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1. Types and elements of culture

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2. Unit of culture- meme

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Questions for self-examination:

1. Explain the concept of culture.

2. Name the characteristic features of any culture.

3. Define the notion of cultural evolution.

4. Give example on Internet meme.

5. How do memes spread in your community?

Culture is a part of language, just as language is a part of culture and the two partly overlapping realities can intersect in many ways –where the term “linguaculture” may serve. Culture is the sets, associations and cybernetic networks of patterns, regularities, symbols and values (and ideas about them), behavioral, linguistic, and ideological, explicit and implicit, rational and emotional, conscious, unconscious and subconscious, that are differentially shared, transmitted in history, and created (or recreated) by the members, as individual agents or collectively, of a given society si situated in concrete time and space.

Culture is perhaps the most complex and comprehensive category in the history of mankind, which is comparable just to the phenomenon of life in general. Culture (Latin: cultura, lit. 'Cultivation') is a modern concept based on a term first used in classical antiquity by the Roman orator Cicero: 'cultura animi' (cultivation of the soul). This non-agricultural use of the term 'culture' re-appeared in modern Europe in the 17th century referring to the betterment or refinement of individuals, especially through education. During the XVIII and XIX century it came to refer more frequently to the common reference points of whole peoples, and discussion of the term was often connected to national aspirations or ideals. Some scientists such as Edward Tylor used the term 'culture' to refer to a universal human capacity. In the 20th century, 'culture' emerged as a central concept in Anthropology, encompassing the range of human phenomena that cannot be directly attributed to genetic inheritance. Specifically, term 'culture' in Anthropology had two meanings:

1. Evolved human capacity to classify and represent experiences with symbols, and to act imaginatively and creatively; and

2. Distinct ways that people, who live differently, classified and represented their experiences, and acted creatively.

Culture is described as an integrated system of learned behavior patterns which are characteristic of the members of a society and which are not a result of biological inheritance.

Culture – set of patterns of human activity within a society or social group and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. Customs, laws, dress, architectural style, social standards, religious beliefs, and traditions are all examples of cultural elements.

Elements of culture

The Arts – vast subdivision of culture composed of many creative endeavors and disciplines. The art encompasses visual arts, literary arts and the performing arts.

Gastronomy – the art and science of good eating, including the study of food and culture.

Food preparation – act of preparing foodstuffs for eating. It encompasses a vast range of methods, tools, and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavour and digestibility of food.

Food and drink-

Cuisines – a cuisine is a specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a specific culture.

Literature – the art of written works.

Children's literature – stories, books, and poems for children.

Fiction – any form of narrative which deals, in part or in whole, with events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary and invented by its author(s). See below.

Non-fiction – form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be factual.

Poetry – literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning.

Critical theory – examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities.

Performing arts – those forms of art that use the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium.

Dance – art form of movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction, or presented in a spiritual or performance setting.

Film – moving pictures, the art form that records performances visually.

Theatre – collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place.

Music – art form the medium of which is sound and silence.

Music genres

Jazz – musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States, mixing African and European music traditions.

Opera – art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text (called a libretto) and musical score.

Musical instruments – devices created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds.

Guitars – the guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with either nylon or steel strings.

Stagecraft – technical aspects of theatrical, film, and video production. It includes, but is not limited to, constructing and rigging scenery, hanging and focusing of lighting, design and procurement of costumes, makeup, and procurement of props, stage management, and recording and mixing of sound.

Visual arts – art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature.

Architecture – The art and science of designing and erecting buildings and other physical structures.

Classical architecture – architecture of classical antiquity and later architectural styles influenced by it.

Crafts – recreational activities and hobbies that involve making things with one's hands and skill.

Drawing – visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium.

Film – moving pictures.

Painting – practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface with a brush or other object.

Photography – art, science, and practice of creating pictures by recording radiation on a radiation-sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or electronic image sensors.

Sculpture – three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials - typically stone such as marble - or metal, glass, or wood.

Entertainment – any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie.

