The Design Imposter

#22: Saying No to a Client: Setting Boundaries in Creative Work

This invaluable episode focuses on the importance of learning to say 'no' to maintain work-life balance, avoid overcommitting, and ensure high quality output.
Key topics cover setting boundaries, mental health impacts, client fit evaluation, alternatives like referrals, family prioritization, transition costs of switching tasks, and getting comfortable declining requests.
Takeaways emphasize that saying 'no' means saying 'yes' to something more important, improves effectiveness via focus, and prevents burnout. Action items target analyzing reasons behind 'no,' tracking reactions after declining, researching target communities, and aiming for value over originality.
Action Items
Analyze reasons behind declining requests and commitments over the next month
Track reactions after saying no to events, projects, or asks to evaluate impacts
Research target client communities more deeply to understand values and assumptions
Aim to produce quality work over quantity by saying no when overloaded
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#21: Creative Burnout for Designers

Feeling uninspired, unmotivated, or like a total imposter when it comes to your current design assignment?
In this episode, Monique & Jessica discuss the signs of burnout and get vulnerable with their own stories, struggles, and failures. They share methods to overcome burnout, like taking breaks, traveling, or simply asking for help.
 
Recognize burnout signs like exhaustion, cynicism, and imposter syndrome; contributors share personal stories of burnout triggers ranging from major life events to simple lack of inspiration. They outline holistic coping strategies from boundaries and self-care to community support and changing scenery. 
Action Items
Recognize subtle early warning signs like cynicism before reaching exhaustion stage of burnout
Implement self-care routines that provide mental space - exercise, gardening, meditation etc.
Seek community support through groups understanding creative roles and burnout issues
When uninspired, change scenery or project rather than forcing output
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#20: Entrepreneurial Goals for 2024

Have you added business goals to your list of New Year’s resolutions?In this episode of the Design Imposter, Monique and Jessica reveal their personal and professional goals for the new year. From hitting more listeners and increasing marketing for the podcast to setting income goals for the Creative Circle Company, they reassure listeners that it’s ok to set large financial goals and incorporate family time into your busy schedule. 
 
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#19: Navigating Disagreement with a Client

It’s the moment of truth—the design reveal! But the client hates it! How do you handle the criticism and feedback on your design?Join co-hosts Monique and Jessica on The Design Imposter Podcast for an insightful discussion on handling client feedback. In this episode, we delve into the complexities of dealing with clients who are not satisfied with a design. Learn how to differentiate between constructive criticism and personal taste, negotiate design changes while maintaining professional integrity, and when it's necessary to stand your ground on design elements. This conversation offers valuable strategies for effective communication and understanding in the challenging yet rewarding world of design. Tune in for an episode that’s as educational as it is relatable for designers navigating client relationships.
Action Items
Present clients with multiple design options
Ask clarifying questions to understand dislikes
Compromise on some elements while sticking to core design principles
Educate clients on best practices and when requests might detract from effectiveness
Don't include designs you're not proud of in portfolio
Free Brand Analysis Questionnaire Example
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#18: Identifying the Red Flags of a Terrible Client

Feel undervalued by your clients?Join us on The Design Imposter Podcast for a crucial discussion on recognizing when a client or project might not be the right fit. In this episode, we explore the early warning signs, from unclear goals to disrespect for your expertise. We delve into communication breakdowns, such as lack of responsiveness or overbearing behavior, and financial red flags like haggling over prices or delayed payments. Learn how to spot these issues early and trust your instincts to avoid potential headaches. Tune in for invaluable insights to help navigate the challenges of client relationships in the design world.
 
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#17: Defining a Niche + Identifying Your Ideal Client

Discover the art of defining a niche in our latest episode of The Design Imposter Podcast. We delve into the essential steps of identifying strengths, researching the market, aligning with audience needs, and refining your idea. This episode not only guides you through the process of niche development but also gives an inside look into how The Creative Circle Company established its unique position. By focusing on empowering small businesses and non-profits through effective UI/UX design, marketing, and SEO, we illustrate how to create a niche that resonates deeply with your community. Tune in for invaluable insights and a compelling case study demonstrating the power of a well-defined niche in the design and branding industry.
 
