Monday, October 26, 2020

24 About Us & About Me Pages + Templates to Make Your Own

Building a website is, in many ways, an exercise of willpower. It’s tempting to get distracted by the bells and whistles of the design process, and forget all about creating compelling content.

It's that compelling content that's crucial to making inbound marketing work for your business.

So how do you balance your remarkable content creation with your web design needs? It all starts with the "About Us" page.

For a remarkable About page, all you need to do is figure out your company's unique identity, and then share it with the world. Easy, right? Of course not. Your "About Us" page is one of the most important pages on your website, and it needs to be well crafted. This profile also happens to be one of the most commonly overlooked pages, which is why you should make it stand out.

The good news? It can be done. In fact, there are some companies out there with remarkable "About Us" pages, the elements of which you can emulate on your own website.

By the end of this post, you'll be introduced to:

Best About Us Page Examples

  1. Yellow Leaf Hammocks
  2. Eight Hour Day
  3. Joe Payton
  4. Apptopia
  5. Moz
  6. Aja Frost
  7. Cultivated Wit
  8. Kero One
  9. Nike
  10. Refinery29
  11. Sara Dietschy
  12. Marie Catribs
  13. Marc Ensign
  14. Bulldog Skincare
  15. Doomtree
  16. Bold Xchange
  17. Ceros
  18. Marketive
  19. Sweet Loren's
  20. TalEx
  21. SkinnyDipped
  22. LoveBug Probiotics
  23. Brown and Coconut 
  24. Kuno Creative

1. Yellow Leaf Hammocks

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It tells us a story.

When you have a great story about how your product or service was built to change lives, share it. The "About Us" page is a great place for it to live, too. Good stories humanize your brand, providing context and meaning for your product. What’s more, good stories are sticky -- which means people are more likely to connect with them and pass them on.

Yellow Leaf Hammocks tells users about its product by describing how the hammocks empower artisan weavers and their families. The company breaks down different pieces of the story into sections that combine words and easily digestible graphics, painting a picture instead of big chunks of text. They're clear about why they're different: "Not a Charity," the page reads. And then: "This is the basis for a brighter future, built on a hand up, not a handout."

Every company has a story to tell, so break out your storytelling skills from that random English class you took years ago and put them to work on your "About Us" page. Using descriptive and emotive copy and gorgeous graphics, an "About Us" page with a story works harder for your business than a generic one.

Yellow Leaf Hammocks about us page

2. Eight Hour Day

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's human.

People tend to think that "About Us" pages have to sound formal to gain credibility and trust. But most people find it easier to trust real human beings, rather than a description that sounds like it came from an automaton. Trying to sound too professional on your "About Us" page results in stiff, “safe” copy and design -- the perfect way to make sure your company blends in with the masses.

Instead, Eight Hour Day showcases the people behind the company and humanizes its brand. Introducing the founders by name and featuring the photos of them on the "About Us" page drives home the point that Nathan and Katie are -- as they so astutely put it -- "two individuals with a passion for creativity -- creativity makes us happy."

When you’re designing your "About Us" page,avoid industry jargon and replace it with an authentic voice -- yours -- to describe your product or service. Sure, it needs to be polished and free of errors, but it should always sound friendly and real.

Eight Hour Day about us page

3. Joe Payton

Why the "About Me" Page Rocks: It's confident, creative, and easy to skim.

"About Us" pages might encompass the values of more than one person or entity, but they're no more important to the image of a business than your personal about page. Take Joe Payton's "About Me" page, below.

Not only does Joe's illustrative self-portrait give him a personal brand that customers will remember, but it also demonstrates his expertise as a designer and animator. His website visitors can learn not just what he does, but why he does it, in an easily digestible way. Being able to express his values as a creative professional in such a well-organized page is something to be desired by anyone creating their own about page.

Joe Payton about me page

4. Apptopia

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It skips the business babble.

We know -- no industry jargon. If you think it makes you sound super smart on your "About Us" page, think again. People want and appreciate straight talk about what your business does. After all, if people can't figure out what you do, how will they know they need your product or service?

So, skip the industry lingo -- that's what Apptopia does on its "About Us" page. The startup's simple but polished language effectively communicates the company's offering while still allowing the Average Joe to understand it.

Apptopia about us page
The moral of the story: Try to get rid of jargon on your "About Us" page whenever possible. Use short and punchy sentences to explain complex products and ideas in a way that isn't patronizing, but rather, is empathetic.

5. Moz

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's humble.

Instead of following the classic "About Us" script and writing a few paragraphs about the company's mission and origins, try something different -- there are plenty of ways to make your brand more compelling to someone who doesn't know about you.

Take Moz, for example. A lot has happened since it was founded in 2004, so the company chose to share those milestones using a fun and clean design that incorporates clear headers, concise blurbs, and little graphics to break up the text.

We especially love the humble references to how Moz received funding, how it switched its brand positioning -- and most importantly, how it switched back to its original model. This speaks volumes to the value honesty and humbleness can play to your customers. Don't be afraid to talk about your ups and downs; your customers will trust what you say that much more.

The story of Moz on its About Us page

6. Aja Frost

Why the "About Me" Page Rocks: It's data-driven.

Alright, we might be biased in highlighting this professional, as Aja is our very own SEO strategist at HubSpot. Nonetheless, the ingenuity she brings to the company isn't lost on her website's "About Me" page.

Being a data-driven professional, Aja knows her own clients as a freelance writer and strategist don't just want to see what she's written -- they want to see how her content has performed. With that in mind, her "About Me" page tells a story of her career growth, which peaks -- no pun intended -- at an impressive line graph showing the result of an SEO strategy she implemented for the HubSpot Blog. (The graph's sharp decline at September simply indicates when she stopped collecting data.)

Following the impressive chart, Aja closes out her about page with a personal note on what she does in her spare time -- always a good way to humanize yourself in the eyes of your potential customers.

Aja Frost about me page

7. Cultivated Wit

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It breaks the mold.

Yes, this post is about, well, "About Us" pages. But sometimes, you don't always need to wait for users to get there in order to make a statement. That's part of breaking the mold to showcase your company's personality.

That's exactly what Cultivated Wit -- a creative agency and media company -- does, with both an edgy name and an incredibly fun story told through video and parallax scrolling ... right on its homepage.

Brand story of Cultivated Wit on its homepage

Below is the actual "About Us" page, which is a gem once you get there. But it's great to see a company embrace its own brand of quirk throughout the site.

Cultivated Wit about us page

Even if you have a dedicated "About Us" page, there are plenty of ways to creatively showcase your company's personality throughout your entire website. And yeah, that's harder than filling a stock "About Us" template -- but it can have a significant payoff for your brand.

8. Kero One

Why the "About Me" Page Rocks: It's multilingual.

Kero One is a hip-hop artist and DJ from San Francisco, and his "About Me" page carries a valuable lesson to personal brands who cater to more than one audience -- especially if those audiences speak different languages.

Kero One's story starts at his childhood, when he was six years old and first discovered a passion for hip-hop. Knowing how old and genuine his love for the genre is adds tremendous value to his own music in the eyes of his listeners.

While this entrepreneur's childhood interests help to deepen his audience, the second screenshot below helps Kero One widen it. His "About Me" page first tells his story in English, then in Japanese, then in Korean, then in Chinese. Accommodating these Southeast Asian audiences makes his brand more inclusive of all the audiences he identifies with.

Kero One about me page

...

kero-one-about-me-korean

9. Nike

Why the About Us Page Rocks: It knows its audience.

Nike might seem like a company that's too big to inspire smaller businesses. You might even wonder if Nike even still has an "About Us" page. As a matter of fact, it does, and it hasn't forgotten the company's roots.

Nike began on the campus of the University of Oregon by the hand of the college's track coach, Bill Bowerman. And even though he no longer works at the company, one of his beloved quotes still brands the bottom of Nike's "About Us" page below: "If you have a body, you are an athlete."

This bold sentence, referenced by the asterisked "Athlete" in the words right above it, sheds important light on Nike's audience. The brand may be big today, but Nike is all about the rising stars -- who Nike depends on to, according to the rest of its "About Us" page, "expand human potential."

The takeaway for marketers? Know your audience, and make it obvious to that audience the instant they read about you on your website.

Nike about us page

10. Refinery29

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It tells you what's most important.

Here's another instance where any area of your website -- not just the "About Us" page -- is an opportunity to break the mold.

Many companies add just a simple mission statement or company profile, but people often don't want to ready a wall of text explaining what you do. So, Refinery29 broke it down to convey the intangible qualities that are tough to include in a basic "About Us" page.

Although Refinery29 does introduce its page with a description of its business, its goes out on a bang -- four bangs, to be exact. The organization is on a "mission," sure, but there's also an "essence" of Refinery29, a "promise" it keeps, and a "vibe" it gives off.

These aren't company traits you'd think to include when starting out, but they're what your customers often make gut decisions on when buying.

Refinery29 about us page

11. Sara Dietschy

Why the "About Me" Page Rocks: It has variety but still aligns with her personal brand.

This professional YouTube content creator has an eclectic collection of videos related to technology and culture, and expresses that diversity all over her "About Me" page.

In addition to the vibrant self-portrait at the top of the page, Sara's first sentence tells you just how many people subscribe to her channel: 350,000. This is an important number to know for her potential video advertisers and collaborators who want to know how much exposure they'd get by working with her or advertising on her channel.

The colored tiles lining the page -- starting with the red one, as shown below -- also do a terrific job segmenting her work by the types of projects she takes up and for whom she's done them. That Intel logo in the second photo of Sara, below, is sure to turn some visitors' heads as they're perusing her website.

sara-dietschy-about-me-page

12. Marie Catribs

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's unexpected.

There's a reason why these examples are exceptional -- "About Us" pages aren't always the most riveting parts of a company's website. In fact, they often look like an afterthought. But even if you don't have budget for juicy graphics, video, or parallax scrolling, there are other ways to make your "About Us" page unexpected with the copy alone.

Marie Catrib's is a restaurant, so you might think their "About Us" page would be your typical "here's how we started, here's what we believe in, and here's our food" story. Marie Catrib's "About Us" page does tells us that -- but it does so in an unconventional way. Immediately, the user's eyes are drawn to a header that says, "It's okay to make a mess, experiments can lead to beautiful things." Quite philosophical, for a place to have dinner.

But next comes the story about the owner, which starts in an unexpected way -- "It's hard to imagine, but at one time Marie was banned from the family kitchen." A line like that draws in the audience, because we know it's not going to be typical.

Marie Catribs about us page

So, how will you use copy to really draw readers in? It's amazing what impression you can make on site visitors just by creatively telling your story with words alone.

13. Marc Ensign

Why the "About Me" Page Rocks: It's funny but professional.

This branding expert does two things super well on his about page: He takes his work seriously, but doesn't take himself too seriously. Marketers know there's value to keeping a casual tone in the content they create, but in order to attract customers, you need to prove you have discipline and integrity. That's a tough balance to get right.

Marc Ensign nails that balance between friendly and formal with a confident opening statement, followed by an amusing smiley photo of himself to set an inviting tone.

marc-ensign-about-me-page

14. Bulldog Skincare

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's lovable and memorable.

What's the difference between "average" marketing and lovable marketing? It's the difference between creating generic webpages that provide great information, but in a straightforward, black-and-white kind of way -- versus creating webpages that provide great information and are infused with color, personality, and stay true to a company's unique brand voice. When you create lovable marketing, you can start a movement of brand evangelists and advocates who will help you grow.

