Winter Guide

In a previous blog entry, I wrote about how my boss commissioned me to design the Park City Winter Guide ... well it's on stands now. And here is the cover, along with 2 other pages (an example of what the editorial content design looks like).
It was such a fun project to work on ... I used Photoshop a lot for the cover, which is always satisfying to know I did something more artistic besides just arranging text and images. This guide is all over Park City and will be until the winter season is over. So pick one up if you're in town!

New hair

10.24.08 - 11.29.08

Long hair, fins, scales and all

For the past evenings of the last two weeks, Sydney and I have enjoyed nature, bare, while hot tubbing outside under the stars nestled in between the trees at Jeff's mountain house. I love being outside in the nature, feeling the cold whisps of the air on bare skin, yet keeping warm in the water.

We conversed about how we would love to be mermaids. What a life... being beautiful, mysterious, playing in the water, being outside, and exploring the earth and water.

If only.

Good, good, good

Things are great!
I redid my room with a few pieces of new ikea furniture, some art & decorations, a desk so I can set up my soon-to-be-brand-spankin'-new mac, a sweet lamp, nice storage, and a few other changes. I'm not all the way finished, but will be shortly (as long as I can find a chest of drawers somewhere) I needed a redesign of my space. I like the vibe in my room now. I'm thinking that this is my way of coping with not having my own apartment or house! Haha.

In other news, at work, the big boss-man (Andy) has really liked all the work I've done with Flipside, as well as my recent designs for Fall Home & Design (a special section annual publication). So last week he asked me to be in charge of the huge Winter Sports and Recreation magazine. This is a big deal to the company - they make a lot of money selling ads, so it has to look appealing and clean. Basically it's a huge guide to Park City and all that it offers. Mainly the tourists and visitors during the ski season and Sundance Film Festival will be reading it. Andy specifically came to me to design it. Then, after I made a mock design he approved it with a beaming smile (YES!!! Mind you, he is very picky and he will most certainly let you know if he doesn't like something)So this is my big project right now. ...Oh, and I didn't even mention the sweet $$ bonus I will be receiving :)

More good news came this morning when Andy came to me with his ideas for the holiday gift guide. It's a shopping guide that will be a folded tab insert. So Andy wants me in charge of this gift guide, mainly for the cover design because the rest is pretty much only advertising. So it'll be a small project, but still I'm glad he wants me to do it.

I am very happy that Andy really likes and approves of my work (especially since he is the head honcho). It makes me feel better about my "design abilities" and certainly gives me more confidence, which is always a nice thing. I am busy, but also thoroughly enjoying it.

President Obama

He did it. He won. Though it was not much of a surprise, I'm glad the election is over and he will be taking over the reigns and leading this country.

If nothing more, I think his presidency will unify the people of America and with it create a more positive outlook towards the government, politics, and as a result, create a better future & country of people who care. Not to mention, I think the rest of the world likes the outcome of the election and hopefully Obama can piece together our shattered world relations.

I am pleased, now I hope he can walk the talk.

Cute, furry friends

Pets make life so great ... and I just love my little animals, so I wanted to post a photo blog about them.



This is Max, or as my parents like to call him, Honey.




This is Kitty. Seriously, his name is Kitty (very original, I know). He can have a little temper when it comes to people he doesn't know very well, but he is so loving and cuddly with me.




And finally this is Zeke, the kitty that is actually mine and Tommy's (not the whole family's). These pictures are older, and he is a lot bigger now. Zeke such a great pet, he is always so excited to see us and no matter where we are, we can count on Zeke's presence as well. He is unlike the ordinary cat ... he isn't fearful and little makes him jumpy. We play hide and seek and tag with him all the time. that's how cool he is.

Fleet Foxes

We went to see them in Salt Lake City last night. There is only one word to summarize the show: AMAZING. I think this was on of the best concerts I've ever been to. The melodic harmonies of their voices, the deep percussion, the keys and guitars created an absolutely beautiful sound that resonated with me for hours. The lead singer showed such passion and emotion, opening his mouth wider than I've ever seen anyone do to belt out those high falsetto notes. It was a great time. I'm so happy that I was able to see one of my new favorite bands play.

