If you are like me, you may struggle with getting to sleep on time. I could be severely tired, yet still end up staying up later than I want to and then not being able to wake up on time. Here are some tips I have learned that help me to be able to fall asleep when I want too. If you are struggling with insomnia and have tried all these tips, consult with a doctor for their recommendations.
Stop Drinking Caffeine at Noon
People react differently to caffeine. For some people, it gives them energy, focus, and increased motivation. Some people don’t notice the affects of caffeine at all. I like to drink caffeine in the morning and maybe have more at lunch time. I have found for myself that if I drink caffeine later than about noon-1pm, I will have a harder time winding down for bed. Even if my body is tired, if I drink caffeine too late, my mind will be buzzing and i have a harder time relaxing and calming down. Even if you don’t feel like caffeine has an affect on you at night, this is something you could try and see if it helps to let you be sleepier and more relaxed before bed.
Create a Night Routine
A night routine can help you at night by creating healthy habits that make you feel accomplished, relaxed and ready for the next day. It also helps to take the decisions out of what you should do before bed. The night routine I have created for myself to aid me in going to bed on time and being prepared for the next day is too: Choose my outfits for the next day, set out the food I will be brining with me to work and school, planning my schedule for the next day, and making sure I tracked my calories. I then eat dinner. After eating dinner I wash my face and brush my teeth. I then lay in bed and read for a half and hour to an hour until I fall asleep. This is the night routine that I have developed recently and am working on making into long term habits. I don’t expect myself to follow this on the weekend, except for washing my face and brushing my teeth right after eating. By creating this routine and have set times for when I should do these tasks, I don’t really have to think about what i need to do when I’m really tired. I am very bad at making healthy decisions when I’m tired so just following this routine helps me stay on track with my goals. It helps me to feel prepared for the next day and to be the healthiest I can be.
Limit Screen Usage Before Bed
An important thing I have found to make sure my brain is sleepy and my body is relaxed is to stop looking at screens at least an hour before bed. Phone, TV, tablet, computer screens, etc. are very harsh on your eyes especially at night. Social media, movies, and the internet may be making your brain more awake before bed than you realize. I find If I start scrolling on my phone in bed it is really hard to stop and does not make me feel more tired or willing to go to sleep. I have found for myself that reading a book with a reading light is a great way to go through the rest of your mental energy before bed, relax your body, and have you time before bed. Other hobbies like stretching, meditating, or doing something calming and relaxing in low light would probably also work.
Have a Plan for the Next Morning
I have found that if I am prepared and excited for the next day ahead, It is a lot easier for me to fall asleep. When I know exactly what I am going to do the next day and what I need to do right away when I wake up, it makes me feel more excited for the next day and wanting to go to bed on time so I can wake up with energy and accomplish my goals.
Those are my tips for being able to get to sleep easier. Let me know if you have tried any of these and what tips you have for going to bed on time.
Design is a very creative field, but it also uses math, logic, and reason to aid in designing. For example, a flyer, advertisement, banner, poster, etc. will all be designed within the dimensions of a page. A common dimension for a flyer would be 8.5″ x 11″ (8.5 inches wide and 11 inches tall) This is the common size of a sheet of paper. Print advertisements and posters are more likely to be in custom sizes that require a more specialized printer.
You can also have dimensions of design in terms of pixels. Pixel sizing is used when you are creating a design that will be displayed on smartwatch, phone, tablet, TV, and computer screens.
Sizing and math is important in terms of the photos you use in your design, the font size, and the sizes of shapes. From small to large sizing there are different challenges you will face with your designs.
Designing on small dimensions means that you will have to make sure your design can still be read and noticed. You may have to have less elements in your design, because there is not as much space to work with. Larger designs mean that the elements must be much larger. You also have to take into consideration how close the viewer will be when looking at your design. If they are going to be looking at it from close up (1-2 feet away) you can get away with making the text very small. If they are going to be looking at it from a far distance and for not very long (for example a billboard on the side of the road) you will need to make the elements very large and easy to take in at a glance.
Sizing is also very important to consistency in your design. You must develop a method to the sizing of your type, shapes, and images. For example you may have a specific size to use for the main heading, sub headings, body copy, and captions within a single design that you will want to stick to.
If you want an element of your design like an image to take up 1/3, 1/4, 1/2, 2/3, or 3/4 of your design space, you can figure this out easily by taking the total length or width of your design and applying the fraction to it. For example, if a graphic you are making is 400 pixels tall and you want the image to take up 3/4 of the space, take 400 divided by 4 (100) and than multiply that number by 3 (300). So to for the image to take up 3/4 of the space vertically it would need to be 300 pixels tall.