Where does this fit into a company's "About Us" page? The folks at Bulldog, a men's skincare company that was named for the colloquial "man's best friend" -- a dog -- could have typed up a few paragraphs about where the brand came from and how they were one of the first in the space to redefine and eliminate stereotypes around men's grooming. But that text alone would have been a bit, well, average.

Instead, the "About Us" page is pithy, colorful, and leads with the lovable mug of an adorable bulldog -- fitting the name and the brand. And it states the purpose of the products -- to help customers from waking up with the (admittedly adorable) wrinkly face you see when you visit Bulldog's website.

Bulldog Skin Care for Men about us page

Play on your own words -- it's okay to have fun and pun with your brand, as it helps to inject personality and humor into your "About Us" page. It primes visitors for a story in a way that makes them immediately feel something. That's how you create memorable, lovable marketing.

15. Doomtree

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: Its shows, tells, and has a soundtrack.

One minute of video is worth 1.8 million words, according to Forrester Research's Dr. James McQuivey. But what about audio and visual, too, all combined with a really cool story? Well, that's one way to tell your story in an engaging way -- through multimedia.

Doomtree is built on a bit of an innovative concept: That a group of talented artists can each have thriving solo careers, but can still come together on a regular basis to create great music. It's not a band -- it's a crew. It's an unconventional concept with an equally interesting backstory that "started as a mess of friends in Minneapolis, fooling around after school, trying to make music without reading the manual." And as soon as you arrive on Doomtree's 'About Us' page, you're greeted with big, bold photos of those friends.

Doomtree band about us page

As you scroll down, users are treated to even more interaction with the crew's tracks and music videos. That makes sense, because it gives visitors an instant sample of Doomtree's product. What's more, the entire "About Us" page is responsive, including the video. That's important -- not only because it offers site visitors a great mobile experience, but also for Google search ranking -- especially now that such mobile usage has surpassed desktop.

Doomtree band mobile page

16. Bold Xchange

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's sleek and focuses on the company's mission.

Bold Xchange's About Us page starts with a story of the co-founder's initial inspiration for starting the company: "That summer, the two opened up to friends and family about doing what feels right despite obstacles that tell you to do otherwise." 

Sound familiar? The introduction immediately jumped out at me because of how relatable it felt.

The About Us page continues in story-format and is separated into three sections: "be bold", "stay bold", and "share bold". Along with a moving origin story, the page has a sleek design, with a red-and-black color scheme and authentic images to support each of the three sections. 

What I like best about this About Us page is that it doesn't focus on what the company sells — instead, it uses the space to showcase the company's ultimate mission. When creating your own About Us page, consider how you might draw visitors in with an inspiring message upfront. 

bold x change about us page

17. Ceros

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's interactive and funny. 

Ceros' About Us page is interactive and engaging. As you scroll, the text slowly moves up the page, with bold — and humorous — statistics, like "4 beers on tap". Additionally, Ceros' uses images of their impressive, unique office space to further personalize the page. 

Best of all, Ceros' keeps the text on the page short-and-sweet, with powerful statements like "We exist to unlock creativity". The Culture section further demonstrates Ceros' playful brand voice, with core values like "We wear our chicken suits".

ceros about us page

18. Marketive

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's compelling, with fun scrollable features. 

Rarely have I seen a more powerful opening statement than the one Marketive uses in their About Us page: "Got a solid product? We tell your target audience that you exist." 

Additionally, Marketive's About Us page displays original designs rather than photos to support the text, and the page is simply fun to scroll through. Plus, I appreciated Marketive's layout — starting with what they do, moving into which types of industries they help, and ending with the company's earlier milestones. 

The interactive milestone calendar at the bottom is especially impressive. It authentically represents some humble beginnings (including two unsuccessful startups that inspired present-day Marketive), and features a fun scroll element that highlights various dates throughout the calendar. 

marketive about us page

19. Sweet Loren's

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's playful and reflects the brand's personality. 

Start-to-finish, Sweet Loren's About Us page is playful, engaging, and colorful. The page starts with a 60-second video, and even incorporates cookie dough-scooping gifs. As you scroll, you'll move through some of Sweet Loren's impressive values, including inclusivity and refusing to compromise. 

Best of all, Sweet Loren's yummy products are last on the page, ensuring you're fully primed to purchase only after learning about Sweet Loren's mission and differentiating factor: creating non-GMO, gluten-free, plant-based, and delicious cookie dough. 

sweet lorens

20. TalEx

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It focuses on social responsibility. 

TalEx has an interesting origin story, in which two women left a major recruiting firm to build their own and ended up landing AOL as a major client of theirs — which was previously their old employers' client. 

TalEx has since seen unprecedented growth at 4,900% in the three years since it began. You'll learn all this and more on their About Us page, but what really makes their page stand out is the company's emphasis on social responsibility, which takes up nearly half the page and explains the company's dedication to giving 5% of its net profit annually to various philanthropic organizations. 

talex about us page

21. SkinnyDipped

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's authentic and down-to-earth. 

SkinnyDipped's About Us page features a few sweet, polaroid images of the employees (including three of the co-founders as young children), and a moving nod to Josh Dickerson, a family friend whose death inspired the family to start the business. 

Their About Us page is well-written and inspiring — for instance, they write, "We decided to start a business … That it would be centered around food was obvious. For us—family, friends, food and love are all tangled up." By the time you finish reading their story (and the individual employee bios), you'll be as impressed by SkinnyDipped's brand values as you are by their delicious products. 

skinnydipped about us page

22. LoveBug Probiotics

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's playful and informative.

LoveBug Probiotics' About Us page features an image of the founder's four young children wearing "Chief Fun Officer", "Chief Giggle Officer", "Chief Silly Officer" and "Chief Humor Officer" t-shirts. I'll admit — there aren't many About Us pages with cuter introductions than that. 

The page effectively includes all the information you'd need on the company to make an informed purchasing decision — including how the founder came up with the idea, her personal ties to her vision, the science behind her probiotics, and even an opportunity to find local stores that carry LoveBug probiotics. 

Plus, while the products are science-backed, the About Us page doesn't confuse visitors with difficult-to-understand facts: instead, the page is simple, straightforward, and helpful. 

lovebug

23. Brown and Coconut

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's simple and no-fuss. 

Sometimes, simpler is better — as is the case with Brown and Coconut's About Us page, which features a photo of the two co-founders alongside a few paragraphs of text, outlining the purpose and vision behind Brown and Coconut. 

Plus, the opening sentence is incredibly relatable and draws the reader in: "After years of suffering from severe acne and frustrated by the lack of effectiveness and further damage they experienced with popular skin care products, Brown and Coconut founders and sisters, Letisha and Zeena Brown embarked on a journey to heal their skin from the inside out."

What I liked best about this About Us page is the simple, no-fuss language they used to describe their business. Plus, rather than ending with a CTA directing visitors to their products, the co-founders instead choose to include a CTA to follow their business on Instagram, promoting a likely more effective, long-term lead generation strategy that starts with brand awareness. 

brown and coconut about us page

24. Kuno Creative

Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It focuses on people rather than products. 

Kuno Creative's About Us page effectively focuses on what makes the company different: its people. While the first paragraph describes the origin of the digital marketing agency, the majority of the page is taken up by black-and-white shots of all its employees along with descriptions of each member, like a modern day yearbook. 

Plus, the page looks sleek and clean, with plenty of white space and large blue lettering to draw attention without overwhelming visitors. If you're unsure what you want to include in your About Us page, consider taking note of how Kuno Creative focuses on its people, rather than its product, in the About Us page — a great way to humanize your brand.

kuno about us page

How to Write an About Page

  1. Establish a mission statement.
  2. Outline our company story.
  3. Reveal how you've evolved.
  4. State your "aha!" moment.
  5. Explain who you serve.
  6. Explain what you're offering them.
  7. Cite examples of who you've served.
  8. Describe your values.

It's tough to establish one all-encompassing template for your "About Us" page -- there are just so many ways you can go about telling your company story. But, per the real "About Us" pages we've just highlighted, there are some steps you should keep in mind when getting started.

Here are five steps to writing an "About Us" page based on some of the things that impressed us about the examples above.

1. Establish a mission statement.

Your "About Us" page can and will be much longer than a single mission statement, but in order to draw people in, you need to succinctly state your goal in the industry up front. What are you here to do? Why should your website visitors care?

2. Outline your company story.

You might not have a long history of changes and growth your company has endured (yet), but it's a nice touch to talk about where you came from in your "About Us" page. So, isolate the milestones prior your company's founding, and use them to give readers some backstory on your current venture.

3. Reveal how you've evolved.

Even if you're a young company, there's no shame in admitting your business strategy -- or even personal way of thinking -- has changed since you began. In fact, in about pages, these evolutions can improve the story you tell to website visitors.

About pages are perfect spaces to talk about where you started, how you've grown, and the ideals that have helped your organization mature. Use these moments to further your company story and show people that you're always ready to change and adapt to the needs of your industry.

4. State your "aha!" moment.

Every good company was founded on an idea -- something the current marketplace might not yet offer. What was your idea? Use this "Aha!" moment as a pivot point when telling your company story. What was a challenge you faced while developing your company? How did this challenge or discovery shape what you are today?

5. Explain who you serve.

As much as you want as many eyeballs on your "About Us" page as possible, you won't do business with every single one of them. That's why it's crucial that you identify and mention your core customer. Who should care you exist? Which eyeballs are you here to serve?

6. Explain what you're offering them.

As you're explaining who you serve, make it clear what it is you're offering. Too often companies generalize their product or service in the language of their website, making it hard to understand what it is the customer is actually paying for. They're afraid literal explanations of their products aren't interesting enough, or will sound unappealing in writing. And that's a fair concern.

However, by investing just a sentence or two into telling your potential customers exactly what they'll receive can keep them on your website for longer and interested in learning more.

7. Cite examples of who you've served.

Got some loyal customers in your portfolio? Use your about page to let the world know who already trusts and benefits from your work.

Knowing about your company's past successes can influence the purchasing decision of up to 90% of today's B2B customers, according to Dimensional Research. Even if you don't yet have case studies to expand on the problems you've helped buyers solve, it's in your interest to briefly mention who you've done this for. And your about page is the perfect platform for it.

8. Describe your values.

Customers want to be treated like human beings. For that to happen, they need to feel that they're being treated by human beings. When finishing your "About Us" page, describe who you are as a person or a team, and what your personal values are. What's your company culture like? What bigger picture in life drives your business?

An LED lightbulb maker might sell 10 different lamp styles, for example, but that might not be the most important characteristic to its primary audience. Maybe this lightbulb developer was founded on a commitment to environmental protection, and every bulb the company makes was built by people who are dedicated to making the world more energy-efficient.

Keep in mind a secondary audience of your company's "About Us" page consists of your future employees. This is another reason describing your personal values is a good idea -- the key to your job candidates' hearts is to show them you have one too.

