Sarah

Graphic Designer

Savannah, GA

$ 109

/ hour

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Bio

I am a 􀃖awed human being, a constant work in progress, perpetually under construction, wandering through a busy world trying to make anything mean something. I have been told many times by my authority that I care too much, almost to the point where I wonder if I should care about anything at all. My feelings run deep, I'm constantly try to make sense of whatever the hell is going on, my 􀃕ngers type this brain nonsense onto a screen, wondering if I should just be saying where I’m from. So I'll do that now. I am a former military brat that spent an unconventional childhood 􀃖oating from state to state, school to school, uttering goodbyes that got quieter and quieter as I got older. I am graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a BFA in graphic design TOMORROW. (Update: I graduated today.) (Update: I graduated yesterday.) But now I'm a student of life (cringe), a humble listener of the world, a constant questioner. I want to spend my entire life making things that show my appreciation for it. I've never been quite up to the task of talking about myself. I have always preferred to listen to other people talk about themselves, which is probably why I've often been deemed a """"good listener.""""" Maybe this is just a stint to avoid talking about MYSELF, but nonetheless, I love observing and listening and taking it all in before even bothering to comment on it. I like getting the lay of the land of places and people and conversations. I think I get this from moving around so much (a big theme in my life, as you will notice) and hearing story after story of people recalling their memories that I was not apart of. It was a constant strategy game in my head, trying to piece together who Brendan was and why that was so funny and who has known who and since when and so on and so forth. I'm quiet, I am. I'm not a huge talker, I'm not that outwardly expressive, but my inner life is rich, and I value quality over quantity. Fewer but richer conversations, fewer but deeper friendships, fewer but richer critiques. For so long I was constantly making resolutions to "be more outgoing" and "talk more" until I gained a greater perspective and realized that is not who I am, and will probably never be a huge part of who I am, though I know it will grow. I have come to embrace my sensitivity, and it is something I use to my advantage in my design, gathering empathy from a deeper, more secretive place. I 􀃕gure it's my responsibility to help stories be told through design as I don't use my words as much. I still talk plenty enough, don't get me wrong, school and work have brought me out of my shell signi􀃕cantly—but I'm no chatty cathy. Instead, I just make friends with them. BUUUUUT I'll give you a sense of my design history? Yeah? Design has always been on my trajectory. My 􀃕rst stint at design was learning how to "hack" into the code of my Myspace in sixth grade to change the background of my pro􀃕le and simplify the layout signi􀃕cantly (a brick wall and some Coldplay lyrics were my go-to features.) My friends eventually got the idea and saw the aesthetic value of my services, though they didn't quite know how to phrase it. Eventually, I spent my afternoons gathering the passwords of my friends' pro􀃕les to change their HTML as well, and I became an 11 year old hot design commodity. A simple path followed: a "computer tech" class in seventh grade where I started to notice type hierarchy through the power of Microsoft word, a "multimedia" class in eighth grade where I REALLY picked up a camera for the 􀃕rst time and started to observe (and make fake magazine covers for TOMS.) I started to really notice things, to see the world with wider eyes. I took photos in my backyard daily. My parents saw my piqued interest and bought me a cheap DSLR. It became my lifeline. High school came and I took a mediocre 􀃕lm class freshman year (loved editing, though) that led me to taking a Photoshop class my sophomore year. This class, led by Mrs. Sauer, changed my entire life. I learned the program front to back, became obsessed with type and layout, and started learning what a "graphic designer" was (and how little they got paid.) After a year of learning and caring so deeply about what I was doing, I was challenged to enter a design competition—the front and back cover of the school planner for the next year. I won, and then I moved away, and 1000+ students used my planner design every single day for the entire next year. I was overjoyed. It was the only thing that mattered to me at the time. NEXT (yes, there's more) came two years of a studio photography class at my next high school. Here I was introduced to the concept of art school, and after a visit from SCAD, I half-assedly decided to apply and eventually got in. I don't know why I'm even still talking—it's obvious at this point—design has been in me since a very young age, and even my career aptitude tests all pointed to designer. It's just who I am, it really is—I've never doubted it (well, until the hardest class of my life at SCAD.) It's always just seemed like a given. I love it. I live for it. It makes me freaking HAPPY. I want it all the time. A lot of other things make me who I am too but I've literally written a novella so you'd better follow up to ask me, instead. Onward!

