December 22, 2014Comments are off for this post.

THE BIG PORTFOLIO SHOW

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So this portfolio show thing I've been talking about... it actually happened! On December 3rd to be exact. It was the hard-earned culmination of six semesters of going back to school for my degree in graphic design + illustration. People, I GRADUATED.

In my program, the very last class you take before graduating is called Portfolio Preparation—a semester of refining your portfolio to get hired and planning the final portfolio show, where employers, friends and family are invited to see all of your hard work first hand. They should probably rename the class, "The Semester From Hell," but more on that later.

Anyways, here is the --> website <-- for our show, which was themed En Route. As you can see, our class put a lot of work into making this thing happen.  You can preview my work here, see my full portfolio here and—bonus!—I took all the profile photos of the students, so look at those too. Or just see above. We're a good looking bunch of designers, if I do say so myself.

Plus, I've learned it takes a village to graduate from design school, so I would've never made it had it not been for some of these precious faces.

And now that I'm graduated, I'm reminded of my very first post. Tear. It all happened so fast.

December 3, 2014Comments are off for this post.

FROSTY 5K FINALIST

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I'm back. Again. And I'm going to ask a favor of you. Consider yourself warned.

Yesterday, in the midst of prepping for my portfolio show ( which is today at 4:00PM! ), I found out a design I did last semester for my Electronic Illustration class is a finalist to be chosen for Madison's Winter Festival 2015 Frosty 5K Run + Walk. Even better is the other final design is by my classmate Cydney, who I adore. I'm totally honored, super excited + need your help!

Because the Madison Winter Festival is all cool like that, they're letting the public vote for the winning design on their Facebook page. So, if you can hop over to Facebook, 'like' their page + vote for my design ( or Cydney's! ), I'd be ever so grateful. I think it's rad a local organization is giving student designers this opportunity, and I can't wait to see either logo in action next year.

Thanks again friends. I wouldn't have it made it to this show without you.

Sending big hugs to all.

July 24, 2014Comments are off for this post.

WORK / STEPHANIE + BRIAN

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Ever since I took my first letterpress class nearly a year ago, I have wanted to letterpress a wedding invitation suite. Maybe it's the ( small amount of ) girly girl in me, but I'm borderline obsessed with all things wedding design. And I'm even more obsessed with wedding letterpress design. To me, there's nothing more beautiful than the tactile, rich texture of letterpress wedding invites arriving in the mailboxes of loved ones announcing the big day. *le swoon*

So...flash forward to this past February when I convinced my friend Steph to let me letterpress her wedding invites for a school project in my Advanced Letterpress class. Luckily, it only took a bottle of wine or two to get her drunk and agree ( it's why we're friends ).

My design was influenced by Steph's classic, effortless taste + neutral wedding color scheme. The two-color suite encompassed an invitation, postcard RSVP ( saved $$$ on envelopes! ), map of Madison for out-of-town guests + a mini information card of the day's events. I incorporated a vintage-inspired palette of champagne + charcoal as well as hand-lettered a custom script font, seen in the bride + groom's names, their monogram + on the map. For a finishing touch, we edge painted the sides charcoal gray to give an extra touch of sophistication.

The printing process took wayyyy longer than I thought, which can happen when you forget to include a digit in the phone number of the wedding hotel + have to reprint that piece. It also happens when you accidentally get your hair stuck in the printing press.

Needless to say, when I was done printing, I celebrated like this.

Then, I celebrated at Steph + Brian's wedding two weekends ago like this.

It's all for the love of letterpress, my friends.

*The suite was printed with a Vandercook SP15 press on Crane's Lettra, Flourescent White, 110C.