• Games – structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment, involving goals, rules, challenge, and interaction and presence as a medium.

• Fiction – any form of narrative which deals, in part or in whole, with events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary and invented by its author(s).

• James Bond – fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming. Since then, the character has grown to icon status, featured in many novels, movies, video games and other media.

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• Fantasy – genre of fiction using magic and the supernatural as primary elements of plot, theme or setting, often in imaginary worlds, generally avoiding the technical/scientific content typical of Science fiction, but overlapping with it

• Middle-earth – fantasy setting by writer J.R.R. Tolkien, home to hobbits, orcs, and many other mystical races and creatures.

• Science fiction – a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible (or at least nonsupernatural) content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities. Exploring the consequences of scientific innovations is one purpose of science fiction, making it a 'literature of ideas'.

• Sports – organized, competitive, entertaining, and skillful activity requiring commitment, strategy, and fair play, in which a winner can be defined by objective means. Generally speaking, a sport is a game based in physical athleticism. Ball games

• Basketball – team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or 'shooting' a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules.

• Cricket – bat-and-ball team sport, the most popular form played on an oval-shaped outdoor arena known as a cricket field at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard (20.12 m) long pitch that is the focus of the game.

• Tennis – sport usually played between two players (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles), using specialized racquets to strike a felt-covered hollow rubber ball over a net into the opponent's court.

• Canoeing and kayaking – two closely related forms of watercraft paddling, involving manually propelling and navigating specialized boats called canoes and kayaks using a blade that is joined to a shaft, known as a paddle, in the water.

• Combat sports

• Fencing – family of combat sports using bladed weapons. It is also known as French swordfighting or French swordfencing.

• Martial arts – extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development.

• Cycling sport – bicycle racing and track cycling.

• Motorcycling – riding a motorcycle. A variety of subcultures and lifestyles have been built up around motorcycling and motorcycle racing.

• Running – moving rapidly on foot, during which both feet are off the ground at regular intervals (Bronze Age ca. BC 3000 – Late Antiquity ca. AD 300–600); especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.

• Mass media – diversified media technologies and their content that are intended to reach a large audience by mass communication. Includes radio and television programming; mass publishing of books, magazines, and newspapers; web content; and films and audio recordings.

• Tradition - A tradition is a belief or behavior passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes (like lawyer wigs or military officer spurs), but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings. Traditions can persist and evolve for thousands of years—the word 'tradition' itself derives from the Latin tradere or traderer literally meaning to transmit, to hand over, to give for safekeeping. While it is commonly assumed that traditions have ancient history, many traditions have been invented on purpose, whether that is political or cultural, over short periods of time.

• Celebration, festivals – entertainment events centering on and celebrating a unique aspect of a community, usually staged by that community.

• Tourism – travel for recreational, leisure, or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people 'traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes'. Tourism is important, and in some cases, vital for many countries.

Cultures by aspect

• Consumer culture – a society based on consumerism

• High context culture – a culture with the tendency use high context messages, resulting in catering towards in-groups

• Low context culture – culture with a tendency not to cater towards in-groups

• Remix culture – a society which allows and encourages derivative works

• Participatory culture – a culture in which private persons (the public) do not act as consumers only, but also as contributors or producers (prosumers)

• Permission culture – a society in which copyright restrictions are pervasive and enforced to the extent that any and all uses of copyrighted works need to be explicitly leased

• Primitive culture – a community that lacks major signs of economic development or modernity

Cultural cross-sections

• Children's culture – cultural phenomena pertaining to children

• Children's street culture – cumulative culture created by young children

• Coffee culture – social atmosphere or series of associated social behaviors that depends heavily upon coffee –, particularly as a social lubricant –

• Culture of capitalism – the lifestyle of the people living within a capitalist society, and the effects of a global or national capitalist economy on a population

• DIY culture – refers to a wide range of elements in non-mainstream society, such as grassroots political and social activism, independent music, art, and film

• Dominant culture – the established language, religion, behavior, values, rituals, and social customs of a society

• Drinking culture – the customs and practices of people who drink alcoholic beverages

• Folk culture – traditional culture; traditional cultural traits of a community

• Low culture – is a derogatory term for some forms of popular culture that have mass appeal. Its contrast is high culture. (Reality television, popular music)

• High culture –is a term, now used in a number of different ways in academic discourse, whose most common meaning is the set of cultural products, mainly in the arts, held in the highest esteem by a culture.

