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How To Enter

Entering the contest is incredibly easy. All you have to do is post a comment explaining why you want to win the hosting account and what you would use it for.  Of course the winner’s will be announced here and on Twitter, so your best bet would be to follow us on twitter and like us on facebook as well.

You can also follow us on Twitter and tweet out, “I just entered @hvdesigns hosting giveaway! You should enter to: http://bit.ly/wMmTl1 ” and receive another entry to the contest.

Your third and final entry can come from liking us on Facebook and posting on our wall about your favorite tutorial.

The contest will run from 2/10/2012 to 2/17/2012, with winners being announced on 2/20/2012.

Recently on Dribbble there was an excellent No Effects Challenge posted by the amazing Jonathan Ogden (who we are going to reach out to and see about getting a tutorial from his awesomeness) that really inspired this post. Each and every shot in the challenge was, obviously, created without using any layer styles or effects in Photoshop, just standard graphic talent. They are all amazing, amazing shots, but what is the point of them? Why have the layer styles if you aren’t going to use them? The importance and reason are both one and the same in their answer, because it’s important.

I am not by any means saying that we should just give up effects all together, but I am saying that it is VITAL to practice without them. I find that whenever I am strugling for inspiration on a design or wondering what Typography will look good on this poster, that if I just step back from the effects and put everything into an almost matte like look, that it flows together nicely. Let’s take a look at a few areas that can really benefit from using little to no effects.

Typography

Typography is one of the most important aspects of any design, if not the most important. You can have an excellent looking website, but if the typography sucks that’s all people are going to notice. Believe me on this because typography has to be the weakest aspect to my design and it really sets me back sometimes. Honestly, without the great people over on Dribbble and Forrst I would be lost in the dark when it comes to typography, but the best advice I ever got was to just step back from the effects and play on font and placement only, before bringing any of the layer styles into anything.

Here are a few of my favorite Typographic images from the no effect challenge:

A Very Simple Sports Style Typographic With No Effects

Free Binder Cover by Brad Blackman

Berlin Likes Fancy by Julie Ann Horvath

Those are, without a doubt, my top three typographic elements from the No Effect Challenge. Every single submission has been awesome and they just keep building and getting better. If you want to submit a typographic to the No Element Challenge and are a member of Dribbble post it up and let us know in the comments. If you are not a member of Dribbble then post it in our Flickr group so we can see the awesomeness.

Random Elements

Throughout the main challenge there were so many inspiring posts but not really a category to fit them in but I still wanted to show off the most inspiring no effect elements from the challenge, in my opinion.

No Effects Turntable by Alpis Design

NoFX by Jow Fawkes

Rum Runner by Mike Kamanski

I chose those three as my most inspirational because it just goes to show you how versatile design really is and that you can use less effects and still come out with an amazing design, whether all together or just as an element in the design. All three of the above designs can stand on their own as excellent designs or be placed into a project at any point, but most importantly you can then take the basis of what you created, add some effects, and bring your design to the next level, if that is what is required.

Conclusion

Be sure to check out and follow the design contest as I am sure it will continue to grow and post. I hope that what we talked about today helps you guys with any inspirational/technical issues that you might be having. I am interested in hearing what you guys have to say about the subject and seeing some of your no effect work.

We are going to be revitalizing our Freebies site, Friday Freebies, and making sure that each Friday you will receive a brand new PSD file, for free. You will see a whole new design for the HV-Network, as well as a new addition to our network (details to be released later). While we finalize details for the new design of the network be sure to check out many of our excellent tutorials, our many freebies, and the many premium items we have available from the shop.

Let’s ring in the new year with a brand new wallpaper, specifically for you guys.

His Work

Check out some of my favorite works of Orman Clark:

The Interview

Orman, thanks for taking time out of your day to answer a few questions; firstly we would like you to introduce yourself to the readers?

