I wouldn't mind an illustration badge :) Here's my humble contribution.

I also curate an inspiration stream that features some of the finest illustration work out there in case you are interested.

System didn't warn so… I wouldn't double post otherwise obviously.

Yeah no problem I'll take a look when time permits. You can mail me at veerle at duoh dot com.

Thanks for that :) Design wise, think about typography as they create visual hierarchy and contrast. White space, so there is enough breathing room. Don’t try to overthink it as that sometimes happens with all of us. If you doubt try to subtract something and see if it still works. One of the harder parts of design is picking the right colors. I’ve touched on that subject earlier in the questions here. But the absolute toughest one is creating great content that people want to read and keeping that going for many years because there isn’t a magical formula to get noticed. It’s persistency that is the secret sauce. Write about what you know and try to keep it understandable for everybody. I have no idea what my most exposed post is, but I bet it’s a tutorial like this one about geometric patterns in Illustrator.

I’ll try :)

Oh wow, that’s from the very early days! Thanks for that, much appreciated.

It’s been around for a long time but I don’t think it looks dated that it sticks out in a ‘lipstick on a pig’ kinda way. Sure it’s old and it’s time for something new. Code wise it’s a dinosaur. Honestly it’s always a struggle to keep posting good content or not post anymore and create something new. It’s not a small task to start with as I also want to change the CMS. That means I have to learn that as well. I already had a redesign ready in Photoshop but I never implemented it code wise. I like to keep the old designs around for historic reasons. It’s a loss that so many things don’t go to go some kind of digital archive. I know of the Wayback machine, but sites stored there aren’t flawlessly archived. Keeping the old ones around means that you need a good SEO strategy so you don’t lose what you’ve earned over the years etc. It’s not easy doing this all while working for clients and still doing my bike riding too. I need that as I don’t want to get another burn-out. Anyway I’ll bite the bullet in 2016 and hope I can create something nice. No pressure :)

That's great to hear and I'm glad you've been around all those years. I'll keep sharing :)

I like it, it’s better than the camouflage one. As you might know i like geometric designs :) Only the typeface isn’t something I would use. It serves the purpose of the owner well in ‘getting noticed’ :) Wouldn’t wear it personally though as I’m more a fan of subtleness.

Haha! That is a post from the pre-historical phase of the internet :) But still a good idea, as I find a good inspiring working environment so important. I even have a Flickr group about just that.

So here's mine, as of December 11th (evening already here):

Oh thank you for those very nice words! I know I reach people, but I actually don't stand still by things like this. That's what I try to accomplish, inspire people to go chase their dreams and passion. I'm happy to hear you succeeded in doing this. I always believed in sharing what I know, even when people told me that I was crazy to do so in the very early days of blogging. They always said that the competition would take all work away :)

The biggest tip I can give you, is to make sure you never jump into freelancing right after school. Make sure you have a couple of years of experience first. Preferably in multiple agencies. This way you discover all aspects of the job and you see different approaches. I jumped into freelancing way too soon and I was too naïve. The first 5 years were really tough with as good as no earnings. The competition is hard, but I believe you can stand out from the crowd by finding your niche. It won’t be easy, because there are so many, and it’s so easy to get your portfolio out. When I started there was no Internet and I had to visit companies with my portfolio under my arm. That took huge courage for me to do, as I’m not good at selling myself. Still aren’t :) If you haven’t anything to show, you can always try to work for a good cause and use that as a showcase.