A Creative Market Open House Event

Once a quarter, the Creative Market team gets together in our San Francisco home office to hang out, have some fun, discuss ideas and projects, and plan out the next quarter. Last week was one of those weeks for us. It was great getting to hang out with the everyone (since about half of the staff is remote at this point), but the whole team agreed that somebody important was missing from the party. Who was missing you ask? YOU were!

The Creative Market Team + The Creative Market Community

Getting together as a team is awesome, but we wanted to get the Creative Market team together with the Creative Market community. Each and every member of the Creative Market team works hard to make this place the best that it can possibly be, and we’re doing that for you folks, for the entire community! So, why not chat with some of you, get to know you, and see what thoughts and ideas you have for Creative Market?

A Simple Event for a Simple Idea

Seems like a pretty simple idea right? We agree. And a simple idea like that calls for a nice simple event. Nothing flashy, no big crowds to get lost in, just the Creative Market team; a dozen or so Creative Market shoppers, shop owners, and members; and menu of delicious food and drinks.

 

 

So, we reached out to a few local Creative Market community members, ordered some dinner, and had an Open House Event right in our very own Creative Market office.

The Results

The verdict? The open house was fantastic! The feedback regarding the open house, from both the team members and the community members that were able to join us, was overwhelmingly positive. We all had so much fun just hanging out, learning more about each other, and talking about a site that we all enjoy and are invested in.

 

We talked to community members who had been using the site for years, as well as some who were relative newcomers. We chatted with shop owners who have made thousands of dollars on Creative Market, and shop owners who have made tens of dollars. We got to know shoppers who have just recently made their first purchases, and shoppers who have spent hundreds of dollars on Creative Market.

 

Everyone had so much to say about the site, that the team had to start a shared spreadsheet to make sure we keep track of all of the ideas (there were some really great ones).

 

Will Creative Market Have Another Open House Event?

It was pretty clear that we all enjoyed this open house. While we don’t have specific dates in mind just yet, we are interested in making this a more regular occurrence. So, if you’re in the San Francisco area, don’t be surprised if you see an invite to a Creative Market open house show up in your inbox down the road.

Would You Be Interested in Attending?

If you’re in the San Francisco area, would you be interested in attending a Creative Market Open House? Let us know in the comment section below, and we’ll add you to our invite list for the future!

A Creative Market Open House Event

Freebie Release: Infographic Elements By Vector Open Stock

If you have come across plenty of infographics online, you may have thought about releasing your own. There are a lot of tools out there to help you do this fairly easily but your design will be far from unique, design-wise. To help you with this, our friends at Vector Open Stock have released a freebie exclusively for hongkiat.com readers.

Vector Open Stock is home to more than 1600 original vector graphics, with 10 free vectors released every day. In this freebie pack, they have included icons, bars, world maps, pie charts and other design elements that would fit perfectly in an infographic.

While the elements are primed for content to do with fashion, mobile preferences, career, work and transportation, you can use them in any other setting that fits with your infographic.

Download

All elements are available in AI and EPS format. Click here to download.

More Design Freebies

We have plenty more free graphic resources you can download for your design projects which you should check out.

No related posts.

Freebie Release: Infographic Elements By Vector Open Stock

Freebie Release: Infographic Elements By Vector Open Stock

If you have come across plenty of infographics online, you may have thought about releasing your own. There are a lot of tools out there to help you do this fairly easily but your design will be far from unique, design-wise. To help you with this, our friends at Vector Open Stock have released a freebie exclusively for hongkiat.com readers.

Vector Open Stock is home to more than 1600 original vector graphics, with 10 free vectors released every day. In this freebie pack, they have included icons, bars, world maps, pie charts and other design elements that would fit perfectly in an infographic.

While the elements are primed for content to do with fashion, mobile preferences, career, work and transportation, you can use them in any other setting that fits with your infographic.

Download

All elements are available in AI and EPS format. Click here to download.

More Design Freebies

We have plenty more free graphic resources you can download for your design projects which you should check out.

No related posts.

Freebie Release: Infographic Elements By Vector Open Stock

Starting a New Project? Do These 5 Things Before You Open Photoshop

For some designers, the first impulse is to open Photoshop and start going right away, but most projects require some substantial work before digging into the actual design. Here are some of the things you should get done before you start to put together images, layers, vectors, and everything else in your design.

1. Get Core Project Information

Before any design work begins, the client and designer have to agree on the fundamental basis for the work itself. This can include project briefs or folders that go over the top-level objectives, the scope of the project, and what the project should accomplish.

For example, designing a glitzy marketing campaign on a few keywords can be really insufficient if there are specific messages, target audiences, or angles that the client wants to address. This resource from iDesignStudios goes into more detail about planning before designing.

2. Nail Down Contract Issues

Professional freelancers and designers who work directly with clients know firsthand the importance of tackling contract questions before any design work is done.

You may know what you’re supposed to do, but what about the size of the project? Do you know how many pages are to be done, what format the results are to be in, and how long all this will take? Is compensation clearly detailed in the contract?

These are some of the issues that have to be negotiated between the involved parties prior to doing any design work.

3. Figure Out Methodology

When you have determined the goals of the project and its scope, you can start to lay out your preferred toolbox. Think about the software you use to create a design project; for example, is Photoshop the best tool for the job or is it time to try Sketch? The tools that you choose determine your workflow and how you actually do the many tasks that make up your complete project.

4. Go to the Drawing Board

With goals, tools, and a solid understanding in hand, designers can start to experiment with drawings, mock-ups, sketches, or other rough ideas that give the project a skeleton and an overall structure.

Professionals do this in different ways. Some use project-specific software. Others like to use paper. Then there’s this approach, where mobile app designers create paper runners that thread through a cardboard iPhone prototype in order to simulate the scrolling that users will do on the page.

In the end, it’s best to go with whatever feels most comfortable and makes the most sense to you. Anything less tends to obstruct the process and limit the ways that the project develops.

5. Make a Preferred Short List

After doing typography, layout, image editing and so on, you’ll have a collection of possibilities that compete for a place in the completed project file. It’s often useful to build a short list or mark the options that seem best out of whatever’s been generated. In some cases, you’ll end up with a set of very similar plans. In others, you’ll have several options, and the client can choose. Either way, the narrowing down or winnowing of the process is a way to guide the focus of the project as it evolves toward eventual completion.

What Do You Do Before Photoshop?

All of these steps are critically important in the design process. It’s just not as easy as clicking open some software and throwing some images and text around. Anyone who sees design as a simple process hasn’t been in the driver’s seat when putting together quality projects. Leave a comment below and tell us how you kick off a project. What critical steps have you added to your workflow?

Starting a New Project? Do These 5 Things Before You Open Photoshop