life’s not a paragraph

yesterday i went to see a movie at a film festival focusing on human trafficking and human rights that was created by the boston initiative to advance human rights (bitahr) and conveniently being held at the modern theatre by suffolk!

my friend allison is interning at bitahr and she had asked me if i could design some buttons for the volunteers to wear one on of the festival days. of course i said yes! and as a show of appreciation they gave me two tickets to two of the movies. i wasn’t able to make the movie on friday but my boyfriend christian and i went to the movie last night.

it was called very young girls, a documentary/exposé by rachel lloyd about child sexual exploitation in new york city. to be honest, i really didn’t know a lot about the issue before i went. i’d never really looked into the issues surrounding prostitution, especially in the states (it’s always one of those things you hear about happening in south east asia or somewhere far away), so to say this movie was eye-opening for me is an understatement.

rachel lloyd, herself a survivor of the sex industry, created this program called GEMS (girls educational and mentoring services) to help girls get out of the life and move on to continue their education or get a job. the movie focuses on not only life in GEMS, but the girls’ struggles to not return to their pimps and create a new life for themselves. the movie is terribly sad as you see the girls struggle with their love and hate for their pimp but incredibly inspiring when you see a girl succeed in moving on, appreciating herself and finding a healthy, happy relationship (one of the girls gets married!!).

i was on the edge of tears the entire time. especially to know that all of that is happened a mere 4 hours away from here, and in actuality is probably happening in areas of boston that i don’t know about.

there was a discussion panel after the movie with rachel lloyd, a graduate of GEMS, rhea, a harvard doctor and an art/political activist. the questions and the conversation that followed was just as interesting as the movie because we not only talked about the events of the movie, but also the political, cultural and psychological influences that contribute to sexual exploitation and it’s status/perception in society. i learned so much in the three hours that i was there than i think i had even know about this facet of human rights. i am so grateful that i got to take a small part in the dialogue about something so important and so pressing in our world today. no one should have to feel like and be a slave to another human. not this time. not in my backyard.

check out the bitahr website here.

i think i filmed my last promotional piece for suffolk this past week. this was my third video for the school, which is kind of strange. if you had told me in high school i would be making videos for my future university, i would’ve looked at you like you were crazy.

but here i am. a little more accustomed to talking to people through a camera than i would like to admit. as a result of this experience, i will be a student profile on the new england school of art and design, which could be interesting. it’s such a strange idea for me that people see me on these things. strangers hear me talk, see me talk and learn about my life from me is really weird. since it makes me ridiculously uncomfortable, i am going to say with plenty of confidence that any future career is not going to be in film. haha

our first project in graphic design four is the rebranding of porter square bookstore, which means a whole new look for the store from logo to advertisements. i’d never been to the bookstore before, but it was really cool! i wish it were closer to where i live. it was small but they have so many different sections and variety of genres. they also have a coffee shop which sells equal exchange coffee (probably the BEST coffee i’ve ever had) and other local tea and pastries. i’m pretty aware of the return to local business movement, but i have never thought about it in the local bookstore sense. porter sq books store is all about being local and independent. their ability to bring together the community over books is amazing. they have only been in porter sq for a short time, but they have really made themselves a part of the area.

creating concepts for this project was both fun and challenging. there was a lot to explore, but it was hard to stray from the typical book and coffee cup logo. i definitely had to push myself for this project. my professor laura golly has some really high expectations for us, so striving to meet them was a little stressful, but i ended up coming up with some solid concepts.

i decided to go with an adventure concept. using the north star/compass rose as the logo, i referenced the adventure and mystery of books, like sailors sailing the sea during the 1700s. the idea that, because of their focus on personalized customer service, porter sq books is the customers “guide” toward their next adenture, aka follow the north star to find your way. i am pretty happy with the idea and now it’ just a matter of flushing it out more to create a solid, complete identity. wish me luck!

so i was a little nervous last night about starting my internship today. i knew it was going to be fine (at orientation everyone was so friendly and laid back) but that didn’t make me any less nervous for my first official day as an intern at the small planet institute.

i got there earlier than everyone else, and since it was my first day, i had nothing to do so i decided to read some more of the book that they had given me to read. (frances moore lappe has written a number of books. i’ve only read one (diet for a small planet), but i am in the middle of two of her others (ecomind and getting a grip).

but as soon as natalie got in, she assigned me with the task of making some new postcards/promo cards for frances’ new book, ecomind. so i just sat at my little desk and made up a few versions for them to pick through. they loved them! they were so excited and so impressed that i could made it all that day (i mean it took me 5 hours, but still). i was really flattered and it definitely gave me a good feeling of what the rest of my time there will be like.

i have yet to meet frances (i am patiently waiting for that moment!) but everyone else i’ve met so far is awesome! they share space with another organization called ecologic which works in latin america, so there’s a smatter of spanish here and there. you can only imagine how happy that makes me!

so overall, i had an excellent first day. 🙂 yay!

i’ve finished editing all my photos. i now have a solid 807. here’s a little peek into my trip…

a church in san salvador

in a guerilla fox hole on the mt guazapa

digging some trenches for the foundation!

playing with the kids from el sitio

enjoying our last day at the beach!

less than forty-eight hours ago my feet were in the pacific ocean and sitting in a hammock in el salvador. but i am back to bitterly cold new england and i have just survived (what could be) my last first day of school ever!

el salvador was incredible. there’s no real way to describe it. i could never do it justice if i were to even try. i can say it was life changing, or at least perspective altering.

since this was my first experience traveling to a third world country, i expected to learn and gain a wider global view. but in addition to what i witnessed while driving through downtown san salvador and the countryside, the conversations i had with salvadorans and the testimonies i heard about the war completely turned my world upside down. imagining your entire family begin murdered in front of them is not something anyone wants to envision, but to thousands of civil war survivors, this is their past. a past that is still very vivid today, especially in the  daily absence of all 75-100,000 they lost.

the day after i got home was the 20th anniversary of the peace accords that ended the war. i can only imagine the mix of joy and sadness that came with that date in el salvador. the country’s past is wrought with violence and repression, and unfortunately, the end of the war was not an escape as rival gangs quickly replaced the guerilla FMLN and the military government in battles for territory. i think, however, that as much as the violence and gruesome history affected me, the resilient joy of the salvadoran people with what awed me more. their ability to, as a community, overcome, accept the past and move forward is more inspiring than anything i have ever seen. what i learned from them in this respect is only something i can hope to incorporate in my life– the ability to accept and live, really live with pure joy, instead of getting stuck in the mundane negativities that flood most americans’ senses. as i try to fit myself back into my life, i continue to learn from el salvador even though i am back in america… and i have a feeling it still has a lot more to teach me.

web design two was definitely a step up from one. not because the class was better or anything but because i already had a bunch of html under my belt. i am so glad that i finally got my own website and that i feel capable enough to build a site.

our projects– the type specimen, the movie trailer site, the flash ads– really helped me feel comfortable enough to make it happen and gave me the skills and the experience to do so. it makes me excited to learn more and allow my knowledge to grow as the web world does.

other than the website (which as great as it was, it was super frustrating) i loved doing the type specimen. as limiting as a bunch of random words and figures look, you can really make a personality or a feeling shine through on the web. there are so many options; it’s seemingly endless. i was able to translate the feeling and style of the arts and crafts movement through the web even though they were completely against technology. that’s pretty cool right?

this was one of my favorite classes of the semester. i got some of my best (and my personal favorite!) projects of the semester. my roommate hope was in my class too so that was fun to get to go to class together in the morning!

my two favorite projects from this class this semester were the poetry book and the set of cards project. the poetry book project was our first project. we had to design a book of collected poetry that had a theme. mine was called on living and dying: collected poetry by e. e. cummings. it was a collection of poems by cummings on life and death. i had a lot of fun finding photography (i ended up using a bunch of black and white photos from the 60s). and i really enjoyed playing with the layout of the words.

my other favorite project was our last project, the set of cards project. i did mine to support the famine in Ethiopia. the cards would be theoretically sold through Oxfam to go towards their efforts in Ethiopia to relieve poverty. each card features art by contemporary ethiopian artists and a small biography on the back. the box resembles the boxes Oxfam uses to deliver food and supplies so it gives the customer the idea that with their purchase another similar box is being delivered to a community in need.

e. e. cummings poetry book

oxfam card set

i really enjoyed this class. mostly because i really enjoy drawing. haha but also because i already had some illustrative elements in my design work, and this class just reinforced illustration in my design. it definitely didn’t do that for everyone. but i enjoyed having a class that spent less time on the computer, giving me some hands on homework. sometimes i miss the foundation year’s focus on hand drawing and making everything.

in illustration we did a few projects. we started out with a condiment label where we had to draw the elements that would be featured on the label and then make the completed label on the computer. i made a creole seasoning label with a drawing of celery, onion and pepper (the “holy trinity” of creole and cajun cooking). we also did spot illustrations (small illustrations that go beneath a recipe or on a recipe card) for a cookbook theme that we came up with.

one of my favorite projects was the botanical drawing which we did at the end of the semester. we got to chose a plant and we did a watercolor illustration of the plant– its whole view, the flowering parts, inside the flowers and the roots, depending on what you had. i had a calla lily. it was really interesting because wallace (my professor) brought in a professional botanical illustrator to come and speak with us. botanical illustration is actually very scientific. you have to measure everything and make sure that each and every stroke is perfect. it’s a very interesting blend of science and art. i certainly don’t have the patience to become a true botanical illustrator, but i enjoyed my two weeks of pretending i was!

corporate design was my elective class this semester. i was really excited for it because i thought it would be a great class for me to learn about branding and rebranding a company so i could take those skills to the non-profit field eventually.

it ended up being a little different than i expected but i learned a lot just the same. i think i have told you in previous posts, but i redesigned the logo, packaging, advertisements, brochure and stationary of guayaki yerba mate tea company, which is based out of california. they are this really incredible organic, fair trade and super sustainable tea company that exclusively sells yerba mate, a type of tea from south america. i really hate the current packaging and logo, so i decided that the company needed to have a face lift to reflect these awesome qualities.

this was a semester long project so ever few weeks we would switch and take on the next element of the rebranding. we started off with the logo, which is the most important because everything– the look, the feel, the colors– hangs on that logo. this element definitely took the longest. it was a bit of a struggle for me, but when i finally got it right, everything else started to fall into place (except for my brochure, that still needs some reworking haha). the stationary was next, then the packaging, then the brochure, then the website and lastly the ads. i am happiest with my packaging and the ads.

here’s the before and after logos:

here's the current logo

my redesigned logo