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You should pick me becuase

I am a freaking good candidate for WGI because I am fresh-faced, bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed, with an incredible amount left to learn. SCAD instilled in me a drive and a skillset and a confidence that needs to go SOMEWHERE. I am a grounded individual with a lot ahead of me and this opportunity is SO COOL.By this point I've mentioned my military bratness a million times it feels like, but I really do sense that I am an adaptable human being that can take on many challenges in many different environments. My life of adaptability has prepared me for a design internship like this—or maybe it hasn't and I'm in for a real treat. I DON'T have design internship experience. I have plans to go to MullenLowe in Boston for a design internship this summer but plans are made to be changed. I DON'T have real world design experience (yet.) However I have real world experience from working 5 years as a little ol' barista, encountering thousands of strangers and making them things that they enjoy, if only for one day. Why is design really any different? Encountering strangers, maneuvering unexpected interactions, and making something they enjoy, making something that makes their day better, making something they might forget about but that were happy about in the moment nonetheless. Adaptability and intuition can be applied to every job in any field. (Maybe not rocket science? Idk.) It just feels freaking right to do this, and I can't explain it any other way. Hope you all enjoyed my rants and rambles and I hope you can make sense of it all. I'm ready! I'm here! I'm excited!

Why are you interested in this opportunity?

What are you looking to gain from an opportunity like this?

I've never wanted to be the best designer there ever was. I have never wanted to pursue the dream of accolades left and right and or recognized for my many achievements or my worldly WGI internship. Rather, I prefer keeping my head down, making really good work, feeling really deeply, caring a lot, nurturing my close relationships, establishing a beautiful life that I feel content in, and forgetting the rest. After WGI I want to take time to figure out what it is I really want to do and who I really want to impact in my life. I want to figure out where I stand and where I fit into this gigantic design puzzle. I also...want a job.

What would be your goals after completing this engagement?

4. How did you hear about wgi?

Share an example of a time you were most motivated and a time you were most demotivated.

On May 22 (a few days ago), MacKenzie Stover (my design partner, my college workwife, my opposite yet my twin, my very good friend, my fellow WGI applicant who has also been blessed with the extension of the deadline because our lives have been so unbelievably hectic lately) and I sat down and coded "The Rulebook." Oh, what's the rulebook, you ask? Just the summation of our entire experience as designers thus far. We met two and a half years ago in a History of Graphic Design class as SCAD sophomores. We were assigned to read and make a 40 minute presentation on "Design and Reflexity" by Jan Van Toorn. We sat outside in our favorite coffee shop courtyard for eight hours trying to make sense of it. We literally had no idea what it meant, but we tried our damndest to figure it out on a Saturday night. Since then, a design partnership like no other formed. We have encouraged each other through thick and thin, acting as each other's main motivators when all we wanted to do was quit. We have had Eureka! moments for each other's projects. We've spent just as much time investing in each others college careers as we have our own. Throughout the two and a half years of questioning everything, we got to Portfolio (the final class you must take as a graphic design major) with one golden question: Why? And thus, the Rulebook was born. It's a mess of questions and answers and questions again of what we've been taught and what has contradicted that and what WE think and why any of it matters and so on. For so long it was a Google doc, and that was it, just shared between MacKenzie and I. But after a while we thought: why don't we share this with everyone? Why don't we reach the people who have essentially shaped these questions? So we coded a website, and it was the most fun I have ever had in a design project ever. For the first time it finally felt like we were making something that mattered, something that had real true depth and impact. The site is horrendous, with giant type and sans serif default font and a lovely scrolling gradient. But it had a huge impact on our peers at school, as well as our professors—absolutely everyone had something to say about it, some part of it that they deeply resonated with. We pushed the boundaries, we asked questions, we answered those questions, we questioned those answers, and so on and so forth. ([therulebook.lol](http://)) That was the most motivated I have ever felt in college. (Also, when we both separately presented our final portfolios in front of our class of 20 we cried like babies when we started talking about the Rulebook. Both of us. On separate days. Even our professor, who initially doubted the idea, shed a tear as he said he loved it.) A time I was most demotivated was Winter of 2018. I was severely depressed, had very few friends, and had a relentless professor that was absolutely never satisfied with the every minute I put into his class. (This just so happens to be the same teary-eyed Rulebook professor—it was a strange, shifting dynamic through college, I had a dream about him last night that he shook my hand with a lacklusterness that offended me, when in reality he gave me a huge hug and told me I was gonna do great things, end parentheses) It was my only class, because I dropped the other two, and every day felt like pushing the same boulder up the same hill. I thought I was at a dead end of my design career, I thought I had nothing to offer, I thought my skills had plateaued. I thought I was done for, I was going to my school counseling support services asking them why I felt so empty, and when I didn't like their answer I thought I was dropping out for a quarter (which would inevitably lead to for good.) To be completely honest, I don't feel brave about how I overcame my sadness. I passed my only class, I trudged through the rest of junior year unmotivated and making mediocre work, and let the summer purge my shitty year. And it did, and senior year was complete turnaround, which would take another 500 words to explain, so I'll stop there. But I got over it. I did. Perseverance!