If you've never listened to them, make a wise choice and visit www.myspace.com/fleetfoxes

Flipside 08.07.08 - 10.03.08

More covers of your favorite free-weekly ;)

thinker's thoughts

I am a steady, very happy, life-loving person. But, today I am having one of those days, where you can't stop thinking. I am a thinker. There really isn't a day that goes by without analyzing and thinking about things you think you've figured it out, but then you start thinking again. Today is just especially bad. I've mulled these thoughts over and over in my head, making sense of them, then being confused all over again. My conundrum is the comfort, the ease, yet the utter monotony that is my life at the moment.

Wake up. Eat breakfast. Get Ready. Be to work by 9. Sit at my computer and design. Get home around 5:30. Eat dinner. Meet up with my friends. Hang out. Be in bed by 11-ish. Repeat.

I feel as though I am unwillingly becoming the quintessential "adult", eagerly anticipating the weekend. I've made it to Thursday. This means there's only one day left until Friday. Freedom looms nearby. Options and decisions come my way of how to spend my precious time in 2 days of liberty.

It's not that I dislike my job. I enjoy it. I am doing what I love to do - designing. But it's the MONOTONY of it. The do it over and over again. I feel like my creativity is stifled because I end up doing things that are easy or repetitive.

I can't do repetitive anymore. I want something new. An adventure. An opportunity to express my thoughts and creativity without holding back. I want to see and explore the world and document it, make art, write and learn new things. I feel like there is so much that I could be doing with my life, but I am sitting here doing nothing about it. I feel trapped, yet I shouldn't because I am free to do what I want. What is holding me back?

The human nature that likes comfort and stability? The changes in people close to me? My struggles with accepting major changes and being brave enough to go for something new? The intimidation of the "real world"? My attachment to my family? The fact that I feel as though I am still a child living at my home, yet think and reason as would a mature person, yet I feel far from being a legitimate "adult"?

I miss the innocence, carelessness and playfulness as a child, yet yearn for a place to call my own, to decorate, a pet to take care of, food to buy and meals to cook. I miss the excitement of falling love, yet have a wonderful relationship and utter loyalty to my boyfriend. I love the comfort of this town and place, yet want to experience life, people and culture elsewhere.

I feel stuck between childhood and adulthood, not knowing where I fit in, what to do next. I have so many options. I have my whole life ahead of me. I know it's time that I need to move out and on. It's time to decide ... what to do, where to go, ...

But really, does anyone ever figure this out entirely?

Bobby D

I know, I know .... I have been slacking horribly on keeping up with this blog. But I have some time now to document a very blog-worthy activity! So on August 31 we (as in Jeff, Tommy, Dharma, Shawni, and Jeff's family & their friends) attended the Bob Dylan concert at Deer Valley! I was excited that he was coming to Park City and that we had tickets to the sold out show because it was after all Bob Dylan. Even if after 8 songs his voice gets slightly annoying, he is a legend and a huge icon in rock and roll history. Not to mention his lyrics are amazing. So for the past couple weekends before the concert we prepared by having a few shindigs at Jeff's house where we played old Bob Dylan vinyls on the record player, dancing the night away. Pretty sweet to say the least.

Alas came the concert. Of course of all the beautiful, sunny days we had had the whole month of August, this one had to be the day of the cold front. We came prepared with blankets, umbrellas and sweaters - all of which did not suffice the downpour we lived through. Right after we secured our spot - in the very front - it started raining, pouring, creating a muddy river at our feet. We had some wine to warm us up, but it was still cold, we were drenched from head to toe the worst part was the realization of it all when we could see our breath in the air. Miraculously, just minutes before Dylan came on stage it stopped raining. By then people started crowding in and the show began.
Dylan is an old man now. He walked very slowly, and his hand movements looked like my grandpa's. I think that's why he opted to play the keyboard the whole time (even though his guitar and amp were right there waiting to be played.) As far as the performance went, the band was amazing. They rocked it. Bob Dylan's voice is more of a bark and he seemed to growl and slur his words more than sing them. There were times when I was like, "Yup, that's Bob Dylan!" and his voice sounded like the signature Dylan. But most of it was almost unrecognizable. He also changed the songs around so the syllables, tune and timing were quite different than his original versions. So honestly, I didn't recognize any of the songs until the encore when he played "Like A Rolling Stone." I've heard from other people that this was a great Bob Dylan show, and that most of his shows now-a-days are a lot worse. Although Bob Dylan never said a single word to the audience, or ever even looked at the audience at the very end he came to center stage and gave a wave, and a raised his arms and demanded a louder cheer as he had his index fingers up, signifying "Number 1." I thought that it was funny, probably because he looks pretty old. But everyone loved it at the same time.
As the band played the last song, the skies opened up once more for another giant downpour that did not cease. As everyone was walking down the hill, people were slipping in the torrent of mud and water streaming downwards and it surely didn't help that 90% of the people were completely drunk and stumbling already! I was soaked to the bone, shivering as we made our way to the car. My feet were completely numb and my converse shoes were soaked and mud-caked as I had stepped in an ankle deep puddle.
As soon as we got in the car we cranked the heater and waited 1/2 hour to get out of the parking lot.
But it was all worth it and a super fun experience, I mean it's not everyday you stand in the rain,get completely soaked and see Bob Dylan - all in the same night.

Europe '08

So finally here it is ... a blog post about our trip to Europe this last May. I think the pictures speak for themselves... so I'm not going to go into huge detail about everything we did. However, all I can say is that it was amazing ... it was beautiful, fun, and exciting. Definitely an experience I will always remember. It was so great to have my boyfriend Tommy and our mutual best friend Jeff with me.

We started off in Stuttgart, Germany. [that's where I'm originally from] We stayed with my aunt, uncle, and cousins, where we had a great room to stay in and Ute (my aunt) made us breakfast and dinner everyday. They were so generous. So I showed Tommy and Jeff where I grew up and what means so much to me. We visited some castles, historic sites, different towns, and went out at night. We also visited my friends Sara and Lessa, who I hadn't seen in such a long time. I love those girls and it was so exciting to see them again.

From Germany, we took the night train to Amsterdam. (I don't think we slept very much due to the symphony of snores that surrounded us) We ended up staying at a Holiday Inn in Schiphol (right outside of Amsterdam) ... Tommy works for the Holiday Inn and was able to get the employee discount of 31 Euros a night! What a steal for a room that normally would have cost over 200 a night! It was so awesome exploring Amsterdam ... none of us had ever been there before so the whole time was an adventure. We rented some Dutch bikes and rode around as the city passed us by. Let me tell you ... that's the ONLY way to get around in Amsterdam. We walked the first 2 days and were so tired and achy, so the bikes were our only option and ended up being one of our most memorable events.
Among other things, we got some neat little trinkets at a street market, admired the little houses on the canals, spent some time in the coffeeshops and really let the culture soak in. We visited the Van Gogh museum, which I was so excited about ... Vincent is one of my favorite artists and to see his work in person was really incredible.

After 3 days in Amsterdam we took the morning train to Paris. I have been to Paris before and it was nice the first time, but the second time wasn't so impressive. It was so hot, crowded, tourist-trappy and dirty. But I'm glad we went ... mainly because it's just one of those cities everyone should go see... so much history, culture and social refereces are derived from Paris.
I did realize though, that I much rather enjoy going to cities and towns that are not so popular and over-commercialized. I really like visiting a place and seeing how the people there really live and how they are, not just the certain attractions you visit just because they are popular and everyone goes to see it, half the people not even knowing WHY it's popular in the first place. Don't get me wrong, it's great to see these places but overall we really enjoyed the smaller, not commercialized places.

After Paris, we took the night train (in our own private couchette) back home to Germany to stay another 5 days.
All three of us unanimously like Germany the most - it really is a wonderful country with so much to see and the most delicious food to eat. I miss my home in Germany, and am often torn about whether or not to go back to live for a while and try something new. It inspired me to do it ... we'll see what happens.

Europe was amazing. I'm so excited because I'm already planning our trip for next spring.
Tentative plans: Germany, Sweden, & a Mediterranean cruise of southern Spain, France, Italy and possibly the Greek islands. I also really want to visit Lisbon, Portugal. Ahhhh, I can't wait :)

More Flipside

So, since I have started posting the covers for Flipside on my blog, I guess I can't just stop, right? Ok, well whether or not you want to see them, here they are. These are the most recent covers. [issue dates 7.17.08 - 7.31.08]

New Inspiration

So I am pretty much obsessed with art, design ... and not only seeing it, or getting better at it, but finding new artists and resources to inspire me. I've already purchased a large number of books that are just amazing eye candy to me. I also subscribe to art/design magazines and read blogs and internet articles, blah blah blah. All these things are such an inspiration and anytime I am stuck on what to do, I can flip open a page in one of these books or magazines and something I see will spark a new idea in my head.

