Today we’d like to introduce you to Karsten & Belinda Ivey.
Hi Karsten & Belinda, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Belinda and I met at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale in 2003. I was a senior graphics reporter for the newspaper when Belinda interviewed for a graphics reporter job in our department.
We clicked on the very first day we met, laughing, talking, and joking so much that she thought she was in danger of not getting the job. We quickly bonded over a shared love of superhero movies, Krispy Kreme donuts, and Publix subs. Fortunately, she got the job.
By 2008, our newspaper began its first series of layoffs, following a national trend circumvented by the Great Recession. At that time, I had become the assistant graphics director and Belinda was a senior graphics reporter. We decided that in order to secure our future, we could not depend on the newspaper.
We had just gotten married and were expecting our first child. So we started our creative agency, KarBel Multimedia, as a means of freelancing to earn and save extra money. The business was so successful that within three years, we were able to leave the news industry to work full-time at our company.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road to independence hasn’t been smooth. We put in a lot of hours and sacrificed weekends, often working long hours in the day at the newspaper to come home and log in a few more hours on our company projects. We worked overtime on the weekends to meet deadlines or search for new opportunities all while raising a toddler and expecting a second child.
Once we left the newspaper, we had to adapt to a new lifestyle. We are not in marketing, nor are we business people, and we certainly didn’t have the slightest idea of how to maintain a rapidly growing design firm. We had to learn accounting, advertising, hiring, contract negotiations, and even marketing all on the fly. We leaned heavily on Google and several design groups such as AIGA and the Graphic Artists Guild and over time our learning curve became a bit smoother.
The biggest challenge was learning to create a better work-life balance. As visual journalists, we were used to a fast-paced working environment with projects being done in a day or within a week. In the early years of our business, we continued to work those long hours and weekends trying to turn things around at the same turnaround time.
Eventually, we realized the pace wasn’t sustainable and unhealthy for us and our family.
The turning point was when we worked on a project for a very high-profile client when Belinda was in labor with our second child, and continue to finish that project while she was still in the hospital recovering when we should have taken that time to enjoy the birth of our daughter. We had to learn to manage our time better, and that saying “no” to clients wouldn’t be the end of the world or the project.
We had to learn that some things can wait. So while there are still some late nights and weekends from time to time, it’s no longer a routine. We don’t always take time off to enjoy life, as we often have to work during vacations. But we get to spend time with our children every day when they come home from school, and we have more flexibility in our schedules. Ultimately, for us, our kids are the most important part of this work-life equation.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about KarBel Multimedia?
KarBel Multimedia was founded in 2008 and provides services in graphic design, infographics, motion graphics, data visualizations, web design and development, and more. Our services may span multiple platforms, but our visual journalism background sets us apart because we can also offer data visuals, data analysis, research, reporting, and writing services. We take pride in the ability to engage, educate and grow an audience through a visual story.
We are now involved in the NFT space. Belinda and I create our own NFT crypto art collection called CryptoPeops. Each CryptoPeop character is unique and individually illustrated by me and represents a diverse group of Peops, with diverse traits, colors, backgrounds, and items.
Our characters include everyday Peops and historical figures, and they all have a story to tell. Our collection also includes themed CryptoPeops that show up from time to time, as well as other rare traits, such as hand gestures and facial expressions. If you look closely, there’s a bit of love peace, and happiness spread throughout our entire collection.
How it all began…
The journey of our CryptoPeops project began a few years ago. I wanted to illustrate a diverse group of characters we could use in graphics for our own enterprise projects. Diversity in art is very important to me. I strive to create not just fun images, but images where people can see themselves in the art. I believe this can inspire, while also creating a sense of self-importance – especially for kids. I wanted the base of the characters to be the same (eyes, face, mouth, feet, ears, etc.), but the hair, clothes, shoes, skin tone, etc., would all change to create a different character.
I sat down at my computer and began to illustrate and develop the initial group of characters. The first time I used one of these characters was for our Mother’s Day Spending enterprise graphic in 2019. I followed up with another character for Father’s Day and made new characters (based on my family) for a Fourth of July graphic. Mothers-Day-infographic image.
The pandemic holidays…
I continued to have fun developing these characters, thinking of new ways to use them. But I didn’t get an opportunity to use them again until more than a year later in November 2020. I wanted to do a graphic on Covid 19 safety for the holidays and needed masked people for the graphic. I decided the characters would be perfect.
The NFT boom…
In March of 2021, everything changed. A story about an artist known as Beeple sold an NFT of his work for $69 million dollars. This was my first time ever hearing about an NFT, so I started researching and learning about other NFT projects, including Cryptopunks. The more I learned, the more I wanted to be involved. I thought about those characters I had been developing over the years and what a great opportunity this would be to further develop them and sell them as digital art.
CryptoPeops are introduced…
Moving forward, I needed a name for my characters and my collection and decided on CrytpoPeops. It was only fitting since my collection was all about diverse, digital people. I get most of the ideas from my wife and kids, and some inspiration while people-watching.
Once I made the initial set of characters (the first CryptoPeops character was inspired by my mom), I needed to choose a platform to use for listing the CryptoPeops and chose the OpenSea marketplace. The OpenSea process for starting an account and minting was pretty straight forward and they had a great Help Center. After going through the set-up process, I began minting NFTs for my new collection.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
For me, I was always a quiet kid and drawing became a way of expression for me. My passion for drawing began at a very young age. I was happy every time I got a chance to draw in class. One day in second or third grade, the teacher gave the class an art assignment to draw something from a picture. I chose to draw a bird in flight. I think it was a dove.
As I was drawing, I noticed kids were finishing up their projects and proceeded to go outside to play. I didn’t understand how they could finish so fast, but I wanted to go outside and play, too. But I also wanted to do my best in my drawing. I was probably the only kid left in the classroom when the teacher came over to my desk. I guess she wanted to know what was taking me so long to finish.
She looked over me should at my work and was so impressed with my drawing that she said I should stay inside and finish. So I did. I credit my mom with nurturing my talent. She always encouraged me by buying pencils, brushes, paints, an art desk, an easel, etc. She was also the person who told me about a graphic designer. I had never heard of it before. I was so happy and inspired that I could grow up and do this for a living.
Belinda was an Air Force brat and was fortunate to have lived in different countries and states as a kid. While she always liked to draw and loved art class in elementary school, she didn’t take it seriously until she took a drawing class in the 8th grade. She was the quiet, smart kid who was often approached to help with homework. Art classes were few and far between in Mtn. Home, Idaho where she lived for seven years.
When her family relocated to Panama City, Florida for her junior year in high school, Belinda took a drawing class that would change her life. It was the first time someone had taught her how to draw, and she loved it so much that she was invited to take AP art for her senior year.
Unfortunately, an error in her schedule forced her to choose between art and journalism as her only elective, so she choose journalism thinking that was the best chance for a college scholarship. She did get those journalism scholarships after all and still took a digital art class in college. But while her interest in reporting waned quickly in college, she learned that she loved publication design and eventually took a job as a page designer.
Within three years of graduating from college, Belinda eventually landed her dream job at the South Florida Sun Sentinel where she learned how to do 3D illustrations, interactives, and infographics. Over time, her high school art teacher forgave her and expressed his pride in her digital art.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.karbelmultimedia.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karbelmultimedia/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karbelmultimedia
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/karbel-multimedia
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarBelM
