Within the next couple of months I will be completely revamping this site.  My original idea for HiveIDesign.com was to have a place to showcase my work, but more importantly to be able to write about design and help others find places around the web to be able to hone their skills.  Unfortunately, it seems I have less interest in writing about design as I do in actually designing.

I’ve since realized that just as my interests vary, so do others and so a blog devoted solely to graphic design, is, well.. boring.  Not just for me, but for readers as well.  So, HiveIDesign.com will soon become a hive of design (makes sense right? =P ).  As in, encompassing various design fields.  Just like my life.  So I should have PLENTY to write about.

Everything is in the early planning stages at the moment.  Have to revamp the design, layout, etc.  Make everything clean and organized.  And fun.

In the meantime, keep up with me on Twitter (@HiveIDesign) or on Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/aantara/)

See you in a couple months

Time for a change Heather Bee

If you haven’t already heard about the PayPal vs. Regrestsy issue, you can catch up be reading Regretsy’s post about the ongoings and their discussions with PayPal representatives.  This is turning into a quick, viral PR nightmare for PayPal, only they don’t seem to care.

Geek Girl over at thegreengeeks.com dove even further into PayPal’s EUA, trying to find anything to show that Regretsy may have been in the wrong.  No such luck, PayPal.  You can read the rather detailed post here.

If that’s not enough coverage, these two posts have been linked on Facebook and Twitter hundreds of times this morning.  People are bashing PayPal on the company’s Facebook page and demanding the company make things right.  But of course, no response from PayPal

Before Mashable released their post on how PayPal is feeling the wrath, they tried to get a comment from PayPal… only to be ignored.  Maybe they don’t understand how the internet works…

I’ve been using PayPal for quite some time for my business, both with Hive I Design and on my new Etsy shop.  Etsy is one of the many sites that only offers PayPal as a cash/money order alternative.  Customers are already petitioning (as well as on other sites) to get alternatives to using PayPal.  Seems more and more people are trying to pull away.

I’ve had my own issues with PayPal in the past.  Customer Service seems to depend on who answers the phone when you call them.  I spent 2 hours at a pharmacy just last week, trying to get PayPal to fix some unknown error with my account.  After calling three times and speaking with 2 different people (I got hung up on once), I finally got results, filled my prescription (after spending the morning in the hospital) and could finally go home and relax.  Or rather, log into my account online and fix a few issues myself.

What are your thoughts on the matter?  Should PayPal make things right with Regretsy?  Have you had your own issues with PayPal?  I know I’ll be looking to use Google Checkout or Dwolla more and more in the future.

[Edit] After posting this, I discovered that PayPal did post a small (somewhat pathetic) apology on their blog: https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2011/12/regretsy-issue-resolution/  However, they removed all comments made on the post and closed all further commenting.  It seems this is most likely all they’re going to do about it and they don’t much care what anyone else has to say.

How PayPal Stole Christmas Heather Bee

As is probably rather evident from my sporadic posting, it’s not really in me to write as much as it is to draw. I became a freelance designer instead of a freelance writer for that very reason. It seems, however, that graphic and web designers are supposed to be blogging as well as designing.

But where do you find the time? Or the inspiration?

I seldom have trouble finding inspiration to design something and I usually manage to fit in design time around my full-time job and still make deadlines without a problem. When it comes to finding something to blog about though, I seem to hit a wall every time. I’ll sit here and stare at WordPress for a few minutes (or hours) and finally just give up and move on to something else.

So, if any other designers who happen to blog come across this… help a girl out.

Do you think blogging is a must for designers? Or is it a waste of time?

Are there certain places you go for inspiration?

I started this blog thinking it would be easy to post tutorials every now and then and write small articles about design, typography, color, etc. I’ve realized it’s not quite that simple. I understand now why there are bloggers who do this full-time. Blogging, that is. It takes time to think up new and interesting content, do some research on it and sit down and write an informative and original article. I have to say, I have a new found respect for those that do it.

Blogging for Graphic Designers Heather Bee

Yay! It’s Friday! And that means its time for more fonts… as well as preparing for the weekend. I also wanted to share this little site I found which just fints in perfectly: FridayFonts.com
Enjoy!

