Slow Progress is Still Progress — Kara Hoganson: Photography & Design

Design Hand Lettering Contact

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Design · Photography · Hand Lettering

Instagram is my jam!

If ‘regular updates’ is yours, mosey over there ⤵

I want to address the 🐘 in the room...Would you ever pay for magic beans? I would if it meant I could climb into the sky or, at the very least, have these beautiful plants throughout my house. I WOULDN’T if the beans promised to grow my follower count by 3k a month. Because that 👏 is 👏 ludicrous. But Kara, you 2-faced liar we saw that you boosted your “Here for the Hustle” post a few weeks ago. Well friends here’s a bit of advice for ya: if an anonymous user offers to run a free follower growth trial on your account, don’t say no by completely ignoring them. Actually say ‘no’ or they will run the trial anyway without your consent.
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If you’re like me and you don’t have any close friends who are big Instagram users, let me be that friend for you — don’t pay for engagement peeps. From my unwanted ‘free trial’ I gained nothing more than spammy likes and loss of a few followers who probably assumed I was a sellout. So if you’re still reading this, thanks for sticking around and supporting my art and dreams so that I may support yours ✨ In other words, how can I be the magic beans for your dreams?

This recent weather has me thinking: What if every time the air was warm leaves regained their color?🍁 Ugh what a world that would be — we’d have the beauty of fall sprinkled throughout the year to enjoy 🥰 What if every range of 10 degrees made leaves change a certain color? 50s blue, 60s purple, 70s yellow, and you could tell the weather of the day just by looking out your window! Anyone else on board? 🙋‍♀️ Any obscure thoughts YOU’D like to share that I can virtually appreciate with you?

Full-on hoping 2019 is full of more views like this ✨ Stormy + Keegan’s wedding this weekend was straight out of a my wedding photographer sparkly, magical, beautiful dreams! ✨✨

Marie Kondo agrees. The KonMari method is all about removing things from your life, but let’s be honest, the #DearMondaySeries had to come back 😉

I know we’re basically a month in, but I’m finally ready to take on the new year, and I’m celebrating the occasion with my first #FridayIntroductions which I'd like to actually be a re-introduction. So hey there! 👋
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I'm Kara and I'm a 9-5 Art Director and 5-9 Designer + Photographer who, just a few short months ago, dreamt of launching a successful freelance business. I kicked off 2018 with a "New Year, New Focus" post along with a personal goal to create at least two hand lettered artwork pieces a week to hold me accountable to my goal of building awareness of my services. I'm a strong believer that what you put out into the universe comes back to you, so I made a conscious daily effort to send out those vibes.
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As I continue to shape my New Years goals, I am so pleased reflecting on what the universe has returned. I've had countless conversations with fellow Instagrammers & artists, seen massive traction offline and am happily working through my best period of freelance EVER. I have been amazed by the strides I've been able to make in just one year and I owe a huge chunk of it to the support I'm received from the Instagram community, so THANK YOU 🙏
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With my personal 2018 hand lettering goal fulfilled, and a new goal itching to get out I'd like to send out my newest batch of dream vibes to the world ✨ Here's to nurturing the growing freelance design business I got going and officially launching myself as a professional photographer!! 📸✨
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I've been doing paid sessions for years but only recently have I gained enough confidence to pursue it fully. BUT WORLD I AM READY. So if you get engaged this year or want to model, let me know 😉📸 Here's to chasing dreams and supporting others. Here's to taking control of your own destiny. I'm here for the hustle so HMU friends!

Today marked the last step of my transformation into a cow 🐄✨
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I design a LOT of business cards. Like as I write this I’m realizing that 95% of my clients have asked me to design their business card at one point or another! (Mini crisis as I rethink the entire business strategy I crafted last year to focus solely business card design... 🤔 lol) Anyway if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me for advice where to print their business cards, well let’s just say I wouldn’t have to start up my hypothetical business card business I just hatched. But what about the cow thing Kara? We pressed those 3 dots to see where that clever hook took us, and so far? Not impressed. WELL what I was trying to say before the pivot crisis occurred is that the second someone begins to ask “who would you suggest I use to prin-“ I find myself spontaneously yelling “MOO! MOO! MOO! @MOO “ See what I did there? Full cow circle guys. 🐄⭕️✔️
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On a serious non-weird-cow-metaphor note, I can’t recommend MOO enough. Please use them. Invest the extra money wiser than that old owl in the tree. Quite frankly they don’t have a true competitor in my eyes and the quality is top notch. Ordering through MOO is like printing your own money (legally) and I’m just so stoked to have finally taken my own advice I always give to clients. When my cards arrived and I felt them for the first time, I nearly died and went to cow heaven. #notanad #reallove

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