Crazy things I discovered today, Including Pepsi Ice Cucumber

Yep, it's real! And it's been around for 2 years. How did I miss this? It's only in Japan...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/13/world/main2922732.shtml
Here's video of someone taste testing a bottle they got on eBay for $15





Blog about foods that didn't hack it
http://culinaryabortions.wordpress.com






Hilarity at www.ThereIFixedIt.com

(The adult Advent calendar)


("Even Jack Bauer need lunch.")



Awkward Humor at http://PictureIsUnrelated.com/

Pages for Prisoners... intrigues me

Got extra books around the house and don't want to sell them to a resale shop?
Help a prisoner better themselves.

I found a great reason to clean off my book shelf!
http://www.pagestoprisoners.org/donate

What They Don't Need

• Romance Novels
• Popular Fiction geared only to a female audience (the majority of the people who request books from our project are men)
• Books about popular culture that are older than 10-15 years old
• Reader's Digest condensed versions of books
• "Gift" books
• Very advanced/specialized textbooks or other academic books
• Multivolume Encyclopedias
• Books for young children
• Travel guidebooks
• True crime (many facilities prohibit these books)
• GRE test prep books
• Legal theory books, property, business law

Note: As many prisons and jails prohibit hardcover books, they are much less useful to our project than paperback ones.

What They Always Need

These are books that are often requested but not often donated.

• New or like new books
• Mystery/thriller/suspense/horror/adventure
• Sci-fi/Fantasy
• Westerns
• African-American studies or fiction with African-American characters
• "Life skills" - personal finance, job skills, etc.
• Entrepreneurship/Real Estate/Small Business
• Spanish language books
• Technical and Vocational Skills (carpentr, auto mechanics, electronics, HVAC, etc.)
• Basic high school level textbooks for math and science
• Criminal and civil-rights law books, criminal case law, self-help legal books
• GED test prep books

There's a drop off location in Bloomington called Box Car Books (.com).
Let me know if you want to participate. I'm thinking of a creating great event for AIGA Indy to partner with the com

Publish Post

munity. God knows designers have tons of books they've collected that aren't necessarily something they do much with anymore...

That is all. The spirit of the season is finally settling into my soul for a stay :-)
Cait

Design Inspiration: Link-a-holic

Classic, Modern, Reliable
http://designarchives.aiga.org/

Fresh, Unique, Eye Candy
http://abduzeedo.com
http://abduzeedo.com/awesome-paintings-adam-haynes



Quantitative, Resourceful, Original (similar to this blog entry)
http://justcreativedesign.com
http://justcreativedesign.com/2007/12/12/101-places-to-get-design-inspiration/










Detailed, Categorized, Indulgent
http://www.danielnelson.se/


























Raw, Spontaneous, Young
http://deviantart.com
http://irrel.deviantart.com/art/Looking-Glass-Alice-Hatter-146920555
























Design-y, Thoughtful, Job Postings
http://designerscouch.org/
http://designerscouch.org/show_design/6492/no-18-winterfest.html

Where do you like to find inspiration?
Add a link in a comment!

Being Diversity Sensitive in 2010

Current conundrum: Required Diversity

Our department has hosted student-written blogs for the past year and a half. Students detail in words and photography all the campus life that a student experiences (save a few select genres including late night beverage consumption.) We get real information directly from the students piped directly to the public (prospective students, parents, university officials) and get content that a professional adult would not be able to, due to the change in student behavior when present. This is students in their natural habitat.

Our coaching and education of our selected photographers was stepped up this year. We had a thorough interview process and portfolio review. We only had 15 people apply for the 5 spots and about 8 of them were aptly qualified for the job. As an equal opportunity institution, we examined the portfolios for content quality. The hired students consisted of 4 females and a male from varied years in school and several diverse states. They were all caucasian.

The blogs were of such quality and interest that our main University web page picked them up for the month to run as content with a link to our department's page and all the blogger biographies. Within 4 days, the Provost communicates to us that we need to include 2 racially diverse bloggers as soon as possible.

We're now in the awkward situation of having to interview, locate and hire 2 additional racially diverse bloggers. Besides the fact that only one non-caucasian person interviewed for the position, only 4 were male. There are many other factors that are not being acknowledged in the process of adding 2 student employees:
- Going over budget: we were able to afford payment for 5, not 7.
- Bloggers have a day of the week to blog, M-F. Do we add a Saturday and Sunday post?
- We will have to train new employees mid year and assist them in the process of executing the blog.
- The other photographers may feel reverse discrimination. We don't want them to think "My work is good but I'm caucasian." They worked hard to get to this job.
- How will the new photographers feel, being brought in mid-year?