In your opinion, what creates a great culture at a company?

While I don't have large "company" experience, my stints at part-time jobs have opened my eyes to the difference an empathetic, caring boss can make. Products and services start with PEOPLE, and people are jumbles of feelings and facts and pretty much nothing else. I believe that when we lead with emotion, we are able to be so much more transparent and authentic with ourselves and others. Empathy and understanding can do wonders. (This is a short answer so you can take a breather after that essay, you're welcome)

What brands and companies do you admire and why?

Ashamedly, I could not think of an immediate reaction to this answer. I feel like I don't have any brand loyalties that course through my blood, that I live and die by. Or maybe they're just subtler than I think. I think back to smaller businesses, such as Central Square Records, the coastal record store that got me into GOOD music when I was 15, or the all the local Georgia farms that I sign checks for at my part-time job (a barista at a vegan restaurant, the second best job in the world to being a designer, TBH) as they deliver fresh ingredients to the kitchen. I think of Foxy, the family of coffee shops that essentially run the city of Savannah on amazing coffee at four different locations (one of which I work at, ya see?) As I'm writing this, I'm realizing I do have one crazy loyalty to a product we use at work—Oatly. Oatly's oat milk is f'ing delicious but they also have an insanely clever branding strategy that effortlessly catapults them to the top of the plant milk industry. It's lighthearted, it's DIY, its copy is incredibly clever and they're packaging is filled with surprise and delight. Oatly transformed an old lady Swedish drink into a hot commodity at cafes around the world. I'm also thinking about the shoes I wear on a daily basis: Vans. I think I've owned around 20 pairs throughout my short life. But while I absolutely love wearing their shoes, I don't feel a huge connection to their brand ethos—and I think that's okay. Sometimes we can appreciate a product and use it daily without feeling a diehard connection to the company and the design methodologies behind it. Sometimes we are allowed to simply enjoy the final product, understand where it came from, and let it be that. I'm no skater, I hate doing adrenaline-inducing sports, and I definitely don't have a Cali way of life. But their products are interesting and diverse, their website gets better every time I visit it, and their shoes are damn comfortable. Okay, now they're coming to me: another company I truly admire is Mohawk Paper. Inspiring, authentic, innovative company that sells paper. Really f'ing great paper. I ordered their samples all throughout college to print on and am constantly motivated by their Maker Quarterly series that Hybrid Design makes. They just keep raising the bar.

What do you do to stay sharp and improve your craft?

ASK FOR HELP. It's taken me 21.75 years to learn how to do it, and I'm still learning. It's hard to ask for help. It can be embarrassing, it can feel like a blow to my ego, admitting I don't know something. But I have grown out of this selfishness in a lot of ways and have grown to realize apprenticeships and utter surrendor to a mentor can do wonders in helping you grow as a person and as a designer. I also am an avid reader, a magazine collector, an Eye on Design and It's Nice That lover, reading in the wee hours of the early morning and pouring over other people's words, other people's work. That's a given. I also am a firm believer in stepping away from work when answers aren't coming to the forefront and taking care of myself. I proudly sleep eight hours a night, I rarely sacrifice my physical livelihood for my design, because I never get good solutions from a poor night's sleep and a family-sized bag of Doritos. Mental and physical health come first—before the brainstorming, before the type studies, before the final presentation.

What’s your favorite quote?