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#16: Black Friday/Cyber Monday Deals for Designers

Not sure where to look for designer Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals?Prep your wallet as Monique and Jessica divulge their not-so-secret design must-haves. Whether a graphic designer, website or UX designer, or aspiring entrepreneur and agency owner, here are resources they’ve snagged along their journey.From software discounts to office supply bargains and courses, here are a few of their business tools in their shopping carts.LogoPackageAdobeFigmaElementorAstra ProMy FontsHardware3 Axis Phone GimbalCoursesLinkedIn Mastery with Wendy MaynardBooksProfit FirstNEW to us!AdCreative
 
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#15: Proposal Writing Strategies for Freelance Designers

Nervous to send that next big proposal?
On this episode of the Design Imposter podcast, hosts, Monique and Jessica, discuss their proposal building strategies. They explore various programs for building templates and their unique applications.From Adobe and Google to all-in-one CRMs, and they’ll share the pros and cons of these platforms.If you’re a new designer, you’ll definitely want to tune in to see how you can create a winning proposal.We also encourage you to send over a draft of your proposal! We’d love to see your unique set up.
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#14: Free Branding Strategies for Professionals

Starting a business and don't have the capital to splurge on a designer or marketing agency?
We've got a few tricks and tips to keep your business brand professional without spending hundreds (or thousands) of dollars on a designer or designer programs like Adobe.
Choose company name and purchase domain
Set up professional company email accounts on new domain
Take headshots for team and edit with PFP Maker
Add headshots to Hubspot email signatures
Select Canva templates for social channels
Customize templates with brand colors and fonts
Appoint team member as brand ambassador
Create brand guidelines document
Make templates for stationery, presentations, etc.
Define target audience and brand voice
Review all materials to ensure consistent messaging and tone
Remember:
A brand is a product, service or concept that is publicly distinguished from other products, services or concepts so that it can be easily communicated and marketed. A brand is how a company differentiates itself from your brand.
Branding is the process of creating and disseminating the brand name, its qualities and personality. It's the feel a product or service gives you without having the product in your hand. And it's not your logo. 
 
→ Jessica's File Extension Cheat Sheet
 
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#13: Must-Have Chrome Extensions for Designers

Looking for design shortcuts to make life easier while using Chrome?
Jessica and Monique are back to spill the tea on Chrome extensions that will revolutionize the way you work!
Loom for Asynchronous Video Tutorials
UX Check for Heuristic Analysis
Tango for Interactive Instructions
Identifying Fonts with WhatFont and FontNinja
QuillBot for Rewriting and Optimizing Content
Grabbing Color Palettes with ColorZilla
Full Page Screenshots with GoFullPage
Downloading SVG Assets with SVG Grabber
 
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Transcription: 
 
