THE HIGHWAY SETS THE TRAVELER'S STAGE

Hello, old friends, and hello, 2014.

After the grande finale of a semester that can really only be described by the fact that there was really no energy left for much to say, I feel the need to offer up some highlights of a winter break for all of our viewing pleasure.

One of my favorite things about winter break is a real lack of responsibility. Sure, there's Christmas presents to be wrapped, very important holiday crafts to make, cookies to bake, and shopping to do, but for the most part it entails dragging your disheveled, hungry, sleep-deprived self home to Mom & Dad for a short while, filling your belly with delicious treats, relaxing, watching movies (or binge-watching Netflix - you know), and cuddling with sweet kitties (or a significant other, if you're into that).

Following the graduation of one of my very best friends and old roommates, I headed home to Collierville, gave the little man a kiss, and checked to make sure I hadn't made the naughty list. Success.

Mom, Meredith and I had a serious ornament craft session, and when I say serious I mean Meredith and I tend to be collectively a serious pain in the butt when it comes to sitting down and doing planned holiday activities together. Makin' memories. And snowflakes.

The next weekend the Rife clan, cats excluded, piled into a minivan full of cold weather gear and Christmas cheer (ha ha) to make the long, all-too familiar 10 hour journey to Southwest Virginia to visit the grandparents. It was a grand time, fighting off sickness and isolation-induced boredom, studying books upon books of collected coins, and hearing stories about Pa-Paw's elusive pet foxes that had, much to my dismay, "gone south for the winter."

Ever been hit by a truck? Me neither. But I came metaphorically pretty damn close, with the flu. Nothing like heading to the ER on Christmas Eve Eve to get you in the holiday spirit!

The night we returned home it hit me, along with my usual allergies, causing a tornado of breathing issues I can only describe as being smothered. Hence the trip to the hospital and the oxygen mask of which I will spare you the selfie because it's really just terrifying.

So while I celebrated Sickmas and spent the next few days curled up in bed, a lovely Christmas was had by all. Santa came and left me the sexiest chair I've ever had the pleasure of sitting in and he also pinky promised to help fund an upcoming trip back abroad. And the cats must have wormed their way off the naughty list seeing as their brand new kitty condo is probably three stories more of a home than I will ever own.

Speaking of home, I'm sure we all know by now that I have small bits of "home" all over the place. One of the most important being Mount Pleasant, North Carolina, with my two very best friends. I was thinking about it a lot as I sorted through a bunch of photos last night - how the faces and spaces in them seem so, so familiar to my heart. The girls in those pictures are not as young as we used to be, not as entirely carefree and not as evidently in our awkward stage. Ok, ok, maybe I'm still in my awkward stage. Anyway, regardless, I realized that these are even more photos documenting our 16 years of wonderful friendship, and even more photos that we will look back on in many years and remember our youth. This trip up to North Carolina was a blessing in being able to make it happen and also a more somber reunion, because the three of us realized with impending graduations, general uncertainty, and big girl jobs these reunions may not be so long or so frequent in the coming years.

But to be as cheesy as your favorite macaroni, one thing IS certain and that is that we will a l w a y s be the peanut butter and bread to the other's jelly.

The deciding factor for my journey was the opportunity to see the Avett Brothers together, one of my all-time favorite bands, live on New Year's Eve in Charlotte. Scott and Seth Avett are local boys in that area and those strong ties made their performance all the more special to everyone involved. The show was wonderful and we sang along to every word and got to watch a thousand balloons fall onto the crowd below at midnight. It was a pretty significant way to ring in the new year.

We spent the rest of the week relaxing and hanging around town, eating too much What-a-Burger, playing with Becca's niece and nephews, babysitting American Girl dolls, watching movies and staying up giggling until 4 a.m. for no good reason. We window shopped at "Kitty City" one evening after dinner, and by window shopped I mean played with a bunch of cats through the glass for far too long. I received a beautiful ring one night with which Becca pretend proposed to me, because it seemed like the trendy thing to do. On Friday we paid a short visit to High Point so I could see where Sara goes to school and lives at least once before she graduates. And I can't exclude the multitude of heart-to-hearts and attempts to perfect certain new dance moves.