“I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of, let's say 100,000 miles, their outlook would be fundamentally changed. The all-important border would be invisible, that noisy arguement suddenly silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions, presenting a unified facade that would cry out for unified understanding, for homogeneous treatment. The earth must become as it appears: blue and white, not capitalist or communist; blue and white,not rich or poor; blue and white, not envious or envied.” —Michael Collins, command module pilot of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission (I love this man, I wish he was my second dad, feel free to view a project I did on him on my website, shameless plug) I tried to find a design quote that would wow the folks judging these entries but I couldn't get Collins out of my head.

10. If you could solve one problem in the world what would it be?

You should select me because

Why are you interested in this opportunity?

What are you looking to gain from an opportunity like this?

I've never wanted to be the best designer there ever was. I have never wanted to pursue the dream of accolades left and right and or recognized for my many achievements or my worldly WGI internship. Rather, I prefer keeping my head down, making really good work, feeling really deeply, caring a lot, nurturing my close relationships, establishing a beautiful life that I feel content in, and forgetting the rest. After WGI I want to take time to figure out what it is I really want to do and who I really want to impact in my life. I want to figure out where I stand and where I fit into this gigantic design puzzle. I also...want a job.

What would be your goals after completing this engagement?

4. How did you hear about wgi?

Share an example of a time you were most motivated and a time you were most demotivated.

On May 22 (a few days ago), MacKenzie Stover (my design partner, my college workwife, my opposite yet my twin, my very good friend, my fellow WGI applicant who has also been blessed with the extension of the deadline because our lives have been so unbelievably hectic lately) and I sat down and coded "The Rulebook." Oh, what's the rulebook, you ask? Just the summation of our entire experience as designers thus far. We met two and a half years ago in a History of Graphic Design class as SCAD sophomores. We were assigned to read and make a 40 minute presentation on "Design and Reflexity" by Jan Van Toorn. We sat outside in our favorite coffee shop courtyard for eight hours trying to make sense of it. We literally had no idea what it meant, but we tried our damndest to figure it out on a Saturday night. Since then, a design partnership like no other formed. We have encouraged each other through thick and thin, acting as each other's main motivators when all we wanted to do was quit. We have had Eureka! moments for each other's projects. We've spent just as much time investing in each others college careers as we have our own. Throughout the two and a half years of questioning everything, we got to Portfolio (the final class you must take as a graphic design major) with one golden question: Why? And thus, the Rulebook was born. It's a mess of questions and answers and questions again of what we've been taught and what has contradicted that and what WE think and why any of it matters and so on. For so long it was a Google doc, and that was it, just shared between MacKenzie and I. But after a while we thought: why don't we share this with everyone? Why don't we reach the people who have essentially shaped these questions? So we coded a website, and it was the most fun I have ever had in a design project ever. For the first time it finally felt like we were making something that mattered, something that had real true depth and impact. The site is horrendous, with giant type and sans serif default font and a lovely scrolling gradient. But it had a huge impact on our peers at school, as well as our professors—absolutely everyone had something to say about it, some part of it that they deeply resonated with. We pushed the boundaries, we asked questions, we answered those questions, we questioned those answers, and so on and so forth. ([therulebook.lol](http://)) That was the most motivated I have ever felt in college. (Also, when we both separately presented our final portfolios in front of our class of 20 we cried like babies when we started talking about the Rulebook. Both of us. On separate days. Even our professor, who initially doubted the idea, shed a tear as he said he loved it.) A time I was most demotivated was Winter of 2018. I was severely depressed, had very few friends, and had a relentless professor that was absolutely never satisfied with the every minute I put into his class. (This just so happens to be the same teary-eyed Rulebook professor—it was a strange, shifting dynamic through college, I had a dream about him last night that he shook my hand with a lacklusterness that offended me, when in reality he gave me a huge hug and told me I was gonna do great things, end parentheses) It was my only class, because I dropped the other two, and every day felt like pushing the same boulder up the same hill. I thought I was at a dead end of my design career, I thought I had nothing to offer, I thought my skills had plateaued. I thought I was done for, I was going to my school counseling support services asking them why I felt so empty, and when I didn't like their answer I thought I was dropping out for a quarter (which would inevitably lead to for good.) To be completely honest, I don't feel brave about how I overcame my sadness. I passed my only class, I trudged through the rest of junior year unmotivated and making mediocre work, and let the summer purge my shitty year. And it did, and senior year was complete turnaround, which would take another 500 words to explain, so I'll stop there. But I got over it. I did. Perseverance!

In your opinion, what creates a great culture at a company?