Pauls Esther Font

download

Arual

download

Ballpark

download

Jo’s Styles

download

Free Font Friday 2 Heather Bee

I typically post one font to Twitter on Font Friday, but since one font is never enough, Im going to try to start posting several to choose from right here every Friday.  So happy Friday everyone, enjoy.

Made With B

download

Neues

download

Lane Humouresque

download

Neuropolitical

download

Return To Sender

download

New Garden

download

Kerater

download

Free Font Friday Heather Bee

Not too long ago I posted a blog called ‘To tweet or not to tweet‘, where I touched on idea of whether or not it was necessary to utilize the many popular social networking sites to build your online presence and promote your business.  Today, though, I’ll be going through more of the how and less of the why.  While social networking is quite obviously a good idea, it must be done right or you’re just shooting yourself in the proverbial foot.

To do anything well in business, it is always a good idea to do a little research first.  Therefor, that is where we will begin.  I’m assuming you’ve at least heard of MySpace and Facebook and Twitter, etc.  You may have even used them before.  So, let’s see what you’ve left out there.  Go to your favorite search engine and type in your name.  Search.  Anything interesting come up?  Old profiles maybe?  Pictures from a wild vacation back in college?  At any rate, anyone can ‘google’ you and many people probably will.  It helps to know what is going to come up when people run a search on you (and/or your company) and be able to control the information you’re giving out and the type of image you’re portraying.  If you did manage to find any old profiles or old information floating around out there, now is the time to update it or get rid of it.  You want to be able to start with a somewhat clean slate to build your company (or personal) image.

One or two simple searches may not be enough though.  I would also suggest setting up Google and/or Yahoo alerts so you can keep track of where your name and your company name are showing up online.  I stumbled on a nice little walk-through on gigaom.com the other day and went ahead and set up some alerts for myself.  It’s certainly worth the few minutes it takes to set them up.  Check out the post [here].  If you already have a Twitter account, you can track your name, company name, and other words on there as well, but we’ll get into that further once we get into profile setup and account maintenance.

Next on our research path, go to the various social networking sites and read up on them a bit.  Find out which ones you think you’ll be able to maintain, which will give you the appropriate exposure you’re looking for, etc.  Putting your name out there everywhere and then not maintaining a single one, or only a select few, is just as bad, if not worse, than having no online presence at all.  So if you wont be able to complete your profile and interact with others on one site, then find one that’s more suited to you.

I’m listing a few of the more popular sites below though there are dozens more out there.  Look around and see what you can find.  If you’d like to suggest one please post the site name, url, and a quick description in the comments at the bottom.

Twitter – Twitter has become hugely popular and their user base is increasing daily.  If you dont think you’re quite ready to interact with people on a regular, daily basis, though, then you might want to save this one for later.  With millions of people to follow and a constant flow of information being given out at any given moment, you may not get very far if you don’t have a lot to give just yet.  Twitter is your information supersource, in 140 characters or less.

Facebook – I’m sure most everyone at least saw the previews for The Social Network, if not seen the movie itself.  If you have not yet entered the realm of Facebook, it may just seem like some silly college/highschool yearbook on crack, but the site offers so much more.  What began as a way for college students to keep track of their fellow classmates has evolved into a massive online connection to any person, business, tv show, movie, band, actor… you get the idea.  Given that you can upload photos, videos, even create an entire page just for your company, Facebook gives you a little more leg room than Twitter does to really push your company and get noticed.

LinkedIn – This one stands apart from Facebook and Twitter (and MySpace and a few others) in that it’s sole purpose is to connect business people with colleagues and other like-minded business professionals.  Your LinkedIn profile is your online resume, displaying past work experience, education, awards, etc. and also gives others the opportunity to recommend you and your work to others.

The Beginners Guide to Social Networking and Online Marketing – Part One Heather Bee

So you’re working on a design and you’re at the end of the budget, yet you still need to pull a few last stock photos and you really want to find a better font to use.  You could use google and try to find a few good free stock sites and again to browse through fonts.  But who has the time to look for website to then look for what they need.

One little page I found a couple years back stays permanently bookmarked in my browser.  Anytime I need to find something, this is the first thing I open up.  So what is this magical page?  Blue Vertigo.