• Official culture – is the culture that receives social legitimation or institutional support in a given society. Official culture is usually identified with bourgeoisie culture.

• Political culture – Political culture is defined by the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences as 'the set of attitudes, beliefs and sentiments that give order and meaning to a political process and which provide the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behavior in the political system'.

• Popular culture – totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that permeate the everyday lives of a given society, especially those heavily influenced by mass media.

• Print culture – is defined by the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences as 'the set of attitudes, beliefs and sentiments that give order and meaning to a political process and which provide the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behavior in the political system'. It encompasses both the political ideals and operating norms of a polity. Political culture is thus the manifestation in aggregate form of the psychological and subjective dimensions of politics. A political culture is the product of both the collective history of a political system and the life histories of the members of the system and thus it is rooted equally in public events and private experience'

• Safety culture – the way in which safety is managed in the workplace, which often reflects 'the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and values that employees share in relation to safety.'

• Tea culture – is defined by the way tea is made and consumed, by the way the people interact with tea, and by the aesthetics surrounding tea drinking, it includes aspects of: tea production, tea brewing, tea arts and ceremony, society, history, health, ethics, education, and communication and media issues.

• Trash culture –is used for labeling the cultural by-products of modernism. These include television, fast-food, mass media, cars, popular music, teenage culture, movies, professional sports, tabloids, comic books, cartoons, shopping malls, amusement parks, carnivals, casinos, supermarkets and the like.

• Urban culture –is the culture of cities. Cities all over the world, past and present, have behaviors and cultural elements that separate them from otherwise comparable rural areas.

• Vernacular culture – s a term used in the modern study of geography and cultural studies. It refers to cultural forms made and organised by ordinary people for their own pleasure, in modern societies. Such culture is almost always engaged in on a non-profit and voluntary basis, and is almost never funded by the state.

Subcultures

• Alternative culture – exists outside or on the fringes of mainstream or popular culture, usually under the domain of one or more subcultures.

• Counterculture – Counterculture (also written counter-culture) is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, orsubculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior deviates from the societal norm.

• Oppositional culture – also known as the ‘’blocked opportunities framework’’ or the “caste theory of education”, is a term most commonly used in studying the sociology of education to explain racial disparities in educational achievement, particularly between white and black Americans. However, the term refers to any subculture's rejection of conformity to prevailing norms and values, not just nonconformity within the educational system. Thus many criminal gangs and religious cults could also be considered oppositional cultures.

• Security culture – is a set of customs shared by a community whose members may engage in illegal or sensitive activities, the practice of which minimizes the risks of such activities being subverted, or targeted for sabotage. The term is used in the context of activist groups and movements, particularly ones that might be involved in direct action, but it is also in use in most corporations, and certain arms of government. The main focus of a security culture is keeping infiltrators and other potentially damaging parties out.

Underground culture (disambiguation) – An underground culture is a subculture or counterculture that exists outside the scope of mainstream mass media and popular culture. It may also refer to:

• Underground comix, small press or self-published alternative comic books

• Underground economy or black market, commerce under the radar of taxes and regulations

• Underground film, cinema outside the commercial mainstream

• Underground music, music with a following despite moderate commercial success

• Underground hip hop, a style of hip hop music

• Underground art, art with a following independent of commercial success

• Underground press, the alternative print media in the late 1960s and early 1970s

