Honestly, I’m not a big fan of that saying. Instead I believe good things come to those who work for it and never give up. For my final design class at GMU I was tasked with writing and designing a book, “The Ins and Outs of Celiac”. Instead of focusing on the limitations and the negative, what is “Out”, the focus is on the positive, what is “In”. I believe life should be thought of in the same way. I truly believe the old saying, “When one door closes, another opens.” Continuing with this theme, I wanted to take the same approach for my blog, leaving it open ended with room to grow and change with the Ins and Outs—whether in my life, design or photography.

One of my goals after I graduated in May 2011 was to create my own portfolio website in hopes of helping me land a job fresh out of college. I have to say, I think both luck and hard work came into play along with being at the right place at the right time. As soon as I graduated college I was able to land an internship at ASCD in Alexandria. Not only did I work along side Lindsey, one of my GMU design friends who I looked up to and admired, but I also had my favorite professor, Reece as my creative director. Needless to say, I learned A LOT in the 2 months I was there and was really able to experience what life as a designer in the real world would be like. While I interned, I continued to work on my portfolio and apply to jobs. In August 2011 I accepted my first full time job at a design agency, TGD Communications, Inc. in Old Town Alexandria… but I will get into that a little later! So, since I was on a streak of good luck and all my hard work was paying off, my website got pushed to the back burner.

My goal this summer was to really buckle down and focus on 3 things—my website, photography and freelance jobs, and a blog. I was successful with getting into photography and scheduling photoshoots and doing some freelance design jobs. After going back and forth on design ideas and layouts, looking through countless design books and blogs I finally figured out what I wanted to do for my website and blog. I spent late nights at the office zoning out the rest of the world and working on mocking up the designs for each page and getting all the files together. Neha, who I became friends with at TGD, is helping me with coding and making my designs and ideas come to life. I was able to sit down with her to see what she was doing and better understand it.

So, after a long time coming I am happy to announce this is the first of many blog posts about things I not only find interesting and inspiring, but that are important to me—the little details, design, photography and tidbits. The website is a work in progress but I am hoping to have the other pages done in the next month or so. A lot has been happening and since this was my summer (which turned into fall) goal, I will rewind to May and go through this past summer playing catch up until I get to November. Enjoy!