When you lift others up, you lift up yourself…

After having a hard time getting inspired this morning, I saw a tweet from Tim (our head honcho) that was more motivating than anything that was rattling around in this head of mine. Trying to stay committed to making at least one thing a day while I am here at redpepper, I cranked out another piece based on Tim’s quote. Oh yeah…I also put together 2 chairs today!

Grow up and out. True growth is never linear.

redpepper focuses on growth from within. Not only is growth emphasized within the company, but personal growth is also expected. All the peppers create a page about where they want to be, or what they have done recently to show their own growth. Today I packaged them all up to send to the ATL office and decided to do one of my own. I realized some things I need to improve on, and in this transition in my life it made me sit down and plan out what I really wanted to accomplish long term and short term. So here is mine, a quick piece dedicated to making myself better professionally and personally.

posi+ive thinking is where it’s at…

I always try to push those around me to be better, to think smarter, and engage themselves with their work. I am also guilty of not always following those guiding words. So in an attempt to foster positivity and contribute to it here at redpepper, I have decided when I get a breather to try and create a piece that calls attention to ways to improve your mind, body, and work environment.

Attached is #1, I am not sure how often I will be able to do them, but it provides me with a digital doodle session to keep my chops up, while really thinking about ways to improve myself. Sounds like a win-win for all.

Job expectations in 2015?

After running around AIGA’s website I found this great article based on expectations of performance and focus within the design field.  There are many principles that will always be found within our profession, but this has some new interesting things to think about as we try to progress in our roles as designers and visual communicators. (I am such a nerd….but I love it) Click here to check it out. http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/designer-of-2015-competencies

Me in women’s shoes…and Hiking Boots in the same week.

So yesterday I sat in on a copy and concept meeting for a Kirklands promotion. To jump in and think like a 40 year old woman came easier than I thought. Not only did I get good feedback from the few times I chimed in, I felt very comfy and confident. It feels great when people value your ideas and process. I am curious to see how things fit together here.

On the other side of things, although I have only been here three days,  I had already planned a trip to San Francisco and Yosemite National Park. I will be heading out for a week, and desperately need an opportunity to refresh and rethink. So I will have plenty of fun photos to follow. This image is my favorite Ansel Adams shot from Yosemite. I am sure you have seen much of his work, but now it resonates a little more with me. I have my medium format camera ready to go. Check out this link it has the classic collection from Adams’ Yosemite , click here.

Taking the Reigns

Hello! I’m the newest addition to the redpepperland crew. I’m the new summer intern Stephen G. Jones (you can call me Steve) Evidently the interns are kept so busy that this blog may not receive as much attention as it deserves, but I am going to do my best to stay active and share some of the cool inspirations and projects that I encounter. You can check my work out here.

I have attached a little piece giving you some more insight into what makes me tick below. I’m excited and ready to get down to business!

Done and done… Now for the hunt!

I graduated!! Yes folks, it finally happened. All of the hard work has paid off and I have my degree. It has been such a great experience attending the Art Institute. I learned so much from my wonderful teachers and have loved every minute returning to school. The feeling of needing more hours in the day is slowly fading and I am having more time to dive into the design community of Nashville. I have discovered some great articles that have been helping me along the journey of the job search such as “How to Search Smarter” and have been reading up on external portfolio sites and how to get people to notice your portfolio through social media. Thank you wordpress and twitter! Here are a few examples from my portfolio.

HIV Awareness PSA Series

Red Letter Chocolates Packaging

A spread from Dig Magazine

Check out my blog and website here.

Have a great day!

Allison

Solar Beat

I have to share this because it’s one of the neatest things I’ve seen in a while.

Solar Beat

Let me give you a quick overview about what this is to shed some light on why it’s so rad. Solar Beat maps out the orbits of all the planets in our solar system (not to scale, obviously) and assigns a tone to each planet. When a planet crosses the horizontal white line intersecting all of the orbits, the planet’s respective tone sounds. I think the speed of each planet’s orbit is proportional to the actual speed of our solar system (at least I hope!) so what we get is a beautiful song created by the movement of our neighboring celestial bodies. Pretty awesome—take a took!

Have a great Friday, and don’t forget to look up at the sky every once in a while!

Danny

Creative Typography in Advertising

As designers, we are taught that typography can be designed to speak for itself and these advertisements really captured the power of typography as a powerful visual statement. Last year, Allison and I worked on our first creative day to create our headers out of found objects and a lot of these designs use the same idea but implementing more specific and appropriate objects to convey their message. Plus, we’re still planning on having a Creative Day to create type out of cardboard, so we can get some inspiration for that here too. One that I found even used cardboard!

See more here.

Enjoy, Lindsey

Charles Moore

BBC News released a story today about Photojournalist Charles Moore, who placed himself in harms way many times, but in doing so he captured some of the most striking pictures of the civil rights movement in the US during the 1950s and 60s. I just wanted to show a few of these images.

Moore was the only photographer to witness the arrest of Martin Luther King, Jr. King was arrested for loitering by officers who did not know who he was.

Dogs, fire hoses, and tear gas were turned on peaceful protesters.

“Charles Moore’s unforgettable images helped put public opinion solidly behind the civil rights movement. Seldom, if ever, has a set of photographs had such an immediate impact on the course of history.” (BBC News)

Moore died last week at age 79.