This is how you can use a basic understanding of math to help aid you in your designs.
To develop creative ideas, it can be useful to find inspiration in movies, TV shows, songs, images, and other creative works that you enjoy. Without copying something that has already been created, there are many things you can learn from the creations of others.
I used to love to create fan-art, based on TV shows that I enjoyed. The shows inspired me to develop something new, based on a creative concept that already existed. Especially when It comes to drawing people or creating things based on real life, it is good to do your research to make sure you are accurately portraying what you want to portray with your own twist.
Creativity is about having a spark of an idea, planning out the idea, and executing it.
1.) The Spark In my Motion Graphics class last year, we were tasked with creating a kinetic typography video based on a movie quote. The first thing that popped into my mind was the iconic scene from Star Wars Revenge of the Sith, were Obi Wan is having an emotional speech directed at Anikin. I felt that this scene would be perfect to use as it has so much meaning and emotion to me. I instantly had ideas on the type of fonts, backgrounds, and effects to use to aid to the heavy emotion of the scene.
2.) Planning the Idea The next step after the spark of inspiration was to plan out my idea. I created a storyboard to help me visualize what i wanted to happen with each phrase. Planning out what fonts, colors, and imagery you will use in your project is essential to aid you in executing your idea.
3.) Execute the Idea I created the video using Photoshop for backgrounds, dafont to find fonts, and Adobe After Effects to create the 2D animation and bring everything together. I do not own the rights to the sounds used in the video. It is for educational purposes only! This project was still fun and rewarding though, to bring one of my favorite quotes to life with my ideas. You can watch the video I created by using this link to view it on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9NJSSQwVFE
Interview Conducted on September 25th, 2024 by Angel Larson
Click Rain is a people-centered digital agency based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The company provides web solutions and digital marketing strategies that make a difference in any type of business. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Bailey Wood, the associate director of marketing at Click Rain, to ask her about her experiences in the marketing career field. I wanted to learn more about what she does in her position, how she got there, and what is takes to pursue a career in marketing.
Angel: How did you get into the marketing field? Bailey: I first went to school for music education. Being a musician has always been my passion, but I found out that it was just a passion and not a career. At the time I was planning my wedding, and I enjoyed the wedding planning process so much that I was wondering how I could turn it into a professional career. Jobs that deal with people planning, organization, and marketing were one of the first results. I jumped into a program at Iowa State and then discovered how complex and strategy-driven it can be. I love data, research, science, and numbers learning, but I also love to design. I dabble in arts and music and think creatively. With marketing, specifically marketing strategy, those things come together. We rely on the foundation of data, but we also think creatively. How does the message come across? How do we get the look right when we bring all those pieces together? So that’s how I landed here.
Angel:Since you’ve gotten into the marketing field from college, how has it changed? Bailey: It changes every quarter, like what platforms there are. When I first got out of college, Tik-Tok didn’t exist, X was still called Twitter, and we used Instagram differently. Facebook demographics were completely different from a younger millennial generation to now. It changes constantly, and that’s the nature of marketing. There’s also a difference in technology, so there’s a big focus on AI right now that is absolutely impacting the marketing field, and it also impacts things from a privacy perspective. Across many industries, we’re seeing an increase in consumers caring about where their data is being stored, how it’s being used, and what happens when there’s a data breach. How marketing works right now relies heavily on consumer information, so we want to track people from opening an email to clicking on a website. How we interact with that data has changed quite a bit. We have more information, but it also has gotten to the point where, when you think about how you go to purchase as a consumer, it’s not very straightforward. You might see an ad, and then you see a billboard. You might click on something on Facebook, but you don’t make a purchase. So how do we determine which one of those things was the right thing? We used tools like Google Analytics that can see those different paths, and we try to understand which were the most impactful and which of them is the right one for whatever the case is.
Angel:What drew you to working at Click Rain? Bailey: I’m from Omaha. I moved from there about a year and a half ago. I worked remotely for Click Rain for 2 years and then decided that I loved Sioux Falls and the community. I also love working with creative people. I think the thing that drew me in also was the mantra of ours, “metrics that matter.” Sometimes in the marketing field you get a lot of fluff like “We’ll increase your followers by 100%,” but what does that really mean? How does that impact somebody’s business? How are we contributing and making a difference to an overall business? Click Rain really cares and focuses on the metrics that matter, so does it matter to you to increase followers, make sales, or increase customer loyalty? That’s what’s making a real impact on business.