• UK underground, a 1960s countercultural movement in the United Kingdom

Cultures by ethnicity or ethnic sphere

• Western culture

• Anglo America

• Latin American culture

• Anglosphere

• African American culture

• Indosphere

• Sinosphere

• Islamic culture

• Arab culture

• Tibetan culture

Cultures of continents and major geopolitical regions

• Culture of Africa

• Culture of Antarctica

• Culture of Asia

• Culture of Europe

• Culture of North America

• Culture of Oceania

• Culture of Australia

• Culture of South America

It should be noted that the concept of 'units of culture' itself is relatively new. One of the earliest references (1945) about the 'unity of culture' belongs to M. Herskovits, famous American anthropologist, one of the disciples and followers of F.Boas. W. Durham, pondering over what could be a unit of culture, expressed the judgment that it should:

1) to include information that is actually or potentially determines the behavior;

2) to fit variable size, type and ways of organizing the information, which represents a set hierarchy and integration;

3) subdivided into arrays of information that is transmitted in the form of various coherent, functional units.

A meme is 'an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.' A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures.

The word meme is a shortening (modeled on gene) of mimeme (from Ancient Greek mīmēma, 'imitated thing') and it was coined by the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976) as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. Examples of memes given in the book included melodies, catch-phrases, fashion, and the technology of building arches. Proponents theorize that memes may evolve by natural selection in a manner analogous to that of biological evolution. Memes do this through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance, each of which influence a meme's reproductive success. Memes spread through the behavior that they generate in their hosts. Memes that propagate less prolifically may become extinct, while others may survive, spread, and (for better or for worse) mutate. Memes that replicate most effectively enjoy more success, and some may replicate effectively even when they prove to be detrimental to the welfare of their hosts.

A field of study called memetics arose in the 1990s to explore the concepts and transmission of memes in terms of an evolutionary model. Memes generally replicate through exposure to humans, who have evolved as efficient copiers of information and behaviour. Because humans do not always copy memes perfectly, and because they may refine, combine or otherwise modify them with other memes to create new memes, they can change over time. Dawkins likened the process by which memes survive and change through the evolution of culture to the natural selection of genes in biological evolution.

Memes reproduce by copying from a nervous system to another one, either by communication or imitation. Imitation often involves the copying of an observed behaviour of another individual. Communication may be direct or indirect, where memes transmit from one individual to another through a copy recorded in an inanimate source, such as a book or a musical score. Aaron Lynch described seven general patterns of meme transmission, or 'thought contagion':

1. Quantity of parenthood: an idea that influences the number of children one has. Children respond particularly receptively to the ideas of their parents, and thus ideas that directly or indirectly encourage a higher birthrate will replicate themselves at a higher rate than those that discourage higher birthrates.

2. Efficiency of parenthood: an idea that increases the proportion of children who will adopt ideas of their parents. Cultural separatism exemplifies one practice in which one can expect a higher rate of meme-replication—because the meme for separation creates a barrier from exposure to competing ideas.

3. Proselytic: ideas generally passed to others beyond one's own children. Ideas that encourage the proselytism of a meme, as seen in many religious or political movements, can replicate memes horizontally through a given generation, spreading more rapidly than parent-to-child meme-transmissions do.

4. Preservational: ideas that influence those that hold them to continue to hold them for a long time. Ideas that encourage longevity in their hosts, or leave their hosts particularly resistant to abandoning or replacing these ideas, enhance the preservability of memes and afford protection from the competition or proselytism of other memes.

5. Adversative: ideas that influence those that hold them to attack or sabotage competing ideas and/or those that hold them. Adversative replication can give an advantage in meme transmission when the meme itself encourages aggression against other memes.

6. Cognitive: ideas perceived as cogent by most in the population who encounter them. Cognitively transmitted memes depend heavily on a cluster of other ideas and cognitive traits already widely held in the population, and thus usually spread more passively than other forms of meme transmission. Memes spread in cognitive transmission do not count as self-replicating.

7. Motivational: ideas that people adopt because they perceive some self-interest in adopting them. Strictly speaking, motivationally transmitted memes do not self-propagate, but this mode of transmission often occurs in association with memes self-replicated in the efficiency parental, proselytic and preservational modes.

