Conor @ Cartenio

We designed 2 new pages for Kickstarter’s Partner Program in 3 weeks. And they just launched on the live site! Check them out here: cartenio.com/work/kickstart… No drama. No endless loops. Just a tight system: Week 1: discovery Week 2: design Week 3: dev‑ready Here’s the breakdown. ↓

@pizzaboy Love this type of content! Are there any questions that come up frequently? Appreciate any advice for improving this process

We used to deliver really lean brand books. Clients would come back a month or so later with questions that we thought we had already answered, but not clearly enough I guess. The new, expanded version, exists because of those conversations.

@VadimCarazan Count me in!

63 comments, 63 people who want this book. In the next 4 hours I'll pick someone and announce it here. I'll reach out directly to get the delivery address. Still commenting in the next 4 hours? You're still eligible.

@codebydennis @iljavaneck lol busted

@ConorCartenio @iljavaneck Complete your account mannn!

Ngl, the double-take on this was crazy. Well played @iljavaneck @codebydennis 😂

@guillaumebth Love the layer stack view!

ID card design for Symbl 🪪

@rahulluthra22 Definitely agree with not taking it personally. Tough tradeoff sometimes though when the suggestions do in fact make the work worse. A bit of gentle pushback with your reasoning can go a long way

Something I learned early in my career: Don’t take feedback personally. Design is subjective. And your job isn’t to design for yourself. It’s to execute the client’s vision. You won’t always agree. You won’t always like it. But at the end of the day, they’re the ones paying the $. Separate ego from output. You’ll move faster and do better work.

Is it just me or did Webflow's undo feature recently stop working? I undo like two steps, and nothing is reverted??? What's going on

Had a good call. Spent precious time on a proposal. Sent it over to the client and then, nothing... Followed up, still nothing. The project you were banking on, vanished. A mistake that I kept repeating when I first started freelancing. Despite what you think, it's the lowest effort version of this process. I hated talking about pricing with the prospects because it was something I was still trying to figure out and was essentially putting my finger in the air every time. The simplest ways to dramatically improve this process (and subsequently your close rate) are: - Book a meeting from a meeting (BAMFAM). During your initial call with a client, organize your next meeting with them to go through your proposal before hanging up. - Bring them through the proposal live - Don't send a copy. Present it live. For pricing, give a couple options if unsure and ask the client where they think they would fall. - If it sounds like a fit, send your contract (or if you're brave, first invoice) live and get things locked in

@evilrabbit_ @pablostanley I’m Conor, pretty new to the X scene but would love a shot at someday rubbing shoulders with some of the giants mentioned so far Cartenio.com

I had a dream: to build a directory of the next generation of designers. Reply with a name and a website. It doesn’t have to be on this app. Let’s see what we can do for them.

@NoteSphere Moved a cybersecurity client from design into the development phase. Here are some chops from the build!

March dump: What you worked on as a creative.

Brand Exploration WIP for a DC-based home renovations company. Having a lot of fun with this one

@guillaumebth Dude this is awesome, very unique approach. What are you building this with?

I rebuilt my portfolio bguillaume.info around “experimentation” and “cases” 🏴

We designed a unique mini-brand direction for a recent webflow project. The client is an automation consultant and often works with connecting fragmented systems. They wanted a creative way on conveying this, so I went to the drawing board. The most obvious choice that came to mind was a jigsaw puzzle. Multiple pieces, forms a whole picture, but it was limited to what could be done for the unique elements. I still wanted something playful that kept the same overall idea. This is when I thought of tangram puzzles. These puzzles can scale up and down easily, demonstrate creativity, have a wide range of icons that can be created, can easily work with several colors, perfect for what I wanted. Here are some of the concepts:

@RenativeStudio Thanks Renee, slowly but surely! In all honestly, Upwork has done really well for me. Not the ideal solution for a lot of people, but I stayed consistent on there, and it brings me good work!

@ConorCartenio Awesome stats Conor! What would you say is the best way to get clients?

In November 2024, I started freelancing. No clients, no formal background in design, no industry connections. Never sold anything. In 2025, I made around $30k from freelancing and got to work with the likes of Kickstarter on an awesome web design project. I started 2026 with two $15k projects with built-in retainers. There are levels to this, and I'm enjoying every one of them.

@justin_schueler @hejsmalltribe Absolutely love this concept. Wish more people took the time to create something similar. Nice work!

We‘ve created a beautiful, in depth 2025 studio report for @hejsmalltribe that I‘d like to share again. It‘s a very transparent and insightful for other studios and independents. I always loved checking reports from other studios to better understand their ways of working, numbers, ups and downs. Here‘s our 2025 report: smalltribe.studio/report-2025

@rahulluthra22 This is super useful. In your experience, were there any target audiences that worked much better than others?

Struggling to find clients? In my early days of freelancing, I would run really targeted ads with landing pages directly speaking to the customer I was trying to attract. Now that I'm looking to expand the team, I'm starting to slowly run these again on Instagram, and it's a game changer! If you’re just starting your freelance journey and looking for clients, running targeted ads with clear, client-focused landing pages can work wonders. Here's what the AD could look like 🙃

@EthanDriskill Sounds fun, could use something like this. Signed up!

I've been building. Every brand has a different story. Every website has a different structure. Every client has different needs. For the last few months, I've streamlined this as best as I could for my own website clients. I've built an internal tool to keep the story straight. It's so simple, but it works so well. And very soon, I'll make it public. Until then- there's a waitlist live now. copygum dot com ✌️

Looking to close Q1 with a bang! We'd love to help build a website/brand for someone who is open to something experimental. Been building a lot of micro tools recently to support consistent branding application, and would love to develop something truly unique!

@VadimCarazan Don't forget the Dictionary of Color Combinations!

Working on a new brand palette. While everyone’s chasing digital, I’m back in the books.