As anticipated, Camp Firebelly was such an intensive, engaging experience that I was left without time in the ten days of camp write anything here. In case you’ve been wondering about it, I’ll take the time to fill you in. Let me begin by introducing the lovely campers and where they all came from. Pictured above, from left to right starting with the top row…we have:

Kat Marshello – Dallas, TX
Marek Szeszycki – Chicago, IL
Cassie Hester – Watkinsville, GA
Johnathon Strube – Sycamore, IL
Michael Gump Jr. – Cleveland, OH
Ben Wagner – Madison, WI
Stacey Zeto – Pittsburgh, PA
Svetlana Bilenkina – Centreville, VA
Brittany Skwierczynski (me!) – Bensenville, IL
Casey Kovach –  Greensburg, PA

On the first day, I couldn’t have imagined what was ahead of me as I walked up the stairs to the studio of Firebelly. Within ten days we worked on a project for the Young Women’s Empowerment Project from start to finish including the design of logos, postcards, a booklet, and a screenprinted poster; we survived four consecutive nights with two hours of sleep each night; we visited numerous inspirational design studios and spaces including Threadless,
Thirst, Delicious Design League, Believe Inn, and Vosges Haut-chocolat;
we met with families in the Humboldt Park area and designed and screenprinted t-shirts to raise money for their needs; we organized and
set up for our grand finale fundraising party; we had various workshops
about brainstorming, presenting ideas to clients, photographing your work,
and portfolios/interviewing; we dined on delicious food both in the studio and at various restaurants around Chicago; and we even squeezed in some down time where we played rock band, drank beer, and listened to awesome music.

Words cannot begin to describe the most valuable rewards from my time
at Camp Firebelly. When I left the studio on the tenth day, I was a changed person. The group of people that came together for this experience had become what now feels like a family of life-long friends and connections. Everyone brought their own talents and personalities to the team where we could all contribute and collaborate, listen and learn. Together, the Firebelly team and all the campers were capable of anything. If we had an idea we
found a way to do it, no matter how little time and how few resources we had available. We never used the word “can’t”. Sleep wasn’t a necessity when our passion and desire to do good came out to play. After these unforgettable experiences and encounters, I know that I can do anything and that I can contribute to making the world a better place.

I owe a big thank you to:
– Firebelly Design for making this possible, staying up all night with us, making sure we had everything we needed, and so much more (Dawn Hancock, Will Miller, Darren McPherson, Alex Killough, Ryan Wolff, and Lindsay McMenamin)
– All my fellow campers for coming together for an opportunity like this
– Lara Brooks and the Young Women’s Empowerment Project for having faith in ten designers’ abilities to meet her needs in just four days time
– Mike Fretto for traveling from Florida to share the concept behind Rosa Loves with us and for helping us screenprint our t-shirt designs
– Reason to Give and Shannon Medic for giving us an opportunity to give back
– Delicious Design League for taking the time out of their day to teach us how to screenprint our posters with their press
– Threadless and Mig Reyes for the tour and insight into their process
– Thirst and Rick Valicenti for showing us their studio and presenting some of their innovative and inspirational work to us
– Matthew Hoffman for showing us his incredible work and studio
– The Post Family for inviting us to their opening and for showing us support at our fundraising party
– Vosges Haut-chocolat for giving us a tour of the facilities and letting us sample the unique ingredients along the way
– Mike Renaud and Zach Dodson of the Show ‘n Tell Show for helping us brainstorm late into the night
– Elevate Studios for helping us learn how to present ideas more effectively
– Unisource and Andrew Dembitz for sharing the latest innovations in the paper industry and for bringing us plenty of samples
– Salsedo Press, Inc. for making sure our postcards and booklets were printed by the end of camp
– Chris Kirzeder for teaching us how to photograph work using studio lighting
– AIGA Chicago for selecting me as the recipient of the 2010 Student Enrichment Scholarship which helped make it possible for me to attend
Camp Firebelly 2010

I wish I could describe the rewards of Camp Firebelly more clearly and concisely but it really is something you need to experience to understand.
I am unbelievably excited to be a part of the design community in Chicago and cannot wait to find out what is in store for me here. A little advice if you’re a designer still in college or just finishing up school – be sure to check out Camp Firebelly next summer. You don’t want to miss it.

Visit campfirebelly.com for access to our blog posts, photos, twitter feed, and recordings of our video stream from the ten days at Camp Firebelly.