An Internet meme is an idea, style or action which spreads, often as mimicry, from person to person via the Internet, as with imitating the concept. Some notable examples include posting a photo of people in public places lying down planking and uploading a short video of people dancing to the Harlem Shake.

A meme can be considered a mimicked theme, including simple phrases or gestures. An Internet meme may take the form of an image, hyperlink, video, picture, website, or hashtag. It may be just a word or phrase, including an intentional misspelling. These small movements tend to spread from person to person via social networks, blogs, direct email, or news sources.

They may relate to various existing Internet cultures or subcultures, often created or spread on sites and numerous others in our time, or by Usenet boards and other such early-internet communications facilities. Sensations tend to grow rapidly on the Internet, because the instant communication facilitates word-of-mouthtransmission.

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The freelancer’s life comes with more ups and downs than your average roller coaster. These tools will help you manage it all — with a modicum of screaming.

Best time-management tools

As a freelancer, time’s your most valuable asset. So a toolset that makes managing and tracking your time easy is crucial.

In “4 time management tools for teams and designers,” we discussed how different time management tools can solve different problems, and how these tools can make you a better freelancer and designer. The tools below will help you accomplish both.

Timely

Timely is a scheduling and time-tracking tool. It lets you plan your weeks in advance, plus track time (and hourly rates) for your current projects. I always turn to Timely for ongoing projects that require time-tracking, in part because it gives me a better sense of where I spent my time in previous weeks.

Harvest

One of the most reliable time-tracking tools I’ve found is Harvest. The easy-to-use UI lets you send invoices to clients right from the app. But one of its biggest advantages is its integrations with popular apps like Asana, Trello, Basecamp, QuickBooks, and more.

Of course, with Webflow you can bill your clients automatically with Client Billing, lessening the need for another tool like this.

Toggl

Though a little too simple for my taste, Toggl is one of the simplest time-trackers around. If you don’t want to bother with too much setup, or just need an easy-to-access timer, this might be your tool.

Freelancy

Where other time-tracking tools can feel too focused, Freelancy strives to be the all-in-one tool for freelancers, with time-tracking, project management, and invoicing all in one app.

Best finance and tax tools

Just like any other business, freelancers have to track their income, cash flow, and prepare their taxes (quarterly!) — all without the help of a friendly HR department.

Luckily, you’ll find plenty of tools to help you manage your finances, bill clients, and easily keep up with your taxes. While some of these tools work beautifully together, and others are just for billing and/or taxes, any of them can make managing your money much easier!

QuickBooks Self Employed

A personal favorite — and the one I rely on most come tax time — is QuickBooks Self-Employed. It lets you not only easily track income and expenses by connecting directly to your bank accounts, but also makes it incredibly easy to stay on top of quarterly taxes.

Square

Another personal favorite, and how I typically collect payment from clients, Square makes it easy to create, send, and collect payments both in person and online with a credit or debit card. There are more robust tools to manage your income, but few that make it so simple for clients to pay you (always the hardest part).

PayPal

Another long-time favorite, PayPal lets you collect payments in just about any way (in person, by credit card, via ACH, or with PayPal Credit). PayPal’s less-than-stellar user experience design has proven the only reason I choose other platforms.

Invoice.to (with Stripe)

Invoice.to may be fairly new to the invoice game, but it’s an incredibly easy invoice generator that you can link to your Stripe account to collect payments. I’d argue that there’s no simpler or better-designed invoicing tool on the web, so if you already rely on Stripe, it may be a clear winner.

FreshBooks

While the above tools make collecting payments easy, FreshBooks does a whole lot more. This full suite of accounting tools lets you manage every aspect of freelancer finance. Collect payments, manage expenses (including payments to other employees), and track time all in one place. With all that in one place, it’s sole drawback may be that it’s more than what most freelancers need.

Expensify

If your work involves lots of travel, business purchases, or a lot of expense tracking, then Expensify could be your go-to. Expensify makes it easy to track all sorts of expenses, and bring that data into 3rd-party services like QuickBooks for easy reporting come tax time.

