JK. I'm not there yet. But some of you might (or will) know the importance of mockups. 

FYI- a mockup is a scale of a design or device that you use for purposes of demonstration; whether you're a teacher, a businessman, a developer, or simply a hobbyist who wants to show off their new project. 

With mockups, you're able to display media (images, GIFs, videos) of your work on actual laptops/tablets/smartphones, without having to own any of the devices. Just like in the GIF above.

P.S. Some of you are actually sharing The Tech-Letter and that means the world to me. Thank you.

If you Google editable mockups, you're more than likely going to find endless paid options. But if there's one thing I do with this newsletter, it's make your life easier (hopefully). 

SmartMockups is only mockup tool I have ever used, and it offers both free and paid content. 

This website allows you to create mockups in any category. I know I've mostly painted a "technology" vibe for you, but you can use this to work on social media posts, packaging, and even apparel. Ever wanted to launch your own clothing line? This might be your push to start now.

Note that when you sign up for SmartMockups (which, you don't really have to, but you get to save your work online instead of downloading which is cool), you get a 7-day free trial to their pro version (which... you don't really even to "opt-in" for. They just sort of hand it to you). 

Once you select the product you want to design, it opens up a simple little editor. You'll see that little "Premium" tag on the top right-- I would not have access to this if not for the pro version (which, again, you get 7 days free for signing up). But otherwise, there are hundreds of free designs to choose from, so don't stress.

Using the editor, I am able to upload images from my computer (free + pro version), or connect to Canva or Dropbox (pro version). 

As you'll notice, there are other options too under "Customize". Pick a sweatshirt colour, background colour, and so on. Nothing too fancy. Just a simple mockup generator. 

I had no intention of this before designing a sweatshirt for this email but... I'm slightly into how good this tech-letter sweatshirt looks. Am I going to start selling clothes now? Perhaps. Thoughts?

Anyway, you get the gist of it. SmartMockup really has tens of thousands of products you can design on; from the cover of magazines to face masks. You can do a lot with the free version so I wouldn't worry too much about paying for it, but if you do decide to, you'll definitely have quite a few more customisation features that are helpful. 

After you're done with your mockup, you can save or download it and that's... that. Only caveat is that it comes with a horrible watermark once you download your end-result. But I have a solution for that too.

Simply screenshot your design from the editor itself (like the image I included above) instead of downloading it. You'll note... the screenshot is not the highest of quality. To solve this, add it to Tech-Letter #24's tech-tool! The smart upscaler. Here's my before and after. If you had each file as opposed to this screenshot I'm including, you'd see that the image on the right is much more HD.

But there you have it! A (mostly) free mockup generator that you can use to showcase your next idea. Now about the tech-letter clothing line...

*deal* *Deal* *DEAL*

Here's what's up. NordVPN's Black Friday deal includes 3 free months with your purchase. This is all you need to know. Buy 2 years (currently at a 68% discount, which is what I bought), get 3 months free.

Just in case you're wondering what NordVPN is, it's a VPN service that does the following:

• Lets you access streaming service content from other countries. Do you live in Brazil but want to watch the US version of Netflix? Now you can.
• Keeps your data safe. Do you do mobile banking? Pay bills online? Send sensitive material? Use the Internet? All your information is just out there. VPNs help you protect your data.

NordVPN is based in Panama, where they are not legally required to log your data (which other VPNs do, which is not good). If there was ever a time to protect yourself online, it's now. P.S. This offer ends in like a week or two, tops.

Price? Mostly Free ⭐⭐

Format? Website ⭐⭐⭐