While I don't have large "company" experience, my stints at part-time jobs have opened my eyes to the difference an empathetic, caring boss can make. Products and services start with PEOPLE, and people are jumbles of feelings and facts and pretty much nothing else. I believe that when we lead with emotion, we are able to be so much more transparent and authentic with ourselves and others. Empathy and understanding can do wonders. (This is a short answer so you can take a breather after that essay, you're welcome)

What brands and companies do you admire and why?

Ashamedly, I could not think of an immediate reaction to this answer. I feel like I don't have any brand loyalties that course through my blood, that I live and die by. Or maybe they're just subtler than I think. I think back to smaller businesses, such as Central Square Records, the coastal record store that got me into GOOD music when I was 15, or the all the local Georgia farms that I sign checks for at my part-time job (a barista at a vegan restaurant, the second best job in the world to being a designer, TBH) as they deliver fresh ingredients to the kitchen. I think of Foxy, the family of coffee shops that essentially run the city of Savannah on amazing coffee at four different locations (one of which I work at, ya see?) As I'm writing this, I'm realizing I do have one crazy loyalty to a product we use at work—Oatly. Oatly's oat milk is f'ing delicious but they also have an insanely clever branding strategy that effortlessly catapults them to the top of the plant milk industry. It's lighthearted, it's DIY, its copy is incredibly clever and they're packaging is filled with surprise and delight. Oatly transformed an old lady Swedish drink into a hot commodity at cafes around the world. I'm also thinking about the shoes I wear on a daily basis: Vans. I think I've owned around 20 pairs throughout my short life. But while I absolutely love wearing their shoes, I don't feel a huge connection to their brand ethos—and I think that's okay. Sometimes we can appreciate a product and use it daily without feeling a diehard connection to the company and the design methodologies behind it. Sometimes we are allowed to simply enjoy the final product, understand where it came from, and let it be that. I'm no skater, I hate doing adrenaline-inducing sports, and I definitely don't have a Cali way of life. But their products are interesting and diverse, their website gets better every time I visit it, and their shoes are damn comfortable. Okay, now they're coming to me: another company I truly admire is Mohawk Paper. Inspiring, authentic, innovative company that sells paper. Really f'ing great paper. I ordered their samples all throughout college to print on and am constantly motivated by their Maker Quarterly series that Hybrid Design makes. They just keep raising the bar.

What do you do to stay sharp and improve your craft?

ASK FOR HELP. It's taken me 21.75 years to learn how to do it, and I'm still learning. It's hard to ask for help. It can be embarrassing, it can feel like a blow to my ego, admitting I don't know something. But I have grown out of this selfishness in a lot of ways and have grown to realize apprenticeships and utter surrendor to a mentor can do wonders in helping you grow as a person and as a designer. I also am an avid reader, a magazine collector, an Eye on Design and It's Nice That lover, reading in the wee hours of the early morning and pouring over other people's words, other people's work. That's a given. I also am a firm believer in stepping away from work when answers aren't coming to the forefront and taking care of myself. I proudly sleep eight hours a night, I rarely sacrifice my physical livelihood for my design, because I never get good solutions from a poor night's sleep and a family-sized bag of Doritos. Mental and physical health come first—before the brainstorming, before the type studies, before the final presentation.

What’s your favorite quote?

“I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of, let's say 100,000 miles, their outlook would be fundamentally changed. The all-important border would be invisible, that noisy arguement suddenly silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions, presenting a unified facade that would cry out for unified understanding, for homogeneous treatment. The earth must become as it appears: blue and white, not capitalist or communist; blue and white,not rich or poor; blue and white, not envious or envied.” —Michael Collins, command module pilot of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission (I love this man, I wish he was my second dad, feel free to view a project I did on him on my website, shameless plug) I tried to find a design quote that would wow the folks judging these entries but I couldn't get Collins out of my head.

10. If you could solve one problem in the world what would it be?

What's the most courageous thing you've ever done?

How are creativity and innovation related?

Why do companies need clarity and creativity?

You have 30 minutes of free time. What do you do with it?

What is one risky and bold goal in life you have? Or, if you could dedicate your life to solving one problem, what would it be?

Explain your creative process

What is the best advice that you have been given?

What is your definition of creativity?

What 10 songs are on your favorite playlist right now?

How do you want people to remember you?

Have you been convicted of a crime and/or a felony? If so, what was the offense? State the city, country, and date.

Sarah

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