Cushion

The most stressful part of freelancing is keeping on top of cashflow and planning future projects. Cushion is a great tool for projecting future income, seeing where you have cash gaps (so you can schedule new projects), and managing projects to minimize overlap.

Mint

Though most people use Mint for personal money management, it works just as well for managing businesses expenses. See where you’re spending, what you’re saving, and set savings goals all in the app.

Webflow Client Billing

If you use Webflow, Client Billing can make getting paid, and life in general, so much easier. I can set up recurring payments from my client, at any price point I sell my client on, without having to worry about sending invoices, chasing down accounting departments, or any of the other hassles you’re (unfortunately) all too familiar with.

The best part is that it’s free for any Webflow-using designer. Check out how Client Billing works.

Best communication and project management tools

Communication is key, especially when you’re working on multiple projects at the same time.

Project management tools help you stay organized and keep clients in the know. And while nothing beats proactive communication (something a tool can’t do for you), the right tool can make all the difference between project bliss or utter disaster.

So ditch the emails, and get yourself (and clients) on one of these great tools. You’ll be best friends in no time.

Slack

Do we even need to explain Slack?

Ok, in case you somehow haven’t heard of it yet: Slack’s incredible chat application will let you and your clients ditch the back-and-forth emails and upgrade to real-time communication. I set up a new private Slack group for every new client, making it much easier for us to collaborate and get to the final product much quicker.

Flow

Flow combines project management and chat in one multi-device app. I’d argue that Flow is much simpler than other project management tools on this list, without skimping on features.

Asana

If you’re looking for a robust and beautifully designed project management solution, you may not need to look any further than Asana. While it sometimes feels like too much, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a project management tool with more bells and whistles.

Trello

Trello has long been a favorite for designers and project managers alike. If you’re looking for a flexible and visual solution, then Trello might be your go-to. I use it for everything from my daily chore list to client project management to vacation planning.

Basecamp

Another venerable favorite for project management (and rightfully so) is Basecamp. Basecamp brings clean, considered design to a powerful tool you can use with coworkers and clients alike. It also has tons of integrations that make connecting it to tools you already use a breeze.

GitHub

I know a lot of you probably don’t see GitHub as the ideal tool for managing tasks as a freelancer — but hear me out.

Many of you probably work closely with an engineering team on freelance projects. And most engineering teams run their project management in GitHub. Something I’ve experimented with is having all my personal tasks and tasks for freelance projects all in the same tool – GitHub.

And after a few months, I’ve really grown to love it. It has most, if not all, of the functionality of the other tools I used for personal tasks, and it helps me avoid managing things in multiple places, because let’s face it, when you’re freelancing, you personal and work lives tend to overlap quite a bit.

Though you’ll have to pay to have private repositories, I’d say it’s well worth the $7 a month for the amount of time and effort I save in project management.

Best contract and proposal tools and resources

We could’ve covered these under finance tools, but contracts and proposals play such a huge part in the freelancing process, they deserve their own section.

The right contract will literally make or break a project. It’s the single most important part of any project, yet so many freelancers pass it off as no big deal.

This isn’t the first time we’ve spoken about the importance of freelance design contracts, and it won’t be the last, but some of these tools and resources below will get you off on the right track.

Creative Class Contract Course

Although it’s the priciest item on the list, it’s worth its file size in gold. The Creative Class contract course will guide you through building a bulletproof contract that will not only make you a better freelancer, but also make you even more money.

Bonsai

Bonsai makes it super easy to create a contract, review it with a client (and make changes), and then sign it. It’s the all-in-one contract tool I use every time.

Qwilr

If you don’t want to create proposals or other customer-facing documents from the ground up, or don’t know where to begin, Qwilr is a great place to start. Their templates are easy to use, and will help you and your clients better prepare for projects.

Introducing The Freelancer’s Journey: a free course that teaches you how to succeed as a freelance web designer — from getting clients to launching their websites.