We have to decide whether we're willing to make a choice that may potentially compromise quality in order to represent diversity on our campus. If students that represent minority ethnicities on campus are not interested in the position, we can't force someone to do the job. At the same time, if we leave our current content untouched, we're being accused of only selecting caucasian students: last time I checked, if we did not discriminate by choosing talented individuals over equally talented minority individuals, we've not done anything wrong.

If only caucasian people run for congress, the citizens do not nominate someone unprepared and elect them just to be a minority voice.

Yes, we'll evaluate how we advertise the position next year. Campus wide television ads, Facebook, Twitter and student newspaper are as equal opportunity as I can think of.

Thoughts and comments will be appreciated.

-Workin' Girl-

Honesty and a shared office fridge

I am happy to report that my delicious local pizzeria leftovers survived 24 hours in the shared office fridge without so much as a nudge to move them out of the way of others' lunches this morning.

*WOW*

A year ago, I recall blogging about Who Stole My Lunch. I was much more peeved after a shorter fridge stay then. Food nibbled away anonymously to practically nothing.

Some hope in humanity is restored (and I hear that the common culprit of lunches going AWOL was my predecessor...)

Happy lunch from the fridge!
CM

Rain, I'mma let you finish, but....

...Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst storms ever.
How rude of you to attempt to ruin my day with too much sogginess.
Please don't wash out any roads, ok?! I want to get home tonight to watch Pam marry Jim after all this time!

Small Office Perks

When you have a small office, cleaning off your desk counts as cleaning your office.

I'm in Love...

...with the new Pentagram refresh of the Guitar Hero brand marks.

Classy, powerful, WICKED!



BEFORE

AFTER

My favorite part is that the new marks are unified across platforms of play. The focus is on HERO not GUITAR, a much stronger connection visually and conceptually. Thank you for understanding that we Activision fans love to rock out on the mic or drums, too! And when you're ready to expand the brand to Marching Band Hero, I know a few folks who would quite their day jobs to help perfect it.

Proud of our AIGA brethren and can't wait to see some photography of the product research. I love how seamless the transition is from old to new marks. Not too risky but definitely a CLEAN UP JOB. Those uneven skinny and fat letters drove me up a wall! This was a killer undertaking and the final marks and logotype family are a natural fit.

"Creating the new brand language included the development of a custom font, Hero Bold, a heavyweight sans serif invested with the spiky attitude of the logotype family." - Pentagram's article (link at the top)



"Today, Activision is working with its packaging designers, as well as in-house teams and other consultants, to create other variations, including those that will be on shelves when Guitar Hero launches today, and when DJ Hero launches at the end of October and Band Hero a week later.

Project Team: Michael Bierut, partner-in-charge; Joe Marianek, designer. Hero font designed by Kai Salmela."

Bravo Michael, Joe and Kai - I extend my gnarly-nailed index finger to yours with lightning shooting out of it. You ROCK!

(Kudos to DesignersCouch blog for catching my eye with the news!)

This Place Cleans Up Well

BEFORE


AFTER



After lots of trial and error with vinyl products, we found the high performance grade that stuck best. And wow does it change the feeling of this facility.
More photos here: Hold The Cheese on Flickr

Next phase is finishing file prep for vinyl application and foam sign art for concept identification at several facilities.

The new school year brought with it a greater appreciation and respect for all things student services. Event graphics production was high intensity but this "event" is crazy. You never know what you'll be asked to make!

A long, short week and I'm ready for a Big Ten football weekend.
CM

When life gives you lemons...

...throw them at the salad that is peeling off the wall.



Short version of the story... giant plans to roll out beautiful new lettering in a dining facility and the specialized vinyl we chose didn't make friends with our paint. The entire order of logos and navigational lettering was ready to go, all cut and beautiful. And then, after the first application was done, the letters started to slowly wilt off the wall. Thank goodness we'd only had ONE of the many signs installed.

Quick optimism and brainstorming presented a handful of secondary solutions. We're nixing the super fancy brushed chrome effect in favor of a higher performance micro-shimmer metalic silver. Thinner vinyl = better adaptability and grip on satin finish paint. Hooray! This delays us about 2 weeks and we may not make it in time for the signs to be finished before students return to campus, but we they'll be done soon after!