Jessica Valis: Hello Imposters, and welcome to another episode of the Design Imposter podcast. Today, you're going to want to hone in and take some notes because we are sharing our secret weapons, our must -have Chrome extensions.
Monique Jenkins: Yes, Chrome extensions can make everything so much easier and more convenient and we wanna share some of our favorites so that you can use them in your business or in your life.
Jessica Valis: Yeah, I use the combination both business and life, but they kind of all coincide because everything I do on my computer is for my business. So I remember the last time I did anything for fun on my computer. That's what a phone sport is.
Monique Jenkins: I just watched Netflix on my computer the other day because I couldn't get the TV to work and I was like forget it I'll just use the computer. So I did something fun with my computer
Jessica Valis: I think the last time I did something fun with my computer, I was building an IKEA kitchen. And you could only do it on a desktop. So I was just, you know, just pretending I had to have a me moment.
Jessica Valis: Well, let's jump in. My clients, associates, and subcontractors love this one. It is called Loom. L -O -O -M. And I use it for quick video tutorials or just video check-ins. 
Jessica Valis: So essentially, you click this extension and you can be on any screen. You tell it where you want to record your video. And you essentially just do like a video walkthrough and you can explain different things. If I have a client and I want to explain how to make an update on their website, then I can show them the ste-by -step instructions on how to do it and walk them through. Or if I want to share with them how to edit a Google Drive or make a change in something or explain a design that I've created, I just record the Loom and then it creates a link which is really convenient and you can delete them when you're done. I think you get like 25 or 75, which is a big difference, Loom videos and then it's free, which is awesome. Then after a while, I just go back through and delete them, which is pretty cool. I also use it for like if I have an intern or something and I want to show them how to do something or an associate or a subcontractor, it's just overall like a great tool for tutorials and just like checking in.
Monique Jenkins: Yeah, I love Loom. I use it all the time with developers and project managers. I use it specifically to tell them that the design isn't right. I'm like, this button ain't working. This don't look good on mobile. But yeah, so testing platforms, specifically when I'm testing out design after I've already passed over a wire for the engineers, I go through NQA everything and I use Loom to let them know like, hey, this button isn't exactly right or I'm getting some weird configurations or things are slowly loading or whatever the case is, I am able to use Loom to show them exactly what I'm talking about. I think sometimes it's a little difficult to describe when you're writing out what the problem is, but because they can see exactly what I'm seeing on my screen, our engineers are able to tag a specific action or something inside of an interface so they can go back and look exactly at the action that I took. And be able to dissect what exactly is going wrong and to figure out stats on how many times this is going wrong with different audience segment and things like that. So I absolutely loves Loom. And I also used it at a company when I went on maternity leave. I created a bunch of Loom videos about file structures and how the design assets needed to be labeled and stuff like that to pass off to the designers that I was leaving behind because they were relatively new to our organization. And just being able to explain where things are located, team structures, all of that jazz in a much more friendly way than just giving them a block of text, I really, really fell in that it was helpful for them. And I think they found it to be helpful too. I still wrote 14 pages of content, but I also included video snippets for all of the respective sections. And that was helpful for me. And now I use it as like training. So you bring a new person in, I can use this 15 page maternity doc that I set up for training.
Jessica Valis: I completely agree. There's a difference between sending somebody instructions with screenshots in an email versus having it live and showing them exactly where you're clicking, what you're doing, demonstrating that, "no, this actually doesn't work."" Or look at this, this is where it goes and redirects to." So when they can see it live versus you just saying, "Oh, it doesn't work," I think it makes a huge difference.
Jessica Valis: And I think it's great that you were able to use it for maternity leave. I know that for Wells Fargo, this would be completely blocked. And there's a lot of places that'll be like, "No, you can't have Chrome extensions." But if you are an agency owner or a freelancer, this is definitely a tool that you need to have on your computer.
Jessica Valis: What about you? What's a must have tool?
Monique Jenkins: I think for me, a top one would be UX Check. It is a Chrome extension that you use to pinpoint usability issues through heuristic valuation. If you don't know what a heuristic valuation is, it's a technique aimed at uncovering design flaws within a user interface. It ensures that your system is user -friendly. There are ten principles of Jacob Nelson's laws. You essentially go through in this Chrome extension and label things that are not correct. For example, if you click a button and there's no action, you can use this Chrome extension to highlight the button that doesn't have any action. You can label one of the ten rules that it's breaking. You can write a little bit of content about it. You can also select the severity of how it breaks the rule. Maybe you have a severity one for a type that isn't correct. Maybe they missed a block of type and it's a different font or something like that. You'd have a severity 10 if you clicked a button and it didn't go anywhere because the user is waiting and they don't understand what's happening. I use that all the time when I'm initially starting out with a client and running through their website to make sure of the things that I'm missing or things that aren't user -friendly as we're going through a project. I can start to say these are all of the problems that I've seen so far. A heuristic valuation is your own valuation. It's you going through and doing all of the QA work on a site that you haven't touched yet.
Jessica Valis: I was just going to say this is a great quality control tool. Even if you're not in UX, if you're just a web developer or a website designer just running this plugin and then say, "Oh shoot, I forgot to format this text" or like you said the buttons and this sounds great.
Jessica Valis: I did not have this installed, but while we were talking, I went ahead and installed it. So, I'll have to give my review as a non-UX designer.
Monique Jenkins: Yeah, it's really good because I use it as a checklist. I'm like, "oh Monique, don't forget that, you know, this button doesn't work. Don't forget that these links don't work. Don't forget that. Da -da -da -da -da -da." I mean, after you finish like doing, you know, all of your critique of this specific site, you're able to download it as a Word doc and then how we just go through and check it off. Yeah, it's super awesome. Oh, that sounds...
Jessica Valis: Yeah, that sounds great, especially if you have some associates or interns or somebody else who can go through like this definitely alleviates a lot of time. Now, can you put this in mobile view as well and do it?
Monique Jenkins: Yes. So if you use your InSpec tool, I think you can put it in Mobile View and do it as well. You can't do it natively in the application. But given a shot, I always get two people to go through a QA because you're going to find different things. You're going to focus on different things, just depending on what your specialty is. And then you can combine your list together and then you have a cumulative list of all the things that are incorrect about the site.
Jessica Valis: Another must have extension for me that is a perfect learning tool for clients is Tango. And it is a step -by -step written instruction guide.
 
