Hop Creative

New SquareSpace Pricing!

Trevor — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:07:43 +0000

Alright! Today SquareSpace rolled out there new pricing plans. This is great new for everyone who loves SquareSpace as now you can get more features and the same service all for a lower price.

Here is a snippet from their blog post...

Today, Squarespace is pleased to announce new service plans and across-the-board price reductions which we are making immediately available to all customers.

In an ongoing effort to simplify our service, Squarespace now has only two service plans. We’ve also doubled discounts for annual purchases to 20%.

The next version of SquareSpace is almost ready

Trevor — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 18:42:15 +0000

Yesterday the fine folks over at SquareSpace gave us a sneak peak at what's coming in the next version of their amazing platform. Here is a snippet from the blog post ...

"Squarespace 6 is more than an evolution — it is a completely new way of managing content. Built from the ground up with the knowledge gained from seven years of creating content management systems,

Finding your niche in design

Trevor — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:52:08 +0000

Fifteen years ago I decided that I wanted to get into Graphic & Web Design. Being in high school at the time I really didn't have a solid understanding of where that career path would lead me. I knew I wanted to be creative and basically design 'stuff'.

Fast forward to 2011 and a lot has changed in the design field. The term Graphic Design more or less has the same connotation but the field of Web Design has vastly changed. In fact, design has changed so much on the web that the term web design can mean many different things.

First let's break out what a Graphic Designer might do:

Site Update - New 'Our Work' design

Trevor — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 23:58:30 +0000

It has been way too long since I've had time to update the site. I'm still trying to decide if that's a good or bad thing. Actually the more I think about it it's probably really bad. Sure.... on one hand I'm busy and don't have much time to write blog posts. But on the other hand that's no excuse. There is no reason why I can't take 15 minutes out of any given day to write a quick pos right?

That all said, today I've completed a massive overhaul to the 'Our Work' section of this site. I'm talking a new layout, CSS and 15 new projects. Yes that's right, 15! It's been a long time coming but I am now (more or less) up to date in this 'Our Work' section. Finally I am able to share what I have been up to for the past while.

Feel free to take a look. Feedback welcome!

5 simple things that help me focus on Web Design

Trevor — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 03:38:34 +0000

When I'm sitting behind my Mac it's very easy to get distracted. Sometimes you need to get focused and zone in on the tasks at hand. Tune out the madness and focus on the project! This is how I do it.

Turn Twitter OFF. Did you hear me? Turn Twitter OFF. It's okay, you'll live.
Turn the lights off. Yes Seriously. I find I get much more work done when the lights are off and the only light in the room is my monitor.
Put your 'Cell' Phone in the other room. Yep, it's a distraction if it even vibrates because you know you will check it.
Grab a Beverage. Whether it's a latte, a coffee or a really good glass of wine. It helps me stay focused, makes me happy and puts me in a working mood.
Get a great pair of noise cancelling headphones. I recently picked up these bad boys and I have to say that my productivity has increased immensely.

What do you do to stay focused?

Be fast on the draw

Trevor — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 21:42:40 +0000

Back in the days of the Wild West it was a common occurrence for two men to settle a confrontation by having a not so fun stand off. Of course the only way to come out the winner (and alive!) in that situation was to be quick, accurate and fast on the draw.

I often joke that the internet is much like the wild west. I mean there really are similarities. There are no rules. Celebrities, scams & bucket loads of money can be made through various avenues. Much like the wild west, the sky really is the limit.

10 things I've learned about running a Graphic & Web Design Business

Trevor — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:27:06 +0000

So a year has gone by and I learned a thing or two about running my own business. If you're starting your own freelance design business there is a good chance you're going to encounter at least some of the following:

1. Be prepared to get a crash course in Administrative work.

Let's get this one out of the way right off the bat. A very large chunk of my time is spent writing and responding to emails, preparing quotes, writing documentation and dealing with the bills. You'll be diving into the world of spreadsheets and project management whether you like it or not. You're going to dislike it at times but you're also going to learn some ways to increase your admin productivity. If I could give you any advice, it would be to stay extra organized and on top of all the 'paper work'.

2. You're going to lose bids. (...and that's okay)

We appreciate it.

Trevor — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:38:44 +0000

This past year we were fortunate enough to meet some really fantastic people. We were able to form some great design & development partnerships that will no doubt become long lasting relationships. We've collaborated on some really fun projects together and created some killer pieces.

Talking about Good Design

Trevor — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:16:40 +0000

So what exactly is Good Design? I know what I think is good and I certainly know what I think is awful. Everyone has their own opinion when it comes to design. Is that a bad thing? Of course not. It just makes the designer's job that much more challenging and rewarding all at the same time. Often I deal with clients who have very strong opinions on colors, fonts and 'fancy' decorations. So how do we deal with a client who simply says 'I Don't Like it!'? Well you should go read Jeff White's blog post at Kula Partners. He knows!

A couple of days ago I tweeted out the phrase "Good Design is Good Business".

10 Tools that help me with Design

Trevor — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 19:49:52 +0000

I thought I would put together a quick and dirty list to let people know about some of the tools that help me with my designs. Here you will find some handy dandy links, add-ons and free web apps I use on a regular basis.

1. Firebug (add-on for Firefox)
My lifesaver. If you haven't used firebug yet you are missing out. It makes coding those designs that much easier as you can edit a lot of items on the fly. It's also very helpful for troubleshooting problems.

2. Web Developer (add-on for Firefox)
My other lifesaver. Before I discovered Firebug I only used this little add on. Though it might not be as handy as Firebug there are some great features that simply cannot be ignored.