There is a free Mac utility called ImageOptim which works great for reducing png file sizes. https://imageoptim.com/mac

Freelancing for about 6 years now. Only messages I get on LinkedIn are from recruiters for full-time roles. Most of the leads still come from offline personal referrals and sometimes via dribbble and even from angel list once in a while.

Are Sketch 51 files backward compatible with 50? One of my machines won't upgrade to High Sierra (required for 51 update).

Flowchart utility is really good and I remember trying it out a couple of months back for a project. Will definitely try out the wireframes.

If there is an offline support/mac app in future – I do see Whimsical becoming a useful tool for long term.

I have been using Pixave for about a year now. It's nice to have everything offline (with iCloud/dropbox sync) and a one-time app purchase fee instead of another subscription.

Tagging, folders, screengrab works quite well. Haven't tried the iPad app yet.

While I don't see myself switching anytime soon – really excited to see how it evolves in next 6-8 months. Meanwhile, will definitely use it for a one-off smaller project.

Was looking forward to trying it out. Unfortunately, sketch keeps crashing repeatedly as soon I installed/logged in Mac app.

I have been working freelance/remote from 6 years now. After working 1 year at a studio. And for me, following have been deciding factors.

1. Travel and Family – For every 45 days, I am with my family back in small native town for 15 days. And it has been rewarding. I could make more money by joining a large company full-time but I will lose this time that I get to spend with people who won’t be around me in future.

2. Commute - Now, this is very specific to my location – New Delhi, India. I don’t understand why we don’t talk about this often here but It’s a little disturbing to me how we have normalised the idea of spending 1-3 hours of every day of your life stuck in pollution and rage-inducing traffic. I am sure if someone does a study, they will find direct relations to the mental and physical health of entire society as the whole. This personally for me has been a huge reason why I still freelance and do remote consulting.

3. Personality – As an introvert, I find myself most efficient when I can sit in a quiet room by myself and work. I feel drained with Water cooler small talk and shoulder taps for lunch invites. Now since I don’t see my clients every day – I tend to be more efficient when I do go see them in few days or week. It encourages me to be in full energy for those 3 hours of face-to-face meetings and get the best out of them.

I'm still running an Early 2011 MBPro with 8GB Ram.

And I never face any issue in everyday usage of Sketch (10-40 artboards), 5-8 browser tabs, iTunes, iAWriter and couple of other small utilities like numi, cloudapp, dropbox in the background. And sometimes Coda or Brackets running alongside sketch.

The only time I feel a bit of lag is with music production and If I have to edit, export huge videos. And that too only with fairly complex arrangements.

I also have a late 2009 iMac with the similar setup that I use at least 40% of the time. Surprisingly, that works just fine too.

New lineup is a disappointment. Will be getting last gen 15inch in few weeks.

As someone invested in lot of USB devices (midi controllers, storage) and external displays - I just can't find a single reason to look for new upgrade.