1111

for those of you who know me, i am sort of into the whole coincidental number thing.. 627 [for my birthday!], 111, 1111, 1234 [for obvious reasons] etc... so last night, thanks to jon, i got to screen show my 1111 blog view! yaaaaay! ;)

less is more: delicious dippage

less is more: delicious dippage: "today we managed to only miss the train twice.. quite a feat for us. when we finally made it to st. gallen we hopped the first train to zuri..."

working hard!

its hump day and we have been working like mad men at icon this week! [which i hear is a fantastic show, but will not be able to watch until i return to the states!] we have pumped out multiple brochures and many design comps [check out my design blog at the link below]... oh yeah, and jen and i joined a gym.. so we're physically working hard too! :) cheese, chocolate and wein will not get the best of me this trip!!!

less is more: aaaaaaaaaach aachen!!!!: "so jen and i have been working hard on some aachen university! yesterday we both presented a million comps to lori and jon and morgan [our n..."

less is more: sial

less is more: sial: "sigma aldrich is one of our clients, and they are a company that is based internationally.. i have posted a few other projects i have worked..."

dirndl!!!!!

monday at work consisted of icing one of our bosses in dirndl. check it outttt!

less is more: the real monday story....: "okay so monday. basically the best monday icon has ever seen! we originally lucked out [jon picked us up, so while we were waiting we wer..."

oooops!

so i think this bloggy blog may be dead... it appears that i favor the other "design" blog that really has turned more into a "what i'm working on along with all the things i'm doing in switzerland" blog.. so i guess so check that one out [the link is only in every blog post this month!] and this one can begin to rest in peace for a while :)

less is more: rahhhr bern bear!: "so in the spirit of the large sum we paid to get some 1/2 fare we decided to go play in the capital city of good ole switzy... bern. named a..."

oh hey. it's october and it snowed here.

less is more: oh hey. it's october and it snowed here.: "so apparently mother earth woke up today and said 'eh, i don't really like autumn that much'. which i find a huge shame because the fall is ..."

moving... yes moving.

i finally got all of my stuff moved up to my new room! hopefully this will be my last move until christmas! in the past four months i have lived in my apartment in clemson, then a condo in greer, then a house wayyyy out in greer, then two rooms here in gais! i am basically an expert by now. not much is going on here, it got nice today for a while! but it's supposed to rain again tomorrow. i'm hoping for good weather this weekend so we can take a little trip and explore the area! stein am rhein maybe?

oh my olma!

pig races. need i say more? check out the videos!!

less is more: olma: "today ryan and i cleaned up a bit in the kitchen [a good start but once we get some sponges that place is going to sparkle!] and then hit up..."

today was crazy! this morning [which seems like days ago] i was starting to clean up my room for the new intern, jen [who gets here tomorrow], and now it's basically bed time and i am just now thawing out completely! it was crazy fun and i was so amused by all the animals [which i was calling aminamals, thank you mom for getting me stuck on the marooge again] anyway i posted the photos from today on my facebook [this newest addition starts at number 33 and the olma makes its first appearance at 47] and they show much of what we ran around doing.. i did not include the photos of the furniture and bedding and clothing and bier/weine and electronics halls.. they weren't that great, and when you see my attempt at showing part of the dairy hall you can tell it is just too difficult to portray.. it reminded me of graphexpo or print only in 9 halls instead of smashed up into one.

rain rain go away..

..come again in january [when i'm not here]! today it rained non-stop. just that annoying its not pour but just raining. so i slept in [hoping it would go away] and then decided i needed to get out. so i went on a little jog. something about my jog was not right, starting with the fact that i am awful at exercising and ending with the fact that it was 40 degrees and raining. about ten minutes in i felt horrible and had to turn around and come back. when i told ryan one of the landmarks id passed he said i went pretty far, so i google mapped it. turns out walking i would have been 20 minutes away from gais! go figure. on my power walk back i was noticing the different places in the town. theres a super cute sewing shop just right up the road, a bakery near the church, and [what i'm most excited for] a farm called hof bommes, which means the yard of bommes, that sells its own produce and dairy! ahhhhh! i know i'm all lactose intolerant and all, but i just LOVE dairy too much to give it up. common who can pass up fresh milk??? so ryan and i were going to hit it up when it opened for the afternoon [everything closes for lunch time]  but while i was googleing the area i found its website and they are on vacation until "wednesday the 17th". it is saturday the 16th. either way that means they are not open today. so well have to give it a go next weekend! i also went and mailed some postcards and a card [my cousin's birthday is on tuesday!], got some fountain water and hit up the denner. for dinner tonight i made the greatest meal. i cut up bit of chicken and fried them in butter, then sauteed mushrooms [in butter, a dash of this yummy seasoning, and a splash of soy sauce] and added in sliced baby potatoes. it was delishious. i made too much and ate it all of course. i need to learn some portion control, especially since the fridges here are smaller than i'm used to, so space is sacred!