About Us Page Templates That Rock

Copy is an important element of an About page. However, you'll also want to keep user experience in mind as you showcase your brand story and identity to the world. Here are some of the top About Us and About Me page templates to use or draw inspiration from:

1. Sodium v2 (HubSpot)

Tell your prospects about you using bold color and by telling your story. This template can help with that with its bold color (that can be customized) and timeline-like layout. Website visitors will know where you've come and where you're going.

sodium v2 hubspot about page

2. Touraza Template (WordPress)

If you want something with a little flavor, the Touraza template is a good choice. With the "meet the team" section near the top with geometric designs and striking typography, you'll be able to showcase the humans behind your brand.

touraza wordpress about page

3. Logan Template (Shopify)

This template makes use of large images in a modern layout to break up the ample white space. The result: A clean and enjoyable reading experience. The top of the page puts the brand story (or other introductory text) first, supported by a large image that speaks for itself. The pops of color can be customized to your brand style, drawing emphasis to the most important elements you want to highlight.

logan shopify about page

4. Mercuric Modular Premium (HubSpot)

Make a statement with a stylish slider and smooth 3D animations. This template can be edited using user-friendly modules and other effects to catch your website visitors' attention. It comes with counter boxes, progress bars, and animated images for you to customize. There's also a full template pack for the other pages of your site.

mercuric modular hubspot about page

5. Coax Template (WordPress)

The advantage of the Coax template is that it's powered by Elementor, a page builder that makes customization easy. Even if you want to keep some of the defaults, though, this template is beautiful, letting the typography and copy take center stage. Ideal for a personal brand, you can choose to lay out your content similarly to a resume with big subheads on the left and descriptive text on the right.

coax wordpress about page

6. Clean (HubSpot)

This template is 100% drag-and-drop ready, making setup a breeze. With an elegant header and overlay, you'll make a great first impression as you tell your brand story. Zero coding is required, it's completely customizable, and it's backed by a 100% happiness guarantee.

clean hubspot about page

7. Negocis (HubSpot)

Do you think that your story is best told visually? This template supports icons and other elements that appeal to website visitors who want to understand your impact. It features image sliders, social sharing buttons, and more.

negocis hubspot about page

At this point, we hope that creating an "About Us" page doesn't seem like a daunting task -- rather, we hope you're ready to have some fun with it. With a good story to tell, creative copy, humility, and digestible visuals, you're on your way to an eye-catching user experience.

Even better? You're becoming part of the exception -- and standing out from a sea of "About Us" pages. What makes you different? We're eager to learn more ... about you.


24 About Us & About Me Pages + Templates to Make Your Own was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

How to Use Photoshop: The Bookmarkable Photoshop Tutorial for Beginners

When you open Adobe Photoshop for the first time, it's easy to click around in confusion for a minute and then reach for your freelancer's phone number instead. Trust us, you're not alone in this.

It's an incredibly powerful design software with a lot going on, including a wealth of tools that can seem overwhelming at times. But Photoshop isn't just for the professionals.

With a little help, you can easily teach yourself how to use it to create beautiful, compelling graphics. All it takes is an introduction to core elements -- in plain English.

To get you started, we've picked 12 of the most useful tools in Photoshop and explained what they do, where to find them, how to use them, and a few tips and tricks for getting the most out of them. We've also included some great resources in there in case you'd like to learn about a tool in more depth.

How to Use Photoshop

  1. The Layer Tool
  2. The Color & Swatches Tool
  3. Custom Fonts & The Text Tool
  4. Custom Brushes & The Brush Tool
  5. The Select Tool
  6. The Move Tool
  7. The Zoom Tool
  8. The Eraser
  9. The Crop Tool
  10. The Fill Tool
  11. The Eyedropper Tool
  12. Blending Options

1. The Layer Tool

What It Does: A layer can be used for an image, text, brush strokes, background colors, patterns, and filters.

I like to think of layers as sheets of glass stacked on top of one another that you'll use to create a final product. Each sheet can be modified individually without affecting the project as a whole, which can save you tons of time when making edits to individual elements of your graphic.

photoshop-layers.png

Image Credit: StackExchange

Layers are by far the most important element of Photoshop -- and, in my opinion, they're one of the reasons many people throw their arms up in frustration. But once you understand how they work, I promise they'll make your life much easier.

Where It's Located: It has its own module on the bottom right-hand corner of your Photoshop screen, by default. You can also access it by clicking "Layer" in the top menu bar.

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Pro Tip: Always name your layers. Keeping them organized will help keep you sane, especially if you find yourself working on a project with a large number of layers.

To add or delete a layer:

From the top menu bar, choose Layer > New > Layer...

To select a layer:

The selected layer is highlighted in blue. To edit a specific part of your image, you'll need to select that specific layer.

You'll also notice there's an "eye" symbol next to each layer: Click that symbol to turn the eye on and off, thereby toggling the visibility of that layer as you work.

To duplicate a layer:

First, select a layer or group in the Layers panel. Next, either drag the layer or group to the Create a New Layer button, or right-click the layer to choose "Duplicate Layer" or "Duplicate Group." Enter a name for the layer or group, and click OK.

Pro Tip: You can do all sorts of cool things with layers -- and believe it or not, making animated GIFs is one of them. Check out our step-by-step tutorial here.

To learn more about adding, deleting, and duplicating layers in Photoshop, check out this video tutorial.

2. The Color & Swatches Tool

What It Does: The Color and Swatches tool lets you use, modify, copy, and save custom colors for your content. While this may seem like a pretty self-explanatory element, it actually has powerful features that will keep your visual content vibrant and unify your color schemes.

Where It's Located: It has its own module on the top right-hand corner of your Photoshop screen, by default.

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Another place to find the Color tool is at the bottom of the toolbar on the left, indicated by two overlapping boxes:

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To create your own custom color:

Open the Color Picker by double-clicking on the top box either in the Color module, or in that menu on the left.

From there, you'll see a vertical spectrum of color with a slider on it, which you can adjust to create your own custom color. Alternatively, if you already have a specific color of which you know the hex value (i.e. #1fb1ee), then enter it in the appropriate box to find that color automatically. You can also select your color swatch based on RGB or CMYK values.

