Thursday, August 12, 2010

Aaaaand it's over!

Today was my last day at LIVESTRONG! Sad sad sad...Only one project to speak of, finished up the postcard from yesterday. We went to lunch at a great Italian place and Diana gave me a small trinket to remember her by. All in all it was a great summer and I learned a lot! I will probably post a couple pictures of some things I worked on in the future...thanks for keeping up with the LIVESTRONG blog everyone!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

THIS MUST BE A RECORD!

Three blog posts in one day?!?! What is the world coming to?! Just an update on the design I worked on for the day:
Not much going on in the design department. I put together a slideshow for the UIC conference in China and started on a postcard that's going to be handed out at Mellow Johnny's advertising the Livestrong Challenge in Austin. That's it, basically all I did today. Tomorrow's my last day and I'm going out to lunch with Diana and some other people from the marketing team. Stay tuned!

Seriously?! It's not fair!

Last night I had an aggravating experience. I was going to meet some friends for drinks at a restaurant on the lake. I was running slightly late and eying the door as I approached my destination when I spotted them. A table placed conveniently right outside of the entrance, at which sat 3 adorable little boys adorned in their boyscouts of America uniforms, great.

I kept my eye on the door and avoided eye contact as I neared the entrance, I was almost there when I heard it: a little voice with a slight lisp, "Ma'am, would you like to buy some popcorn?" I turned to see a small boy of about 8, red hair, glasses (which didn't disguise his puppy-like wide eyes), and 2 missing teeth. I immediately felt like the worst person in the world. I knew I wasn't going to buy any popcorn. I'm only here 2 more days, I have $6 to my name, and I was in somewhat of a hurry. Nevertheless I rambled off a series of seemingly hopeful questions to the small boy. "Well how long will you be out here? Maybe on my way out? I'm not in town long but I guess if you ship it.."

As I walked away, a wave of guilt and shame came over me. I realized, however, I cannot let myself feel that way! It's cruel really, placing those cute kids out there to guilt you into purchasing an overpriced tin of mediocre popcorn. Making you feel like a monster for refusing the freckle-nosed, bright-eyed youngsters. No more! I will not stand for it!

Random thoughts during down time...

So here I am at work, haven't done much since there's been a meeting going on for everyone in the office (but the interns apparently) since I got here.

Anyways I thought I would share a few random thoughts. Before delving into my frustration with the boyscouts of America, I think I'll share some good news: I picked up my car this morning! However, I realized once I got to work there is a small scratch on the lift gate...and the glass sounds like it's rattling slightly, I'll have to see about that. For those of you who don't know, it all started when I got a flat tire last Friday. I was driving home on the highway, about 3 exits away, when I suddenly heard the haunting "thudthudthudthudthudthud" alerting me of the inevitable...that's right, flat tire. I managed to pull over to the shoulder right where an exit begins to fork from the highway (a seem-ably safe spot). While sitting and sweating and waiting for my trusty grandfather to come help save the day, a policeman arrived. We had the routine conversation, cop: "So what happened here?" me: "what does it look like? I have a flat tire and I pulled over ya dumdum!" Ok, so I didn't say that, but I thought it.

Anyways he went on to tell me how unsafe it was for me to be on the shoulder and that he thought it best to push me off the road. I was told to put my car in neutral and allow the policeman to gently guide me from behind with his cruisers front grill-cage-thing. He pushed me onto the access road and told me to pull into the first parking lot or entrance I saw. I did as I was instructed and made a right up a steep hill to a parking lot, and that's when it happened. He pushed me about halfway up the hill and then I suddenly felt myself rolling backwards. Somehow the policeman and broke contact with my bumper and I was rolling back, and likely going to hit his front end if I hadn't stepped on the brake. So I was sitting in my car on a hill, brakes on, when he forcefully hits me from behind. Apparently he was trying to give me a last little push to get me into the parking lot. To make this long story short, there was about $1500 of damage to my back end and 3 cruisers at the scene by the end of the ordeal. Oh, but don't worry, THE AUSTIN PD CLAIMED THEY WEREN'T LIABLE! That's right, I was being pushed off the road for "my own safety" and any damaged incurred is not their fault. Yeah right, that's the biggest crock of...well anyways, it's a messy situation.