Funnel

Another hybrid tool that could fit into multiple categories, Funnel lets you easily add forms to your website to collect information from prospective clients. Once you get an inquiry, Funnel makes it easy to create a proposal and get the project moving.

Web Design Proposal Generator

We’re especially fond of Web Design Proposal Generator as it was made in Webflow CMS by Spreadshare cofounder Sidney Ottelohe. But all product bias aside, it’s a smart use of a content management system to generate and stylishly present your proposals to freelance clients — and you can customize every bit of it, without coding, so it reflects your brand perfectly.

Best platforms for finding freelance work

While I will always stand by referrals being the best way to find new clients, there are definitely some tools out there that can help you kickstart your client base, and continually add to it, if you so choose. Here are a few freelance websites that should help you get your foot in the door.

Toptal

I’ve been hearing Toptal pop up in conversation a lot more as of late. They pride themselves on having only the best of the best freelance talent, which is why they have an application and screening process.

Having that high quality bar set also helps them attract some of the best companies in the world when they’re looking for freelancer help. And with great companies comes better compensation, so there’s no race to the bottom here.

Webflow Experts

New to the block is Webflow Experts, a freelancer marketplace specializing in Webflow-based projects. Like Toptal, Webflow Experts has an application and screening process before you can start working on projects.

The Webflow Experts profiles emphasize your work and skillset, and the site lets clients find you based on their needs. That helps match clients with just the right person — and keeps the noise down to a dull roar for the designers.

The site also strikes a careful balance for both sides of the marketplace, keeping a consistent stream of project proposals (and work) coming in.

Upwork

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or are new to freelancing), I’m sure you’ve heard of Upwork. Upwork can be invaluable in filling in the gaps between larger projects that I’m more passionate about.They’ve become so large that it’s just a reliable place to go for consistent, last-minute work.

The not-so-great part of Upwork is the bidding contests, which attract a certain kind of client – usually one looking for quick turnaround at bargain-basement prices. Given the large volume of requests on the platform, you can still sometimes find those clients who put more of a premium on quality than thrift, but in the end, it’s your call as to whether or not to give the platform a swing.

Design tools

Figma

A newer, but increasingly popular design tool these days is Figma. Some even believe it’s going to supplant Sketch as the industry’s go-to UI design tool, including former Sketch fan Tom Johnson, who recently published the piece, You are going to switch to Figma.

People love it for a number of reasons, but one of the top reasons has to be its real-time collaboration feature, which allows several people to work simultaneously on the same design. And that isn’t just handy for working with your fellow designers — copywriters and content strategists can also jump in and update content! (Oh, and you Windows-using designers will be happy to hear that, unlike Sketch, you can use it on a Windows machine.)

Depending on the type of design you do, Figma may not be your cup of tea, but I’ll let you make the call, since they have a free plan.

Webflow

Alright, time for a shameless plug: but I promise that as a freelancer, I really do love Webflow more than any other design tool. Primarily because I can manage my entire business through Webflow.

To start, designing in Webflow saves me tons of time and money. First, because Webflow writes production-ready code for me while I design, I don’t have to rely on a developer’s help to bring my design to life. I was sold on that alone when i first found Webflow (so much so I decided to come work here).

Second is the flexibility of the CMS. I have yet to find a CMS that’s easier or faster to customize, which is a huge factor when you have a wide range of clients. And I’ve definitely not seen a CMS that offers so much visual design flexibility without relying on templates.

Last is Client Billing. We all know that it can be hard at times to get paid as a freelancer. But with Client Billing, I just define a recurring fee, and Webflow handles the rest, so I don’t have to worry about invoicing and all that other baggage.

If you haven’t yet, definitely give Webflow a try. there’s a free version, but I think you’ll find the paid plans are more than worth it.

Design collaboration tools

Redpen

Redpen allows you to get feedback on your designs, from as many people as you want, as annotations pinned to your designs. And if you can’t tell already, that makes it a solid alternative to InVision, only with more focus on speed and less on features.

