So tonight, while the Packers make every Wisconsinite’s dreams come true, I’m watching the commercials play out and keeping a running commentary on Facebook with my university professor, thanks Gary. But the one thing that I think about most when watching these commercials, is all the work that leads up to that 30 second spot. More importantly, how much brainstorming, visualizing, and collaborating goes on to get to finished project.

And design is, at its essence, collaborative. We live in this amazing community of people so excited to inspire and push each other farther and we have so many influences outside of the design community with all the access we have to television and internet. So for this post, I feel like passing on some of the people that give me that extra push or help get the gears turning.

Alyssa Lee was our rare Fine Arts student that can push the boundaries on illustration, graphic design and web design. Her brilliant work ranges from children’s books to professional website and she never ceases to amaze me on how much she teaches herself. Make sure to check out her “Dear Diary” pieces on her website and check out her blog.

Sandra Crouse is also a classmate and a riot! I love getting her constant updates on animal print clothes, ridiculous logos she finds and her shared hatred of websites that play music automatically. She currently works for an advertising agency in Chicago and I can’t wait to get her to Milwaukee in February! Check her work out on her website or see what she’s up to on her blog.

Renee Kimpel is the last classmate I want to share. Renee always seemed to help me think through things, whether it was frustrating web standards or how to take pictures of a store that we couldn’t legally take (oh we managed…) She is an amazing thinker from the wide breath of a concept to the small details of completion. She currently works as a designer in the Chicago area. Check out her website or keep up with her amazing blog. Her handmade things are fantastic!

I’ve known Katie Lillie for a little over a year now and in that time period she has made me want to think more globally, get my butt into an airplane to see the world and get out there to take more pictures. While I don’t know if she would consider herself a designer per se, but she is able to think out layouts, displays and overall concepts like no one I know. She just started her blog to combine two interests, quotes and photography, and I must say her stuff is great. All the pictures are her own, taken throughout the world and her life. It’s the perfect shot of inspiration when you hit ‘the wall.’ Check it out here.

Who or what inspires you?

Oh and I’ve decided that if the Packers win tonight, it is only due to my sheer refusal to be a Packers fan, you can all thank me later.

The first one I checked out was a suggestion from my enabler of a friend Arthur.  Renaissance Art makes beautiful leather bound journals. And their wide selection of journals from the simple Sketchbook to the Cigar Journal is great. I’m adding the Traditional Non-Closure Refillable Journal to my Money Tree list. Anyone who knows me closely knows I have a big soft-spot for my elders and this journal looks like it’s travelled around the world and back and has the greatest stores to tell. You can look at more of their stuff at Renaissance Art. Make sure to check out their video on durability (that was the nail in the coffin for me).

This little lady I stumbled across on Etsy. The designer, Michele, makes vegan-friendly journals. Her stuff is beautiful. This particular journal is vegan suede and eco-fi felt (100% recycled plastic bottles). It’s on the smaller size at 4.5″x6″ but that makes it perfect for my next journal for my bag. Check out her other journals at her Etsy Store.

Again, this is another small journal, but the simple geometric shape makes a big impression. What I liked most about this set of 4 journals, is that creator, Pawling Print Studio, focuses on “environmentally responsible production” with everything they create. This set of journals use eco-friendly soy based inks. Make sure to check out their shopping bags too at their Etsy Store.

The last one I’ll post is from the brilliant book binders at M-square Design out of San Francisco. The upcycling of the vinyl and the copper detailing on the binding make this one of my favorite designs, although the wood sketchbooks they make come in a close second. Check out what they have to offer, M-square Design.

Now I’m going to go count my pennies, so I can put these all on my shelf!

I’m a horder.

It’s true, I’m a sucker for a new notebook, sketchbook, journal, cahier, whatever you’d like to call it. From leather bound Florentine journals to spiral sketchbooks with paper made from elephant poo and recycled cotton pages from Nepal, I have to have them all. It’s the one thing that will make me stop in my tracks anytime and pull out my wallet. I feel like I can put my whole self into a sketchbook or find any answer I’m looking for.

I have sketch books that hold special memories for me, like my best friend’s wedding speech.

I write all my work in others.

There are rules to my obsession. I never, ever write on the first page of a sketchbook, I always have a notebook of some kind in my bag and they never get thrown away.

So I keep adding and adding to my collection and my bookcase continues to stay the same size, but I’m okay with that.

They’re are only 5 things you need for this and like I said I had all of them lying around my house (I think the surplus of school supplies and my fascination with collecting any and all art supplies might have helped, but not much).

You need a frame, any frame that tickles your fancy. Mine happened to be an old barn wood frame that a good friend didn’t want any longer. But an old guild frame or even a modern metal frame would work great. Play off your Christmas style and make it your own. You’ll also need nails, a hammer, a form of string-whether it be leather, string, or in my case 22 gauge metal wire.  That’s it.