So my claim is filed and I wait, about 6 months according to my insurance agent, to see if I get ANY of my deductible back from the perp. Now I'm not normally one to heckle law enforcement, but this is just silly. Not to mention the inconveniences I've been put through due to this whole debacle, including early wake ups on my days off and days without my vehicle. Whew, feels good to vent about my little situation...but now it's back to the grindstone!

Last Week

And so it begins, the last week of my internship. I must say this summer has been the shortest summer of my life, where did the time go? Today was fun although I didn't have much to work on. I made some copy edits and a logo replacement to a card that Livestrong reps actually pass out at job fairs and college functions recruiting for their internships and for volunteers. This afternoon we had a presentation from Milkshake Media (no they don't make milkshakes, however we did have some provided at the presentation by which wich! mmmm). This company is a design/branding company who helped Livestrong come up with their name and brand. It was interesting to see how it developed from it's very beginning stages. Initially Livestrong was going to be called "This Point Forward" and it's color was going to be orange, sick! I think the brand they ended up creating was quite successful and it was interesting to hear how it came about. I would post more about it now but it is rather late and I am quite exhausted. I have to go pick up my car from the shop in the morning (don't even get me started on why it's there) so I will have to divulge more about Livestrong's birth some other time. Hopefully tomorrow I can go into more detail, but until then...goodnight blog!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

If you have 10 millipedes, do you have a centipede?

Today was a decent day. Started out this morning by working on a poster for the Austin Marathon/Half marathon. That took a majority of the morning, and it was lunch break before I knew it. I wasn't super hungry for lunch because we got FREE BREAKFAST TACOS AND FRUIT SALAD so I was still satisfied from that. When Diana got back from lunch I helped file a few things and then worked on a chart. The chart was something I actually did a week or so again, just had some changes in the orientation so that wasn't too difficult. That's the jist of the day, next week is the final one so stay tuned for some exciting stuff!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Roasty

It's a roasty day here in Austin, in the middle of a triple digit week. Today I finished up some signage for the Philadelphia LIVESTRONG challenge, after that we had a meeting with a paper vendor. They had some really neat papers, but the coolest was a static charged paper that you could peel off and stick to any surface (but there's no adhesive). It's called cling-z...only designers can get that excited about paper. Immediately following that meeting we had another meeting about a survivor medal that is being designed (intended for cancer survivors). The design is in its very beginning stages; still sketches and ideas, but it was neat to be involved in that part of the process. After lunch I worked some more on signage and the billboard that I was working on last week. The billboard has been somewhat of a challenge. The size of a billboard is just awkward and we have a lot of copy they want to fit on it. Diana decided to think more about the billboard for a while since it's not really working right now...but she had no other projects for me so I got to go a little early today! Diana told me to go eat some ice cream...so I did obviously.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Welpie Welp

Hey blog,
I'm a little exhausted and in need of rest for another work day tomorrow, but I'll fill you in on the day's design events. Today I was quite busy, my work load consisted of Livestrong Challenge signage, Bib changes, Livestrong day collateral and updates to an envelope. Keep in mind 2 of these project required about 5 separate pieces so they were quite time consuming. I went to a meeting at 10 concerning the new patient navigation center and the notepad/written summary we're going to give them to take home at the end of their visits. This is in the infant stages and the meeting consisted mostly of brainstorming. Oh I forgot to mention last week I worked on a billboard that's going to be right here in Austin, exciting! Anyways that about sums up the day, tomorrow I will finish up some signage and I have a meeting at 11 with one of the best printers in the country! Stay tuned!