Jessica Valis If I have a client who is maybe working on a newsletter and they don't know how to format their newsletter or which newsletter to pick, then I can turn on the Tango extension, go log into their Mail Chimp or wherever they have their newsletters, and then I can show them, like, "I click this, then you click this, and then I do that."  And in place of a video, it's just another form of learning. 
Jessica Valis: Tango goes in and it records and writes out the action that you did. So it'll say, click login, and then it'll take a picture of the login screen. If you write in text, it will take a picture of the text that you write in. So if you're giving like a prompt or something. And I also use this too for if I'm giving instructions for, "hey, I need you to add me as a, you know, give me delegate access on your GoDaddy." And so then I can go in and create them. And once you create a couple of your to-dos, then, I mean, you just save these to your library and anytime you have a client that has this question, you've already got the, you know, the answer to it, it's written up in your language.
Jessica Valis: When you download it, there's a paid version, of course, and there's a free version. And when you download it for free, it's going to have the Tango branding on it. I don't generally try to have like 30 pages worth of instructions. I might go up to six pages total. So when I open the PDF, it'll have the Tango logo at the bottom. And I just go in and I replace it with a Harford Designs logo. And then I might just delete the Tango cover letter and add my own custom cover letter. But again, because I'm reusing these multiple times, it's a little bit of work that, you know, in the end, everyone appreciates. And I don't have to go in and take these screenshots and format and write the text in.
Jessica Valis: And it does allow you, after you've like completed the actions and you're ready to save it, it does let you go in and delete steps. So if you accidentally click on something too many times or you hit the back button, you can go in and delete it. And you can also elaborate on a step. So I might say, or the program might say, you know, click the login button. But I might add click the login button on the top right hand corner under the big blue whatever, just a little bit more instruction. Yeah. So you can go ahead and edit. So that's my that's a big one for me.
Monique Jenkins: I have never used Tango, but I'm going to, because I find myself having to type out the same things. I'm not as diligent with you in regards to clients. And clients always ask like, hey, we've never used WordPress before. Can you show us how to, da, da, da, da, da, da. And I'm like, sure, sure, let me write that out. So I think that this is a good, like you said, time saving method and showing someone how to do something. There are things inside of the WordPress application that you're going to have to show 50 different clients. And if you can create this super interactive kind of guide that's visual, cause people don't read, and pass that off to them, I think all the better, cause you're able to like, you know, do all your due diligence, pass it over. They can look at it and follow the things or follow the guide step by steps. And then even if they come back to you with issues on their end, like probably, problem shooting issues, you probably will have another client who has something similar and you can always add that to your overarching guide. Like if this happens, this is what you do, kind of thing. So I haven't used Tengopa, I certainly will.
Jessica Valis: You don't even need to be a designer necessarily. Like if you work in finances, for example, and you wanted to show your client how to register for a special account, you could click through the steps and record it and then again, add your own branding.
Jessica Valis: But if you are a designer, another way you can use this is with course creation. So I started creating a course about building the perfect about us page. So in addition to having a template and writing things out on the actual page, I went through and clicked record and recorded the steps on like how I did this or just like learning the design program. I haven't finished this course yet. It's been in the works for like a year. Because I only build courses during my downtime, which is usually like December, January, and then it picks up again. So we'll get back to courses whenever. But again, it's a really great learning tool for your clients or other designers. Yeah.
Monique Jenkins: Nice. My next one is technically two. I might give you two on a couple of these because there are applications that I started with and the applications that I later migrated to. So, first one is WhatFont and it's a Chrome plugin that's used to identify fonts you see while exploring the web. So, if you've ever been to a site, you're like, oh, this is a super cool font. I know the perfect use for this with a client or a project that's coming up. I want to use this font. You can use the Chrome extension to figure out what font it is. So I absolutely love WhatFont. But then eventually I found FontNinjas and that's really good because it allows you to bookmark that font and come back to it later. So it stores the information about the font and it tells you where you can grab the font from. So it'll tell you if there's a free source you can grab it from or if there's a paid version of the font that you can grab it from. So I find that super helpful because there are a million fonts that I've seen that I've like, oh, this is so cool. I will say with FontNinja, I think it gives you like five fonts before you pay for it. Like if you want to have unlimited amount of fonts to store, but the first five are free and I believe you can delete them and then add more fonts at least once you figure out So I think it's really helpful or once you use some inner projectors of it.