A fairly complete listing of websites featuring stock photos, stock video, vector, fonts, logos, Photoshop brushes, Poser downloads, icons, sounds, color pallets, textures, and text generators. Everything is neatly categorized and labeled whether it’s free or not.  I certainly wouldnt expect you to go through every site listed, but it’s at least a better start than a google search sometimes.

Website:  http://bluevertigo.com.ar/bluevertigo.htm
Twitter:  @bluevertigo
Facebook:   Facebook Group

What about you?  Any particular sites you swear by for all your design needs?  That one (or two, or three) site that’s always bookmarked and easy to get to?  Let us know!

Stock photos, vector, fonts, and more Heather Bee

I decided to give Freelance Folder’s ‘The Client Machine’ a try when it first came out… and even though I wasn’t entirely impressed with it from the start, I thought I’d hang in there and see what sort of updates came out.  Nothing has been changed or added.  There was one small bug fix about a week after I bought it and that’s it.  It’s not nearly as customizable as I would like, has no focus on the blog at all (which, being that it’s a WordPress theme you’d think there’d be SOME).  Now I’ve decided to just get rid of it.  While I can appreciate the idea behind the theme, it’s just not going to work for Hive I.

So for the moment, I’ve switched to an older theme.. and, well… things are sort of a mess while I clean up the Client Machine crap and decide what look I want for the site in 2011.

Thanks for trying Freelance Folder.. but I think the thing needs a lot more attention to the smaller details to really be worth the $$.

All updated! (as of 1/10)

Pardon the mess Heather Bee

… to DIY.  For those of us who’ve been trying to manage our money all year and stay out of, or pull ourselves out of a financial slump, the idea of Holiday shopping is enough to stress anyone out.  But why should we have to go broke just because it’s the season of giving?  A gift from the heart/one made by hand is always so much more personal and usually more meaningful than something store bought after all.  Certainly we don’t all have the extra time to make something.  But if you think about it… spending all that time fighting your way through the crowds in the shopping malls could really be spent in a more… relaxing way.

To help you out, here’s a list of some of my favorite DIY gift-giving sites around the web.  Happy Holidays!

Instructibles.com – If you cant find something here, then you may as well go to the mall.  This site offers detailed, do-it-yourself instructions on just about anything imaginable, from everyday people.  They even have everything set up to help you find that perfect gift made with love.

Ana-White.com - Formerly known as that little blog Knock Off Wood, Ana has upgraded to bigger and better things.  She has plenty of recent posts on some fairly simple and inexpensive gifts you can make for a fraction of the cost of buying it.  Maybe even a holiday decoration or two for yourself.

J.D. Roth has a post over at Get Rich Slowly on 34 Homemade Gifts.  Certainly worth a peek, plus you can browse through the rest of his site for more delicious financial tidbits to make sure you’re staying on track heading into 2011.

Good Housekeeping – This one’s been around forever so you know they have to have at least a few great ideas in there.  I set the link to take you straight to their Christmas Crafts section, so browse away.  Also a great place for holiday recipes!

CraftBits.com – I only recently stumbled on this site, so I haven’t really studied it too far.  Looks similar to instructibles.com, just on a smaller, more craft-related scale.

WhatTheCraft.com – Another that I only recently found, but right away I found some things I’d love to make so it seems good enough to make the cut.

‘Tis the season… Heather Bee

I go on a little mini vacation and disappear for a month!  I have been busy though.  I recently took on the job as official graphic designer for an up and coming artist by the name of Clinton James.  If you haven’t heard of him yet you probably will soon.  You can check him out on MySpace or Facebook.  I also have some other big design jobs I’ll be finishing up soon, but they’re a little hush hush at the moment.  Shhh…

Also, I’m so excited to have a guest author joining Hive I.  A dear friend of mine and an amazing photographer, Matthew Ebarb, will be contributing from behind the lens.  As a designer I rely on stock photography quite often so it will be nice to get a little perspective from someone taking the photos instead of those of us who just grab them and use them!  Expect to see posts from him soon.

I’m also updating the Hive I Design Facebook Fan Page to give people an easier route to check in on Hive I and follow the blog.  The complete RSS feed is accessible from the fan page and new designs are posted regularly.  If you haven’t yet, click the ‘like’ button here on the site or head on over and check it out.

Where’d she go? Heather Bee