The 5 Brilliant Ways to Use Mockups

One awesome way to get your creative juices flowing is discovering all the mockups available to you online. These mockups help you visualize the layout of your finished piece. Sites like placeit.net make it easy to create not only mockups but videos and other designs.

How many ways can you use mockups at placeit.net? We’ve counted 5 awesome ways, but there are so many more, to use these mockups. Placeit creates more all the time and has an entirely free catalog.

We’ll show you the different mockups you can use and explain, in detail, how to use them to their fullest potential. This is a great way to market your online shop, or even a brick and mortar retail shop.

5 Great Ways to Use Mockups

Our goal is to find the most brilliant and cutting ways to use mockups. Here are some that we came up with:

Student Portfolios
Advertising
Client Presentations
Vacation Memories
Promotion

Mockups are great for businesses looking to sell to customers. They’re also good for the average individual looking to make a great impression.

1. Student Portfolios

Without taking a lot of time, students can create a fantastic portfolio using their graphics and text, while using Placeit’s templates.

Student portfolios show off the student’s skills and knowledge. What better way to do that than to combine the student’s words with great graphics and templates to make an awesome mockup?

Creating a digital student portfolio fits right into the high-tech world we now live in. Here are some ideas you can try:

Combine the student’s writing with one of the thousands of pieces of clip art available at Placeit
Use the book cover tab to create a great cover for the portfolio
Create banners for the different pages to showcase the work
By using work the student has already produced, the time of making a student portfolio can be reduced by using mockups as a tool.

2. Advertising

If you have a business, retail or online, you should be using mockups. We discuss Facebook and Instagram ads below, but you should also use mockups to send out proposals to clients.

You have about 4 seconds to catch a customer’s eye. Placeit has graphics and templates that can do that.

Even if you’re just sending out an email, you need to set yourself apart from every other business who is also sending emails to potential clients. Make a banner for the email or mockup an entire flyer to send out with the email.

3. Client Presentations

Every client presentation should have a mockup. You want to go into your client’s office with a professional presentation. Especially if you’re a smaller business, this can be difficult. You may not have the design staff to make this possible. However, you can do this with the mockups at Placeit.

Your competitor is probably going to use something like PowerPoint for their presentation. One-up them with better graphics and clip art in a mockup.

It’s easy to do. Follow these instructions:

Create a cover page from a template at Placeit
Choose a graphic from the library that compliments your business
Type in your own text and facts
Upload your client’s logo for a special touch
Make it company specific by choosing the right fonts and colors

That’s all you have to do. Download and present to your client for the best presentation they’ve ever seen.

4. Vacation Memories

Face it. You’re never going to print those pictures out and put them in a scrapbook. You have good intentions but that takes a lot of time.

Instead, save your memories by uploading the pictures into Placeit and creating a vacation memories online scrapbook. You can add your own text and even enhance your photos with whimsical flowers or funny faces.

You can even send this out to your friends and family online, letting them share in your favorite moments.

5. Promotion

Sometimes you need to give stuff away in order to sell something. In order to do this, you need to put the word out about your freebie promotion.

Simply upload a picture of what you’re giving away. Choose a background and choose the font you like. Put the word “FREE” on your mockup because that’s guaranteed to draw attention.

It can be that simple to get eyeballs on your work. Even if you have a great product, sometimes it needs a little boost. Placeit can help with the visuals that make customers stop and take notice.

Categories for Brilliant Mockups

The above points out great ways to use mockups but we also want to help you with some categories of mockups you may not have thought of. You can literally use mockups for any purpose, Including the categories below:

Political
Activism
Humor
Heart-warming
Family Oriented

1. Political

Mockups designed for the political realm are nothing new. Buttons and posters are prevalent at political rallies and especially during a national election year. But you don’t have to wait for a political campaign to share their buttons if you want to make a political statement all year long.

One of the best ways we’ve found to assert your political chops is the use of laptop covers. The beauty of those is that you can create an entire cover or just make a sticker to go on some portion of your laptop.

For instance, if you want to make a laptop cover with Obama’s famous “Yes, We Can!” Slogan or Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, simply follow these steps on Placeit:

Click on Mockups in the upper-left portion of the Placeit home screen
Choose the tab below Mockups that best describes your device, such as MacBook, iPads, or something else
You can also click the Transparent tab for a sticker
Upload a screenshot or grab an image from a URL
Add your text to the image
Save the design and print it out on clear vinyl

That’s it. It’s really easy to create your own design in Placeit.

This is a great political tool for aspiring politicians as well. A candidate running for local office can print these off cheaply and pass them out to college students and professionals, or anyone else who frequently carries a laptop. Of course, you can always post them on political ads for marketing purposes. There’s clip art to use that will capture your demographic group.

The beauty of this idea is that, frequently, those laptops are opened up in public places, like coffee shops or business meetings. Once you pass them out, everything else is free advertising. And, while people may not wear political buttons all the time, they do tend to carry around their laptops.

2. Activism

If you are interested in climate change, saving the whales, or any other activist movement, you owe it to your cause to check out mockups. You can use them to educate or put the word out about your particular cause.

The most brilliant way we’ve found to celebrate and support causes is through the use of clothing. Sure, you can make banners and flyers and hand them out, but why not wear your cause as you go through your day and make sure it can be seen by the most people possible?

Change it up, though. Anyone can put a message on a t-shirt and Placeit offers that but why not branch out and put your message on a Polo or your child’s onesie? That’s using mockups in a cutting and efficient way.

The steps are similar and very easy.

Click on Mockups in the upper-left portion of the Placeit home screen
Choose the tab below Mockups that best describes your apparel, like onesie or Polo
Upload a screenshot or grab an image from a URL
Add your text to the image
Save the design and print it out on your apparel

For instance, if you’re passionate about climate change and you have a newborn or toddler, why not make a onesie that says “There Is No Planet B”, with an image of Earth? It’s cute and functional. It also gets your message across without saying a word.

Or you could put any activist message you want on it. Try “Sorry for The Inconvenience. We’re Trying To Save The World”, which could cover a multitude of different causes.

There are tons of messages you can use to share your views. Most people don’t expect a message on a Polo shirt, but that’s exactly why you should do it. It will draw attention and more views than a message on a t-shirt.

Put a message on a Polo and head to the grocery store. It’s grass-roots activism without having to say a word.

Placeit allows you to create mockups using images that you can then distribute online. It’s an almost subliminal way to get your point across.

3. Humor

Using humor in mockups is one of the most brilliant uses for this medium. There are so many items you can put a funny saying on and you can really let people know who you are with just a few words.

We think one of the most brilliant ways to use humor in mockups is by using it on the packaging. Think about it. You could spend a lot of money on gift wrapping a present or you could get some white butcher paper or even brown paper bags and print off your humorous mockup.

It may sound difficult but it’s fairly easy to do. Here’s how:

Design your Placeit mockup using the instructions given above
Take your roll of butcher paper or Kraft paper and spread it out
Take a regular 8 1/2 x 11” piece of paper and trace out the size onto the butcher paper
Trace the paper vertically, not horizontally
Cut the butcher or Kraft paper along the line
There is often a back and front to these papers. Make sure the back side is facing up in your printer tray and make sure the sides are rolling in
Make sure there is plenty of regular copy paper under the butcher or Kraft paper so that it squeezes flat when the paper tray is closed
Print off one page at a time
Wrap entire gift in plain paper and glue the designs onto the gift

Write humorous sayings or quotes. This is a really cute, fun idea for any age group. It will be a novel way to give a gift and won’t be forgotten any time soon. You can write different humorous lines. Combine your sayings with a fun graphic to make it even better. You can do this, literally, in minutes using the mockup templates on Placeit.

This is great for an online marketplace. You can design your mockup and use it in your ads or online marketing to capture more customers.

4. Heart-warming

One of the best ways, in our opinion, to use mockups is to design something that’s incredibly heart-warming. People will love it, and you, when you design your graphic and message. Think how happy your mom will be when you give her something from your heart, that you made, rather than a generic gift from a big box store.

We love the idea of making a magazine for your loved one. It’s easy enough to do. Perhaps you can use it for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. Create it using these steps:

Choose magazine from the mockup tabs on Placeit
Choose the cover of your magazine – perhaps a picture of the recipient with “Mother of the Year” or “Father of the Year” as the magazine title
For the inside, upload pictures, and type in short memories of them
For the back, design a fake ad that highlights something great about your recipient
Print out on your home computer using glossy paper
Bind together using glue or staples

This is sure to be a great present for anyone in your life. You can do this cheaply and quickly using Placeit mockups.

This can also be a great way to propose to someone, with pictures and memories of the couple on the inside and the proposal question on the back page. Or you could put the proposal in the center of the magazine. It will be a keepsake for anyone you choose to give this to.

For a retail business, this would be great to advertise around Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.

5. Family Oriented

Your family will love your mockup designs on Placeit. More than that, any family or someone you like will love family-oriented messages in a cute and clever way from Placeit.

We have found one of the best ways to design family-oriented work on Placeit is by using it on labels.

Do you have any other skills, such as wine or beer making? If you do, a homemade bottle of wine with a printed label you designed on Placeit is a great gift for any engaged couple or a couple about to have a baby. This is something they will keep forever. Even if you don’t make your own wine or beer, you can buy a bottle, steam off the old label and glue your new one on it.

It’s easy to make the label. Follow the simple instructions on Placeit and print it out on your home computer using a heavy stock or glossy paper. Use a heavy-duty glue to place it on the bottle.

Try these ideas:

A picture of two champagne glasses clinking, with the names of the engaged couple and the date of the wedding
Get a baby bottle and design a label that has the baby’s name and arrival date. Get creative. You can also upload the sonogram picture. Then place the label on the bottle for a keepsake
For graduates, try putting a label on a Mountain Dew or Dr. Pepper with a pun about the brand
For your elderly relative, try finding an antique bottle in a thrift store. Put a label on it that expresses a sentimental thought or feeling you have

Any one of these is a memorable gift that is absolutely unique to you and your situation. It’s hard to go wrong with a one of a kind present they will treasure.

Although these are some of the best ways we’ve discovered to use mockups online, there are so many other ways to use these versatile designs. You’re only limited by your imagination.

The Mockups Available on Placeit

From hoodies to iPad covers, you can mock up a design in moments. It’s so easy to use it that anyone can do it. Some of the most popular end products include mockups for:

Clothing
Glassware
Bags
Laptop Covers
Books
Phone Cases
Facebook and Instagram Ads
Business Cards
Brochures

1. Clothing

Live your true self. You can use mockups on all types of clothing to express yourself. You can develop mockups on:

Hoodies
Sweatshirts
T-Shirts
TankTops
Hats
Beanies
Polos
Onesies
Leggings

Here’s the thing with mockups: anything you can dream can be created. And it can be created at any size, in the perspective you prefer.

Or you can choose a template from the Placeit website that allows you to pick the perfect design to build upon.

For instance, in the clothing line, you can show off your unique hobby. Let’s say beekeeping is one of your passions or something you want to advertise in your shop.

You want to show that off. Simply choose which clothing item you want to represent your passion and get to work.

2. Glassware

You can put almost any design on a clear glass, or even coffee mugs or travel mugs. It’s become extremely popular to give one of these finished glasses or mugs as gifts.

At Placeit, you can choose your mug or glass size. They come in the following sizes:

11 ounces
12 ounces
15 ounces
21 ounces
24 ounces

Once you choose the size of the mug, choose the color of the mug, and then pick your design. It’s incredibly simple.

You could put a picture of yourself and give it to anyone you love. The possibilities are almost endless.

Some other great ideas for mugs or glasses are:

A picture of a beloved pet
Funny text, such as “A Yawn Is A Silent Scream For Coffee”
Graphic of your favorite landscape
Abstract design such as polka dots or horizontal stripes
A graphic you drew yourself

No idea is bad. You can first test it on a mockup so you can make sure it’s perfect for your needs. You can advertise customized items for any customers.

3. Bags

Never have an ordinary bag again with Placeit’s mockups. Individualize your own on any one of the following:

Tote Bags
Duffle Bags
Drawstring Bags
Backpacks

You can choose your color and choose your design. Do you want a picture of a pink flamingo on a cheery green background? No problem. How about a nice plaid backpack? You can do that, too. Print out the coordinates of your favorite vacation spot and put it on your tote bag so it can remind you of your last great trip.

This has the added bonus of you never forgetting your bag, as it will be uniquely yours.

4. Laptop Covers

Make a statement with a laptop cover. Whether you’re in school or an office setting, you can set yourself apart with a cool laptop design. Mockups are especially useful for this, so you can envision your end design before printing.

There are several ideas for laptop covers, including:

Your favorite sports team’s logo
A picture of your child or grandchild
Your wedding picture
An amusing saying, like “If you’re reading this, you’re too close.”

Another cute idea for a laptop cover is to have your kids dip their hands in paint and put on an 8 1/2 x 11” sheet of paper. You can then take a picture of that, upload the image, and put it in your mockup.

If you’re a shop, people would pay for the opportunity to buy something like this for grandparents.

