Hive’s 2020 Roundup
2020 is finally coming to a close. And while we, like almost everyone else we know, find ourselves thankful to be closing this chapter, we cannot overlook some of the great projects this turbulent year also brought to our table. We kicked off the year by launching our new website and expanding our services to include business starter packages. We soon found ourselves transitioning to a work from home model while we navigated the challenges of COVID-19. We became experts at video calls and virtual communications, reworked our work/home balances and made sure to always take time to check in with each other, as we were all navigating unprecedented changes in our personal and professional lives. Through all of this, we were fortunate to be able to work with some amazing clients who continued to inspire and excite us with impactful, fun, unique and important projects. Here’s a look at a few of the projects we enjoyed working on during 2020, from web design to social media.
We were thrilled to work with an inspiring group of women leaders in our community to create a logo and website for Together We Rise, a local effort to raise awareness for the international human rights movement Black Lives Matter. This campaign included distributing Together We Rise posters to businesses throughout Charlottesville, sharing the poster as a free download on the Together We Rise website so that all community members could show their solidarity with the movement, and selling decals to benefit the Cville Anti-Racist Organizing Fund and City of Promise Charlottesville.
We also had the honor of working with the National Black Student Alliance this year. This organization was formed by three impressive student activists who wanted to create a community and safe space for Black students and allies to come together and share their stories, while also “working towards a future of diversity, equity and inclusion in education.” For this project, we created branding, designed a website to showcase the NBSA’s first events, designed graphics for social media campaigns and helped the NBSA with social media promotion leading up to and following their events.
Towards the end of 2020, we enjoyed working with The Jackson Legacy Foundation, to design their FY2020 Impact Report. This grant-making organization supports organizations and individuals who embody the values of Reverend Jesse and Jaqueline Jackson and Gertrude Brown, like fighting for equitable education and racial, social and gender equality.
As a small women-owned business, our team loved diving into women’s health topics through our work with Jefferson OB/GYN this year and helping this local obstetrics and gynecology practice share important information so that women can be better empowered when making decisions about their health. At the beginning of the year, we debuted a new logo and branding we had competed for Jefferson OB/GYN at the end of 2019. Our work in 2020 also included managing and posting for their Facebook and Instagram accounts, adding patient form information to their website and creating educational and engaging blog posts about women’s health.
Fancy & Nell enticed our team with the opportunity to work with a fun new pop-up fashion boutique located in Crozet, Virginia. We adored the shop’s vision of featuring hand-selected comfortable clothes with guilt-free prices, and items that appeal to every woman for almost any occasion. We created branding for Fancy & Nell to reflect the unique esthetic of their clothing and their appeal to women of all ages. To keep up with the online retail (e-commerce sales are expected to grow to $4.9 trillion by the end of 2021), we also designed a website with sale capabilities and a system that is easy for the Fancy & Nell team to quickly and continually update inventory as needed.
We continued our work with Gearharts Fine Chocolates, whose social media we have managed for the past 2 years. One of our favorite projects was designing campaigns for their holiday season: Christmas through Valentine’s Day. We were also excited to create a package design for Gearharts’ latest creation in 2020, Hot Honeycomb, a crunchy, puffed local honey candy with a subtle "sting" of chili pepper. Our team enjoyed incorporating new icons and fonts to reflect the candy’s fun and modern nature while still staying true to Gearharts’ classic branding style. We also dropped into their Charlottesville location to help film a Facebook Live chocolate demonstration!
Along with the other important projects we developed this year, we were able to further our work with groups and organizations that advocate for environmental protection, clean energy sources and climate change education. In 2019, Charlottesville became Virginia’s first locality to set a target of carbon neutrality by 2050. With that goal, groups and projects such as Energy Transition Initiative at UVA and Charlottesville Acting on Climate Together, and the City of Charlottesville Energy and Water Management Program have been pushing out environmental messaging to help educate the public. We were honored to work with these groups and more, designing logos, flyers, and social media posts that promote these important messages.
Despite the uncertain times, we had quite a few branding projects this year as individuals and groups launched new ventures and businesses sought to refresh their look. One particularly fun project was with Soul Soleil Farm, a family-run lavender farm based near Smith Mountain Lake. We created their logo and brand style guide, and will continue to work with them to design product packaging and a website.
We also saw more website design requests in 2020 than ever before as many businesses realized the need for a strong online presence. One of these website projects we completed was Addiction Allies, a comprehensive Addiction Medicine and Substance Abuse Treatment center. Our work for them included branding as well as a website that reflected support and hope.
While we continued to see more people turn to social media and websites for information, we found that print is still an important and impactful medium for certain industries and marketing campaigns this past year. We worked on many print projects in 2020, including a ride guide for EX2 Adventures, a group that hosts bike, trail, and adventure races. We were tasked with designing a booklet for the Annual Loudoun 1725 Gravel Grinder that included a biking route map (there were three routes, with the longest covering 80 miles!), as well as some history of Loudoun County (where the race takes place each year).
We are so thankful for all the amazing businesses and groups we had the pleasure of working with this year. We know 2020 has been hard, but we have great hope for all that 2021 can bring. We wish you a most happy New Year, and hope to see you in 2021!