Thanks for asking me to do the interview, I always find it interesting to read about other designers and their processes so hopefully this will be at least mildly interesting to others ;) Well, my name is Orman and I’m a web designer based in the UK. I’ve been involved in design in one way or another for the last 8 years or so and these days I find myself either designing themes for WordPress or creating freebies for designers.

You run two websites, Premium Pixels and your personal website, which website to you think will become more pivotal towards growing as a freelancer?

I’ve had my personal website for about 18 months now (before that I relied on word of mouth) and that did a pretty good job of gaining some interest from potential clients. Fortunately, the first version of the site was picked up by a few design galleries which definitely helped in the early days.

More recently however, Premium Pixels has begun to gain some traction and has put my work in front of both peers and potential clients in a way that a static portfolio site can’t. Overall I think the interactive / conversational element will eventually lead to Premium Pixels being the main driver of any potential client projects.

Was Premium Pixels an idea that you had for a while and then setup or just something you set up one day realizing that you had some extra files laying around?

Actually Premium Pixels was very much a spur of the moment thing and I set it up without any real “plan” or motive. I’ve always toyed with the idea of starting a blog but came to the realisation that my passion for writing is nowhere near as strong as it is for design – all of my early attempts dwindled into nothing very quickly!

Design elements and/or tutorials seemed like the next logical step and so one weekend I set about designing the site and a handful of freebies to start me off. The whole process was very quick, maybe just over a week fitted around client work.

Where would you say that your inspiration for your designs comes from?

Most of my inspiration comes from the oodles of talented designers that share their work on sites such as Dribbble and Forrst. Sites like these are great insights into how other designers not only produce their work but the thought process behind it – often this is a greater lesson than simply viewing the finished product as you can apply the same logic to your own creations.

You have released two Premium WordPress themes so far on Themeforest. Any chance that we can look forward to some more in the near future? What about a freebie WP template?

Absolutely, I intend to release more Premium WordPress themes in the very near future and over the course of the coming year. In terms of freebies, all I can say is watch this space ;)

If your Themeforest sales increase will you focus more on releasing premium templates or will you keep your focus on your web design?

It’s no secret to anyone that knows me that I’m a huge fan of WordPress, I love working with the system and so I will always take an opportunity to develop more themes in the future. As for concentrating wholeheartedly on themes, that is something that remains to be decided however it is a strong consideration for the future.

As a prominent member of the design community I am sure you get approached to write tutorials all the time. How do you decide where to write your tutorials for?

Actually I have only ever been approached by Brandon from WebDesigntuts+ in regard to tutorials but I certainly welcome others to get in touch. When I heard what Brandon was trying to achieve with WebDesigntuts+ I decided right there and then that I would love to be involved. It is a perfect addition to an already fantastic network of sites and I’ve thouroughly enjoyed writing for them – hopefully they’ll be more to come in the future.

What would you recommend to the readers as a way to get better known in the design community?

Put simply, get involved. It’s a very cliched response to say “participate in the community” but I think it really is the key. Remember to be yourself, perhaps help out your peers every now and again but ultimately just get stuck in!

Any special plans in the near future that you can let us in on?

Hmmm, I can’t mention any specifics just yet but let’s just say that there are a few interesting collaborations in the pipeline that I’m really excited about.

The lovely debate: Mac or Windows?

Mac, hands down. I made the switch around a year ago and would never go back.

Another debate: Photoshop or Fireworks for Web Design?

For me personally it’s Photoshop simply because it’s what I’m used to and what the majority of other designers tend to use – makes collaboration a much simpler process. I did open up Fireworks recently to give it another go but without the practice simple things tend to take me twice as long which can get frustrating.

And finally; if you could become the lead designer for one company what company would you choose and why?

One that I owned! Right now I love the freedom of being freelance, working for myself and managing my own clients – I’m not sure I could go back to agency life just yet!

Thank you again for the interview Orman, it was great to get to know you a little better.

Well, there you have it, that’s Orman Clark. Keep reading on for links to his Social Network, his Premium Files, and his websites.

