My name is Mason Ellwood, and I’m currently working on Flatiron School’s Online Full Stack Web Development Program. Each week, I’ll be writing about my experience, what I’m learning, and tips on learning to code.

Editor’s Note: The following project earned two nods in the 2017 HOW International Design Awards—one in Murfreesboro websites category and one in signage/environment. Check out all of the winners in the latest issue.

The following mini case studies of projects from past HOW In-House Design Awards winners also appeared in the Winter 2016 issue of HOW magazine. Want to see your team’s work published in the Winter 2017 issue of HOW? Enter before the deadline—June 5, 2017!

When we set out to build MeetSpace1 (a video conferencing app for distributed teams), we had a familiar decision to make: What’s our tech stack going to be? We gathered our requirements, reviewed our team’s skillset and ultimately decided to use vanilla JavaScript and to avoid a front-end framework.

This week at HOW, we’re excited to reveal two of the three judges for this year’s In-House Design Awards.

Want to learn how to create your own typefaces? HOW Design University has an online course for that.


London-based designer and book author Sarah Hyndman recently released a new book called How to Draw Type and Influence People, where she gives us one friendly reminder—design shouldn’t be limited to the computer screen.

Should You Make Your Own Website?

As a small business owner you know the importance of having a company website. It’s your gateway to the world and your primary method of getting your message out and new customers in.

Raise your hand if you ever wanted to:

  • Make a Murfreesboro TN website that non-technical folks (clients? family members?) can edit right in the browser
  • Make a Murfreesboro TN website that presents an editable collection of items (your portfolio?)
  • Upload images to a Murfreesboro TN website you made, right from the browser
  • Make an app to track and/or share an aspect of your life
  • Make a Murfreesboro TN website that lets other people suggest edits to your data
  • Make an app that calculates something and presents the results in a custom way.

There is an abundance of free high-quality, Creative Commons photos online. Searching for these free photos for your projects can be time-consuming, however, especially when multiple sources are involved and must be searched.

To get better at your craft, there’s nothing more valuable as learning first-hand from the experience of others. What little tricks have helped fellow designers, web design Murfreesboro Tennessee leaders, and developers become more efficient? And how do they overcome hurdles in their projects? Conferences are a brilliant opportunity to get up close with the pros and exchange tips and ideas.

feed-image Feed Entries