Moving day!

Well at least moving out day. Everything has to be out of my old apt in order for us to go on our trip this weekend to look for a place in L.A. I am so excited and slightly overwhelmed, it's great! This whole last week has felt rushed and full of finalizing details. I still have an incredible amount of things to get done before I go. Examples being: change oil in car and print resumes, business cards and portfolio pieces. I am ready though...at least mentally. This is going to be a positive change and the start of some exciting new adventures. So thats all for now. I know this is ridiculously short but I don't have much time to keep writing! Have to get things done! I think I will start a new year long everyday photo project starting today. Seems like a great time to start documenting my new life! Now if I can only finally get the last year's into book form i'll be done with that one.

One More Week Till Moving Day!

As usual time flies and I'm starting a ten day count down until I move out of my old apartment and then drive to L.A. to find a new one! I can already feel how hectic and exciting it all is going to be. The basic plan is to start packing up all this week after I get off work and then next weekend, the 26th-28th, Ben and I will be in L.A. apartment hunting and then we'll drive back, move all of my stuff out of my place and to my parents, I'll work the rest of the week and then we'll drive out the weekend of the 4th to move into our new apartment! [excuse the run-on sentence!] Ben and I have been looking at a lot of places available in both Pasadena and North Hollywood and it looks like we will probably be moving to North Hollywood due to money issues and the fact that it is the area Ben has been told by friends would be good for us. I'm really hoping we can find a place that has character and isn't the standard apartment with white/tan carpet and stucco walls/ceiling etc. I do not mind white walls at all, actually I love them, but I am hoping to find a place that has wood floors throughout or at least in the living room area and hopefully bedroom. Wood adds a certain charm to a place that automatically improves a room in my mind.

I've been so excited about getting a new place that I've been searching for some interior design inspiration and have started collecting websites/images. I really love decorating and feel for the first time that this apartment that Ben and I will be sharing is going to be one that we can really dedicate time to making it our own. I've always felt with other places I've lived, other than in my bedroom, that either I'd be stepping on my roommate's feet to decorate or I've always come into places that my roommate(s) had already decorated. This time is different...since Ben is a lot more than a roommate. I am so excited to mix our stuff and decorate appropriately to both of our styles. Ben has a ton of incredible artwork/movie posters that will work really well in a living room area. I'm just hoping that whatever we decide to bring will all fit in what will more than likely be a tiny one bedroom apartment!

Here are some examples of looks/moods I like:more of the same place: back garage
I really love the built in/around fireplace bookshelves.

These are great! And a lot of other stuff posted on Grassrootsmodern.comI want to find a good mixture between modern and vintage.

I'll definitely be posting in the upcoming days on finding the new place and the process of starting to move in and decorate it! I can't wait!

The Autsim Education Site

I recently was commissioned by Melissa, a professional blogger, to redesign her wordpress website. By that I simply mean designing a new banner, bg and color scheme. I had worked with her twice before in the past on other projects and really enjoyed working with her. I'd even say she has been my best client yet, so naturally I jumped at the opportunity.

She blogs to get the word out about autism news, schools, summer camps and other related topics. So when I started my research on the autism community and other autism websites and designs I started to get a feel for the possible directions I could take to help her improve her site.














Her original site, above, did not fit the correct mood, audience or purpose of the site. So after discussing with her and researching, I gathered enough data to begin designing. Melissa's requests were simple. She did not want to use the autism ribbon, which I can't blame her, and she felt that there was potential in the rainbow colored ellipse shape that she said has been used to represent autism, which can be seen here at autism.change.org. I immediately felt a connection to the idea of the ellipse like shape and started to create sketches with that concept in mind. I had discovered through reading some of Melissa's blog and other autism educational blog sites that the audience for these sites are often the parents of autistic and/or disabled children. They come to the site for advice, direction and the comfort of a connected community. I knew that because of this the site needed to be bright, cheerful and welcoming. With those key words in mind, I developed a color palette and comp that felt like it was starting to head in the right direction.


I was happy with how this design felt. I thought it had a bright child toy like quality while still being clean and calming. I shared this design with Melissa and she was pleased but I felt like I needed to explore the concepts more. I also always prefer to offer my clients at least two completely different directions. So I decided to explore a brighter color palette and a cleaner look. After some work I came up with the design below.


Both Melissa and I agreed that this design was the best option for her site and with in a day it was up and running!

Check out the final design live - www.theautismeducationsite.com

Please any critiques are welcome! I am completely new and would love to hear from others.

the Start of Something Good

I'll be the first to admit my dedication to blogging has never been good. I've tried to start them before but they have never lasted past a hand full of entries. I've figured out now that the key to a successful blog is focus. It needs to have a purpose and rambling on about anything and everything is difficult and even more boring to read. So I decided to give it a go again because I have finally found something beneficial to
blog about.

I have just recently graduated from the College of Design at Arizona State and I'm at the beginning of a new transition period. One where I go from feeling comfortable and financially stable to feeling a little hectic and staring the never ending job search. So I have decided that in order to keep my sanity, confidence and focus I need to blog about my current personal and freelance projects, design research and other related thoughts.

A rough list of current design projects:

1. Musician Christy Bruneau's website and myspace makeover- Band Race You There's new logo and t-shirt design
2. Personal Identity project - resume, business cards, portfolio, website and blog makeover!
3. Motivation poster project with designer Rita Manna
4. Book design for year long photo-a-day project