Keep In Touch

• Dribble
• Forrst
• Twitter
• Premium Pixels
• Orman Clark .com
• Premium WordPress Themes

Some More Work

Conclusion

There you have it. If you have any questions leave them in the Comments and I am sure that Orman will be happy to answer them as soon as he can. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for a more interviews, freebies, and tutorials.

This interview was brought over from my old personal blog to HV-Designs because I did not want to lose such a valuable interview and insight into such a great design mind.

The Pros of Illustrator

With Adobe Illustrator all graphics that you create a vector graphics. This means that you can re-size the image to be as large or as small as you want while still retaining the proper styling and definition. You can also use Adobe Illustrator to create your business cards or any print media because by default Illustrator is set up to work in the proper printing color format. This means that you won’t create a design that will look completely different once it is printed.

Being able to re-size any image, no matter what size you designed it at, and still retain the right quality was the biggest draw to my for Illustrator. I wanted to be able to design an icon at icon size but still be able to offer a larger size. I can not do this in Photoshop and still get the styling I want, so I decided to head over to Illustrator and try it out. So far I am very happy with the majority of the results I have achieved with icons and character creation the last few days.

Having Illustrator already set up for print media is another great thing for me. I have found myself several times halfway through a print design in Photoshop, its looking fantastic, and I forgot to turn in from RGB to CMKY. This means that I either have to change right away and fix the mistakes that with inevitably pop up or start all over and try to achieve the same result after being immediately put in a horrible mood. With Illustrator I don’t have to worry about that anymore which is a huge load off of my back.

My final favorite thing about Illustrator so far is the ability to save as an EPS document where I can open the vector in Photoshop. The EPS file automatically opens in CMKY so no worries there. I have found myself, already, working on a document in Illustrator and getting it right where I want it so it looks great and I want to use it. Then I will open it up in Photoshop to re-size it and give it a nice background (which I could do in Illustrator but I prefer PS). Then I will start playing with the character or icon and it will just go from there until I have added or tweaked just little things but it makes the character 100 times better. The only thing I don’t like is that you can’t maintain the vector styling if you add things in Photoshop (unless you can and then I would love it even more) but it is easy to bring the styles over to Illustrator and recreate them.

The Cons of Illustrator

I am still pretty new to Illustrator but I have found several cons already. The first thing I have to say is that if you are an Illustrator user from the start and not originally a full time PS user than most of these will probably not bother you. One of my biggest pet peeves about Illustrator is the Gradient Tool. I use Gradients in a little over half of all my work and the gradient tool in Illustrator just does not jive with me. I don’t like the color selector at the bottom, I don’t like having to manually enter in the angle for my gradient, and I don’t like the way it renders gradients.

Like I said the first two are just pet peeves because I have worked in Photoshop for so long that I am used to the way they have you set up your gradients and colors. That being said however I do not think it is just my personal feelings for Photoshop that make the gradients in Illustrator render so strangely. The gradient lining is the worst that I have seen in any image editing program. The edges are rough and once you get past three colors it just renders more and more gradient lines rather than a clean overlay. This may just be my inexperience with Illustrator, and if it is please let me know how to correct it.

Another thing I have found that I don’t like with Illustrator is that you have to manually create a new layer. If you don’t all your paths will be on one layer and if you don’t keep up with the names of your paths then you will eventually get lost in what you are doing. Now, it is set up pretty much like Photshop in that a layer is like a PS Group and the paths are like PS layers, but it just comes from working in Photoshop for so long. My PS use is not the only reason that I have an issue with this, however. I also have a big problem with the fact that you can not create groups with any keyboard shortcut. You can create groups with the pathfind section, but then you have to isolate to see each individual path. It just seems like too much work for something so simple.

So What’s Better?

To be honest I have to say that no matter what Illustrator has to offer if it ever came down to making a choice of keeping Photoshop or Illustrator then I would choose Photoshop without a second thought. I do love Illustrator and everything that is has to offer, and I am sure that as I work a little more with it I will come to love it even more, but there is just something about Photoshop that makes it feel like the better program to me.

