Magazine
Another magazine that helps me stay on top of industry tools, topics and trends.
Dot Net Magazine
A must-read magazine for web design and development professionals.
Fast Company
Engaging design and a way to keep my finger on the pulse on the intersection of technology, design and business
Entrepreneur
Stories of amazing people and their amazing businesses.
Photo District News (PDN)
Keeping current on what is important to photographers is important to me.
Gourmet Magazine
How I miss it! Delicious photography, delicious recipes, stories from around the world.
Organic Gardening
The gardener in me digs getting dirt in her nails.
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