after reading for a while i got to talk to sara and jon and bryson! some of my faves of course. i miss them alot! bryson is spending her weekend studyign for her crazy law stuff, jon is doing weird boy stuff, and sara is rocking my world as usual... pandora doesn't work outside the states, so she found me songza. i love me some pandora. but songza is making me ridiculously happy. i have on the 90s one hit wonder station and every single one is making me sing along and freak out. sara's waiting for lfo to come on because that really will take me right back to childhood. this is my new favorite toy. yaaay! well i'm off to rock out and read a bit more...    ☮ ♥ 90s

less is more: so really... why not???

last night jon and lori took us to this really yummy restaurant between steigbach and gais.. i had the greatest schnitzle and fries i've ever tasted [eeek! thats a huuuge statement to be making because the napoli schniztle in garmisch was amaziiiing too with the sauces and whatnot....] okay so the best i've had in switzy! but they took us out to celebrate a long day of prepressing files and for launching an awesome site... check it out below!

less is more: so really... why not???: "it was a pretty big week at icon. we had michael from the printers coming and going, files and websites being checked and rechecked for spel..."

less is more: bloggers block

less is more: bloggers block: "every once in a while everyone must battle writer's block.. or in this case, blogger's block [dun dun dunnnn]!!! for me, the writer's block ..."

travel bug

so for now the travel bug has eluded me... for some reason my desire to travel has just been muted. i'm thinking (and hoping) that its because i have basically been on a constant go since graduation. and really before that we were somewhere different every couple weeks! anyhow, in an attempt to inspire the bug to come out and play i found this fun little map on trip advisor (i take trip advisor very seriously, it has yet to lead me incorrectly!) that allows you to say all the cities you've been to. i tried to keep it to cities i've been to since i can actually remember the experience.. i kept out camping trips from when i was a kid and visiting family in cali and seattle, i know if happened, i sort of remember it, but i just don't think it counts! so check out my travels...

1. Clemson, SC, USA
2. Riomaggiore, Italy
3. Montego Bay, Jamaica
4. Ann Arbor, MI, USA
5. Chicago, IL, USA

• Create your own travel map or travel blog
• Great vacation rentals at TripAdvisor

design blog here i come!

today it has been quite overcast in gais. it looked like it would get nice for a while, but then the opaque white clouds came in and i cannot even see the mountains out of my window! its a good thing i'm still getting accustomed, and that i had things to work on this weekend. hopefully tomorrow will be nice and we can check out the olma...

but today, today i spent organizing all of my works (and trying to track down a few others...) into their appropriate categories. i then spent the better part of the afternoon making a design blog that will hopefully hold my designs in an organized and sensible way! i decided to name it [less is more] because let's be honest, poor mr. wipfli spent years trying to convince me of the truth of that statement. i of course responded by gluing jewels (rhinestones for reinstein!) all over his classroom and notes that we would deliver to his house. but mr. wipfli, i learned! and so now.... check out [less is more] and let me know feedback!

eleven... ELEVEN?!? oh.. this explains soo much

heh heh heh love almost famous... but seriously today i worked on/resized/edited and overall completed eleven ads for one our larger clients, st. gallen's executive education department. i have now officially been here for one week! my jet lag has finally ended, but i'm still off a bit. lori says i will have one more week to get used to the high altitude we're in. we will see next week! also i finished reading the help and have begun philippa gregory's the white queen. she is an amazing author and so far i have not been let down.. also i've started going through my portfolio yet again! it is an ongoing process that will never be complete :) anyway soo i'm going to create another space for those poor neglected works that i still hold dear but just cannot include in my official portfolio. even though it is only 15:30 (check me out...!) i think i may have to take a nap or call it a night! geez i must have aged on the flight over!