Sure, there are something things that Illustrator does better (the vector graphics) but I try not to do too much print and logo work, so if I didn’t have that ability it wouldn’t be very detrimental to my business. If I started working more on print and logos than I would probably change my mind and say I need to keep both of them, but I don’t see that anywhere in my near future. Since my main focus is Web Design, and Illustrator isn’t meant for that, I feel that I can easily say that in a battle of Photoshop vs Illustrator the clear victor would be Photoshop.

Conclusion

So, if the world of Adobe was ending and they said you had to choose just one image editing program, Photoshop or Illustrator, what would you choose? Would Photoshops superior styling trump Illustrator, or will you choose Illustrator’s amazing ability to render in whatever size over Photoshop’s lack of vector abilities?

The time has come for you to choose and post a comment about what you choose!

As designers, we’re tasked with crafting the very reputations of the companies, organizations, and individuals that entrust their work to us. That’s a tremendous responsibility, and one I feel most designers tend to take much, much lighter than they ever should.

When you set out to create an identity for a client, you must first understand that client and their customers or the people they work with. What makes them tick? What makes their customers tick? What factors drive the decisions and thought processes of their customers? Why are their customers buying or not buying their goods or services in the first place? To understand these things, you need to spend some time extensively interviewing your client and, if possible, his or her customers.

I cannot possibly stress enough that designing logos and identities has nothing to do with technology. People who know how to use Photoshop or Illustrator are a dime a dozen. Design has absolutely nothing to do with how proficient you are with Photoshop or Illustrator. Anyone can use a hammer. Very few can design the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty. Design has everything to do with being able to deeply understand the company or individual who has placed their trust in you to forge their reputation and their image. As such, it’s critical that you not treat this job lightly. Don’t read this tutorial and then go out and create an identity for a company without putting in the due diligence to become great at your craft. It takes years of dedication, discipline, experience and expertise to do that job well. For now, just focus on honing your craft and getting better at what you do. When you become great at what you do, the work will come.

Getting Started

Once you have a crystal clear picture of what type of people you’re working with, and what type of people they want to attract, you can begin the design conceptualization process. The fun part. The brainstorm.

For this stage of the project, I typically turn to paper. You may even want to take a walk, go for a run, or take a hot shower or something. You need to really think about what’s going to best express the very essence of your client in logo form, and that requires equal parts concentrated focus and creativity in the same act.

Once you have your concept, or at least the general direction you want to take your identity project in, it’s time to start sketching. Start with a pen or pencil and a notebook. I use several different Moleskine notebooks for sketching and writing down my ideas, but anything will work. You can even use a napkin, a whiteboard, or a sheet of blank printer paper. Just speed sketch anything that comes to mind. Don’t worry about the art. It’s not a competition. The goal is to express your concept as clearly and simply as possible. You’ll need to iterate through several different variations on your ideas, and for this, paper is key. If you try to do this stage on a computer, or even an iPad, you’ll focus too much on the tool and the implementation of it and nowhere near enough on what you are drawing. You need absolute freedom. You need to be able to quickly draw over top of a sketch, or scribble it out. You need to be able to quickly create ten different versions of a shape in a matter of seconds. That’s not happening on a computer screen.

My actual sketches of the Ministry Rocket Logo (please pardon the terrible iPhone photo)

If you have the opportunity to do this stage with the client present, more power to you. This is a great stage to get their feedback on what concept most closely fits the company’s goals. However, don’t feel like they need to be present by any stretch of the imagination. You may even focus a lot better without them. I know I do.

Once you have your concept whittled down, it’s time to bring it into the digital realm. For this, I typically use a scanner, but even a digital camera would work. You can even use the camera on your phone in a pinch. Keep your sketches well lit and on a flat surface if you opt to use a camera.