Angel:Has it been easier to work at a company surrounded by the tools they have and the other people, or was it easier to be freelance? Bailey: I’ve worked in in-house marketing, and I’ve done consulting for several different businesses. I would say each comes with unique pros and cons, and it could differ by person and the stage of life you are in. As far as which ones were great for me, I felt like I was hitting a bit of a ceiling when I did 20 things okay by myself. So, what I wanted to do was to focus on an area. When I was a consultant, I would do the strategy, design the ads, write the copy, build websites, and do the tracking. I did good at some, but I’m not a trained designer. I’m not as well versed in media placement as our media team is. So, I focused on the marketing strategy because that’s where I have a competitive advantage. Having the team at Click Rain has helped me learn and grow.
Angel: How did you know when you wanted to switch positions or companies? Bailey: I think it feels like there’s something in your gut saying that you’re ready for a change. I wasn’t seeking; I was just open to possibilities. I saw a Facebook ad for Click Rain, and I read through the description of the role thinking, “Wow, that seems like that would be a great fit that would suit my strengths well.” So, I decided to throw my hat in the ring, and after my first conversations with our HR person, Carissa, who is an amazing human being, I also recognized how amazing the culture is at Click Rain. That was another important component to me, and Click Rain is very top-tier.
Angel: What is your typical workday like? Bailey: It varies a lot. I meet with clients and work through campaign strategy, where we are looking at what our goal is, how we accomplish that goal, and getting the right people and pieces in place on a timeline and budget. I spend time estimating how much things cost. I spend time working on new business initiatives, so I’m looking at if we’re trying to acquire new clients or new partnerships. I also work on department initiatives. As a leader in my department, I help to make sure that the people on my team have their proper tools, resources, and guidance. It’s usually a packed day at a fast pace, which I enjoy.
Angel: How do you manage your busy workflow? Bailey: The key is prioritizing and focusing. Knowing when something can be pushed to a later time or when it’s urgent. We have a project management system that helps us organize our work. That keeps everybody on track with due dates and file management. I also always think hard. I’m very thoughtful and make sure I’m finding the right timing and momentum. Sometimes we might need to turn the heat up on a project, and sometimes we need to turn it down. It’s an art and a science. Utilizing your team is also important. Knowing should I get other people to help with this or can I train somebody, and they can take this on. Sometimes you must let go of the reins. I’ve learned that I can’t be everywhere at once, I can’t do everything all at once, and I can’t see everything.
Angel: How can you make sure that those goals you’re making are specific, measurable, and attainable? Bailey: We use an organizational system called traction, which provides us a framework for how you can operate as a business. As part of traction, we develop an organizational vision for 2025 and how we’re going to work towards that goal. We call it a rock because it takes everyone to push a boulder up a hill. The idea is that everybody takes their part, and we’re able to move really big things. Then we develop your personal rocks. Every trimester I work with my manager and then the people that I’ve managed to come together to figure out how we can collectively contribute to our department and organization to reach those goals. We develop a due date and specific expectations for what we’re going to do to accomplish those goals.
Angel: How can we as marketers try and keep up with the advancing technology and the growing digital landscape? Bailey: We take advantage and stay up to date with several different marketing e-newsletters from companies like Spark Toro. They send a lot of information to your inbox. It’s up to you if that’s relevant or interesting. I’ve gained a lot from conferences and seminars. People love or hate conferences, but I’ve gained so much from them. Getting together with industry professionals, hearing from people who have put together thoughtful presentations, and finding other professionals in the marketing field to interact with are great resources. We do a great job here at sharing between our departments as well. Following people on LinkedIn and keeping up with news can also be helpful.
Angel: Are there any groups or societies for people in marketing that you would recommend? Bailey: The American Marketing Association has a lot of people involved with it. I stay really present with schools. I teach a class at Augustana right now. I’ve presented at student days, like career fairs for SDSU and USD. Sometimes it’s just great to feel like you’re staying connected with marketing professors, and up-and-coming talent is great.
Angel: How do you manage a good work-life health balance? Bailey: Click Rain has a couple of core values, and one of them is balance. Your human well-being comes first, then your family, and then work. Click Rain does a great job of ensuring that we’re not asked to work outside of normal working hours. We’re able to leave work and go home. That’s #1 of work-life balance—having a company that helps to accommodate that for you. Another thing is not taking things personally. Thinking the best, assuming the best of people, and taking breaks. I’m a person that wants to be obsessed all the time, but I have to walk away sometimes.
