Work at ICON

Hello everyone! I just finished my second week at Icon and things are going well so far. It definitely feels good to be working in design again and to be using my skills/ learning tons of new ones. The work pace is really fast and that forces me to learn quickly and to not second guess my design decisions. This week I worked on designing a format and spreads for the University of St. Gallen's Executive School Annual Report. Normally, the work that Icon does, is designed using strict style guidelines that the client has prepared for the Graphic Designers and Marketing team. In this particular project, the client wanted to stray away from the established grid system and try something different. Because of this, we were given more freedom to set up our own grid and come up with the concepts for how the information would be presented. I was glad to have been a part of this process, as I was forced to learn tons of new tricks and tools to knock out multiple spreads in order for them to be sent out and recieved back for feedback. I learn so much even from sitting down and listening to Jon and Lori (my bosses and owners of ICON) give us feedback on what absolutely doesnt work and what is successful etc. Their design perspective comes from an impressive background working in top marketing and corporate agencies. I not only find what they say interesting, I am beginning to see a different side to design than I've never seen/used before. More on that when I figure it out...haha. There are definitely a lot of things I need to learn, and I still feel a bit slow at certain things but I know that with the amount of work I will be doing, I am bound to improve and get faster.

Tomorrow Kat, Valerie (two of the other interns) and I are taking the train to Lucerne and then continuing on to Geneva! We will spend tomorrow night in Geneva with one of Valerie's family friends. Sunday we will explore the city and then head home for work on Monday. Im excited to take my first Swiss trip! I'll be back with photos and stories later!
Have a great weekend!
-E

An Icon Valentines Day

For Valentines Day us gals made an ICONic brunch.

Piano Heaven

My new German friend, Dustin, brought me to a music store in St. Gallen called MusikHug. As we walked to the back room, he said "and now you enter heaven". We floated into a quiet room with all kinds of pianos. Me and my giddy self started to gallop around to touch all of them. THEN, we took an elevator to the third floor where this video takes place. If that was heaven, this floor was Heaven's sage old Father. I was wondering before coming to Switzerland, where I would find my music outlet here. I think Ive found it. I cant wait to go back and play more. Listen to Dustin play!

Appenzell Run

Bianca and I kicked ourselves into gear today, after an ungodly late night out in St. Gallen and we ran to Appenzell and back--which ended up being about 10 miles...although it probably would only be 6 if we knew where we were going. woops. Oh well, really good run and great pictures to show you. Enjoy!

Elephant EP by Billy Dodge

ELEPHANT, BILLY DODGE

Please check out my friend Billy Dodge who just came out with his new EP "Elephant"! Billy's tunes makes me so nostalgic, and I love his poetic and narrative lyrics. I was honored to have recorded the backup vocals with him for his song "Illusory", which is a beautiful tune. I hope you enjoy him and follow him as he continues to produce amazing music.

-E