Ewa Lefmann

pw: brineintopedro

In short, I loved the course. It was humorous, colorful, and illustrative, just super engaging and interactive. I'm a bit of a gamer in my free time, so I was drawn to the gamified element, which worked for me while doing the course.

It encouraged me to track my time. And it's really helping me with my pricing (Not just for web design, but for everything.)

Web design is something I used to dread as a graphic designer because after being a graphic designer for 10 years, I would get frustrated that my skills I'd honed for such a long time were not being showcased to their full potential in web form.

This course has given me confidence in that area and more of an understanding of how someone moves through a website and a wide understanding of how you can use CSS, and what is achievable in Squarespace. I did not realize the extent to which you can hack the templates and hack what they give you. That's going to be really useful for my current scale of clients because they want a website they can update regularly and not have to keep hiring someone to update.

The assignments are really fun and well-structured. And the Discord community and online resources are really valuable because you get to keep access to them. The real value hits when you do section 3.3 and get direct feedback from Puno. I went away and had to learn how to do some things, and now I can do those things. There were small design tweaks between my first and second drafts, but it really upped the level, and it's validating to hear that it doesn't look like a template. Sometimes, you spend so long working on something by yourself that you're like, “Does this look like a template?” It looks like a template to me now because I've spent many hours staring at it, and you get another perspective on it. And you use your own fresh eyes after a break and think, “No, this looks legit!” That's validating and very valuable. 

I've been super inspired to reposition my freelance, design, and illustration practice as an illustration-led branding studio. Basically, take it to the next stage, as I've been freelancing for a while now, and I’m really excited to rebuild my website using all my new skills. It's going to be much more than just a portfolio site. I'll be thinking a lot more about how the user interacts with the site, not just their journey but all the fun little tweaks you can do as well. Plus, I'll be writing the copy for the website!

I'm pleasantly surprised with how this course has influenced other areas of my practice as well. I think it will be a really good skill for my practice, especially for working remotely, and it’s exciting to see where things will go next. I'm just really glad I did this course. It's been an absolute pleasure.

Squarespace Design Course Graduate 🏆