Once you get the sketches into the computer, import them into Illustrator, Photoshop, or any tool of your choosing. I cannot stress enough how little importance falls on the tool. I use VectorDesigner, Pixelmator, Acorn, and others all the time. I also use Photoshop and Illustrator. It really doesn’t matter. What matters is that you understand how to use your tool fluently and that you can use it with strong confidence. For the sake of illustration, I’ll be using Illustrator in this tutorial.

You do want to create your logo in a vector app (like Illustrator), as opposed to a raster app (like Photoshop). For that, Illustrator or another vector illustration app is needed. If you create your logo in Photoshop, it won’t be scaleable and editable in the same way it would be if created in a vector app. Logos, by definition, should ideally be infinitely scaleable, and able to be printed on any material in color or black or white.

With your original sketches imported, depending on the complexity of your drawings, you have two choices. You can trace over the sketches to create vector illustrated versions of them, or you can simply re-create them from scratch. For most logos, you may not even need to scan your sketches in at all. Instead, just re-create the graphic using your original sketch as a faithful guide, sitting right there on your desk. This will encourage perfection and symmetry, while trying to stay true to a tracing will often result in imperfection and asymmetry (of course, if this is the goal, then trace by all means).

What I typically do is create only half of the icon, using the pen tool, with no stroke and a fill color, if it’s a symmetrical design, and then ever so slightly overlap the two images so that the two halves are just touching with no background whatsoever visible between the two. Then, I merge the two halves using the “Merge” command in Illustrator’s “Pathfinder” palette, which creates one perfectly symmetrical shape. If it helps you, you can leave the stoke turned on while you’re drawing, and later turn it off before merging your two halves.

This is how the rocket was created.

Typefaces and Fonts

Just to clarify the terminology going in, the word “typeface” is used to describe a family of fonts. For instance, “Helvetica” is a typeface. It is not a font. Referring to it as such is improper and makes you sound like an amateur. “Helvetica Neue Ultralight Extended 23, 48PT” is a font. The “font” is the exact pairing of typeface, variant, weight, and size as used in a design.

The typeface you choose is critical to your design. In some cases, you’ll even need to create custom lettering. However, for the sake of illustration and sanity, I’m going to stick with finished typefaces here.

It’s absolutely vital that you have a healthy library of typefaces installed and available for use in design projects. You cannot rationally expect to create great work with terrible resources. Garbage in = garbage out.

There are a number of fantastic foundries out there, producing great new typefaces every day. Many of my personal favorites come from Hoefler & Frere-Jones Foundry. The typefaces used in the Ministry Rocket logo are Knockout (Bantam Flyweight, in all caps) and Leviathan, both by HFJ.

If you’re coming up short on great typeface ideas, or if you are simply in need of some new ones and have no idea where to get started, I cannot possibly recommend Dribbble enough. Anyone can browse the work there, and many of the design pieces submitted there cite which typefaces were used in the design. You’re going to see a ton of Hoefler typefaces there, but there are a lot from other foundries, such as Linotype and others as well.

The typeface you choose should accurately reflect the nature and goals of your client. Fonts say a lot about a design. As Massimo Vignelli said, “You can say ‘I love you!’ in Helvetica, and if you want to be really fancy, you can say it in Helvetica Light. You can say, ‘I hate you!’ in Helvetica, and if you want to say it really loud, you can say it in Helvetica Bold.”

If you were designing a logo for a very conservative investment firm, and you used a really modern, slick typeface, you’d be lying. They aren’t a design firm, they are an investment firm. That should be obvious from the typeface you choose for their logo. Something like Hoefler Text or Baskerville, or even Trajan or Bank Gothic might be appropriate, but surely not Helvetica Neue Ultralight or Avant Garde.

Likewise, you should never use typefaces just because they are trendy, or because you like them. For instance, it would be inappropriate for you to use a vintage typeface for a grocery store just because you thought it looked cool. Using typefaces based sheerly on personal preference is an telltale sign of a designer who doesn’t know how to relate with his or her clients, or who lacks experience in choosing typefaces appropriately. Make those letters count!

