While First Fridays are by far one of my favorite activities to attend as a creative in Kansas City, today was especially exciting because I was able to go to 5 Points Pop-Up Shop! 5 Points is a creative union which calls you to make, say, share, live, and keep. They are a wonderful new addition to the Kansas City creative community, take a look at their website and shop!
Design Army Invades KC
Tonight I had the opportunity to hear one of the founders of Design Army, Jake Lefebure, speak. While there were many witty and inspiring take-aways from the evening, it was perhaps most interesting to learn about the process in which their studio operates. Their heavy focus on sketching appears to drive the beginning stages of every project. We even got to see glimpses of how Design Army presents concepts to clients. While Jake chronicled many different projects they had worked on for various clients, I loved hearing about their work for Neenah Paper. I was even lucky enough to snag a few goodies from Neenah's table at the event. This included the set of cards they designed as part of the Delightful Species series. Below are several photos from Design Army's Facebook page giving a behind-the-scenes look at how they gathered inspiration for Neenah's new Environment Premium Recycled Papers line. Thanks Art+Copy Club for bringing in such an inspiring speaker!
"An idea is just an idea unless you execute it."
A Paper Forest
Tinybop recently relased their second app called PLANTS! Kelli Anderson and Daniel Dunnam created a wonderful cut-paper stop motion video to explore how a child would view this app and explore the forest itself. i first came across the lovely video by Jacob Krupnick which documented the making of Kelli and Daniel's video. As a designer, I was fascinated to see the behind-the-scenes process that took place and the amount of detail that went into each and every frame. I also included a link to the video which shows the app itself. The artwork featured within the app was done by Marie Caudry. I loved seeing how her artwork influenced the cut-paper video.
In other news, my life has been somewhat of a whirlwind for the past month. Between senior show, my graduation, and this week marking the beginning of my internship with Hallmark I have not had much downtime to devote to blogging. I am extremely excited to dive back into sharing things that inspire me and projects I am working on. I also hope to share some of my experience in the Lettering Studio. After only two days I can already tell this summer will be a wonderful creative experience.
Senior Show
Last Thursday was my senior design show, and marked the end of my college career. The past few weeks have been especially chaotic getting everything finished, but I can say I was extremely proud not only of my own final portfolio, but of everyone in my very talented class. It was wonderful to be able to share with family and friends what we all have been working towards this entire year. I can't wait to see what amazing things we will all do next!
Photos by Max Mikulecky, Senior Show Branding Led by Anthony Schmiedeler
A10 Jurors Panel
Wow, last night was inspiring. I attended AIGA KC's A10 Jurors Panel featuring Lost Type co-founder Riley Cran, Nessim Higson of IAAH, Kelly Stevens of Seven Creative, handletterer and chalk artist Dana Tanamachi, and Katherine Walker who recently joined the Google Brand Studio. It was amazing to hear each of them speak. Here are a few insights from the evening:
Seek out mentorship.
Find your angle.
Balance work and personal projects.
Make something every day.
Community and design intersect.
Overall, it was a wonderful panel. Thanks again, AIGA KC!
Reimagining Brands with David Mikula
Last night I attended an AIGA KC event Behind the Beard: Reimagining Brands with David Mikula. He describes himself as an avant gardener, inventor, and mischief-maker living in New York City. A creative director at Redscout New York, he led us through the journey that is his impressive career. One phrase that stuck out to me was the idea that inspiration can be paralyzing. Yet, I can't say I wasn't inspired last night, thanks David and AIGA KC! Below are few images and a video from when David worked at Digital Kitchen, it's fun stuff take a look:
