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SaraChristensen

Professional Graphic Designer
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PORTFOLIO OVERHAUL

I'm updating this journal a little early (my usual schedule seems to be every six months, lol) to announce some big news! Over the last two weeks or so, I've been working on a complete revamp of my portfolio site and it's finally finished. Although there are a few more tweaks to make, it's good enough to go live and be shared. Someday soon, I really want to put a personal illustration on the home page instead of the desktop spread that I have currently, but that requires a few spare hours that I don't really have right now. Let me know what you think! You'll probably see a host of new projects on there that aren't on deviantART yet.

sarachristensen.me

CAREER UPDATE

Another piece of news that I wanted to share is that I left the marketing agency I've been working for. There are a lot of details surrounding why I left, but I'll keep it short and sweet… Being the only designer at a growing agency didn't leave a lot of room for anything else in my life, and taking work home with me every night was exhausting. I also missed designing under a creative director who could pass on her knowledge to me and help me hone my skills. I felt like I was too young for the amount of responsibility I was being given—I'm capable of a lot and I'm not without talent, but it's still very early in my career to work alone.

So, needless to say, I am job hunting again. I made sure that my first priority was an updated, responsive portfolio website and now that it's basically done, I'm beginning to send out applications again. In the meantime, I'm working a few freelance opportunities to keep me busy. It's been really nice to go at a slower pace for awhile and focus on the things that matter to me, like spending quality time with my family, my friends, and my boyfriend. I'm sure that my dog likes having me home so much, but I know that my parents would like me to get up and move out as soon as possible, so the search for full time employment is on!

HOUSEKEEPING

Even though I've had a lot more free time lately, I am still horribly behind on posting work here. Honestly, I'm not sure when I'll get around to it, so feel free to pop by my portfolio website and see what I've been up to lately. The sheer number of messages and deviations I've been neglecting here is pretty overwhelming, so I tend to log in, take care of whatever messages I can, and leave. However, I have noticed that there has been an inexplicable increase in deviants who watch me, so that motivates me to try and be more active around here. I hope you all are doing well and producing stellar work! See you the next time I decide to update. XD

Thanks for viewing, faving, sharing, praising, chatting, and watching,
Sara
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Post-Grad Life

5 min read
Sorry that I've waited an entire year to update you guys on what's been happening in my life—well, those of you who read these journal posts anyway. I swear that I just do this for my own sanity.

CAREER UPDATE

Last time you heard from me, I had graduated college, moved across the country, and was working on freelance projects while hunting for a full-time job. Freelance work took up the majority of summer 2013, but I knew that it couldn't sustain me. Financially, it was unpredictable and I feared that I wasn't growing as a designer if I couldn't work alongside someone from my industry.

Now that I've been out of school for a year, I am thrilled to report that I have found a job in my field and have been doing what I love for the past nine months. Right after we moved closer to Asheville in August, I interviewed at a marketing agency downtown and ended up being welcomed onto their team as the new art director in September. For my experience level (lol, what experience level?), it was a huge shock and I've been working hard to make sure that I earn my keep ever since. Along the way, I've learned so much about the industry and its standards, about how to work with professionals outside of your discipline, and definitely about how to perform under pressure! For better and for worse, it's everything I had hoped for.

About two months ago, however, our creative director left and every design project fell to me. I became the lead designer—in fact, the only designer—at the agency and had to put my skills to the test. Many late nights were spent just trying to keep all of these projects afloat, but it was all worth it in the end. We've produced some stellar portfolio pieces as of late and I can't wait to share them with you guys as soon as they're ready! I do still wish that there was another designer here that I could study under and learn from, but this role gives me the opportunity to work on some very impressive projects and get my agency's name out there.

One really great thing about running the creative department is having the opportunity to make hiring decisions. I decided who we freelanced out to while I interviewed replacements for our creative director, which was a very surreal experience considering I had never been on the other side of an interview. In the end, I decided to hire someone more at my level so that we could become a team instead of a hierarchy. Even though our combined experience amounts to a only few years, I feel like we are capable of seeing the agency through because of how much we care and how hard we try. It's an exciting time!

LIFE UPDATE

Now that I've been living in North Carolina for a little over a year, I can be more genuine about how much I love it. I think that the scenery is my favorite part—the way you can be in a thriving city one minute and then be completely surrounded by a vast, breathtaking wilderness the next… It's just amazing. So much of the state feels untouched, like it's been that way for ages. I drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway the other day and was overwhelmed by how grand nature truly is. I'm making a list of all of my favorite places and plan on frequenting them as often as I can, especially during leaf season!

