Meet Petri.

I just upgraded Adobe Lightroom on my computer from 3 to 4, finally! While I was looking for a photo to edit, so I could see if there were different features, I found these photos I took a month or so ago of my old film camera! My good ol' Petri Penta...

Darkroom Photography

This semester one of my classes I'm taking is to learn how to develop black and white film. I'll be honest, I was horrified at first... The thing that scared me the most are the chemicals, which smell awful.   Actually, to be honest, rolling my film scared me the most. You have to be in a pitch black room, where you can't even see your hand in front of your face. I thought she was kidding about this when she told us the first day... She's not.

I went and bought a 60's Petri Penta (right), which looks AMAZING. I love the weight of it and the fact that the shutter release is in the front, not on the top! That aside I had (and still have) no idea how to work it... There's no meter, I can barely figure out how to work the shutter speed, and it took me 15 minutes to figure out how to put the film in. That last one is mostly due to not putting film in a camera for over 10 years though....

The camera on the left is my aunt's Pentax. It saved my life. It's got a meter and automatic film rolling (to put it back in the container). This was the camera I used to get photos to be developed in class today. They turned out really well! I need to stop taking photos of plants, but overall I'm so excited about how well they turned out! Monday we start printing, which I'm nervous again, but it shouldn't be too bad! I just wish I knew how to develop color photos now!

Personality Types

I was reading Swash + A Sprinkle and they had this awesome link up to Pentagram's What type are you? I realize that they posted the link almost 2 years ago, but the fonts are timeless and beautiful.

When you visit the site you go through and answer a few questions and they will use your answers to determine your personality "type". It seems, for me personally, to be pretty accurate... My personality "type" is Archer Hairline. Emotional, Understated, Progressive, and Disciplined.

I'm particularly fond of the thin forms, and more importantly the mix of serifs and "dots" on the type.

Although I didn't get it, Baskerville (and the italic, as shown) will always be one of my favorite fonts. It's classic, and beautiful!

Sick as a Hog

If you're wondering where I got the title from, please refer to my favorite "I can't think of a good idea" website: Urban Dictionary. Like Wikipedia, for slang....

Also, extremely awesome. Mostly because I've been waiting for people to notice my freaking moonwalking skills. It's about time assholes.

 Anyway. Week one of class just ended. The first few days went really well! Aside from the girl in my Art and Culture class that I would rather punch in the face than to have to listen to ever again. This girl can't close her mouth. Maybe that thought process is why Karma is not on my side right now. Here is how my life started going about halfway through this week:

• Wednesday 9-5pm: Great!
• Wednesday 6pm: Going down fast....
• Wednesday 8pm until Thursday 8am: I passed out, never to be heard from again.
• Thursday 9am: cranky, sore throat. Chelsea comes in and asks LOUDLY if I'm okay. Everyone looks at me, by this point I'm not, but I'm embarrassed cause she thinks I'm pissed, so I say yes.
• Thursday 12:30: I'm too tired and sore to care that the girl mentioned above is talking over the teacher, while simultaneously getting her "answers" wrong. This girl also informed us that she wrote a research paper over Stonehenge, and, well, from the professors response to her answers, I'd say she did no better than a D. Rude, but true. 
• Thursday 8pm: No appetite. But I got invited to go bowling, so I did. It was fun, and I felt better! Yay healing!
• Friday (today) at 10am: I feel AWFUL! I went into work, then left exactly 30 minutes later. 
• Friday 2pm: I am informed that I have a Bronchial infection (aka bronchitis). 
• Friday 4pm: My computer crashes and I lose all of my research for school, 2 projects, and a file I was working on for a client at work. 
• Friday 11:50 p.m. (now): I'm on my second cup of tea, and I feel like I'm going to die. 

I feel like you may think I'm over exaggerating this, but I am going to die. I feel like someone has been rubbing my throat all day with sandpaper. Plus I've not been hungry the last 2 days or eaten hardly anything, not that I would really want to with my throat on fire. And finally, I feel like a baby elephant has been sitting on my neck all day.

Now I try not to complain, but this is ridiculous. I've not felt so awful in a long time, and there's nothing I can do but wait it out with antibiotics and sip on more tea till I feel better. This isn't going to end on a good note....

Because I ran out of my good tea.

What I Wore: Friday, Aug 17

Lately I've been trying to "grow up" my style, my wardrobe especially. I've got some really old gems in my closet, most of which I forget I have on a regular basis. So, this morning when I woke up I wanted to wear something I haven't worn in a long time. Partly because I now, for the first time in my life, have no washer and dryer where I reside *shudder*, and mostly because I just did laundry yesterday and just got finished hanging everything up. 

I pulled out of the very far reaches of my closet my yellow and grey striped skirt. I've had this skirt for 2+ years and have only worn it once. I also got {this} skirt, same thing in dark colors! They were both on clearance out at Old Navy for 6 bucks each, a steal. 

