Our Favorite Features: Squarestylist
Creator Rache makes CSS clean, concise and easy to learn.
When I started designing in 2017, Squarespace was rigid. I designed a few sites on the platform and heavily relied on fonts to make the site look different, but eventually, they all ended up being nods to each other: whitespace-heavy, sans-serif focused and ultra-glossy.
I dreamed of creating sites beyond what Squarespace offered. After spending hours combing through other sites’ code (CMND + Shift + C in Chrome) and wondering how they pulled it off, I found Squarestylist. And it’s not too dramatic to say that everything changed.
Being self-taught, I didn’t know where to start when it came to adding actual custom code to sites. I could change colors and maybe move things around a few pixels, but that was where my CSS knowledge stopped. But Squarestylist eases you in, holding your hand in the best way and giving you the confidence to play while knowing you won’t do anything that you can’t recover from. She includes thoughtful, detailed videos with every tutorial that help to make code cleaner and more concise. All of this is an ideal intro course, and one that I’ve always found is worth the investment.
One plug-in in particular is starting to make an appearance on more of my sites. (It was also the concept that originally sent me down a desperate Google rabbit hole.) The Fixed Split Section tutorial is a must-have for two reasons:
1) It’s beautiful. 2) It’s versatile.
I’ve used this code to confidently split screens (although Ghost has a great workaround) and to help make pages look less copy-heavy. I’ve also been able to build sites similar to the inspiring one that first got me wondering what Squarespace was really capable of re: concept —> rabbit hole.
Poor Devil Pepper Co. mood board
Another Squarestylist feature I love to use is the Mood Board (pictured left) because it's easy to implement and adds interactivity to any website, keeping pace with lots of the inspo on Typewolf and Httpster.
In addition to amazing paid plug-ins, Squarestylist also offers great free resources. I’m on her blog often and have her CSS Basics bookmarked anytime I need to use a Media Query.
What Squarestylist does best, though, is to make great design accessible. The site’s creator, Rache, is not only super knowledgeable but incredibly generous with that knowledge, helping people feel empowered to make the kind of sites that leave people wondering, “How did they do it?”
All in all, I wouldn’t be the designer I am without Rache and her digital community. Her courses helped me bring my web dreams to life and cement my reputation of “doing too much.” Because why not do a little more and break from what’s expected?
— Alex Lucke, developer/social media manager