Feedback

Yes, you can and should get feedback from your clients. But what are you to do if designing a logo on your own time? What if you’re working on something without a client at all? Or, what if you want to get feedback from skilled people, as opposed to someone who wouldn’t know good design if it hit them in the face? Great feedback is helpful in almost all situations. These are all realistic everyday problems, and fortunately there are many great solutions available.

Dribbble & Forrst

Both of these are invitation-only communities of designers. Forrst tends to be easier to get into, but if you’re already on Dribbble, more power to you. If you don’t already have an account on each of these sites, go set one up right now. I’ll wait. Got em? Great. Let’s continue. In the case of Ministry Rocket, I posted my early comps on Forrst, and was able to get incredibly valuable, precise feedback in mere minutes.

Real-world Feedback

I cannot possibly tell you just how valuable this is. If you are in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, sitting at your Mac, you can get feedback on a design from world-class designers from around the world in mere minutes. You’d be fairly insane not to take advantage of that fact. The design community is here for you, and they are incredibly helpful people.

After feedback.

Client Feedback

It should be your goal to create the perfect design on the first try. This whole idea of designing iterations is a sheer waste of your time and the client’s time as well. Imagine if Walmart asked their contractors to build them three versions of every store, so they could choose their favorite. That would be ridiculous. Yet, somehow, people think this is acceptable behavior in the design contracting profession. It isn’t. This isn’t 3rd grade art class. It isn’t a competition, either. It’s a problem, and there is an ideal solution. It’s your job to find the best one as efficiently as possible.

Paul Rand, one of the greatest designers of our time, who had Steve Jobs as a client, is a champion of this philosophy. When Steve Jobs asked him for three iterations of a logo, Paul told him,

“No. I will not give you three options. I will give you the best solution to your problem, and you will pay me for it whether you like it or not.”

You’d think this would have been considered rude. It wasn’t. Steve was so astonished at the Paul’s professional confidence and design prowess that he gladly accepted the solution, and the two became great lifelong friends. People want to hire someone who knows exactly what they are doing, and why they are doing it. They want someone who can take a job from inception to completion with confidence, skill and professionalism, not some amateur that they need to babysit every step of the way.

If you must use iterations for one reason or another, never give the client a bad option. I’ve tried that route before of giving the client one great choice, a less great choice, and a so-so or even bad choice, hoping they would choose the obvious best one. It doesn’t work. Clients always, without fail, choose the worst option you give them. They aren’t designers, and may even lack the taste needed to create a successful logo altogether. That’s why they hired you in the first place. You are being paid for your skill, experience, and creativity. If you fail to use these things properly, and give the client a bad choice to choose as a result, that’s on you. For this reason, give the client two or three equally fantastic designs, and suggest the best one to them, but make sure you don’t have an inferior option on the table.

Conclusion

Now that you’ve successfully learned how to draft a series of logo comps on paper, move to the digital space and create your initial versions, choose typefaces, and get feedback from other designers and clients, you have the basic elements of knowledge needed to get started. Be patient, and do great work. Constantly seek new inspiration, and above all, never lose your passion!

Justin, thanks for taking time out of your day to answer a few questions; firstly we would like you to introduce yourself to the readers?

Sure. I’m Justin Lowery, and I’ve been working as a professional graphic designer, web designer / front-end developer, photographer, and writer for over a decade. I work with people, organizations, and companies from all over the United States and around the world. I have a tremendous passion for helping people, changing their lives, and shaping the way they view themselves and the world around them.

How do you find the creativity to keep pumping out your amazing work and tutorials?

I read obsessively. In a typical day, I consume probably a few hundred articles, and countless hundreds of images and design pieces in a constant search for inspiration, knowledge, and ideas. You need to “stay hungry, stay foolish,” as they say. Learn constantly from the work and writing of others.

