#91

Bring it to life

Hot Tip #91 is to bring it to life.

Skeuomorphism is the design concept of making digital items resemble their tangible real-world counterpart.

If you are selling a book, consider using a book mock-up template to bring it to life in your Landing Page:

Book Cover reference

I grabbed this book template from Creative Market and it made a huge difference to the Hot Tips Landing Page design.

Selling a print? Why not put it in a frame and overlay a leaf to really bring it to life:

Print reference

Pre-selling property? Give it life with an aerial view of the desk and the beautiful plans strewn across it:

Print reference

Another trick to bring your offering to vibrant life is to add a subtle drop shadow behind the image, product mock-up, or browser screenshot:

Drop shadow design reference

The above subtleties aren’t noticeable at first but collectively mold into a beautiful Landing Page design, like this:

Drop shadow design reference
  • Unboxshot – A service specializing in stop-motion unboxing animations for your products. Instant delight in your Landing Page.
  • Depth Inspiration – A collection of 50+ Landing Pages I’ve curated featuring a perception of depth within the page.
  • Aerial View Inspiration – A collection of 80+ Landing Pages I’ve curated with aerial view shot.
  • Creative Market – The device mock-ups category is filled with unique options by their community.
  • Device Mock-Up Inspiration – A collection of 150+ Landing Pages I’ve curated featuring device mock-ups.
  • Devices by Facebook Design – Monster collection of mock-up devices in both PNG and Sketch. Ridiculous this is free.
  • Shotsnapp – Brilliant device mock-up tool that works in your browser.
  • Ray – Useful little web app to generate beautiful images of your code snippets. Supports a bunch of languages and features a neat UI options panel including dark + light modes.
  • Rotato – macOS app to generate fancy rotating device mock-ups. Free to try, then $40.
  • Smartmockups – Tool with a more diverse (tees, cups, devices) set of mock-ups. Free for 200 mock-ups then $9/month.
  • Lstore Graphics – Top quality device mock-up resource. Video options too!