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Any colors you create can be added to your "Swatches" if you click "Add To Swatches."

Pro Tip: Take your company colors and save them as “Swatches” so that you can reference and reuse them whenever you’re designing your visual content.

3. Custom Fonts & The Text Tool

What It Does: The Text tool lets you add custom fonts to your database, and it gives you access to advanced font settings that give your text some serious style.

Where It's Located: The toolbar on your left, near the bottom.

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Once you click the Text tool icon, all of the settings and font options will pop up at the top of your screen. These settings let you change the font, font size, and spacing between characters, height, width, color, and style. Be sure to select the layer of your desired text to edit it.

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To add text to your graphic:

The text tool works like any other text tool you’ve used. Click the "T" icon on the left side bar, drag the text box over any particular area you want text to appear, and you’re set to go.

Whenever you create a text box, Photoshop will generate a layer for it. You can choose the color, size, stroke, font style, and a variety of other options to switch things up.

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Pro Tip: While Photoshop offers a wide variety of fonts, you can also install your own fonts. Read this blog post for a list of 35 beautiful fonts you can download for free, and then read this post to learn how to install your new fonts in Photoshop so you can get to using 'em.

To learn more about fonts and the Text tool, check out this video tutorial.

4. Custom Brushes & The Brush Tool

What It Does: Just as with fonts, you can add your own, royalty-free, custom brush tips. With the brush settings, you can change the size, shape, and transparency of your brush strokes to achieve a number of different visual effects.

Brushes are a great way to add some visual accents to your content. Photoshop starts you off with a nice selection of brush tips that you can use to clean up your graphics and create some basic visual effects.

Where It's Located: The toolbar on the left.

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Once you click the Brush tool icon, all of the settings and brush options will pop up at the top of your screen. These settings let you change the brush size, opacity, flow, and so on. You'll find a variety of pre-installed brush tips, as well as any custom brush tips you install to Photoshop. (You can find royalty-free brushes at www.brusheezy.com if you want to get really creative.)

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To use the brush tool:

The brush tool is perfect for adding design accents to your content content. When using the brush tool, I always suggest adding a new layer to work with so you don’t paint over any of your other elements. You can choose colors from your library of swatches, or use a custom color.

Changing the brush settings can give your brush a drastically different look and style. Don’t be afraid to play around a bit with all of your custom brushes.

5. The Select Tool

What It Is: When used correctly, this tool will let you select individual elements, entire graphics, and determines what is copied, cut, and pasted into your graphics.

Where It's Located: The toolbar on the left.

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The Select tool is known as one of the most basic, yet frustrating tools to use in Photoshop. The first thing you should know is that it'll only work if a layer is highlighted. So, if I want to cut or copy a piece of Layer 4, Layer 4 must be highlighted in my Layer's tool bar. Highlighted areas are indicated by a flashing dotted line.

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Once you remember to pay attention to which layer you are working with, the Select tool becomes much easier to use.

First, highlight your area of choice. Then, simply right-click and decide what you'd like to do from the pull-out menu. For example, you can cut out objects from a current layer and create a layer of your own.

photoshop-select-menu.png

How to select an image to insert into your graphic:

Open the image you'd like to use in Photoshop, and use the Select Tool to determine how much of the image you want to copy. Once you’ve selected the area of the image, simply copy the area.

Next, open the tab for your current project and paste it in as a new layer. Highlight the layer of the object(s) you'd like to select. You can move multiple objects at once by highlighting multiple layers.

Then, right-click your selection, and then you have a few options, including:

A) Choosing "Layer via Copy" to copy the object(s) from this layer and create a layer of its own.

Pro Tip: To select your entire graphic and include all layers, highlight all layers and then use the Select tool. Once you've determined the area to copy, use the menu bar at the top and click "Edit" > "Copy Merged." This will copy the entire graphic so you can paste it as its own layer.

B) Choosing "Free Transform" to scale, rotate, move, and flip your selections. (Refer to the Move tool in the next section of this post if you need more help on this.)

Pro Tip: One really nifty trick you can do with "Free Transform" is to overlay screenshots of a PDF to make a 3D-looking image, like the one below for our introductory Pinterest ebook. You can find a visual overview of the steps below, but read this blog post for the step-by-step tutorial.

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To learn more about all the Selection tools available in Photoshop, check out this video tutorial.

6. The Move Tool

What It Does: This is a fairly basic tool that allows you to move individual elements of your graphic.

The Move tool works on individual layers, and on the graphic as a whole -- if (remember how to do this?) you highlight all of your layers. It comes in handy when you’re trying to reposition images, text, and other design elements.

Where It's Located: The toolbar on the left, at the top.

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To use the Move tool:

Click the Move Icon from the left hand menu bar and simply drag the object(s) you would like to move. To move all objects in one layer, simply highlight the layer and use the Move tool. You can also right click the object for additional options.

To scale, rotate, move, and flip things:

The Free Transform tool lets you scale, rotate, move, and flip any element in your select layer or layers. Use the shortcut CTRL + T or Command + T (for Macs) to initiate Free Transform, and check out the options that pop up at the top of your screen. Hold the SHIFT key while transforming to maintain the proportions of your elements.

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7. The Zoom Tool

What It Does: The Zoom tool lets you zoom in close to certain areas of an image, and zoom out to get more of a bird's eye view of what's happening.

Where It's Located: In the top menu bar, choose View > Zoom In or View > Zoom Out.

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To use the Zoom tool:

Either select the zoom options from the "View" menu (as shown above). To use the keyboard shortcut, hold ALT (PC) or Command (Mac) and press + to zoom in, and ALT (PC) or Command (Mac) and press - to zoom out.