Being resourceful, I salvaged the second half of "salad bar" before it was tossed. Perhaps it will surface in my new office or home mixology lab.

My brain is at ease knowing the folks who use Illustrator 9 produce quality products and think on their feet. Otherwise, I might consider the whole project an initial fail.

CM

Why are you still using old software?!

(Please pardon this hyper rant. I am usually much more constructive in my commentary. This just bugged the heck out of me and I wanted to sound off. -CM)

Why are you still using old software?!
Better yet, why are you making me adapt to your old software?

I'm working with a vendor on a job and they use Illustrator 9. I coughed when I heard that. When asked by they haven't upgraded, they said they hadn't needed to and most of their work is done in Corel (for printing?!! I daren't ask what version that is!) My frustration grew from the amount of labor I had to output to prep production ready art for their system.

Adobe Illustrator 9 is at least 9 years old. When I was a kid, the tooth fairy stopped making visits to pick up lost teeth when my age matched the number of teeth that I lost. Why can't we scream "STANDARDS" when software versions are as old as their release number (or earlier?)

Comparisons...
I work in CS4, released 2009.
They work in v.9, released 2000.

Mine currently costs $400 something.
Theirs currently costs $100 something.

Mine can accommodate theirs by downgrading files when I save them.
Theirs is helpless and cries when asked to open a v.10 file.

My system requirements:
* CPU: 2GHz or faster processor
* Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (Service Pack 3 recommended) or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 (certified for 32-bit Windows XP and Windows Vista)
* System Memory: 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
* Storage: 2GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on flash-based storage devices)
* Monitor: 1,024x768 display (1,280x800 recommended)
* Video Card: 16-bit video card
* Optical Drive: DVD-ROM drive
* QuickTime: Broadband Internet connection required for online services*
* Note: For updates to system requirements, visit: www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/systemreqs

Their system requirements:
* Pentium or faster processor
* Windows 98, 2000, or NT 4.0
* 64 MB RAM
* 105 MB hard drive space
* CD-ROM drive
* Video card that supports 800 x 600 or greater monitor resolution
* Adobe PostScript Level 2 or later (if using PostScript printer)

Price is not a justification for being ridiculously behind the times.

So, you ask, is it a problem for me to create separate art files for production and save them all back to Illustrator 9 .eps files? Nah. No problem. I LOVE doing that. You'll just rot in the shame of the technology age's advancement with every file you download from my FTP submission.

Hey, future vendor partners? Wanna buy a copy, require me to accomodate it and drive me up a wall? Like I'll do business with you if there are alternative sources of product. MY requirements... at least be in the CS generation of Adobe software with a legal copy! Respect the software companies and help them develop better solutions by paying them for their work.

In the mean time, visit Amazon.com for your fresh copy of Illustrator 9 and you can even have it gift wrapped.

Anyone else think I'm justified in my rant? Sound off in the comments of RT on Twitter. Hail Current Technology for Now!

CM

Rest in Peace, King of Pop

As I worked on my logos and mock ups yesterday at my desk, I streamed the Michael Jackson Memorial Celebration in a second window on my screen. Head phones on, I enjoyed the memories and the performances, remembering in my own way what his musical contributions have meant to me.

A performing arts nerd, I'd performed dance routines and marching band shows to Michael Jackson music. Imitating his famous moves, the best my fellow performers and I could do was nothing compared to what he was capable of.

The most touching moment in the service was when his only daughter, Paris-Michael Jackson, spoke at the end, sharing that she had the best father ever. Her difficulty speaking through tears and fighting the fear of speaking in front of a full Staples Center was very touching. I only hope that she doesn't remember that as a scarring event but rather a moving show of love and support of her father.


Photo Credit: AP PHOTO / GABRIEL BOUYS, POOL

That moment made me cry in my cubicle. Wow. Didn't see that coming as I editted text for a housing guide next to the CNN stream. As I did with the Inauguration, I enjoyed the Facebook collaboration and simul-chat, watching real people, strangers, react. Very moving.

Moon walk on, MJ.

Phase 1: Done!

Our first phase of rebranding is all done, minus a few file saves and pdf distributions.
Ove 15 marks developed for dining concepts, specific kinds of vending locations and an over arching logo for the department!

We're now working on cataloging everywhere we need to place marks. It's dizzyingly complicated. So many individual locations, I don't want to forget any. We have done multiple walk throughs of facilities, tape measure in tow, to plot out what goes where and at what scale.

When we finish applying new singage and identities, this will have been the biggest update the facilities have ever had as a unit. Great feedback already from those who are employed in the facilities! They love the new colors and they feel valued that their employer is investing in their workplace.

Cooperation, creative education and empowerment of my coworkers had gotten us to this point.
Next phase: Application of marks and execution of standards enforcement.

CM

I'm not dead and I still work here...

It came to my attention that my coworkers thought that I had quit.

I was away from Wednesday afternoon through Monday afternoon. I had cleared off my desk and taken some personal items home before I left on Wednesday. Our IT people moved my computer to my bosses office that afternoon. The previous people who had held my position did not last long.

I was only away at the AIGA Leadership Conference in Portland for 5 days and the interior design folks were updating my desk.

This utterly amused me. People had talked about how I was so nice and how they had liked me and they couldn't beleive I was gone. There were also GIANT bouquets of flowers around the office that made me think to myself (did they think I died?!) but turned out to be from a wedding that an office coworker attended and brought back to share all over the office. They smell amazing, but when displayed alone and not in a group, appear to be funeral florals.

It's nice to be missed.

CM

More reflections on the AIGA Leadership conference later!

Top 10 Things You'll Discover (Working) at College

A spin off of useful info from:
Top 10 Things You’ll Discover at College

10. No one tells you what to do.
It's like working at a large company. Police yourself and work on time management because superiors have other fish to fry and are relying on you to tend to the nets while they're busy.

9. Many students (coworkers/clients) are smarter (or less experienced) than you.
Your processes as a creative may include the education of your client/peers on your ideation steps. Tell them only what they need to know and fill in the blanks when they get curious. Emphasize where you need their input and focus on the timeline you set being a major goal. Learn what your "client" knows about the process and what their experiences are with it so that you'll save headaches on the front end. Giving them more information than necessary can lead to them developing a "false expert" sense. Your responsibility lies in guiding them to the best solution, however they feel they have decided upon it. Good educational points can make them feel empowered to comment and encourage this to a point. "False experts" gone wild can kill time lines and waste energies quickly. However, they may not know where to even start when formulating an opinion. If they critique your font choices or color selections with nothing beyond their personal preferences, you have at least engaged them in the creative process. Be appreciative and back up your sales position of your preferences with research and trends to up your credibility and persuasiveness. They'll feel what the right solution is regardless but it's up to you to help them avoid weak solutions they feel are a great fit. When in doubt, provide end solutions you would be satisfied with regardless of their feedback.

8. Classes can be huge.
Departments can be a daunting arena. Approval processes and counsel may be long winding roads and messy. Learn up front who to go to and where back ups occur in the timeline!

7. ... And easy to blow off.
Going back to point 10, people may be too busy to keep up with the timelines you've assigned to them. Remind them early and often until you can count on their punctuality in meeting your needs.

6. Two thirds of the work is done outside the class (meeting) room.
Think ahead, be prepared and deliver. That's about it.

5. You set your own schedule.
Between meetings, you've got to do as 6 says and really prepare material to continue forward motion. Even if you're the only one who does so between meetings, you will be the constant contributor, increasing your value!


4. There are new subjects to be learned.
I never thought I'd be researching dietary needs and imagery but the end result dictates the work process. Enjoy the learning opportunities outside of your field and hone in on supplemental instruction that applies to your field. I've arranged to attend web design and CSS workshops through the university. I may not be using those skills right away but they're a great thing to keep in your pocket.


3. Learning at college is cumulative.
The new kid on the block has to figure out who the go-to folks are. Build a relationship with them so they're happy to help you. Reinforce it! Learning the behaviors and history of the school is as big a part of success as meeting their design needs. You can't help a client you don't know. Once you're acquainted, it only gets easier.


2. You have to choose a major.
You can't be an expert in everything so don't talk big unless you've got the experience to back it up. Seek out opportunities to expand your knowledge base and document it for reference. Working with a dietician (like I am?) then copy down some quotable facts from them. It'll help you approach related projects in a more familiar way and serve for talking points as you network.