Jessica Valis: I do have Font Ninja installed on my Chrome, but I can't say I've actually used it before. I feel like I have so many extensions at the top and I just, you know, I've got to pick and choose which ones I really want. So that one has never made it pinned. So now you're making me go through and figure out which ones I need to unpin and repin.
Monique Jenkins: Yeah, I literally did it like a couple days ago. I was like, hmm, I use this one more. Let's move this up the pile I don't use these anymore. Let's move these down. So I I highly recommend and re -evaluate the Chrome extensions that you have pinned up here because I believe that I've probably pinned some that I'm like I'm never gonna use that
Jessica Valis: I'm literally doing this as we're recording. I'm like, "okay, get rid of this one, get rid of that." And it is always helpful to know what font you're using. There's the free one, what is it? Whatthefont.com and you'll put in a picture of what the font is and it never comes up with the paid foundries that everybody knows. It always comes up with these free downloads, which if you're a designer, you should know, don't go for the free downloads because you don't know where they're coming from. And they're just, a lot of them are just really sloppy. So it's always good to pay for your fonts.
Monique Jenkins: Yep. Yeah, I always have problems with what the font. So. Well, use font engine is really good because I'm like, it shows you what the font looks like regular, what it looks like italicized. It tells you if this is a system font versus a font that you need to go purchase from somewhere. Like it gives you a lot of context, which I like because I'm like, oh, I'm probably the likelihood of me saying like, I'm going to go look at that later and not get back to it. Extremely high, extremely high. So I need to like someone to store all of that information somewhere. So I could be like, oh, I know where I could find some fonts. And like, it's just a good like space for me to come back later and be like, oh, I know I have some killer font saved and font ninja. And I can go back and look at those when I'm starting a project.
Jessica Valis: What does it even matter? We all know you're using Poppins and Montserrat, so. I know. We have a problem. Just the same ones on repeat.
Monique Jenkins: I'm trying to get away, guys. I'm trying to break free of the addiction that I have to the pop music. I know, but they're just...
Jessica Valis: They're just it's just so clean and
Monique Jenkins: I know but
Jessica Valis: everything's symmetrical.
Monique Jenkins: I know that makes me not want to use it.
Jessica Valis: I know gotta fight it.
Jessica Valis: All right, so this one is one of our favorites is Quillbot and when I'm doing anything in a word document or—um, not Word—Google; because let's be honest; I haven't opened Microsoft Word in agess because we're working on a Mac here.
Jessica Valis: Or if I'm adding content to a client's website or if I'm adding a blog post. I have the quillbot extension. It opens up—you're probably gonna want to pay its subscription. I have the premium one if you don't have the premium one you only get a couple, like maybe a paragraph, that you can put in at a time but with the paid version you can put in like an entire —you know—page of text if you want and then you've got the different modes so this is also really good for if I'm doing something quick on social media or I don't even know. I just I just pop it open all the time when I'm like, let me see how I can do this different
Monique Jenkins: Yeah, I'm obsessed with Quillbot. I will say I have never used the Chrome plugin. I have it, I downloaded it, it's up there. I just never go to it. I legitimately just use the .com. I do have the paid version, but I don't know why. I just, I'm like, I know where I can go real quick. Also, there are like five people in my family stealing my login for Quillbot, just to use it for like the relative things that they're doing. Brian uses it to like curate his emails now for work and stuff like that. So it comes into great use in this family. That and chat, chat, chat. I'm never gonna get this right guys. Chat, GPT, yeah, that program too. you
Jessica Valis: Um, okay. Real side note about chat GPT, my husband had never really heard about it until this week. Um, I was, I've keep talking about this, like on the campaign trail and somebody messaged me, uh, afterwards cause they don't like me. And that's going to happen when you're in politics. I mean, if I'm going to be in this position, I was like, "you know, let me bridge the gap." So I wrote an email and then I put it into chat GPT and told it to rewrite it.
 
