Weekly Wishes 04.13.2015

It's only Monday and I can tell this is going to be a crazy busy week. Who's with me?

Last week's weekly wishes:
• Get my portfolio book: Change in plans. I'm no longer creating a print portfolio. Instead, I'm working on iPad/tablet publication of my portfolio. It's a really interesting way of approaching a portfolio and I can't wait to share the process with you all!
• Start working on my job search: Done! Found a few jobs I'm interested in, but I'm still open and available to freelance. (Sidenote: Made some great progress on my friend's branding!) Feel free to contact me if you're looking for a graphic designer.

This week's weekly wishes:
• Plan some more blogposts: We're about halfway through April, so I need to start planning for May.
• Set aside some time to work on my website: I mentioned by Behance account several times, but last week I decided to take the plunge and create a portfolio site through Wordpress. If you have any advice for Wordpress users, leave a comment below! I'd love to gain some new insight to the program.

What are your goals for the week?

Weekly Wishes is a linkup post created by The Nectar Collective.

Weekly Wishes 04.06.2015

 
Hope everyone had a wonderful Passover and Easter!

Last week's weekly wishes:
• Continue with the walking program: Ha. No. It just didn't happen. Maybe once school winds down some more, I'll be able to make time for working out.
• Update my Behance account: Semi done! I put up a few new projects and updates, but I still have more to put up.

This week's weekly wishes:
• Get my portfolio book: We're working on our printed portfolios in class now and I finally settled on what kind of book I want. What do you guys think about me writing a post about putting together portfolios? There's a couple ways to do it: print, website and an iPad/tablet publication is what I'm going to do. Even if you just look a print alone, there are so many ways to approach it!
• Start working on my job search: I'm definitely interested in some kind of full time work when I graduate, but I also want to freelance. I'm actually starting to work on some branding for a friend – I'll share more about that project later!

What are your goals for the week?

Weekly Wishes is a linkup post created by The Nectar Collective.

Graphic Design and Animation Senior Show

There's a pretty good chance this will be the last time (or one of the last times) that I bring up my Senior Show. Cause it's done! It's done! The show itself will be up for a little while longer though. I must say it was a long process, but totally worth it.

We started off branding ourselves as graphic designers. (Shameless plug: If you're looking for a graphic designer to work with, you can check out my portfolio here and contact me here.)

My logo up on the wall!

We then worked on our Senior Projects. Mine was recreating these three book covers. I'm in the middle of reading Wild and can't wait to see the movie once I'm done with the book.

Left: series of bookcovers (Wild, Tiny Beautiful Things, Torch)
Right: digital college book created through Blurb.com and stamp brochure

Throughout the past few months, we've been working on new projects and reworking our old ones and ultimately this is what it came to... my wall. I must've rearranged my wall several times. It was to the point where my professor basically said, "Melissa, you're rearranging your wall again."

My family and friends came to the opening of my show and I don't think it could've gone any better! So a million and one thanks to you guys for listening to me go on and on about the show and a million and one thanks to everyone who has supported me and continues to support me throughout my career. You guys rock!

March Wrap Up

Good-bye March. Hello April! And warm weather. Last month, I came up with the idea of including a monthly wrap up and I'm super excited to share this month's wrap up.

What's Going On 

March was insanely busy because of getting everything together for my Senior Show, but it went so well! We also had our last big snowstorm of the season (hopefully) and the weather's been slowly, but surely getting warmer each day. Oh and I applied for graduation! Yay!

Instagram

I shared a lot of my graphic design work I've been working on. Towards the end of the month, I joined in on the Instagram challenge #TNCLovesSpring. Are there any Instagram challenges you're participating in?

Top Left: Transfer Prints / Top Right: My Business Card and Publicity Card
Bottom Left: Snow Day! / Bottom Right: Working On My Font

Links 

– Earlier in the month, Organized Charm was doing a giveaway and I won a Samsill Duo Binder! I can't wait to put this thing to use. I'm planning on using it for job searching. I really liked Kirsten's post about different ways to use this binder: 5 Ways to Use the Duo 2-in-One Binder

– Alisa Burke (an insanely awesome artist) blogged about creating your own art journal: Make A $5.00 Art Journal

– Found Phyllis + Rosie Jewelry through Free People and now I'm compltely in love with everything they have.

– And I really liked Elsie's simple approach to scrapbooking.

I hope you guys had an awesome February and will have an even better March! What have you all been up to this past month?

Weekly Wishes 03.30.2015

I can't believe how fast March went! But that's alright because I am so ready for spring and graduation!! This week was hectic with setting up my Senior Show, but I had so much fun and I'm so proud of all the graphic designer and animators I work with. Plus, my best friend was able to come and I'm so happy she did. (Sidenote: She might be reading this, so hi!!)

Since last week was super busy, I'm hoping this week will be a little more relaxed.
Last week's weekly wishes:
• Finalize everything for the senior show: Done! I'll write a blog post about it later.
• Start a walking program: Yes and no. I only walked once this week and I was supposed to walk three times. Something's better than nothing thought, right?!

This week's weekly wishes:
• Continue with the walking program: Because I'm not going to let one bad week deter me.
• Update my Behance account: I posted some new pieces the other week, but I still have more to put up. For now, you can see what's in my portfolio here!

What are your goals for the week?

Also, I've been joining in on Melyssa from The Nectar Collective's Instagram challenge. If you'd like to join in, check out this post for the prompts and for participation tips.

Weekly Wishes is a linkup post created by The Nectar Collective.

Etsy Shop Update

Hi everybody! Remember my goal last week about updating my Etsy branding? It's officially up and running. You might have seen it on the shop already or in my portfolio if you checked that out within the past week or so, but I wanted to mention it on the blog as well. I'm super excited with how it came out.

The lettering is still the same, but I used brushes in Photoshop to create this effect. I wanted to keep the banner on the Etsy site relatively simple, but didn't want just the logo to be on it. So I added more of the brand's color and used stamps that I use on the cards to write out "handmade greeting cards."

I haven't put new cards up yet, but wanted to share some of the cards I've been working on.

Do you have an Etsy shop? I'd love to check it out! Leave your link in the comments.

Weekly Wishes 03.23.3015

I had the busiest, but best week ever. Last week was my spring break, which meant no classes for me! I actually feel I am more productive out of class, so I did end up getting a lot done for school. But I did take some time away from school stuff... it is called Spring Break after all.

Now for last week's goals:
• Go to a yoga class: Done! I actually made it to two classes this week.
• Scrapbook: Yes! I'm creating my own, I guess you could call, smashbook out of an old journal. I had a bunch of pictures from holidays and the #shakeitupdaily Instagram challenge that I joined in on in February that I wanted to scrapbook with. So much fun!
• Plan out future blogposts: Done! I didn't look much into a digital organizer like CoSchedule or anything, but I planned out a bunch of posts and created my own system for blog ideas in my own paper planner (I'm huge into paper planners!).
• Update Etsy branding: Done! You can see the new Etsy banner on the shop's main page. I'll be putting up a post about how I re-branded my shop.

This week's goals:
• Finalize everything for the senior show: Enough said. If you follow me on Instagram or checked out my portfolio, you've probably seen sneak peeks of my work. Now, it's going to be hanging up for my Senior Show. You guys, I graduate in roughly 50 days!!!
• Start a walking program: I am not a runner. Never have been and probably never will be. Props to you if you are a runner! How do you do it?! But I do like walking and since the weather is getting nicer, it's about time I get outside and go walking. I found a walking workout routine that I'd like to stick with for the next six weeks.

What are your goals for the week?


Weekly Wishes is a linkup post created by The Nectar Collective.