Also noteworthy: I upped my selfie game with discussing the physics of a good front-facing portrait with Albert Einstein himself, and also seem to have facilitated an adorable baby's first selfie. Oops.

This New Year's was one of the most special I've ever had, and hitting that hypothetical refresh button had never seemed more tempting, but this year I didn't make any resolutions. I suppose that's a testament to something - something along the lines of living in the here and now. I hope to figure out what exactly that means. To let things come and go as they will, day by day, month by month. I just want to live this year, as always, as best I can. Sometimes it's great and sometimes it's all a bust, but that's just what it is and we must do the best we can. I just hope that at the end of this year, my last year of school, that I've done that.

This mindset and absence of expectations have been a long time coming. While I miss my best friends and family dearly and have another semester of hard work and decisions looming ahead, to quote one of my favorite Avett songs, I am rested and I'm ready. Here's to a happy and healthy 2014 to all of you.

THE ORIGINAL UNORIGINAL INFLUENCE, INSIGHT, AND INCENTIVE

 : the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

Inspiration can also be defined as the drawing in of breath, or inhalation.

I think that I stopped breathing.

Don't worry, still alive over here. Just been suffering from something potentially considered worse for the creative individual: a serious creative block.

Maybe I'm burned out, maybe I've been going too long without a break, maybe I'm homesick, maybe I'm just stuck. "Balance" has always been sort of mythical to me; if I'm super invested in my school work then it's likely I'm not sleeping or eating like a normal human, have no social life, haven't done laundry in God knows how long, and my room's a wreck. On the other hand, if all of those things are slightly in order then you could probably guess that something's lacking on the academic side. Honestly, I just can't figure it out. And right now my room's pretty tidy.

The beauty of it is, I'm 21 years old and am not supposed to have it figured out.

All I know is that after turning in two big projects about two weeks ago, projects which I really poured all of my energy and efforts into, I'm afraid a mental check-out occurred.

From a blank slate to final product, I can't say Modern Minted's identity and ad campaign were a disappointment. It was truly a fun project to invest in. I also can't say I won't miss dreaming of beautiful chairs and pretending to be Don Draper's advertising protégé. But those days have come and gone, and now it's on to the next one. As the cycle goes.

As any writer or creative person may understand, hitting an actual wall might be more pleasant than hitting one figuratively. When it's time to start brainstorming and gathering up a huge offense to attack new projects, you either have the most energetic, exciting time, or the most discouraging, disappointing struggle.

I am a person very inspired by immersing myself in new and different things, whether that be cultures, places, or homes. So you'd think a blank slate would be consistently thrilling, but sometimes it's honestly just terrifying. Sometimes, when I haven't been anywhere different, seen anyone different from the handful of people I spend the majority of my time with, or even switched up my daily routine whatsoever, defeat takes over.

But what do you do when you're stuck? As invigoratingly tempting as it seems, this wanderlust simply cannot move forward at this point of my life. So, instead, why not go backwards?

By backwards, I mean back to the roots. The integrity, honesty, simplicity, and clarity achieved by those before us on which the foundation of an entire industry lies.

This past Thursday I along with a few other classmates skipped class and headed to Atlanta for a good dose of exactly what I know I needed: inspiration. The day began with an afternoon lecture geared toward students by Steven Heller, respected art director, author, and editor pertaining to graphic design. Otherwise known as the man in the green pants up there, really overwhelmed by the onslaught of enthusiastic college students wanting a photo with him when he tried to escape the room after his lecture. 

Heller gave a presentation on "Eccentric, Eclectic and Erotic Type"—a reminder of every aspect and beautiful purpose of typography that I learned in Graphic Design History last semester but may have overlooked recently. He talked about telling stories, pushing boundaries, and implications with typography, and it was a really nice review.

Following the lecture we ran across the street to the Museum of Design - Atlanta to view their latest exhibition, on graphic design icon Paul Rand.