Jessica Valis  Um, and my husband was, and I read it out to my husband and he was like, ""wait, what was that? And I'm like, "you know, this is AI. You could tell it to do anything."
Jessica Valis: So then he pulls it up and he's like, uh, he's telling it like "Write a murder mystery as if I'm a little baby." And then it was like, "there was a big scary man. Period. He's trying to hurt people. Period. So then he just went to town on it."
 
Jessica Valis And I was, he was like asking me questions and I was like, "You know, there is an entire podcast episode dedicated to this. If you want to listen." "I don't have time to listen to it." "You don't have time to listen to your wife's podcast?"
Monique Jenkins: Every single one every Monday. He's probably the first person who listens to us on Mondays He's like I just put it on and I'm like listening and I'm like working I'm like, yeah, you better support trying to pay these bills, bro But yes, I get the first the first time I gave it to him. I think it's still my first My first like chat you to pee like history thing is like he was like right a hundred page paper About the Civil War and it did and I was like Brian where you gonna use this? He's like, I'm not but he started reading it. He's I was like, what's wrong with you? No one's gonna reach a hundred page paper about the Civil War He's like, this is super interesting. That was like he's been using it. Oh my gosh I know ever since but I was that is my first thing also chat gtp if you listen it Pt get gpt. Sorry. I can't get your name right. I told you you need to change it already But I'm saying you need to add some search functionality to this because like I know key words of things that I've Used for chat gpt But I don't know where the hell it is and trying to scroll back through that long list that I have on the side of all The things that I have ever asked it. I hate it. I hate it Where's the place where we can use her test with me because I'm really having a problem With like finding the stuff that I need to specifically if I'm like write this at a conversational tone and it's perfect And I want to go back and use that same like chat window So I keep all of the things about conversational tones in the same place And they make it me so now and I got to go through like safety Different like prompts that I've asked this program to do because they can't it won't let me search Do this
Jessica Valis: I generally keep them all organized together. So there is a design imposter thread. And now it's like, it understands the role of design imposter and I just keep it all organized in one thing. Or if I'm writing a blog entry or what did I do? I had a friend and associate, she needed to rewrite a bunch of blog posts for a client. So I was like, "we're gonna use chatGPT because we just need it for the SEO. Like nobody's actually reading these articles, but we need to get keywords in." I was like, "keep using the same chatGPTscreens that it like stores that data and it like really understands who the client is. So, but anyways, that's just like a little side thingy.
Monique Jenkins: I'm telling you, I didn't do that at first. And I have like 57 different things that have designed imposter stuff in it. And I'm like, oh, it got this really, really good in this one chat. And I want to keep using that one, but having a scroll through to find out what the hell that happened, bro, I ain't got time. I'd just be like, oh, I guess we started from scratch again. So yes, if you could do this for me, Monique, come on, your friend. Just make search functionality so that I don't have to consider you to go through this or just filter functionality so that I can figure out how this is all that work for me. I'm just saying, give me a chance. Give me a chance to thrive.
Jessica Valis: There is a chat GPT for Google extension, which I'm sure it's been there for a long time, but I have not used it. Yeah, I haven't used that one either. I'm loyal. It says, display chat GPT responses alongside search engine results. So I might have to, I'm going to add this one and test it out and I'll let you guys know how it goes in an upcoming episode. All right. What do you have for us? What's another one?
Monique Jenkins: The other one that I use pretty frequently is called Color Picker Tool Gecko. It lets you create color libraries from any website that you visit, which I am obsessed with. I routinely go to sites and be like, I like this color palette. I like this scheme. And it lets you, just like you can inside of like any Adobe product, it lets you create like a library for that specific thing or specific site. You can name it and then you can start a new library that you want to have for something else. And I freaking love it. Like it's absolutely my favorite. I'm using it all the time. I have one that has our design imposter like color scheme in there. Have another one that has our color scheme for our new business and they are what I'm thinking of for our new business in there. So I love it. It gives you all of your values, your RGB, your HSL, all the things, all the things it gives you and I freaking am obsessed with it. And you can download them.
Jessica Valis: So when you download it, does it give you all the color codes and everything?
Monique Jenkins: I don't know, because I don't use the downloads, but it gives you a SVG file, so I'm assuming that.
Jessica Valis: Okay, okay. I'm down with the SVG but I hate—
Monique Jenkins I just downloaded it.
Jessica Valis: Did it give you the color codes?
Monique Jenkins Yeah, it gave me the hex codes, RGD, and then HLS.
Jessica Valis: Because I hate when I have to like, open up Illustrator or another program because somebody sends me their branding guide and they don't have the hex codes. I'm like, "Come on, what are you doing here?" But I mean, I guess if you can just go to their website and grab the hex codes, that would be amazing.