Another fun update is that I got a puppy from the humane society. His name is Cooper and he's a German Shepherd/St. Bernard mix—clever as they come but hopelessly clumsy, it's a fantastic combination. As of right now, he is a little over seven months old and growing fast! Just this past weekend, I took him into the river for the first time and he learned how to swim. He's my best bud and follows me everywhere like a little duckling, but he's also quite the troublemaker. Here's hoping that his restless, destructive puppy stage will soon be over, lol.

HOUSEKEEPING

While I do have plenty of things that I need to upload and share with you guys, it all depends on when/if I am allowed to share them. The thing about working for an agency is that the work you do doesn't fully belong to you. For instance, I'm working on an animated infographic video for the hospital system here and did all of the vector illustration work, but I can't share anything with you until the video itself has been released to the public. Strange waiting game though it may be, that's just how agency life goes. Everything is up to the client, no matter how hard you worked on it, haha.

One thing that is on the horizon, provided that I have free weekends to work on it, is the overhaul of my portfolio website. I have known for some time that it's not up to snuff—the layout isn't responsive, there aren't static pages for my portfolio pieces to live on, and the design itself isn't particularly inspired. To help with this, I purchased Ultimatum, which is a drag-and-drop design solution that allows you to create custom, responsive WordPress websites. Though I haven't tried it yet, I have a good friend who is using it to build her own website and she is loving its capabilities so far. I will keep you updated about my opinion, for sure!

I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to digging through all of these deviations/comments in my inbox! Happy summer!!! <3

Thanks for viewing, faving, sharing, praising, chatting, and watching,
Sara
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Holy cow, do I ever have a lot to update you guys on… It's definitely been a while. Although my last semester in college was truly an eventful one, I'll try to be as brief as possible so I don't put you to sleep, haha.

PORTFOLIO EXHIBITION

The biggest thing this semester for seniors in graphic design (indeed, probably bigger than graduation itself) was our end-of-the-year portfolio exhibition—which came out amazingly well. Our class put on quite the production! Each of us were asked to feature our 10-12 best works in a top-notch portfolio, but the work didn't stop there. Every project had to be explained in detail in our process books, which contained all of our preliminary sketches, step-by-step images, and 200 word descriptions. Also, if possible, our projects needed to be put on physical display in the portfolio show if they were physically produced. Moreover, we needed professional business cards, résumés, design statements, and some sort of takeaway for those attending the event. In addition to all of this work, we were still working on new projects to put in the show as we approached it, so it was definitely a race to the finish. We all gave up hours and hours of sleep to ensure that the show was the very best that it could be, and our hard work paid off immensely. We had a huge turnout consisting of students, faculty, professional designers, and passersby who told us that they never knew graphic design was this involved or this professional. Well, at least everyone except the graphic designers told us that. We were elated by all the recognition!

For me, personally, the pressure was definitely on. If you read my previous journal entry, then you know that I was awarded a $5,000 scholarship from the university in preparation for this event. Since that money was only given to one student, I was expected to have an excellent portfolio in the spring because I had the funds to go above and beyond. It was a blessing and a curse at times, but I didn't hold back—I made sure that every cent counted. I had a professional portfolio box, screwpost book, and binder custom designed by kdbooks.com for over $1,000 and it was absolutely worth it. She was able to letterpress my "SC" logo onto the front of the box and put other letterpress accents on the book and binder, which was heavenly. To top it all off, everything I ordered came in my branding colors and looked spectacular. The rest of the money was divided among the various other costs: buying my own domain for my personal website, paying for the cost of printing all of my work, ordering custom takeaways, etc. I really do need to upload a picture of my final portfolio for you guys. I'd say the most exciting thing about my spread at the show were the 250 Belgian dark chocolate squares that I had engraved with my logo as takeaways! I still have about 100 or so left, lol.

