happy thanksgiving

Hello all, I want to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving filled with family and food (but not too much as both can sometimes be overwhelming for some). Today I will be meeting up with my entire family on my father's side and we will join together to eat a thanksgiving meal of...tacos. Yes, my family is a bit unconventional this year. Tomorrow we're having a more traditional meal but still not completely as we have rented out a mom and pop meat and three restaurant. good times, good times.

I also wanted to post a link that I find humorous but filled with good advice.
13 Signs You're A Bad Graphic Designer

I need to send this to some of my clients who request horrible things for the projects I create so they will understand (once and for all) that those are a very, very bad idea.

Enjoy the link and the holiday.
Love, Lindsey

home again, home again.

So I made it to break and have made the long journey to South Carolina. I've already been to visit my mom who lives in Aiken and yesterday I drove to Greenville (my home town). It's weird driving into my home town after being away for almost 7 months. As I rode on the highway I kept thinking how odd it was that I have a new home in Nashville and that I never thought I would end up there. I was talking to my dad about my semester and he said, "Isn't crazy how your life ended up? You're in Nashville and loving your life. You could have been in New York or Florida or Savannah but you ended up here and it worked out great." He's so right. I had no idea what was in store for me when I decided to move to TN. So I'm feeling thankful, and how appropriate for the holiday. My break is going to be pretty busy, which is cohesive with my everyday life, but at least it will be filled with family and food. My dad's side of the family is coming together for the first time in years and they have planned a big week. They even rented a lake house. I'm looking forward to it.
And I want to write about last Friday when our Illustration class had a workshop at Bryce McCloud's shop. I took pictures and video but in my hurry to get on the road I forgot my camera cord to upload it, so I will post those when I return to Nashville. So the day began with a talk from Bryce who is extremely easy going and funny. His shop is hidden on the corner of 6th Avenue and has no sign (yeah we got lost trying to find it). He told us his story: went to college for sculpture and got into printmaking because his uncle collected old print presses and wood and lead type. His uncle passed away young and Bryce had graduated college with no job in sight and his family decided that the presses needed someone to take care of it, and Bryce needed to take care of something. He made the comment that in college he used to make fun of graphic designer and laughed saying that he ended up one. But he's passionate and so talented. I wanted to steal every print and poster that was laying out in the shop (but I held back). He took us in the back room and it was filled to the ceiling with boxes, blocks, screens, and numerous extremely old chest of drawers filled with type. It was messy and beautiful. For our workshop we designed our own people or animal and kept their body parts separate. We printed them on his press and then cut them out and made puppets. Then we cut out more and made hybrids with different parts from everyone's designs. It was fun. It's nice to just create for fun.

So that's it for now, I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving holiday.
so I finally got the video uploaded. The sound is a bit low so make sure your volume is up to listen.

nice design and typography

I found these online while I was just looking for inspirational design and wanted to share. They are from seblester.co.uk and you can check out their other work here.


Wonderfully ironic.

A truth to many. And the type is amazing.

watkins students should be proud

So I was asked to judge a graphic design competition at the ACUI conference that was held at Vanderbilt University. Students from big name schools submitted work including Duke, Clemson, UNC Chapel Hill, NC State, UNC Greensboro, UNC Wilmington, App State and more. And can I just say that Watkins students would have blown all of these designs away. Seriously, in simply comparing our recent graphic design student show with this one, it was no contest. Watkins graphic design students are producing amazing work. I am proud to be a part of the department and feel fortunate to be working with other students who are so talented.
In other news, it's the final week before thanksgiving break (hooray!) and I'm just planning on cruising through the week with a good attitude. I can make it to Friday. This week actually is filled with good things like finishing my resume and preparing my portfolio for my internship. Our Illustration class is going to have a workshop with Bryce McCloud at his studio (Isle of Printing) and will get to do our own prints! He has an awesome style (check out his website) and is good friends with our professor. I really want to get into doing more printmaking in my free time (haha I don't seem to have free time anymore). I really enjoyed woodblocks over the summer. Hope I can get back into that soon.
So back to my original topic, Watkins students, you are all so talented and I admire you no matter what department you are in. Your work blows those big name schools out of the water.

looking for an internship

So in the Spring I will begin my first semester as a senior and I am searching for an internship with a design firm in Nashville. I'm finalizing my resume and working on my portfolio. I've been lucky enough to already have had an internship at a Marketing firm in South Carolina so now I'm looking to work for a design firm. I'm honestly not that crazy about advertising design and would like to focus more on packaging and web design. One of my professors provided me with a list of some area firms so I have been checking them out and trying to see if they are the kind of business and environment I would learn the most from. There are def a lot of firms in Nashville that are putting out awesome work and I'm looking forward to seeing where I end up and what experiences I will have. One of the recommendations I received was actually a freelance designer name Kevin Tucker, whose work is really impressive. I would love to get the chance to work with him. Check out his work at www.kevintucker.com.
Along with my internship next semester I will be taking Typography III, Design III and Multimedia II. I'm excited about them (esp about learning how to use Flash in Multimedia class!). I know it's going to be intense from here on out if I want to graduate by December 09 but I can do it. I can't stay in school too much longer since I've already taken longer than originally planned. Plus I'm excited (and a bit nervous) to be finally getting out in the working world.

recent happenings

So it's finally November and I must admit I am grateful. I started my countdown to break awhile ago and as of today I have 17 days left until I can go home to South Carolina and spend time with my family. But things have been going well lately, especially in my Illustration class. Our most recent assignment, in honor of Halloween was to illustrate a person who was located in the Sons of the Confederacy crypt at Mount Olivet cemetary. So for the critique we actually went back and had it in the crypt. I thought this was great and we had a great little party. The man who is in charge of the crypt was so impressed he said he wanted to buy all of our work! That was certainly exciting.
And then on the same day, we traveled downtown to Tootsie's, a classic country music hot spot and bar in Nashville on Broadway. It was there we receieved our next assignment: to illustrate a poster for the Tin Pan South music festival that will happen in the Spring. One design will actually be chosen for the festival and all students will recieve free passes to the event. Illustration class is def. my favorite class this semester, and honestly probably my favorite class out of every one I've taken in college. Our professor is wonderful and is so passionate about design and illustration which translates into his attitude and teaching style. We get to go on field trips around the city and just have a great time. I truly love it.
In other recent news, the fifth annual Yart Sale is coming up this weekend. I have been making jewelry like crazy to sell and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to seeing everything else other students decide to sell. So if you're reading this before November 7th and 8th, come to the yart sale at Watkins. Friday it will be from 10 am to 4 pm and on Saturday it will be from 10 am to 5 pm.