I haven’t used Redpen a lot on my own design work, but I’ve given a ton of feedback through Redpen. My favorite part about it, is (as my colleague John Moore Williams mentions in a more in-depth post about design feedback tools) is just the feeling of being able to show people how your product works, rather than just telling them.

InVision

A rising star in the same space as Redpen, InVision fills the same need for asynchronous design feedback, but bolts on a whole host of other features. InVision is what I’ve been using lately for my design work, and I love it.

Like Redpen, it gives you the feeling of presenting your product by showing rather than telling. But it also works seamlessly with other applications, like Sketch, Dropbox, and Drive, which can really help take the pain out of managing file versions.

There’s a free plan for you to try it out, but it’s limited to one prototype.

Skitch

Skitch is one of those tools that can quickly become such a go-to that, if you’re just learning about it from me, I can confidently say, “You’re welcome.”

It’s a simple way to take, annotate, and send screenshots, saving time for everyone involved in your feedback loops.

Though there are countless uses for this tool, it can be helpful to think of it as an InVision for sites that are already in production. Use it to send feedback on production designs, take notes for redesigns, or just to call attention to bugs. I can also say that the Webflow Support team relied on it for the creation of Help Center screenshots for quite some time.

CloudApp

My main alternative to Skitch is CloudApp. While it does much the same thing at base — i.e., create screenshots you can then annotate — it also simplifies sharing by letting you distribute your screenshots via a URL.

Though Skitch has many great features, I find CloudApp more robust, as it allows me to capture screen recordings, create GIFs, and integrate with the host of other file management and sharing apps I use.

The free plan lets you create and share 10 files per day, which may be enough for many — but know that you’ll probably lean on this one enough that you’ll quickly need more.

Content design tools

Whether you’re in the early information architecture (IA) planning stages or jamming on final copy, you’ll find a host of content design tools out there to streamline your collaboration with freelance clients. Here are a few of my faves.

Google Docs

While many designers and content strategists have made the leap to Dropbox Paper, I stand by Google Docs for content creation and collaboration.

With solid change tracking, a great automatic outline generator, the ability to turn comments into task assignments, and a host of formatting options you won’t find in Paper, it’s my go-to tool for writing — especially collaborative writing.

Dropbox Paper

If you prefer a default-beautiful design to a highly customizable one, but still want all the collaborative bells and whistles, Paper could be your jam. Especially if you’re already living the Dropbox life for your other file management needs.

Notion

You know that feeling you get when you stumble across a new app and really want to use it but just don’t have a task it fits perfectly? Yeah — that’s exactly what I’ve been feeling for months now about Notion.

The folks at Notion made the genius move of unifying a writing app, wiki, and task management tool into one nicely designed space, making it ideal for those looking to centralize their team management and productivity tools. If our head of content hadn’t already built our content guidelines out in Webflow CMS, I might’ve bugged him to use Notion instead.

Bear

If you’re a fan of beautiful, multi-device, Markdown-driven writing apps, Bear’s for you. The cross-note linking and use of hashtags to organize and categorize your content are particularly handy for larger projects. Just keep in mind that it might not be the friendliest tool to collaborate with clients in — unless they’re fans of Markdown, that is.

Does Notion Support Markdown

MindMeister

When you’re brainstorming, designing a content strategy, defining a brand, or concepting your next sitemap, there’s nothing like a beautiful, easy-to-use mindmapping tool. And MindMeister is a great example of the type. It’s free for your first three maps, so give it a spin!

GatherContent

If any tool has ever been built specifically for content strategists, it’s GatherContent. As the name suggests, it’s built to help you handle the intake and management of content from a variety of sources with ease. It allows you to structure content to align with your CMS, build a sitemap and content inventory, and even integrates with several popular CMSs to streamline publishing.

Just remember: you are greater than your tools

Notion Markdown Supported

Tools and resources can help alleviate the stress of freelancing, but they’ll only take you so far.

Your work ethic, dedication to finding new clients, and design skills will always be your most important assets. All these apps do is help you deliver all three.

And remember:

Notion Markdown Support Center

Did we miss a favorite tool of yours? Let us know in the comments!