I’m heading off to take part in the 3rd Annual Camp Firebelly! For the next 10 days I’ll be camping out in the studio of Firebelly Design to work on a project for a non-profit client with nine other designers…from start to finish. All the details are being kept top-secret until all the design campers arrive in the morning. I don’t even know what I’ll be doing or who the client is but I wish I had more details to share. I’ll probably be too busy designing, collaborating, making a difference, and having fun to post any updates here but I’ll try to update you if I can.

Check out http://campfirebelly.com during the next 10 days for Camp Firebelly blog updates, twitter updates, and even a link to view streaming video of us hard at work!

This week has been full of exciting news for the summer. First to note, I applied for an internship with The Post Family. After interviewing with them a week ago, I eagerly anticipated the news of whether or not I got in. Well, the “bad” news is that I didn’t get an internship. The great news is that I am their first ever artist-in-residence! I’m looking forward to helping out, meeting people, and making work.

Secondly, I just found out today that I’ll be joining nine other college students and recent graduates for the third annual Camp Firebelly! I’ll spend ten days camping out in the studio of Firebelly Design while working on a project for a non-profit client from initiation through completion. I can’t wait.

It’s going to be a summer full of working with extremely talented people and making great work. I’ll be keeping you updated along the way.

On the same topic as my last post about Design Week, I thought I’d share some photos of the AIGA Chicago 2009–2010 Snapshot publication in case you haven’t seen it. The book was beautifully designed by Simple Truth and, after seeing the book and checking out more of their work, I could definitely see myself working for them.

As the recipient of the 2010 Student Enrichment Scholarship, I was featured on one of the spreads in the book. The spread displays examples of my student work as well as a paragraph about my design and education background (more photos follow). More importantly, the book features all kinds of amazing work from the Chicago area. After slowly admiring all of the work featured in the Snapshot and proceeding to check out everyone’s websites, I could see myself collaborating with or working for nearly all of the featured designers and design studios. I’m very excited to currently be in Chicago (however, completely willing to move across the country for the right job). It’s a good time right now and I’m very much anticipating seeing where the next few months bring me.

Last week was AIGA Chicago‘s Design week. After being at Indiana University for the past 4.5 years, it was great to finally meet some people in the design community of Chicago.

Wednesday night I attended the studio walk on the North Side of Chicago where I got to check out the spaces and work of Sonnenzimmer, Winterbureau, Someoddpilot, Rohner Letterpress, Threadless, and 50,000feet. It is refreshing to see the variety of work that’s being produced in such a small area of Chicago. After talking to some of the members of these studios, I have to admit that I still want to do it all—from letterpress production work and screen printing to designing for both print and digital media. Good thing I’m still young and just getting started!

Thursday night was the Annual Members Meeting at Salvage One where I met some wonderful people and had a great time. During the presentation, I enjoyed hearing stories about when Morningstar worked with Paul Rand to get their logo designed, learning more about the work and life of Arnold Goodwin, and listening to Kevin Lyons speak about what inspires him. Also, I was recognized as the recipient of the 2010 Student Enrichment Scholarship (in the photo above you can see me nervously coming up with things to say while accepting the award).

Friday night, I headed to We Are Famliy (a show of emerging talent in Chicago) and met more great people, including a few members of The Post Family.

Overall, it was a fun-filled week of great people and inspiring work. A big thank you to everyone who made AIGA Chicago’s Design Week happen!

For my thesis, Looking for Answers, I decided to print a set of ten letterpress prints. While doing this, I set the guidelines for making each print of the set as the following: three layers/letterforms, a nearly monochromatic color scheme, and an almost completely covered composition.

Using large wood type that was on loan to Indiana University from the Hamilton Wood Type Museum, I quickly realized that I wasn’t needing much make-ready. The type was in surprisingly great shape all around. In the back of my mind, I knew I’d end up with some pretty interesting color combinations and letterform compositions had I needed make-ready for every print. I wasn’t willing to miss out on this so I decided to cut down enough paper to have 60 sheets to play with layering different elements from different prints.

Once the standard run of prints for my thesis was completed, I would look around and pick different improvisational prints on which I’d add another layer. The above image is just one of the 60 prints. Though some are similar, all prints are unique in colors, letterforms, and compositions. I’ll be sharing more of these prints in the near future.

Prints are available for sale. Contact me if interested.

After multiple designs and revisions and tests, I’m happy to say that I’ve finally finished my website. A big thank you goes out to John Wayne Hill for helping me get it up and running. Let me know if you’re experiencing any problems and I’ll work to get them fixed.