Remove the glass and backing from the frame.

This my call for some help.

Next you need to figure out your spacing and how many wires you’d like to hang on your frame. In my case my frame was perfect for three rows. When trying to decide, make sure you think about how big Christmas cards usually run and how far apart the rows would have to be to display everything. Hammer in the nails along only one side of the frame.

Next you want to measure out your string to fit across the frame. Leave a little extra on each end. Then you’ll want to tie one end of the string to each nail. Because I used wire I was able to just wrap it around the nail a couple times. This will help with not having to measure anything out once you get to the other side.

Once you have the string anchored on one side you can then flip the frame over. Pull the string tight and line it up so it runs parallel with the edge of the frame. Then hammer in your second side of nails. If it’s not perfect it’ll just add to the look.

This is what the back will look like finished. My nails are not completely in because I was hammering in my apartment and it was getting quite loud and I wanted to make sure I had enough room to wrap the wire.

The last thing to decide is what to use to hang your cards. I had clothes pins left over from another project and I like the aesthetic of it. You could also use metal office clips, paper clips or punch a tiny hole in the card and string them up.

This is my final set up. I added some vintage postcards and some pinecones. All the pictures are of our families, because that’s the best part of the holiday season. And I added the 2 red canvases (which were a failed painting project) to add more pop to the display. All and all I’m completely happy with the outcome of this absolutely free project. Now I’m thinking of ways to change it after the winter.

I put up a small tree, that’s all I could work myself up to. But I did add this cute vintage ornament that I found back in July in a small antique store in Princeton, Illinois.  He needed a little TLC that I had all intensive purpose of giving him, until my boy cat thought I had bought him a new toy. Now he just perches.

I’ll keep working on my personal Christmas spirit. But in the meantime I do wish everyone a great holiday season, filled with less stress and more happiness!

Well back at the beginning of September I took a long weekend with my parents and visited Northern Wisconsin. I use the trip as a little bit of a getaway and a way to get inspired again. I just wanted to focus on my family and my camera and work hard on getting good quality shots that wouldn’t need much computer touch-up. I have this thing with getting the shot as true to the moment as possible. I hate having to edit extra tidbits into my pictures. It makes me cringe just a little (or a lot if done wrong!) So I banned myself from my Adobe friends for the weekend and focused on the moment.

It was a 6 hour drive from Cedarburg, Wisconsin to Bayfield, Wisconsin and we were lucky enough to have it rain on us the entire drive. About a half hour from Ashland, Wisconsin my mother screams and whips a u-turn in the middle of the interstate. My dad and I think my mother just hit something or saw a stranded child or something! Instead she has spotted a campground that her and my dad stayed at over 30 years ago.We ended up finding out that the campground is still owned by the same family and had a nice little conversation with the owners (while they kept trying to rent us a cabin…)

The Bayfield and the Madeline Island area was beautiful! From the small shops to clear Lake Superior it was absolutely beautiful.

Madeline Island was breathtaking. The idea of living and working on an island had me so intrigued that I think I talked to everyone I could. I was like a history sponge and loved hearing about how long people have lived on Madeline Island and what they do during the long winter months. If anyone is visiting the island I highly suggest a visit to the town park. You can even rent a scooter from the downtown to go the 5 or so miles.

The park is smaller in size and gets down played by the State Park so it is a little less traveled. It is also a park like I’ve never been to before. It’s very heavily wooded and then the evergreens give way to such a serene beach it’s unbelievable.

Everyone was also very pleasant. I was taking a picture of an old barn and the owner came out and told me all about how his family built it over 100 years ago for cattle. Now all it’s housing is an apple tree and a great picture.

We also visited the State Park for lunch and the small downtown before boarding the ferry again. It was just after Labor Day so most of the business were closed or closing and you kind of got the vibe that the locals were ready for that. I’d love to go back and see it during high season just to see everything up and running. It had great art galleries, a cute little museum and some crazy bars. You can see more about Madeline Island here, www.madelineisland.com

Our second day we spent the day in Bayfield which has great, unique shopping. And again you get the beauty of Lake Superior and the history of a fishing community.

Okay so I next week I’ll learn the art of editing down the number of photos, but I did say this was all about family and photography. But I’ll leave it with just one last picture that I am so glad  that my camera was glued to my hand that day. I wouldn’t have caught it any other way. Next post will be on some branding going on at my job. But gotta fly!

A local car club was getting together out at Franklin Wirth Park in Brookfield, WI and we decided to head out that way to meet up with some friends. The heat was ridiculous in the parking lot and after a couple hours I finally threw up my white flag and asked if we could go get something to eat (in the air conditioning…).