And then if that wasn't enough, I saw my "bow belt" as I call it. I've had it for about 5 years, have never ever worn it. It came with a button up shirt and was not flattering on where it sat on me. Then I gained a shit ton of weight and couldn't fit into it. 

I will never claim to be great at dressing myself. I love how this turned out though, and apparently so did about 7 customers and a co-worker. One lady was even bold enough to reach over the counter and feel the fabric. 

String Typography

Did I ever tell you about the time I did string typography?! No, I doubt I did, so let me go ahead now.

Last semester I had just started my "Design Research Assistant" job. My first assignment was to create an identity for a transformative learning conference we were having at school, called Transformative Learning Conference 2012. Clever, I know...

Their whole idea behind the conference is to show connection between students, teachers, learning, participating in on campus activities, etc. I was really excited about this, really excited. It was about the time that 'String Typography' was taking off and I really wanted to do something with it. Plus, it fit within the parameters of showing connection. What better thing to use than to show a network of connections that with string typography!

Jump to 5 hours later, 30 dollars in supplies, and some pissed off neighbors I had basically given up. The tutorials I had seen said to "hammer the shape of the letter into plywood". Well at 1 A.M. in an apartment complex with thin walls this is a horrible idea. I plan B'ed it and used some extra foam board I had on hand. It worked a lot better with putting the nails in, but if you look in the photo below the letters got all cattywumpus and sad.

Needless to say, I got pretty far before taking a break for the night. I showed my professor the next day, and while we both liked the idea it's not super legible.  I still want to do something with string typography, but obviously this isn't it.

Design Fail. Lesson Learned.

Catching up

As I sit here, I am just about 5 days from leaving for New York! It's been kind of a crazy, busy semester and I've done a lot in the last few months. Since I've not been blogging (at all) this semester I decided to pull a few photos of my life the last few months! 

1. I got rid of over half of my clothes I didn't ever wear....

2. We went on a day trip to Dallas, specifically for In-and-Out burger and DQ! 

So worth it...

3. For Tyler's birthday we went to a Thunder game! It was amazing!

4. I cooked my first organic dinner from (mostly) scratch

Caribbean Jerk Chicken and Roasted Asparagus.

So good... It was my first edible meal that wasn't from a bag...

5. I created a super colorful Dunkin' Doughnuts ad, and it was beautiful....

6. I finished my magazine for class and fell in love with magazines even more than before....

which was a lot to begin with.

7. I'm becoming a pro at doing wedding invitation orders, but I still have yet to 

convince a bride to get the craft paper Vera Wang invite.

It's so lovely. 

8. I have a pet squirrel... he's super soft. 

9. I taught this little girl how to take a photo. And by "taught" I mean I tried but she

just looked at the screen and didn't take any.

 

10. I seriously debated going blonde... I'm still on the edge, and I think I may 

after I get back from New York!

11. I've already been to the pool and gotten a nice base tan! 

Also, swimming laps and drinking wine oddly go well together, 

as long as you're smart about it! 

12. Through all of this, 2 jobs and a minimal social life, I managed to maintain a pretty

nice grade average!!!

Needless to say, hopefully summer will be a little bit more relaxing. 

Ack.

I'm having one of those moments where I have a project due in a week and I still have no idea what I'm doing for it. Sheisty.

Ad design and me are not friends this semester, which is a shame, because I had really like it last fall.

Dream Internship, Part 2

I lied. THIS is my dream internship...

I've wanted to work for Dwell since I was like 15. Which is saying a lot, because I hardly ever have the desire to do anything longer than 3 months. (also, design being an exception in that category!)

I understand why they don't pay their interns, but why don't they payyyyy?! 

I'll be your Huckleberry.

Ohhhh, valentine's day. It was a brilliant day. No homework was due, no stressful last minute things going on {actually there was, but I didn't care}, no work. NO WORK. 


I came home from class, got ready for my date {which I don't get to do often enough} and opened up my front door to the beautiful roses below.

I will say we're a pretty good fit, because we both gave each other our cards, unsealed and unsigned, and neither of us cared. 

I don't get to dress up often. I mean, we have "professional Wednesdays" in Inktank, but considering half the people in there take that as meaning jeans, boots, and a cute shirt I feel a little a lot overdressed.  

So hello pencil skirt. It's quite possibly the best piece of clothing I've ever bought. It's a tad big on me now, but still so freaking classy! 

I also never get to wear one of my favorite shirts! I have a thing for longer shirts, if they don't go to the bottom of my arms, more than likely I won't be wearing it. This shirt was one of those that don't quite hit that mark, but look at the back detail. oh my goodness. It's so pretty! So obviously it's perfect. Done and done.

We ended up going to Saii for dinner (yummmm, sushi!), and the poor waitress thought we had a reservation, after we told her we didn't 3 times... no joke. So she sat us in a super secluded section way in the back, and then realized we told her we didn't have some. She slightly freaked out, but come on, we went at 4pm to beat the crowds. It turned out to be fine, we were gone by 5:15. Silly woman. 