Also, participating in the design community is key. I’m on Dribbble, Forrst, BeHance, Cargo Collective, Flickr, Deviant Art, and pretty much every other community I’ve ever heard of. There are some absolutely brilliant designers and artists out there, and in the communities you can find a never-ending flow of ideas and inspiration.

What would be your favorite piece of work that you have designed so far?

That’s a very hard one. I’m not sure I even have a favorite. I like my own site, because I have total design freedom with it. Also some of the 3D and motion design pieces I’ve built with Cinema 4D and AfterEffects came out pretty well. A few of my recent identity projects have really come together nicely as well. It’s nearly impossible to choose a favorite, however.

You have signed on to be a member of our HV-Team, what made you want to join the team and write tutorials?

Well, I actually went to college for education, believe it or not. I figured there really wasn’t much I could learn from going to school for design, because I literally would teach the design professors things all the time while I was there. (I actually ended up doing design and consulting work for the college before I graduated, and worked in the advertising department for two years as well.) Instead, I figured teaching was something that would never lose its value, and could be applied to nearly anything imaginable. So I took that, and graduated with a double major in secondary education with two teaching fields. I love helping people unleash their potential. Writing and teaching both accomplish that. Tutorials combine those two of my passions.

What made you want to get into the Graphic Design business?

Well, it’s more design in itself than the business. I actually do pro-bono work all the time for charities, ministries, and other non-profits that I think have worthy causes. Design changes the way people perceive the world around them, and in turn affects people’s behavior towards these causes. If you have bad design representing your organization, people are going to think poorly of it, and that’s going to show in the way they treat it. They’ll give less, volunteer less, care less, and sometimes even ignore the organization entirely.  The end result is that these organizations don’t have the money or manpower they need to change the world, and that’s wrong. I wanted to change that. The business side of design came about as a mere necessity of life. I love design, and it happens to pay the bills, so I decided to use it do that while I work on more meaningful things in my spare time. Of course, I try to choose meaningful paid projects as well, and have been blessed with the opportunity to work with some truly incredible clientele over the years.

What would you recommend to our readers as the best way to build their career?

Do awesome work. Put your heart and soul into it. Show people. Get dramatically better at what you do. Do better work. Show more people. Rinse and repeat. Use your work to do good for others and for the world. When people see those things in you, they’ll want to work with you. People like people who have passion for what they do, and who do it well. I handle the work of a small agency as a result of this. It does work.

In a practical sense, get your work out there. Follow a ton of designers on Twitter, Dribbble, Forrst, BeHance, Cargo Collective, and Flickr. More importantly, get your work on all these sites and more. Show only your best work. It’s more important what you don’t show than what you do. Less is always more. I try to show only a dozen pieces in my portfolio at any one time. Talk about what you do. Be super passionate about it. People will want to work with you when you’re glowing with enthusiasm and energy for what you do. If you love what you do, it should show, and people will be able to see it. When you nail those things, the work will take care of itself.

And my last question; If you could work with one company and head their design department who would it be? Why?

I would most likely start my own company. I probably have too much passion for what I do to work under someone elses limitations for very long. That said, if I had to choose, hmm…that would be hard. Apple is always a good choice as companies go. I love the work they do.

Realistically, though, I doubt I’d ever work for a corporation per se. I’d much rather do something more meaningful. Perhaps something like the Red Cross or another large-scale charity organization. I really have a passion for helping people, and getting people to help each other.

If I had to choose a realistic organization that I actually have qualifications and a solid chance of working for, I’d probably work with an small to medium-sized agency that strictly services charities, ministries, and other non-profits, like churchmedia.cc or something similar. I really can’t stand the whole money-at-the-expense-of-people mindset that most companies have, so it would definitely be a non-profit-oriented agency that does truly meaningful work on a regular basis.

Well, thanks again Justin and we look forward to seeing your tutorials in the coming months!