Angel: What tips do you have for progressing a career in the marketing field? Bailey: Try to build a community of people in business. Sometimes that’s a vulnerable thing to do. Sometimes we want to do our job and go home, but you gain so much by expanding the people that you know. I got my master’s degree fully funded because I went into an open house at Creighton and I said, “Hey, I’d like to get my MBA, and I’d like to get it for free. Who do I need to talk to about it?” I talked to the lady while she was there for about 40 minutes and gave her my pitch, and two weeks later they called me and said somebody dropped out of the program and would you like to take their spot as a graduate assistant? That would have never happened if I hadn’t put myself out there. Believe in yourself.
Angel: Do you have anything else you want to add? Bailey: If you have a spark to do something, explore it. Do it even if it’s not always super feasible. Sometimes we’ll have a little whisper that will say I’m really interested in this, or this is my dream job or role. Go and pursue it! It takes a bit of courage and vulnerability, but I think you’re so rewarded for taking those risks and doing it. You can get far by working hard and having your products as polished as possible. I try to take a step beyond, and I have seen where that pays off. There’s a lot of opportunity and a great future for marketers.
When you are working on a project involving typography, the art of using type, you may want to search for a specific font to fit with the project you are working on. I have found that dafont.com is a great resource to find fonts that you can license to use as well as 100% free. It is important when you are working on personal projects to make sure that you have the full rights to use a font that someone has spent a lot of time and effort to create.
Fonts installed from dafont can be used on Mac or Windows and can be used across all Adobe apps. Dafont has every kind of font imaginable, making it easy to search for what you need in a project.
Step 1.) Search for dafont.com
Step 2.) Find which category of fonts you are looking for
Step 3.) Click on the more options button and select 100% free.
Step 4.) Select download on the font you want and open up the file in your downloads.
Step 5.) Open the .ttf files that you want and select install. On Mac this will automatically add the font into your font book so you can use it in Adobe apps.
Now that you have created the content for your app or website in photoshop and created a shared library with your assets, you can bring everything into Adobe XD.
Adobe XD is used for designing, prototyping, and sharing app or website designs.
Designing
With Adobe XD, you are able to have all the different screens (pages) of your app or website all in one place.
From the sign-in page, profile, settings, home page, etc., you can have a clear view of all the content that will be on your app or website.
You are able to design the content of the pages within Adobe XD, or you can design your content in photoshop and import it into XD as layers. Designing your content in photoshop and then importing it into XD can save you time.
Adobe XD works similarly to other Adobe apps in the ways that you can utilize properties, layers, effects, and share libraries.
You will want to create a separate page for every button that is clicked in your app or website and every option that is possible to the users.
In XD you are able to gain ready made assets or look at examples of other layouts by going to file > Get UI kits. Here you can download already made examples of apps and websites in XD to help to gain icons, and ideas for text sizes, and what pages you will need.
Prototyping
What makes Adobe XD special is that you can link your pages together to see what button will lead to what outcome. For example, if you click next on an app or web page, it may lead you to a new page, a new box, or make something pop up.
You have freedom to decide where the buttons will lead to give your users options while using your app or website or create navigation.
You can also press the play button so that you can press the buttons for yourself and make sure they are having the desired effect.
Sharing
In Adobe XD you can share your website or app prototype through a link. This will allow a potential user, employer, or developer to see your idea and comment on it.
Because you are sharing a link, if you update your website or app prototype after sharing it, you can press update link and the link you sent will be updated without having to send a new link.
If you send the link in developer view, they will be able to see what assets where used on each page. (colors, font family, font sizes, shapes, images etc.)
Adobe XD is perfect for bringing your idea to life so that people can see it before it is coded, and to help make the coding process faster and easier.
Now that you have created a style guide for your app or website, you can start to create the actual content that will be used in your app. This step combines the sketches and assets you have gained to start to bring your vision to life.
An easy way to do this effectively is with photoshop. The layers in photoshop will show you each individual asset being used in your composition.
Create a photoshop document in the size that the phone/tablet screen of your app or screen size for your website will be.
This will make sure that your elements are the exact size, color mode, and resolution they need to be to bring into Adobe XD for your prototype.
Make sure your document is in RGB mode and your elements are 72 pixels per inch.
Recreate your sketches, using the elements from your style guide.