1. You can be free of your parents.
Working on a college campus gives you the oasis feel of your own little city in the middle of a bigger country. During the day you tune in to the local environment, inserting the outside world as necessary, but all the while keeping the natives happy and attended to. Family and friends take on an after work roll and coworkers become the team that you attach yourself to. There's strength in numbers and the identity that comes with working for a large university or corporation can empower you to contribute to great things while feeling less exposed than at a smaller agency.

Carry on, fellow designers and higher ed folks!

Tiberius would be proud

Star Date: 2 months and 10 days

Mission:
Obtain selection preferences and approval of 3 refreshed designs for food concepts.

Checkpoints:
Accomplish approval in under an hour.
Avoid wasted time prepping what may be thrown out anyway.
Make allies.

Outcome:
Completed. Casualties were avoided.

Manifest: Weekly meeting went smoothly and people left smiling. The antagonists are hiding for the time being and a team is emerging. Inspiration shared, forward motion made. The inertia of the meeting is carrying us towards a bright portion of the process and I can only hope to keep our coefficient of friction to a minimum.

(By the way, the new Star Trek movie was AWESOME! But I couldn't tell you what's happened in the TV show for almost a decade.)

From Office Zero to Workplace Hero

Lesson #9
Always leave your business card in the fishbowl at a restaurant.

You just might win free food.

Take me for example, I placed a card in a tiny bowl at Chipotle and next week my Marketing Department gets free Chipotle because of it! Looks like the new hire is a rockstar.

Amazing! This could be you!

Color Awareness and Social Commentary

"That color is called Lift-Off Lemon. Woohoo!!"

A very positive and energetic director in our department, outside of the marketing crew, loves picking colored paper for handouts in meetings, posters, and power points. Variety is not always something you should take advantage of. After deciding that the screenshots she is printing needed to be on white paper, she picked a -fun- color for the rest of it. "Oooh! That's a fun yellow. All bright and lemon!"

:facepalm:

The battle of making people aware of appropriate choices of color is never ending. I didn't even open my mouth this time. Since it was something I heard over my cubicle, I was not involved in the process. But how many pages of text would you want to read on neon yellow paper during the course of someone's presentation? If you said none, that's what I thought.

And with the click of a mouse, my blog entry content feels shallow and empty in comparison to the tragic deaths of the 287+ who died in an Italian earthquake several days ago. See CNN's article. I was distracted for about 15 minutes from writing this entry by the news of the mass funeral. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone presided over the Mass and said the funeral was a "precious moment" to understand the meaning of life and death. "Everything can stop in a second -- projects, plans -- everything finishes. All that remains is love," he said.

I was poised to talk about how in my newest project and the sheer scope of what we aim to accomplish very quickly. The talk of how even the grandest schemes can be halted at any time for any reason made me take a moment and reevaluate my wording.

As my first large undertaking at my new position, there is a lot I have been entrusted with. I have to research, plan and present color and typographical choices for the rebranding of our University's Dining Services. Originally I was going to mainly talk about the difficulties I've had with convincing the other members of the team that my research and training are pointing to the solution. But it seems trivial in light of the earthquake.

And then a Tweet with a link came along about how constant information streams can harm our ability to sense others' feelings and read emotional situations... http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/ptech/04/14/twitter.study/?iref=hpmostpop

This pretty much can explain the disconnect I felt with the process of color selections, judging others' reactions and my relative inablity to sit down and write a blog entry in the middle of the day. Desensitized to the pain and suffering of humanity, we don't take the time to consider things. We just move, move, move. Projects that take place under expedited deadlines are treated in the same manner as a barrage of news stories about murders, deaths and kidnappings. You just keep moving. If you pause to consider good or bad, there is a great deal of value in the thoughts generated. But when is this option awarded? How are we morally growing in the face of streamlined execution?

I succumb to writing about writing and thinking about thinking. An uncharacteristic post leads me to revisit my banter surrounding my challenging project. I'm going to sit back a bit and let some of the reality of the world stew in my brain. I'll get back to art in a little while.

CM

Fresh Start

I got a call at the beginning of February.
My response..."Sure, I'd love to set up an interview."
I cleaned up my portfolio and dropped a few spotless samples in the pockets. Off I went, scared out of my mind over what might happen if my current part time job found out I went to an interview AND if I didn't get the job where I interviewed. I'd never been in a spot like that before. I'd only left jobs due to graduation or because of a lay off. Never had I felt I was in such control.

