AIGA NEXT, thus far.

oh dear. liz and I are totally wiped out. we're volunteering at this design conference while also attempting to attend the conference in the fullest capacity possible... and we're finding that doing both is quite exhausting! tomorrow's another full day. it's rewarding though. I enjoy the design community. especially since I don't have too many people in my daily life to who speak this language. I can't begin to describe it all. there are people here with names I know and faces I've never seen. and while it's interesting, I'm not starstruck. and I like that. they're very real people in this environment. today a biologist spoke about beluga wales in the morning (I'll have to share about that...) and tonight concluded with the film Helvetica, which was of course introduced by the director of the film and followed by a Q&A. I'll have to process this week for a while. I'm completely inspired to just design. block out time and space this next week to just work on my portfolio. create new things to include, photograph or scan personal projects to add in, and work on making a consistent connection from what I have online to what I have in my little leather ledger book with canson paper pages. one highlight of the conference so far: I connected with a few starbucks creatives who are here. one said: so what do you do in colorado springs? I make lattes. do the dishes. talk to people. you know. but since we're all partners in the company and the corporate offices are really the Support Center, lines of hierarchy are blurred. or at least turned horizontally in some form. I totally respect what they do, but it was very cool when they were interested in which products I liked lately, which campaigns seemed to work or didn't. the conference's theme is NEXT. so while it's cheesy and quite punny, I am considering what's next quite literally for my own career. Am I okay with doing freelance work and making latte's? do I want to pursue something more abstract like concept design? would I enjoy new store design? I still love magazines. do I need to move to des moines or new york or la? I'm still loving starbucks. I really respect the company. could I design there? production? intern? what about that job jen told me about last weekend with extreme makeover home edition? (oh, did I blog about that? I'll have to tell you about that. I got to help put the house together the night before the reveal. translation: I cleaned, picked up trash and helped organize and fetch items in the garage.) too much thinking.