mein erstes wochenende

so i have survived my first weekend in appenzell ausserrhoden! on saturday lori and jon picked up whitney, karen and i to take us to this little ridge area above tuefen to take a walk and have an amazing lunch with not too shabby of a view... the place was like a mini farm, with animals everywhere. inside the restaurant there was a room that was all windows so you could look in and see this massive pig who had just given birth to a bunch of piglets.. they were sooo adorable! my favorite was the baby goat though, with his mini little horns.

mountain from the restaurant view

baby goat

city of gais from afar

today (sunday) karen took me to appenzell. we split a schnitzlebrot (schnitzle, lettuce, onion, a sauce on fresh baked chiabattaish bread) and took the wanderweg (hiking trail) out into the fields.. it was gorgeous! i am going to have a ridiculous collection of photos of the one mountain by the time i leave here, the camera just cannot capture how magnificent it is! the coolest part about the walk was the assortment of people out, especially on a nice day like today. there were newborn babies in strollers all the way to grandparents who were in way better shape than i am! once we got to appenzell she showed me around a bit, there is an awesome metal works shop that was closed (great bells there sam!) and we got some gelato and sat in the sun by one of the fountains. then we went to the cheese stop next door and got these buckets of yogurt with fresh fruit in them... i got cherry. i can't wait to devour it! after more walking we decided on taking the train back to gais. the festival is still going strong, and we went to get a bratwurst and spied another type of sausagey looking item called a schüblig. the vendor told us it was a local brat and famous so we went ahead and had one each. i am so full it was fantastic! then after catching up with sam and mary, karen and i met whitney at the gais festival. unfortunately the bumper cars were almost out of use, but karen won a rose at the shooting hall and loaded up on sweets! overall it was a very good first weekend!

beauty queen cow!

covered bridge on the walk

my first {half} week at icon

so all day monday i traveled to switzerland. i got in tuesday morning and was quite proud of myself for catching the early train and getting through customs as quickly as i did! although on my way down an escalator with my two bags i managed to lose hold of the top one and it just cam crashing down on me. a complete mess, but it could have been worse! luckily i made it down the second escalator much more gracefully. there were just the nicest people around, helping me with my crazy heavy bags and acting like it was no big deal (trust me these bags were not light...) then lor, ryan and napoleon picked me up, we did a bit of quick grocery shopping and headed to the office so i could meet everyone. after about an hour though the jet lag started getting to me and before i could even get anything out of my bags i crashed for a few hours. then karen, ryan, whitney and i ate at the italian restaurant that's below our rooms. it was really good and i will for sure be tempted to eat there again!

the next day my alarm didn't go off so i slept in and barely made the train to work! the trains here are all really well kept, which is a change form most of the trains i was on this summer! work is really close to where we stay, and the country is beautiful! the mountains seem like a backdrop that someone paints fresh daily, it is ridiculous! so my first day at work i re-sized a few ads and sat in on a couple meetings of projects i will be helping out with and just overall got situated. after work i met ryan and karen in the kitchen that's upstairs and hung out with them for a while. that night i thought i would be able to sleep.. not so much. i was so afraid i hadn't fixed my phone and my alarm wouldn't go off i was waking up every few hours and then couldn't fall back asleep!

day two i did get up on time, and after work i got my train pass so i don't have to buy one every morning. i am set until december and then i need to get one more month! at work i did a few more ads and began working on a logo for a new client along with helping out with making corrections to other projects to familiarize myself with the looks and styles the clients have, as well as getting used to working in german! this evening lori and jon had everyone over, and a girl who used to work here came with a friend she's visiting. lori made a spanish feast and it was so tasty! at around 11:30 it was time for us to leave, i was barely awake and finally slept through the night!

on friday i tried to wake up early but my alarm didn't change so i woke up at the normal time. karen took me to this awesome bakery to get a little breakfast, and i think the jet lag is finally wearing off and i am beginning to get my appetite back! phew, i was starting to get nervous there for a while.. i worked on more logo designs and then karen gave me a project to help her with, updating website comps for a client we are revamping a site for.. it looks really great! when we got back to gais (the city/town/village we live in) they had all these tents and bumper cars and all sorts of stuff set up, so hopefully there will be a fun little something going on this weekend!