Paul Rand is probably best known for his corporate logo designs, IBM, UPS, Westinghouse, ABC, and Steve Jobs's NeXT, to name a few. But the man just really GOT it. Exploring this exhibit I found a deep sense of humor, a charming playfulness, confidence, goodness, timelessness, and universality that I can only hope to ever achieve half of as a designer. 

I can't say it any better than he said it himself: "Without the aesthetic, the computer is but a mindless speed machine, producing effects without substance, form without relevant content, or content without meaningful form."

That quote means a lot to me because not only does it clarify my role as a graphic designer, as the actual, physical hands behind visual communication rather than a nameless minion of a computer program, but also because I had to do an entire project on it in Typography I. Sometimes we forget the very elementary things we've learned, which happen to be some of the most important. It's nice to be reminded. Guess what? I'm not a robot.

The idea of simplicity comes into play just as much as these fun colorful shapes in a little interactive display they had set up. I find often that dwelling on "keeping it simple" is ironically too overwhelming. Rand's thoughts on the matter opened my eyes to the fact that simplicity is not the goal, but usually only achieved with great effort. And I was super excited that fate led me to see and play with these colorful shapes, because that was actually solidifying the idea brewing in my head for my next project: an advanced, Tangram-style shape-by-shape puzzle game. We had fun making up little compositions and I for one probably spent too much time lingering in this area of the exhibit, looking specifically at a children's game Rand had designed the aesthetic for. (Life tip: if you ever want to get rid of or shut up a designer for a while, give them something to do with their hands.)

Aside from visiting the Museum of Design, we had a packed, interesting day in Atlanta, including some deliciously fancy southern cuisine, a trip to Little Five Points to scour the record store, and a one-of-a-kind live performance by the one and only Cat Power.

Every person needs a little resurgence of mental stimulation every now and then. I know I do. People like me are designed to be forced to take breaks. Sometimes, it sucks. Sometimes it feels like there is immeasurably more potential than possible to effectively communicate and live up to. Sometimes hearts and brains just feel heavy within all the not-quites, not-yets, can'ts, and nevers. Sometimes there's no time. But take a break. Take it all in. And try to be good.

COCKROACH KILLER 911 AND OTHER ORIGINAL PROPOSED IDEAS

A lot of times ideas are born. A lot of other times ideas pop up at the most ridiculous times, unprompted.

Like a sneaky little cockroach visitor, whom you're attacking with supposedly deadly roach-killing spray, while simultaneously squealing, being terrified, and maybe cussing like a sailor as it shimmies underneath your bed to die in peace. What we single gals need is a Cockroach Killer 911 hotline—for moments like these, when there's no manly man around to do the dirty work/spare you from being so absolutely ridiculous.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest (and that cockroach out of my bedroom), let's take this a step further. My major tends to presents projects that are very open-ended and require a great quantity of fresh ideas to get things rollin'. That's where the importance of research comes in. So, rather than snapping my fingers and shooting out a clever logo for a well-thought-out company, I choose to dive into a sea of visual inspiration and just about drown, until out jumps a mood board:

This time around I'm swimming through mid century era chairs to propose to this hypothetical design world a modern furniture collective. Mid-20th century is a time period that holds hallmarks of exceptional aesthetic furniture and interior design classics. This proposed furniture design collective, named “Modern Minted,” is a fictional cooperative enterprise of designers producing extremely well-crafted, re-interpreted mid century modern pieces. I'm such a nerd.

Also, want to be a cool white person? Casually mention how you hope to one day afford an original piece of furniture by [insert name of obscure architect here]. There's one thing I learned from my research. Oh, and that cats look just naturally at home in an Eames chair.

As one of my personal heroes Charles Eames once said, "Take your pleasure seriously." I would encourage anyone trying to come up with any creative idea to allow yourself to hold your breath and go under; work your way through the enormous quantity of inspiration in this world (in this case, history); kill a few trees printing it all out and literally surround yourself by it. It's a fun process, it really is.

Let's talk about fun while we observe this weird, ridiculous "M"atching game I made up in order to create a logo for Modern Minted...

Along the lines of pleasure and letters, one of my most favorite hobbies is lettering. Here are some pieces of my sketchbook lately (and consequently a little peek into my brain):

            

Let's be honest, I love Avicii, I'm itching to travel, right away, but the Lord brings me peace right where I am.

And where I am ain't so bad. This past weekend, Saturday specifically, was packed full of good times. Starting bright and early with the annual Syrup Soppin' festival in Loachapoka:

It was a rainy, wet morning but we got some sweet breakfast and poked through some local vendors' stuff, a great deal of that time spent at a jam/jelly booth exploring shelves of everything from Mountain Dew Jelly to watermelon rind preserves and talking to the woman who makes them about her favorite recipes. The morning was full of photo ops, old mustached men, fiddles, and small children waiting in line to ride that pony. And then we can't forget getting schooled on arrowhead/spear making by this man in fringe.

After we sopped up all the syrup (not really), the afternoon was spent carving a pumpkin (but not in the way that you're thinking) and preparing a few things for an upcoming venture into letterpress to make a poster and some Christmas cards. 'Tis the season! ? You'll see.

Seeing as we nor any of our friends have cable, watching the away game that afternoon turned out to be quite the adventure. We hopped around a few different places but looks like the Sister(brother?)hood of the Traveling Pom Pom was a successful good luck strategy because the game was awesome and we won and oh, WAR EAGLE.

 

Here, as you can see, we have joined an elk for the 4th quarter nail-biter.

In true Auburn tradition following the win and a round of high fives we all (elk excluded) ran to Toomer's Corner to celebrate! Rolling wires instead of trees is weird and I also got smacked upside the head by an industrial-sized roll of toilet paper but none of that seems to matter in the thick of all that plush white.

 I decided this cheesin' photo op called for the classic "#1" hand gesture, and appears this man in the bottom photo decided to toss his hands full of discarded toilet paper up in the air in the same spirit.

Celebrating at Toomer's Corner is one of my all-time favorite Auburn traditions, because it's like the entire population of Auburn crawls out of the crevasses of the town to immediately appear, Cottonelle in hand, to cheer and create this white wonderland together. Nothing will beat slipping/running over ice to get here after we won the national championship three years ago, but this time was a close second, even though it was an away game!

And what better way to celebrate further than dressing up like a crazy European and cramming into a sweaty room full of people raging, dancing the night away.

AND the Ten Kittens got to come out to play, y'all. How purrfect is this shirt?

 #meow

Saturday turned into Sunday, very little sleep was gotten, but I can't think of a better reason to wake up early than to letterpress. all. day. Ok, maybe a few better reasons. Like catching a flight to Europe or, I don't know, eating donuts or something, but hey, it was fun.

Your favorite little GDES elves slaved away all day in Santa's letterpress workshop to create some custom Christmas cards to sell! If you're interested and/or you love and appreciate our hard work and ink-stained efforts, come out to the CADC Pumpkin Carve on Friday and find us: you can buy one for $2 or 3 for $5! That's a steal. Buy 'em up. Made with caffeine, lots of patience, some pizza, and tons of love.

This was my first experience ever with letterpress, and it was definitely a messy crash course but I had so much fun. Learning a new skill, even if you have to sacrifice sleep and a whole day for it, will always be worth it. We all love paper goods, that gritty handmade quality, and there's just a sweet sense of satisfaction from getting to be a hand that makes it.

As October wraps up, I'm trying to stay focused and remember the intentions I set out at the beginning of this beautiful month—to complain less, work diligently, and listen more. I'm always learning and lately it's been a whole lot, both skill- and life-wise. To borrow a good word from our favorite sugary festival, I'm aiming to be soppin' up all these ideas and experiences without becoming overwhelmed by them. The rest of this month will consist of wrapping up this second design project and another book cover and a severe lack of sleep and energy is on the horizon, but hey I could get away with being a cast member of the Walking Dead for Halloween, right?

Keep up the good vibes, life, keep the coffee coming, and someone call me if 1. you want to volunteer to run this Cockroach Killing hotline or, 2. you need a hug too, because I know I could always use one.