8. The Eraser

What It Does: The Basic Eraser functions a lot like the brush tool. You can change the size and hardness of the eraser tip to achieve a variety of effects, like blending and fades. The Background Eraser uses differences in color to help you erase unwanted background areas from your images.

The eraser is one of the most useful tools in Photoshop. Yes, I understand it’s technically just an eraser, but you’ve never used an eraser like this.

Where It's Located: The toolbar on the left.

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To use the Basic Eraser:

Once you click the Eraser icon, all of the settings will pop up at the top of your screen. These settings let you change the eraser size, hardness, and other aspects of the tool.

Like most tools in Photoshop, the eraser works only on a specifically selected layer. Make sure you've got the layer you want selected before you start erasing.

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To use the Background Eraser:

This tool is a time-saving wonder. You can see how easily it eliminates background colors from images. This is especially helpful if you need an object with a transparent background.

To use the Background Eraser, click and hold the eraser icon until the slide out menu appears. Choose "Background Eraser."

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Now you're ready to do some serious erasing. Adjust the size of the Background Eraser, and simply click the color you would like deleted from the selected layer. Remember to select the layer you want to erase on.

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Pro Tip: Don’t be afraid to use an oversized eraser tip for the Background Eraser. Since it works by removing particular colors from the image, it won’t erase colors that aren’t selected.

To learn more about how to remove the background of a photo in Photoshop or PowerPoint, check out this step-by-step tutorial.

9. The Crop Tool

What It Does: The Crop tool lets you crop an image. It works like any crop tool you’ve ever encountered: Simply choose your area and crop it out.

I know this is a basic tool, but you’ll find yourself using this just as often as any other tool in Photoshop, especially when you’ve completed your graphic and need to clean up some of the free space around the edges.

Where It's Located: The toolbar on the left.

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To use the Crop tool:

Select the icon indicated in the screenshot from the side menu bar, and drag the box over the area you would like to crop. To adjust the crop box, simply click and drag the small anchor boxes on the sides and corners of the crop box.

photoshop-crop-tool-example.png

Pro Tip: You can make your canvas size larger than it needs to be so that you can give yourself more room to move your design elements, and crop it down to the proper size afterwards.

Read this blog post to learn how to crop images in Photoshop to a specific ratio. If you want to learn some cropping tricks -- like how to rotate an image using the Crop tool -- then check out this article from Digital Photography School.

10. The Fill Tool

What It Does: The Fill tool, formerly the Paint Bucket tool, fills any solid area with the color of your choice. It's great for solid backgrounds or coloring large areas. It can also be used to apply patterns to your images. The Gradient tool within the Fill tool lets you create a nice, faded background effect of the color of your choice.

Where It's Located: On the top menu bar, choose Layer > New Fill Layer. From there, you have the option to choose "Solid Color," "Gradient," or "Pattern."

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To fill a solid area with a color:

First, select the layer you'd like to fill with a solid color. Then, from the top menu bar, choose Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color... From there, a "New Layer" window will pop up and prompt you to name the new color fill layer. Don't worry about choosing the color you want right then and there -- simply name the layer and press "OK."

 

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Next, the Color Picker window will pop up. Here, you can choose which solid color you'd like to fill. Since I'd selected my background layer to fill in (i.e. the color of the sky in my graphic), the color I select in the Color Picker dictates the color of the sky:

photoshop-color-picker-fill.png

To apply patterns to your images:

These patterns can be manually created if you have the time and patience, or you can find a variety of royalty-free patterns available for download through a basic Google search.

To apply a pattern, first select the layer you'd like to fill with a pattern. Then, from the top menu bar, choose Layer > New Fill Layer > Pattern... From there, a "New Layer" window will pop up and prompt you to name the new color fill layer. Don't worry about choosing the color you want right then and there -- simply name the layer and press "OK."

Next, you'll see the "Pattern Fill" window pop up. From there, you can choose the pattern and its scale. Since I'd selected my background layer to fill in (i.e. the color of the sky in my graphic), the pattern I select in the Pattern Fill changes the sky:

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To use the Gradient tool:

To apply a gradient, first select the layer you'd like to fill with a pattern. Then, from the top menu bar, choose Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient... From there, a "New Layer" window will pop up and prompt you to name the new color fill layer. Don't worry about choosing the color you want right then and there -- simply name the layer and press "OK."

Next, a "Gradient Fill" window will pop up. Play around with these options, including the style, angle, and scale. To choose a different gradient than the one offered by default, click the arrow on the right-hand side of the default gradient to open the Gradient Editor, shown below:

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11. The Eyedropper

What It Does: This handy little tool lets you extract and use any color from any image in Photoshop.

Where It's Located: The toolbar on the left.

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To use the Eyedropper tool:

Select the icon from the sidebar. Next, locate that color you would like to extract, and simply click that area to clone the color.

Once you've extracted the color, you'll see it indicated both in the Color module at the top right of your screen, as well as the bottom of the left sidebar. You can double-click that color box to bring up the advanced color picker, where you can then adjust and save the color to a swatch for future use.

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12. Blending Options

What It Does: Blending options include quite a number of features to enhance the look or your graphic. For example, you can use the "Outer Glow" effect to make letters appear like they're glowing. Or you can use the "Drop Shadow" effect to add a shadow to your letters. Take some time to play around with all the layer effects and find out which ones tickle your fancy.

Where It's Located: From the top menu bar, choose Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options... You can also double-click any layer to bring up the options for that particular layer.

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To use Blending Options:

First, select the layer you want to apply your blending options and effects to. Then, open up your blending options and choose the one you'd like to apply. With the variety of options available, you can achieve a number of great effects to finalize your graphics. Have fun with these and experiment on different layers, images, and texts. Here's a look at what's offered:

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For example, in the image below, I selected my text layer and chose "Bevel & Emboss." Looks pretty cool, eh?