Recreate each page in your sketches, using text boxes, shapes, images, icons, textures, and colors to bring your ideas to life.
Make sure that you use guides to make sure that elements that are in the same place in more than one page are in the right spot. You can use the paste in place option to make sure that elements you copy from one page are in the same exact place in another page.
You will not be able to add your videos or sounds at this time but you can save those in a specific folder so that you know where they are. Make sure that all your images, videos, and sounds are made by you, royalty free from online, or properly credited to the person who made them. For things like a keyboard for mobile apps, you can just go online and find an image of the keyboard that will be used to simulate what it will look like when it pops up. There are certain icons that you will be able to get from Adobe XD UI kits, or you can make them yourself.
You may want to create separate documents for each page of your app or website, or create them on multiple art boards within the same document.
Add all your elements to a new shared library, specifically made for your app or website.
This will help you access your assets easily.
Shared libraries in Adobe can be used across different apps.
Name all the elements in your library as you go so that you can easily find them later. Do not skip this step! it will help you stay more organized and save you time down the line.
Once you have your content designed in Photoshop, you can easily import the files into Adobe XD.
Once you have sketched out and planned out your website or app, you can create a style guide to keep track of everything you will need and how to keep your design unified.
A style guide can be typed, written on paper, or created in a shared library in Adobe. A style guide should include:
Fonts that are going to be used.
The sizes and type of font used for specific instances.
Headers
Sub Headers
Body Copy
Quotes
Small Body Copy
Captions
Etc.
The colors you will be using for your app or website.
The logo or logos you are going to use (if you are using one)
Icons (the symbols you can use to represent meanings and/or words) Icons are important because they can identify to the viewer the meaning of something faster than the word itself, they are universal, aesthetic, and take up less space.
The vibe of your app or website that you are going for (for example: light airy, heavy, fantastical, deep, etc.)
The sounds you will be using.
The photos you will be using.
The videos you will be using.
The style guide will save you time when you are in the execution stage of creating your app or website prototype. By thinking out the necessary details involved in designing your app or website, you can then move onto creating the content of your website.
Now that you have created your user personas for your app or website based on your research data, you can move on to sketching out the different pages. good creative idea needs to have research, sketching, plan, and execution. If you don’t think and plan out your design before you get into the software, you will be struggling a lot more to keep things organized and fulfill your vision. Use the information about what your target audience wants / needs to help you decide what is essential to include in your app or website.
Make sure that you make your app or website, easy to use, easy to navigate, and to make sense with your data. You will want to plan out each button in your app or website, where it leads to, and the different functions and features you will want to include. Most apps or websites will need a home page, navigation bar, and a profile to save your information. You can use other apps as inspiration in the sketching and planning process but don’t copy someone else’s work!
Plan how many pages you will have.
Plan how users will navigate your app.
Plan if you will be using a logo.
Plan what shapes, colors, textures, text, pictures, graphics, videos, sounds, animations, and icons you will need.
Plan what will be on each page.
This planning will be time consuming and extensive, but the more thought you put into it, the more polished and thought out your app or website will be. This will save you time down the road also, as you will already have all the decisions made and figured out ahead of time instead of figuring things out as you go.
Once you have everything sketched and planned out for your app or website, you can create a style guide to keep track of all these details.
Once you have gathered and analyzed your data for your app or website, you can create user personas based on this data. User personas help you to better understand the needs / desires of your target audience. With this real world knowledge you can better design your app or website to fit their needs / desires better. This will make your app or website more appealing to those people.
You will want to create 1 – 3 different personas to characterize your target audience. Your app or website may be targeted to more than one specific type of person.
Use fake names for the personas.
Use pictures from online, or illustrate, what you think the persona would look like. For example if your target audience is mainly 4-50 year old females, you will want to use a picture of a middle aged female for your persona.
Describe the demographics of each persona.
Describe the wants of each persona.
Describe the needs of each persona.
Describe the functions each persona would like to see.
Creating these user personas of your target audience, based on the research you conducted will help you to back up your design ideas for your app or website. This will be a good guide for you to look back on when you are wondering what specific details of your app should be like. With personas you can base your ideas with facts and either back up your decisions you already made, or subvert your expectations. Your target audience may react in a way you didn’t expect to a certain want or need you thought that they had.
These are personas I made for an app idea for a personal finance organizer app. I conducted an online survey with google forms and sent it out on SnapChat and Facebook. I gained 67 responses and analyzed them in excel to help me form the user personas.
The next step after creating your user personas is to create sketches for your app or website.
