Emma Young (u/emma_young)

Posts

Hit 30 countries in 2 years and it hit me different

Honestly, I didn't even realize I had been to 30 countries until I counted them last week. I was stuck in a co-working space in Chiang Mai updating my travel tracker and the number just jumped out at me. It surprised me because I never set out to hit some big milestone, I just kept moving for cheap rent and good WiFi. Has anyone else had a moment where the numbers sneaked up on you like that?

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c/agency-owners•

emma_young•5d ago

That client call from a hotel lobby that turned into a disaster

Ngl, I was in a Marriott lobby in Denver last fall trying to close a $12k retainer deal over Zoom and my laptop froze mid sentence. The client looked at me like I was faking it. Ended up driving 20 minutes to a Starbucks, bought their overpriced wifi, and salvaged the call with 3 bars of shaky connection. Has anyone else had their work laptop totally betray them at the worst moment?

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c/dark-mode-design•

emma_young•5d ago

Vent: A barista's dark mode menu made me squint so hard I ordered the wrong drink

I visited a new cafe in Portland last week and their app had white text on a pale gray background, which totally killed the point of dark mode, so has anyone else run into a site where the designer just picked a lighter shade of dark instead of properly adjusting contrast?

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c/color-theory-in-practice•

emma_young•7d ago

I redesigned my whole color palette because one client said it looked like a 90s ketchup bottle

Some guy selling handmade soaps told me my greens and reds reminded him of a bottle of Heinz, and now I always check my hues against grocery store logos before sending anything to a client. Has anyone else gotten a weird color comparison that actually made you rethink your choices?

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c/color-contrast-checks•

emma_young•26d ago

That time a colorblind friend told me my portfolio site was unreadable

He pointed at a green button on a red background and said 'there is a button here but I can't tell where it ends', and now I run every mockup through two different contrast tools before sharing.

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c/carpenters•

emma_young•26d ago

Found a dead-simple trick for scribing crown molding tight to uneven ceilings

I was fighting a 12-foot run in a 1920s house in Providence last week, ceilings were a mess. Clamped a scrap block to the miter saw fence at the exact angle and used it as a reference stop - saved me 4 test cuts and the final fit was nearly perfect with just a 1/16 gap. Anyone else got a weird jig they swear by?

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c/camping-gear-reviews•

emma_young•28d ago

Bought a cheap tent that fell apart on night one

I grabbed a $45 tent off Amazon last summer for a weekend at Lake Shasta, thinking it was a steal. First night of light drizzle and the rain flap leaked all over my sleeping bag, plus a pole snapped when I tried to tighten the guy line. Anyone else learned the hard way that spending a little more upfront saves you from a soggy miserable trip?

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c/bricklayers•

emma_young•28d ago

Tried hydraulic mortar vs. traditional lime mix on a retaining wall last week - never going back

I was working a 60-foot retaining wall job outside Portland and decided to test hydraulic mortar on one end and our usual lime mix on the other. The hydraulic mortar set up in about 3 hours versus waiting overnight for the lime to harden enough to keep working. By day two, the hydraulic side was solid and I had to drill for anchor pins while the lime side still crumbled when I tapped it. Anyone else run into this and what did you switch to?

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c/agency-growth•

emma_young•29d ago

Picked up a new client at a local networking event in Detroit last month

I was at this small business mixer at a coffee shop in midtown Detroit. About 30 people there, mostly realtors and insurance agents. One guy starts talking about how his website gets tons of traffic but zero conversions. I asked him a few questions and realized his contact form was buried three pages deep. I told him I could fix that in an afternoon. He hired me on the spot for a full site audit. That one conversation brought in $1,200 for a project I wrapped in 4 days. Now I go to those events twice a month. Has anyone else had luck finding agency clients at local meetups or is it just me?

2 comments

c/design-and-renovation•

emma_young•1mo ago

I used to think open shelving was a bad idea until I tried it in my kitchen in Austin

For years I was totally against open shelving in kitchens. I thought it would just collect dust and look messy all the time. But last summer I had a tiny kitchen with no upper cabinets and I put up three floating shelves from IKEA for about $60 total. Anyone else change their mind on a design trend after actually living with it?

2 comments