Closed for Business

I have an announcement to make!

I will NOT be taking on any freelance projects during this semester.

For me, freelance means any design work that is not related to my academic pursuits. The reason for this decision is I will begin my senior project for my major tomorrow. I must focus on this because it is the last ring of fire I will be required to jump through before receiving my diploma. This is a very extensive, detailed, and important project so in order to ensure my graduation and a successful project for my final portfolio I will be unable to do any design work besides what is needed for my efforts with school.

You have to realize that is hard for me to say, because I love helping anywhere that I can and especially where design is truly needed. Even so, I have to focus on this last semester of college and I hope that my desire to do so will be respected.

If you are in search of design help or a specific project that you would like to complete I would be delighted to point you in the direction of my fellow graphic design students and friends. They are eager for an opportunity to help anyone with their design needs, and I would love to point you in their direction.

Thank you so much for understanding! I apologize for any inconvenience this might cause you, but have no fear - I'll be open again for business after December!

Birthdays and Desks

Hey there!

Well I just got back from Memphis this afternoon, and let me tell you - I had a wonderful time. It's always hard for me to leave Memphis because of the dear friends I've made there. I spent the past three days hanging out with the youth ministers George and Courtney as well as the fellow I interned with last summer named Nick Hall. I also got to see a lot of the seniors, soon to be freshmen in college, before they headed off to their first semester.

It was slightly bizarre because when I was there I felt like I had never left! Also during my stay some exciting opportunities about my future were presented to me so - please pray about it! I know I will be.

Also while I was away I turned 23. Crazy? I think so. In some ways I still feel like I'm 18 and many will attest that I appear to look at least 12 or 14 on a good day. My dad is always saying "I can't believe it. Time is just flying by even faster as I get older! Did we just have Christmas yesterday?" Ha ha I love my Dad, and now I can slightly relate to his sentiments. It's been a great birthday, plus the 50 or so messages on Facebook made me smile. Thanks friends!

I came upstairs this afternoon and I looked over into the study. Since I started college I had this long card table that I used as my computer desk. I think it was a table Dad had at work that was going to the thrown away. The running joke has been that eventually I would have a "real" desk. I never saw the need for one because I do most of my work at studio but since the arrival of my beautiful Mac desktop, it just looked sad sitting on that scratched gray surface.

And this is what I saw:
Absolutely gorgeous. I mean, could there be a more beautiful desk? I think not. My wonderful family decided this would be a great present and they were right. My brother had to put it together, which I'm sure was a monstrous task. Thanks Jason!

So, thank you everyone for the sweet cards and messages. I've had a glorious 23rd birthday and you know what that means - I'm only TWO years away from being 25 and can, in the state on Tennessee, drive a 15 passenger van! YES! So close...

Ha ha well friends, as always, thanks for stopping by.

I'm back!

Hey everyone!

As you can see the blog here has gotten a little face lift. The intense green was starting to get to me, so I went to a cleaner format similar to my internship blog at Relevant.

I'm back in Auburn and I'm gearing up for the semester to start on the 18th. My birthday is only a few days away - that's right I'll be 23! Last week my parents and I went to look at a new Honda. Much to my dismay the car dealer said "So...are you in high school? Freshman in college?"

Seriously.

I'm headed up to Memphis on Sunday and I can't wait to see everyone there! The new building is finished and I'm curious to see the all the offices since everyone moved in. I'll return to Auburn on Wednesday then continue to research for my senior project presentation.

Okay I'm just going to go ahead and answer the two top questions that you have for me. Ready?

1.) What are you doing your senior project on?
I'm working with an organization called Adventures in Missions to create their campaign entitled the "Sound of Hope". Its purpose is to pair bands and musicians with specific people groups to raise awareness concerning poverty and promote orphan sponsorships. I would create their entire campaign, meaning merchandise (tshirts, stickers, buttons, etc) logo, logo suite, posters, brochures, and a few other odds and ends. I am very excited about my project and the fact that Adventures in Missions will use everything that I design.

2.) What are your plans after graduation?
At the moment I am still searching for plans. In an ideal world, I would love to work for church doing design and ministry in some capacity. If such an amazing opportunity doesn't come through I would love to work in Memphis. I have also heard that the Passion Conferences are searching for new designers so I am looking into that. Basically I have no idea at the moment, but I know God will open doors in the right direction.

Well I have a lot of freelance I need to get back to, but stay tuned and as always thanks for stopping by!

Change of Address

Hey there!

I have made a decision dear readers. In order to keep everyone from mass chaos and confusion, I have created a new blog to record my summer experience during my internship with Relevant Magazine in Orlando, Florida. I felt it would be easier and besides I'm no longer "walking in Memphis" but in Orlando. Someone should write a song about that...

Here is the new address, so please be sure to keep up:

http://megan-at-relevant.blogspot.com

In other news the semester finished out decently. I didn't get the grade I hoped for in Advanced Drawing but hey - I put about as much effort into the class as the professor so I think I acheived my academic duty. In the fall I will only have 2 classes to attend - World History II and History of Christianity. Yea the last one is just because I needed the hours and I thought it would be really interesting to take a religion class. (Plus the yoga class was full...)

I'm working on some design work again for WhiteStation in Memphis. Basically it's exactly what I did last summer with some slight variations. I'll be heading up there on Sunday and will spend a few days seeing everyone since I haven't visited since December - far too long. I'll come back on Wednesday, pack everything up, say my goodbyes and head to Orlando on Sunday.

Whoooohoooo! Summer time!

Alright that's about all I have for now. Keep your station tuned to my new blog for my change of location and yes I will post pictures of me, my living space, working space, and my wonderful co-intern Sarah!

As always, thanks for stopping by.

It's Official

Hey everyone!

Well for all of my curious readers out there I have successfully secured a place of residency for my internship in Orlando!

I'll be living with a family in Winter Park which is about 15 minutes or so from Alden Road which is where Relevant's offices are located. The family consists of Hannah who is 13, Justin who is 20 and in college (the same age as my brother Jason) and Preston who is my age and is getting married right before I move in. I will also be accompanied by two chihuahuas.

I'll be keeping this blog updated so you can keep tabs on me during the summer. I hope to post pictures as well.

I will move down to Orlando on the 19th or possibly the 18th, then begin work on the 20th. I'll be in the office from 9am to 6pm Monday through Thursday and 9am to 1pm on Friday. I have connected with the other intern as well. Her name is Sarah Qually and she's from Gran Rapids. She's a sophomore studying design and I think we will get along quite smashingly.

Come visit me while I'm there! I mean Disney World, and me, it could be the best vacation EVER.

So it's official. I'm a design intern for Relevant and I will start in 25 days!

Thanks for stopping by and I'll be sure to keep you updated in the next couple of weeks.

Are you RELEVANT?

Hey everyone!

So, I have precisely 13 days left in my semester which means that life around here has been complete chaos as I'm doing my best to keep up with the last few projects. I'm finished, including my last final, on May 1st which is pretty crazy because I typically have the last final on the last day of the exam period. Oh man I'm ready for this semester to be OVER!

I have some good news to announce so, drum roll please....

I was accepted as a design intern for Relevant Magazine starting at the end of May!

I have met with 3 of my professors and each were eagerly excited about the opportunity. There will be 2 other interns and one will begin their internship on May 19th which is hopefully the same start date as me. In all there will be nine of us - three in design, three in marketing, and three in editorial. Evidently, there is a guy from Auburn who is an editorial intern so I'm hoping to catch up with him in the next couple of weeks.

There is only one more thing I need. Oh you thought that getting the internship would be the end of it, but not quite. I'm still trying to find a place to live. We do have one option, but if you know of anyone in Orlando that has an extra room or needs a summer sub-leaser PLEASE let me know! I'm clean, friendly, responsible, great with children and pet friendly so - tell your friends, family, or anyone that this awesome AU girl needs a roof over her head for the summer!

So yay! The internship search is over! Finally.

In other news, I went to Passion last weekend and man...the word "awesome" just isn't enough to describe how Passion was for me. For those of you who aren't familiar, Passion is a Christian conference for college students. This year we met in Atlanta and over 9,500 people came to worship and learn about God. The 2 speakers were Louie Gigglio and Francis Chan while David Crowder, Chris Tomlin, and Charlie Hall performed and lead worship. If you want to see more about the weekend check out the link: http://www.268generation.com/2.0/splash5.htm

I'm headed to Mobile on Saturday for an area wide meeting of youth groups in Mobile to see our drama group Speak perform. We are having a full day of hanging out with the teens, eating together, playing games, performing our skits, and teaching classes. It should be a good learning experience for Speak and hopefully God will use our time and silliness to reach out to the youth groups that attend. Also if you're free on Tuesday night at 7pm, and are aching to see Speak perform, come to devo at the ACSC on College Street! We're performing skits based on the themes of Acts which should be entertaining so I hope you can make it there!

Well that's about it for now. I better get back to my classes! As always, thanks for stopping by.

Happy April!

I can't believe April has already arrived. We have about 5 weeks left in the semester and that is quite intimidating. A lot has been happening in Auburn so I wanted to give you guys an update (and continue procrastinating on my website!)

Ah the internship hunt. Well, after all of that leg work beginning in November I have 2 offers on my plate at the moment. The first is with Adventures in Missions - I would be doing tons of design work for their new program Sound of Hope which connects sponsorships for orphans with musicians and their fan bases. I would also focus on the design aesthetic for the World Race.

The second possibility is with a firm in Birmingham, Details Communications. They focus on church and mission media. The rare bonus about Details is that they pay. I am still waiting on a phone call to inquire about a few things, but it does sound like a great place.

As far as Relevant in Orlando goes I was e-mailed last week. They said I made it to the "second round" for the internship. I had no idea there would be rounds...but I was thrilled to have made it through the first cut. I should hear from them sometime this week but honestly that would be my first choice at the moment. Granted I have no idea who I would live with or where, but from a design perspective I feel like they would have the most to teach me which I feel is the main purpose for having an internship in the first place.

Academia is beating me into the ground at the moment. I only got about 1 or 2 hours of sleep and for the past week it has been less than 6. If you know me, I always say that in a perfect world I would sleep 12 hours a night - when is the sun goes down till it rises again but that is ideal. I'm running on empty, and I am really behind in my classes. I have had so much going on outside of school from tons of freelance and other things with the ACSC that it has been hard to keep my head above water.

I have a printmaking critique today and it could be dreadful. I also have a biology test tomorrow that I just started studying for. If I could have any super power it would be to not require sleep.

I registered for my FINAL semester when I got back from Spring break. Isn't that insane? I will never register again. Soon I will be able to say "Oh when I was in college...." I'm going to be a "real" adult soon and that's intimidating. Even so, I will be excited to have a job where I can go to work and then leave my work AT work. No more sleepless nights. No more working in studio alone covered in staining ink.

As Frank Sinatra says "The best is yet to come and babe won't that be fine!"

That's about all I have to update. I've been pretty consumed with school and design which doesn't make for too much excitement.

Well I better study for biology and work on my website and my logos for San Diego and the logo for Sound of Hope and send off the Speak T-shirt and send mail to Casey in Chicago and check on my internship and prepare for my reader today and go to critique and take photographs of my projects for my professor and figure out why the IRS is sending me letters and go over my checks and...oh sleep.

Ha. Everyone have a splendid day, and if you a resting do a little for me. As always, thanks for stopping by!