Laughing as we wrapped up, I felt great about the position and the people I could be working with. It was also nice to know that while I graduated from the school that was this employing location's rival, it wouldn't completely be held against me...

A week and a half later, after my references had been verified and contacted, I got the call with an offer. I pondered it for a few days with my husband.
Factors and questions that weighed in most heavily were:
- unknown status of a potential graduate assistant position and its funding at another university that would eventually provide tuition reimbursement for an MBA
- unknown job location of soon-to-be graduated husband as he begins his career
- relative emptiness of savings account + bills coming due
- potential to remain on the board of my local AIGA chapter
- deeply rooted school rivalry
- potential to commute within a 45 min radius if husband finds job

All of that was dissected and analyzed, and my husband and I decided that this was an opportunity not to be missed. The economy said so. An available job, with included benefits, that I was specifically qualified for would have been a blessing in normal economic times... right now it was nothing short of a miracle.

The job is in the city that I currently reside, unlike my past 2 jobs where I commuted up to 2 hours one way daily. I can gain close to 16 hours of my life back every week. I can't wait for my start date of March 2 to come. Applying for tons of positions in November and not really hearing back from any was difficult, and common from what I hear. But it all seems to fade into necessary white noise after accepting the new job.

I'll be working at a University in the department dealing with student housing and dining services. Serving as graphic design specialist, I hear I'll get to hit the ground running.

I courteously let my part time employer know that this job opportunity had arisen and a decision had been made. They let me know that they didn't need me the rest of the two weeks. Only 5 days later, I was done... with a week and a half between employers.

In the mean time, I'm updating my LinkedIn, Careerbuilder.com, Monster.com, AIGA, Twitter and Facebook accounts to reflect that I'm no longer readily available for full time employment opportunities. I'm still open, just not immediately available. That's the one thing I learned from this process. ALWAYS seek employment, whether you can take it or not. You never know when you may need an option or several.

Wrapping up freelance work I'm currently under contract for, and launching my own website for design services and goodies related to weddings and new babies, ten days should evaporate quickly.

More to come as design gears shift!
CM

Nannerpus

This makes me laugh out loud then cry. It's brilliantly and outlandishly creative.

It's Nannerpus!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kK6F7t-x6E

Creative Layoffs in a down economy

(Editor's Note: December 2, 2008 was my last day at my previous job. I was laid of mid-November due to budget cuts in a company that even at this date can't get the cash to pay the bills and risks closing it's doors after 30+ years of success. I've hopped on the emotional roller coaster that everyone's talking about and never seemed to even remember getting in line to ride. The wait is growing and we're all praying that the train malfunctions and the ride shuts down.)

Of all the people to lose their jobs, creatives have to have the easiest time bouncing back. It's what they do. We tailor our work for our clients and sell our selves and our product constantly. Now while we may not land a job that's a perfect match, we can still fit into the description pretty well. Everyone can use marketing help, sign design, a little product development...

But paying the bills may not go hand in hand with employment. It's been 2 months since I was given my notice that my position was eliminated and hours upon hours of job applications later, not a nibble. I've found 40 hours with a previous part-time job I had on the north side of Indianapolis. The owner is a doll and has a drive to grow. It's a fine art portrait studio specializing in a combination of techniques to create digital oil and water color paintings. It's the only place like it in America. Nifty! I have moved from a sales associate position (which I knew was a temporary fix until a full time option came along) to an artist in training spot. Excited as all get out about learning this technique of imagery, I fear that it will not pay the bills. It sure would be a fantastic skill to add for illustration and visual communication but the minimum wage part of training will not support a newly wed couple with the other spouse student teaching, banned from taking a job during that semester.

Reality: I'm earning 44% of what I had at my last job and savings is trickling out the door. I have to keep looking for other full time work as this new version of my position develops.

But with all the locations that are killing their marketing departments and outsourcing, creatives are ravenous and employers have the creme de la creme to pick from. Lost in a pile of resumes from extremely qualified executives, every day I try to stand out with my humble but solid experience. It's just that when it comes down to it, if some former art director applies for a graphic design spot because there's nothing else out there, I can't compare on paper to their qualifications.

Wheels spinning, my objectives shift. Relocate? Apply to grad school? Launch a business?
Luckily, a new President should be easing my transition shortly and I look forward to deciding where I'm going, and fast.

For now, Careerbuilder, Monster AIGADesignJobs and LinkedIn, show me the way.
CM