Before we get to the fully awesomeness of our freebie I want to fill you in on our plans for the next few months. The biggest thing that we have coming your way is our complete re-design of the website and how our blogs are laid out. Now, there wasn’t very much good feedback on the idea of adding a premium feature to the site, so we have decided to hold off on that for now, but we will be entering into re-design mode in the next week or so and hopefully have a new design out to you guys in a month or two.

The other main thing that we will be doing is re-designing the HV-Shop as well, in order to have it flow smoother with the rest of the site/network, which will also include a re-design of Friday Freebies, BestPSTuts, and the other two network sites we will be releasing. As you can tell already we will also be releasing two new network sites for the HV-Network by the years end, though details of those sites are still in planning stage. When I get some more information on how those will work I will let you guys know right away.

Our final thing that we have planned to start after the re-design is with the shop. The shop will now offer tutorials, photoshop files, fully coded sites, and android apps. At this point the shop is limited to HV-Network writers only. We will be offering a few new packages in the shop though that include a certain amount of downloads per package and things like that, which will help you really get the files we need. You will also see us releasing various Tumblr, WordPress, Joomla and other themes on Superhug in the coming months.

I am sure I have bored you guys enough with reading our plans, but I do hope you are a little excited about them. If there is anything else you want to see be sure to leave a comment or follow us on Twitter (@hvdesigns). Now, on to what you really clicked on this post for: FREE STUFF

This freebie is a 3D Google Plus icon that you can use for any of your sites, both commercial and personal, free of attribution (though attribution is nice and will get you a high five). This freebie was created by HV-Network author Josh Laincz, of Zohf Design.

That’s right, as our ninth freebie release we decided that it was time for a freebie package. Our idea was to pull all the download into one package and charge a buck for the download, but we decided that since you guys have supported our site we want to continue supporting you with freebies. Until we hit our sixth package (1 year) the packages will remain absolutely and 100% free.

Each package will contain all new downloads, as well as the previous package. So, our package #2 will contain 8 freebies we released as well as the ZIP file of the first package so you are getting every freebie available on the site in one quick and easy zip file. So, head on over to the site and download the packages and also welcome the newest member of our team @_DomW

While we were talking this weekend about the shop the idea of a premium membership came up. Instead of just moving the site in that direction we wanted to see what you, our readers, thought about a premium membership area. We have been churning out tutorials at least twice a week lately and are starting to build up more and more tutorials.

However, we have a lot of items in the shop and were just getting ready to release a bunch of premium tutorials in the shop. Again though we wanted to give our readers access to all the files they need, as well as the source files for every tutorial, and we are thinking about doing $5.00/mo or $45.00/yr for access to the premium area. This would be implemented via PayPal and probably be set up in a few months, but we wanted to see if you guys are interested in this or if you would rather just keep the shop and have access to individual files?

The entire site would not go premium like Grafpedia has done. We would still have the same amount, and quality, of tutorials that we have now on the site. We would just be adding a premium area where you can get certain files and templates, as well as access to the PSD files of every tutorial, as not all our tutorials come with the PSD file.

The rest of the site would remain the same. It would basically be having the shop, but with a monthly fee, more items, and integrate more within the community/site. Like I said though the main portion of the site would remain the same.

Let’s hear from you guys as it is you that will be supporting this and you that this will effect.

Ticket Thumbnail by Orman Clark

Friday Freebies will be releasing a free PSD every Friday free of any license. You are free to use the work however you want and no attribution will be required.  The PSD files will be totally separate from any tutorials on the site, which means that between the site and Friday Freebies you will always be getting awesome PSD files for inspiration/use. The theme for Friday Freebies is the Folio Tumblr Theme by John Tidey, which is available in the DoD Bundle we posted about earlier this week. Check back each week or follow us on Twitter to be notified what the next PSD release is.

If you purchase the bundle be sure to leave a comment on this post as we will be giving away a couple prizes to random purchasers and every one that purchases will also get a credit for one item out of the HV-Shop. This is a super awesome bundle that is updated daily and definitely worth the three dollars to get the resources and any time the bundle is updated you get the updates automatically.

Get the Bundle Today