My portion of the date night: Cronicle. Tyler's been wanting to see it for a long time. The style it was filmed in reminded me of Cloverfield, but other than not expecting that when I saw it, I liked it!

Oh, and his gift: 

FREAKING THUNDER TICKETS! 

And I got him a few t-shirts, because he's desperately in need of some new clothes. He literally ripped through one of his shirts last week trying to unbutton it. It was a little worn... 

 

All in all I'd like to think that was the best valentine's day I've had so far.

Dream Internship

I think Facebook is taunting me. 

I've been craving an internship at an AMAZING company, preferably outside of Oklahoma (even though it is getting cooler*) 

Looking at my feed I came across the most wonderful post about some internships opening up in Portland (enter the Portlandia opening sequence here). 

Obviously I can't go, because it's a dream internship haha. I start school before the internship ends, I have plans to go to the beach at the end of July with my best cousin ever! And I was hoping to take a few summer classes (NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY!!!!)

A girl can dream though, and I've got my sights set on New York next summer. 

Ready, Aim, Fire.

*My boyfriend would freak out for me saying this because he's a New York man at heart, but it's true.

Do Not Enter the Uncanny Valley

Today I read an article about the Uncanny Valley. It was actually really interesting.

"The uncanny valley describes a point at which a human-like animation or robot looks too close to a human and generates a feeling of revulsion or distaste. "


Basically it's the point of being so generated to look like a human that it loses all it's human qualities. It's creepy.


So I was recently asked, or told rather, that I should apply for a student research grant with the design program. Then I decided I may as well be the only one who doesn't know anything about research grants. I know that people write a paper, then they get them, and they they (I'm only assuming at this point) do research. 

Fact: when you type into Google: "What is a Student Research Grant" you get this: 

THESE ARE NOT HELPFUL!
They just made me feel more idiotic about not knowing what it is or what type of projects I can do with them. Great, I'll write a BRILLIANT proposal, but if I can't figure out what things I can propose it doesn't help. Jerks.


So, basically somehow the article popped into my head 8 hours after reading it, but I still have no clue if it's a good topic for a research grant. I e-mailed said teacher asking if it was okay, and if it is I have 2 days to write my paper and turn it in. Easy. Luckily I'm a writing master. I can't talk to save my life, but give me a pen and paper (or less stressful to my hands a computer) and I can write forever. 


Long story short: I may be doing a research project over the effect computers have in taking away the human aspect of design. Or I may not. We shall see. 


Also, I super suggest reading the article, it's interesting! 

My First Magazine

I've been working on making a spread for a magazine for a little more than a month now. We had to choose a magazine (within our group) and make a style guide for it. Then we got to create two magazine spreads based off our guide!

Needless to say, I hated our magazine so I was not excited about the second part. The content of the magazine itself is awesome, but the design of it is sadly lacking.

The best part is the inconsistency of the spreads. 

Anyway- we had to make a main edit well and an ad and edit. I think my spreads turned out pretty well! We could chose our own topic, so I chose building a treehouse for my Main Edit, and natural cleaning products for my A&E. I still have some tweaking to do, but when do I not!

Snowflake Syndrome

This week has been a trial for me.


I had what I like to call the "snowflake syndrome" for the last few days. Snowflake syndrome is basically when I feel like I'm not doing as well as I should, like I'm not living up to expectations (others or mine), and when I feel like I'm not going to make it. I get the name from Fight Club...

You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.  You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all part of the same compost pile.  ~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 17

When I say I'm not going to make it I don't mean in some sort of emo girl, "I hate myself" kind of way. I mean I plan on getting out of Oklahoma, preferably to NYC, but this week has just been one of those that beat you down and make you re-evaluate your plans. Luckily, I am resilient. I am so determined to do well and have a good life that it's just going to make me work harder.


I'm not one of the lucky people who just get design without trying. Everything I've accomplished and done I've had to push myself forward. This is just a bump in a long road. Natural talent will probably get a lot of people further than I may ever get, but I'm not going to give up.


I love what I'm going to school for. Just because I haven't perfected my skills, or found my niche yet doesn't mean I won't be good. It just means I'm going to have to keep my drive and strive for what other people have naturally.


Snowflake syndrome never lasts forever. Especially when I work so hard to turn up the heat (wah wah).


I've improved so much since I started out. I'm only going to work my ass off to get better.

Come One, Come All

For some reason lately I've been slightly obsessed with circus inspired design. Actually, I'm pretty sure it started with a company called Meri Meri and their charming circus-themed party decor. So damn cute.

With a quick google search I found a ton of amazing invitations from Oh So Beautiful Paper, which is an amazing site! The colors are what I think hooks me. I'm all for browns, creams, and naturals in general, but I've always wanted a little more color. It could be a dash of apple green, teal, bright yellow, etc. As long as there is color I'm happy. But considering that these designs seem to combine muted colors and vibrance somehow I think I'll stay in love for a while.

If I ever have kids I may consider this for them... If I haven't used it for an office by then....

What are your favorite inspirations lately?