travel over!

i am finally done with the travel! visiting new york was a blast, of course it was a lot of packing and saying goodbye which was sad, but the beach was still beautiful. there were crazy huge waves from hurricane igor while i was there and they really surprised me. instead of taking two days to drive down we did it all in one, it wasn't too awful of a drive but that's because i didn't do any of the driving! we got into south carolina super early in the morning and when poor jon woke up the next morning he started getting an awful cold!

my aunt and uncle came in to spend the day from atlanta, which was very fun, we went to
 dinner i have seriously never seen so much sushi in my life!! and i have seen me some sushi! jon and i went home early to try to find him some meds but the adults apparently were out too late and came in ten minutes later. i'm glad i got to see them before i left for switzerland.

switzy

today is my last day to pack for switzerland and new york. i leave for the city on sunday and then after hanging around long island for a few days we are driving down to ,y house so i can get my stuff and say goodbye and then it's off to the swiss alps for a solid three months! i am so excited. getting everything together is much more confusing than i would have thought it to be. i have way too many things and i am finding it difficult to decide what i might need in the next three months! one of the things i know i'll be in need of is a journal. the one from my summer trip around europe (that i got in innsbruck) is full and although i got a new one, i just cannot get paperblanks off my mind! i didn't even realize how many different options and designs there were until i just looked up the site! now i can't wait to return so i can figure out how to acquire the next one i want. there is a long list of the different collections they have and once i figure out which one i want it may take some time tracking it down, which i guess is half the fun! welp, back to packing.

moving again!

so basically everything i own is at my new new residence... finally! the only issue is we still don't have internet b/c its in the middle of nowhere and we have yet to find a provider. oh well hopefully that will be fixed soon! the anticipation for next month is eating at me! i cannot wait to go to new york, and i really can't wait to go to switzerland... however to ease my time, (besides moving) i have managed to find a few good reads, i think the next one is going to have to be the help by kathryn stockett. also, being the font nerd i am, i found this font iq quiz on art bistro... scored high! i missed two and the moment i clicked next i knew it too.... of well, i still did well seeing as only 1% scored as high as me, i'm just a tad bit competitive :)

hip hip hooray!

so something about that last post was a good luck charm! (maybe it was posting about the awesome company i found and applied for an internship with...) this morning my time, which is afternoon time for icon worldwide, i received an email from lori, the super cool creative director, offering me a position in their internship program! i basically cannot remember the last time i was this excited about anything. more to come later, tonight we are off to celebrate my new opportunity and sam's last few hours of freedom until baseball takes over her life, oh yeah and ash is coming to town! what a great day :)

another week...

the job hunt has yet to go anywhere tangible. one of my favorite parts of it is what a learning experience it is. without this search i never would have discovered awesome sites like chickagoan (a site dedicated to empowering chicago women), delish (this is now my number one site for recipes, i made a fabulous chicken and broccoli dish last night!), icon worldwide (an awesome company based in switzerland), or lola&bailey (a random site, but i am in love with 'the lunch tote' and cannot explain it). oh! also i found some of my stuff from my time at fafard, the elusive second internship that the cd broke and i couldn't get any of my work off of it! check some of it out below (i'm going to keep searching for more of it)...

bye bye gabby

we had to put my puppy down this week. okay fine she just turned eleven so she wasn't quite a puppy anymore, but she certainly was the princess of our household. needless to say none of us are over it just yet. the worst is when tilly looks for her... how do you explain to a dog that her best friend/pseudo mother is gone? its impossible and heart-wrenching.

i spent this last week up in toledo, it's not as depressed as it seemed the last time i was there which is an improvement. my twin cousins turned 18 and we basically spent the week celebrating and going out to eat at every one of our favorite restaurants. it was crazy seeing some of the kids that we were so little when i was around, now taller than me and driving and some even drinking... it made me a little uncomfortable! it was good to see everyone though, i even got to see a group of my friends from high school. i almost went to cleveland with sara to move her in, but that was the day we put gabs down and i just couldn't bear to really do anything.

anywhooo i've been continuing on with the job search. my favorite part about this seemingly never ending process is the information you can come across online. i learned about traits of a good resume from the creative group, and even played around with, well, everything at ag design from different blogs to images to stuff on my favorite {typography}

oooo amazon

a major lack of sleep last night made me realize that i am in desperate need of a new novel. i find it so difficult to follow up a great series, which is why i had to go back to hp after some great steve berry historical fiction. finding the perfect book is such a difficult task. i especially need to get a new one before my flight to ohio. that is going to be awful without a reading companion! for some reason i never find the suggestions as helpful as i would like.
well... off to search for the perfect book (suggestions welcomed!)

"Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers" • Voltaire

i have finished reading all seven harry potter books! i barely remembered anything from the last one, so reading that was almost like reading it for the first time (except the ending in the future part.. of course i remembered that) and now i just cannot wait for the last two movies! i hate how long they are putting between the two.. the whole time i kept thinking to myself 'where are they going to split this book in two?!??' the first one comes out november 2010 and the last one is july 2011... i would have thought the second would come out as soon and the first was out of theaters since everyone will go see it as soon as its out, and then people will go back to see it again right before they see the last one! oh well, i guess i will just have to wait :( it's hard to believe that those books started when i was ten! here i am, twelve years later and still interested in the concept! talk about a well done series.. also the graphics for each movie get cooler and cooler. i love how they have the HP7 done with the two dates on either side. fantastic work whoever had that idea.

speaking of fantastic idea.... the 99 percent put out this interesting article about hiring and creativity and whatnot. its called the top 5 qualities of productive creatives (and how to identify them!) and i found it a great way to evaluate myself on those 5 important qualities! also... i got these sites from a woman i'm discussing invitation work with, and i thought there was some great work in emma j design, be true designs, and nico and lala's websites!

the search

so as i am continuously searching for a job that feels right (yeah, i've halted on a few opportunities that just didn't seem to be what i wanted to be doing) and that wants me, i have stumbled across a fun site for portfolios and creative work, check it out... thats just one of the groups i found interesting. it's called the behance network and it seems pretty legit and like it will be helpful in the future. always fun to check out what other people are up to!

and again!

in a crazy turn of events... i learned (as we were wrapping up my mattress for its permanent removal from my clemson apartment) that my mom has decided to move! the news was a shock, but the place is awesome and completely perfect for her. the backyard is fabulous and she will surely turn it into a piece of art. i'm hoping that she'll let me help her out so i can attempt to gain just a tid bit of gardening knowledge from her. so now i need to slyly unpack only a small portion of the things i really need these next couple of weeks seeing as i will now spend a majority of my time moving out yet again! poor sara has been waiting on my to mesh together a few chosen fonts and her handwriting and here i am only just now finding my computer after all the packing and unpacking! i guess now that i'm here the job hunt should also begin. this should be fun!

moving...

so this has bee quite the busy weekend! almost everything is out of my first apartment except my tv, bed, toiletries, and some clothes. although i know that there isn't too much left to do, it feels like there is still a lot to stuff to be done... poor old 323 is empty now :( oh well, as soon as im settled into greenville i hope ill be able to finish up the designs sara want for her tat. that and i will have to begin applying for jobs again. clemson has officially come to a close. real world here i come!

tattypography

being that i have decided to finally start working on sara's new possible body art, i have been playing around with different sorts of typography. this is a site that i find interesting to read by john boardley, but my favorite part is on the right hand side the fonts of the month. there's great stuff there! sara says she wants loopy and pretty, but still a straight line... we will just have to see what she likes!

seven•eleven

after the wonderful weekend i got to spend with my friends over in greenville, sc i am back in clemson getting ready to move. the kitchen is almost all packed up, and the only thing left to do is finish out the pantry! tonight ash and i will attempt to finish off all we can, but after a few glasses of vino i need to start designing sara's lyrical tat. hopefully that will keep me occupied the next couple of days until i have to be completely packed and moved on out. real world here i come! oh yeah, and here is a little something fun, nubby twiglet's week in pictures... love her stuff!

clemson shots

these are a few photographs that were taken and edited for a friend's apartment depicting scenes of clemson university.

gc studio portraits

these are some studio portraits taken of my friend ashley at clemson for a graphics class.

selective focus

these are part of a series of selective focus photographs I took of my roommate, sloan, at the south carolina botanical gardens.