So, to get to the point of this blog, I recently found an artist, Linda Zacks, that just struck me as absolutely amazing. Talk about an inspiration overload! So I decided to write a little blog about her because she's that good.

I am in love her work and style. She's an illustrator and graphic designer and mixes the two in the most rad way. Every one of her pieces have so much expression, power and voice - exactly what art is intended to do.

I wanted to upload some samples of her art, so enjoy what's below ... because I know it excites me.
All images copyrighted by Linda Zacks

Also, check out her website at:
http://extra-oomph.com/newoomph/

Arts Festival '08

The Utah Arts Festival was about two weeks ago and the main reason I went was to see Alison Armstrong's booth. I have known Alison for about 8 years, she used to be my neighbor.I used to spend a lot of time in her photo studios and in her train car at The Heber Valley Railroad, where customers would dress up in old time clothes and have old fashioned photos taken. Even then I loved her ideas and creativity. I modeled for her several times, and I think somewhere along the way I was inspired to do what she does.
Since Alison moved away, I haven't seen her in about 3 years. So when I found out that her art would be displayed at the Arts Festival, I was there.
I really love her art ... a huge inspiration to me. I hope to have a job like hers one day.

Her art is so unique and it was amazing to see in real life.
She says,
"I begin by scanning old family images and other photographs, paintings, old paper, letters, and objects on a flatbed scanner; I then combine and manipulate the images with computer software. The final image is printed with archival pigment inks onto watercolor paper."


Some of her art is made with a technique called silver transfer printing and she describes it as,
"After photographing or scanning elements and collaging the images in a computer, I prepare a sheet metal tile by distressing the metal and carefully applying silver leaf. Then I coat a carrier sheet with several layers of a special transparent liquid substrate, on which the image is printed. The resulting printed image is then transferred to the metal and surrounding frame using a unique multi-step process."

Alot of the art I saw displayed at the Arts Festival, she made with encaustic paints and mixed media collages - truly amazing.

Check out Alison's website at:
www.alisonarmstrongart.com

Also, check out the gallery where Alison's art is for sale/on display:
www.twosistersfineartgallery.com









______________________


So another really cool part about the Arts Festival was the music. When we first got there, we listened to this band called The Mollies. We instantly fell in love with their music. The sound was so beautiful. The band has two extremely talented female vocalists that play acoustic guitar,mandolin, and cello. They harmonized in a way that just makes your ears tingle. The two males in the band played acoustic bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar and the saw - yes the saw - it makes extremely eerie, crazy noises when played with a violin bow. Their style was mellow, very folkie, indie-pop-ish. We ended up buying their demo CD. I highly recommend a listen. Do so at:
www.myspace.com/themolliesmusic

And you know, it really inspired me to want to play guitar and sing. Every time I pick up the guitar I become frustrated, mainly because my boyfriend and all of our friends are such good musicians that I feel that I will never catch up. But I realized that is a horrible attitude and I'm going to learn it and stick with it. I already sing, and it would be wonderful to have my own accompaniment. I really am going to do this.

So my long term goal: to learn the guitar, so I can sing and play and enjoy the happiness that comes from making music. I can't wait.

An update

Wow, I haven't blogged since .... March I believe. And it is now July 10th. Today is a slower day at work (for the first time in a LONG time) and so I thought I should write an "update" blog.

So, Tommy, Jeff and I had an amazing time in Europe. We left April 30 and came back May 14. I will upload some pictures really soon. It was wonderful to go back home...it always is. I will write a separate blog entry telling all about our trip.

Other than that, I have been so busy at work, laying out the paper, making ads and designing Flipside on top of that. I just had my "one year anniversary" here and for the most part I really enjoy my job. It has its crappy, monotonous "i wanna quit this job" days, but when I step back and look at what I have created, I'm thankful and happy to have the opportunity to do this. I get to do what I like to do and get paid for it! It's certainly not the best paying job, but really, right now all I want is a foot in the door, some credible experience, and a sweet resume with lots of portfolio pieces. I'm learning new things everyday ... I think I can troubleshoot just about any file issue now, and I can work Photoshop in my sleep. Haha. And I just love art and design ... it's definitely what I want to do for the rest of my life. Nonetheless, I'm glad I'm making a little step towards having my dream job and I am having fun.

I decided to post the past few months' Flipside covers, since the last one I posted is from March!