5. Books

If you are a budding author, Placeit is the perfect place to make your book covers. Every book needs an enticing cover and it’s easy to do this in Placeit. Just follow the below instructions:

Click on the right arrow under the “Log In” twice
Select “Book Covers” from Placeit’s library of designs
Choose a pre-set template or choose to design your own
Write in the book title and author name on the left-hand side of the screen
Choose a font and font color for your text
Choose a graphic or banner on the right side of the screen
Pick a background
Download your book cover

The user interface is very simple, and anyone can use it. They also have a great selection of templates if you get stuck choosing a cover. They have suggestions for everything from graphics to font. It’s hard to go wrong.

6. Phone Cases

Phone case mockups are fun to do on Placeit. You can really let your individuality shine when designing a mockup.

There are several designs already loaded on Placeit but you can, as always, upload your own. They accept JPG or PNG files, 900 x 1700 px.

If you’re in the business of designing and selling phone cases, this is the site for you. You can choose from a variety of different people in different situations holding your design on a phone case.

7. Facebook and Instagram Ads

If you’re a business owner, you should design and run Facebook and Instagram ads on a regular basis. This can increase your customer potential and is fairly inexpensive advertising. It’s a simple procedure with Placeit.

Placeit features an online image resize tool where you can perform certain actions, including:

Upload your image
Crop your image
Resize your image for Facebook or Instagram specs
Download and share your image

Each social media platform is unique and accepts different image sizes. With the resize tool, you can resize your images to fit the platform. You can also create the right size banner ads.

Along with allowing you to upload your own images or logo, you can also use Placeit’s templates to create a professional looking ad or banner. You can choose from a number of pre-made ads, using sharp looking clip art and simply add your own text or logo. You will literally have an ad made within seconds.

8. Business Cards

Another great tool for a business or even an individual is the business card. These are your calling cards into the business world. With Placeit’s markup tool, you can design a professional looking business card in very little time.

Upload your logo and choose the text you want for your business. Download your design and print your cards out for a perfect marketing tool. With business card stock, you could do this on your home printer in the morning and hand out finished business cards in the afternoon.

9. Brochures

Business cards are great, but brochures can have a fantastic impact on your business. It gives you the opportunity to put more information in front of the client’s eyes, all with eye-catching graphics and text. Brochures offer a way to put your sales pitch in front of potential customers.

Placeit offers high-quality brochure mockups in different sizes. It’s this easy:

Upload your image(s) and logo
Crop your images to size
Add text as appropriate
Download your brochure mockup
Print

You can do this in moments. Once you print out your brochures, you’re ready to hand them out to potential clients.

You can also print out flyers that match your brochures or business cards that match both your brochures and flyers. In this way, you will be building your brand, making sure your customers see the same graphics and the same font regardless of whether they’re looking at a brochure or flyers. This is a great way to keep your brand consistent.

They also have professionally crafted mockups you can adopt as your own.

Best-Seller Mockups

Placeit has more mockups coming every day. Currently, the best selling mockups on the site are:

Make stunning tank top mockups for the summer
Promote iPad apps with the iPad mockups
Generate instant hoodie mockups
Hat mockups to promote your hat designs
Online flyer maker
Tote bag mockups

There are many more available. Click on one of these best-seller links and it immediately takes you to a landing page that allows you, with a few clicks, to create a beautiful design.

If you have a shop selling hoodies or any type of apparel, you owe it to yourself to check out this site. These mockups will allow your customers to picture themselves in your apparel or with your merchandise.

This can be an inexpensive way to generate more revenue for your shop.

More About Placeit

Many of the examples used in this blog can be used for individuals. It is especially useful for businesses to attempt to sell their merchandise.

At the end of the day, it’s about acquiring new customers. Placeit boasts that they have three main goals for their platform:

Truly easy to use
Thousands of templates
Make it affordable

We’ve seen that they have thousands of templates and it really is easy to use. Pricing is $14.95 per month or $99.95 for the year. So, if you need only some business cards or brochures, you can easily get the monthly price and forego having to pay a lot for mockups.

Bonus: Placeit is offering 15% off any plan!

You do not have to have design skills to use this website. The templates can do all the work for you. They are done by professional designers and they look like it. Your designs will look like you worked on them for hours, but they only take minutes.

Whether you want a mockup to design something for that special someone in your life or whether you’re using the mockups for business advertising, it’s hard to go wrong with Placeit.