Learning In The Classroom

This past Saturday I took a class with General Assembly Austin on User Experience Design. It was a one day, 9 to 5 class taught by Martin Davis, Experience Director at Mutual Mobile. The class gave a good overview of UX, the field and some of its core concepts. The class was a combination of hands on and lecture. We worked in groups to write personas, establish an information architecture by card sorting and sketch some quick wireframes. Additionally we discussed: user stories, empathy mapping, and prototypes. I enjoyed the class, met new people whom had a number of different skill sets and just had fun. There was little time spent in front of the screen, it made me miss just good old fashion learning; pens, paper, and brains.

My First Hackathon

About a week ago I saw a post on Facebook looking for designers for an up and coming event with Open Austin. They are a volunteer group that promotes open government, open data, and civic application development in Austin. I had not been familiar with the group or its project until this weekend. Over the course of the year teams had been formed and each were working on a different Civic Tech project. This was their last major event of the year and the focus was on getting the resources needed, together, to finish up any loose ends. I didn't really know what to expect, but my goal was to meet new people, learn new things and improve upon my skill set.  It turned out to be a huge success all around. I met some amazingly talented people and helped out with the Digital Empowerment Community of Austin. I worked side by side with a UX Designer, who introduced me to a new wireframing tool Balsamiq Mockups. Together we were tasked on making the profile page of the site much more user friendly and easier to read. Most of the focus was on creating a hierarchy of the information and finding ways to group like content in a way that would read easier and make sense to the end user. Below is a look into the process, as well as a before and after of the page. #ShipItATX15 

BEFORE

WIREFRAME

AFTER

An inspiring week...

Last week I had the opportunity to attend two very inspiring design events. As a life-long learner I love to attend events such as this when I get the chance. They ignite new energy and new perspective into my career as a designer.

Design Thinking
This was a hands-on workshop ran by AIGA and General Assembly. In groups we walked through the 5 step design thinking process: empathize, ideate, prototype, test, iterate. Once we had a good grasp on our user we moved into the prototype phase. I loved the collaboration of this exercise, it was equally challenging and fun. 

Inside Job 2015: A One-day Conference for In-house Design
On Saturday I spent the day in Houston at the Inside Job Conference. Recently I've been trying to keep up with AIGA's In-house INitiative and this was the first event that popped up within reasonable distance to attend. At the end of the day I was very pleased that I had made the trip. The day was filled with speakers from well known in-house design creative teams like NPR and Newell Rubbermaid. Each person brought a fresh perspective on the in-house creative community and the trends of the future. I would recommend this to any managers, creative directors or eager mid-level designers, like myself, whom aspire to be in those shoes one day. 

Sociable Cider Werks Bike Jersey

This last trip back home I finally got to check out Sociable Cider Werks in Minneapolis, MN. I tried some amazing hard ciders and got my hands on one of the bike jersey's I created a couple months back. I was partnered with BELCH to make this custom design come to life. Make sure to check out the Sociable Ciders and if you are looking for custom bike jersey's contact BELCH he will hook you up!

Last minute request...

Working on a last minute social media image request...

A time to explore...

...and practice my photography skills! Here are some pictures from my recent trip to Colorado.

New work...

Here is some work that Moss Design Co. has been kicking out lately!

Setting the bar

A little over two months ago I was hitting the refresh button on my e-mail nonstop, I was watching my twitter feed #ChiMarathon2015, anxiously waiting the letter that I won the lottery and I'd be going to Chicago. Not much later I found myself cheering at my desk and jumping up and down. I was in! CHICAGO HERE I COME! Since then I've got the hotel and flight all set up and ready to go the only thing left is to train. Today marked the first day of training, but it was a bit different than the first time around. Mentally for me today was all about setting the bar, and setting it high, for the next couple months. It was day one of a new training plan, the one that will lead me to my second full marathon this year and I want nothing but greatness. I want to push past the boundaries and take this training to a new level this time. The last time around was practice; getting use to the miles, the commitment, overcoming a number of things and learning about my body. This time is about running a little faster, reaching a little further, and expecting a little bit more. I want to create new routines, new habit, and become a more efficient me. It has really been the only thing on my mind for the last couple weeks. I've prepped by getting new shoes, a new watch, marking the calendar and eating my last piece of cheesecake for the next 112 days. For me this marks a new time period, a time to go above and beyond and also to train smarter, faster, and harder! Not only do I want to see results and improvements out on the road, but I want to see personal results for me, my business and my design skills. If you recall a post a few months back, I touched a bit on life as a designer and a runner and how they go hand in hand. I want to really run and fuel myself off from this idea and see where it takes me in the next few months. So here it is...
Day 1: 5:00am alarm, run complete by 6:30am
And this lovely sketch to have for miles to come...
#DoMoreBeMore

Photography 101

Every Monday for the last four weeks I have been taking a photography class. We have touched on the basics of exposure, aperture, composition, histograms and much more. Some of it was repetitive as an art major, however I also learned quite a bit. Photography is definitely a passion of mine and I would like to continue to explore and learn the fundamentals.

Being a designer and a runner...

It has already been a month since I ran my first marathon, but I'm just now coming up with the best way to plug it into my design blog. I have had a bit more time on my hands in the last few weeks, post marathon and I have done a lot of reflecting and planning for the road ahead. One thing I have always pondered, in my day to day, and on many of my long runs is the fact that my two passions of running and designing clash with each other. How can I wake up for a morning run, but stay up until all hours taking full advantage of my creative juices? Through many of my runs I attempted to find the solution, a solution that would keep both, but not sacrifice quality and continue to satisfy me. An easy solution, but not to my liking, is not to train for marathons to do races of a much smaller scale, ones that would not require as many hours. But now weeks after the marathon is complete and I have not yet set my next running goal, I have twice as much time to focus in on my freelance and yet I find myself struggling to find the focus I need and so I loop back and think to myself, maybe running and designing actually work together better than I thought?

Running has a number of benefits both physical and mental. To me the physical is the extra bonus, but the mental game is the one that challenges you and makes you stronger. The beauty of the marathon is that it truly pushes you past a point that you didn't know you could reach. It wears you down and then it rewards you in ways you never thought were possible. For me I have discovered that running keeps me focused, it makes me passionate and ultimately it sparks my creativity! Yes the schedules don't work out too well, but you figure it out and make it work.

Not to mention this post, one that has been waiting a month to be published, has finally been written... post run and post designing tonight.

The image below is a representation of all the accomplishments met while training and designing before the marathon. The biggest one of them all is establishing Moss Design Co. in January with my partner in crime Ben Moss. And as for my next marathon, I entered the lottery for Chicago!

Brewfest!

The 19th annual Beer Lover's Brewfest took place a few weekends ago. I couldn't make it up to Wisconsin for the trip, but I hear it was a great success. I think it is also safe to say the logo worked out nicely!

Web Banner

Here is a fun web banner I worked on. 

Note** This banner has been created while employed and under art direction at BancVue. I only take credit for the design of the banner, not the design or programming of the site itself. 

Finally learning how to truly use this thing...

Last week I began taking photography lessons. A quote from the instructor on day one was "Every day is a gift & a new opportunity to learn something new!"

Web Design

EVB went through some rebranding and needed to refresh their site. My role was to implement their new brand and freshen up their web presence.

Before

 View their live site

Note** This was created while employed and under art direction at BancVue. I take no credit for the programming of the site.

Taking shapes on tangents...

I'm working on a logo that does not relate to this at all, but I couldn't help myself to explore the possibilities of these shapes. They are still complicated, but I think there is some potential. Sticking them in my back pocket until a later date.

VOTE for me!

I have entered a logo in the NBPA logo challenge. Help decide the winners vote for me today!

4 Weeks till I conquer my 1st 26.2!