Monique Jenkins: Yeah, I do it all the time. I'm absolutely obsessed with this color picker tool. And Brian just told me about another one the other day. He was like, I'm not a designer, but I use design stuff too. I don't know why he's using. I have no idea. I'm like, I don't know why you're using it. But he uses one called Color Hunt that I've never seen before and never heard of. And it's the same thing. It's like curated color palettes, but it has a functionality where you can add the Chrome extension. And in the Chrome extension, you can tell it every time you open a new tab to give you a new color palette scheme. So instead of like opening a new tab and seeing Google, I open a new tab now and I see a different color palette scheme. And I'd be like, I really don't understand like why he's using this. And I don't want to tell him that it's good, but it's good. I don't know how he came up. I don't know why. I don't know how. But he has a color palette. And I'm like, this is very design husband of you. What is it? What's it called? It's called Color Hunt. Color Hunt.
Jessica Valis: I don't know if I'm going to be downloading this one because I already have so many things.
Monique Jenkins: Me too. But every time it gives me a new color palette, I'm like, ooh, this is nice.
Jessica Valis: I feel like that's the hard thing is finding new color palettes and it's nice that you can go on a different side and be like, oh, this is nice. I want to save this. Yep. Because, you know, I think I did this the other day where I took a screenshot and it would have just been nice to just grab all the colors. Yeah.
Monique Jenkins: I've had so many screenshots. I've taken so many screenshots of people's websites and then brought it in Photoshop and then use iDropper tool, figure out the hex code and then write the hex code down so we can create a color palette and it's just exhausting. Just give it to me.
Jessica Valis: There needs be a better way to sort out screenshots and be like, this one is because I like the design. This one is because I like the colors and the fun. But I guess that is the whole point of this episode is to make life easier with these Chrome extensions.
Monique Jenkins: Yeah, we need to make a Chrome extension on-screen job.
Jessica Valis: Oh, I got that. So this tool is specific for website designers. I mean, really could be for anybody, but it is GoFullPage. And it is a screenshot of the entire webpage from top to bottom. So you're not just taking a screenshot of what you can view. You can take a screenshot of the entire thing. So if you are a website designer and maybe your client wants to see, "oh, how far along in the site are you?" You can send them a full page screenshot and be like, here you go. Because if you've done this once, you know you will never do it again, which is to send them the development link. So if they wanna check in and see, "oh, how does this look now that I changed the text?" It looks like this. And we're not, that's it. That's it, you could see it one time, but that's it. You're not going through the development site and you're not refreshing. But I also, in addition to sending this off to clients to review, I also use this for my mockups from my portfolio. Or for grabbing different phases of a project.
Monique Jenkins: Yeah, I use this for site maps whenever I'm working with clients. So I routinely have to do a site architecture. I revise the architecture with clients, and I copy all of their website pages. First, I need to know how many pages we're going to be redesigning or what could be templatized. But second, I want to know what it looked like before we touched it, how much content was in each section. It helps me to tell them, like, hey, you need to cut some stuff here and things like that. So I routinely go through the entirety of someone's website and I copy all of the pages. And then I do too. I like house the ones that are nested and things like that. So I am absolutely obsessed. I heard about this app or this Chrome plugin from a co -worker of mine named Jeff. He's like, it's amazing. You have to use it. And I've been obsessed ever since.
Jessica Valis: Yeah, I usually have interns like make the mockups and then I'm always like, you know, make the mockups one for me and two for you because you get to use this. So sometimes when they grab screenshots of things they'll grab like from the logo to the end of the navigation and then they put that in the mockup and you're like, oh, it's so like, it's way too big. It's like, it would never be this big on a computer. So use the FullPage, grab the whole thing, get the buffer in white space and it's awesome. I use this Chrome extension too with the site maps because I take before and after pictures and I love to have that side by side to show everybody like this is what the page looked like before, this is what it looked like after. And when you download it, it'll open up in a new browser window and you have the option of downloading it as a PNG or as a PDF. PNG gives you the screenshot all in one view and the PDF breaks it up into multiple pages which I'm not a huge fan of because sometimes you want things to be in that PDF and then if you do open it up in Photoshop later, you gotta align it. You just want the highest quality, but that's not a PNG. So it definitely has flaws and maybe I'm just not playing around with the settings enough, but yeah, cause we're all busy, but I love this tool. I use it all the time. Anytime I have a website, before and afters at least and then if clients want check -ins and it's not during a meeting or something.
Monique Jenkins: Also, I really do like the fact that when you do use GoFullPage, it saves all of the websites that you download screenshots from. If you go to your files, you can see everything that you have ever downloaded.
Jessica Valis: I feel like a noob. I have never done this before. All right. I'm going to just take a screenshot of something random on Google and then see what happens. Okay. See an edit. Oh, okay. It has layers more. I'm going to just have to play with this more because I did not know it did this. It is annoying though because I took a screenshot of a Google document and you can see everywhere that it's like, oh, Quillbot wants to make a recommendation to change this and there's like a thousand markers. So it's not good for every application, but that's why we talked about using Bloom and Hangout.
Monique Jenkins: You can also change the image format. Like if you don't want to natively see PNGs, you can change it to JPEGs if you want JPEGs.
Jessica Valis: I thought this was my tool and now it's going to be your I love it. I think you're always teaching me things.
 
