Every time the team at Stripe releases a new website, it's like design-Christmas. Designers everywhere flock to the site to see what new inspiration-gifts we've been given 😅

Today's issue is full of inspiration as I'm sharing:

✨ My thoughts on the new Stripe Sessions website.

✨ An interview with a Stripe web designer.

✨ The inspiring story of a freelance designers' pivot after maternity leave led her business income to drop to zero.

Landing page breakdown: Stripe Sessions

Stripe has done it again with a beautiful landing page for their in-person conference Sessions.

The hero section features an organic, moving wave of texture and color that interacts with the typography of the event name so beautifully. It is wild to me that this is all done with code.

Below the hero, container blocks are used to present information. This is a style made popular by Apple product launch presentations and if you'd asked me before seeing this I would have told you that this style is probably overdone by now; but Stripe are using them really effectively here to present quite a dense amount of information in a way that doesn't feel overwhelming.

The lefthand block has a carousel of "why you should attend" bullet points with cards that flip automatically, and the timer in the bottom block is constantly counting down. But these are balanced by the righthand card that presents the location with a photo.

I will say, the styling of the timer block is my least favorite part of the page. The gray feels murky and while perhaps the contrasting white on the righthand side that cuts through the number is intended to reference the design pattern of the wave cutting through the type in the hero, the harsh vertical line doesn't have the same impact as the organic gradient wave does.

This photo-card design element is repeated in the talks section, where the lefthand card stays in place as you scroll through the talks on the righthand side. Again, this is a nice balance of information density. There's a lot of info to consume in reading about the talks, so having a friendly face and some negative space helps balance them out.

My favorite section though, is the speakers carousel.

This is a great example of how the Stripe design team takes a trending design pattern (like content blocks) and takes it up a level. The blocks expand and colapse as the carousel cycles through and it's a really charming and creative way to show the volume of speakers in the lineup.

Watch closely as you interact with it and you'll see a soft gradient color be added to the background of the speaker in the center, which gives it some additional focus compared to the black and white imagery on the collapsed cards.

I also really like the bottom CTA section for its simplicity. The important conference details are presented with dividing bars between, and the CTA button is so small you'd need a magnifying glass to see it if it weren't for the changing gradient. It's the negative space around it that draws you to it, and this should be a lesson for all of us that maybe a CTA button doesn't have to be super large to be effective.

👏 to the Stripe team for launching a beautiful page that communicates a ton of information.

Back in season two of my podcast, Inside Marketing Design, I got to interview Staff Designer Tatiana van Campenhout to learn how the Web Platform & Presence team creates beautiful sites like this. Check it out below!

How this web designer's 18-month maternity leave led to her earning more than $100k

Chaitra Radhakrishna left her restrictive job as a corporate web developer and made $50k as a creator in 2017. In 2018, she went on an 18-month maternity leave and stepped away from her work.

I really felt for Chaitra as I watched her explain in this short documentatry film that her business slowed down to zero during this time. But the story of how she built it back up into even more of a success? That was inspiring! Watch it for yourself on your lunch break today!

Last Friday was a "Creator Friday" at ConvertKit, where everyone on the team gets to put their regular work aside and spend the day creating instead! And guess what I did?

I had a book writing sessin for the first time in 2023!

I'm embarrassed to say that my book about marketing design has been put on the back burner for months, but it felt good to finally get started again. It's hard to build back up the motivation for something after a break, so if there's something you want to be doing that you've been procrastinating on: this is your sign to start it back up again.

Have a good week,