What we all didn't know about the show was that it was juried. Gulp! They surprised us during the award segment that a first, second, and third place was going to be awarded for "Best in Show." None of us knew that this was going on. We knew that I would be given a framed certificate for winning the scholarship back in December, but nothing about this. They announced it right then and there in front of the crowd of spectators and I was beyond excited to receive the first place award. I was actually really thankful because it meant that they thought I had used the money well and deserved the praise. It was truly a night to remember! Actually, that entire week was unforgettable—all of our portfolios were on display in the university's gallery for a week, so we felt like pro's for five days. The next day, I attended the thesis show for a design and marketing school in the big city (I won't say exactly where so I don't offend anyone) and was seriously unimpressed by their work. I was graduating from a small, Christian, liberal arts school and our work was better than this prestigious art college. It really brought things into perspective for me and reminded me that the caliber of your work doesn't depend on where you go to school. If you love your major and invest yourself in the work, anything is possible. Especially excellence.

COLLEGE GRADUATION

After all of that beautiful chaos, we still had finals and graduation to deal with, lol. My finals were incredibly mild compared to some because I purposefully engineered my senior year to finish that way; I took all of the academic core classes the previous year and ended with only studio art or design classes. Those of you who have taken studio classes know that they are, in some respects, actually more work than regular classes with exams and while I agree, I would rather be working on a project than studying for an exam any day. I finished out the week and arrived quite suddenly at graduation. It felt totally surreal. This event is something people talk about, but I never really thought it would happen (it's been two weeks and I'm still in shock). I guess it finally hit me when my diploma arrived in the mail the other day and I got to hold it in my hands: Sara Christensen, Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design, Summa Cum Laude. You bet I'm going to frame that sucker and stick it up on my wall. It feels amazing to have attained what I've been working toward for the past five years. Badass diploma? Check.

One thing that I was not anticipating was how hard it was to say goodbye. I made so many friends who were juniors and sophomores and it just killed me to leave. I knew that I probably wouldn't be seeing them again for a long time since I live so far away and this fact somehow escaped me until finals week. There were definitely some good cry-fests in there… I even got emotional saying goodbye to my professors. I do know that I've been invited back by my design professor as a guest judge for the scholarship review in December (which is weird since I would basically be helping them decide who gets the award I received last year) and that I will most certainly be coming back in the spring to see what the incoming seniors put together for their final show, but it's still a long time. My two years at this school have been just amazing and I could not have hoped for a better college experience. I've made lifelong friends, been mentored by phenomenal artists, and come out of it with all the experience necessary to make it as a professional. It was the ride of my life and I will miss it greatly.

LIFE AFTER COLLEGE

In the two weeks since graduation, I have kept myself quite busy. My university wanted some t-shirts designed for their summer events, so they contacted me and I am just finishing up that job for them now. As soon as that's over, I will begin work on the re-branding of a chiropractic firm. As a class this spring, we helped redesign their identity and they elected me as the creative director for the rest of the project. Now that I've graduated, they are going to be my first big contract job and I will be working with them over the next month or so on their corporate overhaul. It's intense! Beyond the branding manual and business stationery, there are certificates, flyers, website headers, info sheets, brochures, etc. that need to be done, so it's a lot more comprehensive than I thought and should keep me pretty busy. After that, I'll begin my formal job hunting. I've recently updated my résumé and website, which can be found here on my new domain: sarachristensen.me, and I will be sending those out as I apply for work. I'm hoping to become a junior designer at a local firm and while most of them aren't hiring at this point in time, I'm going to email them anyway just to get my foot in the door and my name on their lips. Hopefully, they'll take notice of me that way.

In other news, I've moved across the country. Yep. I no longer live in the Seattle area and have relocated to a city just south of Asheville in North Carolina. So far, I really, really like it here. The scenery is gorgeous (the Blue Ridge Mountains in particular), the weather and wildlife are just wonderful, and the culture is not unlike the Pacific Northwest so I feel right at home. I was worried about moving so far south, but thankfully Asheville and the outlying cities are quite liberal in comparison to the rest of the state (unlike Ohio, which continually hated on my left-wing opinions). I can't say that I've been everywhere or experienced everything yet, obviously, but it really has been a treat so far. Even when we got lost in the mountains at night in the middle of a giant storm and nearly ran out of gas, lol. What I really need to work on is not raising my eyebrow every time I hear a southern accent, it just sounds so weird to me! But seriously, we could not ask for nicer people to be around. Now, all we have to do is get out of this rental house and find a place of our own closer to Asheville so that I can live at home and commute into work. That's the plan: live at home and pay off these monstrous college loans. Unfortunately, that scholarship money is all gone now and I'm on my own. We'll see how far my talents will take me!

HOUSEKEEPING

Aside from the portfolio exhibition photos that I plan on uploading, there really isn't a lot of work to share with you guys. I'll see if I can upload the chiropractic branding materials if I get their permission, but that's it in the way of graphic design. That being said, I do have some very interesting sculpture and painting work that I want to take pictures of and upload here for you guys. I've already got a few projects ready to submit here, I just have to take the time to write descriptions for them. There are definitely a few that I am particularly excited about sharing with you and I think it will be fun to see something really different from me for once, haha.

I've worked through most of the deviations in my inbox, so if you still haven't heard from me in that respect it means that I'm on my way! The ones that I have left require thoughtful comments and I didn't want to do that until I had the time and mental capability to do so. Believe it or not, graduating college was exhausting and I've been doing a lot of sleeping and hiding from the world these past two weeks. As of right now, consider me back in full swing. I have my energy back, I have design work to do, and I definitely have a summer to enjoy, so you can expect to see me on this site daily. I miss being a more active participant in this supportive community. ^^

Anyway, I hope everyone is well and I look forward to seeing what's been going on in my long absence! Happy summer!!! <3

Thanks for viewing, faving, sharing, praising, chatting, and watching,
Sara
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So yeah, you may have noticed that I've taken a rather long hiatus from deviantART, but I swear it was for good reason! This was the first semester of my senior year and I wanted to make sure that I gave it my all. (I just found out today that "my all" must have been more than sufficient, too, because I got all A's on my report card for the term. Huzzah! But anyway, that's not the real reason I've been absent.)

LIFE UPDATE

This semester, all graphic design majors were required to compete in the scholarship competition. One designer out of our graduating class of eleven (yes, our major is that small) would be awarded $5,000 after a formal oral presentation of our work. Our performance was judged by a panel of ten professionals, made up of our professors as well as real-world designers.

As students, we were asked to prepare a print portfolio in a clam-shell box of our ten best pieces from Senior Project. While this seems fairly straightforward, it was an incredible amount of work… Each piece needed to be matted with its title, dimensions, software used, and date completed posted on the back. If it was something that was physically produced, we needed to take photos of the final product and mount the photos. Each project also needed to be explained in detail in our process book, which featured: 1) a photo or printout of the finished piece, 2) a two-hundred word description about our design strategy and execution, 3) any research or inspiration we gathered, and, of course, 4) a visual walk-through our progress, which included sketches, first digital comps, and any revisions we made along the way. Due to the fact that this was a professional presentation, we also needed to have business cards, resumes, and personal design statements printed for each panelist. When all was said and done, I spent $200+ putting this thing together and it was over in approximately fifteen minutes.

In addition to all of this work (which was entirely outside of class apart from two workdays during the week leading up to the defense), our professor assigned six design projects during the semester, all of which needed to be included in the scholarship competition. So essentially, Senior Project was devoted to creating the pieces that would be included in our portfolio defense. When we had completed all six designs, that left us with two weeks to do everything else. I nearly lost my mind! I have never consumed so much Mountain Dew, nor pulled that many all-nighters, in such a short period of time. All of us were stressed beyond all reason.

On that fateful day, December 8th, we showed up at our scheduled presentation time and gave it our best shot. I had gotten about two hours of sleep the night before, if you can even call that sleep. Overall, I thought my oral defense went well. There were a couple of awkward places where I paused for too long, but I didn't think I stumbled over any words; I was just so, so tired that I had to pause and gather my thoughts every now and then. Afterward, the panel was free to ask specific questions about my work as they graded me, which meant that I had to think on my feet. I answered their various inquiries, but there was definitely one that I felt I copped out on. In any case, as soon as our individual interviews were done, we all celebrated TO THE MAX. My friends and I watched Star Trek (2009) and a few episodes of Spartacus, which I am in love with now.

Most of us thought we wouldn't hear who won the $5,000 for another week, but oddly enough they came back with a decision two days later and announced it during class. Most of us knew who the top three would be, but it was anyone's guess when it came to who would be chosen as number one. Much to my surprise, they chose me… I was floored! And so incredibly honored! I literally didn't know what to say. All eleven of us really brought our best stuff and the panel said they had a hard time making a decision. Our professor was really proud of us, too. I honestly thought another student would get it, but she came in second place. Crazy!

As for what I plan to do with the money… I'm thinking a digital SLR, a printer with a scanner, some OpenType fonts, and leaving the rest as a fund I can pull from during our Senior Show in April. Yes, after all this, there is still the portfolio show to deal with. I will likely print up a storm and buy all kinds of special materials for that, so rest assured that not a penny will be wasted! Unfortunately, $2,500 of it will automatically go to my parents, who rescued me with a brand new MacBook Pro this semester when my old one kicked the bucket (talk about stress—my computer committed suicide during midterms). But anyways, that's enough rambling.

HOUSEKEEPING

Well, after such a productive semester, I naturally have a crap-ton of work to upload for you guys. In fact, I think I still have some things from last semester. In any case, I'm planning on uploading everything over the next couple of days, but if you want to get a preview of what's to come, check out my portfolio website: sarachristensen.cleanfolio.com…, which features my new personal identity. This brings me to my next announcement: I'm going to revamp my dA account. That means avatar and username, specifically. As you can see, I ditched the old journal skin because unicorns simply don't represent me anymore. I need to clean my account up and make it more professional, so be on the lookout for a major overhaul. I'm going to miss delusionzOFgrandeur, but it's time to move on.

As for what's going on this Christmas Break, there won't be much. I know that I have a holiday gift art trade with HDLynn to do, but otherwise there isn't a lot going on. Hopefully, that means I'm going to be on here a lot! On December 26th, I'll be turning twenty-three, so that's going to be somewhat exciting. If I get anything cool for that, I'll let you know. One of my gifts for Christmas was actually just given to me—my mom gave my sister and I $100 to spend on random acts of kindness in the community, which is kind of the neatest thing ever. I'm excited to go around and spread the Christmas spirit, buying people's coffees and paying for someone ahead of me at the mini mart. If anyone has any ideas on what I can do random-act-of-kindness-wise, I would greatly appreciate it! I'm running low on creative, selfless ideas that involve spending money.

Anyway, I hope everyone is well and I look forward to seeing what's been going on in my long absence! Happy Holidays!!! <3

Thanks for viewing, faving, sharing, praising, chatting, and watching,
Sara
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She's back!

4 min read
Life Update

I have survived my first year across the country in college!

I took eleven classes and came out with all A's and one A-, which
was more due to an extremely full schedule in the Spring than
the class actually being difficult. It was History of Graphic Design,
and while I loved it to death, I just didn't always have enough
time to study. But that's all right, I need to be okay with an A-.

The hardest class I had was Zoology, which was apparently a
pre-med course and no one told me, lol. Needless to say, I had
to work my butt off and by some miracle I came out with an A.
I'm just thankful that I never have to take a science class again,
or better yet I never have to smell like formaldehyde again. XD

My other courses included: darkroom photography, printmaking,
composition concepts (otherwise known as installation art class),
aesthetics and post-modern art <3, computer graphic design III,
art in the western world, psychology, health and fitness, and a
biblical history class. I just had to go to a Christian university, lol.

Core education courses aside, that's a lot of art and design! I
have so much that I need to upload for you guys, but I also
still don't have it all with me. I'm waiting on a large package
to arrive that contains most of my larger artworks from comp-
concepts, printmaking, and one hand-made design project.

Overall, my experience in Ohio was wonderful. I don't think
that I could have picked a better school. The professors are
knowledgeable, personable, and encouraging; the students
are talented, welcoming, and kind; the campus is beautiful;
the small town is adorable; even the cafeteria food is great.

Sorry to gush, but it's true! I'm really happy there and I feel
like I can thrive. It's the perfect combination of curriculum and
heart—I'm being challenged but in a supportive and God-loving
community that genuinely wants me to succeed. It is awesome
to finally be where I belong, after all that I've been through. ^^

Haha, but it does keep me very busy and that's why I haven't
been on here very much. I'm anticipating being even busier
next year due to being an RA in my living area and the Graphic
Design Department Assistant… plus, being a Senior! But I'm
looking forward to earning that BA and being a real designer.

As far as summer vacation goes, there won't be much of one
since I'm taking 20 credits through an online school, but I do
think I'll be online more often. I've missed you guys and I've
missed seeing all of your great stuff! I've got one month of
down-time before summer school, so I'll see you around!

Thanks for viewing, faving, sharing,
praising, chatting, and watching!!!

C E R A


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Featured

Brand New Website! by SaraChristensen, journal

Post-Grad Life by SaraChristensen, journal

Senior Year: Part 2 by SaraChristensen, journal

Senior Year: Part 1 by SaraChristensen, journal

She's back! by SaraChristensen, journal