Monique Jenkins  And hindsight, I think I passed this one to you. I can't remember. I think I was like, oh, somebody named Jeff told me about this. But you may have. You may have. I don't play around with it as much as I am claiming to right this second. But I recently saw that you can go back. So I was like, I know that I screen shot it something. Where is it? Also, it saves me from having to download the screenshot of a page that I've probably looked at 17 times. And have 17 different versions of somewhere in my download.
Jessica Valis: Yep. Do you have any others? For us today, no. No.
Monique Jenkins: Let me see. No, I told you about that.
Jessica Valis: I have so many that I just need to test out, but I just haven't had an opportunity. All right, I have one more before we sign off, and that is SVG Grabber. And it will grab all the SVGs on a page. So you click it, like I just pulled up Part for Designs, I clicked SVG Grabber, and it pulled up all the icons I've used on the site. It pulled up my logo, which is an SVG. And then there's like a couple others. I can't really tell what it is because it might be a white SVG. I don't know. But that's a really useful tool if you need to like grab somebody's logo or something.
Monique Jenkins: I love that because I'm always like the amount of times that I've worked with clients and I mean from Deloitte to Joe's warehouse who sent me a freaking JPEG of their site that was in a low resolution. I'm like, what am I going to do with this guys? Where is your designer? What am I going to do with this? And me having to like search the web to find some freaking version of their vector bothers That is the worst.
Jessica Valis: That is the worst if you have to go on Google and type in like, well, it's Fargo SVG file. Like let me just open the site and grab it. And cause sometimes they really like, they really embed that SVG file. Cause they don't want people taking their, you know, their images. So, you know, you got to do what you got to do. Or sometimes you're like, you know, the client and like, hey, can you send me your logo, like all local versions? And they only send you the pixelated JPEG. And you're like, what am I supposed to do with this? Yeah, I use Brick.
Monique Jenkins: brands around the world for like everything, but they have like the oldest version of the logo sometimes and not the new ones. But they have a, if you're looking for someone's logo, I promise you they probably have it. They have downloadable vector logos for almost every single company out there. I won't tell you that it will be the latest version of the logo, but it will be a version of it. Nice. Although, interestingly, and in the realm of like companies not having access to their SVGs or EPS or AI versions of their logos, I heard an argument on Instagram the other day from designers that they don't provide their clients with the vectorized version of their logo. They only provide them with a JPEG, a PNG, and like a PDF of it. And they were like, if they have a good designer, they'll know what to do with those.
Jessica Valis: What? I don't do that. I give them everything. They paid for everything.
Monique Jenkins: Exactly. I was like, look, I tell clients all the time, if we're working on a logo together, you're paying for the final version of your logo. Any ideation that happened, you might see that again in the world, so don't worry about that, because that is not yours. You're not buying all of the experience. You're buying this specific instance that you like. I was like, but why are you guys not giving them their final trials? That's crazy to me. If someone, and I mean, I guess now hindsight being 2020, I've had a lot of clients say, like, I don't have a vectorized version of my logo. I only have a PNG of it, because that's the all the designer gave me. Apparently, designers are not giving high -risk versions or vector versions of their own work.
Jessica Valis: I had a client that they were a marketing agency and they kept just sending me these like JPEGs, PNGs and I'm like, can your designer just start sending me like the SVGs? Because, oh, they also started sending me the PDFs and I was like, I mean, I know you guys are designing it. Can you maybe just send me all the files because I have to, you're making me do an extra step. I got to open this in Illustrator, save it as an SVG. I got to make sure that you've outlined all your fonts and everything. So, yeah, just give them all the files, give them what they paid for.
Monique Jenkins: Exactly. I don't like it, guys. I think that's a wrap!
Jessica Valis: Yeah. If you guys have any recommendations on Chrome extensions, we'd love to test them out. Give us an email at hello@thedesignimposterpodcast.com.
Monique Jenkins: Yes, reach out to us. Talk to us about things. All right, bye.