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Before we send you on your way, it's worth noting that if you're working with a limited budget and a tight schedule, you can save yourself tons of time and money by using free, royalty-free stock photos. Here's a list of 17 of the best free stock photo sites you can look through.

Also, Photoshop offers a number of really helpful keyboard shortcuts for things like zooming in and out, changing canvas size, creating a new layer, and so on. Check out this blog post for a full list, including shortcuts for some of the tools mentioned above.

Now, it wouldn't be realistic to guarantee that you'd be a Photoshop wiz at this point -- but that isn’t what this guide designed to do. We hope we've provided you with the understanding you’ll need to use the powerful tools in Photoshop in a timely, efficient, non-hair-pulling manner, so that you can elevate your visual content game, like, today.

Happy Photoshopping!


How to Use Photoshop: The Bookmarkable Photoshop Tutorial for Beginners was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

11 of the Best Free Google Sheets Templates for 2020

Whether your marketing position requires you to send invoices to clients, track website analytics, or create budget and expense reports, you’ve undoubtedly found yourself working with spreadsheets in some form.

And if you’re anything like me, those spreadsheets can feel frustratingly tedious when you’re under a time crunch.

Fortunately, Google Sheets offers 26 pre-built templates, allowing you to create reports and analyze data in spreadsheets faster and more effectively.

Best of all, Google Sheets templates cater to specific categories -- if you click the Paid Traffic Report template, for instance, your spreadsheet is already organized into Overview, 12-month Trends, and Medium Breakdown categories. It knows what you need, and offers it without any manual input.

Here, we'll delve into 11 of the best free Google Sheets Templates for any marketing role in 2018, so you can create better spreadsheets while saving valuable time to focus on more important things -- like the data itself.

To find these templates in your Google Sheets, go to your email and click Sheets in the drop-down menu.

Then, click the up and down arrow beside Template Gallery. This will show you all your template options. 

Google Sheets Templates for Finances

1. Invoices

If you’re a freelancer or work for a small business, you probably use invoices to bill clients for services. This invoice template makes the process simple -- it provides space for all the necessary information, and looks more professional than a plain spreadsheet. Plus, the template is customizable, so you can create a theme that aligns well with your brand image.

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2. Annual Business Budget

This template is more in-depth than it initially appears. There are tabs at the bottom -- setup, income, expenses, summary -- and each one includes a number of subcategories. “Expenses”, for instance, covers everything from taxes and insurance, to travel and customer acquisition. The final tab, "summary", takes your income, subtracts your expenses, and automatically updates to display your ending balance each month. This template is a good option if your budget requires a lot of customization and has a lot of moving parts.

3. Financial Statements

The financial statements template truly is an all-in-one resource to keep track of business transactions, profits, and losses. The “profit & loss” tab automatically summarizes revenue, costs, and expenses for the year, and can display your growth rate percentage. If you work for a small business and need to manage much of your own finances, this template offers resources and guidance to make the process easier, and less prone to human error.

Google Sheet Templates for Reporting and Analytics

4. Website Traffic Dashboard

If your role requires you to analyze website traffic using Google Analytics, this template is a fantastic supplemental tool to pull that data into an organized report, saving you tons of time. Better still, you can use the template with Supermetrics Google Sheets add-on to monitor and analyze data from PPC, SEO, social media, and website analytics.

5. Website Paid Traffic Report

This template makes the process of analyzing and reporting on paid traffic relatively seamless. It automatically collects data on your paid sources from Google Analytics, and provides a clean chart with important information, including PPC’s percentage of goal conversions, total traffic, and bounce rate. You can also adjust it to compare different time periods, or different channels or segments. If you’re looking for a way to demonstrate paid’s influence on your business, this is the tool to do it.

Google Sheet Templates for Customers

6. CRM

To organize your contacts and automate an effective sales and marketing process, it’s important you have a CRM -- but if you’re a small company just starting out, you might not feel ready to implement a fully-established CRM with all the features. This CRM template is a great place to get your feet wet. It saves automatically so you never lose data, and the share feature allows you to work with coworkers within the CRM, which is helpful for encouraging collaboration between your sales and marketing departments.

Google Sheet Templates for Project Management

7. Project Timeline

Whether this is your first major project or you’ve been managing projects for years, the project timeline template is a useful tool for organizing and implementing each project step. The template helps you visually break-up a daunting project into smaller pieces, ideally making it easier and less stressful to organize and delegate tasks.

8. Project Tracking

If you’re juggling a bunch of projects simultaneously, this project tracking template could become your new best friend. It enables you to organize your projects into categories by date, deliverables, status, cost, and hours -- best of all, it lets you prioritize your projects. Hopefully, simply visualizing what needs to get done first will alleviate time-management stress.

9. Event Marketing Timeline

The event marketing template offers organization and structure if you’re implementing an upcoming business event or campaign. It offers categories you might’ve forgotten to consider, including local and national marketing, PR, and web, with subcategories ranging from email newsletter to impact studies. The template is already organized with all necessary categories for planning an event, reducing the time you spend on tedious manual input.

10. Gantt Chart Template

The Gantt chart template helps you alleviate any concern you might have over timing -- and, when you’ve got a complex project with overlapping components, I’m willing to bet timing is one of your major concerns. Using the Gantt chart template helps you visualize all steps and delegate important tasks more efficiently -- labelling the task with an owner on one chart is certainly easier than individually following up via email, and by sharing the template with coworkers, everyone is on the same page.

Google Sheet Templates for Leading a Team

11. Employee Shift Schedule

Keeping track of who works what hours, and how much each employee gets paid, can feel confusing, especially if you lead a team of part-time contractors or seasonal interns. This template includes slots for employee’s names, hours worked, and monthly wages, making your paycheck process straightforward and organized.


11 of the Best Free Google Sheets Templates for 2020 was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns