vigilant

WORKING IN SCOTLAND: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN....

And the last week in Scotland is here. Things with baseline are very busy because of the Connect music festival, and the screen prints are making a big impression apparently. Finishing up the Franz Ferdinand poster today and tomorrow, and gathering all the others for display in King Tuts alongside some of the highlights of American Gig Posters! The REM/T in the Park poster is being framed and put next to one of my all time fav Idlewald posters that can be found in the Masters of Poster Making book, you know the one with the "cat in the hat" stripes on the cover in that venue! The CEO of DF concerts came down to talk to Douglas and I when we went to Glasgow to have lunch with the marketing manager Keira and discuss the hand made signage/ mural we are painting on Thursday. He told us that REM loved the poster and were really impressed that an "american student" did the design and illustration for it. I was so jazzed!

Last night I went to Edinburgh to see Kate Nash perform in all her glory and her back up afro-wearing-skeleton dancers were awesome! The best part of the night hands down was when I want to the girls bathroom and saw my Connect Site map and program guide thingie sopping wet laying on the sink. I actually have made something real, and in the music industry! I got so excited I turned to the slightly off-put Irish girl and asked "Where did you get that?!?!" she replied wearily that she didn't know, it was already in here, so I snatched it up and ran out waving it about like a "sthupit git" (in scottish terms) shouting to my friends that "I MADE THIS! LOOK! I MADE THIS!!!" this was the best moment ever! They all laughed with me and when we left the gig, we went through and picked up some that were thrown on the ground. There were suprisingly less than I thought would be tossed on the floor, which was another plus!!! So the one I found is dirty, wrinkled and smells like the girls toilet.... but I made it and it was a complete surprise to find that they were handing them out at the gig!!!

Also ANOTHER big piece of news is that Scottish Hydro Electric, the sponsor for the Connect festival is making my site map into a GIANT billboard on site!! They blew up my illustrations to MEGA size! DF is also making my bendy-man illustration into the official Connect festival t-shirt and hoodie! and now everyone at the festival will now be either wearing, looking at, or (apparently to be expected at these things) relieving themselves on my design. SO COOL.

The Connect Website is leaving a lot to be desired considering design, but hey, they are promoting my map on the general info page! Check it out!

Working with Baseline has been awesome. I think I achieved a lot design wise and feel really appreciated here for my outlook on things. Being in a working studio environment has really shown me my weaknesses as a designer and forced me to understand the real world and its limitations a far amount more than the education system has been able to show me. At this point I would say that formal education teaches you design, but working with a studio and a print shop teaches you to be a designer. I never worried about file organization or work flow or money or communication enough before coming here. I didn't understand that your work in a studio faced with deadlines is not your own work, it is interchangable and because of this there needs to be a system in place that communicates your file's placement, proof version, colors used, external reference files, and file size so that if you are off sick for the day the entire studio doesn't loose a deadline or money because you have a different typeface in your computer than the rest of the studio. (And let me just say, it almost happened to me... terrifying...)

I think the biggest difference from school to studio is the fact that your work isn't precious. its supposed to be printed out hung up and discussed between everyone, it is supposed to be passed on and then back again to gain perspective. The work I have made this summer has been trashed and it has been praised in varying degrees, but the fact that I am not angry or put out when Douglas or Steven comes up and suggests things to me is great!

As for being in a print shop with no instructor to lean on even a bit, I am all for that as well. Printing by experence and not instruction is how everyone should go. I screwed up so many times this summer but every time I did Douglas and I went through all the possibilities why a print wasn't turning out, talked about it, tried things, changed factors, and gained the knowledge that only seems to come from desperation and the experence of cleaning up after a crap run of posters. I think working this way has made me a better printmaker than I was before, and definatly made me more aware of my problem solving skills.

LIVING IN SCOTLAND: LEAVING ALL TOO SOON.

I absolutely love it here. The weather is not too hot (bit rainy, but no big deal) You can drink on the trains, beer is bigger, people are friendly and accommodating, and I don't think I could have found a better psudo-family to spend my summer with than the Walkers. I am absolutely sure that this summer has been a big turning point for me. I went out! I met people! I survived the journey over and wondered about Scotland for 3 months without being robbed or stabbed or lost! (knock on wood, I still have a week to go....) I can't believe its time to go home already. Glasgow is the best city for good music. I went to some AMAZING shows this summer, and still have one more to go before I return to Tennessee. I love the feeling of being more connected to other countries, other types of people. In America, you never realize how self centered and walled off from the rest of the world's public opinion of ANYTHING. It is very humbling. I spent most of the summer going "Whats that?" or "How can you do that?" or "Can that happen?" and "Why does it work this way?" I felt completely ignorant but now I know more... a "wee" bit more anyway...

I will miss my life here incredibly. I will miss the people in it.



I cannot wait to come back.


I am coming back.