Well to get to the picture part (and the creative part, as I said this blog would adhere too) we ended up doing a little photoshoot at the end of the day. A little editing later and this is what came out of it. Got a little nuts with the editing process, but hey I needed the creative jump-start, so sue me.

Aaron’s ’97 Midori Green Honda CX with track tidbits (Ian’s words…) There was a whole flock of (disgusting) seagulls that I hoped would make it interesting, but it didn’t capture the exact way I wanted it to. I used a layering effect with a couple rounds of High Pass filters, Curves and Levels adjustments, and a desaturated layer or two.

Dave’s ’88 Honda CRX. I’m going to use Optimus Prime’s words here when I say, “There’s more than meets the eyes.” Again I used the same techniques as the previous photo, as I was trying to create a series that would look cohesive and put together in the end. But with the lighting issues of the sun going down, there are slight differences with each picture.

I can’t take photo credit for this picture. Ian did the great job of lining up and capture the photo. I went through and edited slightly, using a couple of the techniques from above, again to keep the style similar, but the picture didn’t really need much in the end. John’s AMC Javelin. Well his car gets to take the cake for the night, not just because you have to respect American Muscle, when done properly, but also because it turned out to be my favorite picture of the bunch. Editing again followed suit with the others.

Overall it was a great day. A good mixture of Ian’s hobby, my hobby and some good friends made it a successful day off.

Got a little picky with my lighting. But everyone listened and ducked!

And to catch up on all my summer so far, I will use my iPhoto Library to help me out.

My first night back in Wisconsin was finished off with great friends, great food and a great bonfire.

I got to see my two favorite little faces in the entire world.

Had a day of self-realization ruined by pirates…not kidding…

…But pulled it through in the end.

Got to have one of the best nights at Jazz in the Park (free for anyone to go to every Thursday night, for more information http://www.easttown.com/categories/5-jazzinthepark)

Wish my two favorite people “arrivederci” as they left for Europe! (Spain and Italy, with a few other places thrown in the mix)

Run around like a drowned chicken with my head cut off during Strawberry Festival.

And overall working a lot. I love my job and the design things I get to do while at work. I can’t brag about what the store stands for enough. You can check it out at www.Lilliesgoods.com (oh and I did the website as well…still working on it!)

I think that is my summer so far. I’ve been trying to get more creative activities going in my life right now. The transition from being around people as obsessed with design as myself, to being around people who could care less about my kerning issues is a little bit overwhelming. Eventually everything will fall into place, but I don’t know how big of a hurry I am to get to that point right now.

So here’s to not knowing what’s coming and running at in full throttle!

What I’ve been working for for the past 5 years is all over and I am officially no longer a professional student. It’s kind of a weird feeling that, at the moment, I can’t put my finger on. You look so far to finishing, but I think I’ll eventually look back, like my father always says, and realize how quickly it all finished up.

My parents were a huge motivating factor in my college career. They pushed me when I needed the nudge, they listened when I needed to vent and they supported me through it all (which included 3 colleges, 2 different majors and way too many late nighters).

However, I have to give the most credit to my grandfather, who has passed. He always dreamed of having a grandchild graduate college. Every other grandchild had a certain thing they did with grandpa. My brother hunted and golfed with him, my cousins Chris and Brook always fished with him, but I never really had that one thing. So I did this for him. I can think of at least 2 times where I just wanted to be done, but thinking of him got me back on track.

So to remember him I wore a pair of wings. My grandfather was a fighter pilot in the 367th during World War II. When he earned his wings, he bought this small pair for my grandmother. She wore them all throughout the war while he was in Europe fighting. The second pin is also a pin from World War II, earned by my other grandfather who was also a fighter pilot and has also passed.

So that’s it, I’m done and for the first time in 23 years I don’t know quite where I’m going yet. I’m completely okay with that.

-J

Mother’s Day was yesterday and for my wonderful and absolutely inspiring mother I helped her get her green-thumb on.

I got my mother a planter that she was wanting, that prompted a trip to the Seatonville Nursery. I had never been this nursery before, even though it is the best one in the area. The flowers were beautiful and I was glad I took my camera with me.

The place was beautiful and I was glad we were supporting a local business. We picked up just a couple unique plants and then headed to another store for some smaller filler type plants. We haven’t planted them yet, but we picked some great colors so lets hope it works out well!

And here is me with the greatest woman in the world! She deals with all my craziness and most the time I think she deals with my stresses right along with me. Without her, my head would have flown off a long time ago. And I couldn’t be prouder to call her my mom. Love you ma!

-J

Oh and all the pictures were taken with my Canon Digital Rebel T1i DSLR (best investment I’ve made since my MacBook Pro).